"Sounds like a job for Zepellin, customized to work near Everest. It would have to be big, and the weather probably would have to be ideal, but the maximum height for balloons is considerably higher"
I don't think Robert Plant or Jimmy Page could make it to base camp these days, unless by "customize" you mean that we send them up with lots of dope. They got really high back in the day...
Back in the 90's, a meteorite nailed a parked car in New York. It flew between two closely spaced apartment buildings and hit the trunk of a lady's car.
If I had mod points right now, I'd mod that up to the sky.
If those creepy relatives never slobbered on me and pinched my cheeks until I almost screamed, I'd probably never have gotten the gift of cold sores.
I hope they die from ass cancer.
they should ban the Pulitzer winning image of that young girl from Vietnam running naked, screaming after being burnt by a napalm attack as well.
I mean, she was NAKED! How horrible that people are allowed to view something like that. It's sick!
I doubt any living thing could exist in magnetic fields that powerful. Wikipedia has some info...
The magnetic field of a magnetar would be lethal even at a distance of 1000 km, tearing tissues due to the diamagnetism of water.
Since magnetars rotate, I would guess that a person would probably be vaporized before being torn apart since you'd be travelling through magnetic flux fields. Such powerful fields have unusual effects on matter...
X-ray photons readily split in two or merge together. The vacuum itself is polarized, becoming strongly birefringent, like a calcite crystal. Atoms are deformed into long cylinders thinner than the quantum-relativistic wavelength of an electron.
In a field of about 105 teslas atomic orbitals deform into cigar shapes. At 1010 teslas, a hydrogen atom becomes a spindle 200 times narrower than its normal diameter.
I think the most powerful field ever generated in a lab was less than 200 tesla.
"Why is it that the authors of these various surveillance societies don't show good faith by building into their laws the requirement that the details of their own lives, being public servants and all, should be constantly monitored and broadcast."
Because their intentions are to rule over people with an iron fist, and if any semblance of dissent is detected with hidden surveillance networks, problem individuals can be conveniently disappeared. The fact that people don't even know when they're being watched will smother them even more in fear.
One neat application for a touchscreen table would be for a gaming table with the equivalent of board games running on it. You could have a regular coffee table when it's off, and have an assortment of games when company comes over. You wouldn't have to worry if someone spills a drink on the table or if pieces are lost. It probably wouldn't be hard to have display components that have a limited aspect ratio so opposing players wouldn't be able to see parts of the game for ones that require it.
It was only a couple days ago that/. had an article outlining Time magazines poll stating that most americans don't care about government surveilance (which I think is a load of BS). But it seems that instead of asking people outright what they thought of being spied upon, they posed the question along the lines of "do you think the government is too secretive", and stated that "see folks, nobody thinks it's a bad thing". Fuck them.
Not to nitpick, but the article title should have been more along the lines of "Most distant naked-eye event recorded", since gamma rays themselves are not visible.
Anyway, it's a good thing that this occurred so far away, instead of nearby. There are a few hypergiant stars known to exist in our galaxy like Eta Carinae and the Pistol Star which are inherently unstable. And in 2004 a GRB was emitted by a magnetar half way across the galaxy that, were it visible, would have been brighter than a full moon. Its been proposed that GRB's may be a factor in past extinction events here on earth.
The energy to split oxygen from water ice doesn't have to come from combustion. On some moons of Saturn, say Europa, there's a lot of tectonic activity caused by Saturn's gravity that causes geysers to erupt, and such places could provide a lot of geothermal energy. Solar energy would probably be of little use since sunlight is probably too dim, unless very large collectors were used. One could even go the route of using fission reactors to split water. And while these power sources could be used where they're at, having oxygen and methane (or the hydrogen from splitting water) available would come in handy for supplying conventional rockets for moving about the Saturnian system, or going back and forth to Earth.
She (and another colleague) worked with the data provided by the instrument and found a way to extract more information from the observations.
Amateur astronomers contribute a great deal to the field. It's not necessary to have access to expensive research equipment to make useful observations of interest to the scientific community. Many comets have been discovered by amateurs, for example.
Granted, having hydrocarbons way out on Titan is pretty useless to us on Earth in regards as a fuel source. But they can be useful where they're at as fuel or feedstocks for making polymers in the same way we do here. Most plastics are made in some way from oil, and if we ever get to the point of establishing some sort of station or colony around Saturn, we now know of huge resources available there. If there is a source of oxygen that can be tapped around Saturn (say from ice on the other moons, or even Titan itself), those could be used as convenient fuel sources that can be used locally around Saturn.
I'd like to think that if we ever get to having some colonization around Saturn, we'd be done with burning oil here for energy, and use whatever oil that's left for making plastics and other products. Besides, taking hydrocarbons from another moon and bringing them here to burn for energy would be totally uneconomical, as well as adding an off-planet carbon load on our atmosphere.
This might be ok for parking meter cops and purposes like that, but for regular law enforcement this is stupid. Police need decent equipment to be able to do their jobs effectively, and the specs of the bike in the article are an absolute joke compared to a real motorcycle. If police have to respond to a situation where someones life may be in danger, I doubt that the victim really cares how "green" the cops vehicles are while they're waiting for them to show up.
Public safety should never be something that gets compromised by poorly thought-out "green" initiatives.
In Canada when we say "Liberal", we are usually referring to the Liberal Party of Canada. They have been embroiled in some of the worst scandals in recent history here ("Adscam" and our infamous two billion dollar gun registry come to mind).
Elsewhere the word liberal usually refers to people with particular social and idealogical leanings. Here we are referring to a particular group of corrupt dirtbags.:)
I have no idea of Mr. Geist's political affiliations, and it doesn't matter to me. He's done a lot of good things.
Slashdot Mirror
And Merry Christmas
Cant you guys give it a fucking rest for one fucking day?
I can't fucking believe anyone modded that "interesting".
Flux loss.
"At the Data Loss Database."
"LOL"
I don't think Robert Plant or Jimmy Page could make it to base camp these days, unless by "customize" you mean that we send them up with lots of dope. They got really high back in the day...
http://uregina.ca/~astro/mb_5.html
Haven't a clue as to what an insurance company would make of something like that...
Does anyone else find the irony of the company name and the topic at hand amusing?
If I had mod points right now, I'd mod that up to the sky. If those creepy relatives never slobbered on me and pinched my cheeks until I almost screamed, I'd probably never have gotten the gift of cold sores. I hope they die from ass cancer.
they should ban the Pulitzer winning image of that young girl from Vietnam running naked, screaming after being burnt by a napalm attack as well. I mean, she was NAKED! How horrible that people are allowed to view something like that. It's sick!
The magnetic field of a magnetar would be lethal even at a distance of 1000 km, tearing tissues due to the diamagnetism of water.
Since magnetars rotate, I would guess that a person would probably be vaporized before being torn apart since you'd be travelling through magnetic flux fields. Such powerful fields have unusual effects on matter...
X-ray photons readily split in two or merge together. The vacuum itself is polarized, becoming strongly birefringent, like a calcite crystal. Atoms are deformed into long cylinders thinner than the quantum-relativistic wavelength of an electron.
In a field of about 105 teslas atomic orbitals deform into cigar shapes. At 1010 teslas, a hydrogen atom becomes a spindle 200 times narrower than its normal diameter.
I think the most powerful field ever generated in a lab was less than 200 tesla.
Because their intentions are to rule over people with an iron fist, and if any semblance of dissent is detected with hidden surveillance networks, problem individuals can be conveniently disappeared. The fact that people don't even know when they're being watched will smother them even more in fear.
They have no "good faith" at all.
(oops - meant to say viewing angle, not aspect ratio.)
One neat application for a touchscreen table would be for a gaming table with the equivalent of board games running on it. You could have a regular coffee table when it's off, and have an assortment of games when company comes over. You wouldn't have to worry if someone spills a drink on the table or if pieces are lost. It probably wouldn't be hard to have display components that have a limited aspect ratio so opposing players wouldn't be able to see parts of the game for ones that require it.
Hmmm, lets see... One, two, thr...BANG!
It was only a couple days ago that /. had an article outlining Time magazines poll stating that most americans don't care about government surveilance (which I think is a load of BS). But it seems that instead of asking people outright what they thought of being spied upon, they posed the question along the lines of "do you think the government is too secretive", and stated that "see folks, nobody thinks it's a bad thing". Fuck them.
Anyway, it's a good thing that this occurred so far away, instead of nearby. There are a few hypergiant stars known to exist in our galaxy like Eta Carinae and the Pistol Star which are inherently unstable. And in 2004 a GRB was emitted by a magnetar half way across the galaxy that, were it visible, would have been brighter than a full moon. Its been proposed that GRB's may be a factor in past extinction events here on earth.
(I could handle it when Johnny Cash did "Hurt", though)
Do not stare into laser with remaining head.
The energy to split oxygen from water ice doesn't have to come from combustion. On some moons of Saturn, say Europa, there's a lot of tectonic activity caused by Saturn's gravity that causes geysers to erupt, and such places could provide a lot of geothermal energy. Solar energy would probably be of little use since sunlight is probably too dim, unless very large collectors were used. One could even go the route of using fission reactors to split water. And while these power sources could be used where they're at, having oxygen and methane (or the hydrogen from splitting water) available would come in handy for supplying conventional rockets for moving about the Saturnian system, or going back and forth to Earth.
Amateur astronomers contribute a great deal to the field. It's not necessary to have access to expensive research equipment to make useful observations of interest to the scientific community. Many comets have been discovered by amateurs, for example.
Granted, having hydrocarbons way out on Titan is pretty useless to us on Earth in regards as a fuel source. But they can be useful where they're at as fuel or feedstocks for making polymers in the same way we do here. Most plastics are made in some way from oil, and if we ever get to the point of establishing some sort of station or colony around Saturn, we now know of huge resources available there. If there is a source of oxygen that can be tapped around Saturn (say from ice on the other moons, or even Titan itself), those could be used as convenient fuel sources that can be used locally around Saturn. I'd like to think that if we ever get to having some colonization around Saturn, we'd be done with burning oil here for energy, and use whatever oil that's left for making plastics and other products. Besides, taking hydrocarbons from another moon and bringing them here to burn for energy would be totally uneconomical, as well as adding an off-planet carbon load on our atmosphere.
Public safety should never be something that gets compromised by poorly thought-out "green" initiatives.
In another press release, Hormel marketing executives were at a loss to explain the dismal sales of their new canned seafood product, Phish.
In Canada when we say "Liberal", we are usually referring to the Liberal Party of Canada. They have been embroiled in some of the worst scandals in recent history here ("Adscam" and our infamous two billion dollar gun registry come to mind).
:)
Elsewhere the word liberal usually refers to people with particular social and idealogical leanings. Here we are referring to a particular group of corrupt dirtbags.
I have no idea of Mr. Geist's political affiliations, and it doesn't matter to me. He's done a lot of good things.