Re:Whats Up with that Precious?
on
LOTR: The Two Towers
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I believe you mean Shelob, and its going to be in the third movie. Jackson didn't want to break up the Battle of Helm's Deep at the end by switching between to seperate climaxes.
Re:Age Explorer is a Elderly-discriminating Machin
on
Old Age Simulator
·
· Score: 1
The machine isn't designed to show people what its like to be old, it was made to help people design products better for the elderly who DO have medical problems like poor eyesight and arthritis. From your description it sounds like your father would fit into the consumer model of a healthy middle aged man, so the results of this machine have no relation whatsoever to what he buys and how he uses it.
First off, I wasn't alive at the time, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. When we went to the moon the first time, it was in the midst of war and turmoil all over the world, but we went anyway. Its important for people to see, at the same time, the worst that our race can do, but as well, the amazing things we can accomplish when determined.
"only Man can evaluate the Moon in terms understandable to other men. "
I can't remember what movie it is from, but I think this quote describes why we have to send manned missions to the moon (and everywhere else interesting for that matter). Sure its nice to get soil samples and take pictures, but think about how different it must have been to instead of saying "We've got some pictures of the Moon" rather say "WE have been to the moon".
There's some confusion here, Commmander Gene Cernan and Lem pilot Harrison Schmidt were the crew that landed in Apollo 17. Harrison was the last man (of the 12 who have done so) to take his first step on the moon, he got out after Cernan, so he could be considered the last man to walk on the moon. Cernan got in the capsule second after the end of their EVAs, so he is the last man to step OFF the moon, and could also be considered the last man to walk on the moon. To answer the main question of the post, Schmidt was a civilian, and the only trained scientist (he got his PhD from Harvard in geology) to walk on the moon.
According to my weather, today it is snowing/sleeting/freezing raining/and just plain raining. I guess I won't get to see them either you insensitive clod!
It should probably go, "Imagine a beowulf cluster of these, and then a beowulf cluster of those clusters, and then a....etc etc. Eventually you'd get a computer as fast as my desktop."
Kind of OT, but I've seen IANAL about 50 times in this discussion and was wondering, Are there any lawyers on Slashdot? Is there one out there who specializes in contract law and could enlighten us on this topic? Failing that, perhaps someone has a friend/family member who is a lawyer whom they could contact. Seriously, we have to try something.
Its been mentioned alot lately, but I think Knoppix is the exact answer for this question. The entire OS is contained on the CD, and it boots without a problem detecting most hardware automatically. CDs like this would be a great way for people to experiment with Linux without worrying about partitioning, installing, and possibly screwing up their system. Of course, I wouldn't recommend this for any longtime use, since you can't change much in the OS, and you're CD drive is always occupied, but its a good way to start.
I am taking a Computational Physics class, and the professor prefers to use Linux for its ease in compiling and running programs. Unfortunately the only computer lab available was filled with windows machines, so we just boot the Knoppix CDs everytime we start class. Its fast and very easy to set up.
I love how everyone seems to think that amazing coincidences must be due to some higher power, when in fact they HAD to happen, for us to be here to see them. This is a bit off topic, but a big case of this is when doctors say things like "Its a miracle, if the bullet had been 1/4 of an inch to the left, he wouldn't have made it." without realizing that lots of times the bullet is 1/4 of an inch to the left and therefore the doctor never sees them. Its basically an observational bias, the observing is making claims based only on the evidence presented to them, when in fact the evidence is biased because it was presented to them.
Galileo is one of the prime examples of how good NASA can be when its not trying to cut corners. Sure it takes 10 years to develop a mission, and costs a couple billion, but they work far beyond their expected lifetimes. Galileo and the Voyager spacecraft just go to show that you get what you pay for. Even malfunctions like Galileo's infamous antenna are not mission ending failures for a sturdily built craft.
You went down with no line or tanks, which is fine, since you never breathed in pressurized air. However, once the people in the diving bell inhaled the air pumped down to 20 feet, they had the risk of the bends if they ascended too rapidly. Granted, this isn't deep sea diving or anything, but even 20 feet can be dangerous.
SETI and their goals have nothing to do with astronomy, and it would be wise not to get them confused. Astronomy research, like all other scientific research seeks better understanding of the world around us. SETI has dedicated itself to obtaining a goal which will probably never happen, and the journey to which provides no meaningful gains.
An interesting problem I've found is that people who flash around the Drake equation to "prove" there is intelligent life don't realize the statistics work the other way. You can come up with your own equation to describe the timespan between contacts with other species. It would involve things like number of transmitting species (from Drake eq), how much space they are spread over, power restrictions, angular transmission restrictions and so on. Plug in some conservative estimates, and see the time scale come out to be greater than the life of the universe.
The camera did not fail, up to SRB separation the footage is amazing, go look at it on NASA's site. I may not have clarified this, but after separation, there is still footage and the camera is still running, but it seems to be severely fogged over. It was probably just a miscalculation about how much debris would be ejected by the SRB separation motors.
I watched the launch on television, and they showed footage the entire time, up to SRB separation. All you could see was a bright explosion, then the rest of the footage is blurry. If you look really closely during fuel tank separation, you can see the shuttle pulling away. I'm sure it would've been quite a sight if the camera hadn't been blocked. They probably aren't going to post footage of their little mistake, and I don't blame them.
That is a wonderful point. SETI doesn't need realtime analysis and observation, and AFAIK they don't have that capability. Lets all just hope some crazy benefactor doesn't get drawn into their scheme and donate money for them to implement something of this nature.
I haven't read the book in a long time, but weren't the Ents introduced in this one, I think they showed one in the preview. On a loosely related topic, and forgive me if I'm an idiot, but are they the one's who destroy Saruman's tower? I'm too lazy to check out the book and read it again.
The coolest part about the LOFAR system is that it will be a phased array. This means that the antennas are not pointable, they are just crossed dipoles that record all the radiation from all directions. This way, the entire sky can be monitored at once. Suppose there was some transient event, like a gamma ray burst or cosmic ray shower, then afterwards the data could be processed such that they form a virtual beam pointing in the direction of the event. This is done by delaying the phases of the antennas in such a way that corresponds to a direction in the sky. I can't get too much into the technical details because I don't know them myself, but it sounded like a very cool method.
Also, in addition to the Netherlands LOFAR I believe the US wants one in Texas somewhere, and somebody in Asia does too. Once the technology is proven, they would be very inexpensive to build, since the antennas are not complex items.
Its all based on the Rayleigh Criteria, which describes the resolution of an imaging system. Basically theta=1.22*lambda/diameter. Where theta is the smallest resolvable angular separation, and lambda is the wavelenght you are observing at.
As an example, AIPS, a program many radio astronomers are intimately familiar with, was written ~1980 for reduction of interferometer data. It has been continually supported and maintained since then, and there appears to be no planned end to its use.
The first time I looked at that picture I thought it was some sort of joke. I wondered how sticking a B-52 on the front of the plane would make it faster.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe you mean Shelob, and its going to be in the third movie. Jackson didn't want to break up the Battle of Helm's Deep at the end by switching between to seperate climaxes.
Thats a typo.
The machine isn't designed to show people what its like to be old, it was made to help people design products better for the elderly who DO have medical problems like poor eyesight and arthritis. From your description it sounds like your father would fit into the consumer model of a healthy middle aged man, so the results of this machine have no relation whatsoever to what he buys and how he uses it.
First off, I wasn't alive at the time, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. When we went to the moon the first time, it was in the midst of war and turmoil all over the world, but we went anyway. Its important for people to see, at the same time, the worst that our race can do, but as well, the amazing things we can accomplish when determined.
"only Man can evaluate the Moon in terms understandable to other men. "
I can't remember what movie it is from, but I think this quote describes why we have to send manned missions to the moon (and everywhere else interesting for that matter). Sure its nice to get soil samples and take pictures, but think about how different it must have been to instead of saying "We've got some pictures of the Moon" rather say "WE have been to the moon".
There's some confusion here, Commmander Gene Cernan and Lem pilot Harrison Schmidt were the crew that landed in Apollo 17. Harrison was the last man (of the 12 who have done so) to take his first step on the moon, he got out after Cernan, so he could be considered the last man to walk on the moon. Cernan got in the capsule second after the end of their EVAs, so he is the last man to step OFF the moon, and could also be considered the last man to walk on the moon. To answer the main question of the post, Schmidt was a civilian, and the only trained scientist (he got his PhD from Harvard in geology) to walk on the moon.
According to my weather, today it is snowing/sleeting/freezing raining/and just plain raining. I guess I won't get to see them either you insensitive clod!
I think the guy was forging the cashier's checks, which is why he tried to get the Secret Service involved.
It should probably go, "Imagine a beowulf cluster of these, and then a beowulf cluster of those clusters, and then a....etc etc. Eventually you'd get a computer as fast as my desktop."
Kind of OT, but I've seen IANAL about 50 times in this discussion and was wondering, Are there any lawyers on Slashdot? Is there one out there who specializes in contract law and could enlighten us on this topic? Failing that, perhaps someone has a friend/family member who is a lawyer whom they could contact. Seriously, we have to try something.
Its been mentioned alot lately, but I think Knoppix is the exact answer for this question. The entire OS is contained on the CD, and it boots without a problem detecting most hardware automatically. CDs like this would be a great way for people to experiment with Linux without worrying about partitioning, installing, and possibly screwing up their system. Of course, I wouldn't recommend this for any longtime use, since you can't change much in the OS, and you're CD drive is always occupied, but its a good way to start.
I am taking a Computational Physics class, and the professor prefers to use Linux for its ease in compiling and running programs. Unfortunately the only computer lab available was filled with windows machines, so we just boot the Knoppix CDs everytime we start class. Its fast and very easy to set up.
I love how everyone seems to think that amazing coincidences must be due to some higher power, when in fact they HAD to happen, for us to be here to see them. This is a bit off topic, but a big case of this is when doctors say things like "Its a miracle, if the bullet had been 1/4 of an inch to the left, he wouldn't have made it." without realizing that lots of times the bullet is 1/4 of an inch to the left and therefore the doctor never sees them. Its basically an observational bias, the observing is making claims based only on the evidence presented to them, when in fact the evidence is biased because it was presented to them.
Galileo is one of the prime examples of how good NASA can be when its not trying to cut corners. Sure it takes 10 years to develop a mission, and costs a couple billion, but they work far beyond their expected lifetimes. Galileo and the Voyager spacecraft just go to show that you get what you pay for. Even malfunctions like Galileo's infamous antenna are not mission ending failures for a sturdily built craft.
You went down with no line or tanks, which is fine, since you never breathed in pressurized air. However, once the people in the diving bell inhaled the air pumped down to 20 feet, they had the risk of the bends if they ascended too rapidly. Granted, this isn't deep sea diving or anything, but even 20 feet can be dangerous.
SETI and their goals have nothing to do with astronomy, and it would be wise not to get them confused. Astronomy research, like all other scientific research seeks better understanding of the world around us. SETI has dedicated itself to obtaining a goal which will probably never happen, and the journey to which provides no meaningful gains.
An interesting problem I've found is that people who flash around the Drake equation to "prove" there is intelligent life don't realize the statistics work the other way. You can come up with your own equation to describe the timespan between contacts with other species. It would involve things like number of transmitting species (from Drake eq), how much space they are spread over, power restrictions, angular transmission restrictions and so on. Plug in some conservative estimates, and see the time scale come out to be greater than the life of the universe.
The camera did not fail, up to SRB separation the footage is amazing, go look at it on NASA's site. I may not have clarified this, but after separation, there is still footage and the camera is still running, but it seems to be severely fogged over. It was probably just a miscalculation about how much debris would be ejected by the SRB separation motors.
I watched the launch on television, and they showed footage the entire time, up to SRB separation. All you could see was a bright explosion, then the rest of the footage is blurry. If you look really closely during fuel tank separation, you can see the shuttle pulling away. I'm sure it would've been quite a sight if the camera hadn't been blocked. They probably aren't going to post footage of their little mistake, and I don't blame them.
That is a wonderful point. SETI doesn't need realtime analysis and observation, and AFAIK they don't have that capability. Lets all just hope some crazy benefactor doesn't get drawn into their scheme and donate money for them to implement something of this nature.
I haven't read the book in a long time, but weren't the Ents introduced in this one, I think they showed one in the preview. On a loosely related topic, and forgive me if I'm an idiot, but are they the one's who destroy Saruman's tower? I'm too lazy to check out the book and read it again.
The coolest part about the LOFAR system is that it will be a phased array. This means that the antennas are not pointable, they are just crossed dipoles that record all the radiation from all directions. This way, the entire sky can be monitored at once. Suppose there was some transient event, like a gamma ray burst or cosmic ray shower, then afterwards the data could be processed such that they form a virtual beam pointing in the direction of the event. This is done by delaying the phases of the antennas in such a way that corresponds to a direction in the sky. I can't get too much into the technical details because I don't know them myself, but it sounded like a very cool method.
Also, in addition to the Netherlands LOFAR I believe the US wants one in Texas somewhere, and somebody in Asia does too. Once the technology is proven, they would be very inexpensive to build, since the antennas are not complex items.
Its all based on the Rayleigh Criteria, which describes the resolution of an imaging system. Basically theta=1.22*lambda/diameter. Where theta is the smallest resolvable angular separation, and lambda is the wavelenght you are observing at.
As an example, AIPS, a program many radio astronomers are intimately familiar with, was written ~1980 for reduction of interferometer data. It has been continually supported and maintained since then, and there appears to be no planned end to its use.
The first time I looked at that picture I thought it was some sort of joke. I wondered how sticking a B-52 on the front of the plane would make it faster.