deathcow - Slashdot User

Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight 140

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 25, 2009 @01:32PM from the a-jetwing-and-a-prayer dept.

Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."

Comment Re:How big? (Score 1) 111

by deathcow on Wednesday November 11, 2009 @03:01PM (#30063854) Attached to: Heart of the Milky Way Photos From NASA

The entire picture appears about 45 arcminutes across. So if the full Moon drifted in front of this picture, it would cover all but the outer edges.

Comment Re:Lecture Fruit! (Score 4, Informative) 475

by deathcow on Thursday November 05, 2009 @03:17PM (#29998130) Attached to: Low-Energy Laser Etching May Replace Fruit Labels

>> Grapefruit interacts with many drugs - it can make many drugs way more effective than expected.

> Please elaborate. Please!

My daughter had a liver transplant as a infant. She takes a single immune suppressant drug now called "Prograf" or known as Tacrolimus. The only warning on it is "Don't eat grapefruit while taking this." It makes the immune suppressing power much stronger.

Comment Re:Well (Score 1) 238

by deathcow on Thursday October 01, 2009 @07:34PM (#29612419) Attached to: GE Developing 1Tb Hologram Disc Readable By a Modified Blu-ray Drive

> That, and the insane price for movies, is why BD hasn't caught on like DVD did.

Blu-ray is catching on to the tune of 200% - 400% growth for 2009. There are plenty of $9 and $12 blu-ray movies.

> What would I do with blank BD disks?

Store 94,000 quarter megabyte jpeg images organized by fetish and hair color.

Comment Compare those pics with 45nm chip design. (Score 2, Interesting) 169

by deathcow on Friday August 28, 2009 @02:35PM (#29234139) Attached to: IBM Images a Single Molecule

45nm is 450 angstrom, so you can see by the 20 angstrom ruler in one of the pictures that chip design is getting pretty small. In fact, you can see the atoms lined up in the traces of chips!
http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/afm-bpm-e-beam.jpg

Comment Remarkable Idea (Score 2, Insightful) 74

by deathcow on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @02:32PM (#28870737) Attached to: US Supercomputer Lead Sparks Russian Govt's Competitive Drive

Send some dudes to America with some cash and buy some nice computing equipment. Do you have some serious computing to do? Or do you have a serious need to build new computers?

Comment Blue Eyes? Blue Vision? (Score 1) 324

by deathcow on Tuesday July 28, 2009 @02:37PM (#28856369) Attached to: Dye Used In Blue M&Ms Can Lessen Spinal Injury

Notice that the eyes have completely changed color as well. I'm thinking I do not want my eyes filled with blue tint.

Comment Re:"its basically almost impossible to do. especia (Score 1) 81

by deathcow on Thursday July 23, 2009 @01:29PM (#28797467) Attached to: Astronomer Photographs Meteor Through Telescope

Gather light from 1 arcminute of sky? He was photographing Andromeda galaxy, which is like 180 x 60 arcmin minimally for his field of view. So his chances of getting this are 10,800 times higher than your calcs.

Submission + - Young and Stylish Los Angeles

Submitted by

Stacey

on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @10:44PM

Stacey writes: "Announcing a New Upscale Boutique For Girls, Specializing in the Cutest Clothing, Shoes, and Accessories from Trendy L.A. We carry Trish Scully, Kate Mack, LeTop, Pediped, Mim-Pi, Baby Nay, Beetlejuice, Toni Tierny, Corky & Co., Bear Feet Shoes and more!"

Submission + - HP Sees Huge Linux Desktop Deals

Submitted by Anonymous on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @10:08PM

Anonymous writes: With all the talk about Dell and desktop Linux, HP has quietly been cutting some deals to provide "multi-thousands" of Linux-installed desktops, and, according to CRN, is suggesting factory-loaded Linux PCs are getting closer by the day.

Submission + - Remote Control To Prevent Aircraft Hijacking

Submitted by

Snad

on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @10:03PM

Snad writes: "The UK's Evening Standard is reporting that Boeing plans to roll out aircraft remote controls systems in a bid to eliminate the threat of terrorist hijackings, and prevent any repetition of the events of September 11 2001.

"Scientists at aircraft giant Boeing are testing the tamper-proof autopilot system which uses state-of-the-art computer and satellite technology. It will be activated by the pilot flicking a simple switch or by pressure sensors fitted to the cockpit door that will respond to any excessive force as terrorists try to break into the flight deck.
Once triggered, no one on board will be able to deactivate the system. Currently, all autopilots are manually switched on and off at the discretion of pilots. A threatened airliner could be flown to a secure military base or a commercial airport, where it would touch down using existing landing aids known as 'autoland function'.""

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