Comment Re:Why not a balloon (Score 1) 143
It had to be "the shape of a hat" -- i. e. with a flat mirroring surface on the bottom side, and with a gas container on the top side.
Comment Re:Why not a balloon (Score 1) 143
moving around
e.g. with a special, light harness, tied to three distant points on the surface.
Comment Re:Why not a balloon (Score 1) 143
a) to stabilize such a design in the air and
I guess that simply moving around/rotating around the vertical axis might be quite enough.
b) what happens if the wind goes
Fun! It would be mostly for fun anyway.
Comment Why not a balloon (Score 1) 143
Why not a ballon, of the size of a giant hat, make of a tinfoil? If would need to be tilted somewhat, and turn itself towards the sun -- easy in the case of a ballon. Would not it be much cheaper? Of course, tinfoil does not have the directionality of a glass mirror, but make the hat big enough and it would not be a problem, and even be a feature -- the more ambient light would not decrease the iris size so much, and thus a human would perceive the lighted area as even more bright.
Draft NASA Funding Bill Cancels Asteroid Mission For Return To the Moon 237
MarkWhittington writes "A draft version of the 2013 NASA Authorization Bill nixes any funding for President Obama's asteroid retrieval mission and instead directs NASA to return astronauts to the lunar surface as soon as possible, funding of course permitted. The NASA bill is currently working its way through the House Science Committee. Thus far the Senate has not taken up NASA authorization. However the cancellation of the asteroid retrieval mission and an insistence on returning to the moon, which both President Obama and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden have opposed, would place Congress on a collision course with the White House should that version of the bill be passed by both houses of Congress."
Comment Oases of magnetism (Score 1) 283
http://www.universetoday.com/30538/was-mars-magnetic-field-blasted-away/
What is the protection at 180E60S, if compared to Earth?
PETA Wants To Sue Anonymous HuffPo Commenters 590
MarkWhittington writes, quoting himself: "PETA is incensed over an article in the Huffington Post that details that organization's unsettling practice of euthanizing animals in a Virginia facility that many have assumed is a no kill shelter. According to the New York Post, PETA wants to sue some of the people who have left comments on the article. The problem is that, following the practice of many on the Internet, many of the comments are under assumed names or are anonymous. PETA is attempting to discover the true identities of their critics so that it can sue them for defamation."
Submission + - Oracle Releases February Java Security To Deal with Live Exploit (infoq.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Oracle has published a major security update for Java. The update was originally scheduled for February 19th, but was released a fortnight early on Friday because of "active exploitation 'in the wild' of one of the vulnerabilities affecting the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) in desktop browsers".
From the article
"According to the latest Oracle Risk Matrix, the update covers a total of 50 flaws: 49 of these can be remotely exploited — in other words just visiting a web page, for instance, might be enough to infect your computer; 26 carry the maximum Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) risk score of 10. Oracle hasn't said which of the remote code execution holes is the one that's actively being exploited but it is addressed with this patch."
From the article
"According to the latest Oracle Risk Matrix, the update covers a total of 50 flaws: 49 of these can be remotely exploited — in other words just visiting a web page, for instance, might be enough to infect your computer; 26 carry the maximum Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) risk score of 10. Oracle hasn't said which of the remote code execution holes is the one that's actively being exploited but it is addressed with this patch."
VIA Unveils $79 Rock and $99 Paper ARM PCs 158
Don't yet have one of those million Raspberry Pis, but you're in the market for a tiny, cheap ARM computer? An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from geek.com: "VIA has decided it's time to update the APC (ARM PC) board with new components and the choice of two configurations. The new systems are called APC Rock and APC Paper. The hardware spec for both boards is exactly the same except for the fact the Rock ships with a VGA port whereas the Paper doesn't. The Rock also costs $20 less at $79, whereas the Paper is $99. The reason for the price difference is the fact that the Paper ships with a rather novel case whereas the Rock is a bare board. The Paper's case is made from recycled cardboard attached to an aluminum chassis to help with strength, meaning it will keep the dust off the components and make it easier to carry while keeping weight to a minimum."
Submission + - Artificial energy storage island in the North-Sea (standaard.be)
bmcage writes: Belgium wants to build within 5 years an artificial [dutch] energy storage island ([Google Translate]). The island will store excess energy produced at night from the offshore wind farms already present in the North-Sea.
As a small country with no hydropower possibilities, moving from nuclear to offshore wind farms, this is an innovative way to store the excess production. Is it really feasible however? Silting could be a problem.
As a small country with no hydropower possibilities, moving from nuclear to offshore wind farms, this is an innovative way to store the excess production. Is it really feasible however? Silting could be a problem.
Submission + - Australian scientists discover potential aids cure
smi.james.th writes: Several sites report that Australian researcher David Harrich and his team have potentially discovered a way to stop HIV becoming AIDS and ultimately cure the disease. From the article: "What we've actually done is taken a normal virus protein that the virus needs to grow, and we've changed this protein, so that instead of assisting the virus, it actually impedes virus replication and does it quite strongly." This could potentially hail one of modern medicine's greatest victories.
Submission + - "Superomniphobic" nanoscale coating repels almost any liquid (gizmag.com) 1
cylonlover writes: A team of engineering researchers at the University of Michigan has developed a nanoscale coating that causes almost all liquids to bounce off surfaces treated with it. Creating a surface structure that is least 95 percent air, the new "superomniphobic" coating is claimed to repel the broadest range of liquids of any material in its class, opening up the possibility of super stain-resistant clothing, drag-reducing waterproof paints for ship hulls, breathable garments that provide protection from harmful chemicals, and touchscreens resistant to fingerprint smudges.
Quantum Gas Goes Below Absolute Zero 264
First time accepted submitter mromanuk writes in with a story about scientists at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich who have created an atomic gas that goes below absolute zero. "It may sound less likely than hell freezing over, but physicists have created an atomic gas with a sub-absolute-zero temperature for the first time. Their technique opens the door to generating negative-Kelvin materials and new quantum devices, and it could even help to solve a cosmological mystery."
Has 3D Film-Making Had Its Day? 436
dryriver sends this hopeful note from the BBC:
"'It's three years since audiences around the world swarmed into cinemas to see James Cameron's Avatar. It rapidly became the biggest grossing film of all time, in part because of its ground-breaking digital 3D technology. But, in retrospect, Avatar now seems the high-point of 3D movie-making, with little since 2009 to challenge its achievement. Three years on, has the appeal of 3D gone flat? Nic Knowland has been a respected director of photography in Britain for 30 years. He's seen cinema trends and fads come and go, but never one for which he's had so little enthusiasm as 3D. 'From the cinematographer's perspective it may offer production value and scale to certain kinds of film. But for many movies it offers only distraction and some fairly uncomfortable viewing experiences for the audience. I haven't yet encountered a director of photography who's genuinely enthusiastic about it.'"
Comment Re:Titius-Bode law (Score 1) 62
This is not only about fitting a random formula. A set of such formulas would give more information on the rule in question:
- is this just an exponential fit?
- or is this an exponential fit i_1 + i_2 * i_3^m, that tends to contain small integers i_j?
- or does it tend to be exactly an exponential fit a = 4 + 3 * 2^m?
