maybe not extreme sport but years ago when Villa Felice restaurant existed in Los Gatos, and they had live band to play ballroom dance music, there was a 90-something who would be out there for every dance with his wife (about same age). And was there every Saturday. He couldn't move fast and it seemed he was in some pain, his wife was even slower but he danced like, "The only way I'm leaving the dance floor is feet first!" One day, he didn't show up so he didn't quite leave the dance floor feet first but everyone regarded that's how he departed.

Occasionally I fire up my APRS unit (ArgentData Open Tracker 3 to radio on 144.39 MHz) which I have a Nonin pulseox sensor placed over the finger to measure heart rate and blood saturation levels (SpO2). Interesting to see the data while driving, varies from high 60s to 90s (calm easy traffic to the 'oh s---'). I need to take measurements while sitting at the desk (maybe see variations when reading journals to whining on the forums).

I learned about APRS and using pulseox from http://parachutemobile.wordpre...

One time I rigged up my unit during a ballroom dance private lesson, pulse varied from 80s to 120s. Later did same during a Zumba class, pulse rates in 140s and 160s. I used a T3-mini APRS unit to small HT at 250mW on 144.33 which I had a receiver with TNC to laptop at studio. The pulseox on my finger and cable taped along my arm first alarmed zumba instructor, she thought I had a heart condition of some sort. Last thing they need is someone collapsing in class from overdoing it. I explained I am in excellent shape, it was a part of geeky experimentation.

Friday night at Ames Visitor Center (the big white tent just before main gate) had presentations by Ames project scientists on bioscience payloads, and had Q&A from audience. Also nice pamphlets and brochures for these programs were handed out (real cool to get hardcopy unlike typical webpage downloads). They intended to show launch on the big screen (NASA-TV) but it was scrubbed.

Ames student Fruit-Fly Experiment (AFEx)
Rodent Research-1 will examine how microgravity affects the rodents.
Seedling Growth-2 will germinate and grow seeds of the Arabidopsis thaliana plant.
Micro-8 will examine how spaceflight affects potentially infectious organisms.
More at http://www.nasa.gov/ames/resea...

Actually there are some Ansel Adams photogs still out there. At Mountain View, CA Art and Wine festival earlier this month, a photographer had awesome and beautiful photographs (and they weren't cheap) of various nature shots including nighttime exposures. He uses film, yes that material where you press the button on the camera and hear various mechanical noises. But no idea if it is good or not until film is developed. Then continuing on in a dark room expose these negatives on to paper which immerse into different trays (develop, stop, fix). I forgot his name but I was impressed. He does the same thing Ansel does. Hike long distances packing camera equipment, food and water. Wait for the right conditions to take the shot. Then once back at the darkroom to see how it turns out. I asked what is it like when the pic is great (as opposed to the several not-so-good), "it feels good."

It was interesting when he explained to people his photographs are not digital and they are not photoshopped. For many film photography is very mysterious.

I had many pics, still do, on Flickr along with descriptor paragraph but when they re-arranged the site with lots more scripting or whatever it may be, it became disorganized and sssssssoooooooo lllllllllooooonnnnnngggggg to view. Actually I better archive those images and descriptors before the site gets "myspaced."

I'm still using my XP and Win98, I bought a Win7 laptop couple years ago and hearing all about Win8, I sure glad I got Win7. I know some people that when Vista came out, they immediately abandoned their XP but saved their files (which most were no good under Vista). Then Win7 came out, they did the same thing again (which I don't blame them for doing so). But they also abandoned Win7 for 8 and suffered problems. Win7 is fine and can do everything (these people are not developers, mostly use Office and surf the web). I don't get it, why do some people do that? I can somewhat understand about getting a new car that has various gadgets to impress the chicks. But a computer?

It seems very wealthy have become very good at gaming the system. Watching the PBS program "The Roosevelts" it mentioned of the time when very wealthy controlled almost all commerce and markets. Then there was everyone else that got "Morganized" with lower wages and grueling work hours with almost no chance to get ahead, i.e. whatever earnings made had to be spent at company store. Teddy Roosevelt broke this trend with "big government" and these guys JP Morgan, Rockefeller, etc. said TR doesn't have that power in the Constitution. But TR said Constitution was for the people. But nowadays we see growing wealth inequality and favoritism like "corporations are people too" and this trend of going back to what it used to be in late 1800s is not a good sign. Though all the Ayn Rands say, "too bad" but do consider US doesn't have industrial base like it used to.

It will be interesting to see how all things line up after we know the details and backroom discussions. Earlier aerospace vehicles looked vastly superior but never went anywhere. While lots of conspiracy theories, it was later documented Howard Hughes with innovative and creative designs (and also a celebrity engineer) did not have industrial capacity to build aircraft in quantity. I'm certain B36 was chosen over the B49 flying wing because USAF needed range and payload the Flying Wing could not deliver. Then there was the issue of having to pay taxes on used XB49s so all the Flying Wings were destroyed. Though unmanned Dragon has flown and manned Dragon seems just around the corner, does SpaceX have capacity to make spaceships in quantity? But maybe there really isn't a need for large quantities of manned spacecraft? Or maybe it's just backroom deals. Almost all of us don't really know as virtually all information is third hand or presentations by key people but they really don't give us all the juicy facts.

shooting a laser is easier than shooting a bullet. Laser goes speed of light (obviously) but a bullet needs to be targeted, has considerable travel time, good chance of missing, etc. Scary thing is a high power laser can quickly cover a wide area, blind large numbers of people without considering if they are enemy troops (including conscripts dumped in the field by an emperor) or protesters against government practices.

I was thinking some private group or company snags an asteroid says, "alright if you want me, come and get me. In the meantime, neeeyaa, neeeyaa, neeeyaa!"

I'm somewhat confused. Each ATSC channel is a fixed 6 MHz wide spectrum. They can either do one HD channel or four SD channels (I think but I cannot find solid technical info on TV broadcast except very general info that is aggregates of what everyone else posted, or very esoteric technical specific). I can get MPEG2 is high bandwidth and not that great compared to H264 but MPEG2 continues on because that's the way it is (like DVDs).

I was talking with someone who gave additional reason to cut cord from Comcast is HD from OTA is far superior than on cable which is highly compressed to transmit all those channels down the coax.

Speaking of technical, it was only recently you can easily find actual frequencies used by TV stations (needed if you are using UHF wireless mics). After the DTV transition, I could not find actual frequencies used which drove me nuts because those that say it is same as NTSC are wrong (well yes and no, digital channel is same freq as NTSC channel, but stations go by virtual channel which many are different). Get the freq here,
http://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/... put CA for state to show all broadcast TV stations in Calif.

for this diatribe, here's the data of these two stations from FCC site (freq from old school NTSC channel):
both stations are Full(DT) in Los Angeles Call Sign KLCS
Virtual Ch 58
Digital Ch 41 [632-638 MHz]
Licensee LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Call Sign KCET
Virtual Ch 28
Digital Ch 28 [554-560 MHz]
Licensee KCETLINK

Oh well, for you all RF types (yes, there is a low power NTSC station on analog ch 6),
Call Sign, Virtual Ch, Full/Low Power, Digital Ch, Licensee
KABC-TV 7 Full(DT) 7 ABC HOLDING COMPANY, INC.
KCAL-TV 9 Full(DT) 9 LOS ANGELES TELEVISION STATION KCAL LLC
KCBS-TV 2 Full(DT) 43 CBS BROADCASTING INC.
KCET 28 Full(DT) 28 KCETLINK
KCOP-TV 13 Full(DT) 13 FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC.
KEDD-LD - Low (LD) 50 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KFLA-LD - Low (LD) 8 ROY WILLIAM MAYHUGH
KHIZ-LD - Low (LD) 2 JEFF CHANG
KHTV-CD - Low (DC) 27 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KIIO-LD - Low (LD) 10 BAGRAT SARGSYAN
KLCS 58 Full(DT) 41 LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
KMEX-DT 34 Full(DT) 34 KMEX LICENSE PARTNERSHIP, G.P.
KMRZ-LD - Low (LD) 22 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KNBC 4 Full(DT) 36 NBC TELEMUNDO LICENSE LLC
KNET-CD - Low (DC) 25 NRJ TV III CA LICENSE CO., LLC
KNLA-CD - Low (DC) 50 NRJ TV III CA LICENSE CO., LLC
KSFV-CD - Low (DC) 22 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KSFV-LP 6 Low (TX) Analog Ch 6 VENTURE TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, LLC
KSMV-LD - Low (LD) 23 KJLA, LLC
KTBV-LD - Low (LD) 12 EICB-TV WEST, LLC
KTLA 5 Full(DT) 31 KTLA, LLC
KTTV 11 Full(DT) 11 FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC.
KVHD-LD - Low (LD) 40 NEW YORK SPECTRUM HOLDING COMPANY, LLC
KWHY-TV 22 Full(DT) 42 KWHY-22 BROADCASTING, LLC

I can get aluminum foil to make myself a hat, but tin foil? I did a quick search but only find pages discussing aluminum foil and computer security software and systems. Now I'm curious, we all hear the jokes but I really want to make myself a tinfoil hat. Not that it will do anything but have something that actually exists (like putting a label "Any" on one of infrequently used keys on a keyboard so I can properly respond to prompts, "press any key to continue" (if you don't have an "Any" key, then you are hosed).

yes and no. In late '60s and early '70s NASA specified width of cargo bay be 15 ft as anything smaller will make space station modules too cramped for people. USAF wanted cargo bay 60 ft long for their satellites, otherwise NASA would have it shorter (making design for orbiter easier). Shuttles were being planned and scheduled to be launched from Vandenberg in later 1980s. Lots of work done on SLC-6 and long landing strip, and Enterprise was used for configuration checks at SLC-6. Missions were planned but Challenger accident put a stop to all that (and military had to scramble to get Titan back on line to launch their sats).

I read someplace else Cuba can easily do business with other countries but their guvmint is pretty screwed up that other countries don't want to do business with.

from purchasing manufactured items (that used to be done here in US).