I believe he has funded various efforts to bring clean drinking water in deficit areas in Africa. Many civil wars, famine, etc. usually began when someone ruined the water supply. On the other hand, Branson has armies of accountants and lawyers moving monies from one country to another to avoid paying more taxes.

H1B visa issues?

Other than that, this U2/UFO thing has been kicking around for years. When first reading the headline, I'm thinking why did the CIA have say "it was us" (like why ruin a good story with facts)?

but then I read "in the next thousand years" so I figure I don't have to immediately plan a trip to that portion of the planet real soon.

Other than that, it would be interesting event unless there's tons of radioactive particles or a gamma ray burst (can may be nasty).

And to think last time of a visible supernova was when Europeans spend all their time doing religious reading and writing, and Chinese did very little documentation (or if they did it got lost in bureaucracy of those dynasties).

this kind of stuff posted that distracts from engaging comments on a subject that needs discussion i.e. where all the christmas stuff comes from.

I say the human eye does see more than 24 fps, pan your head back and forth, no blurring like you get panning a camera. OK so I haven't RTFA but I recently read/search info on framerates. From what I gather 24 fps came about from movies particularly when the talkies became standard for motion pictures. What they settled on enough fps to have smooth action and matching audio but not too much as film is/was very expensive. But each frame is shown twice (refresh rate in the movie theatres is 48 Hz). I read 24 fps is needed so brain perceives as smooth motion but need to show each one twice to remove flicker effect. Those 16mm and silent films were less fps but not as cinema quality of major motion pictures.

Anyone have comments or corrections, jump in as many times I feel as if I'm still trying to figure out what and why of fps and refresh rates.

Then television came along, first 60 fps seems good (match with powerline freq) but too much bandwidth so they make it 30 fps but to reduce flicker, they did interlace. Framerate has smooth motion and interlace does the refresh rate like motion picture showing each frame twice. Then color TV comes along but as OTA bandwidth was fixed, they reduce framerate a little to 29.97 to insert chroma signal.

Then computers came along, why not use same CRTs as TV sets, so their framerate was 29.97 (but many simply rounded off to 30 when writing or talking about framerates). Then the flatscreens (VGA monitors) came along but used 29.97 to be compatible with existing computers, but refresh rate is 60 Hz to not have flicker effect. Gamers wanted higher framerates so 60 fps but I think it really is 59.94 fps.

I did some different FPS exercises with a CRT monitor and a Canon EOS camera. I set Canon to 30 fps (actually it is 29.97) and connected the video output to the monitor. I panned camera back and forth including viewing monitor. I did the same with Canon at 24 fps, there was noticable blurring or choppy on monitor when I panned camera back and forth. Viewing monitor with camera I can see those rolling bars like you see in the movies with TV set in background (aha, so that's what the 24/30 fps mismatch is). I set camera to 60 fps (actually 59.94), it seemed smoother view when panning back and forth though monitor is fixed 30 fps.

For many people, so what. However, I was looking at various cameras and spec sheets list framerates of 23.97, 24, 29.97, 30, 59.94, 60.... what's with all these variations? I don't think a camera can be set to exactly 30. Or is it sales and marketing people insists on lots more numbers for the spec sheets?

I must say: you posted exactly what I think of voicemail systems. I ***don't*** care about more options, I just wanna leave a message!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

unlike a few Shuttle cockpit shots. Or previously few seconds clip from a Gemini re-entry that's replayed zillion times like the Saturn interstage separation between first and second stages. My question has Elon released any such footage?

ummm, Russia (or Soviet Russia) don't have the resources to place missiles in Cuba like they used to have. Regarding Castro, he has outlived just about everyone trying to knock him off the island.

but (at least for me) I have to use AT&T or comcast for internet service, which I find is marginal for watching video. Work site is great but that's not what work is for. Other than that, Youtube can be a huge time pit with so many interesting things posted by various people.

I've never bought a new car, always used cars (around 40K to 60K in mileage) and drive them till they drop (around 200K). Last one had 220K but failed smog check as one of cylinders had a leak of some sort. Other vehicles that got up to 200K I dumped because their transmissions failed (replacement costs more than the car). My latest is a 2008, I prefer an older because windows of new cars are getting smaller but yet MPG of this vehicle is much better than my previous vehicles.

It seems there are some people who buy a new car every two or three years, that's were those like me pick up what they don't want. Speaking of keeping cars for a very long time, I remember in 1980s a Volvo commercial, "with a large interior and a average lifetime of 16 years, this is the space vehicle that will take you to the 21st century!" showing one of their station wagons superimposed against a background of stars. I know a couple research scientists that owned this same type of Volvo. One even had the classic rack on roof with the bars wrapped with carpet to prevent scrapes on stuff they carry.

and replace them with corporate types like Wheeler! yes, regulatory capture at its finest.

I think what will happen is astronauts will become a mythical character of sorts like the pirate and the cowboy. Though pirates and cowboys did exist, they were nothing like what is portrayed by Johnny Depp and John Wayne. I believe in a hundred years many people will have mixture of fact and fiction of the spaceman. In fact I encounter people these days who get 1960s astronauts confused with fictional characters.

It may happen sooner than you think. There was a time when people thought Shuttle will fly forever (like the B52), in fact before 2003 Columbia crash there were upgrade plans to continue Shuttle fleet into 2030s. Then in 2004 VSE announced Shuttle will stop flying in 2010 though many were in denial. All of sudden no more Shuttle which some felt like they were caught with their pants down. "What? we gotta buy seats from the Russians? Elon doesn't have something ready now?" I feel this may happen with ISS. US will pull out and nothing will be there to go. However, lots of stuff can happen between then and now.

Seems to me obviously Spaceport has only one company. If Dallas Airport had only one airline that flew only one type of airplane, and if structural failure accident occurred, the entire airport will be shutdown for a long time.

http://caseyfiesler.com/2014/1...