Comment Re:Slashdot Deleted A Story (Score 1) 94
I noticed that too.. ended up here looking for it.
Comment Austerity measures... (Score 1) 345
He's just trying to boost the income of the domestic sex-shop sector.
Submission + - NASA considering L2 outpost (chron.com)
mknewman writes: NASA has secretly been working on a plan to develop a manned outpost on the far side of the moon, but the lofty plan has been kept quiet until after the presidential election, according to media reports.
According to Space.com, the plan has probably already been cleared by the Obama administration. Officials kept the plan under wraps in case Mitt Romney won the presidential election.
The plan would set up a manned station in an area of space called the "earth moon libration point," CNN reported. The spot is a point in space where the gravitational forces of the moon and Earth are roughly balanced.
According to Space.com, the plan has probably already been cleared by the Obama administration. Officials kept the plan under wraps in case Mitt Romney won the presidential election.
The plan would set up a manned station in an area of space called the "earth moon libration point," CNN reported. The spot is a point in space where the gravitational forces of the moon and Earth are roughly balanced.
Comment Re:Excellent! (Score 1) 60
Well they had 3 days fuel to start with & 2x 24-hourly delivery contracts, so unless the emergency services were requisitioning the fuel at source, or the power outage lasted more than 3 days, and assuming that a single delivery could fill the tanks, only 1 delivery in 6 has to make it.
Comment Re:Excellent! (Score 1) 60
In a big disaster, fuel contracts mean very little - if the government decides that a hospital or police station (or the mayor's mistress's apartment building) needs the fuel more than you do, they will take it.
...Which is why they had *2* contracts for diesel delivery...
Submission + - In Space, everyone can hear you giggle! (nasa.gov)
Hagaric writes: I was surprised to see no mention of today's spacewalk, which is some of the best space entertainment I've seen in a long time. It seems to me that the style of spacewalks has relaxed an awful lot compared to earlier efforts where every move of hand & foot was choreographed. Today we see several people doing some outdoor plumbing work (got a radiator problem) in zero-g. The difference is, they seem to be enjoying themselves massing about with thermal covers & wireties, and there is a definite vein of humor in the comms, both ground-to-space & between them.
Is it just me, or have times changed in space?
Is it just me, or have times changed in space?
Submission + - Apple offers to pay Google $1 per device (geek.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Motorola feels that Apple is infringing on several FRAND patents that have to do with how every smartphone in existence connects to WiFi and cellular networks. Since Apple makes smartphones, and Google is looking to use their newly acquired Motorola as a weapon, the two companies are only a few days away from the courtroom.
Apple has conceded that the Moto patents are valid by offering to pay Google/Moto $1 per device, but only going forward. Motorola wants 2.25% per device and for it to cover all Apple devices (back dated). If Motorola pursues the case and the court issues a per device rate that is higher than Apple’s offer, Apple promises to pursue all possible appeals to avoid paying more than $1. Motorola could end this quickly, or watch as Apple drags this out for what could be years.
Apple has conceded that the Moto patents are valid by offering to pay Google/Moto $1 per device, but only going forward. Motorola wants 2.25% per device and for it to cover all Apple devices (back dated). If Motorola pursues the case and the court issues a per device rate that is higher than Apple’s offer, Apple promises to pursue all possible appeals to avoid paying more than $1. Motorola could end this quickly, or watch as Apple drags this out for what could be years.
Submission + - Open Search Server 1.3 makes OCR and find videos (linux-magazin.de)
ekeller writes: "OpenSearchServer, an open source search engine for local and web resources is available in version 1.3 with new features. Enhancements include OCR for PDF and image files, phonetic indexing. YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo videos are detected and can be indexed."
Submission + - All five Star Trek Captains together (shadowlocked.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Just after half past seven on the evening of Friday 19th November, history was made at the Destination Star Trek London event at the capital's ExCel centre; when Captains Archer (Scott Bakula), Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Sisko (Avery Brooks), Picard (Patrick Stewart) and James T. Kirk (William Shatner) appeared together on a European stage for the first time.
This momentous event, which had occurred just once before, at the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia, USA in June, not only lived up to the expectations of fans who had dreamed of this moment for years, but exceeded them by a good light-year.
[Recap of the event at the link]
This momentous event, which had occurred just once before, at the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia, USA in June, not only lived up to the expectations of fans who had dreamed of this moment for years, but exceeded them by a good light-year.
[Recap of the event at the link]
Comment Re:Being 89 and breaking the sound barrier (Score 1) 122
Hmm.. well if he was actually flying the plane I guess it might, dunno where they draw the line on that in a dual-control aircraft.
As a passenger, I believe centenary flights on concord were not uncommon...
Comment Re:Commemorative flight, not re-enactment (Score 1) 122
As I understand it, the term "sound barrier" came about because hitting "compressibility limits" in ww2-era thick-winged aircraqft "felt like flying into a brick wall"...
Comment Re:Disputed claims (Score 5, Interesting) 122
Highest speed ever recorded in a piston-engined aircraft was mach 0.92 in a spitfire.. the pilot only survived because the propeller and reduction gear got ripped off the aircraft and the resulting shift in the center of gravity caused an 11g pullout of an otherwise fatal dive. apparently the wings were distinctly "swept" after the event.
Comment Commemorative flight, not re-enactment (Score 4, Informative) 122
Calling it a reenactment is just journalistic hyperbole..
As for the first to break the sound barrier, there are several contenders according to criteria.. Yaeger was the first to do it deliberately, measurably, in level flight, and survive. Geoffrey DeHavilland broke it in the DH108 but died in the process. The xf-86 prototype with George Welch almost certainly did it before him, but once again, in a barely-controlled dive. The same with all the other claims, they were not in control and they were lucky to survive, if they did.
Submission + - GeS "nanoflowers" could blossom in next-gen solar cells (gizmag.com)
cylonlover writes: Researchers have already turned to the humble sunflower for inspiration to design more efficient Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant layouts, and now a team from North Carolina State University has developed a “nanoflower” structure out of germanium sulfide (GeS) that shows great promise for use in energy-storage devices and more efficient solar cells. The secret is the material's ultrathin petals that provide a large surface area in only a small amount of space.
Submission + - Lone packet crashes telco networks (scmagazine.com.au)
mask.of.sanity writes: A penetration tester has shown that GSM communications systems can be taken down with a handful of malformed packets.
The weakness was in the lack of security around the Home Location Register server clusters which store GSM subscriber details as part of the global SS7 network.
A single packet, sent from within any network including femtocells, took down one of the clusters for two minutes.
The weakness was in the lack of security around the Home Location Register server clusters which store GSM subscriber details as part of the global SS7 network.
A single packet, sent from within any network including femtocells, took down one of the clusters for two minutes.
