Re: Location: Wrong. The entire UK grid is "locked together" and it all runs at the same frequency. Necessarily. Also: Recorder doesn't need to be plugged into the mains. 50Hz hum permeates the space around us. Try grabbing hold of an oscilloscope lead and look at how much 50Hz hum you are "carrying". Unless you're a long way from mains outlets, it's a lot.

There is this global media obsession with referring to Mars as "The Red Planet". It is really irritating.

Mars has a name, just like all the other planets in our solar system: Its name is "Mars". So use it, and respect the planet and its name.

It's so irritating and "media lovvie". Also, the planet it not really "red" at all. It's brown. It belongs in exactly the same category as media types referring to scientists as "boffins". It's RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL.

I wish the media would shed this ridiculous obsession with ignoring the name of the planet MARS.

For exactly the same reason that you can't fit an infinite number of AM radio stations into a finite width of radio spectrum. The act of AM-ing a single frequency carrier f_c at data rate / frequency f generates sidebands each side of the carrier, so that the signal now spreads over (f_c - f) to (f_c + f), i.e. the bandwidth becomes (IIRC) 2f. Fleetie

No, you cannot "get something brighter".

The concentrated spot of light cannot even be quite 1 x the brightness of the sun. Never mind ">5000 times brighter". The laws of thermodynamics say so. You cannot focus an image of a light source so as to make the intensity at that focus more intense than the light source itself. Kudos for good execution of his idea, but that ">5000 times brighter" claim is just plain wrong.

PRIMOS. Rev. 21. We had it as Salford Uni, from 1989 when I joined (and probably a fair bit earlier) to about 1992. Mainly on 9955 machines.

10mA per hour, huh?!

That's what this seems to rely on: The conversion of methane (CH4) to CO2 by combustion. Is CH4 a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2? I seem to remember it is, but I'm not sure.

Why are LLR returns always exactly 1 photon per shot? I see no reason why that should be true. Also, I read that the American ones used to return 1 photon back per shot sometimes?

A grain of sand weighing 1 gram? You're an idiot.

No doubt we'll find out on uk.misc later.

"The Apollo's Guidance Computer was a snail-like 1.024 MHz in comparison, and it's external signaling was half that -- actually measured in Hz (1/1000th of 1 MHz, much as 1 MHz is 1/1000 of 1 GHz)." FAIL!

What about black holes NOT from the centre of galaxies? Fairly normal large (massive) stars end up as black holes too, so I'd expect a lot of black holes in this galaxy anyway, even if it hadn't interacted with any other galaxies.