There's a fun fact about the wheels of Curiosity. They spell out "JPL" in Morse Code in the sand of Mars. :)

Basically they are moving the instrument to a facility that can make a better stream of particles to steer into it.

"creating effective shark deterrents"

Just say it... creating effecting shark repellents.

... I wish there was a tasteful way to make a Star Wars joke.

Artists always find a way of creating.

Dactyl Nightmare

If you can't have a model drone, you might as well get a "Droney - the friendly surveillance drone" tshirt!

http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=TMW-DRONEY&Category_Code=TMW

funky49

Full disclosure, I own this shirt and it is soft.

I love these guys: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/qaher-313.htm

David Cenciotti noted that the plane featured “implausible aerodynamics and Hollywood sheen” and was laughably small for a fighter jet. He also commented thatthe cockpit was far too basic for a sophisticated aircraft, and appeared “similar to those equipping small private planes. ... The nose section is so small almost no radar could fit in it ... The air intakes are extremely small, whereas the engine section lacks any kind of nozzle: engine afterburners could melt the entire jet. ... It looks like this pilot is in a miniature plane” and it appeared “nothing more than a large mock-up model.” Iran also broadcast video footage of the Qaher F-313 in flight, which Cenciotti said appeared to fly like a “radio-controlled scale model more than a modern fighter jet.” He also noted it was suspect that Tehran did not release takeoff and landing footage of its new aircraft.

I'll help you with your math. "Keep the monkey alive" > "not damaging a warhead"

I will keep my hopes up while knowing the pursuits of Iran/NK have evil alternatives. What I won't do is paint everything I see with negativity. That's not how I want to live. Please, continue living your life with your way. I will celebrate the good news when I see it.

Steve

Thank you AC for pointing out the obvious. Since Iran and North Korea share missile technology, you can assume what one can do, the other can do. This Slashdot story was different. There was a directive to keep an animal alive. This knowledge and ability to keep that monkey safe for the trip gives me hope. I'm not going to apologize for focusing on the positives. Eat shit, coward.

Congrats Iran!

Actually, Discovery serves as the "Vehicle of Record" among the retired shuttles. Atlantic & Endevour have donated a lot more parts to the SLS program.

“If using components off of the orbiters can help that happen, then we’re all for that, so I think we came to a good compromise in the sense of pretty much leaving Discovery as the vehicle of record. We didn’t take as much out of Discovery, but then we are taking out of Endeavour and Atlantis those components so that we can help SLS, so I think it was a good compromise between the programs.”

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/03/vehicle-record-sls-discovery-mps/

Obligatory post of my "Particle Business" music video shot at Fermilab

http://youtu.be/oaG6umMkbxg

Please mod up this kind soul who gets it. Twitter is a Swiss Army Knife. Don't complain about the toothpick when you should be using the scissors. Use the tool how you like.

@funky49

I was at a Blackberry event earlier this week (stuffed myself mad with shrimp, clams & crab legs!) and noticed that the Playbook could run multiple environments and not just BB6. One of the other environments was Webkit. Well Chrome is made from Webkit and on Monday I got a CR-48 from Google so I asked the guy if the Playbook would be able to run ChromeOS. He hemmed and hawed and I interjected that I had to ask something good because my boss was in the crowd. He ended up telling the crowd to watch for upcoming news about what exactly the Playbook could run.

I was amused.