STEREO Spacecraft To Explore Earth's L4 and L5 66
Posted
by
kdawson
from the home-home-on-lagrange dept.
from the home-home-on-lagrange dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Launched on October 25, 2006, NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft are about to enter the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points, special points in our orbit around which spacecraft and other objects can loiter because the gravitational pull of earth and the sun balances the forces from the object's orbital motion. (The spacecraft won't linger at the Lagrangian points; they are just passing through.) 'These places may hold small asteroids, which could be leftovers from a Mars-sized planet that formed billions of years ago,' said NASA Project Scientist Michael Kaiser. STEREO will look for asteroids with a wide-field-of-view telescope. 'If we discover the asteroids have the same composition as the Earth and moon, it will support Belbruno and Gott's version of the giant impact theory. The asteroids themselves could well be left-over from the formation of the solar system.' L4 and L5 are also good places to observe space weather. 'With both the sun and Earth in view, we could track solar storms and watch them evolve as they move toward Earth. Also, since we could see sides of the sun not visible from Earth, we would have a few days warning before stormy regions on the solar surface rotate to become directed at Earth,' says Kaiser."
Comment: Re:Actually, there are other advantages... (Score 1) 213
apologies for mistaken off-topic mod - appears undoable without this reply
Journal: GOP Used Tax Dollars To Boost Campaigns
Journal
by
cybermage
In a possible violation of the Hatch Act, the Bush Administration used federal funds to boost efforts to elect Republican candidates in key battleground states.
McClatchy Newspapers has the story of efforts within the administration to use federal dollars to bolster the campaigns of republican candidates. The strategy, a clear violation of the Hatch Act, works like this:
Journal: NYT says Wall Street is Losing Faith in M$. 5
Journal
by
twitter
In an article about the challenges facing M$, the New York Times reports this bombshell:
Microsofts dominance is being challenged as never before by Google in particular, and Wall Street refuses to believe the company will regain its edge. The companys stock has largely remained flat since the end of the dot-com era.
Apple Investigated Over Stock Options 88
Posted
by
CowboyNeal
from the slight-of-hands dept.
from the slight-of-hands dept.
blamanj writes "Apple has joined the list of over fifty companies (most in Silicon Valley) that possibly mishandled stock options by backdating them. The technique is not illegal, but it can cause a company to improperly deduct employee compensation expenses and result in an underpayment of taxes. So far, Apple is conducting the investigation itself, but it has notified the SEC."
Illumio to Launch Social Network Advice Software 132
Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
from the putting-your-friends-to-work dept.
from the putting-your-friends-to-work dept.
hdtv writes "The New York Times is reporting that Palo Alto-based Illumio will soon try to figure out the experts among your social network with a new online service." From the article: "Illumio is not a search engine, like Google or Yahoo. The system works by transparently distributing a request for information on questions like "Who knows John Smith?" and "Are Nikon digital cameras better than Olympus?" to the computers in a network of users. The questions can then be answered locally based on a novel reverse auction system that Illumio uses to determine who the experts are."
Windows Live Goes to College 330
Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
from the captive-audiences-101 dept.
from the captive-audiences-101 dept.
Tobias writes "BetaNews is reporting that Microsoft has struck a deal with 72 different colleges to use Windows Live for their email services. The problem with this is that Windows Live does not support any browsers besides IE 6, does not support POP or IMAP, and does not support email forwarding." From the article: "The Redmond company believes that catching the students early on will turn them into life-long users of Windows Live. They would likely create a Windows Live Messenger account, start a blog and organize their favorites under this e-mail account -- especially if they plan to continue using it, Microsoft says."
Hack IIS6 Contest 545
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the get-your-crackz0r-on dept.
from the get-your-crackz0r-on dept.
ThePurpleBuffalo writes "This just came in across a BugTraq mailing list from Roger Grimes: 'Starting May 2nd and going until June 8th, the server located at http://www.hackiis6.com/ will welcome hackers to attack it. If you can deface the web site or capture the "hidden" document, you win an X-box! Read contest rules for what does and doesn't constitute a successful hack. We've tried to be as realistic as possible in what constitutes a successful hack, and in mimicking a basic HTML and ASP.NET web site. ' "