Comment Re:The funny thing (Score 1) 107
Until some slashdotter finally observed TFA.
So, you're saying it hasn't happened yet?
Comment Re:Folks I don't want to hear say oops (Score 1) 672
I believe that wasn't for the Fission bomb, but was a concern for the Hydrogen (Fusion) bomb.
Some scientists were worried the reaction would draw in hydrogen from the atmosphere, grow, and consume the planet.
Comment Re:The System (Score 4, Informative) 251
To be clear, this has nothing to do with child porn. This is a law intended to prevent children from accessing porn.
Comment Re:Anyone care to explain? (Score 1) 200
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars
Mars does have an atmosphere, it's just very very thin (0.005 atm or 0.6kPa)
It is made up of about 0.13% Oxygen and 10.5 ppb Methane.
I think the Methane has plenty of Oxygen to interact with.
Comment Re:Actually... (Score 5, Funny) 265
Also, as a non-physicist, it can be fun to pit theorists and experimentalists against each other in battles to the death and watch what happens.
Wow, you just don't get it. There's no need to actually pit them against each other, I can provide mathematical proof that the experimentalists will win 84.3% of the time.
Comment Re:Limit logins without DOS? (Score 1) 222
I've seen this system used on forums before.
And, this is basically how (some) video games work. Login with the account username, but everything from you appears as your character's name.
Comment Re:Mine goes to 11 (Score 0) 609
Unless the resistor in the dimmer is in parallel with the light bulb.
P = I*V = V*V/R
With constant voltage, adding a resistor in series drops the power, adding one in parallel increases the power.
Comment Re:Cool, and some questions (Score 1) 392
Not quite that far. The galaxy is about 50,000 ly across, and the earth is a bit more than halfway from the center. So, we're only around 25,000 ly away from this beast.
The radius of the Milky Way is 50,000 light years, but in total it's 100,000 light years across.
But, you're right, the Sun is about 26,000 light years from the center, not the 40-50 I stated earlier.
http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/how-big-is-the-milky-way
Virgin Galactic Shows the Finished WhiteKnight Two 212
Klaus Schmidt writes "Virgin Galactic today unveiled their WhiteKnight Two mothership, called 'EVE.' It is designed to carry the smaller SpaceShip Two into space.
The rollout represents another major milestone in Virgin Galactic's quest to launch the world's first private, environmentally benign, space access system for people, payload and science.
Christened 'EVE' in honor of Richard Branson's mother — Sir Richard performed the official naming ceremony — WK2 is both visually remarkable and represents ground-breaking aerospace technology. It is the world's largest all carbon composite aircraft and many of its component parts have been built using composite materials for the very first time. At 140 ft, the wing span is the longest single carbon composite aviation component ever manufactured."
Game Technology Helps Drive Military Training 127
longacre writes "With the gaming industry now spending more to develop user interfaces than the Pentagon, the Army has begun putting all that R&D to good use in weaponry and training. Reversing the traditional role of games attempting to simulate real life killing machines, it is now the weapons makers using gaming technology to make their products more effective. Popular Mechanics notes, 'Already, [Mark Bigham, director of business development for Raytheon Tactical Intelligence Systems] says that Raytheon has been experimenting with Wii controllers to explore the possibilities for training simulators and other applications that require physical movement. Just think, one day, the R&D that Nintendo put into Wii bowling could end up influencing basic training.'"
