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Comment Re:We're headed for Venus, but still we stand stro (Score 1) 66

To be extra clear, here: titanium melts around 1,900 kelvin. The temperature of re-entry is 3,200 kelvin. Yes, 3,200 kelvin is "below" the temperature required to make titanium boil (by 300 kelvin), but you'll note that the 1,900 is 3,200 by 1,300.

Who honestly thinks titanium that's been heated to 'just below' its boiling point for half an hour, will be somehow intact once it's slow enough to not self-generate plasma due to atmospheric drag?

Ridiculous.

Comment Re:We're headed for Venus, but still we stand stro (Score 1) 66

How does a thing that isn't water, 'water in the ocean'? What? A thing can't water. The only thing that is water, is H2O.

Also, no -- it will not survive atmospheric re-entry. The atmosphere see to that. The heat of re-entry exceeds the temperature of Venus by *THOUSANDS OF DEGREES*.... It will not survive in 1 piece. This isn't a matter of atmospheric pressure, nor is this a matter of G-shock. It's plasma; it'll be in an envelope of super-heated plasma. Why do you think they can't use the radios on the Shuttle during re-entry? High energy plasma -- at THOUSANDS OF DEGREES.... Sheesh.

Comment It won't survive re-entry. (Score 1) 66

'"As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact," Langbroek wrote in a blog update"'

Uh, no.

1) High-energy plasma at 3,200 K upon re-entry. This occurs for 25 minutes or so. This is why Columbia became ... a large number of pieces of wreckage strewn across multiple US states.
2) Venera probes use drag-parachutes to reduce velocity to the point that they can survive entry into the atmosphere of Venus. But, this was built by the Soviet union -- it didn't get out of low Earth orbit. Do you think that parachute functions? It doesn't, it won't.
3) The reasons cited for it 'surviving' re-entry are ... G-forces and atmospheric pressure. None of those address the fact that, though the surface of Venus is ~= 737K ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ), you'll notice that the surface temperature of Venus is 2,463 kelvin 'colder' than atmospheric re-entry. What material do you think the probe is made of? Unobtanium?

Ridiculous. It will not survive atmospheric re-entry. it will not be 'a single piece' when it (or most of it, the parts that weren't vaporized by high-energy plasma), gets to sea-level.

Comment Utterly ridiculous. (Score 2, Insightful) 77

Given that humans didn't have microplastics in the environment of the past? Their hypothesis is that you have to prove they aren't doing harm (maybe they benefit). The null hypothesis is that no microplastics is the base case; and a demonstration of safety of introducing microplastics is required. The same procedure for making a drug for human use.

This is anti-science flim-flam bullshit. See also: cigarette companies saying no link to lung cancer -- and also, smoking is actually healthy.

Don't be taken in by the same lies as earlier generations.

Comment "...One has to wonder..." spoken like a true idiot (Score 1) 78

Wow, so the 'fitness function' of evolution led to the extinction of a lineage of life?

And you, "have to wonder" why scientists are exploring the possibilities of life?

it should be obvious. They are exploring the possibilities of life, to understand them. The possibilities of life.

And, let's be clear, extinction is something that happens for terrible reasons. Not everything that became extinct, became extinct for good reasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... is perhaps a book you should read, https://science.slashdot.org/~... ... because you assume things about the selective-fitness function which are untrue.

Things happen for reasons. They don't happen for good reasons. That's why we explore and research.

Comment Re:Company selling (Score 1) 168

I've been asked to create reports that add pounds + gallons, and it's almost impossible to get them to understand why that's nonsense.

Pshaw, that's super easy! 3 pounds plus 6 gallons equals 9.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. For example, if their boss is an MBA who gives out raises on the basis of how many pounds+gallons they produce or sell, they would be quite rational to request a report that shows how many pounds+gallons they have produced or sold.

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