Re: RIDDLES: Yet another thread for fun.
Kevin Tarr wrote: This should be easy: I am the ruler of shovels I have a double I am as thin as a knife I have a wife What am I? King of Spades? Regards, Ray. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: 'nother riddle
- Original Message - From: Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 12:18 AM Subject: Re: 'nother riddle On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 22:29:15 -0700, Michael Harney [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Doug Pensinger Here's one I'm sure won't last nearly as long. Guess the next number in the following sequence. 1 11 21 1211 -- Doug Looks like a palindrome, and I don't see much of a mathematical pattern in it (not that I tried much though), so my guess is 1. heh, good answer, but no. perhaps I should add one more: 111221 -- Doug Hm. If you hadn't included the next term, I'd have tried 1231. Is the one after this 312211 then? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: You Know What Pisses Mo Off...
The actual link clicked was probably this one (or one like it): www.seehecht.com/see_vh_tsoc/see_vh_11092.html This redirects you to the amazon page. Isn't amazon's fault. (Can you tell I'm doing some serious procrastining here?) By the way, clicking very quickly and repeatedly on the back button can also get you past redirect pages back to your original link page. Amanda - Original Message - From: Miller, Jeffrey [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 29, 2003 7:39 PM Subject: RE: You Know What Pisses Mo Off... do you happen to remember what you search for on google? Its not a secure server issue (I know, I /own/ the page you landed on..) feel free to email me offlist; I'm really super curious, as this is a really bad user experience.. -j- -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Doug Pensinger Sent: Monday, December 29, 2003 05:00 PM To: Killer Bs Discussion Subject: Re: You Know What Pisses Mo Off... On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 19:06:12 -0500, Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mon, Dec 29, 2003 at 03:25:00PM -0800, Doug Pensinger wrote: On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 17:20:51 -0500, Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It actually has an extra page (or more than one) in your history that forwards or redirects you to the page that you see. OK, why does it do that? There are several possible reasons. I don't know exactly where you are seeing it here since your description was vague. I would guess that it is redirecting you from a non-secure page to a secure-page, but it could also be a login redirect, or maybe re-direct to a partner's site, or I clicked a link on Google to this page: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6304535376/bestellung-20/002-3219025-51 93664 or http://tinyurl.com/23rma and then couldn't get directly back. -- Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Efficient bus
William T Goodall wrote: http://www.rnw.nl/science/html/031215wheel.html Doug Pensinger wrote Yeah that's very interesting but not new, It's basicaly a bus version of an hybrid car like the Prius sold by Toyota since 97 (BTW, it's definitely my next car) the extra plus of that bus is the space saving location of the electrical engine: in the wheels. This is being done (and more) in the skateboard cars GM is working on. I do hope they get them to the point where production vehicles will be sold. Jean-Marc Chaton wrote: It makes so much sense, too, ya gotta wonder why it hasn't been done before. Is the necessary technology state of the art? There have been designs for electric cars featuring engines in the wheels from the early 20th century. -- Matt ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
He was the train we did not catch
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/excess.html John Clute reviews the finally-published first Heinlein novel, _For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs_. I'm not about to suggest that if Heinlein had been able to publish openly in the pages of Astounding in 1939, SF would have gotten the future right; I would suggest, however, that if Heinlein, and his colleagues, had been able to publish adult SF in Astounding and its fellow journals, then SF might not have done such a grotesquely poor job of prefiguring something of the flavor of actually living here at the onset of 2004. ... With its privacy anthems, its sex, its nudity, its rolling roads, its Coventry, its lust for space, it is everything Heinlein later made become. It is also, sadly, something else. It is the road not dreamed, a rage of making not made (RAH's famous superba about his ostensible peers surely comes, in part, from his knowledge, throughout the 1940s, that he could have done so much better; and the bullying solipsistic disappointedness of his late work might be explained by the fact that he had had to bottle himself up so long, and that by 1960 or so the world had lost him). He missed the train. So did we. He was the train we did not catch. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ Our products just aren't engineered for security. - Brian Valentine, senior vice president in charge of Microsoft's Windows development team. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: You Know What Pisses Mo Off...
On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 06:34:59 -0600, Amanda Marlowe [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The actual link clicked was probably this one (or one like it): www.seehecht.com/see_vh_tsoc/see_vh_11092.html This redirects you to the amazon page. Isn't amazon's fault. (Can you tell I'm doing some serious procrastining here?) By the way, clicking very quickly and repeatedly on the back button can also get you past redirect pages back to your original link page. Yea, that was it exactly. So who is doing the redirecting? -- Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: RIDDLES: Yet another thread for fun.
From: Kevin Tarr [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: RIDDLES: Yet another thread for fun. Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 05:46:27 -0500 The answer is splinter. Kevin T. - VRWC lol You got it. Sorry about all the confusion. -Travis who agrees with placing rules and restrictions on the riddle game Edmunds _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcommpgmarket=en-caRU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: He was the train we did not catch
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/excess.html He missed the train. So did we. He was the train we did not catch. I have no idea if this will get to anyone on the list. I am back, as it were, but I am hopeing I can participate through yahoo. Let's see So where were we? He missed the train. So did we. He was the train we did not catch. Oh no, he and others made the train, pixle by pixle, if not all at once. We didn't miss the train, we just got off here at this station. But there will be another soon, if you want. Why not get on that one, and ride it down the line? The future has not yet arived, you still have time to make it. The conductor is allways calling, all you have to do is step aboard. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: He was the train we did not catch
At 04:06 PM 12/30/03, Jan Coffey wrote: --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/excess.html He missed the train. So did we. He was the train we did not catch. I have no idea if this will get to anyone on the list. I am back, as it were, but I am hopeing I can participate through yahoo. Let's see So where were we? He missed the train. So did we. He was the train we did not catch. Oh no, he and others made the train, pixle by pixle, Including his cat, huh? -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: Scientists have new theory on ice age
http://www.ljworld.com/section/kunews/story/156451 Scientists have new theory on ice age KU researchers believe gamma-ray burst caused extinctions, cooling By Alea Smith - Special to the Journal-World Monday, December 29, 2003 Researchers now believe a cosmic explosion 440 million years ago may have decimated life on Earth. advertisement Kansas University scientists are attracting international attention with their research into the possibility a massive gamma ray explosion caused an ice age that wiped out much of the life on Earth. It appears that the (gamma ray) bursts are a serious danger, although not something you would expect to hit us very often, maybe every few hundred million years, said Adrian Melott, a professor of physics and astronomy. Melott and Bruce Lieberman, an associate professor of geology, are studying whether gamma ray bursts were responsible for high extinction rates in shallow-water marine species -- amoebas, sponges and coral-like creatures and some marine species with hard shells -- while other species survived. The effects were worse on shallow-water species, the scientists believe, because deeper water protected other species. There is a variety of evidence for this particular time period, Lieberman said. There is chemical evidence as well as the animals that made it through and those that go extinct. Two international science magazines, New Scientist and Nature, have recently reported the KU researchers' hypothesis. Others working on the theory since last spring have included Claude Laird, associate professor of physics and astronomy at KU; Mikhail Medvedev, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at KU; and officials from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Previous theories have attributed the extinction to the start of an ice age but offer no explanation as to what triggered the ice age during a relatively warm climate. Gamma-ray bursts occur when a giant star explodes, creating a burst of nuclear energy in the form of gamma-rays, which have the smallest wavelength and most energy of all radiation. The Earth's atmosphere would absorb the energy, which would separate nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere, creating nitrogen oxides, including nitrogen dioxide, which plays a major role in the atmospheric reactions that produce ground-level ozone or smog. The scientists' research has led them to believe the long-term effects of gamma-ray bursts would deplete the ozone and cause global cooling and acid rain. It would also increase the amount of direct ultraviolet rays from the sun, which only reach a depth of 10 meters in water. This explains why only shallow marine species were involved in the extinction. The trilobite, an extinct hard-shelled marine creature, has been the focus of research so far. Its extinction pattern in the fossil record is similar to what scientists would expect to find with gamma-ray bursts. They are now looking further into other species that survived and died out during this time to find more connections. Astronomers have observed and recorded many recent gamma-ray bursts from distant galaxies that have been harmless to the Earth. These bursts occurred more often when the solar system first formed, Lieberman said. Ones like we think caused this extinction occur once every billion years or so, but that's just an estimate. Melott said if a gamma-ray burst occurred within 10,000 light years on this side of the galaxy, the effects on Earth would be devastating. Anyone outside when this occurred would be blinded, Melott said. The effects would be noticed right away. Copyright © 2003 Visit us at http://www.ljworld.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Stunning Saturn
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/12/30/1072546532330.html Move over Mars. The ringed planet of Saturn, probably the most spectacular planet, will be the closest it has been to Earth in more than 30 years tomorrow. Saturn is visible with the naked eye, although viewing the rings requires a small telescope. But the view will be rewarding - Saturn's rings are now, as seen from Earth, at maximum tilt, about 25 degrees. At other times - 1995, for example - the thin rings have presented an edge-on view and seem to disappear. Perry Vlahos, president of the Astronomical Society of Victoria, said people were always impressed when seeing Saturn for the first time through a telescope. Apart from the moon, the most stunning sight to them, that leaves them breathless, is Saturn. Even through a telescope, stars and planets could look like dots, he said. But Saturn's rings brought the planet to life. The rings appear to have a 3-D effect because the shadow of the planet falls on the rings, he said. It's a stunning effect. Earth and Saturn make a close approach, or opposition, about once a year. However, Saturn is making its closest approach to the Sun since January 1974, making this opposition closer than usual. Mr Vlahos said Saturn would not be as bright as Mars was in August, and Jupiter and Venus were also brighter at the moment. Saturn is the second largest of the solar system's nine planets, but the fourth most remote. Only Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which are invisible to the naked eye, are further away. However, Mr Vlahos said Saturn's rings would swell its appearance through a telescope. Taking the rings into consideration, it will be about twice the width of Mars. Saturn, more than nine times Earth's diameter, is made of gas. It is about 1.2 billion kilometres away - more than 20 times further than Mars was in August. But Saturn is 17 times the diameter of Mars. Mr Vlahos said four or five of the planet's moons might be visible, including Titan - the only known moon with a thick atmosphere. NASA's Cassini craft, due to reach Saturn next year, is scheduled to drop a probe into Titan. Saturn is rising in the north-east about 7.57pm and setting in the north-west about 5.57am, passing 30 degrees above due north about 1am. xponent Running Rings Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Drop that almanac and put your hands up!
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031229.wfeeb1229/BNStory/Front/ Drop that almanac and put your hands up! Associated Press POSTED AT 9:18 PM EST Monday, Dec. 29, 2003 Washington The FBI is warning police across the U.S. to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning. In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning. It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs. I don't think anyone would consider us a harmful entity, said Kevin Seabrooke, senior editor of _The World Almanac_. He said the reference book includes about a dozen pages out of its 1,000 pages total listing the world's tallest buildings and bridges but includes no diagrams or architectural schematics. It's stuff that's widely available on the Internet, he said. The publisher for _The Old Farmers Almanac_ said Monday terrorists would probably find statistical reference books more useful than the collections of Americana in his famous publication of weather predictions and witticisms. © 2003 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. [Wonder if the _Astronomical Almanac_ is on the list . . . ?] -- Ronn! :) Ronn Blankenship Instructor of Astronomy/Planetary Science University of Montevallo Montevallo, AL Disclaimer: Unless specifically stated otherwise, any opinions contained herein are the personal opinions of the author and do not represent the official position of the University of Montevallo. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: You Know What Pisses Mo Off...
Presumably whoever is in charge of the seehecht.com page. I noticed there were a few links on outside sites that directed the clickers to the amazon page. My guess would be that the redirects include the amazon partnership info so the originating site can get their few cents off of your purchase. I'm curious. Let's take a look... The redirect link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6304535376/bestellung-20/104-8042032-00 15944 The just Amazon link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-8042032-0015944 Hmmm. Bet anything the ASIN tag and number that follow tell Amazon to kick back a bit to the seehect.com owner if someone buys. Amanda On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 06:34:59 -0600, Amanda Marlowe [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The actual link clicked was probably this one (or one like it): www.seehecht.com/see_vh_tsoc/see_vh_11092.html Yea, that was it exactly. So who is doing the redirecting? -- Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Earth Travel Time on Schedule
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20031230_1690.html In a phenomenon that has scientists puzzled, the Earth is right on schedule for a fifth straight year. Experts agree that the rate at which the Earth travels through space has slowed ever so slightly for millennia. To make the world's official time agree with where the Earth actually is in space, scientists in 1972 started adding an extra leap second on the last day of the year. For 28 years, scientists repeated the procedure. But in 1999, they discovered the Earth was no longer lagging behind. At the National Institute for Science and Technology in Boulder, spokesman Fred McGehan said most scientists agree the Earth's orbit around the sun has been gradually slowing for millennia. But he said they don't have a good explanation for why it's suddenly on schedule. Possible explanations include the tides, weather and changes in the Earth's core, he said. The leap second was an unexpected consequence of the 1955 invention of the atomic clock, which use the electromagnetic radiation emanated by Cesium atoms to measure time. It is extremely reliable. Atomic-based Coordinated Universal Time was implemented in 1972, superseding the astronomically determined Greenwich Mean Time. Leap seconds can be a big deal, affecting everything from communication, navigation and air traffic control systems to the computers that link global financial markets. xponent Clockers Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: You Know What Pisses Mo Off...
I previously said: -- The redirect link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6304535376/bestellung-20/104-8042032-00 15944 The just Amazon link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-8042032-0015944 -- Hmm, sorry, didn't pay enough attention, that second link was just the search page. But I did catch link as a second redirect after the first one flew by:http://www.bestell.de/partners/index.html?swi=6304535376 (You can see it if you are REALLY fast with the stop loading button going from the hechtcom link to the amazon link...) So, I think that supports my theory. And further proves I'm in serious procrastination mode ;) Amanda ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: RIDDLES: Yet another thread for fun.
Horn, John wrote: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Which was stuck in his stinky feet. Enough with the stinky feet, already! You know, I think William might be more entertained by the words stinky feet than my 3-yr-old. :) Jim Body odor and bodily functions are two surefire ways to get kids to laugh Maru ___ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Ashcroft Recuses Self From CIA Leak Probe
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20031230/D7VOT9EG0.html Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday recused himself from the politically sensitive investigation of who leaked the name of a CIA operative. The Justice Department quickly named a special prosecutor to take over the investigation. The announcement was made by James Comey, the department's new No. 2 official, at the Justice Department. The U.S. attorney in Chicago, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, will take over the investigation and report to Comey. He has the power and authority to make whatever prosecutorial judgment he needs, Comey said. This will not be Fitzgerald's first high-profile investigation. He oversaw the investigation of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican who was indicted this month on 22 counts of corruption, including taking free vacations, tax fraud, lying to federal agents and skimming cash out of his own campaign fund. Ryan pleaded innocent a week ago. The attorney general in an abundance of caution believed that his recusal was appropriate based on the totality of the circumstances and the facts and evidence developed at this stage of the investigation, Comey said. I agree with that judgment. Comey did not say exactly what evidence necessitated the recusal. He and Assistant Attorney General Chris Wray will supervise the investigation. It is not in the public interest to move this matter entirely from the Department of Justice, Comey said. Comey said he had a simple mandate for Fitzgerald: Follow the facts wherever they lead and do the right thing all of the time. Investigators want to know who leaked the name of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA officer, to syndicated columnist Robert Novak in July. Plame is married to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who has said he believes his wife's identity was disclosed to discredit his assertions that the Bush administration exaggerated Iraq's nuclear capabilities to build the case for war. The leaker could be charged with a felony if identified. The FBI has interviewed more than three dozen Bush administration officials, including political adviser Karl Rove and press secretary Scott McClellan. The interviews have extended beyond the White House to other government agencies. The Defense and State departments and the CIA itself also are part of the probe. The focus, however, remains on the White House, two law enforcement officials said on condition of anonymity. While the initial, informal interviews have yielded no major breaks, the FBI is satisfied that the dozen agents assigned to the probe are making progress and have not encountered any stalling tactics, the officials said Thursday. So far, no grand jury subpoenas have been issued, they said. Wilson said he had no idea why Ashcroft chose to recuse himself now. He speculated that Ashcroft, who has long ties to members of the president's staff, simply wanted to make sure that any findings at the end of the investigation are not tainted by even the suspicion of conflict of interest. I would have no idea whether a report has emerged that led him to recuse himself, Wilson said in a telephone interview Tuesday. I have always said, as some senators have argued, that the administration needed to take a good hard look at this. He declined to express satisfaction over Ashcroft's recusal. It's not a question of whether I'm happy about it, he said. The crime that was committed was not committed against me or my wife, but against my country. It's the country that's the victim in this. xponent Now At Bat.Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
News of the Weird
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storycid=638ncid=762e=1u=/nm/20031229/en_nm/life_barbie_dc Court Rules Nude Barbie Photos Are Free Speech Mon Dec 29, 6:10 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a Utah artist's right to make nude photos of Barbie dolls being menaced by kitchen appliances. Noting the image of Barbie dolls is ripe for social comment, a three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected toymaker Mattel Inc.'s appeal of a lower court ruling in favor of lampooning the popular doll. The San Francisco-based appeals court ruled that naked photos of Barbie made by Kanab, Utah, artist Thomas Forsythe were meant to be a parody and could not affect demand for Mattel products. Holding that social criticism was protected by the First Amendment, the court affirmed a 2001 federal court ruling for Forsythe, who had produced photos of nude Barbies in danger of being attacked by vintage household appliances. Mattel had argued the photos infringed on their copyrights and trademarks. Forsythe had used Barbie dolls in absurd and often sexualized positions for his Food Chain Barbie photos. The artist had argued that the photo series, which also included a photo of Barbie dolls wrapped in tortillas and covered in salsa in a casserole dish in a lit oven, was meant to critique the objectification of women and beauty myth associated with the popular doll. Barbie is the most enduring of those products that feed on the insecurities of our beauty and perfection-obsessed consumer culture, Forsythe has said in defending his work. Neither the artist nor a spokesman for Mattel were immediately available for comment on Monday's decision. Mattel sued the artist in 1999, alleging he had infringed on its copyrights, trademark and trade dress. The court in August 2001 held that Forsythe's use of Barbie was protected by fair use doctrine. In his opinion, Ninth Circuit Court Judge Harry Pregerson held there is abundant evidence to support that advertising for Barbie uses associations of beauty, wealth and glamour. Forsythe turns this image on its head, so to speak, by displaying carefully positioned, nude and sometimes frazzled looking Barbies in often ridiculous and apparently dangerous situations presenting a different set of associations for the dolls, whose smiles show they are disturbingly oblivious to their predicaments, Pregerson wrote. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: 2003: The Year in Catch-Phrases
Here are some of the terms we found rolling off our tongues in the past 12 months: Bennifer: The combination of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, who teased stargazers all year with their When will they do it? and then Will they or won't they do it? wedding (they never did it). Fans almost mercilessly turned against Bennifer when their first movie together, Gigli, bombed at the box office. Metrosexual: An urbane, sophisticated, heterosexual man who is concerned with his skin, hair, clothes and other less-than-macho pursuits. This is a straight guy with a queer eye. The Governator: Combines the previous job of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- star of The Terminator and other action movies -- with his current job as governor of California. TiVo It: Refers to recording a television show onto the hard drive of a TiVo or competing brand of digital video recorder, which is like a VCR with a hard drive. Punk'd: To be fooled, and named after the title of actor Ashton Kutcher's popular MTV celebrity prank show. The word officially entered the slang dictionary when the famously private David Letterman, pressed for details about his girlfriend, said to Kutcher's girlfriend Demi Moore, I feel like I've been Punk'd. Friendster: Like an online dating site ... but for friends. The site allows people to form networks with their friends, their friends' friends and so on, and is largely used as a hook-up vehicle for single, urban 20-somethings. Several celebrities have confessed to being Friendster addicts, and the site was so popular this year that it was often impossible to sign on. Go Bags: Also called ready kits, Go Bags contain emergency supplies such as water, non-perishable food, flashlights, AM/FM radios and first-aid kits. Meant for preparedness in a natural or manmade disaster, the government pushed the kits in a national ad campaign this year. SARS: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or the viral respiratory illness first reported in Asia in February that spread to North America, South America, Europe and Asia and caused many Americans to fear flying and Chinese food. Eight cases were confirmed in the U.S. as of Oct. 1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Push Presents: Also called baby baubles, they are gifts from husband to wife upon the birth of a baby -- usually expensive jewelry. Words of War Embedded reporters: Journalists cleared and trained by the U.S. military to accompany troops on or near the front lines during Operation: Iraqi Freedom. Shock and Awe: The name of the targeted strike meant to kill Saddam Hussein that kicked off the Iraq war, it refers to an overwhelming use of military force that is meant to shock and awe an enemy into surrender. War blog: Web diaries kept by soldiers, reporters and civilians describing the build-up, events and aftermath of the Iraq war. Most-Wanted Cards: A set of 55 playing cards issued by the U.S. Army to soldiers during and after the Iraq invasion. Each card displayed a high-ranking member of Saddam Hussein's regime, with Saddam himself as the ace of spades. Modeled on a similar deck used in Europe during World War II, the deck was quickly knocked off for sale on street corners and the Internet. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: He was the train we did not catch
On 30 Dec 2003, at 10:06 pm, Jan Coffey wrote: --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/excess.html He missed the train. So did we. He was the train we did not catch. I have no idea if this will get to anyone on the list. I am back, as it were, but I am hopeing I can participate through yahoo. Let's see So where were we? He missed the train. So did we. He was the train we did not catch. Oh no, he and others made the train, pixle by pixle, if not all at once. We didn't miss the train, we just got off here at this station. But there will be another soon, if you want. Why not get on that one, and ride it down the line? The future has not yet arived, you still have time to make it. The conductor is allways calling, all you have to do is step aboard. Ah, but that was the *wrong* train... Clute's point was that Heinlein's best writing years were spent under censorship, and by the time he came out from under that he was a spent force. Of course he wrote some great genre SF during the censored years - _Citizen of the Galaxy_ , _Tunnel in the Sky_ and such - but those were juveniles. If he could have written to that standard with the adult themes he managed to bring in in the 70's he would have created some truly impressive work. Like John Varley 30 years early or something :) -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ It is our belief, however, that serious professional users will run out of things they can do with UNIX. - Ken Olsen, President of DEC, 1984. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: RIDDLES: Yet another thread for fun.
In a message dated 12/30/03 5:51:36 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Which was stuck in his stinky feet. Enough with the stinky feet, already! You know, I think William might be more entertained by the words stinky feet than my 3-yr-old. :) Jim Body odor and bodily functions are two surefire ways to get kids to laugh Maru As reflected by the Ahp'Churez story. ...even got our good Dr. to groan. Vilyehm Teighlore ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: Martian Crater Could Have Swallowed Beagle 2
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mars_crater_beagle_2.html Martian Crater Could Have Swallowed Beagle 2 Dec 29, 2003 - [Image] Image credit: Malin The latest attempts to communicate with Beagle 2 via the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank and the Mars Odyssey spacecraft have been unsuccessful. However, the Beagle 2 team has not given up hope and continues to be optimistic that efforts to contact the lander will eventually be successful. This message was also reinforced by Lord Sainsbury, UK Minister for Science and Innovation, who this morning joined members of the Beagle 2 team to answer questions about the status of the project. While we're disappointed that things have not gone according to plan, we are determined that the search should go on, both the search to make contact with Beagle 2 and also (the search) to answer the long term question about whether there is life on Mars, said Lord Sainsbury. There's clearly still a good opportunity to make contact with Beagle 2 with Mars Express when it comes into action, and that has to be the first priority at this point. I think everything is being done by the 'tiger team' in Leicester to make contact with Beagle 2 and I want to wish them every success in their efforts. We are looking at a number of possible failure modes that we might do something about, said Dr. Mark Sims, Beagle 2 mission manager from the University of Leicester. We are working under the assumption that Beagle 2 is on the surface of Mars and for some reason cannot communicate to us. In particular, we're looking at two major issues. One is communications, and there are also related timing and software issues. We've got a few more Odyssey contacts, the last one being on 31 December. Then we have four contacts with Mars Express already pre-programmed into Beagle, assuming the software is running, on 6, 12, 13 and 17. The 6 and 12 are when Mars Express is manoeuvring into its final orbit, so they are not optimum for Beagle 2 communications. The 13th and 17th are very good opportunities for Mars Express. According to Dr. Sims, one of the scenarios the team was investigating - a timer and hardware reset - now seems unlikely, and can probably be ruled out. However, other possible slips of the onboard time may have been caused by software or problems of copying data between various parts of memory. Possibly, all of the stored command times have been lost. None of these can yet be eliminated, he said. After the tenth contact attempt, Beagle 2 will move into communication search mode 1 (CSM 1), taking advantage of the ability of the software on board Beagle 2 to recognise when dawn and dusk occur on Mars by measuring the current feeding from the solar arrays. When we get into CSM 1 mode, Beagle 2 will start putting additional contacts on its time line, independent of the clock value, said Mark Sims. This will happen after 31 December. The team is also looking at sending blind commands to Beagle 2. This is helped by Beagle going into CSM 1 mode. The team has come up with a method of fooling the receiver into accepting commands without having to talk back to the orbiter, said Dr. Sims. We have an agreement with JPL to reconfigure Odyssey to provisionally attempt this on 31 December, the last programmed Odyssey pass. Malin Space Science Systems has also provided the Beagle 2 team with a picture of the landing site taken by the camera on Mars Global Surveyor 20 minutes after the spacecraft's scheduled touchdown. It shows that the weather was quite good on the day Beagle landed, so it was unlikely to be a factor in the descent. The next opportunity to image the landing site with Mars Global Surveyor will not be until 5 January. The image showing the centre of Beagle 2's landing ellipse also shows a 1 km wide crater. There is just an outside possibility that the lander could have touched down inside this crater, resulting in problems caused by steep slopes, large number of rocks or disruption to communication from the lander. This image is now available on the Beagle 2 and PPARC Web sites (see link on the right hand side). While the Lander Operations Control Centre in Leicester continues its efforts to communicate with the Beagle 2, Lord Sainsbury took the opportunity to inform the media that the UK government is keen to continue the innovative robotic exploration effort begun with the lander. Long term we need to be working with ESA to ensure that in some form there is a Beagle 3 which takes forwards this technology, he said. I very much hope that the Aurora programme, which is now being developed by ESA, will take forward this kind of robotic exploration. We've always recognised that Beagle 2 was a high risk project, and we must avoid the temptation in future to only do low risk projects. I'd like to use this opportunity to add my thanks to all those helping our efforts to make contact with Beagle 2. I think the amount of
Scouted: Scientists: Earth Travel Time on Schedule
I thought this was a humorous The Onion type article at first, but it was actually very interesting. I suppose this could simply be explained by better technology? Gary Scientists: Earth Travel Time on Schedule Scientists Say Earth Is on Schedule in Regards to Rate at Which It Travels Through Space BOULDER, Colo. Dec. 30 - In a phenomenon that has scientists puzzled, the Earth is right on schedule for a fifth straight year. Experts agree that the rate at which the Earth travels through space has slowed ever so slightly for millennia. To make the world's official time agree with where the Earth actually is in space, scientists in 1972 started adding an extra leap second on the last day of the year. For 28 years, scientists repeated the procedure. But in 1999, they discovered the Earth was no longer lagging behind. Complete article. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20031230_1690.html ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: Young Gas Giants Have to Fight to Survive
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/planetary_formation_contest.html Young Gas Giants Have to Fight to Survive Dec 29, 2003 - Of the first 100 stars found to harbor planets, more than 30 stars host a Jupiter-sized world in an orbit smaller than Mercury's, whizzing around its star in a matter of days (as opposed to our solar system where Jupiter takes 12 years to orbit the Sun). Such close orbits result from a race between a nascent gas giant and a newborn star. In the October 10, 2003, issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers Myron Lecar and Dimitar Sasselov showed what influences this race. They found that planet formation is a contest, where a growing planet must fight for survival lest it be swallowed by the star that initially nurtured it. The endgame is a race between the star and its giant planet, says Sasselov. In some systems, the planet wins and survives, but in other systems, the planet loses the race and is eaten by the star. Although Jupiter-sized worlds have been found orbiting incredibly close to their parent stars, such giant planets could not have formed in their current locations. The oven-like heat of the nearby star and dearth of raw materials would have prevented any large planet from coalescing. It's a lousy neighborhood to form gas giants, says Lecar. But we find a lot of Jupiter-sized planets in such neighborhoods. Explaining how they got there is a challenge. Theorists calculate that so-called hot Jupiters must form farther out in the disk of gas and dust surrounding the new star and then migrate inward. A challenge is to halt the planet's migration before it spirals into the star. A Jupiter-like world's migration is powered by the disk material outside the planet's orbit. The outer protoplanetary disk inexorably pushes the planet inward, even as the planet grows by accreting that outer material. Lecar and Sasselov showed that a planet can win its race to avoid destruction by eating the outer disk before the star eats it. Our solar system differs from the hot Jupiter systems in that the race must have ended quite early. Jupiter migrated for only a short distance before consuming the material between it and the infant Saturn, bringing the King of Planets to a halt. If the protoplanetary disk that birthed our solar system had contained more matter, Jupiter might have lost the race. Then it and the inner planets, including Earth, would have spiraled into the Sun. If Jupiter goes, they all go, says Lecar. It's too early to say that our solar system is rare, because it's easier to find 'hot Jupiter' systems with current detection techniques, says Sasselov. But we certainly can say we're fortunate that Jupiter's migration stopped early. Otherwise, the Earth would have been destroyed, leaving a barren solar system devoid of life. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe. Original Source: Harvard CfA News Release Copyright © 1999-2003 Universe Today, All rights reserved. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
gnat cams!
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tim): Thought y'all might enjoy this ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43083-2003Dec30.html The CIA Dept. of Quirky Tricks Agency Reveals Gadgets, but You Can't See Them ... The CIA is not showing off just its successes. It invented a remote-controlled dragonfly for delivering tiny listening devices outside windows: a bug carrying a bug. But the insectothopter, with a miniature engine built by a watchmaker, could not fly straight in winds and did not prove useful. So much for a prop beloved of sci-fi authors such as Neal Stephenson (in 'The Diamond Age') and David Brin (in 'Kil'n People') (:-)} -- Of course, I find it encouraging that we are hearing about this process. Our only hope is that a large number of CIA and military officers remember that they went to school with us, married our sisters, watched the same anti-authority movies and share some of the same dreams of freedom. If so, we stand a chance Thrive and happy new year, folks! With cordial regards, David Brin www.davidbrin.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: gnat cams!
In a message dated 12/30/2003 9:53:56 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: So much for a prop beloved of sci-fi authors such as Neal Stephenson (in 'The Diamond Age') and David Brin (in 'Kil'n People') (:-)} Ya left out movies such as Fifth Element, or even the more natural supernatural route in Bedazzled. (The original, not the drek.) William Taylor I was about to erase this email as a spam for great gams. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: gnat cams!
d.brin wrote: So much for a prop beloved of sci-fi authors such as Neal Stephenson (in 'The Diamond Age') and David Brin (in 'Kil'n People') (:-)} And Greg Egan in Quarantine. But I wouldn't give up hope quite yet. I'll bet the thing didn't have an on board microprocessor... -- Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
