Starship Asterisk*

Hello, This weekend I ventured out to the tree farm with my family - my wife, baby girl and I, my folks, and my sister and her family - on our annual "Christmas tree hunt." It's something I've been a part of my whole life. I am especially excited this year as it is our daughter's first Chr...

I think this is an interesting but creepy robot.

Speaking of powering robots: who noticed the lack of solar panels on Curiosity at first glance? I didn't! I first noticed while reading about the LIBS system that solar panels would be insufficient to power the craft and all its equipment.

makc, interesting instrument! I'd never heard of a Balalaika. I started reading more about them. Get a load of this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Contrabassbalalaika.jpg/509px-Contrabassbalalaika.jpg I was stuck by the reaction of the audience in the video. I thought the ...

1. I love Star Trek, don't get me wrong. I enjoy the stories, the characters, even the "message." However there is very little real science involved in that franchise. I am not sure if it is the best "mascot" of sorts for future technologies. 1. I was being facetious. Are you re...

"So let me get this straight: you'd like to spend vast amounts of money on a mission - the success of which won't occur for many thousands of years - and you want to launch nuclear material to do it?!?" 1. Want to? No. I want to snap my fingers and get Star Trek technology. But baby steps...

...and I don't see any sort of political, social, or academic structure in place to fund or otherwise support something like that. I think even the idea of missions outside our solar system are a bit premature. I can just imagine trying to sell this (especially the "bomb ship," or in fact...

Nicely done..

Perhaps if the "test" contained a series of close-up images of each object instead of one cram-packed image..

Ann, I hope your mother is feeling better. Lucky she didn't get hurt in the fall. My grandmother lost her equilibrium in the last years of her life; she fell quite often (mainly because it was hard for her to accept her lack of independence). Falling can be very dangerous for the elderly. --- As for...

He and his compatriots did some amazing things. The world of computing would be very different (and probably fairly inaccessible to the masses) without the steps they took. I actually have his book on C programming: "The C Programming Language." It's kind of cool having a guide book writte...

I find this very interesting; I've noticed the same thing. Especially with the term "theory." It seems that many folks confuse the scientific application of the term with the more casual use in which theory is synonymous with guess or hypothesis. Perhaps it was a disservice of scientists i...

I am in the same boat; the only "big" one I get to see regularly is the Perseid shower in August. It's usually overcast here in November so I've never seen a Leonid shower..

owlice wrote:My point is that your question doesn't belong on a thread titled "My homage to Steve Jobs." Your post strikes me as churlish.

I apologize. I was thinking out loud; callousness or churlishness was not my intent.

owlice wrote:

Orca wrote:Where is the praise for Denis Richie?

Don't know, but I do know better than to look for it on a thread titled "My homage to Steve Jobs."

My point is that there are many folks who've contributed more yet are relatively unknown.

John, I can see what you're getting at. However, "high five" posts are certainly easy to recognize and scroll past, aren't they?




This thread is beautiful!





[Sorry, couldn't help it ]

Orin, as the garden season winds down, what do you do with your remaining plant materials? Compost them? Or chew them back up into the soil right there in the garden? At first glance it seems that if I do the latter the soil in my garden box will retain some of its nutrients.. The wrap-up on my gard...

*Admin, please remove post.*

We've been very lucky in the Northwest. In Portland we haven't had a day above 90 all summer; only a few days above the mid 80's. Granted, we don't usually get long stretches of days that are terribly hot; usually just a week in the 90's here and there.

Now bring back Pluto as a planet catagory that the Astronomy says it (Pluto) is not! I don't know what "Astronomy" is in this context. Pluto is still a "planet" as most people use the word, and still a "planet" to most astronomers. The IAU (which certainly has no offic...

We have a hydrangea plant in the front yard. It's doing great this year; it usually ends up shriveled and burnt but we've had such a cool wet spring and summer that it has escaped its normal fate. It is in full sun - on hot days it ends up getting damaged. Same with the vine maple next to it.

Is there an Aurelius crater? Marcus Aurelius was not an artist per say but people still read his writings to this day.

I'd also suggest Vonnegut crater, though he hasn't actually been gone that long..

I thought this was pretty cool. Father and son, at the first and last shuttle launch:
Regardless of my views of the manned space program, I have always wanted to see a shuttle launch and feel slight regret that I never will.

Are those giant "iPads" they are watching or monitors that rotate, partly off the side of the desk? It's fun to analyze old SciFi to observe how close (and how far off) the author's guesses at future technology turned out to be. For instance, 2001 involves bases on the moon. But then, it w...

I am happy to report that my garden box is doing well for the most part so far. The cherry tomato plant is taking off; it has green tomatoes on it already. The "standard" tomato plant was having problems at first but is getting much greener and more healthy. The zucchini plant is getting v...

But my point in speaking up in this thread was not to argue the case for putting humans on Mars, but rather to point out that it was a bit unfair to pick apart a few quotes from an article published elsewhere, without inviting rebuttal from the author of the article being picked apart. Rob I linked...