Posts by kwg06516

US-Russia Soyuz 'nauts STUCK IN SPACE after ISS dock fail

Fawlty Spaceships

Don't mention the War!

Milky Way 'POPS PILLS and SNORTS GAS', insist boffins

Re: Ambiguos biguos! Que...

These things are usually discussed in terms of mass. 2 million solar diameters would make it only 2.8x10^15 meters. A lightyear is 9.5x10^15 meters. We can't resolve an image of something that small at galactic distances unless it's many ly across. For comparison the Pillars of Creation are only 4 ly tall and they're right next door at 7,000 ly and it takes the Hubble to see that.

Alien planet is just like EARTH - except for ONE tiny detail

Hey, Doolittle, I've got one!

An unstable planet. 85% probability of an unstable planet that'll probably go off its orbit and hit a star. Wanna go blow it up?

THE TRUTH about beaver arse milk in your cakes: There's nothing vanilla about vanilla

Have you got any?

he asked, expecting the answer No.

Vulture 2 spaceplane rises from the powdered nylon

Nylon powder smoke!

Don't breathe this.

(that's not even the right mask or the right way to use it)

You don't need phone lines or cable for ANYTHING, says Dish

Of course they can do it...

but can they deliver it at a price competitive with ground based services? I live in the States and I've been trying to get my mother off AOL dialup. AT&T runs the DSL racket in her area. New connections have not been available for over a year and cable is twice the cost of DSL. The satellite services I've looked at are both very expensive ($100/mo or more) and have very limited bandwidth (2GB per month). As long as they only target customers living off the grid they'll never be able compete.

Boffins spin a solid state qubit in a nucleus

Who watches those watching everything?

Am I the only one who thinks we are not socially ready for quantum computing?

I'm not scientist or a computer technician but everything I've read about quantum computers suggests a working model will be something like an electron microscope and an MRI machine. What I mean is that it will require extreme cold, a lot of energy, a dedicated staff of highly specialized operators and a building or two. In other words only those with the cash of governments, large corporations, major institutions and possibly organized crime and rogue states will be able to afford one. Which leaves all the rest of us at their mercy. Considering how well they've handed all the other responsibilities awarded to them by their largess can we really trust them with the ability to see everything?

Starlight-sifting boffins can now spot ALIEN LIFE LIGHT YEARS AWAY

No. No. No. No.

It is not the same number of seconds since the Big Bang everywhere. Time slows down as speed increases. There have been fewer seconds on Mercury and more on Mars in our own system, and AC and Sol are moving around the galaxy at different speeds, and some galaxies are moving hundreds of times faster than ours.

And the things at the beginning of 2001 were tapirs, not pigs, if that was your reference.

Boffins create quantum gas with temperature BELOW absolute zero

Re: "At the Black Mesa facility."

Ha Ha,

Fat chance!

Boffins build substrate for 'peel and stick' solar cells

Correction

The graphic says Si/SiO2. Shouldn't that be Ni/SiO2?

Newborn planets spotted slurping up gas from young parent star

450 million light years? That thing ain't readin' right.

That's not even in the room!

Bald? Looking old before your time? Don't panic, but you might DIE

You are now feeling your earlobes.

Tomb-raid boffins find golden hoard of the warrior Thracians

So they found...

snake headed bracelets, and a lost diadem?

Habitable HEAVY GRAVITY WORLD found just 42 light-years away

It could just as likely be an Earth sized moon orbiting a Neptune sized planet totaling 7 EM. Just don't expect to find any floating islands.

Scientist plans to catch Bigfoot with remote-control blimp

Somewhere deep in the primeval forests of the Northern Rockies...

...the jimmies are quietly rustling.

NASA working on faster-than-light drive capable of WARP TEN

Re: Barnard's Star, again?

Thanks for the advice. The likely historical answer is a hypothetical mission by the British Interplanetary Society which proposed to send a very expensive rocket powered by extraordinarily rare fuel to a dangerous flare star where rocky planets and life are unlikely. Sounds like an idea for a TV series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Daedalus

Barnard's Star, again?

Can anyone explain to an American the apparent popularity of Barnard's Star in British science fiction? It appears to me to pop up about as often as Alpha Centauri does in American sci-fi. It's odd since Alpha Cent is at least a vaguely Sun like star whereas Barnard's Star is a dim red dwarf too faint to be seen by the unaided eye.