Has anyone heard what the plan is regarding the incoming tropical storm? Splashdown could be a great deal more exciting than anticipated.
Posts by randomengineer
11 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Sep 2012
What goes up, Musk come down... and up and down and up and down: NASA details followup Dragon pod trips to orbiting station
Remember that clinical trial, promoted by President Trump, of a possible COVID-19 cure? So, so, so many questions...
Saturday 28th March 2020 06:07 GMT
I'm not sure I even understand the point of this article other than some random writer taking yet another poorly considered shot at Trump. It makes little sense. If whatever the doctors are doing now isn't working then trying the treatment of quinine and z-pack and zinc possibly changing a certain negative outcome is worth the attempt. The notion that something isn't peer reviewed enough to be certain therefore it's unproven crap is nonsense in a world where people are dying NOW regardless and there isn't the luxury of time. For heaven's sake, try the treatment; if I (old enough to be at risk) am in the hospital dying on a ventilator and otherwise out of options, I'm not going to reject the attempt because some writer at El Reg doesn't reckon the attempt to be peer reviewed enough. Moreover, the very notion of freedom requires that we have agency, as in the right to request the treatment. It is not up to governors nor well intended officials nor all knowing superior writers with nothing at stake in my recovery. OK go ahead and downvote.
EmDrive? More like BS drive: Physics-defying space engine flunks out
Tuesday 29th May 2018 21:05 GMT
Re: The device is very light.
>>...the power supply is similar to that required to run a single family house hold...
thought experiment -- edison accidentally discovers a form of led light but it takes the energy needed to power new york city to light a closet. pronounced as useless and unscientific rubbish on the spot.
point is that nobody knows what's going on or how it works. not claiming that the final design will run on a phone battery but IF IT WORKS AT ALL then the understanding of it would result in vast improvement in efficiency.
First SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket lobs comms sat into orbit
Saturday 12th May 2018 06:06 GMT
>> I'd love to know exactly what legacy of the olden days makes 12ft the right diameter<<
Transport of stages, I think. Some will claim this is all due to pork-barrel politics and creation of jobs in various parts of the country; e.g. if you want congresscritter Smith to vote to allocate 'n' billion $ to NASA this vote will cost having facility 'x' in his/her district source the making of [insert subassembly.] On the other hand if a manufacturer already has expertise in [insert subassembly technology] and has a trained workforce already in place in say Utah then this is where the [subassembly] will need to be made unless you're willing to guarantee very very long term contracts. i.e. expedience, not necessarily pork barrels.
Newly spotted distant dwarf planet orbits the Sun every 700 years
We're doing SETI the wrong and long way around, say boffins
Wednesday 2nd March 2016 16:29 GMT
this is actually reasonable news. about time they started figuring out how to do the search stuff systematically. now that we are aware of how we can detect, apply that to the smaller count of stars we reckon can detect us with that level of tech. as the level of detection tech advances, widen/change the search accordingly. this resembles a rational plan. [apologies for not saying something funny/pithy.]
Bouncy bouncy: Comet probot Philae landed twice
Chips in spaaaaace: old tech is in
Error found in climate modelling: Too many droughts predicted
Friday 14th September 2012 23:14 GMT
Re: positive-feedbackitis
"In any-case the biggest problem is that cosmic rays show no trend in the past 50 years so they CANT possibly explain the warming in the late 20th century."
Simplistic.
Cosmic ray rates in and of themselves do not have to show a trend. Whatever can locally modulate them will do, or periodic changes in what they actually affect physically may change.
Fire a bowling ball at the pins every 30 seconds; never change this. Periodically alter the ball trajectory via obstacle placement, or periodically don't replace all of the pins. I guarantee that the pin knockdown count will be related to everything *but* the non-changing rate of firing the ball.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
