as discussed at lunch:
"Robert Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil centre stage as the cause of all commotion."
Continuing the museum theme... today's Wikipedia Picture of the Day.
This might be *the* ultimate test of the knowledge of Dutch... can you name any of them?
On the more ACT-like note: I wonder how the contemporary version would look like?
P.S. Yes, the proverbs are listed on Wikipedia and yes, lots of them involve herring.
The Robobee takes off without guide wires!
It is still powered via a wire, and the control is done with the help of a VICON system and on an external computer, but this still is an amazing feat!
The way they make this thing is just as impressive. The manufacturing technique is "pop-up book" folding, a method that has been developed by the same group and that allows a two dimensional monolithic MEMS structures to be easily assembled into a 3D structure. I actually put this as an item of the "Technology List 2020" on the wiki this morning.
Latest update: the European Space Agency says their experts "confirm there is no link between the meteor incidents in Russia and asteroid 2012DA14 flyby tonight". How did they find this?
As they did not see this one coming, how could they come to that conclusion that early!
As you can see from the videos of this meteorite it is coming in from an east to south-east direction (i.e. the direction of the sunrise, more or less). 2012DA14 is coming from due south as you can see here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/how-to-watch-asteroid-2012-da14/
So the two objects seem to be coming from different directions - at least that would be my explanation.
My point is, that if you want to come to such a conclusion (that it is not rubble) you need to be able to construct back the orbits of both objects. 2012DA14 has been observed for one year only, but it is well enough. When the meteor has been observed for the first time, such that we knew its orbit? has it been observed before? if yes, why the impact has not been predicted?
I don't think so. If both objects were part of the same, they would be on different but intersecting orbits anyway, hence different directions. Anyway, I am not knowledgeable in atmospheric entry ...
But, with so few information about the object, I am surprised they are 100% certain it is not related to DA14. I think science requires more cautions ... With only the direction they are 100% sure, while the probability of such event is itself extremely small, I am amazed... They can't even predict with 100% certainty where a space debris will fall... plus, nobody consider the object being part of a bigger one that broke up during early entry (which has not been observed) ... so many uncertainties and possible hypothesis...
and i am not the only one :) http://www.infowars.com/russian-meteor-linked-to-da14-asteroid/
was not that evident to me also but apparently with the right understanding it was quite clear; was amazed also how quickly NASA has published the likely trajectory of the russian object - have a look at it: quite evident that these are not coming from the same body
One more reason why we should be much more open about all these EO data we have ....
The two citizen scientists, Kian Jek and Robert Gagliano, are listed as authors on the scientific paper recently published. I love this: the digital nature of these data make it far, far easier to analyze the science than it was in the past, and also easier to get the data out to people. Because of this, we have an explosive growth in these kinds of projects. Planet Hunters is great, but then so is Galaxy Zoo, Moon Mappers, Ice Hunters, and so many others. You can find several of these collected at the CosmoQuest website.
More details in the linked pdf file.. a low pressurized tube with pods floating on air cushions together with EM propulsion and braking.. cool, but probably not going to be build any day soon
The point of this was that California is already planning to build a train line the would cost ten times more than this and be maybe one quarter of the speed. If the plan is actually feasible with the budget, this could very well have a chance...
A similar idea existed in Switzerland as well, it was called Swissmetro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissmetro) and intended to reach a ridiculously small top speed of about 500km/h. It had the same fate as Musk's idea will have soon: just a piece on the dump of history.
It would be great indeed, but even though the cost of the high speed train is a factor 10x higher, the prototype nature and hence relatively lower TRL of this system will probably not have it favoured. Best chance is that he develops a working prototype, one that might not even transport humans at the moment and for short distances, then maybe the project can take off
Actually, he was talking about a prototype:
"I am somewhat tempted to at least make a demonstration prototype," Musk said in a conference call with reporters on Monday. "Perhaps I'll create a sub-scale version that's operating, and then hand it over to somebody else."
"I think I'll probably end up doing that," he said.
http://allthingsd.com/20130812/elon-musk-will-likely-build-his-own-hyperloop-prototype/
don't get fooled, this is the same strategy employed successfully by the tabac industry: installing doubt - all under the cover of science of course and using its methods; remember all these publications showing the overall beneficial effects of smoking, the "un-clear" link to lung cancer etc ... same here
"Could you do this? Could a spinning human slow down the Earth? Theoretically, yes."
Let's all put our ice skates on and spin to enjoy a longer daytime !
Actually the length of a day fluctuates naturally. Some effects are periodic (e.g. due to seasons) while others accumulate to a general lengthening of the day (like the influence of tides): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluctuations_in_the_length_of_day
Basically quantum entanglement, or more accurately the dispersal and expansion of mixed quantum states, results in an apparent flow of time. Quantum information leaks out and the result is the move from a pure state (hot coffee) to a mixed state (cooled down) in which equilibrium is reached. Theoretically it is possible to get back to a pure state (coffee spontaneously heating up) but this statistical unlikelihood gives the appereance of irreversibility and hence a flow o time.
I think an interesting question is then: how much useful work can you extract from this system? (http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.2811) It should for macroscopic thermodynamic systems lead to the Carnot cycle, but on smaller scales it might be possible to formulate a more general expression. Anybody interested to look into it? Anna, Jo? :)
What you propose is called Maxwell's demon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) thermodynamics is VERY robust. I guess if you really only want to harness AND USE the energy in a microscopic system you might have some chance of beating Carnot. But any way of transferring harvested energy to a macroscopic system seems to be limited by it (AFAIK).