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Tuesday, March 30, 2004

The Lesson:

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and gathering them around him, he taught them saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are they who thirst justice. Blessed are you when persecuted. Blessed are you when you suffer. Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven...

Then Simon Peter said, 'Do we have to write this down?' And Andrew said, 'Are we supposed to know this?' And James said, 'Will we have a test on it?' And Phillip said, 'What if we don't know it?' And Bartholomew said, 'Do we have to turn this in?' And John said, 'The other disciples didn't have to learn this.' And Matthew said, 'When do we get out of here?' And Judas said, 'What does this have to do with the real life?'

Then one of the Pharisees present asked to see Jesus' Lesson plans and inquired of Jesus his terminal objectives in the cognitive domain... and Jesus wept.

Friday, March 12, 2004

Rocket Jones:
"Rene Descartes is finishing dinner in a small cafe when the waiter asks 'would you like desert?'

He answers ' I think not,' and disappears."

Saturday, March 06, 2004

Philip Greenspun's Weblog:: "A man goes to see Mel Gibson's new movie, The Passion, and is inspired to take his family to Israel to see the places where Jesus lived and died. While on vacation his mother-in-law dies.

An undertaker in Tel Aviv explains that they can ship the body home to Wisconsin at a cost of $10,000 or the mother-in-law could be buried in Israel for US$500.

The man says, 'We'll ship her home.'

The undertaker asks, 'Are you sure? That's an awfully big expense and we can do a very nice burial here.'

The man says, 'Look, 2000 years ago they buried a guy here and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can't take that chance.'"

Monday, March 01, 2004

Slashdot | Mounting Evidence for Water on Mars: jayrtfm
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Mounting Evidence for Water on Mars
Space
Science
Posted by michael on 05:52 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
from the BEM dept.
Kent Simon writes "Space.com has an interesting article discussing new evidence from the mars rovers that shows there may really be Water on Mars."

Click Here
Click Here



jayrtfm (148260)
jayrtfm
jslash@sophont.com
shown as `jslash' `at' `sophont.com'
http://www.sophont.com/
Karma: Excellent
photographer, multi-media A/V geek

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< Shadowbane Releases New Asian-Specific MMO Fork | CodeCon, Placebos, Fear, Yoyo-hacking, Dune, etc. >
Mounting Evidence for Water on Mars | Preferences | Top | 5 moderator points | 139 comments | Search Discussion
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Tell news (Score:5, Informative)
by quigonn (80360) Alter Relationship on 05:54 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427768)
(http://synflood.at/blog/)
Sorry, but the ESA orbiter showed this more than a month ago. NASA is just too late.
--
Du bist der Jackpot meines Lebens [tocotronix.de]
[ Reply to This | ]

Re:Tell news (Score:5, Funny)
by jolyonr (560227) Alter Relationship on 05:57 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427784)
(http://www.mways.co.uk/)
Yep, just like that other NASA falsehood that the Spirit rover dug the first artificial hole in Mars recently, when we know that the European Beagle lander did that late last year.

Jolyon
--


Power Corrupts. Sudden loss of Power Corrupts FAT32 Absolutely.
[ Reply to This | Parent | ]
o Re:Tell news by ColaMan (Score:3) 06:44 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
+ Re:Tell news by snake_dad (Score:1) 07:44 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
o Re:Tell news by Basje (Score:1) 08:15 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
* Re:Tell news by MoonFog (Score:3) 05:57 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
o Re:Tell news by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) 06:25 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
Re:Tell news (Score:4, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on 05:57 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427788)
Indeed. I submitted a story about the ESA's orbiter finding water on Mars months ago, but it was rejected. It's called "Not Discovered Here" syndrome.
[ Reply to This | Parent | ]
Re:Tell news (Score:4, Informative)
by quigonn (80360) Alter Relationship on 06:10 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427827)
(http://synflood.at/blog/)
And I wrote a little article in my weblog why ESA's mission is superior to NASA's mission:
http://synflood.at/blog/index.php?m=200401#90
--
Du bist der Jackpot meines Lebens [tocotronix.de]
[ Reply to This | Parent | ]
+ Re:Tell news by anandcp (Score:2) 06:19 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
# Re:Tell news by yiantsbro (Score:1) 08:16 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
# 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
Re:Tell news (Score:5, Insightful)
by mike3411 (558976) Alter Relationship on 06:48 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427913)
(http://www.cmu.edu/)
wow what a stupid post & argument. i dont mean to sound argumentative, but you provide almost no support for your conclusion that "ESA's mission is superior to NASA's mission". First let me say the ESA mission is important and useful. Remote mapping of the surface will help researcers understand martian geography, helping to locate points of interest, understanding weather paterns, and learning more about the geographic changes the planet may have undergone over the past few thousand years.

But the US mission is also very valuable. You ask "But what have they produced so far? A few snapshots and panorama pictures (which are nice, but well...), and some stone probes." which is really just silly. The photos the landers have taken are more than just panoramas of the scenary. While these do tell us more about the martian surface, the really imporant pictures are of the rock formations, close-ups of the surface sand and rock, and micrographs of all the material there at the surface. Seeing exactly what martian rock, pebbles, and sand looks like is very important for understanding the martian atmosphere & weather patterns, as well as geologic makeup and history.
to suggest that it's only taken a few is absurd... check out http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit. html for spirit's photos, http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportu nity.html for opportunity's.

the other tools on the rovers (see http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft_ surface_instru.html for details) are also very important. these tools will allow accurate analysis of collected samples. while an orbiter can determine chemical content to a degree, the detail pales in comparison to what the rovers are finding.

with all your unfounded critisism and palpable distaste for another country, I almost mistook you for an American! try not to be so prejudiced in the future, mmK?
--
Mod me down, and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
[ Reply to This | Parent | ]
# 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
+ Re:Tell news by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) 07:25 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
+ sorry, parent doesn't deserve +5. mod down! by bani (Score:1) 07:41 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
+ Re:Tell news by jabberjaw (Score:2) 08:00 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
o Re:Tell news by torpor (Score:2) 06:47 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
+ Re:Tell news by anandcp (Score:1) 06:55 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
* Mars Global Surveyer first by tjstork (Score:1) 07:28 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
o Re:Mars Global Surveyer first by Ralph Wiggam (Score:1) 08:03 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
+ 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
* 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

The spherules (Score:5, Interesting)
by corebreech (469871) Alter Relationship on 05:55 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427778)
I don't see what's mysterious about these at all. You have to remember that Mars has much less gravity than Earth, ergo, the amount of force required to displace a pebble is so much less. So while the atmosphere is thinner there than it is over here, it is still sufficiently dense to allow for substantial winds to develop; winds that displace these pebbles and cause them to move over the ground, and over time--millions and millions of years--this repeated displacement causes the tiny stones to become spheroid in shape. The end.


--
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on? [mnftiu.cc]
[ Reply to This | ]

* Re:The spherules by Kircle (Score:2) 06:09 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
Re:The spherules (Score:5, Informative)
by ahecht (567934) Alter Relationship on 06:57 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427936)
(http://www.zansstuff.com/)
Well, not quite, but it's nice to see that someone knows about what we were doing.

There have been at least two expeditions to the Arizona desert by NASA people to study dust devils, both run out of the University of Arizona. I had the opportunity to spend a month in the Arizona desert gathering data on the second trip.

I wouldn't say that NASA is particularly concerned about dust devils -- due to the lower gravity, dust devils on mars would be much weaker than those on earth, even if they are larger. Even on earth, dust devils post little threat. Some of the ones we studied were over 2 miles tall, and you could walk right through them with absolutely no danger. While the original trip was sponsored by the HEDS (Human Exploration and Developement of Space) funded Matador experiment to see if the dust devils posed any danger to human exploration, the primary concerns were over static electricity and dust getting into space suits.

What NASA is really interested in is how dust affect the geology of the planet. In the absense of water or strong winds, dust devils may in fact be the primary erosive force on Mars. During the first half of the 20th century, astronomers noticed that Mars changed color depending on the season, and this led them to beleive that there was rich vegetation on Mars. When the first orbiters and lander arrived, we learned that this wasn't quite true, but we still had no other solution. Now, scientists believe that is was dust devils, which are a seasonal occurance, that were actually reconfiguring the landscape of the planet. We have actually seen pictures of light colored planes that are crisscrossed by dark dust devil trails.

The problem is that very little is known about dust devils on Earth. I only know of one scientific paper published on the subject. While some of the work we did was trying to find out the proerties of dust devils, especially the electrostatic properties, to help create an accurate model for their formation on Mars, this was not really why we were there. The primary goal of the NASA researchers was to study the dust devils on earth in order to learn how to study them on Mars. We were mainly out there to test a set of instruments planned for Matador (including some far out stuff, like using a special UV camera to detect sparks caused by static electricity).

If anyone is interested, there is an article on the first trip at:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-atmosphere-01a .html [spacedaily.com]
and the second trip at:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/0 5/29_dust.html [berkeley.edu]
[ Reply to This | Parent | ]
Re:The spherules (Score:5, Informative)
by Anonymous Coward on 06:24 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427860)
From the little I remember from geology, wind blown (aeolian) sand grains are more likely to be angular, while grains move by water are rounded. This is one indicator used to distinguish the provenance of a sedimentary rock at outcrop.
[ Reply to This | Parent | ]
o Re:The spherules by corebreech (Score:3) 07:07 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
+ What is BB ? by Mr Europe (Score:1) 07:38 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
# Re:What is BB ? by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) 07:44 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
* Re:The spherules by mikerich (Score:2) 07:07 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
o Re:The spherules by rotciv86 (Score:2) 07:10 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
+ Re:The spherules by bdeclerc (Score:1) 07:32 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
# Re:The spherules by corebreech (Score:1) 07:39 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
* Re:The spherules by bdeclerc (Score:1) 07:54 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
o Re:The spherules by corebreech (Score:1) 08:18 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
# Re:The spherules by rotciv86 (Score:1) 07:45 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
* Re:The spherules by corebreech (Score:1) 07:56 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
# 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
* 2 replies beneath your current threshold.

Title a bit sexual? (Score:5, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward on 05:56 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427779)
"Evidence Mounts, But Scientists Remain Tight-Lipped"


Come on, somebody get that copywriter laid before he sublimates again.
[ Reply to This | ]

Great... (Score:5, Funny)
by Wiser87 (742455) Alter Relationship on 05:57 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427785)
Close-up photos of soil and rock have also shown thread-like features and even an oddly shaped object that looks like Rotini pasta.
Now I'm thirsty and hungry!
[ Reply to This | ]

* Re:Great... by CdBee (Score:1) 06:03 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
o Re:Great... by CdBee (Score:2) 06:31 AM -- Monday March 01 2004
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
by Bigman (12384) Alter Relationship on 06:17 AM -- Monday March 01 2004 (#8427845)
(http://ian.rolfe.com/ | Last Journal: 04:35 PM -- Friday February 13 2004)
Mmm and everyone knows that to cook pasta you need brine.

So the moon is made of cheese, and mars is made of pasta. I suppose that's why the earth is populated by carbonara based life forms..

*bom-chi*

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