ladynox25 | (no subject)

An article on the recovery and analysis of the Genesis probe left me laughing at the following:

Some of the containers hold as many as 96 pieces of the wafers, which are composed of silicone, gold on sapphire and geranium.

Geranium? They were sending *flowers* into space? Or maybe they meant germanium?

Also, for

eftychia, who said not too long ago:

Last night as I was drifting off to sleep I was wondering whether they could use ground-penetrating radar to get a better idea what a volcano (specifically Mt. St. Helen's) was doing. Since I hadn't heard of anyone doing that, my guess was that it only works through soil, not rock. Now that I'm up I can hit Google to find out.

And to which I replied:

Would you *really* want to volunteer to drag a GPR thingy across the top of a smoking volcano that might just erupt in a minute or two? Not to mention the earthquakes might shake your apparatus up a bit.

I do apologize, as it seems I was mistaken. According to this, they *did* use GPR on Mt. St. Helens, and they can now do it remotely, without risking volcanologists.

Finally, police are looking for the guy who shot up Siegfried & Roy's house September 21. Apparently, the suspect is a former NFL place-kicker. I just want to know, what did he have against Siegfried & Roy?

Threaded | Flat

Well, there is a rumor (widely accepted) that Siegfried & Roy are lovers. I suspect homophobia may be at play here.

Especially since the accused lost his career as an NFL place-kicker because he failed miserably by missing critical kicks in his last season.

I do apologize, as it seems I was mistaken. According to this, they *did* use GPS on Mt. St. Helens, and they can now do it remotely, without risking volcanologists.

Well, there is -some- risk, since they have to get the gadgetry up there in the first place, but once the equipment's on the lava dome they can monitor things from a safe distance. Except when it erupts right under the gadget, anyway. Then they have to go install a new gadget.

*ahem* I think you should have been referring to _GPR_ if you thought about radar; GPS is the positioning system, which is something entirely different. (Not that you can't use it as a complement, but it's not a radar device. Radio, yes. Radar, no.)

Very few GPR systems can be used from a distance. (My father has made antennas that can detect the snow thickness from a low height, but it would probably be very different for rocks, and you wouldn't want to fly directly above a volcano, anyway.)

I don't get it. We can build CIA Predator drones that can pursue, target and destroy a moving vehicle, but we can't build a drone that can just fly back and forth above a random piece of geography? And we can build and operate roving vehicles that can move across the surface of another planet, but we can't have a rover trundle out across the lava dome a few miels away to take a ground reading?

Sounds like someone isn't trying hard enough.

I suspect they should have said silicon, not silicone too.

Apparently, the suspect is a former NFL place-kicker. I just want to know, what did he have against Siegfried & Roy?

Maybe his team got it's ass kicked at some point by the Bengals?