Apollo 13

[BigJon]

A cannonball is an unguided missile, and they've been hitting targets and sinking ships for hundreds of years.

Huh? Artillery men calculating gravity against relatively immobile targets is in no way analogous to an unguided anti-aircraft missile. Your analogy sucks, as do box formations . . .

[analog]

1.25 kiloton? What a waste of good plutonium - since you're going to explode a critical mass anyway, go for at least a megaton. Get some bang for that buck.
a.

[Shapley]

Huh? Artillery men calculating gravity against relatively immobile targets is in no way analogous to an unguided anti-aircraft missile. Your analogy sucks, as do box formations . . .

Cannonballs were fired from the pitching decks of moving woodens ships towards the pitching hulls of moving wooden ships some distance away. The calculations made by artillerymen would not be unlike the calculations made by pilots who launch unguided missiles towards moving objects. The speeds would be different, and aircraft can move in three dimensions as opposed to (more or less) only two, but then again, calculators and computers exist to aid in those calculations, which were not available to the artillery crews aboard Napoleonic era sailing ships.

Not to mention that a cannonball requires a direct hit, a nuclear weapon does not.

[DavidS]

....calculators and computers exist to aid in those calculations, which were not available to the artillery crews aboard Napoleonic era sailing ships...

Haven't artillery firing tables been in use since about Newton's times? Not as fast as computers, but pretty accurate.

[Haggis@wk]

....calculators and computers exist to aid in those calculations, which were not available to the artillery crews aboard Napoleonic era sailing ships...

Haven't artillery firing tables been in use since about Newton's times? Not as fast as computers, but pretty accurate.

Naval gunfire was always more hope than science. It wasn't until the 70s when we put computers on the battleships' big guns that they had any sort of accuracy and by then the only available targets were on land. Drones and GPS additionally aided the U.S.S. Missouri’s shelling duing the first Gulf War.

That was the most accurate naval gunfire in history; alas it was the epitaph for the 16-inchers. They were done in because of their accuracy. If you can hit a target with that kind of accuracy then why use a 16-inch monster when a 5-inch will do?

[dai bread]

Move over, NASA. There's a new kid on the block.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/ne ... _id=108315

[jamiebk]

NASA could use a little competition. Good luck. Brings back memories of years ago when I used to build and launch rockets with my son. They didn't quite reach space, but he was thrilled just to see them whoosh into the sky.

[dai bread]

The launch eventually went successfully after a glitch with a coupling was fixed.

No-one has said who paid for all this, but there's some serious money around if they can afford to fly a helicopter to pick up a $6 part.

[piqaboo]

Sometimes its cheaper to send the whirlybird than to miss the launch, even if there isnt enough money to pay for the whirlybird.
These launch things are big deals!

[Shapley]

Mysterious Spiral UFO Stuns Norwegians

Update: Apparently that has been identfied as an errant Russian Missile, although Russia initially denied that any missile launch.

[Haggis@wk]

Obama aims to ax moon mission

India plans manned space mission in 2016


As I've said frequently, man will go into space, the only thing in doubt is whether he will speak any English

[piqaboo]

I've been debating for 2 years now whether Altoid should learn Mandarin or Hindi.
I chose Mandarin because it seemed more-differenter than English, tho it was a close thing.
For financial success, it will be one of the indian languages.

[analog]

I've been debating for 2 years now whether Altoid should learn Mandarin or Hindi.
I chose Mandarin because it seemed more-differenter than English, tho it was a close thing.
For financial success, it will be one of the indian languages.

hmmm ....... doesn't 'Siddhartha" translate to 'achieve wealth' ?

a.

[DavidS]

Obama aims to ax moon mission

India plans manned space mission in 2016


As I've said frequently, man will go into space, the only thing in doubt is whether he will speak any English

I think we may all rest assured that any Indian activity in space will be in English.

[piqaboo]

Yes, I'm sure it will.

Recently I've been wishing we'd named Altoid "Uma".
Its a nice sounding name, short, sweet, goes well w the mandatory middle name,
and means something along the lines of "Energetic being", which tho we didnt know it at the time, would have been perfect.

[Haggis@wk]

Yes, I'm sure it will.

Recently I've been wishing we'd named Altoid "Uma".
Its a nice sounding name, short, sweet, goes well w the mandatory middle name,
and means something along the lines of "Energetic being", which tho we didnt know it at the time, would have been perfect.

Dunno Piq, it sounds like a German grammatical device. "A uma is used to separate two guttural stops"

[piqaboo]

She'd be good at separating glottal stops.

[Giant Communist Robot]

I've been debating for 2 years now whether Altoid should learn Mandarin or Hindi.
I chose Mandarin because it seemed more-differenter than English, tho it was a close thing.
For financial success, it will be one of the indian languages.

There's an interesting observation. India's population will soon excede China's; they can't all be doctors and engineers and will need manufacturing, too.

[dai bread]

Mandarin is probably the better choice. As far as I know, English is still an official language in India and is likely to remain so. In China, English was the language of hairy barbarians, so wasn't common until recently. Bearing in mind the size of the place, I'd say it's still not common.

[DavidS]

Mandarin is probably the better choice. As far as I know, English is still an official language in India and is likely to remain so. In China, English was the language of hairy barbarians, so wasn't common until recently. Bearing in mind the size of the place, I'd say it's still not common.

As far as I know, English is now being taught increasingly widely in Chinese schools; if they have perceived a need for it, maybe it's a matter of time until English becomes more common there.