Kerwood Floyd

I just reread the relevant passage in my copy of 2001, and while the launch described does involve a track, there is no mention of the upward curve.

I suspect that the typical modern submarine hull shape represents the optimal trade-off between speed and interior volume. Admittedly, those factors aren't critical in every application, but the exceptions are probably pretty unusual.

"That's no moon!"

I would talk to Darwin and tell him first about the work of his contemporary, Mendel, and then the work of Thomas Hunt Morgan. No need to go any further than that. Just enough to give a solid modern genetics basis to Darwin's work.

Astronomers typically use the Latin (Roman) name of a planet when using it as a noun, but use the Greek name when forming adjectives. Saturn is the name of the Roman god, the Greek counterpart of Saturn is Cronus. So 'Kronocentric' just means 'centered on Saturn'. ninja'd

I first found this document on the web about 15 to 20 years ago. I bookmarked it at the time, but the link went dead shortly afterwards. This time I'm going to download it.

OK, thanks.

I think there might be some misunderstanding here. "eight to thirty" seems to me like a pretty unlikely range. Do you actually mean between 8 and 30 joules, or do you mean 830 or 8 x 1030?

Which makes me wonder whether, if the Soviets hadn't been so frickin' secretive, and had shared their experience with pure oxygen environments, NASA wouldn't have lost Grissom, Chaffee and White. I know, there's no way to answer that question, but I still have to wonder what might have been.

How long was it before news of Bondarenko's death and its manner was known in the West?

Look again more closely. I think the setting starts at 0.04, not at 0.4 (see the difference?). You want to move the slider to the right (as the instructions say), not to the left.

Following the link, the image is called 51-L_Clip_319.jpg. 51-L was the mission on which the Challenger was lost, so, yeah, I would guess it is indeed the nose of a space shuttle.

Sharpy: My understanding is that because of precession, the vernal equinox has not always been in Pisces. It used to be in Aries, hence the symbol. Or were you asking about something else?

UpGoer 5? What a silly name! Who would.... oh, never mind.

Thanks. So I guess I'll just have to be satisfied knowing it means something to Felipe. I'm glad the 2001 reference wasn't too obscure.