Posts Made By: jess tauber

Ok so I read the whole thread. Gulp!

At least religions evolve (despite protestations to the contrary), new ones come in, others die out.

Just be glad it isn't adherents of the old Aztec or Mayan rites who are up in arms- their reactions to insults might be even a little harder to swallow, given they might be more likely to wear YOUR heart on their sleeve than their own!

I think its easier to be tolerant of other's beliefs when your teacher hasn't made your own or your loved-ones' entry into paradise contingent on offensive or defensive play against the other guys' teams. Compound this with belief that your own day to day well being depends on the good will of the whatsit upstairs, and add in a good dose of general economic hardship that demonstrates one's just deserts up or down the pecking order. Voila! A recipe for widespread unhappiness.

And EVERY major religion I've ever heard of exploits such notions.

Personally, given the scope and nature of the actual physical universe we so love, I've slowly come to the conclusion that life-as-we-know it is not some anthropic necessity, but rather an unintended consequence. I wouldn't be surprised if whatever creator there be (if any) was hardly aware of our existance at all, and rather less than concerned if so.

Wouldn't that be a kick in the head?

Of course that leaves plenty of room for beings of lesser omniscience or omnipotence to come around an play with our heads. Boredom breeds contempt. And idle hands...

Jess Tauber

Hi. I've read that Mak corrector thickness is the main reason Mak type scopes (of whatever configuration) take so long to equilibrate temperature-wise, and that this can be an issue for the largest ones, especially if temperatures vary significantly during an evening.

I've been looking into making relatively thin, lightweight gradient index optics, and correctors (for Maks as well as others) were one of the earliest astro applications suggested for gradient index techniques (back in the early '70's at least). If successful, thin Mak correctors might go some way towards obviating temperature equilibration problems.

Since I'm new at this, I don't have all the facts (primarily I'm looking at fabrication techniques, and am not that familiar yet with optics particulars).

Are Mak correctors simple one-piece affairs, or are they doublets or triplets to correct for chromatic aberration? Or does the corrector shape eliminate relevant aberration?

Thanks.
Jess Tauber

Another hare-brained scheme: Yeah, I got your rigid mirror RIGHT HERE.....

Say if someone were to develop an easily malleable high reflectivity material which had low surface texture, low oxidation (perhaps by mixing with antioxidant), etc. Perhaps something like a gallium alloy 'plus'. Rigidifies to a good degree cold (but doesn't crystallize at normal temperatures astronomers encounter on the ground).

Spin to figure, like liquid mercury mirrors, or glass at Arizona. Bada bing.

Over time figure might degrade by sagging, but if easy enough to do, just spin up before use?

Anyone out there played with anything like this?

Jess Tauber

Alright, this one is totally looney-tunes- laugh yourself to death for all I care.

Anyone know whether there is any work showing that photons can hop intervening matter (rather than just fermions)? ATM relevance? Getting past exit pupil restrictions.

If one could 'trick' light into reassembling, as it were, inside your eye rather than having to bother with your pupil, one might be able to get a more camera-quality view. Of course things being the way they are you're probably more than likely to get a lethal dose of hard radiation while you're at it, or inadvertantly open up a wormhole onto another warlike civiliazation or some such.

Anyway, does anyone know of anything remotely resembling what I'm suggesting here? Thanks again to my loyal fan base.

Jess Tauber

Whew! Don Knotts had a long productive life, kudos to him.

Given your avatar, I thought perhaps that you were announcing that the purple dinosaur had become extinct!

Jess Tauber

Have you read the latest that 'Da Vinci Code' author Dan Brown is being sued by the Knights Templars for lifting their idea after they stole it fair and square from the ruins of the Temple in Jerusalem? Just kidding, about the particulars, that is.

Jess Tauber

In the old Russell Porter ATM days people made mount-axis focusers (and may still for all I know, though uncommonly).

Has this ever been done for Maks?

Jess Tauber

Hydrogen, the basic stuff out of which stars create all the building blocks of life, including amino and nucleic acids, sugars, and fats, has been found by a NASA research team to be found pretty much everywhere. "We were stunned to find that the concentrations of this gas were increased in the vicinity of the several billion stars we were looking at. In fact there is evidence that this concentration goes through the roof as one gets even closer to the stars in question, which raises the possibility that life might be found within those stars.." said Kwaamie Optimystiq, the team spokesperson, who spokes with us from the Hiddin Ames Research Center.

It has long been known that hydrogen is converted in stars to higher elements, in a process known as confusion. First hydrogen is converted to Judaism, then to Christianity, and finally to Islam, from which it then jumps to an apo-state which allows the creation of life-bearing elements (such as carbon, Oxygen, and the We- network for Women) without the need for an I.D.

Because this process is self-cattlizing it is thought that nucleic acid replication must start here. "We aren't sure exactly how it happens, but we speculate that there must be some sort of cooling-off period after a big blow-out", he said. He also added that probably a lot of other stuff happened in between, but that wasn't as important as getting their grant renewed.

The implications of the lab's research findings are truly staggered. "If even one of the planets which might circle these heavily hydrogen-concentrated stars has life, there is a very high probability that it too, will contain hydrogen and the other elements which are formed from it."

The team will summarize their findings later this month and present them at the upcoming USA-Today Conference on the Origins of Complex Explanations.

Just kidding (I hope...). But just check out what is happening to the NASA science budget (so we can still do the whole cowboy Mars rodeo thing using live actors). I dunno whether the shuttle program rescue includes saving the Hubble, but I doubt it (maybe they need it for the orbital Star Wars platforms that Gary Seven was supposed to have taken out back in 1968 when William Shatner was still alive).

People seem to be more captivated by animations anyway, though, than the really dull live footage from four minute missions (like on Titan). In a couple of years digital technology will get to the point (there already?) where we can't tell the difference anyhow. Capricorn I anybody?

Besides, who needs science? We have A.D., I.D., and E.D. (the last referring to problems getting the shuttle up...)

At least it will be good to know that with all the money we pumped into their economy, that the Iraqis, when they stop killing each other, that is, will be able to start their own major space program. Some of the scientists (young and old) that we let go of can then resume their careers- in BAGHDAD.

Of course, then the Israelis will have to up the ante, and then we will start seeing celestial suicide bombings from Al Qaedanauts. And it was so nice and quiet up there.....

Q.E.D.

See what I mean- its not enough (newspieces sprouting about here and there- can I say SPACE.com here??) that magnetic field lines cause a nebula positioned over the rotating supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy to distort into a double stranded helical configuation, all the news pieces are grabbing readers with DNA as a hook. So what are we to presume, before we actually read the bait and switch??

Add to this the fact that the announcers are claiming nobody had ever seen such spiral structures before (which is bull- just take a good look at numerous star clusters all over the place and follow the star squiggles). OOOH, LOOK AT MY UNIQUE RESEARCH, MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Guess people will do just about anything for their five minutes of fame on the Discovery Channel....

Jess Tauber