Faustus

After seperating from the delivery vehicle, and then upon entering the atmosphere it was moving about 12,500 mph inside its aeroshell. This is similar to the present Russian crew return modules from the space station to prevent it burning on entry into the atmosphere. Once the parachute opened the aeroshell was allowed to be jerked free and to separate and fall away. The parachute slowed the craft down to a speed at which the craft was close enough to settle the rest of the way down to the surface by retro-rockets. When the retro-rockets took over from the parachute its speed was about 90-kms or 200 mph. You may still be able to watch the entry being monitored at JPL on NASA TV linked from the first posting. There was a seven and a half minute one way delay in the signals (Earth to Mars) so they were following data streams that had to fit within certain parameters to measure progress rather than give commands once it left orbit. After leaving orbit it managed the landing from its own programs. There was a 6 and a half seconds execution delay (not sure in what function) later than planned so the lander went down range an extra 2,000 meters to the edge of the planned ellipse at the 10-oclock position. It rests only 1 degree out of level. The lander is in the summer daytime cycle in the Northern Hemisphere

This is an amazing PHOTO of the Phoenix Lander descending against the Martian background: NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander can be seen parachuting down to Mars, in this image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is the first time that a spacecraft has imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body. From a distance of about 310 km (193 miles) above the surface of the Red Planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its HiRISE obliquely toward Phoenix shortly after it opened its parachute while descending through the Martian atmosphere. The image reveals an apparent 10-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) parachute fully inflated. The bright pixels below the parachute show a dangling Phoenix. The image faintly detects the chords attaching the backshell and parachute. The surroundings look dark, but corresponds to the fully illuminated Martian surface, which is much darker than the parachute and backshell. Phoenix released its parachute at an altitude of about 12.6 kilometers (7.8 miles) and a velocity of 1.7 times the speed of sound. There is one situation on the ground: The Robot arm is entangled by the arm's shroud at the elbow; no problem reports ground control . . .

It is much easier to see a Jesus Christ as a Jewish response to a Caesar, than as a deified Caesar; Christ and his preaching is rather a response to an unacceptable system of control and taking (less still a civilizing force), thus giving rise to an extreme counter concept of genuine love and charity; a heretical schism to Judaism. It seems that at the remotest reaches of the Empire, Rome applied the harshest hand when rebellion or its possibility arose. This would seem to be the poorest ground for the deification of a Roman emperor to take root.

Jesus Christ, or first of all the need for such a figure as Jesus Christ (as a messiah) could be said to have flowed out of Caesar (as the first of the line of "Caesars") as the dominant figure of Rome. Without a Caesar, there might not have been a need for a Jesus Christ. There seems to have been a connection due to the spirit of the times in Judea, at the edge of the Roman Empire. I will go so far to say that much. Welcome to UNRV Lucius! Faustus

A . . . DANGEROUS TRADE GAME by The U.S. House. The House action (of not bringing the most recent trade agreement up for a vote) abruptly and unilaterally terminates . . . the pending free trade agreements with Panama and Korea, as well as Colombia, and . . . any remaining prospect for an early conclusion of the Doha Round in the World Trade Organization . . since the House action, the U.S. has lost all credibility. In other words, the "time out" proposed for trade policy by one of the major presidential candidates

Standing Tall With Colors and Standard To Honor The Fallen Give thanks to all who have given their lives in service to our great nation. A Day of Remembrance ~ Words and men I

Phoenix has landed and is in communications from Mars ! EDIT NOTE: Phoenix is fully deployed and sending back pictures by downlink. The landing is being re-run in the NASA TV cycle.

It seems that in ways, living conditions are key. People move around in comfort within climactic conditions they do well in, even to ever more extreme or dangerous conditions like the Nunavut into Eastern North America, or South Sea Islanders across the huge expanse of the Pacific, the Norse to Greenland and North America. They do best in their comfort zone; not to suggest, however that they don't become inventive and go a different way when opportunities arise. But if they are not hemmed in they will push the envelope for freedom of movement. The study of the global spread of modern humans has "Traditionally . . . been the preserve of anthropologists but geneticists are now starting to make an important contribution." It's like suddenly having a new and more complete view of these patterns.

Good point Gaius; I remember that well, and it was very, very painful! As of now we seem to know where it is closely enough that no adjustments are needed. The method of landing makes this a totally new type of effort. This will be the type of landing system used if and when human beings set foot on Mars. I don't believe it has been done using this system up to now, using retro-rockets all the way down to the surface. It is a direct descendant of the Lunar Landers of the Apollo missions, late 60's early 70's. The type of error which was the fatal flaw of the Mars Climate Orbiter, which overshot (or fell short of) its intended orbit is detailed HERE. Apparently these guys didn't want to talk with each other; a communications failure of Criticality One. Faustus

Phoenix landing at Mars Northern circumpolar regions NASA TV coverage starts at 6:00 PM EDT The landing of Phoenix on Mars is planned at 7:53 PM EDT / 23:53 Universal (Zulu) Time when a robot craft lands on Mars with retro-rockets. ~ The craft is 7 feet tall and 18

That is a very interesting observation, which I, for one, have never considered. There is a Gallo Roman Bathouse in a place called Samois Sur Seine, 60km south of Paris, which is stillfunctional. It has a shallow plunge bath which is stillintact and supplied by a spring. There is no algae at all, but I wonder if this is because of local maintainance workers with an array of chemicals to hand. Also, the bath has running water going through it at all times. However, I suspect it was probably the Tepidaria and the Calidaria, with their intermittant supplies of tepid and warm water, which probably had the algae. Maybe the Romans finished their baths in the Frigidarium because it was the part of the complex free of algae? A comparison to our local quarry holes might be considered. Some are quite small and some water infiltrates into the "system" from the porous limestone walls. Those stay pretty much algae free all summer long. Some which are fed only from direct precipitation are warmer and develop more of the algae. A green algae forms on mostly submerged horizontal surfaces. Foot trafic peels it off and it floats away, and can be lifted off the surface if attended to. Klingan mentioned the Stabian baths in Pompeii being fed for a very long time by a paternoster system. It seems I read that the underground drainage systems involved there and other places in Pompeii (and Herculaneum) haven't been investigated in their entirety as they remain buried. At the time more water may have filtered in and out than we now know of. Without infiltration/exfiltraton it seems a build up would have occured and would need to be removed as mentioned above. But all this disallows their having come up with a solution to minimize it like adding something like a mild form of copper sulfates to the water: "Usage of copper compounds [ . . . ] dates back to before 4000 BC. Copper sulphate for example was an especially important compound in early times. Ancient Egyptians used it as a mordant in their dyeing process. The compound was also used to make ointments and other such preparations. . . .Copper sulphate is still extensively used today and no harmful side effects of its prescribed use have been reported" This of course proves nothing; but they would've had good reason to utilize it in some practical ways if they had it in a mild form. Faustus

It is amazing that people fail to make the connection between unnecessary driving and added gasoline charges; better to blame the price of gasoline than cut back on unnecessary driving. Apparently it's not yet painful enough to cause them to seriously consider that option. Back in December there was a thread titled Gasoline Price Bet

Maybe . . . Those who are not self aware are transparent as it were . . . The Passionate State of Mind (Eric Hoffer)

Decimus - have you a link for this? NN, if I may: Astronomy Pictures Of the Day enter: NASA ARCHIVE APOD enter: APRIL 20 2008 APOD

Here's one site named "GREAT IRELAND in New England". It is at the very least interesting and adds something to this topic. There may be 'subjects' imbedded thus allowing a redirected search. Faustus

I wonder why that would be. It seems to me they are scapegoats, not for any crime against the public but for the inadequate policies of politicians. The Oil Companies are doing the hard work of providing the thing you need to fuel the engine of your desire. Profits of oil companies go to support the industry and into the accounts of shareholders. The fact that an oil company CEO earns $3 million or 30 million a year is irrelevant. Take away his 30 million and give it to 300 million US citizens so as to reduce their bill for one year would only provide them each with $ 00.10 for that whole year. All other earnings go to exploration, research and development, and investment in resources. If the management were being done by some bureaucrat in Washington, there is little doubt that 10-cents savings per individual citizen would result in nothing but a larger annual outlay for transportation costs for individual citizens and businesses as the "business interests" of the Oil Companies would languish. It

Consider: 30 years ago the US used about 18 million barrels of oil a day. Today the US uses about 18 million barrels of oil a day. Yet we are told we are doing nothing about our demand for oil. In 1978 US population was 222.6 million and in 2008 US population is 304.2 million, a 37 pct increase. Our demand for oil for all purposes is virtually the same for both situations. They can not be serious about CO2 emmision warming the planet and stopping nuclear energy in the same time. This is where Angela Merkel proved herself a pathetic politician. Inconsistencies like this do not matter. The people at Marble Hill in the PICTURE were carrying the flag of their religion: The No-Circle with cross hatch over two nuclear cooling towers. These true believers are first of all idealists, and idealists tend to not recognize practical limitations on their religion. Germany it's placing her economy at the mercy of sometime hostile neighbours and will pay the price of her extremist green idealism. We do the same here vis-

quote name='Kosmo' date='May 22 2008, 07:47 PM' post='84868'] The US consumption of oil per capita it's twice that of France without a significant gap in lifestyle. How about driving smaller cars with more efficient engines I believe the difference in those figures can be mostly credited to their use of nuclear power. As for the smaller gas efficient cars, that happens in the cities where many more people do a lot of stop and go city driving, but there's a lot of country outside the cities to move around in, and people here want larger cars for many good reasons. They are willing to pay for them and the fuel to provide the luxury of driving them. However people do like to complain, and the p.m. (popular media) exploits that day in and day out. They have a political interest in doing that, for we certainly get tired of being told how bad things are in the US. Consider some of the gasoline costs and the trivial amounts they translate into mentioned in the pilot post. and develop the efficiency of nuclear technologies that France has? In that regard the US Navy operates 103 reactor plants in 81 nuclear-powered ships, and has totally safely since 1955 starting with the USS Nautilus. Nuclear power presently provides upwards of 90% of electrical capacity in France. In the US the percentage is at 19% and no new plants have been built since the early 80s This plant at (Marble Hill), Indiana was slowed to a halt and never got beyond about 1/3rd completion, finally bankrupting the utility company, with the plant finally lying abandoned. Construction began in 1977 and by 1984, costs had skyrocketed and production was shut down. $7-$8 billion had been put into the project. The main problem with the project was the financing. Huge loans were taken out and the interest grew rapidly. Any delay cost millions of dollars, since more time literally meant more money. This was early in the "Green movement". By bringing lawsuit after lawsuit they have effectively stopped any new plants being built in this country, by slowing work and bringing it to a virtual halt individually and in general. In planning the waste burial site in Nevada, the objectors want signs to be made that will provide warniing placards that will inform people wandering by or doing mining operations nearby for a half million years. That can be a daunting project in communications. They are deadly serious. "does not kill me with a 7l/100 km incity consumption." Is that expression: 7 liters per 100 km? If so, doesn't that work out to only 14.3 km per liter? (couldn't be. . .) "The high oil prices are here to stay because the increase in demand and the throwing off of other technlogies. For example Germany, the greatest EU consumtion country, does not allow more nuclear power plants while the costs of coal power plants are huge because of ecological restrictions. This only means that the energy it's produced, whatever the means, elsewhere in neighbouring countries like Poland or Cehia." They are importing their energy and exporting their "pollution"; Similarly California does that here in the US. Both will pay for that down the line. California was beset by summertime electrical "brown-outs" in a huge way a few years back, and weather has been milder since. But those will be back and businesses will have to close. Those business will eventually move out of California (Nevada perhaps) where government is more responsible.

In view of the current oil company hearings in the US Congress Some thoughts and perspective: There are a couple of things we know for certain that will bring down the price of gasoline and gasoline related price increases: Increased supply of oil and gasoline Less demand for oil and gasoline Politicians (in their current dramatic high profile hearings in the US Senate and US House) admit that greater supply of oil (and energy) would bring down prices, while on the other hand diminished supply of oil (and energy) acts to raise the price American pay. Ten years ago US oil companies were making 10 cents a gallon on gasoline and are now making about 4 cents per gallon. For perspective US taxes on that gallon are more than 18 cents and state taxes are on average even more throughout the country. Virtually all of the profits US oil companies earn not paid as dividends to stockholders are reinvested in exploration, and for research and development of future energy capacity. This is not necessarily true of foreign oil companies either corporate or national in type. 30 years ago the US used about 18 million barrels of oil a day. Today the US uses about 18 million barrels of oil a day. Yet we are told we are doing nothing about our demand for oil. Since that time 30 years ago China and India have become huge in their demand for oil as their economies have come into global play. They will only become greater. China has almost all (92%) of their rivers dammed for hydro-electric power. When they are no longer able to tap that resource, or they decide the cost of damming rivers is too great as their capacity for river transport is lost, or seismic activity in that region raises questions about the efficacy of that source of power, as pools are drained to allow for repairs, their demand for oil will grow apace. Presently China is drilling for oil less than 90 miles from Miami, while we ban much such drilling. Both of their oil/energy needs will drastically increase and they will become more aggressive in pursuit of their own sources of oil. The high price of oil provides more capital for and encourages development of new energy sources and exploration, if not here in the US then outside the US. Some indications of the burden of high prices (among many others are) A one dollar increase in the price of gasoline will add $166.00 to the cost of 3,000 mile road trip vacation for an American family. (Is that prohibitive?) Shipping cost of freight in a tractor drawn Semi Trailer, capable of hauling more, but only loaded with 25,000 pounds driving 2,000 miles to deliver that freight, at 4 miles per gallon, with a fuel increase of $2.00 per gallon might increase the cost of shipping, if calculated proportionally, only by about four cents a pound; a 100-pound product about $4.00 for fuel alone. (One must consider how important getting that 100 lb delivery made is) Far more drastic: false starts in solutions like (American) government mandated and subsidized ethanol is resulting in food riots, hunger, death, and hardship overseas and even in this hemisphere by taking food grains off the market, decreased efficiency in fuel usage, and increases in air pollution. (not even taking into account the subsidies) Are any of the solutions of the recent (109th

How can I go further? I already gave up a C-Note rebate for a 69 buck purchase, and 1,000 green stamps in my first counter-offer. Sorry, I don't deal in air-miles. [Need a whole basement for my Pleasure Barge!] Careful that might mean your "Converstion Pit" would have to be moved. (Oh well that would reduce the risk of your stumblng into it after "medicating")

Welcome, Alphaeus to UNRV! It's fun to look around to see how everything works, and to do some searching. Jump in when you're ready. Faustus

Many roads were built in America with the horse drawn scraper and grader. The soil coud be broken up with an iron plough first. Oxen perhaps, being stronger than horses and less stubborn than mules, probably would've been used. These could be used in areas of the site amenable to such nicities. But a pick, shovel, and baskets to load into two wheeled carts was probably the mainstay. It is steady and productive. Here is a Roman excavation project In the East of England: draining the Fens and building canals which probably compare with their largest and suggests some labor possibilities: ( From Roman Britain by I. A. Richmond ) The rarity of application of the Roman system of field-planning is emphasized by the practice observable over many hundred thousands of acres in the Fenland. The Fens were drained by a series of wide canals, the most notable being the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire Car Dykes, the latter over seventy miles long. In conjunction with the rivers, which in many places followed different lines from those of today, these canals served both for drainage and for transport. As drains, they acted as catch-waters, trapping the flow from the adjacent uplands and keeping it out of the Fends; and they were also linked with a complicated series of minor cuts which drained the Fens them-selves. As canals, they linked the Fenland with the Witham at Lincoln, the Witham in turn being linked by means of the Fossdyke with the Trent. Access was thus obtained to the Humber and the Ouse, so that, as Stukely long ago remarked, it was possible to proceed by inland water-ways from the Fens to York. Stukely further perceived that the importance of this connection lay in the opportunity which it offered for the transport of the Fenland produce to military supply-depots. As for the labour required to make them, the works are situated in land immediately adjacent to the territory of the Iceni, and their construction belongs to the period just after the revolt of A.D. 61, which the Iceni had led. There can be little doubt that the conquered rebels were condemned to labor at the new works and were thereafter drafted to the new agricultural reserve thus created, working it upon terms much more favourable to Rome than to themselves. It might, then, be thought that the Romans would have imposed here their own system of field-planning. But when the new fields and farms made possible by the drainage are scrutinized . . . it becomes clear that, while the canals and the main roads across the area bear the systematic imprint of the Roman engineer, the farms, fields, and lanes are no less characteristically native. The conclusion is inevitable that the native

Humor In Politics ( doesn't have to be mean )

Populations of human wanderers will always follow abundant food supplies and will adapt. There seem to have been "waves" of these brave and resourceful early nomads down through the millennia. Perhaps at some point in the future, we can piece it all together with the help of DNA. The Nunavut, although of a different stock, should offer some clues about survival in the conditions of interest. Glaciologists, when pressed, admit they aren't entirely certain of the conditions during the last couple of glacial periods, always seeming to err on the side of more ice thickness in the caps than there may actually have been. HERE'S another interesting story (if you can get past the Atlantis mention)

How about a swap: a copy of my own work " - I Made $100 in Real Estate" for a copy of your "Monograph "? If you act quickly I'll include two of my latest: " - Tax Shelters for the Poor " and " - How to Convert your Family Room into a Garage " What say ye? Faustus