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713 | My mother has been advised to have a bone scan performed? What is this
procedure for, and is it painful? She's been having leg and back pain
which her GP said was sciatica. Her oncologist listened to her symptoms
and said that it didn't sound like sciatica, and she should get a bone
scan. | 1 |
4,939 | hi all, Ive applied for the class of 93 at quite a number of schools (20)
and have gotten 13 rejects, 4 interviews and 3 no responses.
Any one know when the heck these people send out their acceptance letters?
According to the med school admissions book theyre supposed to send out
the number of their class in acceptances by mid March. Whats going on... I
am losing my sanity checking my mailbox every day.
Also does anyone have some useful alternatives in case i dont get in, i
kind of looked into Chiropractic and Podiatry but they really dont
interest me. Thanks.
| 1 |
978 | Has anyone ported RIPEM to the Amiga yet or is anyone working on it?
Emailed responses are fine.
| 1 |
1,568 | 1 | |
1,144 | Hi everybody!
Does anyone know of companies that are currently manufacturing
encryption chips for sale to the general public? Get them while you
can! Some pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks | 1 |
5,004 |
The SEI. Software Engineering Institute, a DoD funded part of Carnegie Mellon
University. You can read about part of it in Ed Yourdon's The Decline and
Fall of the American Programmer (Yourdon Press).
Just passing thru..... | 1 |
4,749 | Does anyone know of any studies done on the long-term health effects of a
man's vasectomy on his female partner?
I've seen plenty of study results about vasectomy's effects on men's health,
but what about women?
For example, might the wife of a vasectomized man become more at risk for,
say, cervical cancer? Adverse effects from sperm antibodies? Changes in the
vagina's pH? Yeast or bacterial infections?
Outside of study results, how about informed speculation?
Thanks in advance for your help! | 1 |
4,012 |
I can't see the need for a single (big? expensive? heavy?) "mothership" except
for Voyager style flyby missions. A few years ago, I did some calculations on a
"Grand Tour" space probe launched by a Saturn V in 1975-76. At the time,I felt
that
the idea of a big "mother ship" had some merit - the Voyagers had to be rather
small, lightweight craft due to the limitations imposed by using weak Titan
III/Centaur launchers. The concept I examined (and Michael's?) had a lot in
common with the British Interplanetary Society's Daedalus project for sending a
probe to Barnard's Star - i.e. a large "bus" spacecraft carrying several
smaller probes to be dispatched when the ship arrives at its destination.
The Saturn V supposedly would have been able to launch a 10-ton payload towards
Jupiter and beyond. The "bus" could have included far more powerful
cameras/telescopes/scientific equipment and a heavier/more powerful power
source than the Voyagers as there would be no limitations on weight anymore.
Extremely important as the Voyagers had to perform most of their measurements
within a couple of weeks before and after planetary encounter, and usually at a
relatively great distance.
---
The smaller probes carried aboard might have been based on the "real" Voyagers,
and an even smaller version like the one scheduled for launch towards Pluto in
the early 21st century, and would have been released at various points during
the mission. The advantages are obvious: the bus would have carried out the
same basic Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune mission than Voyager 2 did, but in
addition two "sub-probes" could have been relased at Saturn, examining
that planet's south polar regions before moving on to Pluto. This would have
enabled NASA to map both hemispheres of Pluto/Charon by 1986...and several
other probes could have examined parts of the Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus/Neptune
systems that weren't examined in great detail by the Voyagers due to
trajectory-related factors. A small "swarm" of camera-equipped miniature space
probes released a month before encounter would have been too costly for a
small Voyager-type mission but entirely feasible if launched from a heavy,
well-equipped spacecraft. And would we have learned a lot more about the outer
planets! The reason why the Grand Tour was cancelled was lack of money, of
course.
MARCU$ | 1 |
4,547 | I am looking for some clarification on a subject that I am trying to find some
information on.
How is HSV-2 (Herpes) transmitted? I currently know that it can be transmitted
during inflammation but, what I am looking for is if it can be transmitted
during in other periods. Also, I want to know if you can be accurately tested
for it while you are not showing symtoms?
If you can help I would greatly appreciate it. | 1 |
6,036 |
Yeah, but who wants to start a pool on the first person arrested
mistakenly and has their life turned upside-down because some law
enforcement agency *does* make a chip::person association?
I wonder if there are any plans to keep these records (e.g. encode the
serial number into the UPC scanned at K-Mart along with the credit
card info, voila.)
At least your phone number tends to only locate to your house or
whatever (i.e. to be coming from your telephone number the person
likely is in your house etc.), plus or minus some shenanigans of
course.
But I'd hate to think of these guys getting the clipper id, recording
the conversation, then doing a quick cross-lookup and your name comes
up as owner of that id (mistakenly, maybe you sold the phone at a
garage sale or the phone was stolen from your car or whatever.) They
might only know who one side of the conversation is, for example.
Anyone who thinks the govt is forbidden by law to cross-correlate such
databases loses two points. First, law enforcement agencies can of
course do this. Second, they're only forbidden from BUDGETING any
money for it. The IRS, for example, does do this anyhow. They just
don't spend any money on it so it's (technically) legal I guess.
Instead they probably trade little favors with companies like
mastercard (if you're the IRS I'll bet you have a *lot* of
opportunities to trade favors with major corps for their databases.)
I know, an IRS guy read an amazing list off to me (from his screen, I
could hear him typing to pull up each screen) once on the phone during
a dispute I had with them (to intimidate me, actually, not much of a
dispute, I didn't particularly disagree, but for some reason this
fellow wanted to play tough guy with me, I hope he's better now.)
Amazing stuff he had at his finger tips. Be afraid.
--
-Barry Shein | 1 |
1,531 |
Jonathan, interesting questions. Some wonder whether or not the moon could
have ever supported an atmosphere. I'd be interested in knowing what
our geology/environmental sciences friends think.
As for human tolerances, the best example of human endurance in terms
of altitude (i.e. low atmospheric pressure and lower oxygen partial pressure)
is in my opinion to the scaling of Mt. Everest without oxygen assistance.
This was accomplished by a team of mountaineers who trained at high
altitudes for quite awhile (I think a few months) and then were flown by
helicopter from that training altitude to the equivalent altitude on
Mount Everest, where they began the ascent of our planet's highest peak
without oxygen tanks. This is quite a feat of physiological endurance, because
if you or I tried to go to 20,000 feet and exert ourselves, we would probably
pass out, get altitude sick, and could even die from cerebral edema. So
this is the limit of low pressure. High pressure situations would be
limited by the duration of time which it takes to slowly acclimate to a higher
pressure. Skin divers would know alot about high pressure situations and
could tell you about how they safely make deep dives without getting the
bends. Some military experiments have put people under several atmospheres of
pressure (not sure what the high limit was because the papers aren't in
front of me). Usually at a certain point, the nitrogen in the air becomes
toxic to the body and you start acting idiotic. Divers call this nitrogen
narcosis. Those afflicted can do very dangerous and irrational things, like
taking off a diving mask and oxygen tank in order to talk to fish at 100 feet
under water. (Hope any diving folk can elaborate on this matter, as I
am not a diving expert).
Mars cannot support human life without pressurization because the atmosphere
is too thin (1/100 th our Earth's atmospheric density). In addition,
the Mars atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide. Basically, you would need a
pressure suit there, or you'd die from the low pressure. Interesting huh? | 1 |
1,759 |
You would be arrested as an international arms trafficker. | 1 |
5,368 | 1 | |
4,951 |
The principle underlying these devices is a well establish principle in
psychology called 'entrainment,' whereby external sensory stimuli
influence gross electrical patterns of brain function.
They are 'experimental' in that people experiment with them and they
are _not_ widely (if at all) used in medicine for therapeutic purposes.
Given the exception of TENS and similar units used for external electrical
stimulation, usually for pain relief, not really a light and sound machine.
They are _not_ experimental in the sense of a specific medical
category to that effect, as with experimental drugs, as the FDA does not
specifically regulate medical devices in the way it does pharmaceuticals.
There are few reliable studies of therapeutic or enhancement effects
for mind machines, other than those relaxation-related effects found with
meditation or self-hypnosis as well. Reported benefits are mostly anecdotal and
subjective so far, so it's hard to generalize about their potential value.
A pretty good general non-technical introduction to a wide variety
of these devices may be found in "Would the Buddha Wear a Walkman ?"
Some interesting background material, names of suppliers, and capsule reviews
of specific equipment.
A more important question might be whether they have enough additional
value to be worth investing in. 'Biofeedback' was found to be a legitimate
and reliable effect experimentally under certain conditions, (in that
it demonstrated that we can influence physiological processes previously
considered purely autonomic) but never panned out as a particularly valuable
therapeutic tool because of the skill level required and the subtlety and
temporary nature of the effects in most cases. Maybe someone else
has more, there used to be a whole mailing list devoted to mind machines,
somewhere on the net.
kind regards, | 1 |
7,213 | : In article <1993Apr29.121501@is.morgan.com>, jlieb@is.morgan.com (Jerry Liebelson) writes...
: > I want to know what weightlessness actually FEELS like. For example, is
: >there a constant sensation of falling?
Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) replied:
: Yes, weightlessness does feel like falling. It may feel strange at first,
: but the body does adjust. The feeling is not too different from that
: of sky diving.
I'm no astronaut, but I've flown in the KC-135 several times. I'll
tell you about my first flight.
At the on-set of weightlessness, my shoulders lifted and my spine
straightened. I felt a momentary panic, and my hands tried to grab
onto something (like the strap keeping me firmly against the floor)
to prevent me from falling; I remember conciously over-ruling my
involuntary motions. My ears felt (not heard) a rush and I could
feel fluid moving in my head (like when you get up from bed while
you have a cold).
At that point, I ceased to concentrate on my physiological response,
since I had some science to do. I was busy keeping my experiment
going and keeping track of all the parts during the "return" of
gravity and subsequent 1.8-G pull-out, so I didn't really pay
attention to physiology at that time.
After about 5 parabolas, I discovered that I was performing one
of the tricks I've discovered to keep myself from getting motion
sickness; I was keeping my head very still and moving very slowly
-- all except my hands and arms, which needed to be in rapid,
concious motion for my experiment. During the pull-out to
parabola 5, my queasiness finally started to get to me, and I
had to use one of those air-sickness bags. I was basically
useless for the rest of that flight, so I went to the seats in
the back of the plane while my partner (whom I drafted for just
this purpose) kept working on the experiment while I was ill.
(He was a vetran Vomit Comet rider, one of those anomalous
people who don't get sick on the thing.)
I didn't think of it as a "constant sensation of falling" so
much as like swimming in air. It's very close to the sensations
I feel when I'm scuba diving and I turn my head down and fins up.
Jerry:
: >And what is the motion sickness
: >that some astronauts occasionally experience?
Ron:
: It is the body's reaction to a strange environment. It appears to be
: induced partly to physical discomfort and part to mental distress.
: Some people are more prone to it than others, like some people are more
: prone to get sick on a roller coaster ride than others. The mental
: part is usually induced by a lack of clear indication of which way is
: up or down, ie: the Shuttle is normally oriented with its cargo bay
: pointed towards Earth, so the Earth (or ground) is "above" the head of
: the astronauts. About 50% of the astronauts experience some form of
: motion sickness, and NASA has done numerous tests in space to try to
: see how to keep the number of occurances down.
I'm a volunteer in JSC's Space Biomedical Laboratory where they do,
among other things, some of the tests Ron mentions. I was in one
called the Pre-flight Adaptation Trainer, which consisted of a chair on
a several-degree-of-freedom motion base with moving geometric visual
aids. The goal was to measure the victim's^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H subject's
responses and subjective physiological descriptions and see if repeated
exposure to this environment could reduce future motion sickness
symptoms.
Jerry --
I don't know of any former or active-duty astronauts who personally
read this group. I know that Bruce McCandless's office had been
waiting anxiously for the Space Station Redesign option I posted
last week, but I don't think Bruce reads the group himself.
-- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (713) 483-4368 | 1 |
3,307 |
Steve> Hmmm... given the error corrections in modern audio CDs, is
Steve> it sufficient to simply instruct your agent to decrypt using
Steve> the bit stream from the second cut of the latest Garth Brooks
Steve> CD, or are the usual number of bit errors found acceptable in
Steve> commercial CDs because of that error correction enough to
Steve> garble the message if such a method is used?
One unreliable data point: while looking over the shoulder of a
recording engineer, I decided that he was seeing a raw error rate of
about 1 in 1e6 on a CD ``master.'' Both the extrapolation to
mass-market CDs and my state of mind while doing the arithmetic (I was
waiting for him to finish so we could go get something to eat) are
questionable. | 1 |
6,670 | Hello!
I need a technique for separation of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN)
from the peripheral blood of mice. Because of the low PMN:Lymphocyte ratio
(approx. 20:80) it«s not just as easy as the corresponding technique used
with human blood.
Yours,
Per-Arne Melander
| 1 |
44 | Tom Clancy omitted these key steps to try to prevent groups of people from
building a nuclear bomb. However, he asserts that you can find these key
steps in any university library. The main point of _Five Minutes To Midnight_
is that it is impossible to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons,
since it has become easy to acquire the knowledge to build one, and fissible
materials are nearly impossible to control. Read this article, or better
yet, run to your library yourself and dig up some stuff on constructing a
nuclear weapon.
Doug Holland
| 1 |
1,826 |
It was implied in the first technical posting by Dorothy Denning that the
FBI would do the decryption *for* the law enforcement agencies. It wasn't
clear to me from the post whether this would be done in realtime or not, or
whether the FBI would just decrypt the session keys for the locals, or would
do the whole message.
One thing I'm a bit puzzled by: Why aren't they doing this with a public
key scheme of some sort? You could generate two uniqe public/private pairsor
for each chip. Then, escrow the private keys with the escrow agencies. Set
the protocol up to encrypt the session key with both public keys. To decrypt
a message, both escrow agencies (in the right order, for most PK schemes)
have to decrypt with the escrowed private key. This way, there wouldn't be
thecconcern that, once the police had asked fo a warrant/wiretap, they
would have your key forver. | 1 |
820 | I remember as a kid visiting my relatives on Kauai, and one of the things
that really frightened me was centipedes. I'd been told they were poisonous
and infrequently one would pop up and scare the heck out of me. Once
one came out of the vacuum cleaner and it seemed like it was at least a foot
long and moving at 35 miles an hour!
| 1 |
2,754 | :
: BUT, to say you're an atheist is to suggest you have PROOF there is NO GOD.
: To be a politically-correct skeptic, better to go with agnostic, like me! :)
:
As a self-proclaimed atheist my position is that I _believe_ that there is
no god. I don't claim to have any proof. I interpret the agnostic position
as having no beliefs about god's existence.
| 1 |
6,590 | Habital planets are also dependent on what kind of plant life can be grown..
and such.. Length of growing season (that is if you want something more than
VAT food, argh, Id ratehr eat an MRE for along period of time).
I know in Fairbanks (Furbanks to some) the winter can get to -60 or so F, but
in the summer can get to +90 and such.. I know of worse places..
Incans and Sherpa and other low pressure atmosphere and such are a limit in
human adaptability(someone mentioend that Incan woman must come to lower
elevations to have babies brought to term? true?) I remember a book by
Pourrnelle I think that delt with a planet was lower density air..
I wonder what the limit on the other end of atmospheres?
I am limiting to human needs and stresses and not alien possibilties..
Thou aliens might be more adapted to a totally alien to human environment, such
as the upper atmosphere of Jupiter or??
Almost makes bio-engineered life easy... | 1 |
7,371 | For some reasons we humans think that it is our place to control
everything. I doubt that space advertising is any worse than any other
kind advertising, but it will be a lot harder to escape, and is probably
the most blatant example yet of our disregard for the fact that we are
not in fact creaters of the universe. Annoying little species, aren't we?
| 1 |
2,750 | The Space Calendar is updated monthly and the latest copy is available
at ames.arc.nasa.gov in the /pub/SPACE/FAQ. Please send any updates or
corrections to Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov). Note that launch
dates are subject to change.
The following person made contributions to this month's calendar:
o Dennis Newkirk - Soyuz TM-18 Launch Date (Dec 1993).
=========================
SPACE CALENDAR
April 27, 1993
=========================
* indicates change from last month's calendar
April 1993
* Apr 29 - Astra 1C Ariane Launch
May 1993
May ?? - Advanced Photovoltaic Electronics Experiment (APEX) Pegasus Launch
May ?? - Radcal Scout Launch
May ?? - GPS/PMQ Delta II Launch
* May ?? - Commercial Experiment Transporter (COMET) Conestoga Launch
* May 01 - Astronomy Day
* May 01-2 - Iapetus/Saturn Eclipse
May 04 - Galileo Enters Asteroid Belt Again
May 04 - Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 21:00 UT, Solar Lon: 44.5 deg)
* May 13 - Air Force Titan 4 Launch
* May 18 - STS-57, Endeavour, European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA-1R)
* May 20 - 15th Anniversary, Pioneer Venus Orbiter Launch
May 21 - Partial Solar Eclipse, Visible from North America & Northern Europe
May 25 - Magellan, Aerobraking Begins
June 1993
Jun ?? - Temisat Meteor 2 Launch
Jun ?? - UHF-2 Atlas Launch
Jun ?? - NOAA-I Atlas Launch
Jun ?? - First Test Flight of the Delta Clipper (DC-X), Unmanned
Jun ?? - Hispasat 1B & Insat 2B Ariane Launch
Jun 04 - Lunar Eclipse, Visible from North America
Jun 14 - Sakigake, 2nd Earth Flyby (Japan)
Jun 22 - 15th Anniversary of Charon Discovery (Pluto's Moon) by Christy
Jun 30 - STS-51, Discovery, Advanced Communications Technology Satellite
July 1993
Jul ?? - MSTI-II Scout Launch
Jul ?? - Galaxy 4 Ariane Launch
Jul 01 - Soyuz Launch (Soviet)
Jul 08 - Soyuz Launch (Soviet)
Jul 14 - Soyuz TM-16 Landing (Soviet)
* Jul 20-21 - Iapetus/Saturn Eclipse
Jul 21 - Soyuz TM-17 Landing (Soviet)
Jul 28 - S. Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 19:00 UT,
Solar Longitude 125.8 degrees)
Jul 29 - NASA's 35th Birthday
August 1993
Aug ?? - ETS-VI (Engineering Test Satellite) H2 Launch (Japan)
Aug ?? - GEOS-J Launch
Aug ?? - Landsat 6 Launch
Aug ?? - ORBCOM FDM Pegasus Launch
* Aug 08 - 15th Anniversary, Pioneer Venus 2 Launch (Atmospheric Probes)
Aug 09 - Mars Observer, 4th Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-4)
Aug 12 - N. Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower (Maximum: 07:00 UT,
Solar Longitude 139.7 degrees)
Aug 12 - Perseid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 15:00 UT,
Solar Longitude 140.1 degrees)
Aug 24 - Mars Observer, Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI)
Aug 25 - STS-58, Columbia, Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS-2)
Aug 28 - Galileo, Asteroid Ida Flyby
September 1993
Sep ?? - SPOT-3 Ariane Launch
Sep ?? - Tubsat Launch
Sep ?? - Seastar Pegasus Launch
October 1993
Oct ?? - Intelsat 7 F1 Ariane Launch
Oct ?? - SLV-1 Pegasus Launch
Oct ?? - Telstar 4 Atlas Launch
Oct 01 - SeaWIFS Launch
Oct 22 - Orionid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 00:00 UT, Solar Longitude
208.7 degrees)
November 1993
Nov ?? - Solidaridad/MOP-3 Ariane Launch
Nov 03 - 20th Anniversary, Mariner 10 Launch (Mercury & Venus Flyby Mission)
Nov 03 - S. Taurid Meteor Shower
Nov 04 - Galileo Exits Asteroid Belt
Nov 06 - Mercury Transits Across the Sun, Visible from Asia, Australia, and
the South Pacific
* Nov 08 - Mars Observer, Mapping Orbit Established
Nov 10 - STS-60, Discovery, SPACEHAB-2
Nov 13 - Partial Solar Eclipse, Visible from Southern Hemisphere
Nov 15 - Wilhelm Herschel's 255th Birthday
Nov 17 - Leonids Meteor Shower (Maximum: 13:00 UT, Solar Longitude
235.3 degrees)
* Nov 22 - Mars Observer, Mapping Begins
Nov 28-29 - Total Lunar Eclipse, Visible from North America & South America
December 1993
Dec ?? - GOES-I Atlas Launch
Dec ?? - NATO 4B Delta Launch
Dec ?? - TOMS Pegasus Launch
Dec ?? - DirectTv 1 & Thiacom 1 Ariane Launch
Dec ?? - ISTP Wind Delta-2 Launch
Dec ?? - STEP-2 Pegasus Launch
* Dec ?? - Soyuz TM-18 Launch (Soviet)
Dec 02 - STS-61, Endeavour, Hubble Space Telescope Repair
Dec 04 - SPEKTR-R Launch (Soviet)
* Dec 05 - 20th Anniversary, Pioneer 10 Jupiter Flyby
Dec 08 - Mars Observer, Mars Equinox
Dec 14 - Geminids Meteor Shower (Maximum: 00:00 UT,
Solar Longitude 262.1 degrees)
Dec 20 - Mars Observer, Solar Conjunction Begins
Dec 23 - Ursids Meteor Shower (Maximum: 01:00 UT,
Solar Longitude 271.3 degrees)
January 1994
Jan 03 - Mars Observer, End of Solar Conjunction
Jan 24 - Clementine Titan IIG Launch (Lunar Orbiter, Asteroid Flyby Mission)
February 1994
Feb ?? - SFU Launch
Feb ?? - GMS-5 Launch
Feb 05 - 20th Anniversary, Mariner 10 Venus Flyby
Feb 08 - STS-62, Columbia, U.S. Microgravity Payload (USMP-2)
Feb 15 - Galileo's 430th Birthday
Feb 21 - Clementine, Lunar Orbit Insertion
Feb 25 - 25th Anniversary, Mariner 6 Launch (Mars Flyby Mission)
March 1994
Mar ?? - TC-2C Launch
Mar 05 - 15th Anniversary, Voyager 1 Jupiter flyby
Mar 14 - Albert Einstein's 115th Birthday
Mar 27 - 25th Anniversary, Mariner 7 Launch (Mars Flyby Mission)
Mar 29 - 20th Anniversary, Mariner 10, 1st Mercury Flyby
* Mar 31 - Galaxy 1R Delta 2 Launch | 1 |
737 | [some deleted]
One thing that seems ambiguous is whether a signal being echoed down from
geosynchronous orbit is "...from outside the United States."
Also, being able to assess whether NSA is playing by the rules requires
knowing what the rules are. We only know a subset. For those even more
suspicious, there could be other surveillance organizations "blacker"
than the NSA.
| 1 |
1,818 |
That was probably me.
I meant only that nobody has overreacted yet. It seemed to me that
Jerry was suggesting that people are currently overreacting, and I
vehemently disagree. I see a lot of talk, but not much action.
I see now that I misunderstood Jerry's position.
Not this bunch. They'll just bitch on the Net for a while, and
then go back to lurking.
Actually, it's not quite that bad, but it's close.
Look, we (collectively) have the power to throw the bums out, but we
don't use it. We clearly don't need to go burning things down, but we
clearly do need to throw at least some of the bums out.
Unfortunately, the bums have learned to target only small groups of
people at a single time, so the masses won't react and throw them out.
Eventually, the masses will react, unless the bums cease their
relentless encroachment on liberty and despoilment of the economy.
The sooner it happens, the less the damages will be. I don't want to
live in a war zone, either -- I want to see the bums thrown out before
they do some *real* damage. | 1 |
4,003 | (Book Review):
"THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION", by Dewey B. Larson, 1984, North
Pacific Publishers, Portland, Oregon, 456 pages, indexed,
hardcover.
"THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION" contains FINAL SOLUTIONS to
most ALL astrophysical mysteries.
This book is Volume III of a revised and enlarged
edition of "THE STRUCTURE OF THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE", 1959.
Volume I is "NOTHING BUT MOTION" (1979), and Volume II is
"THE BASIC PROPERTIES OF MATTER" (1988).
Most books and journal articles on the subject of
astrophysics are bristling with integrals, partial
differentials, and other FANCY MATHEMATICS. In this book, by
contrast, mathematics is conspicuous by its absence, except
for some relatively simple formulas imbedded in the text.
Larson emphasizes CONCEPTS and declares that mathematical
agreement with a theory does NOT guarantee its conceptual
validity.
Dewey B. Larson was a retired engineer with a Bachelor
of Science Degree in Engineering Science from Oregon State
University. He developed the Theory described in his books
while trying to find a way to MATHEMATICALLY CALCULATE the
properties of chemical compounds based ONLY on the elements
they contain.
"THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION" describes the astrophysical
portions of Larson's CONSISTENT, INTEGRATED, COMPREHENSIVE,
GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the physical universe, a kind of
"grand unified field theory" that orthodox physicists and
astro-physicists CLAIM to be looking for. It is built on two
postulates about the physical and mathematical nature of
space and time:
(1) The physical universe is composed ENTIRELY of ONE
component, MOTION, existing in THREE dimensions, in DISCRETE
units, and with two RECIPROCAL aspects, SPACE and TIME.
(2) The physical universe conforms to the relations of
ORDINARY COMMUTATIVE mathematics, its primary magnitudes are
ABSOLUTE, and its geometry is EUCLIDEAN.
From these two postulates, Larson was able to build a
COMPLETE theoretical universe, from photons and subatomic
particles to the giant elliptical galaxies, by combining the
concept of INWARD AND OUTWARD SCALAR MOTIONS with
translational, vibrational, rotational, and rotational-
vibrational motions. At each step in the development, he was
able to match parts of his theoretical universe with
corresponding parts in the real physical universe, including
EVEN THINGS NOT YET DISCOVERED. For example, in his 1959
book, he first predicted the existence of EXPLODING GALAXIES,
several years BEFORE astronomers started finding them. They
are a NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE of his comprehensive Theory. And
when quasars were discovered, he had a related explanation
ready for those also.
As a result of his theory, which he called "THE
RECIPROCAL SYSTEM", Larson TOTALLY REJECTED many of the
sacred doctrines of orthodox physicists and astrophysicists,
including black holes, neutron stars, degenerate matter,
quantum wave mechanics (as applied to atomic structure),
"nuclear" physics, general relativity, relativistic mass
increases, relativistic Doppler shifts, nuclear fusion in
stars, and the big bang, all of which he considered to be
nothing more than MATHEMATICAL FANTASIES. He was very
critical of the AD HOC assumptions, uncertainty principles,
solutions in principle, "no other way" declarations, etc.,
used to maintain them.
"THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION" is divided into 31 chapters.
It begins with a description of how galaxies are built from
the gravitational attraction between globular star clusters,
which are formed from intergalactic gas and dust clouds that
accumulate from the decay products of cosmic rays coming in
from the ANTI-MATTER HALF of the physical universe. (Galaxy
formation from the MYTHICAL "big bang" is a big mystery to
orthodox astronomers.) He then goes on to describe life
cycles of stars and how binary and multiple star systems and
solar systems result from Type I supernova explosions of
SINGLE stars.
Several chapters are devoted to quasars which, according
to Larson, are densely-packed clusters of stars that have
been ejected from the central bulges of exploding galaxies
and are actually traveling FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT
(although most of that speed is AWAY FROM US IN TIME).
Astronomers and astrophysicists who run up against
observations that contradict their theories would find
Larson's explanations quite valuable if considered with an
OPEN MIND. For example, they used to believe that GAMMA RAY
BURSTS originated from pulsars, which exist primarily in the
plane or central bulge of our galaxy. But the new gamma ray
telescope in earth orbit observed that the bursts come from
ALL DIRECTIONS UNIFORMLY and do NOT correspond with any
visible objects, (except for a few cases of directional
coincidence). Larson's explanation is that the gamma ray
bursts originate from SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS in the ANTI-MATTER
HALF of the physical universe, which Larson calls the "cosmic
sector". Because the anti-matter universe exists in a
RECIPROCAL RELATION to our material universe, with the speed
of light as the BOUNDARY between them, and has THREE
dimensions of time and ONLY ONE dimension of space, the
bursts can pop into our material universe ANYWHERE seemingly
at random.
Larson heavily quotes or paraphrases statements from
books, journal articles, and leading physicists and
astronomers. In this book, 351 of them are superscripted
with numbers identifying entries in the reference list at the
end of the book. For example, a quote from the book
"Astronomy: The Cosmic Journey", by William K. Hartmann,
says, "Our hopes of understanding all stars would brighten if
we could explain exactly how binary and multiple stars
form.... Unfortunately we cannot." Larson's book contains
LOGICAL CONSISTENT EXPLANATIONS of such mysteries that are
WORTHY OF SERIOUS CONSIDERATION by ALL physicists,
astronomers, and astrophysicists.
For more information, answers to your questions, etc.,
please consult my CITED SOURCES (Larson's BOOKS).
UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this
IMPORTANT Book Review is ENCOURAGED.
| 1 |
4,362 | 1 | |
1,006 | : WOULD WIRETAP CHIP BE COST-EFFECTIVE?
: SUMMARY: Compared to an average monthly phone bill of sixty dollars,
: wiretaps are only worth two cents a month to police. So the
: proposed wiretap chip must raise phone costs by less than one part
: in three thousand to be cost-effective.
Robin's calculation is interesting and important, even if it's off by
an order of magnitude (for example).
Even if hardware costs for the Clipper Chip phones were ZERO, the
protocol overhead in transmitting the escrow field would be much
higher than the 1 part in 3 thousand...it depends on the exact details
of the phone call length, protocol, etc. (shorter calls get a
proportionately greater hit).
However, I suspect most Americans will not find this line of reasoning
as persuasive as the analogies about escrowing keys to one's house
are.
-Tim May
| 1 |
2,835 | -*----
The millipede's around here (Austin) have no sting. Some of the
centipedes do. The question Rebecca Snyder asks is much like
asking "How venomous are snakes?" One either wants to ask "which
snake?" or point to some reference on the many different species
of snake. Similarly, there are many different species of
millipede and centipede. (These are different families;
millipedes have two pairs of legs per body segment, while
centipedes have but one pair.)
Sorry if this information is not useful. | 1 |
5,817 | I'm not sure if this will help you, but the (local) interstellar
radiation field has been measured and modeled by various groups. If I
remember things correctly, the models involved contributions from three
different BB sources, so there's no obvious "temperature" of background
radiation in our local area. However, the following references give the
interstellar radiation density as a function of wavelength, and you can
integrate and average in an appropriate manner to get an "effective"
temperature if you like:
Witt and Johnson (1973) Astrophys. J. 181, 363 - 368
Henry et al. (1980) Astrophys. J. 239, 859 - 866
Mathis et al. (1983) Astron. Astrophys. 128, 212 - 229
As you can see, the references are out of date, but they might get you
started.
Hope this helps, | 1 |
477 | Any rocky mountain spotted fever experts out there ?
The doctor thinks a friend might have this.
The question is, doesn't the tick have to bite you ?
You frequently find a tick crawling on you after a walk
in the woods around here, but you tend to notice it before
it bites you; pulling one out of your skin is something
you're not likely to forget.
Can you get the fever without it biting you ? Do they
sometimes bite you and then let go so you don't realize
you were bitten ? I know they will let go once they've had
their fill, but you certainly would notice this (arggh).
So how do you get the fever if you never pulled a tick
off yourself (as opposed to finding one merely crawling
on you) ? | 1 |
4,193 |
> Second question: Why!?!? Why is such a strange procedure used, and
>not a real RNG ? This turns those S1,S2 in a kind of bottleneck for
>system- security.
>> The only theory that makes any sense is that S1 and S2 are
>> either the same for all chips, or vary among very few
>> possibilities, so that anyone trying to break the encryption
>> by brute force need only plow through the possible serial
>> numbers (2^30, about one billion), multiplied by the number
>> of different S1, S2 combinations.
Suppose instead that S1 and S2 can be reconstructed given 3 or 4 of the
unit keys generated in a single batch (through some sort of known
plaintext attack, say). Suppose further that 3 or 4 of the chips
programmed in each session never find their way into commercial
products, but instead end up "elsewhere".
Suppose the folks at "elsewhere" can determine a unit key, given
physical access to one of these chips. Then those same folks can
determine S1 and S2 for the whole batch...
Too many suppositions? Yeah, probably. | 1 |
6,080 | Steve Bellovin writes a well-thought-out and nearly persuasive article about
why the Clipper (are we still calling it Clipper today, or have they figured
out a non-infringing word yet?) protocol is almost as good as one can do
given their marching ordes.
I'll accept the second assumption only for the sake of argument. In my
view the primary remaining flaw is that the encryption algorithm is
secret, leading to suspicion that there is a back door. Without complete
disclosure this suspicion cannot be dispelled, no matter how many trusted
experts are allowed to look at it in isolation.
Is it possible to do this whole thing with a public algorithm? The only
concern I've seen with making Skipjack public is that someone could build
Clipperphones without registering the keys. Assume F can really be kept
secret as the Government assumes. Then as part of the initial connection,
a Clipperphone executes a protocol with the Pseudophone to demonstrate
that they both know F. For example, the initiating phone picks a number Q
and sends E[Q; F]. The receiver sends back E[Q+1; F], and the initiator
sends back E[Q+2; F] to demonstrate that her first packet wasn't just a
random 64-bit block. Repeat in the opposite direction with another Q so
it can't be defeated by somebody building up a library of sequential
numbers by remembering responses and using those responses as the initial
numbers of subsequent challenges. This way Clipperphones will talk only
to other Clipperphones. Of course the Pseudo Company can build their own
proprietary Skipjack phone, but the Presidential Fact Sheet implies that
they won't get approval for it without equivalent key escrow.
What's wrong with this picture? It depends of F staying secret and on
Skipjack being resistant to cryptanalysis, but the Government appears to
believe in both of these. Even if the particular Q&A I suggest has some
flaw, I imagine there's a zero-knowledge-proof protocol that doesn't.
Agreed. My view, and you can quote me: if it's not worth doing, it's
not worth doing well. | 1 |
419 |
Nonsense! I wasn't asked if Larry O'Brien should trust Nixon with his keys,
but whether I would.
David | 1 |
7,131 | Well, I seem to have struck an interesting discussion off. Given that I
am not an astrophysicist or nuclear physicist, i'll have to boil it
down a bit.
1) ALl the data on bursts to date, shows a smooth random distribution.
2) that means they aren't concentrated in galactic cores, our or someone
elses.
3) If the distribution is smooth, we are either seeing some ENORMOUSLY
large phenomena scattered at the edge of the universe said phenomena
being subject to debate almost as vioent as the phenomena
OR
we are seeing some phenomena out at like the Oort cloud, but then it needs
some potent little energy source, that isn't detectable by any other
current methods.
4) we know it's not real close, like slightly extra solar, because
we have no parallax measurements on the bursts.
5) the bursts seem to bright to be something like black hole quanta or
super string impacts or something like that.
So everyone is watching the data and arguing like mad in the meanwhile.
what i am wondering, is this in people's opinion, A NEW Physics problem.
Einstein got well known for solvingthe photoelectric effect.
Copernicus, started looking at irregularities in planetary motion.
Is this a big enough problem, to create a new area of physics?
just a little speculative thinking folks. | 1 |
4,240 | I heard a short blurb on the news yesterday about an herb called feverfew (?)
that some say is good for preventing migraines. I think the news said there
were two double-blind studies that found this effective.
Does anyone know about these studies? Or have experience with feverfew?
I'm skeptical, but open to trying it if I can find out more about this.
What is feverfew, and how much would you take to prevent migraines (if
this is a good idea, that is)? Are there any known risks or side effects
of feverfew? | 1 |
3,580 | . . . David gives good explaination of the deductions from the isotropic,
'edged' distribution, to whit, they are either part of the Universe or
part of the Oort cloud.
Why couldn't they be Earth centred, with the edge occuring at the edge
of the gravisphere? I know there isn't any mechanism for them, but there
isn't a mechanism for the others either. | 1 |
3,724 |
Doing this in anything like reasonable time would require more
propulsion capability than we can manage. You would have to boost to
Pluto and then slow back down. You could do something like a Hohman
orbit, but I think that would take ridiculous amounts of time (my
Rubber Bible is at home).
--
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden | 1 |
5,276 |
Only if he doesn't spend more than a billion dollars doing it, since the
prize is not going to be scaled up to match the level of effort. You can
spend a billion pretty quickly buying Titan launches.
What's more, if you buy Titans, the prize money is your entire return on
investment. If you develop a new launch system, it has other uses, and
the prize is just the icing on the cake.
I doubt very much that a billion-dollar prize is going to show enough
return to justify the investment if you are constrained to use current
US launchers. (There would surely be a buy-American clause in the rules
for such a prize, since it would pretty well have to be government-funded.)
You're going to *have* to invest your front money in building a new launch
system rather than pissing it away on existing ones. Being there first is
of no importance if you go bankrupt doing it.
I'm sure Spar would offer to develop such a lunar-tuned system and deliver
a couple of them to you for only a couple of hundred million dollars. | 1 |
5,641 | About two years ago I posted the following:
I am planning to write a new book called "Great Canadian Scientists."
Please forward your nominations to me: shell@cs.sfu.ca
The rules are that the person must be a Canadian citizen. They don't have
to be born in Canada or even live in Canada, but they must have (or have
had, if they are dead) Canadian citizenship while they are/were great
Canadian scientists.
About 70 people have been nominated already and they are listed at the
end of this posting.
I'm not quite sure what should constitute greatness, and there may be a
gray area here. If you have any ideas on criteria for greatness, I would be
pleased to hear them. In any event, please nominate people even if you are
not sure they are great. I would like as big a list as possible.
Please give me a name and email address, phone number or mail address, so
that I can contact the person. If you don't know any of the above, then
give me their last known whereabouts. Also please give your reason for why
you think the person should be considered a great Canadian scientist.
After I have the list, I will choose about six of the most interesting ones
and do in-depth biographies of those individuals in the style of Tracy
Kidder's "Soul of a New Machine" or some other dramatic technique.
The rest of the great Canadian scientists will appear in an appedix with
one paragraph biographies.
If you have any other ideas about this project, I am interested to hear
them.
So far, I have received 68 nominations as follows:
First Name Last Name Nominator Famous For
---------- --------- --------- ----------
Sid Altman Kuszewski, John Catalytic RNA(Nobel Chem 89)
Frederick Banting me Insulin (Nobel U23 medicine)
Davidson Black Stanley, Robert Discovered Peking Man
James R. Bolton Warden, Joseph chemistry?
Raoul Bott Smith, Steven Math: algebraic topology.
Willard Boyle Chamm, Craig Co inventor of CCD
Gerard Bull Stanley, Robert Ballistics and gunnery
Dennis Chitty Galindo-Leal, Carlos First animal ecologist
Brian C. Conway Tellefsen, Karen Electrochemistry
Stephen Cook Mendelzon, Alberto NP-completeness, complexity
? Copp Kuch, Gerald biochem aspects of physiol
H.S.M. Coxeter Calkin, Neil J. Regular polytopes (math)
P. N. Daykin Palmer, Bill Chem, mosquito repellant
H. E. Duckworth anonymous Mass Spectroscopy, admin
Jack Edmonds Snoeyink, Jack Math, Operations research
Reginald Fessenden Johnsen, Hans Wire insulation, light bulb
Ursula Franklin McKellin, William Physics archeol. materials
J. A. Gray Gray, Tom Nuclear physics, The Gray
E. W. Guptill Chamm, Craig Slotted array radar
Donald Hebb Lyons, Michael Learning (Hebbian synapses)
Gerhard Herzberg me Optical spectr Nobel 71
James Hillier me Electron Microscope (Can/Am)
Crawford S. Holling Galindo-Leal, Carlos Ecology, predators and prey
David Hubel Lyons, Michael Visual cortex (Nobel med ?)
Kenneth Iverson Dare, Gary Invented APL
J. D. Jackson Austern, Matt Elementary Particle Theory
Andre Joyal Pananagden, Prakash Category theory, categ Logic
Martin Kamen me Carbon-14 (Canadian/Amer.)
Irving Kaplansky Knighten, Bob Algebra, functional analysis
George S. Kell Kell, Dave Hot water freezing
T. E. Kellogg Palmer, Bill Chem, mosquito repellant
Geraldine Kenney-Wallace Siegman, Anthony Chemistry ? Administration
Brian Kernaghan Brader, Mark C programming language
Michael L. Klein Marchi, Massimo Theoretical Chemistry
Charles J. Krebs Galindo-Leal, Carlos Ecology, Krebs effect
K. J. Laidler Tellefsen, Karen Chemical Kinetics
G. C. Laurence Palmer, Bill Physics ????
Raymond Lemieux Smith, Earl First synthesized glucose
Martin Levine Meunier, Robert Computer vision
Edward S. Lowry himself Computer programming
Pere Marie-Victorin Meunier, Robert Jardin Botanique de Montreal
Colin MacLeod Turner, Steven Nobel (?) DNA discovery?
Marshall McLuhan Clamen, Stewart Social sci, communications
Ben Morrison Willson, David Aurora Borealis
Lawrence Morley Strome, Murray Plate Tektonics/Remote sense
Farley Mowat Abbott, John Northern Animal rights?
Kevin Ogilvie Kendrick, Kelly Genetics, cure for herpes?
Sir William Osler Lyons, Michael Medicine
P.J.E. Peebles Vishniac, Ethan Most important cosmologist
Wilder Penfield Perri, Marie Anatomical basis for memory
John Polanyi me chemiluminescensce Nobel86
Denis Poussart Meunier, Robert Computer Vision
Anatol Rapoport Lloyd-Jones, David conflict theory, game theory
Howard Rapson Sutherland, Russell Pulp chemistry
Hans Selye Goel, Anil K. Psychology of stress.
William Stephenson Wilkins, Darin WW2 Enigma code, Wire photo
Boris Stoicheff Siegman, Anthony Raman Spectroscopy
David Suzuki Meister, Darren Science communication
Henry Taube Parker, Wiley Physical Chemistry Nobel83
Richard Taylor Manuel, John Verified Quark model Nobel90
David Thompson Eisler, Michael Mapped western Canada
Endel Tulving Green, Christopher Psychology of memory
Bill Tutte Royle, Gordon matroid theory (math)
I Uchida Palmer, Bill Down's syndrome
J. Tuzo Wilson Collier, John Continental Drift theory
R. H. Wright Palmer, Bill Chem, mosquito repellant
J.L.(Allen) Yen Leone, Pasquale VL baseline interferometry
Walter Zinn me Breader Reactor (Can/Amer.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The list is growing nicely. It's amazing to see just how much was discovered
by Canadians. Actually there are many more who were born in Canada, but
became Americans after graduate school.
Please note: a lot of people have nominated Alexander Graham Bell but I
feel he was really a Scottish/American with a summer home in Canada. Now
I know this is debatable, but please don't nominate him again.
If anyone can fill in some of the question marks on the list, please drop
me a line.
==================================================
That was two years ago. Since then, I have received a grant from Science
Culture Canada, a division of Supply and Services Canada to research the
book. Since my old posting the book has evolved into an educational book
for kids aged 9 - 14 (though this may change again) It will have about
40 two-page spreads with a large graphic in the middle and text/graphic
boxes all around on the following subjects: Vital statistics and photo of
the scientist, Personal statement from the scientist, Narrative of a few
moments in the life of the scientist, "What I was doing when I was 12",
So you want to be a <insert kind of scientist>, Experiment you can do. There
will be an appendix with 100 - 200 more scientists with one paragraph
biographies who didn't quite make it to the double spreads. The whole thing
will then be published on CD-ROM with video and sound clips for added
richness. I am looking for a CD-ROM publisher as well. The text part may
also be available on the CANARIE electronic highway being developed in
Canada as well.
I am still looking for a publisher though Penguin Canada came close
to being it. Hope to find one soon.
I would like to again ask for more nominations, especially in the
pure sciences of Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Also criticisms of
the list are welcomed. Also women and French-Canadian scientists are needed.
I hope this posting will get others to nominate more Great Canadian
Scientists, and to discuss what is "great" what is "Canadian" and what is
"scientist".
Please respond to:
shell@sfu.ca
or
Barry Shell 604-876-5790
4692 Quebec St. Vancouver, B.C. V5V 3M1 Canada | 1 |
4,705 | -| In article <1993Apr28.200843.83413@embl-heidelberg.de>, tuparev@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE (Georg Tuparev) writes...
-| >
-| >
-| >ANNOUNCEMENT: The "HyperKnowledge" PROJECT for NeXTSTEP
-|
-| I know this is kinda off the subject of sci.space, but not really, I want to
-| answer this for their, as well as everyone else's information. What these
-| people are proposing, by and large already exists and can be purchased today.
-|
-| It is called labview by National Instruments. IT is a wonderful object
-| IT is a wonderful object oriented graphical programming language.
-| [some lines deleted]
I am afraid you are mis-directed. NeXTSTEP is an operating system as opposed to
a package. I have read a little about it but since Steve Jobs does not seem to
have the marketing capabilities of Bill Gates my info. is limited. Probably why
the far inferior Windows NT is going to be more widely distributed (but that
is another flame-ridden story). Some of the innovative features of NeXTSTEP are
binary compatibility across platforms (eg you can just copy your program from
a Sparc to a PC and it would run, as opposed to buying the version of the package
ported to a PC), graphical object-oriented design (its all WSIWIG postscript),
supports parallel hetrogeneous processing, and best of all it is based around
the Mach micro-kernel so you can make it look like Unix with X, or DOS, or NT or
even VMS if you feel the need. No package out there comes even close. I hope
people will subscribe to the HyperKnowledge project and NeXTSTEP finally
takes off in my lifetime :-) | 1 |
4,978 | Okay, the earth has a magnetic field (unless someone missed something?)
Okay if you put a object in the earth magnetic field, it produces electricty..
Now the question. Can you use electricity to power a space/low earth orbit
vehicle? and i fyou can, can you use the magnetic field of the earth to power
it??
Can the idea of a "dragless" satellite be used in part to create the electrical
field?
After all the dragless satellite is (I might be wrong), a suspended between to
pilons, the the pilons compensate for drag.. I think I know what I want to say,
just not sure how to say it..
A dragless satellite sounds interestingly enough liek a generator.
==
Michael Adams, nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu -- I'm not high, just jacked | 1 |
3,920 | Gentlefolk,
It seems to me that the "Step 1" of taking a warrant to the
telco to get a wiretap is so much stinky red herring (don't
you love animal metaphors).
With each phone broadcasting the serial number of its chip
("E(N;F)" is not syntactically different than "N"), all they
have to do is aim a reciever in the general direction of
today's target and use the serial number to identify the
session they want, and get the chip number of the other end of
the conversation. Even without the key, this is great for
traffic analysis. I can think of several ways to learn the
right serial number.
It looks like one intended effect of the Clipper is to
eliminate the awkward business of getting the telco to
cooperate (or risking getting caught in the act with your
alligator clips erect). This is particularly handy if you have
S1 and S2.
BTW, did anyone explain why they are scrambling the serial
number?
Cheers,
Marc
---
Marc Thibault | marc@tanda.isis.org
Automation Architect | CIS:71441,2226
R.R.1, Oxford Mills, Ontario, Canada | NC FreeNet: aa185 | 1 |
1,517 |
I did. You're mistaken. NSA's communications intelligence mission is
strictly against foreign governments. Here's an excerpt from the enabling
charter (24 Oct 52, Truman) that should clarify this. The charter was
declassified in about Feb 1990 when an FOIA request made it public. Mind
you, I don't know that they never collect anything they're not supposed
to... but spying on US citizens isn't in their charter.
b. The COMINT mission of the National Security Agency
(NSA) shall be to provide an effective, unified organization
and control of the communications intelligence activities of
the United States conducted against foreign governments, to
provide for integrated operational policies and procedures
pertaining thereto. As used in this directive, the terms
"communications intelligence" or "COMINT" shall be construed
to mean all procedures and methods used in the interception
of communications other than foreign press and propaganda
broadcasts and the obtaining of information from such
communications by other than intended recipients, but shall
exclude censorship and the production and dissemination of
finished intelligence.
They're also tasked with protecting the US's communications, but I haven't
seen the specific enabling memo on that. I assume that's the role under
which Skipjack was developed.
NSA is not in the standard-setting business, though -- that's why this
Clipper stuff came from NIST, which I believe is tasked with coming up
with standards based on their best inputs from other government agencies,
which would include NSA. | 1 |
2,988 | From: "Phil G. Fraering" <pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu>
>> Finally: this isn't the Bronze Age, [..]
>> please try to remember that there are more human activities than
>> those practiced by the Warrior Caste, the Farming Caste, and the
>> Priesthood.
F Baube responds;
Right, the Profiting Caste is blessed by God, and may
freely blare its presence in the evening twilight ..
Steinn Sez;
>The Priesthood has never quite forgiven
>the merchants (aka Profiting Caste [sic])
>for their rise to power, has it?
If we are looking for evidence of belessed-by-God-ness, I'd say the ability
to blare lights all over the evening sky is about the best evidence you
could ever hope to get. No wonder the preistly classes are upset :-)
-Tommy Mac
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom McWilliams 517-355-2178 wk \\ As the radius of vision increases,
18084tm@ibm.cl.msu.edu 336-9591 hm \\ the circumference of mystery grows. | 1 |
4,306 |
Nonsense.
Mike, in Heinlein's "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" decides that a weapon is some
mechanism which allows you to deliver energy at a distance. (I don't
have the book handy or I'd find the exact quote).
Guns do that.
Cryptosystems do not.
| 1 |
6,661 | 1 | |
5,052 | Harvested to order?
| 1 |
3,539 |
The following program is a very quick hack I created a few months
ago to determine whether a Sun Sparcstation IPC could perform
real-time, full-duplex encrypted audio with resulting data rates
sustainable by today's modems.
This test program reads linearly-encoded audio from the audio device,
compresses it with GSM 06.10 (compresses frames of 160 13-bit samples
recorded at 8kHz into 260 bits resulting in a 50 Hz frame rate), encrypts
it with DES, then reverses the process and sends the reconstructed audio
back to the audio device. The compressed, encrypted audio stream
is 13 kbits/s (!).
My Sparcstation IPC (not exactly a very fast machine these days,
certainly slower than an ELC) would just barely sustain this activity
(audio underruns would occcur but the speech was very intelligible). I
ran it as a real-time process to get the best results. Remember,
though, that this program is a quick hack and the performance can
certainly be improved.
The audio compression routines can be ftp'd from tub.cs.tu-berlin.de,
I believe (look for gsm or toast). I used Eric Young's DES
implementation but I no longer know where I got it from.
Cheers!greg
<--------------------------- CUT HERE ----------------------------->
/*
* Test program to see how much CPU it takes for secure digital audio.
* Written by G. Onufer (greg@cheers.Bungi.COM).
*
* Written on a Sun IPC running Solaris 2.2 with a Sun ISDN S-Bus card
* and a SpeakerBox.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/audioio.h>
#include <stropts.h>
#include <gsm.h>
#include <des.h>
boolean_t
svs_audio_init(int fd, audio_info_t *prev_info)
{
audio_info_t info;
if (prev_info != NULL) {
if (ioctl(fd, AUDIO_GETINFO, prev_info) < 0) {
perror("AUDIO_GETINFO");
return (B_FALSE);
}
}
AUDIO_INITINFO(&info);
info.record.pause = B_TRUE;
info.play.pause = B_TRUE;
info.play.sample_rate = 8000;
info.play.encoding = AUDIO_ENCODING_LINEAR;
info.play.channels = 1;
info.play.precision = 16;
info.record.sample_rate = 8000;
info.record.encoding = AUDIO_ENCODING_LINEAR;
info.record.channels = 1;
info.record.precision = 16;
info.record.buffer_size = 320 * 4;
if (ioctl(fd, AUDIO_SETINFO, &info) < 0) {
perror("AUDIO_SETINFO");
return (B_FALSE);
}
if (ioctl(fd, I_FLUSH, FLUSHRW) < 0) {
perror("I_FLUSH");
return (B_FALSE);
}
AUDIO_INITINFO(&info);
info.record.pause = B_FALSE;
info.play.pause = B_FALSE;
if (ioctl(fd, AUDIO_SETINFO, &info) < 0) {
perror("AUDIO_SETINFO");
return (B_FALSE);
}
return (B_TRUE);
}
boolean_t
svs_in(int ifd, gsm handle, gsm_byte *buf)
{
gsm_signal sample[160];
if (read(ifd, sample, sizeof (sample)) != sizeof (sample)) {
fprintf(stderr, "svs_in: short read\n");
return (B_FALSE);
}
gsm_encode(handle, sample, buf);
return (B_TRUE);
}
boolean_t
svs_out(int ofd, gsm handle, gsm_byte *buf)
{
gsm_signal sample[160];
if (gsm_decode(handle, buf, sample) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "svs_out: gsm_decode failed\n");
return (B_FALSE);
}
if (write(ofd, sample, sizeof (sample)) != sizeof (sample)) {
fprintf(stderr, "svs_out: short write\n");
return (B_FALSE);
}
return (B_TRUE);
}
main()
{
gsm handle;
gsm_frame frame;
int audiofd;
int option;
des_cblock key, ivec_in, ivec_out;
des_key_schedule ks_in, ks_out;
des_cblock cbuf_in[4], cbuf_out[4], cbuf_buf[4];
audiofd = open("/dev/audio", O_RDWR);
if (audiofd < 0) {
perror("open");
exit(4);
}
/*
* Initialize GSM compression code
*/
if ((handle = gsm_create()) == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "svs: gsm_create failed\n");
exit(4);
}
option = B_TRUE;
if (gsm_option(handle, GSM_OPT_FAST, &option) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "svs: gsm_option (FAST) failed\n");
exit(4);
}
/*
* Initialize DES code
*/
des_random_key(&key);
if (des_set_key(&key, ks_in) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "svs: des_set_key failed\n");
exit(4);
}
if (des_set_key(&key, ks_out) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "svs: des_set_key failed\n");
exit(4);
}
memset(ivec_in, 0, sizeof (ivec_in));
memset(ivec_out, 0, sizeof (ivec_out));
/*
* Open audio device and configure it
*/
if (!svs_audio_init(audiofd, NULL))
exit(3);
for (;;) {
/*
* Get 160 samples (16-bit linear 8000Hz) and
* convert to a 33 byte frame
*/
if (!svs_in(audiofd, handle, frame))
exit(1);
/*
* Encrypt/Decrypt block
*/
des_cbc_encrypt(frame, cbuf_out, (long)32, ks_in, ivec_in,
DES_ENCRYPT);
des_cbc_encrypt(cbuf_out, cbuf_buf, (long)32, ks_out, ivec_out,
DES_DECRYPT);
memmove(frame, cbuf_buf, 32);
#if 0
if (memcmp(cbuf_in, cbuf_buf, 32) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "svs: memcmp failed\n");
exit(4);
}
#endif
/*
* Take 33 byte frame and convert to 160 samples
* and play
*/
if (!svs_out(audiofd, handle, frame))
exit(2);
} | 1 |
1,691 |
Is HST really _that_ much heavier than a Spacelab ???
bd | 1 |
2,133 | A while ago there was a reference to a paper on a crypto file
system (CFS) given by someone at at AT&T (?). How can I
get a copy? Is it available on the net? Was it published?
Who was the author?
Thanks
| 1 |
3,567 | Recently I've come upon a body of literature which promotes colon
cleansing as a vital aid to preventive medicine through nutrition. In
particular, Dr. Bernard Jenssen in his book "Colon Cleansing for
Health and Longevity" -- the title actually escapes me, but it is very
similar to that -- claims that regular self-administered colonics,
along with certain orally ingested "debris-loosening agents", boosts
the immune system to a significant degree.
He also plugs a unique appliance called the "Colema Board", which
facilitates the self-administration of colonics. It sells for over
$100 from a California-based company. He also plugs Vitra-Tox
products as his chemical agents of choice: these include volcanic ash,
supposedly for its electrical charge, and psyllium powder, for its
bulkiness.
If anyone knows anything about colon cleansing theory, its
particulars, or the Colema Board and related products, I'd be very
interested to hear about research and personal experience.
This article is crossposted to alt.magick as the issue touches upon
fasting and cleansing through a "ritual" system of purification.
-- Eli
| 1 |
4,639 |
I may be misreading you here. Are you saying the American Revolution
wasn't a good idea because it was bad odds?
I kind of doubt that any revolution, armed or otherwise, was ever started
without vast amounts of failed "working within a system". A good sign of
a system being not worth preserving would probably be that very inability
to work within it productively. | 1 |
2,324 |
The bacteria in your gut are important. But colonic flushes are not the
way to improve gut function. Each person has almost a unique mix of
bacteria in his/her gut. Diet affects this mix as does the use of
antibiotics. A diet change is a much better way to alter the players in
your gut than is colonic flushes. Cross contamination has been a real
problem in some of the outfits that do this "treatment" since the equipment
is not always cleaned as well as it should be between patient "treatments".
Dental drills have me a little concerned about HIV infection and I've
picked a dentist that uses both chemical and autoclave sterilization of his
instruments(more clostly but much safer). Full sterile technique is
also used just like that practiced in an OR(mask, gloves and gowns worn and
disposed of between patients). Each visit costs me 15 dollars more than
the standard and customary fee so I have to pay it out of pocket. His much
higher fees do not drive away patients.
I can not think of any good reason why someone should subject themselves to
this colonic flush procedure. For very little, if any benefit, you
subject yourself to hepatitis, cholera, parasitic disease and even HIV.
Just ask yourself why someone might resort to this kind of treatment?
Could they be having GI distress? Could this distress be due to a
pathogenic organism? Could I get this organism if the equipment is not
cleaned properly between patients? Do I really want to take this risk?
Food for thought. | 1 |
5,543 | Need Diet for Diverticular Disease
and ideas for gastrointestinal distress
| 1 |
5,904 | On the contrary, the entire Clipper proposal is an example of the
government servicing the people (in the sense of the term found in the
sentence, "The farmer paid $100 to rent a bull to service his cows.")
| 1 |
7,241 |
Perhaps I should quit eating mushrooms, soya beans, and brie cheese
which all have MSG in them. It occurs naturally.
I'm not going to quit eating something that I like just because
it *might* cause me trouble later or causes problems in *some*
people. I would much rather avoid stress by not worrying over
what goes in my mouth and not spending every day reading conflicting
reports of what is good/bad for you.
I may eat some things in quantities that may not be good for me.
Fine. I've made my decision and I don't think it's appropriate
for anyone to try to 'convert' me. "It's for your own good" are
the most obnoxious and harmful words, IMO, in the English (or
any other) language.
I think it is. I get tired of people saying 'don't eat X because
it's BAD!' Well, X may not be bad for everyone. And even if
it is, so what? Give people all the information but don't ram
your decisions down their throats. | 1 |
6,275 |
True.. but what about showing the missing part of a leaf? Is this
"corona discharge"?
| 1 |
4,485 | My wife had hives during the first two months
of her pregnancy. My son (3 months old), breast-fed,
now has the same symptoms. She has been to a skin-specialist,
but he has merely prescribed various medicines (one
each visit as though by trial and error :-))
Anti-histamines worked on both of them, but looks like
becoming less effective.
Are there other solutions? Thanks. | 1 |
3,899 |
Sure there are quacks. There are quacks who don't treat and quacks who
treat. One's that refuse to diagnose and ones that diagnose improperly.
There are lucky quacks and unlucky quacks. Smart quacks and dumb ones.
There are people ahead of their time, with unprobable or unproven theories
and rationals. There are ill-reasoned, absurd, theorists.
Sometimes it's hard to tell who's who.
Reading a book of ancient jokes it seems that doctors called other doctors
quacks in Babylon.
Arguments abound when there aren't any firm answers. Plenty of illnesses
aren't, or can't, be diagnosed or treated. But I think it's better to argue
against the theory, as was originally done with postings on candida a month
or so ago. Stating the facts usually works better than simply asserting an
opinion about someone's competency. And you can't convince everybody.
Sometimes a correct diagnosis
takes years for people: they don't run into a doctor who recognizes the
disease, they haven't developed something recognizable yet, or they have
something that no one is going to recognize, because it hasn't been
described yet. Sometimes they get a cure, sometimes the illness wears out,
sometimes they stumble on an improper diagnosis with the right treatment,
sometimes they find it's incurable.
There is no profit in a patient accepting a hopeless attitude about an
illness. Unless it's a rock solid diagnosis of terminal disease it's is
more like ly that a person will find a cure if they keep looking. | 1 |
936 | This one is easy, they 'tape' the conversation, call the FBI or
Secret Service. You see "activities against the Satan Clinton" could be
construed as a threat against the President of the United States. I am
sure they(NSA,FBI,SS,...,...) have enough judges in their collective
pockets to have a warrent before the call is over..... | 1 |
2,406 |
Bear in mind that a lot of the Vandenberg launch traffic is military and
at least semi-secret. They aren't interested in publicizing it beforehand. | 1 |
7,442 |
Mark, this is the most reasonable post that I've seen in Sci. Med. on the
topic of Colonic Flushing. I'm in a profession that uses manipulation(a
very refined form of massage) to treat various human diseases. Proving
that manipulation works has been extremely difficult(as the MD's delight in
pointing out). The Osteopathic Profession seems to be making better
progress than the chiropractors in proving(scientifically) that their
techingues work. The JAOA recently had a study on the use of manipulation
to relieve mensrual cramps in women with results that were as good or
better than drug treatment(using physiological measurements, and not just
the woman's preception of improvement). This study was hailed by the JAOA
editors as the turning point in the profession's long struggle to prove
itself to the medical community.
I'm currently trying to get the AOA(American Osteopathic Association) which
has supported most of the Osteopathic research in the U.S. to also support
nutrition education and research. I've pointed out, in a grant proposal,
that the founder of Osteopathic Medicine(A.T. Still) embraced both diet and
manipulation to set himself apart from the MD's of his time who were pushing
only drugs(Still was himself an MD who got real dissillusioned with drugs
during his service in the Civil War). He decided that there had to be a
better way to treat human disease since he saw the cure(drugs) as being
worse than the disease. Through his many years of study of the human body,
he developed his manipulation techniques that he then taught to his
students in the U.S's first Osteopathic Medical school. We now have 17.
Still used manipulation to treat(and also diagnose) human disease but he
used diet to prevent human disease. I'm trying to get the Osteopathic
Profession to return to it's roots and beat the MD's to the punch(so to
speak). Both DO's and MD's in current medical practice have very little
understanding of how diet affects human health. This has to change.
Martin Banschbach, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry and Chairman
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
OSU COllege of Osteopathic Medicine | 1 |
2,294 |
Have the feds shut down the people making Sound Blaster? What
about Apple and NeXT? Apple, NeXT, Sun, and others make systems that
can handle CD-quality audio in and out, and can perform arbitrary
transformation on it in the process of transmitting it across a network
or modem.
Perhaps there's a market for a portable vocoder. Not a crypto
device, simply an RS232<->voice converter. Make it capable of recording
speech and playing it back simultaneously. It has applications for
multimedia, computing for the handicapped, Internet Talk Radio, IRC,
etc, etc, etc. It wouldn't be a cryptographic device at all - but I
suppose someone could have it hooked to a 486 laptop with a V.32bis
modem and some crypto software. I'd market the thing with an API for
text-to-speech using simple phonemes and the ability to use speech
samples. And, of course, I'd publish the interface to it so other
folks could write any applications they wanted to talk to the thing. | 1 |
1,311 | I haven't seen any mention of this in a while, so here goes...
When the Hubble Telescope was first deployed, one of its high gain antennas
was not able to be moved across its full range of motion. It was suspected
that it had been snagged on a cable or something. Operational procedures
were modified to work around the problem, and later problems have overshadowed
the HGA problem.
Is there any plan to look at the affected HGA during the HST repair mission,
to determine the cause of its limited range of motion? Is the affected HGA
still limited, or is it now capable of full range of motion?
| 1 |
4,456 |
Nowadays, usually with a computer. No theory predicted the numeric
discoveries listed above. No one can yet write an algorithm that will
predict the precise behavior of any of these at any precise level of
their evolution. So it remains for experimenters to gather data on their
behavior.
Gary | 1 |
869 | I didn't want to quote all the stuff that's been said recently, I
just wanted to add a point.
The whole question of "a right to a dark sky" revolves around the
definition of a right. Moral rights and natural rights are all well and
good, but as far as I can see, a right is whatever you or someone
representing you can enforce. In most civilizations, the government or
the church (or both) defines what the rights of the citizens are, and
then enforces those rights for them. Here in the U.S., the constitution
provides a "Bill of Rights" from which most if not all legal rights are
considered to derive. I'm sure that most other countries have
comparable documents. If you can persuade a court that you have a right
to a dark sky derived in some manner from the Bill of Rights (in the
U.S.), you can prevent (maybe) these billboards from being launched. To
keep anyone in the world from launching then gets into international law
and the International Court of Justice (correct name?) in the Hague,
something I know little about. | 1 |
7,055 |
Back in January and February there were several articles (Wash Post, Time...)
saying that NASA was "considering" the option just as it is now "considering"
a followup mission 6-12 months after the servicing mission. However, the
down time was estimated to be a year+ (servicing, checkout, sceheduling
and training another shuttle, orbit verification...) and to be quite
expensive. I think it may have been more a mental exercise than a
real plan. Don't know.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Dempsey (410) 338-1334
STScI/PODPS
"He which hath no stomach for this fight, Let him depart; his passport
shall be made, and crowns for convoy put into his purse: We would not die
in this man's company that fears his fellowship to die with us." -Shakespeare | 1 |
2,710 |
You need to use your shoulder muscles to push the mower. If you haven't been
doing much exercise, as I suppose you haven't, then a constant 20 minute
long effort can cause stiffness and cramps. | 1 |
544 |
I tried Prozac a few months ago, and had some insomnia from it, but no
anxiety or jitters. I probably could have lived with the insomnia if the
Prozac had done any good, but it only provided a tiny benefit. Maybe
because the person who prescribed it didn't know much and gave up after a
20mg dose didn't work.
Now I'm seeing a psychiatrist who has put me on Zoloft (another serotonin
reuptake inhibitor like Prozac). One pill/day (50mg) seemed to help some.
Now I'm trying 100mg/day. Zoloft has fewer and milder side effects than
Prozac. I think my doctor said that only 4% of the people taking Zoloft
have to discontinue it because of side effects. The only problem I'm
having is some minor GI distress, but nothing too annoying. Hopefully the
Zoloft will work. Maybe your friend should try this one next.
My psychiatrist's strategy seems to be to first try one of the serotonin
drugs, usually Prozac. If that works, great. If it works but has too many
side effects, try Zoloft or maybe Paxil. If the serotonin drugs don't work
at all, try one of the tricyclics like desipramine.
Having a doctor who knows something about antidepressants can make a big
difference. My psychiatrist claims that most GPs and FPs don't have much
experience in this area, and from what I've seen I'm inclined to believe
him. I think I know more about antidepressants than the people at my
family practitioner's office.
Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor; what I know about this comes from talking to
my psychiatrist and reading sci.med.
| 1 |
3,882 |
: :
: : Hello,
: : Just one quick question:
: : My father has had a back problem for a long time and doctors
: : have diagnosed an operation is needed. Since he lives down in
: : Mexico, he wants to know if there is a hospital anywhere in
: : the United States particulary famous for this kind of surgery,
: : kind of like Houston has a reputation for excellent doctors
: : in eye surgery. Any additional info or pointers will be
: : appreciated a whole lot!...
: There is one hospital that is here in New York City that is famous for its
: orthopedists, namely the Hospital for Special Surgery. They are located on
: the upper east side of manhattan. If you want their address and phone let
: me know, i'll get them, i dont know them off hand.
for those who are interested the hospitals i was referring to are:
The Hospital for Special Surgery
535 East 70th Street
New York, NY 10021
212-606-1555 (Physician Referral Service & info)
The Hospital for Joint Diseases
301 East 17th Street
New York, NY 10003
212-598-7600
| 1 |
393 |
No, if you put a conductor in a changing magnetic field, it produces a voltage.
The two ways you can do that with a permanent magnet is to move the magnet or
move the conductor. The slow shifting of the Earth's magnetic field isn't
really significant, especially when you consider how weak the Earth's magnetic
field is to begin with.
Well, it would require generating an incredibly large magnetic field to repel
the Earth's magnetic field (as a magnet can repel another magnet). Of course,
this force only works in one direction, and the magnetic field generated has
to be unimaginably powerful. Magnetic repulsion drops off as 1/r^3, and the
earth's magnetic field on the surface is already very weak. It would require
some sort of unknown superconductor, and special nonmagnetic construction.
And seriously hardenned electronics (optical computers, perhaps). And the
physiological danger would be significant (due to the iron content in our
blood, among other things). In other words, forget it.
I missed out on the "dragless satellite" thread, but it sounds totally bogus,
from this little bit. | 1 |
1,215 |
Oh? What about the precedent in which nuclear weapons information was
published in "The Progressive"? I was under the impression that the
court held that prior restraint could NOT be used. Any lawyers out
there?
--
Perry Metzger pmetzger@shearson.com | 1 |
6,664 |
As Herny pointed out, you have to develop the thruster.
Also, while much lighter, you still have to lift the mass of
the thruster to orbit, and then the thruster lifts its own
weight into a higher orbit. And you take up room in the payload
bay. | 1 |
1,306 | nobody@alumni.cco.caltech.edu correctly states Jerry Berman's 1985 view on
privacy, but he mistakenly assumes that this represents Berman's 1993 view as
EFF Executive Director.
As one of the people who convinced Jerry that legal protections for privacy
are insufficient, and that technical measures, especially public key
cryptography, are also vitally necessary, I can tell you that Jerry and EFF
are fully committed to this position.
The previous poster is apparently unaware of a long series of EFF positions in
support of this view. I suggest those interested read EFF's position on
Clipper or our other work in digital privacy. Check ftp.eff.org for more
details.
One of the great things about human beings is that they are capable of change
and evolution in their thinking. The idea that crypto is critical to privacy
is one which is no longer limited to certain net afficianados, but is
spreading to parts of the public policy community in Washington. | 1 |
5,069 |
Not useful unless you've got some truly wonderful propulsion system for
the mother ship that can't be applied to the probes. Otherwise it's
better to simply launch the probes independently. The outer planets
are scattered widely across a two-dimensional solar system, and going
to one is seldom helpful in going to the next one. Uranus is *not* on
the way to Neptune. Don't judge interplanetary trajectories in general
by what the Voyagers did: they exploited a lineup that occurs only
every couple of centuries, and even so Voyager 2 took a rather indirect
route to Neptune.
Solar sails are pretty useless in the outer solar system. They're also
very slow, unless you assume quite advanced versions. | 1 |
1,872 |
I speculate, from the MykoTronx data sheet on the MYK-78, that the algorithm
is a classified cryptosystem, similar in application to DES but cleared by
the NSA for classified traffic, that has been in use for a number of years.
Myktotronx refers to it as "Government Type II encryption", which matches the
designation of one of the types of encryption available on STU-III phones,
and may be the same as a cryptosystem I have heard called "CIPHER2".
This would make sense, since this is evidently a field-proven cryptosystem
which can act as a "pin-compatible" substitute for DES. Combined with a
tappable key exchange protocol, this would offer exactly what is claimed for
Clipper: secure encryption with access via a key escrow. If this is fact the
case, it would make me quite confident of the encipherment algorithm itself.
Now, I do not know if these are in fact the same cryptosystem; my knowledge
of classified cryptography isn't even fuzzy :), it's nonexistent. However,
it would certainly have been the least-effort approach on the part of the
government: take an old military cipher that people can drop in place of DES
(and which is at least as secure), set up a key escrow scheme for law
enforcement, and promote it for public use. This also fits with Mykotronx,
who's been around but almost invisible for years.
Has anyone else made this sort of connection, or am I just hallucinating pink
elephants here? :). My curiousity has been piqued...
| 1 |
600 |
And from whence does this right stem, that it overrides the 'rights'
of the rest of us?
And if you want to view that television station, you have to watch the
commercials. You can't turn them off and still be viewing the
television station. In other words, if you don't like what you see,
don't look. There is no 'right' I can think of that you have to force
other people to conform to your idea of aesthetic behaviour. What's
next, laws regulating how people must dress and look so as to appeal
to your fashion sense, since you have this 'right' of an aesthetic
view?
Which has what to do with the topic of discussion?
Oh, I see. You don't want any legislation that might impinge on you;
you just want everyone else on the planet to do what you want.
--
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden | 1 |
4,811 |
Apologies... Your mail is probably in the pile that arrived just before
I got sick about a month ago... A reply will appear eventually...
So far, there have been none (unless you count an interview in The Amateur
Computerist about the history of netnews, which may be disqualified because
TAC's budget doesn't run to reproducing photos...). | 1 |
5,096 | It just received FDA approval a few months ago. I have a
prescription which I haven't had to use yet. I believe the
company [Glaxol] is developing an oral form. At this stage, one
must inject the drug into one's muscle. The doctor said that
within 30 minutes, the migraine is gone for good!
| 1 |
6,722 |
Ha!
Watch me. It flies. It lands. It gets rebuilt.
That's not what they told us back in the '70's.
1. It isn't a logical follow-on. A logical follow-on would have
been either a Russian "snowfox" type thingey (for the lifting bodies)
or something like MMI's Space Van (or Boeing's TSTO, or the airbreathing
TSTO the military is allegedly _using_ now that probably cost less
to develop than the shuttle does to fly for a year).
Keep that attitude, and it'll be a couple centuries before we get real
access to space, unless another country without all that baggage comes
along and kicks our ass in the space race.
Or NASA HQ. That doesn't give the rest of the program plausible deniability
if we deceide that it wasn't worth the money we've spent, which is by now
probably a lot more than Apollo.
Yes, but it gets sold on the basis of the political statements.
You're saying basically that it met the engineering specs (which is
questionable, IMHO) so it's a success, never mind that you couldn't
get the funding the shuttle eats with those engineering specs in
a thousand years.
You can get hypersonic flight data with an X-15 or a follow-on X-15
type vehicle for much less.
And economics and engineering are interchangable; engineering in the
absense of economics is basically just physics, and in terms of physics,
the shuttle looks like a failure next to the X-15.
HS>Sorry, support that I can arrange for launchers all goes to launchers
HS>that I have some hope of riding some day. At the moment, that's
HS>DC-X's hoped-for successors.
The shuttle program has a bad record. I _once_ had hopes for the
shuttle program. By now I know those hopes were false.
All I have for DC-X and similar and dissimilar experimental vehicles
are hopes. But at least I know they aren't false hopes yet.
I did support the shuttle, way back when. It didn't do nearly what
it was supposed to. It's time to move on to something that might do
the job of orbital delivery better. Or at all.
We don't want to learn how to operate on orbit. It launches, it
shoves out the payload, it lands. It doesn't waste payload hauling
up and down EDO pallets and the like.
The only thing to be learned from shuttle is how *not* to build a
launcher.
Finally: that bit about the "proven" shuttle. Are you hoping you can
tell a lie enough times and get someone to believe it?
How much science and technology could have been done is the money spent
on shuttle had been spent differently?
...
Learn about economics and the current budget realities in the United States,
please.
| 1 |
2,910 |
I'd hardly call the current Pluto Fast Flyby proposal "too large" (if the
new technology insertion currently taking place succeeds, the S/C mass will
drop to 110-120 kg) or "too expensive" ($400 million [FY92 $] for two S/C),
especially when compared to other NASA planetary missions.
This proposal would work only if your various targets are relaively nearby and
the require minimal delta-v from the mother ship. A mission to the main belt
might be one possibility for such a mission -- I recall a paper being presented
at an AIAA deisgn conference in Irvine in February where such a proposed
spacecraft was designed by some grad students at UT Austin (I think). Four
mini-spacecraft would detatch from the main S/C, each visiting a seperate
asteroid and then returning to the main S/C. After analysis, the main S/C
would then be targeted for the most "interesting" object for further study.
Now, if I could only *find* that paper... =)
| 1 |
7,014 | Organization: Temple University
X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2
Last week I went to see a gastroenterologist. I had never met this
doctor before, and she did not know what I was there for. As soon as I
arrived, somebody showed me to an examining room and handed me a gown.
They told me to undress (from the waist down, to be exact) and wait for the
doctor. Is this the usual drill when you go to a doctor for the first
time? I don't have much experience going to doctors (knock on wood), but
on the couple of occasions when I've gone to a new doctor, I met him
with my clothes on. First, he introduced himself, asked what I was there
for and took a history, all before I undressed.
Are patients usually expected to get naked before meeting a doctor
for the first time? Personally, I'd prefer to meet the doctor on
something remotely resembling a condition of parity and to establish an
identity as a person who wears clothes before dropping my drawers. If
nothing else, it minimizes the time that I have to spend in the self
conscious, ill at ease and vulnerable condition of a person with a bare
bottom talking to somebody who is fully clothed.
Does anybody besides me regard this get-naked-first-and-then-we-can-talk
attitude as insensitive? Also, is it unusual?
| 1 |
2,091 |
I'll tell you all that I know about chromium. But before I do, I want to
get a few things off my chest. I just got blasted in e-mail for my kidney
stone posts. Kidney stones are primarily caused by diet, as is heart
disease and cancer. When I give dietary advise, it is not intended to
encourage people reading this news group(or Sci. Med. Nutrition where I do
most of my posting) to avoid seeing a doctor. Nothing can be further from
the truth. Kidney stones can be caused by tumors and this possibility has to
be ruled out. But once it is, diet is a good way of preventing a reoccurance.
Same thing with heart disease and cancer, if you suspect that you may have
a problem with one of these diseases, don't use what I'm going to tell you
or what you read in some book to avoid going to a doctor. You have to go.
Hopefully you will find a doctor who knows enough about nutrition to help
you change your risk factors for both diseases as part of a treatment
program(but the odds are that you will not and that's why I'm here). When
my wife detected a lump in here breast I didn't say, don't worry my vitamin
E will take care of it. Any breast lump has to be worked up by a physician,
plan and simple. If it's begnin(which most are) fine, then maybe a diet
change and supplementation will prevent further breast lumps from occuring.
But let me tell you right now, if you have tried diet and supplementation
and another lump returns, get your butt into the doctor's office as fast as
your little feet can carry you(better yet, have a mammography done on a
regular basis, my wife kept putting her's off, both myself and her
gynocologist told her she needed to have one done). Her gynocologist even
scheduled one, but she didn't show up(too busy running the Operating Room for
the biggest Hospital in Tulsa).
One more thing, I am not an orthomolecular nutritionist. This group uses
high dose vitamins and minerals to treat all kinds of disease. There is
absolutely no doubt in my mind that vitamins and minerals can and do have
drug actions in the body. But you talk about flying blind, man this is
really blind treatment. No drug could ever be used as these vitamins and
minerals are being used. I'm not saying that some of this stuff couldn't
be right on the money, it may well be. But my approach to nutrition is a
lot like that of Weinsier and Morgan, the two M.D's who wrote the new
Clinical Nutrition textbook. My push is the nutrient reserves and the lab
tests needed to measure these reserves and then supplementation or diet
changes to get these reserves built up to where they should be to let you
handle stress. That's where I'm coming from folks. Blast away if you want,
I'm not going to change. Put me in your killfile if you want, I really
don't care. I'm averaging 8-10 e-mail messages a day from people who think
that I've got something important to say. But I'm also getting hit by a
few with an axe to grind. That's life.
Chromium is one of the trace elements. It has a very limited(but very
important) role in the body. It is used to form glucose tolerance factor
(GTF). GTF is made up of chromium, nicinamide(niacin), glycine, cysteine
and glutamic. Only the chromium and the niacin are needed from the diet to
form GTF. Some foods already have GTF(Liver, brewers or nutritional yeast,
and black pepper). When chromium is in GTF, a pretty good absorption is
seen(about 20%). But when it is simply present as a mineral or mineral
chelate(chromium picolinate) it's absorption is much lower(1 to 2%, lowest
for all the minerals). I've been posting in Misc. Fitness and chromium has
come up there several times as a "fat burner". Chromium is among the least
toxic of the minerals so you could really load yourself up and not really
do any harm. I wouldn't do it though. The adequate and safe range for
chromium is 50 to 200ug per day. The average American is getting about
30ug per day from his/her diet. Chromium levels decrease with age and many
believe that adult onset diabetes is primarily a chromium deficiency. I
can cite you several studies that have been done with glucose tolerance in
Type II diabetes but I'm not going to because for each positive one, there
also seems to be a negative one as well. I'm convinced that the problem is
bioavailability. When yeast(GTF) is used, good results are obtained but when
chromium itself is used the results are usually negative. In addition to
Type II diabetes, chromiuum has been examined in cardiovascular disease and
glucoma, again with mixed results as far as cardiovascular disease is
concerned
Since a high blood glucose level can lead to cardiovascular disease,
this possible link with chromium isn't too surprising. Glucoma is a little
more interesting. Muscle eye focusing activity is primarily an insulin
responsive glucose-driven metabolic function. If this eye focusing activity
is impaired(by a lack of glucose due to a poor insulin response), intraocular
pressure is believed to be elevated. In a fairly large study of 400 pts with
glaucoma, the one consistent finding was a low RBC chromium. J. Am. Coll.
Nutr. 10(5):536,(1991). But this one preliminary study should not prompt
people to go out and start popping chromium supplements. For one thing,
just about every older person is going to have a low RBC chromium unless
they have been taking chromium suppleemnts(yeast). Since glucoma is often
found in older people, it's not too surprising that chromium was low in the
RBC's. If chromium supplementation could reverse glucoma, that would
prompt some attention. I suspect that there will be a clinical trail to
check out this possible chromium link to glucoma.
You could find out what your body chromium pool size was by either the RBC
chromium test or hair analysis. Most clinical labs are not going to run a
RBC chromium. There are plenty of labs that will do a hair and nail
analysis for you, but I wouldn't use them. There is just too much funny
business going on in these unregulated labs right now.
Here's Weinsier and Morgan, advise on chromium. They do not consider
chromium to be one of those minerals for which a reliable clinical test is
available(they don't like the hair and nail analysis labs either, and they
also recognize the RBC chromium is primarily a research test that is not
routinely available in most clinical chemistry labs). This has to change
and as more labs run a RBC chromiuum, it will. What then do they suggest?
Make a diagnosis of chromium deficiency based on a documented clinical
response to chromium(run a glucose tolerance test before and after chromium
supplementation). Once you make the diagnosis, put the patient on 200ug of
CrCl3 orally each day or 10grams of yeast per day.
What's my advise? Don't take chromium supplements to try to loose weight
(they just do not work that way). If you want to take them and then
exercise, that would be great. Do include yeast as part of your diet(most
Americans are not getting enough chromium from their diet). If you do have
a poor glucose tolerance, ask your doctor to check your chromium status.
When he or she says, "what in the world are you talking about", just say,
please get a copy of Weinsier and Morgan's new Clinical Nutrition textbook
and do what they say to do with patients who present with a poor glucose
tolerance. If you can't do that, I'll find a doctor who can, thank you
very much. | 1 |
5,051 | I originally posted this to alt.suicide.holiday but it was recommended
that I try you guys instead:
My friend insists that Ny-Quil can be deadly if enough is taken -- he
suggested something like 20-30 of the Night-time gelcaps would do someone
in. Being a NORMAL user of Ny-Quil :), I checked the 'ingredients' and
have a very hard time believing it. They are:
250 g acetaminophen
30 mg Pseudoephedrine HCl
10 mg Dextromethorphan HBr
6.25 mg Doxylamine Succinate
(per softgel)
Can someone settle our bet (a package of Ny-Quil of course :) -- what
effect would 20-30 of these babies have?
*-Nathan-*
-- | 1 |
6,046 |
There is an office on the middle left US coast on Middlefield Road in
Menlo Park, CA (415) 329-4390
| 1 |
5,023 | 1 | |
1,037 | Next GPS launch is scheduled for June 24th. | 1 |
1,685 | 1 | |
6,159 | -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Gasp!
I've just spent 3 hours catching up on sci.crypt here (slow reader I
guess) and I really have to put out a few comments too. First, let me
flame the famous Dave S. : He's obviously only 10 years old. Cut him
some slack. :^}
The joke about Clinton/crypto/drugs slammed me thru the roof. Nice job
guys! I've been working on marijuana legalization for over 5 years
now, Clinton's actions so far have really helped. But because of
government action taken against various other groups, I have developed
a 64 bit DES based on public literature to protect my mailing list.
The S-boxes are the critical component, and since I chose 32 out of 57
based on the key, cracking this DES is going to tough. (The reason it
slows you down a touch is that for each key you try you need to use a
different set of s-boxes, I know it's only a vector, but it sure makes
random search a pain). Several marijuana legalization groups have had
their mailing lists confiscated when people were charged with drug
use/sales. It's not a crime to be a member of a legalization org,
*but* you will be watched.
It really is important to write a letter to every official you
personally vote for to explain *why* your privacy is being destroyed by
the "cripple chip". Amazingly enough they do listen when they get
*enough* mail. The Doonsbery jokes about NRA postcards are real, and
the IMI (Illinois Marijuana Initiative) has grown to the point where we
*are* seeing some changes.
It's pretty clear that all the hullabaloo is really about the
implimentation decision being made behind our backs. As Vesselin
points out, this was common practice in communist regimes (and may be
again depending on how the vote goes). But just as criminals have guns
and "law abiding" citizens don't, and criminals like me have marijuana
and "law abiding" subjects don't, criminals like me will have secure
crypto while "law abiding" robots don't. PGP is nice, but as time goes
on we all can do better. And to save our hides we will.
Someone posted an excerpt from Machiavelli. He's my favorite dude.
500 years ago he saw clearly how people *are*, and tried to explain
that to "princes" who wanted people to *obey*. One section not quoted
(I've got "The Prince" at home, so I'll just paraphrase :) ) had to do
with conquring a free city. The only way is to *completly destroy*
it. Failing that, you must appoint locals to high positions and accept
the people's customs. Even after 100 years of oppression, a people
will remember their heratige and rise up to overthrow the oppresive
government. And he gave an example. And that was 300 years *before*
Thomas Jefferson.
There were questions about watching traffic. Only *interesting* traffic
is watched: stuff that goes overseas and comes back; stuff with keywords
like marijauana, cryptography, NSA; certain individuals who are known
subversives, etc. It is easy enough to store all that traffic. So if
you know how to be *subversive* i.e. how to be unseen, it's pretty easy
to go unnoticed for a long time. The stronger your crypto system and the
less you're noticed, the better your chances of developing an organization
which can diseminate truth to the masses.
Which gets me to the thread about a "public encrypted conference".
That's just silly. The first thing the feds do is send in an
infiltrator (like Dave S.) and they know what you're doing. It will be
fun for teenagers and college students, but for the real world it's
pretty pointless. Crypto is useful for more things than hiding where
you get your marijuana.
Guns, drugs and crypto do have some commonality: there are people in
government who want you to *obey* their rules. As Lundquist says in
alt.drugs "Live free or don't". Machiavelli pointed out that's just
how most people actually live, inspite of appearences to the contrary.
It's true that the decision to shove the clipper (not the same thing as
Intergraph's!!!) down our throats violates the principles of what the
U.S. was founded on, but the government is full of idiotic robots
called bureaucrats and there's less to worry about than one might
think. Only really innocent (read naive) subjects of the U.S. will be
hurt by this, the rest of us *criminals* will live in secure freedom.
de Toqueville pointed out 150+ years ago that the tyranny of the
majority will be mitigated by the mediocrity of the government.
And given what I see government officials doing where I work (Argonne
National Lab.) the level of stupidity makes Dave S. look smart.
Patience, persistence, truth, work: dvader@hemp-imi.hep.anl.gov
Dr. mike home: mrosing@igc.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.2 | 1 |
7,518 | -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
[...]
[...]
As far as I can see, no matter how the session keys are generated (be it
Diffie-Hellman or whatever), any Cripple conversation which travels in
whole or in part over a land-line is vulnerable to this scheme. Law-
enforcement agencies can do it legally at the telco, or illegally by finding
some part of the phone line that they can cut into. The degree of risk
depends very much on location - not good in the middle of a busy street,
but not bad on a line in open country (leading to a drug lord's ranch). The
only way to defeat it would be if your phone had the equivalent of a public
key indexed against phone number for every phone you might want to call (all
of them) - totally impractical, even if some part of the Cripple algorithm
could be used as a kind of public key (I don't understand enough about these
things to know).
This sort of encryption scheme is only really workable over a radio link,
and even then you could probably interevene without causing problems for
other phones nearby if you were physically close to the target phone.
Gosh, yet another way to get round Cripple encryption. How many is that
we've found so far? And that's without even knowing the details of the
algorithm.
- --Paul
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.2 | 1 |
5,451 |
Do I assume correctly from the above aricle that your mother has a historyy
of cancer? I was just wondeing, since you mentioned thhat she has an
oncologist.
A bone scan is a nuclear scan. Thperson receivving the scan is gven a
dose of a radioactive tracer, and an imaging device is used to track the
distribution of the tracer wwithin the body. The tracer is usually given
intravenously. (IV) This means that the physician or his assistant will
insert a needle into a vein and inject medicine into the vein.
After a few minutes has passed for the tracer to circulate through the
body, the person is scanned with an imaging device to detect high
concentrations of the tracer. The radiologist or doctor is looking for
areas that take up more of the radioactive tracer or less of it.
As far as pain, the only pain comes from the needle stick that is required
to start the IV line.
What the doctor is probably looking for are changes in the bones that may
have resulted from cancer. This is also why I was wondering if your mother
has had cancer, since cancer can spread from one site and wind up in the
skeletal system.
I hope I have answered some of your questions. Feel free to e-mail me if
you have more questions related to the bone scan or anything else related
to your mother's care. I'm a newly graduated nurse, and I enjoy sharing
information with other people to help them understand things that they did
not know about before.
My thoughts are with you both. | 1 |
1,230 | I cured mine with Bag Balm which I bought at the local farm
supply store. It is relatively cheap and works in a few days.
The product was developed to treat sore udders.
| 1 |
3,425 |
a yes, but the improvement in boost orbit to the HST is Significant,
and that means you can then carry EDO packs and enough consumables
so the SHuttle mission can go on long enough to also fix the
array tilt motors, and god knows what else is going to wear out
on the HST in the next 9 months. | 1 |
2,586 |
As I read the current wiretap law, it would not be legal now. On the
other hand, assuming a legislative change, recording but not decrypting
Clipper conversations would probably be found constitutional by the Supreme
Court, using the same reasoning (or the lack thereof...) by which they
permit random roadblocks to check for drunk drivers.
Incidentally, if we use that as our model, the Court will likely not
uphold selective recording. (On the other hand, I don't think they've
thrown out ``drug courier profiles'' yet. Must be that exception to
the Fourth Amendment that I can never find in my copy of the Bill of
Rights.)
A lot -- and I mean a *lot* -- will depend on exactly how Clippertaps
(or Tipperclaps, for encrypted music?) are used. Don Alvarez showed in
the latest RISKS digest that it's possible to prevent the cops from
reading traffic after their warrant expires. | 1 |
7,237 | : What if clipper is fairly secure but leaves a distinct clipper signature...
: that is, what if it's not too difficult to tell that a msg. was clipper
: encrypted, even if you can't tell the contents? In that case, anyone
: who is trying to hide behind anther encryption scheme will stand out
: from all of the other traffic and raise a red flag to the NSA, etc.
I think the obvious answer (which may have been posted, but I haven't
seen it) is to encrypt your data with some other scheme, then run it
through clipper. The only way the police will be able to detect the
other encryption is through a wiretap, so even if they do notice with
an illegal wiretap, I have a hard time seeing a judge issuing a
warrant for a search to "confiscate" the illegal scheme (assuming that
at one day, it comes to this; a worse case) based on an illegal
wiretap. Then again, maybe I am an idealist. :>
: ------------ -------- ----------------------
: Ben Liberman INTERNET ben@genesis.MCS.COM
: ben@tai.chi.il.us
| 1 |
7,431 | 1 | |
965 |
I found the personal attacks on Prof. Denning pretty disgusting.
I don't agree with all her positions; but I think scholars can
disagree without the argument getting into the gutter.
If these personal attacks are what stopped Prof. Denning from
replying on issues of substance, they have cause real harm
to the serious debate here. | 1 |
3,308 | Hello, All!
I apologize, I haven't published my astro FTP list since March.
Now I haven't tested all the sites included into the list. I
would notified all the people, you have stored some older issues
of my, there are now lots of changes. Many sites have gone away:
They either do not exist any more or all the astro stuff have
removed.
The job keep this list is very hard, so all the notes and informat-
ion of changes, new sites, new contents etc. is welcome.
I would thank all the net people who give me information for the
newest version.
regards,
Veikko Makela | 1 |
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