i want to know weather we can carry out lime calcination in electrical furnace.can any body tell a suiteble electric furnace or kiln for lime burning?
Last Chance Before The Next Bonus Riddle
UPDATE: Solved by Alex at 12:06
Here we are, down to the wire on the last riddle before the bonus riddle. Remember, it’s running Monday, July 4th. Although I’m sure everybody knows the rules for the bonus riddle by now, I’ll run through them again in case you tuned in to the riddles recently.
- Tom and I will post the bonus riddle at noon CDT, July 4th.
- Guesses on the bonus riddle will be by email to Tom or Marian.
- You will have 24 hours to submit your guesses; from noon CDT Monday July 4th, until noon CDT Tuesday July 5th.
- You get three guesses.
- Comments will be closed on the bonus riddle until after the submission deadline.
- The winner will be the first person to submit the correct answer. If nobody solves the riddle by noon CDT July 5th, it will be opened for everybody to give it a shot.
- Tom will have the final say in any controversy.
Today’s riddle is your last chance to get on the list for Monday’s bonus riddle, if you haven’t already done so. Now, for the fun stuff. Your answer is once again found in the real world.
Don't go for the obvious - that's too easy
Our ancestors probably noticed this.
They were certainly aware of it by 500 years ago.
It holds an important place in Australian Aboriginal astronomy.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Behold - this is one ugly bird.
If you visit Cancun in the late winter, you will see this.
Although thought of as fairly innocuous to most cultures, there is one which views this with fear.
Not prominent in SciFi, it does feature in one important work.
NASA image
Okay! Nice and short today, but you guys are good. I will say this; pay attention to the image clues. It seems some of us are ignoring the image clues in favor of the written clues. I’m in the comments, as usual, and looking forward to your guesses.
Not Everyone Thinks The Party is Over
Mark Albrecht's White House memoir is educational--and entertaining, Weekly Standard
"The Economist magazine thinks the Space Age is probably over, and the discussion of our space future (or non-future) in its new issue is intelligent and informative. I've found over the years, though, that in many instances, the Economist's suave articulation of the not-so-cutting edge of conventional wisdom proves wrong. Mark Albrecht hopes that's so in this case, because he's a believer in space exploration, and his new book argues for U.S. leadership in that endeavor."
Musk wins one prize, eyes a bigger one
Elon Musk gives a speech accepting the Heinlein Prize on June 29, 2011, in Washington, DC.
At a luncheon on Wednesday in Washington, the Heinlein Prize Trust awarded its second Heinlein Prize for accomplishments in commercial space activities to Elon Musk, the founder, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX. At the luncheon, which attracted an audience from the public and private sectors, including NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver and FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation George Nield, Musk received the $250,000 prize and its accoutrements, a “Laureate’ Diploma” and a sword. Yes, a full-sized sword, the “Lady Vivamus Sword”, from the Heinlein novel Glory Road. “I love the sword in particular, it’s pretty awesome,” Musk said. (Musk, who attended the luncheon with his wife, Tallulah Riley, and two of his young sons, had to remind the boys that the sword, with a sharpened blade, was not a plaything.)
In his acceptance speech, Musk provided an overview of what SpaceX is doing (accompanied by a video, as is the case with nearly every company presentation, regardless of the venue). He did note in the Q&A session after his speech that the company has been “slightly’ profitable the last four years and anticipates being profitable again this year, so the company doesn’t have an immediate need for capital. However, he said he is considering an initial public offering (IPO) of stock, perhaps late next year. “The public markets are a very efficient way to raise capital,” he said, “and it’s probably a good move to have a capital reserve.” SpaceX has talked from time to time over the last several years about doing an IPO; one drawback he acknowledged Wednesday is that by going public it opens up the company’s plans to scrutiny from investors who may have shorter time horizons than Musk and other current investors. “How will the public markets respond to super-long-term thinking?”
That “super-long-term thinking” was a reference to comments he made in his speech about his goal of making humanity a multi-planet species, something that requires a major reduction in launch costs. “This is the first time in four billion years that it’s possible for life to become multiplanetary,” he said. “That window may be open for a long time, and I’m reasonably optimistic about life on Earth, but it may be open for only a short time. And if it is only open for a short time, we must take advantage of it and take action now to make like multiplanetary.” To do that, he said, requires “orders of magnitude” changes in cost and reliability, something that SpaceX hopes to achieve over time.
Doing so, he said, requires being on a “path of continuous improvement” in launch capabilities, something that doesn’t exist today. “Space has not been on a path of continuous improvement. It has arguably been on a path of decline,” he said, noting that we could go to the Moon in 1969 but we’re retiring this month the only US vehicle that can carry people to orbit. “That trend line is going in the wrong direction. It needs to be dramatically reversed, and I’m hopeful SpaceX will make a significant contribution in that direction.”
While Musk might be interested in fostering a multiplanet species, not everyone in his family is necessarily onboard. In his opening remarks, prize trustree Art Dula, referring to Musk’s two sons in attendance, said that “these are the fellas that are going to ride these rockets when they go beyond Earth orbit,” at which point one of the boys cried a note of protest: “No I’m not!” (or something to that effect.) “Oh, my goodness,” Dula said to laughter from the audience. “Well, we hope anyways.”
Elon Musk (center) holds the sword and diploma he received from members of the Heinlein Prize Trust, including Art Dula (second from right).
Autotransformer
Hi sirs,
The difference between a two winding xformer and a autotransformer is that, in a autotransformer, the windings are physically connected. The question is,
1. in a two-winding transformer, the core is used to provide a low reluctance flux path which actually links from primary to secondary.
Accuracy of Measuring Tools
Which tool can be depended on day-in and day-out for accuracy and consistancy: a micrometer, vernier caliper, digital caliper or a dial caliper? Assuming all are high quality tools, like Starrett or Mititoyo.
Squishy Republican hates Rand; Take back the GOP "from Libertarians"
From Eric Dondero:
John Hempstead of LaCrosse, Wisconsin pens this featured letter to the editor, June 28. Hempstead is upset that his beloved reasonable "Eisenhower" based GOP has been taken over by rabid anti-government Libertarians.
From the LaCrosse Tribune, "Rand's policies proven to fail," June 28:
What happened to the Republican Party? Now its mission is mainly to privatize public services and cut taxes. Public education seems to be the first casualty in Wisconsin, along with deregulating environmental and consumer protections.
How has the Republican Party evolved this mindset? Libertarian principles based on Ayn Rand’s flawed philosophy are responsible. Rand’s principles are based on three unsupportable standards:
All individuals are autonomous; productive people have no need for social cooperation.
No individual should be forced to pay taxes to benefit others. Only taxes for national defense and police work are justified.
Free markets run best with no regulation. Therefore regulations to prevent another financial disaster such as the one in 2008 are unjustified. Businesses must be protected against government, but the public deserves no protection against businesses.
A society based on Rand’s fiction cannot work. A result is political ads based on fiction funded by wealthy industrialists. It’s time to take back the Republican Party from Libertarians and elect responsible members of both parties who will cooperate.
Editor's comment - Hey John, take out the libertarian wing of the GOP, and the Republican Party cannot win. Recent polls have shown that a quarter to 1/3rd of the Republican Party leans libertarian. Do you really want to run us off to the Libertarian Party?
Michele Bachmann esteemed member of Goldwater’s "ultra-libertarian" wing of the GOP
Barry's rightful heir?
Eric Dondero:
An interesting forum in the UK Guardian on Michele Bachmann announcing for president. The hard-left Guardian asks its readers:
As Tea Party favourite Michele Bachmann formally announces her campaign for the Republican party presidential nomination for 2012, she is running Mitt Romney a close second in polls. Do you think she can win it?
The consensus seems to be that she can win the nomination, but it would spell doom for the GOP in the general election.
One respondent - Westmorlandia - gives some begrudging respect to his rightwing rivals.
I want Bachmann to win almost entirely so I can see how similar the campaign ends up to the 1964 campaign - I studied Goldwater for my degree, and the ultra-libertarian wing of the US right were a weird but fascinating phenomenon to cover. The difference now is that Reagan's fusion of the libertarian right (Reagan's roots) with the evangelical right is still strong, which seems to put the US right in a better position than it had in the 60's.
But the interesting similarity is the strength of feeling for a fairly extreme viewpoint, and the illusion (I still think) of majority caused by that strength of feeling
Photo credit - (Bachmann) USAToday
Texas Legislature passes anti-groping measure for Airport screeners
Religious Right and libertarians converge on Privacy
From Eric Dondero:
Dave Nalle, National Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC.org) and a Texas resident has been pushing legislation these last few weeks, to halt intrusive searches by the TSA at Texas airports. His efforts have proved successful.
The proposed legislation, backed by mostly hardline religious conservatives, "would still make it a misdemeanor punishable with up to a year in jail to touch a person's sexual organs and other sensitive areas."
The House passed a measure, and soon after, a somewhat softer version was passed through the Senate. It now awaits Governor Perry's signature. He has already indicated he's strongly in favor of such legislation.
The AP reports on "Airport groping Bill":
Although dismissed last week as a "publicity stunt" by Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, the issue has become a top priority for the libertarian wing of the Texas GOP.
Ironically, the prime mover of the legislation in the Senate was fiery religious rightist Sen. Dan Patrick of north Houston. Adding further irony, Joe Straus (photo), long-held in great suspicion by the social conservatives, was the prime mover of the legislation on the House side.
Note - Of course, the Pro-Defense libertarian position is Anti-Groping/Pro-Profiling of airline travelers from Islamic countries and other suspicious travelers.
Stainless Steel
Which stainless steel is best to be used for shop fittings, 201 or 304?
The Tools You Need Before Any Fireworks Extravaganza [Fireworks]
This Monday, cities across the country will be pulling out all the stops to have their citizens see some of the finest light shows ever orchestrated. That shit takes time and energy, and a lot of it is to ensure both the fireworks and the people behind them are stationed safely. More »
Perry meets libertarians half-way on Pot Legalization
If California wants to Legalize Let 'em; Just don't mess with Texans' guns and death penalty
From Jay Root of the Texas Tribune at BusinessInsider.com "Rick Perry's tough talkin' Texan":
Months before liberal Congressman Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, teamed up with Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to back an effort to de-criminalize marijuana, Perry was making essentially the same point in his book, writing that Washington has greatly overstepped its bounds by making pot use a federal crime.
“It ought not be the federal government’s job telling them they can’t do it,” Perry said in that November interview. “I totally and completely disagree with the concept of legalizing marijuana, but it ought to be California’s decision.”
Perry has made the same argument about same-sex marriage. He’s against gay marriage himself—reflecting the conservative state he represents—but he has argued in favor of allowing each state to decide for itself what its policy will be.
“If you don’t support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol, don’t come to Texas,” Perry says. “If you don’t like medical marijuana and gay marriage, don’t move to California.”
Photo credit - BlewState.net
Rand was Right! The Takers of Taxpayer dollars Suck!
Vampires on the producers of society bleeding us dry
Excerpted from syndicated columnist Erik Rush, WND, June 23:
When I was around 11 years old, my father turned me on to Ayn Rand. Apparently, he thought it was important. You can imagine what sort of kid I was to start reading that fare willingly, then head off to the library for more at that age.
For many weeks, there's been a buzz around the release of the film adaptation of Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." While the viewer feedback (as opposed to critical reviews) was generally good, what's germane to our situation is the thesis. There are aspects of Rand's philosophy (called Objectivism) with which I roundly disagree; still, I believe that she definitely did "get it." Having escaped Russian communism, she knew that the eternal social struggle is not between the capitalist and the worker, but between those who contribute to the advancement of society (capitalists and workers) and those who don't.
Throughout history, kings, oligarchs and, now, communists have set themselves above the contributors through might or guile and simply … suck. They suck subsistence for themselves, creativity from the creative and all positive energy from the collective. In the end, nothing remains, but it's only the short-term existence of these vampires that matters.
Editor's note - Rush, who writes for World Net Daily, the Ft. Collins Coloradoan and numerous other papers, is a frequent guest on Fox News - Hannity.
FANUC 10M Parameters Wanted
Dear All,
I have a HAMAI 3VS VMC with a FANUC 10M Control in it and due to some mistake the parameters of the machine were wiped out and I got screwed as I do not have the back up of the same. But working on this for a long time we have started the machine back and the axis moment is great but the
Could Republican Anti-Expert Sentiment Crash the Debt Ceiling Talks? | The Intersection
By Jon Winsor
A theme we’ve been exploring at the Intersection is the Republican tendency to reject or disregard expertise, particularly scientific expertise, and also settled facts among experts on US history.
National Journal recently had an interesting and unsettling article on GOP freshmen in congress and their attitudes toward what experts have been telling them about the debt ceiling:
“This is probably the most whip-proof Congress we’ve seen in our lifetime,” said Mike Franc, a former aide to then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who is vice president of government studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “They don’t defer to credentials and expertise very easily. You have to earn it big time with them. Whipping almost by its nature requires a certain amount of trust and deference that someone really knows what they’re doing and is part of a team, and in that way you’re dealing with a different kind of Republican Party.”
…[T]roubling to anyone fearing a U.S. default is the growing chorus of Republican lawmakers and leaders who openly and defiantly question whether the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling needs to be raised at all.
One of those debt ceiling skeptics is a Republican presidential candidate presently polling in second place in Iowa:
Newly declared GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., echoed a popular view among some Republican lawmakers on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday when she said that the August 2 deadline set by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is a lie.
Geithner holds no sway among House Republicans, whose contempt for the deadline only accelerated once Treasury, in May, moved the target date for default from July to August. That decision prompted a suspicion that the new early-August deadline is fully negotiable.
Ezra Klein has a rundown on what failure to raise the debt ceiling might look like. Josh Marshall discusses the polling numbers and the strange state of the debate around the issue, citing a Gallop poll that shows that 34% of the people polled don’t feel like they know enough about the issue to have an opinion. This actually seems sensible, considering that since 1962, the debt ceiling was raised 75 times without much fanfare–so the public hasn’t had to learn much about debt ceiling authorization. Let’s hope these people won’t need to learn…
Make a little noise with your handgun in your own home, and land yourself in jail
Even in the "Live Free or Die State"
From Eric Dondero:
There's a primary election on Tuesday, July 4th in New Hampshire. That's right. In addition to fireworks, hot dogs, and suntans at nearby Hampton Beach, Seabrook-ians will be voting to choose a Democrat and Republican each to face off against a Libertarian in September.
Even the guy who held the seat is running.
From the Newbury Port Daily News:
state Rep. Gary Wheaton (photo) of Seabrook resigned his seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives this spring.
To begin with, Wheaton, 50, is running to regain the seat he gave up after having run-ins with the law on two separate occasions.
His second set of legal problems, which led to his resignation, is still pending in Hampton, N.H., District Court. Later this month, he will face charges brought by Hampton police related to speeding and driving after license suspension.
But wait, there's more. One of the Republican candidates is also facing charges, albeit of a less serious nature.
Continuing:
Albert "Max" Abramson of Seabrook was indicted in May by a Rockingham County Grand Jury on eight counts of felony reckless conduct based on charges brought by the Seabrook Police Department.
Seabrook police arrested Abramson on charges of firing a handgun, for which he has a permit, into the ceiling of his home during a party on Dec. 19. While Abramson 34, has not admitted to firing the handgun, he defended his actions as simply trying to stop a fight. Abramson, a member of the town Budget Committee and fellow Republican candidate, claims the case is politically motivated.
A couple other milktoast Republicans are also on the ballot, and two Democrats. The winner will face Libertarian Party member and elected Town Committeeman Brendan Kelley (photo).
Kelly is not on Tuesday's primary ballot because he faces no opposition in his party.
Insane War on Drugs now claiming 4-legged victims thanks to Canadian Feds
by Clifford F. Thies
In British Columbia, pot has been pretty much decriminalized. This means possession of a small amount is treated like a parking violation, subject only to a fine. But, dealing in the substance is still illegal. Accordingly, the forests of the province abound in marijuana. And, now, marijuana growers have come up with a seeemingly ingeneous method of guarding their plants from interlopers: guard bears.
The London Telegraph reports that, along with arresting two humans, Canadian police arrested more fourteen guard bears in conjunction with a marijuana bust. The bears, they report, were tame and even docile. But, they will have to be put down because of their familiarity with humans. Also, one raccoon.
Detectives raiding the two large cannabis fields in Western Canada were surprised to discover at least 14 tame, and seemingly docile, black bears wandering around the crops.
During the raid earlier this month, police also found a “friendly pot belly pig and a little raccoon sleeping on the bed”, which tried to climb up an officer’s leg.
The drug crops, containing about 2,300 plants, were found near Christina Lake, a remote area east of Vancouver, just a few miles from the American border.
Thus, the international war on drugs claims yet another victim: guard bears.
Photo - MamaPop.com
Now You Can Finally Jailbreak Your iPad 2 [Video]
Well that took forever. With no word yet from the iPhone Dev Team or Comex, a jailbreak has just been let loose for iPad 2 owners running iOS 4.3.0. You should, as always, tread with caution, but happy jailbreaking! [Engadget] More »
I’ve got your missing links right here (2 July 2011) | Not Exactly Rocket Science
Top picks
“If this were true adios theory.” Darwin’s margin scribbles show the evolution of a theory
Video games that use living microbes
It’s survival of the weakest when bacteria play rock-paper-scissors
Humans guided evolution of dog barks
The last Indian vultures, and the feral dogs that are replacing them
A fascinating piece about the real secrets behind Area 51 (no, really), involving stealth planes and a mystery illness
Thomas Knudsen carefully poisons a 3-week-old human embryo… in a computer.
What do you get when you put a terrorist inside of a brain scanner? We don’t know. Important piece by Virginia Hughes
“These critters are hell-for-leather, flat-out just gonna get there.” Wonderful David Quammen piece on animal migrations
The evolution machine: genetic engineering on fast-forward, a great story by Jo Marchant
Beetles with screws and nuts in their legs
News/science/writing
How airplanes punch spreading holes in clouds, cause snowfall
The value of simulations – why crew/pilot errors have become a minor cause of plane accidents
Bacteria in Carl Zimmer’s belly button was previously known mainly for being in Asian soil. What has he been putting in there?
Electrocuting women who look at photos of their partners… for SCIENCE
“Garcia inserted the compressed-air ...
Water Caught at 7000 FPS Is Mesmerizing [Video]
Water is beautiful. Romain Glé and Thomas Séon worked together on this music video, "High Hopes", to show that slo-mo water fighting a presumably evil black ball is stunning to behold. [Fubiz] More »
