These screen grabs snarfed from titney:
<LJ-CUT " ...not really a spoiler... ">
HollywoodOS gets an upgrade
One thing we've learned from The Matrix Reloaded is that power plant control systems use SSH version 1, and that the software that controls the power grid is apparently some variant of Cisco IOS.
18 Comments
Tags: computers, doomed, firstperson, linux, movies, the future, xscreensaver
Current Music: Cabaret Voltaire -- Ghost Talk ♬
Today in Mad Science News: Crack the Earth!
NASA Meets Hollywood: Real Mission Proposed to Earth's Core
A Hollywood-like proposal to explore the center of the Earth calls for exploding a crack in the planet's surface and dropping a probe in behind tons of molten iron, which would sink and forge a path to the core. [...]
Stevenson figures that a nuclear device would likely be the best way to blast the necessary gap, as long and deep as several football fields and about 1 foot wide. The event would be commensurate with an Earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter Scale.
At least 100,000 tons of hot iron would be poured instantly into the crack, along with a well-protected probe the size of a grapefruit.
"Once you set that condition up, the crack is self-perpetuating," Stevenson explains. The weight of the iron, which is much denser than Earth's outer regions, would open a gap all the way to the outer portion planet's core, about 1,860 miles below. The probe would fall at about 10 mph as the crack closes up behind it.
The weeks-long mission would seek to measure the temperature, electrical conductivity and chemical composition of the core. Stevenson said the amount of iron needed is equal to what's produced on Earth in a week or less. [...] "Think of the probe throbbing like a heart," Stevenson said. "It will set the neighboring material in motion and that causes a sound wave to travel away from the probe all the way to Earth's surface."
Submarine Eaten By Bears!
Bear Attacks Sub
: During the ICEX 2003 naval exercises near the North Pole, the American submarine Connecticut (SSN 22) poked it's sail and rudder through the ice. When an officer looked around outside via the periscope, he noted that his sub was being stalked by a hostile polar bear. The periscope cam was turned on, and these photos of a polar bear chewing on the subs rear rudder resulted. The damage was said to be minor. The SSN 22 is a Seawolf class boat, one of the navy's newest submarines. It wasn't designed as a polar bear snack, but that's how life is sometimes.
cuddly diseases
"Billions of people a year catch the cold. Now you can get one too -- without getting sick! Learn all about the Common Cold with this cuddly companion. The Common Cold Plush Doll: $5.95"
(They also have The Flu (Orthomyoxvirus), Stomach Ache (Shigella), and Sore Throat (Streptococcus), but The Common Cold is the cutest.)
it's raining cows
Cows at CA Ranch Run Off Cliff
A dozen Holstein cows grazing near Skywalker Ranch in Marin County apparently got spooked and ran off a 50-foot cliff, according to authorities. Motorists on Lucas Valley Road saw the cows cascade over the hilltop at about 11 a.m. Wednesday, said Marin County Sheriff's Sgt. Doug Pittman. Some of the cows tumbled end-over-end as they slid down the slate and gravel cliff, witnesses told sheriff's deputies. [...]
Two of the cows were shot on the spot by a sheriff's deputy, Pittman said. The others were taken back to their owners at Silveira Ranch and were checked by a veterinarian.
"It's something that spooked them very badly. They'll break fences but not go off cliffs," said Lorraine Silveira, whose family owns Silveira Ranch, which has been operating for more than 100 years. The land is owned by George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, and is leased as grazing land by the Silveira family, Silveira said.
