Learned a word today, weltanschauung which roughly means "world view" or "philosophy of life". Which to me speaks to this issue of "how to be a functional human being". We aren't these input-output productivity machines, despite on how much we may like to think we are. We are to some extent finicky, whimsical…

I think "passion" includes so much more than just "what you like to do", but rather its about an internal drive to be "in flow" with that thing, to work past failure and mediocrity, and enjoy bringing value to others with that thing.

I go camping in the desert several times a year (I live in Utah and like to play outdoors) and this year was my first Burning Man. Like anybody else, all I heard about was how difficult it was to cope with the conditions at times, and how much attention I needed to make to being sure I'd be ready. I took heed to all…

You shouldn't pursuit your passion with a sense of entitlement, you wont get far and it will make you more miserable in the process. Instead, pursuit it with openness, realizing that its going to take a lot of real work and time to get there and you'll probably have to do some less-than-favorable jobs in the mean…

That tape wouldn't be found on the floorboard of a 1987 Buick LeSabre (at least not until a poor, wanna-be filmmaker was driving it around in the late 90's), that's a DV Tape, introduced circa 1996 (I believe).

Essentially, yes, as long as atmospheric interactions don't burn you up/slow you down. It is interesting that escape velocity isn't too much more than orbital velocity (~70%).

Compromised passwords from website database leaks are the main concern. That, and huge rainbow table databases. So while your password to a website will be hashed (usually just md5 or sha1), a rainbow table of sufficient size makes it so your password can be discovered instantly. Websites with good security…

I just want to point out that the theoretical maximum speed is just about orbital velocity (a little more actually). Should we be able to actually achieve these types of speeds with a scramjet reliably, that would open the door to develop a true, single-stage-to-orbit space plane, capable of taking off and landing at…

As someone who is incredibly passionate about space exploration, I run into this argument a lot with people. I can never figure out their starting point, why their point of view is so radically different from mine, which is something I want to be able to understand so I can reconcile it. The confusing part is they…

Zero is also a concept, so are imaginary numbers, yet they all still play very important roles in mathematics.

You raise an excellent point, so far, we haven't even been able to create a self-sustaining community on Earth yet.

The assertions isn't that someone who commits a violent act must have a mental disorder, rather that someone displaying such incredible lack of empathy and anti-social behavior are clear markers for disorders such as psychopathy. The idea isn't to excuse someone's behavior on account of a mental disorder, rather to…

Engineer an elaborate multi-million dollar solution, or use Eye-Fi cards?

*Nerd nitpick* The photo shows the full Saturn V rocket stack apparently in orbit... that's just...wrong... :/

I've lost two cameras in weather balloons at a personal expense of over $500, not fun. Successfully recovering a balloon, however, very satisfying.

"...the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite...", so polar orbiting meaning instead of orbiting along with the equator or at an inclination in between, this satellite orbits at 90-degrees in relation to the equator and flies over the poles.

It would take a fairly significant change in velocity (delta-V) to get the ISS to reach lunar orbit (around 3000m/s), the existence of "mascons" within the moon make keeping anything in orbit long term very difficult (the orbit has to constantly be maintained).

I may be part of the problem. My 3 computers at work have each their own global (not-NAT) IP address, whenever I (or anyone else) get's on the secure Wifi on campus, they get a global IP, my iPhone included. I have 3 different websites with their own IP addresses, and of course my internet connection at home.

This achievement marks a milestone that gets us much closer to having these as manned spacecraft. It is likely that 2 or more of these will have had manned missions before the official Space Shuttle replacement, Orion.

Its weird that there's been so much contention with this list, in my humble experiences with photography, I related to nearly everything written on this list and could easily see the point being made about everything else.