rasmack

It is not uncommon for journals (at least in physics) to allow you to supply a list of people you definitely do not want to have as referees. Apart from that the main reason for the anonymity is that the reviewer will have a larger propensity for being "ruthlessly" honest if he knows he is not going to get an angry phone call the next day. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Yeah, I know. It is just a little hard being optimistic right now. You won't find this on the web but: ... management just clamped down on unauthorized leaks of information... Oh well... guess that means there is time to jump out of airplanes again. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Unfortunately not quite true: Clicky You go to Paris for the weekend and next thing you know they break the machine... HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Yep, these days it is rather fun (though a bit hectic). As for webcams, here are three links from ATLAS Control room Underground Underground My desk in the control room is the one closest to the camera. Try clicking on the picture logs to get an idea of the sizes of things. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Thanks. Right now I'm mainly tired, though. Luckily tomorrow is a local holiday and I'm not on shift.

It's been an exciting day here. The stated goal for the day was just to get a beam around in both directions. When I woke up this morning I saw cooling problems in the tunnel, exactly what could put the project on hold. These problems were quickly fixed, though, and within a few hours a beam made it three times around the ring before being dumped. The other direction proved a little more difficult but rthey got it in the end. The status right now is that they managed 13 turns on beam 2. You can follow the status here: http://ab-dep-op.web.cern.ch/ab-dep-op/vistar.php?usr=LHC The program for the next couple of days is giving the beam some structure so it can be focused. Collisions won't be for another week or two. A couple of pretty pictures from "my" experiment: http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/OPERATIONS/prodSys/atlasoracleadmin/10Sep2008/beam/index.php HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I work at CERN (specifically the ATLAS experiment). I normally recommend that people read the safety report if they are worried about strangelets / black holes / whatever. There are parts of that paper that are understandable by the general public. For instance one can check out the section on cosmic rays: It goes on to point out how we haven't seen any other planets spontaneusly explode / implode / whatever as a result of a cosmic ray impact. This is essentially a zero risk. As for Wednesday, we expect to see first beam before lunch. It will be a 450 GeV pilot bunch substantially below TEVATRON energies (Fermilab, Illinois). First collisions will follow 1-2 weeks later. High energy collisions will take an additional month or two. If you want a measure of our excitement with this then think how it must have been around NASA at the time of the first Apollo launches... HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

As the resident Dane here I have a few comments. A lot of what you write is true but a few comments need to be made to put this in context. Sorry to enter the discussion a little late. More like 180% tax + 25% VAT. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Do you want the U.S. to give up it's national sovereignty and turn it over to a few people in Holland to tell us how to run our country? Ehm... in signing a treaty and agreeing to disputes being arbitrated by the International Court of Justice, the US has certainly signed away the right to decide when a treaty is being violated. This is a Good Thing as it is the very same procedure that makes sure that Mexico / Italy / Russia doesn't get to decide when they have violated your rights. What you should really be worried about is that SCOTUS in this case has overruled article VI of the constitution. If that is not "legislating from the bench" I don't know what is. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

No, but consulary assistance might come in handy. There are (at least) three Vienna conventions. You want the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, Article 36, (b). HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

The Vienna convention is about granting extra rights to aliens arrested in your own country in return for those same rights being granted to your own citizens arrested abroad. I think these two guys can be more than happy that the American consulate was called after their arrest in Tijuana. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Now, don't you think a competent lawyer might have brought it up earlier? Do you think that just maybe, if he had been informed that he had this right that he might have had a competent lawyer? It seems to me he was guilty and under Texan law it probably would have ended the same anyway but due process is about more than the end result. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

*sigh* If you would bother to read your own constitution (Article VI) you would know that this is about receiving due process under US law. If you don't want to dig it up just read kallend's post above. You may not like it, but the fact remains that any treaty entered into by the US becomes federal law overruling state laws and constitutions. I personally don't think any counsel would have changed the outcome of this case one bit but that is another matter. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Get experienced and get video of the landings... oh, and HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

In all fairness one should probably apply a more sophisticated method than just a counting average. I'm no American and I am thankful for not having to listen to all that election cr*p already, but I think I should point out that a better method here would be to - apply a weight factor to commonly occuring words in the coverage of other politicians, say +10 to -10. This would give you a control sample. - Apply the weights to the coverage of McCain and Obama thus giving a story about sadistic pedophilia a larger impact on your parameter than a possible inaccuracy in tax papers from 1978. Such a method would ensure that boring "feel good" stories would have little impact while issues perceived as important would have a significant effect. What I am saying is that we don't know if this is just an effect of different coverage profiles of the two. Are there more "family stories" on Obama's side (would be positive I'd guess)? Are there more stories from McCain's somewhat longer carrier (longer time = more "dirt")? HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

It was a few years ago but IIRC they had some guidelines to the tune of 150 jumps or something like that. IOW a fresh A-license probably wouldn't be good enough. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I did a 30k jump with these people at the 2006 WFFC. It was a nice experience and one of them gave me a case of beer for having to bump me off a load until the next day. The jump cost me 350$ including training and O2 equipment. A lot of money, agreed, but hey, it was my only way of trying this

Hmm... I'm certain they did when Clinton visited Copenhagen. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I have yet to encounter an airline that act as if they have ever heard that question before. SAS called the captain from the gate and asked me if there were any compressed gas capsules in the rig. Do bring your Cypres X-ray card and any other piece of paper on the rig, though. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

A point willingly conceeded.

It was a response to a blanket statement that something was always good and as such, my statement stands. Anyone who knows me will say that I know how to be polite to people. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I beg to differ. I have had people give me a pin-check whereupon they proceeded to also check the reserve pin. This is of course fine, if you know what you're doing. Once I tried landing only to discover that the reserve flap wasn't properly closed. After that, you don't touch my gear if I don't know you. Especially after I've put it on. My point is just that the well-meant pin-check is not always a blessing. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Well... I don't like it either but it i better than what I have tried at other DZs: Briefing: "We will be using right hand pattern today" Me under canopy: "Why are those guys entering a left hand pattern?!?" If noone can figure out how to follow the briefed pattern I prefer by far to not have to decide on the spot whether to follow it or follow the first idiot down. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I remember a news paper article about students working their way through school this way (Funny side note: They were all law students). They pointed out that they could work one shift a week and still have far more money than their class mates could get by conventional means. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

....Crack??? Rather regular physical checkups and targeted therapy offers. Nice to see that prostitution can be discussed in a mature atmosphere free of prejudice. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...