Here’s a picture of it while it’s still in the shop. https://inspenet.com/en/noticias/nasa-tests-solar-sail-in-solar-in-orbit/

Haven’t heard about the NASA design yet, but JAXA’s 2010 IKAROS used "Eighty blocks of LCD panels are embedded in the sail, whose reflectance can be adjusted for attitude contro ".

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That is one of the drawbacks of not having to carry a dictionary around … ever again!

‘Theeeere once was a girl from Nantucket’ … well, sort of works.

“Works perfectly” huh? That’s better than most can claim before freezing! ACT NOW! for a BIG discount!

The 2003 event produced the biggest-ever solar flare ever measured, an X45. That year, several BIG transformers exploded in South Africa. This event’s biggest so is 8.7. A lot depends on where it’s aimed at … but anyway , no, we are not prepared.

Yeah… well (we have to admit) the ‘hole’ quantum part was very long and VERY nerdy for a whole lot of people. (Their loss.)

There’s a lot to like about Atril (native to MATE).

America didn’t learn from Raygun’s 8 years of ‘trickle-down’ hilarity. ‘Great communicator’ of what? Old celebrites might be popular, and make useful PR figureheads (after all, they’re experts at play-acting). But (surprise!) usually make crappy leaders out here in the (more real) world.

Whoa! Thanks for the pointer, I never saw one. (Don’t get to HD much these days.)

Good idea! Also works for shortwave stations that turn on at your wakeup time, especially if you’re annoyed by propaganda!

(I use an FM radio tuned to a spot where there are no signals. Doubles as an FM radio during the day.)

(Use the tone controls for more or less white or brown noise.)

YES! I a roll recently to get the cables behind my desk up and away from my feet. (Jerking cables out of their jacks sideways is bad for today’s crap hardware.) AND no more rats’ nesting.

(Too bad I never found a desk with a cable gutter along the back. Wud be great for a bunch of heavy audio/midi cables.)

Really good science news communicators (including many teachers because how are admins to judge?) are too rare … on YTube there’s … a half-dozen, maybe, at best?

" the Selfish Gene, which I could rip on for pages "

Please put me on the list to read that!

Yeh! Good to see the rusty machine (and self-deprecating) model fading away and being replaced by real appreciation of the true marvels that have emerged over millions of years. (Science’s mechanical models were all so … 18th century!)

(Not so familiar with biology but did enjoy hearing about the tack Lee Cronin’s taken.)

No, it isn’t … although batteries are getting cheaper there are far cheaper ways. But they’re too practical, and the game’s still about big money-making while the political heat is growing.

Fission’s not just more expensive then rewewables, it’s way Way WAY more expensive. Even if you don’t count the costs of safely (if ever) securing wastes for thousands of years. Or paying for the on-land spills (too dangerous for remediations for decades). Or the health costs of the emissions (recorded and unrecorded). Or ever-skyrocking costs (and failures) of renovation. Or using loads of ever-scarcer river water, or water from oceanside earthquake zones like Fukushima.

Luckily, we have a reactor in the sky 90 million miles away. Right now, every day, It provides the Earth with hundreds of times the amount of energy humanity currently consumes. FREE ENERGY. Windmills have been in use for well-over a century, yet utilized little. Why? Because when FREE energy is everywhere, up for grabs, it’s hard to centralize material formats in nice, big, very profitable power plants … especially when you don’t count externalities (especially invisible ones, like emissions or mines hidden away in places no one who matters ever visits.).

Takes a lot of propaganda to keep people divided and discouraged while they decide out how to hold onto the bank.

And to think that their colleagues told them not to bother, that there was nothing there. Must feel really gratifying after all those years.