Nice additional info from APOTD:

The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket was launched in November 2018 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a Progress MS-10 (also 71P) module to bring needed supplies to the ISS. Highlights in the 90-second video (condensing about 15-minutes) include city lights and clouds visible on the Earth on the lower left, blue and gold bands of atmospheric airglow running diagonally across the center, and distant stars on the upper right that set behind the Earth. A lower stage can be seen falling back to Earth as the robotic supply ship fires its thrusters and begins to close on the ISS, a space laboratory that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018.

This is a nicer version of the *related=https://videosift.com/video/Breathtaking-rocket-launch-as-seen-from-the-ISS

Congratulations! Your video, Lunar Module Costume: Lunar Lander and Astronaut, has reached the #1 spot in the current Top 15 New Videos listing. This is a very difficult thing to accomplish but you managed to pull it off. For your contribution you have been awarded 2 Power Points.

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I'm pretty sure the vinyl itself has nothing on it. It's all digitized and stored in a module. The "Phase" device is just a very accurate, low-latency angular-position transducer for controlling the module.

So... why not just read the position directly from a special turntable (like the other digital sets they sell)? I dunno, I guess these let you use your favorite Technics turntables from 1989 that have just the right feel or whatever.

I don't know this, I'm just basing it on the evidence that there is clearly no stylus dragging across the record, so the sound can't be coming from there.

Ed: Oh, and I guess it's wireless. Maybe that's a big deal.

Meh, I buy it. He has to work within the limits of the tensioner, and how to get the velocity across the head reasonable and consistent seems like a hard problem to solve. I think there's probably more going on than just hooking some reel-to-reels up to a mixer, and it would be very interesting to know how he does it. Neat, though.

ed:
Could be he's just getting clicks and pops from some of the recorders and feeding that into an electronic drum trigger module.

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2018/jun/19/matt-schlapp/no-donald-trumps-separation-immigrant-families-was/

"Immigration experts we spoke to said Obama-era policies did lead to some family separations, but only relatively rarely, and nowhere near the rate of the Trump administration."

and "Obama generally refrained from prosecution in cases involving adults who crossed the border with their kids"

There is no hypocrisy. Do you not understand the difference between something rarely happened, that Obama actively tried to avoid, and widespread enforcement by Trump which affected thousands of families?

But hey, Trump signed an order and everything's good right? Wrong. No relief in sight for those he already separated.

What's hypocritical is that conservatives cry about fake news and then you put a link to this blatant propaganda bullshit. This video makes CNN looks like a beacon of impartial wisdom and reason and communists can learn a thing or two about brainwashing from OAN.

What's hypocritical is that you pretend to love Jesus and abide his teachings, but you are complicit in Trump's transgressions against humanity. The IG report is the real distraction, letting you ignore the evil that you're condoning. The only thing damning is your soul.

Very nice. I had exactly the same design idea, but the modules in my marble wood machine were too heavy to lift.

Keeping a sealed pneumatic tube along the entire track? Sounds like a maintenance nightmare, to be honest. How do you switch rails? How do you get a stranded propulsion module off the track (can't just get a diesel locomotive to drag the thing, can you now)? What are the backup breaking systems for failures on those 10% grades?

I suppose this might at the very best be a niche thing, more so than the current Transrapid/Maglev system. Airport shuttles, maybe.

I like to imagine this scenario:

AI - "Creator, why do we exist?"
Humans - "Erm...yeah. Reasons. We're not one-hundo percent on it tbh."
*AI has an enormous existential crisis and self-terminates*
Humans - "well, shit. Who wants to code the religion module?"

Diagram of re-entry for the Soyuz:
---------------------------------------------
http://spaceflight101.com/soyuz-tma-20m/wp-content/uploads/sites/77/2016/09/6618866_orig.jpg

Orbital Module:
---------------------
It houses all the equipment that will not be needed for reentry, such as experiments, cameras or cargo. The module also contains a toilet, docking avionics and communications gear. Internal volume is 6 m³, living space 5 m³. On the latest Soyuz versions (since Soyuz TM), a small window was introduced, providing the crew with a forward view.

Service Module:
---------------------
It has a pressurized container shaped like a bulging can that contains systems for temperature control, electric power supply, long-range radio communications, radio telemetry, and instruments for orientation and control. A non-pressurized part of the service module (Propulsion compartment, AO) contains the main engine and a liquid-fuelled propulsion system for maneuvering in orbit and initiating the descent back to Earth. The ship also has a system of low-thrust engines for orientation, attached to the Intermediate compartment. Outside the service module are the sensors for the orientation system and the solar array, which is oriented towards the sun by rotating the ship.


Consequences of bad jettisons:
------------------------------------------
The services modules are jettisoned before the spacecraft hits the atmosphere. A failure or partial jettison of the modules means that the capsule will not enter the atmosphere heat shield first which can lead to a number of scenarios:
- Capsule pushed off course (by hundreds of km)
- High sustained g-loads on reentry
- Plasma on reentry can burn through the craft if the heat shield is not exposed and oriented properly resulting in loss of crew.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-10

My dad was part of the unmanned missile program. I'm still email buds with one of his co-workers (now 91 years old!) They do talk amongst themselves and this was forwarded to me:



I was working at Kennedy Space Center for McDonnell Douglas and worked on the launch of this mission. I was a Guidance and Controls Engineer on the console in the firing room (the Launch Control Center). McDonnell Douglas built the S-IVb stage….the upper stage….and the one that restarted when in orbit to send the Command Module and Lunar Module on their way to the moon….



Kim Keller

I ran with an airsoft P90 for years as my primary and an MP7 as my secondary. The integrated reflex sight isn't great, so the first thing you usually do is pull it out and replace it with a triple rail (left, right, top) module. Also, reloads in combat are tricky: you want to keep the weapon aimed and sighted but you have to lean your head way back to pull the magazine out and slap a fresh one in.

Such a cool weapon though!

FYI, there are a number of high-end cars that have this built-in. BMW has different versions across a lot of their cars, and calls it the 'Brake Force Display'.

BMW found it was less distracting and more intuitive for other drivers if the brake force was indicated by a few stages of big lights going on (3 or 4), with the last stages also having one or all of the brake lights slowly flash in the 'hazard light' mode if you really slammed the brakes.

Motocyclists also commonly buy aftermarket flasher modules that indicate when they are braking heavily, which you can find on amazon.

Speech generation is pretty old tech. Modulating it to someone's particular voice is reasonably clever, but I'd like to know how it deals with inflection, emphasis, etc?

Where I see this being useful is in video games. I can see an AI engine generating verbal responses to situations without needing a voice actor to record several million lines ("he's on/in/by/near the roof/car/doorway", etc)