Presidents' Day Open Thread

I've been coming here for years without buying a subscription, wanted to say THANKS. I'll put in some cash, someday

I've been a lurker since 1999 ( i think ), didn't sign up until 2002 though

This site is one of the good ones out there in a sea of trashy sites.

I've been coming here for years without buying a subscription, wanted to say THANKS. I'll put in some cash, someday

I've had my account here since June 2002 and may have lurked (well, *still* mostly lurk LOL) here anonymously a year or two before then.

Hopefully DSLR will survive another decade... or two... or more .

The scenes from Chelyabinsk, rocked by an intense shock wave when a meteor hit the Earth’s atmosphere Friday morning, offer a glimpse of an apocalyptic scenario that many have walked through mentally, and Hollywood has popularized, but scientists say has never before injured so many people.

Around 1,200 people, 200 of them children, were injured, mostly by glass that exploded into schools and workplaces, according to Russia’s Interior Ministry. Others suffered skull trauma and broken bones. No deaths were reported.

a 10-ton meteor around 10 feet in diameter was hurtling toward the earth at a speed of about 10 to 12 miles per second, experts from the Russian Academy of Sciences reported in a statement released Friday. Scientists believe the meteor exploded upon hitting the lower atmosphere and disintegrated at an altitude of about 20 to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface

Peter Brown, director of the Center for Planetary Science and Exploration at Canada’s Western University, said it was closer to 50 feet in diameter and probably weighed around 7,000 tons. He said the energy released by the explosion was equivalent to 300 kilotons of TNT, making it the largest recorded since the 1908 Tunguska explosion in Siberia,

Time to put Bruce Willis and his team on stand-by.

I saw something similar on the news. Former astronaut/scientist said they need to know at least 2 yrs out of the impending impact in order to be able to deflect them. They didn't even see this one coming.

Such technology would NEVER be given to NASA. The DOD would secretly own and operate it. For all we know, it might already exist. We will never know until they use it.

The problem is there is no reliable (proven) way to deflect an object, at least right now.

tl;dr

At stake in Mr. Bowman’s case is whether patents on seeds — or other things that can self-replicate — extend beyond the first generation of the products.

It is one of two cases before the Supreme Court related to the patenting of living organisms, a practice that has helped give rise to the biotechnology industry but which critics have long considered immoral. The other case, involving a breast cancer risk test from Myriad Genetics, will determine whether human genes can be patented. It is scheduled to be heard April 15.

Monsanto says that a victory for Mr. Bowman would allow farmers to essentially save seeds from one year’s crop to plant the next year, eviscerating patent protection. In Mr. Bowman’s part of Indiana, it says, a single acre of soybeans can produce enough seeds to plant 26 acres the next year.

The decision might also apply to live vaccines, cell lines and DNA used for research or medical treatment, and some types of nanotechnology.

Many organizations have filed briefs in support of Monsanto’s position — universities worried about incentives for research, makers of laboratory instruments and some big farmer groups like the American Soybean Association, which say seed patents have spurred crop improvements. The Justice Department is also supporting Monsanto’s argument.

Some critics of biotechnology say that a victory for Mr. Bowman could weaken what they see as a stranglehold that Monsanto and some other big biotech companies have over farmers, which they say has led to rising seed prices and the lack of high-yielding varieties that are not genetically engineered.

Patents have “given seed companies enormous power, and it’s come at the detriment of farmers,” said Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, which was an author of a brief on the side of Mr. Bowman. “Seed-saving would act as a much needed restraint on skyrocketing biotech seed prices.”

The Supreme Court, which has generally been taking a narrower view of patent rights than the appellate court, agreed to hear the case, much to the chagrin of the biotechnology industry.

“We did not see it coming,” said Hans Sauer, deputy general counsel of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. “We thought this question was long decided.”

A true display of our patriotic duty??

You got that right!!!