Posted on 02/24/2006 9:54:35 AM PST by screaminghurl
hi, a frined told me aboutthis sight. he sad i woud like this sight becuz of cat photos. i like cats alot. there r not 2 manny goud sights wim cat photos i can find.
well, wear our the cat photos?
ive ben here all morning louking 4 cat photos. decided 2 sine up 2 see if my luck wouud change. will my luck chnage?
neway i just c lots of talk abot busch. i am big ted kennedy fan. maybe i wont fit in, excpet 4 liking cats?
can some1 link 2 some photos are or post some cat photos. i reallie wont to make this werhthwhiile.
thanx.
Did you consider getting a copy of Paper Port Deluxe for your paper?
You could scan what you type in, and then the program scans it all and you can do a search on anything of almost any size by a name, topic, number and so on.
I know law firms using the program for court cases as well, it's a great tool and at school you could pick it up cheap.
It would be for the organization of your large paper.
I had never heard of that program before.
It is a program that often comes for free with many cheap scanners.
You could probably find lots of new unused programs around campus.
Lawfirms don't come out and publish "Get Paperport", but they seem to be discovering it.
Immagine the advantage of copying into the computer tens of thousands of typed papers from a lawsuit.
Once in, you update the content and can then do a search on anything.
In a lawsuit, the lawyer can look for names and make connections with almost no time being taken up by office staff.
Where it is good for you is you can take a draft, scan the typed version in, then you can scan the whole thing to see where you subject matter is.
You can keep your paper tighter and you can see if you missed anything.
You can probably just take your typed paper from Word and just drop it into paperport and have it scan the whole thing and do the same function without a scanner.
If you want to do research without a lot of work reading, you could scan articles and books in and do the word search for your topics and issues.
Depending on what you are doing, this could save you 90% of your time.
ROTFLOL!
No comment.... I don't want to spoil my dinner. :-)
You're probably right.
Since I'm going to be traveling on the weekend, I'm working on an update to post shortly.
That should give you all fodder to chew on while I'm out of town.
Be back a bit later.
Thanks for the info.
Okay. Have a good trip this weekend.
Adustments
Brad moved carefully into the spherical car, making sure his consumables kit and its umbilical were clear. He glanced at the display on his wrist pad, and tilted it up to the elevator control panel. The destination information transferred automatically.
He took hold of the stanchion as the doors closed. It was awkward moving about in a spacesuit, and he knew that if he sat down, he might well need assistance in rising again. No need for an embarrassing, bonehead stunt at this point.
Brad was very pleased with his progress. At fourteen, he was already considered an able pilot. The other crews and training he had joined were of a similar nature. Enthusiasm and skill, and common sense enough to avoid getting yourself killed were what they were looking for, and his age didn’t seem to be a barrier to some very mature responsibility.
The doors opened again. For a moment, Brad stood still, looking strangely at the upside-down appearance of the shuttle.
Then he stepped forward gingerly onto the expanded metal surface of the “ceiling.”
The shuttle was currently docked on the outer surface of the Thrust Ring. Since the docking portal was on the belly of the craft, that meant it was hanging with its command cabin facing outward. In other words, upside-down.
That was why he was here. The current project involved relocating the shuttles, most of them, from the Thrust Ring to the Flying Castle, so that it could journey down to Mars. On the trip up from Earth’s surface, the Castle had been carefully nestled in the middle of the Thrust Ring, while the shuttle/thrusters had been firing from the exterior surface.
It would have been a simple matter to release the shuttle, fly it to the castle enclosure, and dock there. Well, maybe not so simple. The Castle was rotating around the Thrust Ring, and that would be quite a challenge to an inexperienced pilot.
Besides, it would waste precious, irreplaceable reaction mass.
So, instead, they were going to go through a slow, tedious process, treating the magnificent shuttle as if it were a piece of cargo, and carrying it hand over hand to the new docking station on the Flying Castle. No thrust gases expended, just a little electricity, which they had in plenty, and time, which they did not have in plenty.
Brad reached the command chair, and rotated it around from its rest position in order to enter it. He attached his kit to the rack, making sure all the connections had mated, and then turned carefully, keeping his umbilical out of trouble, and sat down. He fastened the harness restraints just as he had done in simulation a hundred times, and smiled, which he had not always done.
He linked up to the command video information, checking the views across the belly of the craft, and activated the intercom.
“Roller-crane, this is Shuttle TR-107, I am energizing the exterior marker lights now.”
“Shuttle TR-107, we see your lights. We are moving to connect to you.”
Brad scanned the rest of his control panel. All reaction tanks were filled, auxiliary power was at one hundred percent, and the locking clamps were secure. Connections through to the Thrust Ring, and the other habitats, were still being maintained.
He looked at main power, and frowned. He didn’t like the idea of cold engines, just on general principles. He had tried to argue the point, cautiously, but he had been persuaded to accept this format anyway.
They had nearly two hundred shuttles to move, and it would have been asking for trouble to be firing up their Gas-Cooled Nuclear Reactors needlessly. No one knew how many times they could be brought online, and scrammed again, without reducing their efficiency.
He felt honored to be acting as emergency pilot anyway. If something went drastically wrong, and the shuttle broke away into empty space, it would be his job to bring it back, and to land it safely. He smiled again.
Glancing at the control board, which remained clear, Brad decided to make himself comfortable. He activated the proper suit control program, reached out with his right arm, and saw a miniature arm reach out in mimicry, inside his helmet! Slowly, adjusting for the difference in scale, he brought the hand up and scratched his nose. Then he reached over and grabbed one of the nutrition lozenges from the dispencer tube, and popped it into his mouth.
To his gloved hand, it felt like a large bun, but it was no larger than a piece of candy. There were about a thousand of the lozenges in a spring-tensioned tube running around the inside of the helmet. With these, and the sipping tube on the other side, he could easily and comfortably work for hours. Still, he also knew the danger of over-indulgence. He put the miniature arm away, and turned off the control for it.
Brad felt a faint vibration. He checked the exterior views. The roller-crane had attached to the front latchpoint, and was bringing a second cable to the same connection.
He checked the views of the hardpoints on the outer rear wings. More cables were easing their way to a connection. He would soon be on his way.
A few minutes later, Brad got confirmation that secure tension had been pulled on all cables. He released the docking clamps, and closed the mating valves on both sides of the multiple connections of air, reaction mass, and other supply conduits.
The elevator system automatically closed its vacuum tight security doors and isolated this destination in a safety lockout. Brad was now captaining his very first command!
Shortly the tension on the cables relaxed, and the shuttle gradually broke free of its moorings, moving inch by inch down from the turning Thrust Ring.
After a longer period, the roller-crane began moving along the periphery of the Thrust Ring. It’s cable arms had moved outward to clear any obstructions along the way, including other shuttles, and it was moving to position him directly above the Flying Castle.
Brad could look down through the canopy and the dome enclosure to see the thick walls of the castle courtyard, where he normally occupied one of the tiny cells for students and workers in the many industries of the Flying Castle. He felt as though he were passing over the world in a very close orbit.
The roller-crane reached a point where it could get him no closer to his destination, and it slowed to a stop. Brad waited.
Soon enough, more cables came along to take the hand-off.
This new crane was an enorrmous structure, called the splay-crane, with attachments to the arms reaching up to the center of rotation on the fore-direction side of the Thrust Ring, and on counterbalancing towers on the other side called the aft-davits. By balancing and varying the tension on these various points, the splay-crane could bring his shuttle to any point along the edge of the Flying Castle.
The two cranes exchanged their load carefully, making sure that one cable had taken up its load before the other released it. After all the new cables were secured, the old ones disengaged, and were drawn back up to the roller-crane, which moved off to retrieve another shuttle.
Brad was slowly lowered the enormous distance down to the periphery of the Flying Castle. More self-directed hausers came out to grab onto his ship, and gently turn it to the proper orientation so that it could be brought up against the exterior wall of the Flying Castle.
When he was in position on the stubby cylindrical tower that mated with the shuttle, he engaged the docking clamps, and opened the mating valves on both sides of the multiple connections. Observing the control panel indicators and finding nothing negative, he used the lower surface cameras to look for escaping gases. Everything was secure.
Brad signaled the waiting crews that he had successfully docked. They could see it already, but the protocol was to wait for confirmation.
Brad watched as the cables disengaged and moved off. His first flight! He chuckled. Then he glanced at the clock. Surprisingly, the whole procedure had taken nearly three hours! It had seemed like only fifteen minutes.
He disconnected from the seat, and moved cautiously along the catwalk to the side of the vessel, where he could climb down to the elevator. The shuttle was now oriented nose upward, and if he had known where to look, somewhere out there he might have been able to see a tiny speck called Mars.
Brad didn’t bother looking. He was busy making the arrangements, after a brief rest, to go out again. He was sure he would be able to ride at least one more shuttle into position today.
_________________________________________________
(Note: My plan is to make the Flying Castle ready to go down to the surface of Mars. Since we rode up as part of an assemblage, we have to shift things around to do this properly.)
One of the difficulties is our dependance on artificial gravity.
We will have to begin our orbital entry thrust, and then bring the castle to its central location again, while Habitats A and B are brought to a bilateral symmetry.
Habitats A and B will continue rotating with the Thrust Ring, even as they circle Mars in a distant orbit.
Meanwhile, the Flying Castle will continue, under gentle thrust upward, directly down to the surface of Mars.
Among other things, we’ll need to replenish our reaction mass tanks by compressing the thin Martian atmosphere. The storage tanks in the Flying Castle are almost empty.
That will give us the ability to take off again from the surface of Mars, and also be able to return to Earth, if that is truly what we all want to do.
After all, now that we’re out here, “It’s a big Galaxy, Mister Scott!”
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"Fascinating..."
Fun Bump!
Thanx!
Nope. Don't even recall you scaring me.
Use it where it will give you the best bang for your buck.
It might be nice to get each child something brand new for them to wear for Easter at church (so the couple sees that you've done something)and use whatever's left over for something that all of you can enjoy.
In any case, it was a wonderful surprise. Enjoy it!
Good morning, everyone!
We had freezing rain last night so the sunlight glittering on the ice-encased trees is just spectacular. I took pictures of it because it doesn't happen very often here. It was strange to hear the songbirds warbling happily, while I froze to death taking pictures. I'm so used to hearing them when the temps have warmed up; not when it is still frigid out. It was a fabulous way to start the "work" portion of my day.
In any case, I'm woefully behind on any new UT news. It's been a very busy week, what with Ash Wednesday and Tertia's birthday.
I'm taking her to see the Pa. Ballet's production of The Firebird for her birthday present this weekend. There is the possibility that we could get to go backstage and see what that is like, too. We've been planning this since last fall and she is soooo excited to go. We're making it a "girl's day out" experience, so we'll be going to dinner with friends first, and then we'll attend the ballet.
Mcxlplx was neutered and microchipped yesterday; he seems to be recovering nicely. So far, there are no behavioral or physical problems to report to the vet. He is, however, extremely aggressive in seeking petting, scratching, and loving, in general. Poor little guy. He gets to live in our bathroom for the next 3 days to keep him from opening his sutures during rough play with Minerva and to keep him safe from the children.
Primus and Secundus have their last "qualifying meet" of the short course season this weekend. Hubby will be in charge of that lovely experience. Hee hee hee.
My workouts are getting better and better. I can see changes in my overall shape and some real definition in my arms and legs. I feel great! I have been tracking my caloric intake (I rarely eat enough on my own---generally 600 calories/day or so), and have been making a real effort to eat about 1800 calories a day. It's taken a lot of effort to eat properly, but I figure that this will bounce my body out of starvation mode. I really want to see the muscles that my excess tonnage conceals.
Well, that's all of the news that's fit to print, for right now. Back to the usual grind of lessons, housework (under duress, I assure all of you), and personal projects.
What are all of you up to?
"I'm peeing fluorescent yellow, if that tells you anything."
It tells me that your Schwartz is even more powerful than mine is.
ROTFLMAO!!!!!
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