OT: Squirrel Found on Mars

I don't think it's a squirrel, though. Looks more like a gerbil or a guinea pig to me. See what you think:

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Reply to
Cursitor Doom
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Looks like a funky-shaped rock, to me.

Mars seems to have a lot of rocks; I think if you spent enough time rooting around you could probably find a rock isomorphic to just about any small object you want.

I think it would be a more productive use of America's science budget to finish off the Superconducting Supercollider than to pump tax dollars into the professional rock-investigators at NASA.

Maybe I'll write The Donald a letter about it.

Reply to
bitrex
[...]

Was it really necessary to include an "OT" given the nature of the subject line?

Reply to
Chris

I think you will find that most do not already have a filter setup for squirrels.

So yes... :)

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John Devereux
Reply to
John Devereux

That explains why so many Mars landers, rovers, surveyors, and explorers have crashed. The squirrels chewed on the exposed wiring.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

It is finished off. Very.

than to pump tax dollars

It's the ISS that we should kill off. And any idea of putting people back on the moon or killing them on Mars. Both expensive and useless PR. NASA should get back to aeronautics.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

Flying squirrels?

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That really increased the attenuation at certain frequencies.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

Pure courtesy. Some people here have filters against anything non- electronic related and I respect that. Unlike Bill Sloman, who *never* posts anything electronic-related.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

That picture reminded me of something from the dim and distant past and your observation "at certain frequencies" prompts me to post a question.

My transmission line theory is desperately in need of revision, but I seem to recall that there was an urban legend going the rounds about 40 years ago during the height of the CB boom, which stated that you could 'take out' a base station CBer you didn't approve of by 'pinning his coax' - by which was meant sticking a pin through his antenna feeder to short the shield and core together.

Now I'm very rusty to say the least on such matters, but is it not the case that the pin couldn't just be inserted anywhere along the feed line; it would have to be stuck through at or near to a current node to have maximum effect? Or is it a voltage node? Dashed if I can remember. But I'm damn sure someone here does!

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

I mean finish as in complete, not leave a big hole in the ground!

The cost to complete it in 1989, even adjusted for inflation, seems like pocket change today. High-energy physics might have been overfunded in the 1980s as compared to more "practical" disciplines, but it seems there's a glut of "materials sciences" and "life sciences" peeps these days.

I won't mourn it - it was in large part a big make-work pork project for the MIC cuz there wasn't enough demand for stealth bombers (all cost-plus modules like the Shuttle, I assume.)

You could design a safer, less expensive stage-and-a-half "spaceplane" purely for hoisting cargo and scientific research. That wasn't the Shuttle we got, because that wasn't the vehicle the DOD wanted.

Reply to
bitrex

Perhaps a rocket powered flying squirrel: I'm wondering if the squirrel arrived with the lander, or if it was there waiting to greet it.

Yes, but it still sorta works at microwave frequencies: Perhaps the squirrels are trying to tell us something about the limitations of our CATV infrastructure and technology?

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

They did finish the helium liquefaction plant, the biggest in the world at that time, I think. I designed the temperature and liquid helium level instrumentation, as CAMAC modules. I would have made a lot more money if they'd finished the whole thing.

Tera-EV accelerators don't seem to contribute much useful to society, and they are very expensive.

We are getting a lot of RMAs from Jefferson Labs lately; cumulative radiation damage.

Space is extremely hostile to human life, and we can do science up there without people. Not that there is a lot of science to be done in low earth orbit.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

The cable TV got really snowy, and the internet didn't work at all.

But why would a squirrel want to eat all that insulation and braid? I hope it didn't disagree with him.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

I had some similar damage at a customers, except by a mouse, not by a squirrels. It looked exactly the same as your photo. The RG-6/u was routed through a foundation vent window protected with 1/4" wire mesh. It would be mouse proof if the installer hadn't spread out the hole wide enough for a mouse to squeeze through. The mouse wanted to get in under the house, but the cable was blocking the hole. So, he just chewed up the cable to get more clearance.

Squirrel damage to cable:

Hopefully, you won't have this problem:

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Rocket J. Squirrel, of course!

Reply to
krw

Nothing that Cursitor Doom can recognise as electronic-related.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply to
bill.sloman

Rodent incisors grow all the time. Rodents have to chew on stuff to wear the teeth down fast enough to compensate for the growth.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply to
bill.sloman

I use to love Rocky and Bulwinkle and Mr Peabody and his boy.

We call this our Wayback Machine:

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I have the complete R+B set on DVD now.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

By nice to have the original photograph - particularly if it was one of a stereo-pair.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

Sherman. It was my favorite cartoon, by a long shot. There are so many levels to the humor that it was just as funny, though quite different, when I watched it with my son, decades later.

???

Reply to
krw

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