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"The Spirit rover on Mars is currently stuck in a patch of loose material. After a few attempts to get free, the team has wisely decided to do further experiments on Earth instead of on Mars. They will now recreate the conditions in our sandbox at JPL and test out different sequences until one works reliably here, then try it on Mars. "
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"When did the simple act of recognizing that you are not the only one in the room become confused with lawlessness, activism, and social engineering? For a group so vociferously devoted to textualism and plain meaning, conservative critics have an awfully elastic definition of the word empathy. It expands to cover any sort of judicial malfeasance they can imagine. Empathyâthe quality of caring what others may feelâsignals intellectual weakness, judicial immodesty, favoritism, bias, and grandiosity. John Yoo also seems to be of the view that the kind of emotional incontinence that begins with empathy for others quickly leads to being "emotive" on the bench. Evidently it’s a short hop from empathy to having the judicial vapors. "
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"You learn a lot about people from their offices. My office is a barely controlled state of chaos, which pretty much mirrors the rest of my life. The Rocket Scientist is the only faculty member I’ve ever known who keeps coasters in his office (and requires their use). I’ll let you figure out what a coaster fetish tells you about RS – I have my own theories, but (ignoring for the moment the fact that we work for a public university and all our furniture is laminate) there actually are really good reasons for one to use coasters.
The cool liquid in glass condenses water from the air onto the glass. The water rolls down the glass onto the wood table and produces a white ring that doesn’t wipe off. Removing that ghastly mark of shame requires esoteric cleaning approaches, like a warm iron applied to a towel over the damaged area or rubbing with toothpaste."
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"He was trying to show how things don’t always happen the way we think they will and explained that, while a pen always falls when you drop it on Earth, it would just float away if you let go of it on the Moon. My jaw dropped a little. I blurted "What?!" Looking around the room, I saw that only my friend Mark and one other student looked confused by the TA’s statement. The other 17 people just looked at me like "What’s your problem?" "But a pen would fall if you dropped it on the Moon, just more slowly." I protested.
"No it wouldn’t." the TA explained calmly, "because you’re too far away from the Earth’s gravity." Think. Think. Aha! "You saw the APOLLO astronauts walking around on the Moon, didn’t you?"
I countered, "why didn’t they float away?"
"Because they were wearing heavy boots." he responded, as if this made perfect sense"
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"Often how scientists get started…"
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âPlease do not make any wishes about poop.â
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"He was valedictorian of his senior class, and had been accepted at all 13 colleges to which he applied. But when Miguel Garcia entered Harvard University last fall, he felt he didn’t belong.
As classmates moved into Harvard Yard that first day with parents – and in some cases, chauffeurs – driving fancy vehicles packed with boxes, Garcia arrived alone. His belongings fit into two suitcases and a backpack. His mother, a worker at an industrial laundry, and father, a janitor at a Detroit casino, could not afford the trip."