NASA used the hashtag "PewPew" in the tweet: See the 1st laser-zapped rock on Mars [pic & info] 1.usa.gov/NQC0bW Team is analyzing data now #MSL #PewPew
This is what I love about science, and endeavors designed to push boundaries. Inside a fat forty something is a small child jumping for joy because a robot is firing lasers on frigging Mars !
Please can we vote for candidates around the world who will put money into advancing what is known, and what is possible and stop putting it into arbitraging smaller amounts of dollars at smaller fractions of the speeds of light
excuse me while I run around the sofa making pew noises
Our candidates aren't the ones spending money "arbitraging smaller amounts of dollars at smaller fractions of the speeds of light". Short of outlawing certain kinds of trading (a bad idea for any number of reasons) they have zero influence on that.
Now if you'd said "invading other countries" or "cutting taxes on the rich" then I'd agree with you.
They are, however, not introducing, say, transaction taxes which would make such microsecond (or less) transactions financially unfeasible. Which would probably do a lot to both making financial markets more stable and predictable, and employing high-grade physics, mathematics, and IT talent into more socially rewarding tasks.
I was thinking of a quote by Brian Cox that the UK has spent "more on Banks in 3 years than on Science funding since Jesus".
There are specific policies I would like to see implemented (I like the stabilising benefits of a Tobin Tax, agree mostly on progresive taxation) but to me thats just deckchairs on the Titanic. Getting your favourite deckchair picked for this years budget is not really a win.
Really I would like to see a generation of politicians worldwide who base decisions on empirical results, who act independantly of specific interests and work for the benefit of all. Democracy is pretty good at this. I just want it to be better at it.
Which of course means an electorate that votes for such politicians.
So its our fault still :-0
Edit - moved acerbic comment about deckchairs around a little
There's moving deck chairs, and there's tweaking feedback loops.
50+ years' experience with same-people-different-system states (East & West Germany, North & South Korea, Hong Kong/Taiwan vs. PRC, and others, not all democratic v. Communist states) show that small changes in annual growth rate can compound drastically over time.
While I'm not suggesting that all the ills of the world can be resolved just by adjusting various marginal tax rates, I am strongly suggesting that shifting incentives for major economic activity from rent-seeking value-extraction to socially-benefiting wealth-creation would be a big plus. Tim O'Reilly's been making some vary interesting comments in this regard over on Google+.
I'd like to see some footage of the laser in the lab; I'm sure they tested it out on all kinds of stuff ranging from the everyday to the exotic, and quite extensively too.
The ChemCam system is a more or less standard-ish laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system. One of the key advantages of using LIBS on Curiosity is that it can analyze somewhat distant samples, which is fantastic for a rover that has a top speed of 0.09 kph. There are several example videos on youtube, here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AtI3t1T5zk
