Word: antenna
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Another of N-M's must-have, but more down-to-earth, gifts is a 36,500 antenna that receives direct satellite transmissions. Available exclusively through N-M until February (when, we assume, you'll be able to pick one up at any five-and-dime), the antenna would fill the entire backyard of a typical, suburban home...
Some may argue that a mini-Datsun can spoil a child, or that a satellite antenna and a personal blimp are a bit extravagant. But what's a spoiled kid or a few hundred (or thousand or million) dollars when it all leads to more interesting holiday gifts? After all, if variety is the spice of life, unusual gifts are the frankincense and myrrh of the holiday season...
...Nature report created a wave of excitement among scientists, and several teams focused their attention on the twin quasars. Among them were David Roberts, Perry Greenfield and Bernard Burke, all from M.I.T., who analyzed signals from the quasars received at the Very Large Array (VLA) antennas of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory near Socorro, N.M. What resulted was a radio map that, with one important exception, coincided with the images seen with the Kitt Peak telescope. The difference was that the sensitive radio antenna array discerned two jets of material that seemed to be shooting from one of the quasars...
Finally, the Pioneer scientists shamefacedly confessed that they had found in their recordings some Titan temperature data that were partially garbled - not because of satellite signals but because of interference from solar storms and communications problems between a tracking antenna in Spam and the Ames control center. Still, enough information was retrieved to confirm that the temperature at Titan's cloud tops was a frigid -200° C (-328° F). That seemed to rule out surface temperatures warm enough to allow the formation of amino acids, the building blocks of life. But scientists were withholding final judgment until...
Barring medical complications, the men seemed to have reaffirmed the ability to live and work in space. Aboard Salyut, they performed such experiments as growing crystals in zero g, jettisoned the tangled antenna of the first radio telescope in orbit during an 83-min. space walk, and docked three times with unmanned Progress spacecraft bringing mail and supplies. For the Soviets, it all meant a major step toward a long-held dream: establishment of permanent manned spacelabs...