Word: signalling
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Clocking the Signal. Celestial radar mapping is based on the same radio-echo techniques used in plane spotting and ship navigation. But bouncing radar waves off planets requires far more power and precision. For the Venus experiment, the Goldstone installation operated at 100,000 watts, twice the power of the largest U.S. commercial radio stations. When the signals came back 41 minutes later, they measured just a tiny fraction of a watt...
...even that faint feedback carries a definite message. If the signals bounce back polarized-in other words, with their electric fields reversed-they indicate rough terrain. Unpolarized echoes, on the other hand, mean smooth surfaces. In either case, the target areas are pinpointed by a system of coordinates similar to latitude and longitude. One coordinate is located simply by clocking the signal: the quicker it bounces back, the closer the bounce-back point is to that part of Venus nearest to Earth...
...only radar astronomers mapping that planet. Similar surveying is being carried out by Cornell scientists using the 1,000-ft. dish telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and by MIT astronomers at two sites in Massachusetts. In March, Venus will again approach Earth. By boosting their radar signal to 450,000 watts, Caltech's electronic cartographers expect to make even more detailed maps...
...person hardly expects the arrival of 460 Anglican clergymen to signal wholesale whoopee. But judging from the Lambeth '68 guidebook, printed to help the bishops when they met last week for their decennial conference in London, somebody expects the old boys to kick up their heels a bit. In the section on where to eat, the Barque and Bite was highly recommended because "you get a sherry on the house while you study the menu." Chez Solange came out as "very, very French" with "ludicrously large helpings, noisy French neighbors and good carafe wine." L'Etoile was billed...
Everyone knew in the vast hall of the Rhode Island Auditorium that the Who often end with such a gory finale and that the signal for it to begin is the song "My Generation". There was a mad rush to the front of the room, everyone standing. After the interminable excitement of waiting for it, the flash of recognition as Daltrey begins the proceedings by tearing at the microphone wire till it snaps. Townshend starts pounding the floor with his guitar--plays a little on it--then crashes it into the nearest amplifier again and again hitting the sides...