Shannon Stirone | Longreads | March 2018 | 22 minutes (5,546 words)

The power has just gone out in mission control. I look to Jim McClure, operations manager at the Space Flight Operations Facility, and he assures me that everything is fine. A power outage like this hasn’t happened at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in nearly eight years, and while it’s only been out for a few seconds, the Deep Space Network is disconnected and NASA has temporarily lost contact with Cassini, the nearly 20-year-old space probe in orbit around Saturn, as well as all spacecraft beyond the moon.

We’re standing in JPL’s mission control, known simply as the Dark Room to those who work here. Five men and women are glued to their screens, the artificial pink-and-white glow highlighting their faces. I’ve been here twice before, but I have never seen this many people running the consoles. The operators are calm and hyper-focused despite the unexpected hiccup, both hands typing, eyes darting at one another’s screens.

While the quiet panic plays out, I walk over to a sunken plaque in the middle of the room that glows with blue neon lights: the center of the universe. Above it is a large metal coin embossed with the images of three spacecraft and a DSN antenna, below is JPL’s motto, “Dare Mighty Things.” Teddy Roosevelt offered these words during an 1899 speech in approbation of the virtues of a “strenuous life” and they are now synonymous with the risks taken when it comes to spaceflight. “Far better is it to dare mighty things,” he said, “to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

I catch a bit of conversation. “Are you having any luck over there?” the data controller asks the person sitting at the Tracking Support Specialist desk. “Not yet.” Above the consoles near the ceiling are six large television screens that curve around the room. Usually, these screens stream real-time telemetry from dishes around the world and are labeled with the name of the spacecraft they’re talking to. Right now, most of them are blacked out. The only active monitors display images of celebrities who’ve visited JPL: Matt Damon in the Mars Yard, William Shatner giving the Vulcan salute.

McClure is nervously tapping a stack of round center of the universe stickers on a table. “The data is always stored, so it’s fine,” he says, trying to reassure me. “Once it hits the ground it’s stored.” The staff speaks to one another like doctors in an emergency room moments before attempting to jump-start a quiet heart. “Okay, trying to reconnect now.” The data controller grabs the paddles. “Not getting anything. Nothing. Trying again.” The Cassini Mission ACE, the liaison between Earth and the spacecraft, rushes in, his messenger bag slung over his shoulder, and mumbles something to McClure. He hurries to his station, lit up in neon blue, past the barricade with a homemade sign that reads, do not feed the ace — to the wolves. He plops his bag onto the floor, hunches over his desk, taps the keyboard, and begins trying to talk to Saturn.

When a mission launches into space, whether it is to Venus, Mars, or as far out as Pluto, we have to be able to track it, send commands, and receive data — all over a signal about as powerful as the wattage of a refrigerator light bulb. These faint whispers are hard to hear, and losing track of them for any length of time can be a harrowing experience. If the Deep Space Network goes down, if we permanently lose our connection to Cassini, it would not only be a loss of billions of dollars but also two decades of work.

***

The heart of the Deep Space Network started beating on Christmas Eve 1963, when JPL confirmed their long-term intentions of sending missions into deep space. It hasn’t been turned off since. Its dishes, operators, and radio astronomers around the world have worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the past 54 years. The DSN has many vital roles, but one of its biggest is to serve as the communication link between Earth and its robotic emissaries in deep space — anything from the moon and beyond. Every image we’ve ever received from deep space, every relay of scientific data, even those famous words the Eagle has landed, was collected by the dishes of the Deep Space Network. (In addition to being a vital communication link, the DSN also tracks potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, monitoring around 100 each year.)

Like so many of NASA’s projects, the first generation of the Deep Space Network was born out of a military order. In 1955, the Department of Defense approved a JPL mission that would come to be known as Explorer-1; it was the first from JPL to use radio waves to track a satellite as it orbited the Earth. As the satellite curved around the planet, antennas placed around the globe would lock onto its location and send back telemetry to the people on the ground. This nascent tracking system was called Microlock, and it was the very beginning of the Deep Space Network.

When a mission launches into space, we have to be able to track it, send commands, and receive data, all over a signal as powerful as a refrigerator light bulb.

By 1958, the leaders of JPL wanted out of military projects. They didn’t see their special center being used to build rockets alongside the Army; they wanted to go to space. After much negotiation, JPL wiggled loose from the Army and were officially free to explore the solar system robotically with NASA. Their center would not send humans to the moon or Mars. They would conceive, design, and build robots to do the exploring in our stead. With as much foresight as one can have, the director of JPL at the time, William Pickering, knew this meant that they would always need a way to talk to their spacecraft. The functional but small Microlock system needed to expand.

Today, the DSN has three permanent stations around the globe: in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia. Each location has one 70-meter dish standing 20 stories high and weighing a staggering 6 million pounds. These dishes are the DSN’s workhorses, built between 1966 and 1974. They are the antennas with the biggest ears, most suited to collecting high-resolution data like color images or a lot of science.

The rest of the network is made up of dishes with 34-meter antennas that can either talk to spacecraft on their own or can “array together” to form a more powerful signal. In total, there are 13 dishes positioned 120 degrees apart around the world talking to 35 different spacecraft. In 2014, the DSN clocked around 18,000 passes and averaged over 100,000 hours of tracking. As the Earth spins, there is always a dish able to receive or place a call, creating a level of assurance for the science teams on the ground. The dishes are so powerful that their aim only works if you’re at least 30,000 miles away from the Earth. The trouble is, the farther we venture out, the harder it is to hear the call.

Years ago, an intern at JPL created a website that allowed anyone to watch the antennas talking to the spacecraft in real time. DSN NOW, as it’s called, shows the downlinking and uplinking of data in real time. A solid squiggly line means we have found the spacecraft and are “holding hands” with it. A jagged squiggly line means we’re passing “envelopes” with information back and forth. Sometimes those envelopes contain the uplink, or commands. Curiosity: Drive to the left 30 degrees for five minutes to that weird rock and stop, shoot your laser, and send back the data when you’re done. The downlink from the spacecraft then comes back. Here’s the chemical composition of that weird rock you made me shoot at.

These conversations happen every day, and have for every spacecraft since NASA began exploring the solar system. This morning, before the blackout, the team was scheduled to uplink commands to Cassini. It is spring 2017, and there only a few months left on the mission, so it is vital to get as much information back from the spacecraft as possible. McClure has to leave to check on the systems and make sure everything is OK with the network. The power was only out for a minute, but the fact that William Shatner is staring down from overhead is not a good sign. I open the DSN NOW page on my phone — still silent.

When you put out a call and get nothing back, it can feel lonely and scary. It’s a reminder that we really do rely on these robotic explorers to get us the answers that we need. While NASA sends half a dozen people every year to live in the International Space Station, they spend the majority of their time operating a fleet of aluminum explorers. For the most part, our space program isn’t human, it’s robotic. And when these robots don’t respond, it’s a reminder of how alone we are on this little blue dot.

***

After 54 years of constant operation, the Deep Space Network is worn out.

The problem is not with the speed of the system itself, but rather the hard blows of budget cuts, cyberthreats, and the decay of decades-old hardware. Like much of NASA, which receives less than 1 percent of the total federal budget every year, the DSN is underfunded. Every year is a constant fight just to keep the money they have. From the NASA budget, Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN), which the DSN is a part of, gets less than 1 percent of that. The budget for the DSN is only around $200 million a year, and it covers everything from maintaining the dishes to the ongoing upgrades to the antennas to paying the 300-plus people who work at the dishes around the world. For comparison, the total value of all the robotic missions currently in deep space is around $25 billion and growing.

This insufficient infrastructure support has left the predominantly robotic space program gasping for air. During the launches to Mars around 2012, the system became overloaded, causing glitches in the uplinking and downlinking of dozens of spacecraft already in the network. Many scientists began to worry that the DSN wouldn’t be able to support the onslaught of missions vying for antennae time. With the Mars 2020 rover, Europa Clipper, ExoMars, and the James Webb Space Telescope all coming online in the next few years, the DSN will once again run into what NASA calls a time of “contention.” When multiple spacecraft need to talk to Earth at once, the phone lines can glitch and cause a sudden disconnection, creating gaps in the data sent and received, and depending on how crucial the commands are, these crowded times could mean the difference between a healthy spacecraft or one doomed to wander the cosmos alone.

NASA alone fights every year for proper funding from the government, receiving only one half of 1 percent of the federal budget since people walked on the moon. Since the early 1970s, NASA’s only major boost in funding has gone toward the SLS, NASA’s long-delayed super rocket. Funding for operations like the Deep Space Network has been slashed. In 2013, SCaN ordered the DSN to cut its funding even further, and as a result it has lost $100 million in five years, delaying upgrades to antennas and the installation of new dishes in all three centers. There is no sign that their budget will increase any time soon.

Every image we’ve ever received from deep space, every relay of scientific data, was collected by the dishes of the Deep Space Network.

It’s not just funding that the DSN is battling with. A 2015 NASA Office of Investigation report found that the network was extremely vulnerable to break-ins. Any large network is susceptible to hacking, but no other network is flying $25 billion worth of irreplaceable spacecraft.

According to a 2015 report by NASA’s Office of Investigation, the Deep Space Network has been hacked several times. The worst break-in on record originated in China in 2011, when intruders managed to infiltrate the highest security level clearance on JPL’s computers, gaining the ability to copy, delete, and modify user accounts and sensitive files. The investigation is still ongoing, even seven years after the attack.

There are many, varied security protocols in place at each NASA center, but the 2015 report found several areas where JPL and NASA were in violation of the standards meant to keep them secure. NASA isn’t lax about the state of security at their centers, but any vulnerability could lead to a disastrous outcome.

Multiple break-ins in 2009, 2011, and 2012 resulted in several arrests and jeopardized classified NASA information. These attacks have JPL and NASA officials on high alert, and while they are actively working on fixing the problems, the system as a whole is still extremely vulnerable. One significant software glitch or one really successful hack could shut down the entire system, potentially causing a multi-billion-dollar disaster. And while some of these issues, as the report states, are fixable by simply being more careful — using a 12-digit password rather than 8, for example — others are due to the age of the system. Many of the components for the DSN are as old as the network itself, 54 years old and counting.

***

When Richard Stephenson interviewed for a job at the Deep Space Network, he was warned up front about the kangaroos. The road to the center in Canberra winds through the Tidbinbilla Valley, a quiet alcove surrounded by velvety green hills. It has the charms of a picturesque Australian landscape, but hidden within this verdant oasis are monoliths of steel. White round antennas litter the landscape, while the fauna of Australia meander around the 20-story-high pedestals. A white metal sign hangs at the entrance gate asking all visitors to turn off their cell phones, laptops, and anything else that emits radio waves, so that they can “help listen to whispers from space.”

Just out of college, Stephenson planned to be a radio operator for the British Merchant Navy, but after a lecturer in one of his classes asked if anyone wanted to work for NASA in Australia, he jumped at the chance and ended up working for the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex as a 20-year-old. Little did he know that he would be navigating ships of a different kind. It was early 1988, and he was hired specifically to help Voyager 2 during its final and most challenging planetary encounter yet: the Neptune flyby. It would take two years for Stephenson to train to be a DSN link controller, leading up to the five most intense days of his life to date — the final hurrah for the Voyager mission.

Richard Stephenson during the Neptune encounter, 1989.

For events like this, distance is the enemy of a DSN operator. Voyager 2 would be the farthest from Earth it had ever been, and it was becoming almost impossible to talk to. For a planetary encounter, everything has to work perfectly. The spacecraft has to fly by just the right spot. It has to have its antenna turned exactly toward Earth, and its cameras and scientific instruments have to work. The only way to make sure all of this is happening is by talking through the antennas of the DSN. For the Neptune flyby, the stakes were so high that the Deep Space Network alone wasn’t going to cut it. They had only one chance to visit Neptune, so scientists and mission engineers wanted to get as much data down as possible. Because of the extreme 2.7 billion mile distance between Earth and the eighth planet, the bandwidth had to be increased. Not only were all the DSN dishes around the world on duty those five days, but the Parkes Radio telescope in Australia, all 27 of the Very Large Array dishes in New Mexico, and the 64-meter Usuda dish in Japan all pointed their antennas at once toward Voyager 2. As it approached Neptune, the entire world was trying desperately to talk to the spacecraft — and to listen for an answer.

When the day finally arrived, Stephenson’s job was to turn the knob to marry the signal from the Parkes Radio telescope and the dishes at the DSN. “I can still remember standing there munching on a sandwich because we couldn’t leave our consoles. … It was like an adrenaline rush.” And their efforts worked. For the first time in human history, the world saw images of Neptune. It was an ultramarine blue sphere featuring a large, dark, oval-shaped storm, appearing almost like a passageway into the planet. At the end of those five days, Voyager 2 would begin its journey out of the solar system. Today it continues to travel quietly into deep space, constantly sending back tones from 11 billion miles away — tones we only hear when we turn a dish to listen.

Stephenson’s hands have been on every deep space mission launched from Earth since 1988. He has seen rovers try and fail to land on Mars, and other spacecraft try to enter into orbit, never to be heard from again. He’s also seen the DSN blossom from an array of antennas built for 1970s exploration, grow to become the most powerful deep space communication system in the world. Dishes have been upgraded. Some have been decommissioned, scrapped, and replaced.

After 54 years of constant operation, the Deep Space Network is worn out.

Stephenson has also seen the DSN fight for funding year after year. “There’s never enough money,” he says. “But over the last ten years, when you have a budget and halfway through the year it’s cut, and then it’s cut again before the end of that financial year. Then you’re told that the budget you have for next year is going be cut as well. It makes it very hard.”

The people who work around the world in Madrid, Canberra, and Goldstone, do not work nine-to-five shifts or take lunches promptly at noon. Spacecraft call in at all times of the day and night. Sometimes the alignment between Earth and Mars is best for a 4 a.m. uplink. Having teams of people working odd hours and employees stationed at three centers around the world can be expensive. To account for the mandatory budget cuts, changes in DSN operations were initiated in November 2017 with a program called “Follow the Sun.” Instead of each DSN center running their own dishes whenever the spacecraft aligned with their antennas, one team of operators will run all DSN dishes during its daytime hours. “As we go home at night, we’ll be handing over to Madrid, and then Madrid will be handing over to Goldstone. So for the first time ever, we’ll all be dabbling with each other’s antennas,” Stephenson explains. “That’s quite a paradigm shift for the DSN.”

This new shift system cuts down on how many staff members are working at once, and should account for millions in dollars in savings for the DSN portion of the budget. But this is not a longterm solution, and this system only works when there are no big events happening.

Eventually, as we stretch our arms out even farther into space, sending humans back to the moon or to Mars, the ability to send video will be required, as well as higher-resolution data. As it stands now, the bandwidth on the dishes will max out for those requirements. As an alternative, NASA engineers are looking to optical communication using lasers to carry more bits of data at a higher rate. And they need to do to it quickly. Each spacecraft that is selected and funded is designed in part based on the DSN’s ability to send and receive certain kinds of information. Antennas and scientific components are chosen in tandem with the rates and availability of the dishes. Just next year, the DSN is slated to begin communication for NASA’s Orion EM (Exploration Mission) test flight around the moon. Soon the DSN will begin splitting its time between communication with human missions and the armada of robots already in flight.

You can talk to anyone from any NASA department anywhere, and they will tell you the same thing: There is not enough money. Badri Younes, the deputy associate administrator of SCaN at NASA’s Headquarters, is one of the people who decide where the money goes. “When you are operating with a budget that’s flat, no one can get everything they want. You have to reconcile based on priority. … In terms of maintenance, we may take some risk instead of replacing a piece.”

But the centers aren’t fighting over $100 million dollars. “Sometimes we’re fighting over 2 or 3 million dollars, or $10,000,” says Stephenson. The budget cuts are having a real effect on daily operations. The department even bought antenna parts on eBay, as some of them are now obsolete. “We’re starting to lose expertise,” Stephenson added. “There are whole networks of people who are starting to retire. Our recovery times now are being impacted as well. Missions are seeing a direct link between the underfunded resources of the network and the data that’s being delivered to them”— the data that’s required for the success of any space mission.

***

Data is just another word for “information”, but when I think about what the data really is in this case, it takes on a new meaning. Each bit of information that is sent back to Earth helps us understand more about other planets or their moons, which in turn informs us about our own existence. It’s hard to imagine how data can be romantic, but when transmitted by the Deep Space Network, it represents answers to some of life’s biggest questions. Why is one planet solid and another gaseous? Why is Earth the way it is and not like Venus? How do we fit into the universe’s grander scheme?

After the power is restored in Mission Control, and the operators are getting everything back online, I walk down the dark hallway to a freight elevator. Jim Chu, the Data Center manager at JPL, is taking me to the first of several new server rooms, the place where the DSN’s data lives.

The budget cuts are having a real effect on daily operations. The department even bought antenna parts on eBay, as some of them are now obsolete.

The doors open to braided ropes of caution tape and construction workers. “Pardon our mess,” someone says, tipping their hard hat like a cowboy. As we walk through the dusty halls, there are rooms as big as houses with missing walls. Workers are putting up drywall, and dozens of people are hammering and drilling, building the entire floor from scratch.

Chu warns me it’s going to be loud inside the Data Center, thanks to the cooling system. He grabs the security badge tethered to his belt and swipes it across the sensor. He yanks open the thick black fire door, and we’re hit with an almost-deafening white noise from the machines. We instantly have to yell if we want to talk to each other. The walls are a soothing white to match the rows of white server racks, which look a bit like lockers. It even smells new, or what I imagine a newly minted server room to smell like, barely used plastic and fresh paint. Each section is about 10 feet tall and 20 feet long, separated into areas that each represent a group of spacecraft.

Chu walks me straight to a rack and gently opens the door. Red, blue, and white wires are neatly wound around each other, connections from the top trail down to below. It looks like a stomach sliced open with innards spilling out. These lockers are the guts of the Deep Space Network. We walk around the room, and he opens locker after locker and points: “This entire row is all Earth science.” One row is devoted just to an Earth satellite called SMAP that measures moisture in the soil.

I really want to see Voyager, but Chu informs me the Voyager data has always been held off-site, just a mile from JPL at a place called Woodbury. When this floor is completed, all the Voyager data will be moved here and the entire DSN system will finally be housed under one roof. I ask Chu about the other spacecraft’s data sets as if they were celebrities. Where’s Cassini? Where’s Curiosity? Where’s Juno? He walks to a row toward the very back of the room, opens a single locker, and points to a dozen neatly stacked 3-terabyte hard drives at the bottom. “That’s part of Mars and Juno” — a spacecraft currently in orbit around Jupiter. Two DVD player–sized stacks of hard drives house data for some of the biggest space missions we’ve ever launched. Unlike the Earth missions, these deep space missions don’t require a lot of room for storage because it takes so long to get the data in the first place. Their bit rates are small. They trickle in slowly because of their distance from Earth, and as a result they require less square footage.

Before we leave, we stop and stare at the rows of new white lockers and listen to the soothing hum of the cooling system. All I can see in my head are the shiny, grooved rings of Saturn, the swirls of Jupiter’s red spot, grains of dust on Mars, the heart of Pluto, the haze of Venus. It was all here, in the noisy confines of a light, bright room so unlike the dark quietude of space.

***

The Deep Space Network sees the beginnings of things, and keeps an ear to the long, hushed middle; only rarely does it see the end. It’s the listeners whose time is fleeting.

When the twin Voyager spacecraft departed Earth in the summer of 1977, they were destined to embark on the most epic journey any mission had ever attempted, a distinction they still hold 41 years later. Not only would they visit every planet and take the first pictures of Uranus and Neptune, but they would also both pierce through the boundary of plasma from the Sun that envelopes our solar system. Their goal was to leave us forever.

Suzy Dodd was just 23 when she joined the Voyager team, two years before the Uranus flyby in 1984, three years before Richard started at Canberra, and four years before Voyager would skim past Neptune. She’s currently both the project manager on Voyager and also the director for the Interplanetary Network, a directorate at JPL that manages the DSN. Images of the Spitzer Space Telescope, Voyager, and Neptune cover the walls of her office, along with awards of just about every kind NASA offers. While she began her work on the team for the Uranus encounter, she’s quick to say that it was the final Voyager flyby that was the most special to her.

The Neptune visit was the denouement of Voyager’s long story. Sure it would continue out into the depths of the solar system, sending back science data, but after Neptune there would be no more photos, just darkness. “It was really special,” says Dodd, with a warm expression. “It was also the realization that wow, we’re done.”

September 14, 2017, was the day before Cassini was scheduled to deorbit, enter Saturn’s atmosphere, and burn up — twenty years after its launch. I was among the few members of the press allowed into the Center of the Universe for a tour. We didn’t know we’d soon bear witness to a real-time downlink from the spacecraft. The red dsn track in progress sign was placed atop the ACE’s desk. Cassini was calling home.

This conversation happened suddenly, and the human chatter became hushed as soon as the Cassini ACE’s phone rang. It was a call from the center in Goldstone. They were checking the connection. After all, this was close to the end. For a moment, the spacecraft dropped out of lock. The clasped fingers slipped, and they were attempting to reconnect. I stood behind the ACE’s chair, just inches from him, and watched his computer screens quickly fill with lines of jumbled numbers and letters. Hidden within this code were images and updates from the spacecraft — it was okay, Cassini was still on a collision course with the planet.

The Deep Space Network sees the beginnings of things, and keeps an ear to the long, hushed middle; only rarely does it see the end.

I looked up to the monitors that months earlier were blank. Now they were filled with working antennas and the spacecraft they were talking to. The countdown clock to Cassini indicated the end of mission was near: T-0 14:06:20.x

The next morning, hundreds of people awoke before dawn to head back to JPL, where together we would witness the end of Cassini. The only way we could know it was over was by listening via the Deep Space Network. We sat in silence in those last few minutes. We knew it would be sometime around 5 a.m. but there was no telling how long the spacecraft would survive before we lost it. The center in Canberra would be the last to talk to Cassini; they had their biggest ears listening with Dish #43. The screens at JPL displayed the radio downlink information. This is what they were watching in Canberra. We were connected to Cassini via two radio connections on an X-Band and an S-band. These movements look like any EKG or heart monitor. You can almost hear the rhythms coming all the way from Saturn: ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump. There were peaks and drops. We still had it! Ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump. No one blinked, and then suddenly at 4:55 a.m. PST, the heartbeats from the S-band fell flat.

Mission Control: I call loss of signal at 11:55:46 for the S-band. So that would be the end of the spacecraft.

Cassini Project Manager: Copy that. There may be a trickle of telemetry left, but you just heard the signal from the spacecraft is gone and in the next 45 seconds so will be the spacecraft.

I hope you’re all deeply proud of this amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to you all. This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft, and you’re all an incredible team. I’m going to call the End of Mission. Project manager, off the net.

In that moment, I thought of something Richard Stephenson had said, speaking with a colleague about the upcoming death of Cassini. “He said, ‘We’ll be with you till your last bit,’ and I felt myself getting all teary. I suppose we always stamp human emotion on these things.”

***

In 1899, Nikola Tesla wrote a treatise called “Talking with the Planets,” and his visions are indiscernible from what’s come to pass.

At the present stage of progress, there would be no insurmountable obstacle in construction of a machine capable of conveying a message to Mars, nor would there be any great difficulty in recording signals transmitted to us by the inhabitants of that planet, if they be skilled electricians, communication once established, even in the simplest way, by a mere interchange of numbers, the progress towards more intelligible communication would be rapid. Absolute certitude as to the receipt and interchange of messages would be reached soon as we could respond with the number four, say in reply to the signal one two and three. The Martians or the inhabitants of whatever planet had signaled to us would understand at once that we had caught their message across the gulf of space and had sent back a response. What a tremendous stir this would make in the world! How soon will it come?

While we have yet to find intelligent civilizations wandering around our cosmic neighborhood, there is in fact intelligent life in the universe — we put it there.

Voyager 1 has already departed the solar system. For the past five years it’s been sailing between our star and another, and every day it still calls home. One day it will stop calling. For years the team has been slowly turning off instruments on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in order to preserve the most important feature — the communication link. Suzy Dodd thinks the spacecraft have several years left. There’s no way to know for sure what Voyager’s final call will be. “You don’t exactly know when you get to say goodbye.” she tells me. “So every day you should say goodbye.”

Before leaving JPL, I stop in the quad for a moment to take in the Pasadena sunshine and open my phone to bring up the DSN NOW website. It takes a moment to load, and then suddenly there was Voyager sending us whispers, in squiggly lines and solid lines, telemetry, data, tones, heartbeats. We were talking again.

As you read this, there are men and women at the DSN stations checking links, turning dishes, and talking to space. Some might be eating a sandwich at their console, watching the jagged lines disappear as a connection between Earth and deep space temporarily severs and is filled again with the black silence of the cosmos. It is likely the Deep Space Network will forever remain the silent partner of the space program, but no doubt its heart will continue to beat, its dishes will sway to meet the rise of a spacecraft over the horizon, its operators will bring its radio waves together, and its explorers will turn their faces to Earth and say hello.

***

Shannon Stirone is a freelance writer based in California focused on NASA, space policy, and space exploration. Her work has appeared in Popular Science, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and elsewhere.

***

Editor: Michelle Legro

Fact checker: Ethan Chiel

Copy editor: Jacob Gross


Hypotension during septic shock does not correlate with exhaled nitric oxide in anesthetized rat.
Sepsis is characterized by hypotension, acidosis, and increased nitric oxide (NO) production. The role of NO in the development of sepsis-related hypotension is still unclear. The relationship among exhaled nitric oxide (ENO), arterial blood pressure (BP), and pH after administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) was investigated in anesthetized rats. Forty-three adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized into five groups: group 1 (C, n = 8) received normal saline; group 2 (LPS-I, n = 8) received Escherichia coli (LPS) 10 mg/kg intravenously (i.v.); group 3 (LPS-h, n = 10) received 100 mg/kg LPS i.v.; group 4 (n = 9) was treated with 100 mg/kg i.v. aminoguanidine (AG) 1 h after receiving 100 mg/kg i.v. LPS; group 5 (TNFalpha, n = 8) received 1 microg recombinant rat TNFalpha i.v.. ENO, BP, and pH were measured every 30 min for 4 h whereas arterial blood gases and pH were measured every hour. LPS administration induced a dose-related increase in ENO and a dose-related decrease in BP and pH. AG blocked the increase in ENO after LPS but had minimal effect on BP and pH. TNFalpha administration increased ENO without changing BP and pH. In LPS-treated rats, no significant correlation was found between ENO and BP (r2 = 0.13, P= ns). However, there was a significant correlation between pH and BP (r2 = 0.7, P < 0.01). Our results suggest that, in this animal model, ENO may not be a key mediator in the development of systemic hypotension during sepsis, while acidosis may significantly contribute to it.


Acetylcholinesterase activity in patients with torsion dystonia. Measurement in erythrocyte membranes.
Anticholinergic therapy provides symptomatic relief in many patients with dystonia. The mechanism underlying this therapeutic action is poorly understood; however, one possibility is that the degradation of acetylcholine is perturbed in these conditions. To investigate this possibility, acetylcholinesterase activity was measured in erythrocyte membranes from healthy volunteers and patients with torsion dystonia. Enzyme activities in erythrocytes from 14 patients with adult-onset, childhood-onset idiopathic, and childhood-onset familial dystonias did not differ significantly from activities measured in erythrocyte membranes from 17 healthy volunteers. Moreover, when blood samples from several members of a family with dominant inheritance of dystonia were assayed simultaneously, similar enzyme activities were found in the affected and unaffected individuals. The data suggest that a generalized acetylcholinesterase deficiency is not involved in the pathogenesis of torsion dystonia.


Binding Site Diversity Promotes CO2 Electroreduction to Ethanol.
The electrochemical reduction of CO2 has seen many record-setting advances in C2 productivity in recent years. However, the selectivity for ethanol, a globally significant commodity chemical, is still low compared to the selectivity for products such as ethylene. Here we introduce diverse binding sites to a Cu catalyst, an approach that destabilizes the ethylene reaction intermediates and thereby promotes ethanol production. We develop a bimetallic Ag/Cu catalyst that implements the proposed design toward an improved ethanol catalyst. It achieves a record Faradaic efficiency of 41% toward ethanol at 250 mA/cm2 and -0.67 V vs RHE, leading to a cathodic-side (half-cell) energy efficiency of 24.7%. The new catalysts exhibit an in situ Raman spectrum, in the region associated with CO stretching, that is much broader than that of pure Cu controls, a finding we account for via the diversity of binding configurations. This physical picture, involving multisite binding, accounts for the enhanced ethanol production for bimetallic catalysts, and presents a framework to design multimetallic catalysts to control reaction paths in CO2 reductions toward desired products.


Morning report innovation: Case Oriented Report and Exam Skills.
Morning report is a valuable educational conference but is often a stand-alone classroom-based discussion which misses the opportunity for bedside education. In this report, we describe an innovative morning report structure - the Case Oriented Report and Exam Skills (CORES) - that addresses this pitfall of the traditional case conference format and brings learners to the bedside. The key components of CORES include highlighting concepts of clinical reasoning, emphasizing evidence-based and hypothesis-driven physical exam (HDPE), and integrating emerging bedside technologies such as point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS).


Photo of three Duncan sisters: Susie (Don Sexton), Sarah (Charles McBride), Shirley (Guy Jagger)

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." ~ Abraham Lincoln

THE SECRET OF CHANGE…

And so the story goes: as a toddler, I left the party in the living room as I stumbled past all of the clinking cocktail glasses, above my determined gaze, and placed my tiny hands over my huge ears to drown out the raucous laughter and incessant chatter and followed my instincts. I crawled up eight uncarpeted oak steps, turned right upon the landing and ascended four more to the hallway, monitoring the distressing sound of an infant engaged in sobbing and who was yearning to be acknowledged. I stood on tiptoe and reached into the bassinet and extricated my nephew Jimmy…clutched him under his teensy armpits and lugged him back toward the steeply descending staircase. There we stood at the "top of the world, Ma" -- him in swaddling clothes and me in my Mary Janes and with the sash of my hand-made party dress now untied and dragging behind us both.

Like that once-upon-a-time television commercial, "When E.F. Hutton talks…people listen"? Why? A gasping hush fell over the crowded room downstairs, as my big sister Shirley, the new mom, bounded up the staircase two steps at a time and cradled her baby in her arms while glaring at little ole me. I felt heroic for bringing the baby back to the bathwater…I knew just how he felt. I empathized.

Shirley Duncan Jagger died on April 7th, 2015 as did I -- quite a bit. I am the only family member remaining of our original, adequate tribe of five…a mama and a papa and -- three daughters all seven years apart. At my sister's visitation I sat on a long couch with other sisters…Shirley's very cordial sisters-in-law, that is: Ellen (Henney), Marge (Mowrey), Ruby(Sherman) and Ardith (Cormany). Joanne Prater, the next to the youngest Jagger child, died several years back; her son brought a smile to my face -- at long last -- when he spoke of how much I resemble my father. "Your dad's nose, eyes and cheekbones…," he exclaimed!

My final smile of that evening occurred when Jimmy's consistently sweet wife Jayne asked if I needed any assistance as I stood alone sort of right smack dab in the middle of the imposingly funereal room, which was arrayed and bedecked inch by inch with old photographs, memorabilia and flower arrangements. I seldom dress up, and the couch-sitting had rearranged possibly my underwear in some bizarre way. I behaved like a deer caught in the headlights -- hesitantto make the slightest move…"Deja vu all over again", exceptthat Jim (and Jayne) and Susie are now all in their sixties. Shirley could not save the day this time, but Jayne did -- very satisfactorily. I felt totally loved…and the room stopped swirling as Jayne and I chatted about the past and the present and the future and life and et cetera.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I am impacted quite intensely by the fact that those who formerly played crucial roles, within my life story, seem to be vanishing every couple of months. My dad's baby brother, who might have been able to commiserate with me (re: the oddity of becoming the "last gladiator standing" with no one left to share that emptying-arena-feeling of having weathered storms and "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"), died in the autumn of 2014 -- my Uncle Mac. Mac and I kept accidentally by-passing each other in the years since I last visited with him at my dad's funeral over 30 years ago, at which time my uncle noticed my little Roy (named after my dad who was my son's best friend) forlornly and lackadaisically pacing around the front yard fencepost. Uncle Mac ambled over and gave him a ten dollar bill and a hug.

My simpatico cousin, precariously close to my own age, died in March; he and I shared such a genuine and all-encompassing passion/compassion for species other than ourselves. His grave illness had forced him to find a home for his cherished Boston Bull Terrier named Bonnie. He sent photos of her to me via countless cellphone texting exchanges which we enjoyed engaging in until the very month he passed away in a nursing home. Linder Duncan and I were textbook kindred spirits gadding about (even after the summer sun set) similarly to Harper Lee's fictionally inventive playmates Jem and Scout -- whenever our family visited my dad's home state and returned to that red clay terrain of South Carolina as our family packed into our non-air-conditioned Ford when the world seemed so young. The years passed too quickly with me visiting him only once again while in college. We re-established our bond via two reunions only a half-dozen years ago…but had sadly remained 800 miles apart from each other for decades.

Very very recently, a lady named Edna Leedy (who excelled at portraying Mrs. Claus at Albion holiday festivities and all around Indiana) met us at the Northside Grille downtown to celebrate beautiful Tari Joyce's Valentine-time birthday. Tari hails from Fargo, North Dakota, and we met on Facebook through a mutual New York hairdresser who bouffanted Jackie O.'s hair frequently and who hosted a radio show in which I participated a hilarious 23 times. Colin and Tari and I are "family"…that can happen you know. We added Edna who died of leukemia at the close of April. I met Edna only once…and she became "family", too!

In June, a memorial service -- which is the latest trend in the funeral world -- will be held for one of the most shining lights of my existence thus far. Reed Bertolette, a business associate of my father, also died this past fall. A Yale graduate, though I never realized he was so blue-blooded due to his absolute humility and down-to-earthiness, this gentleman stole my heart when I was a mere eight years of age. I vowed to marry him. I shared that info with his namesake and son Reed, Jr. when talking with him in … Hawaii--while asking for directions to the Connecticut Church in case we attend the service. His dad used to laugh at my lame knock-knock jokes, square danced with me during Old Settler's Days, wrote silly verses in my autograph book, sent me commemorative replica buttons fashioned by his Scovill Company (which had converted to building airplanes during World War II as had Blue Bell changed from manufacturing denim jeans, overalls, and coveralls to military uniforms) which had once dotted the jackets of famous Revolutionary War heroes. Reed, Sr., also sent us THE most fabulous book ever in our extensive collection -- the dimensions are so unbelievable. We have never owned a bookshelf mammoth enough since that day when the mailman delivered the intriguing history of the Scovill Corporation -- in 1956! (As well as a related, famous,popular novel entitled "The Mill on Mad River") Whoever still may own Wrangler jeans from the late 40s and early 50s can rest assured that those rivets and snaps were manufactured by…SCOVILL!

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Just a few closing words about me and those doves of peace that often get released during interment. Our parents raised us well…we three sisters have been around the block socially. We understood always (well, usually) how to comport ourselves with decorum and aplomb (which sounds like a comedy team?), but I confess that I lost it when a quaking, TREMBLING bird seemed about to be released to symbolically vacate this "jail cell called earth"? Seated on the front row beside my nephew-in-law Tim Cook, I recall muttering, "Even the Pope Himself has given that practice up due to preying (not praying), errant, ravenous attack-hawks "making lazy circles in the sky…" Then as the anxious white dove approached me, while the funeral director held the creature tightly for each of us to pet, I fled away to the back of the tent anticipating that otherwise I would spontaneously, unceremoniously intervene and halt the proceedings by kidnapping the poor feathered soul. Anita Fry scrambled after me and demanded that I account for my abrupt exit, and then with impressive finesse compared that glorious dove to a legendary homing pigeon and contended that he would soar right back to his headquarters at the house of Loren and Amy Fry just over the hill -- as quickly as I could shout "Jack Robinson"?

So, these inevitable life events, which I have catalogued here, simultaneously stunned, saddened and yet enlightened me. Shirley's unique personality seemed larger than life itself…as had my dad's. Her peaceful countenance in death left an impression that I shall remember always…the quiet strength and the beauty evident in her tranquil face reminded me that I am proud to have "called her…Shirley"…my big (though much more petite than I!) sis. I observed a changed, transformed demeanor and an easy acceptance deep within her dignified yet delicate features that establish a path to what I previously feared but instead now understand. " Surely …goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives." Thank you, Shirley Ann.

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new." ~ Socrates (by way of my dear Facebook fellow blogger Beth Kennedy of Ann Arbor, Michigan)


In vitro and in vivo antioxidant activity of a fructan from the roots of Arctium lappa L.
To explore new antioxidant resource from food, a water-soluble polysaccharide (ALP1) was extracted and purified from the roots of Arctium lappa L. (A. lappa L.) through hot water extraction followed by ethanol precipitation, ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The antioxidant activity of ALP1 was then evaluated in vitro and in vivo. ALP1 was characterized as a fructan composed of fructose and glucose in the ratio of 13.0:1.0, with an average molecular weight of 4600 Da. The linkages in ALP1 were →1)-Fruf-(2→, Fruf-(2→ and Glcp-(1→. In vitro antioxidant assays demonstrated that ALP1 possessed moderate ABTS(+) scavenging activity, strong hydroxyl radical scavenging activity and strong ferrous ion chelating activity. In in vivo antioxidant assays, ALP1 administration significantly enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities and total antioxidant capacity, as well as decreased the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) in both the serum and liver of aging mice. These results suggest that ALP1 has potential as a novel natural antioxidant in food industry and pharmaceuticals.


Friday, October 14, 2011

Belarus Central Bank Lifts Rate 500bps to 35.00%

The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus raised its refinancing rate by 500 basis points to 35.00% from 30.00%. The Bank said [translated]: "The move is next step in the consistent implementation of the general economic policy of the National Bank and the Government aimed at macroeconomic stabilization, reducing the pressure on the Belarusian ruble exchange rate and reducing inflation. The National Bank jointly with the Government of the Republic of Belarus will continue the adoption of stabilization measures in the light of internal and external economic developments."The latest move marks a continued string of aggressive rate increases, with the Bank previously raising the refinancing rate by 300bps to 30%, 500 basis points to 27% and 200 basis points to 22%. The total amount of increases since the start of the year is now 2450 basis points. Belarus reported consumer price inflation of 36.2% in the year to June, according to the National Statistic Committee, meanwhile the government is forecasting 2011 inflation of as much as 39%.

The Bank also said in a separate announcement that interest rates on liquidity management operations would also increase, with the overnight deposit rate rising to 25% and the overnight credit rate rising to 50%. The move "aims to enhance the impact of interest rate policy on the economy, restrictions on lending activity and stabilize the currency market."

The USD-Belarussian ruble (BYR) exchange rate has doubled on the black market, rising to as much as 7,000 per dollar (approx. 6,000 in July), and currently trades around 8750 (5350 this time last month) against the US dollar, according to quotes from Yahoo Finance.www.CentralBankNews.info


STRAPS: A Fully Data-Driven Spatio-Temporally Regularized Algorithm for M/EEG Patch Source Imaging.
For M/EEG-based distributed source imaging, it has been established that the L2-norm-based methods are effective in imaging spatially extended sources, whereas the L1-norm-based methods are more suited for estimating focal and sparse sources. However, when the spatial extents of the sources are unknown a priori, the rationale for using either type of methods is not adequately supported. Bayesian inference by exploiting the spatio-temporal information of the patch sources holds great promise as a tool for adaptive source imaging, but both computational and methodological limitations remain to be overcome. In this paper, based on state-space modeling of the M/EEG data, we propose a fully data-driven and scalable algorithm, termed STRAPS, for M/EEG patch source imaging on high-resolution cortices. Unlike the existing algorithms, the recursive penalized least squares (RPLS) procedure is employed to efficiently estimate the source activities as opposed to the computationally demanding Kalman filtering/smoothing. Furthermore, the coefficients of the multivariate autoregressive (MVAR) model characterizing the spatial-temporal dynamics of the patch sources are estimated in a principled manner via empirical Bayes. Extensive numerical experiments demonstrate STRAPS's excellent performance in the estimation of locations, spatial extents and amplitudes of the patch sources with varying spatial extents.


PS

BEAMBIKE

2003 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY

17,800 MILES

PS. Also is Front wheel drive only, has ABS on all 4 wheels, and rear disc brakes with mini drum brake shoes for parking brake.
I am replacing both wheel bearing hub assemblys. Rotor and calipers off, Got it unbolted from the axle, via 4 bolts, slide hammer pulled it out, but it came with the backing plate (9" to 10" sheet diameter) still on the bearing hub assembly. Also the parking brake shoes are on the backing plate too.


Hmmm… I noticed that a few of the "black comedy" greats have been ran half, or near ’bout crazy in Hollywood.There is something pretty fishy in lala land, and I’m about to put my finger on it.Leave Hollywood/the entertainment industry and pay your bills, Katt.Sad,

Drugs are a terrible thang!!! Kat talked about Mike Epps and Tracy Morgan like he had it all together. Yeah he truly needs rehab….wish him the best! We may need to call out for help for Kat like we did Maia Campbell!!! We all know somebody that has let drugs take everything from them…all we can do is pray for him and his kids…cause they are effected as well. That’s was my Oprah moment. I’m back: Dang Kat get yo’ !@$% together man….fast!!!!


Lala Maresi

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This is conveniently situated near the battleground. The staff was friendly. Horse stables and open dumpsters made for a lot of flies. The laundry had modern machines. The showers, while dated, were clean.

This is a lovely RV park, with clean cement pads, well spaced, and it is beautifully landscaped. I wish there were more campgrounds like it!! The only complaint I have is that they charged to take a shower. How about just upping the reasonable price a bit so people don't have to scramble for quarters?

This little campground is right on the banks of the Yellowstone River. We had a back in site and could put our chairs in the grass on the banks of the rushing river. There are no amenities, but we didn't need them, as we were interested in touring Yellowstone National Park which is about 20 minutes away. The owners were very friendly as were the other RV'ers, many of whom were there for the summer, working at Yellowstone. This is a convenient spot if you don't want to stay in the park. We would return.

This is a family friendly campground "resort" which had all kinds of activities for children from a water slide to trail riding. It was filled, and there were many young families obviously having a great time. We could not get cell phone reception, but that was fine for a change. We would stay here again.


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AMD's Hiring Another Open-Source Driver Developer

12-11-2010, 09:10 AM

Phoronix: AMD's Hiring Another Open-Source Driver Developer

Yesterday we reported that AMD's Catalyst Linux driver team lost another key developer with Piranavan Selvanandan, a senior engineer at ATI since 2003 when Matthew Tippett built-up the original ATI Linux driver team, was leaving. While it's unfortunate to see AMD lose another long-time Linux engineer, it appears they are hiring for both their open and closed-source Linux driver teams...

Comment

Anything less than 40 developers is not very promising, unless we close the eyes direction fps- or any nonstatical gaming and any same-day hardware support.

Im using opensource drivers and bought amd system exactly for the purpose of supporting amd opensource policy, yet I see no opensource driver counter or any kind of "register the card as opensource only" program on amd site.

Amounts of proprietary around gfx card API amaze me. I imagine x86 assembler being that proprietary, linux won't be able to start at all.

Comment

first of all : "Canada" no there is no internet and homeworking in this world LOL

HR probably put that one in there. They do remote employees if they're proven people or knowns... I worked with one of them- you might know of him as one of the authors of the OpenGL SuperBible. (In fact, I worked with two of the authors a while back...)

second fake: "development based on [...]Marketing requirements"
means they just dev an bigger animated amd Logo

Uh...development would be based on marketing requirements for a GPU card... Engineering would have major inputs on what those were in a sane company (and in AMD, there's inputs...trust me...) but if there's no market need for something and you can't make one- why do it? HR states this fluff because they're sort of required to disclose this sort of junk.

also "highly motivated, self-starter" means you need more Cocain and self starter means no one helps you.

Heh... That's not wholly true- but you're expected to be a quick learner. You know, each and every role I've ever held down had that as a requirement- and I never had to snort lines or shoot up coke and I always seemed to have at least SOME help. You might want to re-think your premise there, Qaridarium.

"WinDbg" really no linux dev should use a "Driver Developer Resources: Debugging Tools for Windows"

1) This was HR posting this. I know for positive they don't know Linux versus Windows and they're spouting buzzwords and don't understand that the Windows side requirements are slightly differing from the Linux side.

2) You actually and perversely need some Windows skills as well as some Linux ones to figure out some bugs (By comparing what the Windows driver does versus the Linux one... Just because the code-core's the same, not all paths are used, not all OS specific shims will work the code core the same way, etc...). You could do without that, yes- but if you want to replicate behavior on the Windows side, it'd help a bunch to be able to do that. <*waves hand*>

really if the new opensource guy are highskilled in WINDOWS debugging then linux will go worst because of that braindeath guy

Really? So...I'm braindead, am I? Niice... :P

"Experience with Kernel mode driver programming under MS Windows"

hell NO i can not believe this shit who write that shit ?

Heh... You're pretty clueless at this, aren't you? Code that was written for Windows in mind (regardless of the "common" and "portable" codebase that it might be, it was written against Windows first and foremost. It has design decisions that were motivated by that OS and it's kernel and while they might be portable, they may also be a problem performance or integration-wise on the MacOS or Linux side. If you're writing it just for Linux, you can get away with just knowledge of the Linux kernel. If you're making a cross-platform driver, you'd damned well better at least marginally understand at least one or more of the other target OSes before you lay hands on the code.

"* Strong oral [..] skill"

you can be the world best hacker without oral skill but yes amd wana hire people with bullshit Factor

Actually, if you're working with the varying teams within the OpenGL and Direct3D group, as you would if you had this job, you'd need good verbal and written skills. Especially if you're working with the German team. Clarity in expression of thought is kind of crucial- especially when you're talking about the complex task the job entails.

hell brigdman himfeld never use any oral skill in this forum.

means bridgman can be totally retarded in oral skill and now one care.

oral skill just means you need to be good in talking bullshit because they want to.

Uh... No. And more to the point, he's used his oral skills in here often. As have I. You, on the other hand, have posted some pretty lame things (this rant being one of them...) that's pretty incoherent. But then...if you've not got the skills in question, it might be hard to spot it in others...

Comment

Uh... No. And more to the point, he's used his oral skills in here often. As have I. You, on the other hand, have posted some pretty lame things (this rant being one of them...) that's pretty incoherent. But then...if you've not got the skills in question, it might be hard to spot it in others...

Actually nobody here has ever used their "oral skills" in the forum, writing skills for sure but not "oral skills".


More From

Barnes runs for 4 TDs as K-State routs Oklahoma State, 31-12

Kansas State running back Alex Barnes (34) gets past Oklahoma State linebacker Calvin Bundage, right, during the second half of an NCAA college football game in Manhattan, Kan., Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. Kansas State won 31-12. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State broke huddle against Oklahoma State at one point Saturday with three running backs joining quarterback Skyler Thompson in the backfield, the quartet making a unique diamond-like formation that coach Bill Snyder said has been part of the playbook for 30 years.

True or not, the claim was fitting given the Wildcats' entire game plan looked about that old.

Almost entirely abandoning the passing game, Kansas State bludgeoned the Cowboys with an old-school, ground-based attack. Alex Barnes rumbled for 181 yards and four touchdowns, the Wildcats piled up 291 yards rushing and they dominated the time of possession in a 31-12 rout.

Thompson only had 130 yards passing, enough to keep the Cowboys honest, but added 80 yards to the rushing total in helping the Wildcats (3-4, 1-3 Big 12) end a three-game skid.

They've now beaten the Cowboys (4-3, 1-3) in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2002.

"We have to look and see what we're doing, where we are at and what we can do to correct it," Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said. "We are trying to do what we can as soon as possible to fix the problems."

Oklahoma State led 6-3 at halftime before the Wildcats got their ground game going. They leaned heavily on Barnes, who ran for a career-best 250 yards last week against Baylor, and that allowed them to chew up the clock while keeping the Cowboys' offense off the field.

Kansas State took the lead when Barnes capped a nine-play drive with a touchdown midway through the third quarter. He added his second scoring run a few minutes later, then answered a TD run by the Cowboys' Taylor Cornelius with his third touchdown dart with 9:41 remaining in the game.

Cornelius finished 17 of 35 for 184 yards and two interceptions, while Cowboys running back Justice Hill spent most of afternoon bottled up. He carried 11 times for just 41 yards.

"We were tired of losing," Kansas State linebacker Justin Hughes said, "so we came out with the mentality that we weren't going to lose. Once we stopped Hill and made them throw we had them."

The Wildcats dared the Cowboys to beat them through the air, and Cornelius had 45 of his 97 yards passing in the first half on the only completion that made them pay. But despite that long play getting the Cowboys in scoring position, Kansas State's defense managed to hold for a field goal.

The Wildcats squandered a chance to score just before halftime, when Thompson was sacked on third down in the closing seconds. Without a time out, the clock expired without a field-goal attempt, and Snyder stalked his team all the way into the locker room.

Kansas State's offensive line atoned for that mistake in the second half.

Asserting its will at the line of scrimmage, the group pried open holes for Barnes and backup Dalvin Warmack, who patiently danced into the Cowboys' secondary. They kept riding that success late into the fourth quarter, when Barnes scored his final touchdown with a couple minutes to go.

"That's what we've been expecting all season," Wildcats offensive lineman Dalton Risner said. "I feel like we've been bringing it all season but we've turned it up the last few weeks."

THE TAKEAWAY

Oklahoma State: An offense that averaged 523.3 yards per game coming into the day was rendered ineffective in the second half. Hill's streak of 12 consecutive games with a touchdown rushing came to an end, as did the Cowboys' impressive streak of 19 straight wins when leading at halftime.

Kansas State: The season-long search for an identity may have uncovered a smash-mouth approach that can produce results. The Wildcats were held to six points a few weeks ago at West Virginia, and two TDs in a loss to Texas. But their run-based attack has been on-point against Baylor and Oklahoma State.

STATS AND STREAKS

Oklahoma States' streak of forcing a turnover in 33 straight games was snapped. ... Barnes moved into the top 10 in Kansas State history with 2,049 yards rushing. He's the first player with back-to-back games of at least 175 yards rushing since Darren Sproles in 2003. ... Wildcats cornerback Duke Shelley had both of the interceptions. He has at least one in all three games he's played against Oklahoma State.


*2. Determine g(w(v)).
-1280000*v**2 + 70400*v - 968
Let y(q) = 3*q - 1. Let b(v) be the first derivative of 0*v + 0*v**2 - 1/3*v**3 + 75. Determine y(b(g)).
-3*g**2 - 1
Let f(m) be the first derivative of 4*m**3 + 1247. Let d(q) = 34*q. What is f(d(b))?
13872*b**2
Let j(m) = -72*m. Let u(f) = 493481*f**2. What is u(j(x))?
2558205504*x**2
Let k(w) = -81*w. Let c(q) = -4*q**2 + 711633. What is k(c(n))?
324*n**2 - 57642273
Let a(r) = -8*r. Let x(n) be the third derivative of -13*n**4 - 10*n**2 - 15*n**4 + 27*n**4. Calculate a(x(y)).
192*y
Let w(p) = -6*p. Let h(y) = 69677627*y**2. Give w(h(l)).
-418065762*l**2
Let s(k) = -19*k. Let j(p) = -944*p**2 + 160*p - 1120. Let l(z) = 35*z**2 - 6*z + 42. Let q(n) = 3*j(n) + 80*l(n). What is q(s(m))?
-11552*m**2
Let l(v) = -153*v**2. Let i(x) = -31253*x**2. What is i(l(s))?
-731601477*s**4
Let s(m) be the first derivative of -22*m**3/3 + 248. Let f(q) = -q - 3. Let v(u) = -4. Let l(d) = -4*f(d) + 3*v(d). Determine s(l(o)).
-352*o**2
Let m(x) = -4*x. Let l(h) = 255456*h**2 + 2*h + 4. Calculate m(l(d)).
-1021824*d**2 - 8*d - 16
Let n(h) = h. Let i = -34 - -36. Suppose 0 = -z + i*y + 14, 3*z - 2*y - 62 = -0*z. Let q(w) = 9*w + 3*w - z*w - 20*w. Determine q(n(k)).
-32*k
Let z(q) = 66*q**2 + q - 7. Let g(s) = -5107*s + 5105*s - 3 + 5 - 2. Give g(z(c)).
-132*c**2 - 2*c + 14
Let a(g) = -6*g. Let t(p) be the second derivative of 5*p**3/6 - p**2/2 + 43*p - 11. What is a(t(l))?
-30*l + 6
Let k(x) = 579995*x - 2. Let o(g) = 6*g. Determine o(k(a)).
3479970*a - 12
Let m(g) = -1270598*g. Let b(o) = 6*o**2. Give b(m(x)).
9686515665624*x**2
Let l(m) = -11*m - 2. Let g(w) be the second derivative of 0 - 1/3*w**3 - 77*w + 0*w**2. Determine l(g(p)).
22*p - 2
Let b(j) = -289*j**2 - 6. Let m(a) = 48*a**2 + 1. Let z(k) = b(k) + 6*m(k). Let d(c) = 1758*c**2. What is d(z(i))?
1758*i**4
Let w(g) = -39*g. Let x(f) = -8*f**2. Let q be (24/21)/4 + (-26)/(-7). Let l(i) = -2*i**2. Let r(n) = q*x(n) - 18*l(n). Give r(w(c)).
6084*c**2
Let y(m) be the third derivative of m**5/10 + 3*m**2 - m - 8. Let t(f) = -3765*f**2. What is t(y(o))?
-135540*o**4
Let q be 3/((-30)/4) + 24/10. Let w(t) = -t + 3*t + q*t - 2*t. Let a(i) = 39 - 39 - 15*i**2. What is w(a(b))?
-30*b**2
Let c(b) = -2*b. Let r(t) be the second derivative of -301*t**5/120 + 2*t**3/3 + 3*t**2/2 - 59*t. Let m(j) be the second derivative of r(j). What is c(m(n))?
602*n
Let d = 307 + -32. Let l(h) = -141*h**2 + d*h**2 - 143*h**2. Let r(x) = 2*x**2. Give l(r(v)).
-36*v**4
Let z(g) = 2*g + 1. Let r(j) = -273*j - 126. Suppose -262*w = -267*w - 5. Let b(s) = w*r(s) - 126*z(s). Let d(l) = -l. Determine b(d(v)).
-21*v
Let z(v) = -2*v**2 + 17. Let k(t) = -5*t. Let y(d) = 221*d. Let s(w) = -170*k(w) - 4*y(w). Determine s(z(b)).
68*b**2 - 578
Let f(c) = 17*c - 6. Let k(m) = 629*m - 221. Let l(x) = -221*f(x) + 6*k(x). Let u(w) = 12*w - 8. Let i(d) = d - 1. Let b(h) = 8*i(h) - u(h). Give b(l(j)).
-68*j
Let y(i) = -2*i + 2*i + 2*i. Let w(g) be the second derivative of g**6/36 + 7*g**4/6 - 22*g. Let u(n) be the third derivative of w(n). Give y(u(a)).
40*a
Let w(b) = 4*b**2 + 2*b - 237916. Let s(a) = 4*a. What is s(w(g))?
16*g**2 + 8*g - 951664
Let w(y) = 91*y - 12. Let i(u) = -22755*u + 2997. Let r(q) = 4*i(q) + 999*w(q). Let l(v) = -1 + 1 + 0 - 2*v. Give r(l(k)).
222*k
Let k(r) = 630*r. Let z(d) = 325591*d. Determine k(z(a)).
205122330*a
Let r(v) be the third derivative of -v**5/20 + 25*v**4/6 - 2*v**2. Let q(c) = -35*c - c + 4*c + 30*c. What is q(r(k))?
6*k**2 - 200*k
Let u(d) = 4*d**2 + 5*d - 3. Let n(j) = 2*j - 34 - 31 + 104 - 39. Determine n(u(h)).
8*h**2 + 10*h - 6
Let v(l) = -10*l + 28. Let r(o) = 23*o + 115. Let b(t) = 64*t + 322. Let n(f) = 10*b(f) - 28*r(f). Calculate n(v(c)).
40*c - 112
Let u(q) be the second derivative of -q**4/6 + 1120*q. Let s(p) = -4*p + 606. Give u(s(c)).
-32*c**2 + 9696*c - 734472
Let d(g) = g**2. Let m(n) = 196*n - 2*n**2 - 24*n + 4*n**2 - 12*n**2 + n**2. Give m(d(k)).
-9*k**4 + 172*k**2
Let z(c) = 3*c. Let a(g) = -5*g + 152 - g - 153 + 5*g + 0*g. Let x(u) = -6*u - 2. Let t be (-2)/(-6) + (-14)/6. Let i(o) = t*a(o) + x(o). What is z(i(p))?
-12*p
Let f(m) = 4183*m. Let s(d) = 3*d - 18883. Give s(f(q)).
12549*q - 18883
Let m(n) = 1. Let u(f) = 2*f - 6. Let h(s) = 6*m(s) + u(s). Let p(a) be the second derivative of a**4/3 - 6*a - 31. What is h(p(t))?
8*t**2
Let n(u) = -2*u**2. Suppose -2*x + 8 = 0, -3*j + 12469 = -x + 2*x. Let s(q) = 4155*q - j*q + 6*q**2 + 7*q**2. Give s(n(d)).
52*d**4
Let h(j) be the third derivative of 2*j + 0*j**3 + 0 - 19/24*j**4 + 45*j**2. Let q(a) = -2*a. Determine h(q(p)).
38*p
Let j(z) be the third derivative of 0*z - 16*z**2 + 1/15*z**5 + 0 + 0*z**4 + 0*z**3. Let q(o) = -8*o**2. Give q(j(l)).
-128*l**4
Let h(c) = -25*c. Let y(o) = -32*o**2 - 5*o - 3. Let f(d) = -164*d**2 - 28*d - 16. Let n(u) = 3*f(u) - 16*y(u). Calculate n(h(g)).
12500*g**2 + 100*g
Let v(y) = 10*y**2 - 8772*y + 8772*y. Let i(o) = -6*o. What is i(v(f))?
-60*f**2
Let j(l) = 26*l**2 - 2. Let h(f) be the second derivative of -13*f**4/6 - 1911*f. Determine h(j(t)).
-17576*t**4 + 2704*t**2 - 104
Suppose 0 = 4*s + 2*k - 7290, -s + 2757 = -3*k + 945. Let f(y) = s - 3*y + 8*y - 1821. Let w(i) = 9*i. What is w(f(x))?
45*x
Let w(c) = 1150*c**2 + 5*c. Let u(q) = -9*q. What is u(w(n))?
-10350*n**2 - 45*n
Let o(f) = -4549*f**2 - 2*f - 194. Let h(l) = -2*l**2. Calculate o(h(w)).
-18196*w**4 + 4*w**2 - 194
Let v(f) = -4*f - 3. Let g(n) be the first derivative of 9*n**2 - 1584. What is v(g(o))?
-72*o - 3
Let b(p) = 7*p**2. Let t(l) = 550*l + 88. Suppose 51 = -g + 139. Let a(q) = -19*q - 3. Let u(r) = g*a(r) + 3*t(r). What is u(b(d))?
-154*d**2
Let l(t) be the third derivative of 401*t**5/60 + 2*t**2 - t - 39. Let r(x) = 8*x**2. Calculate l(r(y)).
25664*y**4
Let n(r) = 37*r**2 + 499. Let c(z) = 756*z. Calculate n(c(p)).
21146832*p**2 + 499
Let u(i) = -37*i - 942. Let b(l) = -14*l - 316. Let x(s) = -8*b(s) + 3*u(s). Let f(k) = -k**2. Determine f(x(p)).
-p**2 + 596*p - 88804
Let j(g) = -2*g**2. Let v(a) = 2*a**2 + a - 13. Let y(r) = -9*r**2 - 106*r + 76. Let z(h) = 6*v(h) + y(h). Determine z(j(o)).
12*o**4 + 200*o**2 - 2
Let j(i) = 2*i. Suppose -2*g + 5*t = -24, t + 0 + 14 = 5*g. Suppose -4*q + 2 = -22. Let x(n) = -8*n**2 - q*n**2 + g*n**2 - n**2. Determine j(x(m)).
-26*m**2
Let h(v) = 9*v**2. Let w(p) = -22*p**2 - 30*p - 12. Let m(z) = -z**2 - 6*z - 2. Let l(o) = -5*m(o) + w(o). Calculate h(l(y)).
2601*y**4 + 612*y**2 + 36
Let g(w) = 607613*w. Let d(x) = -221*x. Determine d(g(b)).
-134282473*b
Let i(b) = 4*b. Let l(c) = 5*c**2 - 223*c - 55. Let m(t) = t**2 - 5. Let v(w) = -l(w) + 11*m(w). Calculate i(v(s)).
24*s**2 + 892*s
Let z(s) = -19*s**2 - 10*s + 114. Let q(c) = -46*c. What is q(z(x))?
874*x**2 + 460*x - 5244
Let s(j) = -12917*j**2. Let w(o) = 9*o + 1712. Give w(s(g)).
-116253*g**2 + 1712
Let q(x) = 3*x**2. Let p(i) be the second derivative of i**4/12 + 43*i**2/2 - 190*i + 5. Give q(p(l)).
3*l**4 + 258*l**2 + 5547
Let f(n) = -n**2. Let x(t) be the first derivative of -t**2/2 + 47*t + 5148. Determine x(f(y)).
y**2 + 47
Let h(c) = -16*c**2. Let w(d) be the first derivative of -d**4/12 - 47*d + 54. Let u(o) be the first derivative of w(o). Determine h(u(r)).
-16*r**4
Let g(j) = -2*j**2 + 99. Let v be g(0). Let k(u) = -v*u - 98*u + 300*u - 99*u. Let t(d) = 5*d - 1. Give t(k(p)).
20*p - 1
Let d(b) = 4*b. Let j(t) be the first derivative of t**2/2 + 330*t + 2201. What is d(j(o))?
4*o + 1320
Let s(u) = 59424*u**2. Let w(a) = -1948*a. Determine s(w(r)).
225496490496*r**2
Let s(m) = 382*m. Let r(d) be the third derivative of 11*d**5/60 - 3710*d**2. What is r(s(i))?
1605164*i**2
Let k(w) = -19*w. Let x(h) = 3*h**3 + 6*h**2 - h - 3. Let l be x(1). Let u(d) = -3*d - 7*d - l*d - 5*d + 34*d. Calculate u(k(p)).
-266*p
Let j(y) = y**2. Let o(r) be the first derivative of 2*r**2 + 43*r - 2655. What is j(o(v))?
16*v**2 + 344*v + 1849
Let y(n) = -145*n**2 - 10*n - 4. Let s(p) = 10152*p**2 + 705*p + 282. Let b(j) = 2*s(j) + 141*y(j). Let d(c) = 10*c. Give d(b(v)).
-1410*v**2
Let m(a) = 37*a + 95*a - 126*a. Let t(f) = 4*f - 7*f**2 - 4*f. Determine m(t(r)).
-42*r**2
Suppose 6*b + 4532 - 21632 = 0. Let u(d) = b*d**2 - 1399*d**2 - 1422*d**2. Let l(h) = h + h - h + 0. Determine l(u(x)).
29*x**2
Let o(l)


390 F.2d 1002
SHAWNEE MILLING COMPANY, Appellant,v.SIDNEY WANZER & SONS, INC., d.b.a. Wanzer's, Appellee.
Patent Appeal No. 7926.
United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
March 14, 1968.

Robert G. McMorrow, Atkins, Law & McMorrow, Washington, D. C., for appellant.
Lawrence W. Brugman, Horton, Davis & McCaleb, Chicago, Ill., for appellee.
Before WORLEY, Chief Judge, and RICH, SMITH and ALMOND, Judges.
ALMOND, Judge.

1
Sidney Wanzer & Sons, trading as Wanzer's (appellee), filed application to register "SILVER SPOON" for ice cream,1 alleging use since May 22, 1963. Shawnee Milling Company (appellant) filed notice of opposition alleging use and registration of "SILVER SPOON" for wheat flour2 and asserting that the marketing of ice cream and wheat flour under the identical mark is likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception in trade within the purview of section 2(d) of the Trademark Act of 1946.

2
The record discloses the testimony of two witnesses on behalf of appellee. The appellant took no testimony and made no appearance for the purpose of cross-examination, relying only on the allegations of its notice of opposition and its pleaded prior registration. Prior use is not in issue, concededly residing in appellant. The only issue presented for resolution is whether or not wheat flour and ice cream are of such nature that their sale under the identical mark SILVER SPOON is likely to cause confusion under section 2(d), supra.

3
The testimony of two witnesses was adduced by appellee. Neither of the witnesses was related by employment or otherwise to the parties. One witness had long experience in the field of flour milling and the other had many years of familiarity and close contact with the sale and manufacture of ice cream. Both witnesses expressed their personal opinion that they could not visualize any likelihood of confusion if the mark were used on the two types of goods in question.

4
After a review of the factual aspects of the testimony of record, aside from the opinions expressed by these witnesses, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, in an opinion published at 149 USPQ 900, concluded that:

5
Ice cream is a highly perishable product requiring constant refrigeration. Wheat flour is a stable product sold on an open shelf, and is generally utilized in the production of finished food products. Products in these categories pertain to unrelated fields of production, and are distributed and marketed under dissimilar conditions, even though they may be frequently sold through the same retail food establishments. There is, moreover, well qualified and uncontradicted testimony that producers of flour do not ordinarily produce or in any way engage in the marketing of ice cream. Accordingly, it is concluded upon the record presented that there would be no reason to assume or believe that such different goods would be attributed to the same source or that the manufacturer of one in any way sponsored the other.

6
We have previously had occasion to consider the use of the same or similar marks on various food products. Where we have found it likely that the public would associate the two types of products involved and have some basis for assuming that a single manufacturer might be the source of both products, we have denied registration. See Cream Wipt Foods, Inc. v. General Foods Corp., 278 F.2d 521, 47 CCPA 968; and cases cited therein.

7
We have, for example, denied registration of the mark WHITE HOUSE for ice cream in view of registration of the identical mark for tea and coffee. Dwinell-Wright Co. v. Gundlach, 121 F.2d 639, 28 CCPA 1348. We have denied registration of a mark for fresh vegetables when a similar mark was in use for syrup, relish, pickles, and peanut butter. W. B. Roddenbery Co. v. Kalich, 158 F.2d 289, 34 CCPA 745.

8
Our previous decisions have recognized that diversification and consolidation of food manufacturing and distributing companies often lead to widely diversified products being distributed by the same company.

9
The expert testimony in this case indicates that businessmen familiar with the food processing industry would realize that ice cream and wheat flour are not generally made by the same company. But the vast majority of shoppers are not aware of such a distinction of product lines. If they were to see SILVER SPOON flour on one shelf and SILVER SPOON ice cream around the corner in a freezer, it seems more than likely that many of them would ascribe a common sponsorship.

10
The decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is, therefore, reversed.

11
Reversed.

Notes:

1
 Serial No. 172,535 filed July 5, 1963

2
 Reg. No. 537,707 issued February 13, 1951 to a predecessor