Slashdot Mirror

No, but the questionnaire (sans Obama's answers) is in the Google cache: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:DOSUp8r9r2IJ:sharp.sefora.org/presidential-candidates-questionnaire/+candidate+questionnaire+site:sefora.org&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Whatever else he did, he knowingly accessed restricted computers whilst America was in a state of war.

isn't america always in a state of war?

Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798 - 2007, Congressional Research Service. (google html cache of a pdf)

Fuel cells are not "a good thing". They're an incredibly expensive boondoggle that's been leaching money from electric vehicles. Let's compare and contrast FCVs with BEVs that use modern automotive li-ions (phosphates, stabilized spinels, titanates, etc).

They're roughly a third the efficiency of EVs. Even if you use cleantech to create the hydrogen, you're still talking three times the coastline covered in wind turbines, three times the desert land covered in solar, three times the rivers dammed for hydro, etc -- not good. Even if your electrolysis was near lossless, as a couple techs in the lab are proposing to do, they're still nearly twice as wasteful as EVs. Even hydrogen from natural gas reformation compared to EVs powered by natural gas power plants is *still* significantly more wasteful for fuel cells ((25% efficiency versus 35%).

Hydrogen is expensive; electricity is dirt cheap. Hydrogen is fundamentally always going to be more expensive because it's such a PITA to handle -- leaks through practically anything, embrittles metals, is corrosive, etc -- and not to mention, poses safety and environmental risks.

Safety? Autmotive li-ions can be abused to heck and back without starting a fire -- discharged to 0V, overcharged, punctured, etc; the electrolyte is generally flammable, but no moreso than gasoline. Hydrogen is an incredibly combustible substance -- burns in almost any fuel air mixture, very vigorously, with a very pale blue, hard to see flame; rapidly evolves deflagrations into detonations in atmospheric conditions; pools under overhangs; can be ignited with less than a tenth the ignition energy of gasoline; enters pipes and tubes and follows them to their destinations, pooling there; etc. Liquid hydrogen is even worse; it acts like a high explosive. Check out NASA's safety guidelines for dealing with hydrogen to get an idea of how much of a pain it is to handle.

Fuel cells are ridiculously expensive. Here, go shopping. A good chunk of that price is due to the price of platinum, one of the rarest elements on the planet, although things like Nafion membranes don't help the price, either. Getting fuel cells for $10/W would be an outstanding price. Your average car will need ~10kW to maintain highway speeds, and more for accel/decel, so you're looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Automotive li-ions, except for the titanates, are usually a little over $0.50/Wh in bulk, and are projected to significantly decline with mass production, since they're not raw materials costs limited. A couple tens of kilowatts (a couple hours of driving at highway speeds) means $10-20k currently, and significantly less in the near future. And to top it all off, the batteries last longer, too. Nafion membranes tend to wear out over time in fuel cells, giving them around five years or so in typical FCV usage (some techs are proposed to raise that). And there are other components to break, too -- fuel cells have moving parts (compressors, pumps, etc), support parts (heaters, etc), and so on. Automotive li-ions will generally last for thousands to even tens of thousands (in the case of the titanates) of cycles. We're talking decades. To give an idea of how durable they are, the Volt is going to come with a 10 year warranty on its battery pack, and all of the other upcoming EV/PHEV makers are similarly talking about very long warranties. They should last the life of the car.

As for range, it's roughly a draw. 200-250 miles is a typical range for a FCV that costs hundreds of thous

It's all over the non .NZ internet, Judge Harvey. Now it's on a medium that won't drop the post.

The names of the accused (and only accused) are:
Nathan Tuiti Reo Mutunga Williams, 23
Daniel Bobby Tumata, 22

Now, it's reached slashdot.
One source
On Google
Here as well

Here is the list. I was going to just post it, but Google's HTML cache won't copy/paste easily and its source is full of DIVs, which slashdot won't let you use in a comment.

If you want the PDF, it's linked from the linked HTML version.

This is another government page, still live, that proves her age. It's from 2007, and cites her age as 13. I include the direct URL and google cache URL. Get this before it goes down like the others.

http://www.whjs.gov.cn/whty/content/2007-11/05/content_127093.htm

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:rxinCSd3z28J:www.whjs.gov.cn/whty/content/2007-11/05/content_127093.htm+site:.gov.cn+%E4%BD%95%E5%8F%AF%E6%AC%A3+%2213%E5%B2%81%22+2007%E5%B9%B4&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

Well, they haven't worked their alleged "evil" ways on this one yet (credit to karate3409 on digg):

Original:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:lKKNqX5NgnwJ:www.sport.chengdu.gov.cn/escpecial/detail.asp%3FEventClassID%3D030308%26ID%3D28022+site:cn+%E4%BD%95%E5%8F%AF%E6%AC%A3+1994+%2B.gov&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

Translated:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2F64.233.167.104%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3AlKKNqX5NgnwJ%3Awww.sport.chengdu.gov.cn%2Fescpecial%2Fdetail.asp%253FEventClassID%253D030308%2526ID%253D28022%2Bsite%3Acn%2B%25E4%25BD%2595%25E5%258F%25AF%25E6%25AC%25A3%2B1994%2B%252B.gov%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26cd%3D3%26gl%3Dus&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=zh-CN&tl=en

The actual page is gone from the site, but google has a cached version:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:A5YfIIsOJjQJ:www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-05/23/content_6707927.htm+site:www.chinadaily.com.cn+he+Kexin+14&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:K4RFCR7BCyAJ:www.bash.org/%3F244321+bash.org+244321&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Google cache of the above link.

"In California, you do not have to take a sobriety test in the field, but by applying for a license, you have agreed to take one at the police station, and if you don't, that is cause for revocation of your license."

Like I said above...yep, you may get your license revoked...lawyer up, and you can probably get a hardship license to drive to/from work...and grocery store, etc, till you are able to get your license back.

It sucks, but, is still better than a DWI on your record which can kill your credit rating...insurability, and even getting a new job might be hindered by it. You shouldn't drink and drive...but, they've lowered the bar so long now with BAC down to 0.08..you have to be ready to do what it takes to protect your livelyhood. If they want to solve drunk driving....outlaw bars where you by definition will drink...and then drive home. You don't see those bar's lots full of cars overnight by people taking alternate routes home, just not really feasible in the US.

Anyway, in a DWI pullover or any situation where you have to deal with the cops, don't help them gather evidence against you. Don't say anything....

Anyone in residing in Idaho (and possibly other states..didn't research that long) shouldn't assume they can refuse, because they can't. By driving on the roads of Idaho, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that you've given "implied consent" to substance testing, and may be taken to a medical facility to have the test performed under restraint, even if no traffic accident or harm has been done to any person or property.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:ktZDaViQxJUJ:www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/diaz.pdf+involuntary+blood+alcohol+test&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us

Seems kinda ominous. With the current SCOTUS having made decisions like the Eminent Domain decision (Kelo), what might they decide in regards to this, if it came up? That by paying taxes you have given "implied consent" to wiretapping, surveillance, and search by agents of the federal government?

Cheers!

Strat

Google cache to the rescue! http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:PnpGwlSu35kJ:www.myspace.com/JoE_BoNeS+JoE_BoNeS&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca I especially like the message someone left on his "fridge".

A lot of people are calling this "vaporware", and yet there are these guys, who are actually doing about the same thing already.

This was recently discussed at the Outages list:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gjmRbu02vRUJ:isotf.org/pipermail/outages/2008-June/000754.html+%22Outages+have+an+Outage%3F%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=ca&client=firefox-a

They're in the middle of migrating servers or something, so outages.org seems to be down at the moment:

https://puck.nether.net/pipermail/outages/2008-July/000084.html

If we have the technology to build a plane that can fly at Mach 10, then we can build Zubrin's Hyersonic Skyhook without nanotube cables or any kind of unobtanium. This would give us Space Elevator priced access to space!

Basically, you build a beanstalk that doesn't go all the way to geosynch, and doesn't go all the way to the ground. It's a lot less massive and doesn't require the same stupendous tensile strength as a Space Elevator. A Mach 10 hypersonic plane could deliver cargoes to the bottom end, perhaps with the help of a small booster rocket on the cargo pod. After the cargo is attached, you winch it up and use ion engines or interaction with the earth's magnetic field to accelerate the skyhook. (Which would be cheaper, since ion engines have huge delta-V, and magnetic interaction requires power and no fuel.)

Another Paper

and the wiki-nazis took the page down.

google has a cache yet.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:Mi0h0YEwLp8J:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell+James+Clerk+Maxwell&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Google cached it for you here.

a good place to start is probably the ZFS Best Practices page. the google text cache of that page is here. beyond that, try to google "zfs ram requirements".

Cashed web page

Why is it that Linux is mentioned 177000 times in the Microsoft website?

For some reason I found myself browsing through those results and found this little FUD gem (warning: .doc format; here's Google's HTML version) which is a "Customer Case Study" on the City of Indianapolis switching from their "heterogeneous" environment to an all-Windows one.

As part of this case study, the following is given as one reason for their need to upgrade:

For instance, the city has many multiuser applications based on Microsoft Access 97 database software. When employees were given a new PC with a newer version of Microsoft Office, they would open the Access database and upgrade it when prompted. At that point, all the other users, who were still running Access 97, were locked out of the application, because Access 97 did not recognize the newer format. The city IT staff would have to recover the database from tape, remove the newer version of Microsoft Access, and replace Access 97 on the users' PC to prevent the issue from recurring.

Fascinating! They're fully admitting the existence of the Microsoft upgrade treadmill and using as a selling point! (OK, forget the fact that Access is a horrible choice for a multiuser application in the first place, and that the client's IT staff is apparently completely incompetent). Upgrade your servers to Windows Server 2003! You too can be part of a Customer Case Study 5 years from now when we tell you how crappy Windows Server and Exchange 2003 are so you must upgrade to Windows Server 2012!

Am I wrong, or did someone immediately patent using TPM for DRM after a Microsoft conference? There was a story about it and everything, because the guy who patented it wanted to make sure no one was allowed to use it for that.

Let's see... A little Googling says it's Lucky Green who did that but I'm not seeing a good story with details. Maybe this will do, though.

Neighboring Argonne National Laboratory, which has ties to the DOE and Fermi might be behind this.
The phone number (630) 508-2812 appears to be for a cell phone in the greater Chicago area, however, in the classified ad of an ANL newsletter, a (630) 508-xxxx number can be found, as can another reference in a nearby Clarendon Hills, IL newsletter. It might be reasonable to think that these numbers were allocated from a nearby store.

Neighboring Argonne National Laboratory, which has ties to the DOE and Fermi might be behind this.
The phone number (630) 508-2812 appears to be for a cell phone in the greater Chicago area, however, in the classified ad of an ANL newsletter, a (630) 508-xxxx number can be found, as can another reference in a nearby Clarendon Hills, IL newsletter. It might be reasonable to think that these numbers were allocated from a nearby store.

Funny. Comcast charges me $3.95 to pay with my credit/debit card.

The VISA Merchant Rules (Google cache - I'm having problems with the real link) on Page 15 says that they can't charge extra for a credit card transaction, but CAN charge a "convenience fee" (wink wink), but there are a bunch of rules on when they're allowed to do this. They're probably in compliance with all of them, but there's a small chance they've messed up on this one: "The customer must be given a opportunity to cancel prior to completion of the transaction."

Google cache of "MacGyverisms"

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:1CEkRLmYGgYJ:www.concentric.net/~jjdippel/macisms.html+http://www.concentric.net/~jjdippel/macisms.html&hl=en&safe=active&gl=us&strip=1

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:dCsWd6Hg31MJ:blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/tamir/archive/2008/04/28/computer-languages-and-facial-hair-take-two.aspx+http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/tamir/archive/2008/04/28/computer-languages-and-facial-hair-take-two.aspx&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us works. less of a /. effect

Google cache of psystar's page

"The problem with Redlight cameras and the changing of the light timing is that people are getting burnt when there isn't enough time between the yellow light and for a normal person to come to a complete and safe stop." Actually you're completely wrong.

the problem with changing the timing is all the other lights are still at the same timing .

You're driving along, see the light turn yellow and expect to have the normal 3 seconds (or whatever it is) before it turns red. So you're close so you floor it knowing you'll make it with no problem.

But no, the city wants more $$$$, so they shorten the time to 1.5 seconds but you don't know that. You're thinking "I've been driving for 20 years and know how long a light should be yellow, I have plenty of time" but to make sure, you speed up. It turns red 40 feet before reach the light (at 35 mph you travel 50 per second). The cars just begin to cross. You slam on the brakes. Even at 35 mph it takes 59 feet to stop, 19 feet more than what you have (assuming you slammed on the brakes instantly, which is impossible of course), so you slid right through the intersection and T-bone some compact car, killing the driver and baby in the backseat.

So that is why light timing should not be messed with. I think it should be a federal law to make all red lights everywhere the same, which makes sense because my license allows me to drive in other states so I think the traffic laws and lights should be similar to what I deal with in my state. I also think it should be illegal to tamper with redlights... actually it is illegal to tamper with a traffic signal, but who's going to arrest the cities?

I guess they need to develop of port of PawSense (site is down, linked to GCache) for it, eh?

"CAT-LIKE SURFACE INPUT DETECTED..." :)

As requested, documentation:

RE: killing the birds:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_sparrow_campaign

"It was decided that all the peasants in China should bang pots and pans and run around to make the sparrows fly away in fear."

Eye witness account of Great Sparrow Campaign:

http://zonaeuropa.com/20061130_1.htm

"As I recalled, my fellow students and I climbed onto some tall trees on the side of the road and banged our gongs, drums, washbasins and anything else that can make loud noises. The sparrows were forced to keep flying until they dropped dead from fatigue."

Beijing is not right next to the Gobi Desert, but it is downwind from it when the winds shift that way in the Spring. The rest of the year, it's not. But Beijing at any other time of the year, on a windy day the atmospheric effect is like being in a dust storm.

RE: Air quality in Beijing

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:HjyJWuowpeUJ:www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/estnews0915.htm+beijing+air+quality+ranking&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=21&gl=us

"Beijing ranked second-worst out of 47 Chinese cities in a 1999 SEPA air pollution ranking "

RE: Concerns with the Three Gorges:

(from 2001)
http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/arch374/winter2001/dbiggs/three.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam

For good measure, a couple links on deforestation in China:

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/pcs/state/chinaeco/forest.htm
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19203227

China's government is not comprised of idiots, but their ideologically-driven policies and lack of free and open discussion in a robust civil society lead to actions and results that are adverse to their own interests at a rate greater than that in countries that do have the ability to contest government policy.

The point of my post was that in China under the CCP, there is a history of trampling the environment for the sake of, previously, Mao's mass campaigns, and now, for the sake of rampant economic development. There is also a concommitant pattern of wildly over-engineering the environment when common sense would do. It is within that context that the story about cloud-seeding resonated.

So the post was a bit of a hip-shot. The above links and many more could have been initially provided, but it's Slashdot and the tone of the post was meant to be wry and few, even on this site, want to wade through a dissertation in response to every article. Thus, the comments were couched under the term, "anecdote."

But as an East Asian studies scholar who's lived there for significant swathes of time over the past 18 years, the comments were not pulled entirely out of thin air. Even a casual visitor to Japan can observe that many products have humorous names or sayings in English on them, such as Calpis Water or Poccari Sweat. Most people do not demand academic citation upon hearing about such a thing--they accept them for what they are: anecdotes.

It was in that spirit that the stories were relayed.

well, i may have been wrong, but it Is possible to use manual labor to produce sugarcane to produce ethanol. even if the leaves are razor sharp, they're still little more than paper, so protective gear that can resist the leaves wouldn't be that costly.

since much of Africa lacks any form sustainable economy, it would be possible for say, Europeans to invest in sugarcane plantations in parts of Africa where there is little if any work available at all. I never knew the cane itself had razor sharp leaves, but cane sugar grown locally and converted to ethanol locally and then exported to Europe could reduce the cost of transit across the EU, using manual labor would be cheaper and create sustainable economies while reducing the EU's dependence on russian and middle-eastern oil.

the main source of instability in africa is because they have no way to build sustainable economies to allow a stable government to keep corruption low. the main source of strife in the middle east is that the people themselves are poor, while the ruling class are wealthy beyond imagination due to oil exports. in china, there has been 5000 years of stability despite having a large poverty cast, simply because there were always jobs for them on the rice paddies.

the environmental concerns aside, biofuels are really the only 'long term' solution other than hydrogen fusion, solar, wind, and hydroelectric power sources. the world is already running out of uranium due to water cooled reactors (reactor rod lifespans are 50x longer in sodium or liquid metal reactors.) and 'hydrogen fuel cells' use more energy and resource in production than the vehicle itself uses over a lifetime of use. The us may have a hundred years of useful coal, but eventually that too will run out.

a more eco-friendly approach is to create 'forests' that are harvested every 10-15 years, and use wood fuels for production of biofuels, since 'forests' even of the new-growth variety put more rain into the atmosphere than crops, this method would be viable even in rain-forest areas. however, while that method could replace coal, it is very difficult to make a 'wood fired car.'
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:asHJaqko_ZsJ:www.angelfire.com/ak5/energy21/woodfire.htm+powering+cars+with+wood&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Wood could be burned at factories to produce hydrogen fuel, which could be used either with fuel cells, or true hydrogen combustion engines. the latter of the two being more environmentally friendly. the problem of course is cost. i know that palm oil is used to make bio-fuels, but it can only be grown in existing rain-forest areas. growing other varieties of trees allows the trees to be farmed in ares further north or further south, in areas where it would have less of an environmental impact.

and while tree farms do protect the hydrosphere, they tend to favor certain species of animals over others that prefer old growth forests. of course, forestry being the ancient art that it is, can be done entirely with humans, and beasts of burden. or it can be done modernly by robotic machines that can cut, de-branch, and load it to truck. of course there are also ways to do it halfway between, with humans using chainsaws, etc etc.

it would be interesting to know just how expensive tree farming would be in africa, or south america, as opposed to the united states, canada, or europe. if enough forests were planted in previously grassland regions then it could be a major step forward in reversing damage to the hydrosphere caused by global deforestation.

Next time you might try something other than wikipedia.

That was pure chance.

The population of the WTC complex at noontime was around 90,000.

We are talking about sixteen acres of prime Manhattan office space, an immense public plaza, world-class restaurants, observation decks, shopping centers, an underground transit center, and so on.

The attack was a coordinated assault on iconic American structures and institutions.

The WTC. The Pentagon. Washington, DC. Stop thinking like a Geek for one minute and imagine the public reaction to the loss of the White House or the Capital Building.

Katrina did not ground U.S. continental air traffic or drive an entire industry towards bankruptcy.

There are few world cities that could have taken the economic shock of 9/11. The WTC alone was insured for $4.1 billion in property damage. World Trade Center Disaster

Thanks, I was too lazy to look them up again, mostly because I never really understand the difference. But I did find this comparison

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:cwTrqX9BMl8J:www.cse.umkc.edu/~beardc/WorkSummary.pdf+GSM+emergency+priority+traffic&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Wireless Priority Services
- Became a high priority after September 11, 2001.
Extension of the U.S. wireline GETS system that had been around for many years.
Used the same call queuing approach.
Only available from GSM providers
- Only GSM has priority call identifiers.

No problemo bud, here is a google cache (I posted a different mirror this time, so it's not redundant)

Can you point towards a reputable source? I have never heard about this and want to learn more.
Trying to find some stuff online turned up nothing but I did find this article interesting about the topic...
PDF WARNING!
Conversion to html from google

The Flower Transfer Protocol changed the internet forever.

When used appropriately, tasing someone is not used to obtain information, confessions, punishment, revenge, intimidation, or coercion.

Excuse me. How are tasers *not* used to "[punish] him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed", and of course for "intimidating or coercing him or a third person". Last I checked, they were explicitly used to coerce people into cooperating with the police, and punishing those who remain non-compliant.

In fact, the UNTC goes on to explicitly exclude pain and suffering "inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions".

Yes. Lawful sanctions. As handed down by a court of law, not a cop on the street. Further, the text explicitly states that such actions must be "consistent with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners". Interesting that you excluded that bit of text. I wonder what said rules state? Well, among other things, they state that:

"Corporal punishment, punishment by placing in a dark cell, and all cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments shall be completely prohibited as punishments for disciplinary offences."

Which, in my mind, clearly rules out tasers. It also states:

"No prisoner shall be punished unless he has been informed of the offence alleged against him and given a proper opportunity of presenting his defence."

Last I checked, most taser victims aren't given a chance to defend themselves before the shock is administered.

So, no, by the UN's own documents, tasers are *not* an acceptable tool for law enforcement, and do, in fact, meet the guidelines for torture, unless your reading of the text is so drastically distorted as to be rendered meaningless.

Darth Plagueis successfully created life in a slave woman in 42 BBY. Darth Sidious realizing the child was meant to be his replacement decided it was time to take action. The ritual use of the dark side severly drained Plagueis and he fell fast asleep that night. This would prove to be his biggest mistake. Sidious decided he would claim the child as his own as well as the title of dark lord. Sidious had already been secretly training his own Sith apprentice, Darth Maul for over ten years. He had grown quite tired of living under the rule of Plagueis and he bent the "rule of two" law and started training Maul.

Lord Plagueis had always commended Darth Sidious for his ability to cloak himself in the Force, he said it would be his greatest asset. The night of the ritual Sidious used all of his technique to sneak up on his sleeping master. Sidious stood before his master and then ignited his lightsaber deep into the black heart of Plagueis. His eyes burst open in pure anger and then he taught his apprentice his final lesson, the thought bomb. The last Sith technique, to kill your killer. Darth Plagueis tells Lord Sidious, "Could not face me in battle, apprentice? I'm not surprised. That is why the boy was to be your replacement. He will be the greatest Sith in history." Sidious replies, "Goodbye, Master. I've waited a long time for this." Darth Plagueis replies, "Final lesson, apprentice. Come closer." Sidious remains where he is and cuts his lightsaber through other vital organs. Darth Plagueis explodes in a blast of dark side energy that sends Sidious flying into the wall. When he recovers from the blast he finds no evidence of his master left in the room. He had vanished into the dark side.

Darth Sidious, now Dark Lord of the Sith, takes the child and his mother to Tatooine and sells them to the slave-owning Hutts. First he erased the mother's memory about the ritual and the events that followed. Knowing the child would be easier to corrupt growing up the angry life of a slave. Content that the boy would no doubt cross his path again one day, Darth Sidious flew to his hidden base of Coruscant and continued the training of his apprentice Darth Maul.

True, which is why most of the new hydro projects aren't "build more dams" but "make them more efficient". The generators can be significantly more efficient.

This is true, but it is a case of diminishing returns. Winn friction, not heat is the biggest loss in some hydro plants. When Ice Harbor dam was built, they had some Westinghouse and some General Electric generators. Using the same water turbins, it was easy to compare the output capacity of each. One was conservatively rated and easily met performance standards. The other barely met spec. Two generators with the same specifications can be as much as 10% different in performance.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:OrJTCRPTx2cJ:www.nww.usace.army.mil/html/offices/pa/FactSheets/ICH2005.pdf+Ice+Harbor+dam+generators&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us

Most of this type info is not public. Expansion by replacing generators is possible in some cases, but often the improvement margin is under 10%.

Also, did you know it takes petroleum to run a hydroelectric dam? With all the turbines, you need some pretty serious lubrication, which means you also need a bunch of huge pumps to push that oil around, and so you tend to have big ICEs running pumps. I know of projects attacking this problem, too -- one dam (I forget where) is apparently petroleum-neutral.

Reference please..

My dad was a power house operator on McNary dam and moved to Ice Harbor dam. When the powerhouse noise became a problem with his hearing and he moved to BPA as a substation operator. This big gas engine needed to pump tons of oil is news to me. I've never seen it even though I have had the cooks tour of the generator deck. They do have a gas back-up generator, but that is to provide control power to bring up the dam from a standstill. All the water gates are electric. Once the dam is operational, it isn't used. I've never seen it operate.

http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/html/pub/pertdata/ihpert.htm
http://www.ee.washington.edu/energy/apt/nsf/previous/powimage.htm

I've been on this deck and the one below.
http://www.ee.washington.edu/energy/apt/nsf/previous/mcnary2.jpg

For all you back to the future fans, take note.. McNary dam produces 1,200 Megawatts of power. (Hint, convert to GigaWatts)

If you have a pre-existing condition, depending on the condition there almost always is a way to find coverage in the US. (Having dealt with asthma, diabetes, cancer, hbp, and smoking in one family member or another.) If the gov't turns you away? You have to fly to another country to get help. This was popular in London when I lived there.

The efficiency of HMO's have already shown us a way... Prevention costs them less money therefore they pay more willingly for preventative care, which is believed to be the driving force behind the better survivability rates in the US. They also ask for increased rates for certain risky behavior i.e., scuba diving, rock-climbing, competitive athletics, smoking, and obesity, but they still provide care, whereas smokers are often refused care for conditions in socialized medical systems. The medical system dares to refuse them care even though they pay more into the system than the average tax-payer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2859623.ece
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=20771
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:T02b2uvFa7AJ:www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/clydebank/documents/8_-_Impact_of_Tax.pdf+compare+NHS+cost+of+smoker+to+taxes&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us

The HMO's have a vested interest in providing better, more efficient service than gov't care. I don't know about where you live, but competition is alive and well here in Oklahoma between various healthcare providers. I have seen gov't care first hand as a Marine, and later as a expat in the UK. I was not impressed on either occasion.

Also, HMO's are not the only plans or services available. PPO's, EPO's, HDHP's, and plain ol' cash also work for the gainfully employed. For those who are not, Medicaid, and the various state run programs pick up the slack. Do people fall through the cracks? Sure, but would I rather have the ability to pull myself out of the crack without the gov't workers unions and medical workers associations stepping on my head by decrying the use of private physicians? You bet your ass I would.

Universal healthcare is a sucker's bet. Just as sure as Social Security and perpetual motion are sucker's bets. The only difference is that a lot of us will be able to have our suck at the teat before it runs dry, our children will not be so lucky.

Look at the reforms in the Euro nations regarding healthcare. They are finding the burden is too much for the tax system to bear. Over time they have to cut costs (by cutting benefits) or raise taxes.

As for positives? I can pick and choose my doctor without anyone's approval. I pay a pittance more for the privilege. The emergency room shortage due to flooding caused by low income/no income populace? I can get around that by going to an urgent care facility, of which there are 7 within a 3 mile radius. I don't have to win a lottery to get cutting-edge treatment, I can pay, or I can appeal to many avenues of assistance, including test trials for treatments. (One of which saved my father-in-law in the sixties from a near-death asthma attack, his family had no running water at the time and lived 14 people to a two room farmhouse.)

In socialized medical systems they are suffering from shortages in doctor availability because of the low-rates mandated by the gov't. In the US? We have glut of physicians to choose from. Dentistry? Why do Europeans sing about wanting American teeth? (Quite literally, a phrase to that effect was heard by myself in a little pop-club in London.)

By using a bureaucracy to disseminate treatment you are taking the power of choice away from the individual. That mind set is antithetical to the liberal concept of more freedom an

Yes, I shudder to think what Iraq must be costing the US. If you have to have a war, do it well, or lose it relatively quickly, develop an anti-war stance, and become an economic superpower like Germany & Japan.

Just as an FYI, a lot of people get annoyed at the "screw the Brits" rates, and quite fairly most of the time. But realize that prices in the US are quoted WITHOUT tax. The British prices include VAT charges, because you have sensible price advertising rules :P So, in reality, when you see a US price of $1000, add 8.235% (or so) to get the actual price we'd pay. That $1000 price is actually $1082.35 (on average) in the US. Just some food for thought :)

Obligatory google cache http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:-dPK0FuAOgkJ:www.thesimplemillionaire.com/+thesimplemillionaire&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Looks like he jumped from 655766 to 41, a pretty nice jump if you ask me, especially for a good cause.

Google Cache of a post of his

Regular Slashdot link (not sure if this will ever be updated to say 41)

The SARJ, 10.5 ft in diameter and 40 inches long, will maintain the solar arrays in an optimal orientation to the sun while the entire space station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes. Drive motors in the SARJ will move the arrays through 360 degrees of motion at four degrees per minute. The joints must rotate the arrays smoothly without imparting vibrations to the laboratories and habitation modules on the station that would impact microgravity-processing activities. At the same time, 60 kW of power at 160 volts and multiple data channels are carried across each joint by copper "roll rings" contained within. From: Google Cached Lockeed Martin Article on the Panels.

Just sayin'

Actually, if you read DHH's blog (here's a google cache link, the original seems to have moved http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:B9zIVL4XR4sJ:www.loudthinking.com/arc/2005_09.html+single+layer+of+cleverness&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a) it looks like his intent is to pull all that logic from the database completely, and use it merely as a table-store.

I knew it was you, Crenshaw!

From the Google Cache:
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I knew it was you, Crenshaw!

From the Google Cache:
Article 1
Article 2