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care to show me an instance of a western run nuclear plant that put nuclear waste in someones backyard where it leaked? oh right you can't, because they put them deep under ground in them middle of no where, in geologically stable areas in multiple casings which can't leak.

I suspect that he was being figurative - but:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/19/nuclear-waste-landfill-threat
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=12578
I guess it can't leak if they just dumped it into the soil though.

No, I am not against the use of nuclear power.

yes, but that fridge is mostly (70%) easily-recycled metal and some plastic. The electronics are going to be pretty much the same as 2 cell phones or so.

Older fridges have nasty chemicals to provide the refrigeration, but if you have the right facilities and equipment, they can be removed and destroyed safely.

Still, +1 for your idea of universal chargers, but how do we get that implemented? An ISO standard for chargers perhaps?

s/neglected/non-existent/

My friend in Goa started his driving lessons and was awarded his driving license one hour later when he demonstrated his ability to propel the car forwards, turn round a corner and stop.

> But yeah, a small and cheap car is going to solve the problem.

What problem, road safety ? You're mad. Sitting inside a steel box does nothing to improve road safety over a scooter, except when being crushed by a truck.

This is a country where your taxi driver overtakes on a blind corner and when you look out of the window to distract yourself you see some *other* guy overtaking YOU!

Mumbai's roads are already almost full of taxis, at night they turn their lights out to "save the battery". They need to do this because they turn the engine off every time they stop.

Air pollution was 500mg/m^3 when I was there recently. WHO norms put an upper limit of 150
10 years ago it was 250 (though much of this isn't from cars).

In what way will more cars on the road improve this :

http://www.mu-tours.de/reise/indien_pict1.html
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/mumbai_traffic_police_long_copy?size=_original
http://trak.in/tags/business/2007/06/12/equation-to-calculate-the-time-required-to-travel-in-legendary-mumbai-traffic/

They already have 2,000,000 passengers per day on the metro !
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=12679&channel=0

I'm more in favour of the compressed air car or the electric scooter.

You asked for some proof, I gave it to you. You then said that my proof was not valid, and you provided no proof of that assertion.

You need to realize that this is religion to you. You will not accept any proof I can give you, because you have an irrational belief. There is always a way to discount facts - but if you are doing that without any counter-proof, you are irrationally clinging to your original belief.

To put it simply, where is your evidence that food crops are more heat sensitive than every other plant on Earth

All you gave proof of was that plant life in general would increase as a result of CO2 increase.

That is not the same as food crops increasing in general as a result of global warming!

It is not just a matter of heat sensitivity, it is a matter of weather patterns. For example, if ocean currents change (as they well might), this could affect monsoons, resulting in droughts in Asia. Plants aren't going to be able to take advantage of that CO2 without water!

You are stuck with one single factor involved in global warming. Things are far more complicated than that.

However, if you want an actual example of how food crops are directly affected by temperature, look at this:

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=12354

"Staple food crop harvests could drop dramatically in a warmer climate as plants produce less wheat or rice with smaller grains, scientists from the University of Reading have found from a study involving peanuts.

Very hot temperatures during the flowering period prevent seeds from forming properly, and lead to faster growth overall which does not allow grains the time to grow."

Do you see now why your discussion of CO2 concentrations is far too simple?

I submitted this story last week but the faggots-that-be rejected it.

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=11193&c hannel=0

yes I was being slightly sarcastic calling the water clean its just its a bit of a con people see dead fish they think the waters polluted but if you keep the oxygen levels high the fish are ok and nobody questions how clean the water flowing out actually is.

I used to write software for plc's and scada systems.
this is the best project I worked on

http://www.earthtech.co.uk/generic/documents/Yanna wa_000.pdf

http://www.edie.net/Library/view_article.asp?id=22 24&channel=0

http://www.arup.com/DOWNLOADBANK/download25.pdf

I am impressed there is so much on it and no credit at all for the company I worked for.
we were given the plc software to debug and pick faults with I wrote a scada system which demonstrated the plant in action basins filling valves opening skimmers raising and lowering it was fun to do my colleage wrote a file to create feedback for the plc program to react to.
the cycle on a basin i think was 6-8 hours we naturally sped it up so you could see the whole process cycle in about 6 minutes.

We found so many problems through our testing we got to rewrite the problem code. didnt get to go to tailand thou
and as you can tell we didnt even get a mention in the documentation.

If I remember rightly the process was controlled by two slc5/04 allen bradley plc's basically if one failed the other took over.

Thanks, Cynthia

Didn't recent news articles about a Yale study say that we're going to be short on copper soon? Then why are we shooting "huge copper slugs" at mars? Why not huge slugs made of some slightly more abundant metal? Or is the study just bunk?

unlike religion, science is self-correcting over the long term. If someone fudges the data and comes up with a wrong conclusion eventually someone else will discover that and get it right.

Wanna know the kicker? It was developed by NASA for long duration space flights.

I believe this is the slashdot post to which you are refering. here is another article. Relivant quote: "Ethanol in car engines is burned with 20% efficiency, but if you used ethanol to make hydrogen for a fuel cell, you would get 60% efficiency."

Short article here about the weapons testing done in Kazakhstan.

Television and photo-journalists travelling in the region have witnessed shocking images of deformities among the local population, including the US news programme 60 Minutes which documented the image of a still-born baby with a single eye in the center of its head.

I saw that. It was extremely disturbing. The eye was also very large. It was one of many fetuses kept in jars to document the deformities.

"What we should be concerned about is desertification due to the lack of veg(e)tation"

Yet, science is uncovering that the opposite is happening, as an increase in CO2 levels may help forests to start reclaiming the world's deserts, as forests are encroaching on the Negev desert. Higher CO2 concentrations reduces water absorption of trees, leaving more available for the surrounding regions, which resulted in more vegetation.

NASA & DOE found the same thing, as did the National Academy of Sciences when they found that grasslands become wetter as temperatures rise. Hotter temperatures kills off certain species of grasses that are poor water storers, leaving more room for more efficient species like oaks and summer flowers, with a net increase in water retention.

The more we do true research into global warming, the more we find that our models are wrong, our assumtions are wrong, and our predjudices are wrong.

#1 The NEO-SOCIALIST plan to take your freedom
Can you be a bit more specific? By providing Healthcare for everyone?

#2 Homeland Security obstructionist liberals
Worse, in the future it might obstruct you as well, imagine if all of the sudden the liberals get into power and use the same laws?

#3 US Goes to Iraq, liberates nation
Yes, I am sure people are happy that they are now at the brink of a three tiered civil and relgious war.

#4 Howard Deans plan to pacify terrorists
Got any more details? Sounds interresting.

#5 The effort to pay off Unions and cripple business
Because companies are always very concious about their employees the environment and possess and abundance of ethics. We don't need to stinking unions.

#6 Using information technology for propaganda
While the current Administration as well as the Republican party decided to go back to the good old days where typewriter ruled the world, as well as AM Radios.

#7 Treaty signing by the United States
Pretty much telling the world to go and pay more for the Oil they need because "We're the US".

#8 Human Shields knowingly commit treason
Surviving Human Shields going to be detained in Guantanmo Bay as "illegal combatants". "This is for our nations security" President Bush said in a brief press appearance before he went to his Ranch in Texas to relax for the weekend.

#9 Afghanistan success
Women are free again to wear the Burkha, no need to buy the latest fashion from the west. "Women are now truly liberated," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said during a press briefing, "they can now choose the colour of their garment freely.".

#10 Nelson Mandela is a liberal
The Whitehosue regretted to have met with Mr. Mandela several times over the past couple of years and calls it all a "big misunderstanding".

#11 Taliban implicated in U.S. massacre (9/11)
Unfortunatly the court documents had to be sealed for the countries protection, as Mrs. Rice pointed out during a brief Interview: "The details are just too shocking, we, as a responsible government, cannot allow people to be scared by the horrid truth that we have uncovered. Please, think of the children."

#12 Liberal censorship and shoutdowns
Brave Texas Rangers are trying to regain control of the Information Infrastructure and spread the truth to the masses. Dan Rather was seen briefly on Televison promising his full support to the Bush Administration to do "whatever it takes".

#13 US Military defends country for over 200 years
Mainly off shore, as we all know a war at home leaves a mess that not even Tide can get out.

#14 Illegal Aliens
Where spotted today cleaning up the washroom in a restaurant downtown NY on Broadway, news at 11.

#15 South Korea: Lucky to be free
"We wouldn't know what we would do without the US help. It is expensive to build a death zone between two countries and maintain all those mines." says Yoon Young-kwan, south Koreas Foreign Minister on a visit to Washington D.C. while eating at a Burger King near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

#16 France: evil
Germany more evil, tries to dominate the world (again), US prepares to free the world once more.

#17 NPR's liberal slant
FoxNews is "fair and balanced". (We know because they say so).

#18 Forestry now banned profession
Ford Announces new SUV, twice the size of a Hummer, three times the horse power and a gas tank holding 200 Gallons. No MPG available at this time, but pre-order now, they will sell like hot-cakes.

#19 US cannot manufacture goods with all the regulations
But companies found out tha

As long as the power industry is dominated by the large investors who currently dominate the industry, there will never be a "natural" economy with a supply/demand that will adjust naturally. Despite deregulation, we are moving in a direction where consolidation of power suppliers and overly powerful electric resellers will be able to create a false scarcity of electrical power like we saw a few years ago in California

Micro suppliers could aleviate the conditions that led to the massive blackouts that we observed to day by placing cleaner, smaller, and more efficient power sources closer to where the electricity is being used. This would also make our national electric grid more resistant to terrorist attacks by distributing power generation, make localities less dependant on the owners of long distance transmission lines, allow homeowners the option of choosing power from the grid or from thier natural gas feul cells (in the basement) depending on which comodity has a more reasonable price, allow municipalities to reduce the cost of sewage treatment by turning sewage into natural gas or electric, and allow family owned farms to reduce costs and supplement thier agricultural incomes by selling electricity generated either by windmills or from natural gas from thier animal waste

Fuel cells are more efficient (85% of the energy contained in the natural gas converted to electric as opposed to 35% to 45%) and cleaner (natural gas fuel cells give off only water and CO2, no CO) than burning natural gas or oil for power generation.

A micro supplier market will decentralize the electrical generation market making power delivery more reliable and less vulnerable to outages, and will place natural, market based controls on energy costs by reducing the ability of large power companies and resellers (remember Enron?) to create a "false scarcity" in the market.

Another obvious stirling use is as part of your home heating plant.

British Gas to launch individual CHP boiler for homes

British Gas has announced that it is developing a household boiler that generates both heat and electricity, which will increase energy efficiency and cut costs for customers, allowing them to sell excess electricity back to the Grid.

The new combined heat and power (CHP) boilers, developed by MicroGen Energy

Think about it. You burn gas to stay warm. (if you don't have a heating season....then you don't) Why not burn the gas to do work? You still get your heat. And the work can make electricity.

This is a part of it. But they can also exploit their employees more. They are not paying healthcare benefits, they do not have to deal with OSHA, the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA), Environmental laws, or any fair workers compensation laws. In other words big corporations can piss on their employees and if they complain there is another person willing to take their place.

As proof, does anyone remember the Union Carbide Disaster in Bhopal, India, that killed 8,000 people immediately and injured at least 150,000.

here is an interesting related one from the Navy's Phase I Selections from the 02.1 Solicitation:

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop marine propulsion concepts that employ biologically inspired aerodynamic mechanisms to enhance propulsor thrust and decrease the propeller rotation rate necessary to maintain a specified forward speed. Flying animals take advantage of three unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms to generate lift and propulsive power greater than that predicted from quasi-steady conventional airfoil theory. The three mechanisms are delayed stall, rotational circulation (including the clap and fling mechanism), and wake capture. In Phase I we will formulate three propulsion concepts, each incorporating one or more biomimetic unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms. Using phenomenological models and experimental data from literature, the concepts will be evaluated for lift production, efficiency, simplicity, and ease of practical implementation. Key physical and non-dimensional flow parameters will be identified for each concept. The most promising propulsion concept will be experimentally investigated in the PSI low speed wind tunnel to understand unsteady flow mechanisms. Phase I will conclude with a recommendation of which of the proposed designs, or modified designs, should be further studied in Phase II. In Phase II various models of promising concepts will be fabricated and the propulsive forces produced by these models will be measured in a wind or water tunnel. The proposed propulsion concept will allow military marine vehicles and devices including UUVs, ROVs, torpedoes, and Anti-Torpedo Torpedoes to travel at a specific speed with a lower propeller rotation rate, hence radiating less detectable noise. This will increase the stealth of these devices. The proposed mechanisms may also increase the fuel economy of these vehicles as well as surface ships. Potential applications of this device include commercial UUVs and ROVs as well as recreational boating.

The only practical applications that I have seen so far are things like this bio-degradable bag, for groceries and waste disposal.

"Anybody bashing the U.S. for not adopting the ludicrous Kyoto accords had better be from Bulgaria. If you're from anywhere else, answer this: If Kyoto is such a good idea, why hasn't your country adopted it? "

So nearly every government in the world (except for the USA, naturally, with corrupt Bush) has signed up to the Kyoto treaty because most scientists think we have no effect on global warming? Aren't you a little divorced from reality?

Speak for yourself, hippie. Several countries have ratified Kyoto, but none of the countries who would actually face restrictions have signed it, with the exception of only two. So unless by "nearly every government in the world" you mean "Romania and the Czech Republic and that's about it," lay off the knee-jerk Bush-bashing and don't believe everything your fellow patchouli-sniffers tell you. Get your facts straight and try to break your immature leftist addiction to outrage for its own sake.

Here's an article on EU court efforts to enforce environmental directives, the closest thing 2 minutes of Googling would fetch me.

And if so, what kind of standards would allow a 250 million gallon coal sludge spill in Martin County, KY (Oct 11, 2000) be blacked out from the media? This is at least an order of magnitude greater than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, and the clean-up is significantly more difficult because the sludge sinks to the bottom of the streams and rivers. (It can't be skimmed off the top.)

What about the Election 2000 fiasco with the major networks calling FL before the people in CA had finished voting?

How about the absence of news regarding civilian conditions in Iraq? If you think the NATO vets are suffering from a bad case of Gulf War Syndrome, think about the people that were continuosly bombed with depleted (though still radioactive) Uranium munitions.)

On the brighter side, the internet at least allows people to search and find alternative views on most events. John Q. Public doesn't have to swallow the official media stance on any issue anymore.

We need to wake up.