Slashdot Mirror

I don't really know when those stats are from, my guess is that they are making a statement about the screening process and how the people in the US tend to have much more access to tests for those discretionary things allowing for much earlier identification preventing cancer moving from lowerstage to a higherstage.

Don't have similar stats that I have a date for, but for something recent according to this link,
The wait to get a MRI in the UK at the Nuffield Orthapaedic Center for the first quarter of 2006 (from referal to having it) is ~13 weeks or just over 3 months

http://www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?ReleaseID =222942&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromSearch=True&prin t=true

I believe that the UK is trying for a 2008 guarantee of 13 weeks for a MRI (currently a 20 week guarantee).

As a clarification of this thread - its not *yet* illegal to have a car off-road and not tax/insure it. They are trying to bring in legislation to make it so, however. Note that all of this is being implemented under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, so its not just a crime to forget to tax the old banger you're restoring, its a Serious Organised Crime...

As with all such legislation, the real criminals will find an easy and obvious way round it (as discussed here already), and it'll be the largely law-abiding majority who'll get caught when they make an honest mistake. Give it a couple of years and they may have to make a similar U-turn (no pun intended) to the one they're in the middle of regarding speed cameras. A few petrol-soaked tyres should get the message through.

He's well on his way - he already has a seat at the Round Table!

Yes, the link I gave you showed you the maths - indeed to generate *all* the power needed just with solar would require large areas of land. That is why I was suggesting that such scheme should operate in conjunction with other alternatives. You dont need to meet "peak" demand in the way you suggest. Dont forget that there is an area in your home that can be used to generate free power - your roof. You can cover the roof of your home with solar tiles, combined with systems that directly heat water for the house etc.

Zero annual electricity bills for these guys - the tiles make as much electricity as they take from the grid. (ok with gas heating). Check also This link, This link , This link or This link

Do you think that nuclear is a better option? Or cheaper? The UK (and many other countries) has squandered truely huge amounts of money on nuclear, now, it appears, with no positive end result - they are going to be left with a collection of reactor sites that are going to be very expensive to decommission and clean up. If they had invested just a fraction of that money on renewables, we would be burning a heck of a lot less coal/oil/gas now. There are actually parts of the world (ie Chernobyl) that are too radioactive to live, thanks to mistakes/miscalculations made by the nuclear power industry..

And the point is - why bother with nuclear, why take the risk? It is becoming very apparent that alternatives really can deliver cheap electricity, without the same level of pollution and waste. Furthermore, costs of solar cells will drop as volumes increase. Case in point - look at the monitor you are (probably) looking at now - if it is TFT - and think how much the price has decreased in the last few years as manufacturing techniques have improved and volumes increased.. Push the production volumes up, and have every house in the country use solar tiling..

The UK is setting a target of getting 20% of its power from re-newables by 2020, and a lot of that will be wind-power. There are soon to be huge offsiore wind farms in construction.. And they are not noisy, nor do they upset wildlife - thats basically a myth - same site documents the evidence. The USA has a similar wealth on uneploited wind sites too..

In the UK we could in fact have 200% power needs just from offshore/onshore wind without too much difficulty. What do you do when you have too much power? Turn it into hydrogen for cars. What do you do when you dont have enough power? Burn some hydrogen.. We already have infrastructure to transport gas.

Whose time has come. Put solar windows in all office blocks, and solar tiles (both electric & water heating) in the roofs of all houses, and you go a long way toward solving the energy problems. Even in cooler countries these schemes pay-back after a few years - ie the extra it costs is paid back in electricty savings. In hot contries, a house can (in effect) generate as much electricity as it consumes - in Australia you have Zero annual electricity bills for these guys - the tiles make as much electricity as they take from the grid. (ok with gas heating, but the hot water supply is provided by the sun too). Check also This link, This link , This link or This link.. Want a large scale plant? What about the deserts of the world ?

Combine with Wind power, and other alternatives, and we may get 100% of our energy needs without nuclear, coal, gas.. What do you do when you have excess off-peak power? Turn it into hydrogen for your car!

Read more about it here..

Didn't you read? I just showed you that by covering half my roof with the best solar cells available on the market, I cannot even cover my own electricity needs. What do you suggest, covering the countryside with panels?

I am not saying that solar tiling would always be the *only* source of power - but that if houses did have solar tiling we would save a huge amount of power. Top that up with Wind power, Tidal power, Hydro-electric, then make sure houses use energy saving lightbulbs, are well insulated, etc, and you can have a national energy system wihich needs little or no coal/oil/nuclear.. This is not some sort fantasy - it is already starting to happen. Maybe we shouldnt cover the countryside, but what about the deserts of the world ?

>Such projects are up and running around Europe now, and pay back for themselves in a few years, even comparing to cheap dig it up and burn electricity.

Where, pray tell? Publications to defend your assertions?

Plenty, just Google solar roof tiles estate

Zero annual electricity bills for these guys - the tiles make as much electricity as they take from the grid. (ok with gas heating). Check also This link, This link , This link or This link

I scheme I recall quoted a break-even time of about 5 years - ie, even at todays prices, the houses will pay for the extra cost of solar tiling on the roofs in 5 years in terms of electricity savings - I will have to dig that link out again..

>France is not yet paying fully to *get rid* of the nuclear waste - its shipping the stuff to the UK to reprocess.

Completely wrong. France has a reprocessing plant in La Hague which actually also reprocesses other countries' used fuel. You are mixing it up with the British Sellafield reprocessing plant, which is indeed closing down.

Fair point about la Hague, we have imported reprocessing waste from Europe through the Chunnel, but France does have its own reprocessing plant.

>People are scratching their heads and saying hang on, what do you *do* with plutonium that is going to be radioactive for centuries, and has to be guarded in case some terrorist digs it up to make a dirty bomb..

The solution is well known and widely used: you get your plutonium and you mix it with regular fissible U235 to make a combustible called MOX. Then you feed MOX into nuclear reactors for energy production. The plutonium is degraded into shorter-life elements (mostly Americanium 241) which are less toxic and need to be stored for a few years instead of a few millenia. That's what the French and other Europeans are doing since the 80s. Big bonus: You can also use plutonium coming from disarmed nuclear warheard.

You would not be suprised to learn that Greenpeace do not agree with that. The technique you describe sounds good in theory, but in practice reprocessing still generates unacceptable levels radioactive pollution and waste that is still very difficult to deal in practice. BNFL have had particular problems with liquid waste products that are very expensive to handle and dispose of safely - its the practical details that are the problem. Furthermore

There's an article on the Register outlining the UK Governments proposed investment of £90m (GBP) in nanotechnology over the next six years here. With links to the announcement on the Government News Network. A very little too late perhaps.

There's an article on the Register outlining the UK Governments proposed investment of £90m (GBP) in nanotechnology over the next six years here. With links to the announcement on the Government News Network. A very little too late perhaps.