from tfa: The 40.8 percent efficiency was measured under concentrated light of 326 suns. One sun is about the amount of light that typically hits Earth on a sunny day. The new cell is a natural candidate for the space satellite market and for terrestrial concentrated photovoltaic arrays, which use lenses or mirrors to focus sunlight onto the solar cells.
So if you setup a massive array of mirrors or concentrators made out of cheap materials you could use very small solar cells to a huge amount of the concentrated light into energy.
Couldn't ultracaps still be useful used in conjunction with batteries with an intelligent battery management system?
As far as I understand ultracaps can take a charge and release a charge faster, they can withstand more cycles, and they can be safely fully depleted.
So it would seem that ultra caps would be ideally suited for capturing regen braking power and then releasing this energy once the car pulls away from the stop light. This would allow more regen energy to be captured and saving additional wear on conventional brakes. This would also save the chemical batteries from taking small bursty charging that leads to reduced lifespan.
The number of ultracaps needed to handle this task wouldn't be that many so the power to weight ratio might not be acceptable. I think it would be interesting to see how it stacks up to the F1 KERS flywheel and which would be better for consumer applications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_braking The Flybrid F1 KERS System weighs 24 kg and has an energy capacity of 400 kJ after allowing for internal losses. A maximum power boost of 60 kW (81.6 PS) for 6.67 sec is available. The 20-cm diameter flywheel weighs 5.0 kg and revolves at up to 64,500 rpm. Maximum torque is 18 Nm. The system occupies a volume of 13 liters.
As an iphone owner who lives in wisconsin I can assure you that we do not have great service.
The interstates and towns over 7k usually have service, but if you go a few miles out into the countryside there is no signal. US Cellular provides the best comprehensive service in wisconsin.
But in a free market without government regulation or goverment sponsored health care programs providers would be free to locate clinics where they wished. They would not build cheap clinics in blue collar neighborhoods, they would maximize revenue and only service rich neighborhoods.
You cant let the market decide and provide high quality care to all citizens because profit maximizing businesses will seek to avoid caring for those that cannot pay.
Yes people without health insurance can receive good care in the US, but I think that the uninsured are much more likely to receive adequate care for a traumatic injury rather than chronic long term ailments(cancer, kidney, etc).
The problem with free market healthcare is that:
When you are sick/injured and need care it is difficult to shop around in order to save money.
Healthcare organizations don't usually make public the cost of procedures performed, required drugs, instruments, supplies, access to specialists, etc. Agreements between Insurance companies and healthcare providers further obfuscate the true cost of care.
They could provide average costs, but a good doctor will tailor the care to the patient to provide the best outcome but this further complicates cost comparison.
Providing high quality cost effective healthcare requires providing ongoing preemptive preventative services which is difficult to coordinate if a person tries to save money by receiving care al-a-cart from many different providers.
Market forces operate well for commodity products like computer hardware, where you have web sites that make price comparison easy, this forces manufactures to compete on cost. Laser eye surgery and other optional procedures are more likely to be market driven because they don't rely on insurance, prices are published, and people have time and can travel to receive care for a lower cost.
I have a
sangean HDT-1X
with optical output. I use it to listen to our local community radio station which is in HD and has some awesome techno programs and no commercials.
I havent gotten around to automating it yet... griffin is supposed to come out with some a radioshark HD model which would make timeshifting and recording to a pc easy, but they are not shipping anything yet. Maybe by xmas time.
They technically have control of congress, but their control of the senate is only by one vote: Joe Lieberman - who is currently campaigning for mccain, angling for the vice presidential slot on the republican ticket.
So in reality democrats don't have a filibuster proof majority in the senate and they cant override a presidential veto in the senate. They could introduce articles of impeachment in the house, but they would never be able to get the majority they need in the senate. So they could impeach bush, but there is very little hope of actually removing him from power.
But I am as disappointed as anyone that impeachment hasn't been "on the table" and that congressmen who are willing to hold this administration accountable are in the minority, but it is better than the republican controlled congress of 2000-2006.
34.8*3.79*4 = 528 MJ in 4 gallons of gas * 20% efficient ice = 106 Mj of locomotive energy.
106*1.1 = 116.6 Mj electric motors are 90% efficient so we need to start with only sligtly more stored energy.
116.6/.72 = 162kg of lithium batteries for a vehicle with a range of about 80-120 miles.
Tesla already has an electric car with a lithium battery pack with a range of 220 miles.
In an electric car(high torque at low speeds) you dont need a transmission(saves 50-100kg) and you wont be hauling around any gas which saves 0-50kg. You also wont need an alternator and might not need a radiator with coolant, electric starter motor etc.
So it is entirely possible to created an electric vehicle that meets the needs of 90% of the population. It wont work for long distance trips - Thats what trains are for.
The largest nuclear power plant in the united states is Palo Verde which provides a maximum of 3.8GW.
The largest plant in the world is the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan which has a peak theoretical output of 8.2GW, but is currently offline because of damage caused by an earthquake.
I tried installing an old copy of XP base release on a new system with a sata hard drive & cdrom. Horrible waste of time. After a few unsuccessful attempts I loaded Ubuntu and it was cake.
As a resident of Wisconsin I would like to point out that this idiot is from Kentucky. So you can call him a bluegrasshead or say that he has cheese for brains, but do not call him a cheesehead.
Representative Tim Couch Bio Highlights:
Church of God
Hazard Community College
NRA. Natl Wild Turkey Federation
Hyden Masonic Lodge 664
I doubt anyone will be willing pay that much to hear what the current president has to say. All his speeches are written for him and even then he has trouble with them thar multi-syllable words.
If anyone want to hear what bush had to say they would be better off hiring dick cheney.
They don't need to have everyone in the database to effectively have a DNA tracking of all citizens.
If
one person in your family is in the database then
you are in the database.
In addition to the fee they collect from you this company might be recieving your tax money through an outsourcing program to the help populate the government database or they may strictly maintain client confidentiality until they receive a national security letter from the department of homeland surveillance, but the end result is the same.
In my previous post I linked to a 4 year old cnn article to show that the government has been using questionable means to populate codis for quite some time now and I doubt that this government intrusion into personal privacy will be exposed until it is too late and the entire population is effectively mapped.
White House seeks to expand DNA database
Citizens, including juveniles who have been arrested for a crime(but not convicted) are being added to the governments DNA database.
Perhaps legalizing abortion led to less children who were unwanted, less children being babysat by tv and video games might lead to less crime.... Abortion was legalized in 1973.
- freakonomics
Most people do less than 2 hours of driving during their daily commute. The first generation of electric cars wont supplant gas or hybrid cars as a families primary vehicle, but many households have 2 cars and one of them could be electric without any sacrificing or changes in lifestyle.
The nice thing about electric is that the distribution system is already in place, which puts it ahead of hydrogen as a transportation power source. Plug-in hybrids will bridge the gap when people need extended range or don't have time to charge. Tesla has a new 220v charging station that they use to quickly charge their car in a few hours.
from the Tesla faq
How long does it take to recharge?
That depends on how far the battery has been discharged and what source is being used to charge the batteries. A full charge using the Home Charging Station (included in the price of the Tesla Roadster) can be achieved in as little as 3.5 hours.
However, an electric car is a bit like a cell phone: it does not matter how long it takes to charge as long as a charge lasts all day. You plug it in when you get home, and unplug it when you leave in the morning. This is why the 245 mile range (city/highway combined) of the Tesla Roadster revolutionizes EVs. There is also an optional mobile charging kit that allows you to charge from any available electrical outlet (110V or 220V) wherever you happen to be.
New decent quality CFLs feature "instant on" and are full brightness in a second or two.
Cheap no-name models made in china sold by walmart are crap, but even those have improved.
Luckily there is this thing on the information super highway(its a series of tubes) called google that can help you find unbiased product information.
1. in your web browser type in the url: www.google.com
2. type in the search term "compact fluorescent lights test"
3. click "I'm Feeling Lucky"
4. Profit!**
**Actual profit is debatable, but saving real money on your energy bill can be easily achieved.
Super efficient led lights are also dimmable and are even more efficient at low current.
The problem with updating your household to conserve energy is that electricity use is not apparent unless you continuously monitor your energy meter. I have seen electric monitoring units that will check one appliance(120volt) or will monitor your entire household, but they each have their drawbacks and it is time consuming to properly monitor & evaluate a households energy usage. In order to make conservation efforts a reality we need to help people make this more transparent, If they could see that the halogen light in the study was costing $5 per month they would see that the $30 lamp wasnt such a bargain and replace it.
Retailers don't help as appliance energy usage information is often not provided or not easy to compare unless the appliance has an energy star tag. It would be better if every appliance & light bulb came with some sort of "cost of ownership" dollar value so that people could easily see how the lifetime energy usage of an appliance would impact their utility costs.
Advertisers count the click through rates, but they are also interested in establishing brand impressions such that you may never click on an advert, but your mind still registers & remembers that impact. So later when you are at the store you might pass by a display and think to yourself that piece of hardware looks cool(will get you laid), is being sold for a reasonable price, the company makes quality products, or whatever bullshit. This is why retailers pipe in elevator music to try to distract shoppers so they linger & make impulse purchases when all you really want to do is buy the one thing you actually need and get the fuck out of there.
Researchers have found that slow tempo muzak can increase sales as much as 38 percent in retail stores because it encourages leisurely shopping.
- marketing
Pervasive commercial advertising, by constantly reinforcing a bogus association between consumption and happiness and by focusing on individual immediate needs, leads to a squandering of resources and stands in the way of a discussion of fundamental societal and long-term needs.
- Sut Jhally
Slashdot Mirror
We will have won when their wmds(vast oil reserves) have been secured(by American oil companies). Then the Iraqi people will truly know freedom*.
*Restrictions Apply.
from tfa:
The 40.8 percent efficiency was measured under concentrated light of 326 suns. One sun is about the amount of light that typically hits Earth on a sunny day. The new cell is a natural candidate for the space satellite market and for terrestrial concentrated photovoltaic arrays, which use lenses or mirrors to focus sunlight onto the solar cells.
So if you setup a massive array of mirrors or concentrators made out of cheap materials you could use very small solar cells to a huge amount of the concentrated light into energy.
Couldn't ultracaps still be useful used in conjunction with batteries with an intelligent battery management system?
As far as I understand ultracaps can take a charge and release a charge faster, they can withstand more cycles, and they can be safely fully depleted.
So it would seem that ultra caps would be ideally suited for capturing regen braking power and then releasing this energy once the car pulls away from the stop light. This would allow more regen energy to be captured and saving additional wear on conventional brakes. This would also save the chemical batteries from taking small bursty charging that leads to reduced lifespan.
The number of ultracaps needed to handle this task wouldn't be that many so the power to weight ratio might not be acceptable. I think it would be interesting to see how it stacks up to the F1 KERS flywheel and which would be better for consumer applications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_braking
The Flybrid F1 KERS System weighs 24 kg and has an energy capacity of 400 kJ after allowing for internal losses. A maximum power boost of 60 kW (81.6 PS) for 6.67 sec is available. The 20-cm diameter flywheel weighs 5.0 kg and revolves at up to 64,500 rpm. Maximum torque is 18 Nm. The system occupies a volume of 13 liters.
As an iphone owner who lives in wisconsin I can assure you that we do not have great service.
The interstates and towns over 7k usually have service, but if you go a few miles out into the countryside there is no signal. US Cellular provides the best comprehensive service in wisconsin.
But in a free market without government regulation or goverment sponsored health care programs providers would be free to locate clinics where they wished. They would not build cheap clinics in blue collar neighborhoods, they would maximize revenue and only service rich neighborhoods.
You cant let the market decide and provide high quality care to all citizens because profit maximizing businesses will seek to avoid caring for those that cannot pay.
Market forces operate well for commodity products like computer hardware, where you have web sites that make price comparison easy, this forces manufactures to compete on cost. Laser eye surgery and other optional procedures are more likely to be market driven because they don't rely on insurance, prices are published, and people have time and can travel to receive care for a lower cost.
I have a sangean HDT-1X with optical output. I use it to listen to our local community radio station which is in HD and has some awesome techno programs and no commercials.
I havent gotten around to automating it yet... griffin is supposed to come out with some a radioshark HD model which would make timeshifting and recording to a pc easy, but they are not shipping anything yet. Maybe by xmas time.
They technically have control of congress, but their control of the senate is only by one vote:
Joe Lieberman - who is currently campaigning for mccain, angling for the vice presidential slot on the republican ticket.
So in reality democrats don't have a filibuster proof majority in the senate and they cant override a presidential veto in the senate. They could introduce articles of impeachment in the house, but they would never be able to get the majority they need in the senate. So they could impeach bush, but there is very little hope of actually removing him from power.
But I am as disappointed as anyone that impeachment hasn't been "on the table" and that congressmen who are willing to hold this administration accountable are in the minority, but it is better than the republican controlled congress of 2000-2006.
House democrats who changed their vote received pac contributions from telcos verizon at&t and sprint.
Electric cars are easily 4x more efficient in converting energy to locomotion. 90% of commuters use less than 4 gallons of gas a day.
.540 to .720 MJ/kg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_batteries
44.4 MJ/kg 34.8 Mj/liter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline
34.8*3.79*4 = 528 MJ in 4 gallons of gas * 20% efficient ice = 106 Mj of locomotive energy.
106*1.1 = 116.6 Mj
electric motors are 90% efficient so we need to start with only sligtly more stored energy.
116.6/.72 = 162kg of lithium batteries for a vehicle with a range of about 80-120 miles.
Tesla already has an electric car with a lithium battery pack with a range of 220 miles.
In an electric car(high torque at low speeds) you dont need a transmission(saves 50-100kg) and you wont be hauling around any gas which saves 0-50kg. You also wont need an alternator and might not need a radiator with coolant, electric starter motor etc.
So it is entirely possible to created an electric vehicle that meets the needs of 90% of the population. It wont work for long distance trips - Thats what trains are for.
Great Idea, Lets choose our leaders based on who would be the most fun at the Superbowl party!
I mean what could go wrong?
The largest nuclear power plant in the united states is Palo Verde which provides a maximum of 3.8GW.
The largest plant in the world is the
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan which has a peak theoretical output of 8.2GW, but is currently offline because of damage caused by an earthquake.
So 4GW of power would be significant.
We have the best government money can buy.
I tried installing an old copy of XP base release on a new system with a sata hard drive & cdrom. Horrible waste of time.
After a few unsuccessful attempts I loaded Ubuntu and it was cake.
As a resident of Wisconsin I would like to point out that this idiot is from Kentucky. So you can call him a bluegrasshead or say that he has cheese for brains, but do not call him a cheesehead.
Representative Tim Couch Bio Highlights:
Church of God
Hazard Community College
NRA. Natl Wild Turkey Federation
Hyden Masonic Lodge 664
I doubt anyone will be willing pay that much to hear what the current president has to say.
All his speeches are written for him and even then he has trouble with them thar multi-syllable words.
If anyone want to hear what bush had to say they would be better off hiring dick cheney.
Strategery as correctly anticipated by Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live
They don't need to have everyone in the database to effectively have a DNA tracking of all citizens. If one person in your family is in the database then you are in the database.
In addition to the fee they collect from you this company might be recieving your tax money through an outsourcing program to the help populate the government database or they may strictly maintain client confidentiality until they receive a national security letter from the department of homeland surveillance, but the end result is the same.
In my previous post I linked to a 4 year old cnn article to show that the government has been using questionable means to populate codis for quite some time now and I doubt that this government intrusion into personal privacy will be exposed until it is too late and the entire population is effectively mapped.
White House seeks to expand DNA database
Citizens, including juveniles who have been arrested for a crime(but not convicted) are being added to the governments DNA database.
Perhaps legalizing abortion led to less children who were unwanted, less children being babysat by tv and video games might lead to less crime.... Abortion was legalized in 1973.
- freakonomics
Most people do less than 2 hours of driving during their daily commute. The first generation of electric cars wont supplant gas or hybrid cars as a families primary vehicle, but many households have 2 cars and one of them could be electric without any sacrificing or changes in lifestyle.
The nice thing about electric is that the distribution system is already in place, which puts it ahead of hydrogen as a transportation power source. Plug-in hybrids will bridge the gap when people need extended range or don't have time to charge. Tesla has a new 220v charging station that they use to quickly charge their car in a few hours.
from the Tesla faq
How long does it take to recharge?
That depends on how far the battery has been discharged and what source is being used to charge the batteries. A full charge using the Home Charging Station (included in the price of the Tesla Roadster) can be achieved in as little as 3.5 hours.
However, an electric car is a bit like a cell phone: it does not matter how long it takes to charge as long as a charge lasts all day. You plug it in when you get home, and unplug it when you leave in the morning. This is why the 245 mile range (city/highway combined) of the Tesla Roadster revolutionizes EVs. There is also an optional mobile charging kit that allows you to charge from any available electrical outlet (110V or 220V) wherever you happen to be.
New decent quality CFLs feature "instant on" and are full brightness in a second or two.
Cheap no-name models made in china sold by walmart are crap, but even those have improved.
Luckily there is this thing on the information super highway(its a series of tubes) called google that can help you find unbiased product information.
1. in your web browser type in the url: www.google.com
2. type in the search term "compact fluorescent lights test"
3. click "I'm Feeling Lucky"
4. Profit!**
**Actual profit is debatable, but saving real money on your energy bill can be easily achieved.
There are new compact florescent lights that are dimmable. They come in a variety of color temps from cool white to warm white.
Super efficient led lights are also dimmable and are even more efficient at low current. The problem with updating your household to conserve energy is that electricity use is not apparent unless you continuously monitor your energy meter. I have seen electric monitoring units that will check one appliance(120volt) or will monitor your entire household, but they each have their drawbacks and it is time consuming to properly monitor & evaluate a households energy usage. In order to make conservation efforts a reality we need to help people make this more transparent, If they could see that the halogen light in the study was costing $5 per month they would see that the $30 lamp wasnt such a bargain and replace it. Retailers don't help as appliance energy usage information is often not provided or not easy to compare unless the appliance has an energy star tag. It would be better if every appliance & light bulb came with some sort of "cost of ownership" dollar value so that people could easily see how the lifetime energy usage of an appliance would impact their utility costs.
Advertisers count the click through rates, but they are also interested in establishing brand impressions such that you may never click on an advert, but your mind still registers & remembers that impact. So later when you are at the store you might pass by a display and think to yourself that piece of hardware looks cool(will get you laid), is being sold for a reasonable price, the company makes quality products, or whatever bullshit. This is why retailers pipe in elevator music to try to distract shoppers so they linger & make impulse purchases when all you really want to do is buy the one thing you actually need and get the fuck out of there.
Researchers have found that slow tempo muzak can increase sales as much as 38 percent in retail stores because it encourages leisurely shopping.
- marketing
Pervasive commercial advertising, by constantly reinforcing a bogus association between consumption and happiness and by focusing on individual immediate needs, leads to a squandering of resources and stands in the way of a discussion of fundamental societal and long-term needs.
- Sut Jhally
I use the Gmail Notifier firefox extension which checks for messages and forces gmail to use secure connections.