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User: dryeo

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  1. Re:The brief puff of black soot... on The Dirty Truth About 'Clean Diesel' (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    Whether you're stuck on the side of the road due to a plugged DPF or a plugged catalytic converter, you're still stuck on the side of the road.

  2. Re:My nose on The Dirty Truth About 'Clean Diesel' (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    Environmental activists that were financed by big oil.

  3. Re:Forbes blocks browsers... and... this is absurd on The Three Possible Classes of Interstellar Travel (forbes.com) · · Score: 1

    Adaption from an Earthlike atmosphere to a planet X atmosphere would not be possible by natural evolution because the two ecosystems are separated by many lightyears of empty space.

    I assume you meant natural selection by natural evolution. There is also unnatural selection, as in intelligent design. We've been doing it through selective breeding for thousands of years, now we're getting the capability of doing it by gene splicing. Who knows what the future might bring.

  4. Re:Physically feasible? on The Three Possible Classes of Interstellar Travel (forbes.com) · · Score: 1

    Off course it isn't going to happen but the argument was that we could not do it in less then 80k years without an amazing breakthrough. With Orion it is just barely possible to go to Centauri in a human lifetime, just prohibitively expensive and even if the resources were available, it would be for interplanetary use.

  5. Re:Let me save you reading the entire article on The Three Possible Classes of Interstellar Travel (forbes.com) · · Score: 1

    40 years ago we (well NASA) were designing one and if the military hadn't demanded unrealistic mission profiles it probably would have worked.

  6. Re:Physically feasible? on The Three Possible Classes of Interstellar Travel (forbes.com) · · Score: 1

    An Orion might be able to get there in a hundred years and should be doable with current technology.
    Actually wiki says Dyson had a design almost doable with '60's tech that took 133 years to Alpha Centuari, longer if you wanted to stop at the end. Ship was only 100,000 tons + 300,000 tons of fuel (100 metres diameter) and only achieved 3.3% light speed with a cost of 10% US yearly GDP.
    More realistic design (10,000,000 tons empty, 40,000,000 tons fueled) took 10 times longer and cost a full year of US GDP.
    Think of a ship that weighs 10,000,000 tons empty, 20 kms in diameter.
    Later studies point to a maximum speed of 8%-10% c using fusion or about half that using fission (half that if you want to stop at the end). We're pretty good with fusion now so I'd assume that would be the way to go.
    We could also practice with putting 800 tons into Mars orbit and returning with a small 4000 ton craft.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  7. Re:Physically feasible? on The Three Possible Classes of Interstellar Travel (forbes.com) · · Score: 1

    Considering they were launched on an Atlas with a speed boost from flying by a couple of planets, perhaps 15 minutes to an hour. Of course that would only be at rest relative to us and Proxima Centauri itself is moving relative to us...

  8. Re:TODAY IS REQUIRED INSTRUMENT on The E6-B Flight Computer Is 75 Years Old, Still In Use (informationweek.com) · · Score: 0

    I know that but the parent who I replied to doesn't seem to.

  9. Re:TODAY IS REQUIRED INSTRUMENT on The E6-B Flight Computer Is 75 Years Old, Still In Use (informationweek.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's so true. at least the Americans would never use human life as a commodity, buying and selling people based on their colour, having a civil war about it and then finding lots of other ways to treat the same people as less then a commodity.
    Americans would also never steal peoples land on the principle that they're just a bunch of savages as well, nope they found an empty continent and just moved in.
    And today Americans would never blow up weddings and such on the chance that there might be a bad guy, with bad guy being defined as someone not happy with having their home blown up, in the name of freedom of course. Another thing is that American business would never move their manufacturing to 3rd world countries where workers are treated like commodities just to make more profits.

  10. Re:Sand Storms on Should We Fill the Sahara With Solar Panels? (bbc.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    The wiki article on HVDC that I referenced above. They got it from a paper from Siemens AG, http://www.energy.siemens.com/...
    To quote,

    Depending on voltage level and construction details, HVDC transmission losses are quoted as about 3.5% per 1,000 km, which are 30 – 40% less than with AC lines, at the same voltage levels.[22] This is because direct current transfers only active power and thus causes lower losses than alternating current, which transfers both active and reactive power.

  11. Re:Actually it's more complicated. on Feds: Your Employer Can't Stop You From Recording Conversations At Work (huffingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1

    Slashdot has been logging lots of users out so not your ISP. Some have suggested deleting all cookies related to slashdot as a fix.

  12. Re:Sand Storms on Should We Fill the Sahara With Solar Panels? (bbc.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    3.5% per 1000 kms for HVDC, which isn't too bad. Currently HVDC is used for the Rio Madeira run of 2375 kms, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... HVDC is also superior for under water use, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....

  13. Re:Mars, like the Sahara, but less atmosphere on Should We Fill the Sahara With Solar Panels? (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    there aren't destructive sand storms on Mars

    Depends on what is considered destructive. For solar power, a dust storm that lasts for months and is planet wide can be considered destructive. Mariner 9 had to idle in orbit for 3 months waiting for the dust to settle enough to see anything other then the big volcanoes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    That dust is also very small and full of iron and could cause all kinds of problems when it gets into electronics.

  14. A lot of the driving force behind the Arab Spring was rising food prices. Hungry people will revolt, even here in the west and the powers that be know this and will keep the population well fed and entertained.

  15. The arrogance and/or cognitive dissonance required must be astronomical.

    Remember - we are talking about politicians here. It's part of the job description.

    Most of them are lawyers, a profession that is trained in cognitive dissonance and part of their profession. Perhaps the worst profession to be a politician though economist is up there too

  16. Re:Copy Skylab on NASA Uncertain How To Proceed In Developing Deep Space Module (examiner.com) · · Score: 1

    OK, I was misled by your reference to the "wet workshop" that was considered for the next batch of Saturn Vs that never came about. In that case they would have only have to have exposed the hydrogen tank to vacuum and I'd guess they considered hydrogen embrittlement.
    Given a big enough upper stage to use for living quarters, they'd have to use a non-toxic fuel

  17. Re:If you don't know why they're doing this... on Sweden's Cash-Free Future Looms -- and Not Everyone Is Happy About It · · Score: 1

    The problem is that too many voters are choosing between Coke and Pepsi instead of fruit juice. Not sure if a solution is likely as in seems to be baked into America's election system and Americans worship their Constitution and aren't likely to change it.

  18. Re:Copy Skylab on NASA Uncertain How To Proceed In Developing Deep Space Module (examiner.com) · · Score: 1

    It would be nice to study just how much gravity people actually need to stay fairly healthy. I'd guess we'd be OK on (actually slightly above) Venus where gravity is 90%. How about 75%, 50% or as on Mars, 33%? Easier to spin something up if you don't need the full 1-g, and it might not be worth staying on Mars if the low gravity is too hard on people.
    Right now we only have 2 data points, 0-g and 1-g with a couple of days at .16-g. Shame they never launched the ISS module with the centrifuge.

  19. Re:Copy Skylab on NASA Uncertain How To Proceed In Developing Deep Space Module (examiner.com) · · Score: 1

    Do you really consider hydrogen and oxygen to be toxic? That's what fueled the Saturn V excepting the first stage which was kerosene+oxygen.

  20. Re:If you don't know why they're doing this... on Sweden's Cash-Free Future Looms -- and Not Everyone Is Happy About It · · Score: 1

    Yes, especially in 2008.

  21. Re:If you don't know why they're doing this... on Sweden's Cash-Free Future Looms -- and Not Everyone Is Happy About It · · Score: 1

    The Americans (at least quite a few) believe that freedom means that the government stays out of the way of corporations, who are people, making money any which way.

  22. Re:If you don't know why they're doing this... on Sweden's Cash-Free Future Looms -- and Not Everyone Is Happy About It · · Score: 1

    That's why I mentioned democracies (meaning representative democracy) and even in America the people could reject the banks involvement in government as you guys do get to vote.

  23. Re:Government should enforce more standards on Switzerland Moves Toward a Universal Phone Charger Standard (vice.com) · · Score: 1

    So basically a free market is where who ever has the most power can just take what they want, Remember, none of that pesky government regulation so things like private property only exist if you can defend them.
    I guess the early middle ages was an example of free markets. Powerless government with a rich class fighting amongst themselves to take and defend their property.

  24. Re:Cashless in Canada on Sweden's Cash-Free Future Looms -- and Not Everyone Is Happy About It · · Score: 1

    Credit card has a 2% fee and a stipulation that the charge has to be hidden and spread out to all customers.

  25. Re:Cashless in Canada on Sweden's Cash-Free Future Looms -- and Not Everyone Is Happy About It · · Score: 1

    So you're the one that slows down the lineup as you use your card