Like we ignore the radon that is released when coal is burned? Coal power plants release more radiation into the atmosphere every year than all the nuclear accidents in the US combined. If you want to cut down on the amout of radiation released into the atmosphere you would immediately convert all coal power plants to nuclear power plants. Of course that ignores other power supplies like renewables, but while progress is being made, wind and solar simply arent ready yet to provide all the nations power.
Nuclear waste is a pollitical problem more than it is a scientific one. There are methods for converting waste fuels into new fuel for nuclear power plants (IFR, ALMR) These plants would essentually eliminate all the nuclear waste we currently have. Granted, the process still produces radioactive waste, but the half life of that waste goes from millions of years to hundreds of years. Pollitically howerve, this cant be done, since plutonium is an intermediate step in the process, and we dont want to promote proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Everybody in the PC industry builds commodity hardware, running an OS they don't control, and tries to compete based on marketing and lowest-cost production.
Except for Apple, but then, they arent really PC's, theyre Macs;-)
Where is the improvement? Technology improves and factories produce more and more with less labor, but the preponderance of the profits are going to the factory owners so the workers are actually getting poorer.
So whats the solution then? violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the working class? been there, done that, got purged. There has to be a way to decrease the gap between righ and poor without creating a new class or rich and a new class of poor. Marxisim-leninisim just isnt going to cut it because it doesnt work. Social Democracy seems to be working out OK for europe, but they still have a discrepancy between rich and poor, and have double digit unempoyment to boot. What are you suggesting replace the current system, such that people dont lose their jobs, their homes, or their lives, that also gives more money to the people who deserve it. The problem with Capitalism is that it takes a long time for people to get anywhere, usually about 3 generations.
by holding guns to workers' heads and telling them to toil and hand over the fruits of their labor graciously,
If the workers are being exploited, then they should rise up and overthrow the government, and form some sort of "workers paradise" in which they can all live in peace and harmony. Oh wait, they already tried that.
The goal of the Mars society is not to get a government handout. While they would be happy if a government decided that mars was a viable destination and began funding it, its not nescisary. If no government steps up, the mars society will get there eventually on donations and the hard work of its members. It may take a hundred years that way, but they will still get there.
Software Patents are OK, only if they require yu to release fully documented code, no code, no patent, no documentation, no patent. Meet those two criteria and Software Patents rock, simply because in 17 years youve got the code, whereas now you get the code oh say, NEVER.
I think the best example of what MP3's can do for the music industry id Linkin Park. Las year, guess who sold the most records and CD's? Britney? Outta synch? Backdoor boys?, nope it was Linkin Park, a band that formed::Gasp:: on their own! But surely Linkin Park Must have been spotted by some smart record exec and signed immediately. Nope, in an intrerview in the jan 28 issue of time, the band says that WB turned them down the first time they tried to get a deal, so what they did was plaster their MP3's all over the internet. They would go into chat rooms and pretend to be random people, saying "hey, have you heard the great new band linkin park" or something to that effect. Eventually they built up a legion of loyal fans through mp3's and the net, and THEN they were signed by WB. Would they have been able to do this without MP3's? maybe, but they sure made it easier. And WB certainly wouldnt be sitting on the goldmine they are neow, afte rall they turned down the band the first time!
Developments like this really offer tremendous opportunities for creating a family for those who cannot have children the old fashioned way."
Or for creating an army of genetically enhanced flying monkeys. Fly my pretties, fly! Hahahahahaha!
I did a paper in college on various methods used by stores to prevent shoplifting. Most of the systems use some sort of RFID. Perhaps not as elaborate as the one they are proposing, but similar. They all have the common charactaristic of being able to be disabled by a short high intensity burst of RF waves. Basically they work from a capacitor and antenna, the high power burst burns out the capacitor and theyre usless. I suspect that if this ever comes to pass, some enterprising geek will come up with a high intensity RF machine that can disable any tag.
I wish that more security cameras were webcammed. Who says that only the police shoudl be allowed to know whats going on? What if theres a brutal police beating and the police just "happen" t o lose the video tape? I think corruption among law enforcement officers would be greatly reduced if every security camera were webcammed. What if that quick-e-mart clerk is taking hotdogs off the floor and selling them? webcam his ass. The only way that public cameras dont violate any rights is if they are truly public and available to everyone, not a select few.
Below Zero? Does it really get that cold in the UK? Im from Minnesota and we only have about a week or so where it never gets above zero, and MN is alot colder than the UK. Then I thought, Hes using Centigrade you idiot. You brits sold out, use Imperial measures, its the only way to go. I want 8 rods to the hoghead and thats the way i likes it.
You think its bad now when people call asking you to switch phone providers. If this ever catches on, ad companies will be paying big bucks for certain volumes of air. Entire cities could be covered so that as you wak down the street your cell phone and pager are beeping incessantly as you move from ad volume to ad volume. This is the telephone equivalent of spam, and they dont even need to know your phone number to do it.
The Space Shuttle does not use solar power, it runs on fuel cells and batteries. The bay doors of the shuttle have radiators on them, not solar panels.
Because, as gandalf said, hobbits are good people, and have an amazing ability to resist the rings power. If the ring had been given to anyone else, they would have been corrupted to use it. Which is why gandalf didnt take it, and why boromir got in so much trouble just from being around it. A hobbit was the only being to ever willingly give up the ring (bilbo). Since frodo was so inexperienced, they created the fellowship to guide and protect him. As for a map, why do you need a map if youve got gandalf?
Actually, from what I've seen, this one scene that looks pretty true to the story to me.
Actually, In the book, i believe peregrin drops a pebble into the well to see how deep it is, and it wakes something up when it hits the bottom. Fron what ive seen of the trailers, hes messing with an orc or dwarf skeleton and it drops in. Essentially the same thing, but a bit more dramatic.
The problem with this is water. The place where there putting this is a dry and arid region, for obvious reasons. If youre going to grow stuff in a 25km^2 greenhouse, thats going to need alot of irrigation. They mention in the article that there would be a cloud froming from water condensation at the top of the tower. It would be really interesting to harvest that water for use in the greenhouse. It would take awhile, but as long as you harvest enough water out of the air column, you could potentially make it sustainable. Plants release water, water is harvested by tower, water irrigates plants. Salt buildup would not be as much of a problem, since youre essentially using distilled water for your irrigation purposes. This would be a slow process, since the water input would be coming from condensed humidity in the air. The thing you would have to be most careful about is the fact that you dont want all the water that youve just worked so hard to caputure going back out the chimney because you cant condense it fast enough. It could be done though, very interesting idea.
Slashdot Mirror
But my watch is only good to 100m. Damn you timex!
Like we ignore the radon that is released when coal is burned? Coal power plants release more radiation into the atmosphere every year than all the nuclear accidents in the US combined. If you want to cut down on the amout of radiation released into the atmosphere you would immediately convert all coal power plants to nuclear power plants. Of course that ignores other power supplies like renewables, but while progress is being made, wind and solar simply arent ready yet to provide all the nations power.
Nuclear waste is a pollitical problem more than it is a scientific one. There are methods for converting waste fuels into new fuel for nuclear power plants (IFR, ALMR) These plants would essentually eliminate all the nuclear waste we currently have. Granted, the process still produces radioactive waste, but the half life of that waste goes from millions of years to hundreds of years. Pollitically howerve, this cant be done, since plutonium is an intermediate step in the process, and we dont want to promote proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Except for Apple, but then, they arent really PC's, theyre Macs ;-)
So whats the solution then? violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the working class? been there, done that, got purged. There has to be a way to decrease the gap between righ and poor without creating a new class or rich and a new class of poor. Marxisim-leninisim just isnt going to cut it because it doesnt work. Social Democracy seems to be working out OK for europe, but they still have a discrepancy between rich and poor, and have double digit unempoyment to boot. What are you suggesting replace the current system, such that people dont lose their jobs, their homes, or their lives, that also gives more money to the people who deserve it. The problem with Capitalism is that it takes a long time for people to get anywhere, usually about 3 generations.
by holding guns to workers' heads and telling them to toil and hand over the fruits of their
labor graciously,
If the workers are being exploited, then they should rise up and overthrow the government, and form some sort of "workers paradise" in which they can all live in peace and harmony. Oh wait, they already tried that.
The goal of the Mars society is not to get a government handout. While they would be happy if a government decided that mars was a viable destination and began funding it, its not nescisary. If no government steps up, the mars society will get there eventually on donations and the hard work of its members. It may take a hundred years that way, but they will still get there.
NEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDD!
Homer, stop that
But marge, nerds are my mortal enemy!
We'll do it ourselves then. Click here.
I live with the winner of the small program category. He does programming contests "for fun" In his own words "I dont remember how it works anymore"
Dude, shut up, or else theyll move to schemes that ARE impossible to crack ;-)
Identify: Principal Skinner
Pros: Nerdy, has a Job
Cons: Possible homersexual
Software Patents are OK, only if they require yu to release fully documented code, no code, no patent, no documentation, no patent. Meet those two criteria and Software Patents rock, simply because in 17 years youve got the code, whereas now you get the code oh say, NEVER.
I think the best example of what MP3's can do for the music industry id Linkin Park. Las year, guess who sold the most records and CD's? Britney? Outta synch? Backdoor boys?, nope it was Linkin Park, a band that formed ::Gasp:: on their own! But surely Linkin Park Must have been spotted by some smart record exec and signed immediately. Nope, in an intrerview in the jan 28 issue of time, the band says that WB turned them down the first time they tried to get a deal, so what they did was plaster their MP3's all over the internet. They would go into chat rooms and pretend to be random people, saying "hey, have you heard the great new band linkin park" or something to that effect. Eventually they built up a legion of loyal fans through mp3's and the net, and THEN they were signed by WB. Would they have been able to do this without MP3's? maybe, but they sure made it easier. And WB certainly wouldnt be sitting on the goldmine they are neow, afte rall they turned down the band the first time!
Developments like this really offer tremendous opportunities for creating a family for those who cannot have children the old fashioned way."
Or for creating an army of genetically enhanced flying monkeys. Fly my pretties, fly! Hahahahahaha!
I did a paper in college on various methods used by stores to prevent shoplifting. Most of the systems use some sort of RFID. Perhaps not as elaborate as the one they are proposing, but similar. They all have the common charactaristic of being able to be disabled by a short high intensity burst of RF waves. Basically they work from a capacitor and antenna, the high power burst burns out the capacitor and theyre usless. I suspect that if this ever comes to pass, some enterprising geek will come up with a high intensity RF machine that can disable any tag.
I wish that more security cameras were webcammed. Who says that only the police shoudl be allowed to know whats going on? What if theres a brutal police beating and the police just "happen" t o lose the video tape? I think corruption among law enforcement officers would be greatly reduced if every security camera were webcammed. What if that quick-e-mart clerk is taking hotdogs off the floor and selling them? webcam his ass. The only way that public cameras dont violate any rights is if they are truly public and available to everyone, not a select few.
This answers the question: Who is More Evil than Satan. AOL obviously ;-)
Below Zero? Does it really get that cold in the UK? Im from Minnesota and we only have about a week or so where it never gets above zero, and MN is alot colder than the UK. Then I thought, Hes using Centigrade you idiot. You brits sold out, use Imperial measures, its the only way to go. I want 8 rods to the hoghead and thats the way i likes it.
You think its bad now when people call asking you to switch phone providers. If this ever catches on, ad companies will be paying big bucks for certain volumes of air. Entire cities could be covered so that as you wak down the street your cell phone and pager are beeping incessantly as you move from ad volume to ad volume. This is the telephone equivalent of spam, and they dont even need to know your phone number to do it.
The Space Shuttle does not use solar power, it runs on fuel cells and batteries. The bay doors of the shuttle have radiators on them, not solar panels.
Because, as gandalf said, hobbits are good people, and have an amazing ability to resist the rings power. If the ring had been given to anyone else, they would have been corrupted to use it. Which is why gandalf didnt take it, and why boromir got in so much trouble just from being around it. A hobbit was the only being to ever willingly give up the ring (bilbo). Since frodo was so inexperienced, they created the fellowship to guide and protect him. As for a map, why do you need a map if youve got gandalf?
Actually, In the book, i believe peregrin drops a pebble into the well to see how deep it is, and it wakes something up when it hits the bottom. Fron what ive seen of the trailers, hes messing with an orc or dwarf skeleton and it drops in. Essentially the same thing, but a bit more dramatic.
"Die bad robots, die! With witty lines like that, I could be an action hero" -H. Simpson
The problem with this is water. The place where there putting this is a dry and arid region, for obvious reasons. If youre going to grow stuff in a 25km^2 greenhouse, thats going to need alot of irrigation. They mention in the article that there would be a cloud froming from water condensation at the top of the tower. It would be really interesting to harvest that water for use in the greenhouse. It would take awhile, but as long as you harvest enough water out of the air column, you could potentially make it sustainable. Plants release water, water is harvested by tower, water irrigates plants. Salt buildup would not be as much of a problem, since youre essentially using distilled water for your irrigation purposes. This would be a slow process, since the water input would be coming from condensed humidity in the air. The thing you would have to be most careful about is the fact that you dont want all the water that youve just worked so hard to caputure going back out the chimney because you cant condense it fast enough. It could be done though, very interesting idea.