As a technician who actually worked on a large windfarm (Kahuku, Hawaii, with both the HECO turbines & the NASA-Boeing turbine), I can say that you are somewhat deluded IF you think that 100% of the electrons doing work in your home (which you pay for in your electrical bill) come from wind energy. Find out how much power is generated by the ENTIRE grid you are on, then divide that by the amount of wind-generated power provided to that grid. The percentage is what you GET but you (and anyone else who pays extra for wind power) subsidize all others not paying for wind power. Paying extra? That's nice but Chuang-Tsu's writings remind us that 'virtue is consumed by fame.'
ALL wind generated power is co-generated (unless YOU have YOUR wind turbine directly connected to YOUR home), meaning the main grid must be online for wind generators to contribute. They disconnect if the main grid goes down, otherwise they suffer damage trying to produce too much. Wind power is still merely an 'add-on' to the world of electrical power. Some day, maybe, it will have a grid all its own.
I learned an incredible amount about innuendo, suggestive phrasing, double entendre AND adult humor from years of reading MAD! magazine from the late '50s on. Just the effort of finding the humor in Spy vs Spy several times each issue was an exercise with a great payoff! It sent me on my way to early geekdom as a radio-TV repairman, electronics technician in the Navy and, totally unavoidable, computer programming as early as the 1980s! Many thanks, Alfred E.! (BTW, I have the current issue (Will Worry for Food, right here:-)
And even though they are "cartoons," the close runners-up for kicking me between my eyes, time after time, are Rocky & Bullwinkle plus George of the Jungle. Adult content? Almost every episode! I thank you, & thank you, & thank you!!
Need to mod jbeaupre up one more point; he is not just "interesting," he's right! I worked some years w/ military trainers where 'tactics' were practiced,... and practiced,... and practiced,... The 'kill' switch would very likely have been in the IFF coding. The RADAR hits the plane with an IFF "interrogate" code and the plane squawks back, "These 'droids aren't the 'droids you're looking for." The RADAR agrees and goes to sleep, never to awaken!
So, *Henriok*, have you looked down the list at the 'minority' who probably think, as I do, that PJ should have one of his unshod feet nailed down,... to a cross tie,... in a remote amusement park,... with a slow steam locomotive (pulling carloads of 'minority' folk like us!) chuffing toward him?
Actually, we save most of our anger for the Tolkien group which gave a 'slasher' film-maker the 'rights' to the story.
**No, my Precious! We wants to claw his puny heart out! He could have given ME the Ring! Me! Lord Gollum! Meee!! Haaaaa, ha..! (oops!)**
Traveling Wave Tubes were created and designed here on Earth. Aligning the elements and making sure that the thing works is real important before you send it off to someplace you can't make a house call,... eh? Tough to do that stuff with air in the way, yes? They are still in use today here on Earth: lots of level indicators in nasty, toxic places incorporate TWTs into their design.
How right you are! If you want a really, REALLY mean watchdog, you pay strangers to beat it while it's tied up, then you come back and be very nice to it. It's a cruel thing to do to a living being, but it is DAMN effective!
Those students are in the same position. They are tied up and the 'master' lets strangers do his dirty work. The big regret here is that there ISN'T a Hell for THAT asshole to land in!
Devil: "Did I mention Friday night is Gay Night?"...
I can't believe that folks have forgotten about saturable-core reactors. BEFORE we used triacs and SCRs to vary AC (AC = Alternating Current, so "AC current" is redundant) going to things like stage lights, there were (and still are) saturable-core reactors.
In the case of stage lights, these "reactors" are large, iron-core coils (inductors, which possess 'inductive reactance,' hence the name "reactor") with a second winding connected to a variable DC supply (need I explain "DC"?) which, when cranked up high enough (i.e., more DC out), 'saturates' the coil's magnetic capacity by "locking up" the magnetic domains of the iron core (you know, steel is kinda like iron). Since the current is "one-way," the magnetic field is one-way, also. With no domains left to "react" to a varying (alternating) current, the impedance of the coil drops radically, allowing current to flow through it and to the lights. (On the way to saturation, the reactor loses impedance in proportion to the DC being fed in. That's how stage lights used to be dimmed and brightened.)
Now, TFA says the guy held a magnet near the STEEL shaft of a motor (that was running already) and it went faster. Lock up some of the available magnetic domains and inductance is diminished. When inductance is lower, counter-EMF is lower; when counter-EMF is lower, self-braking is lower,... and the motor speeds up,.. DUUUHHHHHH!!
I can't believe that folks have forgotten about saturable-core reactors. BEFORE we used triacs and SCRs to vary AC (AC = Alternating Current, so "AC current" is redundant) going to things like stage lights, there were (and still are) saturable-core reactors.
In the case of stage lights, these "reactors" are large, iron-core coils (inductors, which possess 'inductive reactance,' hence the name "reactor") with a second winding connected to a variable DC supply (need I explain "DC"?) which, when cranked up high enough (i.e., more DC out), 'saturate' the coil's magnetic capacity by "locking up" the magnetic domains of the iron core (you know. steel is kinda like iron). Since the current is "one-way," the magnetic field is one-way, also. With no domains left to "react" to a varying (alternating) current, the impedance of the coil drops radically, allowing current to flow through it and to the lights. (On the way to saturation, the reactor loses impedance in proportion to the DC being fed in. That's how stage lights used to be dimmed and brightened.)
Now, TFA says the guy held a magnet near the STEEL shaft of a motor (that was running already) and it went faster.
Well, the Rooskies didn't have "Progress" then, but I worked at a DoD observatory where that was exactly what we did. Meaning, we geared up the 'scopes to watch the Russian & Chinese spacecraft (and, maybe, 'illuminate' them once in a while, or bounce a laser off the reflectors WE left on the moon).
You didn't need a 30 meter telescope to look at something only 90 miles away--straight up! Can't really mention which 'scopes but there are images of them on the web. They watched Kosmonauts working outside of Mir,... or whatever was up back in the '70s. (Oops! Did I say "scopes"? I meant "observatory"!)
Hell! At 90 miles, and with a thirty-meter mirror, the sparks of the static discharge from pulling your socks apart would blow out the sensors on their experiments! Not that the Russians were allowed to wear socks!...
In chess, the opponent NEVER takes the other player's king. A player topples his own king to acknowledge that: a.)his king is in 'check' where it stands and b.)he cannot block that check with another of his pieces or move his king to a position that will take the king out of check. This is what "checkmate" means.
The Russians can play chess, play piano, and dance ballet with the best in this world,... but when it comes to government, they suck.
Steady there, Mate! Clearly, you're interested in crows but maybe too deep into the forest to see the trees. Yes, I agree crows are very smart and organized, but give the Devil his due.
Those "chimps" didn't JUST fish out termites with a stick,... they picked the right size of stick, modified the stick by chewing it to a certain consistency so that the termites' deeper grip on it would increase their return-on-investment in the tool, picked the right spot on the termite mound to go into for food AND manipulated the stick in just right way to aggravate the termites into 'defending' their mound by attacking the 'invader' (probably screaming all the time--in termite language, of course--"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!"). Plus, they taught other chimps the trick. (Granted, stick-chewing isn't much in the way of culture, but it is culture.)
I'd call that one-up on meta-tool use since it shows the understanding that a certain DEGREE of modification is required to IMPROVE the effect of a tool AND takes into account the response of the prey to specific stimulation. Besides, haven't seen any crows walking on the moon, have you?;-)
There's a lot less wrong with the physics in Star Trek than in the 'plots' of the episodes.
Gene Roddenberry was working from the physics of Burkhard Heim, a disabled scientist who lost both hands, as well as most of his sight and hearing, in an explosives handling accident sometime in the mid-1940s. Heim understood that mankind will not get to the stars on combustion-type space vehicles. He worked to comprehend the nature of all and discovered this is NOT a WYSIWYG universe!
Additional dimensions--initially, two more to explain his "warp-drive" physics, then another two for a Theory of Everything, and then four (a total of twelve) for all particle states and interactions--were invoked to explain things that were out of sight and unavailable due to their 'folded' nature.
In the past few years, non-Newtonian gravitational fields--reversible fields!--have been created and detected in the laboratory using super-conducting materials (no, not di-lithium crystals!). The effect is between 20 to 30 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE greater than anything General Relativity predicted.
To quote Bob Dylan (a.k.a., Bob Zimmerman), "The times, they are a changin'!"
And, Hey!, I got a LOT of my science from TV. Too bad Mr. Wizard (may he rest in peace) has no equal these days. (Sorry, Bill Nye. You may be a 'science guy,' but you're no Mr. Wizard.)
How could we tell any manmade weakening from the current, natural weakening of the Earth's magnetic field?
The North-to-South polarity is a composite of many 'cells' of geomagnetism. There are places on this planet where the field lines are distorted from anything resembling a N/S orientation. We all know that the Earth's poles have swapped numerous times through the ages. It is suspected that we are entering one of those changeovers at the present.
Are we really worried about weakening an already weakening magnetic field?
A more basic worry is the misuse of "revolve" in reporting this item. Planets "revolve" around the Sun, but they rotate on their axes (pl. of "axis"). Yes, in a loose sense, the turbine will "revolve" because it's on the Earth and the Earth "revolves" around the Sun.
Perhaps "spin" is le mot juste. Not too technical, easier to spell, and vague enough to calm nerves.
Listen in as we eavesdrop on Phoenix Mission Control:
Scientist - "Kilograms? Oh, shit! How many pounds in a kilogram,... How many pounds in a kilogram? Uh,.. uh,... Let's see! Gotta think quick! Twenty pence in a shilling, 14 shillings in a pound,... We ARE using English pounds, right?!"
Manager - "Settle down now! We've got more than 300 days before landing on Mars."
Scientist - "Three hundred days?! Oh, shit! Are those English days or metric days,... English days or metric days?!"
if nothing else to keep them from raping the public.
Meaning,...? What? That the municipal governments AREN'T raping the public now AND they will protect us from the buggering we already get from ISPs?!
Hah! They're just jockeying some additional 'pork.' The 'level playing field' means the local government get to 'stick it to us,' just like the ISPs do now.
It's a jaded viewpoint, I know, but,... \0/ WTF can I do?!
The '60s underground cartoonist (oops!, I mean "sequential graphic artist") SPAIN covered that idea very thoroughly in his two SANGRELLA comic strips. (Damn!, I mean sequential graphic art panels!)
Anyway, order is very difficult to maintain in our chaotic universe. Just hope that you aren't here when the BIG change comes!
1.) The 'bots don't shoot the weapons; the operator of the 'bot does that. ALWAYS keep that straight in your head. The operator will be a techie-type,... and just like those fancy 'hunts' for the aristocracy of old, the high muckety-mucks will only take the switch for those flushed-out prey (unless Dicky C. gets HIS hand on the "shotgun" switch, then everybody is in danger!).
2.) I actually test some of the circuitry that is specifically incorporated into these things (and, yes, a shotgun channel is among them). My guess is that one of the other channels is for the "kill" switch and it will very likely pull a reverse "Jihadist" suicide bombing on any asshole(s) who get too close to a disabled unit.
There are some very sharp (if twisted) minds putting these things together. If they've done their homework, these 'bots will be avoided like a hot bath by the "insurgents."
On the down side, American-built gear isn't all that it used to be,...:-(
Slashdot Mirror
As a technician who actually worked on a large windfarm (Kahuku, Hawaii, with both the HECO turbines & the NASA-Boeing turbine), I can say that you are somewhat deluded IF you think that 100% of the electrons doing work in your home (which you pay for in your electrical bill) come from wind energy. Find out how much power is generated by the ENTIRE grid you are on, then divide that by the amount of wind-generated power provided to that grid. The percentage is what you GET but you (and anyone else who pays extra for wind power) subsidize all others not paying for wind power. Paying extra? That's nice but Chuang-Tsu's writings remind us that 'virtue is consumed by fame.'
ALL wind generated power is co-generated (unless YOU have YOUR wind turbine directly connected to YOUR home), meaning the main grid must be online for wind generators to contribute. They disconnect if the main grid goes down, otherwise they suffer damage trying to produce too much. Wind power is still merely an 'add-on' to the world of electrical power. Some day, maybe, it will have a grid all its own.
Come on, now! Surely they will get into trouble at some point: then they will be running!
An FST reference?! You must be an Oldie. Someone call Dr. Benway!
(If I had any mod points, you'd get a +1 insightful.)
This is GOOD news! When it pans out, I have relatives who will be better.
C'mon! Lighten up, be happy!
I learned an incredible amount about innuendo, suggestive phrasing, double entendre AND adult humor from years of reading MAD! magazine from the late '50s on. Just the effort of finding the humor in Spy vs Spy several times each issue was an exercise with a great payoff! It sent me on my way to early geekdom as a radio-TV repairman, electronics technician in the Navy and, totally unavoidable, computer programming as early as the 1980s! Many thanks, Alfred E.! (BTW, I have the current issue (Will Worry for Food, right here :-)
And even though they are "cartoons," the close runners-up for kicking me between my eyes, time after time, are Rocky & Bullwinkle plus George of the Jungle. Adult content? Almost every episode! I thank you, & thank you, & thank you!!
Need to mod jbeaupre up one more point; he is not just "interesting," he's right! I worked some years w/ military trainers where 'tactics' were practiced,... and practiced,... and practiced,... The 'kill' switch would very likely have been in the IFF coding. The RADAR hits the plane with an IFF "interrogate" code and the plane squawks back, "These 'droids aren't the 'droids you're looking for." The RADAR agrees and goes to sleep, never to awaken!
Actually, we save most of our anger for the Tolkien group which gave a 'slasher' film-maker the 'rights' to the story.
**No, my Precious! We wants to claw his puny heart out! He could have given ME the Ring! Me! Lord Gollum! Meee!! Haaaaa, ha..! (oops!)**
....
...
..
. (sploit!)
Traveling Wave Tubes were created and designed here on Earth. Aligning the elements and making sure that the thing works is real important before you send it off to someplace you can't make a house call,... eh? Tough to do that stuff with air in the way, yes? They are still in use today here on Earth: lots of level indicators in nasty, toxic places incorporate TWTs into their design.
How right you are! If you want a really, REALLY mean watchdog, you pay strangers to beat it while it's tied up, then you come back and be very nice to it. It's a cruel thing to do to a living being, but it is DAMN effective!
Those students are in the same position. They are tied up and the 'master' lets strangers do his dirty work. The big regret here is that there ISN'T a Hell for THAT asshole to land in!
Devil: "Did I mention Friday night is Gay Night?"...
In the case of stage lights, these "reactors" are large, iron-core coils (inductors, which possess 'inductive reactance,' hence the name "reactor") with a second winding connected to a variable DC supply (need I explain "DC"?) which, when cranked up high enough (i.e., more DC out), 'saturates' the coil's magnetic capacity by "locking up" the magnetic domains of the iron core (you know, steel is kinda like iron). Since the current is "one-way," the magnetic field is one-way, also. With no domains left to "react" to a varying (alternating) current, the impedance of the coil drops radically, allowing current to flow through it and to the lights. (On the way to saturation, the reactor loses impedance in proportion to the DC being fed in. That's how stage lights used to be dimmed and brightened.)
Now, TFA says the guy held a magnet near the STEEL shaft of a motor (that was running already) and it went faster. Lock up some of the available magnetic domains and inductance is diminished. When inductance is lower, counter-EMF is lower; when counter-EMF is lower, self-braking is lower,... and the motor speeds up,.. DUUUHHHHHH!!
I can't believe that folks have forgotten about saturable-core reactors. BEFORE we used triacs and SCRs to vary AC (AC = Alternating Current, so "AC current" is redundant) going to things like stage lights, there were (and still are) saturable-core reactors.
In the case of stage lights, these "reactors" are large, iron-core coils (inductors, which possess 'inductive reactance,' hence the name "reactor") with a second winding connected to a variable DC supply (need I explain "DC"?) which, when cranked up high enough (i.e., more DC out), 'saturate' the coil's magnetic capacity by "locking up" the magnetic domains of the iron core (you know. steel is kinda like iron). Since the current is "one-way," the magnetic field is one-way, also. With no domains left to "react" to a varying (alternating) current, the impedance of the coil drops radically, allowing current to flow through it and to the lights. (On the way to saturation, the reactor loses impedance in proportion to the DC being fed in. That's how stage lights used to be dimmed and brightened.)
Now, TFA says the guy held a magnet near the STEEL shaft of a motor (that was running already) and it went faster.
Well, DUH!!
Well, the Rooskies didn't have "Progress" then, but I worked at a DoD observatory where that was exactly what we did. Meaning, we geared up the 'scopes to watch the Russian & Chinese spacecraft (and, maybe, 'illuminate' them once in a while, or bounce a laser off the reflectors WE left on the moon).
You didn't need a 30 meter telescope to look at something only 90 miles away--straight up! Can't really mention which 'scopes but there are images of them on the web. They watched Kosmonauts working outside of Mir,... or whatever was up back in the '70s. (Oops! Did I say "scopes"? I meant "observatory"!)
Hell! At 90 miles, and with a thirty-meter mirror, the sparks of the static discharge from pulling your socks apart would blow out the sensors on their experiments! Not that the Russians were allowed to wear socks!...
In chess, the opponent NEVER takes the other player's king. A player topples his own king to acknowledge that: a.)his king is in 'check' where it stands and b.)he cannot block that check with another of his pieces or move his king to a position that will take the king out of check. This is what "checkmate" means.
The Russians can play chess, play piano, and dance ballet with the best in this world,... but when it comes to government, they suck.
Sorry, Geeksters, but that number has NINE significant digits, eight of which are to the right of the decimal point.
Testify, Brother!
Steady there, Mate! Clearly, you're interested in crows but maybe too deep into the forest to see the trees. Yes, I agree crows are very smart and organized, but give the Devil his due.
Those "chimps" didn't JUST fish out termites with a stick,... they picked the right size of stick, modified the stick by chewing it to a certain consistency so that the termites' deeper grip on it would increase their return-on-investment in the tool, picked the right spot on the termite mound to go into for food AND manipulated the stick in just right way to aggravate the termites into 'defending' their mound by attacking the 'invader' (probably screaming all the time--in termite language, of course--"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!"). Plus, they taught other chimps the trick. (Granted, stick-chewing isn't much in the way of culture, but it is culture.)
I'd call that one-up on meta-tool use since it shows the understanding that a certain DEGREE of modification is required to IMPROVE the effect of a tool AND takes into account the response of the prey to specific stimulation. Besides, haven't seen any crows walking on the moon, have you? ;-)
and a simulated coupling to a simulated... Aw, let's let it go at that!
You could get a computer to simulate 409 cu. in. automobile engine,... but it couldn't torque a flea's leg!
There's a lot less wrong with the physics in Star Trek than in the 'plots' of the episodes.
Gene Roddenberry was working from the physics of Burkhard Heim, a disabled scientist who lost both hands, as well as most of his sight and hearing, in an explosives handling accident sometime in the mid-1940s. Heim understood that mankind will not get to the stars on combustion-type space vehicles. He worked to comprehend the nature of all and discovered this is NOT a WYSIWYG universe!
Additional dimensions--initially, two more to explain his "warp-drive" physics, then another two for a Theory of Everything, and then four (a total of twelve) for all particle states and interactions--were invoked to explain things that were out of sight and unavailable due to their 'folded' nature.
In the past few years, non-Newtonian gravitational fields--reversible fields!--have been created and detected in the laboratory using super-conducting materials (no, not di-lithium crystals!). The effect is between 20 to 30 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE greater than anything General Relativity predicted.
To quote Bob Dylan (a.k.a., Bob Zimmerman), "The times, they are a changin'!"
And, Hey!, I got a LOT of my science from TV. Too bad Mr. Wizard (may he rest in peace) has no equal these days. (Sorry, Bill Nye. You may be a 'science guy,' but you're no Mr. Wizard.)
How could we tell any manmade weakening from the current, natural weakening of the Earth's magnetic field?
The North-to-South polarity is a composite of many 'cells' of geomagnetism. There are places on this planet where the field lines are distorted from anything resembling a N/S orientation. We all know that the Earth's poles have swapped numerous times through the ages. It is suspected that we are entering one of those changeovers at the present.
Are we really worried about weakening an already weakening magnetic field?
A more basic worry is the misuse of "revolve" in reporting this item. Planets "revolve" around the Sun, but they rotate on their axes (pl. of "axis"). Yes, in a loose sense, the turbine will "revolve" because it's on the Earth and the Earth "revolves" around the Sun.
Perhaps "spin" is le mot juste. Not too technical, easier to spell, and vague enough to calm nerves.
Scientist - "Kilograms? Oh, shit! How many pounds in a kilogram,... How many pounds in a kilogram? Uh,.. uh,... Let's see! Gotta think quick! Twenty pence in a shilling, 14 shillings in a pound,... We ARE using English pounds, right?!"
Manager - "Settle down now! We've got more than 300 days before landing on Mars."
Scientist - "Three hundred days?! Oh, shit! Are those English days or metric days,... English days or metric days?!"
Bye, bye, Phoenix! Can you say "Splat!?"
Meaning,...? What? That the municipal governments AREN'T raping the public now AND they will protect us from the buggering we already get from ISPs?!
Hah! They're just jockeying some additional 'pork.' The 'level playing field' means the local government get to 'stick it to us,' just like the ISPs do now.
It's a jaded viewpoint, I know, but,... \0/ WTF can I do?!
The '60s underground cartoonist (oops!, I mean "sequential graphic artist") SPAIN covered that idea very thoroughly in his two SANGRELLA comic strips. (Damn!, I mean sequential graphic art panels!)
Anyway, order is very difficult to maintain in our chaotic universe. Just hope that you aren't here when the BIG change comes!
1.) The 'bots don't shoot the weapons; the operator of the 'bot does that. ALWAYS keep that straight in your head. The operator will be a techie-type,... and just like those fancy 'hunts' for the aristocracy of old, the high muckety-mucks will only take the switch for those flushed-out prey (unless Dicky C. gets HIS hand on the "shotgun" switch, then everybody is in danger!).
2.) I actually test some of the circuitry that is specifically incorporated into these things (and, yes, a shotgun channel is among them). My guess is that one of the other channels is for the "kill" switch and it will very likely pull a reverse "Jihadist" suicide bombing on any asshole(s) who get too close to a disabled unit.
There are some very sharp (if twisted) minds putting these things together. If they've done their homework, these 'bots will be avoided like a hot bath by the "insurgents."
On the down side, American-built gear isn't all that it used to be,... :-(