I just drove through Manhattan and felt very stupid to be driving. Remembering that NYC has a huge park in the middle
and so does not seem to mind spending some space on plants, it seems to me that walking a block for some really fresh
food might please people. One thing I did not understand on the web site was that they were worrying about ripening tomatoes but it seems to me that people would buy as soon as the tomatoes were available, so that green storage issues would not
be a big deal. --
Fresh photons at low cost: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
You read Maureen Dowd too? I was not persuaded about the wardrobe thing and it is important to remember she is most catty about those already in office.
In the end, you have to look to the selective recount strategy for blame though I can see why you regret your vote.
The way I see it, Gore secured the nomination with the speech in the Rose Garden after the impeachment. He did not know how to conduct public
debate. In oratory, assuming the audience is with you is standard practice but in debate it works against you. So, instead of catching
Bush's very bold lies during the debate, we worried about Gore's demeanor. This gave Bush a shot and when Gore lost Tennesee it all came down
to Florida. Gore should have asked for a statewide recount, but he decided to concentrate of a few counties which might help him. This gave
an opening for court challenges and the Supreme Court decided the election.
When voting, it seems to me you'll have much less cause for regret if you vote for someone rather than against someone. Choosing the least worse
is a way to be easily swayed by negative and often false campaign tactics. If you look for what you like rather than reacting to what you dislike you'll be
more likely to be happy with your vote no matter what the outcome.
Who better than a product liability reformer to see that government of the people is by the people and for the people? Bringing accountability seems
to be the basis of this scandal and many others.
Thanks, I was confused about seperate entitied. I've also kept separate email accounts to comply with the Hatch Act but I didn't fall under the
Presidental Records Act, so preserving work related email has been up to me.
It seems to me that a simple solution to the problem is to CC the official automatically preserved account if the email has to do with official business.
Perhaps a BCC would be best so that a corespondent who also has a party role does not respond to all and get a fundraising discussion going on the
government equipment. I'd think you'd want to do this regardless of the Presidential Records situation just to show that your government pay was used
for something. Paying people out of the treasury to do party business has to be a Hatch Act violation as well, so you'd want some record to show
you were getting your official work done.
Now I get it. The Bush-Cheney 04 campaign did 11 accounts, the RNC did 88. So, that's 99 politcal email accounts on the wall. I'll be totally confused by the end of that song.
That stuff is not suppose to be in the open or on a network that touches the internet, much less on the internet itself. I don't think you'll see
much if any of that. When people breach security, they usually do it on purpose, not by accident.
I'm not sure I follow this. The committee is saying 88 officials had political cover email accounts while the RNC says there were only 11. Is this
a catagory problem? Are 77 not White House officials so that the RNC is correct, or are they minimizing in a way that is not truthful?
On another note, I'm guessing that federal marshals will be sent to Texas to ensure Harriet Miers keeps the appointment made for her with the
House Judiciary committee. Does anyone think that issues that arose when they were called on to hunt down the Texas legislature will come up in this case?
There is no need to send ships to find planets. We can do it from here. The Terrestrial Planet Finder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Planet_Fi nder can pick out planets that would be suitible for colonization that are nearby. What is
even more interesting in the search now for planets that transit their stars. These can give us an answer right away on how common photosynthetic
life is because the method can work out to a much larger distance. I would be surprised if we don't have measurements of the atmospheric composition
of at least 20 earth-like planets in the coming decade. Finding just one with oxygen narrows down the parameters of the Drake equation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation substantially, giving estimates of f_p, n_e and f_l.
Long before we embark, we'll know much about our destination.
While I see the mass issues you raise, I really feel that we are turing the corner on scarcity driven thinking on energy (of necessity). The whole
fossil fuel thing was short term, but, as Bucky Fuller wrote, it gave time to get better than plants at doing solar energy. So, I'm seeing exponential
growth there since projects started today cost less than coal mined today. And, costs will continue to fall. Already, if you don't mind taking up
some yard space, you can get lower efficiency amorphous silicon panels for a low price per watt and long warantee which undercut todays delivered electricity
rates. I mess with the numbers a bit here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/04/green-numbers. html and things look good for a fairly rapid
transformation.
What does cheap abundant energy mean? It isn't a magic wand, but it sure acts like one. We siphon off abundant CPU cycles to do amazing calculations
of protiens that would be prohibative if we were in scarcity but which are free with volunteer efforts. With renewable energy we probably want three
times as much peak generating capacity as peak demand just to make things convenient and with the way prices are going, we'll still do this for less
than we are paying now, likely much less. So, we'll have the kind of flow you are interested in sitting round unused most of the time unless we take on interesting
projects such as colonization. Mere curiosity about giving it a try would likely drive that. "Because it's there" is not an economic argument. So, does an electromagnetic catapult look feasable if
the used energy is donated? I would say yes. This might not be the technical modality that is ultimately used, but when you are trying to make
decisions about how to get rid of extra energy rather than how to share out limited energy there is much more room for projects like colonization.
-- Solar power with no system purchase: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
Actually it has to be a % passing. If the supply of licensed doctors and attorneys were not limited, the costs for their services would reduce, so
these exams have to be a part of the the system to control the supply. A test may be written to ensure a spread (so it tests knowledge) and also to
ensure that the passing score is largely unattainable. So, I think the analysis is incorrect. The tests are not too hard to be useful as tests, it is
just that their is a conflict of interest as regards their use. As medical care begins to take on the characteristics of a human right as representation
in court is a political right, perhaps we'll begin to see a breaking down of the cartel system so that medical and law educations are not restricted and
final competency tests can be tests of competency rather than also being a link in a chain of controlling supply to increase price. -- Electricity without fuel costs: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
On the other hand, WindSat gives a LOT more detail so this looks like the future direction for wind speed and direction. It seems to me part of the
difficulty is combining a cost control culture at NASA procurment with a mission specs driven culture at Air Force procurment. This has led to slowing
of the deployment of joint civilian-military meteorological assets. What you need is a lead agency for procurment which is also on the hook for
cost overruns. If other agencies hitch a ride, that is a cost reduction for the government, but if contractors are told two different stories
then things bog down. NASA can decide to fly something that will work but not as well as designed, like the IRS on Spitzer which has filter delamination
after system integration. It would have cost too much to fix it. The Air Force can't because the data integrates into other systems that have to
work or they are not worth anything. This is a basic problem that I see with NPOESS. -- Solar power without performance worries: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
On the first one the physics of sand piles is a starting point, but this leads into such things as the origin of conciousness.
On the second, this may be a nod to cold fusion though I suppose the pellets in inertial confinement count as condensed matter initially. But, there
is a definite chemistry component.
In the third, I see quite a lot of sports medicine looking to physics, but I'm thinking they are considering, for example, the wave function treatment of photosynthesis.
In the fourth, understanding spin glasses could illuminate this but the main place to work seems to be in mathematics, say in the Navier-Stokes framework.
But I agree with you that the last two are kind of vauge.
To me it is interesting that the challenges all seem to be cross-disciplinary.
* How do complex phenomena emerge from simple ingredients?
* How will the energy demands of future generations be met?
* What is the physics of life?
* What happens far from equilibrium and why?
* What new discoveries await us in the nanoworld?
* How will the information technology revolution be extended?
How can dicipline specific funding mechanisms address these issues effectively? I think, generally, unless funding agencies are willing to
entertain joint proposals (say biology and solid state) these questions will be hard to address. How can you be sure that proposals don't get
rejected just because they seem out of field? -- Electricity without rate increases: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
It is curious that you can make money by buying retail clothing in the US and sending them by post to the Czech Republic for resale. I wonder if
it would make sense for Klaus to pay closer attention to the economy than to wade in with such ill-informed stuff? Perhaps you've put your finger on the
reason this is not happening.
Tepples is correct. Even Klaus ought to be able to take an average. His problem is that he does not understand physical measures. The atmosphere
is actually quite close to it's equilibrium. Try looking at temperature fluctuations as a fraction of absolute temperature and you'll see that
your statement is rather glib. Klaus is also in difficuly since he obviously is not using an absolute temperature scale to state a ratio.
His expertise in economics does not help the fact that in his first paragraph he expresses the warming in per cent, something completely meaningless.
He is out of his depth on this. -- Rent solar power and fix your electric rate for up to 25 years: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
Nuclear power makes sense in the outer solar system and it is used there for unmanned exploration. It makes little sense in the inner solar system
where the Sun's power is easier to harvest. The whole thing is about launch mass. At the distance of Saturn you need about 100 times more in solar
panels for the same power so nuclear power becomes competitive. -- Apropriate technology for the third rock: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
More deeply rooted plants are more resistant to drought. I wonder if it would make sense to do a sacrificial second sowing with a different batch
of seeds to encourage root development as a hedge against drought?
-- Rent solar power with no maintenance fee: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
It is true. I wrote to Senator Boxer who is chair of the Ethics Committee about how the involvement of the Senate President's Aide in a criminal
matter probably ought to be investigated to see if he (the President) should be expelled from the Senate. I got an auto reply saying the email
won't be read. Only Californians can communicate with the committee chair by email. Better brush up on your ethics since we're counting on you.
You have a point, I should have said Middle-Eastern. It is OPEC which sets prices though collusion and OPEC is dominated by middle eastern producers. On the other hand, not all people in the Middle East are Arab so maybe I should have said Arab-Persian oil interests or price-fixing-scam oil interests. It is not as though the multi-nationals are not involved in the collusion or don't profit by it.
I tagged it humor because of the keystone cops aspect. We are just beginning to do something about a problem that has been going on since the seventies.
Our idea of fair is market competition or regulated monopolies. OPECs idea of fair is collusion in price fixing and sharing the profits. We can't
win against that unless we do some investing in alternatives that the market won't spring for because OPEC can just lower prices and destroy any hope
of return on investment. So, on the one hand we are beginning to find ways to protect such investments but on the other, we are so in OPEC's thrawl
that our systems of taxation work against the inovations we need. You are right that it is a little inappropriate to laugh at the guy this is happening
to, though a John Cleese prat fall is funny because of the manner in which he injures himself, but it is appropriate to laugh at the awkwardness of
a government that is defeating itself; we are laughing at ourselves. The derision may also lead to improvement though the guy's respectful response is likely to be more effective. Jokes explained are no longer funny, but the question came up a few times. -- Have fun with solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
Slashdot Mirror
I just drove through Manhattan and felt very stupid to be driving. Remembering that NYC has a huge park in the middle and so does not seem to mind spending some space on plants, it seems to me that walking a block for some really fresh food might please people. One thing I did not understand on the web site was that they were worrying about ripening tomatoes but it seems to me that people would buy as soon as the tomatoes were available, so that green storage issues would not be a big deal.s -selling-solar.html
--
Fresh photons at low cost: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
The California Bear of the Roving Rear?
You read Maureen Dowd too? I was not persuaded about the wardrobe thing and it is important to remember she is most catty about those already in office.
In the end, you have to look to the selective recount strategy for blame though I can see why you regret your vote.
The way I see it, Gore secured the nomination with the speech in the Rose Garden after the impeachment. He did not know how to conduct public debate. In oratory, assuming the audience is with you is standard practice but in debate it works against you. So, instead of catching Bush's very bold lies during the debate, we worried about Gore's demeanor. This gave Bush a shot and when Gore lost Tennesee it all came down to Florida. Gore should have asked for a statewide recount, but he decided to concentrate of a few counties which might help him. This gave an opening for court challenges and the Supreme Court decided the election.
When voting, it seems to me you'll have much less cause for regret if you vote for someone rather than against someone. Choosing the least worse is a way to be easily swayed by negative and often false campaign tactics. If you look for what you like rather than reacting to what you dislike you'll be more likely to be happy with your vote no matter what the outcome.
Who better than a product liability reformer to see that government of the people is by the people and for the people? Bringing accountability seems to be the basis of this scandal and many others.
Thanks, I was confused about seperate entitied. I've also kept separate email accounts to comply with the Hatch Act but I didn't fall under the Presidental Records Act, so preserving work related email has been up to me.
It seems to me that a simple solution to the problem is to CC the official automatically preserved account if the email has to do with official business. Perhaps a BCC would be best so that a corespondent who also has a party role does not respond to all and get a fundraising discussion going on the government equipment. I'd think you'd want to do this regardless of the Presidential Records situation just to show that your government pay was used for something. Paying people out of the treasury to do party business has to be a Hatch Act violation as well, so you'd want some record to show you were getting your official work done.
Now I get it. The Bush-Cheney 04 campaign did 11 accounts, the RNC did 88. So, that's 99 politcal email accounts on the wall. I'll be totally confused by the end of that song.
That stuff is not suppose to be in the open or on a network that touches the internet, much less on the internet itself. I don't think you'll see much if any of that. When people breach security, they usually do it on purpose, not by accident.
I'm not sure I follow this. The committee is saying 88 officials had political cover email accounts while the RNC says there were only 11. Is this a catagory problem? Are 77 not White House officials so that the RNC is correct, or are they minimizing in a way that is not truthful?
On another note, I'm guessing that federal marshals will be sent to Texas to ensure Harriet Miers keeps the appointment made for her with the House Judiciary committee. Does anyone think that issues that arose when they were called on to hunt down the Texas legislature will come up in this case?
There is no need to send ships to find planets. We can do it from here. The Terrestrial Planet Finder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Planet_Fi nder can pick out planets that would be suitible for colonization that are nearby. What is
even more interesting in the search now for planets that transit their stars. These can give us an answer right away on how common photosynthetic
life is because the method can work out to a much larger distance. I would be surprised if we don't have measurements of the atmospheric composition
of at least 20 earth-like planets in the coming decade. Finding just one with oxygen narrows down the parameters of the Drake equation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation substantially, giving estimates of f_p, n_e and f_l.
Long before we embark, we'll know much about our destination.
Hi Charlie,
. html and things look good for a fairly rapid
transformation.
s -selling-solar.html
While I see the mass issues you raise, I really feel that we are turing the corner on scarcity driven thinking on energy (of necessity). The whole fossil fuel thing was short term, but, as Bucky Fuller wrote, it gave time to get better than plants at doing solar energy. So, I'm seeing exponential growth there since projects started today cost less than coal mined today. And, costs will continue to fall. Already, if you don't mind taking up some yard space, you can get lower efficiency amorphous silicon panels for a low price per watt and long warantee which undercut todays delivered electricity rates. I mess with the numbers a bit here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/04/green-numbers
What does cheap abundant energy mean? It isn't a magic wand, but it sure acts like one. We siphon off abundant CPU cycles to do amazing calculations of protiens that would be prohibative if we were in scarcity but which are free with volunteer efforts. With renewable energy we probably want three times as much peak generating capacity as peak demand just to make things convenient and with the way prices are going, we'll still do this for less than we are paying now, likely much less. So, we'll have the kind of flow you are interested in sitting round unused most of the time unless we take on interesting projects such as colonization. Mere curiosity about giving it a try would likely drive that. "Because it's there" is not an economic argument. So, does an electromagnetic catapult look feasable if the used energy is donated? I would say yes. This might not be the technical modality that is ultimately used, but when you are trying to make decisions about how to get rid of extra energy rather than how to share out limited energy there is much more room for projects like colonization.
--
Solar power with no system purchase: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Actually it has to be a % passing. If the supply of licensed doctors and attorneys were not limited, the costs for their services would reduce, so these exams have to be a part of the the system to control the supply. A test may be written to ensure a spread (so it tests knowledge) and also to ensure that the passing score is largely unattainable. So, I think the analysis is incorrect. The tests are not too hard to be useful as tests, it is just that their is a conflict of interest as regards their use. As medical care begins to take on the characteristics of a human right as representation in court is a political right, perhaps we'll begin to see a breaking down of the cartel system so that medical and law educations are not restricted and final competency tests can be tests of competency rather than also being a link in a chain of controlling supply to increase price.s -selling-solar.html
--
Electricity without fuel costs: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
On the other hand, WindSat gives a LOT more detail so this looks like the future direction for wind speed and direction. It seems to me part of the difficulty is combining a cost control culture at NASA procurment with a mission specs driven culture at Air Force procurment. This has led to slowing of the deployment of joint civilian-military meteorological assets. What you need is a lead agency for procurment which is also on the hook for cost overruns. If other agencies hitch a ride, that is a cost reduction for the government, but if contractors are told two different stories then things bog down. NASA can decide to fly something that will work but not as well as designed, like the IRS on Spitzer which has filter delamination after system integration. It would have cost too much to fix it. The Air Force can't because the data integrates into other systems that have to work or they are not worth anything. This is a basic problem that I see with NPOESS.s -selling-solar.html
--
Solar power without performance worries: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
I went to a conference last month that I report on here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/05/juicing.html. Brazil is also going big into biodiesel using castor seed. The worry about rainforests right now seems to be palm oil while cane will likely expand into existing grazing land (possibly former forest but cut for beef if it is).s -selling-solar.html
--
Solar power with no installation cost: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
On the first one the physics of sand piles is a starting point, but this leads into such things as the origin of conciousness.
On the second, this may be a nod to cold fusion though I suppose the pellets in inertial confinement count as condensed matter initially. But, there is a definite chemistry component.
In the third, I see quite a lot of sports medicine looking to physics, but I'm thinking they are considering, for example, the wave function treatment of photosynthesis.
In the fourth, understanding spin glasses could illuminate this but the main place to work seems to be in mathematics, say in the Navier-Stokes framework.
But I agree with you that the last two are kind of vauge.
To me it is interesting that the challenges all seem to be cross-disciplinary.
s -selling-solar.html
* How do complex phenomena emerge from simple ingredients?
* How will the energy demands of future generations be met?
* What is the physics of life?
* What happens far from equilibrium and why?
* What new discoveries await us in the nanoworld?
* How will the information technology revolution be extended?
How can dicipline specific funding mechanisms address these issues effectively? I think, generally, unless funding agencies are willing to entertain joint proposals (say biology and solid state) these questions will be hard to address. How can you be sure that proposals don't get rejected just because they seem out of field?
--
Electricity without rate increases: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
It is curious that you can make money by buying retail clothing in the US and sending them by post to the Czech Republic for resale. I wonder if it would make sense for Klaus to pay closer attention to the economy than to wade in with such ill-informed stuff? Perhaps you've put your finger on the reason this is not happening.
Tepples is correct. Even Klaus ought to be able to take an average. His problem is that he does not understand physical measures. The atmosphere is actually quite close to it's equilibrium. Try looking at temperature fluctuations as a fraction of absolute temperature and you'll see that your statement is rather glib. Klaus is also in difficuly since he obviously is not using an absolute temperature scale to state a ratio.
His expertise in economics does not help the fact that in his first paragraph he expresses the warming in per cent, something completely meaningless. He is out of his depth on this.s -selling-solar.html
--
Rent solar power and fix your electric rate for up to 25 years: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
The NYT is also reporting improvement: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Space-Shuttl e.html.s -selling-solar.html
--
Hassle free solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Nuclear power makes sense in the outer solar system and it is used there for unmanned exploration. It makes little sense in the inner solar system where the Sun's power is easier to harvest. The whole thing is about launch mass. At the distance of Saturn you need about 100 times more in solar panels for the same power so nuclear power becomes competitive.s -selling-solar.html
--
Apropriate technology for the third rock: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
More deeply rooted plants are more resistant to drought. I wonder if it would make sense to do a sacrificial second sowing with a different batch of seeds to encourage root development as a hedge against drought?s -selling-solar.html
--
Rent solar power with no maintenance fee: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
It is true. I wrote to Senator Boxer who is chair of the Ethics Committee about how the involvement of the Senate President's Aide in a criminal matter probably ought to be investigated to see if he (the President) should be expelled from the Senate. I got an auto reply saying the email won't be read. Only Californians can communicate with the committee chair by email. Better brush up on your ethics since we're counting on you.
But not on alternative fuel in NC. http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/progs/view_ind.cgi ?afdc/5664/0.s -selling-solar.html
--
Don't pay a fuel tax for electricity: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
You have a point, I should have said Middle-Eastern. It is OPEC which sets prices though collusion and OPEC is dominated by middle eastern producers. On the other hand, not all people in the Middle East are Arab so maybe I should have said Arab-Persian oil interests or price-fixing-scam oil interests. It is not as though the multi-nationals are not involved in the collusion or don't profit by it.
I tagged it humor because of the keystone cops aspect. We are just beginning to do something about a problem that has been going on since the seventies. Our idea of fair is market competition or regulated monopolies. OPECs idea of fair is collusion in price fixing and sharing the profits. We can't win against that unless we do some investing in alternatives that the market won't spring for because OPEC can just lower prices and destroy any hope of return on investment. So, on the one hand we are beginning to find ways to protect such investments but on the other, we are so in OPEC's thrawl that our systems of taxation work against the inovations we need. You are right that it is a little inappropriate to laugh at the guy this is happening to, though a John Cleese prat fall is funny because of the manner in which he injures himself, but it is appropriate to laugh at the awkwardness of a government that is defeating itself; we are laughing at ourselves. The derision may also lead to improvement though the guy's respectful response is likely to be more effective. Jokes explained are no longer funny, but the question came up a few times.s -selling-solar.html
--
Have fun with solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user