Well, for a while there, *I* was planning a military career. Then a friend gave me some LSD and my priorities changed a bit.
I'd completely agree if you were talking about military contractors though. I've spent the last 12 years doing embedded product development and, generally speaking, it's the morons who end up working for the government. The bright, fast thinking, capable, innovative types tend to stick with commercial engineering. The folks who can't make it end up taking jobs for defense contractors - getting buried in a huge organizational structure that keeps them from having to work too hard.
Cable companies don't use public airwaves. The FCC should have anything to say about them beyond regulating spurious emissions. If a cable company offers you a deal where you use their services in exchange for using specific hardware then so be it.
Cable companies do, however, use public right of way's which are probably owned by the city. I say let the cities add contract/lease terms for open access when they allow the cable companies to run the wiring.
Cable companies do have competition already - at my house, I can have AT&T U-verse, Time Warner, DirecTV, or Dish Network. I can also just get wireless internet or DSL and watch YouTube... or I could read a book.
Teachers aren't the problem. A thirst for learning and understanding begins before school begins. Even when that fire has been lit, society does its best to extinguish it.
How many young people started down the right path until the social pressures to be cool and conform dampened their pursuit of knowledge?
According to the wikipedia article on lightning, the average length of a strike is 30 microseconds. A 30 microsecond pulse of tens to hundreds of thousands of amps should definitely NOT be considered DC. You're correct that you're not dealing with a repetitive alternating current flow, but it is far, far removed from the quiescent state used when performing DC analysis. The change in current, and hence the magnetic field generated, is absolutely immense.
Comparing the plasma created in a lightning strike to a neon or florescent tube is like comparing the LHC to the CRT in your monitor.
I expect the cross-section would be for the mostpart circular, since there is no conductive conduit apart from the air and rain. The electrons will want to be away from each other, but need to be close enough to energize the air to become a conductive conduit instead of a dielectric. Same reason atomic electron orbits are spherical.
The acoustics of nuclear physics... *flexes nerd muscles*
Agreed.. what I wonder though is do you end up with a tube of electrons surrounding a vacuum, or a more uniform distribution of electrons. What is the environment like that's created inside the plasma, and what happens to other high energy particles, say cosmic rays, that enter this region?
Does anyone know what the cross section of a lightning bolt looks like? I've always wondered if forces akin to the skin-effect are trying to spread out the electrons while it's constrained in a tube of plasma. Is it round? Is it a sheet? What's the electron density like? What sorts of pressures would you expect in the center of a bolt?
Just curious... but I'm unable to find a google hit and too dumb to simulate it.
Cool - but why use real robots for this? Seems like you'd be better off creating virtual robots in a simulated environment to develop the algorithms for something like this. You don't have to worry about dead batteries and hardware failures, and your simulations can run faster than real-time.
Then again, maybe that's what the researcher did, and we're just seeing the end product applied to real robots.
Ever read the book 'Complexity'? One of the ideas that really stuck with me was that of positive-feedback. Positive feedback in a complex system like the economy exists - wealth makes wealth. That's why I'm not an anarchist and favor some degree of government intervention in the economy. I think progressive taxation is one of the most effective and efficient methods of keeping the free market free.
Look... there are many kinds of libertarians. Many libertarians are exactly as you describe, yet many are not.
Libertarians run the gamut from near-anarchists to fiscally responsible 'liberals'(Democrats?). The term is becoming useless, unless you're talking specifically about the Libertarian political party.
Speaking for myself, I believe I have the right to profit off of anyone to whom I provide a service to. I don't think that makes me elite - I reserve that same right for anyone.
My agenda is freedom. Freedom from coercion. That's why I favor a smaller government and a simple set of rules to abide by. I like my government like I like my software, if you will. I'm not sure how that promotes corporate feudalism. Could you explain that for me?
Unions, when a product of free association, are perfectly acceptable to myself and the few 'libertarians' I know. When they are a product of coercion and violence, I reject them entirely.
50 years ago, my grandfather was the sole breadwinner for a family of 5. He was a tool and die man. They lived well and he even managed to accumulate quite a bit of savings.
But he didn't spend a dime on netflix, cable, long-distance telephone service, or a god-dammed iPhone. He bought modest cars and the family rarely dined out. He didn't pay someone else to wash his car, or mow his lawn, or fix his cars.
How many people could live that like today, without being absolutely forced to?
I've got in-laws who are on the verge of losing their house, yet they absolutely refuse to give up air conditioning, cable TV, and their second refrigerator.
The BA and BS are rapidly becoming what the GED once was.
Are you high?
I'd love to see some stats. I live in California and most of the people I meet qualify as middle-class. I'm middle-class. My family is almost all middle-class.
Well, for starters I'd imagine we pay more because we CAN pay more. We pay more, and this creates big companies that develop drugs that get sold for less to the rest of the world - at least it sure feels like it. I'd be happy to see someone contradict that.
We also pay more because many of our diseases are products of our lavish lifestyle - a lifestyle other countries are just now adopting. I'd expect healthcare costs to skyrocket worldwide as diabetes, heart disease and cancer climb to US rates.
Also, does anyone know what the long-term prospects are for the typical European medical system? Aren't they expecting to have solvency issues similar to medicare?
You know, above all else, one thing that seems to be lost in the noise is that we already have a government health care system. If we can't fix medicare/medicaid we don't have a chance of building a sustainable, effective general health plan. I voted for and support Obama, but his decisions on health care have left me baffled. He could have started small and been successful but he bit off more than he could chew. It hurt his reputation and it's hurting our nation.
Is there anything like a mechanical diode - like shark skin.. something that would ratchet the platform upwards in response to vibration in the cable?
What about blimps? Vacuum filled(oxymoron alert) carbon nanotube spheres? What about something like aerogel but with a closed-cell structure that lacks air?
What I'd *really* like to see is just the opposite - I'd like a mode where I can hide all access to my current cookies, passwords, history, etc. for a brief period if, for instance, a guest is using my computer.
I can solve this with a guest account, but a more user friendly way is to integrate this into the browser. That way I can stay logged-in to my familiar account, yet when my friend asks to google 'french fries' it doesn't autocomplete 'french whores wrapped in bacon'.
Microsoft's codec is one of the 3(!!!) codecs that HD-DVD manufacturers will have to license and support in their players. As far as I know, they've backed it for a while now. Of course they don't like Blu-ray, since no one's going to license their codec if it dominates the market.
Don't forget about other forms of consumption, such as eating it or vaporizing it(THC vaporizes below the point of combustion, so for $150 bucks you can get a vaporbrothers unit that lets you inhale smoke-free). You can also vaporize alcohol now, too, but I'm not sure what that gets you.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, for a while there, *I* was planning a military career. Then a friend gave me some LSD and my priorities changed a bit.
I'd completely agree if you were talking about military contractors though. I've spent the last 12 years doing embedded product development and, generally speaking, it's the morons who end up working for the government. The bright, fast thinking, capable, innovative types tend to stick with commercial engineering. The folks who can't make it end up taking jobs for defense contractors - getting buried in a huge organizational structure that keeps them from having to work too hard.
Cable companies don't use public airwaves. The FCC should have anything to say about them beyond regulating spurious emissions. If a cable company offers you a deal where you use their services in exchange for using specific hardware then so be it.
Cable companies do, however, use public right of way's which are probably owned by the city. I say let the cities add contract/lease terms for open access when they allow the cable companies to run the wiring.
Cable companies do have competition already - at my house, I can have AT&T U-verse, Time Warner, DirecTV, or Dish Network. I can also just get wireless internet or DSL and watch YouTube... or I could read a book.
Mod parent up.
Teachers aren't the problem. A thirst for learning and understanding begins before school begins. Even when that fire has been lit, society does its best to extinguish it.
How many young people started down the right path until the social pressures to be cool and conform dampened their pursuit of knowledge?
I prefer 0xB00B1355.
According to the wikipedia article on lightning, the average length of a strike is 30 microseconds. A 30 microsecond pulse of tens to hundreds of thousands of amps should definitely NOT be considered DC. You're correct that you're not dealing with a repetitive alternating current flow, but it is far, far removed from the quiescent state used when performing DC analysis. The change in current, and hence the magnetic field generated, is absolutely immense.
Comparing the plasma created in a lightning strike to a neon or florescent tube is like comparing the LHC to the CRT in your monitor.
I expect the cross-section would be for the mostpart circular, since there is no conductive conduit apart from the air and rain. The electrons will want to be away from each other, but need to be close enough to energize the air to become a conductive conduit instead of a dielectric. Same reason atomic electron orbits are spherical.
The acoustics of nuclear physics... *flexes nerd muscles*
Agreed.. what I wonder though is do you end up with a tube of electrons surrounding a vacuum, or a more uniform distribution of electrons. What is the environment like that's created inside the plasma, and what happens to other high energy particles, say cosmic rays, that enter this region?
Does anyone know what the cross section of a lightning bolt looks like? I've always wondered if forces akin to the skin-effect are trying to spread out the electrons while it's constrained in a tube of plasma. Is it round? Is it a sheet? What's the electron density like? What sorts of pressures would you expect in the center of a bolt?
Just curious... but I'm unable to find a google hit and too dumb to simulate it.
Cool - but why use real robots for this? Seems like you'd be better off creating virtual robots in a simulated environment to develop the algorithms for something like this. You don't have to worry about dead batteries and hardware failures, and your simulations can run faster than real-time.
Then again, maybe that's what the researcher did, and we're just seeing the end product applied to real robots.
Ever read the book 'Complexity'? One of the ideas that really stuck with me was that of positive-feedback. Positive feedback in a complex system like the economy exists - wealth makes wealth. That's why I'm not an anarchist and favor some degree of government intervention in the economy. I think progressive taxation is one of the most effective and efficient methods of keeping the free market free.
Look... there are many kinds of libertarians. Many libertarians are exactly as you describe, yet many are not.
Libertarians run the gamut from near-anarchists to fiscally responsible 'liberals'(Democrats?). The term is becoming useless, unless you're talking specifically about the Libertarian political party.
Speaking for myself, I believe I have the right to profit off of anyone to whom I provide a service to. I don't think that makes me elite - I reserve that same right for anyone.
My agenda is freedom. Freedom from coercion. That's why I favor a smaller government and a simple set of rules to abide by. I like my government like I like my software, if you will. I'm not sure how that promotes corporate feudalism. Could you explain that for me?
Unions, when a product of free association, are perfectly acceptable to myself and the few 'libertarians' I know. When they are a product of coercion and violence, I reject them entirely.
No. They just let off bombs. England and Spain come to mind.
Big Mother is watching you!
It still seems there's got to be SOME use for it.. even if it's just pre-heating water for a conventional steam turbine.
I'd think a CCTV with a telephoto lens could read my CC every time I swipe it.. two cameras and you'd get the 3 digit number off the back.
http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/masters-war
Exactly.
50 years ago, my grandfather was the sole breadwinner for a family of 5. He was a tool and die man. They lived well and he even managed to accumulate quite a bit of savings.
But he didn't spend a dime on netflix, cable, long-distance telephone service, or a god-dammed iPhone. He bought modest cars and the family rarely dined out. He didn't pay someone else to wash his car, or mow his lawn, or fix his cars.
How many people could live that like today, without being absolutely forced to?
I've got in-laws who are on the verge of losing their house, yet they absolutely refuse to give up air conditioning, cable TV, and their second refrigerator.
The BA and BS are rapidly becoming what the GED once was.
Are you high?
I'd love to see some stats. I live in California and most of the people I meet qualify as middle-class. I'm middle-class. My family is almost all middle-class.
Well, for starters I'd imagine we pay more because we CAN pay more. We pay more, and this creates big companies that develop drugs that get sold for less to the rest of the world - at least it sure feels like it. I'd be happy to see someone contradict that.
We also pay more because many of our diseases are products of our lavish lifestyle - a lifestyle other countries are just now adopting. I'd expect healthcare costs to skyrocket worldwide as diabetes, heart disease and cancer climb to US rates.
Also, does anyone know what the long-term prospects are for the typical European medical system? Aren't they expecting to have solvency issues similar to medicare?
You know, above all else, one thing that seems to be lost in the noise is that we already have a government health care system. If we can't fix medicare/medicaid we don't have a chance of building a sustainable, effective general health plan. I voted for and support Obama, but his decisions on health care have left me baffled. He could have started small and been successful but he bit off more than he could chew. It hurt his reputation and it's hurting our nation.
Is there anything like a mechanical diode - like shark skin.. something that would ratchet the platform upwards in response to vibration in the cable?
What about blimps? Vacuum filled(oxymoron alert) carbon nanotube spheres? What about something like aerogel but with a closed-cell structure that lacks air?
What I'd *really* like to see is just the opposite - I'd like a mode where I can hide all access to my current cookies, passwords, history, etc. for a brief period if, for instance, a guest is using my computer.
I can solve this with a guest account, but a more user friendly way is to integrate this into the browser. That way I can stay logged-in to my familiar account, yet when my friend asks to google 'french fries' it doesn't autocomplete 'french whores wrapped in bacon'.
Remember Chandler? Anyone use it yet? Any thoughts?
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Mar/gee20040 301024062.htm
Microsoft's codec is one of the 3(!!!) codecs that HD-DVD manufacturers will have to license and support in their players. As far as I know, they've backed it for a while now. Of course they don't like Blu-ray, since no one's going to license their codec if it dominates the market.
I still have the gaping hole in my ability to socialize normally with other people due to spending too much time on Q-Link...
I'm not the AC but I'll go ahead and ditto his remarks. Happy?
Don't forget about other forms of consumption, such as eating it or vaporizing it(THC vaporizes below the point of combustion, so for $150 bucks you can get a vaporbrothers unit that lets you inhale smoke-free). You can also vaporize alcohol now, too, but I'm not sure what that gets you.