Well, we are doing a lot more than drinking and pissing, don't we? We irrigate, we pump ground water etc.
Let me try a simple model. It's not a working model, but it shows on a very simple scale how things are interconnected:
Let A,G,O,S be the amount of atmospheric, ground, oceanic and surface water.
Now, we can assume that the rate of change for each is at least partially dependent on its amount. We can thus formulate differential equations.
For example, surface water gets replenished by precipitation and by groundwater seeping out from natural wells. Therefore
dS/dt = k(AS)*A+k(GS)*G
k(AS) and k(GS) being first order rate constants for transfer of atmospheric and ground water to the surface, respectively.
That's not all of course, surface water is also lost to the other reservoirs. So:
dS/dt = k(AS)*A+k(GS)*G+k(SA)*s+k(SG)*S+k(SO)*S
Nomenclature for the other rate constants as above. Now, we can do this for A,G and O the same way and get a system of differential equations, which in reality, are of course not strictly first order and not strictly dependent on the simple amounts, but lots of other factors.
Since we are playing with the rate constants, in particular related to evaporation and ground water extraction, we get measurable changes in A,G,O and S.
Oh that I live to see this day, I agree with tmosley. Well played. That's basically the process, as far as I know - we extract loads of ground water - fresh one as well as fossil one. So sinks for water, particularly deep aquifers, play a lesser role in the water cycle. Since we force water to stay near the surface, evaporation increases and transport to the sea becomes increasingly important compared to transport into ground water. How, in the long term, ocean evaporation rates may change to counteract this is another problem, one for which I do not know any studies out of hand.
The point is, that by most likely sacrificing a launch team of three soldiers, you evaporate a tank column. Don't look at me, I did not invent that shit...
Private sector businesses do that all the time. One of my firm's clients is a - naturally unnamed - car manufacturer. There's a happy merry-go-round of lawsuits between the manufacturer and its contractors. It usually ends in a slap on the shoulder - nice fight, didn't get what you wanted, did you, but let's just have a beer...
Pretty much that. I grew up close to the Czech border in Germany. Wasn't that much of a fun place in the 80s. Our history teacher was military reserve - he used to tell the occasional story about how they nuked our hometown during the last training exercise. Roads were prepared with access shafts to place explosives to destroy the infrastructure, should the Soviets decide to move, lots of fun stuff like that.
Yes, micro nukes have been produced. Small enough to be shot with a recoilless rifle: Let me present the M388/Davy Crockett. Here is the relevant video. Whoever would want to fire a nuke, however small the yield, with a launcher limited to a 4000 m range is beyond be, though.
You mean "screw your neighbours and the future generation, I waaaaaant profit now, mum!!! WAAAAH!". Thankfully, most people exceed that maturity level by age of 6 or so.
It's the free market - fucking over progress for this quarter's profit since its conception. Humans work this way. We are idiots without being constrained.
I'd like to see the details of that calculation, but I fear that you are off by a couple of orders of magnitude somewhere. The thing that makes Yellowstone so dangerous is the fact that the mantle plume melts the granitic crust, yielding a highly volatile, gaseous granitic magma. I doubt it that the energy to melt the crust over the whole Yellowstone area concentrated into Lake Yellowstone just turns out as 10-20 times the solar constant, area-wise. That's not to say that geoengineering on such a scale is impossible as such, though.
Uh, yeah. What kind of definition is that? I can take away your life, easily. So you got no right to life? I can take away your freedom, easily. No right to liberty? I can take away your right to speak freely. No right to free speech? What good is a phone call, Mr. Anderson, when you cannot speak?
Absolutely true - but even a so slightly refined palate will tell you that umami alone is bland and boring without a decent taste base that it can reinforce.
Coming from Germany with its huge culture around sourdough bread I was shocked when I shopped for bread in a Californian supermarket for the first time. It was late already, I just came from the airport and I just wanted to grab something to make a sandwich. When I unpacked the stuff and took the first bite, it was... just horrible. When I studied the packaging, I learned that they obviously added a metric fuckton of molasses to the bread. What... the...??? The stuff was sweeter than some of the cakes I was used to.
Here we are closing in on the problem. McDonalds food is indeed perceived as tasty by a lot of people. If you know anything about food, if you tasted actually decent food before, you will of course recognize it as the bland boring crap it is. Many people, however, do not have that knowledge or experience. If you watch the relevant Jamie Oliver shows, like Food Revolution or Ministry of Food, you get the impression that we are rapidly losing our cultural knowledge about food and cooking as an everyday experience.
Well, if I wanted to go on a food binge, I'd definitely not go to the USA. Strassbourg comes to mind, instead. I always pack on some pounds when I go there, the cooking is just too good to be allowed...
Flavor enhancers and other additives definitely play a role - surely not the only one, but they do affect appetite- and satiety-regulation, thereby influencing the amount that is eaten.
If you leave the decision to the examiners, you'll just get the effect that each and every applicant will be unhappy with the assigned duration. Result: at least two additional office actions per application debating the correct duration for the patent in question. I am not opposed to different durations for different patent classes, but there have to be clear rules, or it'll be a hell of a mess.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, we are doing a lot more than drinking and pissing, don't we? We irrigate, we pump ground water etc.
Let me try a simple model. It's not a working model, but it shows on a very simple scale how things are interconnected:
Let A,G,O,S be the amount of atmospheric, ground, oceanic and surface water.
Now, we can assume that the rate of change for each is at least partially dependent on its amount. We can thus formulate differential equations.
For example, surface water gets replenished by precipitation and by groundwater seeping out from natural wells. Therefore
dS/dt = k(AS)*A+k(GS)*G
k(AS) and k(GS) being first order rate constants for transfer of atmospheric and ground water to the surface, respectively.
That's not all of course, surface water is also lost to the other reservoirs. So:
dS/dt = k(AS)*A+k(GS)*G+k(SA)*s+k(SG)*S+k(SO)*S
Nomenclature for the other rate constants as above. Now, we can do this for A,G and O the same way and get a system of differential equations, which in reality, are of course not strictly first order and not strictly dependent on the simple amounts, but lots of other factors.
Since we are playing with the rate constants, in particular related to evaporation and ground water extraction, we get measurable changes in A,G,O and S.
Simplified, but voila, Science.
As long as the rate stays constant. Given the current sea ice data, I do have my doubts about that, though.
Oh that I live to see this day, I agree with tmosley. Well played. That's basically the process, as far as I know - we extract loads of ground water - fresh one as well as fossil one. So sinks for water, particularly deep aquifers, play a lesser role in the water cycle. Since we force water to stay near the surface, evaporation increases and transport to the sea becomes increasingly important compared to transport into ground water. How, in the long term, ocean evaporation rates may change to counteract this is another problem, one for which I do not know any studies out of hand.
On a completely unrelated topic... Where the hell do you live that has black dirt? A volcanic crater?
Let me introduce you to Chernozem - one of the most fertile soils of the earth.
What's the point?
The point is, that by most likely sacrificing a launch team of three soldiers, you evaporate a tank column. Don't look at me, I did not invent that shit...
Private sector businesses do that all the time. One of my firm's clients is a - naturally unnamed - car manufacturer. There's a happy merry-go-round of lawsuits between the manufacturer and its contractors. It usually ends in a slap on the shoulder - nice fight, didn't get what you wanted, did you, but let's just have a beer...
Pretty much that. I grew up close to the Czech border in Germany. Wasn't that much of a fun place in the 80s. Our history teacher was military reserve - he used to tell the occasional story about how they nuked our hometown during the last training exercise. Roads were prepared with access shafts to place explosives to destroy the infrastructure, should the Soviets decide to move, lots of fun stuff like that.
Yes, micro nukes have been produced. Small enough to be shot with a recoilless rifle: Let me present the M388/Davy Crockett. Here is the relevant video. Whoever would want to fire a nuke, however small the yield, with a launcher limited to a 4000 m range is beyond be, though.
You mean "screw your neighbours and the future generation, I waaaaaant profit now, mum!!! WAAAAH!". Thankfully, most people exceed that maturity level by age of 6 or so.
And that whole dark ages thing, you get that from where? Argument by anal extraction? Well, straw-men are carbon-neutral...
It's the free market - fucking over progress for this quarter's profit since its conception. Humans work this way. We are idiots without being constrained.
Also, more people should read Glen Cook, btw.
Tell that to the "strict constructionists", it's gonna be hilarious. They are about as funny as biblical literalists.
Where else do you think morality derives from?
You think your religion *invented" thou shalt not kill? Please, come on...
Uh, yeah. What kind of definition is that? I can take away your life, easily. So you got no right to life? I can take away your freedom, easily. No right to liberty? I can take away your right to speak freely. No right to free speech? What good is a phone call, Mr. Anderson, when you cannot speak?
Absolutely true - but even a so slightly refined palate will tell you that umami alone is bland and boring without a decent taste base that it can reinforce.
Coming from Germany with its huge culture around sourdough bread I was shocked when I shopped for bread in a Californian supermarket for the first time. It was late already, I just came from the airport and I just wanted to grab something to make a sandwich. When I unpacked the stuff and took the first bite, it was... just horrible. When I studied the packaging, I learned that they obviously added a metric fuckton of molasses to the bread. What... the...??? The stuff was sweeter than some of the cakes I was used to.
Here we are closing in on the problem. McDonalds food is indeed perceived as tasty by a lot of people. If you know anything about food, if you tasted actually decent food before, you will of course recognize it as the bland boring crap it is. Many people, however, do not have that knowledge or experience. If you watch the relevant Jamie Oliver shows, like Food Revolution or Ministry of Food, you get the impression that we are rapidly losing our cultural knowledge about food and cooking as an everyday experience.
Well, if I wanted to go on a food binge, I'd definitely not go to the USA. Strassbourg comes to mind, instead. I always pack on some pounds when I go there, the cooking is just too good to be allowed...
Flavor enhancers and other additives definitely play a role - surely not the only one, but they do affect appetite- and satiety-regulation, thereby influencing the amount that is eaten.
If you leave the decision to the examiners, you'll just get the effect that each and every applicant will be unhappy with the assigned duration. Result: at least two additional office actions per application debating the correct duration for the patent in question. I am not opposed to different durations for different patent classes, but there have to be clear rules, or it'll be a hell of a mess.
Ju vant us too inwade zem, Herr Hillman? ;)
\internet-toughguy-mode
We could start by replacing the /. "editors" by very small shell scripts...