I'm assuming a 'charging point' charges one car. A gas station has between 4 and 20 pumps. If it takes 3 minutes to fill a car's tank, that means a gas station can serve between 80 and 400 cars per hour. A charging point can serve between 0.1 and 2 (for a Tesla Supercharger) cars per hour.
BMW tried that. they specify a "special" oil for their cars and bikes. Luckily there are people that have higher IQ's than BMW engineers and you can use cheap synthetic 5W30 oil at a sane 7500mile oil change interval and be better off than their special BMW LL-01 at a 15,000 mile change.
Or do as Europeans do, and use normal synthetic 5W30 oil at a 15,000-20,000 mile oil change interval.
I don't get this American obsession with changing oil. Did you guys have really shitty motor oil before? UK oil change intervals have been 12,000+ miles/annual for decades.
laser bean for focusing the object for auto detection? will that do harm to our skin,eye,body? radiation is not good to health, now the laser beam, really?
It's true, the combination of dangerous radiation and now us all being exposed to lasers at the same time will mutate our DNA and turn us into lizard people. And that's what THEY want.
Can you be gay and transsexual at the same time? That's my contribution to Zen koans.
Yes. If someone transitions from gender A to gender B, and then is sexually active with members of gender B, they are usually considered to be a gay transsexual.
First I couldn't find it in the Google Play store. When I searched for it on the desktop, I found the app is "not compatible with any of your devices". Ho-hum.
I tried searching for local parking on the developer's site. They have data for maybe 10% of car parks in central Birmingham, UK; and even then the prices are denoted in US dollars. I don't know whether $4 = £4, or if some exchange rate is being applied.
If I search on Parkopedia, despite the slightly clunky interface not only is every local car park that I know of listed with prices, there are also details of the city street parking zones and their times of operation.
I would suggest that there may be more than one reason a particular parking app is more popular than another.
Much of the world has reflective road studs of one kind or another, and in the UK the foreign types (eg 3M's product) tend to get used now instead of the traditional Cat's Eye because they have better reflective performance, as well as lower costs. - http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/...
And you could still buy 4 star leaded fuel in the UK in 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
The US went lead free decades ago, Europe a few years ago.
How did you come up with that when the article states it was banned in the UK in 1998?
The more people that repeatedly search on 'Ambassador's Reception', the more fun the security wonks will have trying to figure out why the spike and which ambassador:)
Um, he just wears cameras on his head. That doesn't make him a cyborg.
Ok, why doesn't that make him a cyborg? Obviously, not as hardcore as implanting machines/high tech in yourself, but it's a matter of degree not of nature.
If I stick a cellphone up my ass, will I be a cyborg too?
Holocaust deniers keep prattling on about how hard it would be to incinerate 6 million Jews.
Having seen a couple of posts on here alluding to the same theory (that is, cremating 6 million Jews during the Holocaust is implausible) I decided to do a couple of calculations.
If you multiply 345,000 cremations per year by the 6 year duration of World War 2, that means in 6 years, as a matter of routine there are at least 2 million cremations in the UK. It stands to reason that a regime with control over the entire industrial output of a major country could manage to cremate 6 million people in a couple of years.
It was difficult to follow the fight, as it was shot in 'extreme shakeycam' form from the mobile phone POV. I probably misinterpreted the outcome.
What happened to Generator Man's wife? She seemed to disappear, probably around the point I left the room to make a cup of national-grid-heated tea.
I would guess from her disappearance from the screen, the fact that he is with one child and the arguments leading up to that scene that she has gone elsewhere either temporarily or permanently. It's not made clear, although considering the only source of information we have is (according to the premise) footage shot by him, it wouldn't be.
How do you suggest the control room communicate with all the various power stations and electricity consumers across the country then?
Perhaps, I don't know, they could piggyback a communication network onto the physical power network they own, airgapped from the internet? Maybe they could call each other on the phone like they did for the first ~80 years of the grid's existence?
The middle-class survivalist, "generator man" as many have been calling him was the man who went to politely loot the supermarket at the end. And it was him who did the killing, climaxing at the moment the power came back on, with the now recording CCTV being shown capturing him at that moment with blood on his hands. Some noted the irony of capers and cous-cous being the only foods left there. It was a nice touch.
"That would save billions or trillions of dollars per year probably."
And put a lot of people out of a job, don't forget that.
Every time you make a system too efficient, you reduce the number of workers but with economies it's important to have as many people working as possible.
So you're stuck trying to balance efficiency with employment.
That must be why we subsidise the manufacture of buggy-whips and break all the windows every year to keep the glaziers in business, right?
It's not unethical to profit from the fruits of your labor. It is unethical to profit from the fruits of other people's labor, if you don't assign their fair share for their labor to them.
How do you define 'fair' other than both parties agreeing about the share? Foxconn and each of the employees reached an agreement about pay, as did Apple and Foxconn, and each iPhone buyer and Apple. Your, my, or Bob down the road's opinions have nothing to do with it.
Probably the most important advancement currently being pursued is self-driving cars.
"Most important advance"?
You think it's more important to be able to text in your front seat on the way to work or to not have to put $50 in the gas tank every morning?
The real point of self-driving cars is NOT to allow people to Facebook or whatever in their own cars while driving to work.
It's to allow taxis to operate at much the same cost per journey as a private, passenger-driven car. Cheap taxis would solve a fair number of the problems caused by 'car dependence', what happens to the people who cannot drive for whatever reason.
The main difference is cultural expectations about car size.
No, the main difference is legislation: http://jalopnik.com/cafe/
Cultural expectations are a result, not a cause. Purchase of the government by lobbyists built the laws, society simply conforms.
Incorrect. Although CAFE regulations created the SUV, American cars have been much larger than European cars since well, almost forever. Look at the Ford lineup (to continue my previous example) available in the early '60s (before CAFE) in the USA vs. the UK. The 1962 Ford Zodiac, the largest Ford in the UK in 1962, was 4.6m long and had a 2.5L I6. A '62 Galaxie in the USA was 5.3m long with engines from 3.7L to 7.0L.
Because the truth is that American cars are much bigger, heavier, and generally safer than European cars. Numerous, (rather popular!) European cars that get excellent fuel economy (better than 40 MPG) simply cannot be imported because they'd miserably fail the crash tests.
To be sold in America, new cars must have a crash cage around the passenger compartment, around which are various crumple zones that absorb impact and improve passenger safety. Crash cages, by design, must be very strong in order to prevent passengers from getting crushed by stupid amounts of energy. This makes them heavy, and that makes it darn hard to get decent fuel economy, especially in stop & go traffic. (weight isn't nearly as much of a penalty on freeways, particularly on flat ground, though hills steep enough to require braking on the downhill runs can get rather inefficient rather quickly)
Bullshit. All cars sold in Europe follow safety standards equivalent to those in North America, and have had 'crash cages' for nearly 50 years.
The main difference is cultural expectations about car size. As an example, the Ford Focus, what Americans consider to be a 'small' car, has 2 models smaller than it in Europe (the Ka and the Fiesta), and the Focus is considered here in the UK to be a 'medium' sized family car. The Ford Mondeo, very similar to the Fusion in the USA, is considered to be 'large'. Ford do not sell a larger car than the Mondeo in Europe.
Engine size expectations are similar. Here a 2.0L I4 is considered a normal, reasonably powerful engine. An 'economy' car would have a 1.4 or a 1.6. A 3.0L V6 would be considered a 'fast car' here. V8s are almost unheard of.
Amusingly European cars generally have faster top speeds than American cars, despite the smaller engines. Some years ago I took an American on a road trip (along with other people) and he was amazed that my 1.8L Ford Escort could achieve 135mph. Here if a V6 can't get to at least 150mph it's considered to be a bit crap.
You make a great point. Whenever a market researcher stands in my way on the street and refuses to let me pass until I answer their question I am always highly appreciative and make certain to give them a thoughtful, well considered, and accurate answer.
Momentarily running fist-first would be an appropriate response...;)
Does this make any real difference whatsoever? Surely people are still capable of counting the number of glasses they drink, or is drinking one pint too quickly "binge drinking" now?
he's got a point though, why must it be in East London of all places? Surely somewhere nearer Cambridge or one of the many Oxford science parks would be a better choice. Even Reading would be significantly cheaper (ie near the Corporate Playground that is Winnersh).
Of course, if I set up a company, I'd base it in the lake district or the Cornish coast. I don't think I'd have many problems recruiting staff who'd be happy to relocate to those places.
I agree. This smacks of the usual "we must regenerate East London at all costs!" attitude which has been prevalent for the past 50 years. The first successful wheeze was making it a financial hub (which worked, see Canary Wharf), but now banks are evil e.t.c and that won't do. Then the Olympics were going to transform East London into a global hub of running around. Now it must be a global hub of technology.
As I understand it, a large part of the early success of Silicon valley was due to a glut of educated folk graduating from Stanford, lots of tech contracts from the nearby naval base, and ample relatively cheap real estate for commercial use and residences. East London has none of these. Technology is a cluster industry, tech companies seek proximity to other tech companies. Again, East London is eclipsed by other places. As you say Cambridge, Oxford or Reading are better suited. Hell, Birmingham is better suited (lots of unemployed skilled people and empty industrial space at the moment). That's assuming honest-to-god Silicon Valley style industry (from manufacturing through R&D to corporate HQs). If they're talking about boutique 'social marketing' concerns then they'll be very disappointed at the economic value and employment realised, even if the plans are successful.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm assuming a 'charging point' charges one car. A gas station has between 4 and 20 pumps. If it takes 3 minutes to fill a car's tank, that means a gas station can serve between 80 and 400 cars per hour. A charging point can serve between 0.1 and 2 (for a Tesla Supercharger) cars per hour.
Apples and oranges.
BMW tried that. they specify a "special" oil for their cars and bikes. Luckily there are people that have higher IQ's than BMW engineers and you can use cheap synthetic 5W30 oil at a sane 7500mile oil change interval and be better off than their special BMW LL-01 at a 15,000 mile change.
Or do as Europeans do, and use normal synthetic 5W30 oil at a 15,000-20,000 mile oil change interval.
I don't get this American obsession with changing oil. Did you guys have really shitty motor oil before? UK oil change intervals have been 12,000+ miles/annual for decades.
Oh fuck, not tiny flecks of paint! We're DOOMED I TELL YOU.
laser bean for focusing the object for auto detection? will that do harm to our skin,eye,body? radiation is not good to health, now the laser beam, really?
It's true, the combination of dangerous radiation and now us all being exposed to lasers at the same time will mutate our DNA and turn us into lizard people. And that's what THEY want.
Can you be gay and transsexual at the same time? That's my contribution to Zen koans.
Yes. If someone transitions from gender A to gender B, and then is sexually active with members of gender B, they are usually considered to be a gay transsexual.
First I couldn't find it in the Google Play store. When I searched for it on the desktop, I found the app is "not compatible with any of your devices". Ho-hum.
I tried searching for local parking on the developer's site. They have data for maybe 10% of car parks in central Birmingham, UK; and even then the prices are denoted in US dollars. I don't know whether $4 = £4, or if some exchange rate is being applied.
If I search on Parkopedia, despite the slightly clunky interface not only is every local car park that I know of listed with prices, there are also details of the city street parking zones and their times of operation.
I would suggest that there may be more than one reason a particular parking app is more popular than another.
Much of the world has reflective road studs of one kind or another, and in the UK the foreign types (eg 3M's product) tend to get used now instead of the traditional Cat's Eye because they have better reflective performance, as well as lower costs. - http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/...
"Would you like the $20 bug zapper that kills all bugs, or the $1000 bug zapper that for reasons unknown allows some bugs to live?"
"I think I'll take the $20 model, thanks.."
And you could still buy 4 star leaded fuel in the UK in 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new... The US went lead free decades ago, Europe a few years ago.
How did you come up with that when the article states it was banned in the UK in 1998?
The more people that repeatedly search on 'Ambassador's Reception', the more fun the security wonks will have trying to figure out why the spike and which ambassador :)
Of course they all want to watch this 'classic' tv ad... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Maybe the 'honeytrap' involved bribing people with offers of aspirational confectionary?
Um, he just wears cameras on his head. That doesn't make him a cyborg.
Ok, why doesn't that make him a cyborg? Obviously, not as hardcore as implanting machines/high tech in yourself, but it's a matter of degree not of nature.
If I stick a cellphone up my ass, will I be a cyborg too?
Holocaust deniers keep prattling on about how hard it would be to incinerate 6 million Jews.
Having seen a couple of posts on here alluding to the same theory (that is, cremating 6 million Jews during the Holocaust is implausible) I decided to do a couple of calculations.
Approximately 70% of all deaths in the UK currently result in a cremation: http://www.salford.gov.uk/cremation.htm . In 2010 there were 493,000 deaths in England and Wales (UK minus Scotland): http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/mortality-statistics--deaths-registered-in-england-and-wales--series-dr-/2010/stb-deaths-by-cause-2010.html . 493,000 x 70% = 345,000 cremations in the England and Wales, in 2010.
If you multiply 345,000 cremations per year by the 6 year duration of World War 2, that means in 6 years, as a matter of routine there are at least 2 million cremations in the UK. It stands to reason that a regime with control over the entire industrial output of a major country could manage to cremate 6 million people in a couple of years.
Capers, cous-cous and dog food.
It was difficult to follow the fight, as it was shot in 'extreme shakeycam' form from the mobile phone POV. I probably misinterpreted the outcome.
What happened to Generator Man's wife? She seemed to disappear, probably around the point I left the room to make a cup of national-grid-heated tea.
I would guess from her disappearance from the screen, the fact that he is with one child and the arguments leading up to that scene that she has gone elsewhere either temporarily or permanently. It's not made clear, although considering the only source of information we have is (according to the premise) footage shot by him, it wouldn't be.
How do you suggest the control room communicate with all the various power stations and electricity consumers across the country then?
Perhaps, I don't know, they could piggyback a communication network onto the physical power network they own, airgapped from the internet? Maybe they could call each other on the phone like they did for the first ~80 years of the grid's existence?
The middle-class survivalist, "generator man" as many have been calling him was the man who went to politely loot the supermarket at the end. And it was him who did the killing, climaxing at the moment the power came back on, with the now recording CCTV being shown capturing him at that moment with blood on his hands. Some noted the irony of capers and cous-cous being the only foods left there. It was a nice touch.
Er, yeah, 'spoiler alert' I guess :)
"That would save billions or trillions of dollars per year probably." And put a lot of people out of a job, don't forget that. Every time you make a system too efficient, you reduce the number of workers but with economies it's important to have as many people working as possible. So you're stuck trying to balance efficiency with employment.
That must be why we subsidise the manufacture of buggy-whips and break all the windows every year to keep the glaziers in business, right?
It's not unethical to profit from the fruits of your labor. It is unethical to profit from the fruits of other people's labor, if you don't assign their fair share for their labor to them.
How do you define 'fair' other than both parties agreeing about the share? Foxconn and each of the employees reached an agreement about pay, as did Apple and Foxconn, and each iPhone buyer and Apple. Your, my, or Bob down the road's opinions have nothing to do with it.
"Most important advance"?
You think it's more important to be able to text in your front seat on the way to work or to not have to put $50 in the gas tank every morning?
The real point of self-driving cars is NOT to allow people to Facebook or whatever in their own cars while driving to work.
It's to allow taxis to operate at much the same cost per journey as a private, passenger-driven car. Cheap taxis would solve a fair number of the problems caused by 'car dependence', what happens to the people who cannot drive for whatever reason.
The main difference is cultural expectations about car size.
No, the main difference is legislation: http://jalopnik.com/cafe/ Cultural expectations are a result, not a cause. Purchase of the government by lobbyists built the laws, society simply conforms.
Incorrect. Although CAFE regulations created the SUV, American cars have been much larger than European cars since well, almost forever. Look at the Ford lineup (to continue my previous example) available in the early '60s (before CAFE) in the USA vs. the UK. The 1962 Ford Zodiac, the largest Ford in the UK in 1962, was 4.6m long and had a 2.5L I6. A '62 Galaxie in the USA was 5.3m long with engines from 3.7L to 7.0L.
Because the truth is that American cars are much bigger, heavier, and generally safer than European cars. Numerous, (rather popular!) European cars that get excellent fuel economy (better than 40 MPG) simply cannot be imported because they'd miserably fail the crash tests.
To be sold in America, new cars must have a crash cage around the passenger compartment, around which are various crumple zones that absorb impact and improve passenger safety. Crash cages, by design, must be very strong in order to prevent passengers from getting crushed by stupid amounts of energy. This makes them heavy, and that makes it darn hard to get decent fuel economy, especially in stop & go traffic. (weight isn't nearly as much of a penalty on freeways, particularly on flat ground, though hills steep enough to require braking on the downhill runs can get rather inefficient rather quickly)
Bullshit. All cars sold in Europe follow safety standards equivalent to those in North America, and have had 'crash cages' for nearly 50 years.
The main difference is cultural expectations about car size. As an example, the Ford Focus, what Americans consider to be a 'small' car, has 2 models smaller than it in Europe (the Ka and the Fiesta), and the Focus is considered here in the UK to be a 'medium' sized family car. The Ford Mondeo, very similar to the Fusion in the USA, is considered to be 'large'. Ford do not sell a larger car than the Mondeo in Europe.
Engine size expectations are similar. Here a 2.0L I4 is considered a normal, reasonably powerful engine. An 'economy' car would have a 1.4 or a 1.6. A 3.0L V6 would be considered a 'fast car' here. V8s are almost unheard of.
Amusingly European cars generally have faster top speeds than American cars, despite the smaller engines. Some years ago I took an American on a road trip (along with other people) and he was amazed that my 1.8L Ford Escort could achieve 135mph. Here if a V6 can't get to at least 150mph it's considered to be a bit crap.
Familiar with Branson's previous shenanigans, I must wonder: does he intend to impregnate all the women before they leave for / on the way to Mars?
A trait that is a must for any real spacefarer!
You make a great point. Whenever a market researcher stands in my way on the street and refuses to let me pass until I answer their question I am always highly appreciative and make certain to give them a thoughtful, well considered, and accurate answer.
Momentarily running fist-first would be an appropriate response... ;)
I love poisoning the data of market researchers! :D
I know, damn those corporations asking you what you want. The bastards.
Does this make any real difference whatsoever? Surely people are still capable of counting the number of glasses they drink, or is drinking one pint too quickly "binge drinking" now?
he's got a point though, why must it be in East London of all places? Surely somewhere nearer Cambridge or one of the many Oxford science parks would be a better choice. Even Reading would be significantly cheaper (ie near the Corporate Playground that is Winnersh).
Of course, if I set up a company, I'd base it in the lake district or the Cornish coast. I don't think I'd have many problems recruiting staff who'd be happy to relocate to those places.
I agree. This smacks of the usual "we must regenerate East London at all costs!" attitude which has been prevalent for the past 50 years. The first successful wheeze was making it a financial hub (which worked, see Canary Wharf), but now banks are evil e.t.c and that won't do. Then the Olympics were going to transform East London into a global hub of running around. Now it must be a global hub of technology.
As I understand it, a large part of the early success of Silicon valley was due to a glut of educated folk graduating from Stanford, lots of tech contracts from the nearby naval base, and ample relatively cheap real estate for commercial use and residences. East London has none of these. Technology is a cluster industry, tech companies seek proximity to other tech companies. Again, East London is eclipsed by other places. As you say Cambridge, Oxford or Reading are better suited. Hell, Birmingham is better suited (lots of unemployed skilled people and empty industrial space at the moment). That's assuming honest-to-god Silicon Valley style industry (from manufacturing through R&D to corporate HQs). If they're talking about boutique 'social marketing' concerns then they'll be very disappointed at the economic value and employment realised, even if the plans are successful.