The power for the smelter is supplied by hydro dams.
Is this for a newly constructed dam? Is there water available that would otherwise NOT be used to generate electricity?
Or is it that every kwh used for this would have instead been 'sold' on the open market and used for things like displacing coal/ng burning elsewhere? Because I find the latter possibility the most likely.
In general I think that destroying evidence should result in the assumption that they're hiding a worst case scenario. So I agree with the EFF. Destroying evidence = automatically guilty of accusations. Have a nice day.
BTW, I know that a well & septic system don't run $100k, I was picturing a fancy water-recycling system that turns sewage back into drinking water. With that and a rain tank you could theoretically have a house that doesn't need a well or septic.
but that this was a complicated situation with a number of issues that generally get glossed over.
Including that there are vast numbers of people who WANT their coffee that hot, and will burn you in effigy if you suggest/force turning the temperature down. During the McD coffee lawsuit a number of stores and restaurants turned down the temperature to what the lawyers were recommending and people went insane. Boycotts, actual protests with signs, death threats against the burned woman, etc...
The recommended temperature is between 155 and 175 for taste and comfort considerations.
National Coffee Association - 180-185 Coffee Detective - People prefer coffee served at between 155-175, with a massive preference towards 175. Of course, with the popularity of iced coffee drinks today, one might extend that down to 33F.;) Bunn: 175-185 Holding temp, 155-175 Serving
The thing to remember about McD coffee is that people often let it sit for a bit before drinking it - reaching the office, for example.
I'm not a coffee drinker, so I have no real interest in this, but I do remember that many restaurants in my city of the time turned down their serving temperatures to what the plaintiff's lawyers said was a good safe temperature.
Within a day coffee drinkers were screaming at the companies to turn the temperature back up, and there were even public death threats against the grannie.
So even if I'm spending an extra ~$100k to build a 'water neutral' house* that doesn't need a water or sewer connection, I still need the connections to pass inspection?
*I'm either an insanely rich 'green' or disaster prepper.
I made 2 points in my original post: 1. Storing above ground is cheaper than below ground. 2. The concrete casks can 'easily' last several hundred years.
Now yes, if they are to last several hundred years you're going to need to put the engineering in to have them last said time, but as a practical matter you don't want to go with thin metal and cheap concrete for this anyways. But creating structures that can last 200+ years with hopefully only the occasional inspection shouldn't cost even twice as much as ones that would be breaking down after 'only' 50.
Stainless still rusts when kept in contact with moisture.
True. Perhaps switch to an aluminum or titanium vessel, protected by a very thick layer of waterproof rolled concrete? Lots of material choices out there.
It can also be largely alleviated by proper location selection and design of the vessel to ensure that water generally doesn't stay in contact.
there's no evidence that the inexpensive containers will last that long.
Inexpensive is relative; I figure they still want to use premium materials - fiber reinforcement, non-reactive aggregate, stainless steel rather than cheap rebar, etc...
True, I wasn't suggesting just leaving them completely alone for a century. A paintjob every decade or so is cheaper than drilling several miles below the surface.
The formula how to make such concrete was just rediscovered a year ago.
From what I remember, while verifying that it was the Roman recipe(which varied over time) was fairly recent, we have dams that were built using formulas very similar to the Roman recipe long before we knew it was close to the Roman formulas.
The Hoover Dam is expected to last a lot longer than 50 years, partially due to it's use of non-reactive aggregate.
Pay extra attention to your materials and construction methods and you can easily create concrete that will exceed 50 years. For example, use stainless steel for the inner container and fiber for the reinforcement to help prevent cracking.
First, unaccompanied children riding in these cars would wait until the cars have proven themselves. I wouldn't support children until it's reached the point that you're dropping the steering wheel.
As for #2, it's easily solved by placing the car into a mode where it only has limited destinations. Worst case, you should readily have records of where the car went and can use that to find the 'cool adult'.
Keeping such offenders confined for long periods of time in a proper special handling unit serves the same purpose, but with one less death (the offenders).
At least the way the USA does it, for offenders who are 'just that dangerous', it amounts to torture. Also from my studying of the issue, I don't see any real alternatives to keep them from killing guards or other prisoners.
Capital Punishment is less about justice than it is vengeance; I often see a certain harshness in general with many people in the US population when it comes to the penal system that doesn't seem to exist as much elsewhere in the Westernized world
Thus my comments here and elsewhere about how people are actually on record for opposing nitrogen asphyxiation as an execution method because it's 'too good for them'. I'm unusual, I look at the issues differently. On average I want shorter sentences, more concentration on reform and re-integration with society, because our current vengeance system is just too expensive in both terms of money and human life. Our prison system turns a lot of petty criminals into murderers. Most murderers in the USA have 'served time' in prisons. I can't help but think that's linked. It's where somebody with no previous record goes off their rocker and kills that is rare enough to be news. On the other hand, slip over a line, one that I've deliberately tried to avoid defining too tightly, and I'll kill you, or support the state doing the job.
Think of it a bit like triage - go through the line, marking some for immediate surgery, some who can wait, and slipping a hefty dose of morphine to those that can't be saved. I'm unusual - I have no thoughts of vengeance when I call for the death penalty. I view it a lot like putting down a mad dog. Kindest thing for everyone.
I stand by my words in this case. 'Increasingly' is modifying 'limited' in this case, indicating an increase in the limits of the quantities.
Not only are there fewer devices available, of unknown providence, but at some point you start having to go through rather crazy acrobatics to get them. I've heard of NASA going to garage sales hoping to get some older computer parts, for example.
After a certain point it makes sense to upgrade the system just to restore availability because otherwise the option is to engage the services of small quantity manufacturers. With them, a floppy drive running into the tens of thousands wouldn't be out of line. Not because they'd be ripping you off, but because that's what it costs to make a floppy drive if the quantities produced are too low.
I've noticed that floppy drives just don't work as well as they used to. Either the disks aren't built up to snuff or the drives aren't, I don't really know. The failure rate is such that I don't trust them.
There is nothing wrong with a simple dedicated system that is based on proven hardware.
There are however problems when your 'simple dedicated system' is based on hardware that is now so obsolete that it's no longer manufactured; meaning that any hardware failures means that you're having to source unproven used hardware in increasingly limited quantities, or go to shady 3rd party manufacturers that don't have the quality control of the original.
Ever try to administer oral medication to someone who doesn't want it?
You offer it. If they don't want it, so be it. Worst case you flood the room with N2 slowly, such that they faint before realizing what's going on.
Then again, the whole concept of capital punishment seems barbaric to me.
I currently live in a state without the Death Penalty as well, and think that Texas(majority of US executions by a good margin) applies it too widely. Personally, I tend to compartmentalize. My personal stance on the legitimacy of the death penalty is a separate issue from how we'd implement it, if it is too be done.
While I support the death penalty, it would be an extremely rare event, confined to only applying to those so dangerous that allowing them to live will, statistically speaking, result in more death. Alternatively, it's 3 or more murders, or deliberate torture in addition to the murder, if you have to base it on what someone did, as opposed to what they are.
Slow, painful, and less peaceful if you try to fight it by holding your breath.
Thus the orally administered anti-anxiety medicine. I'd prevent the whole 'holding breath' thing by simply removing all clocks from the room, or better yet have the clock be two minutes slow.
As for 'basically the opposite'. It's still fast, though I'll admit not as fast as a bullet to the head, worst case it's still faster than a botched lethal injection, electric chair and such. It's quite possible to have it be 'faster' in the sense that you don't need the setup time involved in most forms of execution where you have to tie the prisoner down. It's still painless. Peaceful - well, there's a limited amount of fighting possible when all the guards have to do is put you in a room. Any violence the inmate can engage in whether he's in that room or not.
I'm not sure how bad the convulsions would be, so I'll give you that one, and counter with another - nearly foolproof. Can't make anything entirely foolproof, but it's a lot easier to flood a room with N2 than it is for inexperienced people to find veins correctly.
Anyone who knows anything about software and crypto knows you cannot make the software "invulnerable" to attacks.
Well, it's a good thing they only specify 'large classes' then, right? They aren't saying it's invulnerable.
Still, something as 'simple' as running a VPN type encryption system would make your system effectively invulnerable to 'large classes' of attacks.
Personally, I see using 2 keys per channel, an encryption and a separate authenticator. Encrypt everything you send the plane and any plaintext transmissions look like nonesense. Sign all your packets and it can reject stuff that doesn't have the proper signature.
The complicated part is ensuring you don't take up too much extra bandwidth with the security while maintaining good connections even through noise/jamming.
It's still more efficient to charge a Tesla Roadster's batteries over the grid than to generate hydrogen. 93% average transmission efficiency, 90% charger efficiency, 90% battery. 75% total efficiency to the motor when you need it.
Generating hydrogen? 50-80%. Then you have to ship it from the production facility to the users, unless you're using a home generator, in which case you need to add the transmission lines back in and probably figure on the low end for efficiency.
Converting the H2 back into electricity via fuel cell maxes out at 60%.
As for storage - one of my ideas is to take EV batteries that are too worn out for use in a car and use them for grid standby power.
Horrible murderers are sick people. Killing them is an admission that we do not want to think about that fact, or do something about it.
1. Why should we preserve their life even in the face of the probability of other innocent lives due to their survival? 2. Executing them IS doing something about it, I think you're looking more for 'thinking about our inability to do something about their illness'.
Slashdot Mirror
The power for the smelter is supplied by hydro dams.
Is this for a newly constructed dam? Is there water available that would otherwise NOT be used to generate electricity?
Or is it that every kwh used for this would have instead been 'sold' on the open market and used for things like displacing coal/ng burning elsewhere? Because I find the latter possibility the most likely.
The average car in the US travels approximately 20,000 miles/year.
The 20k/year warranty isn't due to the average, it's to catch like 90% of people. The average is more like 12k - light duty trucks(pickups) average closer to 15k.
1800 miles per charge is 7 swaps, or about every other month.
If you keep even a 25 mile liIon battery in it though it'd become an annual swap for most people.
In general I think that destroying evidence should result in the assumption that they're hiding a worst case scenario. So I agree with the EFF. Destroying evidence = automatically guilty of accusations. Have a nice day.
I've heard of places like that. Have you looked into a composting toilet and such?
In my area many people either have water trucked in or bring it in themselves via a giant tank in the back of their truck.
How does the septic system get to be that expensive? Having to deal with permafrost?
That's some sad stuff.
BTW, I know that a well & septic system don't run $100k, I was picturing a fancy water-recycling system that turns sewage back into drinking water. With that and a rain tank you could theoretically have a house that doesn't need a well or septic.
but that this was a complicated situation with a number of issues that generally get glossed over.
Including that there are vast numbers of people who WANT their coffee that hot, and will burn you in effigy if you suggest/force turning the temperature down. During the McD coffee lawsuit a number of stores and restaurants turned down the temperature to what the lawyers were recommending and people went insane. Boycotts, actual protests with signs, death threats against the burned woman, etc...
The recommended temperature is between 155 and 175 for taste and comfort considerations.
National Coffee Association - 180-185 ;)
Coffee Detective - People prefer coffee served at between 155-175, with a massive preference towards 175. Of course, with the popularity of iced coffee drinks today, one might extend that down to 33F.
Bunn: 175-185 Holding temp, 155-175 Serving
The thing to remember about McD coffee is that people often let it sit for a bit before drinking it - reaching the office, for example.
I'm not a coffee drinker, so I have no real interest in this, but I do remember that many restaurants in my city of the time turned down their serving temperatures to what the plaintiff's lawyers said was a good safe temperature.
Within a day coffee drinkers were screaming at the companies to turn the temperature back up, and there were even public death threats against the grannie.
So even if I'm spending an extra ~$100k to build a 'water neutral' house* that doesn't need a water or sewer connection, I still need the connections to pass inspection?
*I'm either an insanely rich 'green' or disaster prepper.
I made 2 points in my original post:
1. Storing above ground is cheaper than below ground.
2. The concrete casks can 'easily' last several hundred years.
Now yes, if they are to last several hundred years you're going to need to put the engineering in to have them last said time, but as a practical matter you don't want to go with thin metal and cheap concrete for this anyways. But creating structures that can last 200+ years with hopefully only the occasional inspection shouldn't cost even twice as much as ones that would be breaking down after 'only' 50.
Stainless still rusts when kept in contact with moisture.
True. Perhaps switch to an aluminum or titanium vessel, protected by a very thick layer of waterproof rolled concrete? Lots of material choices out there.
It can also be largely alleviated by proper location selection and design of the vessel to ensure that water generally doesn't stay in contact.
This would be made complicated by staff lawyers - many larger companies have staffs of lawyers in house.
there's no evidence that the inexpensive containers will last that long.
Inexpensive is relative; I figure they still want to use premium materials - fiber reinforcement, non-reactive aggregate, stainless steel rather than cheap rebar, etc...
True, I wasn't suggesting just leaving them completely alone for a century. A paintjob every decade or so is cheaper than drilling several miles below the surface.
The formula how to make such concrete was just rediscovered a year ago.
From what I remember, while verifying that it was the Roman recipe(which varied over time) was fairly recent, we have dams that were built using formulas very similar to the Roman recipe long before we knew it was close to the Roman formulas.
The Upper Stillwater Dam, for example, built in 1987, uses a lot of Roman techniques.
The Hoover Dam is expected to last a lot longer than 50 years, partially due to it's use of non-reactive aggregate.
Pay extra attention to your materials and construction methods and you can easily create concrete that will exceed 50 years. For example, use stainless steel for the inner container and fiber for the reinforcement to help prevent cracking.
Thing is, storing it above ground is so much cheaper(and the only current option), that it's currently the best option.
Besides, give it a few hundred years and the radiation guards for reprocessing it should be trivial. The above-ground casks can easily last that long.
First, unaccompanied children riding in these cars would wait until the cars have proven themselves. I wouldn't support children until it's reached the point that you're dropping the steering wheel.
As for #2, it's easily solved by placing the car into a mode where it only has limited destinations. Worst case, you should readily have records of where the car went and can use that to find the 'cool adult'.
Keeping such offenders confined for long periods of time in a proper special handling unit serves the same purpose, but with one less death (the offenders).
At least the way the USA does it, for offenders who are 'just that dangerous', it amounts to torture. Also from my studying of the issue, I don't see any real alternatives to keep them from killing guards or other prisoners.
Capital Punishment is less about justice than it is vengeance; I often see a certain harshness in general with many people in the US population when it comes to the penal system that doesn't seem to exist as much elsewhere in the Westernized world
Thus my comments here and elsewhere about how people are actually on record for opposing nitrogen asphyxiation as an execution method because it's 'too good for them'. I'm unusual, I look at the issues differently. On average I want shorter sentences, more concentration on reform and re-integration with society, because our current vengeance system is just too expensive in both terms of money and human life. Our prison system turns a lot of petty criminals into murderers. Most murderers in the USA have 'served time' in prisons. I can't help but think that's linked. It's where somebody with no previous record goes off their rocker and kills that is rare enough to be news. On the other hand, slip over a line, one that I've deliberately tried to avoid defining too tightly, and I'll kill you, or support the state doing the job.
Think of it a bit like triage - go through the line, marking some for immediate surgery, some who can wait, and slipping a hefty dose of morphine to those that can't be saved. I'm unusual - I have no thoughts of vengeance when I call for the death penalty. I view it a lot like putting down a mad dog. Kindest thing for everyone.
I stand by my words in this case. 'Increasingly' is modifying 'limited' in this case, indicating an increase in the limits of the quantities.
Not only are there fewer devices available, of unknown providence, but at some point you start having to go through rather crazy acrobatics to get them. I've heard of NASA going to garage sales hoping to get some older computer parts, for example.
After a certain point it makes sense to upgrade the system just to restore availability because otherwise the option is to engage the services of small quantity manufacturers. With them, a floppy drive running into the tens of thousands wouldn't be out of line. Not because they'd be ripping you off, but because that's what it costs to make a floppy drive if the quantities produced are too low.
I've noticed that floppy drives just don't work as well as they used to. Either the disks aren't built up to snuff or the drives aren't, I don't really know. The failure rate is such that I don't trust them.
There is nothing wrong with a simple dedicated system that is based on proven hardware.
There are however problems when your 'simple dedicated system' is based on hardware that is now so obsolete that it's no longer manufactured; meaning that any hardware failures means that you're having to source unproven used hardware in increasingly limited quantities, or go to shady 3rd party manufacturers that don't have the quality control of the original.
Ever try to administer oral medication to someone who doesn't want it?
You offer it. If they don't want it, so be it. Worst case you flood the room with N2 slowly, such that they faint before realizing what's going on.
Then again, the whole concept of capital punishment seems barbaric to me.
I currently live in a state without the Death Penalty as well, and think that Texas(majority of US executions by a good margin) applies it too widely. Personally, I tend to compartmentalize. My personal stance on the legitimacy of the death penalty is a separate issue from how we'd implement it, if it is too be done.
While I support the death penalty, it would be an extremely rare event, confined to only applying to those so dangerous that allowing them to live will, statistically speaking, result in more death. Alternatively, it's 3 or more murders, or deliberate torture in addition to the murder, if you have to base it on what someone did, as opposed to what they are.
Slow, painful, and less peaceful if you try to fight it by holding your breath.
Thus the orally administered anti-anxiety medicine. I'd prevent the whole 'holding breath' thing by simply removing all clocks from the room, or better yet have the clock be two minutes slow.
As for 'basically the opposite'. It's still fast, though I'll admit not as fast as a bullet to the head, worst case it's still faster than a botched lethal injection, electric chair and such. It's quite possible to have it be 'faster' in the sense that you don't need the setup time involved in most forms of execution where you have to tie the prisoner down. It's still painless. Peaceful - well, there's a limited amount of fighting possible when all the guards have to do is put you in a room. Any violence the inmate can engage in whether he's in that room or not.
I'm not sure how bad the convulsions would be, so I'll give you that one, and counter with another - nearly foolproof. Can't make anything entirely foolproof, but it's a lot easier to flood a room with N2 than it is for inexperienced people to find veins correctly.
Anyone who knows anything about software and crypto knows you cannot make the software "invulnerable" to attacks.
Well, it's a good thing they only specify 'large classes' then, right? They aren't saying it's invulnerable.
Still, something as 'simple' as running a VPN type encryption system would make your system effectively invulnerable to 'large classes' of attacks.
Personally, I see using 2 keys per channel, an encryption and a separate authenticator. Encrypt everything you send the plane and any plaintext transmissions look like nonesense. Sign all your packets and it can reject stuff that doesn't have the proper signature.
The complicated part is ensuring you don't take up too much extra bandwidth with the security while maintaining good connections even through noise/jamming.
It's still more efficient to charge a Tesla Roadster's batteries over the grid than to generate hydrogen. 93% average transmission efficiency, 90% charger efficiency, 90% battery. 75% total efficiency to the motor when you need it.
Generating hydrogen? 50-80%. Then you have to ship it from the production facility to the users, unless you're using a home generator, in which case you need to add the transmission lines back in and probably figure on the low end for efficiency.
Converting the H2 back into electricity via fuel cell maxes out at 60%.
As for storage - one of my ideas is to take EV batteries that are too worn out for use in a car and use them for grid standby power.
Horrible murderers are sick people. Killing them is an admission that we do not want to think about that fact, or do something about it.
1. Why should we preserve their life even in the face of the probability of other innocent lives due to their survival?
2. Executing them IS doing something about it, I think you're looking more for 'thinking about our inability to do something about their illness'.