Automated cleaning system would be great, but in absence of that (until scientists create sperm-powered nanobots) a easy-to-clean non-stick surface would be a must.
Problem is that they are using propulsion technology that requires external power just so it could use wind for sailing. Until now, ships propelled by similar sails used diesel or electric engines to power the sail (which needs to be rotating in order to work).
Thing is... even with diesel/electric power - ships were greatly inefficient compared to regularly propelled ships. It MIGHT be a good booster to regular diesel engines but that is it. MIGHT. There are no precise tests as there were only few of these ships ever built.
Now... the idea is to have the wind-powered turbines providing the power for the sail rotation AND water-dispersing pumps. Which would probably work - inside a wind tunnel. And even there it would be greatly inefficient.
As for solar... Well... you can't use solar as primary power source if you are working on blocking sunlight. And the ships would not be holding their position. Idea is to create and boost the existing cloud cover. Clouds are big and they move faster than and needing far less wind than the 300-tonne ships.
These rotors would be easier to operate remotely than sails and would also serve as the conduits for the upward spray, with the spray consisting of droplets 0.8 m in diameter generated by passing sea water through micro nozzles. The power for the spray and the cylinder rotation would be provided by oversized propellers operating as turbines.
Riiight... Kinda like car that starts on a empty tank but after a couple of hours of driving around the tank gets filled up.
So far... the technology used here had to be boosted by external motors and power source just so it would work at all. By working we mean sail along the ocean powered by wind.
Now... they plan to use the wind to power the machine that lets the ship use the wind for sailing (creating the air resistance that turbines would use) AND to power the pumps that would spray water into air? Fuck the global warming! These babies would solve our power and transportation problems forever.
Put the sail on a plane - the faster it would go, the more energy it would produce.
I'd like to call this vaporware, but since it is SUPPOSED to disperse droplets of water in the air - I'm not sure it could be called even that.
It is to create bigger and whiter clouds and have more heat reflected into space. By pumping a lot of salt water into the air. Still... something about it seems wrong to me.
Reducing input of sunlight at point A, while raining more than usual and saltier than usual at point B... What happens to the soil at the point B? Isn't that the thing you do to your worst enemies?
Only thing is... neither ship was powered by these "tube sails" alone. Both Alcyone's and Buckau (renamed later to Baden Baden) used some other engine to POWER THE SAIL. So, it does not go on windpower alone.
Alcyone was supposedly using about 30% less fuel then conventionally propelled ship of that size... but that is it. And Flettner's Buckau was reported as having "less efficient than conventional engines".
My guess is that whoever is planing on building this "cloud seeder" fleet is probably thinking of combining rotor sails with solar and gasoline/diesel powered engines. Which would probably run on gas/diesel most of the time (how much sun are you getting when you are in business of making cloud cover?) - except when the crew is giving interviews to the press.
But it is also a bad doctor who treats the underlying cause without treating the symptoms if it will take a long time for the disease to go away and the symptoms are bothersome.
Only this is like treating baby's "symptom" of screaming it's head off due to teething and possible gum infection by rubbing some cocaine into kid's gums.
There sure is going to be some apparently beneficial effect, and once the kid stops teething and the infection subsides - it might even seem as perfectly clever thing to do in the future. So much that some TV hack like say... Oprah... or Dr. Phil might promote it on national TV. Which would lead the lower part of the IQ curve to jump on that "treatment" for nearly any kind of pain their kids yell about in the future.
And... just like pumping large quantities of salt water in the air - only years later would we see the full consequences of such "treatment".
So, police (or whoever does the investigation) analyzes all the DNA samples (it only takes time...) and finds YOU and/or dozen other people might have been at the scene of the crime.
So, they question and investigate ALL of you further, based on the fact that there is quite a good chance that one or more of you committed the crime. Eventually alibis, evidence and motives WILL bring them to your door. Now... proving beyond reasonable doubt that you are guilty and convicting you is something else.
Unless you live in a CSI world. In that case, the mere mention of words DNA, computer, photo, image or evidence will make you start babbling uncontrollably about any and all crimes and misdemeanors you ever did or thought about doing.
Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a colorless gas with a faint bitter almond-like odor. Most people can smell hydrogen cyanide; however, due to an apparent genetic trait, some individuals cannot.[2] Sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide are both white powders with a bitter almond-like odor in damp air, due to the presence of hydrogen cyanide formed by hydrolysis:
NaCN + H2O HCN + NaOH
KCN + H2O HCN + KOH
Now... If they could coat their body with something and THEN cover it with cyanide...
And snooping on 2 people NOT communicating is sure as hell going to get you far less information than snooping on 2 people communicating. Not to mention all those wonderful causes for search and seizure, arrest and imprisonment. Not necessarily in that order. Like "We have proof that you have been communicating with foreign powers that are conspiring against our beautiful land."
Let me rephrase that... Time is priceless. You can't put a value to it.
Now... we can go on and try to calculate economical value of 1 hour, 2 hours or 3 or 4 trip between two cities, averaging and estimating how much money per capita would be spent and how much would be gained etc. etc. Thing is... a project like that is not something built based on how much money you will make. It is a public good project. Just as Hubble telescope or ISS has no practical use or economical value, or even Internet (early Internet had no economical value or even use for the common man) or even something like connecting two cites with a highway. But each of those has practically incalculable value over the years it will be used.
And if you are really into counting dollars and cents - it is China. ~1.5 BILLION humans. ~34 million people just in those two cities. With that many people, their biggest problem will be squeezing enough train sets in 24 hours. Cause, while humans may have the need to go from A to B only 3 or 4 times a day (mostly work related) goods and mail need to flow all the time.
It is a huge country with a shitload of humans living in it. They don't build things like Three Gorges Dam to show off their power - they need huge projects just to sustain present living and working conditions of people living there. Or get them up to the world standards.
Any form of transportation that CAN move people and things from A to B should do so with optimal speed and cost. Or if you like it better that way - it saves time. Time is money. Time is the only limiting factor we can't replace once spent. But we can save and spare time. By getting faster from A to B.
All of it was sarcastic. Communism being essentially evil. China being essentially evil. Communist China being essentially evil. Communist and Chinese being "Oh so EVIL" instead of just plain "EVIL"...
Slashdot Mirror
How do they plan to deal with the issue of... well... farts.
Also... Smoking.
Won't anyone please think of the smokers?
Cleaning.
Automated cleaning system would be great, but in absence of that (until scientists create sperm-powered nanobots) a easy-to-clean non-stick surface would be a must.
But in a parallel universe where Japanese won the WWII - that might be true.
Only, the comic is caller Sirver Surfer there.
Incredible Hurk on the other hand... I don't think he ever made past issue #1.
... you saw a Coca-Cola commercial?
Thats it. That is all I wanted to say.
Didn't have the chance to use those two words together since Space Quest V.
Haven't you ever heard of Doomsday?
Problem is that they are using propulsion technology that requires external power just so it could use wind for sailing.
Until now, ships propelled by similar sails used diesel or electric engines to power the sail (which needs to be rotating in order to work).
Thing is... even with diesel/electric power - ships were greatly inefficient compared to regularly propelled ships.
It MIGHT be a good booster to regular diesel engines but that is it. MIGHT. There are no precise tests as there were only few of these ships ever built.
Now... the idea is to have the wind-powered turbines providing the power for the sail rotation AND water-dispersing pumps.
Which would probably work - inside a wind tunnel. And even there it would be greatly inefficient.
As for solar... Well... you can't use solar as primary power source if you are working on blocking sunlight.
And the ships would not be holding their position.
Idea is to create and boost the existing cloud cover.
Clouds are big and they move faster than and needing far less wind than the 300-tonne ships.
These rotors would be easier to operate remotely than sails and would also serve as the conduits for the upward spray, with the spray consisting of droplets 0.8 m in diameter generated by passing sea water through micro nozzles.
The power for the spray and the cylinder rotation would be provided by oversized propellers operating as turbines.
Riiight...
Kinda like car that starts on a empty tank but after a couple of hours of driving around the tank gets filled up.
So far... the technology used here had to be boosted by external motors and power source just so it would work at all.
By working we mean sail along the ocean powered by wind.
Now... they plan to use the wind to power the machine that lets the ship use the wind for sailing (creating the air resistance that turbines would use) AND to power the pumps that would spray water into air?
Fuck the global warming! These babies would solve our power and transportation problems forever.
Put the sail on a plane - the faster it would go, the more energy it would produce.
I'd like to call this vaporware, but since it is SUPPOSED to disperse droplets of water in the air - I'm not sure it could be called even that.
The plan is NOT to bring the CO2 down.
It is to create bigger and whiter clouds and have more heat reflected into space.
By pumping a lot of salt water into the air.
Still... something about it seems wrong to me.
Reducing input of sunlight at point A, while raining more than usual and saltier than usual at point B...
What happens to the soil at the point B? Isn't that the thing you do to your worst enemies?
You are thinking of Alcyone. A turbosail ship.
Flettner's rotor ship was quite similar to that.
Only thing is... neither ship was powered by these "tube sails" alone.
Both Alcyone's and Buckau (renamed later to Baden Baden) used some other engine to POWER THE SAIL.
So, it does not go on windpower alone.
Alcyone was supposedly using about 30% less fuel then conventionally propelled ship of that size... but that is it.
And Flettner's Buckau was reported as having "less efficient than conventional engines".
My guess is that whoever is planing on building this "cloud seeder" fleet is probably thinking of combining rotor sails with solar and gasoline/diesel powered engines.
Which would probably run on gas/diesel most of the time (how much sun are you getting when you are in business of making cloud cover?) - except when the crew is giving interviews to the press.
But it is also a bad doctor who treats the underlying cause without treating the symptoms if it will take a long time for the disease to go away and the symptoms are bothersome.
Only this is like treating baby's "symptom" of screaming it's head off due to teething and possible gum infection by rubbing some cocaine into kid's gums.
There sure is going to be some apparently beneficial effect, and once the kid stops teething and the infection subsides - it might even seem as perfectly clever thing to do in the future.
So much that some TV hack like say... Oprah... or Dr. Phil might promote it on national TV.
Which would lead the lower part of the IQ curve to jump on that "treatment" for nearly any kind of pain their kids yell about in the future.
And... just like pumping large quantities of salt water in the air - only years later would we see the full consequences of such "treatment".
Asking for a 1:1 male to female ratio of bricks when building a house?
...a slight upgrade to your plan?
Hire SUPERMODELS instead of mere "people".
You can thank me for this small and yet brilliant upgrade by paying me a small sum of US$ 181829.
So, police (or whoever does the investigation) analyzes all the DNA samples (it only takes time...) and finds YOU and/or dozen other people might have been at the scene of the crime.
So, they question and investigate ALL of you further, based on the fact that there is quite a good chance that one or more of you committed the crime.
Eventually alibis, evidence and motives WILL bring them to your door.
Now... proving beyond reasonable doubt that you are guilty and convicting you is something else.
Unless you live in a CSI world.
In that case, the mere mention of words DNA, computer, photo, image or evidence will make you start babbling uncontrollably about any and all crimes and misdemeanors you ever did or thought about doing.
Well... it IS over 10000 - yen.
If you account the value of the drive too.
Files and folders WERE copyable.
Like... to a more than one hard drive. Each of which could be zeroed. And mailed.
Indicator of the "style over substance" and "elitist" genes?
My karma is doing pretty good too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide
Appearance and odor
Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a colorless gas with a faint bitter almond-like odor. Most people can smell hydrogen cyanide; however, due to an apparent genetic trait, some individuals cannot.[2] Sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide are both white powders with a bitter almond-like odor in damp air, due to the presence of hydrogen cyanide formed by hydrolysis:
NaCN + H2O HCN + NaOH
KCN + H2O HCN + KOH
Now... If they could coat their body with something and THEN cover it with cyanide...
They also planned to throw marbles under the horses of the mounted patrol to trip the horses.
I got to write this one down.
Too bad nobody rides horses around here any more. Damn you civilization!
Sell them to Eskimos.
During the colder months, sell them to Canadians, Islanders, Norwegians, Russians... etc...
Silly Sony... If they had only managed to drag on the issue for a few more months...
No communication is NOT communication.
And snooping on 2 people NOT communicating is sure as hell going to get you far less information than snooping on 2 people communicating.
Not to mention all those wonderful causes for search and seizure, arrest and imprisonment. Not necessarily in that order.
Like "We have proof that you have been communicating with foreign powers that are conspiring against our beautiful land."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiAK0AQDXu8
But time is not arbitrarily valuable.
Let me rephrase that... Time is priceless. You can't put a value to it.
Now... we can go on and try to calculate economical value of 1 hour, 2 hours or 3 or 4 trip between two cities, averaging and estimating how much money per capita would be spent and how much would be gained etc. etc.
Thing is... a project like that is not something built based on how much money you will make.
It is a public good project.
Just as Hubble telescope or ISS has no practical use or economical value, or even Internet (early Internet had no economical value or even use for the common man) or even something like connecting two cites with a highway.
But each of those has practically incalculable value over the years it will be used.
And if you are really into counting dollars and cents - it is China.
~1.5 BILLION humans. ~34 million people just in those two cities.
With that many people, their biggest problem will be squeezing enough train sets in 24 hours.
Cause, while humans may have the need to go from A to B only 3 or 4 times a day (mostly work related) goods and mail need to flow all the time.
It is a huge country with a shitload of humans living in it.
They don't build things like Three Gorges Dam to show off their power - they need huge projects just to sustain present living and working conditions of people living there.
Or get them up to the world standards.
Any form of transportation that CAN move people and things from A to B should do so with optimal speed and cost.
Or if you like it better that way - it saves time. Time is money.
Time is the only limiting factor we can't replace once spent. But we can save and spare time.
By getting faster from A to B.
All of it was sarcastic.
Communism being essentially evil.
China being essentially evil.
Communist China being essentially evil.
Communist and Chinese being "Oh so EVIL" instead of just plain "EVIL"...
Do we really need to use [sarcasm] tag now? Aren't the quotation marks (" ") enough?
As for present Washington - New York line, I've already replied regarding that in the other post. Look above.