"An MRI magnet is a dipole, so the field drops as 1/r^3 instead of 1/r^2 as with the power lines."
Yea, a magnetic dipole... really unusual...
Good luck finding a magnetic monopole (IE a "north" pole magnet without a south pole). If you really do find one be sure to notify the Nobel committee right away so they can start getting the prize ready for you.
I meant to say ~750mph (Mach 1 at std pressure and temps) and forgot that mach one is always the speed of sound in the oject in question. I'll restate my comment above to say that the transmission of the tether movement from the base to the apex would occur MUCH faster than 750 mph
The speed of sound in the tether would be different from the speed of sound in air. Ever played with waves on a slinky? Obviously those aren't travelling at Mach 1.
Moving the platform would move the tether in geosynch quickly.
No the most amusing was a boss MOB which cursed a player to explode after a brief delay, severely damaging all who surrounded him. The curse could also be put on pets. An enterprising hunter dismissed a cursed pet before the explosion was triggered and resummoned it much later inside the trading hall. MASS extinction ensued as the explosion went off.
Absolutely. The fear aspect is really silly, especially when juxtaposed with the very real dangers of fossil fuels.
People need to remember that we dig this stuff out of the ground already. Granted it needs to be concentrated and processed but theoretically the ground has been stuffing this stuff for millenia already.
Wind, gas and nuclear could do a really great job of powering our country. Solar still has a ways to go. Gas for peaking, nuclear for base and wind because it's cheap and clean.
Energy storage for load balancing and enhanced transmission technology and infrastructure would also help a great deal. It would help a great deal with siting (avoiding NIMBY) and would reduce the need to size capacity to peaks. Finally we could build some truely massive reactors with great scaling efficiencies and get the power to more distant communittees.
Incidently, a "hydrogen economy" and electric vehicles in general are only viable if we SUBSTANTIALLY increase our generating capacity. Gasoline + the IEC is just really useful stuff in terms of energy and power density by volume and weight. We aren't going to replace it without incurring substantial switching costs.
I'm a pretty big nuclear power advocate but I do think you are simplifying things here.
1. Uranium and Plutonium are toxic heavy metals even when they aren't spitting out neutrons. Perhaps they are less toxc than mercury and lead but still you need to factor that in.
2. High level waste from fuel rods isn't the waste problem. The waste problem is all the irradiated parts of the reactor that need to be stored after decommissioning. Pipes, reactor walls, sealing agents, pumps, sensors, etc... all heat up. Solving the waste problem is designing reactors that last a really long time and have as little material as possible getting irradiated. The low level stuff still freaks people out and is reasonably dangerous.
I just went snorkelling and was upset at how cloudy the water appeared at first. Then I surfaced and rubbed spit in the visor - presto. It really works surprisingly well.
The sensors which feed the most missile guidence systems cannot be shielded with mirrors because they operate at optical or thermal wave lengths. This makes them vulnerable to even a relatively weak laser. Perhaps radar guided missiles could shield their radar units but it wouldn't be that easy.
Microsoft wants to establish "standards" which create barriers to entry for competitors. This is how they are extending their OS monopoly into the livingroom.
Unlike typical computer software in the AV world of the livingroom the content IS the software. IE if Black Hawk Down plays on my TV I don't care whether it comps from a linux box, a DVD settop or MCE.
By creating the first trusted DRM platform microsoft will steer content towards their system, away from competitors and then freeze the status quo with piracy FUD, closed standards and other evilness. Oh PS it will actually work really well (though probably still BSODing).
All power supplies have a "sweet spot" from an efficiency standpoint which is normally 75% of rated power. That would imply that this power supply is most efficient around 750kW. At 350kWs I would guess this supply is only 65-75% efficent. Perhaps it is designed to be efficient across a broad range of output.
Indeed, I think we can entirely agree... The sterling concept should have a full shot. Because it is modular, a smaller array is a very good indication of how a much larger array would perform. This is very unlike a power tower configuration where the total size effects the concentration factor, which effects the heat of the transport fluid which effects everything on down the line.
The comment on big power plant thinking is well put. Small can be beautiful. With solar you can't avoid the land area requirements so naturally lends itself to low density areas and smaller installations - at least until we can solve the line loss problem.
I thought that "law" was one of the most insightful comments I have heard on macroing. I agree with the author. Anything that is being macro'd by players should be replaced with a server-side NPC or server hosted player script (IE embrace the macroing). If replacing the macro'r with an NPC is nonsensical, IE combat related, than the game mechanic is a failure and needs to be replaced.
The tracking is more difficult for the heliostats - I agree there - bank shot versus a straight shot. No combustion takes place in either system. Combustion requires the oxidation of fuel, no?
Anyway I have my degree in EE and work at a company that has invested billions into power projects so I do know this field. Power towers (solar one), linear concentrators (trough concentrators), and these sterling units are generally grouped together as solar thermal. They all use solar energy to heat a transport fluid which in turn powers some sort of heat engine to run a generator. While the implementations are different, the various methods share a great deal of technology and none of it is especially hi-tech.
Solar suffers from the fact that insolation has low power density. Concentrating that power has efficiency and cost challenges which point to clever uses of low-tech materials and mechanisms, not hi-tech ones. For instance in Solar One it is the heliostats that cost the money and most of that is in the mechanics of the tracker. A single computer can control any number of trackers and the calculations are quite simple geometry, so the "bank shot" problem need only be solved once for any size system.
Extracting power from hot fluids has been mature for some time now with only incremental improvements possible due to the Carnot limit. Molten salt as a transport fluid and the elevation of the target are not, in any way, major challenges. Wind turbines are far taller, heavier and more complex. Lots of mainstream heat exchange systems operate at higher temperatures and pressures.
Solar One exists on a grand scale already and is an important project but shouldn't be treated with undo reverence. It is just one step towards practical solar power and may in fact be a dead-end.
These Sterling units are self contained and modular. You can add power incrementally, as needed. With power towers you need to size the target and generator according to a certain power level and then deploy all the required heliostats to maximize efficiency. With these you just keep adding modules.
Heliostats are just mirrors with trackers. Each SES unit is.... a mirror with a tracker.
The only difference is that the SES system has the heat engine attached to each unit while the Solar One "power tower" configuration has only heat engine. Molten salt is used as a storage and transport technology but the real engineering is in the steam turbine, a technology which is extremely mature.
While sterling engines and steam turbines work differently, they are both heat engines and are subject to the same limitations (moving parts and Carnot efficiency).
Most "silent" coolers rely on case fans moving air through the case. Without that air movement the case temps gradually rise until the processor cooks.
I read through that material in the link and other references to "superatoms" but it's a silly name for what is basically molecules of one element. It is just an extension of diatoms like N2.
Someone noticed some fine structure in multi atom chunks of metal. Great! wheel out the Nobel prize!!!
But explicit pr0nographic video games are not widely available. In fact "skinamax" on cable is FAR more available than what you are describing and is more difficult for parents to police than video games.
You can always lock up the x-box when you aren't around and check the ratings on any games before purchase. That rating includes information on the types of material that a parent might find objectionable.
Really this is about limiting the field of entertainment to things you are ok with your children viewing and an unspoken admonishment against ANYONE that would want to view it.
Besides if you have an internet connection there will be naughty places that net-nanny doesn't know about yet and computers that don't have the restrictive software.
Aren't you really being penny wise but pound foolish here? Seriously - this stuff is pretty much in the mainstream of "R" rated entertainment but for the format, IE a video game.
I just want to post in support of the parent. I live in NYC and take the subway to work everyday. It is faster and cheaper than a car and I can read in a subway while reading in the car makes me sick. Cost is honestly the lowest concern. Like a lot of people in NYC I have plenty of money to pay for convenience but I love it when convenience comes on the cheap.
That all sounds great in theory. But what you are describing would simply not stand up to use.
Swapping out the windings on the alternator??? Good luck getting it to balance afterward.
Use a gearbox? Again - that would be another point of failure and servicing item.
Living off-grid you need this stuff to work. Also these guys enjoy DIYing with basic supplies. The strong magnets are a bit of a cheat in that department - but what are you going to do? At least the magnets should last a very long time.
Slashdot Mirror
"An MRI magnet is a dipole, so the field drops as 1/r^3 instead of 1/r^2 as with the power lines."
Yea, a magnetic dipole... really unusual...
Good luck finding a magnetic monopole (IE a "north" pole magnet without a south pole). If you really do find one be sure to notify the Nobel committee right away so they can start getting the prize ready for you.
I meant to say ~750mph (Mach 1 at std pressure and temps) and forgot that mach one is always the speed of sound in the oject in question. I'll restate my comment above to say that the transmission of the tether movement from the base to the apex would occur MUCH faster than 750 mph
The speed of sound in the tether would be different from the speed of sound in air. Ever played with waves on a slinky? Obviously those aren't travelling at Mach 1.
Moving the platform would move the tether in geosynch quickly.
No the most amusing was a boss MOB which cursed a player to explode after a brief delay, severely damaging all who surrounded him. The curse could also be put on pets. An enterprising hunter dismissed a cursed pet before the explosion was triggered and resummoned it much later inside the trading hall. MASS extinction ensued as the explosion went off.
Absolutely. The fear aspect is really silly, especially when juxtaposed with the very real dangers of fossil fuels.
People need to remember that we dig this stuff out of the ground already. Granted it needs to be concentrated and processed but theoretically the ground has been stuffing this stuff for millenia already.
Wind, gas and nuclear could do a really great job of powering our country. Solar still has a ways to go. Gas for peaking, nuclear for base and wind because it's cheap and clean.
Energy storage for load balancing and enhanced transmission technology and infrastructure would also help a great deal. It would help a great deal with siting (avoiding NIMBY) and would reduce the need to size capacity to peaks. Finally we could build some truely massive reactors with great scaling efficiencies and get the power to more distant communittees.
Incidently, a "hydrogen economy" and electric vehicles in general are only viable if we SUBSTANTIALLY increase our generating capacity. Gasoline + the IEC is just really useful stuff in terms of energy and power density by volume and weight. We aren't going to replace it without incurring substantial switching costs.
They could also fly above the weather at something like 35,000 feet. The jetstream may be a bit of a problem though.
I'm a pretty big nuclear power advocate but I do think you are simplifying things here.
1. Uranium and Plutonium are toxic heavy metals even when they aren't spitting out neutrons. Perhaps they are less toxc than mercury and lead but still you need to factor that in.
2. High level waste from fuel rods isn't the waste problem. The waste problem is all the irradiated parts of the reactor that need to be stored after decommissioning. Pipes, reactor walls, sealing agents, pumps, sensors, etc... all heat up. Solving the waste problem is designing reactors that last a really long time and have as little material as possible getting irradiated. The low level stuff still freaks people out and is reasonably dangerous.
I just went snorkelling and was upset at how cloudy the water appeared at first. Then I surfaced and rubbed spit in the visor - presto. It really works surprisingly well.
The sensors which feed the most missile guidence systems cannot be shielded with mirrors because they operate at optical or thermal wave lengths. This makes them vulnerable to even a relatively weak laser. Perhaps radar guided missiles could shield their radar units but it wouldn't be that easy.
Microsoft wants to establish "standards" which create barriers to entry for competitors. This is how they are extending their OS monopoly into the livingroom.
Unlike typical computer software in the AV world of the livingroom the content IS the software. IE if Black Hawk Down plays on my TV I don't care whether it comps from a linux box, a DVD settop or MCE.
By creating the first trusted DRM platform microsoft will steer content towards their system, away from competitors and then freeze the status quo with piracy FUD, closed standards and other evilness. Oh PS it will actually work really well (though probably still BSODing).
All power supplies have a "sweet spot" from an efficiency standpoint which is normally 75% of rated power. That would imply that this power supply is most efficient around 750kW. At 350kWs I would guess this supply is only 65-75% efficent. Perhaps it is designed to be efficient across a broad range of output.
Indeed, I think we can entirely agree... The sterling concept should have a full shot. Because it is modular, a smaller array is a very good indication of how a much larger array would perform. This is very unlike a power tower configuration where the total size effects the concentration factor, which effects the heat of the transport fluid which effects everything on down the line.
The comment on big power plant thinking is well put. Small can be beautiful. With solar you can't avoid the land area requirements so naturally lends itself to low density areas and smaller installations - at least until we can solve the line loss problem.
I just had a pang of nostalgia for that great game. It takes a while to understand its beauty, but once you do...
I thought that "law" was one of the most insightful comments I have heard on macroing. I agree with the author. Anything that is being macro'd by players should be replaced with a server-side NPC or server hosted player script (IE embrace the macroing). If replacing the macro'r with an NPC is nonsensical, IE combat related, than the game mechanic is a failure and needs to be replaced.
The tracking is more difficult for the heliostats - I agree there - bank shot versus a straight shot. No combustion takes place in either system. Combustion requires the oxidation of fuel, no?
Anyway I have my degree in EE and work at a company that has invested billions into power projects so I do know this field. Power towers (solar one), linear concentrators (trough concentrators), and these sterling units are generally grouped together as solar thermal. They all use solar energy to heat a transport fluid which in turn powers some sort of heat engine to run a generator. While the implementations are different, the various methods share a great deal of technology and none of it is especially hi-tech.
Solar suffers from the fact that insolation has low power density. Concentrating that power has efficiency and cost challenges which point to clever uses of low-tech materials and mechanisms, not hi-tech ones. For instance in Solar One it is the heliostats that cost the money and most of that is in the mechanics of the tracker. A single computer can control any number of trackers and the calculations are quite simple geometry, so the "bank shot" problem need only be solved once for any size system.
Extracting power from hot fluids has been mature for some time now with only incremental improvements possible due to the Carnot limit. Molten salt as a transport fluid and the elevation of the target are not, in any way, major challenges. Wind turbines are far taller, heavier and more complex. Lots of mainstream heat exchange systems operate at higher temperatures and pressures.
Solar One exists on a grand scale already and is an important project but shouldn't be treated with undo reverence. It is just one step towards practical solar power and may in fact be a dead-end.
These Sterling units are self contained and modular. You can add power incrementally, as needed. With power towers you need to size the target and generator according to a certain power level and then deploy all the required heliostats to maximize efficiency. With these you just keep adding modules.
Actually they ARE pretty much the same thing.
Heliostats are just mirrors with trackers. Each SES unit is.... a mirror with a tracker.
The only difference is that the SES system has the heat engine attached to each unit while the Solar One "power tower" configuration has only heat engine. Molten salt is used as a storage and transport technology but the real engineering is in the steam turbine, a technology which is extremely mature.
While sterling engines and steam turbines work differently, they are both heat engines and are subject to the same limitations (moving parts and Carnot efficiency).
Most "silent" coolers rely on case fans moving air through the case. Without that air movement the case temps gradually rise until the processor cooks.
2.5" Laptop HDs in a silent enclosure... inside a solid case is silent.
Juno Reactor is great. Funny to still hear tracks from Bible of Dreams in movies/commercials/TV etc...
Make it so you need to "charge" for a jump. In AA fatigue/injury/jumps lower your accuracy and high fatigue causes you to move more slowly.
How about hoppinh makes you slow for 3 seconds...
Why whould anyone call them "superatoms"
I read through that material in the link and other references to "superatoms" but it's a silly name for what is basically molecules of one element. It is just an extension of diatoms like N2.
Someone noticed some fine structure in multi atom chunks of metal. Great! wheel out the Nobel prize!!!
But explicit pr0nographic video games are not widely available. In fact "skinamax" on cable is FAR more available than what you are describing and is more difficult for parents to police than video games.
You can always lock up the x-box when you aren't around and check the ratings on any games before purchase. That rating includes information on the types of material that a parent might find objectionable.
Really this is about limiting the field of entertainment to things you are ok with your children viewing and an unspoken admonishment against ANYONE that would want to view it.
Besides if you have an internet connection there will be naughty places that net-nanny doesn't know about yet and computers that don't have the restrictive software.
Aren't you really being penny wise but pound foolish here? Seriously - this stuff is pretty much in the mainstream of "R" rated entertainment but for the format, IE a video game.
I just want to post in support of the parent. I live in NYC and take the subway to work everyday. It is faster and cheaper than a car and I can read in a subway while reading in the car makes me sick. Cost is honestly the lowest concern. Like a lot of people in NYC I have plenty of money to pay for convenience but I love it when convenience comes on the cheap.
That all sounds great in theory. But what you are describing would simply not stand up to use.
Swapping out the windings on the alternator??? Good luck getting it to balance afterward.
Use a gearbox? Again - that would be another point of failure and servicing item.
Living off-grid you need this stuff to work. Also these guys enjoy DIYing with basic supplies. The strong magnets are a bit of a cheat in that department - but what are you going to do? At least the magnets should last a very long time.
Walking upright is pretty handy too - lots of exposed surface area to the air for cooling but with a low cross sectional area exposed to the sun.
One theory is that our ancestors used to hunt by chasing animals until they sucumbed to heat exhaustion.