Flywheels are already on most every single electrical generator. They help smooth the power through demand spikes. They'd aren't used to store electricity after it has already been produced since conversion back and forth is so lossy.
Lots of great points. I work for one of the largest renewable energy companies in North America, and I'd like to mention a couple of things you touched on that are worth some extra mention.
Similiar to hydro, solar's cost component is primarily in the upfront cost of equipment rather then the uncertain "trailer" of fossil fuels. Coal - the dirtiest fuel you can imagine - is currently extremely available for next to nothing, however. Natural gas prices fluctuate a great deal but natural gas power plants are relatively cheap to setup and can be run at opportune times when power is extremely profitable. These plants are often called "peakers" for that reason. I mention the timing aspect because it is especially important to analyzing solar. Why you say? Because solar's timing stinks.
Direct solar energy availabilty does not line up well with electricity consumption. This means that as solar power approaches "free" the part of the system that stores the solar energy becomes the dominant cost component. There also aren't many great ways to store energy from PV panels. Chemical batteries deteriorate, are usually toxic, heavy, expensive and space hogging. Demand forms of energy production like hydro and natural gas do not have this limitation and can be respond to customer needs rapidly. Coal is slower but can be moderated with the demand curve to an extent.
Another key point is that photovoltaic cells produce direct current and not the alternating current required for most consumer and industrial needs. A small amount of energy storage and an inverter are necessary to transform the energy from a solar panel into something useful. This becomes important again when talk turns to distributed production. The fixed cost of the electronics simply does not scale particularly well. I wish it were simpler to just hoist some PV panels on everyone's roof but it isn't.
Our mayor is Michael Bloomberg and he is rather progressive - certainly not a traditional Republican. I would send the idea to his office.
Bloomberg is also a billionaire, unlike Guliani and Bush, and doesn't need to make backroom deals to fund his political ambitions. PS Bush's dad is super rich be he isn't - at least not yet.
Admiral is 100% correct. The ming process (and nuclear waste) needs to be considered for toxicity and radioacivity. In fact the toxicity is often the greater danger. In this respect it is better to think of mining uranium like mining gold, zinc or copper. All of these mining activities leave toxic tailings. It is interesting that people seems focused on long half life plutonium. Here's a kicker - mercury, lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals are toxic FOREVER. It is also true that most radioactive metals are also toxic. After all they are heavy metals too. People always focus on the radioactivity, though. There is a way to fix the toxicity problem of mining uranium and storing the high grade waste. What is it?
Reprocessing can dramatically reduce our need to mine uranium. In fact it can reduce the need by 50 to 100 times.
Nuclear energy is a green solution, but with significant engineering challenges. Perhaps now that the Chinese are focused on solving those problems the US will be forced to as well.
It isn't digital from the box to the TV unless you use DVI. Few cable boxes support DVI.
Also if you connect the cable box using component cables for HD then any SD is usually upconverted to 1080i or 720p. The cable box normally does a super lousy job with the upconversion. My cheapo RPTV's internal line doubler is FAR superior to the upconversion of my TWC cable box.
With CableCard the signal received by the TV in its native resolution. From there the TV can scale and process using quality hardware.
CRTs are on their home turf with analog signals - HD or SD.
Flat panels are normally fixed pixel devices that need an A/D stage before rendering the picture. As more and more content sources switch to digital connections with the TV you will see flat panels moe into their own.
My "cheap" 55 inch rear projection TV takes up about 10 square feet. I live in Manhattan and that 10 square feet is worth about $10k. Replacing it with a $5k 50 inch plasma "saves" money.
It is also the reason why a lot of people see rainbows, get headaches and notice motion artifacts watching DLP based sets.
A better solution (and what they use for high-end products) is to use a DLP chip for each color and combine the result optically rather than the use of a color wheel.
The ISP's AUP has no impact on a criminal or civil case brought by the MPAA.
Picture this: You just asserted your defense that a malicous person used your exposed wireless internet to download movies. The prosecutor realises he has you and announces, "But you signed an AUP with Time Warner Cable saying that you WOULDN'T SHARE that connection. Your honor, the prosecution RESTS!"
Agreeing with a third party not to do something through a civil contract has no baring on whether or not you can claim to have performed that same prohibited act as part of a criminal or civil defense. Sure Time Warner has an ironclad case to terminate your service, but that isn't a big deal.
Re:This is sort of cool, but...
on
Lego Logic Gates
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· Score: 1
Digital transistors are actually designed to minimize the operating regime in which the output varies with the input. They are designed to be completely on or completely off for the greatest range of inputs possible.
The moon has raw materials that we can use for construction of the panels. A robotic panel factory might be cheaper to send up then a vast number of completed panels. We also don't need to worry about the panels deorbiting into our atmosphere if they are on the moon. Having a panel factory on the moon also means that you can repair or replace broken panels as needed. In an orbital system you need to send up the mass all over again.
Linear induction motor based launch platforms work extremely well b/c there is no drag on the carriage and gravity is low. The moon is sufficiently massive that we don't need to worry about altering its orbit due to launches or other accelerations. Taken together this means that shuttling mass to and from the moon is pretty easy.
The moon is basically vacuum. That means that it is far easier to control temperatures. You can cool super conducting magnets VERY easily... and high temperatures don't "leak" as badly to the surrounding area. I bet it would be easier to build a fusion reactor with the vacuum aspect "free"
Large scale hydro is the best on-demand power generator there is. The reservoir holds a TREMENDOUS amount of energy (weeks of production worth). Just use your dams for evening and overnight power and solar for the rest. Wind power can also provide suppliment power in the evening.
The energy to loft the mirrors is more than they will over produce.
Check out the energy it takes to put a Kg of material in orbit. Now calculate how light those mirrors would need to be to repay the energy of orbit within 10 years. Yup - those are some pretty thin mirrors.
This concept only works on the moon with local materials.
Transients are typically handled with "peaker" natural gas turbine driven generators.
Large scale hydroelectric installations with dams are easy to throttle as well... the reservoir = a big battery. My company is a major hydro investor (one of the biggest in N. America) and most of our dams have 30 days of full power behind them and turbines can be brought on-line or taken off-line very quickly. That is plenty to smooth out daily and weekly cycles.
These heliostat type stirling engines use a at least one stage of heat exchange fluid. One way to store energy and therefore moderate transients is to use a well insulated bank to store excess hot fluid.
Now that the tricks of forensic science are more widely known I bet more criminals will think about minimizing their forensic trail.
It is a mystery why so little forensic evidence was found in the Laci Peterson case. Perhaps Scott was keeping notes while watching CSI, Law and Order, etc...
Not only that but a rapidly spinning missile body actually has a lot of internal stresses just from holding itself together.
Spinning the missile might lower the direct damage sustained. Even the smaller amount of damage, though, could weaken the structure enough so that it can't hold itself together.
Think about how well balanced turbines, propellors and helicopter rotors need to be. Even the smallest knick can cause rapidly spinning objects to disintegate. The pulse "width" of laser is extremely short and can target any part of the missile body. It could even scan the missile surface for weakeness at low power.
It's not a rocket because it combusts fuel with atmospheric oxygen in a scramjet. A rocket carries its own oxygen (or other oxidizer) in tanks.
PS rocket and aircraft (airplane) are not mutually exclusive. Some "airplanes" are powered by rocket engines (X-15). If this tester has an airfoil for a bit of lift then that helps make it an airplane (aircraft) too.
That is correct. In the director's cut the Marines (+ Ripley and Burk) watch nervously as the sentry's ammo ran down. The aliens stop attacking the sentries just as their ammo was nearly exhausted. Instead they breach the perimeter through the ductwork and come down from the ceiling. In the original version the Aliens don't confront any sentry guns and just find the ductwork as a way arround a series of welded doors.
Slashdot Mirror
Flywheels are already on most every single electrical generator. They help smooth the power through demand spikes. They'd aren't used to store electricity after it has already been produced since conversion back and forth is so lossy.
Lots of great points. I work for one of the largest renewable energy companies in North America, and I'd like to mention a couple of things you touched on that are worth some extra mention.
Similiar to hydro, solar's cost component is primarily in the upfront cost of equipment rather then the uncertain "trailer" of fossil fuels. Coal - the dirtiest fuel you can imagine - is currently extremely available for next to nothing, however. Natural gas prices fluctuate a great deal but natural gas power plants are relatively cheap to setup and can be run at opportune times when power is extremely profitable. These plants are often called "peakers" for that reason. I mention the timing aspect because it is especially important to analyzing solar. Why you say? Because
solar's timing stinks.
Direct solar energy availabilty does not line up well with electricity consumption. This means that as solar power approaches "free" the part of the system that stores the solar energy becomes the dominant cost component. There also aren't many great ways to store energy from PV panels. Chemical batteries deteriorate, are usually toxic, heavy, expensive and space hogging. Demand forms of energy production like hydro and natural gas do not have this limitation and can be respond to customer needs rapidly. Coal is slower but can be moderated with the demand curve to an extent.
Another key point is that photovoltaic cells produce direct current and not the alternating current required for most consumer and industrial needs. A small amount of energy storage and an inverter are necessary to transform the energy from a solar panel into something useful. This becomes important again when talk turns to distributed production. The fixed cost of the electronics simply does not scale particularly well. I wish it were simpler to just hoist some PV panels on everyone's roof but it isn't.
Our mayor is Michael Bloomberg and he is rather progressive - certainly not a traditional Republican. I would send the idea to his office.
Bloomberg is also a billionaire, unlike Guliani and Bush, and doesn't need to make backroom deals to fund his political ambitions. PS Bush's dad is super rich be he isn't - at least not yet.
Admiral is 100% correct. The ming process (and nuclear waste) needs to be considered for toxicity and radioacivity. In fact the toxicity is often the greater danger. In this respect it is better to think of mining uranium like mining gold, zinc or copper. All of these mining activities leave toxic tailings. It is interesting that people seems focused on long half life plutonium. Here's a kicker - mercury, lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals are toxic FOREVER. It is also true that most radioactive metals are also toxic. After all they are heavy metals too. People always focus on the radioactivity, though. There is a way to fix the toxicity problem of mining uranium and storing the high grade waste. What is it?
Reprocessing can dramatically reduce our need to mine uranium. In fact it can reduce the need by 50 to 100 times.
Nuclear energy is a green solution, but with significant engineering challenges. Perhaps now that the Chinese are focused on solving those problems the US will be forced to as well.
It isn't digital from the box to the TV unless you use DVI. Few cable boxes support DVI.
Also if you connect the cable box using component cables for HD then any SD is usually upconverted to 1080i or 720p. The cable box normally does a super lousy job with the upconversion. My cheapo RPTV's internal line doubler is FAR superior to the upconversion of my TWC cable box.
With CableCard the signal received by the TV in its native resolution. From there the TV can scale and process using quality hardware.
CRTs are on their home turf with analog signals - HD or SD.
Flat panels are normally fixed pixel devices that need an A/D stage before rendering the picture. As more and more content sources switch to digital connections with the TV you will see flat panels moe into their own.
My "cheap" 55 inch rear projection TV takes up about 10 square feet. I live in Manhattan and that 10 square feet is worth about $10k. Replacing it with a $5k 50 inch plasma "saves" money.
It is also the reason why a lot of people see rainbows, get headaches and notice motion artifacts watching DLP based sets.
A better solution (and what they use for high-end products) is to use a DLP chip for each color and combine the result optically rather than the use of a color wheel.
The ISP's AUP has no impact on a criminal or civil case brought by the MPAA.
Picture this: You just asserted your defense that a malicous person used your exposed wireless internet to download movies. The prosecutor realises he has you and announces, "But you signed an AUP with Time Warner Cable saying that you WOULDN'T SHARE that connection. Your honor, the prosecution RESTS!"
Agreeing with a third party not to do something through a civil contract has no baring on whether or not you can claim to have performed that same prohibited act as part of a criminal or civil defense. Sure Time Warner has an ironclad case to terminate your service, but that isn't a big deal.
Digital transistors are actually designed to minimize the operating regime in which the output varies with the input. They are designed to be completely on or completely off for the greatest range of inputs possible.
The moon has raw materials that we can use for construction of the panels. A robotic panel factory might be cheaper to send up then a vast number of completed panels. We also don't need to worry about the panels deorbiting into our atmosphere if they are on the moon. Having a panel factory on the moon also means that you can repair or replace broken panels as needed. In an orbital system you need to send up the mass all over again.
Linear induction motor based launch platforms work extremely well b/c there is no drag on the carriage and gravity is low. The moon is sufficiently massive that we don't need to worry about altering its orbit due to launches or other accelerations. Taken together this means that shuttling mass to and from the moon is pretty easy.
Scientists are already cloning teeth and dental implants work pretty well.
Lots of other mechanical aspects of humans wear down. Teeth are one of the easiest to fix. Joints are a lot tougher.
The hairs that facillitate hearing die out, sweat/tear/saliva glands dry up, taste buds stop regenerating. I'd miss those a lot more.
I good analogy on flight. For many others we can look at the sketch books of Da Vinci. Lots of modern technology used to be pure fantasy.
It mentions being youthful at lest four times. Did you RTFA? I don't think so....
Your suggestion of recordin before and after based on availability is a good one. I know someone at Tivo pretty well and will suggest that to him.
The moon is basically vacuum. That means that it is far easier to control temperatures. You can cool super conducting magnets VERY easily... and high temperatures don't "leak" as badly to the surrounding area. I bet it would be easier to build a fusion reactor with the vacuum aspect "free"
Large scale hydro is the best on-demand power generator there is. The reservoir holds a TREMENDOUS amount of energy (weeks of production worth). Just use your dams for evening and overnight power and solar for the rest. Wind power can also provide suppliment power in the evening.
The energy to loft the mirrors is more than they will over produce.
Check out the energy it takes to put a Kg of material in orbit. Now calculate how light those mirrors would need to be to repay the energy of orbit within 10 years. Yup - those are some pretty thin mirrors.
This concept only works on the moon with local materials.
There is only one engine for 20,000 mirrors. The light energy is focused in one place and that generates the heat to run the sterling engines.
Transients are typically handled with "peaker" natural gas turbine driven generators.
Large scale hydroelectric installations with dams are easy to throttle as well... the reservoir = a big battery. My company is a major hydro investor (one of the biggest in N. America) and most of our dams have 30 days of full power behind them and turbines can be brought on-line or taken off-line very quickly. That is plenty to smooth out daily and weekly cycles.
These heliostat type stirling engines use a at least one stage of heat exchange fluid. One way to store energy and therefore moderate transients is to use a well insulated bank to store excess hot fluid.
Now that the tricks of forensic science are more widely known I bet more criminals will think about minimizing their forensic trail.
It is a mystery why so little forensic evidence was found in the Laci Peterson case. Perhaps Scott was keeping notes while watching CSI, Law and Order, etc...
This has more to do with the Broadcast flag and enforcement of it's implications.
With this power the FCC will say that they need to sign-off on any software or hardware that might in some way circumvent the broadcast flag.
Not only that but a rapidly spinning missile body actually has a lot of internal stresses just from holding itself together.
Spinning the missile might lower the direct damage sustained. Even the smaller amount of damage, though, could weaken the structure enough so that it can't hold itself together.
Think about how well balanced turbines, propellors and helicopter rotors need to be. Even the smallest knick can cause rapidly spinning objects to disintegate. The pulse "width" of laser is extremely short and can target any part of the missile body. It could even scan the missile surface for weakeness at low power.
In other words - shielding is tough.
It's not a rocket because it combusts fuel with atmospheric oxygen in a scramjet. A rocket carries its own oxygen (or other oxidizer) in tanks.
PS rocket and aircraft (airplane) are not mutually exclusive. Some "airplanes" are powered by rocket engines (X-15). If this tester has an airfoil for a bit of lift then that helps make it an airplane (aircraft) too.
That is correct. In the director's cut the Marines (+ Ripley and Burk) watch nervously as the sentry's ammo ran down. The aliens stop attacking the sentries just as their ammo was nearly exhausted. Instead they breach the perimeter through the ductwork and come down from the ceiling. In the original version the Aliens don't confront any sentry guns and just find the ductwork as a way arround a series of welded doors.