"First off - note that nuclear power advocates (which includes me) are quick to point out the admirable safety record of nuclear power plants, and how even a worst-case disaster like TMI had negligible practical consequences (beyond destroying an expensive reactor and incurring a complex and costly clean-up effort)."
There were significant releases of radioactive materials from TMI-2, both during and after the incident.
Still born rates in the cities downstream/downwind of TMI-2 almost tripled for a period several years afterwords before returning to normal (at least ~500 extra young deaths).
Overall at least 20,000 people died early deaths from the TMI incident.
Note: It's usually the brand new reactors that melt down or explode.
TMI-2 had started operations just 4 months prior to it's meldown.
Chernobyl unit 4, (500,000+ early deaths and counting) just two years of operation before meltdown & explosion. (B.T.W. Which was the second meltdown @ Chernobyl site, unit-1 had a partial melt down incident a few years earlier.)
Fermi-1.. read the book.. "The day we almost lost Detroit". ~3 years of operation before partial meltdown.
Six days after Chernobyl unit-4 blew up, a second reactor (a so called safe PBR) in West Germany had an incident and released highly radioactive core material into the local environment. Plant authorities tried to hide the facts from the public using the Chernobyl incident as cover. But scientists from a local university blew the cover story after it analyzed the isotopic composition of the local fallout.
"Except there WAS a
demonstration LFTR reactor built at Los Alamos and operated for
several years back in the 50s and 60s."
Bzzzt, there was no thorium in that
liquid salt reactor, actual
run time @ Oak ridge for less than ~2 years, and had an output of
just 7.4MWth. Not very useful in a world were reactors have energy
outputs in the 4000 to 5000MWth range.
Also, no attempt was made to chemically
reprocess the molten salt core, removal of neutron/reaction poisons, which
would be required for long term operation. There is also the
problem of compounds naturally separating during cooling
processes(heat exchangers).
A simple solution would provide the FCC with ammo necessary to get around this court decision. Redefine "Internet" access, as non-discriminatory access to any Domain name, IP address, and/or port number.
Likewise update the federal law preempting the levy of state sales and communication taxes so that it does NOT include "Discriminatory Internet" access. And the Feds can tie the billions in stimulus cash to those ISP's providing only real non-discriminatory "Internet" access. Let ISP's suffer the consequences (much higher costs) for their arrogance.
Let the power of tax code and stimulus cash speak for itself and I bet ISP's will change their tune in a heart beat.
The 1974 to 2003 period was dominated by the old analog 800-850 Mhz AMP's tech.
Modern CDMA, GSM tech is of W2K vintage.
Same goes for higher frequencies being used, now 1.6 to 2.2Ghz..
Likewise for portable phones.. 1.7/46/49Mhz.. 900Mhz, newer 2.4Ghz, 5.4Ghz.
Each step up in frequency increases the dV across brain tissue by a cubed function. I.E. More energy absorbed in a smaller volume(HALF WAVELENGTH).
Cell phones also adjust their output power based on received signal strength. Longer wave AMP's frequencies had a lot more penetrating power/reduced absorption which reduces transmission power. The converse is true for higher frequencies and absorption.
Modern cell phones reduced form factor has also increased exposure.
Smaller/tiny radiating surface centered around ear, verses old bag phones with separate phone style handsets.
Likewise, per minute costs have dropped, thus increasing usage and individual exposure several fold.
Then there is nature of organically catalyzed reactions where tiny amounts of energy are used to shift reaction equilibrium's. Even small delta V potentials can affect outcomes..
Lot's of huge issues not addressed by this outdated/invalid study.
I suspect, that they avoided suing
members who were on the 802.3 (Ethernet) committee. Each of which
contributed technology to the Ethernet standard(s). (Excepting HP,
which split off it's semi tech to Agilent Technologies. )
I can only imagine that this lawsuit is
over Ethernet tech not based on Intel, AMD, IBM, or VIA chip
sets/technology. But, instead it's about routers, gateways, wireless
access points, printers, etc which connected up via Ethernet
tech.
The concept of bus mastering/DMA hidden control & buffer memory technology is just an extension of intelligent add on Ethernet boards, (VME, MultiBus-II, etc), dating
back to the early 1980's.
This rule change potentially added another 400,000 workers to the
US tech employment pool, which US citizens must compete against.
Universities pointing out tax advantages of foreign grad hiring increases the suffering US citizens and GC holders must endure at the hands of the globalists.
"It takes about 2-5kW to run a car airconditioner (from
the figures Toyota give for their Prius). "
I doubt that, 2 to 5 kW would be a freeking big honking big A/C..
3 to 7 tons (36,000 to 84,000 BTU/hr) worth of A/C and would be a
really large big compressor... but in the real world, it's
much smaller maybe a 1kW unit.. (needing 2 to 5 kW to start).
"But, a house with solar panels would net to (near) zero,
as the energy produced during the day offsets the energy consumed at
night. The net is zero, but the gross energy in/out most certainly
isn't. The distribution company must still maintain the lines that
allows the house to sell its energy back to the grid, as well as
deliver energy to be consumed at night, but the distribution company
is no longer being compensated by houses with solar, unless there's a
rate structure change.
Now, the rate structure change is here as the new proposed
fee."
Your argument fails to recognize some
obvious facts, like Ohm's law, where Grid loss increases by
a squared function of load (I^2*R).
The homeowner who is generating surplus electricity is usually
doing so at peak power consumption periods. I.E. When grid losses
are at there highest.. ~25 to 30%, where Xcel must produce 1.3 to 1.4
kWh to deliver 1 kWh to the customer.
A locally produced(solar) peak kWh suffers very little of
those grid losses, (1 ~ 2 %..) But Xcel's bills the neighboring
consumer the price for a full kWh, but Xcel's avoids generating
1.4kWh and losing 0.4kWh on grid losses. A secondary effect of
reduced primary grid current is that overall grid losses will also
decrease (Xcel profits again, more billables, with reduced costs.)
When a residential solar producer, consumes off peak electricity,
the grid losses are much lower, maybe 5% to 10%.
Distributed solar generation extends the life span of grid
components in a logarithmic fashion, since
most components do not have to carry all the load @ peak consumption,
as a result operational grid lifespan will significantly increase
(with lower maint costs). Note: A vast majority of residential
Solar production is consumed before it traverses the first
transformer. (I.E. Consumed by a neighbor. ).
In my book, Xcel would be getting more than a fair deal paying
residential solar producers FULL retail price for the electricity
they produce.
Lastly, if one does a fair cost analysis
of mankind's carbon dioxide emissions and the estimated cost of AGW
effects (submerged coastlines, dislocation, etc, unavoidable
damages(in the pipeline) to U.S.A. 500T$
over next 50 years of US FF use == $670 per barrel of oil, and $1.61
per kWh generated by Coal). One should have no qualms
paying solar energy producers five times the prevailing rate for any
surplus electricity generation.
"Honestly, people act like they still think nuclear
reactors can blow up like atom bombs. "Oh my god, humanity is
not ready for this power!" Yeah, nuclear weapons maybe we
weren't ready for, I think fission reactors to light up our homes are
within our acceptable risk level given every other human endeavor
ever. "
But, they can be blow up.. If one uses a nuclear weapon on them,
and the effect would be most devastating.
Radioactive isotopes from 20 or 30 years worth of reactor
operation spread across the countryside would kill or cripple most
survivors. Far (1000-5000x) worse than the weapon detonated on a
average target. The average human lifespan in the widespread fallout
areas, (several states contaminated for thousand years), would
decrease to twenty years or less.
To me, providing an enemy the perfect target by which they
can inflict a knock out blow, boarders upon insanity!
This insanity is furthur compounded by people avocating
widescale use of this technology in a world populated with
mentally unstable national leaders!!!
Two service packs failed to restore a usable "search"
function to Vista.. Nor has it prevented users from getting nailed
by surfby downloads & Trojans.
I'll skip on windows 7 for the next year or two.
I wish laptop makers would release at least one 2.6 version of
Linux + Source code drivers for each of their products so the market
wasn't Dependant on M$ screw
ups.
"With that being said, it almost seems that cars aren't
getting more fuel efficient. The original Insight got 51 mpg
according to consumer reports, and the new one gets something only
like 38mpg."
I also agree with previous slashdot posters. Alcohol,
Gasoline, and Diesel taxes should be increased to reflect the higher
levels of road wear & tear heavier vehicles inflict upon our
infrastructure. Likewise, heavier vehicles are more likely to cause
more
roadway fatalities and major injuries (higher
insurance/medical/disability costs?).
In my state, heavier vehicles already have increased annual
registration fees, but those numbers are in no way in proportion
to the wear and tear or the higher risks involved in collisions.
In a world where global warming threatens
our very existence, every effort must be
directed towards encouraging the use of safe/lightweight/high
efficiency vehicles. This proposed GPS tracking policy would run
contrary to those goals, and could make the AGW problem even worse by
delaying roll out of these desperately
needed high efficiency vehicles.
Most of M$ patents are invalid, invented by somebody else, or
invalidated by prior disclosure & sale.
Delorme
beat M$ to the punch (mapping software + laptop in
auto/plane/etc) back in 1995.. Their GPS receiver had NO
physical user interface! To make it operate, one connected it (via
rs-232) to a laptop running Delorme real-time mapping software.
To add even more salt to the wounds, nearly all of M$ Fat patents
are defeated by their own EARLY
BETA releases of Windows which often predate M$ patent filings
by over a year.
Add to the mess.. Microsoft's
Linux Labs internal distributions required agreement to GPL
distribution/patent licensing terms.
If the NAS supports the non-routable NetBeui protocal.
Install the optional "Netbeui" protocal stack located on the XP install disk. (same add-on will also work on Vista.)
Don't forget to disable (uncheck) the "QOS Packet Scheduler", it will limit you to 20-25% of max link speed.
Lastly, one must also disable the NetBIOS over TCP/IP, if it connects first you won't see any performance boost. (Option located in the TCP/IP Advanced/WINS dialog).
The older/non-routable NetBeui protocal stack in the NT/W2K days was roughly 10x more CPU efficient per byte than NetBios over TCP/IP.
In XP/Vista environments it's still 5x more CPU eff than NetBios over TCP/IP.
"Right now when I get a support call in the middle of the
night, I can bounce out of bed and remote desktop into my office pc
to handle the issue immediately."
Enable the Wake
on LAN BIOS function on your work PC's. Use a 24x7 Server@work or punch a
pinhole through your firewall for the UDP
Magic packet needed to wakeup your systems.
Combine that with the windows run.."shudown.exe"
utility and you can start up and shutdown systems remotely.
"Monkeying with the key metrics
-- like "unemployment" (ignoring those no longer actively
seeking work) and "cost of living" under continual
"revision" for political purposes since at least 1983 (when
"cost of living" replaced house prices with "imputed
rent") -- has left us without the information we need to
realistically address economic policy.
It's sort of like a junkie being asked diagnostic questions
like "Where does it hurt?" by a doctor who is
prescribing him opiates."
You hit the nail on the head. Manipulating economic stats has
become a new art form.
GDP has similar faults, like firing US workers, and importing more
foreign goods increases US GDP !!
There is an alternate way of measuring GDP, (total US wages and
salaries paid), but reporting that number (~6.85T$ in 2008 dollars)
would crush the life out of the Markets.
For much of the 90's and 00's both the markets and the world
economy have been living in a fantasy land.
"HP found out that one of their competitors (GroundWork)
has HP's confidential documents. They shouldn't have those - somebody
has obviously broken an NDA. "
NDA's are unenforceable, (have no legal
standing), once the information can be obtained by legal means..
I.E. HP's official pricing
disclosure to the GSA in order to secure government business,
(required by law).
After that occurs, HP has no case and no standing to sue anybody
for using that information.
Three
Mile Island: 0 deaths Chernobyl:
47 deaths (there were also 4,000 cases of Thyroid cancer that were
successfully treated)"
The mortality numbers are more like 5,000
to 20,000 for TMI Unit-2 meltdown. Besides the Xenon airborne
release.. Several million curries of contaminated Cooling water
were dumped in to the Susquehanna River.
Chernobyl.. death toll stands @ 500,000+ and is still increasing. Eventually it will claim the lives of several million people in the region..
Why are these numbers much higher than mentioned previously..
Because we now know a lot more about radiation
exposure and the cover ups that followed each incident.
Some additional interesting facts about reactor accidents..
Japan's Breeder reactor
was in operation for just 5 months before it suffered a major
coolant accident,
shutting it down for the last 14 years.
Fermi-1
(30 miles outside of Detroit) was in operation for just three(3)
years before it suffered from a partial core meltdown.
Chernobyl Unit # 4 reactor exploded(1986) after just three
years of operation(comm 1983). Even worse this was the SECOND Meltdown
EVENT at Chernobyl!!! Unit #1 experienced a partial core meltdown
in 1982 after just four years of operation(comm 1978).
"A trademark is an asset. Assets may be seized under most
drug laws. The gov grabs the trademark at which point it is illegal
to use said trademark without permission. "
Control over Trademarks by the holder is NOT absolute!!
Trademarks are subject to thing like the Doctrine
of First Sale. I.E. Once a holder has sold or given a
trademarked item away, the holder looses any right
to control that item.
The police can't confiscate jackets off of members backs without
incurring significant legal costs..
To get around any trademark limitation they could produce 10,000
patches, (before the seizure is final), and sell them for a dollar a
piece to a 3rd party, who would then distribute/sell them to
members..
"After
a third winter trapped in the ice, Amundsen was able to navigate
a passage into the Beaufort
Sea after which he cleared into the Bering
Strait, thus having successfully navigated the Northwest
Passage.[1]
Continuing to the south of Victoria
Island, the ship cleared the Canadian
Arctic Archipelago on August
17, 1905, but had
to stop for the winter..."
I.E. It took him three years to
cross the NW passage !!!
Global warming has opened up the
Northwest
passages to the point where one can traverse it in less then ten
days.
Note: I use the plural
version of passages since there are many
routes.
"For one, professors have to get grants to do their
research, so they are sometimes given to overstatement to that end.
They are, after all, only human which means that not all of them are
honest. Also, some are simply unrealistic. They think they can do
something, so they announce it, even though they have no idea how to
get there, and then maybe never end up doing so. Finally sometimes
shit just ends up being impossible. "
I think this is for real, they've
reduced the Voltage needed to split water down
to 1.29V.. very impressive..
This RCS
article (free) is somewhat more descriptive.
They use a solution of Cobalt
and Phosphate Salts.. Ph of 7. (Now that's a real breakthrough.)
Anode is made of Indium Tin oxide (ITO) and a Cathode
plated with Platinum??
It would be interesting to see how this
apparatus operates @ 10 and 20 atm.. (self
pressurizing storage??) and elevated
temps.(Maybe reduce the voltage needed by using a thermal energy
component)..
"Remember, everything you buy as a negative impact on the
planet.
Even those hybrids took a ton of energy to manufacture
and ship. The batteries require heavy metals that are strip mined. It
costs money because it uses resources. "
All those heavy metal?? Not really.. hybrid battery packs weight
in at ~100lbs.. which means it contains no more than 20-30 lbs
of Nickel.. Tack on another 20-30 lbs of Copper for the larger MG's. Future hybrids will use Lithium (not a heavy metal) based battery tech.
Now dump the conventional transmission,
starter, and alternator.... all redundant.
And dump half the lead content since hybrids use a half sized
lead-acid battery..
Lastly.. all that metal gets recycled
into making a new car, (or fixing older ones), once it hit's the
scrap yard.
"Or to be more specific, ones that are fully
POSIX Compliant and certified. It really does make
OpenSolaris tempting... "
OpenSolaris is contaminated by mulitple criminal
copyright violations.. That tidbit of info turned up in the
trial testimoney. SCO illegally opened
sourced Novell's Unix code with it's new
license/contract with SUN microsystems.
Slashdot Mirror
Pretty much all the gas or liquids that vented from TMI unit-2 were dumped into either the local atmosphere and/or river. None or very little of it was trucked away for safe disposal. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/3/716139/-Startling-revelations-on-Three-Mile-Islandnuclear-power "Startling revelations on Three Mile Island & nuclear power"
"First off - note that nuclear power advocates (which includes me) are quick to point out the admirable safety record of nuclear power plants, and how even a worst-case disaster like TMI had negligible practical consequences (beyond destroying an expensive reactor and incurring a complex and costly clean-up effort)."
There were significant releases of radioactive materials from TMI-2, both during and after the incident.
Still born rates in the cities downstream/downwind of TMI-2 almost tripled for a period several years afterwords before returning to normal (at least ~500 extra young deaths).
Overall at least 20,000 people died early deaths from the TMI incident.
Note: It's usually the brand new reactors that melt down or explode.
TMI-2 had started operations just 4 months prior to it's meldown.
Chernobyl unit 4, (500,000+ early deaths and counting) just two years of operation before meltdown & explosion. (B.T.W. Which was the second meltdown @ Chernobyl site, unit-1 had a partial melt down incident a few years earlier.)
Fermi-1.. read the book.. "The day we almost lost Detroit". ~3 years of operation before partial meltdown.
Six days after Chernobyl unit-4 blew up, a second reactor (a so called safe PBR) in West Germany had an incident and released highly radioactive core material into the local environment. Plant authorities tried to hide the facts from the public using the Chernobyl incident as cover. But scientists from a local university blew the cover story after it analyzed the isotopic composition of the local fallout.
"Except there WAS a demonstration LFTR reactor built at Los Alamos and operated for several years back in the 50s and 60s."
Bzzzt, there was no thorium in that liquid salt reactor, actual run time @ Oak ridge for less than ~2 years, and had an output of just 7.4MWth. Not very useful in a world were reactors have energy outputs in the 4000 to 5000MWth range.
Also, no attempt was made to chemically reprocess the molten salt core, removal of neutron/reaction poisons, which would be required for long term operation. There is also the problem of compounds naturally separating during cooling processes(heat exchangers).
A simple solution would provide the FCC with ammo necessary to get around this court decision. Redefine "Internet" access, as non-discriminatory access to any Domain name, IP address, and/or port number.
Likewise update the federal law preempting the levy of state sales and communication taxes so that it does NOT include "Discriminatory Internet" access. And the Feds can tie the billions in stimulus cash to those ISP's providing only real non-discriminatory "Internet" access. Let ISP's suffer the consequences (much higher costs) for their arrogance.
Let the power of tax code and stimulus cash speak for itself and I bet ISP's will change their tune in a heart beat.
This is an outdated study.
The 1974 to 2003 period was dominated by the old analog 800-850 Mhz AMP's tech.
Modern CDMA, GSM tech is of W2K vintage.
Same goes for higher frequencies being used, now 1.6 to 2.2Ghz..
Likewise for portable phones.. 1.7/46/49Mhz.. 900Mhz, newer 2.4Ghz, 5.4Ghz.
Each step up in frequency increases the dV across brain tissue by a cubed function.
I.E. More energy absorbed in a smaller volume(HALF WAVELENGTH).
Cell phones also adjust their output power based on received signal strength.
Longer wave AMP's frequencies had a lot more penetrating power/reduced absorption which reduces transmission power. The converse is true for higher frequencies and absorption.
Modern cell phones reduced form factor has also increased exposure.
Smaller/tiny radiating surface centered around ear, verses old bag phones with separate phone style handsets.
Likewise, per minute costs have dropped, thus increasing usage and individual exposure several fold.
Then there is nature of organically catalyzed reactions where tiny amounts of energy are used to shift reaction equilibrium's. Even small delta V potentials can affect outcomes..
Lot's of huge issues not addressed by this outdated/invalid study.
I suspect, that they avoided suing members who were on the 802.3 (Ethernet) committee. Each of which contributed technology to the Ethernet standard(s). (Excepting HP, which split off it's semi tech to Agilent Technologies. )
AMD, IBM, Intel and 3com where all core members. "802.3 Patent Letters of Assurance"
I can only imagine that this lawsuit is over Ethernet tech not based on Intel, AMD, IBM, or VIA chip sets/technology. But, instead it's about routers, gateways, wireless access points, printers, etc which connected up via Ethernet tech.
The concept of bus mastering/DMA hidden control & buffer memory technology is just an extension of intelligent add on Ethernet boards, (VME, MultiBus-II, etc), dating back to the early 1980's.
The Bush's administration's recent Emergency rule change extended the post grad employment period for F-1 visa holders from 12 to 29 months.. This so called emergency rule change has been the subject of a lawsuit by US citizens who are the victims of wholesale discrimination.
This rule change potentially added another 400,000 workers to the US tech employment pool, which US citizens must compete against. Universities pointing out tax advantages of foreign grad hiring increases the suffering US citizens and GC holders must endure at the hands of the globalists.
"It takes about 2-5kW to run a car airconditioner (from the figures Toyota give for their Prius). "
I doubt that, 2 to 5 kW would be a freeking big honking big A/C.. 3 to 7 tons (36,000 to 84,000 BTU/hr) worth of A/C and would be a really large big compressor... but in the real world, it's much smaller maybe a 1kW unit.. (needing 2 to 5 kW to start).
"But, a house with solar panels would net to (near) zero, as the energy produced during the day offsets the energy consumed at night. The net is zero, but the gross energy in/out most certainly isn't. The distribution company must still maintain the lines that allows the house to sell its energy back to the grid, as well as deliver energy to be consumed at night, but the distribution company is no longer being compensated by houses with solar, unless there's a rate structure change.
Now, the rate structure change is here as the new proposed fee."
Your argument fails to recognize some obvious facts, like Ohm's law, where Grid loss increases by a squared function of load (I^2*R).
The homeowner who is generating surplus electricity is usually doing so at peak power consumption periods.
I.E. When grid losses are at there highest.. ~25 to 30%, where Xcel must produce 1.3 to 1.4 kWh to deliver 1 kWh to the customer.
A locally produced(solar) peak kWh suffers very little of those grid losses, (1 ~ 2 %..) But Xcel's bills the neighboring consumer the price for a full kWh, but Xcel's avoids generating 1.4kWh and losing 0.4kWh on grid losses. A secondary effect of reduced primary grid current is that overall grid losses will also decrease (Xcel profits again, more billables, with reduced costs.)
When a residential solar producer, consumes off peak electricity, the grid losses are much lower, maybe 5% to 10%.
Distributed solar generation extends the life span of grid components in a logarithmic fashion, since most components do not have to carry all the load @ peak consumption, as a result operational grid lifespan will significantly increase (with lower maint costs). Note: A vast majority of residential Solar production is consumed before it traverses the first transformer. (I.E. Consumed by a neighbor. ).
In my book, Xcel would be getting more than a fair deal paying residential solar producers FULL retail price for the electricity they produce.
Lastly, if one does a fair cost analysis of mankind's carbon dioxide emissions and the estimated cost of AGW effects (submerged coastlines, dislocation, etc, unavoidable damages(in the pipeline) to U.S.A. 500T$ over next 50 years of US FF use == $670 per barrel of oil, and $1.61 per kWh generated by Coal). One should have no qualms paying solar energy producers five times the prevailing rate for any surplus electricity generation.
"Honestly, people act like they still think nuclear reactors can blow up like atom bombs. "Oh my god, humanity is not ready for this power!" Yeah, nuclear weapons maybe we weren't ready for, I think fission reactors to light up our homes are within our acceptable risk level given every other human endeavor ever. "
But, they can be blow up.. If one uses a nuclear weapon on them, and the effect would be most devastating.
Radioactive isotopes from 20 or 30 years worth of reactor operation spread across the countryside would kill or cripple most survivors. Far (1000-5000x) worse than the weapon detonated on a average target. The average human lifespan in the widespread fallout areas, (several states contaminated for thousand years), would decrease to twenty years or less.
To me, providing an enemy the perfect target by which they can inflict a knock out blow, boarders upon insanity!
This insanity is furthur compounded by people avocating widescale use of this technology in a world populated with mentally unstable national leaders!!!
"Only 2 more service packs until it's stable. "
Two service packs failed to restore a usable "search" function to Vista..
Nor has it prevented users from getting nailed by surfby downloads & Trojans.
I'll skip on windows 7 for the next year or two.
I wish laptop makers would release at least one 2.6 version of Linux + Source code drivers for each of their products so the market wasn't Dependant on M$ screw ups.
"With that being said, it almost seems that cars aren't getting more fuel efficient. The original Insight got 51 mpg according to consumer reports, and the new one gets something only like 38mpg."
The method by which the EPA estimated MPG was changed for 2008 models.
Regulatory Announcement: EPA Proposes New Test Methods for Fuel Economy Window Stickers
I also agree with previous slashdot posters. Alcohol, Gasoline, and Diesel taxes should be increased to reflect the higher levels of road wear & tear heavier vehicles inflict upon our infrastructure. Likewise, heavier vehicles are more likely to cause more roadway fatalities and major injuries (higher insurance/medical/disability costs?).
In my state, heavier vehicles already have increased annual registration fees, but those numbers are in no way in proportion to the wear and tear or the higher risks involved in collisions.
In a world where global warming threatens our very existence, every effort must be directed towards encouraging the use of safe/lightweight/high efficiency vehicles. This proposed GPS tracking policy would run contrary to those goals, and could make the AGW problem even worse by delaying roll out of these desperately needed high efficiency vehicles.
A quick scan of the .pdf file indicates..
Prototype Sodium cooled Fast reactor is wayyy off in the distant future 2020-2030 depending on funding. (Joint project with France and Japan.)
No projects involving thorium are on the drawing board.
A couple of projects involving reprocessing spent fuel.
That indicates that Nuclear power industry will likely be SOL by the end of the century, as the higher grade U-ore depsoits are mined out.
Most of M$ patents are invalid, invented by somebody else, or invalidated by prior disclosure & sale.
Delorme beat M$ to the punch (mapping software + laptop in auto/plane/etc) back in 1995.. Their GPS receiver had NO physical user interface! To make it operate, one connected it (via rs-232) to a laptop running Delorme real-time mapping software.
To add even more salt to the wounds, nearly all of M$ Fat patents are defeated by their own EARLY BETA releases of Windows which often predate M$ patent filings by over a year.
Add to the mess.. Microsoft's Linux Labs internal distributions required agreement to GPL distribution/patent licensing terms.
If the NAS supports the non-routable NetBeui protocal.
Install the optional "Netbeui" protocal stack located on the XP install disk. (same add-on will also work on Vista.)
Don't forget to disable (uncheck) the "QOS Packet Scheduler", it will limit you to 20-25% of max link speed.
Lastly, one must also disable the NetBIOS over TCP/IP, if it connects first you won't see any performance boost. (Option located in the TCP/IP Advanced/WINS dialog).
The older/non-routable NetBeui protocal stack in the NT/W2K days was roughly 10x more CPU efficient per byte than NetBios over TCP/IP.
In XP/Vista environments it's still 5x more CPU eff than NetBios over TCP/IP.
"Right now when I get a support call in the middle of the night, I can bounce out of bed and remote desktop into my office pc to handle the issue immediately."
Enable the Wake on LAN BIOS function on your work PC's. Use a 24x7 Server@work or punch a pinhole through your firewall for the UDP Magic packet needed to wakeup your systems.
Combine that with the windows run .."shudown.exe"
utility and you can start up and shutdown systems remotely.
"Monkeying with the key metrics -- like "unemployment" (ignoring those no longer actively seeking work) and "cost of living" under continual "revision" for political purposes since at least 1983 (when "cost of living" replaced house prices with "imputed rent") -- has left us without the information we need to realistically address economic policy.
It's sort of like a junkie being asked diagnostic questions like
"Where does it hurt?" by a doctor who is prescribing him opiates."
You hit the nail on the head.
Manipulating economic stats has become a new art form.
For a dose of reality go to this web site.
Some of us saw this coming a long time ago. How to Fake Unemployment Numbers..
GDP has similar faults, like firing US workers, and importing more foreign goods increases US GDP !!
There is an alternate way of measuring GDP, (total US wages and salaries paid), but reporting that number (~6.85T$ in 2008 dollars) would crush the life out of the Markets.
For much of the 90's and 00's both the markets and the world economy have been living in a fantasy land.
"HP found out that one of their competitors (GroundWork) has HP's confidential documents. They shouldn't have those - somebody has obviously broken an NDA. "
NDA's are unenforceable, (have no legal standing), once the information can be obtained by legal means.. I.E. HP's official pricing disclosure to the GSA in order to secure government business, (required by law).
After that occurs, HP has no case and no standing to sue anybody for using that information.
"Let's count up the deaths, shall we?
Three Mile Island : 0 deaths
Chernobyl : 47 deaths (there were also 4,000 cases of Thyroid cancer that were successfully treated)"
The mortality numbers are more like 5,000 to 20,000 for TMI Unit-2 meltdown.
Besides the Xenon airborne release.. Several million curries of contaminated Cooling water were dumped in to the Susquehanna River.
Chernobyl.. death toll stands @ 500,000+ and is still increasing. Eventually it will claim the lives of several million people in the region..
Why are these numbers much higher than mentioned previously..
Because we now know a lot more about radiation exposure and the cover ups that followed each incident.
Some additional interesting facts about reactor accidents..
TMI unit-2 (commissioned 1978) was in operation for approximately three(3) months before the meltdown(1979) event..
Japan's Breeder reactor was in operation for just 5 months before
it suffered a major coolant accident, shutting it down for the last 14
years.
Fermi-1 (30 miles outside of Detroit) was in operation for just
three(3) years before it suffered from a partial core meltdown.
Chernobyl Unit # 4 reactor exploded(1986) after just three years of operation(comm 1983).
Even worse this was the SECOND Meltdown EVENT at Chernobyl!!!
Unit #1 experienced a partial core meltdown in 1982 after just four years of operation(comm 1978).
"A trademark is an asset. Assets may be seized under most drug laws. The gov grabs the trademark at which point it is illegal to use said trademark without permission. "
Control over Trademarks by the holder is NOT absolute!!
Trademarks are subject to thing like the Doctrine of First Sale.
I.E. Once a holder has sold or given a trademarked item away, the holder looses any right to control that item.
The police can't confiscate jackets off of members backs without incurring significant legal costs..
To get around any trademark limitation they could produce 10,000 patches, (before the seizure is final), and sell them for a dollar a piece to a 3rd party, who would then distribute/sell them to members..
"YES! How long until it is 1906 again?"
In 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage
"After a third winter trapped in the ice, Amundsen was able to navigate a passage into the Beaufort Sea after which he cleared into the Bering Strait, thus having successfully navigated the Northwest Passage.[1] Continuing to the south of Victoria Island, the ship cleared the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on August 17, 1905, but had to stop for the winter..."
I.E. It took him three years to cross the NW passage !!!
Global warming has opened up the Northwest passages to the point where one can traverse it in less then ten days.
Note: I use the plural version of passages since there are many routes.
"For one, professors have to get grants to do their research, so they are sometimes given to overstatement to that end. They are, after all, only human which means that not all of them are honest. Also, some are simply unrealistic. They think they can do something, so they announce it, even though they have no idea how to get there, and then maybe never end up doing so. Finally sometimes shit just ends up being impossible. "
I think this is for real, they've reduced the Voltage needed to split water down to 1.29V.. very impressive..
This RCS article (free) is somewhat more descriptive.
They use a solution of Cobalt and Phosphate Salts.. Ph of 7. (Now that's a real breakthrough.)
Anode is made of Indium Tin oxide (ITO) and a Cathode plated with Platinum??
It would be interesting to see how this apparatus operates @ 10 and 20 atm.. (self pressurizing storage??) and elevated temps.(Maybe reduce the voltage needed by using a thermal energy component)..
"Remember, everything you buy as a negative impact on the planet.
Even those hybrids took a ton of energy to manufacture and ship. The batteries require heavy metals that are strip mined. It costs money because it uses resources. "
All those heavy metal?? Not really.. hybrid battery packs weight in at ~100lbs ..
which means it contains no more than 20-30 lbs of Nickel..
Tack on another 20-30 lbs of Copper for the larger MG's.
Future hybrids will use Lithium (not a heavy metal) based battery tech.
Now dump the conventional transmission, starter, and alternator.... all redundant.
And dump half the lead content since hybrids use a half sized lead-acid battery..
Lastly.. all that metal gets recycled into making a new car, (or fixing older ones), once it hit's the scrap yard.
"Attn: 400 scientist worldwide have come forward and denounced global warming theory. Some of them are actually listed on the IPCC's original report."
Inhofe's 400 Global Warming Deniers Debunked"Or to be more specific, ones that are fully POSIX Compliant and certified. It really does make OpenSolaris tempting... "
OpenSolaris is contaminated by mulitple criminal copyright violations.. That tidbit of info turned up in the trial testimoney. SCO illegally opened sourced Novell's Unix code with it's new license/contract with SUN microsystems.