Yes. Lasers are commonly used. It's not uncommon for two underground boring machines to meet at the center of a ten mile tunnel and be less than a centimeter off.
About 10 years ago I was commuting via the bus for a while, and was curious about the true efficiency. So I took the total amount of fuel that the bus system was reported to use in a year, and divided by the number of passengers and total miles driven (all part of their annual report). My conclusion was that the bus system got about 12 passenger miles per gallon averaged over all their routes and schedules. Unfortunately for most people the real price of taking the bus, besided the bus fare, was the loss of time. My commute took over an hour each way, and could be driven even in bad traffic in about 25 minutes. At the time I was only making $15/hour, so the opportunity cost to me of taking the bus was very conservatively over an hour per day or $15 per day (not even counting the time to walk out to and wait for the bus, and the restriction on my work schedule - the last bus home went by at about 6:30 PM) - enough to buy a very nice car if I wanted to.
Nah, we just like to spell like we pronounce. mee - ter, not mee - tray ( or meh - tray):)
We would also spell Chalmondeley 'Chumly' - much more efficient. For some reason we still use Worcester, in honor of the Olde Lande, rather than the more common-sense Wooster.
I don't know the specifics of this, but from my former work in an oilfield services company, I know that oil well drilling systems can track their own position within a few inches. One example from about 30 years ago was a set of wells drilled under an estuary in the UK. The gov. allowed the drilling company a one-acre island to do all the drilling from. They drilled down about a mile, then branched off into 10 separate holes that were drilled horizontally, following an oil seam that at times was only one foot high. The longest horizontal hole was about 10 kilometers (34000+feet, 6.6+ miles) long. Here is another reference, including info on a new well system on the North Slope that extends even farther - two miles down, then over 10 km horizontally, then back down another km or two so they can use an existing oil processing facility.
Drilling systems are among the most sophisticated technological marvels going - they include seismic signalling, mass spectrometry, neutron activation analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance, gamma ray spectral analysis, and other really geeky stuff. The bit knows where it is geographically and where it is relative to the geological structures that it is following. The computers that sit 10 feet behind the actual bit meet tougher specs than military or aerospace - 1000 G shock, very high pressures (I forget the PSI), 400 degree F temperatures. Cooling is accomplished by the drilling fluid that is going past the outside of the drill string. Truly oil well technology is the perfect geekly combination of extreme "big heavy dangerous machines" plus extreme high tech.
A woman I used to know, who worked at Bolt Baranek & Newman when they were designing the ARPANET (IIRC she wrote the manuals for the IMP) told me that their management took whatever time schedule the engineering staff came up with, and (without telling the engineering folks) for their planning doubled it and converted to the next higher units - 4 days -> 8 weeks, 6 hours -> 12 days, etc.:D
The plain fact for software projects is that unlike building a skyscraper, most of the work is in the architecture - once you have the design you're most of the way there. A building design is generally less than 10% of the work. So for a building, you can estimate very closely how long it will take to install a window, do the electrical for one floor, etc. and extrapolate to the whole building. But planning software is more like sending a team off into unknown territory - one doesn't know what gullies, rivers, mountains, rockslides, lions tigers and bears are out there - and ask them to tell you how long it's going to take to get to that distant town. Planning the trip essentially requires a good part of actually going there. For critical systems (e.g. satellite control systems), the extra factor of five or ten that it takes to plan the system, build simulations and working models, incorporate self-healing mechanisms, etc. can be justified by the cost of potential failures compared to the cost of the whole project. But there is no justification for that level of cost for 'normal' software development. One might say the 90% rule of software is recursive, to a depth according to the demand for approaching perfection.
Interestingly, perhaps the most effective way to improve the lot of workers in the US is to unionize the third world countries and improve conditions and pay over there (but not too fast). This would have the following effects - it would accelerate the global levelling of wages, making US workers relatively more competitive; it would give the third world workers more money and more free time so they spend more on both local and global goods, improving their own countries' economics due to the multiplier effect. (Each manufacturing worker generates additional economic activity, estimated by some as high as five to one, as each 'dollar' earned and spent by the worker bounces around the system.) But of course, it would probably raise prices for imported goods in the US though not as much as might be feared. A secondary effect might be to more automation, improving everyone's relative standard of living.
I would propose to Apple that they could almost singlehandedly revolutionize the Chinese economy in one fell swoop. IIRC the labor cost for producing an iPhone is about $12. The workers at Foxconn presently work 10 hours or more per day, six days per week. Apple could tell Foxconn "we will pay you 1/3 more on labor costs for each unit, if you will put your workers on 40 hour weeks at the same weekly pay (i.e. more per hour), and then you can run two or three shifts if you prefer." This would cost Apple about $6 per unit, easily absorbed in the premium pricing. If they are building 5 million units per month, this would cost the company $240 million per year. It would generate easily twice that much in valuable free publicity, making them the heroes of their customer base, who would mostly be glad to pay the extra $6 as they are 'doing good' in the process.
Now, what would happen in China? Foxconn would increase their total work force by 50%. Workers would stand in line to work at this new utopian workplace (by Chinese standards) - no more problems getting workers, less pressure for pay increases at Foxconn. Other companies would have to follow suit or pay more - both in Foxconn's favor. Again, the workers would have the same money but more time to spend it, and there would be more workers spending - the multiplier kicks in and every other business in the city makes more money. Local demand for essentials and nonessentials would increase by 50%, both increasig and spreading the Chinese miracle to a greater portion of the populace. Every worker would be more likely to buy foreign goods as well, helping the trade balance. So this short synopsis shows that Apple is in a unique position to fundamentally reshape the global economy, to the benefit of almost everyone.
Corzine is following the truism that "all politicians should be limited to two terms - one in office and one in prison." Obama is just taking a detour, the long way round.
I think that the argument for Tau or whatever, whether it has merit or not, amounts to a replay of the QUERTY discussion. That train done left the station, ain't comin' back for nobody.
Having said that: So this guy Jim's car broke down, so he called his friend Joe, who had a wrecker. When Joe came, Jim asked him how much it would cost to get the car home. Joe said, "Well, I've been hankering after your wife's baking. How about I get you home, and she gives me a batch of them cupcakes she makes."
Jim responded, "OK fine, I'm sure she'd be glad to to make you up a batch. Chocolate is best. But say - the gas station is not much farther - how about you get me to the gas station, and then give me a ride home?"
Joe thought for a bit, and then said, "That's quite a bit farther. That tau will be 2 pies.":D
The interesting question WRT your example would be, (assuming they are close enough together for any effect), would the nails maintain any alignment _while they are in the air_? The impact with the ground would have a much more forceful randomizing effect that would overwhelm any slight magnetic alignment unless the magnetism was so strong that the nails glommed and stuck together . The blood stream is more or less continuous in that sense. I agree that the idea is unlikely, but it's an interesting concept to speculate on.
Wi-Fi has a range of a few feet underwater, if that. Radio waves do not propagate through a conducting medium, at least in any useful sense. 'Extremely low frequency' waves (3-300 Hz) can propagate down a hundred meters or so. So radio ain't gonna cut it.
Some deepsea systems have used sound down to some pretty deep depths, but it requires thousands of watts of transducer output.
Syntactic foams are composite materials synthesized by filling a metal, polymer or ceramic matrix with hollow particles called microballoons, "syntactic" meaning "put together".[1] The presence of hollow particles results in lower density, higher strength, a lower coefficient of thermal expansion, and, in some cases, radar or sonar transparency.
I recall some experiments with dogs (back in the late 1960s?), where they were able to keep a dog alive in a highly oxygenated water tank, breathing water essentially. But IIRC they were unable to wean the dogs off afterward, so they all died.
Our blood is about 1/2 as salty as the ocean, so it is possible that a some kind of system to reduce the salt level and increase the oxygen level of a salt water solution might be developed that would not be seriously damaging to the lungs, so mammals could breathe with a 'simple' filter/enhancer system. If this could be done, it might be developed to the point of allowing humans to live in underwater communities. But they might never be able to 'come up for air' - over time they might become an entirely new type of human by directed evolution. There have been science fiction stories about this kind of idea but it was so long ago that I read such a story that I can't provide any examples.
The blood system does carry an electrical current, so it makes sense that there would be a related magnetic field. And (speculating) if a large number of individual cells had become weakly magnetized (acquired some magnetic alignment in materials in the cell), then it stands to reason that they would continue to maintain some small level of orientation for a while, as each one tends to encourage the neighbors to stay aligned.
Look up "Biologically Closed Electrical Circuits, by Björn Nordenström a very well-regarded pathologist, who was allowed in the 1960s to perform studies and experiments on terminally ill patients. He proved that there is an electrical current that flows through your blood stream, and that any inflammation involves a current flow as well. There's like a little fountain of current through that owie on your hand. Also through cancers, etc. In his experiments (on patients who were terminally ill of at least two different diseases, a requirement required to allow him to do the work), he was also able to show that many such diseases - cancerous lesions among others - could be shrunk and actually cured by reversing the current flow.
The original book of that title is oriented toward researchers in that field, is very technical and very expensive - IIRC $700? - but it is often available at college libraries, and there are several other books that are oriented more toward non-technical readers. There is also an association that has been supporting ongoing research, some of which has shown very encouraging results with localized tumors.
Dr. Nordenström was quite familiar with negative reactions from his colleagues. As his accomplishments grew, he became Head of Diagnostic Radiology at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. He also authored or co-authored more than 150 publications in radiology, electrobiology and pharmacology. He was a member of the Nobel Assembly from 1967 through 1986, and served as President of the Assembly in 1985. Even with these credentials, many of his ideas, such as needle biopsy and balloon catheterization were initially met with significant amounts of opposition by his peers.
GPS is very bad at gathering height data –it's roughly 20 times less accurate for height data than for horizontal location.
Indeed. I often drive on a road next to a bay (connected to the ocean). The road's actual elevation is probably about five feet above sea level. My GPS regularly shows my elevation anywhere from -10 to +30 feet along that stretch of road.
Well, not necessarily. It depends what they injected. Capsicum is the plant, and the extract from the plant. It is widely described, and a common herbal remedy. Capsaicin is the pure chemical. I Googled, and found both terms are common, and mean different things.) Since capsaicin by itself is incredibly strong, whatever was injected was probably in some dilute form so the test dose could be accurately measured, so it could have been either capsaicin diluted with alcohol or something, or (less likely, but still possible) it could have been the extract in oil or alcohol or something.
I might have a better idea of which was actually used in the study if I RTFA, but this is slashdot.
IIRC one or more of the dating sites (match.com? OKcupid.com? I dunno) has basically told redheads not to apply, because nobody will go out with them. I personally have always been a sucker for redheads, but have only once had any kind of relationship.
That might be like Intel buying up AMD and then using the AMD brand name, and perhaps designs, for a new line of Intel x86 processors for markets not served (or not well served) by existing Intel x86's.
Actually that's exactly what happens quite often in multiple industries. That's how Oldsmobile, Buick, Jeep, and many other car brands became parts of the big auto companies. And Celestial Seasonings, Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressings, Sara Lee, 90% of all alcohol brands, everything Pepsico and Yum Brands sell, and just about every food brand that's been around for more than a few years.
I've seen at airports multiple restaurants, including well-known chains and very different price points and styles (sit down vs. fastfood, etc.), that are all using the same kitchen - it's just four different front ends on the same backend.
TFA says '3000 to 5000' strands of silk just to make one of the three strings that are twisted the other way (just like a class three-strand rope). I'm duly astonished - I knew spider silk was skinny, but it must be much smaller than I had ever envisioned. So I looked it up, and found stated diameters from 0.15 mm (small, but macro) down to the finest at 10 nanometers!
I also learned about work from 2003 using that 10 nm silk as a core to make hollow optical fiber, which they hoped to make fiber with a diameter of only 2 nm.
I just saw a picture of the concrete dome built over a Cactus Crater recently ( this is a different picture). That dome is 107m (390 feet) in diameter. The Castle Bravo test left a crater over a mile (2000 meters) in diameter and 250 feet (75 meters) deep. I also found this article that notes that some of the nuclear tests caused tsunamis hundreds of miles away on Christmas and Pitcairn islands. Some of those tests were as 'small' as 16 kilotons. But a 1996 analysis said that tsunamis from underwater explosions were likely to largely dissipate upon reaching a continental shelf.
So I would argue for at least a distinct 'maybe' on the tsunami, depending on various factors - impact speed, distance from shore, etc.
Certainly a larger one, impacting at 40,000 km/hour (12 km/sec), would essentially go through the entire ocean depth in a smallish fraction of a second - really before it noticed the ocean was there. That would leave a hollow steam-filled column behind it much bigger in diameter than the asteroid (like the cavitation trail behind a bullet, or a supercavitating torpedo). If the hollow column is, say, 100 meters in diameter and the ocean at that point is 2000 meters, that would be 31,415*2000=62,830,000 cubic meters of water that have to go somewhere in a hurry. That somewhere would be two waves - the first from the initial push outwards, the second from the shock of the collapse of the column. And maybe a third from the water thrown into the air that comes back down shortly thereafter. Let's assume a ring 10 km in diameter giving a circumference of 62.83 km. Then there are 10,000 cubic meters of water to be accounted for in each km of ring, or 10 cubic meters per meter of circumference. That looks to me like a significant sploosh. Of course I'm just making this all up, and I have no idea what size asteroid it would take to do that.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. Lasers are commonly used. It's not uncommon for two underground boring machines to meet at the center of a ten mile tunnel and be less than a centimeter off.
About 10 years ago I was commuting via the bus for a while, and was curious about the true efficiency. So I took the total amount of fuel that the bus system was reported to use in a year, and divided by the number of passengers and total miles driven (all part of their annual report). My conclusion was that the bus system got about 12 passenger miles per gallon averaged over all their routes and schedules. Unfortunately for most people the real price of taking the bus, besided the bus fare, was the loss of time. My commute took over an hour each way, and could be driven even in bad traffic in about 25 minutes. At the time I was only making $15/hour, so the opportunity cost to me of taking the bus was very conservatively over an hour per day or $15 per day (not even counting the time to walk out to and wait for the bus, and the restriction on my work schedule - the last bus home went by at about 6:30 PM) - enough to buy a very nice car if I wanted to.
Nah, we just like to spell like we pronounce. mee - ter, not mee - tray ( or meh - tray) :)
We would also spell Chalmondeley 'Chumly' - much more efficient. For some reason we still use Worcester, in honor of the Olde Lande, rather than the more common-sense Wooster.
I don't know the specifics of this, but from my former work in an oilfield services company, I know that oil well drilling systems can track their own position within a few inches. One example from about 30 years ago was a set of wells drilled under an estuary in the UK. The gov. allowed the drilling company a one-acre island to do all the drilling from. They drilled down about a mile, then branched off into 10 separate holes that were drilled horizontally, following an oil seam that at times was only one foot high. The longest horizontal hole was about 10 kilometers (34000+feet, 6.6+ miles) long. Here is another reference, including info on a new well system on the North Slope that extends even farther - two miles down, then over 10 km horizontally, then back down another km or two so they can use an existing oil processing facility.
Drilling systems are among the most sophisticated technological marvels going - they include seismic signalling, mass spectrometry, neutron activation analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance, gamma ray spectral analysis, and other really geeky stuff. The bit knows where it is geographically and where it is relative to the geological structures that it is following. The computers that sit 10 feet behind the actual bit meet tougher specs than military or aerospace - 1000 G shock, very high pressures (I forget the PSI), 400 degree F temperatures. Cooling is accomplished by the drilling fluid that is going past the outside of the drill string. Truly oil well technology is the perfect geekly combination of extreme "big heavy dangerous machines" plus extreme high tech.
A woman I used to know, who worked at Bolt Baranek & Newman when they were designing the ARPANET (IIRC she wrote the manuals for the IMP) told me that their management took whatever time schedule the engineering staff came up with, and (without telling the engineering folks) for their planning doubled it and converted to the next higher units - 4 days -> 8 weeks, 6 hours -> 12 days, etc. :D
The plain fact for software projects is that unlike building a skyscraper, most of the work is in the architecture - once you have the design you're most of the way there. A building design is generally less than 10% of the work. So for a building, you can estimate very closely how long it will take to install a window, do the electrical for one floor, etc. and extrapolate to the whole building. But planning software is more like sending a team off into unknown territory - one doesn't know what gullies, rivers, mountains, rockslides, lions tigers and bears are out there - and ask them to tell you how long it's going to take to get to that distant town. Planning the trip essentially requires a good part of actually going there. For critical systems (e.g. satellite control systems), the extra factor of five or ten that it takes to plan the system, build simulations and working models, incorporate self-healing mechanisms, etc. can be justified by the cost of potential failures compared to the cost of the whole project. But there is no justification for that level of cost for 'normal' software development. One might say the 90% rule of software is recursive, to a depth according to the demand for approaching perfection.
Interestingly, perhaps the most effective way to improve the lot of workers in the US is to unionize the third world countries and improve conditions and pay over there (but not too fast). This would have the following effects - it would accelerate the global levelling of wages, making US workers relatively more competitive; it would give the third world workers more money and more free time so they spend more on both local and global goods, improving their own countries' economics due to the multiplier effect. (Each manufacturing worker generates additional economic activity, estimated by some as high as five to one, as each 'dollar' earned and spent by the worker bounces around the system.) But of course, it would probably raise prices for imported goods in the US though not as much as might be feared. A secondary effect might be to more automation, improving everyone's relative standard of living.
I would propose to Apple that they could almost singlehandedly revolutionize the Chinese economy in one fell swoop. IIRC the labor cost for producing an iPhone is about $12. The workers at Foxconn presently work 10 hours or more per day, six days per week. Apple could tell Foxconn "we will pay you 1/3 more on labor costs for each unit, if you will put your workers on 40 hour weeks at the same weekly pay (i.e. more per hour), and then you can run two or three shifts if you prefer." This would cost Apple about $6 per unit, easily absorbed in the premium pricing. If they are building 5 million units per month, this would cost the company $240 million per year. It would generate easily twice that much in valuable free publicity, making them the heroes of their customer base, who would mostly be glad to pay the extra $6 as they are 'doing good' in the process.
Now, what would happen in China? Foxconn would increase their total work force by 50%. Workers would stand in line to work at this new utopian workplace (by Chinese standards) - no more problems getting workers, less pressure for pay increases at Foxconn. Other companies would have to follow suit or pay more - both in Foxconn's favor. Again, the workers would have the same money but more time to spend it, and there would be more workers spending - the multiplier kicks in and every other business in the city makes more money. Local demand for essentials and nonessentials would increase by 50%, both increasig and spreading the Chinese miracle to a greater portion of the populace. Every worker would be more likely to buy foreign goods as well, helping the trade balance. So this short synopsis shows that Apple is in a unique position to fundamentally reshape the global economy, to the benefit of almost everyone.
Mostly-unrelated-dept.: If you modified the name slightly to "Church of the Holy Incandescent Lamp Light", the acronym would be "CHILL". :)
Jeepers - that's worse than the Java class libraries!!
Corzine is following the truism that "all politicians should be limited to two terms - one in office and one in prison." Obama is just taking a detour, the long way round.
+1 :D
I think that the argument for Tau or whatever, whether it has merit or not, amounts to a replay of the QUERTY discussion. That train done left the station, ain't comin' back for nobody.
Having said that:
So this guy Jim's car broke down, so he called his friend Joe, who had a wrecker. When Joe came, Jim asked him how much it would cost to get the car home. Joe said, "Well, I've been hankering after your wife's baking. How about I get you home, and she gives me a batch of them cupcakes she makes."
Jim responded, "OK fine, I'm sure she'd be glad to to make you up a batch. Chocolate is best. But say - the gas station is not much farther - how about you get me to the gas station, and then give me a ride home?"
Joe thought for a bit, and then said, "That's quite a bit farther. That tau will be 2 pies." :D
... and yet, here we all are, ACs and real people alike. :D
The interesting question WRT your example would be, (assuming they are close enough together for any effect), would the nails maintain any alignment _while they are in the air_? The impact with the ground would have a much more forceful randomizing effect that would overwhelm any slight magnetic alignment unless the magnetism was so strong that the nails glommed and stuck together . The blood stream is more or less continuous in that sense. I agree that the idea is unlikely, but it's an interesting concept to speculate on.
Wi-Fi has a range of a few feet underwater, if that. Radio waves do not propagate through a conducting medium, at least in any useful sense. 'Extremely low frequency' waves (3-300 Hz) can propagate down a hundred meters or so. So radio ain't gonna cut it.
Some deepsea systems have used sound down to some pretty deep depths, but it requires thousands of watts of transducer output.
I quote Wikipedia:
Syntactic foams are composite materials synthesized by filling a metal, polymer or ceramic matrix with hollow particles called microballoons, "syntactic" meaning "put together".[1] The presence of hollow particles results in lower density, higher strength, a lower coefficient of thermal expansion, and, in some cases, radar or sonar transparency.
I recall some experiments with dogs (back in the late 1960s?), where they were able to keep a dog alive in a highly oxygenated water tank, breathing water essentially. But IIRC they were unable to wean the dogs off afterward, so they all died.
Our blood is about 1/2 as salty as the ocean, so it is possible that a some kind of system to reduce the salt level and increase the oxygen level of a salt water solution might be developed that would not be seriously damaging to the lungs, so mammals could breathe with a 'simple' filter/enhancer system. If this could be done, it might be developed to the point of allowing humans to live in underwater communities. But they might never be able to 'come up for air' - over time they might become an entirely new type of human by directed evolution. There have been science fiction stories about this kind of idea but it was so long ago that I read such a story that I can't provide any examples.
The blood system does carry an electrical current, so it makes sense that there would be a related magnetic field. And (speculating) if a large number of individual cells had become weakly magnetized (acquired some magnetic alignment in materials in the cell), then it stands to reason that they would continue to maintain some small level of orientation for a while, as each one tends to encourage the neighbors to stay aligned.
Look up "Biologically Closed Electrical Circuits, by Björn Nordenström a very well-regarded pathologist, who was allowed in the 1960s to perform studies and experiments on terminally ill patients. He proved that there is an electrical current that flows through your blood stream, and that any inflammation involves a current flow as well. There's like a little fountain of current through that owie on your hand. Also through cancers, etc. In his experiments (on patients who were terminally ill of at least two different diseases, a requirement required to allow him to do the work), he was also able to show that many such diseases - cancerous lesions among others - could be shrunk and actually cured by reversing the current flow.
The original book of that title is oriented toward researchers in that field, is very technical and very expensive - IIRC $700? - but it is often available at college libraries, and there are several other books that are oriented more toward non-technical readers. There is also an association that has been supporting ongoing research, some of which has shown very encouraging results with localized tumors.
Dr. Nordenström was quite familiar with negative reactions from his colleagues. As his accomplishments grew, he became Head of Diagnostic Radiology at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. He also authored or co-authored more than 150 publications in radiology, electrobiology and pharmacology. He was a member of the Nobel Assembly from 1967 through 1986, and served as President of the Assembly in 1985. Even with these credentials, many of his ideas, such as needle biopsy and balloon catheterization were initially met with significant amounts of opposition by his peers.
GPS is very bad at gathering height data –it's roughly 20 times less accurate for height data than for horizontal location.
Indeed. I often drive on a road next to a bay (connected to the ocean). The road's actual elevation is probably about five feet above sea level. My GPS regularly shows my elevation anywhere from -10 to +30 feet along that stretch of road.
There is a big difference between bug and flaw.
*rimshot*
Well, not necessarily. It depends what they injected. Capsicum is the plant, and the extract from the plant. It is widely described, and a common herbal remedy. Capsaicin is the pure chemical. I Googled, and found both terms are common, and mean different things.) Since capsaicin by itself is incredibly strong, whatever was injected was probably in some dilute form so the test dose could be accurately measured, so it could have been either capsaicin diluted with alcohol or something, or (less likely, but still possible) it could have been the extract in oil or alcohol or something.
I might have a better idea of which was actually used in the study if I RTFA, but this is slashdot.
IIRC one or more of the dating sites (match.com? OKcupid.com? I dunno) has basically told redheads not to apply, because nobody will go out with them. I personally have always been a sucker for redheads, but have only once had any kind of relationship.
That might be like Intel buying up AMD and then using the AMD brand name, and perhaps designs, for a new line of Intel x86 processors for markets not served (or not well served) by existing Intel x86's.
Actually that's exactly what happens quite often in multiple industries. That's how Oldsmobile, Buick, Jeep, and many other car brands became parts of the big auto companies. And Celestial Seasonings, Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressings, Sara Lee, 90% of all alcohol brands, everything Pepsico and Yum Brands sell, and just about every food brand that's been around for more than a few years.
I've seen at airports multiple restaurants, including well-known chains and very different price points and styles (sit down vs. fastfood, etc.), that are all using the same kitchen - it's just four different front ends on the same backend.
TFA says '3000 to 5000' strands of silk just to make one of the three strings that are twisted the other way (just like a class three-strand rope). I'm duly astonished - I knew spider silk was skinny, but it must be much smaller than I had ever envisioned. So I looked it up, and found stated diameters from 0.15 mm (small, but macro) down to the finest at 10 nanometers!
I also learned about work from 2003 using that 10 nm silk as a core to make hollow optical fiber, which they hoped to make fiber with a diameter of only 2 nm.
I just saw a picture of the concrete dome built over a Cactus Crater recently ( this is a different picture). That dome is 107m (390 feet) in diameter. The Castle Bravo test left a crater over a mile (2000 meters) in diameter and 250 feet (75 meters) deep. I also found this article that notes that some of the nuclear tests caused tsunamis hundreds of miles away on Christmas and Pitcairn islands. Some of those tests were as 'small' as 16 kilotons. But a 1996 analysis said that tsunamis from underwater explosions were likely to largely dissipate upon reaching a continental shelf.
So I would argue for at least a distinct 'maybe' on the tsunami, depending on various factors - impact speed, distance from shore, etc.
Certainly a larger one, impacting at 40,000 km/hour (12 km/sec), would essentially go through the entire ocean depth in a smallish fraction of a second - really before it noticed the ocean was there. That would leave a hollow steam-filled column behind it much bigger in diameter than the asteroid (like the cavitation trail behind a bullet, or a supercavitating torpedo). If the hollow column is, say, 100 meters in diameter and the ocean at that point is 2000 meters, that would be 31,415*2000=62,830,000 cubic meters of water that have to go somewhere in a hurry. That somewhere would be two waves - the first from the initial push outwards, the second from the shock of the collapse of the column. And maybe a third from the water thrown into the air that comes back down shortly thereafter. Let's assume a ring 10 km in diameter giving a circumference of 62.83 km. Then there are 10,000 cubic meters of water to be accounted for in each km of ring, or 10 cubic meters per meter of circumference. That looks to me like a significant sploosh. Of course I'm just making this all up, and I have no idea what size asteroid it would take to do that. :)