Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil and alcohol (methanol)
It's biodegradeable
There's no sulphur in biodiesel, so there are no sulphur dioxide emissions
...read.pdf for more
So, while your statement that "gasoline drivers use more fuel and pollute less" may be true, if people with diesel autos choose to use biodiesel (or even a percentage of biodiesel), pollution levels will go down.
This site has a good description (scroll down) on how this detector works.
It's just as you say, the plastic (black-colored part) lowers the energy level of the neutrons. Next the detector "uses a BF3 proportional counter consisting of a cylindrical metal shell with a center anode wire maintained at a high positive potential with respect to the shell. Boron-trifluoride gas is contained within the shell and the neutrons are detected by their nuclear interaction with the BF3. The thermal neutron-boron reaction produces a charged particle (alpha) which ionizes the gas.
The ionization event causes a burst of electrons to arrive at the center anode wire. From this point, the charge produced by the burst of electrons is coupled by an interconnecting cable to the input of the charge sensitive amplifier."
Different radionuclides give off gamma rays of varying energy levels when they decay. If this PDA device can measure the different energy levels of the decay gammas, it can surely tell you with which radioactive material you are dealing.
This capability could help the initial responder tell whether radiation is coming from the ground, Sun, Radon in the air, or the radionuclides from a dirty bomb.
Thanks, CmdrTaco. Thanks to you and all of the other slashdotters.
I was underway on a submarine when the terrorist attacks occurred. When I finally got back on terra firma, I spent a considerable amount of time on slashdot reading the first-hand accounts.
It all helped me to deal with my feelings on this.
"And those armed servicemen - and women. They arent dying for you. They may think they are, and you may think they are. But they are nothing more than pawns for the government and all the really powerful groups in this county, Big oil, the Media, ect... Honestly if you think they are bombing the hell out of some poor unindustrialized country FOR YOU, than you you are sadly misinformed."
Tim (or Anonymous Coward), I think your view on this is very jaded.
Do you think the government's response against the regime that supported this terrorism was not done "FOR YOU" or for the families of those who died in NYC, DC and PA?
I was underway on the ballistic missile submarine USS LOUISIANA (SSBN 743)(G) when the terrorist attacks on the USA occurred.
As you probably guessed, we can't get TV underwater. We can, however, receive radio broadcasts. Our radiomen were actually able to tune in to WFAN-AM radio from NYC. They piped the broadcast into the crew's mess (where we eat).
We didn't get any visual feedback of the attacks until about a month later when we finally received some mail. Thoughtfully, someone sent a VHS tape of a KNBC broadcast from September 11, 2001. Knowing what had already happened made it very difficult to finally absorb the visual aspect of the terrorist attacks.
I don't keep a journal or diary, but I did make a record of the events of that attack. You can check it out here:
I downloaded this (http://www.memoware.com/b/commandline.pdb) and read it from my PDA. It provided a couple/few hours of reading enjoyment during the slow times onboard my submarine....I'll bet Mr. Stephenson could've never foreseen his work being read in a weirder place than under the sea!
Anyways, I wonder if he will add an epilogue that covers the changes brought about by MacOSX.
Wow!...better than I remembered. She's probably dog ugly now...kinda like how Daisy Duke was once hot and when the reunion of Dukes of Hazard came on, she was a total dog.
I've often wondered about the relationship between eyestrain and focusing on a monitor ~2 feet away for hours on end.
If I'm not mistaken, opthamologists set up your glasses prescription such that the convergence between the two lenses is set to infinity. This has got to put a major strain on your eyes.
I'm wondering what the effect of changing the convergence to ~2 feet would be. Anyone have any feedback/experience on this idea?
Slashdot Mirror
Let's cut Capsaicin Boy a little slack. After all, he did mention that a fraction of the fuel is using is biodiesel.
Here's a link to a DOE summary about the benefits of biodiesel:
www.nrel.gov (248KB 2-page .pdf)
Summary:
- Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil and alcohol (methanol)
- It's biodegradeable
- There's no sulphur in biodiesel, so there are no sulphur dioxide emissions
- ...read
.pdf for more
So, while your statement that "gasoline drivers use more fuel and pollute less" may be true, if people with diesel autos choose to use biodiesel (or even a percentage of biodiesel), pollution levels will go down.(not in any particular order)
1. Safari
2. Palm Desktop
3. Toast
4. Real Player
5. iTunes
6. QPict - free image viewer
7. VLC
8. Adobe Acrobat Reader
9. OpenOffice
10. X11
11. MS Remote Desktop Connection
12. OSX updates
13. VueScan
14. Audio Hijack
15. Synergy
16. Ajoiner
17. Drivers
18. MS Office
19. iConquer
20. Fink Commander
This site has a good description (scroll down) on how this detector works.
It's just as you say, the plastic (black-colored part) lowers the energy level of the neutrons. Next the detector "uses a BF3 proportional counter consisting of a cylindrical metal shell with a center anode wire maintained at a high positive potential with respect to the shell. Boron-trifluoride gas is contained within the shell and the neutrons are detected by their nuclear interaction with the BF3. The thermal neutron-boron reaction produces a charged particle (alpha) which ionizes the gas.
The ionization event causes a burst of electrons to arrive at the center anode wire. From this point, the charge produced by the burst of electrons is coupled by an interconnecting cable to the input of the charge sensitive amplifier."
Hope that helped. :)
The image shows some guy calibrating the detector. The large black cylindrical part is a very heavy plastic detector.
This capability could help the initial responder tell whether radiation is coming from the ground, Sun, Radon in the air, or the radionuclides from a dirty bomb.
The downside: it's as big as 1ft^3 and weighs about 40lbs. So, yeah, you're probably not going to hook this up to a PDA. :)
I was underway on a submarine when the terrorist attacks occurred. When I finally got back on terra firma, I spent a considerable amount of time on slashdot reading the first-hand accounts.
It all helped me to deal with my feelings on this.
Tim (or Anonymous Coward), I think your view on this is very jaded.
Do you think the government's response against the regime that supported this terrorism was not done "FOR YOU" or for the families of those who died in NYC, DC and PA?
I was underway on the ballistic missile submarine USS LOUISIANA (SSBN 743)(G) when the terrorist attacks on the USA occurred.
As you probably guessed, we can't get TV underwater. We can, however, receive radio broadcasts. Our radiomen were actually able to tune in to WFAN-AM radio from NYC. They piped the broadcast into the crew's mess (where we eat).
We didn't get any visual feedback of the attacks until about a month later when we finally received some mail. Thoughtfully, someone sent a VHS tape of a KNBC broadcast from September 11, 2001. Knowing what had already happened made it very difficult to finally absorb the visual aspect of the terrorist attacks.
I don't keep a journal or diary, but I did make a record of the events of that attack. You can check it out here:
A Submariner's 9/11
This was September 11th, from my point of view.
Sea People!
You're right, this is a great read.
I downloaded this (http://www.memoware.com/b/commandline.pdb) and read it from my PDA. It provided a couple/few hours of reading enjoyment during the slow times onboard my submarine....I'll bet Mr. Stephenson could've never foreseen his work being read in a weirder place than under the sea!
Anyways, I wonder if he will add an epilogue that covers the changes brought about by MacOSX.
http://www.eringray.com/Photographs/Bushblk.jpg
Wow! ...better than I remembered. She's probably dog ugly now ...kinda like how Daisy Duke was once hot and when the reunion of Dukes of Hazard came on, she was a total dog.
I've often wondered about the relationship between eyestrain and focusing on a monitor ~2 feet away for hours on end.
If I'm not mistaken, opthamologists set up your glasses prescription such that the convergence between the two lenses is set to infinity. This has got to put a major strain on your eyes.
I'm wondering what the effect of changing the convergence to ~2 feet would be. Anyone have any feedback/experience on this idea?