From a disaster point of view, fusion devices are extremely boring. If the reactor vessel was breached, the inrushing air would be to the plasma as the inrushing ocean on a candle flame. A magnetically confined plasma is about a factor one million less dense than normal air. It is also about one million times hotter than normal air, so you actually have a plasma pressure of one atmosphere.
This means that the energy content of the plasma and the confining magnetic field is just enough to wreck the experiment, but not much else.
The radiological risk is also negligible, because the radioactive inventory of a fusion reactor is of the order of tens of kilogrammes, enough for less than a second of operation (compared to hundreds of tons for fission reactors, which have enough for years of operation). Also, the tritium, even if it escaped the reactor building, would be gone after 120 years through decay, which is a pretty short time compared to other radionuclides.
And what can be done with a high flux of neutrons?
Breed fissionable reactor fuel from thorium to keep the fission plants running until we can switch to all fusion? Although I doubt the ITER team can afford to waste money and effort on this.
Also, the earth's uranium resources are not going to run out until long after the ITER timeframe.
Then, there are the neutron diagnostics for the solid state physicists, but they can usually make do with conventional fission-based neutron sources.
The tritium must be regenerated because it is rather expensive.
Tritium also has a half life of about 12 years, so that even if it did grow on trees, it would be practically gone after 120 years, so it does not accumulate in nature the way coal, oil etc. do. Breeding tritium on a JIT basis therefore is the best way.
you'll have to stop listening to the radio too. They do get paid each time a song is played.
Pssst. They are not supposed to know about that backchannel in every radio set that we use to spy on them. They must continue to think that their radio consumption is private.
Yes, they are both theories. There is nothing scientifically factual about evolution whatsoever.
What do you mean by that? Scientific theories deal with the facts as they are, because there is nothing else to work on. They are factual by the very definition.
Do you mean to say the evolution is not 'a fact', that it need not be true? That may very well be. Natural scientists do not have the luxury of a higher authority that simply tells them what's true. At most, they can have theories that explain all of the observable facts (non-verifiable accounts of irreproducible events, like the creation, count neither as observable nor as facts). In that sense, it does not matter if 'evolution' or 'the Maxwell equations' are true
in the sense that some creator specifically built them into the universe. They are viable theories that haven't been disproven so far and that's all that natural science can give you.
Granted, religion is more satisfying because it gives you absolute certainty. On the other hand, creation as a scientific theory does not explain how species change over time and become extinct. Also the postulation of a super-natural being kind of defeats the whole purpose of a natural science.
If I fix someone's car I don't expect to derive continuing income from it. More to the point, I certainly don't expect that my descendents should derive an income from it.
On the other hand, why should the price of my creation depend on how long I live?
b) Not really. Airborne traffic is smart enough to deal with comms towers, skyscrapers and hurricanes. This thing does not move - all you need to do is fly around it.
Will it stay this way, or will Germany be "harmonized" to conform to the Bologna agreement?
All the physics departments fight to keep up
the level of their degrees, i.e. they want to keep
the current curriculum with minimal changes to acommodate
the bachelor after three years. Currently, if you
leave after three years, you have nothing, so they
basically add an extra bachelor examination (for
the quitters who do not want a "real" degree).
The old Diplom degree
that you got after five years would then also be
the Masters degree.
The politicians see every year in school as
"wasted time" and want to water down the requirements
for every degree.
Thus a U.S. associates degree looks to me like the equivalent of a European bachelors degree, a Europen masters degree becomes the equivalent of the U.S. bachelors degree, and the European PhD like a U.S. PhD candidate.
No. A five year programme in e.g. Germany is
five years of full time study devoted to a single
subject. After five years of physics, including
writing a one-year thesis, I am at least worth
a US physics master.
You might now think that Germany
is the land of the sane and bright,
but this isn't true.
As a German, I cannot really disagree with that.
Still, I find Germany a nice country to live
in because enough of us are sane and/or bright.
In fact in some German states ISP are required to use censorship filters to filter content which is showing disrespect to human dignity like infamous rotten or neo nazi propaganda.
[...] Germany has a long list of incidents of
restricting the peoples right to access
information and entertainment by claiming
to protect youth and society.
Historically, some forms of hate speech
are forbidden out of a desire not to repeat
certain experiences that happened in the
1930s and 1940s. Our allied-approved
constitution still says "There is no censorship".
Of course it was very silly that KISS have
a different logo in Germany because it is
forbidden to use the runic SS script, which is also
a symbol for the SS murderers.
So sales of Doom, Quake
and Command and Conquer 3 are extremely
restricted like hardcore bukkakke porn.
They may not be advertised nor sold to minors.
This is hardly extreme. It is also practically
useless in stopping minors to get such stuff.
The public rights are slowly getting
more and restricted. In this picture it fits that
the limits for consumed alcohol before driving
are steadly lowered, speed limits are spreading
like salmonella, the weapon laws are more and
more restricted and smoking is made illegal in
more and more places.
How are drunk driving and poisoning people public
rights? There still is no general speed limit on
the motorways and I have no sympathy for people
who complain about getting caught for speeding.
I agree, however, with your sentiments
for the new weapon law. It is practically
impossible to legally own a firearm for self
defense in Germany. I can only guess that the
public allows this because most people
do not feel threatened enough by criminals
that they feel in need of a gun. And our
violent crime rate is relatively low.
Signal strength (from a point source)
does not fall off exponentially -- the example
you give is the right answer. The signal
intensity from a point source that emits into
all directions falls off with the square of
the distance, i.e. twice the distance gives
a quarter of the signal strength for any given
fixed antenna area.
Given that cell phones (GSM anyway) have less
than 2 Watts and can be received by a base station
kilometers away, I would say that even power levels
of tenth millionths of watts are easily detectable.
I must say that "transform[ing] the entire planet
Earth into an inert hyperdense sphere
about 100 meters across" just by
colliding some elementary particles sounds so
uebercool that I probably wouldn't
very much mind being dead
afterwards.
If Linux had an exploit that allowed someone to ssh into your box, su to root, then fsck your harddrive, and a patch wasn't released yet, would you be pissed off that bugtraq posted the code to exploit the bug?
If I got the advisory on what to disable in order
to defeat the exploit at the same time the exploit
was posted,then, no, I would not be "pissed off."
With this particular exploit, I would need to actively follow a link or read some mail, so it would not even matter if the exploit was posted while I slept.
Remember there are pro-abortion sites
that advocate murder of unborn babies.
Remember that abortion does not count as murder
where abortions are legal, so you do not advocate murder
by advocating abortion in that jurisdiction.
So the law against advocating crime does not hold.
And since there are no other applicable reasons
for censorship in Germany, pro-abortion sites
usually can not be stopped.
You say:
In fact there is, by definition, no censorship in Germany.
and then say:
This was actually a kind of joke. The constitution
literally says: There is no censorship. I wanted to point
out that you need as much as a trial if you want
to silence some speech.
Anti-abortion sites are censored, what about pro-Catholic? After all, Catholics oppose abortion.
Anti-abortion sites are censored when they give
names and addresses of abortion doctors who
should be killed. Abortion is a delicate
subject in Germany and the subject as such is
not censored. In fact there is, by definition,
no censorship in Germany. Any restrictions must
be justified either by yells of "think of the
children" or by some other law, e.g. Holocaust
denial is a punishable act specifically mentioned
in the Strafgesetzbuch ("book of punishments").
> What happens in England if a land line person calls a cell > phone? Do they have to pay > for the cell phone charges?
Yes.
In Germany at least, the "area code" indicates if you are calling a free 0800, $$$ 0900, semi-expensive cellphone number etc. Billing information is easily transmitted across several carriers.
Slashdot Mirror
Great, I'm all confussed now.
chl
From a disaster point of view, fusion devices are extremely boring. If the reactor vessel was breached, the inrushing air would be to the plasma as the inrushing ocean on a candle flame. A magnetically confined plasma is about a factor one million less dense than normal air. It is also about one million times hotter than normal air, so you actually have a plasma pressure of one atmosphere.
This means that the energy content of the plasma and the confining magnetic field is just enough to wreck the experiment, but not much else. The radiological risk is also negligible, because the radioactive inventory of a fusion reactor is of the order of tens of kilogrammes, enough for less than a second of operation (compared to hundreds of tons for fission reactors, which have enough for years of operation). Also, the tritium, even if it escaped the reactor building, would be gone after 120 years through decay, which is a pretty short time compared to other radionuclides.
And yes, IAAPP (I am a plasma physicist).
chl
Breed fissionable reactor fuel from thorium to keep the fission plants running until we can switch to all fusion? Although I doubt the ITER team can afford to waste money and effort on this. Also, the earth's uranium resources are not going to run out until long after the ITER timeframe.
Then, there are the neutron diagnostics for the solid state physicists, but they can usually make do with conventional fission-based neutron sources.
chl
Tritium also has a half life of about 12 years, so that even if it did grow on trees, it would be practically gone after 120 years, so it does not accumulate in nature the way coal, oil etc. do. Breeding tritium on a JIT basis therefore is the best way.
chl
Now that's an argument against software patents if ever I heard one.
Pssst. They are not supposed to know about that backchannel in every radio set that we use to spy on them. They must continue to think that their radio consumption is private.
chl
What do you mean by that? Scientific theories deal with the facts as they are, because there is nothing else to work on. They are factual by the very definition.
Do you mean to say the evolution is not 'a fact', that it need not be true? That may very well be. Natural scientists do not have the luxury of a higher authority that simply tells them what's true. At most, they can have theories that explain all of the observable facts (non-verifiable accounts of irreproducible events, like the creation, count neither as observable nor as facts). In that sense, it does not matter if 'evolution' or 'the Maxwell equations' are true in the sense that some creator specifically built them into the universe. They are viable theories that haven't been disproven so far and that's all that natural science can give you.
Granted, religion is more satisfying because it gives you absolute certainty. On the other hand, creation as a scientific theory does not explain how species change over time and become extinct. Also the postulation of a super-natural being kind of defeats the whole purpose of a natural science.
chl
I thought the trick was to coerce unsuspecting callees into buying stuff they do not need. So the DNC list does hurt their "business."
chl
Actually, they have lots of charge -- only it all cancels out.
chl
On the other hand, why should the price of my creation depend on how long I live?
chl
*cough* Sep 11 *cough*
chl
All the physics departments fight to keep up the level of their degrees, i.e. they want to keep the current curriculum with minimal changes to acommodate the bachelor after three years. Currently, if you leave after three years, you have nothing, so they basically add an extra bachelor examination (for the quitters who do not want a "real" degree).
The old Diplom degree that you got after five years would then also be the Masters degree.
The politicians see every year in school as "wasted time" and want to water down the requirements for every degree.
chl
No. A five year programme in e.g. Germany is five years of full time study devoted to a single subject. After five years of physics, including writing a one-year thesis, I am at least worth a US physics master.
chl
As a German, I cannot really disagree with that. Still, I find Germany a nice country to live in because enough of us are sane and/or bright.
Historically, some forms of hate speech are forbidden out of a desire not to repeat certain experiences that happened in the 1930s and 1940s. Our allied-approved constitution still says "There is no censorship". Of course it was very silly that KISS have a different logo in Germany because it is forbidden to use the runic SS script, which is also a symbol for the SS murderers.
They may not be advertised nor sold to minors. This is hardly extreme. It is also practically useless in stopping minors to get such stuff.
How are drunk driving and poisoning people public rights? There still is no general speed limit on the motorways and I have no sympathy for people who complain about getting caught for speeding.
I agree, however, with your sentiments for the new weapon law. It is practically impossible to legally own a firearm for self defense in Germany. I can only guess that the public allows this because most people do not feel threatened enough by criminals that they feel in need of a gun. And our violent crime rate is relatively low.
chl
Given that cell phones (GSM anyway) have less than 2 Watts and can be received by a base station kilometers away, I would say that even power levels of tenth millionths of watts are easily detectable.
chl
chl
chl
With this particular exploit, I would need to actively follow a link or read some mail, so it would not even matter if the exploit was posted while I slept.
chl
chl
Remember that abortion does not count as murder where abortions are legal, so you do not advocate murder by advocating abortion in that jurisdiction. So the law against advocating crime does not hold. And since there are no other applicable reasons for censorship in Germany, pro-abortion sites usually can not be stopped.
This was actually a kind of joke. The constitution literally says: There is no censorship. I wanted to point out that you need as much as a trial if you want to silence some speech.
I do not know what you can do, or what exactly google does for access control, but all googles seem to have the same ip number:
www.google.de CNAME www.google.com
www.google.at CNAME www.google.com
www.google.com A 216.239.51.101
"Just" enter the bare ip number...
But, as I wrote elsewhere, the two sites mentioned in the article do not seem to be delisted from google.de anyway.
Anti-abortion sites are censored when they give names and addresses of abortion doctors who should be killed. Abortion is a delicate subject in Germany and the subject as such is not censored. In fact there is, by definition, no censorship in Germany. Any restrictions must be justified either by yells of "think of the children" or by some other law, e.g. Holocaust denial is a punishable act specifically mentioned in the Strafgesetzbuch ("book of punishments").
> What happens in England if a land line person calls a cell
> phone? Do they have to pay
> for the cell phone charges?
Yes.
In Germany at least, the "area code" indicates if you are calling a free 0800, $$$ 0900, semi-expensive cellphone number etc. Billing information is easily transmitted across several carriers.