From the linked journal:
temperature: 450 C
pressure: 23 Mpa
It is not 2300 bar, it's 230 bar.
Standard propane burns at 1980 C in air and thats the same pressure as a scuba tank. So temperature and pressure are easy to achieve. This can reduce solid plastics waste and potentially reduce the consuption of crude oil.
And maybe we can stop dumping plastics in the ocean and killing all the damned sea life.
Oh yeah, stop burning plastics. The extraneous chemicals in there are going to kill you and the surrounding environment.
There is a lot of blather and wild-ass-guessing in this forum today, I see. First of all, there is piracy in a fair number of spots in the world, but if you stay above 40 N and below 40 S, you aren't going to see any pirates. As well the UN suggests to sail at least 50 nautical miles off shore to prevent contact with maritime piracy. There are a few spots where that is not applicable, but they are in a minority: Offshore of Somalia, Malacca Straits, pretty well anywhere near Indonesia. Beyond 50 NM, there is really only commercial shipping and fishing.
As for finding and stealing the sailboats, they are only 23' in length, and the sail looks to be about 12' in height. There is no legal requirement for an AIS transmitter. From a (large) surface vessel, you'd need to be within 15 nautical miles to see it, or less for radar. It's not going to be cost effective to stop and try and wrangle one onboard, not to mention the potential legal issues if the shipping company find out. No commercial master or officer will risk a career over one of these.
I do think that this and the Argo float program could be ground breaking for our understanding of the sea. My only concern is figuring out how a startup will profit off of this without holding all of the data and selling it to the highest bidder. It might be cheaper for the NOAA to just buy him out and start using the boats.
I know that the/. crowd has moved to twitter length replies these days, but how about a real discussion?
There are plenty of failure modes that would be completely survivable, in fact with little or no chance of injury. Tube loses vacuum? Unit slows down and stops. Loss of mains power? Same. Capsule loses pressure integrity? Masks from the ceiling time.
Yes, a catastrophic failure of the tube structure could result in deaths, but I can see the emergency shutdown being engaged system wide in such a case, resulting in only a few affected capsules/trains. Mind you, there are advantages to the many capsules/fewer passengers per capsule. A single failure is unlikely to approach aviation disaster numbers. Wiki Aviation Accidents.
Most of the risks are similar to high speed rail, and those seem to have been well mitigated by current operators in Europe and Japan. Now, the chances of the system getting built at all? I don't see it surviving contact with investors, incumbent system operators or property owners.
I agree with your assessment of the situation with regards to traffic volume, time of day and location.
However, the JSM was not required to be the give-way vessel, as per rule 10(a). Rule 10(c) states 'A vessel shall, so far as practicable, avoid crossing traffic lanes' but does not change the status of give-way or stand-on with a crossing vessel ahead and to starboard.
Unfortunately, I believe that this was another case of a merchant vessel not maintaining proper watch and failing to maneuver correctly, and a naval vessel failing to properly monitor to actions of surrounding vessels.
Looks like the destroyer had the right of way, but expected the merchant vessel to modify speed or course. The merchant seems to have failed to do so, and hit the destroyer. Still, the Naval captain will lose his job, as he is expected to deal with situations like this and perform all possible actions to prevent damage, injury or loss of life.
I'm late to the party with this, but Atomic Energy Canada designed an Nuclear Battery (self contained low maintenance uranium reactor) that would output 2400 kW (thermal) or 600 kW (electric).
Oooo... Are we opening the big.45 vs 9mm silliness again, I see?
Simple point from the point of view of a (former) infantryman. If you have to haul that #@$%$^ piece of metal out of the holster for real, then you are in deep doo-doo already. It begs the question, "Where the h*ll is you primary weapon, hmmm?"
Scrap carrying a pistol, carry more mags and a couple extra frags instead. They're more useful.
Ummm, folks? They're Canadian college students, tech school level, not university. They designed and built a 2m band 5 watt transceiver.
When I was in college in the 90's, designing and building a low power FM transceiver from the ground up was considered a good third year project. I'm guessing that they had to design everything from power supply to antenna, and probably fabricate it themselves.
Good on you, guys!! I'm da*ned proud of you. especially the adult student who went back for more schooling.
How about letting the kids use their machines at home as they see fit.
And when they come to class in the morning, they boot from a live distro (USB or CD, natch) that is configured to let them sign into the school server to upload homework and projects and download learning supplies.
This allows the admin to control what apps are available to the students, but gives them the freedom to explore and fool around, on their own time.
"It is an army bred for a single purpose... to destroy the world of men."
And so we come to the crossroads. The Two Towers is the second installment in Peter Jackson's epic film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings - the installment poised to make or break the trilogy. Could Jackson and company follow up on the blockbuster success of 2001's The Fellowship of the Ring? Would the film continue with the same level of quality? Would the momentum of the story build upon the climax of the first film, and prepare audiences for the ultimate confrontation between good and evil in the soon to be released final chapter, The Return of the King? The answer to all of these questions, of course, is a resounding yes.
As the film opens, we find ourselves plunged into the dark mines of Moria, to relive a few moments of Gandalf's confrontation with the fiery Balrog. But instead of playing out as we remember it in Fellowship of the Ring, this time, when Gandalf falls into the abyss, we fall with him to watch as his fight continues. The consequences of these moments will resound throughout much of the remainder of the story, as Frodo and Sam continue their quest to carry the One Ring into Mordor, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli race to save Merry and Pippin from the orcs. Along the way, two important new story elements come into play. The first is the character of Gollum, who is bound to the Ring in such a way that he simply must follow it to Mordor. As we watch, Gollum's dual personalities fight for dominance, one wishing to help Frodo and Sam in their quest, and the other seeking to kill them and take back the Ring that was stolen from him (as told in The Hobbit). Meanwhile, Aragorn and company have made their way into the horse realm of Rohan, whose king has fallen under Saruman's dark spell. The people of Rohan are made to suffer too, for Saruman has built a army of murderous orcs numbering ten thousand strong. Together, the white wizard and the dark lord, Sauron, mean to rule Middle-earth, and their first step in this conquest is to wipe out the kingdom of Rohan, and all of Mankind, once and for all. What follows is nothing less than a truly epic battle, in which the fate of both Middle-earth and the Quest of the Ring literally hang in the balance. Trust me when I say, it's like nothing you've ever seen before on film.
What I appreciate most about The Two Towers is that Jackson has made no compromises for the audience. Middle-earth is a world where violence is commonplace, much blood is shed and evil stands a very real chance of winning and must be confronted head-on. There is no sugar coating on these bitter pills to make them easier to digest. As a result, the journey one takes in this film is just that much more satisfying. An additional compromise that Jackson manages to avoid is obvious right from the opening frames of The Two Towers. You simply MUST have seen the previous film in order to understand what's going on, because there is no recap of the action. Other than the very brief opening flashback, this film launches you immediately into the story, picking up right where Fellowship left you hanging. And the pace throughout much of the film is relentless, pausing only occasionally to let you catch your breath.
In addition to Jackson's deft direction, the savvy adaptation and great performances by cast members new and old, there is much technically to be impressed with here as well. The character of Gollum, entirely created by computer graphics, is astonishing. At last, we have a CG character that gives a real dramatic performance on screen. This is thanks to the work of WETA Digital, as well as the strong acting of Andy Serkis. Serkis not only provides Gollum his voice, but his movent as well thanks to the process of motion capture. Serkis also performed the character on set with the actors, lending the final digital creation a particular presence and immediacy it would otherwise have lacke
Bunny Joke of the Day....
on
Easter Humor
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· Score: 1
Did the Easter Bunny come to your house this year?
If anything, this article has brought out the depths of/. readers.
1.) "Read Tom G. Palmer's response" - I did, and his comments on the subject are as opinionated as Mr. Bollier's, just from a different point of view.
2.) "Who cares?" - When a corporation starts charging you for breathing air, you might pay more attention.
3.) "I got bored..." - Seeing as your founding fathers started from England and English law, I think you will find it applies. Besides, I live in Canada (an independent nation since 1867) and we still refer to English Common Law. BTW, we are a democracy. With elections that work... (Sorry, I had to...)
Am I the only person here wondering WHO at the local FBI office actually authorized this little jaunt? I would love to see an agent explaining to his boss that the spent the day 'executing warrants' and didn't arrest anyone...
Also, how did they know that customers were communicating between themselves? Reading your e-mail I presume? What ever did happen to Omnivore, Carnivore, VoreOfTheWeek?
Oh well, I just hope they get their comps back in a resonable time-frame... (See Steve Jackson Games incident...)
Re:Strange the Canadian Army had both those meals
on
The Future of MREs
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· Score: 1
Hmmm, I used to like the cherry cake. But you did have to toast it up on the top of the Coleman lantern to make it tasty...
As for the ham omlette... lets not go there... 12 days on ex during my ISCC and ham omlettes for every breakfast and lunch. I swear the instructors must have got every one in the whole stinking camp!
Defining Globalisation - Yet Another Shot At It
on
Defining Globalism
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· Score: 1
It seems to me that most folks are missing a few key points when it comes to defining globalisation. It is not just economic or cultural or religious of any other single facet. It is in fact a blend of all these things.
I've so far seen many shots at the problems of globalisation without any real solutions. Now, I will admit that I have a biased viewpoint, I'm Canadian. (Flames cheerfully ignored.) It studying the differences between Canada and the United States, one point came to mind. Generally we call the USA the melting pot. And it is, of ideologies, beliefs, religions and cultures. Canada is refered to as a mosaic, suggesting that we attempt to built a patchwork of the best of peoples own beliefs, morals, etc... It's not perfect!! But it's a start. Globalisation needs to apply to all parts of life, but the suggestion that everyone change to your standard, whatever that be, British, American, Canadian, Russian, German, etc... will be met with resistance. Let's meet 'em all halfway!!
Every culture, people or religion has something worth keeping. Let's find all the good stuff and use it.
And herein is where globalisation is failing us so far. Why the great rush to sell the Afgani's Coke(TM) but not help them restore the temples damaged during the Soviet invasion? We must do all these things. It's a basic principle of sociology that the basic needs must be taken care of before we move on to advanced ones. Too many of the world are starving, diseased, or basically overwhelmed by the simple living conditions they are in to worry about being good world citizens.
No, I'm not a Bleeding Heart Liberal(TM), just a humanist.
I think the question to raise is; Who is going to take care of these things? I can't really see the corporate world being interested, it's not really a money-making proposition and they exist to be profitable. How about the various good works groups? You know; church, clubs, assorted groups of people who want to help? They seem a little disorganized and probably can't take on the big stuff. (World hunger comes to mind.) That leaves us with government.
Now, a general mistrust of government seems to be all the rage these days, but it shouldn't blind us to the things it is capable of. The governments organized and ran their respective responses to the big wars this century, and they did it for humanity, not business interests. I think we need to get the message to all governments that collective action can help the whole planet.
But not action for the corporate world alone!!! We must enbrace the wonders of everybodys culture, from my kilt to your kimono to her tribal tattoos. And we must respect their beliefs and lifestyles, whether temple, or mosque, or church, or standing stones...
Tolerance, support, mutual guidance and trade. In that order...
I hope that as the Western World, we can lead the way to a better place to live. For everybody.
What ever happened to the old dictum - If you can't beat them, join them...??
If just one of the larger record companies actually set up their whole catalog for download at a reasonable cost, say about $25.00 to get in, and that gets you 50 activations on songs, maybe we would be looking at the benfits of guaranteed quality and repeat access with a more open frame of mind.
Yes, I want the artists and engineers to get paid... But only the people involved, not record company folks who aren't involved with the music.
Slashdot Mirror
Holy fuck people...
From the linked journal:
temperature: 450 C
pressure: 23 Mpa
It is not 2300 bar, it's 230 bar.
Standard propane burns at 1980 C in air and thats the same pressure as a scuba tank. So temperature and pressure are easy to achieve. This can reduce solid plastics waste and potentially reduce the consuption of crude oil.
And maybe we can stop dumping plastics in the ocean and killing all the damned sea life.
Oh yeah, stop burning plastics. The extraneous chemicals in there are going to kill you and the surrounding environment.
Hacking anything that falls under health/life safety is really not a good idea.
Imagine how much faster I could get things done if I hacked the light curtain on the guillotine paper cutter at work!
Yeah, lets not go there.
There is a lot of blather and wild-ass-guessing in this forum today, I see. First of all, there is piracy in a fair number of spots in the world, but if you stay above 40 N and below 40 S, you aren't going to see any pirates. As well the UN suggests to sail at least 50 nautical miles off shore to prevent contact with maritime piracy. There are a few spots where that is not applicable, but they are in a minority: Offshore of Somalia, Malacca Straits, pretty well anywhere near Indonesia. Beyond 50 NM, there is really only commercial shipping and fishing.
As for finding and stealing the sailboats, they are only 23' in length, and the sail looks to be about 12' in height. There is no legal requirement for an AIS transmitter. From a (large) surface vessel, you'd need to be within 15 nautical miles to see it, or less for radar. It's not going to be cost effective to stop and try and wrangle one onboard, not to mention the potential legal issues if the shipping company find out. No commercial master or officer will risk a career over one of these.
I do think that this and the Argo float program could be ground breaking for our understanding of the sea. My only concern is figuring out how a startup will profit off of this without holding all of the data and selling it to the highest bidder. It might be cheaper for the NOAA to just buy him out and start using the boats.
I know that the /. crowd has moved to twitter length replies these days, but how about a real discussion?
There are plenty of failure modes that would be completely survivable, in fact with little or no chance of injury. Tube loses vacuum? Unit slows down and stops. Loss of mains power? Same. Capsule loses pressure integrity? Masks from the ceiling time.
Yes, a catastrophic failure of the tube structure could result in deaths, but I can see the emergency shutdown being engaged system wide in such a case, resulting in only a few affected capsules/trains. Mind you, there are advantages to the many capsules/fewer passengers per capsule. A single failure is unlikely to approach aviation disaster numbers. Wiki Aviation Accidents.
Most of the risks are similar to high speed rail, and those seem to have been well mitigated by current operators in Europe and Japan. Now, the chances of the system getting built at all? I don't see it surviving contact with investors, incumbent system operators or property owners.
I agree with your assessment of the situation with regards to traffic volume, time of day and location.
However, the JSM was not required to be the give-way vessel, as per rule 10(a). Rule 10(c) states 'A vessel shall, so far as practicable, avoid crossing traffic lanes' but does not change the status of give-way or stand-on with a crossing vessel ahead and to starboard.
Unfortunately, I believe that this was another case of a merchant vessel not maintaining proper watch and failing to maneuver correctly, and a naval vessel failing to properly monitor to actions of surrounding vessels.
TSS crossing COLREG reference.
Looks like the destroyer had the right of way, but expected the merchant vessel to modify speed or course. The merchant seems to have failed to do so, and hit the destroyer. Still, the Naval captain will lose his job, as he is expected to deal with situations like this and perform all possible actions to prevent damage, injury or loss of life.
I'm late to the party with this, but Atomic Energy Canada designed an Nuclear Battery (self contained low maintenance uranium reactor) that would output 2400 kW (thermal) or 600 kW (electric).
Might be a starting point for a colony system.
Nuclear Battery (pdf)
Charon has a diameter of just 2317 km. By contrast, Earth has a diameter of 12743 km.
(FTFY - assuming statute miles, not nautical miles.)
Suprised nobody has mentioned these folks.
MMIST Snowgoose UAV has a 260 kg (575lb) payload in 6 individual cargo bays. Can fly to co-ordinates and drop specific cargo.
And it's in production and in use by several militaries already.
Oooo... Are we opening the big .45 vs 9mm silliness again, I see?
Simple point from the point of view of a (former) infantryman. If you have to haul that #@$%$^ piece of metal out of the holster for real, then you are in deep doo-doo already. It begs the question, "Where the h*ll is you primary weapon, hmmm?"
Scrap carrying a pistol, carry more mags and a couple extra frags instead. They're more useful.
Dear god... I just read that as MechWarrior 2.. and I couldn't remember a Tactical Nuke 3, just blowing up nuclear power plants.
Yup, SC2 is going to cause me much pain...
Oops, my bad. They didn't design or build the transceiver. But....
1) They did mod and deploy an antenna with homebrew tracker to keep alignment to the ISS
2) They're first year students. Not at the end of the program, the very beginning.
So, my praise still stands. Good work guys!
Ummm, folks? They're Canadian college students, tech school level, not university. They designed and built a 2m band 5 watt transceiver.
When I was in college in the 90's, designing and building a low power FM transceiver from the ground up was considered a good third year project. I'm guessing that they had to design everything from power supply to antenna, and probably fabricate it themselves.
Good on you, guys!! I'm da*ned proud of you. especially the adult student who went back for more schooling.
How about letting the kids use their machines at home as they see fit.
And when they come to class in the morning, they boot from a live distro (USB or CD, natch) that is configured to let them sign into the school server to upload homework and projects and download learning supplies.
This allows the admin to control what apps are available to the students, but gives them the freedom to explore and fool around, on their own time.
It's also a good exposure to FOSS.
Ummm... I get to see the faces of major criminals every day warping into jumpgates in EVE Online... All they need to do is add ads for Quafe© as well, and I'll completely lose the separation between RL and not...
From digitalbits.com:
Discs 1 and 2
[tech stuff snipped]
"It is an army bred for a single purpose... to destroy the world of men."
And so we come to the crossroads. The Two Towers is the second installment in Peter Jackson's epic film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings - the installment poised to make or break the trilogy. Could Jackson and company follow up on the blockbuster success of 2001's The Fellowship of the Ring? Would the film continue with the same level of quality? Would the momentum of the story build upon the climax of the first film, and prepare audiences for the ultimate confrontation between good and evil in the soon to be released final chapter, The Return of the King? The answer to all of these questions, of course, is a resounding yes.
As the film opens, we find ourselves plunged into the dark mines of Moria, to relive a few moments of Gandalf's confrontation with the fiery Balrog. But instead of playing out as we remember it in Fellowship of the Ring, this time, when Gandalf falls into the abyss, we fall with him to watch as his fight continues. The consequences of these moments will resound throughout much of the remainder of the story, as Frodo and Sam continue their quest to carry the One Ring into Mordor, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli race to save Merry and Pippin from the orcs. Along the way, two important new story elements come into play. The first is the character of Gollum, who is bound to the Ring in such a way that he simply must follow it to Mordor. As we watch, Gollum's dual personalities fight for dominance, one wishing to help Frodo and Sam in their quest, and the other seeking to kill them and take back the Ring that was stolen from him (as told in The Hobbit). Meanwhile, Aragorn and company have made their way into the horse realm of Rohan, whose king has fallen under Saruman's dark spell. The people of Rohan are made to suffer too, for Saruman has built a army of murderous orcs numbering ten thousand strong. Together, the white wizard and the dark lord, Sauron, mean to rule Middle-earth, and their first step in this conquest is to wipe out the kingdom of Rohan, and all of Mankind, once and for all. What follows is nothing less than a truly epic battle, in which the fate of both Middle-earth and the Quest of the Ring literally hang in the balance. Trust me when I say, it's like nothing you've ever seen before on film.
What I appreciate most about The Two Towers is that Jackson has made no compromises for the audience. Middle-earth is a world where violence is commonplace, much blood is shed and evil stands a very real chance of winning and must be confronted head-on. There is no sugar coating on these bitter pills to make them easier to digest. As a result, the journey one takes in this film is just that much more satisfying. An additional compromise that Jackson manages to avoid is obvious right from the opening frames of The Two Towers. You simply MUST have seen the previous film in order to understand what's going on, because there is no recap of the action. Other than the very brief opening flashback, this film launches you immediately into the story, picking up right where Fellowship left you hanging. And the pace throughout much of the film is relentless, pausing only occasionally to let you catch your breath.
In addition to Jackson's deft direction, the savvy adaptation and great performances by cast members new and old, there is much technically to be impressed with here as well. The character of Gollum, entirely created by computer graphics, is astonishing. At last, we have a CG character that gives a real dramatic performance on screen. This is thanks to the work of WETA Digital, as well as the strong acting of Andy Serkis. Serkis not only provides Gollum his voice, but his movent as well thanks to the process of motion capture. Serkis also performed the character on set with the actors, lending the final digital creation a particular presence and immediacy it would otherwise have lacke
Did the Easter Bunny come to your house this year?
Don't know, haven't checked my snares yet....
I work at a small system repair facility. We got this screen cap from a customer.
I didn't want to know....
If anything, this article has brought out the depths of /. readers.
1.) "Read Tom G. Palmer's response" - I did, and his comments on the subject are as opinionated as Mr. Bollier's, just from a different point of view.
2.) "Who cares?" - When a corporation starts charging you for breathing air, you might pay more attention.
3.) "I got bored..." - Seeing as your founding fathers started from England and English law, I think you will find it applies. Besides, I live in Canada (an independent nation since 1867) and we still refer to English Common Law. BTW, we are a democracy. With elections that work... (Sorry, I had to...)
Just my 2c worth, or 1.2 US...
Am I the only person here wondering WHO at the local FBI office actually authorized this little jaunt? I would love to see an agent explaining to his boss that the spent the day 'executing warrants' and didn't arrest anyone...
Also, how did they know that customers were communicating between themselves? Reading your e-mail I presume? What ever did happen to Omnivore, Carnivore, VoreOfTheWeek?
Oh well, I just hope they get their comps back in a resonable time-frame... (See Steve Jackson Games incident...)
Hmmm, seems like very few people actually watch the urls's going past... Now where did I put 003.html?
Ya know, somebody ought to start a collection of cool 404's or sumthin... Oh yah, there already are some.....
404 Research LabHmmm, I used to like the cherry cake. But you did have to toast it up on the top of the Coleman lantern to make it tasty...
As for the ham omlette... lets not go there... 12 days on ex during my ISCC and ham omlettes for every breakfast and lunch. I swear the instructors must have got every one in the whole stinking camp!
It seems to me that most folks are missing a few key points when it comes to defining globalisation. It is not just economic or cultural or religious of any other single facet. It is in fact a blend of all these things.
I've so far seen many shots at the problems of globalisation without any real solutions. Now, I will admit that I have a biased viewpoint, I'm Canadian. (Flames cheerfully ignored.) It studying the differences between Canada and the United States, one point came to mind. Generally we call the USA the melting pot. And it is, of ideologies, beliefs, religions and cultures. Canada is refered to as a mosaic, suggesting that we attempt to built a patchwork of the best of peoples own beliefs, morals, etc... It's not perfect!! But it's a start. Globalisation needs to apply to all parts of life, but the suggestion that everyone change to your standard, whatever that be, British, American, Canadian, Russian, German, etc... will be met with resistance. Let's meet 'em all halfway!!
Every culture, people or religion has something worth keeping. Let's find all the good stuff and use it.
And herein is where globalisation is failing us so far. Why the great rush to sell the Afgani's Coke(TM) but not help them restore the temples damaged during the Soviet invasion? We must do all these things. It's a basic principle of sociology that the basic needs must be taken care of before we move on to advanced ones. Too many of the world are starving, diseased, or basically overwhelmed by the simple living conditions they are in to worry about being good world citizens.
No, I'm not a Bleeding Heart Liberal(TM), just a humanist.
I think the question to raise is; Who is going to take care of these things? I can't really see the corporate world being interested, it's not really a money-making proposition and they exist to be profitable. How about the various good works groups? You know; church, clubs, assorted groups of people who want to help? They seem a little disorganized and probably can't take on the big stuff. (World hunger comes to mind.) That leaves us with government.
Now, a general mistrust of government seems to be all the rage these days, but it shouldn't blind us to the things it is capable of. The governments organized and ran their respective responses to the big wars this century, and they did it for humanity, not business interests. I think we need to get the message to all governments that collective action can help the whole planet.
But not action for the corporate world alone!!! We must enbrace the wonders of everybodys culture, from my kilt to your kimono to her tribal tattoos. And we must respect their beliefs and lifestyles, whether temple, or mosque, or church, or standing stones...
Tolerance, support, mutual guidance and trade. In that order...
I hope that as the Western World, we can lead the way to a better place to live. For everybody.
-- END RANT --
Thanks.
What ever happened to the old dictum - If you can't beat them, join them...??
If just one of the larger record companies actually set up their whole catalog for download at a reasonable cost, say about $25.00 to get in, and that gets you 50 activations on songs, maybe we would be looking at the benfits of guaranteed quality and repeat access with a more open frame of mind.
Yes, I want the artists and engineers to get paid... But only the people involved, not record company folks who aren't involved with the music.
Hearts, Love and Honour - The Headstones