So, I think you did quite well to find some decent places.
We had local help. ALWAYS get local help because sometimes the best places to eat are decidedly not well advertised. I've found some really great places by offering to buy a meal for a local. Just ask them where they usually go, then offer to take them there. Ask them for menu advice and take it. This has worked for me in a lot of countries. I've tried things that I NEVER would have on my own and found that I like many of them. Who knows when you might find something you like, and if you don't like the food enjoy the company.
I have two great kids but we simply DON'T allow unfettered access to the internet. Folks think I'm nuts, but we do not allow unmonitored access to social networks, e-mail or chat services from ANY device. Having been in the network security business previously, I have the tools and equipment to actually control and monitor what my kids are doing. I have multiple layers of network security and logging. They might manage to get by the filters, but they won't bypass the logging so I'll know. What's more, they both KNOW they are being monitored and I reenforce that view regularly by asking them about specifics I find in the logs. We also make sure that internet access happens only in the common spaces in our home. We have laptops (3) but you cannot take them to your room by yourself to use them and nobody but me has an administrative account.
Any parent who just turns the kids loose on the net is NUTS. There is a huge percentage of trash out there and it is irresponsible to just let a kid access this junk either on purpose or by accident. Parents need to be *active* in this area to avoid the sad stories like this one, as rare as it is. There are a number of other reasons to know what your kids are up to, sexting, pedophiles, identity theft, bullying etc are all reasons you need to at least monitor what your kids are doing online. (Not to mention to keep the NPAA off your case should they figure out how to bittorrent the latest movie they want..)
That explains what happened.... Dr, I don't need to go on a diet, I need addiction treatment for my Oreo habit.. Wonder if it's covered by my insurance?
As an American, I'm going to have to agree with you... That "processed cheese spread" stuff is pretty vile stuff, but it keeps without refrigeration. Most of us on this side of the pond don't quite "get" that European food thing. Especially English food. Some of it sounds pretty bad to us.
I tried a lot of different stuff when on a trip to Manchester and while some of it was not appealing to me, I did find much to like in my week's stay. I found some incredible Indian food that I've never been able to match here in the states and one Oriental place we ate at was great too. The traditional "fish and chips" with the malt vinegar was worth eating more than once too. Some of the beef dishes I tried left me disappointed, but I figured that was more about farming practices and less about the dish itself. The only real problem was the tea habit I started. I've found that good tea is simply not available at restaurants here and buying it for home can get expensive, but I'm hooked on the stuff so I pay though the nose for it. Makes me understand the "Boston Tea Party" thing that started the rebellion a bit better.
So... I'm going to apologize for the AC who has obviously no sense of adventure and likely has no culinary experience with much more than macaroni and cheese from a box and bologna sandwiches...
As opposed to TEPCO / Fukushima, which is apparently run by Homer Simpson, and appears to have no enforcement at all.
Shesh folks. Give these folks a break. Hindsight is 20/20 and this Monday morning quarterbacking of the Fukushima incident is getting rather old.
Remember, this incident was the result of an earthquake that far exceeded the design requirements of the plant and was beyond the scope of their contingency planning. What we have there now was deemed an acceptable risk prior to the earthquake that NOBODY expected or planned for.
Now, you can argue that we SHOULD have designed for larger earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis and the facts are on your side. But one needs to go back and remember that TEPCO was doing what the government REQUIRED it to do if not more, NOBODY was expecting that big of a quake, and when you get right down to it, the Plant held up quite well considering how far beyond design limits the earthquake actually was.
So it's great fun to skewer TEPCO and point out the mistakes they've made or things that in hindsight might not have been the best choice, but you must realize that we are way outside of "normal" conditions here. Sometimes you have to make judgment calls and act NOW even without all the necessary facts or time to accomplish the engineering analysis required. Under the post earthquake conditions it was EXTREMELY difficult even to approach the site, much less move any equipment or materials around. They did really well, considering the nature and extent of the damage.
Could things have been better? No doubt, but TEPCO has managed not to make any MAJOR mistakes or killed anybody throughout this whole mess. Further, even though the environmental damage is significant, they've managed to not make it that much worse though a bad choice of theirs. So we've had a few hundred gallons of radioactive water wash into the sea or some guy accidentally shut off some pumps that needed to stay running. So? Mistakes happen but so far, nothing major has been messed up.
The NRC is just the poor bunch of engineers caught in the middle of this political infighting.
I don't work in the industry but the little I do know about this tells me what you are saying is true. You have a group of government paid engineers over at the NRC who are pulled one way by the politicians that appoint their management who are wholly unqualified political operatives, another way by the industry that makes their jobs necessary and yet another by the realization that the price of messing up could be huge (assuming they actually care after 20 years.)
It's amazing we don't have more graft and corruption along with more real accidents than we've had in this country..
SOME plants are being shut down for economic reasons. What that report fails to mention, is that a 40 year old plant's maintenance costs which have increased along with the decrease in wholesale power prices that is shutting them down. These plants broke even and started making money YEARS ago, it's just that they are getting old and worn out so maintenance costs are going up.
The jury is out on new nuclear power plants being viable. Not that we will ever find out. Not until the NRC starts to stick with one set of rules. Historically, nuclear plants have higher than expected costs because the NRC kept upping the amti because of the politics of building the plant. Got to keep the environmentalists happy, or at least placated in some way. If I was an electric generator, I'd sure not want to get into a 20 year ROI project with the NRC throwing wild cards that drive my costs up. Just way too much risk, for what looks to be razor thin margins for perhaps a few decades.
Fossil fuels will never run out, this much is sure. What will happen is that recovering them will become more and more difficult making other technologies more cost effective, which is exactly what you are describing.
You think? But Define huge. Any fool can collect and store vast amounts of data, but FINDING something in the haystack is the issue.
Having a huge amount of data on spindles is great, but what's the point if you cannot sort through it and find what you want quickly? I'd be more amazed with the ability to *search* a week's worth of data for keywords and patterns and actually return a meaningful result with enough time to actually react to something being planned via E-mail... That's the *real* trick.
Does the American Constitution prevents spying foreign countries?
Certainly not. However the 4th amendment does put some limits on searching the effects and papers or taking of property from citizens:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
So foreign monitoring at any level is legally fair game from the constitution's perspective. It may run into legal problems at the "world court" and UN level but the USA doesn't really need to care about that.
You are sooo right. I've been reading "fusion power is coming soon!" for decades. Hopefully they are actually making progress and not just being more optimistic in their projections. With any luck, we won't run out of fossil fuels before they manage it.
Reminds me of an axiom of getting the status of software development tasks. "If a developer *says* they are 90% done," they are really only half way there. Or the one that says "The last 10% takes more than half the effort."
Personally, I don't have a clue how you think this will be cheaper for anybody but the folks who qualify for the subsidies. Even then, buying coverage might be free, but they will still be paying deductibles and co-insurance costs well in excess of their ability to pay. Once folks realize that they are NOT going to get "free" healthcare, I got a feeling they won't like it. You included.
It may be cheaper now, but I'm told that the fines/tax for not having valid coverage take quite a jump after 2016... Wonder why they picked THAT year.... Hmmm..
Agreed.. It's just boiler plate US government stuff that you see on most of their computers and websites. It's there to tell authorized users that they are subject to monitoring and have no expectation of privacy when you log into the machine.
This language is there to prevent users from claiming that their personal information was improperly monitored when they where on the government owned system. But of course, that situation really doesn't apply here, now does it?
There are some things that are best developed by government due to cost, risk and lack of a valid business case for profit that drives private enterprise. Of course, it should be handed over to private enterprise as soon as a business case is found.
How long will it be before there is a business reason to go to Mars? I'm thinking a LONG time.. So NASA is a reasonable expense, if you have the money.
True, but remember the government is not blessed with the profit motive that EA had. EA may have messed up, but you can bet they where motivated to FIX the problem. Healthcare.gov is government run and what's their motive to get it fixed? Somebody might get "blamed" and not elected sometime in the future?
Yes, we have Apollo 13 but most disaster scenarios are going to be more like Challenger and Columbia.
You are correct, those three guys where dead the instant that tank exploded. That they lived to tell us about it was due to a long series of miracles. First, they should have died in the explosion. Second, there was no way they had enough power left without the command module to stay alive. Third, actually doing rocket burns without navigation and accurate pointing should have killed them and not being able to do mid-course corrections made the fact that they hit the extremely narrow re-entry window more about luck than anything else. I'm sure there are other reasons these three guys should have been dead.
You are also correct in that most of the dangers end in quick and spectacular events where the vehicle comes apart fairly quickly with death being unavoidable and unconsciousness quick in coming. But there always is that fear of a lingering suffocation as your O2 declines and CO2 increases...
Man there where a LOT more issues that had me distracted enough that I had to choose to ignore them and let the story play At one point, I actually almost had to slap myself back to reality because the reality was actually being suspended by the writers on PURPOSE and I almost missed it. If you are subject to nit-picking the science, be ready to suspend reality and let it go. You will be rewarded with a good story.
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So, I think you did quite well to find some decent places.
We had local help. ALWAYS get local help because sometimes the best places to eat are decidedly not well advertised. I've found some really great places by offering to buy a meal for a local. Just ask them where they usually go, then offer to take them there. Ask them for menu advice and take it. This has worked for me in a lot of countries. I've tried things that I NEVER would have on my own and found that I like many of them. Who knows when you might find something you like, and if you don't like the food enjoy the company.
I have two great kids but we simply DON'T allow unfettered access to the internet. Folks think I'm nuts, but we do not allow unmonitored access to social networks, e-mail or chat services from ANY device. Having been in the network security business previously, I have the tools and equipment to actually control and monitor what my kids are doing. I have multiple layers of network security and logging. They might manage to get by the filters, but they won't bypass the logging so I'll know. What's more, they both KNOW they are being monitored and I reenforce that view regularly by asking them about specifics I find in the logs. We also make sure that internet access happens only in the common spaces in our home. We have laptops (3) but you cannot take them to your room by yourself to use them and nobody but me has an administrative account.
Any parent who just turns the kids loose on the net is NUTS. There is a huge percentage of trash out there and it is irresponsible to just let a kid access this junk either on purpose or by accident. Parents need to be *active* in this area to avoid the sad stories like this one, as rare as it is. There are a number of other reasons to know what your kids are up to, sexting, pedophiles, identity theft, bullying etc are all reasons you need to at least monitor what your kids are doing online. (Not to mention to keep the NPAA off your case should they figure out how to bittorrent the latest movie they want..)
Ever wonder WHY?
They are nothing if not consistent.... Er... Wait...
That explains what happened.... Dr, I don't need to go on a diet, I need addiction treatment for my Oreo habit.. Wonder if it's covered by my insurance?
As an American, I'm going to have to agree with you... That "processed cheese spread" stuff is pretty vile stuff, but it keeps without refrigeration. Most of us on this side of the pond don't quite "get" that European food thing. Especially English food. Some of it sounds pretty bad to us.
I tried a lot of different stuff when on a trip to Manchester and while some of it was not appealing to me, I did find much to like in my week's stay. I found some incredible Indian food that I've never been able to match here in the states and one Oriental place we ate at was great too. The traditional "fish and chips" with the malt vinegar was worth eating more than once too. Some of the beef dishes I tried left me disappointed, but I figured that was more about farming practices and less about the dish itself. The only real problem was the tea habit I started. I've found that good tea is simply not available at restaurants here and buying it for home can get expensive, but I'm hooked on the stuff so I pay though the nose for it. Makes me understand the "Boston Tea Party" thing that started the rebellion a bit better.
So... I'm going to apologize for the AC who has obviously no sense of adventure and likely has no culinary experience with much more than macaroni and cheese from a box and bologna sandwiches...
As opposed to TEPCO / Fukushima, which is apparently run by Homer Simpson, and appears to have no enforcement at all.
Shesh folks. Give these folks a break. Hindsight is 20/20 and this Monday morning quarterbacking of the Fukushima incident is getting rather old.
Remember, this incident was the result of an earthquake that far exceeded the design requirements of the plant and was beyond the scope of their contingency planning. What we have there now was deemed an acceptable risk prior to the earthquake that NOBODY expected or planned for.
Now, you can argue that we SHOULD have designed for larger earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis and the facts are on your side. But one needs to go back and remember that TEPCO was doing what the government REQUIRED it to do if not more, NOBODY was expecting that big of a quake, and when you get right down to it, the Plant held up quite well considering how far beyond design limits the earthquake actually was.
So it's great fun to skewer TEPCO and point out the mistakes they've made or things that in hindsight might not have been the best choice, but you must realize that we are way outside of "normal" conditions here. Sometimes you have to make judgment calls and act NOW even without all the necessary facts or time to accomplish the engineering analysis required. Under the post earthquake conditions it was EXTREMELY difficult even to approach the site, much less move any equipment or materials around. They did really well, considering the nature and extent of the damage.
Could things have been better? No doubt, but TEPCO has managed not to make any MAJOR mistakes or killed anybody throughout this whole mess. Further, even though the environmental damage is significant, they've managed to not make it that much worse though a bad choice of theirs. So we've had a few hundred gallons of radioactive water wash into the sea or some guy accidentally shut off some pumps that needed to stay running. So? Mistakes happen but so far, nothing major has been messed up.
The NRC is just the poor bunch of engineers caught in the middle of this political infighting.
I don't work in the industry but the little I do know about this tells me what you are saying is true. You have a group of government paid engineers over at the NRC who are pulled one way by the politicians that appoint their management who are wholly unqualified political operatives, another way by the industry that makes their jobs necessary and yet another by the realization that the price of messing up could be huge (assuming they actually care after 20 years.)
It's amazing we don't have more graft and corruption along with more real accidents than we've had in this country..
SOME plants are being shut down for economic reasons. What that report fails to mention, is that a 40 year old plant's maintenance costs which have increased along with the decrease in wholesale power prices that is shutting them down. These plants broke even and started making money YEARS ago, it's just that they are getting old and worn out so maintenance costs are going up.
The jury is out on new nuclear power plants being viable. Not that we will ever find out. Not until the NRC starts to stick with one set of rules. Historically, nuclear plants have higher than expected costs because the NRC kept upping the amti because of the politics of building the plant. Got to keep the environmentalists happy, or at least placated in some way. If I was an electric generator, I'd sure not want to get into a 20 year ROI project with the NRC throwing wild cards that drive my costs up. Just way too much risk, for what looks to be razor thin margins for perhaps a few decades.
Fossil fuels will never run out, this much is sure. What will happen is that recovering them will become more and more difficult making other technologies more cost effective, which is exactly what you are describing.
Think of the spam filter they could build with that amount of spam to train it with...
What makes you think that this isn't exactly what they are doing... At least in a way.
You think? But Define huge. Any fool can collect and store vast amounts of data, but FINDING something in the haystack is the issue.
Having a huge amount of data on spindles is great, but what's the point if you cannot sort through it and find what you want quickly? I'd be more amazed with the ability to *search* a week's worth of data for keywords and patterns and actually return a meaningful result with enough time to actually react to something being planned via E-mail... That's the *real* trick.
Does the American Constitution prevents spying foreign countries?
Certainly not. However the 4th amendment does put some limits on searching the effects and papers or taking of property from citizens:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
So foreign monitoring at any level is legally fair game from the constitution's perspective. It may run into legal problems at the "world court" and UN level but the USA doesn't really need to care about that.
You are sooo right. I've been reading "fusion power is coming soon!" for decades. Hopefully they are actually making progress and not just being more optimistic in their projections. With any luck, we won't run out of fossil fuels before they manage it.
Reminds me of an axiom of getting the status of software development tasks. "If a developer *says* they are 90% done," they are really only half way there. Or the one that says "The last 10% takes more than half the effort."
Personally, I don't have a clue how you think this will be cheaper for anybody but the folks who qualify for the subsidies. Even then, buying coverage might be free, but they will still be paying deductibles and co-insurance costs well in excess of their ability to pay. Once folks realize that they are NOT going to get "free" healthcare, I got a feeling they won't like it. You included.
It may be cheaper now, but I'm told that the fines/tax for not having valid coverage take quite a jump after 2016... Wonder why they picked THAT year.... Hmmm..
Agreed.. It's just boiler plate US government stuff that you see on most of their computers and websites. It's there to tell authorized users that they are subject to monitoring and have no expectation of privacy when you log into the machine.
This language is there to prevent users from claiming that their personal information was improperly monitored when they where on the government owned system. But of course, that situation really doesn't apply here, now does it?
I knew a lady who had a therapist and a nurse in her list of personalities. She could lock herself up for treatment..
But I get your point...
You said you weren't going to tell anyone about me, them.
To which of you did I make that promise?
My spelling/usage stands corrected... But remember Mrs Jones will get half, unless a prenup was signed...
In the grand scheme of things and what caused the federal debt, I'd say NASA is like ordering the pizza....
I did say, suspend reality and enjoy the show... So No, I would not prefer what you suggested.
There are some things that are best developed by government due to cost, risk and lack of a valid business case for profit that drives private enterprise. Of course, it should be handed over to private enterprise as soon as a business case is found.
How long will it be before there is a business reason to go to Mars? I'm thinking a LONG time.. So NASA is a reasonable expense, if you have the money.
True, but remember the government is not blessed with the profit motive that EA had. EA may have messed up, but you can bet they where motivated to FIX the problem. Healthcare.gov is government run and what's their motive to get it fixed? Somebody might get "blamed" and not elected sometime in the future?
Yes, we have Apollo 13 but most disaster scenarios are going to be more like Challenger and Columbia.
You are correct, those three guys where dead the instant that tank exploded. That they lived to tell us about it was due to a long series of miracles. First, they should have died in the explosion. Second, there was no way they had enough power left without the command module to stay alive. Third, actually doing rocket burns without navigation and accurate pointing should have killed them and not being able to do mid-course corrections made the fact that they hit the extremely narrow re-entry window more about luck than anything else. I'm sure there are other reasons these three guys should have been dead.
You are also correct in that most of the dangers end in quick and spectacular events where the vehicle comes apart fairly quickly with death being unavoidable and unconsciousness quick in coming. But there always is that fear of a lingering suffocation as your O2 declines and CO2 increases...
Man there where a LOT more issues that had me distracted enough that I had to choose to ignore them and let the story play At one point, I actually almost had to slap myself back to reality because the reality was actually being suspended by the writers on PURPOSE and I almost missed it. If you are subject to nit-picking the science, be ready to suspend reality and let it go. You will be rewarded with a good story.
It's a great movie, warts and all.