One percent won't affect sales as they assumed so the government gets a 1% windfall. What do they spend it on? More contracts with mega-rich corporations to line the pockets of the filthy rich. Now how many lives does this save, exactly????
Everyone seems to be calling it fracking without reading the article. Technically it's fracking but they aren't using millions of gallons of highly toxic chemicals and they aren't fracturing rock to release gas and oil which migrates up into ground water. My guess is they are drilling a lot deeper as well. I wish they gave a depth, the article is thin on details. At around 10,000 feet the ground temperature is well over 100 degrees so I'm guessing at least twice that far. Okay I'll paste an excerpt from Wikepedia on Kola borehole below. They hit 356F before the heat made them stop. I'm curious how they got the plastic out? They glaze over details like that. The great thing with geothermal is potentially if you can drill deep enough you can do it anywhere.
Wikipedia excerpt
"The main target depth was set at 15,000 m (49,000 ft). On 6 June 1979, the world depth record held by the Bertha Rogers hole in Washita County, Oklahoma, at 9,583 m (31,440 ft)[3] was broken. In 1983, the drill passed 12,000 m (39,000 ft), and drilling was stopped for about a year to celebrate the event.[4] This idle period may have contributed to a break-down on 27 September 1984: after drilling to 12,066 m (39,587 ft), a 5,000 m (16,000 ft) section of the drill string twisted off and was left in the hole. Drilling was later restarted from 7,000 m (23,000 ft).[4] The hole reached 12,262 m (40,230 ft) in 1989. In that year the hole depth was expected to reach 13,500 m (44,300 ft) by the end of 1990 and 15,000 m (49,000 ft) by 1993.[5][6] However, due to higher than expected temperatures at this depth and location, 180 C (356 F) instead of expected 100 C (212 F), drilling deeper was deemed unfeasible and the drilling was stopped in 1992.[4] With the expected further increase in temperature with increasing depth, drilling to 15,000 m (49,000 ft) would have meant working at a projected 300 C (570 F), at which the drill bit would no longer work.[citation needed]"
They basically dog leg the peddle arm and claim there's an advantage. I thought it was linked in some way so the length changes during a stroke. It isn't even that clever it's just a pointless waste of aluminum. Even a variable length one wouldn't work because it'd throw off you rhythm. Bicycle peddles haven't changed much in over a hundred years for a reason.
I'm into Heirloom fruit and vegetable seeds. After the first of the year I noticed a shocking change in search results. Most heirloom seed companies will give you a list of a list of one to four dozen results for things like bean seeds, Some sites are two to four times that. Some heirloom seed companies are over a hundred years old and most are over a decade old. These are people that grow their own seed and know the subject. Since the first of the year I find the first few pages of search results are what I call scam sites. These are businesses that buy in bulk and sell to yuppies. A year ago the first two pages were virtually all legit sources with maybe one company that bulk sells in the results. Companies that had been in business since the 1800s were showing up on page two or three of the search results. Basically the scam sites were paying a bundle to show up on the first few pages in the search results. I panicked and emailed myself my bookmarks so I could find my favorite websites no matter what happened. Heirloom seeds have become a profitable business so only the ones willing and able to pay the Google search tax even show up on the search results. You may have had a million web hits last year but this year you are five pages in because some start up paid Google to front their site. As a Google user I'm furious and considering any and all options but most of the sheep will simply use the sites willing to pay the blood money to Google. The web is rapidly becoming a place where corporate scam sites are the norm and anyone expecting more is a fool! Just sad to see search engines reduced to advertising and little more.
It's the g-force involved. The benefit of a long barrel is lower g-forces. A short barrel would be possible but when you start talking a million Gs the only thing that could survive would be solid metals. It's a balancing act of barrel length as opposed to G-Forces involved. There's nothing special about how the LHC is built, magnets or explosives it's still converting energy into motion. Most gun launch systems plan on using explosives to cut costs. Explosives are cheap, magnets and electricity are expensive. If you could do it efficiently one gallon of gasoline would orbit a couple of kilos. The trick is not wasting the energy. As the projectile moves down the barrel the gas expands exhausting it's energy. Say you have a mile long barrel you'd likely run out of gas expansion before you reached the end then add in friction and a projectile that could reach orbit doesn't even make it a mile. Instead burn a cup of vaporized gasoline spaced out every ten feet along the barrel and you might need a few hundred gallons of gas to reach orbit but it's still dirt cheap. Watch the video and he explains why that wouldn't work either. The real solution is lower density gases like hydrogen that have a higher Mach speed. The best bet is watch the video. It's one of the best I've ever seen and explains the problems in laymen's terms.
By any other name the gee force issues are the same. The problem with mass drivers would be the expense. Imagine building a 500 kilometer CERN collider. Mass drivers are practical on the Moon because of the low gravity and no atmosphere.
This is what happens when you let a learning computer hang around programmers. Somehow I keep having T2 flashbacks of Edward Furlong trying to teach the terminator to talk.
If the math is based on the old estimate then the projections for the future flybys will need to be revised. I don't know if they'll be closer or further away but massive is a major factor in how the asteroid will react to close passes with the Earth. 20% is a lot and the path will need revising. It's not a planet killer but it would make a mess of our current civilization depending on the type of impact.
The icky-factor aside, Barium is an element does not vanish and can certainly be sterilized to any degree desired. So, why do they apparently not recycle the stuff?
Why do I get this image of patients being given diuretics and not being allowed to leave until they cough up the Barium they were given? I'm guessing the bulk of it takes more than a couple of hours to pass through their system and 90% of the tests are outpatients. It's not the ick factor it's the practicality of it. I doubt you'd recover more than 10% for all the extra expense involved. I guess you can require them to sit around for 6 or 8 hours and piss in a bucket but even then at best half the Barium would be lost. You can probably recover it from sewage treatment plants but odds are it's cheaper to mine it.
It's an archaic system that needs revising. Cleaning something and not expecting it to not change is a little like the heisenberg uncertainty principle. How can you clean something through physical contact and not expect a change?
"My friend, I'm a Nigerian princess in need of a way to transfer 25 million dollars into a US account." The point is fraud generally plays off an element of greed. You help me and you get something for nothing. It's the basis of 90% of all confidence schemes. The "off the books" scams are along those lines. Break the rules and I'll make you rich.
This is the useless crap Congress actually makes time for. The President can't order a Trillion dollar coin be struck so it's a waste of time. This is another attempt to damage the President. Now the story will be that Obama planned to pay the billions by striking this mythic trillion dollar coin. The conservatives will believe it because they want to believe it. Paranoia and fear rules this country. Common sense left the building some time ago.
While not a bad thing for the US to move to the metric system, there are WAY too many other issues that should, but won't be addressed first.
It's like having a house on fire, as well as an empty gas tank. For some reason, the empty gas tank (the lack of the metric system in the US) is WAY more important......
Ah, when is it a good time? I've been hearing the same argument since the 60s! Did you know the major sticking point is the same one as for getting rid of the paper dollar? Groups like gas station owners squawk about having to change their pumps. I've heard that whine since the 60s. Basically if it costs $0.10 to implement some one will be against it. Canada bit the bullet decades ago. The problem is if we had done it in the 60s the cost would have been negligible but each year they go up so now the switch will be painful. How hard is it? When's the last time you bought half gallon of soda? Soda companies made the switch decades ago and people barely noticed. They did it to standardize to foreign markets. Gasoline and mileage are easier to avoid changing. Metric doesn't work as well in some things like construction. Most of the world still uses imperial measurements in lumber and construction. I've had to work metric and it's a headache. For everything else we need to switch and not look back. The longer we put it off the harder it will be. I spent some time in France 20+ years ago. When I got there I thought, wow gasoline is cheap here! It was only like $0.60. That's when I noticed it was in liters. Now that we are in the 21st century it's time we came into the 20th century!
The name of the top bidder is a closely guarded secret but those familiar with the process describe him as a bold, British chap with a habit of touching the corner of his mouth with his little finger.
Given the billions they spend building it all the scary thing is his million dollar bid might be acceptable!
Dump it on a rube, let them clean it up. No way that's not a toxic mess.
Rube hell, they spent billions on it all and they'll sell it for tens of millions. In the end they'll practically give it away to get rid of the monkey on their back and the buyer will apply for government funds to deal with the mess. That's how the game is played. Corporations get rich off the government and the government just gets deeper in debt.
I'll bet they could make a Haggas that even PETA could love. It already doesn't resemble meat so there's no downside. I'm only half joking in that processed meats may be the inroad to wide acceptance.
I keep hearing about these studies showing GMO is safe. Care to quote them? Are they independent? I say this because the GMO movement was launched with zero tests as in no tests were provided to the government as proof of safety and I'm not aware of any since then. They went straight from the lab to open field testing of crops with few if any safe guards. Remember this was in the beginning when no one knew if they were safe or not. Bush Sr accepted the idea as fact that GMO is effectively the same as selectively breeding crops which any school kid taking biology could tell you is false. The genes have been found in wild species which we were assured wouldn't happen. Crops have been cross contaminated, weeds have become resistant so other herbicides are starting to be used again so the benefits are limited while the genetic changes may be permanent. The technology used is akin to inserting computer code in a program using a dart board while blindfolded so the genes are often anchored in the wrong location causing defects. I've seen them first hand like four ears of corn growing on the ground with no stalk or leaves. I grew up in corn country and never saw defects like this before GMOs. The pro side will continue to demand proof and ignore evidence but let's even say everyone is wrong and it's perfectly safe and no one can gain a new allergy and such. At the very least we are facing a couple of corporations, mainly Monsanto that will control 90% or more of the vegetable food supply, grains, vegetables, fruits, etc. They can set prices how ever they want and now that they have court rulings giving them the right to sue if your field is crossed with their genes, if a GMO crop was ever planted in the area they may own your crops. I'm considering a gentleman's farm as a retirement project and I've had to consider these issues. Once it's been planted in an area it may be impossible to get rid of. A few plants can infect your whole crop eventually if you save seeds. Now they are also introducing designer animals. The crossing issue is less of a problem but say in 25 to 50 years most farm animals may have custom genes giving corporations rights to your animals. Look at it this way, did you realize pure Bison are almost extinct? Because of intentional crossing and grazing them together most American Buffalo, Bison, are hybrids of cattle and Bison. The same thing would tend to happen over time with GMO livestock. On top of all this I haven't mentioned lack of diversity and disease. The odds of a major crop failure due to this in the next 100 years are a 100% and the odds of it in the next 10 to 25 years are extremely high. Remember there are only a few types of each GMO crop sold so if one field gets it they probably all will. Add to that the fact and it is a fact that GMO crops lack the immune response of tradition breeds and it's a disaster that will happen. FYI this can even happen with traditional crops if there's a tiny gene pool. Say to turn one wheat seed into 10,000 acres of wheat over a period of years there's no diversity and every plant has the same weaknesses. That's what happens with GMO crops.
A nice plate of Exlax brownies should solve the problem. It has the added benefit of them being afraid of asking for dessert. Just slip a few in their lunch bags so they kick in right around the time of the big Physics test.
Back in the 90s there was a panic over water shortages in California so they pushed people to reduce water usage. The program worked so well it cut into the operating budget of the water department so they raised rates to make up for lost revenue. Essentially they are penalizing people for being responsible. It's a horrible message at best. Just raise the gas tax on everyone. Sure the gas guzzlers will keep paying more as they should. This idea of shared burden so you don't single out SUV owners and others that prefer gas hogs like aging Hummers and trucks is nuts. If you are worried about road upkeep raising taxes on tires would make more sense so everyone pays rather than attacking high mileage car owners.
Intel managed to make themselves look completely clueless and oblivious to the market. If it were so easy, Apple would have done this 5 years ago with the AppleTV, that was their plan to begin with.
Ala carte over the top is the holy grail that every tech company has been chasing. Google, MS, Apple, Sony, Netflix, Tivo, Roku, Nitendo, anyone with an box with an internet connection and a tv output.
All of them have been stymied because it would be the end of big contents business model. Making people pay for content they don't want or need and running adds on it.
Wow! No more reality TV? Where do I sign up! I gave up my cable TV in July over the Dish hissy fit with AMC and gave up on broadcast around the first of October. I have several streaming services as well as what I want to buy. Everyone else is left out in the cold including all those advertisers selling those anti fart medicines and adult diapers. My expenses went from a $120 a month to less than $20 a month not counting the $20 or $30 a month I spend to buy movies and TV series. I'm paying less than half the amount and I watch what I want. Hell I had cable and I still missed the new season of Breaking Bad and Madmen so what did I loose???
Slashdot Mirror
One percent won't affect sales as they assumed so the government gets a 1% windfall. What do they spend it on? More contracts with mega-rich corporations to line the pockets of the filthy rich. Now how many lives does this save, exactly????
Got Greedy
Or at least a marketable, respectable form of bulimia.
Only if you stick a vacuum cleaner hose down your throat to suck the Hagen Daz out.
Wouldn't it be simpler to sew your lips shut?
Wikipedia excerpt
"The main target depth was set at 15,000 m (49,000 ft). On 6 June 1979, the world depth record held by the Bertha Rogers hole in Washita County, Oklahoma, at 9,583 m (31,440 ft)[3] was broken. In 1983, the drill passed 12,000 m (39,000 ft), and drilling was stopped for about a year to celebrate the event.[4] This idle period may have contributed to a break-down on 27 September 1984: after drilling to 12,066 m (39,587 ft), a 5,000 m (16,000 ft) section of the drill string twisted off and was left in the hole. Drilling was later restarted from 7,000 m (23,000 ft).[4] The hole reached 12,262 m (40,230 ft) in 1989. In that year the hole depth was expected to reach 13,500 m (44,300 ft) by the end of 1990 and 15,000 m (49,000 ft) by 1993.[5][6] However, due to higher than expected temperatures at this depth and location, 180 C (356 F) instead of expected 100 C (212 F), drilling deeper was deemed unfeasible and the drilling was stopped in 1992.[4] With the expected further increase in temperature with increasing depth, drilling to 15,000 m (49,000 ft) would have meant working at a projected 300 C (570 F), at which the drill bit would no longer work.[citation needed]"
They basically dog leg the peddle arm and claim there's an advantage. I thought it was linked in some way so the length changes during a stroke. It isn't even that clever it's just a pointless waste of aluminum. Even a variable length one wouldn't work because it'd throw off you rhythm. Bicycle peddles haven't changed much in over a hundred years for a reason.
I'm into Heirloom fruit and vegetable seeds. After the first of the year I noticed a shocking change in search results. Most heirloom seed companies will give you a list of a list of one to four dozen results for things like bean seeds, Some sites are two to four times that. Some heirloom seed companies are over a hundred years old and most are over a decade old. These are people that grow their own seed and know the subject. Since the first of the year I find the first few pages of search results are what I call scam sites. These are businesses that buy in bulk and sell to yuppies. A year ago the first two pages were virtually all legit sources with maybe one company that bulk sells in the results. Companies that had been in business since the 1800s were showing up on page two or three of the search results. Basically the scam sites were paying a bundle to show up on the first few pages in the search results. I panicked and emailed myself my bookmarks so I could find my favorite websites no matter what happened. Heirloom seeds have become a profitable business so only the ones willing and able to pay the Google search tax even show up on the search results. You may have had a million web hits last year but this year you are five pages in because some start up paid Google to front their site. As a Google user I'm furious and considering any and all options but most of the sheep will simply use the sites willing to pay the blood money to Google. The web is rapidly becoming a place where corporate scam sites are the norm and anyone expecting more is a fool! Just sad to see search engines reduced to advertising and little more.
It's the g-force involved. The benefit of a long barrel is lower g-forces. A short barrel would be possible but when you start talking a million Gs the only thing that could survive would be solid metals. It's a balancing act of barrel length as opposed to G-Forces involved. There's nothing special about how the LHC is built, magnets or explosives it's still converting energy into motion. Most gun launch systems plan on using explosives to cut costs. Explosives are cheap, magnets and electricity are expensive. If you could do it efficiently one gallon of gasoline would orbit a couple of kilos. The trick is not wasting the energy. As the projectile moves down the barrel the gas expands exhausting it's energy. Say you have a mile long barrel you'd likely run out of gas expansion before you reached the end then add in friction and a projectile that could reach orbit doesn't even make it a mile. Instead burn a cup of vaporized gasoline spaced out every ten feet along the barrel and you might need a few hundred gallons of gas to reach orbit but it's still dirt cheap. Watch the video and he explains why that wouldn't work either. The real solution is lower density gases like hydrogen that have a higher Mach speed. The best bet is watch the video. It's one of the best I've ever seen and explains the problems in laymen's terms.
I think it's called a mass driver
By any other name the gee force issues are the same. The problem with mass drivers would be the expense. Imagine building a 500 kilometer CERN collider. Mass drivers are practical on the Moon because of the low gravity and no atmosphere.
This is what happens when you let a learning computer hang around programmers. Somehow I keep having T2 flashbacks of Edward Furlong trying to teach the terminator to talk.
If the math is based on the old estimate then the projections for the future flybys will need to be revised. I don't know if they'll be closer or further away but massive is a major factor in how the asteroid will react to close passes with the Earth. 20% is a lot and the path will need revising. It's not a planet killer but it would make a mess of our current civilization depending on the type of impact.
The icky-factor aside, Barium is an element does not vanish and can certainly be sterilized to any degree desired. So, why do they apparently not recycle the stuff?
Why do I get this image of patients being given diuretics and not being allowed to leave until they cough up the Barium they were given? I'm guessing the bulk of it takes more than a couple of hours to pass through their system and 90% of the tests are outpatients. It's not the ick factor it's the practicality of it. I doubt you'd recover more than 10% for all the extra expense involved. I guess you can require them to sit around for 6 or 8 hours and piss in a bucket but even then at best half the Barium would be lost. You can probably recover it from sewage treatment plants but odds are it's cheaper to mine it.
It's an archaic system that needs revising. Cleaning something and not expecting it to not change is a little like the heisenberg uncertainty principle. How can you clean something through physical contact and not expect a change?
I guess obesity really *IS* an epidemic problem.
Hey.... somebody had to say it.
The point is the weigh gain isn't just an American problem
"My friend, I'm a Nigerian princess in need of a way to transfer 25 million dollars into a US account." The point is fraud generally plays off an element of greed. You help me and you get something for nothing. It's the basis of 90% of all confidence schemes. The "off the books" scams are along those lines. Break the rules and I'll make you rich.
This is the useless crap Congress actually makes time for. The President can't order a Trillion dollar coin be struck so it's a waste of time. This is another attempt to damage the President. Now the story will be that Obama planned to pay the billions by striking this mythic trillion dollar coin. The conservatives will believe it because they want to believe it. Paranoia and fear rules this country. Common sense left the building some time ago.
Seriously.
While not a bad thing for the US to move to the metric system, there are WAY too many other issues that should, but won't be addressed first.
It's like having a house on fire, as well as an empty gas tank. For some reason, the empty gas tank (the lack of the metric system in the US) is WAY more important......
Ah, when is it a good time? I've been hearing the same argument since the 60s! Did you know the major sticking point is the same one as for getting rid of the paper dollar? Groups like gas station owners squawk about having to change their pumps. I've heard that whine since the 60s. Basically if it costs $0.10 to implement some one will be against it. Canada bit the bullet decades ago. The problem is if we had done it in the 60s the cost would have been negligible but each year they go up so now the switch will be painful. How hard is it? When's the last time you bought half gallon of soda? Soda companies made the switch decades ago and people barely noticed. They did it to standardize to foreign markets. Gasoline and mileage are easier to avoid changing. Metric doesn't work as well in some things like construction. Most of the world still uses imperial measurements in lumber and construction. I've had to work metric and it's a headache. For everything else we need to switch and not look back. The longer we put it off the harder it will be. I spent some time in France 20+ years ago. When I got there I thought, wow gasoline is cheap here! It was only like $0.60. That's when I noticed it was in liters. Now that we are in the 21st century it's time we came into the 20th century!
The name of the top bidder is a closely guarded secret but those familiar with the process describe him as a bold, British chap with a habit of touching the corner of his mouth with his little finger.
Given the billions they spend building it all the scary thing is his million dollar bid might be acceptable!
I'm really not sure if it would be a suitable deal without free shipping.
They could always list it on Ebay for a $1.99 with 25 billion for shipping.
Dump it on a rube, let them clean it up. No way that's not a toxic mess.
Rube hell, they spent billions on it all and they'll sell it for tens of millions. In the end they'll practically give it away to get rid of the monkey on their back and the buyer will apply for government funds to deal with the mess. That's how the game is played. Corporations get rich off the government and the government just gets deeper in debt.
I'll bet they could make a Haggas that even PETA could love. It already doesn't resemble meat so there's no downside. I'm only half joking in that processed meats may be the inroad to wide acceptance.
I keep hearing about these studies showing GMO is safe. Care to quote them? Are they independent? I say this because the GMO movement was launched with zero tests as in no tests were provided to the government as proof of safety and I'm not aware of any since then. They went straight from the lab to open field testing of crops with few if any safe guards. Remember this was in the beginning when no one knew if they were safe or not. Bush Sr accepted the idea as fact that GMO is effectively the same as selectively breeding crops which any school kid taking biology could tell you is false. The genes have been found in wild species which we were assured wouldn't happen. Crops have been cross contaminated, weeds have become resistant so other herbicides are starting to be used again so the benefits are limited while the genetic changes may be permanent. The technology used is akin to inserting computer code in a program using a dart board while blindfolded so the genes are often anchored in the wrong location causing defects. I've seen them first hand like four ears of corn growing on the ground with no stalk or leaves. I grew up in corn country and never saw defects like this before GMOs. The pro side will continue to demand proof and ignore evidence but let's even say everyone is wrong and it's perfectly safe and no one can gain a new allergy and such. At the very least we are facing a couple of corporations, mainly Monsanto that will control 90% or more of the vegetable food supply, grains, vegetables, fruits, etc. They can set prices how ever they want and now that they have court rulings giving them the right to sue if your field is crossed with their genes, if a GMO crop was ever planted in the area they may own your crops. I'm considering a gentleman's farm as a retirement project and I've had to consider these issues. Once it's been planted in an area it may be impossible to get rid of. A few plants can infect your whole crop eventually if you save seeds. Now they are also introducing designer animals. The crossing issue is less of a problem but say in 25 to 50 years most farm animals may have custom genes giving corporations rights to your animals. Look at it this way, did you realize pure Bison are almost extinct? Because of intentional crossing and grazing them together most American Buffalo, Bison, are hybrids of cattle and Bison. The same thing would tend to happen over time with GMO livestock. On top of all this I haven't mentioned lack of diversity and disease. The odds of a major crop failure due to this in the next 100 years are a 100% and the odds of it in the next 10 to 25 years are extremely high. Remember there are only a few types of each GMO crop sold so if one field gets it they probably all will. Add to that the fact and it is a fact that GMO crops lack the immune response of tradition breeds and it's a disaster that will happen. FYI this can even happen with traditional crops if there's a tiny gene pool. Say to turn one wheat seed into 10,000 acres of wheat over a period of years there's no diversity and every plant has the same weaknesses. That's what happens with GMO crops.
A nice plate of Exlax brownies should solve the problem. It has the added benefit of them being afraid of asking for dessert. Just slip a few in their lunch bags so they kick in right around the time of the big Physics test.
Back in the 90s there was a panic over water shortages in California so they pushed people to reduce water usage. The program worked so well it cut into the operating budget of the water department so they raised rates to make up for lost revenue. Essentially they are penalizing people for being responsible. It's a horrible message at best. Just raise the gas tax on everyone. Sure the gas guzzlers will keep paying more as they should. This idea of shared burden so you don't single out SUV owners and others that prefer gas hogs like aging Hummers and trucks is nuts. If you are worried about road upkeep raising taxes on tires would make more sense so everyone pays rather than attacking high mileage car owners.
Intel managed to make themselves look completely clueless and oblivious to the market. If it were so easy, Apple would have done this 5 years ago with the AppleTV, that was their plan to begin with. Ala carte over the top is the holy grail that every tech company has been chasing. Google, MS, Apple, Sony, Netflix, Tivo, Roku, Nitendo, anyone with an box with an internet connection and a tv output. All of them have been stymied because it would be the end of big contents business model. Making people pay for content they don't want or need and running adds on it.
Wow! No more reality TV? Where do I sign up! I gave up my cable TV in July over the Dish hissy fit with AMC and gave up on broadcast around the first of October. I have several streaming services as well as what I want to buy. Everyone else is left out in the cold including all those advertisers selling those anti fart medicines and adult diapers. My expenses went from a $120 a month to less than $20 a month not counting the $20 or $30 a month I spend to buy movies and TV series. I'm paying less than half the amount and I watch what I want. Hell I had cable and I still missed the new season of Breaking Bad and Madmen so what did I loose???