Then again, depending on the affiliations of the donors, they may not care.
MIT's-reputation-in-general vs. temporary-RIAA-spasming... for the kind of people that make big donations, that's probably (hopefully?) not too hard of desicion.
For lesser know schools that may have been hit with this, I can, sadly, more easily imagine donation repercussions.
Yeah, but that only applies to works of 'recognized stature.' I.e., don't go around destroying cultural icons or historically/artisticly significant peices. A DVD, even of a classic movie like 'Citizem Kane', doesn't fall under this... Destroying the only remaining copy or the original film maybe would count, but not a mere copy. Also, that requires destruction: this tech simply mutes/jumps along, on top of the original DVD. No destruction involved.
Actually the US power grid (and, really, the majority of power grids) are highly ineffecient. (Don't have a link, but you can find several articles to this end on MIT Tech. Report and Wired in the last year.)
Combine this with the net energy loss of hauling your fuel in from several hundred million points (houses, offices, apartments, resturaunts, etc.) and you only increase the waste (especially since you'd probably have two sets of garbage trucks roaming around) and the energy lost due to the fact that food will be partially (mostly?!) broken down by the time it gets there (unless they start carting off your food wastes in refrigerated trucks) and you see the issues with your plan...
Actually, if you read up a bit, you'll find that, while a little nervous about the economic impacts on current power generators, power grid owners tend to be quite optimistic about distributed power production.
Also, have you ever sat down and figured out the amound of energy lost when you try to shove a huge current down a tiny wire (and even the big/fat powerlines are "tiny" when you look at it this way.) I forget, but there is something like an average of 20% loss of power between a big gerenator and the substation in your neighbor hood. Stand under a high voltage line: where do you think the energy for all that buzzing and crackling is coming from? Stand closer and ask yourself where all that heat is coming from. But not too close...;-)
"In today's news, 11,000 AOL customers were brought up on charges of trading copyrighted materials. While some have asked how 11,000 people could have possibly shared the same IP address within 60 minutes, RIAA lawyer Mr. Hoo Haw responded, 'This is another example of why we need to enact stricter laws...' When asked how that answered the question, he answer 'This is another example of why we need to enact stricter laws...'
In other news, the RIAA's new Lawyer-Bot was debuted at Disneyland today, much to enjoyment of the Senators and Representatives working the ticket lines..."
Hmmm... I was going to write a real response but sarcasm got me off-track.
Posters' revenge... Read The Article!
On page 4 (web version): "Already IBM has demonstrated 200-GHz transistors in the laboratory and is manufacturing 120-GHz technology."
Also, I believe Bluetooth, at least, uses an unlicesnsed segment of the spectrum. So, unlike me setting up something that jams, e.g., 99.5 FM or channel 5 or something, this would be (currently) unregulated.
Global warming sucks for many reasons (the warming part being the major one:->) but I think we have nothing to worry about from this effect.
Okay, time for some (EXTREMELY) rough figurin':
The Earch is 6,378,136 meters in radius (equitorial radius... ja, ja, it's something like 10 or 20 km less from pole to pole, but bear with me.)
On a perfectly clear day, with the sun directly overhead, insolation dumps about 1000 W/m^2 on the earth.
Given these two facts (someone please check my math/logic):
Surface area of the earth is approx 1.278E14 m^2
Given that half of the planet is illuminated at any time, and assuming (enter truly massive error margin) for the sake of argument that the entire half is recieving full insolation, that means that the total energy striking the earth over 24 hours is:
5.52E21 Watts.
(Damn!)
So, if the day is 1/10,000 of a second longer, we take on an additional 6.39E12 Watts.
(Damn again!)
However, looking at it from percentages:
6.39E12/5.52E21 = 1.15E-9 or about 1.2E-7 of one percent.
I think we can safely say this will not cause a noticible positive feedback for some time:-)
I'd say that we have already begun to walk down that path: ask the average person on the street an easy science question. Better yet, ask three. See how many people can answer such basics as: what are the 9 planets, what makes an acid vs. base, and what particle makes up electricity. I'd be surprised if you could get three correct answers half the time.
Granted, these facts won't help most people out in their day to day lives, but how can you expect people to make informed decisions --i.e., make input-- without even a basic grasp of the things they can find or see (given a window, no clouds, and some distance from a city) in their kitchen.
As in a previous post mentioning the connection between Roman history and American history, the ultimate downfall will probably be the complacency of the masses, not the government's (or s') "bamboozling."
If anything, this existing complacency will only make the potential loss of public, even scientific, information much easier to carry out. What people don't know or know about, the don't care for. What people don't care for, they'll let go of freely. Then people begin forget what it is that they don't know.
I'd say any potential problems that may stem from or be influenced by this order are already in existence. We, as a society, have high regard for but little understanding or science, engineering and math. The reigns of power have already been handed over, at least partially. Even among/.'s it you can find the superiority of "we know more than the silly hordes of (insert AOLers, Micro$oft-using-foole, etc.):-)
As for the masses not being informed... when was the last time you saw science news as part of network television? The newspapers do a little better... How much trouble do you have checking out science books from the library... not a lot of competition there. Why do ghosts, UFOs, ESP, etc. get MORE time on TV, presented in a "sciency" manner, than real science?
The masses are already uninformed; many don't even pause to think about it, even with the stunningly open access that does exist and probably will still exist a year or five from now.
To completely branch off: this is why we need more teachers, better paid teachers, more focus on "learning to learn" etc.
To bring it back ontopic (sort of): Don't let the dangers of the moment distract you from a, IMHO, much more insidious problem that stands to make this whole thing moot.
A similarly "alternative materials" idea is straw-bale construction. First heard about this in San Francisco/Berkeley areas; apparently it has some government support even. Here is a good page with some pictures, plans, history and thermal/etc. data even.
Slashdot Mirror
Then again, depending on the affiliations of the donors, they may not care.
MIT's-reputation-in-general vs. temporary-RIAA-spasming... for the kind of people that make big donations, that's probably (hopefully?) not too hard of desicion.
For lesser know schools that may have been hit with this, I can, sadly, more easily imagine donation repercussions.
Yeah, but that only applies to works of 'recognized stature.' I.e., don't go around destroying cultural icons or historically/artisticly significant peices. A DVD, even of a classic movie like 'Citizem Kane', doesn't fall under this... Destroying the only remaining copy or the original film maybe would count, but not a mere copy. Also, that requires destruction: this tech simply mutes/jumps along, on top of the original DVD. No destruction involved.
Coach airfare from LA to France: $600 Bottle of Graillot: $20 Crying poor from a conference being held in the French Riviera: Priceless
Actually the US power grid (and, really, the majority of power grids) are highly ineffecient. (Don't have a link, but you can find several articles to this end on MIT Tech. Report and Wired in the last year.)
;-)
Combine this with the net energy loss of hauling your fuel in from several hundred million points (houses, offices, apartments, resturaunts, etc.) and you only increase the waste (especially since you'd probably have two sets of garbage trucks roaming around) and the energy lost due to the fact that food will be partially (mostly?!) broken down by the time it gets there (unless they start carting off your food wastes in refrigerated trucks) and you see the issues with your plan...
Actually, if you read up a bit, you'll find that, while a little nervous about the economic impacts on current power generators, power grid owners tend to be quite optimistic about distributed power production.
Also, have you ever sat down and figured out the amound of energy lost when you try to shove a huge current down a tiny wire (and even the big/fat powerlines are "tiny" when you look at it this way.) I forget, but there is something like an average of 20% loss of power between a big gerenator and the substation in your neighbor hood. Stand under a high voltage line: where do you think the energy for all that buzzing and crackling is coming from? Stand closer and ask yourself where all that heat is coming from. But not too close...
God help any one behind a "mega-proxy"...
"In today's news, 11,000 AOL customers were brought up on charges of trading copyrighted materials. While some have asked how 11,000 people could have possibly shared the same IP address within 60 minutes, RIAA lawyer Mr. Hoo Haw responded, 'This is another example of why we need to enact stricter laws...' When asked how that answered the question, he answer 'This is another example of why we need to enact stricter laws...'
In other news, the RIAA's new Lawyer-Bot was debuted at Disneyland today, much to enjoyment of the Senators and Representatives working the ticket lines..."
Hmmm... I was going to write a real response but sarcasm got me off-track.
Posters' revenge... Read The Article!
On page 4 (web version): "Already IBM has demonstrated 200-GHz transistors in the laboratory and is manufacturing 120-GHz technology."
Also, I believe Bluetooth, at least, uses an unlicesnsed segment of the spectrum. So, unlike me setting up something that jams, e.g., 99.5 FM or channel 5 or something, this would be (currently) unregulated.
No... not at all. The amount of energy PER DAY is not "net zero" but would actually be greater.
It's not as if during the night time all energy gained during the day time is lost (god help all life on earth if it was!!)
Global warming sucks for many reasons (the warming part being the major one :->) but I think we have nothing to worry about from this effect.
:-)
Okay, time for some (EXTREMELY) rough figurin':
The Earch is 6,378,136 meters in radius (equitorial radius... ja, ja, it's something like 10 or 20 km less from pole to pole, but bear with me.)
On a perfectly clear day, with the sun directly overhead, insolation dumps about 1000 W/m^2 on the earth.
Given these two facts (someone please check my math/logic):
Surface area of the earth is approx 1.278E14 m^2
Given that half of the planet is illuminated at any time, and assuming (enter truly massive error margin) for the sake of argument that the entire half is recieving full insolation, that means that the total energy striking the earth over 24 hours is:
5.52E21 Watts.
(Damn!)
So, if the day is 1/10,000 of a second longer, we take on an additional 6.39E12 Watts.
(Damn again!)
However, looking at it from percentages:
6.39E12/5.52E21 = 1.15E-9 or about 1.2E-7 of one percent.
I think we can safely say this will not cause a noticible positive feedback for some time
Do think this guy would help me pick some lottery numbers?
I'd say that we have already begun to walk down that path: ask the average person on the street an easy science question. Better yet, ask three. See how many people can answer such basics as: what are the 9 planets, what makes an acid vs. base, and what particle makes up electricity. I'd be surprised if you could get three correct answers half the time.
/.'s it you can find the superiority of "we know more than the silly hordes of (insert AOLers, Micro$oft-using-foole, etc.) :-)
Granted, these facts won't help most people out in their day to day lives, but how can you expect people to make informed decisions --i.e., make input-- without even a basic grasp of the things they can find or see (given a window, no clouds, and some distance from a city) in their kitchen.
As in a previous post mentioning the connection between Roman history and American history, the ultimate downfall will probably be the complacency of the masses, not the government's (or s') "bamboozling."
If anything, this existing complacency will only make the potential loss of public, even scientific, information much easier to carry out. What people don't know or know about, the don't care for. What people don't care for, they'll let go of freely. Then people begin forget what it is that they don't know.
I'd say any potential problems that may stem from or be influenced by this order are already in existence. We, as a society, have high regard for but little understanding or science, engineering and math. The reigns of power have already been handed over, at least partially. Even among
As for the masses not being informed... when was the last time you saw science news as part of network television? The newspapers do a little better... How much trouble do you have checking out science books from the library... not a lot of competition there. Why do ghosts, UFOs, ESP, etc. get MORE time on TV, presented in a "sciency" manner, than real science?
The masses are already uninformed; many don't even pause to think about it, even with the stunningly open access that does exist and probably will still exist a year or five from now.
To completely branch off: this is why we need more teachers, better paid teachers, more focus on "learning to learn" etc.
To bring it back ontopic (sort of): Don't let the dangers of the moment distract you from a, IMHO, much more insidious problem that stands to make this whole thing moot.
A similarly "alternative materials" idea is straw-bale construction. First heard about this in San Francisco/Berkeley areas; apparently it has some government support even. Here is a good page with some pictures, plans, history and thermal/etc. data even.
Yes. Thank god they didn't spend any tax money trying to network those computers back in the '60's. Silly nerds and their esoteric research...