Actually GPS receivers on earth are in a constant state of being updated. Part of the transmission from the satellite includes a continuous update of the orbital data for the GPS constellation, and other related data. Also, in North America, the WAAS system downlinks atmospheric correction data in real-time so that the GPS receiver can compensate for changes in the ionosphere.
They're opposed because they're idiots. I've got no issue with the GMO crops themselves, rather with the business practices involved with it, and in some cases what has been added via the genetic modification. We've been genetically modifying our crops for thousands of years, today is no different.
I guess I wasn't all that clear in my comment. First, in my opinion, the whole "Organic" craze is a load of hokum. The fact of the matter is that we've been genetically modifying our crops for thousands of years. I have no problems with genetically modified organisms, and will happily eat them.
What I have an issue with is IP side of that world. If Monsanto et al patented the techniques for producing the genetically modified seed, that's one thing. To patent the gene itself is another entirely. As much of an ass as Percey Schmeiser is, I don't see what the problem with him selecting for the roundup ready gene in his own field is. That was a genetic trait that appeared in his field, and he should be able to breed for that. He did not use the same technique to produce those seeds as Monsanto uses.
The bigger issue is the Intellectual Property issues associated with the GMO crops. As part of the license agreements that come with the GMO seeds, Farmers are no longer permitted to keep behind a portion of their crop to plant the following year, should they wish, and are thus forced to buy new seed every year. Yeah, it may be profitable in the good times, but it dramatically reduces their self-sufficiency.
You're probably right when it comes to North Korea, but it's worth mentioning that players in the nuclear weapons game have had variable yield devices for some time now. The US B-61 bomb could be set for 0.3kt to a maximum of 80kt with a dial [wikipedia.org] by the ground operator who loads it into the bomber.
The most likely mechanism for "dial-a-yield" is by varying the amount of tritium injected into the pit prior to detonation, thus dramatically changing the efficiency of the primary and/or changing the geometry of the secondary so that there is either fusion or not.
It is basically just a fission core with a lithium deuteride booster.
Well, no, not really. A boosted weapon is vastly different than a true thermonuclear weapon. In a boosted weapon, you inject a small amount of Tritium into the Plutonium core. The fusion of the tritium causes a burst of fast neutrons, which in turn causes additional fission in the remaining Plutonium and/or Uranium tamper, significantly improving the efficiency of the weapon. This is significantly different than a thermonuclear weapon, which has distinct fission and fusion sections (which uses Lithium Deuteride, as you mentioned).
However, there is a minimum size for a thermonuclear weapon; The fission part has to be powerful enough to create the conditions necessary for fusion, and to fission the Lithium into Tritium, then the Neutrons generated by the fusion will then generate additional fission in the remaining Plutonium (and Uranium). It's really doubtful that you could have a true thermonuclear explosion that only produced 5 to 6 kilotons; the fission-fusion-fission cycle just can't work at that low energy.
If you want to bet that a recovered falcon 9 first stage can't be used, the only way that argument will work is if you argue that the airframe somehow suffers irreversible damage during the recovery maneuver. Other than this, it would be extremely strange.
The real question is how much work and labour will it take to re-certify the systems for flight. If it costs $70 million to re-certify a $60 million rocket, it becomes a case of "it's possible but not worthwhile." What people forget in a lot of these situations is that the biggest ticket item in most of these projects is the labour involved, not the cost of the hardware itself.
Make whole? I've got an '06 TDI (so well before this whole thing), but have friends who have the affected models. None of them are upset with VW over this, and all are enjoying their good mileage, decent performance, and decent build quality. Neither of my two friends are interested in the recall should it seriously affect performance and/or mileage. The NOx issues are because the engine burns too efficiently (ie hot flame front); in order to reduce the NOx, you have to deliberately de-tune the engine.
I predict that after this, the #1 modification will be to re-tune the engine.
Thankfully there is still quite a bit of SM devices that you can hand-solder, or at least deal with without having to have $10000 worth of equipment to work with
It's not even out of the realm for home-users to run projects with BGAs and similar components. With the advent of reasonable prices for multi-layer PCB prototyping, and tricks like toaster oven reflow and/or frying-pan reflow, home-based tinkerers can build a lot of really interesting devices.
Maybe I've worked with the military too much, but the moment I walk in a door, any hat that I'm wearing instantly comes off. The one and only exception to this is if I'm working in a warehouse or similar environment, where a hard hat makes sense and/or is required.
Who said anything about nationalizing anything? A real healthcare system doesn't have to be nationalised.
Take the Canadian system, as a prime example. As it is not something enumerated in either the constitution, or the British North America act before it, by default healthcare is under the jurisdiction of the provinces. Each province runs its own single-payer insurance system, and sets standards for care and outcomes. In turn, each province is divided into regional health authorities, which for the most part own and operate the hospitals in their region, as well as handle things like health inspections of restaurants, initial investigation of disease outbreaks, and so forth. In turn, unless they are on the hospital payroll (rare), doctors in turn are free to operate their practice as they see fit (private business, partnership, chain etc...) the only proviso being that they either have to be in the public system, or completely out of it, no double-dipping.
The net effect is that hospitals, and doctors are operated locally and in the case of hospitals, in a non-profit manner. This results in a reasonably efficient system that costs far less than the US system, while delivering similar or better outcomes.
Those private space insurance premiums should be skyrocketing....
Actually launch insurance is expensive enough that if you are doing a significant launch campaign, many companies will go without. If you were going to build, insure, and launch 3 satellites, it's actually cost effective to build/launch 4, and skip the insurance. That way, if one of them goes boom, you still get your three, and if one of them go boom, you wind up with an on-orbit spare.
As many have mentioned, the best thing to do is to get involved with an organization or cause that you care about. If you actually work with the organization, you will a) be helping them out significantly with your time and talents, and b) have a better feel as to whether they are using the funds they receive responsibly. I am on the board of directors of a mid sized (roughly $3,000,000/year) 501(c)3, and I know precisely what our overhead is. I also volunteer heavily for said organization (primarily network design, and electrical type work), and donate when I can.
Despite what other people say, any organization that is viable will have overhead. It costs money to ensure the books are properly kept and audited, there are bills to pay, and non-profits of all organizations, should pay their employees a fair and reasonable wage. From a financial point of view, the real key is to ensure that the books are properly kept, and there are adequate controls in place to ensure that the money is spent in an appropriate manner.
Uhmmm, why are you using your ISP's email in the first place? It's far better to use a third party email provider, so that you can switch ISPs at will without having to change your email address.
High density living is incompatible with low carbon living.
This is so wrong, it's funny that you believe it. High density living dramatically reduces the energy requirements for a given population. People tend to live in smaller spaces, which means less energy is required to heat/cool. High density living means that things are closer together, which greatly reduces the need for transportation of goods and people (I live in downtown Vancouver, and while I own a car, I drive it maybe once a week, everything else is on foot).
Low density living means that goods and people need to be transported over much greater distances. Low density generally means that you're heating/cooling a larger space. Low density means more land area covered by asphalt and concrete for a given population. Low density living means far more vehicle trips, worse traffic, etc... In short, it's the most energy intensive way to live.
My first reaction was also to use some Rpi's at each location which could add up to under $200 per building I then considered the cost to forklift and upgrade the HVAC at each facility.
Having been on both sides of this equation, I've come to the conclusion in my old age that rolling your own solution is rarely ever the right solution. Sure it might save you some money up front, but by the time you document things properly (you are getting full design, code and hardware documentation right?) you have probably spent as much, and you're still pretty much dependent on that one person not getting bored, or hit by a bus, or otherwise keel over.
As much as I love to build things and hack on them, the reality is that for situations like this, the right solution is to go with a control system that will be supported by a manufacturer that will likely be around for a while. Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, etc... When shit goes down, you have somewhere to call.
Either my understanding of orbital mechanics is completely wrong or that is completely incorrect. Geostationary satellites need very regular station keeping otherwise they either fall to Earth or are ejected out into solar orbit. If ejected it could remain operational for a while but if it fell back to earth the results would be obvious.
Your understanding of orbital mechanics is totally wrong. Geostationary satellites do need frequent stationkeeping maneuvers, but that is because the satellite is required to remain in a 30km box. If these maneuvers cease, as would happen with the sudden disappearance of humans, they will start to drift off their stations, eventually collecting in a couple of regions, one over the Indian ocean and the other over the Pacific. (This is due to the earth's slightly uneven gravity). Because of the vastness of space, the probability of them actually running into each other is fairly low.
A geostationary satellite would need almost the same amount of energy to come down as it takes to put it up there, and probably twice as much to escape the earth's gravity well. At the end of life of these satellites, they use the remaining fuel to boost them another 200km or so in altitude, then vent all remaining fuel (so they won't explode if there's a fuel leak), and then blow the electronics to make sure they don't interfere with anything else. They will remain in that graveyard orbit forever.
Watching the stream this morning, I couldn't help but feel sorry for any crew who were in the capsule as it tumbled over after separation. That looks like a really uncomfortable ride, but better than exploding on the pad.
Okay, but if you're going to do that, you might want to throw out all the incredibly dire warnings about self-signed certificates. Nobody should be forced to pay a cartel for SSL certificates.
It's gets worse. Chrome throws the dire warnings on self-signed SSL certificates, and then refuses to do the username/password autofill on those pages. I've basically ditched using chrome for most of my network admin stuff that goes over https, because of this.
Also, for those of us operating network connections to remote locations, everything https is absolutely destructive to the network performance. Right now, our WAAS setup gives us about a 30% boost on the satellite connection, mostly through low level de-duplication and compression. When you have 50+ people depending on a 1.8Mbps satellite connection, every bit counts. Enabling https for things that don't need it is a huge performance penalty.
Basically, the people making these decisions assume that everyone has an unlimited, fast internet pipe. This is simply not the case.
Probably what would happen is that the relatively secret stuff that the US has on the ISS like the communication system (TRDSS) will either be opened up or a few wheels will be reinvented in order to eliminate a good portion of the stuff that China would want to steal.
Actually, there's nothing really secret about TDRSS. They're just bent-pipe communications satellites like all the others, just with a bit of an odd frequency set. The Radios on the space shuttle were derivatives of those used on military aircraft, but that's about it.
One helpful feature is the bar code scanner. You can scan almost any product and get the nutritional information right into your mobile device.
And there's the problem... Good food doesn't have a barcode. Very little of what I bring home from the grocery store has barcodes on it, and what does usually just has the internal store code on it (meat), or is a bulk package (20lb bag of flour, etc...). All these food tracking/diary apps are really built for tracking packaged/prepared foods, and are a pain to use when you make stuff from scratch. As such, unless you're going to weigh and add all the ingredients manually (I'm way too lazy for that), you're left with generic estimates of what you're eating "Plate of pasta" or "Steak Dinner" or whatever, which can be wildly inaccurate if you're like me and tend to invent as you go and/or substitute ingredients based on what you have.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually GPS receivers on earth are in a constant state of being updated. Part of the transmission from the satellite includes a continuous update of the orbital data for the GPS constellation, and other related data. Also, in North America, the WAAS system downlinks atmospheric correction data in real-time so that the GPS receiver can compensate for changes in the ionosphere.
They know where you live, they just have to stop accounts set up in Canada from accessing American content.
Ahh, but what if I travel to the US and want to watch netflix? What content are they going to show me then?
They're opposed because they're idiots. I've got no issue with the GMO crops themselves, rather with the business practices involved with it, and in some cases what has been added via the genetic modification. We've been genetically modifying our crops for thousands of years, today is no different.
I guess I wasn't all that clear in my comment. First, in my opinion, the whole "Organic" craze is a load of hokum. The fact of the matter is that we've been genetically modifying our crops for thousands of years. I have no problems with genetically modified organisms, and will happily eat them.
What I have an issue with is IP side of that world. If Monsanto et al patented the techniques for producing the genetically modified seed, that's one thing. To patent the gene itself is another entirely. As much of an ass as Percey Schmeiser is, I don't see what the problem with him selecting for the roundup ready gene in his own field is. That was a genetic trait that appeared in his field, and he should be able to breed for that. He did not use the same technique to produce those seeds as Monsanto uses.
The bigger issue is the Intellectual Property issues associated with the GMO crops. As part of the license agreements that come with the GMO seeds, Farmers are no longer permitted to keep behind a portion of their crop to plant the following year, should they wish, and are thus forced to buy new seed every year. Yeah, it may be profitable in the good times, but it dramatically reduces their self-sufficiency.
You're probably right when it comes to North Korea, but it's worth mentioning that players in the nuclear weapons game have had variable yield devices for some time now. The US B-61 bomb could be set for 0.3kt to a maximum of 80kt with a dial [wikipedia.org] by the ground operator who loads it into the bomber.
The most likely mechanism for "dial-a-yield" is by varying the amount of tritium injected into the pit prior to detonation, thus dramatically changing the efficiency of the primary and/or changing the geometry of the secondary so that there is either fusion or not.
It is basically just a fission core with a lithium deuteride booster.
Well, no, not really. A boosted weapon is vastly different than a true thermonuclear weapon. In a boosted weapon, you inject a small amount of Tritium into the Plutonium core. The fusion of the tritium causes a burst of fast neutrons, which in turn causes additional fission in the remaining Plutonium and/or Uranium tamper, significantly improving the efficiency of the weapon. This is significantly different than a thermonuclear weapon, which has distinct fission and fusion sections (which uses Lithium Deuteride, as you mentioned).
However, there is a minimum size for a thermonuclear weapon; The fission part has to be powerful enough to create the conditions necessary for fusion, and to fission the Lithium into Tritium, then the Neutrons generated by the fusion will then generate additional fission in the remaining Plutonium (and Uranium). It's really doubtful that you could have a true thermonuclear explosion that only produced 5 to 6 kilotons; the fission-fusion-fission cycle just can't work at that low energy.
If you want to bet that a recovered falcon 9 first stage can't be used, the only way that argument will work is if you argue that the airframe somehow suffers irreversible damage during the recovery maneuver. Other than this, it would be extremely strange.
The real question is how much work and labour will it take to re-certify the systems for flight. If it costs $70 million to re-certify a $60 million rocket, it becomes a case of "it's possible but not worthwhile." What people forget in a lot of these situations is that the biggest ticket item in most of these projects is the labour involved, not the cost of the hardware itself.
And maybe, just maybe they'll come away with some lessons learned form this kabillion dollar, 0.5mph joyride.
Don't you mean 0.5mpy joyride?
Make whole? I've got an '06 TDI (so well before this whole thing), but have friends who have the affected models. None of them are upset with VW over this, and all are enjoying their good mileage, decent performance, and decent build quality. Neither of my two friends are interested in the recall should it seriously affect performance and/or mileage. The NOx issues are because the engine burns too efficiently (ie hot flame front); in order to reduce the NOx, you have to deliberately de-tune the engine.
I predict that after this, the #1 modification will be to re-tune the engine.
Thankfully there is still quite a bit of SM devices that you can hand-solder, or at least deal with without having to have $10000 worth of equipment to work with
It's not even out of the realm for home-users to run projects with BGAs and similar components. With the advent of reasonable prices for multi-layer PCB prototyping, and tricks like toaster oven reflow and/or frying-pan reflow, home-based tinkerers can build a lot of really interesting devices.
Maybe I've worked with the military too much, but the moment I walk in a door, any hat that I'm wearing instantly comes off. The one and only exception to this is if I'm working in a warehouse or similar environment, where a hard hat makes sense and/or is required.
Sorry... nationalizing stuff is not a panacea.
Who said anything about nationalizing anything? A real healthcare system doesn't have to be nationalised.
Take the Canadian system, as a prime example. As it is not something enumerated in either the constitution, or the British North America act before it, by default healthcare is under the jurisdiction of the provinces. Each province runs its own single-payer insurance system, and sets standards for care and outcomes. In turn, each province is divided into regional health authorities, which for the most part own and operate the hospitals in their region, as well as handle things like health inspections of restaurants, initial investigation of disease outbreaks, and so forth. In turn, unless they are on the hospital payroll (rare), doctors in turn are free to operate their practice as they see fit (private business, partnership, chain etc...) the only proviso being that they either have to be in the public system, or completely out of it, no double-dipping.
The net effect is that hospitals, and doctors are operated locally and in the case of hospitals, in a non-profit manner. This results in a reasonably efficient system that costs far less than the US system, while delivering similar or better outcomes.
Those private space insurance premiums should be skyrocketing....
Actually launch insurance is expensive enough that if you are doing a significant launch campaign, many companies will go without. If you were going to build, insure, and launch 3 satellites, it's actually cost effective to build/launch 4, and skip the insurance. That way, if one of them goes boom, you still get your three, and if one of them go boom, you wind up with an on-orbit spare.
As many have mentioned, the best thing to do is to get involved with an organization or cause that you care about. If you actually work with the organization, you will a) be helping them out significantly with your time and talents, and b) have a better feel as to whether they are using the funds they receive responsibly. I am on the board of directors of a mid sized (roughly $3,000,000/year) 501(c)3, and I know precisely what our overhead is. I also volunteer heavily for said organization (primarily network design, and electrical type work), and donate when I can.
Despite what other people say, any organization that is viable will have overhead. It costs money to ensure the books are properly kept and audited, there are bills to pay, and non-profits of all organizations, should pay their employees a fair and reasonable wage. From a financial point of view, the real key is to ensure that the books are properly kept, and there are adequate controls in place to ensure that the money is spent in an appropriate manner.
Uhmmm, why are you using your ISP's email in the first place? It's far better to use a third party email provider, so that you can switch ISPs at will without having to change your email address.
High density living is incompatible with low carbon living.
This is so wrong, it's funny that you believe it. High density living dramatically reduces the energy requirements for a given population. People tend to live in smaller spaces, which means less energy is required to heat/cool. High density living means that things are closer together, which greatly reduces the need for transportation of goods and people (I live in downtown Vancouver, and while I own a car, I drive it maybe once a week, everything else is on foot).
Low density living means that goods and people need to be transported over much greater distances. Low density generally means that you're heating/cooling a larger space. Low density means more land area covered by asphalt and concrete for a given population. Low density living means far more vehicle trips, worse traffic, etc... In short, it's the most energy intensive way to live.
My first reaction was also to use some Rpi's at each location which could add up to under $200 per building I then considered the cost to forklift and upgrade the HVAC at each facility.
Having been on both sides of this equation, I've come to the conclusion in my old age that rolling your own solution is rarely ever the right solution. Sure it might save you some money up front, but by the time you document things properly (you are getting full design, code and hardware documentation right?) you have probably spent as much, and you're still pretty much dependent on that one person not getting bored, or hit by a bus, or otherwise keel over.
As much as I love to build things and hack on them, the reality is that for situations like this, the right solution is to go with a control system that will be supported by a manufacturer that will likely be around for a while. Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, etc... When shit goes down, you have somewhere to call.
Either my understanding of orbital mechanics is completely wrong or that is completely incorrect. Geostationary satellites need very regular station keeping otherwise they either fall to Earth or are ejected out into solar orbit. If ejected it could remain operational for a while but if it fell back to earth the results would be obvious.
Your understanding of orbital mechanics is totally wrong. Geostationary satellites do need frequent stationkeeping maneuvers, but that is because the satellite is required to remain in a 30km box. If these maneuvers cease, as would happen with the sudden disappearance of humans, they will start to drift off their stations, eventually collecting in a couple of regions, one over the Indian ocean and the other over the Pacific. (This is due to the earth's slightly uneven gravity). Because of the vastness of space, the probability of them actually running into each other is fairly low.
A geostationary satellite would need almost the same amount of energy to come down as it takes to put it up there, and probably twice as much to escape the earth's gravity well. At the end of life of these satellites, they use the remaining fuel to boost them another 200km or so in altitude, then vent all remaining fuel (so they won't explode if there's a fuel leak), and then blow the electronics to make sure they don't interfere with anything else. They will remain in that graveyard orbit forever.
Watching the stream this morning, I couldn't help but feel sorry for any crew who were in the capsule as it tumbled over after separation. That looks like a really uncomfortable ride, but better than exploding on the pad.
I guess they forgot to hit T to enable SAS... ;)
Okay, but if you're going to do that, you might want to throw out all the incredibly dire warnings about self-signed certificates. Nobody should be forced to pay a cartel for SSL certificates.
It's gets worse. Chrome throws the dire warnings on self-signed SSL certificates, and then refuses to do the username/password autofill on those pages. I've basically ditched using chrome for most of my network admin stuff that goes over https, because of this.
Also, for those of us operating network connections to remote locations, everything https is absolutely destructive to the network performance. Right now, our WAAS setup gives us about a 30% boost on the satellite connection, mostly through low level de-duplication and compression. When you have 50+ people depending on a 1.8Mbps satellite connection, every bit counts. Enabling https for things that don't need it is a huge performance penalty.
Basically, the people making these decisions assume that everyone has an unlimited, fast internet pipe. This is simply not the case.
Probably what would happen is that the relatively secret stuff that the US has on the ISS like the communication system (TRDSS) will either be opened up or a few wheels will be reinvented in order to eliminate a good portion of the stuff that China would want to steal.
Actually, there's nothing really secret about TDRSS. They're just bent-pipe communications satellites like all the others, just with a bit of an odd frequency set. The Radios on the space shuttle were derivatives of those used on military aircraft, but that's about it.
Even then I'm wondering how easy it is to get this thing back to Earth surface intact.
I dunno, if KSP taught me anything, all we need to do is strap 50 MK16 parachutes to it, and everything should be fine. ;)
One helpful feature is the bar code scanner. You can scan almost any product and get the nutritional information right into your mobile device.
And there's the problem... Good food doesn't have a barcode. Very little of what I bring home from the grocery store has barcodes on it, and what does usually just has the internal store code on it (meat), or is a bulk package (20lb bag of flour, etc...). All these food tracking/diary apps are really built for tracking packaged/prepared foods, and are a pain to use when you make stuff from scratch. As such, unless you're going to weigh and add all the ingredients manually (I'm way too lazy for that), you're left with generic estimates of what you're eating "Plate of pasta" or "Steak Dinner" or whatever, which can be wildly inaccurate if you're like me and tend to invent as you go and/or substitute ingredients based on what you have.