This is almost pure speculation on my part, but I think that the major factor in this result is going to turn out to be mixing of air from the boundary layer (near the Earth) up into the jet (laminar flow region). I know that my fluid mechanics-fu are no where near up to the task of solving this problem; but I can just imagine how much worse the flow over a semi-infinite flat plate problem would get if mixing were introduced.
Oh yes, I do not doubt the *direction* of the results, I just have reservations as to their magnitude.
Also, the study by Dr. Roy (NYT.com) was modelling the effect of turbines that looked like the propellers on airplanes. You can see that this design inherently mixes more air vertically (due to turbulence at the tips) than a more modern design where the airfoils are bowed and connected to a vertical axis.(sort of like this--> (|) ) Sadly, this design is an even better self-serve quisinart for birds than the propeller design.
The implications of Dr. Roy's (who was a graduate student of one of the authors of the paper reported on in the G&M )research are not as important on a planet-wide scale, but it shows windfarms can have a really surpisingly large effect on local climate. This could be a real hurdle to the adoption of wind power on a large scale, since wind farms often try to rent space from farm farms. If there's anything a farmer won't go for, it's got to be renting field space to something that's going to alter the climate of his farm.
The issue isn't so much a problem of windbreaking, but of vertical mixing of the air column. Here's a summary of research done by a Dr. Roy in the NY Times.
Like the study covered in the Globe and Mail, this is a simulated study of a specific type of turbine in a specific wind farm. Unlike the G&M study, this researcher was interested in microclimatological effects of windfarms.
Personally, I take these sorts of results with a whole shaker full of salt as the researchers need to make a whole raft of assumptions in order to get any result at all. (For instance,who says someone won't build a better windfarm?)
I love it when the cable news networks get all worked up about the number of new jobs last month... Guys, most of those jobs were in construction (post hurricane season) and retailing (pre X-Mas season) and a good number of them will be gone by January 5.
On a related note, does anyone know how these jobs are countedd each month, is each job counted a 'full time equivalent', or are partime jobs counted as one job too?
In short, you can't. The process is initiated by your employer (either the guvmint itself, or a contractor).
The process itself is painless:
1.) Get a job with a defence contractor.
2.) Fill out a detailed personal history. For some levels of clearance, people you know will probably be interviewed.
3.) You can usually get a provisional clearance within a week, unless there is shadiness in your past.
4.) Final clearance can take two to twelve months to come through.
OTOH, the military assigns a (usually) low clearance to all it's personnel and this makes it relatively easy to be promoted to higher levels of security once you're out in industry.
Random fact: one in seven Americans has some sort of government security clearance.
Not only is this a dupe, but PackBots (made by the same folks that brought us the Roomba) are used frequently as ordinance disposal 'bots by the military and police bomb squads. In this mission, they frequenlty are equiped with some sort of shotgun shell firing capability, in case it is necessary to detonate a device in situ.
The BD people call it a 'disruptor' rather than a shotgun, though.
Since we have fewer genes than a flower but are more complex
Humans are not necessarily the most complex creatures on earth. We don't have multiple phases in our lifecycle, or spend part of our lives in a marine or aquatic environment, or photsynthesize for some part of our lives...
The point is, is that the organisms that have more complex lifecycles are typically more complex genetically. So, this result isn't really all that surprising.
For further reading on this subject, I reccomend reading papers by Zhulin at GA Tech.
Re:Methods for doing this; Russia good as any plac
on
Russian Mock Mars Mission
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Food, other consumables, oxygen, water, yes, these are valid simulations. I'd also like to see what the options are for running a hydroponics lab to oxygenate the air and cleanse sewer waste, though not to eat necessarily since this would involve a fair amount of work.
NASA ran a demonstration project called "Breadboard" starting back in '86. It's still active, I think. The goal of the project were to:
1.) Develop a sealed environment plant growth capability (which is much harder than simple hydroponic farming).
2.) Develop the systems needed to control atmospheric contaminants, b) collect and regenerate condensate water, and c) recycle solid wastes.
3.) Integrate all of the systems in point 2 with the growth in point 1.
Here's a link to a page that gives a decent 'least you need to know' overview of the project.
Of course, NASA hasn't made it to including humans yet, but since as per/. protocol I haven't RTFA, I don't know if the russians are 'cheating' on all of these mundane details.
Also, Sirius almost all of Sirius' stations are commercial free. (IIRC, all of the music stations are commercial free, but the news and sports channels do have commercials.)
IIRC, it doesn't pay to place generators in the middle of nowhere, since transmission is limiting. But everytime some one proposes to build a wind farm near the folks it's supposed to benfit, they get all up in arms about all of the unsightly turbines, or the birds that will be killed by the spinning blades.
Slashdot Mirror
This is almost pure speculation on my part, but I think that the major factor in this result is going to turn out to be mixing of air from the boundary layer (near the Earth) up into the jet (laminar flow region). I know that my fluid mechanics-fu are no where near up to the task of solving this problem; but I can just imagine how much worse the flow over a semi-infinite flat plate problem would get if mixing were introduced.
Also, the study by Dr. Roy (NYT.com) was modelling the effect of turbines that looked like the propellers on airplanes. You can see that this design inherently mixes more air vertically (due to turbulence at the tips) than a more modern design where the airfoils are bowed and connected to a vertical axis.(sort of like this--> (|) ) Sadly, this design is an even better self-serve quisinart for birds than the propeller design.
The implications of Dr. Roy's (who was a graduate student of one of the authors of the paper reported on in the G&M )research are not as important on a planet-wide scale, but it shows windfarms can have a really surpisingly large effect on local climate.
This could be a real hurdle to the adoption of wind power on a large scale, since wind farms often try to rent space from farm farms. If there's anything a farmer won't go for, it's got to be renting field space to something that's going to alter the climate of his farm.
Like the study covered in the Globe and Mail, this is a simulated study of a specific type of turbine in a specific wind farm. Unlike the G&M study, this researcher was interested in microclimatological effects of windfarms.
Personally, I take these sorts of results with a whole shaker full of salt as the researchers need to make a whole raft of assumptions in order to get any result at all. (For instance,who says someone won't build a better windfarm?)
On a related note, does anyone know how these jobs are countedd each month, is each job counted a 'full time equivalent', or are partime jobs counted as one job too?
The process itself is painless:
1.) Get a job with a defence contractor.
2.) Fill out a detailed personal history. For some levels of clearance, people you know will probably be interviewed.
3.) You can usually get a provisional clearance within a week, unless there is shadiness in your past.
4.) Final clearance can take two to twelve months to come through.
OTOH, the military assigns a (usually) low clearance to all it's personnel and this makes it relatively easy to be promoted to higher levels of security once you're out in industry.
Random fact: one in seven Americans has some sort of government security clearance.
The BD people call it a 'disruptor' rather than a shotgun, though.
Humans are not necessarily the most complex creatures on earth. We don't have multiple phases in our lifecycle, or spend part of our lives in a marine or aquatic environment, or photsynthesize for some part of our lives...
The point is, is that the organisms that have more complex lifecycles are typically more complex genetically. So, this result isn't really all that surprising.
For further reading on this subject, I reccomend reading papers by Zhulin at GA Tech.
NASA ran a demonstration project called "Breadboard" starting back in '86. It's still active, I think. The goal of the project were to:
1.) Develop a sealed environment plant growth capability (which is much harder than simple hydroponic farming).
2.) Develop the systems needed to control atmospheric contaminants, b) collect and regenerate condensate water, and c) recycle solid wastes.
3.) Integrate all of the systems in point 2 with the growth in point 1.
Here's a link to a page that gives a decent 'least you need to know' overview of the project.
http://www.permanent.com/s-ce-nas.htm
Of course, NASA hasn't made it to including humans yet, but since as per /. protocol I haven't RTFA, I don't know if the russians are 'cheating' on all of these mundane details.
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/45 792/article.html
Also, Sirius almost all of Sirius' stations are commercial free. (IIRC, all of the music stations are commercial free, but the news and sports channels do have commercials.)
Case in point: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/26/sunday/m ain560595.shtml
That's unpossible, isn't it?
Which is OK, 'cause we all know they're going out of business Real Soon Now.
and shop S-Mart.