We don't know how to build a fusion reactor yet: this is talking about using a fission reactor and then burning the hydrogen it produces in fuel cells to produce electricity [fuel cells are not nuclear!].
The next step in the fusion reactor program is to build a bigger reactor because bigger is better as far as current fusion technology goes (they are actually reproducing the sun's power source) so unless you want a car the size of a small office block I'd suggest you stick with fuel cells for the time being.
Well, if we can actually get fusion power to work then we can burn hydrogen to get the power to separate hydrogen for use in fuel cells. That really would be ironic...and no long term, dangerous nuclear waste either.
That depends entirely upon who is doing the dying.
So please tell me which one is the funniest: when the policeman gets killed or when the suspect get killed? I'd certainly feel more for the copper but the other case is still a long way from funny in my book.
Hmmm... Why are you assuming that most Europeans think 15F is cold? Besides Great Britain, I believe the rest of Europe has evolved to the Metric system.
Well, I'll take a random stab in the dark here and guess that you are American? The only place in the world that uses degrees fahrenheit, to my knowledge, is the US. All the rest of us use celsius (and I'm British so please don't start telling me that we use fahrenheit!). 15C is a great temperature to play what those of us in Europe call hockey, though you might be more familiar calling it field hockey.
However, assuming I'm correct, you would read 15 degrees as 15F and think hockey=ice hockey and since I'm pretty sure that 15F is below freezing you would not have any problem playing "hockey". Again, as far as I know, the only country in the world where hockey=ice hockey and 15 degrees=15C is Canada.
I'm sure the rest of Europe is deeply offended about being lumped into the same category as Great Britain.
I highly doubt it since it is a geographical fact that Britain is part of Europe so it would be about as stupid as getting offended that the earth is round or that the day is 24 hours long.
Actually, given enought beam current it could. Of course it would also activate your eggs so they'd be radioactive to some degree but think of it as self-radiating food - they would stay fresh for ages:-)
50% of all species on the planet will be extinct in the next 50 years - all because of human impact. How the hell can we let that happen? The "mass extinction" of the dinosaurs was ONLY 19% of all species on the planet at that time.
Sorry - I support the Kyoto treaty but where on earth do you get this figure from? I have a very hard time believing it (though I'm happy to be proved wrong....on second thoughts "happy" is probably not the right word!). As for mass extinctions the Permian mass extinction which gave rise to the dinosaurs was more like 80-90% of species. So if your figure is correct humans are just part of the planet's natural cycle of mass extinctions?
PS: The weather here sucks. It's been 15 degrees on average lately, which really sucks for playing outdoor hockey.
Hmmmm......you must be Canadian. Neither Americans nor Europeans would have problem playing hockey at 15 degrees.... though for entirely different reasons.
This is all wrong. Its not a nuclear reactor. Its a fusion reactor.
Sorry but a fusion reactor is most definitely a nuclear reactor. It is, however, a different type of nuclear reactor. Current reactors split up large nuclei into smaller ones via a fission reactor. A fusion reactor binds two nuclei together to form a heavier one.
The reason both reactions give energy is because iron-56 is the most stable nucleus = one with the most binding energy per nucleon [proton or neutron]. Lighter nuclei can gain energy be binding together and heavier nuclei by splitting up.
I'd also take issue with the statement that it is the cleanest and safest source of energy. I grant you that it is far cleaner and safer than fission but the main attraction of fusion is the readily available supply of fuel: sea water (or at least the deuterium you can extract from it!). My guess would be that something like wave power will be far cleaner and safer but it is just not practical to line the entire world's coasts with power plants!
How does a fusion reactor hurt the oil industry? The fusion reactors we are talking about will be the size of power plants not the sort of thing you can fit in your car or even lorry.
The majority of fossil fuel power plants are coal with some gas but hardly any oil. Gas is already running out so I hardly see how fusion reactors, even if you could build one tomorrow, would affect things.
However, if the differences in your spellings are all you have to cling to, I might abandon the idea entirely.
For someone who seems to consider themselves a linguistic expert you have an astounding lack of knowledge of the differences between American and English. It goes considerably beyond spelling. Not only are words completely different (e.g. lift and elevator - which presumably come after the 1600's given the invention date) but turns of phrase are different as well "neighbourhood kids" vs. "local kids" etc.
Or put it this way - I'll claim to speaking "American" when you claim to speak "British." Until then, you might educate yourself on linguistics and learn the difference between a dialect and a language.
So tell me - what do I call the English spoken in England vs. the English spoken in Scotland? Both are parts of Britain but in Scotland it is common to use "wee" for small along with other minor differences. Perhaps we should call it English English and you call yours American English. However in the interests of removing unneeded clutter let's call our language English and your language American. There we go that wasn't so hard was it?
What I don't understand is why you are so hung up over having your language called English? You aren't English, you don't live in England, you fought and won a war to be separate from England so why do you seem to want to tell everyone that you speak English? Finding out the president George is even worse than King George?:-)
If you are going to nit-pick at least get it right! Photons are the means you use to see something i.e. I can see there is a book on the shelf because there are photons reflected of it which interact with my eye.
You cannot actually 'see' photons as photons do not interact with themselves to first order and thus would be useless as a means of detecting the presence of other photons.
If it helps, think of American English as a foreign language. You wouldn't call someone in Spain on the phone and insist on speaking English, would you? Similarly, when calling an American, it would serve you well to make accomodations for their knowledge of your language, particularly if you expect that you are more knowledgeable of American English than the person to whom you are speaking is of UK English.
It is a foreign language. However the issue I take is that you Americans insist that you are speaking English - you are not, you are speaking American. When I'm talking to a non-English speaker, if they try speaking English and they make a mistake I might correct them (assuming its a situation where it's polite to do so). Similarly if you, as an American, insist that you are speaking English I will correct you when you make a mistake. However, tell me that you are speaking American and I'll treat it with the respect due any foreign language.
There are plenty of examples where two languages are very close but have different names e.g. Norwegian and Danish. I think that this is a good thing since it prevents the feeling that foreigners are coming in and telling you how to speak in your own country, which is something that is clearly ticking you off.
Yes, this is true...
and it's a pain in the ass for us physicians. The vaccine only works for 10-20 years... so how do we test you guys over here in the states to see if you still have immunity?
Thus speaks the voice of the US medical profession. Having moved from the UK to the US I encountered exactly this sort of ignorance about TB. I was even told by one that the vaccine didn't work although he was at a loss to explain how the TB epidemic was controlled before the advent of anti-biotics!
Of course this is the same medical profession that assured me that having the chicken pox vaccine to pass the green card medical, despite already having had the disease as a child, was completely safe. I later found out that this is a bad thing to do since your body can spend time fighting the vaccine and let loose the real virus (that also remains with you for life) causing shingles!
So, despite the obscene amount of money that US doctors seem to make compared to other countries, I think you'll understand if I tend to trust non-US doctors more. They tend to be more interested in actually treating you than covering their backsides from being sued.
Actually, having lived in the UK and the US I think that fewer channels is actually better. My experience is that there is the same amount of good TV to watch but that with 100 channels its a lot harder to find!
I know this is slightly off topic but fluoridation does have a downside. The fluoride can leach the calcium from the bones of the elderly making them more brittle. In particular exposure to 1ppm of fluoride causes a slight rise in the risk of hip fractures in elderly women.
You may argue that the benefits out weigh the risks but nevertheless there is a downside and that is why, at least in the UK, less than 10% of drinking water is fluoridated.
If you could say "Climate Control, 70 degrees", and other commands...
That might be a somewhat dangerous command to have as it would probably lead to many cooked American visitors who rented cars in Canada or Europe (or in fact almost anywhere outside the US!). In fact I can see that the headlines of tomorrow might be subtly different from those of today:
"NASA looses Engineer after spacecraft gets units wrong"
Microsoft definitely needs china. In fact it should include some in every Windows package so you have something to drink your tea from while you are waiting for the bloody thing to install!
Yes, but these have not been peer reviewed so there is no guarentee as to the quality. The reason I think that arXiv works so well for us in particle physics is because our large collaborations internally review results before they go public.
However, as far as I know, there is nothing stopping the author A. Nutter from submitting his latest "Einstein got it all wrong" paper. Clearly this would be easy to spot but say you are an experimentalist would you necessarily know that some new calculation by a theorist had some major, but subtle, technical flaw in it?
arXiv is an incredibly useful tool (I use it often) but without the peer review process to back it up can you really believe all you read there? I have often downloaded the arXiv version of papers that I know are published in (or at least submitted to) journals or because it is from a big collaboration or an author I know.
The way I see it arXiv would fullfill the proposed NIH regulation without really affecting publishing at all. I think that people will still want the peer review stamp of approval.
CERN and Grid is European, notably Switzerland, France and UK.
Actually the CERN member states are a lot more than Switzerland, UK and France. In fact there are lots of Germans and Italians at CERN as well as a whole host of other nationalities.
Furthermore the Grid is a lot more than just Europe. Speaking as a European, here in Canada we have Grid resources that will be used for the LHC experiments. Even the US is taking part although I understand they are having trouble because the US government is not too happy with US computers being used by us foreigners which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the Grid!
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Well, if we can actually get fusion power to work then we can burn hydrogen to get the power to separate hydrogen for use in fuel cells. That really would be ironic...and no long term, dangerous nuclear waste either.
So please tell me which one is the funniest: when the policeman gets killed or when the suspect get killed? I'd certainly feel more for the copper but the other case is still a long way from funny in my book.
Well, I'll take a random stab in the dark here and guess that you are American? The only place in the world that uses degrees fahrenheit, to my knowledge, is the US. All the rest of us use celsius (and I'm British so please don't start telling me that we use fahrenheit!). 15C is a great temperature to play what those of us in Europe call hockey, though you might be more familiar calling it field hockey.
However, assuming I'm correct, you would read 15 degrees as 15F and think hockey=ice hockey and since I'm pretty sure that 15F is below freezing you would not have any problem playing "hockey". Again, as far as I know, the only country in the world where hockey=ice hockey and 15 degrees=15C is Canada.
I'm sure the rest of Europe is deeply offended about being lumped into the same category as Great Britain.
I highly doubt it since it is a geographical fact that Britain is part of Europe so it would be about as stupid as getting offended that the earth is round or that the day is 24 hours long.
Actually, given enought beam current it could. Of course it would also activate your eggs so they'd be radioactive to some degree but think of it as self-radiating food - they would stay fresh for ages :-)
Sorry - I support the Kyoto treaty but where on earth do you get this figure from? I have a very hard time believing it (though I'm happy to be proved wrong....on second thoughts "happy" is probably not the right word!). As for mass extinctions the Permian mass extinction which gave rise to the dinosaurs was more like 80-90% of species. So if your figure is correct humans are just part of the planet's natural cycle of mass extinctions?
Ummm...the people that emit the most CO2....isn't that the whole point?
Ummmm.... and it's an improvement to have a gunfight in the street rather than a shouting match?
Hmmmm......you must be Canadian. Neither Americans nor Europeans would have problem playing hockey at 15 degrees .... though for entirely different reasons.
Sorry but a fusion reactor is most definitely a nuclear reactor. It is, however, a different type of nuclear reactor. Current reactors split up large nuclei into smaller ones via a fission reactor. A fusion reactor binds two nuclei together to form a heavier one.
The reason both reactions give energy is because iron-56 is the most stable nucleus = one with the most binding energy per nucleon [proton or neutron]. Lighter nuclei can gain energy be binding together and heavier nuclei by splitting up.
I'd also take issue with the statement that it is the cleanest and safest source of energy. I grant you that it is far cleaner and safer than fission but the main attraction of fusion is the readily available supply of fuel: sea water (or at least the deuterium you can extract from it!). My guess would be that something like wave power will be far cleaner and safer but it is just not practical to line the entire world's coasts with power plants!
The majority of fossil fuel power plants are coal with some gas but hardly any oil. Gas is already running out so I hardly see how fusion reactors, even if you could build one tomorrow, would affect things.
Of course you could argue for prior art but that doesn't seem to have been much of a hurdle so far!
I think we may have a winner....
For someone who seems to consider themselves a linguistic expert you have an astounding lack of knowledge of the differences between American and English. It goes considerably beyond spelling. Not only are words completely different (e.g. lift and elevator - which presumably come after the 1600's given the invention date) but turns of phrase are different as well "neighbourhood kids" vs. "local kids" etc.
Or put it this way - I'll claim to speaking "American" when you claim to speak "British." Until then, you might educate yourself on linguistics and learn the difference between a dialect and a language.
So tell me - what do I call the English spoken in England vs. the English spoken in Scotland? Both are parts of Britain but in Scotland it is common to use "wee" for small along with other minor differences. Perhaps we should call it English English and you call yours American English. However in the interests of removing unneeded clutter let's call our language English and your language American. There we go that wasn't so hard was it?
What I don't understand is why you are so hung up over having your language called English? You aren't English, you don't live in England, you fought and won a war to be separate from England so why do you seem to want to tell everyone that you speak English? Finding out the president George is even worse than King George? :-)
You cannot actually 'see' photons as photons do not interact with themselves to first order and thus would be useless as a means of detecting the presence of other photons.
It is a foreign language. However the issue I take is that you Americans insist that you are speaking English - you are not, you are speaking American. When I'm talking to a non-English speaker, if they try speaking English and they make a mistake I might correct them (assuming its a situation where it's polite to do so). Similarly if you, as an American, insist that you are speaking English I will correct you when you make a mistake. However, tell me that you are speaking American and I'll treat it with the respect due any foreign language.
There are plenty of examples where two languages are very close but have different names e.g. Norwegian and Danish. I think that this is a good thing since it prevents the feeling that foreigners are coming in and telling you how to speak in your own country, which is something that is clearly ticking you off.
Thus speaks the voice of the US medical profession. Having moved from the UK to the US I encountered exactly this sort of ignorance about TB. I was even told by one that the vaccine didn't work although he was at a loss to explain how the TB epidemic was controlled before the advent of anti-biotics!
Of course this is the same medical profession that assured me that having the chicken pox vaccine to pass the green card medical, despite already having had the disease as a child, was completely safe. I later found out that this is a bad thing to do since your body can spend time fighting the vaccine and let loose the real virus (that also remains with you for life) causing shingles!
So, despite the obscene amount of money that US doctors seem to make compared to other countries, I think you'll understand if I tend to trust non-US doctors more. They tend to be more interested in actually treating you than covering their backsides from being sued.
Actually, having lived in the UK and the US I think that fewer channels is actually better. My experience is that there is the same amount of good TV to watch but that with 100 channels its a lot harder to find!
You may argue that the benefits out weigh the risks but nevertheless there is a downside and that is why, at least in the UK, less than 10% of drinking water is fluoridated.
Main entry: loser
Pronunciation: 'lüz-er
Function: noun
1. Someone who pedantically points out minor typos in other people's posts.
That might be a somewhat dangerous command to have as it would probably lead to many cooked American visitors who rented cars in Canada or Europe (or in fact almost anywhere outside the US!). In fact I can see that the headlines of tomorrow might be subtly different from those of today:
"NASA looses Engineer after spacecraft gets units wrong"
Microsoft definitely needs china. In fact it should include some in every Windows package so you have something to drink your tea from while you are waiting for the bloody thing to install!
However, as far as I know, there is nothing stopping the author A. Nutter from submitting his latest "Einstein got it all wrong" paper. Clearly this would be easy to spot but say you are an experimentalist would you necessarily know that some new calculation by a theorist had some major, but subtle, technical flaw in it?
arXiv is an incredibly useful tool (I use it often) but without the peer review process to back it up can you really believe all you read there? I have often downloaded the arXiv version of papers that I know are published in (or at least submitted to) journals or because it is from a big collaboration or an author I know.
The way I see it arXiv would fullfill the proposed NIH regulation without really affecting publishing at all. I think that people will still want the peer review stamp of approval.
Don't you mean 50 years and 460 degrees later?
Actually the CERN member states are a lot more than Switzerland, UK and France. In fact there are lots of Germans and Italians at CERN as well as a whole host of other nationalities.
Furthermore the Grid is a lot more than just Europe. Speaking as a European, here in Canada we have Grid resources that will be used for the LHC experiments. Even the US is taking part although I understand they are having trouble because the US government is not too happy with US computers being used by us foreigners which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the Grid!