Yep, culture. The same is true here in neighboring Austria. There's probably a quarter? a third? of countries that don't accept credit cards. It's just part of the culture - carry cash (sometimes a lot of it) with you everywhere. For larger items, do a bank transfer.
Arthur C. Clarke beat them to this: read the short story called "Watch This Space", where almost exactly this was performed... by a soda company... except they did it on the moon. In 1956.
It was amusing (and pretty good) as a sci-fi short story. It's terrifying as "reality."
Ask yourself why would VW decide to create 1000 more jobs in TN instead of Germany or perhaps California?
No Unions and benefits are much cheaper for companies since they can be skimped upon. Plus pay is less due to a low cost of living compared to CA/Germany.
There is a substantial car manufacturing base in the area already. Nissan makes the Leaf there, so there's a decent educated market already in existence. Land is cheap there, it's easy for them to expand, and I bet the state of TN gave them a small to medium sized tax break for expanding there.
So... what's the next ridiculous craze that I should work to prevent my daughter from getting into?
Thanks for letting me breathe a small sigh of relief from having dodged this bullet...
Hey, me, too! Work as an engineer during the day, get to pretend I'm an author at other times. I think I've sold 200 copies, total, of two different books self-published on Amazon.
It's an avocation, not a vocation. I'll buy a copy of yours if you buy a copy of mine... Life would be a lot different if I had to depend on the book income.
I, too, was in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. And while it does have a nearly-sterling operational and maintenance program, history has "conveniently" forgotten some of the program's mis-steps over the years.
- The USS SEAWOLF -- SSN 575, not the badass SSN-21 -- used a liquid sodium reactor that was plagued by reliability problems. After its first deployment, the reactor was replaced with a traditional PWR.
- The USS JACK -- SSN 605 -- was unique in that she had contra-rotating propellers. These were generally unreliable, although the linked wikipedia reference doesn't say much about them.
- The USS TULLIBEE -- SSN 597 -- had electric drive.
- The USS GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB -- SSN 685 -- was the second attempt at electric drive. But both of these boats ended up being heavier, slower, larger, and more expensive than their counterparts.
- There's another submarine, I can't remember which one, had some unique aspect of its turbines, which was not effective. It was SSN-6XX, but its nickname was building 6XX because it was in the repair yard so frequently.
In the grand scheme of things, the above hiccups are a miniscule portion of the overall fleet. The Zumwalt ship is one of three in the entire $22B class. So, I think the naval nuclear propulsion program has been blessed in that it has been able to experiment and occasionally "miss" with some new technologies without threatening the entire endeavor.
It's funny that your phone was able to hit the "submit" button before the battery died, but you weren't able to complete the spelling of the word "fine."
How do you manage your code development? With so many proliferating codecs to manage out there, and so many different hardware products to Just Work on, how do you keep everything straight? on a shoestring budget?
The "Big Ear" which discovered the Wow! signal had two feed horn antennae. What's tough to explain is why the other horn didn't pick up the signal. I suppose if the comet were small enough, other horn might not pick it up as it scanned by a few minutes later. Ehman says he re-scanned the area fifty times, after the initial signal. Maybe the comets had moved far enough apart by then?
Anyhow, the guy is looking for some additional funding so he can go build his own radiotelescope and test his hypothesis. I wish him luck, but not enough that I'm willing to donate to his cause.
You're right, I could get a 5S for cheap. But my concern with that is that I would then be stuck with doggedly slow hardware in a year, at the tail end of what's supported.
My traditional business model (as evidenced by the fact that I'm still using the 4S) has been to buy the current model of Apple hardware (but never the Rev 1 of a product!) and ride it as long as possible. Although I haven't run the numbers, that seems a reasonable way to amortize the cost of Apple products while getting decent performance for 3/4 of the life of that product.
My 4S is getting very long in the tooth, and I am ready for an upgrade. It all comes down to cost.
A 64GB 6s today costs $750. If the 64GB 4" version costs $650 or less, I'm sold. If it's the same price as the 6s, I will probably grudgingly shell out the $750 for the 6s.
I, along with my family, am too tied in to the Apple ecosystem to jump ship now.
NASA's annual budget is about $18.5 billion, but what they actually spend on satellites is a small fraction of that.
NRO's annual budget is estimated to be about $16 billion, according to Wikipedia. And their main mission is spy satellites.
And the Air Force spends about $3.7 billion annually in space-related R&D and execution.
So, NASA has a lot of well funded, US-based "competition" on the satellite front, although the budgets of its competitors is usually classified. I'm glad to hear that the US government is agile enough to share resources, when appropriate.
Iridium-192 sources like the one stolen are typically sold in the US at activities between 50 and 100 Ci. They're used to take "x-rays" of pipe welds to look for porosity, evenness, cracks, etc.
The actual seed source is about as big as a pencil eraser, maybe a little smaller. Thus, it would be hard to repurpose as a dirty bomb - it's a lump and all it would do is fly somewhere else in an explosion.
Radioactive sources are lost all the time. This website from the NRC keeps a log of all lost sources. While losing a source like this in Iraq is unfortunate, it's not uncommon.
Well, that is the nail in the coffin for me. I've been using Firefox for the past ~4 years due to convenience and, frankly, have been too lazy to switch. Time to switch to Chrome.
The news reports are saying it was between a magnitude 4.8 and 5.1 on the M scale (kinda like the Richter scale).
This is remarkably similar to the 2013 test, which was also magnitude 5.1. The USGS has a nice summary plot of the 3 previous tests. All else being equal (namely, the coupling between the test tunnel and the surrounding rock), it looks like this test was about as big of a "pop" as the 2013 test.
Going to the moon is a really dumb way to get your He3.
A far easier way is to use a Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rod. (pdf link) Rather than putting UO2 in the fuel pellet, put lithium aluminate (LiAlO2) in there.
This has been going on at the Watts Bar Unit 1 nuclear power station since 2004. Sure, more tritium has leaked into the coolant than expected, but tritium is a pretty benign radioactivity source.
Harvest the tritium, which decays into He-3. Voila. Far easier than going to the moon. Sheesh.
By using up about 35% of its remaining fuel budget, New Horizons will be able to visit a Kuiper Belt Object. Interestingly, that potential object was spotted just a few weeks after New Horizons launched.
Anticipated arrival date: January 2019. Be patient...
I don't know why it hasn't been commercialized yet (they've been stewing on it for years, and some places in Europe already have it), but it sure seems like a good way to make use of the latent heat of wax.
Another very interesting postulation is in this book: Skywriting. An interesting twist on the intersection between religion and cosmology... and you learn a bit about cosmology in the process.
So, TFA states that the currently existing hardware in orbit has resolution of 46 or 41 cm, depending on which bird you're talking about. I'd really be shocked if I could tell the difference between 50cm resolution and 41cm resolution. Even future hardware, with a resolution of 31 cm, doesn't sound all that much better.
As others have opined, I don't see what benefit this will have, really. I can already see the small bushes in my backyard that I planted. I just see the size of Google's image database increasing by (50/31)^2 or about 2.6 times. Unlike the NRO and other government-based entities, I don't need to read license plates from space... seeing roads and houses is good enough.
Oh, and nobody will ever need more than 640kB of memory.:)
Slashdot Mirror
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It's always a really weird juxtaposition when I read stories about Sweden (or other countries) going cashless: https://interestingengineering.com/sweden-how-to-live-in-the-worlds-first-cashless-society . It's neat, but it's so wildly different from the culture here in central Europe.
It was amusing (and pretty good) as a sci-fi short story. It's terrifying as "reality."
I'm trying to think of something else that's deeply computer integrated and has remained largely unchanged in the past 20 years
Ummm ... the 3.5mm headphone jack? Oh, wait, that's being "upgraded", too.
https://www.troyhunt.com/the-773-million-record-collection-1-data-reach/
Ask yourself why would VW decide to create 1000 more jobs in TN instead of Germany or perhaps California?
No Unions and benefits are much cheaper for companies since they can be skimped upon. Plus pay is less due to a low cost of living compared to CA/Germany.
There is a substantial car manufacturing base in the area already. Nissan makes the Leaf there, so there's a decent educated market already in existence. Land is cheap there, it's easy for them to expand, and I bet the state of TN gave them a small to medium sized tax break for expanding there.
So ... what's the next ridiculous craze that I should work to prevent my daughter from getting into?
Thanks for letting me breathe a small sigh of relief from having dodged this bullet...
It's an avocation, not a vocation. I'll buy a copy of yours if you buy a copy of mine... Life would be a lot different if I had to depend on the book income.
- The USS SEAWOLF -- SSN 575, not the badass SSN-21 -- used a liquid sodium reactor that was plagued by reliability problems. After its first deployment, the reactor was replaced with a traditional PWR.
- The USS JACK -- SSN 605 -- was unique in that she had contra-rotating propellers. These were generally unreliable, although the linked wikipedia reference doesn't say much about them.
- The USS TULLIBEE -- SSN 597 -- had electric drive.
- The USS GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB -- SSN 685 -- was the second attempt at electric drive. But both of these boats ended up being heavier, slower, larger, and more expensive than their counterparts.
- There's another submarine, I can't remember which one, had some unique aspect of its turbines, which was not effective. It was SSN-6XX, but its nickname was building 6XX because it was in the repair yard so frequently.
In the grand scheme of things, the above hiccups are a miniscule portion of the overall fleet. The Zumwalt ship is one of three in the entire $22B class. So, I think the naval nuclear propulsion program has been blessed in that it has been able to experiment and occasionally "miss" with some new technologies without threatening the entire endeavor.
I don't get it.
{end sarcasm}
How do you manage your code development? With so many proliferating codecs to manage out there, and so many different hardware products to Just Work on, how do you keep everything straight? on a shoestring budget?
Anyhow, the guy is looking for some additional funding so he can go build his own radiotelescope and test his hypothesis. I wish him luck, but not enough that I'm willing to donate to his cause.
His presence will be missed.
My traditional business model (as evidenced by the fact that I'm still using the 4S) has been to buy the current model of Apple hardware (but never the Rev 1 of a product!) and ride it as long as possible. Although I haven't run the numbers, that seems a reasonable way to amortize the cost of Apple products while getting decent performance for 3/4 of the life of that product.
My 4S is getting very long in the tooth, and I am ready for an upgrade. It all comes down to cost.
A 64GB 6s today costs $750. If the 64GB 4" version costs $650 or less, I'm sold. If it's the same price as the 6s, I will probably grudgingly shell out the $750 for the 6s.
I, along with my family, am too tied in to the Apple ecosystem to jump ship now.
NRO's annual budget is estimated to be about $16 billion, according to Wikipedia. And their main mission is spy satellites.
And the Air Force spends about $3.7 billion annually in space-related R&D and execution.
So, NASA has a lot of well funded, US-based "competition" on the satellite front, although the budgets of its competitors is usually classified. I'm glad to hear that the US government is agile enough to share resources, when appropriate.
The actual seed source is about as big as a pencil eraser, maybe a little smaller. Thus, it would be hard to repurpose as a dirty bomb - it's a lump and all it would do is fly somewhere else in an explosion.
Radioactive sources are lost all the time. This website from the NRC keeps a log of all lost sources. While losing a source like this in Iraq is unfortunate, it's not uncommon.
Well, that is the nail in the coffin for me. I've been using Firefox for the past ~4 years due to convenience and, frankly, have been too lazy to switch. Time to switch to Chrome.
This is remarkably similar to the 2013 test, which was also magnitude 5.1. The USGS has a nice summary plot of the 3 previous tests. All else being equal (namely, the coupling between the test tunnel and the surrounding rock), it looks like this test was about as big of a "pop" as the 2013 test.
A far easier way is to use a Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rod. (pdf link) Rather than putting UO2 in the fuel pellet, put lithium aluminate (LiAlO2) in there.
This has been going on at the Watts Bar Unit 1 nuclear power station since 2004. Sure, more tritium has leaked into the coolant than expected, but tritium is a pretty benign radioactivity source.
Harvest the tritium, which decays into He-3. Voila. Far easier than going to the moon. Sheesh.
Anticipated arrival date: January 2019. Be patient...
http://www.technologyreview.co...
I don't know why it hasn't been commercialized yet (they've been stewing on it for years, and some places in Europe already have it), but it sure seems like a good way to make use of the latent heat of wax.
.
Frankly, I've always been a bit confused by the p value. It just seems more straightforward to provide your 95% confidence interval limits.
Another very interesting postulation is in this book: Skywriting. An interesting twist on the intersection between religion and cosmology ... and you learn a bit about cosmology in the process.
So, TFA states that the currently existing hardware in orbit has resolution of 46 or 41 cm, depending on which bird you're talking about. I'd really be shocked if I could tell the difference between 50cm resolution and 41cm resolution. Even future hardware, with a resolution of 31 cm, doesn't sound all that much better.
As others have opined, I don't see what benefit this will have, really. I can already see the small bushes in my backyard that I planted. I just see the size of Google's image database increasing by (50/31)^2 or about 2.6 times. Unlike the NRO and other government-based entities, I don't need to read license plates from space ... seeing roads and houses is good enough.
Oh, and nobody will ever need more than 640kB of memory. :)
Good for him.