I very much expect the government to exert maximum legal pressure...
Certainly, so do I. But this was not legal pressure. There was no law saying BP had to do this, or would have to do something like it. I believe in the rule of law, not the rule of man. If you do as well, you should condemn this. If you don't, then you believe in mob rule, not a Constitutional republic.
Of course, they could have turned down the President. Of course, in that case they...could have had their regulatory ass handed to them for the next how ever many years this administration was in power over every little infraction.
Sure sounds like a thuggish shakedown to me. "Nice company you got there...it'd be a shame if something happened to it." The fact that everyone is (understandably) hating on BP right now makes Obama's shakedown no less despicable--and a very dangerous precedent (though admittedly with this president the precedent of shaking down corporations has already been set, this is just taking it to new levels).
Excellent, thank you, you answered all the breathless questions I had. If it was as TFA said this would have been huge. Also, I thought the standard in particle physics was 10 sigma...is that for "proof of" (vs "evidence of" vs "observation of")?
Cool! (Not that you had this problem, but that you can see UV light.) I wish I could see UV...working with high-power UV lasers always makes me a bit nervous because I never know if I accidentally took a shot in the eye (which can, incidentally, cause cataracts). With a visible laser you can obviously see it, even with an IR laser you at least know when you develop a small blind spot haha...but take a shot with a UV laser and you wouldn't know it, you'd just end up getting cataracts earlier than you otherwise would.
I think it's explained in the comic. Each state as a different maximum they'll pay out, and when you average the maximum for the different states...you get the maximum average.
So being in a position where your skills are worth millions of dollars is akin to manslaughter? Do you feel the same way about star athletes and movie stars?
"Then I would feel sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct anyway." - Albert Einstein, after being asked what his reaction would have been if Eddington and Dyson had not confirmed a prediction of general relativity.
A real stimulus needs to give people the confidence to make long term decisions -- like where to direct their careers, or to start up companies to develop technologies that won't be market ready for two or three years.
I'm surprised specular reflection of a 500 mW beam would be enough to cause damage. I think the rule of thumb is ~5mW is safe, so they would probably need at least 20 mW or so to cause much of a problem...getting 4% of a scattered beam into your eye seems unlikely. Also a 500 mW pump sounds kind of low for a Ti:Saph, maybe that was more?
I toured a lab recently (a federal lab no less, at NIST) and they had half a dozen class IV lasers on all the time, and didn't think anything of it! Would not feel comfortable working there haha...even looking at scattering off of some of the optics seemed a little too bright to be safe.
Most of the visible-wavelength laser PhD's I've worked with have had partial blindness in some area because they've cooked their retinas.
What?? I don't (personally) know anyone who has blinded themselves, and I know a lot of laser guys (myself included).
And I'd say near-IR lasers are more dangerous--they still get focused to the back of the eye and absorbed there (they don't get absorbed at the front like you suggested), but you can't see it (in fact I read that the way to know if you're getting hit is if you hear a popping sound from your eye as the fluid boils!). Longer wavelengths (longer than 1.4 or so) either don't get focused by the lens in your eye, or don't get absorbed in the back of your eye, and so you can sustain much higher power without damage.
Maybe he knew that an LED is essentially the same as a photodiode. Of course a one-pixel camera isn't going to do anyone any good...and it'd be one hell of a hacking job to take over a DVD player and rewire the connections.
No, the error bounds can easily be within 1 ns for off-the-shelf photon detectors (though that's for optical wavelengths, not gamma rays, but I'm sure the gamma ray detectors aren't 900 million times slower). TFA says (or at least implies) that the time separation is due to the length of time the gamma ray burst was "on".
Wrong. The "oil companies" are really energy companies. They'll be the ones making the mythical solar panels on your mythical car. But go ahead and keep believing all capitalists are evil pigs.
No, it's not quite slavery. But what do you call it when a huge portion of the wealth you create (in some cases >50% even in the US, very often >50% outside the US) is taken from you at gunpoint*, and given to someone else? It's one thing if it's taken and spent on national defense, infrastructure, etc., but when it is just taken from the individual who produced it and given to an individual who did not, that's unacceptable (and eerily similar to slavery). If it were 100% it would certainly be appropriate to call it slavery. What if it's 90%? 75%? I'd say if over half my day I am forced to work for someone else (who is as likely as not simply unwilling to work for themselves), that is close enough to slavery to draw the comparison.
*If you don't think taxes are taken at gunpoint, try not paying them.
TI seems to have a perfectly valid case here. This seems like a clear breach of the DMCA. The law itself is completely unacceptable, but don't blame the company for a bad law, blame the legislators.
Now before somebody says, but the LHC is proton-proton, you suck,
The LHC is proton-proton (or really atom-atom). I don't suck. It's not about the particles annihilating, its about them colliding and releasing a huge amount of energy. That energy has to go somewhere, and it goes to producing particles (often matter-antimatter, and those then annihilate (or more often just decay)). Like another poster said, you know enough to sound intelligent, but you're still wrong.
From another post of yours:
My appologies, it came out wrong. I meant before somebody says to me "but the LHC is proton-proton, you suck". It was a slight tongue in cheek reference to the usual level of slashdot responses by people who know nothing about which they are talking about:)
Slashdot Mirror
I very much expect the government to exert maximum legal pressure...
Certainly, so do I. But this was not legal pressure. There was no law saying BP had to do this, or would have to do something like it. I believe in the rule of law, not the rule of man. If you do as well, you should condemn this. If you don't, then you believe in mob rule, not a Constitutional republic.
Of course, they could have turned down the President. Of course, in that case they...could have had their regulatory ass handed to them for the next how ever many years this administration was in power over every little infraction.
Sure sounds like a thuggish shakedown to me. "Nice company you got there...it'd be a shame if something happened to it." The fact that everyone is (understandably) hating on BP right now makes Obama's shakedown no less despicable--and a very dangerous precedent (though admittedly with this president the precedent of shaking down corporations has already been set, this is just taking it to new levels).
Excellent, thank you, you answered all the breathless questions I had. If it was as TFA said this would have been huge. Also, I thought the standard in particle physics was 10 sigma...is that for "proof of" (vs "evidence of" vs "observation of")?
Cool! (Not that you had this problem, but that you can see UV light.) I wish I could see UV...working with high-power UV lasers always makes me a bit nervous because I never know if I accidentally took a shot in the eye (which can, incidentally, cause cataracts). With a visible laser you can obviously see it, even with an IR laser you at least know when you develop a small blind spot haha...but take a shot with a UV laser and you wouldn't know it, you'd just end up getting cataracts earlier than you otherwise would.
Link. Summary: regular incandescent light bulbs will be illegal beginning in 2012-2014 in the United States.
How about this? In a free country, don't tell me what kind of lightbulb I can buy.
*whoosh*
I think it's explained in the comic. Each state as a different maximum they'll pay out, and when you average the maximum for the different states...you get the maximum average.
So being in a position where your skills are worth millions of dollars is akin to manslaughter? Do you feel the same way about star athletes and movie stars?
Unlike movies, the guys in high places taking home the multimillion-dollar salaries 99% of the time don't do anything wrong.
Happy fact of capitalism.
you'd have canadian spaceships
I believe that such a scenario would be quite realistic.
!!
"Then I would feel sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct anyway." - Albert Einstein, after being asked what his reaction would have been if Eddington and Dyson had not confirmed a prediction of general relativity.
A speedy trial once your charged. They can spend decades collecting evidence before charging you.
A real stimulus needs to give people the confidence to make long term decisions -- like where to direct their careers, or to start up companies to develop technologies that won't be market ready for two or three years.
Yep. I.e., cut taxes.
I'm surprised specular reflection of a 500 mW beam would be enough to cause damage. I think the rule of thumb is ~5mW is safe, so they would probably need at least 20 mW or so to cause much of a problem...getting 4% of a scattered beam into your eye seems unlikely. Also a 500 mW pump sounds kind of low for a Ti:Saph, maybe that was more?
I toured a lab recently (a federal lab no less, at NIST) and they had half a dozen class IV lasers on all the time, and didn't think anything of it! Would not feel comfortable working there haha...even looking at scattering off of some of the optics seemed a little too bright to be safe.
Most of the visible-wavelength laser PhD's I've worked with have had partial blindness in some area because they've cooked their retinas.
What?? I don't (personally) know anyone who has blinded themselves, and I know a lot of laser guys (myself included).
And I'd say near-IR lasers are more dangerous--they still get focused to the back of the eye and absorbed there (they don't get absorbed at the front like you suggested), but you can't see it (in fact I read that the way to know if you're getting hit is if you hear a popping sound from your eye as the fluid boils!). Longer wavelengths (longer than 1.4 or so) either don't get focused by the lens in your eye, or don't get absorbed in the back of your eye, and so you can sustain much higher power without damage.
Maybe he knew that an LED is essentially the same as a photodiode. Of course a one-pixel camera isn't going to do anyone any good...and it'd be one hell of a hacking job to take over a DVD player and rewire the connections.
No, the error bounds can easily be within 1 ns for off-the-shelf photon detectors (though that's for optical wavelengths, not gamma rays, but I'm sure the gamma ray detectors aren't 900 million times slower). TFA says (or at least implies) that the time separation is due to the length of time the gamma ray burst was "on".
Wrong. The "oil companies" are really energy companies. They'll be the ones making the mythical solar panels on your mythical car. But go ahead and keep believing all capitalists are evil pigs.
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
I'm guessing it's from the fact that the space program is not the majority of NASA's budget.
and request we try to simplify our setup to match their virtual one
Haha I love that one..."Our theory doesn't agree with reality...let's try a new version of reality!"
No, it's not quite slavery. But what do you call it when a huge portion of the wealth you create (in some cases >50% even in the US, very often >50% outside the US) is taken from you at gunpoint*, and given to someone else? It's one thing if it's taken and spent on national defense, infrastructure, etc., but when it is just taken from the individual who produced it and given to an individual who did not, that's unacceptable (and eerily similar to slavery). If it were 100% it would certainly be appropriate to call it slavery. What if it's 90%? 75%? I'd say if over half my day I am forced to work for someone else (who is as likely as not simply unwilling to work for themselves), that is close enough to slavery to draw the comparison.
*If you don't think taxes are taken at gunpoint, try not paying them.
TI seems to have a perfectly valid case here. This seems like a clear breach of the DMCA. The law itself is completely unacceptable, but don't blame the company for a bad law, blame the legislators.
Now before somebody says, but the LHC is proton-proton, you suck,
The LHC is proton-proton (or really atom-atom). I don't suck. It's not about the particles annihilating, its about them colliding and releasing a huge amount of energy. That energy has to go somewhere, and it goes to producing particles (often matter-antimatter, and those then annihilate (or more often just decay)). Like another poster said, you know enough to sound intelligent, but you're still wrong.
From another post of yours:
My appologies, it came out wrong. I meant before somebody says to me "but the LHC is proton-proton, you suck". It was a slight tongue in cheek reference to the usual level of slashdot responses by people who know nothing about which they are talking about :)
So people like you! You suck ;)