Who cares how old the Earth is, we could use this network for something practical, like warning the captains of ships that are sailing too close to the edge...
"Let's not forget about the sensors that are already near black asphalt parking lots, tar covered rooftops, and down wind from a rooftop heat exchanger. Remember all you climatologists. In the world of computing, it's garbage in, garbage out.
Those silly climatologists have a name for it, it's called the Urban Heat Island, they have known about it for decades. Here is an embedded movie (scroll down a bit past the still picture) from Japan's Earth simulator. It shows the garbage that emeges from the physical and chemical equations in their high resolution finite element models, the garbage comes complete with jet-streams and cyclones forming in the right places.
You do know that Clarkson is an entertainer and says all sorts of things to incite people who take themselves a little too seriously, right?
"It was a smear piece because he's a hydrogen nut."
The point of his contradictory claims and inflamatory comments is to get people to think for themselves, when have you ever seen Clarkson without his tounge firmly planted in his cheek?
"A Tesla roadster on a full charge claims to get about 350km"
Yes that is what they claim but as you can see from the clip, when TG hammered the Telsa it went ~90km.
"You've produced pretty much exactly the line of irritating arguments that Top Gear made about the hydrogen car/and/ about the Tesla, almost none of which stand up to analysis."
Actually I had those irritating arguments well before I saw TG. I'm sorry they don't stand up to YOUR analysis, mine says that given clean electricity, fuel cells are vastly more practical and CLEANER than battery powered cars. My analysis also says that it doesn't matter how the car is powered what matters is it is practical, clean and affordable. Even assuming clean electricity, no electric car meets all of those criteria, currently the Clarity has 2 out of three, battery powered cars have 0 out of three.
"That snippet about the hydrogen fuel cell car irritated me quite a bit"
Why - because you bought a Prius?
"So yeah, a hydrogen fuel cell car is cool and all, but it doesn't resolve the core issues in any way."
Ummm, so WTF charges the batteries in a battery powered car? The "core issue" for ANY electric car is drawing power from fossil fuels wether it be coal, oil or gas. As far as pollution goes, battery powered cars have another "core issue" in that the batteries are make out of some pretty nasty stuff.
Just like the electricity that's used to recharge a battery car the power to make hydrogen from electrolysis is expected to (one day) come from renewables or nukes. You could complain about non-existant hydrogen infrastructure but the same is true of the power grid for battery cars.
The problem with hydrogen cars has always been the same as the problem with electric cars in general, namely practicality. In the case of hydrogen fuel cells the problem has always been that hydrogen under pressure will leak straight through materials like steel but H2 fuel cells for cars that are rated for 20,000psi have been available for several years now. So apart from the lack of filling stations the Clarity seems to be a hell of a lot more practical than any other ALL electric car available.
"there's a fair chunk of energy lost in the process of burning hydrogen"
Give me a break - the 500kg of chemicals in your batteries don't get warm while they are charging for 16hrs to drive for an hour?
"So if you see under 100g/km, you're looking at something great"
The Prius is given a passing mention (around the 2:50 mark) in this Top Gear review of what they call the most important car in 100yrs (ie: something great). Another TG clip reviews the Telsa, unfortunately the humorous comments about the Tesla taking 16hrs to charge and thus 3 weeks to drive to Scotland were cut from the end of the clip.
Mod parent informative. Inhofe did indeed invite an anti-science fiction writer to present "scientific" evidence. IMHO Chriton is an excellent author of fiction, meme's that he popularised in his book "State of fear" such as "AGW is a religion" and "scientists are are in it for the grant money", are still common on slashdot.
"So, let me get this straight. One individual dinosaur leaves some palm up hand prints in the mud, and suddenly the thousands of species of therapods spread out over the millions of years can't play basketball?"
That's right, the global conspiracy to deny the fact that dinosaurs could dribble isn't science, hell it's not even sport, it's politics - specifically the IOC, NBA, and the Chinese government are to blame.
"It's a very complex issue, and difficult to sum up in a little pithy paragraph or two."
How about "regardless of skill, doctors are humans too".
I'm not from the US, the thing that grabbed my attention in TFS was "the pile of contracts your doctor dumps on your lap". Why is there a pile of contracts in the first place?
Yep, "Star Chamber" is good fiction too, not saying things like that don't happen but the closet we came to "total corruption" was WW2. I read enough hyperbole in the mass-media - here I can bite back a little.;)
One things a given. Any of your sugestions would certainly have been more interesting than something that sounds like my telephone companies help desk.
"I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it to come here if the blurbs misrepresent the articles so badly."
I see you are new here, the zen of slashdot is never read TFS/TFA, if you must you can glance at the headline before going straight to the comments. Personally I don't know of any other site where geeks regularly gather in such numbers and diversity to hurl abuse at each other.
Australia will so misuse this. Any computer internet use will be a "computer crime". Also recall the total force wide corruption. In Australia it *was* not who is corrupt, the only question *was* anyone not corrupt.
Just picking on your popular hyperbole at random, not you in particular. The corruption in SA you point to was exposed 10yrs ago. In the 80's there was exposure of corruption amoung high ranks in NSW, in the 90's QLD, last couple of years in Vic.
How does exposure of corruption equate to "total force wide corruption"? Doesn't the exposure itself indicate that "good cops" are doing their job? Or are you asserting the "total force wide corruption" was behind these exposures and it was really the "good cops" who were thrown out? What if no corruption was ever exposed, does that mean there is none? - or does it indicate they are really good crooks?
In otherwords for anyone who subscibes to that kind of hyperbole, there is no way for the cops to win. Not to mention the courts would also have to be "totally corrupt" under this (state) law and would not be interested in issuing warrants that might expose high ranking corruption as they have done in the past (see your own link).
Disclaimer: I have a couple of relatives/friends in the Vic police, some have served more that 20yrs. Personally I will start worrying when corruption is NOT being found.
"Objects in orbit don't really change direction in radically unpredictable ways."
I think you're missing where I'm coming from. A solid rock will indeed act as you have stated (pool table mechanics), but what if some of it was not so solid and it started to crumble under the gravity of close planetary (solar?) fly-by's, say a hundred orbits ago.
Coincidently, the "n-body problem" is a classical example of the "butterfly effect" (mentioned by Jane Q Public above).
I have absolutely no evidence that this is what happened but the same is also true for your "In a word: No" assertion.;)
The chaos in my example relates to accuracy not the energy of the impact. WP is your friend search on - "chaos theory" and then look at "dynamic equilibrium" or alternativly take up pool playing.;)
Consider a 5 meter ball of steel hurtling toward the N pole. At the same altitude over the S pole is a single Iron atom hurtling toward Earth at the same speed. They will both hit the atmosphere at the same time without influencing each other.
The 5 meter ball will make a direct hit on Santa wiping out any Elves within a considerable radius.
The Iron atom on the other hand will start hiting single atoms/molecules. Suppose you could somehow freeze every atom in it's place before the Iron atom hit the atmosphere until it, hit the ground. (go away chemists).
If you have ever played pool you will understand how increadibly acurate that first contact the Iron atom makes would need to be to hit a five meter target on the ground.
Slashdot Mirror
Who cares how old the Earth is, we could use this network for something practical, like warning the captains of ships that are sailing too close to the edge...
"Let's not forget about the sensors that are already near black asphalt parking lots, tar covered rooftops, and down wind from a rooftop heat exchanger. Remember all you climatologists. In the world of computing, it's garbage in, garbage out.
Those silly climatologists have a name for it, it's called the Urban Heat Island, they have known about it for decades. Here is an embedded movie (scroll down a bit past the still picture) from Japan's Earth simulator. It shows the garbage that emeges from the physical and chemical equations in their high resolution finite element models, the garbage comes complete with jet-streams and cyclones forming in the right places.
"Wikipedia is a steaming pile of leftwing crap. People who quote wikipedia are idiots."
And AC's who mod-up their own list of unsupported assetions and ad-homs are trolls.
Thanks, I agree - several hundred $US/week in disposal income is not too shabby.
"I have problems with people who take what he says seriously"
And yet you take his 'confession' seriously.
Are we talking weekly, fortnightly or monthly pay? I'm not from the US, as can be seen by the use of term "fortnightly".
You do know that Clarkson is an entertainer and says all sorts of things to incite people who take themselves a little too seriously, right?
"It was a smear piece because he's a hydrogen nut."
The point of his contradictory claims and inflamatory comments is to get people to think for themselves, when have you ever seen Clarkson without his tounge firmly planted in his cheek?
"A Tesla roadster on a full charge claims to get about 350km"
/and/ about the Tesla, almost none of which stand up to analysis."
Yes that is what they claim but as you can see from the clip, when TG hammered the Telsa it went ~90km.
"You've produced pretty much exactly the line of irritating arguments that Top Gear made about the hydrogen car
Actually I had those irritating arguments well before I saw TG. I'm sorry they don't stand up to YOUR analysis, mine says that given clean electricity, fuel cells are vastly more practical and CLEANER than battery powered cars. My analysis also says that it doesn't matter how the car is powered what matters is it is practical, clean and affordable. Even assuming clean electricity, no electric car meets all of those criteria, currently the Clarity has 2 out of three, battery powered cars have 0 out of three.
"Tell the date when stem cell research will cure..."
The day pissants without a clue stop bitching about funding science.
"That snippet about the hydrogen fuel cell car irritated me quite a bit"
Why - because you bought a Prius?
"So yeah, a hydrogen fuel cell car is cool and all, but it doesn't resolve the core issues in any way."
Ummm, so WTF charges the batteries in a battery powered car? The "core issue" for ANY electric car is drawing power from fossil fuels wether it be coal, oil or gas. As far as pollution goes, battery powered cars have another "core issue" in that the batteries are make out of some pretty nasty stuff.
Just like the electricity that's used to recharge a battery car the power to make hydrogen from electrolysis is expected to (one day) come from renewables or nukes. You could complain about non-existant hydrogen infrastructure but the same is true of the power grid for battery cars.
The problem with hydrogen cars has always been the same as the problem with electric cars in general, namely practicality. In the case of hydrogen fuel cells the problem has always been that hydrogen under pressure will leak straight through materials like steel but H2 fuel cells for cars that are rated for 20,000psi have been available for several years now. So apart from the lack of filling stations the Clarity seems to be a hell of a lot more practical than any other ALL electric car available.
"there's a fair chunk of energy lost in the process of burning hydrogen"
Give me a break - the 500kg of chemicals in your batteries don't get warm while they are charging for 16hrs to drive for an hour?
Well done BAG, I bashed out a couple of paragraphs before I realised what I was doing....
Read any of Dawkin's books? He does not claim god doesn't exist, he claims there is no evidence for god.
"So if you see under 100g/km, you're looking at something great"
The Prius is given a passing mention (around the 2:50 mark) in this Top Gear review of what they call the most important car in 100yrs (ie: something great). Another TG clip reviews the Telsa, unfortunately the humorous comments about the Tesla taking 16hrs to charge and thus 3 weeks to drive to Scotland were cut from the end of the clip.
Mod parent informative. Inhofe did indeed invite an anti-science fiction writer to present "scientific" evidence. IMHO Chriton is an excellent author of fiction, meme's that he popularised in his book "State of fear" such as "AGW is a religion" and "scientists are are in it for the grant money", are still common on slashdot.
"So, let me get this straight. One individual dinosaur leaves some palm up hand prints in the mud, and suddenly the thousands of species of therapods spread out over the millions of years can't play basketball?"
That's right, the global conspiracy to deny the fact that dinosaurs could dribble isn't science, hell it's not even sport, it's politics - specifically the IOC, NBA, and the Chinese government are to blame.
"It's a very complex issue, and difficult to sum up in a little pithy paragraph or two."
How about "regardless of skill, doctors are humans too".
I'm not from the US, the thing that grabbed my attention in TFS was "the pile of contracts your doctor dumps on your lap". Why is there a pile of contracts in the first place?
Yep, "Star Chamber" is good fiction too, not saying things like that don't happen but the closet we came to "total corruption" was WW2. I read enough hyperbole in the mass-media - here I can bite back a little. ;)
One things a given. Any of your sugestions would certainly have been more interesting than something that sounds like my telephone companies help desk.
"I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it to come here if the blurbs misrepresent the articles so badly."
I see you are new here, the zen of slashdot is never read TFS/TFA, if you must you can glance at the headline before going straight to the comments. Personally I don't know of any other site where geeks regularly gather in such numbers and diversity to hurl abuse at each other.
Australia will so misuse this. Any computer internet use will be a "computer crime". Also recall the total force wide corruption. In Australia it *was* not who is corrupt, the only question *was* anyone not corrupt.
Just picking on your popular hyperbole at random, not you in particular. The corruption in SA you point to was exposed 10yrs ago. In the 80's there was exposure of corruption amoung high ranks in NSW, in the 90's QLD, last couple of years in Vic.
How does exposure of corruption equate to "total force wide corruption"? Doesn't the exposure itself indicate that "good cops" are doing their job? Or are you asserting the "total force wide corruption" was behind these exposures and it was really the "good cops" who were thrown out? What if no corruption was ever exposed, does that mean there is none? - or does it indicate they are really good crooks?
In otherwords for anyone who subscibes to that kind of hyperbole, there is no way for the cops to win. Not to mention the courts would also have to be "totally corrupt" under this (state) law and would not be interested in issuing warrants that might expose high ranking corruption as they have done in the past (see your own link).
Disclaimer: I have a couple of relatives/friends in the Vic police, some have served more that 20yrs. Personally I will start worrying when corruption is NOT being found.
"Objects in orbit don't really change direction in radically unpredictable ways."
;)
I think you're missing where I'm coming from. A solid rock will indeed act as you have stated (pool table mechanics), but what if some of it was not so solid and it started to crumble under the gravity of close planetary (solar?) fly-by's, say a hundred orbits ago.
Coincidently, the "n-body problem" is a classical example of the "butterfly effect" (mentioned by Jane Q Public above).
I have absolutely no evidence that this is what happened but the same is also true for your "In a word: No" assertion.
"Depends. How much do you value groupthink? Personally, "getting along with the team" is overrated, and honestly, a false sense of security."
Tell it to the drill sergeant.
The chaos in my example relates to accuracy not the energy of the impact. WP is your friend search on - "chaos theory" and then look at "dynamic equilibrium" or alternativly take up pool playing. ;)
"CmdrTaco: Please can you fix this now? Please?"
Looks like your subscription has expied, as had mine until just now...
Consider a 5 meter ball of steel hurtling toward the N pole. At the same altitude over the S pole is a single Iron atom hurtling toward Earth at the same speed. They will both hit the atmosphere at the same time without influencing each other.
The 5 meter ball will make a direct hit on Santa wiping out any Elves within a considerable radius.
The Iron atom on the other hand will start hiting single atoms/molecules. Suppose you could somehow freeze every atom in it's place before the Iron atom hit the atmosphere until it, hit the ground. (go away chemists).
If you have ever played pool you will understand how increadibly acurate that first contact the Iron atom makes would need to be to hit a five meter target on the ground.