Firefighters do not (or aren't supposed to) do anything with live wires besides set up a perimeter and wait for our guys with bucket trucks. They wouldn't have a meter for that purpose. Even linemen with the utility I work for don't use their meters to test the voltage on a downed wire. It's just too dangerous, because if a downed wire is still energized, it can energize everything around it. Hell, not even all of our line crews have a High Voltage Meter on their truck, let alone one set up for multiple voltage classes (Distribution vrs Transmission have different meters). Rule of thumb for anyone, utility workers and fire fighters included, is stay at least 15 to 20 feet away from the wire until an open point is created or verified.
Realize that it's because we understand technology that we're against most electronic voting.
We network out toasters, and then we share with everyone who wants to know how we did it. Then they can point out things we did that could burn down our house.
If Diebold used Linux, a lot more people probably would be for it, because Linux is open source and we'd be able to look at how the voting machines were built and figure out security holes that could be exploited by less honest individuals.
Information Resources, Inc does already track almost every product with a bar code. Granted, it's not personalized, but all that data and analysis thereof is available to anyone who wants to pay for it.
Power Distribution reliability is pretty good, all things considered, at least on a well designed system. There are series of devices on distribution lines (fuses/reclosers) that sectionalize only the area that has been faulted, so that 25 to 50 people lose power on the end of a circuit instead of 1000 people on the entire substation. It is impossible to prevent all distribution outages while keeping costs low.
Customers are the biggest roadblock to distributed generation, which would be the best reliability solution as far as transmission is concerned. There's a constant NIMBY problem though, especially in the areas that could use it most. There were customers who took major contention with our company wanting to install a portable diesel generator at a substation right next to the highway. The reason? They thought it would be too noisy.
Our problem isn't necessarily to few outlets, but fuse size. In the city where my fine university is located (Kalamazoo, MI), most student rental houseing qualifies as "Historic". This means that there are a lot of houses full of cloth insulated aluminum wiring attached to fuse panels and fuses with small ratings. Plus the circuits don't make a bit of sense. You blow a fuse using an outlet in a room on the back side of the house and the lights in a room on the opposite side go out, while the room right next door stays intact.
It's possible for a penny to kill under the right circumstances I suppose. It's comparable to a.22 mass wise, but it's not bullet shaped. A penny is 19 mm in diameter, vrs the bullets 5.6 mm. That's almost 12x the cross sectional area, which means 12x the amount of force from a direct current. If your 2 pence piece is twice the size, that means twice the mass, which, at the same velocity, means it has twice the energy.
If it fell straight sideways, it would have significanly less air resistance, but it's going to be spinning. It'd be really, really unlikely for the penny to fall about 400 m down and not start spinning, especially with all the air currents.
More likely, it'd be a lot of pain and a concussion at worst.
Try throwing a penny some time, see how far it can go. With a positive angle at start, I can only get a max of about 15 yards.
Then, look at a picture of the observation deck. It's got protective shields that extend about 10 feet about the deck, with a wire grate in the middle. You either have a huge arc at the beginning of the throw, or it's got a bad angle to start with.
What, you think I make this stuff up?
I meant the fact that a piece of foam can't go 500 mph, due to air resistance, plus it was only subject to gravity. Now foam encased in ice can, but, like you said, it's a relative motion thing. I was more interested in the correctness of the grammer. President Kennedy didn't hit the bullet, dig?
I don't have the numbers right here, and I'm too hungover to crunch them out, but I remember a few years back being told by a professor that a penny can't kill someone. It's too light, and the air resistance creates a terminal velocity that prevents it from becoming all that dangerous.
And the empire state building is wedge shaped, with ledges ever couple of stories. There's no way for a penny to even make it to the ground.
Also, it's not the fact that the foam was going 500 mph hour, it's the fact that the shuttle was.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The low carb thing seems to make sense anthropologically. Most nomadic peoples were from warm weather climates, where body fat isn't really needed except for times of low availability. Nomads (hunter gatherers) ate mostly meat and gathered veggies, verses cultivated grains (carbs.)
I don't know if this sort of view has been debunked. I'd like to find out.
I'm also really curious about the FDA stickers. Are the caloric values they post gained from straight burning tests (put something in a calorimeter, burn it, see how much energy it gives off..), or is there more to it? I can believe that the n - calories I get from eating a slice of high fiber wheat bread is equal to the n - calories I get from eating x cookies.
Is anyone else more than a little afraid of some fundamentalist group launching a Ji-had (or some other faith based initiative) on the Net? I mean, there's an god-damn lot of blastphemy out here.
Slashdot Mirror
Firefighters do not (or aren't supposed to) do anything with live wires besides set up a perimeter and wait for our guys with bucket trucks. They wouldn't have a meter for that purpose. Even linemen with the utility I work for don't use their meters to test the voltage on a downed wire. It's just too dangerous, because if a downed wire is still energized, it can energize everything around it. Hell, not even all of our line crews have a High Voltage Meter on their truck, let alone one set up for multiple voltage classes (Distribution vrs Transmission have different meters). Rule of thumb for anyone, utility workers and fire fighters included, is stay at least 15 to 20 feet away from the wire until an open point is created or verified.
Remember, the term "injury" is subjective to people who throw themselves out of airplanes.
Realize that it's because we understand technology that we're against most electronic voting. We network out toasters, and then we share with everyone who wants to know how we did it. Then they can point out things we did that could burn down our house. If Diebold used Linux, a lot more people probably would be for it, because Linux is open source and we'd be able to look at how the voting machines were built and figure out security holes that could be exploited by less honest individuals.
Hokey religions and ancient punch-cards are no match for a good electronic voting machine in your booth.
Information Resources, Inc does already track almost every product with a bar code. Granted, it's not personalized, but all that data and analysis thereof is available to anyone who wants to pay for it.
Power Distribution reliability is pretty good, all things considered, at least on a well designed system. There are series of devices on distribution lines (fuses/reclosers) that sectionalize only the area that has been faulted, so that 25 to 50 people lose power on the end of a circuit instead of 1000 people on the entire substation. It is impossible to prevent all distribution outages while keeping costs low. Customers are the biggest roadblock to distributed generation, which would be the best reliability solution as far as transmission is concerned. There's a constant NIMBY problem though, especially in the areas that could use it most. There were customers who took major contention with our company wanting to install a portable diesel generator at a substation right next to the highway. The reason? They thought it would be too noisy.
Our problem isn't necessarily to few outlets, but fuse size. In the city where my fine university is located (Kalamazoo, MI), most student rental houseing qualifies as "Historic". This means that there are a lot of houses full of cloth insulated aluminum wiring attached to fuse panels and fuses with small ratings. Plus the circuits don't make a bit of sense. You blow a fuse using an outlet in a room on the back side of the house and the lights in a room on the opposite side go out, while the room right next door stays intact.
What about using Power Wheels instead of a Segway? Hell, they can hold 130 pounds and move 5 mph. That's a machine gun and plenty of ammo.
Plus, I imagine Fisher Price makes much sturdier equipment than most military contractors anyway.
Phear Children.
It's possible for a penny to kill under the right circumstances I suppose. It's comparable to a .22 mass wise, but it's not bullet shaped. A penny is 19 mm in diameter, vrs the bullets 5.6 mm. That's almost 12x the cross sectional area, which means 12x the amount of force from a direct current. If your 2 pence piece is twice the size, that means twice the mass, which, at the same velocity, means it has twice the energy.
If it fell straight sideways, it would have significanly less air resistance, but it's going to be spinning. It'd be really, really unlikely for the penny to fall about 400 m down and not start spinning, especially with all the air currents.
More likely, it'd be a lot of pain and a concussion at worst.
Try throwing a penny some time, see how far it can go. With a positive angle at start, I can only get a max of about 15 yards. Then, look at a picture of the observation deck. It's got protective shields that extend about 10 feet about the deck, with a wire grate in the middle. You either have a huge arc at the beginning of the throw, or it's got a bad angle to start with. What, you think I make this stuff up?
I meant the fact that a piece of foam can't go 500 mph, due to air resistance, plus it was only subject to gravity. Now foam encased in ice can, but, like you said, it's a relative motion thing. I was more interested in the correctness of the grammer. President Kennedy didn't hit the bullet, dig?
I don't have the numbers right here, and I'm too hungover to crunch them out, but I remember a few years back being told by a professor that a penny can't kill someone. It's too light, and the air resistance creates a terminal velocity that prevents it from becoming all that dangerous.
And the empire state building is wedge shaped, with ledges ever couple of stories. There's no way for a penny to even make it to the ground.
Also, it's not the fact that the foam was going 500 mph hour, it's the fact that the shuttle was.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The low carb thing seems to make sense anthropologically. Most nomadic peoples were from warm weather climates, where body fat isn't really needed except for times of low availability. Nomads (hunter gatherers) ate mostly meat and gathered veggies, verses cultivated grains (carbs.) I don't know if this sort of view has been debunked. I'd like to find out. I'm also really curious about the FDA stickers. Are the caloric values they post gained from straight burning tests (put something in a calorimeter, burn it, see how much energy it gives off..), or is there more to it? I can believe that the n - calories I get from eating a slice of high fiber wheat bread is equal to the n - calories I get from eating x cookies.
Without phone books, what will we beat our minority prisoners with?
Is anyone else more than a little afraid of some fundamentalist group launching a Ji-had (or some other faith based initiative) on the Net? I mean, there's an god-damn lot of blastphemy out here.