Boiling Point @ 1 atm 49.2 C
Heat of Vaporization @ boiling point 88.0 kJ/kg
Vapor Pressure 0.404 bar
This is a liquid that will readily evaporate (a little slower than ether would). If a limited quanitity is used (such as in a hand-held extinguisher), it will probably evaporate before you get the chance to clean it up.
The article also states that the LC50 is over 10% by volume, which tells this substance is probably not very dangerous, unless specific medical problems arise.
As it seems to be safe to the atmosphere as well, i guess the 'plan' is to just let it sit there and evaporate.
This may sound dangerous, but we do the same with CO2 - which is more lethal to anyone entering the room and possibly to the environment (global warming) as well.
Other uses than indicators
on
The Blues for LEDs
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
First of all, the amazingly bright blue LEDs described are really not a good choice for indicators. The problem is not in their color, but usually in their rather small 'viewing angle' - this results in an idicator that is blazingly bright when viewed head on, but hard to see from an angle.
As for the color, the blue LED does mark the quantum barrier surpassed by nichia a decade or so ago.
Now, roughly 10 years after the introducion of the first practical blue LEDs, we see a whole range of LED products based on the leap made at that time. For example, UV leds are becoming more and more common, and find applications in money checkers, forensics and scientific appliances.
Also, LEDs are becoming very usefull light sources in torches, automotive (brake)lights, traffic signals etc. etc.
Also, keep in mind that many other colors of LED are based on the work by Nichia.. new bright green leds are, white leds are (using a blue led and a phosphor), and also advances in red and yellow leds were achieved.
I think that idicators are just an over the top use of a technology that will bring us more and more interesting light-emitting devices for all kinds of uses.
Lets just assume that most 'bad' hackers have more knowledge of security flaws and holes than most system administrators.
I this scenario, a set of 'hacking' tools made availble to those administrators can help them find vulnerabilities, fix them, and then test if their solution is working properly.
If these tools were only available to people with the intention to abuse them, it would be much harder to secure a system.
Personally, I believe that currently the knowlegde of security flaws is greater among the hackers, since they specialize in exploiting them. Most administrators have many tasks besides system security. With a set of proper tools to diagnose their systems, security could be maintained with less effort.
Although radar installations can pack quite a punch as far as radio-frequency energy output is concerned, the power levels are usually not sufficient to set something ablaze at any significant distances.
A high-power military radar installation does put out enough power to kill an unfortunate bird (or incompetent engineer) at short distance, but still wouldn't do much more than disrupt electronic equipment at greater distances.
However, it is not unthinkable that a relatively small disruption in an eletronic device can lead to a bigger problem later on - a disrupted control circuit causing an overload that leads to a fire is well possible. This scenario is not very feasible after main power is cut though.
Funny that this seems to be breaking news, as a very similar service named Digitenne has been in operation for a year or so in the Netherlands.
Indeed, the service is a little cheaper than the common cable system, but brings about one major disadvantage: You will need a receiver and subscription for every receiver you own. So if you have 2 TV's and a VCR, you need 3 subscriptions, and this setup is more expensive than cable plus an amplifier and indoor coax cabling.
However, the service can be used on the road, allowing good quality TV reception in vehicles and on, for example, campsites.
Showering uses 5 to 10 liters of water per minute on average (collect in a bucket if you doubt this). If you shower for 15 minutes a day, every day, you will have used a metric tonne of water after only 10 days or so.
However, if you run a bath every day (which on average uses around 200 liters of water), you'll be there within the week.
So if we just count the amount of raw materials used, and ignore they way these are contaminated or otherwise 'removed' from the environment, the amount of materials used for a new PC and 17" CRT are comparable to a week's worth of personal hygiene.
In my opinion this is one of the ugliest baby-pictures I've seen in a long time. Since I live in Holland, I've seen it a million times on every possible newspaper and TV channel.
Dutch currency used to have stylized portraits of royalty on them, but not photo-like material like this one does.
From a technological standpoint, this coin is a very nice piece of work, but I for one would have been pleased with a different subject.
One idea would have been the outline of the country, the outine of europe and the outline of the worldmap as the three images. Perhaps that would symbolize national pride, european currency and global commerce nicely?
I think the parent has a point. It would be quite easy to exploit people that trust your binaries. When they download a precompiled binary from your system and install it, they could actually install a very big backdoor on their system.
To make things worse, the one that offers the malicious binaries can easily log from which IP's they where downloaded. Many people will download directly to their server using wget, and then install the binaries.
If people then omit to verify the integrity of the binaries one way or another, this whole scenario becomes quite risky. Not that I think any self-respecting person would follow this course of action, I still feel that some scriptkiddies out there might give this a try.
As for the LED's: A LED might well be able to handle this much current. Although continous current should not exceed around 20 mA on most models, most LED's can handle short peak currents just fine.
For a viewer, it would be difficult to spot the difference in a 1 ms 1 A flash and a 10 ms 100 mA flash.
Recent LEDs have also been produced with phosphors in them to make specific colors (and white). These phosphors can also help to buffer the peak of energy and emit light at a lower level for a longer period of time.
It is an interesting find, ozone being produced in water near a HV discharge.
But what I totally miss here is a reaction mechanism or any other explanation. The usual link between HV and ozone comes from oxygen in air being ionized and then forming ozone.
However, I have never heard of such phenomenon occurring in (liquid) water - nor can I (being a M Sc. in chemistry) think of any probable (or even improbable) explanation. Perhaps any of the readers here can provide some insight?
I guess #2 would be an option if this sonic cannon packs enough of a punch. However, the real threat to both vehicles and mankind seems to come from dropping-stork damage.
But only if it actually jams radar-based speed traps in the process.
With the ban on radar-detectors around here, the market is open to a new gadget that protects drivers from traps, and saves a few cyclists and pedestrians in the process:)
And, although most watches use the 32,768 Hz crystals as a timebase right now, there are also digital clocks and watches that use a higher frequency. The 4,194,304 Hz crystal is not uncommon, and makes an excellent one-second timebase when used with a simple 2^n divider (n=22).
Custom-cut crystals in this frequency range usually cost a few 10s of dollars each, depening mainly on desired accuracy and quality.
To me, it still sounds odd that a multi-million project like this could not pay an extra few 1000 to make these custom crystals, 32 khz or 4 mhz.
Mod parent down - abuse
on
Your Own Mecha
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Its not goatse, but its close...
(okay, i shouldn't have tried..)
I find this 'feature' rather odd in a professional package like photoshop. Honestly, I cannot see how this measure will prevent people from printing a copy of a banknote.
However, editing images of currency is quite useful. For example, many images of the Euro currency were shown to the public trough various media before its introduction.
This was supported by both the government and the retailers, to increase acceptance of the new currency. Furthermore, spreading images of money can aid in detecting counterfeit banknotes by the public - how should someone know what a 500 euro banknote looks like if no one is allowed to print an image of it, or even show one online?
Since I work in the graphical sector, I used images of currency sometimes, mostly for decorative purposes. This has absolutely nothing to do with counterfeiting, but does need the advanced editing features photoshop has. To make counterfeit money, you would just have to print a good copy, which can be performed by any simple image editing program.
Obviously, these microbes did not spontanously form in this environment, but adapted to their new situation.
All life on earth seems to have a common ancestor, it seems very unlikely that there are species of different origin in existance today.
However, it is still very valuable information that life is possible under these circumstances. If you would start out with a lifeless world that has extreme conditions such as pH or temperature, it is at least possible for life to exist there.
As for the formation of life, we only have one real example: life on earth. The conditions required for life to form are therefor very hard to determine, this would require observing numerous planets and studying which ones have life and which don't.
This is a very good argument that is often overlooked by the medical industry.
For example, in some countries children were and are given vaccines agains the polio virus. It has been proven that in wester-european countries, complications from the vaccine cause more problems than the illness itself.
A very similar argument can be held against vaccinating people that travel to tropical countries. For example, the chance of contracting hepatits-B while staying in the average asian country is less than 1/1.000.000, and even if one is infected, there is some chance of recovery without (permanent) damage.
However, I would not be surprised if the chance of permantent damage is larger then 1/1.000.000 when one visits a clinic (trough traffic), receives an injection with a vaccine and sits at home with a fever while becoming immune (in some cases).
When looking at statistics alone, it may be wise not to get all possible vaccines and treatments just to lower the already slim chance of contracting some illness.
I don't think this is available commercially, but there is definitely some prior art.
I once read an article in an electronics magazine proposing a 'soft-start' circuit to make bulbs run longer.
However, with bulbs priced at $0.49 or so, it would take very long to earn this circuit back. In that case, it would be wiser to buy fluorescent lamps ('energy-savers') that not only use 80% less power, but also last around 8 times longer.
This is not the major problem with lightbulbs pooping out.
When you switch one on, the tungsten filament is still cold, and - like most metals - the resistance of the filament is lower at lower temperatures.
This is what causes a major surge in amperage, and this is what actually 'breaks' the filament. The cold period lasts only a split second, but this is enough to fry a weak spot in the filament.
The weak spots are formed during 'normal' use, since it is virtually impossible to create a wire with even with along its entire length. A part that is only marginally thinner than the rest, will have higher resistance and hence voltage drop and power dissipation than the rest of the wire. This higher temperature will cause the tungsten to evaporate faster, and condense slower, on the already weak part of the filament - causing the weakness to get weaker until in eventually poops out under start-up conditions.
The funny thing is: some ordinary bulbs can run for decades continously, but don't even think of switching them off and on after that!
Indeed.. I know not of any vertebrate that sinks in water.
However, I can see the benefit of a body design that floats with the head on the upper side. Apparently, this is what this article and the theory about 'air sacks' and all is about.
Re:Radio will be around for a long time
on
Who Needs Radio?
·
· Score: 1
There are a few things that can save radio from going silent due to lack of money:
- Government-funded radio At least in Europe, this is very common practice, and has been for decades
- Advertising for the less wealthy
This sounds like a stupid idea at first glace, however, demographics show that groups with low income are quite large. And they spend that income on -something-, so there is still an interesting market there.
- Convenience
A radio receiver will always be a very cheap device, and can be used anywhere, anytime. I would not let my wifi-enabled $2500 laptop lay around at the beach, but I'd take a $10 radio and wouldn't worry about theft. When you go out in rough weather, you'd probably take a $30 discman instead of a $350 ipod, right?
I think there will be a group of 'have-not in this specific situation'-s around at all times.
Radio will be around for a long time
on
Who Needs Radio?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Radio will not be silenced for a long time, I think.
The technology has been around for a very long time, and broadcast radio will probably outlive us all.
Using relatively simple and affordable technology, radio is a great medium to broadcast a message to a big audience. Even when the power goes out, all networks are fried and most infrastructure desroyed, radio is there. And its there as an important means for any government to communicate in such situation. If we'd loose the architecture, we might loose a medium that can save many lives when needed.
And yes, i mean broadcast radio there, since it is vital that recievers are common among the population.
However, radio's function in promoting music will probably diminish over the next decade(s), and largely be replaced by streaming etc.
You should consider the way these substances are tested. If you would test a artificial sweetener in an animal experiment, you would probably use a dose larger than the dose you expect in humans.
This is very common practice, since it would take too many animals to do a proper test at the expected dose. To determine a 1/million fatality, you would need millions of lab rats if you'd test at the human dose.
So, if you would test at 100 times the expected dose in humans, this would be a proper experiment for an artificial sweetener.
However, if we would do the same experiment with ordinary sugar, you would get very strange results. If you would look at the risks of consuming 100 grams of sugar a day in a human, the experiment would involve daily consumption of 10 kilograms of sugar a day. Needless to say, the mortality in the subjects of such experiment would be 100% within a week or so (probably sooner).
But when testing at the normal dose, I would not be surprised if you'd find that a group on sweetener would have a better life expectancy than a group on 'real' sugar.
A one-in-a-million chance on cancer would, in my opinion, be better than a one-in-ten chance of contracting obesitas, diabetes and/or cardiovascular problems.
When looking at the total risk, it would be wise to ban sugar and favour sweeters right here, right now. Luckily, people can choose for themselves, but I think they should be informed better.
Slashdot Mirror
Boiling Point @ 1 atm 49.2 C
Heat of Vaporization @ boiling point 88.0 kJ/kg
Vapor Pressure 0.404 bar
This is a liquid that will readily evaporate (a little slower than ether would). If a limited quanitity is used (such as in a hand-held extinguisher), it will probably evaporate before you get the chance to clean it up.
The article also states that the LC50 is over 10% by volume, which tells this substance is probably not very dangerous, unless specific medical problems arise.
As it seems to be safe to the atmosphere as well, i guess the 'plan' is to just let it sit there and evaporate.
This may sound dangerous, but we do the same with CO2 - which is more lethal to anyone entering the room and possibly to the environment (global warming) as well.
As for the color, the blue LED does mark the quantum barrier surpassed by nichia a decade or so ago.
Now, roughly 10 years after the introducion of the first practical blue LEDs, we see a whole range of LED products based on the leap made at that time. For example, UV leds are becoming more and more common, and find applications in money checkers, forensics and scientific appliances.
Also, LEDs are becoming very usefull light sources in torches, automotive (brake)lights, traffic signals etc. etc.
Also, keep in mind that many other colors of LED are based on the work by Nichia.. new bright green leds are, white leds are (using a blue led and a phosphor), and also advances in red and yellow leds were achieved.
I think that idicators are just an over the top use of a technology that will bring us more and more interesting light-emitting devices for all kinds of uses.
I this scenario, a set of 'hacking' tools made availble to those administrators can help them find vulnerabilities, fix them, and then test if their solution is working properly.
If these tools were only available to people with the intention to abuse them, it would be much harder to secure a system.
Personally, I believe that currently the knowlegde of security flaws is greater among the hackers, since they specialize in exploiting them. Most administrators have many tasks besides system security. With a set of proper tools to diagnose their systems, security could be maintained with less effort.
A high-power military radar installation does put out enough power to kill an unfortunate bird (or incompetent engineer) at short distance, but still wouldn't do much more than disrupt electronic equipment at greater distances.
However, it is not unthinkable that a relatively small disruption in an eletronic device can lead to a bigger problem later on - a disrupted control circuit causing an overload that leads to a fire is well possible. This scenario is not very feasible after main power is cut though.
The digitenne receiver will output only one channel at a time.
Indeed, the service is a little cheaper than the common cable system, but brings about one major disadvantage: You will need a receiver and subscription for every receiver you own. So if you have 2 TV's and a VCR, you need 3 subscriptions, and this setup is more expensive than cable plus an amplifier and indoor coax cabling.
However, the service can be used on the road, allowing good quality TV reception in vehicles and on, for example, campsites.
However, if you run a bath every day (which on average uses around 200 liters of water), you'll be there within the week.
So if we just count the amount of raw materials used, and ignore they way these are contaminated or otherwise 'removed' from the environment, the amount of materials used for a new PC and 17" CRT are comparable to a week's worth of personal hygiene.
Dutch currency used to have stylized portraits of royalty on them, but not photo-like material like this one does.
From a technological standpoint, this coin is a very nice piece of work, but I for one would have been pleased with a different subject.
One idea would have been the outline of the country, the outine of europe and the outline of the worldmap as the three images. Perhaps that would symbolize national pride, european currency and global commerce nicely?
To make things worse, the one that offers the malicious binaries can easily log from which IP's they where downloaded. Many people will download directly to their server using wget, and then install the binaries.
If people then omit to verify the integrity of the binaries one way or another, this whole scenario becomes quite risky. Not that I think any self-respecting person would follow this course of action, I still feel that some scriptkiddies out there might give this a try.
Therefore, beware!
As for the LED's: A LED might well be able to handle this much current. Although continous current should not exceed around 20 mA on most models, most LED's can handle short peak currents just fine.
For a viewer, it would be difficult to spot the difference in a 1 ms 1 A flash and a 10 ms 100 mA flash.
Recent LEDs have also been produced with phosphors in them to make specific colors (and white). These phosphors can also help to buffer the peak of energy and emit light at a lower level for a longer period of time.
But what I totally miss here is a reaction mechanism or any other explanation. The usual link between HV and ozone comes from oxygen in air being ionized and then forming ozone.
However, I have never heard of such phenomenon occurring in (liquid) water - nor can I (being a M Sc. in chemistry) think of any probable (or even improbable) explanation. Perhaps any of the readers here can provide some insight?
1. Bat-dropping damage
2. Droppig-bat dagamge
I guess #2 would be an option if this sonic cannon packs enough of a punch. However, the real threat to both vehicles and mankind seems to come from dropping-stork damage.
With the ban on radar-detectors around here, the market is open to a new gadget that protects drivers from traps, and saves a few cyclists and pedestrians in the process :)
Furthermore, I'm quite conviced that mining any substance on earth will harm more lifeforms than mining helium from the moon would.
Custom-cut crystals in this frequency range usually cost a few 10s of dollars each, depening mainly on desired accuracy and quality.
To me, it still sounds odd that a multi-million project like this could not pay an extra few 1000 to make these custom crystals, 32 khz or 4 mhz.
Its not goatse, but its close... (okay, i shouldn't have tried..)
However, editing images of currency is quite useful. For example, many images of the Euro currency were shown to the public trough various media before its introduction.
This was supported by both the government and the retailers, to increase acceptance of the new currency. Furthermore, spreading images of money can aid in detecting counterfeit banknotes by the public - how should someone know what a 500 euro banknote looks like if no one is allowed to print an image of it, or even show one online?
Since I work in the graphical sector, I used images of currency sometimes, mostly for decorative purposes. This has absolutely nothing to do with counterfeiting, but does need the advanced editing features photoshop has. To make counterfeit money, you would just have to print a good copy, which can be performed by any simple image editing program.
All life on earth seems to have a common ancestor, it seems very unlikely that there are species of different origin in existance today.
However, it is still very valuable information that life is possible under these circumstances. If you would start out with a lifeless world that has extreme conditions such as pH or temperature, it is at least possible for life to exist there.
As for the formation of life, we only have one real example: life on earth. The conditions required for life to form are therefor very hard to determine, this would require observing numerous planets and studying which ones have life and which don't.
For example, in some countries children were and are given vaccines agains the polio virus. It has been proven that in wester-european countries, complications from the vaccine cause more problems than the illness itself.
A very similar argument can be held against vaccinating people that travel to tropical countries. For example, the chance of contracting hepatits-B while staying in the average asian country is less than 1/1.000.000, and even if one is infected, there is some chance of recovery without (permanent) damage.
However, I would not be surprised if the chance of permantent damage is larger then 1/1.000.000 when one visits a clinic (trough traffic), receives an injection with a vaccine and sits at home with a fever while becoming immune (in some cases).
When looking at statistics alone, it may be wise not to get all possible vaccines and treatments just to lower the already slim chance of contracting some illness.
I once read an article in an electronics magazine proposing a 'soft-start' circuit to make bulbs run longer.
However, with bulbs priced at $0.49 or so, it would take very long to earn this circuit back. In that case, it would be wiser to buy fluorescent lamps ('energy-savers') that not only use 80% less power, but also last around 8 times longer.
When you switch one on, the tungsten filament is still cold, and - like most metals - the resistance of the filament is lower at lower temperatures.
This is what causes a major surge in amperage, and this is what actually 'breaks' the filament. The cold period lasts only a split second, but this is enough to fry a weak spot in the filament.
The weak spots are formed during 'normal' use, since it is virtually impossible to create a wire with even with along its entire length. A part that is only marginally thinner than the rest, will have higher resistance and hence voltage drop and power dissipation than the rest of the wire. This higher temperature will cause the tungsten to evaporate faster, and condense slower, on the already weak part of the filament - causing the weakness to get weaker until in eventually poops out under start-up conditions.
The funny thing is: some ordinary bulbs can run for decades continously, but don't even think of switching them off and on after that!
However, I can see the benefit of a body design that floats with the head on the upper side. Apparently, this is what this article and the theory about 'air sacks' and all is about.
- Government-funded radio
At least in Europe, this is very common practice, and has been for decades
- Advertising for the less wealthy
This sounds like a stupid idea at first glace, however, demographics show that groups with low income are quite large. And they spend that income on -something-, so there is still an interesting market there.
- Convenience
A radio receiver will always be a very cheap device, and can be used anywhere, anytime. I would not let my wifi-enabled $2500 laptop lay around at the beach, but I'd take a $10 radio and wouldn't worry about theft. When you go out in rough weather, you'd probably take a $30 discman instead of a $350 ipod, right?
I think there will be a group of 'have-not in this specific situation'-s around at all times.
The technology has been around for a very long time, and broadcast radio will probably outlive us all.
Using relatively simple and affordable technology, radio is a great medium to broadcast a message to a big audience. Even when the power goes out, all networks are fried and most infrastructure desroyed, radio is there. And its there as an important means for any government to communicate in such situation. If we'd loose the architecture, we might loose a medium that can save many lives when needed.
And yes, i mean broadcast radio there, since it is vital that recievers are common among the population.
However, radio's function in promoting music will probably diminish over the next decade(s), and largely be replaced by streaming etc.
This is very common practice, since it would take too many animals to do a proper test at the expected dose. To determine a 1/million fatality, you would need millions of lab rats if you'd test at the human dose.
So, if you would test at 100 times the expected dose in humans, this would be a proper experiment for an artificial sweetener.
However, if we would do the same experiment with ordinary sugar, you would get very strange results. If you would look at the risks of consuming 100 grams of sugar a day in a human, the experiment would involve daily consumption of 10 kilograms of sugar a day. Needless to say, the mortality in the subjects of such experiment would be 100% within a week or so (probably sooner).
But when testing at the normal dose, I would not be surprised if you'd find that a group on sweetener would have a better life expectancy than a group on 'real' sugar.
A one-in-a-million chance on cancer would, in my opinion, be better than a one-in-ten chance of contracting obesitas, diabetes and/or cardiovascular problems.
When looking at the total risk, it would be wise to ban sugar and favour sweeters right here, right now. Luckily, people can choose for themselves, but I think they should be informed better.