If fuel economy was the issue...
The Boeing team would have built a flying wing. Saves about 2:1
If Ease of loading was the issue they would build a flying box.
If the real issue was discussed they would replace the management,... of the airlines and Boeing. They both represent unproductive costs outside of any reality.
The bells and whistles are put on to prevent people from facing the fact that the Airlines are not responding to their passenger demands and as a result flying miles are seriously down. They also distract stockholders from looking at why Boeing management has crushed their earnings.
Might make some interesting wagers and results. I have seen some design info on the dam and I think it might just fail in a mass break. Much of the "Wall" was built as a series of rectangular structures filled with rubble rather than a full concrete structure. If these leak they cause the full pressure of the dam to successively progress to the face of the dam. This makes all of the strength of an Earth fill dam (Not recommended over about 50 meters in height) with a slight concrete core when dry. When it leaks and it will, this threatens the failure of the cores. At base pressures over 340psi the loading on only a few feet of concrete is doomed to failure and violently so.
Dams should be designed to crack and not fail. All Dams will and do crack.
Ths dam is so big that the lake is likely to kick out 7.5 an 8.0 earthquakes. US TVA lakes routinely kick off 3 and 2.5 quakes some 55 years after construction. They happen less now but they do occur.
The failure of the dam here would be in the hundreds of millions killed. It would essentially "Take Out" about 30% of China.
US Dams of much smaller size used refrigeration to help the concrete set. Had the Bolder Dam not used such or the Grand Coulee Dam not use it, they would be waiting some 200 more years to have the concrete set. I really distrust the Chinese engineers on this one. I wish them luck and hope none of this happens.
Having been around computers a day or two and having had a father who worked with them while they still did calculations mechanically and who progressed with them past to the digital to ICS etc, I also know a bit of the history. It doesn't look anything like the official "Academic" version, which is pretty much of a project in creative writing. We may as well have fun with it!
The real story has more to do with defense against Nuclear War and the Strategic Defense of the USA than anything else. But those guys will forever live in the "Deep Black" world and will never get credit. Suffice it to say that the real story has more to do with a town in North Alabama than it does with the Swiss or Illinois.
Everything else is creative writing and poetic license. Poets are licensed?
R. Heinlien wrote, "A man who reads poetry in public may have other bad habits."
Being from the "Rocket City" Huntsville, Alabama which is also the home of the SDI program I am well aware of the failures of defense systems as well as their successes.
Point 1: This myth about SDI having to hit 100% is a lie. No defense system has ever worked 100% Given the choice between destruction of nearly all US Cities and trying to save most of them, knowing that the effort may not succeed in all cases I will happily take the choice of trying. Only an insane person would make the choice to lay down and die 100% which is what the opposition to SDI wants to make. This system is not intended to allow us to make war in absolute safety but rather to allow us to have survivors of a war we could not stop.
Point 2: Chaffing etc is not the problem one thinks. Yes one can make decoys that are identical externally to the warheads. The problem is that lasers can weigh them instantly! These do not work.
Point 3: In combat the lessor system Patriot which is a very old system has proven exceedingly efficient. It even got 2 friendlies who's IFF failed in the most recent war and had 0% misses on engagement.
Since "*" is a wild card... I think you could add just about anything that fits between the letters "h" and "ll". If you wanted to be implying only one character you should use "H#ll." It kind of reduces the possibilities to "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" and sometimes but not applicable here "y". That is unless you are from the Balkins in which case the possiblities are endless.
I wish people would realize that technology is only the amplifier of people.
If people are klutzy, stupid, ignorant, arrogant, destructive or malicious the more they are amplified by technology, the more we get of this.
The issue on technology is the character of those using it.
If they are wise, decent, careful, caring, helpful and kind, the more they are amplified by technology, the more we get of this.
Maybe we should be attending to the morals and not the technology.
The data on China is old. China is not pumping it out faster than the USA and is Exempt from Kyoto as is India who also is doing this.
Coal Tonnage for China now is something in the order of 4 Billion Tons a year USA is about.4 Billion. This was expressedly permitted under Kyoto.
NOTE: look at www.intellicast.com on the topic of Global Warming. The data is simply not there. This winter for example 2002-2003 found the greatest Northern hemisphere snow cover ever.
Those who support Solar, Wind etc as electrical energy sources fail completely to understand the problem. We could save 1/2 the energy if we did not use electricity at all. If we were to directly burn the fuel or move the mills etc without electricity the energy would be more efficiently used. (It is a fact)
The reason we use electricity is that we can turn it on and off when we want to and we can do it far away from the driver of the net. This way we don't have soot from lamps in our houses etc.
While Solar and Wind can produce simply massive amounts of electricity they don't do it when we want the energy. They do it when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing etc. They run counter intuitively to the very reason we use electricity. (Energy on Demand vs When it arrives) The addition of Solar and Wind energy to an electrical Grid unbalances it more and more causing massive throttling problems with the few devices we control. Nuclear by the way also has the same problems.
The real issue in energy will be dealt with when we face up to what we are doing and adapt our designs and technology to the reality and not our imagined situation.
The study about Jobs in IT going up by 2010 is done by the ITAA. It is professional bunch of liars who are trying to persuade congress (America's only Native Criminal Class - Mark Twain) to continue its racist bigoted assault on United States Citizenship.
The real issue is a batch of Fat Cat Businessmen (I am not against business or profits) who have managed to get massive tax benefits slanted in their favor wanting even more.
I will lay this out for the Geeks who have not studied IRS Code as I have.
If you do what everyone tells you that you should do and make your boss a lot of profits, you sabotage your own career. It works like this. If you earn your boss a $100,000 he has to pay $38,000 US Income Tax if he hires you in the USA. If he goes over seas, he does not pay this sum. Moreover; if he hires an H-1B or L-1 or any of the other Alphabet Soup of such Department of Homeland Security Visa Programs (See http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/services/emplo yerinfo/index.htm ) They often avoid Payroll Taxes for the Employer and the Employee.
Now for those who see this issue as an attack on Aliens I have this to say. I love Free Trade and would love being Tax Free like my competition. How about it US Congress Critter? This is not an issue of Aliens or foreign powers. It is our Congress.
The real issue here is that as a person Employed and Taxed as a UNITED STATES CITIZEN the only safe place for my job is between the zero profit line and the small amount of protection provided by the cost of bringing in my product from over seas. In Software this means NONE! The more profitable I am the more my employer must export my job.
As I said, this is a bigoted Attack on US Citizens. If I were to file as an employer a statement with the US Government that stated that I could not hire any women because none were qualified to fill my jobs, I would be prosecuted as being against women. Similarly if I were to do this saying it was African-Americans the statement would properly be decried as Bigoted and Racist. Yet every single H-1B application filed with the USA contains a sworn statement that there could be found no "Qualified Americans" to fill the position. This is by definition Racist Bigotry against Americans! It stands up there with the "Hate Speach" of the KKK or Islamist Radicals who want to murder or otherwise destroy people not of their race.
The vote by any Congress Critter for this legislation is an open recognition that they are racist bigots against Americans.
To those who think that the fussing about IT Jobs is some sort of whining, the issue isn't one of asking for job protection. On the contrary it is asking to end systematic demolition of jobs and destruction of people.
I worked until Oct 5, 2001 for Intergraph Corp, Madison Alabama on the LPD-17 (US Navy) program when I was replaced by a person from India brought here under "Same Day Service" for such visas. The disloyalty of our US Congress threatens our national security. It places our national secrets in the hands of persons who have no loyalty to the USA.
Intergraph did this because it saved them about $4000 a year in payroll taxes to fire me and hire aliens. I saw the signs on the doors calling such persons to meetings to ensure this!
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Just for the record, such opinions (Sen Hatch's) should be described as "making the world safe for Democrats."
With Ideas like this nobody who thinks would want anything to do with Republicans. But somebody will think I am a Democrat when I say this.. NOT!
If fuel economy was the issue... The Boeing team would have built a flying wing. Saves about 2:1 If Ease of loading was the issue they would build a flying box.
If the real issue was discussed they would replace the management,... of the airlines and Boeing. They both represent unproductive costs outside of any reality.
The bells and whistles are put on to prevent people from facing the fact that the Airlines are not responding to their passenger demands and as a result flying miles are seriously down. They also distract stockholders from looking at why Boeing management has crushed their earnings.
Might make some interesting wagers and results. I have seen some design info on the dam and I think it might just fail in a mass break. Much of the "Wall" was built as a series of rectangular structures filled with rubble rather than a full concrete structure. If these leak they cause the full pressure of the dam to successively progress to the face of the dam. This makes all of the strength of an Earth fill dam (Not recommended over about 50 meters in height) with a slight concrete core when dry. When it leaks and it will, this threatens the failure of the cores. At base pressures over 340psi the loading on only a few feet of concrete is doomed to failure and violently so.
Dams should be designed to crack and not fail. All Dams will and do crack.
Ths dam is so big that the lake is likely to kick out 7.5 an 8.0 earthquakes. US TVA lakes routinely kick off 3 and 2.5 quakes some 55 years after construction. They happen less now but they do occur.
The failure of the dam here would be in the hundreds of millions killed. It would essentially "Take Out" about 30% of China.
US Dams of much smaller size used refrigeration to help the concrete set. Had the Bolder Dam not used such or the Grand Coulee Dam not use it, they would be waiting some 200 more years to have the concrete set. I really distrust the Chinese engineers on this one. I wish them luck and hope none of this happens.
Having been around computers a day or two and having had a father who worked with them while they still did calculations mechanically and who progressed with them past to the digital to ICS etc, I also know a bit of the history. It doesn't look anything like the official "Academic" version, which is pretty much of a project in creative writing. We may as well have fun with it! The real story has more to do with defense against Nuclear War and the Strategic Defense of the USA than anything else. But those guys will forever live in the "Deep Black" world and will never get credit. Suffice it to say that the real story has more to do with a town in North Alabama than it does with the Swiss or Illinois. Everything else is creative writing and poetic license. Poets are licensed? R. Heinlien wrote, "A man who reads poetry in public may have other bad habits."
Being from the "Rocket City" Huntsville, Alabama which is also the home of the SDI program I am well aware of the failures of defense systems as well as their successes. Point 1: This myth about SDI having to hit 100% is a lie. No defense system has ever worked 100% Given the choice between destruction of nearly all US Cities and trying to save most of them, knowing that the effort may not succeed in all cases I will happily take the choice of trying. Only an insane person would make the choice to lay down and die 100% which is what the opposition to SDI wants to make. This system is not intended to allow us to make war in absolute safety but rather to allow us to have survivors of a war we could not stop. Point 2: Chaffing etc is not the problem one thinks. Yes one can make decoys that are identical externally to the warheads. The problem is that lasers can weigh them instantly! These do not work. Point 3: In combat the lessor system Patriot which is a very old system has proven exceedingly efficient. It even got 2 friendlies who's IFF failed in the most recent war and had 0% misses on engagement.
Since "*" is a wild card... I think you could add just about anything that fits between the letters "h" and "ll". If you wanted to be implying only one character you should use "H#ll." It kind of reduces the possibilities to "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" and sometimes but not applicable here "y". That is unless you are from the Balkins in which case the possiblities are endless.
I wish people would realize that technology is only the amplifier of people. If people are klutzy, stupid, ignorant, arrogant, destructive or malicious the more they are amplified by technology, the more we get of this. The issue on technology is the character of those using it. If they are wise, decent, careful, caring, helpful and kind, the more they are amplified by technology, the more we get of this. Maybe we should be attending to the morals and not the technology.
The data on China is old. China is not pumping it out faster than the USA and is Exempt from Kyoto as is India who also is doing this. Coal Tonnage for China now is something in the order of 4 Billion Tons a year USA is about .4 Billion. This was expressedly permitted under Kyoto.
NOTE: look at www.intellicast.com on the topic of Global Warming. The data is simply not there. This winter for example 2002-2003 found the greatest Northern hemisphere snow cover ever.
Those who support Solar, Wind etc as electrical energy sources fail completely to understand the problem. We could save 1/2 the energy if we did not use electricity at all. If we were to directly burn the fuel or move the mills etc without electricity the energy would be more efficiently used. (It is a fact) The reason we use electricity is that we can turn it on and off when we want to and we can do it far away from the driver of the net. This way we don't have soot from lamps in our houses etc. While Solar and Wind can produce simply massive amounts of electricity they don't do it when we want the energy. They do it when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing etc. They run counter intuitively to the very reason we use electricity. (Energy on Demand vs When it arrives) The addition of Solar and Wind energy to an electrical Grid unbalances it more and more causing massive throttling problems with the few devices we control. Nuclear by the way also has the same problems. The real issue in energy will be dealt with when we face up to what we are doing and adapt our designs and technology to the reality and not our imagined situation.
The study about Jobs in IT going up by 2010 is done by the ITAA. It is professional bunch of liars who are trying to persuade congress (America's only Native Criminal Class - Mark Twain) to continue its racist bigoted assault on United States Citizenship. The real issue is a batch of Fat Cat Businessmen (I am not against business or profits) who have managed to get massive tax benefits slanted in their favor wanting even more. I will lay this out for the Geeks who have not studied IRS Code as I have. If you do what everyone tells you that you should do and make your boss a lot of profits, you sabotage your own career. It works like this. If you earn your boss a $100,000 he has to pay $38,000 US Income Tax if he hires you in the USA. If he goes over seas, he does not pay this sum. Moreover; if he hires an H-1B or L-1 or any of the other Alphabet Soup of such Department of Homeland Security Visa Programs (See http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/services/emplo yerinfo/index.htm ) They often avoid Payroll Taxes for the Employer and the Employee.
Now for those who see this issue as an attack on Aliens I have this to say. I love Free Trade and would love being Tax Free like my competition. How about it US Congress Critter? This is not an issue of Aliens or foreign powers. It is our Congress.
The real issue here is that as a person Employed and Taxed as a UNITED STATES CITIZEN the only safe place for my job is between the zero profit line and the small amount of protection provided by the cost of bringing in my product from over seas. In Software this means NONE! The more profitable I am the more my employer must export my job.
As I said, this is a bigoted Attack on US Citizens. If I were to file as an employer a statement with the US Government that stated that I could not hire any women because none were qualified to fill my jobs, I would be prosecuted as being against women. Similarly if I were to do this saying it was African-Americans the statement would properly be decried as Bigoted and Racist. Yet every single H-1B application filed with the USA contains a sworn statement that there could be found no "Qualified Americans" to fill the position. This is by definition Racist Bigotry against Americans! It stands up there with the "Hate Speach" of the KKK or Islamist Radicals who want to murder or otherwise destroy people not of their race.
The vote by any Congress Critter for this legislation is an open recognition that they are racist bigots against Americans.
To those who think that the fussing about IT Jobs is some sort of whining, the issue isn't one of asking for job protection. On the contrary it is asking to end systematic demolition of jobs and destruction of people.
I worked until Oct 5, 2001 for Intergraph Corp, Madison Alabama on the LPD-17 (US Navy) program when I was replaced by a person from India brought here under "Same Day Service" for such visas. The disloyalty of our US Congress threatens our national security. It places our national secrets in the hands of persons who have no loyalty to the USA.
Intergraph did this because it saved them about $4000 a year in payroll taxes to fire me and hire aliens. I saw the signs on the doors calling such persons to meetings to ensure this!