Here is why it is better: First-to-invent as concept is mushy. You go to someone's old notebooks and try to prove 1) that they are authentic (signed, dated, contrasigned) and not altered. 2) that this actualy is the crux of invention. When was is exactly - when you had the whole functioning thing working - or when you had one (important) idea? It often happens that many ideas are needed and most of them are essential for success of invention.
Ideas are cheap but making them useful is hard. You can often produce ten times as many ideas than you can possibly work on. Any asshole can secretly write down something in the notebook without doing any further work, then sue someone who came up with the same thing and actualy made it happen.
Lawyers love the concept of first to invent because it is wague and can be bent in hundred different ways. The more tricky and messy, the more fees for them. Good patent litigation can keep the whole law firm busy for 10 years.
Rich corporation tend to win the litigations - and if not, they use lawsuit as harassment tool. There was one pharma company who successfuly prevented generic companies from competing for 2 years after the patents on its drug expired. It was bullshit litigation based on technicalities without a sligtest chance of success. And while this was going on, the generic companies were prevented from making the cheaper version of the same drug. The big company profitted extra few hundred millions for 2 more years and spent perhaps few millions on the litigation.
I do not care what the patent law looks like as long as it is transparent and the rules are unambiguous. Also, government tends to steal money collected by patent office (on patent fees). The patent office is underfunded / understaffed which allows bullshit patents getting through the review process which then creates the opportunity for lawsuits.
The article mistakes Chitosan with Chitin: Chitin is what makes most of shrimp (lobster, insect) shells. Chitosan is obtained by chemicaly modifying chitin (removing the acetyl groups from aminos). The chitosan starting material is fairly cheap, a kilo of it bought from a chemical lab supplier will cost you about $300 US, depending on grade. (The bulk price will be much lower, especialy if there is more market for the material).
The cholic-acid binding chitosan pils (reduced bile re-absorbtion => lower fat absorbtion and faster cholesterol metabolism) are generic, any company can make them hence the pills are reasonably priced.
So, yea, the actual manufacturing cost of the miraculous bandage will be only few bucks and the profit margin is like 1000%. (Fairly typical of the pharma industry. Developing the product, building the GMP-factory for manufacture and especialy performing the clinical trials was very expensive and now they want to have money back.)
They are in the businees of saving bleeding soldiers - if it is profitable. They can price their product as much as merket can bear because they have patent exclusivity on a unique product - and will continue having it in the next 10-15years.
I think some shareholders are eager to stay naive - but not Darl. Darl is just saying what they want to hear and doing what they are paying him to do. I am pretty sure that his bonuses/options are tied to the actual stock price - so he will tell any lie that could make his zombie company look more pink and plump. If he was dumb he could not get and keep his job. Dishonesty is a job qualification, too.
Any guy in India can do better than this - his laptop can float above the desk without the screws. (being helf there by stream of purloined bank account data)
Most of the tedious calculations in wartime Los Alamos was done by "clever boys with engineering skils and high school diploma" that were drafted into army and then assigned to Los Alamos duty.
Everybody there was doing the calculations on simple electromechanic calculators "Merchant" which had the unpleasant tendency to break down a lot. (They also used slide rule to get quick fist aproximations). Eventualy they purchased a great number of card-punching machines from IBM (designed for bank account tabelations) and adapted them for iterative numerical calculations by putting them into a *cycle* - a revolutionary idea at the time.
This stil required lots of people to feed the cards into the machines at each step and the stacks of cards was going round very very slowly. The biggest problem of these calculations was that at this point the boys were pretty bored with the job. When they were told what they were actualy working on, their productivity increased ninefold!
A very entertaining re-collection of this computing history is in "Los Alamos from bellow" in "Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman"
Newton was not a protestant but a secret catolic - from a ultraconservative sect (something like Mel Gibsons' father) that has been persecuted by the authorities.
Most of his writings are dedicated to his theologic thoughts and alchemy. He was very off, autistic most likely, and had a pretty disagreeable vindicative personality. Which does not take away from his contributions in math and physics.
H2 has the lowers viscosity from all gasses so tt has great tendency to leak from any container, miroscopic crack, etc. It weakens many metalic materials over time. It has very broad explosive range in mixtures with air. It burns by invisible flame (the emission max is in UV region). To store H2, it has to be pressurized to very high pressures. (Alternatively you can have a metal-based sorbent that stores hydrogen at medium pressure byt max only about 4% by weight. Chemistry conspires against higher loadings of the sorbent. Alternatively you can generate it from water and dangerous metal hydrides that are very expensive to manufacture and produce nasty sideproducts.).
If you crash a vehicle using liquified propane gas, the result will be a huge flame and fireball. If it is hydrogen it will be more like explosion. Practicaly inpossible to extinguish - has to burn out.
The answer is never. Hydrogen in cars is very bad idea - impractical, dangerous and very expensive.
$20 a gallon? I do not know what country you live in but the current US prices are at around $2.40 - and that is retail at the pump, after taxes, on weak greenbuck. If you are actualy getting milked $18 on a galon, the source of your problem is in your government. (Even if you measure in UK gallons which are bit larger, your price is outrageous).
There is more coal than oil and coal-based gas at double of the current price would be acceptable - but not if you get a freaking 800% tax on it.
I would like to know how they solved the problem of cryo storage of liquid hydrogen. Sure the air temperature and thermal conductivity at high altitudes is decreased but this can help only so much. I just dont see how they can keep it at minus 259C for one week. Dewar made of plastic? Pressurizing it would not help because at -240C hydrogen stops being liquid regardless of the pressure.
My guess is that one big tank fills up most of the pregnant-looking belly. The craft may need some teflon coating on the surface to prevent ice buildup. Also, it is apparent from the video that landing it in even modest crosswind will be tricky business (as with any large-wingspan ultralight).
A galon of a good-quality milk + few spoons of good powdered or condenzed milk is heated close to boil (without actualy boiling it), the mix is cooled to amibient temperature, a favorite joghurt (few spoons) is stirred in and the mix is left under lose lid in a warm quiet place without disturbance for several days until ready.
Basicaly it's as simple as making your own kids but less fun.
"I swear, if you ever get a good mead, you'll never drink beer again. I'm not kidding"
Good cool mead taste masks the incredible quantity of sugar that you are actualy drinking. Sugars compete with alcohol for dehydrogenase and overworked alcohol dehydrogenase is the cause of the hungover.
I swear, if you ever get a good mead hungover, you'll never want to drink again.
In orbital station, you have to shine on your vegetables + maintain the humidity in the incubator, so you may as well use a new shiny cement mixer to keep your vegies gravity-happy. (A plastic light-weight version of the gravity incubator could be transparent and with your cabbages numbered, you can use it as a lottery machine also.)
In the opposite part of US. Try "Hanford Nuclear Reservation"
The reason why they chose Washington state for plutonium work was a low density of population, with no major towns downwind. Also plenty of water for cooling and a cheap hydro. During war, the graphite reactor design went from the initial Chicago pile through one mid-size prototype to several large reactors (built at the same time as the prototype). Since the possibility of a catastrophic event was rather high, they considered a reactor fire/explosion disaster resulting in huge contamination of surrounding land - and they built the reactors many miles apart so that the mishap of one would not put the others out of production.
Pu is not so great fuel. To make Mixed Oxide Fuel, from free separated Pu and free DU or natural U actualy costs more than mining, extracting and enriching Uranium to the 5% level (or whatever is used in the plant) . Apart from hazzards of Pu, the economy is not there with MOX.
Pu is a toxic waste from energy production perspective and should be burried, not re-made into nuclear fuel.
Dr. Schroeder: "Did you kill them all?" Igor: "I guess... They started auto-lysing last night, don't know why. Yeah, the new batch's gonna be ready on Thursday. All pretty happy so far, pink and shiny - have a look into my jars."
the long-term effect of oxygen toxicity is retinopathy. The light-sensing celles in retina die out over few days and you go blind. Hyperbaric oxygen is a favorite method for producing mice with retinal damage for eye research.
Slashdot Mirror
Here is why it is better: First-to-invent as concept is mushy. You go to someone's old notebooks and try to prove 1) that they are authentic (signed, dated, contrasigned) and not altered.
2) that this actualy is the crux of invention. When was is exactly - when you had the whole functioning thing working - or when you had one (important) idea? It often happens that many ideas are needed and most of them are essential for success of invention.
Ideas are cheap but making them useful is hard. You can often produce ten times as many ideas than you can possibly work on. Any asshole can secretly write down something in the notebook without doing any further work, then sue someone who came up with the same thing and actualy made it happen.
Lawyers love the concept of first to invent because it is wague and can be bent in hundred different ways. The more tricky and messy, the more fees for them. Good patent litigation can keep the whole law firm busy for 10 years.
Rich corporation tend to win the litigations - and if not, they use lawsuit as harassment tool. There was one pharma company who successfuly prevented generic companies from competing for 2 years after the patents on its drug expired. It was bullshit litigation based on technicalities without a sligtest chance of success. And while this was going on, the generic companies were prevented from making the cheaper version of the same drug. The big company profitted extra few hundred millions for 2 more years and spent perhaps few millions on the litigation.
I do not care what the patent law looks like as long as it is transparent and the rules are unambiguous. Also, government tends to steal money collected by patent office (on patent fees). The patent office is underfunded / understaffed which allows bullshit patents getting through the review process which then creates the opportunity for lawsuits.
Q: How do you accomodate for people having different heights and shapes?
A: Well, they will not be all that different after our SharpEdge(TM) door.
The metallized silverfoil undies will show up on radar.
no need recommending. It is part of the Counterstrike routine.
Also, can you have a cake - and eat it too? (because in Korea...)
1. Can my grandad run linux?
2. Can he run faster than I bike?
3. What happens if the remote fails?
The article mistakes Chitosan with Chitin: Chitin is what makes most of shrimp (lobster, insect) shells. Chitosan is obtained by chemicaly modifying chitin (removing the acetyl groups from aminos). The chitosan starting material is fairly cheap, a kilo of it bought from a chemical lab supplier will cost you about $300 US, depending on grade. (The bulk price will be much lower, especialy if there is more market for the material).
The cholic-acid binding chitosan pils (reduced bile re-absorbtion => lower fat absorbtion and faster cholesterol metabolism) are generic, any company can make them hence the pills are reasonably priced.
So, yea, the actual manufacturing cost of the miraculous bandage will be only few bucks and the profit margin is like 1000%. (Fairly typical of the pharma industry. Developing the product, building the GMP-factory for manufacture and especialy performing the clinical trials was very expensive and now they want to have money back.)
They are in the businees of saving bleeding soldiers - if it is profitable. They can price their product as much as merket can bear because they have patent exclusivity on a unique product - and will continue having it in the next 10-15years.
Luke, I am your fungus!
I think some shareholders are eager to stay naive - but not Darl. Darl is just saying what they want to hear and doing what they are paying him to do. I am pretty sure that his bonuses/options are tied to the actual stock price - so he will tell any lie that could make his zombie company look more pink and plump. If he was dumb he could not get and keep his job. Dishonesty is a job qualification, too.
Any guy in India can do better than this - his laptop can float above the desk without the screws. (being helf there by stream of purloined bank account data)
Most of the tedious calculations in wartime Los Alamos was done by "clever boys with engineering skils and high school diploma" that were drafted into army and then assigned to Los Alamos duty.
Everybody there was doing the calculations on simple electromechanic calculators "Merchant" which had the unpleasant tendency to break down a lot. (They also used slide rule to get quick fist aproximations). Eventualy they purchased a great number of card-punching machines from IBM (designed for bank account tabelations) and adapted them for iterative numerical calculations by putting them into a *cycle* - a revolutionary idea at the time.
This stil required lots of people to feed the cards into the machines at each step and the stacks of cards was going round very very slowly. The biggest problem of these calculations was that at this point the boys were pretty bored with the job. When they were told what they were actualy working on, their productivity increased ninefold!
A very entertaining re-collection of this computing history is in "Los Alamos from bellow" in "Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman"
No - long before human came, they called this place R'lyeh.
(And stop making Godzila jokes; this makes Cthulhu very very angry.)
Newton was not a protestant but a secret catolic - from a ultraconservative sect (something like Mel Gibsons' father) that has been persecuted by the authorities.
Most of his writings are dedicated to his theologic thoughts and alchemy. He was very off, autistic most likely, and had a pretty disagreeable vindicative personality. Which does not take away from his contributions in math and physics.
H2 has the lowers viscosity from all gasses so tt has great tendency to leak from any container, miroscopic crack, etc. It weakens many metalic materials over time. It has very broad explosive range in mixtures with air. It burns by invisible flame (the emission max is in UV region). To store H2, it has to be pressurized to very high pressures. (Alternatively you can have a metal-based sorbent that stores hydrogen at medium pressure byt max only about 4% by weight. Chemistry conspires against higher loadings of the sorbent. Alternatively you can generate it from water and dangerous metal hydrides that are very expensive to manufacture and produce nasty sideproducts.).
If you crash a vehicle using liquified propane gas, the result will be a huge flame and fireball. If it is hydrogen it will be more like explosion. Practicaly inpossible to extinguish - has to burn out.
The answer is never. Hydrogen in cars is very bad idea - impractical, dangerous and very expensive.
$20 a gallon? I do not know what country you live in but the current US prices are at around $2.40 - and that is retail at the pump, after taxes, on weak greenbuck. If you are actualy getting milked $18 on a galon, the source of your problem is in your government. (Even if you measure in UK gallons which are bit larger, your price is outrageous).
There is more coal than oil and coal-based gas at double of the current price would be acceptable - but not if you get a freaking 800% tax on it.
I would like to know how they solved the problem of cryo storage of liquid hydrogen. Sure the air temperature and thermal conductivity at high altitudes is decreased but this can help only so much. I just dont see how they can keep it at minus 259C for one week. Dewar made of plastic? Pressurizing it would not help because at -240C hydrogen stops being liquid regardless of the pressure.
My guess is that one big tank fills up most of the pregnant-looking belly. The craft may need some teflon coating on the surface to prevent ice buildup. Also, it is apparent from the video that landing it in even modest crosswind will be tricky business (as with any large-wingspan ultralight).
A galon of a good-quality milk + few spoons of good powdered or condenzed milk is heated close to boil (without actualy boiling it), the mix is cooled to amibient temperature, a favorite joghurt (few spoons) is stirred in and the mix is left under lose lid in a warm quiet place without disturbance for several days until ready.
Basicaly it's as simple as making your own kids but less fun.
"I swear, if you ever get a good mead, you'll never drink beer again. I'm not kidding"
Good cool mead taste masks the incredible quantity of sugar that you are actualy drinking. Sugars compete with alcohol for dehydrogenase and overworked alcohol dehydrogenase is the cause of the hungover.
I swear, if you ever get a good mead hungover, you'll never want to drink again.
In orbital station, you have to shine on your vegetables + maintain the humidity in the incubator, so you may as well use a new shiny cement mixer to keep your vegies gravity-happy. (A plastic light-weight version of the gravity incubator could be transparent and with your cabbages numbered, you can use it as a lottery machine also.)
In the opposite part of US. Try "Hanford Nuclear Reservation"
The reason why they chose Washington state for plutonium work was a low density of population, with no major towns downwind. Also plenty of water for cooling and a cheap hydro. During war, the graphite reactor design went from the initial Chicago pile through one mid-size prototype to several large reactors (built at the same time as the prototype). Since the possibility of a catastrophic event was rather high, they considered a reactor fire/explosion disaster resulting in huge contamination of surrounding land - and they built the reactors many miles apart so that the mishap of one would not put the others out of production.
Pu is not so great fuel. To make Mixed Oxide Fuel, from free separated Pu and free DU or natural U actualy costs more than mining, extracting and enriching Uranium to the 5% level (or whatever is used in the plant) . Apart from hazzards of Pu, the economy is not there with MOX.
Pu is a toxic waste from energy production perspective and should be burried, not re-made into nuclear fuel.
Dr. Schroeder: "Did you kill them all?"
Igor: "I guess... They started auto-lysing last night, don't know why. Yeah, the new batch's gonna be ready on Thursday. All pretty happy so far, pink and shiny - have a look into my jars."
toe the line, not tow.
also you could do without the "make stand, cry foul, toe the line": it could make your english less suxassful
"Google plans to use trucks equipped with lasers ... San Francisco, and eventually other major US cities."
Microsoft has trucks with lasers too. And they are armored.
the long-term effect of oxygen toxicity is retinopathy. The light-sensing celles in retina die out over few days and you go blind. Hyperbaric oxygen is a favorite method for producing mice with retinal damage for eye research.