- prohibit financing constructions for solar that are otherwise common for everything else (specifically leasing)
This could come back to bite utilities in the ass. Equipment leasing and lease back arrangements are major tax shelters in the utility business. All one would need to do is to take the anti solar lease laws into court and show how they discriminate against one business in favor of another. And then ask the court to apply the leasing prohibitions against all businesses equally.
Linear motion vs vibration depends on whether you are speaking of a single particle (simple case) or a molecule that can store energy in its bonds (more complex case). A single particle does in fact move linearly until it hits something and simple Newtonian mechanics apply.
Feynman's Lectures on Physics have a pretty good rundown on the mechanics involved.
Yep. Its all about frames of reference (I don't even want to think about relativistic thermodynamics).
Aerodynamicists talk about airflow stagnation against an object as the air 'decelerates' in its vicinity. In reality, the airplane is moving through what was still air and acelerating it. But the math all works out the same.
Somewhere along the line, you will have to do experiments whose results might violate the known laws of physics if you want to make progress.
Agree. But this sort of thing opens up opportunities for a kind of denial-of-service attack on our science infrstructure. Crackpots in low wage countries publish dubious experimental results. NASA attempts to replicate, spending some multiple of what the original 'research' cost to produce. Money that could have been spent on something else.
at at very low temperatures, ordinary particles can sometimes behave like unparticles
Temperature is related to the kinetic energy of a group of particles. It determines which way energy will be transfered in interactions between them. The concept of temperature for a single particle is somewhat strange. A particle doesn't know how fast it is moving (and what kinetic energy and temperature it has) until it hits something. So temperature and superconductivity are properties of the system, not each particle.
PGP uses a public/private key pair. The way it should work: You generate a key pair locally and keep your private (decryption) key to yourself. You can then publish your public key, which other parties can use to encrypt messages to you. Key management would consist of some scheme where the mail service provider would 'sign' your public key to provide authentication and some easy to use public key lookup schemes so other people can securely recieve your key (protect against man-in-the-middle attacks) in order to prepare messages to you.
The problem with many popular web mail encryption services is that the private key generation and storage is in the hands of the mail service instead of distributed to individual users. So that puts it within the reach of a National Security Letter. Or a bunch of Russian hackers if the admin is less than competent.
Its also possible that this speed suggests a shorter feedback path. There may be something like rudimentary accelerometers in the fly's muscular control neurons that supply an error signal through a very short path. Even a larger animal provided with such a control system would see an order of magnitude or better improvement in response time. No brain feedback required.
corporations are people, and that money equals speech
Its worse than that. You and I can speak. But corporations can issue the equivalent of royal* edicts. If we have a disagreement, we have to take it up in court as a civil matter. A corporation can create law and define some activity as illegal, making it a criminal offense. And they can expect the administration and courts to do their bidding based on that.
Our Constitution places limits on what Congress, the courts, the Administration and the people can and cannot do. So how is it that they were empowered to create entities with no such limitations?
*In old Europe, the position of royalty was considered to be granted as an act of God. So if Congress empowers corporate entities with such powers, they are clearly in violation of the First Amendment. Corporate charters aren't creating people, they are crowning kings (a few other Constitutional prohibitions going down the toilet right there).
Yes. Its a shame that a small child didn't go on line, steal some copyrighted material and then was driven to suicide by the shame brought down upon the family for harboring such a terrorist.
Then we could have named it the "Just think of the children law" and it would have passed easily.
All that means is that the selection process has some small error rate. Lets say the list of all travellers is 200 million*. That's about a 1.4% error rate (false positives). Not bad.
Of course, its a bitch for those caught on the list for no good reason. Which is why some quality control measures need to be implemented to improve this number.
*Don't rely heavily on this number. I just pulled it out of my ass to illustrate error rates when selecting a small subset out of a large population.
Competitive. You are making a joke, right? The reason they are utilities is that they didn't want to compete back in the day when they were born. And now its in their DNA.
What will happen is that investors will exit the business as its profitability declines (already happened in my neigborhood). Private power companies will end up as public utilities. And as public entities, they will attain taxing authority to ensure their continued viability. That has already happened where I live with water, sewer and garbage. I can't opt out.
Slashdot Mirror
- prohibit financing constructions for solar that are otherwise common for everything else (specifically leasing)
This could come back to bite utilities in the ass. Equipment leasing and lease back arrangements are major tax shelters in the utility business. All one would need to do is to take the anti solar lease laws into court and show how they discriminate against one business in favor of another. And then ask the court to apply the leasing prohibitions against all businesses equally.
over-the-air cable
That must be the stuff hanging up on utility poles. Completely different than the under-the-ground cable.
I'd find it particularly difficult to sleep wearing a facehugger. Its probably almost as bad as when the cat decides to flop down on my head at night.
What's a desktop?
Linear motion vs vibration depends on whether you are speaking of a single particle (simple case) or a molecule that can store energy in its bonds (more complex case). A single particle does in fact move linearly until it hits something and simple Newtonian mechanics apply.
Feynman's Lectures on Physics have a pretty good rundown on the mechanics involved.
Yep. Its all about frames of reference (I don't even want to think about relativistic thermodynamics).
Aerodynamicists talk about airflow stagnation against an object as the air 'decelerates' in its vicinity. In reality, the airplane is moving through what was still air and acelerating it. But the math all works out the same.
Somewhere along the line, you will have to do experiments whose results might violate the known laws of physics if you want to make progress.
Agree. But this sort of thing opens up opportunities for a kind of denial-of-service attack on our science infrstructure. Crackpots in low wage countries publish dubious experimental results. NASA attempts to replicate, spending some multiple of what the original 'research' cost to produce. Money that could have been spent on something else.
In the end, who wins this game?
at at very low temperatures, ordinary particles can sometimes behave like unparticles
Temperature is related to the kinetic energy of a group of particles. It determines which way energy will be transfered in interactions between them. The concept of temperature for a single particle is somewhat strange. A particle doesn't know how fast it is moving (and what kinetic energy and temperature it has) until it hits something. So temperature and superconductivity are properties of the system, not each particle.
PGP uses a public/private key pair. The way it should work: You generate a key pair locally and keep your private (decryption) key to yourself. You can then publish your public key, which other parties can use to encrypt messages to you. Key management would consist of some scheme where the mail service provider would 'sign' your public key to provide authentication and some easy to use public key lookup schemes so other people can securely recieve your key (protect against man-in-the-middle attacks) in order to prepare messages to you.
The problem with many popular web mail encryption services is that the private key generation and storage is in the hands of the mail service instead of distributed to individual users. So that puts it within the reach of a National Security Letter. Or a bunch of Russian hackers if the admin is less than competent.
Gas chamber (based on past experience).
There are two rules for succes:
1) Never reveal everything you know.
Dilbert
Not only is Microsoft Corporation a person, now you want it to become a protected minority as well.
That fly over there does look a bit like Robert Shaw.
Its also possible that this speed suggests a shorter feedback path. There may be something like rudimentary accelerometers in the fly's muscular control neurons that supply an error signal through a very short path. Even a larger animal provided with such a control system would see an order of magnitude or better improvement in response time. No brain feedback required.
Evidently, Slashdot editors' reaction times are measured in years.
A Bushism. It figures.
I suppose the government motto could be: We learn from our mistakes. That way, we recognize them when we make them again and again.
corporations are people, and that money equals speech
Its worse than that. You and I can speak. But corporations can issue the equivalent of royal* edicts. If we have a disagreement, we have to take it up in court as a civil matter. A corporation can create law and define some activity as illegal, making it a criminal offense. And they can expect the administration and courts to do their bidding based on that.
Our Constitution places limits on what Congress, the courts, the Administration and the people can and cannot do. So how is it that they were empowered to create entities with no such limitations?
*In old Europe, the position of royalty was considered to be granted as an act of God. So if Congress empowers corporate entities with such powers, they are clearly in violation of the First Amendment. Corporate charters aren't creating people, they are crowning kings (a few other Constitutional prohibitions going down the toilet right there).
I dont see how 6 months is out of line for the crimes that he admitted to committing.
What crimes? He violated the system's terms of service. Purely a civil matter.
Yes. Its a shame that a small child didn't go on line, steal some copyrighted material and then was driven to suicide by the shame brought down upon the family for harboring such a terrorist.
Then we could have named it the "Just think of the children law" and it would have passed easily.
All that means is that the selection process has some small error rate. Lets say the list of all travellers is 200 million*. That's about a 1.4% error rate (false positives). Not bad.
Of course, its a bitch for those caught on the list for no good reason. Which is why some quality control measures need to be implemented to improve this number.
*Don't rely heavily on this number. I just pulled it out of my ass to illustrate error rates when selecting a small subset out of a large population.
so many documents
Yes. But the exact number is classified.
to remain competitive
Competitive. You are making a joke, right? The reason they are utilities is that they didn't want to compete back in the day when they were born. And now its in their DNA.
What will happen is that investors will exit the business as its profitability declines (already happened in my neigborhood). Private power companies will end up as public utilities. And as public entities, they will attain taxing authority to ensure their continued viability. That has already happened where I live with water, sewer and garbage. I can't opt out.
It all comes down to square feet of roof space per occupant in a structure. Solar is more efficient if you live in a one story rambler style house.