I live in a place where the city keeps trying all sorts of ridiculous ways to force people out of cars and onto bikes, such as spending small fortunes to shrink down roads and doing nothing particular with the space on the sides, putting up all sorts of obstacles in the road (such as constant turn lanes, alternating between left and right) to turn 3-4 lane roads into effective 2-lane roads, building new buildings without any parking, tearing down existing parking, etc. And among their reasons for trying to force people off of cars is "safety for cyclists". But even if they succeed at making their goal of forcing a dozen or two percent of the population to switch from cars to bikes, they're only going to increase the total number of transport deaths.
I think I know the Silicon Valley city of which you speak, if you are referring to the recent changes in the road where I live. Especially if said road has a hill that is over 10% grade in spots.
See this link on bike statistics, based on what it says it looks like the risk may be doubled (if 2% of the deaths are accounted for by 1% of the trips), but those could be misleading. I'm guessing the better metric is time on the bike, not miles traveled.
As others have noted, a person burns about 3000 joules extra per hour on a bike, and 100s of kilojoules per hour in a car, so it's a no-brainer that overall cyclists use less energy if you are only doing personal travel, regardless of the food transport and other factors (also consider cyclists are just burning excess calories they would have already eaten).
How much that compares to the overall carbon cycle? Hardly at all and most of the changes you discussed are symbolic.
But again, this thread is about a father and husband who died while riding, it's a sad day for that family and some of the comments on this thread are disappointing.
Cycling is sport that demands tremendous technical skill in addition to fitness and the tri guys usually treat the cycling portion of their sport as a necessary evil. (Ever notice how world class cyclists are in their mid-upper 30s and sometimes in to their early 40s? Well past the average male's peak athletic prime?)
I'd say about half the triathletes I know (I'm one of them) are stronger on the bike than the swim (I always assume everyone can run okay). The issue with triathletes is that they often ride their aerobars in places where they should be on the hoods.
I feel bad for the man's family, more than likely he just made a mistake.
You should consider the downstream effects of a technology that can propagate uncontrollably after implementation. Especially when we know nothing about it.
I have to agree with you here. I knew someone who blew up mailboxes with pipe bombs because it was fun (this was in rural Oklahoma). The cops at the time knew he was a bit of a trouble maker and they heard through the grapevine about him setting off pipebombs. They pulled him into the office, tricked him into confessing, made him buy a new mailbox, and told him if he did it again he would go to jail.
This kid should have gotten less than that, even if his intent was mischievous. Call him to the office, listen to him, agree it's a clock, get him to understand that we know it's a clock but it does kind of look like a bomb and we have to be careful with things like that. Tell him to leave it home next time, and if he does bring it in, send him home for the day. Handcuffs should not be a part of this.
Why have a top-down metafilter? Maybe 1% of Twitter users fancy themselves as comics, why not write a script where the user decides to check for plagiarism by searching for their tweet keywords/key phrases, and provide a method to protest if they've had one stolen. Much more elegant; only those who are wronged are using the resources needed to catch the joke thieves.
Look at that Bennett, a better solution using 1/100th of the space. Call me Bizarro Bennett.
It makes me not want to bother posting my jokes. Now I'm not important but if more famous people feel the same way or it becomes a trend then it is a problem for a social network's business.
If you haven't noticed, working comics generally don't post material they'd want to use because of this issue. Kelly Oxford used to post funny stuff, then she got a job writing comedy, and now her twitter feed is mostly boring.
Save your jokes for the crowd, you won't know if they work until you say them on stage anyways (speaking from experience).
Interesting, in California we aren't able to get SRECs, though we get performance credits. It'll take me more time to payback (about 6 years). All of a sudden even without some of the credits solar becomes a decent long-term investment for your primary home.
It has gotten better. FWIW, I'm getting solar installed (using a small business contractor, almost 30% less than the larger corporate companies), and the one thing that they don't include in their economic analysis is value added to the home. The panels have a 25 year guarantee, I may live in my house that long, I don't know, but it's certain to be a separator in the real estate market to a comparable home. It adds an asterisk to the 7 year payback...I'll probably get it all back if I should sell prior to the warranty expiration.
I would be surprised if they were on-site. I'm certain they may get visitor parking, but on-site is a commitment that most companies would not want to support.
Several reactors in the United States are BWR Mark I containments. Newer designs have enhanced safety measures, and there have been many upgrades since the accident, but they can operate safely for design basis accidents. The tsunami was far beyond design basis.
3) The millions of intelligent, educated Persian citizens that are frustrated with their government and religious leaders making them look like the world's fools.
Those are intelligent points and I agree with them. Now we need test reactors to get the material data needed to prove those points to the NRC. And we still need the lithium-7 to 99.99% purity (they are doing it in China, but the COLEX process is not legal here and we don't have an alternate). Then we can work out all of the balance of plant issues, get the site licenses, build the units and turn them on. Which takes a dedicated energy policy with a lot of government commitment, and about 20-30 years, assuming some favorable economics from natural gas.
Like I said, I'm all for MSRs, but starting from where we are now we need a lot of time and money. They weren't ready when we built the light water reactors, and for them to be ready later, we need to start now,
Sort of, in theory. In practice, less so. The materials issues are the key challenge, plants don't operate at those environments and there is a tremendous amount of qualification needed. For example, I've heard flanges for molten salt reactors are a potential for failure, one leak and your radioactive fuel is everywhere. It is also very difficult to separate the required amount of lithium-7.
I want them to become a base load energy source. Don't get me wrong, I support MSR development, it's just that LWRs have much less uncertainty, and they were and are much cheaper.
Commercial light water reactors can't generate weapons grade plutonium without shutting down very early in the cycle (around a month) as the Pu-239 is effectively poisoned by Pu-240, Pu-241. Then separating the plutonium is very challenging as they need to reprocess it. A brief overview of this is here.
If you are referring to tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARS), that is only done in one unit in the United States.
The complications of the molten salt reactors are much more numerous than thorium reactor proponents would suggest, the reactor in Oak Ridge was hardly at commercial scale.
I don't know if Star Wars needs diversity, but Episode I was rude.
It seemed to me that Watto the Slave Owner on Tatooine was a Jewish stereotype (look at his nose and listen to the accent), the Trade Federation were Japanese stereotypes (look at the eyes and accent), and Jar Jar was a Jamaican stereotype.
You wrote 95% of what I was thinking. The only thing I would add is the only time the OP's philosophy is acceptable is when he is writing his own code that he pays for with his time and resources.
At some point, there will be a significant fraction of autonomous vehicles along with human drivers. The AVs will drive the speed limit, stop at stop signs, and in general perform as the model driver would. The problem is few of the human drivers perform this way, most of us cruise at 5-10 mph over the speed limit, roll through stops, and change lanes without signalling (well, I always signal at least).
I can only imagine the uptick in accidents because of the frustrated drivers waiting on the model AVs. Those will be interesting times.
My house has the original opener that isn't rolling, it was built in 1983. Rolling code technology came out in 1993, which really isn't that long ago considering how often you need to replace them.
Slashdot Mirror
I live in a place where the city keeps trying all sorts of ridiculous ways to force people out of cars and onto bikes, such as spending small fortunes to shrink down roads and doing nothing particular with the space on the sides, putting up all sorts of obstacles in the road (such as constant turn lanes, alternating between left and right) to turn 3-4 lane roads into effective 2-lane roads, building new buildings without any parking, tearing down existing parking, etc. And among their reasons for trying to force people off of cars is "safety for cyclists". But even if they succeed at making their goal of forcing a dozen or two percent of the population to switch from cars to bikes, they're only going to increase the total number of transport deaths.
I think I know the Silicon Valley city of which you speak, if you are referring to the recent changes in the road where I live. Especially if said road has a hill that is over 10% grade in spots.
See this link on bike statistics, based on what it says it looks like the risk may be doubled (if 2% of the deaths are accounted for by 1% of the trips), but those could be misleading. I'm guessing the better metric is time on the bike, not miles traveled.
As others have noted, a person burns about 3000 joules extra per hour on a bike, and 100s of kilojoules per hour in a car, so it's a no-brainer that overall cyclists use less energy if you are only doing personal travel, regardless of the food transport and other factors (also consider cyclists are just burning excess calories they would have already eaten).
How much that compares to the overall carbon cycle? Hardly at all and most of the changes you discussed are symbolic.
But again, this thread is about a father and husband who died while riding, it's a sad day for that family and some of the comments on this thread are disappointing.
Cycling is sport that demands tremendous technical skill in addition to fitness and the tri guys usually treat the cycling portion of their sport as a necessary evil. (Ever notice how world class cyclists are in their mid-upper 30s and sometimes in to their early 40s? Well past the average male's peak athletic prime?)
I'd say about half the triathletes I know (I'm one of them) are stronger on the bike than the swim (I always assume everyone can run okay). The issue with triathletes is that they often ride their aerobars in places where they should be on the hoods.
I feel bad for the man's family, more than likely he just made a mistake.
That's my point, I was using handcuffs as a shorthand for the whole situation.
You should consider the downstream effects of a technology that can propagate uncontrollably after implementation. Especially when we know nothing about it.
I have to agree with you here. I knew someone who blew up mailboxes with pipe bombs because it was fun (this was in rural Oklahoma). The cops at the time knew he was a bit of a trouble maker and they heard through the grapevine about him setting off pipebombs. They pulled him into the office, tricked him into confessing, made him buy a new mailbox, and told him if he did it again he would go to jail.
This kid should have gotten less than that, even if his intent was mischievous. Call him to the office, listen to him, agree it's a clock, get him to understand that we know it's a clock but it does kind of look like a bomb and we have to be careful with things like that. Tell him to leave it home next time, and if he does bring it in, send him home for the day. Handcuffs should not be a part of this.
Why have a top-down metafilter? Maybe 1% of Twitter users fancy themselves as comics, why not write a script where the user decides to check for plagiarism by searching for their tweet keywords/key phrases, and provide a method to protest if they've had one stolen. Much more elegant; only those who are wronged are using the resources needed to catch the joke thieves.
Look at that Bennett, a better solution using 1/100th of the space. Call me Bizarro Bennett.
It makes me not want to bother posting my jokes. Now I'm not important but if more famous people feel the same way or it becomes a trend then it is a problem for a social network's business.
If you haven't noticed, working comics generally don't post material they'd want to use because of this issue. Kelly Oxford used to post funny stuff, then she got a job writing comedy, and now her twitter feed is mostly boring.
Save your jokes for the crowd, you won't know if they work until you say them on stage anyways (speaking from experience).
Don't forget Denis Leary.
Interesting, in California we aren't able to get SRECs, though we get performance credits. It'll take me more time to payback (about 6 years). All of a sudden even without some of the credits solar becomes a decent long-term investment for your primary home.
It has gotten better. FWIW, I'm getting solar installed (using a small business contractor, almost 30% less than the larger corporate companies), and the one thing that they don't include in their economic analysis is value added to the home. The panels have a 25 year guarantee, I may live in my house that long, I don't know, but it's certain to be a separator in the real estate market to a comparable home. It adds an asterisk to the 7 year payback...I'll probably get it all back if I should sell prior to the warranty expiration.
I would be surprised if they were on-site. I'm certain they may get visitor parking, but on-site is a commitment that most companies would not want to support.
I dig your sig man, it has attractive properties that cannot be truly explained.
Several reactors in the United States are BWR Mark I containments. Newer designs have enhanced safety measures, and there have been many upgrades since the accident, but they can operate safely for design basis accidents. The tsunami was far beyond design basis.
Neil has invested a lot into the Pono Player, hence his complaints about streaming and other digital formats, he is trying to make a buck.
Personally, I think his acoustic work has bordered on brilliant. Electric? Not so much.
3) The millions of intelligent, educated Persian citizens that are frustrated with their government and religious leaders making them look like the world's fools.
Those are intelligent points and I agree with them. Now we need test reactors to get the material data needed to prove those points to the NRC. And we still need the lithium-7 to 99.99% purity (they are doing it in China, but the COLEX process is not legal here and we don't have an alternate). Then we can work out all of the balance of plant issues, get the site licenses, build the units and turn them on. Which takes a dedicated energy policy with a lot of government commitment, and about 20-30 years, assuming some favorable economics from natural gas.
Like I said, I'm all for MSRs, but starting from where we are now we need a lot of time and money. They weren't ready when we built the light water reactors, and for them to be ready later, we need to start now,
Sort of, in theory. In practice, less so. The materials issues are the key challenge, plants don't operate at those environments and there is a tremendous amount of qualification needed. For example, I've heard flanges for molten salt reactors are a potential for failure, one leak and your radioactive fuel is everywhere. It is also very difficult to separate the required amount of lithium-7.
I want them to become a base load energy source. Don't get me wrong, I support MSR development, it's just that LWRs have much less uncertainty, and they were and are much cheaper.
Commercial light water reactors can't generate weapons grade plutonium without shutting down very early in the cycle (around a month) as the Pu-239 is effectively poisoned by Pu-240, Pu-241. Then separating the plutonium is very challenging as they need to reprocess it. A brief overview of this is here.
If you are referring to tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARS), that is only done in one unit in the United States.
The complications of the molten salt reactors are much more numerous than thorium reactor proponents would suggest, the reactor in Oak Ridge was hardly at commercial scale.
I don't know if Star Wars needs diversity, but Episode I was rude.
It seemed to me that Watto the Slave Owner on Tatooine was a Jewish stereotype (look at his nose and listen to the accent), the Trade Federation were Japanese stereotypes (look at the eyes and accent), and Jar Jar was a Jamaican stereotype.
ive read the six Herbert Dune books several time, and while there are several over-arching themes, it's the little things that bring me back...
'Governments hate a popular leader.'
'Revenge is for children and the emotionally retarded.'
'His greatest skill is that he learned how to learn.'
So many bits of wisdom from a man that thought with purity.
I want my check for one dollar and NINE CENTS!
You wrote 95% of what I was thinking. The only thing I would add is the only time the OP's philosophy is acceptable is when he is writing his own code that he pays for with his time and resources.
Just curious why you care? Is it the tracking?
At some point, there will be a significant fraction of autonomous vehicles along with human drivers. The AVs will drive the speed limit, stop at stop signs, and in general perform as the model driver would. The problem is few of the human drivers perform this way, most of us cruise at 5-10 mph over the speed limit, roll through stops, and change lanes without signalling (well, I always signal at least).
I can only imagine the uptick in accidents because of the frustrated drivers waiting on the model AVs. Those will be interesting times.
My house has the original opener that isn't rolling, it was built in 1983. Rolling code technology came out in 1993, which really isn't that long ago considering how often you need to replace them.