They check ID when BUYING the ticket (if they feel like it, on Amtrak -- not on most other trains). However, you're not checked once you've boarded or during boarding -- a lot of stations don't even have the facilities to check anything before boarding since trains would have to wait 15 min at each stop!
I've said that I didn't have my license with me -- the woman gave me an odd look but still sold the ticket. And certainly you could have someone else buy your ticket for you.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but Obama has also come out against Real ID (seeking to strike provisions requiring checking a database in order to employ anyone in the US, among other things). Cool, there are choices:)
Add to this:
(8) an obsession with regular (non-terrorist) crime and punishment. Outrageously long mandatory sentences, Megan's Laws, etc. Imprisonment for a large number of criminals is only a Band Aid on the mouth of a society that's coughing up blood -- we should address why large numbers of people need to turn to crime, reform our drug laws, and lock up (for a long time) only the segment of the population that's truly incorrigible.
... his name basically means "Satan" in Russian, not to mention that he even looks like Old Scratch in the picture in TFA. *Sigh* - how do we get such people in government?
I don't agree with all of his politics, especially his stances on abortion and public health care, but he may be the least authoritarian out there. If you think that most Democrate will be better, they're just as bad.
Showing papers to travel within the country is not what a free people do.
And I traveled within Poland (a former East Bloc) country a month ago. No one asked me for papers or cared much. Their rather relaxed attitude was certainly a nice change and a breath of fresh air.
I'm aware of all of those things. But isn't a DSG just two countershaft boxes in parallel?
And, yes, it's true that countershaft boxes have been around for longer. Though, interestingly, the Model T used a two-speed planetary transmission that was closer to a modern automatic than to a manual box.
Oh, I forgot - Jews are "God's chosen people" (according to them)...
I'd say that the Promised Land is just a metaphor and doesn't necessarily have to be the historic "holy land" where the Jews came from. Just give Texas and New Mexico instead -- plenty of sparsely populated area, desert, mountains, forest, cities, everything you could possibly want. And the influx of 8 million Israelis would raise the intellectual level quite a bit...:)
Israel? The Arabs can have the place if they'd like and good riddance to them.
But your reply sounds like you consider a planetary gearbox to be simplier than a countershaft gearbox...;-)
They ARE simpler -- not necessarily to build, but to control. Everything is done with wet clutches or brake bands, so there's no real chance of breaking off engagement dogs or gear teeth.
Notice that almost all automatic transmissions before about 1995 used planetary gearsets, not a countershaft system. Good automated countershaft boxes like BMW's SMG and the VW DSG are comparatively recent developments.
Of course, an electric motor makes things somewhat easier, since the armature might be light enough not to require a clutch (just cut power to the thing), but planetary boxes still are best for that sort of application.
the military is now in the vehicle design business.
The US military has experimented with innovative vehicles and solicited vehicle designs for, oh, about the last century. There were plenty of military vehicles (tanks, Gama Goat trucks, etc) that didn't have civilian counterparts before 2007:)
I'm amazed that all four old fire-support providing BBs have been entirely replaced by... a cool drawing on a piece of paper =)
The Iowa-class battleships were outdated, not in great repair, and unsafe for their crews (see also: the USS Iowa turret explosion). They were decommissioned in the 60s, and hastily reactivated in the 80s, as part of Reagan's naval saber-rattling. This did NOT make them terribly effective or useful weapons.
AFAIK, their role was replaced by guided missile frigates.
M1 Abrams tanks have a turbine engine that is hooked directly into a generator
They have a turbine APU (aux. power unit) to provide "hotel power" while idled without running the very thirsty main engine. However, main drive is NOT electrically powered.
However, for more extreme requirements of both high torque AND high speed you might run into limitations of electric machine design, which might force you into adding a smaller gearbox anyway.
...but not necessarily a complex gearbox that needs to vary the speed and torque of two shafts with respect to one another. A two-speed planetary gearbox resembling a truck overdrive unit would probably be adequate and can be built very compactly.
It does have to do with reducing fuel consumption, which is a huge logistics burden.
This is especially true since the current big US tank (M1 Abrams) is turbine powered, which causes really awful fuel consumption at idle and low speeds. If the turbine could run at its optimum speed, it would improve consumption significantly.
Also, being able to turn off the turbine and creep forward would reduce the infrared signature of the vehicle, adding yet another "stealth" aspect.
The lastest design for naval destroyers from both the USN and RN have also gone all-electric, and have decoupled all fuel-burning engines from the drive train.
This is nothing new in naval design, though -- subs have been doing this for about a century. Some ocean liners did it as well (SS Normandie comes to mind). Reading more about the DD(X) program, though, I'm surprised that the next generation of destroyers and missile frigates aren't being planned as nuclear-powered ships.
Electric drives, particularly when freed from the constraints of having to work alongside IC engines, can have drivetrains optimized for their characteristics.
And this will be lighter and simpler than a pure-IC drivetrain. No need for a complex transmission, clutches, etc, to vary the speed of the tank treads in relation to one another for turning. Just power each side individually with an electric motor (or two, if you prefer, for redundancy).
and also the ability to have an individual electric motor for each of the two tank treads. Right now, tanks use a complicated transmission to vary track speed for turning. Electric motors will actually reduce complexity, increase reliability, and possibly improve turning ability.
I guess the Philippines are different from both the US *and* (north)Eastern Europe, then:)
As far as the "suspicious activity" bit, it's such a huge joke and nothing more than security theatre and fearmongering. If people called the cops every time there was a suspicious activity in New York, the cops would be running in circles and screaming in exasperation. Kind of hard to define "suspicious" when large segments of New York are the definition of "wierd" itself!
Hey, the truth hurts. If you want to live in a hot climate, adapt or die, and don't kvetch that it's hot. Note that I'm not planning to move to the desert or the deep South (though the Tennessee mountains are beautiful!) anytime soon because I deal with heat quite poorly.
I haven't noticed that on short runs, like city buses and commuter trains.
Happens all the time on the NYC commuter trains, not so much on city buses or the subway (or else the subway is loud enough to drown out the stupid announcements which no one listens to anyway).
On the commuter trains, you often heard this:
"If you see any suspicious activity, please call the New Jersey Transit Police at 800-TIPS-NJT. Please make sure to take your belongings and baggage with you when leaving the train (no shit, really)." (Right before pulling into the terminal in either Hoboken or NYC.)
When they got to the NJ Transit Police part, I usually made a point of whistling a few lines of the Horst Wessel Song.
If the plant was modified to run completely on air cooling, it would be far less efficient 99.9% of the time,
But nonetheless, there are air cooled plants that were designed as such and work just fine.
As far as river water, yes on the higher specific heat, but no on it being almost always cooler than the air -- in winter, it's normally warmer. A static body of water will have the same year around average temperature as the air, but the instantaneous temperature will lag the air temperature due to the heat capacity of the water. A river's AVERAGE temperature may be a bit lower if it's sourced from the mountains where it is colder (snow melt, etc).
Sir we have been in a global warming cycle since the last ice age ended.
The sign of a trend (upward or downward) matters. However, so does the MAGNITUDE of the trend, and the magnitude of temperature increase has gone up over the past few decades.
Can't they use air cooled condensers (aka cooling towers) rather than using river water to cool the steam directly? River water is only one way to cool a power plant.
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They check ID when BUYING the ticket (if they feel like it, on Amtrak -- not on most other trains). However, you're not checked once you've boarded or during boarding -- a lot of stations don't even have the facilities to check anything before boarding since trains would have to wait 15 min at each stop!
I've said that I didn't have my license with me -- the woman gave me an odd look but still sold the ticket. And certainly you could have someone else buy your ticket for you.
-b.
Change from the USA. i.e. no one looked at me like I had two heads when I paid cash for a domestic plane ticket.
I'd also assume that it was much more restrictive under the Jaruzelski dictatorship in the 80s.
-b.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but Obama has also come out against Real ID (seeking to strike provisions requiring checking a database in order to employ anyone in the US, among other things). Cool, there are choices :)
Add to this:
(8) an obsession with regular (non-terrorist) crime and punishment. Outrageously long mandatory sentences, Megan's Laws, etc. Imprisonment for a large number of criminals is only a Band Aid on the mouth of a society that's coughing up blood -- we should address why large numbers of people need to turn to crime, reform our drug laws, and lock up (for a long time) only the segment of the population that's truly incorrigible.
... his name basically means "Satan" in Russian, not to mention that he even looks like Old Scratch in the picture in TFA. *Sigh* - how do we get such people in government?
I don't agree with all of his politics, especially his stances on abortion and public health care, but he may be the least authoritarian out there. If you think that most Democrate will be better, they're just as bad.
And I traveled within Poland (a former East Bloc) country a month ago. No one asked me for papers or cared much. Their rather relaxed attitude was certainly a nice change and a breath of fresh air.
-b.
And, yes, it's true that countershaft boxes have been around for longer. Though, interestingly, the Model T used a two-speed planetary transmission that was closer to a modern automatic than to a manual box.
-b.
Now I'M confused -- what does easternness have to do with wierdness? And, yes, you fly west from New York to get to the Far East (at least to Japan).
I'd say that the Promised Land is just a metaphor and doesn't necessarily have to be the historic "holy land" where the Jews came from. Just give Texas and New Mexico instead -- plenty of sparsely populated area, desert, mountains, forest, cities, everything you could possibly want. And the influx of 8 million Israelis would raise the intellectual level quite a bit ... :)
Israel? The Arabs can have the place if they'd like and good riddance to them.
-b.
They ARE simpler -- not necessarily to build, but to control. Everything is done with wet clutches or brake bands, so there's no real chance of breaking off engagement dogs or gear teeth.
Notice that almost all automatic transmissions before about 1995 used planetary gearsets, not a countershaft system. Good automated countershaft boxes like BMW's SMG and the VW DSG are comparatively recent developments.
Of course, an electric motor makes things somewhat easier, since the armature might be light enough not to require a clutch (just cut power to the thing), but planetary boxes still are best for that sort of application.
-b.
The US military has experimented with innovative vehicles and solicited vehicle designs for, oh, about the last century. There were plenty of military vehicles (tanks, Gama Goat trucks, etc) that didn't have civilian counterparts before 2007 :)
-b.
The Iowa-class battleships were outdated, not in great repair, and unsafe for their crews (see also: the USS Iowa turret explosion). They were decommissioned in the 60s, and hastily reactivated in the 80s, as part of Reagan's naval saber-rattling. This did NOT make them terribly effective or useful weapons.
AFAIK, their role was replaced by guided missile frigates.
-b.
They have a turbine APU (aux. power unit) to provide "hotel power" while idled without running the very thirsty main engine. However, main drive is NOT electrically powered.
-b.
-b.
This is especially true since the current big US tank (M1 Abrams) is turbine powered, which causes really awful fuel consumption at idle and low speeds. If the turbine could run at its optimum speed, it would improve consumption significantly.
Also, being able to turn off the turbine and creep forward would reduce the infrared signature of the vehicle, adding yet another "stealth" aspect.
-b.
This is nothing new in naval design, though -- subs have been doing this for about a century. Some ocean liners did it as well (SS Normandie comes to mind). Reading more about the DD(X) program, though, I'm surprised that the next generation of destroyers and missile frigates aren't being planned as nuclear-powered ships.
-b.
And this will be lighter and simpler than a pure-IC drivetrain. No need for a complex transmission, clutches, etc, to vary the speed of the tank treads in relation to one another for turning. Just power each side individually with an electric motor (or two, if you prefer, for redundancy).
-b.
-b.
As far as the "suspicious activity" bit, it's such a huge joke and nothing more than security theatre and fearmongering. If people called the cops every time there was a suspicious activity in New York, the cops would be running in circles and screaming in exasperation. Kind of hard to define "suspicious" when large segments of New York are the definition of "wierd" itself!
-b.
-b.
Happens all the time on the NYC commuter trains, not so much on city buses or the subway (or else the subway is loud enough to drown out the stupid announcements which no one listens to anyway).
On the commuter trains, you often heard this:
"If you see any suspicious activity, please call the New Jersey Transit Police at 800-TIPS-NJT. Please make sure to take your belongings and baggage with you when leaving the train (no shit, really)." (Right before pulling into the terminal in either Hoboken or NYC.)
When they got to the NJ Transit Police part, I usually made a point of whistling a few lines of the Horst Wessel Song.
-b.
But nonetheless, there are air cooled plants that were designed as such and work just fine.
As far as river water, yes on the higher specific heat, but no on it being almost always cooler than the air -- in winter, it's normally warmer. A static body of water will have the same year around average temperature as the air, but the instantaneous temperature will lag the air temperature due to the heat capacity of the water. A river's AVERAGE temperature may be a bit lower if it's sourced from the mountains where it is colder (snow melt, etc).
-b.
The sign of a trend (upward or downward) matters. However, so does the MAGNITUDE of the trend, and the magnitude of temperature increase has gone up over the past few decades.
-b.
-b.