Admittedly, the uranium will settle out of the air much sooner than the rest of the particulate will, and only those within a few miles of a plant are probably affected, but *nobody* would be breathing in uranium if we weren't burning so much coal.
People eat uranium every day. More uranium is probably ingested oraly by people living around coal burning plants than is released into the atmosphere by the plant itself.
What came first? The thought, or the realization you thought?
The thought. Mainly because I was a bit confused about the hydrogen sulphide part considering that flatus consists mainly of methane once one disregards the nitrogen and oxygen.
I've said it once and I'll say it again; the only thing that will deterr this kind of rubbish from sabotaging the computer industry is criminal convictions and jail time.
I would start my persuing the patent examiners. They are either criminally negligent in allowing this kind of idiocy to get through and/or they have been taking bribes. Either way I don't think jail time is out of the question.
You could work it up to the patent office management eventually, possibly even the company who filed in extremeous, but at the end of the day, the people who rubber stamped the patent have to be held accountable, otherwise this will just get worse.
A pushy manager and quotas are no excuse. The accountants who fudged the books for Enron at the behest of the boss are guilty too. If you have a problem with it, leave the job. That might sound harsh, but just think of all the jobs and potential jobs that have been flushed down the toilet by ridiculous patents like this one.
Last I checked, I didn't breath in ordinary soil, and I had to have the decay products of that uranium in the soil (radon and radioactive lead) pumped out of the air in my house in order not to get lung cancer.
Best you stay away from quarries then; and fields, and roads, and construction sites, and the seaside.. and deserts. Then you should be OK.
Not only that, but all the carbon that makes up the majority of the coal gets burnt off in the power plant, so the concentration of uranium is *much* higher in the soot.
It's been pointed out in these comments already, but 99.5% of the radioactive material burned from coal is caught by modern, manadtory, filters.
The argument that burning coal produces more radioactivity than nuclear plants is pure FUD. It must assume that every single becquerel of radioactivity generated by the nuclear industry is safely stowed away in secure containers. It is not. Radioactive waste material is quite literally thrown into open air ponds in places such as sellafield, and irradiated waste water is simply dumped in most plants also.
Coal pollutes because its kinematic and chemical properties, which are very significant, far more so than any trace amounts of naturally occuring radioactivity. It's radioative properties are absolutely minimal, a mere punctuation mark on the long, long list of its other ill effects.
People have latched onto this ridiculous argument that coal burning produces more radioactive waste than nuclear fission, and keep bandying it about. It's pure nonsense. Coal emmisions are about as radioactive as your breakfast cereal due to its carbon-14 content.
Sources I've read say that current nuclear resources can meet current supply for about 500 years. Near as I can tell, that doesn't take into account any of the newly developing countries. Add the power demands of China, India, and eventually Africa, and the total lifespan of nuclear energy might go down to that of oil since its first major usage. Unless new sources of uranium are found that is.
Renewable energy sources on the other hand have a lifespan of about 5 billion years.
And before all you pro-solar, pro-wind, pro-tidal, pro-{insert alternative energy system here} get on my case, I have one question: do you know what a terawatt-hour is? Do you truly understand that most sophisticated maufacturing processes absolutely require reliable power?
These sources can create reliable power, by creating fuel instead of raw electricity. If hydrogen ever becomes as popular as oil as a fuel source, it's easy to imagine renewable energy plants becoming large scale producers of hydrogen.
Anecdotally, I get a terrible headache that lasts for hours if I talk even 30 seconds on a cell phone.
This doesn't happen to me, but after talking on the phone for a while, I find my ear heats up noticeably. I fully expect this, so I prefer to use a hands free kit.
I'll be rolling around on my wheelchair in the nursing home after they remove my legs while you lot are all drooling after they remove your frontal lobes.
Now, of all topics, SE is one that I hate the most. You will not encounter such a dry and boring subject in a long while. But I will not deny that it certainly provides structure and security in managing projects and identifying milestones.
Rubbish! Just, you know, code stuff. If you need to change it, hack it out, then back in, then compile with -O4 flags and -funroll-loops. If you need to add a new feature, throw in a couple of gotos and if anyone gets sick or their child dies or something, just have them work nights at home to make up for it.
As for content creators, I mean come one. How long does it take to make next gen content? With modern tools, no time at all!!
You just give me the startup money, and I'll give you the hit. Systems engineering. Huuh! I have a degree man. A degree!!
Beyond the various riot incidents and other clashes, have you any evidence of any such executions?...beyond the typical properganderous hearsay published by whichever involved side? Because if you do I'm pretty the Nothern Ireland police would like to hear about it so they can send the relevant people to jail for a long, long time.
It's quite clear you know next to nothing about Northern Ireland. Not that this is a bad thing, but you would do well to educate yourself on intelligence agency activities there over the last 30 years to dispell yourself of the notion that intelligence agencies are in the business of upholding the law, inside or outside their own countries.
Despite this guy's opinions, before mandatory public schooling, people were illiterate and innumerate. If you put an end to mandatory school, they would be so again. They may or may not be docile sheeple, but at least they can read and write.
Why crayons and paper? It's not more sociable or more valuable than typing or drawing on the PC, is it? I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've actually written something down or drawn something in the last six months.
This used to be the case for me until I got back into mathematical equations in a big way. For some tasks, nothing beats paper.
Personally, I think that the grandparent's idea is genius. Computers are just "one" of the tools available to you. It's a good idea to make people realise that, rather than have them specialise in one medium.
Anyways, based on my non-scientific interviews, all children have a rough time in school. Children hate school because school doesn't teach the way children learn best. Children learn best on their own schedule, persuing their own desires.
While school might not be perfect, if you left every child at home all their lives, to learn by persuing their desires, very quickly you would find that, I would say, ~70-80% of those children would grow up illiterate and innumerate. If you don't belive me, just examine society before the introduction of mandatory state schooling.
I don't consider myself stupid, but I consider you gullible.
And I consider you naive. In the UK at least, the intelligence agencies have been widely know to have executed people. There are numerous incidents in Northern Ireland of people being killed by the government in the complete absence of judicial process. This doesn't just include paramilitaries, but political dissidents as well.
Um, we'd need to evolve 4 more ears. 5.1 is a six-channel format. Five channels of midrange to high frequencies (left, right, center, left rear, right rear), and one channel of subwoofer.
The subwoofer is for lower frequencies. You can pick them up with your skin.
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but the high and mighty Thomas Jefferson himself was a slave owner. In fact, even the demi-god George Washington was known to buy and sell a few.
Religion not only approves of slavery, it actively promotes it. Modern western denominations try to hide it, but secretly, they're all closet megalomaniacs. In recent years, under public pressure, Islamic theologians have been forced to tone it down as well, but its still there. They're all simply biding their time, waiting for another chance to supress billions with their aesthetic prose and rehtoric.
The proscription against images of the prophet is one of the fundamental tenets of islamic religion. To muslims, pictures of the prophet are blasphemous.
No it isn't, and they aren't.
This whole "images of the prophet" thing is a Wahhabi thing, not a mainstream islamic one. Of course, wahhabi proselytism has been rampant in recent years, back as it is by Saudi oil money.
Most of the ridiculous things you hear about islam are probably confined to wahhabism; islam's version of the jehova's witnesses or mormons or something.
Slashdot Mirror
Admittedly, the uranium will settle out of the air much sooner than the rest of the particulate will, and only those within a few miles of a plant are probably affected, but *nobody* would be breathing in uranium if we weren't burning so much coal.
People eat uranium every day. More uranium is probably ingested oraly by people living around coal burning plants than is released into the atmosphere by the plant itself.
What came first? The thought, or the realization you thought?
The thought. Mainly because I was a bit confused about the hydrogen sulphide part considering that flatus consists mainly of methane once one disregards the nitrogen and oxygen.
I've said it once and I'll say it again; the only thing that will deterr this kind of rubbish from sabotaging the computer industry is criminal convictions and jail time.
I would start my persuing the patent examiners. They are either criminally negligent in allowing this kind of idiocy to get through and/or they have been taking bribes. Either way I don't think jail time is out of the question.
You could work it up to the patent office management eventually, possibly even the company who filed in extremeous, but at the end of the day, the people who rubber stamped the patent have to be held accountable, otherwise this will just get worse.
A pushy manager and quotas are no excuse. The accountants who fudged the books for Enron at the behest of the boss are guilty too. If you have a problem with it, leave the job. That might sound harsh, but just think of all the jobs and potential jobs that have been flushed down the toilet by ridiculous patents like this one.
Someone has to be made accountable for this!
Last I checked, I didn't breath in ordinary soil, and I had to have the decay products of that uranium in the soil (radon and radioactive lead) pumped out of the air in my house in order not to get lung cancer.
Best you stay away from quarries then; and fields, and roads, and construction sites, and the seaside.. and deserts. Then you should be OK.
Not only that, but all the carbon that makes up the majority of the coal gets burnt off in the power plant, so the concentration of uranium is *much* higher in the soot.
It's been pointed out in these comments already, but 99.5% of the radioactive material burned from coal is caught by modern, manadtory, filters.
The argument that burning coal produces more radioactivity than nuclear plants is pure FUD. It must assume that every single becquerel of radioactivity generated by the nuclear industry is safely stowed away in secure containers. It is not. Radioactive waste material is quite literally thrown into open air ponds in places such as sellafield, and irradiated waste water is simply dumped in most plants also.
Coal pollutes because its kinematic and chemical properties, which are very significant, far more so than any trace amounts of naturally occuring radioactivity. It's radioative properties are absolutely minimal, a mere punctuation mark on the long, long list of its other ill effects.
People have latched onto this ridiculous argument that coal burning produces more radioactive waste than nuclear fission, and keep bandying it about. It's pure nonsense. Coal emmisions are about as radioactive as your breakfast cereal due to its carbon-14 content.
Sources I've read say that current nuclear resources can meet current supply for about 500 years. Near as I can tell, that doesn't take into account any of the newly developing countries. Add the power demands of China, India, and eventually Africa, and the total lifespan of nuclear energy might go down to that of oil since its first major usage. Unless new sources of uranium are found that is.
Renewable energy sources on the other hand have a lifespan of about 5 billion years.
And before all you pro-solar, pro-wind, pro-tidal, pro-{insert alternative energy system here} get on my case, I have one question: do you know what a terawatt-hour is? Do you truly understand that most sophisticated maufacturing processes absolutely require reliable power?
These sources can create reliable power, by creating fuel instead of raw electricity. If hydrogen ever becomes as popular as oil as a fuel source, it's easy to imagine renewable energy plants becoming large scale producers of hydrogen.
More of this "coal make nuclear waste" FUD.
Coal on average contains 3ppm (parts per million) of uranium.
By comparision, ordinary soil contains between 1.8 and 5ppm of uranium.
So let's all try and not smear the boards with nuclear industry marketing material shall we?
How's wifi different than any other radio signal?
Because it's a powerful new technology. I'm not kidding here. This is how non-techs actually think about these things.
Yup.
Anecdotally, I get a terrible headache that lasts for hours if I talk even 30 seconds on a cell phone.
This doesn't happen to me, but after talking on the phone for a while, I find my ear heats up noticeably. I fully expect this, so I prefer to use a hands free kit.
I'll be rolling around on my wheelchair in the nursing home after they remove my legs while you lot are all drooling after they remove your frontal lobes.
Hey! They're really hard to fish out when they fall under the cushions, OK?
Now, of all topics, SE is one that I hate the most. You will not encounter such a dry and boring subject in a long while. But I will not deny that it certainly provides structure and security in managing projects and identifying milestones.
Rubbish! Just, you know, code stuff. If you need to change it, hack it out, then back in, then compile with -O4 flags and -funroll-loops. If you need to add a new feature, throw in a couple of gotos and if anyone gets sick or their child dies or something, just have them work nights at home to make up for it.
As for content creators, I mean come one. How long does it take to make next gen content? With modern tools, no time at all!!
You just give me the startup money, and I'll give you the hit. Systems engineering. Huuh! I have a degree man. A degree!!
....If we don't bullshit people, how will we get them to give us money for crap!?
Beyond the various riot incidents and other clashes, have you any evidence of any such executions? ...beyond the typical properganderous hearsay published by whichever involved side? Because if you do I'm pretty the Nothern Ireland police would like to hear about it so they can send the relevant people to jail for a long, long time.
It's quite clear you know next to nothing about Northern Ireland. Not that this is a bad thing, but you would do well to educate yourself on intelligence agency activities there over the last 30 years to dispell yourself of the notion that intelligence agencies are in the business of upholding the law, inside or outside their own countries.
Despite this guy's opinions, before mandatory public schooling, people were illiterate and innumerate. If you put an end to mandatory school, they would be so again. They may or may not be docile sheeple, but at least they can read and write.
In the late 80's early 90's I had a friend who taught thier 3 old a "game" to swap floppies out for a full system backup.
That's child labour!!!
Why crayons and paper? It's not more sociable or more valuable than typing or drawing on the PC, is it? I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've actually written something down or drawn something in the last six months.
This used to be the case for me until I got back into mathematical equations in a big way. For some tasks, nothing beats paper.
Personally, I think that the grandparent's idea is genius. Computers are just "one" of the tools available to you. It's a good idea to make people realise that, rather than have them specialise in one medium.
Anyways, based on my non-scientific interviews, all children have a rough time in school. Children hate school because school doesn't teach the way children learn best. Children learn best on their own schedule, persuing their own desires.
While school might not be perfect, if you left every child at home all their lives, to learn by persuing their desires, very quickly you would find that, I would say, ~70-80% of those children would grow up illiterate and innumerate. If you don't belive me, just examine society before the introduction of mandatory state schooling.
Those who can, compete.
Those who can't, sue.
I don't consider myself stupid, but I consider you gullible.
And I consider you naive. In the UK at least, the intelligence agencies have been widely know to have executed people. There are numerous incidents in Northern Ireland of people being killed by the government in the complete absence of judicial process. This doesn't just include paramilitaries, but political dissidents as well.
The internet... is a distraction that young children don't need.
Not really. To be honest, I don't know how one could really raise children without Wikipedia.
Um, we'd need to evolve 4 more ears. 5.1 is a six-channel format. Five channels of midrange to high frequencies (left, right, center, left rear, right rear), and one channel of subwoofer.
The subwoofer is for lower frequencies. You can pick them up with your skin.
Give it up. Your hard facts are no match for rampant rumour.
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but the high and mighty Thomas Jefferson himself was a slave owner. In fact, even the demi-god George Washington was known to buy and sell a few.
Religion not only approves of slavery, it actively promotes it. Modern western denominations try to hide it, but secretly, they're all closet megalomaniacs. In recent years, under public pressure, Islamic theologians have been forced to tone it down as well, but its still there. They're all simply biding their time, waiting for another chance to supress billions with their aesthetic prose and rehtoric.
The proscription against images of the prophet is one of the fundamental tenets of islamic religion. To muslims, pictures of the prophet are blasphemous.
No it isn't, and they aren't.
This whole "images of the prophet" thing is a Wahhabi thing, not a mainstream islamic one. Of course, wahhabi proselytism has been rampant in recent years, back as it is by Saudi oil money.
Most of the ridiculous things you hear about islam are probably confined to wahhabism; islam's version of the jehova's witnesses or mormons or something.