Part of the reason why the US did not have a respectable wind turbine industry even after billions of dollars invested in R&D was due to an attitude of "We build B52 that could bomb the shit out of crap, wind mills? How hard can they be?
I do work for Vestas in the UK, you are exactly right. Blade building is currently very labour intensive, I've actually worked on the shop floor for a week. There were protests at the Vestas factory on the Isle of Wight when it was closed down, even though it clearly didn't make economic sense to builds the blades in the UK with high labour costs while almost all the blades (for V82 1.6MW turbines) are sold to the USA and China. So Vestas decided to build new factories in the US and China instead.
The bigger question is, why is Vestas, a Danish Company, the biggest wind turbine producer in the world with ~25-30% market share? How come countries like the USA, Germany who gave billions to Boeing, Siemens, GE and the like for wind turbine research and had nothing to show for it, and everyone ended up using the iconic three bladed "Danish" design?
The answer boils down to having smart people in the government, avoiding overly ambitious expensive projects that often ended in failure, having a long turn vision in providing continued support in good times and bad times.
They don't have to understand the signal to take notice.
If they are sufficiently intelligent, they will notice a constant signal at a certain frequency, coming from the direction of earth. Which will hopefully lead to them to think that there is intelligent life out there, and try to decode the signal. I think for this purpose, it might be better to just send easy to understand pulses instead of TV signal, like the in movie "Contact".
Of course, this is assuming that they want to contact us and be friends. Maybe they'll just show up one thursday to build a hyperspace bypass.
The report says that depleted uranium gives off roughly 40% of the radiation of regular uranium. 40%. That's still pretty damned radioactive for an area you plan on raising kids in.
But if by "regular uranium" you meant natural uranium, then 40% really isn't all that radioactive. Natural uranium has a half-life of hundreds of million of years (depending on which isotope). While it is quite a bit more radioactive than your regular granite, you can safely handle a piece of natural uranium ore with bare hands like any old rock. In fact, many house hold items contain upto 20% natural uranium by mass (like some coloured ceramic tiles). Enriched uranium however, is a different matter...
chastising villagers for taking "souviners" of fired bullets.
I agree with you that the usage of depleted uranium should still should be avoided mainly because of long term exposure. This applies really to:
1. People who make these bullets
2. People who guard these bullets
3. People who use these bullets
Picking up a DU bullet is not likely to do much harm to you, unless you shoot yourself with it or something.:)
Another reason why I an against it is that it gives the US an unfair advantage in combat, since no one else can use it.
Slashdot Mirror
Mod that up.
Part of the reason why the US did not have a respectable wind turbine industry even after billions of dollars invested in R&D was due to an attitude of "We build B52 that could bomb the shit out of crap, wind mills? How hard can they be?
Works great for one two three months but false apart after the first rainfall. Kind of the same way the clothes made in China last.
Yeah, everything made in China does that, which explains why all Apple products explodes when it rains.
I do work for Vestas in the UK, you are exactly right. Blade building is currently very labour intensive, I've actually worked on the shop floor for a week. There were protests at the Vestas factory on the Isle of Wight when it was closed down, even though it clearly didn't make economic sense to builds the blades in the UK with high labour costs while almost all the blades (for V82 1.6MW turbines) are sold to the USA and China. So Vestas decided to build new factories in the US and China instead.
The bigger question is, why is Vestas, a Danish Company, the biggest wind turbine producer in the world with ~25-30% market share? How come countries like the USA, Germany who gave billions to Boeing, Siemens, GE and the like for wind turbine research and had nothing to show for it, and everyone ended up using the iconic three bladed "Danish" design?
The answer boils down to having smart people in the government, avoiding overly ambitious expensive projects that often ended in failure, having a long turn vision in providing continued support in good times and bad times.
I've just finished an intense five hour session in RL-TOW. Got to tell you man, the diamond harvesting sucked, but the graphics is amazing.
They don't have to understand the signal to take notice.
If they are sufficiently intelligent, they will notice a constant signal at a certain frequency, coming from the direction of earth. Which will hopefully lead to them to think that there is intelligent life out there, and try to decode the signal. I think for this purpose, it might be better to just send easy to understand pulses instead of TV signal, like the in movie "Contact".
Of course, this is assuming that they want to contact us and be friends. Maybe they'll just show up one thursday to build a hyperspace bypass.
Yeah, what's the "real world" punishment for wall hacking? I say people who use aimbots should at least get 3 years. F**ing cheaters!
On a serious note, what prevents the programmer at WOW from scripting him/herself some money? Would that be like insider trading?
That is just S.A.A.D.
I will take my chances with my towel thank you very much!
Car ads are not just in movies. It has been pretty much standard practice for driving games to advertise cars and flightsims to advertise planes.
Specific products that comes to mind include the NFS Porsche series and MS Flightsim.
What's the difference between this thing and a laptop of the same price with TV-out and a good graphics card?
The difference is that you can also use the laptop as a laptop.
Ford: Marvin! Quick, develope a walk around for our security problem!
(Robot walking sound)
Marvin: Is that all? I won't enjoy it at all you know, I've got a execptionaly large mind.
Ford: oh god...
The report says that depleted uranium gives off roughly 40% of the radiation of regular uranium. 40%. That's still pretty damned radioactive for an area you plan on raising kids in.
:)
But if by "regular uranium" you meant natural uranium, then 40% really isn't all that radioactive. Natural uranium has a half-life of hundreds of million of years (depending on which isotope). While it is quite a bit more radioactive than your regular granite, you can safely handle a piece of natural uranium ore with bare hands like any old rock. In fact, many house hold items contain upto 20% natural uranium by mass (like some coloured ceramic tiles). Enriched uranium however, is a different matter...
chastising villagers for taking "souviners" of fired bullets.
I agree with you that the usage of depleted uranium should still should be avoided mainly because of long term exposure. This applies really to:
1. People who make these bullets
2. People who guard these bullets
3. People who use these bullets
Picking up a DU bullet is not likely to do much harm to you, unless you shoot yourself with it or something.
Another reason why I an against it is that it gives the US an unfair advantage in combat, since no one else can use it.