As long as State and Federal legislatures exist, they will continue to pass laws. They're never "done".
You said this, and it suddenly hit me that government is to legislation as Microsoft is to Windows. They will never look at a problem area, and go "this is all wrong, let's do it better this time" and instead simply release patch after patch, until eventually all laws and regulations are so contradictory that even attorneys will suffer a blue screen if they multitask by saying "telecommunications" and "free trade" in the same sentence.
I read it as True Blue Tooth Fairy Efforts Unsuccesful. But then I had also just come in from a trip outside, where I had looked at the sunset and remarked "looks like a full sun today."
I'm glad you were moderated "Interesting" rather than "Funny," and I suppose it's because other people might see a similar trait in themselves. I've long noticed that I do my best work when the deadline is almost immediatly before me and I believe it explains why some people do so well in test situations.
In college, if I sat down to do homework a week before it was due, I would get bored and then frustrated with it as I was easily distracted. I would go into a test thinking I didn't understand the material, but would end up being one of the first people to finish, while also receiving good marks.
When looking for a job, I actually identified this procrastination trait and used it to my advantage, going into interviews fully unprepared and waiting till the last minute to write out cover letters. I think it came off making me look like I was good on my feet and able to handle any situation quickly, rather than being bogged down trying to fit everything into existing molds from experience.
That was fun, and confirmed what I had been thinking all along.
It showed that I mostly agree with Bush regarding economic issues, but have absolutely nothing in common with him on personal issues. The complete opposite was true for Kerry, where I agreed with him personally, but not really at all with him economically.
Great site, I'll be passing it along.
Better than what they do now...
on
China Goes Nuclear
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I did some work designing steam turbines for power plants, and one of our main customers was China. They were hitting an industrial boom and needed power like crazy, and also happened to have ridiculous amounts of coal. Problem was, this coal was considered poor quality because of the large amounts of sulfur, so it wasn't fit for exportation. Instead, they bought a bunch of 30 year old inefficient turbines and would pretty much throw the shitty coal out of the ground and into the burner.
I think this is a much much better solution for them, both economically and especially environmentally. There were stories that they could only ramp up the turbines from stop(a process that took about 6 hours) at night, because the resulting ploom of yellow sulfur smoke couldn't be seen. Once the burner was at full temperature by dawn, no more yellow smoke, and thus no more concerned citizens.
#look around
Bedroom The bedroom is a mess
It is a small bedroom with a faded carpet and old wallpaper. There is a washbasin, a chair with a tatty dressing gown slung over it, and a window with the curtains drawn. Near the exit leading south is a phone.
You'll have:
#look around
Bedroom The bedroom is a mess
It is a small bedroom with a faded carpet and old wallpaper. There is a washbasin, a chair with a tatty dressing gown slung over it, and a window with the curtains drawn. Near the exit leading south is a phone. It has been wonderfully illustrated by Rod Lord, who won a BAFTA for his graphics in the original TV series. You admire his quirky style and attention to detail
A bulldozer crashes through the wall and you die as the house collapses.
Here in europe it is good practice not to drink and drive at the same time.
This is why I kind of like Europe. Because over there something like drinking and driving seen as being not "good practice," while in the states we're forced from middle school to see slide shows of car wreck victims, pass the mangled car they park on the front lawn on the way to class, and repeat chanting rituals daily about not drinking and driving. Not to mention the fact that in most states, getting caught once will result in loss of car, loss of job, loss of future job, heavy fines, and public scorn and eternal damnation.
If somebody had told me "drinking and driving is not good practice" instead of screaming down my face since I was 10 how drinking and driving will kill me, my family, and my dog if I even think about it, I might have taken them just a little bit more seriously.
It has similar optical properties, but probably not similar mechanical properties. It's Alumina first off, which is a ceramic I believe, but thinking of the way it's formed, you can see where it would have similar properties to current glass.
Take a metal, and cool it off very rapidly, and it becomes very hard but also very brittle. Cool if off fast enough apparantly, before the atoms have a chance to properly align themselves, and it becomes transparent, which is what happens with Silica to make glass. They just found a way to cool off Alumina fast enough. Problem is, what gives metal its characteristics are the very nice, orderly arrangement of atoms bonded in sheets, so that it can remain strong while also bending before breaking.
I don't think this is anything other than a cool way to make glass out of something else, perhaps something stronger, but nowhere near as cool as a material resulting in clear body panels on a car, or clear coke cans.
From what I hear, Google has stopped supplying current beta testers with invites. I was lucky enough to receive an invite from a friend who had an invite buried in old mail, otherwise I haven't heard of anybody getting invites in quite a while.
As for 100MB being enough, I'm sure it is for now, but I've hit 10MB in 3 weeks, and that's just with text. The "filter," conversation and search features work so wonderfully, that I've found myself subsribing to mailing lists (which I would have never done through my ISP email account). All mail from mailing lists is automatically routed to an appropriate category, and searchable whenever I want, and with 1000MB I can be pretty sure it'll be there for quite some time.
You're post really got me thinking, and best I can come up with, the Aliens were Democrats and the Predators the Republicans. At first they both seem equally bad, but eventually you have to side with the team that doesn't spray acid everywhere or shove embryos down your throat.
Wait though, the whole Alien hive mentality is fairly similar to conservative right-wing corporate America. And it appeared that the Predators had a somewhat progressive agenda, even giving up on a thousands year old tradition for the sake of the common good.
Crap, you've got my mind all wondering which side fits in with my own agenda, being a part of a crack team of Antarctict archeologists and all.
Kinda reminds me of what a friend told me when I mentioned an interest in climbing and rapelling off a transmitter tower:
"When standing next to a high power microwave transmitter, the areas of the body with the highest water concentration begin boiling first: the eyes and the testicles"
I agree that cell phones are for the most part a "created" necessity, but I've ended up relying on mine. I travel a lot as a student doing internships, so having a phone that works from anywhere in the country and has no long distance charges really works out great for me. I don't have a land line, so cell phones are the cheapest and most practical way for me to stay connected. Regardless, I never carry my phone with me, and either leave it in the car or at home
Believe me, I've tried and tried to get rid of my cell phone, but the only other service that comes close to offering what I want is VoIP, and it's not quite as robust as I want yet.
Poor quality digital camera: Check
Smaller size: Check
Smaller buttons: Check
Smaller screen: Check
Color screen: Check
Smaller battery: Check
Reduced signal strength to allow smaller battery, camera, and color screen to last same amount of time: Check
Reduced manufacturing quality to cut costs to keep phone reasonable price: Check
Outkast ringtone: Check
$2 charge to download non-annoying ringtone: Check
Not a single GSM bag-phone or car phone: Check
611 AT&T tech support call routed to India charged at international rate: Check
(Okay, those last are just personal gripes) Otherwise, I completely agree with the grandparent, I want a phone that makes sense. I've tried hard to find a GSM bag phone, since those throw a strong 8 watt signal and I usually leave my cell phone in the car anyway.
But then what country would want to foot half the bill for something that another country has anyway? The only reason either country is offering that half is to be the exclusive site of international fusion research.
You're idea makes perfect sense, from a "let's get the job done and learn some science" point of view. But that really doesn't seem to be the point here. As many have pointed out, it looks like just another ISS.
I'm kind of interested in who would own the technology once it's completed. Sure, governments subsidize and control energy technologies, but they still have to hire private companies to build and design many of the parts. Most nuclear reactors in this country have turbines built be either GE or Westinghouse, and in EU it's Siemens.
Maybe this? It's part of www.mp5networks.com, which appears to have you download some P2P software (maybe Kazaa lite) and then charges you for tech support.
Actually sounds like a good idea to me, charging a monthly service for technical support on something free/illegal...not too different from charging lessons on how to swim, only without the threat of actually having to do any work.
I'll agree with you on that point, there is certainly no need for the results of the "research" they do if they do or do not succeed. But like you said, it's an interesting project, and the students taking part are going to have a much better understanding of the engineering process, and something that looks great on a resume.
I'm all for fun projects like this in colleges and universities, and I can see the immense wealth of knowledge and experience it will gain those involved in the project. Now, if this were a government project, I would jump on it in a second as being completely pointless and wasteful of resources (money and minds).
Hell, it's certainly got me wanting to go out to try and built a backyard helicopter just for the fun of the challenge. But I suppose I should finish that two-man personal submarine first....
I actually paused after typing that, thinking that people might view it as bias against those no-good top rotors, but decided to see if anyone would say anything.
Hopefully, we can just leave it at "it was the attempt by both parties to co-exist in the same location without prior written arrangement."
Simplicity and weight, I would guess. Each gear in bycicle tranny weights about.6 pounds(about.3 kg, for those of you counting along anywhere else in the world).
100 of those and you've got yourself another 60 pounds you have to lift, plus the extra mounting brackets, cables, shifters, chance for breakage, etc.
Besides, having guys run in circles to get the thing up to speed brings back images of the good old days of push-start props on airplanes.
Counter-rotating rotors, a lower set goes one way (let's say clockwise) and the set above it goes the other way (let's say anti-clockwise).
The torsion created by each set of rotors balance out, preventing the need for a tail rotor to prevent spinngin. It was one of the upper rotors that hit the lower rotors in this case, which is thought to be due in part to heat and humidity (probably since the top rotors were longer, the heat and humidity caused them to bow, and they didn't generate enough lift to pull themselves out of the way of the smaller lower rotors as they lifted up).
Ah yes, "The Point," what is it and why should anything be attempted if "The Point" isn't clearly defined in a two-page, three-color brochure accompanying a 10 slide powerpoint presentation (with plenty of cute sounds and clip-art) and of course complimentary box lunches.
BECAUSE it's cool, because I look at it and go "damn, that would be quite the engineering accomplishment right there," because college isn't all about inventing things that need to be invented, it's about expanding the mind to accomplish abstract ideas. Think of every lab that students do in their science courses: what's the point of those? It's old technology, it's certainly been done before. Why aren't freshman chemistry students working on cold fusion or something else the military will jump all over?
Besides, this is impressive science, since the human legs can put out a sustainable 100W, it's the attempt to built something light enough to get off with minimal power. And the $175,000 they've spent over 6 years to educate students and built a prototype is cheap in the education world.
Slashdot Mirror
You said this, and it suddenly hit me that government is to legislation as Microsoft is to Windows. They will never look at a problem area, and go "this is all wrong, let's do it better this time" and instead simply release patch after patch, until eventually all laws and regulations are so contradictory that even attorneys will suffer a blue screen if they multitask by saying "telecommunications" and "free trade" in the same sentence.
I read it as True Blue Tooth Fairy Efforts Unsuccesful. But then I had also just come in from a trip outside, where I had looked at the sunset and remarked "looks like a full sun today."
In college, if I sat down to do homework a week before it was due, I would get bored and then frustrated with it as I was easily distracted. I would go into a test thinking I didn't understand the material, but would end up being one of the first people to finish, while also receiving good marks.
When looking for a job, I actually identified this procrastination trait and used it to my advantage, going into interviews fully unprepared and waiting till the last minute to write out cover letters. I think it came off making me look like I was good on my feet and able to handle any situation quickly, rather than being bogged down trying to fit everything into existing molds from experience.
It showed that I mostly agree with Bush regarding economic issues, but have absolutely nothing in common with him on personal issues. The complete opposite was true for Kerry, where I agreed with him personally, but not really at all with him economically.
Great site, I'll be passing it along.
I think this is a much much better solution for them, both economically and especially environmentally. There were stories that they could only ramp up the turbines from stop(a process that took about 6 hours) at night, because the resulting ploom of yellow sulfur smoke couldn't be seen. Once the burner was at full temperature by dawn, no more yellow smoke, and thus no more concerned citizens.
That was Japan.
Hmm, I think I've only heard of Led Zeppelin. He's pretty good though, right?
#look around
Bedroom
The bedroom is a mess
It is a small bedroom with a faded carpet and old wallpaper. There is a washbasin, a chair with a tatty dressing gown slung over it, and a window with the curtains drawn. Near the exit leading south is a phone.
You'll have:
#look around
Bedroom
The bedroom is a mess
It is a small bedroom with a faded carpet and old wallpaper. There is a washbasin, a chair with a tatty dressing gown slung over it, and a window with the curtains drawn. Near the exit leading south is a phone. It has been wonderfully illustrated by Rod Lord, who won a BAFTA for his graphics in the original TV series. You admire his quirky style and attention to detail
A bulldozer crashes through the wall and you die as the house collapses.
This is why I kind of like Europe. Because over there something like drinking and driving seen as being not "good practice," while in the states we're forced from middle school to see slide shows of car wreck victims, pass the mangled car they park on the front lawn on the way to class, and repeat chanting rituals daily about not drinking and driving. Not to mention the fact that in most states, getting caught once will result in loss of car, loss of job, loss of future job, heavy fines, and public scorn and eternal damnation.
If somebody had told me "drinking and driving is not good practice" instead of screaming down my face since I was 10 how drinking and driving will kill me, my family, and my dog if I even think about it, I might have taken them just a little bit more seriously.
Take a metal, and cool it off very rapidly, and it becomes very hard but also very brittle. Cool if off fast enough apparantly, before the atoms have a chance to properly align themselves, and it becomes transparent, which is what happens with Silica to make glass. They just found a way to cool off Alumina fast enough. Problem is, what gives metal its characteristics are the very nice, orderly arrangement of atoms bonded in sheets, so that it can remain strong while also bending before breaking.
I don't think this is anything other than a cool way to make glass out of something else, perhaps something stronger, but nowhere near as cool as a material resulting in clear body panels on a car, or clear coke cans.
As for 100MB being enough, I'm sure it is for now, but I've hit 10MB in 3 weeks, and that's just with text. The "filter," conversation and search features work so wonderfully, that I've found myself subsribing to mailing lists (which I would have never done through my ISP email account). All mail from mailing lists is automatically routed to an appropriate category, and searchable whenever I want, and with 1000MB I can be pretty sure it'll be there for quite some time.
Wait though, the whole Alien hive mentality is fairly similar to conservative right-wing corporate America. And it appeared that the Predators had a somewhat progressive agenda, even giving up on a thousands year old tradition for the sake of the common good.
Crap, you've got my mind all wondering which side fits in with my own agenda, being a part of a crack team of Antarctict archeologists and all.
"When standing next to a high power microwave transmitter, the areas of the body with the highest water concentration begin boiling first: the eyes and the testicles"
I don't want to climb those things anymore.
9.8m/sec^2?
Believe me, I've tried and tried to get rid of my cell phone, but the only other service that comes close to offering what I want is VoIP, and it's not quite as robust as I want yet.
Poor quality digital camera: Check
Smaller size: Check
Smaller buttons: Check
Smaller screen: Check
Color screen: Check
Smaller battery: Check
Reduced signal strength to allow smaller battery, camera, and color screen to last same amount of time: Check
Reduced manufacturing quality to cut costs to keep phone reasonable price: Check
Outkast ringtone: Check
$2 charge to download non-annoying ringtone: Check
Not a single GSM bag-phone or car phone: Check
611 AT&T tech support call routed to India charged at international rate: Check
(Okay, those last are just personal gripes) Otherwise, I completely agree with the grandparent, I want a phone that makes sense. I've tried hard to find a GSM bag phone, since those throw a strong 8 watt signal and I usually leave my cell phone in the car anyway.
Jesus man, do you have any idea the shree amount of work that would involve?
You're idea makes perfect sense, from a "let's get the job done and learn some science" point of view. But that really doesn't seem to be the point here. As many have pointed out, it looks like just another ISS.
I'm kind of interested in who would own the technology once it's completed. Sure, governments subsidize and control energy technologies, but they still have to hire private companies to build and design many of the parts. Most nuclear reactors in this country have turbines built be either GE or Westinghouse, and in EU it's Siemens.
Actually sounds like a good idea to me, charging a monthly service for technical support on something free/illegal...not too different from charging lessons on how to swim, only without the threat of actually having to do any work.
I'm all for fun projects like this in colleges and universities, and I can see the immense wealth of knowledge and experience it will gain those involved in the project. Now, if this were a government project, I would jump on it in a second as being completely pointless and wasteful of resources (money and minds).
Hell, it's certainly got me wanting to go out to try and built a backyard helicopter just for the fun of the challenge. But I suppose I should finish that two-man personal submarine first....
Hopefully, we can just leave it at "it was the attempt by both parties to co-exist in the same location without prior written arrangement."
100 of those and you've got yourself another 60 pounds you have to lift, plus the extra mounting brackets, cables, shifters, chance for breakage, etc.
Besides, having guys run in circles to get the thing up to speed brings back images of the good old days of push-start props on airplanes.
The torsion created by each set of rotors balance out, preventing the need for a tail rotor to prevent spinngin. It was one of the upper rotors that hit the lower rotors in this case, which is thought to be due in part to heat and humidity (probably since the top rotors were longer, the heat and humidity caused them to bow, and they didn't generate enough lift to pull themselves out of the way of the smaller lower rotors as they lifted up).
Some more info here
BECAUSE it's cool, because I look at it and go "damn, that would be quite the engineering accomplishment right there," because college isn't all about inventing things that need to be invented, it's about expanding the mind to accomplish abstract ideas. Think of every lab that students do in their science courses: what's the point of those? It's old technology, it's certainly been done before. Why aren't freshman chemistry students working on cold fusion or something else the military will jump all over?
Besides, this is impressive science, since the human legs can put out a sustainable 100W, it's the attempt to built something light enough to get off with minimal power. And the $175,000 they've spent over 6 years to educate students and built a prototype is cheap in the education world.
My mom got it for me as a joke, but I started wearing it to family reunions and it actually did help out quite a bit.