Every solar power installation requires a 100% non-solar redundant system to take up the slack when the solar goes off line. Factor that cost in and solar power becomes an economic joke.
Power grids supply a mixture of peak and base load. During the day in the summer here in Australia a lot of the peak load goes to supply commercial aircon systems which do scale the same way as solar power systems.
You may need to bring your peak load generators (gas powered, usually) on at night but there is still a net gain from having solar power.
From my recollection, cells that are used with concentrators tend to brown, deteriorate, and lose production capacity much faster than those that aren't. That hasn't changed, has it?
From about Oct 25 to Nov 10 Mars was on the the other side of the Sun. The Suns radio noise effectively blocks transmission either way. I notice Opportunity started returning images this week
Maybe the spotty comms is part of the reason for the apparent problem with MGS. Perhaps we should wait a while before being really worried.
I had been wondering why updates from Opportunity had been so scarce over the last couple of weeks, given that the rover has reached the most interesting part of its traverse.
The communication bottleneck created by the MGS problem may be partly to blame.
This is the sad reality, and with the exception of the newest high-tech areas like Bangalore, this is the way projects are tackled in all of India, and it isn't going to change anytime soon
And have a chaotic system. I forget the exact number, but IIRC, but through the 1940's-80's, Italy had more Goverments than years - The goverment falls and a new coalition has to be elected every eight months or so, because nobody has a real majority. It is a notoriously unstable system.
Not in Australia. We do have proportional representation and coalition governments but it hasn't resulted in instability. Our governments typically last longer than US governments, probably because we don't have a two term rule.
Our main right wing party is a coalition of the Liberal and National parties. They get along pretty well.
Actually I'm a Victorian. Now that your politicians are improving I might get back to Quensland and give it a go.
Oddly enough my wife (an architect) knows Daniel Grollo. She worked for him on the QV development here in Melbourne. Once the eureka tower is complete we can be pretty sure the Grollos will be on the lookout for an even bigger, more phallic tower to build and, you know, SE Queensland might just be the place to do it.
Maybe when the time comes I will send in the word about my drop tubes and then we will see what a real water slide can do.
The article summary implies that the discovery was made by studying photos - which is the common shorthand for images created by the passive capture of visible light.
I have photos of my son which were made with sonar.
Asimov's debunking of Velikovsky was hilarious. I don't know if there are copies around. I read it in the college library about 15 years ago. It was a typical Asimov written-in-one-day job. He knew his stuff, that guy.
If the tube drops vertically for 1000 feet while in the building, how would the person not essentially be in a free fall and splatter once the tube starts to curve at/near the bottom?
Its a gentle parabolic curve. Initially it might be at a few degrees from vertical so that you stick to one wall, then the curve and the acceleration build up until you are sliding horizontally.
Heck, they might as well build a loop-d-loop at the bottom so tourists can pay to ride it.
My idea for an escape system in very tall (WTC) buildings is to construct vertical drop tubes inside the buildings. At the bottom it would depart the vertical and follow a parabolic curve for a couple of hundred metres to bleed off speed.
In normal operation users would pay for the jump and would wear protective clothing. In emergency operation water would spray into the tube to reduce frictional heating when you hit the sides. A simple traffic control system would try to prevent collisions with people who enter the tube part of the way down.
A few. For example, Apollo One was a particularly infamous incident where a ground escape system would have been useful.
If the crew had got to the white room they would have been ok. Unless the booster goes you are safer in the capsule. If the booster goes you won't have time to get away.
There may be a class of disasters which this system can deal with but I think that class is pretty small.
To use the escape system you have to egress from the spacecraft and enter the "rollercoaster". To me this seems like the ideal time for the final explosion which might have actually left the crew alive had they been in a capsule, which after all, is suposed to protect the crew in a hostile environment.
So I can see the crews weighing the risk of staying aginst the risk of trying to get away and deciding to stay.
But sexy nerd girls? No way, unless you are really wasted.
Its funny because the other week I was waiting at the supermarket checkout behind three of the ugliest women I have seen in a long time. Not offensive, just not... very... attractive.
Their credit card transaction was going through. One of them appeared to be entranced by the flickering lights of the network gear embedded behind the register. She turned two one of her friends and said I think the hourly transfer is about to run...ah there it is.
I think that some of your offer to help install/administer their linux boxes should include spending time with them and finding out how they use their computer, what features they find essential, and the like.
Thats it, you have to understand their needs. My sister needed something absolutely bullet proof for her share house environment. It only had to browse the web and ubuntu was ideal because it was stable and malware wouldn't work on it.
She has gone overseas now and my mum needs a simple (one or two click) way to exchange email with her. Ubuntu will do that as well (with my sisters old machine).
My dad needs a firewall/wireless router on his broadband line so I plan to put netbsd on his old desktop machine. I know from experience that he will want the root password so he can play and stuff it up:)
At the same time I know that there is no way I will get him to uninstall windows from his laptop so I don't bother suggesting it.
As you imply its horses for courses. At this time I think the poster should absolutely not give somebody a CD and expect anything to happen. You have to go out there and invest some effort in the transition.
Re:They seem to be forgetting something...
on
Oceans Empty By 2048?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Less Demand = Fish Population Increases
Ecosystems don't work that way. Fish need a certain population density to breed properly. They don't use singles bars like us humans.
The linear relationship you assume exists...doesn't.
This talk of 9/11 and deaths really couldn't have come at a worse time. I'm flying to America tomorrow, and although after RTFA I should feel better about plane travel, it really is the last thing I need.
The 911 hijackings were a one off event. Passengers had been educated to comply with orders and wait for rescue in the event of a hijack. Now we all know to kick the shit out of anybody who tries to take a plane over with chopsticks and stanley knives.
It won't happen again because OBL knows that we will protect ourselves against the last attack vector, not the next.
Slashdot Mirror
Doped carbon.
Power grids supply a mixture of peak and base load. During the day in the summer here in Australia a lot of the peak load goes to supply commercial aircon systems which do scale the same way as solar power systems.
You may need to bring your peak load generators (gas powered, usually) on at night but there is still a net gain from having solar power.
I wonder if you can recyle/remanufacture them?
Maybe the spotty comms is part of the reason for the apparent problem with MGS. Perhaps we should wait a while before being really worried.
I wrote a ksh cgi clone of slashcode for my family website and implemented the same sticky article feature. My article ID's are 32 bits :)
You can post anything you like in your journal and people can reply.
I had been wondering why updates from Opportunity had been so scarce over the last couple of weeks, given that the rover has reached the most interesting part of its traverse.
The communication bottleneck created by the MGS problem may be partly to blame.
test
Well....not in New Zealand anyway.
They need a leader like Mahathir bin Mohamad
They do have a cold war with Pakistan, though its pretty small scale compared with US vs USSR.
Not in Australia. We do have proportional representation and coalition governments but it hasn't resulted in instability. Our governments typically last longer than US governments, probably because we don't have a two term rule.
Our main right wing party is a coalition of the Liberal and National parties. They get along pretty well.
Actually I'm a Victorian. Now that your politicians are improving I might get back to Quensland and give it a go.
Oddly enough my wife (an architect) knows Daniel Grollo. She worked for him on the QV development here in Melbourne. Once the eureka tower is complete we can be pretty sure the Grollos will be on the lookout for an even bigger, more phallic tower to build and, you know, SE Queensland might just be the place to do it.
Maybe when the time comes I will send in the word about my drop tubes and then we will see what a real water slide can do.
I have photos of my son which were made with sonar.
Asimov's debunking of Velikovsky was hilarious. I don't know if there are copies around. I read it in the college library about 15 years ago. It was a typical Asimov written-in-one-day job. He knew his stuff, that guy.
Its a gentle parabolic curve. Initially it might be at a few degrees from vertical so that you stick to one wall, then the curve and the acceleration build up until you are sliding horizontally.
My idea for an escape system in very tall (WTC) buildings is to construct vertical drop tubes inside the buildings. At the bottom it would depart the vertical and follow a parabolic curve for a couple of hundred metres to bleed off speed.
In normal operation users would pay for the jump and would wear protective clothing. In emergency operation water would spray into the tube to reduce frictional heating when you hit the sides. A simple traffic control system would try to prevent collisions with people who enter the tube part of the way down.
If the crew had got to the white room they would have been ok. Unless the booster goes you are safer in the capsule. If the booster goes you won't have time to get away.
There may be a class of disasters which this system can deal with but I think that class is pretty small.
To use the escape system you have to egress from the spacecraft and enter the "rollercoaster". To me this seems like the ideal time for the final explosion which might have actually left the crew alive had they been in a capsule, which after all, is suposed to protect the crew in a hostile environment.
So I can see the crews weighing the risk of staying aginst the risk of trying to get away and deciding to stay.
Its funny because the other week I was waiting at the supermarket checkout behind three of the ugliest women I have seen in a long time. Not offensive, just not ... very ... attractive.
Their credit card transaction was going through. One of them appeared to be entranced by the flickering lights of the network gear embedded behind the register. She turned two one of her friends and said I think the hourly transfer is about to run...ah there it is.
Geeks! And supermarket IT geeks at that.
Thats it, you have to understand their needs. My sister needed something absolutely bullet proof for her share house environment. It only had to browse the web and ubuntu was ideal because it was stable and malware wouldn't work on it.
She has gone overseas now and my mum needs a simple (one or two click) way to exchange email with her. Ubuntu will do that as well (with my sisters old machine).
My dad needs a firewall/wireless router on his broadband line so I plan to put netbsd on his old desktop machine. I know from experience that he will want the root password so he can play and stuff it up :)
At the same time I know that there is no way I will get him to uninstall windows from his laptop so I don't bother suggesting it.
As you imply its horses for courses. At this time I think the poster should absolutely not give somebody a CD and expect anything to happen. You have to go out there and invest some effort in the transition.
Ecosystems don't work that way. Fish need a certain population density to breed properly. They don't use singles bars like us humans.
The linear relationship you assume exists...doesn't.
Tell that to the Japanese
The 911 hijackings were a one off event. Passengers had been educated to comply with orders and wait for rescue in the event of a hijack. Now we all know to kick the shit out of anybody who tries to take a plane over with chopsticks and stanley knives.
It won't happen again because OBL knows that we will protect ourselves against the last attack vector, not the next.
And the white album.
It would if the purchaser had to agree not to talk about it to anybody who had not also bought the report. As it stands the £9.95 is first sale.