The public needs to be shown that the word "nuclear" is not cause for panic
True. And it will be easy once the industry demonstrates that it is indeed "not a cause for panic." After all, the reasons the public gets nervous when it hears the words "nuclear" and "power" in the same sentence are related to the checkered history of commercial nuclear power generation.
Could this be the cause of the Long-delayed echoes?
No, LDEs are are due to radio signals being trapped in an ionospheric/magnetospheric ionization duct. These are one to two kilometer diameter "tubes" of of low electron density that are aligned with the earth's magnetic field lines and extend from the F-region of the ionosphere in one hemisphere to the F-region in the opposite hemisphere. Radio signals originating in one hemisphere travel along one of these ducts and then are reflected off the top side of the ionosphere in the other hemisphere. They then travel back along the duct to the place of origin, resulting in the long-delayed echo.
There's a pretty good article (from which I lifted most of this information) on this phenomenon in the November 2009 issue of QST magazine.
People can come up some pretty outrageous ideas and will often release them to the press just for the publicity even when they know they don't have the slightest chance of succeeding. As wacky as California politics can be (and despite it's reputation, this state doesn't exactly have a lock on legislative craziness), the ban on black cars has never been taken seriously as far as I can tell.
No, it's a warning beacon advising more civilized species of interstellar travelers to keep away from from a star system inhabited by homo sapiens sapiens.
Perhaps, but as my original post suggests, Californians generally end up getting the last laugh as we watch other states struggle with the implementation of legislation we've been living with comfortably for years.
Apparently, I read the summary more thoroughly than you did. The power plant issue was just one example of the perceived benefits of the law.
Also, California is not in fact perpetually short of power. Sure, sometimes things get a little hairy during a summer heat wave when everybody is using their air conditioners but I don't think that's unique to California. The so-called power shortage of a few years back was a hoax perpetrated by (mostly out-of-state) energy brokers. Enron was a major player.
In any case, I wasn't necessarily defending the legislation, just pointing out the near-inevititability of something similar eventually being adopted by other states.
I have a 28" Philips CRT TV [...] There weren't many larger CRTs made due to their sheer weight.
Boy, you got that right. I have a 36" (91 cm) CRT set and it weighs so much that I need another strong body to help if I need it move it. It must weigh close to 200 pounds (91 kg).
Maybe so but you better get adjusted to it. Pretty much everything along the lines of this legislation that is pioneered here in California eventually gets adopted by the remaining forty-nine states. Like it or not, sooner or later your state will have similar TV energy efficiency standards in place.
Boy, that's truly bizarre. Almost as weird as the toxoplasmosis parasite, which changes the natural behavior of mice so they're no longer afraid of cats.
My high school chemistry class in '05 explained why nuclear power really isn't dangerous unless people are catastrophically stupid (Chernobyl.)
Maybe it's because people who graduated from high school long before '05 have enough experience in the world to know that catastrophic human stupidity has always and will always be with us. Murphy's Law (anything that can go wrong will go wrong) was never intended to be the cynical thing it has become over the years, it was a serious examination of what caused bad things to happen during World War II.
That said, while I'm a still a little leery of nuclear power, it's probably the only workable solution currently available to address the issues of human-caused climate change so I've adjusted my opinion accordingly.
That still makes me laugh when I think about it. I had to go in for an (N)MRI on my knee a couple of years back and the tech, who was a youngster, didn't even know that the process was ever even called NMRI.
President Carter had his own way of saying the word, as "newkeeuh," but that probably had more to do with his Georgia accent than his ignorance of English spelling
No doubt. After all, Carter was a "newkleeuh" engineer by profession before he went into politics.
The surface deposits on this planet would be truly fascinating.
Almost as fascinating as one of the weather reports:
"Mostly cloudy overnight with a 50% chance of ironstorms tomorrow. The high temperature will be 2200 K, low tomorrow night 50 K. In the five day forecast, corundum showers are expected to move in from the west..."
it took them over 3hrs to film that short 6 minute PSA.
You are apparently unaware that PSA is an abbreviation for "Public Service Announcement." I don't know about anyone else but I'd hardly call that ad a public service. More like a public menace.
You get complete galvanic separation, thinner cables and no dodgy contacts
Good points. The one very nice thing about optical power transmission--assuming it could be made practical in a consumer product--would be total electrical isolation between devices. No more ground loops.
Well, you might need to explain what astroturfing is.
And you might need to spend fifteen seconds checking Wikipedia. From there:
Astroturfing is a word in English describing formal political, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous "grassroots" behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass, AstroTurf.
In case you don't know, AstroTurf was an artificial grass first used by the Houston (Texas) Astros baseball club in the first enclosed baseball park in the US. They originally tried using real grass but it wouldn't grow well under the dome so they had to come up with an alternative. The resulting product was dubbed AstroTurf.
Slashdot Mirror
The public needs to be shown that the word "nuclear" is not cause for panic
True. And it will be easy once the industry demonstrates that it is indeed "not a cause for panic." After all, the reasons the public gets nervous when it hears the words "nuclear" and "power" in the same sentence are related to the checkered history of commercial nuclear power generation.
Wow, sounds just like my career...
Could this be the cause of the Long-delayed echoes?
No, LDEs are are due to radio signals being trapped in an ionospheric/magnetospheric ionization duct. These are one to two kilometer diameter "tubes" of of low electron density that are aligned with the earth's magnetic field lines and extend from the F-region of the ionosphere in one hemisphere to the F-region in the opposite hemisphere. Radio signals originating in one hemisphere travel along one of these ducts and then are reflected off the top side of the ionosphere in the other hemisphere. They then travel back along the duct to the place of origin, resulting in the long-delayed echo.
There's a pretty good article (from which I lifted most of this information) on this phenomenon in the November 2009 issue of QST magazine.
KJ6BSO
People can come up some pretty outrageous ideas and will often release them to the press just for the publicity even when they know they don't have the slightest chance of succeeding. As wacky as California politics can be (and despite it's reputation, this state doesn't exactly have a lock on legislative craziness), the ban on black cars has never been taken seriously as far as I can tell.
No, it's a warning beacon advising more civilized species of interstellar travelers to keep away from from a star system inhabited by homo sapiens sapiens.
Restrictions on black cars? WTF are you talking about? There are no such restrictions in CA.
Take iron, for instance. It's an essential trace mineral but drop an anvil on your foot and you're in a world of hurt...
Perhaps, but as my original post suggests, Californians generally end up getting the last laugh as we watch other states struggle with the implementation of legislation we've been living with comfortably for years.
Apparently, I read the summary more thoroughly than you did. The power plant issue was just one example of the perceived benefits of the law.
Also, California is not in fact perpetually short of power. Sure, sometimes things get a little hairy during a summer heat wave when everybody is using their air conditioners but I don't think that's unique to California. The so-called power shortage of a few years back was a hoax perpetrated by (mostly out-of-state) energy brokers. Enron was a major player.
In any case, I wasn't necessarily defending the legislation, just pointing out the near-inevititability of something similar eventually being adopted by other states.
Boy, you got that right. I have a 36" (91 cm) CRT set and it weighs so much that I need another strong body to help if I need it move it. It must weigh close to 200 pounds (91 kg).
More feel-good lefty lunacy from la-la land.
Maybe so but you better get adjusted to it. Pretty much everything along the lines of this legislation that is pioneered here in California eventually gets adopted by the remaining forty-nine states. Like it or not, sooner or later your state will have similar TV energy efficiency standards in place.
Thank you veddy much.
No, it depends on if you look at it.
Boy, that's truly bizarre. Almost as weird as the toxoplasmosis parasite, which changes the natural behavior of mice so they're no longer afraid of cats.
My high school chemistry class in '05 explained why nuclear power really isn't dangerous unless people are catastrophically stupid (Chernobyl.)
Maybe it's because people who graduated from high school long before '05 have enough experience in the world to know that catastrophic human stupidity has always and will always be with us. Murphy's Law (anything that can go wrong will go wrong) was never intended to be the cynical thing it has become over the years, it was a serious examination of what caused bad things to happen during World War II.
That said, while I'm a still a little leery of nuclear power, it's probably the only workable solution currently available to address the issues of human-caused climate change so I've adjusted my opinion accordingly.
That still makes me laugh when I think about it. I had to go in for an (N)MRI on my knee a couple of years back and the tech, who was a youngster, didn't even know that the process was ever even called NMRI.
President Carter had his own way of saying the word, as "newkeeuh," but that probably had more to do with his Georgia accent than his ignorance of English spelling
No doubt. After all, Carter was a "newkleeuh" engineer by profession before he went into politics.
Almost as fascinating as one of the weather reports:
"Mostly cloudy overnight with a 50% chance of ironstorms tomorrow. The high temperature will be 2200 K, low tomorrow night 50 K. In the five day forecast, corundum showers are expected to move in from the west..."
You are apparently unaware that PSA is an abbreviation for "Public Service Announcement." I don't know about anyone else but I'd hardly call that ad a public service. More like a public menace.
You know, even as I was writing that comment, I figured someone would say something about werelizards. I mean, I would have.
Were lizards? You obviously don't know the people I work with...
Good points. The one very nice thing about optical power transmission--assuming it could be made practical in a consumer product--would be total electrical isolation between devices. No more ground loops.
And you might need to spend fifteen seconds checking Wikipedia. From there:
In case you don't know, AstroTurf was an artificial grass first used by the Houston (Texas) Astros baseball club in the first enclosed baseball park in the US. They originally tried using real grass but it wouldn't grow well under the dome so they had to come up with an alternative. The resulting product was dubbed AstroTurf.
Wrong. People in glass houses shouldn't undress.
Looks more like the gondola of a blimp to me.