He told me that modern design software makes it possible to design far more efficient planes that would look very different from the ones we now have, but it's difficult (read: impossible) to get anyone to invest in a plan that deviates from the known-good designs that have been working for decades.
For good (short- medium- and long-term financial) reasons. Any design that is a substantial departure from known-good designs is a big risk for delays, extra costs, or outright failures in development, construction, testing, certification, and operation due to novel factors that are largely unpredictable, no matter how modern the design software is. In order to explore a larger problem space and avoid being trapped in a local optimum, you need an interested neutral player like the government to fund broad research and a high risk-taking entity like NASA to actually develop the technology.
Non US citizens outside of the territory of the US do not have any of the same rights that US citizens have.
That's not what the founding fathers said in their Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
or in Amendment 9 of the Constitution:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
It's observational because it is not derived from other principals.[sic]
The entropy of thermodynamic theory is derived from other principles. As an anolgy to the fact (for reversible processes) that dw = P * dv (where w is work, p is pressure, and v is volume) entropy was invented to satisfy the equation dq = T * ds (where q is heat, T is temperature, and s is entropy). Working out the equations showed that entropy is a property that can be defined in terms of the other previously defined properties.
Thank you for not trying to explain information theory to me.
When working on statistical mechanics of idealized gases, it was shown that entropy can be quantified as a measure of the log of the number of states available. In those conditions, the higher the entropy, the less likely you are to know which states are actually occupied, hence the term "disorder".
Later, it was found that the statistics of information theory included a property with the same mathematical form as the statistical mechanics math about entropy, so the term entropy was adopted in information theory.
Entropy always stays the same or increases within a closed system, which does seem to provide an arrow of time independent of the human mind. I do have one bone to pick about the proposed heat death of the universe, however. The universe, for all we know can be finite or infinite, and open or closed. If it is infinite, I don't think calling it a closed system makes sense (after all, doubling an infinite entropy doesn't increase it beyond infinite). The increase of entropy is only guaranteed within a closed system, so there is no guarantee, yet, that the universe has to end with ever increasing entropy.
By definition, the third world is not a premium mass market.
Not to be pedantic, but the third world is not defined by premiums or the lack thereof. By definition it is those countries neither aligned with the "Western" capitalist bloc nor the "Eastern" communist bloc of Russia and China (I know, they are not really communist and not really a bloc, at least not anymore)
Developing countries, on the other hand, do have growing populations of people with disposable incomes that often want premium products.
Gauging how much oil exists based on how much we CHOOSE to pump isn't even starting to take reality into consideration.
Peak oil estimates may well be flawed, but peak oil is not the peak of how much oil we choose to pump (and I use the word choose loosely, since demand for oil is very inelastic). It is the point at which reserves are increasing slower than the rate at which we are pumping oil.
You are misinformed.
The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by 38% +/- since the industrial revolution. That increase is attributable to human activity.
If positive and negative feedbacks were to balance out, this would be enough to raise the average surface temperature of the earth more than 1C.
There was a recent study that showed that less than one-third of American millionaires inherited their wealth. How have the other two-thirds achieved this status by "luck"?
No, by inflation.
Seriously, when the lottery first came out, a million dollar payout of $20,000 per year for 50 years was an amazing amount - I could have retired at 21 years of age and lived off that indefinitely. Now, a million dollars cash in hand is barely enough to retire on at age 67.
Modern window glass is typically formulated/coated to absorb or reflect UV and infrared as much as possible while transmitting as much visible light as desired. Not sure if it would be enough to block a signal at a particular infrared wavelength or not.
That analogy fails to address the issues in this case.
The relevant law he is being charged with, according to TFA:
A person shall not intentionally and without authorization or by exceeding valid authorization do any of the following:
Access or cause access to be made to a computer program, computer, computer system or computer network
Well, he did access a computer that he bought for his wife and that he had often used, possibly while exceeding valid authorization, but he used the password that his wife had written down in a book next to the computer, so from the provider's viewpoint, he was authorized.
to acquire, alter, damage delete or destroy property
No he didn't do any of those and didn't have intent to do those.
or otherwise use the service of a computer program, computer, computer system or computer network.
I read this as theft of services, which he did not do and he did not intend to do.
I don't think there was\ any reason to charge him under this statute.
IANAL, YMMV, etc.
Allowing access with a mere swipe of a card is the very thing that is being complained about when it comes to the maintenance workers.
From my experience, every time I've had to enter a secure area at the airport there was at least a two-level authentication, a card that I can either a swipe or hold up to a proximity reader, plus either a PIN or a fingerprint. In addition, though there wasn't always a metal detector to walk through, there was always someone to look through your bags.
One real hole in this security theater is trucks driving into the airport. They are obviously not going through a metal detector and don't get more than a cursory inspection.
Sorry to break it to you, but the Constitution doesn't give anyone rights, on US soil or not. It enumerates certain rights, it lists certain limitations and powers of the government, but, as the Declaration of Independence states, people are ". . . endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government . . . "
If you still don't believe it, see Amendment 9 : "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
I believe that "I could care less" is an idiomatic shortening of "As if I could care less".
On the other hand, I still think it's wrong. And I don't mind when someone points out that "decimate" means destroying 10% or how "begging the question" is a term of art in logic, because I'm not scared of learning things. (though you should be able to tell from my writing that I'm not a "grammar nazi")
Yeah, such a well-thought out law: Let's encourage defenseless pedestrians to step out in front of random, possibly incompetent or distracted drivers without thought and force the one with the momentum of 3,000 pounds of steel to screech to a halt.
The basic point that research will be done with or without government spending is, of course, true.
One might wonder about Thomas Edison inventing and plowing the profits into research labs
Thomas Edison did not do basic research. He did the type of development work that comments in this thread in favor of government research admit private enterprise does.
But left alone, smart intelligent people seem to discover things on their own.
If you're truly smart enough to do ground breaking research... chances are you're going to do that with or without government help.
Like Isaac Newton, who invented the calculus without gov . . . wait, no, he was on government payroll most of his life. Though I must admit that in the great tradition of private enterprise, he tried to keep calculus secret for his own benefit for as long as he was able.
Bill Gates is giving his billions in wealth to charity.
And if his dollars funded research that the development of the internet relied on, you would need MS WindowsTM to access the web.
So apparently you think that knowledge only spreads if federal dollars are included.
Of course knowledge spreads with or without federal dollars. But private dollars usually try to keep what they learn secret so they will have a competitive advantage. And private dollars also tend to concentrate on things that bring immediate payback while federal dollars, when properly appropriated, provide support for basic research that would not otherwise be done because it may or may not pay off, but will benefit the common welfare if it does.
It's a matter of attitude, really. With the Democrats, you're standing knee-deep in shit. The Republicans have you in shit just as deep, but they kindly insist you lie down and rest your weary mind.
At the rate trash is produced, we have more than enough land to bury it.
How about we bury it on your land
My recycling beliefs are such that anything that can be recycled for a profit will be recycled by the free market, without my help, and the stuff that can't be recycled for a profit shouldn't be recycled.
That only holds if the costs to society, clean air, clean water supplies, depletion of natural resources, etc. are borne by the trash dumpers and the producers of replacement products - costs they do not currently bear.
Note, I'm not saying the recycling is always a good answer. Most of the time reducing wasteful production is a much better, and cheaper, option.
The article you linked does not state that the tailpipe emissions are cleaner than the ambient air:
Tailpipe pollution of a PZEV is as much as 90% less than from other new cars.
The cars won't deliver California levels of low pollution without California's unique blend of low-sulfur gas
But even on non-California gasoline, PZEVs pollute little. Ford says the PZEV Focus puts out a pound of smog-producing pollutants in 15,000 miles on California gas, roughly two pounds on typical U.S. fuel. A non-PZEV Focus would put out 10.7 pounds in 15,000 miles, Ford calculates.
The article you linked does not actually state that the vehicles will emit air cleaner than the ambient, except "by some measures". It does also quote someone who states that a jogger will breathe better air jogging behind one of these vehicles if the radiator is treated to remove ambient ozone (so in a high ozone area, the air would be improved, apart from tailpipe emissions).
I could use extra desk space, since I often work with drawings that are 48"x36", and the monitor just doesn't cut it for that.
I'm not sure about the premise of TFA. While there wouldn't have been a computer on your desk in the 70s there would have been a dumb terminal and monitor, or at least a typewriter, that would've taken up just as much space. 200 sq ft per worker in an office has been standard for ventilation design as long as I've been in the HVAC business (since 1980). And even if your cubicle is 60 sq ft net, there's probably near 200 sq ft gross per person considering the aisles, corridors, empty cubicles, storage files, etc.
I've worked on offices with around 100 to 150 sq ft per person as long ago as 15 to 20 years, and that's including everything in the square footage - break rooms, elevators, stairs, toilet rooms, UPS rooms, etc.
As a pro-American non-idiot who works extensively in feet and inches and fractions of inches, and in pounds force, pounds mass, gallons, etc. and has done some work in SI units, I would love it if US industry converted to SI, though I do realize that inertia means it just won't happen.
The fact is, it is not just a matter of which arbitrary units are familiar to you. The US/Imperial system requires a lot of magic numbers for conversion factors. The SI system is a lot more self-consistent, and therefore easier to use. (not just in adding fundamental measures, but also things like calculating pressure from velocity and density, etc.)
You have some reasonable points about things like months/days/hours/minutes/seconds. But Leap days are a natural result of the actual lengths of days and years; scientists and mathemeticians tend to use radians, not degrees; and adding and multiplying in feet, inches, and fractions of an inch is really a big pain in the ass.
In fact, there would be great benefit in the long run if American industry changed over to using SI units
And as I like to point out to people -- because I'm a pedantic nerd like everyone else here -- the US system is a metric system . . . see what I did there? I didn't use a capital "M" or say SI there?
And because I'm a pedantic, too, I'd like to point out that the US system of weights and measures is officially based on SI units - units like yards and pounds are legally defined by the USA government in terms of SI units.
1. The X axis on the light sensors.
2. The Y axis on the light sensors.
3. The radius of the cameras from the top of the dome.
4. The angle of the cameras from the top of the dome.
You are misunderstanding. There are only 3 dimensions to information being collected. There may be 4 dimensions needed to describe a particular array of cameras, but that does not magically create a 4D amount of information. (actually, you left out the 3 dimensions describing the direction of the focal plane and the focal length of the lens, the dimensions describing the imaging surface, the pixel arrangement, and other dimensions required to describe the camera array completely.)
Where more than two cameras image the same voxel, there is "redundant" information captured by the multiple cameras. But though the "extra" information can be used to increase the accuracy and precision of the 3D information gathered, that does not amount to an extra dimension. n*D^3 != D^4 (where n = the number of camera pairs used to stereoscopically capture 3D information from the scene.)
No, the cameras I have experience with do not replace your field of vision. My wife has one on her minivan and one definitely still needs to look out the back window. The camera is there to pick up objects below the field of view through the window, but it would be foolish to try to negotiate backing up while looking forward, though my guess is that a majority of people would not turn their necks to look back. Something like this should be studied for cost-benefits (including the costs of people who will misuse it) before it becoming recommended, let alone mandated. If there were some type of "heads-up" display for the back-up camera on or near the rear window it would be more effective. However, that would not let them use the same dash display that is used for GPS maps, radio, etc.
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He told me that modern design software makes it possible to design far more efficient planes that would look very different from the ones we now have, but it's difficult (read: impossible) to get anyone to invest in a plan that deviates from the known-good designs that have been working for decades.
For good (short- medium- and long-term financial) reasons. Any design that is a substantial departure from known-good designs is a big risk for delays, extra costs, or outright failures in development, construction, testing, certification, and operation due to novel factors that are largely unpredictable, no matter how modern the design software is. In order to explore a larger problem space and avoid being trapped in a local optimum, you need an interested neutral player like the government to fund broad research and a high risk-taking entity like NASA to actually develop the technology.
Non US citizens outside of the territory of the US do not have any of the same rights that US citizens have.
That's not what the founding fathers said in their Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
or in Amendment 9 of the Constitution:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
It's observational because it is not derived from other principals.[sic]
The entropy of thermodynamic theory is derived from other principles. As an anolgy to the fact (for reversible processes) that dw = P * dv (where w is work, p is pressure, and v is volume) entropy was invented to satisfy the equation dq = T * ds (where q is heat, T is temperature, and s is entropy). Working out the equations showed that entropy is a property that can be defined in terms of the other previously defined properties.
Thank you for not trying to explain information theory to me.
When working on statistical mechanics of idealized gases, it was shown that entropy can be quantified as a measure of the log of the number of states available. In those conditions, the higher the entropy, the less likely you are to know which states are actually occupied, hence the term "disorder".
Later, it was found that the statistics of information theory included a property with the same mathematical form as the statistical mechanics math about entropy, so the term entropy was adopted in information theory.
Entropy always stays the same or increases within a closed system, which does seem to provide an arrow of time independent of the human mind.
I do have one bone to pick about the proposed heat death of the universe, however. The universe, for all we know can be finite or infinite, and open or closed. If it is infinite, I don't think calling it a closed system makes sense (after all, doubling an infinite entropy doesn't increase it beyond infinite). The increase of entropy is only guaranteed within a closed system, so there is no guarantee, yet, that the universe has to end with ever increasing entropy.
By definition, the third world is not a premium mass market.
Not to be pedantic, but the third world is not defined by premiums or the lack thereof. By definition it is those countries neither aligned with the "Western" capitalist bloc nor the "Eastern" communist bloc of Russia and China (I know, they are not really communist and not really a bloc, at least not anymore)
Developing countries, on the other hand, do have growing populations of people with disposable incomes that often want premium products.
Gauging how much oil exists based on how much we CHOOSE to pump isn't even starting to take reality into consideration.
Peak oil estimates may well be flawed, but peak oil is not the peak of how much oil we choose to pump (and I use the word choose loosely, since demand for oil is very inelastic). It is the point at which reserves are increasing slower than the rate at which we are pumping oil.
Human-caused CO2 is about 0.28% of the total.
You are misinformed.
The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by 38% +/- since the industrial revolution. That increase is attributable to human activity.
If positive and negative feedbacks were to balance out, this would be enough to raise the average surface temperature of the earth more than 1C.
There was a recent study that showed that less than one-third of American millionaires inherited their wealth. How have the other two-thirds achieved this status by "luck"?
No, by inflation.
Seriously, when the lottery first came out, a million dollar payout of $20,000 per year for 50 years was an amazing amount - I could have retired at 21 years of age and lived off that indefinitely. Now, a million dollars cash in hand is barely enough to retire on at age 67.
Actually glass is transparent to Infrared . . .
Modern window glass is typically formulated/coated to absorb or reflect UV and infrared as much as possible while transmitting as much visible light as desired. Not sure if it would be enough to block a signal at a particular infrared wavelength or not.
The relevant law he is being charged with, according to TFA:
A person shall not intentionally and without authorization or by exceeding valid authorization do any of the following:
Access or cause access to be made to a computer program, computer, computer system or computer network
Well, he did access a computer that he bought for his wife and that he had often used, possibly while exceeding valid authorization, but he used the password that his wife had written down in a book next to the computer, so from the provider's viewpoint, he was authorized.
to acquire, alter, damage delete or destroy property
No he didn't do any of those and didn't have intent to do those.
or otherwise use the service of a computer program, computer, computer system or computer network.
I read this as theft of services, which he did not do and he did not intend to do.
I don't think there was\ any reason to charge him under this statute.
IANAL, YMMV, etc.
Allowing access with a mere swipe of a card is the very thing that is being complained about when it comes to the maintenance workers.
From my experience, every time I've had to enter a secure area at the airport there was at least a two-level authentication, a card that I can either a swipe or hold up to a proximity reader, plus either a PIN or a fingerprint. In addition, though there wasn't always a metal detector to walk through, there was always someone to look through your bags.
One real hole in this security theater is trucks driving into the airport. They are obviously not going through a metal detector and don't get more than a cursory inspection.
Sorry to break it to you, but the Constitution doesn't give anyone rights, on US soil or not. It enumerates certain rights, it lists certain limitations and powers of the government, but, as the Declaration of Independence states, people are ". . . endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government . . . "
If you still don't believe it, see Amendment 9 : "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
I believe that "I could care less" is an idiomatic shortening of "As if I could care less".
On the other hand, I still think it's wrong. And I don't mind when someone points out that "decimate" means destroying 10% or how "begging the question" is a term of art in logic, because I'm not scared of learning things. (though you should be able to tell from my writing that I'm not a "grammar nazi")
Yeah, such a well-thought out law: Let's encourage defenseless pedestrians to step out in front of random, possibly incompetent or distracted drivers without thought and force the one with the momentum of 3,000 pounds of steel to screech to a halt.
My electricity is generated by radioactivity, you insensitive clod.
One might wonder about Thomas Edison inventing and plowing the profits into research labs
Thomas Edison did not do basic research. He did the type of development work that comments in this thread in favor of government research admit private enterprise does.
But left alone, smart intelligent people seem to discover things on their own. If you're truly smart enough to do ground breaking research... chances are you're going to do that with or without government help.
Like Isaac Newton, who invented the calculus without gov . . . wait, no, he was on government payroll most of his life. Though I must admit that in the great tradition of private enterprise, he tried to keep calculus secret for his own benefit for as long as he was able.
Bill Gates is giving his billions in wealth to charity.
And if his dollars funded research that the development of the internet relied on, you would need MS WindowsTM to access the web.
So apparently you think that knowledge only spreads if federal dollars are included.
Of course knowledge spreads with or without federal dollars. But private dollars usually try to keep what they learn secret so they will have a competitive advantage. And private dollars also tend to concentrate on things that bring immediate payback while federal dollars, when properly appropriated, provide support for basic research that would not otherwise be done because it may or may not pay off, but will benefit the common welfare if it does.
It's a matter of attitude, really. With the Democrats, you're standing knee-deep in shit. The Republicans have you in shit just as deep, but they kindly insist you lie down and rest your weary mind.
At the rate trash is produced, we have more than enough land to bury it.
How about we bury it on your land
My recycling beliefs are such that anything that can be recycled for a profit will be recycled by the free market, without my help, and the stuff that can't be recycled for a profit shouldn't be recycled.
That only holds if the costs to society, clean air, clean water supplies, depletion of natural resources, etc. are borne by the trash dumpers and the producers of replacement products - costs they do not currently bear.
Note, I'm not saying the recycling is always a good answer. Most of the time reducing wasteful production is a much better, and cheaper, option.
Tailpipe pollution of a PZEV is as much as 90% less than from other new cars.
The cars won't deliver California levels of low pollution without California's unique blend of low-sulfur gas
But even on non-California gasoline, PZEVs pollute little. Ford says the PZEV Focus puts out a pound of smog-producing pollutants in 15,000 miles on California gas, roughly two pounds on typical U.S. fuel. A non-PZEV Focus would put out 10.7 pounds in 15,000 miles, Ford calculates.
The article you linked does not actually state that the vehicles will emit air cleaner than the ambient, except "by some measures". It does also quote someone who states that a jogger will breathe better air jogging behind one of these vehicles if the radiator is treated to remove ambient ozone (so in a high ozone area, the air would be improved, apart from tailpipe emissions).
I could use extra desk space, since I often work with drawings that are 48"x36", and the monitor just doesn't cut it for that.
I'm not sure about the premise of TFA.
While there wouldn't have been a computer on your desk in the 70s there would have been a dumb terminal and monitor, or at least a typewriter, that would've taken up just as much space.
200 sq ft per worker in an office has been standard for ventilation design as long as I've been in the HVAC business (since 1980). And even if your cubicle is 60 sq ft net, there's probably near 200 sq ft gross per person considering the aisles, corridors, empty cubicles, storage files, etc.
I've worked on offices with around 100 to 150 sq ft per person as long ago as 15 to 20 years, and that's including everything in the square footage - break rooms, elevators, stairs, toilet rooms, UPS rooms, etc.
As a pro-American non-idiot who works extensively in feet and inches and fractions of inches, and in pounds force, pounds mass, gallons, etc. and has done some work in SI units, I would love it if US industry converted to SI, though I do realize that inertia means it just won't happen.
The fact is, it is not just a matter of which arbitrary units are familiar to you. The US/Imperial system requires a lot of magic numbers for conversion factors. The SI system is a lot more self-consistent, and therefore easier to use. (not just in adding fundamental measures, but also things like calculating pressure from velocity and density, etc.)
You have some reasonable points about things like months/days/hours/minutes/seconds. But Leap days are a natural result of the actual lengths of days and years; scientists and mathemeticians tend to use radians, not degrees; and adding and multiplying in feet, inches, and fractions of an inch is really a big pain in the ass.
In fact, there would be great benefit in the long run if American industry changed over to using SI units
And as I like to point out to people -- because I'm a pedantic nerd like everyone else here -- the US system is a metric system . . . see what I did there? I didn't use a capital "M" or say SI there?
And because I'm a pedantic, too, I'd like to point out that the US system of weights and measures is officially based on SI units - units like yards and pounds are legally defined by the USA government in terms of SI units.
You misunderstood.
There are 4 dimensions to the data captured by the camera:
http://images.gizmag.com/hero/3d360camera.jpg [gizmag.com]
1. The X axis on the light sensors.
2. The Y axis on the light sensors.
3. The radius of the cameras from the top of the dome.
4. The angle of the cameras from the top of the dome.
You are misunderstanding. There are only 3 dimensions to information being collected. There may be 4 dimensions needed to describe a particular array of cameras, but that does not magically create a 4D amount of information. (actually, you left out the 3 dimensions describing the direction of the focal plane and the focal length of the lens, the dimensions describing the imaging surface, the pixel arrangement, and other dimensions required to describe the camera array completely.)
Where more than two cameras image the same voxel, there is "redundant" information captured by the multiple cameras. But though the "extra" information can be used to increase the accuracy and precision of the 3D information gathered, that does not amount to an extra dimension. n*D^3 != D^4 (where n = the number of camera pairs used to stereoscopically capture 3D information from the scene.)
No, the cameras I have experience with do not replace your field of vision. My wife has one on her minivan and one definitely still needs to look out the back window. The camera is there to pick up objects below the field of view through the window, but it would be foolish to try to negotiate backing up while looking forward, though my guess is that a majority of people would not turn their necks to look back. Something like this should be studied for cost-benefits (including the costs of people who will misuse it) before it becoming recommended, let alone mandated. If there were some type of "heads-up" display for the back-up camera on or near the rear window it would be more effective. However, that would not let them use the same dash display that is used for GPS maps, radio, etc.