someone brought up the interesting point that if you depend on the law to be too exact, you're basically giving criminals the ability to "hack" the system.
Maybe lawmakers need to invent the concept of "law safety" to mirror safe design in engineering. One of the top things to do would be to always ask the questions "How does this law fail ?" and "How can this law be abused ?". Behind many laws, you can see the good intentions, and the complete ignorance of horribly loopholes and side effects.
each and everyone of those prisoners of war should be entitled to due process?
Sorry, but POWs don't need "due process" or "speedy trials", since they don't necessarily committed any crimes (being a member of the enemy army isn't one, nor are any lawful combat actions). Real POWs (i.e. enemy soldiers that surrendered/were captured) need Geneva convention protections (i.e. no summary executions, starving to death, torture, being held incommunicando) and are released once the war is over.
So, in your example, the one million POWs would be stuck in prison camps until the war is over, and then released (not releasing POWs after the war has ended is, in fact, a war crime). Those of the POWs who can be accused of actual war crimes (probably a very small part of that million) may then have their due process without it being a DOS on the system
Just for the record anyone who proposes that anyone in the US should not be entitled to due process is completely off the hook and very scary indeed.
So what about POWs in the US ? Sure, there aren't any right now, but in larger wars it was common to have POW camps in the US, since this effectively precludes any attempts at escaping and joining the enemy army again.
if you have air conditioning, which isn't all that common here in Germany, mostly because it just doesn't get that hot for more than a couple of days per year.
It's not a heat issue, but a humidity issue. In Germany, it's either hot and dry or warm and humid in the summer (or cold and wet. he he), all of which are bearable without AC. However, somewhere where it's hot and humid, using AC suddenly makes sense.
Your neighbours would get a little pissed off at the noise from your Volkswagen revving at 5500 revs per minute at wide open throttle...
Maybe.
If you're really planning to do this, you would of course take the engine out of the car and stick it into sound-insulated enclosure. Or at least sound-proof your garage.
Also, if we're talking about the US, your "neighbors" may well be half a mile down the road.
No. Do the math. From the post it looks like you are advocating a 12 volt system for the house.
The OP was talking about a separate 12V system for the house for all the low-power devices that usually come with their own "wall wart" power supply or run on low voltages. Cellphone chargers, WLAN routers, DVD players, all that stuff. Anything that consume triple or quadruple digit wattages would still be powered by the usual mains voltage.
Or good old gravity power: Charge by pumping water uphill, Discharge by releasing it downhill, this probably wouldnt be that great on a less than reservior scale, you'd have to reinforce your attic and make it into a huge tank, and do the same for the basement. on the other hand the same water might be able to be used as a heat store/heat sink for temperature regulation.
This method is actually used, and yes, it only makes sense if you're in the mountains and can pump water between two lakes/reservoirs.
Something similar, just with air pressure, is also in use. However, they are not using air tanks, but old mineshafts instead, since afaik the efficiency of an air pump goes down as the pressure difference increases, so you need a huge volume to store energy in a small pressure difference.
What is to prevent people from storing electricity (in batteries) during off peak hours and then selling it back during peak hours and generating a profit?
The forces of nature. That is, physics and economics. Physics because it limits the efficiency of storing energy in batteries to impractical amounts, economics because batteries that size are frickin' expensive.
Their electricity meter runs backward. Solar panels on their barn roof can often provide enough for all their electricity needs. Sometimes -- and this is the best part -- their solar setup actually pushes power back into the system.
Augh. This doesn't make sense. No, not the whole solar setup, but the phrases above. If the meter is running backward, then the system is feeding excess power to the grid. If the meter is running backward while the system isn't feeding power to the grid, it's broken or manipulated.
Anyway. This stuff has been around for years in other parts of the world (complete with, omigosh, government subsidies for the generated power - you're getting 3x the price for power you sell than for what you take out of the grid). It's news in the US ? Yawn. Wake up and smell the coffee.
I'm surprised no-one ever went so far as labelling water as fat-free.
Haven't you seen fet-free cooking oil spray ? It's main ingredient is canola oil, but it's fat free because each 0.5 gram serving contains zero grams of fat (rounded down).
Our galaxy has a diameter of about 100,000 light years and a thickness of 1,000 light years. A 10,000 light years sphere would be about 10% of the galaxy, wouldn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Let's assume for simplicity that the galaxy is two-dimensional. In that case, a circle with 100,000 ly would have 100x the area of one with 10,000 ly.
And we've only been transmitting radio signals for what... 150 years maybe ? Before that, anything other than a close-up examination of Earth would have yielded "small rocky planet with significant amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere and possibly liquid water. Biological processes are very likely". Since we cannot detect this type of planet yet, we don't know how numerous they are... if there's one like that every 1000 star systems, the aliens might have looked at others first.
They will save money, reduce carbon emissions AND save you money.
See above. These benefits are either not obvious or not immediate. The benefit of buying a dirt-cheap, inefficient incandescent bulb is both, even though it is the worse deal in the long run.
Total cost of ownership is for managers, and even just for those who can think farther than the next quarterly results.
Now, I don't claim to be a atmospheric scientific, so I don't know how important that number is, but I don't class the amount of CO2 as a lot,
If 0.005% of the atmosphere were VX, wouldn't you class that as "a lot", either ? It'd be enough to wipe every life form with a nervous system off the face of the planet.
shouldn't we be more worried about the amount of Oxygen, I mean it's really corrosive. I don't want to rust
Once we switch to a form of energy generation that releases unimaginable amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere, we should start worrying about that.
Interesting to see an article here discussing "global warming" when much of the United States (slashdot content is U.S.-centric) is in the deep-freeze.
Global warming isn't US-centric, though. And no amount of yelling or threats can make it.
It's also not just an average of area, but also an average over time. If the temperatures in the winter go down by 5 degrees and the temperatures in the summer go up by six degrees, you'll still have fscking cold winters despite an average rise in temperature.
your position is so tenuous that it must be defended with ad hominem attacks and threats,
What if the other side's insistence on their position is so strong that even the most conclusive evidence of the contrary cannot get them to even consider that they might be wrong ?
What if you have some guy who inssists that pi = 3.5, and you show him ten different proofs that pi != 3.5, and all he says after that is "Yes, but pi = 3.5" ?
What I would do is make a mental note that he's a nutjob and should never ever hold any engineering positions, because he'd be a danger to himself and others.
and then repeating it several times in several slightly different ways - as if saying something enough can make it seem true.
Actually, this technique works just fine, as history proves. Heck, it even works for quite a lot of people if they use it on themselves. I suspect this includes members of the current administration.
It's just that most politicians start out with at least a half-truth, not with a blatant and obvious lie.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe lawmakers need to invent the concept of "law safety" to mirror safe design in engineering. One of the top things to do would be to always ask the questions "How does this law fail ?" and "How can this law be abused ?". Behind many laws, you can see the good intentions, and the complete ignorance of horribly loopholes and side effects.
Sorry, but POWs don't need "due process" or "speedy trials", since they don't necessarily committed any crimes (being a member of the enemy army isn't one, nor are any lawful combat actions). Real POWs (i.e. enemy soldiers that surrendered/were captured) need Geneva convention protections (i.e. no summary executions, starving to death, torture, being held incommunicando) and are released once the war is over.
So, in your example, the one million POWs would be stuck in prison camps until the war is over, and then released (not releasing POWs after the war has ended is, in fact, a war crime). Those of the POWs who can be accused of actual war crimes (probably a very small part of that million) may then have their due process without it being a DOS on the system
Just for the record anyone who proposes that anyone in the US should not be entitled to due process is completely off the hook and very scary indeed.
So what about POWs in the US ? Sure, there aren't any right now, but in larger wars it was common to have POW camps in the US, since this effectively precludes any attempts at escaping and joining the enemy army again.
Ohhhh ! Can it send an internet, too ?
It's not a heat issue, but a humidity issue. In Germany, it's either hot and dry or warm and humid in the summer (or cold and wet. he he), all of which are bearable without AC. However, somewhere where it's hot and humid, using AC suddenly makes sense.
A voltage regulator can easily be put on the PCB of the device. Making 5V DC out of 12V DC isn't as much of a deal as making 5V DC out of 120V AC.
Assuming that the two wall warts are both switching power supplies
If you already have low-voltage DC, a switching power supply isn't necessary. A simple voltage regulator will do.
Maybe.
If you're really planning to do this, you would of course take the engine out of the car and stick it into sound-insulated enclosure. Or at least sound-proof your garage.
Also, if we're talking about the US, your "neighbors" may well be half a mile down the road.
No. Do the math. From the post it looks like you are advocating a 12 volt system for the house.
The OP was talking about a separate 12V system for the house for all the low-power devices that usually come with their own "wall wart" power supply or run on low voltages. Cellphone chargers, WLAN routers, DVD players, all that stuff. Anything that consume triple or quadruple digit wattages would still be powered by the usual mains voltage.
This method is actually used, and yes, it only makes sense if you're in the mountains and can pump water between two lakes/reservoirs.
Something similar, just with air pressure, is also in use. However, they are not using air tanks, but old mineshafts instead, since afaik the efficiency of an air pump goes down as the pressure difference increases, so you need a huge volume to store energy in a small pressure difference.
So you're not allowed to park a car on a residential property ?
A car engine, if connected to a generator, could do it.
The forces of nature. That is, physics and economics. Physics because it limits the efficiency of storing energy in batteries to impractical amounts, economics because batteries that size are frickin' expensive.
Augh. This doesn't make sense. No, not the whole solar setup, but the phrases above. If the meter is running backward, then the system is feeding excess power to the grid. If the meter is running backward while the system isn't feeding power to the grid, it's broken or manipulated.
Anyway. This stuff has been around for years in other parts of the world (complete with, omigosh, government subsidies for the generated power - you're getting 3x the price for power you sell than for what you take out of the grid). It's news in the US ? Yawn. Wake up and smell the coffee.
... that is, with yeast in it and non-pasteurized.
I'm surprised no-one ever went so far as labelling water as fat-free.
Haven't you seen fet-free cooking oil spray ? It's main ingredient is canola oil, but it's fat free because each 0.5 gram serving contains zero grams of fat (rounded down).
Tea or malt coffee (I'm trying to reduce my caffeine intake, plus there's free coffee at work)
Orange juice
Toast with jam, or cereal
Whoa, I didn't know that these things made 0.1c
Wait
Anyone remember Star Control II ?
"We come in peace." ... 2 seconds later, the Slylandro probe starts trying to disassemble your spaceship and use it as raw materials.
And we've only been transmitting radio signals for what ... 150 years maybe ? Before that, anything other than a close-up examination of Earth would have yielded "small rocky planet with significant amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere and possibly liquid water. Biological processes are very likely". Since we cannot detect this type of planet yet, we don't know how numerous they are ... if there's one like that every 1000 star systems, the aliens might have looked at others first.
The Death Star for me, please. And weld some sort of grate over that exhaust port.
See above. These benefits are either not obvious or not immediate. The benefit of buying a dirt-cheap, inefficient incandescent bulb is both, even though it is the worse deal in the long run.
Total cost of ownership is for managers, and even just for those who can think farther than the next quarterly results.
Just what we need. More junk clogging up our orbit.
I'll translate it for you (it's written in MyWalletFirst-ese):
"Colossal waste" - "It requires spending money with no short term, obvious returns."
"scarce resources" - "money".
There.
If 0.005% of the atmosphere were VX, wouldn't you class that as "a lot", either ? It'd be enough to wipe every life form with a nervous system off the face of the planet.
shouldn't we be more worried about the amount of Oxygen, I mean it's really corrosive. I don't want to rust
Once we switch to a form of energy generation that releases unimaginable amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere, we should start worrying about that.
Global warming isn't US-centric, though. And no amount of yelling or threats can make it.
It's also not just an average of area, but also an average over time. If the temperatures in the winter go down by 5 degrees and the temperatures in the summer go up by six degrees, you'll still have fscking cold winters despite an average rise in temperature.
What if the other side's insistence on their position is so strong that even the most conclusive evidence of the contrary cannot get them to even consider that they might be wrong ?
What if you have some guy who inssists that pi = 3.5, and you show him ten different proofs that pi != 3.5, and all he says after that is "Yes, but pi = 3.5" ?
What I would do is make a mental note that he's a nutjob and should never ever hold any engineering positions, because he'd be a danger to himself and others.
Actually, this technique works just fine, as history proves. Heck, it even works for quite a lot of people if they use it on themselves. I suspect this includes members of the current administration.
It's just that most politicians start out with at least a half-truth, not with a blatant and obvious lie.