Currently, solar panel technology only gets about 5-6% efficiency. At that amount, even if you covered the entire United States with solar panels from east coast to west coast...that still wouldn't be enough to fulfill our energy needs. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panel
With a conversion efficiency of about 20%, one can expect to obtain between 20 and 50 watts per square meter of solar cell. The unpopulated Sahara desert is over 9 million km, with less cloud cover and better solar angle, giving closer to 83 MW/km, or 750 terawatts total. The Earth's current electrical energy consumption is near 1.6 TW, and total energy is around 14 TW at any given moment (including oil, gas, coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric power).
They make these things you can stick on your roof that will generate electriciy for you from sunlight! What would the savings be if every office park roof was covered in solar panels? Not just $$$ but energy resources as well(oil,coal,urainium,etc)
Since we only ever get two candidate choices, most lobbies just buy both. When I can vote for "None of the Above" and get a new election with new candidates, then we might actually get leaders worth following.
"here in Canada we were really, really surprised to see you guys re-elect dubya." Yeah, we were too, both times we elected him. Enough so that we requested UN oversight of the 2004 elections. http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/press108/pr04070 2.htm But that somehow never happened... stupid terrorists.
The UK government has proposed a number of national id cards, each being shot down.
There is an important distinction already, Americans are watching their much vaunted independence erode daily. We seem to be living up to the lesser expectations of those who built up this independence:
"That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly."
-- Thomas Paine "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become instruments of tyranny at home."
-- James Madison "The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without."
-- President Dwight Eisenhower
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin
"Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won you earn it and win it in every generation."
-- Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)
"In 1997, 20 officials in the federal government were empowered to wield the top secret stamp. Now [2006] there are 1,300".
-- Paul McMasters " If you don't know what your government is doing, you don't live in a democracy."
--Jane Anne Morris
I'm not sure robotic legs are going to fit through doorways any better than most wheelchairs do. But with the variety of designs that have been pointed out in other posts we can't be too far from fully robotic legs that are on a human scale.
How can the public check the government that was meant to serve them, to protect them, if they have no idea what the government is even doing.
Given the sheer physical volume of the US Constitution and amendments, it is already unaccessible to most citizens. We are occasionally told that a goverment act is justified under this code or that special power, but who really knows any more? And since there currently seem to be no real penilties even if something is illegal who cares?
We probably generate too much IR interference from body heat. Ointments like IcyHot also make a big difference to IR cameras. Any projected grid strong enough to punch through that interference would be noticably warm.
"It's called "crime". You don't need to be a psych major to understand it. It's the use of force or fraud to get what you want. "Normal" people use non-coercive means to get what they want,"
Have you tried not paying your taxes when the elected official fails to deliever what they promised?
"Thus, he learns that theft and lying are an acceptable means of getting what you want."
I live in New York City, we have a 311 service for everything nonemergency you need to notify the city about. It has only been around for a few years but given it's success I'm suprised most munipalities haven't implemented the same service.
Open source software is great, thank you for sharing the apps you write. When you are writing them, you know that you are doing so for your own enjoyment and the common good, you don't expect to get paid. Much like a talented musician practicing in a park. When a commercial album is produced them people working on it expect to get paid, much like you expect to get paid for your efforts at your job. The MPAA and RIAA might be bloated dinosaurs. If you don't want to support them, fine. Support independent labels and indie films. Don't try to use that as some excuse to not pay for things. It is the same as if your employers said "We know that some of the programs you have written are freely shared, so we have decided that you have just freely shared everything you have written in the last month, thanks. Oh you want paid? But you were just gonna go program at home, it's not like you lost anything." The deep down fact of the matter is that when you take a "free" copy of something intended to sold, you are stealing. The GP was advocating piracy, not back-ups or the ability skip previews. Fair-use is being eroded because it is being abused on the users end.
So by your argument, anyone that makes a free copy of some code you may have written is not stealing from you. Hmmm,I wonder how the programmers here on/. would feel knowing that their "jobs" are actually pro bono shareware.
prediliction for harsh and preemptive treatment of everyone they percieve as threats masquerades as strength, when in reality it's more like the weakness of a frightened child,
How is this different from the actions of a bully again?
Improved anti-depressant treatments are nice and all, but how about a treatment for the source of the problem: the bully. There are enough cases of kids picked on past the breaking point, that we should learn to focus on treating the cause not the symptoms of social abuse. Give the drugs to the jerks who feel the need to dominate and humliate.
if I didn't know a few bosses just like him that managed things so poorly there was plenty of downtime.
Bloomberg actually manages things quite well, he is excellent at running a bussiness, even the guy who got fired thinks so. It was just as likely the presence of the Photographer that caused the overreaction. Imagine the media heyday if the mayor is on the front page shaking the hand of a city employee and the game screen showed up in the photo. I hope that guy was just a temporary example and they hire him right back though.
When we know which companies are responsible, redirect drivers education classes to their parking lots, practice parallel parking near the most overpriced cars.
I'm not a huge FPS gamer, but sniping people as they try to get to a health pack (with the big red cross) seems like a plausible stradegy. Translate this into Real Life and you have folks blowing away the medics first. It doesn't seem like much of a stretch if you're the guy on a battlefield wearing a bright red cross on his back.
I suppose you are referring to this http://www.infidels.org/secular_web/feature/1999/w edge.html Yes, it is possiable that the Discovery Institute is an evil anti-science conspiracy. They have almost certainly received alot of money from religious/political organisations. The question of,"Is the world around us showing evidence of an intentional Creator" is alot older than the Discovery Institute, or the scientific method. The questions raised by the Discovery Institute are no less valid becuase of their funding, or long term intentions. Why is it so easy to accept the 9 extra spacial dimensions in super-string theory that we can't see or test for, and so difficult to accept a sentience that we can't see or test for? I'm not trying to say "I have all the answers", I'm trying to say "let's not ignore the questions we don't like" Isn't it the tough uncomfortable questions that have always lead to sciences greatest advances? How is that anti-science?
Slashdot Mirror
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panel
They make these things you can stick on your roof that will generate electriciy for you from sunlight! What would the savings be if every office park roof was covered in solar panels? Not just $$$ but energy resources as well(oil,coal,urainium,etc)
Umm, how about a timer that turns the unit into "storage mode" at 3AM? why does this require a program?
Since we only ever get two candidate choices, most lobbies just buy both. When I can vote for "None of the Above" and get a new election with new candidates, then we might actually get leaders worth following.
Actually we are a oligarchy. Only those that belong to one of two elite clubs can ever attain political power beyond the local level.
"here in Canada we were really, really surprised to see you guys re-elect dubya."0 2.htm
Yeah, we were too, both times we elected him. Enough so that we requested UN oversight of the 2004 elections.
http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/press108/pr0407
But that somehow never happened... stupid terrorists.
"That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly." -- Thomas Paine
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become instruments of tyranny at home." -- James Madison
"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without." -- President Dwight Eisenhower
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin
"Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won you earn it and win it in every generation." -- Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)
"In 1997, 20 officials in the federal government were empowered to wield the top secret stamp. Now [2006] there are 1,300". -- Paul McMasters
" If you don't know what your government is doing, you don't live in a democracy." --Jane Anne Morris
I'm not sure robotic legs are going to fit through doorways any better than most wheelchairs do. But with the variety of designs that have been pointed out in other posts we can't be too far from fully robotic legs that are on a human scale.
We probably generate too much IR interference from body heat. Ointments like IcyHot also make a big difference to IR cameras. Any projected grid strong enough to punch through that interference would be noticably warm.
The pen is not mightier than the sword. Power flows from the barrel of a gun.
I live in New York City, we have a 311 service for everything nonemergency you need to notify the city about. It has only been around for a few years but given it's success I'm suprised most munipalities haven't implemented the same service.
I wonder if you could resell it as "Art" or some other catagory that wasn't electronics. Maybe an audio memorablia shop?
They are stealing product. There is also a huge difference between rightfully yours and I-can't-afford-it-but-I-want-it-so-I'll-just-take- it.
Open source software is great, thank you for sharing the apps you write. When you are writing them, you know that you are doing so for your own enjoyment and the common good, you don't expect to get paid. Much like a talented musician practicing in a park. When a commercial album is produced them people working on it expect to get paid, much like you expect to get paid for your efforts at your job. The MPAA and RIAA might be bloated dinosaurs. If you don't want to support them, fine. Support independent labels and indie films. Don't try to use that as some excuse to not pay for things. It is the same as if your employers said "We know that some of the programs you have written are freely shared, so we have decided that you have just freely shared everything you have written in the last month, thanks. Oh you want paid? But you were just gonna go program at home, it's not like you lost anything." The deep down fact of the matter is that when you take a "free" copy of something intended to sold, you are stealing. The GP was advocating piracy, not back-ups or the ability skip previews. Fair-use is being eroded because it is being abused on the users end.
So by your argument, anyone that makes a free copy of some code you may have written is not stealing from you. Hmmm,I wonder how the programmers here on /. would feel knowing that their "jobs" are actually pro bono shareware.
There is a kind of feedback loop going on though. Socially awkward = fewer friends = easier target = more socially awkward, etc.
Improved anti-depressant treatments are nice and all, but how about a treatment for the source of the problem: the bully. There are enough cases of kids picked on past the breaking point, that we should learn to focus on treating the cause not the symptoms of social abuse. Give the drugs to the jerks who feel the need to dominate and humliate.
When we know which companies are responsible, redirect drivers education classes to their parking lots, practice parallel parking near the most overpriced cars.
Fat Paycheck = Hot Chick
I'm not a huge FPS gamer, but sniping people as they try to get to a health pack (with the big red cross) seems like a plausible stradegy. Translate this into Real Life and you have folks blowing away the medics first. It doesn't seem like much of a stretch if you're the guy on a battlefield wearing a bright red cross on his back.
I suppose you are referring to this http://www.infidels.org/secular_web/feature/1999/w edge.html Yes, it is possiable that the Discovery Institute is an evil anti-science conspiracy. They have almost certainly received alot of money from religious/political organisations. The question of,"Is the world around us showing evidence of an intentional Creator" is alot older than the Discovery Institute, or the scientific method. The questions raised by the Discovery Institute are no less valid becuase of their funding, or long term intentions. Why is it so easy to accept the 9 extra spacial dimensions in super-string theory that we can't see or test for, and so difficult to accept a sentience that we can't see or test for? I'm not trying to say "I have all the answers", I'm trying to say "let's not ignore the questions we don't like" Isn't it the tough uncomfortable questions that have always lead to sciences greatest advances? How is that anti-science?