1% is far, far, too low a number. Surely the editors left out a zero or two. After all, according to the all-wise prognosticators at Wired, Amazon owns the internet.
In Star Trek, if the primitives got a little roudy, Piccard could just say "Warp 1, engage!" and that's the end of it. The prime directive did not extend to spacefaring species that engaged the Federation in aggression and warfare. Sticking with the analogy, the Federation interfered all over the place with the Klingons, Romulans, Cardasians, etc.
So while I think lots of people now would love to leave Afghanistan to its own devices, the fact that it could easily (again) become the launching pad for international attacks indicates that is not a wise choice.
Engines have electronic, and possibly mechanical, governors that would prevent them from overrevving to the point of blowing up. These operate independent of the ECU and throttle.
We're not talking about legality here, in the sense that these people have been charged with a crime. They are being sued by a relative of the deceased — big difference.
Well, that makes perfect sense! Do you know what a flat in London goes for these days? Twice that if you want climate control! I am thrilled to hear that the datacenter company cares so much about the well being of its employees.
Assuming that we haven't advanced much in alternative fuels by the time my car is ready for the scrapper's, I certainly would buy another hybrid then, but I think I'd go for a parallel hybrid system that can run the electric motor independently, rather than the Civic's serial system which uses the motor only as a booster for the gasoline engine.
You have your serial/parallel definitions backwards. The Honda powertrain is a parallel, because the driveshaft for the wheels receives power directly from the ICE and the electric motor. The fact that the motor and ICE are mounted on the same driveshaft is immaterial. Toyota's powertrain is more or less parallel as well, relying on complicated mechanical differentials to shuttle power among the motor/generator, ICE, and wheels.
This is in contrast to the Volt, or a diesel locomotive, which are series hybrids, where the wheels are driven only* by the electric motor, and the ICE is used to supply electric power for that.
* The Volt has some special operating modes, too, that allow the ICE to get coupled to the wheels directly, in parallel with the electric motor.
And besides, I have not seen too much evidence that CO2 does bad things.
Well, it depends on your notion of causality. Increased CO2 concentration, by itself, is a relatively minor thing. But there are many effects of increased CO2 concentration that are, in fact, bad. The two major ones that I can see are increased global temperatures leading to climate change and ocean acidification. The severity and validity of the former is still hotly debated, the latter hardly gets any attention at all.
It is basic physics that increased atmospheric CO2 concentration will result in increased ocean CO2 concentration. Again, basic, testably, verifiable chemistry shows that increased ocean CO2 results in lowered ocean pH. Lowered ocean pH means that things like shells, corals, and exoskeletons for the entire ocean food chain are harder to create and maintain, which could lead to a collapse of that entire ecosystem. BAD.
As for global climate change: that CO2 is a heat trapping gas is verifiable in any number of ways, both from observation/experiment and from first principles. It was first demonstrated over 150 years ago! The amount of heat trapped varies directly with atmospheric concentration (again, verifiable by experiment). It's pretty well documented from various independent lines of evidence that atmospheric concentration of CO2 has been increasing with human consumption of fossil fuels and deforestation. Because we keep good track of how much fossil fuel is produced and consumed, we can make a very accurate prediction of how much CO2 that consumption has produced. What is more, the isotopic concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere have been gradually skewed towards carbon-12, which makes sense given that all other isoptopes of carbon are more or less absent in fossil fuels.
Is it really such a great leap to conclude from these premises that global temperatures will increase? Or that the increase documented in the historical record (and inferred from many other lines of evidence dating back over a million years) can be attributed at least partially, if not largely, to human activity? (It seems to me that there's a greater burden on the other side to demonstrate that excess heat hasn't been trapped - where is the predicted balance of energy going?)
And if global temperatures rise, it does not take much head-scratching to envision all manner of consequences, many of them bad, a few of them good. Just as a sudden (i.e., in 100-200 years) transition to an Ice Age would be really, really bad, a sudden transition in the other direction will probably also be really, really bad.
"Believe" is a useful shorthand to use when discussing what is, at the end, a human endeavor. But since we are talking about science and scientific theories, it would be more proper to say "theories scientists have confidence in as accurate statements of the natural world."
Or, to add to your list of persistent titles, military officer ranks: Colonel, Admiral, General, etc. Even once they retire, they are still entitled to refer to themselves, or be referred to as, "General So-And-So." They can put it on their tombstone, if they choose. Although NASA is a civilian agency, it has a long history of sourcing the astronaut corps from the military, and "astronaut" is viewed as a quasi-military title.
Until there's a budget passed, senior reviews mean nothing
Given the experience of the last few years, I won't be holding my breath - Congress hasn't passed an actual budget, worthy of the name, on time, since 2009.
OK. I have RTFA, and I still don't see how this "is taking the piss." It's endoscopic surgery, as performed hundreds of times a day in the UK. The difference is that their endoscope has a 3D camera, and the monitors are 3D. I'll admit that giving docs depth perception is an improvement, it is hardly a first. Please, tell me what is so special about this surgery, especially compared to the Da Vinci, that has half the responders to this article riding high on ecstasy.
One thing working in our favor is that an Earth-impacting asteroid will likely have an orbit that brings it into regular proximity with Earth, providing sequential opportunities to intercept or otherwise influence it before it hits. A rogue body hurtling down from the Kuiper Belt and just so happening to bull's-eye Earth is highly unlikely, even for asteroid impacts. So, on one of those close approaches we have a chance of intercepting it, then spending all of the next orbit deflecting it. If you had read the article, or any credible article on the subject, you would know this.
Ok, so the tools are imperfect and can't take every possible unknown influence into account. Is that supposed to be an argument for not using them at all?
Pfff, that may be true on the east coast, but over here in BC we have war canoes armed to the teeth with rabid beaver catapults. Attack at your own risk!
So if you find a 5 million dollar yacht that has slipped loose from its moorings and is adrift, you do not get to claim it. (Which is a good thing if it is your 5 million dollar yacht which your bone-head brother-in-law borrowed but then, like an idiot, forgot to drop anchor when he took the tender ashore to go to a party, get wasted, and find with some bubble-headed island girl half his age to spend the night with.)
Impressively detailed story, sir. Speaking from experience?
He probably couldn't claim it anyway, as I suspect he's gotten an insurance payout by now. His insurer, however, might be interested in a salvage operation.
If anyone in the U.S. doesn't already know this, they damn well should (especially if they are going to start spouting about health care policy). These kinds of conclusions about More Care != Better Care and More Cost != Better Health have been floating around for nearly two decades. Behold:
http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/
The same could be said for the whole of the Milky Way! It's a disc, not a diffuse cloud (or elliptical galaxy), and so most of the stars are concentrated about the equator. That you would also find most known pulsars there is interesting, but hardly surprising.
Slashdot Mirror
1% is far, far, too low a number. Surely the editors left out a zero or two. After all, according to the all-wise prognosticators at Wired, Amazon owns the internet.
What, like they take a nose dive if the value of the euro drops?
In Star Trek, if the primitives got a little roudy, Piccard could just say "Warp 1, engage!" and that's the end of it. The prime directive did not extend to spacefaring species that engaged the Federation in aggression and warfare. Sticking with the analogy, the Federation interfered all over the place with the Klingons, Romulans, Cardasians, etc.
So while I think lots of people now would love to leave Afghanistan to its own devices, the fact that it could easily (again) become the launching pad for international attacks indicates that is not a wise choice.
Something like this:I never joke about my work.
Engines have electronic, and possibly mechanical, governors that would prevent them from overrevving to the point of blowing up. These operate independent of the ECU and throttle.
Ok, so they aren't doing any better than Verizon.
We're not talking about legality here, in the sense that these people have been charged with a crime. They are being sued by a relative of the deceased — big difference.
Well, if you're buying the cable from the Apple Store, that's your first problem.
Well, that makes perfect sense! Do you know what a flat in London goes for these days? Twice that if you want climate control! I am thrilled to hear that the datacenter company cares so much about the well being of its employees.
Filling potholes at night, when the roadway and air are cooler and there is no sun to bake out the volatiles, may not work as well.
You have your serial/parallel definitions backwards. The Honda powertrain is a parallel, because the driveshaft for the wheels receives power directly from the ICE and the electric motor. The fact that the motor and ICE are mounted on the same driveshaft is immaterial. Toyota's powertrain is more or less parallel as well, relying on complicated mechanical differentials to shuttle power among the motor/generator, ICE, and wheels.
This is in contrast to the Volt, or a diesel locomotive, which are series hybrids, where the wheels are driven only* by the electric motor, and the ICE is used to supply electric power for that.
* The Volt has some special operating modes, too, that allow the ICE to get coupled to the wheels directly, in parallel with the electric motor.
Well, it depends on your notion of causality. Increased CO2 concentration, by itself, is a relatively minor thing. But there are many effects of increased CO2 concentration that are, in fact, bad. The two major ones that I can see are increased global temperatures leading to climate change and ocean acidification. The severity and validity of the former is still hotly debated, the latter hardly gets any attention at all.
It is basic physics that increased atmospheric CO2 concentration will result in increased ocean CO2 concentration. Again, basic, testably, verifiable chemistry shows that increased ocean CO2 results in lowered ocean pH. Lowered ocean pH means that things like shells, corals, and exoskeletons for the entire ocean food chain are harder to create and maintain, which could lead to a collapse of that entire ecosystem. BAD. As for global climate change: that CO2 is a heat trapping gas is verifiable in any number of ways, both from observation/experiment and from first principles. It was first demonstrated over 150 years ago! The amount of heat trapped varies directly with atmospheric concentration (again, verifiable by experiment). It's pretty well documented from various independent lines of evidence that atmospheric concentration of CO2 has been increasing with human consumption of fossil fuels and deforestation. Because we keep good track of how much fossil fuel is produced and consumed, we can make a very accurate prediction of how much CO2 that consumption has produced. What is more, the isotopic concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere have been gradually skewed towards carbon-12, which makes sense given that all other isoptopes of carbon are more or less absent in fossil fuels.
Is it really such a great leap to conclude from these premises that global temperatures will increase? Or that the increase documented in the historical record (and inferred from many other lines of evidence dating back over a million years) can be attributed at least partially, if not largely, to human activity? (It seems to me that there's a greater burden on the other side to demonstrate that excess heat hasn't been trapped - where is the predicted balance of energy going?)
And if global temperatures rise, it does not take much head-scratching to envision all manner of consequences, many of them bad, a few of them good. Just as a sudden (i.e., in 100-200 years) transition to an Ice Age would be really, really bad, a sudden transition in the other direction will probably also be really, really bad.
"Believe" is a useful shorthand to use when discussing what is, at the end, a human endeavor. But since we are talking about science and scientific theories, it would be more proper to say "theories scientists have confidence in as accurate statements of the natural world."
Or, to add to your list of persistent titles, military officer ranks: Colonel, Admiral, General, etc. Even once they retire, they are still entitled to refer to themselves, or be referred to as, "General So-And-So." They can put it on their tombstone, if they choose. Although NASA is a civilian agency, it has a long history of sourcing the astronaut corps from the military, and "astronaut" is viewed as a quasi-military title.
Given the experience of the last few years, I won't be holding my breath - Congress hasn't passed an actual budget, worthy of the name, on time, since 2009.
OK. I have RTFA, and I still don't see how this "is taking the piss." It's endoscopic surgery, as performed hundreds of times a day in the UK. The difference is that their endoscope has a 3D camera, and the monitors are 3D. I'll admit that giving docs depth perception is an improvement, it is hardly a first. Please, tell me what is so special about this surgery, especially compared to the Da Vinci, that has half the responders to this article riding high on ecstasy.
One thing working in our favor is that an Earth-impacting asteroid will likely have an orbit that brings it into regular proximity with Earth, providing sequential opportunities to intercept or otherwise influence it before it hits. A rogue body hurtling down from the Kuiper Belt and just so happening to bull's-eye Earth is highly unlikely, even for asteroid impacts. So, on one of those close approaches we have a chance of intercepting it, then spending all of the next orbit deflecting it. If you had read the article, or any credible article on the subject, you would know this.
But in space, no one can hear your sound effects. Will it still work if there aren't any "pew pew!" sounds?
Ok, so the tools are imperfect and can't take every possible unknown influence into account. Is that supposed to be an argument for not using them at all?
If they have no internet access, no doubt they'd be underrepresented.
There's got to be a Monty Python tie-in somewhere to be had there, but all I can come up with are catapulted cows, killer bunnies, and pining for the fjords.
Impressively detailed story, sir. Speaking from experience?
He probably couldn't claim it anyway, as I suspect he's gotten an insurance payout by now. His insurer, however, might be interested in a salvage operation.
If anyone in the U.S. doesn't already know this, they damn well should (especially if they are going to start spouting about health care policy). These kinds of conclusions about More Care != Better Care and More Cost != Better Health have been floating around for nearly two decades. Behold: http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/
The same could be said for the whole of the Milky Way! It's a disc, not a diffuse cloud (or elliptical galaxy), and so most of the stars are concentrated about the equator. That you would also find most known pulsars there is interesting, but hardly surprising.