Has plumbing really become dependent on electronic control systems? Or does this phenomenon somehow affect gravity too?
Rivers will still flow, if that's what you are talking about. And if you have an elevated storage tank or around your house, you'll be alright for a while. But municipal water systems require electrical power to clean water, pressurize the pipe network, operate distribution valves, and treat sewage. Out in the boonies most folks have a well, which generally requires electricity, too.
The reason cited in the summary, the shift in a camera being a specialized piece of equipment to a more prosaic electronic gadget, is probably one of the weakest. Serious protographers, film and digital, have always had, and continue to have, a very...uhhh...special relationship to their kit. Casual photographers always regarded cameras as just a do-hickie: a means to an end.
The big reason, the one that will be cited in every case study on disruptive technology for the next couple of decades, is that even though Kodak invented the digital camera, they couldn't get past the notion of it cannibalizing their film and development business until it was too late. Probably the #2 reason that will be cited is the consumer's shifting relationship to images: the physical artifact, the print, became much less important in comparison to an image that could be emailed to 10,000 people in an instant practically for free. Or to be able to carry around 10,000 images in your pocket. What people wanted pictures for, and where/when/how they wanted to view them, moved away from the physical artifact with alarming speed.
A) electricity does not always propagate at the full speed of light.
The speed of light in an optical fiber is about 60-70% of c. This can be divined from fiber's refractive index (1.50). Or you could just Google it.
So light travels at about 200,000,000 m/s in an optical fiber. That would make the propagation time to encircle the equator (40,000,000 m) about 200 ms. NYC to Beijing (11,000 km most directly, 14,000 km westerly) around 50-75 ms each way. Overall, propagation time in long-haul situations is still about 1/2 the total latency. But there are lots of situations that use fiber in the short- and medium-haul, and oftentimes several hops along the way, where the propagation time is negligible compared to the time lost in switching.
The usual example is to pump water back up a reservoir that's being used for electricity generation. So when it falls down again tomorrow, you can get useful energy from it again at the right time and only lose a percentage of the energy to keep pumping it back up there until you need it
Unfortunately, the opportunities for pumped hydro storage, like hydroelectricity in general, are pretty small in Britain.
Ordinarily it probably would not matter: 30 m of heavy gauge copper is usually a non-issue for supplying electricity. However, when you are trying to transfer many kilowatts of power from the charger to the battery pack, the extra resistance and inductance of a 30-m cable is significant. The charger has no way to know that the extra resistance is due to a cable - it may interpret that as extra resistance in the battery itself - a sign that it is reaching end of life. Extension cords are generally unsafe to begin with.
Well technically towing an electric vehicle, missing a clutch, would make it a generator, which could possibly damage the battery
that depends entirely on the architecture of the motor, motor drive, and battery management circuits. The Tesla roadster, for instance, uses an AC induction motor, which has no permanent magnets in it. Unless the stator is energized and properly commutated, backdriving the wheels will not generate any power. Even in the case of a DC motor, backdriving the wheels will generate power, but if the motor drive is disabled, that power won't backfeed onto the power bus. Even then, if the battery has discharged so deeply that it has disconnected itself internally, it won't accept power unless it first communicates with a compatible charger.
the Tesla vehicles already take advantage of "becoming a generator" as that is part of the "regenerative braking system" used in the vehicle
Regenerative braking requires some pretty sophisticated power electronics, controls, and software. The Tesla's motor is an AC induction motor. (The AC induction motor was invented by Nikola Tesla.) An AC induction motor has copper coils for both the rotor and the stator. This is different from a DC motor (brushed or brushless) where (usually) the rotor has permanent magnets on it.
Backdriving an induction motor will result in no power generation unless the stator is energized. Even then, the associated power electronics have to commutate which phase of the stator is energized in sync with the spinning rotor. In other words, you need at least some external (i.e., battery) power in order to regenerate - this is true of all induction generators. Without the stator being energized, you're just spinning one set of copper coils past another set (this is different from a DC motor, where the rotor has permanent magnets, which will induce current in the copper coils).
So the Tesla cannot be "jumpstarted" by towing it or rolling down a hill if the battery has discharged so deeply that it has disabled itself.
is the fact that most new cars are very difficult for the owner to repair themselves, given that many are highly integrated with computer systems
At the same time, you can get about twice the power or torque from an engine of the same displacement, which is also smaller in volume and drastically lighter. Fuel economy (by whatever measure you prefer) is also way up over a broader range of real-world conditions. Cars are safer to drive, more robust against dumbass drivers, and will protect you far better in accidents. I'm not trying to say whether it has all been worth it (that's a different conversation), but it isn't like reparability has been sacrificed for nothing in return.
While fishing around in my pile of change a while back, I came across a quarter that didn't sound quite right. The sound of it clattering on the table seemed a little weird, and my ear picked up on it right away. On closer inspection I saw that it was stamped 1964. Some research revealed that the reason it sounded different was because it was actually 90% silver. 1964 was the last year they did that. The following year they switched to a nickel-copper-nickel sandwich construction still in use today (visible when you look at the edge). By 1964 one quarter used more than $0.25 worth of silver. Today the silver content of that quarter is a bit more than $30 (prices fluctuate, but they are presently very high). I gather that these older silver quarters are a favorite of hobby jewelers, because it is fun to make jewelry from money. And, as Make magazine tells us, sometimes it's cheaper to make something out of real money than it is to buy.
I really can't blame Sony for doing such a thing, even when it's kind of bad taste
While it may be the job of a company, as an entity, to make money, the company is made of individuals that still ought to be directed by some semblance of common decency. But group thinking can have a powerful effect on the weak-minded, so I suppose one could have seen this coming.
So I'll still blame them, as individuals, for being cold-hearted assholes. I just won't be surprised that, collectively, they were just doing their job for the company.
If this were a one-doctor rural town, where being "fired" by a physician meant you had no access to primary care, you might have a point. But this is Connecticut, where there are about a dozen major hospitals, 10,000 pediatricians, and free clinics besides. Being booted by one physician does not lower their access to preventative medicine one iota.
Can a doctor "fire" a patient for continuing to smoke?
For continuing to drink? How are we defining "drink?"
For continuing to overeat?
For continuing to eat lots of red meat? Fried food? Salt?
For not being on the caveman diet?
Nah, they won't go that far: they'd put themselves out of work.
If they're making an offer that cannot be refused without an adverse threat, such as this one, it's not voluntary
What is this, The Godfather? What "adverse threat" (i.e., harm) is the doctor putting on the patient? And is that any greater or lesser than the threat the patient is putting on themselves. Pediatricians aren't putting severed horse heads in their anti-vax patients' beds. They are simply ending a relationship that is a liability to their practice, and trying to send a forceful message to their patients that they are (in the doctor's opinion) making a big mistake. If the pediatrician hasn't been able to persuade the parent that vaccines are a good idea and that Jenny McCarthy is a moron, then it is probably for the best for both parties to go their separate ways. It is not like patients are without options: "firing" is not a universal practice, nor one endorsed by the profession as a whole; there are always other doctors, and probably some more sympathetic to their vaccine concerns. We aren't talking about acute cases, either: if an emergency shows up, the doctor will still care for them.
This is not an uncommon thing among professionals: here is my advice, take it or leave it, but if you leave it, don't expect me to clean up your stupidity.
Which could be a more serious and useful statement than just a crude one-off remark. We are talking about TSA agents abusing their image-taking capabilities. I've been told that the machines have been modified to not store images, but is that verified? On the other hand, annecdotes and allegations are, well, just that, at least until more solid information is available.
Correction: it is congress' job to pass the budget by way of authorization bills; it is largely the job of the executive branch to actually spend the allocated money.
letting go of people's control on something made with people's own money
I might grouse about that, too. But then I just need to remember the alternative: that it sits up there, defunct, in orbit forever (it's in a 700-km orbit), or gets incinerated in a controlled de-orbit. In either case, it's lost to us. Better someone be able to make use of it.
If I could provide input to such decisions, I would advocate that a condition of the arrangement be that the public have free and unfettered access to the data (summary, at least, available online; raw data archive upon request), and that any publications using such data automatically enter the public domain. Considering that it is going to an academic institution, some of that will happen as a matter of course, but not all.
Slashdot Mirror
I can see it now in their boardroom:
The Board: "Gahh! The threat! The Threat! It is so opaque and solid! What will we do?"
VP for Regulatory Affairs: "I know! Let's diffuse it!"
VP for Queen's English: "Wait, don't you mean 'defuse?' "
CEO: "Quiet, peon! I agree; let's diffuse the threat!"
The Board: "Yaaaay! More bonuses!"
Ya, well, I'm gonna go build my own election system. With blackjack! And hookers!
In fact, forget the election system.
Well, gosh, I guess that's alright then. I mean, who in this day and age needs the power distribution and telecom networks.
Rivers will still flow, if that's what you are talking about. And if you have an elevated storage tank or around your house, you'll be alright for a while. But municipal water systems require electrical power to clean water, pressurize the pipe network, operate distribution valves, and treat sewage. Out in the boonies most folks have a well, which generally requires electricity, too.
Calling on Democrats to come out and vote in the GOP primary? Might be a trick, but not something to get worked up over.
Making robocalls, to anyone, ooooh now that's dirty. That deserves a beatin'
Mokery? Is that anything like mopery?
The reason cited in the summary, the shift in a camera being a specialized piece of equipment to a more prosaic electronic gadget, is probably one of the weakest. Serious protographers, film and digital, have always had, and continue to have, a very...uhhh...special relationship to their kit. Casual photographers always regarded cameras as just a do-hickie: a means to an end.
The big reason, the one that will be cited in every case study on disruptive technology for the next couple of decades, is that even though Kodak invented the digital camera, they couldn't get past the notion of it cannibalizing their film and development business until it was too late. Probably the #2 reason that will be cited is the consumer's shifting relationship to images: the physical artifact, the print, became much less important in comparison to an image that could be emailed to 10,000 people in an instant practically for free. Or to be able to carry around 10,000 images in your pocket. What people wanted pictures for, and where/when/how they wanted to view them, moved away from the physical artifact with alarming speed.
The speed of light in an optical fiber is about 60-70% of c. This can be divined from fiber's refractive index (1.50). Or you could just Google it.
So light travels at about 200,000,000 m/s in an optical fiber. That would make the propagation time to encircle the equator (40,000,000 m) about 200 ms. NYC to Beijing (11,000 km most directly, 14,000 km westerly) around 50-75 ms each way. Overall, propagation time in long-haul situations is still about 1/2 the total latency. But there are lots of situations that use fiber in the short- and medium-haul, and oftentimes several hops along the way, where the propagation time is negligible compared to the time lost in switching.
Unfortunately, the opportunities for pumped hydro storage, like hydroelectricity in general, are pretty small in Britain.
Ordinarily it probably would not matter: 30 m of heavy gauge copper is usually a non-issue for supplying electricity. However, when you are trying to transfer many kilowatts of power from the charger to the battery pack, the extra resistance and inductance of a 30-m cable is significant. The charger has no way to know that the extra resistance is due to a cable - it may interpret that as extra resistance in the battery itself - a sign that it is reaching end of life. Extension cords are generally unsafe to begin with.
that depends entirely on the architecture of the motor, motor drive, and battery management circuits. The Tesla roadster, for instance, uses an AC induction motor, which has no permanent magnets in it. Unless the stator is energized and properly commutated, backdriving the wheels will not generate any power. Even in the case of a DC motor, backdriving the wheels will generate power, but if the motor drive is disabled, that power won't backfeed onto the power bus. Even then, if the battery has discharged so deeply that it has disconnected itself internally, it won't accept power unless it first communicates with a compatible charger.
Regenerative braking requires some pretty sophisticated power electronics, controls, and software. The Tesla's motor is an AC induction motor. (The AC induction motor was invented by Nikola Tesla.) An AC induction motor has copper coils for both the rotor and the stator. This is different from a DC motor (brushed or brushless) where (usually) the rotor has permanent magnets on it.
Backdriving an induction motor will result in no power generation unless the stator is energized. Even then, the associated power electronics have to commutate which phase of the stator is energized in sync with the spinning rotor. In other words, you need at least some external (i.e., battery) power in order to regenerate - this is true of all induction generators. Without the stator being energized, you're just spinning one set of copper coils past another set (this is different from a DC motor, where the rotor has permanent magnets, which will induce current in the copper coils).
So the Tesla cannot be "jumpstarted" by towing it or rolling down a hill if the battery has discharged so deeply that it has disabled itself.
What, like this one?
At the same time, you can get about twice the power or torque from an engine of the same displacement, which is also smaller in volume and drastically lighter. Fuel economy (by whatever measure you prefer) is also way up over a broader range of real-world conditions. Cars are safer to drive, more robust against dumbass drivers, and will protect you far better in accidents. I'm not trying to say whether it has all been worth it (that's a different conversation), but it isn't like reparability has been sacrificed for nothing in return.
My mistake: I was thinking of the price per ounce (about $30 presently). The silver quarter had about 0.19 troy oz in it, so your $6 is correct.
While fishing around in my pile of change a while back, I came across a quarter that didn't sound quite right. The sound of it clattering on the table seemed a little weird, and my ear picked up on it right away. On closer inspection I saw that it was stamped 1964. Some research revealed that the reason it sounded different was because it was actually 90% silver. 1964 was the last year they did that. The following year they switched to a nickel-copper-nickel sandwich construction still in use today (visible when you look at the edge). By 1964 one quarter used more than $0.25 worth of silver. Today the silver content of that quarter is a bit more than $30 (prices fluctuate, but they are presently very high). I gather that these older silver quarters are a favorite of hobby jewelers, because it is fun to make jewelry from money. And, as Make magazine tells us, sometimes it's cheaper to make something out of real money than it is to buy.
Nah, you can still tell her, just don't expect a response.
I was wondering if perhaps the placement of extra periods in that comment was some sort of steganographic means of transmitting secret information.
While it may be the job of a company, as an entity, to make money, the company is made of individuals that still ought to be directed by some semblance of common decency. But group thinking can have a powerful effect on the weak-minded, so I suppose one could have seen this coming.
So I'll still blame them, as individuals, for being cold-hearted assholes. I just won't be surprised that, collectively, they were just doing their job for the company.
If this were a one-doctor rural town, where being "fired" by a physician meant you had no access to primary care, you might have a point. But this is Connecticut, where there are about a dozen major hospitals, 10,000 pediatricians, and free clinics besides. Being booted by one physician does not lower their access to preventative medicine one iota.
Nah, they won't go that far: they'd put themselves out of work.
What is this, The Godfather? What "adverse threat" (i.e., harm) is the doctor putting on the patient? And is that any greater or lesser than the threat the patient is putting on themselves. Pediatricians aren't putting severed horse heads in their anti-vax patients' beds. They are simply ending a relationship that is a liability to their practice, and trying to send a forceful message to their patients that they are (in the doctor's opinion) making a big mistake. If the pediatrician hasn't been able to persuade the parent that vaccines are a good idea and that Jenny McCarthy is a moron, then it is probably for the best for both parties to go their separate ways. It is not like patients are without options: "firing" is not a universal practice, nor one endorsed by the profession as a whole; there are always other doctors, and probably some more sympathetic to their vaccine concerns. We aren't talking about acute cases, either: if an emergency shows up, the doctor will still care for them.
This is not an uncommon thing among professionals: here is my advice, take it or leave it, but if you leave it, don't expect me to clean up your stupidity.
Pics or it didn't happen.
[ducks under table]
Which could be a more serious and useful statement than just a crude one-off remark. We are talking about TSA agents abusing their image-taking capabilities. I've been told that the machines have been modified to not store images, but is that verified? On the other hand, annecdotes and allegations are, well, just that, at least until more solid information is available.
Correction: it is congress' job to pass the budget by way of authorization bills; it is largely the job of the executive branch to actually spend the allocated money.
I might grouse about that, too. But then I just need to remember the alternative: that it sits up there, defunct, in orbit forever (it's in a 700-km orbit), or gets incinerated in a controlled de-orbit. In either case, it's lost to us. Better someone be able to make use of it.
If I could provide input to such decisions, I would advocate that a condition of the arrangement be that the public have free and unfettered access to the data (summary, at least, available online; raw data archive upon request), and that any publications using such data automatically enter the public domain. Considering that it is going to an academic institution, some of that will happen as a matter of course, but not all.