The French have a confused view of the US. On the one hand they like the style of some American popular culture and, contrary to what many people think, they were rather grateful to be liberated in WW2 (even now it's not generally appreciated that the Germans were progressively starving many of the French to death.) On the other hand, they still have a big thing about Francophone culture, and they absolutely adore standards (as a Frenchwoman once said to me at a conference, "My husband is a count, but I am in charge of electrical standards."), probably because Napolean was keen on them.
So France is actually a pretty good place to promote ODF. It checks all the boxes. It's a standard. Any particular Francophone bits of it, the French government can influence by providing support. It is not anti-American but it is independent of America. Work on French support for ODF brings together France, Belgium, the doms and toms, Canada and Francophone Africa - so it is another small step in building links in the French speaking world.
And ODF should be relatively easy to sell to the bureaucracy. Gentlemen and ladies, this is a French solution to an international problem. No longer will we bound by the constraints of the Anglo-Saxons...
The only negative is that, in accordance with the immutable rules of French abbreviations, they will want to call it FDO.
It specifies an approximate period in which transistor packing density doubles. Getting to 80 processors on a die is about size and yield as well as packing density. The cost of die size depends on economies of scale among other things, and the increased demand for silicon (especially large consumers like solar panels) must help drive the price down.
Like many laws, people mention Moore's without actually knowing what it says.
No, I do think they confirm it. They demonstrate that people who, thirty years ago, would have a grasp of basic physics, now do not. Obviously a poll of physicists and engineers would not tell you that, nor would a poll of arts graduates. But if people who are interested in technology no longer understand quite basic physics and engineering concepts, that is a pointer.
That we do have a real crisis in physics education. (Here in the UK, having had to pay bonuses to attract maths teachers, the Government is now making similar efforts with physics - rather late.)
Reading the responses, there is frequently a lack of understanding of just how big this stuff is, just what it takes to produce things like wakefield accelerators and the difference between instantaneous power in watts and available energy.
Which reminds me of a true story. One company I worked for, the MD (aka CEO) decided we had to have a carbon dioxide laser to replace the ruby laser in one of our products. He talked to an academic researcher and asked how big the laser would need to be. The researcher said 10cm long and was promptly hired.
Six months later he had a prototype. The laser was a ceramic tube with fittings on a stand, genuinely about 150mm long with the fittings. Behind it was a room full of high voltage equipment, giant capacitors, carbon dioxide cylinders, extractor fans and, in fact, a water cooling system connected to a pressure main.
It took the MD a litle time to realise that this stuff was all part of making the laser go. He then asked when it would all be reduced in size to fit into a hand held box. The researcher's response? "You never told me you wanted the electrics to go in a box. You just said you wanted a four inch long laser."
" The ability of U.S. ground troops to safely navigate the gauntlet of the urban battlefield " and I really would like to know why US ground troops are walking around inside heavy leather or metal gloves inside towns. And which piece of military hardware was used to gratuitously split that infinitive. Ouch.
When you say that this company is all about drones, obviously the marketing department is intended.
it isn't necessarily as stupid as all that. A mat with tactile pads that fitted the projection would actually be quite sensible for doing a lot of typing. Because there would be no real keys in the mat it could be cheap, roll up or fold up, and would be reliable (no wires.) You could alss leave mats in the office and at home, avoiding the problems of using multiple subtly different keyboards without having to carry one around (I use 5 and it often causes momentary mental block.)
In fact, this is actually quite a clever idea. It's almost a pity it is now in the public domain.
A spy satellite is a near object, Mars isn't. A spy satellite was made by someone on Earth for the exact purpose of invading the privacy of someone else on Earth not subject to the same laws as the manufacturer, and it seems to me that the someone else has the right to disable it with proportionate force at the time when it is trying to invade their privacy. Mars is not a human manufactured object...
Of course, reading my own definition, this would justify Afghans and Iraqis seeking to expel the Americans and the British, just as it justified the French Resistance in WW2, and the American Colonists in the 1770s.
At what point is the present US administration going to face up the fact that it is the self-appointed global hegemon and that five and a half billion people disagree with that?
The current issue is about future energy technologies and their feasabilities. Not to give the game away too much but don't hold your breath waiting for any advanced electrical transportation system any time soon. Rechargeable hybrids look interesting, but in the short term nothing seems to beat a modern Diesel running on some sort of biofuel.
However, I have a simple solution to charging an ultracapacitor at ridiculous rates. You just need a very small nuclear explosion tailored to dump its EMP into suitable coils. I can just foresee the day when you drive up to the gas station, then stand behind the thirty feet of concrete while two lumps of plutonium are pushed together repeatedly by a variation on the nodding-head oil well pump, thus creating repeated EMP and charging your car. No greenhouse gases!
Scott Adams often refers to the people who bizarrely misquote you in attempt to prove their point. "Skip along the high seas?" Who said that? The Russians have experimented with convoys led by icebreakers. At the time it was not cost effective but the point of the article is that things are changing.
Also, who said anything about travelling through pack ice? We were talking about passages with a varying incidence of bergs. That reflects the Arctic convoys in winter. There is a huge amount of operational knowledge about the higher reaches of the north atlantic, and I think you underestimate this.
BTW I believe the Royal Navy also frequently travels under the Arctic to keep in practice, but of course they do it without needing to use long pseudo-Latin words.
I can assure you that travelling under the Arctic was not an option for the Titanic; most of its problems arose from precisely the fact that it was indeed under the water at the end of its voyage. And an icebreaker does not have ice above it, so it can use GPS and radio. What is your point here?
Oh dear. Apart from mentioning a ship not built to modern safety standards, you have also omitted a few things like satellite imaging, radar, and sonar which have developed since then. How do you think nuclear submarines manage to travel around up there? How do you think the British Merchant Navy kept the Soviet Union convoys going in WW2?
Obviously I can't speak for Mr. Branson, but I suspect his yacht probably could reach the Pole quite safely using its navigation aids.
In other news, steam tractors cannot keep up with the traffic on modern roads.
And yes, it was funny. I realise he was some kind of Australian national hero, but so was Ned Kelly. If winding up alligators while holding your child is the way naturalists normally behave, I would be extremely surprised. He was certainly no Dian Fossey, and if plenty of taseless jokes encourage people to just leave stingrays alone, instead of (as some Australians seem to be doing, for some sick reason) maltreating them - well, it would be a good thing. At least Australia will now have a high profile Darwin Award winner.
Because Afghanistan and Somalia are just such examples of successful societies when people are polite to one another and the crime rate is low. And Congo...
Can any lawyer comment on how and why the US court thought it was competent to try the case in the first place? I know many Americans think that US law applies to all other countries, but in general American lawyers know better than this. It will be interesting to see if the US court tries to get extradition of the Spamhaus board to the US, and if our heroic government, pledged as they are to defend our rights, cave in to them as they did over Enron.
Yes.Most of the world does not use US Letter, but it is still the default on all HP printers. Why? Why cannot HP default its European printers to A4?
It is little US-centric things like this that point to the lack of real customer sensitivity or innovation in large corporations. Or is it a backhanded compliment: Europeans are sufficiently intelligent to change the defaults, but Americans aren't? No, I don't believe that either. It is pure laziness on HP't part.
The risks they are taking with this kind of behavior: I mean the respondents, of course. It seems a lot of people still do not understand how the Internet works; for instance, when people post personal details to blogs and then are surprised that other people read them, as if they thought only "suitable" people would somehow have access. The more people understand that giving away personal information in an insecure environment is actually deeply stupid, the better for us all in the long term.
Prank yes, sociopathic possibly, may get some people to think a bit more before giving away potentially embarrassing or expensive data, priceless.
Looking at the replies to this, some people seem idiot enough to think about trying it. Don't. Because:
The dust will go everywhere and wreck your printer paper path
Also clothes etc., and don't forget heating it makes it glue itself to things
In its "active" unheated state it may be toxic
No, it cannot be collected for reuse. Very stupid idea. It will get mixed up with paper dust and other dust. Toner is actually quite a high-tech product nowadays, and will not take kindly to major contamination
On the other hand, if the people suggesting trying it are actually printer salesmen - way to go, guys!
(1) NO MOD official would ever applaud anything done by British scientists/engineers. And (2) one of AMT's greatest attributes was his willingness to transcend the mathematician/scientist/engineer divide.
The actual approach to technology of the MOD is this: Ignore British invention for 20 years or so
Buy it when it is produced in the US
Claim that British technology is inadequate and we must always follow the Americans.
And if you think I'm bitter about the Cocks encryption method (RSA), or the entire postwar history of British technology - yes, I am.
I'm beginning to think that Slashdot must have a large lawyer readership - because so many people are trying to think of ways in which the legal system could be extended to cover this case.
I think there are already far too many places the law has weaseled its way into, and ambulance chasers looking for an opportunity to make money out of games is probably a step too far. Games are mostly warfare substitutes, and people are allowed to do things in many games which they are not allowed to do outside, by convention and agreement. This extends to gambling: I don't know what the legal situation is now but when I grew up, gambling debts could not be legally recovered under English law. Given strong laws and policing covering damage to property and person, this was probably about as good a system as you could get.
The concept that in-game currencies have some measurable value outside the game should also be firmly stamped on. That is what people choose to do, but there is a case for the legal system ignoring it. Games are full of dubious practices, such as "amateurs" who accumulate trust funds, "appearance" fees, and a society which rewards games players out of all proportion (for US readers, I am a middle class Brit, and for us "sports" means hunting, shooting and fishing and everything else is games). I suspect the rule should be that nobody who voluntarily takes part in a game should have any legal comeback other than for personal injury arising from negligence or recklessness. But it should be very clear that everybody involved has signed up to the game and it occurs in a place where non-participants will not accidentally become involved.
I believe that, when the State of Israel had its first criminals, Ben-Gurion was actually pleased because it meant that Israel was becoming a real country, not just a club of highly educated idealists. In the same way, this is perhaps a sign of the growing capability of games. (Though please note I am not in any way comparing Israel to role playing games...)
We have an even worse system. People who are alleged to carry out anti-social behavior (definitions?) can be made subject to legal injunctions which can include all kinds of restrictions, and the consequence of breaking the injunction is a prison sentence. Although well conceived in origin (intended to deal with dysfunctional families who terrorise neighborhoods, but where people are too terrified to testify) it has been used in worrying ways to restrict people who are merely slightly eccentric, e.g. the woman who was subjected to an order banning her from answering the door in her underwear. The point here was the huge amount of unwelcome publicity she received, as well as the light shone on her socially conservative Scottish neighborhood. Not everybody in the developed world is now a publicity whore...
Of course, the issue is about the burden of proof and the ridiculous costs of the law. These laws stem from attempts to find a cheaper way of effectively convicting people without requiring conviction levels of proof. In the UK, the lawyer's trade unions are even more powerful than those in the US, and have been steadily ratcheting up the costs of the criminal justice system. They have also grown more expert at spinning out cases to maximise fee income, and to waste more and more police time. (and this is not just me ranting, this is a summary of the complaints made by Government officials.) Of course, governments have not helped by creating mountains of unnecessary laws, duplicating whatever exists, partly for the sake of keeping the yellow press happy.
My solution to the whole problem is basically to fine heavily news outlets that tell lies or publish prejudicial information. We used to do this in the UK and we were far less hysterical as a result. It is interesting that the NYT has had to block an article about the latest "terrorist" arrests to UK destinations because it would prejudice the trial of any accused. That to me is not about idiots trying to be leet and circumventing it; it is about a serious way in which the US criminal justice system is faulty, in that newspapers and other media can distort the judicial process. Finding a way to put a stop to that would result in less hysteria and the possibility of taking a more rational and long term look at the judicial system and the treatment and identification of offenders. But it's pure fantasy. As the amended US constitution, shortly to be added to the EU constitution, says, "In any disagreement on the interpretation of this Constitution, the opinions of the media proprietors shall have primacy."
Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the co-discover of pulsars who, in the view of some, was unfairly deprived of her share in the Nobel Prize for the discovery.
While on the subject, I have to report this peice of scientific pedantry. Once, describing the difference between scientsts and engineers on a blog, I used JBB as an example of a scientist and somebody else as an example of an engineer. Which got a rapid response from her son, then at Cambridge, on the lines of "No, mum is an ex-scientist." A family so good at precision are the obvious people to rule on the planetary staus of Pluto.
Who does most of the engineering in Formula 1? It employs more graduate engineers in the UK than you would imagine. The trouble with the UK is we are incredibly good at small scale production of highly designed objects, but the poor quality of our management, sales and marketing means we are no good at high volume production - we just don't do high volume customer service. When it comes to breaking records we can churn out things like Thrust 2. We churn out things like the Harrier but we can't build volume commercial aircraft (and BAe wants out of Airbus). JCB make excellent specialised industrial machinery, which is the end use for the Diesels they are testing to destruction in this record breaker. Dyson makes his vacuum cleaners in Malaysia, but the engineering is done in the UK.
Ford makes its European Diesel engines in Dagenham, and Honda makes advanced cars successfully in the West Country. Give us some decent (i.e. foreign) management and sales to support our engineering efforts, and we are up there with the best.
First, your post is extremely US-centric and betrays an ignorance of the rest of the world where the US toilet is far from a standard item. Second, it displays an ignorance of sewage processing, environmentalism and plumbing.
The present toilet uses a lot of water and is poor on hygiene. It needs a lot of water because of the things people put down it (paper being the main offender). The paper causes blockages at various points in the system and also affects the size and capability required of the sewage plant. (I have been told by a treatment expert, by the way, that modern shampoos, conditioners and shower gels also have a huge environmental burden on sewage plants.)
To put it bluntly, a system which eliminates the paper and uses a fine spray of warm water to wash your anus for you means that it is easier and cheaper to design a sewage system or to get more capacity from the old one; that maintenance is reduced; and that you no longer need to wash your hands and then wipe them on a germ-laden towel. It is also a huge benefit for elderly people who need help using the toilet (and still often end up smelling of shit)
The cretin who posted below that if you need one of these toilets it is a dietary problem, is probably unaware of the number of people who suffer from things like IBS despite eating a carefully controlled diet (maybe one in 10 of the population) or the problems of hygiene in public restrooms.
If made in volume, advanced toilets need not be very expensive. Think dishwashers and washing machines. The payback from the elimination of paper, savings on detergents, and system maintenance, could be quite short. And if you are worried about interruption of the electrical supply, just fit a UPS. Advanced aircraft and marine toilets, which use little water, work quite happily from 12 or 24V batteries.
It seems extremely odd to me that the planet believed to be most distant from the Sun was named after the Roman God of the Underworld. Perhaps they were closet Hollow Earth believers. And Charon is even worse; I don't see much evidence for a river around Pluto. Same problem with Neptune. In the case of Pluto, the geologists obviously have first call.
Actually there is residual magnetism in the alternator, which is how it gets started in the morning. The issue with the dead battery is that the starter will not turn over (!). In fact, my boat engine has two alternators, one of which self-excites and the other doesn't. The non-self exciting one keeps its residual magnetism for about a day. Modern car engines do not need to have self-exciting alternators because they cannot start without a battery, but many years ago my Citroen had a starter handle (had to use it a couple of times, too) and a self exciting alternator.
Slashdot Mirror
So France is actually a pretty good place to promote ODF. It checks all the boxes. It's a standard. Any particular Francophone bits of it, the French government can influence by providing support. It is not anti-American but it is independent of America. Work on French support for ODF brings together France, Belgium, the doms and toms, Canada and Francophone Africa - so it is another small step in building links in the French speaking world.
And ODF should be relatively easy to sell to the bureaucracy. Gentlemen and ladies, this is a French solution to an international problem. No longer will we bound by the constraints of the Anglo-Saxons...
The only negative is that, in accordance with the immutable rules of French abbreviations, they will want to call it FDO.
Like many laws, people mention Moore's without actually knowing what it says.
No, I do think they confirm it. They demonstrate that people who, thirty years ago, would have a grasp of basic physics, now do not. Obviously a poll of physicists and engineers would not tell you that, nor would a poll of arts graduates. But if people who are interested in technology no longer understand quite basic physics and engineering concepts, that is a pointer.
Reading the responses, there is frequently a lack of understanding of just how big this stuff is, just what it takes to produce things like wakefield accelerators and the difference between instantaneous power in watts and available energy.
Which reminds me of a true story. One company I worked for, the MD (aka CEO) decided we had to have a carbon dioxide laser to replace the ruby laser in one of our products. He talked to an academic researcher and asked how big the laser would need to be. The researcher said 10cm long and was promptly hired.
Six months later he had a prototype. The laser was a ceramic tube with fittings on a stand, genuinely about 150mm long with the fittings. Behind it was a room full of high voltage equipment, giant capacitors, carbon dioxide cylinders, extractor fans and, in fact, a water cooling system connected to a pressure main.
It took the MD a litle time to realise that this stuff was all part of making the laser go. He then asked when it would all be reduced in size to fit into a hand held box. The researcher's response? "You never told me you wanted the electrics to go in a box. You just said you wanted a four inch long laser."
When you say that this company is all about drones, obviously the marketing department is intended.
In fact, this is actually quite a clever idea. It's almost a pity it is now in the public domain.
Of course, reading my own definition, this would justify Afghans and Iraqis seeking to expel the Americans and the British, just as it justified the French Resistance in WW2, and the American Colonists in the 1770s.
At what point is the present US administration going to face up the fact that it is the self-appointed global hegemon and that five and a half billion people disagree with that?
However, I have a simple solution to charging an ultracapacitor at ridiculous rates. You just need a very small nuclear explosion tailored to dump its EMP into suitable coils. I can just foresee the day when you drive up to the gas station, then stand behind the thirty feet of concrete while two lumps of plutonium are pushed together repeatedly by a variation on the nodding-head oil well pump, thus creating repeated EMP and charging your car. No greenhouse gases!
Also, who said anything about travelling through pack ice? We were talking about passages with a varying incidence of bergs. That reflects the Arctic convoys in winter. There is a huge amount of operational knowledge about the higher reaches of the north atlantic, and I think you underestimate this.
BTW I believe the Royal Navy also frequently travels under the Arctic to keep in practice, but of course they do it without needing to use long pseudo-Latin words.
I can assure you that travelling under the Arctic was not an option for the Titanic; most of its problems arose from precisely the fact that it was indeed under the water at the end of its voyage. And an icebreaker does not have ice above it, so it can use GPS and radio. What is your point here?
Obviously I can't speak for Mr. Branson, but I suspect his yacht probably could reach the Pole quite safely using its navigation aids.
In other news, steam tractors cannot keep up with the traffic on modern roads.
And yes, it was funny. I realise he was some kind of Australian national hero, but so was Ned Kelly. If winding up alligators while holding your child is the way naturalists normally behave, I would be extremely surprised. He was certainly no Dian Fossey, and if plenty of taseless jokes encourage people to just leave stingrays alone, instead of (as some Australians seem to be doing, for some sick reason) maltreating them - well, it would be a good thing. At least Australia will now have a high profile Darwin Award winner.
Because Afghanistan and Somalia are just such examples of successful societies when people are polite to one another and the crime rate is low. And Congo...
Can any lawyer comment on how and why the US court thought it was competent to try the case in the first place? I know many Americans think that US law applies to all other countries, but in general American lawyers know better than this. It will be interesting to see if the US court tries to get extradition of the Spamhaus board to the US, and if our heroic government, pledged as they are to defend our rights, cave in to them as they did over Enron.
It is little US-centric things like this that point to the lack of real customer sensitivity or innovation in large corporations. Or is it a backhanded compliment: Europeans are sufficiently intelligent to change the defaults, but Americans aren't? No, I don't believe that either. It is pure laziness on HP't part.
Prank yes, sociopathic possibly, may get some people to think a bit more before giving away potentially embarrassing or expensive data, priceless.
- The dust will go everywhere and wreck your printer paper path
- Also clothes etc., and don't forget heating it makes it glue itself to things
- In its "active" unheated state it may be toxic
- No, it cannot be collected for reuse. Very stupid idea. It will get mixed up with paper dust and other dust. Toner is actually quite a high-tech product nowadays, and will not take kindly to major contamination
On the other hand, if the people suggesting trying it are actually printer salesmen - way to go, guys!The actual approach to technology of the MOD is this:
Ignore British invention for 20 years or so
Buy it when it is produced in the US
Claim that British technology is inadequate and we must always follow the Americans.
And if you think I'm bitter about the Cocks encryption method (RSA), or the entire postwar history of British technology - yes, I am.
I think there are already far too many places the law has weaseled its way into, and ambulance chasers looking for an opportunity to make money out of games is probably a step too far. Games are mostly warfare substitutes, and people are allowed to do things in many games which they are not allowed to do outside, by convention and agreement. This extends to gambling: I don't know what the legal situation is now but when I grew up, gambling debts could not be legally recovered under English law. Given strong laws and policing covering damage to property and person, this was probably about as good a system as you could get.
The concept that in-game currencies have some measurable value outside the game should also be firmly stamped on. That is what people choose to do, but there is a case for the legal system ignoring it. Games are full of dubious practices, such as "amateurs" who accumulate trust funds, "appearance" fees, and a society which rewards games players out of all proportion (for US readers, I am a middle class Brit, and for us "sports" means hunting, shooting and fishing and everything else is games). I suspect the rule should be that nobody who voluntarily takes part in a game should have any legal comeback other than for personal injury arising from negligence or recklessness. But it should be very clear that everybody involved has signed up to the game and it occurs in a place where non-participants will not accidentally become involved.
I believe that, when the State of Israel had its first criminals, Ben-Gurion was actually pleased because it meant that Israel was becoming a real country, not just a club of highly educated idealists. In the same way, this is perhaps a sign of the growing capability of games. (Though please note I am not in any way comparing Israel to role playing games...)
Of course, the issue is about the burden of proof and the ridiculous costs of the law. These laws stem from attempts to find a cheaper way of effectively convicting people without requiring conviction levels of proof. In the UK, the lawyer's trade unions are even more powerful than those in the US, and have been steadily ratcheting up the costs of the criminal justice system. They have also grown more expert at spinning out cases to maximise fee income, and to waste more and more police time. (and this is not just me ranting, this is a summary of the complaints made by Government officials.) Of course, governments have not helped by creating mountains of unnecessary laws, duplicating whatever exists, partly for the sake of keeping the yellow press happy.
My solution to the whole problem is basically to fine heavily news outlets that tell lies or publish prejudicial information. We used to do this in the UK and we were far less hysterical as a result. It is interesting that the NYT has had to block an article about the latest "terrorist" arrests to UK destinations because it would prejudice the trial of any accused. That to me is not about idiots trying to be leet and circumventing it; it is about a serious way in which the US criminal justice system is faulty, in that newspapers and other media can distort the judicial process. Finding a way to put a stop to that would result in less hysteria and the possibility of taking a more rational and long term look at the judicial system and the treatment and identification of offenders. But it's pure fantasy. As the amended US constitution, shortly to be added to the EU constitution, says, "In any disagreement on the interpretation of this Constitution, the opinions of the media proprietors shall have primacy."
While on the subject, I have to report this peice of scientific pedantry. Once, describing the difference between scientsts and engineers on a blog, I used JBB as an example of a scientist and somebody else as an example of an engineer. Which got a rapid response from her son, then at Cambridge, on the lines of "No, mum is an ex-scientist." A family so good at precision are the obvious people to rule on the planetary staus of Pluto.
Ford makes its European Diesel engines in Dagenham, and Honda makes advanced cars successfully in the West Country. Give us some decent (i.e. foreign) management and sales to support our engineering efforts, and we are up there with the best.
The present toilet uses a lot of water and is poor on hygiene. It needs a lot of water because of the things people put down it (paper being the main offender). The paper causes blockages at various points in the system and also affects the size and capability required of the sewage plant. (I have been told by a treatment expert, by the way, that modern shampoos, conditioners and shower gels also have a huge environmental burden on sewage plants.)
To put it bluntly, a system which eliminates the paper and uses a fine spray of warm water to wash your anus for you means that it is easier and cheaper to design a sewage system or to get more capacity from the old one; that maintenance is reduced; and that you no longer need to wash your hands and then wipe them on a germ-laden towel. It is also a huge benefit for elderly people who need help using the toilet (and still often end up smelling of shit)
The cretin who posted below that if you need one of these toilets it is a dietary problem, is probably unaware of the number of people who suffer from things like IBS despite eating a carefully controlled diet (maybe one in 10 of the population) or the problems of hygiene in public restrooms.
If made in volume, advanced toilets need not be very expensive. Think dishwashers and washing machines. The payback from the elimination of paper, savings on detergents, and system maintenance, could be quite short. And if you are worried about interruption of the electrical supply, just fit a UPS. Advanced aircraft and marine toilets, which use little water, work quite happily from 12 or 24V batteries.
It seems extremely odd to me that the planet believed to be most distant from the Sun was named after the Roman God of the Underworld. Perhaps they were closet Hollow Earth believers. And Charon is even worse; I don't see much evidence for a river around Pluto. Same problem with Neptune. In the case of Pluto, the geologists obviously have first call.
Actually there is residual magnetism in the alternator, which is how it gets started in the morning. The issue with the dead battery is that the starter will not turn over (!). In fact, my boat engine has two alternators, one of which self-excites and the other doesn't. The non-self exciting one keeps its residual magnetism for about a day. Modern car engines do not need to have self-exciting alternators because they cannot start without a battery, but many years ago my Citroen had a starter handle (had to use it a couple of times, too) and a self exciting alternator.