Tritium decays by beta emission to Helium-3 which isn't radioactive. The beta particle (electron) is of such low energy that it won't even penetrate the dead layer of skin. It is much less dangerous than the radioactive potassium humans have evolved with in their bodies. It is more of an extremely rare and valuable curiosity than any danger it poses. But of course the uneducated public has been propagandized into believing that anything that's radioactive is dangerous and causes cancer so groups like Greenpeace get to make headlines.
It's what stops states from taxing the citizens in another state among other things. This is a tax on the free trade of electric power between Minnesota and North Dakota which congress has prohibited via the ICC.
It isn't FUD at all. History provides ample evidence that whenever government or any quasi-government organization gets to regulate something there is always a political aim in doing so to the detriment of users and usually to the benefit of government or corporations.
When there was a single provider of domain names in the U.S. they were very expensive. When the monopoly was broken domain names are now much cheaper.
If a "passport" is required for internet access you can be sure that the hoops will be set in ways that prevent some people from having access. Even when they intend to do no harm at all. Convicted felons I predict would be the first group to be banned. Followed by children below a certain age. Then they will require that filters be put in place for some types of "passports" etc...
The internet is a very public place for the practice of free speech and dissemination of all sorts of information, both good and bad. It has been said that the antidote for "bad" speech is not regulation but more speech. Only the individual is capable of determining what he gets from the internet is good or bad... for HIM, NOT the government. Governments will always want to regulate communications between individuals. Governments prefer ignorant taxpayers. A passport would provide the means to identify an individual so they could be readily punished or prevented from exercising the right to speak freely. This is ALWAYS a bad thing.
The answer to the wild and woolly internet is for people to get more intelligent which is something the internet does very well in spite of all of the crap that is out there. Any regulation at all is a bad thing.
While I am a Free Market advocate, in most cases a free market does not exist BECAUSE of government regulation.
In the case of ISP's in many if not most areas broadband connections are provided by a single provider or 2 at the most. Those 2 are usually DSL from the local telephone company which is a government granted monopoly and the local Cable TV provider which is also a government granted monopoly. In rural areas often there is no broadband at all except for satellite which uses a satellite downlink and a dial-up uplink or a more expensive up/down dish. both of which are kind of sucky.
Being there is a real lack of competition there isn't much incentive for the 2 local ISP's to upgrade their services and they would much prefer to keep their existing rates, speeds and capacities.
As a result when there is heavy load by a few types of users these ISP's would rather choke off the service than to upgrade their capacity. If the other ISP is allowed to do the same then there isn't much reason for users to switch either. There is actually a sort of collusion when the 2 companies aren't forced to upgrade because the other ISP won't upgrade either. The result is crappy service and little hope of improvement.
What I would like to see is not only a net-neutrality which prevents ISP's from throtteling certain ports or users but FCC rules which prohibits cities from granting monopolies to telecomm and Cable TV operators. There would then be more competition in telecomm altogether which always results in better services at lower rates.
If you're going to have peacemeal regulation in the hopes of having more competition then there isn't really much hope of improving the state of any utility service. In a totally free market not only would there be cheaper and better broadband but cheaper and better services from ALL utilities.
This is not conjecture. It is actually the case in a few places. There is a city somewhere in Texas that has competition between electric companies. They even use a single set of transmission lines! If a customer decides to buy electricity from company X they simply order the service and company X comes out and switches the meter. the electricity providers negotiate between themselves for the maintenance of the transmission lines and how the electricity is injected into the grid. Utilities buy power from each other now so this isn't a radical change.
The same could be done for telecomm including cable companies which would make the method of getting the data to your house (the last mile) a mere technical question. The idea that a city would be buried under a huge amount of utility lines is simple propaganda put out by utilities seeking a monopoly and has been used since the early days of the quasi-public utility provider to justify their monopoly of providing crappy service at exaggerated rates.
Personally, I think they should say "fine, pay us what you owe us and leave - but you'll never be permitted to sell your products in this state again."
The ICC forbids this. It's in the constitution in case you want to know what the ICC is.
After they spend all their money on game consoles and games they just can't afford the HDTV. I'm sure none of the gamers have wives to supplement their incomes.
Perhaps people will eventually learn that as soon as they start ignoring governments those governments become irrelevant to their lives. When there is a majority of people for whom government is irrelevant then governments as a social paradigm will be on the fast track to decline and eventual evaporation.
The corollary to this is that the mafia only survives on the fear and willingness of their victims to pay protection.
That word would be cowed. As in ordinary people just trying to make a living are cowed by threats and intimidation and overt buying of judges and juries by the corporations who actually controll the governments of the world and always have.
Essentially the new TPB is now paying protection money to IP owners whether the infringement is illegal or completely legal such as "Fair Use."
Anyone who goes up against a large corporation which has a huge well paid legal department and expects justice from the courts is a fool.
Sure there may be small victories here and there but "small" is the operative word. This is why the courts had to create the Class Action suit so that the people who know they're getting sodomized could feel like there was some way they could obtain justice.
It's the same reason that democracies let the people vote. The people still get sodomized but they feel good when they vote out the current sodomizer until they get sodomized by the next.
OOPS! I drilled down to the chemistry article on Chemistry World (http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/July/02070902.asp) and I see an additional component is introduced into the reaction, namely Potassium Hydroxide. The article didn't explain whether this was to absorb the CO2 produced or actually was necessary to aid the reaction. No reaction diagrams were provided.
Another thought since the molecule of urea (NH2)2CO appears to have 2 CO (Carbon Monoxide) molecules it might be that this first reaction would liberate H2, N, and 2 CO molecules, or else N(2CO) which could then be further broken down to N + 2 CO. The CO is also known as Water Gas and can be burned to yield more energy albeit a CO2 problem though. Nitrogen is harmless.
Of course I could be totally wrong because I haven't looked into the proposed process at all. It is very interesting though.
It very much depends on whether the reaction is exothermic or endothermic. This appears to be an endothermic reaction which means that energy would be absorbed in the reaction. An exothermic reaction would produce more energy than the system needed to keep going and would require external cooling in all likelihood.
1. Seizing private property is not one of the enumerated powers delegated to the government by the constitution.
2. Article 5 of the Bill of rights states: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
Notice the clause, "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;"
Notice the clause, "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
Congress cannot make a constitutional which violates the constitution. Unfortunately however the 3 branches of the federal government have not payed more than lip service to the constitution since the Lincoln administration.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only last until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury, with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness;
From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependency;
From dependency back into bondage.
I am an IT consultant and my clients include doctors, lawyers and accountants. Each profession is regulated by rules which in general state that they are responsible for the safe keeping of records. IMHO online storage is neither reliable nor safe. If a file is needed but a connection to the storage provider is down for some reason this could be disastrous. If the storage company loses your data then it's gone and they have limited liability as far as damages go. The lawyer may get his money back or a judgement in money but the damage to his reputation would be considerable. He could be sued for malpractice and even disbarred. For doctors HIPAA has clear rules about the protection of medical records. Accountants have Sarbanes-Oxley rules to follow. The only way I would allow sensitive data offsite is in an armored car.
My bad. I'm an old geezer and back in ancient times (the 1950's) "Cosmic rays" referred to EM radiation such as X-rays (relatively low-energy EM ionizing radiation) to very high-energy but still EM ionizing radiation which travels at the speed of light (photons). However, I now find the term has been extended to include high-energy particles E.G. protons, electrons, neutrons, positrons, anti-protons, nutrinos, anti-neutrinos... ad nauseum which being >zero mass must travel at sub-light speeds.
Please forgive my crotchetiness and failure to keep up with the latest cosmological nomenclature. I stand corrected.
However a dense plasma (cosmic-rays new definition) probably would absorb high energy photons but the particular particle would soon decay again and produce... high energy photons(fluorescence) again! QM theory predicts that a particle which absorbs a photon will change from a relatively low energy state to a higher energy state. Conversely, that same particle will decay the same high energy state to the previous low energy state will emit a photon of an energy equivalent to the original photon.
I hardly see how this could be helpful as a shield against high energy photons (old definition of cosmic rays).
That said however, the original article described using a magnetic field which does alter the direction of charged particles much the same as the earth's magnetic field shields the earth from solar plasma (charged particles). But the magnetic field can only act as a shield against CHARGED-particles. A magnetic field has no effect on particles which do not have a charge of which there are many or upon photons of ANY energy.
I think the main reason Marijuana stays illegal is that because it's a weed that just can't be completely eradicated, the drug companies can't patent it and can't make money off of it. They don't like competition.
Math is said to be a universal language. Having math skills at the very least is an indicator of (some) intelligence. Or so I would think. Perhaps the ability to communicate at all is a sign. Maybe.
I have seen people who lacked both skills employed in paying jobs. Some even selling computers. Some even selling computers while drunk.
Slashdot Mirror
Tritium decays by beta emission to Helium-3 which isn't radioactive. The beta particle (electron) is of such low energy that it won't even penetrate the dead layer of skin. It is much less dangerous than the radioactive potassium humans have evolved with in their bodies. It is more of an extremely rare and valuable curiosity than any danger it poses. But of course the uneducated public has been propagandized into believing that anything that's radioactive is dangerous and causes cancer so groups like Greenpeace get to make headlines.
Check it out at Wikipedia like I did. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium
It's unconstitutional because of the Interstate Commerce Clause in the federal constitution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_commerce_clause
It's what stops states from taxing the citizens in another state among other things. This is a tax on the free trade of electric power between Minnesota and North Dakota which congress has prohibited via the ICC.
It isn't FUD at all. History provides ample evidence that whenever government or any quasi-government organization gets to regulate something there is always a political aim in doing so to the detriment of users and usually to the benefit of government or corporations.
When there was a single provider of domain names in the U.S. they were very expensive. When the monopoly was broken domain names are now much cheaper.
If a "passport" is required for internet access you can be sure that the hoops will be set in ways that prevent some people from having access. Even when they intend to do no harm at all. Convicted felons I predict would be the first group to be banned. Followed by children below a certain age. Then they will require that filters be put in place for some types of "passports" etc...
The internet is a very public place for the practice of free speech and dissemination of all sorts of information, both good and bad. It has been said that the antidote for "bad" speech is not regulation but more speech. Only the individual is capable of determining what he gets from the internet is good or bad... for HIM, NOT the government. Governments will always want to regulate communications between individuals. Governments prefer ignorant taxpayers. A passport would provide the means to identify an individual so they could be readily punished or prevented from exercising the right to speak freely. This is ALWAYS a bad thing.
The answer to the wild and woolly internet is for people to get more intelligent which is something the internet does very well in spite of all of the crap that is out there. Any regulation at all is a bad thing.
Kaspersky is at best a fool.
Edwin
While I am a Free Market advocate, in most cases a free market does not exist BECAUSE of government regulation.
In the case of ISP's in many if not most areas broadband connections are provided by a single provider or 2 at the most. Those 2 are usually DSL from the local telephone company which is a government granted monopoly and the local Cable TV provider which is also a government granted monopoly. In rural areas often there is no broadband at all except for satellite which uses a satellite downlink and a dial-up uplink or a more expensive up/down dish. both of which are kind of sucky.
Being there is a real lack of competition there isn't much incentive for the 2 local ISP's to upgrade their services and they would much prefer to keep their existing rates, speeds and capacities.
As a result when there is heavy load by a few types of users these ISP's would rather choke off the service than to upgrade their capacity. If the other ISP is allowed to do the same then there isn't much reason for users to switch either. There is actually a sort of collusion when the 2 companies aren't forced to upgrade because the other ISP won't upgrade either. The result is crappy service and little hope of improvement.
What I would like to see is not only a net-neutrality which prevents ISP's from throtteling certain ports or users but FCC rules which prohibits cities from granting monopolies to telecomm and Cable TV operators. There would then be more competition in telecomm altogether which always results in better services at lower rates.
If you're going to have peacemeal regulation in the hopes of having more competition then there isn't really much hope of improving the state of any utility service. In a totally free market not only would there be cheaper and better broadband but cheaper and better services from ALL utilities.
This is not conjecture. It is actually the case in a few places. There is a city somewhere in Texas that has competition between electric companies. They even use a single set of transmission lines! If a customer decides to buy electricity from company X they simply order the service and company X comes out and switches the meter. the electricity providers negotiate between themselves for the maintenance of the transmission lines and how the electricity is injected into the grid. Utilities buy power from each other now so this isn't a radical change.
The same could be done for telecomm including cable companies which would make the method of getting the data to your house (the last mile) a mere technical question. The idea that a city would be buried under a huge amount of utility lines is simple propaganda put out by utilities seeking a monopoly and has been used since the early days of the quasi-public utility provider to justify their monopoly of providing crappy service at exaggerated rates.
Edwin
Personally, I think they should say "fine, pay us what you owe us and leave - but you'll never be permitted to sell your products in this state again."
The ICC forbids this. It's in the constitution in case you want to know what the ICC is.
After they spend all their money on game consoles and games they just can't afford the HDTV. I'm sure none of the gamers have wives to supplement their incomes.
Exactly!
Perhaps people will eventually learn that as soon as they start ignoring governments those governments become irrelevant to their lives. When there is a majority of people for whom government is irrelevant then governments as a social paradigm will be on the fast track to decline and eventual evaporation.
The corollary to this is that the mafia only survives on the fear and willingness of their victims to pay protection.
Edwin
Hey! There's an idea. How about an on-demand streaming movie.torrent site. I'd pay for THAT!
That word would be cowed. As in ordinary people just trying to make a living are cowed by threats and intimidation and overt buying of judges and juries by the corporations who actually controll the governments of the world and always have.
Essentially the new TPB is now paying protection money to IP owners whether the infringement is illegal or completely legal such as "Fair Use."
Anyone who goes up against a large corporation which has a huge well paid legal department and expects justice from the courts is a fool.
Sure there may be small victories here and there but "small" is the operative word. This is why the courts had to create the Class Action suit so that the people who know they're getting sodomized could feel like there was some way they could obtain justice.
It's the same reason that democracies let the people vote. The people still get sodomized but they feel good when they vote out the current sodomizer until they get sodomized by the next.
BOHICA!
Edwin
OOPS! I drilled down to the chemistry article on Chemistry World (http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/July/02070902.asp) and I see an additional component is introduced into the reaction, namely Potassium Hydroxide. The article didn't explain whether this was to absorb the CO2 produced or actually was necessary to aid the reaction. No reaction diagrams were provided.
Another thought since the molecule of urea (NH2)2CO appears to have 2 CO (Carbon Monoxide) molecules it might be that this first reaction would liberate H2, N, and 2 CO molecules, or else N(2CO) which could then be further broken down to N + 2 CO. The CO is also known as Water Gas and can be burned to yield more energy albeit a CO2 problem though. Nitrogen is harmless.
Of course I could be totally wrong because I haven't looked into the proposed process at all. It is very interesting though.
Very good explanation without using any technical words.
It very much depends on whether the reaction is exothermic or endothermic. This appears to be an endothermic reaction which means that energy would be absorbed in the reaction. An exothermic reaction would produce more energy than the system needed to keep going and would require external cooling in all likelihood.
What's web 2.0? That's sooooo last year.
Sorry. I couldn't resist!
1. Seizing private property is not one of the enumerated powers delegated to the government by the constitution.
2. Article 5 of the Bill of rights states: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
Notice the clause, "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;"
Notice the clause, "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
Congress cannot make a constitutional which violates the constitution. Unfortunately however the 3 branches of the federal government have not payed more than lip service to the constitution since the Lincoln administration.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only last until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury, with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness;
From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependency;
From dependency back into bondage.
Alexander Fraser Tytler - 1805
So where in that cycle do you think we are now?
Edwin
I am an IT consultant and my clients include doctors, lawyers and accountants. Each profession is regulated by rules which in general state that they are responsible for the safe keeping of records. IMHO online storage is neither reliable nor safe. If a file is needed but a connection to the storage provider is down for some reason this could be disastrous. If the storage company loses your data then it's gone and they have limited liability as far as damages go. The lawyer may get his money back or a judgement in money but the damage to his reputation would be considerable. He could be sued for malpractice and even disbarred. For doctors HIPAA has clear rules about the protection of medical records. Accountants have Sarbanes-Oxley rules to follow. The only way I would allow sensitive data offsite is in an armored car.
Yes. This is serious shit.
My bad. I'm an old geezer and back in ancient times (the 1950's) "Cosmic rays" referred to EM radiation such as X-rays (relatively low-energy EM ionizing radiation) to very high-energy but still EM ionizing radiation which travels at the speed of light (photons). However, I now find the term has been extended to include high-energy particles E.G. protons, electrons, neutrons, positrons, anti-protons, nutrinos, anti-neutrinos... ad nauseum which being >zero mass must travel at sub-light speeds.
Please forgive my crotchetiness and failure to keep up with the latest cosmological nomenclature. I stand corrected.
However a dense plasma (cosmic-rays new definition) probably would absorb high energy photons but the particular particle would soon decay again and produce... high energy photons(fluorescence) again! QM theory predicts that a particle which absorbs a photon will change from a relatively low energy state to a higher energy state. Conversely, that same particle will decay the same high energy state to the previous low energy state will emit a photon of an energy equivalent to the original photon.
I hardly see how this could be helpful as a shield against high energy photons (old definition of cosmic rays).
That said however, the original article described using a magnetic field which does alter the direction of charged particles much the same as the earth's magnetic field shields the earth from solar plasma (charged particles). But the magnetic field can only act as a shield against CHARGED-particles. A magnetic field has no effect on particles which do not have a charge of which there are many or upon photons of ANY energy.
Edwin
Disclaimer - I am not a physicist.
AFAIK Cosmic Rays are EM radiation like very hard X-Rays. They wouldn't be affected by magnetism.
OTOH Solar Wind is charged particles which ARE affected by magnetism.
Just trying to keep the nomenclature straight.
Edwin
Do you mean "Plan 9 from Outer Space" or "Plan 9 from Bell Labs"?
Is BSD actually better than LSD? ;-)
I think the main reason Marijuana stays illegal is that because it's a weed that just can't be completely eradicated, the drug companies can't patent it and can't make money off of it. They don't like competition.
I can't say for sure because the congressional acts are written in legalese which I have a hard time with, but yes I think so.
I'm not sure about Sarbanes-Oxley but HIPAA certainly does.
Edwin
Under the Patriot act they no longer have to knock.
Math is said to be a universal language. Having math skills at the very least is an indicator of (some) intelligence. Or so I would think. Perhaps the ability to communicate at all is a sign. Maybe.
I have seen people who lacked both skills employed in paying jobs. Some even selling computers. Some even selling computers while drunk.