Not an expert on this subject, but my understanding was that if 25% of homes are putting power onto the grid, then the centralized generators would just have to cut back by an amount equal to the amount being put in. Very often, this means little more impact than they simply use less coal. It would probably have to reach an extreme level of homeowners doing this to have any significant impact (to the point where a powerplant can't scale back production w/o increasing cost).
Of course, it is just criminals that are having their DNA used. It will only ever involve criminals. So you are innocent now, but you're in the database.
So what happens when the police investigate something scandalous, but you weren't doing anything illegal. Now you don't even need to be there, the police can just find DNA evidence of your presence, and all of a sudden you are implicated after a 'leak' to the media.
Your reputation is sullied, and you have NO recourse because DNA does not lie, you were there. You didn't do anything, but do you think the media cares about that? Your DNA doesn't lie.
while the conditions woud be extreme, there is Earth life that lives in and around volcanic vents and there are bacteria that are resistant to radiation. If the surface is *only* 660C, there's not a lot of fusion going on and there's likely a very thick and dense shield between the barely fusing core and the surface, so life is not entirely out of the question.
That is true, however I think it is important to note that the expectation is that life did not originate from the area surrounding those volcanic vents. The theory is that life originated elsewhere, and then evolved/adapted to live around the volcanic vents. Now, where I think we could have an interesting discussion, is if the conditions in the lower atmosphere of this star approximate the conditions of the deep sea volcanic vents on Earth.
My expectation, however, is that while this star is of a similar temperature to these volcanic vents on its outer layers, the pressure isn't great enough to force the water vapor into liquid water. As you go lower in the atmosphere of this star, the pressures would increase quickly, but unfortunately I think that the temperature would rise at a higher rate due to the high density of this star when compared to a planet like Jupiter.
The result is that the point where you might find liquid water at a temperature low enough to avoid ripping apart DNA or DNA-like molecules would be a very narrow band.
Now, it is easier to be an armchair skeptic, so don't let that stop the discussion. We ARE dealing with a star here, and what might be a 'narrow' band on a stellar (jovian?) scale, could quite well be a massive section if you look at it from a terran scale.
(and of course, this all assumes that we are considering DNA/RNA based life.)
That is a good point, I forgot that it is mostly infrared radiation. However, just because there is no visible light, does that mean it is generating no radiation above the visible spectrum? I'm assuming that this star is fusing Deuterium and Tritium, which I believe does produce Gamma Rays.
Brown dwarfs have been observed to produce X-rays and Gamma rays. So just because this one produces no visible light does not mean it isn't producing a large amount of high energy radiation.
While the conditions are almost there for life similar to that of Earth to develop, the problem is that there are a lot of 'almosts', and I'm willing to bet that almost won't cut it in this case.
Just two of the things that would probably cause problems is that it is likely a very turbulent atmosphere when compared to that of Earth, and of course, there is also the likely high amount of radiation that is bouncing around (it is a star after all).
If we are thinking DNA/RNA based life, the radiation involved would make it very hard to reproduce.
As I type this more and more obstacles are coming to light, but I couldn't imagine a situation in which life could occur on a star.
I've had some edits of mine repealed on Wikipedia, by editors viewed to be 'golden' or given some informal award for policing documents.
My corrections were revoked without discussion, and apparantly without looking at reference sources I provided. References which went directly to the source document that wikipedia was 'quoting' incorrectly.
It is obvious that politics came into play, and it really reinforced the notion that wikipedia should be used for nothing more serious than confirming the powers of the latest Marvel comic book character.
What about people who didn't have a TV license? This will be a new tax for them.
When I decided that I didn't want to pay extra for cable, I canceled the service. That doesn't mean that the cable companies get to apply a fee on my Netflix subscription.
It is a catch 22, with the way the streets and regulations are currently designed, it is impossible to follow all of the traffic laws, and still have a functional road.
Did you ever see the video where a group of vehicles decided to drive 55 MPH maximum (I think it was in the DC beltway). The result was some absurd traffic backup for miles.
If you combined a 55mph speed, with a following distance of every vehicle being able to stop if the car in front of them slammed on their brakes, the result would be that probably every highway on the Eastern seaboard would be gridlocked.
For most driving situations, you won't encounter a person slamming on their brakes for a situation that you cannot see in front of them. That is why these cameras are so dangerous, you create yet another situation where someone will slam on their brakes, for a condition that the car behind them can't predict (usually you can also see if a pedestrian walks out). It adds one more danger to the roads when it would actually be safer for the driveway to go through the intersection when it is yellow (which is what they are supposed to do if it is too late to stop when the yellow turns on)
It is interesting when you think about it. The USPS is a part of the government that hasn't grown much beyond its originally intended purpose.
It isn't some nebulous agency that was created to serve one purpose, and then through years of changes to the law resulted in increasing powers and/or responsibilities.
The result is that over the centuries (was the postal service initiated at the start of the US?) since it had one purpose that didn't really have much whitespace it could expand into, you ended up with a fairly refined government agency. Now that is amazing.
As an aside, imagine if instead of the FCC, the USPS was tasked with 'expanding' its role for managing the main method of data transfer in the US as new technology came about. It isn't that far fetched to think that might have come to pass.
Once the dB level of sound starts to approach that which is experienced in the engine of a rocket, it isn't even resonance anymore, it's just plain extreme force.
It generally takes about 110dB to shatter a wine glass via oscillation, but it isn't direct exposure to the pressure that causes that.
Depending on the quality, glass will begin to shatter above 160-165 dB, independant of its resonant frequency. Of course, if you are dealing with flexible glass, that value will increase.
It is quite possible to have a sound wave impact with enough force on a specific area in a rocket engine to cause enough fatigue which will result in a failure without actually resonating.
So why is this news? Because depending on the atmospheric pressure, once you get above 194 dB, the soundwave becomes distorted, it would be difficult enough to model a soundwave in a motionless, inactive engine, but I can't even begin to comprehend how complex the modeling must be of an engine that is generating sound waves in excess of 200dB in such an extreme and dynamic environment.
That's why I quit. Unless you can get a group of friends together to do an instance for the first time without looking at Thottbot at all, then it really just boils down to 'travel to position, interact with entity for x seconds, travel to position, interact....'
That, and how Blizzard started testing new encounters in beta. I loved Dire Maul when it was release because very few people had any clue what was going to be in there. Flash forward to Outlands where spoilers abound before it was even released.
Considering how there was a Cornell study (IIRC) that found that Ethanol from corn was actually more costly in terms of oil usage (transport, refining, harvesting costs) I wonder if there have been any similar studies done on paper bags?
It certainly isn't a process that is free from oil considering you must harvest the trees, transport them, process them, and then transport them again. Could be an interesting comparison.
(maybe it is a better solution, but I would be curious to see the numbers)
Till then, using your own bags is probably the most responsible choice.
I actually had some college student drive up my road and set up a tent in my backyard at 11pm at night. From end to end the road is approximately 0.4 miles long.
Needless to say, the state police were called. I didn't file any charges because the poor guy got confused in his directions to a nearby campground, the police were enough to shake him up.
He wasn't charged, but he certainly could have been.
Personally I'd like to see a real story in WoW, something that doesn't feel so strongly that it was made up during a long drinking session by people who've never read anything more complex than fan fiction. But hey, I'm not running a company with ten or eleven million fans so what do I know?
I wanted to reply to this for your last statement.
Just because you aren't doing something (in this case, running a successful mmorpg) doesn't make your idea invalid, or automatically inferior to the one employed by the successful business. It would be naive for Blizzard to think that they have recruited the best people who will always come up with the best ideas and implementations.
You have to consider that it is actually very likely that a large number of people could come up with better ideas/implementations than what is currently in use by Blizzard. That doesn't mean that Blizzard has poor employees. It simply means that you have to consider that Blizzard likely hired the best candidate that was available to work in that area at that given time. They actually have a very small pool of acceptable applicants to choose from.
So you shouldn't just bash your ideas because you don't work for the company right now, because it is very unlikely that the top person for that role was available and willing to take that position at the right time.
The best person might have already been happily employed somewhere in Florida and didn't want to relocate his/her family or leave their current employer at the time just to go work for Blizzard.
Personally I'd like to see a real story in WoW, something that doesn't feel so strongly that it was made up during a long drinking session by people who've never read anything more complex than fan fiction. But hey, I'm not running a company with ten or eleven million fans so what do I know?
You raise a good point that it would be nice to see a more complicated story that is offered in MMORPGs, I think Oblivion comes closest to what a MMORPG story could be, but that could be one of two things:
(I'm just using Oblivion as an example of what it is capable of, not that it gets all these points right)
1. Oblivion doesn't have more complex stories, it is just my imagination filling in plot twists, details, and fluff that wasn't even part of the story writers plot.
2. It does have complex stories. However, these stories are too complicated for a game that isn't like Oblivion. One of the advantages that a game like Oblivion has over a game like WoW is that it rewards you for reading every scrap of text, looking around the room for clues to the murder scene, or really learning about the environment you are in.
On a PvP server, I don't even read quest text since a well timed gank could cause me to fail the quest if I don't slam on the accept/complete button.
With a MMORPG people don't have patience. You better go get your key-quests done by the time the raid starts. People who have already completed the quest are getting bored waiting for you to read the journal entry. You also don't want to read too far into the quest story or you might start the escort portion of the quest and piss off your party members.
Unfortunately for MMORPGs, unless you can get 5 friends together, and NEVER do an instance first without that group, you will run into people who know the best way to get it done, in the shortest time, exactly what the boss will do/say/drop, and where to turn it in.
In a way, I feel bad for the person writing the story for a MMORPG, because they have to take what was likely a good story, dumb it down for a 13 yr old reading level, and shorten it to be digestable while people wait for you to read the text.
There was a student in my dorm who was blind from birth. He responded to a question about how he felt about what he was 'missing'. He said he didn't miss it at all, since he never had a concept of 'sight'.
For an interesting brainteaser (or philosophical question)
Lets say I setup a set of CDs for a performance. I've done all the steps to get a license. If I have equipment that buffers the audiostream before it is sent to the speakers, should that require an additional license?
Perhaps they could come up with a better method for the VoD service.
However, that is one aspect of Comcast that I do enjoy. I live on the border of Comcast territory (Time Warner), and I really don't like Time Warner when compared to what I used to have with Comcast's cable service. (Not sure for Internet. I used to have FIOS which was amazing, and I'd kill to have that at my new house)
Today I'm going to see if I can downgrade from Time Warner's digital cable to just basic service and internet. I'll lose out on G4 tv, but there isn't anything more that Time Warner gives me that makes the digital worth it.
Caveat: I don't have an HDTV, so it isn't much of a driver for my continued use of digital cable service.
Slashdot Mirror
1.5 figure out a way to induce a current between two equal potentials.
Not an expert on this subject, but my understanding was that if 25% of homes are putting power onto the grid, then the centralized generators would just have to cut back by an amount equal to the amount being put in. Very often, this means little more impact than they simply use less coal. It would probably have to reach an extreme level of homeowners doing this to have any significant impact (to the point where a powerplant can't scale back production w/o increasing cost).
Of course, it is just criminals that are having their DNA used. It will only ever involve criminals.
So you are innocent now, but you're in the database.
So what happens when the police investigate something scandalous, but you weren't doing anything illegal. Now you don't even need to be there, the police can just find DNA evidence of your presence, and all of a sudden you are implicated after a 'leak' to the media.
Your reputation is sullied, and you have NO recourse because DNA does not lie, you were there. You didn't do anything, but do you think the media cares about that? Your DNA doesn't lie.
That's scary.
while the conditions woud be extreme, there is Earth life that lives in and around volcanic vents and there are bacteria that are resistant to radiation. If the surface is *only* 660C, there's not a lot of fusion going on and there's likely a very thick and dense shield between the barely fusing core and the surface, so life is not entirely out of the question.
That is true, however I think it is important to note that the expectation is that life did not originate from the area surrounding those volcanic vents. The theory is that life originated elsewhere, and then evolved/adapted to live around the volcanic vents. Now, where I think we could have an interesting discussion, is if the conditions in the lower atmosphere of this star approximate the conditions of the deep sea volcanic vents on Earth.
My expectation, however, is that while this star is of a similar temperature to these volcanic vents on its outer layers, the pressure isn't great enough to force the water vapor into liquid water. As you go lower in the atmosphere of this star, the pressures would increase quickly, but unfortunately I think that the temperature would rise at a higher rate due to the high density of this star when compared to a planet like Jupiter.
The result is that the point where you might find liquid water at a temperature low enough to avoid ripping apart DNA or DNA-like molecules would be a very narrow band.
Now, it is easier to be an armchair skeptic, so don't let that stop the discussion. We ARE dealing with a star here, and what might be a 'narrow' band on a stellar (jovian?) scale, could quite well be a massive section if you look at it from a terran scale.
(and of course, this all assumes that we are considering DNA/RNA based life.)
How often are the cables in your AV cabinet damaged to make a lifetime warranty worth it?
That is a good point, I forgot that it is mostly infrared radiation. However, just because there is no visible light, does that mean it is generating no radiation above the visible spectrum? I'm assuming that this star is fusing Deuterium and Tritium, which I believe does produce Gamma Rays.
Brown dwarfs have been observed to produce X-rays and Gamma rays. So just because this one produces no visible light does not mean it isn't producing a large amount of high energy radiation.
While the conditions are almost there for life similar to that of Earth to develop, the problem is that there are a lot of 'almosts', and I'm willing to bet that almost won't cut it in this case.
Just two of the things that would probably cause problems is that it is likely a very turbulent atmosphere when compared to that of Earth, and of course, there is also the likely high amount of radiation that is bouncing around (it is a star after all).
If we are thinking DNA/RNA based life, the radiation involved would make it very hard to reproduce.
As I type this more and more obstacles are coming to light, but I couldn't imagine a situation in which life could occur on a star.
I've had some edits of mine repealed on Wikipedia, by editors viewed to be 'golden' or given some informal award for policing documents.
My corrections were revoked without discussion, and apparantly without looking at reference sources I provided. References which went directly to the source document that wikipedia was 'quoting' incorrectly.
It is obvious that politics came into play, and it really reinforced the notion that wikipedia should be used for nothing more serious than confirming the powers of the latest Marvel comic book character.
What about people who didn't have a TV license? This will be a new tax for them.
When I decided that I didn't want to pay extra for cable, I canceled the service. That doesn't mean that the cable companies get to apply a fee on my Netflix subscription.
If you could load the roads in an ideal max-in/max-out manner, it would work.
Unfortunately, you can't do anything once you reach the following point.
When #vehicles * minimum safe following distance is greater than the length of the road for that traffic area, there is absolutely nothing you can do.
It is a catch 22, with the way the streets and regulations are currently designed, it is impossible to follow all of the traffic laws, and still have a functional road.
Did you ever see the video where a group of vehicles decided to drive 55 MPH maximum (I think it was in the DC beltway). The result was some absurd traffic backup for miles.
If you combined a 55mph speed, with a following distance of every vehicle being able to stop if the car in front of them slammed on their brakes, the result would be that probably every highway on the Eastern seaboard would be gridlocked.
For most driving situations, you won't encounter a person slamming on their brakes for a situation that you cannot see in front of them. That is why these cameras are so dangerous, you create yet another situation where someone will slam on their brakes, for a condition that the car behind them can't predict (usually you can also see if a pedestrian walks out). It adds one more danger to the roads when it would actually be safer for the driveway to go through the intersection when it is yellow (which is what they are supposed to do if it is too late to stop when the yellow turns on)
It is interesting when you think about it. The USPS is a part of the government that hasn't grown much beyond its originally intended purpose.
It isn't some nebulous agency that was created to serve one purpose, and then through years of changes to the law resulted in increasing powers and/or responsibilities.
The result is that over the centuries (was the postal service initiated at the start of the US?) since it had one purpose that didn't really have much whitespace it could expand into, you ended up with a fairly refined government agency. Now that is amazing.
As an aside, imagine if instead of the FCC, the USPS was tasked with 'expanding' its role for managing the main method of data transfer in the US as new technology came about. It isn't that far fetched to think that might have come to pass.
I loved that slogan.
:)
Austria - No Kangaroos.
Once the dB level of sound starts to approach that which is experienced in the engine of a rocket, it isn't even resonance anymore, it's just plain extreme force.
It generally takes about 110dB to shatter a wine glass via oscillation, but it isn't direct exposure to the pressure that causes that.
Depending on the quality, glass will begin to shatter above 160-165 dB, independant of its resonant frequency. Of course, if you are dealing with flexible glass, that value will increase.
It is quite possible to have a sound wave impact with enough force on a specific area in a rocket engine to cause enough fatigue which will result in a failure without actually resonating.
So why is this news? Because depending on the atmospheric pressure, once you get above 194 dB, the soundwave becomes distorted, it would be difficult enough to model a soundwave in a motionless, inactive engine, but I can't even begin to comprehend how complex the modeling must be of an engine that is generating sound waves in excess of 200dB in such an extreme and dynamic environment.
That they are able to model this is amazing.
That's why I quit. Unless you can get a group of friends together to do an instance for the first time without looking at Thottbot at all, then it really just boils down to 'travel to position, interact with entity for x seconds, travel to position, interact....'
That, and how Blizzard started testing new encounters in beta. I loved Dire Maul when it was release because very few people had any clue what was going to be in there. Flash forward to Outlands where spoilers abound before it was even released.
Massive relativistic death lasers? Concertgoers bouncing against each other to near the speed of light?
It isn't a galactic collision. It's just the reunion tour for Disaster Area.
Considering how there was a Cornell study (IIRC) that found that Ethanol from corn was actually more costly in terms of oil usage (transport, refining, harvesting costs) I wonder if there have been any similar studies done on paper bags?
It certainly isn't a process that is free from oil considering you must harvest the trees, transport them, process them, and then transport them again. Could be an interesting comparison.
(maybe it is a better solution, but I would be curious to see the numbers)
Till then, using your own bags is probably the most responsible choice.
I actually had some college student drive up my road and set up a tent in my backyard at 11pm at night. From end to end the road is approximately 0.4 miles long.
Needless to say, the state police were called. I didn't file any charges because the poor guy got confused in his directions to a nearby campground, the police were enough to shake him up.
He wasn't charged, but he certainly could have been.
Personally I'd like to see a real story in WoW, something that doesn't feel so strongly that it was made up during a long drinking session by people who've never read anything more complex than fan fiction. But hey, I'm not running a company with ten or eleven million fans so what do I know?
I wanted to reply to this for your last statement.
Just because you aren't doing something (in this case, running a successful mmorpg) doesn't make your idea invalid, or automatically inferior to the one employed by the successful business. It would be naive for Blizzard to think that they have recruited the best people who will always come up with the best ideas and implementations.
You have to consider that it is actually very likely that a large number of people could come up with better ideas/implementations than what is currently in use by Blizzard. That doesn't mean that Blizzard has poor employees. It simply means that you have to consider that Blizzard likely hired the best candidate that was available to work in that area at that given time. They actually have a very small pool of acceptable applicants to choose from.
So you shouldn't just bash your ideas because you don't work for the company right now, because it is very unlikely that the top person for that role was available and willing to take that position at the right time.
The best person might have already been happily employed somewhere in Florida and didn't want to relocate his/her family or leave their current employer at the time just to go work for Blizzard.
Personally I'd like to see a real story in WoW, something that doesn't feel so strongly that it was made up during a long drinking session by people who've never read anything more complex than fan fiction. But hey, I'm not running a company with ten or eleven million fans so what do I know?
You raise a good point that it would be nice to see a more complicated story that is offered in MMORPGs, I think Oblivion comes closest to what a MMORPG story could be, but that could be one of two things:
(I'm just using Oblivion as an example of what it is capable of, not that it gets all these points right)
1. Oblivion doesn't have more complex stories, it is just my imagination filling in plot twists, details, and fluff that wasn't even part of the story writers plot.
2. It does have complex stories. However, these stories are too complicated for a game that isn't like Oblivion. One of the advantages that a game like Oblivion has over a game like WoW is that it rewards you for reading every scrap of text, looking around the room for clues to the murder scene, or really learning about the environment you are in.
On a PvP server, I don't even read quest text since a well timed gank could cause me to fail the quest if I don't slam on the accept/complete button.
With a MMORPG people don't have patience. You better go get your key-quests done by the time the raid starts. People who have already completed the quest are getting bored waiting for you to read the journal entry. You also don't want to read too far into the quest story or you might start the escort portion of the quest and piss off your party members.
Unfortunately for MMORPGs, unless you can get 5 friends together, and NEVER do an instance first without that group, you will run into people who know the best way to get it done, in the shortest time, exactly what the boss will do/say/drop, and where to turn it in.
In a way, I feel bad for the person writing the story for a MMORPG, because they have to take what was likely a good story, dumb it down for a 13 yr old reading level, and shorten it to be digestable while people wait for you to read the text.
A color we haven't discovered?
There was a student in my dorm who was blind from birth. He responded to a question about how he felt about what he was 'missing'. He said he didn't miss it at all, since he never had a concept of 'sight'.
For an interesting brainteaser (or philosophical question)
"How do you explain color to a blind man?"
Lets say I setup a set of CDs for a performance. I've done all the steps to get a license. If I have equipment that buffers the audiostream before it is sent to the speakers, should that require an additional license?
Then are they allowed to force licensing for every step of the public performance preparation?
License to place a CD in a CD drive
License to play a CD from a combo CD/DVD drive?
License to move the file from one directory to another?
License to use a solid state storage medium in a performance?
License to alter the volume level of a performance based on listener preference?
How about a license for playing music above a certain volume at a performance?
No need for the whole admin. His liver will suffice.
Perhaps they could come up with a better method for the VoD service.
However, that is one aspect of Comcast that I do enjoy. I live on the border of Comcast territory (Time Warner), and I really don't like Time Warner when compared to what I used to have with Comcast's cable service. (Not sure for Internet. I used to have FIOS which was amazing, and I'd kill to have that at my new house)
Today I'm going to see if I can downgrade from Time Warner's digital cable to just basic service and internet. I'll lose out on G4 tv, but there isn't anything more that Time Warner gives me that makes the digital worth it.
Caveat: I don't have an HDTV, so it isn't much of a driver for my continued use of digital cable service.