D_Alex

40 ms·

391.
by D_Alex 12y ago
No, I will not stop. The amount of value I receive from Wikipedia directly is hundreds of dollars a year (subjectively of course). And I suspect the value I receive indirectly , through better access to information for the current and fu
392.
by D_Alex 12y ago
Simple cycle gas turbines have efficiencies of 30-35%, whereas a large diesel engine can reach ~50%. A combination of gas turbine, steam boiler running off GT exhaust and a steam turbine can reach efficiencies of ~55%. However, the system i
393.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>Talks about cargo capacity in terms of TEUs (shipping containers, I guess) rather than gross tonnage, which is the way we've always talked about ships forever. Gross tonnage has little to do with cargo capacity, as it covers weight
394.
by D_Alex 12y ago
This one may be larger, though it depends on what one means by "largest". It is certainly more powerful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4-Sulzer_RTA96...
395.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>It's not really in the U.S. best interest to push for unification Yes it is. >A unified Korea makes justifying a large military presence in Korea very difficult Exactly.
396.
by D_Alex 12y ago
In dismissing the "philosophical" research into cryptography, the NSA writer makes the same error of judgement as the business leaders and politicians make in dismissing research into the fundamentals of, say, physics. The most si
397.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>is money really the biggest limiting factor? Kind of... To begin with, science jobs pay poorly, and a lot of exceptionally intelligent people choose high paying but ultimately ~zero-sum jobs like law and investment banking. And then the
398.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>will be any unintended consequences of extensive uptake of this technology. For example could this increase levels of O2/CO2/N2 dissolved in the worlds oceans... No. There will be no measurable effect whatsoever. The waves on
399.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>Batteries are ~30% efficient Citation needed. Lowest claim I recall is "better than 85%". Also, I support nuclear power for Australia. It makes so much sense in a politically and geologically stable location, with plenty of em
400.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>Now just imagine if everyone had a huge battery rack ...or an electic car!
401.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>you can't keep power as inventory Well, you can, you need batteries or suchlike. One of the most interesting effects of adoption of electric cars could be that their batteries could be used as energy banks, charging when power is c
402.
by D_Alex 12y ago
While your conclusions (for you doing your work) may have been different from the example in the article (for others, doing different work) the common factor seems to be that Productivity is a State of Mind, as proposed by the article. Th
403.
by D_Alex 12y ago
Medicine has a long and illustrious history of self-experimentation. Barry Marshall (lives in Perth, my dad worked in the same lab!) won a Nobel prize for proving peptic ulcers are caused by bacteria (not stress etc) and can be cured with a
404.
by D_Alex 12y ago
This part: >Now we have Silicon Valley challenging Detroit's leadership in the auto industry's most promising growth areas — autonomous cars, connected vehicles, eco-friendly powertrains made me snigger. "Detroit's le
405.
by D_Alex 12y ago
> it would be dozens of hours for a $10 part. Yes, but then you upload the design to Thingiverse or similar, and it becomes 30 minutes (plus printing time) for the rest of the world. And 30 mins may in itself be unjustifiable to save $10
406.
by D_Alex 12y ago
We need a "save the eccentric professor" fund. But how would we distribute the money? Edit: Actually, just increasing the science funding, say by 1% of the total government budget, would probably solve the problem.
407.
by D_Alex 12y ago
A smarter algorithm would consider the payoff as well as the odds. Then it may bet or refrain.
408.
by D_Alex 12y ago
From the article: >At present, demand for electric vehicles is small. Through August, automakers have sold just over 40,000 fully electric cars this year, up 35 percent from a year ago..... At present, the supply of the electrical vehi
409.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>Now we have to build-up renewable decentralized energy during the next decades. That's the common goal here in Germany. Great. But Germany is also building new brown coal power plants, what's more Germany is backing a brown co
410.
by D_Alex 12y ago
To be fair, using natural gas has an unknown future cost (global warming) which is not (properly and generally) reflected in either the cost of the gs fired power stations or the gas fuel itself.
411.
by D_Alex 12y ago
A strong negative correlation does not support the claim that intelligence is modular (which I interpret as "made up of somewhat independent modules"), it would in fact support the claim that a common factor is responsible for hig
412.
by D_Alex 12y ago
21 years ago I was in a Korean shipyard where the largest container ships of the day were being built. Their capacity was 6000 TEUs, one-third of the Mary Maersk. The captain of one of the ships (a 27 year old (!) German woman) told me most
413.
by D_Alex 12y ago
There appears to be strong - IMO, conclusive - evidence that compulsory bicycle helmet laws reduce the overall quality of life (with the main mechanism being reduction of physical activity, and resultant deterioration in health). But re
414.
by D_Alex 12y ago
>The average maximum force the bricks can stand is 4,240N. That's equivalent to a mass of 432kg (950lbs). If you divide that by the mass of a single brick, which is 1.152g, then you get the grand total of bricks a single piece of Le
415.
by D_Alex 12y ago
Cool idea... but doing some back-of-the-envelope calcs on this, I get: Yield, assuming 3 harvests/year = ~ 24,000 l ethanol per year Price of ethanol =~ $1/l... if feedstock = 50% of price, then value of beet grown = ~ $12,000&#x2
416.
by D_Alex 12y ago
And it would not matter if he/she could, because there is no good way to tell what the best funds are in prospect.
417.
by D_Alex 12y ago
"Inviting women into the workforce" is #1 most creative?? It is brave, for sure, considering that was in Saudi Arabia, but... creative?
418.
by D_Alex 13y ago
>Subsidize research... At some point (IMO already reached) this becomes just "Research". Properly directed R&D pays for itself many times over. >...into alternative energy production... And utilisation! Electric cars FTW
419.
by D_Alex 13y ago
>I'm sure you're an idealistic kid that thinks green is good I am the engineering manager for the Australian branch of one of the world's largest oil and gas contractors. I graduated with 1st class honours in mechanical en
420.
by D_Alex 13y ago
The model seems flawed. The financing/opportunity costs are not included (AFAICT...). A better way to construct the model would be to avoid trying to account for year-by-year depreciation, and only include the initial purchase cost and

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