uvdiv

67 ms·

631.
by uvdiv 16y ago
According to this link someone else found [1], they claim to use 0.0003 kWh electricity per amortized search, which at e.g. 0.06 USD/kWh (typical [2]) is 1.8*10^-5 USD, or 0.26% of search costs (according to the estimates in the article). [
632.
by uvdiv 16y ago
Or maybe normal people today simply have expectations in keeping with modern technology? I'm sure modern Excel jockeys are fully capable of slogging through one of those assembly language manuals for dozens of hours. I think they could al
633.
by uvdiv 16y ago
You've wrongly assumed that all gamma rays are from positron annihilations. In fact most of them should be from an ordinary EM effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremsstrahlung The graph in the article is not counting positrons, but gam
634.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> I remember first hearing about it as some ominous "substance" that only exists in the emptiest depths of the universe. It doesn't exist in appreciable amounts anywhere, that anyone knows of. Maybe you're confusing it with dark matter
635.
by uvdiv 16y ago
Not an engineer, but I don't think the sodium/water heat exchangers are a fatal setback -- for one thing, there's an intermediate sodium loop between the core sodium coolant and the turbine loop, so any sodium/water interaction* isn't near
636.
by uvdiv 16y ago
It's not the size, it's the maturity. As you correctly criticize, Superphenix was non-functional much of the time: there were major engineering issues which hadn't been solved beforehand. This is the character of a prototype. > Thorium-
637.
by uvdiv 16y ago
I'd be wary of calling sodium fast reactors inferior on the basis of their past performance. All SFRs ever built were essentially prototypes; all their operating experience combined is less than what LWRs had in the 1960's. If thorium react
638.
by uvdiv 16y ago
True. China did build a new fast test reactor last year: http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectionCode=132&sto...
639.
by uvdiv 16y ago
They recently built an R&D-scale PUREX plant on the site of a weapons complex. The most likely "story" is that it started operating. > The Jiuquan Atomic Energy Complex (Plant 404) is centered on a 400-500MW light water graphite rea
640.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> If they in exchange of this protection returns nothing to society (i.e. infinite retro-active copyright extensions), then we as a society should have no reason to provide this protection for them. Society isn't owed anything. Governm
641.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> Without copyright (which is granted by the government) the work would be in the public domain the moment it is published/given to someone else. I think private contracts would be sufficient. The author doesn't yield his work to a pub
642.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> Ideas cannot be owned; they are like fire and can only be equally shared. We assign monopolies to make publishing feasible, not to ensure the wealth of two or three generations that live off of the creativity of their grandfathers wit
643.
by uvdiv 16y ago
I don't see that as a "fair exchange". One side (the government) sets the terms unilaterally. There is no voluntary mutual transaction; the author doesn't consent to have his work forced into the public domain, or to the terms under which
644.
by uvdiv 16y ago
>The law prohibiting discrimination against persons by reason of their religion is defined to include directly passing over someone because of their beliefs. Actually I would guess the author supports religious discrimination, althoug
645.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> we need better, more cost-effective energy, such as with better nuclear power plants I don't think this will work. Some numbers: * USDA says 70 bushels/acre of wheat is the average yield for irrigated fields [1] * perhaps a theoretica
646.
by uvdiv 16y ago
You can just as easily dig up ordinary LWRs from that era with that same degree of ridiculous cost overrun -- the kind of LWRs of which are cheap today and exist in the hundreds. It was not so much the particular design, SFR or LWR, but the
647.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> "I’ve looked up the performance figures for lots of electric vehicles – they’re listed in this chapter’s end-notes – and they seem to be consistent with this summary: electric vehicles can deliver transport at an energy cost of roughl
648.
by uvdiv 16y ago
>But I also read elsewhere they only make up 8 percent of the total in the USA and are being phased out. A fraction of a percent now. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table1_1.html It's not a sane choice; burning oil for e
649.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> THEIR OWN POSITION PAPER on backscatter scanners recommends per-screening and per-year (time limit!) maximums FAR below the threshold that they claimed wasn't a problem in the first place -- see 8). > ...How they can go from sayi
650.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> What they can't deal with as well is a sudden burst of many errors. Actually that is false, as far as low doses: > When you are asked whether there is a critical time period over which 1 rem of dose may have a greater biological
651.
by uvdiv 16y ago
> I'm not sure how credible are those stats, The author himself doesn't believe them. Here's what he (Peter Rez) says in the paper this is based on: > The major public health effect of concern at low doses of ionizing radiation is
652.
by uvdiv 16y ago
This is a grossly irresponsible abuse of statistics. What's even stranger is that the author agrees . In his paper (conclusions, page 15): > The major public health effect of concern at low doses of ionizing radiation is cancer. There
653.
by uvdiv 16y ago
No, actually your data validates him. Maybe you are confusing 'm' with 'μ', that is, milli- (10^-3) with micro- (10^-6)? > The estimated occupational effective dose for the aircraft crew (A 320) working 500 h per year was 1.64 mSv. 1.6
654.
by uvdiv 16y ago
I dispute this: > The energy is absorbed mostly in the skin, NOT throughout the volume of the entire body as with other types of ionizing radiation. Also, the dosage is delivered in a few (under 30) seconds. You have to consider dose pe
655.
by uvdiv 16y ago
Well, on the progressive side, when they want rent they argue that market prices are "unfairly low" (or high). Creating artificial scarcity is one way to inflate prices to "fair" levels, e.g. "living wages": > Ward 1 Councilman Jim Grah
656.
by uvdiv 16y ago
I don't understand the laws; my link was to show that S.F. taxis operate as a cartel, and use city laws to enforce their cartel (through medallions and their quota). I don't know if this is precisely what the UberCab C&D is about (it'
657.
by uvdiv 16y ago
To be pedantic, it's not civil disobedience if it's not openly defiant. It's one thing to evade a law, another to defy a law with publicity and challenge the government to prosecute you. Or as Wikipedia defines it: "Civil disobedience is th
658.
by uvdiv 16y ago
Of course not. What I'm saying to the grandparent is, you don't have to be doing something wrong to fail; if the law itself criminalizes competition, than you will fail no matter how good you are at what you do.
659.
by uvdiv 16y ago
The overriding issue is that there is a taxi cartel and the city enforces its quotas: http://www.medallionholders.com/medallions.html You can't just pay for insurance and be legal. You're not allowed to compete, period.
660.
Why UberCab is in trouble. This is the webpage of the S.F. taxi cartel(medallionholders.com)
47 points by uvdiv 16y ago|58 comments

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