Politics & Propaganda

Wed Nov 30 2011 14:42:03 EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Orbiting energy platforms have been discussed before. The generally agreed upon method of delivering the energy to earth is via a focused microwave beam.
There is some concern that if the beam drifts away from its target collector, it will start cooking people wherever it happens to land.

Whether this is a bad thing is left as an exercise for the reader :)

I remember one version of SimCity which contained exactly these microwave collectors, with abovementioned problems:

Microwave Power:This provides a ton of pollution free power, but once in a while the beam misses the dish. -ZAP- ^Whoops!^ 

Stats:
Size: 4 x 4 tiles
Year Available: 2020
Megawatts: 1600
Tiles Served: 4,848
Pollution: 0 units
Life Span: 50 years
Land Value: 28,000,000
Cost: $28,000
Cost per megawatt: $17.5

Source:  http://sc3k.itgo.com/sc2000/items/powerplant.html

PS: As a german full of typical Angst I agree with dothebart. I think energy efficency and powersavings are more essential than more power sources. We still waste to much. (And no, I am not some kind of "back to the stone age" fanatic, I just think we can build smarter devices and machines.)

Tue Dec 06 2011 10:57:42 EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Economies of scale are important because a big power plant can generate electricity far more efficiently than a bunch of little ones, particularly if we're talking about on-site plants maintained by people who aren't experts dedicated to power generation.

What the little plants do exceptionally well, however, is to keep excessive load off the grid, which no longer has to transport as much electricity to as many places.

Community and municipal power plants would be a good step forward, but good luck getting that past the greenies.

you're missing some other important points.

 - the line length needed to transport the electricity also causes loss (plus lowers reliability)

 - the overal degree of efficiency of the whole system can be increased by using the remainding heat, which you can't that much on a 100MW Nuclear Power Plant.

you can use big power plants (regardless of coal/gas/nuclear) for industrial scales for example in alloy production, or to power railways...

but just to power peoples houses and middle size industry smaller scale power plants scale better.

EcoGeeks speaking sleek Greek?

http://laboratorium.net/archive/2011/12/08/bad_news_from_berkeley

new level in copyrights stupidity.

note-taking prohibited to protect the prof from the students stealing his material.

WTF?

Fri Dec 09 2011 02:46:16 AM EST from dothebart @ Uncensored

http://laboratorium.net/archive/2011/12/08/bad_news_from_berkeley

new level in copyrights stupidity.

note-taking prohibited to protect the prof from the students stealing his material.

WTF?

progress...

how are lazy students supposed to remember what the f'ing lecture was about if they cant take notes? I had several professors tell me "if you do not take notes, i don't expect you to pass." and he would point out the "really important" stuff and hint that it would be on the next exam/final/essay/assignment/etc...

bah

some people learn best by writing down what they're learning. You're discriminating against that segment of the population. Sounds insane to me.

Idiocracy at work. 

Sat Dec 10 2011 11:04:20 AM EST from triLcat @ Uncensored

some people learn best by writing down what they're learning. You're discriminating against that segment of the population. Sounds insane to me.

Exactly my point. If I didn't write it down, I didn't remember it. I still have notes from my college classes that I use on a daily basis (print-making, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, ANSI, ASME, ... the usual drafting stuff).

It's insane to even think that notes are copyright infringement. We had a policy campus-wide in college about notes. You take notes or fail the class. It was part of every single teacher's cirriculum.

I learn by writing, following directions, and direct experience. I can't just sit there and soak up the information. I have to write it down or I'll forget as soon as the instructor is done talking...

Oddly, I can't find any mention of this in the mainstream media at home (tho some uk rags mention it w/o the allahu akbar).

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2011/12/hollywood-jihad-shootout-gunman-calmly-targeted-drivers-people-shouting-allahu-akbar.html

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/hollywood-gunman-shouting-allahu-akbar-fires-upon-random-passersby-at-sunset-and-vine.html

Sadly, I fear that we may be coming to a place where we have more to lose than "just" this war.

Have you seen the news reports coming out of european and asian papers about the Russ-Chinese discussions?  The topic seems once again strangely absent from the standard US/International press.

Tue Dec 13 2011 11:06:20 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

This is disgraceful. Until we can actually admit that radical Islam itself is the enemy, not just Al Qaeda or some other vague group, we're going to continue to lose the war.

Tue Dec 13 2011 11:06:20 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Oddly, I can't find any mention of this in the mainstream media at
home (tho some uk rags mention it w/o the allahu akbar).

This is disgraceful. Until we can actually admit that radical Islam itself is the enemy, not just Al Qaeda or some other vague group, we're going to continue to lose the war.

I thought you guys had already won it