Try as I might with these poor images, I can find only one hull. So many elegant multihull designs in recent decades and he has chosen a barge. It's not just speed that he's sacrificed, it's comfort, safety, fuel efficiency, ability to approach shallow water and, as so many have noticed, class.
Since they don't provide any useful facts, allow me to insert pseudo facts to fill the gap.
First, the words 'especially ethanol' ring a bit hollow due to the low fuel efficiency and great cost in terms of equipment, raw materials, etc relative to petroleum. Reserve the word 'especially' for biodiesel- a much more promising but still long term project.
Now if we start with 100k tons of grape stuff and push our imaginations to the extreme, let's suppose that will support 100k vehicles. That would be 2% of the vehicles in California (pseudo facts, remember). The land, plant and equipment to process the grape stuff will cost $23M (partly offset by generous federal grants but encumbered with additional costs for environmental studies, protests and court hearings). Assuming that the equipment works and the private enterprise receiving the grant money hasn't absconded with the money or cut corners on costs, we now have one hundred thousand vehicles operating for, say, five years at an annual fuel cost of $__________ . What's the point of doing the math when the numbers are fake?
Ennywhey it looks like a boondoggle to me. Only the Governor's friend who gets the grant money will be happy with the results.
"might be prudent to establish an on-line persona that can't be traced"
It would be prudent for everyone to do so. And everyone should encrypt every communication possible.
The simple reason is that if only 1% seek privacy, then governments and others can simply focus their great power on that 1%; but when everyone seeks privacy it is more difficult to snoop on any particular 1%.
Yes, it will be harder to pin down bad guys & terrorists, but that's the wrong approach anyway. When people are educated, treated with respect, given medical attention and given opportunities to prosper there won't be any terrorists, and mentally ill 'bad' guys will be managed with dignity.
I'm very confused as to why it is desirable to restore cuts.
Or even possible.
If cuts exist, how can they be restored?
Perhaps he wants to increase cuts?
Or perhaps everyone at
I'm pretty sure that most of you want FUNDING restored, not CUTS.
In 1955 our 5th grade class (in the US) was told that there is a 'master plan' to convert to the metric system. As a result we spent two days in a mandatory exploration and comparison of metric measurements.
Personally I won't be satisfied until we have a metric system for measuring time.
Why shouldn't we give our billion dollar ideas away?
And who is more deserving than our military establishment?
Perhaps some exceptions among the liberal arts.
Classical education was about exploring our universe. From the internal (psychology, medicine etc), the external (sociology, physics, astronomy, languages etc). The Gods offered ways of projecting the essence of human nature in stereotypical form suitable for discussion and analysis. The educated person could exchange original thoughts about any discipline.
Today every college major is a job training routine. Nobody is interested in education, everyone wants a job. If you can say of yourself "I am a
Education in its most recent European incarnation (Renaissance) was designed for gentlemen and to some extent for gentlewomen. People who needed the knowledge to communicate with gentlepeople from other lands about politics, business, war, economics, trends, etc. People who were expected to represent their respected families and countries. People who would set an example for others less educated. It was unthinkable that an educated person would not know several languages, that a well bred woman would not be able to play piano, that a child might not be equipped to spew the most elegant insults to his mates.
America received a bit of that attitude about education in the person of Benjamin Franklin and a few others, but generally declined into a morass of religious superstition which continues today.
I was an English major. I was beset with inquiries about my planning to be a teacher (the only occupation open to English majors). I tried to explain that I was merely interested in language and creative writing. This explanation was incomprehensible to other students.
Despite my classical education (some sciences, philosophy, arts, programming, electronics and quite a lot of business courses), I am still blue collar. Nobody will hire me for what I am capable of. They only see a useless degree.
However hungry I may become, I have immense satisfaction in my broad perspective. I feel that I have a fuller sense of my environment, of the past and future, of human nature, of the essence of math, logic and physics. Could be my imagination but my life is a process of growing, expanding in every direction.
It seems there are two ways of observing our environment. With our eyes, we see straight ahead. We focus, perhaps on programming, and to the extent that we focus, we eliminate all else. Most Nobel winners are highly focused. The other way of observing is as we do with our ears. All sounds, from all directions come to us. To the extent that we can hear and absorb, we admit a wide spectrum of understanding. Da Vinci consumed a wide spectrum. Some balance of these two is probably ideal.
If you want a McJob at minimum wage, expect to be fingerprinted, probed and studied. You will take tests, have your references checked and be watched constantly while on the clock and off. Your FeceBook and other activities will be scrutinized, your credit checked and you better not pick your nose where a street camera can spot you.
If you want a job in Congress, all you need is a big mouth and enthusiastic handshake. Ethics, intelligence, education not required. You will be guided; told what to say, what to do, when to do it by the best handlers that money can buy. Make a mistake and they will cover for you. Usually.
Wow. Dramatic video of catching a perpetrator. And interesting representation of what a laser hit looks like in a helicopter. It's so easy to become captivated by a video even if it has no relevance.
How many tragedies have resulted from these thousands of incidents?
If I can just learn if there were 5 or 50 or 500 fatalities resulting from laser strikes, then I will be better able to weigh the significance of the problem. I'm pretty sure that is what elected officials will be asking.
Each year a certain number of people die from drowning in their bathtub. A few die from shark attacks. Some, including celebrities, die from erotic asphyxiation (hah! I speled that rite on the frist tri!). Legislators have to decide where is the most effective place to put their limited funds and protect people from a dangerous world.
But rather than dwell on the past I prefer, with the little free time available, to take the advice of my sig:
As professor Irwin Corey, world's foremost authority, might have said; "Scientists know best- never trust science to engineers and mechanics."
And so we have Scientists designing rocket cars. Why? Well apparently they majored in Rocket Science, a course offered only at the prestigious Brighton School of Rocket Science and Hard Knocks.
To add even more prestige to the stunning development of this unique rocket car, respected Science publisher iScienceTimes has consented to publish an abstract of the work to date. You will recall some of their recent work:
Ancient Statue Discovered By Nazis Is From Outer Space, and;
Looking At Cute Animal Pictures Good For Productivity
So, let's hear it for SCIENCE! Ain't it the best, folks!
As a programmer, senior member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and user of software, I've accumulated some ideas about what works.
The primary factor is design. Before any coding is done, there should be design. It's the same for movie producers, authors, web designers and people who make products in the physical world. Start with a storyboard before anyone touches a computer. Think like a user. Think like Apple. You want a fantastic design before coding.
What is Design? Of course it is about accomplishing some task efficiently. It's about speed, CPU consumption, storage & memory requirements. But referring to the user and documentation, it's mostly about the User Interface.
If you're updating legacy software your job can be more difficult. Existing users will complain about any change, but if you come up with a fantastic user interface that uses the same data sets, they'll get over it.
If you're programming esoteric stuff like a disk operating system (please do, we need something badly), nobody but a few engineers will see it so documentation is easy- they speak your language.
Test every step of the way with input from potential users. Adjust, but always with the Design in mind. Users should instinctively know how to achieve their goals with your software. I'm not talking about Mathematica, Autocad or C++ here, but everyday software used at home and in business. (I do have a gripe with Autocad, however, for taking so long to improve their user interface while others had to show the way.)
In many cases, if you did it right, no documentation will be necessary (Just the required safety warnings, FCC and other regulatory comments, patent, trademark and copyright notices, warranty limitations, etc (barely 20 pages). If you didn't do it right, you can hire one of the thousands of professional technical communicators around the world to make learning it tolerable for users.
Sorry, I have no idea what TFA is about. Please help.
Last I checked it seemed that half of San Francisco was sharing open wifi connections. Yes, that might expose you to nasty hackers. I haven't heard of any problems though. I'd guess that on average, SF surfers are more sophisticated than Nevada surfers, yet they exposed themselves for the public good.
Would it be such a terrible thing if 75% of all wifi connections were shared openly? Not good for the ISPs who charge $100/mo, but good for the poor, good for the soul of the generous.
Is paranoia a tool for monopolist ISPs, security software providers, homeland security and the Republican conspiracy to spread FUD to get what they want? Can we shake off that dark cloud and show some public spirit?
What protections would be appropriate for an ordinary person who is willing to share their internet connection with their neighbors?
"Robotic Aircraft for Public Safety (RAPS)"
Ah, "Public Safety"! Can't you just see it now? Robot helicopters intelligently lifting flood victims from rooftops, rescuing kittens from treetops, spraying killer bee swarms with sleep inducing chemicals. They'll come to the aid of lost hikers, climbers and avalanche victims. They will patrol for lost boaters and surveil and protect tagged endangered species from predators- human or other. Their eye in the sky will alert emergency services of serious auto accidents, fires, or weather conditions. They will survey bridge structures and other critical infrastructure for damage, weakness and risk of failure. Their sensors will give us early warning of radiation leaks, chemical spills, dangerous pollutants, and excess allergens.
They will be our Public Safety angel!
I'm sure this is what our beneficent government has in mind, right?
"Sometimes insanity is the only alternative" -- button at a Science Fiction convention.
