Sounds like they're doing something wrong. Most of the trafic lights in Oslo* where switched to LED the last 10 years, and I can't remember that ever happening...

* Where it does sometimes get... hmm.. cold. And sometimes we get a few meters of snow too, which stays untill... spring. No polar bears walking around in the streets tough, that's Longyearbyen at Svalbard (island faaaaaaaaar north) :)

Unfortunately, so does LED. They tested a similar rollout in Oslo recently, but had to stop when they discovered that the LEDs aged far more rapidly than the old sodium fixtures.

Source:
http://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/2013/06/17/her-er-grunnen-til-oslo-satte-full-stopp-pa-led-utbyttingen

In this case its not patented, but if it where, just declaring the patents invalid would be a bad idea. If they did that, european nations may also look at which patents are annoying AND held by US companies, and declare some of them invalid as well.

Basically, this isn't worth risking a trade war over, and it isn't worth starting up a production line because of it. Alternatives exsist. The EU also knows that it isn't worth the risk for the US - that's why they do it.

But is Iran using these drugs for executions? Because that's what the threathened export ban to the US is about. I doubt we're selling high-speed centrifuges (for isotope separation / nuclear weapons programs) etc. to Iran either.

Yeah. I've visited SF a few times (living in Europe), and the transit there is a sad joke. BART must be the worlds slowest subway system, CalTrain is a diesel train crossing everywhere at street level (making HOOOOT HOOOOT HOOOOOOOOOOT noises as it does), the highways are generally clogged, and inside SF its even worse. Only good thing is that CalTrain alows you to bring your bike - most sensible method of transportation inside SF, and the Marguerite shuttle network around Stanford/SLAC, which also allows you to bring a bike - excelent when you're working at SLAC on the top of the hill, while living in Menlo at the bottom of it, and the SLAC shuttle stops running before I normally leave work...

This isn't a (huge) problem in most other subway systems I've used. Never been to NY tough, so maybe people are completely different there - but I would suspect not.

Having frequent departures also helps this - missing a train isn't a big deal if there is another one comming in ~5 minutes or so, worse if you have to wait 15 or more.

Quantuum mech on simple systems != large systems. For larger systems, "normal" thermodynamics applies.

I would be surprised if everything - especially valve springs and other timing-critical parts - are just scaled dimensionally.

A better example than a engine is a pendulum, which period is 2*pi*sqrt(L/g). If you change L, the frequency changes. If this pendulum (or similar part) is part of a machine, and there are multiple such parts, which doesn't neccessarily scale the same way, you end up with parts which was syncronized at one scale, not being synchronized at another scale. For an interference engine, that would mean something like the valve not closing properly before the cylinder comes -> clash & extensive damage.

The illegality may at least discourage repair shops from publicly advertizing such services.

I've been thinking the same about US universities - they all seem to have some kind of "campus police" - is that really needed, can't you just call the normal police when needed, plus maybe have a few normal security people to switch off the lights, lock the doors, and let people who's forgotten their keys/access card in/out?

But wounded horses, especially those that where unlucky to break a leg (not easy to heal properly), end up on the table. And yes, horse meat often taste very good - more taste than beef, usually tender, and much cheaper.

At least here in France there is a nice section with horse in the supermarket next to beef etc. - I think it is actually bigger than sheep meat (opposite of my native Norway, where most supermarkets carry horse (and good ones, whale), but sheep is at least as common as cow).

Please mod parent up!

In the case of climate simulations, different models (both physics-wise and code-wise) are run with different computers on the same input data, and yield basically the same results.

When simulation chaotic behaviour, very small differences can make a big difference in the outcome of your simulations. As an example, I'm currently working on simulations of sparks in vacuum, which is a "runaway" process. In this case, adding a single particle early in the simulations (before the spark actually happens) can change the time for the spark to appear by several tens of %. This also happens if we are running with different library versions (SuperLU, Lapack), different compilers, and different compiler flags. Once the spark happens, the behaviour is predictable and repeatable - but the time for it to happen, as the system is "balancing on the edge, before falling over", is quite random.

There are plenty of sources of coal around the world - for example Germany runs / used to run quite large coal mines.