Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Not a Nazi Plane (Score 1) 353

I hav eno idea what this boom and zoom is. i have never heard of it.

for the F4F, what leveled the playing field was the concept of a wingman (it's where it came from), and staying together in pairs. this marked the end of the days of the lone flying ace, and pilots fighting essentially duels. really in a way, the japanese doomed themselves in air superiority. japanese fighter culture still revered the samurai concept of the lone warrior, and was too slow to adapt to the concept of working in teams.

for the F4F specifically, this was the use of the defensive break, which is basically a modification of the scissors tactic, but where the two allied planes begin scissoring each other, rather than aggressor/defender scissoring. First you always launch more than enough fighters, such that it would be 2 F4Fs against each Zero. so now when the Zero engaged one of the F4Fs, and pursues it, the other plane is naturally in an opposite arc and gets easy shots. though it could be rather hairraising for the guy being chased... But overnight after the adoption of the tactic the Zeros went from dominating the F4F, to the reverse.

Comment Re:Not a Nazi Plane (Score 1) 353

its also not a fighter. at all.
this submission/summary is horrible.
this plane was a RACER. not a fighter. it would make a VERY BAD fighter, and be meaningless at the battle of britian.
also wasnt Bugatti a French company??

Even as a racer this plane is fairly poorly designed, even if it is pretty cool looking. and as a fighter? uh uh. no way. even if it flew (which it never did!), pilots and mechanics alike would hate this thing. maintenance nightmare.

-too small, no reasonable armament payload or range, or both.
-midplaced engines are notorious for overheating. the space is also extremely constrained, and it's very difficult to upgrade later on: they couldnt add super charging to the P39, limiting it to low altitudes. and to keep it cool they had to add enormous air scoops, which is rather counterproductive for a streamlined design, and offsets the aerodynamic gains from mid mounting.
-this thing has at least 3 and probably 4 gearboxes between the engines and the props. both engines are at an angle. the rear engine output has to be turned twice before its inline with the prop. and both outputs but we combined for the contrarotating props, even if its just two shafts, one inside the other.
-all this complexity is rather wasted effort if it's simply so it can drive contrarotating props with 2 blades. too much compelxity for too little gain. better to have a single powerful engine, and either drive a single large prop, or have it drive a gear box that then drives contrarotating props...and one that gets a better bite of air that this tiny things blades. using two engines to drive cotnrarotationg props has been done before, and the results were nearly always subpar. overheating and fires, complexity, underpowered, excessively heavy. if they must have two engines, go for a push pull design, ala the DO335 and a few others. it's quite effective, and much less mechanically complex (and lighter and more reliable).

it's easy to claim 500mph and "turn the tide of battle" for a plane the never flew. overall, this is interesting, but way overhyped.

Comment Re:NIMBY NIMBY NIMBY!!! (Score 1) 317

behold, the rhetorical skills of an ignorant nutcase. and it's funny you should mention education...since mine is an engineering degree that involved various geotechnical, geological, and environmental courses, and I'm currently working on expanding my education specifically into petroleum/energy engineering.

When you have information produced by someone with more than a 6th grade education, let me know.

why you looking for a tutor? because apparently you somehow think faultlines just stop at subsequent rock layers, rather than transcending layers (which they do). here, this wikipedia entry should be helpful. It has pictures, so even you can understand it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...

And I didnt even mention flowback, the injection water that returns to the surface and has to be treated and released....except they dont always treat or capture it, and is another major source of contamination as a result of fracking.

And then there's these...

4 states confirm water pollution from drilling:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

Fracking Wastewater Radioactive and Contaminated, Study Finds:
http://www.livescience.com/401...

Fracking Investigation Finds Evidence of Water Contamination:
http://mashable.com/2014/01/06...

EPA's Study of Hydraulic Fracturing and Its Potential Impact on Drinking Water Resources:
http://www2.epa.gov/hfstudy/hy...

Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

Comment Re:NIMBY NIMBY NIMBY!!! (Score 4, Informative) 317

ya, all those woman who developed cancer, or had their implants burst inside their bodies, sending silicon into various random places or simply making their chests look like golf balls.....they were all faking it.

thought experiment: lets pump water and chemicals into the ground at high pressure specifically for the purpose of fracturing the rock to release entrapped natural gas. the water slurry even helps push it out by displacing it (ie: flowing into the cracks). the entire process rests on the principle of cracking rocks and having water (with chemicals) flow into said cracks.

so just where in hell do you think that water goes?

there's 2 possible answers, both of which are unsatisfactory:
1) into groundwater tables and acquifers (water bearing layers of rock)
2) who knows because at the depths and scales we're talking about, no one really knows with certainity how far the newly created fractures lead*, and whether it connects with a acquifer.

*we do know (regardless of industry claims otherwise) that the fractures are sufficient in size and depth to relieve stresses in the crust triggering earthquakes, so the idea they connect to acquifers is hardly far fetched.

short version: the only wacky person here is you.
and don't make fun of Meryl Streep, she's probably the world's greatest living actress.

Comment Re:Funny how fast things have went to panic mode (Score 1) 235

Well your supposition ("what seems to" you) is wrong. So shutup.

You think you know more, an armchair quarterback with zero scientific knowledge, than the actual climate scientists who actually DO know how the system works, just because you know words like "falsifiable" and "empirical" ??

Here's a clue, just saying those words doesnt make you knowledgeable. It IS falsifiable. It IS testable. These scientists DO KNOW the properties of atmospheric gases and how they affect the rate of energy gain/loss in the atmosphere. They've known for more than 100 years, nearly 200 even!, the first theory of global warming from incerased emissions being created in 1826 by a scientist who pondered what effect all this industrialization and its pumping of pollutants into the air would cause.

You're just another uneducated arm chair denialist who thinks he knows mopre than scientists who actually know what they're talking about. What's next on your agenda? Arguing with Stephen Hawking over black holes?

Comment Re:Here's a Good Summary (Score 1) 235

Cascade failure.

Was just an article yesterday, warming is accelerating because the arctic is melting: smaller ice sheet, less energy reflected by to space, more absorbed directly into the ocean, warming the arctic ocean. the additional energy absorbed is calculated (according to the article) to be equivalent to 25% of the CO2 currently in the atmosphere. That's pretty damn significant.

California (supplier is half of the countrys fruits/veggies and nuts) is in the greatest drought it's ever known, and there's a possibilty that it's not really a drought, but a return to its natural state and the past hundred years were simply an unusually wet period. California provided the right soil and climatic conditions for that kind of productivity (combined with a little help from lots of irrigation). Not that easy to replace good soil and climate. Or missing water, as some 100 towns/cities are finding out as they expect to be totally without water in just 3 months. Totally. Without. Water.

Irrigation is getting harder to replace as water tables nationwide are dropping. As a kid my grandfather lived around Tuscon. Arid, desert kind of place, but their farm (subsistince, not really for market) did ok, and he only had to dig a well 10-15 feet to hit water. During the depression industry lettuce farming companies moved into the valley. Within 4 years they depressed the water table in the valley more than 80 feet. And then left. And he and his brother had to leave too to find work, cause the farm could no longer support the family or its livestock/wildlife, as did many of the other families.

Cascade failure is the problem. You say that maybe we can deal with the problems, and maybe we can for a little bit. It's not that we can't deal with it, its that the whole system can't deal with. And we are dependent on the system. Our food is dependent on the system. Our water supply is dependent on the system. And if the system goes, we go too eventually.

Comment Re:Not to defend America or anything, (Score 1) 357

Honestly, I'd say the existence of Fox News proves just how free our press really is.
Seriously.
Look at them.
How many other countries would tolerate such blatant lying, fear mongering, or asshattery?

Just yesterday they were talking to a writer from some tabloid about his pet theory (on obama coruption of course), in in the space of 30 seconds the talking head interviewing him went from treating the guy's pet theory as "unsubstantiated allegations" to "accepted as obvious fact".

And that's amazing in itself, because usually they skip the whole "allegation" part and jump right to "this is gospel truth".

Comment Re:My kingdom for mod points... (Score 1) 888

Jon Stewart said it best: if the total sum of maximum assistance (TANF, SNAP, etc, combined) equates to 12$/hr, because that is the minimum to get by and survive.......THEN THE MINIMUM WAGE NEEDS TO BE 12$/HR !!

we can adjust this to account whatever hrs/wk equivalence we want (due to many at the low level being treated as part time, and unpredictable hours)...but the goal is that by default anyone who is working is automatically making enough to survive and get by without assistance. it would also mean that minimum wage or low wage jobs would need to provide some level of quality of life, work environment, or other benefits, sufficient that working in that job is more attractive than just taking assistance. this concept is very much like the public insurance option: if you want to make money providing insurance, you need to go above and beyond the minimum.

you would think conservative would support such a notion...BUT NO...they are totally against ANY minimum wage at all. yet they refuse to acknolwedge that lowering or eliminating the Mw would increase the assistance rolls, leading them to yell more about THAT and demonize those folks.

Comment Re:Basic Economics (Score 1) 888

you argument is essentially "wants are infiinte because eventually we can want for a star, or eleventy billionty soliarns", even though that is completely impractical. and that's why no one cares about you nuttsthere are realistic wants, and unrealistic. maybe we can say that unrealistic wants are infinite...but who cares about those? crumple them up and throw them away. wants are not inifinite because you have all you could want for, beyond the ridiculous.

short version: you're a psuedo intellectual troll

Comment Re:Basic Economics (Score 1) 888

there is your fundament flaw: you believe that resources are scarce.
they are not.
we do not have a resource problem.
we have a logistics problem.
we have a distribution problem.

we have public health problems, not frm lack of resources, but lack of will to take care of our sick and mentally ill.

we have financial problems, not from a lack of resources, but a lack of regulation control predatory behaviour and abuses that leads to megabanks creating and then profiting from recessions.

there are plenty of resources. what we lack is the willingness to develope the capability to distribute them, and lack of will to stop those who would abuse this state affairs to their own ends.

Comment Re:Basic Economics (Score 1) 888

are wants really infinite? to say wants are infinite is far too simplistic.
the ultiamte cost of everything is time, and time is for the time being finite for us: we die.

look at the value of money. every additional dollar you get is worth less than the last one. monetarily, it's still a dollar. but you eventually reach a point where you can literally buy everything, and money ceases all value. most importantly, long before that point, you reach a point where you already have everything you actually need or can use/enjoy before dying, long before you even have enough money to buy "everything".

also dont forget that the sT society is a fundamental paradigm shift from our current one. no one in ST works out of a need to do so, out of a need to work or die/starve. they work for the betterment of themselves or mankind, or both. they literally live for each other. so applying (flawed) high school econ to that society is cmpletely out of place.

Slashdot Top Deals

The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get to work.

Working...