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Comment Re:Can't see this taking off (Score 0) 170

The States are responsible for overseeing elections. "They" are just trying to restore the standards that have been in place since the founding of the Republic.

Well, since at the founding of the Republic, only white land-owning Christian males could vote, you are correct.

Submission + - SPAM: Breakthrough in reverse osmosis may lead to energy-efficient seawater desalinati 3

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Making fresh water out of seawater usually requires huge amounts of energy. The most widespread process for desalination is called reverse osmosis, which works by flowing seawater over a membrane at high pressure to remove the minerals.

Now, Purdue University engineers have developed a variant of the process called "batch reverse osmosis," which promises better energy efficiency, longer-lasting equipment and the ability to process water of much higher salinity. It could end up a difference-maker in water security around the world.

Reverse osmosis is used in many countries; in arid places like the Middle East, more than half of the fresh drinking water supplies come from desalination facilities. But to maintain the high level of pressure required for the process—up to 70 times atmospheric pressure—a desalination plant must employ large numbers of pumps and other equipment. And that uses a lot of energy.

"About a third of the lifetime cost of a desalination plant is energy," said David Warsinger, a Purdue assistant professor of mechanical engineering. "Even small improvements to the process—a few percentage points of difference—can save hundreds of millions of dollars and help to keep CO2 out of the atmosphere."

Solution to rising sea level: drink it.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Scenarios for how AirTags could be used (or misused) (tidbits.com)

Submitted by eggboard
eggboard writes: Apple’s AirTags provide long-lived ubiquitous tracking in a coin-sized device wherever anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac lives, works, walks, or drives by. This can be great to find missing objects and where you parked your car, but are they good for averting theft or recovering stolen items? And they’re rife for abuse.

Comment And old George didn't even have a flip phone (Score 1) 241

by paiute (#61285756) Attached to: China and Huawei's Dystopian 'New IP' Plan for 6G
“There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always— do not forget this, Winston— always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever. ”

Comment Re: Not surprising and not chemically identical (Score 1) 104

The reason behind the use of the different letters is their different chemical behaviour though. You use D often enough it would be a pain to write H^2 every time. When you are buying deuterated NNR solvent, or writing H/D solvent exchange mechanisms, it's simply easier to use D rather than H^2. If other isotopes were used as commonly, they would have developed their own additional letter code!

True but misleading. As someone who made his living for many years synthesizing compounds labeled with 2H and 3H and 12C and 14C, I would have used a shorthand for the carbon isotopes, but there are none. It is just a historical oddity that 2H and 3H ended up with trivial names.

Comment Re:Not surprising and not chemically identical (Score 2) 104

The fact chemists give Deuterium a different letter, D rather than H, gives you a hint they consider it to behave differently. C12 and C13 don't get different letters, they get a superscript instead.

Since the only difference is their weight, it only really matters for H. He doesn't really do any interesting chemistry it doesn't get it's own letter for different isotopes like H does.

Chemists do use superscripts to denote the different hydrogens (imagine the numbers are superscripted): 1H for hydrogen, 2H for deuterium, 3H for tritium. We use the shorthand H, D, and T because we can. There is no equivalent short name for 12C, 13C, and 14C, so we have to use the superscripted designations.

The behavior of an isotope has nothing to do with how we represent it in a formula - that is specified in the IUPAC naming conventions/rules.

Helium does have isotopic forms and are designated in the standard way as 3He and 4He.

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