Comment Re:So what? (Score 1) 233
This isn't research. It's just an engineering competition for engineering students. You know, getting out of the classroom and doing hands-on work and all that good stuff.
This isn't research. It's just an engineering competition for engineering students. You know, getting out of the classroom and doing hands-on work and all that good stuff.
He did become famous. Just now. When was the last time something you did personally was reported on by the world media? I'm not saying that your criticism is misplaced, just that you're using the wrong argument. More significant than becoming rich or famous is whether you have done anything worthwhile and the answer in this case is no.
The fact of the matter is the US doesn't build roads to the same quality (27inch depth) of the Autobahn
We have an area several times larger than the entire country of Germany to pave, of course we can't build roads with 3 feet of cement, we'd go bankrupt and then some: we'd have to suck up the entire world output of cement for a decade or more to do it.
There are two ways in which electric heat can be said to be "inefficient." First, there are two ways to generate heat from electricity. You can use resistive dissipative heating, which you are thinking of, or you can operate a heat pump. Heat pumps are more common in cold climates and can reach something like 130% efficiency by taking heat from outside and moving it into the cold house- plus the 100% heat dissipation from electric losses in the pump itself. Compare this to a maximum efficiency of 100% for resistive heating alone. The downside of course is that a heat pump is far more expensive than a resistive heater.
However, electric heating is painfully inefficient when you look at the best solution- directly burning the energy source in the home. Think about it: to get that electricity to run your electric heater, the power company has to burn fuel in a power plant. The power plant efficiency is maybe 40%, meaning the remaining 60% of the heat released during combustion gets dumped into the environment. Then, the electricity must be transmitted over the grid which is only maybe 70% efficient. That means resistance heating, though 100% efficient starting at the wall socket, is less than 30% efficient overall when considering the original energy content of the fuel. Burning the fuel to directly obtain its heat is much better than converting it to electricity to transmit it first.
I wonder if there's a correlation between number of tabs open and messiness of desk. It's the same concept- we are reluctant to put away things we were looking at just a couple minutes ago and might need them in the future.
For the record, I usually have over 20 tabs open and a fairly messy desk to match.
From the Article:Recent aggressive moves by the RIAA have prompted the folks at Gizmodo to declare the month of March as Boycott the RIAA Month complete with an Anti-RIAA manifesto."
""Gizmodo is declaring the month of March Boycott the RIAA month. We want to get the word out to as many people as humanly possible that we can all send a message by refusing to buy any album put out by an RIAA label. Without their millions of dollars to throw at lawyers, the RIAA is toothless. They get their money from us, the consumers, and if we don't like the way they're behaving, we can let them know with our wallets.
A refreshing bipartisan effort to return Fair Use to it's rightful place as the law of the land. (for media content, anyway)"Today, Reps. Rich Boucher (D-Va.) and John Dolittle (R-Calif.) introduced what they call the "Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship" (or FAIR USE) Act they say will make it easier for digital media consumers to use the content they buy.
I think there's a world market for about five computers. -- attr. Thomas J. Watson (Chairman of the Board, IBM), 1943