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Comment Re:Ayn Rand? (Score 2) 408

Man, none of you guys have a clue. Have you read Rand or are you just regurgitating what you read on Wikipedia?

Rand's philosophy isn't about wealth, it's about expecting a fair reward for your inspiration and sweat.

Money isn't something that is simply printed out by the government; it’s the output of a man's mind and back. It isn't a zero sum game. if you think smarter or work harder you should do well. Those who do not think or work don't produce anything and can't do well -- unless they steal it from those who do. The world is a better place because of those who think and work.

According to this philosophy those who do well aren't necessarily rich they can be anyone from all walks of like.

On the other hand, the Karl Marx philosophy is about theft. Those who need take precedent over those who produce. There are so many demonstrations of the failure of this system that it's a laugh to see it even discussed here.

Comment Re:All depends (Score 1) 315

It's clearly a hoax, at least in the implication that the cart can sustain faster than wind travel.

The propeller is capturing wind energy while the cart is moving slower than the wind. Later that energy is used to temporarily propel the cart faster than the wind. Note that in the video they stop the cart immediately after they get to top speed.

Another thing to consider -- while the cart is moving near wind speed there may be other effects (air turbulence) that cause the flags to move opposite the direction of travel.

Obviously, if the cart were moving faster than the wind, then in it's reference frame the wind would be going against it. How can you get positive acceleration from a negative force?

Comment Will Ford Destroy the highway system? (Score 5, Interesting) 577

Your intrepid reported, reporting from 1910...

Many people are reporting the growing difficulty of navigating their horses and buggies through the town streets due to the growing presence of noisy and fast moving motor cars made by Henry Ford. Predictions are that because of this obnoxious growth in motor cards that our highways will become completely unusable within 10 years!

Comment Re:Not the TSP (Score 1) 394

Yes, that's what I was thinking too.

Another problem is that the bees aren't constrained to follow our roads, which are non-direct. Based on the distance travelled and the turns made, the bee can quickly deduce there must be a shorter path and then just fly a more direct route. This won't work for a salesman because he may take what he believes to be a shorter road and find that it’s actually longer. Because of these path limitations the travelling salesman problem is a more difficult to solve.

Earth

The Rise of Small Nuclear Plants 490

ColdWetDog writes "The Oil Drum (one of the best sites to discuss the technical details of the Macondo Blowout) is typically focused on ramifications of petroleum use, and in particular the Peak Oil theory. They run short guest articles from time to time on various aspects of energy use and policies. Today they have an interesting article on small nuclear reactors with a refreshing amount of technical detail concerning their construction, use, and fueling. The author's major thesis: 'Pick up almost any book about nuclear energy and you will find that the prevailing wisdom is that nuclear plants must be very large in order to be competitive. This assumption is widely accepted, but, if its roots are understood, it can be effectively challenged. Recently, however, a growing body of plant designers, utility companies, government agencies, and financial players are recognizing that smaller plants can take advantage of greater opportunities to apply lessons learned, take advantage of the engineering and tooling savings possible with higher numbers of units, and better meet customer needs in terms of capacity additions and financing. The resulting systems are a welcome addition to the nuclear power plant menu, which has previously been limited to one size — extra large.'"

Comment Re:Wait... They want them to dumb things down... (Score 1) 511

Well, how about you're wrong! Carbon Dioxide is already dense enough in the atmosphere that it blocks about all of the outgoing radiation that it could possibly block, adding more CO2 only amounts to lowering the level in the atmosphere where the radiation is blocked. So a doubling of CO2 will only make a slight blip in the temperature. That much is settled science and what happens after that is where it gets complicated. The warmists say that as a result of this slight CO2 induced warming other resulting changes produce a positive feedback that will cause a dramatic rise in temperatures while the skeptics contend that isn't so. And that is the part that is NOT settled science.

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