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Comment Re:There's also the price... (Score 1) 448

Broadband rectifying antennas aren't anything new really, sure the background RF from towers, other sources is quite significant, and most experts would point out that you can't power a bluetooth chipset on a few microwatts of harvested power - but you could use it to charge a capacitor and periodically power the chipset. An update every 30 seconds instead of continuous monitoring of an item still works for me. The only problem with making the tag so small is you don't have much space to make an antenna for longer wavelengths.

Comment Re:Bad move (Score 3, Informative) 280

Well this Mike Hopkins guy is mostly comparing neutron yields from the D-T reaction LPP were testing with. Lerner inevitably wants to use the p-B reaction which produces no neutrons (aside from residual gas sources), however to test his pinch device using D-T is much easier as the fusion temperature is lower. It also makes for a good comparison to other pinch devices. Since the p-B reaction yields mostly photons they seek to make a fusion device from the charged particles (a stream of electrons and ions) and the photon energy collected via photoelectric current. Some of those gammas are uncapturable but the energy still captured is supposedly a net gain once they can get a high enough plasma temperature.

Engineering the Photon Capture Sphere Thing (PCST) to capture photons and electrons while not activating all the material with a 100-year half-life used in its construction, nor having it rip itself apart from dissimilar metals and thermal gradients, not having an unacceptably high rate of particles sputter the crap out of inside, is all non-trivial and would require significant trial-and-error builds. This is of course assuming they manage to make a working p-B reaction with their pinch. Best of luck to Lerner, but I'm not counting on seeing any significant results unless some billionaire type takes a risk on him.

Comment Re:A lense cover (Score 1) 363

Google Glass as an assistive device for the legally blind would fit a similar role. Especially with facial recognition enabled and audio feedback to the wearer, and just disable the display or make it a big block of colour output for people who are still 'blind' but can see a bit of light.

I imagine they would need two so they could obtain enough spatial information to aide in navigation.

However, I would feel bad for the legally blind to be assaulted for wearing Google Glass.

Comment Re:Well done, Vladimir! (Score 2) 88

Still incomparable:

a) Kosovo doesn't share a border with the United States

b) Crimea had an ethnic cleansing attempt by the Russians - you can't argue that Kosovo had all sorts of Americans move to Kosovo to make a majority American population so they can vote to be annexed by America....

c) Kosovo is recognized by 108 UN member states. Crimea ... I think only by Russia so far.

d) Kosovo, another "autonomous region" was part of a country that was falling apart. Funny how Milosevic revoked Kosovo's autonomous status triggering the breakup of Yugoslavia to further his "Greater Serbia" agenda.

e) If you want to compare Puerto Rico, I guess lets go back to the 19th century and compare things:
The Imperial census of Crimea in 1897 found that the population of the governorate consisted of 1,447,790, with 762,804 male and 684,986 female.
Language Number Percentage (%)
Ukrainian (Little Russian) 611,121 42.21
Russian (Great Russian) 404,463 27.94
Belarusian (White Russian) 9,726 0.67

By this standard Crimea belongs to Ukraine.

It is grossly undemocratic and unethical to hold a referendum in Crimea when:

1) the Parliament of the so called "autonomous region of Crimea" was raided by Russian paramilitaries

2) the federal government which the "autonomous region of Crimea" lies within: Ukraine, is under civil strife and is holding elections in a few months.

3) Russia itself conducts massive military exercises near the border, in addition to holding a port they lease from the Ukrainian government while having their own forces step off the base and surround Ukrainian military bases.

For the above reasons no one at the UN should recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea, and no referendum result should be observed until Ukrainian federal elections are held under international supervision until international observers agree on the election result. All of this is bullshit otherwise.

"Russian self defence forces" - what a fucking joke.

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