Comment Re:It's all about the money. (Score 2) 487
Not all TV news companies are for-profit corporations - take for example the BBC and their countless clones.
Not all TV news companies are for-profit corporations - take for example the BBC and their countless clones.
In norway we say that "it's not the fart that kills you, its the smell" (where fart = speed and smell = crash)
Shame that these tunnels gets too radioactive that I would want to live in one...
No, not really - I would rather estimate it as roughly half the cost.
The big problem with the SSC is that it was a complete green field project, unlike to CERN which started small and then built up.
I'm working in the field, and have never heard this distinction. You're right about collider, but anything which accelerates particles (including particles which are destined to be collided with another beam) can be called a particle accelerator.
This is pretty much what the LHC does. If you look at the dipole magnet cross section [1], you see there are two beam pipes, with oposite magnetic field. Thus we actually have two rings in (mostly) one set of magnets, with counter-rotating beams. These beams are then focused and brought into collision at the four interaction points ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, and ALICE.
If one uses particles of opposite charge, such as matter and antimatter (which was done for LEP, Sp\bar pS and TEVATRON), one can use the same magnets and beam pipes for bending in the ring, but you still need separate sets of magnets for focusing etc., and probably also separate set of RF cavities for acceleration.
[1] http://lhc-machine-outreach.web.cern.ch/lhc-machine-outreach/components/magnets.htm
Thorium is pretty abundant, so its probably not worth figthing over. Most countries have access to enough of the stuff.
Yeah, but there are better and worse DACs - and I would be surprised if the DAC+amplifier of a netbook is on the better end of the scale. That's why people use digital connections to their stereo amplifier and use the onboard DAC of this, which has the benefit of probably being a better chip, with a better filtered power suply, and shorter analog signal path.
You know, there may be issues with the analog bits of your *netbook* not following every hiss and pop, but rather adding some hiss of its own...
Yeah, I've heard the test is pretty easy in the US. We (Norway) have a lot of obligatory training, so for most people the license costs ~2-4000* $.
*) Basic salaries and cost of living is higher than in the US as well, but still, f*ing expensive when you're 18.
Oh, and when you mention electronic brakes: The guy/girl who came out with the idea of the electronic parking brake should be heavily reprimanded, especially for the choice of user interface: A 4th pedal or "drawer", neither which permit quick and precise control of braking force, gives no feedback, and for the 4th pedal, using your HAND on the HANDBRAKE while both your feet are occupied with the clutch and throtle (very usefull when starting in a steep hill with a heavy load or a weak engine).
Gah. I admit to freaking out the first time I got into a car and realized there where 4 pedals and not the 3 I'm used to seeing. I hope they place it far to the left, away from where the clutch is normally sitting, when they build it into a car with automatic transmission. If not, I can totally see myself pushing the parking brake while expecting it to be the clutch, with unexpected effects.
Yeah, I noticed there where no "mechanical feel" to some automatic rentals I've had in the US (living in Europe, where 95% are manuals). It always feels very strange / "video-game-like" to use the manual gear selector on a automatic (for steep downhills / dirt roads / etc. - cases where I'm not going very fast but really want the control myself.).
Does really steer-by-wire steering excist for cars? Also, in ABS brakes, how does it actually interupt braking power - as the breaks DO work (sans amplifier) when power is switched off and there is a hydraulic line from the pedal to the brakes? As for electronic throtles, the ones I've heard of before have some kind of failure detection (usually using redundant & voting systems), and if an error is detected, it sets the throtle angle to "fast idle" (often by a spring loading), i.e. a limp-home-mode where you control the speed by the gear changer. Unless there is a really bad error of course, like in this article...
By the way, there are one completely mechanical mode where you'll get unintended (and very-hard-to-control) acceleration: A diesel engine is controlled not by air flow but by fuel flow. Thus if there is a large leak of engine oil into the cylinders, or the air contains fuel (gas leak etc.), it may rev uncontrollably, and the only way (I know) to stop it is to put so much load on it that its killed, i.e. braking and abruptly dropping it into the highest gear at slow speed. I would think petrol engines may have a similar failure mode if there is a large air leak past the throtle?
And anyway, damaged or broken engine >> (>>>>>) uncontrolled acceleration. People just need to learn to prioritize - a thing you may replace, your life not so much. OTOH, some people behave like idiots, and hopefully they just take themselves out of the gene pool...
Still happy that my car (not a Toyota) has a stick and thus a mechanical clutch pedal
On the other hand, doesn't automatic gearboxes have neutral setting? Wouldn't moving into this be roughly the same as depressing the clutch on a manual gearbox? Of course, the reaction times are longer (since you have to do something unusual when driving an automatic, i.e. touching the shifter while in motion), but for the cases you hear of where they managed to call 911 while figthing to control the vehicle...
It's not always cold:
http://www.yr.no/place/Norway/Oslo/Oslo/Oslo/statistics.html
Sorry if it's in C not F, but in general: 0C is the freezing temp of water, 20 is comfortable, 30 is really hot, -5 is normal cold, -10 is quite cold, and -20 is freeze-your-balls-off-cold. Luckilly, that doesn't happen to often.
Generally the winter weather in the city (which is by the sea, or at least a small fjord) is quite variable. The proximity to water also means that it *may* be humid - and humidity amplifies the feeling of coldness. -20 and dry is really prefferable to -1 when its snowing wet snow (melting on the ground, freezing overnight... Makes it interesting to live in the university student village where most of the exchange students also live...), especially if there is any wind chill...
So yeah, we also do get sticky snow, especially at the ends of the seasons. The frequent temperature cycles also makes for tons of ice. Still, this isn't a problem for trafic lights - I guess it's down to the design. All trafic light lamps have a "baseball cap" sticking out over them, which is rounded and smooth on the top, meaning that wet snow just slips off. Also, there is no need for collimator "blinds" to make it visible in strong sunlight. An finally, there has been a trend for the last ~30 years or so (as in most of Europe) to build roundabouts wherever there is space for one.
They might also have to move the poles around / add more poles. So it migth not be possible to do it on a pole-by-pole basis.
The major difference between bonds and bond traders is that the bonds will eventually mature.