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Comment Re:When the freedom of speech is taken away ... (Score 2, Informative) 319

We already have this in Canada on the books, and is codified in our charter of rights and freedoms. Basically it boils down to: "You can do whatever you want, as long as law or society deem it to be harmful." Generally it's worked out well, and when it's over-reached, people have rallied around getting the law changed and it's happened.

Comment Re:Related - the clack of wheels on the tracks (Score 5, Informative) 790

Guess you don't live in a cold part of the world in the winter, or where it can hit 35C+ in the summer. Around here in Canada, we use 30-50m segments that aren't welded because the tracks shrink and expand so much. Once the temps drop to -20C here, you can lose over an 3cm, and once it gets over 35C with the train's on them they can expand over 10cm causing them to warp off the bed.

So if I walk outside, the next time a train goes by I can hear it hit every clack clearly. Since it's around -20C right now, I can hear it inside my house about 300m away if I pay attention.

Comment Re:So they are doing what? (Score 2) 509

Welcome to the world of SJW's, and progressives. Where "feelings" and "perceived hurtful comments" are all that's required to try and block someone's free speech. But getting yourself killed over said free speech? Say...in the Charlie Hebdo case, well you deserved it. There's no shortage of people coming out from that particular side of authoritarianism proclaiming that they deserved it.

Comment Re:Huh? (Score 1) 134

Really? We don't need to ship oil to the US? I guess that's why we have such a glut of refining capacity right. Well I guess we don't, because every time someone wants to go and build a refinery here some group of environmentalists throw a hissy fit. They even throw a hissy fit at expanding and updating existing refineries. So that's why it would be shipped to refineries in the US right? But, I guess the US has no pollution controls, no labor safety and lower wages then Canada? Well I guess the last one is mostly true. Wages in the US are lower than Canada now.

So now you know why we'd ship it to the US, but since the US environmentalists keep throwing a hissy fit too. Canada will sell it to whoever wants to buy it. It has nothing to do with "wages, pollution controls, or wages." It has all to do with environmentalists and them throwing a fit.

By the way, have you ever been to a reclaimed area? Like a coal mine, or an exhausted oil sand area. Places where nothing was growing before, and now it's in a pristine state. Yeah, I guess it's pretty dirty...

Comment Re:That was quick ... (Score 5, Insightful) 103

Probably none. Despite the whining that people go on about the government here in Canada, they actually do productive things. They have stepped in the past to deal with issues from "autonomous government agencies" like the CRTC, but I'm sure someone is going to whine and cry about my post anyway.

Comment HCCI are efficient like diesel (Score 4, Informative) 89

HCCI engines are a really cool technology, but very hard to do.

Efficiency of internal combustion engines is related to the compression ratio - the ratio of the combustion chamber from largest to smallest capacity.

Gasoline engines usually have a compression ratio around 9:1. Higher, and the compressional heating combined with the heat off of the walls can cause "knocking," which detonation of pockets of fuel/air away from the flame front from the spark plug. Engines with premium gas can run higher compression ratios. Higher-octane fuels can be compressed more without burning, but of course there is no benefit to running it on engines rated for regular.

Diesel engines run ratios of around 17:1, resulting in much greater efficiency. Diesel engines of course don't have spark plugs. The fuel is injected just before top dead center, where the air is compressed maximally. This is in contrast to a gasoline engine, where it is well mixed with air before entering the combustion chamber. Due to compressional heating, it spontaneously combusts very quickly, much faster than the combustion in a spark-plug-ignited gas engine.

HCCI well-mixes the air and gas upon intake, but ignites by compression like diesel. This gives diesel efficiency. In addition to the better compression ratio, HCCI controls power by the amount of fuel injected, like a diesel. Gasoline engines use a throttle to choke off the air supply, which induces losses because the engine has to work harder to pull air at lower power. That's how engine braking works, and also why diesel trucks use a separate "jake brake" to use the engine to brake.

It must run under a leaner mixture. It's really hard to have complete burning of fuel, and avoid knocking. That's why it has to be very carefully computer controlled based on temperature and such.

Comment Re:Huh? (Score 0, Flamebait) 134

If that was true, then in places like Canada, we wouldn't be paying $0.60kWh for solar energy, when nuclear is $0.05kWh, and natural gas is $0.07-0.09kWh. Don't even get me started on wind with it being as high $0.83kWh. Then again, you guys in the states seem to throw a hissy fit every time we want to sell you oil, or even build pipelines to ship it to you. Energy independence? Only if it fits an environmentalist agenda for some people.

Comment Re: Is that engine even running? (Score 1) 89

I can't say there's much of anything interesting at all. Since a lot of the stuff, except what's covered in your last sentence has been done by the old ECU's since the 90's. Even varying supply voltage has been under control since around 1996, the variation of voltage for ECU connected components was down to 0.03v, it's 0.01v these days. It doesn't *have* to be any better than that when the tolerance is +/- 0.04v per sensor. There isn't really a problem with injectors though. It's not hard to figure out the pulse timing per injector when measured against the cam and crank sensors. Even the TBI injectors that came up in the late 80's through 90's before MPFI became the mainstream used only a crank sensor.

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