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Comment Re:Legal precedent (Score 1) 35

I think some EU laws also fine companies based on their global revenue - for GDPR complaints, for example - so there is legal precedent and I'm not sure how it could be unconstitutional. Multinational companies evade laws and tax by playing around countries one against another, so I would say it's fair game to hit them globally instead of just aiming at the subsidiary acting in the country where misbehavior occurs.

Many of those same countries willing offer incentives to get companies to locate operations there; it's not like they are innocent victims. Actions like India's will lead to counter actions to retaliate for such fines, resulting ultimately in both sides being hurt or one backing down.

Comment Re:Shenanigans (Score 1) 113

That's however not at all related to what we are building these days and there's little to no walking around or checking anything. A large portion of modern process design is reducing the need to read anything. Sensors are cheap. Data recording is cheap. Everything is digital. For a project it now costs almost as little to install a wireless pressure gauge than it does a physical one (same for every other process measurement). For a greenfield construction the cost of wiring is borderline irrelevant too so even wired equipment costs little more.

Certainly sensor technology has improved with modern designs, but the notion you can rely on sensors alone is wrong, and dangerous, IMHO. Sensor fail, power is lost, etc.; all of which will require an operator to check. Even with advanced sensor technology, there are things that indicate problems that sensors will not pick up. Even something as a valve failing to operate, developing a packing leak, or its position indicator giving a false reading will need an operator to check. If you 'bury' the reactor and have to shut it down to check on something to verify sensor readings, you may find the costs to operate way higher than you expected. As much as I think nuclear has a key role to play, the idea that a plant can simply be 'buried' and operated fully remotely seems to be more a dream than a reality.

Comment Re:Shenanigans (Score 2) 113

Well false, and covered.

Firstly no, nuclear plants do not require daily maintenance. In fact the core / steam loops are largely maintenance free outside of planned shutdowns years in advance. Maintenance is usually only carried out every 24 months.

They actually do require frequent routine maintenance, from dealing with everything from packing leaks, checking unusual equipment readings, etc. There is a reason someone is walking around secondary and taking readings and checking equipment. Having to shut it down every time would really impact its output.

Comment Re:The talented ones can (Score 1) 259

Thus 5x3 becomes 5x5x5 or 3x3x3x3x3 instead of "STFU and memorize your times tables."

I'm fine with the repeated addition. My objection is the OR in your statement. Apparently not. The question was 5x3 and the kid wrote 5+5+5=15 and got marked wrong with no explanation because the teacher wanted 3+3+3+3+3=15. So I guess that you would have had a 50% chance of being marked wrong on a 2nd grade arithmatic worksheet as well, as absurd as that is. Correct answer notwithstanding.

BTW, that's not at all new. We covered multiplication that way in the 3rd grade back in 1975. Memorizing the table was just to make it quicker. I quickly "discovered" the commutative property while looking at the multiplication table and cut my memorization load in half. The part that confused the father was why is 5x3 = 5+5+5=15 "wrong".

As for 37+55, we decomposed that in the '70s as well, but I soon decided the easier decomposition was 37+55= 87+5 = 90+2=92. So I would say that meme was just someone wanting to complain. Of course the "old way" ends up in 30+50+10+2 anyway.

Shut up and memorize was not in practice during the education of the parents of today's students.

Comment Re:The talented ones can (Score 1) 259

It was my example. It came from a photograph of the worksheet posted to Reddit by the child's father, who was wondering why the answer was 'wrong'.

Surely you don't expect the 2nd graders to start on Clifford algebras any time soon. They need to learn to walk before they run. Note that by the time you're multiplying vectors and matrices the process involved is sufficiently different from multiplying real numbers that not being commutative is not going to be an issue. I recall my high school math teacher demonstrating non-commutative multiplication. I was not confused in spite of having figured out the commutative nature of simple multiplication in elementary school.

Comment Re: Case in point (Score 1) 210

The speech to text can be nice (even if my phone keeps writing "free cat" when I say FreeCAD), but it clearly has significant limitations. I still can't even guess why my phone can respond to "flashlight on" but fails at "flashlight off".

It's also amazing that it's possible to draw a metal wire thinner than a human hair and even more amazing that it's possible to drill a neat hold through it's width without breaking it, but I really don't have much use for that day to day.

As for image generation, quick, how many fingers am I holding up on my right hand? (hint: not 6).

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