Stavros_Oz - Slashdot User

Comment We've been doing it for years....... (Score 4, Interesting) 1219

by Stavros_Oz on Friday December 31, 2010 @09:44PM (#34726488) Attached to: 'No Refusal' DUI Checkpoints Coming To Florida?

Do it the way we have been successfully doing it here in Victoria, Australia for over two decades. Random breath testing, either preliminary testing performed by ANY cop doing ANY stop using a hand held device, or process an entire stream of traffic using one of thirty-odd 'booze buses', each equipped with several cops who breath test everybody, AND can also perform the second stage (analytical) breath test on site (in the specially equipped bus). Yeah, you CAN refuse a breath test, that's easy, but you're then charged with refusing to take a breath test which carries the same penalty as if you blew the end off the range!! No we don't enforce 'mandatory taking of blood', after all that would be considered a deprivation of a citizen's rights in some enlightened cultures. But refusal = guilty, it's your choice!! Also for the past few years the booze buses are being converted to booze/drugs buses and a saliva test is used to check drivers for cannabis or amphetamine use. Some may scream of invasion of privacy, but the statistics clearly reflect the good that is done by this initiative. Road fatalities have fallen by 2/3!!! Injuries have fallen a similar amount. Stavros_Oz, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

Comment LAKI has done it before.... (Score 1) 283

by Stavros_Oz on Friday April 16, 2010 @02:03AM (#31868354) Attached to: Iceland Volcano's Ash Grounds European Air Travel

This is only a little volcano, stuffing up air travel for a number of countries. It will compound itself as outlying airports get 'stuffed' with waiting flights or flights that can go no further. However, this could just be the thin end of the wedge. Take a look at Wikipedia about the LAKI volcano in the 1760's, it erupted for TWO YEARS, and a neighboring volcano an extra FIVE YEARS. This allegedly caused MONUMENTAL climate change globally for many years; culminating in famine in Europe that eventually was the pre-cursor to the French Revolution. Other global famines have been attributed to this event too. Let's just hope this one quietens down quickly. Steve - Australia

Fuel Cell Marvel "Bloom Box" Gaining Momentum 562

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 22, 2010 @04:17PM from the new-hotboxing dept.

Many sources are continuing to excitedly report on the latest in a long line of startups chasing the holy grail of power sources. This incarnation, the "Bloom Box" from Bloom Energy, promises a power-plant-in-a-box that you can literally put in your backyard, and has received backing from companies like eBay, Google, Staples, FedEx, and Walmart. CBS recently aired an exclusive interview with K.R. Sridhar about his shiny new box. "So what is a Bloom Box exactly? Well, $700,000 to $800,000 will buy you a 'corporate sized' unit. Inside the box are a unique kind of fuel cell consisting of ceramic disks coated with green and black 'inks.' The inks somehow transform a stream of methane (or other hydrocarbons) and oxygen into power, when the box heats up to its operating temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius. To get a view of the cost and benefits, eBay installed 5 of the boxes nine months ago. It says it has saved $100,000 USD on energy since."

Using EMP To Punch Holes In Steel 165

Posted by timothy on Saturday January 16, 2010 @12:25AM from the you'll-need-some-big-batteries dept.

angrytuna writes "The Economist is running a story about a group of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology in Chemnitz, Germany, who've found a way to use an EMP device to shape and punch holes through steel. The process enjoys advantages over both lasers, which take more time to bore the hole (0.2 vs. 1.4 seconds), and by metal presses, which can leave burrs that must be removed by hand."

Tech Tools Fostering "Mini Generation Gaps" 322

Posted by kdawson on Sunday January 10, 2010 @03:27PM from the you-way-twitter-i-say-facebook dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times has an interesting report on the iGeneration, born in the '90s and this decade, comparing them to the Net Generation, born in the 1980s. The Net Generation spend two hours a day talking on the phone and still use e-mail frequently while the iGeneration — conceivably their younger siblings — spends considerably more time texting than talking on the phone, pays less attention to television than the older group, and tends to communicate more over instant-messenger networks. 'People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,' says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. 'College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.' Dr. Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, says that the iGeneration, unlike their older peers, expect an instant response from everyone they communicate with, and don't have the patience for anything less. 'They'll want their teachers and professors to respond to them immediately, and they will expect instantaneous access to everyone, because after all, that is the experience they have growing up,' says Rosen." Read below for another intra-generational wrinkle.

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