Posts by Martin Budden 2493 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007
There's no mention in the synopsis of the researchers taking into account wind direction and speed, but I'll bet good money the bees did. If the researchers forgot about wind, it may be the case that the bees did even better than the researchers think they did.
Visiting Mars would be awesome. Skiing is awesome. Skiing on Mars would be worth almost any price!
Having recently returned from a two-week ski holiday in Thredbo I can attest to the high price of the lift passes there. Fortunately, the snow was unusually good (for Australian snow) and I had a great time.
Coat icon because I'll need all the insulation I can get while skiing on Mars.
There is a theory (and it has some merit) that modern humans are extremely good at adapting to a wide range environments and that is why we have succesfully populated almost the entire planet. Therefore, no need to evolve to cope with climate change: we are already adaptable as we are. What is it about us which makes us so good at adapting? Big brain. When small-brained early humans evolved to become big-brained modern humans, *that* was the only evolution that was necessary to allow us to cope with all the climate and location changes we've experienced since.
I've just read up on SmartWater and it appears to be incredibly easy to foil: it relies on a "binary sequence" of different chemicals to create different combinations... so all the criminal needs to do is to walk into two or more shops before the crime to get coated with multiple overlayed sets of chemicals.
Example: Let's say there are just ten chemicals called A to J. Two shops each have their own unique set of chemicals:
Shop 1 has A B D H I
Shop 2 has B C D F J
Our cunning crim walks into both shops on purpose to get overlayed sprays and is now tagged like this:
A B C D F H I J
That's not going to stand up in court.
On the other hand, a DNA system will have genuinely unique and *unmixable* signatures.
How much will it cost me to spray-DNA-barcode all the stuff in my house?
How much will it cost PC Plod to read the DNA-barcode on any recovered stolen stuff?
If the tech is not reasonably cheap at both ends then it is doomed to be used only for super-high-end stuff e.g. priceless museum exhibits.
It's all very well to say that burning fart methane to CO2 reduces the greenhouse effect, but you've failed to take into account the ignition source: burning a fart involves *two* flames, one from a match or cigarette lighter (or firework if you live in Darwin) and one ex-anus. You need to factor in the greenhouse impact of producing, transporting and burning the ignition source.
This confusion is exactly why I think we should dump the kWh unit and replace it with something else. I'd like to suggest we call the new unit the "cuppa", which is the amount of energy used to boil a cupful of water (like many things cup size is relevant (see icon), also relevant are ambient temperature, altitude etc, so let's peg it at 10 cuppas = 1 megajoule). Everyone is familiar with a cup of tea (or coffee) and how hot it is, so hopefully people will be able to relate the unit "cuppa" to the amount of energy it represents.
I notice that El Reg does not currently have a standard unit of energy (presumably relying on the somewhat clumsy Norris-linguine) and a cuppa would nicely fill the gap. Especially if accompanied by a biscuit or two. www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
I installed solar PV a few months ago and I expect to get payback in less than a decade, and I have a one-to-one feed in rate (ie at my meter 1kWh coming in is worth the same money as 1kWh going out). Yes I have taken into account the extra mortgage interest I'm paying because of the re-draw to pay for the panels, and even with that, payback is less than a decade. Shop around and do the sums, you may be surprised at what you find.
Er no Ms Parnell, they may well be very fast but but we know for sure they are not impossibly fast.... because then their speed would be *cough* impossible and they wouldn't have happened the way they did. Have you, by any chance, ever used the expression "I literally died"?
"The problem we all face us that demand for electricity is rising"
Ignoring the typo, that statement is not true. In the part of the world I live (SE Australia) electricity demand is declining and has been for several years. This is mainly because people are more conscious of avoiding waste use (basically doing a Smart City thing but without Schneider's help) and partly because of the rise of rooftop solar PV.
"The report sounds a warning on the environmental impacts of wave energy (with consequent knock-on effects for tourism, shipping and marine life)"
Wave-powered electricity generators must be removing energy from the waves. I can see how the generators can adversely affect shipping, I can see the potential to adversely affect tourism at surfing locations (e.g. Bells Beach), but I can't think of a way that it will adversely affect marine life. About the only environmental impact I can think of is slowed coastal erosion (which many people will see as a benefit). Maybe some other commentard can think of other environmental impacts.
The only way to accurately understand how the universe works would be to get a full-scale working model and then study that. So what we need, really, is something that is just as big as the universe, looks just like the universe, and behaves just like the universe.... where could we find one of those???
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