* Posts by David Woods

13 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Nov 2006

Teachers give toilet CCTV top marks

David Woods

Human Contact

"Teachers increasingly tend to intervene in critical situations in a policing or disciplinary role. The human to human contact is lost.”

Such as fist-on-face human contact? I remember the good old day where the stronger pupils could make the weaker ones lives a living hell. Where will the next generation of middle-management come from if this natural human interaction is stopped?

UK employers sharpen job axe

David Woods

Smart Kids Don't Study Science

They will go for the qualifications to get them into the management class. Why be the monkey when you can be the organ-grinder?

Orbitsound T12 soundbar

David Woods

New Cables?

Perhaps a set of these?

http://www.pearcable.com/sub_products_anjou_sc.htm

Research: Wind power pricier, emits more CO2 than thought

David Woods
Thumb Down

Car Battery Storage

I don't get this idea. It appears to imply all these batteries will have a large over-capacity with respect to normal daily operation. We you really be able to use your car for 10 days without charging? Even 2 days sounds optimistic.

King Arthur was English 'propaganda', French claim

David Woods
Happy

Native Britons

Although the British isles saw great cultural changes during the Celtic, Roman, Saxon and Norman invasions, genetic studies show less dramatic shifts in population than some may imagine.

Essentially, the elites changed and imposed their culture. We Britons are still mainly from the same stock that originally colonised after the last ice age...

Vodafone USB Modem 7.2

David Woods
Unhappy

Gaming

Tried one of these for gaming while away from home.

The ping ran at 500-1000ms. Unplayable.

Wii grasses up cheating wife

David Woods

What a sad affair

What is the world coming to? Surely you play bowling on the Wii with the spouse, not your lover...

MIT whitecoats discover super-charged cancer cells

David Woods

Imagine the Terrorist Implications!

This is just crying out to be worked into a juicy Terrorist scare article.

China to map 'every inch' of the moon

David Woods

What use is Helium-3?

"It's all about radiation. Excessive neutron radiation causes fusion reactors (using current technology) to destroy themselves."

Maybe the hundreds of nuclear physicists who worked at/for JET and soon ITER know they are wasting their time... Or maybe your belief that the neutron issue is unsolvable isn't shared.

What reaction are you proposing to use? H3-H3? Can you elaborate on how you might achieve it?

David Woods

Helium-3 Nonsense

Physics World (August 2007) did a nice debunking of this.

In summery:

The Deuterium-Tritium reaction is x100 faster than the Deuterium-Helium3...

If we assume a Tokomak reactor, two Deuterium atoms will fuse to form Tritium and a proton relatively rapidly, thus providing the fuel for the rapid Deuterium-Tritium reaction.

So the Deuterium-Helium3 might be cleaner, but how do you achieve it exclusively or even as the dominant process?

Or perhaps the even slower Helium3-Helium3. Not even ITER will generate the heat needed to break even on that, never mind commercial generation.

Inertia confinement perhaps? But with such a slow reaction what would the parameters of such a machine be?

So what is the point of mining the moon for Helium-3?

BAE shares tank as US feds break cover

David Woods

Just obeying orders

So BAE executives may face criminal charges in the US for complying with a contract negotiated and agreed between the UK and Saudi governments...

I am the only one who finds this situation outragous? If the US want to press charges, surely the right people are the UK and Saudi government officials who did the deal? Surely the primary target should be a certain good personal friend of a G.W. Bush who recieved the money (allegedly)...

Biofuels are the 'next environmental danger'

David Woods

Planting seeds in dirt...

Surely with some development an algae could be found/engineered to form the basis of an efficient bio-fuel? Once developed this material could be farmed without using any arable land.

Is an artificial eye close to reality?

David Woods

Seeing Colours by Touch

The classics never die. Despite the legions of fraudsters that have visited this well, it still pays out.