Something Random

Pradeep

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Google Maps gave bad walking directions - got sued.

Link to article

Maybe not very surprising, but I thought it was a bit funny.


Not just limited to Yanks, tho she was close to a Darwin award.


http://www.themorningbulletin.com.a...ts-follow-sat-nav-road-to-nowhere-gps-leads-/

"“They followed gravel roads, then dirt roads, then went through a couple of gates, and ended up bogged in a gully,” Childers Police officer in charge Sergeant Geoff Fay told the NewsMail. At one point, the men ignored danger signs and moved rocks blocking a road, to get to an isolated point that Sgt Fay said was “practically inaccessible”. After becoming bogged, they tried and failed to get their stuck Ford Falcon free from the mud before making another dangerous decision. They left their vehicle, and walked several kilometres through the forest trying to find a spot with mobile phone reception."
 

Pradeep

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I fail to see how busting the oil chamber so that it releases all of its content at once would help the situation.

I think they should drill another hole and start to pump out the oil from the chamber so that the pressure drops ASAP. Then they could try another "top kill" with greater chances of success since the pressure would be lower. Just an idea.

I was thinking that with a big enough device the seafloor would vaporised, along with the deposit. Though the resulting tsunami of oily death would probably outweigh the benefits of stopping the oil 2 months earlier than it will take with another drilling.
 

Pradeep

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I agree. The more I read about this the madder I get. Sadly, in the end BP will likely end up paying for a fraction of the damage they caused, the area around the Gulf of Mexico will be messed up for generations, and then we'll all wait until the next screw-up occurs. Only next time it might be 2 billion barrels.

When you see the pressures involved ( I calculated in the neighborhood of 40,000 psi given the depth of the reserve ), it's easy to see why they're having such trouble shutting it down. This whole scenario is really like opening Pandora's box. These kinds of wells never should have been drilled in the first place. In essence this is a crude oil volcano which will continue until the source runs dry.

""The markets are pricing in an apocalyptic scenario," said Evgeny Solovyov, equity analyst at SG Securities in London. be limited to just $6.5bn - although it could go higher if BP were found guilty of gross negligence or a criminal act."The markets seem to assume that BP will have to withdraw from America," he added, noting that there was talk among government lawyers about barring the oil company from US government contracts. BP is also the biggest participant in deep sea drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and therefore is likely to be hardest hit by the moratorium on this activity announced by President Barack Obama."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/business/10202162.stm

Looks like it could be lights out for BP in the USA. How's that cost/benefit analysis of going cheap on the casing look now, BP beancounters?
 

Mercutio

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I've been in BP's North American Crisis Response center. One of the things I remember is that the guys who had diplomas hanging on their office walls in that area had degrees in Economics and Psychology, and that there were lots of MBAs. What I thought was striking at the time was that they didn't have any engineers, ecologists or public health specialists down there.

Just something to think about.

In an unrelated topic, yes, there is officially nothing keeping me in Northwest Indiana after my parents leave, once my job ends, which I presume that it will. Now I just have to find some other place that I actually want to live. I doubt that it matters. I just don't want to breathe the air in Northwest Indiana any more than I have to.
 

mubs

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In an unrelated topic, yes, there is officially nothing keeping me in Northwest Indiana after my parents leave, once my job ends, which I presume that it will. Now I just have to find some other place that I actually want to live. I doubt that it matters. I just don't want to breathe the air in Northwest Indiana any more than I have to.
It's a big country, Merc. Lotsa places you can pick from. Start a new life elsewhere.
 

Mercutio

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I'd suggest a place without snow and with a tech industry.

No snow implies California or some redneck shithole. Are there any other options?

Honestly, I don't think it matters very much. "Home" is where my stuff is and all the outside is to me is the twenty feet of space between my car and someplace I actually want to be.
 

ddrueding

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No snow implies California or some redneck shithole. Are there any other options?

Not in my mind. California from around Napa to about Santa Barbara, and from the ocean to a little before Interstate 5.

Even if you don't go outside, nice weather is better to look at, and at the very least is cheaper to heat. Even if you don't interact with them, the people here are (on average) more enjoyable to watch.
 

CougTek

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Snow should be quite rare in Seatle and it isn't what I would call a redneck shit-hole. There's almost never snow in Miami and it isn't a redneck shit-hole. Just a shit-hole, but not much rednecks.
 

CougTek

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Even though there's snow there quite often, I would see you in Boston area. I'm sure you would find more people with common interests there.
 

timwhit

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How about the third largest city in the country? It has the added benefit of being fairly close to where you are now. It's a completely different world though (at least on the north side).
 

LunarMist

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No snow implies California or some redneck shithole. Are there any other options?

Honestly, I don't think it matters very much. "Home" is where my stuff is and all the outside is to me is the twenty feet of space between my car and someplace I actually want to be.

There are some nicer places than you think, and not necessarily in CA. Given your limited movements, I suspect that finding a suitable job is most important and that you don't like being too far from a major city. :jokecolor:
 

ddrueding

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Just sent this letter to my accountant:

Bret,

I really appreciate all your help with all of my paperwork and finances, and I am glad to help you with any technical issues you or your company have. However, if you could direct Tim to work through you or Jerry and to NOT contact me directly for any reason, it would save us all from significant drama. The e-mail that I originally composed as a response to him will instead live in my drafts for a while.

Thanks,
~David
 

ddrueding

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Full back story:

Back when I was consulting full time, I had several accountants offices. One of which did all my books, in exchange for basic computer services. I like them, they like me, all is well.

Another, different accounting company is a royal PITA. They are constantly complaining and withholding payment. One employee in particular is such a pain that I drop them as I client and tell them why.

Fast forward 2 years. My favorite accounting firm is doing well, and acquires a few other firms to expand their business. This happens to include my least favorite accounting firm. Everyone is sacked and replaced except for my least favorite employee, who just sent me a whiny and sarcastic e-mail at 10:30PM followed 10 minutes later by a phone call.

Does that clear things up?
 

LunarMist

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I hope it works out but the context doesn't help much. I solve all unexpected phone calls by never, ever answering the phone unless the ID is recognizable. :)
 

time

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PABXs here don't usually send a caller ID, so that's not much use to me.

Also, the local loop monopoly, Telstra, actually charges $6 per month for the privilege of receiving the caller ID! I kid you not.
 

LunarMist

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We pay for that too. Most of the spammers have an ID. Only 1-2 people call me for real, and they know to send ID.:mad::
 

time

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Really? How much?

I mean, it's free with cellphone services, and it's not like it costs the Telco even one cent to provide it; if anything, it costs them to disable it.
 

Stereodude

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PABXs here don't usually send a caller ID, so that's not much use to me.

Also, the local loop monopoly, Telstra, actually charges $6 per month for the privilege of receiving the caller ID! I kid you not.
I don't have a land line. As I'm sure you're aware Caller ID is standard fare for cell phones.

If I had a land line, I certainly wouldn't pay extra for caller ID.
 

LunarMist

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Really? How much?

I mean, it's free with cellphone services, and it's not like it costs the Telco even one cent to provide it; if anything, it costs them to disable it.

I have no idea. There is some package with various attributes. We pay for other ripoffs too, such as unlisted numbers.

I understand that the cellophone has an ID system. However, my cell is almost always off. Sometimes I check the voicemail and delete a few unintelligible messages in left in a foreign language.
 

Handruin

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PABXs here don't usually send a caller ID, so that's not much use to me.

Also, the local loop monopoly, Telstra, actually charges $6 per month for the privilege of receiving the caller ID! I kid you not.

I just looked quickly on Verizon's land line service feature and they show a price of $9.50/month to add caller ID to a phone in my area. There may be some package deal available to reduce that price, but the price is ridiculous for a standalone feature.
 

LunarMist

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I just looked quickly on Verizon's land line service feature and they show a price of $9.50/month to add caller ID to a phone in my area. There may be some package deal available to reduce that price, but the price is ridiculous for a standalone feature.

My first phone was $11-12/mo., including touch tone service (fairly new then) and unlisted number. The phones were hardwired back then. :bstd:
 

Mercutio

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It appears that my gmail account was hacked. I had a strong password and there's no evidence of malware on any of my systems but everyone on my gmail contact list was sent a message containing a random link to a viagra spam site using my default address for sending mail (which is actualy a yahoo address).

Anyway, if you got email from me containing a single HTML link don't open it.
 

Pradeep

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"In a spectacular $220 million test, NASA fired a new astronaut escape system rocket in New Mexico Thursday, boosting a dummy crew module more than a mile up in just 20 seconds to demonstrate how a future manned spacecraft could be pulled to safety in the event of a catastrophic on-pad rocket failure.

Using a solid-fuel motor generating some 500,000 pounds of thrust, the launch abort system ignited with a torrent of orange fire and smoke at 9 a.m. EDT, pulling the dummy crew module to nearly 450 mph in just 2.5 seconds with an acceleration of 16 times the force of gravity. The motor burned for just six seconds or so, boosting the system to an altitude of nearly 4,000 feet and putting it on a ballistic trajectory with a predicted high point of roughly 6,000 feet."

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1005/06padabort1/

Sounds like a hell of a ride :)
 

LunarMist

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It appears that my gmail account was hacked. I had a strong password and there's no evidence of malware on any of my systems but everyone on my gmail contact list was sent a message containing a random link to a viagra spam site using my default address for sending mail (which is actualy a yahoo address).

Anyway, if you got email from me containing a single HTML link don't open it.

So how can that happen?
 

Pradeep

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Presumably the forces are of a short enough nature to avoid long lasting damage. Looks like 6 seconds or so.

I'm guessing being securely strapped to a seat with one direction of force from behind you (unlike a fighter pilot pulling a high G turn, with the blood wanting to pool in the legs and draining from the brain(helped by inflating pants and a breathing technique)).

Also given the alternative (immolation in a vast fireball after rocket failure), a few broken bones would be OK.
 

Pradeep

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Presumably the forces are of a short enough nature to avoid long lasting damage. Looks like 6 seconds or so.

I'm guessing being securely strapped to a seat with one direction of force from behind you (unlike a fighter pilot pulling a high G turn, with the blood wanting to pool in the legs and draining from the brain(helped by inflating pants and a breathing technique)).

Also given the alternative (immolation in a vast fireball after rocket failure), a few broken bones would be OK.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force

Looks like 12G can be sustained for a while. Depends on the bodies orientations.

What about John Stapp stopping from Mach 0.9 in 1 sec! That did bugger his vision tho.
 
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