Recent content by tomkeus

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    How many years until Ion Plasma thrusters are used on space ships?

    Soviets have routinely been utilising ion thrusters on their satellites since 1972 so it is not new technology by any account.
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    Saving Ash from a Volcanic Eruption: A Geologist's Perspective

    Yes but the ash plume is much lower than last time. It is reaching only 4km or so opposed to 10km last week so it shouldn't present as big problem in affected areas.
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    Saving Ash from a Volcanic Eruption: A Geologist's Perspective

    Exactly. They might as well say, "Hey let's shut down air traffic for the entire year". If you really want to play it safe and the only thing you care about is human life, you will certainly say that. But if safety is the only thing you are concerned, you might as well say, hey planes tend to...
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    Saving Ash from a Volcanic Eruption: A Geologist's Perspective

    My post was probably badly worded. I wasn't accusing UK Met of anything. I was accusing everyone of listening to them and making decisions without trying to understand what is behind the data. Besides, it is not the Met who is deciding whether to close down airspace it is ATCs and...
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    Saving Ash from a Volcanic Eruption: A Geologist's Perspective

    I don't see how things Guy Grutton is saying are relevant for the entire continent. Ash plume is carried directly from Iceland towards the UK and the UK is most severely hit of all European countries. What makes things tragic, everything points to entire Europe listening only to the British who...
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    Saving Ash from a Volcanic Eruption: A Geologist's Perspective

    I don't think anyone reasonable would consider crash in this situation. There were no crashes caused by volcanic ash, and those famous flights everyone is talking about flew straight into the dense plume (nothing even remotely like situation we have now) unaware of what was happening. Chances...
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    Saving Ash from a Volcanic Eruption: A Geologist's Perspective

    You don't have to sell anything. Just wait for a few more days for losses to accumulate and they will be begging you get those planes airborne.
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    Saving Ash from a Volcanic Eruption: A Geologist's Perspective

    I'm really getting tired of people quoting BA Flight 9. It went into ash plume 150km downwind of the volcano. I don't see that this case is any argument to close down airspace 2000 or 3000km away from the Iceland. Even after that, Indonesian authorities have closed down just the area adjacent...
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    Saving Ash from a Volcanic Eruption: A Geologist's Perspective

    I'm watching this entire situation and I'm amazed at incompetence bureaucrats across Europe demonstrated handling this situation. Apparently, flight bans all over Europe were issued based on computer simulations run by UK Met Office. Although I understand that, because it is better to be safe...
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    [Help] Consulting for new code

    If you need to diagonalize very large matrix with lots of zeros implement sparse matrices and use Lanczos algorithm to diagonalize them. Check out POOMA or Blitz++.
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    Energy vs Voltage and Sqrt(Voltage): Function of Units

    Think about it this way: Say you have cos and expand it around zero \cos x=1-\frac{x^2}{2}+\frac{x^4}{24}-... If x is, say, in meters you would have to add meters and square meters which makes no sense.
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    Why are there more societies where the people are oppressed than free?

    You misunderstood me. Authoritarian societies keep order by force, by prohibiting everything that is not allowed by ruling elite. Free society does not impose order on its population, it rather depends on order coming from its population. For example, in Sweden, state isn't spying on each...
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    Why are there more societies where the people are oppressed than free?

    There are more opressive societies than free ones simply because freedom and democracy are very expensive, both in resource and in energy terms. Democratic society with broad freedoms is very decentralized structure, thus requiring lot of social interactions to function and make decisions...
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    Why Use Contra-Rotating Propellers in Aircraft Design?

    Perhaps, asymmetrically slowing down rotors on one or both sides of the aircraft to produce net torque, while adjusting the pitch of the blades at the same time to compensate for the lost lift.
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    Why Use Contra-Rotating Propellers in Aircraft Design?

    Me too. I don't wear glasses and I never suffer from motion sickness, but during the first 10-15 minutes I did feel sick. I watched it in Xpand3D theater. Some of my friends who saw it later in Dolby3D told me it was a lot easier, both on the eyes and the brain. As for the science of Avatar...
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