sethoflagos

Emily advises South African to let sleeping goblins lie Dale, I pray ye no help pass orc asleep no lemon roll or no melon peels across apple honey, yarpie lad!

Deleted. Cathartic post ran off-topic.

Perhaps the concept of a ''gentle giant' is one of yours. I am however embedded in a culture where dowries are payable, and this does put a particular slant on things, providing as it does a financial imperative for families to protect their daughters from ''spoilage'' prior to marriage. Perhaps that's a more convincing origin of these social conventions than the forces of industrialisation I mentioned above,

In who's universe? In my modest experience, most women would seem to prefer a mate who doesn't slap them around all the time.

An analogous case occurs in fluid mechanics only featuring sonic velocity instead of c. My kneejerk simplification would be to convert to spherical spatial coordinates and look at a spherically symmetrical system such as an oscillating bubble (all the phis and thetas drop out) 1/r2 d/dr(r2dY/dr) - 1/c2 d2Y/dt2 = 0 The standard substitution Y(r,t) = u(r,t)/r yields the 1D wave equation: d2u/dr2 - 1/c2d2u/dt2 = 0 which has the general solution: Y(r,t) = f(r - ct)/r + g(r + ct)/r (outgoing wave + incoming wave) The general solution just happens to support standing waves, so we can insert one or two as boundary conditions yielding forms such as:: Y(r,t) = A/r ei(kr-wt) + B/r e-i(kr+wt) (k = w/c as per usual) If we relax the spherical symmetry, terms in phi and theta appear as interference patterns. Apologies if I've missed something much deeper, but its where my mental pictures come from. Oscillating bubbles.

... which are all abstract constructions specific to a particular culture (ie yours) at a particular time in its development (ie now). Case in point is my mother-in-law, Catherine, a charming and intelligent woman now in her late seventies who believes that she may have been twelve when she was married to a man more than double her age. In conversation, it is clear that she remembers her husband with great affection and that her sole regret is that he died before his time leaving her with eight children to raise on her own... ... or rather, with the help of relatives and neighbours in the community - a support structure that most members of this site do not have access to. She is happy that her five daughters all had better educational opportunities and the chance to experience more of life before settling down into marriage. But she herself does not feel hard done by. It was simply the way things were done back then. And Igbo culture has a far longer history of stable continuity than that of those outsiders who may criticise some of its traditions. Cultural relativism is a tricky subject with all sorts of pitfalls to trap the unwary into being unable to condemn any behaviour as intrinsically 'bad'. But we must ask ourselves what might be intrinsically 'good' about enforcing a mandatory, possibly unnatural, extended period of sexual abstinence between the onset of puberty and an arbitrary 'age of consent'. The Marxist inside me suggests a socioeconomic force to produce a well-schooled pool of skilled labour to drive the ever-increasing technological demands of the military-industrial complex. The Anarchist just says I'm fortunate my preferences in the day ran to strong, full-figured women in their prime. No one ever really objected to that.

I don't frequent international fast-food franchises myself, but Domino's has built a reputation for good hygiene standards so it could be a reasonable option for you. My local Domino's (in Nigeria) is fully halal certified as it happens, but don't expect that to be the case in India. >95% of what I consume is prepared by myself. That way, I get to eat exactly what I like to eat (mainly Indian style cuisine), with lots of diet diversity, and have complete control over the hygiene aspects. This probably isn't of much help to you, but it's how I've adapted to cope over the 25+ years I've lived here. Just a matter of adopting a few sensible routine habits and not being stupid.

This pdf from microbiologysociety.org covers the basics. This may provide less protection than you imagine, especially if you are not in a predominantly Moslem region. Two reasons: they are in fact very serious about personal hygiene, only their habits and practices are unfamiliar to tourists and largely unpublished; and they will likely have increased resistance to local infectious agents. Based on personal experience, I would strongly recommend that you familiarise yourself with the what toilet facilities are standard for the area you are visiting in advance, and equip yourself accordingly. And avoid touching stuff like doorknobs and handrails in busy public areas.

Since xA+xB = 1 for a binary mixture, your equation simplifies to xA = xA which is true but of no use to anyone. Your terminology is nowhere explained, so again, that is no use to anyone. Perhaps you should start with the fundamental definition of xA and xB in terms of molar quantities nA and nB in the liquid phase. That might help get us all on the same page. Since xA+xB = 1 for a binary mixture, your equation simplifies to xA = xA which is true but of no use to anyone. Your terminology is nowhere explained, so again, that is no use to anyone. Perhaps you should start with the fundamental definition of xA and xB in terms of molar quantities nA and nB in the liquid phase. That might help get us all on the same page.

For those who just can't get enough of this thread, tune into BBC Brit - Channel 120 on African Dstv - and watch endless repeats of 'Pointless'

The main practical discriminator is scale. Given an amenable geography, hydro comfortably works with GW. Flywheels work with MW. Ditto weight-lifting. The efficiency figures for pumped hydro are clear enough. Large water pumps have a hydraulic efficiency ~85%, and Francis turbines (typical design for large units) can reach ~95% efficiency. Pipe and distribution losses add a couple of per cent each giving the overall round trip efficiency of ~75% I quoted earlier. I don't believe solar evaporation losses are a thing in Wales. But bear in mind that the context is trading up low cost wind energy on a stormy night in November to high value peak load GW at very short notice on Christmas Eve with perhaps a ten-fold increase in billable revenue - and the efficiency only needs to be reasonable. Availability at required scale is the ultimate measure.

Don't forget that winching systems rely on belt friction for cables to grip pulleys etc. (capstan equation and all that good stuff), and high ratio gearboxes can have significant losses. I wouldn't contradict your expectation as such, but I'd prefer to check the data first. It may not be quite so clear cut. Again... no free lunches. Not to mention the capital costs involved... (Apologies for delayed response - network went awol for 24 hrs) Does anyone actually understand this? Is that 30MW for a millisecond or a millennium? Surely the unit of interest is Joules.

Not quite the same thing, Ken. Granted, much of the physical hardware is the same, but syncons are specifically designed for power factor correction, and therefore have excitation circuitry designed for the production of reactive power, either lead or lag, as an alternative to (typically) thyristor switched static VAR compensators (SVCs). What they don't do is generate torque to any large degree and are thus unable (in standard form) to replace active power generation shortfalls beyond a few cycles. The flywheel version provides the necessary large energy storage capacity to fulfill that role. It's interesting to consider whether these various functionalities could be combined in a single machine, though I suspect that idea would run into significant degrees of freedom issues.

Swings and roundabouts. Flywheels lose ~4% a day, pumped hydro has a round trip efficiency of about 75%. No free lunches.

... Not an issue apparently, see Flywheel Storage Power System Reading between the lines, the limited current scale of such installations seems due to a lack of perceived urgency rather than any significant technological limit. And the UK always has Dinorwig - it would take one monster of a flywheel to compete with that.

I've had similar thoughts. However, the units couldn't be 'unpowered' otherwise there would be no electrical coupling. What I'm not clear on is whether rotational KE on the demand side (power consuming units) is as useful as that of power generating units. Both tend to flatten the rate of frequency change, but act in opposite directions which might be an issue.

Absolutely no offence taken 🙂 Though I will continue to discriminate between those artists who sacrificed the full 10,000 hours of childhood to their vocation, and those who chose an easier path 😜

Having been slagged off somewhat by @MigL and @StringJunky for making somewhat disparaging remarks about one-fingered Casio playing, I had to remind myself that my favourite small brass ensemble occasionally indulge in one-fingered trumpet playing. While I''m at it, couldn''t resist posting this faulous p***take too

... or an interpretive performance of that composition, maybe? My comment was directed at a pretty abysmal pedagogical method - akin to how I was taught to play the recorder at age 5 by having the edge of a ruler crack my knuckles whenever I played a wrong note. Your reply seems non sequitur. A misunderstanding perhaps? I was thinking more of this minimalist masterpiece Ditto, really. Though if the performer lacks the basic technique a piece demands, it's really difficult to make it a musical experience for the audience. Florence Foster Jenkins springs to mind.

This is untrue. Parliamentary representatives are unlikely to be elected in the first place unless their manifesto policies can convince a majority of the electorate that they will benefit financially - ie that there will be an acceptable degree of wealth distribution in their favour. All things being equal, large producers have an intrinsic economic advantage over smaller producers due to economies of scale. Costs are not a linear function of output. The actual degree of proportionality varies a little with with context, but a common rule of thumb is that capital costs scale with output^0.6 for example. Conspiracy is not a prerequisite for this to happen.

That's how to get a noise out of a Casio with one finger. Not how to become a musician.

Dear Mein Drumpf, Thank-you for alerting us to our 'GREAT STUPIDITY' in agreeing with Mauritius a 99 year lease on Diego Garcia at considerable cost to ourselves while allowing your military personnel to squat on the island FOC. After due deliberation, we have decided to give you the option of continuing to make reasonable use of our facilities at the fair market rate (as determined by our diplomatic research team in Beijing) of $100 billion pa. If you choose not to take advantage of these terms, please accept this message as a notice of eviction effective immediately, as we have an alternative tenant who is very keen to do business with us.

Loot, I ask, or gnome devil? I repress organisms in a grosser peril. I've demon grok's AI tool.

Me too. Apart from the daily Warfarin and a precautionary dab of antiseptic on abrasions, I tend to let nature take its course unless things get scary.

14 letter word! That's very impressive! Watched a rerun of Gladiator on the box yesterday as it happens.