So the guy who slams his door all day is the same guy who has the fetish for repeating songs. And he was even singing just now, probably thinking he's the only guy on this level at 4pm. Unfortunately for him, I'm having only one tutorial today, which is an e-tutorial just for today.
So I was listening to his out-of-tune and out-of-rhythm singing. For fifteen minutes I suffered while somewhat distracted by the ongoing discussions among my group members on Messenger. But once it was done, I cleared my throat rather loudly, and his voice stopped.
And he turned to whistling intermittently for a while before totally shutting up.
Unfortunately, he is still playing this song since at least an hour ago.
Btw, WOW the US is fucked. Which I can assume to imply that we're fucked too. When I saw "Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy" I thought it was just another bank going down, kinda as significant as Merril Lynch being sold to the Bank of America.
I'm not saying that it isn't significant - I mean it's not as disastrous as the 9/11 incident.
And it's a fucking large bank going bankrupt, ie, all its money is gone, ie all its clients will not have their money back. Imagine DBS going down. It's more serious than that.
A quote from www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/091508dnnatwallstreet.7aecb503.html
About $700 billion evaporated from retirement plans, government pension funds and other investment portfolios.
US$700 billion.
It is one of the oldest banks in the US, older than the Civil War and has survived the Great Depression... only to buckle under than effects of the subprime mortgage crisis.
Heck, even AIG is desperately struggling right now. Even though the world's largest insurer is still alive and kicking, its financial condition doesn't seem to be very healthy at the moment.
Are we fucked?
It's not time for us to press the Panic Button yet, and as long as there is no panic among the general population, things should stay fine for a while longer.
But then, I'm no economist.
Ever dreamt of having a personal mini-bullet-train? Where every apartment is connected by rail to superhighways of tracks, where every train is controlled by a mainframe so that no accident can occur. All you need to do is enter your personal pod and click on your destination.
By Earnshaw's Theorem, a magnetic levitation system is inherently unstable, ie, you can't lift something up with magnets and expect it to stand on nothing. Kind of like a bicycle, because when its stationary, it cannot stand on its own.
However, with modern technology, maglev trains can stand using sophisticated feedback systems that maintains their distances to the track. This technology is called EMS, or Electromagnetic Suspension.
Very cool. Without wheels, it can theoretically move at extremely high speeds and ignore the effects of friction. Drag still affects the train though.
In spite of this, the fastest speed recorded is by a train running on EDS, or Electrodynamic Suspension. This technology runs on maglev at high speeds and wheels at low speeds. It makes use of the currents induced by the changing electromagnetic fields while it's moving to levitate and this is insufficient at low speeds, thus the wheels.
EDS also has the disadvantage of requiring EM-shields at high speeds in order not to disrupt any electronics onboard, especially pacemakers.
The potential of being green is huge in maglev technologies. Such trains produce no harmful emissions. At most, they will produce sonic booms, especially in tunnels. These days, tunnel exits of such high-speed trains are designed to reduce the noise produced when the air within the tunnel is compressed right when the train enters the tunnel until it escapes through the exit.
That's why underground train stations always have a glass wall with doors that open only when the trains have stopped.
Only possible pollution it can cause is when the trains are being produced and its power sources. How the country produces its electricity will determine how much pollution its maglev trains generate.
And in some cases, where special coolants need to be used, the continuous usage of these coolants will require processes that cause more pollution.
In my dream described above, there is no need for extremely fast trains. Therefore, all pollution is caused by its manufacture and its power source.
At the moment, much pollution is caused by cars in traffic jams and the inefficiency of cars due to human instincts. If a car can maintain a short distance from the car ahead constantly, drag can be reduced by more than 50%. Do you understand what this means??
It means all the drivers in the world suck!
Just kidding. It just means that if cars are not controlled by slow-reacting humans, but by computers instead, cars can become fantastically efficient.
Many people see car traffic as rivers and water flow. This is wrong. When water flows, each drop of water moves together in unison. Now imagine many cars stopped at a traffic light. The light turns green. Will all cars accelerate together at the same rate?
The answer is obvious, and it demonstrates how car traffic must be seen differently from water flow. Therefore, the old theory of building more roads when traffic is heavy does not work. This has been proven in many regions in the US.
But if every single car is AI-controlled, cars can then move like water, accelerating and braking at the same time. Drag will be reduced, just like the birds that fly in a V-shaped formation.
Fuel efficiency will be through the roof and everyone will be happy.
Heck, throw in a radar system and you may even avoid car accidents. But people will not be able to drive anymore. If what I've described is implemented, driving will become a niche thing that only driving enthusiasts will like.
Obviously, the computer(s) will need to be extremely complex. Maybe each car will have its own computer. That isn't such a far-fetched idea anymore, with the integration of GPS within cars these days. The only problem is that this idea is too far ahead of its time. At the very least, cars with GPS need to be the norm before this idea can even be considered.
A computer on a car is not an idea everyone is used to yet. To lose control of the car to the computer is still unthinkable to most drivers. What is wrong is isn't that the idea is crazy, but because humans are naturally inclined to distrust change.
Plus with this, special wifi computers will need to be installed everywhere so that cars can communicate more effectively with each other. It will be like living in the Internet, and we're the data being transmitted from one server to another. The whole traffic network will be the World Wide Web.
Cars also generate huge amounts of carbon emissions when they're in traffic jams. A car will not stop burning fuel when it's in a traffic jams - no one turns off their engines in a jam. So fuel is burnt for absolutely nothing. In fact, traffic jams are the worst possible reason for air pollution because it doesn't have a single positive effect at all.
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