View Full Version : Topical joke of the day
draconacticus
04-02-10, 13:21
I had to get this out of my head, so i made it at lunchtime, didn't even have to change the strapline.
Thought i'd share as the board's a bit quiet today...
http://i45.tinypic.com/2lkp6zc.jpg
That's bloody hillarious :D
Funniest shoop I've seen in ages!!!! You have to post it somewhere prominent! Engadget?
Very good, I liked that and we were just listening to the recall on the news too :D
draconacticus
04-02-10, 13:34
That's bloody hillarious :D
Funniest shoop I've seen in ages!!!! You have to post it somewhere prominent! Engadget?
TY :D
It was done in MS Paint too!!
I dropped it on B3ta for teh lulz. They seem to be enjoying it.
Now that was pretty funny!
that's hilarious. i was recently reading about it in the news.
:clapping:
chaosriotzero
04-02-10, 16:43
whats up with toyota? i dont read any news papers or watch tv....
CaptainCortez
04-02-10, 16:46
Not much, apart from they have to recall about the same amount which they produce in 1 year......XD
It is a Total Recall.
draconacticus
04-02-10, 19:05
Not much, apart from they have to recall about the same amount which they produce in 1 year......XD
It is a Total Recall.
Yeah, they have a slight problem with accelerators getting jammed on full open :blink:
CaptainCortez
04-02-10, 19:12
Lol yea, and on the news, an elderly man said he thinks that's why he crashed, as the accelerator got stuck.
It's a fair comment, but he could have just been a very bad driver. XD
it puts a whole new meaning to their slogan. "The car in front is a Toyota"
Yeah Right was that a red light we just passed?
it puts a whole new meaning to their slogan. "The car in front is a Toyota"
Yeah Right was that a red light we just passed?
:D thats funny lol, well said!
My parents r laughing as well, good spot on the slogan!
Never heard that slogan ... :thinking: ... in germany it's "Nothing is impossible - Toyota!"... Mission Impossible?
http://www.capcom-europe.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=441&pictureid=5161
http://www.capcom-europe.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=441&pictureid=5161
draconacticus
08-02-10, 11:23
it puts a whole new meaning to their slogan. "The car in front is a Toyota"
Yeah Right was that a red light we just passed?
hahah!
Or "The car infront, careering out of control, is a Toyota".
It's in the news today they are recalling the Prius in Japan and US due to faulty brakes! It's going to take them years to recover from all this damage to their reputation!
It's a shame really, because they were the tipping point to hybrid vehicles becoming mainstream. A good thing I'm sure you'll agree.
However, this will be forgotten about in less than a year I'm sure.
Citroen recovered from their handbrake adventure.
draconacticus
08-02-10, 13:18
It's a shame really, because they were the tipping point to hybrid vehicles becoming mainstream. A good thing I'm sure you'll agree.
To be honest I could never really understand anyone buying a hybrid in europe. Diesel gives you much better fuel efficiency and doesn't fill your boot space with batteries!
Also, hybrids and electrics cars are only as green as the electricity you use to recharge the batteries! Unfortunately for most countries that just means your emitting the carbon somewhere further away from your car :p
Ah! but don't forget the carbon footprint of transporting the petrol etc too. Electricity is more efficient to transport.
But they were more economical than most cars in the states, and in an article I read, electricity is in general very economical even with the carbon offset.
I think it was engadget or New Scientist, and I think it was specifically about the Tesla. But it could have been the Prius. It's about twice as carbon efficient if not more.
But anyway, the main thing is that it was a catalyst for changing the mindset (thanks Clive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5))
draconacticus
08-02-10, 13:55
That is true, but don't forget you have about 30% transmission loss as well for electric.
Always beware who quotes what at you. The government like to pretend nuclear doesn't produce carbon, which in purely generating electricity it does not. But when you factor in the CO2 slaked off from all the concrete setting that went into building a plant, the pollution created in building it, the pollution caused by all the necessary staff and industry to keep the plant going, and then all the pollution created in decommissioning... it all adds up as not very green at all. It isn't cheap either - historically it's low price is because of a very unlevel playing field in how electricity is purchased from suppliers.
Same is true of alternative technologies - solar electric power in the UK is NOT green, it consumes more energy in making a panel then it will ever produce in a reasonable product lifetime in our climate. And don't get me started on those miniature wind turbines! The hairy shirt brigade are also very much responsible for peddling untruths.
I'd agree hybrids are a great step forward in the USA though because they don't have diesel. The best solution obviously will be electric at some point but only when most of our electricity comes from green sources.
Solar panels are a great example of what I mean (actually, they're a better example). The UK has recently announced that it will subsidise solar panels (~46p per KWh and about 37p for new builds) which means that it will actually save you money for the first time.
But the good thing is, that increased sales will provide an incentive into R&D for either more efficient photovoltaics, or cheaper mass produced panels (I think we've had a similar conversation before).
And if cars run off electrickery in the future, it's one hurdle out of the way for when a certain scientist develops nuclear fusion...
draconacticus
08-02-10, 14:34
Solar panels are a great example of what I mean (actually, they're a better example). The UK has recently announced that it will subsidise solar panels (~46p per KWh and about 37p for new builds) which means that it will actually save you money for the first time.
But the good thing is, that increased sales will provide an incentive into R&D for either more efficient photovoltaics, or cheaper mass produced panels (I think we've had a similar conversation before).
And if cars run off electrickery in the future, it's one hurdle out of the way for when a certain scientist develops nuclear fusion...
Solar panel efficiency is limited by the fermi energy of the electrons in the valence band of the semiconductor - this limits the theoretical efficiency of a solar cell to about 35%. There's a real limit to how good photovoltaics will get. There was a move toward lower cost thin film cells that consumed less energy to make, but they haven't really caught on. The main manufacturer's are still married to mono and poly crystalline silicon. I think this latest government initiative will just be more tokenism by politicians who don't really have the cahunas to tackle the real problem.
Best thing we could do in UK is to build the Severn Barrage and get a 10GW peak power station that will last for 100 years! You could put an extra motorway and rail link into south wales over it too! Unfortunately it has never got approval because some ducks in Slimbridge will have to move their nests :mad:
Wow, that sounds good...
Is it really just 35% I thought they'd outdone that already... or maybe it was 40-50% of the maximum efficiency
Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell#Record_efficiencies
and http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/2013
Interesting.
draconacticus
08-02-10, 14:52
Wow, that sounds good...
Is it really just 35% I thought they'd outdone that already... or maybe it was 40-50% of the maximum efficiency
Something around that, commerical panels are about between 4~15% efficiency depending on the semiconductor. Some also degrade over time too. They all quote output in terms of 1000W/m^2 falling on them, which you get in hot climates, but not in britain.
In laboritories they have probably got higher by using dyes to shift the light into a more absorbable wavelength. But science is one thing, product development is quite another.
There are solar technologies out there that are worth looking at like solar thermal, solar concentrators, thermopholtovoltaics, but IMHO photovoltaics in britain is a waste of time and any subsidies given to them is giving very very poor tax payer value for money. It should be spent on energy efficiency technologies instead, I happen to know one such company... :p
Perhaps you're right. I see a bright future for 3rd world countries around the equator producing and exporting electricity with large solar batteries.
Maybe one day everything will all work out great. After all, thermophotovoltaics could be a great thing now global warming is speeding up...
And off topic, does anyone remember the ozone layer? It was a bit of an 80's thing wasn't it?
draconacticus
08-02-10, 15:33
Perhaps you're right. I see a bright future for 3rd world countries around the equator producing and exporting electricity with large solar batteries.
Maybe one day everything will all work out great. After all, thermophotovoltaics could be a great thing now global warming is speeding up...
And off topic, does anyone remember the ozone layer? It was a bit of an 80's thing wasn't it?
Yeah, you might be right about the 3rd world.
Thermopholtovoltaics only works in furnaces though - it converts light in the infra red region to leccy. The world would have to get pretty hot to use them.
Main problem causing global warming, food crises etc. is the fact there is just far too many people on the planet, but people get a bit touchy when you start trying to address that problem!
Yeah, everyone lost interest in the Ozone layer once it had holes in it. People only like layers with no holes :p. The holes in it started to shrink, everyone saw that as happy days. The legislation surrounding gases with global warming potentials is getting ever tighter though. It's not front page news anymore, but it's not forgotten.
Oh right - I thought thermophotovoltaics was like a combination of new and old style solar panels - the old one using... some kind of gas I believe or ethanol, in tubes painted black with pitch. Then when heated, they produced pressure of some kind and drove a turbine.
But solar panels must get fairly hot, do they do anthing with this energy?
draconacticus
08-02-10, 15:54
Oh right - I thought thermophotovoltaics was like a combination of new and old style solar panels - the old one using... some kind of gas I believe or ethanol, in tubes painted black with pitch. Then when heated, they produced pressure of some kind and drove a turbine.
But solar panels must get fairly hot, do they do anthing with this energy?
Bi-PV uses the heat as well as producing electricity, but the bestester technology is to use parabolic mirrors to focus all the heat onto a collector to raise steam to drive a turbine. You probably wouldn't want it on your roof though :p
Thermopholtovoltaics is basically the same as normal PV but it just absorbs light in the Infra red region rather than the visible spectrum. You get something to 500+ degrees and it emits heavily in the IR region. Can only really put it inside furnaces.
One of those links earlier mentions a cell that works with concentrated sunlight.
I remember someone installed a parabolic mirror in the town centre of some city as an art piece. It was powerful enough to project a beam of concentrated sunlight upwards. And to cook birds as they flew into it.
draconacticus
08-02-10, 16:05
One of those links earlier mentions a cell that works with concentrated sunlight.
I remember someone installed a parabolic mirror in the town centre of some city as an art piece. It was powerful enough to project a beam of concentrated sunlight upwards. And to cook birds as they flew into it.
Well, you wouldn't want to eat an uncooked pigeon would you?
Hey D, check this out:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/22/the-bloom-box-a-power-plant-for-the-home-video/
What do we know of these?
draconacticus
22-02-10, 09:56
Hey D, check this out:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/22/the-bloom-box-a-power-plant-for-the-home-video/
What do we know of these?
Interesting stuff. I've always regarded fuel cells as an Emperor's new clothes type technology. They were never a practical option for automotive applications as there isn't enough platinum in the world to make it an option.
If these guys have solved that problem, it's very interesting indeed.
Would be interesting to know what is in those inks and how stable the exchange membrane is. A lot of commercially available cells degrade.
Would also be very interesting if they can utilise the heat generated also.
Payback looks pretty bad though if ebay paid millions and are only saving 100k every 9 months. Most space age technologies have space age prices O_o
It would be pretty good if they manage to lower the cost though!
I have no idea why they're so expensive if they don't use precious metals and stuff though.
draconacticus
22-02-10, 10:18
A lot of cost comes into the manufacture of these things. I'm guessing whilst not being a precious metal it still involves some exotic material or production process.
Low volume production is always expensive, but even as this goes it still looks pretty steep for an entry level technology. They might be trying to recoup some of their research costs i guess.
Always with these things the devil is in the detail. So many "revolutionary" technologies always pop up, only to find out there is some fundamental reason why it won't reach volume sales. Without reading their patents I can't really comment. Could be good, could also be another new technology looking for a skip to live in :P