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59 comments on Why We "Waste" Energy: The Second Law of Thermodynamics Explains--UPDATED 8/7

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plucky underdog on August 4, 2007 - 1:19pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I am presently in vocational training in HVAC/R.

Try expanding your curriculum to include history of technology instead of tinfoil-hat physics. You might even get better at your job. And you would certainly be better informed about the situation we are discussing on TOD, and how we got to where we are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcomen_steam_engine

The cylinder was filled with steam from a boiler (usually below it). This was condensed using a jet of water. The resultant vacuum pulled down one end of the beam, thus operating the pump attached to the other.

I found that by typing atmospheric steam engine into the Wikipedia search box and clicking intelligently. You may have heard of Wikipedia, by the way. A couple of minutes there can save a whole lot of wasted time, effort, and typing, both your own and other people's, in a forum like this. And you get to learn things instead of attracting abuse.

Would it be possible to implement an automated test of the ability to use simple online reference tools like Wikipedia as a pre-qualification for posting privileges on TOD?

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RBM on August 4, 2007 - 6:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

In a rush, I erred - I responded to 'atmosphere' as
a adjective not a noun, since it was in quotes. I am guilty.

New sig. Heh.
Flaws
in EM Theory

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Engineer-Poet on August 5, 2007 - 6:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Would it be possible to implement an automated test of the ability to use simple online reference tools like Wikipedia as a pre-qualification for posting privileges on TOD?

I like this idea (and not just for TOD).

However, TOD has more pressing needs.  One of them is a review system which allows pieces like this to go before more eyeballs before they get posted.  TOD has people with the technical chops to catch errors like Schmitz's before publication, but Drupal doesn't allow read-only access to the publication queue for review purposes (according to SuperG, it's all or nothing).

Commenters are understood (mostly) not to be speaking for TOD.  Our articles are another matter, and I think most will agree that errors in basic science should be cause to return an article to the author for correction before the public sees it.  Drupal doesn't have the features for this sort of workflow, and from discussion behind the scenes I can tell you that the people most intimately involved don't think it will be easy.

This sort of thing may happen again.  I just want to make clear that the problem isn't the people so much as the system we have pressed into service for TOD.

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59 comments on Why We "Waste" Energy: The Second Law of Thermodynamics Explains--UPDATED 8/7

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