Time to hit the swim center/spa.
Posted on 07/12/2016 8:03:24 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Pluto isn't quite as lonely as scientists had thought.
Astronomers have discovered another dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune. But this newfound world, dubbed 2015 RR245, is much more distant than Pluto, orbiting the sun once every 700 Earth years, scientists said. (Pluto completes one lap around the sun every 248 Earth years.)
"The icy worlds beyond Neptune trace how the giant planets formed and then moved out from the sun," discovery team member Michele Bannister, of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said in a statement. "They let us piece together the history of our solar system."
...
The exact size of 2015 RR245 is not yet known, but the researchers think it's about 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. Pluto is the largest resident of the Kuiper Belt, with a diameter of 1,474 miles (2,371 km).
The research team first spotted 2015 RR245 in February of this year, while poring over images that the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii took in September 2015 as part of the ongoing Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS).
"There it was on the screen — this dot of light moving so slowly that it had to be at least twice as far as Neptune from the sun," Bannister said.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
!
Strange How things can do that...
Took it right out from under me!
W000t!!!
The Bushes where rustling., there had to be something big happening.
:D
Morning! We’re off to the zoo as soon as we find all the relevant Offspring.
We’ve been getting brief rains all along, too brief for any serious cooling effect. Just gets thicker.
Yesterday we had a bit of light rain, less than ten minutes. Went to the down spout to rinse soil from my hands. Found runoff to be warmer than bath water just before roof stopped draining.
Relevancy is relative. I’m off to work for a few hours.
One of the early experimenters in solar heating experienced a similar phenomenon. He went on to build several homes incorporating his designs, including what is now called “passive solar”.
My contribution, if ever I make it, will be in “passive geothermal” heating. The idea being, you can get heat to rise without too much difficulty, but how do you get the heat collected down there in the first place?
So I like the idea of “light pipes”. We’ll put solar collectors out there, channeling the light down through reflective tubes, and have the collectors stored underground where they’ll be safe from the weather.
Then all you would need is a pump and a fan to get your dwelling to be comfortably warmed. Add to this then the magic of being able to “pump” heat by using compressors and refrigerant gases, and your energy budget will be as low as you may desire.
Lots of work has been done and documented about “passive solar”, including various adaptations of the Roman clay flue bricks in floors and walls using combustion chambers in lower levels. Slaves though seemed to be a prerequisite for smooth continuous operation.
I saw a clever design that used attic heating and basement sub-floor heat storage. That would work for a cold climate.
But we are now getting used to having the best of both worlds. We want heat in the Winter and cooling in the Summer.
Ideally, we could balance our architectural designs and the amount of sunlight we collect so that the interior climate is perfect year round. But even that wouldn’t be enough for some; hence the need for heat pumps.
Also, ultra-efficient house insulation means that air needs to be exchanged and circulated actively. Passive will help, but consumers will want their comfort NOW and not eventually.
Likely we’ll have to augment the solar heat collection with solar cell electricity and energy storage. Hopefully battery technology will advance as well.
One of the amusing aspects of studying this technology and the architecture that embodies it is that this would also be suitable for making a comfortable dwelling on one of the many asteroids that fill the Solar System. What a grand villa that would be!
On the other hand (along with some phalanges) we have an indication of 102.7° showing on our electronic-you-don't-have-to-go-outside-to-check temperature sensing and reporting device.
But what does it know..
It knows to stay in the shade, which puts it one step ahead of some of us, and allegedly, Englishmen.
Time to hit the swim center/spa.
Nice, A Redneck Jacuzzi. Yeah, good times. :)
There must be a law against that...having fun in a public place or something?
An Englishman will always go out in the heat of the day for one very simple reason. So he can moan about how hot it is out there.
For example: It was 30 degrees outside today. So you spend the rest of the afternoon in a Pub garden enjoying the Sun whilst fanning yourself with a Beer mat from time to time. This usually goes on until dinner time approaches then you either eat in the Pub (Such as today) or depart in the car with the A/C on full blast because of “how hot it has been today”.
Either way,there is ample opportunity to partake in the national sport of whinging.
“Slaves though seemed to be a prerequisite for smooth continuous operation.”
Don’t go making that mistake again. This is why Electricity is So popular.
It picks cotton and cools houses perfectly and doesn’t gripe about it for the next 200 years after you turn it off.
LOL!!!!
While true, saying that in Canada would probably get you arrested.
What I find amusing is that the stuff that is found “most offensive” by the social justicianators, simply proves that they are in accord with precisely the characteristics they condemn us for recognizing.
The Feds have belatedly recognized that most crime occurs precisely where the cops have been watching. It’s pure coincidence, I’m sure.
I should also add that all of us are in precisely the same boat; it won’t be long before all of our work is being done by robots. Just think about how much it would cost to replace a minimum-wage worker with a twenty-four hour machine that never needs to go on bathroom breaks.
Now advance the wage rate by the amount that has been proposed in various places, (including here in Maryland).
The robot replacement starts looking better every year. What happens when all of our work is done by robots? Will we sit idly by with folded hands?
I reiterate that each of us needs to find and burnish a skill that is appreciated by other humans, whether it is hair-braiding or guitar-picking.
When you can entertain your neighbors, they will give you things to do, and something for your efforts. Robots won’t care either way.
“What happens when all of our work is done by robots? “
The Economy stops dead.
There is no one around to buy the stuff the Robots are churning out.
Strangely,even the BMW Mini factory just up the road from here only uses Robots for the most boring or dangerous of jobs. The rest of the build is by hand. And to a very high standard it has to be said.
We have a Loop hole in law covering Humour.
It fell nicely within it.
:)
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