This coming week marks the 9th year since the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear disasters. I keep hearing that all the deaths due to nuclear power plants add up to just a 2 digit number. But it’s not that simple – the nuclear apologists try to understate the deaths and damage done. I don’t think that
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From FB group electronics hobbyists Over the holidays I installed two solar 60 LED lights I bought on eBay. They stopped working just a few weeks after. I finally got up on the ladder and took them down to see why they died. Well, spit! The solar panel is plugged into the jack on the
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Suggestion for project on FB group Arduino Projects – Sept 17 Automated Gallows! A motorized winch adjusts noose. Asks for three officials to each press confirmation button. Has an emergency abort button. Counts down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Pulls the trapdoor latch! Monitors heartrate until no sign for 5 minutes Lights up sign “Execution
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I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. Let’s say I have a switch, for example a thermal switch that only has contacts that are NC (normally closed) until a certain temperature is reached. At that point, it changes to open, interrupting the circuit. But the input to my controller senses NO (normally open) switch contacts
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Someone I know posted this to Facebook: “Courage is not living without fear. Courage is being scared to death and doing the right thing anyway.” What does this have to do with Snowden? Well, think about it. Did he weigh the consequences of his actions? Did he think about what would happen if he went
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I have read about, discussed and experienced how surge protectors work and don’t work, and have written about it before, but Ill try again to explain. Ripoff The most egregious thing surge protectors do is take your money. One of the highest, if not the highest profit margin devices in your home is a surge
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This is my opinion and does not represent anyone else’s opinion. I seldom discuss politics here, but this political problem puts the whole world population at risk. Contagious diseases know no borders, do not discriminate, and are equal opportunity killers in all countries. They are helped by people who think they are doing good, but
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I found these at a Walmart store. They’re named Great Value and came in a package of four nightlights. As usual, curiosity made me open it up to see the circuit inside. I traced the circuit and drew a schematic of it. I was disappointed, but not surprised. The way the CdS photocell works is
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A few weeks ago I ordered an ultrasonic dog repeller from an Asian dealer and it finally arrived this week. It wasn’t very expensive. I think one reason why is because this product has never been scientifically tested to prove that it works. The reason I say this is that this product apparently is not
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A friend of mine has taken on the task of finding replacement AC adapters for two laptops, and I thought that I could repair the broken cord on one. But I tried to take the brick apart and damaged it beyond economical repair, so I resorted to the ‘Net to find replacements. He gave me
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