Cool Photo

[sidewinder]

I think this is a cool photo.  It was taken from the ramp at the gate in Shanghai.  The terminal has sloping windows, (no pun intended) and from the ground outside the reflection to those looking up at the terminal is an awesome panoramic view of the ramp and aircraft.  In the photo below you can see in the upper right the actual nose of the aircraft which appears  in the reflection.  I am standing just to the left side of the nose as you face the photo.  

Nice hot rod I got to play with eh.  big, fast, agile and most of all RELIABLE, not tricks, no surprises, just steady.   



I took the photo while leaning on the tug just under the nose of the aircraft.  It is difficult to pick me out in the original so, I zoomed in on the photo below and you can see me snapping the photo. Remember this is the reflection so it appears I am on to the right of the aircraft in this zoom when actually I am on the left of the aircraft.   Anyway I thought it was a cool photo and just happened across it tonight while doing some computer maint and though I'd share it with you all.
 

[sunseeker]

Hi SW
I used to do photographic work in my spare time (weddings/christenings etc., and my own developing). Cool pictures SW. Cool pictures.

Here's something that I've only just found out.
Banknotes aren't made of paper.
Cotton/Linen.
Plastic in Australia but I knew that as we have relatives there.

I worked in a cashiers department for a while I used to handle/count/balance something like £8 and 26million a day and I never realised.

You'd have thought I would have “cottoned on” to that fact before now. 
 

Banknote paper
The paper for Bank of England notes is made by a specialist paper manufacturer. It is manufactured from cotton fibre and linen rag, which makes it tougher and more durable than the more common wood pulp paper. Using copious amounts of water, the cotton is broken down into individual fibres and reformed into reels of paper of the quality required.
The watermark design is engraved in wax and, like the metallic thread, the image is incorporated into the paper at the manufacturing stage.

http://www.polymernotes.org/resources/tdlrcomparison.htm
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/production.htm

It's little wonder cotton has been performing well of late.



Harkening back to my ERII posts/holding.
Using copious amounts of water eh...

"Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over."
— Mark Twain


ATB 

[onlooker]

Hi SW:

SW quote:

Without question it will be a few years until solar progresses to a point to provide energy the human element on this planet will require.   But it will through nano technology.  This will bring solar to an acceptable cost and unit size.  Meanwhile something will have to replace coal and oil in the interim.  This may as well be nuclear. 

I hereby claim to be the  "Original Nano Tech Bug"© ™.   
 
Something always comes along to pull societies out of the funk they create for themselves.  (Well, not really that the people cause it but their governments which sooner or later run out of control and exhaust and waste all productive human effort.)  This time it may as well be the rapidly advancing knowledge in nano-technology.  I have invested in several practically unknown outfits that are in this field.  Solar panels as we know them today will appear as antique in the near future as a Tandy TI-99 does today.  WE WILL HARNESS THE POWER OF THE SUN.   It is the only practical solution. 

~   ~   ~

Nanotechnology is already a well developed science subject.  See:

The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology will make its home alongside the Institute for Quantum Computing in the new Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum Nano Centre (QNC). Currently under construction the QNC is expected to be completed by Winter 2011.   This 285 thousand square-foot building, valued at over ~$160 million dollars, will be a professionally staffed, state-of-the-art facility that will house more than 50 researchers and more than 100 graduate students.  It will also be a focal point for the 500 undergraduate nanotechnology engineering students.

http://www.nano.uwaterloo.ca/facilities/qnc.html

~  ~   ~

Here’s a good site on nanotechnology and solar energy, see:

http://www.understandingnano.com/solarcells.html

~  ~   ~

When I look at your “Cool Photo”, I wonder how much power of the hot sun could have been harnessed if rows of the glass panels at the airport terminal were nano/solar panels?  Probably a lot of electrical power could have been built up and then used. 

So, yeah, I think your idea of investing in companies dealing with solar panel / nano-technology is a really good one to consider.   Thanks for mentioning it at BHSH. 

[sidewinder]

I have a friend who has been working with polymers and the idea of stuffing them into nano tubes.  About two years ago he mentioned they were close to some real breakthroughs but all the talk was way above my head at the time and still is to some degree.

I would like to read the white paper "Improved Hybrid Solar Cells via in situ UV Polymerization" but so far haven't located it for free anyplace.  the site I found it was wanting a log in. 

That will be only the first step towards truly affordable, efficient solar.  Once that type tech is in place and marketable, I think it will be explosive as far a widely used tech.   It really is exciting to think about mankind actually taking a giant leap towards solving energy requirements of the future. 

Of course those who's bread is buttered with the barbaric fossil fuel industry will fight and imped any progress in this direction, but that's what will make it fun. 

With the unquestionable escalation of competition for resources due to the exponential population growth over the next 100 years, there is no question that this search for renewable energy will have to take the center stage.  May as well build another giant bubble around it as we have always done.  Too bad political economy can't be stuffed into a nano tube along with politicians. 

Oh well, some day maybe the world will be about people rather than issues I just want a glimpse of it before I get my ticket punched. 

So far my little prediction of the SnP futures going to the big 61.8 (about 1234) arriving On or About 11-8-10 before a correction of any significance is hanging on.  We willl see what Monday brings if the dollar can survive a few more days of that can of whoop-ass the Fed opened.  Such a friggin game ya know.  Perception may just be the new reality. 

[pinetree]

The solar stuff is interesting and exciting, for sure.  I think Kurzweil will be right on this one.  I like his analogy that the cell phone you have in your pocket is a thousand times more powerful and a milllion times cheaper than something that took up an entire building back when he was a student.  The only question is timing and it could take a while for solar to realize it's potential.

---

SW, I've heard some talk of a new indicator called "holy grail" around FW-land.  Kirk posted some pics recently, kind of look like purple fisher arrows and I guess he and Bobcat are still working on it.  I normally don't get into the indicators that much but if you're gonna call something holy grail I'll at least want to look at it.  Since you've got the inside track on a lot of these any chance of a review?

As for the market, don't forget to let us know when the broom falls over.  Buying intraday pullbacks to the 20sma has been working every time but it can't continue forever.

EDIT - Never mind on the grail thingy.  It's up on their website and seems like it's a sort of all-in-one FW indicator.  I was just wondering what it was is all...