some hybrids pump engine noise through speakers to appease the driver
They do that for safety too, not just to appease the driver. Domino's Pizza in the Netherlands made a marketing coup with this a few years ago when they switched to electric delivery scooters. They added audio of a guy going "VROOoooooommmmmm! Lecker-lecker-lecker... Vrrrooooommmm!" (Apparently, "lecker" means "yummy" in Dutch.)
invent some better ways to store more energy
There have been MANY teams working on this, for several years, with lots of VC/R&D, and several new products are going to hit the market it the next couple of years: liquid metal batteries, sodium ion batteries, compressed air storage, sodium air batteries, artificial leaf, another artificial leaf, flywheels, super-capacitors, etc... Most of these are intended for grid-level storage, but a few are quite suitable for transportation as well. In particular, sodium-air batteries have the advantage of light weight, since one of their reactants (air) is available on the fly. And the two "artificial leaf" technologies can be used to create fuel from sunlight.
Bullshit. Even in the 70s, the consensus was already leaning heavily toward warming.
A survey of climate science articles from '65 to '79 found seven that leaned toward global cooling, but they also found 44 articles on global warming over the same period. This notion of a "consensus" in the 70s about global cooling is simply a myth. The video linked above explains why and how. (Hint: the culprit is the media, not the scientists.)
Here's a little "thought experiment" for you... Imagine a "typical" English or Journalism major from your college days. How would you rate their understanding of science and engineering issues? Now imagine that person is writing for, say, Time Magazine...
Watch the video above to see how that works out.;-)
Would it be TOO much trouble to mention in TFS that Waze.com is a "community based traffic and navigation app" and save me the trouble of searching it on Google?
Hear, hear! And if their test with landing legs succeeds, we might even be able to skip a few steps toward that goal. It's about time we stopped letting senators design rockets and hired actual rocket scientists to do that instead.
There are 36.7 trillion acres of land area on this planet, sure.
First, it's actually 36.7 BILLION acres, not trillion. (That's been bugging me through this whole thread, so I finally checked the math...)
Still, ShieldW0lf's basic idea that the earth could support a lot more than the current population holds true... just a few orders of magnitude less than he thinks.
Of course, food can be grown on the other 11 acres, but at great cost.
It all depends on how you manage the land. As Allan Savory has shown it's possible to reclaim a whole lot of land that had previously been written off as non-arable. And as a side-benefit, reversing desertification on these lands would also sequester gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere, while using it to enrich and build up the soil. It's a win-win-win all around.
Personally, I don't think we need that many people. But it's nice to know that it's at least possible to feed everybody, far into the future, without any need to degrade the environment... on the contrary, we can do so in a way that's beneficial to the environment.
There's actually quite a bit you can do in urban and suburban environments. Check your local regulations, of course, but basically anyplace you can put a garden is viable for permaculture. Here's a video that documents a suburban yard transformation in Australia. It's quite detailed.
There's also a movement to do "edible landscaping" on school grounds and campuses. We already invest a lot of resources to maintain plants to make these places look nice, why not spend the same amount and get plants that look nice and also produce food?
I'm in an urban high-rise, but I'm lucky to have a generous patio. This year I'm finally starting work on my aquaponics system.
We don't have to all become farmers living off the land. But if we factor in all the health benefits, it's quite economical to invest a bit more in our food supply chain. Just increase the number of farmers from 1% to 3% of the population, and we'd all get a much better diet while doing far less damage to the environment.
You can't harvest from a complex ecosystem with a petrol driven combine.
Depends on what system you use. Pasture cropping, for example, is well suited to standard row-cropping equipment.
increase our population into the trillions
Hm... I think you're exaggerating a tad there.;-) Certainly we can easily support the current projected population growth with these methods.
download "The Complete Geoff Lawton Permaculture DVD Collection" off the pirate bay
I already did that a couple of years ago.;-) If you haven't yet, get over to his website and sign up for his latest videos. He's been coming out with a new one each week for the last few months. Good stuff! (You'll have to provide an email address, but they don't abuse it, at least they haven't so far.)
Diversity is the key. (Crop rotation is just one example.) The whole "mega-scale, mono-culture" approach to farming is flawed, and these GMO tweaks are just prolonging its inevitable demise. The future lies with smaller-scale, multi-species farms which more closely mimic the patterns found in nature.
For example, put multiple crops in a single field, alternating several rows of each (depending on what equipment you're using), and interspersed with "islands" of other species whose purpose is to provide habitat for the predators of your pests. You might not get quite as much yield, but if you don't have to spend a dime on pesticide, you'll still come out ahead.
It's a lot more sophisticated than I can explain here, but there are plenty of people doing this already, and it is growing in popularity. There are many different methods being developed, most of which fit under the umbrella of "permaculture" or "holistic management". Look at what Joel Salatin is doing at Poliface Farm in Virginia, or what Colin Seis is doing with "pasture cropping" in Australia, as just a couple of prominent examples.
There are better ways to produce our food and fiber, it's just going to take a while to revolutionize the entire industry.
Thank you! I wish I'd known this 20+ years ago when I was working in a camera shop, flogging the "newfangled" Li-ion batteries which were "supposed" to have a long shelf life... Even the Tech-Reps from Minolta, Pentax, etc. had no clue about this stuff. I get the feeling that even the "experts" back then didn't really have a solid grip on this chemistry (IIRC, NiMH was also in vogue back then). Anyway, I'm glad to see some progress in this area in the last few years... It's about time.
I'm no expert, but I don't think there's a "membrane" in Li-ion cells, just a chemical lattice that breaks down a little bit with each charge-discharge cycle. Hopefully someone who actually knows will chime in...
TFA does hint at broader application, such as Nissan's "Leaf 2 Home" program which basically puts a Leaf battery in your house, making it "islandable" from the grid at need.
There's been a LOT of progress on electric storage in the last few years, and several new products are coming down the pipeline in the not-too-distant future. Here's a quick list off the top of my head...
- Ambri (formerly Liquid Metal Battery Corp.) is setting up production facilities now, and expects to have industrial prototypes on the market later this year. Watch Don Sadoway's TED Talk for an explanation of how it works.
- Lightsail is doing a compressed-air system that incorporates a sort of "water carburetor" to capture the heat of compression (during "charging") and re-inject it later (during "discharge"). This solves a major hurdle for compressed air solutions -- loss of energy to heat -- making it much more competitive with other options.
- Aquion does (IIRC) sodium-ion batteries which are bulkier than most others, but very cheap to produce and maintain (as well as having no environmentally hazardous materials).
There's a ton of other stuff going on... flywheels, super-capacitors, etc... many of which are already available. Storage is the killer app that will enable the "next-gen" electrical grid, and a lot of VC money has been going into R&D on this, the fruits of which are just starting to get ripe.
MIT sponsored a panel discussion on this a couple of years ago which gets into the nitty-gritty of grid integration with established "incumbents", FERC regulations, disruptive startups, etc.. It's a tad out of date now, but still worth the time.
Perhaps you're thinking of lead-acid batteries used in conventional ICE cars? TFA talks about using Li-ion packs from electric vehicles after they've worn down in efficiency. (The article gives the example of a 24kwh pack that only has 18kwh of capacity left, after being used for 14 years.) Even when they're worn out, such batteries are hardly "inexpensive" but they might be a good fit for peak-load smoothing in a data center or similar use. Ultimately, they'll have to be recycled, but this might be a way to get a few more years of service out of them.
We've had "specialized" online fora (eg:/.) for a long time; the appeal of FB is that it crosses those boundaries to connect with new friends (and reconnect with old ones) in a single, convenient venue. I think a more pertinent question would be: Why has FB kept growing while MySpace died on the vine (arguably, killed by FB)? What is FB doing differently?
Although Elon is not fond of hybrids, I reckon he'd make an exception for this case. There's plenty of room in the "frunk" for a gas turbine/generator and a large fuel supply.
Here's an idea: eliminate ALL subsidies, across the board. Let fossil fuels and renewables duke it out on a truly level playing field. Speaking as a "green energy" advocate, I would welcome this challenge. So would Amory Lovins, one of the "gurus" of the green movement.
Funny thing though, when it comes to talk about cutting these subsidies, the "big oil" boyz are all against it. Sure, they're against green energy subsidies, but if you want to cut their subsidies, all of a sudden you're threatening the "lifeblood" of the American Way[tm].
Slashdot Mirror
some hybrids pump engine noise through speakers to appease the driver
They do that for safety too, not just to appease the driver. Domino's Pizza in the Netherlands made a marketing coup with this a few years ago when they switched to electric delivery scooters. They added audio of a guy going "VROOoooooommmmmm! Lecker-lecker-lecker... Vrrrooooommmm!" (Apparently, "lecker" means "yummy" in Dutch.)
invent some better ways to store more energy
There have been MANY teams working on this, for several years, with lots of VC/R&D, and several new products are going to hit the market it the next couple of years: liquid metal batteries, sodium ion batteries, compressed air storage, sodium air batteries, artificial leaf, another artificial leaf, flywheels, super-capacitors, etc... Most of these are intended for grid-level storage, but a few are quite suitable for transportation as well. In particular, sodium-air batteries have the advantage of light weight, since one of their reactants (air) is available on the fly. And the two "artificial leaf" technologies can be used to create fuel from sunlight.
Is there a transmission in the Tesla S? I thought it was just a virtue of electric motors that they have high torque at all speeds.
Bullshit. Even in the 70s, the consensus was already leaning heavily toward warming.
A survey of climate science articles from '65 to '79 found seven that leaned toward global cooling, but they also found 44 articles on global warming over the same period. This notion of a "consensus" in the 70s about global cooling is simply a myth. The video linked above explains why and how. (Hint: the culprit is the media, not the scientists.)
Here's a little "thought experiment" for you... Imagine a "typical" English or Journalism major from your college days. How would you rate their understanding of science and engineering issues? Now imagine that person is writing for, say, Time Magazine...
Watch the video above to see how that works out. ;-)
Would it be TOO much trouble to mention in TFS that Waze.com is a "community based traffic and navigation app" and save me the trouble of searching it on Google?
This is the most credible explanation I've seen thus far. (It was mentioned here a few days ago, but I'm too lazy to track down the link right now.)
In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, here's their video animation of the flight profile for a completely "reusable" mission.
Hear, hear! And if their test with landing legs succeeds, we might even be able to skip a few steps toward that goal. It's about time we stopped letting senators design rockets and hired actual rocket scientists to do that instead.
Forget about punitive uses... how many times have you wished for more hours in the day, so you can get more things done?
"Wow, that's a really complicated problem. If only I had a few days to think about it... [pops a pill] Call me in an hour."
Not even close to vertical farming.
Permaculture food forests are vertical farms, by definition. If you're not using all available "layers" you're not doing it right.
There are 36.7 trillion acres of land area on this planet, sure.
First, it's actually 36.7 BILLION acres, not trillion. (That's been bugging me through this whole thread, so I finally checked the math...)
Still, ShieldW0lf's basic idea that the earth could support a lot more than the current population holds true... just a few orders of magnitude less than he thinks.
Of course, food can be grown on the other 11 acres, but at great cost.
It all depends on how you manage the land. As Allan Savory has shown it's possible to reclaim a whole lot of land that had previously been written off as non-arable. And as a side-benefit, reversing desertification on these lands would also sequester gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere, while using it to enrich and build up the soil. It's a win-win-win all around.
Personally, I don't think we need that many people. But it's nice to know that it's at least possible to feed everybody, far into the future, without any need to degrade the environment... on the contrary, we can do so in a way that's beneficial to the environment.
There's actually quite a bit you can do in urban and suburban environments. Check your local regulations, of course, but basically anyplace you can put a garden is viable for permaculture. Here's a video that documents a suburban yard transformation in Australia. It's quite detailed.
There's also a movement to do "edible landscaping" on school grounds and campuses. We already invest a lot of resources to maintain plants to make these places look nice, why not spend the same amount and get plants that look nice and also produce food?
I'm in an urban high-rise, but I'm lucky to have a generous patio. This year I'm finally starting work on my aquaponics system.
We don't have to all become farmers living off the land. But if we factor in all the health benefits, it's quite economical to invest a bit more in our food supply chain. Just increase the number of farmers from 1% to 3% of the population, and we'd all get a much better diet while doing far less damage to the environment.
You can't harvest from a complex ecosystem with a petrol driven combine.
Depends on what system you use. Pasture cropping, for example, is well suited to standard row-cropping equipment.
increase our population into the trillions
Hm... I think you're exaggerating a tad there. ;-) Certainly we can easily support the current projected population growth with these methods.
download "The Complete Geoff Lawton Permaculture DVD Collection" off the pirate bay
I already did that a couple of years ago. ;-) If you haven't yet, get over to his website and sign up for his latest videos. He's been coming out with a new one each week for the last few months. Good stuff! (You'll have to provide an email address, but they don't abuse it, at least they haven't so far.)
Diversity is the key. (Crop rotation is just one example.) The whole "mega-scale, mono-culture" approach to farming is flawed, and these GMO tweaks are just prolonging its inevitable demise. The future lies with smaller-scale, multi-species farms which more closely mimic the patterns found in nature.
For example, put multiple crops in a single field, alternating several rows of each (depending on what equipment you're using), and interspersed with "islands" of other species whose purpose is to provide habitat for the predators of your pests. You might not get quite as much yield, but if you don't have to spend a dime on pesticide, you'll still come out ahead.
It's a lot more sophisticated than I can explain here, but there are plenty of people doing this already, and it is growing in popularity. There are many different methods being developed, most of which fit under the umbrella of "permaculture" or "holistic management". Look at what Joel Salatin is doing at Poliface Farm in Virginia, or what Colin Seis is doing with "pasture cropping" in Australia, as just a couple of prominent examples.
There are better ways to produce our food and fiber, it's just going to take a while to revolutionize the entire industry.
Thank you! I wish I'd known this 20+ years ago when I was working in a camera shop, flogging the "newfangled" Li-ion batteries which were "supposed" to have a long shelf life... Even the Tech-Reps from Minolta, Pentax, etc. had no clue about this stuff. I get the feeling that even the "experts" back then didn't really have a solid grip on this chemistry (IIRC, NiMH was also in vogue back then). Anyway, I'm glad to see some progress in this area in the last few years... It's about time.
I'm no expert, but I don't think there's a "membrane" in Li-ion cells, just a chemical lattice that breaks down a little bit with each charge-discharge cycle. Hopefully someone who actually knows will chime in...
Anyone? Bueller?
Perhaps you're thinking of a posting forum in which not reading the article is frowned upon?
LOL! ;-)
TFA does hint at broader application, such as Nissan's "Leaf 2 Home" program which basically puts a Leaf battery in your house, making it "islandable" from the grid at need.
There's been a LOT of progress on electric storage in the last few years, and several new products are coming down the pipeline in the not-too-distant future. Here's a quick list off the top of my head...
- Ambri (formerly Liquid Metal Battery Corp.) is setting up production facilities now, and expects to have industrial prototypes on the market later this year. Watch Don Sadoway's TED Talk for an explanation of how it works.
- Lightsail is doing a compressed-air system that incorporates a sort of "water carburetor" to capture the heat of compression (during "charging") and re-inject it later (during "discharge"). This solves a major hurdle for compressed air solutions -- loss of energy to heat -- making it much more competitive with other options.
- Aquion does (IIRC) sodium-ion batteries which are bulkier than most others, but very cheap to produce and maintain (as well as having no environmentally hazardous materials).
There's a ton of other stuff going on... flywheels, super-capacitors, etc... many of which are already available. Storage is the killer app that will enable the "next-gen" electrical grid, and a lot of VC money has been going into R&D on this, the fruits of which are just starting to get ripe.
MIT sponsored a panel discussion on this a couple of years ago which gets into the nitty-gritty of grid integration with established "incumbents", FERC regulations, disruptive startups, etc.. It's a tad out of date now, but still worth the time.
Perhaps you're thinking of lead-acid batteries used in conventional ICE cars? TFA talks about using Li-ion packs from electric vehicles after they've worn down in efficiency. (The article gives the example of a 24kwh pack that only has 18kwh of capacity left, after being used for 14 years.) Even when they're worn out, such batteries are hardly "inexpensive" but they might be a good fit for peak-load smoothing in a data center or similar use. Ultimately, they'll have to be recycled, but this might be a way to get a few more years of service out of them.
We've had "specialized" online fora (eg: /.) for a long time; the appeal of FB is that it crosses those boundaries to connect with new friends (and reconnect with old ones) in a single, convenient venue. I think a more pertinent question would be: Why has FB kept growing while MySpace died on the vine (arguably, killed by FB)? What is FB doing differently?
Jesus is my personal brain-care specialist.
Why? Aquaponics is easily the most water-conservative method for growing crops in any climate.
Although Elon is not fond of hybrids, I reckon he'd make an exception for this case. There's plenty of room in the "frunk" for a gas turbine/generator and a large fuel supply.
Here's an idea: eliminate ALL subsidies, across the board. Let fossil fuels and renewables duke it out on a truly level playing field. Speaking as a "green energy" advocate, I would welcome this challenge. So would Amory Lovins, one of the "gurus" of the green movement.
Funny thing though, when it comes to talk about cutting these subsidies, the "big oil" boyz are all against it. Sure, they're against green energy subsidies, but if you want to cut their subsidies, all of a sudden you're threatening the "lifeblood" of the American Way[tm].
For a splash of cold water on the "fracking revolution" check out this interview with Chris Martenson and Richard Heinberg. We are already in a much more precarious position than most people realize.
Sorry dude (assuming you are the same AC as above?), just trying to make your one-word comment slightly relevant.
The perfect "tool" with which to fuck beta I presume?