If geothermal sources were affordable to get to, they would already have been exploited. As the population increases, energy needs and costs will increase perhaps bringing geothermal costs within reason to go after. In any case, the cheap geothermal will be had first, and it will get WAY expensive after that because it is just WAY down there. Posts have discussed shipping the energy across the country, but a major major expense will just be drilling the massive holes miles down to get it. You need many holes (tens to hundreds) at each site, each several miles deep. You are talking serious money here, and money historically has always been the reason things are done (or not done). BTW there might be an environmental impact to be considered too; namely, bringing all that heat to the surface and releasing it into the atmosphere is bound to cause global warming.
As most liberals do when discussing "climate change," aka global warming, they intentionally confuse pollution with AGW. Yes, we want no garbage floating in the sea, and yes we want no PCBs in our food, and yes we want no smog in our air, but these have NOTHING to do with the subject of climate change. To the extent there is warming, and that is not at all clear from objective data, it is within normal parameters of 1 to 2 deg per century, and has been increasing at that rate for centuries. Notice the ruins at the bottom of the Med? There used to be a land bridge joining Asia and North America. Did our use of SUV's cause it to submerge? If, and that's a big "if," there is continued warming, the main green house gas is water vapor and it comes from evaporation from the oceans. To think humans can do anything about that, or even SHOULD, is the height of hubris. Following water vapor is methane, and down the list we eventually get to CO2, something we can do a little about, very little about. World wide production of CO2 is increasing no matter what we here in the US do, even if we return to a stone age economy, which is apparently where the libs want us. Stop looking at just the left wing press, and read objective literature. There are numerous books (check Amazon.com), documenting the truth and the scams, and these authors have no ax to grind except their intollerance for chicanery of their peers.
Not a Bible-thumper, but do wonder if our apparent uniqueness is real, just a wish, or maybe we actually have a Maker somewhere - a universal intelligence? So far, the data are not conclusive though theories abound. Alien intelligence doesn't have to come visit us to reveal itself. Radio signals might also reveal it (SETI); on the other hand, we are almost at a point where we don't emit radio signals ourselves.
Yes, planets precisely like ours (from a cosmological perspective) were created billions of years ago. Probably at least millions in this galaxy alone. And there are billions of galaxies billions of years older than ours. Surely, whatever factors came together to create life as we know it has come together trillions of times before, and more importantly, billions of years ago. So where is it? Does intelligent life inevitably create artificial intelligence, which outlives for one reason or another the biological life? And does artificial intelligence have no curiosity leading it to the stars? Why does it seem we are alone? I think biological intelligent life only lasts a few centuries, then inevitably eliminates itself. Guess we'll never know for sure until we meet our Maker at least.
I'm wondering now why the TSA doesn't take a DNA sample (cheek swab) from each passenger? A frisk invades the privacy of an individual much worse than a cheek swab, and if the TSA is allowed to frisk people with no proof of a crime nor reasonable cause to suspect a crime, why couldn't the police do it when there actually is a reasonable cause to suspect a crime (ie, an arrest). Likely, such tests would reveal that this person has committed crimes previously where DNA was found but no suspect's DNA was on file matching it. What is the difference between DNA and fingerprints, which are also taken when someone is arrested?
I apologize for not reading all the comments before making my own. But all I've read so far totally miss the main issue with surviving being sucked out of a jet aircraft. The 500 mile per hour wind blast would blow the flesh right off your bones, and render you to a pink mist within a fraction of a second. The temperature and air pressure are hardly relevant to whether one can survive such an event. Fighter pilots who eject from jet aircraft at speeds above even 200 mph would not survive in most cases.
You probably meant 50 kWhr. KW is a unit of power, not energy. In any case, I'd prefer a flywheel that held about two or three times that, so I could "charge" it from my solar or wind system, rather than house current, then use it for running my house and re-charging my car. That is, if I had solar or wind power.
About two years ago, after one of the regular MS auto updates, Outlook quit working. I did a system restore, which didn't help. So I reinstalled Office and Windows from the original disks, but that didn't help either. I've had to use Widows mail since then, which of course isn't as good. No one online had any suggestions that worked. Possibly someone reading this will have had the problem and got it fixed. Help.....
I tried Firefox once. It wouldn't run some videos. Also IE has a little button in the lower right hand of the screen that I can easily magnify the view. Very useful and not available in Firefox. After two days, I went back to IE.
Coal can serve the near term needs, but eventually nuclear power will be required. By a stroke of good fortune it is relatively cheap, takes up insignificant real estate, and produces no green house gasses.
Putting a nuke on a missile and firing it at the US is far more reliable than trying to smuggle one in. And the threat of launching a missile at the US is a blackmail weapon. If they have no intention of ever launching a nuke at us, why do they keep improving their nuke capability and launcher capability? Blackmail maybe? So we should just ignore them, Iran, and any other nation that develops nuclear weapons and the missiles with which to deliver them?
Yeah, when I first heard about this car and its miracle battery, I told someone about the charge current requirement, and of course they aren't electrical engineers, so their eyes just glaze over. MaybeTFA was supposed to say 6 days instead of 6 minutes charge time.
I'm reallly glad to read everyone's comments about this potential and how it may or not be better than what you have now. For me, I live in the boondocks of Tennessee, and have to live with satellite access to the Internet (no cell signal, no DSL). So max download is 1.5 Mbps and upload about 50 kbps. I'm paying for 250 kbps upload, but they are oversold, and are screwing everyone in that regard. And then there is the latency of about 1.4 seconds that prohibits the use of things like Skype and Vonnage. How nice. Remember Obama's promise on this? So far nada.
Simple solution, right? Show me the laser that can beam down a couple terrawatts. Then show me how much it will cost to develop, build, and place in orbit this laser. Then show me the ground collection station that will convert this laser energy to electrical energy. Then show me the electrical grid that will efficiently distribute this power around the world. By the time you've figured out the efficiencies of all this, you'll end up needing to collect probably 50 terrawatts in space. Now you are starting to collect so much energy, you have to measure it as a percentage of the sun's output. And don't even talk to me about the cost -- that much money has never been printed. Maybe this process could be used to get some miniscule power for a satellite, but it is pure science fiction to consider it for powering anything on earth. In fact, surely the whole idea is an April fool joke. Let's just go for the easy, current technology, clean nuclear energy, which with fuel reprocessing and breeder technology, can last thousands of years. And we need electric cars too. And we continue to work on the true solution - fusion.
A recent article in Discover magazine pointed out that the rate of human evolution is actually increasing, and provided several examples. The main reason for his is that there are so many humans around. One example (from memory) was that all humans were lactose intolerant 5,000 years ago, but now only 20% are. And there was another pointing out how sperm had significantly mutated in the past 2,000 years. I know this seems to go against logic, but the author has the credentials and the proof. This was about four issues ago.
It would take 5,600 one megawatt wind turbines operating 6 hours per day to produce the same energy as a 1.4 GW nuclear reactor does in a day. Just a thought.
Rivers change course much more often that most people think. The Missouri and Mississippi, for example, have changed several times in the past couple hundred years
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If geothermal sources were affordable to get to, they would already have been exploited. As the population increases, energy needs and costs will increase perhaps bringing geothermal costs within reason to go after. In any case, the cheap geothermal will be had first, and it will get WAY expensive after that because it is just WAY down there. Posts have discussed shipping the energy across the country, but a major major expense will just be drilling the massive holes miles down to get it. You need many holes (tens to hundreds) at each site, each several miles deep. You are talking serious money here, and money historically has always been the reason things are done (or not done). BTW there might be an environmental impact to be considered too; namely, bringing all that heat to the surface and releasing it into the atmosphere is bound to cause global warming.
Excellent analogy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As most liberals do when discussing "climate change," aka global warming, they intentionally confuse pollution with AGW. Yes, we want no garbage floating in the sea, and yes we want no PCBs in our food, and yes we want no smog in our air, but these have NOTHING to do with the subject of climate change. To the extent there is warming, and that is not at all clear from objective data, it is within normal parameters of 1 to 2 deg per century, and has been increasing at that rate for centuries. Notice the ruins at the bottom of the Med? There used to be a land bridge joining Asia and North America. Did our use of SUV's cause it to submerge? If, and that's a big "if," there is continued warming, the main green house gas is water vapor and it comes from evaporation from the oceans. To think humans can do anything about that, or even SHOULD, is the height of hubris. Following water vapor is methane, and down the list we eventually get to CO2, something we can do a little about, very little about. World wide production of CO2 is increasing no matter what we here in the US do, even if we return to a stone age economy, which is apparently where the libs want us. Stop looking at just the left wing press, and read objective literature. There are numerous books (check Amazon.com), documenting the truth and the scams, and these authors have no ax to grind except their intollerance for chicanery of their peers.
Excellent point!
Not a Bible-thumper, but do wonder if our apparent uniqueness is real, just a wish, or maybe we actually have a Maker somewhere - a universal intelligence? So far, the data are not conclusive though theories abound. Alien intelligence doesn't have to come visit us to reveal itself. Radio signals might also reveal it (SETI); on the other hand, we are almost at a point where we don't emit radio signals ourselves.
Yes, planets precisely like ours (from a cosmological perspective) were created billions of years ago. Probably at least millions in this galaxy alone. And there are billions of galaxies billions of years older than ours. Surely, whatever factors came together to create life as we know it has come together trillions of times before, and more importantly, billions of years ago. So where is it? Does intelligent life inevitably create artificial intelligence, which outlives for one reason or another the biological life? And does artificial intelligence have no curiosity leading it to the stars? Why does it seem we are alone? I think biological intelligent life only lasts a few centuries, then inevitably eliminates itself. Guess we'll never know for sure until we meet our Maker at least.
Has anyone mentioned that the electrical infrastructure of the United States is nowhere near capable of supporting a decent number of electric cars?
I'm wondering now why the TSA doesn't take a DNA sample (cheek swab) from each passenger? A frisk invades the privacy of an individual much worse than a cheek swab, and if the TSA is allowed to frisk people with no proof of a crime nor reasonable cause to suspect a crime, why couldn't the police do it when there actually is a reasonable cause to suspect a crime (ie, an arrest). Likely, such tests would reveal that this person has committed crimes previously where DNA was found but no suspect's DNA was on file matching it. What is the difference between DNA and fingerprints, which are also taken when someone is arrested?
I apologize for not reading all the comments before making my own. But all I've read so far totally miss the main issue with surviving being sucked out of a jet aircraft. The 500 mile per hour wind blast would blow the flesh right off your bones, and render you to a pink mist within a fraction of a second. The temperature and air pressure are hardly relevant to whether one can survive such an event. Fighter pilots who eject from jet aircraft at speeds above even 200 mph would not survive in most cases.
You probably meant 50 kWhr. KW is a unit of power, not energy. In any case, I'd prefer a flywheel that held about two or three times that, so I could "charge" it from my solar or wind system, rather than house current, then use it for running my house and re-charging my car. That is, if I had solar or wind power.
Surely this is just another consequence of global warming! Just add it to the list http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
About two years ago, after one of the regular MS auto updates, Outlook quit working. I did a system restore, which didn't help. So I reinstalled Office and Windows from the original disks, but that didn't help either. I've had to use Widows mail since then, which of course isn't as good. No one online had any suggestions that worked. Possibly someone reading this will have had the problem and got it fixed. Help.....
I tried Firefox once. It wouldn't run some videos. Also IE has a little button in the lower right hand of the screen that I can easily magnify the view. Very useful and not available in Firefox. After two days, I went back to IE.
Coal can serve the near term needs, but eventually nuclear power will be required. By a stroke of good fortune it is relatively cheap, takes up insignificant real estate, and produces no green house gasses.
Putting a nuke on a missile and firing it at the US is far more reliable than trying to smuggle one in. And the threat of launching a missile at the US is a blackmail weapon. If they have no intention of ever launching a nuke at us, why do they keep improving their nuke capability and launcher capability? Blackmail maybe? So we should just ignore them, Iran, and any other nation that develops nuclear weapons and the missiles with which to deliver them?
Apparently you know nothing of the real world, or if you do, you chose to ignore it.
Such facts are not relevant to electric car discussions, which are mainly fantasy and wishful thinking.
Yeah, when I first heard about this car and its miracle battery, I told someone about the charge current requirement, and of course they aren't electrical engineers, so their eyes just glaze over. MaybeTFA was supposed to say 6 days instead of 6 minutes charge time.
I'm reallly glad to read everyone's comments about this potential and how it may or not be better than what you have now. For me, I live in the boondocks of Tennessee, and have to live with satellite access to the Internet (no cell signal, no DSL). So max download is 1.5 Mbps and upload about 50 kbps. I'm paying for 250 kbps upload, but they are oversold, and are screwing everyone in that regard. And then there is the latency of about 1.4 seconds that prohibits the use of things like Skype and Vonnage. How nice. Remember Obama's promise on this? So far nada.
Simple solution, right? Show me the laser that can beam down a couple terrawatts. Then show me how much it will cost to develop, build, and place in orbit this laser. Then show me the ground collection station that will convert this laser energy to electrical energy. Then show me the electrical grid that will efficiently distribute this power around the world. By the time you've figured out the efficiencies of all this, you'll end up needing to collect probably 50 terrawatts in space. Now you are starting to collect so much energy, you have to measure it as a percentage of the sun's output. And don't even talk to me about the cost -- that much money has never been printed. Maybe this process could be used to get some miniscule power for a satellite, but it is pure science fiction to consider it for powering anything on earth. In fact, surely the whole idea is an April fool joke. Let's just go for the easy, current technology, clean nuclear energy, which with fuel reprocessing and breeder technology, can last thousands of years. And we need electric cars too. And we continue to work on the true solution - fusion.
Put up towers here! Please! Duck River, Tennessee.
A recent article in Discover magazine pointed out that the rate of human evolution is actually increasing, and provided several examples. The main reason for his is that there are so many humans around. One example (from memory) was that all humans were lactose intolerant 5,000 years ago, but now only 20% are. And there was another pointing out how sperm had significantly mutated in the past 2,000 years. I know this seems to go against logic, but the author has the credentials and the proof. This was about four issues ago.
Super summary!
It would take 5,600 one megawatt wind turbines operating 6 hours per day to produce the same energy as a 1.4 GW nuclear reactor does in a day. Just a thought.
Rivers change course much more often that most people think. The Missouri and Mississippi, for example, have changed several times in the past couple hundred years