I think you're not thinking far enough down the road. Consider that just because the government is placating the angry american farmer now (before a major election) it is not safe to assume that long term energy policies will be set by present patterns.
Corn futures just took a HUGE tumble as the market just realized that no matter what Archer Midland Daniels says the market for Ethanol is not developed nor does consumer demand play out the kind of production that they want to see. Further corn constitutes the majority foodstuff of both central and south america as well as providing the primary feed stake of most commercial meat operations. When the average american sees milk hit 6 or 7 bucks a gallon because dairy feed is impossible to buy on the open market and being able to afford steak is a distant memory and all our neighbors to the south are rioting over the price of corn tortillas the government isn't going to care what the corn lobby has to say about energy policy.
There is also HIGHLY relevant fact that intensive agriculture is praticed in the midwest through the use of ground water irrigation, the resevoirs that most of the midwest 'breadbasket' states rely are classified as fossil water (Wiki) and thus are not a sustainable or renewable energy source at all. And I'm guessing the DoD has competent enough hydrologists to already know this.
While I'll defer to your unpleasant experiance with your G5's bladder control I don't think you should base the feasilibity of fluid cooling technology on such a small sample. When fluid cooling of processor is used en masse to provide a radiant heating system for the building thus converting waste heat to increased energy efficiency the techology is quite beneficial. But then you're using computers that are significantly larger than a G5 tower. I guess my point is don't dismiss a technology just because the first few gen's of the consumer product is shit.
While you are correct in that the best option may very well be algae based ethanol fuels you're overlooking the real importance of sythbio. While sythenthetic biology is a scary advancement in science that may very well be turned against humanity, I think it is also the best chance at a stable future for the planet. Why? Because as humanity gradually decreases the biological diversity of the earth, sythenetic biology offers us the best chance to rebuild the enviroment. Currently the planet is experiancing the 6th ELE (Extinction Level Event) as commonly calculated by fossil evidence, the current rate of extinction for vertibrates drastically exceeds the background extinction rate. Given that nature cannot keep the place of speciation it falls on science to give us a way to repopulate the environment with genetic diversity. Testing the waters of synthbio by looking for an organic fuel alternative is not something that should be discouraged out of mob-think fear with flaming pitchforks.
If your more concerned about the stability of the world economy (IE your bankbook) than the stability of the oceans currents (the primary means of surface temperature regulation for the planet) then I hate to break it to you, but your missing the point. You obviously understand economics and finance so I will put it to you this way, would you sink several million dollars into a company whose products and business methods you don't fully understand? No? Then it's definately not a good idea to do the same thing with millions of tonnes of carbon, phosphates, and biological wastes into a system that not only do we not fully understand. But we all depend upon for survival and sustainance.
(And if your waiting for 'perfect' numbers your deluded, we've tampered with the ecosystem to a point at which the imput variables have exceeded our ability to accurately model outcomes for. In short the models are only going to get worse and less capable of accurate predictions as the environmental instability progresses.)
Artic ice packs dont work that way. For the ducks to be driven deeper into the ice pack we would have to be in a global cooling trend that would result in the formation of new pack ice over the top of the existing ice thus moving the ducks deeper and deeper into the ice pack. We are obviously NOT in the middle of an ice age so no chance on a ducky popping out for the year 3000.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you're not thinking far enough down the road. Consider that just because the government is placating the angry american farmer now (before a major election) it is not safe to assume that long term energy policies will be set by present patterns.
Corn futures just took a HUGE tumble as the market just realized that no matter what Archer Midland Daniels says the market for Ethanol is not developed nor does consumer demand play out the kind of production that they want to see. Further corn constitutes the majority foodstuff of both central and south america as well as providing the primary feed stake of most commercial meat operations. When the average american sees milk hit 6 or 7 bucks a gallon because dairy feed is impossible to buy on the open market and being able to afford steak is a distant memory and all our neighbors to the south are rioting over the price of corn tortillas the government isn't going to care what the corn lobby has to say about energy policy.
There is also HIGHLY relevant fact that intensive agriculture is praticed in the midwest through the use of ground water irrigation, the resevoirs that most of the midwest 'breadbasket' states rely are classified as fossil water (Wiki) and thus are not a sustainable or renewable energy source at all. And I'm guessing the DoD has competent enough hydrologists to already know this.
While I'll defer to your unpleasant experiance with your G5's bladder control I don't think you should base the feasilibity of fluid cooling technology on such a small sample. When fluid cooling of processor is used en masse to provide a radiant heating system for the building thus converting waste heat to increased energy efficiency the techology is quite beneficial. But then you're using computers that are significantly larger than a G5 tower. I guess my point is don't dismiss a technology just because the first few gen's of the consumer product is shit.
While you are correct in that the best option may very well be algae based ethanol fuels you're overlooking the real importance of sythbio. While sythenthetic biology is a scary advancement in science that may very well be turned against humanity, I think it is also the best chance at a stable future for the planet. Why? Because as humanity gradually decreases the biological diversity of the earth, sythenetic biology offers us the best chance to rebuild the enviroment. Currently the planet is experiancing the 6th ELE (Extinction Level Event) as commonly calculated by fossil evidence, the current rate of extinction for vertibrates drastically exceeds the background extinction rate. Given that nature cannot keep the place of speciation it falls on science to give us a way to repopulate the environment with genetic diversity. Testing the waters of synthbio by looking for an organic fuel alternative is not something that should be discouraged out of mob-think fear with flaming pitchforks.
If your more concerned about the stability of the world economy (IE your bankbook) than the stability of the oceans currents (the primary means of surface temperature regulation for the planet) then I hate to break it to you, but your missing the point. You obviously understand economics and finance so I will put it to you this way, would you sink several million dollars into a company whose products and business methods you don't fully understand? No? Then it's definately not a good idea to do the same thing with millions of tonnes of carbon, phosphates, and biological wastes into a system that not only do we not fully understand. But we all depend upon for survival and sustainance. (And if your waiting for 'perfect' numbers your deluded, we've tampered with the ecosystem to a point at which the imput variables have exceeded our ability to accurately model outcomes for. In short the models are only going to get worse and less capable of accurate predictions as the environmental instability progresses.)
Artic ice packs dont work that way. For the ducks to be driven deeper into the ice pack we would have to be in a global cooling trend that would result in the formation of new pack ice over the top of the existing ice thus moving the ducks deeper and deeper into the ice pack. We are obviously NOT in the middle of an ice age so no chance on a ducky popping out for the year 3000.