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  1. Re:Loads of Potential on New Sunlight Reactor Produces Fuel · · Score: 1

    If we didn't already have all of the infrastructure in place to utilize fossil fuels, we would probably say the same thing about oil...

    "...so once we build the multi-billion dollar oil rig and get the oil out of the mile deep hole in the ground a mile deep into the ocean, we still need to refine it with a multi-billion dollar refinery, and we'll need dozens this type of setup in order to support the worlds energy needs."

  2. Re:Loads of Potential on New Sunlight Reactor Produces Fuel · · Score: 1

    The vast majority of CO2 released by man is being absorbed by the ocean. Were it not for that, atmospheric levels would be a lot higher. This absorption of CO2 makes the ocean a bit more acidic, which in turn makes it a bit more difficult for phytoplankton to build their calcium carbonate shells. Please note that phytoplankton are the base for pretty much the entire oceanic food chain, and also are the main source of the oxygen that you like to breath.

  3. Re:Never going to work in a litigious society on Road Train Completes First Trials In Sweden · · Score: 1

    This might just be a rumor, but I've heard that some newer planes have autopilots that are more trusted than human pilots when landing in harsh weather. To the point that airlines require the human pilots to hand over control to the computer under certain landing conditions.

  4. Re:This is so 1970s on Road Train Completes First Trials In Sweden · · Score: 1

    I agree with most of your points, but "fast car is entirely image" is wrong. Fast cars are FUN if you have somewhere that you can really drive them. Definitely some, maybe quite a few, people buy a fast car only to drive it like a grandma, but I'd wager that most actually enjoy the act of driving it.

  5. Re:80% due to human error? on Road Train Completes First Trials In Sweden · · Score: 1

    Ha! Good luck with that. Have you seen how high a deer can jump? And raccoons/opossums etc. would have no problem climbing over any sort of wire fence. You would have to put 15 foot tall smooth solid walls along every highway and gates at every on/off ramp. Totally ugly and impractical.

  6. Re:80% due to human error? on Road Train Completes First Trials In Sweden · · Score: 1

    You seem to be from the UK, (tyre vs tire) so I'm not sure if a similar law exists for you, but in the US there's a law requiring all new passenger cars to be equipped with a tire pressure monitoring system. Any car that would be involved in one of these trains would likely be one that hasn't been built yet. So short of a sudden blow-out, tire pressure is likely not an issue.

  7. Re:Sending e-mails is easy on Mars Journal Issue Inspires Hundreds of One-Way Trip Volunteers · · Score: 1

    The main goal of the first crew would be to learn how to produce some food, fuel, water, etc, from local resources so that they are not completely reliant on supplies sent from earth. Mind you, they most likely will not be producing anywhere near enough of those things to support themselves. Self sustainability is going to be a long way off. We aren't going to be sending a massive colony ship that brings enough equipment and people to be self sustaining in one go. It's going to be a gradual build up of infrastructure, which over time will become more and more independent.

  8. Re:I'm a fan of long trips to isolated places... on Mars Journal Issue Inspires Hundreds of One-Way Trip Volunteers · · Score: 1

    Except that we aren't going to be sending several hundred people any time soon. Most likely we would be sending no more than a dozen. Frankly, probably more like 6 in the first ship, and we probably would only send 6 more a year or two later. We aren't talking about lots of people here.

  9. Re:Comment from the article... ? on Thousands of Blackbirds Fall From Sky Dead · · Score: 1

    Well, I know that crows do tend to flock, at least at certain times of day in the winter time. Yea, I know that crows are not blackbirds, but blackbirds might be similar in behavior.

  10. Re:Cost per pound on SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon Make It To Orbit · · Score: 1

    IIRC, the cost to launch mass to LEO using the Space Shuttle is $10k per pound. With falcon, it would be closer to $2.5k per pound.

  11. Re:Not a Dupe, its just a delayed Sequel on Iron Man Is Another Step Closer To a Reality · · Score: 1

    The article implies that it is a strait 17x increase in force. If opening the door of the fridge requires 3 lbs of force, and that is what you hand applies to the suit, then the suit would pull on the door with 51 lbs of force. Likely not enough to damage the door. However, if you normally are used to opening the door quickly, and thus normally pull on the door with say 20lbs of force, then the suit would pull with 340lbs... that could be a problem.

    I think that the bigger issue with these is that if you are wearing one while working around other people, you could easily cause accidental injury. Say you are walking next to someone and trip. You swing your arm around to catch yourself, but in the process you hit the other person with 17 times the typical force. That person is probably going to be in bad shape.

  12. Re:Intended Use? on Iron Man Is Another Step Closer To a Reality · · Score: 1

    It would be fueled by diesel/JP5/JP8 because it makes logistics much simpler. Most military vehicles already run one (or any) of these.

  13. Re:So on Looking To Better Engines Instead of Electric Vehicles · · Score: 1

    That isn't really new either, though it was more typical to use multiple crankshafts.

  14. Re:why not both? on Looking To Better Engines Instead of Electric Vehicles · · Score: 1

    Wrong. It is completely possible to build a fuel factory that pulls co2 out of the air and converts it (along with hydrogen cracked from water) into gasoline. It requires catalysts and high temperatures, but if the price of crude oil rose enough, then it would become profitable to build one of these factories next to a nuclear power plant and churn out gasoline.

  15. Re:why not both? on Looking To Better Engines Instead of Electric Vehicles · · Score: 1

    It's actually more efficient than a typical two stroke because it more fully expands the combustion products after combustion. Still, I wonder how they are dealing with the emissions problems associated with two strokes. Direct injection maybe?

  16. Re:why not both? on Looking To Better Engines Instead of Electric Vehicles · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure that the volt *is* a series hybrid, or "all-electric-drive hybrid", as you put it.

  17. Re:Communicate first? on Can We Travel To That Exciting New Exoplanet? · · Score: 1

    Presuming you did manage to cobble together some sort of antenna, the problem is that you still would need to power it. Unless you have an industrial level grid connection, you aren't going to be able to home-brew an interstellar message.

  18. Re:Radio on Can We Travel To That Exciting New Exoplanet? · · Score: 1

    Alternatively, we tight beam a signal for a few months, and almost exactly 20 years later an alien fleet suddenly appears in the solar system (the aliens having figured out how to tunnel from point to point without crossing the intermediate distance).

  19. Re:Radio on Can We Travel To That Exciting New Exoplanet? · · Score: 1

    Technically the signals will have propagated that far, but they would be so weak at that distance that it would be impossible to discern the signal from the noise.

    Had we been tight-beaming the signal directly at them at 100 megawatts, then yes, they would possibly have a chance at noticing the signal, but not the way that we broadcast it.

  20. Re:Reality check on Can We Travel To That Exciting New Exoplanet? · · Score: 1

    I guess you missed the word "diameter"...

  21. Re:SEE! on Boeing Gets $89M To Build Drone That Can Fly For 5 Years Straight · · Score: 1

    Damn it... I envy James May's work life. Fast cars, toys, spy planes...

  22. Re:Proof that humans are dumber than dogs on Robots Taught to Deceive · · Score: 1

    No, but the cat doesn't know that humans sense of smell is so weak that we cant smell that the cat was on the sink. Since it appeared to the cat that it's human owner had smelled the fact that it was previously on the sink, it ran off. Pretty sneaky on said owners part if you ask me.

  23. Re:They already do this on Robots Taught to Deceive · · Score: 1

    It's easy to get to that total when every football field sized pond is considered a lake.

  24. Re:There is no way this will end well on Robots Taught to Deceive · · Score: 1

    The statement is self-contradictory. It cannot be true, because if it is, that very thing makes it false. The only logically sound conclusion is that the statement is a lie. In other words, he or she sometimes speaks truths.

  25. Re:Paying the Cost to Be the Boss on China Plans To Mine the Yellow Sea Floor · · Score: 1

    I think that the point is that because they have fouled their environment so severely, they really have no choice now but to do as they are doing. Thus they possibly don't deserve as much credit as you are giving them.