For my part I'd rather have Bald Eagles and Peregrine falcons these days and continue sending mosquito nets to areas where malaria is endemic. It's not a perfect solution, but things rarely are.
Iceland still has commercial level H2 generation via electrolysis. The energy comes from hydro and geothermal.
The bigger debate is when the CO2 emissions from other forms of energy generation are added back into the total cost of the fuel, well-to-wheel as it were.
Or, if we are discussing the use of surplus French nuclear generation, factor in the waste disposal/reprocessing costs since there is zero CO2 generation.
Steam reforming NG is subsidized by this lack of emissions calculation. The math is in it's favor, for now.
To correlate these two facts is misleading. Emissions are going down due to the transition from coal to natural gas.
Basically, the "war on coal" is producing results and the current administration is the benefactor. Not BECAUSE of the current administration, but DESPITE the current administration.
But the ACA promised to fix this, and it failed to deliver.
Indeed the ACA did promise to fix this.
Think of it as a brand-new Tesla that can do 0-60 under 4 seconds vs. a brand-new Tesla trying to move at all with a huge log chain tying it to a tree (GOP opposition).
Think about the package delivery industry. UPS and FedEx have fleets of trucks that drive fixed routes day in, day out. They load up at a hub, then drive to the next destination. Then fill up again and return home. Rinse/repeat. These use-cases alone would be a good use for these types of vehicles.
The next step would be the "around town" delivery vans. Most run a fixed circuit of mostly right-hand turns, with regular stops for pickup and delivery.
Start simple. Do the math. If companies can save money using these vehicles and shift their diesel to other tasks they will do it.
Long haul routes will continue to be dominated by diesel rigs for the time being.
the problem isn't the nuclear itself, it's all the side crap like the totally inefficient way the fuel is USED...
thorium, on paper is a great idea, so is pebble bed. we should do that. we should build reactors that use the VAST MAJORITY of the fuel before it is designated waste and stored in a pool...
fix the underlying technical issues, deal with the proliferation possibility. once we get past that a reactor is simple.
that's why solar is a good idea NOW. even if we are buying it all from china, belching pollution into the air it is STILL a better deal for the environment than these half-assed reactors that have been foisted upon us.
If you can gain access to the private/vpn network the store is running, you can wreak alot of havoc.
Could send a "no fuel" alarm to the equipment... which can prevent fuel from flowing.
Could throw a vapor lock alarm (or a myriad of other commands) which will prevent fuel to flow until reset...
You can reach this via physical access to a fuel pump/dispenser... use the swrial interface to inside the store.
Long and short... this is something that has been known for over 10 years. Companies, such as mine have taken precautions to lock down pumps as well as the other equip to preclude this.
the "side panels" look to be some kind of kludge to appear to gracefully fill a HD screen, while keeping the main view (the center window) fairly distortion free...
On the reentry: absolutely mesmerizing, the adverts had it spot on.
While I don't always appreciate the *WAY* NASA spends its money (or is forced to by Congress), I do applaud an excellent mission. Ever since I watched (and re-watched) the video feed of the Curiosity landing sequence, I've gained a new appreciation for the effort that goes into these missions.
Also really cool to see a full-up display of the Delta VI Heavy in action. Hydrogen/Oxygen first stages just look surreal compared to RP-1, or even the SME+SRB combo (the boosters still produced alot of soot/exhaust)...
Questions about price, direction and ideology aside, well done NASA.
solar energy installation is incredibly cheap.... like pennies. the only reason why every houshold in the US doesnt have solar panels is because the energy companies lobby our government to increase the cost of them thousandfold...
Methinks there is another angle to this matter - China Phobia.
China can produce PV panels cheapest than anybody in the world, and if USA is indeed serious into cheap electricity, the most rational action to take is to get as many solar panel as the Chinese can produce and install them in the U.S. of A.
But is that happening ?
Why not?
Instead of making US strong again by taming the power crisis, congress is more concern of "unfair dumping" or whatever fucking excuse they can come up with, and ban the import of the solar panel from China.
They claim that China has unfairly subsidize their PV industry, and I mean, so what ?
The first issue you will face discussing this issue is the battle between USA based PV manufacturing against the domestic PV *installers*.
Installers need decent panels at a reasonable price. The anti-dumping tack congress is taking is robbing peter to pay paul in the same industry. The revenues/jobs/etc that the installer industry provides is much larger than the revenues/jobs that domestic PV production supports. Do you want to support American made products first or get more "jobs bang-for-the-buck" you can by using foreign panels?
We do need domestic PV installation, but also need to temper this with the needs of other legitimate American businesses which use commodity materials like PV panels to run their business.
Some states offer a credit if you use state-sourced materials vs foreign, which will offset the cost between the two parties.
Just pointing out that it's not quite as black and white as it seems at the outset.
Also, major citation needed on solar panels for pennies. Got the/. article. Seriously, I'd like to see your patent. You'll be rich.
He was referring to solar *installation* cost being "pennies" which is true, the actual work of installing the panels, wiring, etc, especially in situations where you have just a few panels on a single system is rather cheap.
The panels will cost, and if the figures in the article are to be believed... $200 mil to provide 500,000 households with some power comes out to $400 per household. The 12,500 systems they are planning to build come to $16k each (and if we assume absolutely identical systems, each will provide power for 40 households).
We're talking about some decent lighting with LEDs, perhaps a community television/DVD/av-sytem, an electric water pump. A remote community with little infrastructure will see much more benefit from a single light and a water pump than most of us will derive from a 30k installation here in the states. I don't have to scrounge around for firewood or buy kerosene for my lighting....
Good news on that front... we now have micro inverters that attach to each solar panel (sometimes one inverter for two panels). Electricity is converted from sun --> DC (the panel) --> 240V AC *at the panel*.
Each panel is its own separate system, shading on one panel does not affect the others. You can even get data on individual panels for diagnostic purposes.
Simple combiner boxes are all that is needed to grid-tie this, plus the required AC disconnect. Once the wires hit the combiner box, any certified electrician can integrate this system into your house wiring, since it is all AC.
The benefit (and to some a major disadvantage) of using AC right from the panel is that when the grid goes down, so does your array. No issues with line-workers getting shocked with back-fed power from your home, but you do not have backup during a grid outage.
This system would also allow you to build your system little by little, even with different panels (using a single monolithic DC inverter its preferred to use all the same type/size panels) over time.
I don't mean to sound like a fanboi, but these micro inverters were the game changer for me to jump into PV...
You don't seem to understand basic economics. Your consumption is reduced when you use energy that is generated. You get paid for energy fed back into the grid when you are not using it.
No, you don't seem to understand basic economics.
I realize that you think vague general ideas trumps actual numbers, but in reality they do not.
In effect, you have made it even harder to recover the costs over 5 years because you used more panels than you needed in order to have that surplus electricity that you think is a magic bullet, so your hand waving about it means absolutely nothing to people with a brain because they know that having a surplus costs fucking money.
Do some math, find a supplier, find an installer, then show us some numbers. if thats too hard for you, then maybe you shouldnt be lecturing anyone about basic economics. Here, i'll start this off for you: The cheapest system that would produce a monthly surplus costs $12,515 from this supplier.. and that doesnt even fucking include installation cost or roof racks. To produce a 100% surplus, that would cost $23,770 but of course only get you back $5583.60 over 5 years and save $5583.60 over 5 years, for a total loss after 5 years of $12,602.80.. again not including the cost of fucking installation.
Don't assume he was going for 100% of household needs. Rarely is the sweet spot on the bell curve of costs/rebates/credits anywhere near 100% (and apple is surely getting incentives to max this out).
He is correct, a 5-year payback is the norm. You size the array to maximize your bang-for-the-buck.
I would choose 10 million acres over even ONE nuclear plant. These organisms need to be grown where there is sunlight, not farmland. I see a great opportunity for states like Nevada, which are sun-rich and farmland poor to turn this into a viable economic activity. IMHO it sure beats worrying about radioactive leakage from an unproven and unwanted Yucca mountain facility.
Sure, there are issues with getting enough water in Nevada for all of these organisms, but the potential is worth considering. Even if only the biofuels created from these plants are considered. They have not yet made an economically viable electric commercial plane yet, you still need fuel to fly those planes.
Interesting article, I like the fact that this oil "crunch" (or whatever you call it) is causing some serious thought about new ways to create and store energy.
Remember that after Endeavor was brought online in the early 1990's the rest of the fleet were refurbished, which included new computers and onboard guidance upgrades.
My Ti83 has more computing power than the Apollo command modules, yet they went to the MOON.
Ah, but oftentimes many people weight the cost/performance ratio of many products, from blenders to motherboards to cars and trucks.
Even if you make the outlandish assumption that outsourcing labor to India/China/whatever will drop your "performance" rate due to language factors, etc. When you weigh the cost savings vs the loss of "perforamance" many companies can afford to pay two foreigners to do the work of one domestic american and get the same (if not better) "perforamance" for a good chunk of the jobs out there.
As the *retard* said, they have the right to EXPECT to make money by giving stuff away. That isn't the same as the RIGHT to make money. People have the right to expect alot of things, that's what free will is for. But there is no reason that these expectations should be grounded in reality.
The intensity of each power beam is restricted to 20%, or less, of the intensity of noontime sunlight.
There are microwave relays transmitting everything from televison singnals to NOAA radar data between base stations and the final transmission antennas.
They are all over the place. How many ppl are you frying with these?
Even at 100%, you are doubling the radiant energy being placed on a single spot on the earth (assuming this particular spot is the 'control' for your percentage basis, and it's noon). Sure they could up the power and fry ppl, but it sounds like they will be having enough trouble just getting the project moving with the modest energy output levels that are being considered.
Remember that they are pushing energy from the moon. 20% of noon-sun (what part of the earth are they taking this measurement from, and what time of year?) isn't really that much. The benefit is that the energy is being transmitted to earth in a form that can be easily converted into other forms of energy. (OK, more-easily is a very subjective term, but I digress).
How much more power would be needed to fry somebody on the surface of the earth with this type of contraption? Better yet, can somebody with better math skills than I calculate how much microwave energy would be needed to down an airliner? Assuming here, that this is the easiest target for terrorists as I'm sure Mr. Ashcroft will submit in a Senate hearing next week on this subject. This is assuming that you can aim and focus these things in a fashion that you *could* actully hit something.
Maybe I'm too trusting, but there are alot of other things on this earth that can kill you (sunlight already being one of them). If this is managed correctly it could be useful in reducing other energy consumption. Why not give it a try?
I agree. Apple computer has the one advantage that a linux distro does not have: consistency. They took a BSD implementation and worked with it so that regular users, regular MAC users could actually get something done. Whatever anybody has said in the past about MacOS not being as powerful or intuative are probably right on some level. But Apple really tries to engineer (for the most part) a simple way to use a computer. It works best for the less-technically-inclined viewers out there (this is IMHO, not trying to sound condesending, just realizing that not everybody wants to know how to compile their kernel).
Apple is great at "just making it work". Take that idea and apply it to an OS backbone with some real teeth (BSD derived) and you are approaching the best of both worlds. You will have a computer I can use if I need to (cmd line) and the GUI that my wife and kids can use/understand and also have widely available in our schools (ours just outfitted a lab with new G5z).
Think of how easy it will be to migrate small ppl to linux, *BSD, etc. with OSX experience.
True, everything can be done with alot of persistence and hand-holding with linux/*BSD. But how many average-joe types out there are gonna get heavy into Linux without some commercial OS experience first?
Not necessarily. I've capped many items with VCD 352x240 frame resolution with with HuffY and it generally takes 5-6 gig per hour of video assuming 44.1kHz stereo audio.
If the laserdiscs are capped at a higher resolution (VCD is roughly 25% of DVD res) then you could easily be looking at 20-25gig/hr. This is what I've seen with average compression of 2.5-3x using Huffy.
Slashdot Mirror
Well played. ;-)
My question: Do we also get Erasmus points for slightly "out of the box" thinking too?
Where was there a "capsule" on board Challenger, Columbia, or any shuttle, American or Soviet? There wasn't? K, thought so.
The Soviets did a decent job duplicating the EOS from the Mercury program, which was improved for Apollo manned flights (thankfully never used).
Scare mongering on DDT eh?
For my part I'd rather have Bald Eagles and Peregrine falcons these days and continue sending mosquito nets to areas where malaria is endemic. It's not a perfect solution, but things rarely are.
Iceland still has commercial level H2 generation via electrolysis. The energy comes from hydro and geothermal.
The bigger debate is when the CO2 emissions from other forms of energy generation are added back into the total cost of the fuel, well-to-wheel as it were.
Or, if we are discussing the use of surplus French nuclear generation, factor in the waste disposal/reprocessing costs since there is zero CO2 generation.
Steam reforming NG is subsidized by this lack of emissions calculation. The math is in it's favor, for now.
Correct. Bulk CO2 emissions are on the decline.
Correct again, the current President is Trump.
To correlate these two facts is misleading. Emissions are going down due to the transition from coal to natural gas.
Basically, the "war on coal" is producing results and the current administration is the benefactor. Not BECAUSE of the current administration, but DESPITE the current administration.
Indeed the ACA did promise to fix this.
Think of it as a brand-new Tesla that can do 0-60 under 4 seconds vs. a brand-new Tesla trying to move at all with a huge log chain tying it to a tree (GOP opposition).
Yes, the car capable if ALLOWED TO DO SO.
Think about the package delivery industry. UPS and FedEx have fleets of trucks that drive fixed routes day in, day out. They load up at a hub, then drive to the next destination. Then fill up again and return home. Rinse/repeat. These use-cases alone would be a good use for these types of vehicles.
The next step would be the "around town" delivery vans. Most run a fixed circuit of mostly right-hand turns, with regular stops for pickup and delivery.
Start simple. Do the math. If companies can save money using these vehicles and shift their diesel to other tasks they will do it.
Long haul routes will continue to be dominated by diesel rigs for the time being.
blah blah nuclear... we know already.
the problem isn't the nuclear itself, it's all the side crap like the totally inefficient way the fuel is USED...
thorium, on paper is a great idea, so is pebble bed. we should do that. we should build reactors that use the VAST MAJORITY of the fuel before it is designated waste and stored in a pool...
fix the underlying technical issues, deal with the proliferation possibility. once we get past that a reactor is simple.
that's why solar is a good idea NOW. even if we are buying it all from china, belching pollution into the air it is STILL a better deal for the environment than these half-assed reactors that have been foisted upon us.
5 seconds on Google verified this machine has no USB... tho it's age should make that obvious.
It uses a standard 2.5" notebook hard drive, with the standard 40 pin IDE interface.
If you don't want to pull the drive... Laplink cable is easiest.
Pulling the drive is still a good, easy option, attach to a cheap usb interface.
You also mentioned 16bit pcmcia... if we have a pc card NIC, access to Internet? The ftp xfer option is there too.
If you can gain access to the private/vpn network the store is running, you can wreak alot of havoc.
Could send a "no fuel" alarm to the equipment... which can prevent fuel from flowing.
Could throw a vapor lock alarm (or a myriad of other commands) which will prevent fuel to flow until reset...
You can reach this via physical access to a fuel pump/dispenser... use the swrial interface to inside the store.
Long and short... this is something that has been known for over 10 years. Companies, such as mine have taken precautions to lock down pumps as well as the other equip to preclude this.
the "side panels" look to be some kind of kludge to appear to gracefully fill a HD screen, while keeping the main view (the center window) fairly distortion free...
On the reentry: absolutely mesmerizing, the adverts had it spot on.
While I don't always appreciate the *WAY* NASA spends its money (or is forced to by Congress), I do applaud an excellent mission. Ever since I watched (and re-watched) the video feed of the Curiosity landing sequence, I've gained a new appreciation for the effort that goes into these missions.
Also really cool to see a full-up display of the Delta VI Heavy in action. Hydrogen/Oxygen first stages just look surreal compared to RP-1, or even the SME+SRB combo (the boosters still produced alot of soot/exhaust)...
Questions about price, direction and ideology aside, well done NASA.
solar energy installation is incredibly cheap.... like pennies. the only reason why every houshold in the US doesnt have solar panels is because the energy companies lobby our government to increase the cost of them thousandfold...
Methinks there is another angle to this matter - China Phobia.
China can produce PV panels cheapest than anybody in the world, and if USA is indeed serious into cheap electricity, the most rational action to take is to get as many solar panel as the Chinese can produce and install them in the U.S. of A.
But is that happening ?
Why not?
Instead of making US strong again by taming the power crisis, congress is more concern of "unfair dumping" or whatever fucking excuse they can come up with, and ban the import of the solar panel from China.
They claim that China has unfairly subsidize their PV industry, and I mean, so what ?
The first issue you will face discussing this issue is the battle between USA based PV manufacturing against the domestic PV *installers*.
Installers need decent panels at a reasonable price. The anti-dumping tack congress is taking is robbing peter to pay paul in the same industry. The revenues/jobs/etc that the installer industry provides is much larger than the revenues/jobs that domestic PV production supports. Do you want to support American made products first or get more "jobs bang-for-the-buck" you can by using foreign panels?
We do need domestic PV installation, but also need to temper this with the needs of other legitimate American businesses which use commodity materials like PV panels to run their business.
Some states offer a credit if you use state-sourced materials vs foreign, which will offset the cost between the two parties.
Just pointing out that it's not quite as black and white as it seems at the outset.
Also, major citation needed on solar panels for pennies. Got the /. article. Seriously, I'd like to see your patent. You'll be rich.
He was referring to solar *installation* cost being "pennies" which is true, the actual work of installing the panels, wiring, etc, especially in situations where you have just a few panels on a single system is rather cheap.
The panels will cost, and if the figures in the article are to be believed... $200 mil to provide 500,000 households with some power comes out to $400 per household. The 12,500 systems they are planning to build come to $16k each (and if we assume absolutely identical systems, each will provide power for 40 households).
We're talking about some decent lighting with LEDs, perhaps a community television/DVD/av-sytem, an electric water pump. A remote community with little infrastructure will see much more benefit from a single light and a water pump than most of us will derive from a 30k installation here in the states. I don't have to scrounge around for firewood or buy kerosene for my lighting....
Good news on that front... we now have micro inverters that attach to each solar panel (sometimes one inverter for two panels). Electricity is converted from sun --> DC (the panel) --> 240V AC *at the panel*.
Each panel is its own separate system, shading on one panel does not affect the others. You can even get data on individual panels for diagnostic purposes.
Simple combiner boxes are all that is needed to grid-tie this, plus the required AC disconnect. Once the wires hit the combiner box, any certified electrician can integrate this system into your house wiring, since it is all AC.
The benefit (and to some a major disadvantage) of using AC right from the panel is that when the grid goes down, so does your array. No issues with line-workers getting shocked with back-fed power from your home, but you do not have backup during a grid outage.
This system would also allow you to build your system little by little, even with different panels (using a single monolithic DC inverter its preferred to use all the same type/size panels) over time.
I don't mean to sound like a fanboi, but these micro inverters were the game changer for me to jump into PV...
You don't seem to understand basic economics. Your consumption is reduced when you use energy that is generated. You get paid for energy fed back into the grid when you are not using it.
No, you don't seem to understand basic economics.
I realize that you think vague general ideas trumps actual numbers, but in reality they do not.
In effect, you have made it even harder to recover the costs over 5 years because you used more panels than you needed in order to have that surplus electricity that you think is a magic bullet, so your hand waving about it means absolutely nothing to people with a brain because they know that having a surplus costs fucking money.
Do some math, find a supplier, find an installer, then show us some numbers. if thats too hard for you, then maybe you shouldnt be lecturing anyone about basic economics. Here, i'll start this off for you: The cheapest system that would produce a monthly surplus costs $12,515 from this supplier.. and that doesnt even fucking include installation cost or roof racks. To produce a 100% surplus, that would cost $23,770 but of course only get you back $5583.60 over 5 years and save $5583.60 over 5 years, for a total loss after 5 years of $12,602.80.. again not including the cost of fucking installation.
Don't assume he was going for 100% of household needs. Rarely is the sweet spot on the bell curve of costs/rebates/credits anywhere near 100% (and apple is surely getting incentives to max this out).
He is correct, a 5-year payback is the norm. You size the array to maximize your bang-for-the-buck.
The economics are basic, and they work.
I would choose 10 million acres over even ONE nuclear plant. These organisms need to be grown where there is sunlight, not farmland. I see a great opportunity for states like Nevada, which are sun-rich and farmland poor to turn this into a viable economic activity. IMHO it sure beats worrying about radioactive leakage from an unproven and unwanted Yucca mountain facility.
Sure, there are issues with getting enough water in Nevada for all of these organisms, but the potential is worth considering. Even if only the biofuels created from these plants are considered. They have not yet made an economically viable electric commercial plane yet, you still need fuel to fly those planes.
Interesting article, I like the fact that this oil "crunch" (or whatever you call it) is causing some serious thought about new ways to create and store energy.
The *original* shuttle computer is pretty 1980's.
Remember that after Endeavor was brought online in the early 1990's the rest of the fleet were refurbished, which included new computers and onboard guidance upgrades.
My Ti83 has more computing power than the Apollo command modules, yet they went to the MOON.
Just 0.02
Ah, but oftentimes many people weight the cost/performance ratio of many products, from blenders to motherboards to cars and trucks.
Even if you make the outlandish assumption that outsourcing labor to India/China/whatever will drop your "performance" rate due to language factors, etc. When you weigh the cost savings vs the loss of "perforamance" many companies can afford to pay two foreigners to do the work of one domestic american and get the same (if not better) "perforamance" for a good chunk of the jobs out there.
Perspective is often hard to find...
Realize that $5.15/hr in the U.S. is "more money" in terms of real buying power in countries like India and China.
US$5.15/hr in India is closer to $13-16/hr in the US.
Keep things in perspective.
As the *retard* said, they have the right to EXPECT to make money by giving stuff away. That isn't the same as the RIGHT to make money. People have the right to expect alot of things, that's what free will is for. But there is no reason that these expectations should be grounded in reality.
closing its offices in San Francisco and San Diego and eliminating 375 positions at its Mountain View campus, the company revealed Tuesday.
There are microwave relays transmitting everything from televison singnals to NOAA radar data between base stations and the final transmission antennas.
They are all over the place. How many ppl are you frying with these?
Even at 100%, you are doubling the radiant energy being placed on a single spot on the earth (assuming this particular spot is the 'control' for your percentage basis, and it's noon). Sure they could up the power and fry ppl, but it sounds like they will be having enough trouble just getting the project moving with the modest energy output levels that are being considered.
Remember that they are pushing energy from the moon. 20% of noon-sun (what part of the earth are they taking this measurement from, and what time of year?) isn't really that much. The benefit is that the energy is being transmitted to earth in a form that can be easily converted into other forms of energy. (OK, more-easily is a very subjective term, but I digress).
How much more power would be needed to fry somebody on the surface of the earth with this type of contraption? Better yet, can somebody with better math skills than I calculate how much microwave energy would be needed to down an airliner? Assuming here, that this is the easiest target for terrorists as I'm sure Mr. Ashcroft will submit in a Senate hearing next week on this subject. This is assuming that you can aim and focus these things in a fashion that you *could* actully hit something.
Maybe I'm too trusting, but there are alot of other things on this earth that can kill you (sunlight already being one of them). If this is managed correctly it could be useful in reducing other energy consumption. Why not give it a try?
I agree. Apple computer has the one advantage that a linux distro does not have: consistency. They took a BSD implementation and worked with it so that regular users, regular MAC users could actually get something done. Whatever anybody has said in the past about MacOS not being as powerful or intuative are probably right on some level. But Apple really tries to engineer (for the most part) a simple way to use a computer. It works best for the less-technically-inclined viewers out there (this is IMHO, not trying to sound condesending, just realizing that not everybody wants to know how to compile their kernel).
Apple is great at "just making it work". Take that idea and apply it to an OS backbone with some real teeth (BSD derived) and you are approaching the best of both worlds. You will have a computer I can use if I need to (cmd line) and the GUI that my wife and kids can use/understand and also have widely available in our schools (ours just outfitted a lab with new G5z).
Think of how easy it will be to migrate small ppl to linux, *BSD, etc. with OSX experience.
True, everything can be done with alot of persistence and hand-holding with linux/*BSD. But how many average-joe types out there are gonna get heavy into Linux without some commercial OS experience first?
remember, they are in a warp bubble.
if you take Warp 10 as valid, then you may as well take the concept of a bubble enclosure around the hull of the ship too.
Just trying to stay consistend (if that is possible when talking about a ST universe)...
-elf
Not necessarily. I've capped many items with VCD 352x240 frame resolution with with HuffY and it generally takes 5-6 gig per hour of video assuming 44.1kHz stereo audio.
If the laserdiscs are capped at a higher resolution (VCD is roughly 25% of DVD res) then you could easily be looking at 20-25gig/hr. This is what I've seen with average compression of 2.5-3x using Huffy.