Brexit, for once some facts.

[oldgroaner]

Thought for the day
Covid is once again on the rise

 

[guerney]

Thought for the day
Covid is once again on the rise

I was surrounded by them on the bus yesterday - I was the only one wearing a mask: KN95... but those don't fit very well, but adding this provided much better fit and therefore filtration (I hope):

Dustproof Mask Bicycle Mouth & Face Scarf Cycle Cover Reusable Covering UK Ship | eBay

High quality anti dust scarf. 1 Mask Supplied.

www.ebay.co.uk

Cheap at twice the price.

 

[Woosh]

If we spent the next 20 years making modular Thorium power stations, of which key modules could be replaced with fusion power modules later - humanity would have cheap, unlimited power, which won't destroy it.

A worldwide power grid would work best for renewables.

fission reactors are a short term solution until fusion but the thorium reactors are no better than tried and tested uranium ones.

Don't believe the spin on thorium being a greener nuclear option

Ecologist: It produces less radioactive waste and more power but it remains unproven on a commercial scale

www.theguardian.com

I do like the idea of the travelling wave nuclear reactors though.

 

[oyster]

If we spent the next 20 years making modular Thorium power stations, of which key modules could be replaced with fusion power modules later - humanity would have cheap, unlimited power, which won't destroy it.

A worldwide power grid would work best for renewables.

If we had cheap unlimited power we'd have global warming simply due to Mediterranean climate gardens everywhere. Who wouldn't wish to be pleasantly warm all evening in their gardens, even in January?

 

[oyster]

Drone flights could be restricted to above roads: It's wasteful of battery charge, but possible using existing supercapacitors - they'd charge while briefly touching charging points on lamp posts. Amazon could give away free Amazon Prime to any customer which installs a charging point on their roof, all monitored by their all-seeing Amazon Nest cameras... I've emailed that idea to jeff@amazon.com and expect a healthy reward, plus free Amazon Prime for life.

So privacy doesn't matter for anyone who lives near a main road?

And how do you get from your off-main road location to somewhere that an air taxi can land?

 

[guerney]

If we had cheap unlimited power we'd have global warming simply due to Mediterranean climate gardens everywhere. Who wouldn't wish to be pleasantly warm all evening in their gardens, even in January?

I've read that "Global Heating" is now being recommended as an alternative to "Global Warming" - it sounds more alarming. With cheap unlimited power, we could terraform earth, manufacturing a pre-industrial atmospehric mix of gases.

 

[oyster]

these things can easily be addressed in the eventual certification process.

Completely disagree. Think of the aircraft with certified computerised systems which have suffered severe issues. And that is within a single vehicle, made by a single company that was (as least supposedly) tested as a complete unit.

Now imagine getting random vehicles made by many companies, at mutliple maintanence levels speaking to each other reliably. And assuming all sensors are operating properly.

 

[guerney]

So privacy doesn't matter for anyone who lives near a main road?

Apparently not. It's why I've bricked up my windows.

And how do you get from your off-main road location to somewhere that an air taxi can land?

They could wander briefly from the main road. If Amazon customers don't have a postal delivery chute installed at the front of their house, it could be situated behind the property (locked till activated by drone), or on their roof.

 

[oyster]

I've read that "Global Heating" is now being recommended as an alternative to "Global Warming" - it sounds more alarming. With cheap unlimited power, we could terrform earth, manufacturing a pre-industrial atmospehric mix of gases.

Intelligent use of unlimited power is arguable. But where do we get this intellegience from? Certainly not those currently in power and owning so much.

 

[guerney]

Intelligent use of unlimited power is arguable. But where do we get this intellegience from? Certainly not those currently in power and owning so much.

I've got a horrible feeling that only a fascist dictatorship led by myself, foolishly voted in on a "Thorium to Fusion Power" platform, can save you all and your descendents from certain roasting. But I don't have any spare time.

 

[oldgroaner]

I was surrounded by them on the bus yesterday - I was the only one wearing a mask: KN95... but those don't fit very well, but adding this provided much better fit and therefore filtration (I hope):

Dustproof Mask Bicycle Mouth & Face Scarf Cycle Cover Reusable Covering UK Ship | eBay

High quality anti dust scarf. 1 Mask Supplied.

www.ebay.co.uk

Cheap at twice the price.

And with an exhaust valve fitted it allows you to infect others without them infecting you.

I wonder whether they come in Bell Clan tartan?
They certainly fit within our basic philosophical horizon
And is sure to be permitted to carry the Clan badge of approval.

You have to laugh, humans clearly have a death wish, which for the Planet's sake, deserves approval

 

[oldgroaner]

I've got a horrible feeling that only a fascist dictatorship led by myself, foolishly voted in on a "Thorium to Fusion Power" platform, can save you all and your descendents from certain roasting. But I don't have any spare time.

I'm sure the Government will force billions and a lordship on you to go ahead, if you send them a "photograph of a shilling" which they used to regard as currency on the Goon show.

 

[guerney]

fission reactors are a short term solution until fusion but the thorium reactors are no better than tried and tested uranium ones.

We'll see, when India embarasses the West with their first Thorium reactor. There are a lot of cheap, well educated geniuses in India... it's education system has been heavily influenced; a positive residue of the Raj. Their space programme is run on a shoestring.

I do like the idea of the travelling wave nuclear reactors though.

Nobody's built those either:

Traveling wave reactor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fertile material - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[guerney]

And with an exhaust valve fitted it allows you to infect others without them infecting you.

I agree, that's vitally important.

I wonder whether they come in Bell Clan tartan?

They do white for the other Clan (for the day they realise Covid isn't a hoax dreamt up by a worldwide immeasurably wealthy cabal of child-blood guzzling Jews)

 

[guerney]

Completely disagree. Think of the aircraft with certified computerised systems which have suffered severe issues. And that is within a single vehicle, made by a single company that was (as least supposedly) tested as a complete unit.

Now imagine getting random vehicles made by many companies, at mutliple maintanence levels speaking to each other reliably. And assuming all sensors are operating properly.

Green laser pointers kill LIDAR sensors. I intend to install some on the back of my bike, to stop "Self-driving" cars running me over. They also facilitate shoplifting - security camera sensors get roasted wherever I go.

 

[flecc]

Best suited to ground effect planes:

Pedestrians hate them though, having to duck all the time.
.

 

[guerney]

Pedestrians hate them though, having to duck all the time.
.

It's yet another quackpot idea.

 

[oyster]

It could happen with supercapacitors, not batteries: Rezap in flight using ground based microwave lasers. The bigger the freight eplane, the more often it gets zapped. Coffee would never be cold

Best suited to ground effect planes:

Ground-effect vehicle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

At least one GEV, an ekranoplan, required eight tubojet engines. Not exactly likely that inflight charging would be sufficient.

 

[guerney]

At least one GEV, an ekronoplan, required eight tubojet engines. Not exactly likely that inflight charging would be sufficient.

Depends on how many charging points there are: Wave/Tidal/Sea power stations, but much more practical over land. People will be issued with hard-hats.

 

[guerney]

We've long been using some hydrogen fuel cell buses in London and currently have many more on order. They will be running all our longer routes with Battery Electric ones serving the short to medium length routes. We've totally stopped all purchase of ICE buses.

The hydrogen used is a by product of chemical manufaturing elsewhere and no pipelines are involved, all transport and use is with compression in cylinders.
.

Plasma Jets May One Day Propel Aircraft

Plasma thrusters could help jet planes fly without fossil fuels

spectrum.ieee.org