gdpgreg
Re:Battery Power's Latest Plunge in Costs Threatens Coal, Gas
on Friday April 05, 2019 @11:24PM (#19589001)
The feasibility of this is completely determined by the insulation and albedo of the house. Working around the thermal inertia of the house is tricky, blasting the AC hard at night is only effective if your house is moderately well insulated or good at not absorbing heat (reflective roof, wall insulation, reflective blinds etc, and by reflective I don't mean tinfoil, I mean like white or bright colored, basically no black or dark). Building elements are remarkably bad at storing heat/coolth since their sensible heat capacity is quite low. There are ways to enhance this effect though by getting building elements that are doped with phase change materials.
Re:Rotating Black Holes May Serve as Gentle Portals for Hyperspace Travel
on Monday March 25, 2019 @12:59AM (#19480391)
They wouldn't be. We limit ourselves to current or near current technology for these analysis or you can easily get into the realms of hypotheticals very easily. If you say that the laws of thermodynamics don't apply to aliens because they have more advanced physics then the sky becomes the limit. So you have to stick by your own rule book when you imagine, so it'd be more appropriate to say that there is unlikely to be Dyson swarms near us that were built by aliens with a similar understanding of physics. For all we know the popular way that they gather energy is harvesting photons from within the star itself, stick a giant straw into a star and just drink away the photons.
Re:Producing industrial hydrogen from biomass
on Wednesday March 20, 2019 @09:37AM (#19441977)
Looks like the issue is the feed stock, non-uniform particle size distribution and significant differences in aspect ratio. All the different pieces are clumping up because of the particle interlocking. Maybe consider a grill sorter on the outlet of your size reduction system, allow <1cm particles through and rehandle larger particles back into whatever is chopping, or add secondary size reduction.
Re:Why Investigators Fear the Two Boeing 737s Crashed for Similar Reasons
on Thursday March 14, 2019 @12:13AM (#19386477)
With all due respect to Garneau, I don't think the statement that he wouldn't hesitate to get on a max 8 doesn't really mean much considering he willingly flew 3 times on the most deadliest aircraft of the modern era.
Re:U.S. to ground Boeing 737 Max 8
on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @11:44PM (#19386377)
Isn't the alternative an abandonment of the 737 max 8 series from international carriers? The US currently has the largest aviation market but it's growing globally. Airbus has the 320neo and 220 which are direct/close competitors.
Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
on Sunday March 03, 2019 @09:32AM (#19294591)
That was the falcon heavy test launch. The two rockets that landed were side boosters which so happened to be two other falcon 9s.
Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
on Sunday March 03, 2019 @09:27AM (#19294562)
It's the first new crew vehicle launch from the US since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. It's also in theory a lot cheaper than the Soyuz.
Re:Can China recover from its disastrous one-child policy?
on Saturday March 02, 2019 @05:11PM (#19291462)
Hans Rosling did a lot of work on communicating birthrate in the developing world and how in general they trend towards the replacement rate ted talk where he goes over it:https://vimeo.com/79878808
Re:California's San Bernardino County restricts construction of solar,...
on Friday March 01, 2019 @10:05AM (#19281231)
The same can be said about any power flowing into the county. Wikipedia indicates that the two major power plants in San Bernardino county are in solar, thus they must be importing power at night in order to meet the cities needs. Consequently the argument "They're opposing renewable energy that is used primarily to serve out-of-town customers" can be applied for any and all energy projects which has/is currently fedding the county. The power grid is communal resource, all communities benefit from it and as a result we all need to contribute to it, if not you'll end up with islanded power distribution systems that are a lot more expensive.
Re:Heat Your House with a Water Brake Windmill
on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @10:22PM (#19268759)
They're not a conversion system so you don't measure them in terms efficiency, rather you use coefficient of performance, you can never have efficiencies above 100%.
Re:A DIY Cruise Missile (2004)
on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @09:46PM (#19214103)
Out of curiosity, under the assumption you had kids, was your parenting style the anti pattern to helicopter parenting?
Re:We Lost Our Ability to Mend
on Sunday February 17, 2019 @10:31AM (#19184908)
Dave from EEVblog does that a lot, found a new fancy 4k TV in the trash, managed to fix it by reflowing a single chip, works like a charm now.
Re:A380 cancellations by Qantas raise new questions about the superjum...
on Thursday February 07, 2019 @11:17PM (#19111480)
They were very mass limited, you only get 1kg of lifting ability per cube of gas.
Re:Climate Concerns Are Pushing Oil Majors to Look Beyond Fossil Fuels
on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @06:41PM (#18916849)
1)Your wrong, they have 28billion barrels equivalent in proven reserves
2)they make more than that because they're vertically integrated
Re:Let the Fountain Pens Flow
on Wednesday January 09, 2019 @10:48AM (#18865590)
You can get nibs tuned and modified, I once had the opportunity to use a VP with a reverse oblique nib, changes everything.
Re:Is Marijuana as Safe as We Think?
on Monday January 07, 2019 @10:49AM (#18846088)
Well, give it a couple years for Canada to figure it out.
Re:Scientists Have 'Hacked Photosynthesis' in Search of More Productiv...
on Friday January 04, 2019 @09:28AM (#18824230)
Easier to just burry it, treating it for use in combustion systems wouldn't be worth it given the energy density is low. Better off using Sabatier process with excess solar at that point.
Re:A new generation of environmentalists is learning to love atomic power
on Saturday December 29, 2018 @02:41AM (#18782502)
Cause someone murdered the leading scientist in the field. Also there's concerns that it'd be too easy to turn it essentially into a very long range, highly effective weapon that could lob nuclear or conventional projectiles at countries on the other side of the planet with little to no warning.
Re:LibreSilicon: Decentralizing semiconductor manufacturing [video]
on Thursday December 27, 2018 @11:50PM (#18774945)
If anyone is planning on following this, make sure to read up about how to properly handle HF before you touch it. That shit is time delayed death in a bottle, and make sure to get a tube or two of HF antidote, the author doesn't discuss the very strong dangers associated with it.
Re:I Got Banned from Photographing Arch Enemy
on Thursday December 27, 2018 @12:45PM (#18771034)
It's litterally black and white in intellectual property laws.
Re:Making and Selling a Stair-Climbing Dolly
on Wednesday December 26, 2018 @01:38PM (#18763746)
I wish people would stop calling every company a startup and themselves a founder when what that have is a medium sized manufacturing business.
Re:Man sues feds after being detained for refusing to unlock his phone...
on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @09:47AM (#18715900)
That thing saved me 5 hours on its first day.