Marxist Hacker 42's Journal: If I was 20 years younger

If I was 20 years younger, I would have chosen fluid dynamics instead of computer programming. I'm pretty sure now that ambient energy is going to be to the 2010s what computer science was to the 1980s and 1990s- and it seems to me that fluid dynamics is the key to collecting, generating, and storing ambient energy; whether it is wind, water, solar-powered sterling turbines, wood gas, gassified coal, or molten salt.

Same here

[Captain Splendid]

I've been kicking myself for years that I should gone into Material Science. Lots of interesting projects, and you get to do stuff that impacts the real world.

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[Captain Splendid]

What, you that fuckin' old?

No, an entrepreneur. That kind of ties you down financially as well as time-wise. Maybe in 10 years, but by that point, I should hopefully be fat, rich and lazy, so maybe the next life ;)

Great Idea

[Allen Zadr]

I totally have a Fluid Dynamics guy working for me right now ... he does Perl programming. :-D

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[Marxist Hacker 42]

For what? Windmills?

20 years ago

[zogger]

...land was still really cheap. I would have bought my own spread then, knowing what I know now. I was saving thinking the price rises would be gradual and I could beat inflation, then just buy what I wanted when I retired. Dumbass move on my part. Now I am a glorified sharecropper. Land up here in n Ga in the touristy mountain areas (that I really like) that is going for twenty grand was still under one grand an acre, and they hadn't instituted so many onerous building regs. A lot of cabins got grandfathe

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[Marxist Hacker 42]

Thanks, that reminds me. PP&L is taking out the Gold Ray Dam on the lower Rogue (making 157 miles of good salmon habitat, another good source of wealth for Oregon)- I really need to keep an eye on that. I've got an idea that if I sling a carpet remnant under my fishing cataraft, find a nice quiet spot downstream to tie off to a couple of trees, add a large-gauss magnet to the front of the boat to screen out the pyrite, and just ride the wave for the first three hours after the dam breach, I ought to

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[zogger]

I don't get it. How will you sluice out the gold dust with that rig? I have panned before and man, those little flecks are teeny tiny. The least bit of water washes them out, and I am unaware of any screen that would catch much before it plugged up with other silt and so on. Guys who do dust large scale use a little water and a huge sluice box.