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Comment Re:The grid needs storage - not battery storage (Score 2) 334

I rather like this one, a thermal storage solution.

Note that they don't tell you what the efficiency or capacity are. As you store more power, they lose more energy. Fairly worthless. It also incorporates a special and expensive engine. Fail, fail.

Putting air into and out of bladders under deep water is a very simple method,

No, no it isn't. First, air-based storage is always horribly lossy due to loss of the thermal energy; your above example tries to solve this with technology and argon, but it is thus complex and runs at high pressures and will be prone to failure. Second, the bladders will have to be replaced regularly, because under deep water is not a comfortable environment for them.

as is moving water up and down hills.

The efficiency is not great, but it's a lot better than anything based on compressing gases.

Then there are flywheels and fixed volume compressed air storage.

Well, compressed air storage is still stupid, but flywheels are cool, and applicable ones have been around for at least a decade, see Beacon Power. So yay, we found the viable alternative to used batteries! That took a really long time.

The truth is that used batteries are an excellent way to add more storage capacity, since they're just lying around anyway.

Comment Re:I See it made it to GoG.com DRM-free (Score 1) 99

You don't archive games by storing the installation folders.

Maybe you don't, but I do, when they don't depend on registry entries. I got tired of installing Civ and AlphaC on every build via the installer, then the official patches, then the unofficial patches, so I just 7z-exe'd the directories.

Comment Re:nickel and dime (Score 2) 239

This is hopefully a big step against DLC in general.

Not really. There's three official DLCs for Skyrim (not counting the high-res texpack, which is free) and game mods may require any number of them. Many of the most interesting mods require at least the two larger (and more expensive) expansions.

Comment Re:Mid-engine sports cars (Score 1) 247

There is no reason that a company couldn't custom design a safe frame first and build a car around that, but the big (3?) names aren't nimble enough or interested to become that until more Tesla-like companies come along to shake up the market.

It costs a lot to build a safe car. Tesla and Audi A8 drivers walk away from accidents that tear their cars in half. But you'll note that these are some of the most expensive cars to produce. Cadillac is now using the same techniques (plus some, so they can build an aluminum unibody with steel floor pans) so your wish has been granted, the first genuinely safe cars are coming out from a big 3 automaker. Problem is, they're coming from the marque that doesn't share platforms.

Comment Re:With the best will in the world... (Score 1) 486

The intent isn't to save more fuel though, it's to improve that 0-60 time,

They only shave a couple of tenths, though, because of all the mass they have to add to support the hybrid system. It makes a pretty small difference there. The only place it makes a big difference is in fuel economy. It brings supercars into the twenties and hypercars into the double digits. So I don't buy all that bollocks about it not being for fuel economy. The only exception is that Koenigsegg without gears, it truly couldn't function without it.

Comment Re:Taste (Score 1) 630

Weird... I never worried about anything I ingest. But Sucralose / Splenda was the first thing that I ever drank that gave me an instant headache

Are you sure it didn't also have Acesulfame K?

I can taste aspartame right off, yuck. Never felt anything weird from it myself. But I still prefer sucralose, I've never felt anything weird from it either. I used a whole lot of it last time I was on the Atkins diet. My lady is afraid of it so we use stevia, and now monk fruit extract. When they bother to fill their shelves, Safeway now carries it without sugar, as a liquid. It's got some preservatives, of course, even though it sits on the shelf for about a picosecond.

Comment Re:Still Acesulfame K (yuk!) (Score 1) 630

The other sweetener I've seen showing up in sodas lately has been stevia. I normally avoid the stuff like the plague - tastes worse to me than aspartame does, though in a rotting-organic-bad way rather than a metallic-fake way. Maybe cola flavors can mask that, though.

No, no they can not. Cola in particular is horrible with Stevia. However, Zevia's Ginger Ale and Ginger Root Beer (which really just tastes like root beer) are both very good. I have been somewhat nauseated by their other flavors, so while this may be subjective, at least I'm discriminating.

Comment Re:danger vs taste (Score 1) 630

Their advertising slogan may as well be "Pepsi - for when you can't afford actual Coca-Cola."

The only honest advertising slogan for Pepsi would be "Is Pepsi okay?" or perhaps "Pepsi is OK!" But that's pretty pathetic next to "Coke is It".

Comment Re:danger vs taste (Score 1) 630

We have alternatives, people! Tap water is good for us, good for the environment, stunningly cheap and tastes pretty good.

Time for you to google "tap water amoeba death"

Also, tap water is absolutely fucking horrible for the environment. Here's how it works: we take water out of waterways and process it with chemicals, then when you're done you flush it down the toilet and then we process it with some more chemicals. Very little of this is necessary; country-dwellers can crap in a hole and process their drinking water with a RO membrane, using the waste water for irrigation, or via distillation, while city-dwellers' effluent can be processed with ponds.

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