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Comment Problem (Score 1) 80

by mdsolar (#47739149) Attached to: Spot ET's Waste Heat For Chance To Find Alien Life
This method has a difficulty. Most of the starlight from a galaxy comes from stars that will soon be gone. These are the luminous giant stars. But a big investment in a Dyson sphere would probably be made around a star more like our Sun which will stick around for a while. But even if most of the mass in stars is involved in this, it still won't get most of the light so long as it is the low luminosity stars that get the tech investment.

Comment Re:False positives are far too easy (Score 4, Informative) 80

by mdsolar (#47739011) Attached to: Spot ET's Waste Heat For Chance To Find Alien Life
It comes down to fig. 3 in their paper. http://arxiv.org/pdf/1408.1134... Natural source don't have the expected colors for waste heat from a solid surface. But that is the case when perhaps half the starlight in a galaxy is being used for power (their gamma=0.5). So, the civilization has to be pretty much like locusts for it the be easy to discern. There may be some civilization lifetime issues to worry about in that case.

Submission + - Greens demand State hand over Keystone docs (thehill.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: An environmental group is demanding the State Department fork over all of its communications over changes that were made to the final Keystone XL pipeline environmental impact review.

Friends of the Earth filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Monday over a correction the State Department made in its final environmental analysis on the controversial pipeline.

The change reflected a substantial increase in the number of deaths that could be caused if Keystone is rejected. The revision said that State now estimates 18 to 30 people would be killed each year from the increase in oil shipments by rail without construction of the pipeline. Earlier estimates had said six deaths but that was under a three-month period.

Friends of the Earth called the statistics "highly questionable" and wants to know what prompted the change. They are asking for all staff communications over a five-month span.

"More questionable still is what prompted the State Department to update these particular numbers while neglecting numbers that show how Keystone XL would catalyze an increase in emissions," said Luisa Abbot Galvao of Friends of the Earth.

In the final impact review, the department said Keystone XL would not significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, a finding that hasn't sat well with environmentalists.

Friends of the Earth wants all records between State's staff and lobbyists or other individuals representing pipeline developer TransCanada, and Environmental Resources Management, the contractor that worked on the final environmental review.

Its request asks for all of the communication, contracts or agreements made between State and TransCanada from January to June of this year.

It also asks for documents on the oil rail analysis, greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation measures compiled in the same time period.

Submission + - Canada-to-NYC power line receives environmental approval (westfaironline.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: The U.S. Department of Energy has completed its environmental review of a $2.2 billion project that will run a 330-mile electric line from Canada to New York City.

The 1,000-megawatt transmission cables will have a 5-inch diameter and run underwater or underground for the line’s entire length. The project, called the Champlain Hudson Power Express, will siphon hydro and wind-produced energy from the Canadian border to a converter station that will be built in Astoria, Queens, and feed into the Consolidated Edison system.

Transmission Developers Inc., the Albany-based company developing the project, claims the transmission line would reduce energy costs for customers by as much as $650 million per year, creating an average of 300 construction jobs over the four years it takes to build.

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