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Comment Re:They don't agree with us! Burn them! (Score 1) 661

"With the melting of the tundra 10 years ago, we hit a tipping point, it became too late to stop climate change. It is now a positive feedback loop. You could remove every human being from the planet, and global warming would continue.

What we do about humanities 36 billion tonns/yr of CO2 emissions from FF, or not, will affect the rate of climate change. If at some point humanity starts producing a surplus of renewable energy, then we can extract CO2 from the oceans and use it to manufacture CH4 for later sequestration. At which point we really can reverse AGW.

But, first steps first.. We must reduce the amount CO2 emissions in the first place. By reducing wasteful energy usage(*), increasing the amount of renewable energy produced, and penalize fossil usage.

I.E. Wasteful energy usage, using a 10% efficient 2 tonn automobile where an Electric bike (600 to 1500MPGe), can accomplish the similar objectives.

Comment There could be other factors.. (Score 2) 245

Like the signal reflecting off the ocean below instead of coming directly from the aircraft.

The only sure way to is to duplicate the flight path with a similar size aircraft using the same Engines and monitoring stations, using similar SAT positions. Only this time use a plane with extended range 777-200LR(verses missing 777-200ER) with minimal payload&maximum fuel and/or safely replicate the flight path in sections.

Use the resulting SAT/GPS data to help calibrate mh377 final resting spot.

Comment The whole "GOD": thingy.. (Score 1) 453

With 95% of humanoid population believing in a GOD who created mankind in his image,... has got to go..

The risk biological contamination, (both ways), is far to high, at best they'll send a sterile probe... land it on the moon, observe, and move on.. Until we start doing some really impressive space engineering projects, their isn't much to talk about.

Comment Re:Increase fuel burnup and this becomes cheap ! (Score 1) 288

Bzzzt.. no thorium was ever installed/used in MSRE. It was just one tiny air cooled, (7.4MWTh), Molten Salt reactor prototype. Initially it was fueled with U235/U238. Later U233/U238 (U233 was bread in more conventional reactors).

The MSRE prototype had significant problems upon decommissioning..

Comment Re:I have a project (Score 1) 165

WHO, IAEA, NIH, et al.. haven't refuted anything. The book was a compilation of several hundred scientific papers written in the appropriate non-english languages authors covering the affected area and population.

Nobody of any scientific reputation outside of those incestuous organizations agrees with any of the conclusions.

Comment Re:Too Little, Too Late (Score 1) 165

"You have also not mentioned your ASTRONOMICAL error claiming 60 million deaths from fall out." Why should I? I included a referenced click able link, that's a lot more credible than your claims. No error on my part, just the unvarnished truth that you don't want to admit exists.

Nuclear power always has been a fools bargain, their will be no winners..

Comment Re:Too Little, Too Late (Score 1) 165

Less than 25% of US spent fuel(as of 2009) has been dry cask'd.. Most fuel (world wide) remains in common spent fuel pools.

Fukushima on 3/11/2011 had a total dry storage capacity of 408 fuel assemblies for all six reactors, verses capacity for over ~10000 fuel assemblies(~75% full) in seven spent fuel pools, with another 2000 to 3000 assemblies still inside the reactors.

Thus Fukishima's Dry casked storage represents less than 5% of total storage.. But even dry casked storage(requires maintenance) and that also is at risk after a massive release since no person can approach the site without receiving a fatal dose of radiation.

Comment Re:Too Little, Too Late (Score 1) 165

"And no reactor has 80 million tons of fuel" Bzzzt.. Just in you're totally clueless.. The Megaton's refers to Fission Bomb yield equivalent..

The worlds total N-weapon arsenal is less than a few thousand Megatons of Fission byproduct (bomb equivalence), if they were all to be detonated in one day, Note: Modern N-weapon designs are ~50%fission(dirty)/~50% fusion(relatively clean), And only a small fraction is ready to deploy in an initial exchange.

Meanwhile more than 150 times that amount resides inside NPP's around the world, and all it takes is a loss of electrical power to start the release process.

Comment Re:I have a project (Score 1) 165

Chernobyl Death Toll: 985,000, Mostly from Cancer and still counting as of (April 26, 2010) from just 6 Megaton's worth of Fission Byproduct release into the biiosphere.

Imagine what would happen if their was a significant release of the 150,000 Megatons of Fission Byproducts humanity has lying about at/in/near NPP's!

Comment Re:Too Little, Too Late (Score 1) 165

With ~150,000 megatons(*) worth of fission byproducts lying about, waiting for the next accident/natural disaster/Loss of cooling/war to be released into biosphere. The last thing we need, to is increase that inventory above the ~5,500 megatons we currently are producing each year.

(*)Note: Assumes Megaton's worth of fission isotopes is created for every 0.4tWh of electricity produced by a NPP, No accounting for decay since much of the radioactive food chain isotopes, (Internal radiators, Sr-90, Cs-134, Cs-137, I-129), are still around, and will still be around for decades/centuries/thousands of years.

World wide, atmospheric weapons testing released 100-200 megatons of fission byproducts. The addition of those radio-isotopes to our biosphere sent at least 60 million humans to an early grave

Fukishima's melt thru cores (reactor units 1,2 and 3) contained somewhere between 80 and 174 megatons worth of fission byproducts. If their contents make it into the biosphere, it would be very close to equaling All the atmospheric N-weapons testing to date. Sending at least another 60+ million humans to an early grave.

One can only imagine the outcome, if a significant portion of 150,000 Megatons worth of globally stored radio-isotopes were released into the biosphere. Mankind, being the apex predator, would be lucky to survive such a release.

.

Comment Re:Big Oil loves Wind & Solar (Score 1) 769

Bzzzzt.. $2kWh bogus number with no scientific support.. Meanwhile in the real world.. I can purchase a 240 w panel, + grid inverter for less than $400.. that combo will produce over a 400kWh in the first year..

That's less than 1$ per kWh in the first year... run it another 30 years.. less than $0.033 per kWh, wayyy cheaper than any fossil or nuclear power by a long shot. As for long term storage, simply not burning fossil fuels when the sun is shinning, or the wind is blowing is a simple well established strategy.

Eventually we'll have enough surplus renewable to exact co2 from the environment, process it into CH4(methane) and pump it back into the ground, waiting for a cloudy/windless day..

Comment Re:Good for them.. at least the jury got it right. (Score 1) 146

Considering the US wastes 61 to 86 percent of its energy, we've got plenty of room for improvement. Even the Toyota Prius is only 25% fuel efficient. Your average auto is around 10%. and that does NOT include all the losses involved in finding/refining/delivering the gas. Again lot's of room for improvement.

Comment Good for them.. at least the jury got it right.. (Score 2) 146

With 22 wells nearby, the chances of their water not being contaminated are very low.. Thus industry lifetime Failure rate for these wells runs 30% to 50%!

The industry really needs to step up to the plate and improve their drilling tech and methods. Hopefully more and more juries around the country will impose these costs on the oil and gas industry. Either clean up or get out!!

Personally, we really don't need this fossil fuel tech, when Renewable energy sources are very capable of fulfilling ALL our energy needs . We know fossil fuels are finite.. they're going to run out, sooner or later.. Let's jump into the future and skip over these nasty fault prone energy sources. It boarders to the point of insanity, that the general public hasn't figured this out..

Comment Re:Amana Radar Range (Score 1) 702

hmm, robust electronic items,

I use a 24 year old Panasonic turntable microwave (uP driven, w lcd display) on a daily basis..

I also use a 28 year old uP controlled, Kenmore microwave-convection oven on a weekly basis.

Everything else has long since been retired, RS-coco's, Sinclair Z8, 8088,286, 386, 486, pentium, celeron pc's, aimga 1000/3000, VME stuff, etc They all consume too much electricity/limited functionality to be of much value these days.

These days I use modern quad core laptop with 24" external LCD, ARM based Linux server, and a few other low energy consumption(Android) tech toys of recent vintage for daily use.

Comment Re:There is, Blender can sue (Score 1) 306

Blender can seek a lot more than just compensation of damages, punitive damages are in line as well. This is a criminal & commercial copyright violation (by Sony's agent) claiming ownership of property (perjury) that is not theirs. And subsequently using the purloined production for commercial exploration.

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