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Comment Re:Tech specs (Score 4, Informative) 115

Helium? I think we are wasting so much.

The market is already fixing this. Helium prices are rising. The primary reason for this is shale gas. Helium is a byproduct of natural gas production. Some gas wells in Texas contain as much as 4% helium. Gas wells outside the USA contain very little helium, making America the dominant producer. But America is switching to shale gas, which contains very little helium, and the helium producing wells are being shut down because they can't operate profitably with historically low gas prices. So helium prices are climbing, and frivolous uses are being curtailed. Disneyland Tokyo has already stopped selling helium balloons of cartoon characters.

 

Comment Re:Tech specs (Score 1) 115

Is there any reason not to use hydrogen for this application?

How do you know they are not using hydrogen? TFA does not say what gas they are using. So maybe they are using hydrogen but don't want to say so because of the idiots that associate it with the Hindenburg or hydrogen bombs. Thousands of people drown every year in a liquid that is 2/3 hydrogen, so there is no denying that it is dangerous stuff.

 

Comment Re:Oddly specific denial (Score 4, Insightful) 176

well that would explain why they say that Justice Department hasn't done it.

That is NOT what they said. Read the quote carefully. It simply says that the speaker has no knowledge of the justice dept doing it, not that they didn't do it. This is a classic example of a bureaucratic waffle. It sounds like they are actually saying something meaningful, but if you parse the sentence, it is basically vacuous.

Comment Re:not a bicycle (Score 4, Informative) 123

Now - something purely human-powered that could fly would be impressive, but this is not.

It might be impressive, but it would not be new. Flying bicycles have been around for a while. The Gossamer Albatross was pedaled over the English Channel in 1979, a distance of over 22 miles.

The hard part is not getting a bicycle to fly, but to get it to hover with human power.

Comment Re:Expensive, ultimately disposable infrastructure (Score 1) 216

There was a recent news items article for Lithium-Sulfur batteries with 4 times the capacity of today's.

There are lots of things that work in the lab, but are impractical in the field. Will this battery work at -50F in Fargo, ND? How about at 120F in Las Vegas? Will it handle 3000 discharge cycles? Will it be safe if it ruptures in an impact? Will it degrade if it is left fully discharged in an airport long-term park lot for three months? Very few batteries meet these criteria.

Comment Re:Expensive, ultimately disposable infrastructure (Score 1) 216

An interesting concept but it seems very unlikely this will be a prefered solution in 30 years as battery technology improves.

One problem with nerds that are living in the age of Moore's Law, is that they end up believing that other technologies enjoy the same sort of exponential improvements as semiconductors. In general, they do not. There will almost certainly be some incremental improvements, but I wouldn't bet on any big breakthrough in battery technology. If you look at the periodic table, there just isn't anything to the left or above lithium, except hydrogen which isn't practical for a number of reasons. It is extremely unlikely that we are going to discover a new alkali metal between lithium and hydrogen.

Of course, someone may invent "Mister Fusion", but that is not a battery.

Comment Re:and in tsunamis? (Score 1) 89

I wonder how the whole thing will be able to move if there's a tsunami?

A tsunami big enough to cause much damage is unlikely to be generated locally, so there would probably be an hour or more of warning. The biggest danger would be a tsunami generated by the fault-line of the "ring of fire" passing through Indonesia. That means it would most likely come from the east, so an obvious defense is to build the hotel on the western side of the island. The article doesn't say, and Google maps doesn't show an island named Kuredhivaru, so I don't know if that is what they are doing. But I am sure they thought of these things long before we did.

Comment Re:I don't drink coffee (Score 5, Insightful) 259

It may be both: evolution of the coffee rust driven by climate change.

Or it could be a lack of genetic diversity in the coffee trees. The fungus can spread through vast plantations of genetically similar arabica trees. The reason the rust has difficulty infecting wild trees may be because of their diversity, as well as their dispersion.

Disclaimer: I am a tea drinker.

Comment Re:Competition (Score 5, Interesting) 323

What's to stop Costa Rica or Columbia joining in?

1. Mountains
2. Water to operate the locks to get over those mountains.
Panama and Nicaragua both have relatively low hills/mountains, and large lakes at sufficient altitude to supply water for the locks.
Costa Rica and Colombia do not.

A little over three decades ago, I was a young Marine, and spent several months in Panama. We provided security for the Gatun dam and locks. It was very interesting to watch the ships step up and down through the locks. We conducted patrols in the surrounding rainforest. It was the most beautiful forest I have ever seen. There were trees almost as big as sequoias, and spots where the canopy were so dense that it was almost dark on the forest floor. The birds, butterflies and flowers all had dazzling colors. But it seemed like everything had thorns or some goo that would blister skin, and there were lots of mosquitoes, leeches, and other bloodsucking bugs.

Comment Re:Modern Jesus (Score 4, Insightful) 860

Actually, most of this stuff, the basis for it anyway, goes back to Eisenhower.

During the cold war the NSA was focused on the Soviet Union, which was an actual real threat to our national security. There is little evidence that the NSA was engaged in domestic spying during that time. Today the NSA, and all this surveillance, is focused on stopping some hermits in Afghanistan from talking to a few guys with a pressure cooker full of gunpowder. Meanwhile, our diplomatic relations with China and Russia have deteriorated, and we have very little idea what is going on in Iran or North Korea. Remember last month, when the Chinese Red Army was identified as actively behind cyber-spying? It was some gumshoes working for a private company that tracked it to a specific building in Shanghai. Meanwhile, the NSA, with their 30 billion dollar budget, was busy reading your email and monitoring grandma's phone calls.

These NSA programs are worse than a crime. They are a mistake.

Comment Re:just now? (Score 0) 398

That bounty would have to be pretty high to have any chance of succeeding. 7 figures at least, I would think... Stealing cars, especially high end cars with no damage at all, can be extremely profitable.

I think it is unlikely that the guy stealing the car is the same guy who developed the fob. The fob developer is probably getting only a small slice, especially since he is taking no risk and likely living in India or China. Also, anybody with the fob could turn it in for the reward, not just the developer.

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