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Comment Re:What about repairs and maintenance and safety. (Score 1) 114

There's already a solar array and cooling system on the ISS, which is scheduled to be de-orbited fairly soon. The solar array is said to have a peak generation capacity of about 240kW (though the average is about 100kW, as the system apparently alternates between gaining power from the solar array white heating up, and rejecting heat to the cold of space while in the shade of the Earth), so all that would be required is to send up a buttload of NVidia modules to prototype a 10% scale version of the system envisioned, and of course, enough lifting power to keep the mess from de-orbiting in an uncontrolled manner anytime soon.

Comment NPR helping out OpenAI? (Score 1) 87

In this case, NPR hired a experts who found two other actresses whose work could plausibly be captured to disguise the contributions from the so-far un-named "different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice," claimed by OpenAI to provide voice samples to develop the "Sky" voice: Keri Russel and Anne Hathaway. Blending these three voices could produce something distinct but similar to all three-or-four (depending on whether the "Sky" voice is or isn't based on Scarlett Johansson) of these voices, or one of the named candidates could be used to develop a similar sounding replacement.

Or, could it be that this unnamed "different professional actress" is already one of these three actresses, and the voice analysis has "outed" them? It's possible, though the universe of "professional actresses" must be much larger than 600. IMDB apparently has 27,958,661 actresses in their database, though of course some of these aren't active or alive. https://www.imdb.com/pressroom...

I must presume that there's some reason OpenAI hasn't named this "different professional actress": (1) she doesn't want to be named publicly or associated with OpenAI, as it could affect her career, (2) she doesn't really exist or OpenAI really used samples of Scarlett Johanssen, or (3) OpenAI is enjoying all the extra publicity coming from this manufactured mystery.

Comment What a load of fetid dingo's kidneys. (Score 1) 315

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

That's really all you need to know. Space is big. It would take a mindbogglingly large amount of energy to send any kind of signal to other star systems, and even more energy and time to accelerate and decelerate creatures the size of human beings to nearby stars. As much as one can appreciate how Douglas Adams put it, the ratio of peanuts to the way down the road vastly underestimates the ratio of how far nearby stars are versus how far space exploration has reached or can reach.

As much as interstellar transportation has been the subject of science fiction over the last hundred years or so, there isn't any real prospect of transporting humans even as far as nearby stars. Star Trek's warp drive is pure fiction.

Comment Entire text of bill (Score 1) 202

Stripping away the preface section, the entire text of the bill: Amendment 1, SA0653: http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bill...

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 68, Chapter 201, Part 1, is amended by adding the following as a new section:
The intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight is prohibited.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect July 1, 2024, the public welfare requiring it.

A plain reading of this measure would prohibit intentional operation of any air-breathing engine within the state as of July 1, 2024, including anything with a coal-, gas- or diesel-powered engine, whether operated on land, sea or air, as they all necessarily release CO2 into the atmosphere, affecting temperature and weather. Arguably, even the TVA nuclear plants, which release H2O on a massive scale from their cooling towers must cease operating. Better do your best not to fart, as only unintentional emissions are permissible.

https://twitter.com/Cavalorn/s...

Comment Re:Fix this headline (Score 1) 205

...and these schemes are B-A-T-S-H-I-T. For example, the experiment to add sodium hypochlorite to ocean water to enhance CO2 collection? Well, the industrial manufacture of sodium hypochlorite is by electrolysis of sea water, obviously requiring electricity input (producing CO2), and producing chlorine gas, which if emitted directly (or indirectly as when it's released from swimming pools), destroys the ozone layer, or used industrially, such as combining with hydrocarbons to produce, for example polyvinyl chloride, becomes an industrial pollutant. It's highly unlikely this could be deployed at any scale to reduce CO2.

Comment Fix this headline (Score 1) 205

Scientists Resort to Once Unthinkable Solutions INSTEAD of Directly Addressing CO2 Emissions.

Removing CO2 from the atmosphere is the only way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

These batshit "solutions" don't address the major effects of CO2 in the atmosphere, which include global climate change as well as ocean acidification, weather events, ocean level rise, flooding and drought, etc.

Comment Is this any more privacy-risking than Google? (Score 1) 135

When you're wearing a Fitbit (or Google Watch) and using Chrome, Google can correlate the timing of the two data streams to know precisely which website and which advertising makes your heart go pitter-patter. Watch videos with Youtube or Chromecast with a Fitbit, and they don't really need to ask if you're still awake, 'cause just like Santa Claus, they know when you are sleeping, they know when you're awake. They know if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.

Of course, an Apple Watch with Safari or Apple TV exposes the same privacy risks.

Comment Simple flaw (Score 3, Interesting) 200

Putting aside that the total energy input computation of any of these processes are initially suspect, the process results in nothing of value as an end product. It's a pure money sink, so it's only of value as an offset to other processes that pollute the Earth with CO2. As such, it must be the absolutely cheapest way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere to survive.

In comparison, the process that produces these bricks can be the input side of a biochar production line, likely sequestering about half the carbon into something that according to hundreds of well-qualified studies, permanently improves the fertility of a wide range of soils that are too poor for productive agriculture without massive inputs of fertilizers that need to be reappied year after year and are currently produced using fossil fuels.

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