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Comment Re:don't make bigger ones (Score 2) 184

Physics and economics disagree. Power harvested increases by the square of blade length (since swept area = Pi*r^2). If you double the blade length you get four times the power output. Economically (and environmentally and aesthetically) it makes more sense to build one bigger turine instead of four smaller ones. That means only one concrete base, one tower, one nacelle to maintain, and more flexibility in siting the turbine.

Comment Facebook Even has Official Bots! (Score 4, Insightful) 83

I recently noticed in one of my groups that there was a poster that would post questions veaguely related to the group, but not really accurately relevant to what was going on. When I looked into it more, I realized that the poster was a "Group AI" - essentially a bot whose job is to post questions to drive engagement. BLECH.

We really are going to end up with the Dead Internet Theory and an AI Ouroboros. Facebook bots posing questions, which well invariably end up getting answered by other bots, which will feed into the next round of AI training data. I can't decide if I'm lucky enough to have at least experienced the golden age of the internet, or unfortunate enough to know what the internet could be...

Comment Re:Going somewhere to fill up is the opposite of g (Score 3, Insightful) 181

While that's absolutely true, it will also change over time. New builds are starting to include EV chargers, and retrofits are also happening. Even in buildings that will never be retrofitted, it may still be possible for people to go EV as the wider charging network improves. My sister lives in Vancouver, BC and has an EV in a building with no chargers. It works out fine for her because the public charging infrastructure in that city is widespread enough that "filling up" when she gets groceries, etc. is more than enough.

Comment Re:Strange list of companies (Score 1) 222

and an airline?

An airline.

I was originally surprised too, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense. It seems like Air Canada is shifting their view to being a transportation company rather than an air company. They already run coach busses. From their point of view it could mean first dibs at passengers for longer haul flight. E.g. I could see having a booking platform that allowed a single booking that gets you to Toronto on HSR and then onto your Air Canada flight to the Bahamas.

I have a colleague who's German and apparently this has existied for a while. E.g. there are seamless connections from HSR to flights in Frankfurt.

Comment Re:Gray market? (Score 1) 137

And only going to get harder as EVs dominate more of the market. As the number of gas cars declines it's going to become less profitable to keep gas stations open, so more will close, which will make it less attractive to have a gas car, which will further reduce demand for gas stations, creating a downward spiral feedback loop.

With Norway becoming the first country to truly hit mass adoption it'll be interesting to see what the threshold is that really kicks off this feedback loop, and how fast it happens once the tipping point has been reached.

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