My Techno-Copia Meter is Jittering towards Max

[pstarr]

It's nice that we're continuing to fund research into future technologies, but right now, these are years or even decades away, so why not focus on proven technologies, such as electrified rail and thorium nuclear power plants? That's what our effort in the short to medium term should be focusing on.

Maybe when all the plentiful and relatively inexpensive fossil fuels run low? I mean really, whats the point in the meantime, unless some pretty fierce anti-CO2 legislation gets passed? Its not like we're running out of fossil fuels anytime soon.

Why would anti-CO2 legislation be passed? That would be so unfair to carbon dioxide, and play into the hands of the environmentalists. It would be much smarter to start seriously looking to deep-mantel abiotic oil and/or pelagic hydrate methane for all our energy needs.

[KingM]

Tell me again why we're not instead funding use of that *working* fusion reactor otherwise known as "the sun."

Any real cost/risk advantage to having a smaller one close by? Anybody?

Because that working fusion reactor is 96 million miles away and by the time it reaches the Earth the energy is diffused. It's called energy density, one of the favorite subjects on this board.

[pstarr]

It's called energy density, one of the favorite subjects on this board.

Energy Density is a measure of EROEI (Energy Return on Energy Input). It is negatively correlated with PODI (Peak-Oil Denier Intelligence)

[ian807]

It's called energy density, one of the favorite subjects on this board.

We're actually pretty good at concentrating solar energy. Mirrors, I think they call them.

EROEI is actually a complicated equation. A passive solar cell concentrating dissipated solar energy over a lifetime of 50 years has a seriously positive EROEI by dint of it's lifetime as much as it's output. It's also likely to be a bit cheaper than the equivalent amount of energy from a fusion reactor.

It's as yet unknown what the EROEI would be for a fusion reactor. A deuterium fuel based reactor might be positive, depending on construction energy costs, maintenance energy costs and eventual disposal energy costs. If nuclear power EROEI (http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3877)is any indication, the picture is murky at best.

[TheAntiDoomer]

MSU: Major scientific breakthrough in algae biofuel

http://www.kxlf.com/news/msu-major-scie ... e-biofuel/

This summer, a team of Montana State University researchers made a scientific breakthrough that has eluded scientists for decades. It's a discovery that makes algae a much more viable source of biofuel.

Science and industry have been making biofuels for a long time, from things like corn oil, soybean oil, and algae oil. It's always been difficult to make a biofuel as economical as a conventional crude oil. The price of crude oil usually has to be a very high cost per barrel before it's really feasible. But the MSU Algal Biofuels group is making that a little more competitive. The team found a way to get four times as much biofuel from a given amount of algae.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Economic pressure moved them to do this,

"Economic pressure" aka "being greedy bastards."

Every time I see a response like this, I wonder. Why don't you folks on the left who accuse businesses which want to make a profit on their ideas/products of being "greedy" crank up hugely profitable businesses of your own? You could use the profits to give to the folks who "need it" and solve all those problems making massive wealth redistribution so urgent. Your pals on the left would just love you for that unless you tried to keep any profit for yourself.

No? Too difficult?

You may find out once you actually build something productive, or invent some great idea, that you would actually like to keep part of the fruits of your labor which you EARNED via dint of hard work.

It's no coincidence to me that by far, most of those who bash the most productive folks the most harshly (and espouse stealing nearly all their income) produce little of value for society to plunder themselves. Nice and convenient.

[davep]

Who here is espousing stealing nearly all 'their' income? That seems to be something of a strawman.

Squeezing bankers until they squeal is another thing entirely though.

[pstarr]

Regarding the stinking rich thieving bastards, and their government stooges---

Corporations stole the country starting back in 1886 when the Supreme Court used the14th amendment (designed to right the crime of slavery and assign "humaness" to what was property) to enslave citizens and small businesses.

1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394, the Supreme Court recognized that corporations were recognized as persons for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment.[1][2]

Previously corporations worked on behalf of, and represented, the citizenry and their democratically elected government. Corporations were served at the bequest of the people for specific jobs, such as settling the frontier (see the Hudson Bay Company for example.)

Now corporations by and own us and our commonwealth. That is mostly why we are f3cked.

[Ludi]

Now corporations by and own us and our commonwealth. That is mostly why we are f3cked.

But a liberal Supreme Court could overturn the decisions.

Not that they will, but they COULD.

[TreeFarmer]

Ludi;

Please don't put any faith in the supreme court no matter which bunch has the majority. The one thing the founding fathers misfigured on was that the federal courts would keep the federal government in check.

Someone please check this but I believe it was the liberal justices that let the town in Connecticut(?) eminent domain property so that they could sell it to a developer and get higher real estate taxes in return.

I really, really, really hate to say it but the day may be coming when we have a round of voting that is done with bullets instead of ballots.

TF

[ian807]

It's no coincidence to me that by far, most of those who bash the most productive folks the most harshly (and espouse stealing nearly all their income) produce little of value for society to plunder themselves. Nice and convenient.

Look me in the eye and tell me that a Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager is more "productive" than a farmer because he makes more money. There's a difference between being and efficient capitalist and being an efficient parasite.

And like most hosts, I'm looking forward to shedding my parasite load sometime soon.

[TheAntiDoomer]

Cold fusion offers best way to generate power: scientist

http://sify.com/news/cold-fusion-offers ... dhiai.html

Speaking on the emerging field of 'condensed matter nuclear science' at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) here, Srinivasan said 'unbelievable, multi-body nuclear reactions appear to be taking place in simple experimental configurations, involving the nuclei of palladium'.

These reactions, formerly called cold fusion, are now referred to as low energy nuclear reactions (LENR) and the field, as a whole, is called condensed matter nuclear science, he said

[pstarr]

unbelievable, multi-body nuclear reactions

Black dyn-o-mite gotta have some of that sh3t to pop on the man's lilly white #ss.

These reactions, formerly called cold fusion, are now referred to as low energy nuclear reactions (LENR) and the field, as a whole, is called condensed matter nuclear science, he said

Black Dyn-o-mite don't like you bring this sh3t into the ghetto! He is gonna bring a hard-ass jive rain down on yo' techtopian #ss

[diemos]

These reactions, formerly called cold fusion, are now referred to as

same old sh!t in a pretty new box.

[Cog]

Ludi;

Please don't put any faith in the supreme court no matter which bunch has the majority. The one thing the founding fathers misfigured on was that the federal courts would keep the federal government in check.

Someone please check this but I believe it was the liberal justices that let the town in Connecticut(?) eminent domain property so that they could sell it to a developer and get higher real estate taxes in return.

I really, really, really hate to say it but the day may be coming when we have a round of voting that is done with bullets instead of ballots.

TF

You are correct except for Justice O'Connor who wrote the dissent for the minority. The decision in its entirety:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/g ... vol=04-108

An excerpt:

Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result. "[T]hat alone is a just government," wrote James Madison, "which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own." For the National Gazette, Property, (Mar. 29, 1792), reprinted in 14 Papers of James Madison 266 (R. Rutland et al. eds. 1983).

So yet again, the left has been found to be favoring government control to the benefit of the rich. Not exactly the conclusion they affirm in all their concern for the poor and disadvantaged.

[OilFinder2]

LOL @ the title.

[Outcast_Searcher]

It's no coincidence to me that by far, most of those who bash the most productive folks the most harshly (and espouse stealing nearly all their income) produce little of value for society to plunder themselves. Nice and convenient.

Look me in the eye and tell me that a Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager is more "productive" than a farmer because he makes more money. There's a difference between being and efficient capitalist and being an efficient parasite.

And like most hosts, I'm looking forward to shedding my parasite load sometime soon.

Yes, always grab the most extreme example. That will shed light on the subject.

I'm talking about the general example of people that try to run businesses and employ people. Ordinary businesses. Like dry cleaners. Mom and pop kind of stuff. But business owners are routinely called things like "greedy bastards" by folks like Ludi, who freely admit they choose to make a minimal income. These same folks like Ludi are espousing raising taxes every chance they get.

Did some hedge funds and banks do bad things? Certainly. But LOTS of homeowners and ignorant investors did bad and irresponsible things too, and got themselves into trouble. But somehow, to the left, THOSE "poor" people should be given a house, while bankers and hedge fund managers (most of which did nothing criminal) should be lynched.

Yeah, that's reasonable... Who will the left confiscate taxes from when the productive folks have decided they are tired of being extorted?

[PrestonSturges]

Every time I see a response like this, I wonder. Why don't you folks on the left who accuse businesses which want to make a profit on their ideas/products of being "greedy" crank up hugely profitable businesses of your own? ....
You may find out once you actually build something productive, or invent some great idea, that you would actually like to keep part of the fruits of your labor which you EARNED via dint of hard work.

It's no coincidence to me that by far, most of those who bash the most productive folks the most harshly (and espouse stealing nearly all their income) produce little of value for society to plunder themselves. Nice and convenient.

Good points there, but let me say respond:

Been there, done that, got the death threats etc, maybe we should have rolled the dice and left a couple MBAs buried in shallow graves out in the swamps. The people doing the stealing from us weren't liberals by any means.

I think the other thing that liberals lack is the authoritarians' natural instinct for finding the Golden Sphincter, the rich guy's butt you can cram your head into. Authoritarians are like spawning salmon able to leap up waterfalls when there's that opportunity.

[TheAntiDoomer]

Sandia Announces Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion Energy Generation

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11 ... energy.php

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have announced a breakthrough that could lead to break-even nuclear fusion reactions within 2-3 years. The goal of nuclear fusion research is to make energy from sea water, producing only the harmless gas helium as a result of the fusion reaction. It is the holy grail of clean, sustainable energy, the same process that powers our sun.

The nuclear fusion efforts involve research at the cutting edge of physics, where one of the avenues of exploration goes by the name "Z-pinch" (which should gain the technique immediate street cred should it be successful). So what is a Z-pinch? And how could it power the future?

[PrestonSturges]

Sandia Announces Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion Energy Generation

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11 ... energy.php

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have announced a breakthrough that could lead to break-even nuclear fusion reactions within 2-3 years. The goal of nuclear fusion research is to make energy from sea water, producing only the harmless gas helium as a result of the fusion reaction. It is the holy grail of clean, sustainable energy, the same process that powers our sun.

The nuclear fusion efforts involve research at the cutting edge of physics, where one of the avenues of exploration goes by the name "Z-pinch" (which should gain the technique immediate street cred should it be successful). So what is a Z-pinch? And how could it power the future?

Looks just like a coffee can....