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News Briefs 18-04-2008

By G. Calofon

Butterfly wings will be flapped at half mast today… Vaya con Dios, Mr. Lorenz…

Quote of the Day:

“There are two ways to live your life: one as though nothing is a miracle; the other as though everything is…”

Albert Einstein

G. Calof
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31 Comments

    1. If we’re lucky
      How much damage has been done from the unintended consequences of the biofuel hoax (which is itself a by-product of the man-made GW hoax)? Let’s hope this little fad is fading and we can pursue real energy alternatives. And by real alternatives, I don’t mean silly things like solar panels and wind farms. Massive reserves of energy in natural gas and frozen methane offer REAL alternatives.

      ————————————–
      My apologies go out to all who were just offended by this hostile, confrontational and completely unreasonable post.

      1. I agree, but…
        Not every country has vast stores of natural gas and frozen methane in their territories.

        For example, there are large quantities of frozen methane in the Gulf of Mexico. But that means its in OUR territory, meaning you guys don’t get any… of course the irony is that we don’t have the economic resources to exploit them, yet.

        Solar energy may be silly now, but great scientific breakthroughs are being done as we speak, that will ensure solar energy will become cost-effective faster than we expect it.

        —–
        It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
        It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

        Red Pill Junkie

        1. Demand and supply
          The problem isn’t with the type of energy or the supply — it’s with our insatiable demand. If we cut back half the useless crap we think we need in modern society, there’d be a lot less fossil fuels being burned. The greed of the consumer wanting fast cars, giant plasma televisions, and air-conditioning in every room is at the root of the problem.

          1. New Tech
            It’s asking too much of people to cut back, Rick. They’ll forget the eco-message. And anyway, there’s another reason. There’s plenty of new tech on the drawing board – vessels that use the ground effect that could skim across the sea as fast as aircraft; ceramic engines that use a fraction of the fuel; Bill even said a while ago about improved battery storage – would that allow alternatives to be more efficient?
            None of these things are being applied because they require smaller business systems to run them, allowing smaller enterprises a free reign. Big Biz works on big systems, which fossil fuel – and the nuclear alternative – require.
            The problem is Big Biz not allowing us the alternatives because they’d be out of business.

            …

            I’m fanatical about moderation

            Anthony North

          2. Break the cycle
            Oh I agree Anthony, but Big Biz and consumer are dependent on one another to the point of addiction. It’ll take both sides to break the cycle, not either/or. In some ways, it’s like sprinting down a very steep hill and trying to stop.

          3. education
            I agree with both of you. We have to find a way to put those novel ideas into action, but at the same time educate the consumer to realize ways to cut back its enormous consumption.

            Take for instance Christmas. Here in Mexico some people have adopted the habits of the US, to adorn every square inch of their houses with lights. On top of that, those inflatable Santa Clauses have become more popular and widespread, which IMO is a danger to both the Ecology and the eyes!

            There’s also the advertising companies, using every new gimmick they can come up with to sell things, but 40 years ago they relied on some dude wearing a sign that said “Eat at Joe’s”, whereas today they have plasma screens anywhere you can imagine; they even have MIRRORS that serve as an electronic poster when you’re not standing near it! The line must be drawn somewhere.

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

          4. It’s self-defeating
            You’ve both got a point, and I wish we could re-educate people, but few are really listening, and imposing things always backfire. But there is a light, in a terrible way.
            I’m satisfied that our present consumer habits are self-defeating, and simply cannot continue. If right, the system will correct itself. The west is now starting to talk about a credit crunch, the economy is running out of steam.
            When this happens, people will become more reflective, less selfish. THEN we may be able to change, and tune in a new message.

            …

            I’m fanatical about moderation

            Anthony North

          5. 🙁
            It’s just too bad that mankind’s favorite way of learning, has always been THE HARD WAY.

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

          6. Sadly
            Sadly, it is always so. But at least we usually have the ingenuity to pull ourselves back from the brink.
            Maybe people should learn to be …

            …

            fanatical about moderation

            Anthony North

          7. right, unfortunately
            This certainly has been our history for many thousands of years. We are not alone with this problem, it exists in biology, chemistry, physics, pretty much anywhere.

            We run into these positive feedback situations, and we don’t know how to counteract until things get really bad. Then we accept the pain, and we seem to recover enventually.

            As anthonynorth says, we usually manage to pull out.

            The poor helpless stars don’t manage, they go into novas or collapse into meaningless little dwarfs.

            The poor helpless nuclear bombs don’t manage either. Or the black holes.

            So let’s not blame everything on our stupidity. Sure we are relatively stupid, but there seems to be some hope.

            —-
            if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)

          8. not to worry…………..
            critical mass has been reached.The insustainability of this system has now tipped the scales.

            Hold on tight and try to enjoy the ride!

            The only change that could help now is a great shift in human conciousness. That will not come.

            Free energy has been around for a very long time, but with greed we have chosen to ignore it. Now we pay the price.

            Many things I have said on this site over the last eight or so years have touched gently on the concept. This has put me in the lime light of certain interested parties and resulted in a few close calls……….I remain under the radar and seldom post.

            All you think you know is a lie.
            Deprogram and start to think. The time is now. Wake up!

            PS. I’m happy to post this as it is like a “rude finger” to those who wish me harm and the one’s I love.

            “Life can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you do what your told.”
            LRF.

          9. free energy
            Let us assume that you are right and free energy is available.

            Will that not cause economic problems, like inflation?

            Our entire economic systems, all of them, are based on scarce resources. Market systems of course, but also socialist and other top-down control economic systems.

            Will those still work when a critical resource, such as energy, is free?

            Perhaps that is one thing you mean by a change in human consciousness that will not happen.

            —-
            if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)

          10. Correct
            You’re absolutely right, Earthling, but forget one factor. There have been times when something that was scarce became common. What we did was find a new adaptation for it that required masses of it – think coal and industrialisation – or found a new scarcity.
            Should we have free energy, entrepreneurs will soon make something fit the bill to keep people spending. As for using up the resource, would that make us think – Space?

            …

            Wise people usually begin as stupid ones

            Anthony North

          11. indeed
            It depends on who the energy is free. If it is free in the sense that you don’t need any fuel, nothing gets used up, no digging things out of the ground. Or, if it is free in the sense that everyone can use it without any machinery, transmission lines, tanks and such.

            If you still need a delivery system, people will be charged for the service of delivery.

            After all, oil is free right now, so is coal. We just have to pay the people who get it for us, and make into something we can use.

            Food is free too – the wheat doesn’t get paid, neither do cows or pigs or chickens.

            In a very real sense, all we pay for are services.

            But if we had free energy, that anyone can use without any assistance, then conditions change.

            —-
            if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)

          13. the problem
            is the economic system. Replace that and you may have something that remotely looks like an evolved species.
            While 1% of the worlds population enjoys 95% of the wealth, and these are more then happy to watch children starve, we have a system built entirely on greed.

            “Life can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you do what your told.”
            LRF.

          14. trading
            Certainly the economic system is a problem. Any economic system.

            We have experience with cheap energy in the past – coal and oil. But we have no experience with free energy, or free anything for that matter.

            Nobody knows how a society would work without economics some sort. Some of the religious people have dreams, But those dreams have never been realized.

            It is sort of depressing for sure.

            —-
            if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)

    2. Methane Hydrate handling
      [quote=Perceval]To say nothing of replenishing the world food supply – bye bye biofuels?[/quote]

      I’m thinking that actually “revolutionizing” will require some rethinking. Frinstance:

      > Canadian and Japanese researchers have managed to
      > efficiently produce a constant stream of natural gas
      > from ice-like gas hydrates

      Although the article doesn’t say how, it does say they released the gas from its source. Then I looked at

      > More significant is the fact that gas hydrates
      > concentrate 164 times the energy of the same amount
      > of natural gas

      and thought, why release it? It’s in a very nicely compressed form. Dredge it up as is and throw it in an insulated tank. Deliver the meth-ice to the user who connects the tank to their line, lets the hydrate melt, uses the gas, and returns the empty tank for refilling. Liquified natural gas (more than just compressed) is compressed to 600 atmospheres. Methane hydrates are better than a quarter of that already. “Low pressure” (ie. commonly delivered) natural gas comes at a measly 35 atmospheres. The “revolutionary” process of storing the gas in carbon briquettes provides almost as much storage as hydrates: 142 atmospheres. Methane hydrates are about 20% better than this “revolutionary” storage process.

      Sure, the process could still be more efficient. So how about including the fact that the ice that the gas is trapped it is water ice frozen out from salt water? A by product of using the above process would be desalinated water. If not potable, it would at least be a source of water for the (presumably) steam heating system that melted the ice — steam being far safer than a direct heat source when working around methane. Making use of its own by product would make it unnecessary to use local water supply. And if the output were unsuitable for local dumping, put it back into the tanks for release in deep water, just as the tank is about to scoop up its next load. And if it is suitable, it’s going to be part sand, but also part organic material from the ocean floor. Separate out the sand and you have liquid fertilizer for delivery to farmers.

      Use modified railroad gas tanker cars tanks for the dredging, attach the filled tank to their trucks (railroad wheels), and attach a line from a few of the cars to the locomotive. Let some of the hydrate release via normal heating, and those cars will provide the locomotive with the fuel necessary to deliver the rest of it to the users. The locomotive would simply maintain an entourage of its own tank cars to receive gas while in transit, for use when delivering non-gas-producing water, waste, empty cars, etc.

      Conversion of diesel motors, such as in diesel-electric locomotives, to natural gas burning is trivial. The result is a reduction in pollutant output of around 80%. If anything could use cleaning up, it’s locomotive engines.

      There, a million dollar patent that I’ll split with anyone willing to write it up and submit it. Hurry, before Big Oil figures it out and maintains its monopoly on energy production. They’d want the source and process, but you can bet your ocean bottom they wouldn’t want it to become cheap.

      No, I am not the brain specialist…..
      YES. Yes I AM the brain specialist.

      1. technical problem
        This “methane ice” is deep at the bottom of the ocean, it is under very high pressure. If you just lift it up in chunks, it decompresses and boils off the methane. It is ice not because it is cold, but because of the high pressure.

        [Correction]
        Do be more precise, this stuff is not frozen methane. It is water ice with lots of methane in it.

        —-
        if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)

        1. Bermuda Triangle
          Slightly off-topic, Earthling, but what do you think of the idea that gas hydrates could explain the Bermuda Triangle?
          Sea bed disturbances release large amounts of methane, which rises to the surface and makes the sea ‘frothy’. Small boats loose boyancy. As it rises into the air, an aircraft engine can ignite it. Boat or plane sinks into the sea, and as the disturbance settles, silt covers the wreck.
          Just thought I’d see what your rational mind makes of it.

          …

          Reality, like time, is relative to the observer

          Anthony North

          1. possibly
            Yes I read about that some years ago, don’t remember where.
            It seems quite possible, and has the disadvantage that the evidence (the methane) disappears rapidly. For the aircraft, this probably only works for very low flying planes.

            Of course we could test this – disturb the see bottom where we know these hydrates are, and check for the bubbles. Or first find out if there are methane hydrate in that area.

            Along the same lines, there are people who think past sudden climate changes could bave been pause by sudden release of these hydrates. Undersea volcanoes, earthquakes, or some other disturbance could have released massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere.

            Which in turn suggests that if we decide to harvest this stuff, we want to be really careful that it comes out in controlled quantities, and only where we want to collect it.

            —-
            if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)

          2. Sense
            Yes, it seemed to make sense to me. And I was sure that, if there was an obvious problem, you’d highlight it.
            I seem to remember more evidence of it in the Caspian Sea, but I admit I can’t remember the exact details.

            …

            Reality, like time, is relative to the observer

            Anthony North

          3. if I could fix it….
            Like many critics, or people running for office, it’s easy to point out the problems.

            Now if I could fix this one …
            man Bill Gates would be my gardener and do my laundry 🙂

            —-
            if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)

  2. Thanks TY
    Most enjoyable news items.

    Regards, Kathrinn

    P.S. Doesn’t anyone in Africa ever suffer from the ‘flu? I noticed the arrows showing the spread of the disease from East Asia completely missed the whole of the African continent. Perhaps I should move to Timbuktu!!

  3. Bullets with Butterfly Wings
    R.I.P. Mr. Lorenz. The caterpillar has grown wings at last.

    PS: Do these guys know something we don’t? I’m starting to get a little bit nervous here!

    —–
    It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
    It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

    Red Pill Junkie

    1. Chaotic Reponse
      [quote]R.I.P. Mr. Lorenz. The caterpillar has grown wings at last.

      PS: Do these guys know something we don’t? I’m starting to get a little bit nervous here!
      [/quote]

      Nervous about chaos? Shouldn’t be. I spent a month at Santa Fe Institute studying it and I came back exactly normal as when I went (not very, but still the same amount).

      The more publicized accounts say he discovered sensitivity to initial conditions by altering the input parameters slightly and getting wildly different results very quickly. True as far as it goes. More surprising was the fact that he could start a run using the data from a middle of a previous run, and let it finish out that run, expecting a repeat of the previous calculated results. No, it differed as wildly and as fast as a different initial condition. Recognizing THAT was his major feat. Had he not had the curiousity and presence of mind to try this, someone else would have, though maybe much later and then maybe not figured out the significance.

      Oh, and he did it all on punch cards.

      No, I am not the brain specialist…..
      YES. Yes I AM the brain specialist.

      1. Sorry, that’s not what I meant
        Sorry for not being clearer, what I meant was: first Clarke, then Wheeler, then Lorenz. In less than a month the world has turned a lot emptier, and dumber!

        —–
        It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
        It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

        Red Pill Junkie

  4. inconstant kilo?
    [quote]”In the more than a century since No. 20 and dozens of other exact copies were crafted in France to serve as the world’s standards of the kilogram, their masses have been mysteriously drifting apart.”[/quote]

    The question is: where have those missing 50 micrograms gone? Maybe the answer could provide a major breakthrough in modern physics.

    —–
    It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
    It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

    Red Pill Junkie

    1. collectors?
      Perhaps some of these ruthless art collectors, or maybe collectors of religious artifacts have these micrograms. You know, like those people who have splinters of Jesus’ cross.

      —-
      if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)

      1. LOL
        You are incorrigible 🙂

        —–
        It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
        It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

        Red Pill Junkie

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