Eric_the_Cerise's recent activity
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Comment on Lithium plume in our atmosphere traced back to returning SpaceX rocket in ~space
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Comment on Lithium plume in our atmosphere traced back to returning SpaceX rocket in ~space
Eric_the_Cerise (edited )Link ParentI am a huge fan of space exploration, going way back -- I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon. And I don't want us to stop. But your conclusion that Capitalism is the solution feels like...I am a huge fan of space exploration, going way back -- I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon. And I don't want us to stop. But your conclusion that Capitalism is the solution feels like you've missed the mark here.
How much atmospheric pollution will we be seeing once SpaceX has 30,000+ satellites in LEO, and 6,000 of them are intentionally being deorbited to burn up in our atmosphere every single year? What about once Amazon and Europe and China (planning not one but 2 massive mega-constellations) add their two-bits? What about the pollution being produced by rockets on take-off -- yes, they pollute, and when it's a hundred launches a year, globally ... meh ... but once fully reusable rockets the size of Starship are ubiquitous (PS: China is already just 2-3 years behind SpaceX in producing their own fully-reusable super-heavy lift system -- sans Capitalism), and we are launching a dozen-plus giant rockets daily....
And ye gods, don't even get me started on Kessler Syndrome, which, perversely, would solve all of these problems for us, for at least a few centuries.
I have no real-world solutions. The best solution would be a global, binding regulatory system that actually prioritizes equitable, sustainable access to space (call it a UN of Space, sans veto power) ... particularly LEO, but it looks like the Moon is about to get hosed by Capitalism over the coming decade, too, so...
But no one is even talking about such a global regulatory system (nor any other viable alternative method of self-restraint) and of course, getting China, Russia & the US to actually submit to such a thing is unimaginable, so (shrugs).
Edit to add: Okay, I just finished reading the article ... apparently Robyn Schofield & Robert George Ryan (the authors) are at least talking about such a regulatory system. Good on them.
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Comment on She graduated from high school with honors but can’t read or write. Now she’s suing. in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentI expect it is a bias of mine (I mean, I know it is, to some degree ... the question in my mind is always, "just how much is bias, and how much is truth?") ... but I have the impression that the...I expect it is a bias of mine (I mean, I know it is, to some degree ... the question in my mind is always, "just how much is bias, and how much is truth?") ... but I have the impression that the (vast?) majority of students in college are "just in it for the money" ... and also, that the (vast?) majority of colleges these days are much more interested in profit, than in quality education.
Edit to add: I forget the actual movie, but that scene where the entire lecture hall is empty, except for the professor's taped lecture being broadcast, and a 100+ student tape recorders recording it ... in a nutshell, that's kinda my impression of the state of higher education in the US these days.
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Comment on She graduated from high school with honors but can’t read or write. Now she’s suing. in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise LinkThis particular case is somewhat focused on the discrepancy in quality of education between white students and students of color. But I just saw another news article, like, two days ago,...This particular case is somewhat focused on the discrepancy in quality of education between white students and students of color.
But I just saw another news article, like, two days ago, that--particularly since Covid--all colleges are seeing really bad "can't read, can't write, can't do basic math" issues with a lot of freshmen, of all ethnicities, all backgrounds.
I certainly hope the "sue your school for failing you" thing catches on, cuz nothing else seems to be working.
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Comment on She graduated from high school with honors but can’t read or write. Now she’s suing. in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentFWIW, this service did not work for me after I gave it JavaScript permissions -- kept throwing an error ... but then I turned off the js, and it gives you the option of viewing the content w/o js...FWIW, this service did not work for me after I gave it JavaScript permissions -- kept throwing an error ... but then I turned off the js, and it gives you the option of viewing the content w/o js ... and that, ironically, worked.
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Comment on ‘Andor’ creator Tony Gilroy gives the interview he couldn’t during its release in ~tv
Eric_the_Cerise LinkGonna have to go back and rewatch this now. I remember it being, by far, the most adult-themed, thoughtful, nuanced Star Wars anything that I've seen in the franchise ... and yeah, I did get the...Gonna have to go back and rewatch this now. I remember it being, by far, the most adult-themed, thoughtful, nuanced Star Wars anything that I've seen in the franchise ... and yeah, I did get the "fascism" lesson (I mean, it's pretty much the entire franchise...), but I don't think the parallels with real life quite clicked with me the first time thru.
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Comment on US Supreme Court strikes down Donald Trump's tariffs in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentTrump has managed to utterly destroy 80 years of soft power projection in less than one year, and this tariff thing was just one tiny piece of it. I don't think Trump understands the concept of...Regardless of what the USA does, the damage is done already
Trump has managed to utterly destroy 80 years of soft power projection in less than one year, and this tariff thing was just one tiny piece of it.
I don't think Trump understands the concept of soft power. I believe that's the underlying basis of his "the whole world is taking advantage of the US" rant. Giving money and resources to other people, other countries, with no (blatant, obvious, immediate) strings attached ... the whole idea offends him; it's just not how his brain works. It's why he quit "giving" weapons to Ukraine, but he's very happy to let the EU buy weapons from the US, to give to Ukraine. In his mind, that's the EU being stupid, and the US is taking advantage of it.
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Comment on Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds and flus, researchers say in ~health
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentIn the current "real world" circumstances, your points are well made. I do believe the solutions are still simple ... but not "easy", and in fact, functionally impossible at this stage. Nutshell...At this point I hope you can see this isn’t a simple thing to fix.
In the current "real world" circumstances, your points are well made. I do believe the solutions are still simple ... but not "easy", and in fact, functionally impossible at this stage.
Nutshell ... get money out of politics, overturn the Citizens United ruling, reinstate a 95% top-end income-tax bracket, and massively, federally subsidize the things that are actually important for a society, like ... IDK ... hospitals.
Still zinger-ish, I know, but (shrugs).
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Comment on Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds and flus, researchers say in ~health
Eric_the_Cerise LinkVery cool, very original/different approach ... however, for that very reason, I feel like this is also an approach that is rife with potential unexpected side-effects and downsides, that no one...Very cool, very original/different approach ... however, for that very reason, I feel like this is also an approach that is rife with potential unexpected side-effects and downsides, that no one has even thought to consider yet.
Just as a lay-person, and speaking simply ... after 3 non-stop months of being on "high alert" ... might not an immune system become "tired" or "confused" about activity levels, or about what-all it's supposed to fight against?
Might cure cancer. Might cause it. I won't be first in line, at least.
ETA: Reading more than just the first 4 paragraphs now, I see a lot of my concerns are shared.
Kind of a tangent ... wasn't one of the top issues of Covid effectively caused by an over-reaction of the immune system? I remember the phrase "cytokine storm".
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Comment on Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds and flus, researchers say in ~health
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentOr ... you know ... hire more people.Or ... you know ... hire more people.
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Comment on US data centers are getting off-grid power plants in ~tech
Eric_the_Cerise LinkArchive link. -
Comment on A fluid can store solar energy and then release it as heat months later in ~science
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentFair napkin math. I'd be more inclined to round the "1.65 MJ / kg" down to 1.5, but apart from that, I think you're in the ballpark. But also, consider the use-case ... You would not need a tank...Fair napkin math. I'd be more inclined to round the "1.65 MJ / kg" down to 1.5, but apart from that, I think you're in the ballpark.
But also, consider the use-case ... You would not need a tank to hold a full month's supply of reserve heat. By your math, a reasonably-sized 500L tank (roughly the size of a large water-heater tank) would hold sufficient heat-energy to keep your home heated for ~3 days.
The complementary assumption there, is that you would also have a solar-recharging system on your roof that is constantly replenishing the thermal energy.
A 3-day reserve is probably not enough, especially in a cold/cloudy Canadian winter; but it wouldn't be that bad, either, presumably combined with an electric-recharging backup system powered by the grid. Depends to a large degree, on just how much sunlight would be needed to recharge the liquid. Currently, that is one of the biggest "gotchas", which only works on far-UV energy, something like 5% of available solar energy (as compared to 20+% for current photovoltaics).
If they can figure out how to get that up to ~40-50% of available solar energy, they could have a viable system.
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Comment on A fluid can store solar energy and then release it as heat months later in ~science
Eric_the_Cerise LinkThis would be cool, if they ever solve those 'gotchas' that the article doesn't get around to mentioning until the last couple of paragraphs. Long-term storage of heat in a chemical form that can...This would be cool, if they ever solve those 'gotchas' that the article doesn't get around to mentioning until the last couple of paragraphs. Long-term storage of heat in a chemical form that can hold the energy for months, and doesn't require massive amounts of insulation ... I can see definite possibilities.
But, another thing the article doesn't really spell out in plain terms ... how big a tank do you need to store useful amounts of heat? Eg, a 100-gallon tank in the basement, "fully charged" would be able to heat your home for ... how long? Two hours? Overnight? A week?
Meanwhile, I want to reiterate my love for heat pumps. People should be stampeding to get these things in their homes. They routinely register 300% to 400% efficiency ratings (literally 3-4 times as efficient as electric space heaters). Those numbers are "perpetual motion"-level, magically unrealistic ratings for any normal energy system, because they don't actually produce heat -- they just move it from one place to another.
And we've known how to make them for, IDK, a century or more -- as long as we've had electric-powered refrigeration, which is exactly the same process, in reverse.
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Comment on 'They've probably been untouched for 49 million years': The New Mexico cave expanding our search for alien life in ~science
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentJust casual poking around, but everything I see online, says the material the caves were ultimately carved out of, that formed 100+M years ago ... but the caves themselves (all of them, the entire...That could easily explain some of the discrepancies about when the caves where formed and when the entrances where opened.
Just casual poking around, but everything I see online, says the material the caves were ultimately carved out of, that formed 100+M years ago ... but the caves themselves (all of them, the entire 119-cave cluster) started forming--at the very most--12M years ago.
I like your "49 vs 4-9" theory; I'd put money on that being the source.
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Comment on 'They've probably been untouched for 49 million years': The New Mexico cave expanding our search for alien life in ~science
Eric_the_Cerise (edited )Linkbut the cyanobacteria in the caves ... Additionally, from Wikipedia -- The article makes it abundantly clear that the cyanobacteria only exist because of (infrared) light coming in thru the cave...The caves, part of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, formed four to 11 million years ago...
but the cyanobacteria in the caves ...
"... they photosynthesise in a completely sheltered environment where they've probably been untouched for 49 million years."
Additionally, from Wikipedia --
Erosion above ground created the natural entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns within the last million years.
The article makes it abundantly clear that the cyanobacteria only exist because of (infrared) light coming in thru the cave entrance.
Am I missing something obvious here? Or are they?
Edit: Actually, to clarify, something is obviously off here, but IDK if it is the researchers themselves that are wrong, or--much more likely--something basic that the reporters got wrong.
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Comment on Hot take: movies suck because there is no rental market in ~movies
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentI also disagree with this. The vast majority of pirating is because it is more convenient than "legal" media access. I was a happy, paying Netflix customer for a solid decade or more, back when...If someone’s gonna pirate they’re gonna pirate.
I also disagree with this. The vast majority of pirating is because it is more convenient than "legal" media access.
I was a happy, paying Netflix customer for a solid decade or more, back when they mailed you the DVDs. I remained a happy, paying Netflix customer for another 6-8 years of streaming, in the early days when they still had a good selection and the online service was actually good (great predictive recommender service, huge user-base review-forum, simple/intuitive search, etc -- literally everything it's not, today).
I started pirating when (and because) the streaming services started to suck.
Edit to add: Old farts like me don't suddenly decide to learn how to pirate stuff in their 40s, unless the media industry has royally screwed the pooch on traditional distribution.
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Comment on Hot take: movies suck because there is no rental market in ~movies
Eric_the_Cerise LinkSorry ... I just read thru your entire post, thinking you meant that there was no rental market of homes and flats for people to live in, and I kept waiting for you to get to the point, explaining...Sorry ... I just read thru your entire post, thinking you meant that there was no rental market of homes and flats for people to live in, and I kept waiting for you to get to the point, explaining why the movie industry sucked because of the real estate rental market.
Edit to add: I pretty much took myself out of the mix ... IDK ... over a decade ago. I pretty much just pirate stuff.
But also, I would note, it's not "the movie industry" so much as "the US movie industry" ... Europe makes a lot of great movies, so do a lot of other "not-Hollywood" movie industries.
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Comment on Robert Duvall, all-purpose actor with few peers, dies at 95 in ~movies
Eric_the_Cerise LinkThis is the second time this has happened to me now. Robert Duvall was in a movie called "Thank You For Smoking" (hilarious lobbyist satire, highly recommend), in which his character died ... and...This is the second time this has happened to me now. Robert Duvall was in a movie called "Thank You For Smoking" (hilarious lobbyist satire, highly recommend), in which his character died ... and apparently, my subconscious decided that he also died back then.
This also happened to me with Bill Fagerbakke, the guy that played Marvin Erikson on "How I Met Your Mother" ... his character also died on the show, and my brain again decided that the actor died then, too (despite them bringing the character's ghost back for 2 more seasons). A few years ago, I discovered that the actor is still alive and kicking.
Brains are weird.
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Comment on The mega-rich are turning their mansions into impenetrable fortresses in ~finance
Eric_the_Cerise LinkThings keep going the way they are, and we'll see about the "impenetrable" part....Things keep going the way they are, and we'll see about the "impenetrable" part....
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Comment on Russia poisoned Alexei Navalny with dart frog toxin, European nations say in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentI really don't think Russia worries about the West discovering stuff like this. On the contrary, I honestly expect Putin et al, chose this poison explicitly because it was a cool, exotic way to...I really don't think Russia worries about the West discovering stuff like this. On the contrary, I honestly expect Putin et al, chose this poison explicitly because it was a cool, exotic way to kill someone, knowing full well that it would eventually come out.
Russia actually benefits from the world knowing that they're perfectly willing to poison "enemies of the State", anywhere on Earth, and fuck the consequences.
IDK the exact percentages, but the (vast?) majority of these do not "count" as atmospheric pollution. Rocks and simple metallic meteors burning up in our atmosphere is (mostly) not the same as rockets and satellites, which are full of assorted advanced alloys and toxic chemicals and etc.
Additionally, this is like Climate Deniers (not calling you one; just an analogy) claiming that volcanoes contribute more to global warming than people do ... our atmosphere--like our climate--is adapted/tuned to include the amount of pollutants that get added annually by meteors (or volcanoes), but the extra that we add thru technology is the part that is at risk of throwing things out of balance.