pbmonster's recent activity
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Comment on Firebrick thermal energy storage could reach 170 GW in the US by 2050 in ~enviro
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Comment on Firebrick thermal energy storage could reach 170 GW in the US by 2050 in ~enviro
pbmonster Link ParentNo, this is all about industrial process heat. I'm surprised, too. I guess I can see the potential in low temperature processes like food processing, and even mid temperature processes like...No, this is all about industrial process heat. I'm surprised, too.
I guess I can see the potential in low temperature processes like food processing, and even mid temperature processes like chemicals production. But we use a whole lot of steel and concrete, and those run hot...
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Comment on Firebrick thermal energy storage could reach 170 GW in the US by 2050 in ~enviro
pbmonster (edited )LinkOP, do you have a good technical overview how those high temperature storage systems work in practice? The article states This number is surprisingly high. It must include steel mills. Electric...OP, do you have a good technical overview how those high temperature storage systems work in practice?
The article states
Firebrick systems powered by renewable energy could be used for up to 90% of industrial process heat applications
This number is surprisingly high. It must include steel mills. Electric arc furnaces regularly heat steel to 1800°C, but go as far as 3000°C for other alloys. We'll ignore the latter. But how do you heat a standard 80 ton furnace (normally pulling 60MW electric) from a fire brick storage system? How do you get the heat out of storage and into the furnace?
Is it all just 2000+°C (you want the transport medium to be a few hundred degrees above your target, otherwise you're barely moving any power around) nitrogen gas piped through ceramic pipes? The volumetric flow must be insane if you want to move tens or hundreds of MW (400 ton furnaces are not uncommon). How do you pump this flow? Ceramic fan blades? How do you get it into the furnace? Ceramic jacket? Use high temperature helium and pump it straight through the steel?
And steel is only the first thing. Cement kilns run at 1500°C.
Is anybody actually doing any of this?
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Comment on Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek hopes his latest brainchild, the Neko Body Scan, will revolutionise healthcare in ~health
pbmonster Link ParentI don't get it. The "CAT" in CAT scan stands for "computer assisted tomography". A tomography needs the subject to be cut in slices. The Neko scanner is not doing slices, its mostly a surface..."Neko" means "cat", right? So it's a cat scan. Funny.
I don't get it. The "CAT" in CAT scan stands for "computer assisted tomography". A tomography needs the subject to be cut in slices. The Neko scanner is not doing slices, its mostly a surface scan. So what's the joke?
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Comment on English still rules the world, but that’s not necessarily OK. Is it time to curb its power? in ~humanities.languages
pbmonster (edited )Link ParentMaaaaaybe for writing. But even Arabic natives can have a hard time communicating even the basics with each other as you go from Western Sahara in the west to Oman in the east. Realistically, even...Arabic would probably be a better pick than French
Maaaaaybe for writing. But even Arabic natives can have a hard time communicating even the basics with each other as you go from Western Sahara in the west to Oman in the east. Realistically, even relatively close countries are not having a fluent conversation with each other. A Tunesian isn't just having a lively debate with a Egyptian, who isn't doing the same with a Jordanian. The dialects are to different.
They could debate in writing, though, or talk in modern standard Arabic - if the Tunisian remembers any from school.
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Comment on Why don't governments invest in their own dating apps? Would you use one? in ~life
pbmonster Link ParentYeah, the good thing is that then the feeling between you and the state is mutual! But there are people who'd like to be parents, but they lack a stable partner. Tinder is probably not helping...I'm not planning to have kids, and if I don't have value outside of my fertility, I don't need to be engaged with that.
Yeah, the good thing is that then the feeling between you and the state is mutual! But there are people who'd like to be parents, but they lack a stable partner. Tinder is probably not helping very much, and that's what the discussion here is primarily about.
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Comment on Why don't governments invest in their own dating apps? Would you use one? in ~life
pbmonster Link ParentI mean nobody is talking about making Tinder/Bumble/Hinge/Grindr illegal. But if you are a state actor, and you're worried about fertility rates, the quickest way to fix that is to get as many...I mean nobody is talking about making Tinder/Bumble/Hinge/Grindr illegal.
But if you are a state actor, and you're worried about fertility rates, the quickest way to fix that is to get as many people into stable long term relationships as possible. In the current cultural climate, assuming (and encouraging) a preference for monogamy makes this a whole lot easier.
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Comment on Travel recommendations for Japan in ~travel
pbmonster Link ParentI did exactly that once, and found it utterly impossible to get a bowl of rice to go with the 2 different delicious fish dishes I ordered at random. Very good fish, just no sides whatsoever. Not...Once I just pointed at a menu at random and had one of the best meals of the whole trip. I generally find you can go a long way with pointing and smiling.
I did exactly that once, and found it utterly impossible to get a bowl of rice to go with the 2 different delicious fish dishes I ordered at random. Very good fish, just no sides whatsoever.
Not only English ability was the barrier, but the wait staff also had low motivation to cooperate and zero willingness to act on its own initiative. I'm convinced they were 99% sure what I wanted, but didn't dare to guess the last 1%. Google translate was not a thing yet, unfortunately.
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Comment on Why don't governments invest in their own dating apps? Would you use one? in ~life
pbmonster (edited )Link ParentIt's certainly one of the problems. I agree, it's not the biggest problem. But Match Group, Inc. does not really want you to find your soulmate and get married. It wants you to keep looking at...The problem with dating is not that the apps suck
It's certainly one of the problems. I agree, it's not the biggest problem. But Match Group, Inc. does not really want you to find your soulmate and get married. It wants you to keep looking at your screen, swyping more people, and it wants you to start paying (to see who liked you, to keep searching) as soon as possible. It sends you notifications to keep swyping (no matter how your date went), its built to be as adictive as possible.
If you'd want to build an app that gets people into long term relationships as soon as possible, you'd probably include mechanisms that stop the swyping as soon as possible.
3 matches? No more swyping, no more "NEW MATCH!" dopamine dump notifications. Talk to them or unmatch.
Or more invasive: Encourage users to tell the app when they've scheduled a date, gamefy it, reward it, it's not hard. The app goes into lock down until you unmatch your date (which nontifies the date - it also notifies the date if you haven't told the app about the date).
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Comment on Slugs - how are you coping? in ~life.home_improvement
pbmonster LinkProbably only an option for more rural gardens, but you can enlist your domestic fowl to fight in your slug war. The classic troopers are runner ducks, they love slugs and slug eggs, there's no...Probably only an option for more rural gardens, but you can enlist your domestic fowl to fight in your slug war.
The classic troopers are runner ducks, they love slugs and slug eggs, there's no stopping them.
But with a little effort, you can train chickens to hunt for slugs. Young hens are very adventurous in what they'll try to eat, they just usually don't try slugs because they are to big while the birds are still small-ish. But if you cut up a slug and hand-feed the pieces, they'll try it, and universally love the taste. Takes them a couple of feedings to get it, but once they've made the connection between slugs on the ground and the delicious pieces they've been eating, it's a massacre. And they'll keep the taste for slugs for the rest of their lives...
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Comment on Denmark's plan to eliminate parallel societies has drawn criticism as ethnic discrimination. Others in Europe may be watching. in ~society
pbmonster Link ParentAny reason to focus on "the western world" specifically? Because Singapore has been fantastically successful in integrating its parallel societies, especially the historically poorer and less...I can not help but wonder, are there any example in the western world that have effective dealt with parallel societies?
Any reason to focus on "the western world" specifically?
Because Singapore has been fantastically successful in integrating its parallel societies, especially the historically poorer and less educated Malay ethnic group. And they did it exactly the way Denmark tries to use now: every neighbourhood, down to single apartment buildings, must approximate the ethnic make-up of Singapore as a whole. No segregation, no ghettos, no parallel societies.
It worked extremely well. But Singapore always made sure to have the leadership of the Malay group deeply involved in decisions like that, and those rules also got applied to the (historically richer) Chinese, Indian and Eurasian ethnic groups.
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Comment on I would very much like something akin to TikTok that's subscriber based and without infinite scroll in ~tech
pbmonster Link ParentYeah, and it's super easy to add an youtube channel to your RSS feeds. I don't have an youtube account. I follow everything I care about by just adding their channel to my RSS reader.Yeah, and it's super easy to add an youtube channel to your RSS feeds.
I don't have an youtube account. I follow everything I care about by just adding their channel to my RSS reader.
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Comment on ‘Inside Out 2’ shatters box office expectations with $155 million, biggest debut since ‘Barbie’ in ~movies
pbmonster Link ParentI totally agree with your analysis, but I wanted to add one more thing that made the movie extremely unpleasant for me: In Inside Out 2, the main character frequently gets herself into situations...I totally agree with your analysis, but I wanted to add one more thing that made the movie extremely unpleasant for me:
In Inside Out 2, the main character frequently gets herself into situations where she makes choices driven by personified Anxiety, which are obviously meant to be perceived as "bad" by the audience. Normal teenage drama like betraying her friends, ingratiating herself with others, betraying the trust of a mentor.
But the way this is portrait in the movie just makes me physically cringe. It's so on the nose, so obviously meant to backfire and teach her something (what is also patently obvious). Maybe I'm sensitive to that, but I found it physically uncomfortable to watch.
Inside Out 1 was absolutely nothing like that.
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Comment on Upcoming (and past) concerts in ~music
pbmonster LinkI felt the same when the album came out. But after listening to each song 10 or 20 more times, they really, really grew on me. I now consider Pneuma and A/Decending to be among their top 5, and...but man, their new songs and album are so much more "Ehh" than the others.
I felt the same when the album came out. But after listening to each song 10 or 20 more times, they really, really grew on me. I now consider Pneuma and A/Decending to be among their top 5, and every single song to be above average. But it certainly helps if you're a drummer (or base player).
The album seems to be a bit of an acquired taste, the same way TOOL itself can be an acquired taste.
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Comment on Ten days in December- Germany with kids: Itinerary feasibility in ~travel
pbmonster Link ParentSpeaking of "hella out of your way" (well, not that far from Berlin and it's kind of the direction of Frankfurt), the Museum of Military History of the German Army is in Dresden. One of the best...Speaking of "hella out of your way" (well, not that far from Berlin and it's kind of the direction of Frankfurt), the Museum of Military History of the German Army is in Dresden. One of the best museums I've ever visited, and Dresden is one of the prettiest German cities.
I'd replace Bremen in a heartbeat for that, or even better if you actually do arrive early.
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Comment on Male birth control gel (that is applied to the shoulders) is safe and effective, new trial findings show in ~science
pbmonster Link ParentOne of the reasons for that is that medication under trial have their side effects evaluated against the symptoms when not taking the medication. Which in woman means comparing HBC side effects...What's really frustrating is how many side effects there are for HBC for women and how often the side effects are described as the reason for the HBC for men studies to be discontinued.
One of the reasons for that is that medication under trial have their side effects evaluated against the symptoms when not taking the medication. Which in woman means comparing HBC side effects against the various symptoms (and their risks) of pregnancy. This results in a much higher tolerance for side effects.
Since men don't directly mediate a symptom/risk by taking HBC medication, the tolerance for side effects is lower. And there's no mechanism to account for indirectly preventing symptoms in others when evaluating side effects.
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Comment on Box office: ‘Furiosa’ just barely beats ‘The Garfield Movie’ in disastrous Memorial Day weekend — the worst in decades in ~movies
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Comment on The most mispronounced brand from every country in ~humanities.languages
pbmonster Link ParentAgreed. Nobody mispronounces Spotify or Volvo...Agreed. Nobody mispronounces Spotify or Volvo...
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Comment on Am I alone in thinking that we're bouncing back from a highly technological future? in ~life
pbmonster Link ParentMight this be a bubble effect, where you involuntarily moved out of that part the tech bubble? Because there's still a lot happening in open source, it is objectively much more people friendly....and there was also a lot happening in the free and open source world like Linux, PHP, Wordpress, Drupal, Android, etc., the pulse of technology felt very much alive and people friendly.
Might this be a bubble effect, where you involuntarily moved out of that part the tech bubble?
Because there's still a lot happening in open source, it is objectively much more people friendly.
Laptops and Androids started becoming cheaper and better, people were enthusiastic to play around with compilers and programming editors and even experiment with WiFi and Bluetooth, rooting and custom ROMs.
Androids and Laptops are dirt cheap (if you take one that's just good enough), and if you're into custom ROMs, LinageOS and GrapheneOS are better than ever before. God, do I not miss flashing different binary blobs just to get my camera working or to get the phone to use the correct microphone...
And if you're experimenting with WiFi and Bluetooth today, you're not messing around with the very limited options provided by end-user chipsets. No, you're getting a dirt cheap open hardware software defined radio, and minutes after taking it out of the box, you're handcrafting IQ-parameters at 5 GHz and using an entire phased array of antennas to look for a directional response. You can literally reverse engineer GPS in software from scratch or track aircraft using phase sensitive passive radar.
And no matter what you do, all that comes with open source python libraries as a matter of course.
They ensured that innovation stopped entirely in the hardware world, except for small pieces of "upgrades"
The community messing around with large language models on their own hardware is huge. They make amazing software very close to the amazing hardware Apple (unified memory on Apple Silicon is huge) and NVIDIA have been selling.
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Comment on German court says far-right AfD is suspected of extremism in ~society
pbmonster Link ParentI see that danger, too. Banning a party with double-digit vote representation, the strongest party in some (realistically: many) electorates? Quite a wide Rubicon, in my opinion. Honestly, I would...once the weak-ass CDU inevitably is the one to break the current agreement among all other parties not to work with the AfD
I see that danger, too.
given that they already ban some political parties anyway, so we're not crossing any Rubicon here
Banning a party with double-digit vote representation, the strongest party in some (realistically: many) electorates? Quite a wide Rubicon, in my opinion. Honestly, I would be curious to see what the European Commission and UN election observers would say if you do something like that, not to speak of doing it shortly before or after an election.
Unfortunately, much of the energy in a furnace is not used for heating the metal, but for melting it. The enthalpy of melting is significantly higher than the heat capacity. But sure, there's double digit percentage points of efficiency gains just in preheating the furnace and the charge.
There is no way they're significantly past 50% for the heat-electricity step alone. They would make billions selling a 70% carrot efficiency process to classic thermal power plants.