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• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  Re: 'The Chinese have vague plans for specialised district-heating nuclear reactors' Do you mean this? Sounds like it's in early development but if it works, it'd be lots cheaper and safer than current nuclear reactors. 'China prepares to test thorium-fuelled...
• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  Re: 'Currently, the Earth's mean annual thermal gradient is somewhere around 67 K between the equator and the poles.' I'm guessing animals/fauna will be even harder to move/relocate than humans therefore even greater and faster die-off of fauna probably resulting...
• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  Re: '... because it's more likely that anywhere with the potential to be a site at all will have only thrown off the glaciers yesterday in geological terms,' Greenland might be ideal for such a project -- largish one-way transmission...
• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  Re: 'We now have two states that are effectively 100% renewables' That's great! Alas ... when it comes to sci/tech and public policy if it wasn't developed as per the US version of capitalism, it ain't really real and won't...
• Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
  Lots of interesting ideas - but some concepts despite pretty detailed explanations just whiz over my head! So, apologies in advance in case some of my questions are redundant/were already answered/explained. (Feel free to explain again - in simpler terms....
• Commented on On inappropriate reactions to COVID19
  Re: COVID-19 deniers/anti-vaxers A few ideas about barriers some people might have wrt to COVID-19 and vaccines. 1- SCALE - A virus is extremely small - almost unimaginably small in comparison to what humans are used to interacting with. At...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Dead Lies Dreaming
  Re: 'The attitudes towards labor harbored in the english speaking world will be an impediment to cutting enough carbon emission to relieve Gaia's indigestion.' I've watched previous interviews and read only one of her earlier books: overall, her ideas make...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Dead Lies Dreaming
  Re: Travel in the midst of global warming A couple of questions: Which modes are likely to be least affected and/or easiest (cheapest) to set up and maintain going forward? I'm guessing that the violent weather patterns are still ratcheting...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  Re: 'the Japanese earthquake, ...' Yes ... Plus a mudslide that uprooted homes but likely also buried more homes (and autos, etc.) by the time it ended. BTW - I couldn't find that video on the WeatherNetwork finally found it...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  Re: '... a rehydration mix can be very useful indeed' For the longest time and probably because of our Eastern European heritage - dill pickle plus the juice (i.e., brine, water and vinegar) was the preferred drink. And because we...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  Re: 'For most of its post-Roman history the place has been an absolute pizza of little polities, until the Prussians managed to finish absorbing the whole lot in the later 19th century.' Thanks - interesting and entertaining!...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  Re: 'germans: ok, so our country is called Deutschland' Just looked up the Wikipedia entry and have a couple of questions - no snark intended. Okay - so do 'Germans' actually call themselves 'Germans' or something else that sounds closer...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  Re: '... the exoskeletal should to the carapace around the body.' Or something completely opposite like the highly permeable membranes of critters living at the bottom of the ocean. Basically if you can't stop something without eating into your energy/reproductive...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  Re: '...terms 'American' and 'America' just evolved from common usage' A lot more convenient than calling yourself an 'United-States-of-Americ-an'. Plus none of the continental neighbors were using any similar sounding names. There's also Yank/Yankee which probably irks the good old...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  Haven't read all the comments yet but amazed that folks are still on topic post-300 Comment! Anyways - I first read Heinlein and Asimov when I was a young teen and vaguely recall reading ST. My impression then and still...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: 'The priests and most everyone else not of a darker or slanted eye genealogy ...' Any of the perps that are in RC religious orders and still alive won't be able to hide behind the church. Haven't seen any...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: 'I'm told that some of the programs - the panels, etc, will be, but no things like kaffeeklatches, and I wouldn't expect the book launch to be.' Although I got registered for your talk the Zoom* link for it...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: '... some chemicals are thought to cause hearing damage, although the evidence seems to be not much stronger than the mysterious ray beam we're talking about here.' Suggest you check erythromycin - probably the most popular/prescribed antibiotic of the...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: Cars & tech Since folks are talking about car tech issues ... Just saw a Consumer Reports alert about MB recalling some cars and SUVs due to a backup camera problem. Apparently when some of these vehicles are put...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: 'But the media is still largely in denial about how much of an effect it had.' (quote from last line of first linked article) Agree! Journalism and politics have been linked in a downward spiral for a while now...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: 'One of Trump's early lawyers/associates/mentors, Roy Cohn ...' Interesting read - thanks! Also interesting that these seasoned reporters understood that DT was a fiction (brand) as well as how he achieved his popularity and winning image among a large...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: 'virtual Balticon ... (zoomed) con suite on Friday night, at 8:30 PM EDT, ... book launch for science fiction book .. called 11,000 Years, by some guy who's writing under the name of mark roth-whitworth.' Congrats! Will definitely try...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: 'I thought that was one of the major benefits of bitcoin over cash - every transaction is tracked and published, so everyone knows what happened, and those with a detailed view of the internet knows who was involved?' A...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: 'If it is a drone being tested, so what?' Depends on whose drone it is ... I'm adding Mexican/Colombian drug cartel into the mix of possible owners/operators - maybe some alternative or supplementary delivery scheme to that tunnel mentioned...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: '... if you want a blockchain secured' I'm wondering how/whether distance somehow figures into this: 1- The farther away the funds are (off-planet) the longer the delay to (re-)accessing your funds. This seems at odds with the line that...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: '... males outnumbered females from 111.3 to 100. Ten years ago the ratio was 118.1 percent' Glad this was mentioned: that the strong cultural preference for a male child when the one-baby rule was imposed ultimately resulted in approx....
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  Re: 'Anyway, getting to your question: obviously, blowing the bridge is easy. Getting the debris out of there is harder, and the debris will block the barge traffic until cleared ...' Since folks have already introduced cat videos ... wondering...
• Commented on Because I am bored ...
  Re: 'Money can be treated as a commodity certainly, and people may behave as if it were one, but to say that money "is" a commodity is not true.' Suggest you look at the GDP contributions from the Financial Sector...
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  Re: 'Readership, citation stats: 1.68 Accesses, 569 Citations -' That's 1.68 million Accesses - lots of readers....
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  Re: 'AIUI this is the first example of a type of vaccine which has never been deployed before. One would therefore expect that it would have been tested with unusual thoroughness to catch the unknown effects pertaining to any novel...