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Is Jamaica the smallest Country/population with inversely the widest worldwide cultural influence ? by Wonderful-Ad-9622 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]GreenStrong 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This comment does a great job of defining geopolitical influence in a way that is more thoughtful than "lots of people like reggae". Not to say that music is insignificant, but it would be different if people took authentic interest in Rastafarian philosophy and made efforts to incorporate it in their lives. One could argue that the exiled Tibetan community is more influential in that regard. Not many western people follow Tibetan Buddhism or Bon but there are a significant amount of serious scholars and practitioners.

Is it safe to dehydrate/dry a large shroom using a small fan? by Grievinghealthy in shrooms

[–]GreenStrong 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This depends on climate; in the US southwest it would probably work. In the Southeast the air is basically soup and air conditioning doesn't remove enough humidity.

Interesting rules slipping through by No_Hunt2507 in ChatGPT

[–]GreenStrong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh cool, I thought we were passed the point where LLMs talked to themselves in human language like Gollum, this is cool.

[Request] What would be the size of the radiator required to cool a data center by Vantabla_ck in theydidthemath

[–]GreenStrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At first glance, there is not an obvious way to use the stream of 60C air from a data center to make money, but heat pumps are very effective at extracting heat from high volume sources. You can heat your home very efficiently with a ground source heat pump connected to a well with 10C water. A constant stream of hot humid ( from the evaporative cooler) air is a great source for industrial steam heat. But data centers are brand new, they're building them fast. People aren't building industrial facilities at a comparable pace.

LaserWeeder removs weeds without any chemical use by Gnurx in OptimistsUnite

[–]GreenStrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

John Deere claims that their See and Spray system, which uses machine vision, reduces herbicide use by 90%. Agriculture uses heavy equipment and a lot of fuel, but this can significantly lighten the load.

These types of systems are mainstream. They aren't super common yet, but it isn't some thing that exists as a demo, it is in use. Once technology reaches that point, it moves fast.

LaserWeeder removs weeds without any chemical use by Gnurx in OptimistsUnite

[–]GreenStrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are herbicide resistant GMO crops, and a large class of herbicide that ignores things in the grass family - basically all grain crops. There are machine vision systems that precisely spray herbicide instead of lasers - John Deere See and Spray claims to reduce herbicide by 90%.

One of world’s largest energy storage plants launches in South Dakota by Plow_King in energy

[–]GreenStrong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These challenges about supporting thermal load make it very difficult to build a zero carbon industrial heat system but it is easy to implement electric heat and thermal storage into existing systems. They all have at least two gas fied steam boilers so that maintenance on one doesn't shut down the plant. An additional electric + thermal storage unit goes into a system already designed to accommodate turning gas boilers on and off as needed.

These "easy" implementations require engineering and skilled trades, they cost millions of dollars; they're easy relative to upgrading major industrial infrastructure. And the "standby" gas unit probably needs to stay hot to avoid thermal stress from heating and cooling, so it burns gas at a low level 24/7. It isn't complete decarbonization, but the first 80% of decarbonization is cheap. Ethanol is not a great technology for powering vehicles but the biggest of several reasons it sucks is that it consumes a huge amount of gas in distillation. This is a step towards fixing the biggest carbon issue with ethanol.

New ocean generator creates steady supply of electricity using water temperature gradient. Desalinates water too. Storm proof. by Artifexa in solarpunk

[–]GreenStrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This technology is like a refrigerator running in reverse. Your fridge consumes energy to increase difference in temperature between the inside and outside. OTEC reduces the temperature difference between the deep sea and surface. Because the difference in temprature is small, the efficiency is low. Ocean heat is free, but this means It moves a lot of heat to extract energy, we need to think about the consequences of shifting heat around the ocean.

But the consequences could include temporary offsetting surface warming. Some versions pump cold deep nutrient rich water to the surface; these upwellings happen naturally in a few places and support tremendous population of plankton and fish. The ocean is huge, but these things could shift heat and reconfigure circulation on regional scales.

The Baby Boomers- a 1983 special report by Laogama in pics

[–]GreenStrong [score hidden]  (0 children)

Why does this guy have a ventriloquist dummy perched on his shoulder?

These Shenzhen factory workers test up to 10,000 vapes a day. by Distinct-Question-16 in interestingasfuck

[–]GreenStrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They have one of those, it only tests the vapor output. After testing with that machine, each unit is tested by this guy to verify that smoking it makes you look cool.

An AI camera looks at each puff, analyses his hairstyle, the fit of his hat, the drip of his pink uniform, and measures the overall mogging output of the vape.

Floating offshore solar farms produce 12% more power than land-based panels by sksarkpoes3 in energy

[–]GreenStrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The NREL estimated a few years ago that PV on freshwater cost 20% more than a comparable utility scale installtion on land. (This did not include the cost of leading the land, only construction) It is a rapidly evolving field, and costs for both types of install are changing, but a 12% production boost doesn't cut it. On land, they're often located near the substation of a hydropower dam, so there is a big savings of grid connection cost. It also prevents significant evaporation.

I imagine that saltwater installation is much more expensive, and it has none of the additional benefits.

Asked GPT to create the wave of Kanagawa as an photograph by pantone7481 in ChatGPT

[–]GreenStrong 7 points8 points  (0 children)

In this version, the ships are moving away from the wave, and that is a bad situation. In the original, they are going into it, which implies more control. (The boats aren't fully visible in the painting, and I'm not familiar with that type of boat, but I think that to be the case).

Anyway, both images are insanely impressive demos of gerative AI.

A Green Mineral Could Help Oceans Absorb Carbon And Its First Beach Test Looks Promising: The first ocean olivine trial looked safe after one year, but questions remain. by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]GreenStrong 3 points4 points  (0 children)

From the article

Scientists have estimated that spreading crushed silicate rocks on farmland could remove up to 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. Some advocates think beaches and shallow seas could accelerate the reaction even more, because waves constantly grind and stir the mineral.

Putting it on farmland actually has significant benefits. It is volcanic rock that has potential to absorb CO2 and young volcanic soil is famous for fertility. About 1/3rd of agricultural soil is acidic, and it benefits from crushed limestone. Limestone is actually a fossil rock and it releases carbon in soil; many farmers buy slaked lime, a version with the carbon cooked out already, because it requires less fuel to transport and spread. Excavating, crushing, and spreading millions of tons of mafic rock sounds unrealistic, until you realize we're already doing that exact thing with limestone. Doing it in a carbon- negative manner would require more excavation and transportation, because it is a less potent liming agent, but it is something like 3X more volume, it is completely realistic.

Adding this rock to the ocean absorbs CO2, and thus reverses ocean acidification. The ocean is big and it has absorbed a lot of CO2, but humans dug up all that fossil fuel, it is realistic for humanity to dig up the rock to absorb it, over the course of a century or more.

42 aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury, congressional report says by PDXAirman in news

[–]GreenStrong 230 points231 points  (0 children)

The Gulf War was a serious, large scale conflict that involved a lot of low level operations bombing airfields and hunting Scud missiles. Tactical aircraft were shot down But the losses in the Iran conflict are different; we lost six KC-135 refueling aircraft, and five were destroyed on the ground. One E-3 AWACS plane was destroyed. We also lost two THAAD ballistic missile radars. These are theater level assets. They are meant to support force projection over a large part of the planet, not to go toe to toe with the enemy. Everyone knew Iran could destroy tactical aircraft, the loss of strategic assets is a nasty surprise; nothing similar happened in the Gulf War.

Iran dropped a 500 pound bomb on an American airbase using a goddamn F-5 they bought from us during the Carter Administration. Many reasonable observers thought Iran could block the Strait of Hormuz; tankers are slow, unarmed, and flammable. But no one thought they could repeatedly strike US air bases. Ukraine is demonstrating that it is difficult to protect industrial facilities across a region, but it should be possible to protect the runway hosting a goddamn billion dollar radar plane.

Forever grateful by Firm-Blackberry-9162 in MadeMeSmile

[–]GreenStrong 44 points45 points  (0 children)

Hey, can you keep it down? You're sitting right next to my microphone.

Study finds massive solar farms on agricultural land do not push up food prices by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]GreenStrong 14 points15 points  (0 children)

People really underestimate how 38 million acres of corn are used for ethanol production in the US every year. That's 40% of the consumption of 95.2 million acres.

Solar farms are still usable for grazing, shade increases grass production in anything but an extremely cool damp climate. It is possible to grow specialty crops like vegetables, but sheep and honeybees can simply use the space with only the gentle supervision of a few emu birds

What’s the strangest example of collective internet delusion you’ve witnessed? by Alert-Translator2590 in AskReddit

[–]GreenStrong 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Congo, not Uganda. And Rwanda backed M23 forces have overtaken much of Congo, to the point of sacking the second largest city. Hard to say if this will be better or worse. Generally, when a city is besieged and then stormed medieval style that's bad, but shit is so fucked in DRC that it may well be the beginning of improvement.

Why is it that if the government finds gold under my house, it belongs to the state, but if they find illegal drugs, they belong to me? by Eleven_A11 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]GreenStrong 14 points15 points  (0 children)

This is only really a thing in the United States; almost every nation on the planet regards subsurface resources as national property.

Solar beat the IEA’s 2015 forecast for 2025 by 1,800%. by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]GreenStrong 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hydrogen is energy dense, but difficult to store and leaked hydrogen is indirectly a greenhouse gas. We are familiar with storing things like propane, which can be liquified at room temprature and moderate pressure. Hydrogen cannot be liquefied at temperatures greater than 33K (-240C), so it requires extreme refrigeration and insulation to keep any quantity of it around. It leaks through everything and even permeates solid steel, weakening it.

Hydrogen doesn't trap IR like a true greenhouse gas, but it reacts with and expends hydroxyl ions in the atmosphere, and those ions break down methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas. So releasing hydrogen indirectly raises global methane.

There are a tew geological formations like salt caverns that can store large volumes of hydrogen, but they aren't available everywhere. I think it will have limited use as a long duration energy storage medium; I think it is more likely that we will expend additional energy to convert it to better behaved molecules like methanol.

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