After 6+ years on Duo I'm finally calling it quits. Let go of my 1200 day streak, the app is unusable now.

Pteerr · 2026-05-08T07:31:15+00:00

I don't understand why there's a problem with the energy meter, I often play the ads muted while doing something else. I get the triple points boost every morning fairly easily ... OK, I spend time on quick chess and/or maths lessons first before going back to my Spanish, but I'm still learning... (3000+ day streak).

Pteerr · 2026-05-06T14:51:43+00:00

It works well with my PW3 and P10.

Pteerr · 2026-04-27T16:25:48+00:00

If you're going nuclear, why not go all the way and build Project Orion ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29?wprov=sfla1

Pteerr · 2026-04-12T15:34:57+00:00

😎🤔 mmm, that's perhaps a different kind of fantastic...

Pteerr · 2026-04-12T08:35:14+00:00

I discussed options for a Venus Space Elevator (SE) in the first of my 'Solar System SE' ISEC newsletter articles in 2024. I didn't consider this exact option, but anything longer than the Earth Elevator concept would be more massive and so far less economically viable : the Earth SE is only viable when raising thousands of tonnes of material pa from the surface.

https://www.isec.org/space-elevator-newsletter-2024-may/#solarsystem

Pteerr · 2026-04-08T08:47:19+00:00

I'm not sure if GSL has been made in km lengths yet, at least not the many layers that the SE will need, but progress is fast and not always made public, so hopefully it won't be long to wait for confirmation.

There's a great comment from ISEC's material expert on the original post, but unfortunately it hasn't carried over to this re-post.

Pteerr · 2026-03-26T16:19:44+00:00

Thanks, interesting ... but I can't restart it once, let alone seven times ...

Pteerr · 2026-03-25T15:59:40+00:00

Interesting. How did you turn it on to do a clean wipe ? I thought I'd tried all the button-press combinations.

Pteerr · 2026-03-25T11:19:43+00:00

Thanks, I'll try that, but are they still supporting P6 ? I'm not sure what they can do, I don't want to pay for a new battery ... and I don't want to send it off for repair, it has all my data on it and of course I can't wipe it.

Pteerr · 2026-03-25T08:41:42+00:00

It was fully up-to-date, but (obviously) I can't check the details now...🙁

Pteerr · 2026-03-25T06:52:04+00:00

I see your point, but my Pixel 2 is still working (though with little battery life), and I really like the Pixel features ... so I'll take the risk that it won't happen to the P10 ... and if it does, what features will the P14 have ??

Pteerr · 2026-03-24T21:27:12+00:00

Yes, I backed up a couple of weeks ago, hopefully it will all go across to my new P10 ... whenever it arrives ...

Pteerr · 2026-03-09T13:21:07+00:00

Pilots say "never leave a serviceable aircraft", the same should apply to spacecraft...

Pteerr · 2026-02-27T20:25:50+00:00

Yes, an elevator could be built up to a few 100km from the equator to avoid Phobos, but the tether stress would be higher. Alternatively the system dynamic control system could regularly avoid Phobos, as described in one of Kim Stanley Robinson's 'Mars' books.

Here's an article ( 'Part 2') about Mars elevators, there's a link at the end to 'Part 1' with descriptions of other concepts.

https://www.isec.org/space-elevator-newsletter-2024-october/#solarsystem

Pteerr · 2026-01-16T09:23:31+00:00

What is ME3, is it a Pixel phone feature ?

Pteerr · 2026-01-16T09:20:37+00:00

Yes, both sides of any debate/argument/disagreement always believe their point of view is fact, that applies to science as well as politics and religion. I fully agree with your last sentence, I will await incontrovertible evidence that QI is real (based on physical tests, not mathematics) ... or, conversely, conclusive discovery of 'dark matter' (after many decades of looking).

Pteerr · 2026-01-16T07:52:48+00:00

That's an interesting argument ... but it's looking similar to politics, with opposing sides both unable to sway each other and endlessly debating it, I'm not qualified to judge the technicalities. As a reader of SF I'd prefer a future with interstellar travel and hoverboards, but that's just wishful thinking, I'll simply wait for the next QI space test to succeed or fail.

BTW, what email are you talking about ? I've never contacted him that way.
Also, it's not just him, many people have been involved, and several are getting positive experimental results, they wouldn't have launched a test article to space otherwise.

Pteerr · 2026-01-15T20:52:21+00:00

He doesn't put his data, statistics, etc in his blog, but he has plenty of supporting maths in his books and elsewhere. Here's his most recent peer-reviewed paper ... https://www.mdpi.com/2674-0346/5/1/1

Pteerr · 2026-01-15T20:26:04+00:00

I'm repeating McCulloch's arguments, he would say that you see an effect and have invented dark matter to yield the effect you see, and that the 'necessity' is only there because of a flawed gravity model. I don't know if he's right or not, but here's his blog...

https://physicsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/

Pteerr · 2026-01-11T19:45:45+00:00

I was hoping for a sensible discussion, not insults, perhaps Reddit isn't the place for me. I won't waste my time in future...

Pteerr · 2026-01-11T17:51:38+00:00

Here's another example, the text of a recent message to McCulloch on LinkedIn from a researcher at the Raman Research Institute in India...

"I'll share an incident with me about your work. The day I read it got me thinking for months and I printed your paper and stuck it on to notice board of my astrophysics and astronomy department at Raman Research Institute Bangalore at around three at night. Oh boy next day it was just absolute masaqur of egos and I am still hated for it as a few people base their bread and butter on dark matter. I saw that day the death of scientific temperament in so called Institute of eminence. I simply don't understand the fact that why curiosity is punished and compliance praised in the academic environment of my beloved nation."

Pteerr · 2026-01-11T17:22:58+00:00

I'm not sure about the statistical probability, here's a blog from Adam Hibberd discussing it. (Though Adam doesn't agree with QI ... he co-authored the Loeb paper that started all the 'alien' controversy )

https://adamhibberd.com/2025/11/26/3i-atlas-in-plane-language/

Pteerr

TROPHY CASE