19M from Germany https://www.fedichat.org/

  • 4 Posts
  • 458 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • no, you still need rare erath metals, you need good quality silicon

    That does not compare in the least to the environmental damage and resource depletion that mining uranium causes. Unlike solar or wind power plants, nuclear power plants must constantly be fed a fuel that is only available in limited quantity, while the power source for renewables is realistically infinite (for our purposes). Uranium-235 is way scarcer than natural gas or oil, so power generation through nuclear fission is almost by definition less sustainable than even fossil-fuel power generation.

    Finally, there is the matter of nuclear waste, which accumulates over the lifetime of a power plant and does not get smaller, but rather larger every year that the power plant is in operation. Getting rid of this waste is so difficult because it will radiate for thousands of years, and you can’t guarantee that its containers will last that long, so you need geological structures that are 100% known to remain stable into the far future. These are difficult to find. I want to underline that this problem is already here, and for every new fission power plant you build, it gets worse. There is no reverse direction this process can be taken.

    Thus, I would even go so far to say that this statement of yours: “everything is better than fossil fuel for practical purposes.” Is wrong. Even natural gas would be preferable over nuclear, FAR preferred, in fact. In Germany, nuclear fission was successfully phased out for cleaner natural gas, without adverse effects on power grid stability, and with cost savings in the long run (natural gas comes with its own problems, I am aware, especially with regard to the supply chain, but that is not much different with regard to uranium).



  • “Street racers” are some of the worst people to exist. They have no empathy and regard for the lives and well-being of other people. Most of the time, their fatal accidents kill entirely unrelated people (including children!) that were just going about their business. Having “street racing” as your “hobby” is the ultimate display of unlimited egoism; you do not care at all about the actual humans you kill through your actions and the decades of connections you sever and memories you eradicate. And defending this abhorrent practice is almost as shameful as participating in it.



  • This is not just one of those ivory tower papers with their actual applications far away in time and eventually ending up in some obscure industrial process never heard of again in lay circles; this could have an immediate impact on the maker culture and makerspaces right now and in the near future. The preprint describes the process in a very understandable, digestible manner and provides actual implementation examples, as well as detailed recipes for all of the compounds. If you are even remotely interested in the subject matter, I’d recommend you to try it out for yourself. The “ingredients” are all easily obtainable and handleable. Yes, gallium and indium might be a bit expensive, but it is worth it imo. They literally used consumer kitchen equipment for some of the steps, to demonstrate how this is feasible for tinkerers, makerspaces and prototypes. No expensive machinery required (except for an FFF 3d-printer, of course).








  • I don’t think that that would work out. Do some light, but firm, appeasement, strike a deal that respects Russian sovereignty and security interests, with both partners (the EU and Russia) making clear that the current borders and alliance affiliations are stable and can continue to exist, that Ukraine will not house NATO or other troops, and then fortify Europe as an actual global player by strengthening the competitiveness of our industries and building a powerful military. Over the next few years, phase out the American presence in Europe, e.g., at Ramstein Air Base, and do some counter-bullying of the U.S, e.g., ICJ convictions of Americans involved in the illegal invasion of Iraq. We need to get to the point where the U.S. is afraid of attacking territories like Greenland and mainland Europe in particular, in the best case with them uncertain whether they could even win an all-out war. Reduce dependency on American goods, regulate and punish American companies, and make sure that the world’s freedom grows.