Comments on: Suburban Oil http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194 Ian Lance Taylor Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:50:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.2 Comment on Suburban Oil by: Ian Lance Taylor http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-14064 Sun, 25 May 2008 16:39:10 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-14064 Using water for gas is getting energy from something that is readily available and cheap. Sort of like solar power. Maybe people should use some of the water-for-gas language when advertising solar power. Using water for gas is getting energy from something that is readily available and cheap. Sort of like solar power. Maybe people should use some of the water-for-gas language when advertising solar power.

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: etbe http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13968 Fri, 23 May 2008 08:50:13 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13968 http://www.water-4-fuel.com/ The above web site (advertised on this page by google) promotes "Brown's Gas", at the top of the page they have a picture (in the style of a road sign) depicting someone being sodomised by a petrol pump. It's mildly amusing, I can't imagine anyone being enticed to buy a product by such an advert - but then no intelligent person would buy into the Brown's Gas foolishness anyway. http://www.water-4-fuel.com/

The above web site (advertised on this page by google) promotes “Brown’s Gas”, at the top of the page they have a picture (in the style of a road sign) depicting someone being sodomised by a petrol pump.

It’s mildly amusing, I can’t imagine anyone being enticed to buy a product by such an advert - but then no intelligent person would buy into the Brown’s Gas foolishness anyway.

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: etbe http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13967 Fri, 23 May 2008 08:43:29 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13967 Continuing the truncated comment: I believe that people who are less than 21 today have a lot less interest in what happens on TV and a lot more interest in what happens on the net - which includes blogs. There are good and bad aspects to this, having significant portions of the population vote according to the blogs that the read might not be a great thing, but it would surely be better than Fox News... Continuing the truncated comment:

I believe that people who are less than 21 today have a lot less interest in what happens on TV and a lot more interest in what happens on the net - which includes blogs. There are good and bad aspects to this, having significant portions of the population vote according to the blogs that the read might not be a great thing, but it would surely be better than Fox News…

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: etbe http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13920 Thu, 22 May 2008 11:52:03 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13920 I don't believe that wide dispersal has to make people dependent on mass media. I think that it might be a combination of habits learned while young (in terms of watching TV and reading newspapers) and lack of other communication. I believe that people who are I don’t believe that wide dispersal has to make people dependent on mass media. I think that it might be a combination of habits learned while young (in terms of watching TV and reading newspapers) and lack of other communication. I believe that people who are

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: Ian Lance Taylor http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13908 Thu, 22 May 2008 05:54:00 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13908 I think it's possible to envision a decentralized population with local power generation via solar or wind and with radio/wireless communication for network access. I do think that it encourages a certain social isolation, and communicating only with people with whom one agrees, and thus to more extreme positions. It's hard to see how everybody in the world could live that way. I expect that there are too many people to have low density in all the nice places to live. I think it’s possible to envision a decentralized population with local power generation via solar or wind and with radio/wireless communication for network access. I do think that it encourages a certain social isolation, and communicating only with people with whom one agrees, and thus to more extreme positions.

It’s hard to see how everybody in the world could live that way. I expect that there are too many people to have low density in all the nice places to live.

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: ncm http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13901 Thu, 22 May 2008 05:08:40 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13901 etbe: Me? Wide dispersal makes people dependent on mass media, thus more readily propagandized. It's no accident that rural areas of the U.S. favored Bush, twice. However, extreme population density makes people crazy. So, I favor population centers 200K - 2M. It's been noted that the wind power extractable from the restricted airspace above a nuclear power station matches the power being generated there. (See http://makanipower.com/ ; Google is an investor.) etbe: Me? Wide dispersal makes people dependent on mass media, thus more readily propagandized. It’s no accident that rural areas of the U.S. favored Bush, twice. However, extreme population density makes people crazy. So, I favor population centers 200K - 2M.

It’s been noted that the wind power extractable from the restricted airspace above a nuclear power station matches the power being generated there. (See http://makanipower.com/ ; Google is an investor.)

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: etbe http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13891 Thu, 22 May 2008 00:07:15 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13891 fche: Of course telecommuting relies on large-scale reliable power. Not only does the office need power, but the homes of all the employees and the communications networks between. Hurricanes can really mess up communications links (much of which are above ground) so if the environment is not stable then it's not going to work well. ncm: I think that distributing the generating capacity has the potential to make a more resilient network. Incidentally are you advocating greater population density in urban areas or wide dispersal? fche: Of course telecommuting relies on large-scale reliable power. Not only does the office need power, but the homes of all the employees and the communications networks between. Hurricanes can really mess up communications links (much of which are above ground) so if the environment is not stable then it’s not going to work well.

ncm: I think that distributing the generating capacity has the potential to make a more resilient network.

Incidentally are you advocating greater population density in urban areas or wide dispersal?

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: fche http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13879 Wed, 21 May 2008 17:23:27 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13879 Personally, I hope more people abandon city core, and rely on telecommunications and decentralized physical service systems to get by. Personally, I hope more people abandon city core, and rely on telecommunications and decentralized physical service systems to get by.

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: ncm http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13870 Wed, 21 May 2008 09:22:50 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13870 The most cost-efficient solar power conversion available at present is "linear fresnel reflector" thermal: http://ausra.com/ . Ausra's fifty-person factory in Las Vegas is producing 700MW of generating capacity per year; of course there's nothing to prevent it scaling up with demand. Solar power can be collected wherever it's most convenient and transported cheaply anywhere else, and even stored as raw heat to operate turbines at night. So, there's no need to retrofit houses with solar panels. There are plenty of reasons to abandon suburbia, even if the cost of fuel isn't first among them. The most cost-efficient solar power conversion available at present is “linear fresnel reflector” thermal: http://ausra.com/ . Ausra’s fifty-person factory in Las Vegas is producing 700MW of generating capacity per year; of course there’s nothing to prevent it scaling up with demand. Solar power can be collected wherever it’s most convenient and transported cheaply anywhere else, and even stored as raw heat to operate turbines at night. So, there’s no need to retrofit houses with solar panels.

There are plenty of reasons to abandon suburbia, even if the cost of fuel isn’t first among them.

]]> Comment on Suburban Oil by: rdb http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13866 Wed, 21 May 2008 08:30:41 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/194#comment-13866 <a href="http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~serl/UltraCommuter.html" rel="nofollow">UltraCommuter</a> link UltraCommuter link

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