• Why gasoline prices have risen sharply in the last month and why they should start to fall relativel
    73 replies, posted
[QUOTE=bohb;35575548] Do you want a huge untapped source of power? It exists in the Earths' geomagnetic field. Basically limitless amounts of power with no bad baggage. All you'd have to do is figure a way to make a geosynchronous space station with an array of cables to capture it and beam it down to earth. Or you could go with an array of mirrors in space, focused on a singular target, like a mega solar power plant.[/QUOTE] Solar panels in space is way more dangerous than nuclear power. You can't hook it up with cables, so you have to transmit the power back as microwaves. You have to aim the microwaves back at a receiver that is something like 5km^2, which you could have used to cover with solar cells and gotten just as much power as the sattelite generates.
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;35588248]Solar panels in space is way more dangerous than nuclear power. You can't hook it up with cables, so you have to transmit the power back as microwaves. You have to aim the microwaves back at a receiver that is something like 5km^2, which you could have used to cover with solar cells and gotten just as much power as the sattelite generates.[/QUOTE] Plus the area around Earth is littered in space junk in addition to natural meteorites.
Thought this image would be relevant to the current discussion [img]http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/AreaRequired1000.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=bohb;35577017]Thanks for reaffirming that no nuclear power plant can be 100% failure proof.[/quote] There is no such thing as 100% failure proof. Not for [b]anything[/b]. It took countless unprecedented disasters for humanity to learn that, and half of the world still has no fucking clue. [quote]And you must be insane to want to put nuclear waste on a rocket to send into space.[/QUOTE] Why the fuck not? If you leave it out in the open it could irradiate the area. Burying it in the ground is far safer, but if the barrel was built badly or there's a huge natural disaster or something, then you could irradiate all the groundwater in an area or something and generally fuck it up. If we take a rocket up to space and threw the rods out the door, what the fuck are they gonna do? Since there's no air to give them air resistance, we could throw those things pretty far, and by the time anyone finds them again they'll be safe to handle in a T-shirt and jeans. Granted this method has it's potential problems too (what if the rocket fucks up, what if we accidentally get ourselves sucked into space with them, etc) but once we actually have enough technological prowess to do that without it costing a zillion bucks each round, it'll be safer than burying them in a mountain somewhere.
[QUOTE=bohb;35574800]Sorry, but anyone who thinks nuclear power is clean is an idiot The history of nuclear power speaks for itself how it is by far the least clean of any of the known power generation systems. Nuclear reactors both big and small produce deadly radioactive waste that cannot be disposed of, and must be stored indefinitely on-site. Nuclear cooling tanks for spent fuel rods around the states have been getting increasingly full and are running out of room, and their brilliant idea was to ship hazardous stuff like that across the states and store it in yucca mountain (which was thankfully scrapped.) So we have 60 years of stockpiled spent fuel rods accumulated that won't be safe to be in the same state with for another 10,000+ years History has also shown us how dangerous nuclear power is by both scary mismanagement/regulation and natural disasters. Chernobyl was an example of and idiot that was given too much control and Fukushima was an example of a natural disaster that ruined half of a country. Compare 10,000+ years of toxic waste to maybe a decade or two for a major oil spill, windmills failing or a dam breaking. The EPA is a vile and disgusting organization chaired by liberal tree huggers that don't know a thing about the environment, and their actions speak for themselves. Instead of doing something smart and studying an entire biome in some region that's having trouble, they pick things at totally random that MUST BE SAVED BECAUSE XYZ IS ENDANGERED. They never look into the cause of the phenomenon, they just throw money at the problem and hope it goes away.[/QUOTE] Go read up on Thorium reactors. These are not your usual Uranium plants.
[QUOTE=bohb;35574179]Oil in the middle east isn't going to last forever either. The point in domestic oil exploration is to use is smartly to wage a war on speculation. Obama has proven he's too much of an idiot to do it. The job of a speculator is relatively simple, to limit supply of a commodity to as close to the demand as possible so there isn't excess commodity on the market that would drive down prices and prevent the speculator from making a profit. If you parked a huge reserve of crude oil somewhere that speculators weren't able to control, it throws a huge wrench in their plans from lack of control and makes them nervous. This alone would drastically effect oil prices. Now if you flooded the market with cheap crude oil for even a short period of time, it would cause all sorts of people to bail out of oil speculation. Doing that just a few times would keep people from trying to speculate on oil for a decade or more, since they know there's some crazy bastard out there ruining his bottom line. Yeah, you sound like the average EPA pink-o-commie who knows absolutely nothing about oil exploration and how it's extracted from the ground. If you watched footage from the invasion of Iraq, they showed dozens of producing oil wells, and they each took up less than 2 acres a piece. That's like what, the space that two countryside houses have? You don't need to raze a forest to the ground or pave over hundreds of acres of tundra just to have a few oil extraction wells. Land exploration and drilling rigs take up less than 5 acres and aren't permanent. Once a well has been drilled, they install all of the piping and tanks to hold the crude oil to be shipped off to some refining plant hundreds/thousands of miles away. The rig is disassembled and moved elsewhere and life continues on. Obamas' mandated "clean energy" has caused far more environmental destruction than drilling a few oil wells ever would. You know all of those wind farms that are going up all over the states? Many of them are in bird migratory paths, and birds don't expect a 10 ton propeller to whap around and hit them on the head, killing them instantly. It's been documented on wind farms where thousands of birds are killed yearly from propeller strikes.[/QUOTE] While the drilling wells may not take up much space, you must know about places like the oil sands. Not to mention the fact that it's the oil refining process that causes the most damage - there's places all over the US called "cancer strips" where the water is polluted, birth defects have increased tenfold, and cancer rates are through the roof. Surely you cannot ignore this.
[QUOTE=bohb;35575548]No, you're just too ignorant to understand the dangers of nuclear power. 30 years ago, everyone was building mega reactors, which still follow protocol from 30 years ago. And since the government doesn't want to spend money modernizing these reactors, which were supposed to have been decommissioned a decade ago, they just renew the license and lower the standards. 30 years later, they're still building mega reactors, with the same flaws and inherent dangers. Oh, and you nor someguy have given any method to reduce the stockpile of spent fuel rods, the only option is to ship them somewhere (extremely dangerous) and convert them to some other form of toxic waste for storage. How about in your back yard? You seem so fond of nuclear power. Do you want a huge untapped source of power? It exists in the Earths' geomagnetic field. Basically limitless amounts of power with no bad baggage. All you'd have to do is figure a way to make a geosynchronous space station with an array of cables to capture it and beam it down to earth. Or you could go with an array of mirrors in space, focused on a singular target, like a mega solar power plant.[/QUOTE] Nuclear power is pretty safe unless something catastrophically bad happens. [editline]15th April 2012[/editline] Could say the same for oil. Remember Deepwater Horizon?
[QUOTE=bohb;35574800]Sorry, but anyone who thinks nuclear power is clean is an idiot The history of nuclear power speaks for itself how it is by far the least clean of any of the known power generation systems. Nuclear reactors both big and small produce deadly radioactive waste that cannot be disposed of, and must be stored indefinitely on-site. Nuclear cooling tanks for spent fuel rods around the states have been getting increasingly full and are running out of room, and their brilliant idea was to ship hazardous stuff like that across the states and store it in yucca mountain (which was thankfully scrapped.) So we have 60 years of stockpiled spent fuel rods accumulated that won't be safe to be in the same state with for another 10,000+ years History has also shown us how dangerous nuclear power is by both scary mismanagement/regulation and natural disasters. Chernobyl was an example of and idiot that was given too much control and Fukushima was an example of a natural disaster that ruined half of a country. Compare 10,000+ years of toxic waste to maybe a decade or two for a major oil spill, windmills failing or a dam breaking. The EPA is a vile and disgusting organization chaired by liberal tree huggers that don't know a thing about the environment, and their actions speak for themselves. Instead of doing something smart and studying an entire biome in some region that's having trouble, they pick things at totally random that MUST BE SAVED BECAUSE XYZ IS ENDANGERED. They never look into the cause of the phenomenon, they just throw money at the problem and hope it goes away.[/QUOTE] I find it funny that you treat oil like it's a miracle juice that we can just pull from the ground with no problems but yet you treat nuclear like its the end of the world. Seriously, If I read this post first I would've thought it came from some "EPA pink-o-commie" [i]Greenpeace[/i] person. [editline]16th April 2012[/editline] Hell, I understand the process of drilling for oil quite clearly. I even support the expansion of the industry it as long as safety is extremely followed. Though there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we need to heavily research alternatives both for the environment and the economy. I think nuclear in the form of Thorium reactors is a great transition from running this country with hydrocarbons to running it with something that's not finite. If I could have my way now, I'd put this country on at [i]least[/i] 90% nuclear powered, put all of our oil into fuel production, and research heavily into fusion reactors and more efficient solar. This is something we should've started in the 50s.
Damn, and my roomate just bought himself an Infinity G35. That's going to hit the wallet hard.
For those thinking thorium is going to be a large problem regarding nuclear waste: [URL="http://www.thegreenage.co.uk/gfuture/thorium-nuclear-alternative"]http://www.thegreenage.co.uk/gfuture/thorium-nuclear-alternative[/URL] Number 4 in the 'Benefits' box on the right side.
The only reason we still drive gasoline cars is because the people who sell gasoline want us to.
[QUOTE=Bredirish123;35571051]It's funny that people blame Obama directly for the gas prices when he's actually been trying to ween us off of middle eastern oil. I find it even funnier that ultra-conservatives like my dad want to call Obama a Christian hating Muslim who wants to run our country into the ground, but when you look at a lot of his policies and ideas it's more or less to become less involved with the middle east; hence why he's not a big supporter of Israel. :v:[/QUOTE] Obummer is a secret Kenyan Muslim who wants to destroy Christianity so he can insert Sharia Law and indoctrinate everyone in the United States with his atheist philosophy that he learned alongside his radical Christian beliefs from Reverend Wright at church while he sent agents back in time to plant fake birth announcements in the Hawaii newspaper which really isn't part of America anyway. -Republicans
You forgot to use 'Dumb-oc-Rats' somewhere in that rant. I always thought that was a good one.
9.59 swedish kroner per litre here since I drive on ethanol
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