Synhelion uses solar heat to convert CO2 into synthetic fuels – so-called solar fuels. Solar radiation is reflected by the mirror field, concentrated onto the receiver, and converted into high-temperature process heat. The generated heat is fed to the thermochemical reactor that produces syngas, a mixture of H2 and CO. The syngas is then processed … [Read more…]
Last half of “Bleeding Edge” by Thomas Pynchon 01/06/2023 – Done – enjoyable. Checked out “Rising : dispatches from the new American shore” by Elizabeth Rush from the library – good account the present impact of rising seas on a few areas in the world and a cautionary tale about the future. She’s an excellent … [Read more…]
Big Oil talks ‘transition’ but perpetuates petroleum, House documents say A House committee, accusing oil companies of deception, releases a trove of internal documents revealing how these firms view the ‘energy transition’ By Steven Mufson and Timothy Puko December 9, 2022 Some of the world’s major oil companies remain internally skeptical about the “energy transition” … [Read more…]
Trump, Musk and Kanye Are Twitter Poisoned The New York Times, Opinion Guest Essay, Jaron Lanier, Nov. 11, 2022 ‘Extinction is on the table’: Jaron Lanier warns of tech’s existential threat to humanity, The Guardian, Edward Helmore, Sun 27 Nov 2022. Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist who pioneered research in virtual reality and whose … [Read more…]
The New York Times 11/08/2022 poking “a big hornets’ nest with a short stick.” Perhaps the best-known ecological economist, he faulted his mainstream peers for failing to account for the environmental harm growth can bring. Herman Daly, who for more than 50 years argued that the economic gospel of growth as synonymous with prosperity and … [Read more…]
On POLITICO is this article about the ECT, the Energy Charter Treaty. The world’s biggest dirty energy club is cracking up Major EU countries are quitting the Energy Charter Treaty. After a wild Twitter rant, the boss of its secretariat says he was hacked.
I’ve been working on my syntax, my commands, my interaction with my new toy, stable-diffusion. I’m like a few hundred thousand others tonight, all working away at how best to communicate with this software to get the images we think we might want, but we won’t know until the machine comes back with them, completed. … [Read more…]
The Elusive Future of San Francisco’s Fog from the New York Times of 09/14/2022.
From SWISS-INFO, an informative essay on the Nant de Drance hydroelectric power plant.
Interview – Peter Kalmus: ‘As a species, we’re on autopilot, not making the right decisions’ Ian Tucker May 21, 2022 The Nasa data scientist explains why inaction on the climate crisis pushed him to chain himself to an LA bank – and why trusting in the ‘people in charge’ is so dangerous: ==================================== Do you … [Read more…]