Parting Shot!

[Alinvegas]

That about say's it all.

 

[tobaccoroad]

Mike Ramirez couldn't adunnit any better! Bravo!

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

It does say a lot....about the stupidity of the cartoonist....since NASA spending has RISEN under Obama, whereas it fell during most years of the Bush presidency. Just FYI, you know.

 

[gabriel]

i love how cons pretend theyat america will again be in the forefront of technological advances while deriding the technologies of the future that the rest of the world is advancing while america sleeps!! hahahahahahahahaahahahahahaha

 

[justoffal]

I dunno.....I see nothing happening anywhere on earth including China that puts them at any kind of decided advantage against us even with our aging grid system and their new superconducting grid system. They continue to complete the construction of up to two coal fired plants per week at roughly 2500 megawatts per plant. That's one goddamned big smoke stack spunky.

France has an edge with their proliferation of Nuclear plants so electricity is cheap...but their economy is in a shambles just the same. Oh that's right you don't think that nuclear is a futuristic technology either do you?

Fact is we are leading in the co-technology sector with the use of quick start Gas turbine/HRSG plants that are built to support intermittent green supplies. IMO it's a waste of time but as far as I know nobody has even come close to this:

http://www.ge-flexibility.com/products/flexefficiency_50_combined_cycle_power_plant/index.jsp

Then again we might be mistaken if we think of GE as an American company...it's really more of a multinational.

 

[gabriel]

lol! the lead will come as they develop the technologies.. meanwhile youll be playin catch up. but with the number of engineers you graduate, it aint gonna happen pal. and whats so special about your cogen. everyone has them and have had for years

 

[justoffal]

Is that due to appropriation or is it due to dollar devaluation?

 

[justoffal]

I don't think so....

To date the technology gap is still pretty sizable and most of the technologies that are being used out there now come from here.

You do have somewhat of a point when it comes to priorities inasmuch as we could definitely do better with what we have.. Replacing the aging grid infrastructure would be an excellent start but its pricey and I'm not sure private enterprise would be interested simply due to the lack of bottom line room...so there is one place you could possibly foresee some useful government intervention.

JO

 

[gabriel]

most come from america?? lol. yesterdays techologies come from many countries including america. at this rate the future ones will come from everywhere but america.

 

[justoffal]

See here's the kicker....this thing is selling like hotcakes all over the world and it produces....wait for it now.....co2

 

[gabriel]

stop gap measures eem to be your specialty. pity youre gonna miss out on the next big thing

 

[justoffal]

Hmmmm...

Well I have a great deal of respect for the Chinese school systems which make math an almost life and death priority....yet to date they have become the world's largest producer of greenhouse gas...they passed us by about three years ago.

India has some neat stuff including the world's most dangerous fighter jet....but that's about it....they still buy their power plant stuff from western based technologies companies...like GE for instance.

The green revolution is puttering out in the face of massive demand increases. Hydrocarbon fuels have a 100 million year head-start on the other energy sources....it's kinda hard to bridge that gap with a calculator.

 

[justoffal]

Well I hope you're right.. I doubt it though. You're never going to see a battery powered Jet airplane...never .... you might see a subsonic plane with a limited range that operates on batteries but nothing in a military application. Nor will we ever escape the earth's gravitational pull with anything but the explosive chemical reactions of rocket engines....in some ways we have reached the pinnacle simply by virtue of the constraints of our available components.

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

Justoffal: Nor will we ever escape the earth's gravitational pull with anything but the explosive chemical reactions of rocket engines.

LeRoy: Are you QUITE sure about that? Never heard of the idea of a space elevator?

 

[gabriel]

hahahahahahahahahahaha. how many fools have said that in history?? even lord kelvin!!

"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now, All that remains is more and more precise measurement."

 

[justoffal]

Yes....I don't know too much about the concept except that it seems to include the impractical idea of anchoring a satellite to earth with some kind of attachment in between. I wonder if they gave any thought to atmospheric static and the likelihood of nearly constant lightening strikes?

I must say it is an intriguing idea.

There is one possibility for battery powered escape of the atmosphere...ION Propulsion.... creating an anti-magnet so powerful that the vehicle is literally propelled away by gravitational repulsion so that the power source is the earth itself...but as of yet we are not even sure that gravity is magnetism.

 

[justoffal]

Well it would be foolish to assume that there is nothing yet to be discovered in the physical sciences....perhaps gene roddenberry was not too wild eyed after all.

so perhaps it would be better to say that to date the only method that we have to generate escape velocity is with chemical reaction.

 

[gabriel]

keep your head in the sand pal. those companies are employing more chinese and indian engineers every day and china allows nothing in without technology transfer. and check out the engineering grad schools and the number that now choose not to stay in america upon graduation. as i said, youll do fine as a stopgap while they modernize. and then, youre yesterdays news!!