Congress Shoots Down Hypersonic Plane

[prometheuspan]

http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/geot...-expensive-way-to-generate-clean-electricity/

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/04/jefferson_teste.html

http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2007/01/10/crossbench-comment-better-than-nuclear/

http://www.answers.com/topic/geothermal-power?cat=technology

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/altarock-breaks-new-ground-with-geothermal-power-918.html

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17236/

http://solveclimate.com/blog/20080227/geothermal-cheap-abundant-cheap

http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2007/10/geothermal_the_other_base_load_power.html

http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2008/05/engineered-geothermal-power.html

http://seekingalpha.com/article/76811-geothermal-energy-sources-101

http://www.smu.edu/geothermal/2004NAMap/2004NAmap.htm

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/geomap.html

http://geoheat.oit.edu/images/usmap1.gif

http://pesn.com/2007/01/22/9500449_MIT_Geothermal_Report/Geothermal_Map_USA_2004_hj70.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...t_map_US.png/800px-Geothermal_heat_map_US.png

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/images/2008/01/18/geothermal_power_resouces_map.gif

http://www.utpb.edu/ceed/renewableenergy/texas_geothermal_1.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N

New Tectonic Source of Geothermal Energy?

volcan42.jpg Geochemists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Arizona State University have discovered a new tool for identifying potential geothermal energy resources. The discovery came from comparing helium isotopes in samples gathered from wells, springs, and vents across the northern Basin and Range of western North America. High helium ratios are common in volcanic regions. When the investigators found high ratios in places far from volcanism, they knew that hot fluids must be permeating Earth's inner layers by other means. The samples collected on the surface gave the researchers a window into the structure of the rocks far below, with no need to drill.

"A good geothermal energy source has three basic requirements: a high thermal gradient—which means accessible hot rock—plus a rechargeable reservoir fluid, usually water, and finally, deep permeable pathways for the fluid to circulate through the hot rock," says Mack Kennedy. "We believe we have found a way to map and quantify zones of permeability deep in the lower crust that result not from volcanic activity but from tectonic activity, the movement of pieces of the Earth's crust."

Geothermal is considered by many to be the best renewable energy source besides solar. Accessible geothermal energy in the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, is estimated at 90 quadrillion kilowatt-hours, 3,000 times more than the country's total annual energy consumption. Determining helium ratios from surface measurements is a practical way to locate promising sources.

Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.

 

[USS KG5]

[I do not consider the USA government using censorship to keep us from being blown up a conspiracy, I consider it them doing their job. That is in fact what is going on, and, I find it hard to understand how anyone could fail to appreciate how that would and should work.

It would be a conspiracy, conspiracies are not inherently bad, there were several to kill Hitler after all.

As for the rights and wrongs - I actually agree, if this were true it would make sense to cover it up.

I'm not convinced, but I do not believe that every government secret should be made public.

To the best of my knowledge, hundreds of times, esp at los alamos

How do you know? Did you work there? One would assume if you were in the possession of state secrets you have blabbed enough now to earn a midnight visit from the NSA sometime soon, so you might as well blab the rest...

I just wish everybody else payed some kind of attention. No clue what hes offering. Probably willing to look the other way while they jack prices up and price gauge the rest of the time.

I figured that was your likely response but you have to ask what kind of deal that would be for the Saudis, without a serious investment in renewables the USA is still totally dependant on middle-eastern oil.

The Saudis get rich by selling to the USA but the pain of not buying is infinitely worse to a western world whose population is so used to amazing levels of convenience caused by its consumption. The Saudis will happily just sell their oil to the Chinese.

I find that to be unbearably difficult to describe without resorting to an ad hominem.
Edit. There are no political policies of the republicans that will stabilise oile prices. None. At all.

In the long term - I agree - but we are discussing the run-up to the election where a lot of puffing about Alaskan oil will spare some blushes.

 

[prometheuspan]

How do you know? Did you work there? One would assume if you were in the possession of state secrets you have blabbed enough now to earn a midnight visit from the NSA sometime soon, so you might as well blab the rest...

There was a time when such knowledge was considered mostly harmless.
Then the techies started to show how easy it was, and then some kid whos name i completely forget built a working model and scared the pants off of everybody. That was early or mid eighties.

I figured that was your likely response but you have to ask what kind of deal that would be for the Saudis, without a serious investment in renewables the USA is still totally dependant on middle-eastern oil.

You could have a point with now way to get around it demonstrating that this idea is flawed. Honestly I can't really think of many things to motivate the saudis. Motivation is important. Nobody does much without motivation. Pretty short list.

In the long term - I agree - but we are discussing the run-up to the election where a lot of puffing about Alaskan oil will spare some blushes.

it could and should backfire and blow up in their faces. too bad the dems are too stupid to have the answers that would accomplish that.

If I was obama, I'd sure make them look like a bunch of nuckle dragging neanderthals over the issue. Too bad he doesn't listen. I gave up trying to get the signal to him.

 

[StarryEyed]

How do you know? Did you work there? One would assume if you were in the possession of state secrets you have blabbed enough now to earn a midnight visit from the NSA sometime soon, so you might as well blab the rest...

There was a time when such knowledge was considered mostly harmless.
Then the techies started to show how easy it was, and then some kid whos name i completely forget built a working model and scared the pants off of everybody. That was early or mid eighties.

Yet here you claim to know how to make this work yourself and that you could do it with microwave oven parts - on an internet forum that anyone can see. Better look out for those black helicopters.

You wouldn't by any chance be the same poster who went by the name "WMS121" on another Trek board would you?

 

[Lindley]

I've got to agree. No one trusted with an actual security clearance (such as me) would be so cavalier about this stuff. Those NDAs they make you sign could translate into a treason charge if you say the wrong thing.

I could believe someone being more open about this sort of thing if they were an academic, I suppose.

 

[prometheuspan]

Yet here you claim to know how to make this work yourself and that you could do it with microwave oven parts - on an internet forum that anyone can see. Better look out for those black helicopters.

Do you have a point?

You wouldn't by any chance be the same poster who went by the name "WMS121" on another Trek board would you?

no, this is the first star trek forum i ever joined. From here i joined the JOAT forum. I have been prometheuspan pretty much the entire time i have been on the net. The only time i have ever used significantly different handles was on bnet, and that was because i was being ganged up on by batches of trolls.

You could follow that up i suppose by oing over to bnet and dropping my name to see what kind of panic ensues. They have to the best of my knowledge deleted anything useful to haunt me with.

I've got to agree. No one trusted with an actual security clearance (such as me) would be so cavalier about this stuff. Those NDAs they make you sign could translate into a treason charge if you say the wrong thing.

Since I don't have a security clearance, I can pretty much say anything i like. If i posted a "how to" plan, the most they could do would be to delete it. Not that i would do such a thing.

I could believe someone being more open about this sort of thing if they were an academic, I suppose.

Technically, I am an academic, depending on your definition.

 

[Outpost4]

I won't try to follow back the quotes for the discussion below. Anybody who has been following this thread knows where they came from. And if you haven't, go back to the beginning. It's a hell of a ride!

I will say one thing. It is very annoying, prometheuspan, when you cut off the original quote attributions in your posts. You do it repeatedly. It does make it harder to find something back upthread. You don't have to leave the attribution in every quote in the thread, just in the first quote from each poster you quote.

That said, regarding the claim of the existance of a simple nuclear device using normal materials:

Then the techies started to show how easy it was, and then some kid whos name i completely forget built a working model and scared the pants off of everybody. That was early or mid eighties.

You realise how absurd this sounds, don't you? You are attributing brand new physics to a kid whose name you can't remember from sometime in the eighties.

Your multiple Google attributions are lazy science. Anybody can do that. That's not research. That's fluff. Specific documentation, which inconveniently is from somebody nameless sometime twenty years ago, would be much better.

Why should any of us give you any weight? So far all you've proven is that you can type.

 

[USS KG5]

There was a time when such knowledge was considered mostly harmless.
Then the techies started to show how easy it was, and then some kid whos name i completely forget built a working model and scared the pants off of everybody. That was early or mid eighties.

Now you mention it I do remember reading something about that.

You could have a point with now way to get around it demonstrating that this idea is flawed. Honestly I can't really think of many things to motivate the saudis. Motivation is important. Nobody does much without motivation. Pretty short list.

Well, quite.

it could and should backfire and blow up in their faces. too bad the dems are too stupid to have the answers that would accomplish that.

If I was obama, I'd sure make them look like a bunch of nuckle dragging neanderthals over the issue. Too bad he doesn't listen. I gave up trying to get the signal to him.

Well Obama has to appeal to gas-guzzling America just like any other politician - both sides seem to be preaching about becoming self-sufficient for energy but Obama is at least slightly more pro-renewables.

It remains to be seen what the American public want!

 

[Psion]

That said, regarding the claim of the existance of a simple nuclear device using normal materials:

Then the techies started to show how easy it was, and then some kid whos name i completely forget built a working model and scared the pants off of everybody. That was early or mid eighties.

You realise how absurd this sounds, don't you? You are attributing brand new physics to a kid who's name you can't remember from sometime in the eighties.

He might be talking about "The Radioactive Boy Scout", David Hahn, who used a collection of smoke detectors to ... well, read the link it's an enjoyable story. Or maybe he's talking about Paul Stevens -- the description and timing seem about right. Heck, for that matter, he might be discussing this kid.

 

[Outpost4]

I thought of The Manhattan Project movie while reading this thread, which was actually inspired by a real kid, John Aristotle Phillips, but then Phillips' proposed bomb still used plutonium.

I like your references, though, Psion. Two fictional to one real. Given this thread, that ratio seems about right.

 

[StarryEyed]

Yet here you claim to know how to make this work yourself and that you could do it with microwave oven parts - on an internet forum that anyone can see. Better look out for those black helicopters.

Do you have a point?

Yes, and it should be obvious. I'm calling BS.

The ability to cancel the strong nuclear force in a substance would have an awesome potential for destruction so I could understand the government being scared shitless by it. The ability to achieve that using nothing more than components from a microwave oven would be even more terrifying. So if this is really possible and the government is indeed covering it up, your announcement on a public forum would guarantee that you would soon disappear.

Of course, all of this is a bunch of crap so I doubt you'll be going anywhere.