ridgeguy

15 ms·

181.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
This may be changing with rapid extension of satellite size towards the small end of the spectrum. Small size is now significant. For example, a radar imaging constellation might consist of multiple transmit/receive satellites, each of
182.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
AM radio helped kindle my lifelong interest in technology and music. Grew up in Alaska in the '50s. When I was 8, my Dad bagged me some old headphones, wire, a variable capacitor and one of those new-fangled 'diode detectors'
183.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Check out Vernor Vinge's Marooned in Realtime for a murder mystery and love story that transpires over millions of years.
184.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
I've found this to be helpful: https://www.ilovephd.com/working-sci-hub-proxy-links-updated...
185.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Who knew the Marines teach Shakespearean tactics? "Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane" Macbeth, Act V, Scene III
186.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Probable nuclear war also averted earlier, again by a single individual, in 1962. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov
187.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
I agree, but there may be a single change of circumstances that will open a path to something new. For example, if OP can accumulate enough $ to leave their job with at least a reasonable level of financial security, they might find that in
188.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
I think there's a middle ground. We've just today had our first snow of the season here in a lower elevation of the Sierra Foothills. It's been chilly for 3 months or so, and our heating is an 'old school' ducted pr
189.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
My M2 MacBook Air is the best computer I've owned, bar none. Can confirm the battery life, easily 22+ hours in my use. My only known downside to low power consumption: when I wake, I usually lie in for 30 minutes of surfing with the M2
190.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Thanks for this link, it's an interesting and informative post. Gives me an additional PoV to consider.
191.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Look into epigenetic inheritance. This is a mechanism by which environmental factors cause inheritable modulation of genes, which themselves are unchanged. Methylation (attachment of methyl groups) of DNA is one such mechanism. https:&#x2F
192.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
A brief look at Helion's site indicates their technology requires He3 in the fuel mix. He3 comprises only about 10e-6 of natural helium, which itself is not exactly common. Is needing He3 more or less of an issue than needing tritium?
193.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
I think when comparing PV/wind to nuclear (fusion or fission) generation, we should include the cost of storage for renewables in the comparison. Renewable generation + storage gives a system that's capable of meeting base load ne
194.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Faceworms instead of earworms?
195.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
"Space travel" not so much at present. But reduced cost access to space, for sure. - geolocation (GPS, GLONASS, etc.) - communications (Starlink, Iridium, etc.) - earth sensing (weather, climate, etc.) All of these are multibillio
196.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
How about excavating? Keep the external height limit but get more vertical space.
197.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
After ~70 hours of watching Finnish shows, the only word I can recognize is "ok".
198.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Might even be an existential risk. One possible solution to the Fermi Paradox is that they invented crypto and it wrecked them.
199.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
My wife drinks tea, I drink coffee. Both of us grudge the time needed to heat water in our 120V American electric kettle compared to European 240V kettles. I^2 makes a big difference.
200.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Thank you so much for your work! I loaded your tour of the Great Pyramid onto my laptop and settled into bed next to my wife, who is recovering from knee replacement surgery. I said "May I take you to Egypt for awhile?". She
201.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
The new version claims not to even need the LIDAR.
202.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Thanks for this. The subject is way out of my wheelhouse, but I enjoy clinging to the coattails of explorers of worlds I don't understand.
203.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
O/T, but materials longevity is a trigger for me. Raise the bar and use diamond. I used to be in the CVD diamond world. On my honeymoon nearly 30 years ago, my wife and I were hiking in the Himalayas, in Sikkim. My Dad loved diamonds a
204.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
The referenced article suggested there's an upper limit to the spin rate of a black hole. From the penultimate paragraph: "The larger black hole in this binary, which was about 40 times more massive than the Sun, was spinning almo
205.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
As a meatspace photographer, I take some comfort that the photograph in column 3, row 25 has an issue. The mountain peak has abundant snow. Its reflection in the lake doesn't. There are similar snow reflection disparities in several of
206.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
I think solar makes sense for most who use air conditioning. That's a load matched pretty closely to the timing of PV generation. Here in the Sierra foothills, it's been a blazing hot summer. About 90% of our PV generation powered
207.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
Sort of in the same vein, here's a PNAS report [1] of a continuous combustion detonation engine. No circulating detonation wave, no pulses, just steady combustion in a propellant stream fast enough to stabilize the detonation region at
208.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
We do this here in Sonora, CA. Our PV array supplies more than our A/C uses. We turn the A/C on around 10am, cool to 70°, turn off at 3pm. House insulation has limited indoor temperature to 76° on recent 101° days.
209.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
I greatly appreciate the resource you've built for everyone. Thank you!
210.
by ridgeguy 4y ago
I think a 50 year old "lost" bomb would be a radiological hazard at most. Nuclear weapons require upkeep. After 50 years, only 6% of tritium remains from the initial 100%. Any weapon using tritium (boosted fission bombs and hydrog

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