1

Technology / Re: Is producing our own petrol a viable idea?

« on: Yesterday at 15:02:09 »

Making fuel from co2 is entirely possible but it consumes a LOT of energy, energy that could be put to better use. Biowaste is a more reasonable source although the feedstock is limited in quantity. I too am fond of petrol(gasoline) power and the big problem with EVs is that if you run the battery down you need to have your vehicle recovered while an ice powered one just need a can of fuel to get back on the road.

It is a good way of storing energy though Paul, maybe we could start pumping hydrocarbons back into the ground.

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Technology / Re: Is producing our own petrol a viable idea?

« on: Yesterday at 14:57:13 »

I see a lot of people buying those cheap diesel heaters.They make yes a lot heat, but you need a vent. Not very civilized, but how can you blame them. The energy companies on the other hand are just middlemen, they have never made/installed a single solar panel or wind turbine in their entire life.

I shall inform you that many motorhome and caravan heaters are diesil, not gas, usually higher end stuff. For really stinky try the waste oil burner and pour in the used engine oil, sometimes employed in car repair garages, but now illegal to use the waste oil I believe.

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Technology / Is producing our own petrol a viable idea?

« on: Yesterday at 13:18:57 »

I personally like the idea of petrol vehicles as they are quick to refuel, do not require pressurised vessels to contain it the fuel, are reasonably lightweight and cheap at the point of purchase, and if you live in America or some such place the fuel is also nice and cheep! So can we make our own fuel? I just do not feel electric cars are a viable alternative at present.

I have seen numerous ideas for this, from producing hydrocarbons from thin air through CO2 filtering, CO2 emmissions capture to using biowaste as a feedstock.

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General Science / Re: Bitcoin

« on: Yesterday at 12:07:02 »

Yes, 20 percent of all bitcoin have been lost from a finite supply, which is why bitcoin is infeasable, along with unregulated currency, you end up with a supply problem one way or the other.

5

Question of the Week / Re: QotW - 25.01.24 - Does chewing gum cause tinnitus?

« on: 20/01/2025 15:05:09 »

I would say probably to some degree. I have a sound in my ears I am aware of sometimes and very very occasionally my ears do exhibit a clear whirring sound which is like a 1940s TV UFO sound, I don't know what causes it, but it is distinct. Permanent tinnitus from ear damage is a world away from the general background tinnitus,  I don't know what degree you have had tinnitus to.

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Just Chat! / Re: Why do women have so many clothes?

« on: 13/01/2025 19:57:04 »

Fashion, I am led to believe that clothes have a life expectancy of 6 months.

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Technology / Re: Does cold weather damage the batteries used in an EV?

« on: 12/01/2025 19:30:46 »

Hi.



   I have just checked this.  I think it's that Li-ion batteries should not be charged below freezing rather than that they cannot be charged.    According to your suggested Batteryuniversity site,  charging them below freezing temperature is always slow and would usually cause permanent damage resulting in lower battery performance.
    That's not something that Tesla ever seem to mention - and it does seem that they use Li-ion batteries of some variant or another.  Even with some clever technology it seems you would still be well advised to charge them at a small fraction of the usual rate when the temperature is below 0.    So, taking a long trip in the winter and putting your vehicle onto a fast charger along the way may be very bad news for the batteries.

Best Wishes.

As for the batteries, you would need to know the car specifics, if it has a battery heater, if it monitors it's temperature if it has different chemistries, I should email the manufacturer. I would call damage a "can not" Evan, technically you can directly use very high voltage power lines to recharge the battery, unfortunately it will probably damage the battery and possibly yourself. Just a matter of time?

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Technology / Re: Does cold weather damage the batteries used in an EV?

« on: 12/01/2025 19:07:57 »

Stats on the subject are still thin on the ground, but ICE cars are between 2 and 20 times more likely to catch fire than a BEV.

Certain chemistry electric batteries catch fire, such as high performance tesla's, many are now different chemistries that are not a fire risk, so I would like to see figures on EVs that have dangerous batteries. Whilst safety in a car is one thing, safety in a house whilst sleeping is quite another, li ion batteries that catch fire are extremely destructive. I believe all large energy storage batteries for houses are of the non flammable type, there are many of those around and you never hear of 1 catching fire, even though they would burn a house down within seconds.

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Technology / Re: Does cold weather damage the batteries used in an EV?

« on: 11/01/2025 21:54:00 »

There is of course battery university, which says than lithium ion cannot be charged below 0C unless it is a specific chemistry, but I imagine that would lower the capacity, as all the various lithium chemistries seem to, so I doubt anything claiming high distance/power would be, such as the current set of wheeled crematoriums . Lots more on here about batteries on all types, far more than I understand but it's where I go to.

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-410-charging-at-high-and-low-temperatures

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Technology / Re: Does cold weather damage the batteries used in an EV?

« on: 11/01/2025 15:25:46 »

Relevance / Background:   Like a lot of people, I'm thinking of getting an EV (Electric Vehicle) soon.   How many (British) winters will the batteries last?   Have we had EV's for enough years to know how well they last?  Also, how much range for the vehicle will usually be lost on the cold days?

I'm waiting for sodium ion, they have none of these problems, should be far cheaper too. As for the cold weather performance dealers I have spoken to in a non customer situation tell me in winter they expect half the advertised mileage at present from evs but thats not a problem really for most in the UK. I suppose all of that hard accelleration and braking doesn't help.

11

Just Chat! / The Greenland War

« on: 08/01/2025 19:02:19 »

With the fast approach of the Canadia and Green land war between Europe and the USA, I wonder whether Trump has seen the size of it on a map?  Mercators projection has the habit of turning Greenland into a rival of Africa for size, a similar effect occurs for Canada. You have to wonder whether the impending terrible loss of life could be avoided if someone got him an atlas globe.


mercator-projection-world-map-political.png (1232.16 kB . 1320x839 - viewed 36 times)

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Am I safer on Mars?

« on: 07/01/2025 20:05:27 »

From a geological point of view, as Mars has no internal heating and is quite cold to begin with, it has limited energy recources also. In the event of the big one our underground refuges would be considerably more comfortable on earth. I can imagine Mars would be a serious threat to one's mental health under normal circumstance, after a meteor apocalypse it would be a disaster.

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Just Chat! / Re: What Happened To 'Ye'?

« on: 02/01/2025 23:34:25 »

It got put in gaol.

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Just Chat! / What is the best way to crash land a plane?

« on: 28/12/2024 20:07:55 »

If you have a plane that is going to be landing whether you like it or not, what is the best terrain to land it on?

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The Environment / Re: How are global warming and world population expansion linked?

« on: 28/12/2024 19:58:50 »

A far better way is to support women's rights and particularly encourage ladies to stay single until their mid twenties as wealthy countries do.

If you wish to stop teenage mothers it appears the way to do it is suffer a catastrophic collapse in the economy and then continue in the same direction. Again, it is only a correlation but it is (once again) a bit too neat to be not linked at all.

image-9.png (34.44 kB . 756x757 - viewed 65 times)

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Question of the Week / Re: QotW - 25.01.06 - During the time of Pangea, what was on Earth's other side?

« on: 23/12/2024 19:36:42 »

Probably a very large Gyre, the currents would have established themselves and with nothing to hinder either them or the wind on over half of the planet the Gyre would probably have been very fierce. The weather on the planet would probably still have the bands of wind with possibly a wind vortex located over the Gyre.

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General Science / Re: What would the kinetic energy of a bullet falling from 2Km be?

« on: 21/12/2024 15:50:56 »

Yep I find ebay amazon and especially the Chinese supply chain play by entirely different rules, which is a bit unfair, they will also increase the price with our merit too, you probably can get asbestos insulation if you look. Was that a quantisized price including p+p Paul?

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General Science / Re: What would the kinetic energy of a bullet falling from 2Km be?

« on: 21/12/2024 10:21:06 »

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Electrical-Soldering-Circuit-Repairing-Essmetuin/dp/B0C8JQWRB7/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.aQmMyP7olosXzni-BRYiCw901I-XMkWfqGF693YUlKwnwjpQHndQFokCIBWDntTpOiMthhkvQlxfcJMQFiToR3zFN6196iPd5EOYSNvbMiUQGbl85jMj0IW13zx3Y3gEp87hZlUatjdy8flrdffbN4UFqlYFMLEKt04REbd0CErL-Rlxp8b8D7KCSZXBe8hnrziVmefXqC91E227QKoyIBHWBjKEagqlqEg2XTOvid1FrgmCmsPFyMZS5GSSzldp6h_4UJf8VixnCCcTZpjeKu5erZnrdyReyXSynLbE7Sv6H0QVnG8ZOH0KuUbXTZ75vE0j29FiI1PY0nh5zOKEBdbxMe5vZx99gA_NddY26vsN-7VZBAN1gsOvcgIKG-gj66pqpuIFB3tg2mJhaLoQ3J5bERgI919kTGa1Up603mhXA8G_eCHq3Pg4EaxJN9Mu.g5_DszXW4zUcAjAc5wJLVo4u80iiAEmckvTBIjjOcsE&dib_tag=se&keywords=60%2F40+solder&qid=1734776356&sr=8-6

19

The Environment / Re: How are global warming and world population expansion linked?

« on: 19/12/2024 20:10:25 »

To clarify my earlier statement t I did mean that as long as you are not on drugs (probably opioid) which is the biggest usa killer, the biggest cause of deaths in the states is guns of which >50% are self inflicted. Basically you need a gun so you can stop you shooting yourself, by shooting yourself.

It would be interesting to know how many bad guys have been shot by good guys (excluding police and military acting under orders) and the inverse ratio

As B. C. states the times a gun is used as protection is small, about 5% but that doesn't  state how many of these individuals where engaged in risky behaviour.

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General Science / Re: Can Human Consciousness Be Uploaded?

« on: 19/12/2024 19:58:54 »

Yes possibly , if we had a consciousness vacuum.