I take it all back, Pete. 😎
I'm off to watch the first episode of Brian Cox's new series entitled "Universe" on catch up.
I'm off to watch the first episode of Brian Cox's new series entitled "Universe" on catch up.
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The economics of building more hydro power plants in the middle of nowhere is simply not there. At least not yet, so the govt. is exploring all clean energy options for the future.
I am sure Prof. Brian Cox will say the "Universe" is "Amazing" and "Wonderful" and "Huge". If he was any good he would be discovering Axions or something useful. 🙄
In "Mad" magazine, two Boffins were watching two flies buzzing round a lampshade,
"If only this POWER could be HARNESSED" they think. 😀
Completely unproductive Day at the Fora. But it helped time pass. "Goodnight and Good Luck" as Ed Murrow used to say.
In "Mad" magazine, two Boffins were watching two flies buzzing round a lampshade,
"If only this POWER could be HARNESSED" they think. 😀
Completely unproductive Day at the Fora. But it helped time pass. "Goodnight and Good Luck" as Ed Murrow used to say.
Seems oil crisis in the 1980 was not painful enough. Hopefully the next one coming would not need to cost too many millions in deaths for the govt. to deploy reasonably sufficient alternatives.
I am afraid Canada's economy would benefit from an oil crisis, so no incentive to build more hydro power plants.
Hydro is very expensive in terms of investment (dam) but dams have a very long life - 100's of years - so you have to look at it in those terms. The electrical gear probably needs to be changed out every 30-40 years, but that is no different to any conventional power generation system like coal or nuclear.
Of course, if you can afford such a long ROI. Most governments don't, there are at least 25 election cycles every 100 years. And on this scale, public-private partnerships are even less likely.
I didn't catch the Prof. using the word "amazing" - for a change! 😉
In fact, he used words sparingly, leaving long gaps in between, presumably to allow a layman audience time for his words of wisdom to sink in.
For those of us in the know, the presentation of the first episode (The Sun: God Star) could only be classed as ponderous, and I nearly nodded off a few times!
I thought that TV licence payers' money was not well spent by the regular inclusion of aerial footage of the Prof. simply posing in a variety of remote and inaccessible locations here on planet Earth!
Marks: 3/10 - Brian can do better than this.
P.S. The Parker solar probe was featured, but with no information about the difficulties of getting it up close to the Sun, apart from dealing with the high temperatures it would eventually encounter there.
This is precisely the problem - short termism.
The Hoover dam was built by people who knew and understood the payback wouldn't be within two election cycles.
@Galu you have to accept that not everyone is physicist. His shows are for the layman.
I find 'How the Universe Works' a little more meatier. There's lots of good technical stuff lurking around on YouTube if you look around.
However, try to avoid videos with titles like 'Alien Invasion: They came in the night' or 'Scientists discover alien mega-ship on Mars'
I find 'How the Universe Works' a little more meatier. There's lots of good technical stuff lurking around on YouTube if you look around.
However, try to avoid videos with titles like 'Alien Invasion: They came in the night' or 'Scientists discover alien mega-ship on Mars'
I saw a TV documentary on the building of the Hoover dam recently.
Built in the midst of the 'Great Depression' - a fascinating story!
Built in the midst of the 'Great Depression' - a fascinating story!
Indeed, fascinating.
Not that much powerful, though.
Presently, Hoover Dam can produce over 2,000 megawatts of capacity and a yearly average generation of 4.5 billion kilowatt hours to serve the annual electrical needs of nearly 8 million people in Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada.
Not that much powerful, though.
Presently, Hoover Dam can produce over 2,000 megawatts of capacity and a yearly average generation of 4.5 billion kilowatt hours to serve the annual electrical needs of nearly 8 million people in Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada.
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Bit of Expanding Universe stuff to get our teeth into:
94% of the universe's galaxies are permanently unreachable - Big Think
By forum favourite (Ask) Ethan Siegel. Apparently 94% is already too far away to reach even at the speed of light. It's expanding too fast. 😱
I must find time for that site. Seems to explain things simply. 😱
94% of the universe's galaxies are permanently unreachable - Big Think
By forum favourite (Ask) Ethan Siegel. Apparently 94% is already too far away to reach even at the speed of light. It's expanding too fast. 😱
I must find time for that site. Seems to explain things simply. 😱
Cox is well past his sell by date. A number of his past programs have had him pointlessly travelling the globe (who cares about carbon footprints?!) then doing poor illustrations of stuff. I recall one in a diner in the USA using salt and pepper pots... Decent graphics in a studio back home would habe been much better.
Bring back James Burke!!
Ethan Siegel is excellent - but his podcasts are a big let down - he needs to stick to writing. He has guests on an then talks over them, or asks leading questions to get them to say what he wants them to say. And his spoken delivery is quite stilted IMV. Disappointing.
'The Common Descent' by contrast is superb. Light where is needs to be and into the detail as required. And when they have guests on, you really get to hear people who know the detail. One of the best was a primatologist who spoke about them for an hour and a half and listed the key characteristics of primates as:-
Primarily Frugivorous
All started out in trees - some stayed there obviously
All have opposing thumbs
All have finger prints
All have nails
High encephalization
All merged from the tropics and adapted to cooler climates
All have good eyesight (binocular/colour) and a large part of the brain devoted to visual processing (by contrast, most mammalians are moving towards smell as their primary sense which I found interesting)
Have been around as a recognizable animal family for 55 million years
As to intelligence, he did not make the claim that primates were the most intelligent animal family, but said if you had a random selection of animals in a room, the primate would probably be the most intelligent.
It seems we do not know enough about dolphins and orca's to say we are the smartest on the planet. We do have more agency than any other animal and we self organize and that coupled with very high intelligence is why we are where we are.
Anyway, I digress. Cue the tesseract!
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