McCoy

Re: Asteroid mining vs. moon mining.

Seriously though. It's my understanding that corporations do a lot of business under "flags of convenience" so there are probably precedents for this. I don't know which country Planetary Resources is officially based in' date=' but I don't doubt they could establish a new HQ anyplace they liked, and their new host country would be more than happy to have them.[/quote']

Exactly, which is why I say the treaty is probably unenforceable.

Re: Asteroid mining vs. moon mining.

...and it seems to have a lot of phrasing about governments' date=' but not so much corporations. I'm not sure if it applies to them at all, or if it was ever intended to.[/quote']

Corporations and private individuals are the "non-governmental entities" that are suppose to get a signatory nation to sponsor them and say "Mother may I" before they do anything. But what happens if you Corporation is headquartered in a non-signatory nation?

Re: Asteroid mining vs. moon mining.

The relevant law covering this is rather dated, and I'm not sure how it would apply. It might not apply at all.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty (of 1967)

It was basically a "feel good" treaty that is probably not enforceable.

Re: Take a Teammate to a Movie

Beautiful music' date=' truly lovely photography, first class acting from the cast. Pretty cruddy storyline, really.[/quote']

Not a really likeable character in the entire movie with the possible exception of cat, and the only theme I got from it was "everybody's a whore in one way or another."

 

Seriously, Holly throws her cat out of a cab, in the rain, in a strange neighborhood, and we are supposed to like her because she changes her mind?

 

Re: Take a Teammate to a Movie

Zero' date=' aka Truman Golightly, might suggest [i']Breakfast at Tiffany's[/i], although that would be a tad egotistical.

I will never understand why anyone likes that movie.

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

Gamma rays aren't going to interact with the crystal structure. Even if there were something about it that caused it to absorb gamma at that exact energy' date=' I still don't see how it could block [i']all[/i] the photons and prevent them from being detected.

 

Has anyone looked at the powerpoint from the Brillouin site? This is why graphic designers exist, people.

Not the gamma rays, the crystal structure is (supposedly) why an apparently solid bar of palladium can soak up so much hydrogen.

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

I'm waiting for other labs to confirm this' date=' it would be nice if it worked out. I'm also concerned that it might work and be killed by oil corps who don't want any alternatives to be found.[/quote']

Nonsense. The big corporations love alternative energy; as long as they control it. BP is one of the world's largest producers of electricity from wind, Waste Management is leading the field in bio-methane.

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

If they are making D by "catalyzed inverse beta decay" of H to make neutrons and then having those neutrons be captured by protons (whether or not the D gets turned into He subsequently)' date=' then there [u']must[/u] be those 2.1 MeV gamma rays. No gamma rays, no p+n-->D.

Thank you!

All there is is a lot of calorimetry and "proprietary circuits" and marketing hints' date=' which smells like Yet Again they are messing around with absorption of hydrogen into palladium metal matrix, and Pd has a truly remarkable capacity for H for reasons I don't understand (I'm an astrophysicist, and I have never had any solid state physics lessons at all, and this is pretty obviously solid state physics).[/quote']

I'm told it has something to do with the crystal structure, but the people telling me that then change the subject.

 

If anything' date=' you might plunk down a few bucks in the spot metal market for palladium, but be ready to sell as fast as you bought.[/quote']

$683.90/oz today, down from $795.10 a year ago.

 

Compare to $1,574.80/oz for platinum, and $1,662.50/oz for gold. Yes, sometime in this last year gold got more expensive than platinum.

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

Are 2.1 MeV gamma rays detected to prove that's what's going on?

I'd settle for helium, at least for now.

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

But as you pointed out yourself, you first need energy to get it out of the water. As I read it that was not part of thier calculation - they asumed you already have 4 Hydrogen Atoms.

 

 

Cold Fusion (or at least the take on it presented here) doesn't even require atomic Fusion. It's simply put, a misnomer and has realy nothing to do with Fusion.

 

They entirely sidestep the need for high presure/energy and Deuterium, by transforming hydrogen atoms into Neutrons and then letting those neutrons be captured by another hydrogen.

there are a ton of meanigns for Fusion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion

 

The one that maters here, is Nuclear Fusion.

That was is presented here is not Nuclear Fusion, as is explicitly stated in the text.

 

 

The official definition of Cold Fusion is "Nuclear Reaction at relatively low temperatures". Low compared to the Sun, or what we need for earthbound fusion (a lot more than the Sun).

The claim is they start with hydrogen and end up with helium. How by any definition of the word is that not fusion?

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

I thought cold fusion involved Deuterium

Allegedly so does this as an intermediate step.

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

I think the formula for Neutron was 2 Elektrons + 1 Protons + some Energy.

But they use something called low energy free neutron, wich is only 1 Elektron, 1 Proton.

1 Hydrogen (Protenium) Atom has 1 Elektron and 1 Proton, no Neutron.

3 Provide the material for the three free LE Neutrons, wich are caught by the fourth.

1 Hydrogen Atom + 3 Neutrons form the incredibly unstable Hydrogen Isotope Quadrium.

1 Quadrium decays into Helium + Energy

 

So you take 8 Elektrons, 4 Protons and some energy and end up with Helium 3 (2 Electrons, 2 Protons, 1 Neutron) or Helium 4 (2 Electrons, 2 Protons, 2 Neutrons) plus energy.

 

Hydrogen has a weight of 1.008.

Helium one of 4.003.

When you transform 4 hydrogen into one Helium Atom, the mass defect is 0.0029.

And whereever there is a mass defect, there is Energy and vice versa.

Believe a neutron, high or low energy, is 1 proton plus 1 electron. If it was one proton and two electrons, it would have a net negative charge.

So the process splits hydrogen atoms out of water molecules (takes energy). Then turns a neutral hydrogen atom (1 proton plus 1 electron) into a neutron, without exposing it to forces on the order of magnitude of the gravity of a neutron star.

Being a low energy (which in this case means "not fast moving") neutron it is "captured" by another hydrogen atom, creating an atom of deuterium (²H). Will admit I'm not familiar enough with free neutrons to know if that takes or releases energy, but the rule of thumb is movement toward iron (Fe) from either end of the periodic table releases energy. Maybe this is part of the energy released.

Anyway, then another neutron bumps into the deuterium atom and tuns it into tritium (³H); another one comes along and it becomes quadrium (⁴H). ⁴H is unstable enough it emits an electron (beta decay), turning one of the newly created neutrons back into an electron and a proton, and the quadrium into helium (⁴He). Without enough neutrons being soaked up in creating heavier isotopes of oxygen to keep the process from going past the break-even point.

If this even becomes a less expensive way of creating deuterium and tritium it would have commercial applications. Again, I'll wait for the peer review.

Unforutnately, most hydrogen tends to be caught up in water on a rather hot places.

 

And I doubt it works with anything else. It sound like on of these things only Protenium is capable of doing. After all it is the only known (stable) Isotope without any Neutron.

*shrug* On Earth, water is the most readily available source of hydrogen. If we are talking a long enough timeline that mining for extraterrestrial ices becomes cost effective, you have water (H₂O), ammonia (H₃N), or methane, (H₄C), in order of increasing abundance, and "protenium" can be extracted from all of them. Or if other elements do soak up some of the free neutrons, diatomic hydrogen (H₂) would be the most efficient choice.

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

Water isn't really a limited fuel. Besides the gigalitres of water on Earth' date=' there are [i']petalitres[/i] (or possibly even more absurd numbers) of easily accessible water in the outer solar system. By the time water use for this purpose (which does not require our limited stocks of potable water) becomes a concern on earth, quantities of ridiculous level will be available to us.

BTW, if this works, I said IF, it is not water that is being consumed, it is hydrogen. Should, in principle, work just as well with ammonia, methane, or for that matter diatomic hydrogen.

Re: A brain the size of the universe...

Very cool idea' date=' but I still can't help thinking that someday, inevitably, we're going to create a sufficient amount of data processing power that it will result in emergent AI inevitably. [/quote']

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed that the internet hasn't "woken up" yet (or if it has it's hiding that from us).

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

No, this is cold fusion. I'll wait for peer revue.

What seems to be happening in this new kind of fusion is that when hydrogen is "loaded" into nickel or palladium and subjected to the proper kind of an electromagnetic pulse, the hydrogen nucleus which is a positively charged proton acquires an electron which turns it into a low energy free neutron. Now a low energy free neutron is something very nice to have for it quickly combines with other protons to form deuterium, tritium and finally quadrium. The quadrium only lasts for an instant before undergoing a process called beta decay turning it into helium. This is where Einstein and E = MC2 comes in. The beta decay of quadrium results in a loss of mass which is turned into heat. If all this pans out as claimed, it could be one of the most important secrets of nature that has ever been discovered, for our energy problems are over.

So you start with 4 hydrogen atoms, turn 3 of them into neutrons, they form a "quadrium" atom, which spontaneously deteriorates into helium, and this results in a net loss of mass? I need to see the math.

Easily testable hypothesis, in addition to heat this should be generating detectable amounts of deuterium, tritium, and helium. Where are they?

Re: Give me a head with Hair!

You don't want any of the advantages TK has over Stretching' date=' so why Limit TK to work like Stretching?[/quote']

Stretching is not the problem, it's millions of ill defined extra limbs.

Re: Give me a head with Hair!

Telekinesis has one major Advantage over your normal Strenght + Stretching - you can handle objects with Damage Shields without hurting yourself.

So, if you don't want that, it's jsut cheaper to go the Stretching + Extra Strenght route.

TK with a feedback limitation?

Re: Give me a head with Hair!

Should the hair survive a (fire) damage Shield? If not' date=' Stretching and Extra Limb has better cost effectiveness.[/quote']

Don't recall that it ever came up. I'm going by Medusa, from Marvel comics, and IIRC she can lift much heavier weights with her hair than with her arms, with no visible distress. Humm, if she can use her hair to lift and move up to 1.6 tons, IIRC that's about 30 STR with her hair. As an Inhuman, her STR would be in the 18 to 23 range? Probably toward the lower end? So in addition to the extra limbs, we also have extra STR with the extra limbs.

Re: Give me a head with Hair!

This was essentially one guys power. He could grow and shape his hair. No other abilities. His hair always looked great' date=' though.[/quote']

My character Millennium was built, several editions ago, with Instant Change, always on. At the beginning of his phase his uniform was cleaned, repaired, and his hair styled. No matter how badly he was getting his butt kicked, he always looked marvelous!

Re: Give me a head with Hair!

Well' date=' the basic power is Extra Limbs: Hair.[/quote']

Is it? I always felt it was better modeled as TK, area effect, 0 Range, fine manipulation; the prehensile hair as a Sx.

Re: Jokes

I think the Spider Robinson version was:

When you swim in the sea

And an eel bites you knee

That's a Moray!

Re: "Neat" Pictures

"I'm glad you changed your name, you ***-of-a-*****!"

 

(Who gets the reference?)

*raises hand*

Re: Beaks and Speech

Certain Corvids have also been known to mimic human speech with similar ease (ravens being the most common).

And Corvids are spooky-smart! Tool making and a grasp of math!

My mother clearly remembers a Raven that lived on a neighbor's porch. It was free to come and go as it pleased, but it had a perch on the porch and was fed by the family. It could say a few words of English. It called some individuals by name, but what really impressed my mother was that it could tell race in humans. The road was clearly visible from the raven's perch, if a Black person turned in at the gate it would call out "Someone's coming!" Maybe call them by name as they got closer. But if a White person, man or woman, turned in at the gate it was "White folk coming, Essie, White folk coming!"

Re: CHAMPIONS LIVE ACTION Kickstarter from Darren and Silverback Press!

I have nothing at all against LARP or its proponents. It just doesn't interest me.

+1

Am supporting this project for reasons already given, but I just don't "get" LARP. Don't "get" pro sports either. Don't have anything against those who do enjoy them.

Re: Beaks and Speech

It probably operates similarly to a ventriloquist. They can't make those sounds without moving their lips' date=' but they can create close approximations, and the brain of the listener will usually reinforce that approximation by fitting in the correct word via context. For example, the word 'banjo' ... the 'b' sounds more like a hard 'g' when he says it, but if he provides context ('I just love banjo music!'), your brain will automatically substitute the 'b' sound because nothing else makes sense.[/quote']

http://youtu.be/ydg5M4C6K

 

First clip I checked. I hear clearly where she says "beer" and "bye-bye." Einstein is well known enough that I don't think that was an off-stage human providing the vocals.