The sinking of Sheffield is sometimes blamed on a superstructure made wholly or partially from aluminium, the melting point and ignition temperature of which are significantly lower than those of steel. However, this is incorrect as Sheffield's superstructure was made entirely of steel. The confusion is related to the US and British Navies abandoning aluminium after several fires in the 1970s involving both the USS Belknap and HMS Amazon, respectively, and also other ships that had aluminium superstructures. The sinking of the Type 21 frigates Antelope and Ardent, both of which had aluminium superstructures, probably also had an effect on this belief, though these cases are again incorrect and the presence of aluminium had nothing to do with their loss.
As far as I know the UK does not have a network of electric car re-charging stations in it's cities. Certainly there is no program that I know of to decommission any that might exist. I can't of course speak for other countrys.
BART only works so well when it's actually running
Well you could say that about anything :-))
But yes, we do have a serious railway problem at the moment in the UK, with trade unions taking industrial action about single manning of trains and citing safety reasons. When in reality it is all about perceived job losses.
Mass transit is a joke, expect to spend half a day trying to get any place.
Well you may well be experiencing problems where you live, I'm afraid I wouldn't know about that. Generally speaking UK public transport works well, except when weekend engineering works regularly overrun into Monday or we get 1/2" of the wrong kind of snow.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
Parts of California may have working mass transit, but ...
Los Angeles used to have a wonderful mass transit system. Then the tire and rubber companies in concert with the oil companies broke it. The Red and Yellow trains took you where you wanted to go and on time. The auto killed it. The right of way is gone. "Urban planners" have come in and are trying to put in rail again. The problem is they put rail where they want the people to go, not where the people need to go. So their grand view works for a tiny fraction of the people and the rest are forced to use a car. Can you imagine a "planner" who builds a rail line so it goes about 1 mile from the International airport, but never goes to the airport? These "planners" know where you will go, or else!
The bus system of late has been designed to move the uber-poor around. It has lots of pickups in the morning in the poor sections and it delivers the passengers into the industrial areas. The other service it offers is to get the nannys from their poor neighborhoods into the suburbs. However if you live in the suburbs, no service to get you to your job, just back to the poor neighborhood. Never mind ride times of 3 to 4 hours each direction.
Bart works in SF, if you need to cross the bay, going into SFO. SFO is well covered by a bus system and rather compact so you can get around the city. Don't try that in 90% of the rest of California.
As to electric cars, perhaps in another century they will have been able to get making one green enough that doing so won't spew more carbon than making and running a gasoline car for a couple decades.
My friend just took a little vacation trip. His first leg was from Burbank to St. George. That Tesla would have gotten him about as far as Barstow, where he would have had to stop and charge, then head on and he better stop at Baker and charge because he wouldn't make it all the way to Las Vegas, where he would have to stop and charge, then he could go on to St. Geroge, but he better not run the radio, lights or the A/C on that leg. A Tesla could work in an densely populated urban area as a commute car, but that is what you are supposed to use public transit for.
.......Wind and Solar don't produce enough now and you would probably have to cover all of UTAH just to make a significant dent.
Take electricity a solar panel will produce through its lifecycle and see if you can make a solar panel out of it. Power the truck, the assembly line, the kiln that liquefies silicon etc. You'll see that the precious panel is no better than corn converted to ethanol. Sleight of hand and it is as if the power is miraculously green. No exhaust fumes, greenhouse gases. Pure magic !
It has been estimated that wind, solar, and tidal power together would never generate more than about 20% of the UK's energy needs. That is why we are going to clean Nuclear power for the other 80%.
Solar panels cost in for businesses that can offset the cost against taxes. For domestic use there is a 15-18 year payback period.
The electric car controversy seems to have started with Volvo
All Volvo cars to be electric or hybrid from 2019
And they're the ones that have their headlights on all day long whether you like it or not.
In favor of the electric cars is the fact that due to autonomous driving cars will in the near future be driving far closer to one another this reducing air resistance and making it's range considerably longer.
due to autonomous driving cars will in the near future be driving far closer to one another this reducing air resistance
We all know about slipstreaming, but that doesn't make any sense. Sorry.
Even at moderate highway speeds, the "drafting effect" is significant. For an electric vehicle on the highway, the primary usage for energy is to overcome wind resistance and road (tire) friction. For an ICE vehicle, most of the energy usage winds up producing heat.
As more and more vehicles start using autonomous driving you will see more "trains" of cars driving significantly close to each other, enough so that the drafting effect will be pronounced and efficient.
.......Wind and Solar don't produce enough now and you would probably have to cover all of UTAH just to make a significant dent.
Take electricity a solar panel will produce through its lifecycle and see if you can make a solar panel out of it. Power the truck, the assembly line, the kiln that liquefies silicon etc. You'll see that the precious panel is no better than corn converted to ethanol. Sleight of hand and it is as if the power is miraculously green. No exhaust fumes, greenhouse gases. Pure magic !
That's the electric part to charge the battery. Making the battery is a different question and we don't have a long enough timeline to have real numbers on what the end of life costs are going to be outside of some optimistic guesses on what laboratory conditions can produce.
Drafting, even at bicycle speeds the effect is pronounced. But for the open road the cars are going to have to talk to each other, and that is a huge security risk. Imagine a bad actor sending deliberately false data. Can a car trust data from another car which might be compromised? How can it protect itself from this? Never mind someone attempting to hack in via this communications link.
But for the open road the cars are going to have to talk to each other, and that is a huge security risk.
There are cars now that can sense how close they are to a vehicle in front and apply the brakes automatically.
you will see more "trains" of cars driving significantly close to each other,
Maybe maybe not. I can see taxi firms maybe doing that with their own group of vehicles. Would all vehicle makers agree to use a common control system?
Talking of taxis, we've all read sci-fi stories where you step outside your office and press a button on your communicator which summons the nearest air taxi which picks you up. You insert your card which tells the air taxi your home address and debits the cost, it then flies you automatically dropping you outside your home. I would think we are a long way from that scenario yet.
But back to the principle of electric cars. Oil and gas are finite fossil resources which in time will run out. Shale gas might extend that by a few more decades, but time will come, 2100-2150 onwards maybe, when there simply ain't nothing left of any of it. So how will we travel?
Well, we could invent the Startrek transporter if quantum physics gets a leap forward, but being practical we need another form of motive power for both personal and public transport. That is where electricity likely comes in. But how do you generate it? Solar, hydro electric, nuclear? Then the problems of storing it in accumulators or batteries, following which re-charging systems need to be provided.
Then again maybe we don't need to travel at all from our homes? Smart fridges will order the food you need, drones will deliver it. We already have video conferencing, if we move on from there we could develop hologram technology where you all sit in a virtual reality conference room anywhere in the world, and interact as if you were really there.
I predict that all electric vehicles will come in for inner city use on short trips, hybrids are coming in now for longer trips, but there will likely come a time when people will find ways not to travel in the first place. But I think we are talking hundreds of years in the future.
But that is a bit of a Dystopian view of the future, all the while the land will sustain it you will get people living off it growing their own food, water from wells, breeding animals etc. But I do sadly see a vision of returning to biblical walled cities in the future, where city dwellers live apart from the rest. We are seeing that now in the UK with many up-market new housing developments being gated communities. History has a sense of repeating itself.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
The sinking of Sheffield is
As far as I know the UK does not have a network of electric car re-charging stations in it's cities. Certainly there is no program that I know of to decommission any that might exist. I can't of course speak for other countrys.
Well you could say that about anything :-))
But yes, we do have a serious railway problem at the moment in the UK, with trade unions taking industrial action about single manning of trains and citing safety reasons. When in reality it is all about perceived job losses.
Well you may well be experiencing problems where you live, I'm afraid I wouldn't know about that. Generally speaking UK public transport works well, except when weekend engineering works regularly overrun into Monday or we get 1/2" of the wrong kind of snow.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
Parts of California may have
Parts of California may have working mass transit, but ...
Los Angeles used to have a wonderful mass transit system. Then the tire and rubber companies in concert with the oil companies broke it. The Red and Yellow trains took you where you wanted to go and on time. The auto killed it. The right of way is gone. "Urban planners" have come in and are trying to put in rail again. The problem is they put rail where they want the people to go, not where the people need to go. So their grand view works for a tiny fraction of the people and the rest are forced to use a car. Can you imagine a "planner" who builds a rail line so it goes about 1 mile from the International airport, but never goes to the airport? These "planners" know where you will go, or else!
The bus system of late has been designed to move the uber-poor around. It has lots of pickups in the morning in the poor sections and it delivers the passengers into the industrial areas. The other service it offers is to get the nannys from their poor neighborhoods into the suburbs. However if you live in the suburbs, no service to get you to your job, just back to the poor neighborhood. Never mind ride times of 3 to 4 hours each direction.
Bart works in SF, if you need to cross the bay, going into SFO. SFO is well covered by a bus system and rather compact so you can get around the city. Don't try that in 90% of the rest of California.
As to electric cars, perhaps in another century they will have been able to get making one green enough that doing so won't spew more carbon than making and running a gasoline car for a couple decades.
My friend just took a little vacation trip. His first leg was from Burbank to St. George. That Tesla would have gotten him about as far as Barstow, where he would have had to stop and charge, then head on and he better stop at Baker and charge because he wouldn't make it all the way to Las Vegas, where he would have to stop and charge, then he could go on to St. Geroge, but he better not run the radio, lights or the A/C on that leg. A Tesla could work in an densely populated urban area as a commute car, but that is what you are supposed to use public transit for.
Zalster wrote: .......Wind
Take electricity a solar panel will produce through its lifecycle and see if you can make a solar panel out of it. Power the truck, the assembly line, the kiln that liquefies silicon etc. You'll see that the precious panel is no better than corn converted to ethanol. Sleight of hand and it is as if the power is miraculously green. No exhaust fumes, greenhouse gases. Pure magic !
It has been estimated that
It has been estimated that wind, solar, and tidal power together would never generate more than about 20% of the UK's energy needs. That is why we are going to clean Nuclear power for the other 80%.
Solar panels cost in for businesses that can offset the cost against taxes. For domestic use there is a 15-18 year payback period.
The electric car controversy seems to have started with Volvo
And they're the ones that have their headlights on all day long whether you like it or not.
Volvo
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
In favor of the electric cars
In favor of the electric cars is the fact that due to autonomous driving cars will in the near future be driving far closer to one another this reducing air resistance and making it's range considerably longer.
due to autonomous driving
We all know about slipstreaming, but that doesn't make any sense. Sorry.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
Chris S_2 wrote:due to
Even at moderate highway speeds, the "drafting effect" is significant. For an electric vehicle on the highway, the primary usage for energy is to overcome wind resistance and road (tire) friction. For an ICE vehicle, most of the energy usage winds up producing heat.
As more and more vehicles start using autonomous driving you will see more "trains" of cars driving significantly close to each other, enough so that the drafting effect will be pronounced and efficient.
Seti Classic Final Total: 11446 WU.
Bill592 wrote:Zalster wrote:
Maybe, maybe not. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/the-solar-industry-has-paid-off-its-carbon-debts/510308/?utm_source=eb Perhaps where the panel is made and where it is used it the biggest factor in that question. So a panel made in a dirty country and installed in a not too sunny clean country will be worse than nothing, while a panel made in a clean country and installed in a sunny dirty country will be saving.
That's the electric part to charge the battery. Making the battery is a different question and we don't have a long enough timeline to have real numbers on what the end of life costs are going to be outside of some optimistic guesses on what laboratory conditions can produce.
Drafting, even at bicycle speeds the effect is pronounced. But for the open road the cars are going to have to talk to each other, and that is a huge security risk. Imagine a bad actor sending deliberately false data. Can a car trust data from another car which might be compromised? How can it protect itself from this? Never mind someone attempting to hack in via this communications link.
RandyC wrote:Chris S_2
Except for Australia. They will have to be left out of this due to their kangaroos....lol
http://bgr.com/2017/06/27/driverless-car-tech-kangaroo/
But for the open road the
There are cars now that can sense how close they are to a vehicle in front and apply the brakes automatically.
Maybe maybe not. I can see taxi firms maybe doing that with their own group of vehicles. Would all vehicle makers agree to use a common control system?
Talking of taxis, we've all read sci-fi stories where you step outside your office and press a button on your communicator which summons the nearest air taxi which picks you up. You insert your card which tells the air taxi your home address and debits the cost, it then flies you automatically dropping you outside your home. I would think we are a long way from that scenario yet.
But back to the principle of electric cars. Oil and gas are finite fossil resources which in time will run out. Shale gas might extend that by a few more decades, but time will come, 2100-2150 onwards maybe, when there simply ain't nothing left of any of it. So how will we travel?
Well, we could invent the Startrek transporter if quantum physics gets a leap forward, but being practical we need another form of motive power for both personal and public transport. That is where electricity likely comes in. But how do you generate it? Solar, hydro electric, nuclear? Then the problems of storing it in accumulators or batteries, following which re-charging systems need to be provided.
Then again maybe we don't need to travel at all from our homes? Smart fridges will order the food you need, drones will deliver it. We already have video conferencing, if we move on from there we could develop hologram technology where you all sit in a virtual reality conference room anywhere in the world, and interact as if you were really there.
I predict that all electric vehicles will come in for inner city use on short trips, hybrids are coming in now for longer trips, but there will likely come a time when people will find ways not to travel in the first place. But I think we are talking hundreds of years in the future.
But that is a bit of a Dystopian view of the future, all the while the land will sustain it you will get people living off it growing their own food, water from wells, breeding animals etc. But I do sadly see a vision of returning to biblical walled cities in the future, where city dwellers live apart from the rest. We are seeing that now in the UK with many up-market new housing developments being gated communities. History has a sense of repeating itself.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now