Recent content by Jan Steinman

From near Powell River, BC, Canada, last October. It was the best display I'd ever seen!

Any worse when when a nuclear armed government revolves exclusively around a single ideology?

That reminds me of how Gandhi responded when, after visiting England, a reporter asked him what he thought about Western Civilization. Gandhi replied, "I think it would be a very good idea!" So far, it looks as though humans are like any other animal, and will increase our numbers as long as...

We have a "rate of discovery" curve that can be projected into the future. There have been no major oil discoveries in forty years — despite high oil prices and intensive search for more, more, MORE! Is it possible that some new technology is discovered that shows vast new oil reserves? Sure...

The opposite trend seems to be happening for humans. We are increasingly using spread-spectrum techniques. Plus, we're layering advanced encoding and cryptography on top of that. The rapidly approaching switch to quantum encryption may further disguise us. Some think this may be a limiting...

Oh, I thought we were still on the "jokes" part. Musk is a capitalist, not a genius. Unless by "genius", you mean someone who took a thriving and dominant social media platform and turned it to crap. Looks like Tesla is next. I can imagine Musk doing the same thing to space flight. The people...

This article refers to detecting a "maximum detectable power". Perhaps I misunderstand, but I think what was really specified was a "minimum detectable power." All transmitters of more than "10^23 watts to 10^26 watts" would be as detectable as one putting out a mere 9.999 x 10^22 watts, no...

No, that is not at all what I'm saying. Please pay attention to my actual words, not the spin you give them in your head. I'm saying that fossil sunlight is about to go into decline, and that energy growth is perfectly correlated with economic growth, and therefore, the economy will also go...

I haven't been involved in hierarchy in decades. I've been involved in several co-ops with egalitarian structures. Once energy declines, control will decline. When control declines, hierarchy will decline. With a bit of luck, the co-op model will be dominant in the future. Certainly, in my...

Well, I could be wrong about hydrogen. I just heard about Geoffrey Ellis on the Canadian science show, Quirks and Quarks. He mentions the possibility of something called "geological hydrogen," that is formed from water and certain sedimentary and metamorphic rock, rather than fossilized life...

Just a few quick notes… Live on an island. Or at least a "virtual island," a place that takes more than a half-tank of gasoline to get to. Be a small target. Join with others. Yea, that's a tough one. I don't see any way to do this, given the pop-culture enthrallment of most people. Those who...

I'm skeptical, mainly because the economical energy density storage is low. During busy planting and harvest seasons, a farm tractor operates sixteen hours a day. That diesel tractor can run longer than a farmer can hold his bladder, and can be refilled in the amount of time it takes to empty...

Hydrogen is not an energy source. It is a energy storage medium. There is some hydrogen in natural gas. And if separated from the majority constituent (methane), it could be burned cleanly. But that is still a non-renewable resource. So hydrogen is really more like a battery. That means we...

"My opinion is as valid as your years of research." In other words, you are too lazy or disinterested in evidence to do some research that might challenge your beliefs. Got it.

No, I don't think you do. It has a benefit to those living today. However, the energy we consume today is a liability to those trying to live tomorrow, because it is non-renewable and because it is causing increasing global warming. Do you have children? Do you care that this past...