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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: locogringo who wrote (1134438)	5/12/2019 9:01:37 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576891

"Has Gen Flynn been charged yet today? " It's Sunday in the USA, comrade. The courts are closed, in honor of the sun. Semi-review: Let It Shine - The 6,000 Year History of Solar Power Short version of my review of Let It Shine: go read it, even if like me you're not interested in passive solar architecture. It's ironic that passive solar isn't that interesting to me, because it's about half of the book and until the last century it was about the only truly successful harnessing of the sun. Everything else, however, is still interesting enough to make this a good book about the history of solar power. The history of solar water heating is fascinating - it got pretty far, particularly in Japan, before being killed off by cheap fossil fuels. In some alternate universe timeline, solar motors, solar water heaters, even solar electric modules developed in the late 1800s were never replaced by coal and fossil fuels. Solar electric was particularly interesting to me. They have a picture of the first photovoltaic array in New York City, in 1884. PV energy seems like it could have taken off earlier than it did - the Eisenhower Administration purposefully rejected it compared to nuclear power and the mirage that atomic batteries would be commonplace. The early space race, OTOH, was a godsend for PV as the only feasible long-term power source for the small satellites they used at the time (I'm not sure when radioisotopes became an alternate power source). The Gollum of 20th Century climate change even makes an appearance. A design for the first proposed American satellite from 1955 "shows that the satellite's designer, Dr. S Fred Singer, planned to use solar photovoltaics as its power source." PV's cost hardly mattered for satellites but they helped pay for early technological development. Soon afterwards, remote locations on earth also became obvious use cases (irony again, offshore oil platforms started it). PV poked along for a while while subsidies for nuclear power and fossil fuels burgeoned forth, and PV received little R&D. The Atomic Energy Commission in 1973 proposed a 5-year research budget of $4 billion for nuclear and $36 million for solar. The Reagan Administration purposefully neglected solar. It took massive subsidies in Germany and piggy-backing on computer chip technology for PV to really begin its takeoff. One interesting lesson from the book (mainly from discussion of solar motors and solar water heating) is how much of technological development is iterative development of prior work. The statement that science relies on standing on the shoulders of giants applies just as well to engineering. Again I'd recommend the book. I'd also be interested in a history focusing exclusively on solar PV, and another on wind power. Suggestions welcomed! rabett.blogspot.com

To: locogringo who wrote (1134438)	5/12/2019 1:28:42 PM
From: bruwin	4 Recommendations Recommended By isopatch locogringo majaman1978 TideGlider Respond to of 1576891

When an Extreme Leftist or Demented DemoCrap "politician(?)" or their Biased and Sycophantic Leftist MSM colleagues makes a statement of (their type of) fact, that DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT IS IN ANY WAY THE TRUTH ..... JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY IT IS SO IS IMMATERIAL. Once the new Attorney General, Bill 'Bulldog' Barr, and his resourceful team, gets the job done over the next period of time, THEN the Extreme Leftists (EL), the Demented DemoCrap (DD) "politicians(?)" and their Sycophantic MSM 'megaphones' will GET A TRUE UNDERSTANDING ABOUT WHAT THE ACTUAL CONCEPT OF TRUTH IS ALL ABOUT .... INCLUDING WITH ALL THE CONSEQUENCES ATTACHED. So the EL's, the DD's and the MSM's (and the 18 Imbecilic Morons on my "Ignore List") can Shout and Scream and Hurl Obscenities at All and Sundry and for as Much and as Long as they want, IT WON'T MEAN A THING ....... Those Orange Overalls are packed and ready for Inevitable Distribution to those Lying, Vindictive, Anti-American Anti-Trumpers ...... That's just the way it's gonna be Folks ......