Neat Nation’s Realtime Electricity Monitor

At Fingrid. EDIT: same in English.
Usage, Imports and Exports of Electricity in Finland at one moment in time

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Coal Uses Oil

Uh oh. If Iain is correct, coal burning in the USA is oil burning as well, since the trains run on diesel and the amounts of coal needed per Joule are so vast, that almost half of coal’s cost at the powerplant is actually oil cost. It’s an old post, but I had never come across [...]

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NASA’s near future

I’ve been an opponent of Ares I for quite a long time (not from the beginning though, but I have become more of an optimist since, regarding better  ways). In light of these things, it might seem that the huge political and bureaucratic machine that is NASA can finally start turning around. Mike Griffin in [...]

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Celebration

Celebration elevates your spirit. It is wonderful what the increased wealth and free time enables the people to do. (Warning, not for the easily offended.)

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Energy Mix

This is what many people should grasp what renewables and nuclear are about. The real electricity world operates with an energy mix. In many places there is open electricity trading, and if you introduce new sources to the marketplace, it affects the buying of other sources. So if you have lots of coal and gas, [...]

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Rough Solutions for Significantly Reducing Carbon Emissions in the Next Few Decades

Take for example nuclear power. If there are CO2 taxes, that makes nuclear power more profitable than coal and it will automatically replace it. Also, somewhat similar for solar power. It is most of the time not wise to mandate very inefficient feelgood solar plants in cloudy areas. That is just theater. (On the other hand, it is sometimes worth supporting industry that is in its infancy and not immediately useful, but has potential in the further future. But this could be the wrong way.) But if they are built on profit and cost/benefit mechanisms alone, then they are probably built in more sensible places.

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Bits From The Last Hundred Years of Estonia, Finland and Sweden

Sweden is the biggest and most securely geographically placed nation of the three. It harped on Finland that had to do minor compromises with the Soviets during the cold war. But Estonia is even more vulnerable than Finland – and now Finland is barking at Estonia for joining so easily with NATO and being forced to traveling around bombing third world countries with USA. It seems different political realities that justify different actions must be assumed. People don’t seem to be able to understand each others’ situations.

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Optimum Rocket Cruise

With some caveats. Let’s assume a rocket is launched, and accelerates to constant speed v_c. Then it stays cruising at this speed and at a constant altitude. Landing is disregarded.
The cruise
We must modify the rocket equation slightly for the cruise: dm/dt is mass flow, v_ex is effective exhaust velocity, F [...]

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Wooden Road Bike

Probably many people who read this blog know I’m a sucker for wood constructions.
Well, here’s one quite nice Birch road bike.
Would be nice to try that.
Wood has approximately the same strength to weight ratio as steel. And wood constructions can be very durable. My late grandmothers house (well the older half of it – which [...]

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Aiming For Facts

Why science needs a voice, and why current journalism and democracy is malfunctioning:
Michael Tobis
As an example of what I mean, I am willing to bet that despite having had little interaction for over a decade, I can predict Rich Puchalsky’s position on carbon capture and sequestration.
I can’t, however, predict TB’s or Eli’s or Simon’s. [...]

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