You could do what I used to do. Get a 1 metre satellite dish to pick up internet. It's a lot better now, you might be able to get that new Elon Musk one. Back when I had it 20 years ago it had a 250ms ping.
OT: Why don't we cover mountains in wind farms?
Jul 19, 2022
Last reply: 4 years ago
114 Replies
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I look forward to the collapse of civilisation. Like he says, things have become too damn complicated. I play quite a few computer games set post nuclear war and I want to live there.
Just don't lose a tyre at that speed:
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Or just sell it back and forth to dark/non-windy places.
Anyway, at the moment in the UK for example, we consume a constant 20GW, rising to peaks of 30GW. So anything up to 20GW can always be used directly.
UV is very easily blocked. Even most types of glass absorb most of it. Clouds too.
They have their issues too. I looked into it at one time but the beam was oversubscribed, plus there is snow and so forth to deal with.
Our illustrious leader who makes Boris look competent.
Backstory:
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Worked ok for me. This was back when they'd just introduced 256kBit broadband over phone lines. I couldn't get it as I was a little too far form the exchange. The dish gave me 256kBit instead of the 56kBit frm the phoneline. I just had to put up with a slow ping, which you only noticed playing an online game, which I didn't. I don't get much snow.
A collapse would be interesting if nothing else. I could use some amusement in my golden years. We had high hopes in the '60s but they came to nothing.
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It was the New Riders song but I like the Ian & Sylvia version
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It takes a lot of switch gear and high voltage power lines to do so. Nobody wants those in their back yard either. There are a few trails that follow a power line cut for a ways. Walking under them with the humming and crackling is interesting.
Blocked yes, utilizing it is more difficult.
The current state is boring. We either need masses of new technology, or no resources left. Either way will make things fun.
In Scotland they're using underground HV cables instead now (the full 330kV ones) to make the scenery look nicer. Not sure of the expense, but they actually replaced good ones with underground ones, so presumably not that much. You have to dig and pay for insulation, but there's no possibility of wind damage and no cost of huge supports.
That's what I meant, it tends to be blocked by the clouds and the atmosphere and even the glass the panels are made of.
People can take any new technology and turn it into trivial s**te. What we need are a few real challenges to get natural selection working again.
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It doesn't say but I'm guessing that 1.5% was over 90% of the total cost. It would be a challenge for some of the lines around here. They bridge canyons and you really wouldn't want to walk the path under the lines. Obviously someone did when they were putting the line in and for periodic vegetation removal but they're steep enough you'd probably go for vegetation holds in some parts.
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That one is bad enough and they're going up the road. I'm not sure which section but the road is paved for the first ten miles and then it turns into a rutted one lane dirt road that's interesting even on the dirt bike. It's a relatively low voltage residential feed, not the east-west high voltage line that crosses high above the creek.
It's still working. Perhaps just not in the way you would like.
What we need is selective breeding. Only create intelligent healthy kids.
There are many indications that intelligent healthy people don't breed. They tend to worry too much about how they will be able to raise said kids. Meanwhile the dumb breed like rabbits and figure somebody will clothe and feed their spawn.
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