The irony is, this got me reading their indiegogo page. Seems they might already know their device is BS!
Still, some good laughs when you realise how the 'rydes' solar panels are TINY!... also they didnt realize that theres already a company out there called fontus! http://www.fontuswater.com/
its a good thing they will never get this to work as advertised otherwise they would have some interesting trademark battles!
Just some quick fun, so I wont be adding this to the patreon feed, but many thanks to all those who support this channel. https://www.patreon.com/Thunderf00t?ty=h
Thunderf00t's Description (I am not Thunderf00t)
So over the last couple of weeks I got so many requests to do a video on the Triton 'artificial gill' system.
Its bull$hit on sooo many levels. The amazing thing is it seems to have been 'released' about 2 years ago and made a big splash, although many were sceptical. Now 2 years on they have an indiegogo campaign and within days pull in almost a million dollars for a project that is bullshit from the start!
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Thunderf00t's description (I am not Thunderf00t)
Solar FREAKIN roadways is a nice idea, but then again is a pogostick that can hop to the moon as a cheap, reusable trans-orbital vehicle.
Is it plausible though. Well it basically proposes the union of 3 or 4 technologies. LED lights, solar panels, and glass roads.
Glass really isn't a feasible material to make roads out of.
1) its too expensive. Just coating the US road system with roads would cost many times the federal budget.
2) Its too soft. Even with a textured surface for traction, it will wear away too quickly. Dirt on roads is basically small rocks, which are generally much harder than glass. Imagine taking a handful of dirt and rubbing it a window. Now imagine doing that with the wheels of a 20 ton tractor/trailer.
3) I have doubts about the physical properties of the glass to take the load and mechanical heat stress required of a road making material.
Solar panels under the road is a bad idea from the start. If they are under the roads, they are hard to maintain. They will have reduced light from parked cars etc. They are fragile. Not really congenial to the conditions you are likely to get on a road. In many ways building a shed over the road, or just having solar panels by the side of the road is a far better idea. However the power transport really isnt practical. One of the most efficient ways to transport electricity around is as high voltage AC. However to build those lines would probably double the cost of any construction. To bury the cables is even more expensive.
LEDs for variable road marking have been partially implemented. They are usually only cost effective in dynamic traffic management systems. For most roads its utterly pointless as the road markings almost never need to be altered. These LED are usually not easy to see (especially in full daylight when the solar panels are meant to be generating power).
However solar powered roadways has generated well over a million dollars for Julie and Scott Brusaw (a therapist and an engineer).
I'm still on the fence as to if they are just delusional dreamers or (now millionaire) con artists. A lot of this looks like just direct 'what if' daydreaming, but then you get the part of the promotional video where they are shoveling ground up coloured glass into a wheelbarrow, while narrating that they use as many recycled materials as possible in this project. It's very difficult to not see that as a direct lie. They must know full well that they did not use any of that material in the construction of their glass tiles.
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Thunderf00t's Description (I am not Thunderf00t)
so people intermittently ask me questions about science on TV shows. One in particular was the scene in Breaking Bad about if you can really make thermite from an etch-a-sketch (or a generic version of one). Honestly, this was in the maybe pile for me, because if indeed it was fine aluminium in the etch-a-sketch, then yeah, it would be relatively straightforwards to make thermite from it. It would also be possible to see if you could indeed melt through a lock with it.
So with that I ordered myself an etch-a-sketch...... and went experimenting :-)
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Thunderf00t's Description (I am not Thunderf00t)
Thorium is an interesting nuclear fuel, but its not magic.
It still has many of the inherent problems of all other nuclear power. The very thing that makes nuclear power attractive (a million times more energy than conventional fuel) also carries inherent problems.
Nuclear power, suitably tapped is very safe, and a very clear source of power. However the idea of using nuclear power to fuel cars is just bloody stupid. To run a car you need about 200 kW, and the idea of putting a nuclear powerplant in a car that could supply this amount of energy is just bloody stupid on almost every level.
original mashable story
http://mashable.com/2013/11/07/thoriu...
Thunderf00t's Description (I am not Thunderf00t)
Is it a scam? well kinda.
For certain when they claim to be the first 'real' hoverboard, this is BS. Others have made 'hoverboards' previously using either magnetic or aerodynamic levitation.
Looks like their hoverboard works on magnets rotating over a conducting, but non-ferromatnetic surface. Its basically the same technology as a maglev train. The only difference is they've kinda hybridized it with quadcopter technology. That I've gotta admit is a clever idea. In practice however its almost worthless as it just cannot supply the power to lift ratio to do anything useful. Further the engines only seem to be able to lift their own weight plus 50 % extra. Thats just impractical for any sensible application.
They then go on to suggest they will levitate houses with this, to save them from earthquakes, floods and rising sea levels. This is just so stupid its amazing that noone in the mainstream press seems to have picked up on how crazy an idea this is.
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Thunderf00t's Description (I am not Thunderf00t)
If they invented the bicycle today.... it would be banned for being too dangerous.....
Similarly with alcohol and tobacco!
Just a little venting about the hysteria about half a dozen incidents involving 'hoverboards' so I wont be adding this to the patreon supported feed, but many thanks to all those who support this channel that way :-)
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Thunderf00t's Description (I am not Thunderf00t)
Ball park numbers:
to 25 000 sq miles = 90 bn square meters.
At about 4 tiles per m2, thats 240 billion tiles.
At 50 LEDs each, thats 12 trillion LEDS.
These need to be light up ALL the time you want road markings!
300 LEDs takes about 60 Watts.
Cheap electricity is about 0.06 dollars per kW Hr
So to run 300 LEDs for 1 hr coast about half a cent.
To run 12 trillion LEDs for 1hr costs about 150 million dollars!
4 billion dollars per day,
1.4 trillion dollars per year.
They will take more power just to run the LEDs than will be generated by the road!!!
And thats not including the cost of building the infrastructure, or the fact that the LED probably will need to be replaced about every 5 years.
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Thunderf00t's Description (I am not Thunderf00t)
Always depressing to see the level of scientific illiteracy in the mainstream media and in many cooperation.
So Fox News, CBS, The Weather Channel and USA today all had articles on 'aircarbon' which purports to pull carbon out of the air through a hose.
They generally try to be as vague as possible, but claim they are making carbon out of the air, and that this will be cheaper than regular plastic.
Thats Bullshit on every level.
Firstly if they are making a polymer out of carbon dioxide, you need to put a load of energy into it. More than you would have gotten from burning the oil and creating that carbon dioxide in the first place.
If they are talking about pulling methane out of the air, they are so full of bull it beggars belief. Methane in the air runs at about one part per million. Just pumping enough air to do this would cost more energy than just making a polymer out of oil.
Thirdly, if they are talking about making this polymer from biogas/ biomethane.. then all their claims about making it out of the air are outrageously misleading!
Some ball park figures.
1kg of oil makes ~ 1kg of plastic.
Methane is about 1 part in a million in air. So to make 1kg of plastic requires 1 million kg of air (1000 tons). Air is about 1kg per cubic meter so to extract 1kg of 'air plastic' from the air would take about 1million cubic meters of air. About the volume of the empire state building!!
Some people taken in by this:
CBS
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/plastic...
Fox Business
http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/...
.... Dell Computers have gone for this big time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF7_G...
This video was supported through generation donations by supporters through Patreon.
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many thanks to Linda for supplying the transcript for this video.
http://thunderf00tdotorg.wordpress.co...
Thunderf00t's Description (I am not Thunderf00t)
Recently it has been widely covered in the media that ~70 members of the US 7th fleet are suing TEPCO (the company responsible for the Fukushima for THREE BILLION DOLLARS.
On paper they claim all sorts of cancer, however I can find no interview of anyone with cancer. Further the lawsuit doesnt say what the claims are for. What I do find is interview after interview of people describing non-quantifiable symptoms that are wholly inconsistent with radiation poisoning.
The thing that bugs me the most here is radiation is being sold as the 'invisible boogey man' that causes all the ills that you cannot otherwise explain.
Sure radiation can cause some serious problems, but then again so can asbestos. But this does not mean you can blame any unaccounted for maladies on asbestos or radiation!
In Africa when anything goes wrong (crop failures etc), there are those only too happy to blame witches. The only thing different here is the boogey man is radiation.
Video describing effects of radiation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj6v8M...
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