* Posts by Richard Barclay

11 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jul 2008

Special Ops satellite-bitchslapping hydrogen strato cruiser flies

Richard Barclay

Hydrogen + Oxygen + Catalyst = Electricity + Water

At a guess... If you have a tank of hydrogen you can use some to topup some electric juice via a fuel cell as well as the rest for conventional propulsion. If its trying to be stealthy and emit a low ir signature you wouldn't want an apu kicking out lots of heat etc.

'Smear agricultural land with human poo'

Richard Barclay
Pint

Recycled Story...

Yes sewage sludge & bi-product has been spread on farms for ages, I used to research it nearly 15 years ago at Thames Water. Sludge is bio-digested which generates lots of methane for energy, & then denatured leaving an inert residue etc.

Boffins baffled by mysterious Martian crater

Richard Barclay
Boffin

Perhaps Some Earthlike Geological processes?

For me there is a logical processes that could have caused it. I'm not an expert in dating crater formation so my hypothesis might be bollocks

1. Shallow impact crater, meteorite 'skids' impact carving out crater. The generally flat look of the crater floor is caused by it filling with sand / dust over the many millions of years later, so basically we're looking at the solar systems biggest sandpit.

2. Shallow impact crater, similar process but into water / wet mud type lake bed.

3. Tectonic movement, a caldera / rift valley type process was at work that stalled. When the underlying magma cooled it contracted leaving a depression (which then filled with dust / sediment etc).

Things to look for, if it where a meteorite impact we should see a 'fall out line' of debris some distance from the crater (the distance would denote the force of impact, by measuring the mass of the objects moved / distance / gravity we can work out how big it was). Imagine a bunker shot in golf where the sand kicks up and falls after etc.

Twitter bomb joker found guilty

Richard Barclay
Big Brother

wtf?

the law truly is an ass & a tyranny when it is used for no useful purpose, are the cps going to go after chris morris now for his 4 lions film for promoting jihad via on-line film trailers?

Boffins: Give up on CO2 cuts, only geoengineering can work

Richard Barclay
Dead Vulture

its all about ballance

Trying to create 'artificial trees' or solar mirrors or seeding the ocean are just technological pipe dreams. The sheer amount of focil fuel energy we'd use to manipulate the environment in this way would just be a zero sum game.

For our immediate term electrical energy supply we should look towards, Nuclear and hopefully in time fusion power. Planting trees (or just letting nature soak up the excess co2) will help and offers a simple and foolproof method of sequestrating the C02 in the short term.

Over the eons of time, oceanic organisms have effectively scrubbed co2 from the atmosphere by laying down Carboniferous rocks such as chalk and limestone, this is the best buffer we have.

Camelot dismisses lottery website hack claims

Richard Barclay
Coat

Big Money Balls Up!

Sorry just wanted to get the headline in before the Daily Mail....

Inside the tent, the best bioterrorist money could buy?

Richard Barclay
Coat

Dr Evil vs. Dr Ego

The way I read it is he was motivated in the same way some errant Firefighters set thier own fires. In a way he just wanted to massage his ego & justify his existance of developing vaccines to anthrax by creating a terror campaign.

One could further extrapolate this theory, that because of the political thesis at this time, that Iraq / Sudam Hussain / Al Qaeda were bad, ipso-facto they must be developing chemical / biological weapons. (so it would be easy to divert any attention) Now if your 'area' of reseach just happens to be a bit of a scientific backwater from the cold war, one might be encouraged to promote ones services as the pre-eminant authority on Anthrax. It would seem like the perfect crime......

Steve Fossett may be alive, investigator claims

Richard Barclay

one big mother of a desert

I was driving with friends in the Mohave Desert (Joshua Tree Nat Park) the day Steve went missing and just amaized at the sheer space and emptyness of the place. The weather that day was +42C in the shade.

The deserts in Califonia / Nevada / Arizona / Colarado is absolutely massive so loosing your self is not that hard, the Mohave is about half the size of England, so looking for one light aircraft that would have left an impact crater a few meters accross is a hard job at best.

If there had been a fire then it might have been more obvious scorch marks for searchers, so my theory is Steve ran into engine problems because of a lack of fuel, the lack of a mayday (because of a loss of power) and locatable fire. If Steve did run out, he must have tried to land so my bet is that he took a chance at any reasonably flat strip of a few hundred yards long within gliding distance.

I'd love to think that he made it but whats smooth desert terain at 1000ft pretty soon becomes a bolder field at 50, by which time with no power there is no chance to 'go around' so the landing was bound to be rough at best, I think your survival chances out in the desert (in full fitness on that day) are limited at best and if he sustained any kind of injury he would have succomed pretty quickly.

The FDRs of Green explain the gentle art of planet saving

Richard Barclay

not anti-enviromental

I think the register is a good outlet for the enlightened sceptic & I don't think it being overly biased to present an alternative viewpoint. If the enviromental movement is driving to save the planet, then its key aim should be to share resources as efficiently as practical, the market mechanism is the most efficient way we know to do this. Imposing controls that restrict the free movement of capital only creates a world of haves & have nots.

I don't recycle glass because I think it will save the planet, I recycle glass because I know that it takes less energy input to make a milk bottle out of another milk bottle and there fore in the long term the price of milk bottles will fall and I will be better off.

Richard Barclay
Flame

Eco Luddites - Make FDR spin

Well I guess FDR will be spinning in his grave, the greens should read a book on basic economics before pandering thier utopian apocalypse.

FDR's new deal of the 1930's was all about getting people back to work, and thereby consuming more goods & services, WWII kick started this into overdrive with enormous capital wealth being invested. Likewise because of the enormous economic strength (created by WWII) in the USA, the US was able to rebuild the entire economy of Western Europe afterwards, meaning we have some of the highest average standards of living possible today.

If the greens want to really make a difference to the planet, they should support the conversion of all fosil fuel electricity production to nuclear power. Not only would this reduce our global emissions of CO2 to pre industrial levels, but in addidtion the investment of goods and capital in new nuclear plants would kickstart any slumbering ecconomies. Now if we where really radical we would build the nuclear plants in the third world, so by injecting enormous capital wealth into thier economies.

O2 buckles under 3G iPhone demand

Richard Barclay
Paris Hilton

Sorry Steve, Gave up waiting

Yup after an hour and half wait, I decided to give up waiting for the 'technical issues' to resolve themselves.

Why Paris, well I'd leave her standing.