Technology, Science and the Environment.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, SpacedX said:

As @leicsmac recently sagely observed, the next words spoken on the lunar surface may very well be in Mandarin. 

 

https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/chinas-lunar-lander-aces-touchdown-and-takeoff-tests-ahead-of-planned-2030-crewed-moon-mission-video

The Chinese have clearly made themselves their own JFK before-the-decade-is-over bargain. 

 

I have no doubt that they'll stick to it. 

 

So the US, under such dysfunctional current leadership, have that long to get themselves in shape. No longer. 

[leicsmac]

Starship Flight 10 set for August 24th.

 

They really could do with getting one totally right. 

[urban.spaceman]

 

[urban.spaceman]

On 16/08/2025 at 18:46, leicsmac said:

Starship Flight 10 set for August 24th.

 

They really could do with getting one totally right. 

Could have done with it malfunctioning over Alaska the other day....

[SpacedX]

The The UK Space Agency is to lose its executive agency status and be subsumed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), a move that is expected to cut duplication and reduce bureaucracy but there is a danger that this will introduce less incentivised ways of working which tend to blight government departments which was the reason the agency was created in the first place. At a time when many other nations are founding their own, there are real fears that the dynamism and proactivity will be lost and we will fall behind in terms of capability, technology, research and initiative. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

I imagine it will become more militarised as is the general direction of most things. Like the Alan Turing Institute.

[leicsmac]

On 16/08/2025 at 18:46, leicsmac said:

Starship Flight 10 set for August 24th.

 

They really could do with getting one totally right. 

And so they did. 

 

Pretty much everything they set out to do went as they wanted on this one. Well done, onto the next!

 

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/spacex-launches-starship-flight-10-critical-test-flight-video

[SpacedX]

4 hours ago, leicsmac said:

And so they did. 

 

Pretty much everything they set out to do went as they wanted on this one. Well done, onto the next!

 

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/spacex-launches-starship-flight-10-critical-test-flight-video

I do wish that they'd cut out the live feed to the inane cheering and whooping. Oh for the days of Jack King, Walter Cronkite and James Burke. 

[leicsmac]

55 minutes ago, SpacedX said:

I do wish that they'd cut out the live feed to the inane cheering and whooping. Oh for the days of Jack King, Walter Cronkite and James Burke. 

I can see why they did it at the start - such organisations have had a disconnect where the stereotype of the type of person/scientist working for a space company made them appear unrelatable and goodwill (and funding) for such companies suffered as a result. So they wanted from the start to humanise the people working for SpaceX.

 

I don't really think it's all that necessary for that purpose any more, though. 

Edited 27 August 2025 by leicsmac

[leicsmac]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20043-0

 

We investigate the relationship between individual differences in cognitive reflection and behavior on the social media platform Twitter, using a convenience sample of N = 1,901 individuals from Prolific. We find that people who score higher on the Cognitive Reflection Test—a widely used measure of reflective thinking—were more discerning in their social media use, as evidenced by the types and number of accounts followed, and by the reliability of the news sources they shared. Furthermore, a network analysis indicates that the phenomenon of echo chambers, in which discourse is more likely with like-minded others, is not limited to politics: people who scored lower in cognitive reflection tended to follow a set of accounts which are avoided by people who scored higher in cognitive reflection. Our results help to illuminate the drivers of behavior on social media platforms and challenge intuitionist notions that reflective thinking is unimportant for everyday judgment and decision-making.

 

Interesting study. 

[leicsmac]

On 11/08/2025 at 19:18, leicsmac said:

The Chinese have clearly made themselves their own JFK before-the-decade-is-over bargain. 

 

I have no doubt that they'll stick to it. 

 

So the US, under such dysfunctional current leadership, have that long to get themselves in shape. No longer. 

https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/china-is-making-serious-progress-in-its-goal-to-land-astronauts-on-the-moon-by-2030

 

More on this. 

 

Yeah, they'll stick to it. 

[blabyboy]

Looks like Arthur C Clarke was right once again and we're on track for 2063

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, blabyboy said:

Looks like Arthur C Clarke was right once again and we're on track for 2063

ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. 

Edited 29 August 2025 by leicsmac

[Zear0]

49 minutes ago, blabyboy said:

Looks like Arthur C Clarke was right once again and we're on track for 2063

Rendezvous with Reform

[CornwallFox]

Why have the Tories decided being anti-science is a good thing? Really ridiculous. Everybody is so busy playing Farage at his own game that all sense has been lost. In what way will allowing runaway climate change conserve anything? 

 

BBC News - Tories pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp890n51684o

[leicsmac]

26 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Why have the Tories decided being anti-science is a good thing? Really ridiculous. Everybody is so busy playing Farage at his own game that all sense has been lost. In what way will allowing runaway climate change conserve anything? 

 

BBC News - Tories pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp890n51684o

It won't. 

 

Some people think that it will conserve short-term wealth and power for themselves and their mates, but it won't do that either. Others simply don't care because they think they can be inured from the worst of the effects until they pass on and don't are about their legacies as one of those who killed the world. 

[leicsmac]

A corollary of the above:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yl5v4elgno

 

A summer of soaring temperatures has come to an end with more Britons turning to air conditioning to cope with the heat - but should you buy one too?

The benefits of air-con are well documented. Studies show that hot days make working and studying less efficient and a good night's sleep more difficult to achieve.

However, it uses extra electricity - the price of which remains much higher now than it was a few years ago - and environmental groups are concerned about the chemicals used to cool air.

Some consumers also worry air-con devices spread viruses - but that hasn't stopped sales rising.

 

 

[Otis]

6 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Why have the Tories decided being anti-science is a good thing? Really ridiculous. Everybody is so busy playing Farage at his own game that all sense has been lost. In what way will allowing runaway climate change conserve anything? 

 

BBC News - Tories pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp890n51684o

Energy security. So we're not relying  so heavily on other countries for our gas and electric. 

[Zear0]

1 hour ago, Otis said:

Energy security. So we're not relying  so heavily on other countries for our gas and electric. 

It does nothing for our energy security as we gift it to energy companies who sell most off it internationally and we'd still remain massive net importers. Even if you don't care about the climate change aspects of renewables, moving away from hydrocarbons is the best thing we can do for security.

[CornwallFox]

2 hours ago, Otis said:

Energy security. So we're not relying  so heavily on other countries for our gas and electric. 

All of our oil and gas are sold on the international markets. We don't keep it. We sell licences to international oil companies.

[Otis]

37 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

It does nothing for our energy security as we gift it to energy companies who sell most off it internationally and we'd still remain massive net importers. Even if you don't care about the climate change aspects of renewables, moving away from hydrocarbons is the best thing we can do for security.

 

7 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

All of our oil and gas are sold on the international markets. We don't keep it. We sell licences to international oil companies.

Maybe we should keep it for ourselves first, which would secure our energy needs as most homes in the UK have GCH. Renewables won't close that gap.

[CornwallFox]

41 minutes ago, Otis said:

 

Maybe we should keep it for ourselves first, which would secure our energy needs as most homes in the UK have GCH. Renewables won't close that gap.

Firstly neither the Tories nor reform are going to be socialising oil and gas exploration any time soon. 

Second GCH is the past not future. You need to move on and let us leave fossil energy behind, which we have no choice but to do. Heat pumps exist. 

[leicsmac]

6 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Firstly neither the Tories nor reform are going to be socialising oil and gas exploration any time soon. 

Second GCH is the past not future. You need to move on and let us leave fossil energy behind, which we have no choice but to do. Heat pumps exist. 

It's remarkable that this keeps needing to be said given the consequences of using fossil fuels for energy generation already showing and how detailed the consequences to come are. 

[Greg2607]

8 hours ago, Otis said:

 

Maybe we should keep it for ourselves first, which would secure our energy needs as most homes in the UK have GCH. Renewables won't close that gap.

"We" don't extract it.  So we get no say on what the company that does, does with it.  Fully privatising BP and Shell was idiocy of the highest order. 

 

As a population, we now subsidise other countries energy companies. 

 

 

[Otis]

7 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Firstly neither the Tories nor reform are going to be socialising oil and gas exploration any time soon. 

Second GCH is the past not future. You need to move on and let us leave fossil energy behind, which we have no choice but to do. Heat pumps exist. 

I'm sure things will move on but let's not pretend that gas won't be the primary source of heating for several decades.