The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning.

Regarding the quote, "Wind, wave and hydrothermal power have mostly been tapped," and your reply quote, "In the United States, most geothermal resources are concentrated in the West, but geothermal heat pumps can be used nearly anywhere."

Hydrothermal is not what is exploited in geoexchange, or geothermal heat pumps. Hydrothermal is reserved for geothermal reservoirs with water at elevated temperatures that can be used to generate electricity.

Having said that ... the geothermal resources available for generating electricity are vast, and can be found in most parts of the country. People seem to confuse low cost geothermal resources with the whole enchilada. In fact, sites with deep sedimentary basins underlain by granitic rocks [for example] could be tapped for geothermal generation by artificially fracturing the rock and circulating water through the cracks. Once called Hot Dry Rock, and now referred to as Enhanced Geothermal Systems, DOE is sponsoring studies that identify areas of technological improvement that could bring down the costs of this sort of resource.

Thank you for the catch. I had actually brought up a link on hydrothermal, but once I saw the links laid out on that DoE website, I switched focus without realizing it.

Cassandra lives, I guess.

I hope I'm still alive when they figure out how to beat the "light barrier".

Humans will travel faster than light. I don't know how it's going to happen, but I have faith!

I am no science expert... But I don't think it is possible for an object with mass to hit the speed of light, becuase it would take infinite energy. I remember reading somewhere the possibility of going "faster" though, but I don't know how that would work.

Anyways, a friend sent this to me the other day. Completely unrelated to the actual post, but speaking of light: http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/al.html

Tachyons! Nothing with mass can hit the speed of light, but you are right that there are theories of the existence of particles that are superluminal and cannot slow down to the speed of light. Those are the tachyons of sci-fi fame (and string theory).

I haven't studied tachyons beyond what was absolutely required in quantum mechanics - basically that they were hypothesized because of a trick in the math. I might have to go back and take a closer look some time.

By the way, Leon... it's good to see your site active again.

We must be on the same wavelength - Mrs. Rammage and I were just discussing this last night. It is an absolute embarrassment that we don't have a nuclear power plant set up in every corner of this country. TMI was - what - thirty years ago, fer cryin' out loud? The answer for weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels is right there for the taking, and politics and a poor understanding of science is preventing it from being implemented. Even I would be willing to hang up my Titan's CV boots to plug in my nuclear power plant-charged electric car every night.

Of course, this still wouldn't make environmentalists happy, as I wrote about here:
Environmentalists are Primitivists in Faux Sheep's Clothing

Relativity in words of four letters or less? That's good stuff. I can't imagine how much effort it took to do that :-)

I'm not saying you have to go faster than light. You just need to your destination faster than light would, by the route light normally travels. You know, the whole space-time is curved thing. You take a shortcut, and arrive before light, which has to follow the map.

Like I said, I don't know how it would work, or if it will occur while I'm alive. But I think we'll figure it out eventually :-)

I happened across this today, and I thought of your blog, Wulf. We need to "tap" this power supply, dontcha think?

/snip\
Powering Up, One Step at a Time

British engineers are converting street vibrations into electricity and predict a working prototype by Christmas capable of powering facility lights in the busiest areas of a city. "We can harvest between 5 to 7 watts of energy per footstep that is currently being wasted into the ground," says Claire Price, director of The Facility Architects, the British firm heading up the Pacesetters Project.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71460-0.html?tw=wn_index_20
\snip/

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