npts2020

12 hours ago, studiot said:

First and foremost your comments suggest you don't understand the difference between weight and momentum.

Secondly to the west of California there is by far the largest water reservoir in the world, called the Pacific Ocean. There is no requirement for pumped storage to be freshwater.

Thirdly energy extraction from flowing water for single properties has been going on since time immemorial. Nor does that energy have to be electrical. In the 15th century the city of Exeter installed
a pumped water supply, driven by a water wheel pump.

Actually, I understand the difference between weight and momentum fairly well (I think you are ascribing the first sentence of the quote, which didn't get highlighted for some reason, to me). Are you telling me that for momentum to be useful for energy that it doesn't require great amounts of weight (mass if you wish to be technical) for a flywheel as well? I know how big and heavy steam turbines are and they don't produce much energy once you cut the steam off. The point is there is no easy way to store energy mechanically and other methods seem to require a bit more technology, that's why this discussion is even going on at this point in time. Even amongst the different types of storage there are many ways of extracting it for reuse and all have pros and cons depending on their location and use.

An interesting discussion about why weights aren't widely used (gravity is weak) that also includes several other methods, including flywheels.------

"You can use dead weights, but you need a huge amount of weight.

For example the biggest pumped hydroelectric system in the world (the Gianelli Hydroelectric Plant in California, USA) uses water stored in a reservoir about 9 miles long by 5 miles wide, lifted through a height of about 300 feet. Even then, it can only supply about 5% of California's electricity usage for less than 2 weeks before running dry - and given the current long term droughts in California, it can't even do that, because there would be no water available to refill it.

Trying to build devices like this for individual homes would be hopelessly uneconomical."

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/305563/why-dont-we-use-weights-to-store-energy

On 2/8/2026 at 10:43 AM, MigL said:

I just don't understand why the analysts,planners and strategists in the Pentagon aren't pushing back against the destruction of a support network they have built over the last 80-100 years.

I wonder how many of those likely to do this have been drummed out of the military in the past year or so.

On 2/8/2026 at 4:51 AM, hoola said:

A YouTube video is claiming that an atmospheric interaction with the CMEs could be heard on the 19 meter band at 15.140mhz. I have been monitoring this frequency on occasion over the last 2 weeks and have heard a random static noise of varying intensity, almost like waves crashing on a beach which sometimes is not present. I am suspicious it is not from the CME as the sound is very specific to that frequency, almost like a navigation beacon such as loran. Does anyone know if the 15.140 mhz signal is due to the CME or some generated source?

I am in no way an expert on this subject but it seems to me that CME's are not that specific. When we used to have "rabbit ears"
(antennae) on the TV, if one channel was being affected, all were.

17 hours ago, exchemist said:

I've only just read this. Would it be a silly idea to run a couple of vast flywheels, just to add "ballast" to the system? One could even simply retain a couple of these big turbo-alternator sets, unpowered, and spun up and maintained to 50Hz off the grid.

I am a fan of raising weights for potential energy. There are no storage losses and requires less space than water. Just wish I could find how it compares to other storage methods for energy loss during reuse.

8 hours ago, swansont said:

What’s the terminology in Russian?

Thus, Credit Suisse and UBS report that the proportion of wealth held by the richest 1% of Russians equals 56.4% and Russia tops the world’s list by this indicator. As measured by the Gini coefficient for wealth, Russia (86.9) shares 10th place with the United Arab Emirates among the 164 countries surveyed behind several African countries, as well as Sweden and Brazil.

https://econs.online/en/articles/opinions/super-wealth-in-russia-uneven-and-invariable/

Maybe it’s not democracy that’s the problem

I wonder how Sweden made the list. I have always been under the impression that all of the Scandinavian countries were more egalitarian than most of the rest of the world

3 hours ago, Trurl said:

119898

119911

119919

Numbers with 2 or more like digits.

Seems easy enough to see but could you put a pattern in order from smallest to greatest?

I believe finding a linear pattern in Prime numbers has similar difficulties.

Second challenge: How did I derive these 3 numbers.

Hint: A truck driver would know instantly but a mathematician might think the numbers are random.

Not sure what is being pointed out here. The first number is even, so obviously not a prime number, and they are already smallest to largest using standard method of reading (L to R & top to bottom). Are you saying they are all semiprime or something else?

3 hours ago, CharonY said:

They couldn't have used the same tactic, as the tactic involves ganging up on a single person who is not resisting.

In deference to OP, I'd also like to ask a question to the president. If the administration dislikes getting compared to Nazis, why can't they stop using Nazi lingo and reasoning for their actions?

True, but if they "felt endangered" by any of the people they shot, it seems to me they would have either used a lot of deadly force or fled the scene at the capitol.

21 hours ago, TheVat said:

Dear sociopathic fascist moron,

I'm too worn out by discussing yesterday's tragedy in Minneapolis (at another forum) to go into detail on this but what the AF are your ICE goons doing there?

Can you imagine how many people would have been killed and injured during the January 6, 2021 attack on the capitol if the same tactics were used? Some of those people actually were armed and attacking police doing their jobs, unlike anyone in Minnesota.

1 hour ago, Genady said:

It was referred to as "Red Army" in reference to events which occurred before the end of WWII. It was referred to as "Soviet Army" in reference to the later events.

Ya, but in the minds of many (if not most) people outside the USSR, soviet=red, even though they probably have no idea what a soviet is.

3 hours ago, MigL said:

A Billion dollars to join the Board of Peace Piece?

When the Mob does it, they have the decency to call it 'protection' money.

There, fixed it for you. If they hadn't misspelled it everyone would understand.

9 hours ago, swansont said:

There are no political positions that get 100% approval.

My political positions all get 100% approval.........from me. Seriously tho, imo, the political elite are those who can afford the time and money to be involved in politics, especially when talking about positions beyond local governance.

2 hours ago, Ken Fabian said:

I note that so far Australia's government is mostly keeping heads down and mouths closed, apart from assuring everyone treaty agreements with the USA remain strongly supported and we are still 'buying' those nuclear submarines at inflated prices. Personally I'd like something that would reassure the rest of the world that Australia's government thinks what the US is doing is deeply objectionable as well as dangerous.

The problem is, look how many treaties and agreements our President has unilaterally changed without notice, even ones he had negotiated (think trade agreements with Mexico and Canada). The speech in Davos to some of the most prominent people in the world was identical to the ones he gives to yokels in rural America; the election (2020 but not 2024) was stolen, US gets nothing out of NATO, immigrants are destroying the fabric of society, US is "entitled" to Greenland and Canada would be better off as a state, "sleepy Joe Biden was the cause of everyone's problems and I've solved them all, I've solved 8 wars and should have gotten a Nobel prize, etc, etc. for a solid hour. Really happy it was just background noise while doing something actually useful. I couldn't imagine having to sit there and seem to pay attention, he reminded me of Biden during the debate that caused the latter's exit from the race.

Just one question Mr President. How will we know when America is great again?

On 1/13/2026 at 11:04 PM, Trurl said:

My question is does the electric company turn a profit? In my state utilities companies govern themselves. We have no idea what their expenditures are and how they figure what to charge. It would be hard to compare to other countries.

In the state of Pennsylvania, AFAIK all of the electric utilities make a profit with typical return on equity rarely going below 5% and often near 10% or above. All rate hikes have to be rubber stamped looked into and approved by the Public Utilities Commission with a period for public comment before approval. Sometimes the increase is less than requested or one is put on hold for other reasons but I can never recall a decrease or outright rejection of a hike, though it probably has happened.

On 1/10/2026 at 12:34 PM, Externet said:

Hi all. Perhaps already posted years ago but from a foggy memory and poor search skills am revising it.

A magnet M with poles (N /S) has loooong polepieces as parallel iron bars (=======) at each pole.

N=========================================================================E

M

S=========================================================================E

Is the attraction to an iron part placed across the bars near the magnet M , or halfway across the length of the bars, or across the end E showing attenuation according to distance from M ?

-Trying to build a 3 metres long unwanted ferrous scrap picker/collector across a conveyor belt with a magnet at one end and two bars hovering the transported material-

Next... What changes if E and E are joined ( ] ), or, if at the E end of the bars, another equal magnet is attached/implemented (S/N); would the attraction force across bars be doubled ?

Surely you aren't talking about monopole magnets that don't exist? In any case the strongest part of any magnet I am familiar with is always the poles. These guys xxxxxxx sell magnets but their site answers a lot of questions in a fairly concise manner

I watch Washington Journal on C-Span almost every day and it is pretty unbelievable how many people are and have been supporting everything going on with Venezuela and believe that it has anything to do with drugs. Even if it did, none of those killed would have received the death penalty from any conviction over their activities. Furthermore, when the Coast Guard does interdiction for drugs (with presumably the same intelligence sources as Trump) about a quarter of the time no drugs are found but many seem to regard any possibly innocent people killed as just "collateral damage". It's a shame none of those saying that are Christians......oh, wait many supposedly are.

19 hours ago, tylers100 said:

increased density can be created thus allowing more mass to fill in then maybe a bit more gravity?

More mass always = more gravity. Unless you are adding mass from somewhere, that quantity (and its gravitational effects) will remain constant regardless of the density, which only relates to the volume that mass occupies.

3 hours ago, StringJunky said:

I meant it has been flagged. I imagine reviewers will be following the paper trail leading from this (or lack of) and seeking depositions.

I expect it will end up with Monsanto paying into a fund similar to what happened with Johns-Manville and the asbestos settlement. BTW Johns-Manville is still in business all these 30+ years later after filing for bankruptcy because of that settlement.

On 12/30/2025 at 10:29 AM, Externet said:

It is a high precision now obsolete Cornelius brand, military-AirForce 3000+psi air compressor

Ya, I'm pretty sure your compressor is operating normally, so far as oil is concerned. You really can't tell what the level actually is in that kind of compressor unless it is shut down.

On 12/30/2025 at 11:09 AM, sethoflagos said:

They've found one for PET

Unfortunately, those "bugs" live in a pretty specific environment and it takes a year to break down the softest plastics and over 3 years for harder ones. However, it may be possible to adapt Ideonella Sakaiensis to a wider habitat and even that speed is still way faster than UV light and other natural processes break down plastics.

On 12/29/2025 at 10:10 AM, raphaelh42 said:

Did you have a bag full of tools like i had? In that case, I agree it can be quite accessible to spend the time comfortably

If you didn't, i would love to hear about how you did meet your basic needs

The 3 times I ever did "survival" was a very long time ago, twice as a Boy Scout and once for an outward bound program at school. Each of us was allowed a knife, fire starter and canteen of water for the three (Boy Scouts) or seven (outward bound) day sessions. Being such a short period of time kind of skews things because one could easily survive, even for a week, with no food and minimal water, so there isn't as much pressure on success. Having said that, I am pretty confident that I could survive for quite a long while anywhere in North America where there is potable water, especially if I can take an array of tools with me. The trick is knowledge of local flora and fauna combined with survival skills, especially fire-starting and shelter building. As a teenager with not much better to do, it was kind of fun and very informative but I haven't felt any overwhelming urge to do it again in the half century since.

One of the problems with this discussion is that "freedom" is a pretty ill-defined term, dependent on subjective interpretations. As pointed out by Phi, my "freedom" to own a gun impinges on others' "freedom" to feel secure. So which is free? The whole point of living in society is to give up some freedom to do a few things in exchange for the freedom to pursue other interests. I don't think it is just coincidence that the most organized (generally those with the most laws) societies are also the most technologically advanced, something that contributes greatly to my "freedom". Because of this abstract thing known as "money" (which is really only a representation of other things) I have to follow a bunch of rules to live in a society that uses it. However, it also makes me free to do things besides provide for my basic needs, or even have to be much concerned about them. I have done survival expeditions for up to a week and being comfortable is no trivial matter, even if you don't need a fire. EVERYONE loses weight on these outings because of decreased calorie intake and increased physical activity and is unsustainable over time. If you ever saw the tv show "Naked and Afraid", very few of the participants who actually even make it to the end of their allotted time there (usually 20 days) are doing any more than "limping across the finish" and would not likely survive long term and they are people who supposedly have some survival skills beforehand. Personally, I am fairly confident in my survival skills but feel a lot freer not having to use them and kicking back to read "The Great Monkey Trial" at night or looking at sunspots through a telescope at the Franklin Institute while on a bus trip to Philadelphia.

I guess to sum up, I feel freer having more choices. Living in a society facilitates that, whereas an individual has little freedom other than how to provide for their basic needs.

On 12/27/2025 at 11:25 AM, Externet said:

Thank you. Am more concerned about the connecting rods, crankshaft, bottom of pistons being submerged in the oil that floods the upper chamber and very violently churning instead of excess returning to the bottom oil pan. Inlet filter poses no obstruction. Exact manual is unobtanium. 😩

That may well be how the pump is designed but without knowing the manufacturer it is hard to be sure. In many air compressors, the oil also provides a seal to get better pressure. If the oil level returns to normal after shutting things down and the compressor doesn't make unusual noises (all compressors I have ever seen are loud but listen for clanging or severe vibration) or emit a burning oil (or metal) odor, I wouldn't worry about it. I would, however, make sure to check the oil level every time I used the machine.

37 minutes ago, studiot said:

Intriguing comment. +1

It is not conventional, but I suppose since one way to generate the natural number system is from 'nothing' , that is the empty set, a case could be made for this.

However the empty set is not the number zero and any placement of zero in a number system causes controversy as it fits some applications of that number system but not others.

Sure, but in reality zero isn't quite the same as nothing in maths, just the best way we have of describing and using a null quantity for comparison, according to my understanding of it.