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http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.468...

EROEI of 1.07 from this metastudy for Corn Ethanol.

Society needs at least an EROEI of 3:1, so corn ethanol, at least, is a boondoggle.

ArkVarkon Vitamin C levels in patients with SARS-CoV-2-associated ARDS

Its becoming apparent that the people dying from COVID are fundamentally unhealthy in the first place. Its a shame that we are so focused on locking up healthy people and shutting down societies and economies, instead of improving diets and removing pollution from the air.

ArkVarkon Top Biofuel Crops

The fertilizers used, the soil degraded, and the runoff from it all into water sources, plus the fact that the energy return is barely higher than the energy investment (or in some cases actually negative) means that Biofuels are already dead - they survive only based on Government subsidies.

ArkVarkon What can 6,000 electric vehicles tell us about EV battery health?

It looks to me like EVs are completely ready for prime-time, and the only thing holding them back is the inertia/greed of major manufacturers (who cannot sell spare parts or expensive maintenance regimes for them as easily).

Its just a shame that Tesla doesn't have a smaller car, the Model 3 is huge.

ArkVarkon A broken algorithm that affected American transportation

It ends up like an Uber, but cheaper since you have no driver and are sharing the vehicle with other passengers.

ArkVarkon A broken algorithm that affected American transportation

Hub and spoke public transport is dead. It relies on huge infrastructure investment and open access.

The future is autonomous minibusses with algorithmically-derived live routes, served on a subscription basis by private companies to private individuals. This way people of similar socioeconomic status can rub shoulders with eachother and feel more comfortable, and receive a greater standard of service.

It might very well be necessary to modify roads and road rules to facilitate autonomous vehicles - that's the kind of public investment we should be making.

ArkVarkon Apple Terminates Epic Games' Developer Account

Fortnite players on iOS might move to any other device instead to play, where Epic has lower commissions. That's a win.

ArkVarkon Coronavirus is most deadly if you are older and male – new data reveal the risks

If we're supporting millions of COVID survivors, it might be a further argument to limit air pollution - banning coal and oil burning in power and transport, for example.

I had Asthma as a kid but COVID has triggered it back on again. I'm now a lot more sensitive to pollution.

ArkVarkon Tesla Blown Away as Renault Dominates Europe’s July EV Sales Party

Absolutely! But a €5,000 small EV with a max speed of 60km/h and a range of 100km would be totally fine for that.

Step it up to a €10,000 slightly bigger EV with 80km/h and 200km and you satisfy even inter-city use.

Renault offer the Twizy but I think its overpriced - perhaps deliberately to avoid cannibalizing their higher-priced regular cars.

ArkVarkon Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

The problem is not Amazon, the problem is local rents. If we encourage mixed-use zoning, ie. 3-5 storey apartment blocks with the ground and first level for commercial and office use, we'll lower rents and reduce commutes.

ArkVarkon Tesla Blown Away as Renault Dominates Europe’s July EV Sales Party

Not just that but even a Model 3 is a huge car in Europe. The streets here are narrow, garages are smaller, parking is precarious. Its just too big.

Additionally outside of the Autobahn, you're driving through congested city streets where the speed and acceleration is of no value.

We need a Tesla sub-brand that can sell cheaper, slower and smaller cars.

ArkVarkon Portland passes low-density zoning reform

Parts of London and Paris now do resemble crack dens -- but its less about the density and more about the people living there, notably the changing demographics taking place in those cities in the last decade.

ArkVarkon Rethinking the App Store

This just penalises the little guy who can't setup alternative infrastructure.

Digital stores above a certain size (eg. above $1b in annual global sales) simply need to be regulated by Governments, with a maximum % commission for developers registered in that country. 15% seems reasonable.

ArkVarkon Head of Danish intelligence suspended after whistleblowers hand over information

Mass deportations are a simpler solution. Crime and welfare use are disproportionately linked to non-citizens from specific regions and countries.

ArkVarkon World’s first COVID19 reinfected patient

Is there any word on whether this patient is actually symptomatic? How does their re-infection compare to the first?

ArkVarkon Apple says Epic is ‘putting the entire App Store model at risk’

Ubisoft - Blizzard - Valve - CDPR - Microsoft - Sony - EA - Paradox

All publish their own games and either own their own platforms or are big enough to negotiate lower commissions from other platforms.

ArkVarkon The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa

If those institutions are completely staffed and run by Europeans, protected by European security forces, you will jumpstart the development of the country by several decades.

ArkVarkon The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa

Canberra is an isolated, artificial city, where everyone who lives there works for the Government or provides services to those workers. Inside Canberra itself, the embassies are all clustered together. Its secure by design.

ArkVarkon Apple says Epic is ‘putting the entire App Store model at risk’

There are many things you can do like that - that basically just represent increased overhead and non-game activities.

If you follow all of that logically enough - you start to wonder, why even work in game development?

Indie development right now is basically a mirage, because the only people making sustainably good profits are those with access to lower commissions by owning their own platforms or by getting better deals from platform owners due to their size. There is a huge survivor bias.

I am only still operational because I am in Ukraine. It would be impossible in a 1st world country.

ArkVarkon Apple says Epic is ‘putting the entire App Store model at risk’

I'm a developer who sells on Steam. With a 12% commission instead of 30%, my actual profits would be about 50% higher and I would invest more money into post-release updates and support, and pay my staff bonuses.

People are generally supportive of gamedev workers getting better deals and paid more - let me tell you the quickest way that could happen is if all these platform commissions were lowered.

ArkVarkon Uber and Lyft shutdown in California averted as judge grants emergency stay

If politicians really want to improve things for the working class: then lower sales taxes, extend land taxes (remove loopholes), support and encourage higher-density housing (including rooming houses), ban sugar, stop legal and illegal immigration from low and moderate-HDI countries, legalise safe drugs, and decriminalise all other drugs.

ArkVarkon Though forests burn, trees retake farmland globally as agroforestry advances

20% of the African population is dependent on food aid. There are now more Africans living in Poverty than at any time in history.

How much of our agricultural bounty is sent as food aid, and serves to create only more hungry mouths?

Disabling all food aid, and requiring (/forcing) recipient populations to develop self-sufficiency, is a necessary step to fundamentally improving our agricultural systems. We can assist by providing education and family planning to Women in poverty-stricken countries.

http://www.fao.org/3/X0262E/x0262e21.htm

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2018/11/21/fi...

We should cease all food aid, and replace it with education, contraception, and abortion for women for starters.

ArkVarkon 1-Euro Houses

This is the problem with a lack of land and property taxation. Elderly people will hold onto assets forever, until death essentially, whilst the building and society collapses around them. Meanwhile they demand a huge amount of welfare and healthcare services without paying into the system.

At least the land tax system in the USA encourages downsizing and efficient allocation of this resource.

ArkVarkon Game engines are basically eating the world

For many developers its better to work in these auxiliary jobs, instead of game development, because Game Development is made fundamentally uneconomic due to the ~30% commissions charged just on platforms. Additionally B2C sales attract huge sales taxes around the world, whereas eg. a B2B contract with a Government airport is just pure revenue.

ArkVarkon Wheat yield potential in controlled-environment vertical farms

What about growing genetically-engineered 'nutrient algae' in giant pools, and processing the resultant biomatter into bars for consumption? A layer of glass could even be put over the pool to control conditions.

If we're pursuing maximum nutrient and calorie output for minimum fertilizer and energy input, why look at traditional plants at all?

ArkVarkon Satellite images of the Beirut explosion site – before and after

Lebanon is increasingly a Muslim country - many of the Christians have left.

In 1932 51% of the population was Christian, in 2017 only 40%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Lebanon

Lebanon also has problems with cousin marriage - leading to lower IQ and birth defects in the next generation. 17% of Lebanese Christians and 30% of Lebanese Muslims marry their first cousins.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_in_the_Middle_...

ArkVarkon Infrared thermometers to screen for Covid: more marketing than medical evidence

The response to COVID is fundamentally irrational, when we tolerate 'an invisible menance' that kills 100,000 Americans each year - much more than influenza: Air Pollution.

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-04-0....

And those who don't die suffer all kinds of ill effects like asthma, reduced cognitive performance, infertility.

If we ignored COVID, but spent 2020 replacing all coal and oil fueled cars, trucks and powerplants, we would save 10x as many lives as would have been lost to COVID this decade, and make significant progress on climate change. A shameful missed opportunity.

ArkVarkon Coronavirus: Iran cover-up of deaths revealed by data leak

Herd Immunity:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-...

57% in Bergamo province with antibodies.

Italian lockdowns didn't stop COVID - human immune systems did.

This also means for every 1 detected case, there were 46 actual COVID instances in Bergamo.

ArkVarkon Australia to make Facebook, Google pay for news

The problem is that there is no standard form of microtransaction on the internet. I'd happily pay 2 cents to read an article, which is a lot more than the website would receive in advertising revenue, but not $10/month in subscription fees.

We basically need an aggregator of all of those 2 cents, since individually the payment fees will be extreme.