2,990 karma · joined November 21, 2008
Our team is building the associated software. If you'd like to help solve this problem, reach out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33823403
* (I am a graybeard who used Emacs daily for a long time)
Perhaps not coincidentally, neither has displaced Python. Go obviously had powerful backing from Google. I believe Ruby had enormous tailwinds from the need of the Java community c. 2005 to find an interpreted language, but not one with as mature a community as Python's was at the time. Ruby was at the sweet spot of "usable, but with plenty of niches left for alpha geeks looking to write blog posts."
Finally, I hypothesize the Amber-Brown-batteries-included and walrus-operator kerfuffles demonstrate the limits of managing infrastructure such as Python with the RFC / Usenet model.
"Question What proportion of individuals who recently contracted the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant were aware of their infectious status?
Findings In this cohort study of 210 adults with evidence of seroconversion during a regional Omicron variant surge, 56% reported being unaware of any recent Omicron variant infection.
Meaning Findings of this study suggest that low rates of Omicron variant infection awareness may be a key contributor to rapid transmission of the virus within communities."
* https://netzeroamerica.princeton.edu/ (US, but takeaways apply more broadly)
* World-wide: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26355-z
* Stanford's Marc Jacobsen is a proponent of the opposite view
* Rebuttal of Jacobsen, with links to his work: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1610381114
https://www.designthatmatters.org/blog/2017/1/30/book-review...
Extracting ubiquitous atmospheric water is a sustainable strategy to enable decentralized access to safely managed water but remains challenging due to its limited daily water output at low relative humidity (≤30% RH). Here, we report super hygroscopic polymer films (SHPFs) composed of renewable biomasses and hygroscopic salt, exhibiting high water uptake of 0.64–0.96 g g−1 at 15–30% RH. Konjac glucomannan facilitates the highly porous structures with enlarged air-polymer interfaces for active moisture capture and water vapor transport. Thermoresponsive hydroxypropyl cellulose enables phase transition at a low temperature to assist the release of collected water via hydrophobic interactions. With rapid sorption-desorption kinetics, SHPFs operate 14–24 cycles per day in arid environments, equivalent to a water yield of 5.8–13.3 L kg−1. Synthesized via a simple casting method using sustainable raw materials, SHPFs highlight the potential for low-cost and scalable atmospheric water harvesting technology to mitigate the global water crisis.
"Using life-cycle assessment modelling of potential supply chain impacts for twelve nations undertaking Enhanced Rock Weathering deployment to deliver up to net 2 Gt CO2 yr−1 CDR, we find that rock grinding rather than mining exerts the dominant influence on environmental impacts. This finding holds under both a business-as-usual and clean energy mix scenario to 2050 but transitioning to undertaking Enhanced Rock Weathering in the future with low carbon energy systems improves the sustainability of the Enhanced Rock Weathering supply chain. We find that Enhanced Rock Weathering is competitive with other large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal strategies in terms of energy and water demands."
Central claim: "Their revisions most profoundly reduce predicted land use change (LUC) emissions, for which they propose a central estimate that is roughly half the smallest comparable value they review (figure 1). This LUC estimate represents the midpoint of (a) values retained after filtering the predictions of past studies based on a set of unfounded criteria; and (b) a new estimate they generate for domestic (i.e. U.S.) LUC emissions. The filter the authors apply endorses a singular means of LUC assessment which they assert as the ‘best practice’ despite a recent unacknowledged review (Malins et al 2020 J. Clean. Prod. 258 120716) that shows this method almost certainly underestimates LUC. Moreover, their domestic C intensity estimate surprisingly suggests that cropland expansion newly sequesters soil C, counter to ecological theory and empirical evidence. These issues, among others, prove to grossly underestimate the C intensity of corn-grain ethanol and mischaracterize the state of our science at the risk of perversely affecting policy outcomes."
1. 600,000 more elderly Americans, or 1 of 100, have died during the Covid epidemic than would have died had the epidemic not occurred.
2. 200,000 more non-elderly Americans, or 1 of 1,400, have died—but that's mostly ages 15-64, so more like 1 in 1,000 adults of working age.
3. The CDC says adult death rates were up 20%. [2]
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/us/covid-deaths-elderly-a...
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db427.htm#secti...
[1] https://www.iea.org/reports/key-world-energy-statistics-2020...
2. Orsted will average around 60% of nameplate, with wide but predictable variance[1]
3. Nuclear averages 90% of nameplate, with a mix of planned and sudden large outages [op. cit.]
4. Nuclear has higher running costs but longer capital lifetime
5. We need to decarbonize aggressively on multiple timescales: get solar+storage (quickest), wind+storage(reasonably quick), nuclear (s-l-o-w), and advanced geothermal (in development; s-l-o-w then maybe reasonably quick) all deployed.
6. The broad path forward for industrialized societies is solar everywhere, TWh of hour-scale storage, TW of wind, and ~25% of electricity provided by "clean firm": some combination of nuclear, geothermal, H2, and fossil gas with CCS.
7. Electricity consumption will grow faster than the economy in industrialized societies, and as fast as the economy in the currently underserved global south (~3B people). Roughly 10TW today, 20TW in 2040, who knows after that.
[1] https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/hornsea-spawns-...
Fantastic distillation. Thank you!