New Tech

[Nodack]

I still haven’t caught our duck mother and her ducklings yet.

[Nodack]

I failed at my new tech trap making so far. It has only cost me a few dollars so far. Sometimes new tech is real expensive and when it fails it’s real expensive. Take the Navy’s new littoral combat ships. I posted articles about them for years now. They are real cool looking and stealthy. They are fast and float in shallow waters… and some are being decommissioned after only a few years.

US Navy chief defends plan to scrap troubled warships even though some are less than 3 years old
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/politics ... -warships/
The chief of the US Navy defended the service's plans to scrap nine relatively new warships in the coming fiscal year even as the service tries to keep up with China's growing fleet. Three of the littoral combat ships slated for decommissioning are less than three years old.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday that the anti-submarine ships could not perform their primary mission.

"I refuse to put an additional dollar against a system that would not be able to track a high-end submarine in today's environment," Gilday told the committee. He said the main reason for the early retirement was that the anti-submarine warfare system on the ships "did not work out technically." The decommissioning of the ships would save the Navy approximately $391 million, according to the service's proposed FY23 budget.

But that recoups only a fraction of the cost of the nine littoral combat ships, which totaled about $3.2 billion.

Rep. Adam Smith, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said, "We can't use them, number one because they're not ready to do anything. Number two, when they are, they still break down."
"They're incredibly expensive, and they don't have the capabilities that we expected. So regardless of how old they are, that's a lot of money to be spent to get pretty close to nothing," the Washington state Democrat continued.
Republican Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined in criticizing the Navy.
"With the Chinese Navy steadily climbing to 460 ships by 2030, the unforced errors in Navy shipbuilding, like the Littoral Combat Ship, must stop. Programs that can scale up and grow our fleet must be the priority," Inhofe tweeted Wednesday.

Ouch!

[Nodack]

Operation Relocate was a complete success. Mother and her babies are all safe in a peaceful lagoon filled with tiny fish and other ducks.

[Superbone]

Operation Relocate was a complete success. Mother and her babies are all safe in a peaceful lagoon filled with tiny fish and other ducks.

NICE! Great job.

[Nodack]

Thanks. We kind of feel like duck hero’s.

[Nodack]

Momma and her ducklings right after release.



Momma and her ducklings the next day.

[Nodack]

Electric vehicles tease a new energy source: Gravity
A series of projects use loaded trains or trucks to generate energy while going downhill, making the vehicles particularly eco-friendly.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environ ... -rcna30116
Several new projects that aim to exploit the Earth’s gravity for power hint at how electric vehicles could unlock otherwise impossible ways of generating energy.

They include trains across the Australian Outback and dump trucks that need no gas. There’s even a proposal to haul water down a mountain to power the trip back up.

All three projects rely on a peculiarity of electric motors: they can generate electricity as well as use it. That means using the motor to slow an electric vehicle can recharge its batteries — a feature called “regenerative braking” in electric cars.

It turns out that under the right conditions — going far enough downhill at enough of an angle with a heavy load — electric vehicles can generate a useful amount of energy. They can make enough, in fact, to power their trip back up, and they often make electricity to spare — once they’ve dropped off their cargo.

[Nodack]

Bottling the sun
The world has been trying to master this limitless clean energy source since the 1930s. We’re now closer than ever
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2022/05 ... cnnphotos/

[Indy]

It is crazy to me that the US is not leading the way on this. We have the most resources to spend on it, but instead buy/build war machines and billionaires.

[Nodack]

“Thirty-five countries are collaborating on ITER, which is run by seven main members — China, the United States, the European Union, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea.”

[Indy]

“Thirty-five countries are collaborating on ITER, which is run by seven main members — China, the United States, the European Union, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea.”

Yeah, I read that. That is different than leading the way. This should be our new space race.

[Nodack]

Some in this country don’t want any part of being in that race.

[Nodack]

Oregon utility powers up nation’s first large-scale wind, solar and battery facility
https://www.opb.org/article/2022/06/07/ ... -facility/

[Nodack]

Our ducklings are growing up.

[Nodack]

China launches high-tech aircraft carrier in naval milestone
https://apnews.com/article/beijing-chin ... 7e62b65000
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing launched a new-generation aircraft carrier Friday, the first such ship to be both designed and built in China, in a milestone as it seeks to extend the range and power of its navy.

[Nodack]

River trash traps chew at huge ocean plastics problem
https://apnews.com/article/technology-n ... 78e64bbbfe
Floating fences in India. Whimsical water- and solar-driven conveyor belts with googly eyes in Baltimore. Rechargeable aquatic drones and a bubble barrier in The Netherlands.

These are some of the sophisticated and at times low-tech inventions being deployed to capture plastic trash in rivers and streams before it can pollute the world’s oceans….