LikeBeans (u/LikeBeans)

LikeBeans commented on CATL expects oceanic electric ships in three years cleantechnica.com/2025/12... · Posted by u/thelastgallon

Neil44 · 12 days ago

Since there is a lot of space out there in the ocean I wonder if some kind of big floating energy station could be a thing, using middle of the ocean wind, tidal or solar. I guess you don't have to pay anyone for the space or worry about too many regulations etc.

LikeBeans · 11 days ago

I like your idea. We can now generate substantial amount of power from floating wind turbines. Coupled with floating batteries (ie on cargo ships) we perhaps build floating charging stations along major shipping routes. There is no need for nuclear or to only charge at ports. Would it work?

LikeBeans commented on CATL expects oceanic electric ships in three years cleantechnica.com/2025/12... · Posted by u/thelastgallon

LikeBeans · 11 days ago

Clusters of floating wind turbines each with their own battery storage might be useful here. I imagine along strategic (ie major) shipping channels. Would it pencil out? I have no idea.

LikeBeans · 11 days ago

Actually thinking about it some more why not park a couple of dozen older cargo ships along major shipping route. Equip them with wind turbines and batteries in shipping containers. Now the actual cargo ships passing by can stop for a few hours, plug in and charge. Use sodium ion batteries that can support thousands of cycles. Even use regular fuel as a backup in the charging ships. You can build and maintain anywhere and then haul them to the right location.

LikeBeans commented on CATL expects oceanic electric ships in three years cleantechnica.com/2025/12... · Posted by u/thelastgallon

LikeBeans · 11 days ago

Clusters of floating wind turbines each with their own battery storage might be useful here. I imagine along strategic (ie major) shipping channels. Would it pencil out? I have no idea.

LikeBeans commented on High-income job losses are cooling housing demand jbrec.com/insights/job-gr... · Posted by u/gmays

aprilthird2021 · 15 days ago

If you own the house outright then how can the increased value force you to sell? You don't have a mortgage, and your property tax can't be that much more than a normal rent in the area. Can it?

LikeBeans · 13 days ago

Because of the rising tax rate relative to income. Ours is projected to increase to about 20% of our net income. That's why.

So yeah nice on paper that the house is worth a lot more than we bought it... but that value matters if we sell and move. There is a lot more to that decision than just the property tax, however it sort of putting a time limit to it.

LikeBeans commented on High-income job losses are cooling housing demand jbrec.com/insights/job-gr... · Posted by u/gmays

aprilthird2021 · 18 days ago

I don't understand. The increase in property tax is forcing you to sell? How much percent is the property tax? Alternatively won't you make a windfall in the sale (I assume property tax only go up when the value goes up)

LikeBeans · 17 days ago

Yeah. Unfortunately the real market value grew so fast that when the assessed value catches up over the next few years the property tax is going to take a nice chunk of my net income.

Honestly, this is not a hardship but a nice problem to have. I grew up chronically poor and I feel fortunate and grateful that we have a comfortable home that is ours with equity while a lot of people have housing insecurity.

I agree on the windfall part but selling to get that money is not that simple in the current real estate market and political climate. ie you got to live somewhere... and everywhere you desire is expensive.

LikeBeans commented on High-income job losses are cooling housing demand jbrec.com/insights/job-gr... · Posted by u/gmays

aprilthird2021 · 18 days ago

I waited till I had the whole sale price in cash then bought, it's reduced my layoff anxiety 1000% and I'm sure it's not the savviest financial choice, but I'm happy with the security of knowing I can stay here for a long time no matter what

LikeBeans · 18 days ago

It depends on the appreciation and in turn the property taxes. I own my house outright. Completely paid off. But the increases in property taxes is forcing us to sell and move, likely in the next 5 years. Too bad, love the neighborhood and the area.

LikeBeans commented on Google CEO says ‘vibe coding’ made software development ‘so much more enjoyable’ google.com/url?q=https://... · Posted by u/ashishgupta2209

LikeBeans · 19 days ago

No buddy, you're replacing the doer engineers that built your company and made you rich with some form of automation.

LikeBeans commented on Sodium-ion batteries have started to appear in cars and home storage cleantechnica.com/2025/10... · Posted by u/xbmcuser

LikeBeans · 2 months ago

For my EV, which I charge about once a week on average, with 4,000 cycles that means about 77 years!! That's a huge deal. CATL quoted 10k cycle battery too. Wow. Very cool. Yeah energy density and operating profile and all that. But color me impressed.

LikeBeans commented on AI Is Too Big to Fail sibylline.dev/articles/20... · Posted by u/raffael_de

LikeBeans · 2 months ago

I'm skeptical too however I think AI can add value by increasing knowledge worker productivity. Maybe save some money by needing less staff for some tasks. Maybe to mine vast amounts of data looking for a pattern. So I think it is useful however my skepticism is about the cost vs reward. Is it really worth the amount of money pumped into it, not sure. Time will tell.

LikeBeans commented on Ryanair flight landed at Manchester airport with six minutes of fuel left theguardian.com/business/... · Posted by u/mazokum

alterom · 2 months ago

Not just that. Jet engines are efficient at higher speeds because the exhaust of the jet engine is fast.

If the plane is going fast as well, that exhaust is more or less stationary relative to the ground. The engine works to exchange the position of the plane with the position of the air in front of it.

If the plane is going slow, it's accelerating the air backwards. That's where the work is going, making the engine less efficient.

Think about it this way: if the jet airplane is tied to the ground, its engines are running at 0% efficiency, working hard to blow the air backwards. You wouldn't want to stand behind a jet engine when the plane is about to take off, when that's effectively the case.

The same applies to propeller-driven planes, of course. But those can vary the prop speed as well as propeller pitch, having more control on how fast the air is being pushed backwards. This allows the engine to be efficient at a wider ranger of speeds, particularly, at the slower range.

But the propeller has a limit of how fast it can push the air back. When the prop blades start reaching the speed of sound, weird shit starts happening [1]. So propeller-driven aircraft have a limit on speeds at which they can go efficiently.

Jet engines (turbofans when it comes to airliners) trade off low efficiency at low speed / low altitude (where the airplane is spending a small percentage of flight time) for higher efficiency at high speed / high altitude.

Variable pitch turbine fans[2] aim to address this tradeoff, but the tech has yet to catch on.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-84H_Thunderscreech

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_pitch_fan

LikeBeans · 2 months ago

So perhaps the differential air speed between the intake and exhaust is a big factor in the efficiency equation? The bigger the difference the more work is needed..