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georgefrowny commented on The biggest heat pumps   bbc.com/news/articles/c17... · Posted by u/rayhaanj
alextingle · 18 hours ago
The air temperature isn't relevant.
georgefrowny · 17 hours ago
It is a bit relevant because if the air was warm enough you would be better building huge air source heat pumps.

And if it was really warm enough you wouldn't need heating in the first place.

georgefrowny commented on The biggest heat pumps   bbc.com/news/articles/c17... · Posted by u/rayhaanj
alextingle · 18 hours ago
The best thing about using watercourses as your heat source for heat-pumps - the water flow naturally takes away your "colder" output and brings you more "warmer".

Ground source heat pumps are limited because the ground they have chilled stays stubbornly in the same place, so the only way you can extract more heat from it is to make it even colder, which gets less efficient. Watercourses don;t have that problem.

georgefrowny · 18 hours ago
The opposite effect is also why thermal stations (including but not only nuclear) are usually on the coast or near large rivers: you can dump a lot of water heat into water and have it carried away.

Not always good for the local ecosystem without mitigation, but at least one Japanese reactor allowed local colonisation by tropical fish and local legend said the same about Sizewell.

Sizewell C claims to plan recover waste heat and use it for carbon capture somehow, about which all I can say is a big old hmmmmm.

georgefrowny commented on New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books   reactormag.com/new-kindle... · Posted by u/mindracer
charcircuit · 4 days ago
This sounds useful for when you forget something that happened chapters earlier or when you space out and need to figure out what's happening. This feature should work for the user, author's shouldn't be able to deprive me of this tool.
georgefrowny · 4 days ago
> when you space out and need to figure out what's happening

Ok it's not just me that gets to the end of a page and it's like the page didn't exist.

On the other hand the times I use the search function on the ereader most are when I stumble across a continuity error. It would be interesting if a story-reading AI can be used to detect those. Not that I want there to be less human editing in books, if anything we seem to need more.

georgefrowny commented on New Kindle feature uses AI to answer questions about books   reactormag.com/new-kindle... · Posted by u/mindracer
DennisP · 4 days ago
I don't mind bezos using 1.21 gigawatts per request, as long as it's only for a very short time.
georgefrowny · 4 days ago
Brutal on the crest factor though, you'll definitely get a snotty phone call from your power company if you keep that up.
georgefrowny commented on Koralm Railway   infrastruktur.oebb.at/en/... · Posted by u/fzeindl
MangoToupe · 5 days ago
> Big Dig style clusterfuck.

The big dig is probably the last major success of American infrastructure. Referring to it as a clusterfuck is representative of why we'll never get another one.

georgefrowny · 4 days ago
Even if the end result ends up being a net positive, even by a wide margin, I think any project that goes over budget by 100% and lands 10 years late does reasonably merit the clusterfuck tag.

The Space Shuttle was one too and that was a marvel. A deathtrap politically-motivated pork-barrel hot-mess of a project, but also a shining black-and-white marvel of a glorious flying space Aga.

georgefrowny commented on French supermarket's Christmas advert is worldwide hit (without AI) [video]   youtube.com/watch?v=Na9Vm... · Posted by u/gbugniot
oneeyedpigeon · 5 days ago
That montage version is actually quite uplifting compared to the longer version of each individual segment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMUWrBKHoKc

I mean, that's just depressing to watch :(

georgefrowny · 4 days ago
I'd like to know what Monopoly knock-off is partly in the shot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebA8X4HChJM

PSA: if you have family meltdowns playing Monopoly, try following the rules and allowing auctions of un-bought property. At least the game may eventually end then. Or just don't play games intended to be teachable "well isn't this shit" moments.

georgefrowny commented on Koralm Railway   infrastruktur.oebb.at/en/... · Posted by u/fzeindl
deaux · 5 days ago
> The longest road tunnel in the world only cost about 100 million in the 90s for 25km so tunneling isn't always a gigantic Big Dig style clusterfuck.

Big Dig style clusterfuck is because the simplicity and cheapness you're talking about only apply to tunnels through mountains, less so to those underwater and definitely not to tunnels under big cities i.e. land that people live on, which comes with all the complexity.

georgefrowny · 5 days ago
Yes, and the Austrian route is mostly in that category under the Koralpe Massif rather then the very politically awkward Home Counties (NIMBY Central, and very rich NIMBYs at that).

Hence why tunneling does not necessarily mean a stunningly expensive project. We just hear about the HS2s and Big Digs because they reverberate for decades with all the legal battles.

georgefrowny commented on French supermarket's Christmas advert is worldwide hit (without AI) [video]   youtube.com/watch?v=Na9Vm... · Posted by u/gbugniot
davedx · 5 days ago
Seemed pretty realistic to me!
georgefrowny · 5 days ago
One exception: with the stamp cost rise, I think this might be the year even the staunchest card senders may be reconsidering!

I remember my mum sending out 20 or 30 cards all with first class stamps. I don't see many millennials and down doing it. "Not in this economy"!

georgefrowny commented on Koralm Railway   infrastruktur.oebb.at/en/... · Posted by u/fzeindl
cjrp · 5 days ago
> this seems to have less than 80 structures (overpasses, bridges, underpasses etc.) whereas HS2 has 175 bridges and 52 viaducts.

Doesn't tunnel beat any of those structures in terms of cost/complexity?

georgefrowny · 5 days ago
Not necessarily because no one lives underground and there are probably no existing things like property, gas lines, electricity lines, sewers, pipelines, roads, etc to avoid or reroute. And very little in the way of habitat.

The longest road tunnel in the world only cost about 100 million in the 90s for 25km so tunneling isn't always a gigantic Big Dig style clusterfuck.

In terms of legal complexity, it's fantastically easier than picking your way across and near thousands of individual plots of very expensive land owned by people with solicitors salivating at the potential fees, expensive private infrastructure, nature reserves and so on.

georgefrowny commented on Spirograph style Lego drawing machine   jkbrickworks.com/simple-d... · Posted by u/ensocode
georgefrowny · 5 days ago
One day I aspire to make a 5 stage geometric chuck and outdo the Science Museum's 4 stage model: https://theartinscience.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-original-sp...

u/georgefrowny

KarmaCake day281October 22, 2025View Original