Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "Sabine Hossenfelder" channel.

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  6. I'm reminded of well, a press debacle and actually, a high quality paper on superluminal neutrinos. The press billing it at times as faster than light particles being discovered, largely because reading wasn't the correspondent's forte. The actual paper basically said, to paraphrase, "We know that the results are nonsensical and erroneous, but we cannot find what is wrong with our experimental setup and configuration. HELP!" A butt ton of researchers examined the setup, some figured out what was defective and suggested checking and the problem was resolved and everyone pretty much forgot about it. Pity, because that was one of the great successes of science. Not some epic new discovery, collaboration to overcome a problem that one team couldn't resolve and collectively, science resolved. Then, we get the cold fusion dweebs... Yep, as Sabine mentioned, lukewarm fusion in the form of neutron generators abound, hell, they're reasonably affordable for fairly small physics labs. I can build a more expensive type without the titanium by ginning up a fusor and generate tremendous amounts of electricity bills. Both will produce a fair amount of neutrons though. Alas, electricity bills are not energy generation. If they were, my computers would be making me tons of money. Instead, I get to twirl my electric meter and watch Debbie Does Donuts in the parking lot on TV. And there is a non-zero chance I could wrangle plain actual cold fusion, just on plain probability alone, one or two atoms over a long amount of time, just based on random chance. Still ain't generating power, only bills. Just once, I'd love to see one of these announcements and papers be released with a "Folks, this isn't making a damned lick of sense to me, but here is my apparatus, these are the conditions and observations, please pop by and see what I fouled up". Added kudos if they'd throw in lunch. That makes science look credible, rather than some other fly by night idiot blathering about how they discovered Harry bleeding Potter's magical screw stick.
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  33. The plants are expensive, concrete is expensive for a reason. Look up what it takes to make concrete, tons of baking rock... Then, it takes around 60 days for concrete to cure. Concrete doesn't dry, it hydrates and forms carbonate rods to form its matrix, that takes time to do. And I actually do like nuclear power. A lot. But, construction takes a long time, due to complexity and well, curing of concrete. Although, I am a bigger fan of thorium power. Alas, the leader of the world, the US isn't leading, as usual, India is leading that push. We'll continue leading by defaulting, as usual, we trailed Europe in germ theory, physics and well, everything social. Now, we've eroded our industrial base, so we'll continue to lead in the only way we've ever done, leading in mediocrity. Off of the political front, it'll take around 5 years to build a nuclear power plant. With significant effort and minimal time to cure concrete and put the massive erector set from hell together. Think royal pain in the gonads to build properly, yeah, that's it. Doesn't make it worthless, just a pain in the gonads to build. Look at how long it takes to build a sizable dam, pretty much the same thing, with a bit less complexity. Oh, we've established gainful fusion at the National Ignition Facility. When I was done laughing and giving a mental pat on the back, yeah, not useful, just gainful. I live only a couple of miles from the now shuttered TMI power plant, of infamy claim for their massively non-destructive meltdown. Watched it live at 5 in high school, with some significant interest, as at the time, well, two hours drive time to TMI, yeah, kind of important to us. Everything worked as designed, save for a human factors engineering error, which made things get really, really, really expensive and well, zero casualties. Miss the cooling tower plume though, the plant was shuttered because burning natural gas makes the world more like Venus, erm, is cheaper. Some think we'll get sex goddesses from Venus, we'll just get a baked penis. But, it's cheaper to die and all. Here's a fossil fuel slogan that's a winner, "BAKED BABIES IS THE WAY TO GO!". And Two and a quarter mile island is still there. A pet joke from the region among engineers. Chernobyl's decontamination, Fukushima's as well, bioremediation and vitrification. Oh wait, plants are expensive, totally impossible to grow. For those with blown sarcasometers, I've got a pallet full of them. Oh, there is a leading injury common in nuclear power. The most significant number of injuries in nuclear power plant injuries, a paper cut. Go paperless! I'll just get my coat... Oh, Fukushima had two volunteers to open valves, who are casualties. Selection criteria was over 50. I'd have volunteered too, both on age, exposure and it was the right damned thing to do. Much the same happened at Chernobyl. Both plants built out of specification, Chernobyl, entirely with a flammable roof, Fukushima, updates not applied that'd have prevented the hydrogen explosion. And I'm worse on my own failures than the scathing review of others failures.
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  49.  @absalomdraconis  the additive in question was called Olestra. Not especially relevant, given it was dairy products, specifically milk, butter, cream and many cheeses that all contained lactose. Additionally, lousy example, as the only people who did suffer that seepage were those who consumed ridiculous amounts of potato chips with Olestra as their fat. Every investigatory study found that one, not a one had such problems with average consumption, only with those who ate absurd amounts. I actually tried the products, including Pringles potato chips with Olestra, didn't have a problem with them. Still, a moot point, as Olestra was never a milk or other dairy product adulterant. But, there was one further thing against Olestra, it suspended fat soluble nutrients, such as vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, and vitamin A, along with carotenoids. Those then had to be added to the product as supplements to offset what otherwise was excreted. Olestra remains in use today - as an industrial lubricant and paint base, as well as a deck stain base, as it is environmentally friendly. Laughably, lobbyists against Olestra used chemophobia to fight the product, long before excessive consumers complained. One attack, calling it what it is, a polyester. So is cooking oil, of course, but one does have to shake one's head over proclaiming general health and championing knowledge by capitalizing upon ignorance and the promotion of said ignorance. And a tidbit of later follow-up studies, those excessive consumers had the same seepage with regular fat chips, as there are limits to how much fat the body can digest, process or absorb. Rather like those who consumed low calorie sodas to lose weight, but turned around and drank hundreds of gallons of the swill, then complained that their weight remained the same or higher. They offset the caloric loss by overconsuming and obliterating that otherwise health gain.
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  50. @nothanks9503 have yet to see a palatable algae product, counting gelatin products containing agar. I do enjoy edible seaweeds though! Lacking access to affordable edible seaweed, I'd happily fight seven strong men for a basket of broccoli rabe or curly escarole for soup. Alas, can't find even a leaf fragment in my neighborhood, our stores largely are geared toward Caribbean cuisine. Which has its own delights. Oh well, guess I'm stuck with collard greens and a few other greens (big grin).* With either, I'd be unlikely to ever be zinc deficient or magnesium deficient though. I tend to run deficient on magnesium, occasionally on zinc as well, but a dish of mussels fixes the latter. Haven't figured out why I run deficient on magnesium (yes, proton pump inhibitors and all, but even months after being off of them, I was still deficient), so I boost foods with both in them. *Lost my wife of 42 years a couple of years back this March. Still, for Thanksgiving, I cooked a full thanksgiving dinner (albeit with a smaller turkey), complete with collard greens. One of my neighbors, while discussing our dinner preparations scoffed at this white boy making collards and asked, "What do you know about making collards?!". Gave her my recipe, ended up having to share some of the greens with her, much to her delight. Learned how from my mother-in-law, who came from rural Kentucky. :D And this Philly boy loves his greens! Meats get a small serving for me, around the size of the palm of my hand or so.
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