The Skeptics Guide #939 - Jul 08 2023 (Ad Free)
Added 2023-07-08 16:01:28 +0000 UTCQuickie with Bob: The Impossible Planet; News Items: Activity Late in Life, Hominid Cannibals, Aspartame and Cancer, FAA Approves Flying Car, Neutrino Image of Galaxy; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Homelessness, Titan Failure, Canadian Forests; Science or Fiction
Comments
As Steve would say... "It's complicated". True, Lithium is an abundant mineral, but it is not an abundant ore. The difference between a mineral and an ore is whether it's economically feasible to mine, process, and purify it. The vast majority of Lithium minerals are not Lithium ore. It's entirely possible that new processes will be developed to make more Lithium economically, but a lot of Polly-Anna proponents aren't being completely honest with their predictions of falling mining costs. There's a lot of pie-in-the-sky assurances that will, like flying cars, NEVER come to fruition. Do you want to know why flying cars will never be a thing? It's because nobody in their right mind would fly higher than 6' off the ground in a vehicle that was parked unattended in a WalMart parking lot. Before I fly, I do a complete walk around my aircraft, checking to ensure that all my control surfaces are undamaged and free to move, check spars for bends or cracks, draw a sample of fuel to ensure it has no water in it. Can you imagine having to do a thorough enough inspection of your flying car EVERY time you got in it in the morning, after coming out to it with your groceries, before driving away after dinner at a restaurant, and after watching a game at a bar?!? Ain't gonna happen. I don't even know how you'd check a carbon fiber propeller for cracks if somebody backs into it while backing their SUV out of the spot near you?!? 😬
Dan Oberste
2023-07-19 18:57:49 +0000 UTCTesla next generation platform uses no rare Earth minerals as they massively scale, lithium is abundant w/ new process to refine, batteries will become closed cycle more dense than original ores, energy abundant future is approaching.
Mark Pickenheim
2023-07-14 12:37:51 +0000 UTCThe projected lithium supplies from current and planned lithium mines won't even be enough to supply the projected EV sales. Rare minerals and lithium are valuable resources and we shouldn't waste them on inefficient personal transportation like flying cars.
Morden O'Hare
2023-07-13 12:10:48 +0000 UTC"Why spend all that time and money on that instead of public transport?" Why not do both?
Aiden El Chucho
2023-07-13 12:03:59 +0000 UTCElectric flight is less efficient than using an electric car and just not a very practical transport solution in our current cities without massive changes to infrastructure - like removing overhead cables which was a point made. Why spend all that time and money on that instead of public transport? What I got from this talk was that flying vehicles are cool which is fine and all but no talk about 'should we actually be doing this'. We are supposed to be using less resources not more.
Morden O'Hare
2023-07-12 23:55:34 +0000 UTCIf they were petrol-powered, yes, but the article they were discussing specifically mentioned these were fully electric vehicles.
Aiden El Chucho
2023-07-12 17:26:45 +0000 UTCIf you guys suddenly cancel your conference and don't refund anyone's money you'll totally win all the legal cases. After all, you literally named it Not a Con—who would fall for that?
Lexy
2023-07-11 17:00:57 +0000 UTCYou started off with a conversation on how dire the global warming situation is and then immediately transitioned to geeking out over a technology that I would argue runs totally counter to the goal of mitigating climate change - namely flying cars. I don't think these will ever be viable but just in principle we shouldn't be investing in more modes of individual transport (billions to bury power lines anyone?) but more and better public mass transportation. Not a criticism more an observation of some kind of cognitive dissonance or something that we all go through.
Morden O'Hare
2023-07-10 00:11:39 +0000 UTC
