Tobias S. Buckell's Blog, page 46

50% Reduction In Cost Of Renewable Energy Since 2008

It has fallen 50% in four years. I really push people to encourage the impact of 1/2 costs by 2016:

“Renewable energy becoming more cost-competitive with fossil fuels isn’t news – as technology improves and more clean power generation comes online, electricity without emissions gets cheaper. But one new analysis reveals just how shockingly cheap it’s gotten.

The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from wind and solar sources in America has fallen by more than 50% over the past four years, acco...

Windstream solar/wind hybrid mills looking to get into Jamaica

An interesting vertical wind turbine and solar power unit that’s intriguing gets coverage in the Jamaica Gleaner due to some support and interest it is getting in Jamaica.

It seems to be $3,000 a unit:

“‘One of the cries from Jamaicans is the need for alternatives, and the SolarMill goes and takes the solar installation one step further, because when the sun is not out the wind is still blowing. So it really gives you more power for your dollar,’ she asserted.

Tomblin said this product was a dis...

Aeroscraft takes to the air

One of my favorite airships in the ongoing hope to develop cargo aircraft, the Aeroscraft, is moving further along. It did a tethered flight, and will soon be doing an untethered one.

“This fully rigid airship, dubbed the Aeroscraft, differs fundamentally from, say, the Goodyear blimp. Blimps, by definition, have no internal structure and maintain their shapes only through the pressure of the gas they contain; when the gas escapes, they deflate like the gigantic balloons they are. Rigid airshi...

Microsoft’s cringe-worthy Steve Jobs/iPhone ad… yeah, it’s cringe-worthy

“Microsoft’s Windows Phone team posted today a rather cringe-worthy Windows Phone video on YouTube that mocks Apple and its recent iPhone announcement. Titled ‘A fly on the wall in Cupertino?’, it depicts what some might believe to be Apple CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President of Design Jony Ive in separate meetings to go over the various color options and other features for the iPhone 5c and 5s.”

(Via Microsoft posts cringe-worthy Windows Phone video ads mocking Apple – The Next Web.)

Fuck m...

Six Radical Life-Extension Technologies

For trans-humanists to consider:

“CLEAN WATER This is a basic innovation. However, the marketing upside is huge. There is massive, seemingly endless demand for this tech. While on the low end it is highly at risk of being commodified, there is much profit to be made from premium versions of the product for all market segments.”

This list isn’t complete, of course. It’s simply six things that came to Paul Graham Raven’s mind as he considered the transhumanist argument for the moral need to resea...

Malaysia set to spend money on rail…

I’m curious to see how much they’ve set aside for the high speed rail bit. But short of it is, Malaysia is about to join the list of countries investing in it as the US, still, lags:

“Malaysia plans to spend a staggering US$50 billion to develop its rail network over the next seven years, including a high-speed rail linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore set for 2020, and the urban mass rapid transit system that is rolling out in 2017.”

(Via Malaysia set to spend US$50b to develop rail network – Ch...

On Bullshit Jobs

I’m guessing Strike! magazine comes from a very certain perspective (labor, union oriented). Nonetheless, as an entrepreneur and artist, a lot of this rings a bell with me:

“This is a profound psychological violence here. How can one even begin to speak of dignity in labour when one secretly feels one’s job should not exist? How can it not create a sense of deep rage and resentment. Yet it is the peculiar genius of our society that its rulers have figured out a way, as in the case of the fish-...

Onlinefilm to stream free Caribbean films this Sunday Sep. 15th

This is cool:

“Courtesy of our friends at CaribbeanTales-TV- a partnership between VOD platform Onlinefilm and CaribbeanTales, a Canadian-based production/distribution company.

The aim with this collaboration is to provide an online space for Caribbean films,accessible to audiences worldwide- a web portal that’s controlled by filmmakers.

This Sunday (and the next, September 15), audiences are invited to watch FOR FREE, 24 hours of streaming of Caribbean films on the website.I counted a total of...

Why I am writing YA (sometimes)

Kameron Hurley talks about why she’s not writing YA (despite so many of her friends moving over to it, or doing it):

“No doubt there are many people writing YA because they simply love the genre. As an added bonus, it also pays better than a lot of adult lit, though the field is starting to get a little bit glutted due to the gold rush. The other great part about writing YA is that you can write 3 books a year at, say, 70K a piece and get paid better than most 210k epic fantasy novels.

When I l...

Fantastic Reddit thread about writers and figures and stuff like that

If you find the business of writing fascinating, like I do, here are a lot of honest, open answers with data (if you read me you’re probably down with that as well) on this Reddit thread.

“As an aspiring author myself, I’m curious about this and was hoping you would be willing to help me out with some information – What’s the benchmark, in terms of book sales, to be wholly financially self-sufficient from writing fiction, alone?”

(Via A question for the published fantasy authors here. : Fantasy...