Published

2 years ago

March 25, 2024

Alice Rush

Here’s a piece from Fossbytes, the same people who claim that the costs of maintaining EVs is greater than that of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles.

A cargo ship named the Pyxis Ocean equipped with two 123-feet-tall WindWing sails embarked on a journey from China to Brazil last August, aiming to test the efficacy of the wind-powered technology.

After six months of sailing worldwide, Cargill, the ship’s owner, unveiled the results. On average, the Pyxis Ocean saved 3.3 tons of fuel daily.

It showed potential savings exceeding 12 tons per day in favorable weather conditions, resulting in a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

WindWing’s makers suggest even greater fuel savings with three sails. Although promising, the challenge remains in adapting ports to accommodate such vessels. Cargill is actively engaging with ports globally to address this concern.

A couple of points:

As the wind industry has known for more than a century, the amount of power derived from capturing some of the kinetic energy from moving air is proportional to the area of the blades or sails on which the wind is incident. From the picture above, does it seem possible that huge, ocean-going cargo ships can be powered effectively from these two tiny sails?

It’s interesting that this is an artist’s rendering, rather than a photograph. It is significant that such devices do fact, in fact, exist?

There is no doubt that this will save on fuel. The ships the Vikings piloted around the open seas required no fuel either. If we don’t care how long it takes to ship our goods across the Pacific, perhaps this is a good idea. But of course, we care a great deal about modern supply change logistics.

A Return to Wind-Sailing Cargo Vessels?

Related Topics:EVs Fossbytes Wind-Sailing

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Not sure about this.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School might struggle to identify a bear. Could be.

This is the intelligence level of the American electorate today.

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The Chinese ownership of American farmland is less than 0.00036, or 0.036%. To put this into perspective, if the entirety of U.S. farmland were reduced to one acre, the Chinese government and business interests would own less than 15 square feet, about half the size of a small broom closet.

Yet, true to form, this is a huge issue for the MAGA base.

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1 day ago

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Alice Rush

This guy is quite effective in talking to uneducated, conservative Americans, most of whom have never traveled to, or even read anything about the happiest countries on Earth.

If I were going to make a statement about the relationship between social justice and despotism, I would at least consider the lives of the people in places that consider social justice to be something of importance, and compare/contrast this to the list of the countries that are perennially at the top of the World Happiness Rankings.

What makes the people in New Zealand, Iceland, Costa Rica, Northern Europe, etc., so happy? Why do these are these nations suffer exactly zero despotism?

I would be completely ashamed of myself if I were to forward a political theory that had precisely no basis in fact.