Looking for someone with more background here to help me contextualize the significance of this. The linked site quality seems somewhat low and I didn’t quite grok what exactly GF has accomplished here.
They've tested that their plasma injectors work well when combined with their actual test chamber.
They haven't attempted compressing the plasma in the test chamber yet (their press releases indicate that they've tested the mechanical compression earlier).
The machine under test is a prototype. Instead of a liquid lithium liner being compressed by pistons, they're using a solid lithium liner that's being compressed magnetically (z-pinch basically I think). This means that this prototype has basically no power generation potential.
What this prototype does derisk is I guess.. exactly the plasma injection process, and probably a bunch of aspects of their compression/fusion modelling. If this round of prototyping goes well (up to and including fusion and fusion breakeven), then they have to figure out their entire liquid lithium recirculation and compression systems, and then their energy capture systems.
I understand that the plasma injection process is non-trivial. They're basically trying to inject plasma smoke rings. Except these are smoke rings that magnetically self interact with themselves.
The superconducting magnets, lasers, etc. mentioned are as used in tokamak (doughnut shaped) reactors that most labs use. This is a completely different design, that seems intended to be quicker/cheaper/easier to roll out if they can get it working; they've achieved some progress in that regard, but still not fusion even, just a significant step towards it. (Fusion has been achieved in tokamaks, just not for very long and not net energy producing.)
Hey, congrats! Spent a good chunk of time fiddling with indie games… as some others have mentioned Jesse Schell is cool, also Ralph Koster. I know you’re looking for communities/resources, been there! But the best thing to do, is make games repeatedly. Apologies in advance for the length, but this is a part of my life I genuinely wish I could reset and retry w/ hindsight bc it feels so obvious now!
I found trying to make demos of individual mechanics pretty critical. Like any design process: high volume, low(er) fidelity until you find a meaningful direction (best case: lots of play testing from folks who are not the creators)
Even really abstract approaches for balancing XP a character, or moving on screen in a unique/tricky way can be useful to look for a signal of enjoyability (which option do folks want to replay, which do they seem less interested in… and why?)
I often try to think about the “play” part (pure delight/fun) vs the “game” part (winning conditions, confounding advantages, etc) separately
Last, I enjoyed talking to people (including myself) and trying to dissect WHY they like the games they like. There are genres and typologies that can be interesting creative inspiration (a game with a sudden-death condition mixed with the thrill of a race)
Try to make COMPLETE demos (beginning, advancement, winning conditions) and also honestly concept art (tell the visual story, we eat w our eyes first)
And just have fun! Man I am jealous, no time for games these days :/
Thinking of “play” and “game” as separate things feels really interesting and worth digging into. People enjoy different things, right? So figuring out those key points could be super important for making a good game. I need to talk to the gamers around me a lot more.
It’s too bad you don’t have time to play games these days haha. You should try making an indie game again someday! It’s never too late—when you feel like it, just jump in :)
> The medium asks you to use it to create an experience, an environment. Streaming doesn't care, so long as you're Consuming Content.
I think you’re being a bit too charitable with the record industry IMHO. Buying records is “Consuming Content”, the experience is of your own creation.
There is an artist on the other side. The fact that they can connect with you is the real experience, mediated by commerce and technology and all the other stuff that gets in the way.
The person directing you to the tech coop peer group is a spot on. There are many ways of doing this, but IMHO it ultimately comes down to writing bylaws for an organization that dictate how resources are accumulated and distributed, and evaluating the associated incentives and dynamics generated by those rules.
I don’t believe this is a great representation of REI. My understanding of REI, as a member, is that rather than holding shares, I receive a dividend relative to what I spend in each year, and I have access to certain perks, but I cannot elect board members and I cannot earn any additional power through working or volunteering labor for the organization
REI Board elections are open to all members. In the last election the REI union recommended not voting for all of the incumbent board members due to their hostility towards the union.
However I believe the board nomination process used to be open, but now only board members can nominate people for a board seat
Many asterisks here but there are methods for remediating herbicide and pesticide contamination. Not saying it’s universally solved, but its not universally unsolvable either.
Edit: I meant to speak specifically in terms of compost production.
The author appears to be unfindable, the abstract is clearly talking about something close to this but also mentions adapting existing UK based fossil fuel powerplants, lowballs a bunch of estimates, and somehow brings up a seemingly completely unrelated process that is also well-trodden ground in the distant past but hasn't been used in a century: A way to take the MnCl2 (Manganese-chloride) that is the waste product of an old timey way to make chlorine gas, and get yourself the manganese back out so you can recycle the process.
Which flummoxes me because the castner process was the one that _does not_ involve any chlorine. Perhaps the author of this paper is referring to the general principle here, which again is a mystery to me because the castner cycle I am referring to (sodium as an energy transport; [sodium + water] -> [heat, h2, caustic soda] to 'consume' it, [caustic soda + energy -> water, sodium] to produce it) doesn't have waste product at all other than water.
