Alex Ames

compressible turbulent mixing 4 lyfe

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@StephNakhleh @DesertFoxNM32 Nearby obstacles also change drivers’ perception of speed, which would help. I can see potential issues with snow-clearing and frequent damage from trucks on tight corners, but weighed against multiple deaths?

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@StephNakhleh @DesertFoxNM32 Both crashes were caused by drivers on the wrong side of the double yellow line, right? I find it hard to believe that drivers would be as inattentive to the lines if it meant scratching their bumpers instead of just hitting a rumble strip.

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@StephNakhleh @DesertFoxNM32 Outbound links are apparently being downranked, so it’s better to post a teaser image and include a link to the piece in the replies. Great piece by the way! I’m curious about the jurisdictional issues that’d prevent lane markers from being installed - flex posts would help a lot

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@revhowardarson @bdowney High-level reactor physics and plant engineering are not the bottleneck - it’s having enough nuclear-certified workers to pour nuclear-certified concrete and make nuclear-certified welds and connect nuclear-certified control system cabling

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@revhowardarson @bdowney The bigger barriers, IMO, are that universities train students towards whatever the domestic reactor design happens to be, and the actual hard part of nuclear engineering is interfacing with licensing & regulatory bodies, and that’s far from being internationally harmonized

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@AndyfromTucson @colavitos_ghost @vanillaopinions Not true for Los Alamos! Actually the opposite, if anything - many people commute here from larger metros (Santa Fe, Albuquerque), and it isn't a vacation hotspot/playground of the rich like most of the spots on that list

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@tomekandfriends @xiaowang1984 …and that’s if they own the home at all! I’ve rented for all of my adult life, and none of my landlords have had any incentive to drop big bucks sealing the building envelope when I’m the one paying the power and gas bills

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@tomekandfriends @xiaowang1984 There’s an additional wrinkle - you need high energy costs to justify retrofits, but the aging buildings that could benefit most are largely owned by low-income people who don’t have the cash for (and can’t finance) a $25k retrofit

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@john102414 @mattyglesias I’d be happy to see a carbon tax, but there would be no faster way to turn my rural blue state into a rural red state than saying “We’re doubling the price of gas”, and then you have R’s in power who’ll unwind all the progress you’ve made

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@john102414 @mattyglesias Norway has gobs of oil & gas income (1/3 of government revenues), making it relatively easy to extend large subsidies to EV owners. Most places don’t have the same headroom.

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@drvolts @strommen There’s an extra wrinkle, which is that COP varies with ambient temperature. If you can charge your thermal battery during the day in the winter when the sun’s shining on solar panels and air temperatures are higher, that claws back some of the difference

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@sam_d_1995 @MattZeitlin Denmark has great wind resources, but they do rely on the usual suspects in neighboring countries to firm up their grid

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@xiaowang1984 @Astoll15 But how is it more economical to deploy two orders of magnitude of storage instead of running wires? Maybe reasonable in CA with mild weather and not much industrial electricity demand, but capacity expansion models aren’t arriving at tons of storage as the end-state least-cost

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@StephNakhleh @Sherileevs @Bewickwren It’s incident 2024-NMSNF-000075. Also visible on https://t.co/rMWYIamn1D

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@JRHunTx @MikkiBrock @AsheeshKSi I also had a great class that started every class period with a graded 10-minute quiz on top of homework, but no exams. Lots of ways to make it work, but no way around students’ need for high-quality feedback all the way through the semester instead of just a few exams

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@JRHunTx @MikkiBrock @AsheeshKSi I took an excellent senior design class that only assigned a single grade encompassing the final design (w/ report, presentation, and working prototype), but with lots of ungraded intermediate check-ins to keep students on track. Requiring a working prototype was crucial.

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@StephNakhleh I agree on the need for infill, but given the huge stock of existing low-density housing and long construction timelines for new builds, infill alone won’t make much of a dent in the total CO2 emitted by residences. Still need other tools (EVs, heat pumps) for existing resi stock

[Alex Ames @alexmames]

@johnarnold @adropboxspace Looking abroad, Riyadh and Dubai also bat above their weights despite being situated in deserts… must be their competent, responsive govts!
What does a “city performance relative to natural resources, amenities, and level of econ development” metric look like?