Comments for Lunchtime!

Comment on New Digs by brianbunton

brianbunton — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:31:37 +0000

So it begins: Classes have been cancelled starting Thursday night.

Comment on Visiting Hours Are Over by New Digs « Lunchtime!

New Digs « Lunchtime! — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:21:37 +0000

[...] It seems that all four of the most regular contributors to this site have moved recently. After getting hired on permanently, I moved back in with my parents over the summer. I finally sold my house on the last day in July, [...]

Comment on Relative cost of the Iraq war by brianbunton

brianbunton — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:08:22 +0000

The cost of human life is the #1 reason I’m angry about the war, even moreso now that I’ve learned a cousin will be heading to Afghanistan in January. But the money is #2. The numbers just boggle my mind. However, I can’t think of how things would be different domestically if there was no war. So that means the cost is all being taken from the deficit? I guess it seems okay just to pile on to our national deficit to fight a spurious and superfluous war, but couldn’t we spend those billions on something that would actually do some good, like education? Or poverty? But try bringing that idea up in peacetime, and you’ll have a revolt. It’s so frustrating.

Comment on How much fossil fuel does it take to make gas? by jwambaugh

jwambaugh — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:51:25 +0000

Hey Brad — I just saw a talk on cellulosic ethanol research that is going on at RTI last week. Apparently things are moving along, but it may be decades before we can displace a meaningful fraction of the U.S. oil consumption.

The cost of producing electric panels may not be as bad relative to oil as you think, though. I sat through “There Will Be Blood” Monday night and it had me thinking about all of the energy that goes into discovering and pumping oil out of the ground. I haven’t seen that included in any of the analyses of the relative costs of energy sources, but I would think it would be significant.

Comment on Burgers, not just for grillin’ by jwambaugh

jwambaugh — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:47:52 +0000

Congratulations Brad! Any chance of one of your results becoming known as the “Burgers-Marts Equation”?

Comment on Burgers, not just for grillin’ by bpt2

bpt2 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:20:13 +0000

Congrats!!!

And I’ll get to it, I swear. Thanks for noticing.

Comment on How much fossil fuel does it take to make gas? by bmarts

bmarts — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:29:33 +0000

Slightly off topic, but I recently read an article from Nature that included a brief review of several photovoltaic (solar panel) technologies. It stated that 5 GJ (that’s Giga-Joules) were required to produce one square meter of the traditional Silicon based solar panels. This blew me away as, depending on the efficiency of the panel, you’d have to run it for 1-2 years just to recover the energy the used to make the darn thing. The article was from 2001 so it’s possible the 5 GJ number has been reduced since then, but the bottom line was that it’s expensive to make the Silicon based solar panels.

Comment on The Summer of George* by jwambaugh

jwambaugh — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:27:13 +0000

Moderation is the key…

Comment on The Summer of George* by brianbunton

brianbunton — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:04:52 +0000

From your lips to God’s ears. Now pardon me while I go drink a gallon of water.

Comment on Pandora, as good or bad as you by brianbunton

brianbunton — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:04:24 +0000

I just updated my iPhone to 2.0, and one of the new developer applications is Pandora. For free, you can listen to your Pandora station for free, wirelessly. This may be the greatest thing since sliced bread.