The 2050 net zero carbon target is impossible because we cannot mine enough copper as demand doubles — A personal story kicked this one off This week I renewed the gas piping on my boat and wondered what to do with the old copper pipework. Copper is in big demand, for sure, but I’m not sure that 3 metres of scrap copper is worth much. 1/2 kg in weight? At $3.31 a US pound my…

At the start of the 2022 war, Ukraine had a large inventory of ex-Soviet air defence systems, but now NATO is adding its latest technology to counter missile threats — The aerial battle background I recently wrote about Ukraine’s inherited and enhanced ex-Soviet air defence inventory which served it very well during the early days of the 2022 war. The aircraft battle so far has been largely won by Ukraine but as the Russians pull their remaining aircraft back behind their borders (real and…

Longer, quieter underwater endurance than diesel-electric, but without nuclear complications — I wrote recently about Russia launching Kalibr missiles from its Varshavianka (Improved Kilo) class submarines in the Black Sea. That set me off to explore the latest submarine technology and Air-Independent Propulsion, although not new as such, is certainly leading the way in the non-nuclear fleets. And in some countries…

At the start of August, it’s starting to look awfully like 1939 again — but worse — I wasn’t around in 1939, but the small amount of history that I’ve read is being chillingly paralleled in 2022 with only slight nuances: a European dictatorship invading a neighbouring country a major eastern autocracy rattling its sabres a political and military partnership between those two powers bit-part players in…

An interesting experiment in AI for me and my AI assistant — Microsoft metaverse and Project AirSim I know next to nothing about flying a drone although I’ve written a few articles about their use — and I spent a fair bit of time on Microsoft’s regular flight simulator when my joystick worked. Planes only. Then today I read a story about Microsoft’s ‘metaverse’ being used for…

Apparently successful and feared by Russian aircraft, the range of Ukraine’s largely Soviet-designed equipment is vast — This article covers the makeup of Ukraine’s air defence systems including its Soviet era weapons. It does not cover command and control systems, wide area radar or satellite intelligence feeds. To keep this story from turning into a book it does not include those air defence systems recently supplied by…

Battery research is branching out for sustainable anodes and more besides in the paper mill — This beautiful tree is not from sustainable forest, it’s in a park in the city of Cadiz in Spain. It’s not suitable for batteries, but sustainable forests in Scandinavia could provide significant levels of raw material for a new battery technology. Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt has signed a joint development…

Rand Corporation: Horizontal nuclear escalation against NATO is an option — Painting and thinking I was painting my boat this afternoon and reflecting on Putin’s situation, shaping a story in my mind. He’s being painted into a corner. Yes, it’s a corner of his own making, but it does mean he’s much more dangerous. …