but not because of climate change. Up to half of the yearly American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan have been incurred guarding fuel convoys, and the Pentagon will no longer tolerate oil's "burden in blood." Full article HERE.
:thumb: Great article but it doesn't surprise me that the military is once again driving the technology that civilians will eventually use.
While studying biology and environmental science I quickly realized that many of our great discoveries came about because of the military or the technologies they developed. My level of respect rose even higher.
Yeah, just think, if we didn't have to kill humongous numbers of people from time to time we'd still be in the dark ages. Hmmmmm, did that come out right? Ah, sadly it didn't but if the world could keep it's militaries and still build all those cool toys and instead of shooting each other we could maybe thermobarically bomb iceberg's in shipping lanes, or carve canals in dry thirsty regions with 7.62 and 5.56 mm armor piercing bullets we could get out of these "dark ages" have our cake and eat it too! Personally I'd like to take a B2 Stealth Bomber fill it full of brightly colored ping-pong balls and glitter then do a low level run on a Gay Parade in San Francisco! Then everyone even the homophobes would be Gay! At least for a little while.
Never said the military developed solar technology. The discovery/developer of the photoelectric effect rightly belongs to the civilian sector but solar technology was initially driven by the militaries need to power satellites.
Photoelectric effect discovered: Edmond Becquerel 1839 Photoelectric effect explained: Albert Einstein 1905 First solar cell: Russell Ohl 1946 First practical solar cell: Bell Labs 1954 First proposal of solar cells for satellites: William Cherry 1956 First satellite with solar cells: Vanguard I 1958 That aside what you said was: "Great article but it doesn't surprise me that the military is once again driving the technology that civilians will eventually use." 'Once again' implies present tense. What they are doing now will be what civilians eventually (i.e. in the future) will be using. Which is clearly backwards. Civilians have been using solar cells for (terrestrial) generators for decades, the military is just now (according to the article) using them.
Corwyn, I think Treb's point as well as my own is that more often then not, the military develops or enhances technology that eventually makes its way into the civilian sector whether it be direct data, mechanical devices, GPS, sonar, etc.. True that many devices are created in the civilian world but often times those devices are too expensive for anyone but the military and with widespread use they come down in price enough that civilians can purchase them. Working in the environmental field you often utilize devices that make work easier and more accurate thanks to the military. I'm no warmonger but I give credit where credit is due. Maybe I've been brainwashed by my oceanography professor who is ex-Navy. lol
I've argued with Treb many times over other points but that doesn't mean I cannot agree with the enemy when they speak the truth.
Rainbow shrapnel to rain terror on the "Gay Parade". Imagine the damage those falling balls could do when dropped from high altitude +1
pfffft Navy guys the only thing you're good for is double tapping terrorist leaders in the head and burial at sea. BTW, :thumb: :usa2: With a combination of internal storage and wing mounted external hard points the B-52 does carry a larger payload but it is slower, less stealthy and with 8 engines burning less economical and more polluting. The B-2 on the other hand carries it's entire load internally. Have you ever tried to mount ping-pong balls to external hard points? Not to mention how Gay mounting ping-pong balls on the outside of a B-52 would look. Hey wait a min . . . I see where your going! LoL! Your way would ensure that everyone one would be Gay! Even the military! That's sooooo GAY! :rockon: :usa2:
I mostly agree, but in those days much of Bell Labs funding, (perhaps some for solar?) came from the military. If you were Bell Labs would you rather compete in the free market of the civilian sector or be locked into a government/military contract? Besides if solar has been around that long, over 50 years, what's wrong with it? Why haven't more in the civilian sector adopted this technology. Now that the military has more FULLY adopted it you will see better efficiency, smaller arrays, more durable systems and as a result of this when the systems get pushed/adopted into the civilian sector we'll have cheaper prices. Additionally according to your time line the military has been using them almost as long as the civilian sector. If you had a choice to use civilian solar arrays on your home or military arrays which would you choose? Let's disregard pricing for now, eh?
Price. The price drops in most things, and particularly in solar panels have come from civilian sector. At the moment from the Chinese civilian sector. The military is usually willing to pay any price for what they want, so they rarely promote cost reductions. I can find dozens of solar manufacturers claiming upcoming improvements in PV technology, none have been connected with any military. Not sure where you live that you aren't seeing a lot of civilian solar panels. Civilian. Why?
