Interesting Links for 07-06-2021

[andrewducker]

Scientists develop cheap and easy method to extract lithium from seawater

(tags:metal sea water GoodNews )

Puppies are able to track human social cues at just eight weeks of age

(tags:puppies dogs psychology humans viaPatrickHadfield )

What is Scandinavian Style Proportional Representation - and what would it look like in Scotland?

(tags:voting Scandinavia Scotland )

When your rescue cat rescues a cat

(tags:cat video cute )

Here's an interesting and unusual life

(tags:women life obituary religion )

Scotland's appeal to foreign investors bucks trend

(tags:Scotland UK economics )

Science Is Shaped by Wikipedia: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial

(tags:science wikipedia )

How do people feel about life extension?

(tags:life lifespan viaSwampers )

How 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians' Saved Disney

(tags:movies Technology Disney history dogs )

Sketch for a fanfic about the One Ring

(tags:lotr fanfic )

Comments

[mountainkiss]

This seems like terrible research design. Immortality and life extension are two really different things.

[andrewducker]

They really are. I thought that this, linked in it was better, with some interesting bits.

[danieldwilliam]

I absolutely would take a life extension pill that gave me an unlimited life expectancy. I would always like the option of more life. IIRC the statistical average life expectancy if you removed diseases and accidents etc were the only source of deaths would be about 1,800 years. There is also the option of checking out early.

I think there is a reasonable chance that my generation might see some significant life extensions. I would not be surprised if people born in the West in the 1970's routinely lived in to the 2100's in reasonable good health.

But they are different things.

[andrewducker]

I am keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a sudden breakthrough (several million tiny breakthroughs) over the next few decades that will keep me alive for the long term. That would certainly have some interesting knock-on effects!

Lithium

[danieldwilliam]

Cheap abundant lithium from seawater plus recycling puts a pretty hard ceiling on lithium costs and removes a lot of security of supply concerns.

Re: Lithium

[andrewducker]

Yeah, if they make it work well then it'll be a really positive thing.

I assume seawater mixes enough that you can't really mine out a large volume of it.

Re: Lithium

[danieldwilliam]

One of the big oceans absolutely. Somewhere like the Red Sea you might alter the chemical composition of the water noticeably. The Med or the Baltic, not sure. The Med has odd currents
through the Gates of Hercules driven by the net loss of water due to evaporation and the way salt exchanges work.

Re: Lithium

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I don't know how often the sea "turns over" - if a bit of water is in the top 1m does it tend to continue being so, or does it circulate vertically as well as horizontally?

And where's a handy oceanographer when you need one?

Re: Lithium

[andrewducker]

Okay, this is interesting:
https://meteor.geol.iastate.edu/gccourse/alumni/ocean/text.html

Re: Lithium

[danieldwilliam]

So lots of opportunities for mixing.

Re: Lithium

[danieldwilliam]

Commercial reserves on land 14 million tonnes. Might run out by 2080.

Amount of lithium in the sea 230 billion tonnes.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542435118302927

[agoodwinsmith]

More of my thirties, sure. Indefinitely? I dunno. More of my sixties, probably, but not indefinitely. Watching my older relatives - more of my old age, no thanks.

Scandinavian PR

[danieldwilliam]

On first and second reading that Scandinavian electoral system strikes me as utterly utterly horrible. I'd almost rather have First Past the Post than that.

I'll read it a third time and see if I can articulate why I think it's awful.

Re: Scandinavian PR

[andrewducker]

I shall look forward to that!

Re: Scandinavian PR

[danieldwilliam]

Me too.

Re: Scandinavian PR

[andrewducker]

Having read through it again, it seemed pretty reasonable to me. You elect districts proportionally, make the overall numbers even more proportional using the total vote counts, and select which representatives get picked based on which ones the voters ranked highest.

I shall look forward to seeing what you dislike about it.