1) If Somali pirates can recover nuclear fuel without killing themselves from irradiation then more power to them (my guess is they can’t). Nuclear fuel IS NOT WEAPONS GRADE … but it will soon kill you if you touch it.

2) Nuclear safety… there hasn’t been a SINGLE nuclear accident in the 50 year history of US nuclear propulsion and they currently run 80+ nuclear ships/subs.

1) If Somali pirates can recover nuclear fuel without killing themselves from irradiation then more power to them (my guess is they can’t). Nuclear fuel IS NOT WEAPONS GRADE … but it will soon kill you if you touch it.

2) Nuclear safety… there hasn’t been a SINGLE nuclear accident in the 50 year history of US nuclear propulsion and they currently run 80+ nuclear ships/subs.

Now, as for gov’t subsidies, these days it seems the gov’t is throwing money at damn near everything anyway. Why not something simple and economical like this? Again, I doubt that it will replace engines anytime soon, but considering how many boats there are and how much pollution they create, every little bit will help at this point.

If anything, it would help lower transportation costs or at least help offset the costs of using better, cleaner fuels.

Now, as for gov’t subsidies, these days it seems the gov’t is throwing money at damn near everything anyway. Why not something simple and economical like this? Again, I doubt that it will replace engines anytime soon, but considering how many boats there are and how much pollution they create, every little bit will help at this point.

If anything, it would help lower transportation costs or at least help offset the costs of using better, cleaner fuels.

AlanHowlett might benefit (everyone) from brushing up on his manners. Notice how “nic” disagreed with me without being a jerk. I’m not poo-pooing the SkySail as you’ll note in the “The SkySail is a good idea…” of my post. On the contrary, I hope every ship that can use one, uses one when it can.

I’ll admit I’m no expert on sailing, but I

can hold my own in physics. Do you really believe there would be any benefit from having the SkySail out if the wind is blowing, say +/- 70 degrees from travel direction. The cosine of 70 degrees is 0.34, so 0.34 would be the component of the wind force moving the boat forward while 0.94 (sin(70*)) would go toward pulling it off course requiring a counter force…e.g with a rudder or by steering the engine propeller off the tangent…either way it’s lost energy probably canceling out the gain from the wind in that case).

AlanHowlett might benefit (everyone) from brushing up on his manners. Notice how “nic” disagreed with me without being a jerk. I’m not poo-pooing the SkySail as you’ll note in the “The SkySail is a good idea…” of my post. On the contrary, I hope every ship that can use one, uses one when it can.

I’ll admit I’m no expert on sailing, but I

can hold my own in physics. Do you really believe there would be any benefit from having the SkySail out if the wind is blowing, say +/- 70 degrees from travel direction. The cosine of 70 degrees is 0.34, so 0.34 would be the component of the wind force moving the boat forward while 0.94 (sin(70*)) would go toward pulling it off course requiring a counter force…e.g with a rudder or by steering the engine propeller off the tangent…either way it’s lost energy probably canceling out the gain from the wind in that case).

Liam – Don’t confuse subsidies with the other stuff you included such as wars & regulation – different ball game.

Alan – Roads are a government function and not a subsidy.

To me, the governments function is to support R&D up to and including pilot plants. I do not know of any government running a business in an intelligent manner though I suppose there has been a few cases where it worked out OK, out of a million.

The US congress is trying to make an even bigger mess out of GM than even GM & the unions managed to.