Saudi Arabia’s wildly ambitious plan to build 500m tall, mirrored, 170km long parallel skyscrapers, forming a 1.5M population desert city has been curtailed to 2.4km long.

The news was broken by the financial news publication Bloomberg, which said that Saudi Arabia’s government had “scaled back its medium-term ambitions” for Neom, of which The Line is the most significant sub-project.

The Saudi government had hoped to have 1.5M residents living in The Line by 2030, but this has been scaled back to fewer than 300,000, according to the report. It is unclear how it intends to house a higher concentration of people considering the proposed length (and therefore area) has been massively slashed.

  • Flying Squid
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    6 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    How recent are you talking and by what measure of success? Because I’m not finding anything when I search and, as far as I know, the world is still a long way away from fusion as a practical energy source.

    • Lath
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      6 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      Try South Korea instead. I think they’re the ones who achieved a 48s run recently.

      • disguy_ovahea
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        6 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        China sustained 158 million degrees Fahrenheit (70 million degrees Celsius) for 1,056 seconds.

        • Lath
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          0
          ·
          6 months ago
          link
          fedilink
          1. That explains it. I don’t have that long of an attention span.
      • Flying Squid
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        6 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        I wouldn’t call that a practical energy source either.

      • Flying Squid
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        6 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        So by “recent, you meant 2022 and by “success, you mean running 17 minutes.

        How long do you think you can power a city with those 17 minutes of fusion?

        Because my guess is around 17 minutes.

        • disguy_ovahea
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          6 months ago
          edit-2
          6 months ago
          link
          fedilink

          It’s a substantial leap in proof of concept. The previous record was 17s. They’re opening up all research that led to the success, with many scientists claiming potential for controlled applications within 20 years.

          Even improved harnessing and storage of 158M°F could allow the reactor to work in modulation. It’s a big deal in the science community.

          • Flying Squid
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            14
            ·
            6 months ago
            link
            fedilink

            “Many scientists” like the ones who have been claiming that my entire life since the 1980s?

            Can you show me any of their peer-reviewed journal articles that say so?

            And considering your definitions of “recent” and “success” turned out to be a little on the untrue side, I’m not inclined to believe your “big deal” claim either.

              • Flying Squid
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                10
                ·
                6 months ago
                link
                fedilink

                You do know the difference between a peer-reviewed journal article and a regurgitated press release on a site called ‘Nuclear Newsire,’ right?

                  • Flying Squid
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    13
                    ·
                    6 months ago
                    link
                    fedilink

                    Both of your links are just reviews of nuclear fusion progress. The first one, China specifically, the second one, multiple projects. Neither of them make any sort of claim that I can see about practical nuclear fusion being 20 years away.

                    You seem to have a major honesty problem.