Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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[mfd]

Just saying, this is wrong on so many levels
 
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We are intelligent right?
wjt, Nov 28 2020

Money obviously does not work https://twitter.com...1331656926057345028
Just horrified. Reasons contrary needed. [wjt, Nov 28 2020]

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       Out of context, hard to know what to make of it. It is pretty!   

       Taking an optomistic point of view, it is waste material, so putting it in a hole in the ground seems a reasonable way to dispose of it.
pocmloc, Nov 28 2020
  

       The energy drop is worrying.   

       Being a closed surface in space can we dispose of anything. Store would be the correct term. Ingots would keep the resource cleaner and efficient for future processing.
wjt, Nov 28 2020
  

       //Ingots// Possibly; but then after the initial pour you use more fuel and energy to tip, extract, and stack the ingots. Also the mould material would have a limited number of castings before it too would need disposed of.   

       You could see the hole in the ground as a single large ingot.   

       The energy drop looks huge to a human, but we don't know the scale of the initial operation. This may be a trivial amount of energy compared to that used in the production. Perhaps its like after you have made porridge, you let the pot cool (waste of heat) and you scrape the crusty bits stuck to the edge into the compost bin (waste of nutritional resources). It is so little heat and nutrition by human standards that we do it every day without worrying. But if you were an ant you could heat your home for a year and feed your family for a year on the waste heat and food. Or, if you were cooking porridge in an industrial porridge plant to feed a million people, then the waste scrapings from the rim of the bowl might look like this.
pocmloc, Nov 28 2020
  

       // future processing //   

       Into what ? There's not much that's useful in silicate slag; that's the point of the stuff, to carry off impurities and leave the useful metal(s) behind.   

       It could be cast into blocks for constructional purposes but it's brittle; its mechanical properties are poor.   

       If there was any value in it whatsoever, over the cost of transportation to the point of use, the producers would look for it.   

       And what [poc] said.
8th of 7, Nov 28 2020
  

       If you had several billion very small moulds, you could cast grains of sand with it. This would be useful in replenishing a beach from which the sand had been washed away.
hippo, Nov 28 2020
  

       No need; simply leave it out in the open, and it will weather instantly* into sand-like particles.   

       *in terms of geological time, of course.
8th of 7, Nov 28 2020
  

       I do feel a bit better, thanks everyone. Though, as [pocmloc] indicates Nature would evolve a bit of life to use such a large energy, resource concentration differential. A company on the tiny scale compared to the source operation.   

       Even dumping the slag to heat water, to heat an environment to grow food or aquaculture would be a slight reclaim on the energy invested.   

       Maybe atom/furnace environment engineering will develop control to the level that the silicates and trace oxides lost can be separated completely.
wjt, Nov 29 2020
  

       For all we know the business pipes the cafeteria food production waste, the leftovers, office trash and industrial secrets into the loo pipe and routes it all into the hole to be incinerated by the slag. Pretty efficient, and such a cheerful sunny color.
whatrock, Nov 29 2020
  

       ^Just the door needed for extremophile evolution of scalding resistance.
wjt, Nov 29 2020
  
      
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