Slashdot Mirror

Today we have an unsustainable situation in which a tiny fraction of super-rich individuals own more property than the rest of the nation put together.

The federal government is the largest, richest landlord.

This guy did some math that came up with a square area 44 miles on a side to fulfill peak load
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/...

Thanks - that led to some interesting links.

So it's actually 1600 square miles of solar panels, at an estimated cost of about $1T.

The reason I did the calculation was a result of wondering: suppose we had an automated robotic factory that made and installed solar panels. At what point is the system self-sustaining?

In other words, could we have a self-assembling system that kept building ever more solar panels, and after a time allocate a portion of the output to the rest of the country?

If you could do that, you could have a huge self-sustaining automated factory and allocate a monthly allowance of the production to every person in the country. Each month everyone gets to order $1000 worth of the factory goods.

Over time, the system ramps up production to cover all the consumption in the country, and do recycling as well.

It's an interesting concept.

This guy did some math that came up with a square area 44 miles on a side to fulfill peak load
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/...

Of course this did not include cover night and low-light times like cloudy days or when the sun is not 90 degrees to the panel
So, you would probably need three times that amount with batteries to store and forward power as needed

and there is that pesky 'aging power transmission system' that needs to be replaced

Don't get me wrong, solar would be an excellent distributed power generation capability and Musk's idea of supplying localized batteries to handle night time use sounds like a smart idea, but we will need large power generation facilities for the next few decades and I would argue that Nuclear is the leas environmentally damaging of the lot

It's [solar energy] going to be enough for those who will remain after the Generational Purge. The One Percenters will find those figures quite satisfactory, since the plans for California is to turn it into a state-size vacation area anyway.

Suicide carried off many. Drink and the devil took care of the rest.
~Robert Louis Stevenson

Sorry Bob, the devil is looking elsewhere to fill quota, and even good drink will be scarce during the Generational Purge due to a loss of the 'Just In Time' food supply chain. Modern cannibals will find scarcely a week's worth of cans on the grocery shelf and perhaps another few weeks in distribution centers, but this will serve only to swell the ranks of the migrant Cannibal Armies that will actually conduct the Purge.

The Cannibal Army is the ultimate (and last) achievement of any failed modern civilization. The only reason the history books are not chock full of 'em is that historians are delicious, and there has never been enough population to achieve the necessary critical mass, collapsed societies to this point have always left numbers few enough to live off the land, and retained enough know-how to do so. That is not true today.

Ask anyone on the street if they know how to solder a joint, sow seed, plant a cow or where delivery pizza comes from and they haven't a clue. But ask them if they could figure out how to eat someone and they will quickly nod assent. It is not only instinctive it is infused into the culture. The recurring theme of pursuit and car chases in popular movies expresses the primal knowledge necessary for cannibalism.

The cannibals will be ruthless, they will employ cleverness and the use of technology to scour the land. Your stationary survival enclaves will be the favorite feast of the first wave, where all the cherished ideals of small sustainable energy, and those who practice it, go into the cooking pot. Domestic cattle and other animals will be mere appetizers in this Moveable Feast, because cannibal armies have no patience to raise them. Disease from improper preparation will claim some, but the critical mass will persist until there is only one Cannibal Army left in California.

That last cannibal army, great in number, will then march on the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant to absorb and consume the small group of engineers and scientists who have gathered there to preserve the remaining fruits of civilization, and for hot showers. Cannibals are easily swayed by reason, you might say they are even attracted to it, because wherever reason exists there are yummy people to consume. And consume they will until the last corn-fed game is exhausted. And then they will turn on each other and feast until human population levels out and reaches a sustainable level of -1.

The fate of California's energy policy is foretold in Lucifer's Hammer. Devour this book.

Soon to be nicknamed the 'Nudie-cam.'

Obligatory (SFW) pic worth 1K words. [Google image search result for "Terahertz imaging"].

Note to self: THz-camo underwear market will be big. Get in early.

Yet another reason to live in New Hampshire: No sales tax.

In further praise of New Hampshire note that we also don't have an income tax and, unlike California, we're not bankrupt. Also, the unemployment rate is pretty low - currently 5%.

(We have high property taxes, but one of the lowest overall tax burdens, so having high property taxes isn't as important as you might think.)

First, you are an idiot if you don't understand what the MRAP is. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle. Did I say they purchased Tanks? No, I said very clearly "armored vehicles". The name MRAP shows clearly that the vehicle is armored. Will it stop a tank round? Not a KE or AP round, but it will not be bothered by small arms, or home made explosive devices and even smaller HE rounds like 25mm.

So since you back what I stated regarding the Patriot act perhaps you simply misread what I wrote previously. But...

Your numbers regarding bullet purchases are absolutely wrong. As is the reason for them purchasing killing bullets vs. target bullets. Here is an article showing 1.4 billion rounds. This includes sniper rounds as well as 9mm and 5.56 rounds so is higher than what I quoted. The reason DHS claims to need that many bullets is for target practice. Hollow points cost nearly 3 times what target rounds cost, so obviously this is either 1) a lie or 2) a waste of tax payer money. Since they continue to lie about the purchase, I have no reason to believe that they are honest with their intentions for use.

You also gave a fabrication for the number of armored vehicles being purchased by DHS. Here is a link that is not Alex Jones, showing that the purchase is for 2,700 but of course a good number of those have not been delivered yet.

When you fabricate information to prove someone wrong, you appear to be a government shill. It is possible that you are just absolutely misinformed. You use the term "conspiracy theorist" just like the media teaches people to use the term through propaganda. So as I started with, you are either a shill or ignorant.

Except that, from what I've read, Mass. is actually not very close to the top of the list for high-tax states. Obviously, compared to places like Wyoming, it's high, but compared to New York, Illinois, and California, it's pretty cheap. Mass. is probably somewhere in the middle.

Here's some figures showing where states rank in various taxes:
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/retreat-living/lowest-to-highest-taxes-by-state/

Forget Cali, come to Central Oklahoma! Our GM plant closed last year; the facility and knowledgeable manpower are available. Decently low cost of living, decently high wages, right-to-work (not that I'm anti-union). Plenty of inexpensive power (natural gas-fired electrical plants) and good weather. Heck, we even have earthquakes.