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They love them here in Lincoln NE. They defend them all day long even though the # of accidents skyrockets at each intersection. Check out their latest idea, an elevated roundabout. http://lincoln.ne.gov/city/pwo...

I pay $0.34/KWh (been a while since you've looked at a bill?) Plus rates increase at about 8% a year. My investment will be fully paid off in 5-7 years, and will earn over 10% after that. Not many investments pay that well.

Are you paying extra for "green" energy or something? You must not live in the USA. In my area we pay around $0.08/KWh. That's just under the US national avg http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/204.htm

$0.062 for Wyoming all the way up to
$0.25 for Hawaii.

I keep promising myself I won't post to Slashdot, but someone has to say something so inaccurate it really needs a correction.

Sorry, but the poster I was responding to was incorrect. The claim was that this approach only hurts Democrats and is neutral for Republicans; it is an incontrovertible fact that this system in Nebraska has benefited Democrats at the expense of Republicans. Predictably, after this happened in 2008 the Republicans wanted to go back to the "winner takes all" system. Fortunately, the Republicans failed in their attempt and the split electoral system remains in place.

In terms of fairness, this approach starts to move our election system away from the "first past the post" outcomes by allowing state votes to be split. No state elects their US House of Representatives Congressional delegation via a statewide "winner takes all" system, and effectively no one is complaining that it is unfair that each district gets to choose their own representative. Why shouldn't electors be chosen the same way as Congress: by congressional district for individual electors (like the House) and by overall state winner for the remaining two electors (like the Senate)? Then again, perhaps you believe that the basic system for electing Congress in the US is unfair and perverse.

Either way, I hope you are intellectually honest enough to hold the same opinion no matter which party is likely to prevail in the current election and not have your advocacy shift whenever it seems that your preferred party would benefit.

I'm unclear on the concept. Why not set that support percent at 0% and leave it there? Why should we require anyone to use renewable power in the design of their buildings?

For example, according to Wikipedia, Germany has average power costs of around $0.31 per kWh. The US average is around $0.10 per kWh. That is a huge competitive advantage in the US's favor due IMHO mostly to the fact that the US hasn't destroyed most of its power generation capability in pursuit of renewable power generation.

I think the effect would be much worse at the individual building level. IMHO going from 0% to 10% of power generation imposes a large cost on the building. You have to have the renewable power source, but you also have to connect that to the grid. And those things collectively will impose design constraints on the building, further driving up cost.

http://www.beatrice.ne.gov/departments/bpw/electric/pdf/cfl_brochure_bpw.pdf

But you could have very easily have Googled it.

At this moment in time, Electricity equivalent to the energy contained in a gallon of Gasoline is literally pennies compared to an actual gallon of Gasoline, and that's with Coal.

I don't think I'd say "literally pennies" -- based on my calculations, it's dollars. Specifically, it looks like ~$2.155 per gallon is about the cheapest you can expect (based on the electricity costs in Wyoming), up to ~6.43 per gallon (based on the electricity costs in Connecticut). Compared to the current cost of gasoline per gallon, which is around $2.70 in my area, that has potential, but isn't as much a slam-dunk as you seem to think -- remember that we have to account for the fact that these numbers assume a 100% efficient storage of energy into gasoline, where in reality there will be some loss. Now, we could likely throw a few optimizations into the mix, so I'll believe it could work economically at some point (get cheaper electricity, only run the gasoline producing reaction during off-peak times when electricity is cheaper, take advantage of the fact (?) that some power plants have to produce a certain minimum load and thus waste some power, etc.), but we're not quite there yet.

My numbers were based on the fact that "a gallon of gasoline contains about 132x106 joules of energy, which is equivalent to 125,000 BTU or 36,650 watt-hours", and this electricity rate comparison by state. [Note: I excluded Hawaii, which actually has the highest cost per kilowatt-hour of any US state, on the assumption that gasoline is significantly more expensive there as well, and thus isn't a very good comparison.]:

http://uniweb.legislature.ne.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=s2502008000

There is the Nebraska law on libel, which requires "publication", as I work for the major newspaper in Nebraska, I know from experience in dealing with our paper and website, that libels suits have only covered the printed word here.

I would have to say then that in accordance with your own personal experience that you have been fortunate enough not to stand accused of libel. However, that still does not change the fact that you are wrong.

From your own citation:

Publication of an allegedly libelous statement occurs when it is communicated to someone other than the person defamed. Vergara v. Lopez-Vasquez, 1 Neb. App. 1141, 510 N.W.2d 550 (1993).

It says neither that the libel must be run through a press nor on paper to be libel in the State of Nebraska. "Publication" results when the alleged libel is simply communicated to a third party. There is no apparent restraints as to the form and origin of the communication.

Your link is an assertion as well that email is libel. Well, I've seen "libel suits" filed for radio broadcasts, but it doesn't make it right.

http://uniweb.legislature.ne.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=s2502008000

There is the Nebraska law on libel, which requires "publication", as I work for the major newspaper in Nebraska, I know from experience in dealing with our paper and website, that libels suits have only covered the printed word here.

That is your citation. Where is yours?

I've been pleasantly surprised to see the countdown added to "don't walk" signals in various cities over recent years. (For those who haven't seen it, there's a picture and an explanation near the bottom of the page here.)

Do you know if there is any chance such countdowns could be added to lights as well? I can't think of a reason why they shouldn't be added to all signals, walk, don't walk, red, green, and especially yellow.

I have a feeling that would go a long way to reducing both accidents and road rage.

We see similar when we build systems.
The Intel CPUs are competitive with the Opterons on power consumption.
But: The whole system uses more with Intel.

Why? the northbridge memory controller is a separate chip with Intel, and it is very power hungry.
In the AMD chips the memory controller is a part of the CPU.
In the case of a similar dual XEON compared to a dual Opteron,
the XEON machine uses about 80W more power.

What a lot of these studies do not even get into is cooling cost.
for every watt of power , which ends up heat, we have to expend at least 1.5 watts, on air conditioning.

As for the comment about the size of the power supplies, that is irrelevant.
The maximum rated output of a supply has nothing to do with the power consumed.

Bottom line:
Assuming an Intel XEON server uses about 80 watts more than an equivalent AMD one,
which is what we see when we build them:
80w x 24 hours/day x 365 days is 700KWh. @ 9c/kWh costs $63/year.
Add aircon costs for that extra 80W:
120w x 24 hours/day x 365 days is 1050KWh. @ 9c/kWh costs $96/year.

Therefore, a machine using an extra 80W costs an extra $160 to run in an air conditioned room.

Source of power rates:
http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/115.htm

Maybe not strictly rogue, but if you like you can find a distribution of Moria here instead.

F.

Open land and cheap power, yeah, that's it. The fact that the Carolinas are awfully close to DC, just a coincidence. And it's not like Google's giant facility in Washington State is going to be a stone's throw away from the NSA facility in Yakima, right?

North and South Carolina don't rank so well in terms of electricity cost per state. If you want cheap tracts of land and cheap electricity, you build a data center in Oklahoma or Kansas (yes, Virginia, there is fiber there), not in Washington or the Carolinas...

• Many handkerchiefs. Use them to cover your face when you're shoveling foul water/mud/spoiled food, although bad food is probably largely gone by now. Also good as do-rags and sweat rags.
• Plain water will get boring quickly, so bring some gatorade mix and mix it half-strength.
• A small (2-3ft) crowbar
• A utility knife and blades
• A hammer, philips, and flathead screwdriver
• Pliers
• Get a cheap leather tool belt from Harbor Freight, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. so you're not always looking for the above tools
• Several pairs of gloves, including at least one pair of heavy latex/rubber gloves.
• Of course, remind your planners to bring plenty of fuel, food, and water. And chainsaws. :)