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Just to disappoint you...

Germany has just shut down 8 of its 17 nuclear reactors. It still does not need to import energy (in the last years Germany exported a massive amount of energy to other countries). Before the shutdown, Germany produced about 20% of its energy from nuclear and abount 17% from renewable energy sources (see wikipedia)

After the shutdown, Germany probably produces more power from renewable as from nuclear energy...

Not exactly.

Germany has shut down its 7 oldest and smallest nuclear plants. And 8th plant is down for maintenance.

Before te shutdown Germany was a net exporter of electricity. Since the shutdown it has become a net importer. http://www.thelocal.de/money/20110404-34161.html

To reduce the dependancy on imported (French and Czech) nuclear generated electricty Germany is bringing new coal and brown coal fired plants online.

Long term (by 2030) the plan is to be producing ~35% of electricity from fossil fuels, mostly coal and brown coal and 65% from renewables, mostly wind.

http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=77855753&aref=image048/2011/04/02/CO-SP-2011-014-0067-01-GR.JPG&thumb=false

A Federal Environment Agency (UBA) report revealed that a rapid phase-out of nuclear energy would have only a modest impact on Germany’s economy.

Daily Frankfurter Rundschau reported on Friday that an assessment by the agency found that if all nuclear power plants were shut down by 2017, electricity prices would increase by just 0.6 to 0.8 cents per kilowatt hour and there would be “no significant loss” in economic growth.

A shut-down would “have substantial benefits and outweigh the modest increases in electricity prices,” the report said.

The report also said the withdrawal could be achieved without the risk of electricity blackouts because “sufficient surplus reserve capacity” exists.

It added that new power plants would need to be built to support the withdrawal but that Germany could rely on the rapid development of renewable energy sources as well as ultra-efficient natural gas-fired power plants.

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110527-35293.html

1: Netflix and online poker and cell phones and fancy cars and... The number of ways that adults piss away money when their kids are in trouble is astounding.

And that explains why they are all poor? Because they piss it away on these things?

parents MUST be responsible.

I agree but even the most responsible parent can lose everything. You know, well maybe you don't but others do, it used to the rule that people saved 6 months expenses for emergencies. Now it's a year's expenses. And that year can be wiped out fast. Even with health insurance a major disease, illness, or injury can cost more than that. Even though I had insurance, which covered part of the expense, I had one prescription years ago which cost me $120 a month. There are drugs that cost thousands of dollars, per dose.

2: Japan has a lot of teenage problems, but they are not from schoolwork so much as social pressures and issues at home.

Social and parental pressures brought on by school. If a student does poorly more pressure is placed on them until the only way out that they see is death.

I could have said Germany

Yea you could have, well let's look at Germany:
Schools make slight PISA improvement. "While German students' scores for maths and sciences were slightly above the average for OECD countries, they still lagged behind the world’s top performers in Finland and South Korea, who tested one to two grade levels ahead."

It looks like education isn't so great there.

3: Look, either you improve or you end up a nobody or worse.

To be human means to care, and to be civilized means those unable are helped.

The major failing of U.S. education is that we think that every child should be saved.

No the major failing of US education is that people like you have this attitude that one size fits all.

Our education system needs to have more teeth in it and actually fail people.

Wow! I finally agree with you. But when people fail, the real failure is the education system. Different styles and way of teaching work better for some than for others. A lifetime ago I took intermediate algebra in college, after servicing in the military. It was in a regular class with lectures and homework. I got a "D" in the class. The following semester I took advanced algebra, registration was before finals, self paced. By the end of that semester I had a "B" for the class. But because I finished it in half the semester I used the rest of it to study trig. When finals ended I had an "A" average and only had one test to finish.

Self paced does not work for me well now, depending on the subject. Some subjects I need someone there I can ask for help, let me try on my own but be there in case. Other subjects I have to continually review, even a month without practicing I can lose it. Because of an injury I survived my memory is bad. Still others I have to have someone explain it, maybe more than once.

Falcon

I did wonder about flash based spyware. Could a flash app take a picture from a webcam then phone home?

Depends on if you read stories in the /. fire hose or read the articles they link to.

The problem with nukes is that people have this tendendacy to
make mistakes. Make a mistake with with a windmill or solar
and you might hurt yourself and a co-worker or two. Make a
mistake with a nuke and the entire world suffers. After
Chernobyl there was radioactive fallout in the continental
United States. Go look at a map and see how far away the US
is from Chernobyl. And the problem doesn't go away in a few
days, either. Germany still has problems from Chernobyl,
over 24 years later:
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100729-28819.html

Have we learned anything in the last 24 years? BP's
problems repairing a simple plumbing leak say no.

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100506-27017.html

I guess "recent" is a loose term, but it did happen. He may be confusing it with an axe/molotov cocktail attack in march.

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090917-21985.html

Here's a similar story from last year. I wonder if they are made up, because that's so unlikely.

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090319-18121.html

At least one drilling caused cracks in dozens of buildings, and a month ago one caused water to gush from holes around the site for several hours.

Speigel is available in English so there is no need to use Google's hilarious language masher. http://www.spiegel.de/international/ This item will not appear for a few days since it is bit of electioneering to a very violence-sensitive nation and not really international news. You can read alternative German opinions on the subject in Thelocal http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20090317-18073.html.

It probably comes as a surprise that Germany is a democracy and has many different opinions on a variety of subjects. The nation has a remarkable number of elderly people compared to the rest of the world and most of them think the internet comes in a box. This sort of thing appeals to them. They don't allow ordinary citizens to carry handguns either and they do provide healthcare for all of their citizens and even non-citizens who are employed. Abortion, contraception and education, including sex education, are available to all and their is a clear separation between what are considered religious ideas and what are scientific concepts.
They also have some of the fastest cars in the world and the safest roads on the planet where you can travel at sub-light speeds legally.

As slashdot's regular defender of all things German ( I have a Bavarian family) and rebutter of this sort of FUD, I am not too worried about ./ propagating ridiculous stereotypes about this country and its very open, liberal and democratic society, because it means fewer people with those daft opinions will come here and spoil it all for me. It's a beautiful part of the world as well and dare I mention how similar the Germans are to the ... Americans!

However, it's not worth having your legs broke by some guys who got your home address off of a Website.

Das wÃre gar nicht in Ordnung. Really, unless you get seriously mixed up in the Russian mafia, Germany is an incredibly safe place to live. But the police might come a-knocking with a court summons if you ignore a debt or fine.

(Last summer, an Italian girl told me she'd feel quite safe sleeping in one of the parks in Berlin, because there were other people doing it, but would never ever do the same in Milan. Berlin's a more relaxed, "socialist", graffiti-strewn kind of city. High unemployment, lots of immigrants, junkies, drug dealers in the parks, legal prostitution...it's the kind of place that would be a violent crime-ridden hellhole in the US, but here it's really quite pleasant if you enjoy a bit of grit in your life. And don't own a luxury car.)

(Or being dragged into court and being forced to pay a huge bill.)

Huge, probably not. AFAIK, worst case is you pay the money owed, plus maybe a bit extra. But basically all you need to do is send a stern but polite "fuck off" letter to the company. As others have mentioned, consumer protection laws are quite strong here. You just have to know your rights and exercise them.

A simple solution to a simple problem!

That's why the Germans have invested millions of Euros into their nuclear waste storage facilty in Asse to find out it's leaking.. If the waste was still usable wouldn't you think they'd have reused it "in a different reactor" instead of literally throwing millions of Euros into a hole?