Maximum 11 hours of driving with a minimum of 10 hours off off-duty (sleep). If they can average 70MPH, that's 770 miles per shift.
Seems to me Tesla would have to hit something real close to that mark before an all-electric semi will get much of a foothold in the long-haul market. Of course, they'll also need to be able to recharge completely well within the 10 hour down-time requirement.
Right, because my comment "When the KKK and Nazi's want to expose themselves and their idiotic and repugnant ideas, it's not a good idea to create martyrs-to-the-cause of any of them nor answer them with violence. That just feeds them." so clearly screams "I'm a Nazi supporter!".
When white people chant "Kill the blacks!" it's wrong. When black people chant "Kill the whites!" it's exactly the same kind of wrong.
You can pretend it's different somehow, I suppose.
And way to ignore the main point. We're already seeing liberal groups eating their own intersectionalities, like when the Chicago gay pride march refused to let Jewish gays march with their Star-of-David rainbow flags because it might offend some of the Palestinian gays. I'd be willing to bet that the gays affected by this anti-Semitic action would normally have supported someone being banned from a parade for their "offensive" ideas--and then it happened to them and they were undoubtedly stunned by the turn of events.
One marcher, Laurel Grauer, said she was harassed by other Dyke March attendees before being told she needed to leave with her flag.
“It was a flag from my congregation which celebrates my queer, Jewish identity which I have done for over a decade marching in the Dyke March with the same flag," she told Windy City Times.
“They were telling me to leave because my flag was a trigger to people that they found offensive,” she added. “Prior to this [march] I had never been harassed or asked to leave and I had always carried the flag with me.”
The organizers of the march told the Times the event was a pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist one and that the flags made people feel unsafe.
action and google's and godaddy's, etc. just remember your position on this when GoHillary.com or BlackLivesMatter.org is taken down because the sites allow "hate speech" to be posted.
We can fine an endless supply of "hateful" speech, even speech calling for violence on the left, too. The KKK has no monopoly on that.
Black Lives Matter protester: 'Only good white man is a dead white man'.
New Black Panther Party (NBPP), whose leaders are known for anti-Semitic and anti-white tirades. Its late chairman, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, famously remarked: “There are no good crackers, and if you find one, kill him before he changes.”
Though she opposed [a proposed Constitutional anti-gay-marriage amendment], [Clinton] said that she believed that marriage was "a sacred bond between a man and a woman" and she took "umbrage at anyone who might suggest that those of us who worry about amending the Constitution are less committed to the sanctity of marriage, or to the fundamental bedrock principle that exists between a man and a woman." [Pretty hateful words, by today's LGBTTTQQIAA... standards].
"White folks was in caves while we were building empires. We taught philosophy and astrology [sic] and mathematics before Socrates and those Greek homos ever got around to it." Al Sharpton [A gay slur, a nationalist slur, and a racist comment, all in one!]
You cannot define "hate" speech to just include white-supremacist or other speech you disagree with. Because if you do, when power shifts or something bad happens, your speech is next. We didn't go and shut down any of the sites that James Hodgkinson was active on, and if Trump and the right had tried to do so, the media would--correctly, for once--said that would be wrong and a violation of free speech rights. We didn't go and shut down the mosque where Omar Mateen's anti-gay views were stoked by his religious indoctrination. It would have been wrong.
When the KKK and Nazi's want to expose themselves and their idiotic and repugnant ideas, it's not a good idea to create martyrs-to-the-cause of any of them nor answer them with violence. That just feeds them.
No, I'm complaining about WB complaining about his taxes not being high enough, then jumping through hoops to to avoid taxes.
Since he has expressed the opinion that his taxes are too low and that government needs more money, WB could have sold the shares directly, paid CG taxes on the appreciated value, paid the 3.8% Medicare surcharge tax from Obamacare on top of that, then given the remaining cash to a charity he (one that doesn't control would make the optics better) and then not taken a deduction for the gift (nor carried-over the deduction).
It's his money, he can do with it as he pleases. If he'd never complained about how "unfair" it is about his taxes and how taxes need to be higher, I'd be congratulating him on his ability to avoid taxes as much as legally possible.
W Buffett used similar option to cancel huge swaths of his tax liabilities in a triple-dip dodge. He donated billions to charities he controls, sure, but he donated appreciated shares of stock. So first he deducted the charitable donation, at the same time bypassing capital gains taxes, and he significantly reduced his potential estate taxes. And he created $10B in carryover deductions for future years.
Imagine if he had simply sold his shares, paid income and CG taxes, then didn't deduct the gifts on his taxes. Or just left the money in his estate so the government could get 40%. Think of the revenue he stole from taxpayers!
Won't hear progressives complaining, instead we get BG & WB saying taxes need to be higher.
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
If employees are granted options to purchase stock at current value at some future date following, say 3-5 year vesting period, the employee has not received anything of value. After the vesting period, the employee can choose to exercise the option and buy the stock from the company at the promised value. In US tax system this triggers an income tax on the option value. If the employee sells the stocks (not uncommon in this deal, a buy/sell agreement), he or she will also then face a short-term capital gains tax on the profit.
So, say Company offers employee 1000 shares of option at $1/per share with a 5 year vesting period (current stock price). The employee has not received any tangible benefit at this time, and so faces no tax for the 5 year period. After the 5 years, he is vested and with the stock now at $5/share, he decides to buy/sell and cash out. he does have $1000, so borrows $1000 from the company to buy the stock, sells the stock back at $5000, pays off the $1000 loan from the proceeds basically all at the same time. He has $4000 in profit. On his taxes he will face income tax for the $1000, and ST CG for the $4000. But all this is 5 years after the original grant. If in the intervening 5 years, the stock price instead went to $0.50 the employee faces a loss if he exercises the option, so he will probably not accept the option at that time. Why should he get taxed on money he never had in his hands?
If all the ice caps and glaciers melt, expect sea level to rise about 61 meters. Yes, this has a big effect on coastal areas and atoll islands. But the actual loss of land surface area represented is small, something on the order of 10% of surface area is flooded, but then again, a lot of Greenland and Antarctica would no longer be covered in ice so we have some usable surface area gained. The net loss is a few percent of the current surface area.
It's not like the earth will become Waterworld even if all the ice melts.
There's plenty of sites that can show you maps based on sea-level, and they include "what if all ice caps and glaciers melt" among the different views.
Source: The Lancet Summary: Cold weather kills 20 times as many people as hot weather, according to an international study analyzing over 74 million deaths in 384 locations across 13 countries. The findings also reveal that deaths due to moderately hot or cold weather substantially exceed those resulting from extreme heat waves or cold spells.
Around 7.71% of all deaths were caused by non-optimal temperatures, with substantial differences between countries, ranging from around 3% in Thailand, Brazil, and Sweden to about 11% in China, Italy, and Japan. Cold was responsible for the majority of these deaths (7.29% of all deaths), while just 0.42% of all deaths were attributable to heat.
The study also found that extreme temperatures were responsible for less than 1% of all deaths, while mildly sub-optimal temperatures accounted for around 7% of all deaths -- with most (6.66% of all deaths) related to moderate cold.
Plenty of these alarmists believe the world population should be limited to 500M people--themselves and their like-minded friends included in the 500M, of course. They will all live a 100% green lifestyle with a zero-carbon footprint, probably will eat locally sourced kale and quinoa while living off their UBI.
1.5B is a pretty good start, only 5.5B more to kill off.
I was referring to "the Earth will not be habitable to humans or most life so I don't see that being a problem". If some of the hysteria was to be believed, we're all gonna drown then fry by next year as the ice caps melt and the temps rise. Nothing can be done, too late to fix it. Putting something like this off to 2040 means you don't *really* care about saving the planet, right?
If they were serous about AGW, they'd ban the sale of new IC engines starting in 2018, not 2040. Haven't we been told by every scientist that it's probably already too late to do anything about global warming (er, climate change). Why delay this planet-saving measure for 20+ years? Even the more "progressive" Ntherlands starting in 2025? Why wait?
Isn't slashdot bombarded almost daily with postings telling us the solar & wind have overtaken oil on cost curve? Why wait?
Ok, if you want to have an inconsistent grid, that's fine. You don't need batteries. If you say so...Tesla's Powerwall and planned giant batteries are all lithium-based.
Disregarding scarcity (we know many rare earths aren't all the "rare"), rare earth mining and processing is highly toxic.
The town of Baotou, in Inner Mongolia, is the largest Chinese source of these strategic elements, essential to advanced technology, from smartphones to GPS receivers, but also to wind farms and, above all, electric cars. The minerals are mined at Bayan Obo, 120km farther north, then brought to Baotou for processing.
The concentration of rare earths in the ore is very low, so they must be separated and purified, using hydro-metallurgical techniques and acid baths. China accounts for 97% of global output of these precious substances, with two-thirds produced in Baotou.
The foul waters of the tailings pond contain all sorts of toxic chemicals, but also radioactive elements such as thorium which, if ingested, cause cancers of the pancreas and lungs, and leukaemia. "Before the factories were built, there were just fields here as far as the eye can see. In the place of this radioactive sludge, there were watermelons, aubergines and tomatoes," says Li Guirong with a sigh.
Processing rare earths is a dirty business. Their ore is often laced with radioactive materials such as thorium, and separating the wheat from the chaff requires huge amounts of carcinogenic toxins – sulphates, ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Processing one ton of rare earths produces 2,000 tons of toxic waste; Baotou's rare earths enterprises produce 10m tons of wastewater per year. They're pumped into tailings dams, like the one by Wang's village, 12km west of the city centre.
"In China, the cost of environmental violations and damage is still way too low," said Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. "Rare earths is such a classic case of this – we basically export the resources at a rather cheap price, and much of the environmental cost is externalised to local communities."
The mining and processing of rare earth minerals along the coastline of Chavara, Kollam, Kerala has been a significant step in self reliance for the country in terms of being a strategically important industry but at the same time the grave enviromental consequences because of the improper manangenent of the industrial waste from the titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment producing industry is a cause of concern. This has led to the geo-environmental degradation of surrounding area which is also a high background radiation area. This study attempts to compare the geochemical variation in the soil due to contamination and the extent of water pollution from different water sources in the study area. Analysis of the surface soil (0-30 cm) from contaminated land and inhabited land (supposedly less contaminated) provide a measure of the total concentrations of the elements present in the soil. XRF results indicate the increase in the concentrations of toxic heavy metals (e.g. Fe, Cr, V, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Sr etc.) while concentrations of essential elements (e.g. K, Ca, Si, Ti, Zr) decreased due to contamination. Elements Mg, Ag, Au, Hf, Te, Nd, Yb, Ga present in inhabited area soil were found to be absent in contaminated soil. Co, Sn, W, Se, Br, Sm, Tb, Dy were detected only in contaminated soil. SEM analysis of the soil from residential area showed distinct mineral assemblage and that of contaminated soil, the signs of chemical weathering. The observed health problems in the local area indicate urgent need for health risk assessment and subsequent remediation of contaminated soil.
But the giga batteries Musk et al. are planning do. And you need lots of those big batteries to store the energy captured from solar and wind for time when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. That may be fine, but don't just pretend it's not part of the system requirements.
Minerals Management Service, an office of the U.S. Department of the Interior, will have the final say probably in early 2008, Gordon said. If approved at the federal level -- the wind farm's footprint would lie within the federal waters of Nantucket Sound -- Gordon would aim for completion in 2010.
But another obstacle is a political heavyweight with a famous name, a local Cape Cod address and hardline opposition to the project.
U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's primary residence is in Hyannisport, Mass., on the Kennedy family compound. It's one of the closest landfalls -- about 6 miles -- from the proposed site of the 440-feet turbines, which would be visible from his house as well as other surrounding coastlines.
Since 2001, there have been various legislative attempts to quash the project in Washington, many of which could be tied one way or another to the Democratic Bay State senator.
Former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney shared Kennedy's disdain for the project.
--------
It was the whole family, too apparently...https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/12/16/172275/-
In today's NY Times, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., writes a passionate OpEd arguing that a wind farm should not be built off Nantucket. But there's one annoying little fact he doesn't mention for some reason...
RFK Jr. opens strong: "AS an environmentalist, I support wind power, including wind power on the high seas. I am also involved in siting wind farms in appropriate landscapes, of which there are many. But I do believe that some places should be off limits to any sort of industrial development. I wouldn't build a wind farm in Yosemite National Park. Nor would I build one on Nantucket Sound, which is exactly what the company Energy Management is trying to do with its Cape Wind project."
He then cites many reasons (and several liberal bugaboos) supporting his position. Energy companies would be privatizing common land. Offshore wind power costs much more than gas-fired and onshore wind-created electricity. Nantucket Sound is clogged with traffic, making the windmills terrible obstacles. They will also cause considerable job loss and economic costs (for reasons that aren't spelled out). They will endanger seabirds. The cables running from and between the towers will foul fishing gear, hurting fisherman. He notes the beauty of the place and, naturally, the fact that JFK authorized the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Finally, if invoking JFK is not enough, he writes: "All of us need periodically to experience wilderness to renew our spirits and reconnect ourselves to the common history of our nation, humanity and to God," which means a vote for windmills is a vote against God.
But is this the whole story? No. RFK Jr. gets close to it when he notes: "Cape Wind's proposal involves construction of 130 giant turbines whose windmill arms will reach 417 feet above the water and be visible for up to 26 miles. These turbines are less than six miles from shore and would be seen from Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket... According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the project will damage the views from 16 historic sites and lighthouses on the cape and nearby islands."
And he hints at the story behind the story with his suggested solution: "If Cape Wind were to place its project further offshore..." but he doesn't go all the way. So I will.
The real reason RFK Jr. and his fellow gilded islanders, such as David McCullough, are against the wind farm and have hired publicists and lawyers to stop it for years, is because the thing would ruin their own precious views. This is a case of NIMBY pure and simple by the people who should know better.
These calculations explicitly provide numbers for payroll taxes alongside income taxes.
It says it right there! "Sum of Income and Payroll Taxes" two types of taxes, which, while distinct, are actually closely related so it makes sense to discuss them together. So they do:
Tax Units with Zero or Negative Sum of Income and Payroll Taxes (Calculated as: non-filers with less than $5 in payroll taxes plus filers with combined federal income and payroll taxes of less than $5) 46.4M, or 26.8%
Slashdot Mirror
Like you say, think FedEx and UPS. They make a lot of stops, but have relatively short routes, and can usually expect to be recharged overnight.
Maximum 11 hours of driving with a minimum of 10 hours off off-duty (sleep). If they can average 70MPH, that's 770 miles per shift.
Seems to me Tesla would have to hit something real close to that mark before an all-electric semi will get much of a foothold in the long-haul market. Of course, they'll also need to be able to recharge completely well within the 10 hour down-time requirement.
No, it was wiped...Like with a cloth or something?
Al Sharpton: "I have no problem with Khalid Abdul Muhammad. My problem is with Giuliani. It is not Khalid who is talking hate. It's Rudy Giuliani."
A little while after that, he's a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention.
Right, because my comment "When the KKK and Nazi's want to expose themselves and their idiotic and repugnant ideas, it's not a good idea to create martyrs-to-the-cause of any of them nor answer them with violence. That just feeds them." so clearly screams "I'm a Nazi supporter!".
When white people chant "Kill the blacks!" it's wrong.
When black people chant "Kill the whites!" it's exactly the same kind of wrong.
You can pretend it's different somehow, I suppose.
And way to ignore the main point. We're already seeing liberal groups eating their own intersectionalities, like when the Chicago gay pride march refused to let Jewish gays march with their Star-of-David rainbow flags because it might offend some of the Palestinian gays. I'd be willing to bet that the gays affected by this anti-Semitic action would normally have supported someone being banned from a parade for their "offensive" ideas--and then it happened to them and they were undoubtedly stunned by the turn of events.
One marcher, Laurel Grauer, said she was harassed by other Dyke March attendees before being told she needed to leave with her flag.
“It was a flag from my congregation which celebrates my queer, Jewish identity which I have done for over a decade marching in the Dyke March with the same flag," she told Windy City Times.
“They were telling me to leave because my flag was a trigger to people that they found offensive,” she added. “Prior to this [march] I had never been harassed or asked to leave and I had always carried the flag with me.”
The organizers of the march told the Times the event was a pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist one and that the flags made people feel unsafe.
action and google's and godaddy's, etc. just remember your position on this when GoHillary.com or BlackLivesMatter.org is taken down because the sites allow "hate speech" to be posted.
We can fine an endless supply of "hateful" speech, even speech calling for violence on the left, too. The KKK has no monopoly on that.
Black Lives Matter protester: 'Only good white man is a dead white man'.
New Black Panther Party (NBPP), whose leaders are known for anti-Semitic and anti-white tirades. Its late chairman, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, famously remarked: “There are no good crackers, and if you find one, kill him before he changes.”
Though she opposed [a proposed Constitutional anti-gay-marriage amendment], [Clinton] said that she believed that marriage was "a sacred bond between a man and a woman" and she took "umbrage at anyone who might suggest that those of us who worry about amending the Constitution are less committed to the sanctity of marriage, or to the fundamental bedrock principle that exists between a man and a woman." [Pretty hateful words, by today's LGBTTTQQIAA... standards].
"White folks was in caves while we were building empires. We taught philosophy and astrology [sic] and mathematics before Socrates and those Greek homos ever got around to it." Al Sharpton [A gay slur, a nationalist slur, and a racist comment, all in one!]
You cannot define "hate" speech to just include white-supremacist or other speech you disagree with. Because if you do, when power shifts or something bad happens, your speech is next. We didn't go and shut down any of the sites that James Hodgkinson was active on, and if Trump and the right had tried to do so, the media would--correctly, for once--said that would be wrong and a violation of free speech rights. We didn't go and shut down the mosque where Omar Mateen's anti-gay views were stoked by his religious indoctrination. It would have been wrong.
When the KKK and Nazi's want to expose themselves and their idiotic and repugnant ideas, it's not a good idea to create martyrs-to-the-cause of any of them nor answer them with violence. That just feeds them.
No, I'm complaining about WB complaining about his taxes not being high enough, then jumping through hoops to to avoid taxes.
Since he has expressed the opinion that his taxes are too low and that government needs more money, WB could have sold the shares directly, paid CG taxes on the appreciated value, paid the 3.8% Medicare surcharge tax from Obamacare on top of that, then given the remaining cash to a charity he (one that doesn't control would make the optics better) and then not taken a deduction for the gift (nor carried-over the deduction).
It's his money, he can do with it as he pleases. If he'd never complained about how "unfair" it is about his taxes and how taxes need to be higher, I'd be congratulating him on his ability to avoid taxes as much as legally possible.
W Buffett used similar option to cancel huge swaths of his tax liabilities in a triple-dip dodge. He donated billions to charities he controls, sure, but he donated appreciated shares of stock. So first he deducted the charitable donation, at the same time bypassing capital gains taxes, and he significantly reduced his potential estate taxes. And he created $10B in carryover deductions for future years.
Imagine if he had simply sold his shares, paid income and CG taxes, then didn't deduct the gifts on his taxes. Or just left the money in his estate so the government could get 40%. Think of the revenue he stole from taxpayers!
Won't hear progressives complaining, instead we get BG & WB saying taxes need to be higher.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
If employees are granted options to purchase stock at current value at some future date following, say 3-5 year vesting period, the employee has not received anything of value. After the vesting period, the employee can choose to exercise the option and buy the stock from the company at the promised value. In US tax system this triggers an income tax on the option value. If the employee sells the stocks (not uncommon in this deal, a buy/sell agreement), he or she will also then face a short-term capital gains tax on the profit.
So, say Company offers employee 1000 shares of option at $1/per share with a 5 year vesting period (current stock price). The employee has not received any tangible benefit at this time, and so faces no tax for the 5 year period. After the 5 years, he is vested and with the stock now at $5/share, he decides to buy/sell and cash out. he does have $1000, so borrows $1000 from the company to buy the stock, sells the stock back at $5000, pays off the $1000 loan from the proceeds basically all at the same time. He has $4000 in profit. On his taxes he will face income tax for the $1000, and ST CG for the $4000. But all this is 5 years after the original grant. If in the intervening 5 years, the stock price instead went to $0.50 the employee faces a loss if he exercises the option, so he will probably not accept the option at that time. Why should he get taxed on money he never had in his hands?
You can do that or listen to hypocrites who preach zero carbon footprint while themselves burning more carbon than any random twenty people.
If all the ice caps and glaciers melt, expect sea level to rise about 61 meters. Yes, this has a big effect on coastal areas and atoll islands. But the actual loss of land surface area represented is small, something on the order of 10% of surface area is flooded, but then again, a lot of Greenland and Antarctica would no longer be covered in ice so we have some usable surface area gained. The net loss is a few percent of the current surface area.
It's not like the earth will become Waterworld even if all the ice melts.
There's plenty of sites that can show you maps based on sea-level, and they include "what if all ice caps and glaciers melt" among the different views.
where being outside is deadly, one man stood up...
Source: The Lancet
Summary: Cold weather kills 20 times as many people as hot weather, according to an international study analyzing over 74 million deaths in 384 locations across 13 countries. The findings also reveal that deaths due to moderately hot or cold weather substantially exceed those resulting from extreme heat waves or cold spells.
Around 7.71% of all deaths were caused by non-optimal temperatures, with substantial differences between countries, ranging from around 3% in Thailand, Brazil, and Sweden to about 11% in China, Italy, and Japan. Cold was responsible for the majority of these deaths (7.29% of all deaths), while just 0.42% of all deaths were attributable to heat.
The study also found that extreme temperatures were responsible for less than 1% of all deaths, while mildly sub-optimal temperatures accounted for around 7% of all deaths -- with most (6.66% of all deaths) related to moderate cold.
Plenty of these alarmists believe the world population should be limited to 500M people--themselves and their like-minded friends included in the 500M, of course. They will all live a 100% green lifestyle with a zero-carbon footprint, probably will eat locally sourced kale and quinoa while living off their UBI.
1.5B is a pretty good start, only 5.5B more to kill off.
I was referring to "the Earth will not be habitable to humans or most life so I don't see that being a problem". If some of the hysteria was to be believed, we're all gonna drown then fry by next year as the ice caps melt and the temps rise. Nothing can be done, too late to fix it. Putting something like this off to 2040 means you don't *really* care about saving the planet, right?
If they were serous about AGW, they'd ban the sale of new IC engines starting in 2018, not 2040. Haven't we been told by every scientist that it's probably already too late to do anything about global warming (er, climate change). Why delay this planet-saving measure for 20+ years? Even the more "progressive" Ntherlands starting in 2025? Why wait?
Isn't slashdot bombarded almost daily with postings telling us the solar & wind have overtaken oil on cost curve? Why wait?
I thought that was going to happen by 2018 or so, what with all the global warming and such?
Ok, if you want to have an inconsistent grid, that's fine. You don't need batteries. If you say so...Tesla's Powerwall and planned giant batteries are all lithium-based.
Disregarding scarcity (we know many rare earths aren't all the "rare"), rare earth mining and processing is highly toxic.
https://www.theguardian.com/en...
The town of Baotou, in Inner Mongolia, is the largest Chinese source of these strategic elements, essential to advanced technology, from smartphones to GPS receivers, but also to wind farms and, above all, electric cars. The minerals are mined at Bayan Obo, 120km farther north, then brought to Baotou for processing.
The concentration of rare earths in the ore is very low, so they must be separated and purified, using hydro-metallurgical techniques and acid baths. China accounts for 97% of global output of these precious substances, with two-thirds produced in Baotou.
The foul waters of the tailings pond contain all sorts of toxic chemicals, but also radioactive elements such as thorium which, if ingested, cause cancers of the pancreas and lungs, and leukaemia. "Before the factories were built, there were just fields here as far as the eye can see. In the place of this radioactive sludge, there were watermelons, aubergines and tomatoes," says Li Guirong with a sigh.
https://www.theguardian.com/su...
Processing rare earths is a dirty business. Their ore is often laced with radioactive materials such as thorium, and separating the wheat from the chaff requires huge amounts of carcinogenic toxins – sulphates, ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Processing one ton of rare earths produces 2,000 tons of toxic waste; Baotou's rare earths enterprises produce 10m tons of wastewater per year. They're pumped into tailings dams, like the one by Wang's village, 12km west of the city centre.
"In China, the cost of environmental violations and damage is still way too low," said Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. "Rare earths is such a classic case of this – we basically export the resources at a rather cheap price, and much of the environmental cost is externalised to local communities."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...
The mining and processing of rare earth minerals along the coastline of Chavara, Kollam, Kerala has been a significant step in self reliance for the country in terms of being a strategically important industry but at the same time the grave enviromental consequences because of the improper manangenent of the industrial waste from the titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment producing industry is a cause of concern. This has led to the geo-environmental degradation of surrounding area which is also a high background radiation area. This study attempts to compare the geochemical variation in the soil due to contamination and the extent of water pollution from different water sources in the study area. Analysis of the surface soil (0-30 cm) from contaminated land and inhabited land (supposedly less contaminated) provide a measure of the total concentrations of the elements present in the soil. XRF results indicate the increase in the concentrations of toxic heavy metals (e.g. Fe, Cr, V, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Sr etc.) while concentrations of essential elements (e.g. K, Ca, Si, Ti, Zr) decreased due to contamination. Elements Mg, Ag, Au, Hf, Te, Nd, Yb, Ga present in inhabited area soil were found to be absent in contaminated soil. Co, Sn, W, Se, Br, Sm, Tb, Dy were detected only in contaminated soil. SEM analysis of the soil from residential area showed distinct mineral assemblage and that of contaminated soil, the signs of chemical weathering. The observed health problems in the local area indicate urgent need for health risk assessment and subsequent remediation of contaminated soil.
But the giga batteries Musk et al. are planning do. And you need lots of those big batteries to store the energy captured from solar and wind for time when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. That may be fine, but don't just pretend it's not part of the system requirements.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story...
Minerals Management Service, an office of the U.S. Department of the Interior, will have the final say probably in early 2008, Gordon said. If approved at the federal level -- the wind farm's footprint would lie within the federal waters of Nantucket Sound -- Gordon would aim for completion in 2010.
But another obstacle is a political heavyweight with a famous name, a local Cape Cod address and hardline opposition to the project.
U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's primary residence is in Hyannisport, Mass., on the Kennedy family compound. It's one of the closest landfalls -- about 6 miles -- from the proposed site of the 440-feet turbines, which would be visible from his house as well as other surrounding coastlines.
Since 2001, there have been various legislative attempts to quash the project in Washington, many of which could be tied one way or another to the Democratic Bay State senator.
Former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney shared Kennedy's disdain for the project.
--------
It was the whole family, too apparently...https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/12/16/172275/-
In today's NY Times, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., writes a passionate OpEd arguing that a wind farm should not be built off Nantucket. But there's one annoying little fact he doesn't mention for some reason...
RFK Jr. opens strong: "AS an environmentalist, I support wind power, including wind power on the high seas. I am also involved in siting wind farms in appropriate landscapes, of which there are many. But I do believe that some places should be off limits to any sort of industrial development. I wouldn't build a wind farm in Yosemite National Park. Nor would I build one on Nantucket Sound, which is exactly what the company Energy Management is trying to do with its Cape Wind project."
He then cites many reasons (and several liberal bugaboos) supporting his position. Energy companies would be privatizing common land. Offshore wind power costs much more than gas-fired and onshore wind-created electricity. Nantucket Sound is clogged with traffic, making the windmills terrible obstacles. They will also cause considerable job loss and economic costs (for reasons that aren't spelled out). They will endanger seabirds. The cables running from and between the towers will foul fishing gear, hurting fisherman. He notes the beauty of the place and, naturally, the fact that JFK authorized the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Finally, if invoking JFK is not enough, he writes: "All of us need periodically to experience wilderness to renew our spirits and reconnect ourselves to the common history of our nation, humanity and to God," which means a vote for windmills is a vote against God.
But is this the whole story? No. RFK Jr. gets close to it when he notes: "Cape Wind's proposal involves construction of 130 giant turbines whose windmill arms will reach 417 feet above the water and be visible for up to 26 miles. These turbines are less than six miles from shore and would be seen from Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket... According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the project will damage the views from 16 historic sites and lighthouses on the cape and nearby islands."
And he hints at the story behind the story with his suggested solution: "If Cape Wind were to place its project further offshore..." but he doesn't go all the way. So I will.
The real reason RFK Jr. and his fellow gilded islanders, such as David McCullough, are against the wind farm and have hired publicists and lawyers to stop it for years, is because the thing would ruin their own precious views. This is a case of NIMBY pure and simple by the people who should know better.
Will it disappear for another 100 years too?
These calculations explicitly provide numbers for payroll taxes alongside income taxes.
It says it right there! "Sum of Income and Payroll Taxes" two types of taxes, which, while distinct, are actually closely related so it makes sense to discuss them together. So they do:
Tax Units with Zero or Negative Sum of Income and Payroll Taxes
(Calculated as: non-filers with less than $5 in payroll taxes plus filers with combined federal income and payroll taxes of less than $5)
46.4M, or 26.8%
And America may not be perfect, but it's THE reason you are not still under the Third Reich.