Many Americans are confused and think the Bible is the basis of American law or that we are a Christian nation.
Why wouldn't they be confused, we have a political party that actively tries to tie the government with Christianity. We had a president for 8 recent years that called a war a crusade. We put 'in god we trust' on our money. We added 'under god' to the pledge of allegiance to show that we are a godly country as apposed to the godless Soviets. We are offended that someone would want to build a mosque near the 9/11 site. We try to make laws governing abortion. We try to make laws banning sex education and evolution from schools. We try to make laws inserting christian doctrine (Intelligent Design) into schools. We label sex and eroticism as porn and try to ban it from public and private life.
We have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. And Christianity is the predominant religion.
The difference is for conventional power plants the nameplate output is what they can give you either on demand (for a peaker plant) or pretty much all the time (for a base load plant).
It's a discrepancy that we'll probably have to learn to live with since we are comparing different types of power generation. The purpose of base load plants is to always run at their most efficient output. Peaking is designed for rapid demand changes. And all the renewables are designed to exploit a natural resource they have little control over.
Since you can't determine what average or normal output would be until you install it at the site, how else should they rate them? Even site to site you will see dramatic changes, so me telling you that my 24 1.25MW farm averages xxMW wouldn't be relevant for your site.
The problem with the "bad old ways" was that no-one could read the doctor's writing.
A while back I changed doctors and had my medical records transferred from the old clinic to the new one. On my next appointment the nurse was going through them to make sure they had all the important facts from my history. The notes from one visit were perfectly detailed, but unfortunately the previous doctor failed to write the date of the visit, which made all the notes nearly worthless because they couldn't be used along with other visits to determine any kind of trend.
Things are rarely black and white. Once upon a time I used to work in lawn care and some of my co-workers made a habit of having liquid lunches. I made it clear to my supervisor that it was an unacceptable activity for someone who is running a 500 lb machine with high velocity blades. It stopped happening. On the same note, would you want a forklift driver getting stoned on break? How about truck drivers? Airline pilots, police officers, EMTs?
OTOH, years ago when a former employer announced they were implementing a 'random' drug testing program I refused to sign the paperwork that HR sent out saying that I would accept it as a condition of employment. They always had pre-employment drug testing, so it wasn't the testing that I had a problem with. It was the 'random' that allowed supervisors to select you for testing. Blanket testing, testing following a job related accident, no problem. Being targeted by any member of management, unacceptable.
If they'd redo it with something a bit more current and open source they'd save money, time, and sanity.
Make a.NET version, it could be the new C#.
Of course, they could just pay me to finish the conversion to Delphi. (VistA already utilizes Delphi and Java along with MUMPS) Maybe then we could build a large enough market to re-launch Kylix.
Leave her alone because she's been exploited all her life and has never had a chance to figure out what a normal life looks like, let alone feels like.
Same could be said for Lindsay Lohan, at least she has an geeky nickname (LiLo). I still didn't shed a tear at her 90 days of jail time.
Your friend would have made money writing PBX software at that time. Phone-Box eXchange...
Color me confused, because for decades I have always believed PBX stood for Private Branch Exchange. And my BBS never had a single warez file. My users were primarily interested in message boards and what few games I ran (VGA Planets, LORD).
Some have additional filtering, some don't. I have seen bottled water in city buildings where the city has created an unmodified, bottled product for their own use and sale.
Yes... because when the choice is between "starving and losing your home", and "working in telemarketing" that is definitely a real choice.
That's a strawman. You could have just as easily said:
Yes... because when the choice is between "starving and losing your home", and "selling drugs" that is definitely a real choice.
or
Yes... because when the choice is between "starving and losing your home", and "pimping out your daughters" that is definitely a real choice.
It's a question of personal ethics and character. If the only alternative to "starving and losing your home" is unconscionable, you find other options. And I'm speaking from personal experience. I have been laid off twice during this recession. And while searching for a new job I found a company that was offering the 'perfect' position. It paid well, I could leverage my experience, and I could pick up new skills that would make me much more marketable if I get laid off a third time. But the job listing had one line that mentioned supporting a system that sent millions of e-mail per day. I did some research and found that they were an 'internet marketing' firm. A spammer. I chose not to apply even though I have used up my savings, I'm burning through my home equity, and soon I'll have to raid my IRA at a loss of 35% in taxes and penalties. I wouldn't have worked for Bernie Madoff creating fake reports either, regardless of the pay. Maybe it costs me my home, since I couldn't sell if I needed to in this market, but I'm sure I'll find other options. Even if it means working on cars in my driveway. Something I've grown too old and fat to enjoy.
I think what you're describing (the charging for distribution) is called criminal copyright infringement. It has much steeper fines and could involve jail time.
I would argue that the framers of the constitution never envisioned nor intended there to be any such thing as criminal copyright infringement. Until recent history infringement has been strictly a civil matter. Copyright holders wanted a means to prosecute infringers without having to pay to protect their IP, so they bought enough politicians to transfer the obligation to the federal government.
If you will look at what they wrote, they don't appear to believe that an author owns the works they created because they secure 'exclusive Right'. The right to control copying is not the same as ownership. Which also puts into question IP 'theft' since the expectation was that works belonged to the public.
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
Just so we're all clear, telemarketing companies are scum of the earth. The people calling you are just trying to do their job (and aren't getting paid much for it).
While I can sympathize with someone who has to work a job they hate, they chose to do that job. In some neighborhoods kids join gangs because they think it's the only way to survive. That doesn't make them any less scummy when they commit crimes.
You don't get to absolve yourself of antisocial acts by saying you're "just doing your job".
And while these kinds of searches may be unconstitutional, they do happen. But it works like this: stop random cars and search, get sued for racial profiling. Stop every car and search, they are 'protecting the public'. For example; border crossings, DUI checkpoints, agriculture checkpoints in the western US.
On most employment applications, they ask if you have ever been arrested.
You should probably look a little closer at those applications. All the ones I have seen ask if you have been convicted of an offense. And generally just non-traffic related ones.
I'm not arguing with you, but if 'a public citizen can't commit trespass on public property', then how are they going to enforce the lifetime bans? If, for instance, a retail store 'bans' you, they enforce that by having you arrested for trespassing if you return.
I don't know the final result of the civil case (too lazy to look it up), but I do know the two police officers lost their jobs because they just recently lost their appeal (to be reinstated). I also don't know if you could sue them individually, but it's not the first time I have seen a lawsuit against a police department that included the officer(s) involved.
You can be detained without actually being under arrest. An example is when you are pulled over for a traffic ticket. You are not free to leave until the officer is done with you, yet you are usually not actually arrested.
Keep in mind that when a police officer pulls you over he has generally just witnessed you violate the law. He is then determining if it is severe enough to warrant a citation. While they may be checking for additional violations after the stop, they generally don't make the initial stop to search for violations. Departments that make a policy of that tend to end up on the wrong side of racial profiling lawsuits. Border crossing and DUI checkpoints are exceptions and they tend to check everybody.
Sounds like you've already gone the direction I'm heading. As soon as the housing market recovers (if it recovers....), I'm selling my house and building a new one. SIP, geothermal heat pump, and passive solar to start. I'm not looking to go off grid, but I'd like to get net 0 on home energy bills. Maybe by that point someone will start producing small chiller units, if not, I'll see about making my own. I'll probably be looking at LiBr instead of ammonia though.
Solar PV is good for joe homeowner, solar thermal is good for making larger commercial generating plants. We have millions and millions of rooftops sitting baking in the hot sun that could be covered with panels, and millions of acres of desert that could have mirrors and towers.
Solar thermal has more untapped benefits for Joe Homeowner than solar PV. Heating and cooling is the largest component of home energy use. And there are time proven technologies available that could be mated to solar thermal collectors today. It seems counter intuitive, but absorption cooling uses a heat source for cooling.
Also, Apollo trips were to the moon and back, which made the time between stops somewhat longer, so it needed to carry more food, water, etc.
That seems to make sense, until you realize a moon trip was around 8 days (Apollo 11, first one that I checked). With NASA's distaste for loosing astronauts, I'd be willing to bet the specifications call for a week's supply of essentials in case of a problem after launch. If for some reason they couldn't get to the space station, or couldn't dock, the crew would have to remain on the craft until they could be brought back. And twice the crew will need twice the supplies.
You mean, that box on your front lawn that they own?
USPS doesn't own your mailbox. You have to purchase your own box and it must be certified by the USPS. But you are correct, there is nothing to stop you from putting up a FedEx or UPS box. Although there would be no legal ramifications if UPS put a package in your FedEx box, unlike the USPS mailbox.
If you have to pay for data use, *and* cell minutes, what the point of voip other then security?
I've been waiting for Gizmo to open up again so that I can set up an account for my VOIP desk phone. I couldn't care less if my cell phone can do VOIP, but I haven't had a land line at home for a decade and it would be nice to have an ISP neutral option for SIP.
those arguing against drilling because of possible second episode are just playing an emotional argument, not a logical one.
Ok, how about this; you're free to drill, but we're removing the liability caps.
While it looks like incompetence caused BP's problem, we aren't sure that there isn't a fatal flaw in the blowout preventers. A drilling ban allows the opportunity to stop the current leak, evaluate the equipment that can't be raised until AFTER the well is sealed, and determine a new inspection regime.
I personally think the lawsuit was stupid. Take the ban and eat the cost. The American public is in a pretty nasty mood about this, on top of a down economy. No matter how tame, you don't taunt the bear at the circus.
Tax breaks for companies shipping operations (jobs) off-shore began in earnest during the Regan years. NAFTA pretty much sealed the deal.
...
Allowing the Wal-Marts of the world to buy from China and sell here, this siphoning dollars directly out of the U.S. economy, and all the while enjoying generous tax breaks for doing so, is the problem.
I'm sure you know this and just got carried away with a rant, but just to make sure... NAFTA has NO effect on companies purchasing from China. China's artificially holding down the exchange rate on their currency, that's another topic. And out of control for US administrations.
NAFTA's intended purpose was to open new markets for goods between Canada, US, and Mexico. Mexico hasn't been the success that was hoped because the overall standard of living hasn't increased enough to provide a large market for American goods. I worked for over a decade in manufacturing, and the companies I dealt with generally had manufacturing in all three countries. There are other factors, some cultural, that discouraged closing down a US plant and moving it south simply because the labor or taxes are cheaper. (BTW, off shoring generally has more to do with labor costs than tax costs.) There wasn't a big push to off shore until plants started opening in India and China.
China also extends their markets by forcing companies that want to operate in China to have a Chinese partner. With Chinese markets booming, manufacturers want to enter those market with local plants. The choice then becomes operating multiple plants, or consolidate them with in the newly built facility in China and export back to your other markets.
In TFA they mentioned a patent, which they will license to the incumbent CFC manufacturers so that they will be able to properly manage price and availability.
Who they license to doesn't bother me near as much as the comment "eventually license" and the fact that they are a government agency working with tax dollars. They are patenting the results rather than releasing them to the public domain. I'm sure NREL does very important work, but those kinds of activities makes me want to tell my congressman to pull their public funding.
Solar thermal isn't much different from every other thermal based energy. Steam turbines have pretty much hit a practical limit in efficiency.
I'm not talking about steam turbines, I'm talking about absorption chillers. And beyond a certain level of efficiency, efficiency no longer matters when your energy source is essentially free.
In the US most household energy costs are heating and cooling. If you want to PV a home you are not going to build an array large enough to power the air conditioners. At least not anywhere south of Iowa. But if you offload cooling then a 5kw array suddenly becomes more than sufficient for the average McMansion.
Unfortunately the exposure the average person has to absorption chillers are from history (ammonia refrigerators), RV refrigerators (expensive, dual source), and the failed attempt by the gas industry to introduce gas air conditioners in the 70s.
On a side note, photovoltaics also happens to be a great buzzword for getting funding for new material science research.
While getting grants might get you research dollars to spend looking for new material, putting an innovative new product on the market puts real dollars in your pocket to spend on anything you like.
Slashdot Mirror
Many Americans are confused and think the Bible is the basis of American law or that we are a Christian nation.
Why wouldn't they be confused, we have a political party that actively tries to tie the government with Christianity. We had a president for 8 recent years that called a war a crusade. We put 'in god we trust' on our money. We added 'under god' to the pledge of allegiance to show that we are a godly country as apposed to the godless Soviets. We are offended that someone would want to build a mosque near the 9/11 site. We try to make laws governing abortion. We try to make laws banning sex education and evolution from schools. We try to make laws inserting christian doctrine (Intelligent Design) into schools. We label sex and eroticism as porn and try to ban it from public and private life.
We have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. And Christianity is the predominant religion.
The difference is for conventional power plants the nameplate output is what they can give you either on demand (for a peaker plant) or pretty much all the time (for a base load plant).
It's a discrepancy that we'll probably have to learn to live with since we are comparing different types of power generation. The purpose of base load plants is to always run at their most efficient output. Peaking is designed for rapid demand changes. And all the renewables are designed to exploit a natural resource they have little control over.
Since you can't determine what average or normal output would be until you install it at the site, how else should they rate them? Even site to site you will see dramatic changes, so me telling you that my 24 1.25MW farm averages xxMW wouldn't be relevant for your site.
The problem with the "bad old ways" was that no-one could read the doctor's writing.
A while back I changed doctors and had my medical records transferred from the old clinic to the new one. On my next appointment the nurse was going through them to make sure they had all the important facts from my history. The notes from one visit were perfectly detailed, but unfortunately the previous doctor failed to write the date of the visit, which made all the notes nearly worthless because they couldn't be used along with other visits to determine any kind of trend.
Drug testing is evil, period.
Things are rarely black and white. Once upon a time I used to work in lawn care and some of my co-workers made a habit of having liquid lunches. I made it clear to my supervisor that it was an unacceptable activity for someone who is running a 500 lb machine with high velocity blades. It stopped happening. On the same note, would you want a forklift driver getting stoned on break? How about truck drivers? Airline pilots, police officers, EMTs?
OTOH, years ago when a former employer announced they were implementing a 'random' drug testing program I refused to sign the paperwork that HR sent out saying that I would accept it as a condition of employment. They always had pre-employment drug testing, so it wasn't the testing that I had a problem with. It was the 'random' that allowed supervisors to select you for testing. Blanket testing, testing following a job related accident, no problem. Being targeted by any member of management, unacceptable.
If they'd redo it with something a bit more current and open source
they'd save money, time, and sanity.
Make a .NET version, it could be the new C#.
Of course, they could just pay me to finish the conversion to Delphi. (VistA already utilizes Delphi and Java along with MUMPS) Maybe then we could build a large enough market to re-launch Kylix.
Leave her alone because she's been exploited all her life and has never had a chance to figure out what a normal life looks like, let alone feels like.
Same could be said for Lindsay Lohan, at least she has an geeky nickname (LiLo). I still didn't shed a tear at her 90 days of jail time.
Britney is yet another celebrity train wreck.
Your friend would have made money writing PBX software at that time. Phone-Box eXchange...
Color me confused, because for decades I have always believed PBX stood for Private Branch Exchange. And my BBS never had a single warez file. My users were primarily interested in message boards and what few games I ran (VGA Planets, LORD).
some people don't consider drinking fountain water to be as pure and healthy as bottled water
Except some bottled water brands come directly from a municipal water supply.
Is your bottled water coming from a faucet?
Some have additional filtering, some don't. I have seen bottled water in city buildings where the city has created an unmodified, bottled product for their own use and sale.
Yes ... because when the choice is between "starving and losing your home", and "working in telemarketing" that is definitely a real choice.
That's a strawman. You could have just as easily said:
Yes ... because when the choice is between "starving and losing your home", and "selling drugs" that is definitely a real choice.
or
Yes ... because when the choice is between "starving and losing your home", and "pimping out your daughters" that is definitely a real choice.
It's a question of personal ethics and character. If the only alternative to "starving and losing your home" is unconscionable, you find other options. And I'm speaking from personal experience. I have been laid off twice during this recession. And while searching for a new job I found a company that was offering the 'perfect' position. It paid well, I could leverage my experience, and I could pick up new skills that would make me much more marketable if I get laid off a third time. But the job listing had one line that mentioned supporting a system that sent millions of e-mail per day. I did some research and found that they were an 'internet marketing' firm. A spammer. I chose not to apply even though I have used up my savings, I'm burning through my home equity, and soon I'll have to raid my IRA at a loss of 35% in taxes and penalties. I wouldn't have worked for Bernie Madoff creating fake reports either, regardless of the pay. Maybe it costs me my home, since I couldn't sell if I needed to in this market, but I'm sure I'll find other options. Even if it means working on cars in my driveway. Something I've grown too old and fat to enjoy.
I think what you're describing (the charging for distribution) is called criminal copyright infringement. It has much steeper fines and could involve jail time.
I would argue that the framers of the constitution never envisioned nor intended there to be any such thing as criminal copyright infringement. Until recent history infringement has been strictly a civil matter. Copyright holders wanted a means to prosecute infringers without having to pay to protect their IP, so they bought enough politicians to transfer the obligation to the federal government.
If you will look at what they wrote, they don't appear to believe that an author owns the works they created because they secure 'exclusive Right'. The right to control copying is not the same as ownership. Which also puts into question IP 'theft' since the expectation was that works belonged to the public.
Just so we're all clear, telemarketing companies are scum of the earth. The people calling you are just trying to do their job (and aren't getting paid much for it).
While I can sympathize with someone who has to work a job they hate, they chose to do that job. In some neighborhoods kids join gangs because they think it's the only way to survive. That doesn't make them any less scummy when they commit crimes.
You don't get to absolve yourself of antisocial acts by saying you're "just doing your job".
You should have finished reading the comment.
And while these kinds of searches may be unconstitutional, they do happen. But it works like this: stop random cars and search, get sued for racial profiling. Stop every car and search, they are 'protecting the public'. For example; border crossings, DUI checkpoints, agriculture checkpoints in the western US.
On most employment applications, they ask if you have ever been arrested.
You should probably look a little closer at those applications. All the ones I have seen ask if you have been convicted of an offense. And generally just non-traffic related ones.
I'm not arguing with you, but if 'a public citizen can't commit trespass on public property', then how are they going to enforce the lifetime bans? If, for instance, a retail store 'bans' you, they enforce that by having you arrested for trespassing if you return.
It's unfortunate that you generally cannot sue the officer personally.
It's inaccurate too.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/02/national/main2425903.shtml
I don't know the final result of the civil case (too lazy to look it up), but I do know the two police officers lost their jobs because they just recently lost their appeal (to be reinstated). I also don't know if you could sue them individually, but it's not the first time I have seen a lawsuit against a police department that included the officer(s) involved.
You can be detained without actually being under arrest. An example is when you are pulled over for a traffic ticket. You are not free to leave until the officer is done with you, yet you are usually not actually arrested.
Keep in mind that when a police officer pulls you over he has generally just witnessed you violate the law. He is then determining if it is severe enough to warrant a citation. While they may be checking for additional violations after the stop, they generally don't make the initial stop to search for violations. Departments that make a policy of that tend to end up on the wrong side of racial profiling lawsuits. Border crossing and DUI checkpoints are exceptions and they tend to check everybody.
Sounds like you've already gone the direction I'm heading. As soon as the housing market recovers (if it recovers....), I'm selling my house and building a new one. SIP, geothermal heat pump, and passive solar to start. I'm not looking to go off grid, but I'd like to get net 0 on home energy bills. Maybe by that point someone will start producing small chiller units, if not, I'll see about making my own. I'll probably be looking at LiBr instead of ammonia though.
Solar PV is good for joe homeowner, solar thermal is good for making larger commercial generating plants. We have millions and millions of rooftops sitting baking in the hot sun that could be covered with panels, and millions of acres of desert that could have mirrors and towers.
Solar thermal has more untapped benefits for Joe Homeowner than solar PV. Heating and cooling is the largest component of home energy use. And there are time proven technologies available that could be mated to solar thermal collectors today. It seems counter intuitive, but absorption cooling uses a heat source for cooling.
Also, Apollo trips were to the moon and back, which made the time between stops somewhat longer, so it needed to carry more food, water, etc.
That seems to make sense, until you realize a moon trip was around 8 days (Apollo 11, first one that I checked). With NASA's distaste for loosing astronauts, I'd be willing to bet the specifications call for a week's supply of essentials in case of a problem after launch. If for some reason they couldn't get to the space station, or couldn't dock, the crew would have to remain on the craft until they could be brought back. And twice the crew will need twice the supplies.
You mean, that box on your front lawn that they own?
USPS doesn't own your mailbox. You have to purchase your own box and it must be certified by the USPS. But you are correct, there is nothing to stop you from putting up a FedEx or UPS box. Although there would be no legal ramifications if UPS put a package in your FedEx box, unlike the USPS mailbox.
If you have to pay for data use, *and* cell minutes, what the point of voip other then security?
I've been waiting for Gizmo to open up again so that I can set up an account for my VOIP desk phone. I couldn't care less if my cell phone can do VOIP, but I haven't had a land line at home for a decade and it would be nice to have an ISP neutral option for SIP.
those arguing against drilling because of possible second episode are just playing an emotional argument, not a logical one.
Ok, how about this; you're free to drill, but we're removing the liability caps.
While it looks like incompetence caused BP's problem, we aren't sure that there isn't a fatal flaw in the blowout preventers. A drilling ban allows the opportunity to stop the current leak, evaluate the equipment that can't be raised until AFTER the well is sealed, and determine a new inspection regime.
I personally think the lawsuit was stupid. Take the ban and eat the cost. The American public is in a pretty nasty mood about this, on top of a down economy. No matter how tame, you don't taunt the bear at the circus.
Tax breaks for companies shipping operations (jobs) off-shore began in earnest during the Regan years. NAFTA pretty much sealed the deal.
Allowing the Wal-Marts of the world to buy from China and sell here, this siphoning dollars directly out of the U.S. economy, and all the while enjoying generous tax breaks for doing so, is the problem.
I'm sure you know this and just got carried away with a rant, but just to make sure... NAFTA has NO effect on companies purchasing from China. China's artificially holding down the exchange rate on their currency, that's another topic. And out of control for US administrations.
NAFTA's intended purpose was to open new markets for goods between Canada, US, and Mexico. Mexico hasn't been the success that was hoped because the overall standard of living hasn't increased enough to provide a large market for American goods. I worked for over a decade in manufacturing, and the companies I dealt with generally had manufacturing in all three countries. There are other factors, some cultural, that discouraged closing down a US plant and moving it south simply because the labor or taxes are cheaper. (BTW, off shoring generally has more to do with labor costs than tax costs.) There wasn't a big push to off shore until plants started opening in India and China.
China also extends their markets by forcing companies that want to operate in China to have a Chinese partner. With Chinese markets booming, manufacturers want to enter those market with local plants. The choice then becomes operating multiple plants, or consolidate them with in the newly built facility in China and export back to your other markets.
In TFA they mentioned a patent, which they will license to the incumbent CFC manufacturers so that they will be able to properly manage price and availability.
Who they license to doesn't bother me near as much as the comment "eventually license" and the fact that they are a government agency working with tax dollars. They are patenting the results rather than releasing them to the public domain. I'm sure NREL does very important work, but those kinds of activities makes me want to tell my congressman to pull their public funding.
Solar thermal isn't much different from every other thermal based energy. Steam turbines have pretty much hit a practical limit in efficiency.
I'm not talking about steam turbines, I'm talking about absorption chillers. And beyond a certain level of efficiency, efficiency no longer matters when your energy source is essentially free.
In the US most household energy costs are heating and cooling. If you want to PV a home you are not going to build an array large enough to power the air conditioners. At least not anywhere south of Iowa. But if you offload cooling then a 5kw array suddenly becomes more than sufficient for the average McMansion.
Unfortunately the exposure the average person has to absorption chillers are from history (ammonia refrigerators), RV refrigerators (expensive, dual source), and the failed attempt by the gas industry to introduce gas air conditioners in the 70s.
On a side note, photovoltaics also happens to be a great buzzword for getting funding for new material science research.
While getting grants might get you research dollars to spend looking for new material, putting an innovative new product on the market puts real dollars in your pocket to spend on anything you like.