The bird killing issue stems from one of the early wind farms in California that was installed in a specie's migration path. We learned from that and now that's one of the criteria when evaluating prospective wind farm sites. There is no blanket condemnation of windmills by major environmental groups. We're now learning that windmills may be a hazard to bats. Given the significant role that bats play in controlling insect populations, there is good reason to be concerned and study the matter appropriately.
Most of the opposition to windfarms has been NIMBY's who don't want anything spoiling their pristine views, although they're quick to come up with other excuses, like the bird meme.
Pretty simple. The car guys don't because they would be cannibalizing their own profits. Nobody wants to sell a car that's cheaper and will require fewer replacement parts than the cars they're already selling, and that has a huge investment up front in new technologies. It's a lose-lose proposition.
As for Apple, etc, they're not car companies. The ipod wasn't much of a reach for Apple, they already sold software, hard drives, and processors. It was just a new form factor. Automobiles, on the other hand, are several orders of magnitude removed from their core business.
There's no question that US oil production peaked decades ago, so we're shipping dollars overseas with every gallon we burn. So we either have to trade for something we produce (what do we produce these days?), take on more and more debt--which has worked so far, but that house of cards is coming down--or watch our currency tank, which has already begun. Even if the world supply of oil is fairly stable, we can't afford to keep importing it. Sorry Sarah, Drill Here Drill Now isn't going to get us off foreign oil, even if we somehow managed to double domestic production.
But that's not Shell's problem, and they'll keep buying our politicians to to make sure they don't do anything about it.
Never get into an argument with an officer. You will lose that battle every fucking time.
Almost every fucking time. Few years back I was on the freeway, almost missed my exit and had to veer across a couple lanes to catch it. A few seconds later a cop pulled me over.
"Sir, you made a lane change without signaling"
"No I didn't, I hit the turn signal right before I changed lanes." My wife backed me up on that, and it was true.
"Well, the car in the right lane had to hit his brakes to avoid hitting you."
"No he didn't. I passed him a few seconds before I changed lanes, so I was traveling faster than he was and in front of him. The only way he could hit me was if he floored it. I'm sure he did hit his brakes because I startled him, but there's no way we'd have collided."
After running my registration he let me go with the usual "Be careful". Now, this guy looked like he'd just got out of high school, I probably wouldn't have been so ornery otherwise. And inaccuracy pisses me off. My wife was looking at me like I was crazy during the whole exchange, afterward she couldn't stop laughing. Your mileage may vary.
I'm no Vista fan, but in my experience the log in process is reasonably snappy, and that's on a 4 year old box. Depends on how everything's configured of course.
That seems to add at least 30 seconds to the log-in process, more if there are lots of policies to apply. I'm running Vista on an old P4 and it boots much faster than that. And Outlook only takes me a few seconds to launch.
I suspect you have processes from anti-virus or other software that are killing your start up time.
I work at a large state university. Less than half of our budget comes from taxes. Students from out of state, including Chinese and Indians, pay higher tuition than residents. In fact, we're actively recruiting international students because they pay their own way, whereas in-state students are a drain on our budget.
Aside from that, and the yardworker visa comment, I pretty much agree with your post.
This isn't just a problem with Windows. I've had scanners that run fine under Mac OS 10.3 that 10.4 wouldn't recognize. Bad on them for promising that everything that worked under Vista would be good in 7, but anyone who's been in the industry should have known that was just marketing speak.
Note to Microsoft: You can fix problems or maintain compatibility, quit pretending you can do both.
Notice the use of "if" and "might" in your example. No construction has been blocked by these concerns yet. The gorge already has hundreds of windmills around it, and they were building more when I drove through it a couple weeks ago.
The fact that some development might be blocked in very specific areas does not mean there's some sort of blanket disdain for wind power throughout the region.
I agree with your first sentence, but I think it's nature rather than nurture. We have two cats that we got as kittens from the pound, from different litters. One has caught one bird in the 14 years we've had her. The other rarely lets a week go by without dropping a bird/rat/mouse/bat/snake/squirrel on our doorstep, and at her prime two per day wasn't unusual. Some cats just like to hunt, and some don't.
On the other hand, the hunter was attacked by a blue jay as an adolescent, could be that brought out her vicious streak.
That's pretty good, but I have to go with the one that called people making less than $14,000 a year "lucky ducks" because they didn't have to pay taxes. Guess I should ask for a pay cut so I can make those WSJ writers envious.
"The Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean are at different levels"
Yes, that's why there are also locks in the Straits of Magellan. Oh, wait...
I hope you're trying to be funny. The reason there are locks on the Panama Canal is that it goes over a mountain.
No, it means we're still far behind Germany in renewable energy per capita, not the rest of the industrialized world. But I agree, we still have a long way to go. The guy who posted about "government intervention" is an idiot, those windmills were partially funded by government subsidies, so without "intervention" we wouldn't be where we are.
"Again with the SWAT thing, if they want to disable phones inside a meth lab, I don't think the guys inside with AK's are going to simply sit still while you paint the house!"
So if I set up a meth lab, the SWAT team will paint my house FOR FREE? What colors do they have, is there a website where I can look at some SWAT swatches?
"If someone had a emergency while driving past the prison on their way to the camp, they would not be able to call 911
You'll be shocked to learn this, but until about 20 years ago nobody could call 911 while driving past a prison, or anywhere else! Yet civilization survived, for we came of hardy stock and relied upon our wits until we could find a payphone.
In America, you're allowed to dedicate books to whomever you want without being killed for it. We call it freedom, too bad you hate it. Guess that makes you a terr'ist.
FYI, that book dedication--written 35 years ago-- included the names of 200 trouble makers and rabble rousers. I agree that including Sirhan Sirhan is incomprehensible, but the book is hardly "dedicated" to him.
I agree with everything you said except the first sentence. While a child's parents may be the single biggest predictor of academic success, it does not follow that parents are therefore the key to solving our educational problems. Unless you know of a way to make sure all parents are successful and supportive.
Let's face it, there's parents that don't really give a damn about their kids' education, unless you consider bitching about their schools and teachers as giving a damn. Unless you have a plan to improve the parents, I don't see parents as the key to improving our schools. I don't have the answer, but giving the schools the tools and authority to deal with disruptive behavior would be a good start.
You seem to believe that corporations always follow the law, or that they are always caught when they do not, or that they are likely to be prosecuted when they do get caught. Unfortunately, none of those things is true. And there's no Santa Claus either. Sorry.
"Right now web apps are king because they're always only the nearest computer away, and work on almost everything."
I run a bunch of computer labs at a large university, I can't tell you how many times instructors complain that the web app their class needs won't work, even though "all it needs is a web browser." Of course when they actually try to use it on our computers, it tries to install a proprietary plug in and pukes because we won't let users do that. If a user needs a proprietary plug in to use your app, you might as well just make a client for it and bypass the browser.
I tried doing that for about a year, but spending up to two hours at Avis before a trip was a huge PIA. If the rental companies could get their act together and make it easy for their regular customers to pick up a car, this could work. Hasn't happened yet, at least in my neighborhood.
"First up is the single back wheel. Won't that make the vehicle a rollover hazard? "
No. Putting a single wheel in front does create a roll over hazard, putting it in the back does not.
"how servicable is that tire?"
Good question. With some clever engineering it should be easy to remove, but it would be interesting to see how it's rigged.
"I'm just imagining something flying off the road and getting wrapped around the the axel. Or in an accident, a pedestrian getting an appendage caught in there."
Seriously? 'Cause you can run over pedestrians with your car, and they're fine? I'm trying to remember the last time something flew on to the road that could have wrapped up my axle. Can't think of one. Not saying it couldn't happen, but I think you're reaching.
Re the drivetrain, it was originally going to be rear-wheel drive, they recently switched to front.
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The bird killing issue stems from one of the early wind farms in California that was installed in a specie's migration path. We learned from that and now that's one of the criteria when evaluating prospective wind farm sites. There is no blanket condemnation of windmills by major environmental groups. We're now learning that windmills may be a hazard to bats. Given the significant role that bats play in controlling insect populations, there is good reason to be concerned and study the matter appropriately.
Most of the opposition to windfarms has been NIMBY's who don't want anything spoiling their pristine views, although they're quick to come up with other excuses, like the bird meme.
Pretty simple. The car guys don't because they would be cannibalizing their own profits. Nobody wants to sell a car that's cheaper and will require fewer replacement parts than the cars they're already selling, and that has a huge investment up front in new technologies. It's a lose-lose proposition.
As for Apple, etc, they're not car companies. The ipod wasn't much of a reach for Apple, they already sold software, hard drives, and processors. It was just a new form factor. Automobiles, on the other hand, are several orders of magnitude removed from their core business.
While you do have a point, the oil lobby certainly has a hand in fighting legislation to protect the environment and promote energy efficiency.
There's no question that US oil production peaked decades ago, so we're shipping dollars overseas with every gallon we burn. So we either have to trade for something we produce (what do we produce these days?), take on more and more debt--which has worked so far, but that house of cards is coming down--or watch our currency tank, which has already begun. Even if the world supply of oil is fairly stable, we can't afford to keep importing it. Sorry Sarah, Drill Here Drill Now isn't going to get us off foreign oil, even if we somehow managed to double domestic production.
But that's not Shell's problem, and they'll keep buying our politicians to to make sure they don't do anything about it.
Never get into an argument with an officer. You will lose that battle every fucking time.
Almost every fucking time. Few years back I was on the freeway, almost missed my exit and had to veer across a couple lanes to catch it. A few seconds later a cop pulled me over.
"Sir, you made a lane change without signaling"
"No I didn't, I hit the turn signal right before I changed lanes." My wife backed me up on that, and it was true.
"Well, the car in the right lane had to hit his brakes to avoid hitting you."
"No he didn't. I passed him a few seconds before I changed lanes, so I was traveling faster than he was and in front of him. The only way he could hit me was if he floored it. I'm sure he did hit his brakes because I startled him, but there's no way we'd have collided."
After running my registration he let me go with the usual "Be careful". Now, this guy looked like he'd just got out of high school, I probably wouldn't have been so ornery otherwise. And inaccuracy pisses me off. My wife was looking at me like I was crazy during the whole exchange, afterward she couldn't stop laughing. Your mileage may vary.
I'm no Vista fan, but in my experience the log in process is reasonably snappy, and that's on a 4 year old box. Depends on how everything's configured of course.
That seems to add at least 30 seconds to the log-in process, more if there are lots of policies to apply. I'm running Vista on an old P4 and it boots much faster than that. And Outlook only takes me a few seconds to launch.
I suspect you have processes from anti-virus or other software that are killing your start up time.
Not to shill for Steam, but they do offer discounts on games after they've been out a while.
I work at a large state university. Less than half of our budget comes from taxes. Students from out of state, including Chinese and Indians, pay higher tuition than residents. In fact, we're actively recruiting international students because they pay their own way, whereas in-state students are a drain on our budget.
Aside from that, and the yardworker visa comment, I pretty much agree with your post.
This isn't just a problem with Windows. I've had scanners that run fine under Mac OS 10.3 that 10.4 wouldn't recognize. Bad on them for promising that everything that worked under Vista would be good in 7, but anyone who's been in the industry should have known that was just marketing speak.
Note to Microsoft: You can fix problems or maintain compatibility, quit pretending you can do both.
Notice the use of "if" and "might" in your example. No construction has been blocked by these concerns yet. The gorge already has hundreds of windmills around it, and they were building more when I drove through it a couple weeks ago.
The fact that some development might be blocked in very specific areas does not mean there's some sort of blanket disdain for wind power throughout the region.
I agree with your first sentence, but I think it's nature rather than nurture. We have two cats that we got as kittens from the pound, from different litters. One has caught one bird in the 14 years we've had her. The other rarely lets a week go by without dropping a bird/rat/mouse/bat/snake/squirrel on our doorstep, and at her prime two per day wasn't unusual. Some cats just like to hunt, and some don't.
On the other hand, the hunter was attacked by a blue jay as an adolescent, could be that brought out her vicious streak.
That's pretty good, but I have to go with the one that called people making less than $14,000 a year "lucky ducks" because they didn't have to pay taxes. Guess I should ask for a pay cut so I can make those WSJ writers envious.
"The Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean are at different levels"
Yes, that's why there are also locks in the Straits of Magellan. Oh, wait...
I hope you're trying to be funny. The reason there are locks on the Panama Canal is that it goes over a mountain.
No, it means we're still far behind Germany in renewable energy per capita, not the rest of the industrialized world. But I agree, we still have a long way to go. The guy who posted about "government intervention" is an idiot, those windmills were partially funded by government subsidies, so without "intervention" we wouldn't be where we are.
"Again with the SWAT thing, if they want to disable phones inside a meth lab, I don't think the guys inside with AK's are going to simply sit still while you paint the house!"
So if I set up a meth lab, the SWAT team will paint my house FOR FREE? What colors do they have, is there a website where I can look at some SWAT swatches?
"If someone had a emergency while driving past the prison on their way to the camp, they would not be able to call 911
You'll be shocked to learn this, but until about 20 years ago nobody could call 911 while driving past a prison, or anywhere else! Yet civilization survived, for we came of hardy stock and relied upon our wits until we could find a payphone.
Now get off my lawn, punk!
In America, you're allowed to dedicate books to whomever you want without being killed for it. We call it freedom, too bad you hate it. Guess that makes you a terr'ist.
FYI, that book dedication--written 35 years ago-- included the names of 200 trouble makers and rabble rousers. I agree that including Sirhan Sirhan is incomprehensible, but the book is hardly "dedicated" to him.
I agree with everything you said except the first sentence. While a child's parents may be the single biggest predictor of academic success, it does not follow that parents are therefore the key to solving our educational problems. Unless you know of a way to make sure all parents are successful and supportive.
Let's face it, there's parents that don't really give a damn about their kids' education, unless you consider bitching about their schools and teachers as giving a damn. Unless you have a plan to improve the parents, I don't see parents as the key to improving our schools. I don't have the answer, but giving the schools the tools and authority to deal with disruptive behavior would be a good start.
You seem to believe that corporations always follow the law, or that they are always caught when they do not, or that they are likely to be prosecuted when they do get caught. Unfortunately, none of those things is true. And there's no Santa Claus either. Sorry.
"Right now web apps are king because they're always only the nearest computer away, and work on almost everything."
I run a bunch of computer labs at a large university, I can't tell you how many times instructors complain that the web app their class needs won't work, even though "all it needs is a web browser." Of course when they actually try to use it on our computers, it tries to install a proprietary plug in and pukes because we won't let users do that. If a user needs a proprietary plug in to use your app, you might as well just make a client for it and bypass the browser.
I tried doing that for about a year, but spending up to two hours at Avis before a trip was a huge PIA. If the rental companies could get their act together and make it easy for their regular customers to pick up a car, this could work. Hasn't happened yet, at least in my neighborhood.
Some of the old air-cooled Volkswagens had gas heaters decades ago. It's certainly possible.
"First up is the single back wheel. Won't that make the vehicle a rollover hazard? "
No. Putting a single wheel in front does create a roll over hazard, putting it in the back does not.
"how servicable is that tire?"
Good question. With some clever engineering it should be easy to remove, but it would be interesting to see how it's rigged.
"I'm just imagining something flying off the road and getting wrapped around the the axel. Or in an accident, a pedestrian getting an appendage caught in there."
Seriously? 'Cause you can run over pedestrians with your car, and they're fine? I'm trying to remember the last time something flew on to the road that could have wrapped up my axle. Can't think of one. Not saying it couldn't happen, but I think you're reaching.
Re the drivetrain, it was originally going to be rear-wheel drive, they recently switched to front.
Why do you hate our troops?