Actually, IIRC, since HP and Dell dumped their American processing, I THINK that they both use the same Chinese manufacturer. IOW, it is a farce to say that HP is that much better than Dell. They both suck.
The smartest things that Americans could do for our nation:
Insulate, change windows to aerogel based windows, and that would drop the energy required to heat/cool our homes.
Change our HVAC from current heating/cooling systems to geo-thermal HVAC. ABout the ONLY place that does not need to change is a small area around Tennessee, around northern California-Seattle. For them, simple air-source HVAC is perfect (temps do not vary radically). But for the rest of the nation, geo-thermal is more efficient then the heat that is used for northern US and more efficient than AC used for southern US.
Finally, add a MUCH smaller amount of Solar to homes, since the above would have dropped the amount of energy needed for the homes by 1/2 - 2/3.
If we would do the above, it would actually cost LESS than to do a pure solar PV set-up.
No, Solar PV does NOT pay for themselves. In everycase, they require subsidies. Even now, they are ONLY approaching the costs of nukes. AND solar PV would require storage and a lot more to handle night time. OTH, Solar Thermal, as an add-on to Coal, Gas, and Geo-thermal REALLY makes a lot of sense. The reason is that they replace a limited commodity. Yes, Geo-thermal actually has a limited life time unless you draw at a much lower rate. Well, if you add Solar Thermal to geo-thermal, then you get to draw at slower rates. Heck, the Geysers in CA should be doing this, but they are not.
Actually, Israel would kill to see those contracts. While Doxer is just finance, he would have said who is working on what projects and which projects are going to say Iran. Then Israel would try to locate somebody that is working on those projects and offer up 100K or even 1 million to be allowed to place a package in the work. Simple as that.
Quit outsourcing the tech jobs (hardware and software) and then the feds are able to cut back on welfare, foodstamp, unemployment, and gain taxable income to boot.
The only place that large scale solar has paid for itself is in very remote locations. The fact is, that within the continental USA, because we are electrified, the ONLY places that Solar pays for itself is on extreme rural areas, such as the cabin that I stayed at in Colorado (just under 14; 13,988'). And how many of those are there? I would guess less than 1000 through the USA.
Why do you equate Ayn Rand with our situation? Exactly how many Libertarians have you seen in control of the gov? The Libertians would have pushed a competitive system.
This system is a gov. ran monopoly, in which a single party has control over how things happen. What party is it? Republicans/Tea-Baggers/neo-cons.
Those creatures have NOTHING to do with Libertarians. Heck, comparing them to Libertarians would be like comparing Dems to Communist China. These days, Communist China has more in simularity to republicans then they do to dems. The reason is that Communist China has never been Communist, but totalitarian.
Sure, but many of those are going under. And in the situation that you described, I will lay money down that it was state ordered. Basically, no EMS can withold life-saving services for lack of money. HOWEVER, there were no human lives threatened. Just ppl that did not want to pay the tax and then got bit by their own lack of foresight.
You are correct that this is not Libertarian. In a Libertarian world, we would have multiple companies providing the service.
HOWEVER, this is also not liberalism. Liberals would have had a taxing district in place.
What this is, is teabaggers/neo-cons/republicans ism in place. This is THEIR idea of utopia. Basically, they want gov. ran monopolies where they can tell others what they will or will not do for a price. Heck, all of the gov in the county and the city are hard core republican/tea-baggers/neo-cons.
Amazing. I look at this situation and I see C. Springs in it. Come Jan, C. Springs is to take a MAJOR hit in services. They will lose 1/3 to 1/2 of their cops. Likewise, they are taking a hit on EMS, though I do not know exactly how much.
So, I wonder how soon before C.Springs residents will scream that the state is failing them and allowing their services to go down? And they will scream that they pay good taxes to the state for all of this.
A number of hospitals around the USA are going out of business. Why? Because they provide service to illegals, and then bill them for it. What happens? Over 90% of those illegals simply do not pay. The worse part is that ER costs are extremely high and the illegals use it like a drop in clinic.
As others have pointed out, the firefighters DID bill before. And 50% did not pay.
American Society is slowly moving to a situation where everybody pays for their service. Interestingly, in the wealthy areas, it is still treated as a socialism approach. That is, all services are provided and everybody is taxed. Simple as that.
It is only in middle to lower class area that have republicans controlling them that get this approach.
Hmmm.
I will assume that you work at McD's. As such, I am electing to NOT pay you for the burgers, but I expect you to feed me for the next year. I mean that IS what you are saying.
The problem is that the taxes MUST be used wisely. And sadly, both parties are guilty of not doing that. Look at US federal gov. since 1980. When did it grew the most? With reagan and W. Seriously, they expaneded gov. the most. Yet, where did debt grow the most? Again with reagan and W. Finally, under whose watch did civilization move forward on the most? NOT reagan or W.. reagan did massive cuts to R&D. Likewise, he did massive cuts to programs like maintaining roads/bridges/dams/etc. Likewise, W did the same. In both cases of reagan and W, they simply made the taxes flow to their friends.
So, it is not that taxes buy you civilization. It is that taxes buy you the CHANCE of civilization. Sadly, we are about to vote back in many of the same neo-cons that have been destroying America.
I have been writing Senator Udall (my senator) for 2 years to get him to create an X-prize. The prize would be for energy beaming as well as ultra-caps. The right way to do this is to have staged prizes for each.
The beaming would be at.25 miles, then.5 miles, then 1 mile, then 4 miles, then 20 miles, then 300 miles. Now why do the above? Because.25 mile allows for providing power to robots and electric weapons. Likewise, it can be used in civilian to provide power to mining equipment such as gravel pits. A.5 mile is about the same use for DOD, but now, it provides for power for ag use (electric tractors). Then a 1 mile, allows for some useful operations for the military. Basically, a small balloon, helicopter, or plane can fly over an area and provide power to loads of areas. This is useful to reflect power various groups in the DOD, but it is also useful for rescue. Imagine if Haiti, or New Orleans had say 10 MWs of power within 4 hours after the event being beamed around? That would have saved NUMEROUS lives in Haiti. And after hurricanes, it would allow for getting power going very quickly. At 4 miles, it allows for use over most battle fields (hard for AQ/taliban to hit it, but Iran could). OTH, 20 miles would give a height of 80-100,000 K altitiude. THat will be on the edge of what Iran could hit. Finally, 300 puts it in space.
And ultra-caps make the most sense for storage. Their issue is lack of energy density and high costs. However, the DOD would gladly pay to ramp up production if it brought down prices. Ability to take a charge fast and give it up, allows for quick re-charge, and the ability to provide electric weapons power.
Right. But the flyash is NOT mining. They are two separate things. However, the problem with the flyash is that the company was saving money by not addressing the issue. They simply ignored it for decades. Now as the Chilian miners, they were not coal. They were Goal miners. The strip mining issue is that the companies are not restoring the way that they should be. Why? Because everybody is trying to save money.
Wolf, you are mixing up everything in here. Yet, they are all different issues. As to using what is 'best', well, Geo-thermal appears to be usable everywhere. It still needs some more testing and work for EGS, but it is coming. Personally, I am amazed at all the geo-thermal tests so close to cities. That never made sense. Instead, geo-thermal makes sense in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, etc. Why? Because we have lots of open area with very little population. In addition, the hot spots are under some nice rock (traps heat). It is why Australia is drilling where they are drilling. Now, we just need to back Potter drilling and Foro Energy.
That is the case. But, the community has to vote it in. They chose not to do this. What will be interesting is that Insurance rates are going to go up in this neo-con area. This situation is exactly what is going on in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The locals voted against needed taxes. So, what is happening is that the gov. is cutting things like streetlights, garbage collection and mowing at the parks. In fact, parks were not watered (for Colorado, that would have killed the grass). The real issue is that the gov. had some money left and had donations, but will have no extras starting in Jan. At that time, 1/3 to 1/2 of the Colorado Springs police force will be laid off. If you have a murder, they will come. OTH, if you were robbed, they will take information. If you were raped, they will meet you at the hospital to take your testimony. If you HAVE a current dispute, they will come. if you HAD a dispute, then come in. Likewise, they are going to make massive cuts to EMS. They expect that fire and ambulance calls could take 30 minutes or longer. But, hey, the neo-cons got their tax cuts.
While I have an issue with the pets burning, I would say that the rest is immaterial. First, it costs a GREAT DEAL MORE Than 75 to put out the fire. Had he offered up 1-5K I would put money on it that they would have put it out. But that did not happen.
Second, This guy just did not pay it. I will put money down that he had "forgotten" for multiple years. Just like the neo-cons that say that they should pay zero taxes, but then expect to have the same benefits.
Dbill,
Geo-thermal has many shallow well locations around the world. We have not looked for them. In addition, deep drilling is about to get REAL CHEAP. Two companies:
Potter Drilling and foro energy (heck the pdf)
Which is why the Chinese gov. was running around for the last decade trying to buy REE mines and processing. There is more than enough to be dug up. The problem is processing. It is messy and expensive. The west needs to do this though. ANd, the Mongolia idea is total BS. ALl of the ore would still be sent to CHina.
Basically, it is insane that the west (esp. America) buys goods from China, and then pays china to take them back. Instead, it is better for us to do some R&D and build up cheaper automated recycling to get various things back
Exactly. Solar PV has some of the most wicked chemicals going. Wind? LOADS of mining back it. And the mining is esp true for the REE that goes into each generator. Just because it has been shifted to another nation does not mean that it has zero consequence. In the end, geo-thermal really is one of the cleanest energy going and will only get cleaner.
Many of the oil-gas sites here in America are around 7-10 K feet. Ok heat is also found in a number of these. However, a number of the sites have very good geo-thermal in the 10-20K feet range. The heat is typically 150-200C. Not the best, but good enough. More importantly, there are several techs on the horizon that will change the costs of geo-thermal. Potter Drilling is One. Also, Foro Energy is coming as well. Both of these will drop the price of drilling to 30K to below what it costs to drill to 10K today.
Actually, meh DOES sum it pretty well. Wind will get a little bit cheaper, but overall, it can not come too far down. OTH, things like Solar Thermal, used as an add-on to Coal/Gas plants, will pay for themselves quickly. We just need scale of manufacturing. Likewise, geo-thermal is cheaper than any other form of energy. It has 2 problems: The first is that it competes against heavily subsidized Fossil fuel as well as heavily subsidized Wind/Solar PV. Gov, needs to get out of being market picker and offer subsidy for any solution that offers solution for govs. needs. For example, we NEED to lower our emissions. First, remove all current subsidies. Then, offer a time-limited, time-decreasing subsidy for ANY power that is clean (basically below a certain amount of energy). Likewise, offer another subsidy for any of the above that is also base-load. Finally, a third subsidy for Energy Storage. Wind will plat a part of the solution, but geo-thermal, solar-thermal, etc, will play bigger roles. Interestingly, the 3rd subsidy would actually encourage electric cars that can provide storage to be used. Obviously, you would not want to use that with a battery that has short lifetimes (100-2000 charges), but cars with ultra-caps (millions of charges) would be interesting.
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Actually, IIRC, since HP and Dell dumped their American processing, I THINK that they both use the same Chinese manufacturer. IOW, it is a farce to say that HP is that much better than Dell. They both suck.
If we would do the above, it would actually cost LESS than to do a pure solar PV set-up.
No, Solar PV does NOT pay for themselves. In everycase, they require subsidies. Even now, they are ONLY approaching the costs of nukes. AND solar PV would require storage and a lot more to handle night time. OTH, Solar Thermal, as an add-on to Coal, Gas, and Geo-thermal REALLY makes a lot of sense. The reason is that they replace a limited commodity. Yes, Geo-thermal actually has a limited life time unless you draw at a much lower rate. Well, if you add Solar Thermal to geo-thermal, then you get to draw at slower rates. Heck, the Geysers in CA should be doing this, but they are not.
Actually, Israel would kill to see those contracts. While Doxer is just finance, he would have said who is working on what projects and which projects are going to say Iran. Then Israel would try to locate somebody that is working on those projects and offer up 100K or even 1 million to be allowed to place a package in the work. Simple as that.
Quit outsourcing the tech jobs (hardware and software) and then the feds are able to cut back on welfare, foodstamp, unemployment, and gain taxable income to boot.
The only place that large scale solar has paid for itself is in very remote locations. The fact is, that within the continental USA, because we are electrified, the ONLY places that Solar pays for itself is on extreme rural areas, such as the cabin that I stayed at in Colorado (just under 14; 13,988'). And how many of those are there? I would guess less than 1000 through the USA.
Why do you equate Ayn Rand with our situation? Exactly how many Libertarians have you seen in control of the gov? The Libertians would have pushed a competitive system.
This system is a gov. ran monopoly, in which a single party has control over how things happen. What party is it? Republicans/Tea-Baggers/neo-cons.
Those creatures have NOTHING to do with Libertarians. Heck, comparing them to Libertarians would be like comparing Dems to Communist China. These days, Communist China has more in simularity to republicans then they do to dems. The reason is that Communist China has never been Communist, but totalitarian.
Sure, but many of those are going under. And in the situation that you described, I will lay money down that it was state ordered. Basically, no EMS can withold life-saving services for lack of money. HOWEVER, there were no human lives threatened. Just ppl that did not want to pay the tax and then got bit by their own lack of foresight.
You are correct that this is not Libertarian. In a Libertarian world, we would have multiple companies providing the service.
HOWEVER, this is also not liberalism. Liberals would have had a taxing district in place.
What this is, is teabaggers/neo-cons/republicans ism in place. This is THEIR idea of utopia. Basically, they want gov. ran monopolies where they can tell others what they will or will not do for a price. Heck, all of the gov in the county and the city are hard core republican/tea-baggers/neo-cons.
Amazing. I look at this situation and I see C. Springs in it. Come Jan, C. Springs is to take a MAJOR hit in services. They will lose 1/3 to 1/2 of their cops. Likewise, they are taking a hit on EMS, though I do not know exactly how much.
So, I wonder how soon before C.Springs residents will scream that the state is failing them and allowing their services to go down? And they will scream that they pay good taxes to the state for all of this.
A number of hospitals around the USA are going out of business. Why? Because they provide service to illegals, and then bill them for it. What happens? Over 90% of those illegals simply do not pay. The worse part is that ER costs are extremely high and the illegals use it like a drop in clinic.
As others have pointed out, the firefighters DID bill before. And 50% did not pay.
American Society is slowly moving to a situation where everybody pays for their service. Interestingly, in the wealthy areas, it is still treated as a socialism approach. That is, all services are provided and everybody is taxed. Simple as that. It is only in middle to lower class area that have republicans controlling them that get this approach.
Hmmm. I will assume that you work at McD's. As such, I am electing to NOT pay you for the burgers, but I expect you to feed me for the next year. I mean that IS what you are saying.
The problem is that the taxes MUST be used wisely. And sadly, both parties are guilty of not doing that. Look at US federal gov. since 1980. When did it grew the most? With reagan and W. Seriously, they expaneded gov. the most. Yet, where did debt grow the most? Again with reagan and W. Finally, under whose watch did civilization move forward on the most? NOT reagan or W.. reagan did massive cuts to R&D. Likewise, he did massive cuts to programs like maintaining roads/bridges/dams/etc. Likewise, W did the same. In both cases of reagan and W, they simply made the taxes flow to their friends.
So, it is not that taxes buy you civilization. It is that taxes buy you the CHANCE of civilization. Sadly, we are about to vote back in many of the same neo-cons that have been destroying America.
I have been writing Senator Udall (my senator) for 2 years to get him to create an X-prize. The prize would be for energy beaming as well as ultra-caps. The right way to do this is to have staged prizes for each.
.25 miles, then .5 miles, then 1 mile, then 4 miles, then 20 miles, then 300 miles. Now why do the above? Because .25 mile allows for providing power to robots and electric weapons. Likewise, it can be used in civilian to provide power to mining equipment such as gravel pits. A .5 mile is about the same use for DOD, but now, it provides for power for ag use (electric tractors). Then a 1 mile, allows for some useful operations for the military. Basically, a small balloon, helicopter, or plane can fly over an area and provide power to loads of areas. This is useful to reflect power various groups in the DOD, but it is also useful for rescue. Imagine if Haiti, or New Orleans had say 10 MWs of power within 4 hours after the event being beamed around? That would have saved NUMEROUS lives in Haiti. And after hurricanes, it would allow for getting power going very quickly. At 4 miles, it allows for use over most battle fields (hard for AQ/taliban to hit it, but Iran could). OTH, 20 miles would give a height of 80-100,000 K altitiude. THat will be on the edge of what Iran could hit. Finally, 300 puts it in space.
The beaming would be at
And ultra-caps make the most sense for storage. Their issue is lack of energy density and high costs. However, the DOD would gladly pay to ramp up production if it brought down prices. Ability to take a charge fast and give it up, allows for quick re-charge, and the ability to provide electric weapons power.
Right. But the flyash is NOT mining. They are two separate things. However, the problem with the flyash is that the company was saving money by not addressing the issue. They simply ignored it for decades. Now as the Chilian miners, they were not coal. They were Goal miners. The strip mining issue is that the companies are not restoring the way that they should be. Why? Because everybody is trying to save money.
Wolf, you are mixing up everything in here. Yet, they are all different issues. As to using what is 'best', well, Geo-thermal appears to be usable everywhere. It still needs some more testing and work for EGS, but it is coming. Personally, I am amazed at all the geo-thermal tests so close to cities. That never made sense. Instead, geo-thermal makes sense in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, etc. Why? Because we have lots of open area with very little population. In addition, the hot spots are under some nice rock (traps heat). It is why Australia is drilling where they are drilling. Now, we just need to back Potter drilling and Foro Energy.
That is the case. But, the community has to vote it in. They chose not to do this. What will be interesting is that Insurance rates are going to go up in this neo-con area. This situation is exactly what is going on in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The locals voted against needed taxes. So, what is happening is that the gov. is cutting things like streetlights, garbage collection and mowing at the parks. In fact, parks were not watered (for Colorado, that would have killed the grass). The real issue is that the gov. had some money left and had donations, but will have no extras starting in Jan. At that time, 1/3 to 1/2 of the Colorado Springs police force will be laid off. If you have a murder, they will come. OTH, if you were robbed, they will take information. If you were raped, they will meet you at the hospital to take your testimony. If you HAVE a current dispute, they will come. if you HAD a dispute, then come in. Likewise, they are going to make massive cuts to EMS. They expect that fire and ambulance calls could take 30 minutes or longer. But, hey, the neo-cons got their tax cuts.
While I have an issue with the pets burning, I would say that the rest is immaterial.
First, it costs a GREAT DEAL MORE Than 75 to put out the fire. Had he offered up 1-5K I would put money on it that they would have put it out. But that did not happen.
Second, This guy just did not pay it. I will put money down that he had "forgotten" for multiple years. Just like the neo-cons that say that they should pay zero taxes, but then expect to have the same benefits.
Dbill,
Geo-thermal has many shallow well locations around the world. We have not looked for them. In addition, deep drilling is about to get REAL CHEAP. Two companies: Potter Drilling and foro energy (heck the pdf)
Hmmm. Actually, I never really thought about that. It is a good point for it.
Which is why the Chinese gov. was running around for the last decade trying to buy REE mines and processing. There is more than enough to be dug up. The problem is processing. It is messy and expensive. The west needs to do this though. ANd, the Mongolia idea is total BS. ALl of the ore would still be sent to CHina.
Basically, it is insane that the west (esp. America) buys goods from China, and then pays china to take them back. Instead, it is better for us to do some R&D and build up cheaper automated recycling to get various things back
Exactly. Solar PV has some of the most wicked chemicals going. Wind? LOADS of mining back it. And the mining is esp true for the REE that goes into each generator. Just because it has been shifted to another nation does not mean that it has zero consequence. In the end, geo-thermal really is one of the cleanest energy going and will only get cleaner.
Look up Potter Drilling and Foro Energy.
Many of the oil-gas sites here in America are around 7-10 K feet. Ok heat is also found in a number of these. However, a number of the sites have very good geo-thermal in the 10-20K feet range. The heat is typically 150-200C. Not the best, but good enough. More importantly, there are several techs on the horizon that will change the costs of geo-thermal. Potter Drilling is One. Also, Foro Energy is coming as well. Both of these will drop the price of drilling to 30K to below what it costs to drill to 10K today.
Actually, meh DOES sum it pretty well. Wind will get a little bit cheaper, but overall, it can not come too far down. OTH, things like Solar Thermal, used as an add-on to Coal/Gas plants, will pay for themselves quickly. We just need scale of manufacturing. Likewise, geo-thermal is cheaper than any other form of energy. It has 2 problems: The first is that it competes against heavily subsidized Fossil fuel as well as heavily subsidized Wind/Solar PV. Gov, needs to get out of being market picker and offer subsidy for any solution that offers solution for govs. needs. For example, we NEED to lower our emissions. First, remove all current subsidies. Then, offer a time-limited, time-decreasing subsidy for ANY power that is clean (basically below a certain amount of energy). Likewise, offer another subsidy for any of the above that is also base-load. Finally, a third subsidy for Energy Storage. Wind will plat a part of the solution, but geo-thermal, solar-thermal, etc, will play bigger roles. Interestingly, the 3rd subsidy would actually encourage electric cars that can provide storage to be used. Obviously, you would not want to use that with a battery that has short lifetimes (100-2000 charges), but cars with ultra-caps (millions of charges) would be interesting.