I'm not making excuses, I'm pointing out what has happened. The two speed situation annoys me as well (since a friend had to jump through a lot of hoops to prove she wasn't just marrying a US citizen for citizenship), but I can see how those who want to retain an easily controlled underclass have driven things to the point where the situation has become what it is.
King Canute used the tide as an example of something he couldn't stop. Similarly illegal imigrants are so much of a part of the US economy that there is not seen to be a hope or point in stopping them, hence the "pat on the head, and basically gloat in the face of the rule of law".
Fair enough, I see the confusion comes from a simple disagreement:
Based on prices, I do not believe that buses are more efficient for short to medium trips in the US.
I strongly dispute that prices in this case are a measure of efficiency. In a monopoly situation there are stronger drivers of price. That's why I think considering the situation globally is the only fair comparison if you want efficiency to be a factor. Doing so means the utterly ridiculous $40 price gouge you describe above would be an outlier. If you want a US only situation then all you have to do is consider two or three decades ago or probably some regions of the US today.
Why isn't this simple and obvious fact, painfully obvious to you?
Because this was never about the USA in the first place but about fuel economy and public transport costs. You shifted that goalpost yourself for some reason that is unclear and IMHO totally irrelevant to the discussion. Besides, while it may be true NOW in the US where your bus company has a local government mandated monopoly it was not true in the past when there were multiple purely commercial bus companies.
It's very shallow two dimensional fiction at the level of which most childrens cartoons can't get away with without criticism. It only resonates with us because it we've got a "the flood was thiiis big (arms spread wide)" story from Sumeria in our culture because it was adopted to make a few points in the Bible. Think about it - does the Bible really suggest everyone is descended from Noah or just everyone considered important to the intended readers?
He pushes his HR granted work title in everyone's face as if he's a real engineer and goes on about how bits of 9/11 were faked so it's just another sad little insight into his personality. Don't take it too seriously.
Yes the above ground stuff for high voltage AC transmission is often a bundle of aluminium and steel wires for weight and strength reasons. If it's not on towers or poles you don't have to save the weight.
I really don't think you understand how ore recovery and smelting of any type works
My undergraduate education was in materials science with a bit of minerals processing thrown in. No need to get insulting just because I've dumbed things down for this audience with more of a coding focus. Reprocessing is a very resource intensive process - some years back I saw something on the Harford web site about making MOX pellets which you may want to look at if it's still there. The French may have something on the web now about their method. To sum up, both are still proof of concept (works but not economic) so long as the ore price remains low. It's not like recycling aluminium or steel scrap. Even cutting up the fuel rods into chunks small enough to process is a non-trivial task.
Yes, if you want to get radioactive fuel, you have to have your equipment touch radioactive stuff
Most people miss the implication that you need to do everything without human contact which drives costs up massively. With the very hot stuff it's like apparently like operating bomb disposal robots.
Why are you comparing to waste that still has the short-lived actinides present?
I'm commenting on nuclear waste as delivered without some ridiculous assumption that it's just going to get thrown into drums as-is to be dug up later. If it's disposed of properly the really active stuff is going to be vitrified (encapsulated in a glassy material) or chemically bound into Synroc - both of which would make it very difficult to get the radioactive elements out because that's the entire idea of long term waste storage. If you are going to do anything at all with it the sensible thing to do is use it when it's still very active isn't it? Why wait?
The ones that make it for export are things like Jeeps and not the wide variety of piece of shit fake offroad vehicles designed to make their buyers feel tough, so long as they never dare to get dirt on it. Jeeps can come with diesel. They are built for a practical and not cosmetic purpose.
I thought the POS label would be enough for people to work it out that I am describing the utter lemons and not every thing on the road.
You're the idiot that chose to expand this topic out to the other parts of the world
So why is that being an idiot? Please explain why it is not a relevant example if somebody other than your local bus company can get their shit together?
Globally the consequence of extreme price gouging you are seeing locally is an exception instead of the rule. Using it to suggest that public transport is always a bad idea is either stupid or dishonest.
Meanwhile in China alone there are millions of counter examples a day that laugh at your outlier. Still sucks to be hit for that much for a ticket though.
On the other hand, you can get diesel for SUVs or trucks
Hence the reaction of most of the rest of the world when confronted by a petrol driven POS offroad vehicle from the USA. "That's not a real offroad vehicle. Even little old apartment dwelling Japanese men wearing white gloves build far better offroad vehicles than that piece of shit built by a company run by drunken rednecks."
There was a plan back in the day to buy a CANDU reactor and run it to make weapon material but it didn't get the approval of cabinet. That's back when even Egypt was working on a nuclear bomb.
It reminds me of how common it's become for old mines to at some point in time go through a new run of their tailings pile
That's small rocks or dirt that's really easy to deal with. Fuel rods are solid metal of very high strength with a high melting point. If that's not hard enough they make everything that comes into contact with them for long enough radioactive as well, and have to be handled remotely since it's not safe for anyone to go near them. So while there has been quite a lot of proof of concept reprocessing in France and at Harford in the USA (MOX pellets), it's still vastly cheaper and easier to start with ore than get a bit more life out of the stuff in expired fuel rods or weapon material.
One reason is apparently it's still a bit too wet for vitrified waste at that site. Parts of California are a safer bet. Let's give that a try and then you really may be right with the cries of NIMBY.
Slashdot Mirror
Someone please mod this guy up to encourage him to have more sensible non-political posts.
I'm not making excuses, I'm pointing out what has happened. The two speed situation annoys me as well (since a friend had to jump through a lot of hoops to prove she wasn't just marrying a US citizen for citizenship), but I can see how those who want to retain an easily controlled underclass have driven things to the point where the situation has become what it is.
King Canute used the tide as an example of something he couldn't stop. Similarly illegal imigrants are so much of a part of the US economy that there is not seen to be a hope or point in stopping them, hence the "pat on the head, and basically gloat in the face of the rule of law".
I strongly dispute that prices in this case are a measure of efficiency. In a monopoly situation there are stronger drivers of price. That's why I think considering the situation globally is the only fair comparison if you want efficiency to be a factor. Doing so means the utterly ridiculous $40 price gouge you describe above would be an outlier. If you want a US only situation then all you have to do is consider two or three decades ago or probably some regions of the US today.
A 275kg (600 pound) bird three metres (10 feet) tall doesn't matter?
How about if it's yellow?
Because this was never about the USA in the first place but about fuel economy and public transport costs. You shifted that goalpost yourself for some reason that is unclear and IMHO totally irrelevant to the discussion.
Besides, while it may be true NOW in the US where your bus company has a local government mandated monopoly it was not true in the past when there were multiple purely commercial bus companies.
Entirely pointless with 1080. Sort of OK at 1200.
A vertical resolution less than I was using before the year 2000 is a step backwards.
It's very shallow two dimensional fiction at the level of which most childrens cartoons can't get away with without criticism. It only resonates with us because it we've got a "the flood was thiiis big (arms spread wide)" story from Sumeria in our culture because it was adopted to make a few points in the Bible. Think about it - does the Bible really suggest everyone is descended from Noah or just everyone considered important to the intended readers?
He pushes his HR granted work title in everyone's face as if he's a real engineer and goes on about how bits of 9/11 were faked so it's just another sad little insight into his personality. Don't take it too seriously.
So a netbook with a touchscreen?
(In Orson Wells voice) ASUS transformers assemble!
Yes the above ground stuff for high voltage AC transmission is often a bundle of aluminium and steel wires for weight and strength reasons. If it's not on towers or poles you don't have to save the weight.
My undergraduate education was in materials science with a bit of minerals processing thrown in. No need to get insulting just because I've dumbed things down for this audience with more of a coding focus.
Reprocessing is a very resource intensive process - some years back I saw something on the Harford web site about making MOX pellets which you may want to look at if it's still there. The French may have something on the web now about their method. To sum up, both are still proof of concept (works but not economic) so long as the ore price remains low. It's not like recycling aluminium or steel scrap. Even cutting up the fuel rods into chunks small enough to process is a non-trivial task.
Most people miss the implication that you need to do everything without human contact which drives costs up massively. With the very hot stuff it's like apparently like operating bomb disposal robots.
I'm commenting on nuclear waste as delivered without some ridiculous assumption that it's just going to get thrown into drums as-is to be dug up later. If it's disposed of properly the really active stuff is going to be vitrified (encapsulated in a glassy material) or chemically bound into Synroc - both of which would make it very difficult to get the radioactive elements out because that's the entire idea of long term waste storage. If you are going to do anything at all with it the sensible thing to do is use it when it's still very active isn't it? Why wait?
The ones that make it for export are things like Jeeps and not the wide variety of piece of shit fake offroad vehicles designed to make their buyers feel tough, so long as they never dare to get dirt on it.
Jeeps can come with diesel. They are built for a practical and not cosmetic purpose.
I thought the POS label would be enough for people to work it out that I am describing the utter lemons and not every thing on the road.
So why is that being an idiot? Please explain why it is not a relevant example if somebody other than your local bus company can get their shit together?
Globally the consequence of extreme price gouging you are seeing locally is an exception instead of the rule. Using it to suggest that public transport is always a bad idea is either stupid or dishonest.
Meanwhile in China alone there are millions of counter examples a day that laugh at your outlier. Still sucks to be hit for that much for a ticket though.
Hence the reaction of most of the rest of the world when confronted by a petrol driven POS offroad vehicle from the USA.
"That's not a real offroad vehicle. Even little old apartment dwelling Japanese men wearing white gloves build far better offroad vehicles than that piece of shit built by a company run by drunken rednecks."
Which appears to be an odd "only in America" thing. The stuff is cheaper to make at the refinery.
There was a plan back in the day to buy a CANDU reactor and run it to make weapon material but it didn't get the approval of cabinet. That's back when even Egypt was working on a nuclear bomb.
That's still a shitload of delta-v, which is fine for the little stuff we're been sending out on slingshot orbits but sucks by the ton.
You should have posted such a thing under the topic about the decline of education standards in the USA.
That's small rocks or dirt that's really easy to deal with. Fuel rods are solid metal of very high strength with a high melting point. If that's not hard enough they make everything that comes into contact with them for long enough radioactive as well, and have to be handled remotely since it's not safe for anyone to go near them. So while there has been quite a lot of proof of concept reprocessing in France and at Harford in the USA (MOX pellets), it's still vastly cheaper and easier to start with ore than get a bit more life out of the stuff in expired fuel rods or weapon material.
One reason is apparently it's still a bit too wet for vitrified waste at that site. Parts of California are a safer bet. Let's give that a try and then you really may be right with the cries of NIMBY.
With El Nino driven by heat it will mean a drier climate in Australia if there are more El Nino events.