In P2P file sharing, copyright infringement is taking place. It is almost certainly NOT fair use. If you don't like it, you really need to be writing your members of Congress to change Copyright law.
Going to congress isn't the only way to change laws. Probably the most important part of citizenship is on a jury and when on a jury the citizen has the most power. If a juror believes a law is wrong, and don't let any judge tell you otherwise, it's their duty to vote innocent and send the message the law is bad. This is called jury nullification. Thomas Jefferson, in support for jury nullification, once said (also on the wiki page) "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." I've been called up twice for jury duty though I was not picked to sit on a jury and I was hoping to be picked to sit on a drug trial, so I could say drugs laws are wrong, but now I'd love to be picked to sit on one for one of these trials.
4. Not figuring out for years how to make money off of music the old fashioned way- by earning it through new ways of distribution, not by suing people.
There is no revenue in recorded music anymore. I know I'm not buying any, and nobody I know is buying any.
Just because you don't buy music doesn't mean others don't. Currently I don't, the last CD I bought I did about 4 years ago, but except when I drive I don't listen to music much anymore. And all I have in my car is a radio, there's no tape, CD, or mpg player. However I want to get a turntable, then I would buy vinyl records. In the past few years I've seen more and more stores selling turntables. Even Best Buy carry them, and they may start carrying the records too. Amazon already carries them. I'm still looking for a good one that plays 78rpm as well as 33s and 45s, all I've seen so far don't play 78s. Though only a small part of the market, vinyl record sales are increasing.
The US Constitution guarantees the exclusive rights to authors and inventors for a limited period.
Actually there is NO guarantee to copyrights or patents in the USA Constitution. What it does say is that congress can create them to encourage in the arts and sciences.
The direct social benefits of copying cannot be denied by the naive backwards belief that restriction of that copying is the best way to encourage the creation of new works. We now know that is wrong.
We know it's wrong? How many open source or public domain books and movies do you know that are being written and published now? I used to support copyright but I'm not sure now. I used to write as a hobby but I don't know if I'd write for a living without copyright protection.
Agreed. End copyright. We'll get along without it.
I'm not ready to end copyright yet but I do agree it should be brought back to the 14 years with one 14 year extension it originally was. Well, maybe drop the extension.
When judges, who are so rich they probably have people use computers for them but never actually touched one
I don't think judges are as rich as you make them out to be. According to Wiki "As of January 2008, federal trial judges were paid $169,300 a year, appellate judges $179,500, associate Supreme Court justices $208,100 and the chief justice $217,400. All were permitted to earn an additional $21,000 a year for teaching." That may seems like a lot but I bet those capable of being judges who are in private practice make a lot more, like those lawyers who argue before judges.
I like to call it "innocent until proven guilty", but apparently, this doesn't apply to civil cases.
Unlike criminal cases where guilt has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in civil cases it only require a preponderance of evidence or some such. That's why OJ won his criminal case but lost the civil case.
Cycle the water through so that you're returning water that has a higher salt concentration, but hasn't yet reached the point of brine. If you can put this in a place with relatively fast currents, the return water may dissipate fast enough that there is essentially no overall effect.
This might work however not everywhere fresh water is needed is close to a good place for discharge. The IEEE has a research paper, "Waste brine disposal from coastal desalination plants" that shows what steps can be taken to reduce or eliminate problems, however I wonder how many desalination plants actually put mechanisms in place and use theses steps.
Switch to LEDs when the CFLs go. LEDs use even less power than CFLs and don't have the disposal issue CFLs do (CFLs contain mercury).
Currently LEDs, most anyway, are only good for spot lighting, they aren't good for area lighting. When good area lighting LEDs come out, and they don't cost too much, then I'll buy some. On the other hand I've been thinking about converting my Maglite to use an LED. While Maglite now sells LED flashlights I've had mine for more than 10 years and it's still good. I see no reason to replace it, the embodied energy of a new one is probably more than the energy I have now uses.
And really, during the night, the only loads you'd have on would be HVAC (air conditioning, maybe, depending on climate), refrigerator, and maybe a TV and some CFLs.
That's why I question "To get through an 8 h dark period, you need 40 kWhr".
our grandchildren tomorrow will be facing PEAK WATER if these experiments are allowed to continue!
Our grandchildren will be facing Peak Water no matter what. Throughout the world water is be mined, pumped, from the surface as well as aquifers faster than it can be replaced. Some places, like Australia, are in a drought now. Victoria is on water rationing and farmers have been decimated by the lack of water.
I'll start beleiving it when I start seeing some real progress.
For there to be much progress though people have to know and people as well as politicians have to get out of the way. For instance in both Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras offshore wind farms were proposed however NIMBYs and others have fought against these wind farms. "Offshore wind power could supply almost all of the East Coast's energy needs" according to a study funded by the University of Delaware and Stanford University. While I'm against nuclear power plants anywhere, and not just in my back yard, I'd love to have both wind gennies and solar PVs on my property. I live in a city now, rent to own sort of thing, so a wind gennie is probably out of the question. But once I do own the building, which has 4 apartments, I plan on saving money so I can remodel it to be as energy efficient as I can and I'd like to install some PVs on the roof, which will be a Green roof. Besides a few PVs I'll also use it for gardening.
the biggest problem is that it's very expensive to buy sufficient panels to generate 1000W of power
It depends on what you consider expensive. Five Sharp 224W Solar Panels, each costing $1200, would cost $6000 and generate more than 1000W.
The biggest problem with solar power is that we can't generate enough power and not the fact that we can't store it.
Do you know more than those who write for SciAm? SciAm published an article, "A Solar Grand Plan", detailing how the US can produce "69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy (which includes transportation) with solar power by 2050." Potential wind power is even greater. The Rocky Mountains from Canada to Texas alone, Oilman and Billionaire T. Boone Pickens is proposing this, has enough potential wind energy to provide the US with electricity. Actually his plan is for independence from imported oil. Use of the wind would allow natural gas fueled power plants to be closed then the gas coulf be used as vehicle fuel.
However, the problem with human waste is that it can't be used for vegies because we've got a few too many nasties in it.
Just as with urine, humanure shouldn't be used straight. Manure almost never should be. When I prepared my garden beds, I built raised beds, I mixed 1 bag of cow manure to 4 bags of top soil. Actually I got some weird looks doing that, I don't have a mixer (which breaks up the particles and clumps so it won't hold as much moisture) so I spread out on the ground a tarp, added some top soil and manure in one corner then lifted it up until they mixed in another corner. I did this 3 or 4 tymes then pored the mix into the beds and turned over that and the soil that was already there digging down about a foot. The biggest problem with humanure is all of the stuff people eliminate when they're taking antibiotics, it gives bugs, microbes, an opportunity to become antibiotic resistant.
OK. In my original reply, I should probably have specified explicitly that I was responding to the claim about total available service.
Okay.
The typical household (depending on climate, of course) has mainstream electric heaters, not geothermal.
... unless you're suggesting that anyone installing a solar/hydrogen power system would also be using geothermal or heat pump systems? That sounds almost reasonable, given that you were talking about average rather than peak loads.
It seems obvious to me, but perhaps I should have stated it. When you're talking about, or working on, a new energy system the first thing you should do is look into becoming more energy efficient. By investing a little in efficiency, like those who build Off the Grid do, a little investment here can cut your total energy needs and bills. I live on the grid in a big city, downtown Minneapolis is less than 15 minutes bike ride, however out of 7 light fixtures 6 have 12 watt CFLs. The seventh light I've had on less than 100 hours in the more than 4 years I've lived here, when those bulbs burnout I'll replace them with CFLs.
well as i live so far north that the sun is barely visible some 3-5 months pr year, long term storage would be nice to maximize those months when the sun really is up...
but i guess i could add a windmill to the mix to get best of both worlds so to speak.
I'm imagining a partially-self-powering desalination setup that cycles through seawater (filtered for particulates), extracts the hydrogen and oxygen, combines it in a fuel cell (which power is then cycled back into the system)
But what do you then do with the brine? Dumping it back into the ocean will raise the salinity where it's added which will harm the wildlife there. I used to know about that, a long tyme ago I used to take care of a few saltwater aquariums we had in the lab where I took a Marine Biology class. I suppose it could be used for table salt thus reducing the need to mine for salt. But there will be other minerals and impurities as well.
And you use a vacuum cleaner more than an hour a day?
I'm talking aboutpeakusage, not average usage, questioning the claim that the total available service to most houses is less than 5000W.
Here's the post I replied to in it's entirety: "I don't think so. I just chose a vacuum cleaner at random from a retailer web site and it uses 2000W. Mainstream electric heaters run from 1500W to 2400W." There is nothing in that qualifying it as peak power.
[...] a geothermal unit is more efficient that electric [...]
Well, yeah, but what's that got to do with anything? How many people have geothermal heating available?
While geothermal IS available not many people use it. Then again until recently many people didn't have computers either. However more people are installing geothermal systems. Heck, in New York City a 20,000 square foot [pdf] building, The Foundation House, that will house half a dozen nonprofit foundations was built that uses geothermal heating. And it does have something to do with it, you brought up "Mainstream electric heaters", geothermal heating is more efficient.
Not to mention, have you seen the waste products? I wouldn't call 'em "environmentally friendly"!
Actually the way the waste is treated now it's unsustainable. However it would be sustainable if that "waste" were composted and made into humanure. If you garden, depending on what you grow in the garden, your plants will love you for watering them with your urine. Not straight mind you, nitrogen burn can kill them, but by mixing 10 parts water to one part urine. They would also love it if they were watered with greywater. That's what I did for a while, my bathtub was clogged for a while before the owner sent a plumber. So I'd use the grey water from showering to water my garden. Those who have commented about the garden said it looks real good, another gardener asked how I got my tomato and tomatillo plants so big.
I live in a Central American country with crappy electricity and this house is often drawing way more than 5000 W. There are eight computers running, two refrigerators, a large freezer, four air conditioners, a heater in the pool, an electric stove, washer, dryer, and much more.
I seriously doubt that many Americas have that many computers, refrigs, AC units, and all that other stuff in their homes.
I just chose a vacuum cleaner at random from a retailer web site and it uses 2000W.
And you use a vacuum cleaner more than an hour a day? I just checked my vacuum and using volts times amps equals watts, 120V x 12A, my vacuum uses 1440 Watts.
Mainstream electric heaters run from 1500W to 2400W.
In many places AC uses more power than heating, however in both cases proper insulation of buildings can significantly reduce energy to control indoor climate. In Florida a well insulated house needs little if any AC, meanwhile in Minnesota one will need little if any heating. And for what heating is needed a geothermal unit is more efficient that electric, though they do need some to run, and gas.
Slashdot Mirror
In P2P file sharing, copyright infringement is taking place. It is almost certainly NOT fair use. If you don't like it, you really need to be writing your members of Congress to change Copyright law.
Going to congress isn't the only way to change laws. Probably the most important part of citizenship is on a jury and when on a jury the citizen has the most power. If a juror believes a law is wrong, and don't let any judge tell you otherwise, it's their duty to vote innocent and send the message the law is bad. This is called jury nullification. Thomas Jefferson, in support for jury nullification, once said (also on the wiki page) "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." I've been called up twice for jury duty though I was not picked to sit on a jury and I was hoping to be picked to sit on a drug trial, so I could say drugs laws are wrong, but now I'd love to be picked to sit on one for one of these trials.
Falcon
4. Not figuring out for years how to make money off of music the old fashioned way- by earning it through new ways of distribution, not by suing people.
There is no revenue in recorded music anymore. I know I'm not buying any, and nobody I know is buying any.
Just because you don't buy music doesn't mean others don't. Currently I don't, the last CD I bought I did about 4 years ago, but except when I drive I don't listen to music much anymore. And all I have in my car is a radio, there's no tape, CD, or mpg player. However I want to get a turntable, then I would buy vinyl records. In the past few years I've seen more and more stores selling turntables. Even Best Buy carry them, and they may start carrying the records too. Amazon already carries them. I'm still looking for a good one that plays 78rpm as well as 33s and 45s, all I've seen so far don't play 78s. Though only a small part of the market, vinyl record sales are increasing.
Falcon
The US Constitution guarantees the exclusive rights to authors and inventors for a limited period.
Actually there is NO guarantee to copyrights or patents in the USA Constitution. What it does say is that congress can create them to encourage in the arts and sciences.
Falcon
The direct social benefits of copying cannot be denied by the naive backwards belief that restriction of that copying is the best way to encourage the creation of new works. We now know that is wrong.
We know it's wrong? How many open source or public domain books and movies do you know that are being written and published now? I used to support copyright but I'm not sure now. I used to write as a hobby but I don't know if I'd write for a living without copyright protection.
Falcon
Agreed. End copyright. We'll get along without it.
I'm not ready to end copyright yet but I do agree it should be brought back to the 14 years with one 14 year extension it originally was. Well, maybe drop the extension.
Falcon
When judges, who are so rich they probably have people use computers for them but never actually touched one
I don't think judges are as rich as you make them out to be. According to Wiki "As of January 2008, federal trial judges were paid $169,300 a year, appellate judges $179,500, associate Supreme Court justices $208,100 and the chief justice $217,400. All were permitted to earn an additional $21,000 a year for teaching." That may seems like a lot but I bet those capable of being judges who are in private practice make a lot more, like those lawyers who argue before judges.
Falcon
Unfortunately a Jeffersonian America no longer exists.
Falcon
This is the case where a $222,000 verdict was awarded for downloading 24 songs
RTFA. RIAA downloaded 24 songs from her.
And they were authorized by the copyright holders to download them.
Falcon
I like to call it "innocent until proven guilty", but apparently, this doesn't apply to civil cases.
Unlike criminal cases where guilt has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in civil cases it only require a preponderance of evidence or some such. That's why OJ won his criminal case but lost the civil case.
Falcon
That side of things is no different from regular desalination plants, and there are a lot of those.
And none of them has caused any problems?
Falcon
Cycle the water through so that you're returning water that has a higher salt concentration, but hasn't yet reached the point of brine. If you can put this in a place with relatively fast currents, the return water may dissipate fast enough that there is essentially no overall effect.
This might work however not everywhere fresh water is needed is close to a good place for discharge. The IEEE has a research paper, "Waste brine disposal from coastal desalination plants" that shows what steps can be taken to reduce or eliminate problems, however I wonder how many desalination plants actually put mechanisms in place and use theses steps.
Falcon
Pump it out into shallow pools, let it dry, scoop it up, and sell it as 'green' sea salt.
I did suggest using it as table salt.
Falcon
Switch to LEDs when the CFLs go. LEDs use even less power than CFLs and don't have the disposal issue CFLs do (CFLs contain mercury).
Currently LEDs, most anyway, are only good for spot lighting, they aren't good for area lighting. When good area lighting LEDs come out, and they don't cost too much, then I'll buy some. On the other hand I've been thinking about converting my Maglite to use an LED. While Maglite now sells LED flashlights I've had mine for more than 10 years and it's still good. I see no reason to replace it, the embodied energy of a new one is probably more than the energy I have now uses.
Falcon
And really, during the night, the only loads you'd have on would be HVAC (air conditioning, maybe, depending on climate), refrigerator, and maybe a TV and some CFLs.
That's why I question "To get through an 8 h dark period, you need 40 kWhr".
Falcon
our grandchildren tomorrow will be facing PEAK WATER if these experiments are allowed to continue!
Our grandchildren will be facing Peak Water no matter what. Throughout the world water is be mined, pumped, from the surface as well as aquifers faster than it can be replaced. Some places, like Australia, are in a drought now. Victoria is on water rationing and farmers have been decimated by the lack of water.
Falcon
I'll start beleiving it when I start seeing some real progress.
For there to be much progress though people have to know and people as well as politicians have to get out of the way. For instance in both Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras offshore wind farms were proposed however NIMBYs and others have fought against these wind farms. "Offshore wind power could supply almost all of the East Coast's energy needs" according to a study funded by the University of Delaware and Stanford University. While I'm against nuclear power plants anywhere, and not just in my back yard, I'd love to have both wind gennies and solar PVs on my property. I live in a city now, rent to own sort of thing, so a wind gennie is probably out of the question. But once I do own the building, which has 4 apartments, I plan on saving money so I can remodel it to be as energy efficient as I can and I'd like to install some PVs on the roof, which will be a Green roof. Besides a few PVs I'll also use it for gardening.
Falcon
the biggest problem is that it's very expensive to buy sufficient panels to generate 1000W of power
It depends on what you consider expensive. Five Sharp 224W Solar Panels, each costing $1200, would cost $6000 and generate more than 1000W.
The biggest problem with solar power is that we can't generate enough power and not the fact that we can't store it.
Do you know more than those who write for SciAm? SciAm published an article, "A Solar Grand Plan", detailing how the US can produce "69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy (which includes transportation) with solar power by 2050." Potential wind power is even greater. The Rocky Mountains from Canada to Texas alone, Oilman and Billionaire T. Boone Pickens is proposing this, has enough potential wind energy to provide the US with electricity. Actually his plan is for independence from imported oil. Use of the wind would allow natural gas fueled power plants to be closed then the gas coulf be used as vehicle fuel.
Falcon
However, the problem with human waste is that it can't be used for vegies because we've got a few too many nasties in it.
Just as with urine, humanure shouldn't be used straight. Manure almost never should be. When I prepared my garden beds, I built raised beds, I mixed 1 bag of cow manure to 4 bags of top soil. Actually I got some weird looks doing that, I don't have a mixer (which breaks up the particles and clumps so it won't hold as much moisture) so I spread out on the ground a tarp, added some top soil and manure in one corner then lifted it up until they mixed in another corner. I did this 3 or 4 tymes then pored the mix into the beds and turned over that and the soil that was already there digging down about a foot. The biggest problem with humanure is all of the stuff people eliminate when they're taking antibiotics, it gives bugs, microbes, an opportunity to become antibiotic resistant.
Falcon
OK. In my original reply, I should probably have specified explicitly that I was responding to the claim about total available service.
Okay.
The typical household (depending on climate, of course) has mainstream electric heaters, not geothermal.
... unless you're suggesting that anyone installing a solar/hydrogen power system would also be using geothermal or heat pump systems? That sounds almost reasonable, given that you were talking about average rather than peak loads.
It seems obvious to me, but perhaps I should have stated it. When you're talking about, or working on, a new energy system the first thing you should do is look into becoming more energy efficient. By investing a little in efficiency, like those who build Off the Grid do, a little investment here can cut your total energy needs and bills. I live on the grid in a big city, downtown Minneapolis is less than 15 minutes bike ride, however out of 7 light fixtures 6 have 12 watt CFLs. The seventh light I've had on less than 100 hours in the more than 4 years I've lived here, when those bulbs burnout I'll replace them with CFLs.
Falcon
well as i live so far north that the sun is barely visible some 3-5 months pr year, long term storage would be nice to maximize those months when the sun really is up...
but i guess i could add a windmill to the mix to get best of both worlds so to speak.
Alaska has abundant wind power.
Falcon
I'm imagining a partially-self-powering desalination setup that cycles through seawater (filtered for particulates), extracts the hydrogen and oxygen, combines it in a fuel cell (which power is then cycled back into the system)
But what do you then do with the brine? Dumping it back into the ocean will raise the salinity where it's added which will harm the wildlife there. I used to know about that, a long tyme ago I used to take care of a few saltwater aquariums we had in the lab where I took a Marine Biology class. I suppose it could be used for table salt thus reducing the need to mine for salt. But there will be other minerals and impurities as well.
Falcon
And you use a vacuum cleaner more than an hour a day?
I'm talking about peak usage, not average usage, questioning the claim that the total available service to most houses is less than 5000W.
Here's the post I replied to in it's entirety: "I don't think so. I just chose a vacuum cleaner at random from a retailer web site and it uses 2000W. Mainstream electric heaters run from 1500W to 2400W." There is nothing in that qualifying it as peak power.
[...] a geothermal unit is more efficient that electric [...]
Well, yeah, but what's that got to do with anything? How many people have geothermal heating available?
While geothermal IS available not many people use it. Then again until recently many people didn't have computers either. However more people are installing geothermal systems. Heck, in New York City a 20,000 square foot [pdf] building, The Foundation House, that will house half a dozen nonprofit foundations was built that uses geothermal heating. And it does have something to do with it, you brought up "Mainstream electric heaters", geothermal heating is more efficient.
Falcon
Not to mention, have you seen the waste products? I wouldn't call 'em "environmentally friendly"!
Actually the way the waste is treated now it's unsustainable. However it would be sustainable if that "waste" were composted and made into humanure. If you garden, depending on what you grow in the garden, your plants will love you for watering them with your urine. Not straight mind you, nitrogen burn can kill them, but by mixing 10 parts water to one part urine. They would also love it if they were watered with greywater. That's what I did for a while, my bathtub was clogged for a while before the owner sent a plumber. So I'd use the grey water from showering to water my garden. Those who have commented about the garden said it looks real good, another gardener asked how I got my tomato and tomatillo plants so big.
Falcon
I live in a Central American country with crappy electricity and this house is often drawing way more than 5000 W. There are eight computers running, two refrigerators, a large freezer, four air conditioners, a heater in the pool, an electric stove, washer, dryer, and much more.
I seriously doubt that many Americas have that many computers, refrigs, AC units, and all that other stuff in their homes.
Falcon
I just chose a vacuum cleaner at random from a retailer web site and it uses 2000W.
And you use a vacuum cleaner more than an hour a day? I just checked my vacuum and using volts times amps equals watts, 120V x 12A, my vacuum uses 1440 Watts.
Mainstream electric heaters run from 1500W to 2400W.
In many places AC uses more power than heating, however in both cases proper insulation of buildings can significantly reduce energy to control indoor climate. In Florida a well insulated house needs little if any AC, meanwhile in Minnesota one will need little if any heating. And for what heating is needed a geothermal unit is more efficient that electric, though they do need some to run, and gas.
Falcon