Or they could just pay some humans to open and close some gated channels to allow everyone to leave first and then to allow people to enter only until departure time. I think Japan was already doing some version of this in the past, with attendants that stuffed people into the train, and presumably cleared a path to let them out. Either way, you need the humans, because nearly everyone acts badly in their absence.
Attendants aren't necessary in Japan. Sometimes they are used in China.
95%+ of people in Japan stand to the side of the doors when they open, allowing people to exit. If you want to enter a crowded train or elevator, the most polite and effective thing to do is turn around and slowly back in. I can attest that there is always room for 1 more person using this method. In Japan nearly everyone follows the rules of boarding a train.
What, you still don't realize HDTV signals are free and you can get like 150+ of them in any major city? Next thing you know, you'll tell me you don't realize they broadcast in a higher resolution than cable provides...
And you can sub to them on the web if you need them, they are required to provide low-income 40 Mbps service for around $30 in most cities.
150+ HDTV channels? That seems like a gross exaggeration. I have about 60 in Houston, 1/3 are Spanish, and roughly another 1/5 are Vietnamese.
And have you actually watched broadcast TV lately? With all the ad breaks, it's like a blast from the past. On the other hand, if you want to stop watching TV entirely and go outside, broadcast TV is an excellent stepping stone.
I don't believe any organization could properly function if every single person imposed their personal morality onto it. Just look at all the boycotts / protests at Google. I'm sure that for every revenue stream Google has, there is a subset of employees who don't think it is moral/ethical.
The problem is where the line should be drawn. And the tricky bit is that it is a very complicated and nuanced line, and nobody is or can be responsible for drawing it clearly.
Chomsky wasn't wrong, the reports of lack of recursion were wrong. (Even if the reports were correct, it doesn't mean Chomsky was wrong, he merely said humans are capable of recursion, not that they use it all the time or need to use it)
The reports of recursion in the Pirahã language seem disputed. I suppose that's what happens when you have an extremely small field of experts studying a unique language spoken by around 250 people.
Chomsky's assertion is marked as "not in citation given" in the wikipedia article on the Pirahã language. I don't care either way but taken together with the dispute about recursion in the language, it's an interesting nerd kerfuffle to witness.
Yes, the raw helium may only cost $1k but the cost of ramping a magnet up/down is a lot more. In case of Siemens MRI, they have to fly in special equipment from Germany overnight (a few pallets of basically giant transformers and BeCu tools, shims etc), the repairs associated with a magnet quench are a few thousand (usually you have to outright replace the valves and various other parts that froze) and then it takes a few hours of carefully charging the magnet and monitoring while the helium is slowly being filled. Hopefully you only have to do this once as it is possible that other issues or leaks are found and the helium you just filled boils off. All the while you are paying for at least 3 engineers and the helium delivery guy.
I've been involved with MRI magnet quenches, they're not pretty or cheap. The helium is practically worthless, I've heard of some sites that rather let helium boil off at a certain rate than get a repair done.
Sounds like the market is ripe for 3rd party repair vendors. Pity this is healthcare we're talking about, so that probably won't happen.
Fixing utility-scale electrical generators in the 1970s and early 1980s used to be an OEM-only affair. Then subvendors started popping up that could handle X subrepair, supply such and such subset of parts, etc. Nowadays there are plenty of companies that can handle all the repairs start-to-finish, a vast network of subcontractors, and the OEMs have been run off a lot of power plants because of their price-gouging and pushy salesmen.
even back then it was understood to create a hostile workplace
My memory is different: "hostile work environment" that didn't involve favoritism or threats didn't become commonplace until a bit after.
Either way, I would agree to some degree of punishment for such as long as it's enforced consistently between parties so that it's not used as a political weapon.
I recall the corporation I worked for when I learned that a consensual affair creates a hostile workplace, it was an unintuitive concept to me at the time. I left that company in the early 90s. Perhaps our HR department was cutting edge.
I guess you have to experience it to be a true believer. I worked for large companies with all these "why do they need that" policies. Working for a small company I saw nepotism, sexual relationship favoritism, sexual relationship retribution, and all kinds of other workplace drama. Plus political power plays by managers to gain more power by playing the employees like pawns in near-literal battles between executives. It was a very toxic environment.
No it isn't. Working as a nurse is worse than working in a Chinese factory assembling iPhones?.
Back injuries are very common in the nursing field. I can't recall the source but moving patients from beds to gurneys and back is more dangerous than a lot of industrial work.
Using interns for your main assembly labor force can be wrong, but for engineering students, assembling for a few weeks or so can be HIGHLY instructional. Exposing students to production processes, manufacturing tolerances, and QC and such is a great way to get them to think, truly, about design-for-manufacturing as a core belief rather than a check-box as the end of a design.
Not just the engineering side, but the people side. More than half the problems I deal with are playground politics between labor and management.
I don't know what their long term goals are, but this rocket is competition with Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, not SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Zhuque: (alternative news source)
Mass at launch 27 tonnes, 300 kg payload to 300 km LEO or 200 kg to 500 km sun synchronous orbit.
Electron:
Mass at launch 10.5 tonnes, 150-225 kg payload to 500 km sun synchronous orbit
Falcon 9:
Mass at launch 549 tonnes, 22,800 kg payload to LEO in expendable mode.
There are about a dozen companies looking to compete in this ~200kg payload market. Rocket Lab are in the lead at the start of this race, but there is still a long way to go.
This is a troubling trend, and not because these are Chinese rockets. There is a finite amount of satellites that can be put into orbit without causing too much clutter to achieve higher orbits. It is in each company's interest to place as many satellites into orbit as possible to maximize profit. There is no incentive to avoid a Kessler syndrome. Unless an international body starts regulating the number of satellites that can be launched, we're going to have a big problem.
Well, let's see... he might be discussing crooked business deals, tax cheating, election manipulations, hiring prostitutes for golden shower parties or other things that are not classified information but that would render him vulnerable to blackmail?
Unless there is video of Trump penetrating underage girls holding up their student ID's, I'm not sure he is blackmailable. Absolutely nothing has stuck so far, including a laundry list of items that would have or have sunk other politicians. The Mueller stuff is probably being cooked until after he is out of office. An impeachment would be incredibly disruptive and a bad thing for the country. And Trump isn't the kind of person who would resign to minimize the disruption, he would make it blow up more.
What is interesting is how a series with the first ST Woman Captain, and many different women in the command structure, such as B'lanna the engineer, managed to make the female leads credible, likeable and relatable. I have been incredibly impressed on how Mulgrew's character Janeway, managed to be both a credible commander, and yet still unmistakably feminine. She deserves any and all the accolades she may have received.
I hadn't thought of that aspect of the show. What is striking is how it wasn't a terribly big deal and didn't disrupt the story. Nowadays when they womanize a series it is thrown in your face.
When a omnidirectional treadmill for VR gets to a reasonable price range and functions seamlessly then VR will be amazing.
Right now it's pretty stupid to stand in place and move your thumbs around.. it's uncomfortable to stand in one place without moving, but walking is awesome exercise and people will love it if they can walk and game.
I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Making an omnidirectional treadmill isn't an impossible task. Making a cheap one probably can't be done. Something that people stand and walk on has to be rugged. The cheapest treadmill I can find is $300, and treadmills are a very mature technology. Being omnidirection is going to boost that to at least $600 if not more. It's a big bulky object, material costs, shipping, and low-production numbers are working against being cheaper. Add in the sensors and processors and being under $1000 in today's dollars is probably impossible.
If you dont clean up the sugar spilled on the middle of the floor and spend all your time putting ant shield around the house you would be called an idiot.
But... all the outrage shown by these people against illegal immigration is fake. They want cheap strawberries and cheap fast food and cheap lawn mowing and cheap home construction. If they are really against illegal immigration they will prosecute the employers.
As a concrete contractor who only hires legal workers, I welcome this wholeheartedly.
Republican politicians should be targeting ALL potential voters
Nope. If they do that, they lose in the primaries to someone willing to focus on the base.
If you want moderate government, you should support open non-partisan primaries.
There is nothing stopping people from voting in the primary of the opposite party. I do so, since my district will likely be won by my 2nd choice party anyway. Might as well vote in the primary for a candidate who actually has a chance of being elected.
The system is actually not too expensive, because a parachute is not an expensive technology. I wonder why there is still not such a system on passenger planes?
I do not need an "inflight entertainment", I read a book usually, or an ultra modern transformer-armchair, or any other similar frills. I would like however to arrive to a destination in one piece, knowing that if there is a failure, someone thought of a plan B.
Systems like this are available on small planes, such as Cessnas. It's a little more involved than just a parachute, you need a rocket to deploy the parachute, and all the controls to operate it without an accidental discharge or a failure to deploy.
They work fine on small propeller planes since they are lightweight and travel at slow speeds. For a 737-size plane, the weight would be too heavy and the plane travels too fast. Engineering the passenger compartment to be able to jettison would add a ton of weight since you would need 2 pressure hulls, both of which would not be circular/oval. Plus all the hardware to anchor them together but separate if needed.
Commercial airlines are extremely safe as it is. Safety efforts are better spent on further increasing engine and structural reliability, and instrumentation and control mechanisms. An emergency escape system wouldn't save you from takeoff/landing incidents, or pilot error. Both of these are the leading causes of aircraft accidents in recent years.
My German extended family covered their roofs with solar.
Not only because it is subsidized and it sort of makes financial sense, but because Russia was holding them hostage via their gas supply.
Some of them also converted their home heat to _wood_ for the same reason.
Technically renewable and carbon neutral! Just don't ask about the particulates. You would probably be surprised to know how common wood heating is in some northern rural areas of the US. My family burned between 6 and 8 cords (21-29m^3) of wood per winter when I was growing up. We would get truck-length logs, cut, split, throw them through one of the basement windows, and stack up the wood inside. There is nothing as glorious as setting the thermostat at 80F when it is -20F outside and not worrying about the fuel cost.
Literally, no. According to my information, which should be up to date, overwhelming majority of CCGTs in Europe burn gas low enough in sulphur content that they in fact do not need catalytic converters, because particulate exhaust they produce is non-existent.
Exceptions are multi-fuel installations that can also burn light oil distillates and CCGTs that are certified to burn refinery gas rather than natgas.
Not entirely true. CCGTs generally don't need SOx, particulate, or CO controls, but they almost always have some type of NOx control. Usually that means an SCR. There are some new gas turbines which claim to meet NOx standards without an SCR, but the rules get ever tighter every year.
All other things equal, a generation source capable of delivering a consistent supply is better than one which is not able to guarantee consistent supply.
That's the most succinct explanation I have seen of why coal and nuclear power deserve subsidies, or at least equal footing with subsidized renewables. Otherwise "the market" will choose whatever is cheapest, which may not necessarily be whatever is best for grid stability.
Not really. Baseload came about because coal power plants could not follow the load - it took hours to alter a coal power plant output so if possible it was always running at whatever output it was designed for. Since coal power plants have been the most common power plants for over a century, all electrical power infrastructure is built around them and their limitations.
That's not really true. Coal power plants can ramp load relatively quickly, generally around 1-2% of capacity per minute. Aside from slightly increased maintenance costs, they can easily run at 25-30% at night and ramp up in the morning. The issue is that they can't be started and stopped easily.
Nuclear power plants are a different story. They do have strict operating limitations, but the driving factor is economic- they have large fixed costs, but very low fuel or variable operation costs. Therefore it doesn't make sense for them to operate at less than 100% power, since it costs approximately the same.
Here's the reality, the rest of the world is moving off fossil fuels at a quick clip, the US will be left behind if we still allow industry to drive the ship (e.g. having oil company executives making energy policy that enriches themselves instead of the needs of the nation).
Left behind, or able to reap the benefits of only investing in new infrastructure once it is completely matured? And by completely matured, I mean when the price is nearing the bottom of the decay curve. We're getting there. But I don't believe we are there yet.
I also think you are vastly underestimating how quickly the US is getting off fossil fuels. Of course we are behind developing countries, they are expanding capacity (not just replacing old infrastructure). Of course we are behind Europe, their fuel costs are 2-3x US costs. Of course we are behind Japan, their fuel costs are 3-4x US fuel costs. It is just taking us longer to get to price parity than other places.
Apparently you do not know the history of Legionnaire's Disease. Legionnaire's Disease is so named because the first known instance was when a bunch of men from the American Legion came down with it after they stayed in a hotel in Philadelphia in 1976 for an American Legion convention. The cause and transmission was a mystery for period of time. Eventually it was discovered that it was transmitted through the air conditioning ducts. They did not get the disease from bathing and showering, or even from drinking water with the disease in it. My understanding is that air conditioning ducts are still the most common way in which the disease is spread.
I believe industrial & power plant cooling towers (the wet type) are the most common cause nowadays. Modern air conditioning generally doesn't have water in the circuit.
You're overlooking maintenance costs. Wind maintenance costs are higher than fossil plants. You need 25 wind turbines of 20MW to match a 500MW fossil turbine. That's 25 generators, 25 gearboxes, 25 oil filtration systems, 25 towers, etc. 25 times you have to move your 1000 Ton crane around the wind farm to bring components down to ship off to a maintenance center. Then 25 round trip shipments. Then the maintenance facility has to disassemble, inspect, and reassemble 25 different units. It starts to add up. Any onsite maintenance is 300ft in the air, with units spread relatively far apart (compared to fossil equipment). Putting elevators in the towers is a recent trend, most existing units don't have them. So even something simple like bringing up a 55 gallon drum of oil is a huge hassle.
This is greatly exasperated by the fact that most wind turbine construction is chasing the tax credits, so the turbines are built as cheaply as possible. The original owners generally aren't planning for maintenance- once the payback period is over, they flip it.
A lot of wind farms are built by investment firms or hedge funds. They get flipped almost immediately, and the buyer often has little idea of maintenance cost since the machines are still under warranty and no maintenance has been done yet.
With everyone and their mother now tracking their vitals on something worn around their wrists, I'm kind of surprised it's not north of 30% already.
It may be higher than that. I've had a couple credit cards get stolen in the last few years. In both cases, the fraud department caught it on the 1st or 2nd fraudulent transaction. These weren't particularly obvious- in both cases, they were swiped at a physical businesses less than 40 miles from my house.
I suspect that the credit card companies are buying location data from somebody.
Just because they are using opt-in methods on their own app doesn't mean they aren't also using purchased data from someone else.
Slashdot Mirror
Or they could just pay some humans to open and close some gated channels to allow everyone to leave first and then to allow people to enter only until departure time. I think Japan was already doing some version of this in the past, with attendants that stuffed people into the train, and presumably cleared a path to let them out. Either way, you need the humans, because nearly everyone acts badly in their absence.
Attendants aren't necessary in Japan. Sometimes they are used in China.
95%+ of people in Japan stand to the side of the doors when they open, allowing people to exit. If you want to enter a crowded train or elevator, the most polite and effective thing to do is turn around and slowly back in. I can attest that there is always room for 1 more person using this method. In Japan nearly everyone follows the rules of boarding a train.
We have bikes in this town! ...
What, you still don't realize HDTV signals are free and you can get like 150+ of them in any major city? Next thing you know, you'll tell me you don't realize they broadcast in a higher resolution than cable provides ...
And you can sub to them on the web if you need them, they are required to provide low-income 40 Mbps service for around $30 in most cities.
150+ HDTV channels? That seems like a gross exaggeration. I have about 60 in Houston, 1/3 are Spanish, and roughly another 1/5 are Vietnamese.
And have you actually watched broadcast TV lately? With all the ad breaks, it's like a blast from the past. On the other hand, if you want to stop watching TV entirely and go outside, broadcast TV is an excellent stepping stone.
What will be the next demand? This is starting to look like a college campus and not a company.
Hopefully they will demand compulsory enrollment in the Selective Service and greater opportunities to be welders, firefighters, and concrete workers.
But that would never happen.
I don't believe any organization could properly function if every single person imposed their personal morality onto it. Just look at all the boycotts / protests at Google. I'm sure that for every revenue stream Google has, there is a subset of employees who don't think it is moral/ethical.
The problem is where the line should be drawn. And the tricky bit is that it is a very complicated and nuanced line, and nobody is or can be responsible for drawing it clearly.
Chomsky wasn't wrong, the reports of lack of recursion were wrong. (Even if the reports were correct, it doesn't mean Chomsky was wrong, he merely said humans are capable of recursion, not that they use it all the time or need to use it)
The reports of recursion in the Pirahã language seem disputed. I suppose that's what happens when you have an extremely small field of experts studying a unique language spoken by around 250 people.
Chomsky's assertion is marked as "not in citation given" in the wikipedia article on the Pirahã language. I don't care either way but taken together with the dispute about recursion in the language, it's an interesting nerd kerfuffle to witness.
Yes, the raw helium may only cost $1k but the cost of ramping a magnet up/down is a lot more. In case of Siemens MRI, they have to fly in special equipment from Germany overnight (a few pallets of basically giant transformers and BeCu tools, shims etc), the repairs associated with a magnet quench are a few thousand (usually you have to outright replace the valves and various other parts that froze) and then it takes a few hours of carefully charging the magnet and monitoring while the helium is slowly being filled. Hopefully you only have to do this once as it is possible that other issues or leaks are found and the helium you just filled boils off. All the while you are paying for at least 3 engineers and the helium delivery guy.
I've been involved with MRI magnet quenches, they're not pretty or cheap. The helium is practically worthless, I've heard of some sites that rather let helium boil off at a certain rate than get a repair done.
Sounds like the market is ripe for 3rd party repair vendors. Pity this is healthcare we're talking about, so that probably won't happen.
Fixing utility-scale electrical generators in the 1970s and early 1980s used to be an OEM-only affair. Then subvendors started popping up that could handle X subrepair, supply such and such subset of parts, etc. Nowadays there are plenty of companies that can handle all the repairs start-to-finish, a vast network of subcontractors, and the OEMs have been run off a lot of power plants because of their price-gouging and pushy salesmen.
My memory is different: "hostile work environment" that didn't involve favoritism or threats didn't become commonplace until a bit after.
Either way, I would agree to some degree of punishment for such as long as it's enforced consistently between parties so that it's not used as a political weapon.
I recall the corporation I worked for when I learned that a consensual affair creates a hostile workplace, it was an unintuitive concept to me at the time. I left that company in the early 90s. Perhaps our HR department was cutting edge.
I guess you have to experience it to be a true believer. I worked for large companies with all these "why do they need that" policies. Working for a small company I saw nepotism, sexual relationship favoritism, sexual relationship retribution, and all kinds of other workplace drama. Plus political power plays by managers to gain more power by playing the employees like pawns in near-literal battles between executives. It was a very toxic environment.
No it isn't. Working as a nurse is worse than working in a Chinese factory assembling iPhones?.
Back injuries are very common in the nursing field. I can't recall the source but moving patients from beds to gurneys and back is more dangerous than a lot of industrial work.
Using interns for your main assembly labor force can be wrong, but for engineering students, assembling for a few weeks or so can be HIGHLY instructional. Exposing students to production processes, manufacturing tolerances, and QC and such is a great way to get them to think, truly, about design-for-manufacturing as a core belief rather than a check-box as the end of a design.
Not just the engineering side, but the people side. More than half the problems I deal with are playground politics between labor and management.
I don't know what their long term goals are, but this rocket is competition with Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, not SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Zhuque: (alternative news source) Mass at launch 27 tonnes, 300 kg payload to 300 km LEO or 200 kg to 500 km sun synchronous orbit.
Electron: Mass at launch 10.5 tonnes, 150-225 kg payload to 500 km sun synchronous orbit
Falcon 9: Mass at launch 549 tonnes, 22,800 kg payload to LEO in expendable mode.
There are about a dozen companies looking to compete in this ~200kg payload market. Rocket Lab are in the lead at the start of this race, but there is still a long way to go.
This is a troubling trend, and not because these are Chinese rockets. There is a finite amount of satellites that can be put into orbit without causing too much clutter to achieve higher orbits. It is in each company's interest to place as many satellites into orbit as possible to maximize profit. There is no incentive to avoid a Kessler syndrome. Unless an international body starts regulating the number of satellites that can be launched, we're going to have a big problem.
Well, let's see ... he might be discussing crooked business deals, tax cheating, election manipulations, hiring prostitutes for golden shower parties or other things that are not classified information but that would render him vulnerable to blackmail?
Unless there is video of Trump penetrating underage girls holding up their student ID's, I'm not sure he is blackmailable. Absolutely nothing has stuck so far, including a laundry list of items that would have or have sunk other politicians. The Mueller stuff is probably being cooked until after he is out of office. An impeachment would be incredibly disruptive and a bad thing for the country. And Trump isn't the kind of person who would resign to minimize the disruption, he would make it blow up more.
What is interesting is how a series with the first ST Woman Captain, and many different women in the command structure, such as B'lanna the engineer, managed to make the female leads credible, likeable and relatable. I have been incredibly impressed on how Mulgrew's character Janeway, managed to be both a credible commander, and yet still unmistakably feminine. She deserves any and all the accolades she may have received.
I hadn't thought of that aspect of the show. What is striking is how it wasn't a terribly big deal and didn't disrupt the story. Nowadays when they womanize a series it is thrown in your face.
When a omnidirectional treadmill for VR gets to a reasonable price range and functions seamlessly then VR will be amazing. Right now it's pretty stupid to stand in place and move your thumbs around.. it's uncomfortable to stand in one place without moving, but walking is awesome exercise and people will love it if they can walk and game.
I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Making an omnidirectional treadmill isn't an impossible task. Making a cheap one probably can't be done. Something that people stand and walk on has to be rugged. The cheapest treadmill I can find is $300, and treadmills are a very mature technology. Being omnidirection is going to boost that to at least $600 if not more. It's a big bulky object, material costs, shipping, and low-production numbers are working against being cheaper. Add in the sensors and processors and being under $1000 in today's dollars is probably impossible.
If you dont clean up the sugar spilled on the middle of the floor and spend all your time putting ant shield around the house you would be called an idiot.
But... all the outrage shown by these people against illegal immigration is fake. They want cheap strawberries and cheap fast food and cheap lawn mowing and cheap home construction. If they are really against illegal immigration they will prosecute the employers.
As a concrete contractor who only hires legal workers, I welcome this wholeheartedly.
Republican politicians should be targeting ALL potential voters
Nope. If they do that, they lose in the primaries to someone willing to focus on the base.
If you want moderate government, you should support open non-partisan primaries.
There is nothing stopping people from voting in the primary of the opposite party. I do so, since my district will likely be won by my 2nd choice party anyway. Might as well vote in the primary for a candidate who actually has a chance of being elected.
Oracle: Don't you dare change to a competing product. Bad things will happen to you.
The system is actually not too expensive, because a parachute is not an expensive technology. I wonder why there is still not such a system on passenger planes? I do not need an "inflight entertainment", I read a book usually, or an ultra modern transformer-armchair, or any other similar frills. I would like however to arrive to a destination in one piece, knowing that if there is a failure, someone thought of a plan B.
Systems like this are available on small planes, such as Cessnas. It's a little more involved than just a parachute, you need a rocket to deploy the parachute, and all the controls to operate it without an accidental discharge or a failure to deploy.
They work fine on small propeller planes since they are lightweight and travel at slow speeds. For a 737-size plane, the weight would be too heavy and the plane travels too fast. Engineering the passenger compartment to be able to jettison would add a ton of weight since you would need 2 pressure hulls, both of which would not be circular/oval. Plus all the hardware to anchor them together but separate if needed.
Commercial airlines are extremely safe as it is. Safety efforts are better spent on further increasing engine and structural reliability, and instrumentation and control mechanisms. An emergency escape system wouldn't save you from takeoff/landing incidents, or pilot error. Both of these are the leading causes of aircraft accidents in recent years.
My German extended family covered their roofs with solar.
Not only because it is subsidized and it sort of makes financial sense, but because Russia was holding them hostage via their gas supply.
Some of them also converted their home heat to _wood_ for the same reason.
Technically renewable and carbon neutral! Just don't ask about the particulates. You would probably be surprised to know how common wood heating is in some northern rural areas of the US. My family burned between 6 and 8 cords (21-29m^3) of wood per winter when I was growing up. We would get truck-length logs, cut, split, throw them through one of the basement windows, and stack up the wood inside. There is nothing as glorious as setting the thermostat at 80F when it is -20F outside and not worrying about the fuel cost.
Literally, no. According to my information, which should be up to date, overwhelming majority of CCGTs in Europe burn gas low enough in sulphur content that they in fact do not need catalytic converters, because particulate exhaust they produce is non-existent.
Exceptions are multi-fuel installations that can also burn light oil distillates and CCGTs that are certified to burn refinery gas rather than natgas.
Not entirely true. CCGTs generally don't need SOx, particulate, or CO controls, but they almost always have some type of NOx control. Usually that means an SCR. There are some new gas turbines which claim to meet NOx standards without an SCR, but the rules get ever tighter every year.
All other things equal, a generation source capable of delivering a consistent supply is better than one which is not able to guarantee consistent supply.
That's the most succinct explanation I have seen of why coal and nuclear power deserve subsidies, or at least equal footing with subsidized renewables. Otherwise "the market" will choose whatever is cheapest, which may not necessarily be whatever is best for grid stability.
Not really. Baseload came about because coal power plants could not follow the load - it took hours to alter a coal power plant output so if possible it was always running at whatever output it was designed for. Since coal power plants have been the most common power plants for over a century, all electrical power infrastructure is built around them and their limitations.
That's not really true. Coal power plants can ramp load relatively quickly, generally around 1-2% of capacity per minute. Aside from slightly increased maintenance costs, they can easily run at 25-30% at night and ramp up in the morning. The issue is that they can't be started and stopped easily.
Nuclear power plants are a different story. They do have strict operating limitations, but the driving factor is economic- they have large fixed costs, but very low fuel or variable operation costs. Therefore it doesn't make sense for them to operate at less than 100% power, since it costs approximately the same.
Here's the reality, the rest of the world is moving off fossil fuels at a quick clip, the US will be left behind if we still allow industry to drive the ship (e.g. having oil company executives making energy policy that enriches themselves instead of the needs of the nation).
Left behind, or able to reap the benefits of only investing in new infrastructure once it is completely matured? And by completely matured, I mean when the price is nearing the bottom of the decay curve. We're getting there. But I don't believe we are there yet.
I also think you are vastly underestimating how quickly the US is getting off fossil fuels. Of course we are behind developing countries, they are expanding capacity (not just replacing old infrastructure). Of course we are behind Europe, their fuel costs are 2-3x US costs. Of course we are behind Japan, their fuel costs are 3-4x US fuel costs. It is just taking us longer to get to price parity than other places.
Apparently you do not know the history of Legionnaire's Disease. Legionnaire's Disease is so named because the first known instance was when a bunch of men from the American Legion came down with it after they stayed in a hotel in Philadelphia in 1976 for an American Legion convention. The cause and transmission was a mystery for period of time. Eventually it was discovered that it was transmitted through the air conditioning ducts. They did not get the disease from bathing and showering, or even from drinking water with the disease in it. My understanding is that air conditioning ducts are still the most common way in which the disease is spread.
I believe industrial & power plant cooling towers (the wet type) are the most common cause nowadays. Modern air conditioning generally doesn't have water in the circuit.
You're overlooking maintenance costs. Wind maintenance costs are higher than fossil plants. You need 25 wind turbines of 20MW to match a 500MW fossil turbine. That's 25 generators, 25 gearboxes, 25 oil filtration systems, 25 towers, etc. 25 times you have to move your 1000 Ton crane around the wind farm to bring components down to ship off to a maintenance center. Then 25 round trip shipments. Then the maintenance facility has to disassemble, inspect, and reassemble 25 different units. It starts to add up. Any onsite maintenance is 300ft in the air, with units spread relatively far apart (compared to fossil equipment). Putting elevators in the towers is a recent trend, most existing units don't have them. So even something simple like bringing up a 55 gallon drum of oil is a huge hassle.
This is greatly exasperated by the fact that most wind turbine construction is chasing the tax credits, so the turbines are built as cheaply as possible. The original owners generally aren't planning for maintenance- once the payback period is over, they flip it.
A lot of wind farms are built by investment firms or hedge funds. They get flipped almost immediately, and the buyer often has little idea of maintenance cost since the machines are still under warranty and no maintenance has been done yet.
With everyone and their mother now tracking their vitals on something worn around their wrists, I'm kind of surprised it's not north of 30% already.
It may be higher than that. I've had a couple credit cards get stolen in the last few years. In both cases, the fraud department caught it on the 1st or 2nd fraudulent transaction. These weren't particularly obvious- in both cases, they were swiped at a physical businesses less than 40 miles from my house.
I suspect that the credit card companies are buying location data from somebody.
Just because they are using opt-in methods on their own app doesn't mean they aren't also using purchased data from someone else.