Agreed on the approximate CO2 neutrality, which is good, but the particulates (PM2.5s) can be very bad. I'm strongly in favour of adding biomass as (for example) a demand-callable electricity-generation fuel, but we have to pay attention to the PMs which can be hundreds of times higher than natural gas per kWh.
Suppose I (just one person without any particular personal connection) did not "understand" what you claim to be "universally understood".
Then your assertion is *false*. That's the danger of making absolute claims like the one that you just made *again*; you undermined and invalidated all the rest of your argument/rant.
Please at least use the words "absolute" and "universal" correctly in a forum with a high-ish proportion of readers who care about accuracy and precision.
"I didn't choose to be straight and I don't know why I am now defending it."
Well, that's going to be how people differently-oriented (or in some places, gender, colour, religion, etc) than you are going to feel much of the time, with an added slice of "most people think that I am bad" on top.
People in the majority "in-group" would do well to put themselves in the shoes of an "out-group" from time-to-time as you just did; the world looks different from there.
Oh, do f*** off. I'm very moderately pro-nuke but your attitude is astounding and you are the idiot if that is how you write off the opinions of other human beings in either direction.
There are rational and irrational reasons to support and not to support nukes: we're not Mr Spock from Star Trek so both have a legitimate part to play in discussions.
I'm not astroturfing and I'm not hiding my identity. And I don't have nuke skin in the game, eg I don't work for the industry though I have an indirect family connection. I'm in favour of some nuke baseload zero-carbonsmall-physical-footprint electricity generation.
The Fukushima incident may yet cause *no* excess cancers or birth defects. The nuclear energy industry is not unique is having devastating accidents: look at the recent TVA coal-ash spill or big hydro incidents. Nuke seems to kill far fewer people than many or most other generation schemes per TWh, ie unit of energy. I'd rather work in a nuke control room than in a coal mine.
Background radiation does kill thousands of people a year in the UK, and particulates emissions (eg from coal plants and ICE vehicles) many many more IIRC.
No large-scale generation scheme is an unalloyed good, but lots of cheap energy itself generally has been, indeed it's arguably the cornerstone of civilisation.
The real problem comes in trying to paint any one scheme as all good or all bad. We should grow out of that when we leave teenage.
Indeed, my family (2 adults 2 kids) lives in 76m^2 in the London 'burbs with no problem at all, and we seem with a little effort to be in the most efficient few percent of UK housing stock for energy, at least per capita. Hate to try that with a big place. We do Freegle/Freecycle junk regularly which helps avoid wasting space.
Sounds great... If some bozos tried this sort of thing on me repeatedly, compulsory lunchtime or not (and compulsory would have me bill for the time each day or quit), I'd have a quiet word with HR about "bullying in the workplace" etc.
My client/employer can *reasonably* direct me what to do *in the time that they are paying for* and unless that lunchtime is part of my paid hours it's none of their damn business (can you say "constructive dismissal"?). Being subject to repeated harassment directly or indirectly at he hands of management is not reasonable.
And that's before we even consider the the topic of the actual characters of my co-workers. Over the years there have been a handful who I'm not that happy to share a building with during work hours...
Don't get me wrong: I think transparency is the right thing here and in general, and if the reports are accurate then the Japanese government is making a big mistake, and it wouldn't be the first. However, given the other irresponsibly gross inaccuracies spouted in conjunction with this incident I'm finding it difficult to take the premise of *this* story seriously. And that's the corrosive effect of blatant misreporting and conspiracy-mongering: it obfuscates what's really going on even for those with NO ulterior motives. Irony doesn't begin to cover something as important as this.
Agreed, I wouldn't like to breathe in Pu-239, but then I wouldn't much like to breathe in radon from living in a granite house, or indeed the asbestos fibres that by high school seemed to line its forced-air radiators with, or the particulates from my neighbours BBQ earlier this afternoon. And PM2.5s kill a lot more people than radionucleotides from all sources in the UK I suspect.
I am not putting my head in the sand or telling lies. I have no skin in this game. I'm not massively pro- or anti- nukes.
The nuclear industry does indeed kill people as all energy industries do, but rather fewer per TWh than coal and probably most other large-scale energy production. People fall off roofs installing solar PV for example.
Indeed, deaths in the civilian nuclear industry, at least in the UK when I last saw numbers, are generally *lower* from all causes (including for example car accidents) than in the general population, probably because nuclear workers are smarter and more careful than average.
Such as Glasgow (Scotland) or Truro (Cornwall)? I don't know, it'll be in an NHS publication somewhere. It doesn't seem to be a dominant risk though according to here:
"Radon causes over 1,100 cases of lung cancer each year in the UK" so that will be including those hotspots (where incidentally a new nuke could not be built because it would fail the radiation limits without doing anything at all).
It is still exceedingly unlikely that even *one* extra cancer death will be attributable to Fukushima.
To the best of my understanding there are habitable towns throughout the world whose background radiation levels are higher than anything yet encountered outside the Fukushima plant boundaries.
Although I use Ubuntu on servers (along with other distros) I just did not find it reliable for one reason or another, which is why I reluctantly replaced our Ubuntu laptop with a new Windows 7 Tosh.
My Apple box doesn't tie me to Apple stuff really any more than Ubuntu with two exceptions:
1) Playing for an upgrade for OS X (though interestingly Ubuntu on my ARM5 primary server has left me stranded on 9.x).
2) Lack of timely support for Java, though that should now be largely behind us as Apple is handing that task back to Oracle, enough of whose senior Java people use Macs that is will get done properly IMHO.
Yep. I bought a Mac because I wanted *nix on a laptop with no finger pointing and driver issues. Similar to the reason that I used to buy Sun servers: a properly integrated system with all the components from one supplier. Otherwise I'm mainly a Linux user with Windows where needed.
I get fairly annoyed by all the people that (a) assume that I have some kinda black turtle-neck sweater fetish (b) that they have a right to comment on me in that way (c) that they actually might know what tool suits the jobs I do.
25+ years in IT here. I'm pragmatic and use the tools that work for my purposes. Others may be in a Jobsian cult, I'm not. I also don't fit the age demographic!
Stephen King's books put at least as unpleasant thoughts into my head as any other medium (film/TV) which is why I read only one or two before deciding "no more" and still would rather that I hadn't read those. Mind you, I watch hardly any TV/film either as I find most intensely annoying.
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Agreed on the approximate CO2 neutrality, which is good, but the particulates (PM2.5s) can be very bad. I'm strongly in favour of adding biomass as (for example) a demand-callable electricity-generation fuel, but we have to pay attention to the PMs which can be hundreds of times higher than natural gas per kWh.
Rgds
Damon
Filth! And the wrong sort of filth too!
Rgds
Damon
Suppose I (just one person without any particular personal connection) did not "understand" what you claim to be "universally understood".
Then your assertion is *false*. That's the danger of making absolute claims like the one that you just made *again*; you undermined and invalidated all the rest of your argument/rant.
Please at least use the words "absolute" and "universal" correctly in a forum with a high-ish proportion of readers who care about accuracy and precision.
Rgds
Damon
Whose mom, and how big is that basement?
Rgds
Damon
Good candid response, thanks for that.
"I didn't choose to be straight and I don't know why I am now defending it."
Well, that's going to be how people differently-oriented (or in some places, gender, colour, religion, etc) than you are going to feel much of the time, with an added slice of "most people think that I am bad" on top.
People in the majority "in-group" would do well to put themselves in the shoes of an "out-group" from time-to-time as you just did; the world looks different from there.
Rgds
Damon
Is that business class?
Rgds
Damon
I don't think the word "infinite" means what you think it does... Maybe you mean "high" or "unknown"?
Rgds
Damon
+1
Wind is usually able to claim ~10--15% capacity factor for firm baseload purposes.
And demand control (and dynamic demand) hasn't really been tried thoroughly yet.
Rgds
Damon
Oh, do f*** off. I'm very moderately pro-nuke but your attitude is astounding and you are the idiot if that is how you write off the opinions of other human beings in either direction.
There are rational and irrational reasons to support and not to support nukes: we're not Mr Spock from Star Trek so both have a legitimate part to play in discussions.
Rgds
Damon
I'm not astroturfing and I'm not hiding my identity. And I don't have nuke skin in the game, eg I don't work for the industry though I have an indirect family connection. I'm in favour of some nuke baseload zero-carbonsmall-physical-footprint electricity generation.
The Fukushima incident may yet cause *no* excess cancers or birth defects. The nuclear energy industry is not unique is having devastating accidents: look at the recent TVA coal-ash spill or big hydro incidents. Nuke seems to kill far fewer people than many or most other generation schemes per TWh, ie unit of energy. I'd rather work in a nuke control room than in a coal mine.
Background radiation does kill thousands of people a year in the UK, and particulates emissions (eg from coal plants and ICE vehicles) many many more IIRC.
No large-scale generation scheme is an unalloyed good, but lots of cheap energy itself generally has been, indeed it's arguably the cornerstone of civilisation.
The real problem comes in trying to paint any one scheme as all good or all bad. We should grow out of that when we leave teenage.
Rgds
Damon
Indeed, my family (2 adults 2 kids) lives in 76m^2 in the London 'burbs with no problem at all, and we seem with a little effort to be in the most efficient few percent of UK housing stock for energy, at least per capita. Hate to try that with a big place. We do Freegle/Freecycle junk regularly which helps avoid wasting space.
http://www.earth.org.uk/saving-electricity.html#meter2011
We don't have a car or parking space, but we do have a small garden (well, two).
Rgds
Damon
Sounds great... If some bozos tried this sort of thing on me repeatedly, compulsory lunchtime or not (and compulsory would have me bill for the time each day or quit), I'd have a quiet word with HR about "bullying in the workplace" etc.
My client/employer can *reasonably* direct me what to do *in the time that they are paying for* and unless that lunchtime is part of my paid hours it's none of their damn business (can you say "constructive dismissal"?). Being subject to repeated harassment directly or indirectly at he hands of management is not reasonable.
And that's before we even consider the the topic of the actual characters of my co-workers. Over the years there have been a handful who I'm not that happy to share a building with during work hours...
Rgds
Damon
Interesting and heartening. I think you're right, but nice to hear someone else say it.
Rgds
Damon
Don't get me wrong: I think transparency is the right thing here and in general, and if the reports are accurate then the Japanese government is making a big mistake, and it wouldn't be the first. However, given the other irresponsibly gross inaccuracies spouted in conjunction with this incident I'm finding it difficult to take the premise of *this* story seriously. And that's the corrosive effect of blatant misreporting and conspiracy-mongering: it obfuscates what's really going on even for those with NO ulterior motives. Irony doesn't begin to cover something as important as this.
Rgds
Damon
Agreed, I wouldn't like to breathe in Pu-239, but then I wouldn't much like to breathe in radon from living in a granite house, or indeed the asbestos fibres that by high school seemed to line its forced-air radiators with, or the particulates from my neighbours BBQ earlier this afternoon. And PM2.5s kill a lot more people than radionucleotides from all sources in the UK I suspect.
Rgds
Damon
I am not putting my head in the sand or telling lies. I have no skin in this game. I'm not massively pro- or anti- nukes.
The nuclear industry does indeed kill people as all energy industries do, but rather fewer per TWh than coal and probably most other large-scale energy production. People fall off roofs installing solar PV for example.
Indeed, deaths in the civilian nuclear industry, at least in the UK when I last saw numbers, are generally *lower* from all causes (including for example car accidents) than in the general population, probably because nuclear workers are smarter and more careful than average.
Rgds
Damon
Who?
I'm aware that two people died at Fukushima as a direct result of the tsunami, not any from radiation exposure of any kind.
Can you point me to the information about the direct acute radiation deaths please?
Rgds
Damon
Such as Glasgow (Scotland) or Truro (Cornwall)? I don't know, it'll be in an NHS publication somewhere. It doesn't seem to be a dominant risk though according to here:
http://ukradon.org/article.php?key=risksradon
"Radon causes over 1,100 cases of lung cancer each year in the UK" so that will be including those hotspots (where incidentally a new nuke could not be built because it would fail the radiation limits without doing anything at all).
Rgds
Damon
It is still exceedingly unlikely that even *one* extra cancer death will be attributable to Fukushima.
To the best of my understanding there are habitable towns throughout the world whose background radiation levels are higher than anything yet encountered outside the Fukushima plant boundaries.
Rgds
Damon
Although I use Ubuntu on servers (along with other distros) I just did not find it reliable for one reason or another, which is why I reluctantly replaced our Ubuntu laptop with a new Windows 7 Tosh.
My Apple box doesn't tie me to Apple stuff really any more than Ubuntu with two exceptions:
1) Playing for an upgrade for OS X (though interestingly Ubuntu on my ARM5 primary server has left me stranded on 9.x).
2) Lack of timely support for Java, though that should now be largely behind us as Apple is handing that task back to Oracle, enough of whose senior Java people use Macs that is will get done properly IMHO.
Rgds
Damon
Apparently you're stupid and rude and infantile. Back to your mom's basement before she catches you again, troll.
(And for the record using "bi" as an insult, as you were, is hate speech.)
Yep. I bought a Mac because I wanted *nix on a laptop with no finger pointing and driver issues. Similar to the reason that I used to buy Sun servers: a properly integrated system with all the components from one supplier. Otherwise I'm mainly a Linux user with Windows where needed.
I get fairly annoyed by all the people that (a) assume that I have some kinda black turtle-neck sweater fetish (b) that they have a right to comment on me in that way (c) that they actually might know what tool suits the jobs I do.
25+ years in IT here. I'm pragmatic and use the tools that work for my purposes. Others may be in a Jobsian cult, I'm not. I also don't fit the age demographic!
Rgds
Damon
Thanks for the hate-speech. Now back in your mom's basement before she finds you've broken your court order again.
Stephen King's books put at least as unpleasant thoughts into my head as any other medium (film/TV) which is why I read only one or two before deciding "no more" and still would rather that I hadn't read those. Mind you, I watch hardly any TV/film either as I find most intensely annoying.
Rgds
Damon