I'm thankful that I don't have any disabilities yet. I enjoy cycling, if I received brain-damage that disabled me and altered my personality then I'd like the state to put me down!
Being an able-bodied person means a lots to me, I wouldn't want to be born as a disabled person.
To many this may be considered flamebait, but it is my honest opinion and deserves discussion.
I think that if you have serious genetic problems then you shouldn't be having children if those genetic defects are going to be passed on. Yes nobody is perfect I realise that. It just seems to me that the majority of humans are not able to think rationally when it comes to genetics/eugenics. Why am I saying this? - Because the % of the population with disabilities that require care is growing exponentially, the outcome if the issue isn't addressed is a population of invalids that can't look after themselves, is that fair on future generations? Think of the children!
Men produce approx' 525,000,000,000 during their lifetime, should they all have a right to live?
Car batteries are far cheaper, see: http://green.autoblog.com/2014... $5500 for a 24kWh battery, hopefully prices like this will make it to home systems soon. Tesla's battery $20,000 for 85kWh, about the same per kwh.
30kWh is a lot of electricity, maybe you could shave a big chunk off of that with more efficient appliances, lights and standby settings. UK households average around 12kWh/day.
AFAIK home battery storage solutions are just starting to come out, I read an article recently where one of the home solar PV installation companies will start to include batteries as part of the system as standard. Battery prices will likely go below $200 per kWh of storage in the next 2-3 years. The battery and solar markets are crazy with innovation right now, Tesla's battery 'Giga-factory' is rumored to want to produce more batteries than just for cars.
You mean large/grid scale storage? I think that could become cost competitive when matched with renewables going forward, more R&D is required. Pumped Hydro is of course already highly economical but it is not feasible everywhere.
I don't think the fracking boom will last long, the cheapest wells are typically done first, and if the price of gas rises much then renewables are a lot cheaper.
The.05% of our electricity that is solar generated
0.23% in 2013 (EIA), There are many GW's of solar capacity being added, that figure will double and treble etc. Solar PV is perfect for areas that use a lot of air-conditioning which accounts for a sizable chunk of electricity usage in the US.
Those figures are completely wrong and very out of date. Power Purchase Agreements have recently bought wind energy for $0.0365 per kwh - that is half the figure on the table linked. That cost includes subsidies, the actual agreement was $0.025 per kwh. For solar the PPA is for $0.05 per kWh (0.08 inc subsidy), with the price of solar falling rapidly I'd expect cheaper PPA's to be struck going forward.
With solar panel prices now at $500 per KW, most of the system cost is now the installation cost. So improving efficiency lowers installation cost (less panels). Current panels being sold are about 15-18% efficient, best lab panels are over 40% efficient and the theoretical peak is about 65% efficient. Improvements in installation systems and in panel efficiency could easily lead to solar generated electricity being sold for less than $0.04 per kWh from the current $0.08 per kWh (including subsidies).
You know my post was mostly tongue-in-cheek, truth is I don't have a Facebook account because I think Facebook stinks like Google and google+ stink. The "real" name policy is not to prevent bullying, it is to increase advertising/data mining revenues.
The whole issue with employers seeing an employees Facebook profile just shows what a mess the maze of privacy settings are. Employers should not be able to stalk employees anyway, but good luck stopping them without technical means, means like aliases!
Now, I'm off to capture an insect, call it my pet, name it Tory Dick Head and open a FB account for it! (Tory = Conservative party for anyone who doesn't know UK politics). Can dead pets have FB pages? I'm feeling lazy, dead insects are easier to catch.
Profiles for pets, WTF? Can teddy bears have profiles too? Are the pets allowed to have political opinions?
Why are facebook apologising to all LGBTs and not just Drag Queens? Why do drag queens get to have an alias and not straight people who wear straight peoples clothes. If women wear trousers do they get to call themselves cross-dressers and get an alias? If the pet cross-dresses can it have an alias?
Ireland can't violate the law; it's a sovereign country.
Whether or not EU countries are sovereign is highly debatable, I'd say they are not sovereign, they would have to declare independence from EU to regain their sovereignty.
Every law that applies to Ireland is made by Ireland.
Wrong, most laws that apply to Ireland are made by EU commission then passed by the EU parliament and are automatically rubber-stamped in Ireland.
Yeah come on, name and shame. I won't be buying any more CFLs because LEDs make more sense, but the Philips I've been using for the last 6 years are still going although they seem a bit dim now.
Gas is not the answer when the problem requires we reduce Greenhouse gases by 90%. Gas emits nearly half as much CO2 as coal which is still far too much.
Wind farms footprint is roughly 1% that of coal, Solar PV is about 3% that of coal, gas is 46%. And the footprint of solar and wind can be reduced by using renewables energy to create them.
The biggest way for the US to reduce it's carbon footprint would be through energy efficiency, there is no good reason why the average US household should use 3x as much electricity as the average UK household, at the very least all air-conditioning in buildings in the US could be supplied with energy from solar PV.
we've made little or no progress on actually extending life to any significant extent
Other than the immense progress in biology and genetics you mean? Stem cell research, cloning, knowledge of telomeres, gene therapy, I'd say we're dangerously close the stopping the aging process.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm thankful that I don't have any disabilities yet. I enjoy cycling, if I received brain-damage that disabled me and altered my personality then I'd like the state to put me down!
Being an able-bodied person means a lots to me, I wouldn't want to be born as a disabled person.
Personally I think allowing people who can not care for themselves to be born is absolutely inhumane.
correction: "525,000,000,000 sperm" when is slashdot going to get an edit option?
To many this may be considered flamebait, but it is my honest opinion and deserves discussion.
I think that if you have serious genetic problems then you shouldn't be having children if those genetic defects are going to be passed on. Yes nobody is perfect I realise that. It just seems to me that the majority of humans are not able to think rationally when it comes to genetics/eugenics. Why am I saying this? - Because the % of the population with disabilities that require care is growing exponentially, the outcome if the issue isn't addressed is a population of invalids that can't look after themselves, is that fair on future generations? Think of the children!
Men produce approx' 525,000,000,000 during their lifetime, should they all have a right to live?
Car batteries are far cheaper, see:
http://green.autoblog.com/2014...
$5500 for a 24kWh battery, hopefully prices like this will make it to home systems soon. Tesla's battery $20,000 for 85kWh, about the same per kwh.
30kWh is a lot of electricity, maybe you could shave a big chunk off of that with more efficient appliances, lights and standby settings. UK households average around 12kWh/day.
AFAIK home battery storage solutions are just starting to come out, I read an article recently where one of the home solar PV installation companies will start to include batteries as part of the system as standard. Battery prices will likely go below $200 per kWh of storage in the next 2-3 years. The battery and solar markets are crazy with innovation right now, Tesla's battery 'Giga-factory' is rumored to want to produce more batteries than just for cars.
You mean large/grid scale storage? I think that could become cost competitive when matched with renewables going forward, more R&D is required. Pumped Hydro is of course already highly economical but it is not feasible everywhere.
I don't think the fracking boom will last long, the cheapest wells are typically done first, and if the price of gas rises much then renewables are a lot cheaper.
About fracking:
http://geology.com/royalty/pro...
Eh?
0.23% in 2013 (EIA), There are many GW's of solar capacity being added, that figure will double and treble etc. Solar PV is perfect for areas that use a lot of air-conditioning which accounts for a sizable chunk of electricity usage in the US.
I gave figures including subsidies. PPAs are a good way to look at price because that is what the utility is paying for the energy.
Those figures are completely wrong and very out of date. Power Purchase Agreements have recently bought wind energy for $0.0365 per kwh - that is half the figure on the table linked. That cost includes subsidies, the actual agreement was $0.025 per kwh. For solar the PPA is for $0.05 per kWh (0.08 inc subsidy), with the price of solar falling rapidly I'd expect cheaper PPA's to be struck going forward.
http://cleantechnica.com/2014/...
http://cleantechnica.com/2014/...
With solar panel prices now at $500 per KW, most of the system cost is now the installation cost. So improving efficiency lowers installation cost (less panels). Current panels being sold are about 15-18% efficient, best lab panels are over 40% efficient and the theoretical peak is about 65% efficient. Improvements in installation systems and in panel efficiency could easily lead to solar generated electricity being sold for less than $0.04 per kWh from the current $0.08 per kWh (including subsidies).
Panel technology improvements:
http://bxhorn.com/wp-content/u...
off-topic.. Your troll? Is that the Hosts guy? I'd love to hear a shrink explain how someone gets like that.
You know my post was mostly tongue-in-cheek, truth is I don't have a Facebook account because I think Facebook stinks like Google and google+ stink. The "real" name policy is not to prevent bullying, it is to increase advertising/data mining revenues.
The whole issue with employers seeing an employees Facebook profile just shows what a mess the maze of privacy settings are. Employers should not be able to stalk employees anyway, but good luck stopping them without technical means, means like aliases!
Now, I'm off to capture an insect, call it my pet, name it Tory Dick Head and open a FB account for it! (Tory = Conservative party for anyone who doesn't know UK politics). Can dead pets have FB pages? I'm feeling lazy, dead insects are easier to catch.
Thankfully there has not been anything exclusive to Facebook important enough to make me want to join up.
Profiles for pets, WTF? Can teddy bears have profiles too? Are the pets allowed to have political opinions?
Why are facebook apologising to all LGBTs and not just Drag Queens? Why do drag queens get to have an alias and not straight people who wear straight peoples clothes. If women wear trousers do they get to call themselves cross-dressers and get an alias? If the pet cross-dresses can it have an alias?
This is all fucking insane.
Why do you assume that oxygen can be detected? These planets are typically discovered by the gravitational wobbles they cause in the suns they orbit.
And yet the UK Tories are doing everything they can to move towards the American system so that someone can turn ever larger profits at our expense.
Whether or not EU countries are sovereign is highly debatable, I'd say they are not sovereign, they would have to declare independence from EU to regain their sovereignty.
Wrong, most laws that apply to Ireland are made by EU commission then passed by the EU parliament and are automatically rubber-stamped in Ireland.
Sure they can and they should be. The UK faces being fined not dealing with it's traffic pollution.
Your CFLs haven't lasted as long as claimed, mine have.
Yeah come on, name and shame. I won't be buying any more CFLs because LEDs make more sense, but the Philips I've been using for the last 6 years are still going although they seem a bit dim now.
Gas is not the answer when the problem requires we reduce Greenhouse gases by 90%. Gas emits nearly half as much CO2 as coal which is still far too much.
Wind farms footprint is roughly 1% that of coal, Solar PV is about 3% that of coal, gas is 46%. And the footprint of solar and wind can be reduced by using renewables energy to create them.
The biggest way for the US to reduce it's carbon footprint would be through energy efficiency, there is no good reason why the average US household should use 3x as much electricity as the average UK household, at the very least all air-conditioning in buildings in the US could be supplied with energy from solar PV.
Other than the immense progress in biology and genetics you mean? Stem cell research, cloning, knowledge of telomeres, gene therapy, I'd say we're dangerously close the stopping the aging process.