If people get over their fears of nuclear power. A massive country wide nuclear power plant building spree would need to take place. Right now we have over 100 nuke plants that supply 20% of our electricity. So to bump out coal's 50% of power generated entirely, we would need to build about 250 new nuclear power plants. It would be great if it happened, but it would take decades.
oil prices don't have a whole lot to do with the price of electricity.
They will if coal to gasoline ever takes hold. Every dollar that oil rises makes that more likely, and once there is a huge new demand for coal prices for electricity from coal powered plants will rise accordingly. Coal accounts for 49.7% of US electrical power. Coal and oil will also begin to effect each other if/when electric commuter cars become common. I admit that I only present ways in which oil prices might effect electricity prices, but I think they are both distinct possibilities in the near future. (kinda like every new solar break through we read about)
but in a free-market society, what bureaucracy is responsible for implementing solutions?
That bureaucracy would be the government. Not because they want stop solar, but because they feel the need to intervene where certain crucial resources are concerned because you can't have retired Floridians that live on fixed incomes dying because they can't pay the electric bill and keep the AC running. I'm not saying that my example is a likely outcome of an unregulated power market, but it is most certainly an example that is used in making sure that the power market stays regulated. California has struggled with an unregulated power supply industry. All argument about the pluses and minuses of government regulation aside, the fact is that in most places electricity is a regulated utility and that serves to help contain fluctuating costs and ensure a steady supply. That government assurance lessens the attraction of being energy self sufficient, and that lessened desirability fails to counterbalance the added costs and maintainance of home solar, for most homeowners. If electricity were seen less as a city supplied utility and more of a commodity with many consumer options (like gasoline or groceries) I think that the public interest in solar would be much higher and the available solar products would be more refined.
Hey the Amish actively encourage there young adults to go experience western "Hollywood" culture, and plenty of Amish come back into the fold. The AMish culture has real strengths that make it worthwhile for many people. I don't think Iran would be completely depopulated, but I think given the knowledge and choice many many Iranians would opt for the western culture and lifestyle. But by the same token you would be perfectly free to leave this "Hollywood Culture" you so despise, I wonder what culture you would find superior enough to leave us for? I wonder why you haven't left already.
Apparently it takes a tyrant to keep the tyrants at bay.
As a free man born in a moderately free country (USA) I have to disagree strongly with that statement. The attempt to use tyranny to keep tyranny at bay is precisely why our freedoms are eroding so quickly here in the USA. That idea is especially prominent if you look at violent crime as a form of small scale, short term tyranny. Of course hiding from tyranny by running under the thumb of a different tyrant is not going to make you a freeman. Taking responsibility for yourself instead of deferring to a central authority is the only road to freedom. Let's look at the events of 9/11 in that light, particularly those on board United Flight 93, and the consequences of their actions. Nothing good happened when the passengers sat passively thinking that government representatives would be negotiating for their freedom. But as soon as those same passengers took action to defend their own lives and those of their countrymen, that plane stopped being a weapon to be used against us and the terrorist plot was greatly diminished. Personal responsibility is the only way to be free of tyrants, anyone who tells you differently is looking to rule you or begging to be ruled.
Ideally I have no objections to a sovereign country being run by whatever system they like, with one important caveat; the freedom of anyone to leave if they so desire. A necessary component of that freedom would of course be the ability to gain accurate information about the rest of the world. The only governments that must force it's people to stay are governments that know they are inherently inferior to the governance in other countries. Iran knows that it's power structure is based on a shitty way to live, it knows that it is culturally inferior. That is why it makes such reactionary laws. Of course the Iranian people are beginning to notice how much better life is in the western world, which is why they are making such criminally dangers blogs.
So true. I wish we could get rid of this idea of "bringing Freedom" to countries that don't have the cultural prerequisites of freedom already growing within them. We might not have won the American Revolutionary War without the help of the French, but we started it on our own. Now if there is sufficient desire by the people of Iran (or any country) for democratic freedom, then they will fight for it. When that fighting starts it would behoove us to aid those fighting for freedom, but forcing freedom upon a nation is such an obvious oxymoron that I am appalled at the way such actions are paraded around like good deeds. If anything, the outside intervention cuts short any building cultural movement towards a democratic state. The Cold War is over, could we please not start another one.
I think they will get two real seats and maybe some storage in this car, but the one seat wide thing is where a lot of the economy comes in. Not only fuels economy but road space economy. Two of these could share a lane, like motorcycles do, which would act to severely reduce traffic jams, which would make driving more enjoyable, not just more efficient.
Four wheels, the safety standards have been going up. That's part of the reason many manufacturers are making 3-wheelers....3-wheelers only make sense for legislative reasons, not practical.
Which make this a case where our legislation is working against us. How much more stable would these vehicles be in the corners if they had four wheels? Maybe a new classification of road vehicle needs to be made. 1/2 lane car, under 1000 lbs should have safety standards half way between motorcycle and car. This VW wouldn't be alone in that category, the Tango would fit in that class as well. I think that 1/2 lane commuter cars will eventually be a part of everyday life, planning and structuring the safety standards now will make that transition much smoother.
As an honest question, what useful things has Aricebo produced? Yes it is wonderful for tracking NEOs and providing quality information to astronomers, but what has the return been for ME on MY tax dollar? Maybe some breakthrough materials or perhaps some insights into physics that lead to new technologies?
So what do we do with the people who aren't really competent at anyneeded job? There are all too many people in this world with no real skill, or motivation, or critical thinking ability. It appears to be morally/politically unacceptable to let them fail severely enough to inspire self motivation and the real desire for a useful skill.
You mean... marketers don't care about us? All they care about is our money?
It's in the nature of what they do. They trade in the awareness and perceptions of other people. A marketer that wanted to preserve consumers privacy and individual choice would be like a surgeon that was afraid of blood and was squeamish about cutting into somebody. A marketers job is to tell you how to think, what to want, and what ideals to have. They respect you like a puppeteer respects a puppet.
I've always found the marketer/news media duality more entertaining than the marketer/privacy policy duality. Journalists will swear that they aren't trying to influence people. They are just reporting the facts. But the ad sales departments sell commercial slots for those same programs with the pitch about how many millions of viewers can be influenced.
You forgot about the healthy six figure salary and five figure year bonus checks. That's what being a C?O is really all about. I almost forgot signing bonuses and golden parachutes, which is the reason they can't be fired, because it would cost more than keeping them around.
I am speaking here as an experienced sailor, you can only sail a direction other than directly with the wind be exploiting the directional stability of the boat. While most of the directional stability of modern sailboat comes from the keel, there is a great degree of resistance to lateral movement caused by hull shape, and that affords you a fair amount of directional stability, which could be used by racing dingys and other sailboats with removable daggerboards and the like to sail in most directions down wind. However in outer space it is impossible to deflect the solar wind at an angle because you lack the grounding to be able to provide any resistance to that wind. The reason that your hand can generate up and down forces when you hang it out of the car window is because of the resistance your arm provides against the wind. Hold a birds feather in front of a fan, as long as you hold on to it you can make it generate up and down forces by changing the angle, but as soon as you remove the resistance provided by your hand and let the feather go, it will move directly with the airflow regardless of the angle of the feather.
Yeah I thought that was a bit odd as well. A keel gives a boat directional stability, not just sailing against the wind, but in every direction except straight downwind. You could put a sail on flat bottomed raft and the only direction you could move under sail power would be directly with the wind. Lacking a space keel would seem to limit any solar sail to going directly away from the sun. It could still be useful to any space craft, but only as a secondary system. If this works I'd like to see one in the ISS, deployed only a few minutes per orbit to maintain or improve ISS's orbital position.
Yeah, the situation in Zimbabwe is all the more depressing when you consider that it used to be "The Breadbasket of Africa". Somehow I find revoking Mugabe's knighthood rather underwhelming. I can't say I'm surprised or proud our (USA) inaction, but it would be really nice to see the other UN nations with a humanitarian bent take some real action.
Alas, I hail from an earlier time, when people thought that what they did mattered, and that the future was somehow our responsibility.
Fear not my contentious friend, when a massive die off of humanity roles over our planet it will take such slacker attitudes with it as it passes. The fewer other humans are left, the more important the contributions of each remaining human become. Reputation, not just for quality of work, but for quality of character will be far more important in a world where it is possible to know everyone who lives in your community. When a person's best and worst qualities both get lost in the crowd the slacker approach makes sense. A few decades of stringent, nature enforced Darwinism might do well to counter our current trend of dysgenics. Humanity thrives in challenging situations... at least the survivors do.
Lichen and high altitude soil bacteria were my first thoughts as well. Knowing the right questions to ask has always been more valuable than a large amount of rote knowledge when it comes to problem solving. Failing to teach this kind of skill is one of the great weaknesses of our modern school system. Rote memory is dropping into an even less important role as the information age progresses, even as public schools face more and more standardized tests as their educational benchmark. All that said, in a social world, grace and courtesy can play almost as much of a role in getting your ideas heard as having the right answer.
Come on, do you really think there's a non-trivial number of people willing to take up arms against the government at this stage?
Non-trivial numbers: No. Non-trivial organization to make those numbers matter: Yes. Of course it will stay that way because anyone trying to organizer or participate in such a group instantly becomes a terrorist/enemy combatant. Not only will Big Brother bring the boot swiftly to your neck, but will do so without any inconvenient restrictions like Habeas Corpus or the Geneva Convention. Be prepared to be standing naked and wet in a very cold room in a government approved stress position while you explain how you are actually highly patriotic for your desire to utilize the second amendment. Also be prepared for your family to penniless and homeless when your "terrorist" assets are seized and no one will extend a helping hand to them without facing "material support" charges. Yes, that sounds Orwellian but all the laws are already in place for exactly that scenario. Go ask the Montana Freemen what happens when citizens with hunting rifles stand up to Uncle Sam.
This has hit the general public in a way they never really ever imagined before, and they are shocked.
They will be even more shocked when they come to realize that all of these price increases are simply a symptom of America's slip from "world superpowe" to " average wealthy western nation". Fuel and consumer products have cost this much in Europe for decades. The EU is doing just fine dealing with $5+ for a gallon of gas, and they aren't strip mining the Alps. But we can expect to have European sized cars and European sized houses at the european $3000 per sq ft not the US $125 per sq ft.
Slashdot Mirror
Mod parent back to Ontopic. Here is the YouTube video the parent was referring to. The Viacommie discussion starts at the 2:00 mark.
If people get over their fears of nuclear power. A massive country wide nuclear power plant building spree would need to take place. Right now we have over 100 nuke plants that supply 20% of our electricity. So to bump out coal's 50% of power generated entirely, we would need to build about 250 new nuclear power plants. It would be great if it happened, but it would take decades.
oil prices don't have a whole lot to do with the price of electricity.
They will if coal to gasoline ever takes hold. Every dollar that oil rises makes that more likely, and once there is a huge new demand for coal prices for electricity from coal powered plants will rise accordingly. Coal accounts for 49.7% of US electrical power. Coal and oil will also begin to effect each other if/when electric commuter cars become common. I admit that I only present ways in which oil prices might effect electricity prices, but I think they are both distinct possibilities in the near future. (kinda like every new solar break through we read about)
but in a free-market society, what bureaucracy is responsible for implementing solutions?
That bureaucracy would be the government. Not because they want stop solar, but because they feel the need to intervene where certain crucial resources are concerned because you can't have retired Floridians that live on fixed incomes dying because they can't pay the electric bill and keep the AC running. I'm not saying that my example is a likely outcome of an unregulated power market, but it is most certainly an example that is used in making sure that the power market stays regulated. California has struggled with an unregulated power supply industry. All argument about the pluses and minuses of government regulation aside, the fact is that in most places electricity is a regulated utility and that serves to help contain fluctuating costs and ensure a steady supply. That government assurance lessens the attraction of being energy self sufficient, and that lessened desirability fails to counterbalance the added costs and maintainance of home solar, for most homeowners. If electricity were seen less as a city supplied utility and more of a commodity with many consumer options (like gasoline or groceries) I think that the public interest in solar would be much higher and the available solar products would be more refined.
What about animals? The spellings are commonly known, there are hundreds to choose from, and you can group servers easily by animal class.
Hey the Amish actively encourage there young adults to go experience western "Hollywood" culture, and plenty of Amish come back into the fold. The AMish culture has real strengths that make it worthwhile for many people. I don't think Iran would be completely depopulated, but I think given the knowledge and choice many many Iranians would opt for the western culture and lifestyle. But by the same token you would be perfectly free to leave this "Hollywood Culture" you so despise, I wonder what culture you would find superior enough to leave us for? I wonder why you haven't left already.
Apparently it takes a tyrant to keep the tyrants at bay.
As a free man born in a moderately free country (USA) I have to disagree strongly with that statement. The attempt to use tyranny to keep tyranny at bay is precisely why our freedoms are eroding so quickly here in the USA. That idea is especially prominent if you look at violent crime as a form of small scale, short term tyranny. Of course hiding from tyranny by running under the thumb of a different tyrant is not going to make you a freeman. Taking responsibility for yourself instead of deferring to a central authority is the only road to freedom. Let's look at the events of 9/11 in that light, particularly those on board United Flight 93, and the consequences of their actions. Nothing good happened when the passengers sat passively thinking that government representatives would be negotiating for their freedom. But as soon as those same passengers took action to defend their own lives and those of their countrymen, that plane stopped being a weapon to be used against us and the terrorist plot was greatly diminished. Personal responsibility is the only way to be free of tyrants, anyone who tells you differently is looking to rule you or begging to be ruled.
Ideally I have no objections to a sovereign country being run by whatever system they like, with one important caveat; the freedom of anyone to leave if they so desire. A necessary component of that freedom would of course be the ability to gain accurate information about the rest of the world. The only governments that must force it's people to stay are governments that know they are inherently inferior to the governance in other countries. Iran knows that it's power structure is based on a shitty way to live, it knows that it is culturally inferior. That is why it makes such reactionary laws. Of course the Iranian people are beginning to notice how much better life is in the western world, which is why they are making such criminally dangers blogs.
So true. I wish we could get rid of this idea of "bringing Freedom" to countries that don't have the cultural prerequisites of freedom already growing within them. We might not have won the American Revolutionary War without the help of the French, but we started it on our own. Now if there is sufficient desire by the people of Iran (or any country) for democratic freedom, then they will fight for it. When that fighting starts it would behoove us to aid those fighting for freedom, but forcing freedom upon a nation is such an obvious oxymoron that I am appalled at the way such actions are paraded around like good deeds. If anything, the outside intervention cuts short any building cultural movement towards a democratic state. The Cold War is over, could we please not start another one.
I think they will get two real seats and maybe some storage in this car, but the one seat wide thing is where a lot of the economy comes in. Not only fuels economy but road space economy. Two of these could share a lane, like motorcycles do, which would act to severely reduce traffic jams, which would make driving more enjoyable, not just more efficient.
Ensuring that there's no imminent repeat of this on a more populated area?
That implies that humanity has the ability to take some kind of preventative action if a collision is imminent. As far as I know, we do not.
Four wheels, the safety standards have been going up. That's part of the reason many manufacturers are making 3-wheelers....3-wheelers only make sense for legislative reasons, not practical.
Which make this a case where our legislation is working against us. How much more stable would these vehicles be in the corners if they had four wheels? Maybe a new classification of road vehicle needs to be made. 1/2 lane car, under 1000 lbs should have safety standards half way between motorcycle and car. This VW wouldn't be alone in that category, the Tango would fit in that class as well. I think that 1/2 lane commuter cars will eventually be a part of everyday life, planning and structuring the safety standards now will make that transition much smoother.
As an honest question, what useful things has Aricebo produced? Yes it is wonderful for tracking NEOs and providing quality information to astronomers, but what has the return been for ME on MY tax dollar? Maybe some breakthrough materials or perhaps some insights into physics that lead to new technologies?
Second that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection>UV light is a good disinfectant. The sun is the easiest source of UV.
So what do we do with the people who aren't really competent at anyneeded job? There are all too many people in this world with no real skill, or motivation, or critical thinking ability. It appears to be morally/politically unacceptable to let them fail severely enough to inspire self motivation and the real desire for a useful skill.
You mean... marketers don't care about us? All they care about is our money?
It's in the nature of what they do. They trade in the awareness and perceptions of other people. A marketer that wanted to preserve consumers privacy and individual choice would be like a surgeon that was afraid of blood and was squeamish about cutting into somebody. A marketers job is to tell you how to think, what to want, and what ideals to have. They respect you like a puppeteer respects a puppet.
I've always found the marketer/news media duality more entertaining than the marketer/privacy policy duality. Journalists will swear that they aren't trying to influence people. They are just reporting the facts. But the ad sales departments sell commercial slots for those same programs with the pitch about how many millions of viewers can be influenced.
You forgot about the healthy six figure salary and five figure year bonus checks. That's what being a C?O is really all about. I almost forgot signing bonuses and golden parachutes, which is the reason they can't be fired, because it would cost more than keeping them around.
I am speaking here as an experienced sailor, you can only sail a direction other than directly with the wind be exploiting the directional stability of the boat. While most of the directional stability of modern sailboat comes from the keel, there is a great degree of resistance to lateral movement caused by hull shape, and that affords you a fair amount of directional stability, which could be used by racing dingys and other sailboats with removable daggerboards and the like to sail in most directions down wind. However in outer space it is impossible to deflect the solar wind at an angle because you lack the grounding to be able to provide any resistance to that wind. The reason that your hand can generate up and down forces when you hang it out of the car window is because of the resistance your arm provides against the wind. Hold a birds feather in front of a fan, as long as you hold on to it you can make it generate up and down forces by changing the angle, but as soon as you remove the resistance provided by your hand and let the feather go, it will move directly with the airflow regardless of the angle of the feather.
Yeah I thought that was a bit odd as well. A keel gives a boat directional stability, not just sailing against the wind, but in every direction except straight downwind. You could put a sail on flat bottomed raft and the only direction you could move under sail power would be directly with the wind. Lacking a space keel would seem to limit any solar sail to going directly away from the sun. It could still be useful to any space craft, but only as a secondary system. If this works I'd like to see one in the ISS, deployed only a few minutes per orbit to maintain or improve ISS's orbital position.
Yeah, the situation in Zimbabwe is all the more depressing when you consider that it used to be "The Breadbasket of Africa". Somehow I find revoking Mugabe's knighthood rather underwhelming. I can't say I'm surprised or proud our (USA) inaction, but it would be really nice to see the other UN nations with a humanitarian bent take some real action.
it's counter-intuitive, but just as timberwolves are good for deer, polar bears are good for seals.
Ah, excellent. Then the coming food riots should be good for humanity. I think I should move to a small farm before then...
Alas, I hail from an earlier time, when people thought that what they did mattered, and that the future was somehow our responsibility.
Fear not my contentious friend, when a massive die off of humanity roles over our planet it will take such slacker attitudes with it as it passes. The fewer other humans are left, the more important the contributions of each remaining human become. Reputation, not just for quality of work, but for quality of character will be far more important in a world where it is possible to know everyone who lives in your community. When a person's best and worst qualities both get lost in the crowd the slacker approach makes sense. A few decades of stringent, nature enforced Darwinism might do well to counter our current trend of dysgenics. Humanity thrives in challenging situations... at least the survivors do.
Lichen and high altitude soil bacteria were my first thoughts as well.
Knowing the right questions to ask has always been more valuable than a large amount of rote knowledge when it comes to problem solving. Failing to teach this kind of skill is one of the great weaknesses of our modern school system. Rote memory is dropping into an even less important role as the information age progresses, even as public schools face more and more standardized tests as their educational benchmark. All that said, in a social world, grace and courtesy can play almost as much of a role in getting your ideas heard as having the right answer.
Come on, do you really think there's a non-trivial number of people willing to take up arms against the government at this stage?
Non-trivial numbers: No. Non-trivial organization to make those numbers matter: Yes. Of course it will stay that way because anyone trying to organizer or participate in such a group instantly becomes a terrorist/enemy combatant. Not only will Big Brother bring the boot swiftly to your neck, but will do so without any inconvenient restrictions like Habeas Corpus or the Geneva Convention. Be prepared to be standing naked and wet in a very cold room in a government approved stress position while you explain how you are actually highly patriotic for your desire to utilize the second amendment. Also be prepared for your family to penniless and homeless when your "terrorist" assets are seized and no one will extend a helping hand to them without facing "material support" charges. Yes, that sounds Orwellian but all the laws are already in place for exactly that scenario. Go ask the Montana Freemen what happens when citizens with hunting rifles stand up to Uncle Sam.
This has hit the general public in a way they never really ever imagined before, and they are shocked.
They will be even more shocked when they come to realize that all of these price increases are simply a symptom of America's slip from "world superpowe" to " average wealthy western nation". Fuel and consumer products have cost this much in Europe for decades. The EU is doing just fine dealing with $5+ for a gallon of gas, and they aren't strip mining the Alps. But we can expect to have European sized cars and European sized houses at the european $3000 per sq ft not the US $125 per sq ft.