Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment How to make them pay (Score 4, Insightful) 338

Whenever you receive a call from one of these scammers do what you can to talk to a live person. This is what costs them money. When I get a robo-call telling me about pack pain medication or having an import message from my credit card company, I always press whatever button I need to push to seem interested and speak with a representative. Then I keep that person on the phone for as long as possible until they give up and hang up on me.

If everyone did this, the overhead of these bastards would be too high to keep calling people. At worse, it would make them limit their calls to known suckers.

Comment Re:Geothermal (Score 2) 353

Nope. Not only is geothermal location-specific but it's also quite diffuse.

The Geysers, the geothermal plant that's been operated by Calpines - mostly - and first came on line in 1960. The whole system, which is distributed across 30 square miles and consists of 22 power plants only produces about 955 MW. Having your production facilities spread across a wide area adds a not-insignificant component of cost.

That's a fair amount less than any single base load coal, natural gas or nuclear plant and they can be sited pretty much anywhere obviating the need for HVDC power lines.

Comment Oddly... (Score 1) 201

...the story doesn't mention anything about subsidies and/or tariffed rates. Is this that rarest of beasts, unique in all the world, a commercial wind turbine installation built for the purpose of generating a profit?

Of course not! https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fen...

"The Scottish government warned this week that if Westminster ruled out allowing onshore windfarms in the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland to compete for subsidies, £2.5bn of investment would be put at risk."

Anyone who's worried that wind and solar power will have their morally elevated "sustainability" marred by fiscal sustainability can relax.

By the way, I wonder what wind and solar (and tidal in the case of the Orkenys) has done to the cost of electricity?

Comment Well heck, if it's a massive government report... (Score 0) 415

...that says climate is warming and humans are the cause than that just cinches things up.

We don't need no steenkin' scientific method when we've got massive government reports. Everybody had damned well better fall in line now because a massive government report means the science is settled and anyone who doesn't immediately begin nodding their heads in agreement is the proper target of invective and threats.

People have to understand that in the twenty-first century science is no longer encumbered by the need for a demonstration of the validity of a hypothesis. If enough scientists decide a hypothesis is verified than by God, it's verified.

Comment We've been here before (Score 1) 503

The history of CARB has been to set unrealistic goals because they can than quietly retrench.

What's changed, at least from the point of view of the irresponsible people who run CARB is that now there are real electric cars on the roads.

Never mind they require huge subsidies to eke out a microscopic slice of the market, they're real so CARB can once again flex its muscles and hope not to end up with egg on its face.

The irony is CARB may actually get what it wants although not via a mighty mandate. Technology and the free market will, as usual, deliver the solution that government's incapable of providing in the form of autonomous electric cabs.

Comment the Sonic Projector (Score 1) 215

Cripes, it's not all that big a secret. Here you go - https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2F2007%2F06%2F...

What doesn't make much sense is why it's being done. Keeping the embassy staff on edge must look like a good idea to someone of significant power in Cuba because putting the requisite technology together isn't something that average Cuban could do.

Comment Re:How'd they get there? (Score 1) 138

Hunter-gatherers live at pretty low density so when the population of an area hits some critical mass the kids find out mom and dad would rather they get their own place. So you pack up your stone tools, shelters, clothes and preserved foods and go where you're pretty sure there aren't any other folks to dispute your desire to settle down.

If you're in Siberia that means going north and east until you get to where the land curves due east and you end up in Alaska. Getting there's no problem because you use boats to move along shore just like mom and dad do. If Alaska's free of folks who got there ahead of you well, you just keep going. Unless you can kill them of course and take the land they owned.

Comment Re:"living" Minimum wage (Score 2) 632

But if you oppose a living minimum wage, then you support slavery
Do you not know what a slave is? If I volunteer at the local soup kitchen, does that make me a slave? By YOUR definition, it does. However, slaves are considered property and have no choices. I can throw down my apron and walk out of the soup kitchen. A slave does not have that choice.
In the context of this discussion, if a "slave" doesn't like his wages, he's free to quit, making him not really slave. If he wants to make better wages, he needs to make himself worth more to employers. That's how freedom works.

Comment Re: Let me guess.. (Score 2) 632

Add to that the fact that vendors will hoard the money rather than reinvest them
How exactly do vendors "hoard" their money? Do they:
1) Expand to make even more money
2) Cash it out and put in their own pockets
3) Invest it using other means such as bonds or stock market
4) Stick in the bank
5) Buy a giant Scrooge McDuck style safe to store stacks of $100 bills and gold coins.

In the case of 1 and 3, the money goes back into the economy. The business expands, creating more jobs by the expansion itself or running the now larger business.
In the case of Number 2, you need to ask the question again, "How exactly do the stock holders 'hoard' their money?" The answers don't really change. Even if they build mansions, someone has to gather the materials, construct the home, fill it with furniture, and then maintain the house by keeping it clean and repaired. Even this keeps people employed.
Number 4 is an option some use, but it's temporary. Even then, the bank will load the money back out to other businesses or individuals who will also spend the money, expanding the economy.
Number 5, of course, is what you think happens, but that's simply not reality.

Either way, you are missing a basic economic fact, ALL MONEY IS SPENT, and by spending that money, the economy expands. The more money being made, the more the economy grows. Profit is what happens when you increase the value of resources. Profit, by definition, makes the economy larger, meaning more money for everyone.

So you can stop with your rich-envy.

Comment Re: Fake News? (Score 0) 624

If Snopes were left-leaning, it would have been impossible for me to defend Bush all those years.

Sorry, but Snopes is left-leaning. What you've run across are examples so flagrant, they had to admit them to false. For example, "Trump to Repurpose USS Enterprise Into Floating Hotel and Casino" or "Donald Trump Was Born in Pakistan" are obviously fake and Snopes will label it as such.
The best way to check any "fact-check" site is to find the same quote said by two people on different sides of the aisle. What I have found is that many times, the same claim will receive a higher rating from the left, as the site will find an excuse as to why it may be true. The right receives no such courtesy.

Comment Re: Fake News? (Score 0) 624

I'm led to understand reality has a pretty strong left wing bias, also.

Do you mean the "reality" that says only white Republicans can be racist?
Maybe you mean the "reality" that every Republican candidate since Reagan is a racist/misogynist/elitist/Bible-thumper?
Oh, I know... You mean the "reality" of Obamacare cutting health care costs and everyone being able to keep their doctor, right?

Sorry, but when "the left wing" has played the bigot (racist, misogynist, homophobe, transphobe) card so hard and so long that it's color has worn off, I have hard time believing that they know what "reality" truly is. Don't believe me? Go back and look at the smears against Romney and look at what they are saying about him now. Back then, he was an animal abusing, woman suppressing, religious nut-job. Today, he's the sane pick for Secretary of State. Seriously, how long did you think the American public would believe the BS when you tell them same BS every four years, only to back off your claims a few weeks after the elections end? Well, the elections you win, anyway.

Did you ever stop to think that maybe they simply disagree with your policies for reasons other than hatred?

Comment Re:And to think the DNC wanted to face Trump... (Score 1) 2837

Sorry to be the one to have to inform you of this, but this is not just about bathrooms. Sure, bathrooms are all you hear about on the news, because that's how it's framed. No one really cares the sex of the person in the stall next to you. Opinions change when you start talking about locker rooms, showers, and other facilities, especially when these facilities are used by children.

Sexual identity issues and bathrooms do not equal boys and girls in school showering together. You're literally making that up.
This is from the Charlotte non-discrimination ordinance:
"A place of public accommodation may not refuse to provide the full and equal enjoyment of its facilities based on a protected characteristic, such as gender identity and gender expression. Restrooms, locker rooms, and other changing facilities are covered by the ordinance."

Here is the source:
http://charlottenc.gov/NonDisc...

Oh, but you said boys and girls. OK. Let's look at what the Obama administration wants:
"Schools should let transgender students use bathrooms, locker rooms and other sex-segregated facilities consistent with their gender identity, according to the guidance." ...
"The letter does not carry the force of law but the message was clear: Fall in line or face loss of federal funding."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/12/...

Slashdot Top Deals

"Bureaucracy is the enemy of innovation." -- Mark Shepherd, former President and CEO of Texas Instruments

Working...