tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post2010211033558692854..comments2024-03-28T18:18:37.133-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: How they get away with this... and how we can thwart themDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger210125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40569637041360522692017-10-19T09:12:26.114-07:002017-10-19T09:12:26.114-07:00I'm impressed, the autospammers have learned t...I'm impressed, the autospammers have learned to quote previous posters. <br /><br />Nonetheless, nuke 'em. <br /><br />and onward<br /><br />onwardCatfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-14184248857106879952017-10-18T17:32:01.462-07:002017-10-18T17:32:01.462-07:00onward
onwardonward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-86786420995269436802017-10-18T15:38:07.735-07:002017-10-18T15:38:07.735-07:00Hi Two Minds
I am probably the guilty one on "...Hi Two Minds<br />I am probably the guilty one on "Nuclear's time has passed"<br />And I was comparing Nuclear to Solar on area required<br />Wind requires much LESS area<br /><br />This was based simply on the actual area taken up by nuclear plants that have already been built and comparing that to what would be required for a Solar plant<br /><br />Nuclear did take up a wee bit less space - but it was like 15% less! - and in the real world the advantage of solar is that you CAN use the space below it by putting it on roofs<br /><br />Wind is the same - a wind farm does take up a fair bit of space - but the actual turbines and the roads and infrastructure are only 10% of that - the rest of the space can still be used for agriculture<br /><br />Nuclear and coal plants take up a lot of area and it's all single use - you can't use it for anything else<br /><br />If we didn't have the hysteria about "radiation" and "waste" then it is possible (bloody certain) that the cost of Nuclear would drop down a long way and it would still be viable<br /><br />But we don't live in that world - and in this one we have got to consider the actual costs with all of the hysteria<br /><br />It's like the "Polite Armed Society" - great idea - doesn't work due to testosterone <br /><br />If we are looking at what we can do I wonder if SpaceX's reduced costs will make a Solar Power Satellite viable? duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-17864601180984672542017-10-18T14:30:49.590-07:002017-10-18T14:30:49.590-07:00A. F. Rey thanks for your report on Scott Card. Si...A. F. Rey thanks for your report on Scott Card. Sigh. This was predictable. I just had lunch in Salt Lake City with members of the Mormon Transhumanist Society, that has (among others) the aim of using Mormon theology (which is very modernist in some quirky ways) to pry Mormons over to a more liberal and progress-oriented mind set. That might accomplish something. But the main thing is that Mormons take their rosy-cheeked moralism seriously. <br /><br />When confronted by a horror like Trump, they are required to say "i cannot follow." Which distinguishes them from the Fundie pastors & congregations, who don't care that DT is the most opposite-to-Jesus man imaginable. Not while he galls and enrages and hates the same people they hate.<br /><br />The fundies, like Pence, WANT an apocalypse. Mormons spend plenty preparing to survive it, and most thus would rather avoid it.<br /><br />And while many confeds are true racists, and many more are passive-lazy racists, the true enemy that enrages ALL of them to hatred is the Expert or fact-castes. But Mormons believe we are meant to use science to be co-creators -and thus cannot follow the fundies there either.<br /><br />And hence OS Card's dilemma. He will struggle to divert attention, calling Trump the disease. Never admitting that he - Card - spent the last 20+ years desperately spreading memes of feudalism and Nietzchean superman overlordship and utter spite and contempt for democracy, citizenship and enlightenment civilization.<br /><br />His solution to Donald Trump? We need a chosen-one, Ender-style super-duper-uber Caesar! He can take his conversion to anti-Trumpism and...David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-1949126930008662022017-10-18T14:18:41.314-07:002017-10-18T14:18:41.314-07:00
Catfish I agree. ITER will not give us fusion. ...<br />Catfish I agree. ITER will not give us fusion. It is the equivalent to NASA’s SLS Space Launch System… a jobs program. But there are fusion equivalents of SpaceX. At least I hope so.)<br /><br />David S that’s the preferential ballot. Ask our aussie friends. Or hugo voters.<br /><br />raito… I noticed “fiend” and decided not to waste calories fixing it! But oh, locum, you and your cult are responsible for Dennis Hastert, Donald Trump and their ilk.<br /><br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-12128889905255428552017-10-18T14:18:31.979-07:002017-10-18T14:18:31.979-07:00locumranch is proving his**** again, misquoting de...locumranch is proving his**** again, misquoting de Tocqueville spectacularly and he’s known for a long time it is an utter lie:<br /><br />“He also railed against socialism and predicted that "The American Republic will endure (only) until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.””<br /><br />No, de Tocqueville did NOT say that. Ever. It is a fabrication called the “Tytler Calumny.” And you have seen it disproved here and the rest of you should re-read it:<br /><br />http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-tytler-insult-is-democracy-hopeless.html<br /><br />In fact (since you will never read that posting) the “people will bribe themselves from the public treasury” calumny is not only a lie, it is an outright and bald-faced and knowing lie, stretching back to when the Athenians voted to use their new silver mines NOT to get rich, but to build the navy that saved western civilization. That's not what kings and lords do. Look at Versailles.<br /><br />It is ALWAYS the middle class that both votes and polls to pay down the debt and the oligarchs who vote themselves gushers of free treasury lucre. That is always. Always you bald-faced liar. And the next time you repeat the "de Toqueville" lie or any other version, listen to the little voice over your head, singing "liar, liar, pants on fire!" Feel the burn.<br /><br />What Adam Smith and de Tocqueville did argue for was investment in endeavors that might be called “socialist” but which had the targeted purpose of increasing the number of skilled, competent competitors. Mass education, sanitation, health, infrastructure did have this effect for the Greatest Generation under FDR and we boomed. The doyen of rightist economics and the anti-Keynes - F. Hayek - nevertheless granted these were good socialisms. Now hated by the mad confederate cult.<br /><br />—David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28052551987877716302017-10-18T14:04:26.249-07:002017-10-18T14:04:26.249-07:00Catfish: I have the Wiki page on polywell fusion i...Catfish: I have the Wiki page on polywell fusion in the next tab. Will have a dive in the subject this weekend. Who knows what rabbit hole will open up for me?<br /><br />Fukushima led me into a deeper rabbit hole than I'd thought possible when I dove into it, leading to a change in opinion on nuclear (fission) power from a lukewarm <i>no thanks</i> to a convinced <i>yes please</i>.Twomindsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23192866127907665682017-10-18T13:49:48.740-07:002017-10-18T13:49:48.740-07:00We'll have to go (onward... onward...) here in...We'll have to go (onward... onward...) here in a moment, but it's interesting from @A.F.Rey above that OSC doesn't like Trump. There being no better candidate (despite seventeen contenders) <i>is</i> in part due to campaign finance, as better men and women have been run out by the selection process that rigorously prunes those with new ideas and deviations from approved ideological protocol. <br /><br />He's exactly wrong about ideology coming from the extreme little people, though. The problem is that control was taken away from the pooled effort of those with middle and upper-middle levels of wealth (who used the Party apparatus to exert influence) and given to the extremely wealthy instead. This is part and parcel of the attempt to bring back the wealth pyramid, naturally. <br /><br />@Twominds: it's the completely new method that gives me hope on fusion. I have exactly as much hope as you on tokamaks, which in my crazier moments I suspect to have been a Russian plot to make sure we <i>didn't</i> develop fusion power in the First Cold War. <br /><br />@raito: Might steal that.Catfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-62747325618249373652017-10-18T13:30:24.193-07:002017-10-18T13:30:24.193-07:00Thank you George Carty (1:13 AM) and Darrell E (7:...Thank you George Carty (1:13 AM) and Darrell E (7:33 AM and further on) for articulating what I had wanted to say some time back. I found that it was harder to express my thoughts on this subject in English than I'd expected. Also, I've been too lax with bookmarks, and I would have needed them to back up my reply to some commenters here that nuclear's time has come and gone. So I'm glad you took it up.<br /><br />One of you mentioned the 'regulatory capture in reverse' that hampers nuclear power and makes it too expensive. Have a look at <a href="https://atomicinsights.com/" rel="nofollow">Atomic Insights</a>: its owner, Rod Adams, covers this subject regularly. I consider him one of the most level headed proponents of nuclear power, with a large dose of optimism and an impressive stamina.<br /><br />I would root for nuclear fusion, if I'd think that would be practically viable in the near future. But it has been 10-20 years in the future for decades, and I be surprised (pleasantly!) when that breakthrough was suddenly here.<br /><br />I can't find right now who said that nuclear and wind power take the same space for the same MW's. I can't find such a comparison, the only ones available state wind power needs very much more space. Can you give me some pointers? <br /><br />Zepp (3:15PM) <i>I'm still blinking in utter disbelief at that quote.</i><br />I couldn't really get that one either. It's not either/or, and racism is a much older theme for what we now call the alt-right than the war on knowledge. Maybe I'm too much a lefty to see what the Dr. means... ;-)Twomindsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-92087220224204014162017-10-18T13:19:08.113-07:002017-10-18T13:19:08.113-07:00A while back, you requested that I be your eyes-an...A while back, you requested that I be your eyes-and-ears in the Orson Scott Card world. By a dint of luck, there has been nothing to report lately (unless you're interested in his opinions of movies, plays, books or a strange device you can shoot onto animals, which then moves up their body and provides a low-res picture of what they see...)<br /><br />However, he has finally published something worth noting: a short essay on Trump, where he bemoans the fact we elected an idiot. He blames it on there not being any more viable Republican candidate than Trump, and, of course, for Hillary being his main presidential contender. (He says he would have voted for Bernie.) He blames lack of movement in Congress on obstruction by ultra-Right Republicans, which he blames on campaign finance reform (which took away influence by the moderate fat-cats and gave it to the little people, of which the most generous donors being the extremes of each party). And he basically considers Obama to be the left-wing equivalent of Trump.<br /><br />But the main take-away is that he is not a Trump supporter.<br /><br />http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2017-09-28.shtml<br /><br />Other than that, the only other political essay I've noticed was about musicians in the Santa Monica Symphony refusing to play with Dennis Prager conducting, which apparently exemplifies how the current Left is less tolerant than the anti-Communists in the 1950s. :) However, you may still agree with him about freedom of speech issues and the lack of tolerance by the Left.<br /><br />http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2017-08-31.shtml<br /><br />(See the end of the essay for the Prager stuff.)A.F. Reynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-84411831698495781442017-10-18T09:00:39.687-07:002017-10-18T09:00:39.687-07:00David S:
I too believe in a reallocation of unvia...David S:<br /><i><br />I too believe in a reallocation of unviable votes. However, I think the voter should designate where their vote should go (and not the candidate). <br /></i><br /><br />I understand the concept of iterative voting (or whatever the kids are calling it these days), but the reason I prefer the delegate-like solution is that it allows active horse-trading for votes. Your way allows protest votes, but is essentially going to end up with your vote going to the major party candidate you prefer (or you least dislike) anyway. My way allows votes for the same "natural" coalition to be combined in exchange for platform planks, which seems to reflect "will of the voters" more than the current system.<br /><br />I'm not claiming my way is objectively better than yours; just pointing out the differences.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-33607380576731166592017-10-18T08:15:02.074-07:002017-10-18T08:15:02.074-07:00Dr. Brin,
"Trump is not the disease, he is a...Dr. Brin,<br /><br />"Trump is not the disease, he is a surface symptom."<br /><br />You keep saying this. But this statement will never convince anyone who thinks that he is the disease because it doesn't argue from their point of view.<br /><br />It might be better to state "Trump is a disease. A secondary infection brought on by (all that other stuff)".<br /><br />That way you don't start out by disagreeing with the people you're talking to.<br /><br />As for solar, for me at least, it's showing about 22 years for it to pay itself off, even with the tax rebate.<br /><br />And was 'fiend to boys' a Freudian slip?raitonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-62311413269149717752017-10-18T07:57:26.419-07:002017-10-18T07:57:26.419-07:00LarryHart,
I too believe in a reallocation of unv...LarryHart,<br /><br />I too believe in a reallocation of unviable votes. However, I think the voter should designate where their vote should go (and not the candidate). So all those to voted Stein or Nader can specify where their vote should go when their candidate doesn't get enough votes to win the election.<br />David Snoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-49092146230086212612017-10-18T07:57:03.203-07:002017-10-18T07:57:03.203-07:00@George Carty: How much more expensive would renew...@George Carty: <i>How much more expensive would renewables be if they had to rely on batteries or other energy storage to deal with the times when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining, rather than falling back on a convenient gas backup? It wouldn't surprise me if the cost of the energy storage dwarfed that of the solar panels or wind turbines themselves.</i><br /><br />Of course it does, at present; that's why those storage units are not yet at market. Research does not always come up with answers at the rate we wish. <br /><br />Heinlein postulated the effects of having cheap, simple, convenient high-density energy storage: a "Shipstone" (in some stories, named for its inventor). It was revolutionary (and its trade secret led to a corporate hydraulic despotism, in the story). We currently have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density" rel="nofollow">nothing that rivals biological hydrocarbon energy storage -- fossil fuels or biolipids0 -- </a> in energy density per volume, though 700-bar hydrogen gas manages the trick in energy density per mass. <br /><br />This suggests that a closed-cycle carbon system is likely one of, if not the primary, means of achieving high-density storage. How to do so economically at the scale of the power grid is left as an exercise for the student. <br /><br />@David, @Robert: Yes, 1995 and the original Gingrich platform was the last time I actively and openly supported a Republican party platform. Even campaigned for it. I was rewarded with government shutdowns and betrayal on every level, with Newt expelled to the hinterlands in favor of obstructionism and witch-hunting (Clinton deserved censure for his disgraceful personal conduct, but the impeachment was about five steps too far). I have never forgotten, and the GOP has never shown the slightest remorse, nor changed in the ideological purge-friendly attitude that has led us to today. To Gingrich, nasty politics was a means to an end. Today, the GOP considers nastiness towards despised political enemies to be the core of the party: hence election of a man for whom nasty treatment of rivals is the core of his soul.<br /><br />And back to locum again: You know, the Europeans considered the British and Americans repeatedly to be effete urbanites. Remember "a nation of shopkeepers"? The Confederacy was convinced that its martial elan was superior to that of the more urbanized Union. Hitler thought us too commercial to fight, though Yamamoto knew better. They all learned otherwise.<br /><br />We are your cousins, most of us. Yes, even those with higher levels of melanin. And of those we've taken in -- you really think Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Mexicans, Central Americans -- don't know how to fight? How to take and give orders? You applaud your barbarian tendencies -- and think we <i>aren't</i> barbarians?<br /><br />You're underestimating us again.<br /><br />@David: Polywell. Polywell. Polywell. ITER may "work" but the interminable effort has convinced me it's not worth the trouble. Whereas Bussard-Farnsworth has gone from strength to strength, and is <i>(mirable dictu!)</i> <b>portable</b>. You could build a tank or a small ship around a polywell fusion reactor, as opposed to a fission plant (which requires an aircraft carrier). And it would totally destroy <i>military</i> reliance on fossil fuels for any application but high-performance aircraft. Ending the Navy contract was a colossal mistake, but if we can get polywell working before the other Great Powers, a whole new world opens.Catfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-70040837302395521432017-10-18T07:46:19.375-07:002017-10-18T07:46:19.375-07:00Catfish N. Cod:
Just because wealthy Republicans ...Catfish N. Cod:<br /><i><br />Just because wealthy Republicans talk to the rural public in terms they find more comfortable does not make them any more likely to act in the rural interest. Quite the opposite. <br /></i><br /><br />I've been trying to make that very point for years now. Even from loc's rural perspective, <i>The Republican Party is not the solution to the problem; the Republican Party <b>is</b> the problem.</i>LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31972509715449446262017-10-18T07:43:11.002-07:002017-10-18T07:43:11.002-07:00George Carly:
I wonder if Ralph Nader in 2000 was...George Carly:<br /><i><br />I wonder if Ralph Nader in 2000 was deliberately spoiling the election with the intention of securing a victory for Bush?<br /></i><br /><br />Even if he wasn't deliberately doing so, I'd bet that the special interests behind W gave him money and support, and played to his ego. LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57685556175912508642017-10-18T07:41:25.740-07:002017-10-18T07:41:25.740-07:00Alfred Differ:
Well... you might want to consider...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />Well... you might want to consider all the folks who do NOT vote as being similarly disinterested in the major party candidates. Those who vote for a third party get off their butts at least. Which would you rather see? Seems to me the effect is about the same since a null vote is just as much about NOT picking the pragmatic option. One you get to see and possibly complain about. The other is an anonymous abdication by one of our fellow citizens.<br /></i><br /><br />What I'd <b>like</b> to see is something more resembling the allocation of delegates in the primaries when no one candidate has a majority--that the candidates get to trade and/or pool their votes. So, for example, if "Gore and Nader" together received more votes than Bush, Nader could (in exchange for certain concessions) give his votes to Gore and push him over 50%.<br /><br />I can see some potential for mischief here, but on the surface, this would seem to reflect the will of the voters more than the current situation does. A vote for your favorite third party candidate would at least advance the cause of your preferred agenda, whereas in the current system, it makes it more likely that your <b>least</b> preferred candidate wins.<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-76288558118404201862017-10-18T07:32:59.216-07:002017-10-18T07:32:59.216-07:00Hmm, but Congress *isn't* bribing the public w...Hmm, but Congress *isn't* bribing the public with public money. They are bribing the oligarchs with public money. Not the same thing, in fact the opposite thing. If they were bribing the public with public money, we'd have a heck of a lot more infrastructure spending. <br /><br />Wrong again, loco. matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-79898880328757948592017-10-18T07:31:21.865-07:002017-10-18T07:31:21.865-07:00Witness the State Department, whose ranks are bein...Witness the State Department, whose <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/magazine/rex-tillerson-and-the-unraveling-of-the-state-department.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">ranks are being purged for a perceived 'elitism'</a>. The result is the loss of other things de Tocqueville spoke of, <a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/tocqueville-s-critique-of-socialism-1848" rel="nofollow">indeed set up against his perception of socialism-as-serfdom</a>: <i>honor, virtue, generosity, and selflessness</i>. Instead we dishonor our predecessors and ancestors by repudiating and questioning as many prior agreements as we can, just because we disliked their creators' politics; we seek instead short-term, selfish, and zero-sum advantage in our foreign affairs, where <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/for-me-to-win-you-have-to-lose" rel="nofollow">for us to win, others must lose</a>. Our generosity has been replaced with ever-accelerating insecurity and associated inconsiderate miserliness, as with the new idea <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1342430/dod-announces-policies-affecting-foreign-nationals-entering-military/" rel="nofollow">that even green card holders, already having passed multiple hurdles, must endure <i>another</i> background check to even have the chance to demonstrate virtue and selflessness in our armed forces</a>.Meanwhile, even as the populists cloak themselves in the sanctified robes of oppression, they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/10/10/conservatives-are-the-real-campus-thought-police-squashing-academic-freedom/?utm_term=.ece499fe48df" rel="nofollow">work assiduously to silence speech they disagree with</a>.<br /><br />Far from encouraging the virtues of a healthy individualist democracy, our current Administration and our current populism is assiduously working to <i>destroy</i> those virtues with their hands, even as their mouths speak their praise. Hear also what de Tocqueville spoke in the same speech in which he condemned centrally controlled socialism:<br /><br /><i>Finally, the French Revolution wished—and it is this which made it not only beatified but sainted in the eyes of the people—to introduce charity into politics. It conceived the notion of duty towards the poor, towards the suffering, something more extended, more universal than had ever preceded it. It is this idea that must be recaptured, not, I repeat, by substituting the prudence of the State for individual wisdom, but by effectively coming to the aid of those in need, to those who, after having exhausted their resources, would be reduced to misery if not offered help, through those means which the State already has at its disposal.</i><br /><br />Yet it is exactly such means <b>advocated by de Tocqueville</b> which conservatives in the United States are forever attempting to place judgmental conditions upon (drug testing! background checks! skin in the game! T-bone steak welfare queens! abstinence-only!), <i>substituting the prudence of the State for individual wisdom</i>.<br /><br />Enough.Catfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55820539660735064562017-10-18T07:31:11.734-07:002017-10-18T07:31:11.734-07:00If bribery were the concept, locum's complaint...If <i>bribery</i> were the concept, locum's complaint would have merit. But consider an oblique perspective: <br /><br /><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/gratitude-for-invisible-systems/526344/" rel="nofollow">Gratitude for Invisible Systems </a><br /><br /><i>When we think about caring for our neighbors, we think about local churches, and charities—systems embedded in our communities. But I see these technological systems as one of the main ways that we take care of each other at scale. It’s how Americans care for all three hundred million of our neighbors, rich or poor, spread over four million square miles, embedded in global supply chains.</i><br /><br />Locum sees only elitist, disdainful, insulting, potentially tyrannical sinister and unintelligible forces in these systems. But I see the <a href="http://www.geosciences.msstate.edu/undergraduate/meteorology/" rel="nofollow"> Meteorology Broadcast program at Mississippi State University </a>, where a large portion of the nation's local and national weather forecasters learn a complex, highly scientific, yet clearly public-serving trade. Does Locum think Jim Cantore, standing in yet another hurricane, is an oppressive force destroying his liberty? What of the 24-hour-serving schlubs at the National Hurricane Center who are feeding Jim their highly complex computer-model predictions -- predictions that save hundreds or thousands of lives every year?<br /><br />Is that <i>bribery</i>? Does it require tearing down as <i>"a reaction against supercilious Aristocratic egotism"</i>?<br /><br />I'm less concerned about bribing the <i>public</i> with the public's money. I'm more concerned about bribing the <i>wealthy</i> with the public's money, and the wealthy returning the favor. Just because wealthy Republicans talk to the rural public in terms they find more comfortable <b>does not make them any more likely to act in the rural interest</b>. Quite the opposite. <br /><br />Only a small fraction of the intellectuals have betrayed you and your neighbors, locum. As a 'Berner' you must have met some of them; they are more concentrated on the further-left. If you were willing to focus on them, you would have some merit in your complaints. But you are betraying <b>all the intellectuals</b> when you support anti-intellectualist populism. Those sworn to serve can forgive you that. <i>But you have taught them not to trust you.</i>Catfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7038403675600874612017-10-18T06:07:31.925-07:002017-10-18T06:07:31.925-07:00David could be quoting Alexis de Tocqueville when ...<br />David could be quoting Alexis de Tocqueville when he quotes sources about the ever-present 'disturbing strand of anti-intellectualism in American life', 'a toxic mix of ignorance and mendacity' and the politics of Anti-Elitism --<br /><br />It's called 'Democracy in America', remarkable for both its Populism and the anti-intellectual 'Will of the People', and it has always been this way since its creation as a reaction against supercilious Aristocratic egotism.<br /><br />De Tocqueville said as much when he quipped that "Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science" and "Patriotism is most often nothing more but an extension of individual egotism". <br /><br />He also railed against socialism and predicted that "The American Republic will endure (only) until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."<br /><br />Best<br />locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-89233882164062129572017-10-18T05:26:57.761-07:002017-10-18T05:26:57.761-07:00Forgot to put this in my first message:
* Has any...Forgot to put this in my first message:<br /><br />* Has any industry other than the nuclear industry collapsed or stagnated because its regulators were captured by a rival industry in the way that nuclear regulators were captured by fossil fuel interests?George Cartyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12170378024031141482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-54555502750921604672017-10-18T05:25:52.251-07:002017-10-18T05:25:52.251-07:00I wonder if Ralph Nader in 2000 was deliberately s...I wonder if Ralph Nader in 2000 was deliberately spoiling the election with the intention of securing a victory for Bush?<br /><br />There is a strong case for arguing that Nader was looking out for Big Oil – not only was he a famous anti-nuclear-power activist, but he also made his name originally by attacking the Chevrolet Corvair, which was one of the most fuel-efficient American cars of its day.<br /><br />In addition his parents were Lebanese immigrants who owned a restaurant with a largely Arab-American clientele – and while pre-Civil-War Beirut may have been notable primarily as a financial centre (the Civil War ultimately caused it to lose that crown to Dubai) it doesn't take a genius to work out where most of the money deposited in Beirut's banks originated. Nader himself noted that most of his political views were formed as a result of hearing the conversations inside that restaurant.<br /><br />More recently, I wonder if <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440274/hillary-clinton-says-she-supports-nuclear-energy" rel="nofollow">Hillary Clinton's pro-nuclear turn</a> had provided Putin and the OILigarchs with just that extra bit of impetus to ensure that she lost?<br /><br /><i>Blah blah. It depends on how long the panels and turbines last. Your BS is obsolete, from when they only lasted 3 or 4 years. They pay off their fabrication costs easily in 3 years and yes, including the gas. And they have 20+ year lifespans now and are plummeting in cost, daily. Geez, what's it like back there in 1991?</i><br /><br />What are you saying here? Are you saying that renewables+gas are cheaper than nuclear? I'll give you that is probably the case (even though it is probably due to dysfunctional regulation of the nuclear industry, resulting from a kind of regulatory anti-capture*) but have you forgotten that this combination still emits CO2 while nuclear does not?<br /><br />How much more expensive would renewables be if they had to rely on batteries or other energy storage to deal with the times when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining, rather than falling back on a convenient gas backup? It wouldn't surprise me if the cost of the energy storage dwarfed that of the solar panels or wind turbines themselves.George Cartyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12170378024031141482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-37262157675702512562017-10-17T21:49:26.149-07:002017-10-17T21:49:26.149-07:00@LarryHart | Isn't conflict of interest necess...@LarryHart | Isn't conflict of interest necessary for checks and balances? Seems to me that IS the point. One person's ambition is set against another's.<br /><br /><br /><i>you end up with the major party candidate you least wanted</i><br /><br /><br />Well... you might want to consider all the folks who do NOT vote as being similarly disinterested in the major party candidates. Those who vote for a third party get off their butts at least. Which would you rather see? Seems to me the effect is about the same since a null vote is just as much about NOT picking the pragmatic option. One you get to see and possibly complain about. The other is an anonymous abdication by one of our fellow citizens.<br /><br />I know what I'd rather see.<br /><br />Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-70939283073816732682017-10-17T21:44:50.184-07:002017-10-17T21:44:50.184-07:00Robert gets post of the day for one line that you ...Robert gets post of the day for one line that you have to think about to understand:<br /><br />"GOP 1860-1995, RIP. Wish you were still around; I'd vote for you."<br /><br />Wow. And it's true. 1995 was the Anno Mirabilis miracle year when Newt Gingrich actually negotiated with a Democratic president and legislated reasonable and useful things. He was punshied for it by the new leader of the GOP - Dennis "Fiend to boys" Hastert. And Newt decided to embrace the crazy.<br /><br /> Ah, locum the incurable romantic: "That said, I agree that barbarism is a GOOD thing because it possesses a masculine vitality that (cough) effete urbanity lacks as in the case of the barbaric former taking a blade to & resolving by force the very Gordian Knots that the civilised latter struggles to untangle in vain." <br /><br />Oh har! So cries the cult that would never stand toe to toe, always using sucker punches, ambushes and snipers. The louder they yowl that they'll be top dogs after the apocalypse, the more you know that they are slob couch potatoes aho utterly reply on the civilization we built for them, and who would be kibble.<br /><br />But romanticism ignores all fact. It is the confederate religion. And humanity's curse.<br /><br />"You do know that banks no longer pay interest, don't you? <br />That they demand service charges, fees & penalties? "<br /><br />YOUR plantation lords did this, silly confederate. <br /><br />George C. "Wind and solar are just expensive ways to greenwash dependence on gas..."<br /><br />Blah blah. It depends on how long the panels and turbines last. Your BS is obsolete, from when they only lasted 3 or 4 years. They pay off their fabrication costs easily in 3 years and yes, including the gas. And they have 20+ year lifespans now and are plummeting in cost, daily. Geez, what's it like back there in 1991?<br /><br />Oh, ever heard of the techno liberals like Stewart Brand? Since all scientists have fled to the democratic party, that includes nuclear guys, and many of us pushed for R&D to restart nuclear as another option. It would have happened, if solar hadn't plummeted in cost, so fast.<br /><br />As-is? We now seem 5 years from some kind of fusion breakeven. Ten years after that for power. If so (and I've been wrong before) then fission has a limited future.<br /><br />But open the Nevada waste depository!<br /><br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.com