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OT: The News Thread

JaysCyYoung said:
A WILD SNORLAX HAS APPEARED!

snorlax90797.gif
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I wonder about you sometimes man.....
 
MindzEye said:
20-80% mortality per pass? I can't dismiss it out of hand, but that strikes me as incredibly, incredibly high.
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Yeah it does seem ridiculous, but the study seems pretty sound. I can send you a pdf of it...obviously can't post it here....

It's not just all straight up damage due to hitting mechanical systems...there are pressure gradient changes that get as high as 3 atmosphere per quarter second....which is lethal.
 
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Vancouver police chief Jim Chu said Tuesday it is time for the protesters to leave their encampment outside the Vancouver Art Gallery peacefully, warning that it has been "infiltrated by a violent element."

"We have seen the black masks and others who are intent on violence," Chu told reporters.​
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Hmmm... Black masks? You mean like these ones:
<font size="3">[video=youtube;-QD3C7cgpW4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QD3C7cgpW4[/video]

Maybe we learned from the G20 cops about how to send things over the top with black masks?
Anyways... back to the story:



The VPD chief constable said that two police officers were sent to hospital Monday night with "human bite wounds" after they attempted to stop protesters from pushing and shoving firefighters who were trying to extinguish a burning fire in a barrel.

"Our officers received the full wrath of the protesters, who punched, kicked and bit them. In the scuffle one officer has his ammunition clip stolen."
Chu said that the protest started out with "an apparent non-violent spirit of co-operation" but that "unfortunately it now appears that the good will and those who espoused it are gone."
The VPD said that "while some legitimate protesters remain there appears to be an increasing number of problem people who seem bent on breaking the law and fighting with anyone who gets in their way, including the news media."
Chu would not say when the police might move to enforce a court injunction expected later Tuesday against the camp on the north lawn of the gallery.
Meanwhile, demonstrators at the leaderless movement were scrambling to cobble together a two-pronged legal challenge as the afternoon hearing looms for city hall's injunction to remove the tents at the art gallery.
One tactic aims to bog down the injunction process by requesting the judge serve each occupier individually with the removal order instead of the Occupy Vancouver movement as a whole ex-parte — without their presence in the courtroom.

The other involves requesting the judge to halt the injunction proceedings until Occupy Vancouver's lawyer — whom occupiers say is busy right now with another case — can be present at the proceedings.
"We're going to try to block this today," said Ron Woodruff, 36, as he headed down the street to the B.C. Supreme Court with papers from the city's legal request.
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Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Va...ote st+camp/5676367/story.html#ixzz1dAB4VGXL​
 
And the right to assemble and protest does not equal the right to set up a shanty town on public property.

Kick these losers out immediately, even if it means cracking some heads.
 
MindzEye said:
Funny that it doesn't stop you from constantly complaining about the bitter taste they leave in your mouth...
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The issue was and is cost, cost and cost, not the idea. It's absolute insanity to push immature technology at 20 times the going rate to keep the sky from falling. Worse yet, it hurts the oens that can afford it the least.


MindzEye said:
Yeah, it's a load baring issue that is an issue with commercial flat roofing. That's the funny thing about technological progress, yesterday's infrastructure is usually ill suited to implement it.
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It's a leak issue. The panels and their supports are not that heavy. The problem is how to keep them there in 120km/h winds. The simple and stupid way is to put massive amount of weight on a roof to weigh them down. That is simply asinine because the panels and weight eventually damage the roof and it leaks all over the place. The ideal way to do it is to pull the roof off to the sheet metal, bolt the sheetmetal to the joists, tie standoffs to the sheetmetal and then build up a foam insulation and very thick membrane roof. Or tie standoffs back to the sheetmetal through the finished roof, seal them and attach the panel frames. For all intents and purposes, it's a bomb proof way to a trouble free 20-30 year project. Nobody wants to do it that way because it's very expensive. The panel prices had come down enough to justify it but now, they are getting reviewed and lowered.

Right now, what everybody is doing is placing them on existing built up roofing and praying that they wont have problems. Any leaks means it will get very expensive to pull huge sections of panels off, repair the roof and place them back. Being an atheist, I'm not much into praying.....so I rather do it right to begin with.
 
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MindzEye said:
You're ignoring the advances in technology that are bringing the price down.
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So far, it's still the old technology.......at breakneck competition levels. There is a German company that has reached 20% yield commercially, but there is still no major game changer in yield. Panels themselves came down in three years from $2.20 per watt to $1.10, which is good, but still not the $1.00/watt net including inverters and supports.

The day we can spend a grand or two for a couple of 4x8 solar panels yielding what a household consumes for the year will be the day the game changes forever. As an example, everyone in Greece uses solar for their hot water. It's a very mature technology that has reached a point where you go to the local distributor, order one for 500-600 Euros and the next day, they come to install it. For the next 15-20 years, you have trouble free hot water (most of the time).
 
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Here is an insight to what is happening to solar companies. You can bet your house and your life that one second after McStupid or Conservatives cuts off feed in rates, all the Ontario solar industry will vanish. It's pure, distilled bullsh!t when McStupid talks about "sustainable green jobs". Meanwhile you will be paying through the nose for his this bullsh!t for the next 20 years.

BTW.....I looked at making solar panel 3 years ago and decided that it was too vicious, too depended on governments forcing rates and the company will NEVER make money. As much as I beat myself up for missing opportunities, on this one, I was dead on.

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(Reuters) - U.S. solar company Evergreen Solar Inc filed for bankruptcy on Monday, its once cutting-edge technology falling victim to competition from cheaper Chinese rivals and solar subsidy cuts in Europe.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/15/us-evergreensolar-idUSTRE77E49320110815


Not related........my favourite engineering chart....

ENGFLOWCHART.jpgp
 

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Flowchart had me laughing. Solar and wind power projects make me nervous. I like renewables but my time spent working in the environmental NGO sector, a lot of time green projects do as much damage as good for the reputation of renewables.
 
The entire energy sector is a mess though. It's my biggest qualm with the "let the market decide" argument. If you can tell me where the energy sector costs stop, and the costs it forces on society start, well, you'd be the first.

There is so much subsidized cost involved in bringing fossil fuel energy to market, how exactly do you get an accurate measure on what the actual cost of the energy is? I mean, just to get an idea of hidden subsidy in energy prices on a small scale, there are over 300 million dollars worth of bridge and road improvements going on in Fort McMurray right now. It's a town of less than 100,000 people. All of which is paid for by the provincial government.

Yes, I'm well aware that people who work in the industry (and the companies themselves) pay taxes that go to the province, and that it's in the provinces best interests to improve infrastructure to assist in bringing private investment to the area, but at the end of the day it is still a cost paid for by public coffers, mainly for the benefit of the oil industry (it's main purpose is to make it easier and safer to move the massive equipment that gets run up highway 63 daily).

You will never see the cost of public investment like that included in the cost of oil & gas.
 
I entirely agree mindz, the cost of fossil fuels are massively underpriced but there are still a fair number of "green energy" project undertaken simply for the sake of doing them. I used to have spend a fair amount of time explaining why some projects, while green, just gave you a horrible energy return considering the energy you had to invest to set them up in the first place.
 
Oh, I'd absolutely agree. Any time a government blank check is involved, the same type of idiots and hucksters are never far away.
 
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