That is most unfortunate, and a waste of a great technology that isn't a solution to an energy shortage, but could be one part of a solution.
My systems have saved me about $3-400 a month because I pre-heat my hot tub and hot water heater with hot water solar instead of electricity (which was insanely costly). We have the same issues with selling at >.10 and buying back at >.30, and maximum production/selling limits too, so it's better to use your power as you make it....but we also have a plan where our produced power is used first to erase our purchased power at a 1:1 ratio (based on 3 times of day/rates) so on that plan I never pay the highest rates and never sell at the low rate, because I don't make enough power to have a net surplus, so I don't sell. It's not perfect, but it's acceptable. I just wish they would implement some storage methods like I described and make solar farms more beneficial and allow/incentivize home users to produce more than they use.
True enough, just lots of panels isn't a way to get off fossil fuels.

Five years ago. Wow.

So much has changed for the better.

Not perfect, never will be perfect,nothing is ever perfect.

But it is better.

Thank you, Dan Savage and husband Terry.

Cops shouldn't be considered a threat because they have been appointed by the government to uphold the law. The success of that is definitely up for debate, but to suggest that citizens should be fighting cops is absurd. That will only lead to more deaths.
(The solution is for the system to weed out the bad cops, the incompetent ones, the corrupt ones, the power tripping, racist, trigger happy etc).

Most cops do the right thing, most of the time. The millions of police encounters each day where nothing has gone wrong don't make the news.

I think it's worth considering what the any country would be like without law enforcement. We know what it would be like - hurricane Katrina - complete chaos on the streets, far worse than these shootings. Assuming your goal is to have fewer people shot and murdered, then having a police force is the best way we know of. However for that to work we need a competent police force that is there to serve and protect.

There definitely needs to be a system were police are made accountable to make sure stuff like this video does happen, or even non-lethal situations where citizens are being harassed. There are number of ways to do this. But my suggestions is that if you want to argue with someone, don't do it while they're holding a gun at you. Wait until you get to the station and call your lawyer. It's not perfect, but at your chances of getting shot will drop dramatically.

The statements are trivially disprovable. I know several peaceful muslims. There, done. Your statement is false.

You couldn't find a better example of the "No True Scotsman" fallacy if you tried.


"Followers of violent ideologies are not peaceful".

Here's a thought exercise for you, since you seem to pride yourself on not being afraid to think.

Humans are not perfectly rational or consistent. They are, in fact, capable of holding two opposing positions at once. This is called cognitive dissonance (you're a good example of this yourself, in that you are engaging in a logical fallacy while upholding the virtue of rationality).

Saying "there are no peaceful muslims" is like saying there are no divorced Catholics, when such things self-evidently exist.

So, to sum up:
You are not right - your "factual statement" is incorrect.
You are not just - you are making a sweeping generalisation about 1 billion people.
You are not rational - you are engaged in a logical fallacy.

Oh fuck off.

I agree that the movement wasn't the most natural I've ever seen but the whole thing made me smile. It's not the real world, that's made obvious in lots of ways.

If you're going to criticise try not being such an ass about it. Your opinion is just your opinion. You're correct that the movement isn't exactly as it would be in the real world, but your assumption that this makes it shit is just your opinion, it's not fact.

Lots of animation has movement that's not perfect. I'm sure you'll tell me Nick park is shit because of the way Wallace and Grommit move.

You're a dick. Not for the criticism but the way you gave it.

@ChaosEngine.

Yeah. I know. Your last sentence says it all -- he didn't achieve near as much as was hoped for. Hence your disappointment.

From my perspective, I never believed he could do all that was hoped. Because this isn't a dictatorship (thank god, maybe we can survive Trump.) It was clear to me from the beginning that is wasn't possible.

So I wasn't disappointed. I was glad for all that he did manage to get through.

And that is what makes him consequential.

I have my list of things I am pissed at him about for doing -- including the murdering of brown people, including bin Laden. (And I'm pissed at most of the people in this country for cheering state sponsored targeted assassination and ignoring the huge collateral damage of that day and the days that followed.)

History isn't going to judge him on what he promised and couldn't get done. History will judge him on what he actually did. Half-assed heathcare is half an ass more than was managed in over a hundred years. LGBT people aren't disappointed.

And being the first black president -- he'll be in the history books for being that particular breed of person -- the minority who is 10 times better than the ruling majority, who swallows the indignities of prejudice with grace and determination, who rises above the humiliations to become The First. Think Jackie Robinson -- that is what we remember about him, that is the story that has survived. (The recent PBS doc taught me a fuller picture of who he actually was after he survived those brutal first two years in the majors.) That is the story we crave.

He's consequential, all right. Not perfect. Consequential.

Know what's scarier than being robbed at gunpoint? Knowing that there are police out there who see themselves as the judge and jury. There's a very good reason there's a judicial system bob, and you really should know all about that. Especially considering how many "bad cop" videos you show up in; you don't want those guys being judge and jury do you?

I'd really like to engage with you and try to convince you on this, so .. you accept that you're not perfect, right? Everyone makes mistakes - it's not an insult, we're just not perfect and we can misread things or misjudge things.. right? So if your goal as a cop is to deliver the safest society possible, you surely also want to protect society from any potential harm you might cause in your duties? I assume that you agree with these points, and so don't we agree that the best way you can do your job is by being unbiased, robotic almost? Doing exactly what is needed to prevent further harm and neutralise danger and deliver the parties to those who we have decided are best positioned to deliver the judgement? Because if you dole out the judgement yourself, you might be mistaken.

I hope we agree, and i'm sorry that i was rude in the first version of this comment. That doesn't help anyone.

I sent this to my brother, who is a complete nut in his approach to pinewood derby cars. Artistic and over-engineered. He has a GRAND time.

His response to me:
I enjoyed his presentation.



I went one more step. Our track at church is not perfectly machined aluminum but is instead bumpy wood. My cars had a suspension system cut into the very thin wood. They would not bounce. People suggested a fund raiser for a new track. I said, "No Way, I like that track."

The scripture says he was perfect in his ways, it doesn't mean that he was completely perfect. Did you read the scripture where it says that God finds fault even with his angels? That means even the angels make mistakes. The angels are not perfect, and many joined Satan in his rebellion against God. Only God is completely perfect.

No, my first paragraph attempts to spell out why solar PV is a dud for people who do it the worst way possible, by selling all the electricity produced at drastically reduced rates to the grid, then buying it back at exorbitant rates, you are wasting well over 75% of what you could be saving. Of course it looks bad when you waste that much.
I have no mechanism needed to make it financially viable, and the idea that it might take more energy to produce a panel than it will produce itself is ridiculous.
I didn't 'make time' for anything, it just so happened that my lifestyle was perfect for solar, since I already did my housework during the daytime.
I have what's called a 'time of use' meter, which means it splits the day into 3 time zones, and keeps track of what I produce vs what I use from the grid. That means I essentially do get 1:1 for my production, which never reaches the point where they owe me money, but does offset almost all the juice I use (during the daytime) At night, we use normal grid power at normal grid rates. Too bad Australia doesn't do it that way.

yes, there are costs to an array, but they are one time costs, and FAR less than what's saved. That part is simple math. My system cost around $34K after rebates, maybe $40 without them, and it saves me around $5K per year in electric costs (based on 2007 rates, which have gone up). That includes production costs, installation cost, shipping cost, permit cost, etc.
Here in the US, daytime IS peak power use time. it's when business are using the most power, and when AC units are on, so the grid uses the power I feed in without problem. Industry uses WAY more power than homes. Solar offsets them using the hydro, gas turbines, and ramping up nuclear plants during the day, when they are used the most.
If my bill is lower, it means I used less fossil fuel generated electricity, so it IS working like a charm. How do you think otherwise? it's not perfect, and doesn't erase all other production, and is not a solution to ALL energy production problems, but it is a good part of the solution, unless it's done in the least productive manner possible.

What are you talking about, 2-3X the energy input? If you actually only count the costs, not the profit made at each stage in selling/installing panels, they probably come in more like 5-10 times the energy input, with little or no carbon footprint (many factories make the panels using power produced by other panels...as in pure solar factories).
My calculations (verified by my bills) put it at <1/2 the cost of buying (mostly coal produced) electricity from the grid at 2007 prices (even without any rebates), so how do you figure coal power production is cheaper, even ignoring all the other costs/problems? Coal may give a 30 to 1 return if you ignore ALL the other costs involved in using coal. If you count them, it's more like 1 to 2, because the effects of coal are so incredibly expensive, as is the cost of digging it up, transporting it, storing it, burning it, and disposing/storing the toxic waste products.

The cost of restoring a river is far more than the value of 100% of the power generated by a dam during it's lifetime.

Put simply, if solar PV is such a bad deal, how are they saving me so much money even without any rebates?

It is obvious he is not socially bright---like my literally, mildly schizophrenic mother-in-law. She says weird shit that scares/angers judgmental people. "If you want to find a perfect person you have to shoot me first because I am not perfect!" Wait, what? "It's okay Lawdeedaw (fake name here) no one's perfect." What the fuck? I said we were out of cereal? How the fuck is that any relation to what you just said? Then she talks about how her brother, sisters, cousins were murdered, her kids taken away by the evil state (true story) and that her father raping her was fine because he wasn't as bad as her mother who said mean stuff to her. IN FRONT OF MY KIDS... (She stopped after a nice conversation about this problem...)

How do you know he is not similar? It is obvious that he has some problem that is not related to his environment--ie., how he was raised, his position of power, etc. It seems in a non-judgmental way this guy was always like this, or in another way to say, he was born this way. Of course I do not know 100%...

In a perfect world, perhaps. This world is not perfect, and many people don't have the ability to 'plan', either financially or sexually. Your plan leaves anyone who does not plan perfectly for an unknown future on the streets and destitute. That's not the country we have decided we want to live in. If you do, there's always Somalia.
Your plan leaves us with millions of destitute elderly on the streets. Bad plan, that would NEVER work. Again, you expect people to plan for their future perfectly, and if they don't, fuck em. That's terrible, uncaring, non-thinking planning. They don't just disappear if they planned badly and are homeless, foodless, and hopeless, they show up on your driveway with a knife.
How about we just remove all corporate welfare, cut our military by 5%, and actually extend benefits for PEOPLE? The reduced costs in your plan would not even be noticed in the federal budget, not a single percent change, mine would be noticed. I think you believe that 'welfare' (social programs) is a major cost to the fed, it's simply NOT. On the other hand, it does save us billions by not having to deal with sick desperate homeless people by the millions. It's proven time and time again that taking care of them humanely costs far less than ignoring them until you can no longer ignore them.

? I'm confused. I admitted my 'test' was lacking, and deferred to @ChaosEngine who didn't trust his eyes but measured...so I am no longer certain it's 'fake' at all, in fact I was careful to NEVER call it 'fake'. Perhaps you only read my first post in this thread and missed my admission that I was wrong?

As I said, I think there's a reason it LOOKED like it did to me...probably the surrounding color reflecting off the white paper I used to mask off and 'coloring' the grey squares....and likely the paper I used was not perfectly straight to use as a straight edge....and measuring anything on a screen is less than perfect, which is why I poorly measured the table and lines...the second time I measured it I did better, and I admit they are the same size contrary to my original statement.
I also only saw grey pills.

The reason I was skeptical is I've seen these same 'illusions' faked many times. For instance, the last time I saw the Rubik's cube, the tiles had dark shaded colored edges they removed when 'masking off' which obviously changed the color. It's not that I don't 'believe' in optical illusions, I just think people are cheaters more often than not these days and fudge things they don't need to fudge. This time it was my method of 'masking off' that seems to be my issue...I don't have an image editor that will do much for me here....sadly...but it doesn't mean I don't trust Chaosengine who did and set me straight.
OK? ;-)

You do realise that socialised healthcare works pretty well in the rest of the developed world, right?
It's not perfect, but it's significantly better than the disaster that is the US health system.

Or is it just that you feel the US government are uniquely incompetent?

Haha, I knew I'd open a can of worms....
I enjoy music of all types, trust me. I know the history. I grew up in a radio station, and remember when DJs were the rock Stars of the 70s.

I have no boundaries, and in fact, the more music pushes the boundaries the better, but I still have to feel the groove.
Often, "musicians," get caught up in the medium and forget the composition. I know - I'm an artist, I've been there, created works, not for composition, but to better understand my medium. It's still art, but it's not "ART."

See what I'm saying. There is a whole new generation of not just musicians and composers, but listeners. they have their own new sound, but a lot of the soul is getting filtered out while the artists explore the medium. I know it will come full circle, but I believe we are in a stagnant period of exploration.

And no, I'm not commenting on all those classical musicians, in fact, they are doing the opposite. There are many classical musicians that are taking their instruments in new directions - finally - and breaking out of the Bach & Beethoven standards. (Stereotyping here). My favorite is Stravinsky, who pushed every boundary of his day. and Guys like Rossini, who was the Heavy Metal Rocker of his day. But there comes a time, to break out and use the instruments differently.

And that's what they are doing right now. Breaking out and exploring. Which is great, it will define another period in music. But we're not quite there yet. Publishers and studios, are the bottom feeders, trying to keep the industry alive, but they are manufacturing the lowest common denominator, giving the public some of the most contrived music of our day.

It's okay to criticize music as it evolves and still like it.
If we don't criticize it, then it doesn't evolve. And I think the artists themselves would agree because, once you stop and consider your groves perfect, then there is no point creating more.

You can come to the defense of the genre, but not every piece is perfect. Yes there are better musicians out there, and some worse, and some I like, you won't like, and so on, that's what makes it great. I remember laying on the couch listening to Kraftwork's Autobahn for hours and loving it. That was over 25 years ago. And I've listened to so much more in between. I've heard it, I've studied it in school, spun discs and worked DJ booths, and was literally raised in a radio station. I've heard a lot, and have the knowledge to compare notes.

I'll end this, it's going too long - but suffice to say, this piece here, is okay, but has no crescendo, nothing to keep me on the edge. The grove becomes quite trance, while trying not to be. He's done a great mix up, and I see what he's doing here. He's taken video excerpts and contained and arranged them together. Great... he's experimenting. But it's not perfect, and that's okay. He's worked hard to create something, and as he evolves, he'll create better, that's what it's all about