490 Comments
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Skunk Formerly Known As Stoner's avatar

“Doubling down on stupid.” Sounds like AI.

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Zyxomma's avatar

Ta, Dok. When we retire, we're installing both solar and wind at the pied-à-nuage. We already have the heat pump, because the wood stove did not begin to keep me warm enough, and the heat pump came with a great tax break.

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Jessica's avatar

I charge my electric car from the solar panels on my roof. There was a power outage here a couple of days ago and I didn't even notice until after it was over; my solar + battery system took over seamlessly

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Pexas Teat's avatar

We have solar, an EV, and heat pumps. Batteries and more panels are on the schedule for this winter.

This stuff is so nice, it works super well, and when people ask I tell them the truth about it.

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RNDM31's avatar

I don't have a whole lot of good things to say about the totalitarians in Beijing, but I'll give them that they've recognised a genuine problem and are seriously working on fixing it.

Probably helps that they make sure to keep their plutocrat class on a short leash. Their reasons are anything but noble, of course, and their methods what you'd expect from a totalitarian police state but the general idea is sound.

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Virgin Monk Boy's avatar

Wild that Gavin has to show up in Brazil as the adult in the room while Trump pretends melting glaciers are a Soros plot. The science is rock solid, the economics are obvious, and the only thing standing between us and a sane energy future is a guy who still thinks wind turbines cause cancer.

Clean energy isn’t a culture war. It’s the bill coming due for reality. And if America wants a seat at the grownups’ table again, it needs to stop letting a climate arsonist speak for it.

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Goin Green's avatar

Trump wears diapers and throws food against the wall.

Gavin HAD to go if there's an adults only rule.

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Birb-General of the US's avatar

This may have been said, but according to Wikipedia statistics, California has the sixth or seventh largest economy in the world, due to the reunification of Germany and economic growth in India. I think the "fourth largest" meme goes back to the 1970's and 80's when it was literally true.

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Michael Bowen's avatar

I have a question about current models of electric cars. How much range does a basic sedan get (not a tricked-out SUV, which seems to be most of what is being offered), and how long does it take to recharge the battery when you're on the road? For family reasons, I occasionally have to drive 800 miles back-and-forth. If I can't get a full charge in the time it takes for me to have a sandwich and a cup of coffee. then that is kind of a deal breaker.

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Regret's avatar

With how batteries work the first 80% of charging is fast and the remainder takes more and more time.

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Pexas Teat's avatar

You want an EV that can charge fast. Hyundai and Kia use 800V architecture, and on a 250 kW charger it'll fill up faster than my kids can eat a fast food meal.

Check out the Ioniq 6 or Kia EV 6. They are sedans or flat hatchbacks, and they are efficient and long-range.

The other tip I'll make is to get RWD and the smallest wheels on the trim level. That preserves range. Oh, and heat pump not resistance heater.

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TheGreatAndPowerfulMormos!'s avatar

China's emissions have remained flat or fallen (depending on region) for the last 18 months btw.

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Baconzgood's avatar

POTUS TACOS hate for windmills always baffled Baconz.

May be he once (for 3:38.75) listened to his professor,and was frightened that windmills are dragons, for real?, like in Don Quixote.

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Cincinnatus's avatar

First, they disrupt the vistas from his Scotland golf course and, second, any alternative energy system disrupts earnings on fossils fuels.

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Majordomo Billy Bojangles's avatar

Trump is threatened by things he doesn't understand and anything that compromises the view from any of his numerous very beautiful and exclusive properties.

While that's quite a lot of things, windmills are in double jeopardy.

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Baconzgood's avatar

"Trump is threatened by things he doesn't understand ..."

Jesus...thats sad. Imagine going through life not understand door knobs.

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SethTriggs's avatar

He actually may NOT understand door knobs. Magnets elude him, for example, as do fiber optic cables.

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Majordomo Billy Bojangles's avatar

Why should he concern himself with anything less important than how wonderful he is when he can get somebody else to do it for him?

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FukuiSanYesOta's avatar

I'd like him to hold a battery in one hand and a magnet in the other and see him dropped into a pool with a shark in it.

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Baconzgood's avatar

WAOH!

I just want Trump to get that "shock" when you lick one of those rectangular batteries

Too dark too soon Fuk!

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FukuiSanYesOta's avatar

No man. It was a Lemon Shark and that'd ignore him - let alone the smell. Then he'd be chest deep and pushing the magnet against a Duracell D battery and wondering why it still worked.

Put it on PPV. Confused man doesn't understand shit. It's even more fucking stupid than "OW MY BALLS" from Idiocracy, because that's where we are.

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Tza's avatar

I mean Trump has pretty much screwed several chunks of the economy for at least a decade. Renewable energy and energy storage have taken massive hits all because he sees them as being linked to climate change and nothing else. Manufacturing has just gotten utterly battered by the tariffs and will probably take a lot of time to get any kind of rehearsal. Agriculture is just getting crushed on the world stage because Trump has alienated most of our biggest buyers. And as for aspects of the service economy which the USA has tended to be very dominant in, I think a lot of other countries are starting to feel we are delivering a worse product than they could get homegrown or just elsewhere in many cases. Some of that due to our lack of regulation causing burnout and sloppiness, some of it due to culture wars gutting our scientific sectors, some of it just due to "hmm, I don't want to work with them right now."

And despite what some Republicans might think we really do not have the oil reserves to compete with the leading Petrostates. It is just never going to be something we're going to be on top of going forward. They also refuse to look at where we actually are manufacturing things in our economy (high-tech finished products that may be partially assembled elsewhere, weapons, pharmaceuticals that aren't easily outsourced generics, fertilizers, and various complex chemical compounds that are used in other industries worldwide) as opposed to furniture or bathroom fixtures.

Our economy is much more complicated than any of them are willing to visualize and as a result they are going to crash it

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FukuiSanYesOta's avatar

I think you've nailed this, Tza. They don't want to know. They can't understand.

I used to work on missile warheads for US companies in the 90s. They were outsourcing then.

They simply cannot understand the global economy because USA USA USA and it doesn't work like that.

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WasX's avatar

My most serious concern is national security and intell and that is very very bad, indeed.

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Tza's avatar

Oh yeah for all they whined about Hillary's emails they are just dreadful on opsec and security.

So as most standard federal employees will tell you, we have to take cyber security data security and all sorts of other kinds of security training multiple times a year. In my job I constantly deal with what is called CUI a.k.a. Controlled Unclassified Information. This is stuff that is not classified but is absolutely still a security threat in the wrong hands. Like I have hand drawn maps of the rooms on the tour route that I use when studying or updating my tour. Those show layouts of major rooms in the capitol (albeit in sketchy blocky form) and I cannot let them fall into public hands. It's also why we don't give out maps of anything other than the visitor center itself.

Meanwhile I and multiple other coworkers have occasionally found that someone, be it a member or staffer or intern, has left something sensitive laying around. My favorite was when I was going up some stairs, leading a tour group. and picked up a sheet of paper off the ground that I was just gonna stuff in my pocket and throw away…and realized it was a Senators meeting schedule for the entire afternoon. So that went to a supervisor who went through the correct channels to alert the office of the Senator.

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helenasgarden's avatar

Man, we could have a beautiful, thriving world singing with life but instead we get shit.

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Tasner Hasenpfeffer's avatar

It's what happens when white people get told they can't own everything.

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SkeptiKC's avatar

...followed by being told that they are NOT the primary authority.

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helenasgarden's avatar

That seems a rather banal excuse from them.

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zuludaddy (seem 'on key?')'s avatar

wellllll, at least yr

smoking lamp

is lit :/

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FukuiSanYesOta's avatar

Early today, sir?

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zuludaddy (seem 'on key?')'s avatar

never!

(it's always a good time to relax)

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SkeptiKC's avatar

No such time exists.

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FukuiSanYesOta's avatar

zuludaddy often knows the right time to do things

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SkeptiKC's avatar

That is simply too entirely accurate, esteemed comrade.

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Goin Green's avatar

Mine is the eternal flame.

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SkeptiKC's avatar

I am also of the perpetual puff-puff/pass persuasion.

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UncleTravelingMatt's avatar

It amuses me that the only people who can't be replaced by AI are people who could easily be replaced by a powerpoint presentation.

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Goin Green's avatar

I saw on Today Show that AI is now replacing Jesus.

If you can replace an imaginary wine making fisherman carpenter and his cloud fairy daddy with AI... we're all in jeopardy!

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Majordomo Billy Bojangles's avatar

I am an agnostic, but have decades of Christian religious training, much of it formal.

Anyone for whom an AI Jesus is an acceptable substitute for the biblical Jesus deserves exactly what they get, and I strongly recommend they keep a tight grip on their wallet and credit cards.

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WasX's avatar

OT OT, acting like a typical Wonketarian, today I had a couple of NYC women political strategists dying trying to not fall out laughing and breaking script at my non-comments in their live stream show.

"Stop, stop: I can only get so erect" seems not to be a common reply people offer to the political coverage. I didn't know that.

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Tasner Hasenpfeffer's avatar

Commenting on Wonkette kind of ruins you.

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WasX's avatar

I mean. It's how we talk at my house. It's how we talked in my family. Sigh.

Is this the only other place I'll ever fit in?

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Tasner Hasenpfeffer's avatar

I talk like this at work, but then I always get a "time out"! 😠

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WasX's avatar

Yeah. 😥

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Joe Z's avatar

If you wanna hear some stupid talking points against clean energy, you could watch the shows of Taylor Sheridan.

https://youtu.be/wBC_bug5DIQ

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Goin Green's avatar

Or sit at the bar in a Hooters.

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Bupkus231's avatar

I've just gotten PV solar panels erected on my home's roof, through a lease arrangement. Didn't cost me a penny, but the system's not yet in operation ( awaiting local county inspections ). I had been skeptical about how much I could benefit from them, thinking that my sun exposure was limited by surrounding trees, but the "analysis" that the solar power salesman went over with me showed that I had sufficient exposure to make the lease terms pay off for me. I will pay a fixed amount to the solar company every month, and any energy that I generate in excess of what I use will go to the local electric cooperative for credits. Of course, if I use more electricity than my panels generate, the electric cooperative will bill me as it already does ( I will still pay the fixed fee to the leasing company ).

I was satisfied with the salesman's answers per insurance and repairs for the equipment ( even if I have to replace my roof in a few years - they will come and dismantle the system and re-install it at no additional charge ).

Of course, salesmen will tell you anything, won't they. I just hope I didn't get scammed, but I guess I'll find out. The monthly lease isn't unreasonable ( less than my lowest electric bill so far ), and as long as I don't have to test their promises about repairs, etc., I guess I'll be okay.

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Pandora's avatar

We installed solar panels in January 2018. By my calculations, they paid for themselves the end of last year. It would have been sooner, but Florida allows energy companies to charge "minimum billing," so even if the panels generate enough energy to meet our needs (or if we generate more than we need and feed the excess into the grid), we still have to pay Duke Energy $44 a month.

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Pexas Teat's avatar

We got panels in January 2019, and I haven't done the math but with the power rate increases I bet we're pretty close to break even. Not to mention the savings by charging an EV instead of buying gas. Also, we sell RECs and get a check every quarter, so that speeds the payoff.

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Bupkus231's avatar

That's one thing I didn't hear about - but then again, I have heard nothing good about Duke Energy EVER. If I were in charge of Duke University, I would insist the school divest anything they had with the energy company and get a court order forcing those fuckers to change their name.

However, I did ask about any charges from our electric cooperative ( and I'm in Florida, too ), and if anything there's a one-time fee ( at least according to the salesman ).

Also - since I didn't pay anything up front, I'm guessing they'll "pay for themselves" rather quickly.

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Asphalt-Type Person's avatar

While you're at it, you can get Duke out of the for-profit hospital business.

My local hospital is now "A Duke LifePoint Hospital", and I feel for anyone else in the same situation.

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Bupkus231's avatar

I feel for you. As it is, our local hospital has been taken over by UF Health a couple of years ago, run by the University of Florida. I haven't had to use it yet, but I haven't heard anything good about ( of course, nothing good was said about that hospital when it was locally owned and operated )

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WasX's avatar

Florida!!!

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SkeptiKC's avatar

I MUST convince paul that we need to make a similar investment and I anxiously await to learn how much this system is $AVING for you!

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Free beach's avatar

Let us know!

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Bupkus231's avatar

After the install was complete ( one day for 12 panels and the electrical hookup ), they said expect the county to take until sometime between Dec 6th and the 16th to get an inspector out here.

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Free beach's avatar

Ok. Not sure how Maine does

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Bupkus231's avatar

I suspect it would depend on the local government there. I'm in a ( relatively ) small population county in Florida, so it's not that surprising to me that it would take weeks for an inspector to come out.

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