Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

I agree with this. With today's technology, I think the fears of meltdowns and mass nuclear contamination can be greatly alleviated. We've had nuclear powered vessels in the Navy for decades now, with rarely any sort of meltdown incident. As I understand it, the biggest problem with nuclear power is the nuclear waste, or spent nuclear fuel, and how to dispose of it safely. That needs to be worked out.

Otherwise nuclear is a very clean and inexpensive option.

cogent

[froot loops]

Today's technology isn't being implemented though. Right now they are keeping some of the old creaky plants running. Nuclear plants have giant upfront costs and the power companies want to keep those things running.

[hack]

This may be simple enough to be a bit of a pat answer, but there are regulations. If the plants meet inspection they can stay alive. Meantime, there are lots of coal plants to retire. Just start building stuff.

[froot loops]

Power companies find it much easier to build wind farms than spend 10 billion to build one nuclear plant. If nuclear power is to be part of the long term solution in the US, the government needs to pick that winner. Right now there is no poltical will on either side to talk about nuclear plants.

[hack]

That would make sense. Certainly there's plenty of talk about power plants worldwide fired by gas, solar or wind. Very little talk about nuclear, I guess for obvious reasons, though it just seems like a less sane objection as time passes and the climate-change imperative gets stronger. I guess you could say it's a nuclear option...

[iam416]

Is it harmful?

This is the question because an affirmative requires the armegeddon-scare predictions to be correct in both terms of temperature rise (not going to be even close) and outcomes.

The wonderful thing about the extremists is that they have a long record of predictions on the topic now. The disaster outcomes are trending toward typical environmental activist nonsense.

[iam416]

And any sort of suit against Exxon for its position on climate change is appalling beyond words.

[hack]

Well then it is perhaps a good thing you have expertise in making unintelligible noises.

[Hannibal]

I hope sometime in my lifetime we finally tell the Saudis to fuck off

We're pretty much at the point of being able to do that right now. When it comes to energy independence, at least.

[entropy]

We're pretty much at the point of being able to do that right now. When it comes to energy independence, at least.

Won't happen with Hillary as President. She may blow with the wind, but she doesn't alienate the families financial supporters/close friends.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Latest NCAA revenue figures are out (public schools only). Texas A&M obviously got a huge gift which shot them up to #1. I think Oregon was #1 or #2 last year, and they've fallen back down to the 20's.

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

[WM Wolverine]

SEC, B1G, Texas, Notre Dame (assuming but not listed), Oklahoma, Florida State before we find first Pac 12 though USC (private) & Stanford aren't listed... 2nd ACC is Louisville at #22...

[Jeff Buchanan]

If you have a break today, this is a very good opinion piece from Sundays NYT. Takes a while to wade thorugh it though.

It's easy to get lost in the use of a huge number of conventional terms used to describe political movements but the piece goes a long way in explaining Trumpism (where the Republican Party's identity is headed) and the interesting difference between Bill's and Hillary's Clintonism (where the Dems are headed).

It also gives the reader a good idea of where Hillary will stand on some of the major issues and by extension lead if she prevails in gaining the White House.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/opinion/campaign-stops/trumpism-and-clintonismare-the-future.html?_r=0

[Hannibal]

If Hillary wins and some sort of amnesty bill passes, then the Republican Party as we know it will never win another national election again. Ever. If Trump is the candidate that loses then the Republican Party leadership will fully embrace amnesty. It was about to accept it with the Gang of Eight bill. 2016 is the only chance that we will get to get a grip on illegal immigration. After that, the demographics will continue to shift in favor of a candidate like Bernie Sanders, to the point where in about 20 more years, a guy like that will be nearly impossible to beat. Once we go over that cliff, it's irreversible and an economic collapse (like what happened in Greece) becomes virtually inevitable.

The writer of that piece is right about one big thing though -- small government Conservatism is dead as a doornail -- for at least a generation. If we survive that long. So we'll have to try and minimize the damage and adopt a "more butter, less guns" approach in the meantime.

[froot loops]

I thought a Greece style collapse was coming after 2008 and 2009 with the bailouts and stimulus packages. At least that is what the Fox news types were telling us, austerity was all the rage.