Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[Alan Klein]

What government "propaganda" are you referring to?  Political ideology, possibly reinforced by right-wing news or social media, would be a more plausible explanation for the bias you believe you detect.  Also note that Alan tends to conflate socialism, social democracy, and (revolutionary) communism.

Well, we were talking about Cuban buses, not Swedish.

[Alan Klein]

Yes...and I'm sure they would have rather driven their own Farrari...but the point is they were ok riding on the bus without air conditioning...as was I.

You seem to be trying to make the statement that capatilism is better than communism because buses have air conditioning. What I'm saying is every Cuban can ride a bus to wherever they want...can you say the same about every American?

My wife takes buses all the time.  Hates the subways.  Me?  I use the subways but don't take buses.   To each their own.  Personally, I'd prefer a Ferarri.  Air conditioned, of course. 

[Alan Klein]

Same principle as Eskimos having so many different words for snow, I suspect.

Well, they don't have words for air conditioning.

[Alan Klein]

Perhaps because having a diet coke makes them feel it's OK to have that double bacon-burger and large fries?

Oh, so that's the problem. 

[Alan Klein]

A large proportion of this debt is due to for-profit "colleges" making fake or exaggerated promises to students and then carefully shepherding them thru the loan application process. And the student gets a worthless degree but owes tens of thousands. And the schools--such as ITT, Corinthian, and need I mention Trump U, make big bucks and the students have no career and are screwed. The Feds were, under Obama, making progress in regulating this egregious behavior but then Trump's lickspittle Betsy DeVos reversed a lot of restrictions so the for-profit colleges could get back to work screwing the students. This is your precious "free enterprise" at work.

If the government wasn't in the business of giving out all these crazy loans, all these crap colleges wouldn't be in the business including Trump's.  Again, the government trying to do good screws it all up.  If they stopped the loans, tuition would go down, and people who really want the degrees would figure out a way to get them. 

[jeremyrh]

Again, the government trying to do good screws it all up.  If they stopped the loans, tuition would go down, and people who really want the degrees would figure out a way to get them.

By being born to wealthy parents, for example.

[faberryman]

If the government wasn't in the business of giving out all these crazy loans, all these crap colleges wouldn't be in the business including Trump's.  Again, the government trying to do good screws it all up.  If they stopped the loans, tuition would go down, and people who really want the degrees would figure out a way to get them.

That would certainly be the all or nothing, black and white thinking, false dichotomy approach favored by some.

[Alan Klein]

By being born to wealthy parents, for example.

Maybe not for the big Ivy League universities.  But, there are plenty of state universities where the cost is offset by state government.  There are also smaller private colleges that have reasonable tuition.  But the thing is tuitions everywhere wouldn't be so high if it weren't for the loans. Colleges charge whatever they want because they know the students can borrow as much as they need without proving they can pay it back.  If there were no student loans, tuition would go down and be more reasonable like in the old days before government backed student loans. 

[Peter McLennan]

Okay, so not 70% of the days, but 70+% of the time wind and solar farms are not producing any energy, period.  Last I looked into this, the solar farms in AZ and NV had the best records for producing electricity but only did so 33% of the time.  Also, the point when things go awry is between 8% to 10% capacity, although it could be as high as 12% depending on the other dynamics of the area.

Now, insofar as comparing prices, which you often reference or allude to, it is important to remember wind and solar energy prices have nothing to do with the cost of production, what most people think, nor do any other sources.  The prices are just like the price of oil; the cost of production is irrelevant to the price that the market is willing to pay.  The market is what dictates the price and is mainly dependent on when that source of energy is put on the market, with "when" being very important. 

Wind and solar produce most during non-peak hours, when demand and price are low, and little during peak hours, when demand and price are high.  This means when determining the average price of this electricity, most of the data is coming from the cheaper times of day and is not weighted evenly throughout the day.  However, the base load sources (oil, gas, coal, nuclear) that produce energy on demand produce nearly the entire day, making the average price of electricity from these sources evenly weighted throughout the day.  Because of this, you can not make a comparison of the price of wind/solar to anything else since it will be heavily distorted and give you a false sense that wind/solar is cheaper. 

On top of that, a 2nd phenomenon of wind/solar makes the comparison even more distorted, that being you cant turn them off.  If a wind/solar farm is producing energy, it will put it into the grid whether you want it or not, which could lead to an over supply if your capacity is large enough.  If this happens, off-peak prices will crash causing the average price of wind/solar to drop even more.  However, since wind/solar produce very little during peak hours, average prices of other sources will remain consistent, perhaps a slight drop, causing any comparison to be more unfair and misleading. 

Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, so long as you are making enough money to cover your costs, but what tends to happen here is people fall into a trap.  They falsely assume wind/solar is cheaper to produce based on the prices being charge, which have nothing to do with production, and start increasing their reliance on wind/solar.  As they get into the 8% to 12% range of total energy coming from wind/solar, they will eventually start having supply shortages during peak hours since their required investment in base load sources gets, partially, diverted.  This then causes the overall price of electricity to go up, but is only reflected in those sources producing at peak time.  So the price of base load power goes up, while off-peak prices continue to crash, making wind/solar falsely look even more favorable.  Due to this, if you do not recognize what is happening, people start to invest more in wind/solar, but since wind/solar is the source of the issue, they make the problem worse unknowingly. 

This is where Germany and CA are currently at.  18.1% and ~25% of CA and Germany, respectively, lives in energy poverty.  Their carbon footprint is just as abysmal too.  It is all caused by too heavy a reliance on wind and solar. 

Unfortunately I fear this is all coming soon to a place near you since Biden appears ready, willing, able and excited to jump in the same trap. 

Insofar as batteries, did you miss my part about energy conversions loosing power?  About 20% to 40% of power is lost when converting it into battery storage and then taking it out.  This make batteries too inefficient to be worth wild, not to mention the amount of batteries you would need would be huge.  I think CA has a total 6 minutes worth of battery power, and that includes every single battery in the state, all of them. 

Although smart grids are important, typically what they best do is transfer power to other locales when there is an excess in one but a supply shortage in another.  (It is bad to have the grid overcharged, so an excess of power needs to go somewhere.)  This may seem beneficial for the excess energy produced by wind/solar at off-peak times, which is when they tend to produce power.  The issue though is the price of electricity is already low and if you have too many wind/solar sources, the excess in electricity tends to crash prices at this time, which I mentioned before, to a point where the market price is often below the cost of production.  So you loose money; this is a known problem for states/countries that have heavily invested in wind/solar already.

TLDR.

Besides, you lost most of your credibility with several proven false assertions in recent days.


Question:  Have you ever driven a Tesla?  (or any other e-vehicle, for that matter)

[Peter McLennan]

If the wind isn't blowing on that hot afternoon in July, the grid relies on the regular generators.  So you have to pay for complete backup for the entire system.  You can't buy it from elsewhere because probably, that area is just as hot. 

Like in British Columbia?  Or Quebec?  Both well-known for desperately hot conditions in summer.  And both of which sell many GWh of pure green electricity to those poor suffering places where it's hot in the summer. Like New Joisey.  We gotta pay for all that "free" healthcare somehow, Alan.

It's all a Ponzi scheme.

Yup.  That's what the gummint does.  Cheat and rob their citizens at every opportunity.  That's how they serve the nation and that's how they get re-elected.

[LesPalenik]

Well, we were talking about Cuban buses, not Swedish.

To make you feel better, Cubans ride in Chinese Yutong buses.

[Alan Klein]

Like in British Columbia?  Or Quebec?  Both well-known for desperately hot conditions in summer.  And both of which sell many GWh of pure green electricity to those poor suffering places where it's hot in the summer. Like New Joisey.  We gotta pay for all that "free" healthcare somehow, Alan.

Yup.  That's what the gummint does.  Cheat and rob their citizens at every opportunity.  That's how they serve the nation and that's how they get re-elected.

I don't understand how hot it is in BC has to do with summers in NYC? 

Regarding robbing citizens, that's what they do by printing. Inflation robs people with a hidden tax.  Instead of raising taxes and/or lowering government spending, and ticking voters off, it's safer for politicians to print and keep everyone happy. Of course, we the people are the main problem.  We want everything for nothing.  So the politicians comply.  Where is my stimulus check?

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.”

― Benjamin Franklin

[Alan Klein]

To make you feel better, Cubans ride in Chinese Yutong buses.

Are they using their vaccines too?

[John Camp]

Maybe not for the big Ivy League universities.  But, there are plenty of state universities where the cost is offset by state government.  There are also smaller private colleges that have reasonable tuition.  But the thing is tuitions everywhere wouldn't be so high if it weren't for the loans. Colleges charge whatever they want because they know the students can borrow as much as they need without proving they can pay it back.  If there were no student loans, tuition would go down and be more reasonable like in the old days before government backed student loans.

Excuse me? I went to a Midwestern land-grant state university, which now estimates that a student will have to come up with $20,000 a year to go to school there. If you worked full-time, 40 hours a week for 52 weeks at McDonald's, at the average salary, you wouldn't make enough to go to school.

[TechTalk]

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.”

― Benjamin Franklin

That's an internet meme which is falsely attributed to Franklin. There are plenty more fakes like it to be found online.

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, — if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. — Benjamin Franklin
Speech to the Constitutional Convention (September 17, 1787); reported in James Madison, Journal of the Federal Convention, ed. E. H. Scott (1893), p. 742.

Do not believe quotations found on the internet unless they include the original source—even if you would like it to be so. — Me
Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa; January 23, 2021

[Robert Roaldi]

If the stormers of the Capitol who were arrested end up convicted, will that remove their right to own guns?

[Robert Roaldi]

Now here's democracy in action, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/24/republicans-voter-id-laws-461707.  When your guy loses, make it harder for people to vote. You almost have to admire the audacity, it's like they think they're doing something good.

Why is it that it's so seemingly easy to implement restrictions on voting, that people seem so willing to go along with it? Shouldn't the opposite be the case.

[kers]

If the stormers of the Capitol who were arrested end up convicted, will that remove their right to own guns?

Probably they will be allowed to act out their 2nd amendment rights even within jail...

[Alan Klein]

Excuse me? I went to a Midwestern land-grant state university, which now estimates that a student will have to come up with $20,000 a year to go to school there. If you worked full-time, 40 hours a week for 52 weeks at McDonald's, at the average salary, you wouldn't make enough to go to school.

In the old days, people used to save for things they wanted.  Plus most kids have parents to help them out.  In Hollywood, the parents there even pay for smart kids not their own to take SAT tests for their kids.   

Of course, you can't pay for college working as a caddy during the summer.  But that helps out.  In any case, in NYS, it's around $11000 a year for a state university.  That's not much more than it costs for a small car lease per year plus the cost to run it.  If you really want to get a college degree, give up the car.  The problem is kids borrow money for tuition, room and board, AND to lease a car to get around.  So they go hugely into debt at the taxpayer's expense. They and their parents should save up for their kid's education.  The government even has a tax exempt program where you can save tax-free for your child's college education.  Their kid isn't my problem.  I've got enough problems with my own.

[Alan Klein]

Oh, I forgot to mention.  If the government didn't have all these student loans, tuition at your college wouldn't have been $20K but much less.  It's the "free" loans that are driving up the cost of college.