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Comment all will fail because they subsidies and regs (Score 1) 308

Worst yet, because it does not address other nations, the west's efforts will fail.

China's emissions are not only more on a yearly basis, but the most since 1850 as well as since the millinium.

If a president REALLY wants to stop CO2 emissions and save the planet, it is within their power. All they need to do is a tax that treats ALL nations the same way.
America is the world's biggest importer. We import from nearly ALL NATIONS. So, any tax that we apply to goods impacts all others.
First, we need to make all nation's REAL CO2 emissions known. Right now, China's is based on esimates from data that their gov. gave. So, instead, it should be based on OCO2 and shortly on OCO3.
Secondly, the normalization should be emissions per REAL $ GDP (not PPP). EMissions are far more tied to manufacturing, and GDP, then to individuals. Note that if a nation cheats by manipulating lowering their money against the $, then it will actually lower their GDP, which will increase their emission rates. So, with this, it stops nations from cheating on emissions and on their money.
#rd, A tax on goods based on where they and their subparts come from would solve this. This tax should rise by 5% of the good's worth each year. It should be applied to all goods. However, if a company wants, they can submit to a website that shows where all the parts come from. If it and the subparts come from a nation like sweden, then they would have ZERO tax. OTOH, if the good has ANY parts from CHina, they will get 100% taxed. If the company is caught lying, then they will be denied the right to sell in America. And if a nation tries to cover it up, then that nation will be barred as well.

This is the ONLY way that a president will be able to drop the CO2 emissions.

Comment recycling is NOT dying. (Score 1) 371

China NEEDS their boats to go back full when oil prices are high. As such, they here happy to take resources. At one time, America's recycle stream was done decently. However, that was changed because China was willing to take bad garbage. That killed off the good streams and more importantly, killed off recycling companies in America.

What is needed is to restart recycling in America, and NOT send the goods elsewhere.

Comment Re:Let's be honest about the purpose of the hyperl (Score 1) 124

Hmmm.
Why the lack of monorails? Because of lobbying. Not because of engineering or superiority. Monorail IS cheaper and superior to any of the twin rail systems. The real issue is that twin rails were established in nearly all nations over 100 years ago. So, it is hard for Monorail to gain traction, esp when there are multiple designs.

Now as to hyperloop, it really has the only design that can make it cheap to build and safe.
You say that it is not safe, when the exact opposite is true. They are looking at electrical storage on-board. That enables the air compressors work, just like they do for jets. IOW, a pressurized container is no big deal because we have been doing this for over 60 years (all aircrafts that fly at 15K and higher).
It should be easy enough to either provide side-outs, OR even better would be to provide for 3 tunnels in which the 3rd can be used for bi-directional traffic (i.e. when traffic is much heavier in one direction, then use 2 tubes) or as a back-up. If a car develops an issue, then it is possible to stop 1 tube and re-pressurize it. With the 3rd tube, it is either not being used, it is already going in the same direction, or it is being used in opposite direction. If it is the later, then you have to wait for that tube to clear out before using it for the new direction. And if this moves at 700 miles / hour, and there is 'stations' every say 70 miles (i.e. 10 minutes), then issue solved.

Plenty of issues to solve, but I think that hyperloop really is a smart way to go.

Comment Re:Reasons why I don't like Musk's hyper loop (Score 1) 124

1) yeah, I can not imagine that anybody will think to put up LED screens with cameras on the outside so that you get a view.
2) odd. What you just described is exactly what we call an airplane. And there is no reason why there would not be compressed air on-board.
3) yeah, sad that nobody on the hyperloop team will think like that.

In the mean time, I will trust that hyperloop will get there sooner than can be believed.

Comment Re: Offshoring (Score 1) 173

Plenty of things to blame on him, but he was a supporter of new private space. Hell, COTS started under him (via griffin), though it was the neo-cons that killed off COTS-D, which would have created multiple manned launchers.

So, no. I am not going to blame the man for what he started, when it was a good thing.
But, I am going to put blame where it belongs. The senate under dem control has gone between what O wanted and the neo-con controlled house voted. Now, that the senate is under neo-con control, and that includes this sub-committee, now voted to gut it further than the house neo-cons.

Comment Re:I would hate to be snowden right now (Score 1) 546

BTW, I fully agree with you about having a civilian and VERY public trial for him. Parts of it will have to be closed off to the press and public, but the majority of it can be left open.

Also, if Russia and CHina have NOT cracked this already, then they are inept. These documents should be at the top of their todo list.

Comment Re:I would hate to be snowden right now (Score 1) 546

I have said all along that he was right to out the information about spying on Americans. I will say that when I worked on the PAT act, I saw things that made me realize that terrorism is a real threat and that I have little issues with NSA doing what many were promised it would be. Of course, in 2006, when I saw the neo-cons remove oversite of our work, I also knew that things had happened and they did not want to take responsibility for their action.

However, once he outed the information about spying outside of America, he became a traitor. The fact is, that ALL nations on this planet have groups that spy on other nations. By doing that, you can figure out what their real intentions are. I suspect that insider knowledge of USSR helped us survive cuban missile crisis. Likewise, USSR spent a great deal of effort spying on us, but it was mostly to understand what we were up to (as opposed to Chinese spying which is about stealing any tech that will help them take on the west).

Make no mistake. Snowden is a traitor in every and any sense of the word. NSA's whole purpose is to spy on the outside world, which is what snowden has told others about.
I have said, we should hive him a medal, and then put 2 between his eyes for his treason.
But, I would much rather that he spends the rest of his life in one of our prisons.

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