Grid batteries have to be flexible. That means discharging rates from slow to fast. Lithium batteries offer that sort of performance and they offer good storage performance for their size. Typically batteries described here come in a normal shipping container. The electronics are built in and one only needs to connect them to their own management system. The batteries can be used to augment the grid during high load times or they may be called upon to discharge in seconds during a planned switch from one power station to another thus keeping the lights on. In any case, the batteries offer additional flexibility for whatever power generating circumstances operators must deal with.

Nobody is talking about Republicans, their crimes or what they will do. Let's not project on Republicans what the Democrats do daily with their own special version of vitriol and rancor. Let's face it, besides Fox News and Al Jazera, you can't tune into a news program that isn't controlled by the left wing. So no reason to even try and deflect here. Hillary is a liar and a cheat and a good one at that. I thought she made a good Secretary of State, just for the record.

Who do I need protection from?

Robots are better than humans at certain tasks and typically make a product more consistent and reliable. However, I am not sure if world filled with machines doing all the work would be a utopia or a dystopia. On the other hand, maybe by mechanizing we can bring industries back to the US that left for cheap labor. And, of course someone has to fix the machines.

Humans have an inherent weakness that will do us all in at some point. It's greed. Whether it has to do with religion, money, power or good karma on Slashdot, it's all the same. Lacking greed, people might be able to live together without fear of others. Unfortunately, greed is also what drives progress in so many ways as well.

Consuming alcohol certainly does improve life expectancy. Drinking is the only thing keeping me from killing someone almost every day!

Colleges and Universities compete with one another for grant getting researchers as much as they do for enrollment. From my vantage point, college today is big business with posh offerings for both faculty and students while being short on rigor and learning. What the article doesn't say is that there are more grants available now than at any time. The fact that older researchers are getting them may point to the fact that young people simply aren't being trained in grant writing techniques or they are being sucked up by corporations that need them and don't need to apply for grants. Obviously a person who wants to do research is someone that can think and they seem to be few and far between these days, even with a four year degree.

"When I post something publicly on purpose, my biggest concern is that someone I barely know will find some meaning in some little throw-away phrase, take it completely out of context, and use it as a basis as some kind of crazy vendetta."

Like the media does on a daily basis....And the shame of it is that people are willing to listen to a sound byte and accept it as the whole truth, context be damned.

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. The CIA works in all kinds of different places, with all kinds of different people. I am betting that in some of the countries where the detainees were from, this sort of interrogation is expected. Of course we stop short of cutting their heads off with a sword. The bottom line is that we have to give the CIA latitude to do their jobs. Despite what some of us may think of the tactics, they get results.

So who exactly decided that diesel engines were bad? Last year the government offered incentives to purchase diesel engine vehicles and this year they are increasing the tax on diesel fuel and now offering incentives only for electric cars. And by electric cars we mean the ones charged with electricity created by those really, really bad nuclear power plants that they want to phase out in favor of coal fired plants or something. Idiots.

Eggs are one of the best sources of protein, are natural and can be produced easily in a back yard chicken house. I have also read that most of the rhetoric about eggs being unhealthy has been debunked. Unless you are producing specifically for people with allergies, what's the point of an eggs substitute.

I would advocate for no more Federal taxes of any sort. Money that goes to Washington never comes back whole. In other words, nobody is as good at bureaucracy spending as the Feds. We are lucky to see 10% of any dollar we send them.

Repeals the Patriot Act and shuts down Homeland Security. How many redundant players do we need to keep us safe?

Partisan policy aside, the government wants us to want them to regulate the nets. They want it because it will give them an excuse to tax your connection. Once the FCC steps in, they will need money to "manage" and to prosecute and to investigate. Mark my words, this has nothing to do with Netflix and everything to do with an additional revenue stream.

To me, the picture looks like they were using both devices. If not, why not line up the iPad to completely block the Surface?