As another thought experiment, imagine that there was a horse with the following properties:
- Pink in color
- Of appealing physical proportions
- Has a single long, straight horn projecting from its forehead.
- Possesses the ability to fly.

It would undoubtedly have significant value to collectors, and I would certainly want one.

It's single stream that's bad, not 'capitalism.'
My town has a drop-off only transfer station, no pickup. Residents sort their profitable recyclables* into several large bins. The revenue from these high-quality, high-profit recyclables usually pays for the tipping fees on the trash (which includes non-profitable 'recyclables'). Town tax revenue is still required to pay for the facility upkeep and the people.

Of course, what works in a small bedroom community might not work as well in a dense metro area.

*glass (actually costs money to get rid of, but less than garbage), tin & steel cans, Aluminum cans, #2 colored plastic, #2 undyed plastic, #1 mixed plastic, newspaper, mixed paper, corrugated cardboard.)

If you're concerned about delays, then for an annual fee you could sign up to be PreWeighed by the TSA. Then you could breeze right by the passengers waiting in line at the scale.

No, maybe you should show me your plan to produce rice that is profitable at $1.29 per pound retail using only desalinated water.

Desalinization costs around $2000 per acre-foot. Beef production uses around 1800 gallons per pound. Feeding cows from California-grown crops would therefore tack more than $11 per pound onto the price of beef. Almonds use a similar amount of water per pound as beef, so would face a similar markup.

Rice needs 300 gal/pound, which would add $1.84 per pound to its price. Maybe Israelis pay these kinds of prices for their food. However, that's simply not realistic for this country. We'd shift to imports or food grown in other states before paying for staple crops grown with desalinized water.

You'll have to use "Ctl+[".

Why not?

Because in the real world, it's NOT simple to move water around at all. Moving water around has involved some of the most expensive undertakings this country has ever attempted, and has been responsible for massive environmental damage and the disruption of the livelihoods of countless people.

Moreover, the water has to come from somewhere. If you hadn't noticed, the entire western US has almost no extra water. Precipitation is simply not refilling the original sources of Western water supplies. Maybe you think it's cheap and easy to pipe it over the continental divide, after somehow wresting water rights from people in the East. If so, you're an ignoramus.

And desalinization is totally unrealistic to address anything but urban water use, which is a drop in the bucket.

I don't know why you're surprised by "weird nastiness" over water rights. Civilizations all over the world have been highly protective of their water rights for millennia, and many wars have been fought over water. Fresh water is probably the single most important resource on the planet, and nobody is going to give up their water without a fight, even if they're not using all of it at this exact moment. There is simply not going to be any Kumbaya solution to these issues.

I'm harmed because huge water boondoggles are usually bankrolled by the Federal government.

Why don't you look at my original post, where I said your white elephant projects are fine, as long as it's 100% paid for by the people who chose to live there.

And while you're at it, why don't cut out the passive-aggressive fake empathy that drips from every one of your posts? It's not fooling anyone.

Because I don't want to get stuck with the bill for their stupid decisions.

They should find that they can live better lives by moving to where conditions are more suitable to human habitation.

Sure. But only as long as you make those people who chose to live in water-deprived areas pay every god damned cent of the cost of your infrastructure boondoggles, including compensation for external costs such as environmental damage to areas other people live.

If we were to actually do that, I bet many of those people would choose to move out of CA real quick.

I'm more concerned about the vessel steel problems mentioned in the article. If faulty, the vessel head could be replaced (at great expense), and the reactor vessel itself can be replaced during the construction phase (at even greater expense). I would hate to see the project put at risk over the issue.

Unfortunately, the articles are either vague or alarmist, so it's hard to be sure how serious of a problem it is. Being familiar with the nuclear industry, the 'problem' might be something like this:

1) Carbon content for the steel has been analyzed and tested as satisfactory between 0.50% and 1.25%.
2) Inspection reveals the carbon content at these two spots is 1.26%, outside the analyzed range.
3) New analysis and coupon testing is necessary to determine if 1.26% is safe.

It could even be general engineering knowledge that the steel is sufficient up to 2.00%, but since the properly documented analysis and tests haven't been done to that level, it doesn't count.

(I am not a metallurgist and my numbers are entirely made up)

.....because greed and racism are the only reasons someone would dare disagree with Obama and Democratic party decrees.

It's easy to criticize the police over this, but what if this had turned out to be an authentic Stormtrooper? That blaster would have packed serious firepower that would outclass our current military capabilities. Even if the Stormtrooper had no bad intentions, I'm sure that Federal authorities would want to dissect that weapon to find out how it works and keep it out of the hands of the terrorists and/or unfriendly countries.

It is not difficult to be "clever" at all. Look at various "bean" frameworks. Use their object marshaling features. Throw in some of their aspect-oriented programming features.

Now you usually have a bloated, incomprehensible mess. Sure you can easily read any couple of lines of code in isolation. But the system as a whole is a huge pile of gratuitous redundant layers of abstraction and confusing action-at-a-distance creepiness.

It was revealed that the FTC's biggest concern is Radio Shack's subterranean cache of over 35,000 tons of yellow slips of carbon paper dating as far back as the 1960s, which correlate names, addresses and phone numbers to detailed lists of discreet electronic components. Who knows what kind of embarrassments would ensue if all of those dots got connected with modern data mining techniques.