And that's why I finished my post with the following: "It's probably not a practical solution currently. But as efficiencies increase, it's at least feasible it may be at some point in the future."

Nope. There is a fixed amount of sunlight hitting the surface of the airplane. Well, more-or-less fixed - the sun's output varies slightly.

There is not enough energy in that sunlight to power a passenger/cargo airplane. Even with 100% efficient panels.

When you're talking about trains or earthmovers, there is no battery. It's generated as-needed.

When you're talking about all-electric cars, the battery hurts range. Whether or not that's a problem depends on your driving patterns. If you're a typical commute-to-work-and-a-few-errands urban/suburban driver, the range is likely well beyond what you would consume in a day. If you are not that kind of driver then the range may be a factor.

Nope. You forgot about the transmission. The diesel is most efficient in a narrow RPM range. When it's connected to a generator, it can remain in that RPM range. When it's attached to a transmission that is attached to the wheels, it can't. The worst is low-speed acceleration, where electric motors do quite well.

Since you're so new to the subject, you could start here: http://science.howstuffworks.c...

Electric traction motors are far more efficient than ICEs. That's why diesel locomotives don't actually connect the diesel engine to the wheels. The diesel engine generates electricity, which turns electric traction motors.

Same with the really big earthmoving equipment - those gigantic dump trucks down at the strip mine are using electric traction motors powered by diesel generators.

Why don't we do this in cars? Space and complexity.

So what's the point of all electric cars? It separates the energy generation from the energy consumption, allowing flexibility in the energy generation. That coal plant you decry is a lot more efficient than an ICE. And other electricity generation sources have other benefits. The problem has been getting the power from the power plant to the car so that you can use electric traction motors.

Coal plants can't idle. They're either running at or near capacity, or shut down. And they do not shut down overnight, because it takes about 3 days for them to get up to operating temperature. This is why coal power plants will sell electricity at a loss overnight.

That's also why most coal power plants in the US are getting replaced with natural gas power plants. A natural gas power plant is basically a helicopter engine connected to a generator. You can throttle it up and down somewhat, and you can start it up in minutes instead of days. And thanks to the "wonders" of fracking, we have a lot of very cheap natural gas.

No, there isn't enough surface area to power a passenger/cargo aircraft via solar panels. That's why the plane currently attempting a 100% solar-powered flight around the world is a custom, ultralight airplane with zero passengers and basically zero cargo.

You forgot that the "porno princess" now claims her child is not autistic.

Just to toss another bit on the "greed argument" pile, the drugs to treat a disease cost 10 to 10,000,000 times more than the vaccines to prevent the disease. So if it was about greed, they wouldn't be giving vaccines. It's MUCH more profitable to treat a polio victim for the rest of their life than to vaccinate against it.

"But Chicken Pox doesn't have a treatment drug!!". It has lots and lots of drugs in the rare cases when it causes serious complications and sends the victim to the ICU.

It's due to how screwed-up NY state politics are.

NY used to have a House representing "the people" and a Senate representing "geography". Similar to the US House and Senate. The result of this was upstate NY was able to get some attention and benefits from the state government, because the NY City-dominated House had to negotiate with the upstate-dominated Senate.

Then a resident of NY City sued, citing the NY State Constitution's requirement that each person be represented equally. And won. The result was the state Senate was changed to also be based on population. Since NY city is roughly half of NY state's population, upstate NY was more-or-less politically abandoned for decades. At the same time, the deindustrialization of upstate NY (and the rest of the Rust Belt) utterly devastated the upstate NY economy.

This program is an attempt to start reversing some of that pain. Resulting in a somewhat odd program - there are virtually no major industries left in upstate NY to receive the tax breaks you propose. They need to import something.

But it's going to be a very hard sale. The area has been suffering from major economic depression for a very long time. Even the "successful" cities look old and dreary, and there is the palpable sense that everything has either gone to hell, or will be going to hell soon. It's going to be very hard to get someone to decide to move their business into that environment. Heck, even the locals desperately hope their children grow up to move somewhere better. Like Detroit.

In some locations around the world, you do have to worry about simultaneous disasters. Residents of California are due for a major earthquake, and the resulting building collapses and fires could destroy both the bank and the home. Similarly, someone in a hurricane-prone area could have both their home and bank flooded.

So if you want to really be absolutely, positively sure, you are going to need some significant geographic distribution as well.

Or just encrypt it and upload it to a cloud service that replicates to multiple datacenters.

Oh, you also neglected to pay attention to how your proposal enables man-in-the-middle attacks. Again, you lack any verification by the user. All the bracelet knows is that they were presented with a valid signature. I'm making a purchase in Wal-Mart, but your plan doesn't actually verify it's Wal-Mart's certificate.

It's absolutely wrong that I am proposing a 'stealable' ID.

And I didn't say you were proposing a 'stealable' ID. I said I can read the code remotely. Which lets me charge you $20, just as if you were making a purchase.

See, your proposal failed to include any sort of verification by the bracelet-wearer that they wanted to make the purchase, or even verify the purchase amount.

Even if you do require something like a button press, standard location and equipment means I can push the button on your bracelet by "accidentally" bumping into you.

In other words, your proposal makes a modern version of "pickpocketing" not only possible, but extremely easy to do.

That said, I do think that groups like the NSA and FBI have been quite successful in keeping people (like Jeff4747) remarkably uneducated.

That's extremely amusing since you managed to completely fail to understand the problems I pointed out. You leapt to ID theft when I was talking about stealing plain-old money.

But good job pontificating with maximum hypocrisy.

Yeah, that's a terrible idea.

First, it's wireless, so I can "grab" your identity when you walk by. That'll be handy. It's even going to be strapped to a similar body part, so I can know exactly where to "accidentally" bump into you if it requires pushing a button to activate.

Second, you are transmitting the code through the purchase system. That's very handy, because I can just capture the code via your compromised PC.

"Two-factor" authentication systems work because the data does not flow through a single system. If my credit company texts me a one-time PIN to approve a purchase, you have to intercept both the purchase and the text message. The text message also lets me verify the purchase (Hey, the cash register says $23, but the text message says $475).

Third, it's a surveillance state dream come true.

You then bring up thought leaders, demonstrating that this is either sarcasm or massive stupidity.

There are plenty of billionaires who will pay to distribute Reason's pseudo-intellectual bullshit to the masses.

Yes, facts like Manning was not sentenced to LIFE in prison, but for 35 years. And facts like Manning leaked far more documents than Petraeus did. And facts like her name is Chelsea Manning.

Yes, Petraeus's sentence was a joke. But when you're going to be harping on "facts", you kinda need to get yours correct.

As for this fine gentleman who just got sentenced, he's going to serve about 15 hours per victim (unless he gets paroled or other early release). Less than a day per crime doesn't seem unreasonable. If anything, it's rather light for extortion.