There are tons of real problems to solve like access to energy and sanitation and global warming expenditures often only make those harder and more expensive.

The problem in my point of view is that the Linux desktop infrastructure is way outdated in architectural terms.

Renewables are highly variable and you need backup peaking power plant capacity including natural gas fired power plants and hydroelectric to cover production shortfalls which you would otherwise not require if you were using a baseload plant be it coal or nuclear. Coal and nuclear power plants cannot ramp electric production up or down quickly to cover renewable shortfalls.

You are deluding yourself if you think part of the German industry is not being lost to places like China. Just ask Grundig, Telefunken, Krups, how well their businesses are going. As for automobiles currently the German industry is safe in Europe thanks a lot of protectionist laws preventing car imports which were originally designed to prevent competition by Japanese car manufacturers. Even then the Chinese will not be happy just with importing vehicles from Germany forever, while the Japanese already control most of the US car market.

Just because there is more US coal in the market the worldwide coal prices go down regardless if it is all being bought by Germany or not.

The 45.8% electricity generated from coal is the average over an entire semester. Yes there will be some days where wind and solar give you 50%. There will also be other days where it gives zilch. On average, in a semester, solar and wind generated 17.1% of total electricity requirements.

6.3% of electricity in Germany is being generated using natural gas. So while the numbers are low it is not zero. In fact the more variable generators like wind and solar you have in a system the more backup hydroelectric and natural gas fired power plant backup peaking plant capacity you require in a grid.

The absolute capacity of coal power production is dropping slightly but the total electric production dropped as well as industry moves to China and elsewhere. The fact is the coal power production is more or less stable and ready to increase in the middle term

The major reason for the large capital expenditure of nuclear power is that a lot of reactors are quite large and need expensive containment. There are proposals to build modular reactors which would address this problem like the South African Pebble Bed Modular Reactor. The Chinese also have some projects like that.

Hydropower also is a large capital expenditure generation method and just like nuclear it ends up being cheap in the long run.

Nuclear fuel prices are going to crash down even further as centrifuge separation becomes commonplace while the maintenance costs are also much less with increased plant automation requiring much less people to operate the plant.

Europe? We are going to be paying for the windmill overconstruction for the next 20 years with guaranteed profit contracts for generated power regardless if it is required or not.

German steel producers have already said they will move elsewhere if the electric power prices don't come back down again. It is uncompetitive to manufacture steel in Germany at current prices.

So a significant part of the cheap power price is also natural gas, which is most decidedly not renewable and not zero-CO2.

Things are a lot worse than you think. The fact is the electric power prices went down in Germany because coal prices are down. Why are they down? The US has a natural gas glut and has been exporting the excess coal, which is not required anymore, to countries like Germany.

Germany has been trying to get off natural gas because the major supplier to Central Europe is Russia and you know how they are. *cough* Ukraine *cough*.

The Wind and Solar are window dressing. Coal is used to generate 45.8% of the electricity used in Germany while Wind and Solar combined are 17.1%. As Germany is winding down its Nuclear power plants they are building new Coal power plants to replace them.

If the trend continues the US will actually reduce its CO2 emissions in the next decade while countries in Europe like Germany will increase CO2 emissions. If you care about that.

http://www.world-nuclear-news....
http://www.world-nuclear-news....

The article claims it is expected to start operating this year. Construction started in 2009. So if they can do it it will begin operations 5 years after construction start which is quite good time for a novel design.

France built their nuclear reactors quite cheap. The trick is to do it in series so you can reduce tool costs, maintenance costs, training costs by using the same design more than once. South Korea has manufactured their reactors quickly. If you expedite the licensing, have a stable cash supply, do not go for exotic or untested designs you can build a nuclear reactor in four years. The APR and EPR are new designs and as such they are taking longer to build.

This has been the case since the Industrial Revolution. The solution back then was to ban child labor and reduce work hours. Today they are doing the opposite because they could care less about how the "poor people" live.

The problem is the weight of the reactor especially if the car needs to carry live humans inside. They had enough trouble with nuclear propulsion in the atmosphere with Project Pluto in the 1960s. The Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion in the 1950s tried to do this for bombers but even there the weight was an issue.

Would the fact that I'm a woman help me?

Probably.

Suppose I dropped hints that I was a lesbian. Would that help my chances of getting hired?

Yep.

Suppose I dropped hints that my grandfather was from Mexico. Would that help me?

No way.

PS: Probably most of the people doing computer science already had established teams for years by now and she expected to get a group by doing nothing. Things are more complicated than that.

When I got to the 2nd year a lot of the people I used to group with had given up on computer science. I simply ASKED people which I deemed suitable in the first couple of days of the new semester. I never had spoken with them before and in fact they previously were attending a different schedule. I continued working with these people in an on/off basis until I finished my degree.

That is a typical male response to avoid group envy. Plus to protect the female. Of course if she wanted to work with someone she could try ASKING. I am not very social and I did that more than once.