The POTS were live and the IP down because POTS are powered by the local exchange while IP bases equivalents are unpowered except in the customer's home.

While it is true that some areas with POTS still failed (Battery Park), most were ok.

Telco response to this is they are considering incrasing the size of the standard backup battery to an amount that still does not even cover one day of outtage. But why should they care when they have for all intents become cable companies?

Fail.

They are paying taxes on them. In the domiciles abroad. Near the end of TFA is:

The report also found that “28 these corporations reveal that they have paid an income tax rate of 10 percent or less to the governments of the countries where these profits are officially held, indicating that most of these profits are likely in offshore tax havens.”

It is conveniently politically correct to refer to other countries with lower tax rates as "tax havens". The reality is if the US tax rates were at (or at least near) the foreign rates than funds which could be repatriated would be. Note the word could. No company would bring home 100% as they are operating businesses overseas and need to invest there too.

Isn't it time for the POTS (and it's younger brother cellular) system to die?

No. Ask anyone who was in Sandy. Those with POTS had phone service. Those who were IP based (however sophisticated) did not. For days and in some cases, weeks.

I've heard and read a lot of people say how this will let them keep their phone a longer time but to me that doesn't seem likely. Too many things need to be replaced as the phone ages. Seems to me much better suited to customization of the original purchase, much like build options on a car.

if they had used Engrish units this never would have happened.

Germans can't read Hitler's stuff because.... omfg they might get naughty ideas and start killing jews again!
Brits can't watch videos made by terrorists because... omfg they might be come scared! or radicalized! Crusades 2014!

I long ago decided never to set foot in the UK again. Not that the US is any wonderland but the UK (with Australia right on its heels) is a complete pukefest now. I'm not even sure what comes after the "Daddy" and "Mommy" state but the UK is certainly flirting with it.

But it already did stop if you are waiting for a response when the person returns.

Why are you (and others) assuming I am waiting for an immediate response? Perhaps I am the pointy haired boss telling the vacationing employee "this is your next assignment, start when you finish XYZ" "this came in and has ramifcations for your project" "John here is the results of the marketing survey"

Why should the person sending those info/requests be forced to say "oh I can't send those now, John is away and his email gets deleted. Let me mark it down on my calendar to send all this when he is back. Hopefully I remember all the details that are fresh in my mind now too".

Deleting e-mail sent to you because you are on vacation or otherwise unavailable is the height of arrogance.

It is very sexy to posit PBTSM. And those physicists working in SUSY have seen their world continue to close in as the acceptable SUSY parameter space continues to shrink so there is a vested interest in keeping hope alive.

Just as Diract started out with a g of 2 and then QED improved on that and others further, I find it far more likely someone finds a higher order correction which has been overlooked than PBTSM.

Have some respect. You can wait until the person returns to work to send them messages.

My world should not stop because you chose to get off. And waiting until the person gets back is far worse - they are going to be flooded by all the emails which nobody sent while they were out. Far better to be able to triage what came in while you were away at your own pace.

All that you have said is true. And this "extend the school year" stuff is just about that. And where does the burden fall? On the people who pay taxes but have no children. If parents had to pay the full cost of sending Johnny to school (and all his brothers and sisters) you would see a significant change in the education industry.

Protective if its grid is more like it. The power system is designed to be decentralized only at its highest levels. Pushing power backwards through a transformer creates variable voltage is for everyone else under that transformer.

The power company doesn't give a darn if you don't connect to their grid. Your neighbors might complain about the bright reflections from your panel but that is definitely a local community issue.

Very true. And why should anyone be surprised that any company would fight to protect its legal rights as well as its own property? Likewise, why should the company and its nonsolar customers have to pay a significantly higher cost for electricity generated by home solar and fed back to the grid? So that is just another way in which solar is being subsidized.

Schools are not daycare/nanycare for your rug rats.

Vermont Yankee started commerical ops in 1972. So it lasted 42 years. New nuclear designs are.. gasp.. a lot better. Who would have thought that things don't stand still and technology improves for things other than solar? I would also remind that the semiconductor industry is not exactly a clean industry either - lots of nasty chemicals and water use. And they even have a superfund site (Fairchild).

One could argue that the solar plant would require as much, if not more, security than the nuclear facility. Given that this would be a plant providing substantial power, the goal of the attack would be to wipe the generation capacity out.

In 1988, Sandia National Laboratories conducted a test of slamming a jet fighter into a large concrete block at 481 miles per hour (775 km/h).[15][16] The airplane left only a 2.5-inch-deep (64 mm) gouge in the concrete. Although the block was not constructed like a containment building missile shield, it was not anchored, etc., the results were considered indicative. A subsequent study by EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, concluded that commercial airliners did not pose a danger.[17]

Attack the source when the numbers don't say what you want them to say. Get real

Pointing facts from the cited material is not an attack. Get real.

I've seen numerous reports from all over the country from dozens of different groups that say solar can be installed without subsidy cheaper than current nuclear and within striking distance of even the cheapest natural gas.

Cite them please.

A 10 year payback is about a 6% ROI. That's a phenominal rate of return. After 10 years you are guaranteed 15 years of free power

Complete nonsense. You have no way of stating any IRR because you do not know: cost of my electric, cost of transmission, credits for feeding back to grid, my total electric use, % of electric use provided by solar, cost of inverter replacement (material and labor).

Every company that made solar panels in the 1980's is still making solar panels.

Every one? You sure? What about mergers? What happens to warranty then? Will you still have the records? Will the company still have the records? Further, the warranty is only good for the original owner. Most people do not live in the same home for 25 years so there is no resale value to that warranty.

How the solar is connected to the grid is entirely dependent on local codes, net metering rules and what equipment is installed.

Yes and? How many localities allow you to still feed the grid during an outage? How many allow an "automatic transfer switch"? And what does installation of such a feature which meets local codes do to your payback period? (other than lengthen it?)

It's so blatant it's almost as if you are a paid sock puppet.

Seems to me you are the one doing the commerical for Pets.com

yes, a lot of teams have put their ticket prices in the stratosphere and have seen waiting lists vanish and in some cases, fail to sell tickets (season or otherwise). When the empty seats are not a large number the team ownership will often "buy" the surplus to avoid the blackout.

But getting rid of the black out could be even worse on revenues. At say 80K seats per game X 10 games, thats 800K tickets at .. $100 per (yes some are more, some may be less) thats $80 million in revenue. Remember that $9B of TV revenue is distributed across 32 teams, about $280M each. So that original $80M in ticket revenue is a big chunk of total team revenue. If a large % of attendees now decide to save money and just watch at home, demand plummets and with it revenue (either through decreased sales or sales at much lower price). If the NFL goes cable only you can fully assume your cable bill will rise. And those who do not use cable (ie, OTA only) will suffer.

Very much an exercise in tipping points.