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Comment Re:indeed, so what. (Score 1) 377

Uh. No. We won't be dropping corporate taxes. The issue here is outsourcing; companies can find cheaper labor outside of the United State. Removing corporate taxes isn't going to reduce the cost of an employee to a company, it's going to make it more difficult for the government to obtain revenue. Think about it: if the company isn't paying taxes, and the company's employees are paying taxes in India, where does the US government get money?

~Sticky

Comment Re:Think before you speak (Score 1) 1343

Nope, it's not against the law. But it's equally not going to help the parents sleep at night.

Responsible gun owners don't forget to lock up their guns, especially around children. Illegal or not, this step-father got his step-kid killed because he was an irresponsible gun owner.

~Sticky

Security

Submission + - SCADA over Cell Often Improperly Secured (digitalbond.com)

StickyWidget writes: The Control System Security research firm DigitalBond recently published two blog posts dealing with the security of cellular based networks. Basically, the same networks that carry IP from your cell phone to the Internet are being used for command and control of water, electric, and other critical infrastructure. DigitalBond researchers ran a low and slow port scan over their Verizon network cards, and preliminarily identified 1420 Raven Airlink devices. These Airlink devices are used primarily in remote, rugged, environments for interfacing local control systems to a master control station. The main point is that carriers [including Verizon http://b2b.vzw.com/productsservices/customapplications/privatenetwork.html%5D are targeting critical infrastructures with products claiming a "private network" when often none exists. These 'private' networks are often easily accessible by other subscribers, and coupled with insecure design on the utility side, could put operations of critical infrastructure in jeopardy. [Post 1: http://www.digitalbond.com/index.php/2010/03/01/scada-devices-on-verizon-and-other-wireless-networks/%5D [Post 2: http://www.digitalbond.com/index.php/2010/03/02/using-verizon-broadband-for-scada/%5D

Comment One Word: Corruption (Score 1) 652

Isn't it obvious that this guy is getting a kickback from the sales of these B.S. rods? Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, Esquire, is getting a percentage of every rod sold to the Iraqi government. This is why he has to endorse them! $10 bucks says he OKs every procurement of these rods personally.

His grandiose statements ("I know more about bombs than anyone in the world"), his reliance on personal opinion ("I don't care what Sandia, et al, say"), his inability to accept the facts in front of him ("you need more training"), and his position within the government make this an obvious conclusion. Which is why he is being investigated. I hope the Washington Post writes a follow-up when he bails out of Iraq with his immoral gains.

Just as you don't attribute to negligence what stupidity can easily explain, you don't attribute to stupidity was GREED can easily explain.

~Sticky
//DUH!

Comment Re:59 Sq Miles for 1500 MW. Nuke Plant Better. (Score 3, Interesting) 164

Jeez. Where do I even start....
1. Don't reference Other Countries nuclear programs. This is the United States, where the costs of regulation, permitting, licensing, buying land, paying off neighbors, etc outweigh the material cost of a reactor. Don't compare France. Japan, Korea, or all those others, to the US, it's apples and oranges when it comes to nuclear acceptance. The issue was a wind farm in the US, not France. A nuke in America costs 30-40 billion dollars, stem to stern, full cost. That's the cost of a FULL COMPLETE nuke plant(including water treatment, balance of plant, turbines, etc), but I'll forgive your ignorance on that. People who read wikipedia and don't know power generation often make that mistake.

2. You got your numbers wrong: Financing referenced in that wikipedia article is only for construction phase, which is the CHEAPEST part of building a nuke. Permitting isn't there, startup (which is WAY expensive) isn't there, commissioning (which is RIDICULOUS expensive) isn't there, NRC approval and licensing (which is THE most expensive piece) isn't there. If you worked for a utility or in the nuclear industry (like me) you'd know this.

3. If you want to reference a source, use one with some TEETH. Something like http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/analysis/nuclearpower.html, or http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/82975.pdf. Some dipshit's blog doesn't count, especially when he admits a full bias and doesn't disclose his credentials. BTW: I'm a computer engineer with 5 years of experience in control systems, power generation, and the economics of electric power.

4. Seriously? OFFSHORE wind farm budget numbers up against LAND BASED wind farms? Lets' see, we'll put a wind technology that is designed, constructed, and operated in one of the most harsh environments on the planet, which you have to helicopter maintenance personnel into, against a wind technology that is built on solid ground, with standard materials, and can be maintained with guys in trucks. Gee, that's a real valid comparison. My wind numbers are accurate, I know because I work in the industry.

5. Fine. Assume that they produce 1500 MW 10% of the time instead of 90%. Still a break even with my ACCURATE numbers.

6. Definitely not an engineer. Megawatts are always comparable, they are absolute quantities. A MW produced by a wind farm is the same MW produced by a nuke. Yes, while wind provides a smaller percentage of it's capacity factor when compared to nuclear, that can be (supposedly) be defeated with large numbers of geographically dispersed wind farms.

Nukes cost a lot of money. That is the operational reality. Get over it. Until someone decides that nukes are a good investment for their cost, we will not see a nuke plant. Other countries can do what they like, they are 20 years ahead of us. The NRC rules all, and nobody wants to finance something we can't figure out how to get rid of the waste for. And that's sad, because nuclear power is the future of baseload generation and will help end our dependence on fossil fuels.

~Sticky

Comment Re:Wind is free. Wind power is very expensive. (Score 1) 164

Seriously man. You have no idea how utilities finance their capital investments. Payback is:
1) In terms of decades, not years. The cost of a wind farm will be spent in loan payments over at least 30 years.
2) Subsidized by government. 70-80% of the cost is recoverable in tax credits over the first 10 years. At least in the US, but Canada does similar.

Cost of contingency reserve (which is the 450 MW gas plant) is factored into that, because intermittent generation carries with it a penalty on the market. BUT this penalty isn't enough to cause them to be unprofitable.

Wind power is ridiculous cheap because the fuel is free; the only cost is maintenance and upkeep (which is normally under contract from the vendor and included in the purchase price for at least 5 years. In Texas, they take entire plants offline when the wind is blowing hard, that's how cheap it is. Your estimate of 253/MWH for wind generation is ridiculous. BUT, if you were to look at October peaks from last year (http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/pubs/marketReports/download/GenWeightedAvePrice_20090717.xls), spot price gets as high as $400/MWh. Even with your monkey math, there are instances where wind generation can make a killing.

And don't pick an abstract price to show your "knowledge" of the electricity market. Prices for electricity on the free market aren't constant, they change during the day. Ontario's electric market price at almost 9:00 CST is going to be ridiculously low, that's the fact of life. Take a look at noon, almost $40/MWH. Most commercial businesses are in sleep mode, families are turning in for the night, it's what we call a low peak demand. And at low peak demand, you can actually run into situations where a utility will actually PAY people to use their generation. Plus, OPG is mainly hydro with some coal and gas. Ridiculous cheap hydro power will trump almost anything.

No disagreements. All the tax credits suck money out of taxpayers. But what the hell, why not?

Now a Carbon footprint. THAT'S a crock of shit right there.

~Sticky

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