And by the time the first "warning" was raised- the girl's camp was under water. The "emergency" wasn't raised until hours later.

And the republican legislature (including the repp for Kerr County) voted down the flood siren warning system. He says now that he "might" have voted differently.

The emergency alerts on the phones do not discriminate. They play that incredibly nasty noise.
And they also play it for amber alerts--- for kids who were kidnapped over 100 miles away -- 24 hours a day.

One you get woken up for a watch or an amber alert at 3am out of a sound sleep, the alerts get turned off.

Is that even with all this solar, wind, etc.... China *still* must build more coal plants even tho we are finding out their population is smaller than we thought.

In time, alternative energy will destroy demand for coal but for now, the projections are still for more coal plant by 2045.

I'm hoping they are wrong and solar/wind comes online faster. It's cheaper than coal but they simply can't produce and build it out fast enough globally.

I can't really imagine keeping 2x more trash cans in my kitchen and dealing with having to work around and walk around them....it's full as it is.

But hey, it's a free country...you do you.

I don't see any compelling reason to change a lifetime of behavior for no perceived value, and add inconvenience to my daily life.

To each his own...sounds like a major PITA to me.

Where I am...each house has 1 or more general garbage cans...but plastic things, uniform size and shape....and on trash days (2 a week) you wheel the "bin" out to the road side....the truck comes along and a big mechanical arm picks up each can and dumps it in...

There's no garbage men there to even look at what you're throwing out.

On a different day of the week, I do see folks putting out their small recycle bins, the ones that want to participate.

To save money, they've set up this system so that we don't have 2-3 guys hanging on the back of each garbage truck grabbing each can and dumping it...there's pretty much just 1 person driving the truck and the truck grabs, dumps and returns each can....

Again, I don't have anything against recycling....but participation is and should be optional...where I live.

Johnny Fever on WKRP.

"When everyone is out to get you, paranoid is just....

.......good thinking"

LOL....oh, don't forget the Phone Cops!!

Thankfully where I live....no one forces anyone to recycle.

You can if you want...but you are free to decide if you want to bother or not.

We don't have any "trash police" here....we've got better things to spend our tax dollars on.

I'm kind of mystified by the absolute visceral hostility of a large number of Americans towards recycling.

I think it has to do with some cities actually forcing people to recycle....where they actually go through what you throw out and fine you...?

Thankfully I've never lived anywhere like that, but I'd be pissed if that were the case.

I'm glad people that want to do that can....I have nothing against it, but being forced to is another thing entirely.

I don't have room in my kitchen for 3x different cans to sort and throw shit out....nor the patience or time to bother.

But I support those that wish to do so....

I'm glad that down here where I live, you don't have to bother recycling unless you are so inclined.

If you want to throw pretty much anything in the trash here, they'll take it, no questions asked.

For example, a touchscreen is nearly a requirement for decent GPS UI. There are applications where the multitouch gestures are hard to beat for the UI.

I have a phone for that....no need for another one on car touchscreen that will eventually age out....

Fuck all touch screens in cars...

I want physical controls...the ones on the central console of the old days worked great, I could do most everything by feel or if I had to look...1-2 second glance.....

I don't want a fucking ipad to control everything when I'm driving a car, especially at higher speeds...

Is that with all this solar, wind, etc.... China *still* must build more coal plants even tho we are finding out their population is smaller than we thought.

In time, it will destroy demand for coal but for now, the projections are still for more coal plant by 2045.

I'm hoping they are wrong and solar/wind comes online faster. It's cheaper than coal but they simply can't produce and build it out fast enough globally.

And it's not just kids (won't someone think of the children)...

In Texas, we can get a half dozen "watch" alerts a day when storm systems are moving through.

That's *POINTLESS*. If your alert system is sending more than one message a day, you probably didn't set it up well.

And worse, the watches usually mean "stay at home, avoid getting caught in deep flood waters" and not "leave your home because floodwaters over your roof will be there in under 90 minutes."

And it's not even just amber alerts. You can get a half dozen "watch" alerts from a fast moving system *per day*.

At that level, "watch" alerts are useless. Especially since in most of texas they mean, "don't leave home or your car may be flooded out" and not "leave home- your home will be flooded out".

And the short staffing of the service in the U.S. due to Ham-handed layoffs this year did not help.

I agree. Questions like this often seem to come from people who don’t *want* to use AI, or perhaps are afraid of it for whatever reason, and they’re looking for reasons that they shouldn’t use it.