Correcting myself:
Tepco itself has estimated a damage of $137 billion, see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/fukushima-137-billion-cost-has-tepco-seeking-more-aid.html

*Probably to test how code performs under such low power conditions?*

not really. he's developing for mcu's. not for the system itself, so that has no point.

for it to be portable, it would need to have some other stuff.. like a monitor, keyboard and other stuff all which take power. now he might be doing it under solar power at his cottage or yacht or whatever.. but then kind of still would be needing the monitor and other peripheals.

basically the answer is just buy a friggin netbook. even if you need to have usb programmers for the stuff you're going to program due to not having gpio right on the system. my bro uses a raspi for mcu development but that's just mainly for flashing from the thing and using ssh to connect to it from a computer. so if he just wants to attach a big battery to the thing and leave it at where the mcu is doing some controlling or data acquisition and wants to update it live there.. then get a raspberry pi.

Considering the low probability of a serious reactor accident, individual utility companies might bet on not having one in their powerplants and have no insurance unless it is mandatory, like compulsory vehicle insurance.

Set the minimum coverage to something that would cover Fukujima (estimated $100B) and there is your market-based solution ;-)

Homestarrunner I think works better as a part time project. While the updates over the past few years have been sparse, they have also been very inspired and incredibly hilarious. I can't say the same about the cartoons they were making towards the end when they were doing it every week. They still may kickstart, but I would much rather see sporadic but absolutely hilarious updates to h*runner than lots of bland ones.

Forced charity is not charity.

It depends on your definition of enough. There is enough food in the world right now to feed everyone. Does that mean everyone should eat? No. Some should die. It sucks, but there you have it. While that food is edible, it has value. That value belongs to someone. Taking that value from someone and giving it to someone else is wrong. On a personal level, I would give some of it away, but, I would have to limit the amounts that I gave away because then it would cut into the value of what I have already harvested. Remember, I harvest for ME. If you expect me to harvest for you, you are sadly mistaken. If you can force me to harvest for you, you can expect the crappiest possible work while still maintaining the image that I am harvesting.

Insult me at this point if you want, but you can clearly see it in human behavior all around you. It is why service is so crappy EVERYWHERE. Even the prostitutes barely provide any customer service and their whole business revolves around good customer service.

Soon (geologically speaking), there will NOT be enough clean air full of oxygen to breathe, at that point, it becomes a scarce resource.

I do not begrudge anyone anything they have earned for themselves. Johnny Depp has made more money in the past few years than I will in several lifetimes. He looks better than me. He is more talented than me. He was in the right place at the right time. To you, he is a criminal. To me, he is just fortunate on numerous accounts. I am happy for him.

If you can make food and energy available like that, more power to you. Somehow or another, I expect that you want to make food and energy available like that by taking from others instead of coming up with a system that will make it available yourself.

Which is why I took the left turn at the end of my last reply. Long story short, even if food, shelter, and clothing were freely available due to some unforeseen technological advance, I would be totally happy with that. If you think that just because there is enough food, shelter, and clothing existing in this world to feed everybody that you can take it from those who made it and own it to give to everyone else, I would say you are smoking crack.

If you want help with someone or something that is artificially keeping you down, I am the man to call on to help you. If you want to steal what others have created, I am your worst nightmare. If you know how to create a free energy machine, I will be there right next to you helping to build it, after all, I benefit too. If you think that just because I am more fortunate than the average man that I will give up everything I own (to the average man hopefully, but that is not true historically) until I am at the same level of reward as the average man, you are smoking some bad dope.

It is normally a waste of time to respond to anonymous cowards...

But can you explain to me how removing a safety feature (clear glass that someone can see out of) actually IMPROVES safety? I think these new video screens are awesome, I just do not see the need to remove the actual window. I also do not see why the new video screens REQUIRE the removal of said windows.

Not true... or at least poorly worded: Last time Airbus computers gave up because they had no idea what to do the pilot took control of their plane and crashed it into the south atlantic almost as quickly as the computer was about to.

The lesson there was better trained pilots might have saved some lives. *might* It was a very bad situation.

Of course it works.

That is the real trick. Removing all traces is next to impossible. Proper handling procedures say that the deployed container should NEVER have been in contact with whatever is inside of it, making cleaning an unnecessary exercise.

Pardon? I do not think that I have heard you correctly. I have owned almost every single model of phone branded by Google and none of them came with Facebook installed. Facebook was installed on one of them and uninstalled just fine.

Perhaps you purchased your Google phone through a carrier? American carriers are NOTORIOUS for preinstalling crapware and trying to make it non-removable. Pay for your phone outright and do not buy it through a carrier and you will not have those problems.

(BTW, the battery life on all of the Nexus phones until the 4 were just reasonable. With the Nexus 4, the battery life was outstanding. With Nexus 5, the battery life is Oh My Fucking God, is this an old Nokia nothing but number buttons phone? Seriously, 24 hours and 87% battery still left. Not stock Android).

And what does that Ocean sit on top of? (sorry, had to.)

You have fallen victim to judging things by their shallow surface appearance. How many miles deep does the ocean go? I guarantee you it is less than 10 miles. Compared to how many miles of Earth? ;)

Wow! You have been part of a medical system that I have NEVER seen... and I am an American. The doctors are only semi-qualified most of the time. They just fucking guess at what the problem might be. There is no such thing as prompt treatment (really? You really said prompt treatment?!).

The medical system is an absolute mess in America. I would rather go visit the "fire and forget" doctors in Asia. At least there, everything that is normal for a doctor to see is handle expeditiously. God forbid you see an American doctor for headaches that have been mysteriously happening once a week every week for several months in a row. They will have absolutely no clue what to do, suggest, or even consider... except maybe that you are looking for pills.

Just in case you were wondering, it was a preservative used in cereals. At least the Asian doctors thought to point out that it might be an allergic reaction so I could do my own legwork (stop eating what I was eating one by one until the headaches went away. Then, when they went away, try the thing that might have been causing them. POW. Instant headache. Take the package into the doctor and ask what it is in it: sugar and flour, nothing else. Liars. Preservatives.).

Cherry picked? Hm. I have several other friends who have quite a few resources gathered. The one I picked was my closest friend. But cherry picked or not is irrelevant. He (a mere plumber BTW, which is why I said most people could have done what he does) is a valid example of gathering more resources based on hard work.

Because hard work is not all of it. Yes, luck plays a role. I have had my share of hard luck and it sucks. Badly. Being ethical. Being trustworthy. Not being greedy. All of these are traits that have helped him to near the top of heap that he participates in. Does everyone who works hard deserve better? That is a hard question to answer. Does the assembly line worker deserve more despite how hard they might work? We are getting into the discussion of what a basic income should be if that is what you are asking. Does one assembly line worker deserve more than another assembly line worker if one works harder than the other? You bet. I have been there and done that. I definitely deserved more... and, I got more.

Doubtful? Not at all. Impossible... with the caveat that in seven more years he might be where is today. Or maybe, he would have went into a different line of business. Reality is hard to predict. Furthermore, this whole line of discussion is utterly pointless. "What if" does not count in reality. The world is the way it is. We can seek to change it, but will our efforts change it in the ways that we desire? Life is full of "bad luck" but it is also full of bad decisions. We can try to minimize the negative impacts of bad luck but if we try to make everything fair despite the bad luck, have we really made everything fair? No. Reality is the final arbiter and it has no space for concepts such as fair.

I think you are beginning to project your own biases here but I will respond nevertheless because I am curious: Are you saying that the only reason he works hard is so that he can keep other people poor? Are you saying the he wants to keep other people in poverty so he can enjoy his resources more? Honestly, I am unsure what you are implying but it seems that you are aiming for a VERY dark area.

And you step deeply into it. It is not important that everyone else not have what he has. Reality says that there are limited resources. There is only so much food, only so much energy, only so much oxygen. I am perfectly fine with people carving resources out for themselves. I am not okay with people taking resources from the people who are gathering those resources because those people feel that they deserve something just for being alive. The only thing you "deserve" for being alive is another moment in which to try and stay alive. If you fail, you die. If you succeed, you live. If you succeed greatly, you achieve a greater security for the next moment.

Now, are you asking whether or not someone who is not out gathering resources at such a rate should not have the same amount of resources my friend has? Well duh. Where are those resources going to come from except from each individual going out and gathering them? To steal a line from a Steely Dan song, In the land of milk and honey, you still have to put them on the table.

So why is it important that not everyone else has what my friend has? Because they did not fucking go and get it. Simple. What are you going to do? Rob my friend to get what he gathered? Go fuck yourself. It is not that much harder to just harvest your own resources. Go do it.

Where will the resources come from to give them as much as him? If they come from him, yes, his enjoyment would be diminished.

He is my friend. He is happy with my successes regardless of how they measure to his.

Your biases are showing again. He is motivated to do what he does because more resources grant him more security and more interesting situations.

Is demanding that others be inappropriately rewarded a positive personality trait? No. Heh, when I said that in my mind, I meant that poor people should not be kept poor but it also means poor people who do not gather resources should not be given resources. I love a statement that is true both forwards and backwards.

You are too far off the deep end to respond to this question. It is essentially meaningless at this point since what you are asking why about is some weird thing deep in your own mind. Come back to reality and we can talk. Yes, there are people who are keeping people poor so that they can more thoroughly enjoy their ill-gotten gains. No, my friend is not one of them. That was kind of the point of this whole discussion though since you generic words lead to taking from my friend (and me too since I am more successful than average despite my incredibly poor luck) when he has earned everything that he has based on your hatred of the aforementioned person who structures society to keep as many people poor as possible.

I can guarantee you that if you and your friends come to take what me and my friends have created, we will kill you. Thieves are weak. Builders are strong. You have no chance.

Didn't New York flood last year? http://www.nytimes.com/newsgra...

Ah yes. The hope and savior for the working class. The corrupted, mafia controlled, unions. Woot! They were really gonna save the helpless workers. Until... Until...

Until that? WTF? Are you trying to say that the unions lost all their power shortly after that incident and for the same reasons? What are you trying to say here?

Oh, tell Jimmy Hoffa that I said hello. Go union, go strong! ;)