As you point out, it depends on the plant. In our case, nameplate rating is 750 MW on each unit, and they can run for extended periods at 200-250 MW, so 30% or so.

I am not adverse to expanding renewable power, but the real problem at this point is still backup power. Wind/solar/hydro are not always available at anything approaching rated full load. Without either viable storage systems or fossil-fuel/nuclear backup, there are going to be times when there is just not enough power in a region, and there is not enough inter-grid power transfer (in the US) to make up the difference. People are not going to like being in the cold and dark for extended periods.

As someone who works at a coal-fired power plant, I can assure you that coal plants can "throttle up and down" a couple hundred megawatts in a matter of minutes. Our owners routinely call for load changes multiple times every day. If, rather, you mean cold startup of a coal plant, yes, that can take days. But, we run base-load plants to backup renewable sources, so our plants tend to be online at least at minimum load at all times.

I personally am fond of using overlord/minion, but hey, I like got a kick out of Despicable Me.

Um, the quote from the ZDNet article does not claim the ATMs run COBOL, it says "And, if you've received cash out of an ATM recently, it's almost certain COBOL was running behind the scenes."

According to the statistics I have seen, "born with ambiguous genitalia" occurs at a rate of 1 per 1000 births. That is millions of people. We are supposed to ignore their plight, just because it offends you?

Unfortunately for them, your "rare anomalies" amounts to millions of people on earth. So, I guess it is OK to treat them as non-existent?

I'm 60 and planning to work for a few years yet. I managed to find a nitch at an in-state utility that no one else could fill and I will have been there 40 years by the time I retire. The pay is excellent and the work is challenging enough to keep me sharp. I still do some programming but mostly I'm doing system administration for a network with about 80 computers. Like jeillah I have a broad experience and a constant desire to learn more and stay current.

What part of "drive their instruments" did you not understand? Even if they knew all their songs without sheet music, if they need computers to run the instruments, and don't have them, their tour is over.

The good news is when I fired up Chrome, it asked me if I wanted to remove this unwanted extension.

As far as mining the flying rocks, the backstory talks about attempts to do this. They unbalanced one and dumped several million dollars worth of equipment to the ground, killing several workers. After that, they left the flying islands alone and just mined the superconductor.

I am thinking the Tuatha Dé Danann (Aos Sí) ARE the ancient Irish, and the legends were more based on fact than people realize.

Really? This would come as a surprise to all the Jews READING the Torah in their synagogues at the time of Christ.

In certain industries, you use what the vendors are willing to provide, or you don't stay in business. If the vendor only supports Windows, you use Windows. Period.

As an example, the plant where I work relies heavily on Allen-Bradley Rockwell Software for automation and control. There is no viable alternative on a non-Windows platform, from either a practical or a regulatory perspective. Rockwell Software barely supports 64-bit Windows. They are not likely to make any effort to run on Linux, and sure as heck won't license there software for use under Wine.

Actually, no, it does not use e-ink. Like the black-and-white version, is uses an "e-paper" display that only requires power to change state, but it is not e-ink

Of course, he was attacked by the scientific community, not the church. The other natural philosophers were the ones that lodged the complaints. Until he pissed them off theologically, he had the support of the church. And house arrest, well, gee, he got to stay in the medieval equivalent of a five-star hotel for the rest of his life. I'm sure everyone would like that kind of a sentence.