What you are referring to " was warned about by those evil republicans " is called projecting - and even foreshadowing of their actions. More in the tone of " if you do this we will do that ".

I'm not saying that republicans are actively setting up the "panels" as referred to them - but they are the #1 reason why we STILL have the only for profit healthcare system in the modern world.

And as someone a few comments above mentioned - there has to be some point of reality applied (how much is it worth to extend X's life by Y length? and when is that unbalanced and unreasonable?

But all a for profit healthcare system is going to do is ALWAYS drive up the costs, because they gotta make their money, doesn't really matter the impact on individuals (or the population really).

So under a For Profit Healthcare System - which Republicans fight tooth and nail to keep vs. going single payer Public service like the rest of the modern world - the cost of services will be significantly higher and incentives to help people lower and ultimately it will kill more people - period.

U.S. Automotive Safety Standards are higher than any other place in the world. Between the higher Safety & Emissions Standards its nearly impossible to import a new/current non US Domestic Market model car into the US in it's stock form.. Once they are 24+y old, then you can import them as vintage and they don't have to be brought to to standards.

i'm betting the actual work and materials going into this isn't all that expensive - but the liability mitigation costs - that will keep it out of reach of all but the uber rich.

Nests have for years - i don't' let it auto schedule, but i do like the ability to program them and also use them in IFTTT setups.

this is why you also have your thermostat set to trigger if the inside humidity is too high - i have mine set to a range of 70F to 80F and a max of 55% humidity.. in the spring & fall it only ever cuts on to pull the water out of the air, else we would get mold here in NC where it can routinely be 90+% humidity

good point - i forget that copper falls into the heavy metal group.... i am surprised (not surprised) to see Cadmium, we need to get rid of that stuff same way we did with lead...

hum the average solar panel does not have any heavy metals.. while ending up in a landfill is not and efficent reuse of materials - they are not toxic to the environment..

While i understand your stance towards Thorium vs. Uranium as a fuel - do remember these are Commercial designs, expecting a Commercial Lifecyle and financial returns.

There is a large industrial complex that exists today around Uranium fuel bundle manufacturing, and zero around Thorium.

If we waned to make that kind of shift - we would be looking at a major government action to ensure viable and affordable long term Thorium fuel production - and that just isn't going to happen when we can barely get the general population to stop being scared of the radiation bogeyman.

as the owner of an EV with a 7kWh charger - i'd only save ~35$/month - not really worth the effort and risk of trying to modify something like this

I get that the breaker can be at the consumption of the feeder - BUT the code was not written for 2 physically separate consumption points from the meter.

Currently you have to have a single through for the main from the feeder at the consumption box OR the box must be a 6 throw or less..

Unless there is a single throw breaker on this sucker right between the meter and the box - this is basically providing two consumption points with the assumption that they in total don't overload the line coming in.

Now that said i'm sure they are smart enough to know NEC - so i'd assume there is a single main breaker on this, and it provides a feed out to the charger (which may have a local or a different breaker at the device) and then is rated to feed down to the main panel the 200-300amp depending on service sizes.

That said, ti's an odd gray area on code, but likely good and would get some clarifications next update - and a kind of neat idea on how to add a significant draw load like an EV fast charger for older homes...

New homes i'd expect have room for a 240v 30amp off a main, or even a sub panel, and for those this is over kill cost wise.

This is basically super plasma cutters - also known as magic fire - which uses compressed air that has been ionized to transfer the energy to the object to melt. The air passing by pulls residual heat from the nozzle that it absorbs from the plasma radiant heat. As long as you have proper air flow for the for the amount of power you are dumping in the nozzles last just fine...

They likely will also have a heat sink/water cooling - but the big challenge will be ensuring the vaporized rock makes it to the outer wall to form a glass casing..

From a technical challenge aspect is how they are going to feed this think power - that amount of power sustained for any real amount of time will be a big challenge to deliver logistically..

100% agree - the odds of an apocalypse is low, if it does happen none of this matters - buy low/now and wait 5-8 years and be golden, glad my retirement target is yesterday 2032, should be right at the right point in the cycle.

The expense/profit but as an "investment' is only a small bit - most tech companies who make money off of "IP" sell the IP to a shell in a country that doesn't have corporates taxes (that zero value) and then license it back to the US company, which then uses the licensing fees as an Expense to offset profits so they pay no taxes in the US, and then all their money is sitting in an "IP" holding shell company which can then turn around and finance investments in other areas for the same "customers" that are licensing the "IP".

There is a whole industry around tax avoidance, and in the end yes - they pay effectively zero, especially compared to the effective rate of what any other person in the US pays.

Lowering the Corporate tax rates in the US is useless, closing loop hopes and double backs so that we actually can get tax revenue from these corporations vs. bleeding the middle class is what we need to do.

"We also need to lower commercial tax rates to compete with the economic incentives to off-shore productivity."

You realize they basically don't pay taxes now? Lowering zero to less than zero isn't going to help.

100% agree to incentivize domestic manufacturing over of-shore - but you do that by adjusting tariffs on incoming goods, but that also has global impacts and can cause global backlash.

Another option would be to completely redo our corporate tax laws, and remove the incentives for off-shore manufacturing and of-shore revenue movements.... but that would require those in power to do something that negatively impacts them, so that will never happen..

i've got 10kwh worth of LifePO4 batteries in my office at the moment for a pack i'm building ofr a mobile trailer... they are here and in use..

what i don't get is - Li[Ni0.5Mn0.3Co0.2]O2 - are the Ni 0.5/Min 0.3 Co 0.2 because they are shared ion connections?

Shouldn't that be written out to the common denominator? 10Li5Ni3Mn2Co10O2 i mean its a big molecule but still...