I worked on a project doing exactly this about 5 years ago. The company, called SustainX, i believe is gone and disbanded. There are probably others too. They basically took a giant marine diesel engine and modified it become an air compressor in storage mode, and an expander in retrieval mode. They had solved some of the technical challenges of doing it in a thermodyanically efficient way. Something about isothermal and adiabatic. I forget the details but they have some elaborate mechanism for *both* the compression and expansion of the gas to extract a lot more usable energy. The big problem was storage. They used a giant tank array for their test system. They really wanted to deploy it globally but it turns out there's only a few locations in the entire word that have suitable geology for underground storage. So since tanks were relatively expensive and the geology wasn't prevalent, the company didn't sell anything and folded. Cool idea and very technically savvy company though.

The Germans excel at making technically excellent beer. However, they lack when it comes to variety. Their culture is tied to the idea that there is a right way (process) to make beer and their are traditional styles (recipes). The result is that there isn't much flavor variety even when you hop between breweries in towns hundreds of km apart. Sure you have a few darker styles, some stronger, some lighter, but overall there isn't THAT much difference compared to the variety of beers you regularly see in the US since in the US we aren't bound so much by tradition. Overall the US makes the best beer overall in the world because we have the variety and skill (although there is still a lot of trash). Belgium also makes some really great stuff but i would argue their flavors are too much for mass appeal. Germans make great beer too but their style just isn't that creative and gets boring.

Judges frequently are asked to make decisions in the gray areas. In fact that is a common function of the supreme court. For example, there is no mention of abortion in the constitution. A group of 9 people were asked to interrupt what constitutes the beginning of life and whether or not taking it away constitutes murder, or not. Whether one thinks this type of decision is a moral or not will sway their legal opinions in the absence of solid law and precedents. Pass a constitutional amendment for or against and it's the nearly irrefutable law of the land. However, the issue is too split to get broad support one way or the other.

had the flu last year and felt like i was going to die. does that count?

humanity is a cesspool.

Recently I worked many years in what was basically a construction trailer. It was much more glorious than it sounds though. I had my own 'office' with 3 windows and a door. Not to mention hundreds of dollars a week in snacks and Monster available at my whim. Parking was frequently less than 30' from the door. A good #2 bathroom was 1000' away, but that meant getting out and having forced exercise. Lunch was also free and always offsite. Point is that I got to be outdoors 10 times a day and that made it feel a lot more free.

Now i'm working in an office building where I have a view of planes landing and taking off at a major US airport. I am facing a 4th floor window all day and that makes things feel a little more open. But no outdoors.

Definitely beats my other desk though that's a cube on the interior of a building. You wouldn't know if Armageddon had started.

I was in Tempe about 2 weeks ago and these things were all over the place. Twice i observed them driving erratically. One time it was trying to change lanes, but seemingly couldn't decide what to do. It moved halfway over, before reaching an intersection, then moved back over, applying the brakes unnecessarily, and then trying again. The first attempt it was wide open to make the move, the second one was a little dicey and i had to back off because i thought there was going to be an accident in front of me.

The medical field is ABSOLUTELY rolling in the dough. Maybe not the nurses, but others are. For example, I just picked up new tenants in my rental property who are doctors in their first year of practice. Their salary is 3x what I make as an electrical engineer with over a decade of experience. I won't quote exact numbers because that's private info, but we're talking about annual salary levels higher than most people make cumulatively in a DECADE.

if they've got all this excess energy they could desalinate pacific ocean water and pump it to lake mead.

realistically what are you going to do with high dollar customer made capital equipment that can't get a windows update? throw it out? no you keep using it until it breaks.

the US govt developed this tech 40 years ago. the chinese stole the technology and just now figured out how to kind of make it work. they sell a home version on aliexpress for cheap, but it'll only last two uses before breaking. but you can throw it away and buy another.

Charlotte, and really all of NC, is full of some of the most ignorant, head in the sand, proud-to-be-simple-minded people you'll find anywhere. They don't think. They just do what they need to do so they can get to church on Sunday.

With this bleak outlook i'm so glad i fell into a career in automation. Dollars are rolling in these days and no end in sight.

Sounds horrible. The plane will still be on the ground and i'll be spinning with vertigo. If i can't see out a window my head starts to spin, even taxiing.

You forgot they add a GROUP BY and ORDER BY clause too. There's where the real money is at.