Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:You don't see wars fought over solar panels (Score 1) 110

Conservatives want the U.S. to be self-sufficient with petroleum. They want Europe to not have to depend on petroleum from Russia.

40 years ago leftists were having hissy fits about diamonds from the Union of South Africa. Petroleum is far more important and the Islamist and Russian governments far more dangerous.

Comment Re: Capacity !=production (Score 1) 110

Pumped hydro efficiency is in the range of 70% to 80%. That's a lot of waste. The the ability to make pumped hydro depends heavily on local geography. Substantial capacity would require building new reservoirs, and many environmentalists are already unhappy with the reservoirs already in place. They aren't maintenance-free, but I'd guess the effective mean time between refurbishments is not much different than lithium batteries.

Submission + - New Revelations Reignite Crypto Scandal Involving Argentina's President Milei (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: President Javier Milei of Argentina promoted a cryptocurrency last year that quickly skyrocketed in value then cratered just as fast, costing investors millions of dollars and setting off a scandal and an investigation. Mr. Milei said he was simply highlighting a private venture and had no connection to the digital coin called $Libra. New evidence is now raising questions about his assertion. Phone logs from a federal investigation by Argentine prosecutors into the coin’s collapse show seven phone calls between Mr. Milei and one of the entrepreneurs behind the cryptocurrency on the night in 2025 when Mr. Milei posted about $Libra on X. The contents of the calls, which took place before and after Mr. Milei’s post, are not known.

But the phone logs — which were obtained by The New York Times and first reported by a local cable news channel, C5N — suggest a greater degree of communication between Mr. Milei and the entrepreneurs who launched the token than what the president has publicly acknowledged. Newly uncovered messages also suggest Mr. Milei received regular payments from one of the entrepreneurs while he was a congressman. Mr. Milei has not publicly commented on the call logs and other documents, and he did not respond to a request for comment. He is named as a person of interest in the federal prosecutor’s continuing investigation into the digital coin, according to court documents reviewed by The Times, but has not been formally charged with any crime. The latest revelations have revived a scandal that threatens the very foundation of a president who rose to power and was elected president in 2023 by attacking a political class he called corrupt.

Submission + - 'Microshifting' Puts a New Spin On 9-To-5 Schedules (apnews.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that New Jersey gaming regulators cannot prevent Kalshi from allowing people in the state to use its prediction market to place financial bets on the outcome of sporting events. A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 (PDF) in finding that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over the sports-related event contracts that Kalshi allows people to trade on its platform. The ruling marked the first time a federal appeals court has ruled on what has become the central issue in an escalating battle over the ability of state gaming regulators to police the activity of prediction market operators.

Kalshi and companies like it allow users to place trades and profit from predictions on events such as sports and elections. States argue that firms like Kalshi are operating without required state licenses, in violation of gaming laws, including bans on wagers by those under 21. Those states include New Jersey, which last year sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter stating that its listing of sports-related event contracts on its platform violated state gambling laws that prohibit betting on collegiate sports. Kalshi sued the state, arguing its event contracts qualify as "swaps," a type of derivative contract, that under the Commodity Exchange Act can only be regulated by the CFTC, which had granted the company a license to operate a designated contract market (DCM).

A lower-court judge had sided with New York-based Kalshi and issued a preliminary injunction, prompting New Jersey to appeal. But a majority of the judges on the 3rd Circuit panel concluded the Commodity Exchange Act likely preempted state law. "Kalshi's sports-related event contracts are swaps traded on a CFTC-licensed DCM, so the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction," U.S. Circuit Judge David Porter wrote. The ruling was in line with the position advanced in other litigation by the CFTC under President Donald Trump's administration. The regulator last week sued Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois to prevent them from pursuing what it called unlawful efforts to regulate prediction markets.

Comment Re:"Fairly voice their opinions" (Score 1) 79

History is littered with the corpses of seemingly immortal companies. The East India Company is centuries gone. General Motors went bankrupt and the name now exists on top of a new corporation. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company is a shadow of its former dominant self, and Sears Roebuck is dying. Standard Oil and Bell (AT&T) were shattered by the U.S. government.

Comment Re:Standard tactic (Score 1) 79

But I thought the way it worked is a bunch of workers agree to strike if their demands are not met.

That's done by majority vote. If 49% of the employees want to work, they will often be prohibited either because the business requires most people to be working or the company can't run at all (think steel mill) or they'll be physically threatened.

Comment Re: Win the battle, lose the war (Score 1) 79

In actual business practice, employees seldom negotiate their wages. They just take what they get. Those who do negotiate, do so with their boss, their boss's boss, and/or someone in personnel.

Unions are blind to individual merit. Those who want unions are slackers or people who see themselves as helpless victims.

Comment Re:Ye Gods! (Score 1) 79

In some states, in some companies, union membership is mandatory. Part of pay goes directly to the union. Of the union's portion, a small part goes to wage negotiation and other valid employee concerns, some goes to union thugs to make trouble, and some goes to payoffs to mostly Democrat politicians.

Legally mandated corruption.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -- William E. Davidsen

Working...