Comment Data centers on Brownfield sites (Score 1) 66
Why not build data centres on already cleared Brownfields sites that have been cleaned up to the point there is no significant risk for commercial/industrial use?
Comment Re:Crazy idea (Score 1) 509
Is there really any reason we can't just make pennies out of plastic instead? Personally, I haven't used cash in ages anyway so I'm really neither here nor there on running out of pennies, but it seems like if the problem is just that they cost too much to manufacture, make them out of something cheaper.
Canada made pennies out of aluminum for several years before abolishing them.
Comment Re:Canada did this and it is great (Score 1) 347
Canada banned single-use plastic bags at grocery checkouts a while back. Now everybody brings reusable cloth bags or other reusable containers to the store. It's really no big deal, and it does eliminate unsightly decaying plastic bags flapping randomly in trees and on fences.
Meanwhile Amazon has an 80-count bag of 4-gallon/15-L bathroom plastic bags selling for $9. So for my household what was free now costs $9, with zero difference in plastic output to the landfill.
Comment Re: To everyone who thinks they're immune (Score 1) 96
TFA states that scammers read the card barcodes without buying them - so whoever then buys the card gets a dud. The only defence is not to buy gift cards at all.
Why don't stores put the cards behind glass or on the wall behind the counter?
Comment Re:No (Score 0) 110
True.
Only eating bugs, a switch to public transportation (with the resulting loss of freedom) and a massive wealth transfer from first to third world nations can solve that.
You left out further concentration of control by the central government, but "loss of freedom" could cover that.
Comment Re:fees and interest rates (Score 1) 63
If retailers charge 2-4% to cover credit card fees because the fees are 2-4% more than handling checks or cash, then handling checks and cash is free? What about counting my multiple people (free time?), trips to the bank (free time and free gas, or free armoured car services?), insurance to pay for stolen cash (free?) or the cost of stolen cash (also free?), or the cost of bonding those in the business handling cash (again, free?).
Comment Re:Don't confuse TCE with TCE (Score 2) 29
EPA calls tetrachloroethylene perchloroethylene or PCE, which only has a partial ban being phased on. Trichloroethylene is getting the near complete ban, but just like in Europe a lot of industry will switch to PCE (called PER in the EU).
TCE is a known carcinogen and PCE only a likely one, but that seems more a question of time than a fundamental difference to me.
PCE decays to TCE (and 1,2-DCE and vinyl chloride...) in the environment.
Comment Want to stop Robocalls? (Score 1) 110
From the article: "While 70% of all calls (normal calls and unwanted calls) come from major U.S. carriers, only 12% of the high-risk calls are from the big carriers. That means the problem lies with lesser-known providers."
What should be done is the telcos should identify the outliers, the most egregious companies hosting spammers. Block the worst one immediately, permanently, without warning. Given the rest of them 30 days to shape up. If there are still outliers 30 days out, block them as well.
