I'd kindly ask you to read page 45 of the NERC document referenced in the post. It shows generation contributions from variable sources (renewables). SPP and MISO in the Midwest have the 2nd and 3rd most renewable nameplate generation respectively. The problem is the 2nd and 3rd column in that table where the anticipated generator from those sources is a small percentage of the nameplate quantity. I live in Eastern Montana and work as an engineer at a power plant. There is a lot of wind generation in the area and the wind blows fairly regularly, but still, hot summer days not only cause the worst situation for generation both for thermal and renewable sources, but also for system load. Transmission capacity is based on cooling of substation transformers and high voltage power lines. Before our coal plant was retired in 2021 (very small plant, it was definitely it's time to be done), we'd often run into situations where generation pricing further east in the grid was favorable, but we'd be running at our minimum load due to transmission capacity. We now have peaking capacity on this site which helps stabilize line voltage in the area, but even units designed for quick turn around peaking to chase wind require frequent maintenance. It's a hard situation that I feel would best be served by added small modular nuclear units that could be placed strategically to supply power where the transmission system can best receive the power.

First off, this is amazing! I would love it if the moon were included just for the effect of scale.

Not so where I live. Here in Montana we technically have two choices in wireless but the 'choice' comes down to where you want to have service. Verizon has better service in some rural areas and Altel has better service in other rural areas. For an equal quality connection across the state, you pretty much need to have Verizon. I'm not trying to promote Verizon, just relating my experience with both carriers.

As for competition for wired connections, there is next to none in most of the state. Between 5 and 10 towns will have more than one broadband service provider.

Not everyone in the United States, let alone the world, live in urban areas.

Mod this insightful!

Umm, this may happen for solely creative fields but engineering will always require study. You're not going to hire someone to build a bridge without some proof they know how to do so. Same applies to designing a banks security, machinery, and high-tech gadgets. Without study and training, you cannot design an electronic circuit. You could argue that you don't need to get a degree to gain this knowledge, but a degree is the best, most consistent, form of proof that you have this knowledge. I'm a mechanical engineering student and sure I could download a program like SolidWorks to design and stress test parts but no one is going to hire me for engineering until I have a degree. Especially if my work could possibly cause personal injury or property damage.

You sir, deserve a Grammy Nomination, or at least a Techie.

/. needs to band together and picket Blizzard until LAN support is put into SC2. "NO LAN NO CRAFT!!1"

This is only alcohol consumption away from being Bender!

If you find yourself in Eastern Montana, be sure to stop in Glendive. We have 3 museums with a population of around 5000 people. There is Makoshika State Park's museum which contains dinosaur, sea life, and mammoth fossils found in the area, there is the Gateway Museum of old west stuff and a suit of armor for some reason, and, best of all, Glendive has a creationist dinosaur museum. Just don't think too hard on how you go about considering yourself seriously when building a creationist dinosaur museum.

I have worked on fixing computers for quite a few non-tech-savvy people and I have never seen one hard drive with more than 20GB worth of stuff on it. The one that came closest had 4 separate Outlook accounts that have been accumulating newsletters for years and never had a single email deleted. (This was a bitch to get working again on a fresh install of XP).

A lot of people I know aren't even sure how to check how much of their hard drive is filled. Granted, I live in Eastern Montana (yes, we have electricity), but no matter where you are, I wouldn't expect that half the people in line with you at the grocery would be able to tell you what is taking up the most space on their computer. What I see usually when I talk someone out of buying a tell into letting me build them a computer is that I have to buy them a bigger hard drive than I know what they will use (based on their current hard drive use) so that it will have the big numbers they have seen advertised