Comments DogsCatsAndStrays has made

  • I do not see tax relief in this

    proposal.  I would expect this tax to start out in the house sub-committee as revenue neutral, but end up to a real burden on the middle class.   I have a very hard time seeing how this could be passed in congress.  On Very interesting posted 2 years, 4 months ago 9 Responses

  • Good Idea

    But I don't want to be an early adopter, I can see real problems with software in the first years.  I will keep an eye on this concept.On Hard to say, but Zonbu has clearly done its homework posted 2 years, 4 months ago 20 Responses

  • On Consensus

    If you can find something everyone agrees on, it's wrong.
      - Mo UdallOn A professor of History and Science Studies explains posted 2 years, 5 months ago 9 Responses

  • JustLou

    Doesn't it make sense to you that a person with more education should be more skeptical of everything?

    Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.
    Mark Twain
    US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) On Tom DeLay crawls out from under his rock posted 2 years, 5 months ago 7 Responses

  • Ignorance

    All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.

    Mark Twain, Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887
    US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910) On Do parents lose or gain by taking kids outdoors? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 6 Responses

  • Dingell is correct

    CAFE standards are useless or have a negative effect.  A tax on gasoline is effective for gasoline reduction.  So MoveOn in uninformed.  On He's pro-carbon tax, anti-CAFE -- which matters more? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 20 Responses

  • sunflower

    Coal and the sun are related, the sun of the carboniferous era shown on the plants who stored the energy in hydrocarbon form.  With the plants death and 100 million years that energy from the sunshine of long ago is ours to unleash.  When you burn coal you are setting free the energy of the long ago sun.

    The above adds nothing to the debate on whether or not coal should be mined and used for energy, but it's raining and was thinking about the sunshine.
    On Always keep the bait dangling just out of reach posted 2 years, 5 months ago 17 Responses

  • Coal

      "Coal is the enemy of the human race"

    This is an emotional remark that hardly expresses the role coal has played in shaping our lives.  No-one in the US is proud of coal use; it seems to underscore our lack of progress that after over a hundred years since the industrial revolution we are still burning the remains of Triassic era.  No coal miner would argue that coal is dirty; no boiler operator would say that coal burning is clean; no baghouse operator would say that the combustion exhaust is good for you, but coal is a manageable resource.

    Most likely you would not have born without the burning of coal.  Coal is what makes steel production viable (you can use wood but it's not easy) and steel is what we use to make cars, plows, buildings and everything else you use in modern times.  Coal for better or worse is what God gave us; we have more BTU's in coal than any other source of potential energy.  I wish God would have given us hydrogen in the ground, or more natural gas, but he didn't, he gave us coal.   We can either use it or not, but coal is not the enemy, it is a gift.
    On Always keep the bait dangling just out of reach posted 2 years, 5 months ago 17 Responses

  • JMG

    It is hard to pin a number on fleet average turnover, trying to apply statistics to a persons decision to buy a new car has uncounted variables.

    The best methodology to use for fleet average turnover is fleet half-life, it is probably as good a mathematical model as any.   The trick is to try and guess the impact of external factors such as a doubling of gas prices.  The five year half life (which I called turnover before) is from the oil industry and is based on gasoline price spike response.  Historically the half life has been 8 years.On Well, sorta posted 2 years, 5 months ago 24 Responses

  • Five year lag on transportation impact

    Since the transportation fleet has a five year turn-over.  It takes some time for high gasoline prices to take hold.  

    With electricity I predict larger increases in per capita consumption as large plasma screen televisions replace more energy efficient CRT's.  Also more computers per capita will drive power consumption up.
    On Well, sorta posted 2 years, 5 months ago 24 Responses

  • GreyFlcn

    Nearly all hydro-electric power is reserved for on-peak distribution for two reasons:

    1.    The on-peak MW's are the most valuable
    2.    Hydro power has the fastest ramp rate, you can start and stop hydro-power without having to fire boilers or do any type of warm-up.  

    With every hydro project there are a series of restrictions, minimum water flows, maximum and minimum lake heights, maximum flows etc. but within the boundaries the objective is peak generation.
    On A concise introduction posted 2 years, 6 months ago 38 Responses

  • What is rapid change?

    By NOAA the rate of change is 0.11 degF/decade 1895 to 2006, is this rapid?

    See:

    http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/na.html ...

    Put in  (First year to display) to  (Last year to display), pick [annual] for the period, and look at the temp trend.On On the NASA administrator's comments posted 2 years, 6 months ago 11 Responses