wolframhydroxide

At least some of us have already.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and provide new guards for their future security.

Kind of surprised Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal hasn't been mentioned yet. Lots of philosophical hilarity, with notes of science, religion, robots, economics, and nerd references.

As far as things that have been mentioned, seconding Perry Bible Fellowship, xkcd, the Oatmeal, and Cyanide and Happiness

Poe's Law

Since the OP is definitely not going to stoop to answer a seemingly ridiculous question: No, this is in reference to the tendency for websites to say "we NEVER share your data, except with our 'partners'!", while these "partners" are all ad and tracking companies, and they number in the hundreds.

To give a more 'internet' answer: "Do you want it to be?"

To be fair, Coelacanth, I don't think you're a normative judge of the passage of time.

R

Oh, that was you? Good call, though I'd prefer to simultaneously splinch into a thousand fragments, each simultaneously teleporting into the carotids of each person with a warrant from the Hague, as well as the next 500 most-wealthy people, followed by the boards of any fossil fuel companies I can fit into the thousand. I don't think it was specified that it was single-location or in-one-piece teleportation.

And that's fair. I think, though, that they were pointing out that the violence in that case would be mob violence from the hypothetical revolution, not actually at the behest of an authoritarian ruler. The death penalty is not involved. They seemed to be arguing that, at some point, the measurable and visible harm a person or small number of people does or do to the world by their continued practices, combines with the risk of them using their power and influence to escape from justice should any real attempt be made to force them to reconcile with their crimes, and that this inability to enforce justice without death, combined with the inherent injustice of doing nothing, could be the fomenting factor for mob violence against such tyrants.

Rust my bolts and call me the tin man, 'cause I'm standing next to the biggest strawman of the century, and he still has no brain. Dorothy's probably on her way any second.

Hard disagree: they exhibit 4 perfect octahedral cleavage planes in addition to their adamantine lustre, diamond is one of the most useful materials in existence, and their petrological origins speak to incredibly interesting conditions of formation! In fact, a mineral inclusion within a diamond gave us our first solid evidence of the existence of water at equilibrium with mantle rock at depth on Earth, which was previously largely discounted.

But yeah, fuck De Beers.

Alright, now we agree: solar isn't for everywhere, and the gravity storage method won't work in most places. You need preexisting slope, and my original comment was highly US-normative. As such, yes, we would need huge swathes of solar and wind collection sites, passive wave generators, pumped hydro and, yes, perhaps nuclear. Not everything will be "on" all the time. As far as the energy vs. Electricity numbers, while I vacillated between different terms, I WAS quite careful to only include electricity numbers throughout my stats and, again, none of my points were trying to prove that solar, specifically, is the right answer for the netherlands in exclusion of all else, but only that a significant energy storage problem can be solved with gravitational potential, and that the solution IS scalable if sites are selected carefully, and the fact that this has not been tried at scale anywhere in the world is due to government corruption. Still a US-normative idea, which I'll grant, but still true, when you have places from morocco to the Gobi, to the outback to the western US, all with significant natural elevation change, significant open areas, and excellent prospects for renewable energy sources of ALL kinds.

Also, as far as solar panels go, remember that actual diode solar panels are NOT the only way to harvest solar energy (let alone the cheapest). Mirrors can easily be used to boil water, and this plan was nearly attempted throughout egypt a hundred years ago (see Frank Shuman's solar thermal generators). However, I'm not about to argue that we should put giant solar collectors in one of the countries that is simultaneously the most population-dense (3rd highest in europe, IIRC) AND in a climate where large-scale solar is somewhat inefficient, ESPECIALLY when you have so much available wind power.