The oil and gas industry apparently earned 4 trillion in profits in recent years.

http://www.reuters.com/busine...

It may well be the money these green funds have invested is a mistake, but in no way would that investment ever be missed. It is a tiny drop in the barrel, as it were.

China has no issues with this. Red tape is a western problem, and it applies to renewables too. I get a good laugh out of people protesting and challenging offshore wind using the same tactics as the anti-nuclear crowd. They are all the same kind of people.

A democratic country with import contracts as backup. There is another thread on /. today discussing Denmark and their lack of inertia. Raw renewable energy is cheap. The storage, transmission, synthetic inertia, grid following inverters and other things make it not cheap anymore. Definitely not a camping chair.

The part you don't get is you are going to need them all. The world is not going to run on renewables in 2050, not even close. Sorry to burst your bubble.

North America also includes Canada and Mexico, who are very much the same as the US in this regard.

They are the modern replacement for the big cars and station wagons of yore. Spacious, luxurious, high seating position, all weather capable. I don't own a new pickup or SUV, but many of them are very nice. Much nicer than the typical econobox.

Buying things that meet any foreseeable needs is not uncommon, it is not just about saving money. Some people don't worry about that. I don't need a big screen TV and home theater system, for the occasional movie I could just go to a theater. I don't need that nice Gaggia espresso machine, I can just go to Starbucks for the occasional shot. Who needs a barbeque when there is Skip the Dishes?

I don't own a truck, but not needing to borrow other people's would be an excellent reason to own one IMO. I own a lot of things I don't use a lot. Does not bother me at all.

This makes no sense, unless you think intermittent power is a goal. Most people want reliable 24/7 power there whenever they need it. You can do this with renewables/storage/transmission, but is vastly more complicated, and expensive, than most people imagine. Having some plants that run all the time makes it much easier. I think that was kind of the whole point of the article.

Everyone is using 2050 as a benchmark for net zero. That is 25 years away. Yes, we should have started much sooner. There will be plenty of opportunity to assign blame, but still better to start later then never. Putting it off even longer won't have a better result. 15 years from now you may still be saying there is not enough time, but you are not fooling anyone.

Greens are why the world has 400 reactors and 12,000 thermal coal plants.

It is hard to tell what an LLM is looking up or what it is recalling. If I ask for the weather or who won the hockey game last night it will obviously need to look it up, but I already mentioned they will obviously fail on current events without that ability. I assume anything it has not been trained on it will look up, or say I don't know if it can't?

The next question then would be can I install a model that is pre-trained enough to convince me it is human. Because I said no internet. And being pre-trained to write Python is a long way from having an intellectually stimulating conversation.

That is my question. Would training on static materials - LoC, Wikipedia, your My Documents folder - no general internet - be sufficient to make them seem human?

I'm aware of that, but how smart are they without being able to look things up? Will they still impress on a laptop with no network connection, besides obviously failing at any sort of recent news...

Do it without being connected to the internet.

Actually shovels have been turning for 2 1/2 years already, site preparation takes time, but that is now complete. Set to begin means what it says. Handily there is a big advantage in building on an already licensed nuclear site, it makes it easier to keep the anti nuclear nutjobs from trying to delay and increase costs. Also, Canada has a successful history with nuclear power, we don't have as many snowflakes as some other places.

http://news.ontario.ca/en/rel... Note the date. I presume people have been getting paid so far, you read more into that financing statement than the simple info it provides.

OPG already has a fleet of traditional reactors and are currently refurbishing some of them, all of which are/were on budget and on time. This will be bad news for the people who want them to fail. Unfortunately for you they are demonstrably competent.

http://www.world-nuclear-news...

Canada has also completed site selection for our waste repository, which should construction soon as well.

http://www.nwmo.ca/en/site-se...

Fortunately China is not the only place where nuclear power has a great future.

Yeah we know, renewables are going to save the world. The problems is solved, so I needn't care anymore. Fortunately I don't.

In reality, I'm just going to sit back, enjoy life, and watch you fail. Content in the knowledge that I am not complicit or participating in your failure. Have fun!

The horizon is getting close.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada...