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Welcome to Pandora Pandora's Box Crystal Vales
Private now we are free
Discussion in 'Crystal Vales' started by Superman, Jun 6, 2019.
Superman DC Universe
Advanced Human
@Wanda Maximoff
It was really weighting down on his conscience that he had never celebrated Wanda's birthday with her. It was not that he ever needed an excuse to get her presents or be affectionate, but moreso that they did not have many special days to celebrate in the first place. His own birthdays were hardly authentic, they had missed plenty of Christmases and Halloweens for one reason or another and the only thing they had been left with were some very dramatic Valentine's days. So when he found, by chance, that there might was a way to finally celebrate something and make her happy, he put himself to work. And the day before, he asked her to take a few hours off of her plans, in order to give him a chance to wish her a happy birthday.
Instead of flying her, he thought it best to left her with a map of the location so that she could come at her own pace. The hour of the day did not matter much to him, as he had decided to stay there, deep in one of the more lush forests of the Vales, for as long as it was needed. Usually, magic did not agree with him, but he had decided to let his hesitations and prejudices aside and invest to it. And now he was enjoying the fruits of his labor.
Because, as it were, that little part of the greater world had some special sort of mystical powers, that allowed the passersby to transform the environment for one day, according to what their heart desired. Kal had tested it for days, to determine how safe it was, because blessings such as those often came with high prices.
But there was nothing. Every day the scenery reflected his greatest desires and every night it disappeared. If he were to leave and come back, the same process was repeated.
Bearing in mind a few of Wanda's favorite things, when she passed through a portal between two tall oak trees, she would see an entire valley of orchids tall enough to reach her knees. Horses were galloping without crushing them under their heels and large bird-like creatures(that could also be mistaken for dragons, from one angle) were flying above.
He was sitting near a pond , wearing an attire common in the Soviet Union after the second world war, waiting for her. As well as trying to control the scenery of the place that could change at his will. He was manipulating gravity, in order to be lighter without effecting Wanda's physiology, besides giving her the option to make great leaps. Maybe even fly. And when Wanda stepped inside, her dreams would, logically, blend with his version of what made her happy, orchestrated by her own will.
#1 Superman, Jun 6, 2019
Wanda Maximoff Marvel Universe
For the first three years it was easier for Wanda to forget she had a birthday at all instead of acknowledging it without Pietro. Painful reminders aside, it really hadn't been worth celebrating, and it wasn't as if Kal needed a specific day of the year to lift her spirits. He'd already lifted her up from the cusp of nihilism, loved her beyond death, loved her despite the nigh overwhelming setbacks and the complications posed by everything around them, his lingering trauma, the whiplash of her... abruptly growing family. That he was as patient and loving as ever was something she could never take for granted.
Then three years later, her birth date was finally let out of the bag. It was still hers and Pietro's shared birthday, as much as it had ever been, but Kal wanted to plan something too and she couldn't deny the joy expanding in her heart like warmth radiating from a hearth. She wouldn't focus on the guilt of not being as inseparable with her twin as before, not now, as she stepped between the two oak trees fairly early in the morning.
She stood transfixed for all of her first minute upon arrival, running her fingers against the soft orchid blossoms as her gaze traveled up and swept over the impossibly blue sky. This was… incredible, like something she'd imagined from a daydream. What was this place? Somewhere between reality and otherworld? Dorian once described places where the veil was thin, places lurking of danger… Only there was no danger here that she could detect, just an infinitely more corporeal fantasy than that of her dreams, with Kal at the center. Not even thinking to bend the landscape to her own will, she took one step after another, her eyes still large and amazed as she let every detail sink in. Experimentally, all the flowers she passed lit up in trails of multicolored glows. Her pace quickened, grew more excited and urgent, until she was dashing straight into his arms as hers wound tightly around his waist.
"How did you find this?" she asked into his shirt, overflowing with bemusement and gratitude. Not necessarily for this place, though she loved it all the same. It was gratitude for him.
#2 Wanda Maximoff, Jun 19, 2019
Superman likes this.
Wanda herself had been more easy to love than she believed. She had always been perfect and special and extraordinary and compelling in his eyes and she stood out from the rest. The other things, the side things, were often difficult, but he was sure there was nothing in Pandora that could separate them, no matter how persistent it was. Instead of his affection diminishing with time and complications, every day he found himself wanting for more.
And after those hard months, he believed that he deserved to steal moments of happiness with her. And make it as grant and spectacular as possible, so that it would overshadow all the little, lingering every day sorrows.
He grew nervous as he waited, so he made efforts to clear his mind from the dark thoughts and enjoy living in the moment, in that wonderful place. He took comfort in imagining Wanda's excited features when she would find it and all the possibilities her imagination would open. They could do everything here. They could be anyone they wished to be and no one could fault them or criticize them or hurt them.
A little pocket of a paradise he never thought he would find.
The first thing he noticed was Wanda's scent. His heart begun to beat faster, but there was a warm feeling that took over his senses. Then he turned his blue eyes towards her, so that she could admire all the details of her reaction. And his heart was overflown with joy when she showed how much she enjoyed it.
He was smiling brightly when she run towards him and he opened his arms to embrace her, his head lowering enough so that he could touch her shoulders. 'I wanted to give you everything. This was the most practical way, actually.' he spoke, short laughter escaping his lips. 'It is perfectly secure. I have made sure.' he added, knowing Wanda's tendency to question things. 'Happy birthday, my love.' he wished and his lips touched her hair.
#3 Superman, Jun 20, 2019
Everything? Wanda could wish for anything in this place, and it would grant her that? Temporarily probably needed to be a key disclaimer, but even then she was stumped by what to make of the next few hours. Spending them with Kal was a no-brainer at least, and Wanda slid her fingers through his thick hair and breathed it all in.
There weren't words in existence that could express how much he meant to her, so she defaulted to... something simplistic. "Thanks, honey," she murmured, her eyes closing as she continued to draw comfort from his embrace. What if she imagined something so perfect into existence that she never wanted to leave? This, perhaps, was the one danger he may not have anticipated.
Her brow furrowed as she forced herself to mentally skip past fantasies of an idyllic life with just the two of them. Three hours weren't going to be enough for that, and she could predict herself being unbearably sad to part ways with it. Not something she needed on her consciousness the morning of her concert trip with Pietro.
So she considered something in the likeness of a perfect trip instead. Nothing impossible in Pandora, so nothing whose ending she'd mourn terribly —but just barely reminiscent enough of her home, or his home. "...When I was little, I always wanted to visit Buyan," she lightly declared, nuzzling her cheek against the side of his head. She wondered if she'd ever told him before; she must have, probably long ago. With echoes of rustling waves as her raw imaginative desires began to rewire their surroundings—almost as if it were an old game, the pond began to expand until it was a sea wrapping around their isle of orchids. Behind them the tall walls of a small island city like from something out of a storybook rose from nothing at all.
Searching for his hand so she could thread her fingers through his, and with a light in her eyes she moved to tug him along through the towering yet open gates of the mythical kingdom.
He knew that she liked it and he knew that she was happy, after all that time he had spent understanding her emotional state from her expressions or lack of. There was nothing else she had to do to show him and he was proud that they had reached that stage of knowing her. People said the happiest moments of a relationship occurred during the excitement of the first months, but he considered the ones he spent now more important, as their bond grew deeper.
So he let her take her time to decide how she wanted to experiment with the possibilities of this place. He was perfectly content to hold her in his arms in a beautiful place. There could be more beautiful places, yes, but none would be able to move him without Wanda.
When she spoke and moved so tenderly, he could not help but smile brightly. He remembered the stories and the books from his childhood, strangely similar to Wanda's experiences decades later in another universe. And then he saw it all coming to life around them, with astounding detail.
'I knew it was the right choice to make. Look at what your vivid imagination made! You were born an artist.' he spoke proudly, as his eyes begun adjusting to their new and wonderful surroundings. He did not hesitate for one moment to follow her inside, passing the gates to new colors and sights. His eyes shined as he saw the buildings, with the familiar architecture that he remembered from Moscow and other cities and towns in his homecountry. 'It's the same as in Bilibin's drawing.' he mused out loud, with an expression of childish wonderment. .
#5 Superman, Jul 2, 2019
"Are you sure you didn't chip in?" she teased, eyes marveling at the world Kal found, what it created at her beckoning. Wanda hadn't exactly gone the way of meticulously imagining every detail to life, at least not consciously—though her subconscious was known to be loud and hungry for an outlet at times. But all that did was make the exploration of the construct that much more exciting, when she didn't know exactly where and what everything was.
Buyan would not be Buyan without having streets filled with colorful pedestrians and all the life of a beating city. Some of them wore brightly colored hats, others congregated near stalls, whispering about a distant ruler named Koschei.
For her own part, she never desired riches or the powers of kings and queens. The kind of place that tugged at Wanda's yearning heartstrings the most was a tall and narrow house overlooking a water fountain by the market square, flanked between other tall and narrow houses.
Only theirs had a red door which swung open with welcome as they neared. Through the foyer, there were coats hanging from a stand and shoes in his and her size. Scattered sheet music and open books about his interests scattered on the table of a study they passed. A fruit garden was visible through the windows on the other side of the house, to the sounds of softly bleating sheep (and a goat) that couldn't yet be seen.
At the center of it all: a wooden playpen near the open stairway, with a baby slumped sleepily over between his toys. His hair was black like a raven's feathers, with a tiny curl drooping over his forehead. His eyes didn't need to be open for Wanda to know they were green.
Wanda stopped moving at the end of the hall, looking down with a faint purse of her lips, because she told herself she wasn't going to make something like this.
#6 Wanda Maximoff, Jul 4, 2019
'Maybe a little.' he replied with a small smile. Maybe a good part of the red in their world reflected his inner needs, or the presence of organized peasants, despite Buyan still being a kingdom. But he wanted a place where they could together, as well. As a family. And it was there, welcoming them, containing all their favorite things and moments.
He followed silently, amazed by every little detail and smiling fondly. Until they reached the area inside the house that was calling to him, where he came to a stop, to see what Wanda had seen. Such was his shock that he gasped, before his eyes settled and he noticed all the toys he had bought for Aurora near the child. He knew in his heart that the baby was theirs, an outcome of their love for one another. And he realised he had been wanting it for a while, but he had not expressed it to anyone. He had been hiding his desires even from himself, because he knew how impossible his dream was.
He felt very helpless and exposed in front of the manifestation of something so deep and personal, but Wanda was the person he trusted more than anyone else. And he could not help but notice her reaction, that affected him deeply. With one movement, he wrapped his hands around her shoulders, not knowing quite what to say, but feeling the need to support them both.
The sight of the baby had taken her aback. It wasn't as if she had never fancied the possibility once upon a daydream; that's what fantasies were for. She hadn't even known how much she wanted it, if she would be any good at it—starting a family—and she still didn't know. That Wanda from another dimension had tried to start a family, and look what happened to her. Looking after children for a short while, treating them as friends and equals, or just babysitting... that was a far cry from parenting someone from infancy to adulthood, and growing old together. It meant changing her life into something she believed impossible, because it was impossible.
But if she could do that with anyone, of course it would be with Kal and nobody else.
But... this was also still just a fantasy. Her thoughts were a disordered clutter that she needed time parsing together, but when she felt his sturdy arms holding her steady, she was reminded by how she never needed to wall herself off from him like she did with nearly anyone else. Her heart was open to him, always, even in moments of confusion and conflict. "What would we have named him?" she started sheepishly, her fingers curling through his again.
Maybe he was naive to believe that the love he and Wanda shared could only manifest into something wonderful, that would overcome all complications and problems. And in some ways, he had been affected by Wanda's large family, thinking that he should add to it. He had never given a lot of thought in becoming a father before, because it had not been deemed possible. And a part of him was scared that any child of his would inherit the Luthor genes, but he was also hopeful that he along with Wanda were perfectly able to instill moral values to any child they had.
It was a novelty to have his father instincts animated and growing powerful, and possibly entirely useless in Pandora, but it had occured. It caused him as much distress as his decision to propose marriage to Wanda, one day, when the time and circumstances would be right. He had been raised in a loving home, which might have shaped his views about what his own family would be like, if he ever chose to have it. But he was convinced he would be just as happy as his adoptive father was with his Ma. He did not enough about Jor-L and Lara to be comparing his life to theirs, but they had seemed in love as well.
Wanda's question was simple, but it shook him some, deep inside. 'I would not oppose to Erik.' he spoke calmly, just to ensure that there would be no instigations of family feuds. 'Or any other name that you would choose. Except, I think, Caesar or Augustus or Annihilator.' he added with some mirth, but his body was stiff and tense.
She cracked a lopsided grin at Annihilator. But feeling the stiffness in his muscles, she touched her hand to his upper arm and left it there, trying to impart a sense of comfort and solace despite her own uncertainty. They could never have a trueborn child of their own here, but that didn't mean they had to spurn the dream. And if circumstances were different and they could... at the very least she knew that she'd happily try and grow that impossible, perfect family with him. Something she would have thought possible, before she came to love him.
"My adoptive father's name was Django." A perfect name for the musician, she thought wistfully. "Which is... another Jon variant. What about Ivan? Still essentially Jon, again, but juuust different enough." The grin resurfaced for another note. "Ivan or... Marie." Jon, Django, Marta, Marya. One had to admit, there was an amusing trend between them.
#10 Wanda Maximoff, Jul 14, 2019 at 1:51 AM
There was nothing he needed more, at those moments of vulnerability, than Wanda's gentle touch. He leaned his head closer to her, watching her with his blue and concerned eyes. Wanda had always been more than enough and instead of a chance at feeling whole, he perceived that dream more as an outcome of their already existing love and happiness. Constant happiness had not been easy to achieve, even if all the moments spent with Wanda were precious, but he could not imagine them not reaching the ideal state as a family.
But sometimes his mind was clouded and perhaps that has been a product of such a state. He didn't think more about it, but prefered to focus on the moment and on Wanda.
He could not suppress a smile, because to him Django sounded like the name of a professional wrestler, but he did not voice his thoughts. He kept his eyes on Wanda and how she looked as she spoke, his heart fluttering when he heard the name Marie. Ivan too, but maybe the thought of a baby girl moved him just a little bit more.
A small smile appeared on his face.
'I like them. Ivan and Marie. A boy and a girl.' he spoke with his emotions pouring in every word. And the house shook a tad and twisted, so that another playpen appeared, with a baby girl with Wanda's natural hair color and features, waving her hands up and down. 'She would be defiant and independent, like you.' he told Wanda, as his admiring eyes travelled from the baby to her.
#11 Superman, Jul 14, 2019 at 8:19 AM
Afro-Circus
Just finished Stranger Things. I'm hurt.
Sorry for being so scarce this week! Will catch up over the weekend/coming week x
[M] Smokescreen
Ambrose Spellman replied Jul 19, 2019 at 5:36 PM
Thread Prioritization by Octi...
Emi replied Jul 19, 2019 at 5:31 PM
Oh, hey look a poll! Please help!
FullMoon replied Jul 19, 2019 at 5:22 PM
Keira's Prioritisation! // 4...
Octi replied Jul 19, 2019 at 5:20 PM
til the walls did crumble and fall
Merlin Ambrosius replied Jul 19, 2019 at 5:12 PM
One Day of Indulgence
Enji Todoroki replied Jul 19, 2019 at 5:11 PM
It's Just A Prank Bro
Sabrina Spellman replied Jul 19, 2019 at 5:03 PM
Rey Solo replied Jul 19, 2019 at 4:51 PM
Nyami,
Magiano,
The Governor,
Carter J. Burke,
Odin,
Jin Oshiro,
Ambrose Spellman,
GhostOfHalloweenPast,
Ritsuka Fujimaru,
Mat Cauthon,
Skooter910,
Lanni,
Total: 62 (members: 22, guests: 31, robots: 9)


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UCF in the NFL: How Veteran Knights Did in 2018
Checkin in on how UCF alumni performed in the 2018 NFL season
By JeffSharon@Jeff_Sharon Jan 30, 2019, 8:40am EST
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Latavius Murray with the Vikings
No former UCF Knights will play in Super Bowl XLIII, so that means we can now look back at how various UCF alumni did in the NFL in 2018. We'll look at the rookies later, but first, here are the veterans.
Matt Prater
Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images
2018 Stats: 28/32 FG, 30/30 XP, 114 points
In his fourth full year with the Detroit Lions, Prater had his best season since 2015. He was a perfect 20/20 from inside 40 yards, and his 87.5% field goal clip was his highest since 2015.
But Prater's best play of the season was not a kick. Nope, it was his first career touchdown pass, which he threw in Week 17 against Green Bay:
#ForTheBrand, baby.
Latavius Murray
Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images
2018 Stats: 140 rushes, 578 yards, 4.1 average, 6 TDs, plus 22 catches for 141 yards
In his second season in Minnesota, Murray was second on the team in rushing behind Dalvin Cook, who was banged up quite a bit. He played in all 16 games, started in 6, and posted his highest yards per carry average since his rookie year.
His best game was in Week 6 against Arizona, when he posted his lone 100-yard game of the year with 155 on 24 carries:
Blake Bortles
2018 Stats: 243/403 (60.3%), 2718 yards, 13 TDs, 11 INTs, 79.8 Rating, 365 rushing yards, one rushing TD
The year after leading the Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game, it may be over for Blake in Jacksonville. He was riding high after a Week 2 victory over the Patriots, where he completed 29/45 for 376 yards and 4 TDs in an emotional win:
Then it all came apart. He lost eight of his next nine starts and was benched after a loss at Buffalo in Week 12 before returning to action off the bench in Week 16 against Miami and starting the season finale.
The Jags are now apparently in the market for a new starter, the year after signing Blake to a three-year, $54 million contract.
Breshad Perriman scores against his old team.
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
2018 Stats: 16 catches, 340 yards, 2 TDs, 21.3 yards per catch
After not working out in Baltimore and being cut by Washington in September, Perriman found a home in Cleveland mid-season on the business end of some of Baker Mayfield's bombs, and looks to have regained the speed he came into the NFL with. Two of his grabs were for over sixty yards. If he can stay healthy, Perriman may indeed find more opportunities with the Browns in 2019.
Justin McCray
Justin McCray (#64)
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
In his second full year with the Packers, McCray played in 12 games, starting five at right guard.
A. J. Bouye
Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images
After a career-high six-interception season in Jacksonville in 2017 when he was second-team All-Pro, A.J. had only one pick in thirteen games (against Kansas City in Week 5), but added 54 tackles.
Shaquill Griffin
Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images
In his first full season as a starter at corner for Seattle with Richard Sherman out of the picture, Shaquill started all 16 games and tallied two picks, eight passes defended and 61 tackles. Both of the picks came against Chicago in Week 2:
Clayton Geathers
Photo by Bobby Ellis/Getty Images
In his fourth season, Clayton had a career year in Indianapolis, recording 89 tackles, 61 of them solo, in just 12 games. He had four games with double-digit tackles, and helped the Colts to the playoffs, where he recorded 20 combined stops in Indy's two postseason games.
Kemal Ishmael
Kemal did not record an interception and had only 21 tackles and a fumble recovery. He didn't start any games for the first time since his rookie year, but did play all 16 games for the Falcons in his sixth NFL season as a key special teamer.
Charley Hughlett
Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images
Charley Hughlett is living the dream. He's the highest-paid long-snapper in the NFL, played all 16 games for the fourth straight year, and participated in the most hilarious NFL Christmas card of the year with fellow specialists P Britton Colquitt and K Greg Joseph:
Hold your loved ones close this holiday season. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! pic.twitter.com/unZBdKXod9
— Greg Joseph (@greg_joseph1) December 25, 2018
Josh Robinson
Josh Robinson celebrates with Saints fans.
Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
It was a weird year for Josh Robinson. He was waived by the Bucs before the season, but signed with the Saints at the beginning of October. As a nickelback, he recorded six tackles and played in every game from Week 5 on.
Strangely he got cut the week before the playoffs with the Saints on a bye, but was re-signed four days later. He played in both playoff games for New Orleans, coming so close to a shot at a Super Bowl in his seventh NFL season.
Kamar Aiken
Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images
Aiken landed with the Eagles as a free agent this year, was released before the start of the year, but was re-signed just days later. He played in five games, with one start, and caught six passes for 53 yards - five in his lone start in Week 5 against Tampa. He was released again in October and finished the year as a free agent.
Brandon Marshall
Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images
2018 Stats: 11 catches, 136 yards, 1 TD in 7 games (2 starts)
Time may be running out for Brandon Marshall. After landing in Seattle this off-season, he scored a TD in his first game as a Seahawk on opening weekend:
But after seven catches in the first two games, he caught only four balls the next five he played, and the Seahawks released him on October 30th.
The Saints picked him up on November 12th, but he never played and was released on December 13th, and he finished the season as a free agent.
We haven't heard anything on whether there are any lingering injury issues, and Brandon himself said he was "healthy as a trout" before joining the Saints. But he's also turning 35 this March, and the market might be limited.
Of course, if we don't see him on the field anymore, he still has a bright future on TV, as we've seen in the past:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Impax Completes Sale of Largest Operational Solar PV Farm in the Netherlands
PVTIME – Impax Asset Management ("Impax") has announced that a renewable energy infrastructure fund ("the Fund") managed by Impax has completed the sale of the Vlagtwedde solar farm in the Netherlands to German pension fund Versicherungskammer Group, under funds managed by Encavis Asset Management for an undisclosed amount.
Vlagtwedde solar farm (Source: Solarcentury)
Largest operational solar farm in the Netherlands: The Fund acquired the Vlagtwedde solar farm, located in the municipality of Westerwolde, Netherlands, in August 2019 from Dutch developer Powerfield, with a construction contract from UK-based contractor SolarCentury integrated into the transaction. The 110 Megawatt peak (MWp) solar farm, which was constructed in c. 12 months, is made up of 350,000 panels and covers an area of 100 hectares(the equivalent to 130 football pitches) making it the largest operational solar farm in the Netherlands to date. The solar farm is expected to generate power for approximately 30,000 households.
Environmental benefit: TheVlagtwedde solar farm produces clean, renewable energy thereby reducing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to the Dutch energy transition. The site now provides around 40,000 tonnes of CO2 abatement each year and contributes towards the Westerwolde municipality's goal of becoming energy neutral by 2050.
Community Engagement: Impax engaged with the local community throughout the development and construction phases. Initiatives introduced include: cultivation of 25 hectares of blueberries, wildflower and tree plantation, erection of hives to support bee population, solar panels installed at the local village hall and an annual contribution payment to the local community. Local jobs have been created during construction and will be created throughout the whole cycle of the project.
Commenting on the sale, Hector Boyce, Associate Director within the Impax Private Equity/Infrastructure Transaction team, commented: "As long-term specialist investors in the renewable energy sector, t his project is part of our investment philosophy to contribute towards the transition to a zero-carbon economy in Europe. From the outset, the project has been developed in close cooperation with local parties with whom we have had a great experience. Delivering the project on time and within budget despite the global pandemic is a testament to our team's strong industrial skill-set. We look forward to building on our platform in the Netherlands and making further investments in this space."
Isabella Pfaller, Chief Financial Officer at Versicherungskammer, added: "We are very pleased about the acquisition of this large solar park in the Netherlands and the resulting further regional diversification of our fund portfolio. For us, investing also means taking responsibility towards society and the environment."
JA Solar to Further Expand Cell and Module Production Capacity With 10 Billion Yuan Investment
Trina Solar Forecasts Net Profit of 1.2 – 1.328 Billion Yuan for 2020, a Year-on-Year Increase of 87.55%-107.29%


Replace the letter D with the letter G in the word NERD.
...was this interesting article by an honest solar power enthusiast saying that solar thermal power plants in sunny places need a lot of water. His solution? Get innovative. What those innovations might be, he couldn't say.
For example, a typical parabolic trough plant with wet cooling uses approximately 800 gallons/MWh, comprised of 780 gallons for evaporation and water make-up and 20 gallons for mirror washing. Change to dry cooling – at the expense of increased capital costs and decreased efficiency – and a facility still requires approximately 80 gallons/MWh for make-up and mirror washing. For a 100 MW facility operating 14 hours per day (i.e. producing 1,400 MWh per day), that's over one million gallons of water per day; change to dry cooling and that 100 MW facility still consumes more than 100,000 gallons of water per day.
How about a small variable output distributed energy nuclear power plant that provides desalinated water for the solar power plant while it is sunny and sends power to the grid in place of the solar arrays when it isn't sunny?
Survey results that followed the above article.
When you think about it, a small, local, low carbon source of energy would meet three out of the four requirements demanded of many environmentally minded individuals and groups. The only one missing is renewable.
Ironically, corn ethanol is listed as a renewable source of energy by our government when two-thirds of the energy in a gallon of it is derived from fossil fuels. In a sense, nuclear is almost as renewable as corn ethanol.
The estimate of enough uranium to run 10 times as many reactors for 100 years was given by Charles W. Forsberg, the executive director of the study. While the price of uranium might be driven up by 50 percent, uranium represents only 2 to 4 percent of the price of electricity from a reactor, he said, so a 50 percent increase would mean only another 1 or 2 percent increase in the price of electricity.
The old arguments against nuclear are rapidly unraveling.
1) The fuel issue is a non-issue, at least for the foreseeable future.
2) The proliferation issue has nothing to do with nuclear power in countries that already have nuclear weapons. If Iran refuses to let nuclear powers process their fuel for them for free, then those nuclear powers are going to have to make a decision. That decision has nothing to do with the fact that there are nuclear power plants in our country.
3) The waste issue is not nearly as large as we have been led to believe. Putting it into perspective, nuclear power plants are still storing right in their own parking lots every ounce of nuclear waste they have ever generated, awaiting the arrival of a federal repository of some kind. How much waste could there possibly be?
Other nations, like France, recycle their waste, reducing the volume ten fold and mix what remains in with molten glass (vitrifying it) to create cylinders of glass than are much easier and safer to move and store.
4) Chernobyl, the poster child for everything that could go wrong continued to produce electricity for 14 years after the incident. Dozens of people died in the immediate aftermath but other than thyroid cancers (with a 90 plus cure rate) in children in the path of the fallout, higher rates of cancer have never been detected. The dead zone quickly reverted to one of Europe's largest wildlife preserves and there were no deformed babies as a result of that disaster.
Modern nuclear power plants do not cause cancer.
5) Nuclear is more expensive than coal and natural gas. Well guess what? So is solar and wind. The whole may be cheaper than the sum of its parts.
6) We have been building bomb proof bunkers since WWI. Building a bomb proof nuclear facility is a piece of cake.
7) Ditto for earthquake proof structures.
Time to open our minds?
The $10 million dollar X Prize was split between two electric car designs and a design that runs on biofuel (E85) called the Edison 2.
In the above video the Edison 2 is hyped by the guy who bankrolled it. He tells us the main reason the wheels stick out is to enhance crash safety. Actually, they stick out for stability and aerodynamic reasons as they did for the defunct Aptera and the popular Cessna 172 aircraft. To be more accurate, they are hoping the wheels will also act as a kind of bumper, unless the car striking you from the side happens to land between the wheels.
When you cut through the hype, there isn't really anything new about the Edison 2. Take a deep breath and ask any mechanical engineer worth her salt, "If allowed to compromise crash safety, acceleration, payload, and cost (a low-weight body costs more than a steel body), and if you bolted a modified single piston turbo charged motorcycle engine running on a high octane fuel using exhaust gas recirculation to reduce pumping losses to a very light aerodynamic body, would you get great gas mileage?"
Her answer would have been, "Duh?!"
The marketability of a car having these compromises has always been the only unknown, and remains unknown. And because the Edison 2 can't run on regular gas, you would be stuck looking for gas stations that sell E85 (assuming you could buy one of these cars today).
Every story written about this prize tells you that the Edison 2 gets 102 MPGe (although most laypersons have no idea what that means). Robert Rapier took the time to look at the formula for calculating MPGe and realized that the Edison 2 would only get 73 miles on a gallon of E85 (73 MPG). Confused? Well, I don't really blame you. You can download a spreadsheet to verify Rapier's epiphany "here".
To put this in perspective, an ordinary Prius gets 50 MPG running on E10, and it's a five-passenger, mid-sized hatchback, with power windows and air bags all over the place. And unlike the Edison 2 (assuming you could buy one of these cars today), which is not capable of running on regular gas, you would not be stuck looking for gas stations that sell E85.
Corn ethanol can't ever provide more than about 10% of our fuel. If it were all converted into E85, about one in ten gas stations could carry it. But the vast majority of available ethanol is blended into our gas already at much lower percentages, so in reality, only a fraction of a percent of gas stations will ever sell E85 (an 85 percent blend).
This is not a flex fuel car. It is a car optimized to run on a fuel that is not readily available (E85), which is kinda dumb for more than one reason, and it would actually get worse mileage if modified to run on gasoline. I am a big fan of smallish, lightweight, aerodynamically clean cars like the Edison 2 but would never buy one because of the fuel it burns.
If I had a choice, I would not use a fuel that exacerbates the negative ramifications of agriculture (corn ethanol). Few people understand the scale and scope of the damage being wrought by our global need to provide ourselves with food, fiber, and housing (agriculture). Adding fuel to that demand is just not very smart.
Had the MPGe formula taken into account the EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) of the fuel it uses, the Edison 2 would likely have been eliminated at the get go.
Put an electric drive train in it and I may reconsider, even with the additional cost and more limited range.


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Sequestration: Luke should be off-limits
By fcp2019March 23, 2013Arizona Politics, Editorials and Opinions
U.S. Congressman Trent Franks
Having been in public service for roughly 30 years of my life, witnessing political posturing is not exactly a new phenomenon. But the recent back-and-forth over President Obama's sequester, including the failure to reach an agreement before the March 1 deadline, has taken the worst aspects of bureaucracy to absurd new heights.
Indeed, the federal government has, at this point, become essentially a parody of itself. So inefficient and ineffective has the budgeting process become that the federal government has, for months, been scrambling to find some way to undo its own work.
A crash course was charted, autopilot was enabled, and we are now somehow shocked to find ourselves arriving at our destination.
The most disgraceful aspect of the sequester that Mr. Obama insisted be included in the Budget Control Act back in 2011 is that we are breaking faith with the nation's best and brightest — those who signed on a dotted line that they were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country. And now, they will bear an unnecessary burden thanks to an executive who has put ideology and politics above all else.
The irresponsible method of these arbitrary cuts to our national defense has literally put troops' body armor and missile defense on the same levels as excess color copies and lawn mowing services. And both Luke Air Force Base, and the state of Arizona, as a whole, will soon feel the effects, unless an agreement is reached on either one of the two plans House Republicans have offered to solve sequestration, or some other, as-yet-unintroduced plan.
Among those effects will be decreases in flight hours, a reduction in weapons sustainment, and furloughs of as many as 3,100 personnel in the state, resulting in nearly $24 million in lost pay.
This is, of course, why many members of Congress, myself included, voted against the poorly conceived (to put it mildly) Sequestration plan. And it's why I have worked to ensure we do everything possible to prevent the damaging effect the cuts will have on our armed forces.
Among those efforts was my vote today on a Continuing Resolution that would take the important step of at least giving the military flexibility to determine how and where the cuts are made, thereby alleviating some of the pain caused by the cuts' thoughtless, arbitrary nature.
But, as partisan as it may sound, the unfortunate fact of the matter is when dealing with a second-term ideologue President whose administration has now sunk to the level of literally releasing detained criminals and blaming it on sequestration, reasonable discourse has never been an option, making a permanent solution that much more difficult to attain.
Luke Air Force Base trains the best pilots in the world and serves as an indispensible component in our overall fighting force. Speaking as one of the most fiscally conservative members of Congress, there are many, many government programs that need to be cut in order to get our deficit under control. But Luke Air Force Base, and the vital funding that makes our military the greatest in the world, should be off-limits.
Going forward, I intend to continue working with my colleagues in the House toward the ultimate goal of a plan that is both sensible and fulfills one of Congress' most fundamental Constitutional duties, as outlined in Article 1, Section 8 – ensuring America's armed forces have every resource they need to continue serving as the standard by which all others are judged.
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I've been writing for a while. In fact, it's been a long while.
I've been writing for a while. In fact, it's been a long while as I completed my first novel when I was around 20 years of age. I don't remember much about it now except that it was set in the UK and concerned a plot to extort money from the Government. Some of my research for it though evidently caused a chilly breeze to blow in establishment circles which resulted, one sunny afternoon, in police officers paying me a courtesy visit. Having let them have sight of my partially completed manuscript they quickly departed, satisfied I wasn't a reincarnation of Guy Fawkes or whoever was trending on the terrorist watch lists in those days.
Since those early times, I have written on and off over the years. In truth, there have been long gaps between books because I was doing other things. The one that occupied me most was as a serial entrepreneur in the recruitment industry. If you know anything about the sector, you don't need me to tell you about long hours and hard work, particularly in times of recession. I survived two of them before quitting for good; after all you can have too much of a good thing.
Along the way, there have been other novels including one about a plot to assassinate Hitler at his headquarters on the Eastern Front; I seem to remember doing a lot of research for that one!
Regrettably, none of these efforts saw the light of day, though there is a crime thriller which I could think about publishing as a stand-alone in due course. By contemporary standards, it's a trifle on the short side and it would need editing again.
The character of Sol Nemo grew out of my various trips to South Africa in recent years. My wife hails from Port Elizabeth, where Sol is based, and gradually as I absorbed something of the place and its people, my creative brain began to distil a character and a plot. Not much in the way of crime fiction is set in the RSA so it was my feeling that the market was about ready for something different. I can only hope you agree.
My interests include voluntary work with a particular focus on housing and money issues; collecting modern first editions; reading anything and everything, the welfare of Gerry the gerbil; and occasional golf which I play with an embarrassing level of ineptitude despite years of patient coaching.


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Q: How to store system-created to-do list items? In a to-do list where users have both system-created items and their own items, how would you store the items?
A to-do list can have a mix of items. The system-created items can be modified and deleted just like user-created items. There difference is the titles and description text for the system-created items are initially pulled from a configuration. Many users can have the same system-created items. E.g. if two users want to paint rooms in their houses, they'd both get "buy paint" items.

Option 1
Save the full system-created items (including the title & text) with the user-created items.
Pros: Flexibility for user modifications since the items belong to the user and are not dependent on a central item configuration.
Cons: Lots of redundancy because there will be many users all with the same items.
Option 2
Save references to a configuration for system-created items with the user-created items.
Pros: Flexibility for system modifications since if we want to say "buy X-brand paint" instead of "buy paint", the change is easily reflected for all users with this item.
Cons: System-created items have to persist forever in the configuration even if the item is no longer relevant for new to-do lists because otherwise the user's reference will be broken.
Other options?
Thank you!

A: My initial thought is - what is your requirement? Your user-flows and project road-map might contain information to inform your design.
From your question "system-created items can be modified and deleted just like user-created items":

*

*This indicates that you are going to have to have a way to track modifications to your 'system-created' templates per user or convert them to 'user-created' messages when they are edited.

*

*This is more complexity than you seem to need

*It seems much simpler to create messages from system templates, then have them be regular messages.

*A bit of extra storage is not going to break the bank

You have not mentioned any case where you would need to operate over only system-created to-do's. But in this case, you could include created-by metadata.

A: I think the key here is whether you need to be able to modify a "system todo", and that change to be reflected in all the "user todos"...
If that's a requirement (it sounds sensible to me), your only option is Option 2 - the real con of Option 1 is once you copied the "system todo" as a "user todo", you cannot tell anymore whether they're related...
I'd go for a model similar to this, with 2 entities/tables:
ToDoTemplate
  Integer id
  String name
  String description

ToDoItem
  Integer id
  ToDoTemplate template
  Boolean completed = false
  ?String name = null
  ?String description = null

When you create a ToDoItem, you create it based on a ToDoTemplate (it may be a blank template), and you set the name and description as null, reusing the template name/description... Only if the user modifies their own ToDoItem is when you store that value... i.e.
String getName() {
  return this.name != null ? this.name : this.template.name;
}

This is the most flexible of the approaches, and the only valid in many situations... Note the con you mention:

Cons: System-created items have to persist forever in the configuration even if the item is no longer relevant for new to-do lists because otherwise the user's reference will be broken.

This is not a con really - as long as there's one ToDoItem that uses a given ToDoTemplate, the template is still relevant, and of course there's no reason to remove it...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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