npts2020

In the state of Pennsylvania, AFAIK all of the electric utilities make a profit with typical return on equity rarely going below 5% and often near 10% or above. All rate hikes have to be rubber stamped looked into and approved by the Public Utilities Commission with a period for public comment before approval. Sometimes the increase is less than requested or one is put on hold for other reasons but I can never recall a decrease or outright rejection of a hike, though it probably has happened.

Surely you aren't talking about monopole magnets that don't exist? In any case the strongest part of any magnet I am familiar with is always the poles. These guys xxxxxxx sell magnets but their site answers a lot of questions in a fairly concise manner

I watch Washington Journal on C-Span almost every day and it is pretty unbelievable how many people are and have been supporting everything going on with Venezuela and believe that it has anything to do with drugs. Even if it did, none of those killed would have received the death penalty from any conviction over their activities. Furthermore, when the Coast Guard does interdiction for drugs (with presumably the same intelligence sources as Trump) about a quarter of the time no drugs are found but many seem to regard any possibly innocent people killed as just "collateral damage". It's a shame none of those saying that are Christians......oh, wait many supposedly are.

More mass always = more gravity. Unless you are adding mass from somewhere, that quantity (and its gravitational effects) will remain constant regardless of the density, which only relates to the volume that mass occupies.

I expect it will end up with Monsanto paying into a fund similar to what happened with Johns-Manville and the asbestos settlement. BTW Johns-Manville is still in business all these 30+ years later after filing for bankruptcy because of that settlement.

Ya, I'm pretty sure your compressor is operating normally, so far as oil is concerned. You really can't tell what the level actually is in that kind of compressor unless it is shut down.

Unfortunately, those "bugs" live in a pretty specific environment and it takes a year to break down the softest plastics and over 3 years for harder ones. However, it may be possible to adapt Ideonella Sakaiensis to a wider habitat and even that speed is still way faster than UV light and other natural processes break down plastics.

The 3 times I ever did "survival" was a very long time ago, twice as a Boy Scout and once for an outward bound program at school. Each of us was allowed a knife, fire starter and canteen of water for the three (Boy Scouts) or seven (outward bound) day sessions. Being such a short period of time kind of skews things because one could easily survive, even for a week, with no food and minimal water, so there isn't as much pressure on success. Having said that, I am pretty confident that I could survive for quite a long while anywhere in North America where there is potable water, especially if I can take an array of tools with me. The trick is knowledge of local flora and fauna combined with survival skills, especially fire-starting and shelter building. As a teenager with not much better to do, it was kind of fun and very informative but I haven't felt any overwhelming urge to do it again in the half century since.

One of the problems with this discussion is that "freedom" is a pretty ill-defined term, dependent on subjective interpretations. As pointed out by Phi, my "freedom" to own a gun impinges on others' "freedom" to feel secure. So which is free? The whole point of living in society is to give up some freedom to do a few things in exchange for the freedom to pursue other interests. I don't think it is just coincidence that the most organized (generally those with the most laws) societies are also the most technologically advanced, something that contributes greatly to my "freedom". Because of this abstract thing known as "money" (which is really only a representation of other things) I have to follow a bunch of rules to live in a society that uses it. However, it also makes me free to do things besides provide for my basic needs, or even have to be much concerned about them. I have done survival expeditions for up to a week and being comfortable is no trivial matter, even if you don't need a fire. EVERYONE loses weight on these outings because of decreased calorie intake and increased physical activity and is unsustainable over time. If you ever saw the tv show "Naked and Afraid", very few of the participants who actually even make it to the end of their allotted time there (usually 20 days) are doing any more than "limping across the finish" and would not likely survive long term and they are people who supposedly have some survival skills beforehand. Personally, I am fairly confident in my survival skills but feel a lot freer not having to use them and kicking back to read "The Great Monkey Trial" at night or looking at sunspots through a telescope at the Franklin Institute while on a bus trip to Philadelphia. I guess to sum up, I feel freer having more choices. Living in a society facilitates that, whereas an individual has little freedom other than how to provide for their basic needs.

That may well be how the pump is designed but without knowing the manufacturer it is hard to be sure. In many air compressors, the oil also provides a seal to get better pressure. If the oil level returns to normal after shutting things down and the compressor doesn't make unusual noises (all compressors I have ever seen are loud but listen for clanging or severe vibration) or emit a burning oil (or metal) odor, I wouldn't worry about it. I would, however, make sure to check the oil level every time I used the machine.

Sure, but in reality zero isn't quite the same as nothing in maths, just the best way we have of describing and using a null quantity for comparison, according to my understanding of it.

I realize I'm a bit late on this conversation but isn't "count" being compared to nothing (i.e. zero)?

This is the gist of the problem with thinking energy is gained and is the reason you are able to slide across the floor an object too heavy to lift.

Possibly, but there doesn't seem to be much uproar about cameras being on virtually every block of US cities or cell phones being able to track everywhere one has been with it.

I don't disagree with any of this. One thing is, most new vehicles have cameras so I don't see why automated vehicles shouldn't have a recorded 360 view to determine such things.

This is all true but I fully expect to see AI drivers become significantly better than any human ones in the near future, if they aren't already. Eventually, even the courts will have to take that into consideration.

At present it is the driver in most cases but that is currently being litigated and IMO when automation becomes widespread it will be the non-automated part of the incident which will be at fault. I would think it to be extremely rare for automated vehicles to run into each other or break traffic laws.

In the first place, science isn't about solving problems. It's about providing explanations for the how and why of things. How people apply those explanations to solve problems is politics.

I wonder how it takes into account whether the vehicle is being piloted by AI or a human. Should it be illegal for a person in an automated vehicle to eat lunch, talk on the phone, light a cigar or even sleep?

This was only secondary to keeping food on the plate instead of sliding off while in heavy seas.

Kind of reminds me of authors being paid by the word...

Not sure what the credentials of these people are but it seems like a pretty thorough discussion of the elements any efficiency (assuming for our discussion effectiveness=efficiency) model ought to include. WebisoftProduction Efficiency in Manufacturing: A Complete GuideExplore the concept of production efficiency in manufacturing. Learn the methods to enhance production efficiency and optimize manufacturing processes.

The "faith" involved of science is in ones ability to use experience and logic to make sense of the world. As experience is gained, the explanations will come closer and closer to a being exact model of a given phenomenon. OTH religious "faith" requires no proof whatsoever and often is very different from reality (eg.- geocentric universe).

IMO the biggest problem with LLM's is they are bad at context and even worse at nuance and things like sarcasm and pop culture references. When those things are mixed with scientific and political endeavors, the bots often latch on to the wrong part of the information. They are improving at a pretty amazing pace, tho, and I expect AI to within a (human) generation be telling humans what is reality or fiction rather than the other way around.

An anarchist friend of mine says that there would be no poverty without laws. They claim that before humans began having any concept of law or "right and wrong" there was no significant difference between the best off and worst off in a given group of our ancestors. Unfortunately, since my social group extends well beyond the few hundred individuals those people were likely to encounter in a lifetime some rules and norms are required for everyone to get along.