Comments on: Dear Lazyweb http://joemullins.com/archive/2007/10/12/dear-lazyweb.php Because hard drives are cheaper than therapy Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:24:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: His Holiness http://joemullins.com/archive/2007/10/12/dear-lazyweb.php/comment-page-1#comment-2036 His Holiness Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:43:38 +0000 http://joemullins.com/archive/2007/10/12/dear-lazyweb.php#comment-2036 <p>Yah, I hear you. I don’t think the concern is radiation leakage, or even meltdown any more – though certainly that still lurks in the minds of all those who live near the plants – and that is an understandable, if unreasonable, concern. No one gives a shit about one in a billion odds when they are that one in a billion. Lacking a reset button on their bodies, or the ability to pick up an extra life, people will worry about protecting their one life.</p> <p>Of course, alternatively, burning shit has some pretty serious risks too, but as long as President Shit For Brains is jumping around like Steve Ballmer on crack, telling people that burning shit is good for them, and paying “scientists” to mime his bullshit, there is going to be a certain portion of the population that will believe him, due to blind loyalty, stupidity, wishful thinking, an attempt to avoid culpability, or some combination of the above.</p> <p>But from a more rational standpoint, the one serious drawback to nuclear power (and in my mind the one that deals it the death blow) is the storage of the nuclear waste. Trying to keep some of the most toxic shit on the planet safe for a few hundred generations is a big job. And creating shit that the next few hundred generations of people will have to keep safe is not particularly responsible either.</p> <p>Now – building wind farms... that is kick ass. But you should hear the farmers complain about it. There are some of them around here that actually claim that the windmills cause migraines. No evidence to support their clams of course, but someone’s aunt Edna once had a headache the day before she drove past a town that had a windmill on the other side of it. Clearly it was the windmill that caused her headache.</p> <p>The real answer to your question: People are weird.</p> Yah, I hear you. I don’t think the concern is radiation leakage, or even meltdown any more – though certainly that still lurks in the minds of all those who live near the plants – and that is an understandable, if unreasonable, concern. No one gives a shit about one in a billion odds when they are that one in a billion. Lacking a reset button on their bodies, or the ability to pick up an extra life, people will worry about protecting their one life.

Of course, alternatively, burning shit has some pretty serious risks too, but as long as President Shit For Brains is jumping around like Steve Ballmer on crack, telling people that burning shit is good for them, and paying “scientists” to mime his bullshit, there is going to be a certain portion of the population that will believe him, due to blind loyalty, stupidity, wishful thinking, an attempt to avoid culpability, or some combination of the above.

But from a more rational standpoint, the one serious drawback to nuclear power (and in my mind the one that deals it the death blow) is the storage of the nuclear waste. Trying to keep some of the most toxic shit on the planet safe for a few hundred generations is a big job. And creating shit that the next few hundred generations of people will have to keep safe is not particularly responsible either.

Now – building wind farms… that is kick ass. But you should hear the farmers complain about it. There are some of them around here that actually claim that the windmills cause migraines. No evidence to support their clams of course, but someone’s aunt Edna once had a headache the day before she drove past a town that had a windmill on the other side of it. Clearly it was the windmill that caused her headache.

The real answer to your question: People are weird.

]]> By: Doug http://joemullins.com/archive/2007/10/12/dear-lazyweb.php/comment-page-1#comment-2032 Doug Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:57:28 +0000 http://joemullins.com/archive/2007/10/12/dear-lazyweb.php#comment-2032 <p>honestly? we went over this in one of my many college classes. i don't remember all the details, but mostly it's stigma. back in hte day, there were all the naysayers predicting catastrophe. then, chernobyl. three mile island didn't help. now, this crazy reputation follows nuclear power around, and scientists can't shake it. several new technologies have arisen, in terms of safety. china is a big proponent, and i remember something about millions of balls, and safety, and power plants. yeah. use your imagination. in short. it's getting safe to the point of ridiculousness, but people are scared of it. end of line.</p> honestly? we went over this in one of my many college classes. i don’t remember all the details, but mostly it’s stigma. back in hte day, there were all the naysayers predicting catastrophe. then, chernobyl. three mile island didn’t help. now, this crazy reputation follows nuclear power around, and scientists can’t shake it. several new technologies have arisen, in terms of safety. china is a big proponent, and i remember something about millions of balls, and safety, and power plants. yeah. use your imagination. in short. it’s getting safe to the point of ridiculousness, but people are scared of it. end of line.

]]>