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Grimas

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Everything posted by Grimas

  1. Yea, I got a NEXUS card for that specific reason but to renew it, the nearest location to do the renewal from Texas was Detroit...
  2. Argh- 4 months and still waiting...
  3. I guess I missed you post with the "data". I guess the banks and private equity people I deal with daily missed your posts as well... I apologize for all of us in advance... My last comment I'm gonna make on this thread as this isn't the CR but didnt you post 2-3 years ago that you spent 15k on a $30k solar system for your house with the subsidies and discounts covering the other half you didn't have to pay? Not that I have anything against taking advantage of anything available but would you have still bought/leased the system without the subsidies/discounts? Looks more attractive when someone else is footing half the total cost...
  4. To be honest, I don't remember the source of the graph was as I has it on a folder on my hard drive. Regardless - go ahead and drop nuke out of the discussion if you want for arguments sake - solar and wind still are at the mercy of the weather/location/season and are not the "cheapest way' to generate power. Go to the base level of cost vs. power generation (MINUS gov't subsidies and the utilization of existing infrastructure like pipelines/powerlines/refineries/inverters/batteries/etc.) and show me where the cost per KW generated is better with "renewables" than most existing sources of energy... Until energy storage capacity become more efficient (which it isn't in large scale applications) to capture generated as well as take into account that you can only generate power say, 50% of the time depending on location/season, they aren't efficient as other sources of energy like hydro, coal or gas. Coal and gas (and hydro but it's being more limited now by weather as well) are "stored energy" - meaning I can convert them to energy on demand which I can't do currently with solar or wind. IIRC, solar is about 15-20% efficient (in terms of energy created when the sun hits the panes for those "12 hours" (time/season/latitude) a day) vs (up to) 40% for coal and up to 60% for natural gas where the remaining energy is lost to some form of heat. In my earlier comment, DONG/Orstad would not have taken the path it did if the government subsidies didn't exist and would have lost money and gone under if those government subsidies didn't exist. Take the subsidies out of the equation (for oil/gas/hydro/solar/wind) and level the playing field to actual energy efficiency and there isn't a fair comparison to say renewables are a superior way to generate the cheapest power... Someone (via their taxes) is covering the costs for the subsidies but in terms of pure energy efficiency for generating on-demand power regarding the supply of energy, there are more efficient ways to generate power 24/7 than "renewables"... At least until energy stage technology (batteries) gets better, you can't run an economy 100% on "renewables"... (A factory that needs to run 24/7 - are you gonna depend 100% on "renewables"? Good luck with that... Mercedes in Germany will soon find out...) Drop subsidies out of all - oil/gas/hydro/nuclear/solar/wind/hydro- and then show me "renewables" (sorry, only hydro is truly "renewable") are the cheapest way to generate power compared to the others... (Similar when folks at Chesapeake/PetroHawk/others tried to say "unconventionals" were a different type of reservoir and convinced the SEC to change the financial "rules" - ignore the "sunk costs" of leasing the land and everything else in the pre-drill economics and let's just focus on costs and profit once we drill the well and forecast 30 years of production as these don't behave like "conventional reservoirs" - decline curves don't apply here!- when in reality, if you don't make back your investment in 18-24 months, you didn't make money...) Ignoring the actual physics/science and "trust us, it (appears) cheaper"...
  5. Not trying to turn this into a CR discussion but you are absolutely incorrect. If you look at the EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Investment) – how much energy we get back if we spend to generate 1 unit of energy. For solar this means – how much more energy does a solar panel generate in its lifetime than is used to create it? Solar and wind suck compared to other sources of power generation and storage based on the cost to generate it... This calculation is based on what it costs to construct the facility (the panel, the windmill, the well, the coal or nuke plant) with all costs included. Wind and solar energy can't be stored efficiently until better battery technology is developed... Need more energy right now, feed more coal/gas/neutron into the plant as it's energy stored. Wind not blowing or it's dark outside, solar or wind sit idle and generate nothing... Coal, hydro, nuke and coal can run 24/7 if needed. Sun and solar - well, that depends on the weather... New nuke technology is closer to 120 on the graph below... (Buffered is the equivalent of energy storage...) (And no, I'm not a nuke guy other than it makes the most sense in the long-term future. And no, I don't want a want a plant anywhere near where i live unless you send me a royalty or lease check as mailbox money...)
  6. Not sure if the free trial works more than once... I did it last year with the family - I'm GE but they don't travel enough to justify it - and it was easy and I canceled the trial after the trip. Signed up again for the free trial again last week with a different email but with family in tow but not sure it'll work a second time since they have our scans in the "system"...
  7. There's a lot of money to be made with renewables. Do O&G companies not like making money? Most of the money I've seen is all based on subsidies in the renewable space. Don't get me wrong, I've got issue with developing alternative sources of energy where it makes sense... Nuclear sure does... Dong Energy (now Orstad) was the first integrated company to decide to go "all in" on renewables 7 years ago and took advantage of all the subsidies available. (Most the the windmills you see in the North Sea are theirs.) The sold off their O&G division to Ineos and the stock at the time was around $20/share and is currently $30/share and dropping... (it did hit a high in the 70's during COVID but has been screaming downward since everything opened back up...) Ineos isn't publicly traded but I'm sure they are printing money right now like everyone else in the integrated O&G business. Do you know that over 90% of the world's O&G is controlled by National Oil Companies (NOC's)? Even if all the "majors" went away tomorrow, the NOC's will keep pumping as for most of them, it's their primary source of income... (Dubai runs out of their oil in around 20 years which is why they have pumped so much into development so they can survive once the oil runs out.) The only real place left to make real money for E&P is in the US (at least for now). XOM or Chevron may be in Saudi or Iraq but they basically are acting as sub-contractors to the NOC. They get to recover their costs and make a few bucks a barrel. Oil at 50/bbl? Here is your 3 bucks. Oil at 120? Here is your 3 bucks... Guess who gets to profit? The NOC's... Only in the US and somewhat Canada allows the companies to profit from the upside (and take the losses on the low prices). I know companies who reformed their companies to only work in areas where they can make money at $50 oil and $3 gas. Divested anything that didn't meet that criteria. They are printing money now but 2 years ago, they were laying off staff and cutting to the bone just to keep the lights on. There is a big stink of XOM making something like $24B in profit this year but it isn't mentioned that they lost something like 22B last year... How did "big pharma" do last year? Why aren't they paying windfall profits tax?
  8. Shell just bought a renewable developer and is cranking up development of wind and solar. The smart O&G companies will follow suit. Huh? Only appearing "smart" with a gun to their heads... If you are a European-based O&G company, you are forced to have 2030 and 2050 plan related to ESG's and all things "green" or you can't get any financing... Want to borrow a billion for that platform to produce that oil you just spent $200+ million on to discover but can't produce a drop for 7+ years while you wait for the platform and infrastructure to be built? Good luck with that without a "green" plan... See the recent offer from Hamm to buy back the outstanding shares of Continental Resources ($4.3B cash of the 17% he didn't already own, IIRC) so they could go back to being private and not have to worry about equity associated with restrictions in financing due to renewables...
  9. Clear has a free trial that works for the whole family. Signup just before trip, use and then cancel. Still waiting 4 months for my conditional approval for my GE renewal...
  10. The Baltics combine only have 6 million people with Lithuania having about half of those... Poland on the other hand has something like 40 million...
  11. Tablespoon of Dijon and about a cup of olive oil and a little balsamic in a container and shaken until emulsified -best salad dressing ever... (I don't measure but do it by eye)
  12. This remined me to make an Amazon order for one before a trip next week...
  13. Yea, stick frame. 2500 sq feet downstairs, 1400 upstairs.
  14. Biannual service just done 2 weeks ago and all working good (other than the 15 year old capacitor that went out this weekend). Downstairs can hold 73 with no problem (mentopausal wife and sorry, no pics). Filters all changed every 3 months, all duct work in attic suspended (not sitting on the installation) and no leakage in any of them per test last year... Front entry is 2 stories so any heat from downstairs from downstairs goes up both the stairs and the entryway. UT_OB1 - 8 tons is the normal for most of the 2 story houses in the neighborhood. When you say contact a contractor - I assume you mean an HVAC one? (Just wondering what to search for...)
  15. Got a 2 story house with an original 5-ton unit (20+ years old) and a 3-ton (3 years old) for the upstairs. Every summer I struggle keeping the upstairs cool - set to 75 but thermostat shows 79 at 5pm. Been fighting this for a few years and looking for suggestions/options... 16" of installation blown in a few years ago but didn't make much difference. Insulated cover on attic entrance. Relatively steep roof with ridge vents (and soffits cleared to ensure no blown-in insulation covering them). For the windows facing south and west, shades/curtains closed. In the upstairs game room with vaulted ceilings, the 2 ducts were replaces with "high capacity" vents to allow for greater flow. Attached garage roof that gets late afternoon direct sunlight has reflective barrier sprayed on it while the remaining house has mature trees blocking afternoon sun. Ceiling fans up upstairs rooms constantly running and all room doors open during the day. \ I haven't installed solar attic fans (yet) as with the steep roof and ridge vents, attic air should be circulating decently as designed. (I actually stuck a high capacity fan in the attic at some point a few years ago that was point upwards to help with circulation but that didn't seem to make a difference either...) Was listening to home repair show on Saturday and a caller made a comment that made sense but I hadn't considered before - the 5 ton should be cooling upstairs and the smaller unit should be cooling downstairs (duh - hear rises...). Would it make sense to get someone to change the ductwork to have the ducts from the 5-ton unit to send air upstairs and the 3 ton downstairs? Asked my AC service company if they could test the flow out of each vent to see if I have the system "balanced" and to adjust the dampers if needed and they said they don't do that and I need to get an "engineering firm" to do it... I just think they don't want to deal with it so anyone got suggestions in Houston area who might do this? Not sure where to go next/what to try next... Looking for suggestions...
  16. Out of beer - finish this shit off so I can go to bed!
  17. Oh, and for the shaved ice, go big or go home and get something like this... Not just for snow cones but for drinks, a bed to put oysters on the half shell on, etc...Ice shaver I have a Kitchen aid as well but no way would I spend the time with that attachment...
  18. Love my carbon steel wok. Gas on the countertop just doesn't get hot enough/fast enough. Got a wok burner similar to this and it rocks. Gets the center of the wok glowing red in 5 seconds. Have it setup next to the gas grill so I can connect to the propane. Stir-fry done in 3 minutes. burner
  19. Why do they do the mock toss to a base? Does it reset the 20 second clock?
  20. Hopefully this is the last game on LHN... The stream I have sucks and I have to reset it ever 3 minutes...
  21. Good to see Coach Gus!
  22. I'd check the T's & C's of the pension to see what happens to it if you were to die tomorrow... I have an old one that I had forgotten about from early in my career and that one won't go to wife or kids when I'm gone so doing a transfer to an IRA (or elsewhere) is a must or the money goes away...
  23. So what happens if you use a different email and sign up for the free trial? It says If you create a second account with a new e-mail, you will not be able to complete your enrollment at the airport. Anyone try this?
  24. Yup - I want to know which of you stoned fucks ordered 180 of them! Gone
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