Even if an EV Was powered by 100% coal, the efficiency of electric drivetrains means you're using less energy and producing less carbon than a gas engine Anyways- I can find the chart again, but it's been figured that it's about ~5 years in the worst possible scenario for an EV to be a better for the environment than a typical 4-cylinder, and was versus buying another used 4-cylinder.
Blackrock has divested themselves from coal, and others are beginning to follow suit (thought not enough, imo) because it cannot compete anymore against renewable+battery or natural gas- the latter which can be activated and at 100% gewneration within minutes for load leveling versus coal taking hours to come to temp. My uncle worked for a coal power plant and he told me how they grind it to a powder and burn it to near plasma-temperatures to truely get as much power out of it as possible.
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I kind of hope Frenchy's views come to light and work properly- other people think it'll lead to some wacky dystopia where everything's delivered and everyone's isolated, but I don't see it and I think the current quarantine shows that. What people really want is choice to deal with how our lives are nowadays- the ability to work from home when we feel like sludge, the ability to get groceries efficiently when we have screen time but not "walk in aisle" time, and even the ability to exercise while we go to work on something like an Ebike. People are social aminals who want choices.
Brett_Murphy (Forum Supporter) said:barefootskater said:Coal? Obsolete?
bruh. You live in 'Murica, your LEDs and electric cars all run on coal. I'm not saying things aren't changing, and for the better, but you gotta be honest.
Nuclear here.
I wish. We do have a local reactor, but I wish there were 5x more, and any that were built in this century.
In reply to stuart in mn :
Don't fool yourself, or believe the shinny happy marketspeak from your energy provider.
Unless your wires are cut at the state line, your power comes from where ever is cheapest!
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:I'm glad to hear someone has had a good experience with the grocery pickup.
My wife tried it. she sat for 1 1/2 hours waiting.
A friend tried it. 2 hr wait.
Another friend tried it this week.. She has a brain tumor and a seriously compromised immune system. She really had no options. She sat in the car for 3 1/2 hours crying. THAT'S criminal.
The ordering systems are in place, but the fulfillment systems suck. Stores simply don't have the staff who can stop what they are doing and fill orders. Its a great concept, but it won't work until they dedicate people to order fulfillment, and not try to use people who are trained and busy dealing with walk-in customers.
I guess you don't have options like Instacart or Shipt where you are?
We had been using those services long before any of this started. And now that it has, they've added a "No Contact Delivery." The app lets you know when they are getting close, they ring the door bell to let you know they are there.........but then place everything on the front porch and leave so you don't have to have contact with them.
I'm wondering how long all these WFH jobs will stay local once more and more companies realize that they can farm so many jobs out to India, Vietnam, or similar and pay less than 1/5th as much.
My current feeling about the future is really dark and I see C-19 as the catalyst that sends the whole house of cards tumbling down. I really hope I'm wrong but I have a bad feeling about the next decade.
My situation is somewhat skewed from normal as the office has been in my house and now have to work a little more outside of it due to not allowing customers access. It's been great as my privacy is way less compromised. Charges are taken over the phone (getting a website soon) and they have increased by about 50% recently but still have to negotiate cash and check transactions on the front porch. Now I open the top half of the window next to the door and ask if they'd like sprinkles on their ice cream. So, the pandemic has actually helped us move towards a paperless process and business, fingers crossed, has not faltered. Ther is currently one unit available.
I am looking forward to an actual office and will install one when we build another (self storage) building. It will have a door that opens directly into a 16x30' garage that will allow me to play with toys in between business. The commute will be 700' out the back door. I'm very fortunate and this thread has helped me appreciate the situation even more, so thanks!
MrJoshua said:In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
Here the waits are mostly a result of the quarantine overwhelming the system. Prior to the pandemic we have been using it for at least a year without issues (Walmart).
2 out of 3 of the examples I gave were pre-pandemic.
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
They do have dedicated employees doing the order picking and taking it out to the car. At least, in every store I've seen it at here. We've used it a lot, and while there are problems, we've never had to wait hours for the stuff. Sounds like a staffing and management problem.
KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) said:I'm wondering how long all these WFH jobs will stay local once more and more companies realize that they can farm so many jobs out to India, Vietnam, or similar and pay less than 1/5th as much.
My current feeling about the future is really dark and I see C-19 as the catalyst that sends the whole house of cards tumbling down. I really hope I'm wrong but I have a bad feeling about the next decade.
I'm not so sure. For low-level tech support and the like, maybe. I know when our now parent company buys another one, they don't shut down the office and outsource the jobs. They purchase the company for the expertise inside the company. And then leave the existing office open as it's integrated into the rest of the company.
A lot of the stuff we work with is so complex they would lose years in development time, if not just become obsolete, to try and outsource everything to cheaper countries. Hell, so complex few people in the company know how everything works. They know their small piece of it.
From what I see in our company, the "outsourced" jobs are things like tech support and billing, etc. Stuff that doesn't a software development degree and years of experience. Our typical onboarding for a person to really be productive is more than 1 year. And these are people with degrees and years of experience.
We've talked about this too. My wife hadles customer service and production planning for a manufacturing site that's local to us (20mi) but brings in raws from the port and ships finished goods both stateside and international. There are already discussions about her job moving to WFH several days a week.
My job is about 50% hands on, and about 50% digital. I'm WFH as much as I can right now, but like someone said, I'm ignoring a lot of stuff that's just not critical, at least in the short term.
I feel like back when work cell phones were first put into play that the old-line managers and owners viewed it as casting a net over their employees so they could make them available all the time. They leveraged technology to promote work at the cost of life. Technology and workers have reached the point where they're now grabbing the net and pulling back, saying "Look, I can do your job as it fits me, and I don't even have to be there." We've turned the tables and are more able to make work fit around quality of life. Certainly not for every job, but I think for a lot of what we do this is going to move the needle in an unprecedented way.
One thing I see that could be hugely positive is a revitalization of tiny rural towns. All over south Georgia there are beautiful little farm towns that are being deserted because there's no way to make a decent living. Same thing for mining towns further north, farm towns out west, etc. If we push for fast rural internet, these towns could see a boom in new residents. Imagine being able to telecommute from your beautiful, clean, inexpensive town and earn a good living doing it. Maybe instead of outsourcing to India, we outsource to Indiana.
We used the Kroger pickup (Click List) option some in the past. It worked pretty well at our local store and it seems like there were more employees dedicated to fulfillment every time I went in the store over the last year. We didn't really stick to it because I'm a foodie and love to cook, so things like meat and produce selection and seasonal products are a real reason for me to be in-store. I enjoy it. Plus their choice on substitutions if something was out of stock (or junior didn't know where it was stocked) was a little wonky. OTOH, if you are a basic survival cook, it's a lot more attractive.
We used their delivery service for the first time yesterday. It's handled through the Kroger website but executed by Instacart, which is like a personal shopper Uber service. I made my list and paid on Kroger's site, then the Instacart driver actually went through the store and picked out my groceries, and brought them to my house. No-touch delivery dropped them on my front porch. It worked fine. We still have a fair number of minor shortages around here (Gov just declared stay-at-home and people panic bought. Again.) but I only missed getting one item I asked for. There were a bunch of substitutions, but I'll deal with what I get if I don't have to see another human right now.
Long term I think there will be a lot of positive outcomes of this forced new world. Certainly, there will be bad ones too. Just like every other majorchange in human history.
In reply to ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) :
Cool thing with Instacart is if there needs to be a substitution, the shopper can message you through the app with other options and you can decide to take the substitution or just cancel the item.
I’m not sure how good of a test case this will be for work from home. While a lot more people are working from home, many of those people have less work to do because of all of the shutdowns. That will make it hard for employers to gauge productivity Vs. working in the office. I think like most everything, it will come down to the individual. A person that is self motivated and productive in the office will likely remain that way at home. A person who screws around when the boss isn’t looking will likely be less productive at home.
I’m currently working from home just about every day now, but I usually work from home occasionally. I’ve got a system set up so that it’s much like my office. I also dress like I’m going into the office. It sounds silly, but I find that it helps keeps me in the work frame of mind. I also leave the house to drop the kids off to the grandparents, just like a regular work day. It would be much tougher to work from home with the kids around. I’ve found that I’m usually more efficient, especially when I have a specific task to get done, since I don’t get any interruptions. But tasks that involve other’s input are more efficient at the office. I also tend to work longer, since I don’t have that 5:00 office is closing break. But I don’t have a commute, so I spend the time working instead of driving. I do kind of miss the “end of the day” feeling, especially on Fridays. When the line is blurred between work and home, it’s also not as noticeable when I’m off work.
On shopping from home, my wife has used the Walmart pick up service for about a year, and has had few complaints. With the system she uses, she puts in an order and chooses a pick up date and time. She never had an issue with the pickups being ready. The only issue she has had has been lack of available pickup appointments, especially now. It’s two days out for the earliest appointment. I think the real problem with online ordering for grocers will be the lost sales. Grocery sales are largely dependent on impulse buying. Which is why I love that my wife is ordering online, it keeps the bill down. I on the other hand, usually know exactly what I’m buying when I go to the store. I don’t do much impulse buying. I’m also picky when picking out meat, produce, and anything with a short shelf life. I couldn’t see myself using the service.
mtn said:stuart in mn said:I'm one of those people who prefer working at work, rather than at home. Mainly, I'm more productive when I get in the car and going to a dedicated work space. There are other factors, like having to email a coworker and then wait for their response instead of just walking 20 feet to their desk, or not having a printer or copy machine available.
Something else I'm running into during this pandemic shutdown is needing a project file, but not being able to access it because it's in my desk at work.
What are you printing out these days? In two years, I haven't used the printer at work for anything except printing out shipping labels for stuff I've sold on eBay. Also, for the walking 20 feet... Instant Messenger! Or pick up the phone, which is now a term akin to hanging up the phone - nothing to hang up, and I make my phone calls using my computer now. I have a cell phone for work, but 90% of its use is as a hotspot.
Don't assume one person's requirements are the same as everyone elses. I'm an engineer, and work with construction drawings. When you shrink a drawing that's 22" x 34" or larger down to fit on a normal computer screen it's difficult to read, and my company isn't going to spring for giant screen monitors.
As for calling or using IM or whatever, in the last few weeks the amount of time it's taken to get an answer to a simple yes/no question has increased from maybe 30 seconds in the office, to hours or even days - people at home just aren't responding quickly. Maybe they're dealing with the kids or doing laundry or something else, but working remotely just isn't as fast.
bentwrench said:In reply to stuart in mn :
Don't fool yourself, or believe the shinny happy marketspeak from your energy provider.
Unless your wires are cut at the state line, your power comes from where ever is cheapest!
The numbers I quoted were from here: https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=MN Multiple other sources report similar percentages.
I worked in the power generation industry for 10 years. Coal is definitely a shrinking segment of the production in the U.S. and definitely in Europe. This is in part due to increasingly strict pollution emissions standards that make coal plants very unattractive. In addition the low price of natural gas due to fracking makes coal too expensive. However with Trump wanting to win over coal producing voters (even though it's a tiny segment of our workforce) restrictions were being rolled back. Also, the ecological affects of fracking make that business uncertain in the long term as well. China is still building new coal plants though, because China DGAF.
I'm still hoping the Europeans succeed with their full scale nuclear fusion plant in France. Clean, limitless power that runs off sea water would be a nice thing for my kids to have...
dculberson (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
They do have dedicated employees doing the order picking and taking it out to the car. At least, in every store I've seen it at here. We've used it a lot, and while there are problems, we've never had to wait hours for the stuff. Sounds like a staffing and management problem.
No doubt.
It was 3 different stores, in 2 different states.
KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) said:I'm wondering how long all these WFH jobs will stay local once more and more companies realize that they can farm so many jobs out to India, Vietnam, or similar and pay less than 1/5th as much.
My current feeling about the future is really dark and I see C-19 as the catalyst that sends the whole house of cards tumbling down. I really hope I'm wrong but I have a bad feeling about the next decade.
It kinda depends. My company tried farming out some of our work to our India subsidiaries and it failed miserably. The entire process ended up costing more and taking longer than just doing the work in-country. The time difference was a problem. The language barrier was a problem. The lack of knowledge of US design requirements was a problem. And it wasn't something we tried over a handful of projects. It was tried for a number of years. Our engineers and designers in India do well designing for projects in India, but US projects - notsomuch.
For my little part of the pharma world, I think things may change for the better. Management will realize we don't need static desks in a big office for every employee. A more universal set-up can work for employees who only need to come into the office once in awhile to work and/or meetings. But again - this applies to my small little world of the workplace. Every industry and workplace will need to find their own balance. I will still need to go to sites and survey facilities and equipment. That is expensive to do from a state or two away (or in my case - 5 states away). It would be cost-prohibitive from the other side of the country or world.
I will agree with Stuart about getting info. I've been trying to get info from our construction superintendent at the site in NH for the past 3 weeks. But as I was the sole electrical design engineer at that site, I was used to using IM to communicate with my coworkers in PA. In many ways, my actual "at desk work" hasn't changed at all. But I do desperately need to go back to the site for a few days to start getting more information. Next week looks possible.
The whole grocery pick-up thing will just take time. While many stores had these systems in place, they were not ready for people to use them on such a massive scale so quickly. I still haven't tried grocery pick-up - partly because I tend to impulse shop. While I do know what I plan to get, I will definitely grab something I had planned on almost every time. Oddly enough, I just did the order online/pick-up at store thing a few minutes ago - buying a printer from Staples. I got an email stating the order was ready and I drove over to get it. The entire trip took less than 30 minutes, including a detour as I checked to see if another store was open.
I've been an EV convert for awhile now. I am just waiting for a manufacturer to make the EV that I want. So far, only the upcoming VW Buzz looks promising, but I won't know until I see one in person.
Duke said:mtn said:This was in 2012, and the guy in question was probably 65 years old. We had to upload PDF's to a server that we created from printing a webpage. This guy would print the webpage, go to the scanner, scan it in as a pdf, then upload it.
Hell, one of my bosses is 45 and HE does that ish. I'm 55 and wouldn't dream of it.
My brother was the news editor at the Regina paper for years. Using three fingers, one thumb, and with an editors pencil in one hand, he could do 55wpm.
I know a guy who types furiously, but a great deal of the key strokes are backspaces to fix his multiple errors from typing so fast. I can do it just about as fast with three fingers and a thumb.
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:MrJoshua said:In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
Here the waits are mostly a result of the quarantine overwhelming the system. Prior to the pandemic we have been using it for at least a year without issues (Walmart).
2 out of 3 of the examples I gave were pre-pandemic.
That's really weird. Name the store? We were devout Kroger "Click-List" users before COVID. Never took more than 15 mins from the time I pulled up and called till I was loaded up and on my way.
And ALWAYS TIP THE FOLKS THAT BRING OUT YOUR GROCERIES, PLEASE? Have you heathens never seen "Fight Club!?"
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:I'm glad to hear someone has had a good experience with the grocery pickup.
My wife tried it. she sat for 1 1/2 hours waiting.
A friend tried it. 2 hr wait.
Another friend tried it this week.. She has a brain tumor and a seriously compromised immune system. She really had no options. She sat in the car for 3 1/2 hours crying. THAT'S criminal.
The ordering systems are in place, but the fulfillment systems suck. Stores simply don't have the staff who can stop what they are doing and fill orders. Its a great concept, but it won't work until they dedicate people to order fulfillment, and not try to use people who are trained and busy dealing with walk-in customers.
One of my wife's friends uses the Walmart pickup and absolutely loves it. She places the order on-line and they let her know when its ready for pickup. She drives up to a specific spot and they bring it out and put in her trunk. She says it saves money because she doesn't buy crap she doesn't need and doesn't have to fight her three girls.
spitfirebill said:SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:I'm glad to hear someone has had a good experience with the grocery pickup.
My wife tried it. she sat for 1 1/2 hours waiting.
A friend tried it. 2 hr wait.
Another friend tried it this week.. She has a brain tumor and a seriously compromised immune system. She really had no options. She sat in the car for 3 1/2 hours crying. THAT'S criminal.
The ordering systems are in place, but the fulfillment systems suck. Stores simply don't have the staff who can stop what they are doing and fill orders. Its a great concept, but it won't work until they dedicate people to order fulfillment, and not try to use people who are trained and busy dealing with walk-in customers.
One of my wife's friends uses the Walmart pickup and absolutely loves it. She places the order on-line and they let her know when its ready for pickup. She drives up to a specific spot and they bring it out and put in her trunk. She says it saves money because she doesn't buy crap she doesn't need and doesn't have to fight her three girls.
We've used the Wal-Mart pick up as well before Wuhan Covid. Never had an issue and they almost always were within 10-15 minutes to bring your order to you. Each time we tried to tip the employees always refused. I honestly thought at least once the employee was fearful of accepting a tip and getting caught as they have a no tip policy.
Other grocery trips have been to Cub Foods who is kind of behind the curve (at least ours is) with on-line ordering, but being a former employee of the old Rainbow Foods chain, I have a soft spot for old school grocers.
z31maniac said:KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) said:I'm wondering how long all these WFH jobs will stay local once more and more companies realize that they can farm so many jobs out to India, Vietnam, or similar and pay less than 1/5th as much.
My current feeling about the future is really dark and I see C-19 as the catalyst that sends the whole house of cards tumbling down. I really hope I'm wrong but I have a bad feeling about the next decade.
I'm not so sure. For low-level tech support and the like, maybe. I know when our now parent company buys another one, they don't shut down the office and outsource the jobs. They purchase the company for the expertise inside the company. And then leave the existing office open as it's integrated into the rest of the company.
A lot of the stuff we work with is so complex they would lose years in development time, if not just become obsolete, to try and outsource everything to cheaper countries. Hell, so complex few people in the company know how everything works. They know their small piece of it.From what I see in our company, the "outsourced" jobs are things like tech support and billing, etc. Stuff that doesn't a software development degree and years of experience. Our typical onboarding for a person to really be productive is more than 1 year. And these are people with degrees and years of experience.
The first profession will be the last profession.
I just wish I had the foresight to get my hair cut before all this hit. I am getting close to dusting off the Wahl clipper, putting on the #2 guide, and having at it !
Beyond that, wfh is ok, but I miss talking to co-workers face to face. Easier to get stuff done in my book. I don’t much miss the commute though, even though it is only 30-40 minutes each way depending on traffic. Oh, and I do like it when my “canine coworker” comes to the basement office fir a belly rub!
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:I'm glad to hear someone has had a good experience with the grocery pickup.
My wife tried it. she sat for 1 1/2 hours waiting.
A friend tried it. 2 hr wait.
Another friend tried it this week.. She has a brain tumor and a seriously compromised immune system. She really had no options. She sat in the car for 3 1/2 hours crying. THAT'S criminal.
The ordering systems are in place, but the fulfillment systems suck. Stores simply don't have the staff who can stop what they are doing and fill orders. Its a great concept, but it won't work until they dedicate people to order fulfillment, and not try to use people who are trained and busy dealing with walk-in customers.
My daughter-in- law's second job is picking and delivering groceries. She's Young, cute, great personality, and does very well on tips. Since she picks customers She only works for the ones who tip decently. Those who tip best get first response from her.
I'm not sure picking up groceries is going to be the big change in the future I'm expecting.
We 've tried Whole Foods home delivery. Their site isn't easy yet plus home delivery times are what works for them not you. Before that another home delivery store.
The idea isn't new or unique to the todays's situation.
Neither is Work From Home. My Dad was doing it back in the 1950's I did it since the 80's.. The difference is the internet makes work from home viable for businesses
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