Apple Committing €1 Million to Ocean Wave Energy Research in Ireland

[GeneralChang]

In the end, if you're that worried about safety of nuclear, you should first be worried, say, about the toaster safety (ie getting electrocuted by toaster while wet), because more people have died from that than from nuclear.

I think the biggest problem with nuclear energy is that at some point somebody decided to weaponize it and dropped two bombs on populous cities causing all sorts of nightmare fuel. This has kinda created an insurmountable public image crisis, which is a super huge bummer because of, like you said, the incredible energy density in a fission reaction.

As an open note: deaths caused by fission bombs ≠ deaths caused by power plants. Very different numbers there.

 

[neutralguy]

lol
That was my first thought too.

Me too. Even here Apple is still stingy! LOL

 

[Z400Racer37]

Why do some people think it is an effective rhetorical device to have conversations with themselves? It reads like the mad ravings of an arrogant nutcase.

Sounds like you could use a bit of your own advice by that standard.

 

[mdelvecchio]

And newer technology solves the problems that led to those disasters.

good thing we didn't have three disasters in completely different decades using different newer technology. oh, wait....

 

[0007776]

good thing we didn't have three disasters in completely different decades using different newer technology. oh, wait....

What three are you referring to? The only three I can think of are Chernobyl which used 1970's era technology, three mile island which also used 1970's technology, and Fukushima which also was an older reactor using 1970's technology. Where has their been a disaster using technology from the last decade or two?

 

[G4er?]

Filling the ocean with man made contraptions has got to be good for marine life.

 

[Z400Racer37]

What three are you referring to? The only three I can think of are Chernobyl which used 1970's era technology, three mile island which also used 1970's technology, and Fukushima which also was an older reactor using 1970's technology. Where has their been a disaster using technology from the last decade or two?

For some reason, nobody seems to care about the fact that it was government investment and regulation that pushed nuclear companies towards the dangerous Fast Breeder technology, and away from the immeasurably safer LFTR MSR Technology. The same government they want to handle all their current energy/environment problems no less. What the hell is wrong with people? Like "yeah I breathe air, and I've seen those big concrete dome thingys, and therefore I'm a climate/nuclear tech expert."

*Facepalm*

 

[tevion5]

They need to do whatever they can to protect that cash from the politicians. In this case, the things they are doing have benefits both small and great to not just the local people but to the region. If they advance the development of wave technology, so much the better for all of us.

A couple of focused companies with a strong profit motive can do more to help than all the governments in the world, on so many levels.

I'm a social democrat (a pro business kinda socialist sorta) and an active member of the Irish Labour Party ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(Ireland) ). I believe in a low enough corporate tax to encourage entrepreneurship. Ireland currently has the lowest tax rate in Europe by a considerable margin. We get flack from the rest of the European Union as a result. It is only 12.5%. However I think corporate tax of between 10-15% is probably the best way to go. They should have to pay something, but not too much to hinder growth.

However, there has been cases of many foreign multinational companies (mostly american tech and pharmaceutical companies) using tax loop holes to pay paltry millions of tax on tens of billions of euro. This I cannot agree with. Ireland provides these companies with a low entry gate to the European market and a highly educated english speaking work force. We do not have many natural resources to speak of. We rely on these companies to pay their fair share of tax. 12.5 is VERY reasonable. If they would pay this the Republic of Ireland would benefit enormously. I think these companies bring great things to Ireland, and I would be happy to see more expansion. But while tax loop holes are totally legal, I can't say I approve of forcing the majority of the tax burden on worker (upper earners paying up to 60% income tax) while the corporation pays less than 1%. 12.5% is not unreasonable.

 

[thermodynamic]

Cool.

If anything, does this development interfere with the patent regarding controlling hurricanes (to get energy from it, I think was the reasoning for that patent being made?)
[doublepost=1452287912][/doublepost]

For some reason, nobody seems to care about the fact that it was government investment and regulation that pushed nuclear companies towards the dangerous Fast Breeder technology, and away from the immeasurably safer LFTR MSR Technology. The same government they want to handle all their current energy/environment problems no less. What the hell is wrong with people? Like "yeah I breathe air, and I've seen those big concrete dome thingys, and therefore I'm a climate/nuclear tech expert."

*Facepalm*

Nice to know how you know that no company applied for extensions, citing reasoning.

Private companies also pushing for profits and in a hyper-competitive cutthroat market might have just a teensy role as well. Pity government doesn't mention that as often as it does "regulations to control you all, moohahahaha". And I'm sure the US government told the nuke plant in Japan to go situate itself on a fault line, too. *bigger facepalm*

Government invests a lot in big oil and other things too. Even lots of things that the private sector has freely taken, paid for by us. Even memory foam, teflon, the internet, and other things. Those gifts were not to us but to the companies to profit from. Which is not bad by default...
[doublepost=1452288201][/doublepost]

I think the biggest problem with nuclear energy is that at some point somebody decided to weaponize it and dropped two bombs on populous cities causing all sorts of nightmare fuel. This has kinda created an insurmountable public image crisis, which is a super huge bummer because of, like you said, the incredible energy density in a fission reaction.

As an open note: deaths caused by fission bombs ≠ deaths caused by power plants. Very different numbers there.

You're right The US should have done nothing and let the bastards do far worse things to far more people far faster. Nobody is saying what was done was great. Hell, things could have been done differently. Neither of us was there at the time to actually live and understand the situation. It's easy to look back, with the cliche "hindsight is 20/20", while ignoring numerous issues, some of which may have demanded fast actions because the enemy wasn't bothering to listen to reason and continued to slaughter and everything else. War is never to be glamorized, amongst other things...

What's "causing all sorts of nightmare fuel" supposed to mean? Run-on sentences?
[doublepost=1452288288][/doublepost]

I'm a social democrat (a pro business kinda socialist sorta) and an active member of the Irish Labour Party ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(Ireland) ). I believe in a low enough corporate tax to encourage entrepreneurship. Ireland currently has the lowest tax rate in Europe by a considerable margin. We get flack from the rest of the European Union as a result. It is only 12.5%. However I think corporate tax of between 10-15% is probably the best way to go. They should have to pay something, but not too much to hinder growth.

However, there has been cases of many foreign multinational companies (mostly american tech and pharmaceutical companies) using tax loop holes to pay paltry millions of tax on tens of billions of euro. This I cannot agree with. Ireland provides these companies with a low entry gate to the European market and a highly educated english speaking work force. We do not have many natural resources to speak of. We rely on these companies to pay their fair share of tax. 12.5 is VERY reasonable. If they would pay this the Republic of Ireland would benefit enormously. I think these companies bring great things to Ireland, and I would be happy to see more expansion. But while tax loop holes are totally legal, I can't say I approve of forcing the majority of the tax burden on worker (upper earners paying up to 60% income tax) while the corporation pays less than 1%. 12.5% is not unreasonable.

I'm still an unaligned individual - the reason that companies profit more than ever nowadays is due to loopholes, their lobbyists making them, offshoring jobs, cutting quality covertly, planned obsolescence, genuine new products that capture the adoration of millions of customers rightly, and so on. Some companies use loopholes to pay $0 in tax and get refunds on that, oddly enough. But that news article was from a couple years ago...

 

[Sill]

Cool.

If anything, does this development interfere with the patent regarding controlling hurricanes (to get energy from it, I think was the reasoning for that patent being made?)

While I've never heard of the patent you mentioned, I seriously hope that is just internet noise. For all the hype and drama regarding alleged man-made global warming, I cannot conceive of how stupid someone would be to try and harness or otherwise affect a hurricane. Such storms are a form of global climate reset and anything that would "control" them has the potential to cause more real destruction than the nonsense coming out of IPCC.

You're right The US should have done nothing and let the bastards do far worse things to far more people far faster. Nobody is saying what was done was great. Hell, things could have been done differently. Neither of us was there at the time to actually live and understand the situation. It's easy to look back, with the cliche "hindsight is 20/20", while ignoring numerous issues, some of which may have demanded fast actions because the enemy wasn't bothering to listen to reason and continued to slaughter and everything else. War is never to be glamorized, amongst other things...

That didn't stop Hollywood, with the full cooperation of the US government, from glamorizing war in countless movies and TV shows. The a-bomb attacks on the civilian populations of the two Japanese cities were unnecessary, and in my view, a war crime. Japan had sued for peace several times and were rebuffed, just as they had tried numerous times to prevent war with the US. Those attempts weren't just rebuffed, they were met with antagonistic responses designed to goad Japan into war.

I'm still an unaligned individual - the reason that companies profit more than ever nowadays is due to loopholes, their lobbyists making them, offshoring jobs, cutting quality covertly, planned obsolescence, genuine new products that capture the adoration of millions of customers rightly, and so on. Some companies use loopholes to pay $0 in tax and get refunds on that, oddly enough. But that news article was from a couple years ago...

Those companies profiting more now than ever are largely due to government cronyism, not free market capitalism. Many laws are designed to squelch competition, not to provide an even playing field.
[doublepost=1452450732][/doublepost]

I'm a social democrat (a pro business kinda socialist sorta) and an active member of the Irish Labour Party ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(Ireland) ). I believe in a low enough corporate tax to encourage entrepreneurship. Ireland currently has the lowest tax rate in Europe by a considerable margin. We get flack from the rest of the European Union as a result. It is only 12.5%. However I think corporate tax of between 10-15% is probably the best way to go. They should have to pay something, but not too much to hinder growth.

However, there has been cases of many foreign multinational companies (mostly american tech and pharmaceutical companies) using tax loop holes to pay paltry millions of tax on tens of billions of euro. This I cannot agree with. Ireland provides these companies with a low entry gate to the European market and a highly educated english speaking work force. We do not have many natural resources to speak of. We rely on these companies to pay their fair share of tax. 12.5 is VERY reasonable. If they would pay this the Republic of Ireland would benefit enormously. I think these companies bring great things to Ireland, and I would be happy to see more expansion. But while tax loop holes are totally legal, I can't say I approve of forcing the majority of the tax burden on worker (upper earners paying up to 60% income tax) while the corporation pays less than 1%. 12.5% is not unreasonable.

I respect your position, and I'm not the guy who tells people from other countries how they should run their operations. Here in the US, however, tax revenue is largely spent on warfare and welfare, in that order. Plus our government borrows even more for those purposes, blending "But think of the children!" with "But our children will end up paying for this".

I work an exceedingly difficult job. I sometimes see others struggling with their assignments. The way I help is to try to impart some skills to them through mentoring or outright training, though sometimes I'll take on part of their assignments if they're truly in the weeds. With my solution, I make more money and our clients are better served as their usual contact becomes more efficient at his role. The way the US government would help is to set up an assistance office, recommend counseling, send workers to monitor their job, assign them some help, and then take money out of my check to pay for it.

Personally, I can't see corporations or other business entities being taxed anything more than zero percent. The shareholders already pay capital gains taxes, so a tax on gross profits amounts to double taxation. Eliminating corporate taxes ends an entire section of the tax code, and enables businesses to invest more. Working capital builds the economy, not taxes.