costabius

costabius t1_je6e93f wrote

That's an engineering challenge, either you design around the problem or that eliminates another set of potential generation locations.

Sea ice isn't insurmountable, you can submerge generators underneath it, but that needs a system that is self-contained and doesn't require maintenance in the winter. Probably not a solution for grid connections, but small scale for powering beacons or research tasks.

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costabius t1_jbgrfke wrote

No sales tax, no income tax in New Hampshire. Mil rates for property taxes are about 50% higher in NH for comparable towns, and real estate valuations tend to be much higher for similar properties. Excise tax on vehicles is about the same, NH adds a highway fee. Other miscellaneous fees tend to be higher in NH, sometimes significantly. Plus, tickets and fines in NH are higher than Maine. Another part of that equation is ticket revenue explicitly funds law enforcement budget items in NH while in Maine it goes into the general fund, in other words, police are incentivized to write a lot of tickets.

For all that, if you are poor, it is probably a wash. Maine has better services, lack of a sales tax means your money goes further. If you are middle class, fees and property taxes are going to eat up more money than saving on sales and income tax. If you are wealthy, who cares, your money isn't coming from taxable sources in Maine, and while you're paying more in property tax in New Hamshire it evens out.

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costabius t1_j9dhadm wrote

Lewiston is the town where I've actually examined this question. The first thing to remember is the "town" itself was a lot more compact than it is now.

The "center" of the town in 1840ish was Haymarket square, which is the intersection of Main and Lisbon streets. It was exactly what the name says, a market square where farmers came and sold hay for the horses of people who lived in town. From that spot, the "town" was a mile or less up the roads in either direction, up river along Main or down river along Canal street. That area encompassed the mills, housing for the people working in them, and the services they needed for their lives. Easy walking distance.

If you worked in the mills, you either walked or used the trolley.

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costabius t1_j8aqn99 wrote

Climate change is doing us a favor with this one, the jet stream is like a wave that travels around the pole with the peak of the wave dipping south into the US. It used to be a pretty shallow wave that came down across the midwest and arced back up across the great lakes before passing over New England. Right now, the is a few hundred miles wide and stretches down to Texas. So, as it passes, Northerly winds will take the crap ion Ohio up into Canada, then southerly winds will carry the crap to the south. Basically, if it's unseasonably warm here we are fine, but in the 5 or so hours before a big temperature drop, if we get some snow, it might have some crap from Ohio in it.

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costabius t1_j6nzfzt wrote

Reply to comment by teambeattie in Stay warm this weekend by rocksandlsd

In addition to what the others have said, your thermostat is likely at the center of your house, while your water and heat pipes are on the outside walls. When it gets to "stupid cold" levels, it can drop below freezing at the walls before the air around your thermostat knows what happened.

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costabius t1_j5ol5g1 wrote

Mmmm yeah but remember this, the PUC only allows CMP to pass on a certain amount of routine maintenance costs to the customer as rate increases. Emergency storm repairs on the other hand, 100%.

They get to preserve their profits by flying in line crews from all over the country to fix issues that could have been prevented much cheaper with maintenance.

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costabius t1_j46vlcv wrote

That is mostly incorrect. Assaulting into fire is still an extremely effective tactic in a lot of circumstances, even in the era of automatic weapons. The trick is knowing when to do it.

General Pickett decided trotting half a mile up a hill to assault the entrenched enemy center, which had artillery support on the flanks was a good idea. It wasn't. However, he almost pulled it off, if it hadn't been for some reinforcements that had been relocated to the safety of the center after their heroic actions the previous day. That's right, Picketts men, made it to the union line, broke through, and ran right into the 20th Maine interrupting their rest. Right place, right time two days in a row.

The charge down little round top on the other hand, the 20th was almost out of ammunition, 1 - 2 reloads per man and they were outnumbered. The confederates assaulting up the hill were better supplied, but they were tired, and were scattered out of formation. Had the 20th stayed in place the Confederates would have had an opportunity to get organized and overwhelm them. Charging the disorganized enemy before they could consolidate was exactly the right decision.

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costabius t1_j46ddeo wrote

"last desperate push" my ass. It was a bayonet charge, downhill, into a bunch of guys exhausted from running uphill. It was the correct tactical decision, and the one most likely to succeed even if they weren't almost out of ammunition.

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