Boston Trying Out Solar-Powered Park Benches

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I guess this is a lot better than park benches being used as beds by the homeless in Boston. Uh oh, the countdown to lawsuits over solar-powered park benches displacing the homeless begins in 3....2....1. :D

The benches, to be located in various parks, will allow residents to take a load off their feet — while plugging in and recharging their cellphones. “Your cellphone doesn’t just make phone calls, why should our benches just be seats?” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said in a statement Friday.
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someone is going to steal those iBenches and use them at home for free internet.
 
Either they will become so covered with graffiti they don't work or someone will steal the solar panels. Doubt if these last a month.
 
Skateboarder is going to grind the bench then pop up and grind the solar panels, when his trick fails will grab his skateboard and use it to break the solar panels.
 
The homeless need to recharge their Obamaphones somewhere, don't they?
 
This just as stupid as solar panel roads
[youtube]http://youtu.be/ocV-RnVQdcs[/youtube]
 
Are they really actually putting the unit on the bench like that? That's retarded. They should put the panels on a pole behind the bench so they're high up and can't be easily broken, as is done with remote traffic monitoring systems. The guy's casting a shadow on it and it takes up half the bench, the other half will be occupied by someone hording the spot all day waiting for his phone to go from 93% to 99%.

I like the idea, but people are assholes.
 
A publicly available outlet for people to charge their devices, what could possibly go wrong?

IE - Everything, cause we cannot have nice things
 
Why not just put them on roofs? Who are these retards trying to reinvent the wheel?
 
McFry said:
Stupid homeless people, why dont they just buy their own phones so they can get a job.
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Yeah, because you become homeless by accident, and we don't already have more forms of welfare available to them than virtually anywhere else on the planet... :rolleyes: Funny how even illegal aliens that don't have a highschool education (something you get for free in America), no free housing, no wellfare, and don't even speak the language to be able to communicate well, can somehow manage to find jobs and slowly but surely make enough to get prepaid phones and other luxuries. :rolleyes:

America now guarantees, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and a Obamaphone.

Face facts, this is just a means for the Democrats to buy votes from lowlife moochers like this example model citizen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio
 
I'm sure the benches will be wifi connected to make it easier for the NSA to collect all data from you device and upload spyware.

Don't laugh, it is possible :)
 
Ducman69 said:
Yeah, because you become homeless by accident, and we don't already have more forms of welfare available to them than virtually anywhere else on the planet... :rolleyes: Funny how even illegal aliens that don't have a highschool education (something you get for free in America), no free housing, no wellfare, and don't even speak the language to be able to communicate well, can somehow manage to find jobs and slowly but surely make enough to get prepaid phones and other luxuries. :rolleyes:

America now guarantees, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and a Obamaphone.

Face facts, this is just a means for the Democrats to buy votes from lowlife moochers like this example model citizen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio
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Yea

That money is much better spent giving massive tax cuts to the oil industry because their profits are never quite high enough. Any money left over is allocated to the murder machine that is the military industrial complex.
But wait. You are a fiscal conservative... right?

Repubs are a dying breed. Sorry gramps.
 
Dark12 said:
Yea

That money is much better spent giving massive tax cuts to the oil industry because their profits are never quite high enough. Any money left over is allocated to the murder machine that is the military industrial complex.
But wait. You are a fiscal conservative... right?

Repubs are a dying breed. Sorry gramps.
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Libertarian, and I love your defense.

"Getting kicked in the groin is WAY worse than getting a boot up your rectum"... :rolleyes:

The tax money should go towards repaying the US debt or not taken from the hard working American people that earned it in the first place. And the oil industry paid more in taxes than any other industry in the United States... what crack are you smoking?

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/pen...-highest-corporate-income-taxes-2897b-2007-12
S&P Research Insight and S&P 1500 by GICS Industry Code data, shows that the oil and gas industry had the highest effective tax rate during that time period (averaged over 2007-2012) of any U.S. business: 44.6%.

Three U.S. oil companies paid a total of $289.7 billion in corporate income taxes between 2007 and 2012, the biggest portion of corporate taxes in absolute terms, according to analysis by Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ.
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But never let facts get in the way of your argument.
 
BTW, I missed this gem. ConocoPhillips’s effective tax rate was a whopping 74%. The national effective tax rate of corporate conglomarates is only 15.8%. I have a feeling you won't retract your statement though about "massive tax cuts".... am i right? :p
 
Why does it have to be a Republican/Democrat Conservative/Liberal debate? We know that solar panels can produce electricity. We also know that it is not a suitable replacement for fossil fuels for energy production at this time. Does that mean that we just ignore the technology as well as its benefits because it is not as efficient as something else?

There are myriad areas where we could implement solar panels and windmills to help alleviate some of the dependence on fossil fuels for energy production. As the technology continues to develop, it becomes more viable for even more potential implementations. It may never reach a critical mass capable of replacing fossil fuels, but once the initial investment is made in the installation, you are basically getting free power out of the system any time it is sunny.

Most of the public schools near where I live have huge areas of flat roof that could have solar panels added to them. I would much rather have my school tax money going to outfit some of these buildings with solar panel arrays than being divvied up among the administrators as salary increases or bonuses, especially since the cost of electricity and heating oil are two of the biggest items on the budget every year. If the conversation manages to come up at a school board meeting, there is always some boisterous asshat that shoots it down through these kind of red herring attacks.

The park benches may be a bit of a stretch, but it may be the kind of baby step that is necessary to overcome this partisan bickering long enough for people to pull their heads out of their asses and realize that not all new technologies are a waste of time or money, even if some of their implementations may be. How much of it is really fear of change and how much of it is human stupidity? I'm not sure, but between the two they definitely slow down the pace of progress :(
 
MrCaffeineX said:
We know that solar panels can produce electricity. We also know that it is not a suitable replacement for fossil fuels for energy production at this time. Does that mean that we just ignore the technology as well as its benefits because it is not as efficient as something else?
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Yes. You always pick the best tool for the job. If solar benches are more efficient because of the lack of need to run wiring to them, then use it. If that's not the case, its stupidity.
MrCaffeineX said:
I would much rather have my school tax money going to outfit some of these buildings with solar panel arrays than being divvied up among the administrators as salary increases or bonuses, especially since the cost of electricity and heating oil are two of the biggest items on the budget every year
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Never understood this "drinking urine is better than eating feces" limited choice logic that I often see in debates. Neither HAS to be an option, you could just stop taxing the crap out of the citizenry, especially people like me that pay out the butt and don't even have kids to attend those schools... and worse pay MORE than someone that has five kids, since they list them as dependents reducing their tax burden.
 
Ducman69 said:
And the oil industry paid more in taxes than any other industry in the United States... what crack are you smoking?

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/pen...-highest-corporate-income-taxes-2897b-2007-12


But never let facts get in the way of your argument.
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See this is what I dont like about republicans. They always cherry pick data and source all of their information from blatantly biased news sources. For instance this shill probably thinks that as long as he puts up an actual link, he has sourced his data and that nobody will actually click on it to see where it came from. You know, kinda like the chain mail trick at work; as long as there's a link at the bottom telling you how Bill Gates legally has to pay you $10,000 for forwarding an email as part of an outlook test run, people tend to believe it.

So what we have here is data sourced from a news site called "CNS news". First thing you will notice on the site is their slogan, "The RIGHT news, RIGHT now". Hmmmm, wonder which side they're rooting for. For a news organization to immediately identify itself with a political leaning should concern you, unless of course you are a politically bankrupt shill trying to stroke his ego on the internet and further the right wing disinformation campaign.

Anyway without boring you too much, a quick glance at their articles, writing style, and comments section pretty much tells you everything you need to know about their slant, as if their logo didnt already. I know this, everywhere here now knows this, but whats worse is some pondscum poster trying to pawn this off as news. I especially love how their editors are comprised of "staff of credentialed journalists", which basically means rush limbaugh masturbating fanboys working from home.

I just had to retort here since it was so hilariously bad that someone would actually try to turn the tables on the "effective" tax rates of the oil industry. I mean I applaud you for trying to hit a homerun with the 75% tax rate statistic, but you went too far buddy. You gave up the goose, and let everyone see you for what you are. If you have any intellectual honesty whatsoever I'll let you do the research yourself so you can see how the oil industries net tax burden is somewhere around 17% or so, basically less than you and me. I'm sure you wont bother doing this because admitting you were wrong is sinful and you would rather go down with the ship than agree with anything a treehugger might say, but just remember, the industry you are defending is paying less taxes than YOU, at YOUR expense.
 
You have the time to write four paragraphs, but not enough time to post a single source refuting factual information that came from S&P: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S&P_Capital_IQ

Perhaps a liberal publication like the NY Times is made up too:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/25/sunday-review/corporate-taxes.html?_r=0
Three big energy firms paid the most taxes in absolute terms: Exxon $146 billion; Chevron $85 billion; and ConocoPhillips $58 billion.
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Click the bottom big orange blob on the very far right, it shows ConocoPhillips effective tax rate of 74%. Let me guess, you again won't admit you're talking out of your ass.

I go full retard from time to time on the forum, but at least I can man up and admit when I'm blatantly wrong.
 
Ducman69 said:
You have the time to write four paragraphs, but not enough time to post a single source refuting factual information that came from S&P: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S&P_Capital_IQ
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Because I have played this game with your kind numerous times before. You spout out bullshit information and then leave it to me to go debunking all of it. What takes you 5 minutes in a copy/paste job takes me 3 hours to unfuck. Thats why you do it, because it's easy to make baseless claims and hope nobody bothers to fact check you.

Three big energy firms paid the most taxes in absolute terms: Exxon $146 billion; Chevron $85 billion; and ConocoPhillips $58 billion
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Why are you wasting my time with this garbage when we both know "absolute terms" are completely meaningless? Cmon I mean this might work with someone else but it's not going to work with me. Seriously save your time. I'm not here to debate you, I just wanted to throw out a caution flag for anyone who read your post.
 
McFry said:
Why are you wasting my time with this garbage when we both know "absolute terms" are completely meaningless?
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Absolute means total dollar amount of taxes paid, and I posted the effective tax rate as well... and from the NY Times since you HAVE to see it from a liberal news publication, and you STILL won't admit you're wrong or at least apologize for calling me a liar about the 74% effective tax rate for conocophilips? LMAO! When the facts don't support your position, call everyone a liar and insist you're too busy to address them. Liberal logic. :D
14557675975_48e0da1b59.jpg

^ Screen shot from The New York Times
And whats with this "you people"... racist! :p
 
Ducman69 said:
Yes. You always pick the best tool for the job. If solar benches are more efficient because of the lack of need to run wiring to them, then use it. If that's not the case, its stupidity.

Never understood this "drinking urine is better than eating feces" limited choice logic that I often see in debates. Neither HAS to be an option, you could just stop taxing the crap out of the citizenry, especially people like me that pay out the butt and don't even have kids to attend those schools... and worse pay MORE than someone that has five kids, since they list them as dependents reducing their tax burden.
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I would also prefer that they tax me less, but the reality of the situation is that school budget votes almost never fail because it's "for the children." That does not make it right, but I operate under the realistic assumption that they are going to take more money than necessary from me because the majority of people are too gullible or too stupid to question the board. Given the constraints of the situation - knowing that regardless of my vote (I always vote no precisely because I believe they can do more with less, but since when do efficiency and government-run go together) there are enough people that will vote for it that it will pass - I at least hope that they can do some useful things with the money rather than piss it all away.

Unfettered capitalism is a reasonably effective method of distributing resources, but even prominent Libertarian minds admit that there must be effective regulation to prevent fraud. This proves that it is not a perfect system because in a perfect system fraud would not occur in the first place. I could digress into a cynical assessment of human nature, but I will avoid that in this thread. Suffice it to say that while I agree with many Libertarian viewpoints, such views are far enough from the mainstream that they will never be adopted by the majority. This does not make them wrong, nor does it make anyone that does not concur wrong.

Reality requires that people pick and choose their battles. Turning a thread about solar panels on park benches into a treatise on capitalism's benefits over socialism is immaterial. There are significantly more important matters, even for Libertarians, that need to be addressed and when they are addressed, then we can worry about analyzing the cost-benefit ratio of an experiment like this.
 
Ducman69 said:
Absolute means total dollar amount of taxes paid, and I posted the effective tax rate as well... and from the NY Times since you HAVE to see it from a liberal news publication, and you STILL won't admit you're wrong or at least apologize for calling me a liar about the 74% effective tax rate for conocophilips? LMAO! When the facts don't support your position, call everyone a liar and insist you're too busy to address them. Liberal logic. :D
14557675975_48e0da1b59.jpg

^ Screen shot from The New York Times
And whats with this "you people"... racist! :p
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Ok so I'm only making this last response here because now I think you're not actually trolling but just genuinely believe what you have read. For starters it's going to be tough to break through the propaganda you have been fed, since your first go to data source is always going to be rightwing based. The problem you are exhibiting here is that you already have your answer and are simply seeking out sources to reaffirm your point of view. Let me guess, your Google search results were something like "oil industry 74% tax rate" and the you scrolled through until you saw a liberal news site reporting the same thing and said "BINGO!". Sorry pal, thats now how research is performed.

The information is out there, and it's pretty easy to find. I'm not going to do it for you since if you dont do it yourself, then you're a lost cause and there's no point in me discussing it with you in the first place. But it's kinda cute if you honestly think that the oil industry hasnt been able to execute all of the tax loopholes, fuzzy math, financial havens, offshore account holdings, subsidies, pre-emptive tax calcuations, etc etc etc, that every other organization pulls off. It it is not just as simple as Exxon getting a tax bill for the year from the IRS and then just paying billions of dollars by April 15th and calling it a day.
 
McFry said:
The information is out there, and it's pretty easy to find. I'm not going to do it for you since if you dont do it yourself, then you're a lost cause and there's no point in me discussing it with you in the first place.
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I must admit defeat in face of such overwhelming evidence and infallible logic.
 
Ducman69 said:
I must admit defeat in face of such overwhelming evidence and infallible logic.
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See it's not just my time you're wasiting, it's your own time. Dont you want to know how these things work? A good researcher always looks for information to disprove his own point of view first, not the other way around.
 
Once again, another thread turned into political bickering.

Please find a political forum or off topic to do this crap. The last page and a half has not had anything to do with the subject.

I think before cities put in public USB charging benches, they should look into public water fountians like Rome has, people need water more than they need a smartphone.
 
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