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Planet Money on NPR did a nice story about an effort in California to have a "Ready Return" like most countries that was already filled out for you. Episode 760: Tax Hero

Listen to https://www.npr.org/sections/m.... Basically conservatives fight the idea of taxes being easy to do. They want to make sure that you don't like anything about government.

I listened to a great podcast from NPR the other day called Tax Hero, about a Stanford professor who created a system in California called ReadyReturn to basically do this with the state taxes.

It is a fascinating podcast so if you have the time it's worth a listen (I say this as an Australian that finds US taxes a byzantine mess), but the basic gist of it is this professor was all like, why the fuck doesn't our government do what every other government in the world does and take the pain out of taxes for our citizens?

So he banged out a system to do it in California and after a successful trial tried to roll it out further. Then he discovered Intuit and the tax lobby and Grover Norquist and that mob and was basically stonewalled by (you guessed it) Republicans.

He spent tens of thousands of dollars of his own money on a lobbyist and made a ton of progress but ended up losing out on getting into the legislation, or whatever (I can't remember the gritty political details) by a single vote.

There's some commentary from Norquist and the other side is well represented in the discussion, IMO - I have a better understanding as to why people are against it. I just think it's not at all worth it at all and the massive amount of pain, stress and financial burden could be better spent literally anywhere else.

Doing your taxes doesn't have to be a pain. In many countries around the world, filing taxes is so easy and painless, "tax day" isn't even a thing.

Back in 2005, a little group of California tax experts were talking shop and they figured, we could do that here in the U.S. A lot of people in California get all of their income from their paychecks, and taxes are already withheld from those paychecks. In those cases, California could just fill out the W-2 for the taxpayers, who could check for errors and just send them back in. Easy as 1-2-3. (That was the slogan the state came up with). They named it: ReadyReturn.

--- Here's the podcast episode. Hit play and enjoy. (I say "enjoy" as in get boiling mad.)

Probably feeding a troll, but the ISPs served the data to people, the devices displayed that content, etc. Are they to be held similarly culpable for this?

This ultimately reduces to the argument that because books might contain "dangerous ideas" we really ought to just ban them. Authoritarians will always seek out ways to control others and they're scarcely above using tragedy in order to accomplish those goals.

If you believe that there are terrible people in the world, trying to control them won't stop them, and really will only make them dig in further. If you want someone to change, you're better off talking to them and trying to convince them to change of their own volition.

NASA: Debris From India's Anti-Satellite Test Raised Threat To Space Station

"That is a terrible, terrible thing to create an event that sends debris in an apogee that goes above the International Space Station," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said, referring to the debris' highest point in orbit. "And that kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human space flight that we need to see happen."

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/02...

We didn't realize back then that plastics were slowly making their way into our food supply. Do you think that "better pollution monitoring, regulation and better recycling" is enough to fix that without also banning single-use plastics?

Whenever the Republicans are concerned and want to do something as simple as require an ID to vote, people call them racist.

Well, yes, when the voter ID laws are carefully crafted to make it harder for minorities to vote.

The appeals court noted that the North Carolina Legislature "requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices" — then, data in hand, "enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans."

The changes to the voting process "target African Americans with almost surgical precision," the circuit court wrote, and "impose cures for problems that did not exist."

You insensitive clod!

But now, with the application documents in hand, even the Washington Post admits that the dossier played "a prominent role" in the wiretap request. And we know that the FBI had corroborated none of the dossier claims before filing its application.

It seems you just provided the source to confirm LR's contention. You bring shame to all ACs with your ignorance.

And if you don't believe IBD, perhaps NPR will work?

I'm not generally opposed to Socialism, Social Democracy or Capitalism for that matter, in fact I'm basically a Social Democrat. However, the situation in Venezuela can be blamed completely on the incompetence and corruption of the Chavez regime and the even greater incompetence and corruption of the Maduro regime.

http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/the-united-states-hand-in-undermining-democracy-in-venezuela
http://time.com/5512005/venezu...
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/22... etc.

Did you even read those articles? ... because they are just as critical of Maduro as the Americans. If those two links were meant to prove that Maduro is the only innocent in this entire sorry affair you failed, if they were meant to make the US look good you also failed:

The Time article starts with:

As Maduro’s authoritarian regime has plunged Venezuela into humanitarian crisis ...

...and NPR has this to say:
Venezuela was once considered the richest country in Latin America, and it holds the world's largest oil reserves. Many world leaders, analysts and rights groups blame Maduro for enabling the country's spiraling problems such as hyperinflation, crime, hunger and shortages of medicine and basic goods.

I'm not generally opposed to Socialism, Social Democracy or Capitalism for that matter, in fact I'm basically a Social Democrat. However, the situation in Venezuela can be blamed completely on the incompetence and corruption of the Chavez regime and the even greater incompetence and corruption of the Maduro regime.

http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/the-united-states-hand-in-undermining-democracy-in-venezuela
http://time.com/5512005/venezu...
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/22...
etc.

Your commission of logical fallacies is not "my capitalist indoctrination," it's you being illlogical. Did the USSR provide free healthcare? Yes, yes it did, and I quote:

"With the elimination of private expenditures for health services, the form and amount of medical care were now dependent upon the budgetary priorities of the State. All members of the medical industry were put on low fixed monthly salaries and were mandated to examine and treat an overwhelming daily quota of patients. Medical research became dependent upon inadequate annual budgetary allocations from the government. Doctors’ and nurses’ incomes no longer depended on their professional skills or the number of patients they treated. Total unionization of the medical profession made it practically impossible for anyone to be fired. Without markets and prices determining the value and availability of health care, the government imposed a rationing system for medical services and pharmaceutical products. Specialized services (mammograms, ultrasounds, and so forth) were available only in a few select hospitals where the doctors were supposed to treat patients as well as participate in research. For example, in the case of brain or cardiovascular surgery and treatment, there were only a few specialized hospitals available in the entire country. People sometimes died waiting in line to be admitted for these treatments."

Dying while waiting in line for rationed health care because you're "not a budgetary priority of the state!" Wow, what a great system you're advocating for! The other aspects mentioned worked the same way. Soviet worker payroll was a clusterfuck to say the least.

As for Flint's water, you say that as if Flint's water problems are caused by capitalism, but that's complete bullshit. Flint's water problems were caused by the city government. Detailed information on the lead-up to the Flint water crisis. You keep trying to hold Flint up as some sort of failure of capitalism when it's nothing more than a government entity being lazy while trying to cut costs. Ironically, all of your attempts to back your opinions are having the opposite effect.

even if it's free. Other countries have no problem making college tuition free. NY just did it too. As for cost, see here.

What ever happened to getting your kid into college the good old fashioned way? Donating enough money to get a building named after you and guaranteed admission to any descendants.

According to TFA, most of these parents paid the consultant $250k to $450k.
...

Read the actual article. The people accepting the bribes got maybe 350 K to 450K. The people arranging the bribes got a lot more.

Exempli gratia:
"In another example, Lelling said former Yale women's soccer coach Rudy Meredith took $400,000 to designate a potential student as a recruit for the team — boosting the student's admission prospects — despite knowing that the student didn't play the sport competitively.Once the student was accepted to Yale, her relatives paid Singer approximately $1.2 million, including a $900,000 to one of KWF's charitable accounts, according to court documents."

Can you find any Republicans in the group arrested today? Nope. All card-carrying Leftists.

Since the summary didn't list any names except the photogenic actresses, I'm not sure how you know if they were Republicans or Democrats. The actual article names names (scroll down to the bottom for the list), and they're mostly athletic coaches and rich businessmen. I don't know their politics, but in my experience, athletic coaches and rich businessmen both tend toward the right.

Actually, the countries in Europe who have the most recent direct experience with Russia/USSR (and have borders with Russia) very much do want the Americans to stay and increase their local presence. Just last year Poland made a direct request for a US base on its territory.
https://www.euractiv.com/secti...
and
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/22...

the Mueller investigation continues apace with multiple convictions and indictments. It's even profitable. And China-Gate is just getting started.

Going AC because (I'm a coward) I'll probably be accused of flamebait and maybe it is, but I think there's a growing segment of Americans who would be more than happy to see people thrown in jail for things they don't like.

Perhaps they're all trolls, but some people are actually calling for civil war so they can rid America of the "communists", by which they mean everyone from Jeff Flake to Louis Farrakhan. They say Ilhan Omar should never have been allowed in Congress and that she should be deported. They say that illegals should be shot on sight as they cross the border. (Apparently that is how Bibi can claim Israel's wall is 99.9% effective). If you're accused of a heinous enough crime, you shouldn't have the benefit of a trial. Illegal immigration is one of those crimes.They say only citizens should have ANY rights. They say Islam is not a religion and therefore should not be protected by the First Amendment.

Lying to Congress and evading taxes are just "process crimes" as if those shouldn't be bothered with. If anything is a "process crime", it's overstaying your visa or illegally crossing the border.

They support sheriffs who say they won't enforce laws. They argue that a cop beating someone who is handcuffed to a chair in a basement until they're unconscious is justified.

Who's Unconscious Now?

The Democrats learned this from the 1994 Republican landslide after they passed the Brady Bill. When Obama tried to close the "gunshow loophole" after Sandy Hook, many politicians in his own party refused to support him.

Looks like they didn't learn that lesson. Citation: https://www.npr.org/2019/02/27...

Because Amazon Marketplace has become the dominant player in the book selling universe. Not a monopoly, but certainly the largest single player.

You don't have to be a monopoly to be regulated as such by the government. Microsoft wasn't a monopoly when the government forced them to decouple IE from Windows.

Similarly, the inability to being able to sell your book on Amazon Marketplace (not Amazon) would curtail any book seller.

Listen to the Planet Money podcast exactly about this sort of thing: https://www.npr.org/sections/m...

No links, no mention of where temperature recordings were made.

If full links were provided to all the data, would you believe them ?

If no, why ask for links ?

If yes, then why are you doubting the conclusion ?

Links? We got links! https://edition.cnn.com/2019/0... https://www.npr.org/2019/01/25... https://phys.org/news/2019-01-... https://www.standard.co.uk/new...

Pages and pages of links.

I'll just note that I haven't found one Fox News link yet, as they are busy showing that Global warming is a hoax........

It snowed in Seattle, you know.

to predict some things.

It seems to me that bringing in vast dollar amounts for collecting fossils should be a good thing for paleontology. More money should mean more resources to dig them up, increasing the overall supply of fossils available to humans to study...

It's already happening. More fossils are available for study now, which is great, even if some go to private collections. However, it's creating some challenges for scientists to good information; and museums who want to display fossils for the public have more competition. NPR's Planet Money had a great podcast on the subject... https://www.npr.org/sections/m...
It's a 20 minute episode and well worth listening to [and RTFA] if anyone cares enough to comment here. Fossils have unique issues and without educating yourself it's easy to fall into ideological camps of science/public interest vs free markets; but if either ideology is allowed to dictate how we handle fossils we will all suffer. The best policy will be a blend.

Since the advent of the surveillance state, I just assume that speaking on a cell phone, texting on a cell phone, and carrying a cell phone with the battery in it is the technological equivalent of breadcrumbs... if anybody is highly motivated enough to want to track my movements.

The Stingray Tools are fairly easy for well-funded organisations to deploy, your cellie hits on towers it is closest to, and all manner of back doors for national security may be built in.

Don't take a knife to a gun fight, and don't take a cell phone anywhere that might be considered shady.

Why the hell aren't they charged with attempted murder?
Shit, a cop was recently convicted of attempted murder in Toronto for the 7 bullets he put into the perp after killing him with 2 shots. He did get off the murder charge though.
Even then they suspended him with pay, while waiting appeal, which is insane. (Appeal refused)
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/...

Oh yes, it isn't murder if a cop shoots someone in the USA if they feel threatened.
From the wiki article on murder,

In the United States, in some states and in federal jurisdiction, a killing by a police officer is excluded from prosecution if the officer believes they are being threatened with deadly force by the victim. This may include such actions by the victim as reaching into a glove compartment or pocket for license and registration, if the officer thinks that the victim might be reaching for a gun.[30]

With the citation,

Joseph Goldstein (July 28, 2016). "Is a Police Shooting a Crime? It Depends on the Officer's Point of View". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved July 29, 2016. "The longstanding official deference to the viewpoint of police officers is enshrined in the laws of some states and Supreme Court rulings."

A couple more citations quickly looking,
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/03...
https://www.latimes.com/nation...

Thats strange, the article stated at NPR states they had a budget of 100m $. But it doesnt state what SpaceX spent. I'm sure the entire mission costed more than 100m if you compare it with the USA and russian budget. Too bad they didn't go in those details.

It's actually pretty well documented that the air quality from cooking can get to surprisingly bad levels quickly.

The range hoods in a lot of kitches are often only minimally up to code, too far from the cooking surface, and dirty, attached to ductwork that is too long with too many corners to deliver anything close to the rated air movement. And many homeowners don't think to even turn them on unless the cooking is active smoking.

An decent spec range hood, installed correctly, that is clean and not hobbled by inadequate ductwork is all you need. But it is shocking how rare this is.

As it happens, my current place, had been upgraded to a nice gas stove with no real thought to the range hood. The range hood is a cheap builders 280 CFM unit with around 25 feet of 5" diameter horizontal pipe with at least 3 90 degree turns. It also leaks air where it connects to the duct; so a good fraction of the air it sucks in is just blowing back into the kitchen

The range hood should be at least 400CFM for the gas stove that's installed. But due to the duct work, will need to be even higher. And it should be turned on to at least low even when just boiling water for tea.

If we roasted a turkey and let some fat drop; and have current fan on max, all the windows and doors open, the bathroom fans going, and all the ceiling fans going... we'd still set off the smoke detector.

We're in the process of getting it replaced.

Here's a couple article from 2013... this is not "new".

http://articles.latimes.com/20...
https://www.npr.org/sections/t...

So is that what happened to Zion Williamson?

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/21... ...And then a mere 33 seconds into the game, on a routine play, Williamson dribbled near the foul line when his left leg buckled, his left blue-and-white Nike sneaker ripped apart at the seams and he tumbled to the floor, grabbing his right knee in pain....

have you seen the mechanical stress involved there
https://www.npr.org/2011/10/27...

What's sad I always find myself having by default these days a deep distrust of everything computerized.

In principal what's there not to like about better textbooks in electronic format that would enable all kinds of cool shit such as lighter book bags, books that don't wear out, ability to annotate without the next person to use them suffering through scribbles and torn pages. Forms and interactivity in pages that make pages come alive in useful ways. Which way educational adventures.. possibilities are endless.

The problem is people are too stupid, undisciplined (scope creep), lazy and selfish to allow that to ever happen.

Computerization will be viewed as a means of teachers seeking to automate themselves out of their roles.

It means platform, software vendors, schools and publishers continuously spying on students even with microphones and cameras for all kinds of good sounding reasons.

It means controlling material and costs in ways not possible with printed books.

Never ending reliability issues... dropped, broken, network sucks, batteries and constant distractions from people doing other shit during class rather than what they are supposed to be. Mommy I can't do my homework without Internet!!

Despite all attempts to date there remains no meaningful evidence giving everyone computers instead of books actually leads to better outcomes for students. I have no doubt it actually can be done... yet I retain every doubt in the world it will happen anytime soon.

https://www.npr.org/sections/1...

Six years for attempting a phonecall scam.

Meanwhile the woman who willfully abused her boyfriend into not backing out of a suicide attempt gets 15 months

Definitive proof that our justice system values an attempt at monetary loss at nearly six times the rate of actual loss of human life.

The official document can be viewed here: https://apps.npr.org/documents...

I challenge you to cite 4 consecutive sentences from it (NOT from AOC's silly, stupid FAQ or sensationalist social-media headlines) that you specifically believe best exemplify its alleged call for maoism and the destruction of the American way of life.

Note that I'm not claiming GND is good, desirable, or has any chance of passage. I'm simply challenging you to provide proof that you actually *read* the source document, and aren't just regurgitating breathless hype and buzzwords you read somewhere.

So does posting that or links to NPR count as ban-able offenses on twitter now that a blessed group is affected?
https://www.npr.org/sections/a...

No More Gym? Don't Worry, Your Muscles Remember https://www.npr.org/templates/...

These smart guys already did the math: Odds Hillary Won Without Widespread Fraud: 1 in 77 Billion Say Berkeley, Stanford Studies (If you don't like this link, there are several other copies of this article floating around on the web.)

The available voting data from the 2016 democratic primary shows significant statistical abnormalities, in the last half of the data, that favor Hillary at the expense of Bernie. It appears that a voting machine exploit was in place in several districts, that only triggered in real time when someone or something detected that Hillary was about to lose to Bernie.

That's just the election itself. Stepping back in time to the pre-election Hillary vs. Bernie campaign trail, there's also the obvious issues of stealing campaign money from Bernie's campaign, and installing Imran Awan, a Pakistani spy as the IT manager of the DNC's computer network, subverting the DNC 'VAN' computer network that Bernie, a democratic candidate, was forced to use for official campaign business. Meaning that Hillary was secretly in control of the Bernie campaign's network, and even revoked access at one point during his campaign. (We discovered Hillary's DNC network subversion through a Wikileaks publication.) Then we have a secret joint fundraising agreement that DNC bosses signed with Hillary Clinton, giving her nearly full control of the DNC, BEFORE she was nominated. (alternate link.)

If that's too technical for you, then let me remind you that, defending against the DNC fraud lawsuit, a DNC lawyer Bruce Spiva said in court: "We could have voluntarily decided that, 'Look, we're gonna go into the back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way." This is in reference to the whole Hillary-biased democrat super-delegate debacle that was all over the news at the time. Hillary bribed those super-delegates with laundered money through one of her crooked 'charities' to secure her nomination over Bernie.

This is just the easily cited stuff Hillary's done to screw Bernie. I'm not saying that Hillary's crimes only include screwing Bernie, or that Bernie's a perfect candidate. And I sure as hell didn't vote for Trump.

To explain the world we have either 1) Science; 2) Solipsism; or 3) Magic. Choose your poison, or some combination of all three. According to my senses and IPU (Information Processing Unit, i.e. brain), hard science has a pretty good track record at explaining the mechanisms of observed phenomena.

One problem is that advocates can pervert the umbrella of science to peddle "advocacy science" or "junk science", where studies based on statistical analysis, improperly used, can yield spurious correlations to support a [social | legal | political | economic | scientific] position. Like the growing sugar revelations, which could be flat out lying for money.

i can't speak to the murder statistics

The murder statistics are nonsense. Saying "Mexicans murder people in America, therefore we should have a wall", is as silly as saying "Californians murder people in Nevada, therefore we should have a wall".

Illegal immigration does not increase violent crime

Mexican immigrants are LESS likely to commit violent crimes than native born Americans

Spending bills still require 60 senators to pass, not 51, so the Republicans could not get it passed by themselves.

They sure as hell could if they came up with a decent plan. There's no reason we need to have government that only does the bare minimum, only the bare minimum number of votes it needs because everyone else hates it. Come up with a plan that will get some Democrats on board and they'll have no problem. But they can't, or haven't, come up with a plan like that.

Trump actually said explicitly the last time they passed a CR with lots of added spending, but none for the wall, that he would never sign a bill like that again.

Then once again we have a front-row seat to the wisdom of the Constitutional framers and their need for checks and balances. It's a very good thing that the president, or Congress, can't just do whatever they want. There's a really good reason why that's the case. He needs to work with the other branches of government or go back to private sector.

You could have argued that McConnell could have changed the rules to allow those bills to pass with a simple majority, but if the Senate was flipped, which was not unlikely, the Dems would have used those rules as well.

Right, and like we saw with Obama's SC nominee, McConnell only changes the rules as long as they suit him, and then he'll try to make it so that no one else can do that. This might be why he is the most unpopular Senator among his own constituents. Why they keep electing him, though, is beyond explanation.

As pointed out, the amount he's asking for really is a tiny fraction of the budget.

It's a matter of principle. It's not the amount he's asking for at this point, it's the way he's asking for it. Or, more specifically, demanding it, without offering any concessions anywhere else. He's holding hostages and demanding ransom. It doesn't matter if he's holding a royal flush, he's being a child about it. No one wants to play with him.

Pelosi and Schumer, though, are a different story.

It's their job to pass a budget, so if they're passing budgets then they're doing their jobs. Sorry if the budget doesn't fund the president's pet project and he's willing to shut the country down over it, but if they're passing a budget they're doing their jobs.

This poll showing that Americans thought Trump should compromise 57 percent to 36 percent was before the shutdown - do you really think the public is going to blame anyone but Trump? He keeps saying, over and over, that he will not compromise. The public wanted him to compromise before the shutdown. Now that it's the longest shutdown in US history, you're trying to suggest that his support is somehow growing? Do you have any source for that? Because I'm seeing recent polls which say things like less than 40% of Americans even want a wall, so what exactly are you seeing which suggests that a standoff over a project that the majority does not want, which is being pushed by a president whose job the majority does not approve of, is going to end up hurting his opponents?

Face it, he's only making a big deal over the wall because he finally got people to stop talking about Mueller. Don't worry though, that hammer is still going to drop.

Stop eating so many cheese burgers and we won't need to have so many cows.

It's already started. America now has 1.2 billion pounds of excess cheese — and nowhere to put it. That sounds weird, but the jist of the story is that the US has a LOT of processed cheese. A ridiculous amount. This is because processed cheese lasts a very long time, so excess milk could be turned into processed cheese. There's plenty of excess milk because Americans are drinking much less milk: 149 lb/capita in 2017, down from 247 lb/capita in 1975. Less milk drinking == farm closures and dairy folks trying to figure out what to do with the cheese.

When it comes to anything even remotely political, Slashdot always leans hard to one side. They wouldn't want you to hear about this story here, for example. An excerpt below:

NPR reports that private corporations are doing the jobs the government won't do, clearing trails, policing trash, and providing general upkeep for major national parks west of the Mississippi, including Yellowstone National Park.

[...]

As a result, Johnson and a handful of other local small business owners are chipping in to keep trails groomed and keep the park's main road open to tourists, who are now getting into the park for free — since rangers aren't stationed at the park's entrance to collect the typical $35-per-car fee tourists typically pay

The federal government isn't the only way to care for the parks. Also, if the parks are getting full of trash, I ask you this: Who put it there?

So one border is responsible for well over 40% of illegal immigrant traffic,

No, it doesn't. That 40% number is for all illegal immigrants. That's it. Not illegal immigrant "traffic". It's counting people who are already here and wall does nothing about them.

If you want to talk border crossings, it's already been going down during the Obama years (and this is with Obama offering DACA). The total number of illegals peaked in 2007.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fac...

Only 14% of the people already here arrived in the last 5 years (and again, this 14% is for all illegals, it doesn't mean all 14% of them came through the southern border, nor does it mean they all illegally came in)

https://www.npr.org/sections/t...

And the moment Trump showed up, arrests for illegal border crossings dropped to a 46 year low in 2017, without the need for any wall.

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/05...

So one border is responsible for well over 40% of illegal immigrant traffic,

No, it doesn't. That 40% number is for all illegal immigrants. That's it. Not illegal immigrant "traffic". It's counting people who are already here and wall does nothing about them.

If you want to talk border crossings, it's already been going down during the Obama years (and this is with Obama offering DACA). The total number of illegals peaked in 2007.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fac...

Only 14% of the people already here arrived in the last 5 years (and again, this 14% is for all illegals, it doesn't mean all 14% of them came through the southern border, nor does it mean they all illegally came in)

https://www.npr.org/sections/t...

And the moment Trump showed up, arrests for illegal border crossings dropped to a 46 year low in 2017, without the need for any wall.

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/05...

Another failure of "education". Worthwhile education allows you to challenge, verify and, if needed, adjust your beliefs. Yes, it is hard getting there and yes, most people generally thought to be "educated" are in fact not.

While I agree with you, deep seated beliefs, even if they are wrong, are hard to change. When presented with facts counter to those beliefs people tend to discount them. It’s not a matter of education but rather human nature. A recent article on this topic is https://www.npr.org/2017/12/25...

Those African big game hunts you see all over the news every now and then that environmentalists get all hung up about?

I am afraid you're misrepresenting past criticism of certain wealthy westerners who have travelled overseas to kill animals. The outrage hasn't been so much a rejection of killing animals for sport. Many of the public-outrage incidents you are probably referring to involved unethical hunting behavior that infuriates both hunters and non-hunters. Idaho Game Official Gloats After Killing Family of Primates Dentist Shoots GPS-collared Lion Lured from Preserve This isn't "hunting" so much as it is paying money for the opportunity to kill exotic creatures. The participants lack any skills or patience for "fair chase." They're not much different than a crystal meth addict hiding next to a barrel of rotten apples in a California forest waiting to shotgun (slug) a black bear so he can cut out its heart and sell it to a Chinese witch doctor. I admire the hunters who go after invasive species such as the Burmese python in the Everglades. It takes hundreds of hours and tons of legwork and concentration to find these monsters. Money doesn't buy an easy trophy there. Here's an excellent article about the erosion of "fair chase" hunting in America. Before pointing a finger at hunting critics, consider that there really are a lot of jackasses running around calling themselves hunters. The critics are largely pointing their fingers at these jackasses.

I'm not talking about the Cecil killer or the monkey idiot (one maybe, but a whole group was just excessive). But there was the dentist I believe that killed the rhino that was past breeding age and was a loner/was sick, and everyone freaked out. As for skill/fair chase, well, isn't really that hard to sit in a deer stand for a few hours and waiting to shoot a deer that can't even see you, is it? That's honestly one of the reasons why I stopped deer hunting. It didn't feel very sporting (wasn't crazy about the taste of venison either and not into trophy hunting). And you forgot about the gall bladders that bear poachers tend to go for, too.

Those African big game hunts you see all over the news every now and then that environmentalists get all hung up about?

I am afraid you're misrepresenting past criticism of certain wealthy westerners who have travelled overseas to kill animals. The outrage hasn't been so much a rejection of killing animals for sport. Many of the public-outrage incidents you are probably referring to involved unethical hunting behavior that infuriates both hunters and non-hunters.

Idaho Game Official Gloats After Killing Family of Primates

Dentist Shoots GPS-collared Lion Lured from Preserve

This isn't "hunting" so much as it is paying money for the opportunity to kill exotic creatures. The participants lack any skills or patience for "fair chase." They're not much different than a crystal meth addict hiding next to a barrel of rotten apples in a California forest waiting to shotgun (slug) a black bear so he can cut out its heart and sell it to a Chinese witch doctor.

I admire the hunters who go after invasive species such as the Burmese python in the Everglades. It takes hundreds of hours and tons of legwork and concentration to find these monsters. Money doesn't buy an easy trophy there.

Here's an excellent article about the erosion of "fair chase" hunting in America. Before pointing a finger at hunting critics, consider that there really are a lot of jackasses running around calling themselves hunters. The critics are largely pointing their fingers at these jackasses.

Not the original AC, but it seems like one of those "Correlation does not equal causation" since GMO mosquitoes are being used to try to fight Zika (and other mosquito borne illnesses), at least in the US.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/...

https://www.npr.org/sections/h...

and having to back away from the ocean a bit.

Yeah it's so easy we can just just just move 10%+ of the world's population and flood 2/3rds of the worlds largest (+5 million people) cities it'll be fine!

Unlike climate, economics is not a natural system, but an artifical one. Despite all the bullshit rhetorics that makes it seem like economics is some kind of higher power, we humans decide how it works and where it goes. Anyone who tells you the opposite stands to profit from that falsehood.

If that were 100% true, you would think we could force our man-made economic system to constantly provide optimal outcomes. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

We can't simply change the laws of economics and have it work. They are rooted in sociology, which is unfortunately an incredibly poorly researched field. We simply don't know enough about human nature to bend society and economics to our will. So, although economics is "artificial' in that it's a system made up of humans, it's also a system that developed organically.

One of my favorite examples of the sociological side of economics is the Plano Real.

This leader of the PRC is there for life.

China Removes Presidential Term Limits, Enabling Xi Jinping To Rule Indefinitely