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Things are not on track to change. The situation is truly disheartening.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/snoopers-charter-bill-becomes-law-extending-uk-state-surveillance

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/5105519/Internet-records-to-be-stored-for-a-year.html

As this article https://www.theguardian.com/te... in the Guardian reported almost exactly one year ago to the day, it is possible to use "side channel data" such as battery life to track a user between different web sites. Unfortunately, that tracking capability only exists if the user is internet-connected at the time...

Similarly, the ability to track a mobile device via a wifi transponder is only possible if the device has wifi enabled.

So what we have here is a new tracking vector, since now we have the means to track someone via a bluetooth emission that a device on their person might make. Of course, the range of bluetooth means that this is only really viable in say a commercial environment like a department store, or a shopping mall, or similar.

Yet another case of someone adding a feature without stopping to think about how it could be subverted or used against the owner of the device that supports it.

I could accept that you were talking about Australia

"Brownout" is low voltage or low current and is a failure mode unexpected in developed countries (because it tends to break stuff) and is not what happened in South Australia.

Yet another problem that shows how you could have spoken better. But you said it, not me. I wasn't going to be unnecessarily pedantic, as we're hardly discussing things on the particulars of the supply, but rather concerned with the origination of the issues.

It's a sign of incredibly poorly managed electricity infrastructure. Good supply or nothing is what is supposed to happen. Also comparing two events to the hundreds that happened during the Enron debacle alone is a bit much.

Actually, what happened in South Australia and what happened in California are quite comparable. A lot of the blame-game, including a deliberately misleading attack on "environmentalists" but a real causation that was significantly different than widely understood.

You can also find that happening in Alberta in Canada regarding its grid, and I believe, one of the South American countries, or maybe Central America.

Over 11 billion dollars

On payroll for prison workers? They could move a lot of goalposts on that money. I really do not appreciate being seen as so stupid and what's with the dishonesty?

If you don't want to be seen with disdain (though I would characterize you as misinformed and ignorant, rather than stupid or dishonest. But what is with your selective quoting? Here, quote the whole line:

You see, even if somebody articulated their own understanding in a flawed way, that doesn't actually mean that the expenses imposed by their actual situation with incarceration weren't real. There's plenty of discussion on the particulars. Over 11 billion dollars? That is quite a chunk of their budget.

I even provided sources. I'm talking about their corrections budget as a whole being a significant concern. But if you want, yes, we could focus on payrollA as the state does make the information available. As you can see, the CDCR spends a bit under half their budget directly on payroll, or over 4 billion dollars. That's certainly a large enough sum to be a matter of concern. And here's a funny editorial.

Mysteriously, however, it seems you still want to focus on your pointless complaint over the unnamed, uncited persons, you purport made some statements of some character that you deplore. Unfortunately, not having presented anything except your own judgement, it is impossible for anybody else to scrutinize them. At worst, you may have heard from somebody that spoke poorly, but a reasoned analysis certainly does establish that the business of corrections is still a matter of significant concern.

You apparently believe that you can simply declare something, and that other people will simply nod their heads in agreement at the obvious wisdom you are espousing. But to the contrary, your demonstrated opprobrium, especially towards the legislators of California (a not uncommon practice, as I have already noted), leads me to instead consider your statements more carefully and view them with significant disdain as you repetitively demonstrate a lack of intelligence and integrity.

The kill switch was first widely implemented by Apple on their own phones prior to any law,
There were some reported vunerabiities found in 2014, which were since patched and I haven't heard of any exploits since.

Granted politicians have a habit of passing laws without any understanding of technology or implementation, but this was already a proven solution when the law was passed.
Maybe there are some underground hacks, but I don't think they'll be easily available to the kind of people who feel they have to steal smart phones for some cash. To your point, why *wouldn't* thieves give a shit about it? When nobody wants to buy a stolen phone because they know it wont work they'll get the message. Yeah you can still sell it for parts or sell to unsuspecting people but that's a lower incentive.

Here's a bunch of older stories claiming that the iPhone kill switch lowered thefts
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ip...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...
https://www.theguardian.com/te...
http://www.businessinsider.com...

As others have said, the overall reduction in phone thefts are probably due largely to do with the greater availability of phones, but let's not all of us just jump on the cynical bandwagon and suggest every idea ever is stupid.

First hit on a google search:
https://www.theguardian.com/en...

It doesn't matter whether Afghanistan was a proxy war state.

Yes, it does.

Alexander the Great couldn't do it, nor could the Mongols, nor could the Mughals, nor the British, despite each empire having the greatest fighting forces for it's time in history.

Iskander was at the end of his reach there, returned to Mesopotamia(where the real wealth was) and died from an infection without consolidating his empire, the Mongols crushed Khwarezmia, the Mughals ruled Aghanistan, and declined due to other factors, and the British gave up on their empire for their own reasons. History rejects your myths.

Nobody, including you, has ever demonstrated that Afghanistan was completely conquered at any point in recorded history.

You're wrong, but no need to do so anyway, since the ARGUMENT, in case you forgot was:

This 18th century idea that an armed militia can keep the government (or anything) under control is ridiculous in this day and age.

You're arguing something else entirely with your references to historical events. Which you're wrong about anyway.

The Nazis had already confiscated weapons long before they had started targeting people for nothing more than their ethnic background. They could never have accomplished the greatest mass murder up to that point in human history before the confiscation of guns so many Germans possessed.

They never could have accomplished their mass murder without the complicity of the mass of the German people, but since they had that, well...that's why they oppress a large section of their own people, roll over the armies of France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, most of the Balkans, and a good portion of Russia, and get up to their mindless brutality.

Ruby Ridge was a tremendous number of resources trained onto a very small number of targets.

Ruby Ridge was a massive waste of resources because they did nothing, and instead exercised restraint. A single Special Forces unit could have taken them down in minutes.

You think the government could sustain sieges on a thousand of these?

They wouldn't bother. You think that Ruby Ridge NEEDED those resources? Or the Bundy Ranch? The Malfeur Standoff? The Branch Davidian Compound? It was all about restraint, not use of force.

You think people already in positions of power would blindly follow orders and not turn?

Yes, they already do.

What do you think The Oathkeepers is about?

A bunch of idiots pretending they aren't full of shit. You have seen their posturing, right?

Remember when Cliven Bundy in NV had his land appropriated by the BLM and hundreds of supporters caused the government to back down?

Remember when Cliven Bundy became a nobody? The government didn't back down, they just kept him contained, let him fume impotently, then ignored him till everybody went home after declaring a fake victory. See, Obama was smart, he didn't need to start a fight over a bunch of Nevada scrubland, he just waited until nobody gave a crap anymore. Then they arrested him, and will put him on trial later.

Even now, he sits in jail, and two of his sons are as well.

But you think he accomplished something, didn't you?

Never seek conflict, but never back down when it's inevitable and never allow someone to take your right to protect yourself away. History proves it over and over, even if you conveniently overlooked some very critical historical details that undermine your arguments.

Never seek conflict, and don't start pissing contests over worthless anthills or wrestle over a pile of shit. History proves it over and over, even if you prefer to manufacture a view of history in order to create a false structure for your arguments.

I though Nokia and Apple settled their patent problems in 2011

That means your environment isn't secure, no matter how many bureaucrats say you passed an audit.

There's no such thing as a 100% secured environment. The NSA proved that when a worker printed out a document, put the printout into her purse and walked out the door to give to the press.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/05/reality-winner-russia-us-election-hack-nsa-leak

A 95% remediation rate means that script kiddies, casual hackers and opportunists will be prevented from breaching the system. A determined hacker will always find a way to breach the network.

What you are saying is legitimately scary. I hope one day you can see beyond Trump to see why this is a very bad thing.

Dragnet spying on Americans not suspected of a crime is a bad thing especially when FISA ignores court orders

The rights of American's should never be determined by a special secret court (FISA).

Those pesky Russians are at it again

9% of Pakistanis view ISIS as positive. The intelligence services aided the Mumbai terrorist attacks. In comparison a little embezzlement by the PM is a small concern.

Moron. Living under a rock, in DeNial or just a plain old liar(nice little summary)?

There were several years when the most common predicted effect of carbon warming was drought - endless drought, in every possible place, and there's nothing we can do about it! (Muahahahaha!). Articles like these have been typical:

https://www.theguardian.com/en...
https://www.theguardian.com/en...
https://www.theatlantic.com/sc...
http://news.mit.edu/2017/clima...
http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/fl...
http://news.nationalgeographic...
http://www.slate.com/articles/...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/fut...
https://www.theguardian.com/wo...
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/0...
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/0...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the...
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/0...

Let's just say that if you sell stock photos of dry lake beds, you're probably a millionaire by now.

There were several years when the most common predicted effect of carbon warming was drought - endless drought, in every possible place, and there's nothing we can do about it! (Muahahahaha!). Articles like these have been typical:

https://www.theguardian.com/en...
https://www.theguardian.com/en...
https://www.theatlantic.com/sc...
http://news.mit.edu/2017/clima...
http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/fl...
http://news.nationalgeographic...
http://www.slate.com/articles/...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/fut...
https://www.theguardian.com/wo...
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/0...
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/0...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the...
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/0...

Let's just say that if you sell stock photos of dry lake beds, you're probably a millionaire by now.

There were several years when the most common predicted effect of carbon warming was drought - endless drought, in every possible place, and there's nothing we can do about it! (Muahahahaha!). Articles like these have been typical:

https://www.theguardian.com/en...
https://www.theguardian.com/en...
https://www.theatlantic.com/sc...
http://news.mit.edu/2017/clima...
http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/fl...
http://news.nationalgeographic...
http://www.slate.com/articles/...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/fut...
https://www.theguardian.com/wo...
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/0...
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/0...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the...
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/0...

Let's just say that if you sell stock photos of dry lake beds, you're probably a millionaire by now.

Zuckerberg is still partying on the collective dimes of investors who don't understand how facebook works - or why it still doesn't make money.

I believe you are completely uninformed sir. Facebook has been making consistent profit since IPO: https://www.theguardian.com/te...

Ever wonder how much of those billions they should have paid in taxes?

Yeah, me too, along with every other taxpayer.

Zuckerberg is still partying on the collective dimes of investors who don't understand how facebook works - or why it still doesn't make money.

I believe you are completely uninformed sir. Facebook has been making consistent profit since IPO: https://www.theguardian.com/te...

But, given the population and the cost of geriatric medicine to the economy, is extending human life that much of a good idea?

The point is not to extend the time you hang around being in poor health, but to give people a longer, healthy (and productive) life. There are reasons to believe that one of the key reasons for our species' success was the fact that we started having grandparents about 30K years ago: https://www.theguardian.com/sc... - grandparents not only give those of childbearing age more freedom to gather food etc, they were probably crucial in establishing bonds with other tribes, thus providing an important precondition for a larger society and eventually civilisation. Now-a-days, I think living healthy lives for longer has obvious bebefits - caring for a frail, elderly population is expensive for any society, but taking the frailty out of the equation not only means a great cost saving, it also adds years in which people contribute to society.

Protip: If you find yourself in a rioting mob, leave.

In many countries the Police have been caught instigating riots (also Canada and some evidence in the USA) during peaceful protests. If people stopped protesting just because violence began then a) this would enable the police to completely stop peaceful protest and b) it would encourage more violence because the police would see the tactic as useful and successful. So no; peaceful protesters should not stop just because someone else begins a riot. They just should move away and not get involved.

Cars are tough enough.

Let's see a single electric semi-truck (lorry) or construction vehicle before we make this categorical switch, shall we?

In any case, I find it amusing that this is being declared 'groundbreaking'....apparently France doesn't exist in their universe: https://www.theguardian.com/bu...
(France declared the SAME policy weeks ago.)

Now both France and the UK will ban ICE cars by 2040
Britain to ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040

https://www.theguardian.com/po...

Apparently you can fool some with even less: https://www.theguardian.com/uk...

Ok, if you want to have an inconsistent grid, that's fine. You don't need batteries. If you say so...Tesla's Powerwall and planned giant batteries are all lithium-based.

Disregarding scarcity (we know many rare earths aren't all the "rare"), rare earth mining and processing is highly toxic.

https://www.theguardian.com/en...

The town of Baotou, in Inner Mongolia, is the largest Chinese source of these strategic elements, essential to advanced technology, from smartphones to GPS receivers, but also to wind farms and, above all, electric cars. The minerals are mined at Bayan Obo, 120km farther north, then brought to Baotou for processing.

The concentration of rare earths in the ore is very low, so they must be separated and purified, using hydro-metallurgical techniques and acid baths. China accounts for 97% of global output of these precious substances, with two-thirds produced in Baotou.

The foul waters of the tailings pond contain all sorts of toxic chemicals, but also radioactive elements such as thorium which, if ingested, cause cancers of the pancreas and lungs, and leukaemia. "Before the factories were built, there were just fields here as far as the eye can see. In the place of this radioactive sludge, there were watermelons, aubergines and tomatoes," says Li Guirong with a sigh.

https://www.theguardian.com/su...

Processing rare earths is a dirty business. Their ore is often laced with radioactive materials such as thorium, and separating the wheat from the chaff requires huge amounts of carcinogenic toxins – sulphates, ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Processing one ton of rare earths produces 2,000 tons of toxic waste; Baotou's rare earths enterprises produce 10m tons of wastewater per year. They're pumped into tailings dams, like the one by Wang's village, 12km west of the city centre.

"In China, the cost of environmental violations and damage is still way too low," said Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. "Rare earths is such a classic case of this – we basically export the resources at a rather cheap price, and much of the environmental cost is externalised to local communities."

http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...

The mining and processing of rare earth minerals along the coastline of Chavara, Kollam, Kerala has been a significant step in self reliance for the country in terms of being a strategically important industry but at the same time the grave enviromental consequences because of the improper manangenent of the industrial waste from the titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment producing industry is a cause of concern. This has led to the geo-environmental degradation of surrounding area which is also a high background radiation area. This study attempts to compare the geochemical variation in the soil due to contamination and the extent of water pollution from different water sources in the study area. Analysis of the surface soil (0-30 cm) from contaminated land and inhabited land (supposedly less contaminated) provide a measure of the total concentrations of the elements present in the soil. XRF results indicate the increase in the concentrations of toxic heavy metals (e.g. Fe, Cr, V, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Sr etc.) while concentrations of essential elements (e.g. K, Ca, Si, Ti, Zr) decreased due to contamination. Elements Mg, Ag, Au, Hf, Te, Nd, Yb, Ga present in inhabited area soil were found to be absent in contaminated soil. Co, Sn, W, Se, Br, Sm, Tb, Dy were detected only in contaminated soil. SEM analysis of the soil from residential area showed distinct mineral assemblage and that of contaminated soil, the signs of chemical weathering. The observed health problems in the local area indicate urgent need for health risk assessment and subsequent remediation of contaminated soil.

Ok, if you want to have an inconsistent grid, that's fine. You don't need batteries. If you say so...Tesla's Powerwall and planned giant batteries are all lithium-based.

Disregarding scarcity (we know many rare earths aren't all the "rare"), rare earth mining and processing is highly toxic.

https://www.theguardian.com/en...

The town of Baotou, in Inner Mongolia, is the largest Chinese source of these strategic elements, essential to advanced technology, from smartphones to GPS receivers, but also to wind farms and, above all, electric cars. The minerals are mined at Bayan Obo, 120km farther north, then brought to Baotou for processing.

The concentration of rare earths in the ore is very low, so they must be separated and purified, using hydro-metallurgical techniques and acid baths. China accounts for 97% of global output of these precious substances, with two-thirds produced in Baotou.

The foul waters of the tailings pond contain all sorts of toxic chemicals, but also radioactive elements such as thorium which, if ingested, cause cancers of the pancreas and lungs, and leukaemia. "Before the factories were built, there were just fields here as far as the eye can see. In the place of this radioactive sludge, there were watermelons, aubergines and tomatoes," says Li Guirong with a sigh.

https://www.theguardian.com/su...

Processing rare earths is a dirty business. Their ore is often laced with radioactive materials such as thorium, and separating the wheat from the chaff requires huge amounts of carcinogenic toxins – sulphates, ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Processing one ton of rare earths produces 2,000 tons of toxic waste; Baotou's rare earths enterprises produce 10m tons of wastewater per year. They're pumped into tailings dams, like the one by Wang's village, 12km west of the city centre.

"In China, the cost of environmental violations and damage is still way too low," said Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. "Rare earths is such a classic case of this – we basically export the resources at a rather cheap price, and much of the environmental cost is externalised to local communities."

http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...

The mining and processing of rare earth minerals along the coastline of Chavara, Kollam, Kerala has been a significant step in self reliance for the country in terms of being a strategically important industry but at the same time the grave enviromental consequences because of the improper manangenent of the industrial waste from the titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment producing industry is a cause of concern. This has led to the geo-environmental degradation of surrounding area which is also a high background radiation area. This study attempts to compare the geochemical variation in the soil due to contamination and the extent of water pollution from different water sources in the study area. Analysis of the surface soil (0-30 cm) from contaminated land and inhabited land (supposedly less contaminated) provide a measure of the total concentrations of the elements present in the soil. XRF results indicate the increase in the concentrations of toxic heavy metals (e.g. Fe, Cr, V, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Sr etc.) while concentrations of essential elements (e.g. K, Ca, Si, Ti, Zr) decreased due to contamination. Elements Mg, Ag, Au, Hf, Te, Nd, Yb, Ga present in inhabited area soil were found to be absent in contaminated soil. Co, Sn, W, Se, Br, Sm, Tb, Dy were detected only in contaminated soil. SEM analysis of the soil from residential area showed distinct mineral assemblage and that of contaminated soil, the signs of chemical weathering. The observed health problems in the local area indicate urgent need for health risk assessment and subsequent remediation of contaminated soil.

You sure that was Ted, and not Trump? https://www.theguardian.com/en...
Or his own words: https://twitter.com/realdonald...

"@Al_Co: @realDonaldTrump Wind Turbines are Ugly and a FRAUD. Remove them. UK is going down the gutter." @aberdeenshire @AlexSalmond

I have no idea how a wind turbine can be a fraud, but mixing in absurdities seems to be his MO.
(fwiw, I don't doubt your claim)

Imagine finding out that your dog is a Trump supporter - I'd rather just not know.

A vanity press, if you will.

Exactly. You pay them, and they publish your paper. So TFA is reporting that someone paid them, and they published his paper. The exact same thing has been done many times before. Why is this news?

I put a page full of fake news on my photocopier, pushed the button, and the copier printed it without fact checking it. Outrageous!

Ya, apparently he's apologized "50" times to Trump for the above comments and his opposition to Trump was because he "was an unexperienced [sic] person in the world of politics." Scaramucci has apparently been throwing lots of praise at Trump to make up for his earlier comments, as you suggested.

http://thehill.com/homenews/ad...

https://www.theguardian.com/us...

It has never had any relation to the real world.

Tell that to all the people who had their bank accounts drained using an SS7 exploit:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/...

Tell that to US congressman Ted Lieu who had his phone calls listened to using SS7:

https://www.theguardian.com/te...

I bet they believe you that the exploits don't exist in the real world...

The problem is the "internal" network is available to around 800 companies. If the ss7 network of one is hacked or an employee who has access to it is bribed, the entire network is compromised. SS7 is a basically a network protocol that uses usernames with no passwords. I don't know where you get the idea that it doesn't carry voice, but SS7 is used for roaming and it can re-route, block, or listen in on phone calls or texts. It also allows obtaining the cell tower a phone number is currently connected to (and thus rough location).

SS7 is the reason NIST no longer recommends using SMS for two-factor authentication.

You mean the thing that is actually a discriminatory burden?

These court cases are crap and I'm sick of this argument that people are just incapable of getting an ID somehow. Everyone should have an ID. Here's a list of reasons why, provided by the NYC government:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/id/htm...

People object no matter how easy the local government makes it. People objected even when they were sending mobile voter ID vans into neighborhoods to make it easy. If those vans were giving out free phones people would have waited on lines for hours.

Voters are supposed to be adults. Treat them accordingly.

T-rex was definitely a hunter. They've found more than one example of T-rex teeth scars in triceratops that survived and had the scars heal over proving that the triceratops lived through the battle and healed up. You can't tell me the mama T-rex was defending her babies from a carnivorous triceratops, and almost all dino experts say T-rex was a hunter with such evidence. Here is a link citing an embedded T-rex tooth in a hadrosaur, so you can't say it was another animal that attacked.

https://www.theguardian.com/sc...

I quote, "This is unambiguous evidence that T rex was an active predator," the authors write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Such evidence is rare in the fossil record for good reason â" prey rarely escapes."

I suspect only Horner is really into shaking things up for attention, like with the idea that T-rex was a vulture. More attention for dinosaurs, OK I get it, but take some of those wild theories with a grain of salt. Why would T-rex have to be incredibly fast? Why not be an ambush predator? Big cats are not faster than their prey for the most part, yet they survive by being hunters. Crocodilians can't cover ground fast, but with the element of surprise have been incredibly successful. All T-rex needed was to hide in the brush and wait, I suspect. One clamp of those incredibly powerful, the most powerful land jaws probably, bite is all that was often needed I bet.

Is that Voter ID really free of charge or is it free after you pay a fee to get a certified copy of your birth certificate which is required in order to get your free ID?

You mean the part where you don't pay a fee and even with the existing ID that's available so you can get your free ID?

You mean the thing that is actually a discriminatory burden?

You can find lots of democrat and progressive talking points against free ID, using existing forms of ID which you're already required to use for everything from voting in your local primary(including entrance), to buying a pack of smokes, booze, or any type of government benefits for.

You mean the arguments that actually persuade a court of law, that the point out the discriminatory intent that is quite apparent from the actual statements of the legislators who enacted the law with the specific desire to disenfranchise voters? From legislators, who if your contentions are correct, were not lawfully elected in the first place, thus rendering their position suspect.

Can you make any valid argument where not having voter ID enhances and benefits democracy, democratic votes in any way shape or form?

Yes, I can. You forgot to ask it to be done though.

Can you make any valid argument as to how with such a huge problem with illegals, that not having voter ID benefits the state?

Yes, I can also do this. Of course, since you neglected to ask for any argument to be actually presented, so I don't feel any obligation to do so, and I won't until you address the question of what to do when the state legislature is found to have engaged in discriminatory intent in its passage of the laws. You instead resist any addressing of that concern at all, revealing at best, your own complicity in it.

Really, I don't know why you are so stupid that you go out of your way to dismiss the complaints, if you wanted to actually show your integrity, you'd condemn them even more soundly, and demand that the state ID its residents properly, rather than fail in their duty as has been consistently demonstrated.

It's kinda telling that you are though. It's like you don't know a little contrition would go a long way.

The propensity to jump to conclusions is not new. See this "research" which concluded that T-Rex's are cannibals based on a SINGLE bite mark which they found on a T-Rex:
https://www.theguardian.com/sc...

This is the paper:
http://journals.plos.org/ploso...

You joke, but I have this laser:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2012/oct/22/red-laser-light-bike-lane

That projects my own lane onto the ground. It's less than half the width of a car, but I am actively asserting my space. I've had a lot fewer cars pass me after I installed that on my bike. I know that obstructs traffic, but those people in cars are just selfish so they should be slowed down to encourage bike use.

There have literally been over a thousand cataloged attacks from the right wing since the election.

Attacks from liberals on conservatives have been fewer, the chart one month goes up to ten!

The left wing violence list includes things like "throwing eggs" while the right wing violence list has "throwing acid."

I'm sure there are better sources for this information out there and I'm interested if anyone has any. I just did a quick google search on both.

At any rate, I can't fathom anyone who suggests violent college students are a serious threat. They're far less scary than Islamic terrorists, which are themselves factually less dangerous than armed toddlers. Don't be an asshole racist demagogue and go to the most wildly liberal campus in the united states and you'll have nothing to fear from college progressives.

Or do even! Not a goddamn hair on Milo or Coulters' heads were harmed! Fucking snowflakes...

Of course nuclear fission is the answer. The world's leading climate scientists have called it the only viable path forward on climate change. The political reasons generally involve huge amounts fossil fuel industry money spent on anti-nuclear propaganda. Not only do I think nuclear is the least worst option available, I think it is actually a good option.

Agree that we should be replacing fossil fuels (especially coal) with all possible speed, starting about 40 years ago.

Citation needed on the anti-nukes being funded by the fossil fuel industry, though. Most (virtually all, near as I can tell) of the vehement anti-nukes are just as vehement in their opposition to fossil fuels. (And any other energy source that risks making it possible to continue to have an industrial civilization.)

(Somebody's sure to reply with the inevitable "blah blah waste blah blah gadzillions of years blah blah" thing. I suggest they go to Google Earth. Search for "Sedan Crater". Scan south. That's what's already there in the general vicinity of Yucca Mountain. Explain how contained waste is within two orders of magnitude as much hazard as what's already there, uncontained, lining the bottoms of those craters.)

Yes, that is the correct approach. Justine Damond made the mistake of calling the police. Mysteriously, their body cameras were turned off.

This makes no sense. Why would people die waiting? Perhaps from pollution?
Polluted air 'poisoning thousands' across north of England, warns report

https://www.theguardian.com/en...

They already go well past that https://www.theguardian.com/po.... Necrophilia with a dead pigs head in some other blocks lap, what do they touch, some where in the back of the head and not to forget the Beeb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... We all know what exactly this is, the whoops censorship laws. Whoops we censored you, when you shouldn't have, don't worry post the 90 day appeal process you'll be back up again and whoops. The way to silence the political opposition and activists. They never do anything wrong, no problem, join, log in, post a pornographic image and they immediately report it to get them banned, do it as many times as you like.

Why do you presume it will be the only factory producing batteries? It is almost inevitable that there will be more factories like it and probably sooner than you think. Never mind the fact that they already ARE producing [independent.co.uk] batteries for grid storage.

I never made that assumption. I just referenced the gigafactory because this article is about Musk. And second those batteries are to be used for load balancing and not grid level storage. And just for a little math. The US uses almost 4000 tWh of electricity annually which divided by 365 is ~11 tWh. That is 11 tWh for a single day of storage. That plant can only store 100 mWh. How many of those plants would we have to build for two weeks worth of storage? Is that even a feasible solution?

What options do you think are "better and cheaper" in the long run? Nuclear fission will never happen for political reasons if nothing else.

Of course nuclear fission is the answer. The world's leading climate scientists have called it the only viable path forward on climate change. The political reasons generally involve huge amounts fossil fuel industry money spent on anti-nuclear propaganda. Not only do I think nuclear is the least worst option available, I think it is actually a good option. It is the safest, cleanest energy source with the smallest environmental footprint. Look at nuclear energy startups such as Terrapower, NuScale, Terrestrial energy, etc. Their reactors are meltdown proof and recycle waste. They can be factory built which will further reduce costs. They can be run sustainably for 10000's of years.

We're going to be investing trillions into energy one way or another so why not pick the one that is clean and that we know works?

Well we know nuclear will work, and it is the cleanest source of electricity. Why not invest in that?

https://www.theguardian.com/fi...

RIP Romero and Landau.

Another hero died this weekend: Maryam Mirzakhani, one of the most prominent mathematicians of our time, who had died this weekend too, at the much too young age of 40. Here's a bit on that by Terrence Tao.

Later asked by an attorney for Hogan if there was a situation in which a celebrity sex tape might not be newsworthy, Delaurio responded: “If they were a child.”

The attorney then asked him to specify: a child under what age? Daulerio responded: “Four.”

Perhaps a result of third wave feminism, plus the desire for safe spaces where no other opinion is allowed, and the helicoptering parentage has turned Universities into what might best be described as a looney bin. This is coming from a person who spent a career there.

This does not negate the value of an education, in fact, an education where you are prepared for a career, while being exposed to a multitude of opinions, and with critical thinking being exercised is an excellent thing, very critical IMO.

But Universities have morphed into something else. In general, there are a lot more women now attending college then men.http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/03/06/womens-college-enrollment-gains-leave-men-behind/

This is not limited to America https://www.theguardian.com/ed.... The Guardian briefly and dangerously touches on the idea that it might be cultural.

Dr Helen Smith gives a veiewpoint http://www.educationviews.org/...

The that's racist-that's-sexist-that's prejudiced crowd has managed to get comedians JerrySeinfeld, Chris Rock and Larry the cable guy to agree on something, no small feat. But they won't play campuses because of the hostile environment of people who cannot abide by any opinion but their own.

So while I don't ascribe to the Republicans personal vendetta against Universities, they are not incorrect. Universities have a huge problem. I would recommend anyone - male of female - looking for a college education to get it through an online institution, and avoid the cesspool that Universities have become. Which is a whacky tyranny of the left, which is as onerous as the whacky tyranny of the right.

A nation should not be involved in another nation's election or internal affairs. I will say this hypocritically too as an American as we did evil in the name of good in South America to prevent evil communism with propping up Pinochet in Chile who murdered people!

So that's one example out of a few hundred times they have meddled with other countries..

This one is an interesting read..
https://www.theguardian.com/co...

sure sure...
https://www.theguardian.com/us...
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11...

From the other side we have things like
https://thinkprogress.org/voti...
http://www.detroitnews.com/sto...

So there is proof that voter-fraud was happening in favor of the democrats.. But investigating that is somehow bad?

I don't support Trump or Hillary, but i think Hillary would have caused bigger issues than Trump will do..

How hard can it be to eliminate the majority of voter-fraud forever? Require voter-ID's (just make them free of charge to get for each election.) and have automatic upload of each vote, at the time of voting, to a central system. No manual counting and full tracking of who has voted. Using a chip on the ID for signing the vote would remove some of the required security from the voting-machine and a second machine could be provided where people could verify that their vote was counted and correct.

One of the pieces of data requested for every voter is party affiliation: https://www.theguardian.com/us...

I'll let you do the math.

My understanding is that they don't occupy a vital niche in the food-chain or otherwise in the ecosystem.

Google is your friend. I knew the answer to this already, but was surprised by how readily available source material was to support my response.

A few notable items:

http://www.nature.com/news/201... http://io9.gizmodo.com/what-if... http://science.howstuffworks.c... https://www.theguardian.com/gl...

Etc.

You were surprised? Yeah, I was too, particularly as to the data you provided, since I believe the point you were trying to make is mosquitoes are necessary and vital to our ecosystem.

Some of your articles hint that eradication would not create an ecological impact. Some also stated that eradication efforts are "not worth it unless there was a very serious public health emergency."

Perhaps the true question is how many humans will have to become infected or die until the latter statement rings true?

Perhaps we look at history to answer that. The mosquito has long been known as the deadliest animal on the planet. They have killed countless humans through the ages. It carries over a dozen diseases, including malaria, which still kills over a million people every year. Now Zika has been added to that infamous list.

Sad when you consider the innocent victims of Zika are babies suffering from microcephaly. The fear of that affliction alone is a form of terrorism when it comes to people wanting to start a family. Imagine the other impacts of areas known to be Zika-prone. Think your home value would not plummet if they found a 300% increase of Zika cases in your zip code? Impact local business that rely on humans being outside but now aren't due to increased fear of infection? I'm willing to bet it would. Much like the global concerns surrounding the Ebola outbreaks a few years ago, humans can get rather panicky when it comes to increased chances of being exposed to a life-threatening disease. Perhaps rightly so.

It would appear that we are doing something now to counter the threat, likely because enough revenue is at risk. Efforts have to be financially justified when it comes to preventing harm or death these days. If we do nothing in response to increased risk, then the mosquito will simply stand as yet another form of population control.

My understanding is that they don't occupy a vital niche in the food-chain or otherwise in the ecosystem.

Google is your friend. I knew the answer to this already, but was surprised by how readily available source material was to support my response.

A few notable items:

http://www.nature.com/news/201...
http://io9.gizmodo.com/what-if...
http://science.howstuffworks.c...
https://www.theguardian.com/gl...

Etc.

Ding!