Taken from: http://timblair.net/ -- But don't worry the supporting links are from mainstream sources.
Terrifying! You'll note, however, that Lean doesn't tell us exactly when Lohachara vanished. Was it last week? A few months ago? Maybe we'll find out later.
As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.
It's the domino theory of island obliteration! As environmentalists always warned, once Lohachara falls, that's it for Egypt.
The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.
Got that right, Geoffrey. I can't remember Lohachara ever disappearing previously.
Until now the Carteret Islands off Papua New Guinea were expected to be the first populated ones to disappear, in about eight years' time, but Lohachara has beaten them to the dubious distinction.
By quite a margin, as it happens. Lean doesn't say so, but Lohachara apparently vanished twodecadesago. So much for Lean's scoop; the event took place back when Lean had hair, and several years before he emerged from a coma. Some locals aren't buying that global warming line, by the way:
Atanu Raha, director of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, said the islands were getting eroded by oceanic currents, not by rising sea levels.
"Erosion and accretion are natural phenomena. Across the world islands submerge and new ones emerge. This is natural," Raha said.
Not according to Lean, who evidently believes all weather change is due to Meddling Humans. And that's all change, whether towards cold or heat. In 2004, Lean reported that "Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by global warming". Two years later, he asked: "So where has all the snow gone?" There's no pleasing Geoffrey.
UPDATE. This nonsense was republished in the NZ Herald.
To me, here are the big questions as to what the Democratic victory means:
1. Illegal alien amnesty - Bush is for it, more Dems than Rep are for it. Will it happen now?
2. Force withdrawal from Iraq by cutting off funds - I don't see how they can force Bush to pull troops out except through that method. More informed people can tell me if there is another way.
3. Investigationpalooza - Should everyone in the CIA, FBI, DOD, Pentagon be getting their documents in order and bending over for easy access?
4. Impeachment mania - Pre elections lots of dems (not to mention the Kosites) were making noises about impeachment. Will that happen or will cooler heads prevail? Seriously, if about a quarter of the American electorate really thinks that the planes flying into the twin towers was an inside job then how much pressure will they put on the Dems to pull the trigger on impeachment?
There are tons of smaller issues and questions, but to me at least these are the central questions about how the next two years are going to go.
Whatever happened to the vaunted Slashdotter cynicism towards FUD? I know things trend leftward here on/. but don't facts and reality have any weight any more? Check out this website with supporting cites of Crichton's thoughts that the "Panic now" approach to global warming is not the best way to go:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=16260#r ight
The argument I always stick on is that Mars is warming as well and there is no way that our SUV's could possibly warm Mars. Earth has been warming and cooling periodically since its inception. Let's find out if action is required before taking drastic steps that WILL cause deaths and misery among the poor.
For example, in America if gas goes up to $6 a gallon then we can mostly suck it up. ..except for the very poor. This type of thing will raise food prices (how do you think food gets to the stores?) and limit the employment options for the poor to travel to find the good jobs by raising the cost of transportation.
And that's just in America, what about in places that are really desperately poor. When you make $200 a year a small increase in the price of gasoline takes a huge bite out of your living standard as every product from food to building materials has to get there with gasoline. Bjorn Lomborg in his book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist" pointed out facts like these and was pilloried as a heretic for it.
I don't care about agendas, I only care about facts and results. I refuse to support actions that the facts don't currently support as necessary when the guaranteed results cause misery and needless deaths.
Do you guys remember DDT? Environmental extremists caused it to be taken off the market and not used any more. This has resulted and in millions upon millions of deaths for no good reason. Oopsy.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/000000005591 .htm
"Malaria is on the increase in all tropical regions of the planet - especially in Africa. In 2000, the disease killed more than one million people and made 300 million seriously ill."
There are many, many, many peer reviewed serious scientists who think that Global Warming cannot conclusively be blamed on human behavior. Further, others point out myriad BENEFITS to global warming, so even if it is caused by humans it may be a blessing and increase quality of life.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA165.html
"If history is any indication, greater precipitation may be only one of many benefits of global warming. For example, between the 10th and 12th Centuries, when the temperature of the planet was roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than it is today, agriculture in North America and Europe flourished and the southern regions of Greenland were free of ice, allowing cultivation by Norse settlers. "
Check out he dissenters before you advocate actions that will get people killed.
Here is the bottom line: If the company is making money off of the webisodes then the writers deserve their piece under union rules. However, if they are given away for free then they are indeed promotional materials and as such the writers/actors don't deserve any extra cash. For example, should the writers get paid for each time a BSG commercial airs? No, its just promotion for the show for which they do get paid.
I got the webisodes for free, did you guys pay? Really, I don't know.
Troll me if you want, but seriously: University is first and foremost the place you go so you can get a piece of paper allowing you to get a decent job. "Nooooo, it's. ..like. ..about uh. ..learning life. ..you know?" Gimme a break, stoner. Tell that to your parents. They don't believe you either.
You wanna party and live on your own you don't have to pay a school $40,000 to do that and it leaves a lot more money for beer.
I think it's clear we need an overhaul of the University system to reflect this reality. I wanna learn to be an engineer then why are you making me read excruciating poetry or sit in a Wymen's Studies class so the (expletive deleted) professor can tell me how bad I am because I'm a white male? Cut that crap out and give me two years of course work where at the end I'm eminently qualified to do the work I want to do.
To me this guy is on the right track. Get your pretty piece of paper so you can get out there making bank. Show up to the college bar in your expensive car with a wad of cash. When you're an 18 year old nerd you aint gonna be getting the boobies anyway. When you're a 19 year old with a fat wallet and a hot car you'll get all you can stand.
Look, if you are lucky enough to be a jock type with rich parents to pay your way you can afford to kick back for 4 years taking ridiculous/pointless/useless courses between getting laid/stoned/drunk. Meanwhile the rest of us are working our ass of to get by (while piling up debt.) All of this by a BUSINESS with monopoly control over having a decent future strings us along unnecessary/expensive/REQUIRED addons.
What a racket. If it was any other business they'd be hauled into court and forced to change their ways.
There is so much ignorance in these posts it's incredible. Look, if you don't want to live it's not like its hard to get out.
As to birth rates, they are falling like a rock to the point that countries are greatly concerned over their ability to retain standards of living in the future. As to overcrowding. What BS. I currently live in China.
When I take a train trip all I see is farm land. Not city land, just farms. There is plenty of room This stat is old but I remember that at the population density of Manhattan the entire world could live in Texas. If we take over some farmland for more housing, then fine. Advances in agriculture will more than take up the slack. For example, in China when I go by these farms I see them being cared for the same way they have for millenia: planted/harvested by hand. Simply bringing them up to the CURRENT standards of the West would feed another billion people all by itself.
As to pensions: what you are concerned about is the intermediate stage where we still have decrepit people but for a longer period of time. People who are 80 for 70 years. The reality is that if SENS is successful they won't be 80 for 70 years, they'll just be 80 until we make more advances so that their physical age can decline until they are 25 again. So, in the end their are no more pensions. You just save up until you can afford your years long vacation. Well rested after five years on a beach you get some re-training and back into the work force to save for another long rest. No longer livng for the weekend, but living for the year in France/Australia/etc.
Now, for the argument that can really touch the Slashdotters hearts: Imagine if we could have Farah, Suzanne Sommers, etc back in their bangable 20's! For the gays, what if we could have a young Liza, Joan Collins, Diane Summers? Yowza, wouldn't that be worth it all by itself? It's too bad Marilyn Monroe died, I'd love to have had a shot at her once she got her rejuve. Also, if these broads live a couple of thousand years, doesn't that up your odds of playing bouncy-bounce with them tremendously?
As a nerd I want to live until I can visit the moon, live a while on Mars, own my own spaceship and travel the galaxy. There's lots to do, I don't see getting bored anytime soon. And heck if we are lucky, maybe we'll find compatible life so we can get our Kirk on with some four breasted green girls. Talk about an infinte variety of porn.
Slashdot Mirror
It's the domino theory of island obliteration! As environmentalists always warned, once Lohachara falls, that's it for Egypt.
Got that right, Geoffrey. I can't remember Lohachara ever disappearing previously.
By quite a margin, as it happens. Lean doesn't say so, but Lohachara apparently vanished two decades ago. So much for Lean's scoop; the event took place back when Lean had hair, and several years before he emerged from a coma. Some locals aren't buying that global warming line, by the way:
Not according to Lean, who evidently believes all weather change is due to Meddling Humans. And that's all change, whether towards cold or heat. In 2004, Lean reported that "Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by global warming". Two years later, he asked: "So where has all the snow gone?" There's no pleasing Geoffrey.
UPDATE. This nonsense was republished in the NZ Herald.
UPDATE II. Lean has previously been convicted of sins of omission and other crimes against journalism.
UPDATE III. Jackalope Pursuivant: "I've seen worse cases of journalistic malpractice, but not much worse."
To me, here are the big questions as to what the Democratic victory means: 1. Illegal alien amnesty - Bush is for it, more Dems than Rep are for it. Will it happen now? 2. Force withdrawal from Iraq by cutting off funds - I don't see how they can force Bush to pull troops out except through that method. More informed people can tell me if there is another way. 3. Investigationpalooza - Should everyone in the CIA, FBI, DOD, Pentagon be getting their documents in order and bending over for easy access? 4. Impeachment mania - Pre elections lots of dems (not to mention the Kosites) were making noises about impeachment. Will that happen or will cooler heads prevail? Seriously, if about a quarter of the American electorate really thinks that the planes flying into the twin towers was an inside job then how much pressure will they put on the Dems to pull the trigger on impeachment?
There are tons of smaller issues and questions, but to me at least these are the central questions about how the next two years are going to go.
Whatever happened to the vaunted Slashdotter cynicism towards FUD? I know things trend leftward here on /. but don't facts and reality have any weight any more? Check out this website with supporting cites of Crichton's thoughts that the "Panic now" approach to global warming is not the best way to go:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=16260#r ight
The argument I always stick on is that Mars is warming as well and there is no way that our SUV's could possibly warm Mars. Earth has been warming and cooling periodically since its inception. Let's find out if action is required before taking drastic steps that WILL cause deaths and misery among the poor.
For example, in America if gas goes up to $6 a gallon then we can mostly suck it up. . .except for the very poor. This type of thing will raise food prices (how do you think food gets to the stores?) and limit the employment options for the poor to travel to find the good jobs by raising the cost of transportation.
And that's just in America, what about in places that are really desperately poor. When you make $200 a year a small increase in the price of gasoline takes a huge bite out of your living standard as every product from food to building materials has to get there with gasoline. Bjorn Lomborg in his book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist" pointed out facts like these and was pilloried as a heretic for it.
I don't care about agendas, I only care about facts and results. I refuse to support actions that the facts don't currently support as necessary when the guaranteed results cause misery and needless deaths.
Do you guys remember DDT? Environmental extremists caused it to be taken off the market and not used any more. This has resulted and in millions upon millions of deaths for no good reason. Oopsy.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/000000005591 .htm
"Malaria is on the increase in all tropical regions of the planet - especially in Africa. In 2000, the disease killed more than one million people and made 300 million seriously ill."
There are many, many, many peer reviewed serious scientists who think that Global Warming cannot conclusively be blamed on human behavior. Further, others point out myriad BENEFITS to global warming, so even if it is caused by humans it may be a blessing and increase quality of life.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA165.html
"If history is any indication, greater precipitation may be only one of many benefits of global warming. For example, between the 10th and 12th Centuries, when the temperature of the planet was roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than it is today, agriculture in North America and Europe flourished and the southern regions of Greenland were free of ice, allowing cultivation by Norse settlers. "
Check out he dissenters before you advocate actions that will get people killed.
Here is the bottom line: If the company is making money off of the webisodes then the writers deserve their piece under union rules. However, if they are given away for free then they are indeed promotional materials and as such the writers/actors don't deserve any extra cash. For example, should the writers get paid for each time a BSG commercial airs? No, its just promotion for the show for which they do get paid.
I got the webisodes for free, did you guys pay? Really, I don't know.
Troll me if you want, but seriously: University is first and foremost the place you go so you can get a piece of paper allowing you to get a decent job. "Nooooo, it's. . .like. . .about uh. . .learning life. . .you know?" Gimme a break, stoner. Tell that to your parents. They don't believe you either.
You wanna party and live on your own you don't have to pay a school $40,000 to do that and it leaves a lot more money for beer.
I think it's clear we need an overhaul of the University system to reflect this reality. I wanna learn to be an engineer then why are you making me read excruciating poetry or sit in a Wymen's Studies class so the (expletive deleted) professor can tell me how bad I am because I'm a white male? Cut that crap out and give me two years of course work where at the end I'm eminently qualified to do the work I want to do.
To me this guy is on the right track. Get your pretty piece of paper so you can get out there making bank. Show up to the college bar in your expensive car with a wad of cash. When you're an 18 year old nerd you aint gonna be getting the boobies anyway. When you're a 19 year old with a fat wallet and a hot car you'll get all you can stand.
Look, if you are lucky enough to be a jock type with rich parents to pay your way you can afford to kick back for 4 years taking ridiculous/pointless/useless courses between getting laid/stoned/drunk. Meanwhile the rest of us are working our ass of to get by (while piling up debt.) All of this by a BUSINESS with monopoly control over having a decent future strings us along unnecessary/expensive/REQUIRED addons.
What a racket. If it was any other business they'd be hauled into court and forced to change their ways.
There is so much ignorance in these posts it's incredible. Look, if you don't want to live it's not like its hard to get out. As to birth rates, they are falling like a rock to the point that countries are greatly concerned over their ability to retain standards of living in the future. As to overcrowding. What BS. I currently live in China. When I take a train trip all I see is farm land. Not city land, just farms. There is plenty of room This stat is old but I remember that at the population density of Manhattan the entire world could live in Texas. If we take over some farmland for more housing, then fine. Advances in agriculture will more than take up the slack. For example, in China when I go by these farms I see them being cared for the same way they have for millenia: planted/harvested by hand. Simply bringing them up to the CURRENT standards of the West would feed another billion people all by itself. As to pensions: what you are concerned about is the intermediate stage where we still have decrepit people but for a longer period of time. People who are 80 for 70 years. The reality is that if SENS is successful they won't be 80 for 70 years, they'll just be 80 until we make more advances so that their physical age can decline until they are 25 again. So, in the end their are no more pensions. You just save up until you can afford your years long vacation. Well rested after five years on a beach you get some re-training and back into the work force to save for another long rest. No longer livng for the weekend, but living for the year in France/Australia/etc. Now, for the argument that can really touch the Slashdotters hearts: Imagine if we could have Farah, Suzanne Sommers, etc back in their bangable 20's! For the gays, what if we could have a young Liza, Joan Collins, Diane Summers? Yowza, wouldn't that be worth it all by itself? It's too bad Marilyn Monroe died, I'd love to have had a shot at her once she got her rejuve. Also, if these broads live a couple of thousand years, doesn't that up your odds of playing bouncy-bounce with them tremendously? As a nerd I want to live until I can visit the moon, live a while on Mars, own my own spaceship and travel the galaxy. There's lots to do, I don't see getting bored anytime soon. And heck if we are lucky, maybe we'll find compatible life so we can get our Kirk on with some four breasted green girls. Talk about an infinte variety of porn.