By that logic, we should never invest in R&D or anything remotely risky as long as there are needy people. Why bother with cancer or diabetes research when we have so many who don't have medical coverage? All those hundreds of billions should have been spent on more prescriptions and checkups, right?
The loan was part of a $25 billion DOE program towards greater fuel efficiency of which $8 billion was dispensed before any was allocated to Fisker. Other recipients were Toyota, Ford, Nissan and Tesla, who collectively nabbed most of that $8 billion.
The loan guarantee was supposed to be towards a planned $40k hybrid, not the luxury Karma. Although the guarantee was for up to $529 million, the loan was frozen back in late 2011, at which point Fisker had borrowed $193 million.
Horseshit. The argument is whether the warming was statistically significant at the 95% confidence level - it may be that the trend hasn't been long enough to be sure and there have been predominantly La Nina or La Nada Southern Oscillations.
It's notable that 1) you can almost always find a 10+ yr trend of no significant warming, going back to the start of the temp records yet we've warmed almost a full deg C and 2) every La Nina prior to 1979 would drive the temp down to or below the long-term average.
Since then, not a single La Nina year has been within 0.1 of the avg and each successive La Nina year has been warmer or nearly as warm as the preceding one. The most recent was an anomaly of 0.55 deg C and that it and the last 3 La Nina years have been as warm or warmer than EVERY EL NINO YEAR prior to 1998.
The slight cooling of approx 0.1 C during that period was likely due to aerosols and air pollution. There wasn't much in the way of pollution controls and many people burned coal in their homes for heating. London, England was known for incredibly thick haze, the infamous yellowish "'pea-soup" fogs that were finally addressed in the mid-50s with laws forbidding residential use of coal in the city.
Also, that period was mostly dominated by La Nina events or ENSO-neutral conditions with only 3 or so El Ninos vs 8 La Ninas
There's no need for various negative feedbacks as there are strong cooling mechanisms that are concomitant with burning fossil fuels, namely aerosols. A secondary source of aerosols is vulcanism which has been shown to cause a dramatic worldwide drop in temperature shortly after large eruptions. These tend not to last more than a few years unless other eruptions occur but the significant increase in Asian air pollution and global air traffic are other contributing factors to a reduction in the rate of warming.
A sensible leader would have put a bounty on the heads of the terrorists AND sent in hunter-killer elite teams into the country. You get Bin Laden, you get a general's pension and a Bronze Star; you get caught, hope you remembered your cyanide pill and we don't know you.
Would probably get them all for under a billion, even with drone strikes and possibly in less time.
Oh, you don't like drone strikes in your country? Help us round up the terrorists or tell us where we can fax the Declaration of War.
Sometimes, a meaningful threat is more effective than an outright assault.
I and others have been making this point over and over on the EV / enviro blogs. Someone always thinks there's going to be a magical battery that will suck energy from the aether to quickcharge for a 1000 miles in 5 mins any day now.
Unless we get a pourable electrolyte like MIT's Cambridge Crude, we'll eventually need a way to quick-swap batteries. I'd had hopes for the Better Place plan but it looks like they were just too soon for most markets.
Hard to know what Elon's up to but considering that Tesla has done work for Daimler / Smart / Freightliner and Toyota while working on the Models S and X, he's probably thought of a few ways to put that 80% unused space at his Fremont facility.
Dems do it too but last time around, the GOP did it bigger, badder, better. Canada has had an arm's-length agency for administering elections since 1920. Proprotional representation can, I believe, mitigate gerrymandering to some extent.
Ensuring the legality of votes is the soundbite-friendly pretext; I do support what is said to be the goal but I question some of the actions taken as well as the timing.
Why have so many states, mostly Republican controlled, decided in 2011 that this was suddenly a lethal disease infecting the electoral process? What was behind the cut in early voting days in Florida and the cancellation of the Sunday-before-election days voting in a state that has often seen 5 hour lineups to cast a ballot? Here's one man's informed opinion - http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/early-voting-curbs-called-power-play/nTFDy/
Assuming that's true, that nameless Democrat has done far less harm than Republican election worker Donna Swenson. I'm sure you'll agree that she should be punished to the full extent of the law.
Then you must find it quite ironic that the party, as you put it, most wants to make voting difficult, is equally determined to make gun ownership easy.
I don't oppose voter ID on principle but what I've seen were rules specifically designed to disenfranchise minorities in certain areas. I support your suggestion but the cynic in me thinks there certain people will find creative ways to block the folks they don't want to see voting.
Cutting voting days in areas where your party is likely to lose but extending them where your party might win is a bigger problem than putative voter fraud.
Outright fraud seemed to be the case in Clackamas County, Oregon, though, when an election worker was fired and now faces a criminal investigation after “alleged ballot tampering was discovered,” according to a press release.
Deanna Swenson, 55, was “relieved of duty immediately” after an elections official allegedly caught her filling in the Republican options on ballots where voters had left the choices had been left blank, Raw Story reported.
Swenson, a registered Republican, claimed she had only tampered with two ballots, though the local sheriff’s office said the total was not yet clear.
If convicted, Swenson could face a five-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $125,000.
Voter fraud is so insignificant in America that even if everyone who did it in all the US were in the same district, they couldn't change the outcome. The GOP has manipulated a minor problem into an all-out assault on minorities and, while gerrymandering has been abused historically by both sides, their last round of redistricting was abominable. If anyone is conducting or planning to conduct voter fraud on a grand scale, it's the RightWingNuts. Time and demographics are against them and the only things that can save their brand is either blatant cheating or a return to sanity. I'm not holding my breath for the latter.
Yes, the ballot box. Which is why the GOP has put a lot of effort into voter suppression. If you're right about voting being effective and protesting not, then does who aren't allowed to vote are in deep trouble when "their" party or parties are losing ground.
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By that logic, we should never invest in R&D or anything remotely risky as long as there are needy people.
Why bother with cancer or diabetes research when we have so many who don't have medical coverage?
All those hundreds of billions should have been spent on more prescriptions and checkups, right?
The loan was part of a $25 billion DOE program towards greater fuel efficiency of which $8 billion was dispensed before any was allocated to Fisker.
Other recipients were Toyota, Ford, Nissan and Tesla, who collectively nabbed most of that $8 billion.
The loan guarantee was supposed to be towards a planned $40k hybrid, not the luxury Karma. Although the guarantee was for up to $529 million, the loan was frozen back in late 2011, at which point Fisker had borrowed $193 million.
See discussion at link below, which has lots of info and commentary
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/volcanic-co2/
Would that be Prof Tim Ball? That would explain a lot.
Horseshit.
The argument is whether the warming was statistically significant at the 95% confidence level - it may be that the trend hasn't been long enough to be sure and there have been predominantly La Nina or La Nada Southern Oscillations.
It's notable that 1) you can almost always find a 10+ yr trend of no significant warming, going back to the start of the temp records yet we've warmed almost a full deg C and 2) every La Nina prior to 1979 would drive the temp down to or below the long-term average.
Since then, not a single La Nina year has been within 0.1 of the avg and each successive La Nina year has been warmer or nearly as warm as the preceding one.
The most recent was an anomaly of 0.55 deg C and that it and the last 3 La Nina years have been as warm or warmer than EVERY EL NINO YEAR prior to 1998.
I was referring to volcanic release of aerosols not CO2.
The slight cooling of approx 0.1 C during that period was likely due to aerosols and air pollution. There wasn't much in the way of pollution controls and many people burned coal in their homes for heating. London, England was known for incredibly thick haze, the infamous yellowish "'pea-soup" fogs that were finally addressed in the mid-50s with laws forbidding residential use of coal in the city.
Also, that period was mostly dominated by La Nina events or ENSO-neutral conditions with only 3 or so El Ninos vs 8 La Ninas
What is this university professor's name?
There's no need for various negative feedbacks as there are strong cooling mechanisms that are concomitant with burning fossil fuels, namely aerosols.
A secondary source of aerosols is vulcanism which has been shown to cause a dramatic worldwide drop in temperature shortly after large eruptions.
These tend not to last more than a few years unless other eruptions occur but the significant increase in Asian air pollution and global air traffic are other contributing factors to a reduction in the rate of warming.
A sensible leader would have put a bounty on the heads of the terrorists AND sent in hunter-killer elite teams into the country. You get Bin Laden, you get a general's pension and a Bronze Star; you get caught, hope you remembered your cyanide pill and we don't know you.
Would probably get them all for under a billion, even with drone strikes and possibly in less time.
Oh, you don't like drone strikes in your country? Help us round up the terrorists or tell us where we can fax the Declaration of War.
Sometimes, a meaningful threat is more effective than an outright assault.
I and others have been making this point over and over on the EV / enviro blogs. Someone always thinks there's going to be a magical battery that will suck energy from the aether to quickcharge for a 1000 miles in 5 mins any day now.
Unless we get a pourable electrolyte like MIT's Cambridge Crude, we'll eventually need a way to quick-swap batteries.
I'd had hopes for the Better Place plan but it looks like they were just too soon for most markets.
Hard to know what Elon's up to but considering that Tesla has done work for Daimler / Smart / Freightliner and Toyota while working on the Models S and X, he's probably thought of a few ways to put that 80% unused space at his Fremont facility.
Can you keep a secret: :-)
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me
As stated in a previous comment, I don't have an issue if adequate notice is given and if obtaining said ID is not unreasonably burdensome.
As for GOP gerrymandering - here's a sample: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/republicans-gerrymandering-house-representatives-election-chart
Dems do it too but last time around, the GOP did it bigger, badder, better. Canada has had an arm's-length agency for administering elections since 1920.
Proprotional representation can, I believe, mitigate gerrymandering to some extent.
Here are some noteworthy gerrymanders with lessons and embarrasments for both sides:
http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2010/11/11/the-top-ten-most-gerrymandered-congressional-districts-in-the-united-states/?singlepage=true
How many of those IDs can you use at the voting booth?
Ensuring the legality of votes is the soundbite-friendly pretext; I do support what is said to be the goal but I question some of the actions taken as well as the timing.
Why have so many states, mostly Republican controlled, decided in 2011 that this was suddenly a lethal disease infecting the electoral process?
What was behind the cut in early voting days in Florida and the cancellation of the Sunday-before-election days voting in a state that has often seen 5 hour lineups to cast a ballot?
Here's one man's informed opinion - http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/early-voting-curbs-called-power-play/nTFDy/
I'm sure this is not your 1st Godwin's Law prize.
Assuming that's true, that nameless Democrat has done far less harm than Republican election worker Donna Swenson.
I'm sure you'll agree that she should be punished to the full extent of the law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/deanna-swenson-oregon-election-worker_n_2082882.html
Then you must find it quite ironic that the party, as you put it, most wants to make voting difficult, is equally determined to make gun ownership easy.
True - the professionals stuff wallets on Capitol Hill. Far more effective.
I don't oppose voter ID on principle but what I've seen were rules specifically designed to disenfranchise minorities in certain areas.
I support your suggestion but the cynic in me thinks there certain people will find creative ways to block the folks they don't want to see voting.
Cutting voting days in areas where your party is likely to lose but extending them where your party might win is a bigger problem than putative voter fraud.
In some cases, voter fraud is done by those who do have the right to vote
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/06/u-s-election-machine-glitches-and-voter-fraud-reported-as-america-goes-to-the-polls/
Outright fraud seemed to be the case in Clackamas County, Oregon, though, when an election worker was fired and now faces a criminal investigation after “alleged ballot tampering was discovered,” according to a press release.
Deanna Swenson, 55, was “relieved of duty immediately” after an elections official allegedly caught her filling in the Republican options on ballots where voters had left the choices had been left blank, Raw Story reported.
Swenson, a registered Republican, claimed she had only tampered with two ballots, though the local sheriff’s office said the total was not yet clear.
If convicted, Swenson could face a five-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $125,000.
Voter fraud is so insignificant in America that even if everyone who did it in all the US were in the same district, they couldn't change the outcome.
The GOP has manipulated a minor problem into an all-out assault on minorities and, while gerrymandering has been abused historically by both sides, their last round of redistricting was abominable.
If anyone is conducting or planning to conduct voter fraud on a grand scale, it's the RightWingNuts. Time and demographics are against them and the only things that can save their brand is either blatant cheating or a return to sanity. I'm not holding my breath for the latter.
Yes, the ballot box. Which is why the GOP has put a lot of effort into voter suppression.
If you're right about voting being effective and protesting not, then does who aren't allowed to vote are in deep trouble when "their" party or parties are losing ground.