The right energy source for the right place. I've heard at times New Orleans has plenty of wind.
Too soon?
Too soon for what? Katrina jokes? We were making them before Katrina even hit...
That aside, and slightly (very slightly) more seriously, no, wind wouldn't work here - not enough of it, or too damn much, and the too damn much part is for very short durations very infrequently.
Now, now, you give the Brits far too much credit. I couldn't think of any case where a Barbarian tribe handed over one of theirs to the Romans for trial.
Hmm, perhaps not quite parallel, but about 60AD, Prasutagus, King of the Iceni, gave his Kingdom to the Roman Emperor in his will.
Which led more or less immediately to Boudicca's Rebellion, which did not go well for the Brits.
A manhattan skyscraper won't be able to power itself, but a 30km*30km plot of land in Nevada receives enough sunlight over 24 hours to power the entire U.S. with electricity.
Well, no. Not really.
Only way that this would be true is if we had 75% efficient solar panels.
Last I checked, typical solar panel efficiency was in the timezone of 10-15% efficient.
Does a non-christian have a realistic chance of getting voted into office?
In a word, yes.
In a few more words, it should be noted that Thomas Jefferson got to be President without being a Christian.
Plus the odd Jew here and there.
Can someone run for office without religion being mentioned?
That might be a bit harder, since the non-Christians will at least mention their Christian opponents religion frequently, even if the Christians don''t. And they will....
It's interesting that you spend most of your post saying rude things about the Republicans, after starting with:
Its all about who looks better on TV, who is a better public speaker, who tells better lies
Especially since Obama fit all three of those characteristics last election, as well as fitting all three of those characteristics during the Democratic Primaries...
A side issue also carefully not discussed is I am not bound by the US Constitution, despite my very low/. UID I certainly never signed it, that's for sure. I'm not saying I hate it or its icky, I actually kind of like it, mostly, just that it has no moral or ethical jurisdiction over me because I never agreed to it.
Of course, US citizens are not supposed to be "bound by the Constitution".
The US Constitution is supposed to bind the Federal Government and (to a lesser extent) the State Governments, it's not intended to bind the citizens.
Hence, the Tenth Amendment to same:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
You have a choice between two completely equal houses.
One a single block away from a nuclear power plant. The other without.
Everything else being equal, would you live in the house with the nuclear power plant down the street?
Yes. From the top of the oak tree in my front yard (assuming I was light enough and young enough to climb to the top, of course), I could see a nuclear power plant now.
Would you live there if you were raising small children?
I raised my daughter in this house, so yes.
Would you live there with a beloved wife, GF or your parents living with you?
Yes, my wife lives here too...
Sorry, noone ever managed to convince me that "nuclear" was the same as "THE DEBHIL!!!!11!!! AAAAAAH!1!!!"....
TEPCO actually had determined that the Fukushima nuclear plant was at risk from an larger than expected tsunami and had reported this to Japan's regulatory agency a few days before the earthquake happened.
And this is relevant because?
Face it, if we'd been told four days before the tsunami the exact parameters of the tsunami, there's not a whole lot that could have been done to mitigate it.
MAYBE shut the plant down, but it wouldn't have been cooled to ambient in only four days, and the cooling ponds full of old fuel rods would have still been there....
Mother has twin sister. Son X is born. Father divorces mother. Father marries mother's twin. Daughter Z is born. Father's daughter = Z is X's sister. Mother's sister's daughter = Z is X's cousin.
Technically, X and Z are half-siblings, since they only share one parent. But there's no such thing as half cousin.
Genetically, they're full siblings, since their mothers are genetically identical.
"the degenerate cease-pool of Humanity since the Arab scientific revolution ended - several thousand years ago"
Try "several hundred years ago". It ended, pretty much, with Tamerlane's destruction of Persia. Which was rather less than ONE thousand years ago, much less "several thousand".
So you feel that some level of children starving to death is an acceptable population control. Just for interests sake what percentage of the global population starving to death do you deem acceptable. Me, personally, I go with zero and would like to see some population controls implemented to ensure that happens.
You probably also missed the mention in your link that said we produce more than enough food right now to feed everyone on the planet.
Starvation today is more a political issue than a population issue.
If Mugabe wants to destroy the agricultural sector of his economy (whether he wanted to or not, that's what he did), he can turn a country that used to export food into one that has a significant amount of starvation.
Somalia, similarly, has starvation primarily as a result of an ongoing civil war.
Ditto almost every other significant locale where starvation is an issue.
Now, show me how population controls will fix problems like that, and I might buy into your thesis.
As is, you seem to be a eugenicist of the Sanger mold - let's sterilize those undesirables (blacks, browns, etc), so as to make a nicer world for us whites...
I don't think that "giving X a good name" means what you think it does.
Possibly.
Or I took the past tense in "did" as having some value, and gave past tense values of people who gave eugenics a good name. Hence, Alexander Graham Bell and Margaret Sanger as examples.
There are more, of course. Winston Churchill approved of eugenics back in the day as well (back in the day being in the vicinity of WW1), as one example.
And no, I wasn't particularly picking on the USA, so much as using examples more likely to be familiar to American readers.
Remember, almost all of the "bad name" that eugenics has arose out of Nazi Germany. Before that, it was considered very much mainstream in what is now considered the western world.
this book was noteworthy for its use of the word "Computer" as a title
Little-known trivia - back in the day, "computer" was a person who, well, crunched the numbers for the engineer/scientist types. Usually a young woman....
In other words, his use of the word computer as a title was normal for the period the story was written.
It should be noted that the hero of "Spacehounds of IPC" (EE Smith) was also a "computer", though of the male variety.
I don't know why this got modded to oblivion but Thomas Covenant was fantastic. It can be pretty depressing but as I recall it just has some amazing twists and turns, well worth reading.
"Lord Foul's Bane" was good. The rest, not so much. I think I managed the sequel, then gave up on the series...
pardon my ignorance, but did someone give eugenics a good name?
I don't know.
Do you approve of Planned Parenthood? Its founder was big on eugenics - that's why she founded PP.
DO remember that eugenics wasn't invented in Nazi Germany - it came out of MA first, in the form of Alexander Graham Bell...
Also remember that eugenics laws were passed in most States (30 or so) in the USA back in the day. And are still on the books, I'd bet, in at least half of them.
Yes, the USA only sterilized about 15% of the number of "defectives" as Nazi Germany, but we led the way (the Germans took American eugenics laws as inspiration for their own laws requiring sterilization of defectives)....
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I would hope you'd remember your marriage, move or job change without having to infer it from changes in your gasoline usage....
Of course, by this definition, it is also true that most people are average or above....
Too soon for what? Katrina jokes? We were making them before Katrina even hit...
That aside, and slightly (very slightly) more seriously, no, wind wouldn't work here - not enough of it, or too damn much, and the too damn much part is for very short durations very infrequently.
Hmm, perhaps not quite parallel, but about 60AD, Prasutagus, King of the Iceni, gave his Kingdom to the Roman Emperor in his will.
Which led more or less immediately to Boudicca's Rebellion, which did not go well for the Brits.
Well, no. Not really.
Only way that this would be true is if we had 75% efficient solar panels.
Last I checked, typical solar panel efficiency was in the timezone of 10-15% efficient.
That would work really well in New Orleans, if the highest hill in the area was more than 15 feet tall....
In a word, yes.
In a few more words, it should be noted that Thomas Jefferson got to be President without being a Christian.
Plus the odd Jew here and there.
That might be a bit harder, since the non-Christians will at least mention their Christian opponents religion frequently, even if the Christians don''t. And they will....
It's interesting that you spend most of your post saying rude things about the Republicans, after starting with:
Especially since Obama fit all three of those characteristics last election, as well as fitting all three of those characteristics during the Democratic Primaries...
Of course, US citizens are not supposed to be "bound by the Constitution".
The US Constitution is supposed to bind the Federal Government and (to a lesser extent) the State Governments, it's not intended to bind the citizens.
Hence, the Tenth Amendment to same:
Yes. From the top of the oak tree in my front yard (assuming I was light enough and young enough to climb to the top, of course), I could see a nuclear power plant now.
I raised my daughter in this house, so yes.
Yes, my wife lives here too...
Sorry, noone ever managed to convince me that "nuclear" was the same as "THE DEBHIL!!!!11!!! AAAAAAH!1!!!"....
And this is relevant because?
Face it, if we'd been told four days before the tsunami the exact parameters of the tsunami, there's not a whole lot that could have been done to mitigate it.
MAYBE shut the plant down, but it wouldn't have been cooled to ambient in only four days, and the cooling ponds full of old fuel rods would have still been there....
Genetically, they're full siblings, since their mothers are genetically identical.
Try "several hundred years ago". It ended, pretty much, with Tamerlane's destruction of Persia. Which was rather less than ONE thousand years ago, much less "several thousand".
Also, it's cesspool, not cease-pool.
And mustn't forget the troop withdrawal from Iraq. Happened under Obama, but planned and scheduled under Bush, and Bush gets the credit...
Oh, wait, didn't happen that way did it? It WAS planned and scheduled under Bush, but Obama got the credit....
Mostly.
But not necessarily. I knew a kid in high school who got lung cancer from smoking. Just depends on luck of the draw...
You probably also missed the mention in your link that said we produce more than enough food right now to feed everyone on the planet.
Starvation today is more a political issue than a population issue.
If Mugabe wants to destroy the agricultural sector of his economy (whether he wanted to or not, that's what he did), he can turn a country that used to export food into one that has a significant amount of starvation.
Somalia, similarly, has starvation primarily as a result of an ongoing civil war.
Ditto almost every other significant locale where starvation is an issue.
Now, show me how population controls will fix problems like that, and I might buy into your thesis.
As is, you seem to be a eugenicist of the Sanger mold - let's sterilize those undesirables (blacks, browns, etc), so as to make a nicer world for us whites...
It's interesting that your link shows starvation as declining signifcantly over the last 40 years, while the global population rose significantly.
Which was probably not the argument you were trying to make...
Really hard to say, but the tiny amount of fiction that I've seen from the period that mentions the subject mentions it favourably.
And is quite rude about the backwards types who opposed it.
Possibly.
Or I took the past tense in "did" as having some value, and gave past tense values of people who gave eugenics a good name. Hence, Alexander Graham Bell and Margaret Sanger as examples.
There are more, of course. Winston Churchill approved of eugenics back in the day as well (back in the day being in the vicinity of WW1), as one example.
And no, I wasn't particularly picking on the USA, so much as using examples more likely to be familiar to American readers.
Remember, almost all of the "bad name" that eugenics has arose out of Nazi Germany. Before that, it was considered very much mainstream in what is now considered the western world.
Little-known trivia - back in the day, "computer" was a person who, well, crunched the numbers for the engineer/scientist types. Usually a young woman....
In other words, his use of the word computer as a title was normal for the period the story was written.
It should be noted that the hero of "Spacehounds of IPC" (EE Smith) was also a "computer", though of the male variety.
Well, if we had a clue what made for a better human, it might be useful.
Alas, we didn't know squat then, and don't know a whole lot more now....
"Lord Foul's Bane" was good. The rest, not so much. I think I managed the sequel, then gave up on the series...
I don't know.
Do you approve of Planned Parenthood? Its founder was big on eugenics - that's why she founded PP.
DO remember that eugenics wasn't invented in Nazi Germany - it came out of MA first, in the form of Alexander Graham Bell...
Also remember that eugenics laws were passed in most States (30 or so) in the USA back in the day. And are still on the books, I'd bet, in at least half of them.
Yes, the USA only sterilized about 15% of the number of "defectives" as Nazi Germany, but we led the way (the Germans took American eugenics laws as inspiration for their own laws requiring sterilization of defectives)....
William Hope Hodgson's "The Night Land" deserves a read. Inspiration for Lovecraft, among others.
They're not really fascist, but Smith was big on eugenics back before the Nazis gave eugenics a bad name. It shows....