Individual businessmen (including farmers, deliverymen, etc) trading in their horses over decades is a damned sight different from being mandated to mothball huge and hugely expensive plants (aka capital plants). Where will companies get the money to build new kit when their existing plants are nowhere near their life expectancy, and the Eeeeevil Bankers will think, "If government mandates Foo this year, maybe they'll mandate Bar next year, and the Electric Company can't pay us back. So we won't lend them any money at all."
Also, there's NIMBY, which has made it impossible in the last 30 years to build new plants without decades of EPA studies and lawsuits by tree huggers.
The cost of living, including electricity, is, despite gov't claims of low inflation, much higher than it was 30 years ago. One of the causes is huge number of gov't regulations in the past 40 years. It and unionism are why so much manufacturing have moved away from the US, leaving millions under-employed.
and leave millions freezing to death.
In the US, most in the Snow Belt heat their homes with oil or gas, not electricity.
this is why we see so much anti-science propoganda surrounding the issue.
I'd say that we see anti-science propaganda because of quotes like these:
"because geologists often don't have enough data to say definitively what went on millions of years ago, creativity is needed to fill in the gaps."
I am in favor of taking power away from huge corporations and reducing their role in government.
As am I, but in a globally-connected world I see this as a prisoners' dilemma: all countries must do it together, or some countries corporations will gain the advantage.
And that's not even counting countries like the PRC, where most large corps are owned by the gov't (usually in the form of the PLA) and thus want these companies to have a lot of power...
I doubt that we (as opposed to robots) will travel past LEO (low earth orbit) as anything but a gee whiz flight of fancy. Deep Space is just too hostile to our feeble bodies.
Says he who doesn't realize that Eeeeevil Corporate Profits are what
keep us warm (even state-run electrical plants buy their coal/gas from private companies),
dry (unless you're Amish and built your own house),
clothed (unless, again, you are Amish and your wife makes all your clothes),
fed (unless you grow all your own food),
using a computer (how many governments build their own computers?),
on-line (even if you use a state-run ISP,
transoceanic fiber was laid by private companies), and
(usually) employed.
Or are you too young to remember why the Iron Curtain fell, and why so many (non-union) citizens welcomed (nay, screamed for) government privatization: government bureaucracies do an absolutely suck-ass job of providing services.
But filtering soot by adding smokestack scrubbers (which 1st world countries started doing many decades ago) is a heck of a lot cheaper and less disruptive than destroying the world economy to eliminate CO2.
I tried to kill myself... (I would have been successful, but I was discovered before I died). euthanasia is still an option I consider to continue
[Cold-hearted] I guess after an attempted suicide, "they" won't let you do buy a pistol and do it right. There's always the black market... [/Cold-hearted]
The current climate change summit is an excellent case study of what response to a global threat looks like.
Yes, but not for the reasons you elucidate. I think the most likely non-hysterical reactions will be:
there's nothing our technology can do about it, or
we can do something about it, but it would take way too long to design, build, launch, fly there, alter it's course, or
lots of creatures survived the K-T mass extinction, so maybe the Chicxulub Impact didn't actually cause the mass extinction (after all, how could even small burrowing mammals survive an extended global firestorm?), so maybe this impact won't cause a mass extinction either.
Until we have tech that allows for virtually unlimited thrust at virtually no cost
But doesn't that just mean that there won't be any Space War (or much of any space travel at all) until a radically new and powerful reaction engine is developed?
Any wise, intelligent, open-minded soul sees that The Aisle is a good metaphor, and also knows that metaphors are imperfect (which is why they are metaphors, not reality).
if 30 people are arrested then it was a major league violent protest regardless of how small that percentage is of the whole
Sounds like when people see the cops wailing on someone and whip out their video cameras, conveniently eliminating the context of why (for good or ill) the cops are wailing on the person...
and so are convinced that you are the second coming of Jesus.
Why are left-wingers so accusatory? "Listens to Rush Limbaugh", "Watches FNC", molests little girls, blah blah blah blah blah. For supposedly being so intelligent, wise, open-minded, tolerant and loving of little animals, there are a hell of a lot of ignorant, self-righteous jackasses on "that side of the aisle"...
(Yes, I know that there are a lot of ignorant, self-righteous jackasses on "my" side of the aisle.)
As if the Environmental Defense Fund doesn't have it's own bias...
Anyway, maybe it's a lingering Cold War mentality, but even for me, an AGW-skeptic, it just seems too convenient that the Russians drop this bomb during the Copenhagen Conference. Very suspicious!
[Seriously-OT] BTW, why is it that left-wing protests seem to turn violent so often, but (in the US, at least) right-wing protests don't, even when some demonstrators bring guns? [/Seriously-OT]
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Establishing control is in and of itself abuse
Balderdash. Incredible, absolute hogwash.
Without control, you get rude, snotty, out-of-control kids.
The problem started long, long ago, but alas without a time-machine, the mom is pretty much stuck now.
+5, Most Insightful Slashdot Comment of 2009
If the parent doesn't establish control early, the family is screwed.
(Yes, yes, I know: there's a delicate, always-changing balance between parental control and giving children the freedom to grow, explore and fail.)
go to his boss
That's a sure way to piss off a person uniquely able to make your life miserable.
In this case, such policies must be written. Track them down and verify whether your boss is correct.
But threaten my coffee supply and I'll take to the streets!
Not my (industrially grown) coffee, but that of the effete snobs that drink stuff made from cat poo.
Individual businessmen (including farmers, deliverymen, etc) trading in their horses over decades is a damned sight different from being mandated to mothball huge and hugely expensive plants (aka capital plants). Where will companies get the money to build new kit when their existing plants are nowhere near their life expectancy, and the Eeeeevil Bankers will think, "If government mandates Foo this year, maybe they'll mandate Bar next year, and the Electric Company can't pay us back. So we won't lend them any money at all."
Also, there's NIMBY, which has made it impossible in the last 30 years to build new plants without decades of EPA studies and lawsuits by tree huggers.
it had to be forced to do it
True.
despite bogus claims it would destroy the economy
The cost of living, including electricity, is, despite gov't claims of low inflation, much higher than it was 30 years ago. One of the causes is huge number of gov't regulations in the past 40 years. It and unionism are why so much manufacturing have moved away from the US, leaving millions under-employed.
and leave millions freezing to death.
In the US, most in the Snow Belt heat their homes with oil or gas, not electricity.
this is why we see so much anti-science propoganda surrounding the issue.
I'd say that we see anti-science propaganda because of quotes like these:
and
If they claim they aren't Christians, then they aren't Catholic either.
I know it, you know it, but there are a whole lot of people who don't seem to realize it.
I am in favor of taking power away from huge corporations and reducing their role in government.
As am I, but in a globally-connected world I see this as a prisoners' dilemma: all countries must do it together, or some countries corporations will gain the advantage.
And that's not even counting countries like the PRC, where most large corps are owned by the gov't (usually in the form of the PLA) and thus want these companies to have a lot of power...
(I usually mean multi-nationals when I say this)
That's plutocracy.
I doubt that we (as opposed to robots) will travel past LEO (low earth orbit) as anything but a gee whiz flight of fancy. Deep Space is just too hostile to our feeble bodies.
Cry me a river about lost corporate profits.
Says he who doesn't realize that Eeeeevil Corporate Profits are what
Or are you too young to remember why the Iron Curtain fell, and why so many (non-union) citizens welcomed (nay, screamed for) government privatization: government bureaucracies do an absolutely suck-ass job of providing services.
and instead actually stand the fuck up, walk over, and close the fucking window
Except that closing a window is a hell of a lot cheaper, easier and faster to do than fundamentally restructuring a world economy.
ok, well what are we supposed to do, just accept rising sea levels, melting glaciers and the sahara desert growing 25%?
Yes, as a matter of fact.
and that we earthlings will have to intervene at some point, correct?
The Earth is Really Big, and we are Really Small.
The right wingers will surely use this as "proof" that global warming is wrong.
AGW skeptics have known about Asian black soot for 2-3 years. (It's also been found in Arctic pack ice and in the Colorado Rockies.)
I'm just glad that the "mainstream" has finally "noticed" it.
So we're still solving the same problem.
But filtering soot by adding smokestack scrubbers (which 1st world countries started doing many decades ago) is a heck of a lot cheaper and less disruptive than destroying the world economy to eliminate CO2.
Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ.
Especially because shepherds wouldn't be wandering around the mountains during the winter: too cold; they'd have the sheep penned.
Also according to many Catholics I speak to ( including my parochial-school-attending children, until I explained "things" to them):
-1, Pointless
There is too much of a chance that it won't kill you.
Ehh. Barrel in the mouth, aiming upwards.
I'd try a knife slit, though, to the side of the neck, to slit the jugular vein. Maybe some aspirin first, to thin the blood.
Also, consider the poor people that have to clean up after you
That's why you do it in the tub.
and consider the aftermath your family would have to be looking at.
He must have already considered that before his first attempt.
I tried to kill myself ... (I would have been successful, but I was discovered before I died).
euthanasia is still an option I consider to continue
[Cold-hearted]
I guess after an attempted suicide, "they" won't let you do buy a pistol and do it right. There's always the black market...
[/Cold-hearted]
but for me the 770 is about as big as it can be before jumping from the 'can carry in coat pocket' to 'can carry if I take a bag' category.
You could always get a "man" purse...
http://poponthepop.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/manpurse-manpurse.jpg (No wonder the Patriots suck this year: their QB is pussy-whipped!)
The current climate change summit is an excellent case study of what response to a global threat looks like.
Yes, but not for the reasons you elucidate. I think the most likely non-hysterical reactions will be:
Until we have tech that allows for virtually unlimited thrust at virtually no cost
But doesn't that just mean that there won't be any Space War (or much of any space travel at all) until a radically new and powerful reaction engine is developed?
there is no aisle
Any wise, intelligent, open-minded soul sees that The Aisle is a good metaphor, and also knows that metaphors are imperfect (which is why they are metaphors, not reality).
if 30 people are arrested then it was a major league violent protest regardless of how small that percentage is of the whole
Sounds like when people see the cops wailing on someone and whip out their video cameras, conveniently eliminating the context of why (for good or ill) the cops are wailing on the person...
and so are convinced that you are the second coming of Jesus.
Why are left-wingers so accusatory? "Listens to Rush Limbaugh", "Watches FNC", molests little girls, blah blah blah blah blah. For supposedly being so intelligent, wise, open-minded, tolerant and loving of little animals, there are a hell of a lot of ignorant, self-righteous jackasses on "that side of the aisle"...
(Yes, I know that there are a lot of ignorant, self-righteous jackasses on "my" side of the aisle.)
As if the Environmental Defense Fund doesn't have it's own bias...
Anyway, maybe it's a lingering Cold War mentality, but even for me, an AGW-skeptic, it just seems too convenient that the Russians drop this bomb during the Copenhagen Conference. Very suspicious!
[Seriously-OT]
BTW, why is it that left-wing protests seem to turn violent so often, but (in the US, at least) right-wing protests don't, even when some demonstrators bring guns?
[/Seriously-OT]