"The amount of media coverage. International press. 24/7 news cycle. The constant lies. "Zimmerman is white"."
He's definitely not black.
Besides, has it slipped your mind that Zimmerman was accused for domestic violence and shouldn't even have got a gun license? No? I wonder how it works. Of course, Zimmerman can't be guilty of anything. He's an avenging angel, striking crime with justice!
And before crying "mob justice!" - can you give an example where a black man walked away from a police station after shooting a white man in a confrontation without any witnesses? I haven't been able to find such case at all.
THAT'S THE ISSUE. DA hasn't done anything to actually investigate the crime. Martin's identity had been established only after about 3 days after the shooting. The first witnesses were questioned after about A WEEK. WTF?
>I'd love to see the "Atheist Party" candidate and what kind of wackjob they'd end up with. If I had my guess, most people who claim atheism end up voting for some big government (sky daddy substitute) politician like Obama.
What are the alternatives? Even Ron-let's-eat-children-Paul stands firmly behind banning abortions. On the state level, obviously. God forbid they are banned on the Federal level.
"Think about it for a second, cops draw their guns all the time. What for?"
No. YOU think about it.
Cops are actually trained NOT to draw guns except for: 1) Entering possibly dangerous area (like breaking in into a room where a potential assailant might be hiding) 2) Acting against a clear and present deadly threat.
US armed forces can easily erase ANY organized armed group from the face of the Earth. The problem is, insurgents are not an 'organized group'.
They are a diffuse network, and rooting them out in reality is more of a police work (i.e. building networks on informants, fighting weapon smuggling, etc.) than military work.
"In addition, an eyewitness, 13-year-old Austin Brown, told police he saw a man fitting Zimmerman's description lying on the grass moaning and crying for help just seconds before he heard the gunshot that killed Martin."
Let me quote from (no less!) FoxNews: "Meanwhile, the mother of a 13-year-old who also witnessed the killing told the New York Daily News that when Sanford police interviewed her son eight days after the incident, they "pressured" him to give more detail than he recalled. The youngster, Austin Brown, had been referenced by police as having seen Martin on top of Zimmerman during the fight, but his mother, Cheryl, said he saw only one person lying on the grass and could not identify them."
So nope, no reliable eyewitnesses. You also might notice that it took 8 frigging days to do the initial questioning.
"Zimmerman was placed in the rear of my police vehicle and was given first aid by the SFD."
There are no visible bloodstains on his shirt or face. Also, no open scalp wounds (they bleed everywhere like crazy). So everything can be easily simulated.
"Do you think they stopped at just taking names after someone was shot?"
It was pretty much so until the public outrage lit a fire under DA's chair.
There are no witnesses who reliably tell that. The only potential eyewitness says: "While the witness said he was not able to see who was on top of the other as the two scuffled, he said "there wasn't a lot of movement" immediately before he heard a gunshot.". Oh, and the whole fight happened on the grass.
Nobody knows if Martin even touched Zimmerman. He could have banged pavement with his head a couple of times to give himself a nice gash. He could have simply slipped after the shot. Again, no incontrovertible evidence at all points to the fact that conflict really took place.
It certainly doesn't look like he got a broken nose (they generally look like murder with blood everywhere).
However, for me the most shameful fact is the treatment of the incident by the police. Like the fact that the police department hasn't even try to identify Martin for 3 days while his parents were searching for him. And Zimmerman, of course, should have been charged and arrested. Then let the jurors to determine if he's guilty.
So, can we meet in a dark alley without witnesses? I'll shoot you, then I'll just lie on the ground and pound the pavement with my head a bit (to give a nice scenic gash).
I'll say that you've threatened me with, for example, murder and rape. Should work fine.
Oh, and Martin's girlfriend says something else. But that's fine, we can just ignore her.
Which is correct. If you draw a gun then USE it. If you don't intend to use it then don't draw it. It's that simple.
I was recently reading historic criminal codes and old Slavic code had a curious law - you had to pay a (pretty big) fine if you drew a sword in anger without striking. I'd really like to see something like this for concealed weapons.
"Efficiency of 90% for pumped hydro is irrelevant to its real cost as a complete ecological disaster. All forms of hydro power are terrible. "
Pumped hydro is often used in mountainous regions where its impact is close to zero. Certainly that's the way it is in Norway.
"Efficiency of stored heat is based on its insulation, and can exceed 99%."
Which is totally irrelevant. Thermodynamic efficiency is capped at about 30%, but even that is not the biggest problem.
You see, molten salt storage mandates the use of concentrated solar - a lot of mirrors focusing on the central tower. And that is expensive - each mirror has to be individually focused on the central tower, and that requires a fairly complex tracking system for each mirror. In comparison, PV plants can make do with simple fixed rows of solar panels.
"PV cells decay over time"
So do the mirrors, steam turbines, electric generators and so on. Maintenance costs of solar thermal plants are about 10 times more than solar-PV, even when factoring in the depreciation.
"for effective purposes solar thermal does not. PV cells only provide a cheaper alternative in the short term, and are only cheaper if they are not used to provide the power for the predictable daytime peak."
And molten storage can't realistically compete with nuclear or fossil fuels.
Efficiency of pumped hydro approaches 90%. And that's for the complete pump-and-dump cycle. And existing pumped storage in Norway actually already works for the intended purpose - to compensate peaky nature of renewables in Denmark.
"Right now, solar thermal is far less expensive than PV, especially when you consider the inefficiencies in converting electrical power to a store-able medium for use at night."
No it is not. Almost all of the new planned large thermal solar plants are switching to PV.
I know that NG is not renewable. It's still way better than molten salt storage, even given the CO2 footprint of natural gas.
And storing sunlight as heat is the most stupid thing (apart from batteries) you can do. It requires you: 1) To use solar-thermal powerplants which are going to become more expensive than photovoltaics. 2) You'll need HUGE reservoirs to store gigawatt-hours of energy. 3) Pumped hydro is actually the optimal choice if it's available.
And you might notice that I've never advocated chemical batteries for storage.
1) That's why I'm not advocating them. Natural-gas fueled turbines are the best solution for backup power generation (along with nukes for the baseline). 2) Yep, and that's why thermodynamic efficiency of molten salt plants is so bad.
1) No large molten salt storages exist in reality. The largest one can barely keep a small power plant running through the night. 2) Molten salt storage is ineffective. Remember, Q ~ dT/T and for molten salt dT is barely 200-300C. 3) Molten salt storage is way too expensive.
Slashdot Mirror
"You ask questions about evidence, but we have NO EVIDENCE."
Wrong. We can validate our past predictions against the real data. And guess what? They match!
Nope. Water vapor acts as a transistor of sorts. It _amplifies_ the warming driven by other effects.
In itself water vapor does not FORCE warming or cooling (in our current climatic mode) because it's in an equilibrium.
"Do Americans lose their 2nd amendment rights as a result of merely being accused, without even a trial?"
To carry a hidden gun, yes. Medical reasons might also disqualify you.
"The amount of media coverage. International press. 24/7 news cycle. The constant lies. "Zimmerman is white"."
He's definitely not black.
Besides, has it slipped your mind that Zimmerman was accused for domestic violence and shouldn't even have got a gun license? No? I wonder how it works. Of course, Zimmerman can't be guilty of anything. He's an avenging angel, striking crime with justice!
And before crying "mob justice!" - can you give an example where a black man walked away from a police station after shooting a white man in a confrontation without any witnesses? I haven't been able to find such case at all.
THAT'S THE ISSUE. DA hasn't done anything to actually investigate the crime. Martin's identity had been established only after about 3 days after the shooting. The first witnesses were questioned after about A WEEK. WTF?
He's a creationist.
>I'd love to see the "Atheist Party" candidate and what kind of wackjob they'd end up with. If I had my guess, most people who claim atheism end up voting for some big government (sky daddy substitute) politician like Obama.
What are the alternatives? Even Ron-let's-eat-children-Paul stands firmly behind banning abortions. On the state level, obviously. God forbid they are banned on the Federal level.
Dude. You're not getting it.
Santorum quite earned his sobriquet. It characterizes him quite well.
I've actually read it some time ago.
"Think about it for a second, cops draw their guns all the time. What for?"
No. YOU think about it.
Cops are actually trained NOT to draw guns except for:
1) Entering possibly dangerous area (like breaking in into a room where a potential assailant might be hiding)
2) Acting against a clear and present deadly threat.
Police is actually trained to use non-lethal measures first, because guns leave no room for escalation. See: http://www.acpo.police.uk/asp/policies/Data/firearms.pdf
"You, are a missinformed liar."
Nope. You are.
I've actually seen Obama before he become a president. In Ukraine (in 2006, AFAIR). As a member of nuclear non-proliferation commission.
What was Palin doing at that time?
Nope. All credible models predict warming. They mostly differ in details (i.e. the speed and local effects of warming).
US armed forces can easily erase ANY organized armed group from the face of the Earth. The problem is, insurgents are not an 'organized group'.
They are a diffuse network, and rooting them out in reality is more of a police work (i.e. building networks on informants, fighting weapon smuggling, etc.) than military work.
"otherwise he never would have gotten those wounds"
He could have slipped and fell on his head after pulling the trigger. There are lots of ways one can get a small bump on the head.
"So based on what seems to have happened, no, Martin would not be justified in shooting Zimmerman."
He certainly would be. After all, Zimmerman presented a clear danger.
"In addition, an eyewitness, 13-year-old Austin Brown, told police he saw a man fitting Zimmerman's description lying on the grass moaning and crying for help just seconds before he heard the gunshot that killed Martin."
Let me quote from (no less!) FoxNews: "Meanwhile, the mother of a 13-year-old who also witnessed the killing told the New York Daily News that when Sanford police interviewed her son eight days after the incident, they "pressured" him to give more detail than he recalled. The youngster, Austin Brown, had been referenced by police as having seen Martin on top of Zimmerman during the fight, but his mother, Cheryl, said he saw only one person lying on the grass and could not identify them."
So nope, no reliable eyewitnesses. You also might notice that it took 8 frigging days to do the initial questioning.
"Zimmerman was placed in the rear of my police vehicle and was given first aid by the SFD."
There are no visible bloodstains on his shirt or face. Also, no open scalp wounds (they bleed everywhere like crazy). So everything can be easily simulated.
"Do you think they stopped at just taking names after someone was shot?"
It was pretty much so until the public outrage lit a fire under DA's chair.
There are no witnesses who reliably tell that. The only potential eyewitness says: "While the witness said he was not able to see who was on top of the other as the two scuffled, he said "there wasn't a lot of movement" immediately before he heard a gunshot.". Oh, and the whole fight happened on the grass.
On: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/29/trayvon-martin-witness-casts-doubt-on-shooters-self-defense-claims/ - and that's from as a non-NBC source as it gets.
Besides, the police let him go BEFORE there were any eyewitness reports. So a dark alley without witnesses would do just fine.
Nobody knows if Martin even touched Zimmerman. He could have banged pavement with his head a couple of times to give himself a nice gash. He could have simply slipped after the shot. Again, no incontrovertible evidence at all points to the fact that conflict really took place.
It certainly doesn't look like he got a broken nose (they generally look like murder with blood everywhere).
However, for me the most shameful fact is the treatment of the incident by the police. Like the fact that the police department hasn't even try to identify Martin for 3 days while his parents were searching for him. And Zimmerman, of course, should have been charged and arrested. Then let the jurors to determine if he's guilty.
So, can we meet in a dark alley without witnesses? I'll shoot you, then I'll just lie on the ground and pound the pavement with my head a bit (to give a nice scenic gash).
I'll say that you've threatened me with, for example, murder and rape. Should work fine.
Oh, and Martin's girlfriend says something else. But that's fine, we can just ignore her.
Which is correct. If you draw a gun then USE it. If you don't intend to use it then don't draw it. It's that simple.
I was recently reading historic criminal codes and old Slavic code had a curious law - you had to pay a (pretty big) fine if you drew a sword in anger without striking. I'd really like to see something like this for concealed weapons.
So could Martin grab a gun and shoot Zimmerman? After all, Zimmerman was clearly a threat.
There are lots and lots of free textbooks. That has never been a problem.
The problem is to start actually using them.
"Efficiency of 90% for pumped hydro is irrelevant to its real cost as a complete ecological disaster. All forms of hydro power are terrible. "
Pumped hydro is often used in mountainous regions where its impact is close to zero. Certainly that's the way it is in Norway.
"Efficiency of stored heat is based on its insulation, and can exceed 99%."
Which is totally irrelevant. Thermodynamic efficiency is capped at about 30%, but even that is not the biggest problem.
You see, molten salt storage mandates the use of concentrated solar - a lot of mirrors focusing on the central tower. And that is expensive - each mirror has to be individually focused on the central tower, and that requires a fairly complex tracking system for each mirror. In comparison, PV plants can make do with simple fixed rows of solar panels.
"PV cells decay over time"
So do the mirrors, steam turbines, electric generators and so on. Maintenance costs of solar thermal plants are about 10 times more than solar-PV, even when factoring in the depreciation.
"for effective purposes solar thermal does not. PV cells only provide a cheaper alternative in the short term, and are only cheaper if they are not used to provide the power for the predictable daytime peak."
And molten storage can't realistically compete with nuclear or fossil fuels.
Efficiency of pumped hydro approaches 90%. And that's for the complete pump-and-dump cycle. And existing pumped storage in Norway actually already works for the intended purpose - to compensate peaky nature of renewables in Denmark.
"Right now, solar thermal is far less expensive than PV, especially when you consider the inefficiencies in converting electrical power to a store-able medium for use at night."
No it is not. Almost all of the new planned large thermal solar plants are switching to PV.
I know that NG is not renewable. It's still way better than molten salt storage, even given the CO2 footprint of natural gas.
And storing sunlight as heat is the most stupid thing (apart from batteries) you can do. It requires you:
1) To use solar-thermal powerplants which are going to become more expensive than photovoltaics.
2) You'll need HUGE reservoirs to store gigawatt-hours of energy.
3) Pumped hydro is actually the optimal choice if it's available.
And you might notice that I've never advocated chemical batteries for storage.
1) That's why I'm not advocating them. Natural-gas fueled turbines are the best solution for backup power generation (along with nukes for the baseline).
2) Yep, and that's why thermodynamic efficiency of molten salt plants is so bad.
1) No large molten salt storages exist in reality. The largest one can barely keep a small power plant running through the night.
2) Molten salt storage is ineffective. Remember, Q ~ dT/T and for molten salt dT is barely 200-300C.
3) Molten salt storage is way too expensive.