Don't throw Krokodil in there like it is anything but a lurid side show. Yes, people will do stupid / illegal things. Tax evasion being one of them. But all of those untaxed cigarettes - they're real cigarettes. All of those bath salts - they're kitchen chemistry (like Krokodil which is basically and IV form of gasoline).
Don't make the mistake of thinking ANYTHING you do needs to be remotely perfect. Speeding laws aren't perfect. Taxes certainly aren't. But we can do significantly better for a wide swath of society by essentially legalizing anything. We're going to have problems, but hell, we have them now. I'd rather treat someone for addiction than treat someone for addiction who has a felony conviction for drug use. That poor sod already has three strikes against them.
Mental health issues and legal issues are tough. Quite a fraction of the long term incarcerated have serious psychiatric problems and for those people, locking them away from the rest of society is arguably the best we can do. For drug use, not so much.
Anyway, no, heroin does not "kill more and more until they reach a critical level and die". The AC you replied to has it more correct. MOST (not all) heroin ODs are from new batches or some other mistake. Or mixing heroin with alcohol and / or other drugs.
Which brings me to my real point. If you think that heroin is dangerous (and it is), what's your thinking on alcohol? Or tobacco? The societal costs of either drug dwarf the societal costs of ALL illegal drugs, sans law enforcement costs put together. If you plan to be logically consistent (never a strong point with humans), then we should outlaw alcohol (again) and tobacco (goodluckwiththat).
Yes, there are medical costs associated with drug use, those problems should be left to the medical community, not the legal one. We're not perfect, but our track record is considerably better. You are never going to have a society free of drug use and other behaviors that are demonstrably bad for the individual. Where the US screws up big time is believing that the legal process is the way to redress those issues. We've demonstrably shown that the "War on Drugs" doesn't work.
Time to do the American thing and re invent ourselves and switch gears. The rather interesting thing is that Colorado and Washington have waded into that vast abyss and are trying to figure out how to make an illegal drug legal. This will inevitably be (somewhat) successful and can point to the way to legalize other drugs, although not likely any time soon. Our underlying Calvinist / Puritan mythology will hang on for a while longer, I'm afraid.
Look at those cancer survival statistics - the US improvement is months, not years and it's NOT 'Quality Adjusted'. It's just that we can string out people longer than you can. Wonderful.
Obamacare doesn't do a single thing to help people who can't feed themselves. Only people who make BETWEEN 100% and 400% of the poverty level get subsidies from obamacare. If you live in poverty you don't get any benefit.
Idiot. If you're below the poverty line you are very likely eligible for Medicaid / Medical / whateverthehelldumbnametheycallit in your state.
NASA isn't a hybrid entity. It's a government entity. Made of lots of little bitty pieces from anybody who has some extra money. It will hopefully not come as a surprise to you that the US military has a lot of money. Massive non metric shit tons of money. And physics being what it is, the same complicated pointy things that launch warheads are also capable of launching satellites.
And speaking of satellites, a Hubble is a backwards, slightly deprecated Keyhole sat in a funny orbit.
So they fact that they work together, build things that look similar and even share the same (expensive, one off) facilities shouldn't really be a surprise. Would you want it any other way?
Except that there is a barrier of several hundred feet between the shales and the water table. Fracking doesn't make huge cracks thousands of feet in length. Contamination, when it occurs, happens when the well bore is screwed up.
But they have increased capacity in a number of them. Remember, the US total use of oil is flattening out. We've got the refineries we need at present.
The exact mixtures are 'secrets'. The basic ingredients are well known. All you have to do is grab a sample of fracking fluid from the waste truck and run it over to the lab.
The 'secret' secret is just a smoke screen to make it harder to regulate.
Because we keep our fingers in the pie. If we let the Chinese take over succoring the Saudis, they get to play the Golden Rule. Remember, it's not just money - US military power is a very considerable influence in the Middle East. At present, we are propping up the Royal Saudi government because they're less insane than some of the other regional powers. The Chinese at present do not have the ability to project military force to any great extent - come back in a couple of decades and the situation may be different but for now they're entirely outclassed by the US.
We also have to keep Israel around and intact. While you can argue whether or not that's moral, sensible or feasible, the politics in the US will absolutely not allow abandonment of Israel. China isn't likely to care all that much. Europe isn't even a player here.
The situation is by no means stable. Saudi Arabia is slowly running out of exportable oil. Maybe 30 -50 years left. They've pretty much discovered all of the hydrocarbon deposits at present and really only have the option of trying squeeze more out of the fields (which makes output collapse faster) and making a concerted effort to use all of the natural gas that they waste. It's clear they've been lying through their teeth about their reserves (they haven't changed in 20 years despite cranking up the production... hmmm, magic abiotic oil fairies somewhere?). Most of the current Royal Family is about to kick the bucket and there are hundreds of princelets running around confusing succession. They have a burgeoning population of young people without much to do who are very much attracted to the public dole. Their women are restless. They're running out of water. As a country they are remarkably inept at creating technological solutions to problems - typically it's all done by Western countries.
And then you have the bat shit crazies running the other countries.
Also remember that the shale gas/oil is very deep (~3km), while ground water that can be consumed by humans is shallow (~300m). Any water reservoir that can be contaminated by oil/gas moving through the induced fractures will have a very high salt content. Very high as in "at least ten times more saline than sea water", or "brine". Any water that could conceivably be contaminated by fracking is unsafe for consumption anyway.
The bigger problem in fracking is not introduction of contaminants from the fracturing of the rock. As you point out, that happens a depths very different from most aquifers. The problem comes from bad cementing of the bores and leakage from the well itself. It's a technical issue, it can be identified and dealt with. It need not happen. It just requires people to behave in a professional and competent manner at all times.
The amount of proven reserves in oil shale (tight oil, NOT shale oil which is just low grade kerogen, a step up from peat moss) are limited. Planetwide use of "oil" is about 85 E6 barrels per day. You get into trouble with definitions - do you include condensate from natural gas wells or not, but we're going to do an order of magnitude calculation here, so don't get too picky. So, about 3 E10 barrels / year - that's a shitload of fossilized plant poo.
So, even if you take the cornicopian approach of quite a bit of tight oil available world wide (30 billion [3 E 10], you only get a year's worth out of it. Of course, there are other forms of oil - conventional oil from the big, classic fields in the Middle East and Alaska, oil sands, and others, but you begin to see that all of that tight oil doesn't kick the can much further down the road.
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Whatcouldpossiblygowrong?
If you want to have a long pointless argument about spelling or grammar, you want to post on Slashdot.
Don't throw Krokodil in there like it is anything but a lurid side show. Yes, people will do stupid / illegal things. Tax evasion being one of them. But all of those untaxed cigarettes - they're real cigarettes. All of those bath salts - they're kitchen chemistry (like Krokodil which is basically and IV form of gasoline).
Don't make the mistake of thinking ANYTHING you do needs to be remotely perfect. Speeding laws aren't perfect. Taxes certainly aren't. But we can do significantly better for a wide swath of society by essentially legalizing anything. We're going to have problems, but hell, we have them now. I'd rather treat someone for addiction than treat someone for addiction who has a felony conviction for drug use. That poor sod already has three strikes against them.
Mental health issues and legal issues are tough. Quite a fraction of the long term incarcerated have serious psychiatric problems and for those people, locking them away from the rest of society is arguably the best we can do. For drug use, not so much.
Heroin, not heroine ...
Anyway, no, heroin does not "kill more and more until they reach a critical level and die". The AC you replied to has it more correct. MOST (not all) heroin ODs are from new batches or some other mistake. Or mixing heroin with alcohol and / or other drugs.
Which brings me to my real point. If you think that heroin is dangerous (and it is), what's your thinking on alcohol? Or tobacco? The societal costs of either drug dwarf the societal costs of ALL illegal drugs, sans law enforcement costs put together. If you plan to be logically consistent (never a strong point with humans), then we should outlaw alcohol (again) and tobacco (goodluckwiththat).
Yes, there are medical costs associated with drug use, those problems should be left to the medical community, not the legal one. We're not perfect, but our track record is considerably better. You are never going to have a society free of drug use and other behaviors that are demonstrably bad for the individual. Where the US screws up big time is believing that the legal process is the way to redress those issues. We've demonstrably shown that the "War on Drugs" doesn't work.
Time to do the American thing and re invent ourselves and switch gears. The rather interesting thing is that Colorado and Washington have waded into that vast abyss and are trying to figure out how to make an illegal drug legal. This will inevitably be (somewhat) successful and can point to the way to legalize other drugs, although not likely any time soon. Our underlying Calvinist / Puritan mythology will hang on for a while longer, I'm afraid.
Yeah, the last mile is always the biggest problem.
If you can't memorize "Hi" and your call sign, use a computer keyer. Bonus points if you have to build it in the three hours before the test.
Get your inner McGuyver going.
The reason they need all hands on deck is to rearrange the chairs.
It's in Utah.
I thought it was Facebook that was upset.
I understand that kicking the can down the road is an easy thing to suggest. After all, it's much easier than actually trying to fix the problem.
But sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel really is the other train.
Look at those cancer survival statistics - the US improvement is months, not years and it's NOT 'Quality Adjusted'. It's just that we can string out people longer than you can. Wonderful.
Well, it's important to be best at something.
Bedtime for Bonzo,
Lotus Notes is what all the kool kids are using these days.
Obamacare doesn't do a single thing to help people who can't feed themselves. Only people who make BETWEEN 100% and 400% of the poverty level get subsidies from obamacare. If you live in poverty you don't get any benefit.
Idiot. If you're below the poverty line you are very likely eligible for Medicaid / Medical / whateverthehelldumbnametheycallit in your state.
You already have better coverage than most.
NASA isn't a hybrid entity. It's a government entity. Made of lots of little bitty pieces from anybody who has some extra money. It will hopefully not come as a surprise to you that the US military has a lot of money. Massive non metric shit tons of money. And physics being what it is, the same complicated pointy things that launch warheads are also capable of launching satellites.
And speaking of satellites, a Hubble is a backwards, slightly deprecated Keyhole sat in a funny orbit.
So they fact that they work together, build things that look similar and even share the same (expensive, one off) facilities shouldn't really be a surprise. Would you want it any other way?
Refocus on some vague next gen thing.
Where have we seen this movie before?
Nothing to see here, move along.
Yep, all you need is a 5 billion dollar fusion reactor to make a couple of bucks of helium.
A classic example of the Stockholm syndrome.
Switching from Lotus Notes to anything else (including Notepad) is likely going to be an improvement.
Sanity, functionality and Lotus Notes are not terms that belong in the same sentence.
Except that there is a barrier of several hundred feet between the shales and the water table. Fracking doesn't make huge cracks thousands of feet in length. Contamination, when it occurs, happens when the well bore is screwed up.
But they have increased capacity in a number of them. Remember, the US total use of oil is flattening out. We've got the refineries we need at present.
The exact mixtures are 'secrets'. The basic ingredients are well known. All you have to do is grab a sample of fracking fluid from the waste truck and run it over to the lab.
The 'secret' secret is just a smoke screen to make it harder to regulate.
Because we keep our fingers in the pie. If we let the Chinese take over succoring the Saudis, they get to play the Golden Rule. Remember, it's not just money - US military power is a very considerable influence in the Middle East. At present, we are propping up the Royal Saudi government because they're less insane than some of the other regional powers. The Chinese at present do not have the ability to project military force to any great extent - come back in a couple of decades and the situation may be different but for now they're entirely outclassed by the US.
We also have to keep Israel around and intact. While you can argue whether or not that's moral, sensible or feasible, the politics in the US will absolutely not allow abandonment of Israel. China isn't likely to care all that much. Europe isn't even a player here.
The situation is by no means stable. Saudi Arabia is slowly running out of exportable oil. Maybe 30 -50 years left. They've pretty much discovered all of the hydrocarbon deposits at present and really only have the option of trying squeeze more out of the fields (which makes output collapse faster) and making a concerted effort to use all of the natural gas that they waste. It's clear they've been lying through their teeth about their reserves (they haven't changed in 20 years despite cranking up the production ... hmmm, magic abiotic oil fairies somewhere?). Most of the current Royal Family is about to kick the bucket and there are hundreds of princelets running around confusing succession. They have a burgeoning population of young people without much to do who are very much attracted to the public dole. Their women are restless. They're running out of water. As a country they are remarkably inept at creating technological solutions to problems - typically it's all done by Western countries.
And then you have the bat shit crazies running the other countries.
We're doomed.
Also remember that the shale gas/oil is very deep (~3km), while ground water that can be consumed by humans is shallow (~300m). Any water reservoir that can be contaminated by oil/gas moving through the induced fractures will have a very high salt content. Very high as in "at least ten times more saline than sea water", or "brine". Any water that could conceivably be contaminated by fracking is unsafe for consumption anyway.
The bigger problem in fracking is not introduction of contaminants from the fracturing of the rock. As you point out, that happens a depths very different from most aquifers. The problem comes from bad cementing of the bores and leakage from the well itself. It's a technical issue, it can be identified and dealt with. It need not happen. It just requires people to behave in a professional and competent manner at all times.
Oopsie.
The amount of proven reserves in oil shale (tight oil, NOT shale oil which is just low grade kerogen, a step up from peat moss) are limited. Planetwide use of "oil" is about 85 E6 barrels per day. You get into trouble with definitions - do you include condensate from natural gas wells or not, but we're going to do an order of magnitude calculation here, so don't get too picky. So, about 3 E10 barrels / year - that's a shitload of fossilized plant poo.
So, even if you take the cornicopian approach of quite a bit of tight oil available world wide (30 billion [3 E 10], you only get a year's worth out of it. Of course, there are other forms of oil - conventional oil from the big, classic fields in the Middle East and Alaska, oil sands, and others, but you begin to see that all of that tight oil doesn't kick the can much further down the road.
We're doomed.