Hurricane categorization is based on wind speeds. However, this does not give much indication of the extensiveness of the damage that may be caused by tidal surge, since it does not take into account the size of the storm. You make the mistake of equating wind speed with power of a storm, even though you correctly point out that forward movement and time of arrival relative to tidal influences are extremely important..
Hurricane Camille in 1969 made landfall in Pass Christian, MS with 220 mph sustained winds. I used this to conclude it was relatively safe to buy a piece of property there on the water, because it was high and dry during Camille. Big mistake, because of the size of Katrina, which had sustained wind speeds of 145 mph and made landfall a few miles to the west, I had 25 ft of water swamp my property and house. The size of the storm is far more important than the windspeed, although locally the devastation due solely to wind may be greater. Because water is virtually incompressible, what occurs far from the eye can contribute to the power of the storm.
The big problem is that global warming will increase the size of the storms, but not necessarily their wind velocity.
"all of those ideologies prevent peaceful coexistence and growth of economic wealth by denying individuals such rights as right to own and operate private property, which is the most fundamental and important right to achieve economic growth."
It is the mindless belief in "economic growth" that is the root of this problem. If people weren't trying to rush around to make all kinds of material stuff that leads to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and instead focus intellectual growth and a more equitable and less destructive distribution of the world's finite resources, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now. Ignoring this reality, only makes the problem worse.
" 'Future generations' is an abstract idea that completely worthless from our perspective, we will never meet them, we will never know if they even will exist or not and it is really not our problem what challenges they will face as time progresses"
Spoken by someone who is either childless or has no concern whatsoever for the welfare of his offspring.
Everyone should be on the lookout for more head fakes by the GOP trying to convince us all that they are something they are not with the hope that they can fool enough people into voting for them. This is a perfect example that emphasizes that GOP policy is determined by those at the top to trickle down to those at the bottom, who then follow along behind to parrot the talking points provided on Faux News. Since about half of the electoral has an IQ 100 and below, this strategy always has a good chance of winning. With the GOP it's not about the issues. It's about the marketing of what the 1% wants.
I think you may have answered your own question, when you realize that for many Americans, Canadians know more about American politics than do many Americans. The sad truth is that many Americans time and time again prove too stupid to know if they are being represented or not, which largely explains why politicians like Romney who will take every side of every issue and then insist that anyone who disagrees with them is simply being either unprincipled or lacking integrity. Politicians like Romney are laughing at the public all the way to the bank.
"This year Ryan and Biden are both reasonably capable and highly informed individuals."
Surely you jest. Look at Ryan's position on making all fetuses legal persons under the eyes of the law by insisting that "life begins at conception".
The reality is that fertilization occurs 99% of the time in the Fallopian tubes and it takes 3-9 days for the fertilized egg to descend into the uterus for implantation. In this process, which occurs roughly once a month for most women, over the course of a woman's lifetime about 30% of all fertilized eggs fail to implant on the endometrium and the women's body rejects them. What Ryan is advocating is essentially making it illegal is for most women to have periods, for should they do so and should they have conceived, about 1 out of 3 will be regarded as murderers during some stage of their reproductive life. The rate is even worse for those women who take birth control pills.
Unless one is prepared to argue that such serial murderers should be let off the hook instead of facing prosecution and perhaps execution for their crime, then one must be prepared to force women into government sanctioned clinics that will inspect their discharges for the presence of fertilized but rejected eggs to insure that no "criminals" escape detection. Clearly, such a law will be unenforceable.
Those 90,000 women, who every year are unfortunate enough to have an ectopic pregnancy will have to choose either dying for lack of an abortion or face execution for premeditated murder, since virtually no ectopic pregnancies occur without their being detected before the premature death of the fetus. And this is "reasonable"?
"And there's the unconstitutional aspects of the law."
Obviously, you haven't been paying attention. The Roberts court specifically found the law constitutional. That is all that is required besides the law being passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President to make it constitutional. What constitution were you studying in grade school?
Much more likely? Romney has already promised many campaign contributors he WILL go to war. He has appointed all the previous Bush neocons to his "defence" policy transition team.
Personally, I just couldn't look myself in the mirror if I voted for someone who literally stole people's pensions to make a fortune and who then stashed the loot in the Cayman Islands to shelter it from US taxes then have the kuzpah to run for president as the Mr. "Businessman" and savior of the poor 47%. There simply is no possibility that such a guy could possibly be honest enough to do anything other than turn the US into a banana republic. His recent quid pro quos to sell National Parks and US Forest land in exchange for campaign contributions only proves it.
The other guy may bumble from time to time, but at least he's far more honest and working on behalf of a larger share of the public.
Biden did a good job reminding everyone that the mess we are in now didn't exactly happen by accident. As he noted it happened precisely because guy's like Ryan voted to put two major wars, the largest tax cut in history and the largest increase to Medicare in history on the public credit card, while leaving Wall Street so unregulated that credit default swaps sold like hotcakes.
Weak minds seem to also have weak memories, yet for the GOP in 2012 it's all so convenient.
What I liked best about the Romney/Ryan plan was just how by magic it's going to solve all of our problems and all I will have to do is pay more for health care coverage so that I can enjoy watching Mitt and friends laugh all the way to the bank. It makes one wonder if the magic was so potent, why didn't Mitt run for a second term in Massachusetts? I guess a few new wars have to be added to the mix to make it all work out. Just like last time.
So it does make one wonder just how many will die should a guy like Romney who thinks global warming is a joke takes charge of the EPA and efforts to save the habitability of only planet most of us live on.
Modern polls take these things into consideration. It's not as if the statistical sciences and algorithmics haven't gotten so advanced that thousands of corporations, trading houses, banks don't use linear and dynamic programming to place billions of dollars of trades each day, in which people are actually "putting their money where their mouth is".
The results from Las Vegas aren't much different giving Obama a 70% chance of being reelected and that's before the dud of the republican convention and the highly successful democratic one. Gallup is already giving Obama about a 7% bounce, where as Romney's convention bounce was less than 1%, which is historically abysmal for a challenger, especially since democratic operatives are only now starting to hit Florida nursing homes in earnest.
Another problem for Romney is that the republican congress is running at a historic low of 8% approval. Gerrymandering and voter suppression may well save them, but it will still be close.
Romney will be lucky to get 30% of the hispanic vote this time around. Since hispanics are becoming more numerous faster than any other demographic and their participation rates are climbing, its going to be extremely hard for Romney to carry Colorado, especially after Romney dissed farmers and ranchers with his global warming is a joke remark.
The quote pretty much speaks for itself. He didn't mention the troops so one is forced to conclude he didn't feel the troops were all that important, or at least not as important as implying that global warming is a joke.
"waiting every 4 years to express your outrage at the system by voting for a zero-chance third party candidate for president is kinda retarded."
Not really, if you consider the fact that the winners of the nomination in one election often see their clout in the party go out the window in the next if they loose in the general.
For Ron Paul supporters voting for Johnson or just staying home makes a lot of sense, since they will be in a much stronger position in the 2014 and 2016 cycles to influence the candidates and nominee, since the establishment candidate Romney will have then been a loser and those backing him discredited. Struggles that build different coalitions don't really happen in a single election cycle anyway. It took the Reagan faction 2 full election cycles before they won. Successful politics is perfecting the art of stabbing others in the back. Just look where it got Romney today. He successfully released the background on Herman Cain's infidelities and was able through his Bain associations able to get his hands on Newts purchases at Tiffany's.
"Romney has been skyrocketing in terms of female popularity lately..."
Did you check out the responses of the ladies relative to the men on ladies issues of late? The gender gap has grown in each of the past couple of months since the Sandra Fluke/Limbaugh flare up. It doesn't look as if having Ann carry him around on her shoulders is doing much good with this demographic.
"You can't win with so much of the electorate unhappy with your policies."
Unless of course you live in a nursing home in Florida and begin to recognize that the Ryan/Romney plan will do away with that part of Medicaide that directly funds about 70% of all nursing home stays and you will soon be living on the street if it passes.
or
Unless of course you have a mortgage for which you will no longer be able to get a deduction or a college tuition credit or a deduction for dependent children, all of which will soon be gone under Ryan/Romney. No wonder Romney doesn't want to say, where his cuts will be made.
or
Unless of course you are have a student loan, which will see a 9-21% increase in interest rate almost immediately upon implementation of the Ryan/Romney plan.
or
Unless you are a public sector worker, who will see the probability that they will be laid off rise dramatically. Did you check the recent jobs number. Private sector jobs up 126,000; public sector jobs down 7,000 for August.
or
Unless you are on Medicare, which will immediately reinstate the doughnut hole for all seniors now receiving drug benefits.
Shhh. That's not something that the Romney-backed media conglomerates want anyone talking openly about, lest it spoil the horse-race angle to the election. However, it is interesting and remains to be seen if Murdoch wisely uses this as a bargaining chip in renegotiating Roger Ailes salary and tenure at Fox, which is up this next month. The prospect of an Obama win would seriously diminish the gloss of another multi-year contract for Ailes, especially with aspects of the Hacker scandal as yet to be adjudicated in US courts.
Slashdot Mirror
and the value of coverage.
Hurricane categorization is based on wind speeds. However, this does not give much indication of the extensiveness of the damage that may be caused by tidal surge, since it does not take into account the size of the storm. You make the mistake of equating wind speed with power of a storm, even though you correctly point out that forward movement and time of arrival relative to tidal influences are extremely important..
Hurricane Camille in 1969 made landfall in Pass Christian, MS with 220 mph sustained winds. I used this to conclude it was relatively safe to buy a piece of property there on the water, because it was high and dry during Camille. Big mistake, because of the size of Katrina, which had sustained wind speeds of 145 mph and made landfall a few miles to the west, I had 25 ft of water swamp my property and house. The size of the storm is far more important than the windspeed, although locally the devastation due solely to wind may be greater. Because water is virtually incompressible, what occurs far from the eye can contribute to the power of the storm.
The big problem is that global warming will increase the size of the storms, but not necessarily their wind velocity.
"all of those ideologies prevent peaceful coexistence and growth of economic wealth by denying individuals such rights as right to own and operate private property, which is the most fundamental and important right to achieve economic growth."
It is the mindless belief in "economic growth" that is the root of this problem. If people weren't trying to rush around to make all kinds of material stuff that leads to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and instead focus intellectual growth and a more equitable and less destructive distribution of the world's finite resources, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now. Ignoring this reality, only makes the problem worse.
" 'Future generations' is an abstract idea that completely worthless from our perspective, we will never meet them, we will never know if they even will exist or not and it is really not our problem what challenges they will face as time progresses"
Spoken by someone who is either childless or has no concern whatsoever for the welfare of his offspring.
Exactly, why would any one want to move to Texas and buy a home, when you can't be sure that in the near future, you will even have water?
Everyone should be on the lookout for more head fakes by the GOP trying to convince us all that they are something they are not with the hope that they can fool enough people into voting for them. This is a perfect example that emphasizes that GOP policy is determined by those at the top to trickle down to those at the bottom, who then follow along behind to parrot the talking points provided on Faux News. Since about half of the electoral has an IQ 100 and below, this strategy always has a good chance of winning. With the GOP it's not about the issues. It's about the marketing of what the 1% wants.
I think you may have answered your own question, when you realize that for many Americans, Canadians know more about American politics than do many Americans. The sad truth is that many Americans time and time again prove too stupid to know if they are being represented or not, which largely explains why politicians like Romney who will take every side of every issue and then insist that anyone who disagrees with them is simply being either unprincipled or lacking integrity. Politicians like Romney are laughing at the public all the way to the bank.
You got that right brother. We would even had had a surplus rather than the mess the GOP handed us and seems just as determined to perpetuate.
"This year Ryan and Biden are both reasonably capable and highly informed individuals."
Surely you jest. Look at Ryan's position on making all fetuses legal persons under the eyes of the law by insisting that "life begins at conception".
The reality is that fertilization occurs 99% of the time in the Fallopian tubes and it takes 3-9 days for the fertilized egg to descend into the uterus for implantation. In this process, which occurs roughly once a month for most women, over the course of a woman's lifetime about 30% of all fertilized eggs fail to implant on the endometrium and the women's body rejects them. What Ryan is advocating is essentially making it illegal is for most women to have periods, for should they do so and should they have conceived, about 1 out of 3 will be regarded as murderers during some stage of their reproductive life. The rate is even worse for those women who take birth control pills.
Unless one is prepared to argue that such serial murderers should be let off the hook instead of facing prosecution and perhaps execution for their crime, then one must be prepared to force women into government sanctioned clinics that will inspect their discharges for the presence of fertilized but rejected eggs to insure that no "criminals" escape detection. Clearly, such a law will be unenforceable.
Those 90,000 women, who every year are unfortunate enough to have an ectopic pregnancy will have to choose either dying for lack of an abortion or face execution for premeditated murder, since virtually no ectopic pregnancies occur without their being detected before the premature death of the fetus. And this is "reasonable"?
".... what could go wrong?"
Romney could be elected.
"And there's the unconstitutional aspects of the law."
Obviously, you haven't been paying attention. The Roberts court specifically found the law constitutional. That is all that is required besides the law being passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President to make it constitutional. What constitution were you studying in grade school?
Much more likely? Romney has already promised many campaign contributors he WILL go to war. He has appointed all the previous Bush neocons to his "defence" policy transition team.
"I can't really tell them apart".
Then, obviously you are not too discriminating.
Personally, I just couldn't look myself in the mirror if I voted for someone who literally stole people's pensions to make a fortune and who then stashed the loot in the Cayman Islands to shelter it from US taxes then have the kuzpah to run for president as the Mr. "Businessman" and savior of the poor 47%. There simply is no possibility that such a guy could possibly be honest enough to do anything other than turn the US into a banana republic. His recent quid pro quos to sell National Parks and US Forest land in exchange for campaign contributions only proves it.
The other guy may bumble from time to time, but at least he's far more honest and working on behalf of a larger share of the public.
Biden did a good job reminding everyone that the mess we are in now didn't exactly happen by accident. As he noted it happened precisely because guy's like Ryan voted to put two major wars, the largest tax cut in history and the largest increase to Medicare in history on the public credit card, while leaving Wall Street so unregulated that credit default swaps sold like hotcakes.
Weak minds seem to also have weak memories, yet for the GOP in 2012 it's all so convenient.
What I liked best about the Romney/Ryan plan was just how by magic it's going to solve all of our problems and all I will have to do is pay more for health care coverage so that I can enjoy watching Mitt and friends laugh all the way to the bank. It makes one wonder if the magic was so potent, why didn't Mitt run for a second term in Massachusetts? I guess a few new wars have to be added to the mix to make it all work out. Just like last time.
Lack of air conditioning?
So it does make one wonder just how many will die should a guy like Romney who thinks global warming is a joke takes charge of the EPA and efforts to save the habitability of only planet most of us live on.
Modern polls take these things into consideration. It's not as if the statistical sciences and algorithmics haven't gotten so advanced that thousands of corporations, trading houses, banks don't use linear and dynamic programming to place billions of dollars of trades each day, in which people are actually "putting their money where their mouth is".
The results from Las Vegas aren't much different giving Obama a 70% chance of being reelected and that's before the dud of the republican convention and the highly successful democratic one. Gallup is already giving Obama about a 7% bounce, where as Romney's convention bounce was less than 1%, which is historically abysmal for a challenger, especially since democratic operatives are only now starting to hit Florida nursing homes in earnest.
Another problem for Romney is that the republican congress is running at a historic low of 8% approval. Gerrymandering and voter suppression may well save them, but it will still be close.
Romney will be lucky to get 30% of the hispanic vote this time around. Since hispanics are becoming more numerous faster than any other demographic and their participation rates are climbing, its going to be extremely hard for Romney to carry Colorado, especially after Romney dissed farmers and ranchers with his global warming is a joke remark.
The reality is that George Soros actually spent $2,400 in 2004. BFD.
The quote pretty much speaks for itself. He didn't mention the troops so one is forced to conclude he didn't feel the troops were all that important, or at least not as important as implying that global warming is a joke.
I've heard the GOP has so much money they are paying them overtime, as much as $50/hr for the better ones.
If you haven't noticed, MItt Romney is definitely not Clinton.
"waiting every 4 years to express your outrage at the system by voting for a zero-chance third party candidate for president is kinda retarded."
Not really, if you consider the fact that the winners of the nomination in one election often see their clout in the party go out the window in the next if they loose in the general.
For Ron Paul supporters voting for Johnson or just staying home makes a lot of sense, since they will be in a much stronger position in the 2014 and 2016 cycles to influence the candidates and nominee, since the establishment candidate Romney will have then been a loser and those backing him discredited. Struggles that build different coalitions don't really happen in a single election cycle anyway. It took the Reagan faction 2 full election cycles before they won. Successful politics is perfecting the art of stabbing others in the back. Just look where it got Romney today. He successfully released the background on Herman Cain's infidelities and was able through his Bain associations able to get his hands on Newts purchases at Tiffany's.
"Romney has been skyrocketing in terms of female popularity lately..."
Did you check out the responses of the ladies relative to the men on ladies issues of late? The gender gap has grown in each of the past couple of months since the Sandra Fluke/Limbaugh flare up. It doesn't look as if having Ann carry him around on her shoulders is doing much good with this demographic.
"You can't win with so much of the electorate unhappy with your policies."
Unless of course you live in a nursing home in Florida and begin to recognize that the Ryan/Romney plan will do away with that part of Medicaide that directly funds about 70% of all nursing home stays and you will soon be living on the street if it passes.
or
Unless of course you have a mortgage for which you will no longer be able to get a deduction or a college tuition credit or a deduction for dependent children, all of which will soon be gone under Ryan/Romney. No wonder Romney doesn't want to say, where his cuts will be made.
or
Unless of course you are have a student loan, which will see a 9-21% increase in interest rate almost immediately upon implementation of the Ryan/Romney plan.
or
Unless you are a public sector worker, who will see the probability that they will be laid off rise dramatically. Did you check the recent jobs number. Private sector jobs up 126,000; public sector jobs down 7,000 for August.
or
Unless you are on Medicare, which will immediately reinstate the doughnut hole for all seniors now receiving drug benefits.
Shhh. That's not something that the Romney-backed media conglomerates want anyone talking openly about, lest it spoil the horse-race angle to the election. However, it is interesting and remains to be seen if Murdoch wisely uses this as a bargaining chip in renegotiating Roger Ailes salary and tenure at Fox, which is up this next month. The prospect of an Obama win would seriously diminish the gloss of another multi-year contract for Ailes, especially with aspects of the Hacker scandal as yet to be adjudicated in US courts.
Obviously, the guy doesn't know much about probability theory or Bayesian analysis.