Oh, that explains why yesterday I was driving in snow in southern Utah, and wearing long underwear in SoCal, where normally this time of year I'd be thinking about breaking out the shorts.

That's a really good observation. Better to keep our ag going by any hook or crook necessary, than to let it die out and -- because once it's gone, it's gone forever. It's not possible to recover cropland from suburbia, nor is it likely that public grazing land sequestered out of ranchers' reach will ever be returned to the pool of usable acreage. (And those who think we should farm rather than ranch any such land have obviously never seen the American West.)

Somewhat in the same vein, I've speculated that a great deal of the anti-farmer water policies currently at issue in California are in fact not about water or fish or anything local at all, but rather are very likely being lobbied by food *importers*.

This has already been done once -- Prop2 (which outlawed modern egg production in CA) was fronted by HSUS, but the money came from egg producers in India, China, and the Phillipines. (I found some documentation on that, back when it was happening.)

Kill our ag industry and what will we eat? Imports, obviously. We're one of the few countries both large enough to be a markiet and rich enough to buy our food, at least for a while. But over time it's a great way to become a client state. :(

If more people would be open to studying the genetics, rather than thinking the genocidals have it in for them, perhaps we'd be further along toward understanding it. And pedigree analysis (and DNA analysis when available) prior to reproduction could minimize the numbers of severely affected children.

As someone pointed out with the example of sickle-cell anemia, it's not always desirable or prudent to entirely eliminate a given genetic defect, because it may be associated with desirable or necessary traits. But there may also be instances where it's a no-win for the offspring and therefore some individuals would be better not to breed, or at least not with other carriers. But that's not genocide, it's just prudence. And your offspring have a better chance to pass along your other genes if said offspring are also within the functional spectrum.

If he can't tolerate gluten, then he lacks an enzyme that handles it somewhere in the chain between consumption and excretion. Which means it's genetic. DNA to RNA to enzymes is a direct chain of biochemical events. Probably this lack of a specific enzyme leads to a buildup of some byproduct or derivative of gluten, which in turn, when it accumulates to excess, affects neurological function, and then you see symptoms.

Kinda like MDR1 in dogs (where with the defective gene, they lack an enzyme that normally breaks down one family of drugs, and instead of excreting them normally, they get a buildup that affects brain function).

So it's not so much a mystery, as that his particular variant of this genetic deficit may not be identified as yet. But more than likely it inherits as a single gene, either recessive or with partial penetrance (like MDR1).

I'm reminded that porphyria comes in several flavors, and the symptoms depend on exactly where in the chain the normal biochemical process is interrupted.

"...the effect of prohibition on the available margins in a given market."

Good way to put it.

And I was just reading about the more-than-expected $$millions that legal pot is bringing Colorado in taxes, and my response (tho I don't use) was, "Hurry up and legalize the damned stuff! We need the money!"

Egads. And meanwhile people wonder why cost per student has gone up while results per student are going down. Obviously "more teachers" wasn't the answer.

Well, at least one is offering some back catalog:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Link to site below article.

Unfortunately, they're both pricey for old stuff, and I didn't find anything I wanted. :(

"The point of making movies is to rake in huge profits and transferable tax credits while pretending to have lost money."

Bingo. And I wonder how many "Hollywood accounting" balance sheets would suddenly look very interesting to the IRS, were they to be reminded via suddenly large sales of streamed copies.

You can tell which folks here have actually built and run a business or not, eh?

This can have interesting side effects, too:

My sister is a partner in a big architectural firm. She and her husband are the last two people there who can still draw plans by hand. Everyone else only knows how to use CAD. When the power goes out, guess who are the only two people who can keep working (and this work is all billed by the hour, so you don't get paid for watching a dark monitor).

Imagine that on a larger scale. The modern Luddites (Amish and such) are preserving skills that few else now have, but would be critical in the event of widespread catastrophe.

Google's frog isn't that warm yet.

And right, I really would like to hear John Carmack's own thoughts about this (John, don't you have an account here? Show up and speak for yourself!) Tho I don't begrudge him a pile of cash; he's earned it.

No argument there. Not to mention how said weapon was used to hypocritically enrich themselves.

And like so much else, as Lord Lucless says above...
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No, it's because "Arrgh! We're all going to die!" sells more newspapers than "Nothing's happening here, folks".
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And a great many people who pride themselves on critical thinking have nonetheless become swept up in it. :(

Thanks for that link! Habanero is about my limit, but I had no idea where it fell on the scale. For me Tabasco is just mid-range warm.

The CA central valley regularly hits 110F degrees during the summer (and often exceeds that). Bakersfield has among the highest average daily summer temps of anywhere in the U.S. This doesn't seem to have stopped the whole south-central valley from being a, uh, hotbed for row crops.

What may happen, tho, is that with a longer frost-free season, some short-cycle crops become profitable to plant both in spring and fall, rather than only in early summer. (This is already done with onions and carrots in hot climates with a long growing season.)

Here's the logic I want 'em to explain: If the CO2 levels cause more clouds to form, then we have more clouds, which hold in heat. (Have any of these clouds appeared? if rising CO2 levels have that much effect, and if they've increased by the drastic factor claimed, where are the clouds?)

BUT -- these same increased clouds would also increase the planet's albedo and therefore prevent sunlight (which becomes heat) from reaching the lower atmosphere. And prior experience with other blockages of sunlight (eg. "the year without a summer") suggest that the result would quickly be dramatic cooling.

Okay, make up my mind... should I expect to freeze or boil??