Comment Re: our Universe shouldn't exist. (Score 1) 188
Don't be too hard on Hume.
Don't be too hard on Hume.
I heard about a guy who went through multiple marriages and divorces, did multiple stints in prison, and eventually got some political offices.
I'm naturally talking about Nelson Mandela.
Even if the facts are true and presented impartially the selection of which facts to present or emphasize can give an inaccurate total picture.
I don't know enough about libel law or the guy in question to know if the case is legit, but you seem to have already formed an opinion of him as a scam artist based on the Wikipedia article which may not be a reliable source.
I'm really curious if this guy is a legitimate businessman with a valid suit or some shady character trying to whitewash his reputation.
*goes to check his bio on Wikipedia*
Whoa! That guy looks pretty shady! The lawsuit must be a scam!!
We we had a similar plant in Ontario, it was shut down because of the air pollution. It is still the biggest, by far, smokestack in the city. Burning garbage does not make it disappear, and people would rather the garbage be put somewhere they do not see it, instead of blown into their faces.
I'm not sure if it will smoke since according to the article the stuff won't actually "burn"'
There, it will be heated in a low-oxygen atmosphere. This will cause its chemical bonds to break (without the material actually burning), releasing their carbon and hydrogen content to form what's known as syngas. This will in turn be cleaned up and converted into chemical products and biofuels – such as methanol and ethanol.
Either way if the emitted chemicals are what you're looking for you're not just going to dump them out a smokestack.
The province is conservative but Edmonton is fairly liberal (as are most cities). I actually took a tour of the waste treatment plant a few years ago and it was pretty impressive (and smelly). Back then they were talking about grinding up the non-recyclable/compostable bits and using them for asphalt filling as a way to get over 90% non-landfilled, I'm not sure if this is any of the same material they're talking about here, I don't think I'd want my highways degrading.
I predict within 24 months this plant will be shut down. Write it down. This is just more bullshit left wing crap that someone somehow got funded. Many people will lose their jobs and some may lose their retirement savings. Why Canada is fucking around with this when they enormous reserves of tar sands and other conventional fuels is beyond me. Huge fuck up.
On the contrary although this plant is new they've been doing stuff like this for years, and it makes economic sense.
The problem with garbage is you have to put it somewhere. Landfills fill up quickly and use up otherwise useful land, and the further you ship it the more expensive and polluting it is to transport. The waste reclamation centre drastically reduces the amount you need to dispose of.
Eco-stations claim a lot of the electronic waste, the company that gets the material actually turns a profit on breaking them down.
Compostables get turned into topsoil, traditional recyclables get pulled out and turned into economically useful items, etc.
If your city thinks shipping wealth away burying it with all the resulting externalities is a better alternative then they can keep with their current setup. I prefer the Edmontonian model.
We also treat our sewage rather than dumping in raw into the ocean like some coastal cities.
Great news if you want to live in the holocene.
Not so good of news if you think a significant environmental change in the middle of a mass extinction is a bad idea.
Indeed you are very correct, this government is become a dictatorship, abetted by a feckless Congress. It matters not whether you're lib/con or dem/repub, this is dangerous when the next changeover of power occurs, and it will occur. What the President has loosed now will be used against his party in the future.
Too bad my mod points are all gone now, you deserve +3.
So what is the appropriate role for Obama in this? It seems odd that he would be expected to act as a passive administrator when he was elected with a policy based mandate to a much greater degree than congress.
How is the government refusing to enforce a restriction on free speech rights (which is what a trademark is) an infringement on free speech rights? 'splain, please.
I propose a new bill.
Doesn't Infringe the First Amendment Copyright Act: Whereby the government will only grant copyright to works of art that endorse the ruling party.
Still think it's not a free speech issue?
I really hate this kind of crap. If it's alright for one group of people to use a term, but not another it's racist. Either the term is offensive, or it isn't. There's no modifier because of the color of your skin, your ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. And what ever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me"? We've turned into a society of whiny little bitches. Oh damn, someone is going to accuse me of being discriminatory toward female canines and claim that I kill puppies.(/sarcasm)
Until I hit this paragraph I actually thought you were actually going in a completely different direction.
The thing you're missing is words have context.
If I call a good friend moron it's a term of endearment, we both understand I'm not actually calling him dumb, if I call a stranger moron I'm potentially starting a fight.
Alec Baldwin calling someone a cocksucking fag as an insult is homophobic. Buddy Cole using fag is not homophobic. We call fag homophobic because it's most commonly used in a homophobic context, but that's not always true.
The context of the Redskins is the term was denigrating when it was chosen as the name, the team was notably against black integration, Native American discrimination is still rampant, and the name and logo conjure a stereotype of a native warrior. Not everyone will find it racist but some obviously will. Would the Washington Poles be racist? Probably not. Would the Washington Jews? Maybe. Would the Washington Bankers with a Jewish mascot? Definitely.
The recycling of the hardware isn't a question in my mind. Of course they recycle hardware...
No email archiving? really? Of an IRS director?
All of her emails were really stored in a local PST file, with no backup what-so-ever?
And after that hard drive failed, with no backup, you then destroyed the drive?
Now that is a series of coincidental incompetence that I just cannot accept.
It's fathomable yes, but the Republicans certainly have the right to turn this into a full on circus.
It's deserving of an investigation but it's too early to jump to conclusions.
How widespread were these poor data retention practices? Is this something that affected only Lerner and the other investigated officials, or is it part of a wider problem in the IRS of managing email records.
Nothing Bush ever did was this obviously corrupt and he was up to all sorts of evil.
I always thought of Obama as similar to Jimmy Carter. I disagree with his policies, he's failing miserably, but his hearts in the right place.
Now I see him as more of a Nixon.
There's no evidence that Obama has actually done anything. Even assuming Lois Lerner is guilty she was in that position since '06 and there's no evidence it went above her.
Surely you can see the difference between a president caught on tape in a criminal conspiracy and an IRS manager whom may not be guilty of anything more than incompetence.
Frankly if most of your driving is highway I don't see the point, my $17,000 non-hybrid Honda Civic is competitive with the Prius when it comes to highway driving.... I can milk 43-44mpg out of my Civic without trying that hard, and that's despite living in a hilly region.
I think that's an important point. The hybrids aren't peaking because people aren't interested in fuel efficient vehicles. They're peaking because there's so many fuel efficient vehicles available.
Real Programs don't use shared text. Otherwise, how can they use functions for scratch space after they are finished calling them?