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Earth

Living On a Carbon Budget: The End of Recreation As We Know It? 652

Posted by samzenpus from the cutting-down dept.
Lasrick writes Dawn Stover looks at unrealistic expectations and the distribution of limited energy resources: 'This is a question that should move from the fringes of the energy debate to its very heart. Economists and energy experts shy away from issues of equity and morality, but climate change and environmental justice are inseparable: It's impossible to talk intelligently about climate without discussing how to distribute limited energy resources. It's highly unlikely that the world can safely produce almost five times as much electricity by 2035 as it does now—which is what it would take to provide everyone with a circa-2010 American standard of living, according to a calculation by University of Colorado environmental studies professor Roger Pielke Jr. The sooner policy makers accept this reality, the sooner they can get to work on a global solution that meets everyone's needs. First, though, they need to understand the difference between needs and wants.' Not something most people even think about.
Space

Are the World's Religions Ready For ET? 534

Posted by Soulskill from the Alf-as-messiah dept.
Science_afficionado writes: At the current rate of discovery, astronomers will have identified more than a million exoplanets by the year 2045. That means, if life is at all common in the Milky Way, astronomers could soon detect it. Realization that the nature of the debate about life on other worlds is about to fundamentally change, lead Vanderbilt astronomer David Weintraub to begin thinking seriously about how people will react to such a discovery. He realized that people's reactions will be heavily influenced by their religious beliefs, so he decided to find out what theologians and leaders from the world's major religions have to say about the matter. The result is a book titled Religions and Extraterrestrial Life, published by Springer this month. He discovered that from Baptists to Buddhists, from Catholics to Mormons, from Islam to the Anglican Communion, religious views on alien life differ widely.
Power

Energy Utilities Trying To Stifle Growth of Solar Power 488

Posted by Soulskill from the fortunate-sun dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Incremental improvements have been slowly but surely pushing solar power toward mainstream viability for a few decades now. It's getting to the point where the established utilities are worried about the financial hit they're likely to take — and they're working to prevent it. "These solar households are now buying less and less electricity, but the utilities still have to manage the costs of connecting them to the grid. Indeed, a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory argues that this trend could put utilities in dire financial straits. If rooftop solar were to grab 10 percent of the market over the next decade, utility earnings could decline as much as 41 percent." The utilities are throwing their weight behind political groups seeking to end subsidies for solar and make "net metering" policies go away. Studies suggest that if solar adoption continues growing at its current rate, incumbents will be forced to raise their prices, which will only persuade more people to switch to solar (PDF).
Transportation

State of Iowa Tells Tesla To Cancel Its Scheduled Test Drives 335

Posted by Soulskill from the because-reasons-and-whatnot dept.
puddingebola writes: Conflict continues between state governments and Tesla. From the article: "Iowa joined a growing list of states tussling with Tesla Motors' business model when it told the company to cut short three days of test drives earlier this month in West Des Moines. The Iowa Department of Transportation said the test drives were illegal for two reasons: Tesla isn't licensed as an auto dealer in Iowa and state law prohibits carmakers from selling directly to the public." While the article touches on the legal restrictions on selling cars in Iowa, it seems that Tesla was only providing test drives.

Comment Re:Score one for the other team (Score 1) 173

by meglon (#47999327) Attached to: Solar System's Water Is Older Than the Sun
There is no meaningful argument that will alter the completely, stupidly, fucked in the head position you've taken. We get it.. you're delusional, and don't have even a passing acquaintance with reality, but we're too tired of other fucked in the head people like you blathering on about the same stupid fucking shit while derailing every fucking thread.

The meaningful argument is: you're delusional, and there has never, ever, been a single shred of evidence, EVER, for the existence of a god or many gods. Until you pony up some of that, then you're specific "god" is of no more use or importance than someone elses' "god" even if it happens to be a 6 foot tall invisible rabbit who created the universe through farting.

Play your word games as much s you want... you still don't sound like anything other than "delusional."
Education

How Our Botched Understanding of "Science" Ruins Everything 795

Posted by samzenpus from the you-keep-using-that-word-I-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry writes at The Week, "If you ask most people what science is, they will give you an answer that looks a lot like Aristotelian 'science' — i.e., the exact opposite of what modern science actually is. Capital-S Science is the pursuit of capital-T Truth. And science is something that cannot possibly be understood by mere mortals. It delivers wonders. It has high priests. It has an ideology that must be obeyed. This leads us astray. ... Countless academic disciplines have been wrecked by professors' urges to look 'more scientific' by, like a cargo cult, adopting the externals of Baconian science (math, impenetrable jargon, peer-reviewed journals) without the substance and hoping it will produce better knowledge. ... This is how you get people asserting that 'science' commands this or that public policy decision, even though with very few exceptions, almost none of the policy options we as a polity have have been tested through experiment (or can be). People think that a study that uses statistical wizardry to show correlations between two things is 'scientific' because it uses high school math and was done by someone in a university building, except that, correctly speaking, it is not. ... This is how you get the phenomenon ... thinking science has made God irrelevant, even though, by definition, religion concerns the ultimate causes of things and, again, by definition, science cannot tell you about them. ... It also means that for all our bleating about 'science' we live in an astonishingly unscientific and anti-scientific society. We have plenty of anti-science people, but most of our 'pro-science' people are really pro-magic (and therefore anti-science). "

Comment Re:Not surprising (Score 0) 392

Perhaps you should be looking in the mirror as you recite your post. The only people that can't see Issa is a full of shit partisan hack are the radically indoctrinated republicans who don't give a fuck about this country, just themselves.... everyone else see's his idiocy for what it is. The ONLY thing Issa has done is attempt to create scandals, just like Ggggnewt and his dickless wonders tried to do with Clinton. The downside (for republicans) is, Issa's so fucking stupid they keep blowing up in his face. Doesn't matter to the tried-and-true mental cases of the teabagger conspiracy base, but they're all fucked in the head anyway.

Comment Re:Not surprising (Score -1, Flamebait) 392

Actually you missed option #3: Just another bullshit partisan fuckwad who'd rather score political points for the GOP rather than do his fucking job.

Seriously, when you see people badmouth conservatives and the GOP... people like you are the reason. Whiny little asshats who can't govern, but throw tantrums like toddlers with the best of them. Issa is nothing more than a political twat. He doesn't give a flying fuck about this country, he just wants to be in power.... and fucking idiots elect him because he has an (R) behind his name, not because he's a good representative or even a decent person.

You can play your stupid fucking word games, and twist your spin however you want... but anyone with even a single brain cell left can see Issa and his bullshit are ONLY about politics.

Comment Not surprising (Score 0, Troll) 392

by meglon (#47956139) Attached to: Emails Cast Unflattering Light On Internal Politics of Healthcare.gov Rollout
Not surprising at all. Darrell Issa has attempted to turn everything into some huge scandalous coverup purely for political gain. He's abused his office repeatedly by pushing investigations to discredit the administration, including leaking partial and misleading emails and reports along the way that he spins to show his partisan abuse is somehow legitimate, yet every time, with minimal investigation, he's shown to be taking things out of context and is intentionally trying to deceive the public. This is simply more of the same... a partisan hack attack using (and abusing) his office.

No one is surprised by this blatant abuse continues, yet those mental midgets who bought into all the rest of his lies and fake scandals will continue to. It's politics, and he's playing to his base.... nothing more than propaganda.
Democrats

Emails Cast Unflattering Light On Internal Politics of Healthcare.gov Rollout 392

Posted by timothy from the wanna-be-absolutely-clear dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this report from The Verge linking to and excerpting from a newly released report created for a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, including portions of eight "damning emails" that offer an unflattering look at the rollout of the Obamacare website. The Government Office of Accountability released a report earlier this week detailing the security flaws in the site, but a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released yesterday is even more damning. Titled, "Behind the Curtain of the HealthCare.gov Rollout," the report fingers the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversaw the development of the site, and its parent Department of Health and Human Services. "Officials at CMS and HHS refused to admit to the public that the website was not on track to launch without significant functionality problems and substantial security risks," the report says. "There is also evidence that the Administration, to this day, is continuing its efforts to shield ongoing problems with the website from public view." Writes the submitter: "The evidence includes emails that show Obamacare officials more interested in keeping their problems from leaking to the press than working to fix them. This is both both a coverup and incompetence."

Comment Re:Hmm... (Score 1) 474

by Mister Transistor (#47954005) Attached to: Scotland Votes No To Independence

HONEST Illegal wars, mass surveillance and destruction of the world economy? Come on. Have another hit, and actually think about what you are saying while holding it. Both are unacceptable.

Don't worry, your brand of incompetent boobs will be back in power someday (not like there's any real difference anyway), so until then, relax your sphincter and give it a rest.

Comment Re:Hmm... (Score 2) 474

by Mister Transistor (#47946757) Attached to: Scotland Votes No To Independence

I didn't say that. Frankly I am very dismayed at many of Obama's failings, including carrying over or not stopping many of the regular things they do to rape the constitution in the name of security. However, I think any GOP candidates would have continued things exactly the same, only without the promises to change. I think we'd do well to push them all over a cliff and start over.

But all that doesn't absolve criminal gang A from having started most of this bullshit, and having gone above and beyond the call toward making it "acceptable" (possible) for later administrations to continue the activities.

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