Comment Re:Wait (Score 1) 395
I'm skeptical about the idea that those who bike to work eat substantially more (or even statistically more) than those who drive. Do you have any actual evidence or studies that back this up?
I'm skeptical about the idea that those who bike to work eat substantially more (or even statistically more) than those who drive. Do you have any actual evidence or studies that back this up?
Also, planes can't compete when there's a good high-speed rail, because of their logistical complications. Airports are usually far from town and require their own train to get to. Nobody takes a plane instead of Eurostar. While Southwest will survive on its many other routes, their SFO to LAX route is doomed.
I thought that was the point of airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet (and for that matter, many other short-haul airliner routes in Europe)?
While I can't dispute the smug factor, is it your hypothesis that bicyclists eat more meat than car drivers?
Hell, I was in the National Gallery a while back and it had a famous exhibit of a sculpted goat being penetrated by a man. Just there, in the museum. There was a warning sign that that gallery contains such works, but that was about it. Kids were roaming freely through it and past it and looking at it. No parent did anything more than "Yes, it's very funny, keep moving" and a sly smile between them all.
I'm mostly surprised that goats were roaming freely through the exhibit.
Hey, this is off-topic, but I've been interested in the topic of color blindness recently, after figuring out that my son is color blind. He has not been officially diagnosed as colorblind (and he is only 4), but he has a lot of trouble with certain shades or blends, and the Ishihara plate graphics that we tried online seemed pretty definitive as well.
I'm just curious about your experience. My son seems to have NO trouble with red and green most of the time (which I didn't expect), but rather colors like purples, oranges, even yellow.
Another person I've spoken with said something like "I can figure out green...and I can figure out red...but don't ask me to find a red bird in a green tree!"
I'm just curious if these impressions match your experiences at all?
Thanks for your insights!
Ah, I see I got the infamous "-1 disagree" moderation. I thought my post cited enough outside sources (Slate, for goodness sake!) that I'd be immune. Ah well.
in other words, the lives of thousands of funny looking furiners are inconsequential when balanced against the greed of you and your corporate friends. The fact that you have the nerve to show your face among decent human being with that attitude is insulting.
No, you're changing the topic of conversation. I did not say that our presence is the Middle East was good for the MIddle East--it of course has been terrifically destructive. I did not say that is morally right--it's morally reprehensible. I said that American interests have not been hurt. Given that President Obama has continued--and intensified--many of the worst abuses of American supremacy (most notably drone killings), the only conclusion a rational observer can arrive at is that Republicans and Democrats have the same end goals--destabilize the Middle East. Our alleged enemies do have their hands full in what's rapidly becoming a full-blown Sunni-Shia crapfest. Please don't put words in my mouth or play Internet couch psychiatrist. It rarely comes across well.
Wow, I was honestly hoping for better! Of everything you can pick from the Bush administration, that's the best you can come up with?
First of all, where's the "toxic" revolving door here? I understand that you disagree with the decision that the Bush FCC made regarding unbundling (though the article you linked to is completely incoherent), but that's not at all what this discussion is about.
Secondly, if unbundling was so disastrous, why has gigabit internet rapidly proliferated around the country over the last decade? If it was such a bad decision, decreed by a "toxic" individual, why has the Obama FCC shown zero interest in changing the rule? Here's a thought: "...by the time Barack Obama took office in 2009, [unbundling rules] had become so discredited that the FCC didn't try to revive them."
http://www.vox.com/2015/2/26/8117489/conservatives-winning-net-neutrality
Here, btw, is a Slate take on Michael Powell, who they call "an earnest technocrat, out of place in the politically calculating Bush administration.
Toxic revolving door? Hilarious.
I know you're under no onus to fulfill my request, but I did say specifically, not incredibly broad and general strokes!
Well there was widespread deregulation of financial markets that made for the great recession
Are you talking about Clinton's repeal of Glass-Steagal?
Going from no deficits and a path to paying of the national debt under Clinton to tax cuts and war debt bringing the national debt to new highs
And debt has risen even faster and higher under President Obama. So is he even worse than President Bush? Would have been nice if the 90s dotcom boom and the post-Soviet boom had continued forever.
Rolling back all of the Clinton controls on CO2 emissions and encouraging the building of more coal power plants
What Clinton regulations were rolled back?
Destabilizing the middle east and getting thousands of service men and women killed on some unjustified search for wmds
Honestly, destabilizing the Middle East seems to have succeeded wonderfully and I don't see how American interests are hurt at all. All of our alleged enemies have their hands full now. The loss of American lives is very unfortunate.
I sometimes think that Islam hasn't had it's version of "The Reformation" yet. In the west that somewhat reduced the power of religion compared to nation-states.
This is, more or less, Bernard Lewis's thesis. Check out the book "What Went Wrong" by Lewis. Interesting read.
But In "Islam-land" the Religion has more even MORE power than it does here.
Famous scholar of Islam and the Middle East Marshall Hodgson coined the term "Islamdom" for "Islam-land" (and to echo "Christendom"). Islamdom thus is Morocco to Western China, Central Asia to Central Africa (roughly). Good term. You can refer to Islamdom without referring to Arabs, Persians, South Asians, etc.
What damage, specifically?
Could you give some examples of the truly toxic?
It's easy for the general public to latch onto a particular cause. But once you learn more about beekeeping you realize how incredibly much out there is that can utterly f* up a hive. And which have in history regularly collapsed bee populations, far worse than the collapses we have today. Trachael mites once nearly obliterated beekeeping in Europe, saved mainly by the development of the Buckfast bee. Check out [wikipedia.org] this very inexhaustive list of bee pests and diseases. There's even some really counterintuitive effects in that small levels of some pesticides can actually increase hive survival rates, in that they're deadlier to bee pests like mites than to the bees themselves.
I completely agree with your point. One interesting point of speculation is that it's highly possible that Brother Adam (the developer of the Buckfast bee) was responsible for bringing Varroa to Europe. Brother Adam imported bees from around the world, and the first appearance of Varroa in the UK was not very far from where he operated.
Where we moved to in North Carolina, we're only served by two utilities: AT&T (for internet/phone/TV) and Duke Progressive (for electricity).
What about Timewarner?
We use electric heating--which is expensive, and while our neighborhood will be getting natural gas in the next few months, it makes no economic sense for us to replace our central heating system with gas. (The payoff exceeds the lifespan of the HVAC already installed.)
North Carolina generally has cheap electricity. If you have a heatpump, your electricity bill should not be that bad! Heatpumps generally work well in our climate.
I have to admit, the primary reason for not getting solar where we've lived in Los Angeles and now in Raleigh is that it didn't make a lot of economic sense. But as solar cell prices drop, having a battery-backed solar system on my house starts to sound more promising--especially after the last storm which knocked out our power for a couple of days.
I've run the numbers for the Triangle area after getting quotes through several local companies. Including both the federal and state tax credits and depreciation (this was for a commercial installation), break even is generally 7-8 years off. Probably worthwhile, but not a clear case. Add in a number 10 grand plus for batteries and the case is even more borderline. If you've got the cash, I agree it's great--would love to have power after a hurricane!
Since we are on a well and septic tank, if we can get most of our power from solar then we can pretty much be self-sufficient if there is a major disruption in the future--and that's worth a premium over what we now pay for electric service.
Isn't the price of electricity in NC literally 50% of what it is in California? We have cheap electricity.
Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?