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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If you’re trying to quantify how completely f***ed up the United States is at this point, I refer you to the meme here.

Was it the left that stormed the Capitol, launched a pointless and illegal war in Iran, worked to stifle voting, indicted political opponents, gave tax breaks to billionaires, cut important government programs, threatened to annex Canada and Greenland, gave Trump, his family, and his businesses immunity from all audits and investigations for any past tax-related misconduct, and made our transportation system and electric grid dirtier?

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

We’ve all heard ideas like the one being expressed here, though this one sounds extreme.  Jail sentence?  Education is exclusively an exercise in pounding in bad habits?

What’s the outcome for students in the very worst of our schools that make no attempt whatsoever to help its pupils learn to think critically?  Well, their kids learn to:

  • Read and write
  • Do math, at least through algebra
  • Understand some level of history and geography
  • Make friends and get along with others
  • Establish independence from the parents
  • Gain the qualifications for employment

What’s the alternative? Illiteracy? Social isolation? Child labor? Poverty?  Neurotic sloth? Being a burden on society?

Is it a coincidence that the countries with the best educated children are the happiest, sanest and most productive nations on the planet?

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If you’re a competent woman working at the highest echelon in the U.S. government, better start packing your bags.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Today we had another “assassination attempt.”

Is it the fourth or the fifth?  I lost track after his ear grew back.

Eventually, after perhaps 20 or 30, even the most dimwitted American will recognize that he’s been played.

Trump is a man of God like I’m a bald eagle.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

I’ve often wondered why people like this German woman, an ultra-right-wing politician with no more training in this subject than my gardener, is taken more seriously than the many thousands of scientists who have been studying climate physics for all their adult lives.

And Germany? Anti-science?

Yes, this sect is minor, but how does it exist at all?

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Yes. God wants you out of debt, and He wants you to let these con artists take your last dime.

Makes sense to me.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s understandable that Americans are seeing their culture descend into the pits of the cutthroat, the bastard, since that’s the character of the man whom we elected (twice) to lead our country.

If you take a minute or two to watch this video on the sportsmanship exhibited by young people, however, you may walk away with a different perspective.

I caught a glimpse of this as a soccer coach about 25 years ago, when my son Jake was a considerable powerhouse when he was little. In the first game of his under-8 season, he scored all three goals in a 3-2 win over an opponent whose dominant player — Paul, as I remember — had scored both their goals. When we walked off the field, I asked Jake if he wanted to say something to Paul. As a coach and as a father, I was lucky enough to hear the brief but poignant conversation. Jake told they boy, who was clearly taking the loss rather hard, “Hey. You’re a good player.” Paul smiled, bowed his head, and replied softly, “Thanks. But you’re better than I am.”

Maybe we’re not doomed to become heartless assholes.  Maybe the core humanity with which we are all born will somehow rise to the surface and move us forward.

 

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

George Bernard Shaw nails it here.  How proud should you be because you happened to have been born in the United States?

Intelligent, fair-minded people are proud of their accomplishments, not some accident that happened to them.

Arguably, American patriotism is even worse than other countries’.  The U.S. has by far the planet’s mightiest military, and belief in American exceptionalism frequently is the driver of the world’s most deadly wars.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I just met an elderly woman from Vancouver, Canada, in town for a family wedding, who explained to me her country’s position on the tragedy that’s occurred here in the United States with Trump’s dismantling of American democracy. It happens to coincide with the meme here.

She believes that it will take generations before the rest of the world begins to trust and respect the U.S. again.

She mentioned in passing that if it weren’t for her obligation to attend the wedding that she wouldn’t even think of setting foot in the United States.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

This device apparently uses the kinetic energy of the moving water in the stream to lift itself up against the force of gravity.  Or maybe energy was used to pump it up.  So far, so good.

But then it releases the water and extracts more energy than went into lifting the water!  Wow.  Would an average 10-year-old kid believe this?

And what happens after five years?  Does it evaporate? Self-annihilate? Implode? Rapture itself into heaven?

 

 

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