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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

You go, girl.  Take us back 75 years (at least).

Kidding aside, this is, unfortunately, the type of thing one sees in Texas.

The other day, I came across something similar from a candidate in New Hampshire, and I wrote to her, “New Hampshire???  Are you serious???  Your state ranks #6 in the nation in education.  Half the state commutes to Boston.  These voters aren’t ignorant pigs. If you want to succeed with hateful bull**** like this, you’ll need to take it to Alabama or Mississippi.  They can’t get enough of this.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

From this: Election not stolen: Arizona election officials debunk claims in state review of Trump’s 2020 loss

In a report, entitled Correcting the Record: Maricopa County’s In-Depth Analysis of the Senate Inquiry, which was released Wednesday on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot attack, the largest county government in Arizona, Maricopa County, confirmed that the 2020 election was not impacted by fraud. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

There were simpler times, weren’t there?

My father left college to rain bombs down on Germany’s oil refineries. Then he came home, finished school, married his sweetheart, sold real estate in the community of his birth, raised two kids, sent them to college, retired, and played golf.

Far from a unique story, it was a tale that played itself out all over the country in the middle and late part of the 20th Century.

Dad was a Republican, because of the conservative views he shared with so many others.  I simply cannot imagine what he would think of present-day GOP politics and the near miss we just survived (it now appears), an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles
Rachel Konrad (pictured), Elon Musk’s original communications tsar, makes this comment on the traditional auto industry’s current attempts to dethrone Tesla:
“If VW and Toyota “spend billions in a bid to catch up with Tesla,” AWESOME! That means they won’t spend that money on greenwashing bullshit, dumb-ass sponsorships and ads, lobbying, unethical software cheats, stupid acquisitions of defunct brands or other moves from the incumbent playbook.
Rather, it means VW and Toyota (and GM, Ford, Nissan and everyone else) will spend billions on R&D to make the world’s best cars (fastest, safest, most efficient, best UI, best ergonomics, best autonomous system, robust charging infrastructure, etc.) and make them zero-emission. If they do this, HUMANITY WINS. I’m skeptical that the incumbents will succeed, but I love the effort.
And FYI, forcing the laggard incumbents to follow suit was Elon’s highest goal all along. That’s precisely how you accelerate the shift to zero-emission energy and transport.”

(more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Who among us hasn’t looked upon a certain development in our culture and said, OK, that’s it; we’re effed.

Reader James sent me this, and, I have to say, it brought me that much closer to that most cynical of positions.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

We can all agree that there are a number of interpretations of the Bible with respect to how literally these stories should be taken.  At the liberal end are those who look to the Good Book for sources of hope and inspiration.

Anyone who has a problem with Proverbs 15:1 which reads: “A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath” has something wrong with him. 

At the other end of the spectrum, however, we do run into trouble, as exemplified in the meme here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I happen to know the president of a major university in Texas, who told me he can’t understand why hospitals that are overflowing don’t put a percentage limit on the number of ICU beds that they will fill with unvaccinated COVID patients.

In speaking with my mom last night, she thought this was outrageous.  “You can’t not admit someone just because of a choice they made with respect to what to allow in his body!” she declared.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In 1814, John Adams wrote, “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy Yet, that did not commit suicide.”  

That’s the opening of a piece suggesting that right-wing extremism has brought us to the brink of the next U.S. civil war.  It includes:  Is a civil war really possible? One of America’s most pre-eminent scholars on civil wars and how they begin offers this blunt answer: Yes. In fact, we’re closer to one in our country than most Americans think, or are willing to believe. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

We are a culture that enjoys creating metaphors to help us make our points.

Some of these are better, i.e., more accurate, than others.

This guy’s work here is fabulous, IMO.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I believe that the only good thing about living in the 21st Century is technology, which made our lives longer, healthier, and far more convenient than they were at any time in human history.  The rest of this crap you can keep: the conmen, the fascists, the cruelty, the widespread criminality, the ignorance, the selfishness and greed, and the environmental degradation.

And even technology is a double-edged sword, as suggested in the graphic above. The entire ocean of misinformation that is poisoning our society couldn’t possibly exist in the absence of social media, riding on the Internet.

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