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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

A reader sent me this meme, which is typical of the twisting the truth we see so often.  The implication here is that removing the restrictions caused the infection rates to decrease, which is simply untrue.  From NPR:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — After 548 days with restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19, Denmark’s high vaccination rate has enabled the Scandinavian country to become one of the first European Union nations to lift all domestic restrictions.

More than 80% of people above the age of 12 have had the two shots.

“I wouldn’t say it is too early. We have opened the door but we have also said that we can close it if needed,” Soeren Riis Paludan, a professor of virology with the Aarhus University in Denmark’s second largest city, told The Associated Press.

As of midnight, the Danish government no longer considers COVID-19 “a socially critical disease.” Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said Aug. 27 that “the epidemic is under control” but warned: “we are not out of the epidemic” and the government will act as needed if necessary.

The vaccination rate is:

Inversely proportional to the number of per capita crackpots in the country, and

Directly proportional to the degree to which the country’s citizens honestly care about one another.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics
A reader answers: The myth is that Trump thinks he won.

Exactly.  If he thought he’d won, he wouldn’t be telling state election officials, “find me 11,780 votes.”

He wouldn’t be plotting with his attorney on how Pence needed to say that the results of seven states is in doubt.

He’s evil, but he’s not delusional (at least that’s what I believe).

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Apparently, Pepperdine University’s business school, Graziadio, has named its 2020 Most Fundable Company® winner, Flower Turbines, calling it “an innovative wind turbine that has revolutionized the industry.”

I use the word “apparently” because concepts in small wind like this, of which there have been many dozens, have failed uniformly, every single one.

There are good reasons for this, but they fall into three categories: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability
With her rhetorical question here, American author, spiritual leader, political activist, and primetime talk show host Marianne Williamson makes an excellent point.
It is impossible to predict what will happen when the environmental damage we’re inflicting on this planet reaches a point that large swaths of the population is either poisoned, displaced from their homes, or lie dying of malnutrition, cancer, or infectious diseases spread by mosquitoes.

(more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Why do bad things happen to good people?  Is there any justice?

In his famous lecture “Why I am not a Christian,” Bertrand Russell said:

They say that the existence of God is required in order to bring justice into the world. In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying; but if you are going to have justice in the universe as a whole you have to suppose a future life to redress the balance of life here on earth. So they say that there must be a God, and there must be Heaven and Hell in order that in the long run there may be justice.

That is a very curious argument. If you looked at the matter from a scientific point of view, you would say, “After all, I only know this world. I do not know about the rest of the universe, but so far as one can argue at all on probabilities one would say that probably this world is a fair sample, and if there is injustice here the odds are that there is injustice elsewhere also.” Supposing you got a crate of oranges that you opened, and you found all the top layer of oranges bad, you would not argue, “The underneath ones must be good, so as to redress the balance.” You would say, “Probably the whole lot is a bad consignment”; and that is really what a scientific person would argue about the universe.

One of the greatest minds the world has ever known.

In any case, having said all this, sometimes we simply get lucky, and good things happen to good people–and vice versa. See below.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

A reader notes: One of the reasons I drive right past Home Depot and straight to Lowe’s is because while the co-founder of Home Depot funnels millions into Trump, Lowe’s is over here run by a black man who funnels millions into the community and minority-owned businesses! Marvin Ellison is not only the President and CEO of Lowe’s, but he has also been known to strap on a red vest and join the troops on the store floor serving customers. That’s leadership!

Exactly.  I haven’t been in a Home Depot since I became aware of this.  And even before Trump, it was some other horrific force for evil.

Thanks for sharing.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It is true that Trump has failed in his coup attempt to overturn the election results.  But why would anyone think this is the end?

Trump owns the Republican party.  Unless he is disgraced, e.g., indicted and convicted on one or more felonies, he will continue to dominate GOP politics. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Ben Stein may be right about Hitler and the others, but he’s certainly incorrect that a government’s offering valuable services “invariably leads to bad things.”

Here’s a list of countries that offer its citizens free healthcare and education through college:

The entirety of Western Europe and Scandinavia, and most of South America.  Then you have Turkey, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

This is the reason that we should be confident that Trump will be indicted on at least one felony count.  If we don’t, we’re telling all future presidents that there is no crime they can commit for which they’ll be held accountable.

Note that the criminal prosecution of the Trump Organization is heating up.  More indictments are expected shortly on more members of Trump’s executive team, which will intensify the pressure on them to flip, and to testify against the big guy.

This is certainly the least sexy of all the charges that may be brought against the former president, but if the one with the highest probability of success, what the heck.

At or near the top of this “sexiness” scale is Trump’s attempted coup in a desperate effort to stay in power.  The plans to, without evidence of fraud, nullify the election results in seven states should be good enough for a very long sentence.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

There was a period of time recently in which one out of every seven new COVID-19 infections was coming out of Florida, a state whose governor, Ron DeSantis, vehemently opposes mask mandates and compulsory vaccinations.  OK, but DeSantis graduated from Harvard University; is it possible he doesn’t understand the efficacy of these tools in the battle against the disease? (more…)

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