Showing Mercy
Catching and releasing spiders is a policy that, IMO, all decent people have in common.
The author here, Rudy Francisco, puts it beautifully.
Tagged with: Showing Mercy
Norway Cautions Its Student To Avoid U.S. Healthcare
This is from a year ago, at the start of the pandemic, but it still cuts like a knife.
How disgusting it is that the most prosperous nation in human history offers its citizens–those, that is, who can afford it–second- or third-rate healthcare.
If you’re rich and amoral, this is a great country to live in. If you’re not rich, or you’re not indifferent to the suffering of others, that’s another matter.
The University of Plymouth To Host European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC)
I’m happy, yet surprised to see this. Interest in hydrokinetics has fizzled over the last 5 – 6 years, largely as a result of the plummeting price of solar and wind. That said, in September 2021, interested parties will join in Plymouth, England to share ideas.
Ocean wave and tidal energy faces numerous intrinsic problems. The generation is generally far from the load. Maintenance issues are huge; when an object is immersed in rapidly flowing salt water, the number of things that can go wrong is hard to calculate. Though one thinks of tides or other ocean currents as being constant, in reality they’re not at all.
There hasn’t been an event like this in the U.S. since, I’m guessing, 2015, and I actually never expected to see another one on this subject. Wrongo.
From Vanity Fair: DONALD TRUMP IS DROWNING IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS AND LEGALLY SCREWED
A friend who despises Trump as much as I do once lamented, “But he always wins; he always finds a way out.”
I responded, “Undefeated people are always undefeated–until they’re defeated.”
I hope the contents of this article in Vanity Fair are exactly correct and unexaggerated.
The author begins: He’s also facing 29 lawsuits though it’s the investigations that could land him in prison he’s probably most worried about.
Let’s hope this moves along quickly.
Tagged with: DONALD TRUMP IS DROWNING IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
Racism in America
I’m afraid I have some bad news for Mr. Faulkner.
Racism is proportional to ignorance, and we have a bumper crop of the latter.
We don’t just dabble in ignorance, we bathe in it.
Tagged with: Racism in America
Pandering To Morons
Cruz isn’t an idiot, but he sure does pander to idiots.
Another fine example of demand creating its own supply. As long as there are people stupid enough to believe this, there will be people like Cruz ready to feed them the crap they so desperately crave.
We All Find It Hard to Admit that We’ve Been Bamboozled
It’s unclear if the late astronomer Carl Sagan was referring to any specific event in history in his famous quote here.
It’s certainly one of the factors that keeps Trumpism in place. Clearly, there are many people who, if they were psychologically able, would reject all this as total malicious crap.
Imagine if we could go back in time to 2015 and somehow look forward to the present date. What if we were able to provide voters in 2016 a list of all the lies Trump has told since, all the criminal acts, the degradation of our nation on the world stage, the environmental devastation, the tax breaks for billionaires, the extortion of the Ukraine, the dishonest and incompetent butchering of the pandemic response, the incitement to insurrection, and the attempt to tamper with the election results? (more…)
Tagged with: boiling the frog metaphor, list of all the lies Trump has told, rejection of science and knowledge, Trump criminal acts, Trump degradation of our nation on the world stage, Trump dishonest and incompetent butchering of the pandemic response, Trump environmental devastation, Trump extortion of the Ukraine, Trump incitement to insurrection, Trump tax breaks for billionaires, Trump the attempt to tamper with the election results
Flower Turbine
As I’ve mentioned many times, I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing many hundreds–perhaps a thousand–of cleantech business plans. I would say, to be charitable, that maybe one in 20 holds any water. Most of the others are asinine, and some are fraudulent.
What makes this interesting is that it’s sometimes unclear whether the author is a crackpot or a fraud, i.e., whether he believes his story, or not. (more…)
Money in Politics
As a society, Americans don’t seem to be too concerned about (or even aware of) the corruption that big money is injecting into our law-making on a daily basis; otherwise, we wouldn’t have the U.S. Supreme Court decision “Citizens United,” granting corporations the freedom to spend as much as they wish to control the outcome of our elections.
As shown here, almost 2000 years ago, philosopher, historian, biographer, and essayist Plutarch had already experienced this exact phenomenon, and saw how destructive it was. (more…)
Another Approach to Reducing Gun Violence
So true. Imagine a world, as described below, in which guns were treated more like cars. Geiko, All State, Progressive, all promise to save you 15% on your car insurance, and they’re constantly branching out to other areas: motorcycles, home-owners, and so forth, so perhaps they’d want to enter the gun owner liability insurance biz.
Suppose a guy wants to buy a gun and walk into a grocery store and use it immediately upon purchase. Since there are no laws regarding background checks, he can do exactly that. But in this case, the clerk in the gun shop says, “The weapon is $250; ain’t she a beauty? And, of course, you’ll need $3,500 for your first year’s insurance. Will that be cash or credit?”
Tagged with: gun control
