tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post692159379427798839..comments2024-03-28T23:39:08.616-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Back to the Moon? And on to Venus, Mars and the asteroid beltDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31337958963211444722021-05-23T19:22:18.710-07:002021-05-23T19:22:18.710-07:00onward
onwardonward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-33054789785767744602021-05-23T17:24:41.610-07:002021-05-23T17:24:41.610-07:00Robert in your case one of the three most obsessiv...Robert in your case one of the three most obsessive trolls tried to be "Robert" a few times, possibly by stealing your monisker plas a space after it. I think one of them may have also tried TCB. The filter is pretty sensitive. And I rescued you a couple of times. One reason (other than giggles) that I slum into the sewer backet, now and then.<br /><br />Sorry you were a chief victim of a deeply dihonest person. But we have fewer such problems than most publiuc fora.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-54221293834255307322021-05-23T15:57:18.307-07:002021-05-23T15:57:18.307-07:00does anyone have a clue what TCB was talking about...<i> does anyone have a clue what TCB was talking about in that strange complaint?</i><br /><br />Maybe your spam filter, or some other part of your blogging platform, is losing some of his posts?<br /><br />About half of mine never show up. I figure it's either the spam filter or you're getting really crotchety with dissenting views. :-)Robertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56413475420117911312021-05-23T08:50:26.849-07:002021-05-23T08:50:26.849-07:00Alfred,
"...we can afford to let the invest...Alfred, <br /><br />"...we can afford to let the investigations widen out enough to include the other riots..."<br /><br />Going to have to disagree.<br />No, we can't. The only way the Republican Senate minority will sign off on this is if there are time constraints - they don't want Democrats putting top Republicans on witness stands close to the 2022 elections, even if Republicans get to spend equal time randomly shouting about Antifa. Given the slow pace of a government investigation, this just opens up room for scratching it all under the rug, like a kitten trying cover up its mistake.<br /><br />The "other riots" had nothing to do with an attempted, and organized from above, disruption of the Federal elections process.<br /><br />Did the Watergate hearings spend time on antiwar riots? (Going to have to pose that as a serious question, I was 9-11 years old at the time.)<br /><br />Wow, Wiki says that Watergate hearings went on for 2 years. We'd have to break the filibuster to do the same today.<br /><br />Pappenheimernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-14833952235604162832021-05-23T06:47:06.838-07:002021-05-23T06:47:06.838-07:00No clue, just speculation, the changes necessitate... No clue, just speculation, the changes necessitated by "Spam-a-lot" have made conversation... interesting, sometimes feels like light speed delay in interplanetary fiction, often no conversation at all. Mind you, I think you made the best choice in your circumstances, and if this blog goes away, I'll miss it.Tim H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12380916635831994159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-92222000168943991532021-05-22T22:47:06.722-07:002021-05-22T22:47:06.722-07:00Kal Kallevig
Why would we need to "relinquish...Kal Kallevig<br />Why would we need to "relinquish" some uses of energy?<br />The resources to change to renewables are still there - I see this as a case of replacing wasteful solutions with more efficient ones<br />No "relinquishment" except when they are no longer needed duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-47190580894952786302021-05-22T21:51:38.043-07:002021-05-22T21:51:38.043-07:00Again, does anyone have a clue what TCB was talkin...Again, does anyone have a clue what TCB was talking about in that strange complaint?David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91843999607561858472021-05-22T21:38:05.263-07:002021-05-22T21:38:05.263-07:00Surplus Energy Economics -- Other roads, part one
...<a href="https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2021/05/22/200-other-roads-part-one/" rel="nofollow"><br />Surplus Energy Economics -- Other roads, part one<br /><b>REALITY AND THE ROUTE TO NET ZERO</b></a><br /><br /><i><br />The release of a new policy document from the International Energy Agency marks a decisive stage in the evolution of the consensus around energy, the environment and the economy.<br /><br />...<br />So here’s the equation that net zero combined with growth invites us to accept.<br /><br /><br />On the one hand, energy sourced from fossil fuels declines rapidly. On the other, physical products of energy – the inputs that we’ll need to expand Renewable Energy supply dramatically – will become available in very large amounts.<br /><br /><br />Another way to put this is that we’re planning to abandon the sunk energy invested in the carbon infrastructure, and build a replacement infrastructure at global scale, and carry on driving, flying and doing everything else that we do with energy, at the same time as we’re driving down energy supply from legacy sources.<br /><br /><br />An obvious snag here is that nobody seems prepared to tell us what uses of energy will need to be relinquished in order to free up the resources needed for physical investment at a transformational scale. <br /><br /></i>Kal Kallevignoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-87556547980363457992021-05-22T13:11:28.207-07:002021-05-22T13:11:28.207-07:00Alfred Differ:
For gerrymandering, I do care. Rem...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />For gerrymandering, I do care. Remember how you wanted to use 'illegitimate' for the 2016 election and I thought it should be toned down a bit? Our roles are reversed here. Gerrymandering is a cancer that eats at the legitimacy of elections.<br /></i><br /><br />Oh, we're not really on opposite sides here. When I say that gerrymandering is allowed by the existing rules, I'm making a practical assessment, not an aspirational one. Courts all the way up (down?) to the supremacist court (sic) have weighed in on the issue and basically said, "Yeah, but what're ya gonna do?" The remedy to fixed and rigged elections is at the ballot box--which is a bit of a paradox.<br /><br />I know you've done admirably in California, but that's a blue state. I expect such things to happen in blue states. It will probably happen in Illinois too, eventually. Maybe even sooner. But what do we do about gerrymandering in Texas, in North Carolina, in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania? The legislatures controlled by the party whose essential value is "Use power to keep power--that's what it's for, isn't it?" is not going to give up that power, and the voters are stymied by the very gerrymandering we're talking about.<br /><br />I don't have an answer.<br /><br /><i><br />"One may argue some degree of implied consent if she willingly engaged in consensual sex"<br /><br />Actually No.<br /><br />One thing that HAS been worked out in law is that no one may consent to make of themselves a slave.<br /></i><br /><br />There's no way I can adequately demonstrate the "Well......yeah.....but....." look on my face that I need in order to express a response.<br /><br />You're expressing the view that consensual sex carries <b>no</b> responsibility for the consequence of the act? That's more libertarian than even I'm willing to cede. And in a country that can't even elect a Democrat as president without him being an old white man, good luck getting that position to prevail.<br /><br />* * * <br /><br />@TimH on that Bette Midler/Mary Poppins link,<br /><br />So say we all!<br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35031819160044361102021-05-22T07:59:30.576-07:002021-05-22T07:59:30.576-07:00 This amused me, Bette Midler doing a passable Ma... This amused me, Bette Midler doing a passable Mary Poppins, in a good cause:<br />https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2021/05/13/mary-poppins-returns-to-describe-the-current-gop/Tim H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12380916635831994159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23659253893455284632021-05-22T06:10:44.917-07:002021-05-22T06:10:44.917-07:00TheMadLibrarian:
Currently Congress is arguing ab...TheMadLibrarian:<br /><i><br />Currently Congress is arguing about holding an investigation into the January 6 riots in Washington; Republicans are saying that that should only happen if other riots across the country are also investigated. <br /></i><br /><br />If the riots in Portland are properly investigated (i.e., not whitewashed), the conclusion won't be what the Republicans are after. Do they really want conclusive evidence that the protests were peaceful except for admitted <b>Proud Boy</b> agitators who broke windows to make the protesters look bad? Such investigations might backfire on them like all those state recounts which ended up with Biden picking up <b>more</b> votes than Trump.<br /><br />* * * <br /><br />TCB:<br /><i><br />I have largely given up commenting here. Even the trolls get a better hearing, it seems to me.<br /></i><br /><br />WTF???<br /><br /><i><br />Most likely I will not live another five years, and instead die fighting fascists in America.<br /></i><br /><br />For your sake and ours, I hope you're as wrong as Ted Nugent was when he asserted that if President Obama was reelected, he'd soon be imprisoned or dead. He stayed free and alive long enough to contract COVID.<br /><br />But I feel your pain. I've been ruminating a lot lately on the bit from <i>1984</i> in which Winston understands that his rebellious thoughts must inevitably lead to eventual torture and death.<br /><br />* * * <br /><br />Paul451:<br /><i><br />The world is their oyster and they are truly free.<br /></i><br /><br />They're certainly capturing the rules of the game. The new revolution will amount to the rest of us not playing any longer.<br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-85327477214612628242021-05-22T05:30:06.995-07:002021-05-22T05:30:06.995-07:00The "Pro-Birth" loonies would give a clo...<i> The "Pro-Birth" loonies would give a clot of cells MORE RIGHTS than an actual baby</i><br /><br />Not really. They don't care about the clot of cells at all, that's just a smokescreen for controlling women. Robertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-6331486115649125632021-05-22T00:18:54.454-07:002021-05-22T00:18:54.454-07:00About the investigation into the insurrection
The...About the investigation into the insurrection <br />The problem with letting the "Feds" investigate is that the GOP congress critters that organized it can simply ignore any subpoenas under the logic that they are part of the legislature<br />They SHOULD lose that argument but it would go all of the way to the supreme court and even if they did lose they could delay the investigation for years<br /><br />So an actual congressional investigation is the only way duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30966509113213743972021-05-21T23:11:51.080-07:002021-05-21T23:11:51.080-07:00Paul451,
On a happier note…
Artemis is the waste...Paul451,<br /><br />On a happier note…<br /><br /><i>Artemis is the waste we need now to avoid vastly more waste in the future</i><br /><br />Yah. The question for us in the NewSpace advocacy community was 'How much waste does it take to break the system?"<br /><br />We are there, though not because Congress has lost it's appetite for space-related jobs programs. <br /><br />We are there because SpaceX is embarrassing the Hell out of the OldSpace community and its advocates. It's not just SpaceX, but they ARE the visible edge of the cutting blade.<br /><br />——<br /><br />It's a really weird position for us all to be in. Lot's of us have ideas for what we want to fly up there and we go though an old process to get them funded, built, licensed, and flown. Then comes along Musk (and company) who says he will loft a multi-thousand satellite constellation to provide internet service to… everyone. Do that math we all think! That's a lot of flights! That's a lot of funding! What sane investor will sink that much into it?<br /><br />Well… they've got boosters for F9 that have flown 10 times now and they loft 60 at a time. They aren't re-using stage two… yet… and probably won't… but they are obviously working on what comes after the F9. So do the math we think? Ten boosters flown ten times at sixty satellites each is… OMG! <br /><br />Maybe they can't do it fast enough to get a viable ROI for investors? Except in 2021 their launch cadence is now around… once a week. Um… and they have about 1500 in orbit already?!<br /><br />Oh… and they can fly humans now.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Heh. The old way dies in an embarrassed whimper.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-86175430350817766252021-05-21T22:54:58.950-07:002021-05-21T22:54:58.950-07:00I suspect we can afford to let the investigations ...I suspect we can afford to let the investigations widen out enough to include the other riots too. When people cross state lines to engage in such behavior, there is probably room for FBI involvement.<br /><br />Why not?<br /><br />Let's include the '21 Tulsa Riot while we are at it.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63799217886342119522021-05-21T22:51:57.321-07:002021-05-21T22:51:57.321-07:00Larry,
One may argue some degree of implied conse...Larry,<br /><br /><i>One may argue some degree of implied consent if she willingly engaged in consensual sex</i><br /><br />Actually No.<br /><br />One thing that HAS been worked out in law is that no one may consent to make of themselves a slave. <br /><br />Making an argument in Court that a woman facing a pregnancy unwillingly forced is MADE a slave will be a challenge. In cases of rape, juries are likely to agree. For accidents and other fine lines, they might not.<br /><br />Once 'slavery' is established, though, it is not legally possible for any of us to consent to enter into that state. Not anymore. Such a contract cannot legally bind.<br /><br />——<br /><br />What they try to do is make all those choices that lead to parenthood look willing. In that context, juries WILL bind 'consenting' adults. We have a long history of this.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-11906551064539384482021-05-21T22:39:19.265-07:002021-05-21T22:39:19.265-07:00Larry,
Talking about the DH rule is someone misle...Larry,<br /><br />Talking about the DH rule is someone misleading on my part. In all honesty, I don't care how the MLB chooses to do it. I can see advantages and disadvantages, but I don't really care. I DID care that they stop intentional injuries by base runners trying to break up a double-play, but they resolved that well enough.<br /><br />For gerrymandering, I do care. Remember how you wanted to use 'illegitimate' for the 2016 election and I thought it should be toned down a bit? Our roles are reversed here. Gerrymandering is a cancer that eats at the legitimacy of elections.<br /><br />We've been living with this cancer for some time and will continue for a while yet, but that doesn't make the tumor benign. The problem with expanding tumors is they break things sometimes. Even if they don't, they consume a larger share of resources until you are barely alive in order to feed it. <br /><br />I'm intentionally going for 'graphic' here. What is the point of an election, hmm? Is it to choose representatives for legislatures and leaders for executive offices… or is it to place a few more of our allies than the 50% needed to govern in a manner you don't find autocratic? You don't get to choose the legislators for my districts, so it can NOT be the later. Yet… we behave like it is. That's the cancer eating away at the legitimate purpose of elections in a federal system. To feed it, we simply MUST send money to Georgia to ensure they elect Senators who will ally with us though none of us live in Georgia. (Well… maybe someone here does. You and I don't, though.)<br /><br />It's not just Senators. It's not just House members. It's all legislators and many executives. What should be a federal system cannot be with a gerrymandered cancer eating away at its heart.<br /><br /><br />Don't tell me that a change/fix requires we work within the cancerous system. We didn't fix things in California by making our legislators play nice. We stripped them of the power to draw the maps. No joke. Constitutional Amendment at the State level. I don't know what your options are over there, but neither party will like the idea of losing that power. Take it if you can, though. It absolutely works.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-33681918445863496572021-05-21T22:29:52.299-07:002021-05-21T22:29:52.299-07:00DH just brought up an interesting notion. Current...DH just brought up an interesting notion. Currently Congress is arguing about holding an investigation into the January 6 riots in Washington; Republicans are saying that that should only happen if other riots across the country are also investigated. Shouldn't the Washington riots be investigated by the feds anyhow, because it is not under state jurisdiction, but federal, being in D.C.?TheMadLibrarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09103164355746196049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30854215930697275462021-05-21T21:58:28.285-07:002021-05-21T21:58:28.285-07:00MadLib,
"Republicans across the nation are fe...MadLib,<br /><i>"Republicans across the nation are feeling history bearing down on them like a semi truck heading for a groundhog ambling across a rural road."</i><br /><br />I disagree. While some of the old establishment Republicans might feel that way, for the new generation, for the rusted-on southern contingent, for the white supremacists, it must feel like the stars are aligning for them. Massively stacked Federal Courts, completely control over the USSC, Trump still able to motivate the base and prevent defections by elected reps, RW media totally in their pocket.<br /><br />Sure they lost the last election, but that just motivated the state Republicans to get back on board and take advantage of the stacking of the courts to push through vote rigging laws that are beyond anything they'd dared for since the 1960s. Two years until they retake the House and Senate, four years until the take the White House.<br /><br />They caused an insurrection by their rapid supporters, threatened the lives of the VP and Congressional opponents, and suffered no personal consequences. The brief moment of fear-induced-sanity by a few old school Repubs was quickly crushed and the Stolen Election lie is now party doctrine. Dems will never be allowed to win again.<br /><br />The world is their oyster and they are truly free.Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40349998282773628322021-05-21T20:29:35.004-07:002021-05-21T20:29:35.004-07:00I have largely given up commenting here. Even the ...I have largely given up commenting here. Even the trolls get a better hearing, it seems to me.<br /><br />Most likely I will not live another five years, and instead die fighting fascists in America.<br /><br />Not the future I wanted to see.TCBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08153506222271955110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-13478335070702507302021-05-21T20:26:24.369-07:002021-05-21T20:26:24.369-07:00Abortion
We have a "Right to bodily Autonomy...Abortion<br /><br />We have a "Right to bodily Autonomy" - nobody can claim a legal right to your blood or organs<br /><br />That is no breathing living human being can<br /><br />The "Pro-Birth" loonies would give a clot of cells MORE RIGHTS than an actual babyduncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-87994551014129840392021-05-21T17:34:28.430-07:002021-05-21T17:34:28.430-07:00Republicans across the nation are feeling history ...Republicans across the nation are feeling history bearing down on them like a semi truck heading for a groundhog ambling across a rural road. They are desperately trying anything they believe has a chance of shoring up their power base before the old guard who supports them dies off. The younger up and coming Republicans we see now are even less savory than their predecessors; many of the current travesties of law being pushed though locally play directly on the fears of their older base, plus the new ones that have been sucked in by subtle merchandising and echo chamber propaganda.TheMadLibrarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09103164355746196049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69860235993322535812021-05-21T12:42:14.768-07:002021-05-21T12:42:14.768-07:00https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/139503757...https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1395037572158603265<br /><br />Texas governor Greg Abbot tweets:<br /><i><br />The heartbeat bill is now LAW in the Lone Star State. <br /><br />This bill ensures the life of every unborn child with a heartbeat will be saved from the ravages of abortion. <br /></i><br /><br />No matter the right to life of a fetus, a woman is not a slave who can be forced into servitude as a living incubator. And to slightly misquote Dickens, if the law says she can be, then the law is a ass.<br /><br />One may argue some degree of implied consent if she willingly engaged in consensual sex, but not if she was raped or if she's below the age of consent. Which is why such laws typically have exceptions for rape and incest, even in Republican jurisdictions. The Texas law just passed willfully excludes such exceptions.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32852738359300372412021-05-21T12:33:59.146-07:002021-05-21T12:33:59.146-07:00Alfred Differ:
Ultimately, though, I'm oppose...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />Ultimately, though, I'm opposed to cheating just because the other guy cheats. Instead, take him out behind the woodshed.<br /></i><br /><br />But neither the DH rule nor gerrymandering is "cheating" per se, as both are the rules of the game. In baseball, if you dislike the DH rule, you can't get an official to rule that the other team can't use it. Likewise, if you don't like gerrymandering, you can't get a court to rule that the other side can't do it.<br /><br />If you're trying to get the rules <b>changed</b> to something <b>you</b> prefer, you can't do it by refusing to make use of the allowed rule and crying when the other side does. In fact, I'd argue that in this country, you can't get a rule you consider unfair to change until <b>Republicans</b> have reason to claim it's unfair*. Thus, Democratic gerrymandering in Illinois and Maryland might be the only thing that ever helps outlaw gerrymandering.<br /><br />* If it were somehow possible for a Republican to win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote, the manner of choosing the president would be changed very quickly. Likewise, the moment Texas looks like it will go blue, how quickly do you think they'll go to proportional allocation of electoral votes?Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-660929136616275642021-05-21T09:17:30.888-07:002021-05-21T09:17:30.888-07:00I've felt that pitchers on the base paths face...I've felt that pitchers on the base paths face risk that compensates a bit for the risk they create when pitching to batters. It's not like they don't hit batters now and then. 8)<br /><br />Ultimately, though, I'm opposed to cheating just because the other guy cheats. Instead, take him out behind the woodshed.<br /><br />Two wrongs and all that.*<br /><br /><br />* Okay. As a temporary corrective measure I get it. As a long term one, though, it leads to a messed up sense of what qualifies as justice. Ends do not justify means.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.com