New York Times - Trump Refuses to Sign G-7 Statement and Calls Trudeau ‘Weak’
By Michael D. Shear and Catherine Porter
June 9, 2018
QUEBEC CITY — President Trump abruptly upended two days of global economic diplomacy late Saturday, refusing to sign a joint statement with America’s allies, threatening to escalate his trade war on the country’s neighbors and deriding Canada’s prime minister as “very dishonest and weak.”
In a remarkable pair of acrimony-laced tweets from aboard Air Force One as he flew to a summit with North Korea’s leader, Mr. Trump lashed out at Justin Trudeau, the prime minister who hosted the Group of 7 summit, accusing him of making false statements.
Literally moments after Mr. Trudeau’s government released the joint statement, saying it had been agreed to by all seven countries, Mr. Trump blew apart the veneer of cordiality that had been in place throughout the two days of meetings in a resort town on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.
“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communiqué as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” Mr. Trump wrote.
A few hours earlier, Mr. Trudeau had announced that the seven nations had reached broad agreements on a range of economic and foreign policy goals, but he acknowledged that deep disagreements remained between Mr. Trump and the leaders of the other nations, especially on trade.
Mr. Trudeau sought to play down personal clashes with Mr. Trump as he wrapped up the summit, calling the meeting “very successful” and saying he leaves “inspired by the discussion.” But he also pledged to retaliate against the United States tariffs on steel and aluminum products in defense of Canadian workers.
Mr. Trump, who apparently saw Mr. Trudeau’s news conference on televisions aboard Air Force One, was clearly enraged.
“PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @g7 meetings,” Mr. Trump said in a second tweet, “only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”
The tweets followed two days of tense and often confrontational closed-door discussions between Mr. Trump and the leaders of America’s closest allies — France, England, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany — in the hopes of resolving a brewing trade war among friends.
Instead, the gathering apparently served to further inflame Mr. Trump’s belief that the United States is being treated unfairly by countries with whom prior presidents had long ago negotiated trade agreements for the flow of goods and services.
Earlier in the day, before Mr. Trump left the summit, he brought up the dramatic prospect of completely eliminating tariffs on goods and services, even as he threatened to end all trade with them if they didn’t stop what he said were unfair trade practices.
The other six leaders had been defiant in the face of Mr. Trump’s threats.
“I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do,” Mr. Trudeau said. “As Canadians, we are polite, we’re reasonable, but also we will not be pushed around.”
Speaking to reporters at the end of a contentious meeting in a resort town outside of Quebec City, Mr. Trump said that eliminating all trading barriers would be “the ultimate thing.” He railed about what he called “ridiculous and unacceptable” tariffs on American goods and vowed to end them.
“It’s going to stop,” he said, “or we’ll stop trading with them. And that’s a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.” He added, “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing — and that ends.”
President Emmanuel Macron of France said the trade debates at the summit were “sometimes quite heated.” Asked who won the tug-of-war with Trump, Mr. Macron said: “There is no winner, there are only losers when you take that strategy.”
Theresa May, the British prime minister, blasted Mr. Trump’s tariffs, saying that she had registered “our deep disappointment at the unjustified decision” and that the loss of trade through tariffs would “ultimately make everyone poorer.”
Mr. Trump’s threats toward America’s trading partners on Saturday came during a wide-ranging news conference as he skipped most of the second day of the summit in order to leave for a meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea. Mr. Trump said he would know within the first minute of his face-to-face meeting whether Mr. Kim was serious about eliminating his country’s nuclear weapons and trying to make peace with the world.
“Just my touch, my feel,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s what I do. You know, the way they say you know if you’re going to like somebody in the first five seconds. Did you ever hear that one? Well, I think that very quickly I’ll know whether or not something good is going to happen.”
Mr. Trump said that he expected to “at least start a dialogue” with Mr. Kim, though he suggested, as he has several times recently, that more specific agreements with North Korea could require a series of additional meetings.
The president’s public comments on trade Saturday morning echoed the complaints he made directly to the leaders from Canada, Japan and Europe in private sessions on Friday. Mr. Trump confronted several of the leaders individually, giving examples of how, in his view, each of their countries had mistreated the United States, whether it be through trade barriers or security commitments, according to a European official.
The president delivered a running monologue in one of the closed-door meetings, one person familiar with the discussion said. One minute, he slammed Germany for taking advantage of the United States by selling so many cars there. The next, he talked about how his grandfather was German and how much he loved Europe.
Several of the leaders responded aggressively to Mr. Trump’s demands — as they have repeatedly done in public — listing their own complaints about American tariffs and other trade measures, the official said. Several countries have said that they will retaliate against the United States’ new steel and aluminum tariffs with increased tariffs of their own.
“If they retaliate, they’re making a mistake,” Mr. Trump said on Saturday.
Mr. Trump’s surprise proposal for a tariff-free G7 followed from a conversation the president had on Air Force One heading to Canada with Larry Kudlow, his national economic adviser. Mr. Kudlow, a self-described “lifelong free trader,” wrote an op-ed article in The Washington Post on Thursday saying that he did not prefer tariffs but that Mr. Trump’s actions were “a wake-up call to the dangers of a broken trading system that is increasingly unfree.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Kudlow discussed the article on the plane, but the president surprised even his own team by raising the idea with the other leaders. While some observers took it as more of a talking point, a senior administration official said the president was serious about it and wanted it given serious study. Other leaders, the official said, expressed interest.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe closed-door discussions.
Asked late Saturday what he told Mr. Trump about the surprise proposal for a tariff-free zone, Mr. Macron said, with a smile: “Be my guest, if that’s your wish.”
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Mr. Trump repeatedly insisted that the private discussions with his counterparts — whom he referred to casually, as “Justin” or “Angela” — had been positive.
“The relationship that I’ve had with the people, the leaders of these countries has been — I would really rate it on the scale of zero to 10,” he said. “I would rate it a 10.”
Mr. Trump arrived about 20 minutes late to the one morning meeting he attended here on Saturday, a discussion about gender issues. He departed for Singapore immediately after his news conference.
The American official played down the conflicts between the leaders, saying it was not the brawl some were depicting. A session with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, who had engaged in a sharp long-distance public exchange before the summit, went much better than expected, he said.
But the president made clear his level of anger about the longstanding trade policies that he said have hurt America’s workers and undermined the country’s national security by weakening America’s “balance sheet.”
The American official said a deal with Mexico and Canada on the North American Free Trade Agreement seemed within reach, and Mr. Trump said he believed negotiators were close to an agreement to include one of two sunset provisions that would act as expiration dates for the deal.
But Mr. Trudeau said at the conclusion of the summit that his government is firmly opposed to that idea.
“There will not be a sunset clause,” Mr. Trudeau said. “Canada has been unequivocal. We cannot, will not sign a trade deal that automatically expires.”
Throughout his remarks on Saturday, Mr. Trump repeatedly returned to his broader complaints about trade practices around the world, insisting that it was the fault of past American leaders who had agreed to deals that benefited other countries more than the United States.
He complained that American dairy farmers were being treated unfairly by Canada. “The United States pays tremendous tariffs on dairy, as an example, 270 percent,” he said. “Nobody knows that.”
“We don’t want to pay anything,” he said. “Why should we pay?”
The president also said American farmers had been hurt for a long time by trade barriers that made it harder for them to sell their goods to other countries. “You look at our farmers,” he said. “For 15 years, the graph has gone just like this: down.”
“I blame our leaders,” Mr. Trump said. “In fact, I congratulate the leaders of other countries for so crazily being able to make these trade deals that were so good for their country and so bad for the United States. But those days are over.”
Mr. Trump said some of the other leaders he met with during the Group of 7 summit appeared to admit that their trade arrangements with the United States were unfair.
“A lot of these countries actually smile at me when I’m talking,” he said. “And the smile is, ‘We couldn’t believe we got away with it.’ That’s the smile.”
That assessment by Mr. Trump stands in contrast to the public statements by those leaders, who have repeatedly insisted that they will not accept the kinds of tariffs that Mr. Trump has imposed on their industries.
In addition to trade, Mr. Trump also took questions about his call for Russia to be reinstated as a member of the Group of 7 nations, despite having been expelled four years ago in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea.
“I would rather see Russia in the G-8 as opposed to the G-7,” he said. “I would say that the G8 is a more meaningful group than the G-7. Absolutely.”
Peter Baker and Emily Cochrane contributed reporting from Washington.
A version of this article appears in print on June 10, 2018, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Vows U.S. Will Stop Acting As a ‘Piggy Bank’.
Saturday, June 9, 2018
Science makes human progress possible. Religion is good for nothing but getting in the way.
We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins -- they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of today. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of today -- of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago.
These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars -- neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience -- and for them all, man is indebted to man.
― Robert G. Ingersoll, August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899
These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars -- neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience -- and for them all, man is indebted to man.
― Robert G. Ingersoll, August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899
Blasphemy makes Muslim morons and Christian retards cry.
Every quote on this post is from Robert Green Ingersoll.
This crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves.
Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense.
Blasphemy is what an old dogma screams at a new truth.
In a world of cruelty, sympathy is a crime, and in a world of lies, truth is blasphemy.
All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing blasphemy - making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the Bible, or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures.
This crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves.
Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense.
Blasphemy is what an old dogma screams at a new truth.
In a world of cruelty, sympathy is a crime, and in a world of lies, truth is blasphemy.
All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing blasphemy - making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the Bible, or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures.
Muslims are stupid fucking assholes. I can't stress the words "stupid" and "assholes" strongly enough. These are the "moderate" Muslims. They are cowardly deranged crybabies. Totally insane. They need to wiped off this planet.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Still now, she sees the darkened silhouette of a prison guard every time she closes her eyes. She remembers, too, the distinctive clattering sound each time a guard would doze off in the midday heat, relax his grip and let his machine gun fall to the tiled floor. She can recall the dirt, the sweat, the heat and, through it all, the sheer sense of terror and incomprehension. 'It's hard to describe really, quite what it's like. I was just terrified, absolutely terrified.'
Until last week Gillian Gibbons was an ordinary schoolteacher from Liverpool; a 54-year-old mother of two whose closest brush with the law had been a parking ticket 20 years ago. But when, in August, she took up a job teaching primary school children in Sudan, she set in motion an extraordinary chain of events. Within months she became the focus of hatred for a machete-wielding mob demanding her execution, while government officials pursued high-level diplomatic negotiations to secure her release from jail. Her crime? To call a teddy bear Mohammed.
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This bullshit happened about 10 years ago. If you're interested in crybabies for Allah these 3 links tell the entire ridiculous story.
BBC News - A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Wikipedia - Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case
The Guardian - Speaking for the first time of her ordeal, Gillian Gibbons, the woman jailed for naming a teddy bear Mohammed, tells Elizabeth Day of her eight days of fear in a Sudan cell as angry mobs demanded her death for 'blasphemy'
Friday, June 8, 2018
One of my favorite quotes from David Horton. He lives in Australia.
"Your comments are evidence yet again, though it isn't needed, that religions only survive because of the invincible ignorance of their practitioners. Not just ignorance of biology, and physics, and geology, and cosmology, but ignorance of history, and of anthropology, and sociology and psychology. An ignorance that enables the individual member at one particular time and place to imagine that they, uniquely, have the truth, and that all of the other billions of humans who live now, and lived in the past, didn't. What extraordinary arrogance and ignorance. Encouraged, indeed demanded, by the leaders of every religious cult, for various motives that have nothing to do with any supposed reality of an imaginary second life. And everything to do with power, and wealth, and misogyny, and xenophobia."
-- David Horton
-- David Horton
The Atlantic puffin has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches and white underparts. Its broad, boldly marked red and black beak and orange legs contrast with its plumage.
Wikipedia - Atlantic puffin
The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the aukfamily. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin, are found in the northeastern Pacific. The Atlantic puffin breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and many North Atlantic islands, and as far south as Maine in the west and the west coast of Ireland and parts of the United Kingdom in the east. Although it has a large population and a wide range, the species has declined rapidly, at least in parts of its range, resulting in it being rated as vulnerable by the IUCN. On land, it has the typical upright stance of an auk. At sea, it swims on the surface and feeds mainly on small fish, which it catches by diving underwater, using its wings for propulsion.
This puffin has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches and white underparts. Its broad, boldly marked red and black beak and orange legs contrast with its plumage. It moults while at sea in the winter and some of the bright-coloured facial characteristics are lost, with color returning again during the spring. The external appearance of the adult male and female are identical though the male is usually slightly larger. The juvenile has similar plumage but its cheek patches are dark grey. The juvenile does not have brightly coloured head ornamentation, its bill is narrower and is dark-grey with a yellowish-brown tip, and its legs and feet are also dark. Puffins from northern populations are typically larger than in the south and it is generally considered that these populations are different subspecies.
After throwing out the Republican Party I have decided to throw out the Wall Street Journal which is infested with Republicans. I now have a subscription with the New York Times.
After throwing out the Republican Party I have decided to throw out the Wall Street Journal which is infested with Republicans. I now have a subscription with the New York Times.
At one of the Wall Street Journal's numerous god-soaked articles I wrote a comment that did not show respect for the dead Magic Jeebus Man. For that comment the Wall Street Journal no longer allows me to write any comments anywhere. I don't do business with stupid fucking assholes who insult me. I just called them and told them I'm throwing them out.
Every week The New York Times has many excellent articles about science. Some of this science stuff will be posts for this blog.
Besides unlimited online access to more than two centuries of New York Times articles, I will be getting the newspaper delivered to me every day of the year including Sundays and holidays. The Wall Street Journal never has a paper for Sundays and holidays.
The email I wrote for the fucktards at the Wall Street Journal:
I have had a Wall Street Journal subscription for several years, most of my life. I cancelled my subscription because today I was no longer allowed to write comments at the WSJ. Whatever the reason for this was, it was ridiculous and insulting. I don't do business with people who insult me.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
UPDATE:
I can write comments now. However I am still throwing out the Wall Street Journal. My last WSJ payment expires on July 3, 2018. My first New York Times will be delivered June 9, 2018.
They sent me this email:
Thank you for contacting The Wall Street Journal Digital regarding your concern of not be able to write comments. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.
We are aware of the issue that you are experiencing. We apologize for any inconvenience and we assure you that the matter is under active investigation.
We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue.
At one of the Wall Street Journal's numerous god-soaked articles I wrote a comment that did not show respect for the dead Magic Jeebus Man. For that comment the Wall Street Journal no longer allows me to write any comments anywhere. I don't do business with stupid fucking assholes who insult me. I just called them and told them I'm throwing them out.
Every week The New York Times has many excellent articles about science. Some of this science stuff will be posts for this blog.
Besides unlimited online access to more than two centuries of New York Times articles, I will be getting the newspaper delivered to me every day of the year including Sundays and holidays. The Wall Street Journal never has a paper for Sundays and holidays.
The email I wrote for the fucktards at the Wall Street Journal:
I have had a Wall Street Journal subscription for several years, most of my life. I cancelled my subscription because today I was no longer allowed to write comments at the WSJ. Whatever the reason for this was, it was ridiculous and insulting. I don't do business with people who insult me.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
UPDATE:
I can write comments now. However I am still throwing out the Wall Street Journal. My last WSJ payment expires on July 3, 2018. My first New York Times will be delivered June 9, 2018.
They sent me this email:
Thank you for contacting The Wall Street Journal Digital regarding your concern of not be able to write comments. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.
We are aware of the issue that you are experiencing. We apologize for any inconvenience and we assure you that the matter is under active investigation.
We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue.
President Fucktard Trump is doing everything he can to destroy the environment.
Wall Street Journal - A Costly, Deadly Obsession With Coal
The abundant fuel powered the Industrial Revolution, but has lost its price advantage and is shortening lives.
By Greg Ip June 6, 2018 511 COMMENTS
President Donald Trump’s efforts to revive coal mining have been criticized as picking winners. Actually, it’s more like picking losers: coal has become a sunset industry as cleaner energy sources rapidly get cheaper. If Mr. Trump succeeds at reversing the tide, it will come at a steep price, in both dollars and lives, most tragically for the coal miners he seeks to help.
Centuries ago, coal was a miracle material. Cleaner, safer and more efficient than wood, it made the Industrial Revolution, steam power and electrification possible. In much of the world it remains ridiculously plentiful and will be the power generation fuel of choice for years to come.
In the U.S., though, coal is headed toward obsolescence. Thanks to the fracking revolution, natural-gas-fueled power plants are now cheaper to build and operate than coal-fired plants. Solar- and wind-generated power now costs less per kilowatt-hour to produce than coal. Renewables cost slightly more than coal when you include the cost of backup power since the sun doesn’t always shine and wind doesn’t always blow, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. But as innovation in shale gas, wind and solar continues to drive down costs, coal will lose whatever advantages it has now.
Seeking to postpone the inevitable, Energy Secretary Rick Perry last year asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to compel utilities to buy power from struggling coal and nuclear stations. Because they store fuel on site, he said, they reinforce the electrical grid against outages.
FERC rejected Mr. Perry’s request, but last week the White House, citing national security, said it was preparing a new, similar proposal.
As countless witnesses told FERC, the administration’s argument is baseless. Fuel supply problems account for an infinitesimally small share of electrical outages and when supply problems do crop up, they are usually coal’s fault. During Hurricane Harvey last summer, two Houston-area coal-fueled generating units had to switch to natural gas because their coal pile was saturated with rain.
Meanwhile, propping up uneconomical coal and nuclear plants would cost ratepayers a fortune. PJM Interconnection, which operates the wholesale electricity market serving 13 states and the District of Columbia, would bear $1.7 billion to $11 billion a year of added cost for coal-generated power and $1.4 billion to $22 billion for nuclear-generated power, according to PJM’s independent monitor.
These are just the direct, financial costs. Coal carries huge nonfinancial costs. For example, incorporating the “social” cost of climate change due to methane and carbon dioxide emissions, Michael Greenstone, director of the Energy Policy Institute, estimates coal is more expensive than any other power source, and nuclear becomes cheaper than solar and wind (because while the latter two don’t emit carbon they require gas-fired backup power, which does).
Finally, there is the cost to human life. Burning coal emits soot that even in tiny quantities causes cardiovascular and respiratory illness. In one study, Mr. Greenstone and his co-authors found that in China, which is currently negotiating to buy more U.S. coal, life expectancy is reduced by three years in households that use subsidized coal in the winter. The toll in the U.S., where emission standards are tougher, is much smaller, but still measurable.
The miners themselves pay the highest price. Overexposure to coal mine dust leads to black lung disease—inflammation and scarring of the lungs, which eventually leads to organ damage and failure, and premature death.
More than 2,000 cases of progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), the disease’s most lethal form, have been reported since 2000, according to new research by Kirsten Almberg of the University of Illinois at Chicago and seven co-authors.
The incidence of the disease fell sharply after federal legislation mandated stricter dust controls in 1969, but is rising sharply again. The proportion of long-tenured miners in central Appalachia with PMF has shot from 1% in 2004 to 5% in 2015, according to a study by David Blackley of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and four co-authors. But that only counts cases picked up by a federal surveillance program. Experts believe many more are being missed.
Lee Petsonk, a specialist in black lung disease at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, says the disease hits sooner, progresses faster, and is more lethal than 20 years ago; younger miners commonly lose 30 years of life to it. He thinks this is because new mining techniques cause miners to inhale more dust, and more toxic types of dust, such as silica from the surrounding rock. The disease is preventable with the right equipment and practices, and mining companies claim to meet tough federal dust-control standards, Dr. Petsonk says. But the dust-choked lungs he sees in autopsies suggest conditions are getting worse.
“I’ve seen a lot of people die from a lot of diseases and this is one of the most cruel ways to go,” says Dr. Petsonk. “It kills your breath slowly over months or years, and eventually everything you can do in your life, to take care of yourself and your family, is stolen from you.” If work-related illness killed at the same rate in any other industry, he said, “a national emergency would be declared.”
Write to Greg Ip at greg.ip@wsj.com
The abundant fuel powered the Industrial Revolution, but has lost its price advantage and is shortening lives.
By Greg Ip June 6, 2018 511 COMMENTS
President Donald Trump’s efforts to revive coal mining have been criticized as picking winners. Actually, it’s more like picking losers: coal has become a sunset industry as cleaner energy sources rapidly get cheaper. If Mr. Trump succeeds at reversing the tide, it will come at a steep price, in both dollars and lives, most tragically for the coal miners he seeks to help.
Centuries ago, coal was a miracle material. Cleaner, safer and more efficient than wood, it made the Industrial Revolution, steam power and electrification possible. In much of the world it remains ridiculously plentiful and will be the power generation fuel of choice for years to come.
In the U.S., though, coal is headed toward obsolescence. Thanks to the fracking revolution, natural-gas-fueled power plants are now cheaper to build and operate than coal-fired plants. Solar- and wind-generated power now costs less per kilowatt-hour to produce than coal. Renewables cost slightly more than coal when you include the cost of backup power since the sun doesn’t always shine and wind doesn’t always blow, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. But as innovation in shale gas, wind and solar continues to drive down costs, coal will lose whatever advantages it has now.
Seeking to postpone the inevitable, Energy Secretary Rick Perry last year asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to compel utilities to buy power from struggling coal and nuclear stations. Because they store fuel on site, he said, they reinforce the electrical grid against outages.
FERC rejected Mr. Perry’s request, but last week the White House, citing national security, said it was preparing a new, similar proposal.
As countless witnesses told FERC, the administration’s argument is baseless. Fuel supply problems account for an infinitesimally small share of electrical outages and when supply problems do crop up, they are usually coal’s fault. During Hurricane Harvey last summer, two Houston-area coal-fueled generating units had to switch to natural gas because their coal pile was saturated with rain.
Meanwhile, propping up uneconomical coal and nuclear plants would cost ratepayers a fortune. PJM Interconnection, which operates the wholesale electricity market serving 13 states and the District of Columbia, would bear $1.7 billion to $11 billion a year of added cost for coal-generated power and $1.4 billion to $22 billion for nuclear-generated power, according to PJM’s independent monitor.
These are just the direct, financial costs. Coal carries huge nonfinancial costs. For example, incorporating the “social” cost of climate change due to methane and carbon dioxide emissions, Michael Greenstone, director of the Energy Policy Institute, estimates coal is more expensive than any other power source, and nuclear becomes cheaper than solar and wind (because while the latter two don’t emit carbon they require gas-fired backup power, which does).
Finally, there is the cost to human life. Burning coal emits soot that even in tiny quantities causes cardiovascular and respiratory illness. In one study, Mr. Greenstone and his co-authors found that in China, which is currently negotiating to buy more U.S. coal, life expectancy is reduced by three years in households that use subsidized coal in the winter. The toll in the U.S., where emission standards are tougher, is much smaller, but still measurable.
The miners themselves pay the highest price. Overexposure to coal mine dust leads to black lung disease—inflammation and scarring of the lungs, which eventually leads to organ damage and failure, and premature death.
More than 2,000 cases of progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), the disease’s most lethal form, have been reported since 2000, according to new research by Kirsten Almberg of the University of Illinois at Chicago and seven co-authors.
The incidence of the disease fell sharply after federal legislation mandated stricter dust controls in 1969, but is rising sharply again. The proportion of long-tenured miners in central Appalachia with PMF has shot from 1% in 2004 to 5% in 2015, according to a study by David Blackley of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and four co-authors. But that only counts cases picked up by a federal surveillance program. Experts believe many more are being missed.
Lee Petsonk, a specialist in black lung disease at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, says the disease hits sooner, progresses faster, and is more lethal than 20 years ago; younger miners commonly lose 30 years of life to it. He thinks this is because new mining techniques cause miners to inhale more dust, and more toxic types of dust, such as silica from the surrounding rock. The disease is preventable with the right equipment and practices, and mining companies claim to meet tough federal dust-control standards, Dr. Petsonk says. But the dust-choked lungs he sees in autopsies suggest conditions are getting worse.
“I’ve seen a lot of people die from a lot of diseases and this is one of the most cruel ways to go,” says Dr. Petsonk. “It kills your breath slowly over months or years, and eventually everything you can do in your life, to take care of yourself and your family, is stolen from you.” If work-related illness killed at the same rate in any other industry, he said, “a national emergency would be declared.”
Write to Greg Ip at greg.ip@wsj.com
Thursday, June 7, 2018
Wikipedia has everything you always wanted to know about the magical resurrection of the Magic Jeebus Man.
Wikipedia - The magical resurrection of the Magic Jeebus Man
The resurrection of Jeebus is the Christian religious belief that, after being put to death, Jeebus rose again from the dead: as the Nicene Creed expresses it, "On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures".
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Of course the magical resurrection of the decomposing Jeebus never happened because it's impossible. The fantasy requires throwing out all of reality but reality can't be thrown out.
This ridiculous fantasy is the most important Christian belief. If you don't buy this bullshit you are not a real Christian.
How many Christians are there? I looked it up.
"Christianity is the largest religion in the world and according to the Pew Research Center, is likely to remain so for the next four decades. As of 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, there are an estimated 2.2 billion Christians around the world."
These means 2,200,000,000 people think zombies are real. I'm not surprised. The average human ape is a moron. Most Christians are below moron.
Beside being impossible, ridiculous, and a denial of reality, the fantasy is disgusting. The dead preacher was decomposing for 3 days. Imagine the horrible smell.
Also why would the Magic Man, aka the master of the entire fucking universe, perform this disgusting magic trick? And why would it perform this magic for this insignificant planet in a universe of countless trillions of solar systems?
Another problem is the Magic Man is not real. There is no magic in the universe.
Christianity should have gone extinct a long time ago. This bullshit does not belong in the 21st century.
The resurrection of Jeebus is the Christian religious belief that, after being put to death, Jeebus rose again from the dead: as the Nicene Creed expresses it, "On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures".
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Of course the magical resurrection of the decomposing Jeebus never happened because it's impossible. The fantasy requires throwing out all of reality but reality can't be thrown out.
This ridiculous fantasy is the most important Christian belief. If you don't buy this bullshit you are not a real Christian.
How many Christians are there? I looked it up.
"Christianity is the largest religion in the world and according to the Pew Research Center, is likely to remain so for the next four decades. As of 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, there are an estimated 2.2 billion Christians around the world."
These means 2,200,000,000 people think zombies are real. I'm not surprised. The average human ape is a moron. Most Christians are below moron.
Beside being impossible, ridiculous, and a denial of reality, the fantasy is disgusting. The dead preacher was decomposing for 3 days. Imagine the horrible smell.
Also why would the Magic Man, aka the master of the entire fucking universe, perform this disgusting magic trick? And why would it perform this magic for this insignificant planet in a universe of countless trillions of solar systems?
Another problem is the Magic Man is not real. There is no magic in the universe.
Christianity should have gone extinct a long time ago. This bullshit does not belong in the 21st century.
8 years ago David Horton (from Australia) wrote this article about creationists, aka uneducated morons. "I try to study the minds of these strange people who still retain the primitive mindset of the eighteenth century." "They struggle to come to grips with the realities of several hundred years of scientific advances."
The Huffington Post - None So Blind As Creationists
By David Horton May 28, 2010
A curious thing about creationists. I try to study the minds of these strange people, who still, 150 years after Alfred Wallace, retain the primitive mindset of the eighteenth century when people thought that animal species, including the naked ape, had been created, each in its own place, by a finger-pointing white-bearded figure in the sky. It is as if we still had, living among us, people who believed in phlogiston, or humors, or the heart as the seat of emotions; a glimpse back into a distant past of primitive ideas about the world around us.
So I study them, much as a time traveler visiting the Dark Ages might, or a traveler to the deepest Amazon finding a previously uncontacted tribe.
And in the case of creationists, these strange throwbacks living still among us, I try to see the world through their eyes, wonder what strange shadows that imperfect organ is throwing on to the retina of these good simple people as they struggle to come to grips with the realities of several hundred years of scientific advances.
Here is one for you. What do creationists see when they look in the evolutionary mirror? What do they see when they look at Chimpanzee or Gorilla? Do they see both as just another mammal, like Cat or Dog, Kangaroo or Opossum, Platypus or Echidna? Do they not see the close resemblances to us in the face, the expressions, the hands and feet, the body, the behavior, the movement, the social groups, the young? Do they not say, well, my cousin is a hairy man, but he is still my cousin? Do they not say there but for the grace of Darwin go we? That these close cousins just traveled a different path from an obviously identical starting point?
And looking at the faces of their cousins, are they not inspired to investigate further, find that the resemblance is not just skin deep but extends through brain and skeleton and into the most fundamental unit of evolution the DNA?
I mean it is one thing to believe that the old silverback in the sky created beasts of burden and sheep and cattle, obviously different to, and, from an anthropocentric view, inferior to, humans, as part of his reward of dominion over all as long as you didn’t eat of the “tree of evolutionary knowledge” scheme. But the bronze age sheepherders typing out the Old Testament on a piece of goatskin didn’t know about the great apes, or even the monkeys, which did not live around what the desert nomads thought of as the centre of the universe but which we now call the Middle East, a kind of evolutionary backwater with barely enough species known to fill a boat.
If there had been a band of gorillas living by the Dead Sea, or a band of chimpanzees living on the Mount of Olives, do you think one of the sheepherders might have modified the relevant bit of his creation mythology to read, “And then Yahweh created the great apes, and he took a rib from a chimpanzee and it became the first human”?
With that kind of mythology, one of Darwin’s early ancestors, say living in Ancient Athens, might well have been inspired to discover the reality of evolution long before Alfred Wallace. And in that case, would the primitive members of the Texas School Board still be demanding that creationism be taught? How long does it take for the blindingly obvious to be accepted?
By David Horton May 28, 2010
A curious thing about creationists. I try to study the minds of these strange people, who still, 150 years after Alfred Wallace, retain the primitive mindset of the eighteenth century when people thought that animal species, including the naked ape, had been created, each in its own place, by a finger-pointing white-bearded figure in the sky. It is as if we still had, living among us, people who believed in phlogiston, or humors, or the heart as the seat of emotions; a glimpse back into a distant past of primitive ideas about the world around us.
So I study them, much as a time traveler visiting the Dark Ages might, or a traveler to the deepest Amazon finding a previously uncontacted tribe.
And in the case of creationists, these strange throwbacks living still among us, I try to see the world through their eyes, wonder what strange shadows that imperfect organ is throwing on to the retina of these good simple people as they struggle to come to grips with the realities of several hundred years of scientific advances.
Here is one for you. What do creationists see when they look in the evolutionary mirror? What do they see when they look at Chimpanzee or Gorilla? Do they see both as just another mammal, like Cat or Dog, Kangaroo or Opossum, Platypus or Echidna? Do they not see the close resemblances to us in the face, the expressions, the hands and feet, the body, the behavior, the movement, the social groups, the young? Do they not say, well, my cousin is a hairy man, but he is still my cousin? Do they not say there but for the grace of Darwin go we? That these close cousins just traveled a different path from an obviously identical starting point?
And looking at the faces of their cousins, are they not inspired to investigate further, find that the resemblance is not just skin deep but extends through brain and skeleton and into the most fundamental unit of evolution the DNA?
I mean it is one thing to believe that the old silverback in the sky created beasts of burden and sheep and cattle, obviously different to, and, from an anthropocentric view, inferior to, humans, as part of his reward of dominion over all as long as you didn’t eat of the “tree of evolutionary knowledge” scheme. But the bronze age sheepherders typing out the Old Testament on a piece of goatskin didn’t know about the great apes, or even the monkeys, which did not live around what the desert nomads thought of as the centre of the universe but which we now call the Middle East, a kind of evolutionary backwater with barely enough species known to fill a boat.
If there had been a band of gorillas living by the Dead Sea, or a band of chimpanzees living on the Mount of Olives, do you think one of the sheepherders might have modified the relevant bit of his creation mythology to read, “And then Yahweh created the great apes, and he took a rib from a chimpanzee and it became the first human”?
With that kind of mythology, one of Darwin’s early ancestors, say living in Ancient Athens, might well have been inspired to discover the reality of evolution long before Alfred Wallace. And in that case, would the primitive members of the Texas School Board still be demanding that creationism be taught? How long does it take for the blindingly obvious to be accepted?
Methodism is one of the numerous branches of the moronic Christian death cult.
Every religious cult was invented by idiots who made stuff up and then called it the one true religion.
Why do millions of people buy this bullshit? It's a stupidity problem. The average human ape is a moron.
Morons are cowardly and gullible so they like the childish and totally impossible magical-2nd-life fantasy. Zero evidence but they don't care because they have "faith" which is the process of not thinking.
Religious fucktards don't like reality so they have thrown reality out, as if that's possible.
Wikipedia - Methodism
Wesley's theology focused on sanctification and the effect of faith on the character of a Christian. Distinguishing Methodist doctrines include the new birth, an assurance of salvation, imparted righteousness, the possibility of perfection in love, the works of piety, and the primacy of Scripture. Most Methodists teach that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for all of humanity and that salvation is available for all; in theology, this view is known as Arminianism. This teaching rejects the Calvinist position that God has pre-ordained the salvation of a select group of people. However, Whitefield and several others were considered Calvinistic Methodists and held to the Calvinistic position. Methodism emphasises charity and support for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted through the works of mercy. These ideals are put into practice by the establishment of hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, and schools to follow Christ's command to spread the gospel and serve all people.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The bullshit "Christ's command to spread the gospel", also known as religious brainwashing, is the only thing that can prevent the extinction of the cult.
How can this insanity problem be fixed? There is no cure. Extreme stupid is an incurable disease.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
If you are interested in extreme stupid I suggest click all the wikipedia links.
Why do millions of people buy this bullshit? It's a stupidity problem. The average human ape is a moron.
Morons are cowardly and gullible so they like the childish and totally impossible magical-2nd-life fantasy. Zero evidence but they don't care because they have "faith" which is the process of not thinking.
Religious fucktards don't like reality so they have thrown reality out, as if that's possible.
Wikipedia - Methodism
Wesley's theology focused on sanctification and the effect of faith on the character of a Christian. Distinguishing Methodist doctrines include the new birth, an assurance of salvation, imparted righteousness, the possibility of perfection in love, the works of piety, and the primacy of Scripture. Most Methodists teach that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for all of humanity and that salvation is available for all; in theology, this view is known as Arminianism. This teaching rejects the Calvinist position that God has pre-ordained the salvation of a select group of people. However, Whitefield and several others were considered Calvinistic Methodists and held to the Calvinistic position. Methodism emphasises charity and support for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted through the works of mercy. These ideals are put into practice by the establishment of hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, and schools to follow Christ's command to spread the gospel and serve all people.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The bullshit "Christ's command to spread the gospel", also known as religious brainwashing, is the only thing that can prevent the extinction of the cult.
How can this insanity problem be fixed? There is no cure. Extreme stupid is an incurable disease.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
If you are interested in extreme stupid I suggest click all the wikipedia links.
January 27, 1967 - "I'm reporting a bad fire. I'm getting out." This transmission lasted 5 seconds and ended with a cry of pain.
In 1967 America was in a hurry to get to the moon. Mistakes were made.
Space.com - Apollo 1: The Fatal Fire
The Apollo program changed forever on Jan. 27, 1967, when a flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a launch rehearsal test. The three men inside perished despite the best efforts of the ground crew. It would take more than 18 months, and extensive redesigns, before NASA sent more men into space.
NASA had a lofty goal, set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the decade. Earlier Mercury and Gemini flights had been the first steps toward that goal, testing how humans behaved in space and how to do technical spacecraft procedures such as rendezvous. Now the Apollo missions would take astronauts all the way to the moon for orbital missions and landing missions. The first manned mission — an Earth-orbiting mission — was originally designated Apollo Saturn-204, or AS-204, but was later renamed Apollo 1.
The Apollo 1 fire was a difficult time for NASA and its astronauts, but the improvements in astronaut safety allowed the agency to complete the rest of the program with no further fatalities. The agency also met Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon in 1969, during Apollo 11.
NASA had a special ceremony honoring the Apollo 1 astronauts on the 50th anniversary of their deaths in 2017, which included unveiling a new exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center showing the hatches of the damaged command module.
The astronauts
The Apollo 1 crew commander, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, was an Air Force veteran of the Korean War. He was chosen was among NASA's first group of seven astronauts, the Mercury Seven. Grissom was America's second person in space in 1961. On that mission, Mercury's Liberty Bell 7, the hatch door blew for unknown reasons upon splashdown. Grissom ended up in the water and was rescued by a helicopter (which at first tried, in vain, to pick up the spacecraft; the spacecraft was later pulled from the ocean floor in 1999).
Some in the Astronaut Office were skeptical that Grissom's reputation would recover (many believed Grissom blew the hatch; he swore he didn't). However, Grissom successfully commanded the first Gemini flight, Gemini 3, and was selected to do the same for Apollo.
Fellow spaceflight veteran Ed White, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, was the first American to make a spacewalk, on Gemini 4 in 1965. The images of him soaring in space for 23 minutes are still frequently seen today; it is considered one of history's most memorable spacewalks.
Roger Chaffee was a seasoned Navy lieutenant commander who joined the program in 1963. Although a rookie in space, he had spent years supporting the Gemini program, most publicly as CapCom on Gemini 4. Now getting a chance to fly after five years in the program, he said, "I think it will be a lot of fun."
Gone in an instant
Every astronaut in the Apollo program had flight experience, and many were test pilots. They were used to seeing machines under development and dealing with delays, and assessing the airplanes' readiness for flight. In the view of many of these astronauts, the Apollo command module just wasn't ready yet. Engineering changes were still in progress as NASA prepared for the countdown test.
On his last visit home in Texas, Jan. 22, 1967, Grissom grabbed a lemon off a citrus tree in the backyard. His wife, Betty, asked what he was going to do with it. "I'm going to hang it on that spacecraft," he answered as he kissed her goodbye. He hung it on the flight simulator after he arrived at the Cape.
The morning of the test, the crew suited up and detected a foul odor in the breathing oxygen, which took about an hour to fix. Then the communications system acted up. Shouting through the noise, Grissom vented: "How are we going to get to the moon if we can't talk between two or three buildings?"
With communications problems dragging on, the practice countdown was held. Then at 6:31 p.m. came a frightening word from the spacecraft: "Fire."
Deke Slayton, who oversaw crew selections at NASA and was present for the test, could see white flames in a closed-circuit television monitor pointing toward the spacecraft. The crew struggled to get out. Technicians raced to the scene, trying to fight the fire with extinguishers amid faulty breathing masks. [Video: Apollo 1 Remembered – Report from the Archives]
At last, the door was open, but it was too late.
The aftermath and changes
A NASA review board found a stray spark (probably from damaged wires near Grissom's couch) started the fire in the pure oxygen environment. Fed by flammable features such as nylon netting and foam pads, the blaze quickly spread. [Infographic: How the Apollo 1 Fire Happened]
Further, the hatch door — intended to keep the astronauts and the atmosphere securely inside the spacecraft — turned out to be too tough to open under the unfortunate circumstances. The astronauts had struggled in vain to open the door during the fire, but the pressure inside the spacecraft sealed the door and made it impossible to open.
The board listed a damning set of circumstances, failures and recommendations for future spacecraft designers to consider.
The U.S. Senate conducted its own investigation and hearings and published recommendations of its own, while saying NASA's failure to report its problems with Apollo "was an unquestionably serious dereliction."
Several changes were made to the design of the Apollo spacecraft to improve crew safety. The flammable oxygen environment for ground tests was replaced with a nitrogen-oxygen mix. Flammable items were removed. A new respect developed between the astronauts and the contractors concerning design changes, which were implemented more effectively. Most notably, the door was completely redesigned so that it would open in mere seconds when the crew needed to get out in a hurry. [Photos: The Apollo 1 Fire]
Decades later, NASA recalls the Apollo 1 incident every January in an annual Day of Remembrance. It also honors the Challenger and Columbia crews, who died in 1986 and 2003, respectively. Further, an exhibit honoring the Apollo 1 crew was opened at the Kennedy Space Center in 2017, displaying the hatches that were on the spacecraft. The exhibit was done in consultation with the astronauts' families.
Space.com - Apollo 1: The Fatal Fire
The Apollo program changed forever on Jan. 27, 1967, when a flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a launch rehearsal test. The three men inside perished despite the best efforts of the ground crew. It would take more than 18 months, and extensive redesigns, before NASA sent more men into space.
NASA had a lofty goal, set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the decade. Earlier Mercury and Gemini flights had been the first steps toward that goal, testing how humans behaved in space and how to do technical spacecraft procedures such as rendezvous. Now the Apollo missions would take astronauts all the way to the moon for orbital missions and landing missions. The first manned mission — an Earth-orbiting mission — was originally designated Apollo Saturn-204, or AS-204, but was later renamed Apollo 1.
The Apollo 1 fire was a difficult time for NASA and its astronauts, but the improvements in astronaut safety allowed the agency to complete the rest of the program with no further fatalities. The agency also met Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon in 1969, during Apollo 11.
NASA had a special ceremony honoring the Apollo 1 astronauts on the 50th anniversary of their deaths in 2017, which included unveiling a new exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center showing the hatches of the damaged command module.
The astronauts
The Apollo 1 crew commander, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, was an Air Force veteran of the Korean War. He was chosen was among NASA's first group of seven astronauts, the Mercury Seven. Grissom was America's second person in space in 1961. On that mission, Mercury's Liberty Bell 7, the hatch door blew for unknown reasons upon splashdown. Grissom ended up in the water and was rescued by a helicopter (which at first tried, in vain, to pick up the spacecraft; the spacecraft was later pulled from the ocean floor in 1999).
Some in the Astronaut Office were skeptical that Grissom's reputation would recover (many believed Grissom blew the hatch; he swore he didn't). However, Grissom successfully commanded the first Gemini flight, Gemini 3, and was selected to do the same for Apollo.
Fellow spaceflight veteran Ed White, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, was the first American to make a spacewalk, on Gemini 4 in 1965. The images of him soaring in space for 23 minutes are still frequently seen today; it is considered one of history's most memorable spacewalks.
Roger Chaffee was a seasoned Navy lieutenant commander who joined the program in 1963. Although a rookie in space, he had spent years supporting the Gemini program, most publicly as CapCom on Gemini 4. Now getting a chance to fly after five years in the program, he said, "I think it will be a lot of fun."
Gone in an instant
Every astronaut in the Apollo program had flight experience, and many were test pilots. They were used to seeing machines under development and dealing with delays, and assessing the airplanes' readiness for flight. In the view of many of these astronauts, the Apollo command module just wasn't ready yet. Engineering changes were still in progress as NASA prepared for the countdown test.
On his last visit home in Texas, Jan. 22, 1967, Grissom grabbed a lemon off a citrus tree in the backyard. His wife, Betty, asked what he was going to do with it. "I'm going to hang it on that spacecraft," he answered as he kissed her goodbye. He hung it on the flight simulator after he arrived at the Cape.
The morning of the test, the crew suited up and detected a foul odor in the breathing oxygen, which took about an hour to fix. Then the communications system acted up. Shouting through the noise, Grissom vented: "How are we going to get to the moon if we can't talk between two or three buildings?"
With communications problems dragging on, the practice countdown was held. Then at 6:31 p.m. came a frightening word from the spacecraft: "Fire."
Deke Slayton, who oversaw crew selections at NASA and was present for the test, could see white flames in a closed-circuit television monitor pointing toward the spacecraft. The crew struggled to get out. Technicians raced to the scene, trying to fight the fire with extinguishers amid faulty breathing masks. [Video: Apollo 1 Remembered – Report from the Archives]
At last, the door was open, but it was too late.
The aftermath and changes
A NASA review board found a stray spark (probably from damaged wires near Grissom's couch) started the fire in the pure oxygen environment. Fed by flammable features such as nylon netting and foam pads, the blaze quickly spread. [Infographic: How the Apollo 1 Fire Happened]
Further, the hatch door — intended to keep the astronauts and the atmosphere securely inside the spacecraft — turned out to be too tough to open under the unfortunate circumstances. The astronauts had struggled in vain to open the door during the fire, but the pressure inside the spacecraft sealed the door and made it impossible to open.
The board listed a damning set of circumstances, failures and recommendations for future spacecraft designers to consider.
The U.S. Senate conducted its own investigation and hearings and published recommendations of its own, while saying NASA's failure to report its problems with Apollo "was an unquestionably serious dereliction."
Several changes were made to the design of the Apollo spacecraft to improve crew safety. The flammable oxygen environment for ground tests was replaced with a nitrogen-oxygen mix. Flammable items were removed. A new respect developed between the astronauts and the contractors concerning design changes, which were implemented more effectively. Most notably, the door was completely redesigned so that it would open in mere seconds when the crew needed to get out in a hurry. [Photos: The Apollo 1 Fire]
Decades later, NASA recalls the Apollo 1 incident every January in an annual Day of Remembrance. It also honors the Challenger and Columbia crews, who died in 1986 and 2003, respectively. Further, an exhibit honoring the Apollo 1 crew was opened at the Kennedy Space Center in 2017, displaying the hatches that were on the spacecraft. The exhibit was done in consultation with the astronauts' families.
 |
| The Apollo 1 crew, from left to right, Roger Chaffee, Ed White and Gus Grissom. |
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
The breathtaking stupidity of President Fucktard Trump.
When Justin Trudeau Asked How Canada Could Be a National Security Threat to the U.S., Trump Brought Up the War of 1812
By JORDAN WEISSMANN JUNE 06, 2018
One upside of watching the postwar international order disintegrate before our very eyes is that, every once in a while, somebody leaks some embarrassing and entertaining detail about Donald Trump’s conversations with other world leaders. For instance, CNN reportsthat during a “testy” conversation about the recent steel and aluminum tariffs the United States imposed on Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau interrogated Donald Trump about how he could possibly consider his country, one of America’s most stalwart allies, a national security threat. Trump jokingly responded by asking, “Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” This was supposed to be a reference to the War of 1812, and would have been a pretty good retort—except that it was actually the British who torched Washington. Oh well.
This story is funny, in the way that the pratfalls of a wildly ignorant chief executive who is slowly claiming ever broader executive powers have become a constant source of grim humor. But it also points to one of the more common misunderstandings about this whole tariff controversy, and some of the ways Trump has actually twisted Washington’s conventional understanding of how trade and national security relate.
Trump’s official rationale for the steel and aluminum tariffs he’s imposing on Canada, Mexico, and Europe is that they are necessary to protect America’s national security, because competition from foreign imports is destroying America’s domestic production capacity, which needs to be preserved so that we can defend ourselves in a time of conflict. (You need steel to build ships, and special high-grade aluminum to build fighter jets, to take a couple examples.) Nobody is suggesting that Canada has suddenly become an aggressive foreign power bent on annexing the West Coast into British Columbia. The concern is about the effects steel imports from all over the world are having on American factories.
Nonetheless, Canadian officials—perhaps sensing an easy opportunity to score some rhetorical points—have made a great show expressing their public indignation at supposedly being labeled a menace to America’s public safety. “The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is, quite frankly, insulting and unacceptable,” Trudeau told NBC’s Chuck Todd. Canadian Minister of Foreign Affiars Chrystia Freeland, a former business journalist who certainly understands what’s actually going on, made similar comments to CNN: “And I would just say to all of Canada’s American friends—and there are so many— seriously? Do you really believe that Canada, that your NATO allies, represent a national security threat to you?”
Again, nobody actually believes that. Rather, the Trump administration is insisting that Canadian and European steel are a threat to American industry, which in turn erodes our national security—which, even if wrong, is a less facially absurd argument.
Here’s the thing that’s actually strange about Trump’s national security analysis, which was conducted by the Commerce Department. When the government has set out to determine whether imports pose a threat to American national security interests in the past, it’s considered whether the U.S. is capable of buying goods from reliable allies like Canada or Mexico. The idea isn’t to make sure that the U.S. is completely self-sufficient in the case of a major international confrontation—just that we can get what we need in an emergency. This time around, however, the administration chose not to do that, and included an entire paragraph in its report explaining why not. In short, it claimed that when Congress passed the law giving the president the power to act on these issues, it didn’t really care whether imports came from an ally or not, just whether they were weakening our own industry or economy.
The Secretary also considered whether the source of the imports affects the analysis under Section 232. In the 2001 Report, “the Department found that iron ore and semi-finished steel are imported from reliable foreign sources” and concluded that “even if the United States were dependent on imports of iron ore and semifinished steel, imports would not threaten to impair national security.” However, because Congress in Section 232 chose to explicitly direct the Secretary to consider whether the “impact of foreign competition” and “the displacement of any domestic products by excessive imports” are “weakening our internal economy” but made no reference to an assessment of the sources of imports, it appears likely that Congress recognized adverse impacts might be caused by imports from allies or other reliable sources. As a result, the fact that some or all of the imports causing the harm are from reliable sources does not compel a finding that those imports do not threaten to impair national security.
You can debate whether this is a fair reading of the statute (it’s certainly not a traditional reading). But in the end, the Trump administration is taking the broadest possible approach to defining an economic national security threat, and doing it in a way that doesn’t consider whether our imports come from friendly sources.
Of course, all of this is a little bit absurd because, in the end, Trump has made it abundantly clear that his tariffs are not actually about national security, but about protecting a favored industry while throwing America’s weight around on world trade in order to win concessions on things like NAFTA negotiations. So Canada’s leaders have been wielding a catchy but slightly bogus argument to criticize America’s obviously insincere but perhaps legally sound justification for starting a trade war. It’s all a bit of a Kabuki. But at least the leaks are good for a LOL.
By JORDAN WEISSMANN JUNE 06, 2018
One upside of watching the postwar international order disintegrate before our very eyes is that, every once in a while, somebody leaks some embarrassing and entertaining detail about Donald Trump’s conversations with other world leaders. For instance, CNN reportsthat during a “testy” conversation about the recent steel and aluminum tariffs the United States imposed on Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau interrogated Donald Trump about how he could possibly consider his country, one of America’s most stalwart allies, a national security threat. Trump jokingly responded by asking, “Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” This was supposed to be a reference to the War of 1812, and would have been a pretty good retort—except that it was actually the British who torched Washington. Oh well.
This story is funny, in the way that the pratfalls of a wildly ignorant chief executive who is slowly claiming ever broader executive powers have become a constant source of grim humor. But it also points to one of the more common misunderstandings about this whole tariff controversy, and some of the ways Trump has actually twisted Washington’s conventional understanding of how trade and national security relate.
Trump’s official rationale for the steel and aluminum tariffs he’s imposing on Canada, Mexico, and Europe is that they are necessary to protect America’s national security, because competition from foreign imports is destroying America’s domestic production capacity, which needs to be preserved so that we can defend ourselves in a time of conflict. (You need steel to build ships, and special high-grade aluminum to build fighter jets, to take a couple examples.) Nobody is suggesting that Canada has suddenly become an aggressive foreign power bent on annexing the West Coast into British Columbia. The concern is about the effects steel imports from all over the world are having on American factories.
Nonetheless, Canadian officials—perhaps sensing an easy opportunity to score some rhetorical points—have made a great show expressing their public indignation at supposedly being labeled a menace to America’s public safety. “The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is, quite frankly, insulting and unacceptable,” Trudeau told NBC’s Chuck Todd. Canadian Minister of Foreign Affiars Chrystia Freeland, a former business journalist who certainly understands what’s actually going on, made similar comments to CNN: “And I would just say to all of Canada’s American friends—and there are so many— seriously? Do you really believe that Canada, that your NATO allies, represent a national security threat to you?”
Again, nobody actually believes that. Rather, the Trump administration is insisting that Canadian and European steel are a threat to American industry, which in turn erodes our national security—which, even if wrong, is a less facially absurd argument.
Here’s the thing that’s actually strange about Trump’s national security analysis, which was conducted by the Commerce Department. When the government has set out to determine whether imports pose a threat to American national security interests in the past, it’s considered whether the U.S. is capable of buying goods from reliable allies like Canada or Mexico. The idea isn’t to make sure that the U.S. is completely self-sufficient in the case of a major international confrontation—just that we can get what we need in an emergency. This time around, however, the administration chose not to do that, and included an entire paragraph in its report explaining why not. In short, it claimed that when Congress passed the law giving the president the power to act on these issues, it didn’t really care whether imports came from an ally or not, just whether they were weakening our own industry or economy.
The Secretary also considered whether the source of the imports affects the analysis under Section 232. In the 2001 Report, “the Department found that iron ore and semi-finished steel are imported from reliable foreign sources” and concluded that “even if the United States were dependent on imports of iron ore and semifinished steel, imports would not threaten to impair national security.” However, because Congress in Section 232 chose to explicitly direct the Secretary to consider whether the “impact of foreign competition” and “the displacement of any domestic products by excessive imports” are “weakening our internal economy” but made no reference to an assessment of the sources of imports, it appears likely that Congress recognized adverse impacts might be caused by imports from allies or other reliable sources. As a result, the fact that some or all of the imports causing the harm are from reliable sources does not compel a finding that those imports do not threaten to impair national security.
You can debate whether this is a fair reading of the statute (it’s certainly not a traditional reading). But in the end, the Trump administration is taking the broadest possible approach to defining an economic national security threat, and doing it in a way that doesn’t consider whether our imports come from friendly sources.
Of course, all of this is a little bit absurd because, in the end, Trump has made it abundantly clear that his tariffs are not actually about national security, but about protecting a favored industry while throwing America’s weight around on world trade in order to win concessions on things like NAFTA negotiations. So Canada’s leaders have been wielding a catchy but slightly bogus argument to criticize America’s obviously insincere but perhaps legally sound justification for starting a trade war. It’s all a bit of a Kabuki. But at least the leaks are good for a LOL.
A quote from the book "God's Word or Human Reason?"
The next time you visit a zoo, go see the Great Apes. Recall the histories told by our bodies, by the earth, and by our DNA. These beings are not mere beasts, separated from humanity by an absolute gulf. They are our distant kin, our living link to all other life.
-- God's Word or Human Reason?
-- God's Word or Human Reason?
In twenty minutes on May 27, 1896 the universe killed 255 people in St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis,_Illinois#The_Great_Cyclone_of_1896
On May 27, 1896, a tornado struck St. Louis and East St. Louis that remains the deadliest event in the area because of the number of people it injured or killed in such a short time. In approximately twenty minutes, the 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado killed 137 people in St. Louis and 118 in East St. Louis. The tornado's destruction spanned ten miles, including into the railyards and commercial districts of East St. Louis. During the storm, 311 buildings were destroyed and 7,200 others were severely damaged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_St._Louis–East_St._Louis_tornado
The 1896 St. Louis – East St. Louis tornado was a historic tornado that occurred on Wednesday, May 27, 1896, as part of a major tornado outbreak across the Central United States that day, continuing across the Eastern United States on the 28th. One of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history, this large and violent tornado was the most notable of an outbreak which produced other large, long-track, violent, killer tornadoes. It caused over $10,000,000 in damage in 1896 ($4.45 billion in today's dollars). 255 people died, and over a thousand were injured. More than 5000 people were homeless and lost all of their possessions.
While a cyclone had been predicted for the later days in May, many disregarded the warning or felt that St. Louis city would not be affected. The day started quietly, with people going about their daily business. The weather in the morning did not indicate any severe threat of a tornado. The local weather bureau predicted thunderstorms, but nothing more serious. Around noon, the clouds began to appear more ominous and the barometric pressure dropped, alarming those who knew that was an indication of a tornado.
Into the afternoon, the skies started to darken, but the Weather Bureau Observatory was not overly concerned. Many residents, however, fled to their homes, anticipating severe weather. At 4:30, the temperature fell rapidly and black and greenish clouds approached the city. Near 5:00 pm, it was as dark as it would otherwise be 3 hours later in the day. As the thunderstorm approached St. Louis, the western portion of the city was particularly affected. The winds were initially around 37 miles per hour, but they quickly increased to almost 80 miles per hour.
The first significant tornado of the day formed near Bellflower, Missouri and killed a woman. Three students died and 16 were injured when the Dye School in Audrain County, Missouri was hit at around 6:15 pm. The same tornado killed one student and injured 19 others at the Bean Creek school a few minutes later. At 6:30, two supercell thunderstorms produced two tornadoes. One decimated farms in New Minden, Hoyleton, Richview, and Irvington, Illinois.
Twenty-seven more people died in the other Illinois tornadoes of this outbreak.
The tornado spawned from the other supercell became the third deadliest and the most costly tornado in United States history. It touched down in St. Louis, Missouri, then one of the largest and most influential cities in the country. At least 137 people died as the tornado traversed the core of the city leaving a 1 mile (1.6 km) wide continuous swath of destroyed homes, schools, saloons, factories, mills, churches, parks, and railroad yards. A few of the destroyed homes were swept away. Numerous trees were downed at the 36-acre (0.15 km2) Lafayette Park, and a barometer recorded a drop to 26.74 inHg (906 hPa) at this location. Uncounted others may have died on boats on the Mississippi River, which could have swept their bodies downriver.
Where the tornado crossed the Mississippi and struck the Eads Bridge, a 2 in × 10 in (51 mm × 254 mm) wooden plank was found driven through a 5⁄16 in (7.9 mm) wrought iron plate. The tornado continued into East St. Louis, Illinois, where it was smaller, but more intense. Homes and buildings along the river were completely swept away and a quarter of the buildings there were damaged or destroyed. An additional 118 people were killed, and 35 of those deaths alone occurred at the Vandalia railroad freight yards. The confirmed death toll is 255, with some estimates above 400. More than 1,000 were injured. The tornado was later rated F4 on the Fujita scale. Enough damage was done to the city that there was some question that St. Louis might not be able to host the 1896 Republican National Convention in June.
Following the cyclone's destruction, members of Light Battery "A" and the First Regiment were placed on volunteer duty. Within an hour of the tornado striking, 32 members were on duty with ambulances and hospital corps to assist in rescue operations and to help victims. The mayor asked that both commands remain on patrol duty on May 30. Members of the bicycle corps of Company "G" First Regiment assisted when railway service was inaccessible. Telephone and telegraph wires were destroyed and streets were impassable. Officers were summoned to duty by bicycle couriers, as this way the only means of communication after the city's destruction.
On May 27, 1896, a tornado struck St. Louis and East St. Louis that remains the deadliest event in the area because of the number of people it injured or killed in such a short time. In approximately twenty minutes, the 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado killed 137 people in St. Louis and 118 in East St. Louis. The tornado's destruction spanned ten miles, including into the railyards and commercial districts of East St. Louis. During the storm, 311 buildings were destroyed and 7,200 others were severely damaged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_St._Louis–East_St._Louis_tornado
The 1896 St. Louis – East St. Louis tornado was a historic tornado that occurred on Wednesday, May 27, 1896, as part of a major tornado outbreak across the Central United States that day, continuing across the Eastern United States on the 28th. One of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history, this large and violent tornado was the most notable of an outbreak which produced other large, long-track, violent, killer tornadoes. It caused over $10,000,000 in damage in 1896 ($4.45 billion in today's dollars). 255 people died, and over a thousand were injured. More than 5000 people were homeless and lost all of their possessions.
While a cyclone had been predicted for the later days in May, many disregarded the warning or felt that St. Louis city would not be affected. The day started quietly, with people going about their daily business. The weather in the morning did not indicate any severe threat of a tornado. The local weather bureau predicted thunderstorms, but nothing more serious. Around noon, the clouds began to appear more ominous and the barometric pressure dropped, alarming those who knew that was an indication of a tornado.
Into the afternoon, the skies started to darken, but the Weather Bureau Observatory was not overly concerned. Many residents, however, fled to their homes, anticipating severe weather. At 4:30, the temperature fell rapidly and black and greenish clouds approached the city. Near 5:00 pm, it was as dark as it would otherwise be 3 hours later in the day. As the thunderstorm approached St. Louis, the western portion of the city was particularly affected. The winds were initially around 37 miles per hour, but they quickly increased to almost 80 miles per hour.
The first significant tornado of the day formed near Bellflower, Missouri and killed a woman. Three students died and 16 were injured when the Dye School in Audrain County, Missouri was hit at around 6:15 pm. The same tornado killed one student and injured 19 others at the Bean Creek school a few minutes later. At 6:30, two supercell thunderstorms produced two tornadoes. One decimated farms in New Minden, Hoyleton, Richview, and Irvington, Illinois.
Twenty-seven more people died in the other Illinois tornadoes of this outbreak.
The tornado spawned from the other supercell became the third deadliest and the most costly tornado in United States history. It touched down in St. Louis, Missouri, then one of the largest and most influential cities in the country. At least 137 people died as the tornado traversed the core of the city leaving a 1 mile (1.6 km) wide continuous swath of destroyed homes, schools, saloons, factories, mills, churches, parks, and railroad yards. A few of the destroyed homes were swept away. Numerous trees were downed at the 36-acre (0.15 km2) Lafayette Park, and a barometer recorded a drop to 26.74 inHg (906 hPa) at this location. Uncounted others may have died on boats on the Mississippi River, which could have swept their bodies downriver.
Where the tornado crossed the Mississippi and struck the Eads Bridge, a 2 in × 10 in (51 mm × 254 mm) wooden plank was found driven through a 5⁄16 in (7.9 mm) wrought iron plate. The tornado continued into East St. Louis, Illinois, where it was smaller, but more intense. Homes and buildings along the river were completely swept away and a quarter of the buildings there were damaged or destroyed. An additional 118 people were killed, and 35 of those deaths alone occurred at the Vandalia railroad freight yards. The confirmed death toll is 255, with some estimates above 400. More than 1,000 were injured. The tornado was later rated F4 on the Fujita scale. Enough damage was done to the city that there was some question that St. Louis might not be able to host the 1896 Republican National Convention in June.
Following the cyclone's destruction, members of Light Battery "A" and the First Regiment were placed on volunteer duty. Within an hour of the tornado striking, 32 members were on duty with ambulances and hospital corps to assist in rescue operations and to help victims. The mayor asked that both commands remain on patrol duty on May 30. Members of the bicycle corps of Company "G" First Regiment assisted when railway service was inaccessible. Telephone and telegraph wires were destroyed and streets were impassable. Officers were summoned to duty by bicycle couriers, as this way the only means of communication after the city's destruction.
I want to move to Canada.
BBC News - Canada is on the verge of legalising marijuana for recreational use.
"The BBC visited a huge cannabis farm in British Columbia, which the operators say is the largest facility of its kind in the world."
You can see a video of the marijuana farm if you click the link.
I would never smoke the special substance but it would be nice to be able to legally buy a marijuana edible.
The other Iran
The other Iran
Iran’s exceptional reaction to 9/11 attacks: candlelit vigils for the victims and 60k soccer fans respected a minute’s silence
“Iran’s sympathetic response to the American tragedy has been exceptional for a country under US economic siege for two decades. Only hours after the Sept. 11 attack, President Muhammad Khatami condemned it, as did Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Other officials have sent sympathetic messages, including one from the mayor of Tehran to the mayor of New York – the first public official contact between Iran and the US since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
More important, 60,000 spectators observed a minute of silence during a soccer match in Iran’s Azadi Stadium, and hundreds of young Iranians held a candle-lit vigil in Tehran.”
Source: The Christian Science Monitor | US and Iran must work together against Taliban by R. K. Ramazani – September 24, 2001
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Iran’s National Botanical Garden in Tehran (Photos)
Iran’s exceptional reaction to 9/11 attacks: candlelit vigils for the victims and 60k soccer fans respected a minute’s silence
“Iran’s sympathetic response to the American tragedy has been exceptional for a country under US economic siege for two decades. Only hours after the Sept. 11 attack, President Muhammad Khatami condemned it, as did Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Other officials have sent sympathetic messages, including one from the mayor of Tehran to the mayor of New York – the first public official contact between Iran and the US since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
More important, 60,000 spectators observed a minute of silence during a soccer match in Iran’s Azadi Stadium, and hundreds of young Iranians held a candle-lit vigil in Tehran.”
Source: The Christian Science Monitor | US and Iran must work together against Taliban by R. K. Ramazani – September 24, 2001
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Iran’s National Botanical Garden in Tehran (Photos)
The Religion of Peace
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https://thereligionofpeace.com
Saint Petersburg, Russia
I just won a very interesting chess game against someone from Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was a difficult game. I thought I was going to lose.
After a chess game I like to look things up. I found an interesting photo of two people celebrating the end of winter in Saint Petersburg.
Not by pancakes alone: How to celebrate Maslenitsa 2018 in Moscow and St. Petersburg
Imagine a celebration where you eat a year’s worth of pancakes in a single day, burn straw figures, and beat each other with heavy sacks? Welcome to Russian Maslenista! This traditional Slavic holiday celebrates the end of winter, and the beginning of the Lenten Season. Take a look at our guide to find out where to go, and what to expect from this ancient folk carnival in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
After a chess game I like to look things up. I found an interesting photo of two people celebrating the end of winter in Saint Petersburg.
 |
| This traditional Slavic holiday celebrates the end of winter. |
Not by pancakes alone: How to celebrate Maslenitsa 2018 in Moscow and St. Petersburg
Imagine a celebration where you eat a year’s worth of pancakes in a single day, burn straw figures, and beat each other with heavy sacks? Welcome to Russian Maslenista! This traditional Slavic holiday celebrates the end of winter, and the beginning of the Lenten Season. Take a look at our guide to find out where to go, and what to expect from this ancient folk carnival in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
President Fucktard Trump is destroying America's farm industry with his moronic trade wars. Trump is a stupid fucking asshole.
Wall Street Journal - Mexico and Canada Add to Nations Striking Fear in U.S. Farmers
Mexico joins China in imposing tariffs on imports of U.S. food and farm goods as Canada, Europe consider similar moves.
U.S. farmers, already losing sales to China, are facing new threats to sales in other big overseas markets as trade tensions spread globally.
Mexico this week imposed tariffs on major U.S. exports such as cheese and pork, while Canada and the European Union are considering tariffs on imports of U.S. food and farm goods from corn to orange juice to peanut butter, in response to the U.S. placing tariffs last week on steel and aluminum imports from those countries. In addition, analysts say, China could target other crops and products after Trump administration officials last week outlined potential tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The rapid-fire exchange of tariffs and trade threats leaves U.S. farmers and agricultural groups fearing tougher sells in their most important overseas markets, with duties adding to the cost of U.S. goods in markets that imported $70 billion worth of U.S. farm products last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
U.S. farmers already are feeling the pinch from the trade sniping. In Iowa, the top pork-producing state, Dean Meyer has seen his prices decline since China levied duties on American pork imports in April.
“We’re at a point in our operation where profits are compromised,” said Mr. Meyer, who recently expanded his operation near Rock Rapids, Iowa, to sell around 22,000 hogs a year, partly betting on increased demand from abroad. “The last thing we need is a hiccup in demand.”
Mexico joins China in imposing tariffs on imports of U.S. food and farm goods as Canada, Europe consider similar moves.
U.S. farmers, already losing sales to China, are facing new threats to sales in other big overseas markets as trade tensions spread globally.
Mexico this week imposed tariffs on major U.S. exports such as cheese and pork, while Canada and the European Union are considering tariffs on imports of U.S. food and farm goods from corn to orange juice to peanut butter, in response to the U.S. placing tariffs last week on steel and aluminum imports from those countries. In addition, analysts say, China could target other crops and products after Trump administration officials last week outlined potential tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The rapid-fire exchange of tariffs and trade threats leaves U.S. farmers and agricultural groups fearing tougher sells in their most important overseas markets, with duties adding to the cost of U.S. goods in markets that imported $70 billion worth of U.S. farm products last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
U.S. farmers already are feeling the pinch from the trade sniping. In Iowa, the top pork-producing state, Dean Meyer has seen his prices decline since China levied duties on American pork imports in April.
“We’re at a point in our operation where profits are compromised,” said Mr. Meyer, who recently expanded his operation near Rock Rapids, Iowa, to sell around 22,000 hogs a year, partly betting on increased demand from abroad. “The last thing we need is a hiccup in demand.”
Evolution deniers, also known as creationists because they think a magic god fairy magically created millions of species out of nothing, are stupid fucking assholes.
This is from Wikipedia - Level of support for evolution: "The overwhelming majority of the scientific community accepts evolution as the dominant scientific theory of biological diversity."
This includes 100% of the world's biologists. They all agree evolution is the strongest fact of science. They all agree human apes share an ancestor with cockroaches, trees, and chimpanzee apes. They all agree a magic god fairy had nothing to do with it.
Why are biologist 100% certain evolution is true? It's because of the evidence, countless thousands of evidences, evidences more powerful than Charles Darwin could have imagined possible, evidence that's growing so fast even the most experienced biologist could not keep up with it.
With all this undeniable evidence for evolution why are there still millions of evolution deniers in countries like the Middle East and Idiot America?
It's a stupidity problem and it's a religious bullshit problem.
Why can't these fucktards grow up and educate themselves?
They have numerous excuses to know nothing. They have decided evolution is wrong therefore it is wrong and there is no reason to understand it.
Ask a Christian fucktard to study the thousands of evidences at Wikipedia - Evidence of common descent. It would take a lifetime to study the whole thing. They are too lazy to click a link. If they do take a look at it, they spend one minute to find something they think is wrong then they're done. Evolution is still wrong.
Extreme stupid can't be fixed. These retards for Jeebus and Allah will waste their entire lives being completely wrong about everything.
Millions of people are morons. Who cares?
The problem is these assholes brainwash children to prefer magic instead of science. This is child abuse but they're getting away with it.
Even worse these stupid fucking assholes are trying to dumb down the teaching of evolution, not caring if they destroy science education for all students.
Obviously these god-soaked idiots need to be repeatedly ridiculed. Being nice never did work and it never will work.
This includes 100% of the world's biologists. They all agree evolution is the strongest fact of science. They all agree human apes share an ancestor with cockroaches, trees, and chimpanzee apes. They all agree a magic god fairy had nothing to do with it.
Why are biologist 100% certain evolution is true? It's because of the evidence, countless thousands of evidences, evidences more powerful than Charles Darwin could have imagined possible, evidence that's growing so fast even the most experienced biologist could not keep up with it.
With all this undeniable evidence for evolution why are there still millions of evolution deniers in countries like the Middle East and Idiot America?
It's a stupidity problem and it's a religious bullshit problem.
Why can't these fucktards grow up and educate themselves?
They have numerous excuses to know nothing. They have decided evolution is wrong therefore it is wrong and there is no reason to understand it.
Ask a Christian fucktard to study the thousands of evidences at Wikipedia - Evidence of common descent. It would take a lifetime to study the whole thing. They are too lazy to click a link. If they do take a look at it, they spend one minute to find something they think is wrong then they're done. Evolution is still wrong.
Extreme stupid can't be fixed. These retards for Jeebus and Allah will waste their entire lives being completely wrong about everything.
Millions of people are morons. Who cares?
The problem is these assholes brainwash children to prefer magic instead of science. This is child abuse but they're getting away with it.
Even worse these stupid fucking assholes are trying to dumb down the teaching of evolution, not caring if they destroy science education for all students.
Obviously these god-soaked idiots need to be repeatedly ridiculed. Being nice never did work and it never will work.
What is the United States? That's a good question so I looked it up. Wikipedia is my friend. I found some interesting stuff about America's love for supernatural bullshit. The good news is the younger generations are not interested in bullshit.
First the good news:
"Irreligion is growing rapidly among Americans under 30. Polls show that overall American confidence in organized religion has been declining since the mid to late 1980s, and that younger Americans, in particular, are becoming increasingly irreligious."
A hundred years from now most of the religious fucktards will be dead and America will almost be a normal country.
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This is why the United States is called "Idiot America":
"In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a 'very important role in their lives', a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation."
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A nice thing about Wikipedia - It has numerous links about everything. People with lots of time on their hands could spend all day clicking links and reading stuff.
Another thing about Wikipedia is it's totally free with zero ads as is this blog and BBC News and where I play chess. That's the way it should be. Everything on the internet should be free and there should be zero ads.
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Wikipedia - United States - Religion
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment.
In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives", a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation. In a 2009 Gallup poll, 42% of Americans said that they attended church weekly or almost weekly; the figures ranged from a low of 23% in Vermont to a high of 63% in Mississippi.
As with other Western countries, the U.S. is becoming less religious. Irreligion is growing rapidly among Americans under 30. Polls show that overall American confidence in organized religion has been declining since the mid to late 1980s, and that younger Americans, in particular, are becoming increasingly irreligious. According to a 2012 study, the Protestant share of the U.S. population had dropped to 48%, thus ending its status as religious category of the majority for the first time. Americans with no religion have 1.7 children compared to 2.2 among Christians. The unaffiliated are less likely to get married with 37% marrying compared to 52% of Christians.
According to a 2014 survey, 70.6% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians; Protestants accounted for 46.5%, while Roman Catholics, at 20.8%, formed the largest single denomination.[321] In 2014, 5.9% of the U.S. adult population claimed a non-Christian religion. These include Judaism (1.9%), Hinduism (1.2%), Buddhism (0.9%), and Islam (0.9%). The survey also reported that 22.8% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist or simply having no religion—up from 8.2% in 1990. There are also Unitarian Universalist, Scientologist, Baha'i, Sikh, Jain, Shinto, Confucian, Taoist, Druid, Native American, Wiccan, humanist and deist communities.
Protestantism is the largest Christian religious grouping in the United States, accounting for almost half of all Americans. Baptists collectively form the largest branch of Protestantism at 15.4%, and the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest individual Protestant denomination at 5.3% of the U.S. population. Apart from Baptists, other Protestant categories include nondenominational Protestants, Methodists, Pentecostals, unspecified Protestants, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, other Reformed, Episcopalians/Anglicans, Quakers, Adventists, Holiness, Christian fundamentalists, Anabaptists, Pietists, and multiple others. Two-thirds of American Protestants consider themselves to be born again. Roman Catholicism in the United States has its origin primarily in the Spanish and French colonization of the Americas, as well as in the English colony of Maryland. It later grew because of Irish, Italian, Polish, German and Hispanic immigration. Rhode Island has the highest percentage of Catholics, with 40 percent of the total population. Utah is the only state where Mormonism is the religion of the majority of the population. The Mormon Corridor also extends to parts of Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevadaand Wyoming. Eastern Orthodoxy is claimed by 5% of people in Alaska, a former Russian colony, and maintains a presence on the U.S. mainland due to recent immigration from Eastern Europe. Finally, a number of other Christian groups are active across the country, including the Oneness Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Restorationists, Churches of Christ, Christian Scientists, Unitarians and many others.
The Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the Southern United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average. By contrast, religion plays the least important role in New England and in the Western United States.
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There is a lot more stuff about religious stupidity in Idiot America here:
Wikipedia - Religion in the United States
"Irreligion is growing rapidly among Americans under 30. Polls show that overall American confidence in organized religion has been declining since the mid to late 1980s, and that younger Americans, in particular, are becoming increasingly irreligious."
A hundred years from now most of the religious fucktards will be dead and America will almost be a normal country.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This is why the United States is called "Idiot America":
"In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a 'very important role in their lives', a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation."
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A nice thing about Wikipedia - It has numerous links about everything. People with lots of time on their hands could spend all day clicking links and reading stuff.
Another thing about Wikipedia is it's totally free with zero ads as is this blog and BBC News and where I play chess. That's the way it should be. Everything on the internet should be free and there should be zero ads.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Wikipedia - United States - Religion
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment.
In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives", a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation. In a 2009 Gallup poll, 42% of Americans said that they attended church weekly or almost weekly; the figures ranged from a low of 23% in Vermont to a high of 63% in Mississippi.
As with other Western countries, the U.S. is becoming less religious. Irreligion is growing rapidly among Americans under 30. Polls show that overall American confidence in organized religion has been declining since the mid to late 1980s, and that younger Americans, in particular, are becoming increasingly irreligious. According to a 2012 study, the Protestant share of the U.S. population had dropped to 48%, thus ending its status as religious category of the majority for the first time. Americans with no religion have 1.7 children compared to 2.2 among Christians. The unaffiliated are less likely to get married with 37% marrying compared to 52% of Christians.
According to a 2014 survey, 70.6% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians; Protestants accounted for 46.5%, while Roman Catholics, at 20.8%, formed the largest single denomination.[321] In 2014, 5.9% of the U.S. adult population claimed a non-Christian religion. These include Judaism (1.9%), Hinduism (1.2%), Buddhism (0.9%), and Islam (0.9%). The survey also reported that 22.8% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist or simply having no religion—up from 8.2% in 1990. There are also Unitarian Universalist, Scientologist, Baha'i, Sikh, Jain, Shinto, Confucian, Taoist, Druid, Native American, Wiccan, humanist and deist communities.
Protestantism is the largest Christian religious grouping in the United States, accounting for almost half of all Americans. Baptists collectively form the largest branch of Protestantism at 15.4%, and the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest individual Protestant denomination at 5.3% of the U.S. population. Apart from Baptists, other Protestant categories include nondenominational Protestants, Methodists, Pentecostals, unspecified Protestants, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, other Reformed, Episcopalians/Anglicans, Quakers, Adventists, Holiness, Christian fundamentalists, Anabaptists, Pietists, and multiple others. Two-thirds of American Protestants consider themselves to be born again. Roman Catholicism in the United States has its origin primarily in the Spanish and French colonization of the Americas, as well as in the English colony of Maryland. It later grew because of Irish, Italian, Polish, German and Hispanic immigration. Rhode Island has the highest percentage of Catholics, with 40 percent of the total population. Utah is the only state where Mormonism is the religion of the majority of the population. The Mormon Corridor also extends to parts of Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevadaand Wyoming. Eastern Orthodoxy is claimed by 5% of people in Alaska, a former Russian colony, and maintains a presence on the U.S. mainland due to recent immigration from Eastern Europe. Finally, a number of other Christian groups are active across the country, including the Oneness Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Restorationists, Churches of Christ, Christian Scientists, Unitarians and many others.
The Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the Southern United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average. By contrast, religion plays the least important role in New England and in the Western United States.
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There is a lot more stuff about religious stupidity in Idiot America here:
Wikipedia - Religion in the United States
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
I'm not going to say "This is a wonderful thing" because that wouldn't be nice.
BBC News - Crocodile kills Ethiopian pastor during lake baptism
A crocodile has killed a Protestant pastor who was baptising followers near a lake in southern Ethiopia.
Docho Eshete was conducting the ceremony for about 80 people on Sunday morning at Lake Abaya in Arba Minch town's Merkeb Tabya district.
Residents and police told BBC Amharic a crocodile leapt from the water during the baptism and attacked him.
Pastor Docho died after being bitten on his legs, back and hands.
"He baptised the first person and he passed on to another one. All of a sudden, a crocodile jumped out of the lake and grabbed the pastor," local resident Ketema Kairo told the BBC.
Despite huge efforts, fishermen and residents could not save pastor Docho, policeman Eiwnetu Kanko said.
They used fishing nets to prevent the crocodile from taking the pastor's body into the lake.
The crocodile escaped.
A crocodile has killed a Protestant pastor who was baptising followers near a lake in southern Ethiopia.
Docho Eshete was conducting the ceremony for about 80 people on Sunday morning at Lake Abaya in Arba Minch town's Merkeb Tabya district.
Residents and police told BBC Amharic a crocodile leapt from the water during the baptism and attacked him.
Pastor Docho died after being bitten on his legs, back and hands.
"He baptised the first person and he passed on to another one. All of a sudden, a crocodile jumped out of the lake and grabbed the pastor," local resident Ketema Kairo told the BBC.
Despite huge efforts, fishermen and residents could not save pastor Docho, policeman Eiwnetu Kanko said.
They used fishing nets to prevent the crocodile from taking the pastor's body into the lake.
The crocodile escaped.
 |
| Crocodiles are found in freshwater habitats like rivers and lakes |
In Idiot America millions of know-nothing creationist assholes think there is a debate about the established truth of evolution.
An asshole for Jeebus wrote: "Most Americans would not object to all sides of the debate being taught to their children, and that is what should be allowed."
There is no fucking debate. Evolution is the strongest fact of science. Period.
The fucktard got one thing right. Most Americans would have no problem with letting biology teachers give equal time to evolution and the childish magical creationism fantasy. Obviously most Americans are just plain fucking stupid.
Competent biology teachers don't teach magical fantasies because they're bullshit.
The stupidity problem in America is overwhelming.
An example is an article written by a creationist moron. Most of the 1,000 comments were written by science deniers. If you're interested in extreme stupid you can click this: Confusing the Evolution Debate
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Another thing about American idiots. Every day they stuff their fat faces with garbage food. If something has lots refined sugar in it they eat it.
All their food comes in boxes or cans. It's factory food. These disgusting obese people don't even know where the produce section of the store is. They avoid eating vegetables and fruit. I'm not making this up.
At the grocery store I see 500 pound ugly women with small children who will eventually be as fat as their disgusting mothers.
There is no fucking debate. Evolution is the strongest fact of science. Period.
The fucktard got one thing right. Most Americans would have no problem with letting biology teachers give equal time to evolution and the childish magical creationism fantasy. Obviously most Americans are just plain fucking stupid.
Competent biology teachers don't teach magical fantasies because they're bullshit.
The stupidity problem in America is overwhelming.
An example is an article written by a creationist moron. Most of the 1,000 comments were written by science deniers. If you're interested in extreme stupid you can click this: Confusing the Evolution Debate
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Another thing about American idiots. Every day they stuff their fat faces with garbage food. If something has lots refined sugar in it they eat it.
All their food comes in boxes or cans. It's factory food. These disgusting obese people don't even know where the produce section of the store is. They avoid eating vegetables and fruit. I'm not making this up.
At the grocery store I see 500 pound ugly women with small children who will eventually be as fat as their disgusting mothers.
Typical god-soaked idiots: No brain, no curiosity, no desire to learn how the world works.
"Many believers admit that nothing could change their mind about their religious beliefs, which means they are no longer seekers of truth and have become, in essence, mindless religious robots. Religion consistently and effectively discourages introspection and inquiry. That isn't by accident."
-- Bob Peters
Who is Bob Peters? I don't know but what he wrote explains why the god disease is usually incurable.
-- Bob Peters
Who is Bob Peters? I don't know but what he wrote explains why the god disease is usually incurable.
Kathy's Song
I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls.
And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England where my heart lies.
My mind's distracted and diffused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're asleep
And kiss you when you start your day.
And as a song I was writing is left undone
I don't know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can't believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme.
And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you.
And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I.
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