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10-29-2018, 01:37 PM
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Safety glasses off, motherfuckers
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Sarasota, FL
Gender: Bender
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Re: News Miscellany
"Whacky" is a polite way of putting it. "A hotbed of human rights abuses" is much closer to the truth, I should think.
Of course, the United States is its own hotbed of human rights abuses, so I'm one to talk, I suppose.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
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10-29-2018, 07:18 PM
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Stoic Derelict... The cup is empty
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: The Dustbin of History
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Kanye West designs line of clothes for conservative Blexit campaign.
He doesn't know Republicans are doing their best to revive Jim Crow?
__________________
Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
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11-09-2018, 05:42 AM
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Shitpost Sommelier
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Re: News Miscellany
An electric Harley. Well I'll be.
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Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
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11-09-2018, 05:57 PM
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I read some of your foolish scree, then just skimmed the rest.
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Bay Area
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
In basically a single day a raging wild fire destroyed the town of Paradise in California. With over 2000 buildings destroyed so far, and while some news has reported 'fatalities' there hasn't been any more details because there's none known yet and it's just a guess based on how fast the fire moved through the town.
Camp Fire at 70,000 acres, 2,000 structures burned, 5 percent containment – Chico Enterprise-Record
Here in the bay the sun is orange and it smells like campfire outside.
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11-09-2018, 06:30 PM
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Just keep m'nose clean, egg, chips & beans, I'm always full of steam
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: so far out, I'm too far in
Gender: Bender
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Re: News Miscellany
Ayup, the further north you are in the greater Gay Area, the thicker it gets. At least today isn't insanely windy - should help the containment effort.
__________________
"Her eyes in certain light were violet, and all her teeth were even. That's a rare, fair feature: even teeth. She smiled to excess, but she chewed with real distinction." - Eleanor of Aquitaine
...........
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11-10-2018, 04:21 AM
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I read some of your foolish scree, then just skimmed the rest.
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Bay Area
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Now 9 officially dead and over 6,500 homes lost.
There's some potential evidence the cause of the blaze was faulty PG&E power lines but no one's sure yet. The wind blew it straight through Paradise.
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11-10-2018, 09:27 PM
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I read some of your foolish scree, then just skimmed the rest.
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Bay Area
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Some extended family and family of friends lost their homes in the Paradise fire but at least everyone that I know has made it out safely. Right now America's roadway system is saving the day. The wind is clearly driving the fire and it's finally run it into highway 99, an area that's not only easily defensible but some parts through fields that can easily be plowed down to stop the spread. It's still threatening Chico and a few other towns but as long as the wind doesn't blow it into any area it should be stoppable.
Cal fire has a cool map feature that lets you see fire areas.
Not to be outdone by its northern part, you can also see the southern california Malibu fire which destroyed the set of West World among other rich places.
It's becoming a mark of a native californian, 'have you had your childhood home town burned down or imminently threatened with fire barely feet away from structures?' Congrats you must be a native californian!
Part of the problem is california is just too hot and dry these days for some strange climate changing reason and small fires spread easier and faster becoming raging ones. Once the raging ones get going some interesting effects start happening where convection currents start driving along massive amounts of heat at miniature hurricane speeds and things just start combusting into flames. A lot of this though starts with the dryness, water is a great heat sink and even a slight amount of humidity and moisture in the air can keep these fires from growing out of control, but when everything is partway to kindling already, it's just waiting for a light.
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11-11-2018, 10:52 AM
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Shitpost Sommelier
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Re: News Miscellany
I'd like to call attention to this young Syrian journalist.
muhammad najem (@muhammadnajem20) on Twitter
__________________
Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
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11-12-2018, 08:56 PM
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Shitpost Sommelier
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Re: News Miscellany
Hot breaking news!
I mean, it would take a to be afraid of a little rain.
__________________
Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
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11-14-2018, 03:33 AM
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Shitpost Sommelier
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Re: News Miscellany
Some bits on the history and anatomy of fake news.
Operation InfeKtion - The Big Picture
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Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
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11-14-2018, 05:47 AM
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Stoic Derelict... The cup is empty
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: The Dustbin of History
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ari
Some extended family and family of friends lost their homes in the Paradise fire but at least everyone that I know has made it out safely. Right now America's roadway system is saving the day. The wind is clearly driving the fire and it's finally run it into highway 99, an area that's not only easily defensible but some parts through fields that can easily be plowed down to stop the spread. It's still threatening Chico and a few other towns but as long as the wind doesn't blow it into any area it should be stoppable.
Cal fire has a cool map feature that lets you see fire areas.
Not to be outdone by its northern part, you can also see the southern california Malibu fire which destroyed the set of West World among other rich places.
It's becoming a mark of a native californian, 'have you had your childhood home town burned down or imminently threatened with fire barely feet away from structures?' Congrats you must be a native californian!
Part of the problem is california is just too hot and dry these days for some strange climate changing reason and small fires spread easier and faster becoming raging ones. Once the raging ones get going some interesting effects start happening where convection currents start driving along massive amounts of heat at miniature hurricane speeds and things just start combusting into flames. A lot of this though starts with the dryness, water is a great heat sink and even a slight amount of humidity and moisture in the air can keep these fires from growing out of control, but when everything is partway to kindling already, it's just waiting for a light.
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I heard a firefighter on NPR today discussing that in one area, fire jumped a 12 lane highway. My thought, there really isn't going to be a better firebreak than that, unless it was a river wider than 12 lanes, right? Further, he says this location was just dry grass on both sides, so forest management had zero to do with it.
In my opininion, if you get 6 years of drought but with two years of heavy spring rains that promote vigorous brush growth that's only destined to wither, higher than normal summer temps, and then a fire starts under conditions of single digit humidity and high sustained winds after a month with no rain at all, you're going to get fires that are really hard to put out and spread like crazy, regardless of forest management practices. I mean, the fire propagated like crazy through straight up suburban terrain. That's how so many houses got burnt, right? It wasn't just lone dwellings way out in the sticks that burned down, yes?
__________________
Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
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11-15-2018, 06:57 PM
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Shitpost Sommelier
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Re: News Miscellany
__________________
Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
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11-15-2018, 09:39 PM
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I read some of your foolish scree, then just skimmed the rest.
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Bay Area
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
SF from Alkatraz, one week apart,
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11-15-2018, 10:44 PM
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Just keep m'nose clean, egg, chips & beans, I'm always full of steam
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: so far out, I'm too far in
Gender: Bender
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Re: News Miscellany
Li'l Puppet's school has been sending regular updates about cancelling anything and everything outside, and say they'll let us know whether they're closing the school tomorrow entirely by 5pm.
The fire is easily a 3-1/2 hour drive from here.
__________________
"Her eyes in certain light were violet, and all her teeth were even. That's a rare, fair feature: even teeth. She smiled to excess, but she chewed with real distinction." - Eleanor of Aquitaine
...........
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11-16-2018, 07:39 PM
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Shitpost Sommelier
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Re: News Miscellany
Seems Acosta gets his press pass back.
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Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
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11-17-2018, 07:06 AM
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Shitpost Sommelier
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Re: News Miscellany
Hey, Daniel Dale wrote in the Washington Post.
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Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
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11-23-2018, 01:32 AM
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Stoic Derelict... The cup is empty
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: The Dustbin of History
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Hillary says Europe has done enough and needs to throttle back on taking immigrants. Says it feeds into right wing populism. I don't know what I think. Not well enough informed to have a meaningful opinion. Is Europe at the political limit?
hillary-clinton-urges-european-leaders-to-curb-immigration?ref=home | Cloudflare
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Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
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11-23-2018, 09:44 AM
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Solipsist
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Kolmannessa kerroksessa
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Meh. I might channel Watser? and say that Killary is a warmonger and the main thing was not have helped create all these refugees in the first place by supporting wars in the Middle East and the growth of Islamic extremism in north Africa.
Also, is closing the door on refugees to stop the populists winning not pretty much the same as letting the populists' objectives win? I suppose it's a pretty standard political move to adopt your opponents' policies to capture their votes.
From the perspective of the regions refugees are seeking refuge from, I don't think Europe or the world will ever have "done enough".
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11-23-2018, 11:40 AM
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Mr. Condescending Dick Nose
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Augsburg
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
I don't think "political limit" is a real thing, though I think I get what you are hinting at. Yes, Clinton is right about Merkel's policy being both admirable and damaging. I believe she is wrong about the remedy. Or at least, the remedy she is presented there as advocating is neither acceptable nor effective, but I wonder if she's being fairly represented by The Beast.
I would summarise the crisis thusly:
- Since the 2008 banking crisis, the mainly white working class of Europe has come to believe that their governments are acting against their interests in favour of foreigners.
- The policy of taking in migrants is seen as a symptom or demonstration of that political betrayal.
- If that perception is not addressed, an appetite for far-right solutions will carry far-right parties into power all over Europe.
- Civilised Europe as we know it may not survive.
I would echo and enlarge Jope's observation that waves of refugees trying to enter Europe from Arab regions in conflict is a foreseeable, and indeed foreseen, consequence of Russian and US proxy wars in Libya, Syria, Iraq etc. A cynic might even see it as deliberate destabilisation of a political and economic rival.
__________________
... it's just an idea
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11-23-2018, 03:39 PM
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Solipsist
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Kolmannessa kerroksessa
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Oh yes, the financial crisis. In addition to my war point, the political elites (like Clinton...) shouldn't have given the banks such free rein thus contributing to the crisis, and shouldn't have been so "austere" afterwards, if they wanted to avoid an antiestablishment backlash.
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11-23-2018, 04:50 PM
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Stoic Derelict... The cup is empty
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: The Dustbin of History
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Bit of a ramble. Sorry had a few days off and turned contemplative, which is at least entertaining for me, if not very productive.
One thought occurs that may apply here and abroad, sort of parallel developments of a common theme. The prosperity paradox. Fully developed nations tend to have lower birth rates and have older, shrinking populations. Less developed regions have the opposite. I understand the mideast nations have young populations, by the measure of median age. I don't know if this is true of Latino nations to our south or not. In any case, I have heard or read that immigrants are required if the wealthy northern nations want to maintain their population size. I believe Russia is also experiencing that, as well as places like Japan and Korea. Inversely, scarcity tends to be greater along with population growth in the countries that are sources of emigration.
Begs the question, is a decreasing population of a wealthy nation necessarily a bad thing? Can we find ways to enrich poorer nations or more directly, encourage them to reduce their rates of birth, practically and from a human sensibility perspective, such that these efforts would not be resented or simply ineffective? How much of that can the resources of earth sustain? Would it even resolve the pressures that drive emigration, or are the pressures not really related to scarcity, but more the result of political or ethnic conflict, or some other type of social problem that impels emigration?
I just googled, and indeed, median age in Honduras or Guatemala is only 21 to 23 years, Nicaragua, 25 years.
Yemen, Syria, 19 and 20 years.
__________________
Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
Last edited by SR71; 11-24-2018 at 03:14 AM.
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11-23-2018, 06:10 PM
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Solipsist
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Kolmannessa kerroksessa
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
The populists don't do much to distinguish refugees from economic migrants, but they probably should. The case of needing younger workers to support ageing populations - which I fully support, as an ageing population in my own right - is definitely the latter.
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11-23-2018, 06:12 PM
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Solipsist
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Kolmannessa kerroksessa
Gender: Male
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Re: News Miscellany
Quote:
Originally Posted by SR71
I just googled, and indeed, median age in Honduras or Guatemala is only 21 to 23 years, Nicragua, 25 years.
Yemen, Syria, 19 and 20 years.
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The median age in these countries is below 20 years:
Niger
Mali
Uganda
Angola
Malawi
Zambia
Burundi
State of Palestine Gaza Strip
Mozambique
Burkina Faso
South Sudan
Tanzania
Chad
Liberia
Ethiopia
Somalia
Benin
Nigeria
Sao Tome and Principe
Cameroon
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Afghanistan
Senegal
Guinea
Timor-Leste
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Yemen
Central African Republic
Republic of the Congo
Eritrea
Kenya
Madagascar
Equatorial Guinea
Togo
Comoros
Sudan
Looots of Africa there.
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