Yeah, same. I'm all up for a "free country", and all that. But this was just absurd. I wonder if 30+ years don't the line, if maybe resources are scarcer, we'll think about these and say: "we were fucking crazy"
The earth is pretty big, and vape batteries are tiny, and we keep finding substitutes.
I'm all for reducing waste, but it seems unlikely we'll run out of metals in our lifetimes.
Keep in mind, things keep getting more efficient, and rich nations are finally tending toward using LESS per capita.
Sure, the poor nations might eventually become rich and the global population has not yet peeked, but there's no reason to assume our materials usage will grow exponentially forever.
And, even if you assumed we were going to run out of whatever is in these tiny vape pens - the percentage of all usage going to tiny applications like this is a rounding error. It's not what you would attack if you really wanted to move the needle.
You'd probably try to reduce the number of people buying new cars, for example.
Is the key here. We need to think beyond our lifetimes. We should be treating the earth like we're going to live on it for (tens or hundreds of) thousands of years, because I sure as shit hope we (meaning humans) are going to.
Yes, reducing creation of cars would certainly have a much bigger impact, and should be done. But it's also a lot harder than dealing with vapes.
Anyway, as far as I understand it, the main reason this is happening isn't happening to reduce waste, it's happening to stop a rise in nicotine consumption in children. Preventing waste is more of a nice side effect.
The joke I always like to make is that in the US everything is legal unless the government legislates to say you can't, in Europe everything is illegal unless the government legislates to say you can. :D
That's pretty good. It's a succinct contrast of the difference between a citizen and a subject.
Guess where the US got that from? Yes, the UK, and it still applies.
-Freedom of expression (can't be arrested for social media posts, can't easily get sued into the ground for libel[0])
-Right to bear arms (technically legal for citizens to organize their own militant force, though often discouraged)
-Right to remain silent (it is always advised to never talk to the police under any circumstances).
Still, the issue with school shootings is mostly that it targets the wrong people. After school programs, community support for troubled youth, options for local service or a job placement program for kids would all be solutions, but the youth only sees other kids at school as the problem. If the system is so screwed up that a kid feels the need to take up arms to fight against it, then they should, but school shootings are unnecessarily cruel and generally fail to lead to progressive changes; more often than not they become justification for increases in the very authoritarian measures that promote the violence in the first place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_America...
That doesn't seem accurate. I'm guessing you haven't lived in a country where that's much closer to reality?
always love a good laugh in the morning!
I'm as much a fan of sci-fi as anybody, and the last 5 years of space x should make anybody optimistic about the future of space exploration, but strip mining Saturn is a long way away from providing for the needs of MRI machines and other essential modern technology. what will happen first is that the prices will rise and we will stop using it in party balloons, and then it'll be too expensive for the lower 95% of the population for any use at all for decades/centuries - and that's even if we do manage to escape the local gravity well for good. even that's doubtful - space is just unbelievably hostile.