TheBeardKing

I don't know of a mainstream Democrat who doesn't support mainstream policies in conservation, the Paris Climate Accord, fuel efficiency standards, environmental research and protection, climate science, etc. These are all things the current GOP is taking real steps backwards on, so mainstream D vs the majority of Rs doesn't even come close. And in general or national elections you don't have much of a choice but to support the mainstream candidate who comes closest to a sane environmental choice.

Per capita, North America is 4.6x worse than Asia: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2018/10/CO2-emissions-by-...

All good points. I'd like to see a study on estimated emissions by income quintile, as I would suspect strong correlation.

edit: I mean in the US. Global income vs carbon footprint is easy to find: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2018/10/CO2-emissions-by-...

All that matters is having enough money so that you end up better than everyone else. Environmentalists, social democrats, those people are concerned about the welfare of society and the world at large. Too many greedy capitalists care only about themselves and their own family and are unwilling to sacrifice their own comfort for the preservation or betterment of anything else. As long as you can bubble yourself off from the worst of it for a few generations, and afford the necessary survival solutions, things aren't that bad.

In my experience, the benefits and job security guaranteed to government workers provides no added benefit for the taxpayer. No market incentives translates to no worker incentives, and everyone is just riding the gravy train to retirement. The bureaucracratic red tape imposed by Congress builds up endlessly, and special interest groups and crony capitalists magnify the inefficiency. Most government pay systems provide raises based 90% on time served instead of performance, though the ship is slowly turning towards performance-based systems. My agency tried pay-for-performance years ago, the union shut it down, went back to GS, now they're trying performance again.

The comment was directed at the VA, there's no reason it needs to be run by government personnel for the most part. A few could be on hand to handle classified matters if necessary. People hired by the government are not necessarily the best subject matter experts, as the rigid pay structure doesn't allow offering to pay what they're worth - and more often, to pay less, as many job classifications are simply salaried too high. Maybe strictly in matters of government policy could an expert find their niche, and I'd agree be a core government competency. Most other government agencies I can think of would be better off contracted out to enact the laws set by the President and Congress, with the flexibilty of private employment pracitices.

Also clearing rainforests for palm oil trees.

And the VA is run by government employees, which are just not cost efficient. Source: I am one and work with thousands of them.

Yeah but then there's drug rebates, cash discounts for medical services, and costs negotiated down after services. The whole thing is a clusterfuck and 10 patients likely pay 10 different prices for the same thing.

Negligence? That's outright fraud.

Exactly, I can't believe no one was sent to prison over this.

I guess outline.com doesn't work on NYT any more. Copy/paste here?

I tried a few podcast searches through Google chrome desktop and Android and I don't really see what the big deal is. The first search result link is the podcast website, and the top few buttons integrated into the results page are just listing episodes and series and such, the same way done for movies, books, etc.

Airbnb allows cameras in living rooms as long as they're disclosed? I sure hope that disclosure is extremely prominent to make sure I never book one. I can't believe they allow that.

A guy I used to work with once told me that instead of buying a $100k rental house, you should buy three $30k rental houses. We're in a LCOL area, and him and his wife easily made over $200k in salary alone, so why he spent his free time managing all those rental houses is beyond me. He had over 20, and managed them all himself.

I wonder how such a policy isn't abused. Do you need to provide some kind of proof for your entrepreneurship? What's to stop me from just taking the occasional 6-month sabbatical to start a travel blog and travel the world? I'd love to be able to save up for 6 months of leave knowing I have a guaranteed job to come back to.

Also, what sort of employer benefits are provided during these periods? I'm assuming Sweden has socialized medicine so employers aren't on the hook, but that'd be a major reason why it couldn't work in the US.

So what happens if you don't donate? Do you still get to reap the benefits if you live in the school zone?

Better data from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility

What does becoming American even mean? This country is such a mishmash of religion, politics, food, culture, etc. As an average white guy, I'm happy if you just speak English and maybe put up something at Christmas.

He also asked the question about citizenship to play the lottery which he never answered in this case. I wonder if at the least he was flying to Australia to purchase tickets.

Just regulate against purposefully feeding wild animals. Problem solved.

I would take a 20% pay cut to be able to live somewhere like the Bay Area with its coastal scenery and perfect weather. But as it is, I'd need to triple my salary to be able to afford to live there.

I think enough people are waking up to the idiocy of Prop 13 now that it has a good chance of being repealed. It's being voted on in November 2020.

I think your ability to be content is just a personality trait, and some have that ability to a much greater extent than others. For example, the saying "ignorance is bliss" seems to have some merit - many highly intelligent people just cannot be happy. It's an unfortunate product of your brain chemistry, and it's nothing you can choose to escape given average circumstances, as much as we romanticize the idea of "finding happiness."

Exactly, happiness is so fleeting it's very difficult to describe your entire being as happy or not. I certainly experience very happy moments, but also sad, angry, frustrating moments. These short and temporary moments should not be used to judge the general quality of your life.

Adam Ruins Everything - The Sinister Reason Weed is Illegal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlqsdezhhk

IMO, all that matters is that we can safely put cannabis in the "use in moderation" category along with alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, ibuprofen, and loads of possible carcinogens the jury is still out on. Unless prescribed by a doctor, the only thing you should safely inhale is fresh air, and people generally know that.

I hate that the legalization discussion is twisting into "well how safe is it?" If you're really concerned, don't use it unless medically necessary, or take your chances on other drugs which have plenty of known side effects. Just because it can be abused, or may not be safe in heavy dosages, is no reason to jail someone. Pertaining to regulations, I see no reason to extend beyond the current recommendations for alcohol - use in moderation, don't use pregnant, don't drive while impaired, etc.

The issue is that children should not have access to gamble with real world currency.

I really don't know, as I don't really research diets and just see that headline year after year. My point was just that, as you said, the most recommended diet isn't going to be one with some sort of gimmick - limit your cals to this number, your carbs, to this number, only eat during these times, don't eat this one entire food group, etc. The general guidelines of Mediterranean diets seem pretty good to me, and I'm totally on board with a little red wine every day.

Thanks for sharing, this article is so much better than OP's. It answers a question I posted which the NPR article was very vague on, but Ars covers in detail.

>"But it has what we like to call one fatal flaw," Cavanagh continues. Unfortunately, Rubisco isn't picky enough about what it grabs from the air. It also picks up oxygen. "When it does that, it makes a toxic compound, so the plant has to detoxify it."

Can someone explain this, the article doesn't go into much detail. What is this toxic compound, and why must the plant make it?

edit: Explained in detail in this article: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/01/re-engineering-photo...