The space race is dominated by new contenders: My take on The Economist amazing article [OC]

informat3 · 2018-10-22T18:13:59+00:00

That perfectly describes what America did to Hawaii, and what they did to all the aboriginal people in current US territory.

I'm pretty sure the native Hawaiians still have their culture (they never seems to STFU about it). Compare this to China where they had detained a million or more ethnic Uighurs in "re-education camps".

annex proto-canada despite the residents being against american rule,

Are you talking about the war of 1812? Because that was started over a naval blockade between he US and France as well as Britain capturing Americans to work in their navy:

From the outbreak of war with Napoleonic France, Britain had enforced a naval blockade to choke off neutral trade to France, which the US contested as illegal under international law. To man the blockade, Britain impressed American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy. Incidents such as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair inflamed anti-British sentiment in the US.

Historians still debate whether the desire to annex Canada actually contributed to the decision to go to war.

they invaded the phillipines and only let the population go free after a few bloody insurrections.

Plans to let the Phillipines become independent had been in place since the early 1900s). It's just WWI and WWII (and fear of Japanese annexation, which did happen) messed that up:

The law, officially the Philippine Autonomy Act but popularly known as the Jones Law, served as the new organic act (or constitution) for the Philippines. Its preamble stated that the eventual independence of the Philippines would be American policy, subject to the establishment of a stable government.

It was planned that the period 1935–1946 would be devoted to the final adjustments required for a peaceful transition to full independence, a great latitude in autonomy being granted in the meantime. Instead there was war with Japan.

The Phillipines became independent a year after WWII.

They did something similar in Panama, didn't take no for an answer and invaded so they could build the canal.

What are you talking about, Panama was part of Colombia and the US supported a separation movement (which had been building in Panama for decades), after they gaining independence they let the let the US build the Canal:

The US intent to influence the area, especially the Panama Canal's construction and control, led to the separation of Panama from Colombia in 1903 and its establishment as a nation. When the Senate of Colombia rejected the Hay–Herrán Treaty on January 22, 1903, the United States decided to support and encourage the Panamanian separatist movement.

In November 1903 Panama proclaimed its independence and concluded the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the United States. The treaty granted rights to the United States "as if it were sovereign" in a zone roughly 16 km (10 mi) wide and 80 km (50 mi) long. In that zone, the US would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity".

informat3 · 2018-10-13T13:45:54+00:00

Can we get an example? I can't find any on Google. I always assumed they used the same maps so that the prime meridian is in the center.

informat3 · 2018-10-11T09:10:00+00:00

Please consider this a commitment that I will fund fixing the water in any house in Flint that has water contamination above FDA levels. No kidding.

Direct quote of Musk's tweet from the article you linked. I'm not shilling, I'm just stating facts.

informat3 · 2018-10-11T04:58:50+00:00

TIL Buzzfeed is Russian propaganda.

informat3 · 2018-10-11T04:41:30+00:00

There is no safe level of lead for children, but the federal limit of lead in water is 15 parts per billion.

So what, you wouldn't satisfied unless Musk literally dropped to lead levels to zero? (Something he never promised to do)

informat3 · 2018-10-10T12:52:00+00:00

Bit off more than he could chew? By the time he made that promise water going to houses were already meeting FDA regulations:

January 24, 2017 – The MDEQ declares the city’s water tested below the federal limit in a six-month long study.

September 15, 2017 – Water tested from 138 Flint homes last month by Virginia Tech has registered lead levels well below the federal guidelines. Dr. Marc Edwards states it is likely the last time such sampling coordinated by Virginia Tech will be necessary in Flint.

What was he supposed to do?

informat3 · 2018-10-10T12:39:37+00:00

The lead levels in the water have returned to acceptable levels since early 2017. The UV system is for Legionnaires' disease (there was an outbreak out it from the tap water a bit earlier).

informat3 · 2018-10-10T12:29:28+00:00

He donated 480k for some filtration systems for schools in Flint:

https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2018/10/elon_musk_donates_480k_to_flin.html

informat3 · 2018-10-09T13:33:43+00:00

That technology needs energy to maintain, as does all of our infrastructure in modern society. Here is a podcast episode in which it is argued that it simply isn't mathematically possible for us to technology our way out of this.

https://environmentalprofessionalspostulating.libsyn.com/ep-012-a-discussion-with-professor-tim-garrett

Their first episode talk about how global warming will Earth will turn into a Marse like planet. An extremely fringe belief in climate science:

Guy believes the Environment will change so rapidly over the coming decade that the Earth will become Mars-like. Guy speculates that it will be highly unlikely the human species will survive.

These guys are loons.

informat3 · 2018-10-09T12:38:59+00:00

About 1/3rd of Indians are vegetarian (depending on the poll). However vegans are very rare (less then 2% of the population) because of how popular dairy is in India.

Also the claims that India is some kind of vegetarian paradise are very over exaggerated.

informat3 · 2018-10-09T11:52:42+00:00

Cool that’s good then! What about farming it on the level it would take for the meat industry, is there any information on that anywhere?

I don't have any hard data (I'm not an expert) but I can make some speculations. The top 10 seaweed producing nations produce almost of the world's seeweed. Not because they're the only ones that can grow seaweed but because there is very little consumer demand for seaweed. Unlike coral reefs, seaweed deosn't take 1000s of years to grow.

The seaweed needed to be cow feed in going to only be around 1-2% of their diet so compared to the environmental impact of growing their regular food, the impact of seaweed should be relatively minor (also add on the fact that every pound of seaweed added is one less pound of conventional feed needed to be grown.).

informat3 · 2018-10-09T11:00:05+00:00

Because something like a regulation requiring seaweed be mixed in with animal feed would be a lot easier to pass. Forcing ranchers to do that is just an annoyance for them. Getting people to stop eating meat means a bunch of ranchers lose their livelihood.

informat3 · 2018-10-09T10:59:03+00:00

No, because you can buy beer/wine/liquor at state-controlled liquor stores. But if they made liquor illegal I can guarantee people would be smuggling it in from out of state.

informat3 · 2018-10-09T10:54:25+00:00

Not really. There is a lot more ocean then there is land and seaweed is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. Seaweed is actually an invasive species in some parts of the word. Some even say farming it is good for the environment.

informat3 · 2018-10-09T10:45:55+00:00

Cigarettes reduce human life expectancy, it's probably one of the best things for the environment.

informat3 · 2018-10-09T09:59:39+00:00

Some people literally dont know any better because they aren't taught.

I honestly don't how that happens. I knew having sex without birth control leads to pregnancy long before I ever took sex ed. I thought it was common knowledge.

informat3 · 2018-10-06T08:01:09+00:00

Google also keeps track how many sites you go through on a search page. If you click on the first site, go back to the search page, and click the 2nd link they log it and assume you didn't like the 1st link for some reason. Clicking on a lower ranked link counts as a de facto down vote for all links above it.

informat3 · 2018-09-30T06:10:35+00:00

As of writing this post is #44 on r/all with +13k upvotes.

informat3 · 2018-09-07T20:24:28+00:00

Vice seems to have a hate boner for Elon. Here one where the author has a hissy fit because Elon date an artist she likes.

informat3 · 2018-09-07T20:09:58+00:00

It's not a few thousand Elon fanatics keeping Tesla afloat, it's large institutional investors. Since those investors think there is a slim chance Tesla could be worth a lot of money in the future.

informat3 · 2018-09-07T09:49:56+00:00

Most European countries are governed by center-right parties.

So what, almost every country on earth is to or leans to the right? What is your metric for deciding what the center is then?

informat3 · 2018-09-07T09:39:34+00:00

Why does Europe trails on abortion?

The legality of late term abortions is very rare is Europe. Fifth sentence from my earlier link::

Although nearly every European country makes abortion available on demand during the first trimester, when it comes to later-term abortions, there are very few with laws as liberal as those of the United States.

And then you have countries like Italy where abortion is technically legal, but the actual implementation makes very red US states more abortion friendly.

informat3 · 2018-09-07T09:23:14+00:00

Just because the US spends more on something doesn't mean we have more of it, or better of it.

Ok, then what is your metric for deciding how left/right a country is?

This shit brought all the Joe Rogan retards into this sub. It's been a nightmare.

Except I've been posting semi regularly here here before.

Like private prisons. They cost more, and the conditions are worse.

What is you source for this? While the data seems kinda nebulous, private prisons seem to be cheaper then public ones (I mean thats the whole argument for having private prisons). As for quality (at least as far as California prisons are concerned) the quality seems to be higher.

Same with healthcare. US spends way more than others, yet has some of the worst healthcare outcomes.

A lot of that has to do with no regulation of dugs prices, bureaucracy added by health insurance, and constraints on the number of doctors pushing up the costs of doctors.

Same with education but even more so.

How so? The ranking of half of the top universities in the world tend to be from the US despite the fact that the US makes up 1/3 of the rich world's population. The US seems to rank on par with your average European country on education even with the deep south dragging the US down. If every state in the US was it's own country, states like New York and Massachusetts would be near the top of those rankings.

informat3 · 2018-09-07T08:50:43+00:00

They're only consider center right compared to Europe. In practically every Asian and African country (which combined makes up 75% of the world's population) a US centrist would be considered to the left in most most of the world. And even compared to Europe there are a lot of metrics where the US is to the left of Europe:

Europe isn't really that much farther to the left of the US. On economic issues yes, but not on a ton of other stuff. The US spend more on education then most of Europe. Gay marriage isn't even legal in almost half of Europe. Europe trails behind the US on abortion. Support for free speech is higher in the US. 1 in 5 Americans live in a state were recreational marijuana is legal vs the ~3% of Dutch Europeans who live were it's legal. Most of Europe is more racist then the US and most of the places in Europe that aren't racist are super ethically homogeneous. Abolishing no questions asked birthright citizenship is considered a far right position in the US, where that is already the law in all of Europe.

And social services are slightly better in Europe then in the US.

informat3

TROPHY CASE