tshile

i watched the VICE episode on the niger delta and the illegal oil production going on there. the crap going on in those third world countries is just awful and way worse than what we're doing. we have no ability to control/stop it either.

Fair enough. For what it's worth, as soon as i posted that response to you I read a section on one issue I was already familiar with and immediately identified that while what he wrote sounded good and compelling, it was a complete misrepresentation of the situation. So, I accept your answer

So are the claims wrong, or irrelevant? I'm specifically interested in the claims regarding the funding/money, and the incorrectly used data (both accidentally and maliciously) I'm still reading through it. I don't have the experience to know whether the stuff he cites is wrong, or blown out of proportion, and I doubt i'll have the time to look a significant number of them up. So i'm curious why you say the only thing of quality here is the writing style?

Queen James I hope he never wins another title again. He's amazing talented, but I cannot cheer for the type of person he is. He resembles the absolute worst in people, in my opinion.

I'm operating under the assumption that, as far as water is concerned, the earth is a closed system. water moves or changes state, but otherwise we don't magically get/lose water? if water is being moved from location to another, in significant quantities, i would think it would have an affect on water temperature? especially if the rate of water temperature change is related to the volume of water we're talking about? if it's not finding its way back to the aquifers, then it must be going to the ocean? i don't know, it's why i was asking i approach this topic the same way i approach most of the controversial science topics - i side with the majority of researchers while also understanding that there may be some factor they're not aware of that plays a role they haven't considered. so when NASA comes out with this report my first thought was 'lol water shortage', my second was how/if it could play a role in AGW/climate change. as much as i side with the majority of researches on this issue at this time, i'm not opposed to the idea that they're wrong and one day we'll have a piece of information that reveals/explains that. i'm not convinced that'll happen but if it does i won't be the least bit surprised.

I have a question for those of you a little more in tune with the actual scientific part of the climate change/agw stuff... NASA just came out with a report about aquifers - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/16/new-nasa-studies-show-how-the-world-is-running-out-of-water/ At the risk of sounding stupid... Is it not possible that part of our sea temperature changes and level increases is being caused by water being pulled out of the aquifers? How does NASA's report conflict with/support the main points of climate change from the scientific community? What sort of claims in regards to climate change/agw could be significantly affected by introducing this new idea/problem/discovery that we're sucking all the water out of the aquifers?

It was also better when the refs weren't engineering game 7s

when i was in high school we ran because the cops here would definitely try to get you in trouble. when i was a freshman in college we ran because we were programmed to run in high school after freshman year it was like 'lol go chase the freshmen that just ran that way' while we just hung out until the cops got done giving us their little lecture, then they left and we played beer pong again. just a little quieter the second time around.

Yeah, might have been because we were white.

lol, no every party i was at where people ran when the police showed up, the police started chasing them/us. you just had to be faster than your buddies

This is what cracks me up... people who tend to react a certain way when stories like this break always assume that those who choose to react differently must have never had bad run-ins with the police. Guess it's the bigger picture you have trouble with.

didn't hawaii already (pre-ACA) provide health coverage to all its residents? how did they screw it up so badly? (or is that why their exchange doesn't have any participants, article isn't very... informative)

By the way, I believe the original exchange budget was 675 million or somewhere around there? That's just the initial budget... not the cost of fixing it when its launch was a complete failure. That a complete joke. We got absolutely robbed in terms of how much was spent on this...

Right but the framework is the same. The exchange suffered from two things - the big one was not having the architecture designed (or scaled appropriately) to handle the volume. It then had a second issue of generally not being designed to handle not being able to handle the volume... IE: when the usage went above what it was able to support, the exchanges started behaving in a non-predictable behavoir. This is why we have people who wound up having to register twice, only to find out neither one went through even though it said it did. I know someone this happened to... they wound up with no insurance for a few months, that's not a fun thing to find out because you normally don't find out until you need to use it... It's why we wound up not being able to reliably determine what was going on for a while. It's why it was/is a huge mess. The problem wasn't it just being down due to load, it was spitting out (according to the people receiving the results...) complete garbage and nonsense because of bugs within the framework of the exchange that were only realized once the load problem was introduced. (which, is far too late...) They spent a lot of money fixing that... Designing the system to be robust, and reliable even when there are problems, and to interface with 3rd parties that would change from state to state, is not a tall order. It just requires having the appropriate people making the decisions and doing the work. They farmed it out to a 3rd party gov't contractor, likely because someone had some connections (because gov't contracting is completely corrupt and inefficient at this point) and we, the tax payers, are footing the bill. I'm sure when the exchange(s) launched on day one and were a complete and utter disaster, the Obama admin went to additional developers (which we know they did, because they said they did at the time) with the blank check mentality - get it fixed, whatever it costs. Wonder what "whatever it costs" wound up costing... I have a few guesses...

in terms of the technical aspect, there's no reason one exchange couldn't have been developed and then rolled out with different branding for each state. i cannot believe how many states independently developed their own exchange, including finding their own software developers, designers, doing their own research (if they even did any), etc. what gigantic waste of money this thing has been. even though i initially supported it, it's becoming hard to think of actual savings from this bill because of the sheer amount of money that's been spent simply on the exchanges. We're looking at what, probably over 1 billion on the federal exchange? plus the state exchange costs? plus the money spent constantly fighting/supporting it in court? i'm simply guessing here, but it's probably going to take decades for any savings (whatever they wind up being each year...) to break even.

0 points in overtime was kind of telling for the cavs. 0 points... (no i don't count the lay-in labron had with .5 seconds left when GS gave up because they were winning by ~10 with .5 seconds left...)

she did a great job singing, but i can't stand when someone drags the anthem out that slowly

Oh my god, I definitely did that a whole bunch. Just on small back roads. Move police barriers and such. It was good fun But this is way over the top. hah.. no but thank you for that

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/pennsylvania-man-fake-dui-checkpoint_n_7494486.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000021 wat why would you do that...

well, it was a noble effort btfoom. i'll give you that

so you don't have season tickets, but come post in the season ticket renewals thread regularly taking shots at STH's and/or the idea of owning season tickets, and when someone finally calls you out on it your response is to call them defensive? interesting...

some of them think consuming football the way someone else has decided they should consume it is better than being able to consume it the way they want. enjoy the over production. some of us enjoy being at the game.

after spending many years in the uppers, and the last 3 (going on 4) in the lowers, there's definitely parts of the uppers i miss. i'll stay in the lowers for as long as i can, mainly because of the ease of getting in and out. if money became an issue i'll happily go back to the uppers. no, i've been asking others. i upgraded on the 22nd and it still hasn't come back. i think you get one shot at the system now

Nice move The lower level has its own charm like the upper level. It's different, pros and cons, I'm sure you'll learn to love it. The overhang will not in any way mess with your ability to view the field or game. It'll just give you protection from the rain (and sun, when at the right angle) so long as the rain is coming relatively straight down That's awesome to hear because there are quite a few of us that have assumed those sections right at midfield were being artificially manipulated to prevent the rest of us commoners from getting into them. So that's good news

Yup. Everyone bunches up trying to get on 495. I go the other way and hit 50 to 295. When it merges with 495 you're on the other bridge, so you don't even meet up with that traffic until you get past the bridge and 495 goes back together, by then you're so far ahead of people it's ridiculous. I'm on 66 when the 980 post-game show traffic reports start talking about things backing up I would take the parkway but we did that twice and wound up at the airport because my navigators are terrible and they gave up. Though I'd like to revisit trying that route in the future.... Oh yeah, I know. I was in row 9 over there for a year. You're not in the cave, but the effects from the cave can and are felt. The echo and constant murmur of the people talking in the cave can drown out the loud speaker announcements. The stuffy air effect can be felt, especially in September. It all depends on which 200 section you're in and which row. Just because you're not in the cave doesn't mean its presence doesn't affect you It also depends on you... it didn't bother me at all, but it bothered my wife and my buddy who went to all 8 games in those seats that year. It was part of the decision to move to the home side even though it put me directly opposite of where our tailgate parks and completely ruined our ability to get out of there fast. Not trying to crap on his selection, I think the 200 level is the best and I had no problem in front of the cave. But it is an opinion I've heard from many, including people that sat in my seats.