nate_meurer

5 ms·

1.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
That's a good point, and good examples. I'd compare the destruction of aquifers (some of them anyway) as akin to those things.
2.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
> Water which is evaporated is also returned to the ecosystem. It falls back out as rain. This is about as useful as saying "the water stays on Earth". The ecological damage entirely depends on the nature of the water source
3.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
This looks like a good review, and it definitely pertains to your effort here. Although the authors play up the positivity of their conclusions a bit (which is useful if they want to continue the research), they are also honest about the l
4.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
No, I pointed out specific flaws in those papers. You're just pretending that I'm dismissing them out of hand so you don't have to read them yourself. Once again, the Australian study that's the source of your original
5.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
It's an interesting article overall, but this assertion: > Carbon dioxide is bad for cognition. is dubious and unsupported by science. As I point out downthread, we have extensive experience with very high-CO2 environments-- at l
6.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
> astronauts... reported mental viscosity(brain fog) and headaches I can think of plenty of excellent reasons the environment in the space station would lead to physiological issues. Sleep disturbance, stress, restrictions on diet and
7.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
> Cognitive decline starts above 600 ppm according to air quality studies. According to an older, small study of short duration (Mendell and Fisk at LBNL), the results of which are heavily disputed. Since 600 ppm isn't too much hig
8.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
Interest and military and take a distant third and fourth place respectively. Here are the rough proportions of the top US federal budget expenditures according to the Treasury Department: - Healthcare (Medicare and Medicaid): 24% - Socia
9.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
Well yeah, it's still debt. It's still the unpaid balance of the cost of goods and services. The essential purpose of a market for IOUs is to allow us to issue a lot more IOUs. This is critical to the industrial and technologica
10.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
My point is not that economic surpluses don't ever exist, but that the perceived surpluses that people invoke in order to defend the present welfare state are unsustainable, and that the system will inevitably collapse without a miracu
11.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
Food and clothing are actually an argument against you here. Sure we waste a lot of both, and yet food insecurity is rare in the First World, and lack of clothing is pretty much the least significant part of poverty. Plus, government-fo
12.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
Norway's fiscal discipline is certainly the exception that proves the rule. Britain's failure to steward the wealth of its half of the North Sea's bounty provides a good example of that rule.
13.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
If that's true, it's odd that so many social welfare programs across the western world are consuming an ever-growing share of GDP, incurring massive debt, and grinding toward insolvency and collapse. Exactly how much more of our
14.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
No, we're not. It just seems like there's excess because the costs of running social programs are being paid with runaway debt. Those bills will eventually require settling, and it will become obvious how much excess there reall
15.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
The wealth of the "capital class", whatever that means, is dwarfed by the debt being run up by governments. My favorite example: if you confiscated all of the wealth from all of the billionaires in the USA, it would fund the feder
16.
by nate_meurer 2mo ago
> giving them more power doesn't look like a slippery slope straight to dystopia. This only makes sense if you have no concept of "future", wherein different, less reasonable people can gain power. This should be especial
17.
by nate_meurer 7mo ago
This isn't 1846. Mexico is our largest single trading partner. Spending our own lives and treasure to babysit an unstable nation on our Southern border is in fact the last thing the US (whoever you're asking) wants.
18.
by nate_meurer 8mo ago
What do you mean by "Democrat failures"? The Democratic party doesn't believe Biden's immigration policy was a failure, and in fact the official party position seems to be that Biden didn't open the border enough.
19.
by nate_meurer 8mo ago
Which of these governments do you trust? The same governments, mind you, that are working diligently to end anonymity on the Internet.
20.
by nate_meurer 8mo ago
When is comes to immigration in particular, that simply isn't true. As I alluded to in my comment, Obama inherited Bush's Operation Streamline immigration regime, which was running like a Swiss watch in comparison to the mess we
21.
by nate_meurer 8mo ago
I know the Optimus marketing wank is all sci-fi humanoids, but I wonder if the products that actually hit the market will be much simpler, not trying to compete with human arms, as you say. Does that seem likely to you?
22.
by nate_meurer 8mo ago
I don't think the Obama comparison is very useful. Trump faces a vastly more difficult problem than Obama did. For most of his presidency, Obama simply continued the Operation Streamline era policies that he inherited from Bush. He
23.
by nate_meurer 8mo ago
Yes the Flock coverage is a very good example.
24.
by nate_meurer 2y ago
It's because this reporting is nonsense. It comes from a health influence with "mama" in the name, always a good indicator of scientific rigor. They say they tested for "organic fluorine", and when it predictably c
25.
by nate_meurer 2y ago
No, they tested for organic fluorine, and then acted surprised when they predictably realized that many floss products contain PTFE, widely known as Teflon, which we've already known for decades. It's not a secret, and it is in f
26.
by nate_meurer 2y ago
And not just genetic luck, but luck of childhood circumstances. Lots of people were given a deranged relationship to food as a child by their parents, leading in many cases to actual metabolic derangement as well.
27.
by nate_meurer 2y ago
Echoing the other reply, there is a raging scientific debate between the energy balance model and the carbohydrate insulin model of obesity and diabetes. There are large cohorts of very smart scientists on both sides of this debate.
28.
by nate_meurer 2y ago
Like the OP, I'm just pointing out that the masking requirements set out by governments and institutions at all levels were highly theatrical in nature, and I gave some concrete examples. Do you disagree? For example, the requirement
29.
by nate_meurer 2y ago
In every public place I visited during the pandemic, the official rules stated you could leave your mask down if you were eating or drinking. This included two of the largest hospitals in Colorado. In bars and restaurants you only had to
30.
by nate_meurer 3y ago
I use a lot of turmeric, and I buy it whole from an Asian grocery store. Large Asian grocers will always have whole turmeric root. It's just like any other ginger root. I chop it up and puree it in a blender, and the puree can be use

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