Here's the thing: science edition

Here's my issue with the government decision to allow for pollution and increase coal production, coupled with a decision to deny science.

And I can assure you this is not going where you think it is.

I'll look at coal first. The coal industry is dying. While it's nice to say that you want to bring back jobs the reality is that companies in the US have moved on from coal into other things. While you could make a case for it being environmental, it was economics.

Companies - bigger ones that might burn coal - invested in more efficient and less costly items. To go backward to coal would be costly and it's unlikely they will.

Second is the demand for coal from other countries, namely china. Sure you can sell them coal for now. But they announced their plans to move on from coal within the next decade or so, so any gains made in the sale of coal there will be short-lived. Plus, undoubtedly there would be some trade negotiation that would have to happen to make it worthwhile for either side.

And third is that while there may be a demand for coal, the ability to extract it has seen some technological enhancements that require less labor than in years past. And thinking about trade negotiations, supposing a Chinese company bought some mines; would they be content to hire US labor or would they try to outsource it?

And now let's turn to science. Our government has decided science isn't so important. I could go on here and talk about environmental science, but I won't. Instead, I want to talk about the broader sense of science. For some reason, our government doesn't feel science is important on pretty much any level.

It's basic science here. If we are a nation that truly wants to prosper, we should embrace science, scientific evidence, and really promote its growth. Don't muzzle places like the CDC, NASA, and others simply because you don't like some of what they say.

Our prosperity. Our future. Those should hinge on science and evidence based findings. We can ignore them at our peril.

So here's what's likely to happen in the next decade: the US will be backward and uneducated. While other countries that invested in science will prosper. We will be playing catchup to the world - all while having a very short term prosperous moment, because we chose to invest in coal.

No. I say don't muzzle scientists of any sort. Encourage them. Back them. Support them. Let their findings help us develop our future. I don't care if it's climate science or technological advances.

Suppose the next great scientist who revolutionized the world comes from somewhere else? Wouldn't that suck because we're not the greatest? How can we take that chance?

#MakeAmericaSmartAgain Curiosity Just Sent Back Some Mysterious Inconsistencies

This is what makes science cool. You form a theory based on empirical evidence. Then, you collect new evidence and you refine your theory. Sometimes it turns out that there is a contradiction, or that your initial theory was wrong. But that just causes you to dig deeper.

https://futurism.com/the-curiosity-rover-is-providing-us-with-some-intriguing-inconsistencies/

Deep thoughts 3/3 - is this the plan?

Looking over the landscape of what's happening, consider this:

People being deported, leaves low wage, high labor jobs unfilled.

Removing healthcare and changing rules on labor disproportionately affects lower income Americans.

Removing any remaining consumer/banking protections means lower income Americans will probably find themselves in debt fairly easily.

And with nowhere to turn, they'll have to take the low wage, high labor jobs that are unfilled.

And essentially they become indentured servants to "the man" ensuring that the top 1% return to an era adjacent to the time just after the civil war.

Unless we stop the insanity, of course.

Deep thoughts 2/3 el Donald's supporters

I find it interesting that those that don't support el donaldo, and who think he's already gone too far are called "snowflakes" - and yet the orange snowflake can't handle criticism of any kind. Who's the real snowflake here?

Also, the pussyhat wearing crowd has the right to protest. Whether other folks like it or not. And it's such protests that got the right in the first place.

...and its interesting how these protests have been peaceful and well thought out.

Meanwhile I notice that those who oppose it plan protests with guns. It's a faux show of superiority, which is absurd. And when I read though social media posts, el donaldos supporters tend to threaten violence and talk about "support him or its civil war"

What is that?

Deep thoughts 1/3. That's enough of a chance for el Donald

After the election we were told to give the guy a chance. To prove....something. Perhaps that he was a worthy leader?

He's held the position for about a month and the question is: how much of a chance is anyone suggesting we give him.

I say that time has passed and we've given him enough time. He's proven to be a petulant child, between constantly bickering with everyone and the bullshit fake news that he and his posse keep spouting.

He has appointed unqualified people for positions they have no business holding.

He has been exceptionally harsh on immigration. Now to be fair, I think just allowing people to just stay is not the answer. But I think the rules should be applied evenly to Europeans who are here illegally as well. And to allow for a due process rather than simply sending people to what amounts to limbo.

So yeah, you had a chance to prove your worth. You didn't, so time to have a serious call to action. Come on elected leaders! Wake up!

The vote totals in Florida

I read something this morning that mentioned that Florida had an unusual election outcome. The article pointed out that it was "convenient" that the law in Florida was changed in the last several years so that the only person who could call for a recount is the states attorney general, a person who had close ties to trump.

And they pointed that there appears to be some amount of voting irregularity. And here's the thing: they're right.

According to the official totals from the Florida department of elections:
Floridas official turnout was 9,580,489
Votes cast for president were 9,420,039
Votes cast for senate seat were 9,301,820

What gives?

On the surface, what this means is that 160,000 people turned out to vote but did NOT fill in the line for president. In a hotly contested election for president, that does not make sense, does it? I get a ballot, in person or by mail, and I leave the president line blank?

Logically, I would imagine that you could account for some of it because voters didn't mark the ballot properly. And to be fair that's close to 2%, so it's at least possible, statistically speaking. But it still seems unusual.

You could make the case that perhaps they showed up for the down ballot races, but I think you can throw that idea out. The first down ballot item was the senate seat, and its vote total was below the president. I had heard it suggested that medical marijuana drew in the difference. There were about 9.1 million people who voted on that ballot question.

Certainly there could be some confounding: some people may have voted for just the marijuana item, while others may have voted just for president. There is some downloadable data available from the state, so it may be worth a look...but my first glance at it suggests it may not be useful for such an analysis.

So to me, it still seems like something is amiss.

Let's look at this another way. Hillary lost by about 113,000 votes. The number of votes cast for president was about 120,000 more than were cast for the senate. Of course, it's very likely that some voters only showed up to vote for the top of the ticket, so it can be easily explained.

But it is interesting that the top of the ticket won by almost that difference. Of course that could be a coincidence, too. But you get the idea. It is just unusual enough to warrant more discussion than it ever got.

This kind of nonsense makes me crazy: the world is flat?!

Kyrie Irving went on a podcast and questioned a lot of things.  Things that are demonstrably fact.  He questioned things like dinosaurs, and the aforementioned flat earth. 
https://www.cnet.com/news/nba-star-kyrie-irving-believes-earth-is-flat/

Then, he doubled down and said he liked to question things and was amused to see the reaction.
http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/02/18/kyrie-irving-reaction-world-flat-comment-hilarious

This is dumbassery at its finest.  And this.  This is what is wrong with society.  The. Earth. Is. Not. Flat.