TheVat

Perhaps google something like correlation between suicide rate and month. I have heard there's a peak in late spring and early summer.

From Politico today: The Supreme Court on Thursday significantly shrank the reach of federal clean water protections, dealing a major blow to President Joe Biden’s efforts to restore protections to millions of acres of wetlands and delivering a victory to multiple powerful industries. The ruling from the court’s conservative majority vastly narrowing the federal government’s authority over marshes and bogs is a win for industries such as homebuilding and oil and gas, which must seek Clean Water Act permits to damage federally protected wetlands. Those industries have fought for decades to limit the law’s reach. The ruling comes less than a year after the high court issued a contentious ruling restricting EPA’s ability to regulate climate warming gases, and liberal Justice Elena Kagan decried Thursday that the court has appointed “itself as the national decision-maker on environmental policy.” The 5-4 ruling in Sackett v. EPA creates a far narrower test than what has been used for more than half a century to determine which bogs and marshes fall under the scope of the 1972 law. Under the majority’s definition, only those wetlands with a continuous surface water connection to larger streams, lakes and rivers would get federal protections. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, wrote in the majority opinion that only those wetlands that are “indistinguishable” from those larger waters should be covered. “Wetlands that are separate from traditional navigable waters cannot be considered part of those waters, even if they are located nearby,” Alito wrote. The court’s liberals, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, disagreed with that test, arguing that it cuts out a broad swath of wetlands that are important to Clean Water Act’s goal of protecting the nation’s waters... https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/25/supreme-court-dramatically-shrinks-clean-water-acts-reach-00098781 In case the thread title was unclear, here's a bit about WOTUS... https://www.epa.gov/wotus/current-implementation-waters-united-states

Most extreme ideologies require maintenance of a narrative that distorts some aspects of reality and ignores others. Often to negate some valid observation their perceived opponents may have. Or to take credit for economic trends that were in fact driven by forces outside of partisan lever-pulling. Or to exaggerate a social problem in order to make it seem like only their draconian fix will work. Meanwhile, centrists quietly work to get something done. OTOH, miners not working themselves to death in dangerous conditions for long hours while getting poverty wages used to be considered a radical and extreme idea that required brutal represssion. Thanks to that "extremist" movement, we have sane labor laws now and unions that protect workers. So sometimes what the PTB frame as extreme is actually rational and necessary social policy. (Parmesan rules. The aging process, done properly, breaks down the lactose well enough that it's been about the only cheese I can indulge in for the past decade. )

I think you have to start first, and then:

People take LSD and they see God. If God takes LSD, does he see people?

Flunitrazepam.

I think the Surgeon-General is right to be concerned about social media and developing young brains. The most dangerous toy of all. This (paywall-free screenshot) summarizes the statement he released today: https://archive.is/2023.05.23-224841/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/05/23/social-media-surgeon-general-youth-health-risk/ Once again I am the forum's premiere Necroposter. Tremble before my black tendrils of necrotic magic!

As someone familiar with farming methods I would note that some current trends like no-till, controlled burns, "green manure," regionally-adapted strains, heritage varieties, drip irrigation, etc, all hearken back to ancient indigenous peoples and their cropping methods. European style farming has often been a disaster in drier regions (I have a parent who lived much of childhood through such a disaster), and will not sustain those 8-plus billion without incorporating some "primitive" indigenous methods.

Using this spoiler box system on a small tablet is going to drive me insane. LOL

Drat! He beats me to it by one minute! 😀

It bugs me that John Mellencamp's Little Pink Houses which was intended to be a cynical and sarcastic ("ain't that America...") look at America's problems with race and materialism, has been appropriated by all these GOP flag wavers as if it's some sort of patriotic love song to America. Ugh! Let's be grateful it stopped with just kissing....

There is a potential second answer. But I'm not sure it's "always."

Good point. And probably less ice than the Arctic, since a larger percent of the southern hemisphere is ocean which is absorbing heat. Also, the southern hemisphere gets 7 percent more solar radiation than northern, since the south pole is tilted towards the sun in summer there at the same point as perihelion of earth's orbit. So, more water absorbing more radiation producing a more complete melt and more heat-absorbing surface. (this is a simple model, so I realize there can be other factors like ocean currents and average cloud cover and so on)

Same reasons as everywhere else. Blame de Tocqueville for getting us started on the whole American exceptionalism narrative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism It's harder for politicians to get people to pay taxes and fight in wars, if they start to realize their nation came from theft and plunder and genocide and wealthy landowners protecting their interests. Many nations have whitewashed versions of history they teach children - the latest whitewashing spree by the US GOP is nothing new.

Either American lawnmowers are safer, or I've apparently led a sheltered life. I will certainly not be using mine barefoot (which I always saw as kind of a no-no, given the proximity to whirling steel blades). Sorry about your cousin @StringJunky.

Since the distance can be arbitrary, I just set it as 15 miles, and the intuitive solution popped right out at me.

Har! Of course, observing with binoculars can give an incorrect sense of scale. A vast proliferating cloud of Bracewell probes seems possible, where any system with parameters possibly supporting life gets a basic device which, if EM emissions or other indicators of emerging tech civilization are detected, can then multiply into specialized surveillance probes.

I don't know anyone who has used GFI protection with a mower. Nor have I heard of anyone being electrocuted by their mower. It's difficult for me to imagine how your body, gripping the plastic handle and deadman switch, could find itself as the current pathway. That said, How Can I Electrocute Myself with my Lawn Mower sounds like a great thread topic at SFN. 😀

Your assertion seemed to be that Einstein had a larger than usual brain (you said "braincase" which implied larger contents of said case). I provided evidence rebutting that assertion. If you are wrong about a fact that could be easily checked, then this causes doubt on your other assertions.

At 1230g, his brain was actually on the low side of normal. https://www.science.org/content/article/closer-look-einsteins-brain#:~:text=One parameter that did not,of average for modern humans. Surprising that you missed this, given your incredibly high IQ and expanded braincase. I sometimes shout "viola!" because I'm dyslexic.

Repulsion + propulsion = maglev train. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev They occasionally have to scrape Bond villains off the tracks.