Jump to content

International News Thread


Recommended Posts

44 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Not an international news story, per se, but it needs to be shared internationally. You British folks are freaks!:

https://nypost.com/2018/10/30/woman-who-had-sex-with-20-ghosts-is-now-engaged-to-a-spirit/

I read the first bit and she said he did not propose on one knee as he had none. I have to wonder what other significant body parts are also missing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^^^ Lol

On a much more depressing note, a scientific study was recently released claiming that upwards of 60% of the Earth's insects have disappeared over the last few decades. Here is the summary.

Also, give this podcast a listen. It's depressing as hell. The planet is deteriorating before our eyes. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/2/2018 at 5:51 AM, Tywin et al. said:

^^^ Lol

On a much more depressing note, a scientific study was recently released claiming that upwards of 60% of the Earth's insects have disappeared over the last few decades. Here is the summary.

Also, give this podcast a listen. It's depressing as hell. The planet is deteriorating before our eyes. 

Too many people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/4/2018 at 7:58 AM, larrytheimp said:

*Too many people not willing to make some basic changes to preserve the planet we live on.

It's both. There are too many people and too many of them refuse to be good stewards. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I’m surprised to see no discussion of the Russia/Ukraine naval clash and Ukraine’s subsequent declaration of Martial law in all provinces bordering Russia or Russian allies.  Anyone else worried this will spin out of control?

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/27/671090385/russia-ukraine-tensions-escalate-ukraine-declares-martial-law

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So police recommended indictments charges of bribery and corruption for both Bibi Netanyahu and his wife.  Bibi's response might be familiar:

Quote

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back on Sunday after police recommended indictments against him and his wife for bribery and other corruption charges, calling it a "witch hunt" and saying the investigation was "tainted from the start."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, DMC said:

So police recommended indictments charges of bribery and corruption for both Bibi Netanyahu and his wife.  Bibi's response might be familiar:

 

When you have a convicted criminal as Prime Minister, there is a pretty decent chance he'll offend again. The last time he was booted from office it was because of bribery and corruption. I don't understand how his party let him get back to that position.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

When you have a convicted criminal as Prime Minister, there is a pretty decent chance he'll offend again. The last time he was booted from office it was because of bribery and corruption. I don't understand how his party let him get back to that position.

Yeah he's got a really long list of corruption.  Bibi's pretty much a living legend to any right-leaning Israeli.  Once Sharon had a stroke and his Kadima party collapsed, there hasn't been an active politician that can really compare.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Samsaptakas said:

What can possibly go wrong?

On a more serious note, the new gas tax in France has resulted in some surprisingly large riots:

Quote

 

Protesters angry about rising fuel taxes clashed with French police for a third straight weekend and scores were arrested after demonstrators built barricades in central Paris, lit fires and threw rocks at officers Saturday.

According to figures released by French interior ministry, around 75,000 demonstrators took to the streets across France today in the anti-Macron protests.

Protesters, including some wearing black hoodies, piled up large plywood planks and other material in the middle of a street near the Arc de Triomphe, and set the debris on fire.

At least 133 people have been injured, including 23 police officers. French authorities have drafted thousands of extra police officers into Paris.

"We are in a state of insurrection, I've never seen anything like it," said Jeanne d'Hauteserre, the mayor of Paris' 8th district, near the Arc de Triomphe.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Altherion said:

What can possibly go wrong?

On a more serious note, the new gas tax in France has resulted in some surprisingly large riots:

 

How ironic that the trigger for the Paris protests was Macron’s fuel tax increase in a drive for cleaner energy. Trump might have some advice for the Golden Boy on this issue.

To me the drive for cleaner energy is a good ideal, but it should be pursued by providing people with BETTER energy options, not making their current options more expensive.

And Tesla is pretty much there. They already have the better product. They just need to penetrate the mass market and get their economies of scale to a level where they can match traditional auto industry pricing.

Then the conversion will happen naturally.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

To me the drive for cleaner energy is a good ideal, but it should be pursued by providing people with BETTER energy options, not making their current options more expensive.

If finding cleaner energy was based on making it cheaper, then it wouldn't be an ideal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, DMC said:

If finding cleaner energy was based on making it cheaper, then it wouldn't be an ideal.

I don’t quite follow. 

The exciting thing is that electric cars of similar or better performance than ICE’s are already here, thanks to Tesla. And their running costs are already lower than that of ICE’s. It is just the initial cost that needs to drop some more. And with economies of scale, that is achievable.

No need to punish people for driving gas guzzlers. More attractive options are already here. Tesla currently produces 7000 cars a week and have a backlog of 400,000 pre-orders.

 If they ramp that up to 70,000 cars a week, average cost would drop significantly thanks to scaling and 3.5 million ICE’s would be replaced by electric vehicles per year.

The change is here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

How ironic that the trigger for the Paris protests was Macron’s fuel tax increase in a drive for cleaner energy. Trump might have some advice for the Golden Boy on this issue.

To me the drive for cleaner energy is a good ideal, but it should be pursued by providing people with BETTER energy options, not making their current options more expensive.

In principle, I agree with you -- but creating better energy options is hard and the path to them is uncertain whereas making existing options more expensive is easy and straightforward (at least when a party interested in doing so is in power). The problem with the French tax is that it does this in a really ham-handed way. The price of gas in France is already roughly double what it is in the US (mostly due to taxes) and this tax would raise it even higher. And while it is technically possible to get around without a car in much of France, it's often not pleasant. I lived in France for a long time and when I was moving back to the US, I sold my car about a month before the move. My round-trip commute with the car was roughly 45 minutes and without was a little over 2 hours. It's even worse for people in rural areas where there is no mass transit; this tax hike must be pretty brutal for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

I don’t quite follow. 

The exciting thing is that electric cars of similar or better performance than ICE’s are already here, thanks to Tesla. And their running costs are already lower than that of ICE’s. It is just the initial cost that needs to drop some more. And with economies of scale, that is achievable.

No need to punish people for driving gas guzzlers. More attractive options are already here. Tesla currently produces 7000 cars a week and have a backlog of 400,000 pre-orders.

 If they ramp that up to 70,000 cars a week, average cost would drop significantly thanks to scaling and 3.5 million ICE’s would be replaced by electric vehicles per year.

The change is here.

The thing is that the electric grid needs to green up or the electric cars are still running on electricity that is still predominantly fossil fuel based.  Electric cars are only as clean as the source they're plugged in to 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...