Realitycheck

The figures in the second quote are actually derived from a textbook, Ristinen, R & Kraushaar, J, Energy and the Environment, 1999, Wiley & Sons. However, the nearest one is supposedly 150 miles away. Of course, I have found plenty of other articles that go either way. This science project looks kind of convincing. http://brneurosci.org/co2.html

Don't bother looking for counter-arguments. I already found one for you. Check out this little Republican gem. http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm I can see it now. Republican congressmen says, "Keep pumping CO2 and buy forestation stocks. DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!"

Is this argument explicitly about Atkins diet or is it about what works best? Complex carbs are ok as long as they are extremely complex, like wheat, brown rice, and oats.

You are going to want to find enough calories to support a decent metabolic rate. If you don't get enough calories, your metabolic rate will plummet and weight-loss will be a dream unless you sacrifice the rest of your body. You could supplement calories with very healthy oils like fish oil, err, flax oil. If you don't get enough fats in, you could go into ketosis, which isn't really fun. I actually did that once, trying to improve upon the Atkins diet before I educated myself. There is no comparable substitute for protein in vegetables except for supplementation. All vegetable proteins are incomplete and mostly inconsequential, since arguably, you should be eating a gram of protein for every pound of body weight. So if you eat lots of soy protein shakes, flax oil, and all of the vegetables you want, it could turn out to be a pretty good diet and you could lose weight pretty fast if you exercise along with it, but you need the essential fatty acids and you need adequate protein to maintain the wear and tear on your body. Your total daily diet calories should equal about 40% carbs, 40% proteins and 20% fats. This is real easy to adhere to with a vegetarian diet, just supplement with protein and fats, as needed. Try out the resources at fitday.com for diet structure.

They won't make a Watergate out of this. It's not that significant. This isn't exactly theft and obstruction of justice. The arguments lean to his right to fire whoever he wants, even if its for frivolous reasons. Tapes are one thing, while advisor documents are something else altogether. Does anybody know exactly why they were fired? They wanted to fire a lot more than just eight of them. Either way, they had a system-wide issue with many of the prosecutors. Did they not want to go after questionable wiretapping terrorism cases or were they just all Democrats?

Well, then why don't you just suck on a friggin tailpipe for a few minutes until you get a clue. My bet is that his wife left him for reasons that don't need to be mentioned. Just how much evidence do you need before you get a clue about how to carry on an intelligent conversation? I don't need any numbers at all to tell you that smoke causes acid rain, smoke causes ozone alerts, and who can tell me what happens to disproportionate levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, with no mechanism to convert it back to oxygen. Surely, something happens to it. It doesn't just get vented into space. Oh yeah, plankton in the ocean fixes it, under water and everything.

I've read conflicting reports on that one, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Geez. Just go to any chemical manufacturing plant and see where only 25% of it is coming from. How much evidence do you need? It's very evident that some people just don't let their eyes open until there is a wave of sludge coming in with the tide every morning and they are having to clean off the ring around the house every few months.

Yesterday, I took this test to see how much MY personal carbon footprint added up to. With one car and a one room apartment, it was saying that I dump about 20 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. How do they measure gas? Surely, they are not talking about the equivalent of 20 tons of solid waste. Either way, guys this stuff really adds up and if you don't think that it is artificially affecting the ozone layer, then you're shortchanging yourself. Granted, global warming happens on its own, but not at the rate that we are seeing it. The dinosaurs did not get wiped out in 200 years. In the year 2006, in the US alone, 89 million tons of carbon monoxide, 19 million tons of nitrogen oxide, and 15 million tons of sulfur dioxide were released, not even counting the rest of the world. All of our figures have been reduced by about 50% since 1970 due to laws put in place. Total carbon dioxide emissions in the US alone in 2003 were 5.8 BILLION tons, and all of the disappearing rainforests are supposed to convert this back into oxygen? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17965617/site/newsweek/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/gg04rpt/carbon.html

I find this issue really interesting. For a while now, I have been blindly backing nurture, nurture, nurture, only to find out that there is more to it than meets the eye regarding genetic influence of behavioral traits and stuff like that. Is it really fathomable that morals could be influenced genetically? Doesn't it really all come down to survival of the fittest, unless we are taught otherwise? Greed and power are such wild cards when it comes to genetics. I guess what I am trying to say is that, genetically, we are basically all the same (regarding the morality of supporting ourselves), with a very limited range of deviation. We are programmed to survive. The Karankawas believed that it was ok to kill each other to survive, though I guess it is possible that it ran in the family. Do you really think that such higher processes such as morality (man-made) would be genetically influenced? When we become so successful at achieving our goals, so perfect, there really is no control offered by the chaos of nature other than peer pressure (We are at the top of the food chain.), so I guess you do make a good point. Everything else we believe in, we are taught, disregarding disorders, and even then, nothing is set in stone. Of course, someone else will do it first and we will eventually allow it in order to compete and make sure that all of Nancy Reagan's offspring are up to par.

I agree with you. With the current administration, all I see every single day is we will stay, we will stay. Every time I say something, I read something that contradicts what I say, displaying all of the different factors and dynamics of this war. But, if the Democrats sweep the elections, which is likely, don't bet on it. Of course, that is a long time from now.

Right? Is this war on plundering the spoils of Iraq and spreading chaos throughout the lands, or is this war on the American occupation? It really does not get any simpler than this.

I'm hearing you, man. You are saying that the majority of the people you take out are foreign fighters, people who are there to fight jihad against the "snake" that is America, right? What you are saying is that the majority of the people who are there to fight could really care less about the remnants of the Iran/Iraq war or the age-old rift between Sunnis and Shias, in general, right? This is an anti-American influence war, because sure enough, there are tons of jihadis trying to screw things up for the evil Americans and everything that they don't stand for, in general, right? I'm just trying to figure it all out. Surely, they have something better to do, but if the evil Americans are in their backyard telling them how to run their lands, then surely they just have to fight, because this is what was prophesized in the Kuran. If we left, they would have no reason to keep on. This is the core belief among people who want us to leave. Am I right or am I right? Do these foreign fighters really care about the politics between the Iraqi Sunnis and Shias, or are they just there to screw things up for the Americans, to fight the evil Americans? Are you saying that these foreign fighters have pretty much resolved to commit suicide, regardless of who they kill, just as long as they go out with a bang? Or is there an underlying organization to everything (Al Qaeda has them lined up in a regiment)? Frankly, if Iran has teamed up with Hamas, it seems like anything is possible now. Of course, I say Iran, those who know the true story say Iranians. It's kind of hard to get the complete story straight. You're dead right. I have absolutely no idea what it is like there. I see this big war of words going on between John McCain saying, "Yeah, we can walk down this street in broad daylight" and Michael Ware of CNN, who has been there for quite a while, saying, "No, no, I wouldn't walk down that neighborhood if I were you." So what happens? John McCain takes a female Congress lady and walks down the street with her, probably right after an entire regiment cleans out the whole 100 block corridor, in the background, so he can save face. Am I right, or is Michael Ware just a wuss from taking too many assignments like that? Maybe he was gunshy from having been kidnapped by Al Qaeda a short time before (and rescued on the same day). Of course, I am digressing. I have a lot of respect for our troops. They all have a job to do and little choice in the matter, so everybody tries real hard to do the best they can. I also have a lot of respect for most people's beliefs. There is a good reason why Moslems think they are better than the Jews and the Christians, and surely everybody else. So the gist of the matter is, do we have to kill all of the foreign fighters or could the Iraqis do it, in your opinion? Why couldn't they do it, if not? They have had time to train for a while, with better oversight than the average army. They will be armed to the teeth, compared to the foreign fighters, right? It looks like we might already start pulling back this spring.

That requires no rebuttal.

The one most significant issue I have is its effect on kids. While there might not be anything wrong with homosexuality in a physical sense, it should be pretty much of a given that, in the mainstream, it is still an extreme deviation from the norm for acceptable behavior, which is part of life, adhering to society's customs and norms. For a while, I would pass by this billboard for a gay chat line which stated, "Be Gay!", and all I could think about were the little kids riding in the cars that would drive by that sign every single day and see that sign, "Be Gay!" In a different time and era, not long ago, such a scenario would be unthinkable. But now, in this day and age, especially in a big city, with all of today's new social dynamics and relaxed rules of society, this is more capable of happening. But it really deteriorates the standard of living for the majority, because homosexuality is not supposed to be an acceptable norm of behavior, yet it has worked its way this far into the mainstream that a child, who would not even be exposed to the idea that homosexuality even exists, except for in the hidden chambers of peoples' closets, is bombarded by material which, not only promotes acceptance of such a grand deviation, but also imposes that the child could, in fact, be gay if he wanted to, characterizing the deviation in his mind as being completely healthy and on par with mainstream behavior. And all of this is taken in at such a young age, that acceptance of it is almost guaranteed, self-perpetuating itself.

This is the craziest stuff I have ever heard.

At this stage, "winning" means being able to walk away without leaving a full-blown civil war. Before the Palestinians split up, would you call the Israeli/Palestinian conflict a civil war? Would you call the Lebanon split a civil war? It certainly seems like it, yet the odds are heavily tilted to the favor of the Israelis and the Lebanese government, because these are the legitimate rulers of these lands. We already lost, from a cost/benefit standpoint, the minute we invaded. However, it's impossible to know what will be gained out of the experience until we actually leave. I still believe that a reasonable amount of peace will be salvaged out of the mess. These little groups of insurgents are like mosquitos in the grand scheme of things. Think numbers. Moslems are born to fight. The masses will dominate. Somehow the Army gets these leads and gradually cleans house. This is something that the legitimate Iraqi forces will continue to do. They are not going to let these pesky mosquitos dominate Iraq.

There is no scientific basis whatsoever to believe in many parts of it, so doesn't this irrational belief system separate people from reality, in a sense?

I would not do this. I would make your opinions clear, but in a friendly way. Kids might not want guidance from the "obsolete" parents, but at least he will know what father thinks best and file it in his mind for later consideration.

Sigh. The whole black act, something that I was semi-guilty of when I was young. Kids, in general, don't really have a clue, unless their parents are Jewish and they know that the spoils of the firstborn are at stake if they don't act like a good little Jewboy. They think with their hormones, something which black people arguably have an abundance of, so we imitate them. It's all about being the most flamboyant set of cahones on the block, a mating ritual. This is what they learn at school, that the black man is large and in charge. Don't really know how to help you other than to say that sooner or later, a girl might show him the light, IF he is willing to listen. Of course, it's really just a fad, in a sense, nobody does that forever and expects to get anywhere in society, unless they turn out to be the REAL Slim Shady.

That was my initial assumption. I think she is probably a bit senile, or thinking the same thing that everybody does, "If these Moslems are so righteous, why do they go around killing everybody?"

I find it extremely surprising that the British government would give him such an esteemed title simply because he caused his own problems by writing a book called The Satanic Verses, a slap-happy mockery of the religion of Islam. Granted, he couldn't have known how much of a success it would become, but either way, give him a knighthood because one of the world's three biggest religions took offense at it? Sounds kind of crazy to me.

There comes a point when people just have to stand on their own feet, it happens for lots of people. The Iraqis have a lot to lose by not making something out of this (like the proceeds from a whole bunch of oil, for one). They know this. This is regime change. The majority is gaining control. The majority will be gaining a lot of tools and know-how out of this. The majority is being taught how to make something out of this. It's always the idiot splinter groups that make it so hard, but if the Sunnis can be taught to turn away Al-Qaeda, then there should be plenty of hope. Will the Iraqis let their big chance slide into chaos? I think not. We've worked too hard to fix our mess. There is no way that we will kill all of the insurgents. Even if it comes down to an election causing change, the Iraqi people should have a pretty good idea on how to handle things, especially with our continuing, yet diminished help, and when that happens, they really won't have any choice. It will be win or die, and I put my money on armed majorities any day. The insurgents may continue to fight on, in vain, but they simply cannot bomb everybody. Armed, organized majorities are simply that. Insurgents are simply rag-tag bands of pissed off people, and there is always the "Get the Americans out and we will be happy" factor.

I'm betting that circuit board manufacturers probably use a simple iron press, where you lay the board on a flat iron plate, and then the press above consists of a heavy, sharp steel blade which simply cuts it with heavy pressure.

I've had it done to cut porcelain tile (the strongest variety) approximately 3/16" thick. This was done using mosaics of little tiles connected as 1' mats that were surely very hard to work with under the cutting jets. This method should work for you. I doubt that peeling would be a problem since the water jet is so smooth, ie. no serious grating caused by a saw. However, it seems that there should be a more cost-effective application for this, as water-jet cutting can be pretty expensive.