UN Global Warming report is out

[oldcrow]

That's right Max.

This, to me, is what's so concerning of Time Warner and Comcast becoming one.

Control the source of info in all these areas. Price it out of the range of many, something that cost pennies.

[Spen]

The last few days have been nice and milder than the middle of the week. Perhaps global warming has peaked?

[papasmurfbell]

I heard him on Stern, seems like a really cool guy.

http://digg.com/video/watch-saturday-night-live-louis-c-k-monologue-online

Here is his monologue.

[papasmurfbell]

That's right Max.

This, to me, is what's so concerning of Time Warner and Comcast becoming one.

Control the source of info in all these areas. Price it out of the range of many, something that cost pennies.

So agree.

[papasmurfbell]

Also our Supreme Court allowing people to spend unlimited money.

[thundercleetz]

So agree.

Another factor in the Comcast Time Warner merger is Apple was set to release a new Apple TV model that streamed live Time Warner content. With the success of Netflix and other over-the-top services, this was a desperate move by Comcast to keep a hold on the cable TV market as it is definitely moving away from a traditional connection.

[papasmurfbell]

I would love to see congress make ala carte cable a mandatory option. Also if I am cable statons I would start offering pay online links to my network. So for say $5 a month you get all of ESPN. For $2 you get AMC. You don't deal with Comcast or any other cable company.

[thundercleetz]

I would love to see congress make ala carte cable a mandatory option. Also if I am cable statons I would start offering pay online links to my network. So for say $5 a month you get all of ESPN. For $2 you get AMC. You don't deal with Comcast or any other cable company.

This is where I see the cable industry going. Right now Comcast has a hold on the industry because they control cable internet for the most part (some neighborhoods have two providers, my neighborhood only has Comcast). Soon enough the big three AT&T, Verizon and Sprint will expand their 4G/LTE network large enough where people can use that for their home network for a reasonable price, and like you stated choose their ala carte services via the internet.

 

In the meantime Comcast will continue to be in the game, especially with cable network sports contracts. Eventually the money for the major leagues will be in over-the-top services however. Long-term thinking but it's going to happen.

[papasmurfbell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYXGEwp_q-M

It is about 50 mins in when they get to global warming. The whole thing is very interesting.

[dc.]

Just from the image above looks similar to Hans Rosling work. Check him out re: quality of life for the undeveloped and green energy for the developed.

[papasmurfbell]

That is who it is. I don't agree with his numbers. I see as global warming increases that arable land will diminish to the point that the planet will not be able to feed itself. With the additional people they will take sown more jungle and forests to create more farm land to try to keep up. He also says nothing about potable water. I do believe the population is to high. That is the founding problem with global warming and many other issues. It is interesting to see how the rate of children has decreased even in the 3rd world.

[papasmurfbell]

Just from the image above looks similar to Hans Rosling work. Check him out re: quality of life for the undeveloped and green energy for the developed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXfGSZT93ts

Just ran into this.

[RavenMad]

What not to do if you are trying to save the world: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/worlds-dumbest-idea-taxing-solar-energy-111300623.html#5Hu5erC

 

 

In a setback for the renewable energy movement, the state House in Oklahoma this week passed a bill that would levy a new fee on those who generate their own energy through solar equipment or wind turbines on their property. The measure, which sailed to passage on a near unanimous vote after no debate, is likely to be signed into law by Republican Gov. Mary Fallin.

 

The bill, known as S.B. 1456, will specifically target those who install power generation systems on their property and sell the excess energy back to the grid. However, those who already have such renewable systems installed will not be affected.

Still, it’s the new customers who will rapidly make up the majority, even in a traditional oil-and-gas powerhouse like Oklahoma.

 

That’s because the cost of solar power systems has been drastically falling for the last five years. Solar installations nationwide are going to shoot up to an estimated 45 gigawatts in 2014, a new record, and are projected to grow even more in coming years as solar prices fall further and fossil fuel extraction gets harder and more expensive.

 

I guess we know who is in the pockets of the big money Oil and Gas Companies. Broken System is Broken.

[cravnravn]

It should be renamed BS 1456, so in other words they don't want you to become green, they want you to continue to use fossil fuels.

 

And totally agree Madman, big oil had to have a say in the vote since it was unanimous decision.

[papasmurfbell]

What not to do if you are trying to save the world: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/worlds-dumbest-idea-taxing-solar-energy-111300623.html#5Hu5erC

 

 

 

I guess we know who is in the pockets of the big money Oil and Gas Companies. Broken System is Broken.

I thought the GOP was for small govt.

[RavenMad]

I thought the GOP was for small govt.

 

Doesn't matter what they stand for, once their paymaster come calling they do what they are told "unanimously".

[dc.]

Krugman citing new IPCC report -- fixing our policies and planning may not be nearly as expensive as thought.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/opinion/krugman-salvation-gets-cheap.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

[Spen]

Krugman citing new IPCC report -- fixing our policies and planning may not be nearly as expensive as thought.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/opinion/krugman-salvation-gets-cheap.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

 

Fixing our policies and planning? For what, something we dont even have all the facts on and something that is still being debated by top scientists as to whether its even occuring?

 

*collects check*

[deeshopper]

Good read on climate change effects.

 

 

The history of humanity is a history of hunger. Pretty much every society in recorded time has been wracked by famines, and a few have been destroyed by them. Sometimes these famines are spurred or exacerbated by political or military campaigns. Sometimes they’re due to human error. But the rather alarming fact is that the vast majority of famines throughout history have been caused by environmental factors we had (or believed we had) no control over. An increasingly pressing question for the 21^st century is whether the illusion of powerlessness will begin a new cycle of starvation.

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/climate_change_and_agriculture_global_warming_could_cause_catastrophic_famines.html

[papasmurfbell]

 

Doesn't matter what they stand for, once their paymaster come calling they do what they are told "unanimously".

Oh I agree. I just like pointing out how a parties much touted plank in their platform is quite negotiable.

 

https://www.autonews.com/article/20140328/RETAIL03/140329855/texas-dealers-argue-against-altering-franchise-laws-to-lure-tesla

 

The Texas Automobile Dealers Association today sent an open letter to all members of the Texas Legislature arguing that Tesla should not get special treatment. Texas franchise laws prohibit direct sales by any manufacturer. Earlier in the week, Perry suggested reviewing the laws in light of the possibility of Texas’ snaring a $5 billion battery factory proposed by Tesla.

“Tesla’s a big project,” Perry told Fox Business News. “The cachet of being able to say we put that manufacturing facility in your state is hard to pass up.”

I think it is so funny how Texas is tripping over themselves to get a plant there but they pass a law to screw that company a yr or so ago. Again business friendly is negotiable.

[papasmurfbell]

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/14

 

 

US Is an Oligarchy Not a Democracy, says Scientific Study

A study, to appear in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, finds that the U.S. is no democracy, but instead an oligarchy, meaning profoundly corrupt, so that the answer to the study’s opening question, "Who governs? Who really rules?" in this country, is:

"Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But, ..." and then they go on to say, it's not true, and that, "America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened" by the findings in this, the first-ever comprehensive scientific study of the subject, which shows that there is instead "the nearly total failure of 'median voter' and other Majoritarian Electoral Democracy theories [of America]. When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."

To put it short: The United States is no democracy, but actually an oligarchy.

The authors of this historically important study are Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, and their article is titled "Testing Theories of American Politics." The authors clarify that the data available are probably under-representing the actual extent of control of the U.S. by the super-rich:

Economic Elite Domination theories do rather well in our analysis, even though our findings probably understate the political influence of elites. Our measure of the preferences of wealthy or elite Americans – though useful, and the best we could generate for a large set of policy cases – is probably less consistent with the relevant preferences than are our measures of the views of ordinary citizens or the alignments of engaged interest groups. Yet we found substantial estimated effects even when using this imperfect measure. The real-world impact of elites upon public policy may be still greater.

 

Nonetheless, this is the first-ever scientific study of the question of whether the U.S. is a democracy. "Until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions [that U.S. policymaking operates as a democracy, versus as an oligarchy, versus as some mixture of the two] against each other within a single statistical model. This paper reports on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues." That’s an enormous number of policy-issues studied.

What the authors are able to find, despite the deficiencies of the data, is important: the first-ever scientific analysis of whether the U.S. is a democracy, or is instead an oligarchy, or some combination of the two. The clear finding is that the U.S. is an oligarchy, no democratic country, at all. American democracy is a sham, no matter how much it's pumped by the oligarchs who run the country (and who control the nation's "news" media). The U.S., in other words, is basically similar to Russia or most other dubious "electoral" "democratic" countries. We weren't formerly, but we clearly are now. Today, after this exhaustive analysis of the data, “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” That's it, in a nutshell.

[cravnravn]

Oh I agree. I just like pointing out how a parties much touted plank in their platform is quite negotiable.

 

https://www.autonews.com/article/20140328/RETAIL03/140329855/texas-dealers-argue-against-altering-franchise-laws-to-lure-tesla

I think it is so funny how Texas is tripping over themselves to get a plant there but they pass a law to screw that company a yr or so ago. Again business friendly is negotiable.

 

Wonder if that ass-hat Bush is involved

[papasmurfbell]

Nope Rick Perry is the man now.

[dc.]

I really like Rick Perry's new look with glasses. I can't tell if he's gone hipster or just trying to look smart. Either way he fails.

[papasmurfbell]

Glasses don't put a guy over the top for me.