America Makes Plans to Produce Needed Rare Earth Minerals Domestically

[ronwagn + 6,290]

2 hours ago, Eyes Wide Open said:

Oregon is prime example of such practice's,my next door neighbor is a retired govt engineer. This woman nets 12000 a month from her pers and free healthcare/dental benefits with no restriction's.

Now have some fun with that number, to me it means 5mill in the bank drawing down the interest only. The top tier benefits are 50/70K a month..now that is some disposable whip!

https://gov.oregonlive.com/pers/

Outrageous, but common. Normal privately employed workers are poor by comparison. 

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

3 hours ago, Symmetry said:

They don't want to be a state.

Oh, I'll bet they would jump at that.

Nobody asked them.

[RichieRich216 + 454]

At some point you have to say “Screw The EPA” National Security has to come first! This is what China has known for decades and slowly fuck the free world! 

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

1 hour ago, RichieRich216 said:

At some point you have to say “Screw The EPA” National Security has to come first! This is what China has known for decades and slowly fuck the free world! 

More potty mouth 

[RichieRich216 + 454]

Ward: Don’t read what you don’t like, It’s called Freedom of Speech!

[Symmetry + 109]

1 hour ago, RichieRich216 said:

Ward: Don’t read what you don’t like, It’s called Freedom of Speech!

Ward is all about cancel culture.  Gets beat down too much and cries to mods. Blocks logic etc.

If he had his way all democrats would be banned and this forum would primarily focus on Trump-love and the plight of incels.  He wants a place where they can speak freely without shame.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Symmetry

[RichieRich216 + 454]

This is why children should not have adult devices, Next thing ya know we will be reading about him running up mom’s credit card.....

[Harry Pradhan 0]

This forum sounds very interesting, I think I can read and learn from all the Profetional experts views and comment. Thanks HP.

[turbguy + 1,391]

On 3/7/2021 at 1:48 PM, Gerry Maddoux said:

Should have made it a state.

Manifest Destiny, much?

[surrept33 + 609]

On 3/4/2021 at 7:24 PM, ronwagn said:

https://principia-scientific.com/at-what-concentration-does-co2-becomes-toxic-to-humans/

An actual scientific explanation of how mammals deal with levels of CO2. 

The gist of it is: In other words, the concentration of CO2 needs to increase 150-fold for the CO2 to become toxic.

 

I don't think anyone ever argued that CO2 is dangerous or something for human health. It's clearly not carbon monoxide. Your serum pH is carefully regulated by your sympathetic nervous system:

https://med.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Anatomy_and_Physiology/Book%3A_Anatomy_and_Physiology_(Boundless)/21%3A_Respiratory_System/21.10%3A_Respiration_Control/21.10C%3A_Chemoreceptor_Regulation_of_Breathing

Which is basically leads to animals breathing out CO2. Of course, ruminants like cows have significantly other types of emissions (from bacteria), which wasn't a problem for most of human history until we filled the earth with them. 

Now, the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons release all sorts of other nasties, particularly different types of particulate matter:

https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/health-and-environmental-effects-particulate-matter-pm

What gets released depends on the hydrocarbon in question, of course. It's why natural gas is comparatively better, since it's mainly CO2 + small chained hydrocarbons that are released into the atmosphere, though in much larger amounts than, for example, humans breathing into the air. 

Of course, this is seperate from the "is there human-caused climate change as a result of humans releasing an uncontrolled amount of green house gas" question, as well as a subsequent, "if there is, what are the costs of said climate change on human health, and what are the downsides or upside from acting or not acting", see for example, the Stern Report back in 2007 for one perspective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Review#Summary_of_the_Review's_main_conclusions

 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 3/16/2021 at 11:20 PM, surrept33 said:

I don't think anyone ever argued that CO2 is dangerous or something for human health. It's clearly not carbon monoxide. Your serum pH is carefully regulated by your sympathetic nervous system:

https://med.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Anatomy_and_Physiology/Book%3A_Anatomy_and_Physiology_(Boundless)/21%3A_Respiratory_System/21.10%3A_Respiration_Control/21.10C%3A_Chemoreceptor_Regulation_of_Breathing

Which is basically leads to animals breathing out CO2. Of course, ruminants like cows have significantly other types of emissions (from bacteria), which wasn't a problem for most of human history until we filled the earth with them. 

Now, the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons release all sorts of other nasties, particularly different types of particulate matter:

https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/health-and-environmental-effects-particulate-matter-pm

What gets released depends on the hydrocarbon in question, of course. It's why natural gas is comparatively better, since it's mainly CO2 + small chained hydrocarbons that are released into the atmosphere, though in much larger amounts than, for example, humans breathing into the air. 

Of course, this is seperate from the "is there human-caused climate change as a result of humans releasing an uncontrolled amount of green house gas" question, as well as a subsequent, "if there is, what are the costs of said climate change on human health, and what are the downsides or upside from acting or not acting", see for example, the Stern Report back in 2007 for one perspective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Review#Summary_of_the_Review's_main_conclusions

 

The Stern review has good arguments. The problem I see is that the analysis is too focused on opinions rather than real life cost benefit and needs analysis. The global warmists rely too much on theories that are not proven IMHO. I side with using fossil fuels with best practices while eliminating the worst pollution and forcing renenewables to earn their place on cost benefit analysis that is not reliant on subsidies. The idea that CO2 is the most important factor in pollution is ludicrous IMO. Coal pollution, particulate pollution, chemical pollution, plastics, mining, marine fuels need to be optimized. 

[Rasmus Jorgensen + 1,169]

On 3/8/2021 at 1:19 AM, Gerry Maddoux said:

Oh, I'll bet they would jump at that.

Nobody asked them.

Nobody is stopping them. They can vote on independence and apply for statehood.... It is perfectly doable. 

[Rob Plant + 2,605]

On 3/4/2021 at 8:17 PM, Strangelovesurfing said:

Not disputing what you're putting down but my point is really about people not the policy or structures. Once you're hired in the civil service you're more or less employed for life if you choose to be. No matter how bad you are at what you're doing you just get shuffled around to another location. It's like the movie Office Space where the mentally challenged employee is put in the basement instead of being fired.

Example, a few years ago I won a contract to install conduit and rewire all existing irrigation valves at Pearl Harbor (yes, that Pearl Harbor) and put them on a centralized controlled system. Being how the wiring was low voltage (12-24 volts) we only had to dig +/- 8" in depth in soil areas, roadway crossings were 24"-36" depth, we're not talking much depth here. 

The "safety" officer, employed by the DOD and imposed on us, made me hire two workers, at $1K a day for both, so they could walk uniformed members of the US Navy across streets like little old ladies. These streets for the most part had little to no traffic. We also had to install a Great Wall of traffic cones (I think we ended up purchasing 300) so we could surround every millimeter of our highly dangerous 8" deep 3" width trench, which was located in an empty field.

Yes, for the cool cost of $200,000 your tax dollars (and my profit margin) paid $500/day each for two people to walk uniformed members of the US Navy across empty streets and move cones around in empty fields to guard against the danger of an 8" deep trench. (which was filled back in at the end of each workday)

The safety officer had a masters degree, the other bureaucrats thought all of it was funny. Multiply this by a million and it's what's happening every day all day. Make every policy/structural change you desire, it still won't fix stupid.

Its great to see that its not just the UK's civil service that is completely incompetent, scared of law suits and wastes tax payers money on a scale that is literally unbelievable.

Do they train these people to be morons or is it part of the recruitment criteria to be a moron?

[Rob Plant + 2,605]

On 3/4/2021 at 10:02 PM, surrept33 said:

It can also exhibit itself in the private sector however. There are a lot of inefficiencies caused by "middle men". For example, the role of insurance companies in medical care compared to the overall GDP. 

I agree to some extent, however the private sector is ultimately governed by competitiveness and the ability for a company to grow its EBITDA otherwise potentially that employee gets the sack or the company potentially goes bust. 

In the public sector there are no such restraints other than you have a budget to work to but often even that is totally ignored at the cost to the tax payer. There are no drivers for efficiencies, increased productivity, cost downs etc. Please also don't talk to me of KPI's in the public sector as anyone can set a stupidly low KPI number to hit.

[Rob Plant + 2,605]

55 minutes ago, Rasmus Jorgensen said:

Nobody is stopping them. They can vote on independence and apply for statehood.... It is perfectly doable. 

Rasmus as a Dane why would you want to lose such a potential asset as Greenland??

I dont get it

its like the Russians selling Alaska for pennies and then lo and behold whats beneath the ground OIL!

Edited March 24, 2021 by Rob Plant

[Rasmus Jorgensen + 1,169]

3 hours ago, Rob Plant said:

Rasmus as a Dane why would you want to lose such a potential asset as Greenland??

I dont get it

its like the Russians selling Alaska for pennies and then lo and behold whats beneath the ground OIL!

My point was that Greenland is not Denmarks to sell. The agreement is that if Greenland votes for independence we need to respect the vote. End of. I was responding to Gerry suggesting that maybe it is not every single countrys dream to become Americas lapdog, despite many Americans on this forum believing this to be the case. 

Edited March 24, 2021 by Rasmus Jorgensen

[Symmetry + 109]

11 hours ago, Rob Plant said:

 There are no drivers for efficiencies, increased productivity, cost downs etc. Please also don't talk to me of KPI's in the public sector as anyone can set a stupidly low KPI number to hit.

There are a few in Canada, but not many.

At the executive level there are some bonuses.  For example the IT director got a performance incentive to reduce server redundancy across the country.  Sure enough we promptly lost two small local file servers and a SQL database (merged with an off-site system via intranet).  Would never had happened without the incentive.

There are also Citations of Excellence of value if you contribute something significant.

Trivially there are also "Instant Awards" which are gifts of low-value you pick from a catalogue that may be given if someone notices a improvement.

[Richard D + 86]

On 3/7/2021 at 9:48 PM, Eyes Wide Open said:

Oregon is prime example of such practice's,my next door neighbor is a retired govt engineer. This woman nets 12000 a month from her pers and free healthcare/dental benefits with no restriction's.

Now have some fun with that number, to me it means 5mill in the bank drawing down the interest only. The top tier benefits are 50/70K a month..now that is some disposable whip!

https://gov.oregonlive.com/pers/

Interesting item on TV in UK,recently. It was a statement that,when the Nazis came to power in Germany,they created a million extra civil service jobs. Most of the new civil servants then voted for the Nazis. The European Commission,which is the EU civil service, buys popularity,at the present time,using taxpayers money to create an stifling extra layer of government across the continent. In Chicago,they used to create patronage jobs. Has that racket now stopped?