WaPo Quixote : Trump administration heeds oil and gas industry calls to remove protections for imperiled beetle

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

1 hour ago, Jan van Eck said:

Well, you are no longer in the Engineer's cab, so it is not your wreck.  Time for that gin and tonic!

Heh heh thanks, but no alcohol for me these days.  I prefer the exercising and eating healthy that I've been doing lately - helps keeps me in a positive state of mind.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

1 minute ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Heh heh thanks, but no alcohol for me these days.  I prefer the exercising and eating healthy that I've been doing lately - helps keeps me in a positive state of mind.

MY father-in-law was this Rear Admiral in His Majesty's Navy; his flagship was this aircraft carrier sitting down in Malta.  One week he and the Base Commander decided to do a sail up to Sardinia or wherever, in a nice 70-footer.  Each day a tracker airplane with four-man crew was launched out of Valletta scheduled to rendezvous with the yacht at exactly high noon.  At that point a capsule was parachuted down just in front of the yacht, which a boatswain would retrieve with a long boathook.  The package was then delivered to the afterdeck, where the Admiral and the Commander were preparing for a nice lunch.  Inside the capsule? 

You guessed it:  fresh ice.  For the noon gin-and-tonic.   Hey, "rank has its privileges!" 

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

9 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

It amuses me greatly that the company thinks that cost cutting and replacing me with someone else who is cheaper and less experienced will actually succeed in the scope of work required.  Cost cutting in Engineering rarely works out as planned.

You can gloat in the comfort of a new and better job. There's a right way to cut costs and a wrong way to cut costs, after all.

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

2 minutes ago, Marina Schwarz said:

You can gloat in the comfort of a new and better job. There's a right way to cut costs and a wrong way to cut costs, after all.

Thanks Marina.  I have till the end of this month to wrap things up and turn things over at work, and I still need to find a "new and better" job.

I hadn't been job hunting, and this is a bit of a shock.

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

You will. I'm speaking from experience. Keep us in the loop, Tom, please!

[specinho + 470]

17 hours ago, ronwagn said:

I would like to hear from those who have lived in very highly populated areas of the world such as cities in China, India, NYC, London, etc. I have never lived in a truly populous area. I have been throughout Western Europe, all fifty states, New Zealand, Tahiti etc. I avoid the congestion and have always preferred the far fringes of urban areas. I realize that urbanites and suburbanites are the majority so it should not be hard to get some opinions. 

The United States could easily support a billion people as do China and India. We have plenty of land that is not being used and that can be improved. We are the world leader in agricultural techniques. Our main health problems are due to overeating and obesity. 

I personally do not favor rapid population growth and would like to see it be gradual and based on merit as much as is reasonable.

America started as a place conquered by all major conquerors of ancient times i.e. the Spanish; the French; the Britons; the Portugueses and etc..........  Then the country imported Africans as low tier labor. And then there is the native population. These races are growing their own kind separately and hybridally. The bigger the population and the larger the diversity the harder the effort of country building.  Whose interests would you like to represent the most?/ If everyone is equal....... who is going to fetch the tea and sandwiches?? (note: ....... in case there is no one...... please give the little one a call........... as one of the assigned tasks......  )

There might be a new way of development besides continual urbanizing empty land areas and packing the areas with people who might never be accepted as Americans. Unity under a common cause stirs nationalism and patrioticism that could move mountains when called for...... as shown in most Hollywood war time movies....... Find back what is lossed probably would help in guiding the direction of future population and economic growth........