rjb
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Post by rjb on Jun 17, 2018 14:01:45 GMT -8
On climate change and Trump:
Wind energy and solar are growing rapidly in the US. Scientists have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that burning of fossil fuels is the big problem as was discovered in the late 1800’s. In the US a lot of the population including maybe Trump (but no one can really know about Trump because he reverses himself on any issue anytime he feels like it) does not believe the scientists and their doubts are fed by some conservatives, and the right wing media.
I am rather right wing myself on economics, but I am a scientist first. I believe in using market forces to fix problems whenever possible. If some fraction of the public thinks windmills are ugly (I think they are really cool, and beautiful) then wind energy should have to pay something to home owners who lose market value. Likewise, if burning fossil fuels is destroying our planet, then all fossil fuels should have a tax applied to help cleanup the mess. It’s just market economics. For years fossil fuels have gotten a free ride and we are already paying the price. Wind and solar will be competitive if oil/coal/gas pay the true price including cleanup cost. I worked at an energy lab where for decades we have made wind and solar cheaper and more reliable. Our lab was also working on techniques for extracting CO2 from the air and even converting some into liquid fuel using solar energy-it works. Scientists will be able to fix a lot of the climate problem, but the longer we delay, the worse things will get for farmers and others before we begin to recover. Trump the ostrich is definitely part of the problem, not the solution.
Rick
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rjb
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Post by rjb on Jun 17, 2018 9:14:34 GMT -8
Well I’m back from Ohio, the family gathering stayed off politics and religion so everyone had a great time.
I think more of the contributors to this discussion love Trump than the couple of us that despise him.
In my opinion, this vitriol and criticism of Trump by the media is quite mild. Don’t you remember the previous president Obama? Did you ever listen to the “conservative” media? The eight years of extreme anti-Obama vitriol was astounding, and even now Trump and his fans continue to try to blame everything on Obama- also he was supposedly weak and did nothing! Remember the idiot-birthers who made up nonsense that Obama wasn’t a legitimate president. Also for all of Obama’s so-called corruption and his leagues of enemies, I don’t recall him being indicted for anything??? His enemies just didn’t care enough to pursue it???
So now the media is criticizing Trump- well what do you expect, but notice it is not the conservative media. Fox news still thinks Trump is another word for God. This is what a free press is all about and we all hope we can continue in a country with free press that can claim Obama was not an American and Trump is a scummy dishonest piece of s---. Fair is fair.
So for each of us as individuals, a good approach is to be skeptical of whatever we hear on the media, conservative or liberal, and double check the info on the sites which are constantly reviewing the news and fact-checking. If you have a list of crimes you attribute to Clinton, Obama or Trump, investigate them yourself and no way should you believe the media that has become extremely biased.
Also don’t “follow the money”. That leads you into narrow thinking and conspiracy theories. It is not all about money. There is gobs of money everywhere with conflicting aims and you can follow the money to get any answer you want.
Rick
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rjb
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Post by rjb on May 28, 2018 5:43:36 GMT -8
Well I'm still processing the giant haul of Italy beetles, and getting ready for a big family gathering in Ohio. Shouldn't get any exciting beetles from Ohio after all my earlier collecting, but a few years back I found several Eucnemid specimens in the Rocky River Valley (Cleveland's Emerald Necklace) which turned out to be "written off" as extinct. Robert Otto thought it was a nice save.
I think the US president has a very minor effect on our lives. Trump gets lots of press, but probably nothing he does will make any difference for me. Exceptions will be if he gets us into a big war - I hope not. I can never respect anyone like Trump. For me as a scientist, integrity is a big thing. I respect someone for honesty, consistency, honorable actions. Trump wants respect through fear. He thrives on threats and unpredictability. He wants everyone to fear him because he is so untrustworthy, no one knows what he will pull next. Anything he says today, he will reverse himself tomorrow. Can't respect that.
Leptraps may praise Trump for being a businessman, but I think Trump gives businessmen a bad names. Most businessmen I know try to maintain an image of integrity for their company and themselves. Trump is a disgrace.
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rjb
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Post by rjb on May 14, 2018 19:15:03 GMT -8
Exoticimports: Sorry, I should have answered you with the approach that our leader Trump has taught over and over. If anything you say or write puts the president in a bad light, then it is wrong. You have evidence or proof?- False facts, fake news.
So anything on your list that makes President Obama look bad is completely wrong. Have any evidence? Blatantly false, fake news. Only if you say something favorable to Obama is it true. That is the Trump way, the new American way. Facts and evidence are so so yesterday!
Rick
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rjb
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Post by rjb on May 14, 2018 6:41:14 GMT -8
That list of Obama administration corruption is pretty trivial for 8 years. Trump probably beat that in a week!
Most of those examples of corruption are not universally acknowledged but are paranoid interpretation of weak data. I am not expert on most of those issues. The one item that I understand thoroughly was the security violation accusations against Hilary Clinton. I and all my coworkers had an equivalent level of security clearance as Clinton. We generally agreed that the email problems that Clinton's political enemies have been hyping for years were trivial and happen to all of us. Many of my friends are strong Trump supporters and dislike Clinton, but they know that the email stuff is stupid misunderstanding by the right wing pundits. The FBI cleared her and anyone trying to paint Comey or the FBI as Clinton supporters who will hide security violations to help her is misled by their political zeal.
On the other hand, lying to the FBI is a big thing. I was reinvestigated by the FBI every 5 years to maintain my clearance. They ask lots of personal questions about drug use and money and what foreign nationals I have ever spoken to. If I admit to using drugs, it is probably not a big deal, but if I lie to the FBI about anything it is a federal crime. I lose my clearance, lose my job, maybe go to prison. So what is this with Trump and all his appointees lying to the FBI about everything. Like I said, my Trump-supporting friends still love Trump, but they were shocked at this administration lying to the FBI.
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rjb
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Post by rjb on May 12, 2018 5:27:30 GMT -8
If you want to compare Trump with Obama, there are too many aspects. On integrity I would say it is obvious that Obama was one of our most respected for integrity. He disallowed any corrupt behavior. Trump stands out as the most dishonest president in my long lifetime, but I do not know if he is the worst of all time.
On accomplishments, Obama is often criticized by the left for not accomplishing much, but the right wing should be really happy about that. The republican congress was able to block Obama from doing anything. Still his one big accomplishment was really major- Bush dumped the worst recession of modern times on Obama's shoulders. It was pretty scary for awhile that the stock market might have crashed another factor of two which would have been a disaster. Obama pulled us out of that and handed Trump an economy almost completely back to normal. Trump credits himself with lots of stuff (did he actually help God create the universe?) but on economics it is all bull### so far. The economy has continued to improve but a little slower than under Obama. The deficit that Republicans have been ranting about is expected to get much worse because Trump wants to spend money big time.
Who cares whether Hilary Clinton is a lot more honest than Trump? The voters didn't want her.
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rjb
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Post by rjb on May 11, 2018 8:04:20 GMT -8
Just got back from 3 weeks in southern Italy and Sicily. The volcanoes were awesome, the people are wonderful, the beetles were pretty good too!
This Trump thread is a hoot. Personally I still find Trump disgusting in every particular. Paying Russian prostitutes to pee on each other? Give me a break.
I do not think the media is hard on Trump. This is how it has gone since before he was elected and it continues: - Almost daily Trump says or tweets something demonstrably false - The press jumps all over it showing with evidence that Trump has lied. - Trump responds by presenting no counter evidence but simply declaring some idiocy like “Fake News”.
You can credit Trump with getting a rise out of the media but he does it the cheap way. If I were to spread lies about Leptraps’s wife and family and he gets mad and calls me a liar, should everyone praise me for getting a rise out of him. Hell no! Anyone can can get a reaction by lying. Our presidents used to have enough self respect that they would respond to press criticism by showing the press was wrong or by apologizing if they made a mistake. Trump is an ass and can’t admit he is not a god.
Trump is an attention addict desperate for publicity (like most politicians) and he does whatever is necessary to stay in the headlines. The media is doing him a big favor by reacting to his lies.
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rjb
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Post by rjb on Apr 17, 2018 8:37:53 GMT -8
If it is in North America, I usually would check in Bugguide. Here is a similar bug, but I don't know bugs; I only know beetles. bugguide.net/node/view/1504727/bgimageHemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies) » Heteroptera (True Bugs) » Pentatomomorpha » Lygaeoidea » Rhyparochromidae (Dirt-colored Seed Bugs) » Rhyparochrominae » Rhyparochromini » Rhyparochromus » Rhyparochromus vulgaris Hope that helps, Rick
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rjb
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Post by rjb on Mar 14, 2018 8:53:25 GMT -8
Yes, there are beetle collectors like me that have been to Malaysia a lot including Sabah and Sarawak, and climbed to the top of Mt. Kinabalou. My passion is for tiny beetles like Latridiids and Corylophids so I didn't look for Lucanids and cannot help. These are wonderful areas for finding interesting beetles.
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rjb
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Post by rjb on Jan 21, 2018 10:17:16 GMT -8
Oh to be 40 again ... or even 60.
Rick
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rjb
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Post by rjb on Nov 29, 2017 18:48:21 GMT -8
Exciting news on the Bigfoot front. A lot of this discussion started when Bluemoth pointed us to the DNA evidence that Bigfoot was for real. That turned out to be a complete misinterpretation of the DNA study. Really the study had shown that all fur samples ever collected were human, bear or other mammal- none were bigfoot. The only missing data was that they could not say what the samples of the Himalayan bigfoot, the yeti, actually were. Now that has been completed and - surprise - the fur turned out to be bear and dog fur. So there is no DNA evidence for any Bigfoot including Yeti.
It is now the end of November and Bluemoth has never gotten back to us about her October meeting with Bigfoot. It is possible that the clowns on this forum drove her away, but maybe she met with the big guys and they told her to keep it a secret. We'll probably never know.
Rick
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rjb
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UFOs
Sept 21, 2017 17:56:07 GMT -8
Post by rjb on Sept 21, 2017 17:56:07 GMT -8
I remember the aliens with a cookbook too. What a concept!
So once again, I'll just say that the organization of real skeptics that studies weird ideas like bigfoot and UFO's think there is no GOOD evidence for extraterrestrial beings visiting earth. Of course any good conspiracy nut will realize that this is just a government cover up and I am probably in their pay to hush up the truth.
All the best examples of UFO's have been thoroughly investigated and come up lacking. Roswell New Mexico, south of here, gets lots of tourist dollars thanks to a previously classified project which crashed there. All the details are public but the true believers will never let it go and the city loves the revenue.
The universe is huge, and there is almost certainly alien life out there. It is practically inconceivable that there is not other life considering how rapidly life appeared from a chemical soup here on earth. On the other hand unless there is some way to break Einstein's law that nothing exceeds the speed of light, it is rather unlikely that we will get many visitors or that we will visit other solar systems. That's why the science fiction writers invoke the mysterious warping of space and wormholes. It is certainly necessary to get around the speed of light somehow.
Rick
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rjb
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Post by rjb on Sept 18, 2017 5:29:36 GMT -8
My reaction to the videos is that it is pretty obvious why this is all considered very poor evidence. Given the history of people admitting to faking bigfoot, the best conclusion is that this is quite weak evidence for a new species of mammal. Maybe you remember the extraordinary efforts to confirm that the videos of the Ivory-billed woodpecker in southeast US was the real thing. In the end it was considered publishable, but now it is strongly suspect that it was not the extinct bird.
None of that video evidence would be even close to scientifically publishable, and I think several of those clips are known fakes, but I'm not certain. At least none of those looked very much like bears although that is probably what most bigfoot sightings are.
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rjb
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Post by rjb on Sept 17, 2017 14:04:51 GMT -8
Beetlehorn, I think you are correct about the numbers of Sasquatch believers, but I think this reveals something different about humans. They haven’t seen something compelling, they are naïve and gullible. People differ enormously in how gullible they are. How much evidence will be needed to convince you of something? For a lot of people, no evidence is really needed. Just hearing that a friend feels very strongly about something is enough to convince some people.
Usually scientists demand a lot of good evidence and so almost all reject Bigfoot. However a local professor at our university (New Mexico) has gotten some bad press for believing the bigfoot nonsense and using some public money to have a bigfoot conference. So there are exceptions.
Bluemoth clearly is a believer and her evidence includes having bigfoot throw rocks at her, having them “talk” to her (maybe telecommunication? mind-melding?) and seeing stick structures she attributes to bigfoot. I think her evidence is very weak, but am still interested to see if they show up for her video.
Actually people deeply believe all sorts of nonsense. Our major religions emphasize that faith and believe (without evidence) is a virtue, a good thing. Scientists think believe without evidence is a bad thing. Although many scientists have very deep faith in their religion, they demand lots of evidence for the worldly things like bigfoot.
I think 5-15% strong believers in bigfoot simply indicates that (at least) 5-15% of humans can believe things with negligible evidence. The best bet is those are people to ignore, and just go with the evidence- no solid evidence for bigfoot means no bigfoot .
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rjb
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Post by rjb on Sept 10, 2017 15:33:40 GMT -8
In this forum we can talk about anything, but it is good to avoid religion and politics. These days this kind of means avoid science too. Since global warming is now completely a political argument and evolution is a religious controversy. Bigfoot is a nonsense un-science topic that generates a lot of amusement. There have been other topic discussing music and pets and food ... You can start a new topic at any time. Of course anyone can reply with "stupid" posts. Why not give it a try?
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