November "I FORGOT MY MANTRA" Low Content chit-chat thread

[Fishwhenican]

[ QUOTE ]
I hate to bring everyone down this morning but I am very worried about global warming. I've been reading some articles on it. This thing is happening fast and will affect all of us. Personally I'm very troubled by it. Did you know my part of the country got almost no rain at all this past spring and summer? It was really disturbing. Seriously, no one bothered to mow their lawns the ENTIRE summer. The rivers and creeks were so shallow by late July that you couldn't push a canoe through them. My friends went canoing and had to literally carry the canoe down river for most of the trip. Are we doomed as my fundamentalist family members claim?

On a lighter note, this picture (posted by Fishwhenican in the Crazy Chick thread) is making me laugh so hard that I am refraining from weeping in despair




[ QUOTE ]



Or how about Cloris Leachman as Frau Blücher in the same movie?



[/ QUOTE ]


hehehe [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Thanks Fish! You Loungers are the best.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just so you know that picture is not of Cloris Leachman as Frau Blücher. The caption should go with the picture below that text in the other thread. Yes, i am a nit at times but I sure am glad you liked the picture. Kind of makes my day considering I have to go to my daughters "Sweet 16" Birthday party this afternoon. I am not sure I would admit it to my family but I am not sure I am ready for my baby girl to be 16.

Global Warming. I certainly am no expert and it seems like the "experts" cannot even agree on this thing. Personally I htink the earth goes through cycles naturally. Ice Ages, warming and all of that. The earth has seen a lot of changes over time. Example, I have snail shells that I picked up off of the ground a few years ago when I was elk hunting up in the mountains at roughly 8000 feet above sea level.

Does that mean we should just ignore things and not try to at least be good stewards of our environment, no I don't think so. I do what I can to be green but know I could do more and have also thought about what I can do to be more "Green". I really want to get solar and wind power set up for my house but that whole cost barrier is kind of getting in the way right now. Some day though, I want to get "Off the grid" and be able to cleanly generate all the power I need for my house.

[Fishwhenican]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Today was a beautiful day here in Montana. Mostly sunny and about 60 degrees. Dinner tonight was Venison Chili and cornbread and it was REALLY good!

Went hunting with my wife for a little bit this afternoon until dark. Enjoyed hiking in the woods and managed to get a big old Whitetail Doe. I will work on her tomorrow and when I have a chance later this week will cut some steaks and try my hand at sausage making with the grind (Burger). I am debating between breakfast sausage or Summer Sausage. Either one sounds spretty darn good.

I bought a big electric meat grinder this year and have been doing all of my own processing this year. It has been a bit of work but it feels pretty good to have a freezer full of meat and know that it is all something I have taken care of myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I opened a can of tuna, cut up some celery, tomatoes and onion, and stalked me a sandwich.


[img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like a good hunt with a tasty ending! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Remember your can opener safety:
Treat every can open as if it were loaded.
Never point a can opener at anything you do not intend to open and consume contents.
ect...
[img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]

Just so you know that picture is not of Cloris Leachman as Frau Blücher. The caption should go with the picture below that text in the other thread. Yes, i am a nit at times but I sure am glad you liked the picture.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah yes, very sloppy of me. I'm afraid I am quite preoccupied with worrying about the state of the earth and the impact that global warming will have on our population. I should have noticed the caption below the picture [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]. Of course that is Madeline Kahn, not Cloris (gah,what a name).

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]
i am too uninformed about the specifics w/respect to global warming, i need to fix that.



[/ QUOTE ]


I know very little myself. My concern about global warming started with my observation that the state of Ohio had almost NO rain at all this spring and summer. I have never seen anything like it. It's as if the seasons ceased to be. No difference between spring, summer or fall. Like virtually no difference at all.

On top of this I am haunted by an ominous statement from a scientist I heard on the radio. He said something to this effect ... "at our conference several scientists came up to me and confided that they were extremely alarmed. They are more afraid than they have let on to the public."

This statement kept rolling around in my head as I have watched so many movies that it was easy to see the thing come together in a horrible science fiction tale. Reality and fantasy are starting to come together I guess.

To further my alarm, Georgia's Governor seems to be in a bit of a state of panic and can anyone blame him? He is enraged at the Army Corps of Engineers who insist on releasing Georgia's water into Florida. What kind of dumb leadership allows this level of stupidity (on the part of the Corps) to operate when humans are suffering? Can't you just foresee this erupting into a war between the states of Florida and Georgia at some point? I am reminded of something that my boss said to us a few months ago at a staff meeting. He said that in the future wars will be waged over water rights. I can envision a future not so far away where states turn against each other as they fight over precious water.


My Fundamentalist Christian nephew said to me "Please don't fret. The bible tells us not to fret. What will it accomplish anyway? You need to go to church." Perhaps. But I can't stop fretting [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]


Here's a quote from Georgia's Governor on the Army Corps of Engineers:

"The Corps’ nonsensical action to further release vital water from Georgia’s already depleted federal reservoirs must not stand,” said Governor Sonny Perdue. “There is simply no scientific justification to operate these reservoirs in this manner during a historic drought like the one we are experiencing.
....
If, however, the Corps is determined to make this ill-advised choice in favor of mussel and sturgeon species over Georgia citizens, then I must do all within my power to protect our citizens during this devastating drought.”


This is really outrageous. Mussel and sturgeon species > humans?? I'm ready to take up arms for Georgia. Who's with me?

[MrWookie]

I actually took a class on global warming in college. That doesn't make me an expert, but I've at least examined many studies on the matter. Katy wouldn't have liked this class one bit, I don't think. The gist of all the data I looked at (from both sides, mind you) let me to conclude:

1. Global warming is real, and we caused it, at least in significant part. Yes, most of the data is correlative and not causative, but when you have a lot of tight correlative data and sound scientific explanations about how such correlations might not be merely coincidental, you can begin to imply causality.

2. Even if we miraculously cut our net carbon emissions down to zero by using, say, 100% biofuel etc. tomorrow, the damage has largely been done, and the planet will probably continue to warm for well beyond our lifetimes, although it'd be less severe than if we continued on our current course.

In spite of this, my concern over global warming is somewhat muted compared to others who are convinced of the reality of global warming. Mostly, I am convinced that life itself is miraculous, and its power to adapt is striking. People talk about mass-extinctions and such, but I think they underestimate the ability of the organisms of this world, especially humans, to adapt.

There isn't a whole lot we can do about global warming at this point. We've spent more than a century releasing carbon that had been buried deep in the earth up into the atmosphere. The only decent way we have to get that carbon back out of the atmosphere is by planting plants. And unfortunately, given the nature of population growth, we don't have nearly as much room as we'd need to plant a bunch of plants and then just let them sit there storing carbon for us. Most of the plants we plant will end up getting harvested for some purpose that almost always involves them re-releasing any carbon they'd taken out of the atmosphere right back into it. Without cheap and efficient carbon sequestration technology, there isn't really a way to fix global warming. The best we can possibly do right now is to maintain the status quo. And what's worse yet, many of the effects of carbon release lag behind the actual release of carbon, so, as I mentioned, if we were to stop releasing all carbon right now, we'd still be watching the earth get worse for a years or possibly generations before we actually found out what the new equilibrium we've created looks like.

If there's going to be a real solution to global warming, it will probably come in the form of some sort of genetically engineered photosynthetic bacteria or archaea that is capable of readily converting sunlight, CO2, and water into not only the sugars they need to survive, but also into a hydrocarbon of some sort, whether a long fatty acid chain that could subsequently be converted into fuel or possibly directly synthesizing alkanes that can automatically be used for fuel. If we immediately burn this fuel, we don't really fix anything, but the hope would be that the organisms would be good enough at this process that would result in a surplus generation of fuel that results in a net reduction of carbon in the atmosphere.

The other thing that would have potential to help bail us out of this would be nuclear power, fission immediately, but ideally fusion. Fission power gets a bad rap, and while the the byproducts are really nasty, you can get rid of them much more easily than carbon in the atmosphere. Nuclear fission is about the only power source we have that doesn't involve carbon release, is cheap enough to compete with power sources that do, and can be used anywhere, unlike hydroelectric power. Fusion power is a long way off, if it's even possible, but if someone figures it out, that'd be cleaner still, and it'd go a long way to solve the looming energy crisis. If you want to fret about something, Katy, you'd actually be better served about the looming energy crisis caused by billions of people in India and China who want to live like you and I do. Unfortunately, there's just not enough energy in the world to really enable that without either significant advances in solar power or fusion power, and even if we CAN generate enough energy, there's not enough, say, copper in the world to make all the power lines to deliver it to everyone. As those nations develop, though, their blooming will drive up the costs of energy and resources for everyone else, spurring inflation and significantly reducing the quality of life right here. The energy crisis and water crisis are more likely to impact us immediately and directly than global warming. Global warming is bad, but it could be a mere nuisance compared to what can happen to our quality of life from running out of resources.

[tarheeljks]

yesterday i successfully completed my goal of consuming one fifth of whiskey. i went w/george dickel #12 as suggested by mrwookie (thanks again for the recommendation). i did this as a participant of the senior day tailgating activities at the wake forest university football game.this particular affair is called "senior fifth." i went to the tailgate w/a friend who goes to wake forest and her brother with whom i was good friends in high school (plus all of her roommates, buddies, etc). i got started at around 1:00 and finished the fifth at ~4:00. i had intended to take all of the whiskey straight and got through the first ~18 ounces without any trouble, but then i started to feel a bit sick. so i took a break, including a short boot and rally session, and then got back to business. i drank the first half of the remaining whiskey w/some coke and then took the rest straight from the bottle. i spent the most of the 3 hours meeting students from wake forest and just participating in the ridiculousness that was the tailgating area-- it was like a dionysian festival, minus the orgies. initially i periodically called a friend to keep up w/the score of the yale-harvard game, but gave up once yale was down 27-0 in the 2nd quarter [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] . otherwise, i drank, i ate, i danced, i mingled and it was a great time. i did not have a student id, or a ticket period for that matter, so i didn't go the game. however a few of my friends sneaked in but ended up leaving b/c the student section was essentially empty by halftime since nearly everyone had either passed out or left to go pass out. after the game i went to my friend's house and passed out there for a few hours, after which we went to dinner and then went to someone's house and played beer pong and pool for most of the night. good times, except for yale getting spanked by harvard [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[MrWookie]

RDH deserves most of the credit for the Dickel. He was the one who turned me onto it. I'm just spreading the good news, even if my chief allegiance is to the Weller. I'm somewhat disappointed by the need for a boot-and-rally, but still, polishing off a fifth in 3 hours is still a noble feat. Nicely done, and I'm glad to hear you had a good time.

[tarheeljks]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm somewhat disappointed by the need for a boot-and-rally, but still, polishing off a fifth in 3 hours is still a noble feat. Nicely done, and I'm glad to hear you had a good time.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah the boot and rally was weak, but i ate too much while i was drinking-- southern barbecue is so good [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]. the beer pong i played that night was also fun but was a really strange scenario. we played w/some guys from nc state and when we walk into the basement i see a giant confederate battle flag on the wall. these guys were rednecks, but i hadn't expected them to be rocking a supersized battle flag. it was a strange scene: in the room were a few white redneckish guys, a black guy, a jewish guy, a half-vietnamese guy, his half-black/asian gf, and various girls. we all spent 2 hours in front of a rebel flag playing beer pong/pool w/hip hop and hardcore gangster rap blasting in the background. to top it all off, about 30 min of the time was spent talking about gay rights (tangent from talking about phil jackson's brokeback mountain comment). throughout the night these guys were acting the part of your token rednecks, but at the same time they weren't. it was very bizarre.

[ChipWrecked]

A fifth in a few hours, without a boot and rally I would probably die. These days anyway.

Had a mellow birthday yesterday. Mexican food and Sauza Hornitos (100% agave for the budget-minded) to wash down a klonopin. Cleaned the house a bit 'cause the mother-in-law (#1, wife's mother, not stepmom) [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] is coming to town.

Thanks for the nice wishes.

[rothko]

hi katy, oh you mean it's the one labeled "low content chit-chat thread"? lol, i was just looking for a b and an s.