|
Gumball Gumption posted:Yeah but they will have it even worse. I mean really anything that ever exists on earth again will probably have to live with microplastics. Aren't there some interventions being developed that could significantly reduce the amount of microplastics in the environment? Here's one that seems as though it would work in water: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/28/scientists-find-way-to-remove-polluting-microplastics-with-bacteria And in addition to bacteria sticking to plastic, researchers are also looking at bacteria that can digest it: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottcarpenter/2021/03/10/the-race-to-develop-plastic-eating-bacteria Besides dealing with microplastics in the polluted area itself, there's also research being done on eliminating them at the source [2], and it's also possible already for consumers to filter microplastics from their own water supply.
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2022 17:08
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 21:33 |
|
|
Discendo Vox posted:Read what I wrote. In fairness to him, you didn't indicate that you'd edited your post.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2022 17:09
|
|
|
Discendo Vox posted:"I provide some of the ones I did when I started trying to deal with it" is in fact an indication. To me that sounded like you were talking about activism you did or some other thread you made or something lol. But it's not that important either way, just saying he may have misunderstood it as I did.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2022 17:16
|
|
|
As a reminder, if anyone would like to argue with other D&D US posters but find this thread's rules stifling, the CCCC USPol thread may be of interest.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2022 17:56
|
|
|
selec posted:I mean, they’re definitely in direct conversations with the American money men too, not sure why Russia makes it worse unless you’re actually experiencing Nationalist Feelings in 2022. Any invader?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2022 18:38
|
|
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:Not too surprising given the previous statements and reporting, but they are extending the student loan moratorium again. Official announcement likely coming tomorrow. So they are going to be delaying having to make any permanent decision on it until after they've lost control of congress?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2022 19:05
|
|
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:But, the permanent decision is what they can/will do executively. They already accepted that it is dead legislatively. Ah, wasn't aware that there was that it didn't have a legislative chance. While looking into that, I found two instances of relevant legislation. One is part of the stimulus, which removes taxation from loan forgiveness, so that someone doesn't have to pay several thousand dollars for having their loan forgiven. That already passed. The other is a bill that directs the Secretary of Education to forgive certain debts in a means-tested way. I don't understand why that one is necessary. Couldn't that be an executive order? Edit: referring to this: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2034/text
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2022 19:30
|
|
|
Discendo Vox posted:The argument of the article is "nothing". The author appears to believe that resolving other sources of inequality will make child abuse not exist. It is...not very persuasive. It's telling that the article puts 1,500 words between where it raises the question of addressing the alternative, and the nonanswer it devotes to answering it. What in the article indicates the author believes that eliminating those sources of inequality will eliminate child abuse completely, rather than just lessen it? The latter seems reasonable, since child abuse is strongly correlated with socioeconomic factors.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2022 22:58
|
|
|
Discendo Vox posted:It's the gap between "The most common objection I hear to abolishing the child welfare system is 'How else will we protect children from severe abuse in their homes?'" and the discussion of mutual aid and payments at the tail end of the article. There is no other response provided for the question, so the author's solution of undoing the system appears to be either "this abuse will continue to exist and go unaddressed, and that's fine" or "all of it will go away". I chose the more charitable interpretation; Leon's summary covers the same ground. I'll note the "natural experiment" in new york just looks like deregulatory paradoxic reporting; a reduction in the apparatus intended to monitor and address a problem meant the problem seemed to go away. The evidence that she claims demonstrates there was no unresolved issue during the reduced period was no increase in the substantiated allegation rate when reporting resumed, which...isn't how that works. It's a bit like the food industry claiming that the FDA is poisoning the food supply because when they were unable to do manufacturing inspections during the pandemic, the number of food facility violations dropped. See also: the gun industry and NIH funding on gun violence. Ah, that makes sense.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2022 01:54
|
|
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:Dems have officially blown up their primary process. All previous early states have lost their guaranteed status and will have to apply. They are also expanding the number of early states to 5 from 4. Good to see further encouragement of primaries. 2020 had the lowest number of caucuses in the party's recent history, with only three states holding them, beating the GOP by more than a factor of three in their most recent contested presidential primary. The GOP's process is still more democratic in its lack of superdelegates, but since 2020 superdelegates haven't enjoyed the right to cast decisive votes during the first round of the convention, so if the public will for a candidate is strong enough to get them over 50%, the superdelegates will be powerless to stop it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2022 05:15
|
|
|
Willa Rogers posted:Iowa hasn't been competitive for Dems in over a decade & even if it's a DNC gently caress-you to Kim Reynolds & Grassley I'm ok with 86ing the state. Everyone's sick to death of the state fair performative corndogs & camera hogs It's for the best in practical terms but I must admit I've grown fond of the Iowa fair pageantry. It's been happening since I was old enough to vote, and feels like something of an American election tradition now. Hopefully the state that replaces Iowa will have a state fair right before the primaries start instead.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2022 05:25
|
|
|
Elephant Ambush posted:Good to know the moderation has officially backslid to the point where leftists get probed for pretty much anything the mods feel like while the very calm, very reasonable, very adult in the room liberals are never punished for defending the ghoulish status quo. Koos isn't even bothering to come up with actual rules violations anymore. It's just "Undignified" and "Unoriginal material" which are meaningless. And then we had "strawmanning" while completely ignoring the strawmanning of leftists that liberals do. Seriously, nobody was punished for repeatedly saying obviously disingenuous stuff like "you only want direct action because it will make you, personally, feel good". Unoriginal material refers to posting arguments that have likely been seen by readers many times before, which is against the D&D's rule of keeping material interesting. This can be a particular problem in the USCE thread, which many people have complained to me about, so I'm trying to scrutinize it more closely in this way. You're right that I probably should have been more detailed in the probie of Mr. Fjord, as I was wrong to think the full reason would be obvious. It was for a post that was both not in good faith and making the discussion about meta-issues (which also are not interesting to a general audience, which is why I prefer to discuss them in their own threads or have users PM me with concerns). For perceived bias between political groups, my primary concern is good discussion and not what political stripe is winning. The only way I could see my own politics affecting my moderation is that because I read more leftist material online than other political alignments, it could make it more likely that I've seen a leftist argument many times before and consider it tiresome. But I try to take into consideration whether it's specifically been said on the SA forums, and even more specifically in this thread, and how recently as well. For the example of Mr. Trotsky getting away with saying his opponent's proposal had a purpose of making its advocate feel good, that was because it fit with how he was structuring his argument. If there were a milquetoast liberal policy that a leftist criticized, showing why it doesn't accomplish its goal and hypothesizing that its purpose is to make Democrats feel good about doing something rather than actual change, I also would not have probated for that.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2022 17:56
|
|
|
Both the US and worldwide definitions of liberal are common and relevant enough that's it's not against the rules to use them. The main thing is just clear communication on which one you mean, which usually can be inferred from context.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2022 19:32
|
|
|
Bishyaler posted:Current events usually present a problem to be solved. The "lashing out" you're complaining about is leftists asking why this administration isn't doing more while liberals twist themselves into knots in defense of nothing being fixed. You don't want a dems suck thread (that already exists and liberals don't go there), you want a space where your party is free from criticism. There is actually an excellent thread where liberals go and you can be as unkind to them as you want, and vice versa: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3989484
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2022 20:08
|
|
|
duodenum posted:Iowa First is why we have subsidized Ethanol and HFCS. It’s been great! Didn't Mr. Cruz say to Iowans' face he was against their subsidies and they still chose him in the last primary?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2022 20:37
|
|
|
Epicurius posted:Disney already pays a bunch of county taxes, including property taxes to Orange and Osceola counties, though. So the county probably isn't going to be able to raise much more from them if Reedy Creek goes away. I don't understand. Isn't that supporting what VitalSigns is saying?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2022 20:24
|
|
|
Feedback thread up, which may be of interest to everyone here because this thread is one of its recommended topics: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4000307
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2022 16:44
|
|
|
Harold Fjord posted:I fail to see how explaining it all again refutes what I said. Let Disney fight their own fires. They still have an interest in their poo poo not burning down. What particular constitutional provisions do you believe it's violating?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2022 17:15
|
|
|
There have been head to head polls comparing Trump to the presumed Democratic nominees, where he does indeed win, but these are notoriously unreliable so far out.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2022 16:13
|
|
|
How are u posted:Republicans / Trumpist fascists are already maximally energized. They can't get any more hyped than they are. I'm not saying a Trump return to Twitter is a good and cool thing, but it might be more of a mixed bag. It's true that Republicans are energized right now according to polls. As most people here probably know, this is usually the case for the out-of-power party in midterms. It might be especially strong because of how much they hate Biden, but I'm not sure.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2022 16:38
|
|
|
Bishyaler posted:As of today, if he runs, he wins. I don't really see how Twitter is a factor in this at all. Forgot to say, if you make a statement with this much confidence, please source or at least explain it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2022 16:46
|
|
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:They aren't entirely for suckers, but they are a gamble and a step away from the original spirit of Medicare as a program that acted as the minimum threshold safeguard for elderly healthcare costs. Very true. My sister bought into a Medicare Advantage plan and was able to save money, but that was through a combination of luck and more research than every person really ought to be expected to do. For these plans to be offered, the private insurers also must be "winning" in more cases than they're "losing" so people overall are worse off. That's one of the reasons Medicaid for All would be better. Though I should note that Advantage plans don't always have lower premiums and higher co-pays. Instead they often have the same premium but different covered services, their own network of doctors, and yearly payout limits. It's somewhat complicated.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2022 06:11
|
|
|
Greetings all. I wanted to warn everyone that we're going to begin ramping probes for this thread a bit. If you've been probated here multiple times before in the past few months, the default will be to give you a day rather than six or twelve like I normally do. We'll also be considering threadbans, though these will not be given lightly or based on any particular formula. Rather we will assess how much someone makes discussion more difficult, more boring or otherwise worse vs. how often they contribute original ideas, interesting facts, and well-structured well-supported arguments.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2022 02:21
|
|
|
Lemming posted:I hope you'll consider taking into account the devastatingly awful news that was just released that is probably going to have people on edge more than normal, because it's incredibly loving awful That would appear to be a reasonable course of action.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2022 02:27
|
|
|
Harold Fjord posted:Are we allowed to ask questions about these new policies or do we have to wait 3 months for the mod feedback thread? You and I both know how this works so I will proceed with a question anyway and if you ignore it and threadban me we'll all have our answer. Are interesting facts going to be actually interesting facts, or is this going to end up inevitably codifying length as virtue when posters respond to short, reasoned analysis with a "Nuh uh." and a big list of facts that refute nothing at all, as is common? I would prefer you ask policy questions to me in private to avoid cluttering the thread. I don't consider length to be a virtue in and of itself, and if someone posted several irrelevant or universally known facts that would be the same as posting nothing at all as far as adding to how much they've contributed.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2022 02:38
|
|
|
LionArcher posted:yeah pretty much. Mods here are a perfect metaphor for how the news is treating this as well. "don't forget decorum!" There are easy solutions to this, but oh gosh even suggesting it will get you banned which is really just LMAO. You can argue whatever solutions you wish as long as it won't get the forums in legal trouble.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2022 03:42
|
|
|
Fister Roboto posted:Hmm maybe he shouldn't have said that he would codify the law then. Indeed. Though he doesn't have the unilateral authority to codify Roe v. Wade, the wording of the promise implies responsibility for whether it happens or not. He didn't say "I will work to codify" or "we will codify," he said "I will codify."
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2022 04:04
|
|
|
Discendo Vox posted:We've had this discussion so, so many times. Pretending ignorance of the basics of how the government works to attack Biden or "the Democrats" over a tweet talking about general agenda doesn't become any more intellectually honest the tenth time it happens. With all due respect, if he didn't mean the phrasing of what he said, it's President Biden's intellectual honesty that ought to be called into question. If one intends to take credit for a success, they must also be prepared to take responsibility for a failure.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2022 04:18
|
|
|
Fritz the Horse posted:it's a troll by a likely rereg account :hair:
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2022 01:17
|
|
|
I mean hai.
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2022 01:17
|
|
|
Harold Fjord posted:Power swinging back and forth between Democrats and Republicans is not the fault of random or collective voters, it is the fault of Democrat politicians. I understood your point here being that the politicians are culpable for not being persuasive enough to voters, but someone reported this who did not see that, so please try to be specific about what point you're making and why.
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2022 08:02
|
|
|
Ciprian Maricon posted:the GOPs apostasy on the [abortion] issue. What do you mean by this? As its worded, it seems to say the GOP has lost faith in their pro-life stance, but that doesn't seem to be what you're saying.
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2022 19:53
|
|
|
Koos Group posted:What do you mean by this? As its worded, it seems to say the GOP has lost faith in their pro-life stance, but that doesn't seem to be what you're saying. I asked this without realizing the gentleman would be on probation, and he was kind enough to give a response in PM: Ciprian Maricon posted:I'm using the definition of apostasy as "the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief" and I'm referring specifically to the idea that you could be a pro-choice republicans. This ties to other posts i've made about how the GOP has systematically eliminated members who do not hold to the pro-life orthodoxy. A good example would be the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Majority_for_Choice complete dissolution as an entity, the number of pro choice Sentators, say during Obama's administration compared to now.
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2022 22:09
|
|
|
Quick reminder that pornographic material isn't allowed on D&D... should that become relevant.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2022 00:08
|
|
|
Flying-PCP posted:The penis joke really doesn't seem to be in the same category as the other stuff. Usually most people don't know the size of someone's penis, making discrimination difficult. No one knows if Trump is fat either, due to his special suits.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2022 05:19
|
|
|
Professor Beetus posted:"Not a big deal" maybe be a poor or crude choice of language but the numbers overwhelmingly say that abortion is a positive for women. Here's another study that examines pre-abortion mental states rather than post-abortion ones. It also finds that stigma is associated with increased negative emotions (which accords with common sense): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953615302707 Together, these strongly support the idea that reduction of stigma would lead to a reduction in someone's regret or anxiety over their abortion.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2022 19:29
|
|
|
Gumball Gumption posted:they know what it means and are currently blaming the existence of the slogan for an increase in crime even though no one has defunded their police. I hadn't heard this, so I looked it up. It seems defund the police rhetoric hasn't caused an increase in violent crime (or at least homicides) but a three to one majority of Americans believe it has.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2022 07:01
|
|
|
PeterCat posted:The number of murders per year is skyrocketing, what are you talking about? As the link says, Mr. Cat, there's no association between which cities cut or changed police funding or had more of a movement to do so and how much crime rose, and the link acknowledges the crime did indeed rise. Historically, the connection also doesn't appear to exist between decreased arrest rates and homicides, according to a paper mentioned in the same link. Other factors, such as unemployment and higher number of firearm purchases, are associated with higher homicide rates and increased due to covid in the same time period. It may be true that defunding the police in the sense of completely eliminating their budgets would lead to an increase in overall crime. We don't know with absolute certainty since we've never done this, but it is suggested by the same paper I just linked, as evidence shows proactive policing measures such as targeted patrols do reduce crime, and it's not absurd to assume if the police had no budget they would no longer engage in these. However, my claim was specifically that the rhetoric did not cause an increase in crime, which was stated by both myself and Gumball Gumption, and the data I linked strongly supports that contention.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2022 19:28
|
|
|
Don't think I ever publicly noted this but PeterCat is no longer threadbanned from USCE, so it isn't necessary to report him.
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2022 18:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 21:33 |
|
|
 After a good deal of consideration, we've decided to ban the following users from USCE. How are u VitalSigns Mellow Seas Harold Fjord Threadbanned users can ask for reconsideration eventually, and may of course continue posting in the US Pol thread in CCCC.
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2022 21:54
|
|