Mate, if those two got any closer together, that LIGO would be detecting the birth of a new black hole somewhere in the Sol system.

I used to love Church: a dinner of Taco Bell burritos, a wooden pew, and the word of Christ. Clench, lean 15 degrees to the left, relax your sphincter and PUSH! The silence that is golden will last about 10 seconds before the retching and piling out the doors brings an end to today's sermon. That's when you snatch the collection plate and bolt out the back door.

I lost a major source of income when I became an atheist.

Did you know Taco Bell delivers? At least in Seattle they do. I have to wonder what life choices lead to the terminus of hauling two dollar food between source and the customer 25 miles away. Yeah, that $5 tip will more than pay for gas, upkeep, insurance and oil changes on that riced-out K car you've been driving since The Pet Shop Boys were still popular.

Also, "...blahblah whining and such..." -- look, if I want unfair criticism of a job well-done, I'll ask my clients to pay up. That's primo Gonzo humor you're tut-tutting and you paid exactly nothing to enjoy it. Y'know who else was a cheap ingrate? HITLER! Why ya gotta by like Hitler, Moonsammy -- IF THAT IS YOUR REAL NAME. I have my doubts on this topic, by the way.

Hey, what's Bob up to? I always enjoy a cheap laugh at the expense of the less fortunate.

(seriously dude -- I can hold 1:1 with a Clydesdale for an hour and have enough left in the tank to draw a standing ovation at Centurylink Field.)

LOL, nice one.

I'd have titled it: "Bear Gets Shocked After Waking Up World's Most Collected Dog."

You mean like Trump's last year in office when he spent well over the conservative estimates of $6.55 Trillion and collected only $3.4 Trillion in total income?
($1.6 trillion of which came from personal income taxes, $212 billion from corporate taxes...sure, that seems fair and proper)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/216928/us-government-revenues-by-category/

So essentially a tax Holliday year with the money going back to all citizens? What a major improvement that would be....and with the economy coming back after the Trump recession/depression, Biden doesn't have to put everything on credit, he can pay for his spending, and maybe pay for some of Trump's massive debts he left.

Trump came in with under $19.5 Trillion and left with over $28.5 Trillion in debt and his last year yielded a $5.2 Trillion deficit and the worst unemployment and biggest GDP drop EVER!!! Obama shrank the deficit to below $500 BILLION! Clinton had a surplus!!! Bush turned that into a deficit within one year and a near $1.5 Trillion deficit and depression when he left.

BTW, it should be a comma after "matter", not a period and double spacing. It's only one complete sentence. Even just 8th grade English class would have taught you that....also "let's" has an apostrophe, it means "let us"....are you sure you really graduated middle school? I can't see someone passing third grade with these English skills.

Which POTUS started the war(s) in the first place? W. Bush. Which POTUS send billions upon billions of free military hardware to prop up a corrupt, coward, incompetent, puppet government? Trump.

Biden will own the absolutely hasty pull-out, though Biden ISN'T incorrect about unavoidable chaos. That's because the US -- AGAIN like most other American war adventures -- just pack up & left. In war, you either win, lose or negotiate an armistice to avoid a bloody and chaotic aftermath. You can't have an armistice with the Taliban because it wasn't - isn't - even a government entity. Biden was honest about the miscalculation about the speed of Afghanistan's fall to the Taliban at least. He said Intel couldn't imagine it'd be a matter of weeks but thought something like 90 days+? But that means crap because Intel said fall to the Taliban it WILL (i.e., an eventuality). So why the haste, where's the logistical & humanitarian planning? There is no justification for that strategic lapse. The major international criticism (100% valid IMO) is how Biden/America abandonned its own and allies' citizens & Afghan aides in a war torn country with little planning & time to get them out of the country BEFORE the military leave. And leaving all those military hardware intact to the Taliban? What the hell? I mean, what are the generals doing? Is American reverence of its President so total that you can't pushback and buy some time to plan for a better outcome? Or are they really THAT incompetent? What this fiasco shows is that Biden/Pentagon cares nothing BUT the military personel. That is f---ing it, no more, no less.

What we're witnessing in Afghanistan is arguably a collective American sin, not just Biden's. Most Americans want out, like it should've happened yesteryear. The US have been propping up its GDP by using endless wars to feed the mouths of the military industrial complex to sell hardware abroad. It's an addiction whether the Dem/GOP likes it or not. This is just another sad but typical American war history repeating itself again. It's America's military modus operandi. Want to apportion blame? Don't just blame it on Biden, there's plenty to go around: from the WH to the Senate, Pentagon and down to the "Almighty American Military Prowess' Sure Win" mentality in its people are all to blame.

Oh, rest assured that Republicans couldn't do better. Why? Because it's built into the American military DNA: arrogance & ignorance. That breeds blindness, making Intel useless - or worse - counterproductive because of the inherent lack of situational/cultural awareness. It's not really a political mistake, rather a huge military blunder.

It's a f---ing war crime to start a war and not knowing how to end it already. It's made worse that America collectively *think* it can "nation build" a vastly different (culturally, economically, socially, judicially... etc.) , and far away country by basically propping up a corrupt, dependant, puppet government and then leave, knowing (or EVEN worse, NOT knowing) the eventual outcomes. What a pathetic, cruel and deadly joke.

I......
Um......
Holy fucking sheep shit. Bob, did you have a lobotomy recently? You're in rare form today. Rarely are you this ridiculous.

It's not ok to have aids (not just a gay thing you bigoted moron) and knowingly spread it to others. You go to prison for that.

It's certainly not ok to give a pregnancy to a fourteen year old....you go to prison for that.

So I agree, let's treat anti vaxers like your examples and put them in prison.

Their intentional irresponsibility makes them all collectively guilty of manslaughter hundreds of thousands of times over... and that's being generous. Really it's murder, they knew it's deadly.

So...if you realize it's in your best interest to take it, based on old data of who was most vulnerable BEFORE Delta, why the fuck are you so against it for others? Delta is different, it targets young and old. In the first two weeks of August, infections in those under 18 went up over 5%, a trend that started with the onset of Delta and continues to accelerate. Epsilon may target the young. Your ilk hesitating to get vaccinated helped create this new variant and others, so consider yourselves 100% responsible for the increase in child deaths, your stubborn ignorance has killed hundreds if not thousands of children and disabled tens it not hundreds of thousands that need not ever have been in danger. Edit: and for what?! With all your bluster, you got it anyway, but will probably continue to persuade others to not get it.

Totally agree with @StukaFox, "me, me, me, me, me, and fuck you." Is your mantra. I hope you meet up with yourself and take each other out.
Would you have been against it if Trump was still president and telling you it's safe? I bet not....you are exactly that dumb.

In this instance, you shouldn't have a free choice anymore than you have a free choice to poison your community's water supply with a poison that ONLY kills 2%+ and disables >10% (and makes most everyone sick for weeks). Refusing to vaccinate against a deadly airborne virus is like refusing to stop tossing your lawn darts straight up in the air in a crowded stadium because, to paraphrase you, "my fweedums, my wites, fuck you". Is it a certainty you're going to kill and maim people? No, but it's a high likelihood and a crime to put them in that kind of danger even if you never hit anyone, and murder if you kill some.

Republicans have decided that deadly irresponsibility should not just be their right, but their choice....but not their responsibility when it's deadly. So much for personal responsibility.

Enjoy that new underwear I sent you. Ignore that little sponge in the taint area, it's for your comfort, not just to infect you with fournier's gangrene.

OK I will take a risk on this one. Every scientific breakthrough is supported by scientific personnel who run experiments and collect data. The head of the laboratory or institution gets to interpret the data and get the Nobel Prize. That is how teams work in science.

Its even in the video, getting the discovery discovered is a lot of tedious work, someone has to find the anomalous signal, that is great, someone else then gets to state a hypothesis about what it means, which when it proves to be right gives them the prize. Seems fair. Even if its just one on one student and professor, unless the student comes up with a fundamental concept, just noticing an anomaly does not make a Nobel Prize laureate of the student. Even if his line of search is originally against the opinion of the professor.

Now arguably in this case Ms. Bell made a bigger contribution than just collecting data and if you juxtapose that with how women were treated back then, its a nice story. But if she were a man in the same position there would be no Nobel Prize either. And possibly no compensating prize years later.

And yes she deserves her prize, I believe.

It totally agree, @eric3579. Who can be trusted? It's harder to know every day.

My take....
Jones is right about the science, false negatives imply you've never been exposed when you have been, so people believe they cannot transmit the virus when they may in fact be infectious, which can lead to reckless nondistancing behavior and infections because they assume they're "safe"... also even a good (not false) positive antibody test does not mean they have meaningful immunity nor does it mean they aren't infectious as this woman claims. It only means you've developed some detectable antibodies to the virus. Period. Both misconceptions are big concerns. "Which is bigger?" seems like a silly fight.

The problem is, no matter what the test says, people think it means they're safe to be around. A negative test...."I never had it so I can't spread it, gimme a kiss"...a positive test..."I had it but beat it so I'm now immune and can't spread it, gimme a kiss". Neither is correct.

I had the chicken pox twice. If a chicken pox antibody test existed, I would have tested positive after the first round and assumed I couldn't get it or transmit it afterwards, but that would have been wrong even though the results weren't a false positive. Instead, because people suck, my parents and teachers just assumed I was "safe" and sent me to school sick and may have caused an outbreak.

Both of her claims here rely on most people completely misunderstanding what the results really mean, and people completely ignoring the possibility of false results. Sadly that's proper to assume.

Interesting how she puts it, she says Jones wasn't asked to fudge any data, just maybe present it in a way that made Florida's public covid numbers look better in the run up to the election....or another way to say that is she was asked to fudge the data....if I recall she claimed she was instructed to hide large numbers of cases in categories not included in the public presentations with the intent to create a false perception of a major downturn in cases under the "open up and unmask" plan.

Wasn't the "private data" she's accused of handing to the press the unadulterated anonymous covid numbers....not really private as it's public data collected by the government for public health reasons... and not personal data as she implied. That's what I recall the charge being....maybe there's more.

The rest is unverifiable and /or personal tabloid stuff....like did they point the gun at her kids or just menace them with the guns, did she get pregnant with her student, etc. Not germane to her claims about Florida's verified misrepresentations, and inappropriate attacks against the messenger instead of the message, imo. Distasteful to me, but besides the point.

Oh Bob, one more thing

"Al Capone & Tax Evasion

Al Capone once said, “They can’t collect taxes from illegal money.” Because of Johnson’s work, Capone ate his own words on October 18th, 1931 when the tax man came collecting. And Capone paid in time instead of money.

On Oct. 17th, 1931 Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion.

Capone received 11 years in the “lock-up”.

--------------
--------------

Death and taxes right? Your Boi provided enough death (covid)

Hey isn't it ironic that Trumpies want him to get credit for the vaxx but also don't want to take it?

Most republicans CLAIM they believe multiple ineligible voters voted and had their votes counted despite ALL evidence to the contrary and not a single case of non citizen Democratic voting nor a single case of Democrats voting twice, but many from Republicans including one guy who murdered his wife to use her vote to vote for Trump and a judge who cast his dead wife's ballot, then there's the multiple Republican candidates who collected ballots from the elderly and filled them out, casting votes for themselves by the thousands, and the fake ballot boxes set up by Republicans that continued after secretaries of state demanded be removed because they are specifically prohibited by law (and that allowed Republicans to sift through votes and discard Democratic ballots). Republicans do not care about securing non Republican votes anymore, Trump removed the last vestige of that patriotic civic feature from your group. Today's Republicans want to discard over half the legal votes for no reason besides they aren't for their candidate, liar.

Remember when Trump admitted that if every citizen voted, no Republican would ever be elected again? That's an admission they can only win by cheating straight from the cheater in chief's mouth....an admission that legal voters don't vote Republican, only by denying millions their constitutional rights AND cheating AND gerrymandering can Republicans win at all....Trump said it.

Let's have 5 cases of actual, prosecuted Democratic vote fraud cases from the last three elections, I can show you hundreds of times more than that from Republicans....thousands more. Liar. I know for certain you couldn't come up with two if I gave you one as a freebie.

There are no Democratic fucker laws, but hundreds of Republican fucker laws that discourage and block legal votes from poor and black areas and people, you claim it's to secure the vote against frauds while you have zero evidence any ever existed in the populations these laws target, blocking and denying millions of votes to fight a crime that doesn't exist except in Republican circles and Republican delusions. You believe they're all Democrat votes, so you don't care if they're legal voters being disenfranchised, liar.

Denying a legal vote has exactly the same effect as allowing an illegal one....which party wants to deny legal votes, Bob? Hint, it's the same party caught thousands of times recently casting illegal and/or tampered with votes AND discarding thousands of votes for Democrats. Liar.

Provide ID for free in the communities you insist must have them, not only available at the DMV 25+ miles away with no bus service going there, then and only then would it be even partially proper to enact laws to require them, or require a free voter ID that every citizen has the same access to and the same difficulties getting, so no online application, no phone application, stand in line at a DMV at least one county removed from your address. Republicans blocked a national voter ID, because it's not about ID, it's about denying legal voters in Democratic populations.

All illegal votes were Republican illegal vote frauds for Trump, every single one found. If illegal voting was a real concern, voting laws would target Republicans, not Democrats. They absolutely don't, and recordings of Republican leaders prove it was never about illegal votes and always about suppressing Democrat voters. Liar.

The true question is how are Republicans getting away with election interference at a massive scale, rigging elections nation wide while dishonestly claiming they're "securing the vote" but really they're securing it in Republican gerrymandered districts for Republicans, not ensuring every legal vote counts but instead denying any vote they question....which are only Democratic votes despite the long history of Republican frauds, rigging the system so they're "winning" elections with 10% fewer votes than their opponents, and threatening murders and civil war when y'all lose. Crybaby liar.

Republicans absolutely don't want an honest vote system in place because republicans cannot win honest, fair elections. Democrats tried dozens of times to pass laws securing elections, creating physical records of every vote, securing machines against tampering, even creating a (free) national voter ID, etc...Republicans obstructed every one without considering them at all because not allowing democrats a victory is far more important to y'all than securing elections or making them fair or honest.

Just a protest that went too far....you mean like the vast minority of BLM marches that ended with rioting? No, sorry, this was planned, organised, executed, and was planned by and supported from the Whitehouse, "it's gonna be wild", not a spontaneous over exuberance by people demanding they not be murdered by police where the organisers immediately and strongly denounce those causing damage and injuries and call for them to stop.


How is what you copied and pasted one word different from what I said?
The fbi released the information about him, including photos of him dressed in all black with his glasses hood and mask in the capitol and his posts and discussions with under cover agents outlining his intention to try to frame Antifa for the riot/coup by dressing like them in a press release, there's no crime of impersonating Antifa, nor a crime for having his friends do surveillance in public areas without an actual illegal action attached, but it will all be brought up at his trial and sentencing for....

Knowingly Enter or Remain in any Restricted Building or Grounds Without Lawful Authority to do so and Knowingly, and with Intent to Impede or Disrupt the Orderly Conduct of Government Business or Official Functions, Engage in Disorderly or Disruptive Conduct in, or Within Such Proximity to, Any Restricted Building or Grounds, When, or so that, Such Conduct, in Fact, Impedes or Disrupts the Orderly Conduct of Government Business or Official Functions

Disorderly Conduct on Capitol Grounds

Obstruction of an Official Proceeding....


In other words, charges for his actions during the failed violent coup for Trump that his supporters attempted that killed 5 and that he attempted to blatantly falsely blame on Antifa, just like you do.

Don't be surprised if conspiracy and terrorism charges come soon.

"According to the court record, at the time of his arrest he had several guns, including an AK-47, and the material to make 50 molotov cocktails. Not what you need for a peaceful protest, more what you bring to a violent government overthrow.
An undercover officer with the D.C. police first encountered Duong at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the government. Duong described himself as an “operator” and later explained that he wore all black to look like an anti-fascist activist, the government alleged in court documents. In video later seen by investigators, Duong is identified in court documents as shouting “We’re coming for you Nancy” and pushing a fellow protester toward the doors on the Senate side of the building.

"They stayed in touch, and a week later Duong allegedly told the undercover officer he was part of a “cloak and dagger” group that will “build resistances . . . for what will inevitably come.” In March, he told associates, “Keep your guns and be ready to use them.”

"He and others held “Bible study” where they discussed firearms explosives and other training, according to court documents; Duong also brought someone he described as a “three percenter” to one meeting. The right-wing Three Percenters movement, formed in 2008, is named after the false claim that only 3 percent of colonists fought in the American Revolution, many of it's members have been charged in the Jan 6 failed coup.
He talked about surveilling the Capitol building, and in February an associate took some footage of it, according to prosecutors. He also talked about freeing alleged rioters who were behind bars, saying, according to the government, “I see that as an opportunity. With every great revolution, you go to the prisons and you break them out.”
According to the court documents, he and the undercover agent toured the jail in Lorton, Va., where he talked about testing out explosives. He told the agent, the government alleged, that he was working on a “manifesto,” saying, “If I get into a gun fight with the feds and I don’t make it, I want to be able to transfer as much wisdom to my son as possible.” Prosecutors say he also discussed how far he could shoot on his family’s property in the event of a raid and said it could be the site of a second Waco.
He said at a meeting in June that he had collected Styrofoam and more than 50 wine bottles to make molotov cocktails but had held off on buying fuel “to avoid . . . being hit with a conspiracy charge,” according to the complaint filed against him. He told the undercover agent he had been saving motor oil from his car for that purpose."

Yep, sure sounds like a peaceful right wing protester to me, not another anti government right wing terrorist trying to blame their deadly anti American violence on the left....nooooooo.

I am certain. Science doesn't lie, and I don't have to take someone's word, I can examine data, understand chemistry, and see short and long term trends. The data is undeniable, the only thing wrong with what the media tells you is they paint FAR too rosy a picture. You would think, based on media reports, that if we did stay at only 1.5C above pre industrial levels all is fine, that's nonsense. Truth is 1.5C is where they theorized we lose all control and skyrocket up from there to....nobody knows where, but hot. I think we are on track to 1.5C before 2030, and the feedback loops are already kicking in now. Does that mean we die in 2030? No, but it means our collective fate is sealed and completely out of our control.

I do plant trees, I already have solar, I drive well under 4000 miles a year, in fact I haven't driven anywhere but the grocery store in the wife's car in over 6 month when my car broke, and I don't miss it, I don't have AC, and yes, I need to get on my bike more, for my weight and blood pressure. My money IS where my mouth is, and I still was willing to put it on the line....you aren't.

A big difference is, if somehow I am wrong, what I do is still proper, cleaner, safer, and actually cheaper. Your ideas and ideals lead to detrimental, polluting, dangerous, and more expensive actions and processes even if miraculously they don't lead to our extinction this century.

Are you snatching up cheap uninsurable coastline in Florida and Louisiana? Are you selling off your water rights because they're a dime a dozen? Are you short selling produce and grains on margin? Are you doing anything to risk your money based on what you say?

Your turn.

Edit: I don't do mobs. I prefer people who think for themselves.

Before "someone" spouts off about this being a singular, isolated weather event in America and Canada, it's happening world wide.
All time record high temperatures are also happening in Europe, Asia, Africa including ground temperatures in Siberia above the arctic circle at 118F, not so good for permafrost that should be near freezing. Mexico has seen all time high temperatures for June exceeding 125F, nighttime low temperatures are also shattering all time highs like 105F overnight in palm springs, and over 70F was the overnight low in S Africa (southern hemisphere) on the WINTER solstice. Let's not forget, June is typically the coolest summer month.
It's hard to imagine this not triggering feedback loops like permafrost releasing methane and less ice reflecting heat that are each, by themselves, more than we could possibly counteract with current technology with an unlimited budget and the collective will to try. Combined, and without the unlimited funds or collective will to act, it's looking like game over, man.
Somehow "we told you so" hardly seems sufficient.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/heat-wave-russia-brings-record-breaking-temperatures-north/story?id=78446355

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2021/06/22/wild-high-temperatures-worldwide-show-the-extent-of-record-june-heat-wave/?sh=496b6bc05668

I've never processed color film but I've had years of processing Black and White film and prints. My father and I built a darkroom in the basement of our house.

Dad was a historian and published 5 books with photographs copied from old postcards he collected.

He would go back to the same spot where a postcard was photographed to make a Then & Now tour.

Needless to say I've spent much of my life in the darkroom. B/W photography isn't sensitive to red light so it's not completely dark as it is with color film.

Also spent many years doing offset printing from small presses to large newspaper presses. The process is much the same.