Arielle Popstar

ESCOT is a non profit so you need a new conspiracy theory. ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation,[10] and its members include consumers, electric cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities (transmission and distribution providers), and municipally owned electric utilities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Reliability_Council_of_Texas From what I see, Texas has one of the lowest consumer KW/h rates in the USA so that's a good thing. And I may not live in Texas but I find nothing wrong with some individualism and self reliance. It makes for people who don't fall apart when facing a few challenges from man vs man, man vs nature or man vs him/herself. All that entitlement you seem to promote is just not healthy. I did see that tweet already yesterday and though it sounds rather harsh, he does make some good points. He was not directing his comments at those who are in true need but at those who are more then able bodied enough to be able to fend for themselves during challenging times. You on the other hand seem to want everyone completely dependent on handouts from the government. That sort of socialism only works until the money runs out.

The way the CEO of ERCOT mentioned it, the reasoning is more to do with that by staying isolated from other grids, they don't share in their blackouts either. That might be a valid justification if the neighboring ones are not overly stable.

Like the Quebec ice storm of 1998 there will no doubt be months if not years of blame and recriminations flying in all directions but was in the end nothing more then a "perfect" storm that overcame the design limits of the grid infrastructure. It is the people of Texas that are going to have to be ok with paying for power that incorporates the costs associated with it being able to produce sufficient electricity even in arctic temperatures when there there are cloudy skies and no wind for that once in a multi decade event. Retrofit winterizing of these power plants is not going to be cheap and with the bulk of government subsidies going to renewable energies, I doubt the coal and gas ones will be very motivated to even do so. The CEO of ERCOT mentioned 39% of the renewable sources went offline and that was aside from the low power outputs through the solar farms due to the cloudy skies. Perhaps they don't have very high expectations of the renewables to begin with to justify the comment that it was performing above expectations.

Definitely on the increase as this pandemic lockdown drags on with no clear end in sight. In the past month alone I have run into 3 situations where someone needed help that was unavailable for resolution through normal channels because of Covid restrictions to getting access to abuse shelters. One with all her belongings in shopping bags spread around her on the side of the road just needed a call to a taxi company to take her to a friends in another town, another flagged me down at 3 am when I was getting gas. The Police had dropped her off there after being unable to find her a bed at any of the local shelters. With no local friends and unhelpful family, my mother and I took her in for a few days until she was able to sort something out. The 3rd one we are getting set up with an in home security system and am about to head out to take her to Home Depot to purchase a steel door and better locks to prevent her ex from coming over unannounced and breaking the door down. Just crazy to run into three separate people in my little area needing to escape or get protection from ex's. Makes me shudder to think what it must be like in the larger areas like Toronto. The number of calls mentioned in the article are just the tip of the iceberg as it doesn't count the ones who find a resolution in another way through friends, family or even strangers. The lockdowns are forcing people together in ways that are not healthy and then combine that with money problems and a few drinks and suddenly simmering problems boil over with dangerous consequences. That is why these lockdowns need to end and just stick with masks and social distancing until either these vaccines either give us the herd immunity or the pandemic just peters out.

Hope you don't think I was dissing farmers as that was definitely not my intent. I realize my getting a little sidetracked with the Covid lockdown dynamics might have confused what I was trying to point out where Government and market dynamics can cause a lot food waste. Even the part of what the FDS stated was not in reference specifically to the farmers but in totality what gets wasted, especially with Commercial and institutional waste being the predominant areas.

I do understand some of your reasonings here while at the same time being aware from friends who dairy farm and also farm for vegetable markets, that their quota's play a large part in their need to dump excesses above those levels. That seems to be especially relevant in the current climate with so many restaurants, hotels, schools, and other institutional users closed because of the lockdowns resulting in something like 50% less demand. "As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wage a silent war across the country, American farmers are being forced to pour out milk, crush eggs, toss fresh fruits and vegetables, euthanize livestock and plow under perfectly robust crops Meanwhile, financially beleaguered Americans are lining up at food banks in unprecedented numbers, humanitarian leaders fear a global starvation pandemic is burgeoning, and grocery store shelves are sparsely filled." https://www.foxnews.com/us/farmers-dump-food-grocery-stores-shortage-coronavirus As @Silent Mistwalkeralready pointed out, these institutions and restaurants are some of the biggest dumpers of foods as I have seen myself years ago when leftover prepared foods were dumped in open dumpsters until they started using compactors. I also spent many years in the catering industry and know first hand how much foodstuffs would have to get tossed after weddings, banquets, and other events when food banks etc started having to refuse the excess because of potential liabilities from spoiled goods. So many factors come into play but bottom line is that I think we have plenty of capacity already to feed everyone on the planet if we could just get it to them.

Because Luna didn't deny it! That is good enough evidence for any good conspiracy theorist! Joking aside though whenever I have seen threads like this in other Forums I am reminded of the huge amount of food waste that happens every single day at every level from individual families, restaurants, cafeterias, commercial food prep companies and farmers. The FDA estimates that in the USA alone, 40% of all food winds up in municipal dumps. That will sustain not only the existing population but quite a few more. Another thing that comes to mind is the huge amount of land I have driven through in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick etc just sitting there with nothing on it but weeds that could either be farmed or failing that, used for feeding livestock. The way I see it is that the problem is not that the Earth could not support 10 billion people but that we as yet lack effective methods for utilizing either the land available or making sure all food that is available is distributed efficiently to where it is needed instead of landing in the dumps.

I have to admit I find it cute when so many complain there are too many people on the planet for sustainability, they are often the same ones complaining when a vaccine for the pandemic is not coming fast enough. What I guess they really mean is that there is too many OTHER people on the planet.

Surprised Slink especially the HG, is such a small percentage considering the amount of outfits made for it.

Oh good to know I am not alone. Thanks!

Then why bother wasting the resources to do such testing? The problem is that governments are using such inconclusive testing to determine policies that in effect throw people out of work, bankrupt businesses, prevent people from sitting with loved ones who are dying and a host of other limitations that are pushing up suicides, mental health issues and domestic violence. Sure, maybe in a small population such as NZ that is currently in its Off Flu season its fine, but up in the northern hemisphere the spike in numbers for us in the high season are becoming increasingly restrictive based solely on the numbers of those PCR testing results. Those results are of a questionable validity regarding whether someone needs to actually quarantine. Even the courts are starting to doubt that they mean much as evidenced by a recent court ruling in Portugal: The PCR test “is unable to determine, beyond reasonable doubt, that a positive result corresponds, in fact, to the infection of a person by the SARS-CoV-2 virus”, said the Lisbon Court of Appeal. based on their reading of a Lancet study that pointed out a scientific diagnostic test requires a lot more then a simple PCR reading and yet the PCR one is being used for legal, medical and scientific guidelines in many jurisdictions. If policy continues to be set by PCR testing of the populations, we will never get out of lockdowns and other restrictive policies. This video is more in depth then the previous one as to why PCR testing is insufficient:

Ahh who knew! To be honest, from your post here: I had assumed you already had a supply of it for dealing with your exposure to the six repair guys. Since one cannot actually get it directly for a Covid 19 diagnosis, I assumed you had circumvented the block by claiming the 6 repair guys exposed you to the problem it is also prescribed for. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pubic-lice-crabs/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20350306 Me adding 2+2 and getting 5! My bad!

As your source states, it is only a screening tool, not a direct test that conclusively determines whether one has the infectious dna molecule. The test itself cannot differentiate between an active virus and bits or fragments of the virus left over from a successful defense your immunity system put up against an invasion of them. It would appear that the more amplification cycles a lab has to put the sample through to determine if it is in fact an active covid 19 virus, the more likely it is a false positive. So 25-30 cycles is a pretty sure indication the virus is active and growing whereas 35-40 amplification cycles tend to be only inactive fragments no longer viable to cause an infection in another host. Since a lab can use up to 40 cycles under the Covid 19 protocols, one has to know what amount of cycles the sample went through to determine the diagnosis. How much confidence can you really put into a test when the very manufacturers of the test kits put on a disclaimer on the kits themselves that they are not to be used for diagnostic purposes?

After 427 posts in this thread alone, it is a wonder then that you have never found the occasion to mention the idea that perhaps both sides could stand to be a little more vigilant to masking and distancing. I believe it was in a previous thread that you actually went out of your way to ridicule the idea that Dem's (and Socialists) were in fact seen and photographed en masse without masks nor social distancing. Understandable of course for when exerting oneself with the pulling down of statues and other monuments, one needs to breathe in the maximum amount of oxygen possible to help the heart. Masks interfere with that ability so a wholly justifiable reason for not wearing one! Same when looting and and assaulting innocent bystanders I suppose. Not at all bizarre like the Conservative justifications though it still results in maskless crowds not keeping socially distant. Different sides of the same coin don't you think? Thinking in absolutes isn't a political issue but stems from typically dysfunctional family systems. Children brought up in alcoholic/addictive style homes are prone to that and therefore am pretty sure it is something that transcends any and all political lines. As far as the mask wearing is concerned, I see republicans being more upfront with why they are not wearing them whereas the left is in denial about why they don't because it isn't politically correct but again, the result is the same for those not in denial about that Dem's (and socialists) seem very rigid about their response in that it is vaccines or bust and not able to see or consider that there are a multitude of potential treatments that could be utilized to minimize the death count until a good vaccine comes out for those able to take advantage of it. As a result 10's of thousands have passed away when they could have been easily saved by one or another treatments that has been known about since early on in the pandemic. Without denying the ones who have passed away, there now is a question whether the pandemic is even anywhere as dire as it is being made out to be. According to a video by my favorite New Zealand doctor, we might really be suffering more from a "PCR Pandemic". ie a pandemic as a result of the covid tests rather than from a pandemic of people with the actual disease.

In the few cases where someone has pointed out that the Dem's were not always so good at masking, it was always, without exception, to you going on and on about Conservatives being so intentionally bad at it. It really is quite remarkable seeing your post: in that I have never seen ONE post of yours using the idea that there were MORE Republicans than Democrats dissing masks. Is this you with a bad memory or attempting to gaslight the rest of us with what you have or have not stated in past? Since you are not a member of either of those parties, how do you feel about the Dictatorial Jo Biden signing in all those executive orders? He has even been quoted as saying during the campaign that any President that relied on Executive orders to enforce their will is a dictator so that by his own words, he condemns himself as being one. What is your stance on that from your socialistic position? Ps- looking forward to you sharing the "many faults" you find about the Democratic party since we have thread's full already of what you issues you had with the Republican one.

Guess you didn't get the full memo for Ontario either. Specific rules depending on when and where you can drink, dance, sing, play brass and wind instruments, exercise indoors or out, sports etc etc. Read all about it: https://files.ontario.ca/moh-covid-19-response-framework-keeping-ontario-safe-and-open-en-2020-11-13.pdf

I have a wearable translator script I picked up somewhere that seems to still work. Copy/paste the code into a script and pop it into a wearable prim. No warranty or support nor responsibility if it steals all your data!

I admired the simplicity of his announcement. Much easier to follow then Ontario's color coded levels and yet seems many either didn't get the memo or promptly ignored it. In either case it was not for a lack of trying by the Trump administration as you were implying.

Nam's or CaIWL is my normal default and I have not noticed a difference with either between pre and post EEP viewer releases. To be on the safe side though I do tend to install newer viewer releases alongside an older install in case I don't like it but for me at least, I have not gone back to the pre EEP one.

No, it is how you deal with it that will determine whether you live or die. This is part of your problem in that you look to your government and all others in protecting you from the virus as opposed to taking responsibility for it yourself, hopefully in conjunction with those in your immediate vicinity. If maskless people are running amok, don't go there. Its really that simple. If some people are singing in their church without masks, don't go there! Simple eh?

Look up the "15 days to slow the spread" announcement by Trump on March 16 which was then extended to 45 days on March 30. Link Two weeks ago, President Trump entered the White House briefing room and announced an aggressive plan to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Stay home for 15 days, he told Americans. Avoid groups of more than 10 people. "If everyone makes this change, or these critical changes, and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus," he said. On Sunday, the night before Day 15, Trump told the country to stick with the plan for another month, until April 30. "The better you do, the faster this whole nightmare will end," Trump said.

A few years ago an acquaintance had to serve a few years in a Canadian Federal penitentiary. Before that time he was friends with a Black guy and they chummed together regularly. After he served his time he came out changed in that he had become racist and had some disparaging remarks about his former friend. Being curious I prodded him about why he had changed and what he told me sounded very much like the story shared here: https://prisonwriters.com/racism-in-prison/ Though in time the acquaintance did lose his animosity towards people of colour, it made me wonder how much sharing his experience would affect/infect others and alter their own views of POC.

Well maybe you need to stop and pay attention to how you are trying to get your messages across. What I just said is relevant for when parents bring up their children. It works the same way with others.

I think this past year of all the BLM protests and riots have likely ticked a lot of people off to a point where they are starting to have some resentments they did not have before as well as that if they are being told over and over again that they have white superiority, they are actually taking it on. It works that way unconsciously. Whatever one believes about another, they will unconsciously take that belief on. As you believe, so it will be.