Just something to ponder upon.....all of the House districts in the US....with the 2020 House election. Yeah....a lot of Red. The smaller districts....urbanized zones....are more in number.
Monday, 16 November 2020
The Climate is Changing, Why Aren't We?
I sat and watched this weekend....a protest movement situation, where a sign appeared in the middle of the European protest....asking the question, the climate is changing, why aren't we?
I sat there for a while and pondered upon it.
After I came to six observations:
1. I use less electricity today, than I did 25 years ago. Between LED lights, the more developed engineering in the refrigerator and freezer, and the lesser wattage in most all kitchen devices....I'm probably using 30-percent less electricity than what I used in 1995.
2. Most all planes that I ride on (at least before Covid)....were the newer type with better engines, and less fuel consumption.
3. The new washer I bought in 2019? It uses roughly three-quarters the power that I consumed with the older washer (10 years old).
4. This being the wonderful Covid-year that it is.....I've marginally ridden the local bus no more ten times for all of 2020.
5. The new 2019 Audi we bought? Terrific fuel consumption numbers.
6. The new 2019 gas heating system installed into the house? Based on the salesman's numbers...between regular water heating and the winter-heat....it's doing the same job, with roughly 20-percent less consumption over the old heating system.
The problem here....these signs with the stupid environmental statements....are drawn mostly by 15-to-20 year old 'kids', and they don't recognize the various solutions that people are adapting.
In their mind, there needs to be hour-by-hour changes, and they have a marginal view of human history, or our change-cycle.
Observations
1. New book by former President Obama coming out.....768 pages.
Yeah, it is a bit excessive, and probably would take you six to eight weeks of reading to wrap it up. So, one piece in the book being discussed....he admits that for most of the Presidency.....he was still smoking a minimum of eight cigarettes' daily. It's curious....the news media never saw this or had a photographer in the right place to take a picture?
2. There's this mob-guy (from Philly), who has stated that he's prepared to give evidence over manufactured ballots in the 2020 election. Number? 300,000. The deal? $10 per ballot. They were manufactured over a 3-day period, and dumped into the system.
Reliability? Hard to say. Evidence? So far, nothing. It appears that the blank ballots that his team had....had one marking for President, and that was it....no other candidates were selected. Where were they delivered? Unknown, so far.
Why come out now, after getting the $3-million (I assume in cash)? This is not explained, and it's the weak part of the story.
3. From Sixty Minutes last night....former President Obama is interviewed, and the question comes up....Joe Biden got tons more votes than Obama....what did Obama think about this?
The answer given....has no relationship to the question. He just stepped across and avoided the question entirely. He has to be a bit disgruntled over that part of the story.
Sunday, 15 November 2020
The Need for Critical Thinking
A couple of years ago, I essayed a piece on critical thinking and the necessity for it.
It used to be, if you went off for four years of university, you would get a fair dose of critical thinking and get the skill sets to accomplish it. Over the past twenty years, I'd suggest that you could make it through college today, without much of a mention over the 'art' of critical thinking.
To define it....you have a problem or situation, and you need judgement over what this is (defined), the root causes, and then if you engaged to remedy the problem....you have some options on the solution.
Generally, you need to know how to evaluate a situation and gather facts or semi-facts to build a judgement. By semi-facts, I mean things that are generally assumed but yet to be proven as absolute fact.
Somewhere in this analysis.....you are also working up a unbiased nature, where you can accept certain things which you'd normally not support.
Then there's the fine art of skepticism, where you've been told a semi-fact, but question this....to the point where you realize it can't be proven, and it can be stamped as fact.
A new way of thinking with critical thinking? No....the Greeks came up with this....over 2,000 years ago.
Why disengage from critical thinking? That's the curious thing....without this skill, anything you picked up for the four-year period or the $80,000....is utterly worthless. It would make no sense, unless the objective was to 'lose' critical thinking skills in our society.
So, maybe a reading from Socrates and Plato might make sense right now, and asking some stupid questions which ought to have rational answers.
Time to Heal Chatter?
The odds of healing coming?
Shocker?
It's a bit humorous, but the NY Post reports this....Erica Abi Wright...professionally known as Erykah Badu in the Hip-Hop world....felt she had symptoms of Covid-19.
She went for a test (well....two tests). One is done on the left nostril, and one on the right nostril.
Negative on the right nostril. Positive on the left nostril.
What does this mean? You could line up 100 people who think they have symptoms, and just do one single nostril on the test, and it comes back negative. So the doctor just says you have a light case of the flu (which later turns out to be a fairly bad case of the flu), and you get over this in two weeks. Yes, you actually had real Covid....because the test only concluded with one nostril which didn't have the virus.
Rocket-science stuff? No.
So the testing is not really like you'd desire? More or less. But some idiot PhD guy will eventually figure out that via your anus....you can swab that and get a good 'reading'. A bunch of the test folks will step back and kinda refuse to participate once this is the guaranteed way to get a positive-negative reading.
The Winner Poll
I was reading through various reports this morning and noticed that Rasmussen worked up a poll. The question....is Joe Biden the winner now?
Well...49-percent said yes.
16-percent said they weren't sure of nothing.
34-percent felt Donald Trump had won.
The poll was done between the 5th and 7th of November.
In simple terms, it's not a convincing win for Joe Biden....there's doubt. Even if Trump is bested here in the end....there will be marginally a majority of folks who believe Joe Biden actually won.
A mess going forward? More or less.
The place-holder President? I suspect as you get into early 2022 with President Joe (assuming he wins)....the doubt will be there, and a lot of people will be shaking their head over the mess to clean up.
Here's the tough part about this scenario....you'd have to have a news media that openly avoids all discussion over President Joe, his agenda, or the players in his camp. Yes, the news media would have to go out and cover the actual news (something they haven't done in two decades). Political chat shows on Sundays? They will become incredibly boring, and very limited on questions of quality.
This might be the four-year period that you wanted to take up a new hobby, learn how to golf, or rebuild that garage.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)