(OT) Antarctic Sea Ice Sets Another Record

The reality is how long has man been seeking the North West Passage without success? It's now a reality.

The entire system has to be studied and not just cherry picked by a reporter or anyone that clearly does no understand the science much less the underlying processes.

If anything the amount of sea ice in your cite could be an example of the effects of global warming.

Maybe the globe is warming, then again maybe it's not. The pinprick of time this has all taken up is nutting in the big pictures of global history. I'm not convinced it is what the marketeers say, that it is caused by humans. That is pure bunkum and an ultimate slippery way to glean people and companies including the US as a whole from their money. It is and always will be, a scam.

Disregarding the $$$ factor (hard to do). The reality is there are serious changes in our climate. Remediation works on a number of levels. Conservation being one of them. Even if it makes no difference in the climate it does make a difference in the budget.

We have converted several trucks to CNG. NG burns cleaner despite the hammer of fracking and in total is better than burning coal. As a result we are doing better for the environment AND doing better for ourselves economically.

Coal has a long and dirty history. For a while there were claims that the EPA regulations were hammering coal plants and their customers. The courts took away the EPA's food ball. In the end the coal fired plants servicing the Texas market could not compete with NG. Pure economics but covered by those that would play politics. Congress is back at the game as we type.

Just turn up the heat on those bed bugs and they will wither.

Sure, make it more expensive (tax it) for selected technologies that certain political groups don't like and they will go away. Common tactic. Same for guns and ammo, make it expensive to manufacture gun powder and eventually the guns will go away, OR, make it more expensive to sell fast food and eventually Mac and Don's will quit, why because nobody will pay $5 or $10 for a Macdonalds hamburger...on and on it goes. I don't like this kind of stuff. The dims are great for it. Just look at NYC and the nanny bloomberg and his NY pals. Let people make decisions not the nanny's of government.

As far as coal plants that supply the Texas market: the rug pulling had to do with the fact that NG is very very cheap due to the great increase in drilling and the new NG fields. The shut down of the plants nothing to do with any tax. They were just not competitive to NG. That's what makes horse races.

I find it very amusing as I knew from being inside the industry that there were political games being played. Lots of gloom and doom on the part of the coal industry and the politicians that Obama's EPA was forcing the plants to close.

Someone (coal industry?) took the EPA to court and surprise surprise coal won. In the end they had to make a go on pure economics and the economics of their position was not there to keep the plants open.

As to hamburgers getting more expensive. I suspect that has more to do with pink slime than anything else. And no government or tax involved. Market forces. The reality of the market folk don't want to eat pink slime.

Monsanto is fighting the requirement of labeling any product that contains GM crops. The reality is Monsanto does not want the buying public to know they are getting GM food with a side of Roundup.

That "pink slime" you refer to has been deemed safe by the FDA. The company is law suiting a few entities over the bad publicity. I believe the main one is ABC news which did a month long war against the company. Unfair so called news reporting. These news companies hide behind the US consitiution and think they can say and do anything they please.

"That "pink slime" you refer to has been deemed safe by the FDA"

You'll pardoned me if I don't get a warm and fuzzy with assurances from the FDA about pink slime or much else.

Having worked in research for the government and industy I know how the games that are played.

I am reminded about the joke on hot dogs. There are some questions one does not ask much less have answered ... such as what goes into hot dogs.

"These news companies hide behind the US constitution and think they can say and do anything they please." Do a bit of research on the Beef Industry's legal action against Oprah. Every time I hear 'we'll file suit' I'm reminded that discovery can be a bear. Also look up the legal principals of SLAP actions. Which by design can get expensive.

"These news companies hide behind the US constitution" any time there is an effort to hide information for any reason my ears twitch.

WeThePeople are not mushrooms to be fed B* and kept in the dark.

Well, that is the paranoid view. I still happen to believe in innocent until proven guilty.

How many have died or become sick from the "pink slime" phenomenon?

"dbu""

How may times do you require for an individual, induty or an agency to be proven guilty before the point of 'that's enough' is exceeded?

As to how many have died or become sick no one knows but I for one don't want to eat any thing that was washed in ammonia to kill pathogens such as e-coli.

Comes down to knowing what's in what you eat and drink, where it came from and what you feed to your kids.

Some eat animal testacies with relish, others won't. Labeling the dish mountain oysters or some other euphemism without a clear label/notice won't cut it. In part that's called informed consent.

BTW such games (people *were* dying) are one of the reason for the Pure Food and Drug Act.

As a foster parent I deal with kids that have immune disorders and other problems that are complicated by reactions to food and food additives. There is noting like fast trip to the ER with a kid that's in anaphylactic shock and unable to breath to get your heart pumping.

If you've never had the experience ... don't try it as you *won't* like it.

The reality is you never know how close 'almost didn't make it' comes until it's too late.

As a person who has had farm raised beef slaughtered and processed by an Amish butcher, I can tell you that ALL store purchased beef may be safe, but doesn't taste anywhere near as good.

The polystyrene trays of hamburger do taste better than the "pink slime" that comes in the 3/5/10LB tubes, but still pales in comparison to small farm raised, mostly grass fed beef.

Details: Pair of cattle fed a 5 gallon bucked of shelled corn a day, plus a steady supply of grass hay bales. Amish butcher still uses no grid electricity, refrigeration is by Diesel engines driving open drive refrigerant compressors.