Politics and religion.

[Karen]

Okay, just got an email asking me to sign the "People versus Carbon" petition! Hello? Hello? Anyone home? Um, we humans (and most life on earth) are partially made up of Carbon - did a quick Google, and we are about 18% Carbon - not really something we can be opposed to and live, anyway!

[Cataholic]

Okay, just got an email asking me to sign the "People versus Carbon" petition! Hello? Hello? Anyone home? Um, we humans (and most life on earth) are partially made up of Carbon - did a quick Google, and we are about 18% Carbon - not really something we can be opposed to and live, anyway!

Really? That was what you took away from the petition? That if one opposes carbon, the human species dies? So, we need iron...OK to drop a ton of it in your yard/neighborhood and let it sit there?

I think the petition speaks more to atmospheric carbon, pollution and the stricter monitoring of coal/oil production. The local coal plant here is shutting down half its operation, as it won't be able to financially work the re-structuring necessary to address the nasty pollution.

[Karen]

Really? That was what you took away from the petition? That if one opposes carbon, the human species dies? So, we need iron...OK to drop a ton of it in your yard/neighborhood and let it sit there?

I think the petition speaks more to atmospheric carbon, pollution and the stricter monitoring of coal/oil production. The local coal plant here is shutting down half its operation, as it won't be able to financially work the re-structuring necessary to address the nasty pollution.

I knew they mean they oppose the burning of fossil fuels, and carbon emissions just thought the title of it was absurd! Glad for you your local coal plant is at least shutting down half its production/pollution, there are scrubbers, etc., that could be installed of course (Dad was a stationary engineer) but that does cost money to build and maintain ...

And thanks, we have a bunch of iron here - cars, including mine park outside! And of course, iron-y happens sometimes anyway!

[Lady's Human]

The output from the scrubbers is epa regulated, and it's no longer easily disposed of, which adds to the expense and complicates planning of implementing scrubber technology.

One question:

The elimination or restriction of coal use would eliminate 40% of the power currently used in the United States. Where are we going to make up the difference?

Solar and wind are weather dependent, and the backup batteries which would be required for grid redundancy with the heavy use of those technologies are REALLY environmentally nasty, both in production, which require massive amounts of strip mining, and use, as an industrial-sized battery would require some special provisions. In addition, the production of the generators for wind turbines also require massive amounts of strip mining.

Nuclear energy production has been hamstrung in the US by lawsuits and scare tactics, and the sole proposal for a workable nuclear waste storage site has been stuck in gridlock.

Natural gas production is being fought tooth and nail.

Where would you propose we acquire new energy sources?

[cassiesmom]

What's wrong with this picture? Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner's daughter was admitted to Walter Payton College Prep, a Chicago selective admission high school, even though the family lives in the suburbs, specifically tony Winnetka. What's up with that? And then, when she was initially declined for admission and then accepted - using an as yet undisclosed Chicago address - the Rauner Family Foundation made a donation of $250,000 to the Payton Prep Initiative for Education. This doesn't look good. This is the same candidate who said he wanted to decrease the state minimum wage from $8.25 to $7.25 an hour to make Illinois more competitive with other states. That went over like a ton of bricks, so he quickly reversed his position on the minimum wage in Illinois and said it should be increased. Illinois politics are so weird.

[Lady's Human]

So would that make the governor wannabe the Big Noise from Winnetka?

[cassiesmom]

So would that make the governor wannabe the Big Noise from Winnetka?

I think he would like to be the Big Noise from Winnetka. His campaign seemed to start out as "I'm a businessman, not a politician" but he's a lot more wealthy than the average businessman.

[Lady's Human]

I wonder what the Ukranian term for Anschluss is?