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[Solifuge]

I still find it weird that fracking is a contentious issue. S'like, there's millions and millions of dollars' worth of dino juice just sitting there, and you're going to ignore it over some unsubstantiated claims about the environment? Why.

Because environment?

Okay, serious answer. Fracking fluid either stays in the ground (poisoning groundwater) or evaporates (poisoning the air).

Additionally, though it may sound implausible at first, fracking has been directly implicated in a 430% increase in the incidence of mid-to-high (3 to 6) magnitude earthquakes in fracked areas, according to years of studies performed by the US Geological Survey. The process of fracking makes bedrock porous to release petroleum products, and destabilizing the bedrock leads to significant geological instability. And on the chemical note, fracking companies have used Trade Secret laws to dodge having to disclose the identities of over 2/3 of the chemicals involved in Fracking. Those that have been disclosed include a series of toxins designed to kill even the hardiest bacteria in order to preserve the equipment, several extremely caustic alkaline compounds that drive soil and water pH to extremely toxic levels, and a series of delightful inhalation and contact poisons. And who knows what's in the rest?

Earth is a complex system, and it turns out that hacking the bedrock apart rapidly to extract a short-term reward like fuel and natural gas has some unexpected consequences. If that money was invested in something like reducing the cost of manufacturing Infrared Rectifying Antennas, we could be powering everything that extracted fuel would have with 100%-efficiency solar capture that works night and day... and which rather than being consumed would lasts as long as the Sun does. But that's long-term thinking, and represents another discussion probably.

[Tiruin]

Current Mildsads...

I...think that's a big factor to it y'know. Even if you may not personally feel it--those personality characteristics do affect interaction, thus subconsciously influencing the things around you along with the feelings of camaraderie with other folks and stuff along social connections/bonds :O
It's something I had before, before I broke through it and actually could speak in public o_o So...probably take it with a grain of salt, but other than personal experience, I could find researches on these 'subtlefeelings that I don't think bothers me but may really be the reason?' for ya if you want :3
Related to the above...I should organize all them journal articles and pdf/edu articles I get! >~<
My laptoppy is soooo messy.

[itisnotlogical]

I momentarily forgot how to integrate a function and fucked up about half of my homework that's due in two and a half hours. At least I realized my mistake before I continued.

[Yoink]

Oh man, I was thinking of cooking mashed potatoes for dinner, but I'm lazy and quite hungry. I think I might use my free pizza voucher to get a pizza instead. The voucher expires in a couple of days, after all... although then again so do my potatoes, probably.

Sure I'll feel kinda bad for taking the easy option and being lazy, but, well, I am really hungry all of a sudden and potatoes mean a lot of work.

[Orange Wizard]

I'm glad someone other than me stepped into correct him.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only sane one around here.

I really need to step up my satire game

[Yoink]

I seem to be failing to pick up on satire a lot lately, so it might not be entirely your fault.
Then again, it probably is. Or maybe I've thought something was satire only to be shown otherwise one time too many...

[Baffler]

I'm glad someone other than me stepped into correct him.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only sane one around here.

I really need to step up my satire game

I've seen people IRL say the exact same things. I don't know if it's actually possible to out-nonsense the genuine article.

[i2amroy]

If that money was invested in something like reducing the cost of manufacturing Infrared Rectifying Antennas, we could be powering everything that extracted fuel would have with 100%-efficiency solar capture that works night and day... and which rather than being consumed would lasts as long as the Sun does. But that's long-term thinking, and represents another discussion probably.

You've sort of skimmed over the vast majority of problems with said antennae , such as:
1) Infrared gets absorbed by the atmosphere really well; optical would be much more likely to be the way to go, even factoring in the fact that it wouldn't work near as well at night.
2) Even our best estimates right now put the antennae eventually at the place of "less efficient than current solar cells, but cheaper per m² (not factoring in efficiency)".
3) These things are currently a pipe dream; we've manufactured a very small handful of them that are almost small enough in labs to actually function. We're nowhere near to being able to make them efficiently, even if you drowned all the researchers in money (For reference the goal length of a single antenna is less than a micrometer; that's a lot of antennas that we need to make to even fill a single m²).
4) Current efficiencies, due to a bevy of other problems with things like the capacitors avaliable, etc. are currently rocking at around 10^-5%. Normal solar panels are currently at around 15%, and are currently projected to always be more efficient.

Honestly at this point you'd be better off just dropping all that money into regular old solar power plants. (Of course this also doesn't address the fact that one of the major reasons we use gasoline nowdays isn't necessarily for it's efficiency, but rather for the fact that it's energy density is so high, which makes it very useful for things like vehicles, and modern batteries are just barely starting to catch up with it in the vehicle market, in which case you would want to dump the money into a combination of battery and nuclear energy research instead.)

[Yoink]

I think that pizza disagreed with me. Or maybe I just ate too much of it- I did have to force myself to eat the last slice or so.
Either way, my digestion is even more unpleasant than usual.

[itisnotlogical]

"Don't you ever want to get out and go do something?"
I do get out and do things, five days a week, it's called having a job and taking 13 credits.

Usually the implication is that I'm lazy, but this time it was just that I have no life. So that's a step up I guess.

EDIT:

Also, it's awfully hard to do the research for this assignment when all the articles I need are provided by databases, journals and universities that want $15 a month for papers that I will use once and then never look at again.

[Tawa]

I hate this cold. Not so much the occasional sniffling; it actually feels rather nice to blow all that crap out of my sinuses, to be honest; but my throat is scratchy and my voice sounds awful even though I feel fine. My voice will suddenly crack halfway through a sentence, my larynx just refuses to work once or twice a day... ugh. I hate talking to people like this.

[itisnotlogical]

There's four planned sequels to Avatar. AKA Pocahantas in Space, AKA Dances with Wolves 2: Electric Boogaloo, AKA The Last Samurai But Really Shitty And In The Future, AKA Gee What We Did To Native Americans Sure Was Rough.

I'm not opposed to a "greedy Europeans/Americans humans come to destroy the tribal blue space furry way of life" type of story. I love The Last Samurai and Dances With Wolves. However, Avatar was a really, really stupid take on that story. It was stupid and obvious, it threw out any historical pathos by making it about dumbass sentient trees (I'm still mad about that twist), and basically turned a perfectly valid narrative archetype into a white guilt trip.

But, because everybody oooh'd and aaah'd over the 3D, it made a lot of money and now it's going to become a franchise.

[Helgoland]

An unsuccessful one, though. People only oooh'd and aaaah'd about the 3D effects.

[Xantalos]

An unsuccessful one, though. People only oooh'd and aaaah'd about the 3D effects.

And Stephen Lang. Dude was the best part of that movie.

I'm rewatching Game of Thrones in preparation for season 6 coming out, and I've reached season 5.
Oh god it's so cringey why

[Furtuka]

https://twitter.com/neilhimself/status/720735039873359872

;_;

EDIT: DARNIT MEANT TO USE THE NORMAL SAD THREAD