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villakram

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Posts posted by villakram

  1. Huge drug problem in Chicago right now, with Heroin making a particularly nasty comeback. It's the primary Mexican/SA distribution center for the entire midwest. Mix this in with the insane opiod abuse and meth/hash etc. and the amount of $$ to be made are frightening.

    It's really tough to see anything happening over here. When those kids were executed in Sandy Hook and absolutely nothing was done about it...

     

     

     

  2. It's a little more nuanced than the PR spin. They have not found flowing water!

    Science guy talks to media relations guy who then creates article for the general public, which all to often means things get lost in translation, and or NASA has a tendency to big up things... it's cool, but hold your horses.

    They have found salts that appear to be linked to the creation dynamically changing channels in the soil on a seasonal basis, which are consistent with originating in a fluid flow, most likely waterish. Now, the question is where does the water come from (i) sub surface ice melting seasonally or (ii) condensing in some fashion from the atmosphere seasonally. Fun times ahead!

     

     

     

  3. A week since my last run (leg injury) ....I feel like shite like I have put on 2 stone :( ....been looking at some second hand gps watches as I dropped my phone a few times on the last outing the garmin 305 looks like a good allrounder cheap enough and had the virtual runner & training programs on the watch ...only thing is its bulky ....another one was the nike tomtom ....more stylish but a bit more expensive ....any thoughts other than the I just run to run guys :P

    TomTom are launching a new version of their runner cardio soon (adding mp3 player w/ bt streaming), so keep an eye out for the current version going on sale. I have it and love it, does gps, time and HR which is all I'm interested in.

    Otherwise check out dcrainmaker's website, he has a really good and honest review section on gps watches so you'll know which ones to avoid at least!

     

    • Like 1
  4. Peer group pressure is more powerful than the desire to 'better oneself'.

    I'm interested in Britain's benefits system. I worked for the old DSS at a JobCentre in London for a while before I started in the newspapers in London, and it always struck me as rather benign compared to the States' "safety net", which is far different and much much less generous.

    But I definitely saw a darker side in the UK, too -- an entrenched benefits subculture in north London, and it wasn't pretty -- yet it somehow seemed happier to me than the US version. There WAS a lot of mental illness, substance abuse, and a seemingly internalised lack of ambition -- people who maybe once had a desire to work but lacked self-belief to such an extent they would continually shoot themselves in the foot when on the verge of a better life.

    Another dimension in the UK are vestiges and shadows of the old class system. It may be mostly gone in name, but it persists within the English mind, and it really must be smashed forever.  

    [Add lots of guns and racism, and an even deeper hopelessness, and you get the US version, by the way.]

    I like Mooney's point but you gotta have those healthy peers do, and where do they come from?

    There are class systems everywhere. It's simply propaganda telling us we're all equal and in the same club that has us believe that there is none, for example, in the US and it's almost gone from the UK, if we could just get rid of Lord & Lady rascals.

    • Like 2
  5. oh looky here, how very surprising...

    "Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show the three countries lobbied the European commission to keep loopholes in car tests that would increase real world carbon dioxide emissions by 14% above those claimed."

    That would be blighty, frogland and ze germans!

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/24/uk-france-and-germany-lobbied-for-flawed-car-emissions-tests-documents-reveal

    It appears rules are only for us regular folk... same as it ever was!

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  6. I was watching a video on Guy Martin not long ago and as we all know he's a lorry mechanic.

    He said that to meet emission regulations lorries now use more fuel.

    So it is possible that there may be a cost in fuel efficiency when NOx levels are reduced.

    At some point someone will identify the forces which led to the present outcome.

     

    -->  $  <--

    same as it ever was!

  7. What about the mpg rating on cars versus the real world. Especially with regards to the monstrous things they drive over here, this kind of fudging is endemic to this industry. With all the electronics and engine mapping tech available these days, I suspect that every company (w/ complicit regulators) is up to this to some degree.

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