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High Plains Drifter

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Posts posted by High Plains Drifter

  1. 38 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    In what world?  Ummm, in the world where the court applied a long-standing and recognized legal standard (the "entire fairness test"), finding - based on specific facts - that Musk functionally controlled Tesla and the grant-approval process, and further made specific reasonable and supported factual findings that the shareholders were not fully informed because of misleading statements and omissions in the relevant proxy statement.  It doesn't matter what percentage of shareholders approve of something if that something was predicated on lies of both commission and omission.  That's the law pretty much wherever you go.

    So....that world.  A world where legal standards and evidence rule the day.  

    Yes.  We know that our oligarchs HATE that world, because it brings them down to the level of the rest of us peons who have to follow the law.  Elon and his fanbois HATE this image of justice:

    shutterstock_1420924517-scaled-e16346709

     

     

    needs to throw a weekly cheeseburger into the salad and avocado toast diet. 

     

    still wood tho. 

  2. On 2/28/2024 at 6:11 PM, Brisketexan said:

    They can't just let THIS fire burn, it's too big, mean, and destructive.  You have to contain it if possible.

    Now, they should probably look at being more aggressive about controlled burns in the panhandle going forward, but that's a separate path.

     

    I'm going to remove my reply to this thread, because the other thread seems to be more for other things. I'll spoiler the tldr part.

    Spoiler

    For two years I worked for the Nature Conservancy- a massive nonprofit that works to restore degraded ecosystems to their natural (more or less anyway) state. They try and focus on unique or special or uncommon ecosystems, areas, whatever. There are some legitimate complaints about the organization, but they do good work. Some decades ago they bought (or had donated in some cases) some former ranchland from a number of different ranches. This land had been mismanaged for over a century by the ranching landowners. We started trying to restore the land. First priority was get the burn danger down, by doing controlled burns whenever possible (almost impossible because of state, local, and even federal pushback) or just getting out the chainsaws and clearing brush. 

    About a year after I started, a pretty big fire (although small by the standards of the current one) was started by lightning, quickly spread, and in a day was burning large areas of the Conservancy's land. They decided to let it burn (despite huge protests of donors, adjacent landowners, volunteers) working only to save the visitor center, the on-site house of the caretaker that lived there, and a few other buildings. I worked for two days on crews digging, chainsawing, bulldozing a fire break around those structures. None burned, other than one old well house, despite the fire getting to withing maybe 50 ft of the visitor center.  Thousands of acres of the property did burn, including grasslands and forested areas. We eventually had to evacuate due to the smoke becoming too thick, or we probably could have saved the well house also. 

    Neighboring ranchers called in the state forest service (who to their credit give help us dig our firebreaks), who helped to completely extinguish any spark that ended up on their land. Very minimal acreage of land on the neighboring ranches burned. Great success!

     

    <*At least some of this population increase is due to birds locally migrating to the burned area due to the fire improving their habitat: More bugs to eat, more seeds to eat, healthier grass to hide in, etc. Whatever the reason, the point stands.>

     

     

    Flash forward one year: 

    The area around the visitor center, which had been a grassy field before the fire, was back to being a grassy field with wild flowers, butterflies, ground nesting birds, absolutely idyllic looking. 

    When comparing areas that had burned to nearby ranchers' fields that had not burned, the difference was stark: lush green fields vs brown pasture. 

    Also, by a fortuitous set of circumstances, somebody had done an intensive bird census of ground nesting birds in the area a few years before the fire. Two years after the fire, we replicated that study using the exact same methodology. The population of ground nesting birds (quail mostly) was greater than it had been a few years before the fire*. And this is all despite the fact that during the entire intervening four or five years (two or three years before the fire, two years after the fire) the area had been under serious drought conditions. I have no doubt that if similar studies had been done, the same thing would have been found for arthropods, small mammals, reptiles, herbivores, large predators, etc. 

    I don't want people or houses to burn. I don't want cattle to burn. By all means, save what can be saved structure and livestock wise. What I do want is for people to wake the fuck up, and realize that burning is a good thing, its what is supposed to happen, and it is going to happen no matter what we do. All we can do is choose how the burning happens. And we need to consider that when we use the land for any purpose (living, ranching, farming, hunting, recreation, whatever). If we don't, we will have what is happening right now happen again and again and again. 

    Nature is telling us to rip the band aid off, and let it burn, like we should have been doing for the past 100+  years. Then when we rebuild, lets rebuild in a way that acknowledges that there will be fires again in the future. And be prepared for them. And be good stewards of the land in the meantime. 

     

    Point is, and the reason I quoted your post and not any of the others-- the attitude that this fire is "too big, too mean, too destructive" to not put out is exactly why this fire is happening. 

     

    Shit's on fire yo. 

    Good.gif

     

     

     

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  3. 18 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

     

    Yep.  Honestly, that doesn't break my heart at all.  It's open land, doing what open land does: periodically burn, so that the cycle can go on.  Hell, much of that brush you see charred won't even die.  I've seen land look like that, and within 90 days, be greener than ever before, and in 2-3 years, look better than it ever did in my memory.  There are no lost structures or property in that photo, so that's really good -- that would make my heart ache (see the pictures of the rubble of multiple burned homes -- that sucks).

    That's actually nature and fire doing what they do, and it's actually pretty damned amazing and even pretty in its own way.  I've seen a lot of burned land in my day, and except when I see it destroy acres upon acres of mature trees (see Bastrop) or a good number of structures (see Oakland, Bastrop, etc.), I see it as a part of a pretty amazing natural cycle.  Next rain, there will be fresh green shoots pushing up, because the fire cleared the way.

     

    Yeah, those yucca plants aren't dead. 

  4. 1 minute ago, texasdago said:

    I'm sorry... for clarification?  You saying burn Waco or include Austin in that?  

     

    Just a joke. Trying to bring a little levity to a sad situation. Commenting on how shitty the sprawl along the highway is. And how shitty Waco is. Don't overthink it. 

  5. 23 hours ago, PTINS said:

    That video is brutal to watch, the fire spreading eastward with the prevailing winds, and then the cold front sweeping down across the plains from the north. 

    FYI, a million acres is equivalent to a ~ 1,550 square miles, or an 8 mile wide strip along I35 from Austin to Dallas, or this:

    image.thumb.png.5c0c49739ad373688813b86b3d6a5b79.png

     

    Pray for help from Mother Nature.

     

    I say we burn that instead. Maybe make it a little wider through Waco. 

     

     

     

     

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  6. On 1/12/2023 at 12:26 PM, ztejas said:

    The first question I'd ask would be why do a bunch of 16 year olds feel like they need (and are willing) to do percocet? Even when they know it might kill them. 

     

    Uh, just spit-balling here, but maybe because they are teenagers?

  7. 25 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

    you cherry picked from that article you linked.  yes there were market cap milestones-  about a dozen of them, but there were also several dozen OTHER milestones that were specifically designed to be independent factors not related to market cap-  important things like revenue targets, profit targets, income targets, specifically designed by the board, whom you claim to be musk cronies, to ensure the healthy growth of the company.  at the time these were negotiated CEO manipulation of stock price was already a concern.  the board's negotiation of these factors in the contract was seen as a moonshot scenario that almost everyone on the street mocked them for, our trading group included.  we've spent lots of time looking at TSLA over the years and this was one of the most outlandish scenarios we'd ever come across.  this was a most unfair ruling spurred by political interests. 

     

    lol unfair

     

     

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  8. On 2/28/2024 at 12:10 PM, bolverk said:

    Look at this chart of global sea surface temps. In 2016, temps, while very warm, followed historical patterns. Shit went off the rails in 2023 and continues to do so today.

    image.png.426622d1d575ae75483ef4a65e62b4ed.png 

     

    Scientists Are Freaking Out About Ocean Temperatures

    From his office at the University of Miami, Brian McNoldy, an expert in hurricane formation, is tracking the latest temperature data from the North Atlantic with a mixture of concern and bewilderment.

    For the past year, oceans around the world have been substantially warmer than usual. Last month was the hottest January on record in the world’s oceans, and temperatures have continued to rise since then. The heat wave has been especially pronounced in the North Atlantic.

    “The North Atlantic has been record-breakingly warm for almost a year now,” McNoldy said. “It’s just astonishing. Like, it doesn’t seem real.”

    Across the unusually warm Atlantic, in Cambridge, England, Rob Larter, a marine scientist who tracks polar ice levels, is equally perplexed.

    “It’s quite scary, partly because I’m not hearing any scientists that have a convincing explanation of why it is we’ve got such a departure,” he said. “We’re used to having a fairly good handle on things. But the impression at the moment is that things have gone further and faster than we expected. That’s an uncomfortable place as a scientist to be.”

    Spin the globe to the south, and the situation is similarly dire.

    “The sea ice around the Antarctic is just not growing,” said Matthew England, a professor at the University of New South Wales who studies ocean currents. “The temperature’s just going off the charts. It’s like an omen of the future.”

    What’s driving the heat?
    Global warming, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, has been driving up global temperatures on land and in the sea for decades now. Over the past year, worldwide average temperatures were more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than before the industrial age. New data from a variety of sources has led some climate scientists to suggest that global warming is accelerating.

    Given the overall warming trend, higher temperatures in the oceans aren’t a complete surprise. Oceans absorb most of the additional heat that greenhouse gasses trap near the surface of the Earth, and have been steadily warming for years. The current El Niño weather cycle is also leading to additional heat in the Pacific Ocean and allowing more energy to be released into the atmosphere.

    Yet the past year has come as a shock even to those who follow the data closely.

    “We all know that there’s been a rapid warming, particularly over the last few decades,” Larter said. “But over the last 18 months, it’s jumped up beyond what we expected.”

    Scientists are offering a range of explanations for the record heat in the North Atlantic.

    One surprising factor may be a reduction in pollution in the area. In 2020, a new rule went into effect that limited the amount of sulfur dioxide contained in the fuel used by container ships. That has reduced the amount of particulate matter in the air, which let in more solar radiation and contributed to global warming.

    “When those aerosols were in the sky above the shipping lanes, they helped create a cloud cover, and there’s much less now,” McNoldy said. “That’s a legitimate thing.”

    But the reduction of sulfur dioxide alone can’t explain the North Atlantic’s extreme heat, scientists said.

    Another factor may be the complex feedback loops in the Earth’s weather patterns. The North Atlantic has been unusually clear lately, with fewer clouds than normal to block the sunlight from heating the water. The area has also been less windy than normal, which may have also led to a spike in temperatures.

    Without strong winds, colder water from deeper in the ocean doesn’t rise to the surface as readily, England said.

    What comes next
    In the near term, McNoldy said the warmer waters in The Atlantic could fuel a strong and lengthy hurricane season.

    “Compared to other fairly significant hurricane seasons, this is way warmer at this point in the year,” he said.

    The marine heat is also expected to reduce Arctic sea ice, Larter said.

    “What’s bad news for sea ice has a lot of knock-on effects,” he said. “The formation of sea ice is the process that really drives a lot of the ocean’s circulation. And if the overturning circulation slows down, that really has climate impacts across the world.”

    Recent research has suggested that as glaciers melt and more fresh water enters the Atlantic, a crucial ocean current could falter, potentially leading to drastic changes in global weather patterns, such as a rapid reduction in temperatures across Europe.

    McNoldy said it was too early to say whether the ongoing heat wave is part of the early stages of such a change. “I hope it’s not something much worse, like, you know, like some significant change in the ocean current,” he said. “That would have far greater implications.”

     

    in the early/mid 80s, (good god nearly 40 years ago) I had to take a science class outside of my major, so I took a class on climate modeling or something. The professor not only warned of global warming due to human burning of fossil fuels, but predicted this exact same scenario as a consequence, (in addition to more frequent and worse extreme weather events, sea level rise, etc.) 40 fucking years ago.  4 decades and not a gotdamned thing has been done. 

    • Rage+1 1
  9. On 2/27/2024 at 12:49 PM, Brisketexan said:

    Our first home was built in 1957.  When I pointed out that clause in our original deed documents (still part of the transfer docs), my wife's jaw dropped.   Some states have actually passed legislation making those void.  But others....have not.  And when Uncle Clarence and crew finally get around to voiding THAT SCOTUS decision, not only will it be back live and active, but it will actually PROHIBIT you from selling your house to @Slacks, for example.

     

    I don't want to live in a world where I am required to sell my house to somebody wearing grey slacks. 

     

     

  10. 8 minutes ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

    i keep coming back to the order granting cert that said "answer the question of whether criminal liability can attach to official acts in office."

    to me, that says that the opinion will come out answering the question yes or no (imo, no).  but what it won't answer is whether his acts were official acts.  that means we have another round of argument at the court to determine that (and appeals there).  i think that second issue will be what pushes trial beyond the election.

     

    which is a win for dOTarD. Any delay is a win. Which is why they granted cert. 

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  11. 6 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

     

    “he said i hit him?”

    ”yeah, it’s on video.”

    every vehicle in america should come standard with interior/exterior cams at this point. this dude is fortunate he had one.

     

    Suspended five days? Should have been charged with assault. 

     

     

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