Faustus

Then I take it you have no place I or others can go to verify claims of peer review?

Melvadius, Since you have made that statement, have you verified the peer review of the scientific findings? Would you please look at these two items and see if there is any conflict between the claim of "peer review" and these items? I'm not informed as to how I might find some actual proof of that claim, and I would like to be able to do so to the extent I able. ITEM ONE "Peer Review? What Peer Review?" ITEM TWO "Summary for Policy Makers - PDF" How does the claim of peer review stand up to this information? Have you seen any verification of that claim prior to this time? If I have missed some 'particular' posted here at the forum up to this point please just provide a link if you will. For those interested here is a quote from the first part of ITEM ONE Faustus

I'm with you on that. As a builder, I would give up the 'clean' inside work, giving it to a junior man to be in a ditch, even when it was only to "muck-it-out". Most people have no idea of the strategies involved with a laborer's work: How to 'pitch' a shovel load most effectively, even where to throw it, the leverage involved without snapping off a handle, how to chip out a rock, and how to do all that without extreme fatigue, and damaging body parts. And then there's the strategy of putting pipe together in the grimy tight quarters of a ditch; not quite the no brainer you called it, though.

The study of 'Glaciology' tells us that these cycles are ongoing and extreme and have a 'sine wave' resemblance to them, and that they can be expected to repeat themselves into the future as they have in the past. With all due respect and in my once again humble opinion of recent

Gaius, If it comes down to your rhetorical or literary skills, versus mine, or even to your understanding of free markets versus mine, I

I would only answer by asking in response: did you read it or just dismiss it out of hand as more twaddle? Define free markets? I'll work on that, but at this point I'll just say that I've pretty much worked in a local free market, somewhat modified, for the past 40 years, and have seen both the benefits of doing so by having to compete, and the consequences of government interference through regulation and taxation. I might have to fall back and paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart

The Standard UK Government (and EU) view is that the cost of reducing emissions is actually cheaper than trying to adapt afterwards. The May 2007 UK White Paper on Energy cited the Stern Review on the economics of climate change (pg 25) as estimating that the "cost of not taking action could be the equivalent of losing between 5 and 20% of annual global GDP wheras the cost of taking action can be limited to around 1% of annual global GDP, if the world pursues the optimum policies." I should point out that the 5 to 20% GDP cost would not be a one off it would run over an unspecifiable but significant number of years with the same annual costs as power plants and general infrastructure were redesigned and rebuilt to take account of rising sea levels, loss of agricultural and commercial land, changes in weather patterns, etc, etc. IMHO we should be asking the question: What should the policy/action to be taken be? Can the free market solve the problem, or the bludgeoning hand of 'World Government" be applied? A look at how several countries are doing might be helpful. Take a look at AN INCONVENIENT REDUCTION. If that doesn't work for you say so and I'll put up text. Also there are some excellent 'links' at the bottom of the page once there.

I connect with that one too. Perhaps it comes from that feeling of, or desire to be alone with oneself; A wintry scene, more than any other gives that lonely feeling, and of surviving in the face of danger. Understood, It was a rhetorical question. The title of the topic was too: Why not poetry? Your comments are well taken Spittle, and make the topic more fun. See what you think of this one written by EA POE: ELDORADO Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of Eldorado. But he grew old- This knight so bold- And o'er his heart a shadow Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado. And, as his strength Failed him at length, He met a pilgrim shadow- "Shadow," said he, "Where can it be- This land of Eldorado?" "Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied- "If you seek for Eldorado!" THE END

Right you are Gaiuss, and the air and water have been improving in this country. That's been established by the record. I can provide links on that. Wealthy capitalistic democracies tend to enforce the necessary disciplines that dictatorships with command economies don't concern themselves with (Chernobyl for an example), but aside from that I'd like to swerve into something that has dominated the History channel, as it and the Weather channel often do all day on a Sunday: Tell us about our eminent catastrophic destruction. Here are some past events which may be informative: Jonestown, The Mayan Calendar

Questions: [units formed for specialist purposes] After the creation of a permanent Roman NAVY, wouldn

In one instance the value or of an Imperial Navy to Rome might be measured in the importance given to, first, making Britain a Roman province, and then in maintaining it as one. The last connectivity of Britain to Rome was through their naval lines of communication, even as the empire fell. The last places in Briton to consider themselves

I think it

(Hammer ~ Mark Turpin) Before Groundbreak Off work and going upslope for a look I left the plans, to see the view their money bought, weighted with a rock, and trampled a path of parted weeds past pampas, nettles, poison oak bristling in the breeze, a weathered 2x4 nailed high up in a cedar

I

Thanks Nephele. I've always wanted a Muse. I like it. It fits, it really does! And I've always had a fondness for Petula Clark; and Yearwoode? What could be more fitting! See the following: Evolution ~ (Langdon Smith) When you were a tadpole and I was a fish In the Paleozoic time, And side by side on the ebbing tide We sprawled through the ooze and slime, Or skittered with many a caudal flip Through the depths of the Cambrian fen, My heart was rife with the joy of life, For I loved you even then. Mindless we lived and mindless we loved And mindless at last we died; And deep in the rift of the Caradoc drift We slumbered side by side. The world turned on in the lathe of time, The hot lands heaved amain, Till we caught our breath from the womb of death And crept into light again. We were amphibians, scaled and tailed, And drab as a dead man's hand; We coiled at ease 'neath the dripping trees Or trailed through the mud and sand. Croaking and blind, with our three-clawed feet Writing a language dumb, With never a spark in the empty dark To hint at a life to come. Yet happy we lived and happy we loved, And happy we died once more; Our forms were rolled in the clinging mold Of a Neocomian shore. The eons came and the eons fled And the sleep that wrapped us fast Was riven away in the newer day And the night of death was past. Then light and swift through the jungle trees We swung in our airy flights, Or breathed in the balms of the fronded palms In the hush of the moonless nights; And oh! what beautiful years were there When our hearts clung each to each; When life was filled and our senses thrilled In the first faint dawn of speech. Thus life by life and love by love We passed through the cycles strange, And breath by breath and death by death We followed the chain of change. Till there came a time in the law of life When over the nursing side The shadows broke and the soul awoke In a strange, dim dream of God. I was thewed like an Auroch bull And tusked like the great cave bear; And you, my sweet, from head to feet Were gowned in your glorious hair. Deep in the gloom of a fireless cave, When the night fell o'er the plain And the moon hung red o'er the river bed We mumbled the bones of the slain. I flaked a flint to a cutting edge And shaped it with brutish craft; I broke a shank from the woodland lank And fitted it, head and haft; Then I hid me close to the reedy tarn, Where the mammoth came to drink; Through the brawn and bone I drove the stone And slew him upon the brink. Loud I howled through the moonlit wastes, Loud answered our kith and kin; From west to east to the crimson feast The clan came tramping in. O'er joint and gristle and padded hoof We fought and clawed and tore, And cheek by jowl with many a growl We talked the marvel o'er. I carved that fight on a reindeer bone With rude and hairy hand; I pictured his fall on the cavern wall That men might understand. For we lived by blood and the right of might Ere human laws were drawn, And the age of sin did not begin Till our brutal tush was gone. And that was a million years ago In a time that no man knows; Yet here tonight in the mellow light We sit at Delmonico's. Your eyes are deep as the Devon springs, Your hair is dark as jet, Your years are few, your life is new, Your soul untried, and yet -- Our trail is on the Kimmeridge clay And the scarp of the Purbeck flags; We have left our bones in the Bagshot stones And deep in the Coralline crags; Our love is old, our lives are old, And death shall come amain; Should it come today, what man may say We shall not live again? God wrought our souls from the Tremadoc beds And furnished them wings to fly; He sowed our spawn in the world's dim dawn, And I know that I shall not die, Though cities have sprung above the graves Where the crook-bone men make war And the oxwain creaks o'er the buried caves Where the mummied mammoths are. Then as we linger at luncheon here O'er many a dainty dish, Let us drink anew to the time when you Were a tadpole and I was a fish. Faustus ---------------

I for do, for one. Take a look, and tell me your answer.

Salve - This, then, is intended to be a companion topic to the other two:

Salve- I came across this Roman wall with a blind arch some time back while drafting a post on Rome

THE COUNTRYSIDE (From: Roman Britain- ch. three) Sacred Groves, Tombs, and Cemeteries Sacred groves are archaeologically unresponsive, though the planning of many temple enclosures seems to imply their existence. But place-names in Britain indicate a very few of the many there must have been. The Celtic word for such a spot was nemeton, which is explained in an ancient glossary as meaning, in the plural, sacra silvarum

Sorry if I've been misunderstood by anyone, I for one am way too old to benefit directly from any President in the future, though I

Excellent PP I Stand by my earlier post. Not intended for you PP, but hopefully people will abandon idealism and just act in their own best interest. One more comment to all. Being informed in an unbiased fashion can remove some of the idealism which is counter productive. I suggest people pay attention to various news outlets even if they feel 'put off' by that idea. I for one listen to speeches by all. I would never miss a policy speech by W. Clinton in his day though I thought he was little more than a master politician in the Roman style, but a historian. By that same token how many can say they never missed a speech by Newt Gingrich, a master of political thought and a historian? Could a tendency to pay attention to one and not the other be an indication of a "Lemming syndrome"? To those who provide links to the NY Times, PM me and I will provide links to the Wall St journal on any editorial subject of their interest. All I'm saying is get all points of view. Please see my first post and the link - EDIT: A POLL ON MOST TRUSTED NEWS OUTLETS. There's a reason viewers have transferred their reliance for even handed political coverage even over the span of a single year. Faustus

I hope not to interrupt the flow of discussion here to interject a personal point of view: I subscribe to Theory number two. Having a full scale model before the observer relieves one of having to struggle between competing theories, it seems to me. When approaching Nashville's Parthenon, something I had waited decades to do, I was amazed at the features being discussed. I felt I knew the reasons for the "accentuations" immediately visible as seen from the long view. I have a "carpenter's eye" for the kinds of alignments mentioned and my first 30 minutes walking around the building were spent in analysis. Most of the things mentioned I was prepared to take for granted, but when sighting down the

Another issue in the Michigan primary is that it is an open primary. Anyone can vote for anyone regardless of party affiliation. Typically speaking, this wouldn't be a problem as most people tend to vote in the primary that means more to them anyway, but because Michigan moved up our primary on the calendar, the DNC penalized the state by taking away the democratic delegates. Essentially, the Democratic primary is meaningless. The result is that many Democrats will cross over and will vote for the Republican candidate. McCain will gain a great deal more votes from independents and disenfranchised democrats than Romney will. Wanna Bet? (rhetorically speaking of course) January 15, we will find out. These Dems are 'disenfranchised' and their vote rendered imeaningless because of democratic political finagaling. We can have some fun with Michigan. Here's a chance for Dems to stay home or go on out and symbollically 'affirm' HRC ( as she's still on the ballot but no other D is. - I'm sure the walking 0rders have gone out to the party's most faithful but to do what?) So why and which R. would DisDs and Inds vote for? And why? McCain in order to help nominate a weaker R? McCain because they support his and by extension the president's Iraq policy? McCain because they don't sufficiently care about economic policies and given a chance act as spoiler? Other? Romney because he would be in their best interest economically (his record as governor supports that) Romney because he has shown himself capable of reaching agreement with all sides in a very lib state? Romney because he is most beatable vis-a-vis religion? Other? (how would you add to these other lists?) Legacy: Evan Bayh was elected Gov. in Indiana, many Hoosiers think, because of residual legacy of his father Birch Bayh; oh. . . and his good looks (could good looks ever play a role?) Granholm, Levin, and Stabenow: Now shouldn't that trio give pause to any Michigander to act in their own best interest rather than as spoiler? I believe there is a fair mix, and the disparate parts of the equation will cancel each other out with little net impact. The good part is that we don't have to wait long to find out. This is the first real 'issue' contest. With S. Carolina we return to 'identity politics' again.

Don't give Romney too much popularity in Michigan. Despite his connections to the state and the fact that McCain is a supporter of automobile mileage regulations that will continue to press the auto industry, McCain is still leading in the polls. Either our population is quite stupid (which I don't doubt) or Romney is simply too unlikeable (much like former Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick Devos). Mitt Romney will give a speech this afternoon at the Detroit Economic Club (Vew on C-SPAN I believe or see a repeat on the weekend)