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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on March 25, 2011, 10:12:05 AM

Title: Earth Hour
Post by: Ben on March 25, 2011, 10:12:05 AM
Dear APS,

Earth Hour 2011 is upon us. I encourage you all to participate in this important event. I myself am looking forward to it this year more than ever. Last year I only learned about it mere hours before it started. I barely had time to turn on all the lights and appliances in my home.

http://www.earthhourus.org/main.php
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Boomhauer on March 25, 2011, 10:21:03 AM
It's time for this *expletive deleted*it (Earth Hour, not the protest) again?

Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Declaration Day on March 25, 2011, 11:28:35 AM
Thanks for the heads up!  I'll have to see how much used motor oil I have for a nice big bonfire.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: vaskidmark on March 25, 2011, 11:56:27 AM
Just enough time to borrow my friend's V-8 powered pickup truck to run out to the illegal tire dump and get some stuff for the bonfire/cookout tomorrow.

I'm changing all the bulbs from 100-watt to 200-watt incandescent in honor of the event.

Would breaking a bunch of those murcury-filled flourescent bulbs be over the top?

stay safe.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Devonai on March 25, 2011, 12:01:26 PM
Those are all great ideas, but it seems to me that the only truly American thing to do is ignore it.  :P
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Declaration Day on March 25, 2011, 12:08:21 PM
Those are all great ideas, but it seems to me that the only truly American thing to do is ignore it.  :P

But, by turning on all of your lights and appliances, letting your car run and having a toxic bonfire, you alone can counteract the smug caused by a dozen hippies!

You can ignore it, or you can make a difference!   :lol:
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: vaskidmark on March 25, 2011, 02:48:36 PM
Those are all great ideas, but it seems to me that the only truly American thing to do is ignore it.  :P

It's my belief that the truely American thing to do is mock it until it dies of shame/embarassment.  America is the country of Manifest Destiny, the country that carved enough of the Earth to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific and then made a grocery store out of that feat, and aside from the indigenous inhabitants never invaded any other country unless we were attacked (assuming that you buy that "the business of America is business" thing), and the home of algore.  What else would such a country do?

stay safe.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: PTK on March 25, 2011, 02:54:16 PM
It's my belief that the truely American thing to do is mock it until it dies of shame/embarassment.

:lol:
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: cassandra and sara's daddy on March 25, 2011, 04:51:20 PM
i need to borrow a motor  i can only field 19 running motors and not one a v-8. i might have to un summerize the snowblower
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Perd Hapley on March 25, 2011, 04:56:31 PM
Those are all great ideas, but it seems to me that the only truly American thing to do is ignore it.  :P

No sir. In the spirit of tolerance, we need giant signs in our lawns, wishing everyone a Happy Earth Hour. These signs should be back-lit with incandescent bulbs, and powered by large gasoline generators.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Devonai on March 25, 2011, 05:01:24 PM
Meh, I was just trying to make a point about post-modern apathy.  I agree with the desire to fuel a bonfire with whale oil while barbecueing hamburgers with a hair dryer.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Boomhauer on March 25, 2011, 05:03:30 PM
I want to go rent a gigantic spotlight. You know, the kind that's on a trailer and has it's own large diesel genset.

Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: cassandra and sara's daddy on March 25, 2011, 05:28:17 PM
we need a floppy disk and styrofoam bonfire  with tires on top
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: MechAg94 on March 25, 2011, 05:55:52 PM
we need a floppy disk and styrofoam bonfire  with tires on top
Don't forget to have the fluorescent bulb shooting contest.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Fly320s on March 25, 2011, 06:00:19 PM
Meh, I was just trying to make a point about post-modern apathy.  I agree with the desire to fuel a bonfire with whale oil while barbecueing hamburgers with a hair dryer.
Make it pandaburgers and I'll be there!
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Jamisjockey on March 25, 2011, 06:08:30 PM
The generators should be fueled by burning hippys.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Lee on March 25, 2011, 06:37:10 PM
Every hour is Earth hour to me....especially if I'm paying for the juice.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Ben on March 25, 2011, 06:44:44 PM
Every hour is Earth hour to me....especially if I'm paying for the juice.

Exactly the point. :)

I generally don't waste power because, yeah, I'm paying the bill, waste not want not, etc., etc.

When someone gets holier than thou with me about it though, as if I can't figure things out for myself, I feel it's my duty to annoy the hell out of them. Especially when they're often the same people who traded in a perfectly good older car for a Prius, or buy tons of steel water bottles with fancy enviro sayings on them, or are otherwise engaged in "environmental consumption". :)
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: 230RN on March 25, 2011, 09:31:21 PM
You suppose we could trim it down to an "Earth Minute?"  I can stretch out pissing on a bush to green it up for a full minute, but a whole hour?  No way. Not even at my age.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Perd Hapley on March 25, 2011, 09:36:04 PM
You old people celebrate Earth Hour every day. It doesn't start til 8.30 pm, and you old folks are in bed with the lights out by then. Way to save the earf, old dudes!!
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: vaskidmark on March 25, 2011, 10:20:06 PM
You suppose we could trim it down to an "Earth Minute?"  I can stretch out pissing on a bush to green it up for a full minute, but a whole hour?  No way. Not even at my age.

One word solution -  LASIX (feurosemide in the generic form).

It's been discussed before.

An hour?  Easy.

stay safe.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Scout26 on March 25, 2011, 10:44:42 PM
One word solution -  LASIX (feurosemide in the generic form).

It's been discussed before.

An hour?  Easy.

stay safe.

Take some Metolazone and your kidney's will suck the spit out of your mouth.  While you chew the sandpaper that used to be your tongue, it'll feel like you'll spend the rest of your life standing over the john.

While eating whale oil barbarqued pandaburgers next to a roaring styrofoam/floppydisk/motoroil/tire fire would be nice, I think the way to truly celebrate Eurf Hour this year would be to ensure that no radioactivities es-cop-aid from the Fukushima nuke plant.  It would be simple to layer hippies over it and then encapsulate the whole thing in concrete. Momma Gaia-sha will thank you.  >:D
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: seeker_two on March 25, 2011, 10:53:07 PM
Great....I'm just now getting the memo....and there's not a baby seal in sight......  :facepalm:
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Scout26 on March 25, 2011, 11:03:48 PM
There's still time to top off the chainsaw and cut down a small forest to make the perfect toothpick!!!!
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Declaration Day on March 26, 2011, 11:30:42 AM
Damn, even YouTube is advertising Earth Hour. Click on the little light bulb at the top of the page. "Earth Hour- One person has the power to make change."

There's nothing at all hypocritical about the fact that Youtube thrives on technology that is 100% dependent on electricity and petrochemicals, right? The absurdity is mind-numbing......
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Ben on March 26, 2011, 01:13:13 PM
Heh, Doug Powers says it better than I can. :)

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/03/26/lighten-up-for-earth-hour/
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Boomhauer on March 26, 2011, 01:17:10 PM
Damn, even YouTube is advertising Earth Hour. Click on the little light bulb at the top of the page. "Earth Hour- One person has the power to make change."

There's nothing at all hypocritical about the fact that Youtube thrives on technology that is 100% dependent on electricity and petrochemicals, right? The absurdity is mind-numbing......

No, no, no, you don't understand...so long as they don't see how it's produced, it's free energy! Throw a few carbon credits in to buy some absolution, and it's A-OK!

Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Tallpine on March 26, 2011, 01:37:47 PM
I don't have any problem with respecting and protecting nature.

What I have a problem with is this silly stuff that people do to make themselves feel better while accomplishing nothing.  =(
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Perd Hapley on March 26, 2011, 05:29:04 PM
There's nothing at all hypocritical about the fact that Youtube thrives on technology that is 100% dependent on electricity and petrochemicals, [and most users are just wasting energy on fail videos and celebrity "tributes"] right?

Fixed that fer ya.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Declaration Day on March 26, 2011, 05:35:21 PM
My Earth Hour bonfire is ready to go.  One dead queen-size air mattress, one used truck tire, and a few gallons of used oil.   :lol:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v667/NorthwestLawn/downsize2.jpg)
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: BridgeRunner on March 26, 2011, 05:56:35 PM
I, for one, applaud D-Day's effort to rid the planet of a few of these anti-green atrocities.  That's the oily black cloud of mother earth love, right there, that's what that is.  =D
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: 230RN on March 26, 2011, 07:23:48 PM
I was kind of wondering what the power companies thought about all this "Earth Hour" stuff.

After all, they have a kind of regular schedule for bringing down their turbines and boilers and whatnot in anticipation of regular changes in demand.  And bringing them up again when demand increases

So all of a sudden at 8:30 in each time zone on one particular night the demand drops suddenly, then returns to normal in an hour.

Can these sudden changes be absorbed by the grid as a whole, or do individual local power companies suddenly have to take some turbines/generators off line, and then bring them up again?

Or do they just let the safety valves on the boilers "let go" for an hour?

My gut feeling is that the net effect of all this light-turning-out will be infinitesmal compared to the other overall constant demands on power, so as a practical matter, this here now "Earth Hour" is just another touchy-feely warm fuzzy alpropagandagore stunt.

That's what my guts feel.

Terry, 230RN
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Boomhauer on March 26, 2011, 07:33:38 PM
Quote
this here now "Earth Hour" is just another touchy-feely warm fuzzy alpropagandagore stunt.

That describes most of the enviroweenie bullshit.

It'd be cute and harmless and we could make fun of the stupid hippies...except the *expletive deleted*ers get in power and then force thier religion on the rest of us.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: TMM on March 26, 2011, 08:49:26 PM
and now youtube has a "light switch" that turns the background from white to black to remind us to turn our lights off! it's a real PIA because i hate the black background and it defaults to black with every movie you watch.... :mad:

i guess i'll go burn some tires.

tmm
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Perd Hapley on March 26, 2011, 11:51:49 PM
Due to global warming, I spent Earth Hour 2011 in a gas-guzzling Chevy 2500, plowing snow.

And THAT is how it's done.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: dm1333 on March 27, 2011, 01:15:37 AM
Why do you guys even care?  And why would you burn mattresses, old oil and other junk?  Just to piss of the neighbors who are down wind????  Given the chance I'm going to build either an earth ship or a straw bale house and give the finger to the utility company, but other than that I really don't give a damn!  So what if some environmentalists want to have Earth Hour, Earth Day or even Earth Year! 

Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: RocketMan on March 27, 2011, 01:45:43 AM
Wide screen TV showing DVR'd NASCAR race, three computers and two printers left on, lights on all over the house, ceiling fan running in my unoccupied office, soldering iron hot but unused on desk, fluorescent lights on over vegetable starts in the garage.  We've got our end covered.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: grislyatoms on March 27, 2011, 02:07:08 AM
Why do you guys even care?  And why would you burn mattresses, old oil and other junk?  Just to piss of the neighbors who are down wind????  Given the chance I'm going to build either an earth ship or a straw bale house and give the finger to the utility company, but other than that I really don't give a damn!  So what if some environmentalists want to have Earth Hour, Earth Day or even Earth Year! 
"alpropagandagore stunt". <<<snicker>>> They play their games, we play ours. (Thanks, Gunny Hardman, "FMJ")
Read some humor sometime!

And what is an "earth ship"?





Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Perd Hapley on March 27, 2011, 02:11:16 AM
Why do you guys even care?  And why would you burn mattresses, old oil and other junk?  Just to piss of the neighbors who are down wind????  Given the chance I'm going to build either an earth ship or a straw bale house and give the finger to the utility company, but other than that I really don't give a damn!  So what if some environmentalists want to have Earth Hour, Earth Day or even Earth Year! 

Because environmentalism has become a political and cultural war that has more to do with left-wing politics. Because we're tired of the guilt trips, alarm-ism and self-righteous smugitude.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: MicroBalrog on March 27, 2011, 06:55:18 AM
Environmentalism has long stopped being about the environment.

It has become a vehicle for anti-capitalist (not even leftist, just anti-capitalist).

For the last two centuries, capitalism, scientific and economic progress had - instead of coming to pieces in ever-expanding economical crises, like Marx predicted - made everybody in the world incredibly wealthy.

Economists estimate that the per-capita GDP in the United States in 1820 - already then one of the wealthiest countries in the world - stood at $1,257 per capita when translated into modern money. Today, the inhabitants of Lesotho are wealthier than this. The average Russian, Mexican, Kazakhstani is now orders of magnitude wealthier than the average American in the 1820's. The average per-capita income on the planet, according to the IMF, is $10,725.

And this is not even including wealth that cannot properly be measured with money. I am likely to live longer than the Americans of the Founding era. Thomas Jefferson, the most brilliant man on the North American continent in his lifetime, had owned 6700 books and donated them to the Library of Congress. There are now people who carry more books on their person. Next week I will go to Ireland. I will arrive within 8 hours, a time which includes spending 2 hours in Istanbul. I will travel in comfort that would be completely unimaginable even to the wealthiest men of 1820.

In short, capitalism in the general sense – the process of people buying and selling goods and engaging in the process of trade via the institutions of private property, investment, and banking – has succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of economists. Any sensible economist, even a Keynesian, believes now that the best way to ensure the greatest wealth and prosperity for the greatest number is to preserve this process at least in the general sense.

In a greater sense, Ayn Rand and Herbert Spencer were right. It turns out that the economy is not a zero-sum game. Money and resources are not re-allocated, they are made.

Neither did – like leftists predicted – capitalism lead to an intolerant, sexually-conservative bourgeois society. Nevada, San Francisco, Amsterdam are all products of capitalism and private property. Capitalism has led to the greatest liberalization of attitudes towards sex, political views, personal freedom known to the world.

But there are still people – mostly in the academic and para-academic world – that feel an inherent loathing of the capitalist system. They hate consumerism, they hate prosperity, they hate commercialization. They hate it for a variety of reasons – because a consumer can choose a book that the English Studies professor thinks is primitive, and his vote counts as much as the English studies professor's, because a consumer may reject the Film Studies' major's pathetic little student movie, because they've been taught by their environment to do so. There are great reasons they do it – but they all don't matter. Mises 'Anti-Capitalist Mentality' is the best document to read on this.

The important think to realize that the radical leftist hates you – and the modern radical leftist is worse than the Communist of the 1930's. The Communists at least believed in science, progress, dams, and medicine. They built DNEPROGES, they invented nuclear power and sent men to space.

The radical leftist is not – whatever he claims – a liberal. Having abandoned religion, he has required a justification for his belief that everything around him is morally wrong. Since it is now clear to anybody who cares to look that capitalism in the broad sense leads to more wealth and freedom for everyone, it only remains to hate wealth and freedom.

This does not mean that the scientists who propose the theory of AGW are wrong. I don't know and I don't care. It's not relevant to what I am talking about.

The ideology of the warmist as it is promoted in the media and environmentalist organizations has little to do with the science of global warming.

The warmist contends not only that AGW is true. He contends also that the only legitimate solution to it is his solution. In the warmist's universe, nuclear power is evil. Adjusting to the (Actually very limited) effects of warming is irresponsible. Geoengineering is morally wrong.

So what is left? Only the deliberate slashing of emissions and accepting a reduced standard of living for all. If you do not want to do this – if you don't want the government to ban the vehicles you like, or tax the food you like, or raise the price of electric power deliberately so you won't consume less – then you are evil.

Never mind the monstrous implications. Reducing the standard of living for  a European means a 24-inch TV and not a 32-inch TV. Reducing the standard of living for the African or Indian who made the TV means starvation. But who cares?

The person who believes in this chain of ideas – that not only is global warming coming, but that it is our duty to reduce our standard of living – is a complete moral monster. He is opposed to your right to the pursuit of happiness and this person hates. Your. Freedom.

The warmist is a monster. He is a well-dressed, tie-wearing monster who has managed to work himself into the respected echelons of society. He is the sort of person who will look at you and say: “Yeah, sure, in the modern world Indian children may feel happy that less of them are starving, but...”

This is why it is morally right to burn tires just to piss off these people. Because these people are monsters.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: KD5NRH on March 27, 2011, 07:06:46 AM
Any sensible economist, even a Keynesian,

Any sensible human, even a buffet table, would have trouble processing the above phrase.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Perd Hapley on March 27, 2011, 08:16:06 AM
The person who believes in this chain of ideas – that not only is global warming coming, but that it is our duty to reduce our standard of living – is a complete moral monster. He is opposed to your right to the pursuit of happiness and this person hates. Your. Freedom.

The warmist is a monster. He is a well-dressed, tie-wearing monster who has managed to work himself into the respected echelons of society. He is the sort of person who will look at you and say: “Yeah, sure, in the modern world Indian children may feel happy that less of them are starving, but...”

This is why it is morally right to burn tires just to piss off these people. Because these people are monsters.

This applies to sundry items in the leftist program. Well said. I may use it against you someday.  =)


Any sensible human, even a buffet table, would have trouble processing the above phrase.

So much win.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: seeker_two on March 27, 2011, 08:22:42 AM
Any sensible economist, even a Keynesian,

But, apparently, not a Kenyan.....  ;/



This is why it is morally right to burn tires just to piss off these people. Because these people are monsters.

So true.....
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: RaspberrySurprise on March 27, 2011, 09:36:57 AM
Too bad I didn't see this thread yesterday.

http://cei.org/human-achievement-hour
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: TMM on March 27, 2011, 09:47:24 AM
haha, i like that link!

tmm
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Ben on March 27, 2011, 11:36:27 AM
Because environmentalism has become a political and cultural war that has more to do with left-wing politics. Because we're tired of the guilt trips, alarm-ism and self-righteous smugitude.

Yeah, that.

I plan on  building my retirement home to be as off-grid capable as possible without reducing my lifestyle, but that's my choice. I won't care if my neighbors put up an Al Gore style energy waster. That's their choice. I don't tell other people how to live, and I'm just tired of being constantly lectured to about what to drive, what to eat, and how to live. Perhaps I'm more irked about it than the average bear because where I live I'm so surrounded by that culture.

Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Tallpine on March 27, 2011, 12:23:30 PM
Quote
Perhaps I'm more irked about it than the average bear because where I live I'm so surrounded by that culture.

The most lavish, consumerist culture in the world is anti-consumerist  ;/
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: dm1333 on March 27, 2011, 03:07:35 PM
grislyatoms,

Quote
And what is an "earth ship"?


One of these.  Minus the goofy bottle walls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

Somebody here said it was morally right to burn tires, and that "these people" were monsters.   :facepalm:


Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: Boomhauer on March 27, 2011, 03:16:31 PM
grislyatoms,


One of these.  Minus the goofy bottle walls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

Somebody here said it was morally right to burn tires, and that "these people" were monsters.   :facepalm:




None of us are burning tires, oil, mattresses or what have you (except maybe oil in a shop heater). Don't be ridiculous. We also don't litter or wantonly pollute water.   

And yeah, the enviromentalists have turn into monsters. Forcing their way on people, trying to wreck economies. Some of the more extreme have committed crimes "for the cause" and advocated human extinction. They don't have a problem if people die due to their deeds, whether directly or indirectly...

These monsters are enviro green on the outside, and communist red on the inside. Stop 'em before it's too late.


"It's for the Earth!" and "It's for the children!" are two of the most dangerous political statements in these times.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: dm1333 on March 27, 2011, 03:41:54 PM
I'll reserve "monsters" for people like Jeffrey Dahlmer, Stalin, etc.  

I went and read a few posts back.  I got the quote wrong, here it is in full.

Quote
This is why it is morally right to burn tires just to piss off these people. Because these people are monsters.
 

edit: just for the record, last night at 8:30 I was laying on the couch watching TV and drinking beer. 

Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: MicroBalrog on March 27, 2011, 04:07:33 PM
Here's the thing.

This ain't 1650. The countries of the world are interconnected economically in all sorts of ways.

If we accept the argument that economic growth and consumption is bad - and this is effectively the argument, not of every conservationist, but of the leftowarmist - then the result is a reduction of the standard of living for EVERYONE. For us it may mean something we can afford - a smaller TV, carpooling instead of driving your own car, whatever. For people in India it means a car factory shuts down and they're unemployed and homeless. It can literally mean millions of people starving in some countries.

Any global economic downturn means a rise in the amount of starving people in third-world countries - and in fact that's what the recent economic crisis did somewhere.

I have literally met people, people who are educated and who knew this and who told me outright that economic progress and less people starving was bad because 'it was bringing about global warming.'

When a person believes something that causes more people to starve - and some of these people do so knowingly, most merely by implication - then this person is advocating something evil.
Title: Re: Earth Hour
Post by: 230RN on March 27, 2011, 07:44:28 PM
^
Well, I've heard it said that the only real solution to pollution is to reduce the world population by half... and if we don't do it, Gaia will do it for us.

Horrendous thought, but perhaps realistic?