9/ It seems clear from these recent REUTERS reports that REUTERS believes—as I do, and as I think Americans broadly writ increasingly do—that Elon Musk is one of the most dishonest men alive, and quite possibly one of the most dangerous to the continuation of our civilization.
@ofctimallen I find it interesting that those you call themselves religious also think that there God is the only God that matters. Do you truly think that your God or Jesus would have you behave this way? SMH.
Give me my V8s and V12s and V6s back (in that order.) Entire companies have had to change because their celebrated products produce CO2, which isn’t even the cause of global warming? Damn. I almost hope this paper is wrong.
I doubt anyone will listen to this, but assuming this is true, the amount of money and legislation and restrictions on what we are allowed to do that stem from inaccurate understandings of is insane.
New study:
Water vapor is 84x better at absorbing radiation than CO2.
CO2 and T are negatively correlated 42% of the last 50 million years.
Clouds drove 89% of 1982-2018 warming.
"CO2..lacks sufficient enthalpy to have any measurable [climate] effect"
https://t.co/oqJfRY9f4z
Hot take: Apple made the right move removing the headphone jack.
The removal of the headphone jack was necessary to push Bluetooth audio tech forward. It was time to move on.
12 Reasons Why Cities Need More Trees:
1. Temperature Control
One large tree is equivalent to 10 air conditioning units, and the shade they provide can reduce street temperature by more than 30%.
2. Noise Reduction
Trees can reduce loudness by up to 50%. In urban areas filled with the sound of cars, construction, sirens, aeroplanes, and music, trees are essentially the best way to block noise and keep cities — along with the homes and workplaces in them — quieter.
3. Air Purity
Trees remove an astonishing amount of harmful pollutants and toxins from the air. In urban areas air quality is often disastrously bad — with severe consequences for our health. Trees make the air we breathe much cleaner.
4. Oxygen
And, while absorbing all those pollutants, trees also put more oxygen back into the urban environment. Oxygen levels are significantly lower in cities compared to the countryside; trees help to solve that problem.
5. Water Management
Trees do more than just shelter us and our buildings from rain — which is, in fact, extremely important. They also absorb huge quantities of water, reduce run-off, neutralise the severity of flooding, and make flooding more unlikely altogether. Not to forget that their roots absorb pollutants and prevent them from feeding back into a city's water supply.
6. Psychological Health
Studies have proven what we instinctively know to be true: that human beings are significantly happier when surrounded by nature rather than sterile urban environments. Our emotions, behaviour, and thoughts are shaped by the places we spend time — and trees have a profoundly positive effect on our psychology. The consequential benefits of being happier and more peaceful — as individuals and as a society — are immense.
7. Physical Health
Beyond all the other ways in which trees improve air quality and the urban environment, much to the benefit of our health, they also encourage people to go outside. Cycling, running, and walking are all more common in urban areas with plenty of trees. A knock-on effect of people spending more time outdoors is also social integration and stronger communities.
8. Privacy
A simple point, but not inconsequential, is that trees provide privacy.
9. Economics
The total economic benefit of urban trees is hard to calculate. There are costs, of course, including the repair of infrastructure damaged by roots and maintaining the trees themselves. But the total economic benefit — a consequence of everything else in this list and more — far outweighs the expenditure. Trees make cities wealthier.
10. Wildlife
Trees are miniature cities all of their own, serving as a habitat for hundreds of different species, including birds and mammals and insects.
11. Light Pollution
Trees don't only block the light shining down, therefore keeping us and our cities cooler — they also disrupt light shining up, from street lighting, cars, houses, and billboards. Skies are clearer in cities with more trees.
12. Aesthetics
And, finally, trees are beautiful. They break up the potential monotony of urban environments — the sharp geometry, the greyscale roads and buildings, the endless rows of cars — with their trunks, boughs, canopies, and flowers.
Just think: the gold and red of falling leaves in autumn, the white and pink blossom of spring, the vast green canopies of summer, and the branches lined with hoar-frost in winter. Every single tree is a myriad of intricacy and texture, of colour and scent, of dappled light on the pavement, mottled bark, knotted roots, of clustered leaves and delicate petals and stern boughs.
Few streets would not be improved by the kaleidoscopic aesthetic delights of a tree, not to mention the many different species of tree, all over the world, whether willow, oak, lime, cherry, aspen, maple, birch, horse chestnut, dogwood, hornbeam, ash, sycamore... the list goes on.
There are some drawbacks to urban trees, most of them context-specific, and they are not — of course — universally appropriate. But it seems fair to say that many cities would benefit from at least a few more trees here and there.
https://t.co/SbHurWaOry
I realized while working on my latest Substack article that Gary Oldman is the only actor to have portrayed both a US wartime leader and a UK wartime leader, Truman in Oppenheimer and Churchill in Darkest Hour.
Søren Kierkegaard claimed that if a person behaved perfectly rationally they would be so discordant with civil society that people would deem them mad.
This man…”pastor” putting on a religious show and then shaming the congregation for supposedly acting like it’s a religious show is my peak mega church experience my goodness.
OK then: our latest Classics books give-away! Just RT this message, and on Sunday 6 August we will draw *three* names from our followers: the first picks 25 books; the second 15; the third the rest (unless they don't want some, which will be raffled off at random!)
Book details: