archenemy Posted June 26, 2007 Posted June 26, 2007 I just would also like to say fatuous. Fatuous. Quote
Dechristo Posted June 26, 2007 Posted June 26, 2007 writing "fatuosity" is the epitome of fatuousness. Quote
Dechristo Posted June 26, 2007 Posted June 26, 2007 only a catamite would make that comment ..., cj says with a squeal. Quote
JayB Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 Infinite cost-free resources as the sole driver of economic growth and a static set of resources that are completely insensitive to price, effective demand, etc in a single post.My point is that in a country this rich and resource-hungry, expanding supply of certain resources can only supplicate demand temporarily. Expansion is the holy grail of a growing economy, but ceases to be an option once resources are limiting (which is what I meant by "static supply"). There will always be high demand for water, especially in a desert metropolis. The sooner they figure this out, the better, because no matter how many rivers they divert into Phoenix, even if the can afford to, they will always be short on water. They will have severely molested the environment in an attempt to escape this fact, and in the end, they will have to learn to conserve anyway. Might as well leave the rivers alone and figure it out sooner than later. The concept of "limiting resources" that are completely insensitive to the effects of price, substitutes, devices that increase efficiency, etc doesn't jive with reality terribly well. If the savings that result from using a particular resource more efficiently justify the costs, then it will happen, but not before then. The future is unpredictable, and making investments based on incorrect predictions about the scarcity and expense of a particular resource based on simple extrapolations from known data gets exponentially more difficult the further one moves from the present, and asset mis-allocations made on the basis of such predictions can be quite expensive. Someone who magically got their hands on stats that showed the total value of video game sales for the 1990-2006 time interval in 1982, then promptly ran out and invested their own life savings and $100k hard-money loan into Atari stock would likely have been rather disappointed with the return that their investment generated. Quote
JayB Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 Pie-higher = less dumb than your argument based on your map. GDP of Arkansas = Pakistani GDP Population of Arkansas = 1/62nd of Pakistan's. Quote
G-spotter Posted June 27, 2007 Author Posted June 27, 2007 (edited) the flip side of desertification is flooding... flash flooding. central texas gets ~490mm of rain (19 inches) in 24 hours. that's more than many areas of the "wet" PNW have EVER recorded in 24h: More than foot of rain floods Texas - Yahoo! News. By JIM VERTUNO, Associated Press Writer GEORGETOWN, Texas - Torrential storms flooded parts of central Texas early Wednesday, stranding dozens of people on roofs, in trees and in vehicles, and the weather was so treacherous that some helicopter rescue attempts had to be abandoned. The worst flooding was in Williamson, Lampasas and Burnet counties in the Texas Hill Country northwest of Austin. "We got hard facts of 18-plus inches of rain in a couple of those places since midnight," Austin-Travis County emergency medical services spokesman Warren Hassinger said just after 7 a.m. More rain was expected, the National Weather Service said. There were no immediate reports of deaths Wednesday, but it was the latest in a series of storms blamed for at least 11 deaths in the past week in Texas. Parts of Oklahoma also were soaked Wednesday, with rain falling on Oklahoma City for the 15th consecutive day, breaking a 70-year-old record. The rain was heaviest in the Marble Falls area, about 40 miles northwest of Austin, where Mayor Raymond Whitman said 32 people had to be rescued from high water. He said two bridges were washed out and the city water plant was damaged. "This is the worst I've ever seen it in my lifetime," said Whitman, 47, who has lived in the town his entire life.... Edited June 27, 2007 by G-spotter Quote
catbirdseat Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 It usually takes a MONTH to get that much rain. 3" in 24 hours is considered "heavy" in the PNW. Quote
archenemy Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 You wanna talk flooding? I can talk flooding. It sucks. There ya go. Oh, and fuck Texas. Who cares about Texas? Quote
G-spotter Posted June 27, 2007 Author Posted June 27, 2007 The thing about that part of Texas is that there's no "higher ground" to head to to be safe when it floods Quote
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