Huge island of rubbish floating off California, 6x Size of Britain
- Thread starter common_sense_seeker
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Calm down everybody!
It's not really an island of trash! It's actually just California.
It's not really an island of trash! It's actually just California.
That's a great idea.
And then America should bomb the fuck out of them. Terrorist "kingpin" is probably hiding out there! Won't mention his name for now, the you-know-who agency would probably hold it against me.
I like you Draqon. I just don't care for you at all.
Just joking!
On a serious note, I have a serious hatred of California. Period. I don't feel I need to explain myself to anyone.
Just joking!
On a serious note, I have a serious hatred of California. Period. I don't feel I need to explain myself to anyone.
I lived there til I was 18.
Joined the Army- Got the heck outta there and never looked back.
The land is beautiful. Nice place to visit- Couldn't pay me enough to live there...
Trash island...: It isn't.
It's an area where the manmade trash (plastics etc.) is denser in relative proportion to the rest of the sea than in other places. The cause of this is the currents that sweep it into the doldrums, where the shipping lanes don't really go.
So if you were to hop in a boat and go out there, you wouldn't see anything resembling an island. You would just see the occasional piece of trash float by.
Gotta love the effect of exaggeration...
I'm sorry to insult California. It has nice trees. And owls. And probably a few people who won't bite.
It's the culture that it epitomizes, that it represents. And that I simply cannot abide by. They must all be terminated. San Andreas, if you would, please???
And how's the Army? Did you get everything you hoped for?
It's the culture that it epitomizes, that it represents. And that I simply cannot abide by. They must all be terminated. San Andreas, if you would, please???
And how's the Army? Did you get everything you hoped for?
I miss it.
I'm a single dad now of a rockin baby boy. He's six now.
I have been asked if I ever think about re-upping... and I do, shamefully, think of it. But I can't.
Someone asked just the other day, "What if there was a major war like WWIII? Would you go back in?"
I had to answer yes- because that would directly affect my son even if I died, it would still be to his benefit for me to serve.
It's kinda funny... All politics aside- all opinions about what foreign policies my country takes part in aside- I enjoyed being in the army. Except for early am P.T.
That sucked.
Man wants to sleep in and call his boss with a flat tire on occasion.
Well, as long as you can enjoy it!
I don't think that's my cup of tea (drinking Twining's Oolong right now) . I could never join such an organization. I'm not quite manly enough, and I really couldn't shut off my independent brain, and I would end up saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. And there are very few wars I could morally support. I can safely say I would not last long...Oh. And i wouldn't want to end up being a guinea pig.
Gulf War Syndrome doesn't sound like a fun time.
Gulf War Syndrome doesn't sound like a fun time.
You seem confused? Was it the bombing? Or the terrorist? Or the you-know-who agency that troubles you?
Well, as long as you can enjoy it!
You seem to have a lot of misconceptions about Military service...
For one; soldiers are not mindless puppets. Although following orders is often attributed to military application- All civilians follow orders just as much in their jobs. Otherwise, they get fired. In fact, the military grants more leeway than civie side. Because the military has a contract with you. In other words: Your boss can can you easily. But your NCO or BC can't as easily. He must jump through hoops to get you discharged and you REALLY gotta work hard at getting kicked out.
It's far easier to train a delinquent soldier up to standard.
For two; you do support the wars you think you don't. You may try not to- but welcome to citizenship. In a time of war, most industries that people who disagree with a war work for are providing the machine to keep that war productive. You're workin' for the man.
For a soldier, it's very similar and even a soldier has options on how to proceed with a war he simply canNOT bring himself to support.
We have gotten way off topic, here- a mod may want to come along and chastise us both for making him split the thread
Greetz all.
That mess has been out there in the ocean my entire life now, I first heard about it many years ago. Somebody should go scoop it up and do something about it. They will eventually, when they are made to, just as other messes will get cleaned up as we are forced to clean them up. Most of that one is petrochemical plastic which can be reprocessed. There are lifeforms that have colonized it.....while it kills other lifeforms.
I loved CA when I was a sprout in Riverside, not so much when I went to move back in the 1970's...the LA air made Detroit look downright clean by comparison. It looks even cleaner here now that everyone is leaving.
I would like to see us collectively take a shot at 100% recycling, just to see how that would affect things.
That substance that they think will sequester CO2 long term is basalt...I hope that works out. We could do so much better than we are and we do need to start sequestering CO2 if we keep producing it in such vast quantities.
The military is the ticket for some of us, for others...not so much. I grew up on SAC nuclear bases, had enough of that lifestyle to last me, though it profoundly effected me. I have been told that I have a very military demeanor now as a (chronological) adult.
Carry on.
That mess has been out there in the ocean my entire life now, I first heard about it many years ago. Somebody should go scoop it up and do something about it. They will eventually, when they are made to, just as other messes will get cleaned up as we are forced to clean them up. Most of that one is petrochemical plastic which can be reprocessed. There are lifeforms that have colonized it.....while it kills other lifeforms.
I loved CA when I was a sprout in Riverside, not so much when I went to move back in the 1970's...the LA air made Detroit look downright clean by comparison. It looks even cleaner here now that everyone is leaving.
I would like to see us collectively take a shot at 100% recycling, just to see how that would affect things.
That substance that they think will sequester CO2 long term is basalt...I hope that works out. We could do so much better than we are and we do need to start sequestering CO2 if we keep producing it in such vast quantities.
The military is the ticket for some of us, for others...not so much. I grew up on SAC nuclear bases, had enough of that lifestyle to last me, though it profoundly effected me. I have been told that I have a very military demeanor now as a (chronological) adult.
Carry on.
Well, I didn't say soldiers were mindless puppets. Didn't try to imply that.
You make some good points there. The one major difference between that and ordinary jobs, however, are the consequences, mainly if indeed you got called up.
Sort of. But then again... manufacturing something to be used by anybody and physically being part of an occupying force in a war that may be unconstitutional are separate issues.
If you would like to explain what you think are some of those options, I would be interested.
For me, personally, I couldn't handle it. If I was asked (or required) to participate actively in the invasion and occupation of another country and knew that the rationale was flawed from the get-go, I couldn't go along with it and be proud of myself. I take my personal integrity pretty highly, and aside from being a chronic schedule breaker and someone who's often late, I do my best to practice what I preach (I guess I don't exactly preach about being on time, come to think of it... I'm in the clear!) and I would feel too wrong. I'd probably be forced to get discharged somehow.
Actually, I might be liable to go along at first, but have second thoughts down the road. Actually, I'm not really sure...:scratchin:
BTW, what's the difference between something that would get you a dishonorable discharge and something that would get you court martialed?
We have gotten way off topic, here- a mod may want to come along and chastise us both for making him split the thread
Welcome to SciForums! Most of us are experts at derailing threads. It is a terminal condition...
You'll find that much of the time, I am calm and rational.
You'll also find times when I'm defensive and irrational. They are unpleasant things to see and it gets me in trouble. Got me banned off the other place...
You're catching me at a rational moment but I do want to kinda bust my own bubble and give fair warning: I'm not always brainy and beware... I can be a defensive jerk sometimes. So not all my posts will be as this one is... I hate to think I'm painting an inaccurate image of myself here.
A great deal of the jobs in the military are this way too. Doing the job without Directly Confronting the Enemy or personally taking a life.
Conscientious observer is one. Additionally, soldiers can be transferred for many different conflict of interest reasons to a different unit in order to keep them from performing duties that are in contradiction with a personal belief. I won't go in heavy detail because I really want to address the below bit and this will be a lengthy post.
This is where my comment above really comes into play. In an irrational moment, I would likely light you up over what you said here.
Let's break this down a bit...
You (probably unintentionally) IMPLY that a person needs low personal integrity in order to actively assist the government in carrying out a policy which you find distasteful or disagreeable.
You IMPLY soldiers are proud of themselves for doing the wrong thing.
You assume way too much here. Especially after admitting you have never served and find the idea to be not your cup of tea.
That it's not your cup of tea is perfectly fine. There are a great many things that aren't my cup of tea. But part of your rational for why it's not your cup of tea seems misguided to me.
I got in trouble a lot in the Army. I had a bad habit of bucking authority and mouthing off. But I would have that same trouble later on down the road in civilian jobs.
It's a big part of why I'm now my own boss.
But I have no regrets for my service and I do not take kindly to insinuations, intentional or not, that my character is of Low Integrity. I did serve my time in the Army. I have done things that cause me to mourn to this day, things I will carry the rest of my life. Not out of malice, but out of necessity for the duty. I CHOSE to carry that burden and I refuse to make excuses for it or dump it off with a blame game on the government or the demanding military that "made me do it."
And I did enjoy a great deal of my peacetime service.
There were policies I disagreed with. That's INEVITABLE. There will ALWAYS be politics about foreign action that are questionable to anyone. But the world isn't going to stop turning to pander to one mans crisis of conscience. He must Suck It Up and either finish what he starts and fulfill his oath like a man-- Or find any way possible to convince his higher ups that a certain action is unconscionable.
There were times when I questioned an action and I went To Bat with my NCO's or BC's to plead my case. As with ANY debate, a consensus was reached in which each side made their reasons apparent- and sometimes, with the new information available- I learned I was grasping the wrong end of the stick.
Now, I admit that I had very good and tolerant leadership. Not everyone is so lucky. Cliques are also an inevitability and they will form even in a Uniformed Service.
Hollywood and Movies are notorious for displaying some of the more... interesting... perceptions of the Military. But Hollywood ain't exactly well known for accuracy.
I would ask that you think a wee bit more deeply before stating your opinion of another persons line of work. I have no problem whatsoever with a person not wanting to take part in military affairs. But someone treating soldiers as low character grunts pisses me off.
One guy even went so far as to say, "C'mon! You're American Indian! How could you serve in the Army that Subjugated you?!"
Gee... I dunno... Maybe it's because all the guys in THAT Army died over a hundred years ago? I deeply mourn what happened to my tribe and ancestors- but again- Those that DID that are DEAD.
Court Martial is essentially a trial- just as any other court. A soldier will be given court martial to try them for committing a crime. Sentence can include Dishonorable discharge OR time to be served in a Military Prison.
Discharge is just when leadership evaluates a soldier to be Unfit for service.
Discharge does not mean a person committed a crime.
Thanks, I'm glad to know I have a talent that may be useful here.Welcome to SciForums! Most of us are experts at derailing threads. It is a terminal condition...
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
People have been littering since long before the Industrial Revolution created enough surplus wealth for economics to become a field of scholarship and terms like "capitalism" were coined. Capitalism is the management of surplus wealth, or "capital," by people who are closer to the process of producing it, rather than central management by an inefficient, slow-responding government. As a result, in large countries capitalist economies produce more surplus wealth than other kinds of economies--even if it isn't always distributed as equitably as we'd like.
You can thank capitalism for the immense surplus that allows Americans and other Westerners to even contemplate spending some of our discretionary income on conservation, recycling and reforestation, not to mention other worthy causes.
People in China can't afford to sort their trash and have it politely hauled off to separate middens. People in the Third World have to send their children to work because they need the income.
If Americans aren't diligent about their trash, it's because they're lazy and thoughtless, not because the trash was manufactured in a capitalist economy.
Presumably there are bits of food there, so they should be attracting scavengers. Gulls, carp (or their saltwater analog), and the species in the lower orders that metabolize detritus. They might also serve as reefs for shelled animals to attach to. Entire ecosystems can spring up around middens.
The Japanese sort their trash into two dozen categories. A powerplant using the remaining non-recyclable trash as fuel powers a large section of Tokyo. It burns hot enough and uses enough filters to be clean, and the residue is apparently no harder to deal with than the equivalent volume of raw unsorted trash in one of our less enlightened countries.
Why? If you're as young as our average member, the drop-dead date on climate change is scheduled to occur during your lifetime. As ugly as floating middens are, they do not present a problem of that scope or urgency. And it's a problem that does not require Star Trek technology to solve, only more economic incentives.
As one of several members from California I find that immensely insulting. With 37 million people California would be the world's 35th largest country, and it has the diversity that comes with it.
- We have starry-eyed liberals and knee-jerk conservatives
- Atheists, Muslims, Jews and holy-rolling Christians
- Yankees and Rednecks
- Lumberjacks, ranchers, industrialists, entertainers, engineers, scientists, artists and software geeks
- Huge, thriving enclaves of national cultures from a score of foreign lands
- Most of our land is farm, forest or desert and agriculture is our biggest economic sector.
- The L.A.-Orange County-San Diego corridor or "Southern California," home of the entertainment industry and millions of immigrants
- The Coachella Valley where people grow lettuce in the desert
- The central coast from Ventura to Monterey, a quiet bastion of limousine liberals
- The San Francisco Bay, a software center, home of more millions of immigrants, and self-proclaimed capital of Gay America
- The San Joaquin Valley or "Oklahoma by the Sea" where everyone is a farmer and every bar plays either country or Mexican music (although Korn is from Bakersfield like Buck Owens)
- The Sacramento Valley which is just as looney as any other region dominated by government offices and the people who work there
- The Sierra Nevada where codgers live who want to be alone, except during ski season
- Wine Country, a little slice of Italy with the Bay Area slowly growing into its southern parts
- Shasta-Trinity, the hottest and coldest place in the state, a forest so large that they haven't yet managed to clear-cut it
- And finally the North Coast where we live, an uneasy mix of lumberjacks who wonder where all the trees went with the highest concentration of artists of any county in America, where people still smoke joints in public, we have a surplus of water that we can't figure out how to sell, and there's a movement to secede from the state and join Oregon.
The L.A. air got clean fast when auto emissions were curtailed. When I moved to Pasadena in 1960 buildings were limited to 13 stories because of earthquakes, and there were many days when you couldn't see their top floors. Now you can see the mountains.
Ahem: that's the San Jose/Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, now.
They list the cities in there according to population, and anyway the software stuff is all down in south San Jose where you can't even see the actual Bay.
Hold on now; there are at least three distinct wine countries in CA. Sure, the Napa area is the more prominent, but I think the Santa Ynez Valley merits mention as well, since (at least) Sideways.
Also you forgot the Mojave, with its crazy trees and rock climbing, exploding solar and wind power industry, lowest/hottest/driest point on the continent, and unlucky border control agents charged with keeping the fruit out and the weed in.
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