number6

Take-away 1: Electric cars emit 20% more micro-plastics from tires than do ICE vehicles.

Take-away 2: Electric cars are not the solution to climate change. Whether it's a 2000lb ICE vehicle, or a 4000lb EV vehicle, it takes a lot of energy which has to come for somewhere, and a lot of material that will have to be mined, and then eventually disposed.

But is it strong enough to make a space elevator?

This is a conspiracy theory, not unlike the theories you will hear on the right. I've never heard anyone on the right equate soy with Asian or other cultures.

Well, in American there was Bernie Sanders.

It's a confounding thing, that so many people will vote for leaders who straight-up tell them that they will make the world a worse place for them (Reagan, Trump, Thatcher).

Nobody's head is going to explode. Most conservatives are well aware that soybeans are an American croup and are even proud of the fact. They just think that the soybeans should be served to cows.

Vilifying people you don't like is no way to establish understanding or communication.

This itself is a conspiracy theory. I've known a lot of right-wing people, and none of them made a connection between Soy and Asian cuisine. They don't like tofu, in particular, because they didn't grow up with it and see it as some weird, hippy thing.

Hi (Waving from left bubble) !

I agree. I don't think anyone is thinking that hard about the "Asian" roots of soybeans. And people on the left are just as hung up on their identity politics as people on the right.

There is a strong association between Tofu with hippy culture, even though there really isn't such a thing anymore. I guess if you don't want heart disease by the time you're 40, you must be a hippy.

No. Smoking is way more personally dangerous than alcohol, except for auto accidents. Tobacco hurts you in so many different ways -- with sagging skin, lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, stained teeth, strokes, hypertension. Also, alcohol addicts only represent about 10% of the drinking public, whereas about 90% of smokers become chain-smoking addicts.

And, as I mentioned, smoking often kills people a decade short of retirement. Drinkers, on the other hand, often reach old age.

Not justifying alcohol, but there are so many downsides to smoking. But you can't explain that to an addict.

I have a folding bike that was originally meant to be part of a Marlsboro rewards program. Apparently smokers weren't all that interested in exercise. Who knew?

The U.S. basically has no plan for storage of nuclear waste. All but one of the "swimming pools" have been filled to the brim. Some sites are starting to move the waste into concrete vaults. Some have been seen leaking.

The first step is to figure out what happens to the waste.

Yes, where I worked they generously gave you a 10 minute mid-morning break. Unless you were a smoker, and "needed" to slip out 5 minutes every hour. I often wondered if I could get away with just "smoking" a straw.

Most of the smokers I've known don't even get close to 80, and are often very sickly when they do. Two family members that didn't make it to 60. A healthy looking co-worker who dropped dead in the parking lot. A former boss who didn't get to enjoy more than two years retirement.

Cigarettes are the only consumer product that, when used as directed, kill their consumers.