Friday Post

Just in time for the week-end...



This is why the NDP will never run the country:

The NDP government put its imprint on Alberta's wallet Thursday, spending $624 million on schools, hospitals, and social care and introducing a bill to increase taxes on large businesses and the wealthy.

The bill, tabled by Finance Minister Joe Ceci, proposes increasing the tax rate on large corporations to 12 per cent from 10 per cent effective July 1.

It also moves to hike income taxes on anyone making more than $125,000 a year effective Oct. 1.

The tax changes are forecast to bring in up to $800 million in this fiscal year and up to $1.5 billion in the next.

Ceci said the changes will not have an impact on 93 per cent of Alberta's tax filers.

As of 2005, there were 100,775 people who earned $100,000 in Alberta. As of last year, government employees in Alberta earned anywhere from $100, 000 to more than $400, 000. Is the NDP going to tax this sprinkling of the Albertan population?

Let the battles begin.



It might have something to do with the fact that politicians are just straight-up corrupt:

It’s hard to gauge whether scandals in Canada’s Upper Chamber affect how Canadians view leaders in the House of Commons or other levels of government. Jane Hilderman, incoming executive director of non-profit Samara, said the news of Meredith’s personal conduct isn’t likely to strengthen trust in political leaders.

“It may confirm what Canadians already have as a dominant opinion, which is that generally those elected to office aren’t very well trusted,” Jane Hilderman said in an interview with Yahoo Canada News.

“That’s going to be a very hard thing to shift over time.”

Because Canadians are so damn weak-willed and will never hold their corrupt politicians to account, those in power will continue to be liars and thieves.

YOU VOTED FOR THEM, Canada. Suck it up.

If Pope Francis' encyclical on so-called "climate change" does have a bright spot, it's that he calls carbon trades what they are- a scam:

The strategy of buying and selling “carbon credits” can lead to a new form of speculation which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide. This system seems to provide a quick and easy solution under the guise of a certain commitment to the environment, but in no way does it allow for the radical change which present circumstances require. Rather, it may simply become a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors.

Related: because some people are retards and need to be informed:

In regard to their history, there are two main points to be considered. It is in the first place constantly assumed, especially at the present day, that the opposition which Copernicanism encountered at the hands of ecclesiastical authority was prompted by hatred of science and a desire to keep the minds of men in the darkness of ignorance. To suppose that any body of men could deliberately adopt such a course is ridiculous, especially a body which, with whatever defects of method, had for so long been the only one which concerned itself with science at all. ...

Nevertheless it was a churchman, Nicholas Copernicus, who first advanced the contrary doctrine that the sun and not the earth is the centre of our system, round which our planet revolves, rotating on its own axis. His great work, "De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium", was published at the earnest solicitation of two distinguished churchmen, Cardinal Schömberg and Tiedemann Giese, Bishop of Culm. It was dedicated by permission to Pope Paul III in order, as Copernicus explained, that it might be thus protected from the attacks which it was sure to encounter on the part of the "mathematicians" (i.e. philosophers) for its apparent contradiction of the evidence of our senses, and even of common sense. He added that he made no account of objections which might be brought by ignorant wiseacres on Scriptural grounds. Indeed, for nearly three quarters of a century no such difficulties were raised on the Catholic side, although Luther and Melanchthon condemned the work of Copernicus in unmeasured terms. Neither Paul III, nor any of the nine popes who followed him, nor the Roman Congregations raised any alarm, and, as has been seen, Galileo himself in 1597, speaking of the risks he might run by an advocacy of Copernicanism, mentioned ridicule only and said nothing of persecution. Even when he had made his famous discoveries, no change occurred in this respect. On the contrary, coming to Rome in 1611, he was received in triumph; all the world, clerical and lay, flocked to see him, and, setting up his telescope in the Quirinal Garden belonging to Cardinal Bandim, he exhibited the sunspots and other objects to an admiring throng.

**

The conference logically began by clearing up the myths that still surround Galileo and his relationship with the Church. Dr. Owen J. Gingerich, a former research professor of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University, laid out the history of the controversy.

He swiftly ruled out the most famous and seemingly irrefutable accusation: that Galileo was tortured by the Church. The Italian astronomer was sent a letter, Gingerich said, which stated he was to be "interrogated for vehement expression of heresy" and that included "legally being shown the instruments of torture."

But Gingerich said Galileo "was certainly not tortured and I suspect also not shown the instruments of torture, but he was on his third interrogation when he realised there was to be no discussion, that he wasn't going to be able to argue that the Copernican system should be taken seriously." He therefore was willing to "confess in any way that was required, put under house arrest and sent back to Florence."

Professor Gingerich said it was particularly important to view the Galileo case in context. "You must understand that the great majority of people thought the Copernican system was completely ridiculous," he explained. "It was not a matter of only the Catholic hierarchy thinking it was ridiculous; nobody else wanted to adopt the Copernican system."

**

The Church is not anti-scientific. It has supported scientific endeavors for centuries. During Galileo’s time, the Jesuits had a highly respected group of astronomers and scientists in Rome. In addition, many notable scientists received encouragement and funding from the Church and from individual Church officials. Many of the scientific advances during this period were made either by clerics or as a result of Church funding. 

Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated his most famous work, On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs, in which he gave an excellent account of heliocentricity, to Pope Paul III. Copernicus entrusted this work to Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran clergyman who knew that Protestant reaction to it would be negative, since Martin Luther seemed to have condemned the new theory, and, as a result, the book would be condemned. Osiander wrote a preface to the book, in which heliocentrism was presented only as a theory that would account for the movements of the planets more simply than geocentrism did—something Copernicus did not intend. 

Ten years prior to Galileo, Johannes Kepler published a heliocentric work that expanded on Copernicus’ work. As a result, Kepler also found opposition among his fellow Protestants for his heliocentric views and found a welcome reception among some Jesuits who were known for their scientific achievements.

**

“The worst that happened to men of science was that Galileo suffered an honourable detention and a mild reproof, before dying peacefully in his own bed.”

Dylann Storm Roof was a sad lone wolf on drugs. There is no need to rush out and blame drugs, guns, white people or the Illuminati.




A country that cannot feed itself has managed to cure MERS:

North Korea says it has succeeded where the greatest minds in science have failed.

The authoritarian, impoverished nation better known for pursuing a nuclear program despite global criticism announced Friday it has a drug can prevent and cure MERS, Ebola, SARS and AIDS.

The secretive state did not provide proof, and the claim is likely to provoke widespread skepticism.

The official Korean Central News Agency said scientists developed Kumdang-2 from ginseng grown from fertilizer mixed with rare-earth elements. According to the pro-North Korea website Minjok Tongshin, the drug was originally produced in 1996.

"Malicious virus infections like SARS, Ebola and MERS are diseases that are related to immune systems, so they can be easily treated by Kumdang-2 injection drug, which is a strong immune reviver," KCNA said.

North Korea shut out foreign tourists for half a year with some of the world's strictest Ebola controls, even though no cases of the disease were reported anywhere near the country, before lifting the restrictions earlier this year.

It is believed to be struggling to combat diseases such as tuberculosis, and respiratory infections are among its most common causes of death, according to the World Health Organization.

Sure....



Strange. Putin normally acts as though he does not need the G7:

Russia appears to be angling to make it the G-8 once again and President Vladimir Putin suggests it’s something Prime Minister Stephen Harper will just have to accept.

"I don't want to offend anyone, but if the United States says Russia should be returned to the G8, the prime minister will change his opinion,” Putin told The Canadian Press during a meeting with the heads of world news agencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

And now, frightening prehistoric sea monsters:

Megalodon is probably the best-known creature in the list; it’s hard to keep the idea of a shark the size of a school bus out of pop culture. Plus, science-minded entertainment sources like the Discovery Channel love creatures that could pass for a movie monster. Despite the popular idea that Megalodon coexisted with dinosaurs, they lived from 25 to 1.5 million years ago, meaning that at best they missed the last dinosaur by 40 million years.