I'd like to share a story.

At a store yesterday, ahead of me in a cashier lineup waited a woman and an +-18 year old I assumed was her daughter. The girl looked normal, but I noticed there was something very slightly unusual about the way she moved.

The girl was wearing yoga pants, and was slim. When she turned, her backside looked just a bit large for someone young and not overweight. It seemed possible she was wearing some sort of absorbent underwear. At that moment, the thought came that she might be developmentally delayed.

When the mother finished paying, she said "Let's go" - normally an unnecessary comment in that situation. When I came out, they were in their vehicle in the parking lot. But only the mother was in the front. The girl was in the back seat, perhaps in a special seat. Or, if the older woman was a professional caregiver, perhaps the rule is that the people they are looking after ride in the back for their own safety.

In the store, the girl was happy. Out in the vehicle, she was smiling. I wonder how many years that will last. For families, it is fantastically taxing - forever - to raise a child who doesn't function normally. And the parents have the added worry of what's going to happen when they're not around anymore to look after the child. I've known several families in that situation, so I doubt it's rare.

And then there's the child's own state of mind. Some of them will be able to comprehend their own situation and outlook. No link, but here's something I snipped out of the newspaper long ago, about a young suicide:

Nor could we comprehend his fear. We could never know how his heart ached with the realization he would never work, drive a car, take a wife, raise a family, be involved in the community, make friends.

Anyway, prayers. God's mercy for them. For the rest of us, thankfulness, for whatever we have.

About 10 years ago I was in Vegas for the conference —that's right, that one— but having booked not long before, could only get a room at the Excelsior, basically a child's roaring paradise.

I saw a fiftyish woman pushing her daughter in a wheelchair through the raucous casino. The daughter (age forgotten, maybe teenage) had a profound case of Down syndrome, and seemed almost insensate and asleep as they moved through the noisy space.

The woman was vaguely and inexpensively tarted up in her clothing— Wearing things that were not quite stylish or ironically playful. These cheap trinkets were extended to decorations on the daughter's wheelchair. (I remember an Elvis theme for some of it.) This was family was living on a budget.

And the woman, liker her daughter, was overweight. But she moved the chair around with good authority and grace. It occurred to me that she wasn't fat in any meaningful sense, but with the life she was leading (obviously having a job of some kind despite her daughter's enormous needs), she didn't have time or money for healthier and more nutritious foods.

My abiding memory was burned before decency compelled me to turn away: On the way past a the video gambling machine, the daughter got a clear enough view (through her 1/4" glass lenses) of a flashing screen to lean forward with interest. The mother turned the chair to park it for a moment, and started fishing through her purse for quarters. They didn't have many resources, but goddamit, her daughter was going to have as much fun as they could find in Las Vegas. I couldn't imagine what she'd have planned for her own life at her high school graduation.

> For the rest of us, thankfulness,
> for whatever we have.

BTDT and regardless of how my first marriage turned out I do believe God places special needs children with "angels".

In that moment in Vegas, it sure felt like that woman had her angel "nature" dropped on her heart like a ton of bricks.

There's been some angel-ism in my own family: It looked like a great deal of work.

I actually work as a caregiver to adults with developmental disabilities.

Generally their family members are saints slowly being ground into insanity by the pressure, or complete assholes stealing their state assistance funds, more of the later than the former unfortunatly

Obamacare’s fatal defect is well known. It forced two groups — the healthy and the chronically ill — into the same insurance pool at the same price. A person with pre-existing conditions on average consumes 10 times as much health care as a generally healthy person.

The healthy could see it was a ruse and refused to sign up, causing insurers to lose $2 billion a year and abandon the market.

No surprise here. The sickest 5 percent of Americans account for 50 percent of health care spending.

http://betsymccaughey.com/how-to-lower-obamacare-premiums/

Forgive my ignorance, Crid - what conference?

In the meantime:

"Bill Maher, who took credit for the downfall of Milo Yiannopoulos, has also defended adult sex with children"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/24/bill-maher-who-took-credit-for-the-downfall-of-milo-yiannopoulos-has-also-defended-adult-sex-with-children/?utm_term=.8b6307974c82

There are 222 comments.

I have to say, this is one reason I can't quite call myself a fan of his. (Other reasons being that he's just plain juvenile, vulgar and cynical in ways that even George Carlin never was.)

It also, in a way, reminds me of those MRAs who are supposedly furious at female offenders who get a slap on the wrist - but when you read them more closely, it becomes clear that they don't REALLY want women to be punished - they just don't want MALE adult offenders to be punished either.

Not to mention those who can't grasp that statutory rape laws are NOT about what the minor victim "wants"; they're about what the PARENTS want - and for good reason.

Oh, and for anyone who cares about preventing teen suicide...

"Teen Suicide Attempts Down in States with Same-Sex Marriages"

https://psychcentral.com/news/2017/02/21/teen-suicide-attempts-down-in-states-with-same-sex-marriages/116723.html

First third or so:

By Rick Nauert PhD

A new research study finds that the implementation of state laws legalizing same-sex marriage was associated with a significant reduction in the rate of suicide attempts among high school students.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers report that an even greater reduction among gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents, was discovered.

The findings, published in JAMA Pediatrics, estimate that state-level, same-sex marriage policies were associated with more than 134,000 fewer adolescent suicide attempts per year.

The study compared states that passed laws allowing same-sex marriage through January 2015 to states that did not enact state-level legalization. A Supreme Court decision made same-sex marriage federal law in June of 2015.

The results show the effect that social policies can have on behavior, the researchers say.

“These are high school students so they aren’t getting married any time soon, for the most part,” says study leader Julia Raifman, Sc.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School.

“Still, permitting same-sex marriage reduces structural stigma associated with sexual orientation. There may be something about having equal rights — even if they have no immediate plans to take advantage of them — that makes students feel less stigmatized and more hopeful for the future.”

Suicide is the second most common cause of death among people ages 15 to 24 in the United States (behind unintentional injury). Suicide rates have been rising in the U.S., and data indicate that rates of suicide attempts requiring medical attention among adolescents increased 47 percent between 2009 and 2015.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual high school students are at particular risk. In the new study, 29 percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual high school students reported attempting suicide in the previous year as compared to six percent of heterosexual teens...

(snip)

Sibelius, Valse Triste.

You need not think about anything else tonight.

I found a chart from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to enhance this article partially dealing with warming. It should help anyone understand just what is being consumed and affected.

"Obamacare’s fatal defect is well known."

Several fundamental flaws, also fatal, remain unknown. They, and the replacement of insurance with credit to make sure doctors get paid, are discussed HERE.

Rad,

Please add in the efficiency of batteries to your calculations on electric cars reducing waste heat.

Also, waste heat is an insignificant contributor to global temperatures. Changes in surface albedo are larger by several orders of magnitude. CO2 production is not a concern due to the energy locked in the fuel being released. The reduced reflectivity of the atmosphere at IR frequencies is the most commonly stated concern. The same with your comments on the 'heat island' effect of cities. If there was no one living in those cities you would still see the same effect. The energy consumed by the people living in them is an insignificant contributor to the ambient temperature. The cement the city is made from changing the surface albedo represents over 90% of that change.

"Generally their family members are saints slowly being ground into insanity by the pressure."

Yeah, I know a family that that's happening to. It's a slow moving catastrophe happening to a sharp and loving couple that doesn't deserve it. And I watch and I know there's not a damn thing I can do.

And Crid and Lastango, thanks for those remembrances.

"Please add in the efficiency of batteries to your calculations on electric cars reducing waste heat." - Ben

Actually, electrical transportation is covered in the LLNL graphic (the tiny orange line), but no calculations are offered.

The advantages of battery propulsion are:
• No idle energy consumption
• Far less waste heat upon usage when loaded
• Easily programmable speed control
• Far fewer losses in the propulsion drivetrain
• No flammables in operation

The disadvantages:
• Main propulsion battery is expensive due to need for quality controls
• Charging rate is limited by chemistry AND infrastructure support
• Stored energy is capable of reaction more violent than a gasoline fire, beyond the capability of most firefighters

You can think of more of both.

No "efficiency" was noted due to two things: 1) most of the gains in efficiency are due to stopping the wastes involved in running the fossil-fuel engine, and 2) data on battery operation exists far in excess of the need to support general comments. Briefly, in lead-acid, metal hydride and lithium-iron batteries, there are different "ideal" currents based on class and construction; size matters, still, in that larger batteries mean more range for any vehicle.

For the current infrastructure and out maybe 20 years, the turbodiesel is the clear choice. You cannot do the speed limit from here to Inuvik in any battery-operatd vehicle (yet) with any substantial payload.