Data.gov & 7 Other Sites to Shut Down After Budgets Cut • Hacker News Board

Re: Data.gov & 7 Other Sites to Shut Down After Budgets Cut

#61

Post by jonhendry » Fri, Apr 01, 2011, 11:01 PM UTC

eli wrote: post #14

This is a misleading headline. Nothing has happened yet. From the source article: The White House requested $35 million for the e-government fund in 2011. The House allocated only $2 million in its bill, H.R. 1. The Senate, meanwhile, would provide $20 million for the e-government fund. http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=35&sid=2327798 It's a budget fight, similar to the ones going on at hundreds of agencies right…

There's no common sense to be found, especially on the GOP side. There are a number of money-saving programs that they're trying to significantly defund, which would end up costing more than they save.

For instance, funding for poison control call centers. Instead of just calling up a call center, people who are afraid they or their kid has been poisoned would have to go to the emergency room, which is far more expensive even if it's a false alarm.

They're just making piddly penny-wise, pound-foolish cuts that will barely scratch the deficit.

Re: Data.gov & 7 Other Sites to Shut Down After Budgets Cut

#62

Post by Luyt » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 6:37 AM UTC

streptomycin wrote: post #53

Duff wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That analogy only works if the husband is also printing money in the basement. As long as you need dollars to buy oil, we'll continue with nonsensical debate like this.

You don't need dollars to buy oil. Oil is currently sold in other currencies as well. In fact, it doesn't matter what currency it's sold in, as you can easily exchange currencies in the market.

Where does the USA gets its oil from?

"More than a third of our petroleum, about 37% of our total usage, is produced domestically by our own oil companies. I'm not sure why people seem to forget about those guys, ExxonMobil and Chevron and all of them; you may resent them but they are the principal source of our non-foreign-dependent energy. So this means that only a bit less than two thirds of our petroleum is imported. That still means most of our petroleum comes from OPEC, right? Wrong. Most of our petroleum imports come from non-OPEC countries; 56% of it, in fact. Of that 56%, the majority is from Canada and Mexico, who are about as far removed from the Middle East as can be. The rest of it is from other random places like Angola, Russia, the Virgin Islands, and Brazil [...]"

Source: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4032

Also interesting: Peak Oil, http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4100

Re: Data.gov & 7 Other Sites to Shut Down After Budgets Cut

#63

Post by Duff » Sun, Apr 03, 2011, 5:26 PM UTC

Luyt wrote: post #62

streptomycin wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need dollars to buy oil. Oil is currently sold in other currencies as well. In fact, it doesn't matter what currency it's sold in, as you can easily exchange currencies in the market.

Where does the USA gets its oil from? "More than a third of our petroleum, about 37% of our total usage, is produced domestically by our own oil companies. I'm not sure why people seem to forget about those guys, ExxonMobil and Chevron and all of them; you may resent them but they are the principal source of our non-foreign-dependent energy. So this means that only a bit less than two thirds of our petroleum is impor…

Aggregate numbers are misleading, because oil supplies to specific regions of the country have radically different origins.

Also, much of the oil "imported" from Canada actually transits through Canadian oil ports and is delivered to the US via pipeline.