It’s not just Amazon and Apple
that expect massive taxpayer subsidies in exchange for locating
physical plant in your town: when Google builds a new data-center, it
does so on condition of multimillion-dollar “incentives” from local
governments – but Google also demands extraordinary secrecy
from local officials regarding these deals, secrecy so complete that
city attorneys have instructed town councillors to refuse to answer
questions about it during public meetings.
Data-centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, and so
companies are always on the hunt for low costs for these necessities.
Sometimes, those savings come from geography – siting a data-center by a
river or lake, or in a cooler climate – but they can also come from
sweetheart deals from local power and water companies.
The Partnership for Working Families has been fighting for transparency
on these deals since Google’s first wave of data-center buildouts in San
Jose in 2006. They recently filed public records requests in eight
cities where Google has built or is building data-center and seven
cities with Google offices.
The records reveal a pattern of extreme secrecy: Google uses
special-purpose, anonymous LLCs to do its deals, sometimes using
multiple LLCs for different parts of the deal (for example, one LLC
might acquire the land, and another might develop it).
Google binds the cities it deals with to vows of silence, through
extensive nondisclosure agreements. The agreements prohibit cities from
revealing Google’s power and water usage, payroll data, and investment
level. Google argues that these are trade secrets that might reveal
sensitive competitive data, but this is also the information that voters
need in order to assess whether they are getting value for money when
they hand over millions to one of the world’s largest, most profitable
companies.
What’s more, the NDAs also prohibit disclosure of the existence of the
NDAs themselves – a kafkaesque American version of the UK’s notorious “super-injunctions” – further shielding these deals from democratic scrutiny and debate.
For example, if it wasn’t for the Partnership for Working Families’
records requests, the people of Council Bluffs, Iowa would not know that
the city government sold Google 850 acres of land for one dollar; the
people of Midlothian, Texas would not know that Google got a ten-year
tax-holiday from the city in exchange for creating a mere 40 jobs; and
so on.
The secrecy doesn’t end after Google opens its data-centers, either. In
Berkeley County, South Carolina, Google formed a new LLC to apply for
additional water usage permits, years after it had opened its
data-center. The people of Berkeley County are not allowed to know how
much water Google is already drawing from their local aquifers, but the
new LLC was applying for permission to be the county’s third-largest
water user, and its link with Google was only discovered because the
company made the mistake of listing it as sharing an address with the
other anonymous LLC it had formed to build and operate its data-center.
Long-serving local officials defended the secrecy and the subsidies,
saying that corporate America expects democratically elected governments
to negotiate in secret to pay companies to operate in their
jurisdictions.
Throwback to all these Jesus comics I drew in 2012…
Good post OP
People forget that to Jesus, love was more important than the sins you commit
okay @danceswithunworldly but i’m pretty sure op’s point with this comic is that being LGBT+ is not a sin. and that homophobia, islamophobia, bigotry and hatred are sins – ones that Jesus is not pumped about ( “I didn’t die on a cross for this BS”).
the sins you commit are important to Jesus because they cause harm – and homophobia, rather than being gay, is one of those sins.
Not religious, but I fucking LOVE canon Jesus (and fandom Jesus sucks.)
That rabbit/hare post is messing me up. I’d thought they were synonyms. Their development and social behavior are all different. They can’t even interbreed. They don’t have the same number of chromosomes. Dogs, wolves, jackals, and coyotes can mate with each other and have fertile offspring but rabbits and hares cant even make infertile ones bc they just die in the womb. Wack.
These
are more genetically compatible than These
and that’s why morphology-based phylogeny has Issues
How do people think that hare and rabbit are synonyms?
What do they think about ducks and geese?
Sheep and goat? Mouse and rat? Crow and raven? Horse and donkey? Snake and viper? Wasp and bee? Lion and leopard? Butterfly and bat? Teddy and grizzly bears? Fox and wolf? Deer and moose?
How???!!!!
Lemme go through that list of yours because it’s really funny
“Ducks and geese” very commonly used interchangeably
“Sheep and goat” its anecdotal but the amount of times I’ve had to correct someone on this? oof
“Crow and raven” do you really think the average person knows the difference between a crow and raven? they Do Not
“Mouse and rat” VERY commonly used interchangeably
“Horse and donkey” not super common, but yes I’ve seen quite a few people call donkeys horses.
“Snake and viper” vipers ARE snakes?
“Wasp and bee” literally all the time my dude
“Lion and leopard” you’ve finally found one! but really, only because leopards have markings and lions don’t. leopards and cheetas are often confused.
“Butterfly and bat” you’ve found another but not really, as that’s like a fish and a camel sort of comparison and i can’t consider it valid. a better one would’ve been “butterfly and moth” but the answer for that would be yes, used interchangeably.
“Teddy and grizzly bears” …are they like. not similar? they’re both bears..no like i genuinely don’t know are they not just slightly different types of bear
“Fox and wolf” you’ve found another one!
“Dear and moose” and going out with another one! nice!
I ment it as a joke, and almost cannot believe your average person doesn’t know the differences :O
Now on to my little list: * Hare’s have longer ears, longer legs especially front legs, run like crazy. Rabbits live in holes, hares lay in the field. I would’ve thought most people would know about this due to the popularity of the hare vs turtle tale, or the Easter bunny fairy tale which is a hare.
(hare and rabbit)
* Ducks and geese are most definitely not interchangeable, this stuff you learn at kindergarden? the tree steps in size of common water foil, duck-goose-swan.
Geese have longer necks, are genreally more plumb. wider stance, and a low hanging chest area. Geese are also pretty territorial and will attack humans, ducks are the ones that can take off vertically out of the water.
Duck
goose
*Sheep are the ones that give you wool (no you don’t have to kill them for that!) and goats are those fuckers that eat everything.
(sheep left just saying)
*Ravens are bigger, have feathers on their beak, which is also more square. but yeah this one is a bit harder. and due to the fact that among ravens and among crows there are already many differences world wide.
*rats are about 4 times bigger then mouse. have a naked tail. just walk about, while mice almost always run.
*horse vs donkey
horse have an all hair tail, donkey’s more a meat tail with hair on the end. donkey’s ears are much bigger. donkey’s are generally smaller then the ‘average’ horse. *there are to many types of horse to make it more clear, and they can interbreed so there is also mule and hinny.
Horse brown, donkey grey (in this picture)
I always learned that vipers are not snakes but I could be wrong on this one. Vipers have a more triangilure head, and all have venom. only some snakes have venom. vipers have foldable fangs, and most have scales with a centre ridge.
Wasps are the evil ones, that can sting you a dozen times. bees can only sting you ones and then die themselves and they make honey. Generally wasp have a far smaller waist (wasp waist corset hint hint) the yellow is more bright, bees have a hairy middle body. wasps fly in straight lines and stop and hover in the exact same spot, bees circle around more.
yeah pretty clear difference.
*Butterfly vs bat, I was getting humoures when making the list.
*Grizzly vs Teddy bear
are you serious???
yeah same, definitely same. I’ll give my kid a grizzly when it’s born.
*fox and wolf I added this one because I’ve met people who do it wrong:
Foxes will eat your chicken, wolf yours sheep.
*deer and moose
Does it look like a deer, but is it really really big? yeah that’s a moose.
tbh it’s really cool you did this list! yeah, a lot of people really don’t know a ton about animals, and make mistakes that seem obvious to people that like. Do know that. Lol. I’ve seen people call swans ducks! a lot of people think mice are the babies and rats are the adults! even with the pictures, the goose and the duck look exactly the same (to me)! and I’ve also seen people call both hamsters and guinea pigs rats (when they. Actually don’t look alike at all.) so yknow, a list like this is pretty helpful!
