If you see a job that needs doing..
A lot of looking up to the sky may have helped our understanding of what we are doing to our own planet too.
I find creationism the hardest theory to grasp, if the universe absolutely couldn't exist without a creater then who created the creater? The shoebox theory is not any more crazy to be fair, maybe there are far more significant beings out there but they are simply oblivious to our existence.
Chatgpt replied to me yesterday about life in our solar system and outside it.
Here’s where scientists are focusing and why:
Upcoming missions (like Europa probes and future Mars sample returns) could finally answer this question.
Planets beyond our solar system are called exoplanets, and we’ve discovered thousands of them. Some look surprisingly Earth-like.
Scientists look for planets in the “habitable zone”—the distance from a star where liquid water could exist.
Some famous examples:
No direct evidence yet. But scientists are getting closer by studying atmospheres.
They look for biosignatures—gases that could indicate life, like:
Space telescopes like James Webb Space Telescope are already analyzing these.
Many scientists believe:
So statistically, life elsewhere is very likely—but:
We’re at a stage similar to knowing continents existed before we explored them—we’ve found the “planets,” now we’re trying to figure out what’s actually on them.
When I read the last bit all I could think of was
This is why I love sci-fi. I really enjoy listening to sci-fi to see authors take on what might be out there. Star talk with Neil DeGrass Tyson is really interesting podcast, I find him easy to listen to.
They could do with looking at planets with out water and oxygen.
Who's to say there arent life forms on other planets who survive on carbon dioxide but die on oxygen for example.
I don't know the timescale for the government reducing it tbh. It'd want to be fairly lively as getting it may be the issue according to yer man .
He was hardly the only one that could have invested in global equities etc , was he ? Supporting Trump is a bit like religion, if enough of people support him , then it develops a critical mass .Watch the response of the markets to his re-election
And he had enough support and believers to see him elected twice much as that doesn’t go down well with the liberals here
that was the F104 wasn’t it? Happed in a steep dive
II think it's impossible to know how dear it's going to get, if the speculators think that there is a major squeeze, they'll buy and sit on it until it rockets. Funny how the rich countries are cutting taxes on fuel while the poorer countries are telling people leave the car at home.
I expect this to be an unpopular opinion but,
if we’re facing a genuine squeeze on availability over the next 6-8 weeks, reducing the price of fuel isn’t necessarily the solution either 🤷🏻
we know lots of people were forced back into commuting just to keep office lease values high rather than any real productivity drive.
It’s hard to see a solution that hits all bases.
We can’t long term take the duty off fuel, part of the 2008 crash in ireland hit so hard because we had all revenue coming from the new home sector, diversifying and having other revenue streams is key. But everyone protests at that be it fuel, vrt or water charges. We need a diversified taxation system, however we get that balance sorted I don’t have that answer.
I was just thinking the same thing. If fuel is dropped in price we would all fill the tanks thus exacerbating any potential shortages.
I'd still like to see it cheaper
Price is not a way to ration any commodity with limited availability. At its extreme, Ireland exported grain while people starved.
That’s a good alternative viewpoint in fairness.
I think the government probably need an upper feeling to what their € tax take is on a litre of fuel. while we need diverse tax sources, nothing should be over done.
A good starting point for fairness & equality would be a tax system where everyone pays their faur share.
Cut out this tax exile bs
We have a fairly fair tax system not perfect but fairly fair. The lads that are tax exiles would probably f@@knoff if the system was different.
Biggest issue we have is we do not tax propert enough and we do not charge for domestic water and sewerage. As well we do not tax low wages. Students, pensioners, part time workers pay virtually no tax. If you are self employed you can shelter so.e income.
Top 1% of earners ( over 200k) pay 19% of pur ta
Top 10% ( over 71k) pay 61% of our tax
Issue is when you hit a recession these are the cohort that suffer the largest income decline( lose there job, there business incone declines or there business collapses) etc) which crucifies our tax system.
We have no water charges, too many free add ons to the welfare system.
Shoukd anyone visiting tge doctor with a medical card pay 5 or 10 euro to the doctor. Should a person accessing our A&E's have to give there PPS numbers and be billed 20-50 euro. If you do not pay its deducted from your wages like tax or from your social welfare. Revenue have automated so it would be possible to implement now compared to 10 years ago.
There is a signifi ant push on inheritance tax at present, I actually think the only change should be to amalagate the tier2&3 into.ine allowance of 80-100k. The farm leasing rax free income should be reduced significantly or phased out completely.
Dirt, capital gains should be changed. Inco.e off investments over 5 years shpd be taxed aa capital gain and have a decent tax allowance. Its has not been xhanged in 15+ years.
I would take issue more with the way the tax money is being spent than anything else. The bloated quangos of the civil service and the county councils being prime examples.
Dont mind paying tax really if I thought it was being utilised correctly. Which its not. And will never be.
Some citizens in most countries probably feel just like that. Yet, taxation has to happen, money must be collected. The broader the base for this collection the less the potential shocks down the line. People cried foul in 2008 with our over reliance on housing for tax take, yet there have been nothing but moaning, complaints and protests at attempts to broaden the tax base. 2026 and here we are again staring down the barrel of a global recession and essentially over reliance on one single tax revenue stream again, just it’s the multinationals this time.
I should have been clearer saying i agree with what your saying. Your right in what your saying all the tax eggs shouldn't be in one basket. I can't back it up but US companies are 75% of the tax take here??Thats a big egg and people are calling to stop doing businness with US and Israel ( same thing ). Who turns the wheel then
Bass made great points about giving the pps number at A+E and the GP. Not going to happen though. We've a massive social welfare and asylum bills which are here to stay aswell no matter what our tax take is. Theres not going to be any relevant tax cuts. In the next recession who will get the blame i wonder.
Plus 1.
I work in the public service, last Autumn the opw came round to survey where I work to seek areas to spend money, I kid you not to 'spend money'. Now did you ever survey your farm or business to seek to spend money? We all know where money should be allocated to without a survey. I also aware this was carried out on multiple public service sites.
They didn't learn from the last recession. Fact; corporation tax is not going to last and its unfairly propping up our revenues just like VAT did in the celtic tiger.
Last budget they should have gave relief to the middle class instead of useless capital expenditure, but next time out when the need to buy votes they be looking for money as they can get that room to spend it.
So are you saying US is built on a false premise waiting to collapse? It's an honest question not trick or analytical follow up.
They already look for your pps number at a&e
but do you have to give it
The problem in the US is there system is flawed. For years and still is its based on a low tax system. This has denuded there education and health systems, as well as preventing social supports. Our system is flawed, but theres is beyond repair because of there voting and political system.
When you have only 50% of your school going children going to college in a modern technological world you arr basically f@@ked
All the times we were in last year we were never asked for it
Were you providing health insurance details instead?
Thinking back ye initially we were and then he got a medical card. Had one of the kids at minor injuries unit recently, in and out xray and treated within an hour for €75. Thought it was a great service
Local council wanted to spend €180,000 on a footpath from our primary school to a church car park 200m away. The funding was from some “active travel” thing which meant the kids had to walk a certain distance to the school for the school to qualify.
It was completely unsuitable, making the children and parents walk in the rain. Road safety was another obvious issue.
But 3 council officials came out to a public meeting, including a “behaviour change specialist” to try to persuade people this was a great idea.
Thankfully the parents and the school’s Board of Management withdrew support and that was that.
What didn’t help was An Taisce were the brains behind the footpath plan
if the US was any other country their economy would have crashed by now but the entire global financial system is dependent on the Dollar. If that goes bang everybody looses. So it’s in other countries interest to keep buying is dept and keep kicking the can down the road
You can see plenty of alternative trade deals being set up to sideline tie US over time. The longer Trump stays in power the stronger and more ingrained these alternative trade routes become. Trump is also risking loosing the petrodollar/reserve currency which massively favours the US in global trade.
It’s looking more and more likely that a global recession is imminent, coming out of that countries will definitely flex away from reliance on the US to prevent them having enough power to drag us all down again.
