leicsmac

... but apparently some people had "legitimate concerns"...

... and this one hurricane will release more energy, easily, than the entire nuclear arsenal of every single nation on the planet put together. The Earth is, often, awe-inspiring. And sometimes it's utterly terrifying.

It's like every eighty to one hundred years, these ideas of demographic superiority really come to the fore for whatever reason. Unfortunately, the same history also shows that to disabuse people of those toxic notions, the cost is...rather high.

Agreed. It is an unfortunate fact, however, that the average severity - and therefore cost - of these events is going to simply keep rising year on year.

It certainly is very Marmite, for reasons I'll not go into too much here because spoilers.

Higher than the historical average, lower than some of the maximum experienced in recent times, apparently. Ditto the typhoon season in the Pacific. Sign of the times that even "quieter" seasons push the average up.

Itsover9000.gif

Given the current atmosphere, I'm thinking that's actually more like a tactical nuclear device. Bravo!

On the above, good piece from Scott Manley (good bloke for anything about manned spaceflight) on the current Chinese Moon program:

A House of Dynamite, on Netflix. Nothing wrong with the acting or the screenplay and Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson et al are on form, but...

Random find: "We’re on a 4.5 billion-year-old planet that took 10-20 million years to form, orbiting a giant smoldering nuclear reactor, in a galaxy called The Milky Way that contains over 200 billion other star systems, and there are hundreds of billions of other entire galaxies similar to this one just in our own observable universe that are millions and billions and trillions of light years away, and some people are still spending the measly 50-100 years they have on this finite little planet angry that other people live their lives infinitesimally and harmlessly differently to them because an old book that might as well have been written 5 seconds ago and/or an old man told them to be."

It's a bit grim out there.

Fair, previous points about this particular renovation being rather different in terms of intent notwithstanding.

On certain things, the outcome is and will be a lot worse than "not good".

Quite right: I don't quite believe how a human being can be so dismissive of everyone's future including their own, so I'm looking for further information to come to any conclusion other than the obvious one.

It's the sheer scale of pomposity and (more important) self aggrandisement that gets to me. The whole idea of the office of the President is that they are first and foremost a public servant. They are elected to serve in the public interest rather than their own. Now, pretty much every past leader has understood that, or had the vague sense of humility to at least pay lip service to the idea. The current incumbent does neither - it has always been about him and his circle of sycophants looking for a power trip and to abuse that power. What baffles me more is how this blatant self interest has been spun and manipulated in a way that has managed to get enough people on board to actually win power in a democratic system, even though the vast majority of those same people are going to gain nothing and lose lots from what has already happened, and certainly what will happen, all in the name of the ego of one corrupt and sociopathic old man.

There was some talk about this all in the cvnts thread recently, and I would invite those who still doubt the consensus of data to further explain their reasoning here. Genuine curiosity; I really want to get my head round why a person would choose that particular pathway and I've never heard a really fully decent explanation.

Also, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Felon#47 destroying the entire East Wing of the White House for his own personal vanity project yet. Edit: sorry, looks like it has been mentioned, but only in passing.

Yep. There are people out there perfectly willing, capable, and acting, of using the democratic process and its freedoms to destroy it. Digital media has given them the power to make such a process much, much easier. But while that appears reasonably obvious, the more difficult follow on is.. with that knowledge in hand, what is to be done?

Rumours that the current US administration are going to completely defund/shutter NASA. ... congratulations on totally handing this century to the Chinese with practically zero effort needed on their part, guys.

Seems like still too much of an overreliance on fossil fuels there, but... Anyway, seriously guys, this is the cvnt thread, not the sci thread. Another one that does deserve a place here: Vladimir Kramnik, if the allegations about him turn out to be true.

And would that party as they are now approve similar projects, or simply echo Reform in looking to oil and gas for the sake of making a quick buck at the expense of the future?

"The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh, no one is invalidated but no one is right. Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in "Truth". ....And this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang...but with a whimper." It's rather scary how the same matter can be viewed so differently.

Good to see some Thursday morning hyperbole on here. On the general topic of the inquiry itself, it looks like only a broad public inquiry will do, however I would be happy for anyone to point out a way forward on this one that doesn't result in innocent people being hurt, given that both the victims obviously deserve answers and there are people out there who would happily utilise this issue to visit bigotry upon innocent people are true.

Anyhow, this thread seems have been a bit derailed, would be good to continue it on the Sci thread? To get things back on track... Donald Trump. No specific reason required.