leicsmac

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.

The last paragraph here is spot on, which is why the thing has to be made financially appealing to help it be done. That's an important part of getting people on board. But that doesn't change anything about the fact that regardless it does have to be done and I'll happily use the WWII comparison freely and acceptably because firstly, if we wait until the threat is that immediate it will be too late, the vital resources of water and crops we rely on will be critically lowered, and there will be nothing left but got the shooting to start and count the bodies when it's all over, and secondly the scale of devastation this problem could cause, through both natural and man-made consequence (because warfare tends to happen when vital resources are at stake) would dwarf every single war in our past, WWII included. And so the accusation following from this is that pretty much the entire climate science corps is clueless or corrupt, again? Well, I guess various corners of the Internet see this particular libel every day, why should here be an exception... I'll say just what I tend to say whenever this comes up and there's clearly no ground to be gained; I hope that those people are right and I am wrong, because if that's the case we can at least visit in a couple of decades in a world that is still comfortable, and if it's the other way round...I would hope that those "lucky" people left looking for someone to hold accountable for the horror they find themselves in would be merciful. But they would have no reason to be, or to forgive any of us.

Lynas et al. There are next to no alternative views among those learned on the subject. This untruth is deeply frustrating, especially when it's then used to point to policy that will cause harm to us all.

It's like some folks simply don't want our species to progress at all. I wasn't aware that particular dichotomy was the only option available. There are many places all over the world that are actually planning for the future without putting an inordinate amount of financial strain on the individual. But let's just say that this dichotomy was indeed true - I wonder what the people who come after us would think if the generations that exist now wouldn't sacrifice anything to overcome a massive threat to their future - as many past generations have done? WWII cost the UK the remainder of its imperial possessions and a lot of cost to every citizen, but I don't reckon there were many folks then who said it wasn't a price worth paying.

And then taking some pisstaking in the opposite direction incredibly personally. Anyway, simply put; wanting to pursue fossil fuels for energy generation is at most charitable foolhardy hubris that will have a massive economic cost, and at least charitable flat-out death worship which considers the future death and suffering of a great part of both human civilisation and the biosphere as necessary in the name of satisfying one's own selfish short term desires.