unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

You just like it because you have a bat with barbed wire wrapped around it.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
https://i.imgur.com/4Vdpl4u.png
Hmm, that's not good. We are clearly in the midst of a big spike. Still going full steam ahead with reopening. 99% of the deaths and hospitalizations are people who are not vaccinated. So it seems like many people made peace with the fact that they are the ones getting sick. Liberals are like "all those unvaccinated are Trump supporters. Oh well". Conservatives still think the whole thing is fake news. I knew that when the virus left Asia we were never going to eradicate it but the growth in cases really makes that knowledge palpable.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3422
https://www.theguardian.com/environment … -to-growth

LOL scientists resurrect dead and irrelevant paper from 50 years ago. combing through the past like a bunch of hipster morons.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Yes but how did the Romans deal with plagues?

Did they use red lead or white lead as a tincture and how did mixed race LGBTIQ Romans feel about this?

I think someone could easily build a career out of this, many papers and short-run books at least.

Anyway, I thought you didn't believe in Malthusian hypotheses.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2021-07-25 20:38:20)

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
One interesting thing about this plague that is similar to a prior one is the effects on the labor market. After the Black Death, the price of labor went up due to worker scarcity. The U.S. is going through something similar. We are having labor shortages here too. People don't want to accept low wages anymore.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I suspect the country will do its best to ease the burden of wage increases, but only for businesses big enough to have politicians in their pockets.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
From what I read the states that got rid of their unemployment programs did not see an increase in people applying for jobs. They did manage to deny billions of dollars in free money flowing into their state though. Excellent job. Can't blame Walmart for that idea.

What is being hit hardest are food service jobs like restaurants. That situation is complicated.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Yes, who would have known that getting people to spend money is probably an important thing in rebuilding a choked out economy and keeping beleaguered businesses afloat.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
The raised bed I bought to grow tomatos has a bunch of obviously not tomato plants in it. I can't believe this happened since the bed is 2 feet off the ground. I didn't think seeds can fly on the wind that far.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Unsure if serious comment. Lots of seeds blow around, also via animal poop, also sometimes already in the potting soil you buy. Did you take biology?
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
Yes, I took Biology. That's why I am surprised instead of screaming divine intervention or sabotage.

The potting soil is Miracle-Grow. I assumed the soil is somehow filtered for seeds. If that seems dumb to you remember I live in NYC. The intricacies of soil isn't a thing we think about here.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

No process is 100% I guess. You'd have to have a pretty sterile, enclosed environment to more completely avoid other plants spreading into your stuff.

I had a bag of sand that'd been sitting around for a long time. Plants grew out of it for awhile. I didn't have the heart to remove them. They were doing their best and all.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Climate change: Do individual actions really matter?
https://news.yahoo.com/climate-change-d … 06858.html

Climate change: Massive Attack gig data to cut live music impact
https://news.yahoo.com/climate-change-m … 57769.html

From first link:

The new report adds to an overwhelming volume of scientific evidence that major changes must be made at every level of the world economy to prevent already-extreme weather events from becoming even more catastrophic. Governments around the world have established ambitious plans to reduce their carbon emissions. President Biden, for example, committed to cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade.
Every level.

Repost/Re: performance PC ban. I'm interested to see if large corporations and major retailer chains are matching at all, or if I can still walk into a warehouse store in California and be assaulted by chilly AC temps while I examine the wall of 50 display TVs, or if governments will ultimately stick to token efforts against the lowest hanging fruits.

Does a skyscraper really need its extraneous trim lighting on all the time? Is that really less important than a difference of 30 watts or whatever in a pre-built PC. It already feels like you can just buy your way out of contributing to a meaningful solution, like some sort of cliché Hollywood take. Millionaires in their large mansions, but let's get the guy living in a 1 bed 1 bath with a too-strong computer in their shopping cart.

Should communities be taxed for shooting down alternative energy projects because eyesore?
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Every action matters, a carbon tax would make it fair. You can buy whatever PC you want as long as you pay the electric bill.

Here every teenager seems to have at least a full size Ford Ranger, environmental standards are slack and manufacturers are dumping their gas-guzzlers on us.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

There is a little inequality to go around in the concept. A tax that would affect people with less resources disproportionately. How it's calculated may also be problematic, since different families and homes have different needs and costs.

Some of the people here are convinced EV are all rigged to explode or something. Like I feel I needn't have to point out what a gas tank is filled with and some of the reputations of older vehicles boomers should be familiar with by notoriety alone, but …

Anyway, as in other things, much misinformation persisting about EV. I'd be thrilled with one. I'm currently driving something from the 90s, and am tired of dealing with its myriad issues.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Until battery prices come down, and $=CO2 when you think about it, a Corolla still makes more sense than most electric cars.

CO2 is CO2. Stopping poor people emitting CO2 is just as effective as stopping rich people emitting CO2. The atmosphere really doesn't care if its rich person or poor person CO2.

I suppose the question really is whether poor people have a right to live at all.

A carbon tax and progressive taxation are the way to go except thats socialism which obviously is bad.
A progressive carbon price is way too hard although it can be done on electric bills to some extent - but then people with multiple homes win, which I suppose is reverse socialism so thats good.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
A nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy and his wife have been charged with trying to share some of the United States’ most closely held secrets on submarine technology with another country, according to court documents unsealed on Sunday.

The engineer, Jonathan Toebbe, was accused of trying to sell information on the nuclear propulsion system of U.S. Virginia-class attack submarines — the technology at the heart of a recently announced deal with Britain and Australia.

While rivals like Russia and China have long sought details of U.S. submarine propulsion, it was unclear whether the unsolicited offer was to an adversary or an ally.
...
According to the court documents, the investigation into the Toebbes began in December 2020, when the F.B.I. obtained a package that had been sent to another country with operational manuals, technical details and an offer to establish a covert relationship. The package was intercepted in the other country’s mail system and sent to an F.B.I. legal attaché.

“Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency,” a note in the package read. “I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax.”
Dilbert, don't do this method.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

The fucking balls to rat out your own nuclear navy after being cleared for that kind of work. Unless I guess this is some sort of convoluted counter-espionage.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
They wanted $100,000. That seems tiny.

With modern cyber espionage I doubt they had access to anything China or Russia didn't already have. Also, they didn't release what country they tried to sell secrets to but I would be really surprised if China or Russia would actually handoff stuff to the FBI.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

The article says his wife was a teacher, so it's like dilbert and you.

Why are teachers and engineers like this?
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
The wife was apparently the lookout for the dead drops.

So much to breakdown...what the hell was that lady on the lookout for? Students sharing notes? What was her plan?

If the person you are spying for tells you to leave something in a specific location doesn't that defeat the purpose of a dead drop? Aren't you supposed to drop the item first and then alert the other side about where to find it? $100,000? That's it?
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

If he wanted 100k, couldn't he have stayed in the Navy for another year? That's about what nuclear engineers there make.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Climate change: Sir David Attenborough in 'act now' warning
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59039485

In his lifetime, it has been estimated Sir David has travelled 1.9 million miles – the equivalent of flying around the world 763 times – and has made almost 400 trips to 94 different countries.

For The Life of Birds documentary series, broadcast on the BBC in 1998, he travelled 256,000 miles – the equivalent of travelling around the world ten times - to visit 42 countries.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity- … m-23226868
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
+492|3422
fixation on individual travel is insane. can consumers modify their behaviour? yes, absolutely. but individual consumers choosing to stay home won't help to pivot the global economy away from oil and fossil fuels; it won't stop heavy industry from gutting and reducing the planet, including destroying ecosystems willy nilly; it won't stop the world's most powerful, most of which are literally fossil fuel conglomerates, from doing exactly what they want. for that, you need systemic change.

this is very much a case of 'yes, keep recycling your bottles and using paper straws whilst the petro-chemical companies self-report their own green stats and cover up their immense contributions' type stuff. not exactly deep analysis on your part.

but i guess it's easier to get pissy at a nonagenarian looking at birds than to reckon with, say, your role in heavily polluting and unnecessary industries. are all those submarines you brag about designing carbon neutral mate? notoriously green, the military-industrial complex.

i mean, you really can't make it up, can you: guy who grows up in kuwait or qatar or whatever oil-rich neo-colonial dependency it was, and who has made his living helping to design military systems in order to control world supply of said oil-rich region, gets mad at a naturalist for travelling.

Last edited by uziq (2021-10-25 21:23:09)

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