Open Forum
Now every other day.
It’s been requested that we schedule this every other day. We’ll give it a shot.
FILED UNDER: Open Forum
It’s been requested that we schedule this every other day. We’ll give it a shot.
ocean life faces mass extinction event
And the article’s by Carl Zimmer so you know it’s good.
The Age of Robot Farmers
Picking strawberries takes speed, stamina, and skill. Can a robot do it?
Nuggets fall in quadruple overtime. Portland leads the series 2-1. I wanna see this one go to 7.
@Teve: I’m seriously looking forward to the day when they make GPS-enabled ear tags for cattle. I could sit here at my computer and ping them all, make sure they aren’t being naughty and tearing down fences. We graze on a forest allotment in the summer, it would save us a lot of miles horseback if we knew where they were when it comes time to start bringing them home.
Ohhhh, and fencing….the person who invents an automated fencing machine will become very rich, very fast.
@Teve: Short of a first-world famine, I rather doubt that anything will turn us from our current path.
@Kit: it’s 2019, and we have an administration that is sending coal lobbyists to environmental conferences.
I have zero faith that humankind is going to avoid catastrophe.
link
@Jax:
And should get a special Nobel Prize for service to mankind.
News that probably was not on the main networks:
“Scientists meet in Washington about asteroid plans” (do they know something we don’t?)
“Province of Alberta shows dangers of a carbon “tax” deal”
“Strength training better than walking to prevent heart disease”
“Mysterious fireball lights up sky on east coast, shakes houses”
@Kit:
A first world famine that inconveniences the wealthy.
@Teve:
From what I understand, coal is generally no longer even competitive with renewables. And it’s hardly as if the industry is gigantic: if I have the numbers right, Apple’s yearly profit easily doubles the coal industry’s entire revenue. No, we seem to be pushing coal out of some sense of principle. We don’t care about money. We don’t care about new markets. We care about coal.
@Kit: a lot of people have said for years that the 21st century is going to be owned by China, but it’s sad to see the Republicans trying to just give it to them.
@Kit:
Well, coal is about the filthiest fuel there is, as regards mining, processing, and actual use. No other fuel pollutes so much at every step. That’s cost-effectiveness, yes?
@Kathy: “A first world famine that inconveniences the wealthy.”
Never going to happen. There will always be poor people to eat.
linky
@Tyrell:
Did you see Tyler Cowen’s piece on UFO sightings in the military? I thought of you when I read it.
Back in high school, a classmate observed there might be limits to human intelligence, but that human stupidity knows no bounds.
I’ve yet to decide whether this was profound or freaking obvious.
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@Kit:
I saw a claim a few days ago that Arby’s employs more people than coal mining.
Monday May 4, 1970 49 years ago today.
Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in Ohio
Never think that the government can not kill you.
@OzarkHillbilly: Whoever invented universal quick change for tractor implements also deserves a peace prize. Do you know how much grouchiness they have saved ag people everywhere? It might have even saved a few marriages. My Dad and I sure get along better when we can roll up, pull out the bar, drop the bucket and pick up the spears all in one go and without having to wrench on anything or talk to each other!
@Teve: “We’ve taken all this poor world can give/and we ain’t put back nothin'”
On an even cheerier note: “Earth First: We can strip mine the other planets when we’re done here.”
@Kathy: A common refrain of my AI classes back in college was “Artificial intelligence and genuine stupidity”.
WSJ: in news industry, a stark divide between haves and have nots
@James Pearce:
I live in the Bay Area, but … those teams are entertaining, like them both. Damon Lilliard is elite, McCollum is very good, and Jokic is close to elite, Murray will be, Millsap might have had the most underrated excellent career in the NBA
@al Ameda:
You guys have a pretty entertaining team out there too.
But I agree, Lilliard is damn amazing which will make victory, if it happens, all the more sweeter. Jokic got another triple-double, but give him four OTs and that’s what he’ll do. (I try not to think of the Nuggets grooming him for another team.)
Do you get the sense that Jokic makes Murray better? I think those guys want nothing more than to dish the ball to each other and watch what happens.
I read a really depressing book last week. It’s called The Uninhabitable Earth, and it’s a blunt statement of the range of climate impacts implied by the latest science. The author self-describes as not particularly green by inclination or behavior. Bottom line: your grandkids are screwed. Stopping global warming at the merely-awful 2 degrees C is no longer possible; even the most radical actions that are remotely politically possible will result in at least 4 degrees, more likely 5 degrees, which is well past the point where the annual cost of the disasters and displacements will exceed global GNP.
I was struck by the parallel between where we are in politics (i.e. where a factual account of the behavior of the GOP sounds like out-of-control hyperbole, and is therefore easily dismissed) and where we are in climate denial.
@DrDaveT: I haven’t read that book but I’ve heard two long podcasts with him.
Even the people who are willing to understand the size of the coming catastrophe aren’t willing to do enough to fix it.
I have zero faith humankind will avoid this catastrophe.
@Teve: Yeah, but if we move far enough inland and uprange, we’ll survive, and isn’t that what really matters anyway?
@The abyss that is the soul of cracker: humankind will survive. Modern global civilization? I wouldn’t bet on it.
@Teve: And Republicans will still argue those 84 represent real America.
@Teve:
Months back, as I joke, I suggested that states like California should settle thinly populated Red states, starting with Wyoming. It’s damn crazy but… But why not? Bring enlightenment to those savage lands! At the time, I calculated that we would need 90k voters to swing a senate seat, and reckoned the cost at $5 billion/year. That’s really not a lot of money–Jeff Bezos could pay for it himself. How many seats would need to be flipped to put the country back on a sure footing?
Why not?
@DrDaveT:
@Teve:
@The abyss that is the soul of cracker:
This is unguarantee-able, but my bet is that humanity survives. We have history on our side (knock on wood). At one point in the exodus from Africa, apparently we were reduced to few dozen individuals per subsequent mitochrondrial DNA analysis – that is flat-out on the brink, but we persevered and thrived.
We’ve survivied 200,000 years while being physically weak and getting by on savvy tactics and clever tools, and just by sorta stumbling on tech advances every now and again just by some smart people re-purposing and combining previously learned skill sets. Our current form of life and governments will likely dissolve, but the cool bit is we can easily scavenge off the remnants.
Most will likely die, but enough of us will move north or south enough, and inland enough to preserve the species (or the existing populations in those lands will eventually organically grow enough). We may have to re-experience warlords and feudalism again.
The future “winners” will probably be Canada, Siberia, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Patagonia. A few hundred years from now, the most vital city in the world might well be Frobisher Bay or Hobart or whatever city emerges from Tierra Del Fuego.
More asinine remarks from Our Pervert in Chief.
Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur. The best horse did NOT win the Kentucky Derby – not even close!
Bob Mueller should not testify. No redos for the Dems!
@James Pearce:
At about 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists pregame – Jokic makes everyone better. Nikola isn’t perfect, but I can tell you that 90% of the teams would love to have him right now, the Warriors among them.
Jokic isn’t perfect – he can seem a bit sluggish some times – but he plays the post so well, his offensive game is multi-faceted. I really like him.
@Jax:
They have these already, but I assume you have to pay for it now, though I could easily see this being a free service soon.
@Jax:
This is many decades out of date and may not be applicable anymore, but my Granddad’s tractor had a PTO that could power basically a crap-ton of seemingly inert farm equipment if properly attached. In fact, that PTO was probably was cumulatively worth as much as the tractor’s mobility and hauling power combined in a way per economic output.
Is all equipment independently powered nowadays?
@de stijl:
Oh, absolutely — there will still be billions of people living on earth. Maybe not as many as there are now, and not nearly as well in many cases, but humanity will survive. The book doesn’t argue for extinction of humans (though it does suggest a major extinction event is likely); it’s an argument for an impending reduction in global quality of life somewhere between “worst Depression ever that goes on for generations” and “global collapse”.
@al Ameda: Jokic is slow and his defense is weak but he’s the best-passing center I’ve seen in 30 years of watching the NBA.
@Teve:
Any center who can break the NBA’s clock-keeping is good in my book. You get bumped and dragged and are required to jet to the corner to cover the shot. Seriously, dude played hardcore for 64 minutes and that it is pretty astounding.