Random Thoughts II

[MadMax]

A courierpost service is reaching d-day with a move to a new one (last day this weekend). Their Helpdesk however is overrun with Measles.

[Ab]

Wut

[Ab]

Jump on Twitter, search for “Jeremy Soule”, and watch the real-time destruction of the composer of half your fave game musical scores.

[Lightspeed]

Lead has time to play classic WoW, but it's nearly two weeks since I've seen a post of Butters to the 'gram. I'm disappointed.

[StN]

Oh man, I am all for Maori language week, but I can't help but think that encouraging everyone here at work to produce a pepeha is going to make a gold mine for anyone wanting to socially engineer some identity fraud or at least password seeds.

[Ab]

Bumped into an obvious bunch of visiting Kiwis on the tram here other day and it was nice to bust out some primary school te reo on them, hi everyone, welcome to Adelaide, where are you all from, my family are from the Bay of Plenty and Otago, etc etc. Not every day I get to kōrero Māori in the whitest city in Australia.

I'm totally down with Māori Language Week and I think constructing a pepeha is a cool thing to do. But the whole point is to be able to deliver it orally on the spot, it's something to be learned and internalised not filed as part of a staff exercise. And yes, the first rule of the Internet is do not post personal information anywhere public.

[StN]

Yep - I agree - but the push here seemed to be to publish Youtube vids of each person.

[Lightspeed]

If people do a Google image search for imgur, does it come up with mostly big titty girls (plus a few weird other ones.) Or is that just Google trying to say it knows me?

I did the search by accident, went to close the window but got stalled wondering what all the titty girls were about.

[StN]

Yeah - Nah, I think you are right. It's just BTG all the way down.

[crocos]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

If people do a Google image search for imgur, does it come up with mostly big titty girls (plus a few weird other ones.) Or is that just Google trying to say it knows me?

I did the search by accident, went to close the window but got stalled wondering what all the titty girls were about.

My theory: They act as the default image host for Reddit. Reddit has a LOT of NSFW sections.

Also found this gem whilst searching for that: https://imgur.com/gallery/Tn5taMe/

[DrTiTus]

I've changed my mind about the CO2 global warming "apocalypse". I blindly accepted the narrative, and had no reason to doubt it. Seemed reasonable, the CO2 level was rising, therefore we're all going to die. After watching some documentaries/YouTube videos, and reading the web, I've realised that there are plenty of scientists who DON'T agree with the "doom porn" that we're being told, and think that CO2 is nothing to worry about. (So I won't)

That's not to say we don't have environmental problems - [over]population is probably a big one, which drives industry, which produces waste and pollution. At least we can see that pollution is real. We also have major economic problems that we need to face [megacorps, class division, massive debt/money printing, corruption, etc.]. But to say "we must not drive cars!" or "sorry Africa, you can't industrialise because we've reached peak CO2" is going too far. Wake me up when the proposed solution involves action rather than a tax.

Remember when we used to hear about peak oil all the time? Whatever happened to that? Seems to no longer be an issue worthy of any airtime. Today's outrage happens to be measles, and next week it'll be a couple more mass shootings in the US, and we still won't hear shit about Israel attacking Iran.

I expect your reaction is probably ridicule or a rolling of eyes, but have you ever taken the time to look at the science for yourself, or listen to scientists on the other side of the fence directly, rather than just listen to Bill Nye the Science Guy swear or watch the news? The fact we're not even "allowed" to discuss the possibility that CO2 is not the driver of climate change is a bit absurd. (eg. Stuff has an official policy of not giving any coverage to skepticism)

Just putting it out there. I reserve the right to change my mind of course, as I've done only recently. Unlike anti-vaxxers, I don't think my skepticism puts anyone in danger. I've done my time as a vegetarian (and still prefer veges to meat most days), I've gone solar, I don't drive to work, and I've opted not to have children. As far as I'm concerned, I've done my part "just in case". I just don't believe the hype.

[Juju]

Ok then, so what is causing the global rise in temperature?

[pxpx]

10 years of national government, obv.

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by Juju

Ok then, so what is causing the global rise in temperature?

A lack of pirates.

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by Juju

Ok then, so what is causing the global rise in temperature?

Apparently the sun/solar activity has a lot more control over our climate - the same thing that makes day time 20-30 degrees hotter than night time. The rise in temperature over the industrial period is measured as about 1 degree C (on average as a trend over 200+ years). Global mean temperature in 2018 was colder than 2015, 2016, and 2017. Yet CO2 levels are at an "all time high". Lucky for me, I am able to stay alive during both day time and night time temperatures, so I'm pretty confident 1 degree or even 2-5 degrees (should I live another thousand years or more) isn't gonna kill me. Historic records show humans have survived through warmer periods and colder periods, and that climate does change without human involvement.

Now, should food supplies be threatened as a result of changing climate (or overfishing, or disease outbreak in livestock, etc) - do you think we'll die from heat, asphyxiation, or starvation? And can we solve that problem with a bicycle?

[Ab]

I had never heard of the WW1 Battle of Oswiec Fortress until today and it is the most Russian thing ever. Along with all those other ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Dead_Men

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

Apparently the sun/solar activity has a lot more control over our climate - the same thing that makes day time 20-30 degrees hotter than night time. The rise in temperature over the industrial period is measured as about 1 degree C (on average as a trend over 200+ years). Global mean temperature in 2018 was colder than 2015, 2016, and 2017. Yet CO2 levels are at an "all time high". Lucky for me, I am able to stay alive during both day time and night time temperatures, so I'm pretty confident 1 degree or even 2-5 degrees (should I live another thousand years or more) isn't gonna kill me. Historic records show humans have survived through warmer periods and colder periods, and that climate does change without human involvement.

Now, should food supplies be threatened as a result of changing climate (or overfishing, or disease outbreak in livestock, etc) - do you think we'll die from heat, asphyxiation, or starvation? And can we solve that problem with a bicycle?

There's a lot to unpack here, and I commend you for being skeptical, it's healthy.

A key message for you would be that there's an incredibly important distinction between 1-5 degrees of daily local temperature, and 1-5 degrees of global mean temperature.
Local temperatures change with the day/night, wind, etc.
Global mean temperatures change due to energy the planet receives from the Sun and how much it radiates back into space - something that on a global scale, typically doesn't change much.
It's incredibly hard to figure out what sort of impact that small number change has, so you just need to look at the past, to predict the future.

XKCD actually did a decent infograph that illustrated this very well, and I'm yet to find anything else that puts it into better context.

https://xkcd.com/1732/

Key points:
4 degrees less than the global mean temperature 1961-1990, and Boston is buried under almost a mile of ice.
It's been a steady +- 0.5 degrees of variance, for the last 9000 years.
It's increased by 1 degree in the last 100 years.


Climate does change without human involvement, but the speed and degree at which it's changing is unprecedented, and it's undeniably anthropogenic.

At the end of the day, the Earth will be fine. Humans will be fucked.

[Nich]

And there's the investment prospectus angle:

IS GLOBAL WARMING THE BIGGEST FRAUD IN HISTORY? - Dan Pena
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjlC02NsIt0

Dan Pena is difficult to listen to (he talks with caps lock on), if what he says is true, it is curious that the markets and banks don't think climate change is enough of a threat to factor into a property prospectus.

It could also be that the period Pena is referring to (2000 onwards) is also a period where banks are reckless and convinced they can issue loans all over the shop and the debts will get paid back no matter what (and 2009 gave them no reason to doubt that)

[DrTiTus]

I watched a talk by Willie Soon. Less swearing. His critics claim he's funded by oil companies (I checked).

I also watched the Great Global Warming Swindle which was less sciencey, and more a revelation that at least some scientists disagree. Critics claim "misrepresentation" (I checked).

There is also a list of scientists who disagree, which includes three New Zealanders (argument from Aotearoa). Obviously this is not a list of everyone on Earth who disagrees, just the scientists who are willing to risk their careers to state their opinion publicly.

It's undeniably a "Problem-Reaction-Solution" pattern of marching toward totalitarianism at an unprecedented rate with our school children leading the way.

Whether the environment is going to be fucked, or we're going to have a boot stamping on our face forever, this is why I have chosen not to have kids. Not sharing my rations with some ungrateful little prick.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Nich

And there's the investment prospectus angle:

IS GLOBAL WARMING THE BIGGEST FRAUD IN HISTORY? - Dan Pena
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjlC02NsIt0

Dan Pena is difficult to listen to (he talks with caps lock on), if what he says is true, it is curious that the markets and banks don't think climate change is enough of a threat to factor into a property prospectus.

It could also be that the period Pena is referring to (2000 onwards) is also a period where banks are reckless and convinced they can issue loans all over the shop and the debts will get paid back no matter what (and 2009 gave them no reason to doubt that)

His argument sounds suspiciously like "if it were a ponzi scheme, people wouldn't be investing in it!"

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by Nich

IS GLOBAL WARMING THE BIGGEST FRAUD IN HISTORY?

Betteridge's law of headlines.

[[fe]]

Have been on a Google Detox recently. No crusade just cutting the sugar. ex-Chrome*/Search*/Play Store /AndroidOS* /Maps /Gmail /Calendar /Photos /(voice)Assistant. Which they made so easy to use.

[Cyberbob]

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe ex-president, dies aged 95

I'll be donating a million dollars* to charity as a celebration.



*Zimbabwean dollars.

[Ab]

I endorse the previous 2 posts.

[StN]

Words literally fail me. We haven't even had the trial yet, and he thought this was a great idea for visitors to the city to see.

[Cyberbob]

"Gun City owner David Tipple claims the most common factor in mass murders is a "lack of [a] biological father upbringing and violent video games" - not guns."

That tells me all I need to know about Gun City owner David Tipple.

[Ajax]

Originally Posted by Cyberbob

I'll be donating a million dollars* to charity as a celebration.

*Zimbabwean dollars.

That's about NZD$4300 at current value - pretty generous. Nice one, I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

[Ab]

But what is it now?

[StN]

Originally Posted by StN

Words literally fail me. We haven't even had the trial yet, and he thought this was a great idea for visitors to the city to see.

A quick chat (and free publicity) later, sensibleness ensues.

[Lightspeed]

He should have stuck to his guns (...), demanded funding for a new youth centre or something in exchange for changing up his signage.

That was his complaint after all, kids need better upbringings, he had a unique opportunity.

[Ab]

Speaking of branding, Morgan Godfery snarked it better than I could:

@MorganGodfery

marketing intern: what are we doing for māori language week sir?

air nz ceo chris luxon: trademarking kia ora

[Pepsi]

Just got back from a nice little holiday in the States, and of course had to check out the Star Wars section of Disneyland.. here's my terrible pano shot of the Millennium Falcon, because poidh.

[Lightspeed]

Sober reading:

What If We Stopped Pretending?

The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it.

[Lightspeed]

I just had my mind blown. Watching this video Best selling video game consoles 1977 - 2019 and wondered how many the console I recalled playing before the Atari 2600, the Fountain sold.

So I look it up and it was made in Auckland?!

https://www.motat.org.nz/collections...-games-543681/

Was that common a thing at the time, small product consoles?

[Lightspeed]

Star Trek Federation's approach to science as seen by other species. Long wall of text as image, sorry.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

I just had my mind blown. Watching this video Best selling video game consoles 1977 - 2019 and wondered how many the console I recalled playing before the Atari 2600, the Fountain sold.

So I look it up and it was made in Auckland?!

https://www.motat.org.nz/collections...-games-543681/

Was that common a thing at the time, small product consoles?

Wow, I remember that one but I have no idea why. A school friend of mine must've had one.

[Lightspeed]

Once I started to dig it up more, memories of all these games I played game back to me: Duck Shooting, Leap Frog, Tank & Plane, Challenge, Code Breaker, some brick and ball game, some Pong variant.

This was the actual device:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1292_A...e_Video_System

[Lightspeed]

This page is a trip:
https://www.videogameconsolelibrary....htm#page=games

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by pxpx

10 years of national government, obv.

How did I not see this? I will fight you on the streets! I mean, not really because I respect common law or whatever it's called. Not regular law, that shit says Disney owns everything.

What were we talking about?

Oh yeah. There's a larger phenomena that results in both 10 years of National (with the kind of behaviour the party demonstrated) and unmitigated climate change. And Disney owning everything. Dummy.

ON THE STREETS!

[MadMax]