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Comment Re:Thermostat (Score 1) 53

First, 'climate' and 'weather' are two very different things. Second, we can't control climate, we can only affect it in very specific ways. Pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere is easy, getting it out is hard (likely impossible).

And we had a very very clear target all along - limit the global temperture increase to no more than 1.5 C above pre-industrial temperatures. We missed that target.

Yeah, that was the target. Doesn't men that 1750 was the sweet spot, the correct amount of CO2.

I understand that a target is needed, but that target was seriously unrealistic, requiring zero emissions from humans, and a concentrated effort of re-sequestering every bit of Carbon release of over 200 years of release. Even when the concept of radiative forcing was known, we were never going to return to 1750 levels

Comment Re:AI Can't Solve It (Score 1) 53

I was having a serious conversation about this exact issue with AI a few weeks back. The energy is already in the system on earth, how can we reduce that energy, or reverse the effect of climate change. We can't.

That is correct. All we can do is wait it out as the methane degrades to CO2, and the CO2 cycle does its work We're on a roller coaster ride at this point.

This planet is doomed to failure, either like so many before it, or the first in the universe, it doesn't matter at this point.

No, it isn't. It is a human aided change. There have been times in the past when there was much more CO2 in the air. Carbon was sequestered in various times like the Carboniferous, and where the final age, the Pennsylvanian, enough Carbon had been sequestered that the average temperatures on earth cooled enough to stop the large scale forest growth. Humans ended up de-sequestering much of the stored carbon, and that's why we are returning to something like earlier times.

There is a lot of proper concern over the rate of de-sequstering, and we face serious issues. And unless we do something stupid, humanity isn't likely in danger of extinction. But the planet isn't going to fail.

Comment Re:New Nuclear Please (Score 1) 53

Many of the nuclear fanatics want it because they think it means they don't have to change their lifestyle, or because they are NIMBYs and fear wind turbines and solar farms appearing near them (but don't care about nuclear plants near someone else).

Very good point. One of the issues with changing lifestyles is that a "better" lifestyle is a natural goal for humans. We're hardwired for comfort. How that can be circumvented is a real issue.

As well, here we are, around 80 years into nuc plant power, and I question if we are any closer to getting it right. The Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station scandal, AKA NukeGate, shows that there is a certain contempt about nuc power advocates, with unqualified people making critical infrastructure without engineers signing off on them, parts not fitting, coupled with the Baseload Review Act, a law passed that made customers responsible for every cent of the construction. The people of South Carolina are still paying for the billions of dollars lost, without getting a single milliwatt of energy.

So in the modern age, a nuc power plant was being constructed with dangerous controls, and never generated power, although all of the sunk cost is being extracted from the customers.

Renewables and storage are by far the cheapest and fastest option now.

Another thing not often mentioned is scalability. On any centralized power plant, nuc, gas, or coal, you have to design the plant to some maximum capacity. You go over that, and you need a new plant, or at least the equivalent of one with massive re-fitting.

With solar or wind, you can add more as you need more. Here in PA, we have a lot of places mapped out, and if we need more wind turbines in teh future, we know where to place them.

Side notes, solar installs turn out to be a haven for animals, especially birds.

Comment Re:The only way to fix it is to fix the rewards (Score 1) 53

Yes, I completely agree. That requires one more factor that's undermining democracy worldwide to be solved - the eternal problem of the asymmetry of rewards and costs that makes public action by the many hard, as explained even here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

We've tried making the many the boss. Turns out it doesn't work so well. Just enables the not-so-good guys rise to the top more easily.

Welcome to the human condition. People can go reeee about the governments they hate, and lay all the problems at "capitalism" a dog whistle for the USA, but that shows you are more worried about governance than the actual problem. Especially when the big four are China, US, India, and Russia. Laying this at the feet of the USA is pointless and simply wrong. We are part of the problem, not the actual problem.

And the problem is that we have a pretty big problem. We are in a bit of a positive feedback loop now, de-sequestering methane. The time to speak of tipping points is long gone. IMR&IO, the actual tipping point was some time in the mid 1980's.

So what should we do? We should understand that we have a rough ride ahead of us. We should shift to renewables, we should consider the environmental impact of the "data centers" we should stop de-sequestering greenhouse gases. We should not try quick-fixes like aerosol injection, which will simply create as many problems as CO2 and Methane, and likely be worse. A thousand years of acid rain is not good for living beings or infrastructure.

We should work to preserve as many species as possible What will we do? Probably not much of anything. People will bring their favorite axes to grind, just like we see here. The US will get blamed, and the other polluting countries will pat themselves on the back.

What will happen? Despite the political rhetoric, we are all in this mess together, and we'll be pointing fingers at each other as we have hundreds of years (at the very least) of adaptation.

But hey - maybe the archenemy of Capitalism, which is Communism, can take over and lead us to a glorious future, just like it always has. It has a perfect track record so far. And I put that sentence together to show just how silly the political axe grinding is.

Comment Re:It's funny (Score 1) 125

A presentation in Excel? That's incredible. "Computer skills" are somewhat of an unwritten requirement when hiring these days, maybe we need to make it more explicit after all?

You use the tools you know to get the job done. That's a real computer skill. Sidenote: Powerpoint is a better image drafting tool than word or Excel,

You're correct, butThat's a pretty low bar. We used to get a lot of posters in PowerPoint form. You can make a decent poster from PP, but it would fall apart between the person originating the poster and our office that had a large format inkjet, where it was printed Seems the file kept track of the printer used while creating it. That wreaked havoc. If the aspect ratio was different, between the two, it would summarily stretch or squeeze. Plus some people liked using the obscure fonts coming from those cheap font sets. Never knew how those would show up. We often ended up just completely re-doing the thing. I was pressed into service doing them after we had a couple people leave in short order. I told people who wanted to make posters to just come sit with me, and I could save them a lot of time by just doing the job once instead of twice.

Point is, you can make some decent poster images with PP, but it had so many quirks that it could be a nuisance.

Comment Re:The only way to fix it is to fix the rewards (Score 1) 53

If we don't fix our economic system to reword behavior that prioritizes people and the environment, I don't think humanity has a chance. With capitalism we are rushing off the side of a cliff.

Sigh, Yes, it is all due to capitalism, even in countries without capitalism. Top four are China, US, India, and Russia. Thanks for letting us know that they are all capitalist countries.

Axe grinding and trying to turn every discussion into your axe to grind is silly. Can we get anyone to claim it is internalized misogyny? How about Joe Biden, or Barack O'Blama?

You aren't helping.

Comment Re:It's funny (Score 1) 125

a quick search shows it is an online app.

Then don't do a quick search. Do a proper search. That way you can have an informed opinion.

Thanks for the suggestion. Good to know.

I searched, got what I needed to know, and stopped. Why? because I have other things to do beside an in-depth, experience based opinion of the workings of Collabra. I saw enough to make my opinion.

If that's not enough for you, well - sorry, not sorry.

Comment Re:It's funny (Score 1) 125

Whoa, I was expecting you to be a jerk to her. You have really impressive people skills to meet her half way and give her guidance on the way forward. I'm glad she apologised, was clearly in over her head though that doesn't excuse her behaviour towards you at first.

One of my skills is working well with difficult people - or highly stressed people. It slowly incorporated itself into my whole workflow. In the job I retired from, it was mostly difficult people, a few stressed like her.. My present work is often dealing with stressed out people.

In this case, the poor young woman was about ready to piss herself. She was about ready to truly freak. Just about to the point where she was ready to stop taking input. So I got her calmed down to the point of at least just crying. Then slowly relaxing after I told her we could fix it, then got her prepped for her talk.

Her real issue with being difficult was insecurity masked by being rude - she was actually an okay person.

One time I caught a guy (literally) who became faint right when his presentation started. Took a small break, I told him that everyone there wanted him to do well. Once again the breathing exercises, and I hung out right by him when he finally gave his talk. I stood at the podium, running his powerpoint while he talked.

Comment Re:It's funny (Score 1) 125

My father in law used to do design work in Excel. No kidding. He claimed Publisher et al didn't give him the precision he wanted, or something like that. It was amazing what he could put together in Excel.

I do antenna designs in spreadsheets. First the basic calculations, then the adjustment calculations for final SWR accommodations. I might try plotting out frequency sweeps some day if I get bored.

Comment Re:It's funny (Score 4, Funny) 125

Yes "Spreadsheet" might go down as one of our best inventions, it's a go to for a lot of things, and very flexible. I work in mechanical simulation, spend a lot of money on making pretty UI's for users to copy the results into Excel. Changing my plan now, if you cant beat 'em, join them.

I use spreadsheets all the time, yes they are wonderful tools. Only downside is friends teasing me, some claiming I use a spreadsheet to plan intimacy. Of course not - that's my wife's job.

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