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  1. 6 points
  2. “what makes this fee revolutionary is that it will apply to emissions that don’t happen on European soil. The EU already puts a price on many of the emissions created by European firms; now, through the new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, or CBAM, the bloc will charge companies that import the targeted products — cement, aluminum, electricity, fertilizer, hydrogen, iron and steel — into the EU, no matter where in the world those products are made.” https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2024/big-boost-europe-carbon-neutral-goals-cbam This removes incentives to move carbon-intensive industry out of the EU, since that won’t sidestep tariffs any longer. The tariff accounting includes the electricity used for production, so there’s an incentive for business exporting to the EU to use green energy
    4 points
  3. The CEO of IKEA is now the Prime Minister of Sweden. He is currently assembling his cabinet.
    4 points
  4. It gives me heartburn. And Trump is only the half of it. The other part is that it turns out half my neighbors think like he does. And it's not even the politics that bother me so much since I can accept policies that are not to my liking. It is the fact that by most measures he is a despicable human being, and half of my fellow Americans find that acceptable. I honestly didn't know that so many people could be like that. I don't read much political news anymore beyond the headlines. It is too much like watching your neighbors cheer for those who sponsor dog fighting or human trafficking. It's just kind of depressing.
    3 points
  5. And this is the mistake many folks make when trying to interpret complex issues by using single words to define them. I know a LOT of people who think the way you do, that "liberal" means "anything goes" and conservative means "responsible". I also know a LOT of people who think conservative means "fearful" and "ignorant" and "stuck in the mud", while liberal means "progressive" and "hopeful" and "forward-thinking". This is the problem with using these terms with each other. It's hard to know how a person has been influenced when they use such broad terms. I'm not sure hubris is the problem in the US. In trying to focus on capitalism to the exclusion of any other ownership principles, we're allowing our leadership to pretend to care about us when their re-elections are really up to big corporations. We may find it hard to give up what we think we've earned, but I don't think it's out of pride. If the American public had any pride at all we'd gather to stop these stains on humanity from exploiting us even further (the CEO of Kellogg's recently claimed that if we're worried about the high price of food, we should eat Frosted Flakes for dinner). We make very little investment in The People. Everything goes to keep big corporations in business, including bailing them out with tax dollars when they mess up. I think we should focus on better social spending and representing the will of The People, and maybe then we can better assess whether this is a matter of hubris or not.
    3 points
  6. Issue is that science as such does not play a big role. Or at least, it cannot solve the fundamental question underpinning the issue. We (humans) want to define things with clear delineation. Nature does not care much for that. And this opens up things for interpretation. Nature (and therefore science) does not define what people are so it is on society to decide on things. And as we see here, this particular interpretation is clearly morally and religiously motivated, with severe implications.
    3 points
  7. Just to clarify. The matter dominated era comes later; the first era was radiation dominated. What later became matter, with mass, was originally all massless radiation ( possessing the property of energy ), because the Electroweak force had not decoupled yet for the Higgs mechanism to give mass to Fermions, This would have been when the observable universe was in causal contact ( light/information has time to traverse it ) in order to establish an equilibrium that ensures isotropy and homogeneity, prior to a vacuum energy driven inflationary period that expanded that observable universe many many orders of magnitude. See Alan Guth, Electroweak symmetry break, and Inflationary Theory.
    2 points
  8. No matter was not "in the form of energy". That is the same confusion as before. There would have been radiation and fields (radiation is a form of oscillating field) that possessed energy. The entity is the radiation, or the field. Energy is one of its properties, along with other properties like direction, phase, frequency, amplitude and so forth. But my very limited understanding of this (I'm not even a physicist) is that when you try to extrapolate back you reach a limit at which our current theories of matter, radiation and fields etc break down. So we can't "see" any further back, even theoretically. Strictly, the big bang theory starts from the limit of credible extrapolation. All the stuff about singularities etc only has the status of conjecture, so far as I know.
    2 points
  9. There is a special happy feeling knowing one is not part of a garbage fire. Didn't walk from Springer Mtn to Mt Katahdin, but I walked some of it in Vermont and NH. It's all common sense stuff - pick your time (e.g. not winter in the north, not high summer in the South), bring a partner you don't mind having inspect you for tics, bring mosquito repellent, sturdy hiking boots, etc. Keep food in a bag and hang it from a high tree branch when you sleep, never in your tent. Take increasingly long walks before the trip, for several months, to build up muscles and spot any joint/tendon issues beforehand. Keep socks dry. Watch out for the protozoan fiend of Appalachia, Giardia lamblia. Do your homework on finding a high quality water filter that will strain out Giardia - pump filters are the best. Boiling water is a monumental PITA. Ditto cooking. Dried fruit, oat bars, pemmican, peanuts, trail mix, powdered milk or powdered non dairy drinks, are all handy sources that don't need fuel to prepare. Don't gather trail sources of food unless you know exactly what you're doing. Blackberries yes, mushrooms no. No sustained eye contact with bears. Etc.
    2 points
  10. I think if there were scientific evidence it would be documented better than in a youtube video (which, BTW, needs to comply with rule 2.7, found in the “guidelines” tab; a video is not a substitute for substantive discussion and documentation. Asking people to watch a 25-min video rather than you putting the effort in to explain the situation is not going to fly)
    2 points
  11. Merleau-Ponty construed existence as understood through the body. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Merleau-Ponty Merleau-Ponty understands perception to be an ongoing dialogue between one's lived body and the world which it perceives, in which perceivers passively and actively strive to express the perceived world in concert with others. He was the only major phenomenologist of the first half of the twentieth century to engage extensively with the sciences. It is through this engagement that his writings became influential in the project of naturalizing phenomenology, in which phenomenologists use the results of psychology and cognitive science. Merleau-Ponty emphasized the body as the primary site of knowing the world, a corrective to the long philosophical tradition of placing consciousness as the source of knowledge, and maintained that the perceiving body and its perceived world could not be disentangled from each other. The articulation of the primacy of embodiment (corporéité) led him away from phenomenology towards what he was to call "indirect ontology" or the ontology of "the flesh of the world"
    2 points
  12. But only for what you think is in the proposal. You don’t have those details (or haven’t shared them), so we don’t know - you’re just guessing. I’ve pointed out a few logical things that might have been in the proposal that you did not include. I’m not making any argument. I’m just pointing out the incompleteness of your assertion, and asking you fill in the gaps. Instead of doing so, or even engaging in exploration of it, you attack. It’s quite telling. It’s also quite obvious.
    2 points
  13. That's a good reason, thanks for the info...
    2 points
  14. As I recall, what I was reading in the studies of student performance was more related to students having to get up early than to negotiating transit in the dark. The problem is that children respond to sunrise and seem to do better cognitively when the light is well advanced and they have had maximum sleep while it was dark or pre-dawn. (the DST effect was especially bad if they were located at the western edge of a time zone, where the sunrise is last to reach) These studies also drew the conclusion that later school hours would be beneficial, even where there was no DST. The Circadian rhythmn actually shifts later during adolescence, so the need there is especially acute. Here's one digest of that research: https://www.apa.org/topics/children/school-start-times
    2 points
  15. This is one of those “why are things the way they are” that physics can't address, because we can only observe how things behave. Bare charges and their electric field come as a set.
    2 points
  16. https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0308/1436684-trees-climate/ "The Tiny Forest concept was pioneered by a Japanese botanist, Akira Miyawaki. He pioneered a special method of planting and ground preparation that can be used to grow forests ten times faster than a typical forest (which usually takes 200 to 300 years" "Usually up to five saplings are planted for every square metre and as a result, the trees are forced to grow upwards for sunlight instead of spreading outwards"
    2 points
  17. I enjoyed that, too. Am sure the Senators favorite part was that she was played by… Scarlett Johansen And one more bc, well, bc snark is how we process modern political pain
    2 points
  18. Really? Bold by me. If a 'scientific article' cites Deepak Chopra as serious witness, then it is not serious scientific article. Maybe you should read Susan Blackmore: in her student days she had an OBE, and she started a career as 'believing' parapsychologist. But her serious empirical investigations turned her into the end being a sceptic, and leaving the field of parapsychology. I can highly recommend Dying to Live: Science and the Near-death Experience and The Adventures of a Parapsychologist. From the Wikipedia article:
    2 points
  19. You can only sense the expanse of space because of objects in it, i.e. the observables are objects, not length itself. Just like the fact that your location changes lets you sense the passage of time.
    2 points
  20. Evolution in cat size tends to be governed by niche partitioning: cat species don't thrive when in direct competition with other carnivores of similar size. In much of southern Amazonia there are six 'common' cat species. In size order: jaguar, puma, ocelot, jaguarundi, margay and oncilla. They each avoid direct competition by feeding on different prey appropriate to their size. However, the jaguarundi and similar sized margay avoid competition by one being diurnal, the other nocturnal. If they'd diverged in size instead, they'd encroach on niches already occupied by ocelot and oncilla. So the whole cat guild can be viewed as coevolving in such a way so as not to step on each other's toes.
    2 points
  21. Disappearance of the major component of the tides, with a devastating effect on intertidal organisms and probably other ecosystems that benefit from the flushing action of tides.
    2 points
  22. Since I was quoting Trump (there are even quotation marks and a link to the original) to demonstrate his confusion, I don’t see why you think the misunderstanding is mine.
    2 points
  23. I would not characterise it as hubris but I am afraid I do think we are witnessing the end of US dominance of geopolitics, as a result of the possibly terminal dysfunction of its politics. One sees every day authoritarians, in Russia, China and even now Israel, becoming ever bolder, as they see the US weaken. The EU is finding itself suddenly exposed by its tacit and complacent reliance on the US to uphold the rules-based order that has largely held sway since the end of the war. The Chinese are gearing up to retake Taiwan and appropriate the South China Sea. Putin knows if he can hold on for a Trump presidency, he will be assured of success in Ukraine and can turn his sights towards the Baltic States and the Kaliningrad exclave. Israel has embarked on a Final Solution to the Gaza problem, via blatant ethnic cleansing and what looks increasingly like genocide, while the US is impotent to stop it. There is every sign that the US Republican party has withdrawn support for the democratic system, taking a large chunk of the electorate along with them, and instead embraced a loathsome personality cult. The USA will be lucky if its judicial system, its free media and its term limits on presidents survive. The country will be consumed with its own internal problems for the next few years at least. Xi, Putin and others will be rubbing their hands at the prospect. So much for "making America great again".
    2 points
  24. When you think about it...it's brave of those in Alabama to speak up...with so many remaining soylent!
    2 points
  25. LOL! When I put the title up, it reminded me of that film. For those not familiar, Heston in science fiction film Soylent Green says the food they are eating is made from people.
    2 points
  26. The issue is really that it does not seem to be really protected other than certain political realities. There was an understanding in the US that Roe vs Wade was settled law, for example. But it was built on somewhat uncertain legal grounds and you can see what happens with political maneuvering. While it might be political suicide in Canada right now, sentiments and political landscapes could change. I think there is a consensus that decisions should be kept out of courts and remain an issue of health care. That may make sense assuming that folks are sensible. However, in recent times, politics is starting to creep into health care. The issue is on many levels, including the replacement of provincial health care leadership with political figures who have implemented regulations and procedures which the actual providers call bonkers, to put it mildly. As the world seems to be infatuated with being stupid, I would therefore not take prior precedent as a given.
    2 points
  27. And not even that. The same folks are also against affordable pregnancy care. Pregnancy-related mortality is especially high in black women (but also generally in low income groups). If I am honest, I suspect that an exception will be carved out for IVF, as it generally a service for folks who can afford it.
    2 points
  28. ... and this seems quite a bit different, unless you think tarot cards are a modern technology. I also think being concerned about one's health is different than wishing you were rich. In discussion, I'm not a big fan of "Your question is dumb" responses. Why treat someone's concern that way when you can provide some evidence that may help?
    2 points
  29. With apologies to Lynyrd Skynyrd... Sweet theocracy, Alabama. Where the judges all sniff glue Sweet theocracy, Alabama Lord I wiped the Constitution with my poo.
    2 points
  30. ! Moderator Note Please stop posting videos to make your points. This thread is called YOUR THOUGHTS on Islam, so please give us yours. Also, it would help a great deal if you could be less glib and vague when trying to discuss complicated subjects where the participants might already be struggling to understand the language. Quoting comedy sketches is particularly unhelpful wrt discussion as well.
    2 points
  31. When was the last time a Christian or a Jew got stoned ( not on drugs ) for adultery ? When was the last time a Muslim woman got flogged ( or stoned ) for adultery, or even for being raped ? Sadly it is never the men, even the rapists. ( so much for the rights of women, or even wives ) This is the 21st Century, all other religions realize that a religion based on thousand year old texts cannot be governance or the law. When is Islam going to realize that ?
    2 points
  32. 45 years ago President Carter has helped me to escape from the USSR.
    2 points
  33. The fanbase recently started a GoFundMe campaign to cover his costs after the latest Judge Engoron ruling. The GoFundMe allegedly raised around $84,000 in the first 24 hours - which equates to around 0.01% of the billion or so that TFG will need to cover all his legal costs, fines and interest payments. That's a "long row to hoe" as they say.
    1 point
  34. There is no lumeniferous aether. Light can't have infinite velocity without matter containing infinite energy (also goodbye magnets). It just doesn’t make sense to talk about something moving faster than c. C just is - because it is specific in its relation to other things. Basic causality has a finite speed limit, which has nothing to do with some sort of aether.
    1 point
  35. Moreover, it is not necessary for c to be a speed of anything. It is a coefficient in the spacetime metric.
    1 point
  36. Sure. He lied about his wealth, and if he takes this money to pay his bills, that’s just more confirmation that he lied. Hammer home the message about him being a liar. Attack ads on Trump will be a rich medium this summer. I would mock his new sneaker line. “Does it give you enough agility to dodge indictments?”
    1 point
  37. I asked our benevolent overlord Dave about the ad settings, and apparently Google AdSense enabled "vignette" ads without asking us. He's turned them off now. Hopefully that's the end of the issue and they don't find another more irritating thing to turn on.
    1 point
  38. This looks like another example of “enshittification” : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification Cory Doctorow gave an excellent lecture on this in January. Here is a link to the transcript. It’s very well written, rather in the style of Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker: https://doctorow.medium.com/my-mcluhan-lecture-on-enshittification-ea343342b9bc Long, but very readable - and worth the read. He muses that we may be entering the enshittocene era.
    1 point
  39. No worries. I've been away too long myself. 1st from p.c troubles, then other causes. I will get back to this topic asap, currently recovering from surgery to both wrists a day ago, makes this typing too difficult yet...
    1 point
  40. I will try to explain to the best of my abilities ( and without giving demerit points ), even though I sometimes find the situation ridiculous myself. Words are defined by context. In reproductive Biology there are only two sexes, because an idealized male of the species is needed to reproduce with the idealized female of the species. However, in modern Fashion, it is difficult to define male clothing and female clothing, as there is a huge amount of overlap These are extreme examples, so before Phi calls them 'flippant, and non-serious', I should explain further. I'm of Southern European discent, and in the summer my skin is darker than a couple of black individuals that I know. Yet, if I 'perm' my hair into tight curls, and 'identify' as black, I cannot use the 'N' word, as that usage is now based on a shared cultural experience. If their group uses the term,it brings them together, if others use it, it offends. And I understand that, and am fine with it. When it comes to the term 'woman', however, that term is still in general usage, and some people feel free to include themselves in the group denoted by that term. And I can sort of understand that also. Some feminists, however, and people like J K Rawling, are wondering why women don't deserve to 'own' their shared cultural experience as they have a much longer history of oppression all over the world. And I can understand that too. The confusing part, for me, is that we choose to avoid offending people who want to identify as 'women' by not letting the group own their shared cultural history, and 'owning' the term, and continuing to be oppressed. Doesn't seem very enlightened to me, and very possibly needs more discussion, not less. But what do I know, I usually get neg reps also when discussing similar subjects, as if discussion is not needed ( or wanted ).
    1 point
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