TheVat

If we get a new thread for every outrageous and chilling action emanating from Team Trump, we're going to have a lot of threads here. Wonder if some small group of unified threads could be made. Call them, what....Dystopy-a-Lago? Musk Ox in the China Shop? How I stopped worrying and learned to love the Don? Postcards From the Edge of Fascism? (Also flashing on Bert Lahr, in the Wizard of Oz, what makes the muskrat guard his musk?)

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/02/gaza-needs-clean-water/681583/?gift=43H6YzEv1tnFbOn4MRsWYpO-bjwfSYDowDDClZ3jHe0&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share The history of the pre-war systems, the struggles during the war, and some solutions hoped for after. From polluted aquifers to the salty sea. Innovative thinking is needed. Hydraulic engineering seems like a field that can only grow in importance in the coming years, all over the globe.

Were you unable to answer this question? @naitche https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_dimension

In almost any science forum it's basic courtesy to post at least an abstract. You must be new to these types of forums to imagine it would be otherwise. A couple paragraphs might suffice, and allow members to decide if they want to pursue it. However if it's very high level, as you say, then math.stackexchange.com would probably be a better venue for you.

Thus does get into Peter Singer territory where the most basic kinds of human intervention in animal lives are called into question. I guess I lean towards minimizing cruelty but not to complete autonomy for domesticateds. For some hypothetical natural state to prevail, we would have to stop all calving, farrowing and hatching, everywhere in the world, while we humanely slaughter all the remaining domesticated livestock, as we make sure wild variants of ungulates and woodland scavengers (e.g. wild boars and razorbacks) are gradually folded into restored ecosystems. To get back to topic, I would see this scenario as one where our infrequent meat treats were derived from the culling of such rewilded populations. Many might choose veganism in such a culture, and if that happened, then we might end up outsourcing culling to the original predators like cougars and wolves, i.e. full eco-restoration. (keep your toddlers close!)

That anyone would ask that suggests an odd shifting of political norms (sometimes called the Overton Window here). I mean, it is essentially asking if it's okay for the public to know who is hired by an administration that half of them voted for. Not all that far from leaders who form secret squads of enforcers, something most of my countrymen used to easily identify as fascism. The notion that DOGE can be a government agency outside the Constitution is horrifying. But we're all growing accustomed to being horrified.

Har! (only the feathered ones) Interesting stuff. I am an absolute fiend for Irish soda bread, which was developed by Irish immigrants in the States, then brought back to Ireland. (contains no eggs) The mix of soda and buttermilk causes a very rapid reaction (buttermilk pH ~ 4.4) and so it rises quickly and stays moist. The flavor will blow the bloody doors off, to borrow another Caine-ism.

I envy all ye who seem to like eggs. I don't, unless it's hidden e.g. one added to my cornbread or pancake batter. Apparently I'm in distinguished company - Sir Alfred Hitchcock also loathed eggs.

What about fractal (non-integer) dimensions?

I figured. It's probably a challenge to grow one's own turmeric or oranges in the temperate zone. (recently learned that it takes four to six years for an orange tree to bear fruit) I think my wife would enjoy your sort of lifestyle, though she is too busy to do any of it. I'm the one who gets a little squirrelly if I don't have manual chores to do. On the topic, one thing that seems to me wasteful is that suburbans take the main crop of their home turf and throw it away. We need a District Goat Authority, or something similar, to keep all the lawns grazed and converted into goat milk, cheese and meat. (though, per friend's personal experience on this, convertible cars need to be in the garage when not in use) Have you proposed yet? 😏

So the website whose registrant address is the Phallological Museum is....back up. Yes. Many browsers, if your settings are set to indefinite cache accumulation, will open the last view of a homepage or visited page within, including an oops page. (I clear my cache every 24 hours, which is why I got the down message)

I'm getting (for the SFC website): "Services for this domain name have been disabled." Whois data shows it's an anonymous registrant using a DN registrar called Namecheap. Which I had heard was kind of a magnet for sketchy and scammy websites, in a New York Times expose. When I saw the address given was Reykjavik, I knew it was the same one I'd heard about. So I found a link... https://grapevine.is/news/2024/10/10/iceland-harbouring-the-webs-sketchiest-sites-nyt-report/ "Some of the internet’s “sketchiest websites” are registered at an Iceland address, the New York Times report in an extensive investigation. Published on October 9, NYT reporters revealed that sites dealing in identity theft, the spread of disinformation, and ransomware have found a safe home in Iceland through the internet privacy service Withheld for Privacy (WFP). Sharing an address with the Penis Museum and H&M at Kalkofnsvegur 2 in downtown Reykjavík, WFP specialises in protecting internet privacy for its clients. The company is a subsidiary of the Arizona-based domain registrar Namecheap. NYT reporters claim that the company has made Iceland an international centre for illegal activity...." No, you read that correctly: WFP shares an address with the Penis Museum of Reykjavik. (at this point, I'm fairly fascinated. TBC tomorrow...)(though the jokes may begin at any time)

Much as the Troubles in Ireland were not due to Christians who respected the teaching of Jesus. Or the massacres in Myanmar due to Buddha-respecting Buddhists. Spiritual orders are always poisoned by power and greed.

As a brain (in a vat, of course) with both digital and analog aspects, I can make little sense of this theory.

I appreciate you expanding a bit on your earlier answer, esp since you seem to have a perspective (subsistence from your own plot) that's less common these days. And it does make the point that subsistence from one's plot is sorta the ultimate "locavore" method, eliminating many carbon footprints between farm and plate. It would be interesting to try and figure what size population would that require for everyone to live off their acreage (the acres needed would vary considerably from place to place - my cold semiarid steppe would need more acres than someone in Amazonia or a Burmese jungle or the lusher parts of eastern Mizzou). Aquaculture and Tilapia would add up differently than grazing large ungulate or FR poultry.

In the US, am getting a message that the domain name has lapsed. Since today is the DN registration date for that site, I figured the annual DN payment was not made. Well, I hope this isn't something where US regs are pissier. And I know the experience of starting threads that don't take off. A contentious element does seem needed. Then again, it isn't needed, Tyndall faked his results, the ice age is about to start and you are all clearly insane!

Your labeling of PKin's responses as "over the top," could reveal some emotion on your part, as well. Since PK has written a novel that includes such issues of sustainability, I would give the BOTD that they have researched rather thoroughly and are not posting idly or with disregard of relevant facts. I would post a link, but that might technically constitute doxxing, so I can't.

Noticed today that another sister forum (the dot com that several members here also visit regularly) seems to have gone down. I had to wonder if the owner (no idea who it is) might have noticed how much of recent posting there is more on political, social/economic or religious topics. SFN seems to do a little better, in terms of sticking to science and tamping down offtopic personal disputes. Probably helpful that SFN has several moderators, whereas SFC is down to one. If SFC is a goner, I will miss the skeptics v believer threads there, which were often both entertaining and informative. It's a nice bunch of interesting people over there, so I would have no problem with inviting them over here if they feel homeless. (getting email addresses would be a hurdle, though, if that site is permanently down - I have not personally corresponded with any of them outside of using the site's PM feature)

Well, the scale is just crazy. Somewhere (if anyone asks for citation, I will do my best) I've seen estimates that if we humans were to live as hunter-gatherers, the carrying capacity of the planet would be somewhere between 200-500 million - at most 1/16 of today's population. And pre-industrial revolution, the population stayed under 1 billion, which is probably a reasonable guess at a ceiling on low tech agri, with animal-powered cultivation. A regression to anything like that now would likely be even fewer people, given the prevalence of depleted soil, fisheries, aquifers, etc. Politically, culturally....yeah, I have no idea if any current society is really going to exert maximum consumer force on agribusiness to do humane and sustainable meat production. Right now, it's just a niche, among many. Probably won't change until there's a crisis, or society evolves towards some kind of post-capitalism, post-oligarchy. Or there's massive eco catastrophe, wiping out 9/10 of the population. That tends to get attention towards sustainability issues. If they don't eat all the historians before they can remind people how they got into that reduced condition.

See my previous post. Using only grassland unsuitable for cropping, elimination of the CAFO system, and free grazing with natural herd bonding and culling, would allow meat at least as an occasional treat and help maintain the prairie ecosystem which needs the trophic cascade and soil breaking (hoof action helps aeration) of large herbivores. Manure runoff and water waste is an artifact of CAFO systems.

True, some areas like the higher semiarid plains near me do not support cropping, and are ecosystems which work best with herds of large herbivores. There are ranchers out here who are trying sustainable free range beef, as an alternative to the cruel feedlot system (called CAFOs). Most people couldn't eat meat all the time with such methods, the product is expensive, but that would encourage the more plant based diet where meat is an occasional luxury - my experience is that "mostly plants" is great for the health, and there seems a lot of research to support that. Certainly a heavy meat diet for 8.2 billion people is not sustainable, just on the basis of water and crop feed requirements.

I remember seeing the shtreimels when I was in Brooklyn - those were Hasidim, a subgroup of Haredi Judaism. They were mainly Ashkenazi, but not exclusively. There are some Sephardic people in the various Haredi groups. I hope Israel can get Netanyahu out and in jail where he belongs, and make some real progress towards a two state solution.

Muslim voters basically agreed to punching themselves in the face. Pretty much like the rest of the Stay Homers and the 70 million Trump voters. The ballot may as well have read, I hereby consent to a minimum of four years of punching myself in the face, in order to teach the Democratic Party to focus their entire platform on rent and groceries.

This is why I support the Constitutional right to arm bears. As was crafted by John Grizzly Adams.

Ah, this answers my question in another thread. Apparently Rufus mistakenly thought I had downvoted him, and conferred a revenge DV. TBH, I hadn't really paid any attention to his posts or formed any opinion on them. Perhaps best to find out where DVs originate before accusing people, hm?