TheVat

Tired of harassment-level ads that constantly drop over the page one is trying to navigate to. Is there a way to get some feedback to @blike and go back to the usual banner ads or other formats one can scroll past? Does anyone really think they're going to sell a product by shoving it in our cyber-faces over and over? I would think there is an inverse relationship between rudeness of ads and sales generated. SFN is better than this. And no, I don't want to change my wifi provider, thanks.

Well played. And if he did order an assassination, Congress might try to impeach, but such proceedings are just partisan witch hunts, as Trump has taught us.

Yes they do me as well. VKM disappeared from his prison near Omsk a couple weeks ago, so it seems likely he got the Arctic circle hellhole transfer that Navalny got in early December. "Special regime" colonies, they call them.

Very sad to hear of Navalny's death. A light has gone out of the world.

Corvids and parrots are noted for their intelligence, so why not them as models for a neural architecture? In fewer words than the OP, what makes an albatross the preferred bird brain? Why not an African gray parrot, which some consider the smartest avian? Animal behaviorist and psychologist Irene Pepperberg et al found this species to be cognitively on a par with a human 3-4 year old.

Wow, Earth has really gotten fat!

Yes, I was not offering speculative fiction as anything but a nod to the possibilities that writers and futurists explore. I'm aware it would not be easy, nor is success certain. My guess is that commercial profitability in space would depend on something other than chemical rockets to get out of Earth gravity well. Not only due to per kilo costs of lifting and the expense of maintaining stability and safety atop a controlled explosion but also environmental regulations that might be imposed.

A lot of importance is given to Faraday's new electromotive motor and there is considerable hype that it might be amenable to practical applications where Mr Watt's engine proves cumbersome. However it's hard to see this ever going beyond a few niche markets, given the considerable expense and labor involved in the fabrication, not to mention the problems of creating a wide availability of electrical generation and transmission. Mr Faraday's device appears to be more a toy than a real solution in providing mechanical power in quotidian uses.

Agree if the projections are with chemical propellants supplying the delta vee. Which is why I respect sci-fi writers and futurists who take some trouble to posit different propulsion systems, carbon nanotube elevators, etc for their robust off-planet futures. But for sure, chemical rockets are cranky and expensive AF. And likely to remain so. There may be other scenarios responsive to Fermi's Question. And we are still at the beginning of an era of remote sensing of extra-solar planets, so it's not like all the anomalies have been studied and conclusions drawn. Worth looking into that before dropping in a doom prophecy and confidently labeling it as "news."

Wolf pup. 9 inches cranial circumference. Setting on the cuteness dial: 11. (like Nigel Tufnel's amp, the highest setting)

I tend to wear work boots or hikers if I'm going to walk in muddy dirty conditions so my sneakers generally don't get dirty. Wearing socks is sufficient to protect the interior from stink, if the sneakers are aired in the sun regularly. But I live in a semiarid climate and use foot powder, both of which mitigate sweaty feet. Leather shoes - a tip from my Significant Bother is to wipe them with a weak solution of vinegar in the winter after a walk - she says it neutralizes the effects on leather of salted roads and sidewalks. Haha! Is your recent silence here a result of trying that option?

Every so often I am re-amazed at how we got to the place of experiencing this as normal. We have a former president and leading GOP candidate for future president who goes around issuing crude insults in code, like a snickering middle school child.

One problem with threads like this (aside from being tedious) is that eventually people who don't really care who said what to whom are drawn into taking sides. And that sucks oxygen away from the topical threads that are the real life of SFN. Any chance y'all could just stop?

Could be. Makes me think of the Shaw quote "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Also curious re the polling. It is possible some people take the Don't Know off ramp. While I personally have not the faintest clue as to how anyone could not know, given the choice, I recognize that some personalities have a reticence about committing in such surveys. For me, the choice would be something on the order of Would you prefer a long sensual embrace and kiss from Margot Robbie or having Ebola vomited into your face by the reanimated corpse of Joseph Stalin?

FAANG seems to have become a retronym, since two of the companies have changed their names (it would now be MAANA, I guess?). I am never sure how to take stereotypes of "eastern" or "western" minds, but I suspect some folks at companies like Mercedes, Zeiss, Bosch, Porsche et al would dispute that Europeans (well, Germans, at least) can't do complexity, precision and efficiency. (somewhere I hear Basil Fawlty yelling don't talk about the war!) I share his bafflement. Maybe Altman has a Prometheus complex, like some others in the tech world. Are there not people in his circle who can talk him off the ledge? This does seem to verge on delusional.

One possible interpretation is that those who want another Trump presidency really want Trump, while those who want Biden are more equivocal in their support, and blend into a large bloc that really want neither. So an actual election might find that the majority that doesn't want Trump will cast a Biden vote even if they didn't answer surveys as a Biden supporter.

Not sure what almost exponentially is, but maybe not important. I think there's a basic problem in using statistics to hire individuals for a job. This problem is clearer when the statistics are used on women or various ethnic groups. On average, Latinos are 1.45 times as likely to drop out of college in the first two years. So we shouldn't admit them to our school. On average, women are three times more likely to miss workdays due to childcare duties. So we better not hire any women. Etc. Age limits seems to get into similar territory. I see no reason some independent testing office can't be established, for annual competency tests of public officials. And, who knows, if the cream sometimes rises to the top, someday we might get a Chomsky or Bertrand Russell president, ushering in an era of great progress in their 90s. (also biological age is kind of a moving target, given what we are learning about nutrition and health)

I like his approach to visualizing statistics. I think some pushback against him is from the concern that while some trends in how people live are positive, there is the possibility, with so many people, of a societal collapse if politics/economy go awry. If Earth arable land is just providing enough food, then various events like massive wars, climate catastrophes, economic depressions, disrupted supply chains, energy crunches....will swiftly tip huge populations into poverty and starvation. Ten billion people, all living well, will rely on a delicate balance. Especially given that ten billion will be fitting onto a smaller habitable land surface than eight billion live on now. (And most of them longing for a more affluent (high consumption) lifestyle as their countries strive to develop.) Areas of the tropics are heading towards being uninhabitable, and there is also inevitable sea level rise eating away coastal land. I agree overconsumption is the biggest problem, and also the most fixable if leaders are not short-sighted.

Great movie. I have been to many stakings - you have to know where to stand!

Willis was diagnosed a couple years ago with frontotemporal dementia, the most common form of early-onset dementia, and his cognitive issues are not typical of 67 year olds generally. In point of fact, he was already suffering from advancing aphasia a few years before the FTD diagnosis, and did not know when to call it quits for a couple years, signing on to various productions and turning in mediocre performances where he needed constant assistance and special allowances to make it through each day. Only his reputation as a star, and box office power, allowed him to turn in those sad performances. Which goes to a point I wanted to make earlier: people with cognitive deficits do not self-assess well. Which is why I would support cognitive tests for high office, for any age range. I was only objecting to specific age criteria. The world has plenty of people retaining their wits and intellectual activity into their 90s, like Noam Chomsky, John Wheeler, Freeman Dyson, James Lovelock, Bertrand Russell and Charles Townes (who was still working in physics at age 98). These SuperAgers as they are now called illustrate the importance of letting people work if they have the desire to and can contribute.

That sounds about right. Water, for humans, is all about where it is flowing to. A river or stream flows south, it isn't a "northerly stream." Maybe earliest human experiences were with freshwater, simple rafts on water flowing between banks, where the concept is very clear. With wind, otoh, it matters where it comes from - north wind brings cold, south wind brings milder temps, west wind (in a particular area) might bring more rain, or dust, or distant sea air.

I feel there is a sense in which it's true and one in which it isn't. True in that society may have moved on from a mindset that was common when they were young. But some old folks grow and change with the times and remain very much in the world right up until they step out. So it feels ageist to assume that the elderly have fallen behind and lost touch with the changes going on. Some do, but some have a wisdom that is informed by their long perspective across many decades and roll with the changes. (no cut intended with "derailer" btw - I have enjoyed your "derailment" and followed right off the rails myself)

This is where we branched off from the thread topic of gun control. Dim the Derailer. Followed by MigL the Meanderer. I haven't worked out droll monikers for the rest of us, but we're all complicit. We should throw ourselves on the mercy of the moderators. Maybe a split thread. Metrics of Fitness to Hold High Office?