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Post by Kapitan on Oct 4, 2019 13:04:38 GMT
This is a thread for various interesting things we may come across: stories we read, conversations we have, videos we watch, or whatever else. Not quite Random Thoughts, but not necessarily anything political or too serious.
The Washington Post had this fascinating story about how parts of Siberia are already experiencing dramatic change to their climate: permafrost melting for the first time in memory unleashing rotting animal corpses and plants; buildings swaying and crumbling; rivers swelling; agriculture and wildlife seriously affected; and (of all things!) mastodon ivory black markets!
One thing I think is good about this story (beyond that it's just an interesting story) is that it demonstrates the reality of climate change, and why it's a challenge. It's NOT that life will be extinguished on earth, that we'll all drown under rising seas, or something quite so immediately catastrophic. It's disruption that will lead to reinventions and mass migrations of people, all of which is tremendously expensive and stressful.
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Post by B.E. on Oct 4, 2019 15:39:29 GMT
The Washington Post had this fascinating story about how parts of Siberia are already experiencing dramatic change to their climate: permafrost melting for the first time in memory unleashing rotting animal corpses and plants; buildings swaying and crumbling; rivers swelling; agriculture and wildlife seriously affected; and (of all things!) mastodon ivory black markets!
I recently read about an outbreak of anthrax in Siberia due to the thawing of an infected reindeer carcass that had been frozen since the 1940s.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 4, 2019 15:50:57 GMT
I saw something like that as well, and it noted that there is actually a relatively serious fear of ancient (or even prehistoric) bacteria, viruses, etc., thawing out and remaining alive, introducing threats of disease no modern humans are adapted to ward off. Scary thought.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 11, 2019 19:35:18 GMT
Cool news about an ancient city, En Ensur (in modern Israel) that has been known for decades, but as part of a modern excavation has been found to apparently have been the biggest city in the ancient Levant (modern Israel, Lebanon, and part of Syria). It is thought to have been around 6,000 people during the Early Bronze Age, bigger than Jericho and Megiddo at the time.
While it was the biggest city in the Levant, it's not as big as large cities in Egypt or Mesopotamia. Also, as cool as the excavation is, it apparently won't last: the area is going to be developed "under a planned road junction."
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 23, 2019 19:49:14 GMT
I came across this news about a Belgium Paralympian gold medalist who died at age 40 from self-inflicted euthanasia, which is legal in Belgium. Apparently she lived in constant pain and planned this procedure for years, actually signing euthanasia papers.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 1, 2019 12:22:41 GMT
As of today, Minnesota is the last state that sells "three-two" beer, the 3.2% stuff that only a few other states have joined us in selling in grocery stores, convenience stores, and at least in Minnesota until a couple years ago, certain bars in neighborhoods not zoned for liquor sales.
The story (embarrassingly!) doesn't actually say what happens today that leaves us alone, but a photo caption mentions changes in laws in Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, and Kansas. So presumably, whether all today or leading up to today, they've modernized.
Interestingly the main hurdle to changing the law comes from lobbyists of major alcohol companies. I don't know why Anheuser Busch and the like would be opposed to selling their real products in grocery stores or convenience stores as opposed to only a watered-down version. Perhaps because they don't want to compete with the hard liquor that would also be available, or think that the microbrews that might compete in the real beer space don't or won't have the resources to make weak versions for those chain outlets that can't currently sell real stuff?
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 4, 2019 14:04:47 GMT
There is an interesting feature in the Washington Post today that takes a look at elementary school lunches from around the nation: everywhere from Idaho and Colorado to Vermont to Florida to Kentucky to California to Minnesota are represented. www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/food/school-lunches-in-america/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_schoollunches-720pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans I don’t envy the people in charge of the job of feeding diverse and picky kids foods that are healthy and that they’ll eat while staying within tight budgets! But reviewing the menus is very interesting to me. Having no kids, I’ve haven’t regularly seen school menus in 30 years. Most of our food, despite me growing up in a major agricultural center and with only about 1,000 kids K-12 to feed, was shipped to the school frozen, dried, or canned. Let’s just say the menus here are a far cry from hot dogs, chicken nuggets, square-sliced sheet-pan pizza, or turkey slices with greenish-yellow gravy! (Admission: I LOVED school pizza. We always had it with corn, which I’d put on top of the pizza. That was the best…)
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
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Post by bellbottoms on Nov 5, 2019 20:02:37 GMT
The world is watching after barge dislodges above Niagara Falls after 100 yearswww.freshdaily.ca/news/2019/11/niagara-falls-barge-100-years/The headline is a bit melodramatic and there are probably better articles than this one. Anyway, I must confess I didn't know there was an old rusted out barge sitting at the top of Niagara Falls for the last 100 years, and I've been to The Falls a number of times. Also this apparently happened almost a week ago and I just found out about it now. Again, there is probably a better article about this from a better publication but this one is amusing because of the quote from the Niagara Falls native who said that the barge moving makes her sad, like the way Torontonians would be sad if the Skydome (it hasn't been called that in almost 15 years) moved. Ummm, if the Rogers Centre moved because it blew in the wind, I can think of a lot of words to describe how I'd feel, but sad doesn't really capture it. Maybe more like terrified. But, I wasn't born here, so what do I know... I'm hoping that if they still run those Maid of the Mist boat tours that take you right to the base of the falls, that maybe they're going to hold off on those for a little while, see how this plays out - from not at the base of the falls.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 10, 2019 13:33:07 GMT
The idea of papal infallibility has always been really interesting (and confusing, even anachronistic) to me, a kid raised Lutheran and long-since atheist. Cardinal Burke's statement that a document in opposition to established Catholic doctrine would obviously be the heresy, the Pope would be the heretic, not the person whose adherence to that long-standing doctrine suddenly places him "in schism."
This tension between keeping tradition--in this case, nearly two millenia old tradition--on the one hand but being acceptable to modern culture on the other is just so interesting to me.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 18, 2019 13:32:41 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 19, 2019 13:55:40 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 30, 2019 14:44:30 GMT
As I'd posted a while back, changes in the Siberian climate are causing all kinds of sinkholes, newly unfrozen soil, and suddenly exposed ancient wildlife. I suspect we'll see more things like this in the coming years.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 1, 2019 14:16:49 GMT
Turkey has moved some of the historic monuments, but the rest will be lost beneath the new dam's reservoir. Cutting off much of the water of both the Tigris and Euphrates, the dam projects are also expected to inflame conflicts with Syria and Iraq.
The citizens of Hasankeyf are being relocated to a newly, hastily, and apparently shabbily built "New Hasankeyf," with prefab row houses and all the character of a Soviet cinderblock community.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 8, 2019 16:07:03 GMT
There is a NASA solar probe discovering information related to (as I guess the name solar probe implies...) the sun. And of course almost any info is new to me!
Solar winds originate from "coronal holes," places near the sun's equator that are relatively cooler and denser than other areas, and can get up over ! million miles an hour! And while the sun's surface is often around 10,000 degrees F, the thin atmosphere of the corona can be above 1 million degrees F, and can leap hundreds of thousands of degrees instantaneously by waves of heat on solar winds. The waves are so strong they can reverse the magnetic field.
These things boggle my mind. I'm in awe that anything at all--much less we--can live the good lives we do.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 9, 2019 15:12:08 GMT
The Washington Post published an unbelievable summary of the (so far) failures and costs of the Afghanistan war, as well as the lies and creative slants on truths told by government officials throughout three presidencies of both parties. The information is all taken from internal government "lessons learned" investigations.
- An estimated 157,000 people have been killed in the war. Of these, only about 42,100 were Taliban or other insurgents (i.e., the enemy). More than 43,000 were Afghan civilians. More than 64,000 were Afghan security forces (i.e., our allies). Nearly 4,000 were American contractors supporting our efforts; 2,300 were American servicemen; and the rest were NATO troops, journalists, and various NGO aid workers. So less than 27% of deaths were the enemy; more than 73% were our personnel or allies.
- Adjusted for inflation, we have spent more on aid to Afghanistan than we did on rebuilding Western Europe after WWII in the Marshall Plan. The latter was considered a huge success.
- Military and government leaders alike complain that there was no, or that there was constantly changing or conflicting, strategy. Retaliate against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Spread democracy. Destroy the drug trade. Build women's and human rights. End corruption. Establish a modern state. Change the power dynamics among regional powers in the Middle East.
- Year after year, general after general, president after president talked about progress being made and the impending end to the war. From Pres. Bush saying it could even be "a year or two," to his two successors running on a promise to end the war, it obviously still goes on. Last year was the high-water mark for Afghan civilians killed, which was in a 2009 senate hearing identified as the ultimate measure of success or failure.
This is a long story, but it's really interesting. And I'd say essential reading for American citizens.
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