Meanwhile, earthers get crazy mining crypto currencies...
It really is crazy.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/bitcoins-insane-...
Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
271–280 of 305 posts
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, what if every of those bacteries whose evolution stopped thousands of years ago are simply completely inapt to compete with the ones we've got today, because those had much more time to evolve ?
That's not really how it works. You could equally argue that those ancient bacteria have attack methods that our modern bacteria has forgotten about, making them even more dangerous
Actually, scientific research points in opposite direction. Modern bacteria are better adapted than old bacteria.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's no more difficult than Tolkien. Prose from that era was practically poetry. Of course, I grew up reading a lot of books and short stories from that era, so maybe it's easier for my old brain, like riding a bicycle.
That's what I should have responded when my fifth grade teacher always wrote "NEW SENTENCE!" in the margin, if you stacked that many sentence commas. I should have said "it's practically poetry" :)
Basically everything they teach you in school is ignored by successful authors at times, but you've got to know the rules before you can know when to break them.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
>There could be anything underneath all the permafrost, including new biodiversity which we haven't catalogued yet. Hey, that was the plot of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness ! http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/mm.aspx Spoilers: "...But we were not on a station platform. We were on the track ahead as the nightmare plastic column of foetid black iridescence oozed tightly onward through its…
God that is hard to read. The guy might be thought a genius but I got absolutely nothing from that passage save the penguins.
Guy was thoroughly anti-linux- i got that at least.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#275On the other hand, the first season of Fortitude[1,2] was quite fun.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
God that is hard to read. The guy might be thought a genius but I got absolutely nothing from that passage save the penguins.
It's no more difficult than Tolkien. Prose from that era was practically poetry. Of course, I grew up reading a lot of books and short stories from that era, so maybe it's easier for my old brain, like riding a bicycle.
I think this particular quote is _considerably_ more over-the-top than Tolkien, certainly.
Though I do like "crushing the frantic penguins".
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
Such events are necessary to keep human population under a manageable number. Throughout human history there have been outbreaks that claimed many lives and stunted population growth for some time. We will likely see such an event in our time.
Humans prior to modern times haven't ever exceeded the carrying capacity of our environment and haven't had a die out that substantially reduced our population in modern times. Your thesis other than being fictional also is an emotional appeal to the concept that what is natural is desirable which is wholly unsound both on its face and because any die out sufficient to be effective is entirely likely to not only take…
I don't know what your cutoff for "substantial" reduction but the Black Death killed over 20% of all humans.
Agree that "natural" is too often used as synonymous with "good" when our lives are far superior to what "natural" humans would experience.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's definitely not the same problem. Clathrates are methane, for one thing, and the permafrost issue will cause CO2 emissions. Clathrates are in the water, permafrost is soil. They are both associated with historically cold environments that are now warming up, but each has its own mechanism and likely impacts (clathrates may be worse, since methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas, but the permafrost melting…
What does "be with us" mean in the case of methane?
Methane turns into CO2 and water vapor over time as it reacts with other stuff in the air. It takes about 10 years for atmospheric methane to turn into something other than methane.
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that civilization is a comparatively new development, and nobody really knows how that's going to fare in the face of all this. The human cost is likely to be staggering.
If nobody knows than why do you assume the cost _likely_ staggering?
Even relatively minor changes throw our civilization and economy into panic and disarray. Drought in the Middle East is considered one of the factors that led to the rise of ISIS [0]. But it's not the first time. Drought led to poor harvest which led to the French Revolution when grain prices got too high [1].
If you're wondering why the Netherlands has to reclaim land from the sea, if you wonder where it all went, it was a result of the Little Ice Age and a storm that devastated Northern Europe and washed much the of area out to sea [2].
Of course all of this happened outside of our modern worries about climate change... but it shows even "natural" changes in weather patterns can cause serious economic and cultural upheaval. What we're being warned of right now is far more serious and massive than we've ever seen before, including during all the time periods where drought and famine and storms have famously killed hundreds/thousands before [3].
All you can do is assume the worst. We've seen the impacts throughout history, we're dealing with some of them now. Northern Europe is still paying off the mitigation of the storm that destroyed their land... that storm happened 800 years ago. They'll be paying it off forever.
If we have the ability to stop things like the Little Ice Age or the drought that caused the French Revolution, we should. Right now we're being warned of something like that, but many many times more dramatic. And we have a chance to slow it down. We need to take that chance.
[0]: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/...
[1]: http://www.academia.edu/4794332/Drought_and_the_French_Revol...
Re: Scientists In Alaska Find Mammoth Amounts Of Carbon In The Warming Permafrost
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would bet on a medium-sized to big, healthy dog against a velociraptor. Raptors were around the size of a turkey. Might not be an easy fight, though.
Velociraptors have two rows of teeth in addition to a 2.5" retractable middle claw theorized to be used for slashing or stabbing attacks. Many dogs would have a size advantage, but all would have fewer teeth and generally soft padded paws with no serious claws. Even with the smaller size, the Velociraptors seemingly have the advantage. The "Fighting Dinosaurs" fossils give some credence to the claw being used to pier…
Met my first Rodesian Ridgeback (god that's such a dragon name) about a year ago. He was youngish but still ~3 ft at the shoulder, tall enough that he had to lower his head to sniff my crotch (and I'm 6' tall), which he was very interested in (I'm male). Owner didn't discipline or train him at all. I think he was just supposed to guard the horses, and fuck anyone else who wandered onto the property. Pretty friendly right up until he decided he didn't like me any more.
First time I've been scared of a dog since I was three. When a pit gets mad at you, you can kind of convince yourself you can keep it down by kicking and pushing it. Your neck is out of its immediate range unless you fall down. The Rodey was big and heavy enough that I would have had basically zero time to react if he jumped up. Humans are just so squishy. If you can throw a good punch, you can knock out 99% of people with one good hit to the chin. A strong hit to the liver will incapacitate anyone and kill them without treatment. Unlucky hits to the face can kill people as well.
I was very acutely aware that no matter how hard I hit that dog, I wouldn't be able to knock it out and my only option was basically to let it chew on me while I tried to hurt it as much as possible. Just keep punching anything that looks soft until it decided I wasn't worth biting, and do my best to keep it away from my neck and nuts.