Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

e360.yale.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 540 posts

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#281

Post by runako »

urams wrote: post #267
runako wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you were playing basketball and Lebron James walked by and you threw the ball to him Yes, this is a terrible analogy for the war in Iran. Hugely unpopular, costing Americans vast sums of money daily, headed for possible catastrophe. Very much not a low-stakes "Lebron walks by" situation. Better analogy with Lebron would be: championship game with a title on the line. He gets possession as time runs down and the…

I will remember from now on that you can compare war to Lebron playing in a championship game but not to him playing in a pickup game. But to be clear, the comment I replied to was one in which you made an abstract point that it doesn't make a difference to someone if you can do something but in practice don't/aren't willing to and I think that this is obviously wrong (just because Lebron didn't dunk doesn't mean he…

> I will remember from now on that you can compare war to Lebron playing in a championship game but not to him playing in a pickup game.

The stakes of a given situation matter to the disposition of the participants. Is this not obvious?

I'm really confused as to what your larger point is. Nobody disagrees that the US military can kill untold numbers of people and cause untold damage in Iran and the wider region. Was this the point you wanted to make? Yes, the US military is capable of killing everyone in the region, which would make the Strait "open" again.

> If war is politics by other means, then doing war is always done with politics.

The problem is doing so has not/does not appear to be on a path to achieve the stated political aims of the administration, inasmuch as they have been willing to articulate aims.

Anyway, you're being insulting and not making coherent points. Good evening/morning/afternoon.

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#282

Post by CamperBob2 »

hattmall wrote: post #162
erickhill wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't take very many at all, we've now learned these past four years (and even the past 2 months). All you need are drones, that are pennies on the dollar cheaper than trillion-dollar militaries. Depending on the munition, a single bomb we drop on Iran could cost between $40,000 and a couple million dollars. Think of all the high-end drones you could buy instead. Everything is changing. Including our influence.

That isn't really accurate, small drones are enough to antagonize regional neighbors. They are far from being able to project influence, stabilize international trade, or even remotely protect a territory from an enemy that isn't concerned with civilian casualties.

That isn't really accurate, small drones are enough to antagonize regional neighbors.

Such as a Russian strategic bomber base thousands of miles from the front?

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#283

Post by stldev »

nancyminusone wrote: post #274
billfor wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Sure, I'll grow up and listen to riffs about how inhaling bleach fumes "gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number" or being exposed to a "very powerful light" are thought by same man above as a potential remedy for same disease with 100% seriousness.

Hey now!

The man is _acing_ the multitude of cognitive tests that doctors keep giving him.

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#284

Post by x-complexity »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #242
x-complexity wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the more reason as to why it should be Canada monitoring that portion of the ocean.

What should we be spending tax money on? The only thing this admin seems interested in paying for is killing Iranians and paying off J6th protesters.

The tax money shouldn't have been collected in the first place. It should've stayed with the people.

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#285

Post by gerardschiere »

jmyeet wrote: post #157
stldev wrote: post #13

This makes sense. Facts cease to exist because you ignore them. I think Huxley wrote that.

We live in a post-factual world [1]. I'm not sure people realize just how dire this is. The politics of the largest, most powerful country on Earth are dominated by people who truly believe in dispensational premillenialism [2]. For these people their time on Earth is limited. Wrecking the Earth doesn't matter. The afterlife is forever. Senior government officials take seriously bringing on the apocalypse through a r…

[dead]

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#286

Post by mjanx123 »

margalabargala wrote: post #276
thrownthatway wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

A change that is going to creep in over decades, known about ahead of time, is not a crisis and not a reason to panic.

You can still today buy lands that are going to be submerged under the sea and make net profit before that happens.

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#287

Post by kortilla »

nixon_why69 wrote: post #249
hattmall wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't really accurate, small drones are enough to antagonize regional neighbors. They are far from being able to project influence, stabilize international trade, or even remotely protect a territory from an enemy that isn't concerned with civilian casualties.

> project influence, stabilize international trade, or even remotely protect a territory from an enemy that isn't concerned with civilian casualties. We just failed to do all of those things quite visibly. Iran made a choice not to escalate to destroying desalination capabilities and that's why a lot of Saudis and Emiratis are still alive. It's not because we protected them.

Because they didn’t want the retribution that would follow. That’s what protection looks like. Assured destruction when it’s not mutual is pretty motivating.

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#288

Post by port11 »

benzible wrote: post #216
tdb7893 wrote: post #75

What really puts all of this into perspective for me is I work in academia and one of my friends works for a defense contractor. He told me the maintenance cost per flight hour of F-35 was a bit more than $40k, which is significantly more than I make in a year as a grad student. It's crazy basic science is what's been the focus of so many cuts while it's so cheap.

I wouldn't assume that this is about cost cutting. If the goal were saving money, the cheapest option by far would be to leave the hardware in the water and just stop funding the monitoring. Instead the plan is an expensive operation to send ships out to extract 900+ instruments from under two miles of ocean. It's clear that this is driven by performative climate denialism and a pro fossil fuel stance. The Trump admi…

But… why? Climate change is very much real and even stubborn deep-right voters like my father now ‘believe’ in it. Ok, some people make some cash. But wouldn’t they anyway? I don’t understand this need to keep pandering to a minority and to destroy ecosystems.

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#289

Post by kortilla »

jazzypants wrote: post #104
KnuthIsGod wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many million graduate students do you need to give the US the military hegemony and political influence over allies and adversaries that the F-35 program provides ? Looked at from a policy maker's viewpoint, things look very different.

If we have military hegemony, then why can't we open the strait of Hormuz?

Because it would require a boots on the ground invasion to occupy the entire portion of Iran overlooking the Strait.

The strait is physically open but no insurance company will cover massive oil carriers because they are so easy to hit with small weaponry from the ridges of Iran.

Re: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

#290

Post by 000ooo000 »

thrownthatway wrote: post #254
js2 wrote: post #169

Here's a frankly better article from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/climate/ocean-observatori... A few points: 1. The ocean observation system began operating in 2016 and was expected to continue for 25 years. 2. It cost $48 million annually to operate the network. The Trump administration repeatedly tried to shutter it, proposing to cut its funding by 80 percent in both 2025 and again in 2026. Congress…

[flagged]

>What? It’s just data.

Exactly! Just like those photos of earth from space are data. Just save the file bro lol it's not hard..

/s

Post reply on HN