kingsuper20's comments

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: Heat Domes Are a Red-Hot Warning on Climate Costs

> No politician could possibly admit it, but geopolitically, temperate climate countries are going to be net beneficiaries and will need to protect themselves from tropical and sub tropical countries.

In the case of Europe and Africa, I'd say that the main pressure will simply be one of demographics more than weather.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: Heat Domes Are a Red-Hot Warning on Climate Costs

> Wait I thought outlier weather events like blizzards and heat waves weren't indicators of global climate as the media so likes to lecture about when it's not in favor of their narrative.

It's probably fair to hold two ideas at the same time.

. Climate change is a way to accumulate rank and wealth in society.

. Climate change is real

It's interesting to ask what everyone is really after in terms of climate. Lack of change or natural events occurring. Would an upcoming ice age result in a cry for more CO2?

I like to think of it in terms of carrying capacity. Too many people results in environmental degradation (of all sorts), social unrest, scrabbling at the bottom for wages, squabbling at the top for status.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: I do not agree with Github's use of copyrighted code as training for Copilot

>Copyright doesn't just benefit huge corporations. For instance, without it, independent artists who rely on copying for distribution (authors, musicians, etc.) would find it much more difficult to make money off their work,

That doesn't look like it's the point to me.

""[the United States Congress shall have power] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right , to their respective Writings and Discoveries." "

As I read that, copyright is there to 'promote progress', not to maximize gains.

No doubt there is a million linear feet of case law that got us where we are.

Honestly, I rather like this whole question of copilot. I solidly appreciate the brilliance of github as a honeypot.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: Using government guidelines to police content: state censorship?

It could be that part of the problem is that you only see their public persona. Start adding all the weasel words to imply that you think that something is 73% likely to be mostly true and you lose an audience

Everyone (well, most everyone) could stand to examine their own problems (well, issues) with stating opinions as fact.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: What did ancient languages sound like?

I don't doubt that part of the pronunciation problem is the deeper meanings that creep in.

'CAESAR' sounds positively German and Legio VI Victrix has an effeminate sound. I'm afraid that Biggus Dickus had at least a little to do with attitudes towards proper Latin.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: Bay Area cities want to end single-family home zoning

I like the idea of building massive apartment complexes in the Bay Area. It was a PITA place to live 30 years ago and it's worse now

The thing is, if we can build giant ant mounds in just a few places it'll save the central coast and California north of the Golden Gate from destruction.

Step two would be to connect the giant metro areas to the rest of the state via a dirt road.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: Simple, solar-powered water desalination (2020)

Offhand I'd say that you are doubling the plumbing system plus you are using a much more corrosive fluid.

It would be an interesting experiment, since toilets use a great deal of water. Take a beach town, build a separate pressure water and sewer system, see if it's worth it. It's certainly more complicated than a sailboat's set up.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: Alien Dreams: An Emerging Art Scene

In that case, the value of a thing is not it's physical reality but it's provenance.

I guess it's no different than the high value given to a lot of 20th C. art, it's just another form of marketing.

Maybe this bodes well for antique prices.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

When I had to deal with some small tendril of IBM, I think the anti-trust suit was still in the works. It probably scarred their dealings with other companies to the same degree that their dominance did.

kingsuper20 | 4 years ago | on: The scientists hired by big oil who predicted the climate crisis long ago

It seems to me that any system predicated on population levels over the pre-industrial standard are a sketchy proposition.

Even at the pre-industrial level, the environmental load has been high. Mediterranean goat deserts, death of large Pleistocene animals in the Americas, whale hunting. You could still have nuclear power, microelectronics, solar energy in a world with a whole lot less human meat roaming around on it.

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