This below shows 140 years of global warming. You can clearly see years where there are heat spikes – perhaps the industrial revolution, nuclear bomb, etc. Do HBs have the inclination or science to turn it around?
In 2021, there were 139 elected officials in the 117th Congress who still deny the scientific consensus of human-caused climate change.
I know some of you don’t subscribe to The New York Times. I attempted to “gift” this article and I hope everyone can read it. It’s rather disgusting but needs to be known. THIS is what is happening in government. (Please let me know if you were successful in being able to read the article.)
Thank you for reading today's post. Have an InterStellar Day! ~PrP
Did You Know?
The original title for the movie Scream was Scary Movie; four years later, a movie primarily parodying Scream was released, titled Scary Movie.
Ginny is 86 today. Wow. Her skin is amazing
Happy Birthday Ginny.
The US in the process of uncapping its silos in response to Russia’s preparing to detonate land mines and other explosives designed to blow up the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant should their forces be forced out by the Ukraine military. The UK and the US are on high alert.
The facility is located 140 miles northeast of the Russian-occupied port city of Mariupol. If the Russians detonate their arsenal before they leave, there will be a nuclear disaster. The US is prepared to initiate a first strike without alerting China. China has a 2,671.9 mile long border with Russia.
US spies says that an element of the Putin regime plans to launch one missile towards Washington D.C. and one towards London at the same time they blow up the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant before leaving.
If sounder heads don’t prevent this from happening, we will be at nuclear war.
Did You Know?
Each of The Beatles, sans John Lennon because his death predated the advent of the show, has made a guest appearance on The Simpsons.
Did You Know?
Until the late 1960s, it was common for wedding dresses to simply reflect the styles of the day; since then, however, there has been a strong and consistent trend towards modeling wedding dresses after long and elaborate Victorian-era gowns.
Did You Know?
Neither Columbus nor his contemporaries thought the Earth was flat; Greek scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians had proven that the Earth was a sphere as early as around 600 B.C., centuries before his voyage.
Why are Japanese cars more reliable than German cars considering German engineering is supposed to be the best?
K Depaul
I am half German and work in R&D … with a bunch of Germans. This gives me the presumption to be able to generalize how German engineers think and why this results in less reliable gear (not only cars) in the so called real world. I also had the pleasure to work with a handful of Japanese, Italian, Taiwanese, Chinese and Russian scientists and engineers, yet let me limit this answer to the two you mentioned.
German and Japanese engineers have one thing in common: they will engineer the shit out of every detail. For EVERY BLOODY component! Thus what they build will fail exactly how and in the circumstances they predict it will. So why the difference in reliability? Are the Germans worse at their job?
No. But they do have a fatal flaw: they are German.
Let me explain.
Germans love rules. They follow those rules. German engineers expect people to follow their rules.
When Japanese engineers go on to design a product they ask themselves: “How will the customers use it? How can I prevent failure if they abuse it?”
The German engineer: “I made this machine and it has to be used in this particular way. If the customer abuses it and it fails it is his fault, not mine”.
And so it is. For most German products, if you use them exactly as the manual states and within the conditions it is designed for it is probably going to last indefinitely. Go outside those limits and you can expect it to fail.
Japanese products on the other hand are going to take a beating well outside specs and ask for more.
Has Vladimir Putin finally gone off the deep end?
President Putin in many ways lives under the shadow of near absolute leaders of the past. President Putin has managed to not only out do most of these leaders but also to surpass them.
Dictators often understand situations differently than leaders who have to run in elections. For most near absolute leaders the idea of dealing with other such leaders is very easy to comprehend. Saddam Hussein once stated “Politics is when you say you are going to do one thing, while intending to do another. Then you do neither what you said nor what you intended.”
President Putin in all reality may have had no plan greater than seeing what he could get for Russia in the most easy way. He amassed troops, threatened Ukraine, had Russia become more sanctioned and in the end formally put a Russian troop presence inside of Eastern Ukraine.
Does he intend on going to Kiev, most likely not, as he would face stiff resistance there. It does not mean he will not.
Does he intend on annexing more of Ukraine, most likely not for long, but he may and then reap the reward for taking in large parts of territory with a hostile population is not what Russia needs, the memory of Afghanistan in the 1980s should not have been lost.
At the end of the day, he could have declared victory by taking two territories which he already had but now he has learned that the opposition may be more than he anticipated.
President Putin gazes towards President Erdogan. While at odds, a strange measure of peace has emerged between two near absolute rulers.
Vladimir Putin, can now work on destabilizing Ukraine in the years to come, as the trauma of constantly losing territory or being occupied by Russia and not being able to counter wears down a nation just like a person who is bullied and cannot retaliate. The psychological game Putin has played is very damaging and Ukraine will be ultimately forced into a confrontation with Russia to prove its statehood again. If Putin believes his actions will yield further gains for Russia he has lost his sense of direction. The only way Putin will lose the game is if Ukraine ends up standing up to Russia’s military which Russia would have to make him think twice about facing what he has started. Or if Ukraine is occupied and a real insurgency begins. If this comes true than Putin will be viewed as a leader who did intend to do one action but then ended up doing another accomplishing nothing he set out to do. A Ukraine which can defend itself or free itself is not what Putin wants and he may indeed be creating this.
How do British nuclear submarines compare to American nuclear submarines in terms of stealth, sensors, and weapon
Jim Kuhn; Analyzed Power Plants, Navy Reactor Operator Author
I served on American subs. We played war games with the British. They kicked our ass. It’s not just the subs, it’s the submariners driving it. As I understood it, they don’t bounce their people around as much as the Americans, so they get really good at what they do, and stay that way.
Gibraltar is a great place to visit, but do NOT try to drink beer with a Brit. They are as good at drinking as they are at driving boats — and they are damn good sailors.
What three things should a person avoid once they are past 70 years old?
Elaine Green
Although I am not yet 70 (I have 30 years to go), I work with and treat many who are, as I work in the operating room. I see many hip replacements, broken ankles, gallbladder and kidney stone removals, cancer biopsies, and illnesses of all kinds. I’m constantly learning how to avoid the pitfalls of age-related disease, how to be as healthy as possible, and how to enhance one’s quality of life, especially as we get older.
Do not stop moving – it’s important to maintain mobility! Whatever you do, just keep walking, it’s so essential for your cardiovascular system and bone health and at the same time, not too strenuous on your joints. No need to win marathons, rather just get up and move. You don’t want to be frail and have to do a hip replacement at the age of 90. I learned in nursing school that once an older adult falls, their mortality rate increases by at least 20% because they stop walking, as they are afraid to fall again thereby they begin to lose muscle, bone mass, circulation, etc. creating a vicious cycle of weakening their physical health. Walking, gardening, swimming, tai chi, line dancing, there are many low-impact activities to do that can enrich your physical health. Take care not to do anything too daring that may break your bones (ie. skateboarding, skiing, horseback riding). If you take away anything from this, I cannot stress enough that mobility is the key!
Do not stop learning – if you don’t use it, you lose it, which is exactly what happens to your brain. You need to keep making new neural connections and sharpen your brain’s ability, aka neuroplasticity. Always try to learn something new every day and if possible, take classes. You can learn a new instrument online! You can audit university courses! You can take up a new hobby like photography or woodwork, and learn how on YouTube. At the same time, learning gives you a sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Do not stop caring about your health. You have many more years to live, how do you want to feel each day? You need good health to feel good. There are many things to do in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Eat fresh, unprocessed food for maximum nutrient intake, limit sugar and seed oils, limit processed foods, take care of your gut microbiome with fermented foods. Lift weights to maintain your muscle and bone mass (we lose 10% muscle mass per decade). Wear sunscreen, protect your skin. I suppose these tips on health could apply to any age, but perhaps even more so for older adults as the body isn’t functioning as it used to when it was a teenager. I myself follow these rules, I limit sugar, processed foods, limit seed oils, and do my best to eat fresh, unprocessed food. I make my own yogurt and berry jam, I always eat a cup of raspberries as a snack for antioxidants and fibre. Same goes for sunscreen and weights. I recommend going to the doctor and getting tested for any issues, and ask how you can proactively improve your health. For example, if you have urinary retention, if you are a male, do you need to check your prostate? If you are a female, do you need to take more D-mannose to decrease UTI symptoms? How is your weight? Many diseases are exacerbated by higher BMIs. It’s also at this age where your health shows your lifestyle habits from your younger years, as well as any genetic predisposition to certain diseases.
The reason so many different kinds of ants are brought aboard is we us the to diagnose many different types of human ailments. Ants survive quite well in deep space and on long journeys.
It has also been discovered that they impart to our science a significant body of learning.
Name one human ailment that ants help with.
Diabetes type II. Ants love the sweetness of their urine because of the sugar present. Ancient India used ants to diagnose and treat that type of diabetes. They couldn’t do anything for those suffering from type I as insulin had not been discovered.
Diabetes type II. Ants loved the urine of those infected with that disease because of the sweetness due to sugar in the urine.
How to Detect Hidden Surveillance Cameras With Your Phone
JOSH HENDRICKSON
A family recently discovered a rude surprise at their Airbnb: a hidden camera disguised as a smoke detector in the living room. Here are two ways to check for cameras—in an Airbnb or elsewhere—using only an iPhone or Android phone.
Hidden Cameras Are a Real Danger
If you’re staying in a hotel or an Airbnb, hidden cameras can be a worry. In the case of Airbnb, your host is required to list any cameras they have, whether or not they’re turned on. Additionally, Airbnb does not allow hosts to place cameras in bathrooms or sleeping areas, even if that’s a living room with a foldout bed.
But, as this one family found out, the occasional creepy host can still hide a camera and not tell you. Hidden cameras in an Airbnb aren’t a new thing. The problem isn’t limited to Airbnb, either. A recent news story described the harrowing tale of hidden cameras live-streaming in South Korean hotels. More than 1500 hotel guests were filmed and live-streamed over the internet. As hidden cameras become even more inexpensive, they seem to be popping up more and more.
Manufacturers design cameras disguised as other everyday objects, like smoke detectors, clocks, USB hubs, and even wireless chargers. These can be used for legitimate reasons in your own home—for example, to hide a camera a burglar can’t find or to monitor a nanny with that person’s consent. But how do you ensure someone isn’t targeting you with a hidden camera? With a single app and your phone’s camera, you can do a sweep for hidden cameras when you check in.
There are two ways to scan for cameras with your phone. First, if you have access, you can scan the Wi-Fi network for devices that look like cameras. But this will only find cameras connected to the network. Second, you can search for night vision cameras using your phone’s camera. If a hidden camera isn’t connected to the network and doesn’t have night-vision capabilities, neither method will spot it—but these tricks should spot most cameras.
How to Scan for Networked Cameras
places you stay give you access to the local network. You can use this to your advantage with an app named Fing. Fing makes both iPhone and Android apps. Better yet, it’s free and doesn’t have ads. Fing does ask you to sign in for more features, but you won’t need to do that for the device and port scanning.
The idea here is to look at all the devices connected to the local network. We recommend disconnecting all your devices except the phone or tablet running Fing so that you’ll have fewer things to sort through. Connect your phone or tablet to the network and then open Fing.
On Android, tap on the “Refresh” button at the top-right of the app’s screen to get started and agree to give the app location permissions. The iPhone app performs this step automatically.
Fing app with box around refresh button.
for the app to finish scanning, then look through the list of found devices. You’re looking at devices on the network the app identified, you’ll want to keep an eye out for anything that shows a camera manufacturer (like Nest, Arlo, or Wyze), or lists as “IP Camera.”
Find network device list with box around an Ip Camera
Even if you don’t spot a camera on this list, take stock of how many devices you do see listed and what you can find around the place you are staying. If something stands out as unusual (perhaps with no recognizable details), and you can’t locate a good source, write down the IP address. The next step is scan for open ports.
If you find any suspicious devices on the network, you’ll want to scan for any open ports those devices are using. First, tap the “Network” button at the bottom of the screen.
Then tap “Find Open Ports.”
Type the IP address you wrote earlier and then tap the blue “Find Open Ports” button.
The list will show what ports are open, and what services they use. Keep an eye out for RTSP and RTMP; those are common for streaming video. Anything with HTTP or HTTPS as a service you can try to connect to with a browser, which may reveal video streaming. Just type the IP address into your browser, followed by a colon, followed by the port listed (i.e., 192.168.0.15:80).
How to Spot Night Vision Cameras
You won’t always have access to the local network to try the above steps. Even when you do, they might not help. A hidden camera could be on a separate network, or too obscure to recognize easily. If you haven’t found any cameras yet, you can try looking for infrared lights. Most IP cameras use infrared for night vision. While infrared rays are invisible to the naked eye, you already have a device that can help—your smartphone.
Some smartphones have filters to block out infrared light on their primary camera, but very few of them have filters on the front camera. To determine which camera will work for you, grab an infrared remote like the one you use for your TV. Point it at your smartphone’s primary camera and press a button. If you see the light on the screen, then it can detect infrared. If you don’t, try again with the front-facing camera.
Once you determine the best camera to use, turn off the lights in the room you want to sweep. Then turn on your smartphone’s camera and start looking for any glowing lights. IP cameras don’t come in any standard configuration so you might see just one, four, six, or some other combination of lights. They’ll typically be purple but sometimes can look white. You won’t necessarily need to be near the hidden camera. In the above image, the camera is just a few feet away. But take a look at another picture from the other side of the house:
The lights in the center of the image are the same camera, just three rooms away (a dining room, a living room, and a study). That’s bright enough to be noticed and warrant closer investigation. Don’t just look at the center of walls though, point your smartphone at the ceiling, vents, even outlets. When the lights are on, look for anything unusual. Does a room have more than one smoke detector? Is there a USB hub in a place with no other electronics? If you touch a standard mirror and look at your finger from an angle, your reflected finger won’t “contact” your actual finger. If you do the same with one-way glass, your reflected finger and real finger will contact (seem to touch), and that could be hiding a camera. Noticing out-of-place things can help you find hidden cameras.
Unfortunately, there’s no guaranteed method for finding a hidden camera. But taking these extra steps when you arrive will give you fighting chance, and hopefully some peace of mind.
There is plenty of cold dust and cold hydrogen in the adjacent galaxy. Therefore the concern about new star formations is over stated.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” -MLK, for real
“I cant wait for rich white men to take my words about race based oppression, race based brutality, and the fight for basic human rights and twist them to defend their own jackassery and bullshit.”
Why You Should Assume Everyone Is Stupid, Lazy, and Possibly Insane (Including You)
Realizing everyone you meet is massively flawed isn’t cheery, but it explains a lot.
ByStephen Johnson
Since forever, philosophers, economists, and conspiracy theorists have devised any number of elaborate theories on the nature of society and the motivations of human behavior. From the ideas of Adam Smith to Karl Marx, most of these models depend (at least somewhat) on the idea of rational human actors working to achieve reasonable results for themselves, their community, or society. – But they are wrong.
Similarly, there have been volumes written about how you should successfully relate to other people—but most assume that the person you’re talking to is a relatively intelligent, functional person, even though they probably aren’t. You probably aren’t, either.
In practice, people are stupid, lazy, and behave as if they’re insane, and all human endeavors are a result of that trio of near-universal traits. So we should see the world accordingly.
No one, even rich powerful people, is playing 3D chess. People are barely playing 2D checkers.
Everyone is stupid
When I think of smart people—like really smart people, not just the smartest guy on the bus, but theoretical-physicist-smart—I can only conclude I’m a damn idiot. But when I read the comment section on the New York Times, I feel like I might be the smartest person in the world.
Thing is, there are many more New York Times commenters than theoretical physicists. In other words, forty-six percent of Americans believe ghosts exist, so we’re rarely dealing with the intellectual vanguard in our day-to-day lives.
Ultimately, though, it doesn’t matter where anyone falls on the “smartness spectrum” because even the smartest person is stupid most of the time. This isn’t to say that people can’t be intelligent, but that what we define as “intelligence” is rarely the basis of decisions, opinions, and interactions, even among people who are able to score highly on IQ tests or show other outward trappings we’ve decided denote “intelligence.”
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for economics and a presidential medal of freedom for his lifelong study of the psychology of decision-making. In his 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman proposes that we have two modes of processing information to make decisions. The first is automatic. It’s our first reaction, our mind’s formation of instant associations with no effort. It’s intuitive and impressionistic, the result of connections we’ve built though countless past experiences.
The second is slower thought—the part of our brain we use when we do an Algebra problem, where we go through careful, logical steps to arrive at a conclusion. This kind of thinking is a lot of work.
According to Kahneman, no matter how “smart” we are, our day-to-day mode of thinking involves an interaction between these two modes of thought, with Mode 2 lightly monitoring the unformed input of Mode 1 as we navigate the world, rarely piping up to offer input. Think of how thoughtlessly you can drive a car, for instance.
Most of time, this works out fine. We take our assumptions, impressions, and biases and base our decisions and opinions upon them with no static. Even something that challenges our basic assumptions can usually be explained away with some small effort from Mode 2 mind.
Everyone is lazy
The amount of effort it would take to always think with Mode 2 mind would be unsustainable and largely useless most of the time. Actually examining our assumptions and decisions with the care we give an algebra problem takes great effort, and who has the time? Most decisions don’t actually have a single “right” answer anyway, and there are a ton of great shows streaming right now.
This could be considered lazy. While laziness is often derided as a character flaw or one of the seven deadly sins, it actually offers great evolutionary advantages. Mollusks have been around for millions of years and they don’t do shit.
Many followers of evolutionary psychology (itself an often lazy discipline) contend that humans conserving energy by doing just enough to meet immediate needs was a preferable survival strategy to the effort it takes to engage in longer-term planning for some abstract goal—just go hunt a bear and don’t worry about building a city.
In the 2021 world, immediate gratification isn’t an optimal success strategy either, but it’s tough for us to shake our ancient impulses, so it’s safe to assume that most people you meet are thinking and acting in the very short-term.
For an illustration of how “lazy” you are, ask yourself what percentage of your time is devoted to getting through the day, and what amount is involved in really striving for some kind of long-term, abstract gain.
Most of us behave insanely
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in five Americans live with a mental illness, and according to the CDC, more than half of us will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some time in our life. And this doesn’t account for all of us who aren’t diagnosed but are often unreasonable.
You’re almost certainly worse at understanding your own biases than you are at recognizing them in others.
It also doesn’t account for many people with personality disorders, who are less likely to seek treatment but more likely to succeed (in business and politics) than others, even though their reduced empathy can negatively affect their decisions.
Researchers call them “successful psychopaths,” and describe them thusly: “Completely lacking in conscience and feeling for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.” Does that sound like anyone you’ve heard of?
Whether the prevalence of mental illness exists because mental illness provides some evolutionary advantage, is the result of a toxic society, or springs from greater awareness of mental health issues is debatable, but it’s safe to assume that many of us suffer to some extent, or at least behave insanely.
There’s often no outward sign of dumbness, laziness, or insanity
It’s easy to think that people are dumb and lazy when you’re in line at the Costco—you’re in “Mode 1 Mind” so your biases kick in—but the trick is realizing that everyone is just as flawed. The outward trappings we’ve come to associate with sanity and intelligence are as false as assuming that the guy next to you in line is a dope.
Many of us tend to think that rich and powerful people got that way because they’re smart, industriousness, and make sound decisions—rich people will tell you that—but the true “source” of wealth is unlikely to have anything to do with those things. Instead, it’s a complicated confluence of fate, culture, and sheer luck that adds up to wealth, like a lottery so exclusive you can’t even buy a ticket to play it.
“This rich jerk is just as flawed as I am” is an important thing to keep in mind when dealing with people with more authority or money than you have. No one, even rich powerful people, is playing 3D chess. People are barely playing 2D checkers.
You are as flawed as everyone else
It’d be nice to think that recognizing the flaws and potential pitfalls in other people’s internal worlds would make it easier to recognize them in yourself—to become more “mindful,” dedicated, and centered—but it doesn’t work that way.
Feel free to try, of course, but you probably won’t succeed. You’re almost certainly worse at understanding your own biases than you are at recognizing them in others, and knowing that fact won’t help you escape the Chinese finger trap.
Neither will being “smart.” Researchers have long studied “bias blind-spots,” (our tendency to see the biases of other people over our own), but recent research suggests that “cognitive sophistication” more often leads to people having a larger bias blindspot—being “smarter” seems to makes it harder to understand your biases compared to seeing them in others.
You’d think Daniel Kahneman, who literally wrote the book (actually several books) on the nature of flawed decision-making, would be able to avoid the pitfalls, but nope. “My intuitive thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions, and the planning fallacy as it was before I made a study of these issues,” he writes in Thinking, Fast and Slow.
How can you use this information to your advantage?
There’s nothing you can do to change the mental processes of others. You can only accept them. But that acceptance can help the world make more sense, whether it’s personal interactions or world politics.
Realizing that political and social movements spring from the decisions of individuals working with incomplete information and a set of unknowable biases, instead of from a cabal of powerful people secretly plotting world domination, could mean you’re less likely to fall for conspiracy theories…and suddenly, the fact that hundreds of talented, intelligent people devoted their professional lives to producing the movie version of Cats makes sense.
It’s a great relief in interpersonal relations, as well. Knowing that your fantasy football rival and your co-workers at the batting cage are just bumbling along means you can stop obsessing over their motivations. No one knows what they’re doing, after all, and they’re probably just trying to make things easier for themselves in the short term.
You shouldn’t, however, mention any of this to loved ones. Just pretend it all makes sense. It’s how we get along.
So many of tRump’s picks are winning their primaries. They are considered for re-election because they appeal to the racist and bigoted electorate. Also, to business owners who want regulations rolled back. And to right wing Christians who are currently attacking women’s rights to choose an abortion. Most Republican voters are isolationists who could care less about foreign policies. Let’s not forget anti immigration voters. And more recent are the anti mandates, my freedom to chose to be vaccinated.