Interesting stuff
what culture war?
it's not an either / or
or doesn't have to be...
well, went back to the conversation article
thinking I might even sign up and have a crack in the comments... but highly likely not... because, you know, it's the conversation and stuff...
anyway, didn't need to sign up, my work was already done... by other commentors raising exactly what I was talking about, albeit a bit more cordially, though not always...
seems the culture war is over...
the right thinks the left won the culture war
the left thinks the right is winning the culture war
and the comments at the conversation are getting more and more reasonable every time I find myself there...
job done
well not really, the zealots aren't backing down... still...
Perhaps the most impactful event resulting from a conscious political decision in the last twenty years in regards to global environmental preservation? With the current Chinese demographic trajectory into the middle class and exponential consumerism, this probably equates to a new USA every year or two.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/beijing-announces-new-three-child-poli...
Reading Blowin’s article I can see why China was trying to buy out our dairy industry , its also New Zealand’s biggest export to China. https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/markets-and-shares/2020/.... https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223304.shtml
Blackers, yes I was stirring the pot a little regarding that article in The Conversation but with the loaded language in the title, and knowing the general style of that website, I really don't think I'm far from the reality and the intention of the piece, or at least how the editors would like to present it.
How good is Scotty https://chaser.com.au/national/pm-reassures-victorians-that-he-is-willin...
How's this thing: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/03/world/polar-pod-southern-ocean-climat...
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French explorer and environmentalist Jean-Louis Etienne has spent the last 10 years designing a scientific vessel capable of braving the terrifying waves and winds found there.
His floating laboratory, called the Polar Pod, will stand 100 meters high and weigh 1,000 tons. The structure will be towed horizontally from the east coast of South Africa to the powerful current surrounding Antarctica. It will then "flip" vertically by filling 150-ton seawater ballast tanks, a feature inspired by the US oceanographic platform FLIP.
The vessel has no engine and will be driven by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, drifting at about 1 knott per hour. The top of the structure -- 20 meters above the water -- is where the crew will live, sleep and work. The submerged portion keeps it steady. "It is 80 meters below sea level, fixed in very calm water -- that's why it's very stable," Etienne tells CNN.
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You'd want a strong stomach!
Mayday, mayday, mayday this is Polar Pod this is Polar Pod. We have been hit by a rogue wave and are open to the water, we are sinking. Please advise if any vessel is withi...sssssch.....
Otherwise that could be quite epic
"As the structure will be silent, it will be able to use hydrophones -- underwater microphones -- to record the "acoustic signature" characteristic of different sea creatures, from krill to whales, and perform a census of marine life, explains Etienne."
Tip of the hat for that bit
Do the journos come to Swellnet to find interesting new angles on a story?
Here's the Age, doing what we discussed a couple of days ago: why Melbourne?
"One argument put forward to explain Melbourne’s increased susceptibility is that Melbourne’s public transport network allows us to travel across the city with greater ease than those in Sydney. Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist from the University of NSW, believes Melburnians use public transport differently to Sydneysiders and this has been a factor in helping spread the virus. "
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/impossible-question-to-ignor...
(if they do read these forums, it's probably for tbb)
Sprout wrote:How's this thing: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/03/world/polar-pod-southern-ocean-climat...
----------
French explorer and environmentalist Jean-Louis Etienne has spent the last 10 years designing a scientific vessel capable of braving the terrifying waves and winds found there.His floating laboratory, called the Polar Pod, will stand 100 meters high and weigh 1,000 tons. The structure will be towed horizontally from the east coast of South Africa to the powerful current surrounding Antarctica. It will then "flip" vertically by filling 150-ton seawater ballast tanks, a feature inspired by the US oceanographic platform FLIP.
The vessel has no engine and will be driven by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, drifting at about 1 knott per hour. The top of the structure -- 20 meters above the water -- is where the crew will live, sleep and work. The submerged portion keeps it steady. "It is 80 meters below sea level, fixed in very calm water -- that's why it's very stable," Etienne tells CNN.
----------
You'd want a strong stomach!
Concept originated in the early 60's
https://www.ship-technology.com/projects/flip-ship/
velocityjohnno wrote:Do the journos come to Swellnet to find interesting new angles on a story?
Here's the Age, doing what we discussed a couple of days ago: why Melbourne?
"One argument put forward to explain Melbourne’s increased susceptibility is that Melbourne’s public transport network allows us to travel across the city with greater ease than those in Sydney. Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist from the University of NSW, believes Melburnians use public transport differently to Sydneysiders and this has been a factor in helping spread the virus. "
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/impossible-question-to-ignor...
(if they do read these forums, it's probably for tbb)
That's a far better article, it actually mentions the difference in behaviour patterns in regard to people in Melbourne spending more time indoors compared to city areas with warmer climates.
The topic and question asked why Victoria? isn't unique to this forum though, everywhere i turn people are having this conversation.
Some Nature makes it into the only Federal lower house Greens seat, but things don't end well for it:
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/deer-on-the-loose-in-the-loc...
Map of the internet.
Exactly what it sounds like. Websites represented as countries by size. Interesting stuff!
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/13ad2603-668b-...
indo-dreaming wrote:That's a far better article, it actually mentions the difference in behaviour patterns .
Stereotypes.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-melbourne-the-answer-to-lockdowns-do...
On the weekend I put a bunch of old boards out on the lawn for people to take. Advertised them with a sign stuck to a wooden bench seat.
Saturday, thirty minutes after they went out, all the boards were gone, plus the wooden bench seat which was worth far more than any of the boards.
Sunday, one of the boards was returned.
Do you live near a government sanctioned injecting room by any chance?
Stick a sign on the board that came back saying "PLEASE RETURN MY BENCH SEAT"?
Hahaha
Never know, might get lucky with it! Might have been someone in the neighbourhood who made an honest mistake thinking Stu was giving it away and will pass by again one of these days and realise when he sees the new sign.
Hang on, so after the boards went, was there a bench seat sitting there with a sign on it saying "Free - please take"?
Coaster wrote:indo-dreaming wrote:That's a far better article, it actually mentions the difference in behaviour patterns .
Stereotypes.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-melbourne-the-answer-to-lockdowns-do...
That's a good article too, pretty much bust a lot of that age article, on travel ad pop density etc.
The Indoor thing still stands true though.
Jono wrote:Hang on, so after the boards went, was there a bench seat sitting there with a sign on it saying "Free - please take"?
Sounds like possible poor planning ;p
Rumour has it he tied his wife to it as well!!! Just talking shite as per usual Stu. Good to be back where I can see waves again. Cairns great, but goodness me, tiny waves peeling down perfect points just too much a head f..k. Hope injury is rehabbing well mate.
I've lost all faith in humanity, Al.
I hope you get it back Stu but I'm not surprised someone took it, it's pretty much an unwritten rule if it's not a car/boat/caravan and its on the nature strip its free to take.
Personally if its something that looks too good to be true, i always knock on the door and ask just to make sure.
Good karma for giving boards away Stu. Something good and even better coming your way mate. Thank them, bless them, let it go, maybe it was an honest mistake, if not, you were sharing, so life will share with you. Stuff comes and goes, but intentional kindness is priceless.
Lucky it was just a bench - some people think that if you leave a nice car on the street it's free to take.
Could’ve been a communication difficulty. Maybe try another sign informing the public that the bench wasn’t on offer? Then again, it’s probably sitting in a house at Liverpool by now.
Which board was returned?
It possibly could have been a communication difficulty. My wife wrote the sign which said 'Free boards and toys [a few Tonka trucks went out too], dont take the bench'.
As I explained to her later, I would've called it a seat because someone may have thought the sign referred to something else entirely. So they took the boards and took the seat, not knowing it was a bench seat.
Anyway, dunno why I'm cutting them slack cos they returned a board and there's no justification for that. Once it's gone I dont want it anymore.
The board was an old Power Plug belly channel Thruster. Actually, I think it was one of Ben's old boards that I ended up with somehow.
Sounds like theft to me. Spewing
You’re very trustful in human nature. I agree with Blowin; it’s either in Liverpool, or ah, Bellambi..
what a sordid tail the modern money trail has become...
and these are the 'good guys'
https://www.unz.com/wwebb/the-cover-up-continues-the-truth-about-bill-ga...
no wonder some have come to refer to the modern philanthropy megacomplex as disaster capitalism...
you've got to wonder... in their 'noble' quest to spread the internet to the world... if they may have overlooked a thing or two...
it seems some of the old ways of doing business are a little incongruous with average joe public having all that information at their fingertips...
from an article cited in the above article...
"Last week’s Clinton confab was part of a discernible trend in “philanthropy” - that is to day, the rapid deconstruction of the accepted term. The reach and economic might of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the disposal of Warren Buffett’s fortune, the creation of the loosely for-profit Google.org, Branson’s “gift,” and the kind of economic studies that come out of the World Economic Forum and the Milken Global Conference all point in the direction of blurring the boundaries between philanthropy, business, and nonprofits.
How this changes democracy is clearly a question we who live in democracies must ask. As major-league funding efforts to change the world cross international boundaries and move far outside the oversight of our individual elected representatives, does the average Joe maintain any say on the global commons? Does this mean we have to reconsider how we view tax-exempt status in the U.S.? Should we reconsider the legal strictures on American foundations?
And beyond that, does it work? In the end, even a room with the heft of the Clinton Global Initiative has a hard time fixing the political realities that hinder real change in the world, that keep people dying from bad water and poverty and disease - ills that modern society can fix. Cynics blasted CGI as a staged love-in that broke down fewer boundaries than it appeared to. Part of that is fair criticism; no three-day conference can change the world."
a little prothetic you might say...
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_30381
...maybe some of these people should just pay more appropriate taxes...
...some taxes?
I understand the desire to abbreviate, but I wish journalists would write 'Artificial Intelligence' rather than AI.
Looks too much like the name of my mate Al, and every day there's a headline that catches my eye - today it's 'Al to power SA's largest port' - and I wonder what the hell Al's been up to.
All this AI stuff they talk about these days is not actually AI at all.
“AI to power SAs largest port” - that will be interesting news to the world specialists looking at AI. The consensus figure is that humans will first see AI in 2062. Professor Toby Walsh from UNSW wrote a book on it called 2062. There you go. I went to the book launch and got him to sign my book.
There is a very big difference between clever algorithms, self-learning algorithms, and AI. The SA thing at best will be a clever algorithm.
AI is as distinct from self learning algorithms as we are, say, to the amoeba (to use a quote from Spock that I’ve held on to all these years)
It's life Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it...
"The Meaning of the 21st Century" suggested AI would be around by 2040s, but 2062 I guess I can wait.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/christies-sells-first-painting-made-using-...
When you look at some of the artwork, it's haunting in a slightly disturbing way.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/facebook-artificial-intelligenc...
And these are probably just the algorithms, not true AI.
Then there's possibly my favourite AI - the innocent chatbot that was exposed to a full undiluted raw dose of the internet and went haywire:
batfink & VJ, is Allan going to take over and dispense with humans?
EDIT - watched the tay vid, it's ok, Al will just kill itself... like humanity!
Garbage in, garbage out.
TAY was interesting, how could an AI developed in these times not kill itself!
Patrick, I seem to recall a letter signed by very many of the world’s top sciencey folk, including Stephen Hawking, (well, not signed is suppose, but you get the drift) across a vast array of scientific fields imploring humanity NOT to go down the path of developing AI, that it was immensely dangerous etc ...
Genuine AI is likely the Darwinian leap that sees Homo Sapiens studied in robo-schools of the future as this extinct species. The other possibility is that we become the pets of the robots, keeping us around for amusement and unconditional love, although they may prefer dogs.
Asimov’s ingenious 3 laws would seem to be the answer, but that then inevitably leads to a world perfectly shown in the movie ‘I, Robot’, which basically means loss of human autonomy over many areas. Blowin’s rationalisations for not getting a jab, as arithmetically and socially challenged as they are, will be quickly set aside and he’ll be held down and jabbed whether he likes it or not.
I’m sort of ok with the relatively benign dictatorship of Robot AI. They will do so much better a job of leading humanity than humans ever have.
But then again, why would a sentient being vastly superior to humanity in almost every way need human beings any more?
The other interesting sciencey development which has extraordinary implications, but didn’t attract a letter of warning from concerned scientists, is the development of quantum computing.
The implications are vast, and there is a probable tie-in with genuine AI development. The interesting possibility is the effect it will have on encryption. We will theoretically have vastly more computer power to develop encryption further, but encryption relies on prime numbers (long story, some on here will know vastly more than me).
But with vast computing power comes vast possibilities that all encryption will be rendered useless. Modern society is rendered meaningless if encryption becomes junked. Think going back to queueing up at the bank, your local branch only, to withdraw cash, yes, cash, to pay bills, yes, bills, which are sent to you by old fashioned mail.
Actually, that is a vast understatement. Life as we know it, as we know it, as we know it, is gone if encryption falls over.
As for quantum computing, again like AI, real quantum computing not a fake Google simulacrum (apparently they claimed to have achieved it a year or two ago).
I was at a lecture from Prof Michelle Simmons, former Australian of the year, explaining quantum computing. Australia, particularly UNSW, is as advanced or more advanced than anywhere. She explained it as follows, with allowances for memory issues (mine, not hers):
Imagine you had to deliver 24 parcels in 24 suburbs or cities. Working out the quickest way to deliver those parcels would take - 1. All the computing power on earth that has ever been created dedicated to that one task - 2. an amount of time equivalent to more time than has occurred since the Big Bang.
Quantum computing could achieve it in a few hours!
28 cities. I just found this old Ted talk.
https://tedxsydney.com/talk/quantum-computation/
This is over a decade old now but still gives you something to ponder.
batfink wrote:28 cities, not 24!! I just found this old Ted talk.
https://tedxsydney.com/talk/quantum-computation/
This is over a decade old now but still gives you something to ponder
Recent local news re quantum computing. Would be good if Gov could see its way to keeping this sort of talent in Australia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-13/sydney-university-student-solves-...
Yeah, I read that H20. A few months old now. Interesting that with coding is that most of it is shit, but got the original job done no matter how poorly, but there is so much underlying code it’s impossible to go back.
This was an unusual example. Brilliant.
Thanks batfink. Yes, I remember the warning letter https://www.livescience.com/amp/49419-artificial-intelligence-dangers-le...
This is so cool, guy is such a dude, a vegans nightmare.
No doubt I will get in trouble for this 
Have it cunts