markvdb

First trickle down economics, now trickle down security!

The bittersweet irony of an explosion of scientific progress under anti-intellectual political leadership.

> Democracy in the US is dead. People are incredibly dumb[...]

So what alternative or incremental improvement to democracy would you propose? And more importantly, how would you like to get there?

If Chinese companies can build a 10k€ car somewhat profitably, why wouldn't European ones be able to?

- The battery and motor ecosystem is dominated by Chinese companies. These will happily build EU factories. Embrace and learn.

- Market size is not too much of the problem.The Chinese market is a lot larger, but not ten times.

Perhaps regulatory capture in the EU by large established players is a big part of the problem?

Then why is the insurance for every single reactor public sector based?

s/\ without\ even\ realising\ it//

Good. Now what about fscking smartphones? There's 1000 times more of those, most with dual cameras and microphones.

I have "Hey Siri!" enthousiasts visiting soon. They can leave their iPhones in a nice Faraday cage at the entrance.

The part where the bat wielding despot required payment using the money of his issue was left out.

One, the other, or a mix of both! If I were a foreign agent wanting to sow chaos, I'd look for the easy to press buttons. Encouraging pissed-off Dutch citizens would be an obvious part of the plan.

> Technology only proceeds in one direction: unfettered growth, which necessitates unsustainable resource extraction.

The direction of technological progress is not just linearly/exponentially upwards. Significant global technological fallbacks have happened, as in knowledge and processes disappearing for hundreds of years. This could happen again.

Even on the trajectory of unfettered growth fed by unsustainable resource extraction, tech and innovation might potentially take us beyond local pessima. That seems to be happening with solar, wind and batteries replacing inferior tech today. Still unfettered growth of energy production and consumption. Still fed by unsustainable resource extraction. Less harmful growth than the inferior tech being pushed out.

I observe mostly short term opportunism. Powerful people deliberately injecting chaos for financial profit.

Negative externalities:

- loss of trust

- loss of evidence based policy

- loss of long-term planning

- loss of talent

- financial loss for almost all except the rare insiders

No. A cynic might think a significant part of this half-arsed Iran war was:

- make sure fuel prices increase globally

- The US economy is relatively well-shielded from the fallout by its own fossil fuel sources, local and in colonies like Venezuela.

- export more US fossil fuels, especially to Europe, at inflated prices. US insiders reap the profits.

- further kneecap European competitiveness in energy intensive sectors, steal market share. Oh well, small gift to China here too, but still a net win for the US.

Current US leadership has very much failed ordinary people in the US and allied states.

Incompetence or malice? Both is also possible...

Dr. Michael Greger's "How not to die" is interesting.

The moment you are reading this is not only peak digital trash, but also peak digital treasure!

I'm afraid that is too optimistic a take.

How many humans are worried about getting food on the table today? How many have the mental space to dedicate to climate change in any way? I'd guesstimate more people are worried about short term food security...

Three quarters of the world live in autocracies, and another 19% outside liberal democracies.

That will require adapted tactics. I'm not very qualified to speak on how to convince people in leadership positions there. How do you convince Erdogan, Modi, Putin, Trump, Xi, the North Korean dynasty and others?

I know what definitely won't work: Luigi Mangione style action. That will only set people up against one another.

Here's two stories that might inspire:

- I've seen a desperate, fragile grandfather seriously contemplate peaceful Gandhi style sit-ins targeting fossil fuel infrastructure, "so my grandchildren would know I at least tried".

- I've seen a couple radically cut their consumption of about everything. "Taking good care of the earth is a tenet of our religious views. We're realistic enough to realise our efforts won't help anyone directly, but perhaps it might inspire others."

Getting more noses worldwide pointing in the same direction could perhaps make a sliver of difference. The tricky bit will be getting specific groups on board. I can think of a few challenging ones:

- the downtrodden struggling for survival as it is already. They have other priorities, like food on the table.

- those outside liberal democracies (93% of the world!) in a position to bring change. They have to count with sociopaths with little accountability in charge.

- those that won't make a noise because historical experience has taught them to shut up.

- those with too little education/intelligence/eagerness to understand. They will require simple stories and example behaviour/idols/heroes to copy.

Nature's alarm signals itself will induce some fear. That will be the best publicity for change.

AMOC collapse [0] is Europe's potential big climate challenge. Nasty business. I wonder how to help prevent that from happening.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_meridional_overturnin...

This looks like not too bad a little budget machine. The hardware is just very recent, with Linux kernel support caught up so recently that it hasn't shown up in distros yet. Not a perfect screen or trackpad is to be expected at this price level.

> Every possible product name is carefully checked to avoid undesirable meanings in other languages, political or religious affiliations and fit into our global profile.

I present to you "Svalka" wine glasses. Dump", rubbish heap", or easy, promiscuous woman of ill repute in informal Baltic (and Slavic?) slang.

Most of these are illegal to install in Belgium though. Anything connected there needs national grid type approval.

Have a look at ERE. Don't get fooled by the snake oil sounding url. I ignored it for years because of that, but it's a sound framework to help you answer the question you are asking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Lund_Fisker

https://earlyretirementextreme.com/

Do watch Romance with a double bass (1975) [0]. Wonderful, not very well-known short film adaptation of a Chekhov story featuring John Cleese.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1U42izMOjs

Elementary respect for the scientific process and community. Respect for the intellectual culture it feeds on. Those would be a good start.

Honest question. How could effective global climate action look?

Similar in neighbouring Latvia. Friends who recovered their grandparents' nationalised farm organised one there. They got to meet neighbours who lived there during the occupation. Pictures surfaced of the transformation into five tiny apartments in the late 1940s.

Can't imagine the food safety institutions even considering pop-up home cafes in my native Belgium.

Square cube law will optimise heat storage. These Finnish sand based heat batteries are a prime small-scale example.