throw0101d

> How does the planet run out of water?

By draining aquifers, for one:

* https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06879-8

* https://unu.edu/inweh/news/world-enters-era-of-global-water-...

Certain desalination exists, but can get expensive and energy-intensive (and they it may be necessary to transport the fresh water great distances).

* https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition

Really wish I had a better memory so I could memorize these as a lot of them would be really fun as everyday quips.

> $6 a gallon is about €1.36 a litre - thats cheap compared to a European average of €2 per litre.

As someone who drives a 2003 Golf TDI, I'm currently looking at CAD 2.40/L: EUR1.49/USD1.73 per L.

A possibly useful list for comparison:

* https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/diesel_prices/

* https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/

> I answered in response to a different comment about the level of patience I have with men that think changing one word in the title of the bureaucracy in charge of war somehow meaningfully changes the reality or meaning of war (spoiler: none).

Except it wasn't just a change in the name in the department: the Department of War actually became the Department of the Army, the DoNavy was merged with, the Air Force was split off from being with-in the Army (USAAF -> USAF), creation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CIA, etc:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Act_of_1947

> But whether a war was actually offensive or defensive still came down to what story we wanted to tell ourselves at the end of the day.

And sometimes a war does not happen because someone has a big enough stick that other people don't want to risk it being used on them. It's not like the 'other side' was passively sitting around:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_empire

There needed to be various measures done (on a spectrum from more to less 'active') to keep things in check:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containment

> […] but iron radiators need 60-80C [140-175F] supply.

* https://www.bryant.com/en/ca/products/heat-pumps/33nm3/

* https://www.arcticheatpumps.com/high-temperature-heat-pump.h...

> Whether it is called “Department of War” or “Department of Defense”, it’s still the same organization maintaining the same mission operating under the same budget.

The mission of the Department of War, which was its name pre-WW2, and the mission of the Department of Defence (post-WW2) is completely different: this is evidenced by the number of military personnel in the two time periods (and the draw-down in personal post-1990, after the Cold War ended):

* https://www.statista.com/statistics/1066986/us-armed-forces-...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_military_personnel_and...

> Defense was always just a euphemism for War. That’s not the signal you think it is.

No, it was not. Tom Nichols, professor emiritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College:

> It is almost impossible to overstate the inanity of this move. The United States has a Department of Defense for a reason. It was called the “War” Department until 1947, when the dictates of a new and more dangerous world required the creation of a much larger military organization than any in American history. Harry Truman and the American leaders who destroyed the Axis, and who now were facing the Soviet empire, realized that national security had become a larger undertaking than the previous American tradition of moving, as needed, between discrete conditions of “war” and “peace.”

> These leaders understood that America could no longer afford the isolationist luxury of militarizing itself during times of threat and then making soldiers train with wooden sticks[1] when the storm clouds passed. Now, they knew, the security of the country would be a daily undertaking, a matter of ongoing national defense, in which the actual exercise of military force would be only part of preserving the freedom and independence of the United States and its allies.

> In 1949, after two years that included a massive reorganization of the U.S. military (and the establishment of an air force), Truman christened the new United States Department of Defense, which consolidated elements of the previous War and Navy Departments. […]

* https://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive...

The Department of War had a different function for a different geopolitical outlook that no longer matched reality in the post-WW2 world.

> * Or is the argument that it's only US companies which shouldn't, because the* US is uniquely evil?

What are the (current?) foreign policy goals of the country in question? If it leans more defensive, like Japan, that's different than a country that may have a more interventionist bent.

Also what product(s) is the company developing or offering (field hospital equipment or are we talking about Palantir)?

> I live in Ohio in a 100 year old home with cast iron radiators and a natural gas boiler and a gas water heater. I’d love to move to electric […]

Perhaps look into "air to water" heat pumps.

> I heard CO2 is a gas with a powerful green house effect.

Compared to other refrigerants it's a paradise:

* https://www.epa.gov/hfcs/technology-transitions-gwp-referenc...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential#Calcu...

> […] but the mic isn't even sufficient for meetings in a public place (e.g. a diner at lunch time), whereas my laptop's builtin mic is.

Exact opposite for me: other people can't hear anything if the meeting app uses my laptop's mic.

> Elder millennial here, though my sister was young GenX. I was born in '82, she was born in '79.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xennials

> At what time do you trust them to stay home by themself?

As a GenXer, ~12 (?):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latchkey_kid

CO2 as a refrigerant isn't new:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-744

It's just not as prevalent in the residential HVAC market (which this product serves?), and more in the commercial/industrial space (probably because of the higher pressures needed to get into a liquid state).

> I wish there was some regulation that would force TVs to have a "dumb" mode.

Some manufacturers have "business" lines, for things like kiosks and in-store displays, e.g.:

* https://www.samsung.com/us/business/commercial-tvs/all-comme...

* https://www.samsung.com/ca/business/smart-signage/

> Depending on the circumstances you may need more than that.

Contrary to urban legends (and fictional entertainment), in times of disaster humans generally pull together:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Paradise_Built_in_Hell

> We had no water, power, or telecommunications for several days, no way to reach the outside world until the nearby cell towers came back online unless you had Starlink.

Amateur ("ham") radio can be handy. If you don't want to go to the effort to get a radio, a receive-only AM/FM crank/solar radio can be handy to get news.

You rotate it every ~6 months:

* https://www.cdc.gov/water-emergency/about/how-to-create-and-...

The old stuff can be used to water house plants or your garden. If you have advanced warning of an event (e.g., hurricane), you can also fill up a large reserve 'just in time':

* https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/waterbob-bathtub-liner-rev...

> 30 days of spare food feels like such an enormous amount of space and material.

Freeze dried stuff can be sit on a cool, dark shelf for a decade or two; a popular company:

* https://mountainhouse.com/

Also need to have a source of water and a way to boil it.

September is (US) National Preparedness Month:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Preparedness_Month

General guidelines to have a decent pantry, someway to cook things, some spare water, a way to heat your home if you're in a place that has winter, a source of emergency lighting:

* https://www.ready.gov

* https://getprepared.ca

Zombie apocalypses are a fun meme, but a broken city water main or an ice storm can be quite disruptive.

"Facebook says Apple iOS privacy change will result in $10 billion revenue hit this year" (2022):

* https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-priv...

See also perhaps "It’s not Meta - its APPLE who have screwed us small advertisers":

* https://www.reddit.com/r/FacebookAds/comments/1o85w2q/

> off-topic: I've made a habit of removing all those `si` or `igshid` or `unique_share_id` […]

Also `pp`.

> How would that even work? Park tanks on Wall Street and point them at stockbrokers?

People are not quite sure, but Krugamn (for one) is willing to fight:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK20wZ0ofwY

The auditors report:

* https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/dynamic-media-pr...

Yes, you can. Or rather some people can. People have to be realistic about what they can save and the lifestyle they need (versus want).

Depending on the commitments you had during your working life, you may need as little as 40% of your working income in retirement to have the same lifestyle (as opposed to the 70% number that is bandied about so much).

> Just tax those with high incomes to get it back.

This appears to not raise as much money as many people think. Interesting conversation with UK tax lawyer Dan Neidle on the topic:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgQONOM15HI

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Neidle

(Of course there could be reasons besides strictly revenue to do it, but folks should be realistic about the pros and cons.)

At this point perhaps countries should opt out of the Berne Convention [1] and limit copyright to something like 20-30 years after creation.

If you can't recoup your costs after a couple of decades your work either isn't worth anything commercially and/or you are incompetent in business. Regardless of which, society would probably be better served if you were out of the way and the work could be leverage by others.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention

Someone making CA$ 90k will get the full OAS. If they have a spouse who makes $90k, they will also get the full amount. So a household with $180k income is getting a bunch of government money.

Why does a couple with $180k HHI need to get anything?

> Years ago, perhaps, it might not have been clear to the average person that money has to grow over time to stave off inflation, but that information has been widely available for decades and many people still don't put money into any kind of investment.

When the CPP was being reformed in the 1990s:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Pension_Plan#1998_refor...

There was a lot of debate about whether it should still be government run, or left to individuals, and it is exactly this situation that many folks said that there needs to be some component of retirement that should not be able to be touched by individuals.