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[Il Palazzo]

I want to stress I'm not freaking out and none of you should either.

You do sound kinda crazy, though.

[bloop_bleep]

Yeah, inteuniso, you seem to be missing the fact that during the Maunder Minimum less than 50 sunspots were seen over 28 years, where usually there would be 40,000 to 50,000.

No doomsday freak climate apocalypse has happened, to the best of my knowledge, so I suppose we should be pretty much fine for now.

[Kagus]

Ah, so you were referring to the grander changing climate and related issues. Okay. I read it a bit unclear. Yeah. As I tell my family- even if climate change isn't man-caused, don't we get a more environmentally friendly earth from conservation efforts?

Environmentally friendly is one thing, but it's more people-friendly too. Strangely enough, humans actually do better without quite so much soot in their lungs (despite the statements of the esteemed Scott Pruitt). Moving away from fossil fuels would do a lot for basic air quality, particularly in urban and industrial centers.


As for Syria, I'm just worried about how Russia is going to react to this. Having other world powers come in and blast military targets with impunity looks really bad for Russia's reputation as a protective big brother in the middle east. Sure, so far the attacks are concentrated on chemical weapons facilities (which I'd at least like to hope that most modern people will be fine with the destruction and dismantling of), but what if someone changes their mind and hits another "important target"? In their current position, what could Russia do to stop that? And how is Russia going to maneuver in order to get the leverage where they feel they could stop it?

One thing is the death, torture and desolation caused by the marionettes fighting each other... But how tangled are the strings going to get?

EDIT: Speaking of which, Russia has stated that the strikes on Syrian targets are 'acts of aggression', that they've warned that such actions "will not be without consequence", and that this behavior constitutes an "insult to the Russian president", which is of course "unacceptable".

So, still pretty soft language by Russia's standards, but it doesn't bode well just the same.

In other news, Trump kept it classy and declared Mission Accomplished via Twitter.

[MorleyDev]

In other news, Trump kept it classy and declared Mission Accomplished via Twitter.

You know, considering what happened the last time an American president declare military action in the middle east as "Mission Accomplished"...

[smjjames]

In other news, Trump kept it classy and declared Mission Accomplished via Twitter.

You know, considering what happened the last time an American president declare military action in the middle east as "Mission Accomplished"...

Yeah, I was like "fateful words." when I saw that he literally said "Mission Accomplished" in the tweet.

[Rolan7]

I hope this is the end of it. I'm not interested in fighting Israel's wars for them.

You been drinking the extreme-right coolaid a bit much?

The right are the ones who want to support Israel against those darned Islams, though.  No matter what Israel does.
(The extreme-right wants to pour fire on the middle east to hasten the end times, and thus the Rapture - or so I've heard from        some old leftists   Would explain some things, though.)

[Kagus]

It varies. You've got the far right who defend everything Israel does by virtue of the fact that they're a US ally and they have big guns (and they like fighting all their neighbors), and then you've got the even farther right which is split between conspiracy theorists decrying the Zionist overlords, and neonazis who want to finish what Hitler started.

So the punch changes flavor a few times while moving further right... But it's always fruity!

[Max™]

NASA article

Actually a pretty interesting thing in the sunspot cycle, sounds like. I can see how it may have some weather effects, but it should be kept in mind that changing global temperatures have been having effects on our weather patterns including unpredictable weather (as I understand it). This is, in my opinion, a more immediate threat.

WARNING FUCKHUEG SUN PICTURE LIKE MAY CAUSE EYE DAMAGE FOR SOME REASON

So, you see the bit with the green on the left and yellow on the right? See the bits elsewhere with yellow on the left and green on the right? That means the sunspot is from cycle 25 which does look to be pretty pathetic. It isn't going to be something to panic over, but neither was sea ice melting like it does every year, so hey, get your freakout on if you feel the need.

[Doomblade187]

NASA article

Actually a pretty interesting thing in the sunspot cycle, sounds like. I can see how it may have some weather effects, but it should be kept in mind that changing global temperatures have been having effects on our weather patterns including unpredictable weather (as I understand it). This is, in my opinion, a more immediate threat.

WARNING FUCKHUEG SUN PICTURE LIKE MAY CAUSE EYE DAMAGE FOR SOME REASON

So, you see the bit with the green on the left and yellow on the right? See the bits elsewhere with yellow on the left and green on the right? That means the sunspot is from cycle 25 which does look to be pretty pathetic. It isn't going to be something to panic over, but neither was sea ice melting like it does every year, so hey, get your freakout on if you feel the need.

Ooh, I forgot that sunspot maps can be really cool.

I'm actually more worried about the sea warming than the sea ice melting, imo. Ecosystem damage and such.

[misko27]

It varies. You've got the far right who defend everything Israel does by virtue of the fact that they're a US ally and they have big guns (and they like fighting all their neighbors), and then you've got the even farther right which is split between conspiracy theorists decrying the Zionist overlords, and neonazis who want to finish what Hitler started.

So the punch changes flavor a few times while moving further right... But it's always fruity!

There's also the whole division on holocaust denialism, which somehow has a brief point of overlap on the very far right where you get people who say "The Holocaust never happened (but I wish it did)."

In other news, Trump kept it classy and declared Mission Accomplished via Twitter.

You know, considering what happened the last time an American president declare military action in the middle east as "Mission Accomplished"...

Trump is the sort of person who unironically looks to the Onion as a source of inspiration for his next actions.

[Baffler]

I hope this is the end of it. I'm not interested in fighting Israel's wars for them.

You been drinking the extreme-right coolaid a bit much?

Israel has been pushing the United States to intervene in Syria since before the shooting war even started, and since then has conducted airstrikes throughout the country, and has occasionally even launched artillery attacks against Syrian army units in order to keep them from advancing too quickly in Daraa. Analysts aligned with various different blocs tend to agree that Israel's strategy is to, ideally, get other powers to intervene and establish a friendly regime there. In absence of that intervention, they'll just do as much damage as they possibly can to their rival while the chaotic situation allows them to act more or less with impunity. The status of the Golan Heights is also a consideration.

In short, what Israelis gain from an American intervention is obvious. What Americans gain from an American intervention is less obvious. I can think of some reasons regime change might be attractive to the USA from a strategic point of view, like checking Iranian influence in the region among other things, but I don't see this strategy paying off where it's been tried already like Iraq and Afghanistan, which have had very mixed successes and at a cost that manages to be burdensome to one of the most powerful nations on Earth, and I'm not so eager to buy it again in Syria. France and the UK again seem just as eager for a fight here as the US is, but I'm not sure what they get out of it. The only explanations I've heard relate to gas pipelines (representative link,) or secret concessions, and I'm not really convinced.

[PTTG??]

NASA article

Actually a pretty interesting thing in the sunspot cycle, sounds like. I can see how it may have some weather effects, but it should be kept in mind that changing global temperatures have been having effects on our weather patterns including unpredictable weather (as I understand it). This is, in my opinion, a more immediate threat.

WARNING FUCKHUEG SUN PICTURE LIKE MAY CAUSE EYE DAMAGE FOR SOME REASON

So, you see the bit with the green on the left and yellow on the right? See the bits elsewhere with yellow on the left and green on the right? That means the sunspot is from cycle 25 which does look to be pretty pathetic. It isn't going to be something to panic over, but neither was sea ice melting like it does every year, so hey, get your freakout on if you feel the need.

Ooh, I forgot that sunspot maps can be really cool.

I'm actually more worried about the sea warming than the sea ice melting, imo. Ecosystem damage and such.

Thermal expansion of sea water actually causes more rise than ice melting. Both are bad and human caused, though; ice melt is a little more photogenic.

[Max™]

Thermal expansion of sea water actually causes more rise than ice melting. Both are bad and human caused, though; ice melt is a little more photogenic.

I mean, farting in the ocean causes more rise than sea ice melting, it's already floating after all...and if ice melt is photogenic why did they stop putting cameras at the pole? They were fascinating dammit!

NASA article

Actually a pretty interesting thing in the sunspot cycle, sounds like. I can see how it may have some weather effects, but it should be kept in mind that changing global temperatures have been having effects on our weather patterns including unpredictable weather (as I understand it). This is, in my opinion, a more immediate threat.

WARNING FUCKHUEG SUN PICTURE LIKE MAY CAUSE EYE DAMAGE FOR SOME REASON

So, you see the bit with the green on the left and yellow on the right? See the bits elsewhere with yellow on the left and green on the right? That means the sunspot is from cycle 25 which does look to be pretty pathetic. It isn't going to be something to panic over, but neither was sea ice melting like it does every year, so hey, get your freakout on if you feel the need.

Ooh, I forgot that sunspot maps can be really cool.

I'm actually more worried about the sea warming than the sea ice melting, imo. Ecosystem damage and such.

Plastic continents floating in the ocean > actual pollution > the eldritch insanity of trying to explain why averaging intensive properties is nonsense* > hypothetical if not magical effects due to changes of averaged intensive properties > the glut of information and cameras everywhere making a fairly normal rate of extreme events seem like a constant barrage because you now find out about every single one > ordinary problems like what to wear tomorrow or if you should have another slice of pizza (go ahead, treat yo'self!) frankly.

[Frumple]

France and the UK again seem just as eager for a fight here as the US is, but I'm not sure what they get out of it. The only explanations I've heard relate to gas pipelines (representative link,) or secret concessions, and I'm not really convinced.

Domestic nonsense seems to make about as much sense as anything. Short victorious war sorta' shite. France I'm less aware of, but both UK and US has leadership that'd be inclined towards it and political bases and situations such that someone might convince them they'd more or less come out ahead for the decision.

Add on the general condemnation of NBC stuff and you got decent enough grounds to posit those involved would go for it for political points, so to speak, rather than anything substantial on the material gains front.

[Kagus]

It's times like these where I look back on my time as one of the last generations to play with glitter... Arts and crafts will never be the same.

But hey, apparently we're actually sorta maybe helping to reduce the obscene amount of plastics going into the ocean, so that's nice. Baby steps.


But it's all okay, we will soon be enlightened by the Chosen One and ushered into a new era of peaceful contemplation when he releases his book of philosophy.