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[NJW2000]

Youtube has a new feature in which "remove annotations" only removes some annotations.

I am impressed by this example of well-honed functionailty.

[misko27]

I own three umbrellas and cannot find any of them. I've turned my entire room upside-down, started checking the really esoteric locations too. (once I left it on a heater so as to warm up, then I forgot it was there) I've checked with my mother but I didn't leave it there it seems, since they don't have any (and they really want one, so). Very confused.

[itisnotlogical]

Youtube has a new feature in which "remove annotations" only removes some annotations.

I am impressed by this example of well-honed functionailty.

Cus annotations are often ads, see, whether placed by the uploader or "suggested" by Youtube (the little "i" in a circle in the top-right of some videos).

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

It took us 95 years to get from the first functional airplane to the ISS. Ninety-five years. There have been people that live that long. A person could have been born before flight was invented, and have lived to see people living long-term off the ground.

What. The. Fuck. How did we do that?

[LordBaal]

We human can be marvelous when we stop being idiotic assholes. That's how.

Also WW2 gave a huge technology push to mankind, so maybe we are even more marvelous when being assholes.

[Flying Dice]

It took us 95 years to get from the first functional airplane to the ISS. Ninety-five years. There have been people that live that long. A person could have been born before flight was invented, and have lived to see people living long-term off the ground.

What. The. Fuck. How did we do that?

Give it another 95 and we'll be asking how the fuck we let our aerospace infrastructure decay and allowed critical resources to be wasted instead of laying the groundwork for sustainable power and interplanetary civilization/resource extraction.

[overseer05-15]

It took us 95 years to get from the first functional airplane to the ISS. Ninety-five years. There have been people that live that long. A person could have been born before flight was invented, and have lived to see people living long-term off the ground.

What. The. Fuck. How did we do that?

Give it another 95 and we'll be asking how the fuck we let our aerospace infrastructure decay and allowed critical resources to be wasted instead of laying the groundwork for sustainable power and interplanetary civilization/resource extraction.

95? I give it 35.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Well, the good news is that Trump appears to be pro-space stuff. The bad news is that Trump is the new Reagan, in that he wants SPACE STAR WARS WARS.

[Sergarr]

There are countries other than USA that are interested in having a future, you know. Also, private space-faring industry is developing at a pretty rapid pace. It's probably going to be okay. For the world, that is, not the USA. USA is probably fucked, ahaha.

[Flying Dice]

There are countries other than USA that are interested in having a future, you know. Also, private space-faring industry is developing at a pretty rapid pace. It's probably going to be okay. For the world, that is, not the USA. USA is probably fucked, ahaha.

Problem is that the US has direct or indirect control over a substantial portion of the Earth's remaining fossil fuels. We're past peak oil and still only making minimal efforts to convert to nuclear/solar/geothermal/tidal while continuing to ramp up consumption. We (the world) should have been cutting back and prioritized the use of fossil fuel reserves to build up sustainable power and orbital infrastructure decades ago, it's a job that only becomes more difficult with time, and there's a breakpoint beyond which we don't have enough high-energy fuel sources to develop new ones efficiently on a large scale, never mind getting into orbit where everything has lower energy costs and more efficient solar collection.

If we fuck up too much we get stuck in our own gravity well with little/no sustainable late/post-industrial capability and an increasingly deteriorated biosphere.

[Sergarr]

We're past peak oil

when has that happened

and still only making minimal efforts to convert to nuclear/solar/geothermal/tidal while continuing to ramp up consumption.

Good thing is, it's a self-balancing problem - the less oil is left in the world, the more it costs => nuclear/solar/geothermal become an economically viable alternative.

there's a breakpoint beyond which we don't have enough high-energy fuel sources to develop new ones efficiently on a large scale, never mind getting into orbit where everything has lower energy costs and more efficient solar collection.

Nearly impossible to reach. Resources don't just go from "glut" to "almost no left", there's a whole spectrum of various drilling sites and other places of acquisition with varying costs of extraction, and, since the cheaper ones are, obviously enough, extracted first, the transition is quite smooth, differentiable, and - predictable. You can say "but what if it'll be too late by the point it will become profitable to build solar", and that's where the second most genius invention of humanity, after the concept of money itself, comes in - loans. People can predict when this stuff will run out and start doing it in advance on loan funding, and you can bet there'll be lots of people that would want to get on the ride to be on the top in the new post-oil world - hell, there's a big chance that the oil companies themselves will be among the first ones in the line to fund Big Renewables!

If we fuck up too much we get stuck in our own gravity well with little/no sustainable late/post-industrial capability and an increasingly deteriorated biosphere.

As I've just said it, the beauty of capitalism is that problems like that are self-solving within the paradigm. Now, if the world was running on a stupid shit like a command planned system, then you could start panicking, because the small number of people that set out the plans for everyone else can fuck up like that - but in capitalism, it's just not really possible. Now, things can still be fucked, a la the crisis of 2008, because it's still a system run by simple mortals, but it'd have to fuck up like that 10 times in a row and 10 times stronger for a threat of resource depletion to really be viable. And that, well, is hard to do.

Although USA has definitely taken a step in the right direction for that, what with allowing trash like Donald Trump to get their hands on the world's control panel and all. Thank god FRS is a private organization, or else we'd have a guaranteed currency crash after Trump'd print out money for handouts/bribes/"voter's stimulation" to the "worker class".

[Loud Whispers]

Now, things can still be fucked, a la the crisis of 2008, because it's still a system run by simple mortals, but it'd have to fuck up like that 10 times in a row and 10 times stronger for a threat of resource depletion to really be viable. And that, well, is hard to do.

It does not take much for humans to fuck up 10 times in a row 10 times stronger. It is in fact, very likely

[Flying Dice]

We're past peak oil

when has that happened

and still only making minimal efforts to convert to nuclear/solar/geothermal/tidal while continuing to ramp up consumption.

Good thing is, it's a self-balancing problem - the less oil is left in the world, the more it costs => nuclear/solar/geothermal become an economically viable alternative.

there's a breakpoint beyond which we don't have enough high-energy fuel sources to develop new ones efficiently on a large scale, never mind getting into orbit where everything has lower energy costs and more efficient solar collection.

Nearly impossible to reach. Resources don't just go from "glut" to "almost no left", there's a whole spectrum of various drilling sites and other places of acquisition with varying costs of extraction, and, since the cheaper ones are, obviously enough, extracted first, the transition is quite smooth, differentiable, and - predictable. You can say "but what if it'll be too late by the point it will become profitable to build solar", and that's where the second most genius invention of humanity, after the concept of money itself, comes in - loans. People can predict when this stuff will run out and start doing it in advance on loan funding, and you can bet there'll be lots of people that would want to get on the ride to be on the top in the new post-oil world - hell, there's a big chance that the oil companies themselves will be among the first ones in the line to fund Big Renewables!

If we fuck up too much we get stuck in our own gravity well with little/no sustainable late/post-industrial capability and an increasingly deteriorated biosphere.

As I've just said it, the beauty of capitalism is that problems like that are self-solving within the paradigm. Now, if the world was running on a stupid shit like a command planned system, then you could start panicking, because the small number of people that set out the plans for everyone else can fuck up like that - but in capitalism, it's just not really possible. Now, things can still be fucked, a la the crisis of 2008, because it's still a system run by simple mortals, but it'd have to fuck up like that 10 times in a row and 10 times stronger for a threat of resource depletion to really be viable. And that, well, is hard to do.

Although USA has definitely taken a step in the right direction for that, what with allowing trash like Donald Trump to get their hands on the world's control panel and all. Thank god FRS is a private organization, or else we'd have a guaranteed currency crash after Trump'd print out money for handouts/bribes/"voter's stimulation" to the "worker class".

Oil discoveries peaked more than half a century ago and most partially/fully untapped reserves are nontraditional. The introduction of fracking opened up previously inaccessible resources and pushed the timeline back a bit, but that's not a positive note. It's an example of how far the established interests will go to maintain their economic hegemony-preferring to all-in on even more damaging extraction methods to reach much more difficult deposits.

The problem is twofold. You're assuming that "energy producers" in a capitalist paradigm are a nebulous mass of companies which have fingers in every sort of energy. This is not so-the established interests are all thoroughly invested in fossil fuels, which is why they've done their best to strangle sustainable sources in the cradle. Solar and nuclear power are their competitors, not their more expensive new products. Additionally, "Oh, we'll just start transitioning when we're almost out and it costs a ton of time and capital to extract what's left" ignores two factors: you need the fossil fuels to keep your industry and economy running while you build and transition to the new infrastructure, which could be a matter of a century or more for a complete global turnover, and that requires that fossil fuel use be scaled back to match the remaining reserves.

What we're instead seeing is continuous increases in usage as we deliberately stifle attempts to begin building up sustainable energy even as we get into fossil fuel reserves which are increasingly costly and difficult to extract from. If you're starting to build up solar and nuclear infrastructure when you've got forty years of barely-accessible reserves left, it's too late. In the very best case scenario proceeding from there you manage to go into hard conservation long enough to get a meaningful amount of sustainable sources running. Civilization shudders and much of it is suddenly stuck halfway in the information age, halfway in the pre-industrial age until you leverage what assets you did complete to finish the job. Worst case is you get almost nothing online before the crash and you have to try to build it up from near-scratch with nothing but whatever pre-existing sustainable assets you had and shit like wood-burning steam engines.

The looming energy crisis and accompanying environmental disaster is one of the greatest failures of capitalism, and it is on the path ahead precisely because capitalism prioritizes unfettered greed and short-term profit over long-term sustainable profit. Most industry leaders would rather be stinking rich and die before the problems come home to roost than be comfortably rich and build a company that'll keep generating money for centuries after they're dead without fucking the world over.

[Rolepgeek]

...Seriously, guys, fracking isn't that bad. The process itself, at least. It's essentially pressurized water with lubricant and disinfectant. The way it was discovered was a guy trying to keep his job when he was overseeing the much more expensive process using chemical gels rather than water to break up the rock. And natural gas is a transition fuel anyway. Furthermore, it's not always just 'established interests'. If you're wanting to get in on the energy business and fracking was just discovered, are you gonna try for offshore drilling, or hoping you find some new easily accessed deposits, or are you going to try this new much cheaper method of extracting from previously economically unfeasible deposits?

Nuclear is already less cost-effective than renewable sources, given how long it takes to start up a plant and the expenses involved in the safety measures.

Re: Capitalism and energy producers: The established interests are largely fossil fuel oriented, yes. And as they start having to raise prices because the price of extraction increases, their competitors will gain an advantage. Because the total amount of available fuel is not in one giant pool that will all run out at once, it will run out bit, by bit, and there's already a massive movement towards sustainability and renewable energy. Civilization as a whole is not going to collapse. Apocalypse scenarios are actually really bad for getting people to listen to your message, actually; there's the standard reaction of 'world hasn't ended yet, why should it now', and then there's the fact that people don't like hearing negative news like that as a rule of thumb anyway.

Though it's true that Big Oil probably won't transition into Renewables; companies don't like innovating if they aren't forced to, and they still don't then, a fair amount of the time. Markets don't solve everything, mind, Sergarr. Particularly externalities. It's only over the long-term and large-scale that those externalities bite back, which is why we have regulations.

Oh, yeah, and biofuels are fucking stupid, by the way. At the moment most of them are literally just wasting carbon. Costs like a liter of oil to get 0.7 liters of equivalent energy biofuel.

Capitalism only prioritizes short-term profit over long-term profit in the short-term. Our current market system/stock markets method of basing everything off quarterly profits and CEO celebrity status doesn't help. Trading CEOs around and hiring from outside means they don't have a stake in the company, and even if you try to pay them in shares, they'll always come away with something for themselves even if the company itself crashes into the ground.

[Neonivek]

Nuclear is already less cost-effective than renewable sources, given how long it takes to start up a plant and the expenses involved in the safety measures

Are we going by the fudged data? The one that also includes externalizations, things that are no longer part of the cost, and things that apply to solar but are thrown away?

Since apperantly the cheapest solar energy (that isn't cheating such as being subsidized) is 55 cents a watt. (assuming that source is right)

While the US's current cost of nuclear power is about 40 cents a watt. (err sorry 53 cents a watt)

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Ok you know what often annoys me? When people say things like "Giant Ants" or "Giant Spiders" are impossible in real life.

Which, to me, is like saying Blue Whales don't exist because they would be too large to walk on land.

I am aware that any sort of "Giant ant" or "Giant Spider" would be drastically different. It even bugs me when they mention the insects organs because you know... it isn't like a Insect of that size could possibly have different organs then the smaller ones.

So YES you are right... You couldn't grow a spider to giant size and have it function. In other news you cannot replace a Bird's bones with lead and have it fly.