Sea ice (most of the arctic) is VERY different to land ice (which is most of Antarctica). Check some sea ice maps and ice thickness maps to see the difference.

Also, the two hemispheres are not tightly coupled over short (decadal scales). The Arctic has been warming much faster than the Antarctic (so far).

At least some penguin species need sea ice to breed, and Antarctic sea ice extent has dropped off a cliff in the last decade (a starting in 2016) (source: went to a plenary about sea ice at the AMOS conference in Aus at the end of June)

I think what ever happens in Antarctica, it’s likely to be complex…

Not in a meaningful timeframe, I think. Even if we get a worst case outcome (say +5°C by 2100, ongoing warming), permanent land ice in Antarctica will likely take many hundreds, or even thousands of years to melt entirely.

It’s always going to have frozen winters with lots of snow, due to the long dark polar winter… I guess some boreal tundra species could survive that, but farming is probably unlikely to be viable, I would guess.

Haha, yeah. Also, anything with too many burnt carbs is not great.

Hell yea. I used some oil recently that had be used to good something (IDK… housemate food) with heaps of curry powder flavours and some chilli. That was awesome.

Popcorn made in pre-used oil can be awesome, and an easy way to get rid of 100ml or so.

Boil some red lentils, add carrots when they’re half done. Then some coconut cream and a stock cube. Fry up some onion and garlic with cumin and coriander powder, then chuck that in too. Eat with rice. Add some sambal.

That REALLY isn’t how things work

It definitely can be. I haven’t dealt with payment processors in this way, but I’ve had (spurious) DCMA takedowns that required my service providers to act immediately, or else they’d get sued. They did notify me, but gave me about 2h to figure something else out.

A payment processor is in full control of payments across your entire site (unless you have multiple, I guess). They can pull the rug with no notice if they want. Doesn’t seem nice, but nice isn’t part of the business model.

OMG, TLAs are the worst, there are so many of them

Corporate nursing homes milking them of all their remaining inheritable money.

Without specifics, this is a meaningless question with an embedded insult.

I think the Sydney metro partially is too. But that is easier because it doesn’t cross any roads, or have many branching connection.

This is just a stupid headline. I mean, not that Reuters is wrong, just that the world is stupid right now.

I’ve played with switches before, and some DIY electronics, and have done some network admin. I’ll grant that the actual internal electronics and software are far to complex for even me to understand.

But again, if you talk to someone with some interest in what you’re doing, you can find a level they they can understand. Maybe using metaphors like human-operated old-school telephone switch boards, that’s an image that most people will have seen, and can understand at a coarse conceptual level. You CAN have an interesting conversation at the level, if YOU want to be interested in it (and if they do, which is partially contingent on you being able to connect with them in the first place).

If you think climate is simpler or more accessible, I’d suggest you have a quick go at explaining the Navier-Stokes equations, Darcy’s law for fluid flow through porous media, or why convective storm activity needs to be parameterised in climate models (and at what scale it doesn’t). Climate isn’t easier, or more accessible than network admin - both require years or tertiary education to start understanding even parts of the underlying principles, and no one person understands either field completely. It IS probably more familiar for most people, because it’s in the media all the time. But again, that’s just a matter of finding the extent of their knowledge and interest, and coming up to their level.

I don’t though, because I actually know how to talk to normal humans. It’s not that hard. You start high-level, and then gauge their curiosity (via questions and body language), and then go a bit deeper, and if they start getting confused, then you back up a bit, and you just stay at their level, not at whatever insane depth your own brain might be at at the time. You use metaphors to link what’s happening in your work to things they have experienced in their life to build understanding at their level. Simplify and abstract, without dumbing it down.

My brain is fully stuck in philosophy of science mode at the moment, and thinking about how to integrate climate science with financial risk models (and how that doesn’t make sense in some ways). I have talked with people from across the spectrum, from people working in climate science or finance for decades, to people with a high-school education. The conversations are nearly always interesting (for both of us), and usually decently long. It’s really not that hard, if you just make an effort to meet people where they are.

I don’t agree, because I think our problem is deeper than just energy - it’s about our dominionist world view (in the non-religious sense). Which is a cultural thing, not a fundamental human thing.

I don’t necessarily mean trying to convince people of something, I more mean conversing with interested, but less educated people. Convincing people is a whole separate skill set to just explaining your technical knowledge in plain language (which is the part that’s beneficial here).

I mean, nuclear holocaust was plausible, but it depended nearly 100% on policy and the whims of people.

Climate change also depends a lot on policy, but policy has already locked in 1.5°C warming, and seems likely to lock in another degree at least before anything really turns around.

whelp, I guess that’s the end of that joke thread