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ghastmasteron Since spring of 2023, the world has been warmer than climate models anticipated

I find it hard to reconcile that the entire world is going to be going through cycles of drought and flooding over and over due to a moderate increase in temperature and co2. Where in earth's history is the basis for this? We have had far higher temperature and co2 levels during periods of great animal and plant growth.

ghastmasteron Since spring of 2023, the world has been warmer than climate models anticipated

Sure there will be localized events, but on average, rising temperature and co2 will improve farming world-wide. Hence:

For the 2024-25 financial year, India has exported 2.2 lakh tonnes of coffee, up from 1.91 lakh tonnes in the same period last year, showcasing a 15 percent increase.

https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/indian-coffee-exp...

ghastmasteron Since spring of 2023, the world has been warmer than climate models anticipated

> Far more problematic are the effects on farming of a degree rise.

Temperature and co2 increases are beneficial to plant growth. What is the problematic aspect you are referring to?

ghastmasteron Commonly used arm positions can overestimate blood pressure readings: study

It raises my heartrate as well. I know my bladder is full many times due to the heartrate rather than feeling my bladder. I'm not sure if others notice this. I assumed without looking at the anatomy that the arteries to the lower extremities are under pressure from the bladder.

ghastmasteron Earth Is on the Brink of Breaching a 7th of Nine 'Planetary Boundaries'

> but you can't say that CO2 levels are at historic lows when they're up 30% in the past 60 years

I thought I made it very clear the historic period I was referring to. Questioning the relevance is indeed apropos. However, the semantics, I do not understand.

Regarding the last 60 years, I think it is very unlikely that the earth has not had a period where atmospheric CO2 concentrations have not rose as quickly. The volcanism, planetary impacts, and die offs of the past had to have had similar impacts. Yet, shelled creatures survived to the extant that they are ubiquitous in the earth's waters today.

There indubitably have been extinction events and perhaps some of them have been caused by ocean acidification.

ghastmasteron Earth Is on the Brink of Breaching a 7th of Nine 'Planetary Boundaries'

500,000,000 years of my understanding of atmospheric CO2 concentration is what I was referring to as "Historic".

ghastmasteron Earth Is on the Brink of Breaching a 7th of Nine 'Planetary Boundaries'

That's the $50,000,000,000,000 question.[1] Are they adapted? Will they adapt? Who knows?

1 - https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/cost-to-end-climate-chang...

ghastmasteron Earth Is on the Brink of Breaching a 7th of Nine 'Planetary Boundaries'

In the last 400,000 years the concentration has fluctuated from about 180ppm to about 300 many times.[1] My historical reference in the previous post was the last 500,000,000 years. In that context we are low.

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmo...

ghastmasteron Earth Is on the Brink of Breaching a 7th of Nine 'Planetary Boundaries'

> Earth’s oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, providing a valuable carbon sink as humans burn fossil fuels. But this process also makes the oceans more acidic, which can disturb the formation of shells and coral skeletons and affect fish life cycles, per the report.

Atmospheric CO2 levels are at historic lows.[1]

Bivalves have shells and evolved during the Cambrian Explosion. The Cambrian explosion took place around 540 to 520 million years ago (Mya)[2].

During the early history of bivalves atmospheric CO2 levels were around 4,000-5,000ppm. Current levels are around 400ppm.

References:

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmo...

2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bivalvia

ghastmasteron Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Mistake

Air is mostly nitrogen.

How is it mostly nonsense?

ghastmasteron Legalizing sports gambling was a mistake

> It does not. For example young women and girls, even when knowing that an image of a fashion model is photoshopped, still exhibit drops in their self body image.

In the natural world traits that are wasted on futile efforts are eventually not selected. In the human world, traits that are ripe for manipulation in a free market would result in lower purchasing power. Thus, less ability to afford children and pass on the traits. Subsidizing via regulations or direct support prolongs the subterfuge we are discussing here. Perhaps, in perpetuity.

> In many cases these two things are the same, due to the prevalence and efficacy of lobbying

The reason there are lobbyist is because we have granted those being lobbied control. Take away the control and the lobbying is pointless. More rules and regulations = more lobbying.

ghastmasteron Legalizing sports gambling was a mistake

> You cannot protect yourself from subconscious manipulation by advertising and marketing firms that pay billions of dollars to find and exploit subconscious weaknesses that we all possess

By learning the techniques they employ, a subconscious manipulation by them, becomes a conscious observation by us. Education defeats these methods. An argument could be made that more money will be spent to continually find deeper subconscious manipulations. I would wager, the ROI would diminish quickly.

I would rather be manipulated by private industry than controlled by government. I cannot out vote a majority, but I can out wit a billboard.

ghastmasteron Leak claims RTX 5090 has 600W TGP, RTX 5080 hits 400W

AMD's decision to back out of the high end cards seems even more logical given this information. High end may be trending too powerful. I used to buy the high end cards, but my next one will not be so. The cost and the power consumption are large factors in that decision. I do not need nor can I afford a super computer for gaming.

ghastmasteron In 1870, Lord Rayleigh used oil and water to calculate the size of molecules

You're referring to The History of Physics. An excellent read for a budding mind.

Asimov was incredibly talented.

ghastmasteron U.S. overdose deaths plummet, saving thousands of lives

> Regular dental check-ups likely would have caught the tooth rot before it led to opioid addiction. Hopefully in time that a simple filling would suffice, but even a non-urgent extraction or root canal is better than months/years of chronic pain.

Quoting from this paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10035485/

...we found that limited information was reported on health outcomes in relation to quality of care within the context of UHC. In addition, there was a global lack of evidence on measures of quality of care related to UHC...

Anecdotally, I have had access to rather cheap healthcare almost my entire life, but opted not to visit a dentist for 15 years.

> From what I can tell, chronic pain eventually morphs into "background noise" in a person's life.

This has been my experience, personally and vicariously.

Edit: I realized the linked paper refers to lack of data on outcomes. That is not really the question here. However, it would be nice to get more data on outcomes. The question here is whether the individual would have visited a dentist without knowing there is an issue. I tried to find data on dental visits in universal healthcare systems vs non and could not find anything.

ghastmasteron U.S. overdose deaths plummet, saving thousands of lives

If he did not know he was in pain, how would universal healthcare have helped?

ghastmasteron Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

It's worth noting that RDX requires a detonator. This requires more space in the device.

ghastmasteron The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out

I see. You dislike anecdotes and conjecture in general or just in this circumstance?

ghastmasteron The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out

Can you go into more details on what you are trying to point out here? I am not sure what stories you are referring to, nor do I fully understand the rest of your sentence.

ghastmasteron Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

What is the risk you have in mind?

ghastmasteron The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out

The first thing to come to my mind is water flows down and mold/mildew would be more present in lower floors. Air pollution is a killer.

ghastmasteron Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

There's an inherent risk to hiring someone who has sexualized themselves. False allegations or true allegations are more likely to arise that put the employer in legal jeopardy.

It adds risk that another hire may not have.

ghastmasteron How economical is your local Taco Bell?

1) Initially 2) Absolutely 3) False. Consumer spending on non durable goods is still rising. Disposable income is still available. Durable goods spending exploded after COVID.

https://wolfstreet.com/2024/08/30/our-drunken-sailors-are-at...

ghastmasteron Atlantic hurricane season will be 'extraordinary,' forecasters warn

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outlooks/hurricane202...

> The outlook calls for an 85% chance of an above-normal season, along with a 10% chance for a near-normal season and a 5% chance for a below-normal season. See NOAA definitions of above-, near-, and below-normal seasons. The Atlantic hurricane region includes the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico.

The updated 2024 outlook calls for a 70% probability for each of the following ranges of activity during the 2024 hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1st through November 30th: 17-25 Named Storms 8-13 Hurricanes 4-7 Major Hurricanes Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) range of 150%-245% of the median

ghastmasteron AI Photo Geolocation

> The photo was taken from a tall structure, possibly a fire tower.

It was way off on the state, but I am still impressed with that spot on description. It was taken from a fire tower.

ghastmasteron Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

I have a Greek friend who's family goes into the mountains and picks it. There is no market infrastructure in the villages, similar to how venison is expensive at a restaurant, yet poor rural hunters kill and eat it all the time.

ghastmasteron WA House bill would make it illegal for police to lie during interrogations

You are conflating prosecution communications with interrogations. It is not legal for a police officer or detective to say what you quoted. It's akin to legal advice, which they do not do anymore if they are smart. This bill does not address the prosecution negotiation/communication.

ghastmasteron Thousands of small businesses are struggling because of R&D amortization

This explains why I have seen so many tech companies doing layoffs. They layoff now, wait for the fix(hopefully), then hire people again(hopefully). And here I thought it was AI replacing the workers.

ghastmasteron US healthcare illustrated: The impossibility of getting a bill for five stitches

I had a surgery that I had years to prepare. I did much research into costs. There are surgery centers that have transparent pricing all over the US. Surgery center of Oklahoma is one.

I used them as baseline to consider local costs.

I was uninsured and asked the local hospitals and surgeon what the prices were going to be. I did qualify for assistance. I paid my surgeon pronto($2,600) and had to wait for the hospital to approve my assistance application.

The anesthesiologist(which I hadn't anticipated, thought that was going to be in the hospital bill) told me to pay $35 dollars to keep my $1,800 bill from going to collections. Once I showed them the approval from the hospital, they would accept that and reduce it to $180.

After calling the hospital constantly to get the bill reduced, 6 months later they told me they were waiting to see if I qualified for Medicaid, which I was no where near qualifying for and never requested. I just had their standard financial assistance reduction from about $18,000 to $6,000.

In the mean time, my anesthesia bill made it to collections for the full amount. Because.

I tried initially to get all my ducks in a row. I tried to pay everyone. Ultimately, I only paid the surgeon the full amount.

The medical groups will write off the difference between what they billed and what they sold my debt for. This will reduce their "revenue". I won't ever pay them. Bye bye credit.

Cash is King.

Edit: I knew going in what the prices were and two of the three parties fumbled the process of payment. Those two didn't get paid because I was frustrated.

ghastmasteron 10-year Treasury yield rises to 5%, highest level for the key rate in 16 years

> If I'm remembering long-ago reading on the topic, 5% is near the point at which interest service on debts exceeds all government revenue

A key thing to note here is that the US government typically holds shorter term notes which have much lower yields than their 10y counterpart.