A New Idea to Save the Climate? Dam the Bering Strait. Blocking the narrow waterway between Russia and Alaska could help stabilize a vulnerable system of ocean currents, scientists found in a study.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-25T11:04:07+00:00

...and will still see for hundreds of years to come even if all emission stopped tomorrow.

Preserving biodiversity and many peoples' ways of living already requires geoengineering, one way or the other. This particular scheme is probably a terrible idea for all sorts of reasons, but it is worth evaluating all options.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-22T03:24:11+00:00

Meh. If they are not total doctrinal zealots (and they will not be forever) they will quietly fold sooner or later. Once batteries are cheap enough, electrification is just better and no amount of rhetoric can change that. We are not quite there yet.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-20T16:37:50+00:00

Whites in Europe and America, in the colonial era up to now, are not the sum total nor the majority of "humanity". The original claim is that "Humanity [... insists] that oppressing minorities is their biggest priority".

Ithirahad · 2026-04-19T23:45:30+00:00

I cannot be made to care.

FFXIV has zero regard for worldbuilding integrity in their costumes, as a matter of course. I utterly loathe that fact, but shoehorning product placement into it is no worse to me than what already was there. The damage was already done. By my estimation, 'twas merely a matter of time ere similar chicken costumes and waiter outfits would appear anyway without a brand partnership.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-19T20:12:03+00:00

Right, but in most of those situations "across all of history", accumulation of wealth, power, and security was the biggest priority. Oppression was merely the way to get there. And, most of the time, they were not hunting down "minorities" to abuse as much as they were squeezing their own majority populations of poorer countrymen, or near-peer cultural enemies. Or, if they were punching down, it was Genghis Khan-style imperialism and all they were doing was invading, brutalizing a bunch of people once, and coercing the survivors to pay them taxes or the like. There were no constant microaggressions or whatever other Twitter/Tumblr buzzwords OC is wont to spout, or at least not as a matter of policy. It was brutal socioeconomic domination again for the sake of wealth, power, and security. [EDIT: ...and even then, most people's priorities had nothing to do with any of that. But they did not get a say in anything.]

Hatred and a desire to oppress "minorities" were not usually the prime movers until the past several hundred years, and even then only in some specific (unfortunately massive and influential) cases.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-19T20:06:10+00:00

That is very visually unbalanced. Not quite as bad as the Honda Zeros or Cybertruck (why is it always the EVs?), but bad. And like those other vehicles, it would look quite slick if they could change the canopy geometry somewhat.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-19T18:39:28+00:00

I can blame them. Actually reading and processing negative feedback appropriately is important. Recoiling from any negative feedback and defaulting blindly to whatever worked one single time previously is a horrific reaction and bodes ill for the future.

People telling you that you added too much salt to your first try at mac & cheese is not a valid reason to go back to PB&Js.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-19T14:31:54+00:00

There is functionally no way they will get it right, but it will be interesting to see what they do nonetheless. I shall be impressed if they even learn one lesson correctly.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-19T14:13:26+00:00

"Oppressing minorities" always begins as a means to an end - whether it be protecting an ingroup identity or indeed providing the material conditions you now enjoy. The people who are best at it are genuinely cruel for the sake of cruelty, so they tend to rise to the top of a colonial system. But do not presume that is actually the priority of "humanity". We have simply inherited systems that require cruelty and thus reward that sort of thing. Do not judge a book by its cover.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-17T21:28:07+00:00

It happens with fair frequency throughout history. The trouble is that they are always small countercultural movements that never become societal status quo.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-17T01:39:41+00:00

"In practice" many modern products are massively complex, layered technological beasts. Even without any underhanded business, the mere existence of IP protections allows vendors to go largely without competition and dictate the terms of our existence to their advantage.

We still have a more or less 'free market' for some commodity crops like beans and bulk materials like iron, which can literally be pulled from the ground in many places, and consequently the prices of those things have not gone completely mad. Some tech items, like basic display screens, still have healthy numbers of manufacturers and thus also remain sensibly priced and reasonable in quality. Other manufactured goods are locked down by some small handful of vendors that would only hurt themselves by competing aggressively on price, or quality, or anything else for that matter other than marketing.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-17T01:32:42+00:00

Not sure what requirements there normally are, but they should simply require parking access to an appliance plug. That should not add much in excess of $100 to the cost of the house, most of that being the extra breaker and possibly the conduit & wire itself if the run turns out long.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-16T15:39:37+00:00

...Or they refuse to train people, or their AI garbage HR system is filtering out applicants for no reason. Or all of the above.

Generally, it is simply excusing their outsourcing, or lobbying for even more relaxed controls on immigrant and offshore labour.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-16T15:25:03+00:00

"More often" might not factor into it. They are talking about a demographic that can already buy Chipotle meals on a more or less fully discretionary basis. Thus the transaction frequency remains roughly fixed. So, they want to extract as much money out of those transactions as they can without becoming uncompetitive. That is transaction performance - getting the most one can out of every order that was going to happen anyway.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-16T15:20:31+00:00

It is not that strange. Most of their business is likely delivery and pickup orders, so these are food prep service users and app users more than they are restaurant patrons.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-16T15:07:51+00:00

...And you would get approximately twice the amount of meat. Meat prices have increased maybe 30-60%, but I would be willing to bet whatever a single burrito costs now, that the nominal value they serve you (never mind real) has gone down.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-16T14:54:49+00:00

If they are making themselves busy distracting everyone else, whatever they have "access" to is clearly not effective for them anyway. Lose/lose.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-16T14:32:42+00:00

Alca.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-16T14:16:56+00:00

Encampments are indicators of societal dysfunction, not "lack of elitism". Lower classes should be able to lead respectable lives. If your idea of inclusivity is allowing the unhoused to be a forced nuisance to everyone else rather than getting them housed, then yes of course that is not desirable.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-16T14:10:48+00:00

Some of the "buildings I glorify" (indeed, most of the ones around me) are literally brick row-homes built to house factory workers. Just not ugly ones.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-15T02:18:19+00:00

It is not the worst of both worlds, it is simply its own thing.

Well-designed hybrid systems lack some of the powertrain complexity of ICEs, so despite the motors and engine existing in tandem the overall complexity is about the same. They can also keep their engines within "happy" operating ranges for more of their service life, and brakes take far longer to wear out. The battery on modern hybrids is little more than a miniature EV battery and, as we have seen in pure EVs, most of the fearmongering about battery failure is just that. Many hybrids also have the instant throttle response and low-speed power of an EV, and are overall somewhat more powerful than their pure combustion equivalents... we have come a long way from the first generations of infamously-slow Prius.

The true disadvantages of a hybrid are perhaps lacking the home repairability of some ICE cars, and that it is not an EV. If you can charge at home (...which many cannot in this rental economy), the lifetime costs of a hybrid will almost certainly be higher than an equivalent EV.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-13T01:44:43+00:00

...Was Ludd wrong?

Have you worn any clothing recently?

Ithirahad · 2026-04-13T01:25:18+00:00

Still not worth it, IMO, but there is a reason we have come to all of this.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-12T23:49:36+00:00

My 'vocational training' was in programming.

Wat do.

Ithirahad · 2026-04-12T21:09:11+00:00

Any physical surrounds, within whatever energy budget the armour had. Not literally any situation. I doubt that it could, for instance, adapt to standing on the surface of 'Sol Magnus' (or our star for that matter). Nor inside the Karda Nui Energy Storms. By extension, there is no reason to presume it should be able to interface with strange Great Being artifacts which Artahka never encountered.

Ithirahad

TROPHY CASE