stupid first world problems you're dealing with

^ that gave my aimless depression a much needed laser focused kick in the nuts

take heart from the fact that that video is filled with fake news.

  On 11/23/2018 at 9:27 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

 

  On 11/23/2018 at 9:55 AM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 11/23/2018 at 8:47 AM, yek said:

i've been writing a bit of music with a friend where he comes up with guitar and bass lines and i'm working on the other stuff and i talked to him tonight about doing it more and i guess really the ball is in my court to really work with what i have, it's not that i'm depressed but just majorly uninspired and i guess i have to kick my ass to do this and also wtf this a great run-on sentence.

 

Discipline > Inspiration

 

Even when you're not inspired, force yourself to do *something*.

That way when you are inspired, you have some material to work with.

 

Absolutely.  Those bits I force myself to do out of boredom usually end up becoming greater inspiration than "a burst of inspiration" does.  I find the process leads to inspiration rather than the other way around.

 

alright, i'll make it a ting, guys.

  On 11/23/2018 at 11:30 PM, caze said:

take heart from the fact that that video is filled with fake news.

I'm sure that all of the rational governments in the world will make good choices to remedy the problems mentioned in that video. You know, like the big countries with vast amounts of wealth and resources. Totally gonna do that.

Most of the problems he mentions don't actually exist though, we haven't hit peak oil, gas or coal (coal use has declined, because we're thankfully using it less), and aren't likely to any time soon. The bit about titanium was nonsense, and we're not going to run out of other metals or plastics or other resources any time soon either. Once resources do start to become scarce we can just mine asteroids and the moon. He exaggerates the degree of extinction and the impact of modern farming practices too, agriculture is very productive and has massive scope for further improvements. His arguments for reducing consumption/living standards are the usual genocidal malthusian bilge. The only real problem is climate change, and that isn't going to cause civilization to collapse, just make things shitty for a lot of people. The planet will cope fine, and we'll adapt if we need to.

he definitely stumbled on a lot of points, especially the peak fossil fuels stuff. but my point is that the ideal political situation in which large-scale adaptation and cooperation to address the issues that many countries are already facing is not exactly happening right now. i know there is improvement in many countries but currently we're seeing reactionary politics spread everywhere and i don't see that as a trend that is going to die without a fight. to say that the planet will 'cope' is quite idealistic. then again, you never fail to impress me with your optimism, lol

  On 11/24/2018 at 12:50 AM, caze said:

... Once resources do start to become scarce we can just mine asteroids and the moon. He exaggerates the degree of extinction and the impact of modern farming practices too, agriculture is very productive and has massive scope for further improvements. ...

You actually believe this?

yep. don't bother with this, it's not worth the time. he is profoundly blinkered by a kind of book-learned transhumanist-style ignorance. can't see the forest for the trees.

  On 11/24/2018 at 12:50 AM, caze said:

Most of the problems he mentions don't actually exist though, we haven't hit peak oil, gas or coal (coal use has declined, because we're thankfully using it less), and aren't likely to any time soon. The bit about titanium was nonsense, and we're not going to run out of other metals or plastics or other resources any time soon either. Once resources do start to become scarce we can just mine asteroids and the moon. He exaggerates the degree of extinction and the impact of modern farming practices too, agriculture is very productive and has massive scope for further improvements. His arguments for reducing consumption/living standards are the usual genocidal malthusian bilge. The only real problem is climate change, and that isn't going to cause civilization to collapse, just make things shitty for a lot of people. The planet will cope fine, and we'll adapt if we need to.

not saying i wasn't looking for a pinch of salt when watching it but he sticks to the same timeline and basic stats that the science is laying out for us... 2100 and 4 degrees celsius which seems like a trajectory that makes a lot of sense the way things are going. 

as for the collapse of 'everything' i think we'll hit several tipping points along the way that will change how we live.. more than just banning straws. likely some things that most of us don't think about like widespread contamination of the romaine lettuce supply ;)

there's already more romaine lettuce growing and waiting to be harvested.. the caesar salad shortage cannot last. 

obvious things will be water shortages.  once the glacier retreats over the mtns between india and china that ganges will dry the fuck out. 

i'm more optimistic about energy supply and future technological advances. lab grown meats and all that. if it takes off in a big way we'll have various kinds of protein and only super rich people will be able to have actual cow meat or something...  pretty sure we'll have what seems like a long period of chaos and suckiness for lot's of people.  if we push through that then our descendants will have the opportunity to exist in one of many possible dystopian worlds. 

edit: also i find his voice is too close to that guy who did the "zeitgeist" documentary which was totally debunked in like 1000 ways so anything w/that voice makes it hard for me to take it seriously. i think that guy started some kind of cult. 

  On 11/24/2018 at 4:08 AM, usagi said:

yep. don't bother with this, it's not worth the time. he is profoundly blinkered by a kind of book-learned transhumanist-style ignorance. can't see the forest for the trees.

In some parallel universe, this interchange took place at a smoke-filled bar.  I nod my head to acknowledge. What are you having?

prob a stout of some description.

  On 11/23/2018 at 9:33 PM, span said:

 

  On 11/23/2018 at 11:36 AM, Gocab said:

I bought an Xbox One X for no apparent reason other that playing my OG Xbox and Xbox 360 games. Thanks Black Friday!

i got a code for a 14 day trial for something called 'xbox game pass' which i think i have no access to, considering i only have a pc and a 360. if you want it its urs bb

Thanks, to lure me in it came with a free month of the stuff!

installing cubase 10 takes so long. have been doing that for the past 3 hours and haven't even started the setup yet

  On 7/14/2011 at 3:44 AM, chenGOD said:

My iPod touch is really old (1st gen) so i can't use some apps i'd like to, angry birds is slow, and the battery is starting to die.

 

My cousin who works at Apple HQ in CA mentioned while visiting over Thanksgiving that there is a new generation of iPods said to be in early development stages, it'll probably be a couple years but 500GB-1TB ipods are a possibility in the near future.

huh...? that makes no sense at all.

1TB iPod would be sweet, though my first instinct is that he was fucking with you ghOsty.

If it happens, knowing it's more niche now, and of course it's Apple, it'll probably be $1500. Put an cell connection in it for streaming and downloading and then cell carriers will push it for as a secondary device for anyone already with an iPhone.

Yeah that would be great, 1TB SSD oldschool style ipod. But it won't be that, it'll be like an iphone, apps and touchscreen and bullshit.

why would anyone want an ipod when you're already carrying a phone

Maybe a bit of a throwback but I still like the idea of a dedicated music device that I can fit all of my music on.

inb4

  On 11/25/2018 at 3:37 PM, hello spiral said:

Maybe a bit of a throwback but I still like the idea of a dedicated music device that I can fit all of my music on.

I have a 400gb ipod classic. Doesn't hold all my music but it does well enough. It's flash memory too rather than a hard disk, so if you want to just switch out flash drives it's easy enough.

I don't like using cloud services or streaming stuff all the time. Can't be arsed to fuck with data and apps etc if I'm just going to listen to music for 20 minutes on the commute to work...

painful gums

  On 11/25/2018 at 6:12 PM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

 

  On 11/25/2018 at 3:37 PM, hello spiral said:

Maybe a bit of a throwback but I still like the idea of a dedicated music device that I can fit all of my music on.

I have a 400gb ipod classic. Doesn't hold all my music but it does well enough. It's flash memory too rather than a hard disk, so if you want to just switch out flash drives it's easy enough.

 

I don't like using cloud services or streaming stuff all the time. Can't be arsed to fuck with data and apps etc if I'm just going to listen to music for 20 minutes on the commute to work...

 

I take it that's a personalised one

  On 11/25/2018 at 3:26 PM, span said:

why would anyone want an ipod when you're already carrying a phone

I’ve always had an iPod. When my last one died I got 160gb iPod from eBay. I like a dedicated music device. I like to have my phone free for phone stuff. iPod is often plugged in to a stereo. Also battery lasts forever so cross country flights, long drives etc are no problem. Also it’s easier to navigate than a touch screen. I like the data wheel and having just one button. Click click

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  On 11/24/2018 at 2:31 AM, Salvatorin said:

he definitely stumbled on a lot of points, especially the peak fossil fuels stuff. but my point is that the ideal political situation in which large-scale adaptation and cooperation to address the issues that many countries are already facing is not exactly happening right now. i know there is improvement in many countries but currently we're seeing reactionary politics spread everywhere and i don't see that as a trend that is going to die without a fight. to say that the planet will 'cope' is quite idealistic. then again, you never fail to impress me with your optimism, lol

you've mistaken my pointing out that his certainty that the world is doomed is not supported by the evidence as optimism. I'm pretty realistic about what might be in store for us regarding climate change, and there are many possible scenarios which involve various different timescales for sea level/temperature rise, this is even according to the IPCC themselves (and there should be some scepticism about their projections too, there's a big difference between finding the cause for things that have actually happened and trying to predict the future based off possibly faulty or incomplete models, and the inherent problem of predicting the behavior of chaotic systems in general, of course that also leaves open the possibility than it could be much worse than their projections too). 

you're completely right that most countries are not reacting like they should be, especially with regard to the current trend of prematurely closing down nuclear plants which still have 20-40 years left on their intended lifespan (which just effectively adds many more years to the lifespans of coal and oil plants). we need to very quickly phase out all coal plants, and get started on oil plants too, this doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon though unless there's a real change of political will.

it's not all bad new though, Taiwan just voted to overturn their governments plan to phase out nuclear:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/11/24/pro-nuclear-activists-win-landslide-electoral-victory-in-taiwan/#5a4d11bb29a0

people will slowly come round to a pro-nuclear stance as it becomes increasingly obvious that targets can't be met with a renewables-only strategy. "environmentalists" will then have to come to terms with their complicity in the failure to effectively react to climate change, they are as much to blame as christian fundamentalists who believe god gave them the world to do with as they see fit.

and when I said the planet will cope that doesn't mean we as a species are going to be fine, even with the least bad projections there are going to be serious consequences for millions of people. the planet itself, and life in general will be fine though, it has dealt with much worse in terms of CO2 concentrations in the distant past, it has dealt with many mass extinction events. if shit gets really bad then we'll have to adapt to the new environment, I see no reason to believe we won't be able to, even if it's going to be very bad for large numbers of people.

  On 11/24/2018 at 4:02 AM, Godwin Austen said:

 

  On 11/24/2018 at 12:50 AM, caze said:

... Once resources do start to become scarce we can just mine asteroids and the moon. He exaggerates the degree of extinction and the impact of modern farming practices too, agriculture is very productive and has massive scope for further improvements. ...

 

You actually believe this?

which bit, the space mining bit? of course, why wouldn't I? we already have the technical knowhow to go there and bring stuff back, work needs to be done regarding the mining technology, but seeing as we're not likely to run out of anything on earth for another 50-100 years (and much much longer for most things) there's plenty of time to figure that stuff out. the main barrier is the cost though, not the technology, but once stuff starts getting scarce down here that argument goes away pretty quickly. also yes re agriculture, ppl thought we were all doomed to mass starvation from population growth prior to the 50s/60s too, before the green revolution radically improved crop yields. there are many different avenues to continued improvements, both in terms of traditional agriculture (hardy GMOs), but also growing stuff indoors: lab grown protein, hydroponics, etc.