Home » Open thread 8/1/23

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Open thread 8/1/23 — 43 Comments

  1. Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

  2. “Okay – so how did we get to August so fast?”

    • I’d like to know the answer to that question to.

    ***
    Until recently I have told my friends that we would know that the Dems wanted to remove Biden, if they found a way to remove Harris first. Nobody wanted a President Harris. I’ll add that Harris is Biden’ “insurance policy” against being removed from office (e.g., impeachment, 25th Amendment).

    My thinking has changed – conceivable that Biden steps down and Harris is sworn in – and I wonder if the thinking of those in control of Biden has changed.

    Dem-Pros:
    1) Dems can “publicly” claim Biden resigned to due to health, and “privately” (leaked) claim that they believe in the Rule of Law/ No one is above the Law (see Trump indictments).

    2) Dems will not hurt themselves with the party faithful because Biden is not Clinton or Obama – truly adored and respected (see every Biden primary run).

    3) Harris and the Dems can claim two big historic “First” – that will be part of every Dem speech/ campaign for generations (see Great Society/ Civil Rights narrative).

    4) Clear by now that Biden is not actually running anything – and the same group can continue with Harris as the front (see past 2.5 years).

    5) Even if Harris decided she wanted to run in 2024, she would not be an impediment to other Dem candidates (see Harris 2020 primary run).

    Dem-Cons:
    1) Not inconceivable that Harris could not do significant damage to the country in ~1.5 years – by actions or inactions – and be blamed for the damage (see Carter).

    2) Not inconceivable that Harris could not do significant damage to the Dem chances by the Nov 2024 election – even if she is not the nominee (see Clinton & 2000 election).

    3)

  3. Time does go faster the older we get. I’d explain how that works… but it’d take too much time.

  4. I used the last week of July to ponder the same question that has occupied humanity since time immemorial: Are we alone in the universe? Do other civilizations exist? How can we find them? What would be impact on society? Our religions?

    Turns out, if I understand this correctly, according to a certain David Grush all we have to do now is go to some anonymous US Government building, walk down a hallway, open an office door, go inside and look to see what’s on the desk along side the coffee cups and the picture of the wife and kids. You could also rummage around inside the storage cabinet next to the computer printer. Chunks of aircraft with “non-human” origins. Jars of formaldehyde with some “biologics” floating around inside, though there may be more interesting stuff in the basement’s deep freeze. Maybe you could talk to the guy who loaded up the stuff onto the truck with the “remains” of the pilot?

    Figure an hour guided tour, tops. Humanity has its answer, at last.

    Now what?

  5. ” … and it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus…” Luke chapter 2 KJV . Okay, so was not necessarily in the month of August, but it makes me think of it .

  6. … take your time it won’t be long now
    Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

    And the seasons they go round and round
    And the painted ponies go up and down
    We’re captive on the carousel of time
    We can’t return we can only look
    Behind from where we came
    And go round and round and round
    In the circle game

    –Joni Mitchell, “The Circle Game”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_eMZsxmNnk

    ___________________________________

    Classic Joni was something else.

  7. there was an interesting episode of voyager id never seen before, at one point it is caught in the orbit of a planet with severe time dilation, the inhabitants observe the skyship for hundreds of years, inspiring their scientific ventures, and at one point their animus toward the guest that never leaves,

  8. If the years are getting shorter it’s obvious that Earth’s orbit has shrunken slightly bringing us closer to the Sun. This closer proximity is also the reason for Glueball Wormening/Climate Change.

    I’ve also noticed as I’ve added some years that trails that I used to hike have gotten longer and are harder to climb. The obvious answer is that the Earth is simultaneously growing slightly in size (thus the stretching of the trails) and getting much denser (thus the increase in gravity). The larger insolated (your spell-check insists thats not a word) diameter is also partly responsible for more solar energy warming the planet’s surface, which explains why I sweat more when climbing these mountain trails.

    My wife insists there’s a different answer having to do with something called “age” but that’s obvious nonsense.

  9. I have never been able to understand why the revealed existence of aliens would supposedly upset a person’s religion. From a Christian point of view , the Jewish and Christian scriptures are highly ” Earth Centric” and even more specifically Jewish and ” believer ” centric and are largely silent on the issue of what might or might not be going on on other planets. That being said, I am aware that some people do extrapolate certain verses into claiming that maybe there are hints of other life. You could Google and find some of those claims.
    There is a type of Christian who is convinced that humans are alone among the non spirit realm. Their arguments are weak, in my opinion.
    I find myself open to the idea that alien life could exist elsewhere and it has no detriment to my faith in God. To a certain extent, my faith in God suggest to me that He is more than capable of having populated , either directly or indirectly thru evolution, other planets. I believe in a really BIG God. Aliens, one way or the other, are no threat to that.

  10. In 1972, Richard Nixon won re-election in 49 of 50 states, Massachusetts being the only exception. The Senate and House remained under Democrat control, and a few months later, he resigned to avoid an almost-certain impeachment for the Watergate scandal.

    The young-at-the-time Legacy Corporate Media learned, with Watergate, that they could take down and remove a duly-elected, even popular, President – provided he made a few stupid mistakes to create a sense of justification. They tried the same thing with Trump, but failed because social media provided the forum for immediate refutation of mistruths, or confirmation of truthful things, in addition to the constant mass polling.

    With Joe Biden, the Legacy Corporate Media’s new experiment is to see whether they can keep a wholly-inappropriate, dishonest, corrupted, and unpopular President in office, and win his re-election. Remarkable, isn’t it? Abuse of the First Amendment by atrophy. I think the only way it can work is with the collateral censorship of private voices on social media, on a massive basis.

  11. Incandescent bulbs are banned as of today.

    CFLs will follow by the end of 2024.

    If you approve, take a moment to drop a note of thanks to the 16 Republican Senators and 14 Republican Congressmen who voted for this law, and of course President George W. Bush who signed it, back in 2007.

    “Today, we make a major step with the Energy Independence and Security Act,” the president said after signing the bill at the Department of Energy. “We make a major step toward reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding production of renewable fuels and giving future generations a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure.

    The bill, which passed on a bipartisan vote of 314 to 100, sets higher fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks by law for the first time in 32 years and requires the production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, a nearly fivefold increase from current ethanol production levels.

    The measure also establishes new efficiency requirements for household appliances and government buildings and sets a goal of phasing out the incandescent light bulb within 10 years.

  12. It was once explained very clearly to me by a very helpful Lowe’s salesperson.

    Life is a roll of toilet paper.
    As the roll runs down, it spins faster.

  13. I recently saw the movie, Mr. Jones, the story of reporter Gareth Jones in the Soviet Union. Jones tried to report on the man-made famines while reporter Walter Duranty denounced him.

    In the movie, Duranty says Jones is naive and reporting should be aimed towards a goal, not the truth.

    People have said journalism students want to be Woodward and Bernstein. Perhaps that is their desire. But what most become, if employed in their field, are Walter Duranty. Reporting, not the truth, but what will enable their goal to be reached.

    This explains the dearth of accurate reporting on the climate, Bidens and Clintons and others favored by them. Instead, we do not get truth, but distortions, omissions and outright lies.

    Most are Walter Duranty now.

  14. “…so how did we get to August so fast?”

    “But at my back I always hear
    Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
    And yonder all before us lie
    Deserts of vast eternity.”

    –Andrew Marvell
    –(1621 –1678)
    “To His Coy Mistress”

    (And he died at age 57.)

  15. @Frederick – I write the date with a Sharpie when I replace bulbs, because the Chinese takeover of the bulb manufacturing industry has led to a wide variability in longevity for incandescent, fluorescent, and LED bulbs. LED’s used to last a very long time, especially if made in the USA, but I just replaced a ceiling spot LED that only lasted 18 months, and it’s in a fixture that isn’t used heavily. So, the old sales feature on LED’s has been revised. They’ve figured out how to manufacture them to fail reliably, in a reasonably profitable time frame, now. I guess the energy savings and the lower heat signature are still good benefits though.

  16. An anniversary that still affects the world: On August 1, 1914, the German Empire declared war on Russia, following Russia’s mobilization in defense of Serbia. Germany and France also began a general mobilization of their armed forces. World War I was under way, with the German occupation of Luxembourg to follow on August 2.

  17. }}} Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

    I see what you did there, Ferris.
    😀

  18. }}} Aggie: They’ve figured out how to manufacture them to fail reliably, in a reasonably profitable time frame, now. I guess the energy savings and the lower heat signature are still good benefits though.

    TBH, though, those older ones, they certainly cost a lot more. The newer ones may not last as long, but they don’t cost US$10 each.

    Not saying I’ve done any analysis of the trade-off, but it is a relevant consideration.

  19. Jon baker on August 1, 2023 at 2:28 pm said:
    ‘I have never been able to understand why the revealed existence of aliens would supposedly upset a person’s religion.”

    Thanks for this. I am generally of the same opinion. The universe is a big place, it deserves a big G*d as well.

    I wrote that somewhat-tongue-in-cheek posting more because I found the media’s news coverage of the hearings surreal. The US Government has hard, actual proof of extra-terrestrial intelligence being right here on this planet within the immediate past and which may, in fact, still be here. Really? They have the proof? I’m from Missouri. Show me. And if you do and, yep, it’s legit….

    I heard no opinion, thoughts, comments on the potential impact on just about everything should that be the case.

  20. And the latest from the US Postal Service.
    ==
    1. Piece of Certified mail sent from Roanoke, Va. to suburban Boston. Took four days for the Postal Service to deliver it to a location in surburban Boston which can be reached by truck in 10 hours. Charge to the sender: $4.00.
    ==
    2. The Postal Service took 12 days to deliver the return receipt to the sender.

  21. and a few months later, he resigned to avoid an almost-certain impeachment for the Watergate scandal.
    ==
    It was 19 months later.

  22. @Aggie: LED’s used to last a very long time, especially if made in the USA, but I just replaced a ceiling spot LED that only lasted 18 months, and it’s in a fixture that isn’t used heavily.

    It’s not really the LED itself that fails but the system built into the base of the bulb that coverts the voltage. Some designs of bulbs are much better at getting rid of their heat than others.

  23. ‘I have never been able to understand why the revealed existence of aliens would supposedly upset a person’s religion.

    Jon Baker, Roll-aid:

    I’ve long understood that as the ill-informed bigotry of liberal scientific materialists towards Christianity.

    Carl Sagan’s “Contact,” in book and film, provides a good example. Aliens establish electromagnetic communication with humans and transmit engineering plans so we can build a teleportation device and send an astronaut to them.

    A group of Christian extremists, led by Jake Busey, an albino we meet first dressed all in white and wearing a cross, protests the teleportation effort with signs like “Science is not Our God.” When the machine is revving to beam up the astronaut, the Busey extremist sneaks in and blows up his suicide bomb to prevent the launch, killing himself and many others. Christians do that.

    Also, cute touch with the albino — whiter than white and what could be worse? Dan Brown pulled the same trick in “The Da Vinci Code.”

    These are Sagan’s caricatures of Christians, which in his mind are a serious threat to science. Consider his title “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark” with science being a fragile candle flame, easily extinguished by the winds of religious irrationality.

    Sagan attempts to counterbalance the Christian suicide bomber with the smarmy Matthey McConaughey, a liberal theologian who engages in debate and in flirting with Jodie Foster, the brilliant radio astronomer agnostic. The two have ridiculously stilted conversations about faith, that again, as far as I am concerned, would only occur in Sagan’s stereotypical imagination.

  24. Still working my way through Jean-Jacques Goldman’s ouevre. (Hey, that’s French!)

    But you don’t have to know French for this song about love, love lost and time, to break your heart.
    _________________________

    I made the list of what we will no longer be
    J’ai fait la liste de ce qu’on ne sera plus

    when you dance
    Quand tu danses

    when you dance
    Quand tu danses

    But what happens to lost lovers?
    Mais que deviennent les amoureux perdus?

    when you dance
    Quand tu danses

    Are you thinking about it?
    Y songes-tu?

    –“Jean-Jacques Goldman – Quand tu danses (Clip officiel)”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EpQxCdUyLw

    _________________________

    If I could only speak French as JJG sings it….

  25. Frederick says it’s just one essential part of the entire product that is poorly, designed, or poorly built, or intended to fail, not the light emmiting diodes that fail.

    Wonderful, it gives no light.

    Other than that, it is progress. Thank you DOE! Now the DOE moves on to water heaters, toilets, gas stoves, washing machines, dish washers. They “save” energy, but just don’t do the job they are intended to do, and used to do. Progress!

  26. }}} re: “Why Time Goes By Faster As We Age”

    This does not even discuss something I would say seems almost a certainty — Time perception is tied to the number of unique experiences we have.

    That is, the more “new stuff” you do, the more you remember the time you spent. Which means you perceive time as passing slower.

    Obviously, when young, everything is “new”. This proceeds even into your early 20s, because you gain additional options that you did not have before — you get to drive places, which you could not do before at will. Hence you have lots of new experiences to add to your memory collection. You get to vote, to own property, and so on.

    Slowly, there is a reduction in “novel” experiences, and thus fewer memories to form, so the perception of time is that it went by faster to you.

    As you get older, you also tend to be more, well, “lazy” or “tired” or just “physically unable” to do things you might have tried or done before… I love snow skiing, but have been advised, due to issues with my neck’s spinal column, that it would be a bad idea to do. I’m assuming parachuting would also be discouraged. So I can’t have any novel experiences doing either of those things.

    I have no empirical evidence towards this assertion, but it feels highly relevant to how I perceive the passage of time. There are far more “memory holes” where nothing happened, so time has less of a record of passing in my brain. It’s just suddenly “gone”, passed by. So it feels like it went by faster, even though I did things, I just didn’t have any reason to really record them in my head.

    I believe anyone can make their own test of this… next year, try doing as many new things as you can, and see if the time passes more gradually. Probably still faster than when under 20 — virtually everything was new to you, then, but it should be at least more like it was when you were 30 to 50 (LOLZ, I’m assuming you’re already over 50 if you’re making this complaint)

  27. Time perception is tied to the number of unique experiences we have.

    -OBloodyHell

    Seriously. This is one of the reasons I’m learning French. Each day is jam-packed with new words, new grammar, new songs, new insights.

    Today I’m thinking, “It’s Tuesday? But the weekend was so long ago.”

    Of course, I’m not sure this would work for other languages…

  28. OBH: Time perception is tied to the number of unique experiences we have.

    So instead of reading Neo’s posts, and commenters, for one to two hours most every night, I should find something new to do instead?

    Sounds somewhat reasonable, especially if this book is correct: Andy Clark: The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality [2023] $23/$15 Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/Experience-Machine-Minds-Predict-Reality/dp/1524748455?ref_=ast_slp_dp
    I have not bought or read this yet, but the Amazon blurb and reviewers suggest a major fraction of our sensory perceptions are our brain predicting what we should be sensing, based on memory and past experience, and then confirming or revising our brain management to align with that (same or altered) real exposure.

    So, with no changes from predicted results, less brain impact occurs to register that time has past.

  29. @ OBH > “next year, try doing as many new things as you can, and see if the time passes more gradually”

    Sinatra had a song for you.
    https://genius.com/Frank-sinatra-it-was-a-very-good-year-lyrics
    [Verse 4]
    But now the days are short
    I’m in the autumn of the year
    And now I think of my life as vintage wine
    From fine old kegs
    From the brim to the dregs
    It poured sweet and clear
    It was a very good year

  30. Re: Sinatra / “It Was a Very Good Year”

    AesopFan:

    Long ago I looked up the lyrics to that song and discovered that those sad, short autumn days occurred after singer was 35!
    _______________________

    [Verse 3]
    When I was thirty-five
    It was a very good year
    It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
    Of independent means
    We’d ride in limousines
    Their chauffeurs would drive
    When I was thirty-five

    _______________________

    Yep, it’s all downhill after you’re 35!

    I confess I missed the blue-blooded girls, chauffeurs and limousines phase.

  31. @ jon baker et al > “I believe in a really BIG God. Aliens, one way or the other, are no threat to that.”

    Other inhabited worlds are not a theological problem for my church. Latter-day Saints may be the only denomination that officially believes in extraterrestrial life, although the doctrine is silent on UFOs.

    Technically speaking, of course, angels are extraterrestrial beings, and most Christians accept their existence.

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/moses/1?lang=eng

    1 The words of God, which he spake unto Moses at a time when Moses was caught up into an exceedingly high mountain,

    2 And he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence.

    3 And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless?

    4 And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease.

    8 And it came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered.

    (The ellipsis includes an attempt by Satan to get Moses to worship him, but he can’t compete with the Glory of God.)


    27 And it came to pass, as the voice was still speaking, Moses cast his eyes and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it; and there was not a particle of it which he did not behold, discerning it by the Spirit of God.

    28 And he beheld also the inhabitants thereof, and there was not a soul which he beheld not; and he discerned them by the Spirit of God; and their numbers were great, even numberless as the sand upon the sea shore.

    29 And he beheld many lands; and each land was called earth, and there were inhabitants on the face thereof.

    30 And it came to pass that Moses called upon God, saying: Tell me, I pray thee, why these things are so, and by what thou madest them?

    31 And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me.

    32 And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth.

    33 And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.

    34 And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many.

    35 But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.

    36 And it came to pass that Moses spake unto the Lord, saying: Be merciful unto thy servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, and also the heavens, and then thy servant will be content.

    37 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.

    38 And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.

    39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

  32. I have to replace a brake light on my car. You Tube tells me to handle the new bulb with gloves, lest my skin oils cause it to fail prematurely.

    Maybe writing the date on a bulb with a Sharpie is not a good idea?

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