Random Thread

[doctor shark]

Today's random: Eunice, a named storm, is doing quite a bit of damage here in the Netherlands, with trains stopped and us now being under a "stay at home" warning. I almost got knocked down a few times during my walk back from work (wasn't going to risk biking given the motorway-speed wind gusts, plus the buses stopped at 15:00).

[WeepingElf]

Stop eddyfying, malloc.

[zompist]

There are numerous philosophers and political movements that apply the principles of evolution to society to a greater or lesser extent.

Name two such philosophers.

Just to name some obvious examples (not all philosophers per se): Friedrich Nietzsche, Herbert Spencer, Francis Galton, Ernst Haeckel, Adolf Hitler, and Anton LaVey.

The first four all died more than a hundred years ago; the last two are not philosophers. Jordan Peterson is a psychologist.

Then, name one biologist past 1920 who supports "social Darwinism."

Not sure about biologists who specifically endorse Social Darwinism as such, but the field of evolutionary psychology generally upholds social stratification through appeals to evolutionary history.

But I asked about social Darwinism, not evolutionary psychology.

FWIW though, Pinker is annoying and Dawkins is extremely annoying. But there are far better biologists around; I recommend P.Z. Myers' blog; he's particular good on misinformation about biology.

[malloc]

Well ok then. But it still bothers me that one could easily make the case that I am defective and unworthy of existence. Particularly since I have not found any comprehensive philosophical arguments to the contrary. If someone denounced me as a burden on society who would never survive without modern technology and liberal values, how could I counter them?

[bradrn]

If someone denounced me as a burden on society who would never survive without modern technology and liberal values, how could I counter them?

Um… using all the arguments everyone has given you already? But the simplest counter-argument is to just say: ‘But we do have modern technology and liberal values. Human ingenuity has invented all these fabulous technologies — why are you pretending that we can’t use them? Why are you living in some imaginary regressive world?’

[zompist]

malloc, that's enough. You've had a chance to state your concern and get some answers; we're not going to spend 50 pages where you ignore the answers and listen to the imaginary voices in your head. Like any human being, you're worthy of living and being cared for; it's not pleasant for you or anyone else when you flagellate yourself.

(Other folks: some of you are new to malloc/Eddy. The 50 pages thing is not a joke or something; it's what used to happen until we started clipping these things early.)

[Man in Space]

I had an infusion of Remicade today and it appears I am allergic to a particular brand of face mask. We got it sorted out though and it wasn’t serious.

[MacAnDàil]

Oh, that video is by no means free of theory - the guy starts out by showing a standard four quadrants political chart, which I see as one of the more ridiculous products of political theory, and doesn't even try to make the case for why people should accept the chart - it's simply presented as a given. (I stopped watching at that point, so I can't comment on the rest of the video.)

What do you not like about it?

To me, the biggest issue with the four quadrants political chart is that it treats "economic left" versus "economic right" as orthogonal with "libertarian" versus "authoritarian", when the "libertarian" "economic right" is not really libertarian at all but rather is simply about concentrating power in the hands of private capitalists as opposed to the state. This is why libertarian socialists refuse to see the "libertarian" "economic right" as libertarian.

The modern American right-libertarians have also been criticised by Karl Widerquist, and their ideology is closely related to propertarianism. They probably pattern with conservative capitalists partly because of the two party system, which is even more exacerbated in the US than it is in the UK: the politicians are more or less obliged to group themselves with one or the other major party in order to get anywhere.

So I think the actual problem is with the electoral system of the US (with respect to other representative democracies) and not with the Political Compass itself, which itself is more nuanced, taking into account greater detail, than the simpler left v right model.

[LingEarth]

So, the U.S. might do away with annual time changes next year, instead sticking with Daylight Saving Time year round.

Getting rid of the clock changes is definitely a good idea, but I'm honestly torn on whether DST or standard time is the better one to switch to permanently...

[hwhatting]

Getting rid of the clock changes is definitely a good idea, but I'm honestly torn on whether DST or standard time is the better one to switch to permanently...

That seems to be one of the reasons why we in the EU still are stuck with clock changes - there is agreement to stop it, but different member states want to settle for "summer time" or "winter time" respectively, and the commission wants to avoid a patchwork of different time zones...

[Zju]

Getting rid of the clock changes is definitely a good idea, but I'm honestly torn on whether DST or standard time is the better one to switch to permanently...

That seems to be one of the reasons why we in the EU still are stuck with clock changes - there is agreement to stop it, but different member states want to settle for "summer time" or "winter time" respectively, and the commission wants to avoid a patchwork of different time zones...

Well, the commission can deal with the afterfact however it wants. Individual member states should be able to pick whatever its best for themselves, and it's not like Spain and UK are in the same timezone due to them being on the same longtitude.

[Raphael]

So earlier today, for a while, there was no power in about half of our apartment, while the other half had power. Seems simple enough, right? Except that, eventually, it turned out that the problem was street-wide, or almost so. Um, how can a problem with the electricity supply in the entire street or at least parts of it lead to one half of our apartment having no power while the other half has it? Does anyone here know enough about electrical wiring to explain that?

(To avoid confusion: the street in question is a suburban single homes street; our apartment is the second floor (US terminology) or first floor (German terminology) of a suburban single home-style house.)

[Rounin Ryuuji]

If the building has multiple meters, it's possible that the distribution of the wiring in the house is incorrect, and that one of the meters (being supposed to feed one apartment) is actually feeding half of both (assuming the house is divided into two) draws from the part that's out, while the other doesn't.

[Moose-tache]

Not trying to be smarmy, but do you think this whole Ukraine/brownout situation will make Germany rethink their monumentally stupid decision to transition away from green energy?

[cedh]

So earlier today, for a while, there was no power in about half of our apartment, while the other half had power. Seems simple enough, right? Except that, eventually, it turned out that the problem was street-wide, or almost so. Um, how can a problem with the electricity supply in the entire street or at least parts of it lead to one half of our apartment having no power while the other half has it? Does anyone here know enough about electrical wiring to explain that?

(To avoid confusion: the street in question is a suburban single homes street; our apartment is the second floor (US terminology) or first floor (German terminology) of a suburban single home-style house.)

There was something similar in my street about a year ago, and a team of electricians from the local energy provider had to come and fix it. I asked them what the problem was, and it turned out there are two parallel power lines here for each side of the street, one for the kitchens and laundry rooms in all houses, and one for the rest of the houses (and this line had a problem). A rather strange setup, but it does make some sense. The situation might be similar where you live...

[hwhatting]

Not trying to be smarmy, but do you think this whole Ukraine/brownout situation will make Germany rethink their monumentally stupid decision to transition away from green energy?

Who is transitioning away from green energy? Can you explain?

[Raphael]

There was something similar in my street about a year ago, and a team of electricians from the local energy provider had to come and fix it. I asked them what the problem was, and it turned out there are two parallel power lines here for each side of the street, one for the kitchens and laundry rooms in all houses, and one for the rest of the houses (and this line had a problem). A rather strange setup, but it does make some sense. The situation might be similar where you live...

Thank you, that probably explains it.

Not trying to be smarmy, but do you think this whole Ukraine/brownout situation will make Germany rethink their monumentally stupid decision to transition away from green energy?

Who is transitioning away from green energy? Can you explain?

I think Moose-tache considers nuclear power to be a form of green energy.

[Moose-tache]

That is correct. Luckily, Germany's nuclear capacity was low enough that it was able to replace the loss with the new solar and wind power they were building at the time. But coal, oil, and gas usage has remained stable, and I have to assume it would be easier to use less of that if you were building solar and wind and still had the nuclear power that was already built.

Either way, nuclear power is good. I'm not sorry. Hail Satan.

[Travis B.]

I think Moose-tache considers nuclear power to be a form of green energy.

It doesn't emit carbon into the atmosphere, does it? I think that's the most important criterion here.

[MacAnDàil]

Nuclear power is dangerous. It creates millenia-old nuclear waste. It's not renewable and so not durable either: it depends on mining uranium, associated with many health hazards: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK201047/ And the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was saved from causing further damage by courageous firefighters, and is still dangerous, especially currently the control of Putin.

For energy, we ought to reduce usage to what is actually useful, as well as switching to renewables.