Thanks! Unfortunately I can't manage to subscribe via lemmy. https:///c/brainfood@kbin.social worked before on other communities (also on kbin). I'm receiving a "404: couldnt_find_community" error. Does anybody have an idea?
Beehaw still hasn't gotten wind of it. I wonder what affects how fast community names "spread" in ActivityPub. Come to think of it I don't actually know how ActivityPub works in the first place; I wonder if there's an explanation of it available somewhere (something that isn't just the spec)
It wasn’t working for me until today. After reading some GitHub issues I searched for the whole path in the search bar: https://kbin.social/m/brainfood
This time I could subscribe to it and it appears on feddit.de now. But according to feddit I am the only subscriber and there are no posts at the moment.
Yes I can't see the community on feddit.de. I also tried it on lemmy.ml in the past and it didn't work. Now it does work on lemmy.ml. I guess I just have to wait ;) Thanks to both of you!
What about the fact that humanity faces extinction in our lifetime? GHG emissions are at the point where a vast majority of humanity is doomed within 50 years with even the most optimistic models, so why wouldn't we have a pessimistic outlook on life?
The IPCC report says that 3.3 - 3.6 billion people live in areas that are "highly vulnerable" to climate change. It doesn't outright say we're all gonna die, but it paints a grim picture of the path we're headed on. Even if we stop all fossil fuel usage today, in the next 50-100 years there would be an increase in temperature, more frequent natural disasters, food shortages, loss of animal and plant life, water wars, mass migration, sea level rising and, in all likelihood, a breakdown of our social, political, and economic systems
@burgersc12 So the answer is no, you can't. "Extinction" is not a part of it. Let's not use hyperbolic language. It hurts our cause, and gives the fossil fuel lackeys ammunition.
Negativity bias is objectively consistent and has been known for quite a while. It's important we balance that out with an intentional focus on positive thinking.
I'd say that objectively, the mid to latter part of the 90s was pretty good. The iron curtain had fallen, there weren't any major economic disasters, the world wouldn't go batshit until after 9-11, and the internet wasn't full of complete arseholes.
Agree that the US was more stable back then, but it largely depends on what part of the world you called home. This happened around then, which is one of the most horrific events in human history:
Well...a lot of people were dying of AIDS then. And there was a lot of hostility to the gay community. I think it depends on your perspective.
I love history, and spend a lot of time thinking about it, reading about it, talking about it. But there's really no time I'd like to travel to as a unmarried, not Christian, education-craving female. YMMV.
How much have global temps gone up since then? How much BPA/PFOA/PFAS has been released into the ecosystem since then? How many once-in-a-lifetime economic calamities have we had? How many more school shootings do we have per year now than before?
I think you have to look at the complete picture and not just some key points regarding demographic improvements. LGBT kids get shot in schools too, LGBT people lose their jobs and become homeless too.
There were great improvements in some areas, but we need to be circumspect on the broader declines.
So what are you saying? That the middle of the AIDS crisis was a better time to be a gay man than now because there's still a chance they may be shot today? LGBT people can still become homeless today, like anyone else, but it was way more prevalent a few decades ago when it was legal to fire them for being LGBT.
It seems to me, most of the improvements were in raising the floor of society (disallowing discrimination based on various factors) which generally go ignored by more privileged people like myself. But the recent declines lowered the ceiling of society in ways that affect everyone, but less than the gains made by minority/oppressed peoples in recent decades.
the mid to latter part of the 90s was pretty good.
While yes, the threat of Nuclear War subsided, we were well into the "ignoring climate change and thus ensuring the next century would have to pay the inevitable toll" phase.
I mean we just limped through a pandemic, have rising inflation (no wages haven't keep up for decades), could see a recession/depression soon, kinda need to be worried about fascism again, and have climate change to deal with. I probably forgot about some stuff too.
The past is often tented in our minds either due to limited information of that time or because we were a kid at the time. It is also true that a lot of stuff is better. Still, people have good reason to worry about the current state of the world.
For me it's probably Outer Willds. I like the way it captures exploration.
In a more abstract aesthetic that I also feel could be construed as science related, I recently discovered Mu Explorer and it resonated with me but it's a strange one.
Well, I think Reddark is really legit dark. But I agree on the other points. Your brain stores negative stuff more than positive stuff. But the last line is the kicker:
As long as we believe in this illusion, we are susceptible to the promises of aspiring autocrats who claim they can return us to a golden age that exists in the only place a golden age has ever existed: our imaginations.
Why are orcas attacking boats? Hint: It’s not a war on humans.
David Neiwert
5–7 minutes
Have orcas declared war on humans? It would be easy to get that impression if you’ve been consuming the recent sensational coverage about the killer whales attacking and even sinking boats near the Strait of Gibraltar.
Since 2020, there have been hundreds of incidents involving vessel contact. Last week, a video circulated showing an orca ripping off a rudder of a boat, and in the past year alone, the animals managed to sink three vessels. Tabloid coverage of the incidents has suggested that the attacks have been led by a female known as White Gladis that was once traumatized by a boat and is now training juveniles to attack unsuspecting boaters.
But while observers may get a vicarious thrill from this narrative — which is little more than a real-life version of Dino De Laurentiis’s cheesy 1977 thriller, “Orca” — the “nature fighting back” narrative simply isn’t grounded in science and might encourage retaliation by humans. Instead, experts say this is typical “fad” behavior that probably could be resolved by simply staying away from the orcas.
It’s clear these orcas are not out to kill humans. They’ve exhibited no interest in the people aboard the vessels and have departed the scenes once the boats have come to a halt. Almost all the attacks have included damage to rudders and hulls, and the participants — about nine orcas out of a population of 40 to 50 — have been juveniles accompanied by adults who don’t partake in the behaviors.
Scientists who study orca behavior consider today’s fearmongering to be a classic case of projecting human psychology on to these complex and intelligent creatures’ actions. In reality, there is no record of a person being seriously injured, let alone eaten, by these animals — even though they could do so with ease.
Instead, scientists point to orcas’ documented propensity to adopt brief-lived behavioral “fads,” such as the weeks in 1987 when killer whales in the Pacific Northwest paraded about with dead salmon draped across their heads. Such fads have no clear benefit to the population — they usually are anomalistic in nature — and thus are one of many indicators that killer whales participate in complex cultures humans are unlikely to fully understand.
Orca scientists say these fads are uniformly observed among juveniles and adolescents, making them analogous to aggressive and reckless behavior in human teenagers. Some describe the Iberian orcas attacking boats as “hoodlums” and believe the behavior is meant for young orcas to demonstrate membership in their group as well as a kind of prowess. They also believe that, as with humans, the orca fads fade as the whales mature, though they can last anywhere from two weeks to two years.
Deborah Giles, research director for the nonprofit conservation organization Wild Orca, has witnessed such fads before. For example, orcas in British Columbia in recent years started to attack crab pots, lifting and moving their anchors for no clear reason. She has also witnessed young male orcas latching onto the dorsal fins of larger males to hitch rides with them, which she said is similar to what they are doing with Gibraltar sailboats.
Naomi Rose, a whale scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute, said it’s possible the recent orca attacks were predicated by an initial interaction with a boat that injured one of the orcas near Gibraltar. But even if that were the case, it’s almost certainly not what’s motivating them now. “I think it’s something that excites and entertains them,” Rose said.
Rose said she believes a three-year moratorium on sailing in the Gibraltar corridor (motorboats do not appear to be targets) could solve the problem: “If you were to get those boats out of there for three years, I would bet that you would no longer see the attacks when they returned.”
She’s doubtful this moratorium would happen, but if the situation escalates and armed boat captains begin to retaliate, government officials in Spain and Portugal might have no choice but to take drastic measures. European sailors who ply the waters around Gibraltar have already suggested taking lethal action against the whales and have told reporters they plan to carry guns.
Government action to protect the orcas would be warranted. For centuries, the demonization of these powerful apex predators has ended in the same way: with the demise of wild orcas. It would be an outrage if humans pushed the endangered population near Gibraltar further to the brink of extinction simply because they failed to exercise restraint in response to a fad that is likely to cease on its own.
The reality is that these animals are not out for revenge, nor are they reacting to human depredations. They’re just orcas being orcas. That’s neither a harbinger for future conflict with the whales nor justification for their annihilation.
So, is there a way to encourage this behavior? And then teach it to other large marine mammals? And then teach them to attack undersea telecom infrastructure? Asking for some fish.
I love the idea, but on a particularly hot and sunny day your wind turbine will melt. PLA's glass transition temperature is 55-60 degrees celsius, so I'd fully expect a surface could see that in spots on a particularly sunny day. That wouldn't immediately destroy it, but over time high outdoor temperatures could cause the print to start to warp.
I love the idea though, and I love the idea of expanding the use of PLA in society, given that it's a renewable bioplastic that can be recycled but also biodegradable (or even burned without a terrible environmental impact.
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