The Other Side of Midnight - Richard C. Hoagland - Live Chat Thread

[SciFiAuthor]

Pretend you live in house with all the walls a southern exposure (all walls face south)and a bear walks by the window. What color is it?

Mauve.

[Ciardelo]

Pretend you live in house with all the walls a southern exposure (all walls face south)and a bear walks by the window. What color is it?

Your house? Pink.

[trostol]

white. And it's saying "Fuck this global warming"

bah shoulda known you'd get it lol

[GravitySucks]

I’ll have to look into the CO2 trailing climate change issue.  I’ve looked at the graphs of the best multi-disciplinary charts of temperature rise though, and there’s a clear vertical spike at the dawn of the industrial age, which sure looks compelling as a circumstantial causal connection â€" natural cycles always rise and fall much more gradually.

My understanding of the Martian data is that the polar ice caps on Mars dramatically grow and shrink seasonally.  And we’ve been monitoring the Sun’s output pretty precisely for decades, and I haven’t seen any indication of an energy output spike, which would be necessary if we’re to believe that the Sun caused icecap melting on Mars. 

I’m a big advocate of heat mining â€" we literally have all the energy we need right under our feet in the Earth’s mantle.  MIT released a great study a few years ago about the prospects for extracting energy from the giant nuclear reactor right beneath us, and it looked very promising.

There’s also some brilliant work out there about ambient energy harvesting â€" check out stochastic resonance.  Bistable systems can harness entropic energy, which opens the door to all kinds of energy possibilities, maybe even harvesting the ambient heat in the air and water - a concept that runs contrary to conventional thinking.  We’re literally awash in thermal energy; and until recently, we thought it was inaccessible without a thermal gradient. 

Yeah, I don’t believe in political solutions either.  It’s a physics problem; we should solve it with science and technology.  Frankly we should be relying on science to shape our policies, rather than government, imo â€" politicians are the most corrupt and ignorant fuckers around; we’re insane for letting people like that run our country.  The scientific process isn’t perfect either, but at least it’s founded on the search for truth, rather than lies and mind control.

http://m.livescience.com/1349-sun-blamed-warming-earth-worlds.html

[Chronaut]

Chronaut. Will you marry me? Love, TigerLily 

It would be my honor and privilege, lovely TigerLily 

[Chronaut]

It's not possible to decouple it once money and political interest become part of an issue. What will happen is that we'll spend trillions to cut emissions that result in a .003 percent savings in overall atmospheric carbon over a century or some such ridiculousness like that, the right and left will fight over it endlessly, and a group of apoliticial scientists and engineers will quietly come up with a technological solution, implement it, and everything will be fine and the whole issue will fade from the public debate.

I hope you’re right.  It’s always a race between the rapidly ballooning crises that we face from the dearth of responsible long-term planning, and the ingenuity of human innovation.  I lose a lot of sleep over which side will win, as the alarming web of impending catastrophes converge on our rapidly arriving future.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but radical advancements in nearly every area besides communications and computing have been eerily quiescent in recent decades.  We may yet prevail, but a lot of hair is coming out in clenched fists at three in the morning, and every day that passes, the bell tolls a little bit louder…

I envy the assurance you find in your optimism, I truly do.

[SciFiAuthor]

I hope you’re right.  It’s always a race between the rapidly ballooning crises that we face from the dearth of responsible long-term planning, and the ingenuity of human innovation.  I lose a lot of sleep over which side will win, as the alarming web of impending catastrophes converge on our rapidly arriving future.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but radical advancements in nearly every area besides communications and computing have been eerily quiescent in recent decades.  We may yet prevail, but a lot of hair is coming out in clenched fists at three in the morning, and every day that passes, the bell tolls a little bit louder…

I envy the assurance you find in your optimism, I truly do.

You just don't know about the coming advances. For some reason they don't get much attention like they once did. I recommend a documentary, watch "Cool It". It's on Netflix I think.

[(Sandman) Logan-5]

Greetings All 

Ha ok so the difference between impossibly huge and slightly more impossibly huge.   

Exactly right my dapper friend.

LOL - RCH, who haven't you met ?

[Jackstar]

You just don't know about the coming advances. For some reason they don't get much attention like they once did. I recommend a documentary, watch "Cool It". It's on Netflix I think.

If you mean this one,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1694015/

I'm forced to point out, that was made and released before Fukushima. Cool it, indeed.

[GravitySucks]

It would be my honor and privilege, lovely TigerLily 

Watch out for Jackstar. He feels stilted. Something about buying a ring.

[Chronaut]

http://m.livescience.com/1349-sun-blamed-warming-earth-worlds.html

I enjoyed that article - it's nice to see both sides of an argument represented.  It seems to ultimately lean away from the solar irradiance hyopthesis without being ham-fisted about it.

These seem like compelling arguments against the solar irradiance model too:

The basis of this argument is that the sun must be causing global warming and in fact, warming throughout the solar system. There are several flaws in this line of thought. Firstly, the characterisation that the whole solar system is warming is erroneous. Around 6 planets or moons out of the more than 100 bodies in the solar system have been observed to be warming. On the other hand, Uranus is cooling (Young 2001).

Secondly, the theory that a brightening sun is causing global warming falls apart when you consider the sun has shown little to no trend since the 1950s. A variety of independent measurements of solar activity including satellite data, sunspot numbers, UV levels and solar magnetograms all paint a consistent picture. Over the last 35 years of global warming, sun and climate have been moving in opposite directions.

https://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-other-planets-solar-system-intermediate.htm

[Auslandia]

Man ... Exactly what happened in that Bed & Breakfast?

[GravitySucks]

Can't believe Hoagland spent less than a minute talking about Mitchell. He can't talk about anything for less than a minute.

[Auslandia]

Can't believe Hoagland spent less than a minute talking about Mitchell. He can't talk about anything for less than a minute.

What is there to say besides what's already been reported?

[Showroom Dummy]

hoagie favorite  show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8EDrAE2MRs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIqPav8Deec

[SciFiAuthor]

If you mean this one,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1694015/

I'm forced to point out, that was made and released before Fukushima. Cool it, indeed.

What part had any bearing on Fukushima?

[Jackstar]

Something about buying a ring.

NEVER AGAIN.

[trostol]

why are we getting told what a view master is?

[Showroom Dummy]

why are we getting told what a view master is?

LMAO !!!!!

[TigerLily]

Watch out for Jackstar. He feels stilted. Something about buying a ring.

Jackstar buying me a ring as an engagement present? He is such a little sweetie

[Jackstar]

What part had any bearing on Fukushima?

None of it, because it was released in 2010--the facility blew up and melted down in 2011.

Things change.

[Morgus]

I got a viewmaster on ebay recently:


In the 1960s they sold 3D photo reels from TV shows like Lost in Space.

[(Sandman) Logan-5]

One of these Dick ?

[TigerLily]

NEVER AGAIN.

Did you give me a ring? When was that?

[SciFiAuthor]

None of it, because it was released in 2010--the facility blew up and melted down in 2011.

Things change.

Huh? It was an outdated uranium reactor in a dangerous place. It has nothing to do with the documentary.

[GravitySucks]

I got a viewmaster on ebay recently:

I've got one from the 40s or 50s. Don't know how old, but old. Doesn't work as well with one eye though.

[trostol]

i think i may call in next open lines and ask Hoagie what...the last sci fi book he read was lol

[comaphobe]

I got a viewmaster on ebay recently:


In the 1960s they sold 3D photo reels from TV shows like Lost in Space.

i wish i collected 3D reels. i bet some of the vintage ones are really cool.

[Showroom Dummy]

OMG   its all on the viewmaster   hyperdimensional models  and who knew  RCH  knew !!! to make a long story short amazing

[TigerLily]

I've got one from the 40s or 50s. Don't know how old, but old. Doesn't work as well with one eye though.

That's ok. The toy kaleidoscope are more fun