vixen99
Joined 18 years ago
Karma
2,437
Submissions
3,135
Member since
Feb 19
Recent submissions
Comment · 6 days ago
I assume you know what you are talking about but some other experts would perhaps say that Russia is a place where power is highly concentrated but wealthy elites - including oligarchs - depend critically on the Kremlin. They run Russia to the extent they go along with the Kremlin. Sure, political dissent faces substantial repression but the population is diverse and should not be reduced to stereotypes.Not everyone can be described as poor, indoctrinated and hopeless, by any means.
Comment · 10 days ago
Clearly you need to send an urgent correction to the Australian Government Agency: https://www.aims.gov.au/monitoring-great-barrier-reef/gbr-co.... This is their download link for the report for 2026 published August 26. https://www.aims.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-08/AIMS_LTM...
Comment · 10 days ago
What is your reaction to credentialed physical scientists who accept that climate changes and that human greenhouse-gas emissions have an effect, but reject or dispute important parts of the mainstream assessment? They do have a Ph.D. and one of them has a Nobel Prize in Physics so it's difficult to ignore them. This is not to take a position but to point out that they can hardly be idiots; if you think they are, this needs to be made plain.
Comment · 12 days ago
On what basis do you think that's a good idea? This is a genuine question not a snide comment. I'm interested in your conception as to why it works for you. You're unlikely to respond here but maybe you or someone else will add a helpful link. I will admit that the idea does not 'compute' for me taking into account the nature of human beings - but I'm open to argument.
Comment · 13 days ago
For a recent informative update from the Australian Long-term (coral) Monitoring Program see https://www.aims.gov.au/monitoring-great-barrier-reef/gbr-co.... The graphs show that Northern Barrier Reef and the Central Barrier Reef coverage have record high coral cover while the Southern Barrier Reef, "hard coral cover was relatively stable although decreased slightly to 26.4% (22.9–30.2% CIs) from 26.9% (23.0–30.9% CIs) in 2025. This represents a relative decline of 2.0% of 2025 levels, which is within the margin of error, and regional coral cover remains below the long-term average of 29.3% (27.5–31.3% CIs).". The sea surface temperatures remained 0.7–1.2°C above average across the Great Barrier Reef. The Australian Environment Foundation finds that ~80% of Australians think that the reefs are at a record low. Apparently, CO2 in 1985 was about 345.9 ppm. In 2026 it's was about 432 ppm - I haven't checked the actual Mauna Loa site.
Comment · 14 days ago
A fantasy on my part of course but wouldn't it be instructive for folk to have to present their arguments as why they decide to downvote a comment?
Comment · 18 days ago
'Why would any of us bother thinking hard, when there is no financial incentive to doing so ?'.
Do you really think so? What a depressing view and simply, for many people I'll bet, totally wrong. But that's just my view. I'm working hard on something at the moment and, sure there's a financial incentive but it's the thought of a successful resolution of the project that is the deeper incentive.
Comment · 23 days ago
I do wish you'd define terms.
Comment · 23 days ago
You're on HN, don't you know!
Comment · 23 days ago
It's certainly now well intent into making sure it'll never rise again.
Comment · 26 days ago
lose
Comment · 27 days ago
Not so far off target!
Comment · 1 month ago
Exactly. Isn't this the most obvious thing to do?
Comment · 1 month ago
The German Genius is an 850 page marathon (excluding notes) by Peter Watson who's not an academic but an ex NYT/Sunday Times journalist and it shows. It's a brilliantly readable unputdownable (in my view) account of how, in a reviewers words, a ton of Germans from the 17th to the early 20th century 'have done more than anything else to create the modern West'. It also offers a fascinating account of how the later appalling developments in the early 1900s onward came about so disastrously. If you only browse the book in a bookshop, read the three pages of comments from reviewers! Last word to Peter Watson 'The United States and Great Britain may speak English but more than they know, they think German'.