Appeal to authority is neither a fallacy nor proof. It is rhetoric. It proves nothing, and disproves nothing.

For example, your authorities debunk “long term health of the earth and her inhabitants it’s (sic) a necessity.” My authorities, like William Catton or Meadows, et. al. would say otherwise. Invoking them doesn’t prove my perspective. It does prove there is much debate about the subject.

In such instances, defining metrics and showing your work, as the math teachers say, is the best way forward.

The article in question, for example, relies on hype like ‘670,000, a level never previously recorded since national statistics began in 1899.’ Level of what? Percentage of population? Actual number of people? Compared to how many? With the priviso, for example that ‘The expected figure, … excludes children born to foreign residents”. How many of those? I suspect not many, but it’s necessary to know.

What the article could have stated are actual metrics such as replacement rate, which in Japan is 1.20. South Korean is considerably lower, at 0.72-0.74. We could use words like ‘cliff’ I guess, but I prefer numbers, and I would encourage their use in articles such as this.

Not sure if ‘brought up and debunked by experts’ is the best argument out there. For example, ‘population inertia’ would cover only one lifespan, not centuries. That is to say, whatever the population is now, it could be 10 people to 100 billion people within 100 years. This is not discounting cultural and psychological factors, but if we’re talking human behaviour, that’s literally everything.

Secondly, the population decline is hardly a cliff. It is decreasing in some countries like Japan, but when added into the global picture, we’re not even at neutral. We’re still growing.

You are absolutely right that a larger aging population is something that must be addressed. However, if increased population pressure leads to a tipping point, like a shift in the AMOC or immigration pressure from hotter areas to cooler areas, our current treatment of old people doesn’t fill me with confidence. I think in a crisis, we would sacrifice them anyway. We would write some sympathetic think pieces about it though.

I’m nothing if not a moviegoer. Most people Die Hard and Christmas Story. Me? Brazil and Tango & Cash (also released Xmas day). So definitely wrong associations …

Seeing a special screening of Brazil in 1984, when no one was sure it was even going to get released.

I was driving home from the East Coast, saw the ad for the screening in LA (way pre-internet). Now, I could have continued home and seen my family or … who am I kidding? My family was terrible!

I said my car broke down and couldn’t find a mechanic because … it was Christmas! Maybe that’s not what you’re looking for, but definitely my favourite.

This story really indicates how old and pervasive the corruption was. It’s repellant and unconscionable.

It’s a shame (and maybe shameful) they couldn’t use the frozen assets. I found this from an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, but didn’t want overpost the story.

“Some €210 billion of Russian assets are frozen in Europe, most of them in the Belgian financial clearing house Euroclear. Belgium had objected to the loan plan, calling it legally risky and warning that it could harm Euroclear’s business.”

Think it’s important to see what influence banks have on highly political decisions.

Link to Sydney Herald article, similiar reporting.

There’s a light side?

I have to chime in here, as it’s a subject close to my heart. The old Pyrex measuring cups don’t do this. I went out of my way to buy some on eBay. I can’t imagine why they redesigned like this, but there’s a lot of things I can’t imagine.

It will remain a mystery

I love this, but is anyone else having trouble with the css/text? Chrome seems to dim the images, but the white text is unreadable on all the images for firefox. Doesn’t work on Safari at all.

I remember learning about this as a kid from, of all places, a 1976 detective show called City of Angels (starring Wayne Rogers). Ten-year-old me thought it was so cool they would even broach such a topic on TV. As ways to become radicalised go …

This Video (French) says it’s a thousand years old, but that seems not to be the case, more like like 4-500 years.

I think the NYT is mistaken, as here’s an engraving of «jeu de paume» from the 16th C

According to the very long and exhaustive wiki

“The term real was first used by journalists in the early 20th century as a retronym to distinguish the ancient game from modern lawn tennis”, and, is it happens, 'It is also known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France."

I think the kings were pissed when they started playing tennis outside. “That’s not real tennis”, they probably said.

Dear Nitwit,

A reduced faith in science might, hear me out here, ••might•• have something to do with science, ya know, killing the planet and what not. You wanna get some faith back? Maybe apply these new technologies to human happiness, or even, who knows human survival.

One more thing, nimrod. The real risk averse culture? It ain’t your unwashed “zero-sum thinking Millennials” No, it’s your hyper capitalist who’s rigged the system to the point where taking financial risk is erased by government bailouts. They’re the ones who want to eliminate risk.

And it’s that, plus their increased control of what is and is not researched in practised science that leads to our dismay. See above: “planet dying” Imagine something like pencillin, developed entirely within an academic risky environment, getting made today.

There’s risk in true critical thinking, instead of lazy “Kids Today” hand-wringing. So, in future, take a fucking risk.

I was thinking about this watching the doc “Midnight Oil: 1984”. A year and a band (I think) that transcended the angry genre, music was catchy and very popular. So maybe the times will come around again. I feel sick of the media ignoring even the most basic issues (like, dunno, survival and stuff), and I think and hope others will connect with art that expresses some level of discontent. Which is a form of sanity these days.

Thank you.

So sorry, I didn’t see if the article worked. I’m an idiot.

Archived version: https://archive.is/0eou1

If you liked that, you’re going to love this. It’s almost exactly the price tag to switch - completely - to renewables.

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/the-global-price-tag-for-100-percent-renewable-energy-73-trillion

I know, I know, many studies, many different amounts, but come on! Let’s try!

Wow, thanks!