Recent Comments

1. 23 days ago on Non Sequitur

   Like in Australia, California will experience “complications” with fire management because of climate change. Seasons for control burning will get shorter. Droughts will get more severe. High winds will happen more frequently. More energy in the atmosphere will impact many of the usual regimes.

   Someone closer to the action can verify this, but my understanding was that the water reservoirs were NOT empty (except for one closed for maintenance), and that the lack of water at hydrants had more to do with the huge demand being placed on the system during the fires that caused water pressure drops.

2. about 1 month ago on Non Sequitur

   No question that China and India are big polluters and carbon dioxide producers. Not surprising given there are over 1 billion people in each country and they are both manufacturing hubs for products sold to the rest of the world. But Australia (where I live) and the USA, both wealthy societies with high living standards, are among the biggest per capita emitters of carbon dioxide. While Chian is burning a LOT of coal, did you also know China is building more solar plants (China produces about 20% of world solar power) and more wind power plants (three times what the USA has) than any other country in the world?

   It’s amazing how many temperature records reached over the last few decades are broken after only being held for a year.

3. about 1 month ago on Non Sequitur

   The earth is not cooling. The average temperature globally is going up. Although that does not mean that some regions of the earth won’t stay the same, or even cool. Most will get hotter. How local weather conditions will change in a warming world will depend on air and water currents, and other geographic characteristics.

4. about 1 month ago on Non Sequitur

   Extreme predictions are the most attention grabbing, which is why they make up all the media headlines. But scientific papers tend to be a little more conservative. And most of the modelling done in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s have turned out to accord quite closely with the experienced reality. The predictions were accurate. Not an American, but it seems funny to me that Trump supporters will talk about cognitive decline in Biden, but not in Trump – don’t any of them ever review the transcripts of Trump’s public speeches?

5. about 1 month ago on Non Sequitur

   It seems faulty thinking to assume that an event is not going to happen, despite agreement amongst all the experts that it is going to happen, purely because there is disagreement over the details of the event. “We’re going to have a party, and 100 people are coming” “No, we have invited 150 people and they will all be coming” “Going by the invite responses, 125 people are coming to our party” – DenierCultist: “You’re not even having a party! In fact, there is no such thing as a party, never has been.”

6. 7 months ago on Non Sequitur

   I expect you to ignore this comment as you seem to write off anything that contradicts your worldview as “fake news”. This, however, is for anyone reading this conversation who is unclear on the facts. Sea levels are rising. A species of rodent has been declared extinct due to the rising tides inundating the island they were endemic to. Google the Bramble Cay melomys, once found in Bramble Cay (surprise!) near Queensland, Australia. This island is now so frequently underwater that the melomys which once was able to live there has been “washed away”.

7. 10 months ago on Non Sequitur

   Yes, good customer service / design would have those placed at the bottom of the stairs.

8. 11 months ago on Non Sequitur

   Summer time impacts those closer to the poles more than those who live near the tropics. The local time of sunrise and sunset doesn’t vary as much near the equator, no matter the season days are around 12 hours long. I can understand why AZ and TX may not see the value. But DST does mean that daylight isn’t wasted on sleep. Sure, there are those outliers who get up at 3am every day, but DST or not, you’re still going to be getting up in the dark. For all the cries about the impact on the body and sleep – it’s one hour twice a year! Surely everyone can get used to the change within a week – that’s 50 weeks where sleep should not be impacted. And coming into winter, we get a lovely extra hour in bed :-)

9. about 1 year ago on Non Sequitur

   As a non-American, can I ask Trump supporters how only an additional 3.5 years = “old guy”?

10. over 1 year ago on Monty

    Yes, stopped to put on a face shield, but didn’t worry about changing his pants or footwear. Must have been worried about spitting cobras…