DuskStar - Member - The Prepared

Discussions

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Aug 13, 2021 Posted August 13, 2021

My thought was that of international relations – “If you won’t let our travellers in, we won’t let yours in”. Not sure if the EU (or member countries thereof) still ban vacationers from the US, though.

Reply to: [Official discussion] Surviving severe heat Posted August 10, 2021

I’m pretty sure that propublica map (assuming you mean the one that includes the quote “with some counties in Arizona experiencing temperatures above 95 degrees for half the year.”) is raw, not wet bulb, temperatures. Their map of areas with high wet bulb temperatures isn’t particularly useful either as they don’t define “high” (75 degrees F wet bulb is really damn hot to my northern sensibilities, but perhaps not to someone who grew up on the LA gulf coast), or what the change will be. (A map saying “this area will have 70 days a year of these temperatures” would be more useful if it came with something saying that it only used to have 10 days a year of the same) > where it’s projected that more than half of the year will be over 95°F and changing weather will turn their traditionally dry heat into a more humid environment at risk of wet-bulb temps. This still feels like rather poor wording – even Alaska has wet-bulb temperatures in the middle of the winter, as it’s just another scale. Changing it to “dangerous wet-bulb temps” might work.

Reply to: [Official discussion] Surviving severe heat Posted July 30, 2021

> As the climate crisis worsens, official projections show that many areas of the world will become “uninhabitable for humans” for at least part of the year. eg. Phoenix, Arizona is projected to be over 95°F for half of the year. > That 95°F (35°C) number is important because it’s the “wet bulb” temperature at which the human body can no longer cool itself down. You’re conflating two different things here – wet bulb temperature and actual temperature, and they are very rarely the same. Wet bulb temperature is basically the temperature of a thermometer if you stick it in a soaking wet sock and then swing it around to let the water evaporate, and so is VERY dependent on humidity. Phoenix is very dry, so the highest wet bulb temperature it hit in all of 2020 was 76.8 degrees. There are areas of the world where peak wet bulb temperatures are starting to hit 95, but they’re few and far between. Phoenix isn’t one of them.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 13, 2021 Posted July 16, 2021

Oh there’s no way this lowers costs for consumers.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 13, 2021 Posted July 13, 2021

> This is probably a really bad turn of events and it’s a huge argument against the deregulation of public utilities. Multiple states are already struggling to keep the power on for residents–what happens if they also decide it’s not a profitable venture? Isn’t the problem there that the publicly regulated utility isn’t paying anywhere near market rates for the power that the plant in question is producing, under the theory that they’re a monopsony and there’s no one else to sell it to? Is that really a deregulation problem?

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Mar 19, 2021 Posted March 19, 2021

> That microchip shortage could create a serious kink in smart phone supply. Apple, smartly, produces its own processors and does not anticipate a shortage. Common misconception – Apple does not produce their own processors. Instead, they make their own processor designs which are then subcontracted out to TSMC/GloFo/Samsung. (In recent years it’s all been TSMC IIRC) If they don’t anticipate shortages, it’s because they’ve paid for priority, because they’re using the same set of manufacturing capacity as everyone else.

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Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Aug 13, 2021 Posted August 13, 2021

My thought was that of international relations – “If you won’t let our travellers in, we won’t let yours in”. Not sure if the EU (or member countries thereof) still ban vacationers from the US, though.

Reply to: [Official discussion] Surviving severe heat Posted August 10, 2021

I’m pretty sure that propublica map (assuming you mean the one that includes the quote “with some counties in Arizona experiencing temperatures above 95 degrees for half the year.”) is raw, not wet bulb, temperatures. Their map of areas with high wet bulb temperatures isn’t particularly useful either as they don’t define “high” (75 degrees F wet bulb is really damn hot to my northern sensibilities, but perhaps not to someone who grew up on the LA gulf coast), or what the change will be. (A map saying “this area will have 70 days a year of these temperatures” would be more useful if it came with something saying that it only used to have 10 days a year of the same) > where it’s projected that more than half of the year will be over 95°F and changing weather will turn their traditionally dry heat into a more humid environment at risk of wet-bulb temps. This still feels like rather poor wording – even Alaska has wet-bulb temperatures in the middle of the winter, as it’s just another scale. Changing it to “dangerous wet-bulb temps” might work.

Reply to: [Official discussion] Surviving severe heat Posted July 30, 2021

> As the climate crisis worsens, official projections show that many areas of the world will become “uninhabitable for humans” for at least part of the year. eg. Phoenix, Arizona is projected to be over 95°F for half of the year. > That 95°F (35°C) number is important because it’s the “wet bulb” temperature at which the human body can no longer cool itself down. You’re conflating two different things here – wet bulb temperature and actual temperature, and they are very rarely the same. Wet bulb temperature is basically the temperature of a thermometer if you stick it in a soaking wet sock and then swing it around to let the water evaporate, and so is VERY dependent on humidity. Phoenix is very dry, so the highest wet bulb temperature it hit in all of 2020 was 76.8 degrees. There are areas of the world where peak wet bulb temperatures are starting to hit 95, but they’re few and far between. Phoenix isn’t one of them.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 13, 2021 Posted July 16, 2021

Oh there’s no way this lowers costs for consumers.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 13, 2021 Posted July 13, 2021

> This is probably a really bad turn of events and it’s a huge argument against the deregulation of public utilities. Multiple states are already struggling to keep the power on for residents–what happens if they also decide it’s not a profitable venture? Isn’t the problem there that the publicly regulated utility isn’t paying anywhere near market rates for the power that the plant in question is producing, under the theory that they’re a monopsony and there’s no one else to sell it to? Is that really a deregulation problem?

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Mar 19, 2021 Posted March 19, 2021

> That microchip shortage could create a serious kink in smart phone supply. Apple, smartly, produces its own processors and does not anticipate a shortage. Common misconception – Apple does not produce their own processors. Instead, they make their own processor designs which are then subcontracted out to TSMC/GloFo/Samsung. (In recent years it’s all been TSMC IIRC) If they don’t anticipate shortages, it’s because they’ve paid for priority, because they’re using the same set of manufacturing capacity as everyone else.