The unimportant news thread

[Todd]

French Police Union Calls Rioters 'Vermin'

Yurpean sophistication.

[Spotted Horses]

Diver cleaning ocean finds a working iPhone in a waterproof bag and returns it to its owner.

Cleaning the ocean sounds like a long, thankless job...

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Diver cleaning ocean finds a working iPhone in a waterproof bag and returns it to its owner.

Sweet!  I read a story recently of a diver (in a lake) finding a prosthetic leg (!) managing to return it to its owner who had lost it about a year earlier (due to the help of a special website and I think also someone alerting him as to who the owner was).

PD

[Todd]

Climate nears point of no return as land, sea temperatures break records, experts say

Climate activists, climatologists, and reporters on the green beat really should read The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  I mean, we (the world) blew past a most critical and permanent milestone years ago.  Remember 350 ppm?  There's even an aged website devoted to it: https://350.org/.  2022 saw record emissions.  2023 will set a new record.  And nearly everyone in the high-income world continues to consume, consume, consume.  (I blame neo-Malthusian Paul Ehrlich for acute wolfism, which inured many people to prognostications of doom.)

[DavidW]

South Carolina is making national news due to a heat wave (that is where I live).

[Pohjolas Daughter]

South Carolina is making national news due to a heat wave (that is where I live).

Very sorry to hear that.  Hope that you have a/c in at least some of your rooms?

On the cooler side today with sporadic downpours (got drenched at the end when I was working outside for a bit).

PD

[DavidW]

Very sorry to hear that.  Hope that you have a/c in at least some of your rooms?

On the cooler side today with sporadic downpours (got drenched at the end when I was working outside for a bit).

PD

I have central AC and ceiling fans.  Hot and humid is the usual for summer here.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I have central AC and ceiling fans.  Hot and humid is the usual for summer here.

Wish that I did!

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

A roller coaster which is apparently the biggest in the US and is situated in both North and South Carolina has been shut down due to a crack in a support beam.  Attendees of the park were photographing kids/friends/family on the ride when someone noticed it.  He noticed daylight where there shouldn't be any and then movement (and filmed it).  Someone who was there at the park and had also taken photos about a week earlier zoomed in to her photos and saw the crack in its earlier stages.  From what I understand, they do daily safety inspections of the ride.  How could this have not been noticed?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carowinds-fury-325-crack-support-beam-customer-video-jeremy-wagner/

Watch the video.

PD

[Spotted Horses]

A roller coaster which is apparently the biggest in the US and is situated in both North and South Carolina has been shut down due to a crack in a support beam.  Attendees of the park were photographing kids/friends/family on the ride when someone noticed it.  He noticed daylight where there shouldn't be any and then movement (and filmed it).  Someone who was there at the park and had also taken photos about a week earlier zoomed in to her photos and saw the crack in its earlier stages.  From what I understand, they do daily safety inspections of the ride.  How could this have not been noticed?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carowinds-fury-325-crack-support-beam-customer-video-jeremy-wagner/

Watch the video.

PD

I am surprised to see this described as a "crack." A crack normally means a fissure has appeared but the structure remains intact. This was a break in which the structure fully separated into two pieces. There must be a serious design error, or defective materials in that part. The good news is that the overall design had enough redundancy that it stayed up even with one support broken.

[SimonNZ]

Climate nears point of no return as land, sea temperatures break records, experts say

Climate activists, climatologists, and reporters on the green beat really should read The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  I mean, we (the world) blew past a most critical and permanent milestone years ago.  Remember 350 ppm?  There's even an aged website devoted to it: https://350.org/.  2022 saw record emissions.  2023 will set a new record.  And nearly everyone in the high-income world continues to consume, consume, consume.  (I blame neo-Malthusian Paul Ehrlich for acute wolfism, which inured many people to prognostications of doom.)

Sure. Lets not blame the denialists and the polluting industries that fund the denialists and cynically misrepresent the data and turn it into a matter of party affiliation. Its the people trying to raise the alarm who are to blame. Sure.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I am surprised to see this described as a "crack." A crack normally means a fissure has appeared but the structure remains intact. This was a break in which the structure fully separated into two pieces. There must be a serious design error, or defective materials in that part. The good news is that the overall design had enough redundancy that it stayed up even with one support broken.

I agree re crack vs. break.  In the photo which was taken about a week earlier--from what I could see, at that time, that was a crack.  In the video, there were definitely two "parts". And at least one of them moved when put under the stress caused by the ride.

I suspect that that will not be an easy (nor inexpensive) fix--if they can.

PD

[Spotted Horses]

A roller coaster which is apparently the biggest in the US and is situated in both North and South Carolina has been shut down due to a crack in a support beam.  Attendees of the park were photographing kids/friends/family on the ride when someone noticed it.  He noticed daylight where there shouldn't be any and then movement (and filmed it).  Someone who was there at the park and had also taken photos about a week earlier zoomed in to her photos and saw the crack in its earlier stages.  From what I understand, they do daily safety inspections of the ride.  How could this have not been noticed?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carowinds-fury-325-crack-support-beam-customer-video-jeremy-wagner/

Watch the video.

PD

Your wonderment, "how could they have missed it in daily safety inspections" is very relevant. I guess the answer is that they check for very specific problems (loose wheels, inoperative brakes, warped track, etc) and no one had an imagination expansive enough to imagine that one of the primary support posts could just snap!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Your wonderment, "how could they have missed it in daily safety inspections" is very relevant. I guess the answer is that they check for very specific problems (loose wheels, inoperative brakes, warped track, etc) and no one had an imagination expansive enough to imagine that one of the primary support posts could just snap!

That makes sense.  But perhaps too a case of "Can't see the forest for the trees?"

PD

[Karl Henning]

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching a YouTube video (something like "Five Great Noir movies") The narrated summaries were so formulaic and repetitive I thought, "Either this is an unusually dull person, or AI."

How to talk about AI (even if you don't know much about AI)

[Pohjolas Daughter]

How to talk about AI (even if you don't know much about AI)

Or perhaps a dull artificial intelligence "person"?

PD

[drogulus]

Edward Fredkin, 88, Who Saw the Universe as One Big Computer, Dies

     Fredkin posed a question "Why is the Universe?". He proposed an answer, and that is to find out what would happen. Never mind "who" wants to know, if anybody. The question involves why creating a universe would be necessary, and what Fredkin came up with is, well....

So, I say, you're arguing that the reason we're here is that some being wanted to theorize about reality, and the only way he could test his theories was to create reality? "No, you see, my explanation is much more abstract. I don't imagine there is a being or anything. I'm just using that to talk to you about it. What I'm saying is that there is no way to know what the future is any faster than running this [the universe] to get to that [the future]. Therefore, what I'm assuming is that there is a question and there is an answer, okay? I don't make any assumptions about who has the question, who wants the answer, anything."

     I like the way this guy thought, far beyond whether he is right.

[Karl Henning]

Frank Smith was locked up for eight decades. At 98, what would it mean to be free?

[Karl Henning]

Robot conductor gives a history-making orchestral debut in South Korea

Of course, I know at least two human conductors who deserve appointments.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Robot conductor gives a history-making orchestral debut in South Korea

Of course, I know at least two human conductors who deserve appointments.

Wonder what they are trying to achieve?  As in "Can we create a robot who could conduct like Toscanini?" 🧐

PD