The Shrine

Does anyone believe in global warming as a major threat?

I believe the temperature ebbs and flows.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 92,00.html

I think I had more to say, but I have a case of the "Fridays."

I'm on the fence, but really what's the harm in reducing our greenhouse gasses, recycling, conserving energy... How could that be a bad thing regardless of what you believe?

Seraphina wrote:I'm on the fence, but really what's the harm in reducing our greenhouse gasses, recycling, conserving energy... How could that be a bad thing regardless of what you believe?

Less time for driving huge cars and blasting A/C. DUH

Global warming is not the only negative effect of greenhouse gasses. Nevertheless, the greenhouse theory is solid. I am not sure what facts have really gone against it; and there are obviously explanations made available in that editorial as to why temperature has halted, it doesn't mean the greenhouse effect has not increased over that time.


If by chance it is incorrect, then f*** you Sid Meier for making Sim Earth more difficult than it had to be =P

Seraphina wrote:I'm on the fence, but really what's the harm in reducing our greenhouse gasses, recycling, conserving energy... How could that be a bad thing regardless of what you believe?

I agree with you, but I'm against the "greenwashing" that product companies have taken to and the jingoism behind the "green" movement.

For the record, the greenhouse effect is scientifically proven fact. The debated theory is that this leads to global warming.

Mully wrote:

Seraphina wrote:I'm on the fence, but really what's the harm in reducing our greenhouse gasses, recycling, conserving energy... How could that be a bad thing regardless of what you believe?

I agree with you, but I'm against the "greenwashing" that product companies have taken to and the jingoism behind the "green" movement.

Green movement my ass. It's a bullshit PR phrase for "let's charge a premium to the treehuggers and for the rest, we'll just lobby the politicians to force them to buy it anyways". How else do you explain grocery stores charging 5 cents for a 1/4 cent bag?

As an incentive for people to buy their own reusable bags for use while shopping. It's a pretty weak incentive though and you're mostly correct

I bought no less than 30 cloth grocery bags last year. Why? Because I would forget to bring my bags from the car (or left them at home) and I would rather pay the $1/bag for being able to carry my entire grocery load in one or two trips. Those plastic bags suck because you really can't carry much with them.

See, sometimes it has nothing to do with being green, and everything to do with convenience. I bought a Prius because I was tired of spending $250/mo on gas, when that money could go towards a new car.

SineSwiper wrote:I would rather pay the $1/bag for being able to carry my entire grocery load n one or two trips.

Amen! That was the greatest benefit of using those bags. We bought bags at a craft store that wasn't intended to be used as grocery bags, they're about 3x's the size of the "name brand" cloth grocery bags. In ours, we can fit the entire cart in about 2 1/2 bags.

Mully wrote:

SineSwiper wrote:I would rather pay the $1/bag for being able to carry my entire grocery load n one or two trips.

Amen! That was the greatest benefit of using those bags. We bought bags at a craft store that wasn't intended to be used as grocery bags, they're about 3x's the size of the "name brand" cloth grocery bags. In ours, we can fit the entire cart in about 2 1/2 bags.

Don't you get crushed groceries that way?

Put milk and juice on the bottom
Veggies and fruit in the middle
bread on the top

Nothing gets crushed =)

I am not sure how they do things in the US, but only one of the major grocery store chains charges for plastic bags here; in Canada it's mostly the opposite. All of the major chains give credit (either 5 or 10 cents) on your purchase if you use a cloth bag; they started tha one or two years ago. We keep a bunch at work in case people want to do grocery shopping afterwards before going home.

And yes, cloth bags are far superior to plastic ones.

Julius Seeker wrote:All of the major chains give credit (either 5 or 10 cents) on your purchase if you use a cloth bag; they started tha one or two years ago. We keep a bunch at work in case people want to do grocery shopping afterwards before going home.

And yes, cloth bags are far superior to plastic ones.

Yeah, Kroger does that, too. It's $1 to buy the bag, but you get something like 5 cents off every time you use that bag, too.

From what I've seen you usually have to remind them, though. It's a little weird asking for thirty cents worth of a discount, however.

Anyone else having an unusually warm winter? Like record breaking highs?

Julius Seeker wrote:Anyone else having an unusually warm winter? Like record breaking highs?

HA! SNOW SNOW SNOW! The news even calls it "Snowmeggedon" ... EEK!

Julius Seeker wrote:Anyone else having an unusually warm winter? Like record breaking highs?

I've had snow in the South now, twice.

Know how many times I've had snow growing up? Once.

Not that I'm really complaining. I'll take the freezing cold over a hot summer day anytime.

I just want to be able to see my grass again. And to see how many of my little trees are dead from being smothered in snow.

It must be a current change here.

A typical February here falls into the area of -10 to -20, yet we've been at around 0 for most of the month with fluctuations below and above 0. This is our typical late March to early April weather.

It's normally VERY cold here in the winter.

Last summe was also unusually hot though.

I don't think I've linked to any Eliezer Yudkowsky here, but this is a great time to start: You're Entitled to Arguments, But Not (That Particular) Proof

In general, Eliezer writes about intelligence and rationality. He often appeals to Bayesian probability in support of both, and his essays usually attempt to ferret out irrational thinking. His essays are the most consistently thought provoking I encounter on the internet.