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Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)

Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.

× Talk about other nerd culture stuff in here.

Back to the 'good old days'.

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31 Dec 2015 00:30 - 31 Dec 2015 00:31 #218702 by ThirstyMan

Gary Sax wrote: Well, I guess I'll say I hope you guys are right about climate change just being another nuclear war, malthusian population explosion, agricultural supply scare, etc. I don't see it


I do see it as being an issue but not one that cannot be mitigated. Sea levels rise then build walls to protect low lying cities. Cities causing overheating then paint the building roofs white and city plan more parkland. These measures are relatively cheap and effective. I certainly don't see it as a panic scenario where we can do nothing except spend billions to reduce temperature change by half a degree, that is just not going to happen. Lo tech solutions are probably the answer, which do not impact economies in the same way. If the Dutch could reclaim their land from low lying areas then we can too.

Apocalyptic scenarios that frighten people have been part of our culture since our culture began be it the End Times, sack of Rome, Mongol hordes, nuclear war, devastating land wars, Soviet invasions, the rise of Fascism, IS, climate change, the rise of AI......take your pick. Let's not forget alien abductions, conspiracy theories. illuminati. We cannot resist having an apocalyptic scenario to scare our children with.
Last edit: 31 Dec 2015 00:31 by ThirstyMan.

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31 Dec 2015 06:16 #218706 by Kailes
Replied by Kailes on topic Back to the 'good old days'.

ThirstyMan wrote: I do see it as being an issue but not one that cannot be mitigated. Sea levels rise then build walls to protect low lying cities. Cities causing overheating then paint the building roofs white and city plan more parkland. These measures are relatively cheap and effective. I certainly don't see it as a panic scenario where we can do nothing except spend billions to reduce temperature change by half a degree, that is just not going to happen. Lo tech solutions are probably the answer, which do not impact economies in the same way. If the Dutch could reclaim their land from low lying areas then we can too.


I agree, but wanted to add that dealing with climate change won't be a cakewalk, though I don't think you implied that. Combined with a growing population and dwindling fossil fuels it may very well be a long period of economic stagnation and decline and the end of consumer society may only be a few decades away. I think this is scary enough, but not very tangible, which is one of the reasons doomsayers talk about the coming end of human civilization and even the end of mankind, which is utterly absurd. This isn't the first time humans have faced climate change, food supply shortages or the loss of their primary resource. Somehow they still prospered, even without the knowledge and machinery at our disposal. I think we'll be able to deal with it, too. We will not have the comfortable lives we have today, but neither did our ancestors and I think they still managed to live lifes worth living.

However, it is understandable that someone doesn't want to raise children into a future that will be worse than the present. Every generation faced that fear, though, as the future is always uncertain.
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31 Dec 2015 18:51 #218766 by Ken B.
Replied by Ken B. on topic Back to the 'good old days'.
Fucking brilliant column, and a genuine thank you for sharing it. A great read all the way through.

And I'm glad the Fortress isn't a website where some fucking dipshit jackass responds with "tl;dr" or some fucking cat picture.
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31 Dec 2015 20:37 #218773 by OldHippy
Good article... I've said similar things not as elegantly in the past. So I'm inclined to agree with most of it. I do think, however, that there is something useful about the past worth looking into. Sure, we can leave behind a lot of garbage from the past and be better off but it's a baby and the bathwater type thing. I would love for people to read and play music in their homes again (not just press play on a stereo or computer), I'd love to see less waste, I'd love to see more face to face communication, I'd love to see more eloquent writing and less 'lol''s and the like. I think there are things we leave behind that are worthwhile to hold onto.

You ever compare letters from WWII to letters from the Gulf war or the war in Iraq... it's kind of embarrassing how far we've dropped when it comes to communication.

Climate change is a very specific problem that is far more our generations fault than the old ones. The sheer amount of waste we generate is mind boggling and no previous generation is anywhere near what we do. It is seriously threatening the globe right now and what thousands of years of religious wars couldn't do science now threatens to do in a few hundred years. We don't deserve a lot of the tech we have. I'm not sure what I think about the proliferation of porn these days... but I have a gut feeling that it's pretty shitty for us as a species and puts feminism back a couple of decades.

So while I do agree with the sentiment for the most part there certainly are a lot of wonderful things we can learn from those who came before us and I think it would behoove us to take a look at... the home front in WWII for example and see how beautifully they managed waste and recycling in their homes compared to the mess of what we do today. There are some beautiful concepts we've stepped away from.

None the less the article was a wonderful breath of fresh air compared to much of what I read on line so thank you for the post.

I'm also amazed that the discussion is so civil and there have been no fights or anything. I think F:AT is getting old.
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31 Dec 2015 21:59 #218779 by Black Barney
I'd say women are way ahead where they were decades ago. Porn means less brothels. A proliferation of brothels, which we about to see in Hoth, is worse for women I think. Plus I have a feeling porn reduces violence against women.

On the communication side, I totally agree JJ. Everyone wants it told fast and succinctly. When I write too much in an email, it goes unread. When I take the time to write a physical letter, it goes unappreciated.
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31 Dec 2015 22:16 - 31 Dec 2015 22:17 #218780 by OldHippy

Black Barney wrote: I'd say women are way ahead where they were decades ago. Porn means less brothels. A proliferation of brothels, which we about to see in Hoth, is worse for women I think. Plus I have a feeling porn reduces violence against women.

On the communication side, I totally agree JJ. Everyone wants it told fast and succinctly. When I write too much in an email, it goes unread. When I take the time to write a physical letter, it goes unappreciated.



Oh I completely agree, I must have said that wrong. Women are way ahead of where they were decades ago. But I do think that the style of porn I see around these days and the kids I talk to (I supervise a lot of co-op students) lead me to believe that feminism (not women) has plenty of work left to do. Some of the opinions about sex these days are pretty far from any reality I'm aware of.
Last edit: 31 Dec 2015 22:17 by OldHippy.
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31 Dec 2015 23:47 - 31 Dec 2015 23:48 #218784 by Cranberries
This post is interesting, and kind of related:

slatestarcodex.com/2015/12/24/how-bad-are-things/

This is also why I am wary whenever people start boasting about how much better we’re doing than back in the bad old days. That precise statement seems to in fact be true. But people have a bad tendency to follow it up with “And so now most people have it pretty good”. I don’t think we have any idea how many people do or don’t have it pretty good. Nobody who hasn’t read polls would intuitively guess that 40-something percent of Americans are young-Earth creationists. How should they know how many people have it pretty good or not?

I think about all of the miserable people in my psychiatric clinic. Then I multiply by ten psychiatrists in my clinic. Then I multiply by ten similarly-sized clinics in my city. Then I multiply by a thousand such cities in the United States. Then I multiply by hundreds of countries in the world, and by that time my brain has mercifully stopped being able to visualize what that signifies.
Last edit: 31 Dec 2015 23:48 by Cranberries.
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03 Jan 2016 18:27 - 03 Jan 2016 18:28 #218945 by cdennett

Sagrilarus wrote: The bigger question is this -- since when is government tasked with providing us with absolute safety?

There are many in the U.S. that are very quick to cede their rights to protect themselves to said government and expect total safety in return. Then there are those wacky, gun-nut extremists who actually understand that's impossible, especially in a free society, and try to hold onto the rights that are left. It amazes me how much faith some people have in our government, as completely messed up and self-interested it is.

I've talked to many people that are terrified of being a victim of a mass shooting, but don't seem to realize that the car they drive and cheese burger they are eating are several orders of magnitude more likely to kill them.

Also, one more point on "extremism:" a couple of Mulsims shoot up an office party: islamic terrorism! A Christian goes and shoots up an abortion clinic: mental health problems! Islam doesn't have a monopoly on extermism...
Last edit: 03 Jan 2016 18:28 by cdennett.

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03 Jan 2016 18:54 #218946 by Black Barney
You're making a bit of a stretch with that cheeseburger

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03 Jan 2016 21:46 #218954 by boothwah

Ken B. wrote: Fucking brilliant column, and a genuine thank you for sharing it. A great read all the way through.

And I'm glad the Fortress isn't a website where some fucking dipshit jackass responds with "tl;dr" or some fucking cat picture.


Sorry, I was sick and am just catching up.

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04 Jan 2016 10:50 #218971 by Million Dollar Mimring

Black Barney wrote: You're making a bit of a stretch with that cheeseburger


I'm not so sure. I've often joked that Hardee's/Carl's Jr actively hate Americans.

"New from Hardee's the 3 lb. Bacon Burger. Hardee's, We Fucking Hate You."
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04 Jan 2016 12:18 #218978 by Not Sure
I don't think it's an accident that they were one of the few food chains remaining in Idiocracy.

And their slogan was "Fuck you, I'm eating."

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04 Jan 2016 18:43 #219029 by maxoftat

Ken B. wrote: Fucking brilliant column, and a genuine thank you for sharing it. A great read all the way through.

And I'm glad the Fortress isn't a website where some fucking dipshit jackass responds with "tl;dr" or some fucking cat picture.


Are tastefully produced pictures of aesthetically pleasing females okay?

- Max of Tat
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04 Jan 2016 20:41 #219037 by Black Barney
Yes they are.

Aren't you supposed to be on honeymoon??

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04 Jan 2016 20:58 #219038 by boothwah
Kiki is efficient. I'm sure he knocked all of that marital bliss stuff out right off the bat so he could have some time to relax and surf the webs

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