Remember The Emergent Effects of Climate Change
HERE is what I do not get about the “contrarian on climate change crowd” from Eddie’s:
How can you operate under the assumption that climate change will have linear results?
We are literally talking about the most complex global system known to man. Frankly, I do not think we have enough information – we can not unless we tap into the entirety of the biosphere – and so we are forced to operate with the understanding that the emergent effects of a shift in equilibrium will be nonlinear. Restated: that climate change places existential pressure on humanity.
If the alarmists are wrong, we accelerated a positive feedback loop unnecessarily, expending treasure without cause. If we are right, we staved off the negative feedback – extinction.Dan is willing to make that call in favor of the former. He argues for those resources to be better spent on bringing the rest of the world online. This assumes we know what is coming – linearity. I do not agree; the costs of the systemic feedback are too high to operate with anything more an assumption of baseline knowledge.
Israeli Cyberwarfare + Syria
…how Israeli aircraft managed to slip past Syrian air defenses to bomb the site at Dayr az-Zawr. The main attack was preceded by an engagement with a single Syrian radar site at Tall al-Abuad near the Turkish border. It was assaulted with what appears to be a combination of electronic attack and precision bombs to enable the Israeli force to enter and exit Syrian airspace. Almost immediately, the entire Syrian radar system went off the air for a period of time that included the raid, say U.S. intelligence analysts.
Elements of the attack included some brute-force jamming, which is still an important element of attacking air defenses, U.S. analysts say. Also, Syrian air defenses are still centralized and dependent on dedicated HF and VHF communications, which made them vulnerable. The analysts don’t believe any part of Syria’s electrical grid was shut down. They do contend that network penetration involved both remote air-to-ground electronic attack and penetration through computer-to-computer links.
US Spending Transparency?
USASpending.gov seems to be the real deal – complete with an API. Could be pretty useful.
The Case For Bloomberg
One scenario — and the one aides are hoping for — would be a race between fellow New Yorkers Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Sen. Clinton’s negative rating is the highest in either party, while Mr. Giuliani’s is the highest among Republicans. That match-up could make what supporters see as Mr. Bloomberg’s “above the fray” image more appealing.
“The terrain that he would look to run on is dead center of the highway,” said William Cunningham, Mr. Bloomberg’s first-term communications director.
“The worse the economy gets, the more the election is up for grabs,” Prof. Moss said.
Shloky.com 4.0
My last host imploded resulting in this site serving malware. Apologies.
New clean design, new host. Dropped categories in favor of tags. If there are any bugs, let me know.
I’ve responded to all the email I’ve received in the last day or so. If you don’t have a reply from me, it got lost in the move, so please resend. Thanks.
–Shlok