Open Thread - Thurs 05 Jan 2023 - Climate Change

Climate Change

I've been worried about climate change since, well, since I can remember, really. Certainly since the mid to late 70's.

At first it seemed so distant, but so scary, and then it got closer and scarier and now, well, here it is. These changes, and the impact humans have on the world, are becoming more and more obvious, so even TPTB have to recognize them.

For example, one of my local news stations just ran a story about the melting of glaciers on Mt. Rainier and how that's a result of climate change. The local stations have seldom acknowledged climate change's local impacts before, but this past year they are starting to talk about them more and more.


The Upper Nisqually Glacier on Mount Rainier in July 2018, from this article about time lapse photography documenting the reduction of the glaciers.

The Texas Tribune just published a piece about how the Department of Agriculture in Texas just put out a report linking climate change with food insecurity. Climate change is a potential threat to Texas's food supply, according to the article.

The food access study, coordinated by the TDA and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, notes that “climate instability” is strongly associated with soil loss, water quality, droughts, fires, floods and other environmental disasters.

Well, duh.

The Beeb (BBC) notes that there is a record smashing HEAT wave happening all across Europe right now. The Beeb attributes this to climate change, as it should. So does the Huffington Post and other news organizations: Washington Post for example.

From the BBC article:

Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change.

However, winter events such as these do not have the same human impact as summer heatwaves, which can result in large numbers of excess deaths.

The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.


Image of Cherry Trees Blossoming in Poland, right now, from the BBC article above

And of course, there's been the horrible storms occurring across the US continent, from Buffalo, NY to California and everywhere in between.

Joe Shikspack featured this article from the Guardian in a recent Evening Blues. It's about climate change and disaster in Europe and the rest of the world and fits right in with what I'm talking about here.

We, humanity, we know what to do to ameliorate this. We just can't do it, it seems. These people fighting a wind power production site in Wales are just... I dunno. I agree that the production should benefit the locals. But, those wind turbines will create enough power for 81,000 homes. So it's not just locals that will benefit. And no, they aren't ugly, and no, they aren't super noisy. Yes, they look DIFFERENT, yes, they sound DIFFERENT. But they aren't any uglier than the smoke stacks of a coal production plant, or an oil refinery. To me they look peaceful, and calming and beautiful across the farming lands in WA state. I love seeing them. They don't sound any worse than traffic on the highways. I would love to put up wind turbines in my area, but we are too low to the ground and the wind isn't dependable enough.

I'd love to hear your opinions on these stories, and read some local to you! But now, I'm gonna turn to something fun. Some dancing music.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zsAKJYBHyE]
Tonight the Bottle Let me Down, by the Mavericks. Sad Lyrics but, Dang, it's Fun to Dance to!

So, thanks for reading and here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!

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Sima's picture

Hope everyone is having a great Thursday, with good weather and good times! I've got some intense family work (taking over as trustee of my parents' living trust), so I will be awol until the evening! Still, post what you are up to and what you are learning, thinking about, whatever. And more experiences/articles about climate change!

Ohh, news on Jaska. She is recovering well! Very well! She insisted on going to the gym with me yesterday, and she's learning how to use the ramp to get into the car. It's awesome!

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11 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Lookout's picture

As to climate chaos, I fear it will be used as a grift and another means of control like carbon credits and such for us and private jets for TPTB.

For example, shut down farms to prevent Climate change? What, farms correctly managed can sequester carbon. So I'm afraid they will use it as a club to enforce their "Great Reset".

I don't deny that climate chaos or weather weirding is here for the rest of our lives, but the plan of action may be worse than ignoring the problem.

Interesting no one talks about doing with less (consumption) to mitigate the climate, nor real solutions like electric trains rather than a personal electric vehicles. Outside the box thinkers like Lovelock propose things like adapting planes to use diesel in order to place sulfur in the upper atmosphere to ward off warming. He was also a proponent of nuclear power which I've come around to support as well.

Sadly, responding to climate chaos it is all smoke and mirrors and no real substance, instead the response is aimed at enriching the elite.
Check out Planet of the Humans for more evidence of the grift.
Michael Moore presents Planet of the Humans, a documentary that dares to say what no one else will — that we are losing the battle to stop climate change on planet earth because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road — selling out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America. This film is the wake-up call to the reality we are afraid to face: that in the midst of a human-caused extinction event, the environmental movement’s answer is to push for techno-fixes and band-aids. It's too little, too late.
Removed from the debate is the only thing that MIGHT save us: getting a grip on our out-of-control human presence and consumption. Why is this not THE issue? Because that would be bad for profits, bad for business. Have we environmentalists fallen for illusions, “green” illusions, that are anything but green, because we’re scared that this is the end—and we’ve pinned all our hopes on biomass, wind turbines, and electric cars?
No amount of batteries are going to save us, warns director Jeff Gibbs (lifelong environmentalist and co-producer of “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Bowling for Columbine"). This urgent, must-see movie, a full-frontal assault on our sacred cows, is guaranteed to generate anger, debate, and, hopefully, a willingness to see our survival in a new way—before it’s too late.

Thanks for the OT!

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18 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

Because that would be bad for profits, bad for business.

And we know what western values are. Profit driven policies.

Consumption reduction is natural for the lower class.
But that isn't going to save us.

cheers

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12 users have voted.
Sima's picture

@Lookout
I think this is so very true 'Sadly, responding to climate chaos it is all smoke and mirrors and no real substance, instead the response is aimed at enriching the elite.'

Years ago, I responded personally and still am. But sadly it makes no difference, I think. Or maybe it has, maybe it's saved a bug or two, or something.

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6 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

The NY Daily News this morning muses on how good it is that Lula has been inaugurated because he will address the crisis of a disappearing Amazon.

Not a topic I know enough about to comment on myself, but the usually conservative NY newspaper did in an editorial:

Forest for the trees

"This week, the world’s fourth largest democracy swore in a new (and old) president after kicking its own second-rate Trumpian demagogue to the curb. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known simply as Lula, was sworn in on Jan. 1, his second time at the helm of the diverse and massive nation after becoming the first candidate to defeat a sitting incumbent in Brazil’s relatively young democracy, squeaking in a thin victory over Jair Bolsonaro."

"The transition of power is itself a monumental relief for the country and the world, after Bolsonaro spent weeks toying with the idea of staging some kind of self-coup before ending up trundling off to Florida with his tail between his legs (sound familiar?). Yet Lula taking the reins is a development with significance much beyond the interest of 217 million Brazilians."

"It is, in a very real sense, an event with planetary consequence for one key reason in particular: Brazil hosts the majority of the Amazon rainforest, the lungs of the Earth, a vast ecosystem with the globe’s richest biodiversity and 150-200 metric gigatons of carbon that would otherwise get released into the atmosphere and supercharge climate change in a way that would be uncontrollable. A disappearing Amazon doesn’t just release existing carbon but stops capturing the carbon released from other sources, and affects the entire Earth’s climate in ways we don’t fully understand."

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11 users have voted.

NYCVG

@NYCVG @NYCVG

A Great Game Changer---(You may not see this in the usual media for months, if ever)

"The Russian navy frigate ‘Admiral Gorshkov,’ has become the first warship carrying Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles to begin routine combat service. Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw the ceremony on Wednesday via video link, declaring that the Zircon missile was a “unique weapon” and that “no other country has anything comparable.” “I am sure that such a powerful armament will allow us to steadfastly defend Russia from potential foreign threats. It will help to maintain the national interests of our country,” Putin stated."

Hypersonic means flies too low and too fast to be detected on radar. That is the simple explanation.

China also has hypersonic missiles including one that China says can circle the globe carrying a full load of weapons without being detected.

The West OTOH has no such weapons.

Only empty promises about what they will deliver sometime in the not-near future and an overwhelming load of total BS.

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10 users have voted.

NYCVG

usefewersyllables's picture

@NYCVG

of loss-cutting/denial. Well, we know that our next coup won't elevate *him* again, anyway...

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5 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@NYCVG @NYCVG .

1MARE NOSTRUM?

"Now that requires some major cojones.

Shoigu announced that Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov, carrying Mr. Zircon hypersonic business card, will be on a just-business journey across the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, of course including the Med, the former Mare Nostrum.

****** "Our Sea" until Tartus and Latakia were built by Russia on the Syrian Mediterranean coast.*****

No wonder braindead NATO specimens are livid."

It's raining lightly in NYC after a sunny 66 degree day yesterday. Have a happy day, everybody.

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

@NYCVG

heading towards the Atlantic
perhaps the western warmongers should take note
what happens when the pentagon imbeciles cross
another red line? Like long range missiles in Ukraine.
Oops, US said they wouldn't do that but ..
Hell to pay.

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10 users have voted.
Sima's picture

@NYCVG
in many ways. I hope he is actually allowed to govern. His first appointees seem to show that he is. Thanks for the clips of the editorial, I hadn't read it yet, and thanks for commenting!

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

WRT to wind turbines (we're talking the big, prop-types) but with what you *can't* hear as it's sub-audible for humans.

Detrimental health effects related to wind farm infrasound are becoming well documented - and studies from Finland have determined that the effects extend to around fifteen kilometers away - much further than was previously assumed.

It's certainly legitimate to demad a real accounting of the environmental effects of such projects - and not only for humans. Birds, bats, cetaceans are all sound-sensitive - what about them?

https://www.masterresource.org/wind-power-health-effects/infrasound-grow...

https://suomenymparistoterveys.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/syte-pilot-st...

This is not at all to dismiss wind power altogether - smaller turbines and alternative designs may not have the same problem as the now-conventional huge bladed ones, there are *lots* of alternative approaches out there.

As for climate... we have been in an ice age for tens of millions of years - and have been in an 'inter-statial' warm period within that that has lasted, well, about as long as such periods tend to last. It *is* possible that human activity has tipped things in such away that we are headed toward continued or increased warmth. BUT - if human activity doesn't actually contribute that much one way or the other then we are probably on schedule for a return to ice age conditions...

https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-what-is-an-ice-age-and-how...

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Lookout's picture

@Blue Republic

(as well as cell towers)
...but there might be a viable wind option.
https://www.aerominetechnologies.com/
9.5 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnSZ0MHIcvs]
Aeromine Rooftop Wind. Static. Silent. 50% more power than Solar PV.
Rooftop wind power has been a goal for micro power generators around the world for many years now. There’s no shortage of design ideas, but now there’s a new kid on the block that has no visible moving parts, makes no noise, and generates 50% more power than standard solar PV panels.

Hydrogen generation with PV is another idea that eliminates batteries and is zero carbon once operating.

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14 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Sima's picture

@Lookout @Lookout
I will be looking into these new technologies. Thanks so much for this comment!

The bird kills really worry me about the wind power generation, I have to admit. I had read that they've come up with some ways to mitigate them, but who knows?

Edited to Add: Just finished watching the Aeromine video. Man, I hope that tech works and takes off. I would like to see if it could be done on individual houses...

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6 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@Blue Republic @Blue Republic @Blue Republic From your link:

There are many factors that cause ice ages. The main ones include variations in Earth’s orbit, known as Milankovitch cycles, reductions in solar energy emissions, lower atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, variations in ocean currents, tectonic activity, continental configurations, mountain building periods and global volcanism.

That greenhouse gas emissions being our current dilemma.

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2 users have voted.
Cassiodorus's picture

check out the piece in Knowledge Cultures on "Climate Change Mitigation in Fantasy and Reality." The password to open the PDF is AddletonAP2009 .

As for:

We, humanity, we know what to do to ameliorate this. We just can't do it, it seems.

The problem is that the decision-making structure of the human race, in which the people at the top make the decisions, can't do it. Capitalism can't do it. The global elites, guardians of the global capitalist system, can't do it. The rest of us just struggle to earn a living under their system -- don't put this on us.

They can't do it because what they invariably try to do is throw up some sort of charade that will persuade people that they are doing something while at the same time doing what they usually do -- preserving the system. That's what "Climate Change Mitigation in Fantasy and Reality" points out. The piece also specifies a solution.

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8 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

@Cassiodorus

may just learn something?

commodity fetishism -- oh wow, not sure I can go there right now
being in the wake of Christmas buying sprees, but let's fix it anyhow

a utopian conversation -- doesn't seem to do much good while we are being
flushed down the toilet. perhaps civilization does not want to debate
the finer concepts of what was once keeping you alive? the reality is that we
are collectively dying for the supposed benefit of rich suckers. If they are the
ones that are in control, making a statement is akin to being dead. Not a good
return on investment, at least in my mind.

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7 users have voted.

@QMS and watch the climate improve.

Private airplanes grounded, as well.

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11 users have voted.

NYCVG

usefewersyllables's picture

@NYCVG

I calculated the number of barrels of oil it took to make all the concrete to build the interstate highway system, and then how many it took to keep the Chrome Dome 24-hour airborne alert B-52s going through that date, just to win an argument.

I lost all that in the fire- I'd hung onto it all these years, but hadn't looked at that file folder since maybe 1980. Gone, now. But I've been thinking about going back and redoing that work with the much more refined numbers known today. I also wish to update it with the number of barrels needed to build the plutonium infrastructure for the cold war (Hanford/TVA/Oak Ridge and so on), and then the number of calories of pure *heat* dumped into the rivers and oceans by the single-pass cooling of our plutonium breeding activities in order to make the several *tons* of plutonium that we actually created.

I don't remember the numbers I came up with at this late date, but they were appallingly huge. However, I'd really like to quantify the thermal consequences of all that burnup, to some level of accuracy- whether from combustion or fission. And then back-calculate the number of gigatons of carbon/CO2 from the combustion activities. I don't think that most ordinary people have any comprehension of the raw magnitude of those "contributions to the environment" mankind has made over the last 75 years. Takes a nerd to think these thoughts...

Hmm. I suppose that I should also take a swag at the overall iron/steel industry since the start of the Industrial Revolution (not just the rebar for the roads and bridges), just for completeness, but I haven't done much of the necessary research there. And then maybe natural gas flaring in the oil patch- we've been flaring it off because it isn't economical to capture and sell. Anyway, it'd make an interesting comparative study.

Too bad nobody pays anyone to do that sort of work. The energy industries sure as hell don't want to do it!

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13 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Sima's picture

@usefewersyllables
I'm so sorry you lost this, lost so much in the fire Sad . If you decide to do these computations again, lemme know if I can help in any way. I'd be happy to do so.

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Sima's picture

@NYCVG
I'm all for this!

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2 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Cassiodorus's picture

@QMS @QMS Instead of asking how climate change can be mitigated while everything else is kept the same, it's better to ask what kind of (utopian) society will be able to mitigate climate change and how can we get that society.

Of course, with everyone dead, climate change will be mitigated. Maybe something better than that?

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11 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Sima's picture

@QMS
for the supposed benefit of rich suckers' So damned true!

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Sima's picture

@Cassiodorus
right now. I think your comments are very good, and obviously there are reasons why the 'little' people can't do much. It's damned hard. For example, the gov should offer solar for everyone. We'd generate so much power then. But, nope. What they offer are tax rebates. What if you don't make enough money to pay taxes? But uyou still have a roof and want to have solar on it?

Thanks for the pdf link!

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7 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Cassiodorus's picture

@Sima I think you have some of the idea. That John Lennon song "Imagine" was also a good start.

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4 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

@Cassiodorus I have a concussion. Don't want to read it all. What do they say we can do about it?

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2 users have voted.
Cassiodorus's picture

@Battle of Blair Mountain It starts with the idea of utopian dreaming. Think of a possible world in which we could mitigate climate change. In certain ways such a world will look like this world, but in other ways it will look like a different world entirely. But what would this possible world look like?

Oh and get well soon!

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5 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

WE knew since the 70s that there were too many people consuming too much and we knew the consequences, but all we thought of was how to make someone else pay for it. Someone else had to give up their SUVs. Someone else had to give up their plastic bottles of tap water. Someone else had to have fewer kids. Now it's fifty years later and we all have to give up everything so that THEY can keep their yachts and private jets.

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11 users have voted.

On to Biden since 1973

@doh1304 Plastic straws gone
. Virtue signaling orgasm.

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10 users have voted.

NYCVG

@doh1304

it wasn't so much as making others suffer on your behalf
as it was to build a viable infrastructure to keep the
progressive ideas alive. Maybe the memories are faltering
but I am pretty damn sure we were working toward
a sustainable future at the time. Otherwise, would not have been involved.

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9 users have voted.
Sima's picture

@doh1304
I gave up the SUV. I did most of the stuff you mentioned. But it doesn't and didn't matter, I think. Reminds me of a get together I was at a few years ago where some friends, mostly pagan, talked about their New Years' resolutions. I rolled my eyes at first, and eventually had to leave. Here it was 2016 or so, and they were resolving to do things for the environment (buy less, recycle, travel less, use renewables, get a vehicle that got better gas mileage, use public transit, grow more food...) I'd started doing in 1985! Gads. Sad, and funny too, in a painful way.

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

enhydra lutris's picture

fix. Technology will provide a solution, it always has and to doubt that it will is to assert that we are too dumb to find an answer. This is NOT magical thinking it is simply historical fact, why, there is tech in the pipeline right now as we speak that simply needs a bit more work or refinement and our problems are all solved. Besides that, there is always Mars. It's still not too late ... .

Of course, the economic model demands that basic, break-out R&D only gets funded if the potential profits are ginormous or there is a next generation weapons system at the end of the road. Bat wait, quantum computers and AI will still save the day.

be well and have a good one

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9 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Sima's picture

@enhydra lutris
kinda makes me roll my eyes. There is a lot of tech and knowledge magic, for sure. But... it never happens without money behind it, as you said.

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Hi Sima, happy new year and right on Jaska! I like ramps too, and curb cuts, and anything else that makes it easier to get around. Today is my 5 month anniversary since getting a new back:
eleven inch scar
backscar11_0.jpg

parts are parts
xrayspinalcage_0.jpg

that thingy in the middle of the cage bars used to be my t-12 vertebrae. I zoomed the xray and can see my broken collar bone from a couple years ago. LOL I don't know why that makes me laugh. Remembering magiamma, I hope she is fine where ever she is now. Thanks.
...
Today I walked down to the bridge and back, because every one in Cloverdale does that when the Russian River floods. heh. I walked a whole mile. It felt good. Shortly before Christmas, UCSF zeroed out my huge debt due for all that back surgery and cancer treatment. That felt good too. Really good!
...
My camera broke so I charged up an old cell phone to take a low res photo down at the bridge this morning:

russianriver23-01-05.jpg

It floods upstream in Hopland, and downstream in Healdsburg, but not here. I have seen the water almost touching the bottom girders, back in 2019. Look down the California Data Exchange Center rabbit hole for details:
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/river/russianStages.html

Here's the local Sonoma County rag with free weather articles during the storm(s):
Live updates: Streams rising, roads flooded, thousands without power
...
I went looking for The Unchained Goddess video again on the topic of climate change and weather and discovered this playlist of nineteen videos:
Bell Telephone Science Series
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqXDyb9PP_G_g_dOMR5FVZ5R2tbmWpC8i

I watched the short one called "Operation Argus-The Secret Atmospheric Nuclear Tests to Create a Man Made Radiation Belt"... omg wtf? Did I really need to know that did indeed happen? I guess so. Thanks.

"I feel happy!" --Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Peace and Love

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17 users have voted.

@eyo

looks like a major rebuild
glad to hear you can still walk
and the docs are paid

good luck!

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10 users have voted.

@QMS yes, the docs got paid. It was the biggest bill I ever saw. Most of my hospital stay had rooms with a view of San Francisco Bay. When it wasn't foggy I could see the sailboats, and one day there was a race with lots of them that made me really happy. Also, you share a name with a pretty famous brand that is in every room at UCSF. I would see it and think "Hi QMS", and wonder how you were doing. lol I think I was the only person there with no cell phone. Cheers.

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@eyo

Also great to hear you are able to go walking about. Are you still in Hospice? Glad to hear that UCSF set you free. Didn't know that Cloverdale was a flood free zone for the RR, how are the roads doing? Haven't heard much about the storms' impacts that far north, actually not even that much about Sonoma area either. Multiple flood areas in Sta Cruz so Magiamma could be impacted by that.

Be good to yourself

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9 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris the roads are clear in Cloverdale, a small tree fell a couple blocks down. That storm link I posted to the Press Democrat site kind of sucks. It seems like they want us to go read twitter for news anyway. hmph

I like my hospice team and don't feel so scared alone now. There is someone to call at any time for any reason and that is comforting. Thanks.

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6 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@eyo

It’s great to see you!

Quite an exhibitionist you are ; ).You make me laugh even when you're serious, and that looks like quite a serious event. I am so happy to hear you are walking with the freedom of a new back and no debt. I hope with all my heart you continue to benefit from all the love and care you justly deserve. Keep cruising down your Russian River in safety.

Sorry ; )

[video:https://youtu.be/m2fPkzJsMU8]

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10 users have voted.

@janis b hi, you cheer me up with that song. I did get my high boots out and they were ready to start walkin' yesterday.

About a month ago I could finally reach high enough to hang my hummingbird feeder, they were back on it within minutes. I got inspired by the link you posted of the livestream in Ecuador, wow those are pretty hummers. I love 'em.

I hope your summer goes great and the weather is not too extreme anywhere. Thanks.

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8 users have voted.

@eyo Glad you had a fun day, since you are pretty damn far away from the last one!
Amazing surgery, very sexy scar! (piss poor attempt at humor, but you know me. Couth is over rated.)
Do The Walk!

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9 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp you crack me up. My friend called me a badass after she saw that scar, so that's what I call it now. I also wear a three and a half pound back brace when I'm outside, or dancing on the deck. Aspen Active. lol

happydance.jpg
"I'm not dead!" yay

Thanks for keeping in touch, and thanks a lot to JtC for keeping this site up and running. There is no other place like this place. right on

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8 users have voted.
studentofearth's picture

@eyo Great start to the day knowing you have made it back home. Enjoying familiar sights, sounds and walks with a new support structure. Thanks for taking the time to share the photos.

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9 users have voted.

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

usefewersyllables's picture

@eyo

We're all collecting our scars, seems like, but mine are nothing like yours, and my process has been a walk in the park (so to speak) by comparison. Still, it is great when you realize that you can *actually* walk a long way again. Massive congrats. I'm three weeks in to my second knee replacement (first was mid-September), and I'm very much liking the results so far. I hope that yours is being as rewarding as mine.

I have never had a tattoo, but I'm seriously considering having zipper pulls tattooed at the top of mine...

I hope everything keeps getting better for you. Happy new year, and hang in there!

twins_small.jpg

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11 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Sima's picture

@usefewersyllables
would be perfect for those scars!

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8 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@usefewersyllables wow you are pegging the badass meter with that matching pair. Thanks for posting the photo, and the good wishes. It feels so nice to be nearly pain free without pharma, I am almost there. I love your tatoo idea too, that made me LOL. Congrats back to ya, and keep on truckin'. Cheers

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9 users have voted.
usefewersyllables's picture

@eyo

I'm incredibly impressed that you are nearly done with the pharma thing at 5 months: back surgery of that type is hard-core, in addition to everything else you have going on.

I had it easy- I got done with the no-bueno opioids in the first week. I'm incredibly lucky in that I'm one of the people for whom CBD is very effective against pain and inflammation. There is a Colorado/Michigan company that makes an edible product called "Ripple Relief", which is a little sachet with water-soluble powder that contains 20mg CBD and .5mg THC. It is the entourage effect that seems to make it work for me- the microdose of THC has no noticeable psychoactive effect, but seems to let the CBD really settle in and do the work. I use one of those every morning in my Zip Fizz, and it works better than anything they gave me other than the immediate post surgery club upside the head with opioids.

Basically their products let you turn anything into an edible. I don't know what is available in CA, since weed businesses are such a localized thing, but it sure helps me. You sound like you already have it dialed in, anyway. But if not, this might be worth a look...

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7 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Lookout's picture

@eyo

One of my best music buddies has brain cancer and they have called in hospice. I'm so sorry for them, but you give me hope eyo. Keep on keeping on for as long as you feel it is worthwhile.
Wishing you well my friend!

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10 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Sima's picture

@Lookout
I hope they are in peace and comfort in hospice.

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6 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@Lookout good greetings but sad news about your best music buddy. Excuse my foul language, fuck cancer. For me, hospice has been good but they are always telling me to "stay ahead of the pain" with the narcotics. Nah, I might live a whole year who knows? My hospice nurse gave me a goal - to be able to carry the watering can down to the dirt patch again. I'd be happy to expire while digging some dirt in the garden, that would suit me fine. Can your buddy still play? I hope he can do what he loves right up until the end. You once told me to cherish every day and I never will forget that catchy phrase. Cherish every day. right on

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@eyo

Ugh that’s a narly scar on your back with lots of hardware. I sure hope that it brought you relief? There for the grace of dawg go I.

I thought of you when I saw pictures of the flooding in Guerneville or Gurnyville as my mom used to say where the Russian river has flooded. It reminds me of the floods back in the 90's in the Central Valley when so many levies failed and cows were standing on barn roofs. You remember?

I’m hoping that this year brings you health and happiness and you can visit us more often!

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9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Sima's picture

@snoopydawg
That happened up here in the mid 2010's with flooding in Centralia and other places. It was so scary!

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@snoopydawg LOL I love that your mom pronounced it Gurnyville, that is how I learned to say it when I was a kid. The forecast from data exchange looks good now:
ALL LOCATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN BELOW CRITICAL LEVELS
earlier they predicted 40 foot crest at the Guerneville bridge, that's 8 feet over flood stage, now it is well below. Whew.

I can feel all that titanium and plastic cement in my back, especially when it is cold. It has finally stopped stabbing me like a shiv every second of the day, thank goodness.

I can't remember the levee breaks, but the cows on roofs seems familiar. There have been so many disasters I can't keep track anymore. I hope '23 will be a good year for all, and look forward to more travel photos from you and Sam. Cheers.

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6 users have voted.
Sima's picture

@eyo
So glad, and thankful for, your comment and your return! That was some hella back surgery, I am glad it's helping. 11 inch scar? Damn. And so glad you are walking. My mother had some similar surgery, lower down her back. It helped her with walking for 10 or 12 years, and still makes things better than they would have been. I hope you get twice that many years!

Thanks for the links to the videos. I will be watching them as I can over the next couple days!

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8 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@Sima hi, thanks for hosting every Thursday OT, I always enjoy reading the topics and hearing about your animals. Goats are the GOAT, I think. Really fun. And dawgs are like people to me, I could really relate when Jaska got the arthritis, and then had to learn new ways to do what she does. Good for her, and for you taking such good care of others. right on

The Bell Science video series cracks me up, my parents were 30-somethings in 1958 what the fuck? Were they thinking? "Tourists in glass bottom boats will be viewing Miami towers from the tropical sea above" is what scientists were telling them how to think about sea rise from global warming in their future. The whole Mississippi Valley goes underwater, but tourism will be great! okay

I'm going to keep going, keep on keeping on until I can't walk at all. Then it will be time to go, but not soon! LOL I hope everyone gets my references to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you know the body cart collector at the beginning calling "bring out your dead", and the old guy getting brought out keeps saying "I'm not dead" "I feel fine." "I feel happy." Well that is how I feel, fine and happy and definitely not dead yet. Thanks!

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8 users have voted.

Long, very busy work day.
So, TPTB recognize there are too many humans. There is no way to continue if we do not depopulate. We are the cause of climate change because of our needs and habits. Then, out of the other side of their mouths, they say the future is trans human, making forever living gods of us all. We all live forever.
Which one of their solutions for climate change works, since the two are opposite, bordering on adversarial?
Do the solutions involve selection? Who dies, who lives forever? Who decides?
The military emitting carbon by historic levels. Where are the stops on this?
Airport closures, limiting air travel for commercial flights. The limits on private jets are...(I think non-existent?)
While the term climate change hoax makes my blood boil, there are some very obvious reasons why a person would believe climate change is bs, and people on both sides of the issue can see that the proposed solutions are so vague, so ineffective, that this whole Green initiative is just some "do gooder" movement to enrich TPTB.
TPTB can come forward, make sacrifices to save the planet. First in line, example set. Until then, we will have controversy, never come to terms on climate change causes and solutions.
One tier, not two tier commitments, rich bastards!
Wish I were in a better mood.
Thanks for the OT, Sima, and Jaska simply rocks!

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8 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

@on the cusp
fits the climate crisis, even if it's not a 'better mood'. I wish I had a better mood about it, and was more hopeful, but I don't. I just don't. The changes will come only when forced because the planet is mostly killed, and those changes will probably only be for the little people.

Hope tomorrow is a better day, and not so long and busy at work! Thanks for stopping by!

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6 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@on the cusp It's been plain to me for forty years now that the only way humanity survives is if 98% of us suddenly stops polluting the planet.
Who do you think the surviving 2%will be.
Not, as Hunter Thompson said, "the doomed.". The 2% think as Tricky Dick did - "fuck the doomed"

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7 users have voted.

depopulating the poor is an easy solution all the rich bastids can get behind
stopping the oil spigot to the military is a bit problematic though
can't seem to get enough solar panels on those big assed tanks to move em
and the planes can't be taught to fly (to drop their peace bombs) without
major psychological counseling and flexing their wings slows em down

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7 users have voted.
Sima's picture

@QMS
I'm sniggering. Heh, great way to phrase it. You got it right, turn off the military oil spigot and money spigot too!

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6 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

makes me dance.
He is the best singer I know of since Orbison.
Thanks for that!

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5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

@on the cusp
is definitely a great singer. I agree with the comparison to Roy Orbison. I love his music, in Spanish, in English, solo and with the Mavericks! Have fun dancing, I was dancing around the kitchen to this earlier Smile

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@Sima the number of hours I have spent dancing around the house, enjoying Raul. Latin, country and western, rock, whatever... His voice is just wonderful.
Must get to the office. Give Jaska a hug from me, ok?

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3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

@on the cusp

You get a 'merp' (Jaska's way of saying thank you, it really sounds like 'merp') and a lick in return!

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2 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@Sima is way cool!

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2 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981