Krillion - Pseudorandomness

The 'pre-Holocene' climate is returning - and it won't be fun

Now, however, carbon dioxide has reached levels not seen for at least 3 million years, and fossil fuel emissions have become the dominant driver of the changes to our climate. In a world potentially several degrees warmer than the one that spawned our civilization, we had better ready ourselves for some surprises.

This isn’t alarmism; it’s just sensible risk management. Retired US Navy Rear Admiral David Titley, now head of Penn State’s Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk, pointed out that governments still spend money on defence, despite the declining number of people killed worldwide in war. He told the US Congress that “we rightly invest in our security and defence as one component of hedging against unknown or unlikely security risks”. Inaction on climate change violates that same fundamental risk-management principle.

What is the Anthropocene, and are you living in it?

need to try this out on the tablet lol

Space Junk is Becoming a Serious Security Threat

Do some of the proposed technologies for removing space debris pose dual-use concerns?

The short answer is yes. In fact, pretty much any technology for removing debris could be used to take down a satellite under hostile circumstances. This is one of the reasons that many in the space community believe such activities will require a multilateral development approach and an international governance structure.

Shooting Data

Guns Are Cool sub reddit that tracks mass shootings

Gun Violence Archive

Shooting Tracker

Two Redditors Are Changing the Way the Media Counts Mass Shootings

Gun Deaths vs Terrorism Deaths (video)

America’s gun problem has everything to do with America’s masculinity problem

Campaign Zero

Delicious Icon (revised)

Keep a list...

Week 10: Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.

Amy Siskind posts her list each week on Fb and shares it on Medium.  She is the Co-founder of The New Agenda, organization “dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home.”  

If you’re not keeping your own list-- this is one of the best I’ve seen online that you can follow.   Want to catch up on the other weeks?  Amy has them all listed at the bottom of her post.

It’s pretty chilling.... but, even as:  We’re heading into dark times. This is how to be your own light in the Age of Trump 

"Hoar frost on fence, Dunfermline, Fife - 1" flickr photo by SwaloPhoto  shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

Fermi

I’ve been meaning to post these links together for a while now, fascinating stuff!  

Where are all the aliens via Quartz

Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox” II: Questioning the Hart-Tipler Conjecture via Universe Today (Paul Patton)

Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox” I: A Lunchtime Conversation- Enrico Fermi and Extraterrestrial Intelligence via Universe Today (Paul Patton)

11 of the Weirdest Solutions to the Fermi Paradox via io9 (George Dvorsky) The 7 Least Plausible Solutions To The Fermi Paradox via io9 (George Dvorsky)

This Animated Explanation Of The Fermi Paradox Is Fantastic via io9 (George Dvorsky)

Where Are All The Aliens? This Short Video Offers Some Solutions via io9 (George Dvorsky) this is part two to the previous link

Side note...  George’s posts on io9 are awesome, if you like science, I definitely recommend you check them out!

update: The Surprisingly Obvious Way We Could Hunt for Alien Life

another update:

The Fermi Paradox

Peace or Violence?

Is World History Becoming More Peaceful or More Violent?

Updates:  

Ray Kurzweil: The world isn’t getting worse — our information is getting better

Why the World Is Better Than You Think in 10 Powerful Charts

thoughts on google glass

cool...   actually, I think google glass is pretty important in that it's a transitional technology--- kind of in the way that Martin Cooper created the first handheld mobile phone:

that in no way resembles what our smartphones look like today, or what they're capable of...  but, that phone was a critical piece of electronics in the evolution of technology...  I already have my eyes on what's next, by the time they "do a good job" on glass, I think we'll be close to seeing that...  GG can still be useful, there's actually a bunch of cool ways that it can be used in education too-- the problem is that it's poorly executed, clunky and is just the start of what can be done with wearables, AR, and IoT...