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OT: The News Thread

zeke said:
p.s. biodiversity is in a major crisis right now. we're losing about 95% of it.


The Weather Channel India @weatherindia
5h
"Our planet is now amidst its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals—the sixth wave of extinctions in the past half-billion years," @CenterForBioDiv stated. "We're currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of dinosaurs 65 million years ago."
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It frustrates me that this is more or less ignored.

The below story is intended to be entirely anecdotal and not a proxy for actual science, but man, I recently went on a scuba diving trip to Honduras, and the fish were all ****ing gone. Granted, I've been fortunate to dive some of the top sites in the world, so I'm a bit of a snob, but I was absolutely shocked by how little life there was. Makes me sad to think that I may have already done the best dives of my life, simply because there aren't any fish left.

We were also hoping to see whale sharks, who frequent the area, and are most popular when we were there, but they were gone too.
 
The book Sapiens had a nice line that's stuck with me - something to the effect that we are a species that became the Apex Predator, without the instincts of an Apex Predator. We continue to act like insecure vulnerable prey at the bottom of the food chain, but with the power of an apex predator.
 
zeke said:
The book Sapiens had a nice line that's stuck with me - something to the effect that we are a species that became the Apex Predator, without the instincts of an Apex Predator. We continue to act like insecure vulnerable prey at the bottom of the food chain, but with the power of an apex predator.
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that book is on our bookshelf. will add it to the list
 
Wayward DP said:
that book is on our bookshelf. will add it to the list
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“This spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences… humans failed to adjust. Most top predators are majestic creatures. Millions of years of dominion have filled them with self-confidence. Sapiens by contrast is more like a banana republic dictator. Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous.”
 
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zeke said:
“This spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences… humans failed to adjust. Most top predators are majestic creatures. Millions of years of dominion have filled them with self-confidence. Sapiens by contrast is more like a banana republic dictator. Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous.”
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while a cute line, it is a little simplistic though

sure we are always afraid but that is because unlike animals who fight mostly for the right to penetrate females, we fight for money, land, expansion etc. A lion only has to worry about a couple of other lions taking over his group of females and preventing him from passing on his DNA. Humans have to worry about being enslaved, having our being taken from them etc.

Animals do not consider the future, they just live in the present. We worry about the future.
 
So uhhh...gangster shit is going down in Venezuela.

The opposition leader has declared himself President and claims that Maduro has been deposed. Maduro is saying "nu-uh". The US, Canada, Brazil and a number of other countries are claiming to recognize Guiado as the new President of Venezuela. Putin is claiming he's illegitimate and Maduro is still President. He also has an "airforce" base in the country as of like 2 ****ing weeks ago with a couple bombers there.

The protests against Maduro are...umm...well, ****ing massive.
 
MindzEye said:
So uhhh...gangster shit is going down in Venezuela.

The opposition leader has declared himself President and claims that Maduro has been deposed. Maduro is saying "nu-uh". The US, Canada, Brazil and a number of other countries are claiming to recognize Guiado as the new President of Venezuela. Putin is claiming he's illegitimate and Maduro is still President. He also has an "airforce" base in the country as of like 2 ****ing weeks ago with a couple bombers there.

The protests against Maduro are...umm...well, ****ing massive.
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Guiado is not long for this world methinks
 
Altair said:
Guiado is not long for this world methinks
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Representatives from the military were notably absent at Maduro's televised speech denouncing Guiado and claiming to still be in power. Massive protests all over Venezuela. I'm thinking this could go Egypt anyway and almost definitely will if Guiado gets killed. Maduro has expelled US diplomats, but as the US doesn't recognize him as the President anymore, have told him to **** off and told their embassy staff currently in the country that they're staying.
 
zeke said:
“This spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences… humans failed to adjust. Most top predators are majestic creatures. Millions of years of dominion have filled them with self-confidence. Sapiens by contrast is more like a banana republic dictator. Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous.”
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we should be full of fear and anxiety. We have the bodies of prey, not hunters. soft, unbelievably weak, slow, poor senses.

I betcha we'd be a lot more confident if we were a species that had night vision though. wonder what our concept of evil would be like then.
 
MindzEye said:
Representatives from the military were notably absent at Maduro's televised speech denouncing Guiado and claiming to still be in power. Massive protests all over Venezuela. I'm thinking this could go Egypt anyway and almost definitely will if Guiado gets killed. Maduro has expelled US diplomats, but as the US doesn't recognize him as the President anymore, have told him to **** off and told their embassy staff currently in the country that they're staying.
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Military publicly siding with Maduro.

Guiado is not long for this world unless foreign troops help out. And Trump is too much of a coward to use military force, the Canadian military doesnt have the capability and Trudeau doesn't have the will, and Europe doesnt really care about south America.
 
Altair said:
Military publicly siding with Maduro.

Guiado is not long for this world unless foreign troops help out. And Trump is too much of a coward to use military force, the Canadian military doesnt have the capability and Trudeau doesn't have the will, and Europe doesnt really care about south America.
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Yep. Still might not be so cut and dry though, the soldiers themselves are starting to flip if spanish language news I'm seeing is to be trusted. Apparently there was a mini rebellion that got put down earlier this week by a group of military police. The rank and file soldiers as well as most of the office class are as effected by the political situation as the regular citizens.
 
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