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| CRANKY OLD FART'S BROWSER HISTORY #390 [archive] DEC. 4, 2023 |
Russian Supreme Court bans "LGBTQ+ movement"; cops begin raids on gay bars
Jeez, this makes my gut ache.
Is civilization only a temporary thing, unraveling everywhere all at once?
22 countries pledge to triple nuclear capacity in push to cut fossil fuels
Let's hope this is yet another climate change agreement that'll be ignored.
Sure, Chernobyl and Fukushima were uncommon events, and with all the right regulations and security protocols and a well-trained staff, nuclear power has been safe, overall. In a stable situation, I wouldn't have many worries about it.
Climate change, though, is the wild card. Hurricanes, floods, and assorted natural disasters will be happening in more and more places more and more frequently, so — what happens when a cyclone hits a nuclear power plant? When floodwaters swamp a facility? When a wildfire cuts off access to the highway, and staff or supplies can't get to the plant?
Not to go all Revelations here, but climate change might also lead to increased likelihood of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
When there's a constant parade of local and regional climate-related chaos — which is soon — you don't want dozens more nuclear power plants in the midst of that.
More bullshit in the face of forever horror. Let's have a bogus convention of 'leaders' against climate change, in the heart of oil country, hosted and presided over by an oil baron, and listen as he basically denies climate change.
Indigenous advocacy leads to largest dam removal project in US history
Excerpt:
The river’s salmon population has declined due to myriad factors, but
the biggest culprit is believed to be a series of dams built along the
river from 1918 to 1962, cutting off fish migration routes.
Now,
after decades of Indigenous advocacy, four of the structures are being
demolished as part of the largest dam removal project in United States
history. In November, crews finished removing the first of the four dams
as part of a push to restore 644 kilometers (400 miles) of fish
habitat.
U.S. warship, multiple commercial ships come under attack in Red Sea
Way back when, headlines like this made me worry. Now it only gets my hopes up for World War III.
Inside America’s school internet censorship machine
"Lives found ended": Washington Post unveils new euphemism to avoid naming the dead or the ender
Eligible voters are being swept up in conservatives' vigilante efforts to purge voter rolls
Texas Republicans reject proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers
US Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) demands detailed info on College Football Playoff's exclusion of team he was rooting for
House Speaker Johnson argues against democracy, advocating for a republic based on Bible
Fox News brings in notorious gangster Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano to bash Hunter Biden
Home Depot billionaire to fund Trump even if he is convicted
New Joisey officials defy federal rule with witty highway signs
Night of the Cat: The forgotten Southern sexploitation disasterpiece
• Amusing, Interesting, Outrageous, or Profound
AIOP is my Lemmy page, for anything that's (in my opinion) amusing, interesting, outrageous, or profound. It's mostly a rough draft of this page, but you're invited to stop by.
• The Police Problem
I also contribute to this Lemmy page about ordinary evil cops.
♫♬ MUSIC ♫
A Means to an End — Joy Division
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night — Dylan Thomas
Please Don't Bury Me — Liam Kazar
⚰️ OBITUARIES ⚰️
Chad Allan
rock'n'roller, Bachman Turner Overdrive, The Guess Who
John Colaianni
jazz pianist
Jerry Goldstein
The Castro's Mr Christmas
Myles Goodwyn
rock'n'roller, April Wine
Laurence Payne
civil rights activist
Travis Snyder
founder, The Color Run
12/4/2023
Cranky Old Fart is annoyed and complains and very occasionally offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that's made me smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited.
Tip 'o the hat to the AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Chuff, Dirty Blonde Mind, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, Lemmy.world, Looking for My Perfect Sandwich, Miss Miriam's Mirror, Self-love Is My Superpower, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I've stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.
Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Wynn Bruce, Joey Jo Jo emeritus, Jeff Meyer, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn't always shitty.
It's all supposed to be clean: Nuclear power: very few (but very long-lasting byproducts; fossil fuels: scalable house-to-house but non-renewable on a large scale and the pollution will kill us; hydro-electric: clean, with the water cycle as an everlasting power source but . . . the dams have killed off fish populations around the world for a hundred years and more. Locally, the Pacific salmon run has already been significantly reduced.
ReplyDeleteHere's what my old Seattle buddy Bruce Brown did about it. He wrote a book about the migration patterns of Pacific salmon and noted that the species was being fairly quickly killed off by hydroelectric dams. His book, Mountain in the Clouds, which he was working on when he and I were sailing and drinking beer in Seattle in the 70s, was published in 1995. The book, which was well-reviewed by both the popular and academic press, combined with action by Pacific Northwest environmental groups, started a long process which resulted in the removal of four dams on the Elwha River beginning in 2011. By 2012, Elwha Dam, the largest of the four dams on the river was demolished, allowing the salmon to begin to search their ancestral memories to find the spawning grounds from which they had been denied access for exactly 100 years. In the years that followed the removal of the four dams, a few salmon, then more and more salmon returned to the Elwha spawning grounds after a 100 year absence.
I didn't do anything with regard to the book except talk with Bruce and mostly listen to his crazy idea of writing a book which would take down four century-old dams. The book is now 30 years old, and there is a whole lot of work left to be done. The salmon migration is considerably older and now partially restored, thanks to a lot of people raising hell and a guy writing a book.
John
Excellent work by your buddy.
DeleteIn high school they showed us a propaganda film about fish-ladders built so the spawners could get past the dam, which at the time I thought solved the problem, but obviously didn't. I don't know why -- maybe most of the fish reject the fake waterway, or maybe most of the damns don't have the ladders, or probably both.
I also have no answers on nuclear vs hydro vs solar wind whatever. Nuclear is, as it's said, a crazy way to boil water but it requires stability that won't exist.