TIL: Today I Learned

[EgonSpengler]

Why compare the number of deaths by heat wave to the number of deaths by terrorism? It's a comparison that makes no sense other than to awkwardly shoehorn in some political statement about US defense spending. The comparison and your mention of the DoD is especially awkward considering dealing with natural disasters is not one of the DoD's responsibilities. Natural disasters and the relief efforts associated with them are the responsibility of DHS.

Well, the Defense Department does respond to natural disasters, and is among the few government agencies to acknowledge the threat posed by climate change (and not just under the Trump administration, if you need to frame things in terms of partisan politics, this has been going on for years). But the key word in my post - for me - was 'priorities.' It's a national, maybe a cultural, problem, and while it is political, it's not just political. I don't think the media, for example, talks enough about heat waves as natural disasters, but as unpleasant weather (the guy on my local NPR station can't stop talking about whether the temps at night will be good for sleeping). That's probably because it's kind of a "slow motion" disaster and there isn't a lot of property damage, so it's hard to make it look cool (pardon the pun) on television.

Funding is of course a big issue in any disaster response or preparation, and the Defense Department is one of the most well-funded and buys a lot of big-ticket items, so whenever I find something that could be addressed with a giant pile of money, I tend to look at them first. Using Home Depot and Wikipedia as sources, cutting the cost of a single Virginia-class Attack Sub could fund around 13.5 million in-window air conditioners, at retail. If you prefer to look at things from a conservative angle, eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts entirely (using Wikipedia again) could fund the purchase of around 765,000 air conditioners. Finally, the comparison of heat waves with terrorism was simply because people have been wound up about terrorism - foreign terrorism, especially, but you have to argue with some mofos that a White supremacist shooting up a church full of Black people is terrorism - for almost 2 decades now, while more serious threats go largely ignored. (Back to the DoD, iirc, they're one of the few agencies to rate climate change as a bigger threat than international terrorism, although heat waves would only be a small part of that bigger picture, from their perspective.) I could just as easily have said that the NSA should buy everybody an air conditioner, but my hunch is that the Pentagon's budget is bigger.

 

[Takhisis]

TIL Ahmed Best, the actor who once played Jar jar Binks on screen (yes, there really was somebody under all that rubber) actually considered suicide after the backlash his character generated.

 

[Birdjaguar]

TIL that the brain is stranger than I thought:

Joel, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, has a unique condition that has both benefits and drawbacks. It is called mirror-touch synesthesia, and it’s the ability to feel other people’s touch, pain and emotions as if they are happening to your own body. A scratch of the head, a frown, a punch on the arm—if Joel sees it, he feels it. In other words, he is hyper-empathetic.

We all experience others’ worlds to some extent. For that we can thank our mirror neurons—brain cells that act in the same way whether I make a movement or see someone else make that same movement. Most of us receive veto signals from other cells that damp our mirror neuron activity and allow us to distinguish between what’s happening to us and what’s happening to those around us. When Michael Banissy at Goldsmiths, University of London, scanned the brains of 16 mirror-touch synesthetes, he discovered that they lack these veto signals and have less brain tissue in an area that helps us distinguish the self from other.

When Joel injects a person, he feels the sensation of a needle entering his own skin; upon seeing an amputated arm, his own arm feels as though it has been ripped apart. He feels other people’s emotions, too, which he says helps him to connect with patients. “If someone looks nervous, then my brain will feel those movements as if they are happening to my own face and say, ‘You’re nervous.’ It helps me understand what they’re really feeling.”

 

[Kyriakos]

Til about canadian lack of even a leaf:

I blame Canada

I mean, the fyromian ambassador to Canada is excused, cause he is just cos-playing; in Fyrom it is always Halloween

 

[GoodSarmatian]

TIL that the brain is stranger than I thought:

That guy must watch a lot of porn.

 

[Lexicus]

Why compare the number of deaths by heat wave to the number of deaths by terrorism? It's a comparison that makes no sense other than to awkwardly shoehorn in some political statement about US defense spending.

I mean, that's exactly what it is. It is suggesting that spending massive amounts of money ostensibly to protect us from "terrorism" is a massive misuse of resources considering that Americans are far more threatened by heat waves (and, like, hundreds or thousands of other things) than terrorists.

This isn't to say that defense spending per se is too high. As @EgonSpengler points out lots of money spent on the military goes to things that help the country in many ways other than simply protecting us from terrorists.

 

[Hrothbern]

I always thought that spiders who fly are driven by the wind, using their silk threads as sail.

TIL that natural electric fields are the main driver with electrostatically charged silk threads to launch and carry the spider.
Spiders can recognise when natural electric fields are stronger from weather conditions.
And ofc once airborne the wind takes effect as well, especially the horizontal distance.

When a spider wants to take flight it typically climbs to the top of a plant, tiptoes around, points its abdomen in the air and rapidly ejects up to a metre of silk. In some species, the insect ejects a number of silk strands that spread out like a fan. Either way, in the blink of an eye, the spider is whisked into the air.
Morley set the box up so she could re-create inside it the kinds of electric fields that are commonly found in nature. On a clear day, the atmosphere’s electric potential might be 120 volts per metre, but it can be tens of times stronger that this when storm clouds gather.

When the electric field was off, Morley found that spiders made few attempts to fly off an upright cardboard strip she had put in the middle of the box. But as she ramped up the field, the spiders increasingly took flight. Once aloft, their altitude could then be controlled. “When they take off, you can switch off the electric field and watch them drop, then switch it on and see them rise again,” she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/science...s-light-on-mystery-of-how-spiders-take-flight

 

[Lexicus]

So in other words spiders also have the potential to shoot lightning out of their hands like Emperor Palpatine. According to science.

 

[Takhisis]

So Stan Lee wasn't really high when he came up with the concept of Spider-Man.

 

[Birdjaguar]

So Stan Lee wasn't really high when he came up with the concept of Spider-Man.

Stan Lee and Mike Ditko created Spiderman in 1962, pretty early in the 60s for them to be high. Now, they were in NYC and if they were into the folk music scene, maybe. But Bob Dylan's first album didn't appear until March of that year. My guess is that they were just being creative.

 

[Ferocitus]

Stan Lee and Mike Ditko created Spiderman in 1962, pretty early in the 60s for them to be high. Now, they were in NYC and if they were into the folk music scene, maybe. But Bob Dylan's first album didn't appear until March of that year. My guess is that they were just being creative.

Hmmmm. Cab Calloway, Fats Waller and others were recording songs about "Vipers"
at least as early as 1930. (Not that I think Stan Lee was high when creatng
Spiderman.)

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

TIL about the concept of fake jobs. Big thing in Europe, apparently. Their version of the unpaid internship.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

TIL about the concept of fake jobs. Big thing in Europe, apparently. Their version of the unpaid internship.

The US began enforcing regulations against this under Obama. The Obama administration wasn't forceful enough but it was a start. I assume Trump has stopped that effort.

 

[Synobun]

I don't understand how that works with a single human facilitator. It can't possibly offer much training if it's reliant on a single overseer to determine the fake conditions of the job. Has anyone here participated in one of these?

 

[Kyriakos]

TIL about the complete outrage over the Overwatch game "t-bagging" scandal.

Though, as the guy in the video says, this player even uses a female avatar in-game, so it makes even less sence

 

[Birdjaguar]

Ah yes, more meaningless outrage.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

This is the age of outrage.

 

[Commodore]

Well, the Defense Department does respond to natural disasters,

Yes, they do, but their role in disaster relief efforts is a support role. You know, things like setting up supply chains for delivery and distribution of aid and assisting local law enforcement in maintaining public order, but the leadership role in disaster relief efforts is taken by state and federal agencies that are specifically geared towards disaster relief.

I mean, that's exactly what it is. It is suggesting that spending massive amounts of money ostensibly to protect us from "terrorism" is a massive misuse of resources considering that Americans are far more threatened by heat waves (and, like, hundreds or thousands of other things) than terrorists.

And it would be an excellent point if the DoD specifically stated that the entire $675 billion they just got would only go to fighting terrorism. However, terrorism is not the only threat the DoD is trying to protect US citizens from. Hell, it's not even the biggest in terms of what we are spending our money on. A lot of that money goes towards ensuring we maintain the technological edge over any potential rivals so initiating an open war with the US will still be seen as "unthinkable" for the foreseeable future. The lion's share of that budget though really goes towards basic things for the military like ensuring the soldiers get paid on time, their medical benefits (gotta love that Tricare), food, uniforms, etc. In fact, here are the ten basic objectives the DoD states it wants to achieve with its budget and there is no mention of terrorism at all in those objectives:

Increase manning levels for all four branches from 1.314 million in 2018 to 1.338 million.

A 2.6 percent pay raise for military personnel. It brings total compensation to $61,700 for enlisted personnel and $113,500 for officers. Those figures include tax-free allowances for food and housing.

Continuing the Missile Defeat and Defense Enhancement initiative.

Increase procurement of preferred and advanced munitions.

Modernize equipment for the second Army Armored Brigade Combat Team.

Buy 10 combat ships.

Increase production of the F-35 and F/A-18 aircraft. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program cost $400 billion for 2,457 planes, mostly for development and testing.

Modernize the nuclear triad to enhance deterrence.

Enhance communications in space.

Increase the use of technology innovation.

Of course if we do go with the terrorism angle one could make the argument that the fact that so few Americans are killed by terrorism shows that the money we give to the DoD is money well spent since they are clearly doing their jobs.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Yes, they do, but their role in disaster relief efforts is a support role. You know, things like setting up supply chains for delivery and distribution of aid and assisting local law enforcement in maintaining public order, but the leadership role in disaster relief efforts is taken by state and federal agencies that are specifically geared towards disaster relief.

Yep, I think their medical and engineering units have done a lot of work during disasters, too, and of course the National Guard provides a lot of personnel to do things like stack sandbags and knock on doors.

And it would be an excellent point if the DoD specifically stated that the entire $675 billion they just got would only go to fighting terrorism.

That's quite a jump you made there. Can I start calling you Evel Knievel?

Anyway, I simply don't believe that our national security would be critically compromised by forcing the Navy to make do with only 17 next-generation attack subs*. And, really, if the government went to Frigidaire with $2.5 billion, they'd get a lot more than 13.5 million in-window A/C units. Heck, buying every household in the U.S. (just over 117 million, according to the Census Bureau) an in-window A/C unit would cost about $23.5 billion at retail, less than 3.5% of the $675b you cited. Defense News quotes a report published by The Stimson Center that found the United States spent an average of $186.6 billion per year on counter-terrorism from 2002 to 2017, and that DoD spending accounted for 60% of the total.


* I couldn't think of a single expenditure specific to the war on terrorism to use as an illustrative example. The big-ticket items tend to be related to power projection and deterrence, but money is fungible.

 

[Ferocitus]

* I couldn't think of a single expenditure specific to the war on terrorism to use as an illustrative example.

Rubber gloves for people doing cavity searches at airports?
The stuff they're made from doesn't grow on trees you know.