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Guard Dog

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4 minutes ago, Volourn said:

Biden supports the murder of real US citizens but cries and gets butthurt over the death of fake video game characters. Lmao

He obviously didn't do enough loyalty missions.

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Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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20 minutes ago, pmp10 said:

I wonder where do you go once all corporations officially green-wash themselves to be emissions-negative.
Do we start a race of how highly negative you can get?

I think then would be about time for the matrix to emerge.

Other than that though, being carbon negative would be the standard, so then they'd have to figure out something else to rub in the eyes of the common person to obfuscate the truth that they're only green on paper not in practice.

Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. - H.L. Mencken

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We're already in a green washing race, though of course it's mostly accountancy tricks with carbon instead of dollars- especially so for countries with a carbon credit or trading scheme where you make actual money by padding your environmental credentials.

I'm sure some people will believe that MS is 'carbon neutral' in reality instead of just on paper so they can feel virtuous for buying a Surface Pro or xbox or whatever; but yeah, practically MS will be doing the carbon equivalent of licensing their tech at an extortionate rate- which coincidentally is just slightly less than their gross profit in whatever region- from an Irish subsidiary.

(To be fair to MS they are far from the worst offender)

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I wonder if their "going green" also includes their data centres, which hosts their cloud operations. Not surprised if those things consumes the output of a nuclear power plant 🤔

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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16 minutes ago, Gorth said:

I wonder if their "going green" also includes their data centres, which hosts their cloud operations. Not surprised if those things consumes the output of a nuclear power plant 🤔

That's actually where I suppose their "greens" are going to come from. I know that Facebook placed a servercenter in the north of Sweden to reduce cooling costs, but that place still uses 1TWh of power per year. Thats about 1/50'th of what all of Swedens industriest combined needs.

Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. - H.L. Mencken

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Not so much world news, more like Australian news, but the dirty laundry of a superannuation/wealth management fund named AMP deserves a lot more exposure:

 

A royal commission investigating the financial sector in Australia decided that AMP had to refund a few hundred million dollars that they had incorrectly charged people in fees (after the no service, no fee principle).

 

To steal the money back, that they had been ordered to return to the rightful owners (after AMP had stolen them in the first place), they just created a bunch of new accounts without those peoples knowledge, put their money there (effectively in AMP accounts) and... yes, charged people hefty fees for looking after their money for them.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-21/amp-fees-for-no-service-scandal-cash-repaid-in-new-accounts/11883032

 

Those not familiar with Australian Royal Commissions, it's a commission with extrajudicial powers with a mandate to investigate and correct wrongs, usually with a very specific mandate, in this case the numerous banking scandals that needed to be gotten to the bottom of.

 

A Royal Commission is effectively prosecutor, jury and judge, not bothering with all the usual red tape stuff, like needing warrants etc.

 

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“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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1 hour ago, Gorth said:

I wonder if their "going green" also includes their data centres, which hosts their cloud operations. Not surprised if those things consumes the output of a nuclear power plant 🤔

I know that's a fairly unpopular opinion amongst greens but nuclear power is a decent way to reduce the carbon footprint of power generation. :p

 

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1 minute ago, majestic said:

I know that's a fairly unpopular opinion amongst greens but nuclear power is a decent way to reduce the carbon footprint of power generation. :p

 

Personally, I think anything that isn't fossil fuel based is an improvement.

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“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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9 minutes ago, majestic said:

I know that's a fairly unpopular opinion amongst greens but nuclear power is a decent way to reduce the carbon footprint of power generation. :p

 

No kidding, seems like a no brainer to me.

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

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Yeah, so much untapped potential in humanity 😇

 

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“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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3 hours ago, Gorth said:

I wonder if their "going green" also includes their data centres, which hosts their cloud operations. Not surprised if those things consumes the output of a nuclear power plant 🤔

well as long as its powered by actual nuclear power plant they are quite green. Its most green source of energy after all...

I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I'm the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiene"

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Nuclear is nowhere near the greenest option if you count total costs. But no one ever counts total costs for environmental stuff because the economic system would collapse if you did.

IIRC the cheapest renewable energy by a country mile is using solar energy to heat homes' hot water as all it needs is some piping, sun and a dark matt background to absorb the heat.

5 hours ago, Azdeus said:

That's actually where I suppose their "greens" are going to come from. I know that Facebook placed a servercenter in the north of Sweden to reduce cooling costs, but that place still uses 1TWh of power per year. Thats about 1/50'th of what all of Swedens industriest combined needs.

Yeah, that's the accountancy trick of using the excess heat from the servers to heat homes or water or whatever; you can then claim that you're 'saving' that energy and use it to defray your other carbon costs. If you're using hydropower or another renewable type you can easily end up with a- theoretically- carbon neutral or even carbon negative footprint despite using huge amounts of energy for something that is, ultimately, a load of unnecessary wank.

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2 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Nuclear is nowhere near the greenest option if you count total costs. But no one ever counts total costs for environmental stuff because the economic system would collapse if you did.

IIRC the cheapest renewable energy by a country mile is using solar energy to heat homes' hot water as all it needs is some piping, sun and a dark matt background to absorb the heat.

Yeah, that's the accountancy trick of using the excess heat from the servers to heat homes or water or whatever; you can then claim that you're 'saving' that energy and use it to defray your other carbon costs. If you're using hydropower or another renewable type you can easily end up with a- theoretically- carbon neutral or even carbon negative footprint despite using huge amounts of energy for something that is, ultimately, a load of unnecessary wank.

Actually, I saw some information regarding Ringhals a long while back, up here in the north atleast, it's greener than solar, and as green as windpower. But then Ringhals has half the amount of emissions of an average NPP somehow, it might also be to old info to actually go on.

Actually, Facebooks servers don't capture the heat at all from what I read, though that might have changed during the years, but they are run on hydroelectric power. ;)

Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. - H.L. Mencken

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8 hours ago, Gorth said:

Not so much world news, more like Australian news, but the dirty laundry of a superannuation/wealth management fund named AMP deserves a lot more exposure:

 

A royal commission investigating the financial sector in Australia decided that AMP had to refund a few hundred million dollars that they had incorrectly charged people in fees (after the no service, no fee principle).

 

To steal the money back, that they had been ordered to return to the rightful owners (after AMP had stolen them in the first place), they just created a bunch of new accounts without those peoples knowledge, put their money there (effectively in AMP accounts) and... yes, charged people hefty fees for looking after their money for them.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-21/amp-fees-for-no-service-scandal-cash-repaid-in-new-accounts/11883032

 

Those not familiar with Australian Royal Commissions, it's a commission with extrajudicial powers with a mandate to investigate and correct wrongs, usually with a very specific mandate, in this case the numerous banking scandals that needed to be gotten to the bottom of.

 

A Royal Commission is effectively prosecutor, jury and judge, not bothering with all the usual red tape stuff, like needing warrants etc.

 

Think Wells Fargo did the whole "create secret accounts to accrue fees" thing in the U.S. some years back, and got very lightly slapped on the wrist for it as well.

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4 hours ago, Azdeus said:

Actually, I saw some information regarding Ringhals a long while back, up here in the north atleast, it's greener than solar, and as green as windpower. But then Ringhals has half the amount of emissions of an average NPP somehow, it might also be to old info to actually go on.

Actually, Facebooks servers don't capture the heat at all from what I read, though that might have changed during the years, but they are run on hydroelectric power. ;)

I wouldn't doubt it's greener than solar electricity generation, that isn't really all that green (yet) even at low latitudes due to them having a fairly short lifespan, losing a lot of energy in the conversion to electricity and needing to use rare earths and the like. The really effective use of solar is direct water heating systems- literally running water through black hose or an equivalent under sunlight- as it requires no specialist equipment or inefficient steps. Obviously cannot be used every where or every time but you save a lot and quickly when the typical hot water cylinder is 2-3kW even if it's only effective for 6 months of the year.

I don't know much about Facebook's approach, the suggestion for using captured heat to double dip on the 'greenness' came from an accountant's idea on how to game a carbon credit system most effectively. It is exactly the sort of thing I'd imagine Facebook would do though.

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The greenest thing you can do is plant trees. Plant life (most of it) metabolizes CO2. More trees = less CO2. I planted three in my back yard a few weeks ago. 

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"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

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9 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Nuclear is nowhere near the greenest option if you count total costs. But no one ever counts total costs for environmental stuff because the economic system would collapse if you did.

IIRC the cheapest renewable energy by a country mile is using solar energy to heat homes' hot water as all it needs is some piping, sun and a dark matt background to absorb the heat.

Yeah, that's the accountancy trick of using the excess heat from the servers to heat homes or water or whatever; you can then claim that you're 'saving' that energy and use it to defray your other carbon costs. If you're using hydropower or another renewable type you can easily end up with a- theoretically- carbon neutral or even carbon negative footprint despite using huge amounts of energy for something that is, ultimately, a load of unnecessary wank.

 

you somehow skipped that part where you have to dig precious metals from ground, manufacture highly toxic materials into panels and then recycle that whole thing in 10 years. But yeah, very green. total cost my arse :)

 

ah ok, you are talking just about heating, not sure how that works in winter but ok...

Edited by Chilloutman

I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I'm the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiene"

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Some 17 year old from Sweden who travels in luxury and gets her ass kissed profusely has determined, based on her many long years of climate research, that time is running out: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/greta-thunberg-says-world-leaders-are-running-out-of-time-to-tackle-climate-emergency/ar-BBZaNHg?ocid=spartanntp

Good! Thank God! I can't wait until we pass the point of no return. Then all the people like this can finally STFU and let us all dies in peace! :lol:

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"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

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21 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

Some 17 year old from Sweden who travels in luxury and gets her ass kissed profusely has determined, based on her many long years of climate research, that time is running out: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/greta-thunberg-says-world-leaders-are-running-out-of-time-to-tackle-climate-emergency/ar-BBZaNHg?ocid=spartanntp

Good! Thank God! I can't wait until we pass the point of no return. Then all the people like this can finally STFU and let us all dies in peace! :lol:

Well, she's saying the same thing as the other article you posted a few weeks back about how we're all ****ed, so :)

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Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. - H.L. Mencken

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22 hours ago, majestic said:

I know that's a fairly unpopular opinion amongst greens but nuclear power is a decent way to reduce the carbon footprint of power generation. :p

 

Russia has come up with some extremely nifty ways to utilize nuclear energy (check out their state enterprise Rosatom for more information) so there's no shame in synthesizing it with general "Green" politics, if applicable.

As someone said anything is better than fossil fuels.

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Hillary Clinton is the perfect example of someone who doesn't know when it's time to leave and keeps embarrassing themselves to stay relevant.

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44 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

Hillary Clinton is the perfect example of someone who doesn't know when it's time to leave and keeps embarrassing themselves to stay relevant.

And unfortunately I can see Trump doing the same thing once we vote his orange ass out of there, yet this one could be far nastier.

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