Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Happy Humanist Day!

The Cuddly One says it’s OK for me to blaspheme his imaginary god.

Members of the Religion of Peace murder another human being in the name of their imaginary god.

How Christian nationalism is going under the radar in this election.

What secularists want from the next UK Government.

U.S. taxpayers are now funding Christian Nationalist schools.

Kari Lake is dangerous because she is religiously nuts.

Christian university faces class action lawsuit for lying about tuition costs.

What ‘praying judge’ Alito gets fundamentally wrong about faith and the First Amendment.

Louisiana orders every classroom to display Ten Commandments.

Thou shalt not indoctrinate.

World of Woo: I’m a rational anti-medicine nut.

Environment:  Is Earth really getting too hot for people to survive?

The origins of cumulative culture in human evolution.

Decoding the human brain.

Our view of reality is ever changing.

Test shows that people cannot distinguish ChatGPT from a human in a conversation. See also second video below.

Long Reads:  Magic at the Horizon.  Recycling plastic is not a great idea. What is intelligent life? Moral progress is annoying. Arizona is sending taxpayer money to religious schools — and billionaires see it as a model for the US.

Sunday Book Club: Third Millennium Thinking.

Some photographs taken last month.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Videos:  Why I don’t trust the Bible. Is the Intelligence-Explosion close? A Reality Check.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Moral progress is annoying.

The article seems to say that we find new norms odd, and therefore stupid, and therefore wrong, like the norms of foreigners (those swine).  That sounds very plausible.

Our norms coordinate our group.  A person from a distant area can know how to do things with me.  If we change norms, we won’t know how to coordinate.

[UnseenParticipant]

As for the world getting too hot for people to survive, Portland, OR, where I live is expecting three record-breaking days Fri-Sun with temps in the 100-103 range, breaking the old records by several degrees each day. I think it was two summers ago when Portland registered a 116f degree temperature, more than 10 degrees higher than Phoenix and Las Vegas on that day.

Temps are rising, and not slowly.

Time to panic. But…Trump thinks (0r says he thinks) climate change is a “Chinese hoax.”

[_Robert_Participant]

Yeah, old folks in urban apartments are particularly at risk for heat stroke as all that concrete absorbs and reradiates the heat in the evenings. Many don’t have air conditioning. Miserable.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

My brother has gone to Long Island for the week as it is only 86f with a breeze rather than 98f in Atlanta and very humid.  At the moment in Dublin (7PM) it is a cool 51f after a very windy day. Perfect for an evening run.

[UnseenParticipant]

_Robert_ wrote:

Yeah, old folks in urban apartments are particularly at risk for heat stroke as all that concrete absorbs and reradiates the heat in the evenings. Many don’t have air conditioning. Miserable.

I’m 77, live downtown in a brick apartment building, and like many in Portland don’t have A/C because (at least in the past) you’d only really feel a need for it several weeks in the summer. But things are getting hotter.

I have four fans, five counting the ceiling fan. However, I’m screwed if the electricity goes out.

[_Robert_Participant]

When the main house AC goes out or when we are on generator power, I use those portable AC’s that sell for less than $300, sit on your floor and use a dryer vent hose and an adjustable window bracket to get the hot air out. I set them on blocks of wood and put a drain tray under the drip sprocket. Otherwise, I’d have to fly to Ireland.

[_Robert_Participant]

Just search portable air conditioner in Amazon to see them because links don’t work.

[UnseenParticipant]

_Robert_ wrote:

Just search portable air conditioner in Amazon to see them because links don’t work.

I have a small apartment with two windows. One I don’t want to give up to an A/C unit for practical reasons and I feed birds at the other one.

[_Robert_Participant]

Unseen wrote:

_Robert_ wrote:

Just search portable air conditioner in Amazon to see them because links don’t work.

I have a small apartment with two windows. One I don’t want to give up to an A/C unit for practical reasons and I feed birds at the other one.

They don’t mount to a window. Just roll it near a window when you need them. The vent just sits on the sill, and you close the window down on it. Takes me about 8 minutes to get one going. Even if I had to suffer two hot days a year, I swear I’d get one.

[UnseenParticipant]

@ Robert

It’s not like I never considered or explored the solution you offered.

You still use the window which has to be closed shut. That loses the window as far as I’m concerned. A further complication is that units in my building have windows that swing on side hinges. They don’t slide up and down. So a normal in-window installation is impossible and a portable is the only option.

Only, it’s not much of an option.

One of the two windows has a long work table under it, with file drawers under the table (it’s not used for work). There’s no place to put it if I move it out, at least not without rearranging everything in a less than ideal way.

As for the other window, it’s dedicated to feeding the birds which provide entertainment for my cat, and then there’s the hinge problem.

I will just have to suffer through a few hot days. Besides, I have more urgent things to spend $300 on. I’m low-income and have to watch my spending.

[Author]

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