Pentagon: climate change threatens global security

Today, bad news (in the sense that bad things are coming; good news that we are recognizing it). Excerpts from a Washington Post article:

Sweeping assessments released Thursday (10/21/2021) by the White House, the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon conclude that climate change will exacerbate long-standing threats to global security.

“Climate change is altering the strategic landscape and shaping the security environment, posing complex threats to the United States and nations around the world,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Drought and other extreme weather can spark conflicts and force population displacements… one report that estimates that by 2050, up to 143 million people in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia could move for climate-driven reasons.

Geopolitical tensions are likely to rise in the coming decades as countries struggle to deal with the physical effects of climate change — which scientists say already is producing more devastating floods, fires and storms.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/intelligence-pentagon-climate-change-warnings/2021/10/21/ea3a2c84-31d3-11ec-a1e5-07223c50280a_story.html

Loonies (Canadian kind)

A loon appears on Canada’s one-dollar coin because the original dies, featuring a different design, were lost in transit. (Is this any way to design currency?)

When Canada decided to replace one-dollar bills with one-dollar coins, the 1935 Emanuel Hahn “voyageur” design was adapted for the new coin, but something went awry — the master dies of the new one-dollar coin were lost in transit.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-loon-way-home/

John Oliver takes on The Da Vinci Code

I read The Da Vinci Code and hated the writing. Pedestrian at best, convoluted and clumsy at worst. John Oliver didn’t like it either:

None of this success would really bother me that much if it were not for the fact that the cryptic at the heart of The Da Vinci Code, the puzzle (that) art throb Robert Langdon has to solve involves a poem that begins,
“In London lies a knight a pope interred
His labor’s fruit a holy wrath incurred.”
Now we quickly find out the knight in question is Sir Isaac Newton. So Isaac Newton, labor’s fruit, you’re thinking apple, right? Apple. It’s your first guess and it’s also your only guess and you’re right because it’s fucking apple. No one should need Robert Langdon — a Harvard educated puzzle solver who fucks — to get to the bottom of this. A child could solve that puzzle. And yet the poem continues:
“You seek the orb that ought be on the tomb
it speaks of rosy flesh and seeded womb.”
So orb, rosy flesh, seeds. It’s fucking apple, is it. It’s apple. Guess how many pages there are between that poem and the solution to the puzzle. I’ll give you a clue. It’s a lot more than one. Both the book and the movie make it seem like only the brilliant Robert Langdon could possibly decode the mystery behind those complex words. Here is the scene in the movie version where he explains the solution like he’s Indiana Jones finding the Ark of the fucking Covenant to a speechless and awestruck Amelie:
(Langdon): “There was every orb conceivable on that tomb except one. The orb which fell from the heavens and inspired Newton’s life’s work. Work that incurred the wrath of the church until his dying day. A-P-P-L-E. Apple.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX5IV9n223M. 8 min 46 seconds.

Here’s an example from the book:

It takes 830 words — two pages — for everyone to understand that the Super Duper Extra Special Secret Encoding is… it’s mirror writing:

Why battery costs have plunged

The average cost of lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars and other products fell by 6 percent (adjusted for inflation) since last year. Since 2010, these costs have declined by an amazing 89 percent.
…Until recently, the high cost of batteries made battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) much more expensive than conventional gasoline-powered cars. But when batteries cost less than $100 per kWh, unsubsidized BEVs will start to be cheaper than conventional cars. At that point, BEVs could start to rapidly gain market share from conventional cars.

Why this has happened, does demand make prices go up or down, upcoming battery technologies, and related points:

https://fullstackeconomics.com/untitled-2/