perestroika

what the hell are we going to do?

In the very long term, stop climate change.

In the long term - dig in and design heat shelters, most likely. Because it's cooler underground and heat waves will pass. When a bad one comes, people would stop working and find shelter from it. One can even accumulate cold in a thermal store during cool periods and distribute the cooling effect to premises during heat waves.

In the short term - those who can (there will be an equality and access problem) and those who must (who cannot stop working) would install air conditioners and similar stuff.

Edit: why are you on a breadtube community if you don’t like to watch hour long videos?

Actually, I'm not in the Breadtube community, I'm just a user of the "slrpnk.net" Lemmy server. Thus, I noticed the video on my feed, and as I explained above, it caught my attention because the title claimed to have "debunked" something that I was familiar with and had found useful.

Btw: Here’s the explanation why eugenics doesn’t work in the video

Thank you, but you don't need to explain me why eugenics was a bad idea. :) I understand that.

Ever heard of hbomberguy, or Contrapoints?

Nope, never heard about them.

I'm aware of what eugenics is / was, along with some other curious things that preceded (e.g. phrenology). I would say: a branch of science is likely to deserve the prefix "pseudo" if it has a single-minded goal to improve before understanding. Eugenics was such a doctrine.

Hypothetically, after gaining actual understanding of what genes are "good" or "bad" (quotation marks since "good" genes are only good in a given environment together with compatible other genes), eugenics might rise from the dead, but likely under another name and with a different character - since the original name has a ruined reputation and the original character was one of repression / discrimination. Indeed, maybe the resurrection has already happened, and the name is medical genetics - finding genetic patterns of risk and ways to avoid risk or fix results (apply gene therapy).

I find it extremely unlikely that either evolutionary psychology, behavioural ecology or game theory would end up in the rubbish bin where eugenics went, because the premises of these studies seem quite strong.

I could say "evolutionary psychology is useless" but then I'd have to prove that: a) humans haven't participated in evolution or b) evolution cannot produce psychological traits or c) psychological traits cannot have evolutionary value or generally aren't worth study. I cannot prove that, so the foundation seems solid. Applicability - well, that is another question. I find the greatest applicability in explaining animal psychology, because you cannot ask animals why they do things.

I could say "behavioural ecology is useless", but then I'd have to prove that either: a) behaviour has no part in ecological interactions or b) behaviour has no patterns worthy of study or c) ecological relations have no patterns worthy of study. I cannot.

I could say "game theory is useless", but then I would have to prove that rational agents don't use strategic calculations, or there are no rational agents, or that strategy is not worthy of study. I can't - instead I find it extremely useful.

The title caught my eye because I learnt evolutionary psychology + behavioural ecology + game theory in a combined course, in university, back in the days.

I don't think any of them can be debunked, they are solid methods for studying why an agent behaves in some way. The study could be done poorly, the studied behaviour might be adequate for the current environment, or detrimental since the environment has changed. The agent could be anything from amoebas to people (but also an algorithm, company, state or alliance). You can use an evolutionary perspective if it has faced evolution - copying, mutation and selection. Just to introduce the toolkit:

Evolutionary psychology:

"seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolved to solve"

Behavioural ecology:

"is the study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures"

Game theory:

"is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents"

I think the video is needlessly long. The author (I don't know their name, just their YouTube handle "münecat") gets to the essential point fairly early:

"...and this is being communicated to a public who don't know how to engage it critically. Political pundits will use small, convenient sections of it as a weapon of truth, as others will use sections of it as a misleading marketing tactic..."

...and that's about it. People aren't prepared to use scientific methods. Just like you get social darwinism if you introduce a person with strong prejudices and weak scientific habits to the concept of evolution, we seem to have various silly approaches to evolutionary psychology floating around. I have noticed these on my own, and noted that they mostly float in a field that I would call "popular explanations to gender relations" - because sex sells.

In adequate hands, all three methods have considerable analytical value, however. You can use them to understand seemingly irrational actions, find hidden variables and build better models to predict how animals, people and organizations interact. Ultimately, you can use these tools to prevent people from doing stupid things - either by making them aware of the typical pitfalls, or by designing environments which don't have the pits to fall into. :)

I don't even want to imagine 50 C. In sauna, it's dry and you manage 30 minutes by sweating. But living in a sauna sounds bloody awful.

Also, almost anyone with a med / bio background will say - emergency rooms will be full at 50 C, and morgues will be crowded a few days after the event. :(

Also, seaweed is at the bottom of the food chain -> lots of biomass supported by the ecosystem, less chance of accumulating anything toxic.

"Europe produces 0,2% of algae in the world," he said. "But we import 500 million worth of algae every year.

Yup. I like seaweed, but most of the seaweed I like comes from Asia. Transporting it from far is not a smart move.

The transfer to electricity could be done by using the heated mass to heat a hot pumped liquid or using transfer rods made of a solid material with a high heat transfer coefficient.

Alternatively, heat can be extracted by pumping liquid metal (sodium, tin, low-temperature eutectic alloys) in a pipework of copper (if there is chemical compatibility with copper). But handling liquid metal with a magnetic pump isn't typically done on the DIY tech level.

To be honest, I tried a fair number of experiments on the subject, including low-temperature Stirling motors. They're difficult to build well. I would recommend plain old steam turbine. Steam means pressure, pressure means precautions (risk of bursting, risk of getting burned), but modern approaches to boilers try to minimize the amount of water in the system, so it couldn't flash to steam and explode.

I have superficially researched both options (with the conclusion that I cannot use either, since my installation would be too small, and would suffer from severe heat loss due to an unfavourable volume-to-surface ratio - it makes sense to design thermal stores for a city or neighbourhood, not a household).

I'd add a few notes:

1. A thermal store using silicate sand is not limited by the melting point of the sand, but the structural strength of the materials holding the sand. You can count on stainless steel up to approximately 600 C, more if you design with reserve strength and good understanding of thermal expansion/contraction. Definitely don't count on anything above 1000 C or forget the word "cheap". I have read about some folks designing a super-hot thermal store, but they plan to heat graphite (self-supporting solid material) in an inert gas environment.

2. Heat loss intensifies with higher temperatures, and the primary type of heat loss becomes radiative loss. Basically, stuff starts glowing. For example, the thermal conductivity of stone wool can be 0.04 W / mK at 10 C, and 0.18 W / mK at 600 C.

3. Water can be kept liquid beyond 100 C. The most recent thermal stores in Finland are about 100 meters below surface, where the pressure of the liquid column allows heating water to 140 C.

4. However, any plan of co-generation (making some electricity while extracting the stored heat) requires solid materials and high temperatures.

True, but toppling over can leave them intact. One of my foolish neigbours didn't anchor his panel carriers properly and thought a thick fir hedge would protect them enough. A storm from unexpected direction threw four panel carriers (9 panels each) face down and severed the cables, so everything had to be disconnected and there was a safety risk (but not during night). I helped with the recovery work and not a single panel was broken.

...and that is why I no longer mount any solar panels horizontally. Not a chance in hell of withstanding that, and one of such storms hit within 150 kilometers last year. Within 30 years, I bet I'll experience this effect.

Meanwhile, vertical panels can be up-armored (e.g. wooden beam running on top) to withstand such events.

Yuri is formal, Yura is a diminutive/familiar form of the same name - for friends and family. They're interchangeable.

It's sad that they got caught. Never plan delicate things over the phone, especially in a repressive country on war footing (I think that in Russia they record absolutely every phone call, down to the last consonant). Apps aren't safe if the device isn't safe, so apps aren't for planning either - they're for chat and establishing initial contact before switching to a more secure method, or following the activity of publicly known folks who presumably take great care.

I've never lived in such a country, but regardless, when I still was a bad anarchist (TM), I left my phone home when going to meetings, and a friendly organizer went around with a bucket before any talk occurred - to gather the phones of those who carried them, and take them to another room.