Unattended Baggage Episode #171: Civilization? I’ll stay right here
Unattended Baggage Show Notes
11/5/2022
Alex gets pissed over Mike’s LP politics, Adrian revisits Fallout 3, the self-fulfilling prophecy of doomsayer politics, scientists can’t figure out AI, filtering hyperbole out of the Mississippi River, 10,000 Chinese monkeys invade Florida, weed could be 100% legal in majority of states next week, and will war between Iran and Saudi Arabia wag the dog or eat it?
Hour 1: https://unattendedbaggage.podbean.com/e/episode-171-civilization-i-ll-stay-right-here/
Hour 1: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-171-hour-74272277
Hour 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-171-hour-74272284
Seeing effectiveness of MAGA prophecies of doom if other side wins, Dems jump on the apocalyptic rhetoric bandwagon
Biden warns 'dark forces that thirst for power' could prevail in midterms
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11383749/Biden-links-attack-Paul-Pelosi-Trump-Big-Lie.html
Obama says democracy ‘may not survive’ in Arizona if Republicans win
Michael Beschloss Says GOP Victory in Midterms Will Mean ‘Our Children Will Be Arrested and Conceivably Killed’
DeSantis is god campaign commercial
![Twitter avatar for @bennyjohnson](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bennyjohnson.jpg)
Humans may ‘evolve’ to have deformed bodies, second eyelid from overusing technology
https://studyfinds.org/humans-deformed-bodies-technology/
Watching Facebook Burn
https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k8mwq/watching-facebook-burn
Epic rant by Bo Burnham on the “Attention Colonization”
Skynet/Matrix is closer than you think
Man vs. Machine: AI narrowly beats out human scholar in test of scientific skill
https://studyfinds.org/man-vs-machine-ai-beats-human/
Scientists Increasingly Can’t Explain How AI Works
https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pezm/scientists-increasingly-cant-explain-how-ai-works
University of Louisville Paper: https://philarchive.org/archive/YAMUAI
“In this paper, we describe two complementary impossibility results (Unexplainability and Incomprehensibility), essentially showing that advanced AIs would not be able to accurately explain some of their decisions and for the decisions they could explain, people would not understand some of those explanations.”
Don’t tease me…
Hedge fund giant Elliott warns looming hyperinflation could lead to ‘global societal collapse’
Putting Climate Change in perspective…again. The difference between a cataclysm and a slight trend.
As Drought Drops Water Level in the Mississippi, Shipwrecks Surface and Worries Rise
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/us/mississippi-river-drought.html
1988 Levels: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/70/9/1520-0477_1989_070_1092_tdbad_2_0_co_2.xml
“The drought of 1988 rated as one of the nation's worst in the past 100 years, resulting in a myriad of impacts and responses. A notable, largely unexpected impact involved stoppages of barge traffic on the lower Mississippi River during June and July, a result of shallow areas produced by record low flows and shoaling. The barge industry hauls 45% of all bulk commodities (grains, coal, petroleum) shipped in the central United States. The low flows were a result of the unusually large areal extent of drought conditions across most of the Mississippi Basin, which comprises 40% of the continental United States. Most 1987 months had been relatively warm and dry, minimizing moisture in the soils and shallow ground water. Then deficient snowmelt (due to low winter snowfalls) and record low spring 1988 precipitation combined to produce the record low flows along much of the Mississippi River.”
1930’s Levels: https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/0680/report.pdf
“Serious effects of the drought were experienced in 1931 in the upper Mississippi between the mouth of the Illinois and St. Paul and Minneapolis. The storage reservoirs on the headwaters of this stream were depleted by the preceding
deficient run-off, and their supply was completely exhausted at the end of 1930. The storage recovered in the winter and spring of 1931 was too small to be utilized in increasing the low-water flow below St. Paul. New low-water stages were
attained, and the navigation depth was reduced to as little as 4 feet...It would be extremely difficult to evaluate the additional expenditures necessitated by the low-water conditions during the season of 1934, although it is
certain that there was some increased dredging necessary in maintaining project depths in the affected region. The low water was particularly felt in the movement of traffic on the upper Mississippi River, as it made it impossible to maintain
the project depth of 6 feet at Horse Island…”
More history from a 1989 University of Arizona study: https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/302684/ltrr-0046.pdf
“Using the total area in drought as a measure of severity, they found the driest three -year periods to be 1934 -1936, 1845 -1847, 1863 -1865, 1755 -1757 and 1734 -1736. The most severe drought year occurred in 1934, followed closely by 1847 and 1757. The longest sustained period of dry weather was from 1729 to the early 1740's.”
China brings Wuhan to Florida, plays nice on nukes
Reported Chinese land buy in Florida for primate testing won't end well, expert warns
China Warns Russia Over Nuclear War Threats
https://anordtal.com/china-warns-russia-over-nuclear-war-threats/
Legal recreational weed in the majority of US states next week?
Five states will vote next week on initiatives that would legalize recreational marijuana – 21 currently allow
https://rollcall.com/2022/11/02/biden-ponders-marijuana-moves-as-states-forge-ahead/
American voters lie to themselves once again
Over half of Americans believe that both Democrats and Republicans do such a poor job that a third major party is needed
New front potentially opening in WW3 between one overt and one covert US enemy
Officials: Saudis tell US that Iran may attack the kingdom
Or maybe it’s an Iranian ploy to quell civil unrest…
Or maybe it’s a Saudi ploy to improve ties with US, or decrease oil production…
Or maybe it’s a US ploy to make Saudis sell us cheap oil in exchange for military support…
Or maybe it’s just the two toughest kids on the block…sooner or later they’re gonna fight.
Zelensky hails UN nuclear investigation result; UK says Russia likely shooting its retreating soldiers
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/04/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html
Seoul scrambles stealth jets after detecting 180 North Korea warplanes
So many angles at this point
Accused Paul Pelosi attacker David DePape was on ‘suicide mission,’ targeting other top politicians: San Francisco DA
Capitol Police cameras caught break-in at Pelosi home, but no one was watching
LP Drama
Libertarian candidate ends Arizona Senate bid, endorses GOP’s Blake Masters
Arizona judge orders armed election monitors to stay 250 feet from drop boxes after voters said they felt intimidated by their