matt, Author at Peak Geek - Page 38 of 114

In this video, Wil Wheaton offers some of the best advice I’ve heard for kids who are being called nerds or otherwise made fun of at school. The video itself is a bit old but worth watching for any kid going through this at school. Perhaps the best quote:

“When a person makes fun of you, when a person is cruel to you, it has nothing to do with you. It’s not about what you said. It’s not about what you did. It’s not about what you love. It’s about them feeling bad about themselves.”

Wil recently commented on this video on his website, including some quotes from the parents of the kid who asked him this question.

Continue reading “What to tell your kids when others call them a nerd” →

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a new report concluding that climate change is already having a big impact on agriculture, human health, and water supplies, and are warning that these effects will get more severe over time. The IPCC warns that governments and businesses need to take action immediately against these growing risks, though I fear that even the business-friendly GOP will be more focused on short term profits and gains than long term sustainability.

This is a follow-up to a report last year saying humans are to blame for global warming. You can read more at the New York Times.

The International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s whaling program in the Antarctic is not for scientific purposes, and has revoked all permits previously given for that. Japan has stated that they will abide by the ruling, though I remain skeptical that this means the whaling ships will not return to the southern seas next winter. But, it’s a great step in increasing protection for whales worldwide. Thanks, Australia, for standing up to Japan’s illegal actions and helping to bring this case to court! Also thanks to Sea Shepherd for minimizing Japan’s effectiveness in whaling while this court case dragged out.

Concerns over the fragility of the US’ electrical grid were only reinforced when the Wall Street Journal published this report detailing out our power grid could be knocked out by someone taking out out nine key electric-transmission substations (there are 55,000 total in this country) and also one transformer manufacturer (to delay reconstruction). It wouldn’t just be a minor disruption either…it would take an estimated eighteen months to restore functionality. Our substations are hardly secure either, protected mostly by fences and cameras. Proof of that came last year when someone used rifles to knock out 17 transformers in a San Jose substation; they never were caught. Kinda amazing that all our technology could be wiped out so easily, plunging us into, well, it’s hard to say what would happen…certainly not as bad as the TV show Revolution, but easily an economic depression of unprecedented magnitude. Your neighbors with grid-tied solar would be equally out of luck – those systems only provide power when the grid itself is energized.

You can read more about this in the WSJ link (paywall!) or at Treehugger.

A new study by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center argues that a combination of socio-economic stratification (haves vs. have-nots) and resource consumption are likely to lead to the collapse of our civilization. Other studies (like this and this) have come to the same conclusion, putting the timeline in the 15 year range. Can we avoid this? The SESYNC‘s study states that,

Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion.

Given how our current society is doing the exact opposite, forgive me if I’m a bit pessimistic…

You can read more about this latest study here.

Author: matt

What to tell your kids when others call them a nerd

UN issues more warnings on climate change…will the US listen?

Good news for whales

The fragility of our electrical grid

Is our civilization doomed?