goltz20707

goltz20707 t1_jeh4fne wrote

I’ve used that in HTTP-speaking apps in code branches that should only be reached in catastrophic edge cases. If your browser reports that the app says it’s a teapot, something has gone very wrong.

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goltz20707 t1_j8phszf wrote

I see a number of comments here like, “sea levels are going to rise X feet, but I’m Y feet above sea level, so I’m fine.”

No. No, you’re not.

Remember how, not that long ago, all the closures and disruption from COVID-19 totally screwed up the supply chain? Well, the vast majority of the nation’s commerce, and that of other nations, flows through oceanside ports, ports that will be largely unusable for a good period of time once the seas rise. Probably for decades, even if we start adapting them now.

Oil, LPG, JP-1, imports from China, exports, everything non-domestic that doesn’t come from or go to Canada or Mexico, all of it flows through oceanside ports, many of which will be shut down or impaired.

And, just like there are many major cities near the ocean, there are many major airports. Inland airports will still be functional (although see above re: JP-1), but our air traffic control system is largely at capacity now. Diverting all the flights from JFK, Miami, etc. to other airports is going to create the mother of all air traffic jams.

And except for digital traffic, air and water transport is all there is for intercontinental commerce. (I suppose we could use suborbital rockets, but that doesn’t scale well.)

The upshot is, once the sea levels rise—and it’s a when, not an if—take COVID levels of disruption and multiply them by 20. At minimum.

This is on track to happen within 10 years.

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goltz20707 t1_ishbsqj wrote

I guess what I meant is that a protein-proton motor that uses things like van del Waals forces and molecular mechanical mechanisms to create motion cannot work at the visible scale. I agree that complexity is no barrier for evolution—look at clotting factor chemistry—but I can’t imagine an incremental path to “wheels”. (I will admit it may be possible.)

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goltz20707 t1_isgjupk wrote

Protista “motors” are constructed at the molecular level, with (in the case of human sperm) 16 proteins in a ring. One proton per protein rotates the ring by one protein, so 256 protons are required per rotation. Scaling that up to the macroscopic level, even just to the size of a small insect, would require a very complex design. I can’t see such a design evolving naturally — it would take deliberate “intelligent design”.

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