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Celerity

Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
July 30, 2021

THE EXPLOITED - Jesus Is Dead EP



Rough Justice - 12 KORE 102
Format:
Vinyl , 12 ", EP
Country:
UK
Published:
1986
Gender:
Rock
Style:
Punk









July 30, 2021

Three Americans create enough carbon emissions to kill one person, study finds

The analysis draws on public health studies that conclude that for every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 produced, one person globally will die

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/29/carbon-emissions-americans-social-cost

The lifestyles of around three average Americans will create enough planet-heating emissions to kill one person, and the emissions from a single coal-fired power plant are likely to result in more than 900 deaths, according to the first analysis to calculate the mortal cost of carbon emissions. The new research builds upon what is known as the “social cost of carbon”, a monetary figure placed upon the damage caused by each ton of carbon dioxide emissions, by assigning an expected death toll from the emissions that cause the climate crisis. The analysis draws upon several public health studies to conclude that for every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere beyond the 2020 rate of emissions, one person globally will die prematurely from the increased temperature. This additional CO2 is equivalent to the current lifetime emissions of 3.5 Americans.

Adding a further 4m metric tons above last year’s level, produced by the average US coal plant, will cost 904 lives worldwide by the end of the century, the research found. On a grander scale, eliminating planet-heating emissions by 2050 would save an expected 74 million lives around the world this century. The figures for expected deaths from the release of emissions aren’t definitive and may well be “a vast underestimate” as they only account for heat-related mortality rather than deaths from flooding, storms, crop failures and other impacts that flow from the climate crisis, according to Daniel Bressler of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, who wrote the paper. Air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels is also directly killing people, with a landmark Harvard University study published in February finding that more than 8 million globally are dying each year from the health effects of toxic air.

“There are a significant number of lives that can be saved if you pursue climate policies that are more aggressive than the business as usual scenario,” Bressler said. “I was surprised at how large the number of deaths are. There is some uncertainty over this, the number could be lower but it could also be a lot higher.” The research, published in Nature Communications, illustrates the vast disparities in the emissions generated by people’s consumption in different countries around the world. While it takes just 3.5 Americans to create enough emissions in a lifetime to kill one person, it would take 25 Brazilians or 146 Nigerians to do the same, the paper found. The social, or financial, cost of carbon has become a widely-used metric after its creation by economist William Nordhaus, who subsequently won a Nobel prize, in the 1990s. The measurement calculates the damage caused by a ton of emissions, factored with the ability to adapt to the changing climate.

Under Nordhaus’ DICE model the 2020 social cost of carbon is $37 a metric ton but Bressler’s addition of the mortality cost brings this figure up to $258 a ton. This change to the model would imply that an economically optimal policy would be to radically reduce emissions to reach full decarbonization by 2050, a scenario that has also been backed by climate scientists as one that would avoid the worst ravages of global heating. “Nordhaus came up with a fantastic model but he didn’t take in the latest literature on climate change’s damage upon mortality, there’s been an explosion of research on that topic in recent years,” said Bressler. Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at New York University who was not involved in the research, said that the social cost of carbon is a “crucial policy tool” but is also “very abstract”. “That makes attempts to translate our climate impact into more relatable terms so important,” he said, adding that the new research on the mortality cost shows the “results are certainly dramatic”.

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July 30, 2021

Dr Vin Gupta on Morning Joe: If you're a healthcare worker and refuse the vax, you should be fired,

unless you have a medical condition that precludes getting vaxxed.





July 30, 2021

Concrete house by Gort Scott hugs rocky crag in Whistler

https://www.dezeen.com/2021/07/29/the-rock-house-gort-scott-concrete-whistler/



British architecture studio Gort Scott has installed a house on a rocky outcrop in the Canadian mountain resort of Whistler, offering impressive views over Alta Lake. The Rock is a family home designed to reflect the drama of its setting. Predominantly built from concrete, it incorporates stepped levels intended to echo the experience of traversing the mountainous terrain.



Living spaces are organised around the crest of the rock, combining a mix of subterranean rooms and airy, light-filled spaces. Expansive windows offer framed views of the lake, while a series of terraces allow the family to spend plenty of time outdoors. "This journey to the crest of the rock, with its shifting horizons, has been a key driver in the layout and design of the building," explained Gort Scott co-founder Jay Gort. "Although we are placing a significant building on the site, our aim throughout has been retain this experience when walking to and through the house."



Despite being based on the other side of the world, Gort and partner Fiona Scott landed the commission for The Rock after winning an invited competition. Their design concept was based around the idea of creating harmony between contradictory characteristics, such as light and dark, and openness and enclosure. By combining this concept with the particular topography of the site, the architects were able to develop a complex internal layout organised over four storeys.



"Before placing pen to paper we spent five days on the site, absorbing its characteristics: the weather, the topography, the fauna, distant views, etc," said Gort. "This appreciation of the site has been critical to the design, siting and arrangement of the building, for example, the proposed dining area enjoys the western light over the lake and the bedrooms enjoy a particular view to a distant mountain to the east through the trees."



As you ascend through the floors, the building divides up into three distinct volumes, each with their own concrete chimney stacks and blackened timber cladding. The first two form the six-bedroom main house, while the third accommodates a separate, two-bedroom guest house. Connecting the two residences is a first floor terrace boasting an infinity pool.



































July 30, 2021

Helen & Hard hangs Woodnest treehouses from pine trees above Norwegian fjord

https://www.dezeen.com/2021/06/27/helen-hard-woodnest-treehouses-norwegian-forest-norway-architecture/



Norwegian architecture office Helen & Hard has completed a pair of shingle-clad treehouses on a hillside overlooking the Hardangerfjord. The Woodnest treehouses are situated above the town of Odda at the southern tip of Sørfjorden – one of the innermost branches of the main Hardangerfjorden.



Helen & Hard designed the two cabins in response to the topography and conditions of the site, which is on a steep, forested hillside on the edge of the fjord. The buildings are suspended around six metres above the forest floor and are attached to the trunks of two living pine trees using steel collars. This creates the feeling of living among the branches. "Stemming from the client's wish to create a unique spatial experience that connects to both the ordinary and extraordinary sensation of climbing and exploring trees, our aim was to create a space that truly embodies what it means to dwell in nature," the architecture studio explained.



The cabins are reached after a 20-minute walk up a steep, winding path that leads up from the town towards the site. Short wooden bridges extend from the hillside to the cabins' entrances. Each of the cabins has an internal floor area of just 15 square metres that incorporates sleeping areas, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living space with views out towards the fjord.



The interior spaces are arranged around the tree trunks, which form the main structural core. A series of radial glue-laminated timber ribs create an outer shell incorporating large windows. The buildings are wrapped in a protective skin made from untreated timber shingles that will weather gradually to take on a tone and patina that matches the surrounding forest.



Internal walls, ceilings, flooring and fitted furniture are all made from wood to reference the Norwegian tradition of timber construction. The extensive use of wood also enhances the sense of being surrounded by nature. Helen & Hard was founded in Stavanger, Norway, in 1996 and now has a second office in Oslo. The firm works on projects ranging in scale from private homes to large commercial schemes, cultural buildings and urban development projects.



















July 29, 2021

Olympic Women's All-around Gymnastics spoiler

Suni Lee keeps American all-around victory streak at Olympics intact

https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/news/suni-lee-keeps-american-all-around-victory-streak-intact



The teenager is the sixth U.S. woman to claim the all-around title at the Olympic Games. Suni Lee has kept the American streak alive. Coming into these Games, an American woman has won the women's gymnastics all-around title in each of the last five Olympic Games. "It feels super crazy, I definitely didn't think I would be here in this moment with a gold medal," Lee said. "I haven't really let it sink in yet because I feel like it's not real life."

She totaled 57.433 for gold, holding off Brazil's Rebeca Andrade (57.298) and ROC's Angelina Melnikova (57.199). Lee joins U.S. greats Mary Lou Retton (1984), Carly Patterson (2004), Nastia Liukin (2008), Gabby Douglas (2012) and Simone Biles (2016) as the only U.S. women to win the all-around title at the Olympic Games. Lee is the first Hmong American gymnast. Andrade's medal is the first for a South American woman in the women's all-around final. Prior to Thursday, the best finish by a Brazilian woman was Jade Barbosa's 10th place finish in 2008.

"I am very, very happy," said Andrade. "I'm very thankful to all the people who have supported me." After a disappointing Rio 2016 that found a talented Melnikova on the outside of the all-around final looking in, the 21-year-old said she had completely transformed in the five years since those Games.

"When the score came up, all my dreams came true. This time [Tokyo], I knew that I was going for a medal and I was way more confident [than Rio]," she said. "I was 16 in Rio, so this was very different." Melnikova, who was also part of the winning ROC team Tuesday, stars in the Olympic Channel original series All Around, which has chronicled her journey to gold and bronze in Tokyo 2020.

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July 29, 2021

The Antivaxxers Are Ruining It For Everyone

Something needs to happen, and soon, to save us from the rising tide of idiocrats.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/the-antivaxxers-are-ruining-it-for



WASHINGTON, DC -- I’m old enough to remember May 2021. It was the month when my second Pfizer vaccination kicked in and it seemed like we were emerging from four years of darkness -- the final year being the darkest. In particular, I was looking forward to returning to the gym, maybe a road trip to the shore for a weekend -- there was a long list of things on my post-COVID to-do list, suffice to say. It turns out, the New Roaring ‘20s ended up lasting about 20 days (give or take) before warning signs began to materialize on the horizon. Like the worst kind of coitus interruptus, it really felt like we were on the verge of escaping the disease. For a moment we tasted freedom, and now it’s being ripped out from under our feet. We were on the verge of being released from prison but at the last minute a gaggle of a-holes framed us for crimes we didn’t commit and now we’re back for another sentence. We’re being held hostage by some of the worst people in the world: chronological adults who are incapable of acting responsibly, mainly because they don’t know how to digest information or to see this as not a personal issue, but as a community one.

They’ll never grasp that getting vaccinated isn’t about them personally, it’s about the community of people around them and, more than anything else, it’s about the urgent process of collectively eradicating the virus from our lives. The antivaxxers are ruining it for everyone, and there’s no sign they’re going to change, not until it’s too late. One of their primary excuses against getting vaccinated, they say, is due to the emergency use authorization to release the vaccines to the public without the usual FDA testing process. As we all know, vaccinologists had been developing the mRNA process for years, so it’s not like the vaccines were devised and manufactured within the span of the pandemic. But what antivaxxers don’t understand is that the hospital treatments specific to COVID were also brought to market under emergency use authorizations. In other words, both the COVID vaccines and the COVID hospital treatments arrived without the usual clinical trials process.

So, if a guy refuses to get vaccinated because he stupidly believes the vaccines are unsafe, he’s likely to get COVID, landing him in a hospital where doctors will apply equally “unsafe” treatments to save his life. Only now, he has COVID, too, and he’s taking up a valuable hospital bed. He could’ve been vaccinated in the first place, like a grownup, and avoided all of it, but now he not only has the disease but he’s being treated with medicine that was just as quickly rushed to market. And if he decides to get vaccinated later, it’ll be too late. Duh. Perhaps equally as confused are the members of the kneejerk rodeo clown caucus that continues to proudly tweet in defense of “medical privacy” and “medical freedom.” Madison Cawthorn is the most recent one. Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire just signed a bill protecting medical freedom, aimed at vaccines and masking. Ironic that the anti-choice, anti-women faction is suddenly all about retaining the freedom of medical choice -- a constitutional right to privacy (except for women, trans people, etc).

At some point soon, I’m betting at least one prominent Red Hat will tweet that the Fourth Amendment guarantees a right to privacy. My money’s on Charlie Kirk. (Of course, the Fourth Amendment is the basis for the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision.) Not for nothing but the “freedom” people are making sure the rest of us will have to, once again, curtail our own freedom to stay healthy. States are reporting everything from upticks to large-scale waves of new variant cases due to antivaxxers and COVID shirkers who refuse to do the right thing -- the adult thing. These people are variant factories, pumping out new iterations of the virus around the clock, each one more powerful than the original. And until they’re snapped back to reality, we’ll never be rid of this pandemic, and I’m not feeling particularly hopeful at the moment. Something needs to happen, and soon, to save us from the rising tide of idiocrats. Not only are they killing themselves, but they’re risking the lives of the responsible ones, you and me, by manufacturing variants that can blast right through vaccine immunity. The culture war is quickly turning into germ warfare, and unless Republican leaders get their houses in order, the forthcoming winter is going to be especially chilling.

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July 29, 2021

fucking sheep

July 29, 2021

The 34 Hottest IPAs in America Right Now

Exciting collabs, one-offs, mainstays, and everything in between.

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/best-ipas-in-america



“IPAs are so hot right now!” That sentence is so 1996. And 2019. And probably 2030, if we make it that far. As long as craft beer has been a thing, IPAs have dominated, bringing drinkers in flocks to their favourite beer bars, turning naysayers into beer snobs, and sending rabid collectors across state lines. That makes picking the best IPAs quite a task, especially in the summer: The best at any given time can be mainstays, one-offs, and everything in between. To keep our bead on this ever-moving target, we’ve assembled beer experts to name what they deem to be the most attention-worthy IPAs at this very moment. We will revisit the list in the months to come to add new beers and subtract the ones lost to time, so that you always have your finger on the proverbial IPA pulse. Raise a glass. It’s a good time to be an IPA lover. It always is.

















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Profile Information

Gender: Female
Hometown: London
Home country: US/UK/Sweden
Current location: Stockholm, Sweden
Member since: Sun Jul 1, 2018, 07:25 PM
Number of posts: 43,333

About Celerity

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