#post spm nonsense

[legobiwan]

So I was thinking about Luigi while commuting to this job site (which I, an older adult professional, have a habit of doing practically every day). And specifically, I was thinking about the whole Chaos Heart-Luigi-Dimentio merge wherein I am very much of the mind that the whole "soup" of Super Dimentio left Luigi with both a bit of the Chaos Heart and Dimentio within him.

I was also thinking about Luigi's penchant for magic and dimensions and how the presence of Dimentio's magic in his person (small as it might be) might amplify these tendencies. How Luigi might, with some effort, be able to conjure a dimensional door or a part of another plane or a...

Well. Imagine this. Mario and Luigi are fighting some big bad and Mario's cornered and it doesn't look good. Imagine Luigi freaking out and tapping into that latent piece of Dimentio hiding inside him.

Imagine, if you would, dear reader, the look of abject horror that crosses Mario's features when Luigi summons a very familiar, translucent box with a snap of his fingers.

[hershelwidget]

I ASK AGAIN DO YOU SEE THE VISION

YOU REALLY GOTTA HEAR ME OUT BUT I THINK IM ONTO SOMETHING HERE

[foureyedowl]

oop i didn't expect to get tagged but i quite appreciate u poking me, @kathrinesnow! aighty let's take a look at my nonsense shall we

While my overarching writing WIP is Heartache- my SPM fanfic- I'm gonna break it down a little further.

Current chapter of Volume 1 of Heartache, in which Blumiere attempts to convince his father to let him to go a festival (just so he can hang out with Timpani of course).

Go back and polish the first couple of chapters i wrote to get ready for posting some time this year.

Timeline of Volume 2 of Heartache, during which Blumiere makes a friend but also has a rough time.

Genuine art WIPs are really hard for me to determine because i tend to jump between projects or not follow through with them/ become distracted by a new idea. So I tried picking things I *know* for certain I want to finish eventually.

Hugg

Blooming Rainbow

Fluffy dog wife

Drap Niflunga

Other than that I'm working on things for other people, as well as stuff *with* other people.

I think just about everyone whom i was going to tag has already done this soooooo.....I'm encouraging everyone who wants to do this to go for it!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIP

[spewpurr]

“Now why would a regular, uninvolved citizen have a portal into the castle…?”

[socialcoldstreams]

Climate communications: Professor of Atmospheric Science decries "Promoters of Climate Anxiety"

As noted in this blog, much climate communications (especially media reporting) has gone for exaggerated hyperbole click-bait stories disconnected from the reality of climate change. A professor of atmospheric sciences comments on how incorrect climate communication is not leading to solutions but to unwarranted anxiety and desperation:

So why are all these people so anxiety-ridden and desperate? I believe it is the unconscionable exaggeration, hype, and fear-mongering of our media, special interest groups, some activist scientists, and a number of politicians. And it is unethical, ungrounded in science, and hurting the most vulnerable among us.

The Seattle Times is one of the worst offenders. I can provide a few dozen examples of fear-mongering headlines, completely adrift from the truth. Like the June story claiming heat waves will claim hundreds of lives (actually 725) for each heat wave later in century (see below). It was complete nonsense, with extreme assumptions about warming rates and assuming no one would buy an air conditioner.

Source: Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Promoters of Climate Anxiety

Climate communications has flown off the rails and is leading to dysfunction rather than to intelligent and appropriate solutions. Errors in climate communications are the subject of an going series of posts on this blog that illustrate the real world impacts of bad propaganda messaging efforts.

Standard Disclaimer Applies: How to Do Climate Communications – Never Cry Wolf

As I previously wrote

The Nature Conservancy should focus on facts of atmospheric CO2 levels rising, land and sea surface temperature anomalies, ice pack changes, ocean Ph and sea level change (IPCC Synthesis Report, Figure SPM.1) – as reported by reputable scientific bodies, but they did not. Instead they went straight for hyperbole and making untrue claims to promote fear and hysteria.

or

Stick with the facts of CO2 rising, sea level ice and temperature changes, ice mass changes or risk tuning all of us out. Shrill terminology designed to create emotional outrage and responses is a total turn off.

and

The facts are sufficient. The impacts of untrue propaganda hysteria, on the other hand, are to turn off the target completely. We have learned nothing from the parable of the boy who repeatedly cried Wolf!

The propaganda messaging methods in use are leading to public opinions that are not based in facts, logic or evidence. In the U.S. 51% of those aged 18-34 believe humanity may become extinct within 10-15 years, even though there is zero evidence to support such a conclusion. This disconnect between belief and reality risks the potential for major backlash against taking action to reduce CO2-equivalent effects on climate.

Some suggest focusing on solutions and opportunities �� instead of unrealistic, dystopian catastrophes designed primarily as click-bait – would be a more effective and positive way forward for climate communications. Instead, we get intense negativity – and falsehoods – that have led to children and adults to seek mental health treatment for induced anxiety.

Personal Notes on Climate Realism

We are taking direct actions to reduce our CO2-equivalent emissions. In late 2019, we are spending US$18,000 (before credits) to install a solar PV array that will reduce our home’s annual grid-provided electricity to net zero (likely less). Our utility generates 56% of its electricity by burning coal and 14% by burning natural gas (about half the emissions of coal). Solar PV directly cuts our portion of those GHG emissions to zero.

We are spending over $5,000 to upgrade 40 year old R-19 attic insulation (which has settled such that it is less than that) to R-49 building code standards. For an all electric house, we currently use 1/3d the amount of electricity of similar homes. We heat using locally sourced wood pellets and our home is cold most every winter day. I drive a Honda Fit averaging about 42 mpg. While spending an amount similar to a low end electric vehicle, our solar and attic upgrades will have a far greater reduction in CO2 emissions than buying an EV. About half of an EV’s lifetime CO2 emissions occur during its manufacturing and if you live where your electricity to charge your EV is generated by burning coal, your overall CO2 emissions reductions are small. While EVs will generally reduce CO2 emissions, for many they are primarily a virtue signaling device (a survey by Volvo found about 75% of purchasers said this, and selected an EV because paradoxically it “helps them to feel better about making less environmentally conscious decisions in “other areas of life.”.)

I post this at the end of each climate communications post because merely mentioning climate  results in being called a climate denier or a Nazi.

Call me a climate realist but don’t call me a denier or a Nazi.

Climate communications: Professor of Atmospheric Science decries “Promoters of Climate Anxiety” was originally published on SocialPanic

[recentnews18-blog]

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/coalitions-breathtakingly-stupid-response-to-ipcc-climate-report/

Coalition's breathtakingly stupid response to IPCC climate report

It wasn’t too hard to predict what the Coalition government’s responses to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report would be – you just needed to know where they would be making them.

Prime minister Scott Morrison chose two different media forums to espouse his views – that of far Right shock-jock Alan Jones on Radio 2GB, and Sky News, where the lunar right have been gearing up for this event for the past week.

As ABC’s Media Watch host Paul Barry noted of the Sky News “after dark” coverage on Monday: It’s either irresponsible or “bat-shit” crazy. You could categorise the Coalition government’s response along the same lines.

Morrison’s first response, as we reported on Monday, was to promise that Australia would be spending no money on climate change conferences and “all that nonsense.”

He doesn’t dare pull Australia out of the Paris treaty, but he has no intention of doing anything while it’s there. Pretty much Australia’s standard response to international efforts for the last few decades.

“We are not held to any of the (IPCC recommendations), and nor are we bound by them,” Morrison insisted. In short, Morrison was backing miners over scientists, as the Sydney Morning Herald headlined.

In the fantasy world of the Coalition, according to deputy prime minister Michael McCormack, Australia can have its cake and it eat too: He says Australia can keep on burning coal for decades, and encourage others to do so, and still have a tourism industry on the Great Barrier Reef.

McCormack says Australia will not be dictated to by “some sort of report.”

Some sort of report?

The IPCC report is an opportunity to inspire some sort of rational and considered debate. It was timed, quite deliberately, to coincide with the deadline for the rules of the Paris climate treaty to be finalised, and to encourage the world to do more than their down-payment promises made in Paris, as they had agreed.

Any hope that considered debate would emerge would follow was quickly lost.

Treasurer and former energy minister Josh Frydenberg, ditching his pretence of being a moderate, declared: “If we take coal out of our energy system, the lights will go out on the east coast of Australia – it’s as simple as that.”

If you did it all at once, with no planning, then of course. But no one is suggesting that. If you manage the exit, then no, the lights don’t need to go out.

Current energy minister Angus Taylor, the anti-wind campaigner who says there is already too much wind and solar in the grid, did not take kindly to the IPCC’s recommended global renewable energy share of 75-80 per cent by 2050.

Taylor even tried to convince himself that Australia would meet its Paris target, despite the government’s own data which suggests it will miss it by about one billion tonnes on current trajectories.

He and Morrison congratulated Australia for meeting Kyoto, saying it was one of the only countries to meet its targets (the first stage of which allowed for a significant increase, rather than a fall, in Australia’s emissions. That’s not something to boast about).

And even when ministers were not talking to Murdoch media, the outcome was not much better.

In a complete train wreck of an interview, new environment minister Melissa Price – the former mining industry lawyer who is responsible for managing Australia’s emissions – admitted on ABC Radio’s AM program she had not read the whole IPCC report.

Still, she obviously felt she had read enough to suggest its 91 editors and authors had “drawn a long bow,” and insisted that Australia would meet its Paris targets.

please take 5 mins to listen to environment minister @Melissa4Durack‘s car-crash of an interview this morning.

apparently IPCC scientists are drawing a long bow, but the gov’t is going to take a look at the report & has a plan to “build” a billion trees.https://t.co/2ysF24QsuR

— simon holmes à court (@simonahac) October 9, 2018

Asked how, Price then cited the nearly depleted Emissions Reduction Fund, and two institutions that the Coalition has tried to scrap – the Clean Energy Finance Corp and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency – along with the government’s “investment in Snowy 2.0”. And something about “building” one billion trees.

Sure, the CEFC and ARENA are playing an important and welcome role in helping the energy sector reduce emissions to its pro-rata share of the pie. And Snowy 2.0, if it does go ahead, might do a very good job of using coal generation to push water up hill, if the renewables mix does not increase.

But none of Price’s examples explains, remotely, how the government intends to meet an economy-wide 26-28 per cent reduction in emissions, let alone a more ambitious target to play its share of a 2°C scenario, let alone a 1.5°Ç scenarios

Asked about the IPCC’s recommendation that coal be phased out by 2050, Price said: “I just don’t know how you can say by 2050 you are not going to have technology, good clean technology, when it comes to coal. That would be irresponsible of us to commit to that.”

Contrast all these comments from Australia’s cabinet ministers with those of Claire Perry, the UK minister for energy, who says her government will outline its next steps in the next few days:

“I welcome the strong scientific analysis behind today’s IPCC report and its conclusions are stark and sober. As policymakers we need to work together to accelerate the low-carbon transition to minimise the costs and misery of a rapidly warming world.”

Note her use of the words response, science, and the call to action. That was the purpose of the UN report.

But Morrison’s Coalition government didn’t even try, so deep is it in the thrall of its own denial of the science, hiding in the coat-tails of Donald Trump’s Twitter account, and beholden to the script laid out by the conservative forces and vested interests, and outlined in the conservative media.

And just to remind us what this script is, the Australian’s “environment” editor Graham Llloyd – in a piece entitled “UN’s Panel inhabits a universe without  parallel”– suggested it was all part of a plot by the UN to deliver a more equitable sharing of global resources.

Hint: They want to cut your meat pie in half and give it to someone else. That must explain why former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was eating his meat pie with a knife and fork, so he could cut it evenly. No wonder they ditched him.

The paper’s economics correspondent, Judith Sloan, said the IPCC report wasn’t science but “astrological prophecies.” In an opinion piece titled “If disaster is nigh, we’ll be spared this amateur hour claptrap”, Sloan dismissed the science out of hand and claimed that scientists know nothing about cost-benefit analysis.

But it is Sloan who wilfully ignores it. You certainly wouldn’t want to go on a camping trip with any of this mob – they’d eat everything on the first day, and be on the phone to Gina the next to get helicoptered out.

As ABC’s Paul Barry noted, you might be better off ignoring such tripe, were it not for the fact that this is what is guiding the federal government.

As Opposition spokesman Mark Butler put it today:

“In spite of the clearest possible advice from the world’s most qualified scientists this government has again decided to block their ears and ignore the science, even if it means placing our children and our grandchildren in the face of serious danger.

“Malcolm Turnbull was right when he said, after losing the Liberal leadership yet again, that the Coalition is simply constitutionally incapable of taking action on climate change.”

We are now, quite openly, in the Age of Stupid; or is it the Age of Denial? Whichever it is, let’s just hope that it is over soon.

(Note: The IPCC issued a press release on June 4 announcing they had sent all governments a final draft of the 1.5°C report, so it is highly disingenuous of Price to claim she has had no time to read the report.

GENEVA, June 4 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is inviting governments to comment on the Final Draft of the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5oC (SR15) ahead of the approval plenary for the SPM at the IPCC’s 48th session in early October.

The IPCC distributed the Final Draft of the report …. to governments on Monday with a request to comment on SPM by 29 July 2018

Source: https://reneweconomy.com.au/coalitions-breathtakingly-stupid-response-to-ipcc-climate-report-46898/

[hilmihisham]

#78 : Some pointless stuff, really. But if you reading, thank you haha..

“Is there science in this streak of losing?” 

- a quote I took from the song Lucky You by SevenCollar T-Shirt to make is as my 2nd typography project for this page (yeah, I think I’ve wrote about it before, this “typo.typer” is actually mean to be a page for my typography project). But, after a good start from my first one (I’m proud of the finished project if I’m allowed to say so myself, you can check it over here), the second project feels more like an afterthought that I can straight away feels that “meh, I can’t keep up with doing this..”. Thus, I quit. Hahaha.. 

Well, enough of that. I won’t say that this page is the one that makes me started to write stuff but it does played some part for that. To track back when I started writing, I’ll say I need to go as far back to my Year 5  when I first started drawing comics (or at least, something similar to a comic).. 

Well, at that point, it’s more of “I want to draw” rather than “I want to write” as most of the comics that I draw back then was nothing more than a copy of the manga and anime that I’ve read and watched at that time - create some character and put it in a story similar to what you could get from any other manga out there.. It feels like a joke remembering about it right now but back then, I can draw comic kut, who cares!

Then, some years after that I started to entertain the idea of storytelling using this kind of medium. I got enveloped with writing more and more and at that time, I think comic is the form where I can express my idea the best. I do tried poetry at some point - yes people, I can write puisi and sajak, I surprised myself - but it’s nothing more than just my expression about my view of some minuscule things, nothing too complex nor too artsy to be proud of. But at least, there’s a point where I tried to learn how to wrote something that resemblance puisi and sajak, at least the form is there. 

Oh, did I ever told how I love Bahasa Melayu so much?

And yeah, I wrote haiku from time to time too.. Although, similar to my puisi and sajak, it’s nothing special but at least it’s shorter and bit more easier than those two to write so I do keep up with it much longer than them both. 

Come high school, I started reading novels and I can’t deny that the thought of writing cerpen never been in my mind.. It’s more because of how different the way Hlovate write their story than any other novel I’ve read that I thought “dang, this is cool!”. But, finding my own style to draw is far more easier than to find my style to write a cerpen or some sort. The way I tried to wrote cerpen was so lame I give up soon after.. 

(Thinking about it, this text is nothing but my story of giving up things one after another.. Why the heck do I even started writing this again?) =.=“

(Oh yeah, I remember! I thought about writing about love (of all other things.. oh wow I surprised even myself) before but meh, don’t feel like wanting to entertain that idea hahaha.. Sorry people, I’ll just keep that for myself for the time being..)

Right, let’s continue.. Cerpen cerpen..

I can’t find any cerpen writing style that can make me feel like “cool” reading it but early in Form 5, I remember reading a short comic (which incidentally, got a story of light romance in it) that I thought “I could recreate this to be my short story for my English SPM”. (Yes people, I memorize a story for my SPM essay. I think I maybe got an A for my English because of that hahaha). From that one short comic, I write and rewrite the essay time and time again in preparation to write it in my SPM. I remember at that time my English is barely so-so. I won’t say it’s plagiarize because it’s just for educational purposes so it’s forgiven, right haha.. On the night before the English paper, I still remember I wrote that entire short story on my class’ whiteboard just to make sure I remember the flow of the story (yeah, I didn’t memorize my essay word by word, it’s totally impossible for my brain kut) and during the exam, I look at the essay question no. 5 (that one word question for the essay) and how lucky that word (I forgot what it is) while not entirely fit my story, it struck at least one chord of my essay that I thought “whatever, just write it”! 

So where this one part of the story goes to? Saa, ore mo wakaran (I don’t even know myself)..

But thinking about it again, maybe I now realize how hard work it is to write cerpen or short story. Sure, it’s less work than comic but I just can’t find a riht writing style that I myself can approve of so I give up (again lol).

I said I love Bahasa Melayu before but how come I wrote this one (and any other text post here) in English? At first, I just wanted to improve my English but then I got caught up with all those tech YouTube channels and videos (all of the decent one is in English) that I sort of now having a much easier way to think in English. I guess I just got used to English.. 

Having the ability to speak in different languages have it’s own merit, you know.. I know Bahasa Melayu (well of course), English and Japanese (albeit just elementary level) and I do juggle between these three language from time to time (especially right now I’m in US where no one speak Bahasa Melayu around me sadly). Language affects the way of thinking too. You can get different perspective about the same thing if you think about it using different language depends on your level of proficiency on that language. 

My brain is not that good. If I wanna think, I write. Writing is how I keep on thinking and keeping my train of thoughts moving. And because of the English environment I am right now, I sort of got used to think in English and thus, writing in English..

Well, I guess that’s it, really..

At this point, I don’t even know why I’m started writing this post anymore. Part of me wanting to keep my train of thought running but another part of me don’t really want to entertain the idea that I got earlier. Thus, completely nonsense writing is what you guys get in here haha..

Sorry.

Come to think of it, I think about similar stuff before. If I am and you reading this and wasting your time, sorry again. 

Well I doubt anyone reading tho.. What small voice I have , sigh.. =3=

For now, as far as how I really wanna entertain myself with that another thought of mine, let me just keep that to myself for a bit longer.. I’m addicted to writing sometimes and writing gets me to think but I’ll stop for now and trying to misdirect myself to another thing like I always do. I’m good at that, y’know..

“I’m a storyteller - of lame and boring story (and thus I realized it’s all my own life story)..”

[legobiwan]

I'm still sketching out some concepts for a Dimentio!returns story in the same universe as les meilleur.. and I guess this happened. More than likely I'll end up cutting half this out if I get to a final product. 'Kill your darlings' is regrettably true when it comes to writing. *Cries in a 100 orphaned scenes sitting in a master document*. But it's so, so easy to get caught up in Luigi and Dimentio's dynamic. My gods, is it fun to write.

Anyway, imagine, if you will, Luigi and Dimentio stuck in the Undewhere after the events of SPM, bound together by the Chaos Heart's magic. And yeah, Luigi maaaaaaay have wandered off with the Dark Prognosticus at some point.

This is a weird one, guys, and likely a little ooc (at least for Luigi. Definitely not for Dimentio, who is just a right bastard 24/7 in death and in life).

---------

“But the Pure Hearts.” Luigi pursed his lips, eyes darting to the coiled Underhand seemingly at sleep at the base of a black, rotted tree. He met Dimentio’s amused gaze. “They killed you.”

“Is that what your brother told you?”

Dimentio bent over, scooping up a handful of damp, rust-colored dirt between his hands, kneading the sticky material in a mangled, triangular figure. He plucked away at a skirted corner, rolling it into a little sphere between his fingers, pinching the upper face to create a thin outcropping, something akin to the brim of a hat. With concentrated care, he placed the ball - the head, Luigi thought - carefully back on the chewed-off angle.

“I did wonder if you were given the full story,” Dimentio said, considering the childish creation sitting in his palm with an odd tilt of his head. When he spoke next, it was more to the figure than Luigi himself. “If you remembered the beautiful creature we created together.”

Luigi frowned. “Creature?”

At this, Dimentio’s head snapped up, his mismatched, crescent eyes boring into Luigi’s own, a beat too long. Then, he grinned, turning over his palm to allow the rudimentary model to slip quietly to the ground. “I take it you weren't informed,” he stated.

Luigi stared at the ground where Dimentio’s now-forgotten art project lay, clenching his fists, fingernails carving ragged half-moon crevices into his palms. With a single, calculated motion, he raised his leg, planting his boot directly onto the fallen figure, flattening it with a satisfying squelch.

“What creature, Dimentio?” Luigi grit, chewing on every word as he loomed over the jester, who made no move of retreat or apology. To the side, another Underhand stirred, extending its thumb and forefinger wide in a silent, gaping yawn.

“Our grand finale, of course!” Dimentio exclaimed, giving an exaggerated bow as he doffed an invisible top hat in the direction of the gathering Underhands. “The great melding of you, I, and the Chaos Heart. A little something I called Super Dimentio. Not the most inspired moniker, I give you, but matters at hand had stifled my usual creative penchant.”

That...was something he hadn't remembered, the last hours of his time in Bleck’s castle a chaotic mishmash of jagged images, ill-fitting and swollen. They had merged, yes, were bound to each other's existences by the Chaos Heart. That much had been obvious from the moment he had stepped back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Dimentio’s cloying voice bouncing around his head at all hours of the day and night.

What he didn’t know, what he couldn’t glean from the Dark Prognosticus, was what form that ultimate fusion had taken in Bleck's high-ceilinged, geometric chamber of horrors. Unlike his time as Mr. L, his memories of this were sparse, pointillistic impressions of electric terror as Dimentio had called upon the Floro Sprout, his free will slipping from his grasp, disintegrating into a dark canvas of swirling violet.

“They saw us?” Luigi asked, voice wavering. "Like that?"

“They fought us,” Dimentio chuckled, "like that." He reached his arm forward, placing his palm against Luigi’s sternum. “And we were beautiful."

Luigi’s skin tightened at the jester's touch, his empty chest vibrating with pulseless static. He may have no memory of his melded image, but for too many mornings, he had woken with the taste of its infernal desire on his lips, a sweet burnt flesh and milky powder of cracked earth set atop loping, caustic ribbons of an unwound reality.

It was in him, was him now, these shadows of the Chaos Heart's design, this intoxicating, excruciating euphoria intertwined with Dimentio's twisted ambitions, wound tight around each thought and action he falsely believed to be his alone.

Luigi grabbed onto Dimentio’s forearm, ripping the jester's hand away from his chest. 

“I want it and I want you out of my body,” he hissed.

Dimentio considered Luigi with narrowed eyes, his voice growing cold. “That will take some doing,” he countered.

“Then you’d better get cracking." Luigi gave Dimentio a shove, turning on his heel to march over to where Dark Prognosticus laid open, pages impossibly creaseless and unstained. He kicked at a creeping Underhand, sending it scurrying away, snatching up the cursed book before another crawling appendage could test its advantage.

“You wound me, Luigi,” Dimentio complained. “Can you truly say you haven’t enjoyed - what was that phrase you were so fond of in your alternate incarnation?” The jester snapped his fingers, feigning an open-mouthed revelation. “Ah yes. Our spiritual bond?”

Luigi gave a hoarse growl, gripping at the Prognosticus. “I should kill you."

Dimentio chuckled, his ever-present grin turning to a bladed malevolence. "You can't."

With a hissed, violent oath, Luigi hurled the cursed book at Dimentio, who leaned out the way just in time for the tome to go flying past his head. Luigi cursed his terrible aim, pointing to the dusty spot where the Prognosticus had landed.

“Then make it so I can.”

[legobiwan]

More SM: RPG/SPM nonsense

The Bleck crew and Mario RPG gang are having a scuffle before they figure they're not on opposite sides (at least not to start with) - this takes place during the events of SM:RPG. The Bleck crew is looking for Culex (see THIS post for more information). The Mario gang's objectives remain the same - defeat Smithy - except that Luigi is along for the ride.

Luigi is creeping up on Dimentio on the far edge of this whole little confrontation as Dimentio, characteristically, is floating above the ground, noshing on his invisible tub of popcorn

Now, let’s assume Luigi is hot off his first ghost mission with E. Gadd and has specters-on-the-brain, meaning he associates floating beings with no visible means of lift (remember, the man is an engineer) with ghosts

But! Even better! The Poltergust (at least in its first iteration) has a subfunction in the strobe setting that illuminates the “heartbeat” of any ghost or undead being

And Luigi swears he sees the shadow of a heartbeat emanating from Dimentio’s chest and tries to suck Dimentio into the Poltergust

Of course, Dimentio is having none of this and snaps his fingers, trapping Luigi in a box (oh, the foreshadowing!)

Luigi panics, banging on the box walls, calling for his brother

“What an interesting little machine you have there,” Dimentio purrs, sauntering over to the wall of the translucent prison. “And who might you be, my quivering friend?”

Luigi only answers by yelling for his brother again ("Maario!! Help!")

Meanwhile, the fighting between the others has come to an uneasy truce, that is, until Mario sees Luigi trapped in a box.

“What did you do to my brother?” Mario yells, reaching into his sidebag for his last-ditch fright bomb. O’Chunks manages to catch this out of the corner of his eye, picking up Mario by the collar as he sprints forward.

“Where do ya think you’re goin, laddie?” O’Chunks asks, Mario dangling from his grip. In a fair fight, Mario would have a chance, but he’s sore, tired, and injured.

“Let my brother go, you clown!”

Dimentio puts his hand to his chest with a dramatic movement (of course he does, bastard man). “Such grievous insult delivered by such a small form. Ah, but your cheeks grow as rosy as your cherry-hued outfit, your flailing like that of a blindfolded octopus, lost in a labyrinthine tangle of seaweed.”

At this point, Mallow’s jaw drops open as he stares at Dimentio, utterly confused. “What?” is all he can muster.

Behind Dimentio comes the click-click of a weapon engaging. A moment later, two wooden fingers appear at Dimentio’s temple. “The man said to let his brother go,” Geno says, deadly serious.

Dimentio pauses, then laughs, turning to greet a stone-faced Geno with a wide smile. Geno makes no movement except to motion with his hand towards a terrified and still-trapped Luigi.

“Very well.” Dimentio responds, smiling, giving a lazy snap of his fingers, the box dissolving into nothing.

Luigi is trembling, gripping onto the Poltergust for dear life. Mario, of course, comes rushing over, asking his brother if he’s alright, checking him for injuries, muttering how he should never have brought his brother on this trip and basically mother henning him to death

This out of the way, the groups make their preliminary, if wary, introductions 

After Mario is distracted by something else, Dimentio sidles up to Luigi. “My most sincere apologies for my earlier actions. I did not mean to frighten you so.”

Geno is definitely watching from behind the bushes, creeping towards them as he DOES NOT trust Dimentio one iota

Luigi laughs nervously, telling Dimentio it’s fine (even though it most certainly wasn’t fine).

“I must ask, however,” Dimentio continues after a drawn-out, awkward silence (a silence Dimentio definitely was enjoying), “what you intent was with your…” Dimentio tilts his head in curiosity. “Vacuum device?”

Luigi hiccups. “Yeah, this. Well…it catches ghosts.”

Dimentio is surprised. Now Geno is lurking about a foot away from both of them. “Ghosts!” Dimentio exclaims. “Have you reason to carry such a machine with you at all times? Are the undead that common in this world?”

Luigi frowns. “No. Well, actually, yes. I mean, not here - not so far, at least. But…I have. In the past.”

Dimentio studies Luigi intently. “And you believed I was a paranormal presence. Thus the somewhat half-hearted attempt at reducing me to a bit of shag carpet.”

“You were floating,” Luigi shrugs.

“And that is the sole qualification to be a ghost? I dare say the undead have certainly loosened their requirements in recent years if that is the case.”

Now Geno is at Luigi’s side. Dimentio spares a brief, neutral look in his direction.

“That and I could kind of see your heartbeat,” Luigi mumbles, staring at the ground, embarrassed.

And now Dimentio is truly taken aback. “My…heartbeat?”

“Yeah. The Poltergust,” Luigi holds up the nozzle, “I mean, this machine. It’s…it’s a long, technical explanation. But there’s a function in it where it exposes the “heart” of a ghost, some kind of dark matter gravitational lensing.” Sees both Dimentio and Geno staring at him with a blank, confused expression. “Anyway, it’s not really a heart, of course, not the way we think of it. More like…a ghost’s connection to the living plane? In as much as they have the ability to take on a distinct form and manipulate matter.”

“Stardust recomposed into half matter,” Geno murmurs, looking disturbed by this information. “And when you’ve taken your captive, what then?”

“Depends,” Luigi answers. “The Professor - uh, the man who gave me this - has a container he uses to study the more dangerous specimens. Others he’s pressed into artwork. A kind of memorial.” Luigi looks off to the side. “Or prison,” he finishes, lamely.

“Wishes ripped from the fabric of the cosmos,” Geno says to himself, looking a bit ill.

“Does this machine illuminate all beings or just the dead?”

Luigi shakes his head. “Only ghosts. And I guess other undead or half-undead things. I haven’t really tried it out on anything else.”

“Hm,” Dimentio hums. “May I ask you to point your contraption in my direction again? Without, of course, the vacuum function.”

Luigi scrunches his face in confusion but does as he’s told. A moment later, hovering over Dimentio’s chest is the half image of a deep violet heart. Luigi's eyes go wide. “Are you dead?”

Dimentio gives a false smile and a bow. “No, only a magician. Master of dimensions and pleaser of crowds.”

“But,” Luigi protests, but before he can get the thought out, Dimentio lifts a hand, Luigi stiffening, Geno readying his finger guns. But all Dimentio does is give a tiny flick of his fingers, deactivating the Poltergust.

“And now? What do you see?”

Luigi stares hard at Dimentio’s chest, his jaw locking in place. His eyes go moon-wide, his gaze fixated on an invisible target above where the jester’s heart would lie.

“N- nothing,” Luigi finally grits, his voice breaking. “I don’t see..I have to go.” And Luigi skitters away, terrified because he absolutely saw something, the exact same thing he saw when the Poltergust was on and he doesn’t want to consider the implications of that.

Dimentio and Geno are no fools and know the man is lying. There’s something off about Luigi. Dimentio, of course, is thinking in terms of the Chaos Heart, weaving plans upon plans. Geno is disturbed by what dark magics could be at work, not only with the Poltergust, but with this seemingly innocuous man. A man who is his friend’s - his best friend’s, if he were allowed to have something like that - brother.

“You’re not dead.” Geno finally addresses Dimentio. “But nor are you fully alive.” 

Dimentio just smiles, floating upwards. “Nor are you.” Geno stiffens at that, but Dimentio just waves, “Ciao, my little wooden friend.”

[socialcoldstreams]

Climate communications: Exaggerated, unsupported threats are destroying people's lives

These fears are not supported by any science says yet another climate scientist:

“I genuinely have the fear that climate change is going to kill me and all my family, I’m not even kidding it’s all I have thought about for the last 9 months every second of the day. It’s making my sick to my stomach, I’m not eating or sleeping and I’m getting panic attacks daily. It’s currently 1 am and I can’t sleep as I’m petrified.” – Young adult in the UK

….

JC message to children and young adults:  Don’t believe the hype that you are hearing from Extinction Rebellion and the like.  Rather than going on strike or just worrying, take the time to learn something about the science of climate change.  The IPCC reports are a good place to start; for a critical perspective on the IPCC, Climate Etc. is a good resource.

Climate change — manmade and/or natural — along with extreme weather events, provide reasons for concern.   However, the rhetoric and politics of climate change have become absolutely toxic and nonsensical.

….

JC message to Extinction Rebellion and other doomsters:  Not only do you know nothing about climate change, you also appear to know nothing of history.  You are your own worst enemy — you are triggering a global backlash against doing anything sensible about protecting our environment or reducing our vulnerability to extreme weather.  You are making young people miserable, who haven’t yet experienced enough of life to place this nonsense in context.

Source: The toxic rhetoric of climate change | Climate Etc.

The last paragraph is the point I have been making in regards to climate communications. So much has gone so far off scale and off target that it is turning people off from doing anything.

Read the whole thing to understand the problem.

The author is formerly Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and now President of Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN), and is author or co-author of 167 peer reviewed research papers. Much more on her bio here.

Standard Disclaimer Applies: How to Do Climate Communications – Never Cry Wolf

As I previously wrote

The Nature Conservancy should focus on facts of atmospheric CO2 levels rising, land and sea surface temperature anomalies, ice pack changes, ocean Ph and sea level change (IPCC Synthesis Report, Figure SPM.1) – as reported by reputable scientific bodies, but they did not. Instead they went straight for hyperbole and making untrue claims to promote fear and hysteria.

or

Stick with the facts of CO2 rising, sea level ice and temperature changes, ice mass changes or risk tuning all of us out. Shrill terminology designed to create emotional outrage and responses is a total turn off.

and

The facts are sufficient. The impacts of untrue propaganda hysteria, on the other hand, are to turn off the target completely. We have learned nothing from the parable of the boy who repeatedly cried Wolf!

The propaganda messaging methods in use are leading to public opinions that are not based in facts, logic or evidence. In the U.S. 51% of those aged 18-34 believe humanity may become extinct within 10-15 years, even though there is zero evidence to support such a conclusion. This disconnect between belief and reality risks the potential for major backlash against taking action to reduce CO2-equivalent effects on climate.

Some suggest focusing on solutions and opportunities – instead of unrealistic, dystopian catastrophes designed primarily as click-bait – would be a more effective and positive way forward for climate communications. Instead, we get intense negativity – and falsehoods – that have led to children and adults to seek mental health treatment for induced anxiety.

Personal Notes on Climate Realism

We are taking direct actions to reduce our CO2-equivalent emissions. In late 2019, we spent US$18,000 (before credits) to install a solar PV array that will reduce our home’s annual grid-provided electricity to net zero (likely less). Our utility generates 56% of its electricity by burning coal and 14% by burning natural gas (about half the emissions of coal). Solar PV directly cuts our portion of those GHG emissions to zero.

We just spent $5,000 to upgrade 40 year old R-19 attic insulation (which has settled such that it is less than that) to R-60 building code standards. For an all electric house, and before the updates, we already used 1/3d the amount of electricity of similar homes. We heat using locally sourced wood pellets and our home is cold every winter day. I drive a Honda Fit averaging about 42 mpg. While spending an amount similar to a low end electric vehicle, our solar and attic upgrades will have a far greater reduction in CO2 emissions than buying an EV. About half of an EV’s lifetime CO2 emissions occur during its manufacturing and if you live where your electricity to charge your EV is generated by burning coal, your overall CO2 emissions reductions are small. While EVs will generally reduce CO2 emissions, for many they are primarily a virtue signaling device (a survey by Volvo found about 75% of purchasers said this, and selected an EV because paradoxically it “helps them to feel better about making less environmentally conscious decisions in “other areas of life.”.)

I post this at the end of each climate communications post because merely mentioning climate  results in being called a climate denier or a Nazi.

Call me a climate realist but don’t call me a denier or a Nazi.

Climate communications: Exaggerated, unsupported threats are destroying people’s lives was originally published on SocialPanic