Monday 13 September 2004

Pic of the day: Based on a screenshot from the anime Windy Tales, about people who are able to summon the wind. Don't try this at home, kids.

Talking about the weather

Seems to be thunderstorm season here in Southern Norway. Local sheets of lightning and thunder sweep across the landscape at random times. Sometimes I have to get up in the night and unplug my computer communication. I suppose there is special equipment that can protect both phone lines and mains, but here in the Norway thunderstorms are so unusual that I have preferred to just take my chances. And so do most of us, although I am sure some companies protect their phone lines, if possible. Uninterruptible power supplies are somewhat more common, but not in private homes.

I lost one computer to a thunderstorm a couple years ago, or rather I was without it for approximately two months while it was being repaired. I believe only the power supply was damaged, but the computer was somehow lost at the repair center. They did not even know that it existed until I presented the papers, and I had to call them several times to remind them. This was the "Expert" chain selling electric equipment and electronics. They are generally quite professional and friendly, so I am not convinced that I would be have had a better experience with another retailer.

My previous main desktop computer (which now resides in my bedroom and is connected to the Net through my Bluetooth network) probably had its network port fried by lightning last year. I came home after a day of thunder and it never worked again. That's why I had to switch them around. Also some years ago, before I started this journal, I had an input/output card fried by lightning. So statistically it seems the phone line is the weakest part of the chain.

***

There is an old saying that we can talk about the weather but we can't do anything about it. This is certainly true for the weather today and tomorrow, unless you believe in magic. (The belief in weather magic seems to be almost universal across ages and continents. This doesn't mean it's true, of course. But it is certainly food for thought.)

We can, however, do something about the climate. In fact we do something whether we want to or not. I have my opinions on that, of course, but they tend to upset people who live in warmer parts of the world. Naturally they don't want more greenhouse effect, while I do. In any case, I am likely to get my wish no matter what: These processes work at literally glacial speed. The climate for the next 50 years or so is already in the works. Only extreme events could change this, such as a nuclear war or an asteroid collision. And of course the Large Hadron Collider could render it all meaningless by producing black holes or killer strangelets.

But those are events on a quite different scale. You can talk about the weather, and people will smile and nod. You can talk about the climate, and they will frown and shake their heads. But talk about the risks in nuclear physics, and people will excuse themselves in a hurry. The end of the world ought to be a matter for gods, not men. The blurring of the two is not always a good thing, no matter that we have strived for this since the day we tamed fire.