The Unhappy Me thread

[ET_]

My new PicoCluster died after just 4 months of work.
I strongly suspect that the small Chinese PSU (12V - 2000 mA) is the culprit of the loss. Now I hope the seller will replace it with something stronger.

I lost 20 cores' work when I was still at 8% of the road.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by chalsall

OMG!!!

My heart goes out to everyone who knew him, but mostly I'm thinking about his children, who reportedly witnessed this. That is a memory which will stay with them for the rest of their lives!

It is pure nightmare material, especially for the children.
There is a Go Fund Me raising money for the family,
We are saddened to learn about the recent passing of David on July 4, 2017. David was an exemplar security guard for the Center and will be missed. His family has setup a gofundme page: https://www.gofundme.com/4dg45-belov...and-and-father

[chalsall]

While I no longer have any friends nor family there, wildfires are causing great havoc in the BC Interior. Over 10,000 people have been evacuated (so far; the fires are not yet contained).

Rather sad seeing pictures of mountains and hills I used to climb and hike through burning to the ground.

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Rather sad seeing pictures of mountains and hills I used to climb and hike through burning to the ground.

Sad perhaps, but not unnatural. They've been happening for millions of years, and won't have any substantial impact on the local ecosystem (or at least, any such impact is far outweighed by the human impact).

As I'm sure you know, for certain ecosystems (most notably prairies off the top of my head), occasional fires are an important part of the health of the ecosystem, and controlled prairie burns are now relatively common in many parts of the US where prairies coexist with human development.

Though some light background reading to verify that I'm not totally offbase on this *does* indicate that in certain cases, too much fire can indeed be severely disruptive to the local ecosystem, as in certain parts of the American southwest. I'm not entirely sure if this is the case or not in BC, but lacking any evidence either way, I'm inclined to think not.

If it is indeed not such a "too much of a good thing" fire, then be sad for the people whose lives and livelihoods have been interrupted, but also be happy for the renewed and resurgent wildlife that will follow in good time.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Sad perhaps, but not unnatural. They've been happening for millions of years, and won't have any substantial impact on the local ecosystem (or at least, any such impact is far outweighed by the human impact).

Yeah. I know... Mother nature is amazingly resilient, and fires are natural and should be expected.

The entire city of Williams Lake (my birth-town) is under Evacuation Alert. ~10,000 people. While I left as soon as I graduated (as did most of my friends) I still have fond memories of the place.

[kladner]

Such fires are partly exacerbated by the decades-long suppression of fires that would clear underbrush and make huge fires less likely. Where fires have been suppressed a tinder-box condition develops.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by kladner

Such fires are partly exacerbated by the decades-long suppression of fires that would clear underbrush and make huge fires less likely. Where fires have been suppressed a tinder-box condition develops.

I largely agree.

As Dubslow said above, fires are natural. They regularly occurred long before we humans could do anything about it, or were even around.

Most of these fires in BC were caused by Mother Nature -- lightning strikes. Plus, of course, a few stupid humans.

I tried to find a reference for this, but I couldn't... The issue of underbrush fuel and controlled burns was tested in Banff something like 25 years ago. A controlled test burn was conducted which went badly out of control. Does anyone else remember this?

[Mark Rose]

The other issue in BC is that most of the pine trees are dead from the pine beetle infestation over the last two decades. Dead trees become tinder dry and lead to difficult-to-fight crown fires. These are fires that can move faster than a bulldozer when the wind picks up. This kind of fire took out my grandparents place a quarter century ago.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Mark Rose

The other issue in BC is that most of the pine trees are dead from the pine beetle infestation over the last two decades. Dead trees become tinder dry and lead to difficult-to-fight crown fires. These are fires that can move faster than a bulldozer when the wind picks up. This kind of fire took out my grandparents place a quarter century ago.

That is a very good point. Have the pine beetles moved North along with warmer climate?

[Mark Rose]

Originally Posted by kladner

That is a very good point. Have the pine beetles moved North along with warmer climate?

No, but the lack of winter cold snaps have allowed more to survive, leading to a population explosion. Now that the pines are dead, there are fewer beetles. It's part of a natural cycle: when the pines die, the deciduous trees get a chance to grow.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Mark Rose

It's part of a natural cycle: when the pines die, the deciduous trees get a chance to grow.

Burn baby burn.

The bugs killed the trees. Then the trees burned. And then the bugs crawled out of the ash and continued to eat.

Meanwhile the humans stood around asking "WTF?".