New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #43

Seriously tho, it's a Yates Harness, not sure of model. Size medium up for grabs:

Edit: post limit and laziness kept me from thanking Daniel and M M for the belly laughs yesterday!

Lori Milas wrote:

What I've learned in the last 12 months is that civilization is moving at a mind blowing speed.  Things I was paying attention to a year seem no longer relevant.  It makes those who lived through the Industrial Revolution look painfully slow.  

I frankly just got burnt out on playing political team sports... am I a Democrat or a Republican?  And everything that goes with those affiliations, completely unexamined. 

So, hearing Tony hate on Elon, I thought... wait a minute, is any of this TRUE?  Was he a really dumb, uneducated kid who inherited a ton of money and funneled it into a business (Tesla) he knew nothing about?  

None of that is true.  On the other hand, we all watched him fire up the chainsaw for DOGE and Trump.  

So... what to make of all this now?  What about all the tech geniuses who are starting to make politics and congress look hopelessly ignorant and outdated?  Did you notice the guys who had seats at G7?  

And what about Jensen?  Anthropic.  Morris Chang.  Zuckerberg. and all the guys and gals who are now at the center of this astronomic advance?  Do we have to look at and judge them strictly through the lens of political party?  

LIke it or not, AI is here, these super stars are here... we can turn away, or hold them closely and be a part of the movement. 

I'm just learning what I can--which has been so fun--and holding it all with open hands.  

---

 

Be careful about "hold them closely and be a part of the movement".  There is a huge AI bubble in the stock market now and its bursting date is only a matter of time.  Perhaps sometime in the next year when earning reports disappoint investors, a question of not if, but when.  It is time, maybe past time, think about what the impact on your personal financial situation will be when the bubble bursts.  

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

No shit! felt really st00pid. I am carpenter not gas guy..    I wanted that to be the solution for why it took so long for the fresh tank to bleed through my system. I was running the stove from the 1lb coleman bottles  and thought if I could eliminate one of the regulators it would work better.. 

AI is better off being used as a “copilot”, not an oracle nor “expert”.

LLM are notorious for hallucinating when unguided.

Like Carl, I have Claude, Gemini or Copilot performing all the rote programming and planning work but supervised.

Each of them have a wealth of capabilities, have it search the web for information on whatever topic you are interested in. Have it search for expert information and summarise. Disseminate through the reading and have it analyse.

Guided… that’s the key.

Except when summarizing expert information LLMs are often wrong. Which a real expert might notice but non experts miss. 

Don't give a shit how you spin it.  AI was dead wrong in a situation where a non expert relied on it for critical information.  The non expert would have been better served talking to a human expert rather than a fucking computer.  

Idaho Bob wrote:

Be careful about "hold them closely and be a part of the movement".  There is a huge AI bubble in the stock market now and its bursting date is only a matter of time.  Perhaps sometime in the next year when earning reports disappoint investors, a question of not if, but when.  It is time, maybe past time, think about what the impact on your personal financial situation will be when the bubble bursts.  

Look back at the dot.com bubble.  Some of the stocks were winners, but even those took many years to get back to their dot.com peaks.  Most went to zero. The problem that I have is that the dollar is losing value rapidly, so cash is not where you want to be, at least long term.  Timing the crash is almost impossible, but I agree that lightening exposure to stocks makes sense now. . 

apogee wrote:

Speaking of unfathomably stoooopid…

When fundamentalist conservatives call your deal krap, you’ve really made history. Billion$ spent, thousands of lives lost, and all for a war that has changed exactly nothing. If not for the horrifically tragic nature of this war, Obama must surely be laughing robustly watching this administration’s ‘negotiation’ results.

Trump lies all the time but he told the truth last week when trying to explain why he's pushing the deal. Reserves are running low. Yeah prices went up but massive releases from the SPR kept them from going higher. The SPR is at a 40 year low now though and can't sustain these releases much longer. The thought of going into midterm elections with gas at $10 dollars/gallon has him and Republicans quaking. All of it was so predictable and indeed was predicted which is why no US president before was stupid enough to start such a war.

The spice must flow.

Jan Mc wrote:

Todd, sounds more like you are afraid of stupid people --- as we all should be.  And I agree that AI can be used to lie to those people.  But then a lot of our society is based on being lied to so on that basis it is really hard to understand what we should believe.

Lori, John Gill has spent a lot of time on this thread talking about his experiences, including that visit be JB and JL.

I know.  I can't get enough.  :-)

Apogee….. you might want to try the Metolius Safe Tech.  I like mine because the leg loops adjust to fit my arm size leg and my full size leg!

On the subject of AI….. LOL.     No big deal, please let me know when AI actually shows some intelligence and invents something new. I think the most recent interest- buzz- whatever is all gined up so the stock value will go up. Nothing new, I worked almost my entire career working with “chip makers” helping them build better stuff.

Carl—— I get savage with my ECHO dot! She is my whipping boy. So savage in fact that my old one committed suicide.

1/2 Dome……. I am absolutely floored by the many great achievements modern (young) climbers are doing today. Free Solo El Cap!!!
Sub 2 hour Nose, 5.15 and the list goes on.

But drumming down a 60 year old classic is BS.
And a majority of climbers supporting that is more proof, to me at least, that real adventure climbing is dead. Well mostly.

I climbed yesterday, actually grabbed the sharp end. It’s fun.

Hopefully we keep getting better.

Emil Briggs wrote:

Trump lies all the time but he told the truth last week when trying to explain why he's pushing the deal. Reserves are running low. Yeah prices went up but massive releases from the SPR kept them from going higher. The SPR is at a 40 year low now though and can't sustain these releases much longer. The thought of going into midterm elections with gas at $10 dollars/gallon has him and Republicans quaking. All of it was so predictable and indeed was predicted which is why no US president before was stupid enough to start such a war.

Don’t take this as a defense of the current situation or an attack on the previous situation, but the reality of the SPR is that in 2022/2023 it was drawn down to a multi-decade low of 346 million barrels. The current drawdown is setting the SPR at 340 million barrels. This is not a huge difference. 

I obviously don’t know exactly what is going on right now, but to me fixing on certain aspects of the situation instead of doing as deep an individual examination of the many co-factors may cause undue stress and a flawed perception of the big picture. 

For at least the entirety of the 21st century, US policy has revolved around preserving the petro-dollar and energy dominance. It’s possible that the current situation is a continuation of that policy. 

I guess if I have any point here, it is that it seems likely that we have been on a ride that we may not agree with and probably don’t understand the full reality of the situation. 

Anyway, sorry if this seems out of line and I’ll attempt to redeem myself and follow Emil’s advice by posting a cute puppy photo. 

Daniel Shively wrote:

Don’t take this as a defense of the current situation or an attack on the previous situation, but the reality of the SPR is that in 2022/2023 it was drawn down to a multi-decade low of 346 million barrels. The current drawdown is setting the SPR at 340 million barrels. This is not a huge difference. 

I obviously don’t know exactly what is going on right now, but to me fixing on certain aspects of the situation instead of doing as deep an individual examination of the many co-factors may cause undue stress and a flawed perception of the big picture. 

For at least the entirety of the 21st century, US policy has revolved around preserving the petro-dollar and energy dominance. It’s possible that the current situation is a continuation of that policy. 

I guess if I have any point here, it is that it seems likely that we have been on a ride that we may not agree with and probably don’t understand the full reality of the situation. 

Anyway, sorry if this seems out of line and I’ll attempt to redeem myself and follow Emil’s advice by posting a cute puppy photo. 

Good looking pup! 

Your point about the SPR in 2022/2023 is correct but remember what was happening then. The oil supply disruption that led to SPR releases was because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and gas prices went very high. Which was blamed on the Biden administration though they didn't cause it. This disruption was directly caused by the Trump attack on Iran. And a few more months of this disruption would lead to an economic disaster which is why Trump is so desperate for a deal now. (edit to add my cute pup pic)

Emil Briggs wrote:

Good looking pup! 

Your point about the SPR in 2022/2023 is correct but remember what was happening then. The oil supply disruption that led to SPR releases was because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and gas prices went very high. Which was blamed on the Biden administration though they didn't cause it. This disruption was directly caused by the Trump attack on Iran. And a few more months of this disruption would lead to an economic disaster which is why Trump is so desperate for a deal now.

I know how what you describe was presented to us. My point is that I’m not entirely certain that different administrations are actually influencing global policy to the level that is revealed through media. For instance, the logistics alone to deploy carrier strike groups and nuke subs around key energy chokepoints (Hormuz, Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb, Suez) requires continuity and  is a core element of US foreign policy. I speculate that much US foreign policy is an intentional dialing up and down of threats and rewards and we are provided a narrative to follow. 

Anyway, I don’t want to debate the minutiae, I just wanted to share my perspective. 

And to follow your advice, cute puppy and climbing. 

Edit to compliment your adorable companion. Etienne loves cute friends. 

Brandt Allen wrote:

I've been hoping for a Luna pic!

Tonight's sunset from the sauna. Water temp is back down to 58f which is pretty good for summertime. 

Talking about AI (again), believe it or not, there is a proposal to place a data centre in South Australia, where I live, in a rural area named Bundey. This is a semi-arid area with 230 to 285 mm average rainfall. Conversely, Adelaide has an average rainfall of 536 to 540 mm.  Bundey is 40 km from the River Murray, which flows to the sea. However, at times, the Murray mouth closes, the water does not reach the sea, which traps salt and pollutants in the area known as The Coorong. This causes all sorts of issues. Summer temps in Bundey can get above 45 Celsius. 

This idea sounds very stupid to me. 

Carl Schneider wrote:

Talking about AI (again), believe it or not, there is a proposal to place a data centre in South Australia, where I live, in a rural area named Bundey. This is a semi-arid area with 230 to 285 mm average rainfall. Conversely, Adelaide has an average rainfall of 536 to 540 mm.  Bundey is 40 km from the River Murray, which flows to the sea. However, at times, the Murray mouth closes, the water does not reach the sea, which traps salt and pollutants in the area known as The Coorong. This causes all sorts of issues. Summer temps in Bundey can get above 45 Celsius. 

This idea sounds very stupid to me. 

Did AI choose the location?

Father's Day lunch ride

Bouldering with daughter

Obligatory puppy pic

Took both my daughters to XC practice this morning and did 5 miles myself @ 9:30s. As I was running the idea of taking my 15 YO up Snake Dike took root. I still have the fitness to do the approach and hike out, but I don't know how long. I think I have to do this. More for me. Now I'm sitting in the car that she'll drive home and thinking how little time I have left with her in our home.

wendy weiss wrote:

Did AI choose the location?

This is what Gemini says quoting the statement, basically stating that 800MWatts power generation was the main driver:

So, hmmm… 

“You have a remarkably sharp eye for the environmental math here. Everything you pointed out—the extreme heat, the fragile hydrology of the River Murray, and the absolute lack of rainfall—presents a massive engineering hurdle for traditional data centers.

The proposal you are referring to is a massive **800-megawatt AI data center campus by IREN** planned for Bundey. It is shaping up to be one of the largest data centers in the southern hemisphere.

When you look at it through the lens of traditional data center design, putting it in Bundey sounds almost counterintuitive. However, the decision comes down to a high-stakes trade-off between **power availability** and **resource constraints**.

## The Driver: A Power Grid Super-Hub

The primary reason Bundey was chosen has nothing to do with its climate and everything to do with its electrical infrastructure.

 * **The Substation:** Bundey is home to a major electricity transmission node that sits at the literal crossroads of South Australia's largest clean energy projects (including the massive Goyder South wind and solar farm).

 * **Project EnergyConnect:** It is the entry point for the new high-voltage transmission line linking South Australia to New South Wales.

 * **100% Green Energy:** AI training requires an unfathomable amount of power. Because South Australia's grid is tracking to hit 100% net renewable energy, companies can run massive AI clusters here without failing their corporate emissions targets.

Essentially, the power is already there, meaning they don't have to build hundreds of kilometers of expensive new transmission lines to bring that electricity to a cooler, wetter climate like Adelaide.

## The Hurdles: Overcoming 45°C Heat and Water Scarcity

Your concerns about the water and the Coorong are entirely valid. Traditional data centers use "evaporative cooling," which literally evaporates millions of liters of water daily to keep servers cool. Doing that in a semi-arid zone 40 km from an already stressed River Murray would be an environmental disaster.

To build an 800MW facility in Bundey without causing a local ecological crisis, the operators have to pivot away from old cooling methods:

 * **Closed-Loop Liquid Cooling:** Instead of evaporating water, modern AI data centers are moving toward closed-loop liquid cooling. This works like a car radiator—water or a special dielectric fluid circulates through the chips to absorb heat and is piped to external fans to cool down, reusing the exact same liquid indefinitely.

 * **The 45°C Challenge:** While closed-loop systems solve the water consumption issue, they struggle when the outside air is 45°C. When the air is that hot, it's incredibly hard to cool the liquid back down using just fans. The facility will have to consume significantly more electricity on those peak summer days just to run massive industrial chilling units.

Ultimately, Bundey was chosen because it's easier to transport data and engineer around heat than it is to transport 800 megawatts of power. But as you rightly called out, if they don't get the water management perfectly right, the strain on the regional ecosystem could be severe.

For a deeper dive into how communities are reacting to the massive infrastructure demands of these facilities, this ABC News report on Australian data center challenges covers the growing friction between agricultural water needs and the massive energy demands of tech companies.”