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[TD1]

Could use wireless earphones. Of course, that would also increase price.

[Comrade P.]

Did John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" enter public domain this year or something? Since the beginning of the year 2017, it has appeared 3 times (that I know of) in cinema, Alien: Covenant, Logan Lucky and Kingsman 2. Why is it suddenly all over the place? Or is it just me who started noticing it everywhere?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's a consequence of this "we have to play iconic music or nobody will remember our film" thing that's developed smashing headlong into most directors/producers/studio executives having really narrow knowledge of music. Logan Lucky and Kingsmen both got it because it's one of a very short list of songs in public conciousness symbolizing America, I didn't see Alien Covenant but I assume it's something to do with the colonization mission or escaping the planet.

Basically, they all think they're Hideo Kojima or Edgar Wright, but they don't have anywhere near their levels of taste. And they've probably got dour stiff-suited men leaning over their shoulders trying to press everything not eminently marketable out of the film.

[Comrade P.]

That makes sense, I guess. There is indeed a trend in movie releases, to stick to universally acclaimed, time tested music.

[TD1]

To see it done right, watch Guardians of the Galaxy!

[Reelya]

Did John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" enter public domain this year or something? Since the beginning of the year 2017, it has appeared 3 times (that I know of) in cinema, Alien: Covenant, Logan Lucky and Kingsman 2. Why is it suddenly all over the place? Or is it just me who started noticing it everywhere?

I was looking up anything relevant, and while the record went gold in 1971, it only went platinum in April of 2017. From what I can work out, that's because Platinum status didn't exist before 1976 (Gold original meant 1 million sales, but that's now "Platinum" with Gold at 500,000), but the song just sold 1 million digital copies so it qualified for Platium status this year. I think the record company is trying to cash in on that. Plus, it's 20 years since John Denver died, so there's a bunch of nostalgia and sales opportunities mixed up in this.

[Comrade P.]

I was looking up anything relevant, and while the record went gold in 1971, it only went platinum in April of 2017. From what I can work out, that's because Platinum status didn't exist before 1976 (Gold original meant 1 million sales, but that's now "Platinum" with Gold at 500,000), but the song just sold 1 million digital copies so it qualified for Platium status this year. I think the record company is trying to cash in on that. Plus, it's 20 years since John Denver died, so there's a bunch of nostalgia and sales opportunities mixed up in this.

Thanks for this insight! I was kinda hoping there was an explanation along these lines.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I've been hired to write some code for a non-profit, and I'd like to setup a deadman's switch for it if it can't connect to the internet. Do you know of any service that provides a short term deadman's switch? I'm thinking something along the lines of if you don't login in a day or two, it sends out an email.
I could also use one of those delayed email services, and just have it check in every day and push it back, but I'm worried that'd be a lot of work. Or is there a simple trick I'm missing?

[Reelya]

Well no.
https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/frozenground/methane.html

The total atmospheric carbon is 850 gigatons. The permafrost has another 1400 gigatons. So all the permafrost would triple the total amount of CO₂ in the air. Which is bad, but let's compare that to Venus.

Earth's atmospheric density at sea level is 1.2 kg/m³, while Venus's atmospheric density is 67 kg/m³, which is 5583% of the Earth's atmosphere.

Venus' atmosphere is 96% made up of CO₂, while CO₂ makes up 0.04% of Earth's atmosphere, and after releasing all the permafrost carbon, that would be 0.12% - a rise in Earth's atmospheric density of 0.08%. So the increase in density due to the permafrost carbon would be too small by a factor of ~70000 to give us the same atmospheric density as Venus.

Clearly, the only way that the atmospheric density can reasonably rise is because the oceans get heated by all that CO₂ and start evaporating and bloat the air with water vapor. Water vapor absorbs heat so it's greenhouse gas. However it's also reflective and creates clouds, reflecting sunlight away. So a Venus-like atmosphere made of mostly water would have entirely different thermal properties to the actual Venusian CO₂ atmosphere.

As an aside, let's see if there's enough water for that scenario.

Earth atmosphere weighs 5.15×10¹⁸ kg, and we already worked out that the density is 55.83 times less than Venus. So we need 2.875245 x 10^20 kg of water to make a Venus-thick atmosphere. "The total mass of the hydrosphere is about 1.4 quintillion metric tons" which is 1.4 x 10^18 tons, or 1.4 x 10^21 kg. So yeah, if 20% of all the water on Earth evaporates, we could have a venus-thick atmosphere. That's not very likely however. And the stuff is very reflective, meaning it'll stop the sunlight getting to the surface. CO₂ works differently, I believe (not 100% sure, a science buff can correct me if I have this wrong) that it lets more sunlight frequencies through, but blocks infra-red wavelengths, meaning it lets energy in, but not out. Water vapour however doesn't work like that.

[scriver]

Maybe he's got a really cute arse. I always upvote cute butts.

[wierd]

Runaway evaporation is speculated to have occurred in earth's past, and resulted in a "Snowball earth", at least according to theory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth

There is some interesting evidence to support the theory, but as far as I know, it is still a theory that lacks significant traction in the scientific community.  It is important to stress that the scenario depicted by the theory involves a massive global iceage due to the increased albedo of the water in the atmosphere.

[Parsely]

How many police agencies in the United States authorize patrol units to have rifles? Bonus points if there are sources on which agencies actually issue rifles or allow officers to purchase their own rifles. It looks like most police department websites don't have this kind of detailed info?

I've heard things about how police in LA and Chicago (not just interested in these two cities, mind) have M4s or AR15s in the trunk of patrol units but I'm interested in primary sources confirming these details.

Edit:
[1] Chicago PD has a carbine operator program that defines personally owned carbines and department issued carbines http://directives.chicagopolice.org/directives/data/a7a57b38-137ec5db-e6913-7ec6-b9f40293bb055f07.html

[scriver]

I am deducing shotgun rifles don't count?

[EnigmaticHat]

I saw a MBTA Transit Police (AKA Boston subway) officer with a submachine gun once.  As far as I could tell it was a normal day.

Edit: It would be the fucking Chicago PD

[Parsely]

I am deducing shotgun rifles don't count?

No. This is part of my collecting evidence that police have adopted intermediate-calibre, (semi)automatic rifles since the 90s. Kind of interested in what you define as a "shotgun rifle" though?

I saw a MBTA Transit Police (AKA Boston subway) officer with a submachine gun once.  As far as I could tell it was a normal day.

Edit: It would be the fucking Chicago PD

Thank you, but I'm looking for primary sources, i.e. statements or documents from the actual police that show that their departments have some kind of patrol presence that is armed or authorized to be armed with rifles, and not pistol caliber weapons but assault rifles that chamber intermediate rounds (5.56) such as the M4 and AR-15.