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Stories and comments across the archive that link to timlambert.org.

Comments · 38

  1. Bingo. by sean.peters · · Score: 1 · on Noctilucent Clouds Spread and Mystify

    DDT ban myth bingo.

  2. Re:Well "Works With Linux" is a feature to me by theLOUDroom · · Score: 0, Flamebait · on Asus To Phase Out Sub-10" Eee PCs

    In fact, I'm not sure despite how often that term is thrown around that MS actually hires any astroturfers, or at least I have not seen any direct evidence of this.

    Is it that hard to type "Microsoft" and "Astroturf" into Google and click on one of the top links?
    LINK
    LINK
    LINK
    LINK
    It is pretty clear from a simple ONE MINUTE investigation that MS does hire astroturfers. Why bother to imply the opposite?

    I'm probably going to get modded troll or flamebait for this, but everything I am about to say is 100% true to the best of my recollection. And no, I am not an astroturfer for MS. In fact, I'm not sure despite how often that term is thrown around that MS actually hires any astroturfers, or at least I have not seen any direct evidence of this.

    It would REALLY help you to be taken seriously if you actually provided enough information for people to be able to check your story.

    Phrases like "loaded with Linux" and "magical incantations that were supposed to compile and install the drivers" are EXTREMELY VAGUE.

    Also, your expectations seem unrealistic. You put an OS that by itself requires 2 GB on a computer that only has 2 GB disk space. To put it bluntly: What the heck were you thinking? Of course it didn't work. Even if it did install, you would have been out of disk space the first time you created a document or applied a software patch.
    Sure it would have been nice to get a warning about it, but when you're within less than one percent of the minimum, does it really take hours to determine that might be the problem?
    Was is really out of the question to install an OS that only required 1GB? Wouldn't that have been the reasonable choice from the get-go?

    Your comment about being afraid to edit text files seems pretty odd. If you're as tech savvy as you say, you would have experience with the Windows registry. Is that really preferable to just editing a simple text file? (Sure you can pick a specific UI feature the is in a config file in Linux and is a GUI option in windows, but I could turn around and point out a similar feature the requires registry hacking in windows.)
    Say, why did you want to edit this anyways?

  3. Re:Silent Spring all over again by tomdcc · · Score: 3, Informative · on Blogger Subpoenaed for Criticizing Trial Lawyers
    Oh boy, the DDT myth again. Amazing how someone can mention DDT spraying in Sri Lanka and yet fail to mention that Sri Lanka resumed spraying but the mosquitoes had developed resistance to DDT, presumed to be as a result of wide scale agricultural spraying. That's one of the the real reasons for the third world cutting back on agricultural use of DDT: it left them with DDT resistant mosquitoes. Other countries stopped agricultural use because they had to export food to countries that didn't want DDT-sprayed food, etc. Did you actually read the whole page of the link you posted? That page was arguing against Dixy Lee Ray's version of events:

    There were suspensions in the spraying programs, but they were not the result of any "environmental hysteria". To understand what actually happened, it is necessary to learn about the realities of pesticide use. One of the major problems with using pesticides is that insect populations soon develop resistance to the chemicals. Insects resistant to DDT began appearing one year after its first public health use (Garrett, page 50). As new insecticides were introduced, resistance to them also developed. Much of Silent Spring is a cataloging of reports of resistance to insecticides. With the problem of mosquito resistance to DDT in mind, a plan to eradicate malaria was developed--several years of spraying, accompanied by treating patients with anti-malaria drugs, would be followed by several years of monitoring... Please, people, stop perpetuating this myth.
  4. Re:More people wasting their time ... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 1 · on Ecma Receives 3,522 Comments on Open XML Standards
    It's nice the way that using weasel words like "I suspect" makes you immune to having to prove anything though, eh?

    Finding a smoking gun is unlikely, but Microsoft has a considerable history of astroturfing, and have shown no contrition when exposed.

    http://timlambert.org/2003/11/tcs/
    http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/D0BC712B-7DBA-46CA-AA44-19376E64FBA6.html
    http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/spinners-try-their-moves-on-astroturf/2007/02/05/1170524007596.html

  5. Re:Dioxin, sure, but DDT? No. by Goaway · · Score: 3, Informative · on Cleaning up the Most Toxic Pollution in the World

    No. You are falling for anti-environmentalist FUD spread by chemical companies.

    http://timlambert.org/2005/10/crime-of-the-century/
    http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/05/this_week_in_the_unending_war.php

    And so on.

  6. I'm still waiting. by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1 · on Ape-Human Split Moved Back By Millions Of Years

    You should really try to read what I wrote. Gradualism is what is being taught. It does not fit the fossil record. Trying to point that out will get you branded as a heretic. All I'm wanting is for "science" to clean house and at least abide by its own rules. I'm not trying to get science to agree with me, just to not make thinks up out of thin air and then teach it to my kids as a proven fact.
    Somehow I doubt that. Please provide me with an example of someone attempting to point out that phyletic gradualism isn't well-supported and being "branded as a heretic" for their trouble. Please note that the basic idea goes back as far as Darwin, who wrote that "the periods during which species have undergone modification, though long as measured in years, have probably been short in comparison with the periods during which they retain the same form" in Origin of Species.

    Gene duplication is not new information, just a copy. What point mutation has created something new as opposed to removed something from the gene. If your new thing only comes from removing information, you will eventually end up with nothing.
    Did you read the "point mutation" link? I feel pedantic breaking it down this far for you yet again, but here goes.

    Point mutations do not add or remove anything. A point mutation changes one base pair in the genome. For instance, an 'A' becomes a 'G'. The reason that duplication is important is that while the point mutations may change the functionality of the second copy of the gene, the original functionality remains intact in the first copy.

    Appeals to "information" are popular among the intelligent design crowd, but they're not terribly relevant. A large heap of random noise is a lot of "information", but it's not terribly useful. The gene duplication event adds information, but the point mutations keep it constant--yet it's the point mutations following the duplication that create the new functionality in question.

    Because if true, [recapitulation theory] would be observable evolution. That's why the hoax was created in the first place.
    A hoax? Wait, you have evidence that recapitulation theory was the result of a conspiracy rather than scientists just plain getting it wrong and ignoring evidence that wasn't what they expected to find? Could you present this evidence?

    Recapitulation theory is a pretty obvious [example].
    And you'll be showing me a textbook that states that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny when, exactly? A link to a description or review of a textbook would be fine.

    Pat Michaels is a good example.
    Pat Michaels who can't tell degrees from radians? Somehow I'm not impressed by his scholarship. He also appears to have a fat sinecure at the Cato Institute, and receives plenty of cheese from ExxonMobil and their subsidiaries. He also appears to be a research professor at the University of Virginia.

    You cited "people who have lost their job for doing good science simple because it did not agree with the prevailing opinions". Pat Michaels either fudged his numbers or is too incompetent to do them right--not very good science--and did not, it seems, lose his job. So, again.

    I know people who have lost their job for doing good science simple because it did not agree with the prevailing opinions.
    Please cite someone who's done good science which disagreed with the prevailing opinions on climate and lost their job for their troubles.
  7. Re:Greenpeace responds to Steve responding by dylan_- · · Score: 1 · on Jobs Responds to Greenpeace FUD

    I have, and I've clearly made a different decision than you about the importance of human life versus toeing the "silent spring" line.
    You've decided that you prefer to believe the lie that DDT was ever banned so that you can be a martyr to the sufferings of the millions? Oh, OK.

    he link you provided was not a rebuttal, it was just a glib dismissal.
    You really have some problems with this whole "World Wide Web" thing, don't you? There's a link at the end of each myth. You click it. I'll make it easier for you and link directly, since you're a bit slow. CLICK HERE!!. With any luck you'll get it this time, but I'm not holding out much hope...
  8. Re:Greenpeace responds to Steve responding by dylan_- · · Score: 2, Informative · on Jobs Responds to Greenpeace FUD

    Rachel Carson managed to get millions of people killed with junk science
    It's difficult to believe there are people who just blindly accept whatever propaganda they're fed, without checking to see if there's a different view. Here. A game for you.
  9. Re:Engineering building by djh101010 · · Score: 1 · on Many Dead In Virginia Tech Shooting

    Criminals will break the law. Therefore laws against gun ownership make the situation such that law-abiding citizens cannot defend themselves.

    When I heard about the shootings, that was the first thing I thought: It's too bad more students weren't armed.

    And to make matters worse, it could have so easily been prevented. As you've probably read by now, the University decided not to let students and staff members who had a legal, valid permit to carry concealed weapons, do so on campus. Even worse perhaps is the decision not to allow their own "security guards" to be armed. This is a tragic example of how gun control causes damage. The population has been disarmed, they have announced same, and a criminal knows he's completely safe to come in and murder them without danger to himself.

    Imagine how differently this would have gone had someone been allowed to be carrying. Like in this case, where a school shooter was stopped by a student with a CCW: http://timlambert.org/guns/appalachian/nd/tackle/g un/054.html

    Instead, we've got 32 victims whose deaths are at least in part due to the University making them safe to attack. I hope those administrators understand the gravity of their actions. Unfortunately, the anti-gunners will take this utter failure of their approach to say they need to do more of that which just helped cause 32 deaths.
  10. Re:Just use DDT by sethg · · Score: 4, Informative · on GM Mosquito Could Fight Malaria

    There is no ban against using DDT for disease control. It's still used to fight malaria--in countries where widespread agricultural use of DDT has not made the local mosquitoes evolve DDT resistance. If it weren't for Silent Spring, there'd be a lot more DDT-resistant mosquitoes out there.

    See here for details.

  11. You forgot "industry shill". by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 3, Informative · on Politics and 'An Inconvenient Truth'

    No, no, not bible-beating rednecks, well-heeled industry shills! And that stereotype exists largely because there's a well-documented conspiracy to debase science and muddy the waters on behalf of said industry. (There's an analogue for creationism as well.)

    You're welcome to question global warming, just as you're welcome to question the theory of evolution. It gets old when the same tired crap is thrown out time and again, designed not to advance anyone's understanding of anything, but to sow public confusion and doubt.

  12. McKitrick can't tell radians from degrees by Phronesis · · Score: 1 · on Global Warming Debunked?
    McIntyre and McKitrick were not taken as seriously as they should have been,

    It's a pity not to take McKitrick as seriously as we should when he publishes "debunking" papers in which he mixes up radians and degrees when computing solar flux at different latitudes. The quality of peer-review McKitrick's papers get in the journals that do accept them is evident from the fact that this error was not being caught before the paper went to press.

    When the latitude-dependence is properly calculated, McKitrick's alleged refutation of anthropogenic global warming disappears.

    There have been many serious errors in the McKitrick's publications and this was only one of the more glaring and idiotic.

  13. Glad you asked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on MySpace Predator Caught By Code

    We are so worried about things that have little chance of harming us that we're willing to let the government take away the civil rights that our forefathers fought for.
    What's more dangerous, terrorists or cars? Cars win hands down.
    http://www.doctorsiegel.com/usa_today_terrorism_is _everywhere.htm
    What's more dangerous, guns or swimming pools? Swimming pools are way more dangerous to our kids than guns ever were.
    http://timlambert.org/2001/07/levittpoolsvsguns/

    I think we should indeed worry about our senators and congresscritters but maybe not because they are pedophiles. I find that I am beginning to agree with the Democrats (perish the thought) on one thing; they seem to be starting a 'fearless' campaign and that sounds like a good thing. It's time we quit worrying about a lot of things that are very little danger to us. In this case, that means predators lurking on MySpace. It really does sound like a non-problem.

  14. extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof by alizard · · Score: 1 · on Hollywood Says Piracy Has Ripple Effect
    I've heard of these bozos before. Go read up on what the "Institute" for Policy Innovation has to say about Open Source or global warming. The Open Source articles may have something to do with their relationship with Microshit. I leave as an exercise just who might be paying for an attack on global warming science. You want a study "proving" that kiddie pr0n or tobacco is good for kids? Offer IPI some money and let us know what happens.

    IPI appears to be a wingnut corporate propaganda factory. I'd be surprised if there were any reputable scientists associated with the organization.
    Institute for Policy Innovation
    The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is a think tank based in Lewisville, Texas and founded in 1987 by Congressman Dick Armey to "research, develop and promote innovative and non-partisan solutions to today's public policy problems." [1]
    The conservative Capital Research Center ranked IPI as amongst the most conservative groups in the US, scoring it as an eight on a scale of one to eight. [2] (Pdf)

    They've got the same kind of credibility that any study of "the danger to American children of DRUGS" funded by the DEA has got.
    If you want to dig through the sewage they produce for a nugget of truth, go for it, nobody's going to stop you. But don't expect the rest of us to waste our time on it. I've read some of their stuff, it's food for thought only if you like eating shit.
  15. Re:We need something like the ICC. by Shajenko42 · · Score: 1 · on Big Tobacco Funded Anti-Global Warming Messages

    There is.

  16. Re:Here comes the flood... by Chops · · Score: 1 · on Another 150,000 Years of CO2 Data

    I regret to inform you that you have scored only two boxes in global warming skeptic bingo. They are, however, connected -- if you merely claim that 17,000 scientists signed a petition claiming that global warming is a lie, and that urban heat islands are contaminating the surface record, then I may complete my column and possibly win valuable prizes.

    Also, what's this about "zeal and fervor?" I'm posting to slashdot, for Christ's sake. I'm assuming from your post that you don't believe any of this book larnin' about the planet getting warmer, so just look at it from my point of view: I believe that the planet is being pushed (essentially irreversibly) across a climatological barrier the far side of which contains massive flooding of costal cities, crop failure, drought, hurricanes, massive migration of starving or displaced people, war, and certainly the end of the comfortable first-world standard of living I (in the US) have become accustomed to.

    What am I doing about it? I'm typing words into a little computer box, communicating with anonymous people who are picking their noses in basements thousands of miles from here and will never meet me or care what I have to say. That's basically my strategy.

    And you're accusing me of too much zeal and fervor? Huh. That honestly hadn't crossed my mind.

  17. Re:Here comes the flood... by Chops · · Score: 1 · on Another 150,000 Years of CO2 Data

    I regret to inform you that you have scored only two boxes in global warming skeptic bingo. They are, however, connected -- if you merely claim that 17,000 scientists signed a petition claiming that global warming is a lie, and that urban heat islands are contaminating the surface record, then I may complete my column and possibly win valuable prizes.

    Also, what's this about "zeal and fervor?" I'm posting to slashdot, for Christ's sake. I'm assuming from your post that you don't believe any of this book larnin' about the planet getting warmer, so just look at it from my point of view: I believe that the planet is being pushed (essentially irreversibly) across a climatological barrier the far side of which contains massive flooding of costal cities, crop failure, drought, hurricanes, massive migration of starving or displaced people, war, and certainly the end of the comfortable first-world standard of living I (in the US) have become accustomed to.

    What am I doing about it? I'm typing words into a little computer box, communicating with anonymous people who are picking their noses in basements thousands of miles from here and will never meet me or care what I have to say. That's basically my strategy.

    And you're accusing me of too much zeal and fervor? Huh. That honestly hadn't crossed my mind.

  18. Re:Here comes the flood... by Chops · · Score: 1 · on Another 150,000 Years of CO2 Data
    I call shenanigans all over that. It's not some vast conspiracy of SUV-loving, gas guzzling eco-terrorists that keeps things as they are

    I'm not sure how you can call shenanigans on the idea that there's effective astroturf that pushes the idea that global warming is a myth.

    I agree that sheer human laziness is a big part of the problem as well.
  19. Re:I doubt it. by Erectile+Dysfunction · · Score: 0 · on Did Humans Evolve? No, Say Americans

    The "junk science" fad is actually in the attribution of the label "junk science" to topics that threaten various SIGs within the United States. Fearing a decreasing interest in adoption of tobacco products from studies implying negative health effects from "second hand smoke," Philip Morris originated a marketing campaign to discredit the general public's confidence in the scientific community. The idea evolved into a cross-industry conspiracy to undermine the work of the EPA and FDA and to discredit broad-ranging issues in scientific research that conflicted with the interests of the conspirators. This conspiracy operated under the name "The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition." The conduit of the misinformation was Steven Milloy, the owner and operator of junkscience.com who frequently posts stories calling into question the legitimacy of various scientific studies and ad hominem against specific researchers whose work conflicts with his sponsors.

    http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2000Q3/junkman.ht ml
    http://timlambert.org/category/science/milloy/
    http://info-pollution.com/milloy.htm

  20. DDT ban myth bingo by sean.peters · · Score: 1 · on Athens Breeding "Super Mosquitoes"

    For your reading pleasure:

    http://timlambert.org/2005/12/ddt-ban-myth-bingo/

    Please, post some more. I'm getting close to a bingo!

  21. Shocking! Exxon funded scientist criticises Gore by poiu · · Score: 2, Informative · on Scientists Respond to Gore on Global Warming

    ExxonSecrets.org
    Many articles on Professor Carter's "qualifications"
    I'm sure that there are more links about this professor, but even if there are some scientific dispute about a specific study sited about global warming, the bottom line isn't really in dispute: human activity is having and will have for decades to come a noticeable impact on our global environment.

  22. Article appears to be rubbish by showka · · Score: 5, Informative · on Scientists Respond to Gore on Global Warming
    The chief scientist mentioned is a guy named Bob Carter, so I thought I'd do a quick Google search to see if, just maybe, the majority of things he said were in dispute.

    Of course they were:

    http://rondam.blogspot.com/2006/04/global-warming- is-myth-not.html
    http://timlambert.org/category/science/bobcarter/
    http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2005/04/ 18/duffy-and-carter-on-counterpoint/

    http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.p hp?id=1134
    http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php? id=112

    Furthermore, even though the FCP article tries to paint Carter as an independent, ExxonSecrets.org links him to "Tech Central Science Foundation or Tech Central Station". Here's what the site lists as their details:

    1133 21st St NW Suite M100 c/o Ralph R Brown Washington, DC 20036 Phone: 202-546-4242 Tech Central Science Foundation was formed in late November 2002 (Form 990). The Foundation appears to be a funding arm of the free-market news site, TechCentralStation.com.

    ExxonMobil gave the Foundation $95,000 in 2003 for "Climate Change Support." According to Guidestar.org, a nonprofit research tool, the Foundation had 2003 income of $150,000 and $110,903 in assets. The Foundation commissioned a study by Charles River Associates alleging that the costs of the McCain-Lieberman bill of 2003 would be a minimum of $350 annually per household through 2010, rising to $530 per household by 2020, and could rise to as high as $1,300 per year per household. Related information: Tech Central Station was launched in 1999 as "a cross between a journal of Internet opinion and a cyber think tank open to the public" (TCS news release). According to Washington Monthly, TCS is published by the DCI Group, 'a prominent Washington public affairs firm specializing in P.R., lobbying, and so-called 'Astroturf' organizing, generally on behalf of corporations, GOP politicians, and the occasional Third-World despot." TCS shares office space, staff and ownership with DCI Group. ('Meet the Press' Washington Monthly, December 2003. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/031 2.confessore.html) Corporate funders of Tech Central Station include AT&T, Avue Technologies, The Coca-Cola Company, General Motors Corporation, Intel, McDonalds, Merck, Microsoft, Nasdaq, PhRMA, and Qualcomm (Tech Central Station website).


    The entire Canadian Free Press article loses credibility because of this line:

    No; Carter is one of hundreds of highly qualified non-governmental, non-industry, non-lobby group climate experts who contest the hypothesis that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing significant global climate change.


    A non-industry expert who works for a place that's paid for by Exxon.

    I can't believe this article got posted on the main page. I guess since Al Gore's in a movie, posting some already-been-written article quoting a few paid shills who say he's lying had to be done to keep things politically balanced. I personally think news links should only be posted if they actually represent reality.
  23. DDT itself is not banned - only crop-spraying it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Abuses of Science Political Cartoon Contest

    Honestly. For example, USAID, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank support DDT spraying programs around the world.

    Supply shortages? Looks like this company wants to sell you 200 litre drums of the stuff: .

    In the end, the wholescale spraying of DDT has been banned because it is a very valuable weapon in the fight against malaria that has been rendered ineffective in many areas because that spraying has made the local mosquito population resistant (e.g. Sri Lanka). Keeping it for use on bednets and spraying inside houses is good science and good policy. Rachel Carson herself advocated the limited use of DDT in "The Silent Spring":

    'Practical advice should be "Spray as little as you possibly can" rather than "Spray to the limit of your capacity."'

    Tom

  24. Nine things you should know about DDT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on DDT or Malaria -- Which is Worse?

    DDT isn't banned; the UN, World Bank, WHO and USAID support its use; other insecticides are cheaper; mosquitoes have already evolved resistance. Conspiracy theories about environazis ("They're coming in their biofuel black helicopters!") are not needed to explain DDT's unpopularity.

    http://timlambert.org/2005/12/ddt-ban-myth-bingo/

    As for JunkScience.com, note:

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=JunkSci ence.com

    "Prior to launching the JunkScience.com, Milloy worked for Jim Tozzi's Multinational Business Services, the Philip Morris tobacco company's primary lobbyist in Washington with respect to the issue of secondhand cigarette smoke. He subsequently went to work for The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), a Philip Morris front group created by the PR firm of APCO Worldwide."

    Go away, troll by proxy: the role of a website like JunkScience.com is to provide a distraction while K Street writes legislation.

    Tom

  25. Re:DDT or Malaria? by JohnsonJohnson · · Score: 3, Informative · on DDT or Malaria -- Which is Worse?

    Mostly correct, except you forgot to mention that DDT is actually in use in malaria prevention right now in 22 countries. Most of these countries are in Africa, but I'd appreciate it if you'd attempt to distinguish between individual countries and the second largest continent on the planet, since malaria is simply not a big problem in large areas of Africa such as Algeria (11th largest country by area in the world). And to the Steve Milloy fans, fears of creating DDT resistant strains of mosquitos are not unfounded, it's already happened. In short DDT is being used sensibly where appopriate by the people who are actually running malaria combatting programs (unlike Mr. Milloy) and not being used in areas where it's known to be ineffective, like Sri Lanka and increasingly India.

  26. Crichton's State of Confusion by x1048576 · · Score: 2, Informative · on DDT or Malaria -- Which is Worse?
    Because a novel has some footnotes, you think everything in it must be true? Crichton has been taken to pieces by actual scientists for completely screwing up the science in his book. Read what the scientists think of his work here.

    As for his DDT stuff -- it's complete rubbish. In the 60s the World Health Organization tried to eradicate malaria by spraying DDT and failed. There are several reasons why it failed, but one of them was the indiscriminate use of DDT in agriculture, which was a very effective of evolving DDT-resistant mosquitoes. DDT is still useful in the areas where the mosquitoes are not resistant and for that you can thank the ban on the agricultural use of DDT. In other words that ban, far from causing 50 million deaths, has saved lives. You can read about the failure of the malaria eradication campaign here.

  27. Astroturf by uncleO · · Score: 2 · on DDT or Malaria -- Which is Worse?
    No discussion of DDT would be complete without a link to Tim Lambert's DDT page.

    Dr. Lambert has made a hobby of following DDT opponents' crazy theories, as well as the anti-global-warming crowd, and the Big Money that makes both possible. For a compact overview of DDT falsehoods, check out DDT ban myth bingo.

  28. Re:Clearly affecting global warming is the wrong g by Stoffel67 · · Score: 1 · on Cleaner Air Adds To Global Warming

    That's the very 1st tab the our Global Warming Sceptics Bingo sheet.

    The truth? It's a myth.

    Yes, the media pushed to the front the loudest and whackiest "global cooling" scientists, but they didn't represent the median scientific view.

  29. ice cores...satellites... by Stoffel67 · · Score: 1 · on 20th Century Warmest In 1200 Years

    Hey, just mention Urban Heat Islands and denigrate the IPCC and I can call BINGO!!

  30. At least we can then play... by abulafia · · Score: 4, Funny · on Polar Bears Drowning As Globe Warms

    ...Global Warming Skeptic Bingo!

  31. Re:Hockey Stick Links by FhnuZoag · · Score: 1 · on Water Vapor Causing Climate Warming

    And this site shows McKitrick is an utter idiot.

    http://timlambert.org/category/science/mckitrick/

    A summary of issues are here http://timlambert.org/2004/10/mckitrick8/

    Examples of mistakes made that contradict McKitrick's argument when corrected.
    1. Use of values in degrees for functions taking values in radians.
    2. Substitution of '0' as the average temperature of locations with missing data.
    3. Claims that that the arithmetic mean temperature is an arbitary measure, contradicting basic principles of thermodynamics.
    4. Removing whole data sets that contradict his argument, even though such removal decreases the model's ability to correspond to past trends.

  32. Re:Hockey Stick Links by FhnuZoag · · Score: 1 · on Water Vapor Causing Climate Warming

    And this site shows McKitrick is an utter idiot.

    http://timlambert.org/category/science/mckitrick/

    A summary of issues are here http://timlambert.org/2004/10/mckitrick8/

    Examples of mistakes made that contradict McKitrick's argument when corrected.
    1. Use of values in degrees for functions taking values in radians.
    2. Substitution of '0' as the average temperature of locations with missing data.
    3. Claims that that the arithmetic mean temperature is an arbitary measure, contradicting basic principles of thermodynamics.
    4. Removing whole data sets that contradict his argument, even though such removal decreases the model's ability to correspond to past trends.

  33. Re:The Gift Horse's Tonsils. by Vintermann · · Score: 2, Informative · on Bill Gates Donates $258 Million to Fight Malaria

    No. Wrong, in fact. DDT is still used to protect humans from malaria, and that use has explicitly been encouraged by the EU, the USA, the UN, and Rachel Carson in "Silent Spring". However, it's not used so much for that anymore, because it's become almost useless. Why?

    Resistance. The mosquitos developed resistance. Oh, what a shame. Bad luck, eh? No, not bad luck, zoydoid. Murder, zoydoid. You see, DDT wasn't merely used to protect humans from malaria. It was also used as an agricultural pesticide. The amounts used against malaria was dwarfed by the amounts used in agriculture. So, essentialy, agricultural use of DDT was what caused the mosquitoes to develop resistance, stopped the eradication of malaria in its tracks and killed millions of people.

    Agricultural use of DDT is what is discouraged/forbidden by EU, USA, UN and Rachel Carson. Mostly for selfish reasons (DDT is a persistent organic pollutant we don't want in our food), but also because they were aware of the danger of resistance.

    So it was the makers of DDT who killed those millions of people, because selling DDT for agricultural use was a lot more profitable than using it to save human lives.

    To add insult to injury, now they pay right wing think tanks to spout the "Rachel Carson was worse than Hitler" line, which you and Michael Crichton swallowed, along with the hook and sinker.

    This is the short, nasty, brutish & inaccurate version. If you want more accuracy, read Tim Lambert's writings on the topic. http://timlambert.org/

  34. Re:Science is hard by Abies+Bracteata · · Score: 2, Informative · on 2005 Will Probably be Warmest on Record

    Yes, it *is* in use in Africa and other areas. It is sprayed on the interior walls of buildings where it is most effective in killing malaria mosquitos -- without the indiscriminant broadcast use that would drive the evolution of resistant mosquitos.. Agricultural use has been banned, but that goes to the benefit of malaria control. Without the evolution of resistance resulting from widespread, indiscriminant agricultural DDT use, DDT-based malaria mosquito control remains effective. More info can be found at http://www.timlambert.org/

  35. DDT-Malaria is a fairy story... by Goonie · · Score: 1 · on It isn't Easy Being Green and Getting to LEO
    According to the figures I've been able to find, a conservative estimate for the number of global deaths caused by outdoor air pollution annually is 200,000. That's dwarfed, by the way, by the deaths caused by indoor air pollution (mostly using unflued solid fuel stoves in developing countries) of close to 3 million.

    But that pales into insignificance compared to those evil environmentalists banning DDT, right? Wrong. As blogger Tim Lambert records in excruciating detail, DDT has never been banned for malaria control, and is indeed in use in a number of countries for just this purpose. It has, however, been banned for agricultural use; this actually *helps* its use for malaria control because insects are exposed to less of it, thus reducing resistance levels.

    There are a number of ways in which you could argue that the nuttier green groups have hurt both the environment and humanity (for instance, their opposition to nuclear power), but the malaria-DDT story is a crock propagated by right-wing propagandists who never let the facts get in the way to smear everybody to the left of Genghis Khan.

  36. almost as bad as holocaust denial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Six Bomb Blasts Around Central London

    the Lancet study has been called into question but it has repeatedly been confirmed. IF ANYTHING IT IS TOO LOW OF AN ESTIMATE. Read Tim Lamberts excecllent coverage of the entire debate, and why lancet deniers are as bad as holocaust deniers.

    http://timlambert.org/category/lancetiraq/

    and the Royal Society is hardly independent, what Blair wants the the Royal Society gives him.

  37. Re:its the hackers alright! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative · on Inventor of Proxy Firewall Blames Hackers

    I'm not a big fan of guns myself, but statistically speaking, a kid is more likely to die in a swimming pool than they are from a gun-related accident.

    http://timlambert.org/2001/07/levittpoolsvsguns/

  38. Symantec's explanation by x1048576 · · Score: 1 · on Symantec Says No To Pro-Gun Sites
    I did some tests and found that 13 of 48 sites in Google Directory's Pro-Gun Rights category were blocked by the 'Weapons' category, while only 5 of the 78 sites in Google's so called Anti-Gun Rights category were blocked. Details are here. Symantec's explanation for the blocking was:
    Basically the logic behind gun filtering lists came about after the Columbine school shootings. It was decided that I-Gear would start filtering gun sites that promote gun use so schools can monitor their students in hopes of preventing future school shootings. This is the reasoning behind filtering sites that promote gun "use" vs. guns in general.