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Old School Data Mining, Maritime Style?
jason0000042 writes "The BBC is reporting on Cliwoc, the Climatological Database for the World's Oceans, which pulls data about climate change from 18th and 19th Century sailing ships' logbooks. It's like a window in time that could help us better understand global climate change, if they can decipher the olde timey language of the 1750's. Personally, I can't wait to know if we're going to melt down, or alternatively, have an ice age."
Personally, I can't wait to know if we're going to melt down, or alternatively, have an ice age.
Unfortunatelly the data sample being studied is insufficient to give you an answer for two main reasons:
1. The data is more complete for the Atlantic Ocean. A big chunk of the Pacific Ocean is left out simply because the most interesting travel routes were concentrated on the South Pacific.
2. 100 years of weather records are insufficient to make accurate predictions of global climate patterns.
I, for once, would be grateful if /. editors and contributors refrained of making comments like these in the stories.
R.There are very few things I can think of that would mean the end of the World. However there are a lot of things that would mean the end of Humans.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
People have this "The Sky is Falling" mentality of current weather, what with the ozone and pollution, my God, all the ice caps will melt! But did you know that there is a natural cycle with global warming, and every now and then the ice caps DO melt? Did you know that in fact we are in that part of the natural cycle? The next thing you know, German cockroaches will be declared an endangered species!
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
r stop to think that maybe we shouldn't play god everytime. We screwed it up and you think we can fix it just as easily. The real problem is that we humans seem to be good at only one thing... breeding like rabbits. There are over 6 Billion people and in many parts of the world we can't adiquately feed ourselves.
*cough*bullshit*cough*
You do realize that the overpopulation fears of the 1970's never materialized? The population was supposed to grow to over 7 billion during the 80's. It didn't. In fact, many countries are depopulating due to the modern attitudes toward having children.
Most of the people out there who are starving are in countries where no economy has been imposed to foster the supply of goods. We have more than enough food here in the U.S. to feed most of Africa, but there's no economic incentive to do so. Throwing monetary "aid" at the problem only makes those people dependent on our kindness instead of improving their life-style.
I should probably also point out the tremendous amount of undeveloped land in Russia and China. Russia has two major cities: Moscow and St. Petersburg. Most people living outside of those areas are poor farmers that perform their duties with the equivalent of 1850's technology. Many of the tractors and combines they do have, are built to double as war vehicles! (Gotta love the thinking the Communists had.) Thus, everyone wants to live in Moscow. They only go to St. Petersburg if they can't get to Moscow.
China isn't much better. Everyone is crowded into the cities while hundreds of thousands of acres of land are left to be tended by townsfolk who haven't seen much technological progress in 400+ years.
If you look at U.S. history (as a comparison), land development has been fostered by capitalism. The government's grant of homesteads encouraged individuals to develop land for profit. Thus very little usable land has been allowed to sit like it has elsewhere.
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