Slashdot Mirror
Surprise Discovery In Earth's Upper Atmosphere
elyons sends word out of UCLA of a completely unexpected discovery in the physics of the Sun-Earth interaction — a previously unknown basic mode of energy transfer from the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere. "'It's like something else is heating the atmosphere besides the sun. This discovery is like finding it got hotter when the sun went down,' said Larry Lyons, UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences. 'We all have thought for our entire careers — I learned it as a graduate student — that this energy transfer rate is primarily controlled by the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field. The closer to southward-pointing the magnetic field is, the stronger the energy transfer rate is, and the stronger the magnetic field is in that direction. [It turns out that] if it is both southward and big, the energy transfer rate is even bigger.'" The researchers have two papers on the discovery coming out in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Saying "It's like something else is heating the atmosphere besides the sun" when they're talking about the interaction of the solar wind and the magnetosphere is more than a little disingenuous....
In other news, astrophysicists have announced that they now know what all that dark matter is: it's stupidity.
Sounds like another shoe drops in the solar - terrestial interactions with regard to global warming and climate change. Why wasn't this found 20 years ago? Because IPCC and NASA haven't been diligently working a major term, the many solar-terrestial interactions, in the general energy equation? Because they are happy worshipping simplistic false models that say "Send academia, modelers and autocrats more money"?
Can you support your premise that all scientists act in concert?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Okay so when I first saw the title, I read it as "Surprise! Discovery In Earth's Upper Atmosphere" and thought the landing a couple of days ago was a hoax or something.
it was something unexpected (which it was), so nobody was looking in this direction. It would be interesting to find out if this was discovered because of all the hoopla about GW. I am guessing that it is the case. IOW, this would not likely have been found except that ppl are concerned about getting the facts, rather than just trolling.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
"It's like something else is heating the atmosphere besides the sun."
The orbiting teapot must have boiled! ;)
It was a MS virus that all the researchers touched and got infected with. Now, we are in a botnet phase. I mean, hey, nearly all scientist support weird ideas, like the earth not being the center of the universe, and that it is older than 5K year, or that GW is at least strongly influenced by mankind's contribution.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Lots of money flowed to W and the neo-cons and now they are gone. See, a massive problem existed; money was thrown at it, and it nearly all went away (well, not the teabaggers; apparently they did not get enough of what ever they want).
So, when you throw money/whatever at a problem, it goes away.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I hope it's not a subspace anomaly left open by a Goa'uld mothership!
> "Heejeong separated the data into when the solar wind was fluctuating a lot and when it
> was fluctuating a little," he added. "When the interplanetary magnetic field fluctuations
> are low, she saw the pattern everyone knows,
That is, the likelihood of "substorms" in Earh's ionoshpere is a function of how "northward"
or "southward" Earth's manetosphere is. More southward, more storms, worse
satellite TV reception.
> but when she analyzed the pattern when the interplanetary magnetic field was
> fluctuating strongly, that pattern completely disappeared. Instead, the strength of the
> flows depended on the strength of the fluctuations.
There's this "interplanetary magnetic field" between the Sun and Earth. The solar wind
is Earthward charged particles from the Sun. These particles interact with the Earth's
magnetisphere. When you have large changes in the solar wind, there are more
substorms, and worse satellite TV reception.
So, pseudo-diff-eq, their contribution is the second term (or maybe I'm missing the point):
substorm likelihood =
southwardness of magnetosphere +
change of solar wind intensity with respect to time
Poor graduate student. So much data...
It's good to see some basic science being done though. More, please!
If I throw money at the democrats will they go away?
If you don't, they will be just like the neo-cons; they will likely steal it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Would there be some way to tap the energy from these fluctuations? Instead of solar power arrays in space, could we just have giant blimps floating in the upper atmosphere with large coils in their superstructure to take advantage of magnetic fluctuations? They could then beam that energy down as microwaves to a receiving station.
well, not the teabaggers
I really don't understand why that's supposed to be funny...
I mean, I get why one regularly sees "M$" and "window$" and other equally stupid things on slashdot, but that one I don't get.
I suppose its relevant to point out the polarized views we see spewing out of the US are not interacting with the earths magnetosphere.
solar winds = sun. root cause people.....
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
I read the title, and said "the landing was a hoax?"
Tesla predicted, then went out and measured it a century ago. He went on to show how the energy could be tapped and directed on a global scale.
Formal equations were worked out by Heaviside and then for the next 100 years from time to time people rediscover part of it and claim they're first.
Schumann applied it to global lightning detection but seems to have missed entirely that the energy can be accessed.
Why is this being tagged "climate change" with people yammering about global warming? This is a previously unexpected form of energy transfer but would have been occuring since...oh...our planet had a magnetosphere and there is not a single mention in the article concerning climate change or global warming.
Larry: This discovery is like finding it got hotter when the sun went down.
Interviewer: So, the temperature actually goes up when the sun sets?
Larry: Er, no.
Interviewer: No? What does happen then?
Larry: Um, well... the temperature goes... down, I guess.
Interviewer: Okay. Thanks for that Larry.
TFA is one of the most confused articles I've seen in a long time.
If Stuart Wolpert had just let the scientists write it, chances are it might be intelligible. As it is it was muddled, convoluted, mis-stated, and just plain wrong on many points.
Never let a journalism student, or worse yet, one who hung around after graduating into the Science buildings.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Whales and flowerpots.
Disappointment is me.
it sounds like the earth has evolved to absorb even rear-facing southward magnetic solar wind. Darwin was right!
well, not the teabaggers
I really don't understand why that's supposed to be funny...
I mean, I get why one regularly sees "M$" and "window$" and other equally stupid things on slashdot, but that one I don't get.
usually to "teabag" someone means to put your nutsac/balls up against their chin. the implication of course is that the one getting teabagged is "the bitch" of the person doing the teabagging. what that has to do with the atmosphere is anyone's guess
Only one of those links seemed like a credible source, the BBC (which was broken link but one that could be easily modified to work). I did want to give the two other ones a chance, though.
BBC article doesn't tell about any flaws in the current scientific consensus on anything. It simply mentions that Al Gore's video was found to not stay true to the consensus on 9 things. Nothing major in climate warming, just specific, poorly chosen examples. An example given:
The climateaudit has a FAQ. One of the questions is "Does your work disprove global warming?" and the answer:
And then... It also has a newer entry that newer, published data no longer has these problems!
Your link actually supports the claims! (or well, it says that the reports about it are scientific and fully auditable)
The skeptical science link... It's just pure bullshit. Just look at the comments which give reference links.
Conservative retards have been throwing 'tea parties' lately to protest the evil government wanting to beat them up and take their lunch money and use it to murder babies. I don't think any of them have been told yet that they've forgotten the "without representation" part of the slogan. Calling it "teabagging" is an equally mature and significantly more amusing response to such actions.
Hello, hello, hello. After how much time some REAL Science - and not GreenPeace fictions about Hummers warming the Earth. Not that I think anyone has any sane reason to own or operate such a behemoth. All this "Global Warming" is 100% B.S. run by politicos for their own unlisted agendas.
Yeah, I know... and I get why Anderson Cooper would think that's hilarious.
What I don't understand is why your average garden variety left-winger on the internet (where you tend to hear/see it the most)--whether it be slashdot, kos, wherever else--thinks it's so hilarious. I guess what it boils down to for me is, I think it's downright odd how the Democratic party which wholeheartedly embraced liberty, freedom, and the "common man" at its core a generation ago--and still pays lip service to such things--has of late become so dominated by primarily the upper middle classes and the highly educated who are perfectly content to just trust in the government (and ad hom those who don't). I don't understand the scorn for the lower middle class / poor / etc who seem to be at these kind of rallies.
I'll be the first to admit that there are a lot of things I don't understand... but the pure vitriol and loathing of the populist townhall protestors and tax protestors is just ... weird! ... to me.
I don't understand the scorn for the lower middle class / poor / etc who seem to be at these kind of rallies.
I see. You have not been to one of these. It is NOT the lower middle class/poor. I went to one in Denver. Watching ppl drive away in Suburbans is not my idea of lower middle class. Think that there is a real reason why it is pushed by rush?
The idea that this represents the common man would be like having the king of england attend the boston tea party. Basically, the very ppl, neo-cons, that ran up the vast majority of the debt are attending it and trying to point the finger at obama. Now, I am not a fan of Obama's action (though even as a Libertarian, I voted for him to avoid the thought of Palin as a pres), I can say that he was put in a horrible situation. OTH, I have not been impressed by his actions.
But the tea baggers keep pointing their finger at dems while out and out refusing to take responsibility for the nightmare that they got us into. These are the same sets of idiots that voted in W. TWICE.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Reread the post. He was being ironic.
Of course, there is a manner in which scientists do work in concert, and that's in 'consensus'. On this issue, the consensus is pretty clear.
If it's in you sig, it's in your post.
There are constant changes to the model, but nothing HUGE. My understanding from talking to some NOAA scientists that I know, that it would take something totally unknown coming from out of the solar system or from the middle of the earth.
As they pointed out, the simplest item to look at are the glaciers. Overall, they are melting very fast. Some new ones are started, but that is due to increased moisture in the air. That is like the center of Antarctica is growing again, but that is due to increased moisture due to the high melting towards the edge. It use to be melting took place truly on the edge, and now, it is quite far inland.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Cool. Well, then it is not sticking. Will all the hot air will continue to warm up say mars or the moon?
I mean I can try to imagine some of the views spewing out of EU, Asia, Africa, South/Central America sure are not heating anything up. Why,just read some of what the froggies say about their upcoming tax. They are so mild about How about what the Germans talking about their nuke power plants being shut down and then depending on Natural gas from Russia and Turkey/Iran, as well as Coal from local and polish mines. No hot air on any of those debates. China? Well, they have less human hot air. Of course, when they do talk about things (perhaps how their gov handled the response on the earthquakes, etc), they just shot in the head or put in prison. They just do what their government says to do.
You know, come to think about, Maybe, just maybe, all nations that are democracy have lots of divergent views that are being spouted all over. What do you think coward?
... its HAARP
Those lower class people are the ones who believe the Earth was created 6000 years ago. Blindly trusting government has its risks, but it beats trusting some TV evangelist any time.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The hell are you going on about? that had nothing to do with hot air or pollution, it had to do with how people insist all opinions be either lumped into either democratic or republican bents, and then turning any debate into an us versus them argument rather than approaching each issue individually. You then have people going along with things in both parties, not because of reason but because you gotta root for your team..
you know...like a magnetic dipole.... story being about ionized particles interacting with the magnetosphere causing an energy transfer not the sun spewing hot air....
Military buffs get the things to show that they too can get the quality you expect from the lowest bidder at a special inflated military price.
Then again...
This IS Slashdot, so it is quite understandable that many might first think of a Hummer instead of a hummer, despite all those references OP made to "wives" and "girlfriends".
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"This discovery is like finding it got hotter when the sun went down"
Oh really? He's never been to New Mexico, then. I swear it has sometimes become hotter after the sun's gone down during the summers.
IRREVERENT AND RATHER OFF-TOPIC ANONYMOUS COWARD POWERS ENGAGE!
PhDs were from those schools, not those schools' faculty.
Prof was fired as an outside consultant and consulting company with a payroll of about a dozen with a cushy contract, about $3m/yr in today's scrip, by a Fortune 50 company, not as a professor. And it was an unpublicized matter that neither wanted out in public.
The prof would have jeopardized future funding, grants and donations where he was actively seeking about $50m in today's scrip, and had been lead to expect a good chunk of it if he could deliver technically and politically. The contracting F50 company and manager would have been further embarrassed over various failure issues.
Basically, the very ppl, neo-cons, that ran up the vast majority of the debt are attending it and trying to point the finger at obama.
You seem to ignore that fact that the vast majority of the debt was run up under a Democrat controlled congress.
Interesting, first poster says:
Lots of money flowed to W and the neo-cons and now they are gone ...
So, when you throw money/whatever at a problem, it goes away.
This was pretty funny, and not surprisingly, was modded so... then the followup posts this comment:
If I throw money at the democrats will they go away?
For some reason - that was modded troll? I found the second one as equally amusing, and fail to see how the second was any more trollish than the first - particularly when the first even referred to tea-party protesters as "tea-baggers"
To me, the most interesting point of this discovery is that it should improve our understanding of shortwave radio propagation.
It has always frustrated me that the same space program that is producing the data needed to understand the physics needed to make accurate, day-to-day predictions of ionospheric propagation -- a hundred-year-old mystery -- is also the same space program that replaced commercial HF communication with satellites, greatly reducing the economic value of such predictions (and, therefore, the science funding to make them). So now that we have the ability, we no longer have the desire . . . unless one is an amateur radio operator, and it's harder to think of an entity lower on the economic value chain than that.
The most difficult path for shortwave links is one that passes near the magnetic poles, like the path from Southeast Asia to the US East Coast that passes over the north magnetic pole. Energy from the solar wind couples into the Earth's magnetic field; in particular, charged particles are directed parallel to the field. This is great for propagation over most of the planet; however, near the poles the magnetic field becomes vertical and these particles are directed perpendicular to the ground, where they form a ring of radio wave attenuation and refraction in the upper atmosphere that closes this path for many days out of a given month. To open this path there has to be minimal energy coupling from the solar wind, and there is very little understanding of when this will occur. Even the best propagation prediction software (e.g., VOACAP and Proplab Pro) is based on statistics, giving one the probability of a given path being open.
This discovery should add to our understanding of how and when these paths will open. Until then, we have to survive on "Space Weather" web sites like these, and turn on a radio to see for ourselves what the day brings.
(Those interested in an accessible introduction to HF propagation can check out K9LA's propagation site.)
really? The pubs had control of congress from 94-2000, while the dems had control of the presendcy; The pubs had TOTAL control of dc from 2000-2006. pubs had WH from 2006-2008, while neither party control congress during that time (dems controlled house, but the pubs had a slight edge on the senate).
So, where did it get us?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms It MASSIVELY shot up when pubs had total control. It does not appear to matter which congress has it, but which president has it. For example, reagan and W never saw a deficit that they did not love. OTH, CLINTON (a dem) fought against the neo-con deficit and turned it around. So do the dem controlled congress of the 60's/70's, who paid off most of WWII debt.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Have you missed the fact that people all across the nation are angry with both republicans and democrats? More than one republican who assumed that he could just get in front of this movement has been booed off the stage.
Politicians are the problem. The republican/democrat distinction is just a distraction. Both sides want to take away your freedoms and your money - they just pay lip service to different ideals when they do it.
a tech guy would be asking how big is this effect and other,
like, technical questions. the politics here are boorish.
That damn unshielded reactor just keeps causing us problems - damn it, damn it to hell. But seriously, this kind of reminds me of the Tacoma Narrows bridge failure. Second order forces thought to be inconsequential end up causing a dramatic change in behavior. Also, the vitriol of many comments is amazing. Probably sounds just like the Church when discussing a certain Italian.
Conservative, mod down for violating
I don't understand the scorn for the lower middle class / poor / etc who seem to be at these kind of rallies.
I'll be the first to admit that there are a lot of things I don't understand... but the pure vitriol and loathing of the populist townhall protestors and tax protestors is just ... weird! ... to me.
A lot of the scorn from the left for the Tea Parties and the Town Hall protesters is simply due to the fact that they're opposing President Obama and questioning health care reform.
Many, many of the attendees are the same people who were denounced as bitterly clinging to their guns and religion in the run up to the election. They've also been portrayed as racists for not supporting Obama, never mind that most of them probably vote Republican and would not have supported him in the first place seeing as he was the Democrat's candidate.
They may have legitimate questions about the health care reform but some of them are being ham-handed in expressing that, others are being flat out rude and uncivil.
As far as the Tea Parties grow a lot of the folks going there have real complaints. But what needs to be paid attention to is who is organizing these events. In lots of cases you'll find the organizers are Ron Paul supporters. You'll also find far less savory folks involving themselves with these events like the John Birch Society, and even some racist groups, which while not necessarily openly racist do hold to racial supremacist beliefs.
...is a flame war centred around the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Can one of our atheist friends here on Slashdot outline to us, where this discovery stands in relation to the Second Law? Have we finally arrived at the moment we've all been breathlessly waiting for; the Second Law's violation?
I'm seriously hoping so; I've waited for years now for the ability to have a magnetic motor next to the power supply in my desktop, and run it without plugging it into the wall. That would seriously be awesome. ;)
Does it run Linux?
{{.sig}}
Your unspoken assumption (that the poor and lower class are somehow politically "pure") and revolution must come from the bottom up is ridiculous outmoded 20th century fringe left thinking.
Every western liberal movement in history has been driven by the upper and upper middle classes. Do you people actually think Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson were just "middle class" regular Joes? From the Lords in the middle ages who conspired against their king to give us the Magna Carta to the idle over educated wealthy children of Merchants in the 1700-1800s who didn't like the establishment and so decided to use their wealth and connections to agitate and stage liberal revolutions over throwing their respective kings.
Every great western movement against governments has been driven by the well to do who have the time, means and connections to sit around and ponder over throwing the king in the first place.
We have ample opportunity to see what happens when the poor and lower class overthrow their governments and take control by the way. Every third world country and half of Eastern Europe and South America through the 19th and 20th century answered that question.
This uniquely western middle class self hatred must stop.
Exactly. Appealing to populist demand is fucking insanely stupid. Shit, why not put Paris Hilton in the VP office at least we know there will be something good to watch, duh doy dee duh doy dee duh.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
Vast majority of debt? Obama has/will have spent more than George W. Bush spent in 2 terms in 1 term. Lest you not forget that Obama actually voted FOR the TARP which he is now blaming on Bush. Neo-cons might have started the trend, but your guys isn't doing a damn thing to stop it. Quit complaining.
At one time scientific consensus was that washing your hands before operating was unnecessary and the man who suggested otherwise was turned into a pariah.
And that "Miasma" was the cause of tuberculosis despite hard evidence to the contrary.
Consensus means absolutely nothing if you are being rational about the matter.
really? The pubs had control of congress from 94-2000, while the dems had control of the presendcy; The pubs had TOTAL control of dc from 2000-2006. pubs had WH from 2006-2008, while neither party control congress during that time (dems controlled house, but the pubs had a slight edge on the senate).
So, where did it get us?
Um... a budget surplus?
First, stop considering who is in the WH. They only make suggestions to the congress. Congress is in control of spending. Sure, the Prez can veto a budget, but then the government shuts down and the Prez gets the blame because ignorant people don't understand that congress controls the government.
OTH, CLINTON (a dem) fought against the neo-con deficit and turned it around.
Bullshit. Read the above statement. CONGRESS CONTROLS THE BUDGET! Clinton tried to veto it and Newt shut the government down. Clinton had to give in and not get all the liberal, hippie, tree hugging BS he wanted.
The pubs had TOTAL control of dc from 2000-2006. pubs had WH from 2006-2008, while neither party control congress during that time (dems controlled house, but the pubs had a slight edge on the senate).
The Republicans barely had control... it was so close in fact that when a single Republican changed party, it changed control. (Jeffords sound familiar)! Matter of fact, when Jeffords jumped to become and an independent, it gave control of the Senate back to the Democrats. Republicans gained control of the Senate in 2003 but lost the control again in 2005. So that's just TWO years that Repubicans held the Senate. Those two years by the way broke records in regards to government tax receipts because the economy was so good. Although I agree that spending was out of control... That happens when the control is so close. You can't get anything passed without paying everyone off.
At one time scientific consensus was that washing your hands before operating was unnecessary . . .
To be fair, that consensus was held before science was applied to the proposition of washing your hands before surgery.
By your rationale, I would assume you do not know how to read or write, as once upon a time in the not-too-distant past, you couldn't speak, frequently shit your pants, and crawled around all day eating debris off the floor.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
"It does not appear to matter which congress has it, but which president has it."
uh huh
"the dem controlled congress of the 60's/70's, who paid off most of WWII debt"
Make up yer damn mind already.
You Parisians would be amusing if you weren't so sad. The two party system is one of the greatest evils ever pushed upon mankind.
So the democrats have total control now, so why am I constantly hearing shrill screaming from "the left" about the evil republicans stopping the magical quarter billion person national health care and *never* hearing about the same type of "evil" democrats who are the *real people stopping it*.
If the democrats wanted it they could just vote for it. How does the average "left" wing supporters head not implode from the cognitive dissonance on display at the moment?
Anyway isn't attributing deficits to the President disengenous given the fact that it's the congress that manages the money...
WindBourne I've been on this site for many years and you are most definately *not* a Libertarian, you are a Social Democrat through and through.
Stop talking out of your bum it cheapens us all.
Republican President & Republican Congress: deficits soar
Republican President & Democratic Congress: deficits increase, but not as much
Democratic President and Democratic Congress: again, deficits increase but not as much as the first pairing, but taxes increase even more
Democratic President and Republican Congress: we get surplusses
The last nine years seem to reinforce the pattern. It seems that when the government is divided between the two parties, and for some reason a Democrat is in the Oval Office, we're better off economically. Seems like a good reason to give Congress back to the Republicans in '10 and give them and Obama a chance to work things out through '16.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Can you support your premise that all scientists act in concert?
There's some bias in this direction when funding is centralized. I'm sure somebody can provide a concrete example, but as heresay, I've been told that a scientist simply can't get funded for certain areas of investigation.
And not just "way out whacky" stuff, but things that go against the grain. Chugging-vials-of-h.pylori kinds of experiments, for instance. Sometimes the consensus is wrong, yet it's expensive to find that out.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The LMC/"poor" are politically illiterate and are too busy surviving to attend rallies.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Well, just to be trite:
When you have R/R, then they'll gleefully spend money on their political cronies in big business.
When you have R/D, the branches are opposed, so the Presidency puts some brakes on Congressional spending.
When you have D/D, the branches are working together to spend, but also to bring in the money for more spending.
When you have D/R, the branches are opposed, so the Republicans end up remembering their "fiscal responsibility" tagline just to piss off the Democrats.
It's like a woman, the more you try to understand, the more crazy and disappointed you will be in the end.
You have people here who think down modding means "I don't agree with your post" and that agreement is never subject to reality.
I'm thinking the problem is, there are no viable 3rd Party alternatives. All we see are the different sides of the same coin, and no matter what we choose, we have to compromise something and 'accept the lesser evil'. The problem is, the lesser evil is still evil no matter how you slice it. And of course, no current Party fits all my wants.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
You can't despise both sides of the isle, that's against the rules!
Your observation is the result of democrats attempting to play the underdog card. A few posts up someone even attempts to misconstrue the number of seats held by the republicans from 2000 to 2006 without even bothering to check just because this point was hit so hard with him.
The problem is, the people are against most of the health care reforms. I know at least 5 people who claimed to of been life long democrats until the dems started calling them republicans for being against the current health care bills in congress. They are claiming they will vote party line republican from now on because of it. There are a lot of problems in the legislation on the hill, we have seen how the sloppy rushing through congress has failed in the past and Nancy Pelosi's no debate vote without enough time to even read let alone understand the bill and amendments added to the house bill before forcing a party line vote has infuriated plenty of people who would have been supportive if we just took our time and did it right. With representatives mocking people wanting to be thorough and saying you would need two days and two lawyers just to understand the bills, it's painfully clear that they do not care what is happening as long as they can place their name to it.
A lot of people who used to blame republicans for everything are waking up and realizing it's not better under democrats. This first became obvious with the TARP legislation in which the loudest speaker against companies using bailout money to pay bonuses turned out to be the same one who put the wording into the law that makes it legal. When the dems can't even remember what they did, or attempt to ignore it instead of fixing it, or are the reasons the mess exists in the first place (I'm looking at you Ted Kennedy), eventually people will look at it and wake up.
I'm the poster of the article because this is from my dad's lab at UCLA. While I must profess great ignorance about much of what he does and this piece of research in particular, he has been telling me about this work for a while. Basically, he is a weather scientist, but instead of studying weather patterns that directly affect earth's surface (e.g. rain storms and tornadoes), he studies the weather in earth's upper atmosphere, and specifically in the magnetosphere where earth's atmosphere interacts with the solar wind. His primary focus is to understand the dynamics and triggers of weather storms there, called magnetospheric substorms -- which, besides from causing some havoc with satellites and communications, also cause the aurora, or northern lights. While this has nothing to do with global warming, it is quite interesting as his group discovered that there is a much larger influx of energy into the magnetosphere than was previously thought. For all those here with space/physics/weather/atmosphere interests, I thought it would be of interest. As previously noted, this is solid basic research that furthers our understanding of how our planet works at the interface with space.
Yes, this! ^ Parent should NOT have been modded down - get a grip people, stop being morons with your mod points.
People want to tax everyone, and pour that tax money into mostly useless "carbon credit" schemes. If and when those carbon credits include the reforestation of the continents, I'll sit up and take notice. Almost every other scheme that I've seen is just harebrained chicanery, designed to move money from MY wallet to some politician's best buddy's wallet.
This is why I can't accept much of the effort being shown to combat this global warming.
The efforts I DO support include, reducing emissions, finding cleaner energy sources, general conservation (reducing waste), stricter laws on hazardous waste - common sense things.
Meanwhile, I despise the alarmists for their efforts to rob people. Carbon credits my ass.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I'm on the fence between something like GOOOH or just switching to random lotteries instead of elections.
Congratulations, you won the internet!
I'm constantly, cynically impressed by how few people even mention that fact. It's almost as if the entire environmentalist community doesn't want anyone to know that the natural world has global-scale mechanisms in place to balance things out. What are they afraid of?
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
There's a lot of money available for destroying the Global Warming consensus regardless.
Play Command HQ online
If even a handful of Republicans were serious about health care reform, the handful of asshole Democrats (and ex-Democrats) who are holding things up wouldn't matter.
But the Republicans have made the mostly correct political calculation that if there is no bill, or if it's a bad bill, it's all over for the Democrats. They also know voting for a good deal won't help them politically. Republican party discipline is so good that no health care bill will get a single Republican vote no matter what.
That sets up a game of chicken between your average Democrat who wants to improve healthcare and get re-elected, and your asshole Democrat who doesn't give a shit about healthcare, he just doesn't want to face TV ads saying "Big Government Liberal" next year.
Play Command HQ online
Don't forget France.
"Anyway isn't attributing deficits to the President disengenous given the fact that it's the congress that manages the money..."
As if anyone in Congress gets blamed for anything. My congressmen brings home the bacon! Sure he's been in office over 20 years, and gets over 60% of the popular vote thanks to all those wonderful corporate sponsored commercials; but I know he's still looking out for my best interests.
Common Sense
Um, no. I had been voting Libertarian for MANY ELECTIONS (including Rob Paul). I have simply opposed you neo-cons. There are FAR too many neo-cons that try to claim that they are Libertarian and then try to control the party. Sadly, these days, it is working. That thought that we had Barr, a true fucking neo-con, as a candidate made my skin crawl. Now, do I support all elements? Nope. But then again, neither do you, or other wanna-be's.
So, in your word, go back to your party. You bring illogical and irrational thoughts to my party.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
a pokemon maybe?
Slashdot ya no es que lo era!
You do realize that it is the President which creates the budget, then submits it to Congress for consideration? I might suggest taking Civics 101 before spewing out another post of informed bullshit.
The next couple of elections could be interesting. People voted for the Democrats because they were tired of the Republicans. Now they are pissed off at the Democrats, so they won't make that mistake again. Not enough time has passed for them to forget why they are pissed at the Republicans, so who are they going to vote for? If a third party plays its cards right, they could find themselves as a major contender. Of course, since the current system favors two parties, it would be at the expense of one of the two major parties - almost certainly the Republicans as they are becoming more and more irrelevant every day. Maybe it's time to bring back the Whigs?
Only one of those links seemed like a credible source ...
That denialists uncritically embrace any pseudo-science which bears out their ideological prejudices is perhaps unsurprising. What is astounding, is that they then insist we call them 'sceptics.'
"The idea that this represents the common man would be like having the king of england attend the boston tea party."
They represent the people who are paying the bills. The fact that you don't believe they are the "common man" is telling. The finger should be pointed at everyone who spent and wants to spend massively and take yet more money from the producers.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
In case you missed it, the 2008 Presidential election was considered to be a populist victory.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html ...shows how U.S. department of energy misleads the cause.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101102724 ...shows how the null hypothesis (read: human-made CO2 concentration is significant enough to change global climite) was protected via sabotage.
Common sense might tell you that seafloor spreading and the geothermal activity account for more of an increase in ocean and ground temperatures than air temperature can possible account for. Can't link you to any common sense so you'll have to discover that on your own.