It's always interesting to follow the money - The journal’s editor-in-chief, Sid-Ali Ouadfeul, works for the Algerian Petroleum Institute
It is good to follow money trails. But I wonder how many people lambasting this journal are noticing the money trail behind GMO crops that leads back to Monsanto. Seems that folks here tend to cherry-pick what science they care to believe, regardless of how tainted it might be.
And (while not pointing fingers at you) the popular belief here seems to be that AGW and GMO are sound, settled science, no matter who pays for the research. I have to just say that that's not a rational or scientific way to develop one's world view.
those who think that the scientific community are all conspiring to earn big bucks from climate change,
Misdirection. Scientists are not the ones looking to cash in -- they are being used by those who are looking to cash in, which is big business.
although quite how they earn this money is never spelled out.
Easy. Just look at where Al Gore invests his money. Hopefully I don't have to spell out how to find that information.
The scientific consensus is that anthropogenic global warming is a fact.
Things, whether they are in fact true or false, do not become true just because sufficient percentages of people believe them.
The consensus in Wisconsin might be that the Packers are the best football team, but that doesn't make it fact. It would simply mean that the majority prefer to remain delusional, rather than change their long-held beliefs.
That is not to suggest that ManBearPig is not real, but it takes more "6 out of 10 scientists believe ManBearPig is real and will kill everyone" to convince the rational mind.
That's how it starts... then slowly, inexorably, it sucks in the victim, drawing its sustenance in the form of human brains, eating our time for energy... thus creating more zombies who go on to further spread the Facebook.
Getting a marathon time from 3 hours to 2 hours might take some natural ability (whatever that is), but getting it from 15 hours to 4 hours is all effort (and knowing how to apply that effort).
Believing "brightness" to be an intrinsic character trait is a psychological crutch for those who view their intelligence as their only redeeming quality.
Nonsense. It's only one of my many redeeming qualities.
I really tire of the notion that people do not differ in intelligence. We know it about everything else, from sprinting speed, to artistic talent, to the strength of one's eyesight being inborn, but gods forbid we say that about brains.
Oh no, if we just spend enough money on schools, and feed little Johnny a federal breakfast, we'll find that everyone is smart enough to be an electrical engineer. Even all the little minority kids are geniuses but we lie and say they're not because racism. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. I'm sick of it.
I'm smarter than some people and dumber than others, and no amount of mental gymnastics is going to change that.
For any collective bigger than a 30-member hippy commune, joining has never in human history been voluntary.
Any collective that garners sufficient force to coerce others to join WILL eventually use that power. While it's generally silly to argue over the world of science fiction -- knowing what we know about humans thus far, the Borg could not exist without coercion.
It's almost happening already. Look at all the zombies staring at their little phone screens, updating the hive mind, or Facebook, whatever you want to call it. It's cute and convenient for those participating, but I have to say it's getting a bit disturbing from the perspective of the outside observer. I have to go with Louis CK on this that smartphones are bad for society... but I'll add that it's only the beginning of a very un-human future.
Back then, respectable housewives were expected to keep a spotless house, do all the laundry/ironing, prepare gourmet meals for their "hard working" husbands - and unexpected visits from the boss, and a lot of other stuff. Generally without the benefit of modern conveniences such as automatic dishwashers and microwave ovens.
And now that we have all those modern conveniences -- every appliance in the house designed to reduce the "woman's work" load -- that leaves us with no meaningful home work for a woman to do, so is it any surprise they become entitled spoiled bitches?
I can't remember the last time I met a woman under 30 who could actually cook from scratch. Or use an iron. Or neatly fold laundry.
I have friends whose wives are of the 'stay-at-home' variety, with no children... and their houses are filthy. Home cooking? Yeah, good luck with that. If you don't work outside the home, cook, clean, do laundry or yardwork, don't garden, and don't have kids to care for... what the fuck good are you?
Nowadays, (younger) women seem to think they've done their part for civilization by "letting" you have sex with them.
What kind of nonsense commie bullshit is that? Of course you're rewarded for wealth... you can buy more shit, nicer shit, and not give a shit. What is wealth? It's the reward for doing shit. Doing more than someone else. Even if you are wealthy because of committing crimes, you are rewarded for taking risk.
You want more for yourself? Go fucking get it. Or do you just want others you are envious of to have less? Either way, it does say an awful lot about you as a person, doesn't it....
If you won the lottery tomorrow, would you completely stop pursuing self-improvement?
On the contrary. I'd *start* pursuing self-improvement... well, I already do, but I'd have more time for it.
I think that says more about you than it does about the necessity of continuing institutionalized wealth-based discrimination.
I'm pretty sure you misunderstood somehow what I wrote. Not surprising from someone who uses phrases like "institutionalized wealth-based discrimination" to describe a phenomenon that a) has been around since the beginning of time, b) is natural as sunrise, c) is never going to change no matter what, and d) when politicians use it, is code for "continue taxing the middle class out of existence by playing on their petty jealousies".
Ya know... if I want more out of life, and someone else has it, I'll steal it honestly, the old-fashioned way.
It's another "evil white males holding down the rest of the planet" story. Yawn.
Who invented computers in the first place? Or is it somehow "racist" to point that out?
Also, money gives you and your family an advantage in life. This is news? Why else would anyone bother to do better for themselves, or bother to try and earn more than the minimum amount necessary to sustain life?
But still no product on the market. I first read about them in a magazine back in about 1993. 20 years gone by and I can't buy a retrofit head for a 4-banger. Seems their patents should be about up.
It would be great if we could just focus on the sustainability, the renewable energy, the clean air & water.
Those are *tangible* things that we can explain to everyone, and everyone can take simple steps to work on. I can do this, you can do this... even the developing world can play this game. **
Instead we have this "climate change" bogeyman that no one understands, and for which there are thus far no solutions proposed beyond regulation and taxation -- i.e. more power and wealth for the wealthy and powerful.
** Buy less crap you don't need. Plant food, not lawns. Plant trees to shade your house in summer. Keep your car tires properly inflated, it saves gas. Turn lights off. Turn off the TV and talk with your neighbors. Get solar if you can afford it. Ride a bike instead of driving, one day a month. Eat local. Buy a chest freezer and buy your meat a whole cow at a time -- saves lots of styrofoam trays and plastic wrap and trips to the store. Etc etc etc. Saving the planet saves you money too. It's common sense, but I'm sure we'd all hate to see government force us to do this stuff.
Greening the deserts is not a risk free proposition. You could easily shift local or global weather patterns, depending on how much greening you do and where you do it.
That is true... however, we could work at it for quite a while just to catch up the last few decades of desertification, let alone centuries. For example, did you know Lebanon was once forested? You'd never guess looking at it today.
Also, given that *generally* more vegetation brings better rainfall patterns, we're usually looking at a *positive* shift in weather.
Some folks who know more than I do have suggested that warming (assuming that's the trend) brings more evaporation, more rain, thus re-vegetation and greening deserts -- which then converts more CO2 to oxygen and soil carbon... a somewhat self-regulating cycle, if you will.
There is no carbon sink like biomass and topsoil, so IF -- IF -- CO2 is gonna kill us all, we'd be wise to increase the biomass and topsoil. Not that it's a bad idea anyway, but this would require we stop worrying about ManBearPig, and actually do something resembling work -- something my conservative farmer friends already do, but no doubt scares the "progressives" a bit.
Because all the kerfuffle here in the Rocky Mountain West the last decade has been hot summers and drought -- AS PROOF -- of global warming. It's in the papers here as soon as the temperature goes over 90F. Warming, warming, warming, we're all gonna die.
Well, since Climate != Weather, why can't I say that the hot dry summers are proof of global cooling? After all, it's perfectly reputable, apparently, to say that -40F winter wind chill is proof of warming!
I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it:
Some of us already know what we should be doing. We should be building topsoil, planting trees, building alternative energy supplies, cleaning the air, cleaning the water, greening the deserts; in short, taking the simple steps to making Earth a little better.
(Adding something like 1" of topsoil to America's farm land would sequester more CO2 than man has ever emitted, IIRC, and we could actually do that simultaneously with growing bio-fuels...!)
AGW (whether true or false) is just something for people to argue about while governments and corporations make the biggest power grab in the history of power grabs. Divide and conquer at work.
Slashdot Mirror
Haha! And they say piracy is bad!
It is good to follow money trails. But I wonder how many people lambasting this journal are noticing the money trail behind GMO crops that leads back to Monsanto. Seems that folks here tend to cherry-pick what science they care to believe, regardless of how tainted it might be.
And (while not pointing fingers at you) the popular belief here seems to be that AGW and GMO are sound, settled science, no matter who pays for the research. I have to just say that that's not a rational or scientific way to develop one's world view.
FAR more harmful than forcing companies to label their GMO products. The two types of anti-science behavior are alike in kind,
Waaaait... so NOT labeling foods with the types of ingredients they contain... is sound science?
Wut?
Does the sound science also support repealing the rest of the labeling laws already in place?
I guess I'm having a hard time wrapping my unscientific hillbilly brain around that one, slick.
Misdirection. Scientists are not the ones looking to cash in -- they are being used by those who are looking to cash in, which is big business.
Easy. Just look at where Al Gore invests his money. Hopefully I don't have to spell out how to find that information.
Things, whether they are in fact true or false, do not become true just because sufficient percentages of people believe them.
The consensus in Wisconsin might be that the Packers are the best football team, but that doesn't make it fact. It would simply mean that the majority prefer to remain delusional, rather than change their long-held beliefs.
That is not to suggest that ManBearPig is not real, but it takes more "6 out of 10 scientists believe ManBearPig is real and will kill everyone" to convince the rational mind.
"Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" is the only phrase that comes to mind.
The NSA is no longer collecting this information. If you were rational, you would be praising him.
This has *got* to be trolling. Would it actually be possible for anyone to believe this?
Facebook was voluntary last I heard.
That's how it starts... then slowly, inexorably, it sucks in the victim, drawing its sustenance in the form of human brains, eating our time for energy... thus creating more zombies who go on to further spread the Facebook.
Yeah? Tell that to a guy born with no legs.
Which is, incidentally, my point.
Except they will be patented... and your bacon price will reflect licensing costs....
Nonsense. It's only one of my many redeeming qualities.
I really tire of the notion that people do not differ in intelligence. We know it about everything else, from sprinting speed, to artistic talent, to the strength of one's eyesight being inborn, but gods forbid we say that about brains.
Oh no, if we just spend enough money on schools, and feed little Johnny a federal breakfast, we'll find that everyone is smart enough to be an electrical engineer. Even all the little minority kids are geniuses but we lie and say they're not because racism. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. I'm sick of it.
I'm smarter than some people and dumber than others, and no amount of mental gymnastics is going to change that.
For any collective bigger than a 30-member hippy commune, joining has never in human history been voluntary.
Any collective that garners sufficient force to coerce others to join WILL eventually use that power. While it's generally silly to argue over the world of science fiction -- knowing what we know about humans thus far, the Borg could not exist without coercion.
It's almost happening already. Look at all the zombies staring at their little phone screens, updating the hive mind, or Facebook, whatever you want to call it. It's cute and convenient for those participating, but I have to say it's getting a bit disturbing from the perspective of the outside observer. I have to go with Louis CK on this that smartphones are bad for society... but I'll add that it's only the beginning of a very un-human future.
Remember "We are the borg..." from Star Trek? Who can't remember that scene when Jean Luc Picard gets turned into a borg.
I am starting to think the Borg are humans from the future, if we're not careful with technology. "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
And now that we have all those modern conveniences -- every appliance in the house designed to reduce the "woman's work" load -- that leaves us with no meaningful home work for a woman to do, so is it any surprise they become entitled spoiled bitches?
I can't remember the last time I met a woman under 30 who could actually cook from scratch. Or use an iron. Or neatly fold laundry.
I have friends whose wives are of the 'stay-at-home' variety, with no children... and their houses are filthy. Home cooking? Yeah, good luck with that. If you don't work outside the home, cook, clean, do laundry or yardwork, don't garden, and don't have kids to care for... what the fuck good are you?
Nowadays, (younger) women seem to think they've done their part for civilization by "letting" you have sex with them.
Always?!
What kind of nonsense commie bullshit is that? Of course you're rewarded for wealth... you can buy more shit, nicer shit, and not give a shit. What is wealth? It's the reward for doing shit. Doing more than someone else. Even if you are wealthy because of committing crimes, you are rewarded for taking risk.
You want more for yourself? Go fucking get it. Or do you just want others you are envious of to have less? Either way, it does say an awful lot about you as a person, doesn't it....
On the contrary. I'd *start* pursuing self-improvement... well, I already do, but I'd have more time for it.
I'm pretty sure you misunderstood somehow what I wrote. Not surprising from someone who uses phrases like "institutionalized wealth-based discrimination" to describe a phenomenon that a) has been around since the beginning of time, b) is natural as sunrise, c) is never going to change no matter what, and d) when politicians use it, is code for "continue taxing the middle class out of existence by playing on their petty jealousies".
Ya know... if I want more out of life, and someone else has it, I'll steal it honestly, the old-fashioned way.
It's another "evil white males holding down the rest of the planet" story. Yawn.
Who invented computers in the first place? Or is it somehow "racist" to point that out?
Also, money gives you and your family an advantage in life. This is news? Why else would anyone bother to do better for themselves, or bother to try and earn more than the minimum amount necessary to sustain life?
make sure government does not get addicted to tax revenue from pot.
Umm... good luck with that. Government has never met a tax it doesn't like.
I dunno much about this "Yahoo" thing, but she does sport some lovely frocks... *swoon*
Sounds like conditions ripe for armed revolution.
Oh, wait...
Find me two cars you can rub together and get a third, without losing anything from the prior two.
Or tractors.
This is why the Amish are smart... and wealthy.
What ever happened to Coates International?
They're still there -- http://www.coatesengine.com/
But still no product on the market. I first read about them in a magazine back in about 1993. 20 years gone by and I can't buy a retrofit head for a 4-banger. Seems their patents should be about up.
That's how the Prius works. It's partly powered by smug.
I've seen that cartoon before... love it!
It would be great if we could just focus on the sustainability, the renewable energy, the clean air & water.
Those are *tangible* things that we can explain to everyone, and everyone can take simple steps to work on. I can do this, you can do this... even the developing world can play this game. **
Instead we have this "climate change" bogeyman that no one understands, and for which there are thus far no solutions proposed beyond regulation and taxation -- i.e. more power and wealth for the wealthy and powerful.
** Buy less crap you don't need. Plant food, not lawns. Plant trees to shade your house in summer. Keep your car tires properly inflated, it saves gas. Turn lights off. Turn off the TV and talk with your neighbors. Get solar if you can afford it. Ride a bike instead of driving, one day a month. Eat local. Buy a chest freezer and buy your meat a whole cow at a time -- saves lots of styrofoam trays and plastic wrap and trips to the store. Etc etc etc. Saving the planet saves you money too. It's common sense, but I'm sure we'd all hate to see government force us to do this stuff.
That is true... however, we could work at it for quite a while just to catch up the last few decades of desertification, let alone centuries. For example, did you know Lebanon was once forested? You'd never guess looking at it today.
Also, given that *generally* more vegetation brings better rainfall patterns, we're usually looking at a *positive* shift in weather.
Some folks who know more than I do have suggested that warming (assuming that's the trend) brings more evaporation, more rain, thus re-vegetation and greening deserts -- which then converts more CO2 to oxygen and soil carbon... a somewhat self-regulating cycle, if you will.
There is no carbon sink like biomass and topsoil, so IF -- IF -- CO2 is gonna kill us all, we'd be wise to increase the biomass and topsoil. Not that it's a bad idea anyway, but this would require we stop worrying about ManBearPig, and actually do something resembling work -- something my conservative farmer friends already do, but no doubt scares the "progressives" a bit.
Climate != Weather
Totally, right?
Because all the kerfuffle here in the Rocky Mountain West the last decade has been hot summers and drought -- AS PROOF -- of global warming. It's in the papers here as soon as the temperature goes over 90F. Warming, warming, warming, we're all gonna die.
Well, since Climate != Weather, why can't I say that the hot dry summers are proof of global cooling? After all, it's perfectly reputable, apparently, to say that -40F winter wind chill is proof of warming!
I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it:
Some of us already know what we should be doing. We should be building topsoil, planting trees, building alternative energy supplies, cleaning the air, cleaning the water, greening the deserts; in short, taking the simple steps to making Earth a little better.
(Adding something like 1" of topsoil to America's farm land would sequester more CO2 than man has ever emitted, IIRC, and we could actually do that simultaneously with growing bio-fuels...!)
AGW (whether true or false) is just something for people to argue about while governments and corporations make the biggest power grab in the history of power grabs. Divide and conquer at work.