" True, the general consensus is to generate numbers that indicate a general heating, but it's partly political - the funding agencies that support climatology don't want to support models that generate negative numbers, and so predicted cooling=no funding."
What basis do you have for this statement. It seems to me that it would be the opposite. If I wrote a paper saying that global warming was a hoax every republican, oil company, the chamber of commerce, etc would throw enough money at me to drown me. If I wrote a paper saying we will all die from global warming who is going the fund me? The national science foundation? the sierra club? who? Exxon/Mobil can outspend the sierra club AND the national science foundation by a hundred times and not even notice it.
Take for example Bjorn Lomborg the guy who wrote "the skeptical environmentalist" He is now a very rich person wheras most climatologist are still in the middle class. Even though most of Bjorn's arguments have been discredited he still get paid immense amounts of money to expound on his views by the republicans and big business.
So where are your numbers? has anybody done a study that shows that scientists that argue for global warming get more funds then the scientists that disagree.
I hate to break it to you but the smog got cleaned because the environmentalists pushed for it. The republicans, the chamber of commerce and the rest of industrial complex fought it every step of the way like they always do but thank god they lost. If the world was full of people like you then the smog would be even worse.
"Yes, I do. There is a huge pro-warming political mood in Washington"
Huh? what are you on crack or something. GW Bush is the president, gail norton is the interior secy, the republicans enjoy a mojority on the supreme court, The house is solidly republican and the senate is barely democratic. How does that add up to pro warming political mood let alone a "huge pro warming" political mood.
" But we've been dumping carbon in the atmosphere all century long. If human activity is to blame for the recent freshness, how can we explain the previous salinity when the human activity in question has more or less continued unchecked throughout the whole time period? "
Think about it wilya. Has the rate of CO2 emissions been linear during the last century? Has the human population stayed static during the last century? How about the rate of deforestation and the population of algea have they stayed static?
Of course not!
The human effect on the atmosphere is a exponential curve.
As for salinity. A higher degree of salinity helps the conveyor belt that's probably why he did not mention it in the article.
"Assuming that there was a massive crop failure, the federal government--and the military--would take steps to feed the American public, up to and including invading some other country, if necessary."
Interesting point. I imagine that we certainly would invade mexico and steal their food but I wonder what the longer term effects of starving out the population of mexico would be on the US economy.
For example I don't think we could effectively seal off the borders and they would come into the country to try and get food. Even if we could seal the borders and starve them to death who would take care of all the work migrants do now?
Interesting scenario I'd say. What reamins to be seen in this scenario is at what point would the US decide to steal food rather then pay higher prices. I would imagine that at first we would try to actually buy food but eventually we would kill to get it if the price was too high.
If Warner music has declared war on P2P users what is the logical next step?
Is this a one way war where they kill p2p users and destroy their equipment or will the users fight back? In most wars you would expect casualties on both sides even if one side is overwhemingly more powerful.
It will be intresting to see what kind of casualties will be inflicted on p2p users and warner music as a result of this war.
Also Most wars tend to expensive I wonder how this war will effect their share price.
It's obvious that the govt can indeed function very well. Look at the military for example. The model for the govt is different from the model of the commercial sector. In the commercial sector you can choose not to serve somebody. You can declare bankrupcy and screw your customers, employees, shareholders and creditors. You can pick and choose which markets you want to enter. You can pick and choose geographical markets. You can change your mind and drop products and services and enter new markets.
In a govt you don't have that choice. The post office has to deliver the mail anywhere to anybody. It can not pick and choose only profitable routes. Highways have to cross deserts and mountains no matter how expensive it is to build and maintain them.
No corporation could survive the demands put on a govt agency. It's not profitable to provide social security benefits or farm subsidies is it now?
The govt is in charge of doing essential but not profitable things like roads, disaster relief, law enforcement, military etc. If the govt feels that access to technology is just as important as access to roads by all means it should provide the infrastucture.
By developing and widely distributing subsidized chips and operating systems it enables private enterprise to function smoothly just like providing a nationwide highway system promotes commerce.
I think you read that wrong. Notice the phrase "the line was built on the foreign technology and completed with materials from a foreign country".
So you see by buying chips from intel they are helping the US economy. By building their own chips they are helping their own economy.
The same goes for windows. Everytime a chinese (or any other nationality for that matter) buys a copy of windows money flows out of their country and into the US where we can use it to build bombs so we can bomb the shit out of them when the tehir turn comes around.
The chinese are apparently wise to this scheme. They want to develop their own chips and use linux on it thereby keeping the money inside china helping the chinese companies and people as opposed to sending their money to the US.
It makes perfect sense I am surprised that other countries don't get it. I suspect the reason for that is the influence companies like MS and Intel have in democracies where they can buy politicians to act against the interests of their own countrymen. In a dictatorial communist regime that tactic is not very effective.
I have always wondered why very lucrative industries like operating systems and micro chips are not being actively pursued by other countries. It's not like they are not smart enough considering the some of the best and brightest engineers in this country are chinese, hindu, arab or whatever. Every dollar spent on windows or intel is one less dollar in their country and one more dollar in ours.
"And to think that my neighbors call me crazy! At least my data isn't being uploaded to a secret government satellite!"
I remember during the gulf war of Bush Sr. reading that the US had modified the chips of printers and computers going to Iraq to carry viruses and trojans. Why don't you do a search on google about it. The chinese are not stupid enough to presume that the computers going to china will have the exact same pentiums that you have.
I have no doubt half the computers in iraq, iran saudi arabia, china etc have rigged chips nor do I have any doubt half the software sent to those countries have trojans. It's an easy way to spy.
Re:The audacity of Valenti!
on
Eldred vs. Ashcroft
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Get GW to declare him an enemy combatant. Poof! Life in jail, no attorney, no charges, no case, no judge, no rights. Maybe the "interrogators" will confuse him for a taliban and take him on a "special ride".
Like I said you may stay on the sidelines like the most of the people in the world. It's your right.
For me when I hear Ballmer, gates and their mafioso call me a communist and a cancer I intend to fight back in whatever small way I can. If it means using linux, calling them names, encouraging other to boycott them, or whatever else it takes.
All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. In this case evil is winning because too many people are doing nothing.
No you are an enemy of Microsoft. Ballmer officially want to find a way to make sure you will never install linux or run linux programs. Every PC without windows costs him money.
Be it palladium or bought legislation Ballmer will eventually make it impossible for you to ever run linux or open source. You will be lucky if you don't end up in jail for doing it.
Let me repeat.
If you use linux you are an enemy of microft. Ms has declared war on you. Ballmer has already called you vile and evil things like communist or terrorist and compared you to cancer.
You may choose to ignore these attacks and continue to use windows, you may choose to just be a bystander or whatever. It's a free country. Some people are fighting back though.
There are a lot of pro MS, anti linux/open source sites out there. Why not go hang out there? Honestly why do you hang out here if you hate it? Seems silly.
Amazing that "religious intolerance" has become a crime in america. What next? holding people indefinately without charges or access to lawyers? Oh wait a minute never mind.
"It is fundamentally antisemitic to start out with a prima facie assumption that Palestinians have a right to a homeland that legitimizes their violence, but that Jews do not have the same right to a homeland that allows for violent response."
No it's not. Those are political issues and not racial ones. Choosing one side of a political debate is not racism and you should not invoke the race card when people disagree with you.
"Furthermore, they assert in blanket fashion that the Palestinians are victims of oppression"
I don't think this is under dispute is it?
The palestenians have no state. They are occupied by the israeli army. They are routinely put under curfew by the israeli army. they don't have the rights to move around freely. They are routinely killed by the israeli army. They are routinely arrested without charges and access to lawyers. They are routinely tortured. They are suffering from starvation and malnutrition. They are being denied water by the israeli govt. They are being deported and otherwise expelled.
Sorry but all of these are undisputed facts. You say that historically they have been violent people and perhaps that justifes putting 800,000 people under curfew for a couple of months to you but not for me. To the uncritical supporters of israel every action they do is somehow justified in the past or in the bible or something. If any other country did what they are doing I bet you would be against it.
For me there is no justification for torture, no justification for ethnic cleansing, no justification for apartheid, no justification for starving women and children, no justification for destroying other peoples property because a relative committed murder, no justification for forced expulsion, no justfication for taking peoples land and setting up settlements on it.
Israel can't have it both ways. Either it won the war, took the land fair and square and is occuying it legaly or it's in a state of war with palestenians.
If it won the war it needs to do what conqering countries do. Make those people citizens and try to fold them into your culture.
If it's in a state of war then obey the geneva conventions and get the job over with. The palestenians are no match for the most powerful military in the world (the israeli army is the most powerful because it is actually the combined US and the israeli army). Kill them and get it over with slowly torturing them is not making you look good.
Otherwise what you have left is apartheid. It works for a while but eventually it will be lifted, history shows that.
The scientology HQ is actually a ship in international waters at all times. It's immune from the law in any land and is pretty much immune to any kind of attack from a rogue individual. I am afraid you will need a submarine, missile, or a battle ship to destroy their headquarters.
Be careful. If you paint everybody who critizes israel as anti semitic you are buying into the "zionism is racism argument". In other words if critizing israel (zionism) is the exact same thing as critizising the jewish people then there is no difference between zionism and racism.
Besides both palestenians and israelis are semitic people so you cant play the race card in this case anyway.
There were numerous arabs on 9-11 that much is true what what about since then?
Richard Reid was a Jamaican living England. Shouldn't we also profile blacks? Remember there are also lots of black muslims in this country who have a some bones to pick with the US govt.
John Walker was a nice white boy but I guess we can't really profile white people.
Jose Padilla is a latino. Apparently there have succesful attempts at recruiting latinos (and presumably blacks) in jails by al quada. Perhaps we should also start profiling latinos too.
The fact remains that the US has a lot of enemies both external and internal. In the west there are militias of people who are preparing for an armed overthrow of the US govt, all over latin america there are hundreds of thousands of people who hate what America has done them and their countries, same goes for the slum districts of any big city.
the bottom line is that Al quada is a religous organization and not a racial one. They accept all races and colors as long as you are willing to convert to islam and take up arms. In fact they have consciously tried to recruit american and european citizens. Profiling by race will only give you a false sense of security. If you don't believe me ask yourself this question. If there was a turk, an arab and an israeli all dressed in blue jeans and a T-Shirt could you tell who was who? Of course not! In fact most americans probably would probably confuse hindus and latinos as arabs too.
"It's a widely accepted principle that you can claim a piece of land which has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years, if only you will repeat this mantra endlessly: 'We discovered it, we discovered it...."
"Anyway, a lot of anti-embargoe types would suggest that we *were* denying people human rights, and we were preventing people from getting medical attention before the 9/11 attacks. But it's hard to argue that that had much to do with Al Qaeda's motivation."
Ironic that you choose this example. The embargoes were being used in iraq to starve that population into submission (by and large we did manage to starve several hundred thousand to death). Despite this they did not attack us. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
Now of course having failed to actually get bin laden we will kill some more iraquis.
"You're saying that because the U.S. government is mostly Christian that this is therefore a religous war?"
No I am saying that this crop of leaders are not merely christians but that they are pretty much religious zealots. This is especially true of the president, vice president and the attorney general.
"Bush has not said that the bible tells us we have to attack Iraq. Religion is *not* the motivation, not even close."
He is a stupid man but he is not stupid enough to actually say that. The fact that he is only killing muslims is not a coincidence though. Like it or not religion is a very strong motivation even if it's not the primary one. If you don't believe me then ponder this.
When does he plan on attacking North Korea? When does he plan on enforcing the united nations resolutions that israel has broken. When does he plan on making sure israel does not have weapons of mass destruction.
It wasn't northern hemisphere it was the northeast. IT only covered the last 100 years or so as well. The same data shows that the forested lands are decreasing in the western united states. Of course the reforested lands in the northeast are more like gardens and less like forests. They are pretty much a monoculture of neat rows of trees. Go visit the poconos and then visit a real forest in the western us to see the difference.
BTW there is no data anywhere in the world that shows that there is more forest on the planet today then there was 500 years ago. This is because there is no denying the fact every year there is less trees in the world and more people in the world.
Slashdot Mirror
" True, the general consensus is to generate numbers that indicate a general heating, but it's partly political - the funding agencies that support climatology don't want to support models that generate negative numbers, and so predicted cooling=no funding."
What basis do you have for this statement. It seems to me that it would be the opposite. If I wrote a paper saying that global warming was a hoax every republican, oil company, the chamber of commerce, etc would throw enough money at me to drown me. If I wrote a paper saying we will all die from global warming who is going the fund me? The national science foundation? the sierra club? who? Exxon/Mobil can outspend the sierra club AND the national science foundation by a hundred times and not even notice it.
Take for example Bjorn Lomborg the guy who wrote "the skeptical environmentalist" He is now a very rich person wheras most climatologist are still in the middle class. Even though most of Bjorn's arguments have been discredited he still get paid immense amounts of money to expound on his views by the republicans and big business.
So where are your numbers? has anybody done a study that shows that scientists that argue for global warming get more funds then the scientists that disagree.
I hate to break it to you but the smog got cleaned because the environmentalists pushed for it. The republicans, the chamber of commerce and the rest of industrial complex fought it every step of the way like they always do but thank god they lost. If the world was full of people like you then the smog would be even worse.
"Yes, I do. There is a huge pro-warming political mood in Washington"
Huh? what are you on crack or something. GW Bush is the president, gail norton is the interior secy, the republicans enjoy a mojority on the supreme court, The house is solidly republican and the senate is barely democratic. How does that add up to pro warming political mood let alone a "huge pro warming" political mood.
" But we've been dumping carbon in the atmosphere all century long. If human activity is to blame for the recent freshness, how can we explain the previous salinity when the human activity in question has more or less continued unchecked throughout the whole time period? "
Think about it wilya. Has the rate of CO2 emissions been linear during the last century? Has the human population stayed static during the last century? How about the rate of deforestation and the population of algea have they stayed static?
Of course not!
The human effect on the atmosphere is a exponential curve.
As for salinity. A higher degree of salinity helps the conveyor belt that's probably why he did not mention it in the article.
I hate to break it to you but occams razor is not a law of physics.
"Assuming that there was a massive crop failure, the federal government--and the military--would take steps to feed the American public, up to and including invading some other country, if necessary."
Interesting point. I imagine that we certainly would invade mexico and steal their food but I wonder what the longer term effects of starving out the population of mexico would be on the US economy.
For example I don't think we could effectively seal off the borders and they would come into the country to try and get food. Even if we could seal the borders and starve them to death who would take care of all the work migrants do now?
Interesting scenario I'd say. What reamins to be seen in this scenario is at what point would the US decide to steal food rather then pay higher prices. I would imagine that at first we would try to actually buy food but eventually we would kill to get it if the price was too high.
If Warner music has declared war on P2P users what is the logical next step?
Is this a one way war where they kill p2p users and destroy their equipment or will the users fight back? In most wars you would expect casualties on both sides even if one side is overwhemingly more powerful.
It will be intresting to see what kind of casualties will be inflicted on p2p users and warner music as a result of this war.
Also Most wars tend to expensive I wonder how this war will effect their share price.
It's obvious that the govt can indeed function very well. Look at the military for example. The model for the govt is different from the model of the commercial sector. In the commercial sector you can choose not to serve somebody. You can declare bankrupcy and screw your customers, employees, shareholders and creditors. You can pick and choose which markets you want to enter. You can pick and choose geographical markets. You can change your mind and drop products and services and enter new markets.
In a govt you don't have that choice. The post office has to deliver the mail anywhere to anybody. It can not pick and choose only profitable routes. Highways have to cross deserts and mountains no matter how expensive it is to build and maintain them.
No corporation could survive the demands put on a govt agency. It's not profitable to provide social security benefits or farm subsidies is it now?
The govt is in charge of doing essential but not profitable things like roads, disaster relief, law enforcement, military etc. If the govt feels that access to technology is just as important as access to roads by all means it should provide the infrastucture.
By developing and widely distributing subsidized chips and operating systems it enables private enterprise to function smoothly just like providing a nationwide highway system promotes commerce.
I think you read that wrong. Notice the phrase "the line was built on the foreign technology and completed with materials from a foreign country".
So you see by buying chips from intel they are helping the US economy. By building their own chips they are helping their own economy.
The same goes for windows. Everytime a chinese (or any other nationality for that matter) buys a copy of windows money flows out of their country and into the US where we can use it to build bombs so we can bomb the shit out of them when the tehir turn comes around.
The chinese are apparently wise to this scheme. They want to develop their own chips and use linux on it thereby keeping the money inside china helping the chinese companies and people as opposed to sending their money to the US.
It makes perfect sense I am surprised that other countries don't get it. I suspect the reason for that is the influence companies like MS and Intel have in democracies where they can buy politicians to act against the interests of their own countrymen. In a dictatorial communist regime that tactic is not very effective.
I have always wondered why very lucrative industries like operating systems and micro chips are not being actively pursued by other countries. It's not like they are not smart enough considering the some of the best and brightest engineers in this country are chinese, hindu, arab or whatever. Every dollar spent on windows or intel is one less dollar in their country and one more dollar in ours.
"And to think that my neighbors call me crazy! At least my data isn't being uploaded to a secret government satellite!"
I remember during the gulf war of Bush Sr. reading that the US had modified the chips of printers and computers going to Iraq to carry viruses and trojans. Why don't you do a search on google about it. The chinese are not stupid enough to presume that the computers going to china will have the exact same pentiums that you have.
I have no doubt half the computers in iraq, iran saudi arabia, china etc have rigged chips nor do I have any doubt half the software sent to those countries have trojans. It's an easy way to spy.
Get GW to declare him an enemy combatant. Poof! Life in jail, no attorney, no charges, no case, no judge, no rights. Maybe the "interrogators" will confuse him for a taliban and take him on a "special ride".
Like I said you may stay on the sidelines like the most of the people in the world. It's your right.
For me when I hear Ballmer, gates and their mafioso call me a communist and a cancer I intend to fight back in whatever small way I can. If it means using linux, calling them names, encouraging other to boycott them, or whatever else it takes.
All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. In this case evil is winning because too many people are doing nothing.
No you are an enemy of Microsoft. Ballmer officially want to find a way to make sure you will never install linux or run linux programs. Every PC without windows costs him money.
Be it palladium or bought legislation Ballmer will eventually make it impossible for you to ever run linux or open source. You will be lucky if you don't end up in jail for doing it.
Let me repeat.
If you use linux you are an enemy of microft. Ms has declared war on you. Ballmer has already called you vile and evil things like communist or terrorist and compared you to cancer.
You may choose to ignore these attacks and continue to use windows, you may choose to just be a bystander or whatever. It's a free country. Some people are fighting back though.
There are a lot of pro MS, anti linux/open source sites out there. Why not go hang out there? Honestly why do you hang out here if you hate it? Seems silly.
Amazing that "religious intolerance" has become a crime in america. What next? holding people indefinately without charges or access to lawyers? Oh wait a minute never mind.
Oh where to start.
"It is fundamentally antisemitic to start out with a prima facie assumption that Palestinians have a right to a homeland that legitimizes their violence, but that Jews do not have the same right to a homeland that allows for violent response."
No it's not. Those are political issues and not racial ones. Choosing one side of a political debate is not racism and you should not invoke the race card when people disagree with you.
"Furthermore, they assert in blanket fashion that the Palestinians are victims of oppression"
I don't think this is under dispute is it?
The palestenians have no state.
They are occupied by the israeli army.
They are routinely put under curfew by the israeli army.
they don't have the rights to move around freely.
They are routinely killed by the israeli army.
They are routinely arrested without charges and access to lawyers.
They are routinely tortured.
They are suffering from starvation and malnutrition.
They are being denied water by the israeli govt.
They are being deported and otherwise expelled.
Sorry but all of these are undisputed facts. You say that historically they have been violent people and perhaps that justifes putting 800,000 people under curfew for a couple of months to you but not for me. To the uncritical supporters of israel every action they do is somehow justified in the past or in the bible or something. If any other country did what they are doing I bet you would be against it.
For me there is no justification for torture, no justification for ethnic cleansing, no justification for apartheid, no justification for starving women and children, no justification for destroying other peoples property because a relative committed murder, no justification for forced expulsion, no justfication for taking peoples land and setting up settlements on it.
Israel can't have it both ways. Either it won the war, took the land fair and square and is occuying it legaly or it's in a state of war with palestenians.
If it won the war it needs to do what conqering countries do. Make those people citizens and try to fold them into your culture.
If it's in a state of war then obey the geneva conventions and get the job over with. The palestenians are no match for the most powerful military in the world (the israeli army is the most powerful because it is actually the combined US and the israeli army). Kill them and get it over with slowly torturing them is not making you look good.
Otherwise what you have left is apartheid. It works for a while but eventually it will be lifted, history shows that.
The scientology HQ is actually a ship in international waters at all times. It's immune from the law in any land and is pretty much immune to any kind of attack from a rogue individual. I am afraid you will need a submarine, missile, or a battle ship to destroy their headquarters.
"anti-Semitic sentiment"
Be careful. If you paint everybody who critizes israel as anti semitic you are buying into the "zionism is racism argument". In other words if critizing israel (zionism) is the exact same thing as critizising the jewish people then there is no difference between zionism and racism.
Besides both palestenians and israelis are semitic people so you cant play the race card in this case anyway.
ironic that Hitler's supreme race will finally be developed in the US, the very country that fought him.
It is holding American citizens in jail without a trial, access to lawyers, or charges. Bad enough for you?
Let's consider some facts shall we?
There were numerous arabs on 9-11 that much is true what what about since then?
Richard Reid was a Jamaican living England. Shouldn't we also profile blacks? Remember there are also lots of black muslims in this country who have a some bones to pick with the US govt.
John Walker was a nice white boy but I guess we can't really profile white people.
Jose Padilla is a latino. Apparently there have succesful attempts at recruiting latinos (and presumably blacks) in jails by al quada. Perhaps we should also start profiling latinos too.
The fact remains that the US has a lot of enemies both external and internal. In the west there are militias of people who are preparing for an armed overthrow of the US govt, all over latin america there are hundreds of thousands of people who hate what America has done them and their countries, same goes for the slum districts of any big city.
the bottom line is that Al quada is a religous organization and not a racial one. They accept all races and colors as long as you are willing to convert to islam and take up arms. In fact they have consciously tried to recruit american and european citizens. Profiling by race will only give you a false sense of security. If you don't believe me ask yourself this question. If there was a turk, an arab and an israeli all dressed in blue jeans and a T-Shirt could you tell who was who? Of course not! In fact most americans probably would probably confuse hindus and latinos as arabs too.
"It's a widely accepted principle that you can claim a piece of land which has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years, if only you will repeat this mantra endlessly: 'We discovered it, we discovered it...."
Kurt Vonnegut, Deadeye Dick
"Anyway, a lot of anti-embargoe types would suggest that we *were* denying people human rights, and we were preventing people from getting medical attention before the 9/11 attacks. But it's hard to argue that that had much to do with Al Qaeda's motivation."
Ironic that you choose this example. The embargoes were being used in iraq to starve that population into submission (by and large we did manage to starve several hundred thousand to death). Despite this they did not attack us. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
Now of course having failed to actually get bin laden we will kill some more iraquis.
"You're saying that because the U.S. government is mostly Christian that this is therefore a religous war?"
No I am saying that this crop of leaders are not merely christians but that they are pretty much religious zealots. This is especially true of the president, vice president and the attorney general.
"Bush has not said that the bible tells us we have to attack Iraq. Religion is *not* the motivation, not even close."
He is a stupid man but he is not stupid enough to actually say that. The fact that he is only killing muslims is not a coincidence though. Like it or not religion is a very strong motivation even if it's not the primary one. If you don't believe me then ponder this.
When does he plan on attacking North Korea?
When does he plan on enforcing the united nations resolutions that israel has broken.
When does he plan on making sure israel does not have weapons of mass destruction.
It wasn't northern hemisphere it was the northeast. IT only covered the last 100 years or so as well. The same data shows that the forested lands are decreasing in the western united states. Of course the reforested lands in the northeast are more like gardens and less like forests. They are pretty much a monoculture of neat rows of trees. Go visit the poconos and then visit a real forest in the western us to see the difference.
BTW there is no data anywhere in the world that shows that there is more forest on the planet today then there was 500 years ago. This is because there is no denying the fact every year there is less trees in the world and more people in the world.