My father is a minister who actually dealt with these things. The best explanation I can give is to reference the movie "Mystery Men" where the invisible man was only invisible when no one was looking. I know personally of at least three people who are dead because they wanted to know and were willing to risk everything to find out. Broken necks, scared to death, completely consumed by fire. While most of them were in Africa, I have first hand accounts.
Personally as a info geek I look at it this way, "You don't check the amount of gas in a container by lighting a match". It has nothing to do with religion, truth or anything else you may subscribe to but rather the simple question, "Is it worth it?"
"Not knowing something that has no impact on your life is not worth risking anything"
I am a programmer / analyst in the Orlando area and am starting to see a slight change in contract as well as full time positions. A large pharmaceutical distributor in Lakeland is hiring dozens of.Net developers who will eventually telecommute. Contract at 45 / hr then 85k to 90k full time. There are areas around Lakeland that would make the boondocks look like New York City.
The other thing I am finding is that, while you don't have be a salesperson, having some level of social skills and the ability to work with clients makes a big difference. Unfortunately I know a lot of computer programmers who would sooner stick a red hot poker in their ear than have to deal with clients or management.
I will defer to more experienced slashdotters but can say simply that you have no idea what information is stored in the command post and the reason for destroying it has nothing to do with a kill switch. I agree that the current administration is delusional if they think they can take down the Internet.
However you have no idea what information is stored within the Cyber Command Post and the fact that there are some things that are not backed up for a reason. I would much rather be an idiot than someone who is so naive to realize that we are not dealing with emails and accounting reports. You like many head-down geeks have no idea what we are facing from foreign countries and prefer that you stay in your cubicle and wait till we save you.
The reality is that this is a military operation and there is no such thing as an out of chain command post. The President currently has the ability to shut down the Internet especially if National Security is at risk. That order would have to follow military chain of command and I would prefer a soldier with real-world experience than a cubicle geek.
Also the need to immediately respond to a scuttle order that destroys all of your toys would be followed much more quickly by a soldier. I hate to say that I would actually pause for a few seconds trying to save at least some of my hacks and code source, who wouldn't.
Tet a Tet is alive and well thanks to Slashdot.org.
I did some checking and indeed you are absolutely correct that a ~1892 law in California makes it a serious offense to keep something that you found if you know the owner especially if it's worth more than $400.00.
However according to reports, the person that found the phone contacted Apple, which is not unlikely considering the close proximity to Apple headquarters and the general worship of Apple by Californians. Apparently in a PR faux paux so great that it is absurd, Apple denied that it was their phone and made no report to the Police that the phone was missing.
At this point we get down to basic logic. It's 1901 and a cow wanders into my farm and the branding mark clearly identifies that it is owned by a nearby dairy farmer. I bring the cow to the farmer to return it and for whatever reason he says, "It ain't mine, get the hell outta here". I then return to my farm with the cow and take care of it and then eventually sell it at the market. I did everything in my power to ascertain the owner of the cow based on obvious evidence and once the original owner disavowed all ownership, it became mine to use and sell as I please.
Regardless if Steve Jobs himself did not deny that the phone was his, the company did and the phone then became the property of the person who found it.
Now if they can prove that the phone was stolen, or that the person who found it did not try to return it to Apple, then yes they are screwed.
"Nero wasn't fiddling while Rome burned, he just didn't care"
First, they have to prove the phone was stolen which is next to impossible unless Apple has a video of it being taken from the Apple Employee.
Second, although it may not seem moral, there is no Federal or State law that requires that a person return anything that was lost. You have probably heard possession is nine tenths of the law and selling something you possess is not against the law.
Third, Magazines, Newspapers and Books have been revealing trade secrets since the beginning of time. I've seen thousands of pictures of boats, cars, computers, planes and just about everything else reported on in Magazines.
Finally if it wasn't stolen then it sucks to be Apple because now it is in the public domain and any effort to declare it trade secret will fail. Think about it how many times we have about journalists being accidentally copied on internal trade secret emails. If Apple's employee was stupid enough to leave the phone at the bar they can no longer claim trade secrets on the device.
Sorry posted this as an anonymous coward.
Orlando
We watched the launch of the X37B from our front yard and everyone around here knows it is going to be used by the military. This idea of not weaponizing space is long gone. China shot down an old satelite just to prove they could and US turned around and shot down one as well.
At low earth orbit the ship can get around the world in less than forty-five minutes and launch multiple projectiles. Designed properly, these solid metal objects could easily take out a city block by the resulting air burst created when they finally explode at extremely high temparature. You would not even see the objects until they entered the atmosphere and at that point it would be to late.
In addition Russia and China will no doubt be called on the red phone five or six minutes before so they know it wasn't nuclear.
Now that would be shock and awe.
Apple has absolutely no grounds when dealing with any legitimate reporting, even the leaks. The only reason why companies retract anything is because when it comes to nasty sobs, Bill Gates looks like a girlscout when compared to him.
All of the equipment will be returned and the prosecution will not press charges. Even if Gawker sues, the lack of charges will cause the case to be thrown out. Check Absence of Malice
Steve Jobs and Apple will spend millions of dollars to make it impossible for Gawker to continue to exist and probably send his goons to stalk their spouses and children.
Don't get me wrong, Apple makes the best products of any company in the world, but remember Dictators always seem to be able to keep everything all nice and quiet until the die or are killed.
On May 25, 1961 John F. Kennedy said the following:
"IF we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take. Since early in my term, our efforts in space have been under review. With the advice of the Vice President, who is Chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined where we are strong and where we are not. Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth.
I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment."
On July 16, 1969 Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin A. "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon.
When the Space Shuttle program ends there will be no US based manned space flight solutions for at least five years and possibly fifteen years. During that time all US manned space flights will be outsourced to Russia, China and possibly India at a cost far exceeding the current cost of the Space Shuttle.
On a personal note, I live close enough to see all of the Space Shuttle launches from my front yard and watched a early morning launch on the way back from my honeymoon in 1986.
I just threw that in as a joke shoutout to my Slashdot mshaters.
You are definitely right about professionalism. If I was a Microserf how long do you think I would last sorrounded by dozens of Java coders? In fact we are writing C# on the devices to consume BPEL web services on a Linux platform. This is driving my junior c# programmer nuts because if we used IIS it would be much easier to code. I keep telling him that we get paid to do what they want not make policy decisions.
I'm a contractor working at a 30k employee company that is almost exclusively Linux / Java / Oracle. Even though they have dozens of Java programmers they couldn't get any of them to pick up VS C# / Windows Mobile fast enough to support all of their mobile devices.
The position is going to be long term and pays 80k+ per year because of the limited number of programmers skilled in C# / Corporate Mobile & Web applications. I guess you could say I made a deal with the Devil by going MS exclusively, but it pays the bills.
As long as the research and resulting published papers have no political value to politicians, the scientific community is very good at policing themselves. One only has to look at Cold Fusion, Physics and pretty much anything having to do with Mathematics.
Case in point is Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Almost immediately after the presentation of his proof, it was found that it had a major error that doomed the proof. But he immediately went back to work and finally presented a solid proof of the theorem.
Why didn't the UN and World Politicians push one side or the other? Because they have no fr$@#ng idea what it means and it was of no political value.
"The ability to tell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it did not happen." Sir Winston Churchill on the traits of a good politician.
At first I didn't get the lisp comment but to my surprise I was especially satisfied when I successfully recognized the source.
That being said, you are absolutely right. All I want is to have accurate, transparent, and well funded environmental studies. Of course the best way to accurate science is the keep the politicians in Washington D.C. and the industrial complex out of the funding.
When CRU either admits or lies that they lost their raw data, any reasonable person, scientist or otherwise would question their motives.
In addition Nasa is currently fighting a Freedom of Information Request to provide access to their core data.
I'm not saying that man isn't destroying this planet but believe that the billions of dollars that will be tied up in the Carbon Credit world will basically suck the life out of our efforts to purchase locally sensitive habitats and protect endangered species.
As to the question of review, I simply defer to the emails that basically forced any differing views out of peer reviewed journals.
Every single time a supposedly established conventional scientific belief has been questioned, people either lost their jobs or were regarded as idiots.
I would much rather go to my grave fighting for the integrity of the scientific principal and the transparency of discovery than believe a politician. If you are the person I believe you to be, I can't believe you wouldn't take great pleasure in seeing a proof of the science using the original raw data.
"Where were the scientists when they were drowning Witches?"
First I must defer to a 106857 over my 530924 as a member of slashdot and must say that I have always played better tennis with someone who I have no hope of beating. That being said even you must recognize that the world we live in is so devoid of any rational thought that when scientists are caught cooking data they are no more credible than Tiger Woods proclaiming his innocence that he is purer that white driven snow.
If you have been following the news you have no doubt seen that NASA has been fighting a request for access to their raw data and will no doubt be sued this month to reveal the requested data.
However, before you imagine that I am some neo-conservative who would think nothing better than to live inside the city limits of the Free Jack city of the future, please hear me out.
In Florida until recently you could develop property regardless of the wildlife present, including endangered species. The Florida gopher tortoise and gopher mouse require very specific habitat to survive. Until recently you could pay a fine of less than $1000.00 per acre to basically entomb them in their burrows. I personally, although it was technically illegal in Florida, relocated a gopher tortoise that was in the middle of the road to an appropriate habitat.
What’s my point? Simply that we only have so much money to save this planet and if we are sidetracked by politics or science that is unduly influenced by politics we have less money to fix our problems locally.
“Think globally but act locally”
P.S. I would hope with your influence you would join those that want to save the plants, animals and resources here in the States before we give corporations the opportunity to buy up Amazon forests just so they can buy their own carbon credits.
Despite being an Anonymous Coward you are perfectly correct. Almost every paradigm shifting Scientific event in the modern era has been subjected to scrutiny almost as bad as the Inquisitions. Once again there is no question that the post industrial revolution age has and will continue to destroy this Earth on almost every single level. To deny the extinction of animals, plants and natural resources is naive at best and evil at worst
However, CO2 is a trace gas being only 0.038% of the atmosphere and is a requirement in almost every biological habitat. That alone should cause any scientist, even paleoclimatologist, to think twice before accepting C02 as the primary source of any change in the Earths atmosphere.
My biggest fear is that billions of dollars will be spent and made trading completely worthless carbon credits. What incentive is their for Progress Energy to build Solar, Wind or any other green generation facilities if they know that they can buy credits and pass the cost onto the customer. Remember, Obama himself said that his goal was to raise US consumer energy rates so high that people would be forced to cut back on energy consumption.
Just in the US alone, there are millions of acres of critical habitat available for purchase and protection. On top of that states like Florida, where I happen to live, are criminally pathetic at using close to 95% sunny days for energy generation. Maine has a better solar policy than Florida.
I'm getting off of my soapbox because, unless your head is in the sand, this world was, is, and will continue to be run by three groups, Politicians, Business, and the 1% of the world's population that owns well over 80% of the total physical assets. If I happened to descend from the male line of William Howell of Buckinghampshire, England in 1488, I wouldn't even be talking to you. There are less than five families in the US and Europe that hold almost all personal stores of gold, silver, platinum and paladium.
I apologize to be so forthwright, but you have no idea what I know! One of my closest friends was the first to prove that Pond's and Fleishman's research was lacking.
As for reading everything about this subject and related information, I would recommend you look at the submissions to the major journals of paleoclimatology over the last one hundred years.
Please reply to me if you find a paper submitted that wasn't critically peer reviewed. If you do find one, did it also result in a worldwide media circus that put sensationalism above science. I don't know how old you are but I happen to remember a Newsweek article in the seventies warning that the world would be in an ice age by the mid nineties.
I don't ask that you agree with me just get your head of of your a## and act like a person of science and not a algorean.
"When people are afraid to disagree with their mentors why have mentors?"
There has never been a civilization that didn't have a upper, middle and lower class. Even if you would love to believe that all can be redistributed there is no f@#$%#@ way that we could convince the politicians, business leaders, academic leaders, and religious leaders to live like everyone else.
There is only so many ways a civilization ends. Disease, Subjugation or Corruption.
I am in complete agreement about the intent of Cap and Trade and I hope to the core of my being that the market trading of Carbon Credits will not be rigged. But let's be honest, the top five environmental groups in the world have a carbon footprint equal to the average Fortune 500 business. Yes it is true that they pay to plant trees in the Midwest and buy up sensitive wetlands in the Southwest but my point is that nothing in the history of the world works unless it makes money.
That is what bother's me the most about Algoreans. They stand to make billions of dollars providing an, although legitimate endeavor, nonetheless lucrative karma healing industry.
The most incredibly ironic thing is that the redneck living in the mountains of West Virginia is hunting, fishing, farming, horse riding, and in some cases not even using electricity. If we returned to a world where if you couldn't produce it yourself you couldn't have it we would be only fifty years from a entirely different planet.
I have an energy patent that will go live January 2010. Forgetting for the moment that I don't own it - more when it's live - , within about sixty seconds of it being available to read, the scientific community will rip me several new ones until every single one of them can duplicate everything that I've done with their own labs and equipment.
Ponds and Fleishman said they successfully created cold fusion and they are now bus boys at Chili's. What I'm saying is that if the scientific community subjected the CRU to even the most basic scrutiny they would either be forced to prove their conclusions or sent packing.
Imagine for a moment someone spent thirty years recording data in any field then compiled a report based on their interpretation of the data only to delete all of the raw data. What reasonable person on this planet would say, "No problem, I trust you." Bull$#%@.
This isn't Republican or Democrat, American or European, this is the very basis of what Slashdot is founded on, that is don't give me bull$%#@ show me the data and your source, and most of all don't patronize me!
This world is going in the crapper unless we call everyone's BS.
"When the scientific principal is replaced by conventional wisdom or worse peer pressure, what prevents us from returning to the dark ages?"
Slashdot Mirror
My father is a minister who actually dealt with these things. The best explanation I can give is to reference the movie "Mystery Men" where the invisible man was only invisible when no one was looking. I know personally of at least three people who are dead because they wanted to know and were willing to risk everything to find out. Broken necks, scared to death, completely consumed by fire. While most of them were in Africa, I have first hand accounts.
Personally as a info geek I look at it this way, "You don't check the amount of gas in a container by lighting a match". It has nothing to do with religion, truth or anything else you may subscribe to but rather the simple question, "Is it worth it?"
"Not knowing something that has no impact on your life is not worth risking anything"
I'm a Comcast subscriber and have had problems with DNS resolution. Just changed to the new DNS servers and magically it is about twenty times faster.
I am a programmer / analyst in the Orlando area and am starting to see a slight change in contract as well as full time positions. A large pharmaceutical distributor in Lakeland is hiring dozens of .Net developers who will eventually telecommute. Contract at 45 / hr then 85k to 90k full time. There are areas around Lakeland that would make the boondocks look like New York City.
The other thing I am finding is that, while you don't have be a salesperson, having some level of social skills and the ability to work with clients makes a big difference. Unfortunately I know a lot of computer programmers who would sooner stick a red hot poker in their ear than have to deal with clients or management.
I will defer to more experienced slashdotters but can say simply that you have no idea what information is stored in the command post and the reason for destroying it has nothing to do with a kill switch. I agree that the current administration is delusional if they think they can take down the Internet.
However you have no idea what information is stored within the Cyber Command Post and the fact that there are some things that are not backed up for a reason. I would much rather be an idiot than someone who is so naive to realize that we are not dealing with emails and accounting reports. You like many head-down geeks have no idea what we are facing from foreign countries and prefer that you stay in your cubicle and wait till we save you.
The reality is that this is a military operation and there is no such thing as an out of chain command post. The President currently has the ability to shut down the Internet especially if National Security is at risk. That order would have to follow military chain of command and I would prefer a soldier with real-world experience than a cubicle geek. Also the need to immediately respond to a scuttle order that destroys all of your toys would be followed much more quickly by a soldier. I hate to say that I would actually pause for a few seconds trying to save at least some of my hacks and code source, who wouldn't.
I seem to remember a cool CD / DVD that had a walkthrough of his house.
Tet a Tet is alive and well thanks to Slashdot.org.
I did some checking and indeed you are absolutely correct that a ~1892 law in California makes it a serious offense to keep something that you found if you know the owner especially if it's worth more than $400.00.
However according to reports, the person that found the phone contacted Apple, which is not unlikely considering the close proximity to Apple headquarters and the general worship of Apple by Californians. Apparently in a PR faux paux so great that it is absurd, Apple denied that it was their phone and made no report to the Police that the phone was missing.
At this point we get down to basic logic. It's 1901 and a cow wanders into my farm and the branding mark clearly identifies that it is owned by a nearby dairy farmer. I bring the cow to the farmer to return it and for whatever reason he says, "It ain't mine, get the hell outta here". I then return to my farm with the cow and take care of it and then eventually sell it at the market. I did everything in my power to ascertain the owner of the cow based on obvious evidence and once the original owner disavowed all ownership, it became mine to use and sell as I please.
Regardless if Steve Jobs himself did not deny that the phone was his, the company did and the phone then became the property of the person who found it.
Now if they can prove that the phone was stolen, or that the person who found it did not try to return it to Apple, then yes they are screwed.
"Nero wasn't fiddling while Rome burned, he just didn't care"
First, they have to prove the phone was stolen which is next to impossible unless Apple has a video of it being taken from the Apple Employee.
Second, although it may not seem moral, there is no Federal or State law that requires that a person return anything that was lost. You have probably heard possession is nine tenths of the law and selling something you possess is not against the law.
Third, Magazines, Newspapers and Books have been revealing trade secrets since the beginning of time. I've seen thousands of pictures of boats, cars, computers, planes and just about everything else reported on in Magazines.
Finally if it wasn't stolen then it sucks to be Apple because now it is in the public domain and any effort to declare it trade secret will fail. Think about it how many times we have about journalists being accidentally copied on internal trade secret emails. If Apple's employee was stupid enough to leave the phone at the bar they can no longer claim trade secrets on the device.
Sorry posted this as an anonymous coward. Orlando We watched the launch of the X37B from our front yard and everyone around here knows it is going to be used by the military. This idea of not weaponizing space is long gone. China shot down an old satelite just to prove they could and US turned around and shot down one as well. At low earth orbit the ship can get around the world in less than forty-five minutes and launch multiple projectiles. Designed properly, these solid metal objects could easily take out a city block by the resulting air burst created when they finally explode at extremely high temparature. You would not even see the objects until they entered the atmosphere and at that point it would be to late. In addition Russia and China will no doubt be called on the red phone five or six minutes before so they know it wasn't nuclear. Now that would be shock and awe.
Apple has absolutely no grounds when dealing with any legitimate reporting, even the leaks. The only reason why companies retract anything is because when it comes to nasty sobs, Bill Gates looks like a girlscout when compared to him.
All of the equipment will be returned and the prosecution will not press charges. Even if Gawker sues, the lack of charges will cause the case to be thrown out. Check Absence of Malice
Steve Jobs and Apple will spend millions of dollars to make it impossible for Gawker to continue to exist and probably send his goons to stalk their spouses and children.
Don't get me wrong, Apple makes the best products of any company in the world, but remember Dictators always seem to be able to keep everything all nice and quiet until the die or are killed.
Kids, the natural birth control.
On May 25, 1961 John F. Kennedy said the following:
"IF we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take. Since early in my term, our efforts in space have been under review. With the advice of the Vice President, who is Chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined where we are strong and where we are not. Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth.
I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment."
On July 16, 1969 Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin A. "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon.
When the Space Shuttle program ends there will be no US based manned space flight solutions for at least five years and possibly fifteen years. During that time all US manned space flights will be outsourced to Russia, China and possibly India at a cost far exceeding the current cost of the Space Shuttle.
On a personal note, I live close enough to see all of the Space Shuttle launches from my front yard and watched a early morning launch on the way back from my honeymoon in 1986.
I'm just glad that John F. Kennedy is dead.
I just threw that in as a joke shoutout to my Slashdot mshaters.
You are definitely right about professionalism. If I was a Microserf how long do you think I would last sorrounded by dozens of Java coders? In fact we are writing C# on the devices to consume BPEL web services on a Linux platform. This is driving my junior c# programmer nuts because if we used IIS it would be much easier to code. I keep telling him that we get paid to do what they want not make policy decisions.
I'm a contractor working at a 30k employee company that is almost exclusively Linux / Java / Oracle. Even though they have dozens of Java programmers they couldn't get any of them to pick up VS C# / Windows Mobile fast enough to support all of their mobile devices.
The position is going to be long term and pays 80k+ per year because of the limited number of programmers skilled in C# / Corporate Mobile & Web applications. I guess you could say I made a deal with the Devil by going MS exclusively, but it pays the bills.
William Howell
As long as the research and resulting published papers have no political value to politicians, the scientific community is very good at policing themselves. One only has to look at Cold Fusion, Physics and pretty much anything having to do with Mathematics.
Case in point is Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Almost immediately after the presentation of his proof, it was found that it had a major error that doomed the proof. But he immediately went back to work and finally presented a solid proof of the theorem.
Why didn't the UN and World Politicians push one side or the other? Because they have no fr$@#ng idea what it means and it was of no political value.
"The ability to tell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it did not happen." Sir Winston Churchill on the traits of a good politician.
At first I didn't get the lisp comment but to my surprise I was especially satisfied when I successfully recognized the source.
That being said, you are absolutely right. All I want is to have accurate, transparent, and well funded environmental studies. Of course the best way to accurate science is the keep the politicians in Washington D.C. and the industrial complex out of the funding.
Show me the source data.
When CRU either admits or lies that they lost their raw data, any reasonable person, scientist or otherwise would question their motives.
In addition Nasa is currently fighting a Freedom of Information Request to provide access to their core data.
I'm not saying that man isn't destroying this planet but believe that the billions of dollars that will be tied up in the Carbon Credit world will basically suck the life out of our efforts to purchase locally sensitive habitats and protect endangered species.
As to the question of review, I simply defer to the emails that basically forced any differing views out of peer reviewed journals.
Every single time a supposedly established conventional scientific belief has been questioned, people either lost their jobs or were regarded as idiots.
I would much rather go to my grave fighting for the integrity of the scientific principal and the transparency of discovery than believe a politician. If you are the person I believe you to be, I can't believe you wouldn't take great pleasure in seeing a proof of the science using the original raw data.
"Where were the scientists when they were drowning Witches?"
First I must defer to a 106857 over my 530924 as a member of slashdot and must say that I have always played better tennis with someone who I have no hope of beating. That being said even you must recognize that the world we live in is so devoid of any rational thought that when scientists are caught cooking data they are no more credible than Tiger Woods proclaiming his innocence that he is purer that white driven snow.
If you have been following the news you have no doubt seen that NASA has been fighting a request for access to their raw data and will no doubt be sued this month to reveal the requested data.
However, before you imagine that I am some neo-conservative who would think nothing better than to live inside the city limits of the Free Jack city of the future, please hear me out.
In Florida until recently you could develop property regardless of the wildlife present, including endangered species. The Florida gopher tortoise and gopher mouse require very specific habitat to survive. Until recently you could pay a fine of less than $1000.00 per acre to basically entomb them in their burrows. I personally, although it was technically illegal in Florida, relocated a gopher tortoise that was in the middle of the road to an appropriate habitat.
What’s my point? Simply that we only have so much money to save this planet and if we are sidetracked by politics or science that is unduly influenced by politics we have less money to fix our problems locally.
“Think globally but act locally”
P.S. I would hope with your influence you would join those that want to save the plants, animals and resources here in the States before we give corporations the opportunity to buy up Amazon forests just so they can buy their own carbon credits.
With all due respect, William D. Howell Sr.
Wow! I've never been tagged a Troll. Duly noted.
Despite being an Anonymous Coward you are perfectly correct. Almost every paradigm shifting Scientific event in the modern era has been subjected to scrutiny almost as bad as the Inquisitions. Once again there is no question that the post industrial revolution age has and will continue to destroy this Earth on almost every single level. To deny the extinction of animals, plants and natural resources is naive at best and evil at worst
However, CO2 is a trace gas being only 0.038% of the atmosphere and is a requirement in almost every biological habitat. That alone should cause any scientist, even paleoclimatologist, to think twice before accepting C02 as the primary source of any change in the Earths atmosphere.
My biggest fear is that billions of dollars will be spent and made trading completely worthless carbon credits. What incentive is their for Progress Energy to build Solar, Wind or any other green generation facilities if they know that they can buy credits and pass the cost onto the customer. Remember, Obama himself said that his goal was to raise US consumer energy rates so high that people would be forced to cut back on energy consumption.
Just in the US alone, there are millions of acres of critical habitat available for purchase and protection. On top of that states like Florida, where I happen to live, are criminally pathetic at using close to 95% sunny days for energy generation. Maine has a better solar policy than Florida.
I'm getting off of my soapbox because, unless your head is in the sand, this world was, is, and will continue to be run by three groups, Politicians, Business, and the 1% of the world's population that owns well over 80% of the total physical assets. If I happened to descend from the male line of William Howell of Buckinghampshire, England in 1488, I wouldn't even be talking to you. There are less than five families in the US and Europe that hold almost all personal stores of gold, silver, platinum and paladium.
No I'm 530924.
I apologize to be so forthwright, but you have no idea what I know! One of my closest friends was the first to prove that Pond's and Fleishman's research was lacking.
As for reading everything about this subject and related information, I would recommend you look at the submissions to the major journals of paleoclimatology over the last one hundred years.
Please reply to me if you find a paper submitted that wasn't critically peer reviewed. If you do find one, did it also result in a worldwide media circus that put sensationalism above science. I don't know how old you are but I happen to remember a Newsweek article in the seventies warning that the world would be in an ice age by the mid nineties.
I don't ask that you agree with me just get your head of of your a## and act like a person of science and not a algorean.
"When people are afraid to disagree with their mentors why have mentors?"
My point exactly.
There has never been a civilization that didn't have a upper, middle and lower class. Even if you would love to believe that all can be redistributed there is no f@#$%#@ way that we could convince the politicians, business leaders, academic leaders, and religious leaders to live like everyone else.
There is only so many ways a civilization ends. Disease, Subjugation or Corruption.
I am in complete agreement about the intent of Cap and Trade and I hope to the core of my being that the market trading of Carbon Credits will not be rigged. But let's be honest, the top five environmental groups in the world have a carbon footprint equal to the average Fortune 500 business. Yes it is true that they pay to plant trees in the Midwest and buy up sensitive wetlands in the Southwest but my point is that nothing in the history of the world works unless it makes money.
That is what bother's me the most about Algoreans. They stand to make billions of dollars providing an, although legitimate endeavor, nonetheless lucrative karma healing industry.
The most incredibly ironic thing is that the redneck living in the mountains of West Virginia is hunting, fishing, farming, horse riding, and in some cases not even using electricity. If we returned to a world where if you couldn't produce it yourself you couldn't have it we would be only fifty years from a entirely different planet.
I have an energy patent that will go live January 2010. Forgetting for the moment that I don't own it - more when it's live - , within about sixty seconds of it being available to read, the scientific community will rip me several new ones until every single one of them can duplicate everything that I've done with their own labs and equipment.
Ponds and Fleishman said they successfully created cold fusion and they are now bus boys at Chili's. What I'm saying is that if the scientific community subjected the CRU to even the most basic scrutiny they would either be forced to prove their conclusions or sent packing.
Imagine for a moment someone spent thirty years recording data in any field then compiled a report based on their interpretation of the data only to delete all of the raw data. What reasonable person on this planet would say, "No problem, I trust you." Bull$#%@.
This isn't Republican or Democrat, American or European, this is the very basis of what Slashdot is founded on, that is don't give me bull$%#@ show me the data and your source, and most of all don't patronize me!
This world is going in the crapper unless we call everyone's BS.
"When the scientific principal is replaced by conventional wisdom or worse peer pressure, what prevents us from returning to the dark ages?"
William David Howell Sr.