Category Archives: Media Criticism

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Hillary’s Press Conference

53 Comments

Asche Schow has eighteen questions.

They all seem pretty reasonable to me, assuming that she’s a presidential candidate.

Ron Fournier, on the other hand, only three questions (like the three rules of real estate, though with some others): “What are you hiding? What are you hiding? What are you hiding?”

Maybe, after all these decades of criminality and corruption, the media is finally turning on her.

[Update a few minutes later]

Voters have Hillary concerns.

As well they should.

[Update a couple minutes later]

The press conference threatens to be a media fiasco.

That’s probably the intent.

[Update after the big event]

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s a pretty good live blog of the trainwreck.

Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Solar Radiation In CMIP5 Climate Models

9 Comments

…has huge basic errors:

Why wasn’t this astonishing, large error of basic astrophysical calculations caught billions of dollars ago, and how much has this error affected the results of all modeling studies in the past?

The paper adds to hundreds of others demonstrating major errors of basic physics inherent in the so-called ‘state of the art’ climate models, including violations of the second law of thermodynamics. In addition, even if the “parameterizations” (a fancy word for fudge factors) in the models were correct (and they are not), the grid size resolution of the models would have to be 1mm or less to properly simulate turbulent interactions and climate (the IPCC uses grid sizes of 50-100 kilometers, 6 orders of magnitude larger). As Dr. Chris Essex points out, a supercomputer would require longer than the age of the universe to run a single 10 year climate simulation at the required 1mm grid scale necessary to properly model the physics of climate.

But let’s get a carbon tax, right now!

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Emails And The Clinton Foundation

3 Comments

It’s not two separate scandals, it’s one big hairy one. It makes perfect sense that if she was soliciting foreign funds while secretary of state, she’d not want to do it from a government email account. And those are likely among the ones she hasn’t turned over (among others).

Much of the Clinton criminality in the nineties was similarly intertwined.

[Update a while later]

Huma Abedin, Hillary’s unindicted email co-conspirator.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Technology and Society

Iowa And Ethanol

3 Comments

Straight talk from Ted Cruz.

To me, ethanol epitomizes the dysfunction of our national politics. It’s an awful policy, raising the price of both fuel and food, which hits the poor hardest, while damaging engines and stealing from the taxpayer. Everyone knows it but, because, by historical circumstance, Iowa is so politically prominent in presidential politics, too few are willing to say it (I’ll grant that Huckabee and Santorum may actually be economically ignorant enough to think it’s a good idea). So good for Cruz.

I wonder if there’s any possibility of a class-action suit against it, from both fuel consumers and food consumers? If not, there should be. It could fix a lot of awful welth-transfer laws.