Category Archives: Science And Society

Climate Models Versus Observations

A 2019 update.

TL;DR: They continue to run hot.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Climate utopias and engineering reality.

[Update a few minutes later]

How to trigger a global recession overnight? Ban fracking.

[Late-morning update]

Judith Curry reflects on “Climategate,” a decade later. Hard to believe it’s really been that long.

My Law Suit

SCOTUS conferenced on whether or not they’ll grant cert today, but there is no world about the result. We now won’t know before Tuesday.

[Tuesday-morning update]

We hoped we’d hear today, but the good news is that this time, it was apparently conferenced on Friday, and has now been relisted. The alternative would have been a denial, but now we may hear on Friday, and they will likely grant it.

[Bumped]

Age-Resistant Mice

…with hyperlong telomeres.

“These unprecedented results show that longer than normal telomeres in a given species are not harmful but quite the contrary: they have beneficial effects, such as increased longevity, delayed metabolic age and less cancer,” concludes the team.

The telomere theory has been around for decades, but we seem to be getting closer to actual implementation.

Extreme Misanthropy

AIAA announced a couple weeks ago at IAC that they are renaming their annual Space Forum “Ascend.”

Having gotten that announcement out of the way with the plug for AIAA (which graced me with a media pass to the conference, on top of my delegate badge), this cannot go without comment. As I was ascending (see what I did there?) the escalator to the plenary this morning, someone was handing out a flyer called “ASCEND TODAY.” In it, it had two op-eds.

The first was titled “The Argument For Riding Out Humanity Here At Home And Nowhere Else,” by “B. Line.”

Chances are it’s one of those survival tools ingrained into our genes — the notion that “humanity” as well as other species are conscious, sentient beings, aware of their own mortality and filled with the same emotions, desires, regrets, and consciences as though they were an individual.

It’s what leads us to feel sad at the notion of something becoming extinct as if the thing possessed a collective soul that would experience immense angst or anguish if it disappeared from the planet.

The reality is unless there’s a cataclysmic event, the end of humanity of any other species typically would mean nothing more than a gradual tapering of populations until there was none left. “We” wouldn’t be missed. But again, it’s not “we.” Or “us.” “We,” after all, are not part of a larger collective consciousness. Just as “we” don’t really win when our favorite sports tea does. “We” had nothing to do with it.

But while the end of humanity would not in reality cause any actual sadness — as human-caused global warming is proving every passing day — humanity’s presence is causing real pain and real harm to living, breathing sentient creatures. Our presence is slowly (quickly in geologic terms) making the earth uninhabitable.

This is why, personally, I don’t think we should attempt to perpetuate humanity beyond our own failed experiment here at home. Humanity has caused so much damage to our planet and the life that inhabits it, there’s little justification to inflict or scourge anywhere else in the universe.

I may have missed transcribing the first paragraph. I was going to fisk this, but haven’t had time, but I thought I’d at least toss it out as chum for commenters.

The Rolling Blackouts In CA

No, they’re not a climate-change story. It’s about rampant insanity and corruption of rent-seeking “green”-energy firms.

And this seems like cheating: Texas lures California businesses with promises of electricity.

What did socialists use to light their homes before candles? Electricity.

[Late-morning update]

California is approaching Puerto Rico territory.

Speaking of which…

[Thursday-morning update]

California is “winning” its way into the Stone Age.

And is the state becoming pre-modern?

Apparently. Pat Brown has to be rolling in his grave at what his idiot son has wrought.

[Bumped]