We’re gaining a new understanding of them. Faster, please.
Category Archives: Science And Society
Beyond Faraday
This seems like a huge breakthrough: A radically new type of miniaturized inductor.
Health Advocates
Are they finally wising up to risk?
If so, it probably won’t last long, based on history.
Earth Surface Temperatures
Anthony Watts has been vindicated after all these years.
Mars And SLS
I really find Chris Carberry’s op-ed on SLS incomprehensible. Oh, I don’t mean I don’t understand it, it just seems disconnected with reality, and the interests of anyone seriously interested in seeing humans go to Mars. He speaks about SLS as thought it has kind of reality, and actual utility. To me, a sane Mars organization would be screaming bloody murder at the waste of money to the detriment of hardware needed to actually get to Mars.
[Thursday-afternoon update]
Thoughts on the ever-receding SLS, from Bob Zimmerman.
[Bumped]
Space Colonies
This idiotic sort of thing is what my current project, to make the international legal environment more friendly to space development and settlement, partially about.
California’s Climate Litigation
It’s going to be a loser, on multiple levels:
San Mateo County claimed in its complaint to be “particularly vulnerable to sea level rise” with a 93 percent the county will experience a “devastating” flood before 2050. Imperial Beach and Marin County also claimed in their separate complaints to be vulnerable to devastating floods because of climate change.
“If sea levels were to raise that high, it most certainly would be catastrophic,” Epstein said.
However, bond offerings in the last few years by those counties and cities weren’t so forthcoming about those predictions, Exxon said in a verified petition filed last month with the District Court in Tarrant County, Texas.
San Mateo’s 2014 and 2016 bond offerings told would-be investors that the county “is unable to predict whether sea-level rise or other impacts of climate change or flooding from a major storm will occur,” Exxon’s petition said.
Imperial Beach and Marin County never disclosed the same information to perspective bond investors that was detailed in their complaints against the energy companies, Exxon’s petition said.
Making those claims in their lawsuits against energy companies – but not in their bond offerings – smacks of hypocrisy, Exxon is arguing.
As he says, cross-examination will be brutal.
Prestigious Science Journals
…struggle to achieve even average reliability.
Mind blowing . . . makes blogs look relatively reliable, since comments and wider discussion quickly point out any flaws https://t.co/5yEL637k3v
— Judith Curry (@curryja) February 20, 2018
Climate And Libel
Some thoughts on Michael Mann, the lawsuits, and the sad state of climate science, from Judith Curry.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Terrible: By awarding Mann as super-communicator, the AAAS is telling us that engaging in hyper-partisan gutter politics, targeted against Republicans and colleagues you disagree with, using unethical tactics is great.https://t.co/zA2HJF0tB3
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) February 15, 2018
Colonizing The Moon
I agree that we have the tech to do this affordably, but I strenuously disagree with this:
The activities at this moon base would be focusing on science, as is the case in the Antarctic. It could provide an official U.S. government presence on the moon, and its motivation would be rooted in U.S. national policy—again as are the U.S. Antarctic bases.
To the degree that the focus should be on “science,” it should be about better learning how to live on the moon, and Antarctica is a terrible precedent, in that we aren’t allowed to exploit it for its resources. That’s also why the Outer Space Treaty itself, which was modeled on the Antarctic Treaty, is a problem.