Is it on the verge of resurrection? That would be pretty cool. I wonder if they’d be as smart as elephants?
Category Archives: Science And Society
Winston Churchill And ET
A recently discovered document with his speculations about extraterrestrial life.
The Climate Cover Up
I was amused to hear about the panic of “scientists” in the government “protecting” from the Trump administration data they’ve been hiding for years. But here’s a comprehensive round up of their rewriting the past.
A Taxonomy Of Uncertainty
This is a beautiful taxonomy. The root of a great deal of suffering is people believing their field is level 3, when it's actually level 4. pic.twitter.com/8yg2sRocNL
— Will Wilson (@WAWilsonIV) February 15, 2017
Climate science is currently somewhere between levels 4 and 5, but many (particularly ignorant adherents of the climate religion) think that it’s at 2 or 1.
Edward Abbey
Something I learned today: Charles Platt is a long-time friend of his.
The New “Climate Denial”
This is the ongoing game of the warm mongers, to continually redefine and conflate terms, but Judith Curry gets right down to it:
exactly what is being ‘denied’? As far as I can tell, here is what is being ‘denied’: that the policies put in place under the Paris Agreement will on net be beneficial to global societies and ecosystems, and that they will have any kind of impact on the climate of the 21st century.
Climate denialism is no longer about science; its about action versus inaction – in particular, the UNFCCC’s preferred actions. It doesn’t seem to matter that the emissions targets are woefully inadequate for preventing what they expect to be ‘dangerous’ climate change; emissions targets are unlikely to be met; and the climate will show little change in the 21st century even if the targets are met.
Let me take this opportunity to redefine climate denialism: denial that the UNFCCC policies will accomplish anything significant regarding improving the climate as defined by increasing human welfare and the health of ecosystems.
I’d restate it as denial that we can have sufficient certainty at this time to think they will to justify implementing them.
To The Moon, Alice!
OK, actually, it’s to the moon, NASA. Bob Zimmerman has some thoughts.
In my opinion, this is a completely unrealistic goal, absent a) considering alternatives to SLS and b) being willing to risk astronauts’ lives. A seventy-ton SLS isn’t going to do that job, and that’s all they’re going to have (at best) by 2020. And putting up sending astronauts to the moon (even just around, and it’s not clear what the value of that is) on its first, or even second flight would be much sportier than Apollo 8 was, back when it was actually important.
FWIW, I also think that the reporter should have talked to someone besides Casey Dreier, The Planetary Society is hardly an unbiased source about human spaceflight.
Progress On Aging
…and the resistance to it. I think he’s right that it’s not based on science or logic, but philosophy. Some people (including Isaac Asimov) think that death is necessary, almost to the point of ultimately worshiping it. Of course, some of it could be a recognition, conscious or otherwise, of the supreme disruption to many accepted institutions that it would entail, including pensions, life-time appointments, death taxes, etc.
And I hate when they use the word “immortality.” I think an eternal life would be far worse than death, but that’s not the goal; it’s simply living as long as we want to continue to live.
Update a couple minutes later]
Sort of related: GM Salmonella cures cancer. Cool. But the anti-science left will oppose it because GM.
“Climategate II”
I hate the phrase “Climategate” (I prefer “Climaquiddick”) but it seems to have stuck. In any event, I don’t know whether or not this is true, but if it were to be, it would surprise me not at all.
[Monday-evening update]
Judith Curry has the latest on the foofaraw.
[Bumped]
Stuck On “Exploration”
Steve Hoeser says that we’re not making progress in space because we refuse to treat it as a traditional frontier.