As I’ve noted, he takes delight in trolling people, and many of them seem to enjoy being outraged.
Category Archives: Science And Society
Climate Activists Versus Skeptics
I know you’ll be as shocked as I am to learn that social media has failed to bridge the gap. Actually, though, they buried the lede:
…tweeters with climate sceptic views are no more likely to post offensive comments than those who accept the basics of climate science.
Sceptics have long been accused of trolling, but Williams said the study indicated their minority status meant they were just more likely to interact with users they disagreed with.
“We found a lot of negativity, but when you crunch the numbers you find out they are no more likely to be negative than anyone else,” he said.
“There is a popular perception that sceptics must be irrational or unreasonable but this study doesn’t support that at all.”
You don’t say.
New Solar Fiction
The first 26 pages can be read here. I’ll look forward to reading the whole thing.
Birth Control
Is it creating a race of eunuchs?
I’m not sure, but I think there have been a lot of unanticipated consequences of screwing with womens’ hormones for decades.
Losing Body Fat, Or Gaining Muscle?
If you focus on the muscle, the fat will come off naturally.
Godzilla
The impossibility of his physique. I’ve discussed this before (thirteen years ago. Yikes!). This piece seems to ignore the thermal issues. I don’t think just exhaling flames would be sufficient to get rid of the heat.
The American Physical Society
…beclowns itself again on climate:
Well, their paragraph on Climate Science is a rather astonishing take on the APS Workshop. Their paragraph on Climate Change seems to come from the Guardian. Their statement on Climate Action reiterates their rather crazy statement in 2007
Apart from the issue that no one on the POPA seems to understand any of these issues beyond a superficial level (after Koonin and Rosner departed from the POPA), and that their statements are naive and unprofessional, here is my real problem with this. This is an egregious misuse of the expertise of the APS. Their alleged understanding of issues like spectroscopy and fluid dynamics are not of any direct relevance to the issues they write about in this statement. The statement is an embarrassment to the APS.
Either reform is required, or an alternate organization.
Peter Thiel
A conversation with Tyler Cowen, on the future of innovation, life extension and God.
The Food Babe
Yes, she is a loon.
Though I don’t think this author is quite up to date on the science herself:
Coffee, before Starbucks turns it into a milkshake, is pretty healthy for you.
After, too. There’s nothing wrong with milk or fat in coffee.
An Epistemological Question
Ron Bailey wonders what it would take to convince you that AGW was occurring.
Roy Spencer responds.
I agree that Ron is a smart guy, but I do think there’s some of this going on:
I hate to impute motives, but I really have to wonder if he is succumbing to peer pressure, since believing anything that smacks of denial-ism is really frowned upon in the intellectual circles I’m sure Ron is part of.
I think it’s compounded by the fact that it’s hard enough to change your mind once. It would be kind of embarrassing to revert back to skepticism. The key point, of course, is that Ron doesn’t necessarily believe that the problem demands any particular policy solution.