Baby female chimps prefer to play with dolls. As the commenters note, it takes a peculiar kind of obdurate academic idiocy to be surprised at this.
Category Archives: Science And Society
A New Homo Sapiens?
Articles like this just show how much we still don’t know about human evolution.
The Next Gift To A Grateful Nation
…from the Obama administration — price controls:
Price controls cause shortages — that is Econ 101, but this is a White House that has declared a War on (Social) Science, at least when it comes to fundamentals such as supply and demand, which it apparently believes are the invention of a right-wing think tank somewhere in Arlington. I have spent part of the morning debating people who are very upset that George W. Bush may have entertained heterodox views about evolution (I do not know that he did), but, given a choice, I will take the government that has insufficient appreciation for advanced biology over the government that has insufficient appreciation for fundamental economics.
Me, too.
Better Fire Up Those SUVs
Is a mini-ice age coming?
A Scientific Theory
…is judged by its predictive powers. Unless it’s climate change, of course. Because there, the issue isn’t the issue. It’s about power, and forced wealth redistribution.
Earthquake Prediction?
Instapundit says that it could be very useful.
Well, maybe. But only if it’s reasonably reliable, in terms of time, location and intensity. For instance, if we can’t do any better with it than we do with hurricanes, I’d prefer not to know. I spent/wasted a lot of time and hassle getting ready for hurricanes in Florida that ended up not hitting us, or not being a big deal. I’m convinced that false hurricane prep is almost as economically damaging as the hurricanes themselves. I’ve never had to worry about that in earthquake country — it’s always “come as you are,” and you should always be ready.
[Update a few minutes later]
I should note that I am actually increasingly impressed with their ability to predict storm tracks, a capability that seems to have improved quite a bit over the past decade, and is likely to continue to do so. The biggest uncertainty now seems to be in intensity, and I hope that they get a lot better at that as well. The more confidence we can have where and when it will and won’t hit, and how strong it will be when it does, the better we’ll be able to fine tune the preparedness. My concern with earthquake prediction is that we’re about where we were with hurricanes in the nineteenth century, and early attempts may be worse than useless in needless societal disruption. Imagine the traffic jams out of LA or SF to avoid a predicted “big one” that ends up not happening.
“Episodes Of Sunshine”
That’s the current forecast for December 30th in Redondo Beach at Accuweather.
In The Very Best Of Hands
The scientific genii meeting at the brain-trust fest in Cancun are eager to ban water. But remember, they have to do the thinking for us great unwashed.
Well, you have to admit, as a commenter notes there, it is a dangerous industrial solvent that turns into a powerful greenhouse gas when exposed to air.
Another Reason To Be Skeptical About Climate Research
We still don’t understand clouds.
Turn Off The Lights In Cancun
The global warming party is over:
Who now remembers Smoot-Hawley, Quemoy and Matsu, and the Teapot Dome? But these were once issues on which the survival of the known world rested. The only global-warming news of this week was the announcement that the House Select Committee on Global Warming would die with the 111th Congress. Mrs. Pelosi established the committee three years ago to beat the eardrums of one and all, a platform for endless argle-bargle about the causes and effects of climate change. The result was the proposed job-killing national energy tax, but with the Republican sweep, there’s no longer an appetite for killing jobs.
Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, the chairman of the doomed committee, organized one final event this week, a splashy daylong exercise in gasbaggery starring the usual suspects assigned to drone on for most of the day about the coming global-warming disasters, the melting of the North Pole and the rising of the seas that would make Denver, Omaha and Kansas City seaside resorts. Wesley Clark was the only former presidential candidate to accept an invitation, and he was a no-show. The star witness of the afternoon session was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an “environmental attorney” who talked about how “clean energy” is nicer than the other kind. Mr. Markey himself, as bored as everyone else, didn’t bother to return after lunch.
The members of the committee can now retire with their scrapbooks of clippings to recall the happy days of hearings about global warming (some of them before “global warming” became “climate change” and “liberals” became “progressives”), about how clean energy could replace smelly oil wells and provide Democrats with the means to enact sweeping climate-change legislation. Who could have foreseen that the only “sweeping” would be the sweeping out of so many Democrats?
Well, actually, absent massive voter fraud, it was pretty much inevitable.
[Afternoon update]
Some interesting climate-related Wikileaks, with a promise of more to come. I wonder how Assange feels about having exposed these corrupt con artists?