How the left stole the word “liberal” a century ago. We need to take it back. I refuse to call them that.
Rosetta
…has woken up:
SIGNAL RECEIVED #AOS European Space Agency has reestablished contact with @ESA_Rosetta 807 million km from Earth #Rosetta
— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) January 20, 2014
Congratulations to ESA. I think people were getting nervous in mission control.
The Invisible Judith Curry
Apparently, she doesn’t fit the narrative.
[Update a while later]
Gee, maybe global warming isn’t worth doing anything about.
Yeah, may be.
[Update a few minutes later]
Curry responds to Michael Mann’s accusation that she is “anti-science.”
[Update a couple minutes later]
Has the sun gone to sleep?
Who cares? After all, all these genius climate scientists have been telling us the sun doesn’t affect the climate.
[Monday-morning update]
More thoughts on the invisible Judith Curry from Donna LaFramboise.
[Bumped]
The Democrats’ War On The Young
The young are finally starting to get unhappy about it.
The Republicans should hammer on this the same way the Dems lied about the fake “war on women.”
Science Is Broken
Despite the fact that it’s at Cracked, this is a very good article. Note in particular the thing about many scientists not actually understanding statistics, which is particularly a problem with climate science. It has a good bottom line:
Just to be clear: It’s not that you should suddenly stop trusting science in general — without science it would be impossible to distinguish charlatans from people who have actual wizard powers. But there’s a big difference between accepting scientific consensus and just blindly believing everything said by a guy in a white lab coat.
It’s also important to avoid falling into an overhyped misleading “consensus.”
The Seventies Ice-Age Scare
A compilation of news stories. For those who weren’t there.
Also, note that Stephen Schneider thought that we had to cut our fossil fuel usage to prevent it.
Jobs And Technology
A good survey at The Economist on the coming tsunami on unskilled labor, for which no government is prepared. They’re right that the most important thing is to reform K through post-grad education, root and branch, but there are a lot of entrenched interests that will continue to fight that.
Mitt Romney’s Judgment
Man, this really reduces my respect for him:
…for viewers who follow politics closely, especially for Republicans who desperately wanted to defeat Barack Obama, there is a revelation in “Mitt” that is not just unexpected but deeply disheartening. At a critical moment in the campaign — the two weeks in October encompassing the first and second general election debates — the Romney portrayed in “Mitt” struggled with a nagging pessimism and defeatism, unable to draw confidence even from a decisive initial debate victory over President Obama. Deep down inside, the Romney seen onscreen in “Mitt” seems almost resigned to losing to Obama in those crucial showdowns.
Only a fool (like the Republicans who voted for Obama the first time) would think that Barack Obama is a good debater (especially after the first debate). Romney should have followed up his first debate victory and gone for the Benghazi jugular in the second debate. He also should have slapped down Candy Crowley when she stuck her ignorant nose in it. Romney deserved to lose.
Ariane
Looks like they’re in big trouble. It was a business model set up to compete with the Space Shuttle, not a truly reusable vehicle with modern technology. They may continue to get some business for Ariane 5 for political reasons, but I’d say their only chance is back to the drawing board with Ariane 6.
Sex In The Popular Culture
Why it’s becoming drenched in it.