Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

John Kerry And The IPCC Report

September 30, 2013 Rand Simberg 3 Comments

No, Mr. Secretary, it is not “science”:

I have been publishing comparisons of data with climate models outputs for about two years. The climate models used by the IPCC clearly cannot simulate Earth’s surface temperatures, precipitation or sea ice area. Additionally, there are numerous scientific research papers that are very critical of how climate models perform specific functions. Looking at those papers independently, the faults do not appear too bad, but collectively they indicate the models are fatally flawed.

In my book Climate Models Fail, I have collected my past findings about climate models, and illustrated others, and I’ve presented highlights from the research papers critical of climate models. I would be happy to forward a link to a free copy of Climate Models Fail to your offices for your personal use. Please have one of your staff members leave a comment at my blog Climate Observations if that interests you.

I’m quite confident that it won’t interest the fool.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Obama’s Presidency

September 30, 2013 Rand Simberg

…and the government’s damaged brand:

Believing that government officials break the law is one thing; believing that they face no consequences when they’re caught and it becomes public is another. Not only is this a sort of “broken windows” signal to other bureaucrats — hey, you can break the law and get away with it — but it’s particularly damaging where the IRS is concerned.

America’s tax system, despite the feared IRS audit, is fundamentally based on voluntary compliance. If everyone starts cheating, there aren’t enough IRS agents to make a dent. Beyond taxes, that’s true regarding compliance with the law in general. Moral legitimacy is what makes honest people obey the law even when they can get away with breaking it. Undermine that and you get a country like, say, Italy, where tax evasion is a national sport.

Meanwhile, there’s another bit of bad news buried in that poll, this time for Democrats. The bad news is that a majority of Americans thinks the IRS broke the law even though the news media have consistently downplayed the scandal. But as the scandal has dragged on for months, word has filtered out anyway. Come 2014, the government’s damaged brand will reflect poorly on members of the president’s party, regardless of media efforts to protect them.

Let’s hope.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Associated Press

September 30, 2013 Rand Simberg 33 Comments

…goes to bat for Democrats.

In other words, it’s Monday.

Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Hide The Decline

September 29, 2013 Rand Simberg 4 Comments

They’re still at it.

Business, Space

The SpaceX Press Conference

September 29, 2013 Rand Simberg 12 Comments

Elon is saying that the mission was completely successful, but they lost the first stage. First relight to gentle the entry was successful, but the second one to come into the ocean resulted in an exceedance of attitude control authority for roll. Centrifuged propellant shut down engine prematurely. But they’re getting all the pieces, so they’ll be able to figure out how to fix for next time.

[Update a few minutes later]

First and second stage engines performed better than predicted. Pad also worked well.

[Update a few minutes later]

Second stage shut down prematurely, but didn’t affect mission, apparently. They know why and will fix for next flight. Next two flights won’t attempt first-stage recovery, in order to maximize payload for customers. [All via @Jeff_Foust]

Next recovery attempt will be on CRS-3. Vehicle may also have landing legs (implies attempt at flyback to land, not ocean — today’s flight must have inspired confidence).

[Update a while later]

I mistyped above. The second stage didn’t shut down prematurely, it had a problem with restart. But I think it was just a test of the vehicle, and didn’t affect the primary mission.

Business, Space