…is your house.
I don’t eat out much if I can avoid it, but you know what I almost never order when I do? A steak. Nothing is simpler to cook at home.
On Climate Change
…the science battle rages.
It would sure be nice if some of these self-identified climate “scientists” would learn some statistics. And stop calling people who understand statistics names like “denier” and “anti-science.”
[Monday-morning update]
Inside the latest global warming scandal:
This kind of thing is going on all over the world. It is one of the reasons why the satellite data (which, however, go back only to 1979) are so important: they have not been corrupted.
Yup.
[Bumped]
[Update a few minutes later]
Soviet-style disinformation dominates the climate “debate”:
Why is it that when a political figure makes a misstatement about a global warming-related issue, which happens many times every day, no government scientific agency or leading university scientist ever corrects them?
For example, all climate modelers correctly label their speculations of future world temperatures as “projections,” meaning that they have no validated forecast skill. Yet politicians, mass media, and the public treat the models as providing temperature forecasts or predictions. Because this misusage is never corrected, politicians cheerily continue to base expensive public policy on it.
Another example: carbon dioxide, as an essential factor in photosynthesis, is the elixir of planetary life, yet politicians dub it a “pollutant.” Similarly, badging the theoretical global warming problem as a “carbon” issue represents scientific illiteracy because it fails to distinguish the element “carbon” from the molecule “carbon dioxide,” and deliberately encourages the public to confuse a colorless, odorless, beneficial gas with soot. Again, climate-alarmist scientists say little or nothing to correct these mistakes.
Many in the public understand that Hendricks’ behavior is typical of politicians everywhere. But most people do not recognize that fraud is also being directly committed in support of this travesty by many of today’s self-appointed “leading climate scientists.” For when they are not directly massaging the data relied upon in their scientific writings, these scientists often report their findings in ways that are intended to deceive the reader into believing that dangerous global warming exists, or will shortly exist. The UN’s climate reports are the magnum opus of this style of operation.
Yes.
Homer Hickam’s Blog
I just noticed he has one. Just added to the blogroll.
SpaceX
They got the go-ahead a while ago to start fueling. Things are on schedule, as far as I know.
[Update a little over an hour before launch]
Everything still progressing nominally.
Here’s some good technical background on SpaceX’s quest for reusability. Assuming it’s accurate (and I didn’t see any obvious problems), that is a great, detailed description of the Falcon 9 (and its history).
[Update after scrub]
They scrubbed, primarily (it seems) due to a range radar problem.
This is why SpaceX wants to go to Brownsville. Tired of depending on antique improperly-maintained hardware at CCAFS.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) February 8, 2015
The Cape was down for weeks last spring for exactly the same radar issue: http://t.co/JLi4nC2sVQ This is unacceptable in 21st century.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) February 8, 2015
A little background on the antiquity of range radar at both Eastern and Western Test Ranges: https://t.co/z8ThcgECuB Goes back to 50s.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) February 8, 2015
In the 21st century, range tracking should be via GPS, not radar. For example, Kodiak Launch Complex doesn't require radar tracking.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) February 8, 2015
No, I don’t have strong opinions about this at all…
Strength Training
I think that women should do it, as well as men, because as Mark Rippetoe says, strong people are harder to kill. But I’m particularly in favor of vaginal weight lifting.
A High Minimum Wage
How it closed down a San Francisco book store.
Unexpectedly!
On The Radio
OK, actually, on the telephone. I’ll be having a Ricochet discussion with John Walker in half an hour to talk space stuff (probably including today’s Falcon fly-back attempt, and the ASAP report).
To participate, call +1 712 432 0375, then enter the access code 139584# and confirm by pressing 1. To enter the access code, you may have to put your phone into tone dialing mode, which may not be the default if you’re on ISDN.
Here’s the link for Ricochet members (it’s behind the paywall).
[Update a couple hours later]
Here’s the audio, for those interested.
The Ghosts Of Auschwitz
At the beginning of the decade, Muslim Brotherhood godfather Sayyid Qutb had written his own Mein Kampf titled, “Our Struggle against the Jews” in which he claimed that Allah had sent Hitler. The claim has more recently been repeated by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Al Jazeera in ’09.
“The last punishment was carried out by Hitler… Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers,” he said. Today everyone agrees that the Nazis were evil. By the fifties, even Eichmann’s fellow Nazis were looking to jettison the Holocaust and improve their brand. But the Nazis back then were often treated the way that Muslims are today.
Media coverage emphasized distinctions between the radical and moderate Nazis. (Hitler was, of course, a moderate.) Nazi grievances were treated as legitimate. Their crimes were lied about and covered up.
In 1933, the Associated Press’ wire report claimed that the persecution of Jews had already ended. Another wire story headlined “Jew Persecution Over Says Envoy” cited Secretary of State Hull’s relief that the Hitler regime was doing its best to curb further persecution of the Jews.
Hull would later apologize when the Republican Mayor of New York City referred to the Fuhrer as a “man without honor”. Mayor LaGuardia might have been suffering from Fuhrerphobia.
Jewish protests were treated as shrill and baseless alarmism.
“U.S. Investigation Shows No Cause for Protest,” the AP headlined its coverage.
“Notwithstanding assurances given by German government leaders and by Hull that the Nazi excesses against the Jewish race had ceased in Germany, Jewish leaders went ahead with plans for mass protest meetings,” another wire story read. “All requests that these meetings be canceled fell on deaf ears.”
A week before the story, the first official Nazi concentration camp of Dachau had opened.
The media coverage should sound familiar. It’s how Iran’s nuclear buildup is being covered. It’s how Muslim violence against Jews is covered. It’s discussed reluctantly and immediately dismissed. Jews are written off as pests who refuse to listen when Kerry, like Hull, tells them there’s nothing to worry about.
That is how the Holocaust really happened.
I could be polite, and say their heads are in the sand. But really, they’re up their fundaments.
[Afternoon update]
The Islamic State is raising an army of child soldiers, and we’ll be dealing with them for decades.
But, but…CRUSADES!
Obama The Aloof Heart
This says it all:
I’ll make a deal with Obama. If he finds the people responsible for the Crusades, the Inquisition, or American slavery still alive and malicious, we’ll bomb them too. In the meantime, how about we start telling the truth about the Islamist terrorists who are right now literally enslaving young girls as sex objects, slaughtering anyone who doesn’t think like them, acquiring territory in the Middle East, and threatening attacks on the US and Europe? History professors can blather on ad nauseam about events 1,000 years ago, but Presidents are supposed to focus on the here and now. Skip the ignorant and hypocritical lectures, and do your job.
He doesn’t seem to know what his job is.
[Sunday-morning update]
[Bumped]
[Sunday-afternoon update]
Remember when FDR said we shouldn't get up on our high horse in fighting Imperial Japan and Nazis because we used to have slavery?
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) February 8, 2015
Remember when Churchill said we should be humble in fighting Nazis because the English used to disembowel traitors?
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) February 8, 2015
[Mid-afternoon update]
Some history of the Crusades for those who (like Obama) are historically ignorant, from Claire Berlinski.
Why Treat Osama As Muslim?
In light of Obama’s idiotic comments at the Prayer Breakfast, this oldie is worth a re-read (or read, if you haven’t).