Climate Research Unit Hacked November 21, 2009
Posted by noamgr in Debunking And Stupid Claims, Earth, science.Tags: al gore, autism, climate change, climate research unit, conspiracy, CRU, east anglia, global warming, hacker, man bear pig, manbearpig, science, vaxines
add a comment
This week, hackers got into the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit and released over 60 MB of private e-mails to the public.
As expected, climate deniers are having a field day over supposed “data fudging”.
While some of these e-mails are indeed rather embarrassing, and involve conversations that fall, let’s say, below what one would consider the “ethical ideal” for how scientists should behave with regards to the general public, global warming deniers really are blowing this out of proportion. First of all, note that there is no real “data fudging” going on. — in the worst of these, they are talking about witholding data that could be easily misinterpreted by deniers.
Which, don’t get me wrong, is not awesome, and as someone who believes in true intellectual honesty and transparency, I find it embarrassing and disgraceful. — But, as RealClimate.org point out:
More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords. The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though.
Instead, there is a peek into how scientists actually interact and the conflicts show that the community is a far cry from the monolith that is sometimes imagined. People working constructively to improve joint publications; scientists who are friendly and agree on many of the big picture issues, disagreeing at times about details and engaging in ‘robust’ discussions; Scientists expressing frustration at the misrepresentation of their work in politicized arenas and complaining when media reports get it wrong; Scientists resenting the time they have to take out of their research to deal with over-hyped nonsense. None of this should be shocking.
Indeed, shockingly enough for climate deniers, not one of these emails at any point suggests that there is any data that contradicts GW, only that there is data that could be easily misinterpreted as contradicting GW by the general public.
For example, the global cooling trend due to global dimming has been well known for some time now, and recent studies show that this global dimming may “hold back” global warming and slow it down.
Of course the problem is that this dimming is caused by pollution!*
Some of these e-mails do seem to contain some questionable material — and I say seem to, because I’m not a climate specialist, nor am I a data analyst; so it may well be that nothing out of the ordinary is going on there… at any rate, if what seems to be a discussions about withholding conflicting data turns out to be just that, then I hope there are repercussions and that these people are investigated further.
What’s important here is that these e-mails should not be taken out of proportion, and that this incident should in no way deter people from the reality of GW, and how important of an issue it is to solve this and all the other environmental crises if we want our grandkids to live in a planet that doesn’t resemble something out of a post apocalyptic movie.
Save the planet now, or your ruggedly handsome grandchildren will be forced to a life of ape-on-hairless-ape sex-slavery.
—
* Hey, Anti-Vaxers, Want to look for likely causes to the recent rise in autism and other diseases?… how about the tons [literally] of toxic crap we are pumping into our air, food, and water supplies on a daily basis? … so much so that it’s dimming our planet.
—
p.s. I’m still dealing with some health issues, so this is why I haven’t been blagging much. I’ll write about it when things get back to normal.
The New FOX News English Dictionary November 12, 2009
Posted by noamgr in random.Tags: apologizes, apology, daily show, democrat, fox, jon stewart, politics, republican, sean hannity, tea party
add a comment
I just got a fresh copy of The New FOX News English Dictionary in the mail, so I’m pretty excited. It’s a wonderful reference book, and absolutely essential to have at hand when watching FOX, reading discussions on health care reform on the internet, engaging in lively youtube debates, etc.
Here is a sample, I’ll post some more later.
First, let’s take a look at this recent clip of Sean Hannity’s apology to Jon Stewart for using misleading footage:
Now, if we quickly consult the NFED… ina… inadv…
in·ad·ver·tent |ˌinədˈvərtnt|
adjective
- On purpose.
“I apologize; it seems I have inadvertently shot you in the face while quail hunting.” — R. Cheney, c. 2006.
– in·ad·ver·tent·ly adverb
Hope that clears up some of the confusion out there.
Featured Website + Interview With Theramintrees November 6, 2009
Posted by noamgr in Cool Sites, Philosophy, Religion / Atheism, brain, science.Tags: atheism, christianity, god, Religion, skepticism, theramin, theramintrees, youtube
add a comment
This week I interviewed Youtuber Theramintrees. Check out his channel, http://www.youtube.com/theramintrees, if you’re interested in thought provoking videos with a focus on human psychology, atheism, and music.
(click “more” to read the interview)
The Return Of The Mother Of WTF Wednesday November 3, 2009
Posted by noamgr in WTF Wednesdays.Tags: butterfly, elephant, emo, goth, moonlyn, police, taser, wtf
add a comment
OK, so I’ve been away from the blog for a bit longer than a week. Long story short, I missed about two weeks of school and really fell behind on my work, so I’m up to my nose with schoolwork now trying to catch up. I probably won’t be writing any long ass “Imagine you’re a…” essays for a while now until my work load calms down a bit.
I did however conduct an interview with Theraminetrees (of Youtube fame), which turned out nicely, so I’ll post that tomorrow.
But in all seriousness, WTF?:
My case for why abortions should not only be legal, but in some cases mandatory:
Bro Tased While His Home Burns:
Police used a Taser gun to restrain a resident outside of his home on Crain Avenue as it burned at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
The resident, Mike Bartlett, said he was returning from downtown for his cell phone when he noticed his sister’s room on fire. He ran in to make sure she was not there and continued to find his friends in the basement and alert them of the fire. He said his cousin’s girlfriend was sleeping upstairs so he went back in the house to retrieve her.
“As I was running downstairs, I could hear the window glass popping because of the heat,” Bartlett said.
When he went got outside, Bartlett said police officers were at the end of the driveway. He said he approached them for help, but they dismissed him. As he walked toward one of his friends, he said the officers tackled and restrained him with the Taser gun, giving them no reason for their force.
According to the Kent City Police levels of resistance report, Bartlett used psychological and physical active resistance to avoid arrest. The report stated he was both combative and intoxicated. No one from the Police Department was available for comment.
Bartlett said he was not offered medical attention by the officers. Instead, he was taken directly to the police station. Bartlett went to the hospital following his court appearance Sunday. He said he was treated for first- and second-degree burns.
Bartlett’s trial is set for December. The Red Cross helped the displaced family of four, which does not include any Kent State students. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
Yes, she’s dead serious:
And this week’s grand-prize winner is:
***
QFT Bonus:
Back Next Week October 22, 2009
Posted by noamgr in Uncategorized.add a comment
I won’t be posting anything new for about a week. In the meantime, feel free to browse around and rejoice in glories past.
This video is CRAZY:
But I Bet You Can’t Explain THIS October 17, 2009
Posted by noamgr in Debunking And Stupid Claims, Math / Logic, Religion / Atheism, science.Tags: atheism, da vinvi, debunking, ghosts, god, ireland, logic, mathematics, miracle, optics, paranormal, parhelia, parhelion, renaissance, skepticism, sun, sun dogs
add a comment
This is pt. 1 of a series:
- pt 1. But I Bet You Can’t Explain THIS
- pt 2. Math Really Is Cool, pt. III
- pr 3. The Logic Of Ghosts
- pt. 4 How Can We Know That Anything Exists
I
Ludovico Sforza's Main Squeeze. Dude was pimpin' it 1480's style.
Imagine that you are living in late 15th Century Italy. The Renaissance is in full swing: all around you you are witnessing the rebirth of art, poetry, philosophy, and science in Europe. These are exciting times.
One day, as you are resting quietly in your room, you are awakened by what sounds like a tumultuous gathering of people out in the streets. You stumble to the window, and sure enough, a large crowd has gathered in the streets: Some of the people are frightened, others are overtaken with joy, even tears; but they all seem to be staring at something in the sky. So you decide to go outside and find out what’s going on.
You are absolutely astonished by what you see: there are three suns in the sky! they are surrounded by rainbows, and they form the sign of The Cross! You fall to your knees in amazement. You have not gone mad, your eyes are not deceiving to you; the whole town is witness!
The event brings to mind one of your close friend. His name is Leonardo Da Vinci. He is an extremely gifted painter and is becoming rather well known around all of Italy for his magnificent artwork and clever mechanical inventions.
Sadly, however, there seems to be something wrong with his mind. He does not believe in miracles. He believes in all sorts of crazy things: he believes that natural laws underlie unexplainable phenomena like the flight of birds, natural laws that man will some day harness and use to build machines that will allow him to fly. He believes that fossils and sediments are not evidence of the great flood, but rather evidence of many generations of marine animals that once lived where there is now land. He believes that the Earth is much older than a few thousand years, maybe even millions, and that mountains and seas and rivers form very slowly. He refuses to eat animals, because he belives that they suffer the same as humans. He believes that our bodies are like machines that can also be understood and studied.
He is quite mad.
So you run to his house and you bring him to the town square and you point to the cross in the sky, and you say “There! Do you see that!”
“My God!” he answers, astonished: “That is very strange!”
“So,” you ask him: “Can you explain me that?”
“No,” he says: “I must admit I can think of no explanation. That is most baffling!”
“Aha!” you say: “So you admit it! There is no explanation for three suns to appear in the sky and form a cross! So now you see that it must be a miracle!”
But he says “No, of course not. It is most intriguing, but I’m sure there is a rational explanation… I must investigate further. I’m sure some day we will find an explanation for this.”
Now the two of you fall silent. Poor Leo, you think: So stubborn and unwilling to open his mind that even in the face of such an inexplicable event, he refuses to give up his wild notions.
II
“Miracles Of The Sun“ are among the most commonly reported miracles. They have been documented throughout history, and have been interpreted as omens of impending doom, calls to battle, and countless other messages from the Spirit world.
Thousands gather in Ireland to witness a miracle of the sun, as predicted by an oracle.
In the 16th century, Jacob Hutter describes such a miracle of the sun:
My beloved children, I want to tell you that on the day after the departure of our brothers Kuntz and Michel, on a Friday, we saw three suns in the sky for a good long time, about an hour, as well as two rainbows. These had their backs turned toward each other, almost touching in the middle, and their ends pointed away from each other. And this I, Jakob, saw with my own eyes, and many brothers and sisters saw it with me. After a while the two suns and rainbows disappeared, and only the one sun remained. Even though the other two suns were not as bright as the one, they were clearly visible. I feel this was no small miracle[.]
Such events have even been caught on film:
Spooky stuff…
III
But of course, as it turns out, Leonardo was right to be skeptical. (Or our hypothetical Leonardo, rather 
). Because within a few centuries, we would come to discover the natural laws behind the refraction and dispersion of light, the composition of our atmosphere, the presence of ice crystals… and soon enought these mystical rings and suns in the sky would finally be understood to be parhelia, or “sun dogs”. Beautiful and sometimes spooky, but ruled by explainable natural laws none the less.
In fact, many would say, made even more beautiful once divested of the veil of mysticism and illuminated by the natural laws that rule them.
(To be continued…)
32 yo Man Given Death Penalty After Jury Consult Bible October 15, 2009
Posted by noamgr in Religion / Atheism.Tags: atheism, atheist, bible, christian, christianity, death penalty, jesus, Khristian Oliver, law, texas
6 comments
From Amnesty International USA (emphasis mine):
A Texas man [...] faces execution after jurors at his trial consulted the Bible when deliberating his fate [.]
Khristian Oliver, 32, is set to be killed on 5 November after jurors used Biblical passages supporting the death penalty to help them decide whether he should live or die.
[...] Khristian Oliver was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder committed during a burglary. According to accomplice testimony at the trial, 20-year-old Oliver shot the victim before striking him on the head with a rifle butt.
After the trial, evidence emerged that jurors had consulted the Bible during their sentencing deliberations. At a hearing in June 1999, four of the jurors recalled that several Bibles had been present and highlighted passages had been passed around.
One juror had read aloud from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors, including the passage, “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death”.
The judge ruled that the jury had not acted improperly and this was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
In 2002, a Danish journalist interviewed a fifth juror. The latter said that “about 80 per cent” of the jurors had “brought scripture into the deliberation”, and that the jurors had consulted the Bible “long before we ever reached a verdict”.
He told the journalist he believed “the Bible is truth from page 1 to the last page”, and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. He said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, “I would have left the courtroom”. He described himself as a death penalty supporter, saying life imprisonment was a “burden” on the taxpayer.
In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the jurors had “crossed an important line” by consulting specific passages in the Bible that described the very facts at issue in the case. This amounted to an “external influence” on the jury prohibited under the US Constitution.
However, it concluded that under the “highly deferential standard” by which federal courts should review state court decisions, Oliver had failed to prove that he had been prejudiced by this unconstitutional juror conduct. In April 2009, the US Supreme Court refused to take the case, despite being urged to take it by nearly 50 former US federal and state prosecutors.
Sigh. Regardless of whether the death penalty is right or wrong. We’re talking about a 20 year-old kid who fucked up, big time, but not a premeditated murder. To me that’s someone who should serve their time and maybe even be released if they prove they have learned from their mistakes and can move on to lead a fruitful life.
But that’s my opinion and it’s certainly open for debate; this, however, shouldn’t be: the last place – I correct myself: the last fucking place we should look to when deciding an appropriate punishment for a crime should be the Bible.
On a side note… I wonder how many of these Bible-happy jurors have stoned their disobedient teenagers to death.
***
Funny Little Puzzle October 14, 2009
Posted by noamgr in Cool Sites, Math / Logic.Tags: IQ, joke, math, mathematics, puzzle, tanya khovanova
add a comment
One of my favorite math blogs is Tanya Khovanova’s. Every so often she’ll post a neat meathematical construction or puzzle. This one she posted last week, and I thought it’s pretty neat. I guess it counts as both a puzzle and a joke… if we think of the term “joke” in its most abstracted form. Which seems suitable when we’re talking about math
So, of the following figures, which is the odd one out?
Click On The Image For Original Post + Discussion and Answer
Get it?
I chuckled.
Anyway, these are my favorite kind of puzzles. Simple but clever – and easy to get wrong if you don’t pause and think about the answer.
