Monday Open Thread [5.12.14]
I hope all of you enjoyed the weekend and the mothers among us enjoyed their special day.
This is exactly the point I keep making about scientific fact. I don’t give a shit if you don’t BELIEVE in a fact. A fact is a fact is a fact no matter if your feeble mind cannot comprehend it. And a fact does not need your validation or approval to exist. Creationists and Bible Literalists say the Earth is only 6,000 years old. That is a falsehood, disproven by scientific fact. The Earth is in fact 4.54 billion years.
Our climate has changed due to global warming. That is a fact. Our weather (i.e. climate) has already been affected. More brutal winters, more brutal summers, historic flooding, deadlier hurricanes and tornadoes, more severe and long lasting droughts, landslides, you name it. The media needs to start ignoring all of those who deny facts. You are not allowed to have an opinion on whether a fact exists. Well, you are allowed, but it is required that you be treated as a nutcase if you offer your opinion that snakes are flurry animals that love to cuddle with you. No, they are not. The sun is not blue. Water does not boil at -18 degrees C, and it does not freeze at 100 degrees F. Two plus two does not equal 20. The universe does not revolve around the Earth.
The U.S. Treasury Department booked a $114 billion surplus in April, the largest for that month since 2008, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday.
….and….
For the fifth consecutive year, the U.S. annual deficit is projected to fall as a share of the economy, and to do so more than previously forecast.
The Congressional Budget Office projected Monday that the 2014 shortfall will decline to 2.8% of GDP — or $492 billion. That’s about $23 billion below what the CBO forecast just a few months ago. And it’s well below the 4.1% — or $680 billion — recorded last year.
Worst. Socialist. High. Spender. Evah.
Sen. Ted Cruz, in a speech to fellow conservatives at the Federalist Society this week, provided detailed evidence of what the right calls the “lawlessness” of the Obama administration.
The Texas Republican, in his latest McCarthyesque flourish, said he had a list of “76 instances of lawlessness and other abuses of power.”To his credit, Cruz made his list public. But perhaps he shouldn’t have. An examination of the accusations reveals less about the lawlessness of the accused than about the recklessness of the accuser.
Cruz was particularly agitated about President Obama’s use of signing statements, executive orders, recess appointments and unconfirmed “czars” — omitting the salient detail that this president has used four less than George W. Bush, for whom Cruz worked as a campaign adviser and administration official.
Beyond such perennial check-and-balance disputes, Cruz’s list was a recitation of policy grievances (Cruz, if you haven’t heard, doesn’t like Obamacare very much, nor the president’s immigration policy). These were interspersed with some whoppers that the senator, a former Texas solicitor general, couldn’t have researched thoroughly.
Consider item No. 2 in the “Other Abuses of Power” section: “Backed release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.” This does sound bad — and strange, given that Obama had publicly said he was “angry” about the release, which was “a bad decision.”
The footnote on Cruz’s allegation points to an article in the Australian newspaper, a curious source. I looked up the article, which stated that “the U.S. wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned in view of the nature of the crime.”
It’s official. Former ‘Wild Thing’ Phils’ pitcher Mitch Williams is an asshole. Check this out:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sports/phillies/Mitch-Williams-explains-what-inspired-him-to-curse-out-umpire-in-front-of-10-year-olds.html
The sum of all natural numbers = -1/12 is also a fact.
http://youtu.be/w-I6XTVZXww
Crazy!
That is EXACTLY why I hated math at some point in my school career.
Is the earth 4.54 billion years old? That’s what science may believe now but that may well may change. While the view that the earth is 6,00 years old is nonsense, I don’t take all that scientists say at face value. Not many years scientists swore that our universe was the only one that existed and thought any of us who doubted it were a bunch of idiots. Now multiple universes are an accepted fact. I have no problem with science but, just declaring it science does not make it true.
This difficulty arises because when science states something like the earth being 4.54 billion years old, is that we believe they are making the statement (and other scientific statements) with a degree of precision that scientists do not suggest or intend. When you add the ± 0.05 billion years range of error, it facilitates comprehension that the earth is somewhere in the ball park of 4.54 billion years but that number could be off by 50,000,000 years (50 million) or so. The earth is pretty old, may be a bit older or younger than we think, but 4.54 ± 0.05 billion is close enough.
By the way, I’ve had physicists explain that -1/12th stuff to me in manner similar to the video. I found it difficult to accept then and haven’t changed my mind. It is incorrect to manipulate an infinite series as if they were finite sums since it is contrary to the definition of infinity. It’s actually Zeno’s Paradox, in that the series may approach -1/12 but never actually reach that point because, well it’s infinite now isn’t it? Another example of incorrect assigning some definitive precision to something, in this case it’s the scientists doing who’ve done it. Shame on them!
Creation and Miracles – The Final Edition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYLy7CCgqDk&list=UUqqN2e5-zgkQhHOs-ailqBQ#t=381