Weekend Open Thread
Welcome to your weekend open thread. It’s our first real fall weekend, or at least the first one with what feels like fall weather. I hope you’re taking advantage of it.
First some highlights:
If you haven’t read and commented on Jason330’s “What is Next for Liberals”, you should do so. Interesting topic and interesting discussion.
The New York Times did a profile of Christine O’Donnell. One thing we learned – her dad was Bozo the Clown. So some of this is natural.
Speaking of O’Donnell, here’s the latest Bill Maher release:
O’Donnell: I was dabbling into every other kind of religion before I became a Christian…
Maher: You were a witch.
O’Donnell: I was. I was…
Maher: You were.
O’Donnell: I was dabbling in witchcraft. I’d dabbled in Buddhism. I would have become a Hare Krishna but I didn’t want to become a vegetarian and that is honestly the reason why because I’m Italian, I love meatballs.
Maher: Boy are you spiritual.
Christine has sure “dabbled” in a lot of stuff. Sex, witchcraft, Buddhism and higher education to name a few. If one were cynical, one might think this was a ploy to give herself credibility to criticize these things.
DarkSyde at Daily Kos highlighted this post from Climate Progress. It’s more of a summary of items but this part stuck out at me:
Our top climatologist has a must-read, chart-filled analysis, “How Warm Was This Summer?”
The two most fascinating parts are
1. Hansen’s discussion of how scientists should answer questions about the recent record-smashing extreme weather events
2. Hansen’s analysis of what is coming in the next couple of years.Let’s start with the extremes:
Finally, a comment on frequently asked questions of the sort: Was global warming the cause of the 2010 heat wave in Moscow, the 2003 heat wave in Europe, the all-time record high temperatures reached in many Asian nations in 2010, the incredible Pakistan flood in 2010? The standard scientist answer is “you cannot blame a specific weather/climate event on global warming.” That answer, to the public, translates as “no”.
However, if the question were posed as “would these events have occurred if atmospheric carbon dioxide had remained at its pre-industrial level of 280 ppm?”, an appropriate answer in that case is “almost certainly not.” That answer, to the public, translates as “yes”, i.e., humans probably bear a responsibility for the extreme event.
In either case, the scientist usually goes on to say something about probabilities and how those are changing because of global warming. But the extended discussion, to much of the public, is chatter. The initial answer is all important.
Although either answer can be defended as “correct”, we suggest that leading with the standard caveat “you cannot blame…” is misleading and allows a misinterpretation about the danger of increasing extreme events. Extreme events, by definition, are on the tail of the probability distribution. Events in the tail of the distribution are the ones that change most in frequency of occurrence as the distribution shifts due to global warming.
Yes! This is exactly the problem with the way scientists communicate. It makes it easy for unscrupulous people to take advantage – to make science sound uncertain and unsettled. The people who are wrong sound sure while the people who are right sound unsure. Scientists need to work on the communications side.
Tags: Open Thread
Observation: The ratio of apple store staff to patrons is 1:1
Observation: The ratio of apple store staff to patrons is 1:1
Was Evan Q. at the front door?
The O’Donnell for Senate website has been enhanced. They now have a chat feature and a couple of supporters got on there and complained about the lack of campaign advertising (lol). Check it out.
i dont see why everyone is bashing on christine just because she said some stupid stuff before anyone even cared about her, joe biden has said more stupid shit than anyone can think of and hes the vice president for gods sake
Criticism of O’Donnell is not solely about her past comments (as goofy as they are) but has everything to do with her well established pattern of proven lies, resume enhancements, campaign fraud, and financial chicanery, not to mention her complete lack of any relavant qualifications or skills to become a US Senator.
I would just like to state for the record that I am going to vote for Coons just to cancel out a crazy Sussex County voter who doesn’t have a clear thought in his/her stupid head and vote for this madwoman.
Oh, and I am not the only one. I know of three Sussex R’s that are planning to vote the same way. They’re embarrassed, and they’ll hold their nose and vote D before voting for this nutbag.
Lol. So I can post just so long as I don’t link to an article about the Israeli army making t-shirts that said “one shot, 2 kills” and depicted a pregnant Arab woman in the crosshairs of an Israeli soldier. Google 1 shot two kills israel curious folks.
Did Rahm kill the public option? Sebelius circles the wagons and says no.
It would be awesome if Rahm lost the mayor’s race because he didn’t support the public option. Now there is a chance for some local Chicago Dems to flex some progressive muscle and make a national statement.
More:
That logic doesn’t wash; it can be used as the universal excuse for anything you don’t want to do. When you are fighting entrenched power, waiting for consensus is always a losing strategy. Political support is something you have to fight for. Progressives noticed the lack of fight for the public option.
Feeding the whybother troll: The shirts have been banned by IDF. Every army fights to control the idiocy of its soldiers. Meanwhile, suicide vests are still considered appropriate children’s wear by Hamas.
Did you all have fun at the DC Rally yesterday?
Comment by anon @ 7:21 am:
“Feeding the whybother troll: The shirts have been banned by IDF. Every army fights to control the idiocy of its soldiers. Meanwhile, suicide vests are still considered appropriate children’s wear by Hamas.”
Banning the shirts (depicting a crosshairs on a pregnant arab woman’s belly, captioned “1 shot, 2 kills”)did not ban the zionist 60-year predilection for wasting non-combatants, young and old.
…and children in suicide vests? OMG !!!!! the kids are fighting back!!!!! They must be stopped !!!!
pictures of the Fifth Column on parade:
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/199/496/15_Photos_From_the_OneNation_Rally_Youll_Never_See_In_Legacy_Media.html
Hey, didn’t the Giants beat the undefeated Bears? Did McNabby come back to town to perform as a Class A quarter back do? Oh, did the canine specialist get taken out? Yes,yes,yes. Three words in every Eagles’ fans vocabulary: incomplete,fumble and loss. There are four words but bird brains only accommodate so much. Penalty. I can smell burnt feathers from here. Its no wonder you guys have to do a spelling lesson thrice a quarter.