Monthly Archives: February 2012

OMG Global Warming!!!!11!!

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Dear reader, if you follow my blog at Science Blogs you won’t need to check out any of these links, but if not, let me tell you that this has been the busiest single week of climate change related blogging that I’ve personally engaged in, and it is all pretty interesting and even rather exciting, in a “hey, did you see that multi-car pile up on the interstate” kinda way.

The climate change and science denialists are at it again, and we’ve been, well, addressing their issues.

It started with the Wall Street Journal publishing a horrific editorial (Two incontrovertible things: Anthropogenic Global Warming is Real, and the Wall Street Journal is Political Rag UPDATED) followed closely by a piece on a different but related topic on the Daily Mail (New British Studies Confirms Climate Change Consensus, Daily Mail Gets It Totally Wrong). This all comes amid concern that Coral Reefs will be Gone by the End of the Century. After first addressing the problem that Global Warming Is Ruining The Minnesota Winter (including but not limited to the Cancellation of the Lake Elmo Ice Fishing Contest), I reminded my fellow North Star Staters that Unless you really know what you are doing stay off the ice!, then I posted a satire on Global Cooling.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Mike Mann, the famous climate scientist, released his new book: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars.

Then, this thing happened where various bloggers were talking about a Meteorologist who was Exposed as a Scientific Fraud and in so doing some of used a really cool graphic, including Phil Plait the Bad Astronomer guy. Phil was then ATTACKED by a bogus statistician over matters concerning this graph and while Phil was wiping the sweat off his brow and about to dive into the fray, I jumped in with an extensive and intensive look at how William M. Briggs has misunderstood a high-school level data graph, the comments section of which is now the site of a brewing all out bloggy war.

Meanwhile, remember that Wall Street Journal piece? It was signed by a handful of fake scientists, and now it has been followed up by a response from Actual Scientists. And I can’t be sure but I suspect the WSJ published that in part because of pressure from YOU, the blogosphere!

And this period of sudden activity is momentarily punctuated by a low point in Minnesota, wherein Minnesotan Republicans Disrupt Attempts to Save Civilization From Itself. As per usual.

This is not over. I just thought you’d like to know now so you can start trying to catch up.

Poor Women Have Breasts Too, You Know!

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Thank you very much. About 6,000 people, many readers of this blog, donated $400,000 over 24 hours to Planned Parenthood to make up for the loss of funding from Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer foundation. That is roughly in the range of the annual donations Komen was making to Planned Parenthood before they pulled out their support under false pretenses.

Now, here’s what has to happen.

1) If you were planning to run in a Komen race or otherwise engage in activities pursuant to their fundraising, ask yourelf this question: “Do I hate women, and/or do I think poor women don’t mind dying of cancer?” If the answer is yes, put on your pink ribbon and knock yourself out. If the answer is no, then cancel your engagement with Komen and do something else.

2) If you’ve recently given money to Komen, send them a note and ask for it back. It was obtained under false pretenses. If you are a a group of people and one or more of you is a lawyer, get out that legal stationary and make threatening motions with it.

3) If there is a Komen Race in your neighborhood any time soon, considering organizing a protest. Line part of the race route with poor women with breasts, carrying signs that say “we have breasts too!” or words to that effect.

4) If you are involved in any sort of #occupy activity, remind your fellow #occupiers that this is a 1% vs. 99% issue.

5) Consider making a regular donation to planned parenthood, just a few bucks a month, or once a year on your birthday, or once a year on the day you had your last Chemo, or whatever works for you.

6) Stop wearing pink to signify solidarity with cancer victims. Maybe pick a color off of the Planned Parenthood site and wear that. I don’t think Komen “owns” pink but they do use a lot of it.

7) If you have Komen merchandise such as a teddy bear, earrings, clothing, etc. take it to someplace appropriate and throw it over the wall. Like the vets threw their service medals over the wall at the Pentagon and the White House. Or just mail it back to them. Or, better yet, mail it to Planned Parenthood with a check.

Personally, I will not be satisfied with a detente, or a compromise, or a retraction, or a continuation of funding by Komen of Planned Parenthood. Komen has done something very very bad and they need to go away. It should be the case from now on that anyone who does not hate women should never give Komen a penny, ever, from now on. Komen is not necessary. There are other charities. There are other things for you to do with your energies, money, and time that will help women beat breast cancer.

Minnesotan Republicans Disrupt Attempts to Save Civilization From Itself

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State Legislator Ellen Anderson is an energy expert, who authored seven energy related bills one of which became a national model, all of which were signed into law by a Republican Governor. She was recently appointed by Governor Dayton to the Public Utilities Commission. Republicans, however, organized a vote against the apointment because her views on energy are too radical.

What are her radical views? Well, she she thinks coal is dirty, for one thing. She’d like to see more conservation and use of solar and wind. That sort of thing.

Here’s the story on our local news station.

Who owns the Republican Party? Who do you think ….

William M. Briggs has misunderstood a high-school level data graph

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And I suspect he’s done so willingly. Well, you know what they say about statistics and liars.

Here’s the story. The Wall Street Journal and the Daily Mail independently published highly misleading and blatantly idiotic pieces on climate change. We’ve covered this extensively already over the last few days. Phil Plait, of the Bad Astronomy Blog on Discovermagazine.com, was one of numerous scientists to respond to those flaming examples of horrific bottom feeding journalism with the post “While temperatures rise, denialists reach lower.” In that post, he presented a still-image from a moving GIF that has been going around, originally from Skeptical Science. I’ve used the GIF myself just recently, but I’ll re-post it here for your convenience:

Continue reading William M. Briggs has misunderstood a high-school level data graph →

Seven Year Old Jaymee Stewart Has Died…

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… of complications related to being shot in the head by either his 4 year old brother or his 13 year old brother. They were playing with a gun in their parents house in Morristown, Tennessee. Tennessee law is pretty weak on personal firarm responsibility. No charges will be fired. They have suffered enough.

A bunch of people cleaning up after a church fundraiser in Wentzville, Missouri, started popping balloons for fun and, I’m guessing, some nimrod decided it would be fun to shoot one (this has not been established, but you can read the story and decide for yourself) and accidentially shot Aaron Dwan. Dwan will live, but he’s in serious condition. We await word on charges.

The husband of a newlywed couple shot his bride and himself with the 9mm she gave him as a gift because he didn’t know about the part where a bullet stays in the chamber if you rack the gun and pull out the clip. The injuries were minor but I’m thinking there are some regrets. Some guy shot his friend on the shooting range in Painesville, Ohio because he didn’t know how to clear his .357 properly. Nineteen year old Facebooker Jared Hyndrich who posted numerious photos of himself and his extensive gun collection is dead. He put an unloaded gun to his head and pulled the trigger. But it was loaded after all. Lee Allan Miars of Oregon did roughly the same thing; He was telling a story about a gun, and he happened to have a gun handy, so he used it as a prop. I’m not sure if the story was supposed to end with someone getting shot fatally in the head, but Miars himself certainly did end that way.

So, in case you were wondering, that’s what’s been going on in the world of personal firearms antics over the last ten days in the US.