I thought science would question things....

I heard about this on Limbaugh today I heard how Popular Science was comments on stories. You can read the whole story but here is the pertinent part.

Why We're Shutting Off Our Comments | Popular Science

Why We're Shutting Off Our Comments
Starting today, PopularScience.com will no longer accept comments on new articles. Here's why.

Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off.

...Even a fractious minority wields enough power to skew a reader's perception of a story.

A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to "debate" on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science.

There are plenty of other ways to talk back to us, and to each other: through Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, livechats, email, and more. We also plan to open the comments section on select articles that lend themselves to vigorous and intelligent discussion. We hope you'll chime in with your brightest thoughts. Don't do it for us. Do it for science.

Consensus has nothing to do with the accuracy of science. Even peer reviewed beliefs can be wrong. But you must never stop questioning, unless there is no real discussion. Those items are generally called Laws of Science, such as the Law of Gravity. To look at this let's have a definition of what we're talking about:

LAW

1) An empirical generalization; a statement of a biological principle that appears to be without exception at the time it is made, and has become consolidated by repeated successful testing; rule (Lincoln et al., 1990)

2) A theoretical principle deduced from particular facts, applicable to a defined group or class of phenomena, and expressible by a statement that a particular phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions be present (Oxford English Dictionary as quoted in Futuyma, 1979).

3) A set of observed regularities expressed in a concise verbal or mathematical statement. (Krimsley, 1995).

THEORY

1) The grandest synthesis of a large and important body of information about some related group of natural phenomena (Moore, 1984)

2) A body of knowledge and explanatory concepts that seek to increase our understanding ("explain") a major phenomenon of nature (Moore, 1984).

3) A scientifically accepted general principle supported by a substantial body of evidence offered to provide an explanation of observed facts and as a basis for future discussion or investigation (Lincoln et al., 1990).

4) 1. The abstract principles of a science as distinguished from basic or applied science. 2. A reasonable explanation or assumption advanced to explain a natural phenomenon but lacking confirming proof (Steen, 1971). [NB: I don't like this one but I include it to show you that even in "Science dictionaries" there is variation in definitions which leads to confusion].

5) A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles or causes of something known or observed. (Oxford English Dictionary, 1961; [emphasis added]).

6) An explanation for an observation or series of observations that is substantiated by a considerable body of evidence (Krimsley, 1995).

And let us say what this woman is really talking about: Global Cooling, err Global Warming, oh Climate Change, yea, Man Made Global Climate Change.  So there is no legitimate question of this fraud where every moron out there is saying?  Right!  There has not been any cooling in 15 years, the Arctic Ice has been growing, the people who area really pushing this are making a killing on it, etc.  So yes, we need to question it.  And Popular Science, you're just a joke of a magazine if you can't stand being challenged in your political beliefs.

I blame global cooling...err global warming...err global climate change...err what the hell is it called this week?....Oh yea, climate dispuption.

Someone, contact ALGORE and have him do his voodoo that he do so well.

September snow surprise in Montana KRTV.com Great Falls, Montana

Snow began falling in some areas of north central Montana and along the Rocky Mountain Front early on Friday, leaving some people checking their calendar to see if it is still, in fact, summer.

A rain-snow mix in and around Great Falls turned to all snow around 10 am in some areas. Up to an inch of accumulation may be possible throughout Friday, and temperatures will remain in the upper 30s to low 40s.

While snow in September is not unusual at higher elevations and in Glacier National Park, many lower elevations also received a dusting, with some areas reporting several inches of snow by mid-day on Friday.

The Winter Weather Advisory for snow that was issued at midnight remains in effect until 6 pm on Friday for areas along the Rocky Mountain Front. The snowfall will affect travel through mountain passes such as Logan Pass and Marias Pass, as well as travel around Glacier National Park.

Expect total snow accumulations of 2 to 4 inches at lower elevations along the east slopes of the Rocky Mountain Front, with 4 to 8 inches possible above 6000 feet. Locations affected include Browning, East Glacier Park, Marias Pass, St Marys, Many Glacier, and Logan Pass.

OK...it is still September right....it must be global climate disruption...

FOXNews.com - White House: Global Warming Out, 'Global Climate Disruption' In

OK, I've often asked "global cooling...err global warming...err climate change...err what the hell is it called this week?" Well, I finally got an answer.

FOXNews.com - White House: Global Warming Out, 'Global Climate Disruption' In

From the administration that brought you "man-caused disaster" and "overseas contingency operation," another terminology change is in the pipeline.


The White House wants the public to start using the term "global climate disruption" in place of "global warming" -- fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is.


White House science adviser John Holdren urged people to start using the phrase during a speech last week in Oslo, echoing a plea he made three years earlier. Holdren said global warming is a "dangerous misnomer" for a problem far more complicated than a rise in temperature...


...Holdren's "global climate disruption" isn't the most convoluted term to grace the climate debate, however.


According to...NASA ..., early studies on the impact humans had on global climate referred to the relationship as "inadvertent climate modification."

This is a classic example of Newspeak if there ever was.  Somewhere up there George Orwell is smiling.

It would be nice to have one of these.

From STRATFOR.COM, a report of an assault in China on a unique person:

The most famous attack targeted Fang Shimin, better known by the pen name Fang Zhouzhi, who is also known in China as the “Science Cop.” He has made a career of exposing questionable or fake science. Fang received international media attention recently when he revealed that the Ph.D. degree of former Microsoft-China CEO Tang Jun came from Hawaii’s Pacific Western University, which was not accredited and was shut down in 2006 by the Hawaii state government.

A Science Cop.  Damned we could use someone like that...you know, someone who questions ALGORE and the UN propagandist on Global Cooling...err Global Warming...err Climate Change...or whatever the hell it's called today.

But it may not be good for your health:

In recent weeks there have been three notable attacks against “whistleblowers” in China. Whistleblowers, or people who expose wrongdoing by businesses, government agencies and other organizations, face reprisals nearly everywhere in the world, and the Chinese attacks are nothing new. But they do highlight a major issue in China’s current anti-corruption drive, the effectiveness of which depends on the passage of new laws to protect informants...


...At 5 p.m. on Aug. 29, Fang was heading home after finishing a TV interview at a nearby cafe when he was approached by two men on the street. One of the men sprayed him with a liquid, either pepper spray or ether (reports differ), while the other attacked Fang with a hammer. The assailants had carried out enough preoperational surveillance to find Fang’s residence, but their attack was unsophisticated. Fang was immediately aware of what was happening and fled from his assailants.

Amateurs....we got James Lee and the Unibomber!

POLITICO, Environmentalists, B Hussein Obama and America Held Slimy

I've often said just under the New Green you find the Old Red...the enviro groups only want to push a socialist agenda and they will not knock their man no matter what.

Environmentalists give Barack Obama a pass on oil spill - Josh Gerstein - POLITICO.com

Last week, it seemed, environmentalists were finally ready to let loose on President Barack Obama over the Gulf oil spill.

Actress Q’orianka Kilcher chained herself to the White House fence while her mother slathered the “Pocahontas” star in black paint meant to look like oozing crude.

Kilcher’s cause? Not the Gulf spill at all but oil-related abuses of indigenous people in Peru, whose president was visiting Obama that day.

As the greatest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history has played out on Obama’s watch, the environmental movement has essentially given him a pass — all but refusing to unleash any vocal criticism against the president even as the public has grown more frustrated by Obama’s performance.

About a dozen environmental groups took out a full page ad in the Washington Post Tuesday — not to fault Obama over the ecological catastrophe but to thank him for putting on hold an Alaska drilling project. “We deeply appreciate your decision. ...” the ad says to Obama.

President Obama is the best environmental president we’ve had since Teddy Roosevelt,” Sierra Club chairman Carl Pope told the Bangor Daily News last week. “He obviously did not take the crisis in the Minerals Management Service adequately seriously, that’s clear. But his agencies have done a phenomenally good job.

To mention Obama's name with TR's is sickening...Roosevelt was not an environmentalist, he was a Conservationist. He didn't want to waste our resources, but to not use them was never on his mind.

Some say there’s little doubt that if a spill like the one in the Gulf took place on former President George W. Bush’s watch, environmental groups would have unleashed an unsparing fury on the Republican in the White House. For their liberal ally, Obama, they seem willing to hold their tongues.

Little doubt?????...is the earth round guys?

These guys have bet the farm on this administration,” said Ted Nordhaus, chairman of an environmental think tank, the Breakthrough Institute. “There has been a real hesitancy to criticize this administration out of a sense that they’re kind of the only game in town. … These guys are so beholden to this administration to move their agenda that I think they’re unwilling to criticize them.

The most prominent voices of outrage have come not from mainstream environmental groups, but from the likes of political consultant James Carville, comedian Bill Maher and Plaquemines, La., Parish President Billy Nungesser.

Carville’s call for Obama to hold BP’s feet to the fire has penetrated the national consciousness in a way that comments from traditional environmental groups have not...

The White House says Obama has escaped the brunt of environmentalists’ criticism over the spill and the cleanup effort for a simple reason: he doesn’t deserve it.

“We have responded with unprecedented resources, and when you look at what most of the critics say …and you ask them, specifically, what is it that the administration could or should have done differently that would have an impact on whether or not oil was hitting shore, you're met with silence,” Obama said in an interview aired Tuesday on NBC’s “Today Show.” ...

The environmental movement as such has nowhere to turn but Obama,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “They’re feeling they have one person to do business with. ... We’re down to like two Republican senators who want to deal with these environmental groups.”

...While they’re disappointed by a variety of Obama’s actions, the alternatives are much, much worse,” Egan said.

Several analysts said the low profile of the large environmental groups since the disaster is due in large part to uncertainty about the impact of the spill on the strategy for passing pending climate legislation. Environmental groups are leery of alienating Obama as he weighs how hard to push a sweeping cap-and-trade energy bill to rein in carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

Obama implicitly blessed a drilling-for-climate-votes swap back in March when he announced plans to open additional areas in the Gulf, along the Atlantic coast, and in Alaska for offshore drilling leases. Most environmental groups publicly opposed that move, but some accepted the White House’s analysis that allowing more drilling was the best way to win the Republican support needed to pass a climate change bill this year.

“Obama made his ... pledge to lift the offshore drilling ban because he was trying to rustle up votes for Kerry-Lieberman, and that’s what most of the environmental community has been about,” Bill McKibben, a prominent environmental writer and leader of climate change group 350.org, said this week.

Finally we get it...these leftist groups (sometimes called environmental groups) want to pass a bill to destroy American industry and that is more important than anything...and they will not let anything like Obama's incompetence in handling the spill stop that...

America, what the hell have we gotten ourselves into.

Weather, climate and holidays

Some of you know that I have a crawfish boil every Memorial Day and I'm getting my stuff ready for the weekend. Now ten day ago I was checking www.weather.com and its long term forecast said 60% chance of rain over the Memorial Day weekend. Well, three days ago I checked again and now it's 10% for Saturday and 0% on Sunday.

As I've often said to the worshipers of the alter of Global Cooling, err Global Warming, err Climate Change or whatever it's called this week....

Can you tell me what will be the temperature in Houston on May 4, 2015?

But you can tell me we will be warmer now...excuse me if I'm not buying it....

News from da earth

- Canadian Prime Minister Lawrence Cannon has canceled a diplomatic visit to Russia because of the volcanic dust cloud that has closed airspace across much of Europe, RIA Novosti reported April 17.

- U.S. President Barack Obama on April 17 canceled his trip to Poland for the state funeral of President Lech Kaczynski because of the travel risk posed by the huge volcanic ash cloud spreading over Europe, Reuters reported.

- The U.N. Security Council canceled a trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a consequence of the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano that has been causing air travel problems across Europe, a U.N. spokesman said April 16, Reuters reported.

I only have two questions:

1. If this volcano has put more pollution in the atmosphere in a few days than all cars, etc in history, what danger is my truck?

2. How long before ALGORE blames this on “Global Warming”?

Climategate Update

Here it is....

A key piece of evidence in climate change science was slammed as “exaggerated” on Wednesday by the UK’s leading statistician, in a vindication of claims that global warming sceptics have been making for years.

Professor David Hand, president of the Royal Statistical Society, said that a graph shaped like an ice hockey stick that has been used to represent the recent rise in global temperatures had been compiled using “inappropriate” methods.

“It used a particular statistical technique that exaggerated the effect [of recent warming],” he said.

There are lies, damn lies, then there are statistics. But it just shows how much of this crap is just that, crap.