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Unblogged Bits for 06 December

December 7, 2009

Stealing the concept and even the title from ***Dave, it’s shared stuff from my Google Reader!

    Climate Stuff

  • New Scientist _Why there’s no sign of a climate conspiracy in hacked emails_ A very good “cut through the crap” article about the stolen climate emails. Keep it handy.
  • Bad Astronomy _The global warming emails’ non-event_The data sets discussed in the emails aren’t the totality of evidence, but even so, they are valid. I think a lot of people are freaking out over the discovery that analyzing complex phenomena involves impassioned argument in addition to all the computer modeling, etc.
  • Ethical Man Blog _A flight that almost cost me my marriage._ Imagine you’re a politician with a yen to do something about global warming. Want to tell your constituents that long-distance vacations are a bad idea? Me neither.
  • 40 Year Old Atheist _Does religious faith install hatred & distrust of science?_ A Christian friend of mine has seized on Roger Pielke as his scientific totem for denying anthropogenic climate change. One scientist among thousands, who must be right because HE agrees with my friend.
    Scienc-y Stuff
  • ArsTechnica _The complicated history of simple scientific facts._ A very cool story about how we think of light and the universe.
    Lyndon Johnson redux stuff
  • The Washington Note _Damned if you do and damned if you don’t._ Let’s start paying for wars in real time, OK? It’ll make us a lot more careful. The American people have always been willing to send their kids to die, but writing out larger checks, well that’s different. And yes, I really am that cynical about it. We’ll cast a much more critical eye on any war proposal if it involves writing checks.
  • Obsidian Wings _This One’s Optimistic_ The whole article is a good analysis of the larger picture of Obama’s expansion in Afghanistan.
    Gay Stuff
  • Think Progress _Pastor Rick Warren refuses to condemn Ugandan law making homosexual acts punishable by death_ “All that is required for evil to triumph…”
    Nobody’s asking Warren to put on gear and go to war, but he can’t even speak up? Until I hear him condemn the law, and in light of his support for Prop 8, I can only assume that he DOES think it’s a good idea. Not taking sides, my ass.

  • Salon _Destroying the So-Called “Unit Cohesion” argument_ So let’s get this straight: shriveled-up old congresscritters worry about queers breaking unit cohesion, while actual soldiers say; “We’re not really that worried about it, we have more important things to think about.” Hey, “conservatives” – that queer person you’re so afraid of… put on a uniform and put themselves in harms way to defend your sorry ass.
  • Starts With A Bang _Weekend diversion: the power of mockery._ “Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand!” – Mark Twain
    Industrial safety stuff
  • In The Pipeline _All you industrial scientists, out of the room._ I am fascinated by industrial accidents, and often download detailed accident reports about them. I can think of at least a couple where someone with only academic knowledge tried to create an industrial-scale process and tripped over scaling problems with disastrous results.
  • The Scientific Indian _ Bhopal_ I had an Indian grad student working for me a few years ago, who lived in the Bhopal area. He described disfigured, blind victims of the disaster begging on the street living in agony. You could think of Bhopal as approximately twelve 9/11’s but one of the main people responsible is living the sweet life. What a lot of leeway we give when the motive is greed!
  • Mike the Mad Biologist _The NFL’s concussion conundrum _ Notwithstanding that I think American football is sort of a stupid game, I can attest that it’s all too easy to shrug off concussions until that one where you learn the hard way that they are cumulative.
    Not-so-conservative stuff
  • Pam’s House Blend _Andrew Sullivan joins LGF’s Charles Johnson in kissing off the current ‘conservative’ movement_ As a former Reagan voter, this rings true to me, though it’s hard for me to imagine going back to the the Republicans ever again.
    Atheist stuff
  • Friendly Atheist _Pastor Rick Warren knows why you became an atheist_ The reader Walker’s response is excellent, to which the author says; “I kind of like that last one, but it’s more than 140 characters”. And so is my prescription for what “pastor” Rick Warren can do with his thoughts about atheists.

Some of the stuff in this listoid I copied from other people’s shared items, and some of it I stumbled onto myself while looking for pictures of cats with funny captions. You can see the rest of my shared stuff here: My Google Reader.  Or you can look at my photos here: My Photos.  Other bloggers who do this include Mike and Coturnix

Categories: Uncategorized
  1. December 7, 2009 at 05:49 | #1

    re In the Pipeline: all I can say is, all engineers and designers should be compelled to watch the Mythbusters episode on antacids for a perfect illustration that small scale does not always equal large scale.

    Comes to that, so should all of those people who read scientific studies showing that vats full of some substance cause cancer in lab rats, panic (in the case of too many folks such as newscasters, panic with glee) and declare we’re all gonna die, without ever pausing to realize that the amounts fed to rats can’t realistically be consumed by a human being.  Well, not most human beings, anyway – I’m sure there are folks who think nothing of drowning pure saccharine by the vatful.

    The dose is the poison.  Small scale does not equal large scale.  Both good maxims to live by.  How much would it cost to get them tattooed on the foreheads of the clueless, I wonder?

  2. December 7, 2009 at 08:09 | #2

    Always pleased to be stolen from—er, an inspiration.  With credit at least. :-)

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