Friday, April 4, 2008

Maps and religion

This is kinda neat.




Michael Crichton has a way with words.

And this lecture to the National Press Club uses them effectively. Some of my favorites follow. Read the whole thing and pick your own.

"Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science, consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus."


And the real deal that Pope Algore would never admit to.

"So we all tend to give science credence, even when it is not warranted. I will show you many examples of unwarranted credence tonight. But here’s an example to begin. This is the famous Drake equation from the 1960s to estimate the number of advanced civilizations in the galaxy.

N=N*fp ne fl fi fc fL

Where N is the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy; fp is the fraction with planets; ne is the number of planets per star capable of supporting life; fl is the fraction of planets where life evolves; fi is the fraction where intelligent life evolves; and fc is the fraction that communicates; and fL is the fraction of the planet’s life during which the communicating civilizations live.

The problem with this equation is that none of the terms can be known. As a result, the Drake equation can have any value from “billions and billions” to zero. An expression that can mean anything means nothing. The mathematical appearance is deceptive. In scientific terms—by which I mean testable hypotheses—the Drake equation is really meaninglessness."




A fellow over

at TalkLeft claims to have a plan to eliminate the need for internal combustion engines in favor of electric powered ones.

Okay, here's his, or anyone else's chance. Just send the comment. Heck, I'll even copy them and paste in this post.



Bali bombers to be executed


It is nice to post some good news, eh?

Link



This is what Global Warming is about

Before they agree to any sort of restrictions on emissions of the greenhouse gases fuelling global warming, poor countries want firm commitments of billions of dollars in aid from their rich counterparts.


It was, is and will be about bureaucrats and scientists suckling on government tits wanting money. Money that will, if we let them, come straight out of our pockets and out of our budgets to feed, clothe and protect our families.

Link



Global Warming

isn't working ouu very well.

This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.

"La Nina is part of what we call 'variability'. There has always been and there will always be cooler and warmer years, but what is important for climate change is that the trend is up; the climate on average is warming even if there is a temporary cooling because of La Nina


So we have a 10 year trend that should just be ignored. How many years should we ignore it??

Hey Jose! There's an ice bridge across the Rio Grand! Wanna go to Dallas??


Global Cooling Link



Just saw a new ad for Absolut Voda

It was made for Mexico. It shows a map of North America with the borders of the US and Mexico as it was prior to the war with Mexico. It is tittled, "In An Absolut World" and is obviously meant to extend sympathy to Mexico, thus getting bennie points for Absolut.

Note to Mexico. Mexico lost the war. We also paid mucho bucks. (Don't we always??)

Note to Absolut. You just pissed off a market that gave you a 40% share of imported vodka. Think maybe you need some new management?



Spoof???

Keep 10/9/09 in mind.

;-)

Hat tip to Jawa Report.