Why I believe that “climate change” (CC) is junk science.
1. The
“hiatus” in warming. For the past 18 years, there has been no statistically
significant change in the global mean temperature (GMT). When I saw a link to
an online article about this (don’t remember what organization posted it, but
it wasn’t a CC skeptical one). The article said that there probably wasn’t a
hiatus after all – it was just poor recording of temperatures. “Probably”, the
recorders measuring sea temperature didn’t dip their thermometers into buckets
of sea water soon enough – allowing the water to cool off.
a. What
evidence is there that this took place?
b. What
if the buckets were kept in a place warmer than the water in the buckets?
c. Why
did “global warming” become “climate change”?
i.
Is it because the globe has steadfastly refused
to warm during this “hiatus”?
ii.
Is it a way to blame me and my 148 tons of
automobiles in case global cooling inconveniently occurs?
2. “Climategate”.
The hacked emails of the Climate Research Unit show that its members tried to
cover up their own research that might have indicated CC was not occurring or
not serious. They also showed attempts to “investigate and expose” skeptical
climate scientist Steve McIntire, as well as assertions that they “must get rid
of” the editor of science journal for publishing papers contradicting CC.
a. Are
these people hiding evidence?
b. Are
they intimidating skeptics? I’ll answer that myself: the derogatory term “denier”
says it all. And I have heard some climate scientists claim that the CC people
are doing just that.
c. Is
the “science” of CC so fragile that contrarian articles will debunk it? If
skeptical articles are indeed wrong, the pro-CC crowd should be able to show
why. Apparently, it’s too hard.
3. Weather-related
disasters are more common. But the weather is not any more violent than in the past.
a. There
are more people in areas prone to dangerous weather.
b. The
government is partially responsible because it subsidizes flood insurance.
4. Two
existing, reliable and safe energy sources that already exist can help reduce
CO2 emissions.
a. Natural
gas, which is mostly methane, which is mostly hydrogen. Of course, there are
many on the left who don’t like the method that has produced much more natural
gas – the decades-old and proven safe practice of hydraulic fracturing.
b. Nuclear
power, which is advocated by Patrick Moore, former president of Greenpeace
Canada.
5 The
models used by CC scientists can’t predict the past. Why should we believe
anything based on these models?
6 Follow the money and power. Who benefits from the “catastrophe” of CC?
a. Al
Gore and his ilk.
b. Scientists
who get government grants to find more “danger”.
c. The
low-lying countries who are promised “reparations” for the alleged damage caused
by countries like the US.
d. Politicians who get
to exercise more power over us.
Labels: big government, climate change, junk science
The Failure of healthcare.gov
The Obamacare web software rolled
out on October 1st was about the worst flop the world has ever seen.
This software was supposed to handle millions of requests to handle
registration for President Obama’s signature legislation. It continually
crashed, or said it was busy or gave other error messages. Finally, the Obama
administration had to admit that the software had “glitches”.
Was anybody surprised by this
bomb? I wasn’t. I spent 40 years in developing software, teaching computer
science and providing software support. My career includes two stints as a US
government employee and two positions with government contractors. I’ve also
worked on integrating old software and databases with new software.
The Obamacare web interface and
supporting software were supposed to connect to a variety of other software,
such as software at CMS (Medicare contractor), IRS, DHS, VA, SSA and even
Experian. This isn’t easy, especially if some of the other software was not
designed to connect to other applications.
Actual coding of this monstrosity
began in the spring of 2013, per the
New
York Times. That’s because the government took nearly three years to
provide specifications for the software. As late as September, features were
still being changed. End-to-end testing was done only at the last minute,
according to
this
article in the Washington Post. And testing failed miserably just before
the launch date, as
CBS
reported. Also, there were data
data
security problems, per NPR.
Any private-enterprise web site
that was experiencing such problems would have come clean and announced a delay
in the launch. But the government practices
political computer science,
not real computer science. I saw this first-hand when I was a government
worker. So the Obama administration crossed its collectivist fingers,
apparently expecting a
miracle
to occur, and announced healthcare.gov was ready. It WASN’T.
After about two weeks of utter
disaster, the administration admitted that there were “glitches” and that these
would be fixed by November 30th. I’d believe them if they had said
“November 30, 2014”. You can’t fix a gigantic software system as broken as this
one in six weeks. If they’re lucky, it might be more-or-less bug-free in six
months.
Of course, once the software is
fixed, we’ll still be stuck with Obamacare, the dumbest idea since Medicare.
For more on this, see http://aropmeto.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-disaster-of-obamacare.html.
Labels: big government, government incompetence, ObamaCare, software development
On the Plantation
On the plantation, there are two
classes of people. There is the plantation master and his minions, and there
are the workers – slaves – who produce the plantation’s product. The master
pays the minions, but he does not pay the slaves. The slaves are not completely
destitute, though, because the master allows the slaves to keep part of the
product they produce. The slaves, in truth, pay everybody, because the product
supplies the entire income of the plantation.
On the plantation, the master and
his minions have rights, but the slaves do not. For example, any property that
a slave claims as his own can be seized by the master or his minions at any
time, even if the slave has done nothing wrong with his property. Also, if a slave
wants to leave the plantation, he must get permission from the master. And if a
slave tries to speak against the master, the slave may find himself in serious
trouble – jail, or worse.
On the plantation, the master
lives in a big white mansion. But the master is kind-hearted. He allows the
slaves to build housing on the plantation. Of course, the buildings must comply
with all the master’s whims about housing. The master allows the slaves to
grow, harvest and process food – with the same kind of compliance requirements.
Some slaves seem to be unable to get housing or food on their own, so the
master supplies that. Of course, the money to pay for these commodities comes
from the other slaves.
On the plantation, the master has
armed guards to protect himself and his high-ranking minions. He does not feel
that the slaves need to protect themselves, even though there are sometimes
murders among the slaves. The master wants the slaves to be unarmed.
On the plantation, the master
takes care of the slaves’ health. He does not do this because they are people.
He does this because they are valuable property; they are machines that cause
all the money to roll in to the plantation’s coffers. The master does not like
the idea of slaves caring for their own health, for if they do that, they are
not dependent on the master.
On the plantation, the workers
are not free – they are slaves. But why should they want to be free? After all,
the master and his minions provide the slaves with everything needed for a good
life – using the slaves’ product, of course.
On the plantation, there have been many masters
during the last century. It has steadily become more oppressive as its slaves
become less free. Many of the slaves are comfortable in this environment, but
many others would rather have freedom.
Do you recognize this plantation?
You should. It’s the United States of Tara.
Labels: big government, plantation, slavery
