I’m writing for tomorrow, and I’m rushing. Tomorrow is almost here. I have been busy with housework and could not sleep. Fortunately I did my research early this morning. Day 21.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:18). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: The huge Kelvin wave that formed in the Pacific a while back, and may bring us a big El Nino, is now reaching the surface. It’s huge, and it’s one of the warmest ever recorded. Here’s the latest from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center
The vertical scale is the depth of this pool of water, while the horizontal scale is the longitudinal location of the pool. A back of the envelope calculation shows that the pool is roughly 5500 miles wide! It seems reasonable to assume that water this warm and this amount of it, is going to dump a lot of heat into the atmosphere, and the resulting weather may not be very pretty for some people.
This may well be the source of the unseasonably hot weather I’m getting this Spring. Such events used to be less common and less intense.
From NY Times: Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has had a tough month.
Two of his fellow commissioners this week said he should delay introducing a new set of net neutrality rules, which he had scheduled for May 15.
A group of 11 United States Senators told him Friday that rules allowing companies to pay an Internet service provider for express-lane access to consumers, as the rules are widely expected to do, would violate the principle of an open Internet.
And last week, a finger-wagging, tough-talking speech he gave to cable television executives received a lukewarm response and engendered questions about what some listeners perceived as a “father knows best” tone.
Mr. Wheeler has vowed to forge ahead.
Late Friday, the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation released a letter from Mr. Wheeler, in which he said that he would ask for public input on whether to classify broadband Internet service as a sort of public utility, a route that many consumer advocacy groups have pushed…
Could it be that Wheeler designed a plan in compliance with a Republican court order to allow a corporate "fast lane" with the intent of stimulating opposition to that plan to use as a rationale for reclassification under Title II? Consider that Wheeler has supported Net Neutrality in the past. When the new rules are released, we must respond forcefully and often.
From Alternet: Charles Krauthammer continues the assault on science, calling it superstition.
Hey, Fox News managed to find another crazy, irresponsible idiot disguised as a sentient being to debunk facts and science: good old Charles Krauthammer. He said on Tuesday that the belief in global climate change is mere “superstition” akin to the “rain dance of Native Americans.”
Why would he say such a thing? Such a provably wrong thing? We have no idea. It could be wishful thinking. Sure, we wish this whole climate change catastrophe would go away, and that we could wake up from it like a bad dream. We wish all these meanie scientists conducting real research based on actual facts would just stop discovering that the news is so very, very bad, and bullying us about it.
Krauthammer took his point a little farther, about science actually being superstition. Yah, and the other way around, too. Up is down Charles. Black is white. No is yes. “It’s always a result of what is ultimately what we’re talking about here, human sin with pollution of carbon. It’s the oldest superstition around. It was in the Old Testament, it’s in the rain dance of Native Americans — if you sin, the skies will not cooperate.”
Still more crazy talk from Chuckie Kraut:
“Ninety-nine percent of physicists were convinced that space and time are fixed, until Einstein working in a patent office wrote a paper in which he showed that they are not,” Krauthammer said. “I’m not impressed by numbers, I’m not impressed by consensus.”
What does impress you Charles? On second thought, maybe don’t answer that.
This is just one of eight most wacko Republicans in their War on Science from last week alone. Click through for the other seven. Note that Krauthammer was not satisfied just to attack science. To the delight of the Republican Reichsministry of propaganda, Faux Noise, he also included a racist attack against Native American spiritual tradition. In sharp contrast, authentic Christian respect others’ beliefs.
Cartoon:
11 Responses to “Open Thread–5/12/2014”
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4:11 In a kind of a sort of a way, it looks like a hummingbird itself. Well, I guess you are what you eat.
Daily Kos – While we have had a couple of warm days, it's been overall pretty chilly here. We had snow yesterday – Mothers' Day – and while it wasn't a lot, what there was is still on the gound. Without sun it will likely stay through today, and lows of 30F are predicted for tonight and tomorrow night (that is probably around -1C.) But, it's Colorado, and it doesn't argue against El Nino, it just suggests a later and more violent summer.
NY Timrs – It's certainly not impossible. If so I hope it works beyond his wildest dreams.
Alternet – it's true that superstition doesn't come from nowhere and that it is based on observed events. But the observed events are isolated and local. Science is based on observation that are to the maximum extent possible controlled, and if not generalized to the max, and if at all possible "control groups" are also studied to isolate effects as far as possible. It's different from walking under a ladder today and losing your wallet tomorrow. What should we be doing about Republican projection? Is there an answer?
Cartoon – And it was about time.
3:00 At first I thought it was a colorful squid, not a flower.
3:30 Flower, squid? I'm still trying to figure it out.
3:17 Personally, I like sapphire lobelia and had it in my garden pots when I lived up north. Beautiful blue colour and very rich. Unfortunately it is an annual whereas the lobelia laxiflora is a perennial and grows into a quite large tree.
Debunking it, over and over again!
Woooo Hoooo!
Daily Kos: It was almost ninety here today, not at all normal for May in Kentucky.
NY Times: They did not expect the backlash they got on their new rules. I hope everyone keeps protesting and contacting their congressmen and the FCC.
Alternet" Krauthammer is a true Republican. Climate change might affect their biggest contributors, oil gas coal and chemical companies.
Cartoon: Cute
Sorry, Edie!
Puzzle — 3:17 Personally, I like sapphire lobelia and had it in my garden pots when I lived up north. Beautiful blue colour and very rich. Unfortunately it is an annual whereas the lobelia laxiflora is a perennial and grows into a quite large tree.
Daily Kos — Certainly here, like Portland, has been hotter than normal. Some years it rains without ceasing but this year we have had less rain and more spring heat. Today was 28 C inland where I live, but in Vancouver by the ocean it was about 20 C. It will be a hot one for sure.
NY Times — As I understand net neutrality, we must see that the internet is open, with even access for all.
Alternet — This one from Faux Noise just killed me:
"…“Is it worth it to have the man be the second highest paid person in the house?”
Because sometimes husbands cheat under those circumstances. And sometimes marriages break up when the man makes less. And we all know that none of those things happen when the man makes more. …"
I don't know what planet these idiots are from, but these things DO happen when men make more. My own family is a perfect example.
Or the OCD exhibited by the Republicanus/Teabaggers over Benghazi.
Pat Robertson is a doddering old fool that should be tucked into his bed at night. I guess that storm that smashed into his home didn't do enough damage.
These guys are all certifiably NUTS!
Cartoon — Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. However, hurricanes or himicanes, doesn’t matter. They are getting worse all the time. Nice to have it officially acknowledged that men can be just as violent as women when it comes to extreme weather.
Name them after Harper. Huricane Asshole!
Oh, sorry. I thought a smiley laughing its head off would work, but it didn't.