Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Open Thread

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“Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds, which follows from the advance of science.”  Charles Robert DarwinJen with Darwin

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The image/picture is of a fellow pretending to be Mr Darwin with the real Jen, taken in the British Museum of Natural History a few months ago.

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  1. Avatar photojennifer says

    The above quote can be juxtaposed against the following Eisinhower quote recently shared by Larry…

    “Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite” .

  2. spangled drongo says

    More power to the bureaucrats.

    Luke said in his last comment:

    The issues are (a) is there an underlying centennial trend from greenhouse, solar output, orbital derived insolation, aerosols, clouds – name your poison. (b) can AGW interact with ENSO and even PDO? – why not there’s only one lot of physics not two (c) there is no trend and we’re just watching froth and bubble of internal variability.

    But with known pre-industrial, holocene temperatures greater than today, instead of being sceptical and at least waiting until technology has better answers or embracing very satisfactory known technology such as nuclear, the Lukes would have us impoverish the world to prevent warming of a paltry quarter of a degree.

  3. el gordo says

    Darwin would be impressed…

    ‘The vast fossil deposit, located next to the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil site, was uncovered by a former student who, while studying the region with satellite images, noticed unusual patterns in the rocks.

    ‘Last month Fairfax Media accompanied a dig team to the remote location 200 kilometres north of Mount Isa, which is only accessible by helicopter, for their first major excavation.

    ‘Already one site revealed a treasure trove of animal bones, many yet to be identified, including a never before seen bat specimen, a couple of large wombat relatives called diprotodontids, small primitive marsupials and an ancient ring-tailed possum.

    ”This place is bone city,” said Professor Archer, who, after decades of fossil digs, admits he has become a discovery junkie.’

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/fossil-hunters-uncover-a-vast-treasure-trove-at-isolated-site-20130802-2r4w5.html#ixzz2as8CcmUq

  4. John Sayers says

    From WUWT: It seems they’ve finally figured out why the arctic ice is melting.

    Back in 2008 they discovered a ridge of undersea active volcanoes stretching east from Svalbard along the 1,600km Gakkel Ridge.

    They have now discovered hundreds of undersea volcanoes to the west of Svalbard along another ridge between Greenland and Sweden which are also active with some of them only 20m below the surface and they predict they will soon break the surface and create a new island chain.

    This also explains why the ice in the western Arctic in the Bering sea is increasing yet the ice around Greenland and Svalbard is not and it is this ice melt which accounts for the cry that the arctic is melting.

    Al Gore predicted that the arctic would be ice free in summer by now but so far the sea ice extent is looking pretty good for this time of the year.

    http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm

    http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/svalbard_volcanoes1.jpg?w=640&h=479

    http://www.thelocal.no/20130802/Volcanic-range-discovered-in-Norwegian-waters

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080626-arctic-volcano.html

  8. Neville says

    Now, now Spangled you’re trying to fib, it’s really 2.6 inches per century. But don’t worry Lukey believes we’ll be drowned in 2100, but it’s a pity he can’t produce the evidence to back up his delusional CAGW.

  11. Larry Fields says

    Comment from: Neville August 3rd, 2013 at 5:34 pm
    “Their ABC reported that as the temp increases the world would become more violent. But the trend is exactly the opposite.”

    from Mother Jones

    America’s Real Criminal Element: Lead

    New research finds Pb is the hidden villain behind violent crime, lower IQs, and even the ADHD epidemic. And fixing the problem is a lot cheaper than doing nothing.

    —By Kevin Drum
    | January/February 2013 Issue

    http://tinyurl.com/bhh4mqz

    Larry’s comment: Because of all the CAGW hype, we’re not talking as much about real environmental issues, like subclinical lead poisoning in children. The bigger picture: Most rank-and-file climate alarmists are useful idiots for various corporate polluters — some of whom are quietly laughing up their sleeves.

  12. hunter says

    The British Museum is one of my favorite places to visit when I get to go to London.
    I never met Darwin or even a replica, however. Nice pic!

  13. John Sayers says

    So now Alcatel-Lucent has demonstrated fiber-like data-transfer speeds over telephone wiring. our copper to the node will now compete with fibre to the home at half the cost.

    http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517381/adapting-old-style-phone-wires-for-superfast-internet/

    I remember back in the 90s when they were rolling out cable in Sydney and I was on the North Coast saying to my wonderful studio technician from Music Farm that it’s a shame we won’t be getting cable on the coast – he assured me they will get cable speed down copper – and they did.
    Now it’s fibre speed down copper. 🙂

  15. Luke says

    Paul Monk says

    “But my profession is not climate science. It is critical-thinking skills. ”

    Well he’s not doing well at his critical thinking as his 5 cut and paste non-critical thinking points from Bob’s book are all wrong.

    Opinions are a dime a dozen. It’s just parroting.

  17. John Sayers says

    “Read it, then compare its core arguments with the patiently assembled defence of the conventional wisdom by John Cook on his website Skeptical Science. ”

    He has to be kidding – compare a team of reputable scientists with John Cook BSc., author and blogger who trained as a solar physicist and is an evangelical Christian.

    So that’s critical-thinking skills!

  18. toby says

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/nbn-no-threat-to-mr-murdoch/story-e6frgd0x-1226692387431

    How s that NBN coming along………another sterling decision taken demonstrating a complete lack of critical thinking skills and understanding of the real world……just like the same rusted on believers in CAGW http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/the-real-cost-of-emissions-reduction/story-e6frgd0x-1226692388170

    How delusional , or perhaps money really does grow on trees.

    and the people that so ardently push their delusion on to us refuse to acknowledge they are very likely wrong and continue to throw around abuse and trash real science, at the same time as psuedo science is being pushed as “gospel” based on a similar degree of “faith”.
    insanity and i hope we wake up soon……

  19. el gordo says

    I agree whole heartedly with Toby and everywhere we go the vilification received is simply amazing, which is why I spend time at Deltoid.