tlambert | April 15, 2009Actually the headline on the New York Times story says Study Says Minicar Buyers Sacrifice Safety. But the study looked at head-on collisions between minicars and larger cars (twice as heavy in the case of Smart vs Mercedes C class). Since momentum is conserved, a car weighing half as much experiences twice the change in velocity in a head-on crash and hence is much more dangerous to the occupants in such a collision.
But whether a minicar is safer or not depends on your perspective. It's more dangerous for the occupants, but it's safer for the people in the bigger car. The NYT article…
tlambert | April 13, 2009The Guardian has two stories about a poll they conducted of the people who attended the recent Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.
Almost nine out of 10 climate scientists do not believe political efforts to restrict global warming to 2C will succeed, a Guardian poll reveals today. An average rise of 4-5C by the end of this century is more likely, they say, given soaring carbon emissions and political constraints. ...
The poll asked the experts whether the 2C target could still be achieved, and whether they thought that it would be met: 60% of respondents argued that, in theory, it was…
tlambert | April 13, 2009Some folks suggested the Windschuttle hoax was too subtle, that the claims in the hoax article were not outrageously false. Well it seems that Windschuttle has been tricked into publishing an article by one Bob Carter which has the outrageously false thing covered:
First, there has been no recent global warming in the common meaning of the term, for world average temperature has cooled for the last ten years. Furthermore, since 1940 the earth has warmed for nineteen years and cooled for forty-nine, the overall result being that global average temperature is now about the same as it was in…
tlambert | April 11, 2009Ben Goldacre has posted the chapter he was forced to leave out of earlier editions of Bad Science because of a lawsuit from charlatan Matthias Rath:
Although the publishers make a slightly melodramatic fuss about this in the promo material, it is a very serious story about the dangers of pseudoscience, as I hope you'll see, and it was also a pretty unpleasant episode, not just for me, but also for the many other people he's tried to sue, including Medecins Sans Frontieres and more. If you're ever looking for a warning sign that you're on the wrong side of an argument, suing Medecins Sans…
tlambert | April 11, 2009The collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has prompted the Australian to launch yet another attack on scientists -- it seems they are "tabloid media ambulance-chasing" and the ice shelf collapse was entirely natural.
every natural phenomenon, such as the ice shelf split this week, is interpreted as a disaster and all who do not agree are denounced as an enemy of the planet. And so it is easier for people in public life to acquiesce rather than address the evidence - as Mr Garrett's Lateline performance proves. The result is the intellectual equivalent of tabloid media ambulance-chasing. We are at…
tlambert | April 10, 2009In my post on the Washington Post's refusal to correct this false statement by George Will:
According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979"
I also referred to the "University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center". But the correct name, clearly given at the bottom of the page is the "Polar Research Group". I regret the error.
See also corrections from James Hrynyshyn and others, but not, of course, from George Will.
tlambert | April 6, 2009Back in 2001 The Discovery Institute paid for advertisements with a list of a hundred scientists who disputed the theory of evolution via natural selection. A notable feature of their list is that the vast majority of the people were not biologists.
Now The Cato Institute has paid for advertisements with a list of a hundred scientists who dispute the scientific consensus about global warming. A notable feature of their list is that it contains only a handful of climatologists. There's Lindzen, Spencer, Michaels and ... well that's about it. Of the 619 contributing authors of Working Group…
tlambert | April 3, 2009
Folks are commenting on John Shimkus' act with Monckton at the Congressional hearing on adaptation to climate change. For example, PZ Myers:
Shimkus explain how he knows CO2 is not a problem. It's because the Bible is the inerrant word of his god, and he knows god isn't going to end the world with global warming.
Steve Benen
There's a genuine policy discussion to be had about climate change. If policymakers like Shimkus and Barton represent the mainstream of House Republican thought, this discussion won't be bipartisan. Indeed, for humanity's sake, it can't be.
Kevin Grandia:
Republicans…
tlambert | April 2, 2009George Will's shameless dishonesty about global warming continues. Will responds to the very tardy publication by the Washington Post of a letter from the WMO correcting Will's misrepresentation of their data by again misrepresenting WMO data.
Carl Zimmer:
Does the Post read its own letters? Does it remember them? Do they think if you add the phrase "statistics" you can continue to mislead on the exact same point emphasized by Jarraud? Perhaps Will's editors think if they put a link in Will's misleading statement, it somehow makes it right. Did they actually look at the linked document? If…
tlambert | March 27, 2009Like several other bloggers here (e.g. Coby Beck), I have been interviewed by The Reef Tank.
tlambert | March 25, 2009George Monbiot has the latest on David Belllamy's descent into crankdom:
Among other gems, Bellamy's interview contained the following marvellous assertion of independence: "peer-reviewed journals - it's the last thing I would use now."
tlambert | March 25, 2009I was looking through my grandmother's scrapbooks and found this picture of her grandfather -- he's the one standing (click to enlarge).
I found the history of the lifeboat he is on:
In 1879 a new British-built lifeboat, designed by the RNLI and built by Forrest & Co. Ltd in London, arrived in Sydney and was displayed at the Sydney International Exhibition, a showcase of the latest technology from around the world. Following the exhibition the lifeboat was put into service at Watsons Bay and launched as the Port lifeboat in 1880. Probably after 1885 it was named the "Lady Carrington"…
tlambert | March 23, 2009It's tough to shorten a post that's already shortened itself with the title above, but Tintin at Sadly, No! is equal to the task. And he fixed a video from Craig Idso as well.
tlambert | March 21, 2009Glenn Reynolds declares that a private listserv run by Ezra Klein is a "scandal". Which is interesting, because I first ran into Glenn Reynolds on a private listserv run by Eugene Volokh. The members included pro-gun law professors like Reynolds, an NRA staffer and at least one journalist. I do not consider Volokh's listserv to be a scandal.
Volokh converted it to a public listserv in 2003 and traffic dropped significantly after that, though that might be a coincidence.
tlambert | March 21, 2009The Washington Post has published Chris Mooney's reply to George Will's misinformation. Mooney corrects some of Will's false and misleading claims and finishes with:
Readers and commentators must learn to share some practices with scientists -- following up on sources, taking scientific knowledge seriously rather than cherry-picking misleading bits of information, and applying critical thinking to the weighing of evidence. That, in the end, is all that good science really is. It's also what good journalism and commentary alike must strive to be -- now more than ever.
There is also a letter…
tlambert | March 19, 2009Gerlich and Tscheuschner managed to get their stupidity published in the International Journal of Modern Physics B, which is embarrassing for the editors of that journal. Eli Rabbett is working on a reply, and is looking for coauthors.
tlambert | March 18, 2009By request here is a new thread for folks to argue with Tim Curtin. Tim, this is the only thread you are allowed to post on.
tlambert | March 16, 2009Allow me to shorten Heartland's 2009 International Conference on Climate Change for you.
Joseph L. Bast: Bray's survey shows that there is no consensus.
Vaclav Klaus: Environmentalists have a secret plan to "return mankind centuries back".
Richard Lindzen: It is an error to say "It's the sun!"
Tom McClintock: Al Gore is fat. And, it's the sun!
Lawrence Solomon: Environmental organizations are pawns of the foundations that fund them.
Tom Segalstad: Total human emissions of CO2 are twice the alleged increase in atmospheric CO2, therefore human emissions cannot be the cause of the increase.
Syun…