One sign that the fading Bush administration knows that they've been on the wrong side of reality is that they're now busy scrubbing the archives, trying to change what was said in the past. Chris Mooney catches a blatant attempt to rewrite the administration's history on global warming.
Man, the GW Bush Presidential Library is going to be a real work of art, isn't it? Maybe it should be called a "propaganda archive" rather than a "library".
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Alan Sokal—who has a history of criticizing the irrational Left—and Chris Mooney—who has come down hard on the anti-science Right—have teamed up to write an op-ed that makes suggestions to keep both sides from falling into the same trap again.
I think the root cause of the problem is that we have a…
The drive to distract us from reality continues. Quite why otherwise sensible people are so keen on stuff like Pressure on Exxon Over Climate Change Intensifies With New Documents - I saw it via Stefan Rahmstorf's fb feed - I don't know, because it is utter drivel. To let Exxon have their rebuttal…
The New York Times has taken notice of the promotional tactics being used for the creationist propaganda flick, Expelled. As you all know, they are trying to filter screenings, allowing only ideologically friendly people to see it, and keeping out the serious critics who might actually evaluate it…
The HuffPost has an amusingly written blog entry by David Roberts, of Grist, over all the new-middle-in-the-climate-debate stuff. Roberts thinks I have allowed myself to be co-opted/duped by those wanting to construct a false equivalence between science abusers on different sides of the issue:…
"The coverup is worse than the crime."
"It is a President Bush library. There won't be that much to read", says Stephen Colbert.
Dammit, at this rate we're gonna run out of Nineteen Eighty-Four quotations before summertime.
Can you make a library out of used coloring books and My Pet Goat?
Roll with it! If Bush wants to act like he was on board the whole time, so be it-- his gang isn't into the truth anyway-- the good thing is that now they'll ALL have to back him up. This could actually work out, you know?
Not Exactly a new Phenomenon is it? I mean Stalin did it, Hitler did it, and GW Bush is doing it. Oh...oops did I just compare Bush to Hitler and Stalin....how odd that it was so easy!
How eagerly I look forward to the day that President Bush also claims he never wanted the teaching of intelligent design in schools (and not just day-after spin by his science advisor).
I believe the correct name should be The George W. Bush Presidential Libary.
It's going to be interesting to watch Global Warming drop from the list of "teach the controversy" science topics.
I have a question for everone: what is the correct temperature of the earth?
Take your stupid questions elsewhere.
"High 72, low 72, not a cloud in the sky."
"I have a question for everone: what is the correct temperature of the earth?"
*Delurk*
I'm only going to answer this because I was asked this question yesterday in a discussion on the IPCC report (Oddly enough, I was asked this on a baseball site). So the question is wrong for four reasons:
1) How do we define correct temperature? The recent geological average? The mean of the Earth's temperature during life's existence? Highest biomass supported? Highest species diversity supported?
2) The question ignores other components of global climate change, like sinking great amounts of carbon into the ocean and tapping out the earth's buffer system on carbon
3) The question ignores the rate of temperature change, unprecedented in geological time. It is a rate so extreme that it is having an effect on extinctions and environments across the globe.
4) It ignores the human side of the problem, which is the most important side, for my money. And here's where I answer your question: the correct temperature of the earth is the one that causes the least suffering to humanity. It is the one that does not cause the sea to rise and inundate coastal cities, deltas and islands. It is that simple. Now you have the answer to your question.
With more and more gov docs made available only online, this is sure to become a huge problem.
There is also the problem of fugitive documents. Things just disappear from the Web. Or never get posted.
The centralized control that was exercised by the Superintendant of Documents no longer exists. Now individual government agencies have much greater control over what goes up on the Web and when.
We are losing control of the public record.
I should add:
*relurking*
"But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty's figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connection with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connection that is contained in a direct lie."
Apparently the Bush Library at SMU is a match made in heaven. http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2006-03-16/news/schutze.html
But we've always been at war with Iraq East Asia!
This always brings to mind an image of a lonely blue Porta-Potty sitting in the middle of mesquite-covered prairie near Crawford...
"the correct temperature of the earth is the one that causes the least suffering to humanity."
Oh, really? What about the suffering of other species? We're quite outnumbered by them. Warm temperatures are great for us "naked apes," but not for polar bears and penguins. Conversely, cold temperatures are bad for cold-blooded animals. What exactly makes our species' suffering the ultimate mark as to what the correct temperature of the earth is?