Comments on: Why yes, this is EXACTLY what I invented the internet for!

By: Smallz117

Smallz117 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:05:24 +0000

gah….. U guys really need to think for urselves. Gobal warming is a NATURAL procces. All humans are doing is slightly speeding it up. I watch too much discovery channel and know that 1average volcanic eruption is equal to all the CO2 given off by humans in 10 years. Besides, we had I mini iceage about 300-500 years ago. I do agree however with being green. Atleast it’ll take slightly longer for the next iceage and it would help lower the cost of fuel if we put solar panels on our roofs to make some electricity. Just plz, stop any forever long arguements about something false

By: ShadowVenus

ShadowVenus — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:16:05 +0000

Citation?

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:25:42 +0000

Yeah, even if you don’t like him, that’s an interesting book. I don’t have strong feelings about him either way, could take or leave the man. I don’t worship him, but don’t hate him either. Occasionally out of the light from his ass you get some good commentary. You might not agree with his assessment, but it’s a really interesting read. The part about why only rich people can get elected (having to run on tv, etc) anymore is probably on target.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:19:26 +0000

Caffeine has kept me from a life of violent crime.
Even my driver’s license says I’m not allowed to drive without it.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:16:12 +0000

I was mainly drawing the distinction between the common, everyday usage of the word “theory,” and the scientific use of the same word, using the Theory of Relativity as an example. The point that you’ve helped me to form is that the “Theory” of Relativity is not the “Fact” of Relativity for the reason that modern scientific parlance requires some standard of time and replication before “Theory” becomes “Law,” as in Sir Isaac Newton’s case. I agree that the two Theories are not on the same level in their paths to becoming either debunked or Law, and I didn’t mean to imply that they were. That said, the scientific community does not assign the word “Theory” lightly.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:22 +0000

Let’s put it this way, I had to buy a bigger house for it, and my speakers constantly hum.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:57:50 +0000

I never realized that distinction, and now I’m jealous. I wish we Americans spoke more English! *sigh*

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:49:40 +0000

The same thing can be said about Benjamin Franklin, Geoffrey Chaucer, the Bible, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Wm. Shakespeare, Yogi Bera and George Carlin, to name a few.

By: MLD

MLD — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:07:48 +0000

Click my name for a link to the official CNN transcript that contains that direct quote.

By: MLD

MLD — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:06:33 +0000

ughhhh so sorry for double posting -_- This site’s been screwing with me (there may even be a third posting showing up)

By: MLD

MLD — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:05:49 +0000

Full quote, taken from the official CNN transcript (with a little extra):

“During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system. ”

Click name for full transcript

By: MLD

MLD — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:05:08 +0000

Many Bushisms attributed TO Bush, weren’t originally said by him (and may not have been said by him at all)

By: MLD

MLD — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:01:25 +0000

leaving some 8609707479409 I’m guessing?

By: MLD

MLD — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:21:23 +0000

Full quote, taken from the official CNN transcript (with a little extra):

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/09/president.2000/transcript.gore/index.html

By: Uncle Fester

Uncle Fester — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:34:48 +0000

Actually, relativity has been shown to be a good approximation of reality time and time again, from establishing why Mercury orbits as it does without there being an inner planet, to getting the Pioneer and Voyager space craft to reach all their targets. Newton may have been in the driving seat, but Einstein was doing the fine adjustments.

The Theories of Climate Change have been based on models, which as I’ve said before, are critically dependent on measurements taken down
to the 4th, 5th or 6th decimal place. Get one wrong and the model may follow the weather for a while, but the difference in the end case could be Hell Planet (the temperature being so high the oceans evaporate and will not re-condense wiping out all animal life except exremophiles) or Ice Ball (where the oceans freeze to the equator, effectively wiping out all land animals, and most sea vertebrates)

To mention Theories of Global Climate change in the same
breath as Relativity, is specious and as much use as the answer ‘goddidt’

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:25:11 +0000

@froofrou I agree with you that the timetable is unrealistic for totally changing over to renewables, and, of course, I understand that we would be lost without Tupperware. I totally understand that conversion costs ATM are not feasable for most. Where we disagree is to the extent scare tactics are used. The sky is not falling (you), but we’re in some serious sh!t (me), and we need to change the way we have been wasting like there’s no tomorrow. I’m glad you’re excited at the solar and wind energy potential we have here in Texas.

By: Uncle Fester

Uncle Fester — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:23:59 +0000

I’ve worked too much with Americans, perhaps, but go round to me means ti “circunambulate an obstacle”, where as to go around means enough for everyone” and has done since my Lincolnshire childhood.

and @Slaggingham,

I meant there’s enough hypocrisy on PK from all sides to choke a brown dog.

By: Uncle Fester

Uncle Fester — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:20:16 +0000

Because it’s a stick to hit him with and people, who mostly have the attention span of a gnat, think in soundbites.

God forbid (somewhere in the Song of Solomon) people think too much or too deeply…

By: Uncle Fester

Uncle Fester — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:17:52 +0000

and it’s the source of most of the Great Rev. Lovejoy quotes!

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:06:46 +0000

@herb I’m laughing at the visual of a bovine methane retrieval apparatus.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:03:43 +0000

Ed Begley (sp) is a tree-hugging “Ed” who comes to mind. He has/had a tv show called “Life with Ed,” “Living with Ed,” or some such. That guy has the courage of his convictions, imo.

By: PiMan

PiMan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:09:21 +0000

Rudd only says it because it is a rhetoric people want to listen to. I don’t believe he really cares about the environment, if he did then he wouldn’t take as much advantage of his free travel privileges.
Rudd is a politician and a hypocrite (a tautology), but he is miles better than the only current real alternative.

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:43:27 +0000

FFS.. disregard this previous comment..

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:42:26 +0000

This was actually a reply to minerva, but PK brain farted and my reply got put down here.

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:37:55 +0000

And we now have one of those Senators who couldn’t be bothered to vote as president. I hope his apathy doesn’t carry over to the White House. For all of Gore’s fluff, you’re right, he makes some interesting comparisons of Congress 30-40 years ago vs. today. I can remember watching the Watergate Hearings daily and was fascinated to watch our Government in action. Now, people (including our elected representatives) couldn’t give a fiddler’s damn what happens in Congress.
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As for Gore himself, he’s still a tool and in to much awe of himself. You would think the light of the universe shines from his ass.

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:24:58 +0000

The PM of Australia, the august Kevin Rudd, is a proponent of renewable energy and cutting greenhouse gases. All the while he travels all over in his jet plane pushing this agenda. In fact, he recently flew to Japan to deliver a 6 minute speech.
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Talk about not walking the walk. And this is why I have difficulty swallowing the whole global warming manifesto. If the people pushing this can’t be bothered, why should I?

By: froofrou

froofrou — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:10:22 +0000

Have you been to Texas? How many people have the 1-5 acres per cow needed to raise a beef?

By: herb

herb — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:07:05 +0000

The better trick would be to figure out how to capture the methane of the farting cow to power your house, which it would twice over.

Or better yet, let the damn cow eat grass as God intended. Grass-fed beef cattle fart a whole lot less; it’s the grain-fed ones with the back-talking arseholes.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:57:54 +0000

I’m all about renewable energy sources. We were talking about global warming
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As far as driving an electric car, if they can make an actual electric car that will get more than 40 miles to the charge, AND finance it for someone like me, then I will think about it The hybrids are really cool, but still use fossil fuels, AND I can afford them. People seem to think that we can snap our fingers and stop using fossils fuels, and it’s just not going to happen. It’ll take us 20 years or more to really stop using them, and even then we have roads to pave and Tupperware to make that uses petroleum products. You have to think of all the people in my situation who just can’t afford to get a top of the line electric or hybrid car, no matter how much we’d like to. And the government can’t subsidize it, not with all the spending we’re already doing. With the new spending plans that Obama is going to implement and all the debt we currently have, there is NO WAY that the federal government can help me buy an eco-friendly car. Nor would I want them to. I’m all about pulling myself and my family up by our bootstraps. Just don’t set an impossible obstacle (i.e. not using foreign oil in ten years, plus not drilling here) in my path.
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I live in the fricking heart of Texas, literally. We have wind farms all over the place
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A lot of my problems with global warming and its proponents have to do with the scare tactics they use to try to change people’s minds and implement government policy that will negatively affect my life and my child’s life. If I’m forced to buy an eco-friendly car, how am I supposed to put food on my table? We just now got my husband’s truck paid off……I need it to last for a while

By: Ceefax

Ceefax — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:49:29 +0000

So why do people keep saying he “invented it” when he didn’t say that and it doesn’t have the same meanings as the word create?

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:48:45 +0000

(I wrote this last post before seeing yours immediately before it.)

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:44:36 +0000

Hey, wait a minute. You don’t want to drive an electric car when the wind grid–in our state–is up and running? Texas has the most power generating windmills in the nation, and I am certainly proud of the effort our home boy, Boone Pickens is making. I’m excited at the prospect of using 100% renewable energy. Frankly, I’m puzzled that you aren’t. How does it matter whether the US is the #1, 2 or 3 polluter? That sounds like a cop-out to me. I think we pollute the most per capita, but whatever magic number we are, we need to do what we can to look in another direction for energy.
If you want to throw out the entire issue of global impact, our dependence on foreign oil is still unacceptable. ANWR could provide a band-aid for the bullet wound, but it could also buy us time until the other sources are up and running. I’m not sure about that one, frankly.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:37:09 +0000

Volcanic impact as a vector for climate CHANGE, not global warming. The earth does far more to itself than we can. And somehow, it regulates itself. Now, I’m not denying that man as a whole has had an impact, and even a negative one. The part I’m wondering about is how MUCH we’ve actually had an impact on. You can’t take a small number of data over a few years and extrapolate the whole, especially since the climate changes all the time. Someone mentioned polar shift. It’s a fact, and it’s nothing something we can control either way. The ozone is created by the sun, also not something we can control.
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We have an impact. We have to do our part as stewards to make sure the earth is cared for. But running around wringing our hands and screaming that the sky is falling is not the way to do it, nor is legislating that everyone in America has to drive a certain type of car, or use enough ethanol to put a third world country onto the brink of utter starvation. We have to be smart about it.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:30:07 +0000

My link indicates that your assessment of volcanic impact may not be correct.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:25:06 +0000

No, and that’s exactly why he didn’t care a whit about how much energy his house was consuming until people actually started LOOKING at it.
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I don’t have a lot of respect for someone who is so casually hypocritical. Most of the biggest, loudest mouths against global warming fly all over the globe in giant airplanes that suck up fuel like there is plenty to spare. If you’re going to do something, DO IT. Be like the actor who won’t attend awards ceremonies overseas because he doesn’t want to fly. (I’ve blanked on his name…..Ed something, I think) I respect the HELL out of him because he has principles. He believes in something, and he follows through!
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And to correct my earlier typo, that was a response to #4, not #3

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:21:15 +0000

Do you think the Gores are sweating their energy bills?

By: froofrou

froofrou — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:01:49 +0000

GWB might have stomped his feet like a two year old had the same thing happened, and he would have been told to shut up and deal with it. More than likely no votes would have been recounted. He also would have gone down in history as the worst. loser. EVAR. and been pratically thrown out of the country. He would have been thought of as a whiner, and certainly wouldn’t have been given the prestige that has followed Algore around like a methane cloud from his ass. No one would have taken him seriously, even if he produced a documentary that proved beyond any shadow of any doubt that Osama Bin Laden was going to blow up the WTC on 9-11-01.
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And while we’re talking about votes not being counted, the disenfranchisement of the voters in Florida and Michigan that happened during the primaries is a travesty, and should be contested even now. Giving half of those votes to Obama instead of to Hillary (who won them fair and square, even if the primaries were held a little too early) is sick, and an obvious manipulation of the rules. They either should have counted, or not. There’s no ‘well, we’ll give some of them here and some of them there to make it fair.” If nothing else, the primaries should have been a re-do.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:44:42 +0000

And on a related note, having this country go to driving electric cars isn’t going to solve whatever problem there is. We aren’t even the top polluter, if I recall correctly. So everyone running around wringing their hands screaming that Americans are killing the planet is a FAIL on their part, and nothing but fearmongering. We need to look at this problem (which isn’t as big a problem as it’s made out to be…..the planet is constantly changing, with or without us) with a clear head, not from the standpoint of Algore and his cronies.

By: PiMan

PiMan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:41:54 +0000

fail win win

By: PiMan

PiMan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:38:39 +0000

Those massive volcano eruptions often actually lower the global temperature for the next year or two because they prevent the sun’s rays from hitting the Earth as much.
A large amount of climate change actually depends on where the greenhouse gasses form in the atmosphere. If they are lower, then there will be a general cooling effect, if they are higher then there will be a general warming effect.
A recent study I read, about humanity’s effect on global warming, said that Antarctica’s temperature would have risen either way, but found that the level it has risen could not be explained by natural causes alone.
.
And your pick-up truck is not going to warm the Earth by itself, but if 1000000000 people drive them, then there will be a problem.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:29:27 +0000

The title of the linked Wikipedia article (click name) describes Global Warming as “mainstream,” and lists scientists who do not fully agree. Considering the number of scientists in these fields of study, the lists are short. Those scientists are classified by the different ways in which they differ. One of the lists contends with the human causation element. These scientists do not disagree that the phenomenon is occuring. Neither does the list of scientists that believe there isn’t enough data collected yet. Not nay sayers, these scientists just want more back-up. That’s okay: The science is coming in, and the majority of scientists now accept global warming.

By: PiMan

PiMan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:25:39 +0000

I appear to have missed my plurals

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:09:07 +0000

Unc, whassup with that “go around” business you wrote? Don’t you Brits usually express such as “go round?” You may need to watch BBC sitcoms on PBS in order to get your lime* back.
*English for “groove”

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:46:42 +0000

Oh, hahahahaha!

By: eddiepscetti

eddiepscetti — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:44:29 +0000

Actually, the scientists denying the trend are in the majority. It just sounds the other way because the politicians are running hither and yon declaring that the sky is falling.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:41:56 +0000

Tessie, don’t worry about UF. His reply was a dig at me. You see, he hates my cushion covers, but he’s too much of a *coward* to say so directly…

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:39:35 +0000

Hey Eddie, shut up, already!!

By: froofrou

froofrou — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:39:35 +0000

Damn. Now I have to go shoot my farting cow.

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:37:49 +0000

And don’t forget the methane that all of those future cheezburgers produce!!11

By: rhorho

rhorho — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:34:47 +0000

I agree: The “publish or perish” atmosphere in university systems has brought much stinkin’ thinkin’ to the fore.
On the other side, I get sick of people saying, “It’s just a theory.” Yeah, well, so is the Theory of Relativity. The common usage of the word “theory” is much less intensive than the scientific use of that word.
Another sickening phenomenon is the fallacy (and if there’s a name for it, I don’t know it) that one need only bring up one anecdotal incident to disprove a trend. UF notes that, despite strange local weather phenomena along the way, the broad climate trend is happening. The scientific community has come a long way in a short time on this one. In the late 80s, Global Warming advocates were largely thought of as employing fringe science. Now, scientists denying the trend are considered to be on the fringe.