Listening to Republicans talk about global warming is like listening to middle-schoolers talk about sex. Lots of ignorant bluster, and not much else.
Larry Kudlow, Trump's senior economic advisor spewed word salad when asked by George Stephanopoulos about the UN IPCC report, “I’m not denying any climate change issues, George, I’m just saying, ‘Do we know precisely ― and I mean worth modeling ― things like how much of it is man-made, how much of it is solar, how much of it is oceanic, how much of it is rainforest and other issues?" Gibberish, straight up.
Nearly all of the basic science about global warming was known before the end of the 19th -- yes, 19th, not 20th -- century. The remaining piece was completed by the early 1960's: global warming was real and caused by human activity. Understanding the basic science starts with common sense life experience. The sun warms the Earth. The sun's effect is obvious. Early mornings are the coolest times of the day. Temperatures rise with the sun and continue to increase throughout the day. We see the sun's light, feel its warmth on our skin, and know it is cooler in the shade than in direct sunlight.
Then, in late afternoon or early evening, as the sun starts to set, temperatures drop. Where does the day's heat go? That's a question few people ponder. Nighttime cooling just happens. When I ask non-scientists, most just shrug or say, "Up." That is a reasonable answer because we know that heat rises. But, rises to where? And how? If the adage of heat rising is truly correct, then why is it cooler in the mountains than at low elevations? Why is the temperature outside an airplane about 40 below? "Up" doesn't really answer the question.
The mechanism of daytime warming is obvious but the mechanism of nighttime cooling is not. Why the difference? The answer helps explain why it's so easy to hoodwink so many people about global warming. Our senses tell us about daytime heating. We see the sun and feel its warmth. But, our senses fail when it comes to nighttime cooling. Our eyes and skin don't provide any information. The situation would be different if we could see infrared light. We can't. Yet, if we could, we would know as instinctively as we know about the sun's warmth that everything around us glows with infrared light. Warm objects glow more brightly than cool ones. And, it would be easy to understand that warmth gets broadcast up into the night sky. Infrared light streaming up from Earth, through the atmosphere and in to outer space carries the day's heat away. Temperatures drop.
Infrared eyesight would also let us know that air is not transparent to infrared light the way it is transparent to visible light. Some infrared wavelengths zip through the air unimpeded. Other wavelengths get absorbed by gases in the air. Carbon dioxide is the most significant of those gases. The absorbed light never makes it to outer space. It heats the carbon dioxide that, in turn, warms the rest of the atmosphere. When more carbon dioxide is added from burning fossil fuels, more of the infrared light gets absorbed. Less escapes into outer space. Nighttime cooling becomes less efficient. The planet warms.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Are People This Stupid?
Yes. They are. The mantra: Half of all people are below average intelligence. First corollary: average intelligence ain't much.
Jury duty two weeks ago. A one and done. Jury selection, trial, and deliberation all completed between 8 AM and 5 PM. That includes 90 minutes wasted as the jury pool was seated, reseated, and questioned. The case ended without resolution. 8-to-4 to acquit on the first count and an even 6-6 split on the second. The judge said it was OK for us to discuss the trial, then reversed herself after the DA went up to the bench to explain that the State might retry the case and might even select jurors from the same pool. Not bloody likely when the jury was so far from conviction. But, that's just one part of the day's stupid.
One juror looked exactly like the Gilda Radner's Roseanne Rosanadana character from SNL. The makeup matched. The real woman's hair was even worse. Straw thatch dyed blue-black and covering half her face. Everything she said was painfully stupid. i don't know how she can get out of bed without getting hurt.
The case was a domestic dispute. One detail is that the father was annoyed by his 7-year-old son's disrespectful comment over the phone. Several jurors including RR referred to the boy's attitude. His lip. (We never learned what was said. Only that the content was disrespectful.) Men and women shook their heads, clucked their tongues, became indignant about the boy's sassiness.
Jurors projected their experience onto the poor schlubs whose lives were exposed to us in court. "There's still a lot of love, there," the fat middle-aged guy told us. Two women explained how they had dealt with emotionally abusive partners and damned the women for not doing the same. She didn't go for counseling! She didn't take photos! She didn't have her mother testify! The youngest juror, a woman with green hair, became exasperated: She is not you. Her experiences are not your experiences. Blank looks in response. Average intellects grinding on data and spitting nonsense.
A few days later the NY Times published over a dozen pages describing the Trump crime family's financial history. About 10% tax evasion and 90% tax fraud. In response, not a creature stirred, not even a mouse. Numbers and math. Boring. Reading and understanding the lengthy article required time and focus. And several days after that the most conservative international climate study organization -- the UN's IPCC -- published an exceptionally scary report on global warming. Blink. Blink. Snore.
Politicians and most reporters have learned that people don't respond to global warming news. Reporters blame scientists for lacking communications skills. Have you ever tried to explain science to a newsman? Simplify, simplify, simplify until there's nothing left. You have to travel so far back to find a common bit of shared understanding that the forward process takes forever. John Oliver once tried to cover the long term effects of annual fees paid on 401(k) funds. He kept having to slap the audience in the face to keep viewers awake, "I know this sounds boring, but it's really important." Imagine, having to condescend to your audience when you are explaining how their savings are being pissed away. But, numbers and compounded interest. Too much to expect average people to understand.
Jury duty two weeks ago. A one and done. Jury selection, trial, and deliberation all completed between 8 AM and 5 PM. That includes 90 minutes wasted as the jury pool was seated, reseated, and questioned. The case ended without resolution. 8-to-4 to acquit on the first count and an even 6-6 split on the second. The judge said it was OK for us to discuss the trial, then reversed herself after the DA went up to the bench to explain that the State might retry the case and might even select jurors from the same pool. Not bloody likely when the jury was so far from conviction. But, that's just one part of the day's stupid.
One juror looked exactly like the Gilda Radner's Roseanne Rosanadana character from SNL. The makeup matched. The real woman's hair was even worse. Straw thatch dyed blue-black and covering half her face. Everything she said was painfully stupid. i don't know how she can get out of bed without getting hurt.
The case was a domestic dispute. One detail is that the father was annoyed by his 7-year-old son's disrespectful comment over the phone. Several jurors including RR referred to the boy's attitude. His lip. (We never learned what was said. Only that the content was disrespectful.) Men and women shook their heads, clucked their tongues, became indignant about the boy's sassiness.
Jurors projected their experience onto the poor schlubs whose lives were exposed to us in court. "There's still a lot of love, there," the fat middle-aged guy told us. Two women explained how they had dealt with emotionally abusive partners and damned the women for not doing the same. She didn't go for counseling! She didn't take photos! She didn't have her mother testify! The youngest juror, a woman with green hair, became exasperated: She is not you. Her experiences are not your experiences. Blank looks in response. Average intellects grinding on data and spitting nonsense.
A few days later the NY Times published over a dozen pages describing the Trump crime family's financial history. About 10% tax evasion and 90% tax fraud. In response, not a creature stirred, not even a mouse. Numbers and math. Boring. Reading and understanding the lengthy article required time and focus. And several days after that the most conservative international climate study organization -- the UN's IPCC -- published an exceptionally scary report on global warming. Blink. Blink. Snore.
Politicians and most reporters have learned that people don't respond to global warming news. Reporters blame scientists for lacking communications skills. Have you ever tried to explain science to a newsman? Simplify, simplify, simplify until there's nothing left. You have to travel so far back to find a common bit of shared understanding that the forward process takes forever. John Oliver once tried to cover the long term effects of annual fees paid on 401(k) funds. He kept having to slap the audience in the face to keep viewers awake, "I know this sounds boring, but it's really important." Imagine, having to condescend to your audience when you are explaining how their savings are being pissed away. But, numbers and compounded interest. Too much to expect average people to understand.
Experiment
What will the religious right do with their lives should the Kavanaugh-containing Supreme Court overturn Roe? Abortion was the perfect issue for the religious right. It let mean-spirited, hateful, authoritarians claim to protect innocent children. These cynics cry on cue, wave gruesome photos, and demonize Planned Parenthood. But, the tells have always been there. Too many men in charge. Can anyone believe Ralph Reed, that pasty-faced opportunist, gives a damn about children? The wretched lying about late-term abortions. Conservatives can't stop punching down. Can't stop mocking other people's tragedies. Malformed, dead or dying, fetuses were portrayed as cherubic Gerber babies. Grieving, devastated women portrayed as lazy sluts terminating pregnancies so they could fit into prom dresses.
And, the biggest tell of them all: abortions allowed in cases of rape or incest. Why? Are those fetuses any less innocent? Any less alive? Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop is the only politician I've heard -- this was many years ago -- decry those exceptions. It did not make him popular among the anti-abortion crowd who needed the double standard. Forcing a woman to carry to term her rapist's baby was too cruel to be popular. Yet, few people among the pro-choice crowd say the obvious: fights against abortion are fights against women's rights and have nothing to do with children.
Speaking of being on cue, Rep Steve King of Iowa tweeted a photo of a sleeping infant and an anti-abortion message. Steve King: bigot, white supremacist, and pro-pollution toady.
Speaking of being on cue, Rep Steve King of Iowa tweeted a photo of a sleeping infant and an anti-abortion message. Steve King: bigot, white supremacist, and pro-pollution toady.
Friday, October 5, 2018
Kavanuts
The title of one opinion piece is, "How We Know Kavanaugh Is Lying." I don't bother to read more than the lede because the answer is obvious: his mouth is open.
Republicans are standing by their man. They set out to find a SCOTUS justice who will overturn Roe, protect Trump from investigation, and destroy workers' rights. No way they were surprised when a pig applied for the job. Who else would appear? Bill Kunstler? It was also a given that the pig would show up carrying pig baggage. A bit inconvenient, but not surprising. He is, after all, a pig. It was just another week for the Republican PR machine.
If the Senate votes Kavanaugh down, then the Republicans will nominate Kavanaugh 2.0 or 3.0 or 4.0. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of them are waiting for the call. And, somewhere a factory manufactures even more soul-less, Kavanauvian droids and programs them to protect the wealthy by riling the rubes. Think of the truck loads of pods in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
Republicans are standing by their man. They set out to find a SCOTUS justice who will overturn Roe, protect Trump from investigation, and destroy workers' rights. No way they were surprised when a pig applied for the job. Who else would appear? Bill Kunstler? It was also a given that the pig would show up carrying pig baggage. A bit inconvenient, but not surprising. He is, after all, a pig. It was just another week for the Republican PR machine.
If the Senate votes Kavanaugh down, then the Republicans will nominate Kavanaugh 2.0 or 3.0 or 4.0. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of them are waiting for the call. And, somewhere a factory manufactures even more soul-less, Kavanauvian droids and programs them to protect the wealthy by riling the rubes. Think of the truck loads of pods in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
No Time for Nonsense
In my local supermarket, the widest, brightest aisle is shelved high with modern snake oil. On a good day, I am comforted by cynical self-interest. Sales of useless crap keep the supermarket profitable and allows them to reduce prices on the items I want. It's the same attitude that I can sometimes find to justify the nastiness of the rich kids who attend private school with my daughter. Call it affirmative action. The school accepts and tolerates privileged dolts to subsidize my daughter's education. But, I can generate only so much on-demand cynicism. Most times, I walk past the aisle of deceit, and sigh heavily knowing that, in my community, people are more likely, not less, to trust their health to homeopathics and cleanses and kelp.
Family and friends remind me that I was rude and dismissive when young. I laughed at people who applied 'quantum' to anything, I gave a two-handed brush off to astrology and sneered at religion. People who found comfort in crackpot ideas needed to be corrected and to learn why they were so wrong. Then, my wife socialized me. I began to keep my mouth shut and nod sympathetically. When asked directly about some bit of nonsense technology, I would answer with, "I've not read anything in the scientific literature about that idea." True, but bland, and easily heard by believers as approval.
Now, my young self is back. I've not patience for ignorance and stupid. My eye-ball rolling muscles are again in teenage fighting trim. My favorite movie line is George Sanders' Shere Khan in the 1967 Jungle Book when he squashes the Kaa the snake saying, "I can't be bothered with that. I have no time for that sort of nonsense." Indeed. If you want to talk reality; great. If you want to talk chakras or astrology or religion or homeopathy or angels or raw food, then just go away. I've no time for that nonsense.
Because, here we are, with an egomaniacal conman in the White House, a religious pervert next in line, and a cabinet of moneyed crackpots. The House and Senate are run by frauds and whores. There's no time for irrelevant distractions. No time to be polite.
Family and friends remind me that I was rude and dismissive when young. I laughed at people who applied 'quantum' to anything, I gave a two-handed brush off to astrology and sneered at religion. People who found comfort in crackpot ideas needed to be corrected and to learn why they were so wrong. Then, my wife socialized me. I began to keep my mouth shut and nod sympathetically. When asked directly about some bit of nonsense technology, I would answer with, "I've not read anything in the scientific literature about that idea." True, but bland, and easily heard by believers as approval.
Now, my young self is back. I've not patience for ignorance and stupid. My eye-ball rolling muscles are again in teenage fighting trim. My favorite movie line is George Sanders' Shere Khan in the 1967 Jungle Book when he squashes the Kaa the snake saying, "I can't be bothered with that. I have no time for that sort of nonsense." Indeed. If you want to talk reality; great. If you want to talk chakras or astrology or religion or homeopathy or angels or raw food, then just go away. I've no time for that nonsense.
Because, here we are, with an egomaniacal conman in the White House, a religious pervert next in line, and a cabinet of moneyed crackpots. The House and Senate are run by frauds and whores. There's no time for irrelevant distractions. No time to be polite.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Common Ground
Self-pity is the unifying trait of white working class Trump voters. Krugman recently suggested anti-intellectualism. That seemed almost right, but not exactly on target because anti-intellectualism is more mindset than a core emotion. Self-pitiers blame all misfortune on a hostile world. Store clerks are rude. Teachers are out to get my kid. Bosses pick on me. Fifty cars on the road are speeding, but the cop stopped me because he needed to get a white guy to avoid looking prejudiced and why wasn't he going after real criminals like murderers and rapists. And on and on. When everyone else is at fault, problems don't get solved. They just get repeated.
The self-pity gene also codes for high fear of non-existent threats. Obama will take away my guns. Sharia law is being let loose across the land. Global warming is a conspiracy that will force me to forfeit my V8's and pickups. Poor, poor self-pitying victims squint at the world from behind closed curtains, waiting for the next injustice to reinforce their paranoid narcissistic world view.
A family I knew well suffered multigenerational self-pity. Nature and nurture had dug a very deep hole. Six of six siblings were severely dyslexic. Education was torture. One of the boys was dragged down the street every weekday morning as he screamed, "No school! No school!" The parents, self-pitiers both, did not know how to get the help that the schools are required to provide. Instead they snarled about a teacher who suggested testing the youngest child for learning disabilities. "All they want to do is put a label on the kid. Why don't they realize that every kid is different?"
Tolstoy be damned. The family, like millions of other people, followed the same self-pitying path of lousy jobs, alcohol, drugs, early pregnancies and low-birth-weight babies, and guns. Pigeons oh so easily plucked by a master con man.
The self-pity gene also codes for high fear of non-existent threats. Obama will take away my guns. Sharia law is being let loose across the land. Global warming is a conspiracy that will force me to forfeit my V8's and pickups. Poor, poor self-pitying victims squint at the world from behind closed curtains, waiting for the next injustice to reinforce their paranoid narcissistic world view.
A family I knew well suffered multigenerational self-pity. Nature and nurture had dug a very deep hole. Six of six siblings were severely dyslexic. Education was torture. One of the boys was dragged down the street every weekday morning as he screamed, "No school! No school!" The parents, self-pitiers both, did not know how to get the help that the schools are required to provide. Instead they snarled about a teacher who suggested testing the youngest child for learning disabilities. "All they want to do is put a label on the kid. Why don't they realize that every kid is different?"
Tolstoy be damned. The family, like millions of other people, followed the same self-pitying path of lousy jobs, alcohol, drugs, early pregnancies and low-birth-weight babies, and guns. Pigeons oh so easily plucked by a master con man.
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Death to Public Schools
School voucher plans don't add up. Here in paradise, Santa Fe public school funding is about $7500 per student. That comes close to the $9600 in tuition and fees charged by the city's largest parochial high school and is far less than the $22,000 charged by the city's largest non-sectarian private school. What will happen if the Amway-Blackwater Secretary of Education gets her way and it's vouchers all the way down? I predict chaos. The Archbishop will hit the fainting couch. There's no way that the parochial schools could expand to meet the likely free-market demand. No way to add more classrooms to cope with the new enrollment.
What about special services? That $7500 per student is an average. Many students with disabilities cost more. Where will the extra come from or are the students who require the most assistance going to get the least?
How will private schools find enough teachers to fill the demand? The only pool of experienced teachers are the teachers now in the public school system. In the grand delusion of free markets, the creme de la creme of those teachers will be lured away by offers of high salaries. But, there is a built-in salary cap that is tied to the size of the vouchers. Higher salaries require more students per class and that just perpetuates one of the big problems in public schools. Maybe some entrepreneur will create a guest worker business to bring in low-salaried teachers from abroad. There are excellent, English-speaking teachers in India and Africa who would happily work for a pittance.
The voucherized free market will become yet another race to the bottom. And that's part of the plan. Trump's proposed Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos,
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