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THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED!

The scientific method is unforgiving, and not quite as simple as one would think. I was having a conversation about it with a friend who knows a lot more about it than I, and he corrected my lazy definition with a more complete one:

Instead of "true" and "not true" I'd substitute "consistent with what we know so far" (i.e., not yet disproven), and "not true." The problem with characterizing an explanation as "true" is that it gradually accretes more and more credibility over time, until it becomes received truth. It's important to remind oneself that any explanation could be overturned tomorrow.
Does that sound familiar?

So I was immensely amused to find this article recently about a scientist whose theory is upsetting the "settled science" apple cart, and it is awesome. The Nastiest Feud in Science: A Princeton geologist has endured decades of ridicule for arguing that the fifth extinction was caused not by an asteroid but by a series of colossal volcanic eruptions. But she's reopened that debate.

There are many instances of accepted science that were disproven in a flash, and years or decades or centuries of fact were simply discarded. And that is as it should be. Having an emotional or financial or egotistical connection to a scientific conclusion is an invitation to sit at the head of the table and get the first and largest serving of crow.

I have no knowledge or expertise in this field, but her theory certainly makes sense. it may be right..it may be wrong, but it should battle it out honorably on the field of logic and science, not on the post-modern field of malleable rules and acceptance of the popular as the truth.

Posted by: CBD at 12:15 PM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 First.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 12:15 PM (/qEW2)

2 Okay, then

Posted by: Blutarski at August 19, 2018 12:17 PM (+Tibp)

3 Roomy. Good mornin' Horde.

Posted by: SteveOReno , I proudly self-identify as a Moron at August 19, 2018 12:18 PM (2sCft)

4 Interesting. But why does it matter?

Posted by: creeper at August 19, 2018 12:19 PM (atTnz)

5 Yeah, been having this argument for years.

If Scientists were truly honest, every assertion would end with '...we think.'.

Funny, too. In the History of Science, there were many a False Theory that had a more 'accurately predictive' model than the 'correct' Theory that followed.

Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 12:20 PM (zevYT)

6 I was dubious from anything from the Atlantic, but it's a good read. Politics over Science is the leftist way.

JJ calls it Lysenko ism.

Posted by: Blutarski at August 19, 2018 12:20 PM (+Tibp)

7 From what I have seen and read 99% of the 'science ' today has no science in it.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at August 19, 2018 12:20 PM (mpXpK)

8 This is how one knows that AGW is more hoax for funding from idiot politicians than science. The journals refuse to print the letters to editor or papers that disagree with the approved narrative.

Posted by: PaleRider, simply irredeemable at August 19, 2018 12:21 PM (cLj/v)

9 Eh, willowed:

You know what was awesome about massive card catalogs and the Dewey decimal system? You could find stuff you weren't looking for.

Your book is at 902.11, great, so you go to the stacks and it's surrounded by books on similar topics. Find something obscure that you weren't looking for, cite it, impress your professor.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at August 19, 2018 09:05 AM (fuK7c)"


This !
Loved finding stuff that way.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez - they are gaslighting us 24/365 at August 19, 2018 09:13 AM (58Au

He also comments later how they think being known (or knowing the knowns) in DC makes them important, but the real important people are guys that can take apart his (complicated) pumps and make real production work....
Posted by: illiniwek at August 19, 2018 11:52 AM (bT8Z4)
---

In one of his NR articles years ago, VDH observed that few of his colleagues in academe could actually DO anything practical, such as was required on his farm.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 19, 2018 12:02 PM (kQs4Y)


Going and doing has been the human way since forever,

and so, is deeply satisfying.

But, also keeps one connected to the real world and reality by physical learning.

A big part of our current problems as a nation is that Our Betters so disconnected from reality by their jobs, education, and inclination,

that they can't even change a tire.

It's beneath them, as is all physicality and thus the lessons of the possible.

That's the reason they fail us as gov't officials, educators, media.

Yes, yes, geniuses. Your minds can conceive anything,

but, your stupid ideas have real world consequences to real people if applied in the real world. (Hello-o-o-o-o-o Socialism!)

I don't know what the solution to this is-

However I do understand why one of the first actions by Castro, Mao, Pol Pot, etc was to stick intellectuals (even those who supported them) out in the cane fields for hard labor.

It was a dose of the real for their flighty minds.


And that's what happened to the dinosaurs*







*staying on topic

Posted by: naturalfake at August 19, 2018 12:22 PM (9q7Dl)

10 "Science advances one funeral at a time"
Max Planck

Posted by: TheMascotArmy at August 19, 2018 12:22 PM (IAGvD)

11 I saw Ptolemic Epicycles open for Rocket from the Crypt at The Bottom Line back in 94!

Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 12:22 PM (zevYT)

12 From what I have seen and read 99% of the 'science ' today has no science in it.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party

There was an article here a few months ago that suggest that a very large percentage, like over 40%, of scientific 'studies' could not be replicated. That seems like a lot.

Posted by: Blutarski at August 19, 2018 12:23 PM (+Tibp)

13 Dear Members Only: A Letter Back to Twelve Angry CIA Bureaucrats, Swampville, USA

It's Not About Freedom of Speech and You Know It.

Dear Club Members,

I read your letter. Thank you so much.

You know what else constitutes "ill-considered and unprecedented remarks and actions by the White House"?

A: Obama's One-Man Nuclear Treaty with Iran.

Every nuclear treaty of our lifetime until then was ratified by the Senate--truly unprecedented. But none of you heroes piped-up when Obama was sending them pallets of cash and uranium. Why is John Brennan's clearance more important to you than Iran? In what possible world?

When Brennan retired in 2006 and opened The Analytics Company, his security clearances allowed the company to break into the State Department's computers to repeatedly access McCain's and Obama's birth certificates, which he somehow leveraged into a directorship.

Odd; I don't remember any of you mentioning it.

Nor did we hear a peep from you when your fellow director John Brennan spied on another branch of government.

Is this what you mean by "patriotic"? Hacking into Sen. Feinstein's Senate Committee computers, removing files and threatening investigators with FBI prosecution, then lying until caught. This all sounds so familiar. If that's how he treats friendlies, how do you think he treats the Opposition? The guy probably wiretapped his Mom to find out what he was getting for Christmas.

I won't even go into his bugs in the House cloakroom, wiretaps in the Court chambers or spying on reporters. Since you are all super-spies, I'm sure you can dig it up yourselves.

You have all been as quiet as churchmice about Brennan's spying and Agit-Prop activities in the 2016 election. Is it "service to the nation" to turn the CIA into a wing of the Democratic National Committee?

It begs the question: since you vouch for his actions, did any of you spy on Congress also? Threaten staffers with FBI inquisitions? Lie in your testimony? Did you hire spies to infiltrate American political campaigns, too?

As former directors, you would know that founder President Truman wanted the CIA to remain a non-operational information service. He didn't want the Agency involved in foreign election-tampering, let alone election tampering in America. Yet John Brennan did just that--and you all couldn't manage a syllable to stop it then or condemn it now.

None of these high crimes and misdemeanors caused you to speak up--not even Obama's "ill-considered and unprecedented" Unconditional and Pre-Emptive Surrender to Iran.

Only the loss of John Brennan's security clearance stirs you to protest.

Only then do you find your collective voice.

Only when your Order of the Creased Pant-Leg Gentlemen's Club for Distinguished Alumni-perks are threatened. Meh.

You know what? Donald Trump is doing the job you refused to do. Brennan has gone rogue and none of you--not one--has the guts to say so. Only Donald Trump.

I'm sorry you've lost your way. But you have. Thank you for your previous service. Go back to sleep now. We'll manage without you. We're used to it.

Sincerely,

America

ps: And thank you President Trump for serving and defending America today.

Somebody's got to do it for a change.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at August 19, 2018 12:23 PM (Ndje9)

14 >>There was an article here a few months ago that suggest that a very large percentage, like over 40%, of scientific 'studies' could not be replicated. That seems like a lot.


That's nothing. Try and get a cup of Tea out of one of those things!

Posted by: Arthur Dent at August 19, 2018 12:24 PM (zevYT)

15 Karl Popper was a philosopher of science who took the position that science could only prove things false. e.g., Europeans thought that all swans had to be white, because no European have ever seen a non-white swan. Until they got to Australia and had a Black Swan Moment. In Popper's view, anything we think true can always be dis-proven.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 19, 2018 12:24 PM (1UZdv)

16 Science is never settled

Posted by: Skip at August 19, 2018 12:24 PM (lxZ71)

17 I think Lysenkoism is an extreme form of "unscientific method", in which personal power and power, period, substitute for actual science.


The original, having been one of the many extreme pathologies related to Stalin's insanely violent cult of power, does not (happily) apply perfectly to today's hijacking of "science" for power and self-enrichment - but it applies well enough. And the malevolent human basis, while less extreme, is of the same general nature.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 19, 2018 12:24 PM (QDnY+)

18 I was always taught the definition if science was nothing is ever settled, just what is known at the time and subject to change.

When I'm dancing close to her
Blinding me with science, science
Science!
I can smell the chemicals
Blinding me with science, science
Science!
Science!

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 19, 2018 12:25 PM (EoRCO)

19 LOL! Everyone knows the fifth extinction was really caused by an alien artifact.

Posted by: Michael Altman at August 19, 2018 12:25 PM (iSqF0)

20 Interesting. But why does it matter?

It doesn't!

Posted by: Global Warming Science at August 19, 2018 12:25 PM (LBYpQ)

21 Excellent post.

Remember when it was -truth-that the atom was the smallest unit of matter, until someone smashed one and all kinds of crap started flying out?

The only truth in science is that we do not know what we do not know.

Posted by: WitchDoktor, AKA VA GOP Sucks at August 19, 2018 12:25 PM (lRvWa)

22 A prehistoric eruption by Mt Toba almost exterminated humanity.

Posted by: Volcano guy at August 19, 2018 12:26 PM (zPonD)

23 The problem with characterizing an explanation as "true" is that it gradually accretes more and more credibility over time, until it becomes received truth. It's important to remind oneself that any explanation could be overturned tomorrow.

Someone here posted a quote a few years ago "that the earth is a sphere is false, but it's a lot less false than believing that it's flat".

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 12:26 PM (/qEW2)

24 >>The only truth in science is that we do not know what we do not know.


So, you are saying that the Unknown Knowns that we Know are Unknowble not only in fact but in scale?

Far out, man.

Posted by: Donald Rumsfeld at August 19, 2018 12:28 PM (zevYT)

25 19. Ancient Slavonaut theorists say yes.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at August 19, 2018 12:28 PM (fA1SL)

26
I was reading some article this morning that made the rather curious claim that dinosaurs were wiped out by lack of Vitamin D.

That seems to settle the science for me.

Posted by: Forgot My Nic at August 19, 2018 12:28 PM (LOgQ4)

27 One thing has always bothered me about dinosaur extinction and why there aren't any current animals that come close in size to the dinosaurs. My thought has been that gravity is heavier now than it once was. Physicist claim gravity has remained the same throughout time. But this can only be true if the earth remained the same size throughout. If earth had been a larger planet than it is today, it would have experience a lighter gravitational force. Not a physicist, but this has always bothered me. One other theory is gravity is an energy that is required to expand the universe. If the universe expands faster than gravity as measured on any planet would be less.

Brain fart time.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 12:30 PM (vV/gB)

28 13>>>Sincerely,

America

ps: And thank you President Trump for serving and defending America today.

Somebody's got to do it for a change.
Posted by: The Gipper Lives at August 19, 2018 12:23 PM (Ndje9)

+++++
*** slow clap ***'

Nicely done, Gipper.

Posted by: SteveOReno , I proudly self-identify as a Moron at August 19, 2018 12:30 PM (2sCft)

29 Then there's AGW and CAGW, which violate every tenet of the Scientific Method.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 19, 2018 12:30 PM (1UZdv)

30 If Scientists were truly honest, every assertion would end with '...we think.'.

And begin with, too. I often come across in context-poor media as either hedgy and indecisive or egotistical because I bracket everything with 'I think ' or 'seems to me', but that's really just because using an absolute to describe a subjective observation feels jarring and dishonest. But it is also because I'm a waffling egotist.

I saw Ptolemic Epicycles open for Rocket from the Crypt at The Bottom Line back in 94!
Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 12:22 PM (zevYT)


I saw Rocket from the Crypt open for Rancid at the Intersection in 1996 and... wasn't super-impressed really.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 12:31 PM (y87Qq)

31 This is how one knows that AGW is more hoax for funding from idiot politicians than science. The journals refuse to print the letters to editor or papers that disagree with the approved narrative.
Posted by: PaleRider, simply irredeemable at August 19, 2018 12:21 PM (cLj/v)


========

^THIS^. The author obviously intended the title "The Nastiest Feud in Science" to serve as clickbait, but it unwittingly reveals the tragedy - isn't AGW far more worthy of being "The Nastiest Feud in Science"?

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 12:31 PM (/qEW2)

32 Carbon Credits: Pay tribute to me, Bitches!

Posted by: Al Gore at August 19, 2018 12:32 PM (CdLX2)

33 Only a scientist still looking for grants would say science isn't settled, because if it was why give out research money?

Posted by: Skip at August 19, 2018 12:32 PM (lxZ71)

34 Study not replicable means it is not empirical. If it's not empirical it is not science. I learned this decades ago. Is this no longer taught?

Posted by: Old Dude at August 19, 2018 12:34 PM (LGXGf)

35 Gipper Lives, nicely done.


There was a time - not THAT long ago - when former intel chiefs were, generally, simply not heard from after their terms. No books. Certainly no dabbling in political or controvesial matters, invoking their presumed status as former bigs.


Occasionally you'd have someone like James Schlesinger whose intellectual heft and broad experience caused Congress and others to specifically draw on his views on major topics.


Um - none of the 12, or the 60-whatever lower-level intel types with their other statement, together, equal a Jim Schlesinger. And this is just the illogical, ad hominem, but unavoidable assessment. The substance of their protest is ridiculous.


Posted by: rhomboid at August 19, 2018 12:34 PM (QDnY+)

36 Only a scientist still looking for grants would say science isn't settled, because if it was why give out research money?
Posted by: Skip at August 19, 2018 12:32 PM (lxZ71)

And, in the same breath, they would say, "Climate Change is settled science. And anyone that doesn't agree is a Neanderthal poopy-head!"

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 12:34 PM (9BLnV)

37 The dinosaurs were killed by Trump's tax cuts.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 19, 2018 12:34 PM (+y/Ru)

38 One thing has always bothered me about dinosaur extinction and why there aren't any current animals that come close in size to the dinosaurs.

There are. Whales. In the ocean.

And so it's easier for them to hide from the best apex predator of all time....Man!

Pretty sure cavemen enjoy quite the smorgasbord of large animals.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 19, 2018 12:35 PM (9q7Dl)

39 Science and logic are old white cis-male hetero concepts.

Therefore, they must be dispensed with.

Posted by: blaster at August 19, 2018 12:35 PM (DH5wZ)

40 Study not replicable means it is not empirical. If it's not empirical it is not science. I learned this decades ago. Is this no longer taught?
Posted by: Old Dude at August 19, 2018 12:34 PM (LGXGf)

Taught? Who teaches anymore? That's for the inferior minds! Those on the right side of history merely need to be programmed.

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 12:36 PM (9BLnV)

41 I was only a minion but I am familiar with some of the back-and-forth here. It seems reasonable that either a Yellowstone size eruption or a Chixulub size impact could wipe out species. There has been some ... factionalism?? ... of geologists being open to catastrophic changes vs paleontologists associating such with Biblical rather than empiric understanding. Apparently volcanoes are as catastrophic as paleontologists can stand. Rocks falling from the sky can't possibly cause that much damage!!! Except when they do.

.... ok I guess I have to read the article now to see what this person says (and probably look for other sources than just the Atlantic ;p )

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 19, 2018 12:37 PM (m54Mo)

42 Har! Har!


I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?

Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:38 PM (CdLX2)

43 Pretty sure cavemen enjoy quite the smorgasbord of large animals.
Posted by: naturalfake at August 19, 2018 12:35 PM (9q7Dl)


Aren't the only continents that still have terrestrial megafauna the ones that also have terrestrial megafauna that can straight murder you to death? Australia and the Americas, I think, had fossil records of things with names like "ground sloth" and "slow-moving tastybeast" right up until a brief overlap with humans. Then, vanishingly few.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 12:38 PM (y87Qq)

44 Theories can never be proven, but they can always be disproven.

And Al Gore can fuck his carbon credits up the their fullerene asses.

Posted by: The Man from Athens at August 19, 2018 12:38 PM (QMwOT)

45
Global warming is caused by Republicans. Exclusively. No one else. Only an anti-science denier could hold otherwise.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 19, 2018 12:39 PM (LsBY9)

46 Still think it would be to cool to have saber tooth tigers, wooly mammoths and ground sloths roaming in Yellowstone

Posted by: Skip at August 19, 2018 12:39 PM (lxZ71)

47
There are. Whales. In the ocean.
---------------------
A whale or elephant is merely one tenth the size of the gigantic dinosaurs.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 12:40 PM (vV/gB)

48 Europeans thought that all swans had to be white, because no European
have ever seen a non-white swan. Until they got to Australia and had a
Black Swan Moment. In Popper's view, anything we think true can always
be dis-proven.

I think there are some areas on which we can agree, though. For example, Lena Dunham will never be attractive. It's axiomatic.

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 12:40 PM (T6t7i)

49 Thanks--Russian Collusion is the new "Settled Science(tm)".

aka, superstition.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at August 19, 2018 12:40 PM (Ndje9)

50 I am going to see Mastadon open for Dinosaur Jr. at The Wilma in 2 Weeks!

Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 12:40 PM (zevYT)

51 I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?
Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:38 PM (CdLX2)


Not from the front. From the sides, and the other two raptors you never even knew were there.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 12:40 PM (y87Qq)

52 Taught? Who teaches anymore? That's for the inferior minds! Those on the right side of history merely need to be programmed.
Yeah, and woe betide anyone who could not defend his study with verifiable data, or who got caught fudging data.

Posted by: Old Dude at August 19, 2018 12:42 PM (LGXGf)

53 12 There was an article here a few months ago that
suggest that a very large percentage, like over 40%, of scientific
'studies' could not be replicated. That seems like a lot.

Posted by: Blutarski at August 19, 2018 12:23 PM (+Tibp)


That is on top of the fact that most of them have no study or anything else to support them.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at August 19, 2018 12:42 PM (mpXpK)

54 If something cannot be measured directly it can't really be science. It can be theory, but that's all. Until a way to measure it is discovered, things like evolution and "dinosaurs turning into birds" will just be fanciful imaginings, not science.

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 12:42 PM (9BLnV)

55 I am going to see Mastadon open for Dinosaur Jr. at The Wilma in 2 Weeks!
Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 12:40 PM (zevYT)


Oh, they were good on that tour with Jurassic 5.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 12:42 PM (y87Qq)

56 I thought blue whales are the biggest animal ever.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 19, 2018 12:42 PM (1UZdv)

57 But this can only be true if the earth remained the same size throughout. If earth had been a larger planet than it is today, it would have experience a lighter gravitational force. Not a physicist, but this has always bothered me.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 12:30 PM


You kinda got that bass ackwards.
Surface gravity is determined by both radius and mass.
The moon is 1/4 the size of Earth, while it's mass is only 1% of Earths.
Its gravity is 1/6th of Earths. Don't make me math you.

Posted by: Forgot My Nic at August 19, 2018 12:43 PM (LOgQ4)

58 I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?
Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:38 PM (CdLX2)

I've seen several land whales, but no dinosaurs. Except Mr. Jenkins. God, what a relic!

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 12:43 PM (9BLnV)

59 The Siberian and Deccan traps have been mentioned in the past as proof of vulcanism on a massive scale that would have had enormous influence on the planet, and I am happy either way. The KT impact theory is based on a hole in the Yucatan and the conclusion that a lot of sulfur would be thrown into the atmosphere to cause planetary cooling on top of the the giant impact, continental firestorms and seriously affected weather patterns. Massive eruptions would do the same.


Posted by: Kindltot at August 19, 2018 12:43 PM (2K6fY)

60 I thought blue whales are the biggest animal ever.
Posted by: Ignoramus at August 19, 2018 12:42 PM (1UZdv)

++++
I did as well. Can someone please do some Google research?

Posted by: SteveOReno , I proudly self-identify as a Moron at August 19, 2018 12:43 PM (2sCft)

61 I read that article yesterday, and I have a lot of reservations about it. First is her contention that the Deccan Traps were the result of explosive vulcanism. I have never seen them myself, but the Columbia Plateau, and similar plateau basalts in British Columbia are typically fairly non-violent events. The crust of the Earth develops a tension fracture, and basaltic magma wells up through the crack, and flows out over the land like hot molasses. And why are there no extinctions related to all the other plateau basalt events? And why is iridium not concentrated in the traps themselves, or in other plateau basalts, if the iridium originated in the eruptive event?

Finally, toward the end of the article, it becomes apparent that she is a Gerbil worming True Believer, and is convinced that we are poisoning the planet with mercury from fossil fuels, and that we are in the midst of a mass extinction event brought on by our own actions. If that is an example of her scholarship, then it taints her other work.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 12:44 PM (LI7AQ)

62 There's a practical level, or version, of scientific "truth" that probably should be distinguished from the platonic ideal, which indeed remains only a hypothesis with more/less empirical and analytical basis.


Nuclear explosives, based on very advanced science, do in fact work. And their design and nature, in fact, are based on very specific practical truths and understandings of nuclear physics and other areas.


But to be the basis for any part of any public policy - i.e. rules and laws affecting freedom and people's actual lives - needs to be at that level of practical truth. AGW isn't remotely close to being at that level. And yet it's invoked as a basis for near-totalitarian control over, essentially, all human behavior.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 19, 2018 12:44 PM (QDnY+)

63 56
I thought blue whales are the biggest animal ever.


Not so.

Posted by: Jason Statham at August 19, 2018 12:44 PM (T6t7i)

64 >> I thought blue whales are the biggest animal ever.


The role Brian Denehey was born to play.

Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (zevYT)

65 It's funny how the asteroid theory was considered radical when it was first proposed, and now it's orthodoxy.

The debate between catastrophism and gradualism dates beck to the beginning of geology as a science. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many features in the geological record were attributed to the Biblical Flood, i.e., a sudden catastrophe.

But early geologists showed how those features could be explained by gradual processes like earthquakes, volcanoes, and erosion. Gradualism seemed to win the day.

When the asteroid impact theory was proposed in the late 1970s, geologists had a visceral negative reaction. Here was catastrophism rearing its ugly head again! From the Earth's point of view, an impact from the sky is indistinguishable from an angry God smiting the Earth.

But to an astronomer looking at the solar system as a whole, impacts are gradualism. All the planets and moons were built up by many impacts, mainly early in the solar system's history. Most of the loose material has been swept up, but there is still lots out there that can cause impacts.

I guess the most important lesson is that science is never "settled".

Posted by: rickl at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (sdi6R)

66 56. All hail Blue Whale, Krill be unto his name.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (fA1SL)

67 Fun Fact: Mastadon means "Nipple Tooth".

Posted by: Surfperch at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (AcZtS)

68 People have always longed for explanations to the point where they accepted crap explanations. That's one reason technology is so beneficial - it delivers us from the necessity of having to settle for crap explanations. It gives us a predisposition to expect a rational, deterministic cause.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (/qEW2)

69 Until a way to measure it is discovered, things like evolution and "dinosaurs turning into birds" will just be fanciful imaginings, not science.

Palaeontology is just archaeology as applied to nonhumans.

Vox Day (a former programmer) is right that "science" is too broad a term to be much useful. Useful science is engineering. Palaeontology is about dead things and so isn't directly useful, in the same way knowing about the Holocaust isn't directly useful.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at August 19, 2018 12:46 PM (N1ZXu)

70 I'd substitute "consistent with what we know so far" (i.e., not yet disproven), and "not true."

So, maple syrup on French Toast is still open for examination. Good.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at August 19, 2018 12:47 PM (DMUuz)

71 Fun Fact: Mastadon means "Nipple Tooth".
Posted by: Surfperch at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (AcZtS)


How have I lived this long without knowing that?

Could it even be called "living"?

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 12:47 PM (y87Qq)

72 >>>Not from the front. From the sides, and the other two raptors you never even knew were there.

Posted by: hogmartin<<<

If you drop your can of buffalo-ranch flavored Pringles, you can slip away without incident.

Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:48 PM (CdLX2)

73 Fun Fact: Mastadon means "Nipple Tooth".
Posted by: Surfperch at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (AcZtS)
++++
I will carry that Fun Fact with me til my dying breath.

Posted by: SteveOReno , I proudly self-identify as a Moron at August 19, 2018 12:48 PM (2sCft)

74 Fun Fact: Mastadon means "Nipple Tooth".
Posted by: Surfperch at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (AcZtS)


Sounds like a good premise for a horror flick. "Boobeh Dentata".

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 12:48 PM (/qEW2)

75 Not so.
Posted by: Jason Statham at August 19, 2018 12:44 PM (T6t7i)

I have Meg on my to-read pile, btw.

Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at August 19, 2018 12:48 PM (CE6iV)

76 Unfortunately, there's now 2 types of Science:- True Science, which proves things based on Scientific method- Chicken Little science, which 'proves' things on the severity of the claims
A MAJOR example of Chicken Little science is: humans causing Global warming.

Posted by: I'm the Honey Badger, BITCH! at August 19, 2018 12:48 PM (1bnL3)

77 The KT impact reverberated through the whole planet, shock waves travelled across the globe to present day Indonesia, volcanoes resulted.

That is what I have been reading lately.

The result is the same, an extinction level event.

Whether it was sudden or unfolded over time, decades, centuries, the result is the same.

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at August 19, 2018 12:49 PM (w7KSn)

78 I recall the first time I heard "The Science is Settled!"
I was attending a small business conference with our local elected Congress guy as the featured speaker. (Boss made me go as she didn't want to.) This was back in the early '00's when Global Warming was ramping up. One old former State-level elected official (of the same party as the Congress dude) fairly shouted at the room, "The Science is Settled!!!" and his pugnacious look dared anyone to doubt him.
I leaned over to the guy next to me, whom I knew to be the head of a bio-med firm, and said, "Well, so much for the scientific method."
He laughed.
Pugnacious asshat noticed and came up to me afterwards and demanded to know if I believed global warming. "Nope," says I, "I think the Russians go this one right...it's getting colder."
And walked out.

Posted by: Diogenes at August 19, 2018 12:49 PM (0tfLf)

79 Useful science is engineering.

I disagree on that. I think a more useful distinction is between basic and applied science. I'm not entirely sure where to draw the line between applied science and engineering, other than perhaps to say that applied science wants to know why something useful works the way it does, but engineering wants to know that it works. These are not absolute distinctions, of course.

Posted by: Jason Statham at August 19, 2018 12:49 PM (T6t7i)

80 >> The KT impact reverberated through the whole planet, shock waves travelled across the globe to present day Indonesia, volcanoes resulted.

>>The result is the same, an extinction level event.


We weren't impressed.

Posted by: Crocodiles at August 19, 2018 12:50 PM (zevYT)

81 Fun Fact: Mastadon means "Nipple Tooth".
Posted by: Surfperch at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (AcZtS)


I'm going to start a beverage company that does Snapple-type fun facts under the caps, except every single one of them will say "Mastodon means 'Nipple Tooth'".

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 12:50 PM (y87Qq)

82 I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?
Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:38 PM (CdLX2)

I have a hunk of dinosaur bone in a box in my basement.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 12:50 PM (LI7AQ)

83 Greetings:

When it was time for me to go off to college, my Father wanted me to attend a local Jesuit university. His pitch was basically, you'll like the Jesuits, they're like God's Green Berets. So off I went.

One of the best and most useful things I learned was from my Philosophy 101 professor who introduce me to his "my current conclusion is...". That weaselly "current" word can save one a world of grief.

Posted by: 11B40 at August 19, 2018 12:51 PM (evgyj)

84 Hadrian, I read about your wall last night. Maybe you can tell me if it was intended as a defensive wall or simply as the delineator of the far reach of the Roman Empire.

Posted by: creeper at August 19, 2018 12:51 PM (atTnz)

85
Global warming is caused by Republicans. Exclusively. No one else. Only an anti-science denier could hold otherwise.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh


97% of Democrats agree

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at August 19, 2018 12:51 PM (IqV8l)

86 I have Meg on my to-read pile, btw.
Posted by: votermom pimping NEW Moron-authored books! at August 19, 2018 12:48 PM


If she weren't such a loser, you could listen to collected audio expostulations, like Queen Elizabeth II does for mine, daily.

Posted by: Barack H. Obama, Once and Future President at August 19, 2018 12:51 PM (DMUuz)

87 pep = Jason Statham
Jason's a good guy, but he's not much in the science department.

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 12:52 PM (T6t7i)

88 >>97% of Democrats agree


'Ask a Democrat' is one hell of a Predictive Model.

Posted by: Crocodiles at August 19, 2018 12:52 PM (zevYT)

89 The KT impact reverberated through the whole planet, shock waves travelled across the globe to present day Indonesia, volcanoes resulted.
Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at August 19, 2018 12:49 PM (w7KSn)


I thought yesterday's daytime threads were just fine. MisHum's got some stuff, he just needed a little time off.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 12:52 PM (y87Qq)

90 I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?
Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:38 PM (CdLX2)

Winston Smith: "But the rocks are full of the bones of extinct animals -- mammoths and mastodons and enormous reptiles which lived here long before man was ever heard of."

O'Brien: "Have you ever seen those bones, Winston? Of course not. Nineteenth-century biologists invented them. Before man there was nothing. After man, if he could come to an end, there would be nothing. Outside man there is nothing."

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 19, 2018 12:53 PM (EoRCO)

91 I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?

Posted by: Fritz


Nancy Pelosi?

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 12:53 PM (T6t7i)

92 Mary Ann > Ginger

Settled science.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 12:53 PM (/tuJf)

93 85 - 97% of Democrats agree

42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Posted by: Steven Wright at August 19, 2018 12:54 PM (TiIoH)

94 And on earth started this "right side of history crap?" It is one of the stupidest things I have heard.

Posted by: Infidel at August 19, 2018 12:54 PM (pcnVL)

95
I remember a time when science actually reined, when a bunch of guys with pocket protectors whipped out their slide rules, calculated the radius and mass of the moon, and calculated almost to the ounce the amount of fuel needed to both decelerate to land on the moon, and then also escape it's gravitational pull. Guys with misogynist shirts.

Now we probably have half the population of this country denying the moon landings ever actually occurred.

Posted by: Forgot My Nic at August 19, 2018 12:55 PM (LOgQ4)

96 You're blinding me.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 19, 2018 12:55 PM (NWiLs)

97
And on earth started this "right side of history crap?"

Progressives, who else? Because their political philosophy is "scientific" even though every experiment has ended in failure.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 19, 2018 12:56 PM (LsBY9)

98 97% of Democrats agree
As one of my quantitative methods instrucrors was fond of saying, "there are lies, damn lies and statistics."
Mary Ann > Ginger, this is TRUTH.

Posted by: Old Dude at August 19, 2018 12:56 PM (LGXGf)

99 I have a petrified piece of dinosaur tooth...two teeth, actually...given to me by an oil-hunting geologist. It's nasty-looking.

Posted by: creeper at August 19, 2018 12:57 PM (atTnz)

100 The KT impact reverberated through the whole planet, shock waves travelled across the globe to present day Indonesia, volcanoes resulted.

>>The result is the same, an extinction level event.

We weren't impressed.
Posted by: Crocodiles at August 19, 2018 12:50 PM (zevYT)

Extinction level event? We laugh at extinction level events! --the cockroaches.

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 12:57 PM (9BLnV)

101 Argentinosaurus was the size of about 20 elephants...

from National Geographic

Posted by: MarkY at August 19, 2018 12:57 PM (8Vxlz)

102 94 And on earth started this "right side of history crap?" It is one of the stupidest things I have heard.
Posted by: Infidel at August 19, 2018 12:54 PM (pcnVL)

It's a Hegelian/Marxist idea.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 19, 2018 12:58 PM (NWiLs)

103 89 The KT impact reverberated through the whole planet, shock waves travelled across the globe to present day Indonesia, volcanoes resulted.
Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at August 19, 2018 12:49 PM (w7KSn)

I thought yesterday's daytime threads were just fine. MisHum's got some stuff, he just needed a little time off.
Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 12:52 PM (y87Qq)


Heh.

Posted by: rickl at August 19, 2018 12:58 PM (sdi6R)

104 Treason > Jeff Sessions

Settled science.

Posted by: Under Fire at August 19, 2018 12:58 PM (r9UYA)

105
Extinction level event? We laugh at extinction level events! --the cockroaches.

Them, and Cher.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 19, 2018 12:58 PM (LsBY9)

106 >>>I have a hunk of dinosaur bone in a box in my basement.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon<<<
That's fantastic. I'm looking forward to your 40 volume dissertation on the life and times of the dinosaur bone what roamed and conquered the heavens and Earth for a millennium.

Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:58 PM (CdLX2)

107 97% of Democrats agree
As one of my quantitative methods instrucrors was fond of saying, "there are lies, damn lies and statistics."
Mary Ann > Ginger, this is TRUTH.
Posted by: Old Dude at August 19, 2018 12:56 PM (LGXGf)

Not in the hammock! --Professor.

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 12:58 PM (9BLnV)

108 106 >>>I have a hunk of dinosaur bone in a box in my basement.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon
That's fantastic. I'm looking forward to your 40 volume dissertation on the life and times of the dinosaur bone what roamed and conquered the heavens and Earth for a millennium.
Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:58 PM (CdLX2)

He used it to bash other bones when the monolith gave him sentience.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 19, 2018 12:59 PM (NWiLs)

109 Finally, toward the end of the article, it becomes apparent that she is a Gerbil worming True Believer, and is convinced that we are poisoning the planet with mercury from fossil fuels, and that we are in the midst of a mass extinction event brought on by our own actions. If that is an example of her scholarship, then it taints her other work.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 12:44 PM (LI7AQ)
-----------

AOP, that bothered me too. She may well be right about the volcanoes, and if she is, good for her. But I hated to see her call one of her "enemies" the "Trump of science" and the later lamentation about global warming.

I wish she would have just stuck to her lane.

Posted by: bluebell at August 19, 2018 12:59 PM (JJZzu)

110 It's a Hegelian/Marxist idea.

So, imported with those Frankfort School frauds, eh?

Posted by: Old Dude at August 19, 2018 12:59 PM (LGXGf)

111 When the asteroid impact theory was proposed in the late 1970s, geologists had a visceral negative reaction. Here was catastrophism rearing its ugly head again! From the Earth's point of view, an impact from the sky is indistinguishable from an angry God smiting the Earth.

But to an astronomer looking at the solar system as a whole, impacts are gradualism. All the planets and moons were built up by many impacts, mainly early in the solar system's history. Most of the loose material has been swept up, but there is still lots out there that can cause impacts.

I guess the most important lesson is that science is never "settled".
Posted by: rickl at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (sdi6R)

Look at the Moon: absolutely riddled with impact craters. The Earth was right there with it. We don't see many craters on Earth because on-going geological processes erase them, for the most part, but as we get better at mapping both the surface and sub-surface, we are finding more and more of them, and some of them are huge.

And I don't have a problem with the notion that a very large impact on one side of the Earth could send a shock wave through the core, and cause the crust to split at a weak point at or near the opposite side, leading to a flood basalt eruption.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 12:59 PM (LI7AQ)

112 >>I have a hunk of dinosaur bone in a box in my basement.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon



If you ever want to bury that thing, call me.

Posted by: Hope Solo at August 19, 2018 12:59 PM (zevYT)

113 Wait, I thought this is why they went extinct:


https://tinyurl.com/y7ytmrsp

Posted by: Bert G at August 19, 2018 01:00 PM (yzxic)

114 Mastadon means "Nipple Tooth".
Posted by: Surfperch at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (AcZtS)

I saw Nipple Tooth open for Megadeth at the Fillmore in 2001.

Posted by: Pug Mahon,Turkey Volume Guessing Man! at August 19, 2018 01:00 PM (EhZNT)

115 Mary Ann would make you a sammy, Ginger would be making your best friend

Posted by: Skip at August 19, 2018 01:00 PM (lxZ71)

116
Now we probably have half the population of this country denying the moon landings ever actually occurred.
Posted by: Forgot My Nic


That's no moon!

Posted by: Deny Guy at August 19, 2018 01:00 PM (IqV8l)

117 Wait, I thought this is why they went extinct:
https://tinyurl.com/y7ytmrsp
Posted by: Bert G at August 19, 2018 01:00 PM (yzxic)


http://pbfcomics.com/comics/dinosaur-meteors/

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:01 PM (y87Qq)

118 110 It's a Hegelian/Marxist idea.

So, imported with those Frankfort School frauds, eh?
Posted by: Old Dude at August 19, 2018 12:59 PM (LGXGf)

Most likely. They also brought with them critical theory which gave us cultural Marxism which gives us bullshit like gender studies and intersectionality theory.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 19, 2018 01:02 PM (NWiLs)

119 But I hated to see her call one of her "enemies" the "Trump of science" and the later lamentation about global warming.

I was at an international scientific conference recently, and saw something that made me what to punch the speaker. He's a big name in the field, although overrated IMHO. Nonetheless, he started an invited talk by apologizing to the audience for Trump. It was the most unprofessional thing I've ever seen. I planned to tell him that to his face, but apparently he left before I could confront him.

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:03 PM (T6t7i)

120 I'm like a dinosaur nerd and have read much about the demise of the dinosaurs so I'll add my $2.27 (inflation). I'm suspicious of both the meteor/asteroid/comet theory and the massive volcanoes in the Deccan Traps theory for the same reason. Both depend on the idea of global cooling caused by particulates in the atmosphere. Both of these theories arose roughly contemporaneously with the nuclear winter anti-war, anti-nuke propaganda theory. Also, there are many unanswered questions about how some species lived and others died. Our little mammal rodent ancestors didn't need to eat but the dinos did?

The dino-killing asteroid theory is one of those not altogether uncommon scientific theories that are much more believed by the general public than by the experts. And why not? All it needs is Elvis, Princess Diana and Kim Kardashian in a UFO piloted by Bigfoot to have it all.

I suspect it wasn't any one thing that killed the nonavian dinos. Dr. Robert Bakker thinks it was diseases arising from different dino populations coming into contact what with continental drift. There is pretty convincing evidence that an asteroid crashed into or off of Mexico at roughly the end of the cretacieous and that may well have played a role as did the Deccan Traps and other factors.

Incidentally, creeper was asking for a good, light read in the book thread. I might suggest The End of an Era by Robert J. Sawyer, a syfy time travel in which two rival scientists go back to settle the issue of what killed the dinos once and for all and get a surprising answer.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 19, 2018 01:03 PM (+y/Ru)

121 115 - Mary Ann would make you a sammy, Ginger would be making your best friend

Go with Ginger.

Posted by: My Best Freind at August 19, 2018 01:03 PM (TiIoH)

122 Applied science uses mechanisms from basic science, when known.

And for centuries, the knowledge of how something worked was normally obscure. Today, we have a good idea on mechanisms of how things work.

The ultimate 'Why it works?" is theology.

Engineering is building something to use the applied science. JASWAG.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (hyuyC)

123 68 People have always longed for explanations to the point where they accepted crap explanations. That's one reason technology is so beneficial - it delivers us from the necessity of having to settle for crap explanations. It gives us a predisposition to expect a rational, deterministic cause.
Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 12:45 PM (/qEW2)
---------------------------
I don't think technology has that benefit for the vast majority of us. Quite the opposite.

Who was it that said that technology can advance to the point that it is indistinguishable from magic?
I don't remember but he was right in a sense.

All of those people out there with their fancy cellphones --- do they have any concept of processes behind them?
On a simpler level, all of those clowns agitating for electric cars --- do they think electricity comes from unicorns?


Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (0jtPF)

124 Nipple Tooth's rendition of I am the Eggman was the schnizzle.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (vV/gB)

125 ''The dinosaurs were killed by Trump's tax cuts.''

Is there anything he can't do?

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (jm1YL)

126 111
And I don't have a problem with the notion that a very large impact on one side of the Earth could send a shock wave through the core, and cause the crust to split at a weak point at or near the opposite side, leading to a flood basalt eruption.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 12:59 PM (LI7AQ)


That's what I think too.

The earlier--and much worse--Permian extinction is blamed on the "Siberian Traps". So far there is no evidence of an impact for that one.

But what causes these waves of intense volcanism lasting decades or centuries that are unmatched by anything in recorded human history?

I'll take "impacts" for $1000, Alex.

Posted by: rickl at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (sdi6R)

127 Dinosaurs chose to transition to birds. They be woke.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:05 PM (vV/gB)

128 Who was it that said that technology can advance to the point that it is indistinguishable from magic?
I don't remember but he was right in a sense.
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (0jtPF)


Clarke's third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:05 PM (y87Qq)

129 That's fantastic. I'm looking forward to your 40 volume dissertation on the life and times of the dinosaur bone what roamed and conquered the heavens and Earth for a millennium.
Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:58 PM (CdLX2)

Bone was part of a mososaur. It swam around in the late Cretaceous seaway that ran up the middle of North America, and noshed on yummy ammonites. There's yer dissertation.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:06 PM (LI7AQ)

130 Look at the Moon: absolutely riddled with impact craters. The Earth was right there with it. We don't see many craters on Earth because on-going geological processes erase them, for the most part, but as we get better at mapping both the surface and sub-surface, we are finding more and more of them, and some of them are huge.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 12:59 PM


I've read that if it was possible to magically reduce Earth from every direction to the size of a pool ball, it would be just as perfect in appearance.

The kind of stuff I'd ponder daily if I had a drug habit.

Posted by: Forgot My Nic at August 19, 2018 01:06 PM (LOgQ4)

131 I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?

Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 12:38 PM (CdLX2)

Well...https://youtu.be/imNRmIujsPk

Posted by: Bert G at August 19, 2018 01:06 PM (yzxic)

132 Margarita DeVille

Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 19, 2018 01:06 PM (hyuyC)

133 ...of which, Clarke's first law is kind of relevant here: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:07 PM (y87Qq)

134 If our core is full of molten lava and one side of the earth is slammed hard, wouldn't we just bounce around the universe? My knowledge of basketball says yes we would.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:07 PM (vV/gB)

135 On a simpler level, all of those clowns agitating for electric cars --- do they think electricity comes from unicorns?

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (0jtPF)

Well, of course it does! What are you, a unicorn denier? I guess you believe in the movement of a metal coil moving through a magnetic field? Ha ha ha! What a conspiracy theorist!

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 01:07 PM (9BLnV)

136 The KT impact reverberated through the whole planet, shock waves travelled across the globe to present day Indonesia, volcanoes resulted.

-
Women and minorities hardest hit.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 19, 2018 01:07 PM (+y/Ru)

137 I don't science. Or cook. Sunday afternoon threads have cut me right out.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 19, 2018 01:08 PM (lwiT4)

138 Allow me to wax philosophical a moment

Instead of "true" and "not true" I'd substitute "consistent with what we know so far" (i.e., not yet disproven), and "not true."

This is a good approach for science, because it is not, as Indiana Jones notes, the search for truth. It is the search for fact. You do not find truth from science, you find facts, which are subsets of truth (they are things which are true).

Science determines its conclusions using the "inductive" method. This is distinct from the "deductive" method, which Sherlock Holmes is famous for (although he used both); deductive is where you deduct -- remove -- data until you are left with what must be true.

Inductive is where you examine the data until you discover what is the most likely conclusion. You study until you find the highest probability of truth. Thus, instead of finding the only surviving truth, you find the greatest likelihood.

And that's all science can do, it never gives absolute answers, it never can offer certainty. It can only offer highest probability.

For example, ordinary water is made up of H20, right? Well probably: we haven't tested all water everywhere to know for certain. Its extremely unlikely (to the point of stupidity) that in any place there is water made up of anything else, but its not literally impossible that it could be in some circumstances (and there is "water" made up of alternate chemical combinations we know of (heavy water is made up of D20 for example).

If anyone in science or describing science claims that they have certainty or absolute answers, much less attacks you for doubting or disagreeing whatever the topic then they are doing bad science and at least to some degree don't understand the discipline. Yes, even evolution.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 19, 2018 01:08 PM (39g3+)

139 If our core is full of molten lava and one side of the earth is slammed hard, wouldn't we just bounce around the universe? My knowledge of basketball says yes we would.
Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:07 PM (vV/gB)

Or pool.

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 01:08 PM (9BLnV)

140 I've said it before, and here is one more time.

The tragedy of science is that a beautiful theory can be killed by one ugly fact.

True then, true today, and true tomorrow.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 19, 2018 01:08 PM (hyuyC)

141 128---Clarke's third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:05 PM (y87Qq)
-------------------
Thank you!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:08 PM (0jtPF)

142 Anonosaurus Wrecks, thanks for the book suggestion. I've never been a huge sci-fi fan but Teh Horde is slowly converting me. 'Preciate the rec.

Posted by: creeper at August 19, 2018 01:08 PM (atTnz)

143 ''I planned to tell him that to his face, but apparently he left before I could confront him.''

I suspect he left because he knew he would be confronted about that statement by someone or multiple someones. Cowards do that.

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:08 PM (jm1YL)

144 Nonetheless, he started an invited talk by apologizing to the audience for Trump. It was the most unprofessional thing I've ever seen. I planned to tell him that to his face, but apparently he left before I could confront him.
Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:03 PM (T6t7i)
----------

Ugh. It's disappointing to me how many stories like this we hear. If we conservatives managed to hold it together through 8 years of Obama ruining our country, they should be able to hold it together for the (hopefully) 8 years of Trump putting our country back together again.

Posted by: bluebell at August 19, 2018 01:09 PM (JJZzu)

145 For what it's worth, the "long-term volcanic eruption" is the one replaced by the "impact theory", and the Alvarezes (father and son) were mocked for years about their silly "asteroid fairy tale", until a 65 million year old 200-mile wide crater was discovered, but even then the theory was slow to become "accepted science".

Posted by: Spiny Norman at August 19, 2018 01:09 PM (YJhzI)

146 Wikipedia is usually fastidious about saying how endangered an animal is, rating it from Least Concern to Extinct. None of the dinosaurs are labelled Extinct, they omit the rating.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 01:09 PM (/qEW2)

147
Bone was part of a mososaur.



Hey, hey, hey. We're not judgy here.

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:09 PM (T6t7i)

148 ''Dinosaurs chose to transition to birds. They be woke.''

LOL

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:09 PM (jm1YL)

149 If we stopped believing in gravity, would we be able to float?

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:10 PM (vV/gB)

150 The Ice Ball Earth is a scarier possible event than the asteroid or volcano theories.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:10 PM (yQpMk)

151 If anyone in science or describing science claims that they have certainty or absolute answers, much less attacks you for doubting or disagreeing whatever the topic then they are doing bad science and at least to some degree don't understand the discipline. Yes, even evolution.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 19, 2018 01:08 PM (39g3+)

Does that include the hollow earth theory?

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 01:10 PM (9BLnV)

152 149. That was O'brien's point.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at August 19, 2018 01:10 PM (fA1SL)

153 Its good that science is reluctant to accept new theories, it should be deliberate and slow, testing and questioning and challenging. Jumping on a bandwagon too quickly is how you get ALAR scares and Global Warming hysteria. It might be sweet for funding but its not going to give you good results.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 19, 2018 01:10 PM (39g3+)

154 creeper, I also left you a suggestion in the book thread - the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. They're exactly like what you described you're looking for. They're old, but that's a positive for me.

Posted by: bluebell at August 19, 2018 01:10 PM (JJZzu)

155 Bone was part of a mososaur.
Hey, hey, hey. We're not judgy here.


Although it might explain why they're extinct.

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (T6t7i)

156 If women make $.80 for every $1.00 a man makes then why don't companies fire all the men and just hire more women?

Help me out science.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (/tuJf)

157 132
Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 19, 2018 01:06 PM (hyuyC)
-------------------------
I knew there'd be a helpful smarty-pants or two here!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (0jtPF)

158
I wonder what stupid resolution the Cuck-Led Senate will pass unanimously this week...

Hey, how about a Senate resolution stating illegal invaders "are not animals!"


Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (769qx)

159 I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?

-
One well known dino scientist is adamant that birds are dinos, not descended from dinos or like dinos, but dinos. Everything we use to define what a dino is is present in birds.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (+y/Ru)

160 137: Right there with you, grammie.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (KP5rU)

161 If gender is just a social construct why do people march for women's rights?

Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:12 PM (/tuJf)

162
On a simpler level, all of those clowns agitating for electric cars --- do they think electricity comes from unicorns?
Posted by: Margarita DeVille


I've recently been seeing a TV commercial for electric cars. Not a particular brand, just electric cars in general.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at August 19, 2018 01:12 PM (IqV8l)

163 I am not an animal!

Posted by: John Merrick at August 19, 2018 01:12 PM (NWiLs)

164 145 For what it's worth, the "long-term volcanic eruption" is the one replaced by the "impact theory", and the Alvarezes (father and son) were mocked for years about their silly "asteroid fairy tale", until a 65 million year old 200-mile wide crater was discovered, but even then the theory was slow to become "accepted science".
-----------------------
Well if gravity increased you would see a lot of squirting of earths innards and gigantic animals would be hardest hit. The earth would become more compact as well. Toothpaste tube theory says so.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:12 PM (vV/gB)

165
How about a Cuck Senate resolution stating the Russians did indeed meddle in the 2016 election!

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:12 PM (769qx)

166 If women make $.80 for every $1.00 a man makes then why don't companies fire all the men and just hire more women?

Help me out science.
Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (/tuJf)
----------

You're the CFO of your company, aren't you.

Posted by: bluebell at August 19, 2018 01:12 PM (JJZzu)

167 I am personally acquainted with Dr. Alvarez, he is a great guy, you all would like him.
His most recent book is a real gem, too.

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at August 19, 2018 01:13 PM (w7KSn)

168 I ain't never seen a dinosaur. Has anybody?

Kinda, there are some paleo fish that have been discovered, and bugs that are still around. But dinosaurs as we think of them Jurassic Park style, no. Even with the African stories.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 19, 2018 01:13 PM (39g3+)

169 One well known dino scientist is adamant that birds are dinos, not descended from dinos or like dinos, but dinos.

Uh-oh.

Posted by: Chicken farmers with an impeding sense of doom at August 19, 2018 01:13 PM (T6t7i)

170 Speaking of junk science, what is going to be legal endpoint for the RoundUp verdict? That one really seems like a no-facts judgement.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:13 PM (yQpMk)

171 >>You're the CFO of your company, aren't you.

I'm just asking questions.

Like if crocs aren't gay why do they look so gay?

Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:13 PM (/tuJf)

172
Would you like to buy some of my special velociraptor repellant? I have used it for years and have never seen a velociraptor.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 19, 2018 01:14 PM (LsBY9)

173 The Ice Ball Earth is a scarier possible event than the asteroid or volcano theories.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:10 PM


If you give some credence to 'Milankovitch cycles' of three separate cycles that occasionally inter lap in the worse possible way and pitch the planet into an ice ball, then the at-least two times it has already happened should keep you awake at night for the next hundred thousand years.

Posted by: Forgot My Nic at August 19, 2018 01:14 PM (LOgQ4)

174 Ugh. It's disappointing to me how many stories like this we hear. If we conservatives managed to hold it together through 8 years of Obama ruining our country, they should be able to hold it together for the (hopefully) 8 years of Trump putting our country back together again.



Posted by: bluebell at August 19, 2018


bluebell, that is why they are so upset. Trump and the deplorable flyover country are ruining their plans for utopia.

Posted by: Infidel at August 19, 2018 01:14 PM (pcnVL)

175 pep, it would be nice in such situations to have an opportunity to apologize for the *speaker's ignorant and inappropriate comments, and emphasize that in fact Americans present wanted to apologize to anyone present whose countries had suffered from the insanely misguided policies of the previous administration*.


But that's of course a question of context, etc.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 19, 2018 01:14 PM (QDnY+)

176
Anyone else still waiting for all these miracle cures derived from Stem Cells??


Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:15 PM (769qx)

177 what is going to be legal endpoint for the RoundUp verdict? That one really seems like a no-facts judgement.

Reminds me of the breast implant decision that wiped out silicone implants.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at August 19, 2018 01:15 PM (39g3+)

178
If women make $.80 for every $1.00 a man makes then why don't companies fire all the men and just hire more women?

MBA consultants and HR departments are working on how to do this.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (LsBY9)

179 \

You know what does perform like a miracle cure, tho?

HGH. But guess who prevents it from being affordable and accessible.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (769qx)

180 OMG, Bluebell! I completely forgot about Nero Wolfe. Thank you SO much for the reminder.

I've blown through my book budget for the month already but Wolfe will go on the top of the list for September.

Posted by: creeper at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (atTnz)

181 Anyone else still waiting for all these miracle cures derived from fetalStem Cells??


FTFY. There are already treatments for leukemia and some other diseases using adult stem cells.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (yQpMk)

182 173. Ancient Slavonaut Overlords triggered the last ice age. Environmental engineering to make the climate more comfortable for them. And to reduce the chances of overheating in their Space Ladas.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (fA1SL)

183 Go with Ginger.
Posted by: My Best Freind at August 19, 2018 01:03 PM (TiIoH)

Yup....and Ginger smoked. Which meant back in the day she was fast and loose and knew how to keep her pie hole shut.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (EoRCO)

184 Speaking of junk science, what is going to be legal endpoint for the RoundUp verdict? That one really seems like a no-facts judgement.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:13 PM (yQpMk)

Monsanto and Bayer should simply withdraw all their products from sale in California. No more Roundup, no more Bayer Aspirin. Let the farms be choked by weeds, and the city slickers be plagued with headaches and other diseases.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (LI7AQ)

185 >>>Well...https://youtu.be/imNRmIujsPkPosted by: Bert G<<<
Damn you. That's it! Elon Musk and I have a date with Mars!

Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (CdLX2)

186 179. It's the Icebacks and Fritz, ain't it?

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (fA1SL)

187 I like to look at the crows and robins traipsing through my front yard and thinking that they are the descendants of dinosaurs still living today. How nice!

It's a lot more convenient than having tyrannosaurs and brontosaurs stomping around.

Posted by: rickl at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (sdi6R)

188 Ugh. It's disappointing to me how many stories like this we hear. If we conservatives managed to hold it together through 8 years of Obama ruining our country, they should be able to hold it together for the (hopefully) 8 years of Trump putting our country back together again.

Posted by: bluebell at August 19, 2018 01:09 PM (JJZzu)


James Comey said that he was so ashamed of US immigration policies that he considered telling Irish customs officials that he was Canadian when he arrived back in June. Should've granted him his fondest wish and revoked his citizenship while he was overseas and let him find out at customs on the way back when he tried to enter the US without a visa.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (y87Qq)

189 somebody should ask keith richards what happened to the dinosaurs.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (KP5rU)

190 The Left makes the Rules. We gave them that authority.

The Left will continue to make The Rules about Science and Speech, etc. until we revoke their undeserved, unwarranted authority.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (769qx)

191 California seems to have laws only for people that have money and obey the laws.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:18 PM (vV/gB)

192 175
pep, it would be nice in such situations to have an opportunity to
apologize for the *speaker's ignorant and inappropriate comments, and
emphasize that in fact Americans present wanted to apologize to anyone
present whose countries had suffered from the insanely misguided
policies of the previous administration*.


That's one way to go, of course. Me, I'd lean more towards "everything that guy just said is bulls***".

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:18 PM (T6t7i)

193 ''One well known dino scientist is adamant that birds are dinos, not descended from dinos or like dinos, but dinos. Everything we use to define what a dino is is present in birds.''

I sat at an outdoor cafe on the sound side of the Outer Banks many years ago and watched a huge Blue Heron poking around for lunch. It's not a stretch of the imagination to see a dino in that particular bird.

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:18 PM (jm1YL)

194 You know what does perform like a miracle cure, tho?

HGH. But guess who prevents it from being affordable and accessible.
Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (769qx)


Big CBD Oil, that's who.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:18 PM (y87Qq)

195 I've blown through my book budget for the month already but Wolfe will go on the top of the list for September.
Posted by: creeper at August 19, 2018 01:16 PM (atTnz)
--------

creeper, check your library. Mine has all of them, or at least it seems like it.

Posted by: bluebell at August 19, 2018 01:18 PM (JJZzu)

196
There are already treatments for leukemia and some other diseases using adult stem cells.

Are they as effective as the miracle drug called Marijuana? That shit can do anything. Just ask any pothead.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:19 PM (769qx)

197 Speaking of junk science, what is going to be legal endpoint for the RoundUp verdict? That one really seems like a no-facts judgement.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:13 PM (yQpMk)

End result is lots and lots of cash for the tort attorneys to buy whores, yachts, fast cars and democrat politicians.

But I repeat myself.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 19, 2018 01:19 PM (EoRCO)

198 Reminds me of the breast implant decision that wiped out silicone implants.


I think this one is worse because the jury found that this plaintiff had his cancer caused by RoundUp. It's one thing to suggest that a chemical might be harmful to someone somewhere, that's what the EPA does all the time, and quite another to decide in this particular case it was so.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:20 PM (yQpMk)

199 James Comey said that he was so ashamed of US immigration policies that he considered telling Irish customs officials that he was Canadian when he arrived back in June...
Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (y87Qq)


Shit. Some 70's hippies called and they want their schtick back.

Posted by: DR.WTF? at August 19, 2018 01:21 PM (T71PA)

200 171---Like if crocs aren't gay why do they look so gay?
Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:13 PM (/tuJf)
-------------------------------
I know I am deviating from the scientific consensus, but.....
Crocs do not look gay to me.
Dorky, okay, but not gay.
Gay men, at least the ones I know, do not wear plastic shoes. And they wear expensive ones.

The science is not settled.
We need a generous federal grant for further study.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:21 PM (0jtPF)

201 Are they as effective as the miracle drug called Marijuana? That shit can do anything. Just ask any pothead.
Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:19 PM (769qx)

Heh. The only disease pot can cure is lackachoom, and even then, the cure is only temporary.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:21 PM (LI7AQ)

202 somebody should ask keith richards what happened to the dinosaurs.
Posted by: chavez the hugo at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (KP5rU)

They all OD'd on heroin. That's why Keith quit using.

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 01:22 PM (9BLnV)

203 Everything we use to define what a dino is is present in birds.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (+y/Ru)


And yet, everything we use to define a Dino 246 GTS is not present in my garage.

*sigh*

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:22 PM (y87Qq)

204 Yup....and Ginger smoked. Which meant back in the day she was fast and loose and knew how to keep her pie hole shut.


I also learned the hard way not to date girls who smoke or chew tobacco.

Posted by: Old Dude at August 19, 2018 01:22 PM (LGXGf)

205 Will do, bluebell. Kindle and Nook prices are pretty dear.

Posted by: creeper at August 19, 2018 01:22 PM (atTnz)

206
Notice how all the anti-fracking junk science seems to have disappeared? I mean, people were turning on their kitchen faucets only to be greeted with flames!


Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:22 PM (769qx)

207 193
I sat at an outdoor cafe on the sound side of the Outer Banks many years ago and watched a huge Blue Heron poking around for lunch. It's not a stretch of the imagination to see a dino in that particular bird.
Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:18 PM (jm1YL)


Yeah, I saw one fly overhead once. It was startling how big and pterodactyl-looking it was.

Posted by: rickl at August 19, 2018 01:23 PM (sdi6R)

208 Gay men, at least the ones I know, do not wear plastic shoes. And they wear expensive ones.



The science is not settled.

We need a generous federal grant for further study.


I suggest starting with the literature. In this case, Legally Blond.

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:23 PM (T6t7i)

209 Are they as effective as the miracle drug called Marijuana? That shit can do anything. Just ask any pothead.
Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:19 PM (769qx)

Have you heard about the synthetic pot in Connecticut that cured to death some users?

Posted by: Anonymous White Male at August 19, 2018 01:23 PM (9BLnV)

210 "Scientists" gave us the food pyramid which is making us fat. They also told us eggs were going to kill us, to substitute margarine for butter because butter was going to kill us, and to stop drinking coffee because coffee was going to kill us.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 19, 2018 01:23 PM (NWiLs)

211 There was an article here a few months ago that suggest that a very large percentage, like over 40%, of scientific 'studies' could not be replicated. That seems like a lot.
Posted by: Blutarski at August 19, 2018 12:23 PM (+Tibp)


That was biomedical science, not science generally. (I do not include social science, which is basically weaponized agitprop, as far as I can tell.) Biomedical science is notoriously bad. Physics (apart from climastrology) and chemistry do not have a problem. It's important to keep that straight.

"Glenn Begley, former head of research at Amgen and roundtable panel member, spoke of his March revelation that the biotech company's scientists were unable to replicate the results of 47 out of 53 papers that were seminal to launching drug-discovery programs. "This is a systemic problem built on current incentives," he said according to Nature."

https://www.the-scientist.com/the-nutshell/sciences-reproducibility-problem-40031

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:24 PM (YqDXo)

212 Science never provides proof, it cannot. In a very literal sense. It can provide falsification, or a null result. Most interpret the null result as being "not inconsistent" with the hypothesis under test.

The problem as I see it, having been in this world for the first part of my career, is that most non-scientists, and even a fair number of scientists mistake non-falsification for "proof". We "know" for example, that the climate has been changing over geological timescales, as we've found direct physical evidence, as well as consistent proxy evidence, of this. The "know" in this case is not absolute certainty. It means, that there isn't a strong enough case being made by evidence for an alternative explanation.

Note: this doesn't mean the earth is getting warmer. This merely means we have evidence consistent with the hypothesis that over geological time scales, the climate environment of the earth has changed.

Doesn't sound like global warming now, does it?

The earth may have once been a snowball. There is some data, not conclusive, that this is possible. Not enough to state without doubt that there is strong non-contradictory evidence which supports this hypothesis.

Really, politics drives science. Egos drive science. Being in good with the right teams, and coming from the right schools, and right professors as advisors for Ph.D and postdoc matter ... far more than what it is you study or how skilled you are.

For people like me, having left that rat race, I decided that if I have to put up with assholes, I may as well get paid well to do so.

But yeah, real science is messy. And clubby. And often wrong.

Posted by: Uncle Al at August 19, 2018 01:24 PM (t3YBx)

213 ''They all OD'd on heroin. That's why Keith quit using.''

You know the saying about what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? I think in Keith's case the maxim rings true times a hundred. LOL

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:24 PM (jm1YL)

214 James Comey said that he was so ashamed of US immigration policies
that he considered telling Irish customs officials that he was Canadian
when he arrived back in June...

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (y87Qq)


Fine. Strip his ass of U.S. citizenship and put him on a tramp steamer bound for South America.

Posted by: Bert G at August 19, 2018 01:24 PM (yzxic)

215 Here's some really fun science. The powers that be have been curtailing both recreational and commercial fishing in the northeast for years. Some of it was probably justified, some an overreaction.

But the net effect has been a surge in the fish stock. Fishing has been excellent this summer and it is not slowing down.

It's been equally good around Cape Cod. More fish -> more seals -> more sharks. This is not exactly a new phenomena.

And now the powers that be are freaking out about what to do with the large increase in the number of large sharks cruising the beaches looking for a hookup.

Here we go round in circles.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:25 PM (/tuJf)

216
Isn't it strange how "apolitical" Comey has become so political?
We were told by the Cucks that Comey was "stand up" and above politics.


Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:25 PM (769qx)

217 I know from 2nd hand knowledge that Monsanto's lawyers wanted to go to trial on the Dioxin/Agent Orange cases. They were confident that they would win, but the company chose to settle, allowing the idea of the perils of dioxin to gain currency.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:25 PM (yQpMk)

218 All of those people out there with their fancy cellphones --- do they have any concept of processes behind them?
On a simpler level, all of those clowns agitating for electric cars --- do they think electricity comes from unicorns?

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (0jtPF)


Heh. One thing that's puzzled me about electric cars - most people are not going to recharge them with windmills, they're going to plug them into an outlet. And then you'd get fossil fuels generating electricity to charge a battery to run a car. Wouldn't it be more efficient to just use the fossil fuel directly? Ie. a normal car.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 01:25 PM (/qEW2)

219
Can one of you fine gents or gent-ettes remind us of the exact quotes by the Republican Cucks vouching for comey and mueller?

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:26 PM (769qx)

220 Notice how all the anti-fracking junk science seems to have disappeared? I mean, people were turning on their kitchen faucets only to be greeted with flames!

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:22 PM (769qx)


Yep. Same thing with the anti-vaxxers and the silicone breast implant rubbish. Now onto Roundup, and the well-known public health menace, straws!

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:26 PM (YqDXo)

221 I think this one is worse because the jury found that this plaintiff had his cancer caused by RoundUp. It's one thing to suggest that a chemical might be harmful to someone somewhere, that's what the EPA does all the time, and quite another to decide in this particular case it was so.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:20 PM (yQpMk)

I think you make an equally sound (i.e. unsound) argument that the plaintiff was responsible for his own cancer because some inherited chemical defect in his genetic code made him uniquely susceptible to Roundup, and he should have known better, and not handled the stuff. Should a person with an allergy to bee stings become a beekeeper?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:26 PM (LI7AQ)

222 Think I'll go watch the hummingbird wars while I work up enough enthusiasm to shorten the blinds I didn't do yesterday.

Keep yer hand on it, Horde.

Posted by: creeper at August 19, 2018 01:27 PM (atTnz)

223 208---I suggest starting with the literature. In this case, Legally Blond.
Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:23 PM (T6t7i)
------------------------


Y'no, I'm not sure that scene would be allowed today.
In fact, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:27 PM (0jtPF)

224
Have you heard about the synthetic pot in Connecticut that cured to death some users?

I will not hesitate for a second to let you know that I laughed when I heard that story on Fake News.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:27 PM (769qx)

225 ''Fine. Strip his ass of U.S. citizenship and put him on a tramp steamer bound for South America.''

No, South Africa. Much better place for him.

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:27 PM (jm1YL)

226 A million times YES!!!


As soon as someone says "the science is settled" you already know that what they're selling you is NOT, in fact, science.

Let's not even talk about Global Warming - it's just TOO obviously a complete rejection of the Scientific Method, in it's entirety.

A better example is The Big Bang Theory. That involves one of those sciences where you can't really conduct a bunch of experiments to test out a theory. You'd need the TARDIS from the Doctor Who TV show to really prove THIS theory. Everything is an educated guess, based on observations of extremely indirect evidence.

The Big Bang is spoken of, and taught as, "fact". That literally makes it the creation myth of a quasi-religion. If we were only talking science, we would be calling it a theory - no more than an educated guess, and the current scientific consensus on the matter - one that could be changed (whether on minor details, or completely replaced altogether) at any time, if new information or different fancy figuring points in a different direction.

Pretty much anything in certain other sciences, like archaeology or geology are the same way. Even evolution could experience a significant revision.

In fact, blowing up a theory is the second-most exciting thing a scientist can do. It means that there's some new insight into the secrets of the Universe that they need to uncover. It's literally what they live for.

Posted by: Optimizer at August 19, 2018 01:27 PM (hOOi9)

227 I thought the new theory was an asteroid/meteor and the old theory was volcanoes.

Everything that was old is new again.

Posted by: Braenyard at August 19, 2018 01:27 PM (n3xLS)

228 Can one of you fine gents or gent-ettes remind us of the exact quotes by the Republican Cucks vouching for comey and mueller?
Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:26 PM (769qx)


Not an exact quote, but I remember Krauthammer using the words "standup guy."

Posted by: DR.WTF? at August 19, 2018 01:28 PM (T71PA)

229 218 All of those people out there with their fancy cellphones --- do they have any concept of processes behind them?
On a simpler level, all of those clowns agitating for electric cars --- do they think electricity comes from unicorns?

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 01:04 PM (0jtPF)

Heh. One thing that's puzzled me about electric cars - most people are not going to recharge them with windmills, they're going to plug them into an outlet. And then you'd get fossil fuels generating electricity to charge a battery to run a car. Wouldn't it be more efficient to just use the fossil fuel directly? Ie. a normal car.
Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 01:25 PM (/qEW2)


I made exactly this point to some gal on the Web ("so where do we get the electricity from to charge the car?"), and she chirped back with scorn, "From batteries, you nitwit!"

I weep for the state of science education in this country.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:28 PM (YqDXo)

230 -
One well known dino scientist is adamant that birds are dinos, not descended from dinos or like dinos, but dinos. Everything we use to define what a dino is is present in birds.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 19, 2018 01:11 PM (+y/

I heard that a long time ago.
Maybe the size of bones expands after 50 million years?

Posted by: JoeF. at August 19, 2018 01:28 PM (y8Foj)

231 ...watched a huge Blue Heron poking around for lunch. It's not a stretch of the imagination to see a dino in that particular bird.

----

Ever watch a flock of roadrunners stalking cicadas? They were "triangulating" where the sound was coming from. They looked like the "velociraptors" in Jurassic Park. Spooky weird.

Posted by: Spiny Norman at August 19, 2018 01:28 PM (YJhzI)

232 Creeper
See my 256 on the book thread for a recommendation.

Posted by: Vlad the Impaler, whittling away like mad at August 19, 2018 01:29 PM (cAmtF)

233 ''Think I'll go watch the hummingbird wars while I work up enough enthusiasm to shorten the blinds I didn't do yesterday.''

They are feisty little boogers aren't they? So much fun to watch.

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:29 PM (jm1YL)

234 I used to know a greenskeeper at a local golf course who said you can drink Round Up with no ill effects.



Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 19, 2018 01:29 PM (EoRCO)

235 I think you make an equally sound (i.e. unsound) argument that the plaintiff was responsible for his own cancer because some inherited chemical defect in his genetic code made him uniquely susceptible to Roundup, and he should have known better, and not handled the stuff.

Or, as Occams razor slices it, it was just bad luck.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:29 PM (yQpMk)

236 213 ''They all OD'd on heroin. That's why Keith quit using.''
------------------------
They OD on unknown potency of heroin. That's why Keith always bought medical grad Heroin in bulk. FIFY.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:29 PM (vV/gB)

237 Ever watch a flock of roadrunners stalking cicadas? They were "triangulating" where the sound was coming from. They looked like the "velociraptors" in Jurassic Park. Spooky weird.
Posted by: Spiny Norman at August 19, 2018 01:28 PM (YJhzI)


More like Jurassic Park used roadrunners as a model for their CGI.

Posted by: DR.WTF? at August 19, 2018 01:30 PM (T71PA)

238 Wouldn't it be more efficient to just use the fossil fuel directly? Ie. a normal car.
Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 01:25 PM (/qEW2)


Not necessarily. 25% is a decent thermal efficiency for an internal combustion engine burning gasoline. Fuel oil power plants can do 45%. But you lose some in T&D and converting from electrical to chemical to electrical to mechanical. But an internal combustion engine at idle is at 0% efficiency, while a battery-powered electric motor is pretty neutral.

So I don't know. It has to do with maths.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:30 PM (y87Qq)

239 James Comey said that he was so ashamed of US immigration policies
that he considered telling Irish customs officials that he was Canadian
when he arrived back in June...

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:17 PM (y87Qq)

Did he raise a peep about Obama's immigration policies?
Either way, this guy is a jackwagon of the highest (lowest) order. Can't figure out who the most odious one is--Comey, Clapper or Brennan...

Posted by: JoeF. at August 19, 2018 01:31 PM (y8Foj)

240
Wait, Roadrunners are real?

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:31 PM (769qx)

241 Closer ... Agnes.

Posted by: Science of the Lambs at August 19, 2018 01:31 PM (/qEW2)

242 The Big Bang is spoken of, and taught as, "fact". That literally makes it the creation myth of a quasi-religion. If we were only talking science, we would be calling it a theory - no more than an educated guess, and the current scientific consensus on the matter - one that could be changed (whether on minor details, or completely replaced altogether) at any time, if new information or different fancy figuring points in a different direction.

Pretty much anything in certain other sciences, like archaeology or geology are the same way. Even evolution could experience a significant revision.

In fact, blowing up a theory is the second-most exciting thing a scientist can do. It means that there's some new insight into the secrets of the Universe that they need to uncover. It's literally what they live for.
Posted by: Optimizer at August 19, 2018 01:27 PM (hOOi9)

Thing is, as far as the Big Bang is concerned, nobody is demanding that we modify our behavior to our own detriment because of it.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:32 PM (LI7AQ)

243 Wouldn't it be more efficient to just use the fossil fuel directly? Ie. a normal car.

Yes, although I suppose there might be an advantage if we had a method to sequester the byproducts like CO2, SO2, NO2 and CO generated at the central facility. That would almost certainly be easier than capturing them in individual sites, i.e. cars. Some methods for power plant gas capture exist, but I have no idea how efficient or expensive they are.

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:33 PM (T6t7i)

244 >>Roadrunners are real?


Yep. Goofy fuckin' birds. Just like you would expect them to be.

Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 01:34 PM (+upLV)

245 I wonder what Mrs. Comey is thinking while being mounted by a gigantic goofus?

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:34 PM (vV/gB)

246 I'm not sure what science is but I know it's settled.

Posted by: Little Lupe at August 19, 2018 01:34 PM (Tyii7)

247 Wouldn't it be more efficient to just use the fossil fuel directly? Ie. a normal car.
Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at August 19, 2018 01:25 PM (/qEW2)


Using wind-generated electricity to power cars would be fine, though, because at least the windmills will keep those turtles cool.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:34 PM (y87Qq)

248 Gotta run, but just wanna mention that destructive criticism has a valid part to play, in science as in life generally. People are busy, and often aren't going to spend much or any time on the first thing they've ever heard from (relative) nobodies. Keeps things from getting all flibbertygibbetty.

Posted by: BJM at August 19, 2018 01:34 PM (O74hG)

249
My patience, today, for bullshit and Totalitarianism is nil.


Some kid uploaded a vid of himself flying his camera drone and, sure enough, the internet police show up to tell "you can't do that!"

Sick of these fucks.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:34 PM (769qx)

250 If I were on a smoking cancer victims jury, I would have to acquit the tobacco companies, even though I believe smoking can cause cancer. The problem is that the defense need only show someone who has smoked for sixty years without cancer, and someone with lung cancer that never smoked. At that point, I could not determine whether this case was tobacco induced, and it's the actual harm part of tort law that would compel me.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:35 PM (yQpMk)

251 They all OD'd on heroin. That's why Keith quit using.''
------------------------
They OD on unknown potency of heroin. That's why Keith always bought medical grad Heroin in bulk. FIFY.
Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:29 PM (vV/gB)

And he got his cocaine from Merck.
But the real reason why Richard's is still alive is that he had "minders" who hung out with him--paid for by the Stones organization and the record company. It is said that he O]D'ed more than once---one time "fatally" and brought back. This may have happened in Toronto.

Posted by: JoeF. at August 19, 2018 01:35 PM (y8Foj)

252 "Glenn Begley, former head of research at Amgen and roundtable panel member, spoke of his March revelation that the biotech company's scientists were unable to replicate the results of 47 out of 53 papers that were seminal to launching drug-discovery programs. "This is a systemic problem built on current incentives," he said according to Nature."

-
SCIENCE DENIER!!!!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 19, 2018 01:35 PM (+y/Ru)

253
Have you heard about the synthetic pot in Connecticut that cured to death some users?

Everything old is new again. The Brits hooked the Chinese on opium. Now they're feeding it to a former British colony. Us.

And absolutely nothing is being done to stop it.

Trade war? Ask me if I give a fvck.

Posted by: Forgot My Nic at August 19, 2018 01:35 PM (LOgQ4)

254
Yep. Goofy fuckin' birds. Just like you would expect them to be.


So they go meep, meep!, too?

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:35 PM (769qx)

255 I wonder what Mrs. Comey is thinking while being mounted by a gigantic goofus?
Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:34 PM (vV/gB)


Current consensus is that the gigantic goofus was hunted to extinction by early hominids.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:35 PM (y87Qq)

256 I think this one is worse because the jury found that this plaintiff had his cancer caused by RoundUp. It's one thing to suggest that a chemical might be harmful to someone somewhere, that's what the EPA does all the time, and quite another to decide in this particular case it was so.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:20 PM (yQpMk)


So ... N = 1. It's generally impossible to decide definitively that something caused something in some one person, unless on exposure to it the person immediately keels over (and even that could be happenstance).

Looking at the structure of the compound in Roundup, it's hard to see how it would be carcinogenic. It consists of an ubiquitous amino acid (glycine) bonded to methylphosphonate, which is closely related to the ubiquitous phosphate anion.* Nothing in the compound looks like an obvious source of carcinogenicity (e.g., alkylating ability, large flat aromatic rings that can intercalate between base pairs, etc.)

* Note also the Roundup is sold as a concentrate because in dilute aqueous solution it hydrolyzes pretty quickly into those components.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:36 PM (YqDXo)

257 Or, as Occams razor slices it, it was just bad luck.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:29 PM (yQpMk)

Indeed. We are all targets in a cosmic shooting gallery, bombarded every day by high energy cosmic rays. Most of them go right through us without slowing down, but the odd one interacts with an atom, and destroys it. And in most cases, that event causes us no discernible damage. But if the destroyed atom happens to be part of one's cellular DNA, it could trigger cancer.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:36 PM (LI7AQ)

258 247. THAT IS NOT HOW THEY WORK! - Host of Entertainment and Earth-Conquest, close personal friend of Nixon.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at August 19, 2018 01:36 PM (fA1SL)

259 Al Sharpton.

President Trump should appoint him as Director of the Department of Education.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 19, 2018 01:37 PM (EoRCO)

260 If I were on a smoking cancer victims jury, I would have to acquit the tobacco companies, even though I believe smoking can cause cancer. The problem is that the defense need only show someone who has smoked for sixty years without cancer, and someone with lung cancer that never smoked. At that point, I could not determine whether this case was tobacco induced, and it's the actual harm part of tort law that would compel me.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:35 PM (yQpMk)

It must be a combination of smoking and genetic predisposition. Some people are just not hard -wired for a long-life.

Posted by: JoeF. at August 19, 2018 01:37 PM (y8Foj)

261 >> I used to know a greenskeeper at a local golf course who said you can drink Round Up with no ill effects.


Carl Spackler?

Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:37 PM (/tuJf)

262
btw, people will actually FINK on you if they see something they don't like on your youtube vids.

I don't mean they Fink on you to youtube; they Rat on you to the Feds.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:37 PM (769qx)

263 Communism will return us to the good old days of a flat Earth.

Posted by: Little Lupe at August 19, 2018 01:38 PM (Tyii7)

264 247. THAT IS NOT HOW THEY WORK! - Host of Entertainment and Earth-Conquest, close personal friend of Nixon.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at August 19, 2018 01:36 PM (fA1SL)


Nixon's pro-war and pro-family.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:38 PM (y87Qq)

265 Nothing in the compound looks like an obvious source of carcinogenicity
(e.g., alkylating ability, large flat aromatic rings that can
intercalate between base pairs, etc.)



Perhaps, but rats force-fed kg quantities of Roundup a day suffer very high mortality. Denier.

Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:38 PM (T6t7i)

266 Thing is, as far as the Big Bang is concerned, nobody is demanding that we modify our behavior to our own detriment because of it.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:32 PM (LI7AQ)

There are those who use it as a cudgel to beat those stupid Christ-tards and their idiotic belief in creation by their imaginary sky-friend.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 19, 2018 01:38 PM (NWiLs)

267 President Trump should appoint him as Director of the Department of Education.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 19, 2018 01:37 PM (EoRCO)


That's Department of Edumacation.

Posted by: Al Sharpton's spell checker at August 19, 2018 01:39 PM (T71PA)

268
Another thing:

Do you know people in the USA are now being charged with Hate Crimes and "civil rights violations" based on things they SAY?

I shit you not: A drunken rant can get you charged with Hate Crimes by the local police here parts of USA if they say include, say, telling a non-white person to "go home" or whatever.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:39 PM (769qx)

269 Perhaps, but rats force-fed kg quantities of Roundup a day suffer very high mortality. Denier.


Fun fact: lab rats are deliberately bred to be susceptible to disease, including cancers.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:39 PM (yQpMk)

270 Carl Spackler?
Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:37 PM (/tuJf)

Hahaha...close. The guy's name was Dan Brown if I remember right.

And he drank anything and everything....a total booze bag.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 19, 2018 01:40 PM (EoRCO)

271 What's good enough for Kyrie Irving is good enough for me!

Posted by: Little Lupe at August 19, 2018 01:40 PM (Tyii7)

272 If Roundup caused cancer, every rancher in Montana would be a walking tumor.

Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 01:41 PM (230eS)

273 Well, time for me to get on with my day. Later.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:41 PM (LI7AQ)

274 Everytime I read something like this, I think of Robin Warren and Barry Marshall.

In the 80's they were viewed as crackpots and lunatics, in 2005 they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine (yes Virginia, every so often the Nobel folks get something right) credited with the 1979 re-discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori which is responsible for most forms of stomach ulcers.

Posted by: undocumented illegal SMOD at August 19, 2018 01:41 PM (e8kgV)

275 210 "Scientists" gave us the food pyramid which is making us fat. They also told us eggs were going to kill us, to substitute margarine for butter because butter was going to kill us, and to stop drinking coffee because coffee was going to kill us.
Posted by: Insomniac at August 19, 2018 01:23 PM (NWiLs)


Hence my comment above re biomedical science.

The most toxic thing to which we're exposed every day?

Oxygen.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:41 PM (YqDXo)

276 Well, time for me to get on with my day. Later.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:41 PM (LI7AQ)


Waitwait... we can just... do that? Stop reading and posting and... go do things?

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 01:42 PM (y87Qq)

277 f I were on a smoking cancer victims jury, I would have to acquit the tobacco companies, even though I believe smoking can cause cancer. The problem is that the defense need only show someone who has smoked for sixty years without cancer, and someone with lung cancer that never smoked. At that point, I could not determine whether this case was tobacco induced, and it's the actual harm part of tort law that would compel me.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:35 PM (yQpMk)


Or as we tobacco lawyers used to say, correlation is not causation.

Posted by: LASue at August 19, 2018 01:42 PM (Z48ZB)

278 I used to know a greenskeeper at a local golf course who said you can drink Round Up with no ill effects.

Well, it will certainly kill a ficus if it's in there.

Posted by: Little Lupe at August 19, 2018 01:42 PM (Tyii7)

279 You can own Jerry Lewis' personal .30spl S&W Model 60 for just under $3k.

http://bit.ly/2N2EwzM

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:42 PM (yQpMk)

280 There's Physics. All the rest is stamp collecting.

-Dr. Sheldon Cooper going neener neener neener

Posted by: Vlad the Impaler, whittling away like mad at August 19, 2018 01:43 PM (cAmtF)

281 Thing is, as far as the Big Bang is concerned, nobody is demanding that we modify our behavior to our own detriment because of it.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:32 PM (LI7AQ)



Incorrect.

I would like you to watch our new season, so I can keep collecting on my $1M per episode contract for several more years.

So, snap to it, Oilboy!

Posted by: Sheldon at August 19, 2018 01:43 PM (9q7Dl)

282 274 Everytime I read something like this, I think of Robin Warren and Barry Marshall.

In the 80's they were viewed as crackpots and lunatics, in 2005 they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine (yes Virginia, every so often the Nobel folks get something right) credited with the 1979 re-discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori which is responsible for most forms of stomach ulcers.
Posted by: undocumented illegal SMOD at August 19, 2018 01:41 PM (e8kgV)


Yep. And the other one I think of is the downfall of the conservation of parity. It once stood alongside conservation of energy in the pantheon of physics concepts until an unfortunate experiment in 1956 showed that parity was NOT necessarily conserved.

It rocked the physics world. It was almost like someone building a real perpetual motion machine.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:43 PM (YqDXo)

283 Pretty much anything in certain other sciences, like archaeology or geology are the same way.

-
One of the funniest, most enlightening archeology faux facts concerned the Mayans. Numerous pictures showed them being showered by rose pedals so they had to be ancient flower children unlike our own culture of violence. New fact, those rose pedals are actually drops of blood flying through the air from their sacrificial victims.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at August 19, 2018 01:44 PM (+y/Ru)

284
Kofi Annan is mortadella.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:44 PM (769qx)

285 Or as we tobacco lawyers used to say, correlation is not causation.


in any particular case but, strong correlation can be the basis of policy. I could see banning the sale of tobacco based on the correlation of known health effects, while not being able to arrive at a guilty verdict in a particular tort.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:45 PM (yQpMk)

286 Perhaps, but rats force-fed kg quantities of Roundup a day suffer very high mortality. Denier.
Posted by: pep at August 19, 2018 01:38 PM (T6t7i)


The rats probably drowned in the stuff.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:45 PM (YqDXo)

287 I saw Ptolemic Epicycles open for Rocket from the Crypt at The Bottom Line back in 94!
Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 12:22 PM (zevYT)


I saw Ptolemic Epicycles open for Five Platonic Solds in the Kepler's Cosmography tour.

Some styles get dated pretty fast.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 19, 2018 01:46 PM (2K6fY)

288
btw, where's the UN and NATO on that American Christian being held in Turkey??


Thanks a lot, Turds.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:47 PM (769qx)

289 Pretty much anything in certain other sciences, like archaeology or geology are the same way.

Observational sciences across the board (archaeology, geology, astronomy, economics) have a fundamental and insoluble epistemology problem, because good research practice involves use of positive and negative controls, and those are, of course, impossible in those subjects.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:48 PM (YqDXo)

290 ''I would like you to watch our new season, so I can keep collecting on my $1M per episode contract for several more years. ''

I can honestly say that I've never watched an episode of that show.

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:48 PM (jm1YL)

291 Why do we keep the P in Ptolemic? Is this just to fuck with us?

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:48 PM (vV/gB)

292 Wouldn't it be more efficient to just use the fossil fuel directly? Ie. a normal car.

=======
External combustion at a power plant would produce less pollution than an internal combustion engine.
You also might be able to capture more energy from a given unit of fuel, although transmission loss through power lines probably makes that aspect a wash.

Posted by: Vlad the Impaler, whittling away like mad at August 19, 2018 01:48 PM (cAmtF)

293 /sock

Posted by: DR.WTF? at August 19, 2018 01:48 PM (T71PA)

294 Norwegian Sewer Rat > Have-A-Heart Trap

Settled science.

Posted by: Under Fire at August 19, 2018 01:48 PM (r9UYA)

295 Monsanto had a fire and explosion at their Milan chemical plant that included having workers swimming for their lives in a flood of concentrated dioxin. The company had more experience with the real effects on people than anyone else.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:49 PM (yQpMk)

296 274 Everytime I read something like this, I think of Robin Warren and Barry Marshall.

In the 80's they were viewed as crackpots and lunatics, in 2005 they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine (yes Virginia, every so often the Nobel folks get something right) credited with the 1979 re-discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori which is responsible for most forms of stomach ulcers.
Posted by: undocumented illegal SMOD at August 19, 2018 01:41 PM (e8kgV)


Yes, I remember when ulcers were caused by "stress". The science was settled.

Posted by: rickl at August 19, 2018 01:49 PM (sdi6R)

297 yes

Posted by: Ptomaine Poisoning at August 19, 2018 01:49 PM (Tyii7)

298 297
yes

Posted by: Ptomaine Poisoning


Heh.

Posted by: Phthalocyanines at August 19, 2018 01:50 PM (T6t7i)

299 I am old enough to have not been taught the "asteroid hit the Yucatan and killed-off the dinosaurs" theory in elementary school.

Fads and fetishes.

Posted by: Willowed JAS at August 19, 2018 01:50 PM (3HNOQ)

300 As far as Round Up goes, why don't we feed a bunch of it to Bill Kristol and see what happens?

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:50 PM (vV/gB)

301 LePetomaine!

Posted by: Willowed JAS at August 19, 2018 01:51 PM (3HNOQ)

302 ''I saw Ptolemic Epicycles open for Five Platonic Solds in the Kepler's Cosmography tour. ''

You did? I'm jealous. The ticket prices must have stratospheric

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 01:51 PM (jm1YL)

303 I am old enough to have not been taught the "asteroid hit the Yucatan and killed-off the dinosaurs" theory in elementary school.



When I was a kid, atoms looked like a solar system, not a probability cloud.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:51 PM (yQpMk)

304 285 Or as we tobacco lawyers used to say, correlation is not causation.


in any particular case but, strong correlation can be the basis of policy. I could see banning the sale of tobacco based on the correlation of known health effects, while not being able to arrive at a guilty verdict in a particular tort.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:45 PM (yQpMk)


This.

I think for policy considerations we also need to employ the much-ignored risk-benefit calculation. There's no need to smoke, and so policy can reasonably be to discourage it, but there is a need for transportation. We collectively have decided that the latter need is worth sacrificing ca. 50,000 lives per year where there is absolutely no doubt that autos were directly involved in those deaths.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:52 PM (YqDXo)

305
Wasn't there a salad dressing called Pfeiffer?

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:52 PM (769qx)

306 As far as Round Up goes, why don't we feed a bunch of it to Bill Kristol and see what happens?

He'd shit rainbows and dandelions.

Posted by: Ptomaine Poisoning at August 19, 2018 01:52 PM (Tyii7)

307 161 If gender is just a social construct why do people march for women's rights?
Posted by: JackStraw at August 19, 2018 01:12 PM (/tuJf)


Funny you should use the term "social construct". I was just about to bring up a discussion that I was subjected to recently where "science" had declared that race is merely a "social construct", and doesn't really exist.

It just sounds to me like somebody made up a new verse to John Lennon's "Imagine". Or planted a sign in the ground that says "Welcome to Earth. This is a Race-Free Zone"

Of course, the same "intellectual geniuses" who pat themselves on the back as they proclaim this bit of dogma are the first ones to call you "racist" - simply for being white, or something. They don't seem to feel the need to explain how there can be such a thing as racism, if there's no such thing as race. Theirs is a Self-Awareness Free Zone, where irony is rendered completely invisible.

But hey - if you don't buy it, you're an anti-science Troglodyte!

Posted by: Optimizer at August 19, 2018 01:52 PM (hOOi9)

308 >>>So they go meep, meep!, too?<<<

I was watching the robins in my yard hunting for worms. Fascinating. But none of them managed to pulled out a Jurassic-age sandworm.

Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 01:52 PM (CdLX2)

309 God said "let there be.." and BANG, there it was.

Posted by: Braenyard at August 19, 2018 01:54 PM (n3xLS)

310 Having fun reading the volcanoes killed the dinasaurs story. I am pretty sure that New Testament versions of hell are virtually identical to Old Testament version of hell.

Posted by: Willowed JAS at August 19, 2018 01:54 PM (3HNOQ)

311
Do you know people in the USA are now being charged with Hate Crimes and "civil rights violations" based on things they SAY?

========
Hallelujah! We've reached the promised land!

Posted by: Democrats at August 19, 2018 01:54 PM (cAmtF)

312 Cereal question - in Spainish or Latin is the word toothpaste tube gendered as a male or female?

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 01:54 PM (vV/gB)

313 Funny you should use the term "social construct". I was just about to bring up a discussion that I was subjected to recently where "science" had declared that race is merely a "social construct", and doesn't really exist.

OK. Let's dismantle the EEOC and all affirmative action programs, since they address something that doesn't exist. After all, there is no Department of Phlogiston, is there?

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 01:55 PM (YqDXo)

314 Responding to those asking about the size of animals: the largest dinosaurs were pushing 100 tons; adult blue whales can be almost twice as heavy. Land mammals never got that big, though there were some giant rhino things that went extinct that were about 20 tons.

As for the Permian extinction.... well, they did actually find a crater (a really huge crater) made at the right time to do it. It's just under the ice in Antarctica, which is how it escaped detection until this weird anomaly in earth gravity was mapped out... as I said, a huge crater.

It may be relevant to the "impact sparks eruptions on other side of globe" theory you are developing here that siberia and Antarctica are on opposite sides of the globe, kind of like the Yucatan and India. Of course, continents move around over that long a time scale, do who knows, but it's suggestive.

Posted by: Locarno at August 19, 2018 01:56 PM (d0Ce4)

315
*Lightbulb*

I'm doing laundry now and just had a brilliant thought. Instead of wasting Heat, the dryer exhaust should do a loop BACK into the drum and then go outside.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:56 PM (769qx)

316 I was watching the robins in my yard hunting for
worms. Fascinating. But none of them managed to pulled out a
Jurassic-age sandworm.
Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 01:52 PM (CdLX2)


I was planning on planting ginko and cycads in my yard for dinosaurs because I have been told for years by conservationists that if you bring the habitat back you can bring the populations back.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 19, 2018 01:57 PM (2K6fY)

317
I mean, it makes no sense to pump out all that HEAT outside when it could be used to help fry the laundry.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:57 PM (769qx)

318 in Spainish or Latin is the word toothpaste tube gendered as a male or female

Blasphemy. To the gallows with him.

Posted by: The Gender Storm Troopers at August 19, 2018 01:58 PM (Tyii7)

319 >>>Kofi Annan is mortadella.<<<

Isn't that a cheese? Or is that one of those Italian coldcuts David Brooks told us about? Mor- ta - del - la!

Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 01:58 PM (CdLX2)

320 Cereal question - in Spainish or Latin is the word toothpaste tube gendered as a male or female?

It's el tubo de whatever, isn't it?

Posted by: t-bird at August 19, 2018 01:58 PM (9uM40)

321 I really would like to see our justice system reversed whereby the judge determines guilt based on the facts and the law, and the jury decides the punishment, or lack thereof. This would still retain the jury-of-your-peers aspect of our system, and it might help with ignorant jurors deciding scientific validity.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:59 PM (yQpMk)

322 My favorite example of the proof / truth problem is all the old star maps that had the planets doing crazy loop-de-loop orbits because they were created with the premise that the Earth was at the center of the universe. They were amazingly predictive, yet completely wrong. I have a feeling quantum physics is in the same situation.

Posted by: Captain Carl at August 19, 2018 02:00 PM (OKwGO)

323 tube of toothpaste in Spanish is masculine.

Why are you asking?

Posted by: Kindltot at August 19, 2018 02:00 PM (2K6fY)

324 >>I'm doing laundry now and just had a brilliant thought. Instead of wasting Heat, the dryer exhaust should do a loop BACK into the drum and then go outside.


You'll have to deal with the moisture.

Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 02:00 PM (ika5Z)

325 ''It just sounds to me like somebody made up a new verse to John Lennon's "Imagine".

Good lord, I hate that song and as I don't want to get it stuck in my head I'm exiting to the community rec center to bicycle off my dinner last night. Regrettably, all the TVs will be tuned to CNN so I hope the bikes on the outside rim are open. Yes, I live in what I call a suburban SSR. I keep my political allegiances on the down low.

Posted by: Tuna at August 19, 2018 02:00 PM (jm1YL)

326 *Lightbulb*

I'm doing laundry now and just had a brilliant thought. Instead of wasting Heat, the dryer exhaust should do a loop BACK into the drum and then go outside.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 01:56 PM (769qx)
_____________________

It would be necessary to extract the moisture first.

Posted by: Braenyard at August 19, 2018 02:01 PM (n3xLS)

327 What the volcano advocates don't mention is the fact that one of the primary causes of volcanic traps is an asteroid impact so large that it penetrates the crust - such as the impacts that caused the lunar Mare. In fact, they are very hard pressed to come up with another plausible cause for things like the Deccan and Siberian traps.
The evidence for such a large impact is lost in the Volcanic flows that occur afterwards.

Posted by: An Observation at August 19, 2018 02:01 PM (le57Z)

328
The dryer can handle the moisture one more time around, I think.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 02:01 PM (769qx)

329 tubo de pasta de dientes.

Spanish think toothpaste is pasta.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 02:02 PM (vV/gB)

330 My neighbor is closing in on a new personal record. A continuous two hours and counting with that f'n turboprop leaf blower of his. My head is ready to explode.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at August 19, 2018 02:02 PM (Tyii7)

331 >>I'm doing laundry now and just had a brilliant thought. Instead of wasting Heat, the dryer exhaust should do a loop BACK into the drum and then go outside.


You'll have to deal with the moisture.



You could use it in a heat exchanger to preheat the air going to the heating coils.

I have a feeling that some dryers already do this.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 02:02 PM (yQpMk)

332 321 I really would like to see our justice system reversed whereby the judge determines guilt based on the facts and the law, and the jury decides the punishment, or lack thereof. This would still retain the jury-of-your-peers aspect of our system, and it might help with ignorant jurors deciding scientific validity.
Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 01:59 PM (yQpMk)

I don't know. Concentrated idiocy/vindictiveness/corruption versus potentially diluted idiocy/vindictiveness/corruption. People suck.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 19, 2018 02:02 PM (NWiLs)

333
The dyer's drum is hot; it can evaporate a lot of that moisture.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 02:02 PM (769qx)

334 I live in Central WA and am surrounded by the evidence of the giant lava flows that spread across the Northwest between 17 and 6 million years ago. These are puny compared to the Deccan flows. I don't think they were large enough for a mass extinction event although locally things were screwed. The basalt that erupted, from long fissures east of here was identical to the Iceland and Hawaiian flows of today. I saw, somewhere, don't recall where, sorry, that the Siberian flows actually started the break up of Pangea. I don't know if that is anything more than the result of a drunken geology party or not. To say that the science is settled is idiotic. I also thought the gratuitous swipe at President Trump was dumb. I understand her passion for her work but it is reduced in my eyes by the name calling on all sides. Get a grip people and try to act like adults.

Posted by: Winston at August 19, 2018 02:03 PM (wgCUV)

335 tubo de pasta de hombre

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 02:03 PM (vV/gB)

336
I have a feeling that some dryers already do this.

What do you mean, like someone traveled into the Future, read my idea here, and already implemented it?

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 02:03 PM (769qx)

337 Q: "How did you find Tutu?"
Reagan: "So-so."

Q. "How did you find Cenk?"
Cruz: "Sunk."

Q: "How did you find Kofi?"
Haley: "Lukewarm."

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at August 19, 2018 02:03 PM (Ndje9)

338 101
Argentinosaurus was the size of about 20 elephants...



from National Geographic

Posted by: MarkY at August 19, 2018 12:57 PM (8Vxlz)

Is this the Titanosaur?
I read that the Field Museum in Chicago is assembling one they got from Argentina, placing it in the spot Sue occupied. (Sue is being moved to another location.)

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at August 19, 2018 02:03 PM (8iiMU)

339 >>The dryer can handle the moisture one more time around, I think.


The system itself will need a place to collect and remove the moisture.

Posted by: garrett at August 19, 2018 02:04 PM (ika5Z)

340 So, the asteroid that hit the Yucatan CAUSED the volcanoes all over?

Posted by: Willowed JAS at August 19, 2018 02:04 PM (3HNOQ)

341 What do you mean, like someone traveled into the Future, read my idea here, and already implemented it?


It goes without saying.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 02:04 PM (yQpMk)

342 Actually a form of heat exchanger where the exhaust would pre-heat the fresh incoming air might help with that without running extra moisture into the system.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 19, 2018 02:04 PM (2K6fY)

343 I was in WA when Mt. St. Helen's went off. I can't imagine what the Yellowstone Caldera would do.

Posted by: Infidel at August 19, 2018 02:05 PM (pcnVL)

344 Re: Big Bang

Whenever you see people using the big bang as a cudgel against the religious, remind the supposed "science" zealot that guys like him opposed that theory to begin with because they claimed the priest who proposed it only did it to smuggle Genesis back into the academy and it's stupid to believe the universe could have actually had a beginning, you anti science simpleton.

Posted by: Locarno at August 19, 2018 02:05 PM (d0Ce4)

345 "... Can't figure out who the most odious one is--Comey, Clapper or Brennan...
Posted by: JoeF. at August 19, 2018 01:31 PM (y8Foj)"


I vote for Brennan.

He's theorized to have been the mastermind of the conspiracy, and he's a f-ing Communist. Just today I saw Giuliani being interviewed, and the subject of Brenner's clearance came up. One of the things he mention was how crazy it was to have an avowed Communist sympathizer working at the CIA back during the Cold War, much less ever put him in charge.

People still don't seem to grasp how we just had 8 years of a card-carrying Socialist in the White House, and that there are implications of that. Given Obama's admitted drug use and Communist associates, I seriously doubt if HE would have qualified for a TS security clearance, if he didn't automatically get one as POTUS. We're only scratching the surface on the implications of that horrendous mistake - a mistake created by the endless Leftist propaganda in the media.

Posted by: Optimizer at August 19, 2018 02:06 PM (hOOi9)

346 "gratuitous swipe at President Trump "

Dunning-Krueger in action.

Posted by: Willowed JAS at August 19, 2018 02:06 PM (3HNOQ)

347 While working on my refrigerator, I noticed that the drain pan for any defrosting melt water is placed so that the coil fan will draw air over it, and will just nip into the water, if it's full enough, and fling some into the airstream flowing over the condensor coils. This causes it to evaporate and you don't have to empty the pan very often, if at all.

Clever.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 02:08 PM (yQpMk)

348 I can't imagine what the Yellowstone Caldera would do.

I can imagine it. I have seen it on "the End of History" Channel.

Posted by: Willowed JAS at August 19, 2018 02:08 PM (3HNOQ)

349 I get into this with people all the time who claim to worship at the alter of science. Such people cannot distinguish a fact from a conjecture or a hypothesis from a theory or a law from theory or truth from fact. It is maddening to see these intelligent, but ignorant asses rigidly hold on to hypotheses and theories as if they were facts and laws. The media including entertainment media greatly contributes to this phenomenon. And don't even let me get started on the educated/indoctrinated morons who cannot distinguish the philosophical concept of absolute truth from fact because it is has been drilled into their collective heads that "there are no absolutes."

Posted by: Locke Common at August 19, 2018 02:08 PM (ABxG1)

350 Thing is, as far as the Big Bang is concerned, nobody is demanding that we modify our behavior to our own detriment because of it.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 19, 2018 01:32 PM (LI7AQ)


True. Really, the reason they put it forward as immutable "fact" instead of mutable theory is to give a big, fat "FU" to competing Christian creation myths.

Posted by: Optimizer at August 19, 2018 02:08 PM (hOOi9)

351 "So, the asteroid that hit the Yucatan CAUSED the volcanoes all over? "

That is the current thinking in some circles.
Seems to satisfy both theories.
But, I wasn't there.
Vic maybe was.

Posted by: navybrat, sometime commentater at August 19, 2018 02:08 PM (w7KSn)

352 Off, foul political sock.

Posted by: Vlad the Impaler, whittling away like mad at August 19, 2018 02:09 PM (cAmtF)

353
Clever.

Indeed.

Currently, my freezer is building up ice. I suspect the Drain Hole to be clogged.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 02:09 PM (769qx)

354 Let's see:
A big anti nuclear power bloc because of the China Syndrome movie.

Outlawing alar insecticide because Meryl Streep played a farmer and brought her bio chemistry expertise to a Congressional hearing.Destroying

Destroying the effective, affordable incandescent light bulb industry for some stupid reason.

The death of how many millions of people because of the BS from Rachel Carson and banning DDT.

Making utilities less effective and more expensive like freon, 'efficient' toilets, etc. Based on alarmist, unproven shit about water running out, destroying the ozone layer, or acid rain. (When is the last time you heard about acid rain in the news?)

The obvious lies about climate change that firgets about little influences like the sun. Not to mention the industry built around all those grants and studies. Of course a profit motive would never be an influence.

Plastic straws destroying the planet.

The government 'food pyramid' that is likely a major cause for so much diabetes.

And we are supposed to accept what scientists say as gospel and the government interference in our lives that result. I am so tired of this shit.

I'm old enough to remember when 'theory' meant a possibility not a fact.

Posted by: JTB at August 19, 2018 02:10 PM (V+03K)

355 The Horde is third:
https://tinyurl.com/ycezaqgb
Long live the Horde!
We love you ace.
Sexually and non-sexually.




Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at August 19, 2018 02:10 PM (8iiMU)

356 I also thought the gratuitous swipe at President
Trump was dumb. I understand her passion for her work but it is reduced
in my eyes by the name calling on all sides. Get a grip people and try
to act like adults.
Posted by: Winston at August 19, 2018 02:03 PM (wgCUV)


I remember the original roll out and following controversy about the K/T impact and watched reports and read articles, and hearing any follower of Luis Alvarez today accusing anyone who doesn't agree with them of grandstanding and being a showman over a scientist to be laughable.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 19, 2018 02:10 PM (2K6fY)

357 Infidel
According to my friendly local geology prof Yellowstone Hot Spot, as it's called now, has been around a long time. The current theory is that the hot spot is stationary and the North American Plate moves over it. Tracing back across the Idaho, Oregon and Nevada geography it's possible to see a series of caldera's attributed to that spot. The evidence sited shows that an eruption would destroy everything for a 140 mile radius. The resulting lava flows and gas emissions would do a lot of harm but probably not extinction level world wide. It's going to suck to be in the central basin in Wyoming for certain.

Posted by: Winston at August 19, 2018 02:11 PM (wgCUV)

358 dinosaurs were large because there was a higher level of oxygen in the air.

Posted by: mjc at August 19, 2018 02:11 PM (Pg+x7)

359 Palaeontology is just archaeology as applied to nonhumans.



Vox Day (a former programmer) is right that "science" is too broad a
term to be much useful. Useful science is engineering. Palaeontology is
about dead things and so isn't directly useful, in the same way knowing
about the Holocaust isn't directly useful.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at August 19, 2018 12:46 PM (N1ZXu)
Over the past few years I've come to use the term Natural Philosophy for the sciences one can't experimentally prove hypotheses with. The funny thing is, it's subject to change. Linneaen taxonomy is Natural Philosophy but with DNA analysis biological taxonomy has become science. Paleontology and Archeology have hypotheses that make sense and may be true but we can never really "prove" them by observation or experiment. Hence, Natural Philosophy.

Posted by: J. Random Dude at August 19, 2018 02:11 PM (FfJxM)

360 >>Currently, my freezer is building up ice. I suspect the Drain Hole to be clogged.

If it's a Samsung or Kitchenaid it's best to put it out of its misery with HE explosives and buy LG.

Posted by: Under Fire at August 19, 2018 02:12 PM (r9UYA)

361 Volcanoes are basically pimples.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 02:13 PM (vV/gB)

362
It's a Kenmore!


Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 02:13 PM (769qx)

363 >>It's a Kenmore!

It must also be destroyed.

Posted by: Under Fire at August 19, 2018 02:14 PM (r9UYA)

364 Let's see:
Posted by: JTB at August 19, 2018 02:10 PM (V+03K)


No list is complete without the new gas can nozzles, however tangentially related.

I hate those so much. Holy shit. So much.

Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 02:14 PM (y87Qq)

365

Nood??

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 02:14 PM (769qx)

366 364 Let's see:
Posted by: JTB at August 19, 2018 02:10 PM (V+03K)

No list is complete without the new gas can nozzles, however tangentially related.

I hate those so much. Holy shit. So much.
------------------------
Yep. We have ethanol to thank for that.

Posted by: Puddin Head at August 19, 2018 02:15 PM (vV/gB)

367 It's a Kenmore!


Which means that is a Whirpool.

Posted by: Grump928(c) at August 19, 2018 02:15 PM (yQpMk)

368 There is a picture of Keller. Kind of looks like a very old William Hurt.

But then, he is kinda old too. She didn't put on the pounds.

Posted by: Willowed JAS at August 19, 2018 02:16 PM (3HNOQ)

369 recently astronomers studying the collision of massive black holes in a far off galaxy reported that their calculations of the gravitational waves produced confirmed einstein's theory of relativity - they were hoping that a variance woulkd lead to a reassessment of the theory.

so, the theory of relativity is still open to challenge after 100 years of proven validity. but agw cannot be challanged.

Posted by: mjc at August 19, 2018 02:16 PM (Pg+x7)

370 >>>I get into this with people all the time who claim
to worship at the alter of science. Such people cannot distinguish a
fact from a conjecture or a hypothesis from a theory or a law from
theory or truth from fact. It is maddening to see these intelligent, but
ignorant asses rigidly hold on to hypotheses and theories as if they
were facts and laws. The media including entertainment media greatly
contributes to this phenomenon. And don't even let me get started on the
educated/indoctrinated morons who cannot distinguish the philosophical
concept of absolute truth from fact because it is has been drilled into
their collective heads that "there are no absolutes."


Posted by: Locke Common<<<

Whoa! You're harshing my buzz, brah!

Posted by: Fritz at August 19, 2018 02:18 PM (CdLX2)

371 344 Re: Big Bang

Whenever you see people using the big bang as a cudgel against the religious, remind the supposed "science" zealot that guys like him opposed that theory to begin with because they claimed the priest who proposed it only did it to smuggle Genesis back into the academy and it's stupid to believe the universe could have actually had a beginning, you anti science simpleton.
Posted by: Locarno at August 19, 2018 02:05 PM (d0Ce4)


That reminds me. The Big Bang Theory is actually such a terrible theory that is almost be rejected outright.

Think about it - it raises as many questions as it answers. "What caused the Big Bang to bang?" [that, embarassingly, practically invites a supernatural causation]. "How did something - and by 'something', I mean literally EVERYTHING just simply pop into existence, all of a sudden?"

It's kind of ridiculous. But don't get me wrong - I'm not some Creationist.

People accept it the same way they accept the religious explanations. They don't (and really CAN'T) understand it, and so they choose to believe what some authority figure tells them that the consensus of authority figures is.

Posted by: Optimizer at August 19, 2018 02:19 PM (hOOi9)

372 *nerd-hugs rickl and AOP*

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 19, 2018 02:19 PM (m54Mo)

373 Winston- I'm further than that, but by some models I've seen we would get a lot of fall out and shitty air for some time.

Of course, it's all speculation.

Posted by: Infidel at August 19, 2018 02:19 PM (pcnVL)

374 The article just reinforces my belief that ANY theory is declared valid if you fold, spindle and mutilate the data properly.
Shoot, the giant volcanic field in India was the result of a spread of photonic torpedo from the lizard peoples ship that missed it's target. The giant crater in the Yucatan is the crash site of the battlecruiser HRGDSTRN that lost maneuvering power due to phaser hits of the engineering warp pylons.
And I can prove it if I get to only use my interpretation of known facts.

Posted by: CDC at August 19, 2018 02:19 PM (e1mEI)

375 349 I get into this with people all the time who claim to worship at the alter of science. Such people cannot distinguish a fact from a conjecture or a hypothesis from a theory or a law from theory or truth from fact. It is maddening to see these intelligent, but ignorant asses rigidly hold on to hypotheses and theories as if they were facts and laws. The media including entertainment media greatly contributes to this phenomenon.

Posted by: Locke Common at August 19, 2018 02:08 PM (ABxG1)


The one that drives me wild: casting Jeff Goldblum as the archetypal scientist in every movie.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 02:21 PM (YqDXo)

376
Which means that is a Whirpool.

Which means it's a Maytag?

Yeah, Whirlpool owns a few brands, now.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at August 19, 2018 02:21 PM (HkNlg)

377 pasta de dientes.
------------------------
CREMA DENTAL

"Pasta" means....pasta! (Same as English, both borrowing from Italian of course.)

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 19, 2018 02:22 PM (0jtPF)

378 Infidel
I'm well west of the blast zone from Yellowstone but at the least, I think the air would be pretty solid from dust and gas eruptions. Maybe another little ice age action? Since no one alive, perhaps save the Ancient Slavonauts, were around to write stuff down, a lot of it is guesswork and hypothesis. Not even theory.

Posted by: Winston at August 19, 2018 02:22 PM (wgCUV)

379 Since there seems to be some confusion on this here, let's be clear:

1. A notion of how things might work, and hence a potentially useful line of future inquiry is a conjecture

2. A conjecture that has been firmed up enough to be testable experimentally is a hypothesis.

3. A hypothesis that has survived many, many experimental tests is a theory.

Laymen use "theory" to refer to any half-assed hunch or suggestion, and that's just inappropriate.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 02:24 PM (YqDXo)

380 Building up ice? How is the refrigerator part?

The bottom freezer was working great but the fridge was warm

Turned out that the little fan that blows the cold freezer air into the fridge area was stuck by ice.

Using the big honking Ice chest that I bought when the power went out during Hurricane Matthew, I took everything out.

I saw that the coils in the freezer had not been defrosted by the heater. I used a hair drier to defrost those coils.

Turned it back on. Been working great since. I talked to a guy the owns an appliance store. He was great. I thought I needed something. I explained the problem and the solution. He said it happens sometimes. But rarely. Nothing for me to do.

I will go back there if I ever need service.

Posted by: Willowed JAS at August 19, 2018 02:26 PM (3HNOQ)

381 It's kind of ridiculous. But don't get me wrong - I'm not some Creationist.

---

Perish the thought.

Posted by: SMH - Get right or get left at August 19, 2018 02:26 PM (ZCD4H)

382 Todd said, Truth is a truth, Mr. Mayor do you realize this is going to become a bad meme.

Giuliani replied, No, no Don't do this to me.

Todd said, Don't do truth isn't truth to me.

Giuliani said, Donald Trump says I didn't talk about Flynn with Comey. Comey says, You did talk about it. So tell me what the truth is if you're such a genius.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 19, 2018 02:28 PM (1UZdv)

383 One time we lowly lab techs were debating science vs religion as methods of understanding the universe. I argued for the usefulness of both. A young, just out of school colleague stated she would take science over religion because nothing in science was accepted on faith, it was all proven. I reminded her that it was all theory based on the current best understanding of the data, and that in fact in the end science was also a leap of faith. She wouldn't talk to anyone for the rest of the shift.

Posted by: Grannysaurus Rex at August 19, 2018 02:33 PM (lvhnO)

384 Science can't explain "why," the most important question of all.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 19, 2018 02:35 PM (1UZdv)

385 Late to the game, but will note that I have a new excuse for sick leave -- Paleo-weltschmerz.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 19, 2018 02:37 PM (kQs4Y)

386 379 Since there seems to be some confusion on this here, let's be clear:

1. A notion of how things might work, and hence a potentially useful line of future inquiry is a conjecture

2. A conjecture that has been firmed up enough to be testable experimentally is a hypothesis.

3. A hypothesis that has survived many, many experimental tests is a theory.

Laymen use "theory" to refer to any half-assed hunch or suggestion, and that's just inappropriate.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara, now with an added spark of divinity at August 19, 2018 02:24 PM (YqDXo)


You left out:
4. Unless it's about Global Warming, in which case we skip straight to "Settled Science", without bothering with all those other inconveniences. Note that there's no such thing as "Settled Science" outside of climatology.

Posted by: Optimizer at August 19, 2018 02:40 PM (hOOi9)

387 I sat at an outdoor cafe on the sound side of the Outer Banks many
years ago and watched a huge Blue Heron poking around for lunch. It's
not a stretch of the imagination to see a dino in that particular bird.


Years ago in Florida I went to eat at an outdoor table and there was a Blue Heron that went from table to table. It wouldn't take any thing off of plate - but if you put some of your food on the table it would eat that. Very intelligent eyes that would study you to see if you were likely to feed it.

Posted by: An Observation at August 19, 2018 02:42 PM (le57Z)

388 384 Science can't explain "why," the most important question of all.
Posted by: Ignoramus at August 19, 2018 02:35 PM (1UZdv)


That's because there is no "why"- it actually IS a sort of "social construct". "Why" suggests "purpose", and purpose suggests the involvement of thinking being doing something for a REASON. Most of the Universe is simply there, and everything within most of it happens without human interaction - there's no "reason" to it because there's nobody even there.

So the all-important "Why" question isn't important at all, and is in fact actually completely irrelevant. If that makes you feel small, irrelevant, and pointless, than you just need to re-adjust your thinking about what makes one small, irrelevant and pointless.

Posted by: Optimizer at August 19, 2018 02:49 PM (hOOi9)

389 I have a new excuse for sick leave -- Paleo-weltschmerz.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 19, 2018 02:37 PM (kQs4Y)


Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 02:49 PM (y87Qq)

390 Posted by: hogmartin at August 19, 2018 02:49 PM (y87Qq)

I have people on the inside. They will type this into the sign-out log.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 19, 2018 02:51 PM (kQs4Y)

391 In the end, it will be earthquakes and ravenous jaguars that get us all. The Aztecs knew.

Posted by: Kate Winslet's boobs at August 19, 2018 03:04 PM (jq0/v)

392 I took Rocks for Jocks from Dewey MacLean at Virginia Tech circa 1985. He strongly advocated volcanic activity and mantle de-gassification as the mechanism for the dinosaur dieoff. Alvarez et al. tried to convince the geology department at VT to deny him tenure for that. Alvarez was just an example of the kind of nasty backbiting you find in academia, even the sciences.

Posted by: joncelli of the Tribe of the Drunken Moose at August 19, 2018 03:12 PM (1FhAQ)

393 Keller is merely looking to replace one giant smoking gun, the asteroid in Yucatan, with another giant smoking gun, volcanoes, to explain in one simple swoop why dinosaurs went extinct.

I see Anosaurus Wrecks has mentioned Robert T. Bakker, Ph.D already. Before buying off on Keller's opinion read Bakker's book The Dinosaur Heresies which was originally published in 1986. The area of interest starts in page 432 of my 1992 Zebra edition.

Bakker cites the Judith River/Scollard/Edmonton-Hell Creek Formations and the types of fossil dinosaurs found in each and how there was a decline in the number of species. He talks how in the Judith River formation there were three different duck-bill dinosaurs to be found, but in the Scollard and Edmonton-Hell Creek formations, only one is found and in fact by Edmonton-Hell Creek Triceratops was literally the big kid in the fossil record with 70-80% representation. Bakker talks about three years of study of other records across the globe that show the same decline happening as the environment itself evolves from being supportive of such fauna to being detrimental, he even mentions the the Gorgons who along with 90% of life went extinct 250 million years ago.

While the native populations were in decline on land, the seas were also changing and marine dinosaurs fared equally as badly. Some of the shallow seas became land bridges which allowed distinct species of dinosaurs to mingle, suddenly creatures only seen in Mongolia were in North America because of the Bering Land Bridge. And like Cortez meeting the Aztecs the newcomers brought diseases the locals had no defense against while the local land might not have defenses against the newcomers who's population then explodes much like rabbits in Australia.

So according to Bakker, be it asteroid or volcano, either was merely the denouement to a drama that had been heading to an end for millions of years.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at August 19, 2018 04:17 PM (y4EGh)

394 CBD, my training reflects that of your friend's.

I remember my profs drilling into us that you can only "reject" or "fail to reject" the hypothesis. They made if very clear that you never "accept" the hypothesis and provided several examples/case studies. The word "accept" was verboten in those stats/scientific method classes.

I'm sure most of them were liberal but they held onto fundamental science theory (also helps that the school is in conservative country). How times have changed.

Posted by: batter at August 19, 2018 06:27 PM (6k/jH)

395 The asteroid nay have triggered the volcanos

Posted by: Comrade at August 19, 2018 10:25 PM (dd7EE)

396 Thomas Kuhn wrote about this 56 YEARS AGO!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions

Posted by: a bee ee? at August 19, 2018 11:21 PM (YgnPL)

397 Test

Posted by: River rock at August 19, 2018 11:59 PM (j4sAj)

398 I personally think it was both the asteroid and subsequent tectonic upheaval caused by the shock waves from the impact. The ringing bell theory.

Posted by: RobC at August 20, 2018 02:07 AM (b4jb6)

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