A few Saturday morning links

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Saturday, February 2. 2013

A few Saturday morning links

I don't know how Theo got this pic of my new girlfriend on my fishing boat last summer, in Southington CT harbor. The cool, smart chicks seem to like me. I have no idea why.

The end of premarital sex

When Two People Click - Finding a mate used to be a long quest to uncover a few worthy people, but dating sites now offer hundreds of potential mates at a keystroke.

Students' evaluations of profs: The Dr. Fox Effect

When Did Humans Come to the Americas? Recent scientific findings date their arrival earlier than ever thought, sparking hot debate among archaeologists

Mr. New York. Ed Koch, 1924–2013

Ex-NASA Scientists Conclude: ‘…no convincing physical evidence to support the man-made warming’

Selective Catholic-bashing

Evil is human, and real

The placebo phenomenon

The Obsession with Social History

The income tax: A century of bigger government - The Sixteenth Amendment was ratified 100 years ago this Sunday.

Obama vs. Fox News -- behind the White House strategy to delegitimize a news organization

The myth of “collective action

British gangs use flare guns now because they can’t find real ones

Climatologist Matt Ridley:

I have come to the conclusion that current energy and climate policy is probably more dangerous, both economically and ecologically, than climate change itself. This is not the same as arguing that climate has not changed or that mankind is not partly responsible. That the climate has changed because of man-made carbon dioxide I fully accept. What I do not accept is that the change is or will be damaging, or that current policy would prevent it.

Draft IPCC Report Shows 20 Years Of Overestimated Globull Warming

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:57 | Comments (21) | Trackback (1)

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Tracked: Feb 03, 10:09

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Southington Harbor? Is that over near Milldale School, where I went to Kindergarten? I remember that Miss Ashley was indeed very beautiful, but now I see she has aged gracefully as well.

#1 Assistant VIllage Idiot (Link) on 2013-02-02 10:03 (Reply)

I've been saying the same thing about climate change and the global warming sky id falling alarmists for years. The people who are proposing such drastic changes often have ulterior motive$ for saving humanity from itself .. the others who think that changing current policy are for the most part sheep and think that humans can 'fix' anything in the world .. like climate change, the drug war, the war on poverty ... etc.

#2 Tom on 2013-02-02 10:52 (Reply)

Why I think there's much "the Science is Settled" when discussing who was here first.

re: the British experience in banning weapons, if so successful why are none of the chattering class proposing same? Whats proposed sounds more like a band aid over what they describe as a deep, wide festering wound that needs excision (amend the 2nd, mass buy backs, confiscations, etc), antibiotics, with amputation as a fall back.

think I'm getting old, I look at the picture and think, "Her mom would be interesting to meet".

#3 walt moffett on 2013-02-02 12:02 (Reply)

Ain't it the truth. Somehow the most attractive men keep getting older and older. I look at beautiful young men with a shock now, thinking, "He's just a child" or even "He looks like a girl."

#3.1 Texan99 (Link) on 2013-02-02 16:27 (Reply)

Old? I'm so old, it takes me all night to do what i used to do, all night!

#3.1.1 buddy larsen on 2013-02-02 18:57 (Reply)

Dear Leader, the Skeeter

the white house has released a photo of the dear leader "shooting skeet". skeet, being the least of the shotgun sports (perfect scores have been shot blindfolded), is a natural for him.

nevertheless, the angle of the gun is too low for skeet, from that angle one of the skeet houses should be visible, and the lower barrel is missing a choke.

its a badly done publicity photo.

#4 wirraway on 2013-02-02 13:01 (Reply)

I was wondering the same thing about the angle of the gun.

#4.1 feeblemind on 2013-02-02 15:34 (Reply)

The News Junkie: Climatologist Matt Ridley

Believe Ridley is a biologist, not a climatologist. In any case, he merely waves away the evidence for climate change, for instance, to make his claim about the heat island effect requires ignoring multiple studies on the subject.

QUOTE:

Fox News: Draft IPCC Report Shows 20 Years Of Overestimated Globull Warming

The chart doesn't show model predictions, as they have been realigned to 1990, a warmer than average year. Realign to other years, and the fit will change. (The article didn't include the chart description.)

#5 Zachriel on 2013-02-02 13:17 (Reply)

NASA scientists were big on a "coming ice age" a few years ago and demanded we spend bajillions of dollars to save the planet. now they've totally changed their minds, and its global warmin', and we're supposed to spend bajillions of dollars to save the planet.

in fact, if you carefully reviewed the weather patterns for the period 23,345 BC to 23,325 BC, you'll see that hourly temps perfectly line up with those in the twenty years preceding 1985. this is TRVTH.

all in all, I prefer the ice age coming in summer, and global warmin' in winter.

this weather stuff is kewl, except when its hott.

if we can only causally link firearms to weather changes, we'd be unstoppable.

#5.1 wirraway on 2013-02-02 13:58 (Reply)

Z inspired me to look Ridley up. I find to my surprise that he's a Viscount, and a much more thorough-going libertarian than I ever dreamed from reading his very enjoyable books. His academic training was in zoology. He has been writing critically and analytically about climate change for 25 years, but it is not a field in which he himself does research. While not a climatologist, he is much better versed in the state of climate science than most who try to write about it.

#5.2 Texan99 (Link) on 2013-02-02 16:38 (Reply)

I found Dr. John Ioannidis while researching the problem of medical studies, but his efforts probably apply to most research. “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science” is worth consideration by anyone who is involved in such work as he suggests that 41 percent of interventions claimed to be effective were proven "wrong or significantly exaggerated" when retested.

"...as long as careers remain contingent on producing a stream of research that’s dressed up to seem more right than it is, scientists will keep delivering exactly that."

#5.3 jma on 2013-02-02 18:14 (Reply)

Oh man. That Wash Post article about pistols in Britain makes me despair (further) that anybody in the press is capable of thinking about an issue if their politics or emotions get anywhere near it.

I mean for crying out loud, go ahead and grant in good faith that the findings trumpeted are substantially accurate and really do mean exactly what the Post wants them to mean: if you get rid of all firearms of a particular kind then deaths caused by that kind of firearm decrease. Take that gun wingers!!

Both pieces, the article linked and the Post article it refers too, are so devoid of context they're meaningless. And you don't have to know anything about the issue to see it.

First, you've got to account for apples / oranges. Different countries. Population size, dispersal. Suicide vs. Murder. Doable, but mostly undone.

Second, might be useful to know say, what the overall murder rate has been in Britain and what it is now. So Death By Gun decreased. What about the murder rate? Or rate of violent crime? Maybe compare that in per capital terms to U.S. rates?

Let's say the murder rate stayed the same. If so, what weapons were being used, if not guns? It might be interesting to know!!

Or it might be interesting to compare the overall percentage of gun ownership amongst the population by type, kind, etc. Just how big a chore are we talking about, getting rid of all pistols? Whatever Britains will put up with, just how intrusive a State are we willing to have?

What were the gun laws in Britain before the '96 (IIRC) massacre? Did they indicate that anything short of confiscation worked substantially as well? Were the firearms used in that shooting owned by the shooter in compliance with then current laws?

Sheesh.

#6 T.K. Tortch on 2013-02-02 17:29 (Reply)

Thanks for writing the sort of reply I pondered writing.
If I'm not mistaken, the findings trumpeted are:
1. If firearms are banned then criminals are perfectly capable of making them from scratch or converting other (currently legal) objects into functional firearms.
2. Criminal gangs have libraries of firearms that are loaned out as needed.
3. The press likes to compare apples with carburetors.
4. Australia had to add 1% to their income tax for their Compulsory Purchase of banned firearms. The US federal government would need to spend what? ($1.5e+12?)
5. The natural right (and duty) of defense of self and others is banned.
6. The right of the people to be secure in their houses and effects against inspection and search without warrant is not as important to society as the 1400 separate "powers of entry" held by the police and other government agencies in the UK. After all, your houseplants might have bugs on them...
7. If you apply for a shotgun certificate, (which is "shall issue" in the UK), the police will interrogate your extended family, neighbors, and business associates. They will insinuate that you are perhaps "not right int he head", and ask if they have noticed anything odd about you.
8. In the decade following the ban, gun crime doubled. Once policing programs like "Operation Trident" got going, with a focus on stopping gang violence, gun crime began to reduce back to the levels it was at before the gun ban.

#6.1 Douglas2 on 2013-02-02 19:08 (Reply)

The cool, smart chicks seem to like me. I have no idea why

Oh, i'm pretty sure it's your sense of humor

#7 buddy larsen on 2013-02-02 19:04 (Reply)

Now dear Buddy--be kind. Older daughter asked me the other day what it is that we have. My answer was instant:
the guy lights up the room,
lights up my life
and most of my anatomy
just by walkin in the room.
What the hell else can you expect one man to do?!
Most of all is the wit--knowing that if I walk into the room and deliver some astounding observation, or comment, as I turn to walk out he IS GONNA lay me out cold!
As I am sure you know--you seem to be the same kind of man. The kind of man who learned a long, long time ago--a good woman loves your good wit! Best aphrodiasiac in the world!

#8 apple pie on 2013-02-02 20:25 (Reply)

Heck, AP, you've got me pegged, alright --women are literally beating down my door --sometimes it's just too much, and i have to unlock it and let some of 'em out

:-/

#8.1 buddy larsen on 2013-02-02 23:03 (Reply)

NJ, if that was your girlfriend you wouldn't be out scouring the web for good links. Just sayin'....

#9 Jephnol (Link) on 2013-02-03 05:46 (Reply)

--naw, he's got an internet oyster bar right around the corner from her place --He was there yesterday, slurping down another dozen oysters and a double pitcher of warm milk while interviewing his table mates --several jewelers, florists, hot tub contractors, and Chapter Seven specialists. "You gotta watch these oysters," he was overheard telling them, "some days only the first eight or ten really work."

#9.1 buddy larsen on 2013-02-03 08:38 (Reply)

"No, seriously, you can ask my Kama Sutra trainer," he went on, nodding across the room toward a turbaned Sherpa festooned with a bandoleered starter pistol, referee whistles in bass and alto, stopwatch, and brass Buddhist prayer bugle, animatedly engaged in persuading the bemused-looking proprietor that on the basis of being the bastard grand-nephew of Sir Edmund Hillary, he deserved a beer ''on the house".

#9.1.1 buddy larsen on 2013-02-03 09:59 (Reply)

Buddy...that's your girlfriend, isn't it. There is so much detail in your narrative I'm lead to believe you're advancing NJ's subterfuge whilst simultaneously disguising the fact that you are a cause célèbre. I'm very good at seeing through these things. You see, only a Kama Sutra trainer from Texas would have a prayer bugle, and he's obviously Indian, not Nepali, as he's a turban-wearing Hindu, which is another fine indicator he's also from the great state of Texas. My friend, there is no shame in having a girlfriend with such common features. I'm sure she's a very nice woman, given to acts of charity and virtue. Don't play these games anymore. Own up to your greatness. We won't respect you any less!

#9.1.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2013-02-03 12:01 (Reply)

Re. the pix, an actual beauty no doubt. Great eye candy, thanks. I wonder however, has NJ caught that Manti Te'o thing?

#10 Westoakland on 2013-02-03 08:14 (Reply)

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Saturday, February 2. 2013

A few Saturday morning links