Posts by Alan P
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Alan P......are you from Paeroa?
Nope, from Auckland... West... Glen Eden originally.
But I'm almost normal, I promise. -
Thanks Russell. And thanks everyone else.
I was a lurker for a long time on PA. I started reading right from the beginning, and was a Bfm Hard News listener before that. I'm probably still something like 90% lurker. What can I say? I like to read.
I've taken a lot of good things from Hard News and Public Address over the last few years. One thing that stands out for me around here is the firm grasp of reality displayed by most people.
I love that the internet has enabled this type of communication. And for free!
It's a beautiful thing.. -
Mark, is there some reason your stuff news item link actually points to the lyrics for "Beds are Burning" by Midnight Oil?
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I like Micael.
It's the very incorrectness of it which makes it appropriate in this case.How bout making it REALLY obvious, and always referring to it as Micael Lhaws?
I think you'll find that Lhaws' first name is actually spelled "Beelzebub".
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I'm sorry, but "Always blow on the pie" isn't a word. Therefore for me it was disqualified.
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Just been reading the reader comments on a Stuff story about Copenhagen, here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3150804/New-Zealand-gets-climate-fossil-awardAmongst the intelligent discourse about the article (something like 95% of it "authoritatively" debunking climate change), is this comment:
"Claudio #160 10:37 am Dec 11 2009
It's quite impossible to have carbon emissions here in Welly, with winds around 60 km/h the whole year, I would bet that there is no carbon emissions here."Ok, now I officially despair...
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Okay, thanks to those that posted links specific to the questions I asked. Some fascinating stuff.
Thanks Andrew C for the link to the Willis Eschenbach blog, with all the bollocks about the Darwin temperature records. What a nutter. I skimmed through some of the comments, and was slightly appalled to see that the vast majority of his readers seem to agree wholeheartedly. There I go, being surprised at idiocy again, I've got to stop that.
I know it's a pure troll, but I couldn't stop myself posting the following in his comments:
"So, you guys all know better than thousands of actual scientists? Global warming is actually not happening?
So...
Why are all those glaciers melting?
Why have the sea levels risen?
What has happened to the billions of tons of CO2 that HAS been pumped into the atmosphere by human activities?
Would you dispute the science that shows CO2 has a warming effect in the atmosphere?
Would you dispute that there is now significantly more CO2 in the atmosphere than prior to the industrial revolution?
So... according to you denial types, somehow, maybe by magic, the CO2 that humans put into the atmosphere doesn't add any additional warming.
Well, that's okay then. Lets all just assume everything is ok, and not take any action.
Brilliant. I feel much better with you geniuses around."I know, it's a bit juvenile, and very probably a complete waste of time, but I couldn't resist.
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LOL. Ah well, nice to know it's not just me. Nice also to have oasis's (oasii?) like PA where sense is actually spoken more often than not. Such forums seem to be few and far between these days.
You're right of course - showing people where they are wrong has never been popular.My problem is that I have trouble letting bullshit go by without calling it. Maybe I should just let go, and drift into a warm, calming haze of conspiracy theories, junk science, and right-wing politics.
Hey - maybe then my calls would be welcome on talkback radio!Maybe the trend for denial will come full circle, and we'll start seeing a fashion for "denier denial" becoming popular. Kind of a "too smart to be a denier type of thing."
Too much to hope for? -
Thanks Paul. I've read a number of Monbiots articles, but I hadn't seen that one. Very interesting indeed.
Thanks Danielle. I had actually found that page at some point previously too. It's just that people with denialist-fever don't seem to recognise the difference between a smart science website like scepticalscience, and the "other" kind of information (you know - bollocks). I guess any hope that denial types will give credence to any source which is actually reliable, even the most well-recognised bodies like IPCC, or NASA is probably in vain anyway.
Why is it that conspiracy types always find it much easier to believe the least-likely explanations? Are their brains wired backwards?Dunno bout you guys, but this kind of stuff drives me crazy. I'm doubtless far from the first to note that it is very much like dealing with fundy creationist ID types. They have this absolutely diabolical ability to obfuscate and deny and just generally mangle the science. And they always do it at moments when it's not convenient to bring up a webpage showing the actual facts, so I'm left um'ing and ah'ing, and desperately trying to remember names and numbers. Aargh.
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Anyone else feeling a little, for want of a better description, "beseiged by idiocy" over climate change?
I've recently had a number of friends and co-workers tell me that climate change is either not happening, or not man-made, and basically infer that anyone with a brain knows that it's all a hoax. One of the more annoying memes is the reverse-consensus thing. Had someone tell me the that there are, and I quote: "only about 500 scientists who think global warming is man-made, and about 32,000 who know that it isn't".
Where are people getting this stuff? And how do you counter it? So far I've just been disengaging from the discussion, and mentally shaking my head when someone starts spouting this stuff. Can anyone suggest some good web links with (fairly) un-deniable authority, to which people can be pointed? Or any other strategy?
I don't so much care about winning arguments as such, it's just that I hate when misinformation seems to be so widespread.