Friday, April 28, 2017

  MARCHING   FOR  TRUTH,  JARGON  & CLICHE'  SINCE 1970

OR  1917,  OR 1870, OR  WAS  IT 1848?
NO WONDER  CLIMATE WEEK  LASTS  UNTIL  MAY DAY





Wednesday, April 26, 2017

    THE   FIRST  ONE   CAME  OVER  ON  THE  HINDENBURG

 Giant rabbit dies on United flight


A  giant rabbit, on  track to become the world's largest. was found dead in the cargo hold  of  a  United  Airlines   flight, creating  another UA public relations challenge.
UPI reports  ten-month-old Simon, a 3-foot long  Prussian Giant Grey  rabbit  expected  to break  a  size record   currently  held  by  his four foot four inch father, arrived dead in the  cargo hold of a  United Airlines’  Boeing 767 when it arrived in Chicago from London.
Though airlines generally outfit planes' cargo holds to be comfortable,i t's not always consistent, says Sandy Parshall,  of the House Rabbit Society, a California-based nonprofit that promotes rabbit rescue and welfare. 
"The entire aircraft is pressurized, and not all pieces of the aircraft are heated," says Parshall, who is also a commercial pilot. "It generally gets pretty cold."
Anne Martin, the rabbit society's executive director, added that other stressors, such as noises or stimuli, could also be involved:
"Rabbits are prey animals. If there are barking dogs, that might be enough to stress them to the point of heart attack," 
says Martin.It was not clear when or how his death occurred, but breeder Annette Edwards  said a veterinarian  found the Leviathan lagomorph In good health prior to his flight.

“I’ve sent rabbits all around the world and nothing like this has happened before. The client who bought Simon is very famous. He’s upset.”
U.S. airlines reported the deaths of 35 animals aboard plane flights in 2015, the most recent available data, U.S. Department of Transportation statistics show. Fourteen of those were on United flights; the airline carried 97,156 animals that year.
 At 2.37 deaths per 10,000 transported animals, United has the highest casualty figures of any U.S. airline.
THE  UBERBUNNY  MIGHT  HAVE  FARED   WORSE ON  NORTH  KOREAN  AIR. 
A human United passenger recently lost two teeth and sustained a concussion when forcibly removed  from  an overbooked  UA  flight, and  in March,  the lagomorph-unfriendly  airline barred two Minnesotans  for wearing  fur leggings, a violation of  its passenger  dress code.

       AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE PEOPLE'S CLIMATE MARCH !

     But why, why, hasn't Heartland entered James Delingpole?

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

GWPF  CALLS FOR  CLIMATE SCIENCE DEFENSE INITIATIVE

UKIP  press release  renders  thermodynamics impotent and obselete: 

RED  TEAMS  CAN  SAVE  CLIMATE  SCIENCE  FROM  ITSELF

  • Date: 31/03/17
  • Global Warming Policy Foundation 

London, 31 March 2017 — Prominent climate scientists tell  US Congressional committee that climate science isn’t working, but can be saved by a “red team” approach.

A group of prominent US climate experts have told a Congressional committee hearing that climate science is dysfunctional, beset by bias and groupthink, and is using a profoundly unscientific approach. Speaking before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Professor John Christy told representatives that “consensus science”, as practiced by much of mainstream climatology, was “not science” at all, while Professor Judith Curry explained that “self-deception” had got the better of far too many climatologists.
Both concluded that there had been a wholesale failure to use the scientific method in climatology, something that could only be put right by the introduction of official “red teams” – groups of eminent scientists, who would be asked to challenge and provide dissenting opinions on official climate assessments.
Professor Christy said: “Congress needs a parallel, scientifically-based assessment of the state of climate science. Many important issues are left out of government-directed climate reports entirely; our policymakers need to see the entire range of findings regarding climate change”

                     MARCHING  IN  CLOSE  FORMATION


We want to clear up a few things about what the March for Science stands for...

Inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility are integral to this mission and to our overall goals and principles... 



We hear your feedback and have been working to align our communications with our values. We are actively partnering with and seeking advice from organizations and individuals with expertise in this area. We cannot ignore issues of racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia, or any other form of discrimination in the discussion and implementation of science. Nor can we ignore the ways in which science has been misused to harm marginalized communities.
The lack of inclusivity and diversity in STEM thwarts scientific advancements not only by limiting who conducts the research, but also by influencing what topics are studied, who participates in the research, and who will benefit from or be harmed by it.

SAME WEBPAGE:

Anti-Harassment Policy for Online Platforms


Across all social media platforms, we will remove comments that include rude language or personal insults. Any commenters who use derogatory or hateful language and/or engage in personal attacks will banned, blocked, and/or removed from the relevant March for Science online groups or accounts.

The March for Science does not tolerate statements that reflect racism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, or any form of bigotry, will result in banning and/or blocking...

To flag an issue, please contact a March for Science administrator on the relevant social media platform.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

                         DIAMONDS  AREN'T  FOREVER

WITH THE INDELICATE  SOUND  OF  A BAROMETER  INSTANTLY FALLING FROM FIVE MEGABARS TO NONE, SOMETHING VERY BAD HAS  HAPPENED IN A HARVARD LAB: THE  WORLD'S FIRST  & ONLY  SAMPLE OF METALLIC HYDROGEN HAS  GONE BANG !

"An attempt to study the properties of metallic hydrogen appears to have ended in catastrophe after one of the two diamonds being used like a vice to hold the tiny sample was obliterated.

The metal was being held between two diamonds at a pressure of around 71.7 million pounds per square inch – more than a third greater than at the Earth's core. According to The Independent, one of these diamonds shattered while the sample was being measured with a laser, and the metal was lost in the process.

Professor Isaac Silvera, who was leading the research on the material, recalled hearing a small clicking noise before realising the magnitude of what had happened. "I've never seen a diamond shatter like that. It was so powdered on the surface, it looked like baking soda or something like that," he said.


Atomic cock-up

Due to its size – about a fifth the diameter of a strand of human hair — attempts to locate the sample have been unsuccessful, leading the Silvera and his team to speculate that it may have become embedded in the equipment, lying somewhere in the lab or simply evaporated upon being released from pressure. "The sample is in the wreckage some place or it's not meta-stable and it disappeared, it turned into a gas," he said.

Silvera had been due to discuss his research on metallic hydrogen with the American Physical Society in the coming weeks. All is not lost as his team plans to create a second sample by recreating the original experiment.

"We've got a pair of diamonds that we are now preparing for a run," he said. "There were a few doubting Thomases, so we decided we should just reproduce it."

     STAY  TUNED  FOR  THE  NEXT  PREDICTABLE EPISODE.


IN JANUARY, THE MARCH FOR SCIENCE  TWEETED: "
“Colonization, racism, immigration, native rights, sexism, ableism, queer-, trans-, intersex-phobia, & econ justice are scientific issues.” 

AT A PRESS CONFERENCE, AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB ON APRIL 10,  MARCH NATIONAL  DIRECTOR OF  PARTNERSHIPS, AND   DIVERSITY COMMITTEE MEMBER,   ( ITS  FINAL POSITION STATEMENT RUNS TO  OVER 1000  WORDS )  BIOLOGIST  IANNA  JOHNSON, CONCLUDED HER REMARKS BY INFORMING PROSPECTIVE ATTENDEES THAT:


"ISSUES  ARE  SURFACING  AROUND  SEXISM,  RACISM, XENOPHOBIA , ABLEISM AND PRIVILEGE...  USE HASHTAG  #SCIENCEMARCH  AND  KNOW THAT  YOU ARE JOINING NOT  JUST  A  MARCH ,  BUT  A  MOVEMENT -- APRIL  22ND  IS  JUST  THE  BEGINING."

MURDOCH'S  WILD BUNCH THROW ANOTHER WILD PUNCH

Doctor Johnson's definition of 'science' as " certainty grounded on demonstration" continues to elude both climate zealots and the denialati. along with the example from Dryden his Dictionary cites : 
"Science perfects Genius and moderates that Fury of the Fancy that cannot contain itself within the Bounds of Reason."

DOES THIS THREE CENTURY OLD OBSERVATION EXPLAIN  WHY THOSE   FAVORING A RED TEAM  OP-EDITORIALIZE MAINLY IN MURDOCH'S BRITISH & AUSTRALIAN PAPERS,   AND  THE WALL STREET JOURNAL?



'

HAS WILLIE SOON BEEN CHANNELLING BUSBY BERKELEY?



                                      TITAN, GOODBYE!

NOT MUCH HAS HAPPENED ON  TITAN SINCE  ITS ANTHROPOCENE  ERA ARRIVED IN THE  FORM OF  THE HUYGENS PROBE,  BUT  HERE'S  THE RAW IMAGE OF  CASSINI'S FINAL  CLOSE  FLYBY  LAST NIGHT.  AS  USUAL, THE  EXOWEATHER  WAS  CLOUDY, WITH OCCASSIONAL  LIGHT HYDROCARBON SHOWERS

Friday, April 21, 2017

                   THE  PEOPLE'S  CLIMATE  MOBILIZATION:


By Bill McKibben                   Twitter                 APRIL 19, 2017

It is hard to avoid hyperbole when you talk about global warming ...Which helps explain I think, the mounting anger of the scientific community.  They’ll march first, on April 22, to the National Mall and  in hundreds  of  satellite  marches  around the world.  Expect lines  of  people in lab coats, pushing  equation-laden blackboards down  the  streets  of  Washington ...

I’ve just finished helping film a video to use at those gatherings (available for free download), and it was a good reminder that even many progressives don’t know the scientific depth and breadth of our understanding. ..

But yes anyway. Marches matter because the fight is really over who defines what “normal” looks like going forward...


When we come together in Washington at the end of April, it won’t be to demand slightly nicer rhetoric on climate change or some undefined “action.” We no longer care that you “believe in” climate change, because we know that not believing in it means you’re an idiot...

Trump has pissed people off, and pissed-off people don’t ask for small and easy progress. They demand the shifts that reality requires. In this case, winning slowly is the same as losing, so we don’t want to substitute one for the other. We want to win, so that we have a planet left to live on.


Trump is either the end of the fight for a working planet Earth—or the moment when that fight turns truly serious. That choice is not up to him. It’s up to the rest of us. See you in DC.



Thursday, April 20, 2017

         WHY NOT  MARCH  ON  THE MARYLAND HUNT CUP?

BESIDES  DOING MORE TO SPREAD SCIENCE  APROUND OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY,  IT'S A WEEK LATER,  CLOSER TO NEW YORK, AND  CAN  PROVIDE  A DECENT JULEP.





Wednesday, April 19, 2017

  FIRST  WE  PUBLISH  , THEN  WE  MARCH   IN  THE DARK!

ADAM SMITH  IS NOT ALONE SITTING  IN THE DARK & AWAITING THE INVISIBLE HAND:  A NOTED CULTURAL JOURNAL OPENS NEW HORIZONS IN HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY


Friday, April 14, 2017

WHO  DID  YOU  SAY  STARTED  THIS MARCHING  BUSINESS?



SOME GROUPS HAVE BEEN MARCHING ON THE CAPITOL FOR HALF A CENTURY
Science for the People is a left-wing organization that emerged from the antiwar culture of the United States in the 1970s. There have been various attempts to revive the group in different forms, including one effort in 2002 and another that has emerged since 2014.
... Science for the People generated much controversy in the 1970s for the radical tactics of some of its members. Herb Fox, one of its founding members, wrote:
I was a founder in 1969-70 of Science for the People. It originated in the coming together of the then one-year-old Scientists and Engineers for Social and Political Action (SESPA) and a group of Harvard and MIT students who had been invited to participate in a session of the AAAS annual meeting. SESPA itself was formed in the aftermath of a struggle... to get the APS to take a stand against the Vietnam war....The first issue of Science for the People (1970) was produced and edited by me with a comrade who is now my wife.


Subsequent issues were produced by ever changing editorial collectives. Over its first few years SFP ...became an outlet for critical discussion of the misuse of science. In the process it became identified with well-known critical academic scientists such as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. 
Three-Day Conference Exploring Progressive Legacy of   ‘Science for the People’   Starts  April  11  2014


AMHERST, Mass. – 

 Social Thought and Political Economy (STPEC) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will bring together members of Science for the People (SftP) from the 1970s and 1980s as part of a April 11-13 conference on the history of the organization and its approach to enduring questions of power, ideology and democracy in science.
The conference, “Science for the People: The 1970s and Today” is being held all weekend at locations throughout the campus. ...  With a Marxist analysis and non-hierarchical governing structure, SftP tackled the militarization of scientific research and the corporate control of research agendas. Its members opposed racism, sexism, and classism in science and sought to mobilize people working in scientific fields to become active in agitating....
STPEC director Sigrid Schmalzer noted ...
“For more than 40 years, our program has provided undergraduates at UMass Amherst with opportunities for interdisciplinary investigation of social, political, and economic power structures, and for active engagement on campus and in the community,” she said. “...
Conference events will include a keynote lecture by John Vandermeer, a founding member of SftP and currently distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan; plenary panels on the significance of Science for the People, featuring former SftP members, historians, and sociologists; and issue-oriented panels on the militarization of science, food and agriculture, climate change and energy policy, women and science, myths of race and gender, science and ideology, ...
The closing plenary, “Science for the People 2.0,” will include a presentation by UC Berkeley scientist Ignacio Chapela. Chapela is a leader in the fight against the agricultural use of genetically modified organisms 
                                              Earth Day - April 22, 2017 

Washington DC - Join us on the National Mall 



MARCH FOR SCIENCE  

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