Stonehead

All this reminds me of the famous wager between Paul Ehrlich and Julian Simon. Paul is dead.

Cardboard figures everywhere need to be protected. Uh, no. I meant if the artist were attacked. As I understand it, a hate crime comes under three categories: racial, sexual orientation, and religious affliation. Or you could group those into genetic or behaviorial. So, would being attacked for political orientation be considered a hate crime? Why not?

Fair enough. One vote against this proposed mechanism. It doesn't seem that this mechanism is as widely as accepted as Milankovitch Orbital Parameters. But how do you explain detected warming on other planetary bodies in this solar system? Also. Take a look at the Cretaceous. Carbon burial appears to be very effective during this time. Upwelling, high primary productivity, black shales. Enough so that atmospheric oxygen content appeared to be higher than currently present. Indications of widespread wildfires (charcoal), for instance. Yet, this appears to be a greenhouse period. If carbon sequesteration were the main influence then wouldn't you expect to see the opposite? The assumption is that gaseous carbon compounds are the primary driver in climatic change. Conversely, I don't expect that solar luminosity is the simple trigger. There's more to the picture than this dicthotomy. For instance, redistribution of heat also plays into the scenario.

Did you also know that the other noteworthy secular trend as been the Earth's slowing rotational rate due to the frictional forces of the Moon's gravitational pull on the Earth's oceans? Yeah, you learned this in high school. But additionally, there's cyclic changes in the Earth's rotational rate or length of day. The shorter term variations are caused by redistributions of the various masses (atmospheric, e.g.) over the Earth. Not sure if cause or effect but related to El Nino-Southern Oscillation. Also, change in temperature plus change in length of day leads to evolutionary changes in biota.

As I understand it, indeed, the sun's luminosity is increasing as it ages, thus it will expand. The Earth is currently within a constantly habitable zone (CHZ) but within time it will be engulfed by heat as the sun's outer gaseous layer expands outward. This is a secular trend over time much as the Earth's counterbalancing, dominant secular trend has been cooling. Superimposed over the secular trends are cyclical patterns of cooling and warming. These cyclical patterns are as large scale as Fischer's Icehouse/Greenhouse cycle (Paleozoic/Mesozoic Supercontinent Formation/Breakup), mid scale such as Carboniferous Glaciation (Milankovitch Orbital Parameters), and small scale. There are also factors that are non-periodic (but perhaps quasiperiodic) such as the latitudinal position of the continental landmasses as was seen during the Ordovician Period. I don't profess to know the dominant factor in global warming but do understand it is multivariate.

Saw this at Slashdot: Sun May Be Warming Both Earth and Mars Ok, I'm not disputing global warming and I believe in an anthropogenic contribution. And I'm a believer in getting to work on this problem to mitigate its effects. But, on the other hand, I think that a lot of stuff is driven by politics. There are recurrent cycles of warming and cooling of different periodicities and magnitudes. There's still dispute regarding their causes: New ice age theory: Sun's 'dimmer switch' But, stratigraphers recognize many scales of cyclicity in the rock record. It's interesting though that our solar system appears to be warming: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/pluto_warming_021009.html http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/19980526052143data_trunc_sys.shtml http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060504_red_jr.html Ponder this: http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/index.html

Would that be considered a 'hate' crime? BTW, did you see the video? The guy who turned him in, had a NASCAR cap. Classic!

..

.

Look if the Iraqis just trained their police like they do in Iran there wouldn't be a problem. Take a looksee. [gvideo]8071337793166478323[/gvideo]

Brilliant student of theoretical physics branded an 'ecoterrorist'. He did the crime, should he do the time? http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/a-terrible-thing-to-waste/15782/?page=1

An Alameda artist got a surprise visit from the U.S. Secret Service last week for displaying artwork some people thought was threatening to the president. http://www.nbc11.com/news/11148845/detail.html

[YouTube]8mIfatdNqBA[/YouTube]

[YouTube]-vda1KRF75M[/YouTube]

KNOWING THE ENEMY: Can social scientists redefine the "war on terror"? “People don’t get pushed into rebellion by their ideology. They get pulled in by their social networks.”

What Is Your Dangerous Idea? "Question everything, ban nothing, think dangerously."

[YouTube]nice6NYb_WA[/YouTube]

The Return of the Puppet Masters "Are brain parasites altering the personalities of three billion people?"

Black. White. Or gray? 3zJqihkLcGc Walk this way?

Cambodian Troops Quarantine Quan'sul excerpt: "There has been a small outbreak of “zombism” in a small town near the border of Laos in North-Eastern Cambodia."

y1u489DqbMQ 6zzQZ1pjofw

Correction: This is what the GOP does to us.

Careful now. Your youthful transgressions could prevent you from traveling to Squish. Going to Canada? Check your past

Yeah, Bruce Schneier talks about what he calls CYA (Cover Your Ass) security. http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72774-0.html?tw=wn_index_24 Quote from article: "Much of our country's counterterrorism security spending is not designed to protect us from the terrorists, but instead to protect our public officials from criticism when another attack occurs." Makes you wonder if some of the laws are more likely intended to shield public officials simply from criticism.