The true believers won't bother to watch this, but anyone else who is interested in an objective view of climate science - this is a very good overview:
40 minute overview of climate science from David Siegel - youtube

No political agenda, just a look at the actual dirty details.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 14:05 utc | 1

@ c1ue | May 29 2022 14:05 utc | 1

stuff and nonsense -- as usual from one who can't even spell clue, let alone find one

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 29 2022 14:18 utc | 2

Taking "an objective view of climate change" would begin with the discovery of another Universe from which to make observations.

Posted by: bevin | May 29 2022 14:37 utc | 3

. . .from the European critique article.. .
"Outside the closed loop of decision-making, the public is [a] mere spectator."
That is so true of not just Europe but of the fake western "democracy" that claims world authority with its "rules-based international order." Decision-making is isolated to mostly appointed individuals and bought-and-paid-for electees with no public participation, a procedure which strikes at the heart of democracy. The US public gets it, with seventy percent saying that the US is on the wrong track here.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 29 2022 14:43 utc | 4

c1ue@1

Thank you for this informative presentation! It is similar to the PowerPoint presentation a fellow researcher provided me some 15 years ago. Unfortunately, for most people, climate change has become a religion based on a rigid dogma, not science.

Space weather is so underestimated in climate modeling which after all is just a model and not reality. The IPCC model fails miserably since variations in cosmic ray penetration (due to magnetic fields variations of the earth and sun) into the atmosphere are ignored and its effects on cloud nucleation are left out of the model. Besides supercomputers do not have the computing power to measure the effects of clouds on solar radiation inputs.

Another example of model failure to approximate reality is in forest science. A couple of decades ago the US government conducted a study on the CO2/O2 budget of a forest. The model was inaccurate as it left out that trees transpire via lenticels in the stem.
https://warbletoncouncil.org/lenticelas-13408

Posted by: krollchem | May 29 2022 14:59 utc | 5

@ bevin | May 29 2022 14:37 utc | 3

Your rather profound comment brings to mind the observer/observed split implied by the (standard) Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics. The cat's wave function (whether it's alive or not) does not collapse until we open up Schrodinger's sadistic device to have a peek, you know. The more you think about it, the less sense it makes. Richard Feynman tossed his head back and laughed at the absurdity: if you're totally confused, he'd say, you're starting to understand.

The kernel of nonsense which nobody has successfully resolved is that bifurcation of reality itself into two arbitrary realms: observer and observed. My humble opinion is that high-energy physics has lost track of basic scientific principles, such as falsifiability, because of this stumbling-block. Much that they teach today -- hyperstrings and multiverses -- has putrified into entirely metaphysical epistemology.

Peter Woit's Not Even Wrong blog is a terrific source of current thinking in this sphere. US American physicist David Bohm may have foreseen the quicksand physics sinks in today, because of this fatal bifurcation. With B.J. Hiley, Bohm wrote The Undivided Universe positing Bohmian Mechanics to overcome the division between observer and observed. It's an interesting approach which does not seem any more or less metaphysical than today's fashion.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 29 2022 15:07 utc | 6

thanks b.... the articles on multipolarism and the talks look interesting.. i will check some of that out... thank you..

Posted by: james | May 29 2022 15:29 utc | 7

. . .on human rights
>SHENZHEN, China — U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet ended a long-awaited trip to China with cautious criticism of the country’s crackdown in the Xinjiang region, balanced with praise for Chinese authorities, in what rights advocates called a propaganda win for Beijing.
>WASHINGTON - Blinken - The United States remains concerned about the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and her team’s visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and PRC efforts to restrict and manipulate her visit.
>Godfree Roberts - In a news conference after her visit to China this week, Michele Bachelet, UNHC for Human Rights, spoke at length about discrimination, racism, and the importance of protecting fundamental rights – in the United States.
>M. K. Bhadrakumar - Haha! So that is it - why Blinken is mighty upset. Shouldn't India too invite Bachelet? After all, countries that advocate 'rules-based order' cannot be selective!

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 29 2022 15:30 utc | 8

kroll @ 5 said, in part;"Unfortunately, for most people, climate change has become a religion based on a rigid dogma, not science.

So true. Too bad some folks consider their political views before anything else.

Trumping even their conscience. ( not a pun)...

Posted by: vetinLA | May 29 2022 15:46 utc | 9

I find it bizarre that the USA constantly tells its residents that the country is historically, structurally and irredeemably racist, that the greatest enemy of the military is the "white supremacist", teaches its children that white people are the devil, and then is outraged when outside observers repeat the narrative.
How dare they!
Apparently the officials think that other people can't read our media or listen to our politicians.

Posted by: wagelaborer | May 29 2022 16:12 utc | 10

. . .corruption problems in the US Navy
Leonard Glenn Francis, also known as "Fat Leonard" is scheduled to be sentenced in July. He has been cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice since his arrest in 2013 in San Diego.
The case has centered around Francis who admitted in 2015 to offering $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers. In exchange, the officers passed him classified information and even went so far as redirecting military vessels to ports that were lucrative for his Singapore-based ship servicing company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, or GDMA. Twenty-nine people, mostly Navy officials, have pleaded guilty to helping Francis including providing classified ship schedules in exchange for extravagant outings in South Asia with prostitutes and meals with tabs totaling more than $20,000. . .more details here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 29 2022 16:33 utc | 11

@ juliania

i read this and thought you might enjoy it..

Reactionary Metaphysics II - Problems With the Worship Model

Posted by: james | May 29 2022 16:34 utc | 12

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 29 2022 15:30 utc | 8

Thanks.... where did you find Godfree Roberts remarks on China's human right? Godfree used to comment in UNZ.

Posted by: JC | May 29 2022 16:37 utc | 13

wagelaborer #10:

Perhaps it's because those "racism" talking points (just like all identity politics talking points) are just ways to distract and separate the 99% and the working class. That they would be used to disrupt the narrative of American greatness and natural rule would be an unintended and undesired blowback event.

Interestingly, all this is being harped on when there is no less racist society in the world currently among the developed nations ... can you imagine, e.g. that Russia would elect a Tatar president, that France would elect an Algerian descendent, that UK would elect an Asian PM, that Sweden would elect a Somali? The US elected Obama as president not once but twice. As racist as we remain because it is an unfortunate human trait to prefer the familiar, the US is less so than anyone else ...

Posted by: Caliman | May 29 2022 16:41 utc | 14

@ JC | May 29 2022 16:37 utc | 13

looks like it is off twitter...

Posted by: james | May 29 2022 16:44 utc | 15

c1ue | May 29 2022 14:05 utc | 1
you pegged me on that one. NOT INTERESTED.

two fellow citizens in the check out lane the other day could barely get themselves to admit that there is a plus side to the rain interrupting their holiday plans to rev their motorcycles, blow up some firecrackers, and stuff more dead cow down their gullets. thanks for your nonstop advice that americans continue to be the lazy indifferent pigs that they are. do you work for exxon-mobile? should we call you Shell jr, mr some like it hot?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 29 2022 16:47 utc | 16

"as the earth warms, trust your cooling needs to Koehler air"

you know where the climate control is, America? it's on the dashboard of your car.

from inside the technological bubble in which Americans live, people can't see that it's much easier to shoot little kids because of how fat the kids all are now. takes less bullets.

USonians sure as hell don't care that they live in a constant state of anamorphic distortion, a nonstop trump les yeux, from inside their cars and phones and fleshlights and CPAC conventions. a bunch of rats bred by Abbott Labs.

"the task of art is restore perspective" Octavio Paz, "Marcel Duchamp." you know, save the appearances from stuff that doesn't pass the smell test? stuff some more pop tarts in the holes in US society?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 29 2022 17:01 utc | 17

@Aleph_Null #2
Thank you for continuing to reinforce your self proclaimed status.

This latest bon mot must be one of your best - I can't spell my own anonymous internet handle!

You are truly of a rapier wit /sarc

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 17:25 utc | 18

@bevin #3
Hardly - if climate science is truly based on science, then there should be open review and discussion of both the evidence and of the various theories.
The presentation above shows nothing but data.

You can disagree with projections going forward from what this data shows - the climate change models (as I have said repeatedly) all show massively accelerating warming any day now ... for the last 15+ years.

To dismiss the actual data without first understanding it, is not science - it is dogma.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 17:29 utc | 19

@ rjb1.5 | May 29 2022 17:01 utc | 17

there’s a hummingbird at the sliding door window
buzzing in close, then back out, then in close again
eating insects
birdsong all around
whilst the tree leaves sound the wind

view from here
peace not warring

Posted by: suzan | May 29 2022 17:48 utc | 20

Thanks, b, for the weekly round-up. That remarkably bad Asia Times article was neutralized a little for me by the opening line of the next one, The Danger of Underestimating Russia: “When I was a wee young thing on Wall Street, I would hear a warning regularly from colleagues at Lazard, about “believing your own PR”.” … …

Taibbi’s commentary brings the Clintons back into the spotlight (as well as the 1972 Canuck letter, something I’m not familiar with. I’m trying to find some Canadian archival news coverage of it but am unsuccessful so far.) I am reminded of the New York-based couple’s affection for Canada. They were in Quebec in August, as soon as border restrictions were lifted. Perhaps something to bring out of the wrapper for today’s mental chewing gum.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8110474/clintons-quebec-vacation-august-2021/

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | May 29 2022 17:49 utc | 21

c1ue@1

You may be interested in these two presentations on how "space weather" affects the climate on Earth:

Henrik Svensmark "The connection between cosmic rays, clouds, and climate"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg3MqdBX0_k

Solar Variability and Climate - Joanna D. Haigh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1MPQYN6fnQ

Posted by: Krollchem | May 29 2022 18:10 utc | 22

To c1ue and some others who haven't appeared in this thread yet (and maybe won't given they are busy in the Ukraine thread), I would like to further my understanding of the so-called Russian oligarchy. In yesterday's thread S, karlof1 and c1ue were attempting to answer my questions and I'll continue here.

~~~~~~~ on the topic of a Russian oligarchy - or non-oligarchy ~~~~~~~

I suppose also no "lobbying" as it is called in the USA either? I'm learning quite a bit about Russia that I hadn't known assuming this is all true.

But in the same manner as the fiefdoms are described, the same holds in the US and elsewhere. Mega rich people and corporations can control the politics of a given region of the USA whether that's a state, city or county and they exert much political influence on the way the feds spend their money so long as they don't cross an admittedly small and shrinking list of red lines, so to speak. Seems to me like when you account for the difference in size between the Russian and U.S. economies and the alleged sanctity of the Russian military, space program and education system, there really isn't too much difference in the so-called oligarchies but rather in that Putin is being described as a popular autocrat?

Biznezzzz is king in the USA, if it were so in Russia and across as many industries as here, would a more American style oligarchy emerge there?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 18:32 utc | 23

suzan | May 29 2022 17:48 utc | 20
oh i'm w/you.

since the pentagon is the biggest force for destruction, thus pollution, in human history, it's so awesome that there's nothing to worry about! they are not getting a real big boost in Ukraine, and if so, so what? it's space pollution!

control of fertility? this Abbott Lab masquerading as a country now banning abortions et al? good thing the fascistic reversal being engineered against women isn't part of the war effort.

nor is the regular fag bashing that goes on here at MoA.

oldhippie, go fuck yourself.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 29 2022 18:34 utc | 24

Also to c1ue:

Could you give us all a little, er...clue in good faith? Do you work for the fossil fuel or fossil fuel based energy generation industries?

What of Exxon's research on the burning of fossil fuels dating back to the late 60s?

Do you honestly believe that the massive amounts of fossil fuels extracted and burned for energy are not negatively impacting the Earth's environment for the majority of the Earth's human and animal inhabitants?

If you were to assign percentages, what percent of the changing climate is attributable to human activity vs. other causes (please name them as you understand them to be - no need for a detailed explanation)?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 18:36 utc | 25

This is a very fascinating writeup about COVID, the CDC, and the 5 micron "rule" that the CDC was operating under.

The Teeny Tiny Scientific Screwup That Helped COVID Kill - wired.com

Long story short: a tuberculosis finding that was erroneously conflated with all aerosol borne diseases, and just sat in the middle of so-called scientific medical thought and practice for just about 60 years.

non-N95 masks don't do squat.
6 foot spacing is pure theater.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 18:42 utc | 26

"...Russia would elect a Tatar president, that France would elect an Algerian descendent, that UK would elect an Asian PM, that Sweden would elect a Somali?"

According to wikipedia "Jean-Luc Mélenchon" the left wing candidate who came very close to being Macron's opponent in the Presidential run off. And might well have won if he had been. "...was born in Tangier (Tangier International Zone), Morocco.[7] His father, Georges, was a postmaster of Spanish descent, and his mother, Jeanine Bayona, was a primary school teacher of Spanish and Sicilian descent.[8] He grew up in Morocco, until his family moved to France in 1962..."

As to the UK the two key Cabinet members after Johnson are Priti Patel whose parents were Ugandan Asian refugees (Home Secretary) and Rishi Sunak, also born of East African Asian parents (The Treasury). Either could succeed Johnson as Prime Minister at any time.

Russia has only elected three Presidents and only one without US ass(ins)istence. But there is no reason to believe that it would have any problem electing a Tatar. Lenin, for example had Turkic ancestry on his father's side. Stalin was Georgian and both Krushchev and Brezhnev were Ukrainians.

As to Sweden with a royal family from Pau in Navarre it might very well elect a Somali, provided the one in question had the approval of the Swedish oligarchy.

As to Obama his ancestry is CIA on both sides.

Posted by: bevin | May 29 2022 18:51 utc | 27

I did a little reading about this David Siegel character. He's apparently a computer scientist and web dev expert who did a few hours (10 I believe) on climate science and decided it's all wrong.

https://medium.com/@miriamob/climate-change-is-real-and-important-646b663adcf#.3ykd5yxvw

In reading that and browsing some of Mr. Siegel's YouTube videos, a familiar theme revealed itself. In my lurking days here at MoA I recall a long tedious argument about "ocean acidification" which revolved around the claims of "alarmism" and specifically the semantics of the term "acidification" itself.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/the-moa-week-in-review-ot-2019-51/comments/page/2/#comments

c1ue, your arguments there directly mirror those of David Siegel's on literally every single one of his claims. He's not a climate scientist; he's not a physicist; he's not an expert by any metric on any type of science other than computer science.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 18:56 utc | 28

Here's a veteran rifle/pistol coach of the U.S. Marine Corps talking about gun control, proficiency and a "well regulated militia."

https://twitter.com/lifeindiscreet/status/1530579942651600896?s

Puts lie to some of the state gun laws and the claims of "infringement" of the right to bear arms.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 19:03 utc | 29

A more in-depth explanation and analysis about the 2nd Amendment in the wake of Uvalde

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 19:04 utc | 30

Sir Lanka banned all artificial fertilizers and pesticides last year.

It didn't go well.

Sri Lanka's Experiment With Organic Farming Fails Miserably

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised in his 2019 election campaign to transition the country’s farmers to organic agriculture over a period of 10 years. Last April, Rajapaksa’s government made good on that promise, imposing a nationwide ban on the importation and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and ordering the country’s 2 million farmers to go organic.

The result was brutal and swift. Against claims that organic methods can produce comparable yields to conventional farming, domestic rice production fell 20 percent in just the first six months. Sri Lanka, long self-sufficient in rice production, has been forced to import $450 million worth of rice even as domestic prices for this staple of the national diet surged by around 50 percent. The ban also devastated the nation’s tea crop, its primary export and source of foreign exchange.

So for rice, apparently not using fertilizers and pesticides means a 20% drop in yield. A real world data point.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 19:05 utc | 31

@Tom_Q_Collins #23
Lobbying literally started as people waited for Congresscritters to walk past. That exists everywhere.

What happens in the US, however, is not lobbying per se.
What happens in the US is institutionalized bribery.

I don't have the link handy, but there are periodic writeups on what this means - the most recent mentioned something like $3M in immediate donations to the national level political party fund and another $3M a year for an important committee chair. This money doesn't come from the Congress-critter, it comes from outside entities who naturally make this kind offer contingent upon expected behavior.
That's after getting elected. The election process itself also involves legalized bribes via super PAC ads and what not.

In the past in Russia - pre-Putin - the bribes were not legal but occurred nonetheless, and for far greater numbers.

Bribes in Russia still exist; the difference is that Putin and much of (but not all) of the Russian government has a clear agenda which no amount of bribing is going to shift - unlike the US which seems to have no agenda other than self-promotion.

Furthermore, the Russian government and Putin will not tolerate super-PAC like behavior by an oligarch (or any other entity - read Western NGOs). The same can be said of China: the Chinese are some of the worst bribers around (guangxi) but the CCP does not permit bribery to shift focus or outcomes away from what it considers its priorities.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 19:13 utc | 32

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 19:13 utc | 32

That all rings true to me. The U.S. is actually one of the most corrupt governments on the planet and its owners will not allow any meaningful change to the system.

P.S. I also just read that David Siegel is a big believer in blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies! (assuming it's the same guy, and I'm 98% certain it is).

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 19:18 utc | 33

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 19:13 utc | 32

yes that is exactly how giant fossil fuel companies buy politicians. now can we stop pretending that those giant fossil fuel companies are helpless victims of evil scientists?

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 29 2022 19:22 utc | 34

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/the-moa-week-in-review-ot-2019-51/comments/page/2/#comments

c1ue, your arguments there directly mirror those of David Siegel's on literally every single one of his claims. He's not a climate scientist; he's not a physicist; he's not an expert by any metric on any type of science other than computer science.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 18:56 utc | 28

Tom_Q_Collins, thanks for that link back to 2019 where I also discovered this piece of wisdom from karlof1:

Hmpf @128-- [actually: Hmpf | Sep 3 2019 16:05 utc | 123 ]
As you've just experienced, dealing with c1ue is a 100% waste of time and effort as there's no amount of proof that it can get buried by to get it
to change its mission here to interject FUD into most every topic, but especially the Climate Crisis. [my emphasis]
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 3 2019 17:02 utc | 124

Most every topic indeed. Shades of Binoy Kampmark!

Posted by: waynorinorway | May 29 2022 19:30 utc | 35

@Tom_Q_Collins #25
You said:

Could you give us all a little, er...clue in good faith? Do you work for the fossil fuel or fossil fuel based energy generation industries?

I do not work for fossil fuel companies in any way, shape or form.
I do not benefit from fossil fuels in any way, shape or form - in fact, my personal benefit is far lower than the vast majority of 1st world people, as I've documented (no car, public transport etc).

I will further add that I have historically been environmentalist - I believed the dogma in the 2000 time frame. But the divergence of reality from the perpetually postponed tipping points and temperature increase acceleration tipped off my very well developed scam meter. It was around 2004 that I started looking in depth into the issue and found ever deeper and deeper wells of bullshit.

And note that I am in full agreement that temperatures are increasing...

You said:

What of Exxon's research on the burning of fossil fuels dating back to the late 60s?

What about it? Companies research stuff all the time. The research isn't necessarily correct or even material. Keep in mind we had no satellites in the 1960s...

You said:

Do you honestly believe that the massive amounts of fossil fuels extracted and burned for energy are not negatively impacting the Earth's environment for the majority of the Earth's human and animal inhabitants?

You need to define what you mean by "negatively impacting the Earth's environment for the majority of the Earth's human and animal inhabitants".

From a standard of living standpoint, there is zero question that fossil fuels have improved life for humans on Earth, period, regardless of the "dirty or not" environment they live in.

For the critters, it is bad if you aren't a farmed plant or animal. But then you'll have to create an equation showing just where human prosperity trades off vs. the plants and animals. There is no question that the vast majority of wild plants that are still around, are benefiting from increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere, where they still haven't been plowed over for farms or houses.

You said

If you were to assign percentages, what percent of the changing climate is attributable to human activity vs. other causes (please name them as you understand them to be - no need for a detailed explanation)?

It isn't necessary for me to provide a replacement number to call bullshit on obvious error based on historical failure to perform.

But to me, the obvious effects of enormous land use changes - the change of forest/plains to cities, suburbs, factories and farms are significant.

These land use changes affect previous flows of energy and water. Swathes of vegetation give off enormous amounts of water vapor, for example. One reason the San Joaquin valley is so foggy is because of all the plants spewing for water vapor.

The urban heat island effect is also, itself, a major factor. One of the details completely ignored by the consensus is that it actually isn't the "day/season/year" high temperatures that are changing, so much as it is the "day/season/year" low temperatures that are increasing. Or in other words, if a given spot had an "average" 80 high and 60 low on a given day, the temperature increases are not 82 high and 62 low but rather 80.5 high and 63.5 low. This is significant because it is well documented that replacing forest/plain with buildings/roads/farms changes the reflection/absorption profile of a piece of land.

But of course, changing land use is far, far more difficult and wrenching than solar PV panels and wind replacing never seen electricity generating plants...

The video above has a section which specifically looks at the mathematical impact of CO2, Methane etc on the total 33 degree C greenhouse effect on Earth. The actual effect, from "physics", is about 1 degree C going from 200 to 400 ppm CO2. But the consensus says the effect is much higher than 1 degree C due to "feedbacks" - feedbacks which are both assumed to be psotive reinforcing and which we still do not see in reality but are expected to start any day now.

That day has kept getting pushed back ever since 2002 - 20 years and running now.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 19:31 utc | 36

@Tom_Q_Collins #28
Yes, it is amazing, isn't it? I literally just saw that video today.
But then again, maybe not.

Maybe agreement is what occurs when 2 rational, pragmatic and objective people look at the same evidence...

Anyway, attempts to attack the video based on lack of credentials - feel free to try.

A more substantive attack would be to actually critique the data cited, but sadly very few people attempt to engage with reality.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 19:36 utc | 37

c1ue,

Sorry I was wrong about Exxon's detailed and damning research in the late 60s. I meant the mid- to late-70s.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 19:37 utc | 38

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 19:36 utc | 37

But then what *are* Mr. Siegel's credentials? He doesn't appear to have any related to anything other than entrepreneurship and computer science. Definitely not a physicist, climatologist, or anything like that.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 19:39 utc | 39

"...Biznezzzz is king in the USA, if it were so in Russia and across as many industries as here, would a more American style oligarchy emerge there?.." Tom_Q_Collins@23

Russia went down that path in the '90s. But it is unsustainable, since the wealth/power of the oligarchs rests upon their ability to loot the population. In Russia the people were not prepared to allow the kleptocrats to take everything from them and then employ them to kill one another in the maintenance of order. There are a number of reasons for this. The first being that Russia was never an Empire of the liberal kind. The Tsar ruled and all did as they were bid until they didn't. It was the postponement of that inevitably approaching moment which was the essence of Russian politics.

Had the US not stolen the election of Yeltsin and supported the bombardment of the Duma-an act which was the antithesis of the democracy the US purported to want in Russia- the Communist Party would probably have returned to power in 1996. eg: (http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2107565,00.html)

The reality is that the Russian 'oligarchs' are actually merely agents/fronts for Western financiers/oligarchs. It is that which makes it impossible for them to wield the power that their equivalents/partners in the west have, because they are seen not as wealthy citizens, but as foreign agents engaged in destroying Russia.

The case of Putin seems to me to prove this. Whatever Putin might actually believe (Karlofi, who has studied the matter in some depth, seems to see him as a social democrat at heart) he is bound by the constraints of Russian opinion to pursue vaguely welfare state policies. This is in part because Soviet policies were welfare-ist and Russians had become accustomed to them and in part because at the basis of Russian politics is a peasant nationalist consciousness as old as Orthodoxy and older than the state itself. The 'safety net' in Russia was the mir.
Hence, of course, the nature of the Soviet regime which excelled in two respects, guaranteeing basic material needs and mobilising in its own defence.
It is one of the constant refrains of our Nazi visitors that the Bolsheviks, when they weren't eating babies, were wiping out the intelligentsia, euthanising the educated elites and tearing down the palace of civilisation. Quite how they account for the Soviet Union's amazing scientific progress, its development-in isolation- of a space programme and a missile defence system which leaves the US's trillion dollar failures looking very sick by comparison, is hard to imagine. Not to mention the USSR's pre-eminence in any number of cultural, scientific or athletic spheres, where 'drugs' can hardly serve to explain away every gold medal.

To return to the point: only an Empire, such as that of the western European/creole empire centred in Washington, founded by pirates and centred on piracy and the slavetrading which is one of its most profitable sidelines- if there was nothing else to steal on the ship there was always a crew to be sold- can succeed in employing the victims of its expansion to devote their lives to their own incarceration, humiliation and impoverishment.

It has often been observed before that at the heart of our capitalist imperialism lies a fascination with sado-masochism, which is the real reason for putting the long imprisoned Marquis on a reading list. And steeling oneself to examining imperialism's collective soul.

Posted by: bevin | May 29 2022 19:41 utc | 40

Thanks all. Sorry to turn this short thread into the TQC Show. I've got to run some errands pertaining to something I'm supposed to be memorializing tomorrow. I'm not sure what it is, but there are a lot of American flags posted in peoples' lawns. I'll check back in later.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 20:09 utc | 41

@Tom_Q_Collins #39
Yes, because only a climate scientist can read a graph.
Or understand how a model is failing its mission to project reality.

The reality is that climate scientists' have been shown to be incompetent in numerous areas not directly related to so-called "climate science".
These include:
1) Statistics. The various "hockey sticks" are entirely products of either bad statistical practices, cheap powerpoint showmanship or outright fraud. In a number of cases, all 3.
2) Computer programming. The climate models are literal garbage.
3) Economics, public policy, any number of areas which climate scientists feel compelled to contribute their "non-expert" opinions. Unlike you, I actually don't care if someone is an "expert" in most areas - I look at what they are saying.
But fortunately, the climate scientists in the consensus universally spout garbage.

But thank you for engaging in the usual consensus tactic of ad hominem, as opposed to actually looking at the information.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 20:12 utc | 42

Posted by: bevin | May 29 2022 18:51 utc | 27

As to Obama his ancestry is CIA on both sides. Obama Pivot to Asia.... and at UN he said... America an exceptional country...

China did more for his ancestor homeland... Kenya.. than any Americans or 5Eyes.... BTW Obama half brother Ndesandjo with his Chinese wife, now living in Shenzhen China...

Posted by: JC | May 29 2022 20:15 utc | 43

An alternative energy smackdown in 3 parts:

Round 1) The Climate Movement In Its Own Way - thenation.com

After decades of critically documenting nuclear power’s outsize costs, I finally admitted to myself that the carbon-reduction benefits from continuing to run US nuclear plants are substantial, and in some respects irreplaceable. I made the case for keeping them open in an April article on TheNation.com.

Closing New York’s Indian Point reactors last year was a climate blunder, I wrote. Not just because fracked gas is now filling the breach, but because the need to replace the lost carbon-free power means that new wind and solar farms won’t drive emissions down further. California, facing the same equation, should shelve its plan to shutter the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in 2024, I said.

...

Too many of our climate campaigns are ill-considered. Too much of our legislative agenda is narrow-gauged. Too often, our lens for assessing climate proposals is ideological rather than pragmatic.

Round 2) The Supply Chain Does Not Exist: Renewable Energy In For A Rude Awakening

Renewable energy prices have skyrocketed while new wind and solar installations have plummeted over the last year, even as governments continue to forge ahead with ambitious climate plans.

...

One of the problems with this industry as a whole is that, since at its very foundation it is based on government subsidies and government mandates, its market value is never truly known,” Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power the Future, told the DCNF in an interview.

“It’s a big lie when the environmentalists say, ‘it’s cheap’ — we don’t know what it actually costs,” Turner continued. “It may be, I’m not denying it could be, but the fact is we don’t actually know what wind and solar cost.”

The average price for renewable energy technology in North America increased an “astounding” 28.5% between early 2021 and early 2022, according to an April 13 report from renewable industry marketplace LevelTen Energy. Development costs, supply chain issues and market uncertainty are to blame for the setback even as demand for green energy climbed, the report added.

In addition, wind and solar project completions in the U.S. have plummeted over the last two years with the total investment value of such projects falling from $46.2 billion in 2019 to $7.5 billion in 2021, an Industrial Info Resources report published on April 21 showed. In that same time span, the number of wind and solar project completions has decreased from 240 to just 66, a 73% decline.

Round 3) More Clean Energy Projects Than The Grid Can Handle

Rand highlighted the good news in LBNL’s report first: 1,300 gigawatts of wind, solar and energy storage capacity had been proposed for interconnection as of the end of 2021, representing just over $2 trillion in potential investments. That figure has risen from 750 gigawatts of wind, solar and energy storage capacity in queues at the end of 2020.

While a handful of gas power plants are still being planned, wind power, solar power and energy storage projects make up 93 percent of the projects LBNL is tracking. That includes 676 GW of solar, 247 GW of wind and 427 GW of energy storage.

This adds up to roughly the amount needed to provide 80 percent of U.S. electricity from zero-carbon resources by 2030. It also represents about 84 percent of the estimated 1,100 GW of solar and wind capacity needed to reach the Biden administration’s target of 100 percent clean electricity by 2035. Just under three-quarters of the projects in interconnection queues at the end of 2021 have requests in to come online before 2025.

But it’s highly unlikely that most of these projects will be built. Only 13 percent of the projects in LBNL’s tally have already signed interconnection agreements, the vital step that cements a project’s right to connect to the transmission grid. And over the past decade, only about 23 percent of all projects in interconnection queues have successfully connected to the grid and begun operating. Those completion rates are even lower for wind power, at 20 percent, and solar power, at 16 percent.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 20:21 utc | 44

@ Aleph_Null | May 29 2022 15:07 utc | 6

I think the cat death box is intended to illustrate the absurdities of theoretical physics.

The cat knows if it is alive or dead. And you alluded to this point, which I’ve never heard discussed outside of acid campfires - the whole thing falls completely apart with more than one observer…

Posted by: Rae | May 29 2022 20:36 utc | 45

You are truly of a rapier wit /sarc
@ c1ue | May 29 2022 17:25 utc | 18

If brevity is the soul of wit, what to make of multipage scrolls from clueless one?
To begin with: clueless that science works from observation to theory, rather than the other way around.

For clueless one to link such utter tripe as post number one speaks volumes about standards of truth in play for them. Here's how their video clownrant commences:

You've heard that CO2 is causing our climate to change, but is that true? I claim it isn't. I claim you're not being told the truth.

This is so obviously not a quest for understanding, or an open-minded inquiry to illuminate difficult questions. This is exactly how finely-honed confusion is presented: "You're not being told the truth!" Notable in this pattern of exposition is the absense of any actual theme. Fossil fool propagandists have no actual theme, only fear, uncertainty, doubt (as with their ideological forebears, the tobacco lobby) -- only tearing down valid work of qualified scientists, calling into question the whole legitimacy of climate science. This pattern of exposition is called denialism because we have no idea what else to call it. There's literally nothing there there, besides denial.

Encountering clueless one's habitual abuse of science, how can a reasonable person infer something else: I see a fundamental hostility to truth, too glaring to let slide by. Call them out on their rentier religion, their extractivist enthusiasm; invariably they've got nothing but insults (anyone dissenting from their domineering insights is found to be a "moron"). Except this once -- please excuse my rapier wit.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 29 2022 20:47 utc | 46

c1ue @ 1

Refreshing. Climate change has been wrecking civiliztions long before fossil fuels and it will after if we dont nuke ourselves first. Oil is a dirty business both politically and environmentally, no doubt. Orbital mechanics has been ignored.

The Earth is a very comlex system. The greatest greenhous gas make up the clouds.

Posted by: circumspect | May 29 2022 21:03 utc | 47

@ Rae | May 29 2022 20:36 utc | 45

Absolutely! The cat knows if it's alive, and if it's dead -- well then I guess there's one less observer (or perhaps multiverse). I think there's genuine, profound confusion at the foundations of mathematics, science, and philosophy. All of these tumultuous intellectual passages are part of our world, at the level of the noosphere. I can't say: "that's inconsistent, throw it out" because I'll wind up with an empty library shelf, and I like to read. Reading the turmoil, my aim is not to impeach the science, but to probe detectable patterns, as in chaos theory. I'd just like to understand a little more about this world before I'm done here, that's all.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 29 2022 21:03 utc | 48

if we dont nuke ourselves first
@ circumspect | May 29 2022 21:03 utc | 47

That ominous if vaporizes questions about atmospheric greenhouse gasses, I'd agree.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 29 2022 21:09 utc | 49

Posted by: circumspect | May 29 2022 21:03 utc | 47

more horseshit. yes climate change has happened before, and it's happening now, but not to this extent in our history. this time, WE are causing it. this is not a hard concept to grasp, but the vapid rhetoric you are using seems convincing to some. Newsflash, scientists are aware of clouds, and water vapor, and the near retired geriatric Lindzen has not been able to back up his theory of climate change. nobody else has come up with an alternative explanation, either, despite the vast wealth of the fossil fuel giants.

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 29 2022 21:10 utc | 50

there is no evidence clue, that you can read graphs better than the people who make a living doing it, and that includes the scientists that told Exxon 40 years ago that fossil fuel use was changing the climate, and it includes the "skeptic" scientists who conducted the BEST study which came to the conclusion, shockingly, that the scientific consensus, based on predictions and consistent theories and input from multiple fields, was correct. keep pretending. would you next like tp pretend that giant defense contractors are helpless victims of the antiwar movement? how about claiming Big Pharma is a helpless victim of alternative medicine.

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 29 2022 21:14 utc | 51

George Soros who has been described as a U.S. resident/citizen for over a decade is now being touted as a citizen of Great Britain.

Posted by: Alberto | May 29 2022 21:23 utc | 52

I did two semesters of applied quantum mechanics in undergrad when I studied semiconductor device theory. The book we were taught from was David Griffiths' "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" and he saved the various paradoxes including the famous Schrödinger's Cat for the end, as his aim stated at the beginning was to teach us to do quantum mechanics. In the greater scheme of things the cat-in-the-box...er...controversy is but a curiosity when one is actually taught to do/use quantum mechanics.

The details at this point in my life are foggy, but the confusion and farce hinge on semantics. To "measure" or to "observe." The idea that opening the box and looking in is what kills the cat, etc.

I, and Griffiths IIRC, prefer Bohr's interpretation. This is how some Wikipedia editor summarizes it and it's pretty much the same thing Griffiths says:

One of the main scientists associated with the Copenhagen interpretation, Niels Bohr, offered an interpretation that is independent of a subjective observer-induced collapse of the wave function, or of measurement; instead, an "irreversible" or effectively irreversible process causes the decay of quantum coherence which imparts the classical behavior of "observation" or "measurement".[14][15][16][17] Thus, Schrödinger's cat would be either dead or alive long before the box is observed.[18]

A resolution of the paradox is that the triggering of the Geiger counter counts as a measurement of the state of the radioactive substance. Because a measurement has already occurred deciding the state of the cat, the subsequent observation by a human records only what has already occurred.[19] Analysis of an actual experiment by Roger Carpenter and A. J. Anderson found that measurement alone (for example by a Geiger counter) is sufficient to collapse a quantum wave function before any human knows of the result.[20] The apparatus indicates one of two colors depending on the outcome. The human observer sees which color is indicated, but they don't consciously know which outcome the color represents. A second human, the one who set up the apparatus, is told of the color and becomes conscious of the outcome, and the box is opened to check if the outcome matches.[11] However, it is disputed whether merely observing the color counts as a conscious observation of the outcome.[21]

Hence I never went down the path of multiverses and consciousness/consciousnesses. IMO, the thought experiment in question does a fine job on its own of bringing the quantum into the macro/Newtonian for a casual reader. On the quantum level, things in fact can exist in multiple states simultaneously for the purpose of making many useful real-world calculations and statistical predictions. Doing the QM (and all the various types of math involved) that lead up to Griffiths' Afterword was an incredibly enlightening (and at many times difficult) experience with far more nuance than a cat which is either alive or dead.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 21:40 utc | 53

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29, 2022 at 21:40

Regarding my use of the term "applied" I suppose that could be confusing or contradictory. We didn't actually APPLY QM, LOL. However, we applied the principals taught to us along with our math backgrounds to do a much deeper dive into how QM can be useful in the Newtonian world.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 21:42 utc | 54

But thank you for engaging in the usual consensus tactic of ad hominem, as opposed to actually looking at the information.

Posted by: c1ue | May 29 2022 20:12 utc | 42

I don't know if you caught it, but one of the first replies to you included this link which takes his claims and addresses them one-by-one. If the combination of that and his obvious lack of physics and other scientific training and experience qualifies as ad hominem, so be it. I enjoy reading many of your posts - and agree with much of your logic on other matters, but not everything - and definitely not when it comes to climate and AGW which seems to trigger you (not meant in an adversarial or insulting way) into strident argument and conclusions.

A rebuttal to David Siegel

So far as I can tell you're:

1) Saying that you acknowledge the Earth is warming, due to certain types of human activity, just not the burning of fossil fuels;

2) Are steadfastly against alternative energy - save perhaps nuclear? - as a means of reducing CO2 and other compounds/molecules because you think it's all a big money making hoax;

3) Are acknowledging the negative effects of deforestation and factory farming in the global south including deleterious effects leading to overall planetary warming(?);

4) Don't think it's worth anyone's while to look for ways to reduce global warming because it's mostly outside of our control (?)

? = I'm not sure so I'm asking rather than asserting

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 21:56 utc | 55

Interesting barfights going on.

Thanks everyone for sharing with me.

EPMD - You Gots to Chill

Desiderata: Original Text

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

by Max Ehrmann ©1927

Posted by: lex taliionis | May 29 2022 22:15 utc | 56

c1ue and others: Mike Gravel's people just released a pretty objective look at electric vehicles and the notion that they'll be our savior (though that's drastically oversimplifying the positions).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1IzZ6yRV-Y&t=38s

Again, I think it's pretty fair and balanced from a progressive position, anyway. Hint: a lot of it has to do with how EVs and their components are manufactured and the extractive processes currently needed to obtain the materials (something I've acknowledged re: PV cells). Genuinely interested in anyone's opinion if you get a chance to watch it.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 22:31 utc | 57

pretzelattack @ 50

You are wrong on this issue. Not to this extent in our history? Does the end of the ice age count? When was the thermometer invented? Does ice skateing on the Thames count? The Maunder Minuimum, does that count?

Horeshit for sure, horseshit from the gloablists using image manipulation and scary voiceovers to serve their purpose. Kicking scietist off of social media on this issue is horseshit. That is only the surface level maniplations. Once that happens I know the fix is in.

I do support a better energy mix. Not a big fan of the oil industry and their manipulations either.

One would need something we do not have at this time. A clear understanding of a complex system called the Earth. Without that it is nothing more than "God created the Earth in six days".

Posted by: circumspect | May 29 2022 22:40 utc | 58

@57 T Q C - Thanks for sharing the video. I call total BS on electric vehicles. If a battery I use dies, I am supposed to treat it like toxic waste. It probably is. What are we going to do with all the electric vehicles when they reach their lifespan? Are there any realistic ways to recycle lithium batteries? I did a search. Other people, much smarter than Lex, have thought of this as well.

Princeton battery startup thing

Electric vehicles sound okay when virtue signaling, but I think it is a joke. Plus, say I wanted to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco. 400 miles. I couldn't make it on a single charge. So what do I do? Sit around for an hour to charge the car? I could fill up in 10 minutes all said and done.

And where does the electricity come from? They mentioned this with a bit of a panacea about solar and wind. (I can't believe they forgot utilizing tidal changes to generate energy) They neglected to mention nuclear at all.

Michael Moore executive produced the film "Planet of the Humans" and caught a bunch of flack because the film pointed out a lot of the major problems with "green energy."

I do agree with the video about public transportation and cycling. I cycle to work. I have done it my whole life. It makes me happy. I get exercise, save money, and I get to "put my money where my mouth" is. I realize that living in LA it is much easier that in places where weather is an issue. The USA is a bit of problem with the way suburbs have been built as well. For many people, cars are their only option for getting from point a to b.

Additionally, wasn't (f)Elon Musk involve in some regime change schemes in Bolivia since they sit on a bunch of lithium?

fElon Musk(rat)

Otherwise, it was nice to see a somewhat balanced take on electric vehicles and some of their drawbacks.

I hate to pick things apart on technical levels, but...
At 3 minutes in they highlighted Kazakhstan and in the audio said it was Tibet. Bad film editor. (I am one.) There was another bit of a mistake regarding 26,000 which was voiced as "twenty thousand six hundred." The producer would say fix that. Or if they were mean they would use slightly more salty language.
Beyond that, thanks!

Posted by: lex talionis | May 29 2022 23:18 utc | 59

bevin @40--

Happy I came online and read your comment. Russia is seen as both Motherland & Fatherland, the terms being interchangeable. The most recent evidence for Russia/Putin's social policy was provided by the Meeting of the State Council Presidium on Social Support of Citizens held May 25th. On Russia/Putin's political economy, the two video appearances at the EAEU Forum here and here plus Escobar's and my own articles provide great insight into that issue. Then there's all the other previous events listed at the Kremlin's website that provide a further wealth of information that ought to satisfy all questions regarding Russia's social and economic policies, which the researcher will discover are deeply entwined. The Russian government's goal is to uplift ALL Russians throughout Russia, which remains a huge task given Russia's size and the remoteness of some of its settlements. You mentioned the Tsars and the relationship/bond they had with Russians, which is difficult to know from a bottom->up POV since few from the Peasant Class ever wrote and published such information, which leaves us with lots of Top->Down observations. IMO, Putin is seen as a Tsar by many Russians, and he's the best national leader alive today. The relationship he's cultivated with China's leaders and Chinese generally is outstanding because all have the same goal--uplifting society and betterment of the nation--which when you stop and think about those two aspects are Conservative Goals with an emphasis on the communalistic that begins with family--in the case of both nations, the extended family that stretches back generations, whose preservation and veneration is paramount. And IMO, that's where the great divide between West and East occurs.

I could write much more, but the above is enough for people to look into. Yes, the links are in Russian.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 29 2022 23:37 utc | 60

Posted by: lex talionis | May 29 2022 23:18 utc | 59

Good feedback, thank you! I may share some of your comments - especially the corrections - in their YouTube comments. My family will probably end up having to buy an EV or hybrid at some point, but I drive so little that I'm not in a rush to do so; and the road rage these days is ridiculous. Also everybody here drives gigantic trucks and SUVs which'd crush a smaller car down to coffin size. The older I get the less often I even want to get into a car, any car.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 23:59 utc | 61

Hi Tom, please share my humble comments. I think hybrid vehicles are an excellent option. I try to keep an open mind.
And road rage here in LA is...raging. Stay safe!

Posted by: lex talionis | May 30 2022 0:06 utc | 62

How the British invented George Soros . . .

https://humansbefree.com/2021/06/british-invented-george-soros.html

Posted by: Alberto | May 30 2022 0:21 utc | 63

"i read this and thought you might enjoy it..

Reactionary Metaphysics II - Problems With the Worship Model"

Posted by: james | May 29 2022 16:34 utc |

Thank you, james. But apologies; I was up at 4:30 to water my parched garden after the previous day's heat and wind. (And lucky I did as wind minus heat was Sunday's fare commencing at 10.) May gave me lovely roses (thank you, May) but somehow left a void as far as weather loveliness ongoing. We usually get rain in July - I'm hoping it will be earlier.

But I digress. I was meaning to say my brain is on the downturn so I will put off a complete readthrough till morning. Meanwhile if I have anything insightful to post I will limit myself to cogitating on the preliminary extract below - thanks again!

... To summarize, some religions and their practitioners take the position that one must simply believe in prescribed dogma to achieve the salvation of one’s soul and the ascent to a better plane of existence in the afterlife. Others, that one must seek out this experience themselves and come to know it, not just believe it.

This is the main difference between what can be termed exoteric and esoteric spirituality...

"esoteric" [my ancient Webster's]:
1. Designed for, and understood by, the specially initiated alone; abstruse; also, belonging to the circle initiated in such teachings
2. Withheld from open avowal; private; as an esoteric purpose

"exoteric" [same as above]:
1. External; exterior
2. Suitable to be imparted to the public; hence, readily comprehensible

So far, I'm with the exoterics as far as spirituality is concerned, though I'm not sure which is which in the summation above. Hopefully by morning, that will become clear, along with whatever other problems might arise in 'the worship model' - whatever that is. (cf., perhaps, Saint John's admonition: "Little children, shun idols"?)

Thanks again, james ;)

To anyone interested, today in Orthodoxy is the final Sunday of the Easter cycle, The Feast of the Blind Man -- who, when questioned by the authorities does not know who Jesus is, only that he now can see. While his mother has charmingly said "Ask him; he is of age." (Having sons, I love that.)

Ascension comes next Thursday, Pentecost (the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles) the second Sunday after that. All very exoteric, I think. But of course, that's just me.

Posted by: juliania | May 30 2022 0:22 utc | 64

@ lex talionis | May 29 2022 23:18 utc | 59

lex - i enjoyed your commentary and viewpoint.. thanks for sharing... your post reminded me of a book i read a long time ago - the geography of nowhere by a guy named james howard kunstler.. in the book he talks about how los angeles arrived at the place it is with regard to transportation issues... you would enjoy the book for the specific section where he talks about that..

@ juliania | May 30 2022 0:22 utc | 64

thanks for taking a look.. wait until your mind is clear and you have some time... i thought it was thought provoking myself.. i think the author tends to describe exoteric as material world, and esoteric as inner world, but i might be putting words in this article that aren't their... that is how i tend to see it..obviously the 2 lean on each othre and where one identifies is going to always be subjective in nature.. no matter what way a person interfaces with religion or spirituality, it is going to be a personal experience... read the article if you have time and let me know your thoughts if you feel like sharing..

good luck with the roses and the garden more generally.. i think you have the opposite weather that we have here at the moment.. the peas and strawberries here are looking and doing quite well.. way too soon to put out the cucumber starter plants we have going inside, or some of the pepper plants too.. put out the zinnias the past week..

Posted by: james | May 30 2022 0:34 utc | 65

@ rib1.5. #24

The micimatt-polluting profiteers and accomplices suck at the bossom of the state which is financed by the peoples whilst common workers all around are deported, sickened and impoverished

Child-bearing aged women here are now forced, “incentivized” to bear replacement workers and
their babes will suffer if they do not personally give breast milk at the threat of losing their low-wage employment and yet theif babes may still suffer relatively depending on the water and food infrastructure available to them
or their babes will suffer from bacterial infections from crap production facilities not kept clean while the facilities’ ceos take home millions — if they don’t give the breast

Except for the wealthy who have well- fed private sanitiary nursemaids to succor and nurture their babes in gun-free secure environs

Ain’t this system the cat’s pj’s? Well, no.

“Burying one’s head in the sand “ consists of sticking it out into the stultifying ambience of generally accepted information without discernment.

I leave these polemics to you as you excel in them.

Posted by: suzan | May 30 2022 0:53 utc | 66

"The cat knows if it is alive or dead. "

Posted by: Rae | May 29 2022 20:36 utc | 45

The cat only "knows" if it is alive.

Posted by: Dadda | May 30 2022 1:01 utc | 67

j @ j - What a pleasant conversation. I am following the situation in Ukraine closely, and it pains me very much. This thread is a pleasant distraction. I so enjoy the space which our host, b, has provided us. For all the epithets and screeds spread in the (evergrowing!) threads/conversations, everyone is so cool. And ... jeez. Smart.
James - Thanks for the book reference.

Here's a clip from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, my probably my most favorite movie in the whole. It shows the planned destruction of public transportation in LA. Kinda like Chinatown re: water, only funny.

"Who needs a car in LA? We got the best public transportation in the world."

juliania - I wish you a wonderful Feast of the Blind Man. I am very interested in the Orthodox Faith. Your thoughtful posts have only furthered this feeling.

Posted by: lex talionis | May 30 2022 1:11 utc | 68

The FLCCC has developed a treatment protocol for those who are vaccine injured. None of our medical institutions are recognizing such a condition, and consequently there is no diagnosis, no treatment:

I-RECOVER: Post-Vaccine Treatment

There's more information, videos, etc on the homepage. I just sent this news over to a friend whose own friend has experienced epileptic fits following vaccination. So in case you know anyone...

~~

That protocol page links to a backgrounder on the medical reasoning followed by FLCCC doctors regarding the situation of vaccine injury. It's pretty compelling, to say the least:

An Approach to the Management of Post-Vaccine Syndrome

...as of May 16, 2022, 815,385 adverse events have been reported in the United States alone following COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, over 5,309 cases of myocarditis, 151,796 serious adverse events, and 14,613 deaths have been recorded in the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following COVID-19 vaccination. Note that the VAERS database is limited by underreporting, by a factor of at least 30-fold. [2]

Furthermore, published trials data suggest that at least 1 to 1.5 percent of vaccinated patients develop
serious adverse events following vaccination. [2,3] Since 572 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have
been administered in the U.S.—and 11 billion worldwide—it is likely there are millions of vaccine-injured
patients worldwide, and at least 2 million cases in the U.S.

As the medical community does not recognize this serious humanitarian disaster, these patients have
unfortunately been shunned and denied access to the medical care they need and deserve.

Posted by: Grieved | May 30 2022 1:26 utc | 69

@ lex talionis | May 30 2022 1:11 utc | 68

lol... thanks! one more movie i have never seen... the number of movies i haven't seen is endless! i have to cut out the reading and spend more time watching... enjoy the rest of the day lex.. i'm off to see peggy baker dancing.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Baker

Posted by: james | May 30 2022 1:53 utc | 70

The apparatus indicates one of two colors depending on the outcome. The human observer sees which color is indicated, but they don't consciously know which outcome the color represents. A second human, the one who set up the apparatus, is told of the color and becomes conscious of the outcome, and the box is opened to check if the outcome matches. However, it is disputed whether merely observing the color counts as a conscious observation of the outcome.
@ Tom_Q_Collins | May 29 2022 21:40 utc | 53

Thanks much for that -- you've been much further down this path than me, for whom it's just a hobby. I love the However concluding the passage above -- almost casually leaching into a psychological theory of reality, wherein the tree never did fall in that forest unobserved. The mathematical form of such an orientation would be intutionism:

where mathematics is considered to be purely the result of the constructive mental activity of humans rather than the discovery of fundamental principles claimed to exist in an objective reality

People who complete good studies of quantum physics shouldn't have any trouble finding work, I'm sure the standard model takes care of everything practically needed. But out on the edge, in theoretical physics with the likes of Ed Witten out at Princeton, my impression of those people: They're constructing castles in the air, based on nothing but aesthetic taste, a feeling for how many dimensions we need in order for the math to feel elegant. That business feels like a return to intuitionism -- which could be valid only if intuition were reliable. But it isn't.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 30 2022 3:14 utc | 71

Deteriorata
Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself,
And heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss, and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do.
Wherever possible, put people on hold.
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment,
and despite the changing fortunes of time,
There is always a big future in computer maintenance.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 30 2022 3:30 utc | 72

@72 - brilliant!

Posted by: lex talionis | May 30 2022 4:33 utc | 73

The cat only "knows" if it is alive.

Posted by: Dadda | May 30 2022 1:01 utc | 67

How do you "know" ?

Posted by: K | May 30 2022 6:00 utc | 74

@ lex talionis | May 30 2022 4:33 utc | 73

Just to make sure -- I hope you're not crediting humble Aleph with brilliance for the reprinted Deteriorata. Words and music by Tony Hendra and Christopher Guest (of Spinal Tap renown):

(You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA7383noev8

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 30 2022 6:10 utc | 75

hi aleph-null - i was fully crediting you. I love Spinal Tap but didn't remember! Bravo! Reading you discussion with Tom Q Collins gives me great respect for your intellect. Rock on! Thank you!

Posted by: lex talionis | May 30 2022 6:22 utc | 76

aleph. that song is so fantastic. I bow down,, sir. 10 Q.

Posted by: lex talionis | May 30 2022 6:27 utc | 77

@ lex talionis | May 30 2022 6:27 utc | 77

If that's the first time you've heard it, I envy you the experience. You only get to get your mind blown like that just once. I was an inadequately enhanced child the first time I heard Deteriorata, so it flat-out has to numerically qualify as an "oldie" by now, I'm afraid.

It's kind of you to say that stuff. People get annoyed with me -- I am consistently annoying when I swat down compliments, because most people who do that are shamelessly digging for more. I'm intensively introspecting, this very moment, to figure out why praise makes me so uncomfortable...

I serve two masters in my writing. I want to cultivate an ability to write something people might like to read -- why not? Well, I wouldn't want to accidentally persuade anyone to my point of view -- which sucks, imho. Seriously. I really know, because it's my own tired eyes behind these glasses.

My name is Aleph, and I'm a "doomer" -- come to think of it, that song's conclusion lands pretty close to where I've wound up, after all these years: "Give up". Not really funny, gosh darn it: I have to worry about what's appropriate for children to hear, because their welfare is all that matters. I don't want them to reach the same conclusion. I don't know how to help.

Not all by myself, at any rate.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 30 2022 7:16 utc | 78

From Montréal, to start the week

First, congrats to Finland (…I guess… :-) on the IIHF win
https://twitter.com/IIHFHockey/status/1531005451378126848

News to feel bad about (not monkeypox) —

Le Canada « un paradis » pour la mafia
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/2022-05-30/le-canada-un-paradis-pour-la-mafia.php

Montreal’s Trudeau airport emits lots of pollutants —
https://globalnews.ca/news/8868977/montreal-trudeau-airport-air-quality-pollutants-study/

News to feel good about (not Ukrainian) —

Protéger les milieux humides!
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/environnement/2022-05-30/les-quebecois-prets-a-debourser-280-millions-pour-proteger-les-milieux-humides.php

The Power to help: Misión Santa Teresa
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/the-power-to-help-montreal-mision-santa-teresa-de-avila

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | May 30 2022 13:06 utc | 79

Excellent explanation of China's Covid policies.
Could someone who believes that the Covid 19 pandemic is just a hoax concocted by governments bent on world domination please explain how China fits in? And why the right wing of western politicians- usually the first to seize opportunities to promote authoritarian policies and suppress democracy- turned right around and exposed the "hoax"?

"...However, China is determined to contain the virus while maintaining economic growth. This strategy stems from a deep care for the vulnerable, a strong belief in the people’s strength and resilience, and unswerving faith in the country’s future.

"The dynamic zero-COVID approach suits that goal best.
Excellent explanation of China's Covid policies.

"Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has always put the people and their lives first. China’s dynamic zero-COVID policy is not aimed at realizing zero infection, but rather at bringing COVID-19 under control at the minimum social cost in the shortest time possible so as to effectively protect the health, normal life and production of the Chinese people to the maximum.

"The relaxation of epidemic control and prevention is not suitable for the world’s most populous country, home to 267 million elderly people aged 60 and above and 260 million people with underlying health conditions, currently vaccination rates for elderly and children are not high enough...."
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/dynamic-zero-covid-approach-chinas-choice-to-safeguard-lives-underpin-economic-growth/

Posted by: bevin | May 30 2022 13:49 utc | 80

First up - Grieved @ 69 - huge thanks for that link! My dear family, two branches at least, have not been completely in tune with my fears about the vaccine and its after effects -- and now they are experiencing those. I have just passed on the link, as it addresses issues I have worried about all along -- the most I could do staying connected with them has been to urge them to fortify their immune systems as much as possible, and some are faring better having done that. But this is matter of fact helpful advice, and not 'I told you so', the latter being cruel and unhelpful; so I've forwarded the link without comment.

THANK YOU

james @ 65:

Thanks for responding! My morning thoughts are always better than my weary evening ones, or even daytime later reflections when I think I know it all. Last night I got as far as consideration of the first segment on the Judaic faith followed by Christianity's 'latching onto' that -- it was as far as I could go. I had become distracted by my own objections to what I perceived as non-truthful assessments of two important faiths. I could go no further. It was something like that sign Dante sees at the mouth of hell: 'Abandon hope, all ye that enter here.' [ It's also the sign, as I remember, that prisoners see on entering the Tower of London - pretty daunting!] I did not feel up to abandoning hope. I went to bed.

This morning, as you have now helpfully interpreted the "exo" and the "eso" as the author of the piece is using those,I have new thoughts - I'll try to express them in my next post, as this one is getting long in the tooth. (I think you will like what I've come up with this morning!)

Posted by: juliania | May 30 2022 13:58 utc | 81

I am pretty sure I was banned from this site last year in the Covid era for not accepting the Party Line and talking about the stroke I had from the J&J vaccine (now discontinued). Nice to see you can actually talk about the numerous and awful side effects now.

Posted by: SAMiam | May 30 2022 14:22 utc | 82

james, first up I'll tell you what caused me to 'abandon abandoning hope' last night, and then I will move to my morning eureka moment and see what you think about that.

I did not think the description of the Judaic faith was accurate - in fact I was stunned by the statement that it advocated 'the killing of the first born child'. How that could be thought to be true seemed impossible; I still can't see that it is anything but a lie. Because the texts say the opposite. My second point of disbelief or non-acceptance was the derisive tone then used for the Christian linkage to Old Testament scripture. It's very hard for it not to be linked, since its founder was a Jew who preached in the Jewish temple. But if the first description of Judaism is acceptable, then the second of Christianity is also okay. You can't have the later one without the other earlier one.

So, I'll just start with that first statement. I reply that the teachings of Yaweh never, absolutely never, advocated human sacrifice. So strong was that injunction against pagan practices that the great test for Abraham was to reconcile his faith with the apparent edict to take Isaac up the mountain and kill him. Kierkegaard has a lot of difficulty with that in 'Fear and Trembling' and I don't entirely agree with his solution to the situation. I think the lesson in that story is that Abraham fundamentally knew that how God was testing him was a test of his belief that in spite of everything as it sounded, ultimately God would provide the sacrifice, which is what he tells Isaac on the way up the mountain. He believed that. He did what God told him to do but he believed it would not happen because God could only be a God who did not believe in human sacrifice. He's quite singular in that. I think we Christians (and the Jews) see Abraham as that figure unlike any other, not like Moses (who is the one telling about Abraham) and not like Job (who has plenty to say against what has happened to him). Single-minded. And called "Father Abraham" for that reason.

Well, that's my exegesis. I'd better save my eureka for another post!

;)

Posted by: juliania | May 30 2022 14:30 utc | 83

Here's my eureka in a nutshell, james:

I realized I needed to go back to your first post on this subject. Here it is:

@ juliania

i read this and thought you might enjoy it..

Reactionary Metaphysics II - Problems With the Worship Model

Posted by: james | May 29 2022 16:34 utc | 12

Isn't this just as it is in the novel which is our common ground on which we stand, "The Brothers Karamazov"? Aren't you being Ivan with his manuscript beckoning to Alyosha from the upstairs room of the tavern in the town square: Book Five - 'Pro n Contra' where the brothers get acquainted?

If so, perhaps our discussion can lead others to investigate that remarkable novel.

I'm game!

Posted by: juliania | May 30 2022 15:01 utc | 84

Probably should have written that 'Pro i contra' as that's how it sould sound. "i" for "Ivan".

Posted by: juliania | May 30 2022 15:08 utc | 85

@Aleph_Null #46
Yet another post with zero content but tons of ad hominem.

I am so glad you insist on reinforcing your self-identification as a moron.

Posted by: c1ue | May 30 2022 15:10 utc | 86

As there have been several comments about global heating this might be a good opportunity for me to ask a question that I've been wondering about. What is the characteristic of carbon dioxide that enables it to allow sunlight to pass unrestricted into and through the earth atmosphere, but does restrict the sunlight when it tries to reflect from the earth's surface back through the atmosphere?

Posted by: Chas | May 30 2022 15:12 utc | 87

@pretzelattack #51
Actually, there is lots of evidence I can read graphs better today than Exxon scientists in the 1970s. Among other things, we have these newfangled devices called satellites now.

And the entire point of having more people, with more diverse opinions, who don't share a pre-existing ideology, to look at anything is precisely to hash out the errors which a hidebound, inbred, corrupt, and hypocritical small group of people is likely to exhibit.

But somehow neither democratic nor scientific principles matter when sacred cows like doom-mongering climate change are the subject.

Posted by: c1ue | May 30 2022 15:13 utc | 88

Miles Mathis makes an excellent case for Uvalde being a faked
Intelligence Operation, it might ease the pain of those so worried about the children. For those interested it digs deep into Texas.

http://mileswmathis.com/uvalde.pdf

Posted by: Quanah | May 30 2022 15:23 utc | 89

@Tom_Q_Collins #55
Let's take your latest list and further expand, first, then I'll address the "rebuttal"

1) Saying that you acknowledge the Earth is warming, due to certain types of human activity, just not the burning of fossil fuels;

I'm saying the Earth is warming due to LIA recovery. This is very clear from millenia scales. Is there warming from humans added on? Very possibly, but the actual amount is very unclear.

2) Are steadfastly against alternative energy - save perhaps nuclear? - as a means of reducing CO2 and other compounds/molecules because you think it's all a big money making hoax;

No, I am not against alternative energy.
I am against crap replacement energy sources which don't actually either replace the existing capability (cap factor, generation profile AND reliability) or even remotely replace the economic impact of existing capability (horrifically expensive due to need for backup, need for curtailment, very high up front costs, etc etc).

If we had literally no choices as in the "peak oil" doomsters were correct, alternative energy might be acceptable then ... except we do have an alternative that is proven to work: nuclear. Nuclear is even literally carbon free.
The "alternative energy" as defined today to be acceptable is pure nonsense.

3) Are acknowledging the negative effects of deforestation and factory farming in the global south including deleterious effects leading to overall planetary warming(?);

I acknowledge the negative effects of deforestation, city building, road building, i.e. all of the environmental impacts of 7.6 billion humans on Earth.
Are they leading to warming? Not clear, probably but How much?
How would we fix it? Who pays? Who decides the tradeoff of poor humans vs. rich? Of poor humans vs. "the environment"?

I can't say that the limousine liberal environmental movement has inspired any confidence in me that they will execute rationally and ethically - rather what I clearly see: venally and selfishly.

4) Don't think it's worth anyone's while to look for ways to reduce global warming because it's mostly outside of our control (?)

I am 100% for research into alternative energy, storage or other methods which can actually replace existing energy ecosystems, as opposed to parasitically damage them. And if/when such approximately equivalent or superior systems are found, to then replace fossil fuels.

I am 100% for ways to mitigate the negative effects of warming - human or not is irrelevant - because there are negative effects as well as positive ones, this being reality as opposed to a video game or movie.

I am 100% against overtly ideologically bureaucratic organizations feasting on government money to promote their very obvious agendas.

I am 100% against meekly accepting what a bunch of proven liars, manipulators and bad faith scientists have been spouting out.

Now for the supposed debunking:

For example, he claims the Hockey Stick temperature chart is wrong. He claims that it was warmer in medieval times, 1,000 years ago, than it is today. He commits a logical fallacy when he writes that in the past the change in CO2 lagged the change in temperature, implying that it therefore cannot cause the rise in temperature we see today. We deal with some of these issues in this article.

First: The article was not written w/ respect to the video.
The video makes zero mention of the hockey stick, for example.

Second: past CO2 lags of temperature increases are not indicative of today or the future.
Ok, if we accept that, then the consensus doom-monger climate movement cannot keep saying that CO2 is causing temperature increases, either.

The true scientific revolution is the existence of the null hypothesis: there is no requirement to be positive or negative, which is what this so-called critique is implying. Fail.

Third: A litany of supposed evidence.

It’s getting hotter. The mean global surface temperature is increasing, very quickly. This can be seen by monitoring temperatures changes on land and sea. Gardeners, farmers and wine producers know that planting zones are shifting to the poles; northwards in the northern hemisphere, and southwards below the equator. Spring snow has shown a marked decline in the northern hemisphere.

Wait, didn't we just say that if you're going to ignore the past record, you can hardly start saying the CO2 correlation with temperature is causation?

Fail.

Sea level is rising. This is because the oceans are getting warmer (expansion of water) and ice sheets and glaciers are melting.

The problem is that sea level rising was occurring long before mass fossil fuel use and the increase is the same now and then. So it cannot possibly be "primarily due to human CO2".

Heat waves are worse than they used to be. The heat wave in India earlier this year was among the most deadly ever recorded anywhere. There have been disastrous heat waves in Europe this century as well, which were most likely exacerbated by global warming (see this article in Nature, also).

If temperatures increase, would not heat waves also increase?
There are also major issues with "ever recorded anywhere" - a record that spans very little time. The record is not more than 300 years, an eyeblink in geologic time. Furthermore, an increase in heat waves due to temperature increases does not mean either the heat waves or the temperature increases are due to human influence.

Worsening drought. Heat waves and warming generally exacerbates drought, like the current drought in California.

This is garbage from the get-go. The usual conflation of present weather with supposed climate - made doubly ironic because the weather models are predicting MORE rainfall for California in the future due to global warming.

Wetter California Projected by CMIP6 Models With Observational Constraints Under a High GHG Emission Scenario

the state-of-the-art Earth system models (ESMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) projected −3% to +42% and −27% to +63% precipitation changes in northern and central-southern CA, respectively, under the high greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenario (SSP585)

Wildfires are burning more fiercely. Worsening heat and drought also means that fires can burn more fiercely — like the firestorms in Australia (Canberra, Kinglake and Tasmania and elsewhere), in North America (Canada, Alaska, California, Washington, Arizona and elsewhere), and in Europe (Greece and across the Mediterranean), and Asia (Siberia, Indonesia), and Africa (Cape Town)

More anecdotal junk. We do know for a fact that the US is reforesting, because prior to fossil fuels - trees were a major source of fuel. Ditto for Europe. We also know for sure the fuel levels (i.e. accumulated dry biomass) in forests has been increasing steadily decades (at least party due to higher CO2 levels). Add in more humans living in the forests, well duh we will have more and hotter fires.

Flash floods are getting worse. Heavy rains are more frequent and are contributing to flash floods. Events such as the 2013 Colorado floods, this year’s Riviera flash flood, and Australia’s Big Wet are likely to become more frequent. The “worst floods in 50 years” is becoming a more common headline (eg for Malawi, India and Pakistan, and Japan).

This is flat out wrong - IPCC says there is little evidence of increased flooding. There is tons of evidence of increased humans living on flood plains, however.

Tropical cyclones (hurricanes and typhoons) are expected to become stronger. Some scientists feel this is already happening. Because there are only a few tropical cyclones each year, it will take some time to determine trends as the world warms. Haiyan was the fiercest storm ever recorded at landfall, and like Katrina, was strengthened by warm sea water at depth, not just on the surface, which is almost certainly due to global warming. Hurricane Patricia was the most intense ever measured in the Western Hemisphere. The total amount of energy that shows up in tropical cyclones, globally, has been increasing in recent decades.

This is flat out wrong. Total energy, damage, numbers of cat 3 hurricanes making landfall in the US - all of these are down vs. historical record (and note historical record is only about 150 years).

So net net: the usual Skeptical Science stack of garbage.

It is also clear you did not even bother to watch even short parts of the video, choosing instead to outsource your brain activity to Google Search and thence to Skeptical Science.

This is exactly how "the consensus" works.

Posted by: c1ue | May 30 2022 15:42 utc | 90

@Tom_Q_Collins #57
Not interested. It is already 100% clear that electric vehicles as a replacement for ICE vehicles on the road, in my lifetime, is a fantasy.

The reasons are glaringly obvious to anyone with half a brain and a full measure of integrity:

1) The US power generation and transmission capability has to upscale by 60% when we aren't even maintaining what we already have.
2) The materials needed for EVs are simply not there. Even if they were to be found, the environmental impact from mining and refining them would be truly enormous: a huge increase in overall weight of vehicles which translates from more and novel materials (battery material for electric, platinum group for hybrid). A model 3 Tesla weighs between 3,648 to 4,250 lbs vs. the 2,910 to 3,150 lbs for a Corolla. The difference (and more) is battery and associated EV gear like regenerative braking. More weight = less efficiency driving and more materials needed for manufacture.
3) The average US car on the road is 12.2 years old. A switchout would require the buyout of 276 275 million cars, minus another 2 or 3 million sold in the next 3-5 years, at some very close time in the future.

And what would be done with the 275-ish junked ICE cars? Where will the money come to buy out all these ICE cars? Who is going to be able to make 275-ish million new EVs, even assuming materials were available?

There is no part of the equation that will work in my lifetime even with a Manhattan Project type effort, much less what is actually going on.

Posted by: c1ue | May 30 2022 15:53 utc | 91

@lex talionis #59

You said:

Are there any realistic ways to recycle lithium batteries?

There are, but they are extremely energy intensive - even more than the energy required for harvesting appropriate "wild" lithium salts.

A major dirty secret of both solar PV and wind, also electric vehicles is that they are all dependent on Chinese coal energy: this cheap coal energy is what enables China to refine rare earths, refine lithium, etc.

Thus it seems clear now that the a significant part of the falling price of alternative energy: solar PV and wind was due to Chinese capital deployment and business practices as opposed to any technological improvement.

Posted by: c1ue | May 30 2022 15:57 utc | 92

What is the characteristic of carbon dioxide that enables it to allow sunlight to pass unrestricted into and through the earth atmosphere, but does restrict the sunlight when it tries to reflect from the earth's surface back through the atmosphere?
@ Chas | May 30 2022 15:12 utc | 87

I'm like a little puppy with a bone, I'm so happy to see an apparently sincere question about the greenhouse effect -- rather than the fear, uncertainty, doubt routine of professional disinformers.

Without question, the best place for a question like yours (if indeed sincere) has long been https://skepticalscience.com/ -- the site-name might sound suspect, but they really are genuine scientists, skeptical of unsupportable assertions. They've produced peerless organization of answers to all the basic issues, such as how the greenhouse effect works.

Some issues are so cross-disciplinary, so amalgamated that an historical approach gives you another lever into understanding how we came to understand our planet as we do. In that vein, Spencer Weart's book The Discovery of Global Warming cannot be recommended highly enough, and it's free online.

Back to your question. It's not just CO2 -- CH4 (methane) and N20 (nitrous oxide) and all the greenhouse gasses absorb IR energy rising from the sundrenched planet. If you want a picture of something unimaginable, think of a parcel of energy, a photon, sticking to the orbiting electron of a GHG molecule a few times around the nucleus, changing the rhythm of this molecular sphere until it throws that energy back out, but in a random direction.

Instead of those IR photons floating off into space, balancing the planet's energy budget, there's a teensy tiny bit more energy retained than received. The planet's budget becomes balanced when it's hot enough for the same amount of energy to go out as comes in.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 30 2022 16:06 utc | 93

@lex talionis #62
Hybrid is better than EV in the sense that we will not have to upsize the entire US electricity grid by 60%, but it has the same issues on materials as EVs.

A Camry hybrid is basically a regular Camry with the smallest size engine, with the hybrid battery+motor added on. The weight of the battery is only 105 lbs vs. the 800+ pounds for a pure EV, but that's all extra - and worse yet: the smaller battery means it wears out a lot faster.

It is harder to do smart charging on a small battery, it turns out...

To this, add the rare earths, copper etc required for the electric motor.

So whereas the ICE Camry is good for 300K or more miles, the hybrid Camry will have to change out its batteries 2 or 3 times to hit the same mark.

Posted by: c1ue | May 30 2022 16:07 utc | 94

Silly me, I mistyped N20 instead of N2O, just to put a flaw in the weave.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 30 2022 16:09 utc | 95

I'm repeating, but this is important:

Graph of Oil price divided by the size of the Federal Reserve balance sheet

This, plus Pozsar = why we are not going to see a happy end, soon, to this commodity supercycle and its stagflationary impact on the US and EU.

Harris Kupperman is thinking the Fed is going to back off soon due to fear that tanking the market too much will hurt the already almost dead Democrat chances in November; that is my expectation as well.

Posted by: c1ue | May 30 2022 16:13 utc | 96

@ c1ue and Tom-Collins
"The heat wave in India earlier this year was among the most deadly ever recorded anywhere." Eh, no. Some places in north India (only) got a few power cuts due to coastal coal power stations not buying their usual Indonesian coal due to higher prices due to the US war on Russia in Ukraine.

In general for India's grid power quirks: "It’s not a power crisis or a coal crisis. It’s a payment crisis!" https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/companies/its-not-a-power-crisis-or-a-coal-crisis-its-a-payment-crisis-8419141.html

Politicians at it again, this time to get votes from the farmers with "free" electricity for pumping.

For the rest agree 100% with c1ue's take on the energy / power / climate circus presently.

Posted by: Antonym | May 30 2022 16:19 utc | 97

@Chas #87
The video I posted in #1 specifically talks to this.
In summary: The sun brings photons to earth, but CO2 and other greenhouse gases slow their escape out to space because photons that hit a greenhouse gas molecule get absorbed and re-radiated in a random direction.

The reason why the sun's photons reach the surface vs. the photons being reradiated is because the photons are different frequencies.

Heat reflected off the Earth's surface is mostly infra-red - it is these bands which the greenhouse gases absorb as opposed to the ROY G BIV photons that mostly come down through the atmosphere.
R = red, infra red = heat.
In concrete terms, the Sun's light largely comes down as visible = 400-790 terahertz frequency; infra red is 300 to 400 terahertz frequency and ultraviolet (i.e UV) = 750+.

So the greenhouse gases actually do block some of the sun's effect on earth on the way in, but it is primarily heat/infra-red photons radiated from the ground by which the greenhouse gases produce the largest "heat" effect.

And as the video notes: it is not a "blanket" effect. Blankets and greenhouses work by cutting off convection i.e. air circulation; greenhouse gases work by re-radiation.

Posted by: c1ue | May 30 2022 16:22 utc | 98

The Jacobin article on Europe recommended by b is well worth reading. The nature of the current war cannot be understood except in the context of an imperialist tightening of alliances. And, in particular, a ramped up offensive against democracy, working class living standards and resistance to the arbitrary rule of capitalists, for whom nothing is more important than profit.
The constant attacks on the mere idea of anthropocenic climate change after two centuries of massive industrialisation and environmental degradation are part of this offensive. Something that might have been guessed by identifying the corporate sponsors of the campaign to deny the existence of a completely new sort of climate change.
Here's the link b gave:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/05/eu-perry-anderson-ever-closer-union-book-review

Posted by: bevin | May 30 2022 16:42 utc | 99

Conrad Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour KCSG, voiced his view on the elections in Ontario.

Doug Ford’s shift to the left opens up room for a New Blue to emerge
https://twitter.com/nationalpost/status/1530510758546743302

According to Canada’s Global News reporter, Sean O’Shea, waits at the Dublin airport are even worse than those at Toronto’s Pearson airport.
https://twitter.com/ConsumerSOS/status/1531213068260229120

AP news on France is a man in a wig throwing a pâtisserie at the Mona Lisa, while a 32-year journalist dies in Ukraine. I checked La Presse for some more inspiring news out of France but they just have a report on the journalist:

“La cheffe de la diplomatie française, Catherine Colonna, a affirmé dans un tweet que le reporter avait été « tué par un bombardement russe sur une opération humanitaire alors qu’il exerçait son devoir d’informer », condamnant un « double crime qui vise un convoi humanitaire et un journaliste ».”

Here, a Canadian boy of Polish descent flies to Poland with 440 backpacks for Ukrainian child refugees. That’ll be the inspiration.
https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/12-year-old-ontario-boy-flies-to-poland-with-440-backpacks-for-child-refuge

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | May 30 2022 16:54 utc | 100