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2008 best science blog

Old 02-14-2009, 03:15 AM
  #1  
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Default 2008 best science blog

APC is at its best when some technical point is being discussed and expert opinons are rendered, dissected, and discussed--a recent multi-page thread on rejected takeoffs comes to mind.

Similar discussions take place at Watts Up With That?
only there, the topic is the weather, climate change, and the associated science. Mr. Watts is the guy who decided to survey all the weather stations that are providing the raw data for the calculations of global temperature. Using the government's own criteria, he charts locations, takes photos, and rates the stations according to likely temperature error.

Some of the photos are remarkable--temperature sensors next to industrial air conditioners, backyard grills, on asphalt roofs, etc.

The blog itself is interesting with many regular contributors and even a couple of warmist trolls.

The weather station survey is about 70% complete in the US. Volunteers can collect the data and contribute to this project at:

www.surfacestations.org

WW

Last edited by Winged Wheeler; 02-14-2009 at 03:18 AM. Reason: spelling
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Old 02-14-2009, 07:28 AM
  #2  
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Heyas WW,

You've hit upon a pet peeve of mine: the unfliching acceptance of "studies". People hear "well, the data says..." and they buy off on whatever comes next, without performing ANY critical thought as to what they are listening.

I have no position on "climate change" (the new PC term since "global warming" is a hard sell to people in the north freezing their a$$ off this year). Any meaningful dialog is so politicized by people who really have NO idea on how true scientitic research is conducted, hacks who are grubbing for grant money (on which, in many cases, THEIR compensation is dependent on) and people who are out to make a profit from fear.

If you look at the data, a statistically significant portion is corrupted. Much of the temperature collection that was conducted in the past was done by cooperative farmers and other well meaning, but un-trained citizens. There's no calibration of equipment, no standards for sensor placement, or vetting of collected data. Even the "studies" themselves admit that there are swaths of data missing, and have substituted "computer modeling", for which there has been ZERO verification. Look at hurricane track prediction. Computer models for the SAME data have wildly varying outcomes.

Does this mean that "climate change" is not occuring? No..what it means is NOBODY can know, because the data so f'ed up. I might as well say that global warming is caused by lack of pirates, because hey, it feels warmer, and they are generally fewer pirates than there were in decades past. This year, there were more pirates (tankers off of Africa and such), so that's why we had a cool year.

The late, great Carl Sagan used to teach a class at Cornell in Critical Thought...how to analyze arguments and data to really determine if a argument is valid. Something like that should be required for anyone to open their pie hole.

Nu
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Old 02-15-2009, 06:45 PM
  #3  
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Very well said =) This is why I love APC, because of the meaningful, educated, and intelligent discussions.

I think people are extremely eager to jump to a conclusion based on the information they have heard without doing their own judgment and analysis of the arguments and data. It is much easier for most to just agree with something, then to dissect the data and ask further questions (ie, where are the sensors located, could this affect the data?).

A bit off topic, but I worry what the media will do about the Q400 crash in Buffalo. Although the Q400 has (from what I can tell) seen less praise than the Q100 and -300 (given the Q400 SAS gear incidents), I worry that the media will rush to put a lot of blame on the airplane being poorly constructed rather than systemically analyze all the factors.
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Old 02-15-2009, 07:04 PM
  #4  
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Originally Posted by Tantalum View Post
Very well said =) This is why I love APC, because of the meaningful, educated, and intelligent discussions.

I think people are extremely eager to jump to a conclusion based on the information they have heard without doing their own judgment and analysis of the arguments and data. It is much easier for most to just agree with something, then to dissect the data and ask further questions (ie, where are the sensors located, could this affect the data?).

A bit off topic, but I worry what the media will do about the Q400 crash in Buffalo. Although the Q400 has (from what I can tell) seen less praise than the Q100 and -300 (given the Q400 SAS gear incidents), I worry that the media will rush to put a lot of blame on the airplane being poorly constructed rather than systemically analyze all the factors.
The media? Not our media? Surely not!!! They always check their facts and stories for errors before airing them.... I could not ever imagine them getting something wrong... /endsarcasm
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Old 02-16-2009, 07:12 AM
  #5  
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Along the same lines...check out this Op-Ed...

washingtonpost.com
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Old 02-19-2009, 10:48 AM
  #6  
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As pilots we are quick to find fault with errant reporting in our area of expertise, but seem surprised to find these errors exist in almost all areas of reporting. We had a rather lengthy thread on the dreaded climate change a while back and it was remarkable not for the quality of factual information but for the almost total reliance on a certain film and a certain huckster promoting a certain "business".

Facts can be rather difficult to come by in an agenda driven movement with goals that have become far more important to the drivers than factual data.
Blatant disregard of facts when they don't fit the model of fear is an all too common event.
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Old 02-22-2009, 02:44 AM
  #7  
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Default Remember polar bears and arctic sea ice?

Last week the National Snow and Ice data Center (NSIDC) released daily information that showed a dramatic drop in arctic sea ice coverage. Sharp eyed bloggers called them on it and they've been forced to admit that data has been faulty for the last 45 days or more:

NSIDC: satellite sea ice sensor has “catastrophic failure” - data faulty for the last 45 or more days Watts Up With That?

Do you believe the NSIDC and your elected officials would have disclosed the faulty satellite data on their own? Would that disclosure have been before or after the the upcoming climate change legislation?

As an aside, they always show helpless, drowning polar bears in this discussion. Ursus maritimus is not helpless:

YouTube - polar bear vs walrus

WW
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