Author: somesnarksareboojums_xa83jk

I promised myself when I started this blog that I would not post unless I thought I could add some value to some discussion somewhere. Of course, the inevitable result is that this blog sees a new post only slightly more often than we see a new Pope. So, now we will break with tradition… Continue reading A brief detour

I was driving to work this morning, and heard a wonderful piece on the radio by Brigitte Mars, host of the herbal healing show Naturally. I was inspired to write her the following letter: Dear Ms. Mars, As a regular listener to KGNU, I have often enjoyed Naturally on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Your segment… Continue reading Geese are where you find them.

I am the very model of a modern Christian President, My sanctified advisers are both transient and resident, I know our planet’s history in milestones theological, From Genesis to Malachi (but nothing geological). I’m very well acquainted too with matters exegetical, I parse the scientific into holy and heretical, In embryonic stem cells, I see… Continue reading And it is, it is a glorious thing to be a Christian president!

In a display of the rapid response for which they are justly famous, the Bush team has mobilized to shield the administration from the political consequences of Hurricane Katrina. In parallel with the official effort to shift blame to local authorities, we are now receiving a pitch-perfect chorus of talking points from the usual apologists.… Continue reading Incompetence Sufficiently Advanced

One of my objectives in self-improvement is to stop correcting people who misuse the phrase “begs the question.” As has been said about teaching a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig. But even if we feel awkward telling people “that’s not what ‘begging the question’ means”, we still need an… Continue reading Ten Questions to Ask Your History Teacher

Thanks to John Quiggin and Tim Lambert, we have pointers to yet another uninformed anti-environmentalist loyally repeating the party line that DDT has been banned for use against malaria, and that the ban has cost millions of lives. This is a crock, as a quick visit to the Malaria Foundation will confirm.[1] While flogging this… Continue reading Mmm … DDT … Yum!

In 1625, King Gustav of Sweden commissioned a warship, the flagship of his fleet, to be called the Vasa. Built to the king’s own specifications, the ship would be the largest in the world — a fitting symbol of Sweden’s naval might. August 10, 1628 was a sunny day, and crowds turned out to see… Continue reading I christen thee … Samizdat!

Point #9 modified This point was about how Jaworowski was wrong about a “clear inverse correlation” between depth and CO2 concentration. As Gavin correctly pointed out in the comments, the Greenland data was a poor choice for purposes of illustration, because the presence of dust and other contaminants makes the Greenland CO2 record unreliable. This… Continue reading Jaworowski Changelog

In Dashiell Hammett’s story The Golden Horseshoe, much of the action takes place in a bar of that name in Tijuana. At one point the narrator, an operative for the Continental Detective Agency, kills a few strategic seconds by studying the decorations: I was reading a sign high on the wall behind the bar: ONLY… Continue reading The Golden Horseshoe Award: Jaworowski and the vast CO₂ conspiracy

Locating this article was a bit of an adventure. During the discussion on Deltoid of Jawarowski’s 2004 statement, the subject of Jaworowski’s publication history (or lack thereof) in peer-reviewed journals came up. Environmental Science and Pollution Research is one such, so it seemed reasonable to look for the Jaworowski paper on ESPR’s web page. You’ll… Continue reading Jaworowski’s 1994 review article in ESPR