A Few Thoughts on Snow in Hawaii

Scientists have been discussing green-house gasses and global warming since the seventies, and on paper their ideas look good. Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane all do trap infra-red light as heat, and so a surplus of any of these gasses should raise the temperature of the Earth. Heck, in confirmation of this idea, we do see a general rising of temperatures; but, strangely, we also see signs of increased cold. Snow has fallen in Hawaii, Iraq, South Africa, Argentina and, for the first time ever, in Thailand. Clearly, something else just may be going on, perhaps an increase in climactic variability, a set of many changes to the environment from all the many different effects of humanity on that environment. In other words, we may not be facing global warming so much as global weirdening.

Now any increase in the variability of weather such as global weirdening would be very likely to escape the notice of scientist. A scientist running an experiment is almost always looking for changes in something's average rather than its deviation, and so he or she is likely to ignore record highs and lows of temperature as mere distractions from the real data of a stable average temperature. In such a situation, however, that "stability" of temperature may be the result of increases in the number of both high and low temperatures rather than a continuation of of previous ones. Worse though, in not noticing the degree of variability in temperature, meteorologists may well be ignoring the more impactful consequences of a less predictable environment. Farmers, economists and city planners, after all, may be able to take effective measures against simply a continued heating and drying, but each new possibility for change will increase the expense, effort, loss and suffering of those people. Worse still, having such extremes occurring so near to each other may well create further problems. Tornadoes, for one example, result from the meeting of hot and cool air massed, and global weirdening should indeed increase such meetings. Interestingly, much of the world is at least reporting an increase in the number of tornadoes....

A few thoughts on Jared Lee Loughner

Some news have suggested that the inflammatory political rhetoric so common today may have fueled Jared Lee Loughner's homicidal rage, and these news-writers and -editors are asking us to sheath such verbal weaponry in order not to arm further such psychos. Unfortunately though, judging any words by the reaction of the people least able to cope with them ignores a simple fact: anyone, like Loughner, unable even to sit in a class or walk a dog is likely to find something to be an idiot about, regardless of the media available to them. Furthermore, even the utter elimination of negative speech in politics will not elevate the rhetoric used; politicians will simply find politer ways to imply the necessity of removing their opponents from the political landscape and will thus simply probably motivate murder by the maladapted in a more gentle way. Dedicated politicians upholding a good cause, however, will lack at least one means to express the emotional force of their cause, and the electorate will still remain unprepared to face such verbal manipulation from their candidates.

How 'bout we just uphold critical thinking? We have to use it in other parts of out live....