Clipmarks | willhelm's 'science' clips

Social Science is not Science

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:13:39 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: "Their desire to hold on to that illusion causes them to resist many sorts of new information which conflict with their ideas. That is very human, but it ain't science.
Indeed, what goes on in the social sciences would make for a fascinating sociological study."

I have long held the view that social sciences are profound bullhockey, if I may use a technical term.

If you research the foundations of these "disciplines" you will find that they are all based in a materialist foundation and seek to confirm that foundation through the masterful manipulation of descriptive and inferential statistics.

It is time we recognize that sociology and much of the psycho-pop babble we are subjected to is nothing more than materialist propaganda.

Clip Source: maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

Our Editor forwarded me this 1992 paper by Tooby and Cosmides, The Psychological Foundations of Culture, (here in pdf, without the typos), which he found at Overcoming Bias. I wish I had known about this paper years ago.

It's a dense and scholarly critique of what is known as "The Standard Social Sciences Model." The authors argued that this dominant model is obsolete and failing, resulting in a reactionary anti-scientific movement in the social sciences.

I found it particularly interesting that the authors suggest that the clinging to an obsolete model has more to do with emotion than logic - a "fear of falling off the world." Similarly, they indicate that social scientists are emotionally attached to their blank-slate, meliorative views of human nature (there is no "human nature" - environment is everything, and thus people, culture, and society can be perfected - by them, natch).

More bad news for alarmists

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:28:36 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: For example, the recent summary by Fred Singer and 22 expert contributors to “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate” makes some extraordinary statements about computer models. (In addition to the many excellent contributors, this summary also contains 167 references to the scientific literature).

This is important since computer models are being improperly, yet extensively, used by state legislatures as the basis of policies for greenhouse gas mitigation, rather than using actual climate data taken from the real world. These statements include:

Computer models do not consider variations of irradiance and magnetic fields of the sun

Computer models do not accurately model the role of clouds

Computer models do not simulate a possible negative feedback from water vapor

Computer models do not explain many features of the Earth’s observed climate.

Computer models cannot produce reliable predictions of regional climate change.

Clip Source: www.hawaiireporter.com

The issue of global warming rages on is some minds. Remarkably, there really hasn’t been much of a debate, not a serious science debate anyway. There have been shouting and screaming, predictions of doom, and the willingness to destroy our energy sources and our economy to “save the planet”. But as P.J. O’Rourke noted, there are a lot of people who would do anything to “save the planet”, except take a science course.

While there hasn’t been a true debate, there has been a hugely one-sided angry monologue, heaping scorn upon those who dare ask for evidence.

The world of science is moving quickly past these questionable events in an expanding universe of new evidence, which is showing that the current state of the global warming theory is in serious decline.

Richard S. Courtney - IPCC reviewer

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:52:25 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: 64.233.167.104

I think a clear distinction needs to be made between

(a) the science of AGW, and

(b) the perception of AGW - and the use of AGW - by non-scientists.

The science

The present empirical evidence strongly indicates that the AGW-hypothesis is wrong

There is no correlation between the anthropogenic emissions of GHGs and global temperature

Change to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is observed to follow change to global

temperature at all time scales.

Recent rise in global temperature has not been induced by rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide

concentrations.

Rise in global temperature has not been induced by increase to anthropogenic emissions of carbon

dioxide.

The pattern of atmospheric warming predicted by the AGW hypothesis is absent

Richard S. Courtney DipPhil

IPCC expert reviewer, energy and environmental consultant

Science and Political Influence

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:50:32 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: ucsaction.org

Tags: science, politics

This is the lead sentence of a science article, mind you.

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:36:42 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: I wonder what else they will discover in the realm of climate science, given we have yet to understand about 90% of it.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The battle to reduce carbon emissions is at the heart of many eco-friendly efforts, and researchers from the University of Missouri have discovered that nature has been lending a hand.

Science's 10 Most Beautiful Physics Experiments

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:38:23 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: physics-animations.com

Science's 10 Most Beautiful Physics Experiments

Robert P. Crease, a member of the philosophy department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory, recently asked physicists to nominate the most beautiful experiment of all time. Based on the paper of George Johnson in The New York Times we list below 10 winners of this polling and accompany the short explanations of the physical experiments with computer animations.

1. Double-slit electron diffraction

2. Galileo's experiment on falling objects

3. Millikan's oil-drop experiment

4. Newton's decomposition of sunlight with a prism

5. Young's light-interference experiment

6. Cavendish's torsion-bar experiment

7. Eratosthenes' measurement of the Earth's circumference

8. Galileo's experiments with rolling balls down inclined planes

9. Rutherford's discovery of the nucleus

10. Foucault's pendulum

32,000 people smarter than Al Gore

Tue, 20 May 2008 20:08:43 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: POP for science!

Clip Source: network.nationalpost.com

32,000 deniers

That’s the number of scientists who are outraged by the Kyoto Protocol’s corruption of science

How many scientists does it take to establish that a consensus does not exist on global warming? The quest to establish that the science is not settled on climate change began before most people had even heard of global warming.

Chicken Little?

Sun, 18 May 2008 07:29:32 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: No warming since 1998.
Even some alarmists say we are in for at least a decade of cooling.

Clip Source: www.cato.org

On May Day, Noah Keenlyside of Germany's Leipzig Institute of Marine Science, published a paper in Nature forecasting no additional global warming "over the next decade."

Al Gore and his minions continue to chant that "the science is settled" on global warming, but the only thing settled is that there has not been any since 1998. Critics of this view (rightfully) argue that 1998 was the warmest year in modern record, due to a huge El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean, and that it is unfair to start any analysis at a high (or a low) point in a longer history. But starting in 2001 or 1998 yields the same result: no warming.

"We have got to kill him (the gringo)"

Fri, 02 May 2008 19:53:03 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.wnd.com

"We have an aging white America. They are dying. They are sh----- in their pants with fear! I love it! We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him!"

– Jose Angel Gutierrez, political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, captured on videotape.

The Alarmist's Slick Trick

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:48:25 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: "How have Al Gore and the fraudsters pulled it off? It’s really simple. They just flipped the burden of proof and put it on the “deniers” — the skeptics, who don’t believe the computer models. With the Left in control of the media, you can do it.

So now it’s prove to me you’re not a witch! Because there is no decisive evidence. There are 21 computer models that “prove” global warming over the next century. By the time 2050 rolls around, most of the modelers will be dead."

Clip Source: globalwarminghoax.wordpress.com

In Stalin’s Russia any dissenter from the Party Line was guilty. Innocence had to be proved. It’s a standard tyrant’s trick. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell in England, witchhunters did not have to prove that their victims were guilty. The accused witches had to prove their innocence.

That’s what Al Gore has done to science: He and his friends have flipped innocence and guilt from normal science to Stalinist science.

In Al Gore’s America, any “global warming denier” is guilty until proven innocent. He or she must have been bought off by Big Oil. Skeptics, no matter how well-qualified, must prove the negative about really silly alarmist hogwash. And whenever some prediction is falsified, the warm mongers have an explanation: it’s just a temporary glitch in the data. Oh, yes, we were wrong about 1998, but just wait till 2050! The excuses are endless.

Tags: climate change, global warming

Hypatia: Woman of Science

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:43:18 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: I love women with powerful intellects.

Clip Source: www.womeninscience.org

(370?-415 C.E.) SOME HISTORIANS THINK HER DEATH HERALDED THE END OF FREE THOUGHT IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. BUT HER WORK CONTINUED TO BE STUDIED FOR OVER A THOUSAND YEARS AFTER SHE WAS MURDERED.

Letters addressed simply to “the Philosopher” were delivered to her at the Museum in Alexandria, the intellectual center of the world in the 4th C. Self-possessed and confident, she had no qualms about addressing an academy full of men. In fact, Hypatia’s intellect surpassed even that her father Theon, the scholar.

Hypatia was a scholar who believed in science, not religion. She was caught in a power struggle between Cyril, the Bishop, and her friend Orestes, the civil governor. Inflamed by Cyril, a mob of Christian fanatics flayed her to death with broken tiles.

Descartes, Leibniz and Newton all based their work upon Hypatia’s theories.

“Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.”

These are not picture books

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:58:44 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: We will leave those to Al Gore

Clip Source: www.amazon.com

Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media (Paperback)

Clip Source: www.amazon.com

Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death

Clip Source: www.amazon.com

The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud**And those who are too fearful to do so (Hardcover)

Clip Source: www.amazon.com

Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming

Clip Source: www.amazon.com

Global Warming - Myth or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology (Springer Praxis Books / Environmental Sciences)

Clip Source: www.amazon.com

Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years

Gore to appear on '60 Minutes'

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:03:17 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: Look for the unimpeachable science.

Clip Source: wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com

To me, a person who has at one time been fully engaged in the belief that CO2 was indeed the root cause of the global warming problem, I find Gore’s statements insulting. In 1990 after hearing what James Hansen and others had to say, I helped to arrange a national education campaign for TV meteorologists nationwide (ironically with CBS’s help) on the value of planting trees to combat the CO2 issue. I later changed my thinking when I learned more about the science involved and found it to be lacking.

I’ve never made a call to action on media reporting before on this blog, but this cannot go unchallenged.

There will be a story featuring Al Gore and his climate views on CBS 60 minutes this weekend. Normally I don’t pay much heed to this program, but Gore is publicly calling those who question the science “…almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat…”.

here is a contact list

International Space Station In Pictures

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:07:57 GMT

clipped by: sweetsfoods

Clip Source: www.popgive.com

International Space Station In Pictures

Tags: nasa, space, astronomy, images, photos, pics, pictures, science

The train to the 'brave new world' boards here

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:41:11 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: plato.stanford.edu

Evolutionary psychology is one of many biologically informed approaches to the study of human behavior. Along with cognitive psychologists, evolutionary psychologists propose that much, if not all, of our behavior can be explained by appeal to internal psychological mechanisms. What distinguishes evolutionary psychologists from many cognitive psychologists is the proposal that the relevant internal mechanisms are adaptations—products of natural selection—that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive and reproduce. To understand the central claims of evolutionary psychology we require an understanding of some key concepts in evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, philosophy of science and philosophy of mind. Philosophers are interested in evolutionary psychology for a number of reasons.

Tags: materialism, philosophy, evolution, psychology, pseudo-science