Author: Kate

The World Is Being Run By Crazy People

Roadkill 26 Comments


Related items from France, here and here.
… and there’s more!

Ratings agencies such as Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s have been highlighting the lack of transparency in union pension plans. Now Wall Street wants union businesses to be upfront about their liabilities.
[Financial Accounting Standards Board’s ] new rule could effectively wipe out the paper worth of many companies, especially in the trucking and construction industries. Once banks and creditors are aware of these staggering pension liabilities, it will make it nearly impossible for union businesses to get loans, credit lines or bonding.
If forced to report their true liabilities, hundreds — perhaps thousands — of companies will scramble to get out from under their union obligations.
“The blind panic is un-frickin’-believable. [Unions] are flipping out,” says Brett McMahon, a representative of Associated Builders and Contractors and vice president of Miller & Long Concrete Construction.

Barking

Uncategorized 17 Comments

… in the Eco-Chamber:

That means we no longer have the luxury of polite, time-consuming public debate on the issue. “We have to be much more aggressive about pinpointing our enemies, and doing it early—showing how and where they are spending their money to undermine our efforts,” he says. “We need to learn how to inflict pain on the opposition.”

As the saying goes, if you want some, come and get it.

Sagan’s Bunk-meter and Global Warming

Uncategorized 33 Comments

Carl Sagan’s bunkometer can be found in Demon Haunted World. It’s meant to work as a checklist for sceptical thinking, or as a guide for good science. And the warmists score …

  • Whenever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts”
  • Encourage substantive debate on the “evidence” by knowledgable proponents of all points of view.
  • Arguments from authority carry little weight as “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that there are no authorities; at most; there are “experts”.
  • Spin a variety of hypotheses. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each. The ones that survive are the ones to do in depth study on.
  • Do not become attached to any hypothesis just because it’s yours. Find reasons for rejecting all, including your own, hypothesis.
  • Quantify. If whatever you are explaining has a measure, quantify it so that measurement is more possible. Vague hypothesis, or those difficult to quantify will be the most difficult to prove or disprove.
  • If there is a chain argument, then each and every link must work, including the premise.
  • Use Occam’s Razor; which is to choose the hypothesis that explains the data in the simplest terms.
  • Ask: is the Hypothesis testable and falsifiable. Hypothesis that are not testable are not worth much. Could you duplicate accurately, at least theoretically, the hypothesis?

More Pavilions At Folkfest

More Pavilions At Folkfest 72 Comments

BBC;

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have “utterly failed”, Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
In a speech in Potsdam, she said the so-called “multikulti” concept – where people would “live side-by-side” happily – did not work.
Mrs Merkel’s comments come amid recent outpourings of strong anti-immigrant feeling from mainstream politicians.
A recent survey showed that more than 30% of Germans believed Germany was “overrun by foreigners”.

36 Organizations Paid By The US Tides Foundation/Tides Canada

Little Known Facts 50 Comments

Vivian Krause shares the Tides Foundation details in the Financial Post;

Like most protests, the one against oil tankers has all the look and feel of a Canadian grassroots movement. The campaign against Alberta’s oil sands also seems to rise out of the people, but the interesting thing is that there are very few roots under that grass. Money comes in from a small core of U.S. charitable groups. One of those groups — the U.S. Tides Foundation of California (Tides U.S.) and its Canadian counterpart have paid millions to at least 36 campaign organizations. (See list at right.)
All the money, at least US$6-million, comes from a single, foreign charity. The Tides U.S. campaign against Alberta oil is a campaign against one of Canada’s most important industries. It’s fair for Canadians to inquire about who’s funding this campaign and why. The trouble is, nobody knows.

tides_cash_laundry.jpg
(Source) – FairQuestions.com

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