Reader Tips

Reader Tips 41 Comments

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Saturday night distinguished lecture, documentary & interview series, here is Nobel laureate Dr. Kary Mullis, chemistry professor and co-discoverer of the Polymerase Chain Reaction, presenting his talk: Celebrating the Scientific Experiment (31:33).

There are, in terms of available historic data, a large number of readers here at SDA who understand and appreciate natural curiosity and skepticism; science, experimentation, and empiricism; and the dangers presented by scientific bureausclerosis, and worse, ideological charlatanism, such as that proselytized by enviro-wieners like the climate change apocalyptists (for example). Fortunately, Dr. Mullis covers all that, and the matter of frogs’ natural desire for space flight, thus it is that I think that it may be the case that a non-trivial fraction of SDA LNR listeners might appreciate Kary’s talk.

Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.

41 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  3. I noticed a comment in the PM question thread where the writer contends that this is not a conservative blog……..
    I wonder what a conservative blog looks like to him?

  5. This one has to be read to be believed. It turns out that the term ‘global warming’ is now offputting! The term was run by focus groups, and there seems to be something wrong with its resonations. Rather than point to something called a “temperature record,” the article highlights EcoAmerica’s way to make the old stuff more salable in a new package.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/us/politics/02enviro.html?_r=1
    Surprise-surprise ending: “Mr. Luntz and Mr. Perkowitz agree, ‘climate change’ is an easier sell than ‘global warming.'”

  8. Could Warren Buffet be suffering the old-age-mind thing ?
    He and his partner (Munger) got one thing right, though – newspapers are on their way out.
    But strange that they are still invested in them. Just could not let go in time ? Because they we’re ‘blinded by the light’ ?
    [Mr. Munger gave a philosophical take on the issue: “It’s really a national tragedy,” he said. “These monopoly daily newspapers have been an important sinew to our civilization, they kept government more honest than they would otherwise be.”]
    And with THAT I have just lost all respect for another Warren.
    http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2009/05/02/buffett-sees-unending-losses-for-many-newspapers/

  11. Intrusion of Reality
    The Left understands that the character of a people can be transformed.
    By Mark Steyn
    We’re still in the first 100 days of the joyous observances of Barack Obama’s first 100 days, and many weeks of celebration lie ahead, so here are my thoughts:
    President Obama’s strongest talent is not his speechifying, which is frankly a bit of a snoozeroo. In Europe, he left ‘em wanting less pretty much every time (headline from Britain’s Daily Tele
    http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmFlYTY2MDE0OGI2YmNhNjdiZmNjMjQwODNmOGE2OTk=

  12. You know, it occurs to me that there are a lot of links here to Nobel laureates, whereas there’s hardly ever any links to hippies and charlatans — certainly not enough to sufficiently counteract the now-discredited scientific obsession with experimentation and empiricism and proof, yada yada yada. Here’s a little something to address the shortfall:
    http://counterknowledge.com/2009/03/want-to-know-how-the-universe-works-meet-nassim-haramein-hes-found-out/
    h/t davidthompson.typepad.com

  13. EBD, that guys seems to have a bit of a Quebecois accent. I thought he was going to sound like some Indian guru-type. Cross-pollination of mystical thinking, I guess.

  14. Warren Buffet is sly like a fox.
    His fortune depends on a turn around in the markets.
    The turn around depends on investor and consumer confidence.
    Confidence is created by giving positive news that Obama is doing the “right thing”.
    This is repeated over and over again until it become a self fulfilling reality.

  15. Jim, the comment you mentioned was in response to my e-mail to Roy Green. I also wondered why someone would make such a statement. Perhaps he’s embarrassed to enjoy the discourse here on SDA and views “conservative” to be a dirty word?!
    Lorraine, I believe it’s on Monday on the business section of Fox News that Warren Buffet will be interviewed for an entire hour and Bill Gates will join in for a time too.

  17. This may be of interest to BC voters. John Cummins is an expert on many Aboriginal issues and speaks out but gets little mention. This has be one of the real issues in the coming Election but only the ignored BC Conservative Party platform talks about it.
    http://www.johncummins.ca/docs/Abo%20Title%20-%20April%2027%202009%20-%20Van%20Sun%20-%20John%20Cummins%20-%20Oped.pdf
    “There is again a political desire to breathe life back into “aboriginal title,” a moribund
    concept that has seduced politicians and bedevilled the courts for nearly four decades. History
    has a way of repeating itself in British Columbia politics and nowhere is this truer than in the
    recognition and reconciliation legislation promised by Gordon Campbell. In March 1991, the British Columbia Supreme Court in its Delgamuukw decision rejected a
    claim of aboriginal title to 22,000 square miles of northern British Columbia. The court
    concluded that all such aboriginal interests in land were extinguished by British Columbia in
    the years before Confederation. The B.C. government had won and the claimants of
    aboriginal title had lost decisively in court.”
    Our Premier seems to desire to leave a legacy we may all regret. We may have little choice in voting here, it’s BC Liberals or the NDP, But we can ask hard questions especially when the poll gods are less favorable.
    Gunney99

  18. Hey All,
    Just finished the book “The Reagan I Knew”, by the great Buckley himself. Not a bad read, very quick.
    Anyhow, out of curiousity, I went to Youtube to check out some of the old episodes and speeches for myself.
    I recommend a quick look at Reagan’s speech at the Republican convention in ’64.
    I’m way too young to have witnessed his rise, let alone his 8 year reign. But wow, many of the issues he was discussing some 45 years ago are still being fought over today.
    Best line around the 12:57 mark:
    “It’s not that our liberal friends don’t know anything. It’s that they know so much that just isn’t so.”
    The more I learn about the man, the more I hope to experience a national leader, Canadian or American, that can tell it like him.
    Sam S.

  19. The more I learn about the man, the more I hope to experience a national leader, Canadian or American, that can tell it like him.
    Politics seems to be no longer the desired goal for that type of person, for some reason. Politicians seem to have become their own class of individuals and it’s only likely to get worse. Just my 2 cents.

  20. Sam, I’ve listened to that speech before. What amazed me was how so much of it is still relevant today. That revelation makes me depressed but also keeps me wanting to fight against the Leftist hordes!

  23. Thank you Vit for another one of those “nuggets” that make this blog what it is.
    The applause after the talk was as rewarding as the shredding of AGW by Kary Mullis.
    Especially for me as I had watched a TED talk last night starring Tony Robbins with an Al Gore “didn’t have the Supreme court” cameo. (gag)

  24. “New Zealand glacier findings upset climate theory
    Research by three New Zealand scientists may have solved the mystery of why glaciers behave differently in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.”
    “The first direct confirmation of differences in glacier behaviour between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the new work topples theories based on climate in the Northern Hemisphere changing in tandem with the climate in the Southern Hemisphere.”
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/

  26. Bwadcaaast has iconned Canadians for too long.
    Fire. Them. All.
    …-
    “CBC icon Don Newman to retire”
    (glob-pail)

  27. Mao (Hi. I’m BoobLiberal’s Uncle) Stlong say, Gleen right burbs goody. Tly one. Two? No melculy.
    …-
    “‘Green’ lightbulbs poison workers
    Hundreds of factory staff are being made ill by mercury used in bulbs destined for the West
    WHEN British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs from 2012, they will save up to 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy environmental price is being paid for the production of “green” lightbulbs in cost-cutting factories.
    Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment.
    Doctors, regulators, lawyers and courts in China – which supplies two thirds of the compact fluorescent bulbs sold in Britain – are increasingly alert to the potential impacts on public health of an industry that promotes itself as a friend of the earth but depends on highly toxic mercury.
    Making the bulbs requires workers to handle mercury in either solid or liquid form because a small amount of the metal is put into each bulb to start the chemical reaction that creates light.
    Mercury is recognised as a health hazard by authorities worldwide because its accumulation in the body can damage the nervous system, lungs and kidneys, posing a particular threat to babies in the womb and young children.”
    urlm.in/cicl

  29. Thanks for the Kary Mullis lecture, vitruvius. The best part was his denunciation of ‘global warming trash’.
    I’ve a few bones to pick, however, with some of this other points. Is he serious – that the ‘scientific method’ only began 350 years ago? Now wait a minute.
    By ‘scientific method’, he’s referring ONLY to ‘induction’. Just induction which focuses only on the actual observed act and entity. You can make some speculative general hypotheses from these observations but, you primarily focus on the WHAT, not the WHY.
    As you know, all three ‘reasoning’ methods of man, deduction, induction and abduction have been around for thousands of years – and were even examined, long before 350 years ago, by such as Aristotle.
    I put induction in quotes because some argue that it is not an action of reasoning; its just observation. For example, observing the temperatures in the parking lot without reasoning that these temperatures were affected by the heat stored in the concrete.
    So, the scientific method is not just observing the WHAT; it must include reasoning about the WHY. And this requires both abductive and deductive reasoning.
    As for using this more complete scientific method, I’d say the Roman aquaducts and massive engineering feats were excellent examples of the use of this scientific method.
    I refer to Karl Popper, (and Aristotle) rejected the use only of induction as a basis for scientific thinking. Induction relies on finding an invalid example..which then moves you on to the next set of observations. But science requires some analysis of causality – and that includes the dreaded final cause. That requires more than observation; it requires hypotheses, and these emerge, not from observation but from logic, from reason.

  31. I wonder what a conservative blog looks like to him?
    Posted by: AtlanticJim at May 2, 2009 10:39 PM
    A blog that doesn’t defend and remain silent on this government’s absolute and ongoing failure at Caledonia.
    A blog that remains silent on the single largest increase in per capita spending ever announced in the history of the nation. Twice as large as any spending increase introduced by Trudeau.
    Commenter s that denounce spending 3x that of the rate of inflation in the 1st three years in office.
    Readers that challenge and react to the nationalization of a failed auto company. People who protest arbitrary transfers of money from one Canadian to another.
    A blog that shows ambivalence towards patronage appointments to the senate, and the failure to implement more that half of the accountability act.
    I see tacit acceptance that the Wheat Board and the gun registry is just how it is. So sorry, too bad.
    I see apologists and partisans, crying about how hard it is to govern – or how those evil libranos ‘made them do it’.
    I’d say this bunch of faux-cons governs fiscally like Liberals, but that isn’t true. The Libranos balanced the budget. We are back to the days of Lyin’ Brian.
    Steven the Fraud lifted $28 billion in cumulative surplus during the first three years of governance, and pissed it away on last minute pork and wharves in Atlantic Canada Atlantic Jim.
    The faux-Cons cut a consumption tax, instead of enacting substantive broad based reductions. Aside from visibility, anybody familiar with taxation knows a GST cut is pretty much useless in comparison to broad based reductions.
    A conservative blog would note that tax freedom day is one day earlier in the year now. A WHOLE day.
    A conservative blog would criticize Prentice’s handling of Indian Affairs where he got his start. Too many to thank and all, the 38% expansion in budget in the 2 years he was there. Yep, the Indian Industry continues, with an additional 4,000 permanent bureaucrats added to it during his tenure.
    Instead, I see a near delusional fixation on Obama and silence on most fiscal issues.
    Red-Cons are the tin foil hatters that desperately need the cred offered by actual conservatives. They are Liberals, period.
    The So-Cons? Bible thumping temperance wagon riding nutbars who can’t stand another person possessing freedom. That’s all they are. Small, envious, and pious. Their morality is no less reviling than any Mohammedan nutjob trying to force women to cover up, or get society to accept sharia law.
    Exact same bunch.
    So, a nice Sunday morning rant. Thanks so much for the space Kate. Trust much of your readership will discover conservatism sometime in their lives.

  32. Ahh, vitruvius, I also agree with the rest of my comments as well. Not just the first sentence.
    After all, even an ‘agreement’ or ‘disagreement’ has to be based on more than non-axiomatic observation. It rests on assumptions. As Aristotle said, one moves from sensation, which is basic observation, on to memory, experience..to theories. And this type of knowledge is ‘the hardest for men to know; for they are farthest from the senses”.
    For, experience, i.e., direct observation, observes only particulars, while knowledge is based on ‘universals’.
    The senses, the basis of induction ‘do not tell us the ‘why’ of anything..why fire is hot; they only tell us that it is hot’. (Metaphysics)
    As Peirce (an Aristotelian) noted, ‘all that induction can do is ascertain the value of a ratio’ 1.67. You have to move on to a general assumption at some time. There is no science in particular ‘reasoning’; there is merely a collection of data sets.
    BUT, this general assumption requires reasoning and testing. After all, because things resemble in some respects does not mean that they are alike in other respects; a trick the chameleon knows very well.
    Abduction, the generation of hypotheses about causality, is the required next step after observation.

  33. “Climate Science Fraud at Albany University?
    From the Scientific Misconduct Blog, 2 May 2009 (h/t to Benny Peiser)
    by Dr.Aubrey Blumsohn
    Professor Wei-Chyung Wang is a star scientist in the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the University at Albany, New York. He is a key player in the climate change debate (see his self-description here). Wang has been accused of scientific fraud.
    I have no inclination to “weigh in” on the topic of climate change. However the case involves issues of integrity that are at the very core of proper science. These issues are the same whether they are raised in a pharmaceutical clinical trial, in a basic science laboratory, by a climate change “denialist” or a “warmist”. The case involves the hiding of data, access to data, and the proper description of “method” in science.
    The case is also of interest because it provides yet another example of how *not* to create trust in a scientific misconduct investigation. It adds to the litany of cases suggesting that Universities cannot be allowed to investigate misconduct of their own star academics. The University response has so far been incoherent on its face.
    Doug Keenan, the mathematician who raised the case of Wang is on the “sceptic” side of the climate change debate. He maintains that “almost by itself, the withholding of their raw data by [climate] scientists tells us that they are not scientists”.
    Below is my own summary of the straightforward substance of this case. I wrote to Wei-Chyung Wang, to Lynn Videka (VP at Albany, responsible for the investigation), and to John H. Reilly (a lawyer at Albany) asking for any correction or comments on the details presented below. My request was acknowledged prior to publication, but no factual correction was suggested.”
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/

  34. Roy Green just had Buzz Hargrove on his show, discussing the Chrysler bailout.
    Can we put the emotion aside for a moment and look at the math:
    $3,770,000,000 – Total bailout from Canadian taxpayers
    10,000 – Employees
    – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
    $377,000 – Bailout per employee
    Does this make ANY sense to ANYONE?!?
    It would actually be cheaper to just write cheques to these employees and wish them a happy retirement (not that I think we should be doing that either).
    Is it ANY wonder why Canada has such a massive debt?!?

  35. “Majority of Canadians support Canada-EU trade talks: poll”
    [PM]“Harper will travel to the Czech Republic on Tuesday to participate in meetings with European leaders.”
    “70 per cent of respondents want their federal government to pursue more free trade agreements internationally.”
    “The poll, conducted among 1,000 Canadians between Apr. 23 and 26, indicated there is even stronger support for trade talks with the European Union specifically, with 75 per cent saying they thought it was a good idea.”
    urlm.in/cide

  36. “So, a nice Sunday morning rant. Thanks so much for the space Kate. ” hardboiled @ 11:52
    Maybe Kate should bill Canada Health for hardboiled’s psychotherapy session. What do you mean it’s not covered?

  37. The Attack of the Killer Windmills.
    Rated: GORE.
    …-
    “CA: Out of control windmill prompts highway closures
    A fast spinning windmill appeared “out of control,” and threatened traffic on the highway between Los Angeles County’s high desert and the San Joaquin Valley, a CHP dispatcher in Bakersfield said today.
    The CHP dispatcher said the windmill is spinning too fast and might fly apart, which is why Highway 58 in the Tehachapi Pass was closed down both directions between Mojave and about 45 miles north of Lancaster and Tehachapi.
    The malfunctioning electric generator is one of thousands of windmills installed along both sides of Highway 58 in Tehachapi Pass.
    Traffic was being detoured onto parallel county roads. Traffic from the L.A. area was being directed to westbound Rosamond Boulevard to Willow Springs Road, and then that road north to Tehachapi.
    At midafternoon, the CHP was calling the windmill’s owners to see if it could be shut down.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243425/posts

  38. Death of the Killer Windmills.
    Rated: NUKE.
    …-
    “Anger at plans for [3,600 MW] nuclear power station to replace [3.5 MW] wind farm
    One of the oldest and most efficient wind farms in Britain is to be dismantled and replaced by a nuclear power station under plans drawn up by the German-owned power group RWE.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243418/posts

  40. Mullis’ forward to Peter Duesberg’s book Inventing the AIDS Virus ought to be required reading.

  41. I was wondering what had happened to the HIV-does-not-cause-AIDS crowd. They haven’t been too noticeable since about 2000. I thought even Gallo had reached the conclusion that there must be some kind of co-factor working along with HIV if the latter is implicated in AIDS?

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