Climate models suck - It's the programming
in [Cobol]
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From: Pete Dashwood on 27 Jan 2010 17:58 Tony Harding wrote: > On 01/21/10 17:45, Pete Dashwood wrote: > > <snip> > >> I DO feel sorry when I look around and see cases like the friend I >> mentioned, where the solution is "just around the corner" but it >> seems to be taking for ever to come into view. I may be >> oversensitive to this because my father (who my Mother and I both >> adored) died from heart problems in 1957 (at the age of 46...) and a >> few months after he died a technique was perfected that could have >> helped him. By 1960, bypass was available and could have saved his >> life. > > *My* father's 2nd heart attack (preceded by a stroke and the first > heart attack) killed him in 1957 when he was 46 years old. Just > interesting ... did you think your life was half over when you turned > 23? Wow! That's a pretty amazing coincidence. My dad had his first heart attack at 38 and intermittent attacks from then until the final one in 1957. He was a very fit man, a PE instructor in the Army, and a professional boxer. The autopsy revealed heart muscle scarring from Rheumatic fever when he was a child in London. I still miss him so I guess that is as much a memorial as anyone can hope for :-) I never think about when my life will be over or what percentage of the time it will last, has already expired. I have tried to live it to the fullest possible extent and am not unhappy with the results. Now, I feel more need for peace and quiet and am happy for it to enter a quieter, gentler, phase... :-) That's the main reason I have decided to stay in New Zealand and build a business from home. I'll never make a fortune at it (or even get anything like the income I have earned in the past) but I have realized I don't need to be fabulously wealthy, I just need to live like I am... :-) Seriously, my needs are not great and as long as I can have the things I enjoy, I'll be very happy here. I love being home and there are things about this place which are beyond price. My mother was told that I had 48 hours to live and there was nothing more they could do, when I was 14. (You can imagine how this affected her, having recently lost her husband... ) I'm, obviously, still here, but that experience changed my life. I resolved at the time that I would NOT die and would take every opportunity that life threw my way. For 50 years I have been living on "borrowed time" :-). I don't feel the universe owes me anything and when the time comes, like Robert Louis Stevenson, I shall "Lay me down with a will." All of us could be dead within the next 10 minutes... it is only probabilities. I wrote an article about this for a magazine column called "The Sharp Point" here a few months back. It was intended to help people dealing with loss and I had some very nice emails about it from people I never met. The general gist was that the universe goes about its business without regard for "good" or "bad" outcomes. Events happen because that is the nature of things. The last sentence said something along the lines of "it isn't always snake eyes; sometimes you get a double six." I don't accept the Fatalistic viewpoint although I agree that it is unarguable and if you believe it, you are right. (When there is only a single logic value ("The Will of God") it cannot be argued because it cannot be wrong. You accept it or you don't. I don't.) Thre will come a time when I will no longer be posting here (sighs of relief all round... :-)) but until that time, I don't think there is anything to be gained by speculating when it might occur. Pete. -- "I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."
From: Alistair on 28 Jan 2010 07:43 On Dec 21 2009, 5:17 pm, "HeyBub" <hey...(a)NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote: > "There is another even more powerful (but much less visible) agent behind > all of these [politicians, lobbyists, environmentalists, and Wall Street > manipulators]. > > "The person behind the screen is the computer programmer. And, just like in > the Wizard of OZ, they do not want you to look at this real controller." > > http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/climategate-the-perils-of-global-warming... > > Think of it. We rule the world. Maybe we all should get together or > something... You might like to know that the University of East Anglia have been investigated for failing to provide information to a well known climate skeptic within reasonable times. Unfortunately there is a time limit under which UEA are let off the hook. However, the local police force (Norfolk) are investigating and the failure to respond to the Freedom Of Information request within a reasonable time period is to be used to push for a change in the law to permit future non- compliance to be punished. Interestingly, whereas failing to respond to a FOI request may be a civil offence, there is no word yet as to whether the more serious criminal offence of fraud (by the hackers concerned) is to be investigated.
From: Alistair on 28 Jan 2010 07:52 On Jan 25, 1:35 pm, docdw...(a)panix.com () wrote: > In article <f8a8a0a3-d02a-4ff8-b4be-a80dbb68e...(a)a22g2000yqc.googlegroups..com>, > > Alistair <alist...(a)ld50macca.demon.co.uk> wrote: > >On Jan 23, 2:42?am, "Pete Dashwood" > ><dashw...(a)removethis.enternet.co.nz> wrote: > >> Alistair wrote: > >> > On Jan 22, 1:44 pm, "Pete Dashwood" > >> > <dashw...(a)removethis.enternet.co.nz> wrote: > > [snip] > > >> Maybe some people have religion so deeply ingrained in them that no amont of > >> education will get them thinking for themselves. > > >My fundamentalist friend whenever we have arguments (about the age of > >the earth, etc.) asks for citations and says "that depends upon what > >you mean by...". > > This is one of the Very Good Reasons for beginning with agreed-upon > Definitions, Postulates and Common Notions before one begins to construct > Propositions for proof/disproof. > > DD Second time around for me on this and the thought occured to me: if there is an omnipotent god then there can be no fundamental agreeable definitions as a god would have the power to change the definition at any moment. Hence my friend's idea that 24 hours = 1 day = as long a period of time as god wants it to be.
From: Howard Brazee on 28 Jan 2010 10:18 On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:52:26 -0800 (PST), Alistair <alistair(a)ld50macca.demon.co.uk> wrote: >Second time around for me on this and the thought occured to me: if >there is an omnipotent god then there can be no fundamental agreeable >definitions as a god would have the power to change the definition at >any moment. Hence my friend's idea that 24 hours = 1 day = as long a >period of time as god wants it to be. A man was taking it easy, lying on the grass and looking up at the clouds. He was identifying shapes when he decided to talk to God. "God", he said, "how long is a million years?" God answered, "In my frame of reference, it's about a minute." The man asked, "God, how much is a million dollars?" God answered, "To Me, it's a penny." The man then asked, "God, can I have a penny?" God said, "In a minute." -- "In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department." - James Madison
From: Howard Brazee on 28 Jan 2010 10:28
On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:58:10 +1300, "Pete Dashwood" <dashwood(a)removethis.enternet.co.nz> wrote: >I'm, obviously, still here, but that experience changed my life. I resolved >at the time that I would NOT die and would take every opportunity that life >threw my way. For 50 years I have been living on "borrowed time" :-). I >don't feel the universe owes me anything and when the time comes, like >Robert Louis Stevenson, I shall "Lay me down with a will." Good for you. .... >The general gist was that the universe goes about its business without >regard for "good" or "bad" outcomes. Events happen because that is the >nature of things. The last sentence said something along the lines of "it >isn't always snake eyes; sometimes you get a double six." We will all die. Even if they discovered a cure for aging and found room for everybody, we will all die. (at least if we live a life remotely familiar to what we live now) But seeing how much things change in, say 1000 years, I wonder how long I would be fighting to live longer. And 1000 years is nothing compared to a million years, which is nothing compared to a billion years, which is less than nothing compared to eternity. I would never sign a contract that required me to live forever, I'd want an escape clause. There are a fair amount of jokes involving playing golf in Heaven. That is an interesting concept - what would your golf score be in paradise? Certainly it would not be worth playing if everybody scored 18 in a round. Perfection is boring. So what is the alternative worth having? Life. With its ups and downs, and strivings and learning and worthy activities. -- "In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department." - James Madison |