Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:I'd expect Fawkes masks to start making stateme (Score 1) 218

I can put you in touch with 3 people that I can think of off the top of my head who's insurance went up by over 100% due to Obamacare. They're business owners who buy their own insurance. Once again the Democrats figured out a way to screw small business.

Comment Re:Some practical examples (Score 5, Insightful) 153

Yep. I've used nothing but Ruby/Rails for 8 years now and it has increased my productivity to a level that wouldn't have been possible 15 years ago. But I just spent a weekend writing a C program, my first in 10+ years. Why?

Because I need to be able to analyze wav/aif files and create a fancy "waveform" like soundcloud. I have a great little Ruby gem for doing it and it takes 3-4 minutes to generate a PNG of the wave form for each audio file. My C program takes .05 seconds to do the same. Yes, I got a speed up of about 3000-4000 times by using my own hand-written C that takes into account everything that I know about optimizing code. I started out doing assembly and machine code (I'm serious) 25+ years ago so I know what makes a modern CPU fast. Ruby ain't it :)

But that's one little piece. Most of my applications are pulling data from databases and putting it on the internet - speed like that would be of little value and it would take me 5 times as long to write the code in order to get a minimal speedup.

Use each tool where it's appropriate. But don't claim that "_____ sucks" just because it doesn't fit your needs.

Comment Re:"Could", (Score 1) 401

"No, funny guy, that's not, how it works. You put forth an argument, you put forth supporting citations. If you don't, the argument is baseless"

I don't think Slashdot qualifies as "peer-reviewed" even if there's always someone willing to disagree. And long experience shows that providing citations off the bat doesn't mean that they'll be read. If the other person is unfamiliar to me and won't even try to look for what I'm referencing, that has been a very reliable indicator of what I can expect in 15+ yrs of browsing /. It's not like you have to run out in a hurricane to the local library.

So bye, bye and happy holidays.

Comment Re:"Could", (Score 1) 401

There are more than just scientists, partisans & deniers. I certainly can't claim to be a scientist but neither are nearly all of the most vehement deniers.
I've spent 20 years listening to the actual scientists on BOTH sides and have decided who to trust.
At some point, every rational person has to decide which side of the fence to come down on or forever have the post stuck up his ass.

It doesn't require every last uncertainty to be resolved with perfect accuracy and every measure I've personally taken to lower my carbon footprint has saved me money.

Comment Re:"Could", (Score 1) 401

We need more permanent temperature monitoring stations, in the oceans & the poles, as much or more than we need better models.

If we can't accurately measure the real world changes, we won't know for certain how good or bad the models are.

The much-ballyhooed "pause / hiatus / slowdown" gave deniers something to crow about - so much so that none stopped to think why the melt rate of Arctic sea ice, Greenland, Antarctic ice shelves and the vast majority of the planets glaciers sped up enormously.
I would have thought that at least a few of them are aware of just how much heat is needed to melt ice - it's a LOT.

Better coverage of those regions would have exposed the illusion of the "slowdown".

Comment Re:"Could", (Score 1) 401

That number is a lot closer to 1 than to zero.
Imperfect models aren't useless and I'd rather they hit a bit high than low when there are still forcings & feedbacks of uncertain magnitude.
By definition, all models are imperfect.

Given what he had to work with in the '80s , it's a wonder he got anywhere near the results he did.

Comment Re:"Could", (Score 1) 401

See below for one analysis of Hansen's predictions vs real-world observations. The main issue is that the value he used for climate sensitivity was on the high side; adjusting that value downwards and making no other changes gives a pretty good agreement with observations.

http://www.skepticalscience.co...

There are other comparisons but this is the most layman-friendly yet thorough I've yet found.
Keep in mind that the polar regions, especially the Arctic, have been warming the quickest (one of Hansen's longstanding predictions) but are not well-represented in any dataset, especially the HadCRUT ones which is what your linked paper is using for their reconstructions, although HadCRUT4 is significantly better in this regard than HadCRUT3.

Comment Re:"Could", (Score 1) 401

"depend heavily on one's belief in global warming" - when re-insurers are worried, the general public should sit up and pay attention.
If you think, global warming is a belief system, ask yourself when & why Rex Tillerson, CEO of oil giant ExxonMobil got religion.
He's firmly on the side of those who think that we can adapt or geoengineer out of the worst of it but that's a long way from the "belief" that's it's all some commie hoax.

Slashdot Top Deals

One way to make your old car run better is to look up the price of a new model.

Working...