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Profile of Scott in Winnipeg
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1
The Show / Global Climate Change
« on: March 22, 2010, 09:03:22 PM »
So I called in about this tonight. My main points are that in order to understand the science that we need to see what the people doing the actual research are saying. Ziggy got it somewhat right when he followed after my call, in that scientists publish their research papers and other scientists try and falsify or verify those results. BUT, after the testing is done a majority trend can be seen and that's when we get consensus.
Here are some of the rebuttals to the objections that Mark and Ian brought up during my and Ziggy’s calls, taken from this webpage.
http://www.skepticalscience.com
BTW, I'm not "sacred", I don't advocate government intervention, I just care about acurate information going out over the airwaves.
"It's the sun" In the last 35 years of global warming, the sun has shown a slight cooling trend. Sun and climate have been going in opposite directions.
"Climate's changed before" Natural climate change in the past proves that climate is sensitive to an energy imbalance. If the planet accumulates heat, global temperatures will go up. Currently, CO2 is imposing an energy imbalance due to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Past climate change actually provides evidence for our climate's sensitivity to CO2.
"There is no consensus" That humans are causing global warming is the position of the Academies of Science from 19 countries plus many scientific organisations that study climate science. More specifically, 97% of climate scientists actively publishing climate papers endorse the consensus position.
"It's cooling" Empirical measurements of the Earth's heat content show the planet is still accumulating heat and global warming is still happening. Surface temperatures can show short term cooling when heat is exchanged between the atmosphere and the ocean, which has a much greater heat capacity than the air.
"Ice age predicted in the 70s" 1970s ice age predictions were predominantly media based. The majority of peer reviewed research at the time predicted warming due to increasing CO2.
"Mars is warming" Martian climate is primarily driven by dust and albedo and there is little empirical evidence that Mars is showing long term warming.
"It's just a natural cycle" The 1500 year cycles, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events, are localized to the northern hemisphere and accompanied with cooling in the southern hemisphere. In contrast, current global warming is occuring in both hemispheres and particularly throughout the world's oceans, indicating a significant energy imbalance.
"Other planets are warming" There are three fundamental flaws in the 'other planets are warming' argument. Not all planets in the solar system are warming. The sun has shown no long term trend since 1950 and in fact has shown a slight cooling trend in recent decades. There are explanations for why other planets are warming.
"Scientists can't even predict weather" Weather is chaotic, making prediction difficult. However, climate takes a long term view, averaging weather out over time. This removes the chaotic element, enabling climate models to successfully predict future climate change.
"Pluto is warming" Pluto's climate change over the last 14 years is likely a seasonal event. Pluto experiences drastic season changes due to an elliptical orbit (that takes 250 Earth years). Any Plutonian warming cannot be caused by solar variations as the sun has showed little to no long term trend over the past 50 years and sunlight at Pluto is 900 times weaker than it is at the Earth.
"Animals and plants can adapt to global warming" A large number of ancient mass extinction events have been strongly linked to global climate change. Because current climate change is so rapid, the way species typically adapt (eg - migration) is, in most cases, simply not be possible. Global change is simply too pervasive and occurring too rapidly.
"Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate" Atmospheric CO2 levels are rising by 15 gigatonnes per year. Humans are emitting 26 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Humans are dramatically altering the composition of our climate.
"Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted" Weather is chaotic because air is light, it has low friction and viscosity, it expands strongly when in contact with hot surfaces and it conducts heat poorly. Therefore weather is never in equilibrium and the wind always blows. The climate is mostly explained by equilibrium radiation physics, which puts the brakes on variations in global temperatures. Effects from weather, the Sun, volcanoes etc. currently only causes a small amount of chaotic behavior compared to the deterministic, predictable greenhouse gas forcing for the next 100 years"
Here are some of the rebuttals to the objections that Mark and Ian brought up during my and Ziggy’s calls, taken from this webpage.
http://www.skepticalscience.com
BTW, I'm not "sacred", I don't advocate government intervention, I just care about acurate information going out over the airwaves.
"It's the sun" In the last 35 years of global warming, the sun has shown a slight cooling trend. Sun and climate have been going in opposite directions.
"Climate's changed before" Natural climate change in the past proves that climate is sensitive to an energy imbalance. If the planet accumulates heat, global temperatures will go up. Currently, CO2 is imposing an energy imbalance due to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Past climate change actually provides evidence for our climate's sensitivity to CO2.
"There is no consensus" That humans are causing global warming is the position of the Academies of Science from 19 countries plus many scientific organisations that study climate science. More specifically, 97% of climate scientists actively publishing climate papers endorse the consensus position.
"It's cooling" Empirical measurements of the Earth's heat content show the planet is still accumulating heat and global warming is still happening. Surface temperatures can show short term cooling when heat is exchanged between the atmosphere and the ocean, which has a much greater heat capacity than the air.
"Ice age predicted in the 70s" 1970s ice age predictions were predominantly media based. The majority of peer reviewed research at the time predicted warming due to increasing CO2.
"Mars is warming" Martian climate is primarily driven by dust and albedo and there is little empirical evidence that Mars is showing long term warming.
"It's just a natural cycle" The 1500 year cycles, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events, are localized to the northern hemisphere and accompanied with cooling in the southern hemisphere. In contrast, current global warming is occuring in both hemispheres and particularly throughout the world's oceans, indicating a significant energy imbalance.
"Other planets are warming" There are three fundamental flaws in the 'other planets are warming' argument. Not all planets in the solar system are warming. The sun has shown no long term trend since 1950 and in fact has shown a slight cooling trend in recent decades. There are explanations for why other planets are warming.
"Scientists can't even predict weather" Weather is chaotic, making prediction difficult. However, climate takes a long term view, averaging weather out over time. This removes the chaotic element, enabling climate models to successfully predict future climate change.
"Pluto is warming" Pluto's climate change over the last 14 years is likely a seasonal event. Pluto experiences drastic season changes due to an elliptical orbit (that takes 250 Earth years). Any Plutonian warming cannot be caused by solar variations as the sun has showed little to no long term trend over the past 50 years and sunlight at Pluto is 900 times weaker than it is at the Earth.
"Animals and plants can adapt to global warming" A large number of ancient mass extinction events have been strongly linked to global climate change. Because current climate change is so rapid, the way species typically adapt (eg - migration) is, in most cases, simply not be possible. Global change is simply too pervasive and occurring too rapidly.
"Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate" Atmospheric CO2 levels are rising by 15 gigatonnes per year. Humans are emitting 26 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Humans are dramatically altering the composition of our climate.
"Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted" Weather is chaotic because air is light, it has low friction and viscosity, it expands strongly when in contact with hot surfaces and it conducts heat poorly. Therefore weather is never in equilibrium and the wind always blows. The climate is mostly explained by equilibrium radiation physics, which puts the brakes on variations in global temperatures. Effects from weather, the Sun, volcanoes etc. currently only causes a small amount of chaotic behavior compared to the deterministic, predictable greenhouse gas forcing for the next 100 years"
2
The Show / The Nut Job that runs NaturalNews.com
« on: January 24, 2010, 10:44:04 PM »
NaturalNews.com is the site that Wayne often mentions. It's run by a naturopath who's a bit of a nut. Here's the proof.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/01/sometimes_i_think_we_break_the.php
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/01/sometimes_i_think_we_break_the.php
3
The Show / What's the Harm
« on: December 17, 2009, 05:20:01 PM »
For those folks that think the worse thing that quackery does is nothing (as claimed on last nights show) perhaps you should check out this link.
http://whatstheharm.net/
http://whatstheharm.net/
4
The Show / Remote Healing
« on: December 15, 2009, 11:19:00 PM »
2 nights in a row people call in about this remote healing bunk. I had called in tonight to talk about last nights call, and while I was on hold another lady called in to talk about it and they put me on with her LOL. I wish I had more time to talk to her, I just barely got started.
5
The Show / FTL is becoming anti-science
« on: December 07, 2009, 10:48:26 AM »
When I first heard FTL I really appreciated them for their willingness to be criticized and admit when they were wrong, and for the way they looked at issues from a standpoint of evidence. Does the government suck? Yes! How do we know? Mountains of evidecne here and here and here.
In the last few months I've become less and less enamoured with them. In past they, espeically mark, would appeal to science and medicine in certain situations, but lately when it's come to vaccines, the Law of Attraction, ClimateGate, BigPharma, etc., they aren't using their critical thinking skills and actually going for teh easy positions, and they start to sound nutty. It makes it hard to enjoy the show anymore.
In the last few months I've become less and less enamoured with them. In past they, espeically mark, would appeal to science and medicine in certain situations, but lately when it's come to vaccines, the Law of Attraction, ClimateGate, BigPharma, etc., they aren't using their critical thinking skills and actually going for teh easy positions, and they start to sound nutty. It makes it hard to enjoy the show anymore.
6
The Show / Travis from Wednesdays Show
« on: December 05, 2009, 01:47:44 PM »
If Travis from Wednesdays show reads this, please send me a PM. He's the fellow that called in about Muslim laws and vaccines. I would like to co-ordinate a call with you into FTL about the effecacy of vaccines, maybe we can call one after another on the same night and get through to these people 
7
The Show / It's Wednesday...
« on: October 14, 2009, 02:47:19 PM »
... and Wayne will be on tonight. I wonder what non-science, anti-science, pseudo-science crap he will spout tonight? I should just stop listening to Wednesday show and save me the headache, becasue my brain hurts when he starts talking about medicine.
8
The Show / Wed Sept 2 Show, the Worst Ever
« on: September 04, 2009, 09:50:59 AM »
Just listened to the podcast from Wednesday. Wow... never have I not enjoyed FTL this much.
The amount of non-science, pure misinformation and clap-trap promoted and talked about whenever the subject of vaccines came up was disturbing. Usually the guys are pretty good with their understanding of science and technology, expect in this one area.
The anti-government bias is clearly clouding their ability to look at this subject from the purely scientific view since governments promote vaccines so much and use their bully like ways to entice people to get vaccinated.
And the website that Wayne was promoting? http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/
Puh-lease.
"Natural" things that have medicinal value are called "medicine", because their active ingredients can be isolated and synthesized, making it more effective and lessening possible side-effects. All medicine came from the Earth at one point. That site promotes homeopathy as a remedy for the flue. Yeah, taking sugar pills with one drop of water on them sure will cure ya.
Wayne scoffed at the idea of herd immunity. Well Wayne, people that don't get vaccinated for whatever reason rely on herd immunity to protect them from these diseases. And since the anti-vaccination craze has picked up over the past few years herd immunity is going down, and people that can't or won't get vaccinated are getting sick and dying at an increased rate because of it.
Ugh.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=516
The amount of non-science, pure misinformation and clap-trap promoted and talked about whenever the subject of vaccines came up was disturbing. Usually the guys are pretty good with their understanding of science and technology, expect in this one area.
The anti-government bias is clearly clouding their ability to look at this subject from the purely scientific view since governments promote vaccines so much and use their bully like ways to entice people to get vaccinated.
And the website that Wayne was promoting? http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/
Puh-lease.
"Natural" things that have medicinal value are called "medicine", because their active ingredients can be isolated and synthesized, making it more effective and lessening possible side-effects. All medicine came from the Earth at one point. That site promotes homeopathy as a remedy for the flue. Yeah, taking sugar pills with one drop of water on them sure will cure ya.
Wayne scoffed at the idea of herd immunity. Well Wayne, people that don't get vaccinated for whatever reason rely on herd immunity to protect them from these diseases. And since the anti-vaccination craze has picked up over the past few years herd immunity is going down, and people that can't or won't get vaccinated are getting sick and dying at an increased rate because of it.
Ugh.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=516
9
The Show / Ian, it's "Scott in Winnipeg"
« on: May 19, 2009, 03:19:57 AM »
When I call in I tell the screener it's Scott In Winnipeg, and the first dozen or so times I called in Ian would say as such, and since last August (about 10 calls) he would say "Scott in Canada".
Now, I understand that "Winnipeg" might be someone esoteric for folks, but there are 30 million people in Canada, and certanly there are a few Scotts in Canada that listen to the show besides me.
Just wondering why the change?
Now, I understand that "Winnipeg" might be someone esoteric for folks, but there are 30 million people in Canada, and certanly there are a few Scotts in Canada that listen to the show besides me.
Just wondering why the change?
10
The Show / Ouch, dissed by FTL
« on: May 02, 2009, 05:48:43 PM »
So I called the AMP line last night and when Ian picked up on air he asked if it was Sam (I called in cold not knowing what they were talking about) and I said no, it's Scott, sorry to dissapoint you, and he went onto another caller. Ouch.
11
The Show / Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« on: June 26, 2008, 12:56:53 PM »
Ian has mentioned a couple of time about Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) "healing himself" when this "law of attraction" nonsense has come up a few times.
Positive thinking, defining and making the effort to reach goals is perfectly plausiable and that is NOT what the "Law of Attraction" is, the Law of Attraction has to do with sending out vibrations and is magic, and not real.
Here are the facts with Scott Adams.
- he's been dyslexic his entire life
- in 1992 he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, which made it hard for him to draw his cartoons. He was able to work around it by developing a physical pattern of drawing that worked for him. Eventually the problem went away. It came back in 2004 and instead of doing what he did before he got a new drawing tool that allowed him to work with little noticable difference to the end user.
- in December 2005 he announced that he has spasmodic dysphonia, a brain abnormality that affects speech for which there is no known cure. There are treatments to manage it thought, and Scott is one of a few people for who the condition comes and goes, and is able to manage it through vocal exercises and cognitive thearapies. Scott has not complletely recovered, he still has a raspy, tinny voice, but at least he can talk. One article says " His doctor told him that nobody with this condition has ever regained the ability to speak." That doctor was wrong, and the condition doesn't necessarily mean that people won't be able to speak at all.
Scott didn't cure himself of spasmodic dysphonia. He's experienced a temporary reprieve from it based on some personal experimentation.
If he takes this further and develops a process which works permanently for everyone with the condition, then it will be correct to say that he has cured it.
None of this has to do with the magic of the "Law of Attraction", it has to do with effort and work and a positive attitude.
Here's what the basis of the "Law of Attraction" is, it's "vibratrions" and "energies" and it's nonsense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXqzRulbMyU
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_dystonia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasmodic_dysphonia
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901066.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15446515/
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/25/scott-adams-hacks-hi.html
Positive thinking, defining and making the effort to reach goals is perfectly plausiable and that is NOT what the "Law of Attraction" is, the Law of Attraction has to do with sending out vibrations and is magic, and not real.
Here are the facts with Scott Adams.
- he's been dyslexic his entire life
- in 1992 he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, which made it hard for him to draw his cartoons. He was able to work around it by developing a physical pattern of drawing that worked for him. Eventually the problem went away. It came back in 2004 and instead of doing what he did before he got a new drawing tool that allowed him to work with little noticable difference to the end user.
- in December 2005 he announced that he has spasmodic dysphonia, a brain abnormality that affects speech for which there is no known cure. There are treatments to manage it thought, and Scott is one of a few people for who the condition comes and goes, and is able to manage it through vocal exercises and cognitive thearapies. Scott has not complletely recovered, he still has a raspy, tinny voice, but at least he can talk. One article says " His doctor told him that nobody with this condition has ever regained the ability to speak." That doctor was wrong, and the condition doesn't necessarily mean that people won't be able to speak at all.
Scott didn't cure himself of spasmodic dysphonia. He's experienced a temporary reprieve from it based on some personal experimentation.
If he takes this further and develops a process which works permanently for everyone with the condition, then it will be correct to say that he has cured it.
None of this has to do with the magic of the "Law of Attraction", it has to do with effort and work and a positive attitude.
Here's what the basis of the "Law of Attraction" is, it's "vibratrions" and "energies" and it's nonsense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXqzRulbMyU
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_dystonia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasmodic_dysphonia
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901066.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15446515/
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/25/scott-adams-hacks-hi.html
12
General / Running for the Libertarian Party of Canada
« on: March 22, 2008, 09:02:44 PM »
So I'm now officially running for the Libertarian party of Canada, as a MP (member of parliment, federal) in the next election. It is mostly so the Libertarian Party can have a name on the ballot in my riding. Might give me the chance to do some media and promotion of iberty.
http://freedommanitoba.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-i-am-running-for-libertarian-party.html
http://freedommanitoba.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-i-am-running-for-libertarian-party.html
13
General / Ron Paul, Why Canadians Should Care
« on: October 24, 2007, 02:04:48 PM »
Just published a blog about why Canadians should care about Ron Paul becoming president of the United States.
http://freedommanitoba.blogspot.com/2007/10/ron-paul-why-canadians-should-care.html
http://freedommanitoba.blogspot.com/2007/10/ron-paul-why-canadians-should-care.html
14
General / New Blog - Freedom Manitoba
« on: September 07, 2007, 12:34:11 PM »
Hi folks. I've called into the show a few times as "Scott in Winnipeg". I've started a blog to deal with liberty issues in Manitoba, I'd welcome comments or suggestions.
http://freedommanitoba.blogspot.com/
I'm not quite sure how to promote it just yet since it's pretty regional, once I get more content up I'll likely start postering.
http://freedommanitoba.blogspot.com/
I'm not quite sure how to promote it just yet since it's pretty regional, once I get more content up I'll likely start postering.
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