Some random thoughts from perusin’ the web…
Was Hurricane Irene Caused by Global Warming? – Stories like this always make me cringe. Saying any one weather event is directly “caused” by global warming is just asking for trouble. Global warming skeptics who see people making these claims will immediately dismiss it, just like climate scientists (aka, smart people) immediately scoff at skeptics who dismiss global warming every time it snows. Note that it’s rarely climate scientists who will directly link individual events like this to climate change. More often than not, it’s a writer/journalist looking for a controversial story.
California Wins Little League World Series - ESPN broadcasts? Former major leaguers providing commentary and talking about 12- and 13-year old kids like they’re professional athletes? Crowds chanting USA! USA! USA! Highlights and interviews on TV? Give me a break. They’re kids. It’s a game. I’m starting to really dislike ESPN for many reasons, and the treatment of these kids and the Little League World Series is one big part of it.
Ron Paul: No FEMA Response Necessary – Interesting timing to say FEMA isn’t needed, after an earthquake and a hurricane hit the East Coast within a week. One thing I’ve never understood…why there’s such hatred for government out of Washington, with folks thinking states can handle things better. There are some issues that either need a bigger response than a state can provide, or require federal-level, standardized regulation.
Frozen University Salaries Stoke Fears of Faculty Drain - South Dakota has frozen wages of state university faculty for the last three years. When a budget shortfall was in the cards this past year, South Dakota of course went after cuts to general education. This is what our future will look like unless folks get over their fanatical, anti-government, anti-tax mood. It’s sad when a huge segment of the population have no interest in investing in our children and our future.
Overhyped Irene Makes Washington the Butt of Snickers – A common theme in both the Washington and New York papers…the “overhyped” nature of Hurricane Irene. Ironic, considering those papers are the ones who contributed mightily to the hype. These kinds of articles don’t bother me. What does bother me are articles like this one from the NY Times, where the focus of the article is what forecasters got wrong. Forecasters nailed the track of the storm about 3 days ahead of time, and pretty much nailed the strength by the time it hit New York. The only attribute they missed a bit was the strength of the storm hitting North Carolina. Pretty darned good in my book! But non-scientists certainly like to poke fun, as if this is such an easy thing to do.
