Reviews

A beautifully told story with colorful characters out of epic tradition, a tight and complex plot, and solid pacing. -- Booklist, starred review of On the Razor's Edge

Great writing, vivid scenarios, and thoughtful commentary ... the stories will linger after the last page is turned. -- Publisher's Weekly, on Captive Dreams

Monday, April 29, 2013

I Know You're Thinking. I Can Smell the Smoke

"Earth's Core 1,800 Degrees Hotter Than Thought"--headline, NBCNews.com, April 25

Posted by at
Labels:

9 comments:

  1. TCApril 30, 2013 at 10:58 AM

    How hot is thought?
    I suppose the question is whether pondering a difficult problem burns more calories than dreaming or watching a mindless TV program.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joseph MApril 30, 2013 at 12:36 PM

    Still waiting for the headline: New Study Shows Reality Exactly How Scientists Thought it Was In Every Way. Seems every time scientists get a closer look at something, it turns out to be not what they expected. I remember all the breathless amazement at how the moons of Jupiter and Saturn were way different than astronomers thought, once we got data back from probes getting a good close look. Not once did I hear or read a scientist say: wow, maybe we were speculating way out past what we could really know - lesson learned, we'll never do that again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FoxfierMay 5, 2013 at 2:16 AM

      Well... saying "This one guy was right!" isn't much of a headline, unless he was previously martyred or something by Acceptable Targets, but "Science was wrong this ONE time, it's amazing how much we're learning!" is a pretty good story. (As in, easy to write, established storyline and such.)

      Delete
  3. Joseph MApril 30, 2013 at 2:53 PM

    Obvious link to CO2: since we *know* CO2 is a greenhouse gas, therefore can conclude on that fact alone that global warming is 1) occurring, and 2) is caused by CO2, we can similarly conclude that the earth as a whole is warming as well, right? The only way the heat from the original compression, tidal forces and radioactive decay can dissipate is through the crust AND through the atmosphere. But it's harder to dissipate heat through greenhouse gasses than not - that's the definition of a greenhouse gas. Therefore, CO2 is causing the earth, not just the atmosphere, to heat up.

    The only possible solution: a gigantic globe-spanning enforcement agency with totalitarian police powers to punish carbon producers by redistributing their wealth to countries where people shouldn't have babies. Something like that - the exact bureaucratic mechanism is, ironically, unclear - in exactly the same way as the exact thermodynamic mechanisms of global core warming are unclear. But we shouldn't get bogged down in the details - that's for little people!

    Something must be done. This is something, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMay 1, 2013 at 10:12 AM

      This is how global warming causes tsunamis! You didn't think the warmists were lying did you?

      Delete
    2. Joseph MMay 1, 2013 at 12:57 PM

      That is a very good point: as the core gets hotter, the laws of thermodynamics say that the mantle must needs also get warmer, the crust must get warmer as well - which means thinner, right, as the bottom layers melt. Thinner crusts, as any pizza fan outside Chicago will tell you... wait, scratch that, thinner crusts are more easily distorted, which, it stands to reason, would result in more and larger earthquakes, which cause tsunamis and, well, there you go.

      Forget cutting CO2 - we need to remove the atmosphere entirely and maybe create some artificial volcanoes to help improve the heat exchange and cool the core, before it's too late! Are we going to just sit here while the crust melts and tsunamis start hitting Kansas?

      Delete
  4. Michel AccadApril 30, 2013 at 10:33 PM

    That makes perfect sense: the modern mind is rational and cool. That also explains the medieval warming period...

    ReplyDelete
  5. thefederalistMay 1, 2013 at 4:52 PM

    There is nothing that global warming can't do!

    ReplyDelete
  6. SqiarMarch 20, 2014 at 4:44 AM

    Thanks a lot for sharing this with all folks you really recognise what you are talking about! In this complex environment business need to present there company data in meaningful way.Sqiar (http://www.sqiar.com/solutions/technology/tableau/) which is in UK,provide services like Tableau and Data Warehousing etc .In these services sqiar experts convert company data into meaningful way.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Whoa, What's This?

adam amateur theology anthropology aphorisms Aquinas argument from motion Aristotelianism art atheism autumn of the modern ages books brains breaking news captive dreams cartoon charts chieftain clannafhloinn comix commentary counterattack crusades culcha dogheads easton stuff economics eifelheim evolution factoids on parade fake news fallen angels Feeders fir trees in lungs firestar flicks floods flynncestry flynnstuff forecasts forest of time fun facts gandersauce gimlet eye global warming glvwg headlines henchmen high frontier history home front how to lie with statistics humor Hunters Moon hush-hush hypatia in the house of submission irish Iron Shirts irrationalism january dancer jihad journeyman kabuki kool letter lion's mouth lunacon maps mayerling medieval metrology miscellany modern mythology moose zombies music new years nexus odds odds and ends paleofuture passing of the modern age philosophy philosophy math poetry politics potpourri psyched out! public service quality quiet sun quote of the day razor's edge redefinition of marriage religio reviews river of stars scandal science science marches on scientism scrivening shipwrecks of time shroud skiffy skiffy in the news skools slipping masks some people will believe anything stats stories stranger things the auld curmudgeon the madness continues the new fascism the russians are coming the spiral arm the writing life thomism thought for the day thread o' years tofspot topology untergang des abendlandes untergang des morgenlandes up jim river video clips vignettes war on science we get letters we're all gonna die whimsy words at play wuv xmas you can't make this stuff up