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Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:33 pm
by Mike the Lab Rat
Dinsdale wrote:Uhm...global climate and any changes that may occur within it are functions of physics. Has little to do with "biology," at its root...biological changes are an effect, not a cause...in theory, anyway.
The topic of global warming is primarily covered in biology classes...and that nebulous course of "earth science" (which always seemed a catchall for everything not covered in bio, chem, and physics..).

And yes, am required to teach about it in my NYS Regents class. I do a whopping ten minutes on it.

Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:43 pm
by Jimmy Medalions
mvscal wrote:I suggest you eject right now before I humiliate you again with my superior knowledge. Come along BeagleBlower. Our work is done here.

--Duncedale
:lol:

Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:45 pm
by Dinsdale
Mike the Lab Rat wrote: The topic of global warming is primarily covered in biology classes...

This is obviously minutia, but since I'm thoroughly bored with the self-fellater at present...


You said "theorems" deal with mathmatics and physics.

On this, we agree.

Where we apparently disagree, is that I couldn't fucking care less which science class any of these issues are discussed in. Climate is a function of physics. Period.


BTW-in the "earth sciences" classes I took, we pretty much studied geology. I guess calling it "geology" was too much for some parents to take come parent/teacher night...or something. Or, I think it was mostly geology...I can't say I rightly remember....must have been some earth-shattering stuff we covered in those courses.

Actually, I probably wouldn't remember much of it at all, except I seem to have this memory of being thrown out of Earth Science one day by my very stoned teacher for making the statement "Schist really schtinksch...especially when you take a schuper-duper fat one after eating Mexschican food."

Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:25 am
by Mike the Lab Rat
Dinsdale wrote:Where we apparently disagree, is that I couldn't fucking care less which science class any of these issues are discussed in. Climate is a function of physics. Period.
Pretty much. That's why it's usually the certified physics teacher who gets stuck teaching earth science.
Dinsdale wrote:BTW-in the "earth sciences" classes I took, we pretty much studied geology. I guess calling it "geology" was too much for some parents to take come parent/teacher night...or something. Or, I think it was mostly geology...I can't say I rightly remember....must have been some earth-shattering stuff we covered in those courses.
In New York, "earth science" pretty much covers geology, but also a large dose of meteorology, tidal crap, and even a dose of astronomy. From what I've seen, the kids come out of the course being amateur weathermen.

Our earth science teacher, who is a former college physics professor (I even had the guy's father as my analytical pysics professor at Geneseo) is rabid about calling the global warming discussion hype. He is vehement in his contention that anthropocentric factors have, at most, a miniscule impact on the Earth.

The bio folks (myself included), are basically adopting a wait and see attitude. My background is molecular/cellular bio and I've got an increasingly deeper background in evolution....but ecology bores the ever-loving crap out of me. There's enough knowledgable folks on either side (and the middle) that I teach precisely what the state curriculum says I must and don't elaborate on it. Even the middle school science teacher (who DOES have an ecology background) isn't 100% sure.

One of the major problems is in the individuals chosen to be the spokesmen for the positions. There's just no way that Al Gore is ever going to be a credible spokesman for well...ANYTHING. And hell, even the PBS video on global warming that the local BOCES sent me has as its narrator...Alanis frigging Morrisette. Yeah, a Canadian has-been pop singer is who I want as a narrator when I want kids to take a science issue seriously.

BTW, with that video ("Global warming: The Signs and The Science"), one of my students had just completed an AP European History report on the "seven strategies of propaganda," and apparently the Alanis-narrated video hit several of the strategies, including deliberately loaded adjectives, stating both sides of a case exist but only presenting one, mood music...

Let's just say that thanks to the bearer of the message and the video's tactics, the kids came away pretty skeptical, which was not my intent.

Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:23 am
by War Wagon
mvscal wrote: I guess you've never heard of the 2nd Theorem of Thermodynamics then have you, Mr. SmartyPants Science Teacher Guy?

I suggest you eject right now before I humiliate you again with my superior knowledge. Come along BeagleBlower. Our work is done here.

--Duncedale
Meds and I have found some common ground. I literally laughed so fucking hard that I had to go retch in the toilet so that I didn't spew all over the monitor.

Racks abound for MtLR and mv. Definitely worth the price of admission.

Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:31 am
by Eaglebauer
mvscal wrote:I can't claim credit for that nic smack gem. I'm not sure who the originator was, though.
Go ahead, take credit. It's horrible. Just like your performance in this thread.

Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:02 am
by War Wagon
Eaglebauer wrote:
Go ahead, take credit. It's horrible. Just like your performance in this thread.
It wasn't the nic smack, you smarmy little bitch.

It was the explicit and exquisite tone of "Come along" with-in the context provided by MtLR. What a visual. I could almost picture Dins pulling you by the ear-lobe as he dragged your tow-headed ass off to the next encounter. Like Lex Luthers exasperation with Otis.

Fucking classic.

Btw, why are you still here?

You've already been ran by poptart.

Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:06 pm
by Moving Sale
Mike,
Am I full of shit? <---Softball.

Using historic CO2 levels and their relative heat rates as proof against CO2 levels being able to drive climate change does not take into account outside forces that may have been driving the heat rate thereby affecting {effecting?} the CO2 levels.

Dumbed down...If the sun gets hotter the planet does too independent of {or possibly even driving?} CO2 levels.

Dins, GED, et al can chime in of course.

Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:17 pm
by Dinsdale
Moving Sale wrote:Dins, GED, et al can chime in of course.

You're getting warmer.


What the anti-doomsday crowd doesn't take into account, is that there's much evidence to suggest that there was casuses for those periods of increased CO2 levels, and causes for those ice ages, and that sort of thing. "Earth science" is progressing very rapidly right now, at an explosive rate, actually. And much of the studying done with this advancing technology suggests that most of the climate changes that we have evidence of, were seemingly cause by catastrophic events, ie meteors and massive volcanic activity and whatsuch.


This time around, there's little explaination as to why there is warming and increased CO2 levels...well, there is a very simple explaination, but people don't want to hear it. When 6,000,000,000 people all put their collective efforts together, and spend every waking hour generating CO2 as fast as humanly possible, the collective human spirit prevails. Some of these CO2 generating activities also coincide with reducing our ecosystem's ability to convert the CO2 to O2, such as deforesting the land and polluting the oceans.


Pretty simple equation, but once again, not what we people want to hear.

Don't get me wrong -- the sky isn;t falling in my world...not even close to it...but it ain't rose-colored, either.


I think I'll go fire up my gas guzzler soon.

Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:32 pm
by Dinsdale
mvscal wrote:There has been a lot of work done with Milankovitch Cycles along those lines.

Present debate aside, I think we're at least on one page that's the same -- the recent explosion of technology (which, granted, may or may not be as accurate as some would like you to believe) has made the new theories on such matters of geological history pretty darn fascinating to follow, and occasionally gives us call to say "wow, that sounds like a crock of bullshit, gunning for a grant."

On this, I'm sure we can all agree.

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:23 am
by Allah Akbar
The world will be in flames when we get done with you infidels. We here at al Qaeda bestow Allah's praise on Al Gore for telling such tremendous lies. This infidel is helping to distract from the demise we plan to visit upon the American infidel. We only regret he was not the infidel leader when our brothers visited Allah's wrath on America. Our job would have been much easier.

Allah Akbar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!