Posts by Bart Janssen

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  • Hard News: The Creepy Party,

    [Wayne Mapp] got the portfolio he really wanted and is making a decent fist of it.

    He also got the science portfolio which came as a surprise I understand. Kinda hard for him to get up to speed on science when all he'd prepared for was defense.

    As for ACT vs Greens. Well yes the greens are much more polite but it doesn't stop some of their stuff being as batshit crazy as ACT's.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Doing Science in Court,

    In the unlikely (I hope) event that CSC are successful in their Court action, what happens then?
    It's not just NZ data that indicates warming - will the CSC start court action in every country where a scientist has produced numbers that indicate that global warming is a happening thing?

    It doesn't matter. They will have succeeded win or lose. The intent is to drain resources from doing the science and drain resources from promoting science involvement in policy.

    By doing that they allow room to have policy decided by the tried and true systems of graft and political favour. Essentially the only purpose is to allow policy that favours businesses that benefit from delaying controls on carbon emissions.

    The timing here is interesting, a little over a year from the election means that any emissions policy can be put on hold until the courts have decided the truth.

    None of this is complicated. It is however sad.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Doing Science in Court,

    And if folks want some more hockey sticks to look at.

    The sad thing is that it really doesn't matter what the outcome of this court case is, the effect will be less money for science and a little less respect for science and scientists. That almost certainly is the point.

    It's sad that there are people who feel their personal gain, from the businesses they own, is more important than a probable danger to the world as a whole. We saw the same responses from business which were threatened by banning of CFCs decades ago. Dismissal of the science, doubt cast on the projected hazards, doubt cast on the scientists and the science. Luckily they failed then.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: The C Word,

    But then, there's a small matter of making the story and the characters actually work...

    That's why I didn't say great to get it done. I'm guessing there is lots of work between drafts.

    But even so getting that first (nth?) set of words down even if few of them make it to the final ... that is a great feeling even for my much smaller manuscripts :).

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: The C Word,

    I know stuff'n'shit

    or vice versa

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: The C Word,

    your chances of making it into the top 40% are just 4%

    Only 4% do. Which isn't quite the same as only 4% can. Some of the problem for that bottom 40% is even realising a different way of existing is possible.

    That said the US is incredibly class conscious, while at the same time denying it. And the divisions are pretty scary. In our time in college Station Texas we drove down one street lined with massive mansions owned by the university elite and two streets over were the (negro) janitors occupying condemned houses.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: The C Word,

    Did anyone else find it disturbing to discover Emma drinks instant coffee?

    Oh and all this discussion about a dress and no picture?

    As for changing class, I'm not sure you really do change class but making the transition from being able to buy one Greggs spice per week to just shopping for food you like is definitely a good transition.

    @ Islander
    Congratulations it must feel great to get the words out.

    What if you remove real estate agents from the equation?

    nirvana?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Southerly: Confessions of a Social Retard,

    Love tests.
    Hate Dancing - probably can blame that on my mother who forced me to dance with her in public.
    Ok in social situations - but sometimes really not.
    Sometimes I'm as boring as hell and sometimes not.
    Sometimes perceptive, sometimes not.

    20 billion neurons in the human brain each with around 2000-10000 connections to other neurons.

    AQ test, 30 questions one score, 13 today

    Briggs myers, 4 classes! And the one we were forced to do, 4 colours - I was sort for blue yellow that day.

    OR

    Maybe those tests are a huge abstraction of who we really are as people. Maybe who we are is influenced by our surroundings and how we feel on any given day and maybe trying to come up with a score or four classes to simplify things doesn't really help us understand each other.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Something Chronic,

    What's the relevance of "not science"

    You presented a large quote from a medical journal paper that studied an observation of 3 cases. You presented it in such a way as to imply it proved something. That is not the case. It is simply an observation of 3 cases. Medical journals are quite appropriately full of such case studies.

    They are not science in the sense that they do not test hypotheses and do not come to scientific conclusions and they are not intended to be used as proof of anything by the authors.

    It is a valuable as concluding that since 3 people in this thread watch OF and have CFS then the two are linked.

    Equally Linus Pauling wandering around the world describing some cute chemistry that he claimed showed vitamin C was of tremendous health benefit was not science.

    However the large scale double blind clinical trials did show scientifically and with strong statistical certainty that vitamin C does sweet FA for any medical condition are science in the generally accepted use of the word.

    Now large scale trials sometimes miss things because of averaging effects but they are our best scientific proof and so I will trust them. You of course are free to ignore them.

    Your playing with semantics over what Lucy said is really not helpful. Those studies showed that all the claims made by Pauling about Vitamin C were not provable using any of the methods that Pauling himself used to establish his good name.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Something Chronic,

    lot of work in this field is being done in Canada.

    Intravenously Administered Vitamin C as Cancer Therapy

    Intravenously administered vitamin C as cancer therapy: three cases

    n= 3!!

    not science

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

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