Wednesday, October 07, 2015

In which the pond avoids Dutton Travel Services and spends time with the climate science consultancies of the Bolter and Greg Hunt ...


(Above: you can catch Rowe at the AFR here and a little later on his Twitter account here).

How many times does the pond have to say it?

Please, at times of climate stress, don't mention climate science, it's certain to send the Bolter into a frenzy.

Sure enough, there were thoughtless folk who broke the pond's prime rule, and prodded and poked at the beast lurking in his cage:



It sent the Bolter right off, scurrying through the historical records to discover early bushfire scenes in the olden days, and proving definitively there had been bushfires before in Australia in September, and so on and so forth at tedious length and with press clippings as evidence ...

And indeed we all know that one off events can't be linked with certainty to the slow, inexorable warming of the planet.

To use one off weather events to make points like that would be ... well not even adolescent, more like profoundly childish ...

Thank the long absent lord the Bolter would never behave in such a childish way ...



And so on and endlessly, tediously forth, because the pond could have multiplied those examples by dozens and dozens ...

Yes, the Bolter loves his weather events, and has a childish glee whenever a little snow or rain falls ... yet when someone mentions bushfires and the heat, he falls into a childish rage, and resorts to the one pitiful graph that remains within his armoury ...

It's the classic behaviour of those who stare at the horizon and see only the flat earth ...

It reminded the pond of just how persistently obdurate and obfuscatory the Bolter has been over the years ...


Of course in the three years since that piece, much has changed, and everything the Bolter scribbled doesn't look so clear cut, but you won't see the Bolter changing, deviating, modifying, varying, presenting ambiguities, subtleties and nuance ...

Because that's not the style of a true ratbag demagogue, and because the Bolter's such a blind, stubborn true believer - with a fanatical faith that makes your average medievalist look like a first rate scientist - he maintains an endless rage at the slightest challenge to his faith ...


Now there's no point in racing off to NASA and leading with all sorts of contrary details and evidence.

The thing about the fanatically religious is that they're not for turning. Myopia sustains them in their blind faith and their rage at the disbelievers ...

But it does lead the pond to contemplate a wonderful interview with that fellow traveller, Greg "walri" Hunt and his interview on Lateline last night, which you can see here ...

The wiki man delivered a devastating indictment of the previous Labor government:

EMMA ALBERICI: You've been reportedly asking the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Renewable Energy Agency to facilitate the widespread deployment of battery storage across Australia? 
GREG HUNT: Correct. 
EMMA ALBERICI: In what way can they facilitate that?
GREG HUNT: What we're doing is bringing together ARENA - the Australian Renewable Energy Agency - the Clean Energy Finance Corporation into an office of climate change and renewables innovation, precisely to integrate on encouraging more storage, more off-grid activity, lower emissions and also lower electricity costs, because it means that we don't have to have as much build for our networks if we can smooth out our electricity flow. 
EMMA ALBERICI: So if those two agencies are proving to be so critical in the Government's policy for renewables, why were you trying so desperately to get rid of them? 
GREG HUNT: Look, our long-term position hasn't changed but we think that they can be used quite dramatically more effectively. They were... 
EMMA ALBERICI: So your long-term position - pardon the interruption - is still to try through the Senate to get rid of those two agencies? 
GREG HUNT: The formal policy has not changed: let me be clear about that. But let me also say: I am utterly realistic about the Senate position. So they exist. We should be using them. The previous government did not integrate them.

Hang on, hang on. The previous government?

That's a classic sign of schizophrenia. Surely that's not the previous Labor government he's talking about, that's the government in which Greg Hunt was the actual minister for the environment, and tried its hardest not just to not integrate the agencies, but to demolish them ... in the days when Tony "coal is king" Abbott was king ...

And that's how a quisling politician can turn on a dime.

The rest of the interview also featured much toe tapping and tap dancing up there with Gregory Hines, Buck and Bubble, Bojangles and the rest of the greats, and it struck the pond that Hunt was up there with this meme ...


Yep, there's also no doubt that Paul Flynn is deeply delusional ...

Still the good news is that, after a couple of days of heat, a cold change has swept across Sydney, and ergo, any issues relating to climate science have been instantly resolved. Just ask the Bolter ... he knows that a little snow is a sure sign the planet's in for a period of dramatic cooling ...

And finally it would be remiss not to note the enormous amount of hot air which has been expended in recent days, and no doubt has had some impact on the world's climate, and all in the absence of details ...

Still, it led to some nice cartoons, including this one ...


When we get the details, the pond will get back to the trust business ...

18 comments:

  1. Phoenix Greg's excitement about massive global reforestation potential seems to be catching like wildfire this week; which should please Open-Minded Andrew, given that the net effect is a bit like 'you know nothing, Jon Snow'.

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    1. Hi Anon,

      you might like these Snow Knows Epic Sagas

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewlYIec5HjU&list=PLgkCjvVkHsusc4JgFK_cQOe_JbABqKZ0S

      DW

      Delete
  2. Here I was thinking one of the other Newmans (Campbell) was only out to sell his book. It sounds like he, too, has dug himself into a pit of self-righteous deprivation of entitlement, eg, "he's been absolutely silent" (repeat ad nauseum).
    To add insult, Campbell Newman biography: Handful of book shops refuse to stock book. Well, let me cry "Where's the Freedom?" in anticipation of tonight's IPA stooge on The Drum.

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  3. Over here in Cannes, 20 people died in the most unprecedented floods seen ever on the Cote d'Azur this past weekend. Frightened old folks, trapped in their cars under bridges and viaducts as the water and exposed sewerage rose metres in minutes. The rain was biblical, the people were, and are completely stunned.

    But I have been calming them by distributed small printed booklets from Bolta and Moorice explaining that there is nothing to see here, proceed as usual. How does one say in French, 'It's BoM harmonising temperature readings that is the problem here. The odd destructive, massively damaging and killing rain event is just an outlier"?

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  4. GREG HUNT: The formal policy has not changed: let me be clear about that. But let me also say: I am utterly realistic about the Senate position. So they exist. We should be using them. The previous government did not integrate them.

    Hang on, hang on. The previous government?

    That's a classic sign of schizophrenia...


    WTF !! Again Pond? Why?

    The term "schizophrenia" comes from an old notion of a split mind, not a 'split personality', not Jekyl and Hyde fancies. Schizophrenia occurs in many forms, in various degrees of severity, but commonly features symptoms of auditory hallucination, and disorganised and confused thought.

    Now, the Ghunt may have issues with his thinking, but that's far more likely to be due to perfidious dishonesty, and when often trapped by his ragged web spun of falsity he becomes confused. People, at least one in every hundred of the population, suffering the dreadful ordeal of "scizophrenia" are stigmatized by the wider ignorant society. They're stigmatised more than enough by that ambiguous, often derogatory (towit: as used yet again by the Pond above) label without being lumped in with such an arsehole as Greg Hunt. Oh, there you are, fixed it for you, anything to do with Ghunt will show the sign of an uttering utter arsehole. Please, leave "schizophrenia" out of it so that those who are suffering an illness may not be so socially stigmatised and excluded.

    Researchers Want To Rename Schizophrenia, Help Lessen Mental Health Stigma
    ...The Daily Beast reported of the words used to categorize mental illness, so many are used to connote “being broken or disorganized.” There are even those who use the term to generally refer to anything at all that seems insane, crazy, or unhinged. And for patients who are actually diagnosed with the disorder, they’re afraid to say so for fear of others writing them off as a crazy....

    The Australian National University reviewed previously published literature on the issue of renaming schizophrenia, weighing the pros and cons of those changes. In total, there were 47 papers, and among them, researchers found the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. Renaming schizophrenia would “reduce stigma and benefit communication between clinicians, patients, and families.”

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    1. DP, you may care to ghunt renaming schizophrenia due to severe social stigma and damaging sterotypes. There's a global trend - try Japan, land of the koan, or South Korea for starters:

      Integration disorder".

      Should schizophrenia be renamed to help reduce the stigma that surrounds people with the illness? The suggestion continues to spark debate.

      Name Change for Schizophrenia

      Renaming schizophrenia in South Korea
      In January, 2012, the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association changed the original Korean term for schizophrenia, jungshinbunyeolbyung (mind-split disorder), to johyeonbyung (attunement disorder), to dispel the stigma associated with the name. Johyeon literally means “to tune a stringed musical instrument”. In the context of schizophrenia, attunement is a metaphor for tuning the strings of the mind. It was inspired by a Buddhist text written by a South Korean monk in 1579: “As a stringed instrument maintains its own sounds with appropriate tension, the human mind also needs adequate tuning to maintain its functions.” Thus, johyeonbyung metaphorically implies that schizophrenia is a brain disorder in which the neural circuitry is inadequately tuned.

      Should Schizophrenia Be Renamed to Avoid Stigma?

      Renaming schizophrenia to reduce stigma: comparison with the case of bipolar disorder

      Why Rename Schizophrenia With "Psychosis Susceptibility Syndrome"?
      There is no doubt that for many, the diagnosis of schizophrenia can be as debilitating as the associated symptoms. The word 'schizophrenia' appears to do more harm than good, more frequently communicating prejudice and misinformation than fact and hope.

      It is indisputable that the stigma surrounding the term schizophrenia can in itself lead to misery for many with the diagnosis...

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    2. ...t'was an html integration disorder, that. Re Japan:

      Integration disorder


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    3. The pond reserves the right to use barking mad, paranoia, Tony Perkins, inmates of Bedlam, and dozens of other offensive stereotypes in a way loosely understood as metaphorical, and you might think it better to call Greg Hunt an utter arsehole, but truth to tell, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the pond's arse hole and we're quite fond of it.

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    4. DP, that's utterly pissweak. What do you "loosely" misunderstand the term to mean? If the term is so misunderstood and wittingly used so "loosely" by you how can it possibly be metaphorical? Or is it supposed "metaphorical"? There's no metaphor where so ill-conceived, but there are opposite objectives acheived, such as continuing and widening ignorance, and miscommunication.

      Aristotle said in his work, The Rhetoric, that metaphors make learning pleasant; "To learn easily is naturally pleasant to all people, and words signify something, so whatever words create knowledge in us are the pleasantest."

      Aristotle stresses the cognitive function of metaphors. Metaphors, he says, bring about learning (Rhet. III.10, 1410b14f.).

      The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an eye for resemblance. -Aristotle, De Poetica, 322 B.C.
      (...so why after such dogged ill-conceiving here ought a defensive Dorothy Parker continue to feature on Tammie Bob's home page linked there?)


      Tony Perkins, WTF? Serving up anachronistic serially killed unfalsifiable fucked Freudian pseudoscientific psychoanalysis waffle aint metaphor, aint psychiatry, and it sure aint schizophrenia. Serving up misbegotten popular culture tropes concerning "multiple personality disorder" or "split personality" as schizophreia aint metaphor, it's simile, it's poor form. Is the pond one of the many that "just know" men suffering schizophrenia (whatever that is) are likely also poofters? And, of course, poofters are as likely kiddyfiddlers. It follows.

      Yeah, pond, stick to making the mad bad, but where's that leave a silly ghunt?

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    5. Oh FFS, you do realise that you're writing to a blog entitled "Loon pond"? That's not about loons in the wild, that's about human loons, you complete doofus and wanker. You do understand that everybody who appears on these pages by definition is judged as having a mental disorder, including the writer?

      The pond's own preferred form of mental illness is manic depressive. Now you can wank away as to what it should be called and trot out bipolar and all the new words - yes, there's all sorts of new fangled notions doing the rounds - but here's what happens. You have mania and you have depression. And changing the words doesn't change the condition, nor the assorted prejudices.

      If you want to take a look at your own words, you might notice an extreme over-reaction and an utter failure to comprehend alternative world views. And be careful when you stray into talk of poofters, you drop kick. You have absolutely no idea how the pond relates to the LGBT community, but it might well be a lot closer than you imagine, you writer of pissweak wanker words and abuse. Especially, when you deplore talk of poofters, and then end up with a cheap ploy and play on the word cunt in association with Greg Hunt ... well that situates you pretty well on the subtle, nuanced side when it comes to women and body parts ...

      And there's an end to this correspondence.

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    6. So, in the loon pond, a "play" on "poofter" stigma strikes home, more or less (some actually do automatically associate schizophrenia with homosexuality ffs), but "silly ghunt" is entirely dodged? Oh well, back to basics then...

      loon; noun; A silly or foolish person

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    7. Spirits voices heard in the third world and those of aliens from outer space in the west - so many differences abound, and, as elsewhere, differences between class and caste too. The most enormous gap appears to be between before and after the industrial revolution came to town and country.

      Re: Oz

      Epidemiology: risk factors for schizophrenia

      Cultural and international psychiatry

      Time Trends in Schizophrenia ...

      The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?

      The Illusions of Psychiatry

      ‘The Illusions of Psychiatry’: An Exchange

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  5. So let me see if I have this right...the Bolter decries climate scientists homogenising messy data sets and disparages forecasts which rely on mathematical modelling. And to prove them wrong, he builds his case on RSS's mathematical model of temperatures (satellites measure radiation, from which temperature is calculated) constructed from homogenised datasets (not-always-overlapping data from multiple satellites with different corrections for precession, orbital decay etc...). There's glory for you!

    The authors of that graph calculate an upward trend of 1.2 degrees C / century - who are you going to believe, them or the Bolter's lying eyes? And just for added goodness, that model is tuned for maximum sensitivity at 8,000 - 15,000 metres altitude - effectively calculating the temperature on top of Mount Everest.

    Actual measurements of temperatures at places where people actually live? Shhh...

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    1. Oh Frank D, you tried to bring some reality into the discussion, which is entirely against the values of the pond and the Bolter

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  6. "There has been no real warming".

    Is that the same as "There has been no warming"?

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  7. Could it be there has been imaginary, fanciful warming instead?

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  8. Could it be there has been imaginary, fanciful warming instead?

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  9. Could it be there has been imaginary, fanciful warming instead?

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