[Fresh sand for the free for all. Anyone want to review the latest clinical evidence that liberals/progressives process critical thought with different parts of the brain than do conservatives/libertarians? gjr]

ARCHIVES
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
OUR LINKS
YubaNet
White House Blog
Watts Up With That?
The Union
Sierra Thread
RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog
RR FUNDAMENTALS
RECENT POSTS
- Father forgive them for they know not …
- Democrats Ascendant
- Scattershots – 4jan26 (updated 8jan26)
- Sandbox – 4jan26
- Venezuela on path to freedom and prosperity
RECENT COMMENTS
CATEGORIES
- Agenda 21 (490)
- All Things Trump (32)
- Books & Media (34)
- Budget (2)
- California (385)
- Comment Sandbox (488)
- Critical Thinking & Numeracy (1,312)
- Culture Comments (750)
- Current Affairs (1,858)
- Film (7)
- Food and Drink (9)
- Games (5)
- General (215)
- Glossary & Semantics (25)
- Great Divide (208)
- Growth (1)
- Happenings (679)
- Investing (43)
- Music (2)
- My Story (62)
- Nevada County (733)
- Our Country (2,430)
- Our World (629)
- Rebane Doctrine (130)
- Religion (38)
- sandbox (2)
- Science (33)
- Science Snippets (165)
- Singularity Signposts (144)
- Sports (3)
- The Liberal Mind (644)
- The Rear View (74)
- Travel (8)
- Trump (3)
- Uncategorized (45)
- We the iSheeple (620)
- Web/Tech (176)

236 responses to “Sandbox – 27jun17”
Posted by: Paul Emery | 28 June 2017 at 04:59 PM
……still president Paul.
LikeLike
PaulE 459pm – The record of this forum reaches back over ten years. For most of this time you have predicted the looming demise of the Republican Party in these pages. Last year you were the penultimate fearless prognosticator of Hillary wiping the floor with Trump in the 2016 election. Now, still unabashed, you courageously have again lifted your lance and charged into the windmills of Trump’s presidency, predicting its premature termination becoming more imminent by the day. The vim and vigor you have shown to sally forth, undiminished by past performance, is truly remarkable. Given all this, can you share with the rest of us what keeps you going in a manner that brings shame to also-rans like the Energizer Bunny? We would all like to have such imperturbable confidence in ourselves – who wouldn’t?
LikeLike
In a poll the po’ ol’ pollhead will never mention Trump did better than 0. Approve or disapprove of handling of the Russia thing. They tied on the negative rating and Trump did 4 points better in the people who thought Trump was handling the Russia thing better.
This sandbox sure got stinky fast. 😉
LikeLike
Posted by: George Rebane | 28 June 2017 at 06:10 PM
That’s not fair George, Paul can’t help it if as he kept getting cooler (I am going to miss the songs of Leonard Cohen) the country kept getting stupider.
LikeLike
Wha???? @ 643. 😉
LikeLike
Pelline at 3:52. I have read on more than one blog that you did fetch coffee for Herb Caen. Are you saying that is not true?
LikeLike
John,
And you were dumb enough to believe it? No, it’s not true. I was a reporter and editor at The Chronicle for 12 years. Herb fetched his own coffee.
LikeLike
Steve Frisch | 28 June 2017 at 06:43 PM
The country sans liberals got way smarter. So you have my deepest sympathy for your loss.
LikeLike
Pelline, maybe I was mistaken. Maybe it was Ackerman. Did you fetch coffee for Jeff Ackerman?
LikeLike
Jeff 3:52pm
“You sound like a real sad person. Belittling others to make yourself look smart. I hope you get some counseling some day.”
Back at you, Jeff. You’re ‘projecting’. That’s your inner Eric Cartman speaking… and you’ve been in denial about that for quite some time. I’ve heard from multiple sources of your yelling at and belittling subordinates at The Union, and you seem to be trying to do the same here.
Finally, “climate denier” is hate speech, and as long as you keep using a term intended for Neonazis pretending the Holocaust never happen for those of us who have studied the science for ourselves and come to a different conclusion, I’ll keep using negative hyperbole to describe your fawning over Caen and your glossy pennysaver with a minimum of content, just enough to hold the advertisements together.
LikeLike
Paul 4:59pm
As the national Democratic Party solidified more and more to the left over the last 8 or so years, the Democratic Party itself got hollowed out, which is why the leadership is elderly and out of ideas. Octogenarians… and a whippersnapper or two in their 70’s and the fewest number of elected officials since the early Roaring 20’s, only without the likes of Kid Ory and Louis Armstrong providing the soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-e_qHR6xhY
Ory’s Muskat Ramble, one of my favorites.
That’s how far back the Democratic Party has fallen, Paul. You missed it entirely.
LikeLike
lol. I can feel the love.
re: Gregory@11:56PM.
I expect they’ll be fine. The highly self-interested groups that make up the coalition called the Democratic Party will just renegotiate a bit and adjust the catechism accordingly. Selling soap is a science and they’ll just change the formula a bit.
In other news, Illinois leads the way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH-Z7-PMIwI&app=desktop
LikeLike
Those pesky Russians!
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2017/06/28/heh-mccaskill-paid-for-dinner-at-russian-ambassadors-residence-with-funds-from-undisclosed-foundation-n2348069
LikeLike
Gregory,
You wrote this? “Finally, “climate denier” is hate speech, and as long as you keep using a term intended for Neonazis pretending the Holocaust never happen for those of us who have studied the science for ourselves and come to a different conclusion, I’ll keep using negative hyperbole to describe your fawning over Caen and your glossy pennysaver with a minimum of content, just enough to hold the advertisements together.”
You do need some counseling!
LikeLike
If Gregory applied the same logic to the holocaust that he applied to climate he would be a denier.
LikeLike
You have to admit that ‘climate denier’ is related to ‘holocaust denier’ is related to Hitler.
Personally, I think it’s a super clever bit of wordage. It fits into the idea that anyone who questions climate science (especially the political part) is a kind of Nazi. It’s rather like a mean nickname. People argue in symbols rather than from deep knowledge on a matter, so anything like that is quite effective.
I don’t much care about free magazines and so have no opinion on that.
In another matter, CNN and Russia:
https://imgur.com/cxMstTB
LikeLike
I would argue that the term “climate denier” or climate science denier is not only perfectly appropriate but it is the most accurate description partly because of its association with holocaust denial.
There’s a strong body of scientific research and cognitive research into the phenomenon of science denial which I believe extends to climate denial. It is the same phenomenon one sees in denial of evolution, non-science based attacks on vaccination, and faux science studies on Chemtrails and GMO’s.
Denial is about the rejection of observed science and the belief that contrarian points of view have MORE credibility than majority points of view within the scientific community specifically because they are contrarian. This is a phenomena specific to people predisposed to reject what are considered trusted sources because they have lost trust. They have lost their ability to independently of impartially analyze the science. To really understand it we need to go into the psychological research into what drives people to reject scientific based evidence. There is very strong cognitive research showing that we seek out data and positions that support our predetermined points of view then use the dissemination of that information as a tactic or persuasion technique.
In short, that is really no different than the holocaust denier that rejects first person observed evidence because they do not trust the sources, even if the sources are survivors of Buchenwald, American and British soldiers liberating camps, and even source documents from the mass murders themselves cataloguing the deaths.
Criticizing people for using the accurate and informative term ‘denial’ is nothing more than a diversionary tactic.
LikeLike
Of course part of it could just be that Gregory has a hard on for attacking people like Jeff or me because their lives are so shallow and joyless that the only way they can find solace is being big on social media because they are small and powerless in their own subconscious…kind of like our President.
LikeLike
Posted by: Steve Frisch | 29 June 2017 at 08:01 AM
Your dedication to message discipline is truly an inspiration to us all.
LikeLike
re: SF@8:01AM
Well, I’m convinced. Thinking that weather models are crappy or that important causalities are missed is essentially the same as claiming that 12 million or so Jews, gypsies, gays, etc. weren’t gassed and shot.
And I always thought it was a loaded terminology specifically chosen because of the tie to inhumane actions. Go figure.
It’s a boring argument anyway since in venues like this it’s a few people who have gone to some trouble to look at the underlying science (with correct or incorrect conclusions) vs. people who can only use appeals to authority. It’s an oblique kind of discussion.
LikeLike
“Your dedication to message discipline is truly an inspiration to us all.”
C’est la vie.
The most depressing part is when people have exactly the kind of opinions that you expect, and those opinions extend to an incredibly wide family of topics.
You have to wonder about the validity of your thoughts, and when/where those were picked up, if the whole package fits into an archetype. I think that free will is not all that it’s cracked up to be.
LikeLike
Posted by: ScenesFromTheApocalypse | 29 June 2017 at 08:29 AM
The most depressing part is when people have exactly the kind of opinions that you expect, and those opinions extend to an incredibly wide family of topics.
Depressing? Why?
LikeLike
Posted by: ScenesFromTheApocalypse | 29 June 2017 at 08:19 AM
There is a great article in The Guardian this morning deconstructing the contention by John Christy that climate models are crappy….but no, I am not equating critiquing climate models with murdering Jews, Gypsies, gays or opponents….I am saying that the mistrust that drives the holocaust denials is similar to the distrust that drives the climate denials, the cognitive roots are the same.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/jun/28/climate-scientists-just-debunked-deniers-favorite-argument
Fortunately I do go to reading the underlying science, and talk regularly to people doing that science, so although I am not a scientist, at least I regularly go to the actual sources.
LikeLike
A now, a purse in the action.
https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1117703388363697/?type=3&theater
My, my. He sends Punchy his regards. Always a silver lining.
https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1117700525030650/?type=3&theater
LikeLike
“…if the whole package fits into an archetype…”
You mean like the ‘conservitarian’ or libertarian mindset? or the mindless distrust of all authority even if they may be correct archetype? or the anti-global archetype?
LikeLike
“Denier” is a term out forth by liberals and is of no value or meaning to the debate of science. The facts and the acts of dishonest players like Frisch are rejected because they are not science. So a person cannot be defined as a denier if the underlying item is a lie.
In fact, the people like Frisch that elieve in the lie are as close to the fascists who murdered millions than any conservative. As Frisch is trying to force a lemming lifestyle on humans while conservatives are all about individual rights and freedom.
LikeLike
Scenes, one of the largest and most savage of the Nazi death camps was in Nazi Croatia and more Serbs were exterminated there than Jews. Hate runs deep. Never forget.
Pelline and Frisch, thanks for staying true to form, and only the solidly left of center use “climate denier” as a cudgel.
LikeLike
“Scenes, one of the largest and most savage of the Nazi death camps was in Nazi Croatia and more Serbs were exterminated there than Jews. Hate runs deep. Never forget.”
That’s an interesting case, one more battle in a conflict that goes back a long way. Those fault lines, in this case a religious/ethnic/language one, can result in nasty situations. I’m going to have to assume that the Croatian Nazis are the equivalent to anyone who disagrees with Michael Mann.
LikeLike
If the shoe fits Goodknight I care not who made it for you. You so perfectly fit the cognitive studies of denier personality that it is the Croc you were born to wear.
LikeLike
“You mean like the ‘conservatarian’ or libertarian mindset? ”
Sure, why not? Everyone should question their own motives.
LikeLike
Ha😀 Lemming lifestyle; I have rarely encountered one more prepared to charge off the true believers cliff than you Todd. Any idiot could be elected claiming to be a Republican and you would follow.
LikeLike
Oh Frisch, you crack me up. You are a dyed in the wool lemming and think group-think is the cat’s meow. You would probably carry the AK-to enforce your farces. I am all about personal freedom from people like you so I get why you are so defensive about your beliefs. Over the cliff there Steve.
LikeLike
And you prove your anti-constitutional actions all the time. You moderate off your FB and personal pages anyone that disagrees with your fallacious beliefs. You survive there as a “echo chamber” with the other leftwing loons.
LikeLike
Frisch linked to a Guardian story written by Dana Nuccitelli, who apparently entered UC Davis’ Physics PhD program and left with a Master’s, currently something of a Christian Scientist with appendicitis as he’s said to be working for a petrochemical concern somewhere in NorCal. A friend of yours, Steven?
So Steven, how does Allied liberators observing piles of emaciated bodies and industrial scale crematoria compare to your favored scientists saying, in effect, it’s gotten warmer since the end of the Little Ice Age in the 19th century and it must be CO2 because that’s the only explanation we have that fits the data?
LikeLike
Trump
What a weird creep Even the Pepublicans don’t like him except, of course our own Todd.
Stephen, You’ve got to have sympathy for Todd. He had a little winning streak about 30 years ago but went on to be a failed developer and came in 5th I believe when he ran for the House. He’s part of Nevada County folklore a remnant of time gone by.
Here’s what the Republicans say about our idiot in chiefs latest sexist tweets.
Republicans in Congress called out President Trump on Thursday for a series of tweets they described as “beneath the dignity of your office.”
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Maine Sen. Susan Collins — all Republicans — spoke out after Trump targeted Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski on Twitter. Trump called her “crazy” and criticized her appearance, saying he saw her “bleeding badly from a face-lift.” The tweet followed a trend of Trump singling out female reporters, often for their appearance.
“This is not okay,” Republican Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins said. “As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women.”
LikeLike
Another view of the Santer paper Nuccitelli puts on a pedestal is here
https://judithcurry.com/2017/06/24/consensus-enforcers-versus-the-trump-administration/#more-2300
Curry puts it this way:
LikeLike
Re SteveF’s 845am Guardian ref: “What any skeptical scientific mind should want to know is why they’re imperfect – what’s causing the difference between simulations and reality, and what can we learn from that? The answer in this case is that those forcings (solar activity, coal pollution, volcanic eruptions) and ocean cycles acted to temporarily slow the warming of atmospheric temperatures in a way that wasn’t included in the climate model simulation inputs. But that shouldn’t assuage our concerns about climate change – solar activity won’t offset long-term global warming; nor will volcanic eruptions, coal pollution, or ocean cycles. These are all short-term effects that all had a cooling effect over the past 20 years, during which time the planet nevertheless kept on warming due to the overpowering force of human carbon pollution.” (emphasis mine) How on earth could such a blanket conclusion be stated, since it is exactly that warming which is the sum and substance of the debate about climate models and data??! But we do note that now at least some of the true believers acknowledge the formerly denied recent cooling epoch.
– To begin, the author of the Guardian piece was not qualified to write an article on general circulation models (GCMs)
– ‘Forcings’ in a GCM embody current knowledge of climate impacting sub-processes like ocean mixing, heat transfer in soils, cloud formation, earth’s carbon cycle, solar wind’s effect on earth’s magnetic field, etc, etc. ALL of these are imperfectly known today, and are constantly being updated.
– In a complex system (e.g. earth’s climate) N ‘forcing’ factors have at least an of order N^2 interactions. Even less is known of such interactions.
– ANY MODEL with a sufficient number of degrees of freedom – e.g. all current GCMs – can be made to reproduce or fit any dataset, like an historical time series of temperatures, by twiddling with its plant transfer function and/or its multiple feedback gains (‘forcings’).
– The scientific verity of any model is in its ability to predict the future (i.e. experiments yet to be done) to a useful level of accuracy. Model accuracy is measured by the statistical variability of its outputs when compared to realworld measurements.
– The accuracy of GCMs has not improved over the last 30 years due to a number of factors, the updating (twiddling?) of forcing functions being just one of these.
– Beyond the added debates about which datasets to use and their reliability, the utility of current GCM outputs is a political assessment and not a scientific one.
– So far the IPCC-blessed GCMs have at best been twiddled to fit historical data, which fittings are still a matter of vigorous scientific debate.
– Climate science is immature and therefore occupies a leading edge in human knowledge. Historically, claims of broad consensus on leading edge science have always been wrong.
LikeLike
The Alt-left and their media lackey’s are all aflutter that Trump said something about Mika and her facelift. The left is at every microphone whining that Trump is just a terrible person for his rweets on this and other things. Now, why would they be upset since they have set the low bar for the country with their lefty pressers every day. They call the Repiblicans murderers and killers and all other forms of names for the healthcare bill proposals. I mean, do the left and the dems think people parse that and pay no attention to their inflammatroy language? I say the left is far more guilty of wrecking the langauge than any R.
LikeLike
And now we see a Playboy “journalist” chewing on Ms. Huckabee at the daily presser. He was so upset he called her a “bully”. I imagine he peed his pants in such fear of that lady . When I was a kid a bully was someone who threatened to physically beat yopu up. Now the liberals say a woman not taking your crap is a bully. You cannot make this stuff up.
LikeLike
For the record, I expect it’s #3 that is dominant in Curry’s list, that the models that code up expectations that climate sensitivity to CO2 is from 2C to 4.5C for a doubling while thermodynamic calculations from actual data suggests something closer to 1.3 degrees C. Small compared to natural variations, no tipping points as they require strong positive feedbacks that aren’t expected from CO2 sensitivities above 2degrees C.
CO2 sensitivity is logarithmic and self limiting… CO2 only absorbs in a narrow band of the infrared spectrum and existing CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) already absorb something more than half of that IR emitted by the earth… so while the first 1.3C of AGW would be at about 600ppm, there really couldn’t be more than about 2C warming worst case if we could even extract and burn enough fossil fuels to push CO2 further.
Mammals evolved in a 2000ppm CO2 atmosphere something like 250 million years ago. 400ppm is nothing new or worth committing economic seppuku to suppress.
LikeLike
GR 1047
Regarding models and the ability to fiddle parameters to make it do what you expect. the most famous pronouncement on this was “A turning point in Freeman Dyson’s life occurred during a meeting in the SPring of 1953 when Enrico Fermi criticized the complexity of Dyson’s model by quoting Johnny von Neumann [1] `With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk’”
This was demonstrated by a few German wags with time on their nearly a decade ago:
“Drawing an elephant with four complex parameters” https://publications.mpi-cbg.de/Mayer_2010_4314.pdf
And yes, they add a fifth and make the trunk wiggle.
LikeLike
Mrs Trump wants to take on cyber bullying as her ’cause’. Her husband is the most famous cyber bully of all time. Alternative fact reality strikes again.
LikeLike
Frisch wrote a couple of howlers on Earl Crabb’s blog that led RL to cut me off.
One was this:
One might question why I shouldn’t have interpreted “small minded troll”, “the tiny world of Goodknight” or “I am amazed every time you comment at just how small you are” as personal insults targeting only me.
and then RL blocked me, banishing me to Todd’s blog which I don’t post at and rarely read.
I’ve come to the conclusion that, with the written word, RL Crabb tunes out anything that he can dismiss as a “squabble”, expecting the “geniuses of the left and right”, as he recently wrote, who dare to think original thoughts (whether they are original or not) to sort it out and come to an agreement before bothering him.
LikeLike
For our trumpeters of socialized medicine. Yup EU healthcare is great.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/06/29/eu-court-terminal-baby-must-die-despite-parents-funding-extra-care/
And this is what LIBS what for all of us.
Almost like trying to pay a Dr. here in Ca. (I know. I tried. He had to get the VA’s permission to treat me. And what a battle that was)
LikeLike
Gregory | 29 June 2017 at 01:14 PM
I have been blocked from the cartoon dude’s blog for years just for defending myself from him and his pals Frisch etal. My sister went to school with RL and says he was a dick then too. Underavciever and nasty. The kind of person that sneaks up behind you, smacks you and runs away cryng he is being attacked. So nothing new from the libs like RL.
So Gregory gets a taste of what I have dealt with since I was Supervisor thirty years ago. Paul Emery and his minions would go door to door seeking votes for their candidates and use every vile lie they could think up about me to gain a edge. Well, I beat them both times and they are still crying. And now Paul Emery is following me around Nevada City, (which I hardly attend) trying to gain some purient satisfaction about my activities. I did run into him a couple of times over the years though. Both times I had a real beautiful woman on my arm and he could not stop staring and drooling. He is a loser with the gals and lives his fantasies through me and others. Sad.
LikeLike
Walt, if it’s from Breitbart, it must be true.
If the Repubs get their way on the health care bill, states will have to decide whether to treat the poor or keep the elderly in nursing homes. Either way, people will be dying before their time.
But you won’t read that on Breitbart.
LikeLike
Are there any photos of the protests when buggy whip makers became a thing of the past?
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/29/nyt-reporters-stage-walkout-chant-no-editors-no-peace-over-staff-cuts-video/
Then again, LIB news in print has become their own worst enemy.
LikeLike
Todd: To paraphrase Ann Coulter, you’d endorse Communism if Trump did.
LikeLike
Face it Boardman, Gov. has no place trying to run health care. Gov. destroys any private business it touches.
Big government couldn’t even run a whore house and turn a profit. Need a reminder? The FEDS took over the Mustang Ranch and ran it into the ground. Yet you feel they should be in charge of healthcare?
The VA SUCKS! They won’t even follow their own rules.
Since your “old”,and long in the tooth, even with Covered Ca. your on the “little as possible” treatment list.
LikeLike
GeorgeB, no I am not like you. I have my own mind.
LikeLike