Going off on a purely hypothetical and somewhat morbid tangent…
Some people protest the behavior of public entities by protesting: for example, picketing and handing out flyers on the sidewalk in front of Urban Outfitters. Sometimes, though, I wonder about more subtle ways to damage an organization. Most people don’t realize it, but scents are extremely powerful. I’m not just talking about putrescine: Butyl isocyanide, for example, is a shockingly effective deterrent at low concentrations, and defies all attempts at containment:
My bike has been parked next to this 750cc black Ninja for a few weeks now. I think they’re moto friends.
Man, his Triple looks like an absolute blast. Maybe someday I’ll get one of those.
So Justin took my bike out for a spin with some friends from out of town—and while locked up out in the Marina, it was stolen!
I’m sad to see you go, little grey hybrid.
Hi Mom! I know you want to know what I’m up to down here in CA. This basically sums it up!
Duretti and her nonexistent website shut me down at lunch:
Duretti Hirpa: no one should take your sartorial advice
Duretti Hirpa: gays thought you were a straighty
Duretti Hirpa: THIS WEEKEND
Duretti Hirpa: at PRIDE
I’ve been wary of Facebook’s privacy settings for a long time. I set mine to the most restrictive possible back when they announced Beacon. Since then they’ve released new features on a regular basis, each of which seems to share information about me without my knowledge or permission. You know what, Facebook? Fuck that.
I even disabled the most recent feature–“instant personalization”, which allowed third party websites to read my information on page load. Yet my friends can still, according to FB, share my info with any third party. Name, picture, gender, city, friend list, pages, and more. I have to explicitly block each and every app that wants my data. I don’t even know how many there are! That “recommend” button? Gives the app access to your data and permission to publish to your feed indefinitely.
Some recent reports have suggested incidents of scientific misconduct in the climate science community. While that is not evidence of incorrect conclusions, it does cast some doubt on the findings of the organizations involved–and right so, I believe. The APS newsletters for December and January have been chock-full of climate discussion–arguing for the retraction of the APS’s climate change statement or alteration to reflect uncertainty, counterarguments, and so forth.
My personal take on it is this: climate is really effing complicated. I know a little about the scientific method, publishing, data analysis, and review, but basically have no awareness of the intricacies of modeling the world’s atmosphere and hydrology. I’m also aware that plenty of people have significant personal and economic interests in the matter, and an underabundance of understanding. The only reasonable conclusion I can come to is this: trust the people who spend their lives trying to understand climate, and maintain some awareness of their methods. It is my belief, from the limited reading I’ve been able to do, that the vast majority of climate researchers are doing good science, and working hard to understand and explain to others a very complex problem.