A little afternoon rundown…(4-23-2010)

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It is Thursday.  Tomorrow is Friday.  That makes me very, very happy.  Here’s some random stuff this afternoon…

– John Wall said his official goodbye today to UK fans.  It is strange to get so attached to 1-year players, but John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins will always be 2 of my all-time UK favorites.  Wall said he will be telling every player to come to UK, joining in the sentiments expressed by Boogie that he truly loved his time here.  That is great to see, and they will be missed. Here is a video of his press conference.

– It is cloudy out this afternoon, but I don’t think it is going to rain. Ever. Again.

– UPDATED:  Teague makes it official, picks UK. In some more exciting UK news, it looks like UK will be adding yet another stud point guard. Marquis Teague, arguably the best PLAYER in 2011 class is set to announce at 1:30 today, and you can watch it live here (if we don’t crash their site). This is HUGE for UK, as he was locked up at UL for a LONG time leading up to this last-minute switch. If he truly dons the UK cap and not the UL version, it is a big, big victory for Cal and the Cats.  Live feed at 1:30

– Tim finally went home on Idol.  Spoiler alert.  (oops…maybe you are supposed to put that BEFORE the spoiler??)

– These teabagger people are starting to scare me.  They are armed only with anger and misinformation, and lots of times, that is a dangerous recipe.  I submit the following as an example…

– Also, I just heard about this kid today, but so far, I’m awfully impressed.  His name is Elliot Collett, he’s 19, from Wellington, and was influenced by Ryan Adams.  He’s having a CD release party this weekend at the Morehead Conference Center at 7pm on Saturday.  Check him out. Official Site Myspace Site News release about CD party

-And finally today, it is Earth Day, so just take a minute or 2 to reflect about the world you live in and your impact on it.  Lord knows I don’t do my fair share to keep it as healthy as it could be, but I promise myself I’ll do better.  It might be a great day to plant a tree, maybe switch some light bulbs out for the compact fluorescent variety, or maybe just say “paper” instead of “plastic”.  Every little bit matters.

It is her day.

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  • http://None New Independent

    Admin: If you asked me, these “tea baggers”, as you derisively refer to them, are among the most informed people in this country. What did you find so “scary” about these people?

  • admin

    NI…
    THEY are the ones who call themselves “teabaggers”, so I’m not sure about just how informed they really are.

    And in the video I posted, they argue against facts…they don’t care about truth. In my opinion, MIS-informed would be the best way to describe them.

  • http://None New Independent

    Admin: I haven’t heard them call themselves teabaggers. What facts are they arguing against? About those tax cuts? Are you serious? I’ve watched this video and (although the young man doing the interview was obviously biased) wouldn’t you have to agree that they’re much more informed than the average Obama supporter?

    Anyway, what facts did you feel they were arguing against?

  • http://None New Indie

    Admin: As you probably know, interviewers can find people to slant an interview in any direction they wish. I present the attached video in support of that statement. However, what I feel this video demonstrates most clearly is the bias of information by the media outlets like MSNBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and NPR. These people were clearly clueless about important issues.

    But what do you think about this video?

  • http://None New Indie

    Admin: In an earlier post, you said you had not seen any evidence that might change your mind about global warming. May I present to you this evidence?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgbo1JJHbeo

    and

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzZUKvLJrhk&NR=1

    I’m sorry about the remarks made about the lady. They’re unnecessary and inappropriate.

  • admin

    New Indie…
    I’ll try to catch up to your comments with this posting…sorry to be so random…i wish more folks would leave comments, but … maybe one of these days!

    Absolutely interviewers can tilt an interview any way they want. It is as easy as just phrasing a question a certain way, or leading people down a path so that they answer a certain way when they don’t know the right answer.

    There is a slight difference between the video of the tea bag people i posted and the videos you shared, although both showcase how when it comes right down to it, the average American, myself included, does not know EVERYTHING that goes on in our government.

    In the video of the tea bag people, you see a guy denying the fact that taxes were lower this year for over 95% of the people in this country…which is a fact. But again, I understand that not everybody knows every in and out of the government or the policies that are affecting them.

    It is not the fact that people have a distorted view of reality that bothers me…we all have that to some degree, i think…it is the actual DISTORTIONS that scare the daylights out of me.

    The Republican party has mastered the art of distortion. Death squads…Iraq being responsible for 9/11…Obama is a communist…Democrats want to take all your guns away and kill unborn babies…they resort to scare tactics, and when people get scared, they get angry. And it is the anger in the teaparty video that I find most disturbing, especially since in several cases, bubbling right under the surface, that anger is being fed by racism. No, not in every case…and there are plenty of racist Democrats to go around, too…but they aren’t the ones who are angry right now.

    As for the global warming issue, the first video you linked to is impressive, but there’s more to be explained that simply what is shown….and the premise that the narrator suggests, that we shouldn’t combat global warming because it is good for humanity, is just dangerous.

    The Vostok ice cores that the narrator is using to prove his view that the “hockey stick” model doesn’t prove anything, actually proves pretty definitively that something is going on in terms of global temperature. You can see a larger, static image of that graph here: Vostok data

    Most scientists agree that the cycle of ice ages visible on those charts are the results of the Milankovitch Cycles. Basically…the earth is wobbling around all over the place, which changes the angle at which the sun strikes our planet and sets off a series of events that lead to periods of warmth and periods where we are in extreme cold, or an ice age.

    You can see a few things by looking at the chart. For one, you can see that at points in our history, global temperatures have been higher than they are now. So while it is warm, it has been warmer. What you will also notice is that periods where we warm up have always been followed by a gradual cool down, leading in to an ice age. But take a look at the far right end of that graph…the area where the “hockey stick” is observed. You’ll see that for the past 10,000 years, we’ve been warm…and we’ve stayed warm. So why is that? Obviously, humans didn’t cause it 10,000 years ago, but something is keeping the temperatures elevated. Now, while that is good for us as a species, as agriculture does tend to thrive with warmth as opposed to cold, it sets us up for a situation that is NOT so good for us. According to our position in the Milankovitch Cycle, we should be headed towards a cool down, but that is not happening.

    Now let’s factor in CO2. Throughout that graph, carbon dioxide levels have fluctuated mainly between 180 parts per million and 280 parts per million (ppm). Contrast that with current levels of 400ppm, and you start to see why that “hockey stick” is a bit alarming.

    The cycle of warming and cooling on this planet has always been driven by natural forces, and these forces work as part of a feedback loop. The angle of the sun changes, which allows more snow and ice to stay put, which reflects more solar energy, which allows even more snow and ice to build up, and on and on, all the while, the oceans are getting cooler, increasing their capacity to absorb and hold CO2…and boom…ice age. It works in the opposite direction, as well.

    The issue is really that we are now adding CO2 to the atmosphere at an alarming rate, and given the correlation between CO2 levels and global temperature, it would stand to reason that if we keep adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, bad things are bound to happen. Add to that the fact that we are only scratching the surface with our knowledge of all the various feedback loops that exist, and really, who KNOWS what might happen.

    And therein lies the choice. We can either do nothing and just see where the ride takes us, or we can do our best to keep CO2 levels within the range that they have always existed on this planet and let nature take its course. In my opinion, it would be best to ere on the side of caution and get our activities in check because truthfully, who knows what might happen if we don’t.

  • http://None New Indie

    Admin: This might take a couple of posts.

    First, I want to make sure I understand the chart. Does it end at 1950 as the caption indicates?
    And does it show that temperatures started rising about (roughly) 12,000 years ago? If so, wouldn’t that be rather conclusive proof that man has nothing to do with any temperature changes we might currently be experiencing?

    As for the rise in amount of CO2, since CO2 is only 0.04 percent of the atmosphere, isn’t a rise from 280 to 400 ppm a miniscule amount? Considering that the temperature has been high for already 12,000 years?
    On top of that, there is some evidence that suggests a rise in CO2 naturally occurs in conjunction with (or actually a little behind) the rise in temperature beginning about 12,000 years ago.
    Do you have any other evidence in support of global warming? I think we must all agree that what has been presented so far won’t do.

    At the risk of running too long, I’d like to address the issue of it being better to do something just in case.
    I think that argument is summed up rather nicely in the youtube link below:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ

    But it has a fatal flaw that is common to most such arguments. It puts you in a box. That is, it draws the boundaries around your choices so that it inevitably leads you to the conclusion they want you to come to.
    I say “think outside the box”. Allow people the freedom of choice that will give them the power to adapt and adjust to whatever circumstances they find themselves.

    We certainly wouldn’t want to force the world into the sham that is the Chicago Carbon Exchange.