Perverting science for politics

[TheMercenary]

March 29, 2008
Asking a Judge to Save the World, and Maybe a Whole Lot More
By DENNIS OVERBYE
More fighting in Iraq. Somalia in chaos. People in this country can’t afford their mortgages and in some places now they can’t even afford rice.

None of this nor the rest of the grimness on the front page today will matter a bit, though, if two men pursuing a lawsuit in federal court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole that will spell the end of the Earth — and maybe the universe.

Scientists say that is very unlikely — though they have done some checking just to make sure.

The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.” Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/sc...hp&oref=slogin

[tw]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

When does a machine underground in both France and Switzerland need to conform to American environmental laws? It is not a rhetorical question.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by tw

When does a machine underground in both France and Switzerland need to conform to American environmental laws? It is not a rhetorical question.

I'm guessing because we can kick their asses anytime we want to?

You could probably get every single Republican lawmaker to agree to an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq if you promised to send them to invade France.

[elSicomoro]

Only if the GOP lawmakers actually do the fighting...though they still might kick the French's ass. Hell, we could probably send Jim and some 3rd graders over there, and the Stars and Stripes would fly over Paris within 3 days.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by sycamore

Only if the GOP lawmakers actually do the fighting...though they still might kick the French's ass. Hell, we could probably send Jim and some 3rd graders over there, and the Stars and Stripes would fly over Paris within 3 days.

Yes but the French are winning in the important "our first lady is hotter than your first lady" category.

Why couldn't we have picked Kucinich?



Why is this man smiling?:p

[TheMercenary]

The queen of Jordon use to hold that spot.

[Happy Monkey]

Cheney v. Whales

Another internal document shows that the officials working for the Vice President also raised spurious objections to the science. According to this document, the Vice President's staff "contends that we have no evidence (i.e., hard data) that lowering the speeds of 'large ships' will actually make a difference. NOAA rejected these objections, writing that both a statistical analysis of ship strike records and the peer-reviewed literature justified the final rule. In its response to the objections from the Vice President's staff, NOAA reported that there is "no basis to overturn our previous conclusion that imposing a speed limit on large vessels would be beneficial to whales.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Well give credit where credit is due... the man is consistent.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Associated Press

Cheney reportedly wanted cuts in climate testimony

By H. JOSEF HEBERT – 40 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains.

When six pages were cut from testimony on climate change and public health by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last October, the White House insisted the changes were made because of reservations raised by White House advisers about the accuracy of the science.

But Jason K. Burnett, until last month the senior adviser on climate change to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, says that Cheney's office was deeply involved in getting nearly half of the CDC's original draft testimony removed.

"The Council on Environmental Quality and the office of the vice president were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony (concerning) ... any discussions of the human health consequences of climate change," Burnett has told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Why is Cheney allergic to science?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...mn9AgD91PN4N00

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by BigV

Why is Cheney allergic to science?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...mn9AgD91PN4N00

Because he's a clogged-up douche nozzle?

Because he has a complete inability to see beyond his own, or his master's (whoever that may be) desires?

Because people thought they were getting a conservative for VP but got a sociopath instead?

Just a thought.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Troubleshooter

Just a thought.

[richlevy]

From here

Bush pollution gaffe surprises G-8 leaders


RUSUTSU, Japan — President Bush has been known for unguarded comments at previous meetings of world leaders, but British newspapers reported Thursday that he surprised a number of them with a joke about environmental policy as he left the G-8 summit in Japan.
Bush, who has been criticized for being reluctant to join international efforts to combat global warming, reportedly ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."
The Web sites of the British newspapers The Independent and the Telegraph both reported that he then punched the air while grinning.

Well, at least he was honest.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by richlevy

From here



Well, at least he was honest.

He was just relishing in our position until China and India take over. Again, he had bad intell on his joke, since China has been a bigger polluter for greater than a year. Anyone see the pics of China's polluted air as they attempt to clean up for the Games?:
China takes over as largest CO2 emitter.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...9/china.usnews

[spudcon]

I've just opened this thread for the first time today, on page 19. I'm not going to bother with the rest, as it appears to be a subsidiary of the NY Times. I won't bother with that again either. "All the news that's shit to print"

[Clodfobble]

Hell, there are tons of things I'm not going to do today--cut my hair, go to the movies, feed a dog--I just thought it would be polite to refrain from wasting your time telling you about them.