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Towlie

Towlie's Journal
Towlie's Journal
January 29, 2019

Trump, the scientist's nightmare, displays his abysmal ignorance of what a polar vortex is.

Start by reading about what the polar vortices are.

The vortices weaken and strengthen from year to year. When the vortex of the arctic is strong, it is well defined, there is a single vortex, and the arctic air is well contained; when weaker, which it generally is, it will break into two or more vortices; when very weak, the flow of arctic air becomes more disorganized and masses of cold arctic air can push equatorward, bringing with it a rapid and sharp temperature drop.

Scientists are always cautious in their conclusions, but...

The general assumption is that reduced snow cover and sea ice reflect less sunlight and therefore evaporation and transpiration increases, which in turn alters the pressure and temperature gradient of the polar vortex, causing it to weaken or collapse. This becomes apparent when the jet stream amplitude increases (meanders) over the northern hemisphere, causing Rossby waves to propagate farther to the south or north, which in turn transports warmer air to the north pole and polar air into lower latitudes.

And now this:

Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump)
In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!


Today's depressing reality actually makes this XKCD cartoon about science denying politicians seem tame in comparison.
January 25, 2019

Does Elizabeth Warren's "wealth tax" proposal make her more electable or less electable?

Note: My question is not "Do you like Elizabeth Warren's 'wealth tax' proposal?"

My question is not "is a 'wealth tax' a good idea or a bad idea?"

My question is "Does Elizabeth Warren's 'wealth tax' proposal make her more or less likely to win the presidential election, if she's chosen as the Democratic candidate?"

January 21, 2019

Kamala Harris, African American???

Kamala Harris is cool. I like her, but...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris#Early_life_and_education

Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, to a Tamil Indian mother and a Jamaican father.

Her mother is from Tamil Nadu in Southern India, and her father is from Jamaica, so it seems quite a stretch for MSNBC and other news agencies to call her an "African American."

She has ancestors who came from Africa, you say? The entire homo sapiens species has ancestors that came from Africa!
January 20, 2019

Buzzfeed Double-Down!

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/20/media/buzzfeed-ben-smith-anthony-cormier/index.html

BuzzFeed says its sources are "standing behind" the bombshell report about the special counsel investigation.
"We're being told to stand our ground. Our reporting is going to be borne out to be accurate, and we're 100% behind it," investigative reporter Anthony Cormier told CNN's Brian Stelter on "Reliable Sources" Sunday.

This is truly a double-down in the blackjack sense, when you double your bet in return for one hit, and that's something a knowledgeable player does when the play offers a greater average return than not doubling down. We don't know how this will turn out, but Buzzfeed is placing a huge bet on a very daring play and this is going to be a very exciting thing to watch.
January 20, 2019

President Trump accuses Speaker Nancy Pelosi of behaving 'irrationally' during shutdown

That's the funniest headline I've seen in ages! I laughed out loud.

And then this:

"They (Democrats) should do the right thing for the Country & allow people to go back to work," Trump tweeted.


The difference between fact and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. - Tom Clancy
January 13, 2019

Sen. Marco Rubio has a brilliant idea!

And the next Democratic president should immediately adopt his suggestion, giving credit where credit is due.

"If today, the national emergency is border security ... tomorrow the national emergency might be climate change."


(Reminds me of this movie quote.)
January 13, 2019

When will the National Debt Clock hit $22 trillion?

It looks to me like this "Analysis by Z. Byron Wolf", published on Sunday, 1/13/2019, could have used a little more analysis:

In total, (the National Debt will) be $22 trillion any day now...


I did a calculation based upon The National Debt Clock and found that it'll be a bit longer than "any day now." Anyone care to guess the date, or do your own calculation?

The article about the importance, or lack thereof, of the National Debt is interesting, but this post is motivated primarily by the mathematics.

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Broward County, Florida, U. S. Congressional District 25, Representative is Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D)
Member since: Sun Sep 10, 2006, 08:56 PM
Number of posts: 5,324
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