(no subject)
The light turned green and I started across the intersection of Spring and 17th. The mini-van in the next lane paces me. The sedan another lane over pulls ahead of us. To my right a green sports coupe driver tries to run the red light and realizes he'll never make it. He locks his brakes and begins to slide into the intersection. Turning would put me into the mini van or bouncing over the median into the car behind the coupe, so I push my brake pedal to the floor and feel the ABS kick in immediately. I go form 30 miles per hour to stopped in just under two car-lengths and watch the green coupe slide past my bumper with four inches to spare and stop perhaps a foot from the mini-van. The coupe's driver breathes a sigh of relief, turns and says "Thank you". I wave and say "No problem." He backs up and I continue on my way to work. I feel no anger, no shock, and no adrenaline rush, but I feel a lot of gratitude toward the engineers behind my braking system.
"Correlation is not causality". I'm unsure to whom I should attribute that, but those are good words.
I read an article yesterday chastising the government and the media for spinning a report about increased hurricane activity. Some senator representing some interest group wants to claim global warming causes more hurricanes, but it does not. Global warming causes more intense hurricanes as ocean surface temperatures rise. The subject of the article, a meteorlogist who disproved the notion of increased activity became embroiled in a political battle when the senator used the false data to further the interest group's agenda. The major media outlets followed suit, ignoring the scientist in favor of the emphasis the senator put on the false data.
Having chastised its targets, the article then mentioned that greenhouse gasses cause global warming. At this point, no scientist can with 100% percent certainty say what causes global warming. Greenhouse gasses are present. The globe is warming. That's a correlation, not a cause. The math linking the two as cause and effect has been proved flawed. At some future date someone may find real evidence of cause and effect, but until then nobody knows for sure.
End rant.
I bought some more pumpkins this week. At some point I'll turn them into pumpkin pie and custard and curry. I'm also tempted to try an amazing looking risotto I saw the other day. I've never made a risotto before, so that should be fun.
Along the same lines, I keep thinking back to the days when my family made our Christmas decorations out of popcorn balls made from colored syrups. That could be a grand, messy time if anybody wants to try it.
"Correlation is not causality". I'm unsure to whom I should attribute that, but those are good words.
I read an article yesterday chastising the government and the media for spinning a report about increased hurricane activity. Some senator representing some interest group wants to claim global warming causes more hurricanes, but it does not. Global warming causes more intense hurricanes as ocean surface temperatures rise. The subject of the article, a meteorlogist who disproved the notion of increased activity became embroiled in a political battle when the senator used the false data to further the interest group's agenda. The major media outlets followed suit, ignoring the scientist in favor of the emphasis the senator put on the false data.
Having chastised its targets, the article then mentioned that greenhouse gasses cause global warming. At this point, no scientist can with 100% percent certainty say what causes global warming. Greenhouse gasses are present. The globe is warming. That's a correlation, not a cause. The math linking the two as cause and effect has been proved flawed. At some future date someone may find real evidence of cause and effect, but until then nobody knows for sure.
End rant.
I bought some more pumpkins this week. At some point I'll turn them into pumpkin pie and custard and curry. I'm also tempted to try an amazing looking risotto I saw the other day. I've never made a risotto before, so that should be fun.
Along the same lines, I keep thinking back to the days when my family made our Christmas decorations out of popcorn balls made from colored syrups. That could be a grand, messy time if anybody wants to try it.