tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post374854813811688224..comments2024-03-25T05:30:23.847+11:00Comments on HotWhopper: Denier weirdness: Robot overlords are a bigger threat than global warming Who knew?Souhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818999735123752034noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-58282417151818690482016-03-21T04:28:13.978+11:002016-03-21T04:28:13.978+11:00Jammy said:
"His lectures/videos are complete...Jammy said:<br /><i>"His lectures/videos are completely cringe worthy."</i><br /><br />Want to see a cringe-worthy video? Gots to watch the crank Brandon Shollenberger's video on the hockey stick.<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8PYZX-nEOY<br /><br />He sounds just like Marvin the Martian from the Bugs Bunny cartoons!<br /><br /><br />@whuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297101284358849575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-15077397291301388952016-03-20T15:30:59.877+11:002016-03-20T15:30:59.877+11:00APL is indeed write-only, but its terseness was ap...APL is indeed write-only, but its terseness was appreciated when using an IBM 2741 (134.5 bits/second), with of course, the APL type-ball.John Masheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-86346206909923188032016-03-20T13:39:39.316+11:002016-03-20T13:39:39.316+11:00The difference is global warming is actually happe...The difference is global warming is actually happening - the others are speculation. Do we know what global warming will do to the planet? Yes, just look at what the planet was like the last time global average temps were several degrees warmer.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11552461190113661645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-81526223242856499562016-03-20T13:39:34.546+11:002016-03-20T13:39:34.546+11:00I Used APL extensively on old IBM Selectrics on a ...I Used APL extensively on old IBM Selectrics on a Xerox Sigma 9 back in the mid 70's. Wonderful for exploring various regression and factor analytic models as long as you didn't need too much storage. I think our default workspaces were something like 64K. Still, compared to running early SPSS on punch cards it was a joy.<br /><br />Even programmed a word processor to write my dissertation on a Selectric. Of course memory was a problem, but I was allowed a larger workspace.<br /><br />That said, I see no particular value now compared many other matrix handling tools. Many tools now--MathCad, R, Python, MATLab, Wolfram, etc.--all handle matrices flexibly now and allow the same easy exploration. And, the extreme compression that APL allows is really not necessarily a good thing for reusable code.<br /><br />But is is fun. Or was.jgnfldnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-56759599247695335252016-03-20T10:24:41.237+11:002016-03-20T10:24:41.237+11:00If you know the history of APL, you will see how a...<i>If you know the history of APL, you will see how absurd this all is.</i><br /><br />Ha ha. This is almost surreal. I used to program in APL for a Canadian company, and it's a standing joke that it's a "write-only" language. IOW, if you wrote something in it 6 months ago, you can't figure out what you wrote 6 months ago when you look at the code again. In APL, for instance, with a single operator you can reduce a 3D matrix of numbers down into a single number. How useful is that? :-)<br /><br />IIRC, APL was a language developed to model computer processing chips, and... well, I just might know a little bit about that. Been programming computers since 1974, and used to design them.<br /><br />Love it when some bright spark on the web says something really stupid regarding this subject, which is... pretty much all the time. My fav moment was when some numpty complained that matlab only supported integer arithmetic, so that meant that all of Michael Mann's work that required floating point was completely wrong. Ah, found it. He was confused between 64-bit *integers* and floating point:<br /><br />https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/05/02/2038255/matlab-cant-manipulate-64-bit-integers<br /><br />From the comments there:<br /><br /><i>We are talking about 64 bit integers. Matlab has 64 bit floating point arithmetic. This means you can do exact integer arithmetic up to 2^53. I'd say mathworks has a pretty good idea of the demand for 64 bit integers and it is not that great -- it's not like it is a huge job for them to implement it so they would surely do it if their customers wanted it.</i><br /><br />The numpties will latch onto anything they think 'disproves' AGW, even if they don't understand an iota of what it's actually about. Pfft.metzomagichttp://metzomagic.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-80642975468500522712016-03-20T04:03:23.021+11:002016-03-20T04:03:23.021+11:00@whut
His obsession with the programming language...@whut<br /><br />His obsession with the programming language APL is quite odd. As far as I can work out he thinks that because he can do some spherical geometry calculations using APL that makes him an expert on climate change.<br /><br />His lectures/videos are completely cringe worthy. He flashes up a series of unrelated slides, with no coherent theme or relevance, and usually finishes with a flourish of a few lines of APL code as if that shows he is some sort of expert in something. But I have never worked out what he is an expert in because he never says anything of substance. <br /><br />The people at the Heartland Institute lap it all up. I think that show that they are not very discerning about anything scientific or technical. <br /><br />Jammy Dodgerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08360437479098314946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-31086384455768047132016-03-20T03:19:01.432+11:002016-03-20T03:19:01.432+11:00Has anyone had a look at the original 12 Risks tha...Has anyone had a look at the original <i>12 Risks that threaten human civilisation</i> report? I had a quick look and I am not sure if it is a useful exercise or sheer babbling. Comparing climate change or ecological collapse with future bad global government sees mad.<br />http://globalchallenges.org/wp-content/uploads/12-Risks-with-infinite-impact-full-report-1.pdf<br /><br /><br />I can report that the graphics are very <i>pretty</i> if almost impossible to interpret sensibly. Who was the idiot who thought it would be a good idea to use 12 weird symbols to indicate data points (Pg 22, 21 and other places) ? I think we have a case of designer-gone-mad here and one who seems to have no concept of effective data presentation (see Fig. 9 for an egregious example of bad practice). Tufte's chart junk expression leaps to mind. As I progress, the level of graphing incompetence seems to be growing.<br /><br />I think we can be sure Anthony and his people have not read it. <br /><br />jrkrideauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04869979887929067657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-28001837671848558082016-03-20T02:26:28.150+11:002016-03-20T02:26:28.150+11:00Bob Armstrong is a special kind of crank -- he is ...Bob Armstrong is a special kind of crank -- he is both a denier and a programming language zealot. Every chance he gets, he is pushing APL to solve everyone's equations. <br /><br />If you know the history of APL, you will see how absurd this all is.@whuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297101284358849575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-67662662800692646762016-03-20T01:19:52.419+11:002016-03-20T01:19:52.419+11:00I see another crank, Bob Armstrong, is also there ...I see another crank, Bob Armstrong, is also there with this little gem:<br /><br /><i>Ray [ 48 character long title ] Pierrehumbert , this is a YouTube peer calling you out . Where are the equations or experiments for the trapping of heat between a surface and essentially a stack of filters greater than that between the filters and the heat source ? If you can't express it in an equation , it's not physics .</i><br /><br />Riiight. Because, you know, a YouTube comments section is to peer review as Bozo the Clown is to Richard Feynman.metzomagichttp://metzomagic.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-12400698375726108272016-03-19T23:33:03.672+11:002016-03-19T23:33:03.672+11:00It could be better, PG, but at least looks as if t...It could be better, PG, but at least looks as if that means that even young earthers are accepting the human influence on climate:<br /><br />http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspxSouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08818999735123752034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-50461871041839749262016-03-19T23:29:30.116+11:002016-03-19T23:29:30.116+11:00The penny has dropped.
http://www.huffingtonpost...The penny has dropped. <br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/climate-change-caused-by-humans-poll_us_56ec27f9e4b09bf44a9d164c?section=australiaPGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10807913317731807617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-70322124243247299942016-03-19T22:35:50.352+11:002016-03-19T22:35:50.352+11:00I see doug cotton has got an early rebuttal in the...I see doug cotton has got an early rebuttal in the videos youtube comments section<br /><br />and a reference to the 2nd law of thermodynamics is made in the 2nd sentence - bless<br /><br /><br /> Tadaaahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07736188830660481871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-81719073157238672112016-03-19T22:30:09.744+11:002016-03-19T22:30:09.744+11:00I've been musing for a few years now that the ...I've been musing for a few years now that the only way in practice that we will avoid the more serious impacts of human-caused global warming would be if our population in the next decade or two is seriously impacted by... nuclear war or global pandemic. Frankly, I doubt that the former would be permitted to occur beyond a tactically-determined limit, and the latter would never wipe out all humans. Both though are plausible threats to the <i>structure</i> of our civilisation as we currently recognise it, but probably not to humanity. On the other hand a business-as-usual warming trajectory for another half a century or so will most definitely see the collapse of human society to the point that we eventually become an ecological irrelevance once the long-term results of our carbon emissions are fully realised.<br /><br />A popping Yellowstone - well, that's going to happen sooner or later, but we'll probably be two dimensional impressions in a near-surface rock stratum by then.<br /><br />Robot overlords? Not in the Terminator sense, but I suspect that a hacked artificial intelligence (whether or not sentient) could well cause mayhem for Western society. Traditional societies (to the extent that telecoms and computing do not infiltrate them), not so much.<br /><br />Falling space rocks? Again, it's a matter of sooner or later, but we'll likely have found another way of exterminating ourselves before then.<br /><br />Most likely from burning dinosaur juice....Bernard J.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16299073166371273808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2313427464944392482.post-32067330686672338062016-03-19T22:17:00.806+11:002016-03-19T22:17:00.806+11:00As long as these robot overlords are running a Mic...As long as these robot overlords are running a Microsoft operating system they will always need somebody to reboot them.Millicentnoreply@blogger.com