Pun Salad

³ Those who guard their lips preserve their lives,
    but those who speak rashly will come to ruin.

So do that first thing, avoid the second, I guess.

In my recent Wall Street Journal essay on the politics of Twitter mobs, I noted that the episode was accompanied by a great deal of sloppy journalism—remarkably lazy journalism. Of all the mostly denunciatory articles about me that appeared in the big-name press (at least four in the New York Times alone) not a single writer of any of them bothered to ask me about my views on the subjects in question: abortion and capital punishment. Naturally, practically all of them got it wrong (see the corrections) never having bothered to perform the characteristic act of journalism and, you know, ask a question or two.

KDW offered New York magazine a free essay describing his views on the abortion-punishment issue. They turned it down. The only way you'll hear KDW in New York is through the hostile filter of its editors.

One imagines that a quixotic proposal like this polls quite well. I mean, who doesn’t want everyone to have a job? You don’t possess a skill-set that enables you to find productive work? You don’t want to learn a new trade? You don’t want to attain a better education? You have no interest in moving to an area where your work might be in demand? You don’t want to start your career with a lower wage even if the long-term prospects of doing so might be worthwhile? Don’t worry. The government’s got an incentive-destroying job opportunity just for you.

So: an absurdly expensive program that would destroy important signals in the labor market. What's not to like?

How much lower? [Researchers Nicholas Lewis's and Judith Curry's] median ECS estimate of 1.66°C (5–95% uncertainty range: 1.15–2.7°C) is derived using globally complete temperature data. The comparable estimate for 31 current generation computer climate simulation models cited by the IPCC is 3.1°C. In other words, the models are running almost two times hotter than the analysis of historical data suggests that future temperatures will be.

Well, it's not good news for everyone. This doesn't help those making the argument that we need immediate massive, global controls over energy production, accompanied by huge coerced rich-to-poor income transfers. Too bad for them.

Poor Uranus: After years of being the butt of many schoolyard jokes, the planet's odor lives up to the unfortunate name. According to a new study by researchers at the University of Oxford and other institutions, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the upper layer of Uranus's atmosphere consists largely of hydrogen sulfide—the same compound that gives farts their putrid stench.

Next up, the discovery that the next planet out has an atmosphere that generates harmonious audio vibrations. Yes: Nep Tunes.

Disturbing fact: searching for "Uranus" on Amazon displays a number of non-astronomical items.