All In The Timing

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Is it coincidence that the Leftist areas of the nation are growing hotter fastest? Couldn’t possibly be that the weather monitoring and recording is tweaked the most there?

http://www.twincities.com/nation/ci_25899883/northeast-southwest-growing-hotter-faster-than-rest-u

The article admits cities that rely on just one weather station are the most unreliable for records. Oh really, you think? So the relocation of trees and buildings that redirect shade, wind and other elements of the weather may have something to do with the measured results over time?

I’m skeptical. I suspect weather runs in longer than 30-year cycles. For example, Great Plains drought in 1880, dustbowl in 1930’s, present drought started in 2010 or so, all accompanied by significant temperature changes from the between-drought range.

The scientists specifically say they picked 1984 to avoid cherry-picking. Spontaneous denials make me suspicious.

Joe Doakes

Somebody needs to tell Joe that suspicion just isn’t scientific, these days.

2 thoughts on “All In The Timing

  1. “The scientists specifically say they picked 1984 to avoid cherry-picking. Spontaneous denials make me suspicious. ”
    Shouldn’t ‘scientists’ have scare quotes around it?
    Also – it may be just a coincidence, but wasn’t there a book named “1984” about a fellow who lived in some totalitarian future and whose job it was to re-write history so it fit with an authoritarian regime’s version of what the proletariat and ‘workers’ view of the world should be? Winston Smith, ‘Scientist’.

  2. Skepticism and suspicion are the basis of science, my friend. Any scientist who doesn’t maintain both of those towards theories isn’t much of a scientist. Earnest Rutherford put it best, “You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10-12 to 1.” (That’s my second favorite quote of his, my favorite being his recounting of his discovery of the atomic nucleus: “It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you.”)

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