OK, I’m joking. But for a second there, you wondered, right?
What happens when, in a world taken over by the anti-science right, we take away scientists rights of speech, suppress their right to discuss freely amongst themselves, and even defund the very apparatus for observing objective reality?
A huge chunk of black rock bigger than four city blocks is speeding toward us at more than 30,000 miles an hour. Scientists say the asteroid will miss us, but it will be barely more than 200,000 miles away when it passes Earth at 11:13 p.m. Tuesday, and in cosmic terms that’s whisker close.
NASA and astronomers at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, CA will be tracking the fast-moving object with the center’s 36-inch telescope, as will scientists at other observatories around the world.
The scientists have estimated the possible effect which a clash with an asteroid of this size could cause to the Earth and namely – a 7-magnitude earthquake and a 20-meter tsunami, leaving a 6-kilometer crater.
The asteroid was detected six years ago by Robert S. McMillan, director of the University of Arizona’s Spacewatch project, whose telescopes atop Kitt Peak near Tucson survey the skies nightly for what NASA calls NEOs, or Near Earth Objects.
I can tell you, if I knews an asteroid were headed our way, and people would ask to see my emails, or even a picture of all my follicles, I would surely give them whatever they wanted, rather than embark in lengthy legal squabbles. Wouldn’t you?
What if the world turns to cinder, will Mann proudly announce he put his “privacy” (in publicly funded emails) before avoiding catastrophe? Likewise for Jones and his copyright dilemmas.
In fact after years of having to deal with nutters believing in UFO conspiracies, NASA now regularly publishes raw pictures as downloaded from space probes. That’s way better than having to reply to their accusations.
the UFO nutters are harmless.
the climate denial nutters want to impose their theocratic, anti science regime on the US as a whole, and they are using the tools of bureaucracy to pursue and intimidate their enemies.
Just you wait, Wattsupwiththat? will probably claim that “warmists” have colluded with NASA by secretly sending up a space ship and detonating a nuclear weapon in its path in order to bring it closer to Earth and enable the risk of collision to be over-stated…
The Onion* beat you to it, I’m afraid. 🙂
theonion.com/articles/republicans-vote-to-repeal-obamabacked-bill-that-w,19025/
Well, they aren’t asking for emails, but after voting to repeal the asteroid-destroying bill, I’m sure they would have gotten around to it.
*The Onion is a satire site, not to be taken for real news. I know Fox News (and viewers) sometimes can’t recognize satire from real news (maybe because they’re not accustomed to real news).
The UFO nutters just claim all the raw pictures are fudged. I wonder why they would claim that–it just makes them look like desperate conspiracy mongering fools. Oh if only climate scientists would learn to put their raw data online to make the denialists look like fools…..oh, never mind…
https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/data-sources/
oh crap.
we are in post satirical America.
It’s exactly because you’re afraid of the theocrats that you should undermine their case by enhancing transparency. Every refusal to share is a huge case of ammunition for.your opponents.
the data is there.
reading people’s emails is for the Gestapo.
Your adherence to the “if you’ve done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear” script is tragically telling.
Au contraire…it’s refusing to share what according to current Law ought to be shared, the first step towards a Gestapo style of government where we’re only told what the tyrants want us to hear.
Foi has been law for how long? Almost 50 years, I guess. Welcome to contemporary democracy.
And I made no claim about “having nothing to fear”…you, I, Mann and everybody else have to follow the Law because that’s the root of society, not because it’s convenient, or we have nothing to fear, or we think we’re going to get any advantage or whatever else.
Maurizio, If resposibility fell to you, I have no dout that you would indeed turn on Skynet! See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEtrzdGSXCU
…”the climate denial nutters want to impose their theocratic, anti science regime on the US as a whole, and they are using the tools of bureaucracy to pursue and intimidate their enemies.”
Please don’t call them “theocrats”. Their ‘god’ does not resemble the God of Christianity, or Islam or Judaism. Even Buddhists, who have no god, believe in compassion that includes care for the earth.
They are outright Kleptocrats. Their god is money and their anti-science agenda is all about stealing wealth from the Earth’s resources at any cost. So maybe there’s a better word that means what you’re trying to say…something about their misguided zealotry, or their misreading of ‘dominion over creation’…
There are many of us ‘Jesus freaks’ who believe that God wants us to care for the creation regardless of our political leanings. It’s where political interest begins to overshadow good common sense and a plain-sense reading of scripture that folks care less about one another (and creation) and more about some agenda that’s driven by greed.
And yeah, you did have me going about the whole asteroid email thing…just for a nanosecond.
ok, just plain nutters.
the kind of people jesus used to call vipers.
“Their god is money and their anti-science agenda is all about stealing wealth from the Earth’s resources at any cost” With you all the way on that one Galen. Very well said.
Reminiscent of E.F. Schumacher and Herman E. Daly who both made this point by saying that we have failed to respect the difference between the Earth’s capital (finite resources) and iis income (solar radiation) and are thus treating the Earth as if it were a business in liquidation…
Martin – Delingpole aside, you sound unfamiliar with many things. FOI is no skynet, it’s shall I say a mostly leftist propelled advancing of democratic rights of the citizen wrt the Government. Scientists paid by the government are subject to FOI too.and if they suddenly weren’t you’d see many government officials reclassified as “scientists” overnight 🙂
For the avoidance of any doubt, Maurizio, my skynet comment was not entirely serious.
However, have you been reading my Blog? If you have, you will know that comparing me with James Delingpole is the most egregious insult you could devised. If you have not, this was an insane choice, because Delingpole is an anti-scientific climate change denier who is in favour of hacking into peoples email, whereas I am a scientist accepting the consensus who is in favour of stamping-out witch-hunting (oh and, for the record, I am 46 with three degrees to my name).
As Peter keeps saying to you, given that the data is almost all freely-available online, the FOI Act should not be abused in order for so-called sceptics to go on a fishing trip in an attempt to discredit legitimate research. Therefore, given that you seem unable or unwilling to accept this, and that you choose to compare me to those whom I oppose, I think it is you, not me, that is confused.
I wasn’t comparing you to Delingpole …I was suggesting you’re some kind of Delingpologist…reread what I wrote, I’m saying you’re familiar with Delingpole …
As for the “abuse of FOI”…every government agency everywhere in the world will always claim every FOI request is an abuse and a fishing expedition. That’s why we should all push for FOI to become a matter of course, instead of providing excuses that will be used against us in the future.