Unthreaded
"I made the mistake of judging it by its nice cover"
haven't we all?
There's several books (mostly popsci bought at airports) bought on that basis on my shelves that are annotated with furious margin notes.
Elsewhere, I see that selective reporting of the UK's "Covid Inquiry" is in full swing with Anders Tegner's appearance explaining Sweden's tactics being, from what I can see - quite deliberately ignored. The BBC in particular choosing to only "report" stuff they see as damaging to their political foes.
tomo
tomo,
Wasn't familiar with the term, but a stylite lifestyle would seem fitting for the sylish Greta. As for the Dartford Crossing protesters, it might have presented a different sentencing option. Pillars were near at hand, and they apparently like high places.
Have been meaning to mention the little burst of activity at climateaudit.org has continued. No explanation from the host why the uptick. One commenter thought it might be a bit too much to hope that it's related to Mann's libel suit. Seems right. It was interesting to hear that Judith Curry *is* to be a witness. Might bring on a bit of Mannian bruxism.
Recently read The Dark Cloud, a book decrying the energy-wastefulness of the Internet. It was full of lurid claims and dark projections that our cat videos will send us all to climate hell. Hardly my cup of tea. Tonyb at JoNova's had given it his endorsement and quoted a few of its claims. When I pooh poohed one of those claims he urged me to buy the book, saying how well referenced it was.
It had lots of little numbers, but when the little numbers pointed to statements by WWF or Greenpeace, or just some dude, it didn't give much confidence in the foundations. Now that I've finished it I thought I'd get it off my chest with an Amazon book review. Not a habit: AFAIK I have only written one other. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was also a poison-pen review, written ca 1998.
Being afflicted with a certain amount of ego, I thought I'd reread that old review of The Universe and the Teacup. It's ostensibly a book on the beauty of mathematics and I made the mistake of judging it by its nice cover. Had saved it up for a good reading opportunity, finally got going with it, only to find it shallow and political.
My review has gone, as have many others, and now that dismal book has a better than 4-star rating. There is a little hint of the missing history: the oldest remaining review is from 1998. The oldest would be the first. Odd then, that it complains about the negativity of so many of the other reviews.
Presumably there hasn't been any particular campaign about this book and Amazon has simply gone through its database with (more or less) delete from reviews where year < 2015 and stars < 3. This is how hockey sticks are made.
Robert Swan
"https://twitter.com/DundeeCouncil/status/1737027628328944088"
Maybe its just me BUUUUUUUUT if Councils actually stopped pissing money against the wind on projects like this and instead spent money "wisely" maybe...just maybe we wouldn't need inflation busting council tax rises every year AND maybe some of them councils wouldn't be going bankrupt?
Mailman
Maybe Greta's handlers could persuade her?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylite
We already got partway there with the JSO/XR loons on the Dartford Crossing
tomo
Maybe they're praying to the sacred lamp posts, pleading for the climate to change. I'd be tempted to do that if I were stuck in a place that rarely reached 20C and rained about a third of the time.
Liked this image of a bomb-aimer's console linked in a comment at Jo Nova's. A bit like the levers of power that all the MPs crave; now you have them, what's it to be: pull or push? Given the chaotic environment, who could know? A quick prayer to a lamp post might be just as effective.
robertswan
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Talking *to* bus shelters about the climate crisis ?
I thought it was a joke...
apparently not
Dundee has a severe drugs problem? TBD
tomo
Politicians in Scotland
https://twitter.com/DundeeCouncil/status/1737027628328944088
.
.,
Very good; there was a lot to agree with. OTOH, I'm not so sure of his sincerity. There was considerable polish in that delivery. That casual air seemed well rehearsed and, while it's more subtle than the proverbial used-car salesman's patter, I'd be inclined to file it in a nearby drawer. Might be that my longstanding cynicism is turning malignant.
Brendan O'Neill show interviews Ralph Schoellhammer on Germany's continuing push for renewables with COP28 as a backdrop. Not much need for penetrating questions, his views come through clearly enough. I don't think he was on the money suggesting that Germany, finding itself in the limelight, is thinking Ah, they're all admiring us versus No mate, it's because you're trailing toilet paper in your wake where you tucked it into your pants. Amusing, but I don't see that many politicians looking at them in embarrassed horror. Bit of admiration still out there I'm afraid.
Robert Swan
https://twitter.com/adamscrabble/status/1736453257587822834
It's obvious ......
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re covid inquiry - I couldn't help noticing the other week that when Rishi Sunak said, in relation to lockdowns, that he wasn't aware at the time of a report by 20(?) "professors of medicine and economics" that according to a QALY analysis the cost of lockdown exceeded the benefit, the lawyer asking the questions hastily moved on, making some comment about not wanting to get side tracked on life assurance calculations (thus demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of what Sunak was referring to). If there were any serious purpose for this inquiry then that would be a key aspect to drill down into. So the whole thing does look just look like an opportunity for different factions to bash each other and for the lawyers to collect some nice fees.