What I’m Reading, Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Politics

• The National Memo » Five Signs Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Crumbling
• Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Last Four Years in One Quote
  

  In an otherwise innocuous story about the new calorie labeling at MacDonalds, Dick Nigon of Sterling, VA is every Republican:

  I did find one customer who had noticed the calorie labels: Dick Nigon of Sterling, Va. He and his wife, Lea, had stopped by McDonald’s after seeing an exhibit at the Renwick Gallery. Dick had ordered for the couple, noticed the calorie labels and liked them.“I like that you have the information before you order,” he told me, when I asked about the labels. “It’s better than some kind of government health mandate in Obamacare.”

  I told him that the calorie labels were, in fact, a government health mandate in Obamacare.

  “Well that changes things a bit,” he responded. “I thought this was more of a voluntary sort of thing. Now I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.”

  What’s dumber: the notion that MacDonald’s would voluntarily tell customers the calorie count of their greasy-ass food, or the way that the mere mention of “Obama” changes his mind?

• Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » It’s Not Just Airplane Windows
• Daily Kos: More Mitt Romney science: He believes University of Utah ‘solved’ cold fusion

Climate & Climate Politics

• “Utter Nonsense”: 10 Scientists Who Have Criticized Fox’s Climate Coverage | Blog | Media Matters for America
  

  An analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that 93 percent of Fox News’ recent climate change coverage was misleading. Over the last two years, several leading scientists have told Media Matters the same thing, calling Fox’s climate change stories “completely wrong,” “patently false,” and “utter nonsense.” Here are ten scientists who have criticized Fox for distorting science to downplay the threat of climate change:

  1. Scientist Called Fox’s Global Warming Claims “Utter Nonsense.”

  Last summer, Fox News hosted global warming “expert” Joe Bastardi to claim that the human-induced climate change contradicts the 1st law of thermodynamics and Le Chatelier’s Principle. Duke University scientist William Chameides called Bastardi’s claims “utter nonsense,” and the University of Chicago’s David Archer said Fox is “wrong” to suggest that these basic principles negate the risks of climate change. Richard Muller, a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, agreed that Bastardi’s claims are “completely wrong,” adding that “even skeptics of global warming, if they know physics, would disagree with him.” Even Judith Curry, a climatologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a frequent critic of the IPCC, said that Bastardi’s statements imply that “he does not understand the very basics of the science.” She added, “Fox News needs to find a more credible spokesperson.” (read the complete article… it goes on…)

• A Climate Success Story to Build On – NYTimes.com 
  

  In the early 1970s, scientists discovered the first human threat to the Earth’s atmosphere — the threat from chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, to the stratospheric ozone layer.

  The ozone layer shields plants and animals, including humans, from deadly ultraviolet radiation. If the ozone layer were depleted as a consequence of human activities, millions of Americans would develop skin cancer and U.S. health care costs would reach several trillion dollars later this century. Worldwide it would be a catastrophe. (read the complete article…)

• Mitt Romney raises concerns for climate talks in Europe | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Energy

• Science before politics, New York – The Observation Deck – timesunion.com – Albany NY

Education