Friday, July 15, 2011

The perfect subject for a discussion --Hot Air

 Our PM and her mates somehow developed the view that hot air concerns were something simple that she could discuss with the public- how could she get it so wrong ? It seemed to them last week that it was pretty simple ---so  that maybe is where the problem still lies.
To have a good discussion you have to limit the points to something that's simple. Something that has clear boundaries  and is easy to visualize.
POLITICS
"Air is really pretty simple" ( only largely N,C O H Ar ) Tick that
" Warming is pretty  simple "  ( we all experience that every day ) Tick that
"Global warming is pretty simple" tick that   "Fossil fuels heat up our our homes and engines so why not our atmosphere"  It all makes sense , simple sense to most people. Tick
Check.  Best of all there will be no unexpected arguments against what we say because you can't see any of the things we are talking about . Perfect
"Not only is radiation  invisible its divisible and so is air . Even if we are wrong ,its going to be very hard to prove us wrong . Our bloke knows more air than their bloke and no one in the media wants a long debate nbout things they can't see . It''ll be  fun and ,  no way we can lose - we have picked something too deep for us and too deep for them ---- to top it off " it looks simple "---- if you want to see it that way " Big tick
REALITY
Real Science stuff on the atmosphere is awe fully boring because anything to do with organic chemistry , fluid dynamics and radiation  is really complex let alone together .
Lucky for polys the key elements are invisible and  highly divisible
---AIR Look at the forces acting on it ; downward there is weight , and horizontally drag at the lower boundary and inertia right through to the top ; Turbulence throughout creating layers and eddies. Mountains push it up and carry water with it  in all sorts of forms that drastically change the radiation and reflection patterns over every square inch of earth.  

HEAT energy from the sun manages to heat up one edge of this turbulent flow in a way which is greatly influenced by the amount and height of water in the atmosphere directly above it .Meanwhile,  the wind blows and carries the complexity all ways
ALL TOGETHER  -lots and lots of different types of  radiation running largely through the air  and in changing ways each day and season  .
- and every day and in every place the effect of water from the surface has an impact on whose talking to who
- on one boundary users of NCOHAr are acting against the laws of  physics by using up some of the air contents in a way that is mind bogglingly complex.
I am not confused or committed to reducing Co2 . The greenhouse effect has never been properly demonstrated and most long wave radiation we produce is most likely being lost to space. Doesn't stop people thinking otherwise.
Not easy to see whose bumping into whom and what they are saying when they do .   More here  Copyright riskwithin reason@gmail.com

Friday, July 1, 2011

Changing the categories

Being completely rational has its down side - Too much information and too many categories AND  too many categories that keep changing .The Greeks knew that , but somehow thousands of years later we are more than happy to wander around in a fog of changing word meanings -, unable at many levels to go back and find out ---what went  wrong ?   This confusion at coping level can't last and threatens our civilness via our ability to agree on consensus and settled logic stuff. 


A rock was once a rock - now its a bit of silica and a lot of oxygen  but if it were just those 2 , we still wouldn't know what it was . How it came about is critical to whatever it is - the story is important and critical .Something similiar seems to be helpful for corroborating categories 
The problem of changing names for things is not such a big issue for settled science which is very helpful because we can get on with our jobs eg . We know an neutron is not a neutron but who cares -  "we know where it is and where it fits"


BUT its a big problem with big picture stuff - values and the value we put into words ( or take away from them eg changing meaning of "wicked") . Good intentions abound , but any thinking person knows that "good intentions" create the greatest evil when the application does not cut it where it counts on the ground , when we don't look at the truth because we don't like it ( in ourselves for example) or when we deny things ( like evil when we in the West dispose of the word " wicked:") 


We don't need rulings ( the law ) as much as we need  something to measure things with - that's good science and good faith and good  relations (way back to some consensus about what to call things of importance). Otherwise the law and mere words may just be a very course imposition by those with the power or the loudest voices  .  

Too much Information

No more common expression of our day symbolises the problem of our day . "Keep it simple stupid" : is not only right today,  but it was always right . How did we ever get it so bad with TMI ? Maths teachers I know admit "we just do too much maths ".
How then did the founders of our modern civilisation get it so right when they met in Nicene 17 centuries ago and said "enough is enough ". . "We don't object to more books in Alexandrian libraries , but we reject the  Greek inheritance when it crowds out and doesn't identify the essentials  . " Infact ,we reject the idea that all the rules and rulings need to be there - men are born free with a will to live free so  most of the things you need to order your life are not in there - you have a mind and a will to do good -- use it "
We can all sit around here for another thousands years and still be no better off than Socrates as far as putting the pieces together .
How come they knew that the jig saw pieces would keep changing ........and we don't?
 "There are 66 books that talk to walking the walk and that's enough to get all the  basics right ". It doesn't mean there are other stories,  and most importantly,  it doesn't claim to tell you how to live ( except who to talk to about that) . Who needs that?????   Too much information and No freedom ( like we are supposed to have been born with - our inheritance !)  Copyright Emperors Academy July 1st 2011
Being completely rational has its down side - TMI