Althouse: "Scientists at Harvard University found that melting glaciers have caused the length of a day to increase by one millisecond over the past one hundred years..."

December 15, 2015

"Scientists at Harvard University found that melting glaciers have caused the length of a day to increase by one millisecond over the past one hundred years..."

"... a Florida police department published photos of nine unidentified, unconscious women on Facebook in an attempt to solicit information. 'We’re not sure if they’re even alive,' said the police chief. A survey of U.S. special-operations personnel found that 64 percent of male respondents believe women are not mentally tough enough to serve in commando units.... A Norwegian study found that men have a better sense of direction than women, and a Florida man who was running from the police waded into a lake and was eaten by an alligator.... China’s top religious-affairs official accused the Dalai Lama of sympathizing with the Islamic State.... a Canadian woman drove an ailing beaver 250 miles so the animal could receive medical care.... A Kentucky homeless shelter banned women in order to prevent sexual relations between patrons. 'It takes two to do that,' said the director. 'We are not biased or prejudice whatsoever.'"

All from the Harper's Weekly Review, which has links for everything.

27 comments:

Bob Ellison said...: Harvard Med also released a study that shows diarrhea is hereditary.; 12/15/15, 11:08 AM
mikee said...: I'm using my extra millisecond per day to exercise more, eat right, and decrease my carbon footprint.; 12/15/15, 11:16 AM
Sydney said...: Damn! I could have sworn the days have gotten shorter.; 12/15/15, 11:18 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: 1 millisecond every 100 years? Heavens no!

If my math is correct, then we might gain 1 full second each day, every 100,000 years -- because of some glacier in Antarctica. Where is Shackleton when you really need him?

Wow, those Harvard wiz-kids are really, really spending their government grants wisely. What would we do without this knowledge, wisdom and understanding?; 12/15/15, 11:32 AM
JackWayne said...: I did not follow the link but the word scientists should have been in quotes. Witch-doctor would have captured the flavor of their "science" better.; 12/15/15, 11:37 AM
Rob said...: I'm sure everyone joins me in hoping the Ontario woman's sick beaver recovers fully.; 12/15/15, 11:45 AM
Rick said...: Link's bad.

A Kentucky homeless shelter banned women in order to prevent sexual relations between patrons. 'It takes two to do that,' said the director. 'We are not biased or prejudice whatsoever.'"

This "report" seemed off in a predictable way. Lo and behold:

Woodward said they have more men than women at the shelter, so he decided to send the women to a female-only facility nearly 30 minutes away.

So to recap there are two facilities segregated by sex and the media thinks it's a problem the male facility exists. Just once I'd like to be surprised when the media reports something so stupid you know they're omitting the element that explains the real story.; 12/15/15, 11:50 AM
Curious George said...: "A Norwegian study found that men have a better sense of direction than women..."

That's why it was Lewis and Clark, and not Mary and Sally.; 12/15/15, 11:56 AM
Jaq said...: Who knew that reliable data on ice at the poles went back 100 years? How about 1000 years? 100,000 yeas when the spot where I am sitting was covered with a mile of ice? Why not tell us that? How about the effect of wind turbines on the length of the day over a century? It's not zero. Why not tell us what effect sailing ships over all time have had on it?

This reminds me of my Physics 115 prof telling us that calculating the effects of relativity on a flywheel might get us fired for time-wasting.; 12/15/15, 11:58 AM
Jaq said...: I just saw a study that claimed that showing women a disclaimer on images of photoshopped female models actually made them more likely to have negative thoughts about themselves when seeing similar images months later, even when the disclaimer was only shown once. Somehow that seems to fit here. Or at least if fits into recent themes on this blog.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266148596_Single_exposure_to_disclaimers_on_airbrushed_thin_ideal_images_increases_negative_thought_accessibility; 12/15/15, 12:05 PM
TWW said...: "Scientists at Harvard University found that melting glaciers have caused the length of a day to increase by one millisecond over the past one hundred years..."

The margin for error is three seconds.; 12/15/15, 12:08 PM
Peter said...: Harpers Weekly forgot to mention that a Mohamed Elshinawy was arrested and charged with "attempting to provide material support" to ISIS in a case that involved money transfers from Egypt, a pledge of allegiance to the terrorist group, and a possible plot to launch a terrorist attack in the United States.

But, at least it caught that "ailing beaver" story.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/12/maryland-arrest-isis/420534/; 12/15/15, 12:13 PM
Unknown said...: "Donald Trump called on U.S. officials to ban all Muslims from entering the country, and an opinion poll found that 35 percent of Republican primary voters support Trump’s candidacy for president.[1][2] Two Muslim women leaving mosques in Tampa were shot at and stoned; a deli owner in New York was attacked by a man yelling “I kill Muslims!”; a pig’s head was thrown at the door of a mosque in Philadelphia that had previously received a voicemail saying “God is Pork!”; a teacher in Georgia asked...."

Do you suppose the coupling of Trump and anti-Muslim sentiment is deliberate?; 12/15/15, 12:21 PM
Unknown said...: Following a link I find that Muslim hae crimes register at ~16%, Jewish hate crimes at ~35%. Wonder why the religion linked to terrorism (directly and by Muslim sympathy and support for terrorism) is only 1/2 of the discrimination of the religion that is not?; 12/15/15, 12:24 PM
Big Mike said...: Well, I have a better sense of direction than my wife. Not sure that generalizes.

I was thinking that must be a pretty rough jail down there in Florida if a guy would rather swim in an alligator-infested lake than risk capture by the police.; 12/15/15, 12:43 PM
Jaq said...: Does this clause make the Paris Accords binding after all?

The Parties [recognize] that multilateral environmental agreements to which they are party play an important role, globally and domestically, in protecting the environment and that their respective implementation of these agreements is critical to achieving the environmental objectives of these agreements. Accordingly, each Party affirms its commitment to implement the multilateral environmental agreements to which it is a party. - TPP

Or does "affirming a commitment" leave wiggle room, as it seems to me, and this is more Brietbart scare mongering?; 12/15/15, 12:57 PM
n.n said...: Chaos demands a scientific frame of reference, which precludes prophecies over indeterminate spans of space and time.; 12/15/15, 1:30 PM
Monkeyboy said...: A survey of U.S. special-operations personnel found that 64 percent of male respondents believe women are not mentally tough enough to serve in commando units
I don't think most men are mentally capable, and the number of women mentally tough enough is so vanishingly small that the game is not worth the candle.
A few days ago I was linked to this video where Trooper Stan W Scott of No. 3 Commando calmly describes the proper use of the Sykes-Fairbairn Knife. That's the level of violence special ops has to be mentally prepared for.; 12/15/15, 1:38 PM
Fernandinande said...: 64 percent of male respondents believe women are [whatever]

And what percentage of female respondents?

In 2012:
"The planet's rotation is slowing down overall because of tidal forces between Earth and the moon. Roughly every 100 years, the day gets about 1.4 milliseconds, or 1.4 thousandths of a second, longer."

Maybe that newsworthy millisecond is additional...?; 12/15/15, 2:19 PM
Jaq said...: Oddly, if you look for a story on two Muslim women being shot at or stoned, you don't get any reference to an actual police report...

We're learning about attacks on two Muslim women, right here in the Tampa Bay area. Their attorney says one of the women was shot at, and another one was nearly driven off the road -- both because of their Muslim faith.

The women were targeted as they were leaving the places where they worship, according to the Florida chapter of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Getting cut off in traffic happens a lot in Florida. Getting shot at says the police should be involved. No police report, didn't happen.; 12/15/15, 2:34 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: No wonder I'm so tired.; 12/15/15, 2:43 PM
damikesc said...: So to recap there are two facilities segregated by sex and the media thinks it's a problem the male facility exists. Just once I'd like to be surprised when the media reports something so stupid you know they're omitting the element that explains the real story.

Again, it's the Gell-Mann amnesia effect.

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

Brilliant man was the late Crichton.

Following a link I find that Muslim hae crimes register at ~16%, Jewish hate crimes at ~35%. Wonder why the religion linked to terrorism (directly and by Muslim sympathy and support for terrorism) is only 1/2 of the discrimination of the religion that is not?

The cowtowing to Muslims is a mystery. Iran could drop a nuke on us and the press --- ell, the ones surviving --- would be concerned that this might cause a problem for American Muslims.; 12/15/15, 2:48 PM
Rick said...: damikesc said...
The cowtowing to Muslims is a mystery. Iran could drop a nuke on us and the press --- ell, the ones surviving --- would be concerned that this might cause a problem for American Muslims.

On the way in this morning NPR ran a story urging Obama to go to California. It suggested since he visited South Carolina and Sandy Hook not visiting California was a slight against Muslims. That's right, he's not there to address victims, he was supposed to reassure Muslims. Could you imagine if Obama went to South Carolina and specifically addressed white crowds to assure them his first priority is making sure there isn't a backlash? More realistically could you imagine George Wallace doing that and how people would react?

These people are crazy.; 12/15/15, 3:31 PM
Original Mike said...: "A Norwegian study found that men have a better sense of direction than women"

I won't let my wife go into the woods alone. When we go on hikes I regularly quiz her "which direction are we walking?", "which way back to the car?", "which way to the nearest road?" She hasn't passed yet.; 12/15/15, 7:30 PM
mikee said...: Original Mike, a compass makes a fine stocking stuffer at Christmas.; 12/16/15, 1:36 PM
Original Mike said...: mikee, a compass tells you what direction you're facing but it doesn't tell which way to go to get home. You also need to pay attention while you're walking and a mental image of your surroundings in order to use that knowledge.

OTOH, maybe a GPS unit would be a good idea. Thanks for the idea!; 12/16/15, 4:29 PM
Carnifex said...: I take a friend of mine shopping because she can't drive. I can leave her at the back of the store, and she will not be able to find her way out unless she hunts like going trough a maze. She is not the only woman I know who suffers this malady.

A longer day? Call Al Gore. I think we found the REAL cause of global warming.

My home state leading the fight against stinky homeless hobo sex! Couldn't be prouder. (Trust me, even Carlos Danger or Slick Willy would hesitate to stick it in one of these homeless women); 12/17/15, 2:38 AM