Althouse: At the 2 Dogs Café...

February 18, 2014

At the 2 Dogs Café...

... there's always a companion to talk to.

41 comments:

Kylos said...: If it is, is id in it?; 2/18/14, 11:25 AM
MadisonMan said...: A couple days ago, a couple weeks ago, I mentioned this figure.

It shows the area of the cold air about 1.5 km above the Earth's surface in the northern hemisphere, diagnosed every 6 hours.

This winter has been exceptionally warm on a global scale.; 2/18/14, 11:36 AM
Bob Ellison said...: MadisonMan, we are living on a biscuit with a paper-thin crust surrounding a mantle of molten rock that surrounds (we think) a core of hot iron. Our home is slave to a sun that uses hydrogen bombs to light the sky during the daytime.

There is an absence of imagination here. We're listening to Obama and Kerry for global climate advice.; 2/18/14, 11:48 AM
Bob Ellison said...: That graphic has a broken vertical axis, one of the biggest sins in presenting math data.; 2/18/14, 11:52 AM
Anonymous said...: Dogs don't talk. They sniff asses, bark, whine, and growl.; 2/18/14, 11:56 AM
Tank said...: MM

Here in NJ it's been about 6 degrees below normal for the winter so far, and we have 38" more than the average annual snow already.

So I wish they'd send some of the warm stuff here.; 2/18/14, 12:00 PM
Naked Surfer said...: Beats me what’s worth talking about. Somewhere between saving women from underpants, to a rough shot in the Bush, to Obama playing to my thirst for hope (and I’d rather be dead than drinking from that poison well), to missing a hole-in-one because the putting penis is too small, to escaping from homelessness in a wee-weenie-woody-of-a-Wiki ... beats me.

I’m with George Patton (not Bush). “Oh, I can’t fight today, I can’t fight the good fight today, because I must get a job shoveling shit in Louisiana.” Rough paraphrase.

Woof!; 2/18/14, 12:17 PM
Gahrie said...: This winter has been exceptionally warm on a global scale.

Perhaps. But is there anything wrong with that? Humanity and civilization thrives during warm perods of history.

Besides, what is the "proper" temperature of the Earth anyway? Perhaps the Earth has been too cold recently and is returning to "normal".

You do know we are in the middle of an ice age anyway...right?

Bonus question just for kicks:

What evidence can be used to disprove climate change?; 2/18/14, 12:34 PM
Tank said...: What evidence can be used to disprove climate change?

None. Everyone actually agrees that the climate changes.; 2/18/14, 12:35 PM
Bob Ellison said...: The stupid hurts. John Kerry, serial rich-lady-marrier, is now a leftist icon of some sort. Did he get some kind of permanent championship ring for saying "jenjis con" back in the day?

And now we've got Obama, some sorta black guy whose parents both abandoned him and we're supposed to adore because he has a pretty good jump shot.

I dunno. I'm getting tired. I'm getting old.; 2/18/14, 12:45 PM
Gahrie said...: OK smart ass.....

What type of evidence can be used to disprove man made climate change?; 2/18/14, 12:47 PM
Tank said...: Same answer.

None.; 2/18/14, 12:50 PM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Reminds me of a joke about the indian boy who asked his father how he came to be named. The father says, "Well, when your brother was born, I saw an eagle in the sky, so he was named Soaring Eagle. When your sister was born, I saw a deer, so she was named Running Doe.Why do you ask, Two Dogs Fucking?; 2/18/14, 1:10 PM
MadisonMan said...: That graphic has a broken vertical axis, one of the biggest sins in presenting math data.

That's an interesting observation. What would be gained by adding all values from 0-50 on the y-axis -- other than making a figure that is harder to interpret?; 2/18/14, 1:32 PM
MadisonMan said...: Here in NJ it's been about 6 degrees below normal for the winter so far, and we have 38" more than the average annual snow already.

So I wish they'd send some of the warm stuff here.

Contrary to the opinion of people across the Hudson from you, NYC is not the be-all and end-all of the Globe. The Continental US is a very small fraction of the Northern Hemisphere.

Or, more succinctly, the global thermometer is not in your back yard :); 2/18/14, 1:34 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Harder to interpret? Harder to interpret?!"

Harder to lie about, you mean. If you hide the mountain beneath the spiky line, you lie about where the data is.

Imagine the real graph, with the Y axis at zero. It would be a liddle spiky thing atop a big mountain range, not a horrendous, murderous knife in the middle of a sheet of graph paper.; 2/18/14, 1:37 PM
Bob Ellison said...: In fact, in the interest of cold science, we should start with absolute zero (about -273c) as the basis of the Y axis.; 2/18/14, 1:46 PM
Gahrie said...: If there is no evidence that can disprove a theory, then you are no longer talking about science and are now talking about faith.; 2/18/14, 1:47 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: MadisonMan said...

What would be gained by adding all values from 0-50 on the y-axis

A sense of proportion.

Although really, even with that sense of proportion, I have no idea what to make of this information. I know the size is smaller, but without some information about the distribution I don't know if this is abnormal, or if half the time it is this much below average, and half the time it is that much above.

And I don't know how the temperature of that area compares, so I don't have any feel for how this effects global temperatures.; 2/18/14, 1:55 PM
Patrick said...: Made it out to the ice caves on Lake Superior yesterday. The kids loved it, lots of stuff to play on and in. Really nice scenery. Lots of people, but I would say hundreds rather than the 10,000 that were reportedly there on Saturday. Also lots of mostly well behaved dogs.; 2/18/14, 1:56 PM
Patrick said...: Aw man, Crazy TV Lenny is going out of business. Best car stereo I ever bought was from that store. The first one too, but they were different ones.; 2/18/14, 2:01 PM
Naked Surfer said...: In fact, in the interest of cold science, we should start with absolute zero (about -273c) as the basis of the Y axis

The stochastic geometries of frozen helium are spectacular and hauntingly beautiful. I’ve always thought that destroying any axis at all in order to perform torqued oscillations on frozen helium (destroying the homeomorph) would qualify as the best possible meditative mandala to fulfill private libertarian pleasures of ethical egoism as well acting as the deciding means for drawing political boundaries in the middle east. The coldest of cold fusion will always destroy all axes of homeomorphism and make a nice treat for the rational market of investors in the stock market just heating up to hot as exothermic hell-markets ready to buy the really, really cold fusion stuff. We could, of course, just save the rational market by buying shares of anti-global warming creams and salves.; 2/18/14, 2:08 PM
Naked Surfer said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/18/14, 2:08 PM
MadisonMan said...: Some more context for you. The one thing that would make that graph more complete is the standard deviations, I agree. (Which would vary by time of year, I'm guessing) All the text said was it's one of the coldest. Link.

The plot is of the areal extent of the region with -5C air a mile above the surface. (I wonder if it's really at 850 mb -- interpreting the data to 1 mile above ground would be a pain).

Honestly, though, for values that range between 50 and 75 (million), why the need to show values between 0 and 50? The ability to scale this is an exercise left to the reader, as they say.; 2/18/14, 2:24 PM
ndspinelli said...: It is painfully apparent you folks took Truman's advice, "If you want a friend, get a dog."; 2/18/14, 2:26 PM
ndspinelli said...: Or, someone else's dog. A quasi friend.; 2/18/14, 2:26 PM
MadisonMan said...: @patrick, I know someone else who went to the Ice Caves on Sunday, and the pictures she posted (on fb) show lots of people. Not a lot of sun though. Nice color in the ice.

Now, I'm not sure it's worth a trip all the way up north to view. That's a lot of driving. If I lived in Ashland, or Superior, maybe, yes. But then I'd be pretty stir-crazy by this time of winter if I lived there.; 2/18/14, 2:26 PM
MadisonMan said...: Something else to ponder: Arctic sea ice is quite low, area-wise, right now. Lots of winter left, of course. Very little expansion in the past 3 weeks.

Link.; 2/18/14, 2:29 PM
Naked Surfer said...: Ice ... (God, no more ice caves please) ...

One of the nice things about getting rid of the ice is that Sulfur based DNA like structures or maybe P backbones will get their day under the Sun.

If hot gets hotter, then Si and Si-C combos should do. Leaving halogenated stuff – that dirty F word as a backbone – that nasty thing wouldn’t pass press censures because they’re already F’ing our water and destroying our precious bodily fluids.

The state space is virtually endless, really.; 2/18/14, 2:38 PM
MadisonMan said...: Or, someone else's dog. A quasi friend.

If you watch over someone else's dog, you gain a real true friend -- that dog's owner who will bow down and worship you for watching their dog when they're not around.; 2/18/14, 2:41 PM
Anonymous said...: From 'John Kerry, Boston Wild'

Though his face resembled an aged block of cheese, or the weathered hunks of driftwood laying around some Cape beaches, John Kerry had a way with women.

This was a man in dynamic motion, his raw animal magnetism cutting across the surf of international diplomacy like a tax-sheltered windsurfing board can cut across the Nantucket whitecaps.

Full speed ahead.

'Ive seen John Kerry pull a UN resolution out of his peace quiver at the drop of a hat', says smitten Rohina de Smooten von Vanderdik.

'He can look a mullah square in the face while really thinking so many moves ahead in UN resolutions he's running rings around them. It's embarrassing.'; 2/18/14, 2:52 PM
Humperdink said...: Wanted to post this yesterday, but the night time cafe did not open. So I post a day late regarding president's day.

I heard an interesting item on the news yesterday. John Tyler, our 10th president, born in 1790, has two living grandchildren.

President Tyler had 15 children. Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853, at age 63. Then, at the age of 71, Lyon Gardiner Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924 and four years later at age 75, Harrison Ruffin Tyler. It was reported they are both still alive.; 2/18/14, 2:58 PM
rhhardin said...: Cold is the test of global warming.

If there's more CO2 reflecting heat, you shouldn't get major cold spots.

That is, the coldest spots ought to get warmer unambiguously.

They don't, so there isn't global warming.; 2/18/14, 3:04 PM
rhhardin said...: Dog peers over an original hardcover edition of The Great Bustard.; 2/18/14, 3:06 PM
Meade said...: Truman's advice had to do with living in D.C. and he was right.

My advice for living in Madison (or anywhere in the Midwest for that matter): If you want a true friend, be a true friend by, for example, caring for your neighbors' dogs.

Want to increase your total number of true friends? Take your neighbor's dog to the dog park and be truly friendly. Like Truman. Which, btw, is a terrific name for a male Lab or Golden, Rottie or Dobe. Or even Mastiff.; 2/18/14, 3:13 PM
Paddy O said...: "The Continental US..."
Hey! There's a lot more to the Continental US than New Jersey.

We're baking here in California. Record highs, record persistent highs, no water.

Was talking to someone from Germany the other day, he said the winter was very mild there too.

Humperdink, now I am off to Google to see if that's true. Amazing if so.; 2/18/14, 3:40 PM
Patrick said...: MM, It was worth a trip from the Twin Cities, but we spend time there a lot in the summer, so seeing it in the winter was cool. Plus we also went skiing. The locals seem to be making some money from the whole thing, which is nice to see. If you get there at the wrong time, you can end up walking a few miles just to get to the beach, and then you'll need to go a couple more to see the ice.; 2/18/14, 3:43 PM
Humperdink said...: "Humperdink, now I am off to Google to see if that's true. Amazing if so."

I heard it on the local news yesterday. I then googled it and found a link where they were still alive in 2012. Couldn't find an obit or an update.; 2/18/14, 3:56 PM
garage mahal said...: @Patrick
Did you come across any leafleteers on your way in or out? Regarding the Penokees.; 2/18/14, 4:01 PM
Patrick said...: Didn't see that Garage. I saw something on the news out of Duluth that they held a protest, but I went on Monday. Lots more people over the weekend, so maybe they did it then.; 2/18/14, 6:55 PM
kentuckyliz said...: I am living with the largest carbon footprint I can. I earned it--I didn't have kids. That's a giant carbon credit right there.; 2/19/14, 6:16 PM