Some thoughts on the last week. Nothing controversial. Ahem. Climate Last weekend I rejoiced in XR losing hearts and minds so, for balance, here’s our favourite XR alumnus with friends: Nuclear for Net Zero? Well, it’s a lot better than any other version. IMHO. Feel free to disagree. Covid A couple of previous paragraphs of … Continue reading
Author Archives: Richard Drake
XR crashes and burns as climate sceptic becomes UK trade envoy
Ok, I’m in optimistic mood. But this post is to give space to discuss the latest in the UK, both on climate and anything else people see as a crisis. Today: Extinction Rebellion facing ‘organised crime’ curbs Tuesday: Tony Abbott rails against Covid ‘health dictatorships’, saying some elderly should be left to die naturally Both … Continue reading
What a real crisis looks like
I want to argue that the Covid-19 pandemic looks like a real crisis in a way that man-made global warming (AGW) doesn’t. And that our aim as climate sceptics should be to make AGW look like a real crisis. Not to make AGW be a real crisis – that I think is not within anyone’s … Continue reading
Interrogating climate modelling
Whatever skills and expertise are required for that, Michael Gove thinks they are needed in the civil service and in government: That same determination to instil and cultivate deep knowledge should apply across Government. Too much current Civil Service training is about vapid abstractions such as ‘Collaborating Better’ rather than about what works in classroom … Continue reading
Too Much Progress
This evening I want to think about climate, covid and racism. Nothing too controversial then. In fact, let me generalise two and narrow the third. I wish to look at progress, real and perceived, in three key areas: environmentalism, public health and racial discrimination in the USA. My thesis is pretty simple. In 1 and … Continue reading
When Code Goes Wong
Many people across the globe are currently interested in the quality of code and, even more, the quality of results that arise from code. In particular, in the UK, Neil Ferguson’s epidemiological code, that seemed to influence the government’s decision to impose a lockdown, and, on this blog at least, the code that makes up … Continue reading
Did HMG succeed in its assignment?
Here’s the thing. In our earlier busy thread, Jaime Jessop was thinking like a Haskell programmer and John Ridgway a Ruby one. Perhaps even more fascinating, what was the government thinking? References: Wikipedia : Assignment (computer science) Demystifying Haskell assignment Ruby – Operators Basic Programming – Operators What’s New In Python 3.8 – Assignment expressions … Continue reading
Covid/climate open thread
Have at it! Continue reading
Problematic bookcases
Lots of embedded tweets coming up, with little climate or climate mitigation. Please skip if either or both are a bother. Let’s begin not with bookcases but with the proud owner of about twenty, Sarah Vine, Daily Mail journalist and wife of Michael Gove, senior UK government minister. Vine tweeted this yesterday in praise of … Continue reading
Fact 13
The thesis of this post is stark: there’s no point debating climate further until Fact 13 has been established. What is Fact 13? The $1.5 trillion a year the ‘climate change industry’ was reported to have become by August 2015. Was that number even remotely right? What’s the correct one going to be in August … Continue reading
