Some severe weather last night. No big deal for these parts though. We’re still grinding away at work on the new project. I missed my shot at young Freddie, but frankly he doesn’t really interest me enough to comment about him.
The USGS has issued an earthquake warning for Oklahoma. The first of it’s ITS kind west EAST of the Rocky mountains. I’m certain that our recent uptick in quakes–more in the last 10 years than in the entire recorded history of the region prior–has NOTHING AT ALL to do with hydraulic fracking. Nothing at all.
Bobby Thomson
East of.
WereBear
I expressed my joy for you that the builder is stepping up on your new house.
Will THIS make local Republicans think more?
Punchy
I knew that earthquakes could move the earth, but I had no idea they’ve moved OK west of the Rockies already!
And it’s “its”, not “it’s”. Grammah notsee.
SiubhanDuinne
East of the Rockies, surely.
eldorado
man, what i wouldn’t give for this place to be west of the rockies
c u n d gulag
I remember reading an article back in the NY Times, in the late 70’s, that found that in areas of CO where water was being forced into the ground to help extract minerals and/or oil and gas, dramatically increased the number of earthquakes.
If an average schmuck (some might even say I’m a well-above average one) like me, who knows little to nothing about the subject, read that and remembers it, where have all of the science folks been?
Oh, yeah – a lot of them were probably getting paid a lot of money until recently to not disclose this, by Exxon and The Kochsucker Brothers.
Morzer
@c u n d gulag:
It’s not entirely coincidental that the same (very small) subset of scientists both thinks fracking is fine and dandy and that climate change is a myth.
By and large I think scientists as a group have been pretty consistent in stating the folly of fracking – it’s just that conservatives have tried their utmost to shut down discussion or control forums where that discussion might take place and have generally been quite successful.
shelley
I didn’t think it was possible to predict earthquakes with any real warning time. Once they picked up any seismic activity, I thought it was already too late.
Chickamin Slam
At the rate the earthquakes are happening with all the fracking, Oklahoma will soon be floating out there in the Sea of Cortez.
Morzer
@Chickamin Slam:
Libertarian paradise is just around the corner!
scav
@Morzer: I too was rather struck by the underlying assumption that scientists totally could drive the entire national conversation and media, were it not for the big money thrown at them.
Tokyokie
We had some minor earthquake activity when Barnett Shale (where fracking pretty much originated) was at its peak, but although others felt them, I never did. Guess I lived in Japan too long and had gotten used to the little ones.
Hal
Sippy Cup debating Bill Nye on climate change on cross fire. Next week she discusses theoretical physics with Stephen Hawking.
One comment I read on the debate was a guy dismissing climate change because all liberals had as proof was 97 percent of scientists saying so. Oh, and sippy cup is hawt.
Mike in NC
It’s going to hit 93 here today. Since we’re taking a Baltic Sea cruise next week, I checked my weather app and saw that the high in Helsinki today will be a balmy 46! Might need to pack some extra sunscreen.
Betty Cracker
@Hal: I saw a clip of that at Raw Story, and what stuck me was the whining about scientists “bullying” the poor widdle hothouse flower conservatives with all their facts and data and junk. Oh, the humanity!
WereBear
I really really really really really really really wish the term “too stupid to live” was literal.
Alas, that stubborn brainstem.
Morzer
@Hal:
I mentioned that in another thread. She was so whiny and dishonest, I can’t imagine she has any self-respect. Imagine accusing a scientist of bullying you simply because they know what they are talking about and you don’t. Now that’s what I call objectively despicable.
peregrinations
@c u n d gulag:
Gee, I don’t know, maybe writing some 1,600+ papers about fracking and earthquakes? Including in such obscure journals as Science. http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en&q=fracking+earthquakes&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=
Scientists are researching and even speaking out about the risks of fracking, but we don’t have the media access or money that the extraction industries do. So the studies are out there, but – as you have just demonstrated – people aren’t taking the time (fyi: this google scholar search took about 5 seconds, and is available to everyone) or energy needed to find them .
chopper
@Morzer:
i’m amazed at her ability to go from pushy asshole to shrinking violet so quickly.
Tom Levenson
‘Zactly so. He’s a low impact bloviator who doesn’t write nearly well enough to be interesting even on the level of prose style. Why waste pixels.
Morzer
@chopper:
I think it’s probably a severe case of shrinking asshole syndrome.
jonas
I wonder if there were damage or loss of life from an earthquake that could be linked directly to fracking, would the oil/gas company be liable? I’m sure lobbyists in energy states are hard at work pressing legislators to come up with laws immunizing them from any such eventuality.
Morzer
@Tom Levenson:
Every time you don’t say “I believe in Freddies” a pixel dies.Don’t you feel ashamed of your genocidal self, Mr Liberal Fascist?
chopper
@Morzer:
STOP BULLYING ME!
Morzer
@chopper:
You are so too objectively despicable, you big mean Black Panther voter intimidation army bully you!
Also too: Benghazi! Benghazi!
rea
Major earthquakes east of the Rockies are not unknown . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake
scav
@rea: Did anyone say they were unknown?
different-church-lady
Ouch. That’s gonna sting.
PurpleGirl
@rea: Yes, that’s true. But when you have the kind of increase in the number of quakes and their severity in a short time compared to longer and earlier periods, some thing is happening. And that something is not good.
Rex Everything
Yeah, everybody’s over him, which they spent two days and about 90 trillion words proving.
Hal
@Morzer: her look me in the eye line was pathetic. Nye is apparently a 5 year old being scolded by mommy.
http://astrodidact.tumblr.com/post/85065331421/bill-nye-sets-the-record-straight-on-crossfire
maya
Major Earthquake. Report to Colonel Tsunami. On the double.
p.a.
@SiubhanDuinne: depends on whether you are facing N or S; there are no absolutes. Thanks Darwin, Einstein!
WereBear
@Morzer: Which explains why they are so full of it!
Morzer
@WereBear:
It would explain many things about the modern “conservative” “mind”: eternally buttock-clenched in a position of paranoid rage.
danielx
And if it did have anything to do with hydraulic fracking, and you did talk about it, they’d kill you.
scav
@p.a.: East and West don’t play the same games as Left and Right, although North does step out a bit with Up (the hussy!). I really wish there was or that I knew the word for spatial dyslexic. For the record, anytime what comes out of my mouth doesn’t match the direction the hands are pointing, follow the hands.
ETA. Remembered the games E & W play. Totally play hard to get. N & S you can get to bases with, not E & W.
Woodrowfan
@Morzer: Maybe we could use Freddie’s attention-whoredom for good. For every, oh, say $200 donation to an animal shelter of John’s choice, BJ will start a thread attacking Freddie. The more he donates the more we’ll talk about him! win-win!
Morzer
@Woodrowfan:
It’s objectively despicable, but it might just work! We could even have a raffle where the first prize was a week without mention of Freddie – and the second prize was three days of the same….
different-church-lady
@Morzer: Third prize is you’re fired.
Morzer
@different-church-lady:
I was going to propose a week of reading Jonah Goldberg for the content as third prize, but perhaps being fired is the more humane alternative.
catclub
@jonas: “I’m sure lobbyists in energy states are hard at work pressing legislators to come up with laws immunizing them from any such eventuality. ”
Louisiana is your example here. The New Orleans Levee Board has sued oil and gas companies for destroying the wetlands. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature are furiously writing laws forbidding such an agency from starting any such suits. They want to require them to get permission from the Governor first.
catclub
@p.a.: “depends on whether you are facing N or S; there are no absolutes. Thanks Darwin, Einstein! ”
Will we change north and south when the Earth’s magnetic field reverses? No Einstein needed.
flukebucket
We really, really need to rethink this fracking business.
different-church-lady
@Morzer:
So you’re one of those pro-torture people I’ve been hearing about.
chopper
@WereBear:
ah, i see. they aren’t any more full of shit than they used to be, but due to the increased clenching it just seems that way.
chopper
@different-church-lady:
objectively pro-torture. point aint worth a damn unless you misuse ‘objectively’.
Morzer
@different-church-lady:
In a figuratively literal kinda way, yes.
scav
@catclub: O! This is getting better and better, our current North Pole is actually a south pole, so reversing it will only increase the northiness of it all. Not that this addresses the problems of nomenclature, the behavior of magnets and functioning of GPS, beyond noting that existing verbiage already covers a multitude of incoherencies so why strain at one more? And now I’m having to juggle three pairs of poles on this irregular oblate ellipsoid.
Iowa Old Lady
All Oklahoma needs is earthquakes. Tornadoes aren’t bad enough.
Stay safe, Sooner and fellow sooners.
kindness
Please forgive my rant. It is completely self imposed and I know how to stop the frustration and agrivation but I can’t help myself.
Sully is driving me fucking insane. Now he’s on a kick suggesting Neil deGrasse Tyson is a bad bad man because he mocks ‘some people of and articles of faith’ in Cosmos. Jesus Christ Sully! I want my money back! (yea I gave him money). Shrill does not begin to describe what I would call Sully right now.
different-church-lady
@kindness:
I think I see the problem…
Morzer
@kindness:
I noticed that snippet and thought that Sullivan had obviously never taught in his life. Any teacher knows that you can’t spend your class time on the “deep”unanswerable questions and actually get anything done. That said, why anyone takes anything that fraudulent buffoon Sullivan says seriously is beyond me.
MomSense
@kindness:
OH MY I just went and read the following at Sully’s place.
Chris
@Mike in NC: Say, “Hi,” to the status of Havis Amanda while you’re in Helsinki. If you’ve never been there before, ride tram 3T (or 3B; they’re the same, circular route just in opposite directions) and make sure to visit “The Church of the Rock” which is in fact built into and underneath some rocks. Also, too, Fazer chocolate. Just sayin’.
Morzer
@MomSense:
Says the advocate of Betsy McCaughey and the Bell Curve. Why is anyone surprised that Sullivan is so preposterously ignorant of reality?
ranchandsyrup
Bundy Ranch, Part Deux is coming to Recapture Canyon near Blanding, UT this weekend. The gubmint won’t let the wingers recreate on their ATVs and stuff. Tyranny! http://t.co/hiR0hjds2k
A Humble Lurker
@MomSense:
“Scientism”?
Trollhattan
A 16 Y.O. drew this. Using a pencil. You cannot do this. I cannot do this.
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/.a/6a00df351e888f883401a73dbf1055970d-popup
The backstory.
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/pencil-portrait-wins-texaco-art-prize-for-mayo-teenager-1.1762980
Violet
@MomSense: Scientism? That’s a thing? WTF is that? The inconvenience of facts and how they mess up people’s precious beliefs?
Sully and his only being alive due to scientific research into HIV treatments might want to slow down there on how philosophy is so much more important than science.
Morzer
@Trollhattan:
Speak for yourse… no, actually, you are quite right.
Paul in KY
Balderdash!! Injecting fluids under high pressure to crack apart rocks deep underground would never contribute to an earthquake.
Just a silly concept…
Morzer
@Violet:
Scientism (in Sullyspeak) is just his pitiable way of being bipartisan after offending the Christianists.
Trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
There were a lot fewer of these asshats during the Sagebrush Rebellion days of the Reign of the Most Blessed Ronaldus Magnus. Am rather concerned with who might be running Interor beginning in 2017. Once the dam breaks the lake will empty, no matter what.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: What’s funny is that NdeGT isn’t saying that philosophy has no value. He is saying that, as a scientist, time spent contemplating unanswerable questions isn’t particularly valuable.
Morzer
@Violet:
Especially when you consider that it was his “philosophy” that led him to troll for bareback sex even knowing that he was infected with AIDS. What an advocate for the examined life Sully is!
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Right, which is exactly the point of why teachers don’t futz around with questions like “Why does the world exist?” or “Why did the Indo-European chicken cross the road?” You can noodle around with all the possible answers to those questions for a lifetime and still be left with a big, old handful of SFA.
Sometimes I really do wonder whether Sullivan has mastered the art of putting his own pants on without a Youtube video to help him.
ranchandsyrup
@Trollhattan: That’s an excellent point. If we get someone like Watt (shudder), they may try to outright abdicate to the states.
Violet
@Morzer: @Morzer: No kidding. Science runs Sully’s life. How could he do what he does without science? Work from home on a computer with an internet connection? Without science? How’s that going to work? Live without the HIV cocktail of medications he has to take? How’s that going to work.
What a dumbass.
Jebediah, RBG
@Morzer:
Being fired out of a cannon would be more humane.
JPL
@Violet: Sully doesn’t think medical research is Science. In fact the doctors who are running for Senate in GA, don’t believe in science. We are in trouble!
Epicurus
I prefer the catchall “Unpossible!” (Most entertaining when read in the voice of Ralph Quimby.)
Omnes Omnibus
The judge in the John Doe investigation case in Wisconsin has re-issued his injunction after ruling that the appeal to the 7th Cir. was frivolous.
Morzer
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/hagan-obamacare-burwell-hearing
I am glad Kay Hagan has found her interior gonads*. I’d rather she stood and fought for Obamacare and tried to win re-election on the basis of benefiting her constituents than pretend that she’s not really a Democrat and pander to pig ignorance**.
*Figuratively, as far as I know. I have no current information about whether there is, has been or will be any literal search undertaken by the Senator.
** Yes, yes, I know that literal pigs are highly intelligent creatures. These are figurative pigs we are talking about here.
Paul in KY
@Epicurus: I shall add that one to my grab bag of words!
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
That word frivolous Judge Randa likes so much, I do not think it means what he pretends to think it means.
scav
@kindness: Entire sermons and TeeVee events and weather reports devoted to the intrinsic (objective!) evil evillness of the otherly sectarian and agnostic are religiously protected and never be infringed upon — but Science shows must give equal billing! Just as campaigns of door-knocking and grabbing random passerbys and spamming them with better calling plans to Heaven or they’re damned damed damned spots is “spreading the Good Word!” and not that turrible lifestyle recruitment guys get up to when wandering the streets freely and un beaten up.
ranchandsyrup
@Omnes Omnibus: what the fuck?
Matt McIrvin
@Violet: “Scientism” is an old derogatory term that means, roughly, the veneration of science as the universal arbiter of all truth, including things that can’t really be addressed with scientific approaches.
I think the word has been rendered almost useless by people abusing it to mean “a scientist said something I didn’t like.” Usually, it’s people getting upset that a scientist seems to be knocking on religion or saying something at odds with their religion. I recall Leon Wieseltier going on a tear about scientism a few years ago.
I am actually not greatly fond of the new Cosmos‘s take on history, which tends toward whiggishness and the condensed mythmaking that scientists often do about the history of their own subject. And I think philosophy is probably more valuable than Tyson thinks it is. But “scientism” is something of a corrupted term.
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: And when THAT is appealed to the 7th Circuit, what will happen? What are the odds on 7 CCA sua sponte issuing a writ to Judge Randa?
Omnes Omnibus
@ranchandsyrup: They were appealing the denial a motion to dismiss the cases against them in the personal capacity and claiming immunity in their official capacities. At the very least, the arguments against personal liability are nonfrivolous. Randa is nucking futs.
Villago Delenda Est
Sooner, as much as you guys like to think you’re westerners, you’re back East to me.
So is Denver.
chopper
@MomSense:
luckily sully has his oakeshott in the widener library for succor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt: Oh, an appeal will be filed immediately. I strongly suspect that the injunction will again be stayed.
different-church-lady
@chopper: luckily sully has his oakeshott in the widener library for succor.
different-church-lady
@chopper:
Shorter Sully: LEAVE DUMB SHITS ALOOOOOONE!
Jebediah, RBG
@Epicurus:
Absolutely, but Ralphie is Chief Wiggums’ boy, not Mayor Quimby’s. At least that’s what the birth certificate says…
Jebediah, RBG
speaking of respect for science and scientists, Krauthammer has let go of another stanky mouthfart.
Apparently, climate change is superstition, “just like Native American rain dances.”
Soonergrunt
@Villago Delenda Est: I fixed it!
Mayken
@peregrinations: This! If only we had media in this country that would do their damned jobs… smh! But thus it has ever been, really.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but the President of Hobby Lobby has a hobby of his own…pushing the death cult on kids using public schools.
different-church-lady
@Villago Delenda Est: There’s two kinds of people in the world: those that go unapologeticly OT in non-open threads, and those that apologize for being “OT” in an open thread.
rikyrah
absolutely has to do with fracking!
earthquakes in Oklahoma?
uh huh
David in NY
@Matt McIrvin: Scientism:
Interesting. Then, surprise!, Sully is utterly wrong, indeed nonsensical. DeGrasse is obviously trying not to engage in Scientism, because he refuses to address “things that can’t really be addressed with scientific approaches.”
It’s Sully who wants more Scientism, wants Science to tell him the meaning of life or whatever, things it’s not equipped to do. Idiot. Doesn’t even understand his own goddamned language.
Al Swearengen
@c u n d gulag: The earthquakes here in CO were caused by a single injection well:
Villago Delenda Est
@different-church-lady: I err on the side of caution.