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Bishop Hill
Copyright © 2006-2013, Bishop Hill All rights reserved.
Reader Comments (21)
Need a good cartoon of a weed smoking troll, Josh. Preferably one I can take to the Pistol Range. :)
genius!
Don, what a great idea! See what I can do.
What, are there no tanks and troop concentrations left and no more trains to shoot up, so you're going to send a squadron of Typhoons to rocket and straif horse drawn traffic?
Anyway, I recall the weasel tag to the ad was "Nine out of ten cat owners* said their cat preferred .........".
*Who expressed a preference.
Don, Don,Don,
Don't be picking on the poor anosognosic. Since the marvelous series on the subject in the NYT, I've begun to see them everywhere. On the other hand our example, here, is pretty blatant.
Did you get into this in Psych School?
You may wish to consider adding the following phrase to the box:
"Certified by Realclimate Flakes"
Has an authoritarian ring to it, don't you think?
Don,
I suspect ICD9 Code 295.9 is a distinct possibility.
Josh, you have tapped into an extremely rich lode. Keep swinging the pick.
BTW, totally O/T, I've just had a minor eureka moment. I was reading 'Nigel Calders Updates' when, being a geologist and craving for climatic interpretations on a slightly longer time scale than usual in this subject, I strayed to one of his top popular posts called 'the next ice age'. I have often wondered why the global average temperature metric dominates the subject so exclusively, since it is not directly applicable to anywhere at all in terms of actual climate.
I'm probably playing catchup with ya'all, but that thread clicked with me when mentioning that equal area average temperature is dominated by the tropics, with its Nina's and Nino's, but glacial cycles propagate at the poles, occupying a far smaller areal extent than the tropical belt. So the bottom line may well be that average global temperature may in the end be seen to have done more harm than good in elucidating climatic oscillations, and latitudinal and hemisphere specific temperature averages used for meaningful analysis.
The post was
http://calderup.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/next-ice-age/
j ferguson
anosognosic New word, thanks. He obviously is certain he is just fine as we are the ones who are all screwed up, but he doesn't have a clue, as you suggest.
I learned to lead my targets early on. I was taught to shoot pistols by a South American beauty in grad school who was in more firefights than the average soldier (South America is full of banditos and she came from a rich family with a large estate.) The passion of my life, it is she who called me "Don Padro". I learned a lot of Spanish at night as well.
She was just a slip of a girl, perhaps 90 pounds, but she could fire the S&W Model 29 single handed, something I cannot do. (It is the gun made famous by "Dirty Harry").
Sadly for me, she married the man chosen for her by her family. Family is very important down there. While invited to move down there and be her lover, her brother suggested that I pass on the opportunity. You might say he made me an offer I could not refuse.
I might add that her teaching skills saved my life in the Nam a few years later, but that is another story for another blog.
DrCrinum
ICD9 Code 295.9 Impressive! Not many know about it. But no, he does not have unspecified schizophrenia, he is stoned. Probably Code 292.89 or 292.1 (I would need to research both.) Does he have schizophrenia, yes, but it is clearly a drug induced case. Sadly, I see cases like him all the time walking down the street in the local towns. Mostly due to methamphetamine, which crackheads make in their kitchens. Our friend may well have been into it as well. My guess is he is under 30 and will be either dead or wish he was dead by age 35. Some get the message and clean themselves up, but there are few crackheads and potheads over the age 40. Those that clean themselves up do it in their thirties when their body changes in someway. I am sure there is a physiologic linkage somewhere.
One thing I was involved in in the late 1960's was the use of heroin by US soldiers in Viet Nam. Charlie made the drug easily available through mama sans (Vietnamese women hired to clean the hootches in camp). At one time the US military was so panicked that they required all returning service men to take a urine test and large numbers failed. However, instead of continuing the drug use in the US, most of them cleaned themselves up. Chronic drug addiction is a physiological problem, with some having a natural propensity to being addicted. The same is true of alcohol. Our friend has an "addictive" gene somewhere. I might add that overweight people are addicted to food, in my opinion. I might write a book about it someday.
As for helping him, I also learned a long time ago not to try and teach pigs to sing as you will only waste your time and annoy the pig.
Ansosognosic eh?
Youv'e not met my mother-in-law then!
292.89 is just mean, but may explain why he seems so anti-American, especially rednecks and banjos. Perhaps he had a deliverance moment in his past? He also mentioned bees. If those are in his head, I'd roll with a 295.7, otherwise 297.1
As for age, I'd suggest a Gen-X'er or predating those based on language skills and location. I also think there are probably a few papers looking into age related aspects to climate change. Youngsters have the arrogance of youth, but lack the experience of having lived through more than one climate interval. Old timers have lived through more climate changes, especially if they're the hated outdoors types.
As for one-handed feats, I think a S&W 500 would be impressive, but suspect if I tried that, I'd wake up wondering where I am. Size isn't everything though.
I hadn't thought of afflictions when reading commenters who repeatedly miss the point, and seem to "talk" past the issue. Is it possible that there is more than a little of this in the blogs we frequent?
I witnessed this behaviour in LSD experiments conducted by one of the military R&D groups years ago. It was a room full of guys interacting in ways that seemed quite disconnected from what was actually being said or done. Big, sometimes violent arguments in which the two POV's had nothing to do with each other.
I see a lot of this sort of thing, but not so much, TG, here.
Don,
For many years the only certificate adorning the wall of my office at the lab was my Expert Marksmanship Award with the 38 caliber pistol from the military. All of the other chaps at the facility had at least one complete office wall plastered with diplomas and certificates.
DrCrinum
A man after my own heart. However, I prefer the 45 for serious social calling, although I do like the Hi Power 9mm with the 21 shot clip. It is like the Energizer Bunny -- it just keeps firing, and firing, and firing. That is a feature you might need in a truly serious social situation.
Atomic Hairdryer
As for one-handed feats, I think a S&W 500 would be impressive
She said that the secret is not being afraid of the gun and keeping your elbow locked, allowing the gun to recoil up where you could quickly lower it back down into the sighting plane. Easier told than done. I was afraid of the 44 and the 500 would scare me shitless.
Size isn't everything though.
So she also said. :)
It is what you do with it that matters. In the case of pistols, it is hitting the target. (She was a superb teacher in many skills).
j ferguson
I hadn't thought of afflictions when reading commenters who repeatedly miss the point, and seem to "talk" past the issue. Is it possible that there is more than a little of this in the blogs we frequent?
You ask a good point. Mental illness comes in wide range of flavors, so to speak. This ranges from the little quirks we all have, to ranging madness. Then if you throw in the effects of drugs, a field I once studied professionally, the sky is the limit.
Think of it this way. How many people have you seen of late walking the streets holding a sign "The end is NEAR?" Damn few if any. They are at home on the computer blogging.
Then there are the effects of drugs, particularly alcohol and the other "recreational drugs" like Marijuana, cocaine, and meth. In low dosages they all actually stimulate the nervous system, but reduce the inhibitory circuits in our nervous system. This leads to a lot of very stupid email being sent to the boss, very hostile posting (aka "flaming" ) and behavior such as you describe.
If you remember my various attempts in the past to get someone to cool it, I first use some form of ridicule. That usually works. The reason is logic DOES NOT work with them. They are like a child throwing a hissy fit. So you make them realize that they are foolish looking.
In the case of our pot smoking friend, the sheer amount his arrogance and hostility (noted by Latimer Alder and others) suggested to me that he was seriously lacking inhibition or self control, which suggested drugs. A quick google of his pen name showed his posting on the site I posted as well as several other places related to marijuana.
Then he started to talk about "shutting down the thread". Remember that? Well, he was actively looking for a confrontation. His goal was to shut the thread down. Why? To show his power. He was also on a power trip, which suggested he was quite a loser in the real world.
At that point what do you do to a child throwing a hissy fit? Well, you can try to slap them (not in today's world!) or ignore them until they get the message. That is why I suggested ignoring him several times, until you all finally got the message. (And a thanks to Latimer Alder for his help on it too!)
You cannot reason with such people. They are the way they are, and the best you can to is ignore them. To do otherwise will merely encourage them, as it did with our pot smoking friend. Since you can't take their computer away, you have little other choice.
And to answer your question simply -- Yes, there are a lot of them out there. Learn to recognize them.
Repeat after me:
I will not drink and drive.
I will not drink and blog.
I will not blog while angry.
I will not blog while smoking strange shit.
Unfortunately many don't follow that advice.
Don P
The crack-ed record is still posting
Don,
I commend you on your analysis -- your conducted the background check and uncovered the necessary evidence to confirm your hypothesis.
I had assumed the apparent young chap was in the early stage of schizophrenia where drugs and alcohol are consumed as a measure to combat the hallucinations. I also interpreted the HF as being the tipping point which pushed him over the edge and exposed his nest of scrambled eggs. Regardless, the prognosis as you relate is very poor.
Perhaps I should consider avoiding the Environmental Section at the Guardian.
Martyn
Just ignore him. It is a power play by him, but by ignoring him you show more power. In time he will simply move on. Hopefully to RC. :)
DrCrinum
I tend to agree with your take on our young man. He has an underlying problem, probably schizophrenia. Drugs merely intensify the effect. That leads to rejection by others. He becomes what we call a "loser" and so he starts looking for ways to demonstrate his power to prove to himself that he is better than everyone else. That leads to disruptive behavior. So it snowballs.
The sad thing is he is obviously intelligent. Had he had the help he needed things may be very different. But ..
The young man will only cure himself if he realizes that he has a problem. Sadly, that is rare. I gave up on psychology and psychopharmacology as a career long ago because I realized that and went into computers instead. It doesn't mean that I don't continue to have an interest, it just was I found computers to be much easier to work with -- you can always pull their plug. :)
The best thing for all of us is to just ignore him. Legally, it is about all that can be done. The legal test is "clear danger to himself or others".
Guys
On topic please.
Maybe one for Josh?
Two flash cards, one with a tree the other depicting a thermometer.
Caption, something like, "can you spot the difference?" and "76 out of 79 Climate Scientists can't!"
7 out of 10 seems very modest as assertions of climate consensus go. Surely the figure should be somewhere between 9.5 (statistically signficant!) and 11 (unimportant methodological issue, nothing to worry about).