Re: Leaving rasfc

James A. Donald:
But no one ever produces evidence of such discrimination
- instead, producing evidence of inequality of outcomes.

Ilmari Karonen
It does tend to be a bit hard to provide direct objective evidence
about what goes on inside people's heads when they make decisions,
rather than merely on the outcomes of said decisions.

If people discriminated irrationally, we would observe
that among the those selected from the allegedly
discriminated against group, those selected would be
*better* than those of the allegedly oppressing group.

We observe the reverse, the most recent disaster along
these lines being loss of some trillions in dud
mortgages, the greater part of these dud mortgages being
CRA loans to protected minority groups.

Nonetheless, people _have_ conducted some "blind
application" studies in which identical resumés were
submitted to prospective employers with just the
applicant's name changed to a typically male or female
one. One such study (turned up by a moment's
Googling) was published in 1999 by Steinpreis, Anders
and Ritzke in _Sex Roles_, vol. 41 as "The Impact of
Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job
Applicants and Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical
Study":
<http://www.faculty.diversity.ucla.edu/search/searchto
olkit/docs/articles/Impact_of_Gender.pdf>.

This does indeed constitute a claim of evidence, but the
claim alleges to detect quite improbable levels of
discrimination.

We heard the same story about loans to members of
protected minorities, and observe how that one turned
out. The financial crisis is predominantly a CRA
crisis.

The reported level of discrimination is far too extreme
to be at all believable. It contradicts our everyday
experience. It is similar to those surveys that
purportedly demonstrate that 73% of women have been
raped.

Similarly with many of the articles on global
warming: Thus, for example
<http://elitestv.com/pub/2009/05/satellites-show-arct
ic-literally-on-thin-ice>
The latest Arctic sea ice data from NASA and
the National Snow and Ice Data Center show
that the decade-long trend of shrinking sea
ice cover is continuing.
Does not refer to actual physical sea ice cover, but
rather to the spirit of Gaia in the ice, and
contrasting such reports to actual satellite images
entirely misses the point.

Ilmari Karonen
So, browsing a few links away from the article, I
supposed e.g. the satellite data at
<http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/seaice_stat
us09.html> are also measuring "the spirit of Gaia in
the ice"?

Yes, of course. The article says:

The latest Arctic sea ice data from NASA and the
National Snow and Ice Data Center show that the
decade-long trend of shrinking sea ice cover is
continuing

Had the writer said "recent massive increases of sea ice
over the past few years are not yet sufficient to cast
doubt that there is a long term trend of ice
diminishing." then he might well have been referring to
actual physical ice.
No one is expected to imagine that this refers to
actual physical ice, any more than the
transubstantiation of the eucharist corresponds to an
alleged observation of biscuit turning into steak.
Rather is an assertion of moral superiority, a
denunciation of demons:

Here are some graphs showing the actual sea ice trend:

http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/global-sea-ice-nears-record-high/

There has indeed been a decades long trend of shrinking
ice cover, but that trend is definitely not
*continuing*, at least not for the past few years.

Now one could plausibly claim that recent sea ice
levels, which are close to record highs, are just a blip
in a longer term trend, but a blip is not a
continuation. Recent events cast doubt on the trend.
The claim is that recent events confirm the trend, which
claim is clearly a religious claim, not a claim about
physical ice.

--
----------------------
We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because
of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this
right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.

http://www.jim.com/
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Arctic ice reaches minimum
    ... Although there have been annual deviations around that trend line, ... if I saw the Summer sea ice area/extent close to the 1979-2000 mean, ... driving the change and so would the scientists working in the field.. ... Look at my graph and you would agree that there was a bunch ...
    (uk.sci.weather)
  • Re: Is this a trendy new phenomina?
    ... why is the ice cover growing and not ... trends and the variations around a mean within a trend. ... Arctic summer sea ice is in decline. ... them that Arctic summer sea ice's days were numbered. ...
    (uk.sci.weather)
  • Re: Good news from Antarctica
    ... You have to look at the long term behaviour, from 1979 the ice has ... The poster above linked to a graph for the wrong hemisphere. ... growth is both insignificant and meaningless in the trend. ... there has been a positive trend in Antarctic sea ice." ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Is this a trendy new phenomina?
    ... why is the ice cover growing and not ... trends and the variations around a mean within a trend. ... Arctic summer sea ice is in decline. ... them that Arctic summer sea ice's days were numbered. ...
    (uk.sci.weather)
  • Re: Is this a trendy new phenomina?
    ... why is the ice cover growing and not ... trends and the variations around a mean within a trend. ... Arctic summer sea ice is in decline. ... them that Arctic summer sea ice's days were numbered. ...
    (uk.sci.weather)