I think we can place Al Gore in the Democratic wingnut camp. It’s one thing to be concerned about climate change but Gore is a pure fearmonger. You don’t get much more establishment Democrat than Vice President and Presidential candidate, Al Gore.
So yet again I am proven right. Since Obama said it, it’s a slip of the tongue. As for Alaska and Russia:
Are you claiming Palin never was in a trade delegation involving Russia?
The Northern Forum doesn’t meet in Anchorage and does not have a representative from the Alaskan governor’s office?
She was never briefed on Russian air incursions by the Alaskan Air National Guard?
We should also not lose sight of the fact that Palin was trying to evoke an anxiety reflex by mentioning Russia, that evil empire. They used to be our arch-enemy, that ought to count for something, right? Putin might attack us with planes!
(And, technically, it looks like you might be able to see the Russian mainland from a mountain on the Alaska mainland. On a good day.)
What wingnut things has Gore said?
Nonsense. We should rely on Algore’s ideas about tapping the geothermal energy of the earth, whose core is at a temperature of millions of degrees. At least now that we have drills that will not melt once you go down two kilometers.
That’s science!
Regards,
Shodan
There probably aren’t too many governors who don’t participate in trade delegations. Had she mentioned that rather than mere geographic proximity, she would have been better off. She might have been better off to mention participation with The Northern Forum than fixating on proximity. As for air incursions, I doubt that many occurred and if she had to take any action it would be with clearance from the Pentagon. Maybe she could have mentioned all of your points, but she didn’t. She said in a nutshell, I have foreign policy experience because Alaska is right next to Russia.
“People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees”
Two stupidities here. It’s not “several million” but “several thousand” - in the center of the Earth. And, two kilometers down the “incredibly hot” rocks are maybe at most 100 degrees Celcius.
The geothermal temperature gradient appears to be 25°C/km on average: that is the temperature difference between freezing and sweating. If you drilled a hole a couple thousand feet, plus or minus, and pumped air through it, you could keep your home a comfortable temperature throughout a rough winter with no more energy than it takes to run a small fan or two. If we could do this across the country, there would be a pretty massive reduction in national energy demand. It would be expensive, to do that for each home, but I think it would be a net gain.
So, yeah, Al Gore did exaggerate the numbers, but his case is not entirely without merit.
You think it would only take a small fan or two to pump air thru a hole a kilometer deep, in sufficient amounts to warm a small house?
Regards,
Shodan
I suppose it depends on the exact definition of “small”.
Sure, as long as “small” means “large”.
There are reasons why geothermal isn’t used more extensively, and those reasons aren’t what Algore says they are. Water is generally used as the exchange medium, not air, which is why geothermal is generally only practical in places like Iceland where geysers and such already bring hot water to the surface or near it.
Add to that the fact that digging a kilometer-deep hole isn’t something you can do with a backhoe over the weekend, and the notion of one in every backyard in America presents other difficulties as well.
Regards,
Shodan
I consider myself somewhat of a connoisseur of sarcasm and that, my fellow, was a superlative specimen. Well done.
Not sure if you noticed, since you kinda jumped in at the end here, but that is exactly what started this little side discussion. There was an unwillingness back up a certain assertion with a cite. Post 101 to be exact.
Because you were trying to be pedantic and failing miserably at it.
Is that a fact?
I notice that no one has been willing to say whether they accept my interpretation of Maxine Waters’ position or not. Are you?
Dumb, but “dumb” ain’t “wingnut”. Has Gore said anything wingnutty? Comparable wingnuttery from the other side might include stuff like “Obama is a psychopath”, “Obama is conspiring with the enemy to bring down America”, “Liberals want the terrorists to win”, “the ACA has death panels which might kill your grandmother”, “the military exercise in Texas is secretly meant to bring down Texas”, “FEMA is prepping concentration camps”, and similar.
IMO what I cited was “wingnut”.
What “This” are we speaking of in “No, Both Sides Don’t Do This” ?
It is malicious lies about one’s opponents or political facts that annoy me, not stupidity or ignorance about history or science.
And apparent ignorance about science can be divided into two types: (1) slight misconceptions or slips of the tongue, and (2) frightening stupidity. The worry that Guam would tip over qualifies for the latter as, perhaps, does Cruz’ belief that a debate in Galileo’s time was the flatness of the Earth.
Substituting “millions” for “thousands” in conversation is a minor lapse. I’ve accidentally made similar slips, and I do know numbers. To raise Al Gore’s lapse as a counterpoint to GOP prattle about Obama’s birth certificate, etc. seems an act of desperation.
I think inability to spell “Al Gore” tells us more about intelligence than a numeric lapse does.
In your opinion is confusing millions with thousands and getting the geology wrong about how hot and how deep as “wingnut” as “Obama is trying to bring about the apocalypse”?
The fact that in the same paragraph he claimed there are “incredibly hot rocks” at 2km depth shows that it was no lapse.