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Wednesday, January 14, 2009 12:00 AM

Obama's early stumbles

Readers ask, Camille dishes: On Democratic woes, the Weather Underground, Kanye West, Freud, alleged gay genes and "the long sleep."

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  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009 03:08 PM

    Climae Predictions

    There is a tiny point of reason in Iconoclast (NOT)'s last post: Chaos theory would suggest that minor changes now COULD create huge changes in the future.

    The problem is we have no way to predict what minor change it would be or which direction the future change would go, or even what the future change would be.

    The computer models are, perforce, linear models. Regarding climate change, someone of great perception said that computer models are much like masturbation, in that one who limits himself to such and in great quantity may come to think it is real sex.

    Computer models have repeatedly demonstrated that they are incapable of long-term climate prediction. 1) We don't have enough background data. 2) We can't model a chaotic system by linear models. 3) We constantly have to fudge the parameters of the climate models to keep them from predicting that it will be 400 degrees Fahrenheit the week after next.

    Believing that we can predict climate change when we can't get a decent hurricane season forecast a few weeks in advance--or even in the middle of hurricane season!--is simply screwball thinking.

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