Super! Nature Notes

Urban_Tribesman

When I first saw that photo, it initially looked like the Fox and the Badger were bumping fists!
That does not look like a Grouse in the centre though. More like an Owl.

whispered

Urban_Tribesman said:
When I first saw that photo, it initially looked like the Fox and the Badger were bumping fists!
That does not look like a Grouse in the centre though. More like an Owl.

Yes, that would be ridiculous!

Image result for fox and badger pictures

The bird is a squished Hen Harrier, one of the main victims of gamekeepers on grouse moors

Urban_Tribesman

Not that odd. One of the cheeky beggars runs a casino near us ! I've heard the Badger runs security with some stoats and weasels!

Whickwithy

The video map at the top of this article is the scariest thing I've ever seen on climate change. Scientists, due to the Pavlov's dog effect, are sandbagging. The worst thing for a scientist is to be caught out on a prediction. So, they sandbag. I am very afraid of what the reality could be. Just watch the video. It is freaky.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/05/scientists-are-starting-to-clear-up-one-of-the-biggest-controversies-in-climate-science/

iuventus · Post edited by iuventus at 2017-07-07 09:43:27

I'm not commenting on global warming itself, but the video map and other forms of visual representation that, in and of themselves, mean very little. The video blankets the globe in a yellow and red glow, which certainly adds dramatic effect. However, without specific and accurate numbers, it means nothing. The temperatures are above normal, but by how much?

I had an exceptional education department chair that would bring beautiful graphs to our department meetings. Once, he had printed out bar graphs to show growth of student by case manager. Mind not that the criteria for growth were somewhat sketchy, but he would print out his own bar graph so monstrously out of proportion to our that 1/2 point growth seemed like his students were excelling by leaps and bounds. The rest of our students, of course, were making the same progress, but it looked like nothing on our minuscule graphs.

I know we live in a "visual world" now, but you have to be very careful of the ways visual representations can be manipulated.

Also, WW, not sure what you mean by sandbagging here. It kinda makes your stance a little vague.

Whickwithy

I'm sure I've said it before. Scientists are trained to be careful in their predictions. They get burned if they ever suggest something that isn't based on a pile of information. So, they will not make wild predictions. For a scientist, being accused of overreacting is the death knell of a career, besides being just an embarrassment that their whole career trains them to avoid. So, they sandbag. And, that sandbagging means the potential for upside change (i.e. much larger temperature changes than predicted) is much bigger than downside change. The current learnings concerning the oceans effects are just such an example. And, when their models come into question, they will become even more cautious in their predictions. While there is a lot they know about the aspects of anthropogenic climate change, there is a lot that they don't. For instance, they seem to have been blind-sided, until just lately, by the effects of the ocean's absorption of heat. Kinda dumb, really, but understandable. So, the water absorbs a lot of the heat (duh) does not make things better. It just means that the disaster of human-induced climate change has another parameter. And, that parameter is currently suppressing a lot of the temperature adjustment. To me, that is really, really bad. In some ways, it could be nice to have a buffer but, in other ways, it just makes the end results that much more dangerously unpredictable. That is all very scary to me. This is the only planet in the universe on which we know we can exist. If we turn this one inhabitable, where are we going to go? Not Mars, they just figured out that Mars has a poisonous atmosphere (what's left of it). They've also known for ages that Mars does not have a liquid core, which means it has no magnetosphere, which means there's not a snowball's chance of terraforming it. So, here we sit playing Russian roulette even without lunatics in charge of a country that is one of the largest polluters in the world. Heck, the baby steps that even a united world were taking to minimize climate change were pitiful.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you don't really need to be able to read the numbers in the graphs. There are only so many significant digits that are available. What blows me away about climate deniers is that you don't really need a graph, or a forecast anymore. If you haven't seen the change in your own lifetime, then you are too young to have experienced very much. I've seen it every year for more than a decade in the weather. Another nail in the coffin, as far as I'm concerned, is that most of the weather of the world (except for Britain) is becoming surprisingly predictable. The forecast I follow is seldom wrong very much. But, you know what? The one place it is wrong often is the temperature high for the day. The models are usually well below the actual high.

Britain's weather really does tickle me. I never met someone from Britain that has heard the phrase, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute, it'll change". And, yet, I've never seen weather change so quickly and drastically - heck sometimes three times a day! - as in Britain.

whispered

It's the 12th of August today - the so-called "Glorious 12th", when rich landowners and their cronies set forth to kill as many birds as they can.

Meanwhile, the rest of us can lobby our MPs, go to a protest march in London, or just share a protest message - details here

Whickwithy

I might have asked this before but, do they have black squirrels in England? They are the finest looking creatures, jet black. The only place I've seen them is Toronto.

whispered

Whickwithy said:
I might have asked this before but, do they have black squirrels in England? They are the finest looking creatures, jet black. The only place I've seen them is Toronto.

I've never seen one, but apparently, there are some in the East of England. Here's an interesting article about them and their origin - it seems like you lot are responsible! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/4298608/Origins-of-British-Black-squirrel-discovered.html

Whickwithy

I wish they'd migrate down from Canada. They are one of the most spectacular surprises. Just gorgeous. Responsible for black squirrels? I feel like a god.

Urban_Tribesman

It's funny that unusual colouring in animals is seen as different and exotic and yet, in humans, it has and continues to cause endless suffering and conflict across the globe.
To deep for here ?

KatRobin

Came back from the Isle of Wight last night- we stayed in the area where red squirrels apparently reside, but sadly we didn't see one. Did see a fox gambling over the hedge indifferent to us on the first night tho, that was nice.

Whickwithy

And, now I've heard of blonde squirrels. Maybe that is more acceptable, if the black squirrels offend you.

iuventus

Whickwithy said:
I might have asked this before but, do they have black squirrels in England? They are the finest looking creatures, jet black. The only place I've seen them is Toronto.

I've seen them in DC.

Whickwithy

Really. That's weird how they are in some places and not in others.

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