The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > If the science is settled, why do we need all these people working at it? > Comments

If the science is settled, why do we need all these people working at it? : Comments

By Don Aitkin, published 9/2/2016

Has Climate Science become hopelessly bogged down? Has Climate Science reached a point where misbehaving programs [paradigms] are using 99% of research efforts and thus draining away – frittering away – the field’s resources?

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. Page 6
  8. All
Hi Toni,

"What sort of halfwit doesn't know that liquids aren't compressible and hires somebody to do the impossible?"

Welcome to the world of senior management, Toni. Many scientists have built their careers on it, I'm sure. You just need a white coat and a full pair of lips. Works wonders.

In a convoluted segue: that's worked pretty well in Indigenous affairs too. In the constant quest for a lucratively, white-funded but separate domain, Indigenous leaders in a multitude of organisations have worked tirelessly, if with little observable effort, to simultaneously boost their own careers AND denigrate the sources of their largesse, i.e. the Australian taxpayer and his/her racist ancestry, while having nothing whatever to show for their 'dedication' to their peeople. But it's got their kids through private school and on to uni.

Many non-Indigenous have gone along for the ride, kissed the right orifices, and retired in comfortable circumstances.

Cheers,

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Monday, 15 February 2016 4:15:43 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
South Africa has its own CSIR, practically the equivalent of the Australian CSIRO and their national-fool character is Mr. Van Der Merwe.

A farmer had their plantation infested by monkeys and all attempts to chase them out failed until he heard that Mr. Van Der Merwe was the world's best pest-control expert. Well, he said, there's nothing to lose, so he called him in.

The farmer watched as Mr. Van Der Merwe went into his plantation.
First he saw Van Der Merwe saying something and all the monkeys started laughing, laughing and laughing.
Next he saw Van Der Merwe saying something and all the monkeys started crying, crying and crying.
Next he saw Van Der Merwe saying something and all the monkeys ran away as fast as they could, never to return.

What did you tell them, asked the farmer?

Well first I introduced myself, replied Van Der Merwe:

"Hi there, I am Mr. Van Der Merwe and I work for the CSIR".

Next I informed them about the poor work conditions and pay.

Finally I told them that I came to seek new recruits.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Monday, 15 February 2016 4:41:49 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Loudmouth,

Technically you can compress water. Though liquids are generally regarded as incompressible, that doesn't actually mean it's impossible to compress them; it just means a very large increase in pressure will only correspond with a very small decrease in volume. But compress it enough and it becomes a supercritical fluid.

There is very good reason for compressing milk. Doing so can kill bacteria without affecting the enzymes in the milk as much as pasteurisation does. You can find out a bit more about the process at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascalization

Of course engineers have morals, so I'm surprised that your friend worked on the project for six months if he came to the conclusion he did early on.

_________________________________________________________________________________

JBowyer,

Is there anything CSIRO have been working on that you think they think is impossible? The only candidate I can think of is clean coal.
Posted by Aidan, Monday, 15 February 2016 5:55:42 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. Page 6
  8. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy