On this day:
235
Maximinus Thrax is proclaimed emperor. He is the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne
1600
The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden.
1616
Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
1760
The “Great Fire” of Boston, Massachusetts, destroys 349 buildings.
1815
After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.
1916
Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
1995
A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway kills 12 and wounds 1,300 persons.
2003
2003 invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries begin military operations in Iraq.
***
The Linköping Bloodbath was a significant event in Swedish history that took place on March 20, 1600, during the early stages of the power struggle between the Protestant Duke Charles (later King Charles IX) and the supporters of his nephew, the Catholic King Sigismund III of Poland. The execution of five noblemen, Sigismund's supporters, in Linköping was not merely an act of retribution but a defining moment that solidified Charles’s control over Sweden and marked the end of resistance against his rule. This event was a consequence of the broader conflict between Protestant and Catholic forces in Sweden and had lasting implications for the nation’s political and religious landscape.
***
Hachette Book Group, one of the largest publishers in the United States, pulled a forthcoming horror novel on Thursday in a decision that followed widespread allegations online that the author, Mia Ballard, relied heavily on artificial intelligence to write the book.
***
Walmart’s AI-powered pricing:
The retail giant has secured two new patents that give computer algorithms a bigger role in how prices are set. In January, Walmart was granted a patent for a system that can ‘dynamically and automatically’ update prices online based on shifting market conditions.
***
Rafael Flores Jr., the key piece in the Bednar trade with the Yankees, is hitting just .083/.241/.125 over 13 games this spring.
***.
Another CO2 Opinion
Steven E. Koonin is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. He and four other scientists were assigned by Energy Secretary Chris Wright to provide clearer insights into what’s known and not known about the changing climate. The following is culled from Koonin's article in the WSJ
"The resulting peer-reviewed report is entirely our work, free from political influence—a departure from previous assessments. It draws from United Nations and U.S. climate reports, peer-reviewed research, and primary observations to focus on important aspects of climate science that have been misrepresented to nonexperts.
Among the report’s key findings:
• Elevated carbon dioxide levels enhance plant growth, contributing to global greening and increased agricultural productivity.
• Complex climate models provide limited guidance on the climate’s response to rising carbon dioxide levels. Overly sensitive models, often using extreme scenarios, have exaggerated future warming projections and consequences.
• Data aggregated over the continental U.S. show no significant long-term trends in most extreme weather events. Claims of more frequent or intense hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and dryness in America aren’t supported by historical records.
• While global sea levels have risen about 8 inches since 1900, aggregate U.S. tide-gauge data don’t show the long-term acceleration expected from a warming globe.
• Natural climate variability, data limitations, and model deficiencies complicate efforts to attribute specific climate changes or extreme events to human CO2 emissions.
• The use of the words “existential,” “crisis,” and “emergency” to describe the projected effects of human-caused warming on the U.S. economy finds scant support in the data.
• Overly aggressive policies aimed at reducing emissions could do more harm than good by hiking the cost of energy and degrading its reliability. Even the most ambitious reductions in U.S. emissions would have little direct effect on global emissions and an even smaller effect on climate trends.
Our work has attracted strong criticism, despite its grounding in established science. Almost 60,000 comments were submitted to the Federal Register during the month after its publication, and the Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists filed a lawsuit to prevent the Energy Department or Environmental Protection Agency from using the report in decision-making. Most of these challenges have no scientific backing. Though scientists supporting the so-called consensus on climate change have organized several serious critiques, these at most add detail and nuance to our findings, without negating the report’s central points. They still merit response, which will form the next round in an overdue public debate on the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate policies must balance the risks of climate change against a response’s costs, efficacy, and collateral effects. Reports like ours may draw a lot of anger, but our work accurately portrays important aspects of climate science. Acknowledging the facts is essential for informed policy decisions."
Are you looking at me?--electron (Chris)
***
The Linköping Bloodbath was a significant event in Swedish history that took place on March 20, 1600, during the early stages of the power struggle between the Protestant Duke Charles (later King Charles IX) and the supporters of his nephew, the Catholic King Sigismund III of Poland. The execution of five noblemen, Sigismund's supporters, in Linköping was not merely an act of retribution but a defining moment that solidified Charles’s control over Sweden and marked the end of resistance against his rule. This event was a consequence of the broader conflict between Protestant and Catholic forces in Sweden and had lasting implications for the nation’s political and religious landscape.
***
Hachette Book Group, one of the largest publishers in the United States, pulled a forthcoming horror novel on Thursday in a decision that followed widespread allegations online that the author, Mia Ballard, relied heavily on artificial intelligence to write the book.
***
Walmart’s AI-powered pricing:
The retail giant has secured two new patents that give computer algorithms a bigger role in how prices are set. In January, Walmart was granted a patent for a system that can ‘dynamically and automatically’ update prices online based on shifting market conditions.
***
Rafael Flores Jr., the key piece in the Bednar trade with the Yankees, is hitting just .083/.241/.125 over 13 games this spring.
***.
Steven E. Koonin is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. He and four other scientists were assigned by Energy Secretary Chris Wright to provide clearer insights into what’s known and not known about the changing climate. The following is culled from Koonin's article in the WSJ
"The resulting peer-reviewed report is entirely our work, free from political influence—a departure from previous assessments. It draws from United Nations and U.S. climate reports, peer-reviewed research, and primary observations to focus on important aspects of climate science that have been misrepresented to nonexperts.
Among the report’s key findings:
• Elevated carbon dioxide levels enhance plant growth, contributing to global greening and increased agricultural productivity.
• Complex climate models provide limited guidance on the climate’s response to rising carbon dioxide levels. Overly sensitive models, often using extreme scenarios, have exaggerated future warming projections and consequences.
• Data aggregated over the continental U.S. show no significant long-term trends in most extreme weather events. Claims of more frequent or intense hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and dryness in America aren’t supported by historical records.
• While global sea levels have risen about 8 inches since 1900, aggregate U.S. tide-gauge data don’t show the long-term acceleration expected from a warming globe.
• Natural climate variability, data limitations, and model deficiencies complicate efforts to attribute specific climate changes or extreme events to human CO2 emissions.
• The use of the words “existential,” “crisis,” and “emergency” to describe the projected effects of human-caused warming on the U.S. economy finds scant support in the data.
• Overly aggressive policies aimed at reducing emissions could do more harm than good by hiking the cost of energy and degrading its reliability. Even the most ambitious reductions in U.S. emissions would have little direct effect on global emissions and an even smaller effect on climate trends.
Our work has attracted strong criticism, despite its grounding in established science. Almost 60,000 comments were submitted to the Federal Register during the month after its publication, and the Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists filed a lawsuit to prevent the Energy Department or Environmental Protection Agency from using the report in decision-making. Most of these challenges have no scientific backing. Though scientists supporting the so-called consensus on climate change have organized several serious critiques, these at most add detail and nuance to our findings, without negating the report’s central points. They still merit response, which will form the next round in an overdue public debate on the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate policies must balance the risks of climate change against a response’s costs, efficacy, and collateral effects. Reports like ours may draw a lot of anger, but our work accurately portrays important aspects of climate science. Acknowledging the facts is essential for informed policy decisions."
Anger in response to a scientific opinion is the virtual touchstone of subjectivity that should invalidate it.
This is an opinion, not a declaration. Not an edict. Science has a Darwinian element where lasting concepts emerge not from conflict but from different visions of ignorance. Small steps usually rise and fall, are parsed and organized and synthesized, until people of great insight--or one genius--organize a conclusion.
The genius will be the guy whose only motive is truth.
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