Doof

You're once again dodging your own issue, and refusing to address my response.

I mentioned absolutely nothing about temperature monitoring stations -- once again you're demonstrating that you do not know the difference between weather and climate. I said Geologists retrieve ice core samples to measure C02 levels in the atmosphere in the distant past, and determine their age and position on the shifting continents via drill depth and the directions magnetic iron files in rock fragments face.

I have no idea why you think thermometers in rural Russia have anything whatsoever to do with that.

Do you really think that scientists determine average temperature of the entire planet by counting up measurements at all the monitoring stations and averaging the sum? Is that what you really think? Please say that isn't what you think, or you're just completely hopeless (as I suspect you already are...) Climate is the sum of all weather information (not just temp., humidity, precipitation, pressure) that helps describe a place or region -- not the entire planet. Whenever you're shown a graph showing climate change/carbon level change over an extended period, you are seeing the climatic region of the ice core's location on Earth. This is why the geologist is so important -- he can determine whether the ice core indicated warmer climate because of carbon or simply because the continent's location at the time why in a more temperate location. That is why we look at the iron filings, and that is how we have any idea what "pangea" looked like -- we use the iron shards and the direction they are pointing in to "plot" Earth's continents in the distant past.

You're baggage of sensationalist media hyping up lead paint, mold, ice ages, and letting you down since the world didn't actually end or whatever nonsense you keep ranting about, again, is not my problem, and has no place in a reasonable debate about climate change.

If you think living the good life and being healthy involves tightly packed cities mass producing lead-painted toys with car and factory exhaust literally turning the sky yellow or brown and clogging your lungs with petroleum-based plastics, good for you.

If I could live in a city with trains that cost 2 cents a mile to haul people and freight rather than the 2 dollars per mile like busses and trucks, with hybrid/electric motors that are noiseless and pump out little exhaust, without garbage and industrial waste all about, and with a government that actually cares about its people and small shops and inventors more than its greedy super corporations and aristocracy I would personally be much happier.

But I guess you wouldn't be, becaus you wouldn't be allowed to own your assault rifle so that you can launch your rebellion to re-establish the confederacy, or whatever...

Nothing in your message responded to any of the points I made, and that is why from a scientific stand-point you are ignorant -- you're bleeding your heart out and have somehow made this thing so personal. Even in not being an expert on climate change I can point out glaring mistakes in your incoherent arguments:

You don't know the difference between weather and climate because you keep referring to hurricanes over a 3-5 year period as if they are the indicators of a climate period (despite the fact that climate periods can range from tens to hundreds or thousands of years depending on available data).

You don't seem to grasp that current data forecasts place CO2 levels (which are high during these perfectly natural shifts in climate such as the mini-ice age) abnormally high -- even in comparison to "warm periods" such as the one you keep blabbering on about. What's abnormally high? Three times as high. This is science fact. CO2 levels in the atmosphere have nothing to do with weather monitoring stations in Siberia. Weather-monitoring stations monitor weather -- not climate.

You're changing the subject by droning on about nuclear power and the Kyoto treaty as well -- neither of those things has anything to do with your original premise that was that scientists of fields other than climatology can't have meaningful opinions about climate change, which I refuted soundly.

Please respond to your own argument, and stop changing the subject in order to hide that you're wrong and know nothing about science.

If your next reply doesn't concern my response to your assertion about scientists, I will take it as an admission of your ignorance on the entire subject.

General response to "Synner":

First off, it's spelled medieval, not "midivel" -- normally I don't care, but you've misspelled it like 20 times in this thread.

Second of all, as a general response to your argument, science is interdisciplinary, and your obsession with climatologists is short-sighted as well as inaccurate.

Factually inaccurate because the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the subject concludes that "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations as a result of human activities." (I have the report right on my desk, but it is online at : http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html )
This was a non-political, international endeavor handled 100% by scientific experts on climate.

Also, your dismissal of any scientist's opinion but a climatologist confuses me. Internationally, Dr. Susan Solomon, a Chemist by her doctorate, is one of the most highly regarded international experts on the subject because her research focuses on the CHEMICAL nature of climate change. My field, geology, plays a major role in determining CO2 levels in the atmosphere throughout history. Air trapped in glaciers is sampled via drill and tested. We're able to determine the age of the sample (we're the ones who place the Medieval Warm Period you've been parroting about in the period in which its place) using iron filings mixed in with nearby rocks which point to the magnetic pole (which shifts/oscillates in the ice because of continental movements as well as magnetic pole shifts).

I'm only an MS student, and I don't work in this area of geography specifically, but I can tell you right now that a climatologist's job would be impossible without the contributions, research, and opinions of the geologist. Listen to what other people have to say -- andyou know, read books and use your brain for something more than playing video games -- and you'll realize climatologists aren't the only people in the scientific community that play close attention to the planet's changes.

Not that any of this "liberal-biased" *REALITY* will have any affect on your opinion at all, because you seem to be a rude, cold, self-centered person from your posts. This reply is really more for the benefit of other folks in this thread to help you from falling for this weirdos baseless logic.

Also Synner, the avatar by your name with AK-47s makes me worry that you're going to shoot up a school or something. Do you need a hug?

@23

You're grasping for straws. If you grew up in a house where your parents didn't trust you to a point that they'd lock their wallets, phones, keys, remote controls, sample every cup you drink for alcohol traces, get your stool tested for pot, and rock back and forth all paranoid in their rooms 24/7 like howard hughes or something, then I feel very very sorry for you.

Or, if your parents were normal human beings and kept their wallets on the counter to grab before going to work like 99% of families in the united states who have to drive to work every day with their licence, then you're a hypocrite and need to shut up. now.

Microsoft's age verification FAILS, completely. No where on the box, in the advertising literature, or on the store recipt does MS say "product requires credit card for online service."

Why do you think microsoft lets you buy points for xbox live marketplace with cash from a store, but requires a credit card for the account? No parents in america with two brain cells would allow their kid to buy horse armor or overpriced guitar hero 2 songs with their credit card over xbox live. microsoft knows kids are wasting disposable income on xbox live products without parental consent, and WANTS them to do this.

If you use a credit card to buy *ANYTHING* -- even a gallon of milk -- from a store, you need a signature, and a store clerk also reserves the right to ask for photo ID if there's even a hint of suspicion about your identity.

The kids posting on this topic who aren't even old enough to own credit cards and who are obviously completely clueless about parenting really need to shut up and go suck on their "game fuel" pacifiers some more. Got a problem with that? Go call 1-800-myxbox and cry to them about it. Losers.

Eddie -- "First off", your argument that there is no such thing nor has there ever been such thing as free is inadequate. You didn't provide any examples, any elaboration, or any evidence for that point which is vital to your entire post...

You make a good point about the credit card, but it's standard practice for such services, however, to send you an email or mail notification of some sort that the credit card is about to be charged. Microsoft sends emails for Xbox Live auto-renewals. If they didn't send MD an email explicitly stating his credit card was going to be charged imminently (or if they received a mail service failure back from his email, they're obligated to contact him by some other means), then they violated the law.

The subject of this article from Georgia's son who entered false information likely received the xbox live renewal email which is why the adult wasn't aware of it until the statement arrived.

I tend to take the side of the little guy in cases like these, because Microsoft is highway-robbing people with xbox live service fees as it is (please channel your bleeding-heart Microsoft loving spiels about how great xbox live service is compared to free ones elsewhere...) and $85 is hardly a dent in their coffers. And you're just a fan boy if you don't admit to the fact that Microsoft's age verification system for credit transactions is non-existent.

And in response to the Joystiq article more than this one, you should be ashamed of yourselves if you're passing judgment on the family based on how much money is in their account or accuse them of being "bad parents" and not "watching their kids" because of the incident. I doubt any of you could carry an egg around for a week without shattering it, much less keep an eye on your wallets 24 hours a day.

I bet most of the people who blindly lambast COD3 have never even actually played the game. It's looks and plays a lot better than COD2, and the multiplayer is the best of any game on the xbox 360 in my opinion. Team Fortress 2? Please. Put that Dreamcast cartoon-with-guns away and pick up COD3 instead.

Wait, how is this in any way sarcastic?