Consensus in Science is the implicit agreement on direction amongst the passengers and crew onboard the Titanic.
The united front of nodding faces of the UN IPCC's 'thousands of scientists' who are 'in agreement' and 'experts in their fields' adds no proof to the theories of man-made global warming or climate change. They don't improve the accuracy of the climate models that don't even predict the weather we've already had!
As Albert Einstein once pointed out - a consensus of thousands is proved wrong by only one proof.
Because there is hand-wringing consensus amongst newspaper editors and television schedulers and program producers that their industry should be rushing to report the 'scientific consensus' doesn't mean they are reporting truth or fact. It means simply that they correctly read the need to be reporting this - the need to sell newspapers to readers, to sell advertisng dollars during environmental documentaries.
Avian Flu was reported to be the doom of mankind. In one documentary alone, dripping with suggestive, emotive language, I could fill sheets of paper noting down the use of key terms from the language of environental and disease doom and apocolypse.
Avian Flue, having made Donald Rumsffeld adn Roche millions, was dropped by the media faster than a hot potato. And here we are again. Only this time there's a consensus!
Oh! there was for Avian Flu as well you say? Hmmm now, does that mean that Global warming might be a popular theme, likely to appear and disappear like the polar ice and the poor drowing polar bears? Surely not!
Posted on http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2007/10/25/blocking-network-packets-the-comcast-fiasco/#comment-21057
What is most interesting about this is the fact that, inevitably, the establishment raises the bar on anti-democratic practices, intrusions into freedom etc., and brings about the evolution of the next generation of technology - what will be the solution from the p2p community?
No-one should be surprised by this. The research carried out by the article’s authors sounds legitiate and well conceived. The results indicate a deterministic scheme, not some more random malfunction.
Comcast is no-doubt seen as a flgship in right-wing circles, including the RIAA and it’s ilk, a flag-ship amongst neo-fascist practices being rolled out in the name of protecting profit margins in the decadent media industries. But this is the tip of the fascist iceberg people!!
Politically and socially, this internet ‘war’ is perhaps the most interesting phenomenon. The establishment is claiming the moral high ground, and taking the opportunity to create and implement technologies which will be used against freedom of speech and freedom of activity per se, as suits the needs of the establishment and it’s political and economic community.
I note that encryption is now available in p2p client implementations. And what role might IPv6 play in all this? How is QoS and security balanced in an encapsulated protocol/content-type-agnostic scheme? Is it still true that the ‘internet’ is inherently a democratic space?
Anti-terrorism legislation (enacted by the terrorists themselves!) and anti-piracy measures are, simply put, the vehicles for anti-democratic controls and intrusions.