Why we don't take CNN or Bill Nye seriously anymore: asteroid> meteor> global warming

Paul Westhaver writes in Tips and Notes:

CNN talking empty head (Feyerick) asks Bill Nye if approaching Meteor was a result of global warming…. but Bill’s response is oddly disquieting.

“Except it’s all science,” Nye said rescuing Feyerick. “The word meteorology and the word meteor come from the same root, so…”

Nye went on to discuss the asteroid which has missed impacting earth by 15 minutes. He says if this body were to impact over a populated area like New York City, that municipality would be completely leveled.

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/02/10/CNN-Anchor-Asks-Bill-Nye-If-Global-Warming-caused-Near-Earth-Asteroid

It gets worse. Mumbles McGuirk adds in Tips and Notes:

[T]his Saturday MSNBC broadcast with Bill Nye explaining that GW will cause storms to spin counter-clockwise in the ‘new normal.’

Bill Nye explains the science of storms

Bill Nye “The Science Guy” joins MSNBC’s Craig Melvin to talk about how climate change contributed to this weekend’s blizzard in the Northeast.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc/50756384/#50756384

Gotta love the way Nye explains the Coriolis force.

We can only hope the stupid burns up in the atmosphere, either by re-entry or Global Warming.

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February 11, 2013 11:12 am

After the Climate Change Small Penis shock here come the Little Green Men from outer space
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/18/aliens-destroy-humanity-protect-civilisations?CMP=SOCNETTXT6966

DavidG
February 11, 2013 11:13 am

Martin Audley- Yes, he is a stupid man. He may have a decent IQ, and a degree but that doesn’t define stupidity, which does not mean lack of intellect.
It’s when someone purposely sticks to a fallacious argument for a reason based upon dogma and self interest for purposes of this discussion. He is taking the side of ignorance when he claims that there is somehow a way for climate to go off the rails and diverge from its cyclic nature. That is stupid or worse, malicious. But in fact, Nye should be hit in the face with a blueberry pie while on TV, that would be entertaining.:]

Frank K.
February 11, 2013 11:17 am

While I’m thinking about it…can we finally get rid of CNN at our airports?? Broadcasting CNN “news” on TV sets at the gates is just an annoying waste of money and electricity (thank goodness I have an iPod to drown the the inane dribble coming from the CNN “news” personalities…).

February 11, 2013 11:26 am

Martin Audley says:
February 11, 2013 at 10:44 am
Re: Jeff L says:
February 11, 2013 at 8:04 am
“GW will cause storms to spin counter-clockwise in the ‘new normal.’”
That’s not a fair paraphrase of what Bill Nye says.
What he said at 2.12 is:
“….This could be the future everybody, this could be the new normal with all the extra heat energy that’s in the atmosphere, with climate change…”
He’s not a stupid man. We might disagree about whether there is more heat energy in the atmosphere, but he didn’t just suggest that Northern hemisphere storms will reverse direction from now onwards.
———————————————————————————————————————-
I don’t think that was his *intent*, but his answer was so muddle-mouthed that any poorly informed viewer (aka the CNN audience) could easily misinterpret it that way. He jumps from talking about the Coriolis effect and how big the storm was to his ‘new normal’ statement. It seems as if he is describing some new phenomena that wasn’t part of the old normal. Try watching the segment again, but this time with you beer goggles on to simulate what the average CNN viewer would see and hear. 😉

Steve C
February 11, 2013 11:37 am

Wamron – I think you’re thinking of Bill Nighy. Understandable, though, as his name is pronounced identically to the other feller’s. Nighy is rather popular with the ladies, Nye doesn’t seem that popular with anyone, that’s the main difference. 😉

Billy
February 11, 2013 11:47 am

Liberal Skeptic:
His response is to say “no,no” and explain that meteorology and meteors are linked only by a similar name and then moves on. Presumably seeing the blank look on the presenters face.
There’s nothing disquieting and response and this whole post has an undercurrent of implying Bill Nye actually agreed with that comment. He clearly didn’t.
————————————————-
Nye may have been disagreeing with the airhead but I played the video five times and could not detect that. I did not hear the “no,no”. Later she went on to referr to a “meteor” again. I don’t see apparent disagreement. If she said monkeys flew out of her asteroid, Nye would probably agree. It’s all science.

Gary Hladik
February 11, 2013 11:52 am

pwl says (February 11, 2013 at 9:41 am): “Han Solo, in A New Hope, brags that the Falcon made the Kessel Run in “less than twelve parsecs”. This is a unit of distance, not time. Oops.”
No, no! A parsec is about 3.26 light years, and as we all know, both light years and dog years are longer than regular years. And of course ridiculous years are longer than light years, and ludicrous years are the longest of all!
“Bill Nye fancies himself as someone who can explain science. So does putting the near collision of this asteroid 2012 DA14 and earth in terms of “time”, “fifteen minutes!”, help to understand how close it came? Not really since it’s ambiguous.”
Exactly. There’s a much better way to put it:

February 11, 2013 11:55 am

The Coriolis effect and asteroids are affected by CO2 and global warming?
Hey, the world is becoming dumber and dumber.

February 11, 2013 12:02 pm

Billy says:
Nye may have been disagreeing with the airhead but I played the video five times and could not detect that. I did not hear the “no,no”. Later she went on to refer to a “meteor” again. I don’t see apparent disagreement. If she said monkeys flew out of her asteroid, Nye would probably agree. It’s all science.
______________
You know, honestly, you almost have to conclude that they’re doing things like this ON PURPOSE, either 1) to make fools of the climate alarm people, hoping people will catch on, or 2) as a gauge to see how stupid people have become and what they’ll accept, a sort of “propaganda effectiveness evaluation”.

Paul Westhaver
February 11, 2013 12:04 pm

Poor Stupid Bill Nye the Science Abusing Guy.
The real answer to Feyerick’s direct question is ” No. There is no relationship between global warming and a meteor approaching earth.” Instead he leaps to a strange linguistics conflation between meteor and meterology after declaring that global warming is “science” on the same footing as Newtonian mechanics. He is so consumed by hype that he can’t allow the hype-mitigating discourse of fact and reason to diminish his fear mongering. He later says to not to be nervous about a 17,000 mile miss, while he advises us to be very nervous of a meteor not yet in evidence. Typical.
That is the most disquieting aspect of this latest episode of Nye’s abuse-of-science-for-hype. It is like his irrational call to action for AGW. He wants us to be afraid of things that don’t exist. He says it at time stamp 1:12. “Get nervous, but not about his one.”
What are we to “Get Nervous” about Bill? A thing that doesn’t exist?
Typical Nye hype.

Liberal Skeptic
February 11, 2013 12:12 pm

Billy says:
February 11, 2013 at 11:47 am
Liberal Skeptic:
His response is to say “no,no
” and explain that meteorology and meteors are linked only by a similar name and then moves on. Presumably seeing the blank look on the presenters face.
There’s nothing disquieting and response and this whole post has an undercurrent of implying Bill Nye actually agreed with that comment. He clearly didn’t.
————————————————-
Nye may have been disagreeing with the airhead but I played the video five times and could not detect that. I did not hear the “no,no”. Later she went on to referr to a “meteor” again. I don’t see apparent disagreement. If she said monkeys flew out of her asteroid, Nye would probably agree. It’s all science.
Then no offense Billy, you need to listen again. As soon as she says it he speaks over her “no, no”
I am wearing head phones, perhaps that will assist.

February 11, 2013 12:15 pm

“Poor Stupid Bill Nye the Science Abusing Guy.”
ROFL!

rogerknights
February 11, 2013 12:16 pm

DirkH says:
February 11, 2013 at 10:09 am

Joseph E Postma says:
February 11, 2013 at 7:58 am
“Does anybody realize how stupid society is becoming, or at least how stupid the “news” is?”

My theory is that TV does not only make the viewer dumber but also the TV persons themselves; it works in both directions. Probably because the TV people love watching TV themselves, whether their own shows or shows of colleagues.

As usual, H. L. Mencken has the last word:

“A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.”

February 11, 2013 1:02 pm

pwl says:
February 11, 2013 at 10:46 am
“The 2013 passage of 2012 DA14 by Earth is a record close approach for a known object of this size.[2]”
pwl the quote from the wiki page uses the word “is” for the record. It has not happened yet so it cannot be an “is” record it can be a “will be” record. I guess Connelley(sp) did the edit on this.

Jbird
February 11, 2013 1:48 pm

I guess Bill Nye has credibility among people in my children’s generation, now 30-40 years old, because they grew up with him. I thought he was fine talking about simple scientific principles, but I never saw him as an expert about anything. It’s too bad he has taken on the mantle of AGW defender. He is being used by people who are a lot smarter than he is. He looks a little tragic at this point. I feel sorry for him.
Would it help if he lost the bowtie?

February 11, 2013 2:22 pm

south London – the link to your first story is bad

Billy
February 11, 2013 2:31 pm

Liberal Skeptic says:
February 11, 2013 at 12:12 pm
Then no offense Billy, you need to listen again. As soon as she says it he speaks over her “no, no”
I am wearing head phones, perhaps that will assist.
———————
Sorry, I listened several more times and all I hear is mumbling. Bill Nye is a career talking head. If I can’t understand what he says the first time that is his problem, not mine. I am not going to use an osilloscope or forensic voice analysis to listen to CNN.

dp
February 11, 2013 2:40 pm

Bill Nye from a more serious time in his life. The only difference is nobody took him seriously then.

February 11, 2013 2:43 pm

Ed Fix says February 11, 2013 at 9:38 am
Oh, come on. Sure, he’s an alarmist twit, but give the Nye guy a break here. He can’t tell the difference between evidence and wishful thinking, but he’s neither ignorant nor stupid….

‘Over the hill’ as in senile (literally: exhibiting senility) does come to mind, however.
.

Editor
February 11, 2013 2:46 pm

kevin says:
February 11, 2013 at 8:21 am

We’re very lucky. If we had just a little more CO2 in the air, we’d have been hit. As you may know, carbon dioxide creates a kind of ‘super gravity’ whenever it gets above 350 ppm concentrations. This super gravity is especially powerful on rocks in vacuums. It’s all very technical. Don’t bother looking it up. Frankly, I’m amazed didn’t hit us.

It hasn’t gone by us yet. Everyone! Hold your breath until Friday!
From http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/190248881.html :
Close flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. This gymnasium-sized asteroid will miss Earth by just 18,000 miles (28,500 km) around 19:25 Universal Time today [Friday]. It will then be as bright as 8th magnitude, moving across the stars by 0.8° per minute — and it will be in nighttime view from easternmost Europe (in late evening) across Asia to Australia (before dawn on the 16th local date).

john robertson
February 11, 2013 2:53 pm

Que up Frank Zappa, “I am the slime”.

February 11, 2013 3:38 pm

Claim in video by Nye:
2012 DA14 “… was discovered with a grant provided by the Planetary Society … ”
– – – – – –
Per: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html

Q: Who discovered asteroid DA14?
A: “Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered by the La Sagra Sky Survey operated by the Astronomical Observatory of Mallorca in Spain on Feb. 23, 2012. ”
“The asteroid was about 2.7 million miles (4.3 million kilometers) distant when it was detected.
Their observations were reported to the NASA funded Minor Planet Center, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for the International Astronomical Union, where all observations from observatories worldwide are combined to maintain the database on all known asteroids and comets in our solar system.”

– – – – – –
“Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca” (English: Astronomical Observatory of Mallorca)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observatorio_Astron%C3%B3mico_de_Mallorca
Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca website with the February 22, 2012 announcement of asteroid “2012 DA14” –
http://www.oam.es/
– – – – – –
From: http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/
“Since founding the grant program in 1997, The Planetary Society has awarded 38 Shoemaker NEO grants totaling more than $235,000 to observers from 16 different countries on 5 continents.”
Comment:
Get that? Over 235,000 dollars over 15 years works out to 15,666 dollars a year.
– – – – – –
Can’t seem to find anything specifically linking the Planetary Society and involvement with “Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca” of Spain regarding the discovery of 2012 DA14
List of past Grant recipients:
http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/grant-recipients/
Listings with reference to Spain recipients:
2010: Jaime Nomen of Spain, of the “La Sagra Observatory” [sic] and the La Sagra Sky Survey (LSSS) on the Spanish island of Mallorca. No mention of the amount.
Note: The “La Sagra Observatory” looks to be conflated with the observatory as it is actually the “La Sagra Sky Survey” operated by the “Astronomical Observatory of Mallorca” in Spain. See NASA link in this post above as well as the LSSS link just below.
La Sagra Sky Survey website – http://www.lasagraskysurvey.org/
.

Rhoda R
February 11, 2013 4:25 pm

I stopped taking CNN seriously after the first gulf war when they admitted to letting Saddam Hussian censor their broadcasts. Liars then, liars now.

February 11, 2013 5:22 pm

Bill
I listened to it several times again, also, and did not hear/make out a “no,no.” He said something just as she was saying “meteoric event.” But I couldn’t make out what he said as he said it while she was still talking. Perhaps he was saying no to it being a meteor, because at that point he starts talking about the origins of the words meteor and meterololgy.

Wes Spiers
February 11, 2013 7:20 pm

Bill Nye sent me a letter a few months ago, asking me to rejoin The Planetary Society. Apparently someone made him president of the society. I wonder how many other people decided not to rejoin because of this mistake. Sad.