The first letter, Sixteen Concerned Scientists: No Need to Panic About Global Warming, argues that the clarion call that human beings play a significant part in the warming of the Earth is a conspiracy fueled by money-grubbing alarmists. It is signed by sixteen engineers and scientists–none of whom are scientists who research Earth’s climate.

The second letter, Check With Climate Scientists for Views on Climate, challenges the first on three grounds: 1) listen to people who are experts (e.g., do you want your dentist working on your heart), 2) non-experts shouldn’t misquote experts (the first letter takes a quote out of context of the second letter’s primary author to support the first letter writers’ claims), and 3) “Research shows that more than 97% of scientists actively publishing in the field agree that climate change is real and human caused.”

I strongly side with Isaac Asimov’s position on this kind of debate–where non-specialists feel self-important enough to pontificate in an expert manner on something that they might know the generalities about but obviously do not know as well as the experts. Asimov writes in his essay, “The Literature of Ideas,” republished in Today and Tomorrow and . . . :

To be sure, when a scientist ventures outside his field and pontificates elsewhere, he is as likely to speak nonsense as anyone else. (309)

I am confident that the signers of the first letter, all sixteen of them, are likely very good at what they do. However, their expertise in their businesses or fields of study do not make them good climate experts. To rephrase Asimov: By going outside their field and pontificating elsewhere, they are as likely to speak nonsense as anyone else.

This is one of the running punch lines of the television show The Big Bang Theory–Dr. Sheldon Cooper is a theoretical physicist and he believes that he knows everything about everything else. Unfortunately for him, this is not the case. His character knows a lot about quantum mechanics and m-theory, but he doesn’t know Radiohead. Sheldon’s attempts at being a know-it-all often backfire and reveal how little he actually knows outside his own specific domains of knowledge.

Similarly, I am earning my PhD in 20th century American literature with specializations in science fiction, new media, and neuroscientific topics. With these fields, I am carving out a very small niche for myself where I am creating new knowledge based on my research in a very small space. When I am done, I will know more about my specific focus of study than anyone else. However, I will not know more about neuroscience than my outside reader, Dr. Eric Mintz. I will be good at talking about neuroscience and integrating neuroscientific findings into my writing, but I will not a neuroscientist and you would certainly not want me working on your brain.

Thus, the experts should be the ones doing the expert work and informing the rest of us about what their findings suggest. The rest of us should consider their findings and discuss how their findings should inform our social and political decisions. Those are things that we all take part in. However, experts in other fields should not muddy the waters of public discourse by acting the part of experts while attempting to undercut the importance of an entire field of study based on hard science by real experts. There is another word that comes to mind about the behavior of the so-concerned sixteen so-called experts in the first letter: charlatans.

It was an exhilarating run this past year generating that much content, but I cannot realistically sustain it another year at this point in my life. I am finishing my dissertation, I am looking for work, and I am an officer in an important organization. Also, I tried to post things that I thought were interesting or important, but the need to write something every day meant that I often did not have the time to write a fully fleshed out post. I would like my writings to be more developed than the majority of my posts were this past year.

The thing that I relearn again and again is that I have to prioritize. Dynamicsubspace.net is important to me, but there are more important things in my life right now. Therefore, I am going to return to my earlier schedule of writing a post roughly once per week. These might be intensive writings about a particular piece of news, a review of a book, or a digest of things that I have been up to.

So, there won’t be as many posts as there were in 2011, but I will try to make up for it in greater substance in each post.

Now, back to writing the dissertation and waiting for a call back.

Good luck to everyone in 2012!

WordPress.com logs the visits of readers to my blog. I like to reflect on my writing and how it corresponds to these statistics. Below, I present a summary of the site’s statistics with some thoughts about the increase in visits that I received in 2011.

I was particularly interested in seeing how this year’s numbers compared to previous years, because I endeavoured to post more content this year than in any previous year as part of WordPress.com’s postaday2011 project.

My attempt at posting one new item each day has been a phenomenal success. I successfully posted one item each day save once. However, there were many days when I posted two or more items. By month in 2011, I posted 56 times in January, 42 times in February, 55 times in March, 47 times in April, 53 times in May, 42 times in June, 36 times in July, 42 times in August, 35 times in September, 43 times in October, 42 times in November, and finally, 39 times in December 2011. Each month, I consistently exceeded the number of days by the number of posts for a total of 532 posts in 2011. Since I began dynamicsubspace.net in 2007, I have written 1,239 posts.

In the chart above, you can see the number of unique page visits by month and year since I moved the blog from Apple’s mac.com to WordPress.com in March 2007. During the very first month of being hosted on wordpress.com in March 2007, I received 29 visits. So far, I have received 8,191 visits during December 2011. This is a tremendous increase in page views!

Considering the number of visits that I have received from year to year: dynamicsubspace.net received 3,772 visits in 2007, 27,882 in 2008, 32,458 in 2009, 48,245 in 2010, and approximately 76,121 in 2011. This translate to a 639% increase from 2007 to 2008, 16% increase from 2008 to 2009, 48% increase from 2009 to 2010, and 58% increase from 2010 to 2011. I believe that the increased content generation that I have done during 2011 has made the site more interesting to regular readers, and it has also created more content that non-regular readers find via search engines, social networks, and link sharing sites.

Further breaking down the visits to dynamicsubspace.net, the site has consistently increased its average visits per day. On average, the site received 14 daily visits in 2007, 76 visits in 2008, 89 visits in 2009, 132 visits in 2010, and 209 visits in 2011. This translates to a 443% increase in daily visits from 2007 to 2008, 17% from 2008 to 2009, 48% from 2009 to 2010, and finally, 58% from 2010 to 2011. These daily visit increases also, I believe, correspond with the increased content output that I have accomplished this past year.

One thing that I wonder though is how spammers influence these numbers. As you can see in the graph above, my spam filter has caught a substantial rise in attempted spam comments during 2011. It is because of this increased spam over the past two years that I began moderating all comments to dynamicsubspace.net. I would prefer to not moderate on the site, but I don’t want my noncommercial site to become a huge billboard that generates money for others (copiers of my content on other sites present a whole other problem). Also, Symantec reports here that email spam is the lowest in years, but I wonder if spammers are shifting their tactics to plaster the web instead of inboxes.

Here is to another successful year of dynamicsubspace.net. I have hinted at some lose ends that I will write more about in the near future. These will appear as I have the time to think about and write more about them.

Season’s Greetings from Y and me!

Christmas Playlist

57 songs, 3.2 hours

Winter Song Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson

Last Christmas Wham!

The Little Drummer Boy Johnny Cash

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Christmas Day Dido

Christmas For Cowboys John Denver

O Come All Ye Faithful Art Garfunkel

Father Christmas OK Go

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Jack Johnson

Don Quixote’s Christmas Bonanza Gorillaz

Feliz Navidad Fenix TX

Christmas In Space Tori Amos

The Little Drum Machine Boy Beck

THE RETURN OF THE RED BARON The Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy And His Friens

SNOOPY VS. THE RED BARON The Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy And His Friens

SNOOPY’S CHRISTMAS The Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy And His Friens

The Chanukah Song Adam Sandler

Donna & Blitzen Badly Drawn Boy

O Holy Night Avril Lavigne, Chantal Kreviazuk

It Came upon a Midnight Clear Sixpence None The Richer

Little Drummer Boy Tori Amos

Xmas Cake Rilo Kiley

Gaudete Steeleye Span

Ring Out, Solstice Bells Jethro Tull

The Little Drummer Boy The Harry Simeone Chorale

Pavane Jethro Tull

Frosty The Snowman Leon Redbone And Dr. John

I Believe In Father Christmas Greg Lake

Christmas In Hollis Run DMC

O Holy Night Charlotte Church

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer Elmo & Patsy

Run Rudolph Run Chuck Berry

Stille Nacht Andre Rieu

Ave Maria [After Bach] André Rieu

I Saw Three Ships Sting

Oi To The World No Doubt

Wonderful Christmastime Paul Mccartney

Sleigh Ride Leory Anderson

White Christmas Bing Crosby

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Dean Martin

Holly Jolly Christmas Burl Ives

Here Comes Santa Claus Gene Autry

Jingle Bell Rock Bobby Helms

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Gene Autry

In The Bleak Mid Winter Bert Jansch

Silent Night Holy Night Sinéad O Connor

Walking In The Air Aled Jones

All I Want For Christmas Is You Samantha Mumba

Fairytale Of New York Pogues (Ft. Kirsty Maccoll)

Chanukah Song Part 2 Adam Sandler

In Dulci Jubilo Mike Oldfield

Stop The Cavalry Jona Lewie

Happy Christmas (War Is Over) John Lennon

What Child is This (Greensleeves) Mitch Miller and his Gang

Little Drummer Boy (Extended UltraTraxx Trance Mission Mix) CRU

Little Drummer Boy Dandy Warholes

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Mormon Tabernacle Choir With Sissel

Happy Christmas to all!

I look around and I wonder if I will ever see a world where robots walk among us. Some folks, like David Levy, believe that this and more is right around the corner. However, I wonder if pro-robotics folks, myself included, will find our enthusiasm challenged by the antirobotic Luddites that Asimov writes about in his Robot, Empire, and Foundation stories? I say coexist, coevolve, and cooperate.

We have had to find solutions that work for out renting situation to save money and the environment while keeping warm. These are some tips that we have aggregated over the years to maximize our savings and do our part to lower our environmental impact.

1. Seal drafty windows and window frames with heat-shrink plastic wrap. This is a low cost solution that immediately produces results if you have drafty windows (this is an older house with subpar dual pane windows–on the corners of the panes and around the edges of the window you can feel cold air pushing inside the house). The key to this is to seal over the window and frame so that no outside air passes the plastic barrier.
2. Seal door window panes with plastic. Our backdoor has two pane glass that is sealed well, but the front door has single pane glass. You can use the same plastic wrap to seal these smaller in-door windows.
3. Seal door frames with weather stripping and the bottom edge with an attachable foam barrier or cut pipe insulation to lay at the bottom of the door (the latter only works if you have a really terrible gap).
4. Place insulating objects and furniture against the inside of exterior walls. Our bookshelves are laden with books and placed against exterior walls. Desks, tables, and suitcases full of summer clothes are lined up against the walls, too. This is also useful for preventing mildew growth in closets where the suitcases usually pile up.
5. Cover unused electrical outlets with plastic safety plugs if you feel a draft (we do). Some folks recommend installing foam inserts behind the electrical plate also, but I don’t think that is necessary unless the plate doesn’t fit flush against the wall. We have found the plastic safety plugs to adequately stop drafts.
6. Don’t run your bathroom’s exhaust fan, because it will vent your house’s hot air outside or into the attic. Instead, leave the bathroom door open to let steam and moisture vent into the house to elevate the relative humidity, which in turn makes it feel warmer inside.
7. Take short showers and turn down the temperature of your water heater. This will save you gas and reduce skin dryness.
8. Set your ceiling fans to clockwise rotation. This will draw air from the floor up and push warm air down from the ceiling.
9. Deploy electric space heaters in small spaces where you are working (e.g., an office or bedroom). It is more cost effective to warm the space you occupy rather than the entire house.
10. Keep the temperature at 65-64 during the day and wear a fleece, pants, and socks or slippers. At night, turn the temperature down to 60, cuddle under the duvet, and turn on a space heater with the bedroom door cracked (to let the cat in-and-out). If you can manage a lower temperature during most of the day and night, you will see significant savings on your heating bill.
11. Invite your cat or dog to sleep in your bed, they can help keep you warm and you can in turn help keep them warm.
12. Keep inside doors closed when rooms are not in use. This helps insulate the spaces where you are actually spending time.
13. If you have rooms divided by door frames that lack an actual door, you can divide rooms by hanging a blanket or plastic sheeting from a curtain rod. We have found this to be particularly useful to separate the rear utility room (where the washer and dryer are) from the kitchen.
14. Keep your fireplace flue closed when there is no fire. Leaving your flue open will effectively draft the warm air out of your house.
15. Turn the heat down during the day and go some place warm like the library or coffee shop. There’s no reason to keep your whole house warm if you are not there (of course, keep your pets warm no matter what).
16. Drink hot tea or coffee and eat warm soups or cereals during the day. Holding a cup of tea while sipping it can make you feel warm all over.
17. Wash your clothes using cold water instead of warm or hot water. Then, hang dry clothes in the house to increase the humidity and not use gas/electricity to dry them. Using less soap is also advisable if you aren’t too hard on your clothes.

What advice for surviving the winter without spending a fortune do you have? Please tell us in the comments below.

Another Christmas Song Jethro Tull

Birthday Card at Christmas Jethro Tull

Bourée Jethro Tull

A Change At Christmas The Flaming Lips

Christmas Day Dido

Christmas For Cowboys John Denver

Christmas In Space Tori Amos

A Christmas Song Jethro Tull

Don Quixote’s Christmas Bonanza Gorillaz

Donna & Blitzen Badly Drawn Boy

Father Christmas OK Go

Feliz Navidad Fenix TX

Fire at Midnight Jethro Tull

First Snow in Brooklyn Jethro Tull

Gaudete Steeleye Span

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Jethro Tull

Greensleeved Jethro Tull

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Holly Herald Jethro Tull

Home For Christmas Maria Mena

It Came upon a Midnight Clear Sixpence None The Richer

Last Christmas Wham!

Last Man at the Party Jethro Tull

The Little Drum Machine Boy Beck

The Little Drummer Boy The Harry Simeone Chorale

The Little Drummer Boy Johnny Cash

Little Drummer Boy Tori Amos

O Come All Ye Faithful Art Garfunkel

O Holy Night Avril Lavigne, Chantal Kreviazuk

Pavane Jethro Tull

THE RETURN OF THE RED BARON The Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy And His Friens

Ring Out Solstice Bells Jethro Tull

Ring Out, Solstice Bells Jethro Tull

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Jack Johnson

SNOOPY VS. THE RED BARON The Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy And His Friens

SNOOPY’S CHRISTMAS The Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy And His Friens

Someday At Christmas Remy Zero

We Five Kings Jethro Tull

Weathercock Jethro Tull

A Winter Snowscape Jethro Tull

Winter Song Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson

Xmas Cake Rilo Kiley