Global climate change theology

The big question in climate change… do the collective actions of humans significantly and potentially disastrously affect the climate and environment of the world.

If you subscribe to a literal interpretation of the Bible, then the answer is obviously an unequivocal yes. See, theologically speaking, the world was created by God as a paradise for mankind. That paradise was destroyed due to The Fall / Original Sin thus allowing for sickness, pain, and climate conditions that are altogether unfit for people who like to run around naked (fig leaf or no) surviving on eternally-ripe fruits and veggies from abundant sources. So really, the question about humans creating bad changes in the world climate is moot.

“The debate is over.”

New volcano simulation

My advisor feels strongly that all scientific publications should be peer-reviewed, so in light of Kevin’s valuable insight into my post about the finite element analysis of a point load on an elastic plate, I refined my model and re-ran the simulation. The result is clearly more realistic and can easily be verified by means of a field trip to Hawaii, or by a viewing the award-winning, critically-acclaimed documentary, Joe Versus the Volcano.

New volcano simulation

Dear Mr. Millionaire, here’s some more dough. You’re welcome.

Anyone see anything odd?

Did I just watch a massive, taxpayer-funded stock pump and dump? Around mid-morning yesterday, Comerica’s stock (CMA) was around 29.00 per share. At opening this morning, it jumped to 54.00 on a volume of around 700k shares and then immediately fell into the 40s and now 30s with a more normal volume of 50-100k shares. Doesn’t it strike anyone else as odd that a single stock could nearly double in value in less than 24 hours, get massively traded and then fall back to its starting price… all within 8 minutes of the opening bell!? I mean, it’s no secret that the government just injected a couple hundred billion dollars into the financial business (thanks a lot, Republicrats), but is it really a coincidence that someone or some group of folks just made a total fantasy killing of around 1.75 million bucks of profit in 8 minutes flat???

Dumb signs

Really? As opposed to prepaying after?

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Starting FEA work – flexural plate with a point load

Deformation of a buoyant plate with a point load

I’m starting to make some headway with the Finite Element Analysis software that we use here (MSC Marc). The image above is the result of a simple model that simulates a large load on a floating edge of a deformable plate. In a geologic sense, this is supposed to represent a volcano sitting on the edge of a crustal plate, which causes the one edge to sink into the buoyant mantle that normally supports it.