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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRep. Steve King Doesn't Know How Sea Level Works
Last edited Thu Aug 8, 2013, 12:29 PM - Edit history (1)
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/08/rep-steve-king-doesnt-know-how-sea-level-worksOn Wednesday, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), last seen evaluating the leg muscles of undocumented immigrants, told a town hall audience in Iowa that we have nothing to fear from climate changewe probably won't even notice it. Per the Fort Dodge Messenger:
"Everything that might result from a warmer planet is always bad in (environmentalists') analysis," he said. "There will be more photosynthesis going on if the Earth gets warmer. ... And if sea levels go up 4 or 6 inches, I don't know if we'd know that."
He said sea level is not a precise measurement.
"We don't know where sea level is even, let alone be able to say that it's going to come up an inch globally because some polar ice caps might melt because there's CO2 suspended in the atmosphere," he said.
(end snip)
:facepalm
Get the clown car ready, this one's running for pretzeldente.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)1awake
(1,494 posts)Enrique
(27,461 posts)DontTreadOnMe
(2,442 posts)different number system?
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)or, you know, on land near the sea.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Since his head is stuck up his ass, he wouldn't know......well, practically anything.
As he clearly demonstrates.
live love laugh
(13,118 posts)There, that explains everything.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)as another passer-by gets kicked in the balls.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)"Rep. Steve King doesn't know how __________ (fill in the blank until your hand gets tired) works."
liberal N proud
(60,335 posts)FIRST - let me say that I grew up in Iowa and I know how sea levels work.
But this asshole, probably never bothered to learn about sea levels because he is "from Iowa" and didn't think that it would be necessary as part of his life. You don't see much of the sea in Iowa. The farm reports don't talk about it much either.
exboyfil
(17,863 posts)who married an Iowa girl. I agree with you totally. It is a true embarrassment to the state, but it will be fun watching him run for President (gotta replace Bachmann). That means he won't compete for Harkin's Senate seat.
Bluzmann57
(12,336 posts)Except how to be batshit crazy.
oldhippie
(3,249 posts)... sea level is a pretty tricky thing to define and measure.
Many years ago (crap, it's decades now) I worked on the development of the GPS system. While the constellation itself lives in an Earth Centered Earth Fixed coordinate system (which itself is pretty tricky - where exactly is the center of the earth? Or more correctly the center of Earth's mass? But I digress.) most people on earth want to know where they are in relation to the ground. We usually reference the ground level to Mean Sea Level. Which is what? It turns out that the sea is not level. besides tides and waves and things we see, the earth's gravity field is not spherical. It is "lumpy" and thus there are hills and valleys in the ocean's surface all over the globe. It makes determination of what, exactly, is "sea level" problematic. An issue I grappled with constantly when trying to develop algorithms for certain systems.
Some may find these interesting:
Wiki - Height above sea level
Wiki - Sea Level
Bandit
(21,475 posts)will be at any given time throughout the day and throughout the year. As a property owner that has land on the shore I know exactly how far my property extends onto the beach and where public access takes over. It is called mean high tide or where I live 16 foot level...
oldhippie
(3,249 posts).... most people worry about. It's a little different when you are trying to design and test precision global guidance systems.
But I know what you mean. In 1972-73 I had a beach house in Haleiwa, on the North Shore of Oahu. I was VERY conscious of where the water was, literally 10-20 feet from my front porch. During the high surf in the winter of '73 it was closer than my front porch, in my living room, and we had to evacuate inland. Living close to the ocean concentrates your attention to such things.
But globally, things are a little more fuzzy.
oldhippie
(3,249 posts)... the SEA LEVEL will be at any given time. It tells you what the variation (or delta) will be from a reference point, usually the Mean Sea Level at your location. It sounds like kinda the same thing, but it's not.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Yeah, global warming is happening, but it's a Good Thing, I have to shake my head.