Irksome.

And you know they are…

People who often lie to themselves.

As a result, it makes them ever so much easier to lie to others:

[via DiscoverMagazine]Lying to Yourself Helps You Lie to Others ~By Paul Raeburn

Why do we lie to ourselves?

That’s what evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers has spent 30 years trying to figure out.

“Our sensory systems are organized to give us a detailed and accurate view of reality,” he says, “but once this information arrives in our brains, it is often distorted and biased to our conscious minds.” We repress painful memories, create false ones, rationalize immoral behavior and jack up our self-esteem. We deny ourselves the truth.

Trivers, a professor of anthropology and biological sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is not as well-known to the public as, say, Harvard’s Steven Pinker or E.O. Wilson. Evolutionary biologists, however, put him in a class by himself.

Pinker has called him “one of the great thinkers in the history of Western thought.” In the early 1970s, Trivers did for evolutionary biology what Einstein did for physics: He revolutionized the field with a handful of brilliantly original papers that reshaped the research agenda for decades.

The task he set was to construct a theory of social behavior based on natural selection. And his landmark papers went a long way toward explaining how parents behave with children, and males with females, and how we differentiate between people like us and others whom we see as different.

But one problem remained — the problem of self-deception. Trivers found that one difficult to explain.

According to the principles of natural selection, we wouldn’t have that curious ability unless it gave our ancestors a competitive edge. What, Trivers wanted to know, is that competitive edge? What do we gain by deceiving ourselves?

In his latest book, The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life, Trivers wanted to shake up evolutionary biology once again. After three decades of pondering how self-deception might have given our predecessors an evolutionary advantage, Trivers has come up with a theory: We often deceive ourselves because it then becomes easier to deceive others.

…[Read More]

And yes, just in case you are wondering…

In the instance of this post?

Definitely talking about a certain group in particular.

Namely?

Certain scientists who push political agendas to further THEIR OWN cause.

[via Scientific American]Extending current energy policies would reduce U.S. energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions ~by David Wogan

Extending current energy and efficiency laws past their sunset dates could reduce U.S. carbon emissions by an additional 5 billion metric tons by 2040. An analysis in the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2013 compares energy and carbon savings between existing policies, which have provisions that will expire, and an Extended Policies scenario where the laws are carried out indefinitely.

Total energy consumption is projected to follow a similar pattern. By 2040, cumulative energy savings are projected to reach 55 quadrillion BTUs (1 quad = a thousand trillion British Thermal Units), or over half the energy consumption for any given year in the United States.

…[Read More]

Sadly…

This cause has very real-time effects?

On millions Americans…

EVERY day.

[via DailyCaller]Bill would force EPA to report costs of regulations ~by Michael BastaschEver wonder how much new environmental regulations add to your power bill? Newly introduced legislation aims to increase the transparency surrounding the costs of environmental regulations through detailing their impact on costs, jobs, and energy prices.

The bill introduced by Louisiana Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy would require the Environmental Protection Agency to submit a report detailing certain economic impacts to Congress before finalizing new energy-related rules that cost more than $1 billion.

“The EPA’s power to regulate is also the power to destroy,” said Cassidy. “It makes no sense for the EPA to issue burdensome regulations that will hurt our energy economy and cost American families thousands of jobs. It’s time to stop the EPA from hurting job creation and American families.”

The bill also requires the energy secretary to examine the rule to ensure that it won’t be too damaging to the economy. If the energy secretary rules that it would be, the EPA would not be permitted to finalize the rule.

EPA regulations have had significant effects on manufacturing and the energy industry, in particular coal.

According to congressional testimony by Paul Cicio, president Industrial Energy Consumers of America, the EPA imposes 972 regulations on the manufacturing sector alone and imposes regulatory costs totaling $117 billion.

A study done last year by National Economic Research Associates examining the impact of just seven major EPA regulations on coal-fueled electric generation found that up to 69,000 megawatts of coal-fueled electric generation will be shut down due to those regulations, and up to 887,000 jobs would be lost per year. NERA also found that total compliance costs for the electric sector could be as high as $220 billion, or $16.7 billion per year.

…[Read More]

And pretty much?

For no darn good reason.

How much warmer is it outside…

Really?

[via Forbes]As Carbon Dioxide Levels Continue To Rise, Global Temperatures Are Not Following Suit ~by James Taylor

New data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are continuing to rise but global temperatures are not following suit. The new data undercut assertions that atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing a global warming crisis.

NOAA data show atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose 2.67 parts per million in 2012, to 395 ppm. The jump was the second highest since 1959, when scientists began measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

Global temperatures are essentially the same today as they were in 1995, when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were merely 360 ppm. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose 10 percent between 1995 and 2012, yet global temperatures did not rise at all. Global warming activists are having a difficult time explaining the ongoing disconnect between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures.

This isn’t the first time in recent years that global temperatures have disobeyed the models presented by global warming activists. From the mid-1940s through the mid-1970s, global temperatures endured a 30-year decline even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose nearly 10 percent. From 1900 through 1945, by contrast, global temperatures rose rapidly despite a lack of coal power plants, SUV’s, and substantial carbon dioxide emissions.

Remarkably, global warming activists are spinning the ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, along with the ongoing lack of global temperature rise, as evidence that we are facing an even worse global warming crisis than they have been predicting.

“The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped,” the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Actually, the fact that temperatures remain flat even as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise is a devastating rebuke to assertions that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are causing a global warming crisis.

…[Read More]

Let me break it down for you…

I, live in Texas. And for the past two nights and the temps have been bottoming out around freezing.

Its. May.

Now, ask me if I am more concerned with rising bills prices, or a two degree rise in the temperature?

I would hope the answer is obvious.

Unless you are a politically driven scientist in need of grant money?

Yeah…

Then it might take you a minute.

That’s cool, I’ll just wait here, wearing my big winter coat (In. MAY!), I’ve got noting but time. But do you mind if I turn on the heat while I wait?

It’s freakin’ cold outside?

Brrrrr.