Heinlein Explains Global Warming

“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”

– Robert A. Heinlein

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60 Responses to Heinlein Explains Global Warming

  1. WHY EVERYONE SHOULD BE SKEPTICAL ABOUT THE CO2 GREENHOUSE

    It is obvious to any physicist that the greenhouse conjecture is false, because the direct solar radiation reaching the surface is less than a third of what would be required to explain observed surface temperatures.

    James Hansen noted this apparent discrepancy and, not realizing that the rest of the required thermal energy is in fact supplied during the day by non-radiative processes, he wrongly assumed that radiation from the cold atmosphere could be added to solar radiation and the total used in Stefan-Boltzmann calculations. But even the net of 390W/m^2 which included the back radiation would not be enough because it is variable flux and can thus only achieve a mean temperature much closer to freezing point. He really needed over 450W/m^2 but glossed over that fact and “taught” the world of climatology the totally incorrect physics based on compounding the radiation from two effectively sub-zero sources and assuming that the sum “explained” observations.

    Now, most of the atmospheric radiation comes from the most prolific “greenhouse” gas, water vapor which is claimed to cause warming, though evidence suggests the opposite. So where did it all go so wrong? Hansen incorrectly assumed that, without IR-active greenhouse gases, the temperatures in the troposphere would be isothermal. That is not what the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us, because it says entropy will be a maximum, not temperatures equal. Every vortex cooling tube in the world demonstrates how a force field (like gravity or centrifugal force) sets up a radial temperature gradient as that force acts on molecules in flight between collisions. The “lapse rate” (climatology speak for temperature gradient) is not due to imaginary “parcels” of air rising, expanding and cooling, because there is nothing to hold any such parcels together as the molecules move randomly between collisions at speeds of about 1,800 Km/hour.

    This temperature gradient evolves at the molecular level in accord with the process of maximum entropy production, and that state of maximum entropy is reached when there are no remaining unbalanced energy potentials. That means that the sum of mean molecular gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy is homogeneous, and so there is a temperature gradient.

    Once we understand that the temperature gradient is what physicists call the state of thermodynamic equilibrium, then everything falls into place. We can deduce quite simply that new solar energy absorbed in the stratosphere and upper atmosphere each morning will disturb the equilibrium and it can only be restored by downward non-radiative heat transfers, these being the real source of the missing energy Hansen tried to explain with back radiation.

    So, in fact, temperatures in a planetary system build up from anchoring layers in the upper troposphere and above, all the way to the core, because the temperature gradient, forming at the molecular level, can be calculated and shown to occur in solids, liquids and gases. It forms by a slow process which can be over-ridden, and is, in the oceans and the stratosphere, but, in general, it dominates. It is observed in all planetary tropospheres, and so the probability of this “heat creep” hypothesis being wrong is millions to one against.

    http://climate-change-theory.com

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-TXYe4rJp0xmbBh51AD8jptu34LAJc-b

    • leftinflagstaff says:

      Jeez, thanks a lot for crapping on my ‘Destroy Capitalism!!’ sign.

    • markstoval says:

      I would like to add this: “How AGW isn’t happening in the real Earth system …” https://okulaer.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/how-agw-isnt-happening-in-the-real-earth-system/

      In this link Kristian simply takes what the warmists say is supposed to be happening and show how the opposite is happening according to real world observation. (as opposed to the magical world inside a computer model)

      It is a nice short read and devastating to the warmist cult.

    • Jason Calley says:

      Hey retiredphysicseducator! “Every vortex cooling tube in the world demonstrates how a force field (like gravity or centrifugal force) sets up a radial temperature gradient as that force acts on molecules in flight between collisions.”

      Great insight! I never drew a parallel between the role of gravity in convection (and thus the adiabatic lapse rate) and the centrifugal force of a vortex tube. Good connection!

      I always learn something here… 🙂

    • Ted says:

      I’m so used to seeing it that I feel compelled to make our recently evicted imbecile’s argument for him:

      WRONG IDEAL GAS LAW

      This kind of thing is why I’d been in favor of keeping Martin around. I’d be very interested in what he had to say about retiredphysicseducator’s comment. Not that I think he’d provide any insight. I’m just curious how much, if any, he’d understand. I expect he’d ether ignore it completely, or say “dumb comment”, and leave it at that. But if he did try to dive in, the comedy would be worth the trouble of dealing with him.

  2. darrylb says:

    Retired—-a question. in a related context from a retired high school AP Chem/ Physics teacher.
    First, yes I have followed what you have written here and the same where it has been written elsewhere–
    however, considering the fact that it was known a hundred years ago that CO2 was saturated with respect to the IR Waves it could absorb, the argument was simply that saturation was achieved closer to the earths surface.
    Then looking at it in terms of quantum emissions closer to the earth, in an even greater pressurized atmosphere, the emissions would be more likely to be absorbed kinetically by several orders of magnitude. (considering the average time for the mean free path between collisions and the time, on average for photon re emission). Also, being that CO2 is a trace gas, the likelihood of kinetic energy absorption becomes that much more likely.
    Of Course, the feedback of water vapor increase due to the fact of common absorption spectra becomes the meat of the argument. Of course, if this were so, there would be that hot spot around the mid latitudes which has not happened.
    Care to comment??? and correct my thinking.,

    And, think you for your post and the reference.

    Cheers
    D-

    • au1corsair says:

      If water vapor increases with “increased” warming, why does the ocean still rise according to greenhouse gas theory? Where’d the water vapor come from? Where’s the additional ocean water coming from? Does greenhouse gas somehow create more water?

      Will this be more hand-wavium like spontaneous generation being the basis for Evolution?

      • darrylb says:

        au1, I hope you do not think that from my question that I think there is very much, if any warming due to green house gas emissions. Please read again if to do.

        But to answer your question,
        !) water vapor (humidity—absolute and relative measurements) according to the climate models has been predicted to rise, but it has not risen above what surface temperatures
        would dictate.
        2) Oceans have been rising according to every bit of available information long before any significant human caused green house emissions, and the causes have been in effect since at least the heart of the little ice age centuries ago.
        The two causes which are generally given are:
        A) Glacial melt (not sea ice melt which has essentially no effect)
        B) Thermo expansion of water—water expands when warmer but

        Several studies of late considering quantity of melt and any increases in temperature suggest that as much as 42% of sea level rise is due to ground water water run off, that is depletion of aquifers, and that is a very serious environmental problem.

        • au1corsair says:

          Oh, good! I was afraid that dissolved carbon dioxide caused the oceans to become fizzy and overflow the oceans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS2vG1o7Op4

          Besides, there’s a “water shortage” too. Part of Global Warming was the lakes and rivers drying up. Depletion of aquifers is not related to atmospheric carbon dioxide–it results from thirsty humans drawing underground water to fill swimming pools, water lawns, irrigate crops, wash their nasty SUV and RV fleets, shower and bathe, and, of course, to guzzle, guzzle, guzzle…

          http://www.worldpreservationfoundation.org/topic.php?cat=climateChange&vid=48#.Vp2rCcvSldg

        • darrylb says:

          Yes,your words regarding water shortage is exactly what I wrote, only my old brain sometimes loses its sense lightheartedness.

          OH yeah, several years ago I calculated for the heck of it, how much CO2 would be put into the atmosphere from the amount of warming stated, about 0.65 deg C.
          The chemistry calculations were about a page long, but I came up with about only 5% of the additional atmospheric CO2. Also, the additional CO2 in the atmosphere has been shown to be less radioactive (solar irradiance causes a certain amount to be radioactive)
          Therefore the additional CO2 is evidently from fossil fuel emissions.

          and about the ocean fizzing, ocean chemistry is really quite complicated, but I am sure you know that

        • Jason Calley says:

          Hey darrlyb! “Therefore the additional CO2 is evidently from fossil fuel emissions.”

          Just because the CO2 is less radioactive, that does not necessarily mean that it comes from fossil fuel. It could just be fossil, but not fuel. For example, in some parts of the deep, cold ocean, there are pools of liquid CO2 on the bottom of the ocean. What if a very slight warming of the water dissolved some of that liquid CO2 and then outgassed it into the atmmosphere? I have never heard any estimates of the age of the liquid CO2, but if it is older than a few tens of thousands of years (for an average CO2 molecule) then it will not be very radioactive. Once can make the same argument about any CO2 outgassed from the oceans. Same with CO2 outgassed from volcanoes or any other terrestial source. Old CO2 will not be radioactive — but it is not necessarily from use as a fossil fuel.

        • Gail Combs says:

          The C12 vs C13 vs C14 isotope absorption is related to C3 vs C4 type plants. C4 uses much more C13/C14 than C3.

          A bit of googling shows this:
          Carbon-13. C3 and C4 plants.
          Terrestrial vegetation and marine phytoplankton, in the process of photosynthetic absorption of CO2, discriminate against heavy molecules perfering 12C to 13….

          Most plants (85%) (e.g. trees and crops) follow the C3 photosynthesis pathway and have lower values of d13C, between -22‰ and -30‰.

          The remaining 15% of the plants are of type C4. The majority are tropical herbs and have high values of d13C, between –10 ‰ and –14 ‰…. (There is also a third, very minor, group called CAM, a combination of C3 and C4 where some cactus and succulents belong to.)

          http://wc.pima.edu/Bfiero/tucsonecology/plants/plants_photosynthesis.htm

          examples:
          C3—–>wheat, barley, potatoes and sugar beet. (most of the plants are C3)
          C4—–>fourwing saltbush, corn, many of summer annual plants.
          CAM—> cactuses,some orchids and bromeliads

          The other sciencific discovers show that the Carbon isotope picture is not as clean as the CAGW crowd would have us believe. The logic is fossil fuels contain very little 13C and therefore CO2 emissions from fossil fuels is diluting 13C relative to 12C.

          14C in Fossil fuels, This is a general article with links about the contamination of coal by subterranean bacteria: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/c14.html

          There is also evidence that 13C declined sharply in the early Holocene.
          A distinct ?13C decline in organic lake sediments at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in southern Sweden
          ABSTRACT: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119978862/abstract

          “Values of ?13C obtained from conventional bulk sediment radiocarbon dates encompassing the Pleistocene Holocene boundary have been compiled and plotted against 14C age…. A significant decrease in ?13C values, initiated shortly before 10.000 RP and amounting to 5%, is distinguished…. A probable explanation for the ?13C decline in organic material is decreased importance of dissolution of silicates at the transition to the Holocene. During the Late Weichselian. extensive weathering of exposed minerogenic material with subsequent input of bicarbonate to the lake water may have caused a relative enrichment of 13C in dissolved inorganic carbon. Furthermore, the early Holocene increase in terrestrial vegetation cover probably led to an increased supply of 13C depleted carbon dioxide to the lake water by root respiration….”

          Evidence from early Holocene speleothems: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005E%26PSL.230..301W

          “…Delta 13C values were high until 17.79 ka after which there was an abrupt decrease to 17.19 ka followed by a steady decline to a minimum at 10.97 ka. Then followed a general increase, suggesting a drying trend, to 3.23 ka followed by a further general decline. The abrupt decrease in ?-values after 17.79 ka probably corresponds to an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, biological activity and wetness at the end of the Last Glaciation…”

          Chiefio covers more points here: http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/the-trouble-with-c12-c13-ratios/

          As usual there is evidence that refutes the pat answers given by the CAGW champions.

    • Edmonton Al says:

      @darrylb………………..
      Read markstoval’s link from above………

      • darrylb says:

        Edmonton Al, thanks, I did go back and glance at it, but have also saved it.
        I am getting too much information for my organization

        GAIL, thanks for destroying my simple first order of thought with denier in depth and logical fact 🙂 Although quantification still needs to be made, or maybe it has.
        Like I said, if I ever get my thoughts organized into a book, one of my first orders of priority would be to send it to you with your permission, and a request to analyze it.
        I have come to realize that you will look at things in depth.

        BTW, Will Happer wrote to me to say he would be glad to speak at one of our local establishments of relatively somewhat higher education. (my description of them, and really not fair at that) He sent me a copy, of his work with Dyson regarding the wings of the absorption spectra of CO2. it has been submitted, but of course the reviewers gave an entangled response.
        I expect the final paper will be much more lengthy, detailed and nuanced.

        • Gail Combs says:

          Darryl B,
          I would be happy to read your rough draft. I might be able to drag Hubby into reading it too. He has a degree in physics and is a technical writer. He has done some editing of scientific papers for Chinese scientists submitting to English language journals.

          Glad to here Dr Happer and Dr Dyson are sloughing through the review process. They may have to publish in a Russian or Chinese journal or perhaps a open-access journal

          ….Just as the internet has created a global marketplace for products and services, scientists, too, have seen what unfettered access to research, publications, and viewpoints has done for their careers. Articles appearing in open-access journals are downloaded and cited more often. Because many open-access journals are associated with professional societies and even nonaffiliated groups of people, open-access journals are a way to fight the high costs of commercial publishing and get alternative viewpoints heard.

          Three examples illustrate the power of open access. First, the most prestigious journal in atmospheric science did not even exist ten years ago. The open-access journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics rocketed past numerous other established journals to rank first in impact, a mere four years after its founding, with a lead it continues to extend.

          The second example is that open-access journals can be more available to the needs of its authors. Because an open-access journal that I helped cofound (Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology) was aimed at getting more weather forecasters to publish their research—research that might be rejected from other journals as requiring too much effort to revise—we reviewers and editors are more likely to take the time to help first-time authors with good ideas improve their manuscripts and get their research published…..

          The Seer of Science Publishing
          Vitek Tracz was ahead of the pack on open access. Now he wants to rewrite the rules of peer review.

          “Nobody reads journals,” says science publisher Vitek Tracz, who has made a fortune from journals. “People read papers.” Tracz sees a grim future for what has been the mainstay of scientific communication, the peer-reviewed print journal. Within the next 10 years, he says, it will cease to exist.

          This prophecy ought to carry weight. Over the past 3 decades, Tracz, chairman of a conglomerate called the Science Navigation Group, has helped transform the world of science publishing…

          Instead of every library stocking a paper journal, a single freely accessible copy of an article or journal was “enough for the whole world,” Tracz says. “The monopolistic power of the publisher suddenly disappeared. So we started thinking: ‘What does it mean? What can we do?’ ”

          Tracz embraced open-access publishing….

          Tracz is taking aim at science’s life force: peer review. “Peer review is sick and collapsing under its own weight,” he contends. The biggest problem, he says, is the anonymity granted to reviewers, who are often competing fiercely for priority with authors they are reviewing. “What would be their reason to do it quickly?” Tracz asks. “Why would they not steal” ideas or data?

          Anonymous review, Tracz notes, is the primary reason why months pass between submission and publication of findings. “Delayed publishing is criminal; it’s nonsensical,” he says. “It’s an artifact from an irrational, almost religious belief” in the peer-review system.

          As an antidote, the heretic in January launched a new venture that has dispensed altogether with anonymous peer review: F1000Research, an online outlet for immediate scholarly publishing. “As soon as we receive a paper, we publish it,” after a cursory quality check. Peer review happens after publication, and in the light of day. F1000Research selects referees, who post their names and affiliations alongside their critiques. Papers become like wikis, with reviewers and authors posting comments and revisions as the need arises.

          F1000Research requires authors to submit the full data set underlying a paper—not just selected graphs or analyses. Readers “don’t just want the narrative of what you think you found, but what you actually found,” Tracz says. What authors get in return, he says, is ownership of data from the moment of publication. The price of publishing in a traditional journal now could be steep, Tracz argues, as scientists could lose priority for a discovery. He also sees a role for F1000Research in publishing orphan studies: negative findings (see p. 68) and incremental advances that most journals ignore….

          It would seem the corruption and gatekeeping of science journals has had a positive out come, revamping of the publication industry.

    • catweazle666 says:

      “Of Course, the feedback of water vapor increase due to the fact of common absorption spectra becomes the meat of the argument”

      Three evaluations of NASA’s NVAP water column data:

      Vonder Haar

      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2012GL052094/full

      Humlum

      http://www.climate4you.com/GreenhouseGasses.htm

      Solomon et al.

      Abstract
      Stratospheric water vapor concentrations decreased by about 10% after the year 2000. Here we show that this acted to slow the rate of increase in global surface temperature over 2000–2009 by about 25% compared to that which would have occurred due only to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. More limited data suggest that stratospheric water vapor probably increased between 1980 and 2000, which would have enhanced the decadal rate of surface warming during the 1990s by about 30% as compared to estimates neglecting this change. These findings show that stratospheric water vapor is an important driver of decadal global surface climate change.

      https://www.sciencemag.org/content/327/5970/1219.abstract

      Without positive evidence of increased atmospheric water vapour correlating with atmospheric CO2 concentration the water vapour feedback driven catastrophic anthropogenic global warming hypothesis is dead in the water.

      • gator69 says:

        Without positive evidence of increased atmospheric water vapour correlating with atmospheric CO2 concentration the water vapour feedback driven catastrophic anthropogenic global warming hypothesis is dead in the water.

        Pun intended?

  3. au1corsair says:

    Yup! BELIEVE in Global Warming!

    It’s a cult!

  4. vorlath says:

    I wouldn’t compare religion to the CO2 cult. Religion is the belief of something without absolute proof. The CO2 cult is the belief of something despite proof to the contrary. That’s a whole different ballgame.

    • darrylb says:

      People need to believe in something, and will do absolutely foolish things when the prophets of doom tell them to do so.
      Long ago, Indulgences were sold, now it is carbon credits, Now the Al Goreans will rake in the profits, and through the means of such means as Eugenics, only the chosen few shall remain, the rest of us poor souls will be sterilized

      The followers of the Church of Al Goreans believe there was once a Garden of Eden about a hundred years ago before the wicked carbon polluters began their evil ways and made a pleasant living for so many that never deserved it. But Mother Earth, upon whose Alter the Al Goreans Worship will bring pestilence, disease, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and create human avengers called ISIS and all other acronyms to rape women and children and behead the non-believers.

      And if you don’t believe that the carbon polluters caused the rise of ISIS, just ask a most high priest called the Obama one or his anointed one called the Kerry who chastised the people of Africa for using fuels of the earth which pollute her atmosphere, Instead, they should keep on using dung for heating, because they are among the heathen, and any who helps them by developing the resources of the earth shall be caste into eternal
      damnation, or at least be scorned by CNN.

      • Marsh says:

        At times, we all need to be facetious when assessing Climate extremists. The sheer nonsense by followers of AGW, does beggar belief. We’ve witnessed Wars & Disease but the “Global Warming” hypothesis has no integrity & remains unworthy of sacrifice.
        ………………………………………..
        In effect, AGW is a Parasitic doctrine that drains society of all its worth ; “fighting a War without an enemy”..! Made worse, when lawmakers legitimize such corruption; against the better interest of the Country.

      • “It’s drowning all your old rationalism and scepticism, it’s coming in like a sea; and the name of it is superstition.” The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything: “And a dog is an omen and a cat is a mystery.”

        Emile Cammaerts (quoting G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown)

  5. Andy DC says:

    A sect, cult or religion will also legislate any competing or opposing belief system out of existence if given the political power.

  6. richard says:

    A serious question; I really want to know; Does anyone know how
    absorbing a photon raises the kenetic energy of a molocule?? I
    know it does (heat lamps work!), just can’t get a handle on the
    mechanism. how does moving an electron to a higher level make
    the molecule have more kenetic energy?? I also know about how
    a gas is composed of individual molecules, moving at different
    speeds. That is why air conditioners work, but the vortex was(is?)
    used in mines to provide cool air to miners.(old technology). The
    theory was “find a way to separate the fast-moving molecules
    (hot) from the slow(cold) ones”. The vortex does this using the
    spin in the device.

    • ristvan says:

      Remember the IR photon is being absorbed by a molecule of CO2 or H2O. The higher orbital of one lobe introduces asymetry that results in molecular bond stretching or molecular bond bending (actually both). Because of molecular shape, more stretching in CO2 and more bending in H2O. Both stretching and bending increase ‘vibration’, hence on a macro level ‘heat’.
      You can find some good illustrations and more detailed explanations by googling ‘IR absorption CO2’.

    • Ted says:

      This is NOT correct, but it’s how I look at it. If we simplify an atom to the basic Bohr model, it’s no different in principal from a planetary system. Taking a hydrogen atom, we have a single electron orbiting a proton. The earth-moon system would be a reasonable analog. As the moon revolves, it drags the earth around with it, leaving the two orbiting a point (called the barycenter) defined by their mutual enter of mass. Because the earth is so much more massive than the moon, and the two are so close, that barycenter is still within the earth. But it’s several thousand miles from the center, making the earth wobble by about 2700 miles each month. When an electron absorbs a photon, it goes to a higher orbit. In the earth-moon system, that would be the same as pushing the moon out farther. That drags the mutual center of mass out farther, causing the earth to wobble more. The amplitude of that wobble would be kinetic energy. It becomes more obvious in a binary star system, where both stars are being dragged tens of millions of miles by the other’s gravity. All that motion is the kinetic energy.

      That model is incompatible with much of the physics since the early 20th century. But it’s much easier to visualize than quantum fluctuations.

      • richard says:

        Thanks, Ted, Good stuff, I like!

        • richard says:

          I like your attitude toward models;they probably are not right,
          but can still be useful. The model gets better as knowledge
          increases.Climate models need more work.I am uncomortable
          with the idea that humans can control the climate and weather.
          What is controlled can be abused..

  7. gator69 says:

    No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.
    -Robert A. Heinlein

  8. darrylb says:

    Interesting how we got from Heinlein to all this.

    An observation: after several years of making connections with scientists in various fields of study, it seems the physicists are the most skeptical.

    • richard says:

      Kinda makes me want a sip of heinekin.

    • Jason Calley says:

      Darrylb, yes, I have noticed the same thing. Sceptical physicists and sceptical statisticians. Hmmm…. now why would that be?

      Oh, what am I saying?! I mean, after all, they are not “climate scientists”! How could they possibly understand a brilliant mind like Michael Mann? Did you know that he won a Nobel Prize? 🙂

    • RAH says:

      Seems a pretty fair percentage of Geologists are skeptics too.

  9. RAH says:

    Well I’m outa here for awhile. Going up to Owens Sound, ON. Gotta go.

    • Ted says:

      Good luck with the blizzard. The weather channel is basically recommending preemptive suicide for everyone in the eastern half of the country. They’re running “The Day After Tomorrow” footage as a forecast. It’s supposed to be another 1,000 year storm, just like the 6 you had last year, and the 5 the year before, and…

      But we have serious weather problems out here, too. I don’t know how we’ll survive. It sprinkled a little this morning. And the temperature has plummeted into the mid 60’s. Pray for us, and I’ll pray for you.

    • Gail Combs says:

      Have a save trip Rah.

      • RAH says:

        Well I didn’t have to go to Owens Sound. They figured out that I couldn’t make it up to the Romulus terminal (beside the Detroit Airport) in time to have my break in and then leave early enough the next morning. So they sent me on a two stop run to Cambridge and Woodstock, ON. Both are right along the 401 and it wasn’t bad at all. Nothing like what they’re getting up at Owens Sound where they have been getting a whole lot of lake effect snow and serious white out conditions. Enough that they have been shutting down the Hwy along the coast and forcing traffic to drive east to Hwy 6 to go north and then come back west to get to Owens Sound. During good weather the normal route is a pleasant drive.

        Am reconsidering the team position now because it is not as consistent as it was first presented. We would still get 2 round trips to Laredo every week but every week would depart at different times and we would get some one way loads requiring us to go to the Laredo terminal and wait for a back haul. It all sounds like 5 days a week work instead of 4. So the money is still there but the regular schedule that was part of what was attractive to me, is not. I’m going to sleep on it.

  10. 4TimesAYear says:

    Reblogged this on 4timesayear's Blog.

  11. timg56 says:

    I started reading Heinlein in jr high school and still consider him to be one of the best writers I’ve ever come across. Starship Troopers should be required reading in HS.

    • AndyG55 says:

      Starship Troopers were some fun movies too.

      Just switch off the thinking parts of your brain when you watch them 🙂

      • gator69 says:

        The first movie was pretty good, can’t say as much for the rest, but not even the first came anywhere close to the quality of the book. Been a Heinlein fan since I was ten, and my copy of Starship Troopers is yellowed and falling apart.

    • Gail Combs says:

      I started with Analog in fifth grade. The school librarian was an SF fan and read a Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle to our class. I was hooked from then on.

  12. DD More says:

    Some of my favorite quotes and in many cases still very accurate.
    “Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.” ? Robert A. Heinlein

    “Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein

    “Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein

    “Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

    “Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein

    “What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein

    “Some people insist that ‘mediocre’ is better than ‘best.’ They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can’t fly. They despise brains because they have none.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein, Have Space Suit—Will Travel

    “There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

    ‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein

    “Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

    “Be wary of strong drink, it can make you shoot at the tax collector…and miss.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

    Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well.
    Robert Heinlein

    “Delusions are often functional. A mother’s opinions about her children’s beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.”
    ? Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

    And a special one for Gail.

    “I came, I saw, she conquered.”
    The original Latin seems to have been garbled.”
    – Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
    https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/205.Robert_A_Heinlein?page=5

    • Jason Calley says:

      I am always grateful to read some of Heinlein’s quotes. Heinlein was the first author I ever read that made me go back to the library and ask “do you have any other books by this guy?” That would have been “Time For The Stars”, soon followed by “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel”, in (I think) fourth grade.

      • richard says:

        i KNOW 4TH GRADE KIDS WHO CAN’T READ. Paul Harvey told the story
        of “JOHNNY” coming home with an “A” in English. Dumbfounded, they went
        to the next PTA meeting to ask the English teacher; ” Johnny can’t read,
        write, or spell, how did he get an A in English??The teacher replied” OH
        THAT DON”T MATTER NONE”.

        • Gail Combs says:

          Shocker: 80% of NYC graduates unable to read

          And Majority of city’s trainee teachers flunked literacy tests

          BUT! NYC public elementary school first to adopt all vegetarian menu

          So everything is A-OK in Regressive land.

          Role of red meat in the diet for children and adolescents.

          * Meat is a core food in the diet for children and adolescents because it provides significant amounts of these micronutrients.

          INTRODUCTION

          Over the first few years of postnatal life, an infant’s body undergoes dramatic changes not only in physical attributes, but also in developmental milestones. By three years of age, an infant’s head circumference and hence brain size will have reached 80% of what it will potentially achieve in adulthood, and its length will also have doubled in size. Therefore, it is not surprising that any adverse events occurring during these periods may have a negative impact upon psychomotor development.

          In 1968, Dobbing (1) suggested that there were vulnerable periods of neurological development that coincided with times of maximal brain growth. These periods begin during foetal development at around the 25th week of gestation and continue for the first two years of postnatal life. Nutrient deficiencies occurring during these vulnerable periods may well have an impact upon brain growth and, hence, neurological and psychomotor development. (1) These nutrient deficits have subsequently been shown to result in more functional deficiencies rather than physical abnormalities. Not only is optimal nutrition essential for achieving optimal physical and psychosocial development, but it also appears to have significant disease implications for later in adult life. Barker and his epidemiology group in the UK proposed that not only intrauterine malnutrition, but also poor weight gain in the first year of life, was associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease (particularly in adults aged >50 years), hypertension and glucose intolerance during adulthood. (2) Their retrospective, epidemiological report has been supported by several studies on the Netherlands famine during World War II, which affected women during early, mid and late stages of gestation. (3,4) Subsequently, animal and prospective human studies have suggested that either under- or over-nutrition in utero can be associated with epigenetic changes as well as intrauterine adverse programming of organ function. (5)

          Development of functional activity may be associated with myelination. Many nerve fibres are covered with a whitish, fatty, segmented sheath called the myelin sheath. Myelin protects and electrically insulates fibres from one another and increases the speed of transmission of the nerve impulses. Myelinated fibres conduct nerve impulses rapidly, whereas unmyelinated fibres tend to conduct quite slowly. This acceleration of nerve conduction is essential for the function of the body and survival. In humans, the myelin sheath begins to appear around the fourth month of foetal development and first appears in the spinal cord before spreading to the higher centres of the brain. It is assumed that this myelination precedes functional activity. This paper considers micronutrient deficiency in the context of myelination and other developmental features to highlight the need for micronutrients which can be delivered in the diet through red meat…..

      • gator69 says:

        I have a friend we call the “Mother Thing”, as she is always a mom, no matter the person, place, or thing.

  13. AndyG55 says:

    Must be 20 years since I read any Heinlein. There’s none in the bookshelf which means the ex must have taken them . That’s the problem with a 50/50 split.
    I did manage to keep all of Doc E.E. Smith , plus some Herbert , Simak, John Wyndham, etc
    A lot of David Eddings, and Terry Brooks, Steven Donaldson stuff as well.

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