Question: National Academy of Sciences

[bookman]

National Academy of Sciences - Is this a legit organization or a front for energy interests?

[Dora]

1. I think it's legit.

Not positive, though.

[papau]

2. New members are elected by current members of each institution

An "honor" to be elected but usual problem of folks electing people similar to themselves in all things -

So mainly chem/physics/math types are in NAS - other science areas under-represented.

unlike the group of folks with science degrees who are 60/40 believers in God, the self responders at NAS are around 90% non-believers - although that number came from responses totaling only a bit over 300 of the about 2400 total number of members.

But do not doubt the smarts - to be elected to NAS means your smart in your field.

Why would you think it a front for energy interests?

[bookman]

7. From a discussion on Global Warming

I got the following (a portion of the email...)...

However, I think this is more wishful prophecy than science by the scientific method.

Admittedly, I have not read through all the literature or even much of it, but I have yet to see a paper that presents the theory, then supports it with tested and proven hypotheses backed with real data. Everything seems to reference "consensus' of opinions." So? The data I have seen says we are the hot end of a glacial cycle and about read to start the next cold one. (Click this link)

http://www.koshland-science-museum.org/exhibitgcc/historical02.jsp

I think it would be far more useful to know what's going to happen, when, where and how much, so we can start planning for it. Already, insurance companies are doubling their rates to people with coastal property in some areas, because ther is a phenomenon called the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillator (AMO) which is maybe 10 years into its warm phase and there seems to be a pretty direct correlation with the 30-40year warm phase and increased hurricane activity and severity in the Gulf of Mexico and Western Atlantic. Yep Katrina and Rita, for example.

Anthropogenic CO2 must be a factor, in the strictest sense, but by how much? Spitting in the ocean will raise the temperature. But by how much? I could be wrong but I'd like something more definitive than the broadly worded stuff we are seeing.
Also, I have yet to see a plan or even an estimate that if we reduce CO2 a given amount it will stop the increase in climate warming. (Sounds like another invasion of Iraq to me.)

Personally I think this is the liberal big-lie response to the neocon big-lie that a bunch of thugs called "terrorists" can defeat the USA.

[struggle4progress]

10. Climate is extremely difficult to model with certainty. The equations

governing ordinary weather diverge exponentially, so that accurate weather prediction will be always be impossible for more than a few weeks into the future at best.

In climate prediction, there are a number of complicating factors.

First, the major greenhouse gas is water vapor; but cloud cover can increase global albedo; thus atmospheric water can have multiple effects, not all tending in the same direction: increasing the moisture of the atmosphere increases greenhouse effect but may also decrease the total amount of solar energy that actually reaches earth. Such effects are not all sorted out.

Second, accurate modeling is very computationally intensive. Computer speeds and sizes limit the quality of modeling -- and always will. The land masses and the ocean basins are irregular objects, not neatly described by simple equations. And even the simplest flow equations (Navier-Stokes) are not currently well-understood mathematically. Temperature and humidity affect atmospheric densities, salinity affects seawater densities, atmospheric motions experience drag along land surfaces and couple with the sea surface, so that a host of possible interactions need to be explored.

It would be a serious mistake to assume that approximate periodicities in estimated temperature data over geological time periods will recur, if one has no clear evidence that the multiple sources of such periodicities are well-understood: driving forces may include variations in solar activity and volcanism, and tectonic plate movements mean that the possible stable patterns for ocean currents are not the same today as in the geological past.

Having said that, I encourage you to examine ice-shelf and glaciation patterns in recent years: there seems to be little doubt that high mountain ice is in retreat and that the Arctic and Antarctic have warmed in recent years. The possibility that anthropomorphic carbon dioxide could cause global warming was first suggested by Arrhenius over a hundred years ago ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_Arrhenius ), and there is no doubt that carbon dioxide levels have increased substantially since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

Finally, let me suggest to you that liberals, such as my self, do not have anything whatsoever to gain from global warming, although everyone in the world has quite a lot to lose if average global temperatures increase by even a few degrees, since the results will certainly include significant changes in weather patterns which would affect reservoir and groundwater recharge and agricultural practices; low-lying areas would be flooded, as New Orleans was, and a number of inhabited Pacific Islands would disappear; ecological systems would be disrupted, and a number of currently endangered would disappear; &c&c

In conclusion, I would add, less gently, that some of us, who call ourselves liberals and who daily do our best to understand what's going on in the world around us, take a rather dim view of the idiotic rightwing bullshit that would identify our concern for our planet as some "liberal big-lie" ...

[papau]

11. know what's going to happen, when, where and how much is accomplished via

modeling. One takes all the equations we know that explain various things that affect climate and combine them with the history that is known of the planet for the various input factors and see if the output factors produced by the individual relationships are properly weighted so as to reproduce the past temperatures/climate.

There are 4 massive models that do this, each in slightly different ways. This is science by the scientific method - it is not mere wishful prophecy.

The consensus that is referred to is twofold. The four models agree as to the future more or less, and the scientists reviewing the output data agree.

There is as you noted a cycle that is obvious and says we are indeed at the hot end of a glacial cycle and about read to start the next cold one. This as RW GOP nuts/Fox News always note, was reported in 1970 by the folks maintaining and improving the model as better computers allow more complicated equations.

The idiots at Fox then say because the model in 1970 showed this major cycle with only a very minor effect do to man (about 1 degree), the current results should be ignored because they are not the same 35 years, and massive CO2 increases at increased rate later.

The NAS discussion of the current predictions of the model are in fact quite conservative. The note the now much greater effect recorded for the activities for man, and try to put current and near term local temp changes in any given area in perspective, noting that a 15 degree rise in a local area over 10 years was in the past a part of the basic cycle - and not caused by the activities of man.

But they also note that climate warming caused by man is real and more is expected. It is a long presentation - and even then is not footnoted the way actual peer reviewed papers are so one can check the author's logic.. But it is an excellent summary, albeit very conservative, of the current results from the climate change research.

Some folks are now projecting a world wide average temp increase over the next 100 years of double digit size, with corresponding water rise, and new flows of heat on the planet never before experienced. The NAS presentation does not give their guess as to the number of degree rise that will be caused by Anthropogenic CO2. Nor does it attempt to analyze what a given reduction in the increase in CO2 will accomplish in a given time period.

But there is a lot of climate scientists that attempting to run the models with their best guess of the changes to the model that will be needed (or no changes to the model) to reflect future heat flow interactions. And they are producing plans with estimates of the effect of reducing CO2 a given amount in terms of the change in climate warming.

As you noted, you have a lot of reading ahead of you if you really want to dive in the detailed logic of the model and of the predictions. Good luck! :-)

[bookman]

14. Thanks for info & note...

Most of my message was from someone else. While I don't profess to have a complete handle on global warming I appreciate the work of real scientists in this area.

Most of the message was ..
from an email I got the following (a portion of the email...)...

That email is from someone who considers himself a libertarian.

[jpak]

15. Here's a partial list of GW papers published in Science and Nature

(and a couple other journals) over the last decade (or so)...

These are the Smoking Guns...

J. E. Harries, H. E. Brindley, P. J. Sagoo, R. J. Bantges (2001). Increases in greenhouse forcing inferred from the outgoing longwave radiation spectra of the Earth in 1970 and 1997. Nature. Vol. 410 pp 355 - 357

T. P. Barnett, D. W. Pierce, R. Schnur (2001). Detection of Anthropogenic Climate Change in the World's Oceans. Science. Vol. 292: pp 270-274.

S. Levitus, J. I. Antonov, J. Wang, T. L. Delworth, K. W. Dixon, and A. J. Broccoli (2001) Anthropogenic Warming of Earth's Climate System. Science. Vol. 292 pp 267-270.

Richard A. Kerr (2001) It's Official: Humans Are Behind Most of Global Warming
Science vol 26 pp 291: 566 (commentary)

T. R. Karl and K. E. Trenberth (2003) Modern Global Climate Change. Science. Vol. 302 pp 1719 - 1723

D. J. Karoly, K. Braganza, P. A. Stott, J. M. Arblaster, G. A. Meehl, A. J. Broccoli, and K. W. Dixon (2003) Detection of a Human Influence on North American Climate. Science. Vol. 302 pp 1200-1203

B. D. Santer, M. F. Wehner, T. M. L. Wigley, R. Sausen, G. A. Meehl, K. E. Taylor, C. Ammann, J. Arblaster, W. M. Washington, J. S. Boyle, and W. Brüggemann (2003) Contributions of Anthropogenic and Natural Forcing to Recent Tropopause Height Changes. Science. Vol. 301 pp 479-483

J. Hansen, L. Nazarenko, R., M Sato, J. Willis, A. Del Genio, D. Koch, A. Lacis, K. Lo, S. Menon, T. Novakov, J. Perlwitz, G. Russell, G. A. Schmidt N. Tausnev (2005) Earth's Energy Imbalance: Confirmation and Implications. Science. Vol. 308 pp 1431 – 1435

T. P. Barnett, D. W. Pierce, K. M. A. Rao, P. J. Gleckler, B. D. Santer, J. M. Gregory, and W. M. Washington (2005) Penetration of Human-Induced Warming into the World's Oceans. Science. Vol. 309 pp 284-287

V. Ramaswamy, M. D. Schwarzkopf, W. J. Randel, B. D. Santer, B. J. Soden, and G. L. Stenchikov (2006) Anthropogenic and Natural Influences in the Evolution of Lower Stratospheric Cooling. Science. Vol. 311 pp 1138-1141

P. A. Stott, D. A. Stone and M. R. Allen (2004) Human contribution to the European heatwave of 2003. Nature. Vol. 432 pp 610-614

BTW: I am a former National Reseach Council postdoctoral fellow (1994-97). The NRC is the reseach arm of the NAS - they are "legit"...

Full list below...

Hansen et al., (1981) Climate impact of increasing carbon dioxide, Science. Vol. 213 pp 957-966.

Helmut Rott, Pedro Skvarca, and Thomas Nagler. (1996) Rapid Collapse of Northern Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Science. Vol. 271 pp 788-792.

D. J. Cavalieri, P. Gloersen, C. L. Parkinson, J. C. Comiso, and H. J. Zwally (1997) Observed Hemispheric Asymmetry in Global Sea Ice Changes. Science. Vol. 278 pp 1104-1106.

William K. de la Mare (1997) Abrupt mid-twentieth-century decline in Antarctic sea-ice extent from whaling records. Nature. Vol. 389 pp 57 ñ 60.

E. J. Rignot, S. P. Gogineni, W. B. Krabill, and S. Ekholm (1997) North and Northeast Greenland Ice Discharge from Satellite Radar Interferometry. Science. Vol. 276 pp 934-937.

J. Overpeck, K. Hughen, D. Hardy, R. Bradley, R. Case, M. Douglas, B. Finney, K. Gajewski, G. Jacoby, A. Jennings, S. Lamoureux, A. Lasca, G. MacDonald, J. Moore, M. Retelle, S. Smith, A. Wolfe, and G. Zielinski (1997) Arctic Environmental Change of the Last Four Centuries. Science. Vol. 278 pp 1251-1256.

Robert K. Kaufmann, David I. Stern (1997) Evidence for human influence on climate from hemispheric temperature relations. Nature. Vol. 388 pp 39 - 44

Duncan J. Wingham, Andrew J. Ridout, Remko Scharroo, Robert J. Arthern, and C. K. Shum. (1998) Antarctic Elevation Change from 1992 to 1996. Science. Vol. 282 pp 456-458.

Scherer, R. P., Aldahan, A., Tulaczyk, S., Possnert, G., Engelhardt, H., Kamb, B. (1998). Pleistocene Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Science. Vol. 281 pp 82-85

Robert Bindschadler and Patricia Vornberger (1998) Changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Since 1963 from Declassified Satellite Photography. Science.Vol. 279: pp 689-692.

Richard A. Kerr (1999) Will the Arctic Ocean Lose All Its Ice? Science. Vol. 286 pp 1828.

Bernice Wuethrich (1999) Lack of Icebergs Another Sign Of Global Warming? Science. Vol. 285 pp 37

W. Krabill, E. Frederick, S. Manizade, C. Martin, J. Sonntag, R. Swift, R. Thomas, W. Wright, and J. Yungel (1999) Rapid Thinning of Parts of the Southern Greenland Ice Sheet. Vol. 283 pp 1522-1524.

O M. Johannessen, E V. Shalina, M W. Miles (1999) Satellite Evidence for an Arctic Sea Ice Cover in Transformation. Science. Vol. 286 pp. 1937-1939.

E. J. Rignot. (1998) Fast Recession of a West Antarctic Glacier. Science. Vol. 281 pp. 549-551.

Himalayan Glacier Backing Off. (1998) Science Vol. 281 pp 1277

Simon F. B. Tett, Peter A. Stott, Myles R. Allen, William J. Ingram, John F. B. Mitchell (1999) Causes of twentieth-century temperature change near the Earth's surface Nature. Vol. 399 pp. 569 - 572

H. Conway, B. L. Hall, G. H. Denton, A. M. Gades, and E. D. Waddington (1999) Past and Future Grounding-Line Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Science. Vol. 286 pp 280-283.

T. M. L. Wigley, R. L. Smith, B. D. Santer (1998). Anthropogenic Influence on the Autocorrelation Structure of Hemispheric-Mean Temperatures. Science. Volume 282 pp. 1676-1679.

Human Influence on Climate 1998 Science Vol. 282 pp 1609.

Pollack, H.N., Huang, S., and Shen, P.Y., 1998. Climate change record in subsurface temperatures: A global perspective. Science, 282: 279-281.

James E. Hansen, Makiko Sato, Reto Ruedy, Andrew Lacis, and Jay Glascoe (1998) Global Climate Data and Models: A Reconciliation. Science. Vol. 281 pp 930-932.

Konstantin Y. Vinnikov, Alan Robock, Ronald J. Stouffer, John E. Walsh, Claire L. Parkinson, Donald J. Cavalieri, John F. B. Mitchell, Donald Garrett, and Victor F. Zakharov (1999). Global Warming and Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Extent. Science. Vol. 286: 1934-1937.

Mann M. E., R. S. Bradley and Malcom K. Hughes (1999) Northern Hemisphere Temperatures During the Past Millennium: Inferences, Uncertainties, and Limitations Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 26, No. 6, p.759

S. Levitus, J. I. Antonov, T. P. Boyer, and C. Stephens (2000) Warming of the World Ocean Science 287: 2225-2229

Peter A. Stott, S. F. B. Tett, G. S. Jones, M. R. Allen, J. F. B. Mitchell, and G. J. Jenkins (2000) External Control of 20th Century Temperature by Natural and Anthropogenic Forcings. Science. Vol 290 pp 2133-2137.

Francis W. Zwiers and Andrew J. Weaver (2000) The Causes of 20th Century Warming.
Science. Vol. 290 pp 2081-2083.

Huang, S., Pollack, H. N., and Shen, P.Y. (2000) Temperature trends over the past five centuries reconstructed from borehole temperatures. Nature, 403: 756-758.

H. Jesse Smith (2000) Climate: Man-made and Natural Variation. Science Vol. 289: pp 217-219.

A Parsimonious Approach to Climate Change (2000) Science Vol. 289 pp 213

W. Krabill, W. Abdalati, E. Frederick, S. Manizade,C. Martin, J. Sonntag, R. Swift, R. Thomas, W. Wright, J. Yunge (2000) Greenland Ice Sheet: High-Elevation Balance and Peripheral Thinning. Science. Vol. 289, pp. 428-430.

Dorthe Dahl-Jensen (2000) The Greenland Ice Sheet Reacts. Science Vol. 289 pp. 404-405.

John J. Magnuson, Dale M. Robertson, Barbara J. Benson, Randolph H. Wynne, David M. Livingstone, Tadashi Arai, Raymond A. Assel, Roger G. Barry, Virginia Card, Esko Kuusisto, Nick G. Granin, Terry D. Prowse, Kenton M. Stewart, Valery S. Vuglinski (2000) Historical Trends in Lake and River Ice Cover in the Northern Hemisphere
Vol. 289 pp. 1743-1746.

Myles R. Allen, Peter A. Stott, John F. B. Mitchell, Reiner Schnur,Thomas L. Delworth (2000) Quantifying the uncertainty in forecasts of anthropogenic climate change. Nature. Vol. 407 pp 617 - 620

B. D. Santer, T. M. L. Wigley, D. J. Gaffen, L. Bengtsson, C. Doutriaux, J. S. Boyle, M. Esch, J. J. Hnilo, P. D. Jones, G. A. Meehl, E. Roeckner, K. E. Taylor, and M. F. Wehner (2000) Interpreting Differential Temperature Trends at the Surface and in the Lower Troposphere. Vol. 287 pp 1227-1232.

Andrew Shepherd, Duncan J. Wingham, Justin A. D. Mansley, and Hugh F. J. Corr Inland Thinning of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica. (2001). Science. Vol. 291 pp 862-864.

Thinning Ice. (2001) Science. Vol. 291 pp 785.

Kevin Krajick. (2001) Arctic Life, on Thin Ice. Science Vol. 291 pp 424-425.

W. S. B. Paterson, Niels Reeh (2001) Thinning of the ice sheet in northwest Greenland over the past forty years. Nature. Vol. 414 pp. 60 - 62

Richard A. Kerr (2001) It's Official: Humans Are Behind Most of Global Warming
Science vol 26 pp 291: 566

J. E. Harries, H. E. Brindley, P. J. Sagoo, R. J. Bantges (2001). Increases in greenhouse forcing inferred from the outgoing longwave radiation spectra of the Earth in 1970 and 1997. Nature Vol. 410 pp 355 - 357

T. P. Barnett, D. W. Pierce, R. Schnur (2001). Detection of Anthropogenic Climate Change in the World's Oceans. Science Vol. 292: pp 270-274.

S. Levitus, J. I. Antonov, J. Wang, T. L. Delworth, K. W. Dixon, and A. J. Broccoli (2001) Anthropogenic Warming of Earth's Climate System.
Science 292: 267-270.

T. M. L. Wigley and S. C. B. Raper (2001) Interpretation of High Projections for Global-Mean Warming. Science Vol. 293 pp 451-454.

Gille, S. T. (2002) Warming of the Southern Ocean Since the 1950s. Science Vol. 295: pp 1275-1277

D. Rind (2002) The Sun's Role in Climate Variations. Science Vol 296 pp 673-677

Wendy C. Quayle, Lloyd S. Peck, Helen Peat, J. C. Ellis-Evans, and P. Richard Harrigan (2002) Extreme Responses to Climate Change in Antarctic Lakes. Science. Vol 295 pp 645

J. Hansen, R. Ruedy, M. Sato, and K. Lo (2002) Global Warming Continues. Science. Vol. 295 pp. 275

Ian Joughin and Slawek Tulaczyk (2002) Positive Mass Balance of the Ross Ice Streams, West Antarctica. Science 2002 Vol. 295 pp 476-480.

Richard B. Alley (2002) On Thickening Ice? Science Vol. 295 pp. 451-452.

More Ice, Not Less. (2002) Science. Vol. 295 pp 401

Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses. (2002) Science. Vol. 295 pp 2359

G-R Walther, E. Post, P. Convey, A. Menzel, C. Parmesan, T. J. C. Beebee, J-M. Fromentin, O. Hoegh-Guldberg & F. Bairlain (2002) Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature. Vol. 416 pp 389 - 395

B. Santer, C. Doutriaux, J. Boyle, S. Sengupta and K. Taylor. (2001) Accounting for the Effects of Volcanoes and ENSO in Comparisons of Modeled and Observed Temperature Trends Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmosphere Vol. 106 pp 28,033-28,060

Hartmann D. L., and Michelsen M. L. (2002) No evidence for iris. Bull. Am. Met. Soc. 83: in press.

Lin. B., Wielicki, B. A., Chambers. L. H., Hu, X., and Xu K.-M (2002) The iris hypothesis: a positive or negative feedback? J. Climate 15: 3-7.

Lindzen, R. S. Chou M.-C., and Hou S. Y. (2001) Does the earth have an adaptive iris? Bull. Am. Met. Soc. 82: 417-432.

S. T. Gille (2002) Warming of the Southern Ocean Since the 1950s. Science vol 295 pp 1275-1277.

D. W. J. Thompson and S. Solomon (2002) Interpretation of Recent Southern Hemisphere Climate Change. Science. Vol. 296 pp 895-899.

http://www.detnews.com/2002/nation/0205/16/a15-490840.htm LA Times article

Richard E. Moritz, Cecilia M. Bitz, and Eric J. Steig (2002) Dynamics of Recent Climate Change in the Arctic. Science vol 297: 1497-1502.

Eric Rignot and Robert H. Thomas (2002) Mass Balance of Polar Ice Sheets. Science 297: 1502-1506.

Florent Dominé and Paul B. Shepson (2002) Air-Snow Interactions and Atmospheric Chemistry Science vol 297: 1506-1510.

J. P. Croxall, P. N. Trathan, and E. J. Murphy 2002 Environmental Change and Antarctic Seabird Populations Science vol 297: 1510-1514.

T. R. Karl and K. E. Trenberth (2003) Modern Global Climate Change Science Vol. 302: 1719 - 1723

D. J. Karoly, K. Braganza, P. A. Stott, J. M. Arblaster, G. A. Meehl, A. J. Broccoli, and K. W. Dixon (2003) Detection of a Human Influence on North American Climate. Science 302: 1200-1203

P. A. Stott, D. A. Stone and M. R. Allen (2004) Human contribution to the European heatwave of 2003 Nature 432, 610-614

B. D. Santer, M. F. Wehner, T. M. L. Wigley, R. Sausen, G. A. Meehl, K. E. Taylor, C. Ammann, J. Arblaster, W. M. Washington, J. S. Boyle, and W. Brüggemann (2003) Contributions of Anthropogenic and Natural Forcing to Recent Tropopause Height Changes Science 301: 479-483

J. Hansen, L. Nazarenko, R. Ruedy, M Sato, J. Willis, A. Del Genio, D. Koch, A. Lacis, K. Lo, S. Menon, T. Novakov, J. Perlwitz, G. Russell, G. A. Schmidt N. Tausnev (2005) Earth's Energy Imbalance: Confirmation and Implications Science Vol. 308: 1431 – 1435

B. J. Soden, D. L. Jackson, V. Ramaswamy, M. D. Schwarzkopf, and X. Huang (2005) The Radiative Signature of Upper Tropospheric Moistening. Science 310: 841-844

T. P. Barnett, D. W. Pierce, K. M. AchutaRao, P. J. Gleckler, B. D. Santer, J. M. Gregory, and W. M. Washington (2005) Penetration of Human-Induced Warming into the World's Oceans Science 309: 284-287

V. Ramaswamy, M. D. Schwarzkopf, W. J. Randel, B. D. Santer, B. J. Soden, and G. L. Stenchikov (2006) Anthropogenic and Natural Influences in the Evolution of Lower Stratospheric Cooling Science 311: 1138-1141

[jpak]

3. It's legit

Academy members include the best of the best of American science and Academy (National Research Council) panels are independent of government and industry influence.

[Waistdeep]

4. It's extremely prestigious

It's a great honor to be elected.
Definitely not a front group.

[Dudley_DUright]

5. Very legit

There is a cool statue of Einstein just outside their headquarters in DC. I got a photo of one of my physics students sitting on Einstein's lap just a few weeks ago.

[bananas]

6. Why do you ask?

BTW, one of them will be on the radio tomorrow.

Guests:
...
Kevin Crowley
Director, Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board
National Academies of Science
Washington, DC
...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x55704

[bookman]

8. Why...

..see my reply to similar question above.

Thanks for the reply.

[struggle4progress]

9. 100% Legit. Very prestigious. Very difficult to get elected to NAS.

Large, top research universities may have 1 or 2 faculty per year elected. Typically the people elected have a long history of supervising large numbers of graduate students and have published hundreds of papers: in short, very smart, very focused, very geeky, sometimes very sure of themselves and (like many other people) unable to distinguish their opinions from facts outside their realm of expertise ...

[papau]

12. LOL = well said! :-)

:-)

[NNadir]

13. Too bad Richard Feynman isn't alive. We could ask him.

He more or less had a scientific way of stating the line, "I refuse to be a member of any organization that would have me as a member."

Of course he didn't really refuse, but he was certainly ambivalent about honors.

The National Academy of Sciences deserves respect, but the members should not be confused with the priests at the Oracle at Delphi.

[Robert Rapier]

16. They Better Be Legit

They gave me an award once (personally signed by Al Gore). I refuse to accept awards from illegitimate organizations. I remember how I carried myself with class and dignity at the awards ceremony. I was just out of grad school, hanging out with my prof and other grad students. This guy kept coming by with platters of chilled shrimp before the ceremony. We cleaned him out every time. I bet I ate 50 or 60.

RR