The high today in Utah was below freezing! The sun was out and everything. In January! HOAX!!!!

I told you not to drink that hot cocoa! Now we'll have global warming!

@2
For a while I was on your side in the Will/Fnarf schism, now I think I'm going back to Fnarf's team. Excuse the stereotype, but are you purposely trying to sound gay?

@3 do we have to be on a side? Can't we root against both?

@4
doesn't really matter to me, though option B sounds pretty good. I got to skedaddle for a day or two or week or three before I get on that list. I'm sure Santa Savage is checking who's naughty or nice.

you know that is kind of the point of climate change? More heat and energy in the atmosphere means the highs are higher, the lows are lower and the storms stronger.

@6 storms stronger: still some debate there. More moisture in the mid latitudes is a given, though how/where it falls is uncertain. Likely the rich will get richer and the poor, poorer.

Adults don't wear mittens. They wear gloves.

@1 only because of the inversion. Get out of the inversion and its much warmer.

I was watching some PBS Nova episode last night that was getting doomsday-ey over the eruptive potential of the Icelandic volcanoes. Apparently, we're going to have the atmosphere pumped full of enough dust to create a nuclear winter if one volcano blows up, and enough sulfuric gases to kill off a large swath of Earth's life if this other one blows up. Plus, there's apparently nothing to keep them both from going off at once. Oh, and there are three other hot ones ready to pop, too.

So, it seems we might not end up having to do very much to counteract our screwing up the weather. The Earth might just randomly take care of that for us any day now. Between being smothered, starved, and losing a big chunk of our industrial capacity, our future output of man-made greenhouse gases should be reduced, too. Although, if I remember correctly, any sulfur dioxide left in the atmosphere after the microparticulates rain out would make for pretty potent greenhouse potential.

Happy days.

Everybody knows it's true: the presence of a single snowflake anywhere at anytime is all you need to disprove global warming. Duh!

Hey Brooklyn Reader,
I've been wondering about that for a long time. It is terribly interesting that a major volcanic event could change the whole picture very, very quickly.

@8- Climate change does not normally occur this suddenly or with this much severity. Noting that there are always incremental changes in climate is so far from an actual argument it is laughable. Laughable or blind or arrogant. (You could vote for all of the above!)

@12,14: please read up on the concept of "residence time" to understand why a one time injection of sulfate will not fix the problem of carbon loading in the atmosphere and ocean.

@3, I don't really want you on my team if you're going to drop "gay" as a pejorative.

Here, I know you're probably confused, so I'll help you out: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar…

The best way to enjoy Will vs. Fnarf is to hide Will, and then try to imagine what asinine thing set off Fnarf this time.

MY DAD SNOWBOARDS!

Everyone is fat snow biking.

Fat snow biking is everywhere.

You must submit to fat snow biking.

End of transmission.

> there were 362 all-time record highs logged in the U.S. in 2012 but ZERO all-time record lows

That's a great way to frame it. Higher highs, higher lows.

@21 good morning, spambot.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about Mittens! I'd have thought this would end after the election!

@8: Pond scum caused the Earth to go from an anerobic, electrochemically reduced rock with a barren and heavily-irradiated surface to the aerobic, electrochemically oxidized, ecologically complex planet we know today. POND SCUM can do that, and you think we can't alter the average surface temperature by a few degrees?
Speaking scientifically now, the rate of warming is unprecedented in geologic history excepting catastrophic events such as major impacts or extreme volcanism. There is a variety of positive feedback systems (ice caps and albedo, temperature-dependent decomposition of biomass, temperature-dependent oceanic gas solvation, among others) that can take a minor perturbation (human CO2 emissions, for example) and turn it into a major change in the Earth's climatology.
People like you once believed that the North American wilderness was unconquerable, that nothing humans could do would ever be able to deplete its resources. Oops.

@12: Proposed geoengineering approaches to mitigating the effects of high CO2 levels include injecting sulfate particles into the upper atmosphere. Basically, artificially doing what a volcanic eruption might. Of course, this would have to be a continual (or at least serial) process, as #16 alludes to. And it wouldn't do anything about ocean acidification; it would be a strictly temperature-control fix.

Is anyone else scared to death about the possibility of an oceanic anoxic event?

I really can't believe Will continues to post here after the epic Fnarfdown administered to him a long time back. I would be just way too embarrassed to ever return if that were me.

Which makes Will all the weirder...

@4 for the Hot Cocoa means Spice World win of the epoch!

@26 lol, if I survived the Flame Wars of USENET at the dawn of time, do you really think it matters what weak sauce you serve up now?

@28:
"No, my father didn't fight in the wars. He was a sysadmin on a fanfiction wiki."
"That's what your uncle told you. He didn't hold with your father's posts. Thought he should have stayed on 4chan and not gotten involved."
"You fought in the Flame Wars?"
"Yes, I was once a Master Troll the same as your father."

So Dan how did Romney react when you put your hands up his ass?

@28 Your youth is showing child.

It would be closer to correct if you had him as group moderator for soc.subculture.cuddling .
The best of the trolls from 4chan would have been giggled out of existence during the Flame Wars of Usenet. In fact the worst of the flames didn't involve ANY trolls. Sysadmins were tremendously more capable of Flames that made you think. The Flame Wars didn't involve the puny, wimpy flames that are considered state of the art these days as anyone can create and post garbage in mere moments. To be a warrior in the Flame Wars you had be proficient in the High Art of the Flame that Requires Thinking. A well crafted flame in those terrible, terrible days would cause the victim to read the Flame about 3 times before he managed to figure out just how many ways he had been insulted. If he ever figured it all out of course. It was considered a High Art because it required you to remove the victim's skin with subtlety and finesse and not just ham-handed insults. At the net-ghod level of play the victim shouldn't realize just how badly he was skinned and toasted until you went back and poured on the salt. Sadly these skills are lacking these days. The best I've seen from Fnarf would have rated merely wizard level while Will has only shown flashes of guru. Maybe they can both do better but then again, maybe not. But it isn't up to me to judge anymore. I gave up my keyboard of smiting years ago and mellowed out somewhat. Why I don't even keep my skinning knife sharp these days. Heck I don't even keep a large supply of salt around... no more than 3 or 4 pounds anyway.
Well reminiscing like this isn't getting me any closer to my bed (and the girlfriend in it) so time for me to trundle off like any other net-dinosaur and get some rest. Those of us who remember the days of DARPANet tend to need to sleep at least for a few hours every couple of days or so. One of these days you will know how it is.

oops I meant @29 NOT @28

See what happens when you get old? You miss things like that.

@31: I can sum up your post thusly: http://cdn.overclock.net/0/0c/0c92716c_b…
And shut up, I'm making a Star Wars reference. Nicely trolled though, 6/10, raged slightly.

Venomlash, I find your posts insightful, delightful and witty. Thanks for being around.

Romial, thanks for the memories, and humor. May your dotage hold at bay.