Mail Your Gold To Me?!?!?

So, I was channel-surfing last night and ran across yet another ad offering to buy gold. The gimmick was the same as the 57 other ads I've seen - you put your gold jewelry in an envelope, mail it off to somebody and they send you a check.

Am I missing something here? Like:

A) How do I know that they won't claim my shipment "got lost" in the mail? Or just collect some packages and fly away one night?
B) How do I know that they won't short me? "Sorry, sir, there were only two rings in the envelope."
C) How do I know I'll get a good price for my gold? "Sir, that wasn't 14 karat, it was 10."

Either I'm missing something here, or these commercials are yet more proof of the quote attributed to P. T. Barnum saying "there's a sucker born every minute."

If you want to sell your gold jewelry, go to a pawn shop, or better yet two shops.

The Trouble With Stupid, Climate Change Condition

So, over at Simberg's Flying Circus, they are arguing that adjustments applied to the raw temperature data at Darwin, Australia, prove that Soylent Green is People! climate change is a hoax. To say that their are a number of problems with this logic is somewhat of an understatement.

First, finding one "bad" record out of thousands doesn't really invalidate anything. Second, as discussed here, the analysis of the data is flawed at best. Third, as discussed here by an actual climatologist, the history of the Darwin station in particular is problematic. Fourth, the lack of data points in general for northern Australia is a problem - as it happens the only legitimate one.

But here's the real issue. To restate the original rule: The problem with stupid people is that it takes an enormous amount of time and effort to refute their stupidity. Therefore, most people don't bother - so the stupidity just keeps getting repeated with no response from any smart people. And therefore the semi-smart people believe it.

So now, instead of discussing what to do about a warming climate, time and effort must be diverted to arguing about one data point in a sea of data points. You wonder why climatologists get snippy with and about their critics?

ETA Do climatologists falsify their data? No.