The BBC interview with Phil Jones, the disgraced head of the climate science scam at East Anglia University, detailed here and here, is quite damning of the entire 'global warming' enterprise. Remember, the 'data' generated by East Anglia was used as the basis for billions upon billions of spending around the world. When confronted by Freedom of Information requests, Jones stonewalled. He knows in his heart that his work will not survive scrutiny. He seems to plea for sympathy at one point. OS finds it hard to work up any.
Planet Gore notes the profound lack of coverage of this inconvenient bit of truth in the mainstream US media outlets.
It's now a matter of time. One of them will realize that the silence will be much more damaging to their reputations and bottom lines than can be tolerated.
At that point, the dam will break. The ice, indeed, will melt around AlGore's feet.
Of course, each outlet will claim that (a.) they were wise to the scam all along, and (b.) that they had broken the story of the fraud.
Yadda, yadda.
Yadda.
In the meantime, OS wishes to share the 'Summary for Policymakers' of an extensive report by Joseph D'Aleo (co-founder of The Weather Channel), and Anthony Watts, a 25-year meteorology broadcast veteran. The full report, published 29 January 2010, may be downloaded here, at the end of the linked article.
1. Instrumental temperature data for the pre-satellite era (1850-1980) have been so widely, systematically, and unidirectionally tampered with that it cannot be credibly asserted there has been any significant “global warming” in the 20th century.
2. All terrestrial surface-temperature databases exhibit very serious problems that render them useless for determining accurate long-term temperature trends.
3. All of the problems have skewed the data so as greatly to overstate observed warming both regionally and globally.
4. Global terrestrial temperature data are gravely compromised because more than three-quarters of the 6,000 stations that once existed are no longer reporting.
5. There has been a severe bias towards removing higher-altitude, higher-latitude, and rural stations, leading to a further serious overstatement of warming.
6. Contamination by urbanization, changes in land use, improper siting, and inadequately-calibrated instrument upgrades further overstates warming.
7. Numerous peer-reviewed papers in recent years have shown the overstatement of observed longer term warming is 30-50% from heat-island contamination alone.
8. Cherry-picking of observing sites combined with interpolation to vacant data grids may make heat-island bias greater than 50% of 20th-century warming.
9. In the oceans, data are missing and uncertainties are substantial. Comprehensive coverage has only been available since 2003, and shows no warming.
10. Satellite temperature monitoring has provided an alternative to terrestrial stations in compiling the global lower-troposphere temperature record. Their findings are increasingly diverging from the station-based constructions in a manner consistent with evidence of a warm bias in the surface temperature record.
11. NOAA and NASA, along with CRU, were the driving forces behind the systematic hyping of 20th-
century “global warming”.
12. Changes have been made to alter the historical record to mask cyclical changes that could be readily explained by natural factors like multidecadal ocean and solar changes.
13. Global terrestrial data bases are seriously flawed and can no longer be trusted to assess climate trends or VALIDATE model forecasts.
14. An inclusive external assessment is essential of the surface temperature record of CRU, GISS and NCDC “chaired and paneled by mutually agreed to climate scientists who do not have a vested interest in the outcome of the evaluations.”
15. Reliance on the global data by both the UNIPCC and the US GCRP/CCSP also requires a full investigation and audit.
It's a 100+ page report, heavy on footnotes and charts.
No one had to force the information from them, and it is open to peer review, as it has been published.
Who you gonna believe?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
A Bit Under The Radar, Ken Starr Is Named President Of Baylor University
The Rabid Left will foam at the mouth, without a doubt. Watch for it. The news hasn't come up on their radar.
Ken Starr, the prosecutor who exposed the Clintons, has been chosen as president of Baylor University, in Waco Texas.
Baylor University announces that Kenneth Winston Starr, J.D., current dean of the School of Law at Pepperdine University, has been named the 14th president of Baylor University. Judge Starr was the unanimous choice of both the 14-member Presidential Search Committee and the 10-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee, and was elected unanimously by the Baylor Board of Regents on February 12, 2010.
Judge Starr will be introduced to the campus community by Regents Chair R. Dary Stone, J.D. '77, at a university-wide meeting in the Bill Daniel Student Center on the Baylor campus at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 16.
For those unfamiliar with Baylor, it is a cornerstone institution of Texas, founded by and funded by Texas Baptists.
It is a conservative institution, but any and all attempts to characterize it as a bunch of wing-nuts in the Texas prairie just don't stick. They run a very good medical school, for openers.
OS sees this announcement as a very good thing for the culture, a hopeful sign. Kudos to Baylor.
Here's the Baylor homepage.
Ken Starr, the prosecutor who exposed the Clintons, has been chosen as president of Baylor University, in Waco Texas.
Baylor University announces that Kenneth Winston Starr, J.D., current dean of the School of Law at Pepperdine University, has been named the 14th president of Baylor University. Judge Starr was the unanimous choice of both the 14-member Presidential Search Committee and the 10-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee, and was elected unanimously by the Baylor Board of Regents on February 12, 2010.
Judge Starr will be introduced to the campus community by Regents Chair R. Dary Stone, J.D. '77, at a university-wide meeting in the Bill Daniel Student Center on the Baylor campus at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 16.
For those unfamiliar with Baylor, it is a cornerstone institution of Texas, founded by and funded by Texas Baptists.
It is a conservative institution, but any and all attempts to characterize it as a bunch of wing-nuts in the Texas prairie just don't stick. They run a very good medical school, for openers.
OS sees this announcement as a very good thing for the culture, a hopeful sign. Kudos to Baylor.
Here's the Baylor homepage.
Not One Mention Of The 'AstroTurf Word' From The New York Times
Today's New York Times features a long and thoughtful article by David Barstow, telling the stories of previously apolitical citizens who have become Tea-Party activists.
Well worth reading and considering, especially if you are visiting this blog from overseas. Barstow presents an even-handed account, and carefully avoids the temptation to create cartoon characters, as so many in the MSM have attempted.
A brief excerpt:
The Tea Party movement has become a platform for conservative populist discontent, a force in Republican politics for revival, as it was in the Massachusetts Senate election, or for division. But it is also about the profound private transformation of people like Mrs. Stout, people who not long ago were not especially interested in politics, yet now say they are bracing for tyranny.
Again, highly recommended, and worthy of sharing, especially for readers outside our shores. America can look very confusing from a distance, and this article helps provide some focus.
As OS has mentioned before, Cintons/Gore/Obama/Pelosi/Reid et al could always count on the uncritical support of the New York Times. Those days are drawing to a close. The Massachusetts 'attitude adjustment' is beginning to take hold in the editorial suite. The fact that they are going broke has also focused their attention a bit. One reader at a time, they alienated their readership, one half-truth and outright whopper at a time.
Chill winds are blowing, and Obama and Company have lost a great deal of their traditional shelter.
(Two loyalist Democrat senators, Bayh and Mikulski, announced their exit this week. They've had enough.)
Well worth reading and considering, especially if you are visiting this blog from overseas. Barstow presents an even-handed account, and carefully avoids the temptation to create cartoon characters, as so many in the MSM have attempted.
A brief excerpt:
The Tea Party movement has become a platform for conservative populist discontent, a force in Republican politics for revival, as it was in the Massachusetts Senate election, or for division. But it is also about the profound private transformation of people like Mrs. Stout, people who not long ago were not especially interested in politics, yet now say they are bracing for tyranny.
Again, highly recommended, and worthy of sharing, especially for readers outside our shores. America can look very confusing from a distance, and this article helps provide some focus.
As OS has mentioned before, Cintons/Gore/Obama/Pelosi/Reid et al could always count on the uncritical support of the New York Times. Those days are drawing to a close. The Massachusetts 'attitude adjustment' is beginning to take hold in the editorial suite. The fact that they are going broke has also focused their attention a bit. One reader at a time, they alienated their readership, one half-truth and outright whopper at a time.
Chill winds are blowing, and Obama and Company have lost a great deal of their traditional shelter.
(Two loyalist Democrat senators, Bayh and Mikulski, announced their exit this week. They've had enough.)
Whew! That Was A Close Call!
This news from the Philadelphia Enquirer, relaying the news that TSA demanded a four-year-old boy with physical challenges take off his leg braces and walk through a security checkpoint.
He was being transported through the airport by wheelchair, on his first trip to Disney, by his mom and dad.
His dad is a police officer.
We can rest easy, knowing the TSA is on the job...no preschooler terrorist in a wheelchair will be able to slip through our foolproof airport security system. Only the twenty-something one, flying from Africa, on a ticket paid with cash, whose own father had urged our government to be on the lookout for him. He gets through, is subdued by a Dutchman, and given his own lawyer.
Yessiree, Bob!
He was being transported through the airport by wheelchair, on his first trip to Disney, by his mom and dad.
His dad is a police officer.
We can rest easy, knowing the TSA is on the job...no preschooler terrorist in a wheelchair will be able to slip through our foolproof airport security system. Only the twenty-something one, flying from Africa, on a ticket paid with cash, whose own father had urged our government to be on the lookout for him. He gets through, is subdued by a Dutchman, and given his own lawyer.
Yessiree, Bob!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Al Gore Speaks From Parnassus
His conclusion: It's Worse Than We Thought
Silence about the bogus science. Anyone who dares disagree is a 'denier'. Apocalyptic warnings that only massive government intervention can save us. The North Pole is melting away before our eyes, even though the ice cap is growing. No word lately on the polar bears.
A browse through his blog is educational, to say the least.
Gotta get back to work. Tennessee is snowed in.
Again.
Silence about the bogus science. Anyone who dares disagree is a 'denier'. Apocalyptic warnings that only massive government intervention can save us. The North Pole is melting away before our eyes, even though the ice cap is growing. No word lately on the polar bears.
A browse through his blog is educational, to say the least.
Gotta get back to work. Tennessee is snowed in.
Again.
Livin' The High Life: The Congressional Black Caucus
OS ran across bits of this, and thought--nyah, this is just some rant from some guy living in his mom's basement with his gun collection and Confederate flag.
In 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation spent more on the caterer for its signature legislative dinner and conference — nearly $700,000 for an event one organizer called “Hollywood on the Potomac” — than it gave out in scholarships, federal tax records show.
OS has a friend on the faculty at Fisk University, a flagship black university, founded and built by freed slaves. They struggle to keep the doors open. Certainly, this story is overblown. What could Fisk do with 700 grand?
But, just to be certain, he kept searching, and the original story is sourced at the New York Times.
The quote was accurate. And the whole story is much uglier than just that paragraph.
Time was, the Times would never, ever print a story like this. They were the original LiberalGuiltAssCovering service. No matter how egregious, never a murmur about any black Democrat. Back in the day, Adam Clayton Powell ran Harlem as a personal duchy, right under the nose of the Times.
Well, times has changed(unintentional pun...) Reality is setting in. Their people won. Statehouse, Congress, White House. Black governor, black president. The Dream is reality.
And the wheels are coming off.
The Times, to survive, must regain at least a semblance of credibility. They no longer control the conversation, and increasingly, the country doesn't care what their editorial page thinks.
Obama and company are losing their cover, and cold winds are beginning to blow.
In 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation spent more on the caterer for its signature legislative dinner and conference — nearly $700,000 for an event one organizer called “Hollywood on the Potomac” — than it gave out in scholarships, federal tax records show.
OS has a friend on the faculty at Fisk University, a flagship black university, founded and built by freed slaves. They struggle to keep the doors open. Certainly, this story is overblown. What could Fisk do with 700 grand?
But, just to be certain, he kept searching, and the original story is sourced at the New York Times.
The quote was accurate. And the whole story is much uglier than just that paragraph.
Time was, the Times would never, ever print a story like this. They were the original LiberalGuiltAssCovering service. No matter how egregious, never a murmur about any black Democrat. Back in the day, Adam Clayton Powell ran Harlem as a personal duchy, right under the nose of the Times.
Well, times has changed(unintentional pun...) Reality is setting in. Their people won. Statehouse, Congress, White House. Black governor, black president. The Dream is reality.
And the wheels are coming off.
The Times, to survive, must regain at least a semblance of credibility. They no longer control the conversation, and increasingly, the country doesn't care what their editorial page thinks.
Obama and company are losing their cover, and cold winds are beginning to blow.
Obama And Iran Explained
Maybe this is the reason our President seems so, shall we say, intimidated by the Iranian question.
Just sayin'...
(ooh, that was uncivil...)
Just sayin'...
(ooh, that was uncivil...)
P & G Scores Big With Their Olympic Ad
Proctor and Gamble will weather our present troubles. They make the everyday products the world consumes. Pampers, Crest, Tide, Pepto-Bismol, the list stretches on.
They also have execs in place who have the intelligence and insight to commission ads like this for the Winter Olympics. It's brilliant stroke, as they build the brand value and barely mention any of the products they sell. There will be time for that later. For now, they spread good cheer and good will.
They also have execs in place who have the intelligence and insight to commission ads like this for the Winter Olympics. It's brilliant stroke, as they build the brand value and barely mention any of the products they sell. There will be time for that later. For now, they spread good cheer and good will.
Global Warming, Or, The Weather Station Next To The Waste Incinerator
Bit by bit, person by person, week by week.
The global warming scam is being exposed. The Sunday Times reports:
The United Nations climate panel faces a new challenge with scientists casting doubt on its claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution. In its last assessment the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the evidence that the world was warming was “unequivocal”.
No debate allowed. The UN, and Al Gore had spoken. Any who dared disagree were simply ignorant, backward, Luddites, not worthy of consideration. Obama ran his campaign on the assumption of global warming, and the promise to set all right. Billions upon billions of dollars of government spending has already occurred, seeking a solution to a problem that likely never existed. Then there are the private sector costs incurred, due to legislation and regulation. The list goes on and on...
But, with doubts arising, and evidence of fraud surfacing, the IPCC invited outside review of its last report. The evidence points away from their conclusion.
Ross McKitrick, professor of economics at the University of Guelph, Canada, was one scholar invited to review the findings. The Times reports:
The experience turned him into a strong critic and he has since published a research paper questioning its methods.
“We concluded, with overwhelming statistical significance, that the IPCC’s climate data are contaminated with surface effects from industrialisation and data quality problems. These add up to a large warming bias,” he said.
Such warnings are supported by a study of US weather stations co-written by Anthony Watts, an American meteorologist and climate change sceptic.
His study, which has not been peer reviewed, is illustrated with photographs of weather stations in locations where their readings are distorted by heat-generating equipment. Some are next to air- conditioning units or are on waste treatment plants. One of the most infamous shows a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
...a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
...a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
...a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
And we are expected to change everything about our lives, predicated on conclusions created by this kind of junk science. And we are expected to be civil whilst this happens.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
The principal scientist upon whose 'research' the whole hysteria has been based admits he has perhaps lost the data, and that there has been no global warming since 1995.
And that it is likely the earth was warmer for a long period during medieval times.
Still others are chiming in. Reputable scientists, who understand that truth matters, that numbers and words have meaning.
And Al Gore's office, back in Nashville, has no comment to offer.
This country came within a whisker of electing Al Gore to the Presidency in 2000. Luckily, his home state would have none of it.
So, as OldSouth awaits the next round of snow here tonight in Tennessee, he breathes a temporary sigh of relief. The scammers won't go away easily. They'll think of some other way to hustle the taxpayer and wage war on the economy.
But, November is coming. There is a public record of who did and did not drink the AlGore Koolaid.
This will be an interesting year.
The global warming scam is being exposed. The Sunday Times reports:
The United Nations climate panel faces a new challenge with scientists casting doubt on its claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution. In its last assessment the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the evidence that the world was warming was “unequivocal”.
No debate allowed. The UN, and Al Gore had spoken. Any who dared disagree were simply ignorant, backward, Luddites, not worthy of consideration. Obama ran his campaign on the assumption of global warming, and the promise to set all right. Billions upon billions of dollars of government spending has already occurred, seeking a solution to a problem that likely never existed. Then there are the private sector costs incurred, due to legislation and regulation. The list goes on and on...
But, with doubts arising, and evidence of fraud surfacing, the IPCC invited outside review of its last report. The evidence points away from their conclusion.
Ross McKitrick, professor of economics at the University of Guelph, Canada, was one scholar invited to review the findings. The Times reports:
The experience turned him into a strong critic and he has since published a research paper questioning its methods.
“We concluded, with overwhelming statistical significance, that the IPCC’s climate data are contaminated with surface effects from industrialisation and data quality problems. These add up to a large warming bias,” he said.
Such warnings are supported by a study of US weather stations co-written by Anthony Watts, an American meteorologist and climate change sceptic.
His study, which has not been peer reviewed, is illustrated with photographs of weather stations in locations where their readings are distorted by heat-generating equipment. Some are next to air- conditioning units or are on waste treatment plants. One of the most infamous shows a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
...a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
...a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
...a weather station next to a waste incinerator.
And we are expected to change everything about our lives, predicated on conclusions created by this kind of junk science. And we are expected to be civil whilst this happens.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
The principal scientist upon whose 'research' the whole hysteria has been based admits he has perhaps lost the data, and that there has been no global warming since 1995.
And that it is likely the earth was warmer for a long period during medieval times.
Still others are chiming in. Reputable scientists, who understand that truth matters, that numbers and words have meaning.
And Al Gore's office, back in Nashville, has no comment to offer.
This country came within a whisker of electing Al Gore to the Presidency in 2000. Luckily, his home state would have none of it.
So, as OldSouth awaits the next round of snow here tonight in Tennessee, he breathes a temporary sigh of relief. The scammers won't go away easily. They'll think of some other way to hustle the taxpayer and wage war on the economy.
But, November is coming. There is a public record of who did and did not drink the AlGore Koolaid.
This will be an interesting year.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Avoidable Tragedy
This tragic and bizarre story emerges from the past of Amy Bishop, the apparent killer of three at University of Alabama Hunstville.
It appears Dr. Bishop held a shotgun that discharged and killed her younger brother in 1986. She was nineteen at the time. An unspeakable tragedy, attributed as an accident at the time.
We'll probably never know 'why' the Huntsville tragedy took place. None of us are exempt from tragedy, or from the possibility that something this bizarre may indeed visit our lives; that we or someone we love may fall victim to an evil act. Perhaps more tragically, someone we love and think we know may perpetrate some tragedy. Perhaps, even ourselves. It can be scary to contemplate, and hopefully breeds humility in us all. Absent grace, we all are capable of anything.
We can't know the individual stories and family histories of every person in every room we enter. As one old Presbyterian preacher once quipped: 'If you knew everything about me, you wouldn't want to be in those pews. If I knew everything about you, I wouldn't want to be in this pulpit!' And, since we all fail, we should not be obligated to live our lives defined only by our failures and tragedies. OS has seen this happen, and it almost happened to him along the way. Without grace, all lives grind to a halt.
That said, however...
Guns are designed to not discharge by accident. It requires several deliberate acts to load a shotgun of any design, chamber the shell, disengage the safety, and pull the trigger. They are designed for safety, to be operated by responsible people who are trained to them. OS is so grateful he grew up shooting, always supervised. He knew they weren't toys.
Yet, accidents can and do happen. They are chains of events, in reality. Leave a loaded firearm within reach of an untrained young person who doesn't understand the dangers, and...you've taken at least two of the deliberate safety steps out of the process. OS's childhood next-door neighbor was a police detective, a grizzled veteran. When he came home from work, he stepped into the house. His first act was always to unload his service revolver in the sight of all. The revolver went to one side of the room, out of reach of any child, and the cartridges went to the other side of the room, out of reach of any child.
It was his ritual. He never failed to observe it.
A terrible tragedy later visited his home, but it was not the tragedy of one of his sons killing the other.
How did the tragedy of 1986 set the stage for the tragedy of 2010? We'll never know, really.
Was 1986 an accident, or an act of evil? We'll never know, twenty-four years removed. And to exhaustively re-examine the question only increases the agony for the innocent members of that family.
In the meantime, OS has an aging neighbor with macular degeneration, prone to depression. Who owns a pistol with a rather complicated safety. Which now sits, unloaded, clip out, in OS's closet. He checked it himself, twice. The shells are in the pickup truck.
OS is a proud NRA member, and plans to get his carry permit this year.
He doesn't want this particular, avoidable, tragedy to visit his house. Or subsequent tragedies to visit someone else's house in 2034.
Please, if you have weapons, think things through. Get proper training. If the 'bird on your shoulder' tells you that someone in your world has both weapons and a personal crisis underway, quietly intervene. If you are that person in crisis, park your weapon with a friend for a while, OK? The crisis will pass. OS did it about twenty years ago. Don't ask why.
N.B.--The biathlon coverage of Winter Olympics just began. A combination skiing/shooting event.
The competitors undergo a rifle safety check just before they are sent onto the course.
'Nuff said.
It appears Dr. Bishop held a shotgun that discharged and killed her younger brother in 1986. She was nineteen at the time. An unspeakable tragedy, attributed as an accident at the time.
We'll probably never know 'why' the Huntsville tragedy took place. None of us are exempt from tragedy, or from the possibility that something this bizarre may indeed visit our lives; that we or someone we love may fall victim to an evil act. Perhaps more tragically, someone we love and think we know may perpetrate some tragedy. Perhaps, even ourselves. It can be scary to contemplate, and hopefully breeds humility in us all. Absent grace, we all are capable of anything.
We can't know the individual stories and family histories of every person in every room we enter. As one old Presbyterian preacher once quipped: 'If you knew everything about me, you wouldn't want to be in those pews. If I knew everything about you, I wouldn't want to be in this pulpit!' And, since we all fail, we should not be obligated to live our lives defined only by our failures and tragedies. OS has seen this happen, and it almost happened to him along the way. Without grace, all lives grind to a halt.
That said, however...
Guns are designed to not discharge by accident. It requires several deliberate acts to load a shotgun of any design, chamber the shell, disengage the safety, and pull the trigger. They are designed for safety, to be operated by responsible people who are trained to them. OS is so grateful he grew up shooting, always supervised. He knew they weren't toys.
Yet, accidents can and do happen. They are chains of events, in reality. Leave a loaded firearm within reach of an untrained young person who doesn't understand the dangers, and...you've taken at least two of the deliberate safety steps out of the process. OS's childhood next-door neighbor was a police detective, a grizzled veteran. When he came home from work, he stepped into the house. His first act was always to unload his service revolver in the sight of all. The revolver went to one side of the room, out of reach of any child, and the cartridges went to the other side of the room, out of reach of any child.
It was his ritual. He never failed to observe it.
A terrible tragedy later visited his home, but it was not the tragedy of one of his sons killing the other.
How did the tragedy of 1986 set the stage for the tragedy of 2010? We'll never know, really.
Was 1986 an accident, or an act of evil? We'll never know, twenty-four years removed. And to exhaustively re-examine the question only increases the agony for the innocent members of that family.
In the meantime, OS has an aging neighbor with macular degeneration, prone to depression. Who owns a pistol with a rather complicated safety. Which now sits, unloaded, clip out, in OS's closet. He checked it himself, twice. The shells are in the pickup truck.
OS is a proud NRA member, and plans to get his carry permit this year.
He doesn't want this particular, avoidable, tragedy to visit his house. Or subsequent tragedies to visit someone else's house in 2034.
Please, if you have weapons, think things through. Get proper training. If the 'bird on your shoulder' tells you that someone in your world has both weapons and a personal crisis underway, quietly intervene. If you are that person in crisis, park your weapon with a friend for a while, OK? The crisis will pass. OS did it about twenty years ago. Don't ask why.
N.B.--The biathlon coverage of Winter Olympics just began. A combination skiing/shooting event.
The competitors undergo a rifle safety check just before they are sent onto the course.
'Nuff said.
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