Thursday, December 31, 2009

A Physicist Looks At Climate And Clouds

You can start by looking at the video. Then you can study the slide show [pdf] that goes with the video. And finally you can check out the discussion at Watts Up With That.

Is the physics a done deal? Not yet. There are two or three years of further data and analysis required to give a definitive answer. What we will have at the end is repeatable experimental results to inform our understanding instead of the usual "we have correlation which proves the cause we posit is likely." One of the ways correlation can lead you astray is that it is easy to get cause and effect backwards. i.e. does climate cause the rise in CO2 or does CO2 rise cause climate? Ice cores show CO2 following climate by 200 to 800 years. But not in all cases. Sometimes the rise in CO2 precedes changes in Earth's temperature by a few decades.

And even if clouds/cosmic rays are only part of the answer it will diminish the role of CO2. And there may be other partial answers that further reduce the what we think is the effect of CO2 on climate.

The science is really not settled. In fact science is never settled because new data can upset our old understandings. We will still have to wait 10 to 30 years to see if the revised model predictions (if the CLOUD experiments hold up) match reality. So far the model predictions are not holding up well. At all. One of the reasons is that the PDO and other ocean effects were not included in the models the predictions came from. We can fix that. Make new predictions and then see how they match reality.

We need to get the science on a much firmer basis before we make planet wide bets in the hundreds of trillion dollar rage. Other wise we will be wasting our money.

In the mean time the best course is to invest in lowering the cost of alternative energy and energy storage so the equipment gets deployed on a profit making basis rather than a loss making (taxation) basis. That will do us good even if CO2 has only minimal effects on climate.

I'd like to see more effort going in to fusion as well. I like the Polywell Fusion experiments for a possible quick route to fusion. But there are other routes being investigated. All of them should be pursued with those likeliest to give us a near term answer being pushed the hardest.

You can learn the basics of fusion energy by reading Principles of Fusion Energy: An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering

Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained

The American Thinker has a good article up with the basics.

And the best part? We Will Know In Two Years

What Darwin Never Knew

What Darwin Never Knew is the link to the NOVA video. It is based on the following books:

Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo

and

The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

From The IPCC

The IPCC has some interesting things to say about water vapor and clouds:

Recent studies reaffirm that the spread of climate sensitivity estimates among models arises primarily from inter-model differences in cloud feedbacks. The shortwave impact of changes in boundary-layer clouds, and to a lesser extent midlevel clouds, constitutes the largest contributor to inter-model differences in global cloud feedbacks. The relatively poor simulation of these clouds in the present climate is a reason for some concern. The response to global warming of deep convective clouds is also a substantial source of uncertainty in projections since current models predict different responses of these clouds. Observationally based evaluation of cloud feedbacks indicates that climate models exhibit different strengths and weaknesses, and it is not yet possible to determine which estimates of the climate change cloud feedbacks are the most reliable.

The ultimate source of most such errors is that many important small-scale processes cannot be represented explicitly in models, and so must be included in approximate form as they interact with larger-scale features. This is partly due to limitations in computing power, but also results from limitations in scientific understanding or in the availability of detailed observations of some physical processes. Significant uncertainties, in particular, are associated with the representation of clouds, and in the resulting cloud responses to climate change.

Many of the important processes that determine a model’s response to changes in radiative forcing are not resolved by the model’s grid. Instead, sub-grid scale parametrizations are used to parametrize the unresolved processes, such as cloud formation and the mixing due to oceanic eddies.

Cloud parametrizations are based on physical theories that aim to describe the statistics of the cloud field (e.g., the fractional cloudiness or the area averaged precipitation rate) without describing the individual cloud elements. In an increasing number of climate models, microphysical parametrizations that represent such processes as cloud particle and raindrop formation are used to predict the distributions of liquid and ice clouds.
I'm not going to go into all the problems that are indicated by this IPCC explanation.

But let me take up two. First: Electric motors are well understood. There are not 15 models of electric motors. There are not even two. There is one.

Second: The estimate of energy "forcing" from CO2 is 1.6W/m2. The estimate for cloud "forcing" is 30W/m2. An error of just 5% in how clouds are modeled will equal the CO2 "forcing". An error of 10% in the cloud models will dwarf any "forcing" from CO2. But of course given this uncertainty the politicians believe the modelers can tell us what the climate will be like in 100 years?

And don't forget the errors can accumulate. Especially if the feedback is assumed positive (as the models do). There is not (according to the modelers) any feedback that will tend to return the models to a given condition. The models show that deviations are increased and not reduced. So - off 5% for the first year could increase to 10%+ the second year and so on. Suppose the error is only 1%. It could lead to 100% or more errors 100 years out.

Why do I say could? Because the climate is a dynamic non-linear chaotic feedback system. What that means in practice is that a small error in the models could propagate or a large error could be damped out. And we can't predict in advance which is which. Nor can we tell (without comparing the results to reality) which is which.

So how do the results compare to reality? No model that I am aware of predicted in 2000 the flat lining of global temperature that has taken place since then. Have the models improved since then? To be sure. We should collect the latest predictions and see in ten years if they are reasonably correct. No way we should be committing ourselves to hundreds of trillions of expenditures globally until we know for sure we have something that reasonably compares to reality. And even then we can't be sure because climate is a dynamic non-linear chaotic feedback system.

Some people will bring up the precautionary principle: what if something goes wrong? Well what if. If it gets too hot we can cope. After all we already have crops that grow in hot climates. We just change where they are planted. However, as far as I can tell we do not have any crops adapted to grow under ice. And the last ice age lasted 100,000 years with huge glaciers covering North America significantly south of Chicago. (Yup. The glaciers are melting.) So how long do interglacials (like the one we are living in now) typically last? About 10,000 years. And how long has this one lasted? About 10,000 years. We are due.

So if you want to take precautions I'd say prepare for an ice age. In fact thinking about what we can do geoengineering wise to keep the planet warmer would be time well spent. The tipping point we have to worry about is the return of an ice age.

As snow and ice covers more of the land it reflects more energy into space cooling the planet which gives rise to more snow and ice further cooling the planet. And so on until the glaciers again cover much of the Earth.

Now I greatly admire Sarah Palin but there is no way I want to live in a Northern Illinois that resembles Alaska.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, December 28, 2009

I Need Some Help

My monitor died a few days back. So posting will be intermittent depending on my access to a computer. I would love to buy a new monitor but I'm living on Social Security (due to some financial reverses and illness in the family) so I barely make ends meet from month to month.

There are a few ways you can help. One is when you buy stuff from Amazon use this link:

Amazon

I get a small percentage from Amazon and it doesn't raise your cost by even one cent.

Another way is to use the Donation Buttons on the sidebar (Amazon or PayPal) to send funds directly.

There is a third way. You could hire me to write. In fact I would be willing to write a blog post on a topic of your choice (my point of view) for a donation. Let me know what you want.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Prostitution Services

Andrew Cockburn, who is not a conservative politically, has a few words about what is really behind the global warming scam. You will note that the piece appears on Counter Punch which is not in any way shape or form associated with American Conservative thought.

Shortly before the Copenhagen summit the proponents of anthropogenic – human-caused - global warming (AGW) were embarrassed by a whistleblower who put on the web over a thousand emails either sent from or received at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia headed by Dr Phil Jones, who has since stepped down from his post – whether temporarily or permanently remains to be seen. The CRU was founded in 1971 with funding from sources including Shell and British Petroleum. At that time the supposed menace to the planet and to mankind was global cooling, a source of interest to oil companies for obvious reasons.

Coolers transmuted into warmers in the early 80s and the CRU became one of the climate modeling grant mills supplying the tainted data from which the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC ) has concocted its reports which have been since their inception – particularly the executive summaries -- carefully contrived political initiatives disguised as objective science. Soon persuaded of the potential of AGW theories for their bottom line, the energy giants effortlessly recalibrated their stance, and as of 2008 the CRU included among its financial supporters Shell and BP, also the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and UK Nirex Ltd, a company in the nuclear waste business.
You will also note that James Hansen, one of the cheer leaders for global warming, was at one time funded by Enron. He also has a peculiar stance on fossil fuels. Coal bad, natural gas good. I don't see why one form of CO2 (from coal) is worse than the CO2 from another source (natural gas).

Mr Cockburn continues with:
After some initial dismay at what has been called, somewhat unoriginally, “Climategate” the reaction amid progressive circles – 99 per cent inhabited by True Believers in anthropogenic global warming - has been to take up defensive positions around the proposition that deceitful manipulation of data, concealment or straightforward destruction of inconvenient evidence, vindictive conspiracies to silence critics, are par for the course in all scientific debate and, although embarrassing, the CRU emails in no way compromise the core pretensions of their cause.

Scientific research is indeed saturated with exactly this sort of chicanery. But the CRU emails graphically undermine the claim of the Warmers – always absurd to those who have studied the debate in any detail – that they commanded the moral high ground. It has been a standard ploy of the Warmers to revile the skeptics as intellectual whores of the energy industry, swaddled in munificent grants and with large personal stakes in discrediting AGW. Actually, the precise opposite is true. Billions in funding and research grants sluice into the big climate modeling enterprises. There’s now a vast archipelago of research departments and “institutes of climate change” across academia, with a huge vested interest in defending the AGW model. It’s where the money is. Scepticism, particularly for a young climatologist or atmospheric physicist, can be a career breaker.
The camp followers and prostitutes are sure to be pissed if the global cooling predicted by Russian scientists in 2006 comes to pass.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov expects a repeat of the period known as the Little Ice Age. During the 16th century, the Baltic Sea froze so hard that hotels were built on the ice for people crossing the sea in coaches.

The Little Ice Age is believed to have contributed to the end of the Norse colony in Greenland, which was founded during an interval of much warmer weather.

Abdusamatov and his colleagues at the Russian Academy of Sciences astronomical observatory said the prediction is based on measurement of solar emissions, Novosti reported. They expect the cooling to begin within a few years and to reach its peak between 2055 and 2060.

"The Kyoto initiatives to save the planet from the greenhouse effect should be put off until better times," he said. "The global temperature maximum has been reached on Earth, and Earth's global temperature will decline to a climatic minimum even without the Kyoto protocol."
There are signs:

Rare blizzard strikes West Texas.
DALLAS — In much of the rolling plains of West Texas, a blizzard has never been recorded.

There has been one now.

The region west and northwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth area saw blizzard-like conditions throughout the day Christmas Eve as up to 8 inches of snow fell in the region, according to the National Weather Service. Winds gusting at up to 65 mph drifted the snow as deep as 5 feet in some areas.

No blizzard warning had ever been issued for an area of Texas as far south as Interstate 20, said Jim Wingenroth, senior forecaster at the National Weather Service office in San Angelo.
Blizzards in China.

There is a lot more bad weather going around. Compare the predictions of Britain's Meteorological Office to current reality.

And a look at how China is profiting from the AGW scare is instructive.
So you think giving developing countries all those free "carbon credits" is going to cut greenhouse gas emissions and save the planet? Think again.

Through a bizarre but wholly foreseen loophole in the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) system, payments are actually incentivising manufacturers in China and other developing countries to continue producing one of the most potent of all greenhouse gases, the ozone depleting substances (ODS) known collectively as CFCs, used for refrigeration and other industrial purposes - at a cost to British and other developed world consumers of over $18 billion.
And how is China doing? Pretty damn good.
The level of China's involvement, as a major beneficiary of the scheme, makes a nonsense of the commentators at Copenhagen who were predicting that China might sabotage a deal. With so much money at stake, there was no way China was not going to fall into line, showing up the much-reported spat between Obama and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao for exactly what it was – pure theatre.

Thus does Booker conclude that the part played at Copenhagen by all the tree-huggers, abetted by the BBC and their media allies, was to keep hysteria over warming at fever pitch while the politicians haggled over the real prize, to keep the Kyoto system in place.
As with all prostitutes the haggling is not about the act it is about the price.
The tree-huggers have been well and truly "had" – but then so have we. It is us that are going to pay, through our electricity bills, our taxes and living expenses, in increasing amounts for this hidden bonanza which the negotiators so diligently protected last week.

Trading in what amounts to thin air, on the farcical premise that life-giving carbon dioxide is a "pollutant", they have perpetrated the biggest heist in the history of mankind, all to protect "Big Carbon”.
It is becoming more obvious every day that the prostitutes did have sex but it is the customers who got fucked. If people are paying for Global Warming and they are actually are getting Global Cooling I predict that in time even true believers will begin to howl at being duped. At least the honest ones.

There is also another synonym for "Big Carbon". I like to call them The Climate Cartel.

You might find this book of interest: Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed. Lubos Motl of the Reference Frame did.
During my years in the U.S. Academia, I experienced a couple of events related to the global warming propaganda that I found stunning. Scientists around me (including myself) were subjects of intimidation and disciplinary proceedings - or they were instantly fired - because of their skeptical views about the climate change (or even for skeptical results of their work).

Chris Horner shows us that those events were not coincidences. Environmentalism has become a new ideology that has replaced Stalinism and that is beginning to take over the Western world - a world that has enjoyed freedom and democracy for centuries. You will learn that Greenpeace is reading from Horner's trash, in order to obtain materials that they could find helpful in their propaganda war.

Do you know what's happening to the children at schools? They are being indoctrinated. In fact, they are expected to revolt against their parents who "cause global warming". Because the children have to watch scientifically unrealistic horror movies related to the climate, such as An Inconvenient Truth, many of them don't sleep well at night.

Many politicians are scared of the "momentum" that they demand "action" against the climate change, too. Scientists who don't join this irrational hysteria are being threatened, likened to criminals or even Islamic terrorists. Journalists produce piles of lies and distort scientific findings that are already damaged by biased peer review or full-fledged censorship.

This whole scary machine is moving in the direction chosen by the environmental activists who are always "ahead" of their followers. Right now, they want the "dissidents" to be censored or even arrested. Are their today's dreams going to become reality on the day after tomorrow? Meanwhile, there is no climate crisis. In fact, there hasn't been any statistically significant global warming at least for 13 years. But the society seems to be choosing a direction that is disconnected from any observations or science.

The similarity of the environmentalists' techniques with those of the Nazis and communists are far too obvious. If you live outside the Academia or other sectors of the society influenced by this movement, and you are not certain whether there is a reason to worry, read this insightful and shocking book because it can tell you what you might expect tomorrow unless we manage to defeat this new ideological cancer bubbling in the society.
Thank you Lubos.

If we don't defeat these profiteers we are well and truly screwed. There is hope.
Via the Examiner we see a report in the Christian Science Monitor. It tells us that a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50 percent of likely (US) voters now believe that global warming is caused primarily by long-term planetary trends.

One slightly false note - the Examiner says: "... the climate alarmists now have a long way to go to re-establish their credibility with the public at large." Nah! They've blown it. If after 20 years of propaganda, this is the best they can achieve, then they are going nowhere.

Interesting though how many of the media stories on the current vile weather fail to mention global warming (lack of) in their copy. You can bet that if there was anything that could be remotely attributed to their religion, it would be right up-front.
Religion? Isn't Global Warming, fraudulent though it may be, science? Not according to a British Court. With a blanket of Global Warming spreading across North America I predict a rush of believers to the Church exits. I hope no one gets trampled. But I'm not in the main sympathetic to the believers, considering how many of them have yelled "fire" on a crowded planet.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, December 25, 2009

A Mathematical Education




Cross Posted at Classical Values

$Green Christmas



From 1958. Advertising themes have changed some since then. The spirit is the same.

Nasty Rumor

There is a rumor going around (which I just made up) that because the the CO2 content of its drinks is causing global warming, Coke is switching from carbonic acid to nitric acid.

So far Coke has not denied the rumor.

Inspired by a thread at Watts Up With That

Just Words

There has been a discussion in the comment section of Watts Up With That about the use of tow vs toe in the phrase "Toe the line". It means not exceeding bounds or limits.

A commenter there said:

Aaagh! I can’t stand it any longer! The phrase is “toeing the line” i.e. “not stepping over the line” not ‘towing the line.” Nobody is pulling a line or rope anywhere – and even if such a phrase existed, it would not make sense in the context of the complaints here, that the mainstream media is failing to move forward with investigative journalism. Maxx is not the only one who uses the wrong word.
I dunno. I'm up on toe vs tow and I think it makes perfect sense.

Line = official position. As in "The current Communist Party Line on Global warming...."

So towing the line would mean supporting the official position through heavy labor. As in "haul on the bowline, we sang that melody...." (those of you of a "certain age" will get the reference).

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Merry Christmas To All 2009 Version

May Christmas bring you more and better.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Tom Ligon On The Space Show

Tom Ligon will be on the Space Show at 9 PM CDT, 22 December 2009. That is this evening. The Maker willing and if the technical details work out I will be joining him.

You can listen live at the link.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Train Song

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Fake Credit

Did you know that there has been Carbon Credit Fraud in California? Me either.

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. legislators have obtained a court order unsealing documents in a case involving a multi-million-dollar cap-and-trade fraud.

Republican legislators say the records--due to be opened to the public in early January--could shed light on the potential challenges of policing a new, trillion-dollar commodities market that would be created under climate legislation that Congress is considering.
The case involves former California Institute of Technology economist Anne Masters Sholtz.
Sholtz, who helped design a small California cap-and-trade program, allegedly hustled New York Investment firm AG Clean Air out of more than $12 million between 1999 and 2001 by selling fake emission credits.

Despite an estimated $50 million to $80 million in claims against her in bankruptcy filings and nine complaints, she pleaded guilty to one of six counts of wire fraud in 2005. Sholtz received what the lawmakers say was a veritable slap on the wrist for the felony--a sentence of five years probation with one year of home detention.
Kind of reminds me of the case of a certain railroad engineer from India who seems to have a lot to do with designing a large world wide cap and trade program.

Funny thing is we have seen the same rot in Denmark. You have to wonder if the whole thing wasn't designed as a fraud from the get go. It starts as scientific fraud and ends up as economic fraud.

If the oil companies were doing something like this people would be up in arms. OH. Wait. Some oil companies ARE in on it.
According to Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, the cap and trade nightmare being primed for passage in the Senate doesn’t go far enough – Tillerson wants a direct tax on carbon dioxide emissions, essentially a tax on breathing since we all exhale this life-giving gas.

In a speech last month, Tillerson brazenly called out the cap and trade agenda for what it was, an effort to impose a carbon tax camouflaged only by a slick sales pitch and deceptive rhetoric.

“It is easier and more politically expedient to support a cap-and-trade approach, because the public will never figure out where it is hitting them,” said Tillerson. “They will just know they hurt somewhere in their pocketbook,”...
Tillerson is quite a guy though. He proposes hitting the taxpayer direct in the forehead with the two by four of a direct CO2 tax. Why not? His company will not pay the tax. It will just collect it for the government. Steady business that and the profit is guaranteed by the US taxpayer.

And when the the government man comes around to check your domicile for unregulated carbon emissions (fireplaces) you can just pass him a small card saying, "I did not exhale."

Monday, December 21, 2009

Old History

Not really old history just forgotten according to history Professor David Kaiser.

How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world. He did it with a compliant media – did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and change. And the people surely got what they voted for.
You know who he is talking about. And if you don't read the essay.

It is obvious we are far down the road when Congress Critters vote in favor of a bill they are not allowed to read.

You may find Professor Kaiser's book, The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy of interest.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Climate Cartel

It looks like Al Gore is not the only one involved in making big money on CO2 trading. The Head of The IPCC, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, is in on it as well.

Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former railway engineer with a PhD in economics he has no qualifications in climate science at all.

What has also almost entirely escaped attention, however, is how Dr Pachauri has established an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC’s policy recommendations.

These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in ‘carbon trading’ and ‘sustainable technologies’, which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year.

Today, in addition to his role as chairman of the IPCC, Dr Pachauri occupies more than a score of such posts, acting as director or adviser to many of the bodies which play a leading role in what has become known as the international ‘climate industry’.
The profitability of most of these enterprises is dependent on either direct government largesse or laws requiring CO2 trading.

We already have oil cartels. We have illegal drug cartels. Do we really want a climate cartel? Other than the profiteers I mean.

And what do all these cartels have in common? They require government to keep them in business. If the USA was more active in exploiting its own oil resources it would not be so much at the mercy of OPEC. And without the anti-drug laws the dope cartels would be out of business. And so we come to the climate cartel. You know the story. Without laws enacted by government.......

Cross Posted at Classical Values


H/T EU Referendum

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Stopping The Scammers

Mother Jones says there is no verification included in the CO2 reduction "deal" Obama agreed to in Copenhagen. Without verification there is no way to tell if the Nations selling carbon credits have actually done anything to reduce emissions or absorb CO2.

It is a set up for a scam. On top of a scam.

And the carbon credit scammers have been hard at work skimming billions in Europe. Already.

Without valid measurements suitably verified there is nothing. Say. When is the CRU (of ClimateGate fame) going to release its data and methods? Because, without valid measurements suitably verified there is nothing.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Another Way To Hide The Decline

I have been sitting on this story for a couple of days - waiting for verification. I now have some. Watts Up With That says that the CRU (of ClimateGate fame) cherry picked Russian data. And you probably couldn't guess this in a million years, but they left out the data from the coldest stations.

They actually have a computer program that can pick out the special stations depending on their match to the desired result. At least they have a program that can do that with tree rings. Why not weather stations?

Here is a bit from the pdf of the announcement.

Climategate has already affected Russia. On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory. Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country's territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports. Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations.
I believe they did something similar with Russian trees. First you "goose" the "official" temperature record and then you go looking for data that backs up the desired results. Gotta keep the press releases coming.

My question is: when did the Russians learn about the misuse of their data? How long have the Russians been sitting on the knowledge that their record was corrupted?

H/T Clarice Feldman at American Thinker

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Oil Wars

Iran is not happy about its border with Iraq so it has taken an oil well from Iraq.

Iranian troops crossed into Iraqi territory and seized an oil well that lies in a disputed area along the two countries' southern border, Iraq's deputy foreign minister said Friday.

The deputy minister, Mohammed Haj Mahmoud, said Iranian troops seized oil well No. 4 Thursday night in the al-Fakkah oil field, located in Maysan province about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad. The oil field is one of Iraq's largest.

Oil prices rose slightly after news of the incident.

The incursion by armed Iranians provided a dramatic display of the simmering border tensions between two nations, which have nonetheless grown close in recent years after a Shiite-led government rose to power in Iraq following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Yeah. It looks like Iran and Iraq are growing closer.

I look forward to Mr. Obama's diplomacy in the matter. Maybe he can get a war going if he works the issues.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

It Would Damage What We Hold Dear



That I think is one of the most eloquent points ever made against the alternative energy craze as it is currently being manifested. We know what the world looks like now. How will it look if we have to get 100% of our energy from natural sources with technology that is available now? Or even technology that will reasonably be available in the next ten years?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Subject To Approval

Things are not going well at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen. And not just for those left out in the cold by UN incompetence.

World leaders will not agree on the emissions cuts recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and are likely instead to commit to reviewing them in 2015 or 2016.

The delay will anger developing countries who, scientists say, will face the worst effects of climate change despite having contributed relatively little of the man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

A draft text published by the UN says that there should be a review in 2016, which could result in an “update of the long-term global goal for emissions reductions as well as of the adequacy of commitments and actions”.
Of course this has gotten the usual suspects (kleptocracies) up in arms as the swag they had hoped for will probably not materialize.

The kleptocracies want CO2 cuts from between 25% and 40% by 2020. The best offer so far is 18%. So what is the US offering?
President Obama has offered to cut US emissions by 4 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, subject to approval by the US Congress.
Which so far he has not got. Nor is he likely to get.

And Tony Blair (former Prime Minister of Great Britain says:
Mr Blair said that, while the scientific evidence of man-made global warming was very strong, it was much less clear how quickly temperatures would rise.

“When you come to very precise dates, percentages and so on [. . .] then the figures are somewhat more fudgeable.
Considering the considerable fudging that has already taken place in the numbers you have to wonder how Mr. Blair can be so certain of the science. He suggest that because of the uncertainty of the science more fudging is in order.

I guess that would be called political science.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hope And Change The Data

It appears that weather station data has been adjusted to hide the decline or to show warming. And this is before the adjustments performed at by the CRU Weather Masters at East Anglia.

For the past six days, several climate scientists have discovered an alarming trend: clear evidence of alteration of historical data at weather stations around the world, in order to support the contention of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

The changes appear to affect the Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN), a project of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climate Data Center. Note that this is the same agency that employs Dr. Eugene Wahl, who might be implicated in the research misconduct allegations made against Michael E. Mann at Penn State University.
What does all this mean? Probably that there are no collected reliable temperature data available on surface temperatures.

Fortunately the Warmongers have adjusted their models to conform to the bogus record. In other words - they have nothing. Proof is in the prediction. None of the models predicted the cooling of the last ten years. Time for new models and new predictions. The trouble is that no matter how good the models are prediction is essentially impossible. Why? Because climate is a chaotic system. That is: it is approximately linear with unpredictable jumps of indeterminate magnitude.

And that is not the only problem. The old data was generally recorded with min/max thermometers. Then the low and high are added together to get an average. But what if the temperature at a weather station was 50°F for 23 hours and 80°F for one hour. Is the "average temperature" really 65°F? Or is it 51.25°F? And think of the seasons. How would they bias such a record? Suppose the thermometers are accurate to .1 deg. F and the temperature is recorded to the nearest 1 deg F. That could mean an error of as much as .6°F just from recording the data. And then you feed that into a system sensitive to initial conditions (climate models) and what do you get? What ever you want depending on your selection criteria for the results.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Not Since The Nazis Occupied Copenhagen



Christopher Monckton has a few words about a reporter referring to pro AGW thugs as "Hitler Youth".
A thoughtful, quietly-spoken German was almost in tears.

“I never thought I would see this in my lifetime,” he said, sadness and anger competing on his face. “The last time young people politicized and indoctrinated by the State broke up a meeting of their opponents here in Copenhagen by chanting mindless, repetitive slogans was during the Nazi occupation of Denmark during the Second World War.”

Americans for Prosperity had booked a meeting-room in a canal-side hotel, with a live satellite link-up to well-attended chapter meetings all over the United States. As their President was speaking, the Hitler-Jugend, part of a very large, lavishly-funded delegation of jack-trainered, eco-Fascist goons probably paid for by taxpayers somewhere, leapt up to the podium and began a zombie-like, keening chant.

I used the old crowd-control trick of standing behind the Hitler Youth and talking quietly. The microphones were right where I wanted them, so I began reporting on that day’s progress in negotiating the world-government agreement that, if it is passed at Copenhagen, will shut down the economies and democracies of the West without affecting the climate in any measurable way.

One of the Fascists, distracted as I had intended, began trying to offer a commentary on what I was saying. Using my elbow, I kept her away from the microphones and continued talking. Eventually, the squad marched out of the room and rapidly dispersed before the police could round them up.

Another German in the audience said this was the saddest day of his life. He, too, had hoped that mindless, compulsory agreement with the State and disruption of discussions by anyone who disagreed had been swept away from Europe forever at the end of the Second World War.

Both of our distinguished German colleagues left the meeting with their heads bowed low and their shoulders stooped. Their distress and concern for the future of Europe and the world was evident.
A student took umbrage to this characterization and sent a missive to Monckton to that effect. Chris replied:
Dear Student, – Thank you for taking the trouble to let me know what you think. Perhaps a little background would be helpful. Some 50 robotically-chanting thugs invaded a meeting that some colleagues and I were holding, jostled and intimidated us, and did their best to interfere with our right of free speech for as long as they could get away with it. They showed not the slightest intention of engaging in civil discussion with us.

Three German and one Danish members of our audience were distraught. They said no attempt like this to prevent free speech had ever been seen in Copenhagen since the Nazis had occupied the city during the Second World War. The Hitlerettes had lied in order to get into the meeting, and had clearly been lavishly funded (by taxpayers, mostly, according to our enquiries for the police report) and had also been very carefully briefed. Peaceful protesters would have demonstrated outside, rather than violently breaking up our meeting in the manner all too familiar to those who know the mid-20th-century history of Europe.

I broadcast their remarks on German television and, the next morning, when I was visiting the stands operated by various (again almost exclusively taxpayer-funded) environmental organizations, several of them surrounded me and began saying how displeased they were that I had compared them to the Hitlerjugend. I explained my reasoning, and refused otherwise to have anything to do with any of them.

With my colleagues, I am considering at present whether we should report these gruesome louts to the police, who have been given very wide powers to prevent precisely this sort of violent intrusion into what had been, until they lied and cheated their way in, a peaceful meeting.

On YouTube, where the video these goons shot of my refusal to knuckle under to their intimidating terror tactics is displayed, to their horror the comments on the video are running at well over ten to one in my favour. And, though my comments have been publicly available for two days, you are the first and only person who has written to me as you have. Free speech is a precious commodity, and, whether you like it or not, I intend to speak out for it as clearly as possible while I still can.
Good for you. And good for the rest of us.

If you have a question or comment for Christopher you can get it to him by using this contact form. It is easy so don't hesitate.

H/T Watts Up With That

Frozen Out

Things are not going well at the Climate Change extravaganza in Copenhagen.

I heard this morning from the National Center for Public Policy Research's delegation to the COP-15 climate conference in Copenhagen. Seems they've been standing in line outside the conference (in 32 degree F weather!) for nearly six hours (so far) in a so-far fruitless effort to get insie.

No, they didn't forget to get credentials. It seems the geniuses at the United Nations selected a building site for the conference that holds 15,000 people, and then gave credentials to 45,000 people. So, naturally, at any given time, two-thirds of the people (almost all of whom used carbon-intensive energy to travel to Copenhagen) are unable to participate.

Such incompetence highlights the idiocy of the entire enterprise. Climate science, especially when done honestly, is immensely complicated -- so complicated, anyone who tells you that humanity understands how the climate works is either deluded or lying to you. Likewise, every proposed "solution" to global warming is complicated -- far more complicated than figuring out that 45,000 people cannot fit into a building designed for 15,000.
The Climate Change Conference has nothing to do with Climate Change. It is about assessing taxes on the rich and the poor in order to support the very richest in a style to which they have become accustomed. Evidently ordinary profits are not enough for them and they wish to collect more at the point of a (government) gun.

One can only hope that failure is an option.

Hide The Increase

Just a few weeks ago there was a worry about Hiding the Decline. The new worry is about hiding the real increase in CO2 output in Australia.

By ignoring a massive rise in polluting gases from the agricultural and forestry industries, Australia has managed to make its overall emissions seem much lower than they actually are.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Australia is allowed to increase carbon emissions by 8 per cent compared to 1990 levels.

But figures supplied to the United Nations earlier this year show that between 1990 and 2007, Australia's real carbon emissions actually rose by 82 per cent.

The dramatic increase has mainly been caused by rising emissions from Australia's rural lands, caused by bushfires and drought.
Brush fires are natural occurrences in Australia. And of course the drought is due to global warming (bear with me here). What Australia needs to do instead of claiming credits for natural carbon sequestration is to claim reparations from the IPCC and their ilk for each and every wild fire. And if it pans out perhaps California with its yearly wild fires could do the same.

What it all boils down to is that the whole carbon scheme is wide open to fraud. Which has already been committed in Denmark. It seems that climate is not controlled by the sun, by CO2, or even by people who read thermometers. It is controlled by the folks who enter the numbers in the "official" records.

I'm sorry but your numbers are no good with me.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

The AP Investigates ClimateGate

The Associated Press puts one of their top reporters on the ClimateGate scandal.

LONDON – E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data — but the messages don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an exhaustive review by The Associated Press.
Ah. Yes. It was a train wreck. But the hazmat crew is cleaning up the toxics and soon everything will be restored to just the way it was before the unfortunate incident. Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

OK. I'm moving. So I moved over to Watts Up With That and found out some interesting details about one of the authors of the AP piece. Seth Borenstein. It seems that he was in on the scam as detailed by e-mails he sent to the CRU Team.
On Jul 23, 2009, at 11:54 AM, Borenstein, Seth wrote:

Kevin, Gavin, Mike,
It’s Seth again. Attached is a paper in JGR today that
Marc Morano is hyping wildly. It’s in a legit journal. Whatchya think?
Seth

Seth Borenstein
Associated Press Science Writer
[7]sborenstein@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
The Associated Press, 1100 13th St. NW, Suite 700,
Washington, DC
20005-4076
202-641-9454
I think a call or two into the Associated Press might be in order. You might want to investigate for yourself how some one involved in suppressing information he didn't care for could investigate himself.

It seems to me that many of the MSM's recent "exonerations" of the ClimateGate conspirators are an exercise in foot shooting - their own. Some one should remind the MSM that if the wound is not properly treated it could prove fatal.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sarah Palin Reads Poetry



Note what a warm welcome Wm. Shatner gets when he comes on. Then note how much warmer the welcome for Sarah is.

More reactions at Hill Buzz.

And if you want to read Sarah's book to make sure Shatner got his lines right may I suggest: Going Rogue: An American Life

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Communist Physics

Conserve momentum comrades? I don't think so. The time has come to liberate it from those who have captured it in the name of greed and personal profit.


Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, December 11, 2009

Forget Global Warming - Nitrogen Is the New Fear

As the CO2 sector of the warming religion dies out a new fear has to be found. And the bright boys of science by fear are on the case. Measurements show that CO2 is only .038% of the atmosphere. Nitrogen is a whopping 78%. Now it is time to be really afraid.

An international group of scientists say there is an immediate need for a global assessment of the nitrogen cycle and its impact on climate.

On a planetary scale, human activities, especially fertiliser application, have more than doubled the amount of reactive nitrogen in circulation on land. This massive alteration of the nitrogen cycle affects climate, food security, energy security, human health and ecosystem health. The long-term consequences of these changes are yet to be fully realised, but the human impact on the nitrogen cycle has so far been largely missed in international environmental assessments.

Nitrogen's role in climate change will be highlighted at an event on 7 December at the COP-15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Event organisers will be calling for a new assessment of nitrogen and climate, which will identify innovative nitrogen management strategies for global climate change mitigation and associated co-benefits to society.

Dr Cheryl Palm, the chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI), which is organising the event, said "Nitrogen and climate interactions are not yet adequately included in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment process.
If they can get a hold of nitrogen they can control the world's food supply. Not quite as good as capturing the world's energy supply. But not bad if Power and Control is the true object of the game.

Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed.Actually misinformation is only part of it. Getting you agitated is the goal - where they want action. Of course if no action is desired you will be told all the soothing words. Or better - no words at all.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Unions Don't Like Taxes

It is true. Unions don't want taxes on their members.

Union leaders, among the most passionate backers of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, pressed Democratic senators Thursday to drop a tax on high-value insurance plans to pay for remaking the nation's system.

Members of several labor unions denounced the proposed tax on so-called "Cadillac plans," arguing it wouldn't just hit CEOs but also middle-class Americans who did without salary increases to negotiate better health benefits.

"I support health care reform but I can't afford this tax," Valerie Castle Stanley, an AT&T call center worker and member of the Communications Workers of America, said at a news conference outside the Capitol. "For families like mine that are on a budget, the results will be devastating."
The US Government has never met a budget it couldn't bust. I don't know what the Union guys are complaining about any way. Aren't they willing to sacrifice for the sake of providing almost universal health care?

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

The Internet Seems Really Slow

I have had a lot of trouble loading sites for the last few days. Especially blogspot domains. I checked Internet speed and didn't find anything too unusual. Is it Comcast? Or have I picked up a so far undetected virus?

Update: 0328z 10 Dec 2009

It is a Comcast issue. I called them and the first service rep was terrible. The second, Amy, was excellent.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Magick

I. "DEFINITION."

MAGICK


is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in
conformity with Will.


(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" --- these sentences --- in the "magical language" i.e. that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of

MAGICK


by which I cause changes to take place in conformity with my Will<>)

II. "POSTULATE."

ANY required Change may be effected by the application of the proper kind and degree of force in the proper manner through the proper medium to the proper object.


(Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I must take the right kind of acid, nitrohydrochloric and no other, in sufficient quantity and of adequate strength, and place it, in a vessel which will not break, leak, or corrode, in such a manner as will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity of Gold: and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions. In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes are not possible in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance, or transform lead into tin, or create men from mushrooms. But it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered by the above postulate.)

III. "THEOREMS."
(1) Every intentional act is a Magical Act.


(Illustration: See "Definition" above.)

(2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate.
(3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements of the postulate have not been fulfilled.


(Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures his patient. There may be failure to apply the right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the force in the right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of the Bank. There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.)

(4) The first requisite for causing any change is through qualitative and quantitative understanding of the conditions.

(Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one's own True Will, or of the means by which to fulfil that Will. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter, and yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to that career.)

(5) The second requisite of causing any change is the practical ability to set in right motion the necessary forces.

(Illustration: A banker may have a perfect grasp of a given situation, yet lack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary to take advantage of it.)

(6) "Every man and every woman is a star." That is to say, every human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion.

You can read the rest at Magick In Theory And Practice [pdf]

The above inspired by Eric's Why all arguments against magic fail

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Climate Leaking Again

Yep. Not only have we had the leak of the CRU Data. We now have in addition a big leak from the Copenhagen Climate Summit. It seems as if Clancy or some one like him has decided to sing. Maybe a lot of Clancys.

The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations.

The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.

The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol's principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions.
Another torpedo below the water line of the SS Carbon Tax. I think this one hit a magazine.

For sure some one was trying to scuttle the Copenhagen meeting totally. First the "science" second the politics. Lots of things to think about. Did one of the governments (or all of them) who worked on the secret protocol leak it. Or was it a lone leaker? Was the CRU leak a private operation? The work of a disgruntled employee? Or part of the bigger picture? Who Shot JFK?

If you want to deconstruct the text of the secret protocol you can find it here.

H/T Watts Up With That

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Clancy Can't Even Sing



Buffalo Springfield

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Failed Grade Nine Science



Rex Murphy says the "we lost the data" excuse would not pass muster in a ninth grade science fair. Climate "science" is different.

Monday, December 07, 2009

Discrimination

Some people get all the breaks. But the question is: discrimination or bigotry? Discrimination allows you to tell the difference between red and blue. Bigotry is hating blue for some arbitrary reason.

...when statistics about other racial differences have been cited in the same strident voices when other statistics showed blacks laid off more than whites during economic downturns or the children of black women having higher infant mortality rates than the children of white women.

What we have very seldom seen or heard in such parading of statistics are other statistics— which are readily available— showing that (1) whites are turned down for mortgage loans more often than Asian Americans, (2) whites resort to subprime loans more often than Asian Americans, (3) whites have been laid off more in a downturn than Asian Americans, and (3) the children of white mothers have higher infant mortality rates than the children of mothers of Filipino or Mexican ancestry, even though these mothers receive less prenatal care than white mothers.
So are whites suffering from discrimination or they the victims of bigotry? There is no way just a number can tell that story. You have to look into the hearts of men.

H/T Jccarlton at Talk Polywell

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Iran Is Having A Party

Students in Iran are planning a street dance and other kinds of entertainment for their rulers.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted the United States and other Western countries for stirring up trouble inside Iran, a day before students are expected to hold peaceful demonstrations on university campuses across Iran.

Both the Iranian government and student opposition activists are gearing up for what many are expecting will be a large turnout of demonstrators, Monday, on university campuses across the country.

December 7 is known as "national students' day" in Iran, and it marks the anniversary of the 1953 slaying of three students by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi's security forces, following a coup against populist Prime Minister Mohammed Mosadegh, earlier that year

Eyewitnesses say hundreds of students have received threatening emails, this week, warning them not to participate in Monday's demonstrations. Pro-government Basij militia members are also reported to be present in large numbers on campuses across the country.

Internet connection speeds in Iran are also reported to be extremely slow, amid word the government is again trying to hamper communications between Iranians and the outside world. Foreign media have also been warned not to cover Monday's rallies.
I guess it is the Iranian version of ClimateGate. The word will get out. Eventually.

And how about that blaming America deal? Martha and the Vandellas are likely suspects.

According to this report the students have set their policy in relation to the Iranian Government.
Tehran students are claiming to be at war with their government after a massive campaign of repression, with arrests and convictions taking place on university campuses.

In recent weeks more than one hundred students were arrested, with many of them tried by the Revolutionary courts and sentenced to prison.

Pro-Western courses have been replaced with Islamic theology and female students have been told not to wear clothes that are considered to be too colourful or innapropriate.

Dress codes for women, inspired by Islamic morals are imposed, while the length of young men’s hair is also regulated.

Concerns of violence have been raised over a student demonstration which has been scheduled to take place on 7th December.

The government has said it intends to eradicate the new wave of dissent on the eve of a massive protest.
Good luck with that. The government either has to start massive executions in the streets or give up. If they continue with half measures they will eventually fall.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Tell Me The Climate Is Not Changing

Louisiana is having some snow.

Louisiana got its earliest snowflakes ever as people across the South awakened to a dusting of powder.

Snow started falling in the region late Friday and continued into Saturday morning.

Snow also caused a few cancellations Saturday at Washington's Dulles International Airport.

The National Weather Service says several Louisiana towns reported two to three inches of snow.
It is getting harder all the time to Hide the Decline.

And yeah. One early snow fall does not a climate make. I wonder if two record early snowfalls in Houston are closer to a climate? We will know in two years. Or twenty.

Friday, December 04, 2009

The Current State Of Fusion

Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log has the latest broad look at the state of Fusion. He discusses the state of laser fusion. The the $3.5 billion American National Ignition Facility seems to be doing well. But what excites me is that he has some indirect news on The Polywell Fusion Reactor experiments.

The dark horse in the fusion race is an approach known as inertial electrostatic confinement fusion, or Polywell fusion. This method, pioneered by the late physicist Robert Bussard, involves designing a high-voltage cage in such a way that atomic nuclei slam into each other at high speeds, sparking fusion.
That is the hope. Now what about some news?
In September, EMC2 Fusion was awarded a Navy contract, backed by $7.9 million in stimulus funds, to develop a scaled-up version of a Polywell fusion reactor. Development and testing of the device is expected to take two years, and there's an option to spend another $4.4 million on experiments with hydrogen-boron fuel (known as pB11).

In the past, EMC2 Fusion's Richard Nebel has been able to describe the team's progress in general terms, saying that he was "very pleased" with the performance of an earlier test device. But now, with more Navy money on the line, Nebel has been constrained from saying anything about the project. The fact that the research is continuing, however, appears to indicate that the results have been promising enough to keep the Navy interested.
My sources on the project have dried up as well. No one is talking. I am running on unsupported rumors and conjecture. Some think that the silence is a cover up for failure. Being a fanboy I'm more inclined that they are so wildly successful that the Navy doesn't want to let the cat out of the bag any sooner than they can help. Reality is probably some where in the middle or worse. The design is so simple that if the Navy gets it to work no country is more than 5 years behind in producing a working model from scratch (given a crash program).

As you know I have been closely following the progress of the WB-X contracts at EMC2. If you want to get deeper into them:

WB-8 Contract Progress

Polywell Gets The Dough

The Boys At Talk-Polywell Have Struck Paydirt

WB-8 In The Works

Polywell Gets In On The Act

You can learn the basics of fusion energy by reading Principles of Fusion Energy: An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering

Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained

The American Thinker has a good article up with the basics.

And the best part? We Will Know In Two Years

H/T rschaffer8 at Talk Polywell

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Massive International Scientific Fraud

Auric Goldfinger? Not this time Mr. Bond. This time it is Climategate.



Ah. Yes. Science Adviser to the President, John Holdren is a Climate Playah.
Lift up a rock and another snake comes slithering out from the ongoing University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) scandal, now riding as “Climategate”.

Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU’s unfolding Climategate scandal. In fact, according to files released by a CEU hacker or whistleblower, Holdren is involved in what Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball terms “a truculent and nasty manner that provides a brief demonstration of his lack of understanding, commitment on faith and willingness to ridicule and bully people”.

“The files contain so much material that it is going to take some time t o put it all in context,” says Ball. “However, enough is already known to underscore their explosive nature. It is already clear the entire claims and positions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are based on falsified manipulated material and is therefore completely compromised.
What he means is that you can't base public policy on lies. Forever. Eventually the marks wise up to Goebbels Warming. The article about Holdren goes on to discuss his efforts to support Michael Mann's Hockey Stick Chart and discredit contradictory research. You will note that the Hockey Stick Chart is the one in which Mr. Mann used some tricks to Hide The Decline.

Holdren is a rather normal fellow for the Obama Administration. For instance, he has a lot of real good ideas for solving the overpopulation crisis.
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation's drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who "contribute to social deterioration" (i.e. undesirables) "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility" -- in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational "Planetary Regime" should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans' lives -- using an armed international police force.
And why would Holdren favor doing all these things? Obviously Holdren is running out of Lebensraum or some other critical resource like brains. Or a heart. And he also seems to lack the courage to do the deeds himself. He wants a government bureau to handle the messy details.

I know that in a nation of 300 million you are going to find more than a few kooks and crazies. But did Obama have to staff his administration with so many of them? What else would you expect from a man who spent 20 years listening to "God Damn America" at the church he attended?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, December 03, 2009

I Just Learned A New Word - 3

Gassers - a person who has total faith in the theory that the CO2 molecule is one of the most dangerous molecules on the planet.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Something Is Rotten In Denmark

And what is that something that is rotten in Denmark? Climate data? Nope. (although that is a likely candidate). The rot stems from the CO2 trade.

Denmark is the centre of a comprehensive tax scam involving CO2 quotas, in which the cheats exploit a so-called ‘VAT carrousel’, reports Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

Police and authorities in several European countries are investigating scams worth billions of kroner, which all originate in the Danish quota register. The CO2 quotas are traded in other EU countries.

Denmark’s quota register, which the Energy Agency within the Climate and Energy Ministry administers, is the largest in the world in terms of personal quota registrations. It is much easier to register here than in other countries, where it can take up to three months to be approved.

Ekstra Bladet reporters have found examples of people using false addresses and companies that are in liquidation, which haven’t been removed from the register.

One of the cases, which stems from the Danish register, involves fraud of more than 8 billion kroner. This case, in which nine people have been arrested, is being investigated in England.
FYI the kroner runs about 5 to the dollar currently. So 8 bn kroner is about $1.6 bn dollars. From one scam.

I dunno. It all seems suspicious to me. Phony temperatures. Phony credits. Phony scientists. Phony hucksters. (isn't that a redundancy - yes it is) What can you expect?

On a side note: I asked the first mate this morning if she had heard about "ClimateGate" or the "hacked" UEA CRU e-mails and data. Nope. She doesn't spend much time on the www. TV and newspapers are still her main sources. She said, "No coverage."

I wonder how much longer they can keep the story bottled up? Especially with stories like: Phil Jones steps down – pending independent review, and also Climategate grows to include other research institutions, coming out almost daily they are going to have to break the news soon.

In the mean time, while you wait, read a book:

Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

ITER Back To The Drawing Board

The ITER fusion test reactor project is getting a schedule review [pdf] because the project is seriously out of whack.

The scientific and engineering team building the ITER fusion reactor failed to win an expected endorsement from the project’s governing council last week. The council, which represents the seven international partners in the project—China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States—sent the team back to do more work on the proposed construction schedule for the mammoth undertaking.
So what is being done to fix this mismatch between means and ends?
...ITER staff have been racing for months to get the final project baseline documents, which describe the design, cost estimates, and planned schedule, ready for the 18–19 November council meeting at Cadarache (Science, 13 November, p. 932). But some council members voiced concern that the schedule, which aimed to start the reactor by 2018, was not realistic and that there was too high a risk that some part of the immensely complicated effort could go wrong.

A slip in the schedule would invariably mean increased costs, and the council is already concerned about budget estimates, which, sources say, may have doubled from ô€€€5 billion since the partners signed up in 2006. So the council told ITER staff to nail down more firmly the risks, both technical and organizational, involved in the schedule and come back in February with earliest and latest possible start-up dates.
And they are not even going to discuss costs until they get a schedule estimate. Good.

I wonder if the fact that Focus Fusion, and Tri-Alpha Energy, and General Fusion, and other groups promise results much sooner at much lower costs also has something to do with the reevaluation.

Of course you all know my favorite. The Polywell Fusion Reactor. You can learn the basics of fusion energy by reading Principles of Fusion Energy: An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering

Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained

The American Thinker has a good article up with the basics. And the best part? We Will Know In Two Years.

Here is a good page to keep up with ITER news. I love what it says at the top of the page:

18 Years Until 1st Q = 10 DT pulse 400s long at 500MW on ITER

Plasma Physicist and author of Principles of Plasma PhysicsDr. Nicholas Krall said, "We spent $15 billion dollars studying tokamaks and what we learned about them is that they are no damn good."

Cross Posted at Classical Values

What Is Happening To The Glaciers?

In a study of the glaciers of the Himalayas it turns out - not much.

...we find that the Himalaya glaciers are difficult even for scientists to understand. Most suggestions of rapid melting are based on observations of a small handful of India's 10,000 or so Himalayan glaciers. A comprehensive report in November by senior glaciologist Vijay Kumar Raina, released by the Indian government, looked more broadly and found that many of these glaciers are stable or have even advanced, and that the rate of retreat for many others has slowed recently.

Jeffrey S. Kargel, a glaciologist at the University of Arizona, declared in the Nov. 13 issue of Science that these "extremely provocative" findings were "consistent with what I have learned independently," while in the same issue of the magazine Kenneth Hewitt, a glaciologist at Wilfrid Laurier University, agreed that "there is no evidence" to support the suggestion that the glaciers are disappearing quickly.
Another way of Hiding The Decline bites the dust. You have to wonder what the people supporting the "People Are Evil And CO2 is the Proof" position have against evidence?