“A spokeswoman for the DCSF said: “Standards in science have improved year on year thanks to ten years of sustained investment ….

“Exam standards are rigorously maintained by independent regulators…”

There are the those words again “sustain(ability) and “regulat(ion)”. That’s what the new world order is really all about. Who needs science when we have sustained regulation?

But the the thick turf surrouding it gave me pause?

Then I found the sprinkler irrigation system.

First, thanks Anthony! I am a long time reader. I work for a meteorological electronics manufacturer, so I have some industry feedback (the customer wants CARC green shield plates ?!?!). I am a ham radio enthusiast, so also I follow solar activity. Needless to say, I am an AGW skeptic. I feel better already!

REPLY: 73′s – Anthony

LMAO! Brilliant! :D

I’m going to make some comments that probably won’t be appreciated. but…

1. I’m an ancient Air Force Weatherman. I didn’t do much observation work on the ground, but from what I saw:

a. Fixed ground weather stations (at airbases) were carefully and properly sited. Observers were well trained and quality controls were strictly enforced. Standard procedures were detailed and observed.

That’s good to hear. Certainly in your case the link between good weather data and safe flying was clear.

If you didn’t see it in July, read (all of!) http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/07/17/fabricating-temperatures-on-the-dew-line/ which has various anecdotes from various people up there. I guess the main problem were sub-contractors collecting information for military weather forecasters.

That will be interesting, since

Emissions worldwide have increased 18.0%.
Emissions from countries that signed Kyoto increased 21.1%.
Emissions from non-signers increased 10.0%.
Emissions from the U.S. increased 6.6%.

According to your source, that’s since “1997 (last year before the Kyoto treaty was signed).”

The BBC article says “Everything is measured against 1990 levels and since then, UK emissions have fallen by about 16% while the US’s have risen by a similar percentage.)”

I’d like to see where that UK decline happened. Oh, there’s a link to http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/download/ghg_ns_20080327.pdf – it looks like some of it is from conversion from coal to natural gas, some due to reductions in other GHGs, etc.

The BBC article also says

“Firstly, that phrase “legally binding”: what does it mean, exactly?

Well, one thing is for certain: no minister is going to be carted off to jail, turned out of their home or sent to the stocks for failing to meet the target, either now or in 2050.

They will be called into the head teacher’s study – sorry, the House of Commons – and given a painful public verbal flogging; but that will be about all.

Maybe the new Age won’t be so Dark.

1. I’m an ancient Air Force Weatherman. I didn’t do much observation work on the ground, but from what I saw:

a. Fixed ground weather stations (at airbases) were carefully and properly sited. Observers were well trained and quality controls were strictly enforced. Standard procedures were detailed and observed.

b. Sites and instrumentation were also well maintained — full time “weather” maintenance people were responsible and they took their job seriously.

c. Base facilities were used for precision calibration of instruments as required.

2. I am aware that temporary observation sites, were not as well sited or maintained — it just couldn’t be done.

3. I suspect that some permanent but extremely remote sites were also not not up to normal standards.

I have no idea how NWS sites are/were maintained except for what I have seen here via Anthony, but I would rate them as pathetic at best. Oversight seems non-existant while standard operating procedures are ignored.

I was in SAC for a long while during the reign of General LeMay, and he once famously said: “I don’t have time to distinguish between the unfortunate and the incompetent.”

Our tax money is being wasted, and someone is responsible. We need a modern day LeMay to clean house at the National Weather Service.

That will be interesting, since

Emissions worldwide have increased 18.0%.
Emissions from countries that signed Kyoto increased 21.1%.
Emissions from non-signers increased 10.0%.
Emissions from the U.S. increased 6.6%.

[source]

President Bush did a great job of kicking the Kyoto can down the road and not allowing reconsideration. The debate will change now, of course.

But just maybe there will be more debate over the question of why the Senate voted 95 – 0 against Kyoto [with Al Gore as the Senate's presiding officer], but is now supposed to ratify a similar agreement — after a decade of global cooling, and after watching every other country that signed Kyoto flout its terms. The U.S., as a non-signatory to Kyoto, has done a much better job than the countries that signed the protocol.

The U.S., of course, would be expected to rigidly toe the new Kyoto line, and hobble ourselves to our great economic detriment — while the rest of the world cheats, and laughs at us.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/

Welcome to the dark ages…

Mrs. Smokey, being a middle school Principal, mentioned several years ago that here in California, the teachers she hired had to pass what’s called the CBEST test in order to teach.

Anyone can take the test, so on a whim I paid my $40 and took it.

I was shocked at how easy it was! The math section [there was no science section] was entirely arithmetic; no algebra, no geometry, no trig, and certainly no calculus. And the answers were multiple choice, so anyone who needed to could work back from them.

Have you tried the CSET in math. It is required to teach at High School Level. The missus took all three sections in one go and passed. However, many require many attempts to pass all three sections, and usually try only one at a time, thus giving themselves three times as much time to complete each.

On the issue of surfaces alone, pretty darn bad.

Yilmaz et al (2008) Heat over grass vs. soil vs. concrete

http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/atm/Vol21-2/ATM002100202.pdf

Note that these stark differences occur under a (probably mild) UHI and at a height somewhat more than that of a surface station, which means at station height, the differences would be even greater.

Also, the study was not a GGW study but rather a look as to how one might make urban conditions more comfortable, so it is free of the political edge.

When I was in fifth grade I could have passed the CBEST. But that was then, and this is now.

Sounds like the twaddle-dressed-like-a-”test” that I took. As well as I can remember, my 6th grade achievement tests were harder.

I got around high 80s to low 90s percentiles on all the sections, with high 90s in nothing. My overall percentile was 99th (for reasons statisticians will understand). They posted the grades publicly. The class (not being statisticians) was outraged and insisted there had been an error and with considerable indignation presented me with my “true average”. And I admit it seemed a bit strange to me, too. My parents explained to me what was really going on: Yes, I was (and still am) only an inch deep, but the mile-wide part was in my statistical favor.

Mrs. Smokey, being a middle school Principal, mentioned several years ago that here in California, the teachers she hired had to pass what’s called the CBEST test in order to teach.

Anyone can take the test, so on a whim I paid my $40 and took it.

I was shocked at how easy it was! The math section [there was no science section] was entirely arithmetic; no algebra, no geometry, no trig, and certainly no calculus. And the answers were multiple choice, so anyone who needed to could work back from them.

I thought, there is no way anyone with a college degree could possibly fail this test. But it turns out that lots of them fail it [the other two sections are reading comprehension and writing].

Those who fail the test don’t have much to worry about, though. They can re-take it as many times as they want, and once they pass a section, it’s permanent — they never have to take that section again.

When I was in fifth grade I could have passed the CBEST. But that was then, and this is now.

Oh dear – I forgot the sugar. Sigh.

On the holiday side and perhaps UHI related, back in my high school days my family decided to go to Niagra Falls on the Canadian side (the restaurants had a turkey special). Driving through a densely populated part of Buffalo my mother waws certain she could smell turkeys cooking. Where there’s cooking smells, there’s anthropogenic heating, where there’s AH, there ought to be UHI.

Time to check out my Cranberry Nut Bread (Mom’s recipe).

REPLY: They painted the legs, and the MMTS pole, not the screens themselves…but still it appeared they “spruced up” for the arrival of JEOPARDY! I suppose I can’t blame them, they wanted it to look good on national TV…but they probably didn’t expect a guy like me to be watching who doesn’t care how pretty it looks, only that it is compliant with siting standards. – Anthony