I’ve decided to step away from WUWT this weekend. Both my wife and I are sick with a cold. I’m very tired, and I need to do something else for awhile besides moderate squabbles; like work on my paper which keeps getting time taken away from it by the attention this blog requires.
If you have something worth posting on the front page, flag a moderator. Those that want to do guest posts are welcome to do so also. Again, flag a moderator for attention. Those that have author permission already, go for it.
I’ll resume posting if I feel up to it Sunday night.
In the meantime, talk quietly and politely amongst yourselves. Don’t make me come back here.
– Anthony
Thanks for what you are doing, Anthony. Please get well soon!
Btw. Arctic Sea Ice Extent from DMI in Denmark is interesting
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php
Looks like the extent is the greatest seen since 2005.
A new batch of emails from the same rent-seeking scientists: click
Now they’re trying to turn the climategate tide. [source]
Since this is Open Thread, let me post this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1255565/Spy-chips-hidden-2-5-million-dustbins-council-snoopers-plan-pay-throw-tax.html
I recall that many of our British friends were less-than-amused about the SuperBowl Audi commercial “Green Police” (soundtrack by Cheap Trick), and now I am starting to understand their reaction!!
Thanks to Charles the Moderator and others! Cheers, Charles the DrPH
Don (05:09:21) :
This just in –
“Researchers at Iowa State University have concluded that global climate change will make potholes on Iowa’s roads even worse.”
Details here:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100307/DMWEATHER/3070344/1007/news05/Think-potholes-are-bad-now?-Just-wait-a-bit
Is there no end to this madness?”
NO It looks like the Iowa road crews are taking lessons from the Massachusetts road crews.
To provide themselves with full employement road crews after fixing a road, dip their shovels in kerosene to dissolve the road tar. The shovels are then leaned against the truck and allowed to drain onto the road. This softens the road surface and leads to a series of new potholes. Voila! guarenteed full employment.
What is yellow and sleeps three? A Mass Department of transportation work truck, complete with several shovels draining kerosene onto the road.
R. Gates: You wrote, “This moisture is coming right from the record warm area of the Carribean near Puerto Rico.”
What record warm area “of the Carribean near Puerto Rico”? For the week centered on Feb 24, the SST anomalies in that area of the Caribbean are far from the record.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2yypims.png
A daily map of SST anomalies as of today, March 7, doesn’t show record levels near Puerto Rico:
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom.html
Smokey (14:41:21) :
A new batch of emails from the same rent-seeking scientists: click
Incredible. Breathtaking!
My favorite:
Also:
Notice how the name of “consensus” and “IPCC” are mud. 🙂 There is all-out panic because no one wants to go ahead with reducing the use of fossil fuels!
At 08:04 PM 2/27/2010, Paul Falkowski wrote:
Policy, policy, policy. These emails are more fairsounding than the CRU emails, but it is naked aggression on the part of scientists to acheive political ends: national regulation of all energy production and use. It’s ugly.
Gail Combs (15:09:54) : What is yellow and sleeps three? A Mass Department of transportation work truck….
Did you hear about the new DOT shovels?
They stand up all by themselves!
My wife, God bless her, sent a message to our Congressional Representative Rosa DeLauro. She received the reply below. Un-bloody-believable!
Thank you for contacting me regarding our nation’s energy situation. While I know we disagree on this issue, I appreciate hearing your views.
The science community has reached unanimity on the issue of global warming. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. Within the past 30 years, the rate of warming across the globe has been approximately three times greater than the rate over the last 100 years. Past climate information suggests the warmth of the last half century is unusual in at least the previous 1,300 years in the Northern Hemisphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that warming of the Earth’s climate system is now “unequivocal.” The IPCC bases this conclusion on observations of increases in average air and ocean temperatures, melting of snow and ice, and average sea level across the globe. Indeed, it is clear that human activity is contributing to global warming. Even a small change in the earth’s temperature can have a dramatic impact on our climate: more intense storms, more pronounced droughts, coastal areas more severely eroded by rising seas.
In the absence of federal action, 24 states and several regional organizations have moved toward the regulation of greenhouse gasses. While I applaud these efforts, I believe coordinated, federal action is necessary for the goal of limiting national greenhouse gas emissions.
Last year, the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Starting in 2012, this legislation will establish annual limits on emissions of carbon and other global warming pollutants. To achieve these limits, ACES will establish a system of tradable permits called “emissions allowances,” a practice commonly referred to as cap and trade. I understand your concerns regarding the cap and trade system and the potential cost. However, ACES will protect consumers from energy price increases with five programs: one to protect consumers from electricity price increases, one for natural gas prices, one for heating oil, one to protect low- and moderate-income families, and one to provide tax dividends to consumers. In addition, the legislation includes protections for industries that would otherwise be heavily affected by the changes in this bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this legislation will increase federal revenues by $846 billion over 10 years and will increase direct spending by $821 billion, resulting in an estimated net reduction of $24 billion in the federal deficit. You should know that I voted for this legislation when it passed the House by a vote of 219 to 212.
The American Clean Energy and Security Act will create new jobs in green technology and infrastructure, enhance our energy independence, and help protect our environment. It will require electric utilities to create 20 percent of their electricity through renewable energy sources and energy efficiency by 2020. This legislation invests in clean energy technologies, mandates new energy-saving standards for buildings and industry, and will reduce carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020. It is a balanced approach to confronting our nation’s energy situation that has received broad support from industry as well as environmentalists. I believe this legislation will put us on a path to a clean energy future and make America the global leader in clean energy technology and jobs.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. Please do not hesitate to contact me on this or any other matter of concern to you in the future.
Sincerely,
Rosa L. DeLauro
Member of Congress
Steve in SC (06:50:09):
hro001 (20:33:45) :
Skin the chicken?! What a travesty!
[…]
“The reason for the skinning part is to eliminate the skimming step and the removal of fat step […] The other reason to skin the chicken is that the removal of pinfeathers is a real pain so I just skin em”
=====
I don’t doubt for a moment that it is. However, I note that your recipe calls for “5 bullion cubes” (sic). I suspect that you meant “bouillon cubes” – because it is unlikely that any “mass of precious metal” would compensate for the highly noticeable lack of flavour that would be the invariable result of a soup compiled with a skinned chicken.
I would further note that bouillon cubes (aka evapourated seasoned meat extract) are a very recent invention – more often found in ersatz broth than in genuine soup; whereas the efficacy of chicken soup has a long history that precedes the invention of this flavour proxy:
“Cold remedies: What works
[…]
“Chicken soup. Generations of parents have spooned chicken soup into their sick children. Now scientists have put chicken soup to the test, discovering that it does have effects that might help relieve cold and flu symptoms in two ways. […]”
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cold-remedies/ID00036
It is therefore quite apparent that your recipe is (if not post-normal) at the very least “anti-science”. It is equally apparent that your recipe’s high component of value-added vegetables and herbs is simply a way of hiding the decline in natural chicken flavour.
This being the case, one might be inclined to conclude that your focus on painful “removal of pinfeathers” is simply an attempt to divert attention from the absence of THE principal component in your recipe’s resulting pseudo-chicken-soup. But I couldn’t possibly comment 😉
”””’John Whitman (22:27:50) This is the only fundamental crisis of our age.”””
”””slow to follow (10:21:37) : @ur momisugly John Whitman, I think it is wider than just science . . . . ”””’
Slow to follow [not],
Yes, just before I hit the send key, I hesitated thinking it would be better to clarify/qualify that statement. But I hit the send key anyway.
Here is my clarification/qualification.
Science, as a process [method], is very close to the root of our western culture, therefore its corruption is fatal to our western culture. There are sciences of every aspect of human life and of reality. Corrupt the basic scientific process [method] then corrupts all. So I went with “This is the only fundamental crisis of our age.” In our times, I know of no other aspect of our western culture that I can apply that statement to.
It is an interesting discussion, which I hope we get into, about how the fundamental corruption process works. Studying [as WUWT does] the very fine details of how the specific corruption worked in the specific case of climate science is important. With the climate science case study added to other scientific corruption cases then one should be able to come up with the fundamental/conceptual process of corruption or “the fundamental law of scientific corruption”.
Vigilance is needed for current and future generations.
John
””Robert E. Phelan on March 2, 2010 at 1:21 am: I’ve always said that the best food in the world is in Taipei.’’’’’
Robert,
Please see my Taipei comment ‘John Whitman (12:58:16)’ on 02 Mar 2010 in the WUWT thread of 01 Mar 2010 titled ‘A tornado free February – first time ever!’.
John
Get well, Anthony, and take a few days off.
Re: Robert E. Phelan (16:01:55): The Representative’s response is, unfortunately, all too typical of the entrenched viewpoint of the political, academic, and scientific elites in the USA. You would never know from their canned talking points that Climategate ever happened, that the IPCC is in disrepute, that CRU’s Phil Jones has admitted there was “no statistically-significant warming in the past 15 years,” that there are energetic ‘skeptical’ sites such as WUWT, that there is really no ‘consensus’ at all that AGW is happening. It reminds us that there is yet a steep hill to climb, with the intransigent media standing squarely in the way.
I sent an email around alerting friends and family to the Climate Realist store that I mentioned above, (16:39:45, click on my handle), and back from an old friend, comes this:
Ah, “the planet.” What can one say? “Never mind the planet; it’s all about the science”? It sounds a bit lame to respond, “There, there, it’s all right. The planet really isn’t dying.” Unfortunately, it’s attitudes like these that the agenda politicians in the Congress and the Administration, not to mention the Goracle himself, are pandering to, knowing they can pull at those heartstrings at will, and gain all the support they want for measures like Cap and Trade and complete control of the economy and our lives.
/Mr Lynn
Catlin Arctic Survey 2010 They are up to it again.
“Canada has had its warmest, driest winter on record”
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100306/warm_weather_100306/20100306?hub=TopStoriesV2
Anthony,
Everybody knows a cold lasts 7-10 days, nothing you can do about it.
So, take 7-10 days (light duty).
You’ve earned it.
If you take plenty of Vitamin C, a cold will only last ten days. But if you don’t take any Vitamin C, your cold will last for a week and a half.
”””Leif Svalgaard (20:22:50) : Effects of sunspots on the Earth:
http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=miwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=366&query=sunspot
from a 1878 perspective.
”””’
Leif,
I have below extracted 3 passages from the editorial in the Editors Table ‘The Sun-spots and Their Effects’ on page 365 of ‘The Popular Science Monthly’ Jan 1878 issue. I have shown them in the order they were presented in the editorial.
“On this broad basis of observation [by Prof Schwabe of Dessau and Prof Wolf of Zurich], made with no reference to any hypothesis of variation, it is established that solar energy changes in intensity by a regular law of rise and fall from a maximum to a minimum of effects; and that the maximum, or greatest activity, coincides with the period of violent perturbations when there is the greatest number of eruptions of heated matter from below, and the most conspicuous display of sun-spots and prominences; while at the minimum periods these manifestations are greatly reduced, or almost entirely wanting.”
“Wind power, water power, steam power, the activities of organic growth, all animal energy, and the great phenomena of changes in the crust of the globe [Earth] due to the circulation of waters through atmospheric agency, are caused by the forces of solar radiation.”
“The sun-spots . . . . are now linked indissolubly to the whole scheme of activity which we observe upon earth and of which we are ourselves a part.”
Leif,
Given the discussion of sunspots versus volcanic/earthquakes recently here at WUWT, I found interesting the statement that “changes in the crust of the globe [earth]” are caused by solar variation indirectly via “ circulation of waters through atmospheric agency”. And since the editor links solar variation with sun-spot variation, he is saying more sun-spots then more crust activities implying more volcanoes/earthquakes.
John
Detailed Study of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effect at Three Locations.
I have studied this phenomena at three Australian locations – Te Kowia, in south Queensland; Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, with a 150-year temperature record; and Sydney, the largest Australian city, which also has a 150-year record.
I have used what I hope is raw data from the Australian Bureau of Metrology web site. I have analysed monthly maximums and monthly minimums, and summarised these into separate annual averages. I have also examined the separate trends for each calendar month.
I have found several surprising results, which I have not seen reported elsewhere:
Te Kowia
1. This is located at a sugar research station and has a 100-year temperature record. It was once in a rural setting, but is now on the outskirts of Mackay, a small coastal city, with a minor highway passing within 100 metres of the measuring instrument.
2. Quite unexpectedly, there has been a steady decline in the trend of monthly maximums, both on an annual average basis and for the 100-year record for each individual calendar month. The monthly minimum trend increased steadily, moving in exactly the opposite direction to the maximums, which caused the UHI effect.
3. There has been a steadily increasing UHI effect in this supposedly rural setting.
Melbourne
1. The thermometer is located in a busy street, in the heart of the city.
2. Both maximum and minimum temperatures have risen steadily, with minimums rising faster, creating the UHI effect, of approximately the same dimension as that at Te Kowia.
3. This is consistent with Dr Roy Spencer’s recent finding, that most of the UHI effect is created in the early years of the urbanisation process.
Sydney
1. The thermometer is located in a lovely grassy park on Observatory hill overlooking the city and harbour, but within close proximity to the busy Sydney Harbour Bridge.
2. Both maximums and minimums increased over time, but while the trend in minimums was steady, the maximums varied to a considerable extent.
3. Most surprisingly, the annual average UHI effect was negative. By which I mean that the annual maximums increased faster than the annual minimums.
4. Analysis of the separate changes for each calendar month, showed a positive UHI effect in the five warmer months from October to February, but a negative UHI in the seven cooler from March to September. The overall annual UHI effect was negative as noted above.
There have been a number of reports lately of individual locations, where annual temperatures have been stable or declining over quite extended periods. From the present pilot study, it appears that a more detailed study of maximums and minimums separately, plus seasonalised variations, is required in order to properly understand the changing temperature. Use of global gridded temperature only serves to confuse the picture.
I will be pleased to forward a more detailed report with charts and tables if this is of interest. You have my email address.
Global warming sceptic wins the race.
This is almost as good as a horse called Ethereal winning the Caufield Cup and the Melbourne Cup when I was contributing code to Ethereal (now called Wireshark).
Regarding the “warm and dry” winter in Canada…….
Yes, all I can remember this winter is everyone complaining about how warm and dry it was…../sarc off/
David Phillips is an alarmist who enjoys the media attention.
John Whitman (17:02:43) :
“…I am guessing, sounds like you were in Taipei sometime between the late ’70s to the mid ’80s or so…”
Right in one, John…. 1973 to 1987. It’s been a very long time, but chances are good we actually bought each other a drink once or thrice….
MODERATOR: please send John Whitman my e-mail address. Thankyou.
[OK. But we’re not a dating service ☺ ~dbs]
Mine lasted the better part of a fortnight, Smokey, …
Robert in Calgary (19:36:26) :”David Phillips is an alarmist who enjoys the media attention”. He is listed as a “Senior Climatologist”. Sounds impressive doesn’t it?