By Steven Goddard
[Update: See message from Professor North Below]
Some well known Aggie Jokes:
Did you hear about the Aggie who won a gold medal at the Olympics? He liked it so much that he decided to get it bronzed.
Did you hear about the Houston Cougar that transferred to A&M? He raised the IQ of both schools!
How many Aggies does it take to screw in a light bulb? One, but he gets 3 hours credit.
How do you get a Texas A&M graduate off your front porch? You pay for the pizza.
And here is the most recent Aggie joke. Check out this piece of work from the Texas A&M school newspaper.
Published: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
It is not just Texas; it is global. The rising temperatures that have afflicted the state are only part of a larger problem. Earth’s temperatures are rising at an alarming rate, rates unseen for thousands of years. “The warming that has occurred in the last 100 years seems to be very unusual,” said Gerald North, professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography. “We do not see warming changes like that for 10,000 years. The rate at which it is going up has not stopped.”Even though the global rise in temperature is small, 3 degrees Celsius over a period of 100 years, the implications of such warming are large. “3 degrees Celsius is about 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and if you ask most people, they would say that it does not sound like very much,” said Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography. “If you look at the global average temperature, it really varies a small amount.”
Every fact and statistic quoted are suspect. According to NCDC, Texas has not warmed over the last 90 years, or the last 110 years.
Next up is their claim that global temperatures have risen by 3C in the last 100 years. Even Hansen’s bloated numbers only show 0.8C in the last 130 years.
NCDC shows the same thing, only less.
HadCrut shows less than one degree rise over the last 150 years.
The authors seem to be confusing IPCC estimates for the next hundred years, with measurements from the last hundred years – which is clearly the context of that paragraph.
Then they go on to claim that summer temperatures have increased in Texas.
Global climate changes are having equal effect on Texas‘ climate, which is part of the reason for the increased temperatures over the summers.
According to NCDC, Texas summer temperatures are dropping:
And finally :
“Texas temperatures are going up pretty much like the earth’s temperatures are,” North said. “Generally speaking, the global average temperature changes about the same as in Texas, so it is probably going to be warmer in Texas in the next 50 to 100 years. Last summer was a really hot summer, and while I say that is a fluctuation, it does probably indicate things that we might expect in the next 20 or 30 years. And what you can expect in the next 50 years is that the heat we experienced last summer is going to be the average summer temperature.”
Not one shred of evidence to support that statement. If NCDC trends continue, summers will be cooler in 50 years in Texas. Now, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are only thinking about their little part of Texas. The closest USHCN station to College Station is in Brenham.
According to USHCN, Brenham was warmer 100 years ago.
One might expect that professors of atmospheric science would have access to the Internet, and would be able to look these things up for themselves – before presenting information to their students. Looks like another bad Aggie joke.
[Update: Professor North responded to an email from one of our commenters, James Allison, and stated this:
“Please correct the false impression left on your website. The item in the Texas A&M student newspaper was based on short interviews by phone. While there was no error in fact, the impression left is false. In the interview with me, I was referring to the temperature changes of our planet over the last century (about 0.7 deg C). The author switched abruptly to an interview with Professor Andrew Dessler who was not talking about the temperature over the LAST century but instead the IPCC prediction for temperature over the NEXT century (averaging over models about 3 deg C). I would not have known about this error except that my email box has been unusually loaded with hate mail today.
Gerald North”]
He liked it so much that he decided to get it bronzed.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea (or does this already exist) if there was an independent web site – and I mean independent in the way that no beliefs were held on AGW – which simply presented ALL the ‘facts’ we know about temperature changes. Rather than the author or the reader believing what some professor may say, they could go to this web site and look at the graphs themselves. ALL the graphs should be available easily on one click of a mouse. So a reader could get the above Texas graph as well as Met Office summer temps in England, for example.
At the bottom of the page could be a reminder to the reader that this is ALL we know. That projections or models are just speculation. I accept what is real; whether or not it supports my scepticism.
ALL web sites that promote or dispel the idea of AGW should have a link to the site, at cost of getting finger-pointed if they don’t. This would allow any interested viewers to verify what is being said. I propose ‘www.temperaturegraphs.com’ – which is actually available (I just checked).
This would stop the plainly absurd nonsense being tossed about by the ignorant, for the ignorant. What say all of you?
In defense of Texas, I do wish to point out that most Aggie students are from out of state. Students from Texas are to be found primarily at such fine institutions as UNT or even SMU. As for the 5 degree warming idea; does this Aggie climatologist live in Texas, or is this a “distance teaching” program? In a “normal”year in Texas, we get one or two days during the winter with a snowfall that in the north would be unnoticed, a light romantic dusting that coats rooftops and slows the perpetual whirring of airconditioners and cicadas. Last year (winter 2008-2009) it snowed twice with significant amounts, more than 1 inch, which caused near panic. This winter past it snowed 5 times!!! We had snowstorms!!! There was snow 3 inches deep on the ground that stuck around without melting for three days at a time! We had snow in October, and Snow in May!
Steven: It’s not impossible that a soccer ball accelerates while in air. But it sure requires extremely windy weather 😉
Thanks for the joke. I’m afraid I didn’t laugh, though, this looks too much like disinformation rather than a joke.
Sorry about the last post, the memories are still traumatic.
This portion of the Don Henley song Garden Of Allah seems so fitting for describing the warming crowd.
“Today I made an appearance downtown
I am an expert witness because I say I am
And I said gentlemen, and I use that word loosely
I will testify for you, I’m a gun for hire, I’m a saint, I’m a liar
Because there are no facts, there is no truth
Just data to be manipulated
I can get you any result you like
What’s it worth to you?
Because there is no wrong, there is no right
And I sleep very well at night
No shame, no solution, no remorse, no retribution
Just people selling t-shirts
Just opportunity to participate in the pathetic little circus
and winning, winning, winning”
They weren’t in school during the record snow in Texas last winter? Oh, that was global warming snow.
Not to defend the announcer, who is probably not using the word in its mathematical sense, but technically it is true that all (well, at least nearly all) shots do accelerate in mid-air. That is, the velocity vector changes with time. The visual evidence for this is the curved path of the ball.
Murray Duffin says (6/17 6:31am) “Several years ago Dallas had a summer with about 30 days over 100 degrees F, which was considered a record at that time.”
It was even worse than we thought!
http://weatherblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/06/30-years-ago-a-real-heat-wave-hit-dallas.html
Ah thanks for the confirmation. So these would be the same Aggies that broke their legs when sweeping up some leaves….
… They fell out of the tree!
“They weren’t in school during the record snow in Texas last winter? Oh, that was global warming snow.”
Well that’s just it you see. The earth is warmed by global warming, and then in winter there is all this snow which falls on it which only acts as an insulating blanket which means that the earth does not get a chance to cool down in the winter. And when the next summer comes around, the earth gets even hotter because of all the global warming.
And I’ll just bet that there are some CAGW alarmists who would believe that crap if it was said by an “IPCC scientist”!
Send your comments to Opinion Editor Ian McPhail opinion@thebatt.com
We can have great fun with the Aggie jokes. Unfortunately, if President Zero had the IQ of an Aggie, he’d ask them for help cleaning up the spill. You can’t find better Petroleum Engineers anywhere in the world than those cranked out by A&M. They may even be able to figure out a way to “plug the damn hole” and “stop the leak, Daddy!”
3oC seems to be a new bit of information.
For Ken Hall – Texas A&M has long had the tradition of being a very pro-military, conservative school with an overwhelmingly conservative student body – which makes it doubly irritating that this nitwit has managed to get himself ensconced there.
Among other things, it is the home of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library.
I live about 2 hours drive north of it – didn’t go there but have many friends that did. And *everyone* in Texas tells aggie jokes – my favorite is about the breathalyzer test, but I don’t think that would get past the moderator. 😉
The Ghost Of Big Jim Cooley says:
June 17, 2010 at 7:11 am
GISS and NOAA this is another Aggie joke.
“How many Aggies does it take to screw in a light bulb? One, but he gets 3 hours credit.”
Actually, it takes 50. One to hold the bulb, and 49 to spin the room round.
stevengoddard says:
June 17, 2010 at 7:02 am
That’s a new one Steven, the one we are treated to in virtually every game in the UK is “the ball gathered pace off the pitch”?
Greece – Nigeria, on at present and getting interesting
I didn’t know marijuana was popular in Texas colleges. OOps! looks like I’ve committed an injustice by equating Aggie professors to pot smokers. My appologies to the pot smokers.
stevengoddard says:
June 17, 2010 at 7:02 am
Of course it accelerated as it approached the goal…a small amount of negative acceleration! But if the announcer was able to see that with his eyes, he’s a lot better than any human I know.
-Scott
The Ghost Of Big Jim Cooley says:
June 17, 2010 at 7:11 am
Wouldn’t it be a good idea (or does this already exist) if there was an independent web site – and I mean independent in the way that no beliefs were held on AGW – which simply presented ALL the ‘facts’ we know about temperature changes.
************************
There are a couple that try to do just that. I fact check all articles I can, both skeptical and CAGW.
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/
http://climate4you.com/
I posted a link to this entry in the comments section….
I think it’s shameful that people are joking around about something as serious as Texas weather — particularly with our friends at Texas A&M where this is a very sensitive issue. Let us remember the tragedy only few short months ago when the Aggie couple was found frozen to death in their convertible at a drive-in theater after telling friends they were going to see the classic drama “Closed for Winter”.
The Ghost of Big Jim Cooley: 7:11am;
Nice idea, Jim, but I can see a problem; so many of these temperature charts are not raw data – they’ve been adjusted, homogenised and probably pasteurised – so which ones can we believe? Messrs Hansen, Jones and Mann have not been exactly forthcoming about their original data, have they? Best wishes, Dave.
I went here
http://atmo.tamu.edu/profile/GNorth
And sent the prefssor this
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Thu, Jun 17, 2010 8:05 am
Subject: Texas Heat
Pofessor North,
You should check all of the more accurate data found here and then apologize to your students.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/06/17/an-aggie-joke/#more-20677
Josh Grella says:
June 17, 2010 at 6:33 am
“….The sad thing is that since the people that run our education system buy into all of this gobbledygook and pump it down our childrens’ throats ad nauseum. The only way we will restore logical, science-based thinking is to change who controls the cirriculum at our schools.”
____________________________________________________________________
The decline of the US educational system can be traced back to John Dewey.
Looks like Nikita Khrushchev was correct when he stated:
“You Americans are so gullible! We don’t have to invade you! We will destroy you from within without firing a shot! We will bury you by the billions! We spoon feed you socialism until your Communists and don’t even know it! We assist your elected leaders in giving you small doses of Socialism until you suddenly awake to find you have Communism. the day will come when your grandchildren will live under communism!” Nikita Khrushchev
And of course the first place to start the spoon feeding was in the schools.
“On average, American high school graduates are two years behind much of the world, including some countries that could be called “third world.” Prior to the 1930’s, students were given an exam to graduate from the eighth grade, which typical high school graduates couldn’t pass today, because it’s too difficult. …. The bulk of the responsibility for these massive, tragic declines in education can be laid at the feet of the leaders of the Humanist education community. Their obsessive meddling with the basic process and pedagogy of education, conducted in their zeal to make education more philosophically (e.g. “modern” Humanist) and politically correct, is the primary cause of the decline. John Dewey and his successors (ala’ Bill Spady’s Outcome Based Education) have pretty much had their way, but the excuses are wearing pretty thin….” click
“…. There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural law or moral absolutes.” – John Dewey (Rondald Nash, The Closing of the American Heart: What’s Really Wrong with America’s Schools, United States: Probe Books, 1990, 91)
With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural law or moral absolutes…. If this is now what is taught in school, no wonder skeptics are seen as “flat earthers” and “science” is no longer based on evidence! No wonder lying and cheating are considered acceptable behavior! (As an atheist I would like to note honesty and integrity do not need religion as a base despite religion’s claims to the contrary.)
I actually when to a week long work shop for supervisors and managers, at a well known university, where this slop about no absolutes was one of the modules taught!