[posted by autoscheduler] I’ll be offline and out of town for medical issues most of today and tomorrow, but may check in via my cellphone. If you have story ideas, news, etc be sure to flag the comment for a moderator’s attention. Moderators, feel free to post stories of interest. – Thanks everybody, Anthony
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DirkH @2:10 says:
To add insult to injury, years after the EU[SSR] started to prohibit incandescent light bulbs, now the German Umweltbundesamt (UBA) (Environmental Federal Office)
FOUND OUT THAT ENERGY SAVING BULBS CONTAIN MERCURY and warns accordingly.
I have been scanning comments by people who use these Congressional Light sources containing the neurotoxin, mercury (CFLs), and posters report that they are subject to explode, catch fire, or short out and smoke. Here is an example:
GE Helical 20W Bulb Failure
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2009-06-13 16:20.
Just had the same problem with the same bulb in my bathroom; there was a red glow (small fire?) coming from the tube. I had the breathe in some of the smoke that emited from the bulb to turn off the light witch. I wonder what the fire and health risks are…?
(The thread is interesting and has a side discussion about multiphasic sleep patterns.)
More and more local fire departments are carrying information about mercury spills because of these Congressional Lights:
Fire Department > Mercury Safety
And one or two lawyers are beginning to handle Congressional Light (CFLs*) failures and poisoning.
*I can’t figure out what the F stands for.
Sean Peake says:
December 3, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Is it just me or is there a Happy Face on the sun’s back side?
http://solarcycle24.com/stereobehind.htm
Uhhmm… Sean, If it really is the sun’s Happy Face (and it sure looks like one!), it can’t be the sun’s ‘backside’! Unless, of course, the sun has it’s proverbial head up its arse….
Still, if the back side is really the sun’s happy face, then are we faced with his sunny side ‘moon shot’??!!!!!!
I realize it would be a bum jest to make old sol the butt of a joke but we must get to the bottom of this backside smirk, lest anyone suggest we ‘turn the other cheek’ before we are assured of the first one. I’m so confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!
};>)
Zeke the Sneak says:
December 3, 2010 at 4:26 pm
“GE Helical 20W Bulb Failure
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2009-06-13 16:20.
Just had the same problem with the same bulb in my bathroom; there was a red glow (small fire?) coming from the tube. I had the breathe in some of the smoke that emited from the bulb to turn off the light witch. I wonder what the fire and health risks are…?”
The health risks? Oh nothing.
Forget about it.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/733465
Forget. Dig it? Uahahaha…
The Gavinator is on the loose.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/02/schmidt.climate.science.policy/index.html?hpt=C2
Pay him a visit while comments are still open and he can’t control them….
FROM JOE BASTARDI: CORE OF PUNISHING COLD WILL SHIFT SOUTHEAST FOR DEC 10-20
That does not mean beach weather for Ireland and England, it means it wont be as bad as what is going to develop over the central Europe for the mid month. I will post more on this later, but some of you not caught in the cold now, get ready, this is expanding and centering itself further southeast with time.
Look at it this way.. Santa is coming three weeks from tomorrow and he will have weather more suited for him in much of the northern hemisphere population centers.. the US and the far east should still be cold too.
Ice fairs on the Thames, anyone?
ciao for now
FRIDAY MORNING WHILE YOU WERE ASLEEP
IT’S THE SUN VIS THE OCEAN, AND TO HECK WITH THE CO2
The brawl for the winter in Europe is coming down to the Enso signal which supports the reversal to a more normal to warm pattern in the north, while the push of the cold southeast that is starting now more or less maintains itself and grows most harsh in midwinter, vis the low solar activity and perhaps some wild carding of volcanic activity from two winters ago in Siberia and Alaska, which is known to have a lag time in its reaction of several years.
In this winter, folks, the last thing you are going to be worried about is warming from CO2. While I wish no harm on anyone from the cold, perhaps the punishing cold that is growing more frequent in winter (wait till the AMO changes) will serve as a reminder to the masses to wake up, and not just have an agenda shoved down their throat by folks who think they know better. Of course a lot of them have been in Cancun, which though recently cooler than normal, is not as bad as here.
However, the guru of the sun and its possible effects, Piers Corbyn (you would be well advised to read this man’s ideas; he is someone that though technically I compete with, I think ups the level of the playing field as far as the search for the right answer in weather and climate. I respect and actually cherish people that will help up levels! I have no problem in complementing people like this, especially with some of the vitriol that is thrown his way sometimes) has really issued a startling and much colder look at the winter in the northwest than I have. Granted, we have little argument farther southeast, but it’s interesting to see tonight’s run of the ECMWF model try to re-charge the blocking for one more go around mid December to mid January, not only for Europe, but for much of the eastern U.S. This certainly runs counter to my ideas, which say we are going to break this and reverse it in the north. While I do think the sun plays a huge longer term role in the climate, the shorter term is not as clear to me, though it is part of my triple crown of cooling that I have been arguing will turn the tide, perhaps in a dramatic fashion, in the next few decades. In any case, it’s short term solar vs the Enso.
Btw… there is a La Nina, at least here in the States, that occurred several years after the major Siberian Volcano of 1912, that was brutal here in the States. That was the winter of 1916-1917, and the SOI this year in the fall was as close to that as I have ever seen.
In closing, the words of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull from Aqualung come to mind…
“Do you still remember, December’s Foggy Freeze?”
Written in the ’70s, when there was talk of a coming ice age, no matter what they try to tell you.
I wonder if Piers listens to any Tull?
Ciao for now. ***
http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/bastardi-europe-blog.asp?partner=accuweather
From the bottom of the CNN site in PJBs comment above
London, United Kingdom Weather forecast
HI -1°LO 1°
WUWT
According FOX News today, “One of the most compelling dangers, (Judith) Curry says, is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet which could raise sea levels 19 feet if it slips into the ocean. She calls that a looming catastrophe that could happen in the next few generations …”
Is Dr Curry currently in Cancun? Did she really say that? Sounds alarmist to me! What do readers at WUWT think of Dr. Curry’s prediction? She seems highly respected by many on this blog.
Arkansas passed the new hunter rights law and voted to protect hunters rights across the entire state. If what I read was correct, the law got an 85% approval vote. You can read more at Hunting In Arkansas to see how the laws have changed.
Zeke the Sneak says:
DirkH @2:10 says:
To add insult to injury, years after the EU[SSR] started to prohibit incandescent light bulbs, now the German Umweltbundesamt (UBA) (Environmental Federal Office)
FOUND OUT THAT ENERGY SAVING BULBS CONTAIN MERCURY and warns accordingly.
I have been scanning comments by people who use these Congressional Light sources containing the neurotoxin, mercury (CFLs), and posters report that they are subject to explode, catch fire, or short out and smoke. Here is an example:
Or you can just fumble one when doing the replacement cycle and have it shatter on landing, putting a load of mercury into your home… But not to worry, mercury doesn’t do much, other than poison living things when it’s not making them gay…
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/gay-bulbs/
Shocking news. Look who’s greasing whose wheels for Cancun:
“EU hands China €500m clean tech loan
European Investment Bank provides financial backing for up to 15 low-carbon projects
The prospects of an international deal on new climate financing mechanisms received a boost earlier today, when the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced it has granted €500m (£425m) to China to support the development of low-carbon projects.”
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/1930032/eu-hands-china-eur500m-clean-tech-loan
My project for 2011. There is a conveyor belt of people who are paid to invent and implement schemes to take money from your pockets and hand it to the government, usually less a transaction fee and often with a deal to share in part of the returns.
We are not talking about a regular, legislated tax. We are talking about schemes such as smart meters for electricity, where the citizen does not get to own the meter which attracts a periodic payment; the purpose of the smart meters is to provide more money to regulators, at your expense.
These conveyor belt people are not doing useful work. They are not producing tangible, useful goods or participating in the efficient enhancement of any natural advantage of a country.
My project is to identify, name and shame these people. They are parasitic by nature and they are neither a necessary nor desirable part of the employment structure. Mentally, I liken them to freel riders and carpetbaggers. They have multiplied so fast that are are now a real and expensive threat.
So, if you agree, name and shame. Tell any friends who are parasitic that they are parasitic and ought to do decent things. Cut off the air supply and let it collapse.
All the very best Anthony, we cannot afford to be without you.
They’ve probably got a preliminary figure for Nov., and they’re making the assessment for the “meteorological year,” which starts on Dec. 1.
R. de Haan says:
December 3, 2010 at 5:52 pm
FROM JOE BASTARDI: CORE OF PUNISHING COLD WILL SHIFT SOUTHEAST FOR DEC 10-20
Thanks Ron, Joe is on the same page as many of us, but I suspect he has a missing link in his data that he uses to predict the NH winter. Joe is expecting the NAO to reverse soon, but we are in a world of 210 years ago. I think the low solar EUV will keep the NAO firmly in the negative….this index could be one to watch over the next few months
Looking at the Sea Ice page and in particular at the side by side comparisons of 2007 and 2010, I can’t help but wonder if the ice on Hudson Bay is being counted as arctic sea ice. If so, why? Otherwise it seems 2010 is well above 2007.
From reading numerous blogs I have come to a tentative hypothesis that SWR is far more important long term to the earths energy balance then LWIR.
It is really very simple, but I do not find it discussed. The simple statement is that the greater the “residence time” is of any WL heat entering the earths atmosphere, ocean or land, the greater long term effect any change, positive or negative, in that radiation will have. It is reasoned thus with a simple traffic analogy:
On a highway if ten cars per hour enter the highway, and the cars are on the road for ten hours before exiting, there will be 100 cars on the road and as long as these factors remain the same the system is in balance. If you change the input to eleven cars per hour, then over a ten hour period the system will increase from 100 cars to 110 cars before a balance is restored. The same effect can be achieved by either slowing the cars down 10% or by lengthening the road 10%. In either case you have increased the energy in the system by ten percent by either increasing the residence time or the input.
Now lets us take the case of a very slow or long road with the same input. Ten cars per hour input, 1000 hours on the road, now you have ten thousand cars on the road. Now lets us increase the input to eleven cars per hour just as we did on the road with a ten hour residence time. Over a 1,000 hour period we have the same 10% increase in cars (energy) How ever due to the greater capacity on that road the cars, (energy) have increased 100 times, (1,000 verse 10 ) Any change in the input or the residence time on this 1,000 hour road will have a 100 times greater effect then on the 10 hour road. This is cogent to climate in that the 10 hour road is the atmosphere, and the 1000 hour road is the oceans.
Re Juraj V. says:
December 3, 2010 at 8:58 am
I do not think “grace” is properly vetted technology yet so I do not accept their results either way. What are their error margins? Can changes in the mantel afffect their readings?
anyone seen the latest from Oxford yet?
apparently it’s 4 degrees we should be worrying about
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1934/6
From Joe Bastardi
SATURDAY AFTERNOON: ANSWER TO QUESTION IN TELEGRAPH ABOUT WHY YOUR ARE FREEZING.
In case you did not read the article, here is the question:
Are we freezing because of global warming?
Here is the answer: No, you are freezing, and get used to it, because the cyclical nature of climate is heading for colder times.
Several years ago, here in the states on the O’Reilly Factor TV show, I revealed a chart entitled the triple crown of cooling. Natural Oceanic cycles, Solar cycles and volcanic activity. Why is it, that when the PDO has changed, the sun is much less active than it has been in previous times ( the time of Victoria was referenced, and lo and behold, perhaps we are getting weather like that) and two major arctic volcanoes go off and with them, their natural lag time for cooling which is evolving now, the very answers that are logical are ignored in such articles.
It is amazing how we are expected to swallow such things.
I will give an example of the basic difference between what I do, and what the global warming community does. The post below explains that the NSIDC ideas are above board, when I had posted my suspicions on them and showed the evidence as I saw it. When they took the time to email and show me exactly what they were doing, what did I do? Immediately made sure you knew I had seen that and corrected for it. Not simply say, no its still as I say.
Yet NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS WITH THESE FOLKS AS FAR AS THE EARTHS TEMPS there is no getting around the fact they will claim they are right, and do so to a point where they seek to shut down debate.
Now perhaps in this Alice in Wonderland weather world, if the earths temps drop as I say, we will find that up is down and down is up. But if its me, and I have said this many many times, if you want a reason to push the agenda of alternative energy, you better darn well understand that what I am saying, that the earth cools back to the 70s, given the population and economies of the planet, is much more a pressing issue than if we warm it up. And simply shutting off the current sources that help in the advancement of mankind because of some unproven argument, is only going to lead to increased misery on our planet.. of our own making, and it wont be because of an increase in co2.
Again, for my euro readers, using the football argument..if we follow the logic put forth in this article, then the more your team scores, the more they will fall behind.
ciao for now ****
SATURDAY MORNING
INTERESTING LETTER FROM NSIDC TO ME.
The US based snow and ice measuring center took the time out to email me and address issues I raised last week on their measurements and for that I am grateful, since I wish to be above board. While I continue to point out the other sites are either on top of, or slightly ahead of the death spiral year (2007), they rightly point out that on those sites the lowest measurement at this time of the year is 2006, which we are ahead of now. And there are different ways of measuring. After reading their email, I believe they are simply recording the ice the way they see it, even if it may appear less than the others.
The very fact that they took the time out to inform me, leads me to believe this is not part of any conspiracy, but is simply one organization measuring something the way they feel best. It takes very little for me to believe the best of people, and taking time out like that means while I will continue to show where their readings are, there will be no questioning of motivation. On the other hand, it is what it is, and you should look at all the graphs yourself and watch this, and also continue to monitor this globally.
But I want to publicly thank the folks at NSIDC for their attention to this matter and I will make sure their graphs are shown and treated as another set of observations like all the others, with respect, and gratitude for having the chance to observe this.
I do believe that alot of us in this debate are honest brokers, simply searching for the right answer, and whether I agree with what they believe the answer is or not, I do believe their motives are not to rewrite or change what they are observing.
There have been questions about the NSIDC raised by many, and some of you may be thinking that I am a soft touch here, but I dont believe that is the case. I believe what they explained to me, and so their graph will be judged as an honest broker, and in reference to itself as I think its all above board
Besides, if the ice does what I am saying it will, it will look even more impressive on that site!
In the meantime, its getting darn cold in alot of places that arent in the arctic, so back to that.
ciao for now
http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/bastardi-europe-blog.asp?partner=accuweather
Inre Congressional Light sources containing the neurotoxin mercury (CFLs)
EM Smith, in your post you point out that there are two ways of becoming exposed to the neurotoxin mercury from a CFL. If you fumble and drop a cold bulb you will be exposed to the Quicksilver in the amount roughly equal to the period on the end of this sentence. That is a far greater amount than state authorities have set for safe exposures in the home or school.
I am neither a chemist nor the son of a chemist, but it seems to me that the exposure to the mercury vapor from a light that is switched on is where another true hazard lies. As you say in your blog, “And we all know that compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) contain mercury. (It’s actually a mercury vapor arc inside that makes UV, which then hits the phosphors that make visible light).”
The lab safety website Mercury in the Laboratory states:
“The rate of mercury volatilization is directly related to temperature. Whenever elevated temperatures are involved special care must be exercised to provide adequate ventilation. A common occurrence is the breaking of thermometers in ovens due to bumping or raising the oven above the thermometer’s capacity.”
If these bulbs have a tendency to smoke, short, explode and have fires, or if there is a potential for a slow, undetected leak, then it seems to me that this is a fast track to exposing the entire population of the United States to temperature volitized mercury vapor. Remember the bulbs cannot be in enclosed or recessed spaces, they must be open and exposed.
Mercury is known to be toxic to the kidneys and the central nervous system.
Effects of exposure to mercury include tremors, depression, irritability, emotional instability, insomnia, and death.
Texas Republican Reps. Joe Barton and Michael Burgess, along with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), have introduced H.R.6144 – Better Use of Light Bulbs Act
to repeal the ban on incandescent bulbs.
DirkH says:
December 3, 2010 at 4:53 pm
‘Although the evidence that mercury plays a role in AD, and possibly other neurodegenerative disorders, is “strongly suggestive,” the study authors acknowledge that some links are missing. Nevertheless, they argue this should not stand in the way of taking action to prevent human exposure to mercury.’
I think we can still safely use it in industry, but it certainly does not belong in the home.
PS, I have a paper I want to purchase and read but it is in German. Can you give me a hand? I will link it up over on Tallbloke’s Suggestion thread.
Geoff Sherrington,
“My project is to identify, name and shame these people. They are parasitic by nature and they are neither a necessary nor desirable part of the employment structure.”
I think we are moving to a new form of society, post capitalism. Call it parisitism. Parisitism is the logical outcome of big government societies, since parasitism requires government power to make it possible.
David L says:
December 3, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Maybe in the Upper Peninsula the deer are more dependent on the acorn crop but in Southern Ontario deer can feast on bountiful fields of corn and soy beans. I have also seen other years when the acorn production in our area has been a lot greater than this year, where the ground is literally carpeted with acorns below the oak trees. I would rate this years acorn production as average here. So when deer have no limits on available food, what causes the variation in fat storage?
Although this messaging tactic is unethical, it may give fellow environmentalists cause to pause and realize that climate alarmism can make things much, much, much worse:
“As climate talks drag on, experts ponder tech fixes”
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101204/climate-talks-cancun-101204/
Once bright environmentalists start analyzing climate data in careful detail, it might become possible to get the environmental movement back to playing a constructive role in society – for example advocating parks & natural forests and opposing toxic pollution. Rather than making untenable assumptions about nature, I invite fellow environmentalists to study it first hand (& carefully).
Paul Vaughan, B.Sc., M.Sc.
Ecologist & Climate Researcher.
Basic research from Joe Bastardi
http://www.accuweather.com/video/697199008001/the-la-freaka-of-1916-1918-was-it-volcano-caused.asp?channel=vbbastaj
Connecting the dots?