Above: Christmas trees in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres
As of this post, I’m offline until late Monday PST. Moderators, don’t be shy about taking time off too.
My sincerest and most heartfelt thank you all for your support this year, for daring to ask the questions, for standing up to what you believe in, and for staying the course. As Winston Churchill said, “Never give up, never give in.”
To all, no matter which side of the debate you are on, no matter whether you love me or hate me for what WUWT does, I wish you a Merry Christmas.
I leave you with a selection of my favorite Christmas music.
Britain’s Susan Boyle has been an inspiration to many, rising from obscurity to fame, for daring to be ridiculed on stage one night so that she could show the world what she could do. Here she is at Rockefeller plaza:
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Myrrh says:
December 24, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Does anyone have URL of a map of the world to scale?
Try this:
http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/mapproj/gif/eckertiv.gif
Home site is:
http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/mapproj/mapproj_f.html
If you read some on the “home site” page you will find that the thing you want is very difficult to provide.
Eric Dailey says: “Christmas is a marketing gimmick and you are all suckers. The religious elements are a fiction. Look it up. It is a pagan winter festival not a christian event. It’s not in the Scriptures. It was invented as a political device to assimilate pagans into the Roman church.”
And it succeeded pretty well, didn’t it Eric? Yes, Yuletide was originally the winter solstice holiday. Lots of ale (I mean LOTS of ale) was downed. Toasts were made to the gods, the goddesses, the king, and finally to the memory of the departed. Lots of food was then eaten, along with drinking more ale (LOTS of ale). It was a time of mirth and joy. Trees were often cut down, brought in to houses, and decorated (Jeremiah 10:1-5), though that was done long before the Christian era, and the Christians were not told to avoid Christmas trees, just the Jews.
And yes, Eric, the religious elements are a fiction. Obviously Jesus was born in the springtime, when the lambs are born (some symbolism in that). But if people choose to commemorate someone’s birth at a different time of year, and do it with a spirit of goodwill and cheer, I certainly think it is appropriate. All you have to do, Eric, is ignore all the good wishes and gentle humor, and sit in your corner and sneer at the rest of us.
And definitely you should avoid the ale.
Happy Christmas, Merry Hanukkah, and an ale-filled winter solstice to all!
merry christmas and happy new year everyone.
It’s settled!
Everyone will have a merry Christmas!
Data for New Year is in review.
From a friend over the big pond that might give some cheer….
And so began the tradition of sticking the little angel atop the Christmas tree …
When four of Santa’s elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure. Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed him even more.
When Santa went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth. Two others had jumped the fence and were out. Heaven knows where!
When Santa began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and the toys scattered.
Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a big shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk all the liquor.
Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the door. He yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree. The angel said very cheerfully, ‘Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn’t this a lovely day? I have the Christmas tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?’
….
Now you can finally relate to Santa… even he has those kind of days!
WUWT is the gift that gives all year long. Thanks to everyone for their stimulating contributions over the year, and of course to Anthony for having such a great place to exchange ideas. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays everyone!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!
Enjoy your time off Anthony, and thanks for all you have accomplished this year with the support of a great moderator team. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
To all Merry Christmas and may the (mass times acceleration) be with you 🙂
Lucy, you left out Texan: Merry Christmas, y’all!
A gorgeous White Christmas in West Texas. Many thanks to Anthony and the mods for all their hard work, and more thanks to the learned commenters. I learn more all the time here, and am looking forward to future education. Best Wishes to all, wherever in the world you are, whatever your AGW leanings, political, or religious.
Merry Christmas to Anthony and his family and to all of you who do the research, write the postings and contribute via comments on Watts Up With That. I read your work every day and deeply appreciate all of you.
Merry Christmas everyone. The day is nearly over here in southern NZ. Its been warm, still and very pleasant. Please spare a thought for the people of Christchurch who, after all the earthquakes of the past year or so spent the day before Christmas Eve enduring a sequence of jolts, several over 5 and one at 6 on the Richter Scale.
Thanks Anthony, mods and all who contribute. Happy new year.
Kia ora, kia kaha.
Lead to a life better than I could make alone. For all the women and men who love their “maidens”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bosouX_d8Y
Merry Christmas!
Bah… humbug !! 😉
Myrrh says:
December 24, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Does anyone have URL of a map of the world to scale?
You will find descriptions of quite a few equi-areal map projections on this page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection#Equal-area Follow the links to see the various maps, pick the one you prefer for your purposes and then google that projection.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah everyone and happy whatever winter solstice celebration you choose!
Greg Olsen
Tempe, Arizona
A Merry Christmas to Anthony and Moderators, and all who contribute here. The best wishes for a prosperous and healthy new year to all.
Fröhliche Weihnachten!
I am from Edmonton, Canada, although I was born in a country that no longer exists, but the city still exists. (East Germany)
By the way, the Hadcrut3 November numbers just came out and 2011 slipped from 11th warmest to 12th warmest on that set. 2011 is also 12th warmest on RSS.
Merry Christmas and Best Wishes to Anthony, the Moderators, contributing authors and all who have commented here. (And yes, I include the Warmists and even the Trolls in those sentiments.)
This forum has taught me I much over the last few years. I usually visit here multiple times per day to enjoy the open discussions that should define all true seekers of truth, knowledge and wisdom behave. Initially, I was only slightly skeptical regarding Global Warming. However, the more I read, the more increasingly skeptical I became that CO2 was great evil that “the Team” made it out to be.
I tried reading the pro-CAWG blogs also, but was put off by their one-sided “discussions” and egotistical views regarding all whom presumed to disagree with their rigid mindset.
It has been a joy and a blessing to listen to the discussions here.
May each of you have a Healthy and Joyous New Year as we strive to discover the beauty of truth together. – wermet
A very Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year.
Just nabbing a quick breakfast cuppa before I begin preparing the Christmas lunch (roast sirloin and Yorkshire pud). All the very best of the season, everyone.
There is noway that I can let you all know that I wish you all to have a really wonderful peaceful Christmas and try to show some originality in my comment, so I’ll just throw up a lantern and wish you all the very best, have a Merry Christmas and be safe.
🙂
May the doves of peace hang out at your house as well…
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2727136494208
Myrrh says “Does anyone have URL of a map of the world to scale?” – but what projection/ scale do you need?
In case it helps I have a ~16k point simple lat/long world coastline map (I forget exactly where it came from …!) which I tend to use for world projections – see the Tinypic link below for a rather poor quality screenshot of an Excel spreadsheet on my machine with this data, which gives a dynamic sub-solar view of the earth in real time, just as a bit of fun!
http://oi43.tinypic.com/21o51jr.jpg
Happy to let you have a copy of this spreadsheet (on a supplied as seen, no warranty basis!) if you can let me have somewhere to post/send it to.
And here’s wishing a merry and peaceful Christmas to all – especially Anthony and the Mods (isn’t that the name of some pop group?) for hosting this excellent site.
Warmest best wishes for a happy Christmas and less conflicted 2012. May the evidence and tenacity of real science reveal the intellectual bankruptcy of the politics of consensus. May those who have led us down this path be remembered forever and held to account.
In the words of Marcus Aurelius Augustus Antoninus:
“The goal of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to avoid joining the ranks of the insane.”