9.30am AEDT Saturday 04 January 2014
Aurora Australis released from tasking in Antarctica
Xue Long’s attempt to manoeuvre through the ice early this morning was unsuccessful. Xue Long has confirmed to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) it is beset by ice.
The Master of Xue Long has confirmed to AMSA that the ship is safe, it is not in distress and does not require assistance at this time. There is no immediate danger to personnel on board the Xue Long. The Xue Long has advised AMSA it has food supplies for several weeks. The Aurora Australis was placed on standby by AMSA’s Rescue Coordination Centre Australia (RCC Australia) last night to remain in open water in the area as a precautionary measure.
The Masters of both Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long agree that further assistance from Aurora Australis is no longer required and they will be able to provide mutual support to each other. The Aurora Australis has been released from search and rescue tasking by RCC Australia early this morning and continues to make its passage to the Casey base to complete a resupply. It will then continue to Hobart. RCC Australia will maintain regular contact with the Xue Long and Akademik Shokalskiy.
One fervently hopes that neither ship will be holed by the ice and require evacuation of crew…
@GktbbMhor: Let’s hope so.
I haven’t read any estimates of the cost of this rescue.
The warmists continue to endanger us all by their propaganda lies. I hope that at some point they are dismissed from their tax payer funded positions. That is what burns me the most….they are funded by taxpayers. They take our money at the point of the gun of government to follow their own fevered dreams, never once held to account for their idiocy.
If they can’t get out then the Polar Star is in Sydney, though by the time it gets to them the Southern hemisphere summer may have melted the sea ice.
What burns me is that they keep entrapping innocent bystanders who are required by international law and/or human compassion to pull their nuts out of the fire.
One would assume Richard Branson and the Figueres guy at the C.A.R.B.O.N. War Room would have already donned their Ironman exoskeletons and come to the rescue. (yeah iron. Recycled iron.)
At least they’ll have some extra manpower to carry stuff to Casey base. I hope they use it.
That puts those climate activists/true believers in their place … riding along as excess baggage while the ship they’re on continues with its regular, more important, resupply tasking.
Meanwhile, two vessels remain stuck in the ice as a result of the stupid conduct of those airheads.
I would be interested to know how many times the Xue Long has been stuck in ice in previous years. This was not of their making.
A report earlier in the icing in of the Akademik Shokalskiy said a hull breach 1.8m above the water line had been repaired. This ship is not an ice breaker. And, the pictures of ship showed the hull quite a bit out of the water, considerably above the water line listing ever so slightly to port. Stay tuned for further action.
Well, I give it 3 weeks and we will know what will happen. I am sure the Xue Long will get out but the S.A. ….
I hope the pseudo-scientists will get to stay a little while at Casey so the real scientists there can have a chance to express their feelings on this issue.
I’m glad contact with the two trapped ships will remain. I hope you will carry this story until we know all are safe. The crews, I care for – the rest, frankly not. Some fools need hard lessons. They may have escaped mother nature this time, but at least the scientific community (the genuine one, that is), is angry enough about this to drum some home truths into these knuckleheads.
A few wake-up calls are on the way and, oh, I sure hope we get to hear about all the shouting – this might be the first time these watermelons are not surrounded by their Cause-adoring fans. Could be some fun ahead.
There might come a moment when the Chinese have to help the Russians again. The Chinese are stuck, but their boat as an icebreaker is much stronger. The Russians, however, might have a bigger problem. However you see it, it will cost the Chinese heaps amount of money, every day is worth money. Don’t forget it. I hope they will do all the best they can to get their money back, not so much from the Russians, but from those Al Gore Warmers.
Chinese gaining some well needed Public Relations points. Stepping up as a world power should.
The cost figure being bandied about in Australian newspapers today is $400K – for the Oz taxpayer to cover apparently…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/hit-for-ice-rescue-revealed/story-fn59nm2j-1226794662899#
How soon will the mantra flip to “Climate Change, not by fire but by ice”?
$400,000 hit for ice rescue revealed.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/hit-for-ice-rescue-revealed/story-fn59nm2j-1226794662899#
TAXPAYERS will foot a $400,000 bill for the rescue of a group of climate scientists, tourists and journalists from a stranded Russian research vessel – an operation that has blown the contingency budget of Australia’s Antarctic program and disrupted its scientific work. The Antarctic Division in Hobart said it was revising plans and considering airlifting urgently needed scientific equipment that could not be unloaded from Aurora Australis before the ship was diverted from the Casey base to rescue the novice ice explorers just before Christmas.
Dr. Turney, famed inventor of the “Turney Effect”, combining the Midas Touch with the Gore Effect. Everything that guy touches becomes mired in pack ice.
Turney and his Billy Butlin pseudo-scientists should have their collective heads hung low in utter shame.
He organised this farce to cherry-pick evidence to support a pre-decided “global warming” meme, with even two of the most biased AGW media outfits embedded in the pack, the BBC and the Guardian. The hubris is breathtaking.
These zealots trash science, they trash their parent institutions, they endanger the lives of others and they parasitise the taxpayers of Australia with the costs of the huge disruptions their idiotic disregard has caused.
Presently they’re munching their way towards Casey Base, still on everyone else’s tab.
The crew would regard them as a huge burden, and for someone (above) to suggest these incompetent galahs could “help” with unloading etc would be inviting continuing disaster.
Ok…almost every article I can find says the $1.5 million dollar trip (pre disaster that is) was “privately funded”. We know that Turney and Mortimer charted the ship and collected $$ from the paying “tourist” passengers..which makes up roughly half a million. We also know that they couldn’t even afford to purchase another $8,000 Argo for the trip because the website/fund didn’t earn enough. So where did the other MILLION come from? The BBC? The Guardian? Some University? I’m digging…but I can’t find anything….
Someone out there should be VERY unhappy.
I wonder what sort of a reception the “climate scientists” have had from the Aurora Australis crew? Probably about as warm and sympathetic as their reception is likely to be back at Casey Station, where Prof. Chris Thingo will find himself fronting hard-headed top level scientists whose serious research has been badly mucked up by these Toyland game players.
And that petulant young Guardian reporter is unlikely to get his milkshake in the station mess. (Sorry, the milk’s off.)
James Pickett (@fjpickett) says:
At least they’ll have some extra manpower to carry stuff to Casey base. I hope they use it.
Or NOT. They’d probably loose half the equipment trying to play “science” on the ice.
On their last outing they tried to get 3 Argos 50m to the shore and lost one of them. By the time they’d finish taking “selfies” in front of penguin colonies they’d managed to get the whole ship and crew into their present predicament.
No, I suggest the best thing would be to shackle them to the bar and give them enough G&Ts to keep them unconscious until they get back to Hobart.
Wow Mike-
“has blown the contingency budget of Australia’s Antarctic program and disrupted its scientific work.”
Not only a ruined trip, but a ruining of much more science too. How sad. 🙁
I would like to see the Casey base scientists appropriately ‘thank’ the entire bleating/tweeting batch of bilge baboons from the ‘Spirit of Mawson expedition’, for needlessly delaying the Casey base resupply and screwing up the research schedules of many serious scientists. A ‘Running of the Gauntlet’ between rows of irate technicians, research assistants, and scientists would be a good start…
Until it hasn’t.
Has there been an apology from any of the Tour Leaders yet. Maybe they posted one somewhere on the internet and I missed it. Meanwhile enjoy this.
http://youtu.be/Bv0gglFSUOc
“And that petulant young Guardian reporter is unlikely to get his milkshake in the station mess. (Sorry, the milk’s off.)”
Old Ranga, don’t be so sure! –
Alok Jha @alokjha 2 Jan
“.@AmiSedghi @loztopham Choice btn apple crumble, pecan pie, caramel thing, a treacly tart and multiple ice creams. Also, winningly, custard”
Very irritating, but the warmist explorers should have no trouble spinning this event to their advantage. They risked live and limb to gather vital proof of global warming that everyone knows full well is there for the greater good. Only to be stymied by a freak ice pack comprised of what little ice is left. How weird is that when Antarctica is nearly ice free! It will work because the media will fall in line. These people will be heroes in every sense. They will be able to mount an even bigger operation next year. Or a smaller one with airplanes to avoid another freak ice jam.
In the mean time: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/obamas-second-term-is-all-about-climate-change.html
An article in the UK Telegraph stated that the 52 passengers now on the Australian ship are “recovering”. Yeah right! Recovering like an alcoholic.
Alphan. So where did the other MILLION come from? The BBC? The Guardian? Some University? I’m digging…but I can’t find anything….
Not the Guardian, They don’t have two cents to rub together. I doubt they paid for the two berths they occupied.
I’ll bet there’s some economy with the truth going on here. They probably got ABC and BBC to fund a part of it with some kind of media rights deal, which is technically a commercial contract, not govt funding.
Maybe some well targeted FOIA requests in London and Canberra could come up with something.
You would think that any sponsors would be pleased or even insistent that their contribution to saving the world was recognised publicly by the project.
Perhaps “privately funded” means private as in we won’t tell you ?
This begs the question that if now, both the SA and Snow Dragon are happy to sit in the ice until it breaks, why was there so much urgency to get the loons off the SA. I am aware that more bodies on the SA could have meant a bigger potential disaster but still, couldn’t they have cooled their heels (pun intended) for another week or so?
Aphan says:
January 3, 2014 at 5:06 pm
“Not only a ruined trip, but a ruining of much more science too. How sad. :(”
Sad? What gives you the idea that those “serious” scientists are not as much of a fraud as Turney. Has anyone ever assessed the percentage of fraudulent science when the government runs it? Just because they’re willing to sit in an antarctic station for a year doesn’t make me trust them. Just a different business model than joyriding Turney. Not necessarily honest.
Yeah, CO2AGW taught me a thing; and some other 20th century scientific “discoveries”.
Antarctic debacle biggest set back since Climategate: Now take care that Obama and Kerry get the message as they pull they plug on the US economy: http://www.thegwpf.org/ft-antarctic-debacle-biggest-setback-campaigners-climategate/
I hope that for both vessels that the normal ice melt resumes pretty soon. I would wish no harm on anyone whether as a result of their own folly or the folly of others.
Perhaps ask them up front on Twitter. They seem to like that medium and it would be interesting to see how they react to the question.
Financial Times: “The Australian group belittled the winter that nearly killed them and got a comeuppance, say the detractors.”
OMG , FT thinks it’s winter in Antarctica.
Steve; “…why was there so much urgency to get the loons off the SA. ”
Because they are a friggin liability and they did not want them around crying into their milkshakes when the real job of freeing the vessel gets started.
Of course it had to be an emergency rescue…can you imagine those poor crewmen being trapped with those blowhards for weeks on end? The humanity!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11181370
A plane will drop medication off at an Australian base in Antarctica for some of the passengers who were stranded for eight days on a research vessel in thick sea ice.
What more can add to this fiasco? I doubt the welcome mat will be out for this lot when they arrive at Casey
Steve says: “…[W]hy was there so much urgency to get the loons off the [AS?]…”
Why did sailors throw Jonah overboard?
The idiot on this expedition who said she loves it when the ice wins, well, did she remain on the Akademik Shokalskiy, or at least the Xue Long so as to gain a further loving experience of ice winning? Or, as I expect, did she file for divorce from her lover, the ice, and hop on the Aurora Australis for a new lover: industrial civilization?
J Martin says:
January 3, 2014 at 4:05 pm
“If they can’t get out then the Polar Star is in Sydney, though by the time it gets to them the Southern hemisphere summer may have melted the sea ice.”
If you go to the WUWT post . . .
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/31/wuwt-and-weatherbell-help-kusi-tv-with-a-weather-forecasting-request-from-ice-trapped-ship-in-antarctica-akademik-shokalskiy/#more-100200
. . . it becomes clear that melting (from summer air temperature) isn’t likely, rather a shift in winds is the thing that can break up these large masses of ice and provide water for the ship to sail to open ocean. Some of that ice may then reach warmer water and melt after a time. Recall (if you saw this) the comments that the ice around the Akademik Shokalskiy was multi-year old ice, not annual sea ice.
Outfitting an Antarctic expedition, $10,000,000
Lost time for two ships stuck in the ice, $20,000,000
Alarmist scientists and journalists stuck in Antarctic ice, priceless!
I don’t wish to rain on the parade but in apportioning blame there are one or two questions that require answers. Aphan has done a remarkable job highlighting the reason why the ship became caught in the ice. But who was piloting the zodiacs that we’re towing the Argo,s to shore. If it were a member of the expedition then they would definitely be culpable. If it happens to be a member of the crew then that would put a different complexion on things. Anybody ?
So what’s the booze-supply situation on the A. Australis?
“Aphan
We also know that they couldn’t even afford to purchase another $8,000 Argo for the trip because the website/fund didn’t earn enough. So where did the other MILLION come from?”
1st Argo, submerged under tow and could not be used
2nd Argo cut out every 5 mins due to fuel failure and required 15 mins to restart.
Brain dead Republican Todd Palin has won the 2,031 miles Tesoro Iron Dog off-road snowmobile race across Alaska, four times.
majormike1 left out a key little tidbit….
“Alarmist scientists and journalists stuck in SUMMER Antarctic ice, priceless!”
Greg –
a reader puts FT right on the season. btw the writer must take responsibility for the use of “Winter” – it was not his gloating contrarians posting comments on CAGW websites. he couldn’t link to the likes of WUWT or JoanneNova etc, where all the investigative reporting has been going on, could he?
3 Jan: UK Financial Times: Christopher Caldwell: A cruise that will cost the climate campaign dear
(The writer is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard)
Amid the worldwide relief that the passengers are now en route to Tasmania on the Australian supply ship Aurora Australis, another note is audible. Many websites where readers normally take climate change for granted have been inundated by posts from gloating disbelievers. ***The Australian group belittled the winter that nearly killed them and got a comeuppance, say the detractors. Such posts appear on the many YouTube videos uploaded by passengers (“For all your self-aggrandising bluster, you will go down in history as Turney’s turkeys . . . You are an international laughing stock”), on the Spirit of Mawson Twitter feed (“If the #spiritofmawson has taught us anything it’s the low level of intellect among those who have ‘settled’ the science”) and even on the New York Times’s Dot Earth blog, where the writer Andrew Revkin notes that the incident has “energised climate change contrarians”…
COMMENT BY FreeOregon: It’s SUMMER in Antarctic, not winter…
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/04276fd8-69ca-11e3-aba3-00144feabdc0.html
“The head of France’s polar science institute has voiced fury at the misadventures of a Russian ship trapped in Antarctic ice, deriding what he called a tourists’ trip that had diverted resources from real science.
In an interview with AFP, Yves Frenot, director of the French Polar Institute, said he had no issue at all with rescuing those aboard the stricken vessel.
He said the trip itself was a ‘pseudo-scientific expedition’ that, because it had run into difficulties, had drained resources from the French, Chinese and Australian scientific missions in Antarctica.”
“The trip on the Akademik Shokalskiy was aimed at emulating a 1911-1914 expedition by the Australian explorer, Sir Douglas Mawson.
‘This kind of commemorative expedition has no interest from a scientific point of view,’ said Frenot.
Because of the rescue operations, French scientists had had to scrap a two-week oceanographic campaign this month using the Astrolabe, Frenot said.
‘The Chinese have had to cancel all their scientific programme, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out.’
Antarctica has about 80 scientific bases, of which around 40 are permanently staffed and others manned on a seasonal or temporary basis.
Only three bases are inland; the others are on the coast.
‘If we want these bases to operate all year round, it is essential to resupply with food and fuel during the brief window of opportunity,’ Frenot said.
Diverting supply ships to rescue tasks ‘imperiled’ this link, he said.”
http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=939155
N,.Swallow’s attempt to transfer blame is just that.
With one less ATV operational on land, the leader (Turney), who by his own words was well aware of the weather situation, should immediately have curtailed the jaunt, knowing the reason the captain was anxious about the need to depart.
Incredibly, Tourney allowed the day tripping to go ahead, with the careless “passengers” delaying the departure.
Turney was the epitome of irresponsibility. He needs charging.
James (Aus.) says:
N,.Swallow’s attempt to transfer blame is just that.
He was not doing that at all. He was raising a legitimate question and warming not to shoot from the hip before being sure of the facts. Seems reasonable to me.
In fact, A pseudo-scientific ship of fools
AB –
Sky is a hotbed of CAGW – but the AFP report is a goodie. includes:
‘The Chinese have had to cancel all their scientific programme, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out.’
Sky needs to do the right thing now & contact the Aussie “counterpart” for comment.
‘The Chinese have had to cancel all their scientific programme, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out.’
IIRC they were trying to set up a new ice core drilling and were already on a tough schedule to set it up and drill before the weather stopped them. Aurora Australis was the ship supplying and setting up the mission.
Turney’s turkeys , “having fun doing science on the ice” have just screwed one of the major REAL climate science projects that should have been conducted this year.
Still, I’m sure Turney’s Carbonscape will be earning lots of “carbon credits”. And as they say in advertising : there’s not such thing as bad publicity.
James (Aus.) says:
“Turney was the epitome of irresponsibility. He needs charging.”
About 50,000 volts ought to do it.
It’s obvious they were not In danger and ‘Cockshure’ of themselves by this quote—“One of the first Shokalskiy passengers to arrive on the Aurora, Muru Murugesan, said the passengers were not scared and the rescue was well organised.
“It was just a question of when and how we were going to be rescued,” Mr Murugesan, from Oatlands in Sydney, said.”
It’s the beginning of the Antarctic summer, so most likely, the ice will thaw and the two ships will make their way clear. So let’s get ready for the headline when that happens.
“The Polar Ice Melts At Unprecedented Pace Swiftly Freeing the Trapped Vessels!”
The icing on the cake would be if Russia decides to send one of its rather leaky nuclear ice breakers to the Antarctic to help – eco-expedition “rescued” by a Soviet era nuclear powered vessel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-powered_icebreaker#Russian_nuclear_icebreakers
AB beat me to it. A not-so-heavily edited version is here:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h3nzY88Kg1XBjquaRTAISdFDpuJA?docId=1823eec8-8ffd-4643-b371-6b2d48f1602e
“Steve says:
January 3, 2014 at 5:19 pm
This begs the question that if now, both the SA and Snow Dragon are happy to sit in the ice until it breaks, why was there so much urgency to get the loons off the SA. I am aware that more bodies on the SA could have meant a bigger potential disaster but still, couldn’t they have cooled their heels (pun intended) for another week or so?”
An UNFCCC policy based and funded? expedition to prove global warming in Antarctic last 100 years stuck in pack ice?
As long as they are stuck it mans bad PR and it’s not UNFCCC conform.
This could have been a real human tragedy, so I should not laugh, but the enormous irony of first the ship of warmists getting stuck in Antarctic summer ice and then the rescue ship also getting stuck in Antarctic summer ice is just too much to be able to contain myself. I am glad though that all onboard are OK. I only wish Gore, Mann and Hansen had been there to share the onboard experience. It would have been fun to hear them spin their way out of that mess.
It will all come good when they sell the rights to the incident and including all the vision they should have been/are /will be recording during the ordeal.Hollywood will make a motza!
I figure about now that band of “environmental tourists” is being confined below decks by the Australian icebreaker captain and informed in no uncertain terms that their Antarctic party trip is effectively ended:
“Now hear this! No more group sing-alongs. No more lounge bar gatherings. No more dipping thermometers on strings over the rail and pretending you’re doing serious science. Oh! And the penguin goes overboard where he belongs! If the captain hears one more time that this was all caused by manmade global warming, the goofy offender goes overboard with the penguin!”
DocMartyn says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Brain dead Republican Todd Palin has won the 2,031 miles Tesoro Iron Dog off-road snowmobile race across Alaska, four times.
Ahhhhh, What’s Up, Doc?
I’m curious. Have YOU done ANY off road racing? Any road course racing? Any drag racing? Even ‘Big Wheel/Pampers class’ racing?
Anyone who wins the Iron Dog has demonstrated combined mental and physical skills far above the average blog troll. Anyone who wins it 4 TIMES has demonstrated emphatically the full irrelevance of your bigoted, ad hominem attack comment.
MtK
Us Australian taxpayers are footing the bill?
Class action suit, anyone?
Ponzi scheme!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Madoff
Turnery, Fogwill, Mortimer variant on the scheme is to target elderly investors whose physical condition can be at risk to strenuous conditions and stress. Many of the “Climate Scientists” on the failed Sprit of Mawson expectation are elderly pensioners with health conditions.
Likely, Ternery-Fogwill-Mortimer had the pensioners to sign “sudden death wills” to forfeit all of their monetary and property to the Sprit of Mawson Ponzi Scheme.
Getting the captain of the Russian flagged vessel to icebound the ship was the ruse to create stress amongst the elderly “Climate Scientists” in order to induce death and forfeiture of their estates.
Having an extra two weeks, given ocean going bureaucracy in the Southern Ocean plays to their hand at achieving their Ponzi Scheme.
Serious.
[If not fact-based, please id this charge as sarcastic. Mod]
jorgekafkazar says:
January 3, 2014 at 5:46 pm
Steve says: “…[W]hy was there so much urgency to get the loons off the [AS?]…”
“Why did sailors throw Jonah overboard?”
The Russians didn’t have a plank!…
“DocMartyn says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Brain dead Republican Todd Palin has won the 2,031 miles Tesoro Iron Dog off-road snowmobile race across Alaska, four times.”
Distraction and off topic?
Don’t respond to this?
Mac the Knife…..at 7:21 pm
Well said
JW
falcontinker says:
January 3, 2014 at 7:03 pm
You have a point there, falcon…
The Warmistas have been citing any and all weather events as proof of “Global Warming”.
Now they could be resorting to seasonal changes as proof, too!
They could claim Global Warming half of the year…or thereabouts.
It doesn’t track CO2 concentrations….but what the hell?
I’m still concerned about the crew of the Russian ship and have been attempting to find information on their status. This is what I discovered:
“…Antarctic Flying Dutchman
“…[T]he passengers…have been taken from Shokalskiy simply because they were…a nuisance…and eating away food supplies which are required for the crew remaining on board….
There wasn’t, and still isn’t any real danger to Shokalskiy.” –Mikhail Voytenko
See the very amusing article at: http://www.fleetmon.com/maritimenews/2014/2945/research-vessel-shokalskiy-may-become-antarctic-fl/
See Voytenko’s website, Maritime Bulletin at http://www.odin.tc/
Tim Groves says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:54 pm
James (Aus.) says:
“Turney was the epitome of irresponsibility. He needs charging.”
About 50,000 volts ought to do it.
Just be sure that the wind is blowing (but not too hard) so that the power is being generated by an array of bird processors aka a wind farm.
This humane comment from a Zero Hedge person;
Lore says;
“Be kind. Many acolytes and would-be technocrats had a deep personal stake in the scam, career-wise, emotionally and otherwise. “Global Warming” was the environmental equivalent of Al Qaeda, giving them purpose and feeding their need for self-superiority, external validation, community and empowerment. They’re going to need therapy. “Carbon Tax” and “Cap and Trade” programs will have to be scrapped. Whole branches of useless and expensive government and NGOs will find themselves on the streets. Some may be unable to cope.”
$400K seems light, does that cover the Chinese flight operations?
The trapped ship is just one example of cooling in the southern hemisphere. On the other side of the Antarctic, the positive phase of the PDO with its more frequent El Ninos caused the western peninsula area to be the only Antarctic region that experienced a loss of sea ice. Without insulating ice more heat was ventilated and winter temperatures there rose 5 times faster than the global average. CO2 advocates argued this was an example of things to come and the warming would spread to the rest of the continents. Advocates of natural cycles argued that as the PDO returned to its negative phase, more ice and colder temperatures would return to the western peninsula much like occurred in the Bering Sea. It looks like mother nature is voting for the natural cycle theory. A friend of mine who leads tours to Antarctica just wrote, “This year the Peninsula is having the heaviest early season sea ice in over a decade. Many companies have started bringing smaller less capable ships to the Antarctic. This year will weed the unproven ones out.”
Here are a couple of honorifics that apply to Turkey’s Troupe, as a reminder of their key role in this event:
The Dawdling Dozens
The Dawdling Doomsayers
Who now a sadder and a wiser man?:
rogerknights says:
January 3, 2014 at 8:43 pm
The Feet-dragging Fools
The Sluggish Pseudo-Scientists
The Rambling Rubber-necks
The Recalcitrant Responders
Sorry. These are off the top of my head. Bit early in the day to start drinking and really get the creative juices flowing 🙂
Santa Baby says:
January 3, 2014 at 7:35 pm
“DocMartyn says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Brain dead Republican Todd Palin has won the 2,031 miles Tesoro Iron Dog off-road snowmobile race across Alaska, four times.”
Distraction and off topic?
Don’t respond to this?
_____________
Doc didn’t think he needed a sarc tag. He was making fun of the incompetent lefties who can’t hit their butt with both hands, but continuously criticize people like Todd Palin.
#3: Turney’s Turkeys
Two, three, many ice-bound bounders!
The funding came predominantly through UNSW as the launderer and the major financial component was from the gillard-krudd regime.
Um, folks, I think the “brain dead” comment was a /sarc; The point being that the AGW supports had called such folks not so bright, yet they were clearly waaay smarter than the folks who sunk their Argos …. Yes, the comment needed some kind of tag or quotes or /sarc; to make that clear, but it’s the only way it made sense to me.
Mac the Knife says:
January 3, 2014 at 7:21 pm
___________________
Catch up.
Mack the Knife – well said!
I also have to agree with DirkH that those based in Antarctica are really just better organised versions of the rescued muppets.
Lew Skannen says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:29 pm
_________________
Visualize a sarc tag at end of Doc’s remark, than you’ll get it.
Are you kidding me? Don’t you know how this works yet? They’ll be feted as returning heroes. They’ll have to turn down prestigious dinner invitations in favor of even more prestigious ones. Their life of fame, and the attending fortune, is just beginning. They’ll spin this debacle like a top and make it all look like some huge success with escape from – DA DA DA DAAA – ~certain death~!
Really? You don’t get it? In their world – up is down, left is right, cold is warm….. The only place their folly will be called into question is places like this, outside their echo chamber. Please tell me you’re not that naive.
How do you nominate someone for a Darwin award?
With the idiots gone, Russian and Chinese professional crews are perfectly happy to fend for themselves.
and you would never guess in Australian news he is still saying all the ice will melt and we will will be flooded , I think he will Immigrate to ice land because he is a laughing stock here
This story finally made it into the Edmonton Journal on July 3. (Alberta, Canada)
http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/world/story.html?id=84bca404-7a28-4da6-bda3-1e55311d654a
The only sentence mentioning “global warming” was:
“While scientists expect and observe more extreme weather with man-made global warming, some say it’s not fair to blame the Antarctic blizzard that trapped the ship on climate change.”
Too bad the water dragon doesn’t breathe fire.
Fresh milk keeps 2 weeks max. Given that AS last re-provisioned around 10 Dec, they would not have been able to make a proper milkshake beyond 24 Dec. I think the AA has also been out to sea more than 2 weeks by the time Turney’s Turkeys arrived, so no milkshakes either.
I was amused to read the science objectives for SOM (http://www.spiritofmawson.com/the-science-case/)
“We are going south to:
1.gain new insights into the circulation of the Southern Ocean and its impact on the global carbon cycle
2.explore changes in ocean circulation caused by the growth of extensive fast ice and its impact on life in Commonwealth Bay
3.use the subantarctic islands as thermometers of climatic change by using trees, peats and lakes to explore the past
4.investigate the impact of changing climate on the ecology of the subantarctic islands
5.discover the environmental influence on seabird populations across the Southern Ocean and in Commonwealth Bay
6.understand changes in seal populations and their feeding patterns in the Southern Ocean and Commonwealth Bay
7.produce the first underwater surveys of life in the subantarctic islands and Commonwealth Bay
8.determine the extent to which human activity and pollution has directly impacted on this remote region of Antarctica
9.provide baseline data to improve the next generation of atmospheric, oceanic and ice sheet models to improve predictions for the future”
I wonder how much of that was done?
Alan Robertson says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:24 pm
Catch up.
Alan,
I’m not prescient or a ‘mind reader’. If Docs comment was offered as sarchasm
(Definition of sarchasm:. (sär’kăz’əm) 1. (n.) The abyss between the creator of witticisms and the intended recipient who does not find the humor in it.), then he ‘got me’. If that is the case, I highly advise use of the /sarc tag in the future, to prevent such misunderstandings. If not, I stand by my direct and measured response to a troll.
MtK
Most (if not all) of you have said what I want to say although in more restrained language, just one thing I’d like to add, if I see that infernal obviously set-up get together “sing-along” written by a participant in that tent ( which then may have been the only “accomplishment” of the trip. if recorded and TM’d) My TV/computer screen may be in serious danger of having to be replaced. And btw my hat off to Tod Palin.
‘The Chinese have had to cancel all their scientific programme, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out.’
Lets face it, there may be a little anger at the moment but when the chips are down all these guys will circle the wagons and cover for each other. They are all in it together and will need to show solidarity.
Remember that photo of the deck of the AA with “Green” written on it. These guys that have been rescued have have just been flown onto a whole ship load of like-minded people with everything to lose if the MSM start questioning global warming.
I doubt the people at Casey base will be terribly impolite to the buffoons from the frolic.
Perhaps cold shoulder them, but as these staff members tend towards professionals well used to dealing with cabin fever emotions, they’ll keep their emotions well in check.
Not that the Casey base staff members won’t use big words in complex sentences and talk over buffoon heads.
I believe the entire AS ice frolic team should get a full day interview with the Chinese, French, Australian and American Antarctic team chiefs. A little cold math before lunch is a good wake up.
“Greg says:
January 3, 2014 at 5:19 pm”
Given the fact that the ABC here in Australia is taxpayer funded and the BBC is funded via a tax by a different name (license fee), the University of NSW and the CCRC there Turney heads, I would hazzard a guess this “Australia’s largest Antarctic Expedition” was largely taxpayer funded, directly or indirectly, but taxpayer funded none the less.
DocMartyn says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Doc,
If your comment was intended as a juxtaposition form of sarcasm and not as political attack, I sincerely apologize. Please (Please!) use a \sarc tag after a comment like that in future communications.
Understand me: I live in the Environmental Socialist State of Seattle, where conservatives/skeptics/deniers are openly subjected to these kinds of ad hom attacks and I have no tolerance for it any more. When I experience it, I meet it ‘head on’.
MtK
Every one here at WUWT persistently misspells the expiation leaders name It is TurDney.
ossqss says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:41 pm
How do you nominate someone for a Darwin award?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Darwin Awards are handed out to those who died doing something stupid.
Unfortunately , we can not put the Turkeys up for an award unless they are dead.
Its is time to back off on the personal attacks guys.
What they did, they did to themselves. Don’t let them blame you!
Following this over the last few days and reading about freezing weather in the US feels like we are in the middle of am ice age.
Who is going to pay the authorities said
Not us was the cry. We,re are the knights from Carbonalot. Our king pulled the hockey stick out of a solid, err melting, block of ice. We,re on a crusade fighting a coally war.
Oh how remiss of us the authorities said. Let us raise the taxes to fund this Nobel cause
@Felflames
The Turkey got pardoned by his Maker, the real Commander-in-Chief.
“ossqss says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:41 pm
How do you nominate someone for a Darwin award?”
In the Norwegian Air Force this was named Bird Brain award. Half a walnut painted in gold color on a small plate. A brain size that could explain actions or behavior no one could understand.
Anthony,here’s the payoff.Strap yourself in!
@docmartyn – “Brain dead Republican Todd Palin has won the 2,031 miles Tesoro Iron Dog off-road snowmobile race across Alaska, four times.”
You following the ‘brain dead’ theme with that pathetic ‘liberalista’ comment?
This comment from the Russian Maritime Bulletin on the evacuation of the clowns says a lot:
“they were already more of a nuisance staying on board of Shokalskiy, and eating away food supplies which are required for the crew remaining on board. Passengers were mostly scientists, or so they say,”
@ majormike1 says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:00 pm
————————-
+100 That’s a classic ! (and nice add DJ)
Santa Baby says:
January 4, 2014 at 12:30 am
“ossqss says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:41 pm
How do you nominate someone for a Darwin award?”
***************************************************************************************
First they must die…………..
The gift that keeps on giving… Way better entertainment than any of the Xmas TV 🙂
Joe Chang the answer( zero) but they tested the old sea ice to see what it did to Johnny Walker black label scotch the models have yet to give the correct answer
The ship of fools has left a wake of destruction and misery behind them. Two crews of resuers now stuck in the ice because of their tomfoolery. I wonder if they can make a nice little ditty for the crews and their no doubt worried families.
Just in case anyone is puzzled about what an ecoloon looks like and what they do for fun, the following may help:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25573096
As can be seen, their scientific methodology is up to typical alarmist standards:
“Despite being trapped, the scientists continued their experiments, measuring temperature and salinity through cracks in the surrounding ice.”
At the Spirit Of Mawson website, they have a section devoted to “Scientific Outreach.”The lesson plans section has the message: “Coming soon” — I can’t wait wait to see what they come up with. Suggestions?
January 3, 2014 at 11:19 pm
ossqss says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:41 pm
—–
I think it is possible to nominate someone for a runner-up in the Darwin awards at http://www.darwinawards.com. I don’t know where that site stands on the CAGW issue though.
I predict that the next time a Russion Captain addresses a passenger in one of the polar regions, his words won’t be prefaced with “please.”
Peter Miller says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:18 am
Just in case anyone is puzzled about what an ecoloon looks like and what they do for fun, the following may help:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25573096
****************************************************
Peter, the photo captioned “Members of the crew and passengers stamped out a landing site for the helicopter” is incorrect. It should read: “A Chain of Fools.”
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/science/climate-processes-and-change/antarctic-palaeoclimate/aurora-basin
Dr Mark Curran, from the Australian Antarctic Division, is the Science Leader for the project. He says the ice cores will enable the scientific team to discern annual climate records before and during the industrial era, for the first time. They will also help scientists identify regional climate linkages between the Antarctic and Australian climate.
Tas van Ommen , departing member of the drilling team:
http://tasabn.blogspot.com.au/
But the story now belongs to the group remaining at ABN – there is the major portion of the main core yet to drill, and another auxiliary (~100m) core for the sulphur studies of our French partners at LGGE.
Let’s hope that the rest of the core drilling is not compromised by the delay in supplies and equipment arriving at Casey (thought that is perhaps optimistic, the season is short down there).
N.Swallow says:
“But who was piloting the zodiacs that we’re towing the Argo,s to shore. If it were a member of the expedition then they would definitely be culpable. If it happens to be a member of the crew then that would put a different complexion on things. Anybody ?”
I can’t vouch for this particular trip, but the normal procedure is that the tour operator provides the Zodiac drivers. The crew assists in embarcation and debarcation but does not normally leave the ship.
Make that a Russian captain 🙂
Sorry. Stupidity is the top capital crime in Nature.
Steve says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:21 am
Suggestions?
______________________
How to mix an ‘Akademik Shokalskiy cocktail’.
Possible ingredients:
bananas, peanuts, vodka, cod-liver oil for penguiny taste, lots of ice cubes.
(Serve as welcome drink for “scientists” on arrival in Casey Station or Australia.)
Just seen a link to this (http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=939155&cid=BP_RSS_TOPSTORIES_3_PolarchiefslamsAntarcticcruise_040114) posted on twitter.
.. Tweet for above
Next year they plan to go to the arctic Circle where they will encounter islands overpopulated with non-vegan polar bears.
P.S. I feel sorry for the crew of the ‘Akademik Shokalskiy’ if their own food stores run low and the are forced to eat granola and soy from their passengers. The fights over the non-egg vs. egg vegan food supplies will be bitter and stupid.
New video for Spirit of Mawson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03SWGkxt72A&feature=youtu.be
h/t Rogue Staffer
(apologies if these have already been posted)
Sing along with the Ship of Fool – to the tune of “We/re all going on a summer holiday” :
Today’s Financial Times has a scorching article :
http://www.thegwpf.org/ft-antarctic-debacle-biggest-setback-campaigners-climategate/
Isn’t leaving the Akademik Shockalsky behind littering? Will Turney’s ecotourism company pay a fine for that?
Under the warm blue world
The snow dragon waits for summer
To melt her frozen wings
Insider information from the rescued scientific passengers who infamously sang and partied while others risked their ships and more to rescue them, suggests that they have a new musical revue routine to greet the Australians at the Casey Antarctic base from which the Aurora Australis was wrenched half-unloaded for the rescue.
On arrival at the remote base, a chorus line on the fore deck will sing and dance to the rhythm of “Casey cha cha cha, thaw thaw cha cha cha”. It’s intended to break the ice in an otherwise frosty reception.
stan stendera says:
January 3, 2014 at 11:09 pm
Every one here at WUWT persistently misspells the expiation leaders name ….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The correct spelling is Chris(tmas) Turkey
Thanks WUWT, this story has been the Christmas present that keeps on giving, highly amusing, especially the drongo who said they had ‘done’ good science. He reminded me of one of those pop-science trivia guys you see on TV who precedes 100% of their answers to any interviewer question with the word, “So” … even when it sounds completely contrived. Anyway, I’m sure more weather recalcitrance by our favorite planet will appear soon to make them look even sillier.
@ Beer Holiday.
“The snow dragon waits for summer”
It’s summer now in the Southern Hemisphere. Maybe some of the ice will have melted by the end of summer.
AA is free and clear…
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=VNAA
And I suspect that if I were to listen in to either the conversations among Chinese polar scientists or between the crew members of the Xue Long I would learn some very colloquial expressions that are not covered in my Chinese textbooks.
“John Anderson says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:18 am”
That’s a twin contra-rotating helicopter. The “wash” from the rotors must have been intense. Reminds me of the Chinook.
@RoHa LOL I know as an Aussie. It’s for a lame poem, but still technically correct. They are waiting for the the summer to melt the ice, it’s just summer right now. Anyway, it’s an irony overload for all of us 🙂
The Russian ship Akademic Federov left Cape Town bound for Antarctica a month ago on a heading of 171 degrees, but I can’t find an up-to-date position for her as a satellite position costs.
But I guess they just wait until the ice conditions change and the Chinese ship breaks free on her own and can then help the Shokalski.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/273412710
My haiku needed a seasonal element. Sheesh I come to this random website as a haiku hack and it turns out everyone’s a skeptic 🙁 j/k
Ah, the gratitude:
from the BBC story on Xue Long now being stuck; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25598705
“Andrew Peacock, an Australian doctor and photographer who was rescued from the Russian ship, spoke of his fellow passengers’ frustration aboard the Aurora over the latest delay in their journey home, according to the Associated Press.
“So our time down south is not over yet and we are going to be delayed in our return to friends and family by some time yet, which is frustrating,” Mr Peacock said before the Aurora was given permission to continue.”
Arrogance? Stupidity? or simple self-centredness?
Thanks to a link from Sera above I have found the Federov and although it is at Antarctica it is a long way West of the Christmas turkeys ex boat. So I guess the Chinese boat must wait to free itself.
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=UCKZ
“So our time down south is not over yet and we are going to be delayed in our return to friends and family by some time yet, which is frustrating,” Mr Peacock said
Well I guess the chinese and russian crews they’ve left stuck in the ice are a bit “frustrated” too.
Perhaps the aussie teams at Casey and Aurora Basin ice core project are a bit “frustrated” by lack of the supplies and equipment.
It’s amazing just how self-centred these bunch of tourists are. They really seem to have no conscience of the inconvenience and danger that they have causes others.
Joe Chang says: January 3, 2014 at 10:06 pm “Fresh milk keeps 2 weeks max. ”
Begs the question, modus ponens, affirming the antecedent, of fresh.
USN ultrapasturized milk keeps properly flavorful for much longer. Some cooks didn’t trust it and donated the 5 US_gallon plastic bag ‘cows’ (with one teat) as small arms targets thrown overboard and sunk.
The AA is on the way
https://secure3.aad.gov.au/proms/public/schedules/voyageTrack.cfm?season=1314
Do you suppose they’re singing
Casey, Jones, steamin’ and a-rollin’
Casey, Jones
You never have to guess
When you hear the tootin’ of the whistle
It’s Casey at the throttle of the
Cannonball ExpressSpirit of Mawson ExpeditionFingers crossed for all the mariners who have been imperilled by this jaunt. May they return safely to their loved ones.
I am sorry about the lack of sarc-tag, but I didn’t think I needed one. I just know that if I were to being using a vehicle in an hostile environment, it would work and the engine would be purring like a kitten.
I used the example of Todd Palin as it is generally accepted by the media that he is quite dumb, like all those on the political right. Yet, in spite of his having a much lower intelligence than the scientists on this expedition, he would be able to strip and rebuild an engine with ease.
I know I said that I was going to publish a blog a few days ago ‘shortly’, but the New Year brought several unexpected visits to my home.
Please feel free to view the blog at http://wp.me/pOWA1-bM
Ill paste my conclusions here, but truly, Anthony, and the mods and anyone else interested, needs to view it.
“Every one here at WUWT persistently misspells the expiation leaders name ….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The correct spelling is Chris(tmas) Turkey”
– Personally I vote for ‘Professor Captain Turkey’.
Im hoping my previous comment didn’t get lost in the nethers. I knew I shouldn’t made a live linky.
Is this fiasco really that different than a quest for a mythical holy relic?
@Doc said: “I used the example of Todd Palin as it is generally accepted by the media that he is quite dumb, like all those on the political right.”
I’d bet Todd as well as most on the ‘political right’ knew of the dangers of Antarctica even in Summer. Which political party do you suppose these dodos in paradise support – and, more importantly, which political party supports them?
I’d love to see a movie contrasting Todd and Sarah’s outdoor experiences with this. I’d bet T&S wouldn’t leave a match stick behind let alone a couple of ships with crew.
DocMartyn says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
“Brain dead Republican Todd Palin has won the 2,031 miles Tesoro Iron Dog off-road snowmobile race across Alaska, four times.”
@Doc said: “I used the example of Todd Palin as it is generally accepted by the media that he is quite dumb, like all those on the political right.”
So, are you PRETENDING to take the stance of the media, or are you a Maoist yourself?
Just to make MY position clear, I give you this excellent science presentation about Global Warming by the leading scientific mind of the leftist media – Al Sharpton. You had it coming.
http://suyts.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/what-alarmists-have-been-reduced-to-rev-al-clears-it-all-up/
Katabasis says:
January 4, 2014 at 4:32 am…
Dawgnaut Expeditions.
Guardian Interview…
Peanut and Banana Milk Shakes backups, bored?
Sounds really, really awful.
There are huge positive scientific benefits from this expedition.
Everyone involved in the climate science debate now knows that Antarctic sea ice is increasing and is at record levels (surprising few people understood this before).
Anytime anyone wants to say Antarctica is warming up and the ice is melting, we just need to point to this Turney expedition and show them the open water at Commonwealth Bay 101 years ago when Mawson landed there, 172 years ago when the Ross expedition sailed these waters and 173 years ago when d’Urville landed at nearly the same spot as Mawson.
Now that I’m reading more of the MSM’s coverage I’m getting truly angry. If anyone dies because of this foolish vacation I’ll make damned sure it affects our university’s climate science department – PERMANENTLY!
“That almost makes it sound like you should be disappointed if you go on an Antarctic adventure and don’t get caught in the ice for a week.”
http://news.yahoo.com/stranded-shipmates-surprisingly-cheerful-being-stuck-antarctic-ice-184957317.html
The above link is from 4 days ago and the images speak volumes.
Polar Chief NOT HAPPY: http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=939155
ClimateForAll says:
January 4, 2014 at 4:29 am
Ill paste my conclusions here, but truly, Anthony, and the mods and anyone else interested, needs to view it.
—
Interesting read, thanks for posting, I don’t know much about sea ice or that region, but that certainly looks like a lot of ice for Summer. I’d find a more clear series of before and after sat images over the past month and map an quantify it so that we can see more clearly the scale of the change.
There were some comments about the funding and it seems this is tricky to find out. Some parts are covered by an ARC Linkage (Australian Government) Grant to Fogwill, Turney, Meissner (UNSW) and I assume the grant covers mostly students, computing power, and possibly some instruments
ARC Linkage Grant: http://www.arc.gov.au/pdf/LP12/LP12R2-Listing_by_all_State_and_Organisation_2012.pdf
search for Turney and Fogwill – 2012-2015: Integrating past ice sheet dynamics with palaeoclimate in the Weddell Sea sector to evaluate
current and future change in Antarctica – $270,000
The other ARC Discovery funding Turney has is about Reconstructing changes in atmospheric circulation over the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere during the past 3000 years – $470,000 for 3 years (2013-2014) – maybe some of the funding also comes from there – but then again – we are talking small contributions only so the large chunk is still missing!
To me, the entire trip was from the start more a PR show than anything else with so many blogs, twitters, live news coverage – and this fits all into the the personality of being the center of attention. Again – think about the celebration they had aired and posted – which is an insult to people on the research stations who depend on the supply by the three rescue vessels involved – Prof. J. Chappellaz is just one of them doing research from Casey Station!
As the Armada of Fools embeds itself in the Antarctic ice, I am reminded of the last voyage of the Karluk.
The Karluk was on a poorly prepared mission to explore the Arctic which also took place in the summer. The ship became stuck in sea ice in August and eventually was crushed and sank in mid January. Fortunately the crew and scientists on board had 4 months to move the supplies from the ship onto the ice “just in case the worst happened”. Subsequently eight men died in blizzards, two more of severe illness and one was it seems murdered as the survivors turned on each other. It wasn’t until the summer of the following year that the remainder were rescued.
A fascinating account of the real life drama was written By William Laird MacKinlay who was one of the survivors.
Sea ice, it seems, is not to be underestimated even in the summer.
WillR says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:15 am
++++++++++
And he whines for his girlfriend.
Coild someone please start this guy’s historical education by tweeting him the traditional sailors’ solution to that problem – “rum, sodomy and the lash”?
They had enough of #1, & I am sure there would no shortage of volunteers to apply #3 in quite liberal doses.
A very useful essay about Mawson’s Hut is posted here:
http://www.mawsons-huts.org.au/conservation/
Interesting to see that so much effort has been put into the conservation of the place there – I hope they have closed the door properly before they left the scene!!
Also – read the last paragraph there – maybe Fogwill, Turney et al should have read the followings:
2011-12 A team of seven was selected but due to the presence of the iceberg known as B9B lodged in the entrance to Commonwealth Bay, the expedition was postponed. This proved to be a wise decision as the only visitors to Mawson’s Huts this season arrived by long range helicopters due to the presence of fast ice, blocked into the coast by B9B, the size of the ACT. The Foundation will be monitoring the sea-ice in the region throughout the year and in particular in the lead up to next season’s departure in early December 2012.
Following cancellation of the expedition, two members Ian Godfrey and Marty Passingham, were selected by the AAD to join the AAD Centenary Voyage and a third previous Foundation member Chris Gallagher, was employed as the Field Leader for the AAD shore party. On arrival at the huts, it was found that two skylight covers had blown off the workshop roof and the two Foundation carpenters managed to make vital repairs.
Ryan says: @ January 4, 2014 at 5:51 am
…I am reminded of the last voyage of the Karluk….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor’s Memoir of Arctic Disaster
Certainly sounds like this bunch. They would be sharing the same fate if not for our carbon dioxide based advanced civilization they are so keen to kill.
Which brings up the question, if they were duplicating Mawson’s expedition and they HATE CO2, why were they not on a wooden sailing ship?
The latest sitrep from the AA:
The Aurora Australis has been released from RCC (Rescue Coordination Centre) tasking and we are heading towards Casey to complete the resupply of the station. Earlier today we were moving through open water which had a reasonable amount of ‘ice blocks’ but they have now become fewer. As a result we are able to move quicker and are currently cruising along nicely at 12 knots. With a new group of people on board means a new supply of presentations. Everyone is keen to show us what they have been up to so I look forward to letting you know what topics are covered as they occur. All on board are well and settling in to their new home. Cheers Leanne and Mark
https://secure3.aad.gov.au/proms/public/schedules/display_sitrep.cfm?bvs_ID=19319
DirkH says:
January 4, 2014 at 5:09 am
_______________________
Dirk, Dirk…slow down, man and enjoy a cup o’ reading comprehension. From what you’ve said in past, I don’t think that English is you first language, so I can see how you might be missing what Dos is saying. I’m gonna explain it to you.
In the US, liberals believe themselves smarter and “better” than everyone else and continuously castigate the Palin family and all other political conservatives.
Here at WUWT, we have reports of Turney’s “expedition” not only unable to fix one of their ice vehicle’s carburetors, thus slowing their journey, but they also “lost” one entire Zodiac!
Are you starting to understand the comparison which was made, above?
Jack Arnold says:
January 3, 2014 at 4:04 pm
The warmists continue to endanger us all by their propaganda lies. I hope that at some point they are dismissed from their tax payer funded positions. That is what burns me the most….they are funded by taxpayers. They take our money at the point of the gun of government to follow their own fevered dreams, never once held to account for their idiocy.
Amen! The blinded feverish CAGW’s should remind everyone here and I mean everyone, of the 1930’s development. Replace the Jews with “climate deniers.” They would gladly lock climate deniers up in FEMA camps, Followed by starvation, executions, torture, and despicable experiments on humans. Just pay attention to their threats. Their blinded faith driven belief in saving themselves from YOU is seen in every word of their hate.
stan stendera says:
January 3, 2014 at 11:09 pm
Another Freudian typo? An earlier post call the trip an “Arctic exhibition” instead of “expedition” — a very appropriate substitution in my opinion. But an “expiation” is an act done to make up for wrongdoing, which seems, if I may say, the “polar appostate” of the case here.
What is the carbon footprint of all this? They will have to go to Al Gore and repent.
Last nite on the Lou Dobbs show on Fox Buss News here in the U.S..
Lou had on some guy who must be well known , (I did not catch his name) and Lou was taking the idea that Global Waming/Climate Change was a crock. But the guy sliped in the ” You have to be a expert to know, “Most Experts Agree That The Tempature Will Rise” . The guy gave some wild number like 14 F up or some such….
That is what must be stoped with facts some how.
How about a class action law suit over the tax money wasted, the people killed due to no heat, the poor freezing to death, crap like this where others pick up the tab for these loons and their silly lie based “con”.
Go on offense get off the deal of just defense.
In dispute of this being largely a sightseeing tour with only a few scientists on board: http://www.spiritofmawson.com/
Click menu and then the drop tags to find:
03 Leaders
24 Scientists
18 Graduate Students
05 Media
AkA 50 related to the ‘science’ experiment. Only 2 TOURISTS!
You’ll also find a tab for supporters.
OLD DATA says:
January 4, 2014 at 7:01 am
____________________
How are 5 Media types related to the science in any way?
So what have I learnt from the MSM today?
I have learnt that it is now winter in both the Northern Hemisphere and the Antarctic!
Back in October, another delay may have ruined many real scientific studies.
http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/unprecedented-antarctic-disaster-unfolding-darkness.html
As a consequence [of the shutdown], an entire season of Antarctic research will be lost. Because of the harsh weather, “we have to cram all our science into three months of the year,” [Hubert Staudigel, a senior researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography] says. And due to the extremely complicated logistics of working in Antarctica, it will be difficult or impossible to meet the deadlines for this year’s research season, no matter how soon the shutdown is resolved.
“This is a much, much bigger science story than anybody realizes,” Henry Kaiser says. As a scientific diver in the U.S. Antarctic program, Kaiser has spent ten seasons in Antarctica, and is well connected within the community of Antarctic researchers. … Long-term experiments are in jeopardy. “There are essential climate studies, essential ocean studies going on down there,” Kaiser says. “These are multi-year studies, so if you lose a year, that’s it, the study could be over.” Scientists spend years planning such experiments, and count on that data for their careers and those of their students.
————-
I wonder what the ‘welcoming committee’ has in store for the ‘tourists’.
@Alan, Agreed. Perhaps none of it has to do with legitimate science. I found it interesting since the MSM is now calling it a tourist trip. Well with 45 self described scientists and 5 media people they would have had only 2 tourists on board as stated on their OWN website.
Some interesting stats to work out on Wikipedia .
Aurora Australis is served by a crew of 24 and carry up to 116 passengers accommodated in three or four-bunk cabins with attached bathrooms.
So lets say at best 3 bunks per cabin, 54 new passengers, plus whoever else was already on there and assuming the crew have their own cabins, that means that 116/3 = 39 cabins for the 54 people – at best! Must be wonderful atmosphere they can have little singsongs in pairs.
If the 116 beds include the crew then it is even more cramped. Here is a description of the ship by one of its crew. “This is one of the expeditioner’s cabins. Each of those two loungers fold out to bunks and those other boards at the top there fold down to be bunks. So there’s four per cabin.”
The expeditioners cabins look smaller than the average bog.
http://australianetwork.com/nexus/stories/s1745166.htm
(use the frame on the right to scroll through images)
Here’s one for the calorie counters “We can burn up to 60,000 litres of diesel a day. We can load probably up to 2,000 tonnes, or two million litres, of diesel.”
Apparently, it is possible to earn a “living Darwin Award” so long as another condition is met (concerning propagation of the species)
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2009-23.html
By now many of us have seen the path the AS took, and a few ice map links have been provided on WAWT threads, and now that we know that, save for a few hours waiting on tourist retrieval this ship might not have been stuck, I have a question
Was getting in and out of this heavy of ice with a non icebreaking ship always a plan? With the information they knew in advance, I’m figuring Turney knew in advance that the trip was really taking a big chance. After all, the trip must have been planned months in advance without the conditions of the ice pack known, and with the knowledge that the ice pack in that area was subject to rapid change due to the position of the large icebergs down there.
Was the ice shift that caused all this mess THAT big of a shift? That big of a surprise? I’m thinking it wasn’t, but I’m not sure. Was this tourist trip relying on a 50% chance of the ice shifting and getting stuck or worse? They rolled the dice on the ice not shifting and lost, that we know. Turney wasn’t as responsible as the captain of the vessel for ice monitoring, but Turney WAS in charge of the tourists who were then the cause of the lack of science on several other Antarctic projects.
I had guessed that Turney wanted to not disappoint his tourists by bringing them down there only to be kept too far from shore to visit due to “some ice”, and the “some ice” turned into too much ice. But after looking at some of the ice maps, pushing the limits of the ice pack was _always_ part of Turney’s plan, which tells me the entire trip was planned in a reckless fashion. That is where we get into the criminal side of things.
SIG INT Ex says:
Turnery, Fogwill, Mortimer variant on the scheme is to target elderly investors whose physical condition can be at risk to strenuous conditions and stress. Many of the “Climate Scientists” on the failed Sprit of Mawson expectation are elderly pensioners with health conditions.
Likely, Ternery-Fogwill-Mortimer had the pensioners to sign “sudden death wills” to forfeit all of their monetary and property to the Sprit of Mawson Ponzi Scheme.
Getting the captain of the Russian flagged vessel to icebound the ship was the ruse to create stress amongst the elderly “Climate Scientists” in order to induce death and forfeiture of their estates.
Having an extra two weeks, given ocean going bureaucracy in the Southern Ocean plays to their hand at achieving their Ponzi Scheme.
Serious.
That chimes with a comment (below) I read on The Daily Mail online a few days ago: Truly shocking if the sick were being cynically exploited.
AliHughes Squirrels Nest, Canada, 1 day ago
Not everyone on the research ship is a tree hugging, global warming whack-nut.. Some of the “tourists” are friends of mine, ticking off items from their bucket list. They’ve been to all the extremes this beautiful planet over the years and the South Pole was the last location. She’s very sick, not expected to make it to 60. Got a little more adventure than they signed up for but they did it. Can hardly wait to hear the stories for when they return. And, by the way, they had to take out extra insurance for just such a rescue occasion, because apparently it’s a common occurrence.
Needs to be an “Explain like I’m Five” (ELI5) bit done for this …
The Lou Dobbs segment with the “Only a select few know guy on” is being reshown here in Texas on Fox Buss News this moment, I’ll try to get the guys name if possible. Others might check to see for sure what he says.
“Marketing the Message” (CAGW)
Professional paid spokesperson advocacy. Scientists can look so pedantic, narrow and pretentious in their ‘book learned’ ways and observation of ‘formal rules’ of the trade; this does not work well (poor visuals) in short, live, blogging videos or in Tweets.
So-called ‘communications majors’ (marketing-live and before camera) exist for a reason …
.
Bill Illis says:
There are huge positive scientific benefits from this expedition.
Everyone involved in the climate science debate now knows that Antarctic sea ice is increasing and is at record levels (surprising few people understood this before).
===
Yes, Bill, I think that despite their best intentions they have probably made a significant achievement in communicating climate science here.
MSM have done their best to occult the changes in Antarctica and , by default, everyone ASSUMES it must be the same as in the Arctic that we never stop hearing about.
I have yet to meet anyone face to face who was aware of Antarctic ice trends until I told them and I was equally ignorant until I started regularly reading WUWT.
Thanks to our host for this immensely useful resource and thanks to Prof Turkey for letting the world know about Antarctic sea ice.
OK,
Ken Calderia , head of a institute of Science at Stanford,,
sed to much CO2 on Venus and to little on Mars as the science.
Used “smart money” that is going to mine Anartic now due to the fact Anartic is no longer ice covered due to global warming.
Used “consensus” knows best.
Caz Jones says:
January 4, 2014 at 7:28 am
“Many of the “Climate Scientists” on the failed Sprit of Mawson expectation are elderly pensioners with health conditions.”
That’s also how they looked like in the singing- and partying videos published by the BBC and the Guardian.
ManBeaPig,
AA – the crew have their own cabins.
AA is also a dry ship except for “special occasions”. The Bar is now used a DVD library.
Participant in 2011 SR3 voyage to Mertz polynya.
Another delay?
http://en.ria.ru/world/20140104/186219405/Chinese-Ship-Stuck-in-Antarctic-Ice-After-Rescue-of-Russian-Vessel.html
MOSCOW, January 4 (RIA Novosti) – A Chinese icebreaker that played a key role evacuating people this week from a Russian vessel stranded in the Antarctic ice pack is now itself trapped in dense ice, maritime authorities said Saturday.
The crew aboard the Xue Long ship have food supplies for several weeks and are not in immediate danger, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said, citing the captain of the Chinese vessel.
The AMSA said that the Xue Long doesn’t need assistance for now, but that the Australian ship Aurora Australis was ordered to stay in open water nearby on Friday night as a precaution.
Thankfully, we have the internet to keep from intertwining truth with down through the centuries myth, lore and other stories spun around the campfire (sometimes under the influence or more than just the vino of the time) unlike 12th and 13th century Englanders.
But then, we have our own ‘quests’ or pursuits, such as Bigfoot, ***trails, ‘Fluoride in the water’, oil barons keeping people poor while making a ‘mint’ off them, while our present day banking system is owed to a critter from Jekyll Island and last but not least, CAGW endorsed by a cadre of so-called rational-thinking logic-based ‘scientists’ (who occasionally use super-computing centers to create the tea leaves they eventually read via ‘spaghetti’ ensemble charts)!
The ‘progress’ we have made, eh? (Fortunately, we do not all fall for the same myths/lore at the same time, or total chaos would ensue.)
/mild sarc
.
News flash-
Real frozen turkey trumps mythical plastic turkey! Read all about it…read all about it..
OLD DATA says:
January 4, 2014 at 7:01 am
Click menu and then the drop tags to find:
03 Leaders
*****************************************
There Turkey : “Described by the UK Saturday Times as the ‘new David Livingstone’ ”
So obviously the first thing the Chinese rescue team said to him was: “Dr Turkey I presume.”
I duly hope the new, conservative australian government will make an example out of punishing the leaders of this ill-conceived, absolutely irresponsible “expedition” – aka. CAGW-propaganda-stunt.
McCarthy-style show trials spring to mind. Ah, sweet memories…
On how big liars:
John F. Kerry
New York Times Jan. 2, 2014 article by Coral Davenport “Kerry Quitly Makes Priority Of Climate Change”.
By this known fraud being able to have any creditabilty shows how powerful the lie machie of the msm in fact is still on this.
We can only hope Kerry is a big enough liar to put “fail” in place once more as he has always done. May be he is the guy we need to be leading the liars. His very poor at it and always gets caught in big ones.
Pierre at Notrickszone posted this yesterday.
Today we have Turney’s report in the Guardian
I would be wise to stock-up on milkshake and bananas in case the new LIA materialises (not that I am suggesting it is going to).
DirkH says:
January 4, 2014 at 7:55 am
Caz Jones says:
January 4, 2014 at 7:28 am
“Many of the “Climate Scientists” on the failed Sprit of Mawson expectation are elderly pensioners with health conditions.”
That’s also how they looked like in the singing- and partying videos published by the BBC and the Guardian.
Most of the quote wasn’t mine, I added a quote I found elsewhere which seemed to back things up.
I should have said: Yesterday we have Turney’s report in the Guardian
But here he is again today. Do you think he has noticed people laughing?
What was achieved? The waisting of $100s on their rescue, the derailment of other scientific researcher’s resources, risking other people’s lives, laughter around the world, ridicule, disappointed eco-tourists, disappointed presstitutes from the Guardian and BBC.
AA – the crew have their own cabins.
AA is also a dry ship except for “special occasions”. The Bar is now used a DVD library.
===
OH, I can see how that would be “frustrating” for those unfortunate enough to be stuck on board instead of being taken straight home to mummy.
Ladies and gentlemen
Here in Norway we have somthing that we call “Sjøforklaring”. That can be undersood even by those, whoos arbitrary mother has an especially stupid tounge.
Rea: Sea- for- clearing.
in England, Munity is generally forbidden. If you commit munity, you will be hanged at the “Rå-nokk”
But in Norway, if the captain fails, you can tie him up and treat him well with water and bread and wash under him, and thus take over the ship. But the procedure will have to stand in court on land.
Munity may stand in court on land if the captains behaviours has threatened human dignity and life in obvious ways.
I tend to believe that the russian captain has taken too high risks with passengers on board, and that “Sjøforklaring” on land is needed here.
Roald Amundsen sailed the same waters, So did Shackelton and even Scott.
Scott is a bit dubious, but Amundsen and Shackelon at both reputed for having been very responsible and qualified at sea..
By the way, Old documents from court here in Norway state for true that the sea serpent has been the cause of the disaster. That formula may come to validity again. But it is still human errors, by unqualified sailors who do not take the sea serpent for real and for serious.
“….Let’s be clear. Us becoming locked in ice was not caused by climate change. Instead it seems to have been an aftershock of the arrival of iceberg B09B which triggered a massive reconfiguration of sea ice in the area…..”
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/2014/jan/04/antarctic-expedition-was-worth-it-chris-turney
I thought a few days ago he was saying global warming caused more low salinity melt water which remained afloat and froze quicker than the heavier sea water.
Now he’s changes his story to “weather’s only climate when we say it is”.
Re: “expiation”
Maybe Our Heroes should consider rebranding/upgrading/uplifting their corporate identity. “Spirit of Mawson” does not seem to cut the ice with the sk/ceptics any longer. Also makes you think that the whole of their preparatory research consisted in looking up the meanig of “spirits” in the dictionary. And hitting on the wrong one.
It might be more profitable [*ahem*] to view this as a reenactment of another Epotition to the Pole, undertaken by a bunch of stuffed guys with sawdust between their ears, including a Piglet, and led by a Bear of Very Little Brain.
I hope the whole ship of fools incident helps to bring some common sense to the people that would normally believe the man-made global warming news.
Wishfully yours
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/2014/jan/04/antarctic-expedition-was-worth-it-chris-turney
“During the expedition we pioneered a new route into the huts and were able to deliver two large teams to work in the area, including undertaking important conservation work on the huts. The AAE is not a jolly tourist trip as some have claimed, nor is it a re-enactment. The AAE is inspired by Mawson but is primarily a science expedition; it will be judged by its peer-reviewed publications.”
We look forward eagerly to the peer-reviewed publications about the important conservation work on the huts.
I wish I could have been there, I love huts.
Hmmm … did he lose, escape or manage to elude his ‘attached’ political officer (commissar or politruk)?
The one meant to keep the organization’s course straight and true and in-line with CAGW ‘party’ goals?
.
Too funny, I just heard Professor Turney referred to as the “Black Knight of AGW”. I sure hope somebody films an Antarctic sequel to Monty Python and The Holy Grail. Turney’s behavior/performance reminds me of that Black Knight too, ha ha ha!
I bet that Josh could have a little fun with with the ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’ painting.
http://wpcontent.answcdn.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_by_Emanuel_Leutze,_MMA-NYC,_1851.jpg/300px-Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_by_Emanuel_Leutze,_MMA-NYC,_1851.jpg
Tweak the Flag and main character, (maybe a couple of others holding milkshakes) , and call it “Turney Crossing The Rubicon.”
Historic indeed!
_Jim says:
January 4, 2014 at 8:05 am
“The ‘progress’ we have made, eh? (Fortunately, we do not all fall for the same myths/lore at the same time, or total chaos would ensue.)”
You say that it is a myth or “lore” that the Fed was founded by private bankers in a meeting on Jekyll Island? Interesting. Even Jimbo Wales’ bolshe-wikipedia falls for that myth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jekyll_Island#Planning_of_the_Federal_Reserve_System
But nice try to put it in the same league as bigfoot. You’re probably a Modern Monetary Theorist then; a Krugmanist who wants to deride criticism of the Federal Reserve Banking System.
Lewandowsky tried the same by equating climate skeptics with moon landing hoax proponents.
It is one of the usual tactics to discredit the opposition, and I will have none of it thank you.
Greg says:
January 4, 2014 at 8:40 am
************************
I can’t find the link but in one of the dozen articles I’ve read (from this thread), it said the carpenters repaired 2 skylights that had opened since the last visit. But with such a silver-tongue, how could it get peer-reviewed? Oh hang on….by his mates…on the boat.
“AA is also a dry ship. The Bar is now used a DVD library.”
Forget milkshake, I keep dreaming of a fourx ’
Al Jazeera News just mentioned the Xue Long being stuck after rescuing passengers from the “Russian research vessel.” No mention of the SOM researchers/tourists.
Hmm, attempting to minimize the guffaw factor?
Even though I generally enjoy AJAM (much to my surprise) every time I see one of their stories about the effects of “climate change,” I can’t help but wonder whether continuation of the narrative was one of Al Gore’s conditions of sale.
Thanks Steve, sure was worth all the effort then.
I’ll have to try to find where he posted the previous excuse about the melt water.
Alan Robertson says:
January 4, 2014 at 6:16 am
“Dirk, Dirk…slow down, man and enjoy a cup o’ reading comprehension. From what you’ve said in past, I don’t think that English is you first language, so I can see how you might be missing what Dos is saying. I’m gonna explain it to you. ”
I simply asked for clarification; I am perfectly well informed about how your media works. As in the centre of the Empire, so in the colonies.
It is not as ‘popularized’ by a populist author in a novel written by the author published after said author become a certified financial planner and self-declared authority on the subject.
You, of all ppl, should know this, Dirk.
Not wishing to go OT any further in this thread I’ll refrain from pulling and posting any excerpts, so, please, view at the site (link above).
. . ‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’
. . . -Mark Twain
Old Data: ” I just heard Professor Turney referred to as the “Black Knight of AGW”
More like Brave Sir Robin 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZwuTo7zKM8&feature=player_detailpage#t=60
fobdangerclose says January 4, 2014 at 6:48 am
…
Lou had on some guy who must be well known , (I did not catch his name) and Lou was taking the idea that Global Waming/Climate Change was a crock. But the guy sliped in the ” You have to be a expert to know, “Most Experts Agree That The Tempature Will Rise” . The guy gave some wild number like 14 F up or some such….
…
Oh, and while I’m at it, this is O/T but a pet peeve. Is there an on-air weather broadcaster anywhere in North America who pronounces “temperature” properly? No wonder the commenter above spelled the word phonetically.
Broadcasting school for me was over 40 years ago, but “temperature” was one of the first words our instructors corrected.
CrossBorder says:
January 4, 2014 at 8:49 am
Al Jazeera News just mentioned the Xue Long being stuck after rescuing passengers from the “Russian research vessel.” No mention of the SOM researchers/tourists.
Hmm, attempting to minimize the guffaw factor?
Even though I generally enjoy AJAM (much to my surprise) every time I see one of their stories about the effects of “climate change,” I can’t help but wonder whether continuation of the narrative was one of Al Gore’s conditions of sale.
CB, see this:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/surprise-plenty-of-obama-money-for-these-people/
And this:
http://www.menainfrastructure.com/mena-infrastructure-fund-acquires-32-8-of-upc/
Look up UPC Renewables/UPC Management Middle East too.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=11181470
The hapless Australasian Antarctic Expedition is finally homeward bound – and thousands of trees will have to be planted to offset the carbon footprint from the prolonged rescue effort.
In an interview with AFP yesterday director of the French Polar Institute Yves Frenot criticised the “pseudo-scientific expedition”.
Because it had run into difficulties, it had drained resources from the French, Chinese and Australian scientific missions in Antarctica, he said.
Anthony Watts, Aphan, and all;
‘Argos’ are not rated for Antarctic ocean amphibious service, not even for landing or lightering. As boats, they’re Puddle & Pond Class vessels.
It would be of interest to know whether the Antarctic cruise industry in general is launching Argos over the side … and using them to ferry clients & gear to and from shore?
If that is the norm, it is a misuse of the machine (the industry seems quite caution; this would be quite risqué). If it is not the norm, the Mawson people invented the misuse on their own.
The standard ‘Argo’ is propelled in water, very inefficiently & ineffectively, by the churning of its tractor-tread tires. (A few models do have a real prop-drive.) This is a safety feature, enforcing water-borne load-limits, since once the tops of the tires become submerged, it cannot make headway. (Real machine-abusers carry paddles, for this reason. They also carry buckets so they don’t have to bail with a spade.)
An Argo can’t be towed much faster than it will go on its own; it’s just a bathtub. They can’t be ‘helped’ or ‘hurried’ much – they’ll swamp. These essential realities will be quickly detected by anyone of passing competence, and such errors are committed only once. (Oops! I won’t do that again!) Thus, the Zodiac operator was probably new at the job.
That the Mawson Argos were being towed, suggests that they were unable to move on their own, and the reason they could not is they were overloaded (for water-service). If the weight was human bodies, that makes it much worse. (Many Argos are very robust cargo/weight-carriers, on land. It’s partly what they’re known & valued for; but when water is to be crossed, they must be unloaded and multiple trips made. That’s part of the ‘price’ they incur.)
A charging Rhino on land; a wallowing pig in the water. That’s an Argo.
Do not ascribe too much to one post’s content. Your education involving US history in obscure areas like the historical US banking and commerce I think may not be as complete as you may be assuming …
.
“AA is also a dry ship. The Bar is now used a DVD library.”
Apparently there were 120 videos on board the AS. Turkey on one of his blogs/videos said he banned people from watching disaster movies. I read somewhere (again too many articles to find the link) that they’d watched around 30 vids. So 120-30-x disaster movies (In my experience in mining camps, approx 75% of the vids are disaster movies. So assuming x approx = 90) I suspect that running out of videos to watch was a mitigating, if not the main reason factor for rescue.
The other Black Knight: In the Antarctic sequel I believe Al Gore should play King Arthur, Professor Turney the Black Knight and Michael Mann the head of the Knights of Ni. But how could anyone top the humor of the sound of horse’s hoofs in a nautical setting?
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+monty+python+black+knight&qpvt=youtube+monty+python+black+knight&FORM=VDRE#view=detail&mid=011E4E9D9AEF2FA654F3011E4E9D9AEF2FA654F3
Does anyone know if Professor Chris Turney’s wife and children were on board the stuck ship?
[My emphasis throughout]
Since this was obviously a PR stunt for Prof Turkey’s spin-off Carbonscape, I thought I’d see what it was about.
http://carbonscape.com/applications/activated-carbon/
http://carbonscape.com/applications/bio-oil-and-fine-chemicals/
So they’ve worked out how to turn saw-dust into activated carbon and want to sell the gunk that comes out of pine as you heat it up as “bio-oil”.
Carbon-credit scamming.
Jimbo: Yes. There are other links which confirm this (different thread from memory) but SOM website has blogs posted by Turkey’s son, Chick–I mean Robbie on New Years Eve.
Off Topic but looks important: There is a bit of a rumpus going on in the Guardian comments about ‘Should Australian Newspapers publish climate change denialist opinion pieces?’ Looks like they are allowing comments from said ‘deniers’ too.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2014/jan/04/climate-change-climate-change-scepticism?commentpage=1
Greg says:
January 4, 2014 at 8:59 am
More like Brave Sir Robin 😉
Yes too funny as well. It’s been many years since I’ve watched it but remains one of the funniest movies to me. I don’t want to give away the ending, for those who have yet to watch it, but I’d say Anthony Watts should play lead of the guys at the end.
Perhaps it could be crowdfunded? I’d be game along with everyone else in the world who still chortling – which, about now should be most anyone on the planet! :)~
Funny …
One of the videos, ‘filmed’ at the shoreline, explained how they were towing the Argos with the Zodiacs up to near the shore … From what I recall, it was the third Argo which was swamped by too aggressive towing. After bailing it dry it would not start.
.
I must object to the appellation for Turney of “Turkey”. It is unfair and a slander to turkeys everywhere, particularly wild ones (of which we’ve been having quite a few in our back yard this winter).
rogerknights says:
January 3, 2014 at 8:43 pm
************************8
The Dallying Debutantes ?
Turkeys … penguins … whatever your generous spirit will permit as a support donation.
Just give him the bird when you see him.
Image to rekindle the fading memories in the months to come
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CoolAntarctica.htm
Turney speaks! (But evasively)
‘This wasn’t a tourist trip. It was all about science – and it was worth it’
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/2014/jan/04/antarctic-expedition-was-worth-it-chris-turney
Guardian enviro-hack James Randerson is busy BTL telling everyone who questions His Eminence’s wisdom how wrong they are.
This is the first time I’ve seen such dedicated Guardian “protection” below the line.
I notice mentions of a ‘Darwin’ award. I don’t know much about that, but this whole escapade surely deserves some of award for the comedic value. It has quite brightened up my Christmas and New Year. The Booze Cruise equals anything the old ‘Carry On’ films had to offer. Admittedly, the lack of milk shake provision was a shocking oversight, but I am sure ‘lessons will be learned’ and next time, there will be plenty to go round. In lots of flavours.
_Jim says: January 4, 2014 at 9:35 am
In Janet’s blog, it sounded like the lack of the third Argo then slowed the return of passengers to the ship, suggesting they were actually relying on them to transport people. It is one thing to plop an Argo over the side, and let some buckeroo drive it ashore (rather than place the Argo in a flat-bottom vessel and lighter the thing ashore, which is the smart way), but it is much more foolish to use them as a passenger-launch. They just aren’t stable enough, and overload quickly; human bodies make the weight high, and mobile, both of which exacerbate overloading.
To transfer people to & from shore, only a stable passenger vessel such a Zodiac should be used.
Any Russian worth his daily 12 ounces will have any given submerged small-engine coughing back to life before his second cup o’ spiked coffee cools. Perhaps the lack of ounces & spiking has affected performance here. 😉
In LA and NYC, ya deal with clogged 8-lane freeways. In Alaska & Russia, it’s small engines going underwater. [I read of a dropped Panama Darién outboard that was retrieved from the river bottom, and returned to service by the locals using nothing but a machete and a pocket knife, while the white guys ate their sandwiches.]
It wouldn’t be a surprise to find that when the Xui Long put their heads together with the Akademik Shokalskiy to consider their joint predicament (as the Australis slowly crunched out of sight), the later had 3 working Argos to contribute to the cause. 😉
I think there is a big unwritten story here. It occurred to me that a committed CAGW scientist would never have been caught up in this predicament if he didn’t actually believe in all the warming hype. For such a person, there would be no motivation to investigate it. Turner was remarkably unaware that Antarctica ice extent was a record for this year and, indeed had been breaking records annually for a number of years. After all we are regaled with the terrible sea level rise to expect from the unremitting melting of the world’s glaciers and ice caps.
This incident and other embarrassing incidents like rowing to the north pole, the 22 yachts blocked in their passage through the NW passage, and probably dozens of stories like this show that most of these people simply believe fervently in CAGW. These incidents come as a huge surprise to them. They are honest nice folks, but a mixture of naivety and ignorance (totally unacceptable in a real scientist) and their practice of post normal “science” blinds them to reality. Turney was broadsided cruelly by reality. He is going to need extended therapy to bring him back to his comfortable state of naivety and ignorance. The alternative may be too horrible for him to contemplate.
Yes there are the nefarious, dishonest, agenda driven malefactors that are icons to the rest but they number fewer (thank goodness) than I had believed. I’m embarrassed that the venerable adage: “Don’t ascribe to evil what can be attributed to well-intentioned stupidity.” didn’t occur to me on this subject before now. A seed of doubt may have been sewn in Turney, but to follow where it leads outside of the comfort in numbers and to an about turn measured against the total investment in his CAGW career, I believe will be too much for such as he (ignorance and naivety are not much use as resources). He’s already talking about the wonderful research results he has obtained. I believe a post exploring this phenomenon would be very insightful and lead to conclusions about a total overhaul of our education system – particularly university education.
_Jim says:
January 4, 2014 at 9:05 am
“Do not ascribe too much to one post’s content. Your education involving US history in obscure areas like the historical US banking and commerce I think may not be as complete as you may be assuming …”
I see where this is going. Next you’ll tell me FDR had a deep economic understanding…
An interesting editorial published a few days ago in “The Foundry” notes that while the Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy is “ice hardened”, it is not an “ice breaker”.
On a side note, I used to teach driver’s ed too!
“…. the venerable adage: “Don’t ascribe to evil what can be attributed to well-intentioned stupidity.” didn’t occur to me on this subject before now. ”
Yes, well-intentioned stupidity, is probably the most succinct description of the current green movement’s beliefs. However, when I see all the “should deniers views be allowed to be published” , “crimes against humanity” type stuff, we have to realise “well-intentioned” part is in trouble.
They know they are losing and they are starting to get nasty.
Can you two get a private room!
Turney in the guardian
“After sleepless nights thinking about keeping everyone safe, it is a relief to know everyone is on board the Aurora and well.”
So the Russian crew don’t count as ‘everyone’. Probably forgotten they even exist.
Om ljod ber ek alle søner åt Heimdall store og små….
Ladies & Genlemen and / or vice versa:
Is there a severe lot of mis- use of cocain in the business-class over there?
May there also be rabble in the servant class / ramp i tjenerklassen?
Grasshopper, you have much to learn on your journey, and this is not getting off to a good start. I submit it is Dirk who requires remediation of his education. Let me play a Gail and post a relevent link; maybe you are mislead by the flounderings of FDR like most Americans who only received a public grade-school review of history (even in higher-level college courses):
“FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT’S ‘New Deal’ saved America from the failure of free-market capitalism.”
These and other myths are dispelled by the facts in this essay by economists (since you bring FDR up, lets educate all around …)
FDR’s ‘brain trust’ was brain rust. Buckley used to debate the late economist (I forget his name) who was in the FDR administration in charge of war material I htink it was; it was an education. I recommend Buckley to you to.
Dirk, are you still subscribing to G. Edward Griffin contrived piece? Did you check any of the references at the website I linked above for cross-checking the assertion that Griffon is all washed up?
Much OT, but Dirk started it …
.
Doc Martyn says — Brain dead Republican Todd Palin —
Doc Martyn is making a joke.
Todd Palin is portrayed by the left as another “brain dead Republican” but he knows what he is about having won a truly grueling cold weather race four times. By implication the truly brain dead people are the warmist stuck in the ice — particularly their leader Turney who claims to be an expert on Antarctic conditions and obviously knows nothing.
Doc Martyn — I got the joke — others apparently did not.
Eugene WR Gallun
During the debacle with a bunch of half wits getting stuck in non-existent ice, another half wit gets a CBE. Julia Slingo has been honoured for her services to weather forecasting (bbq summers, mild winters etc etc not withstanding).
It makes you want to weep!
If a slightly off-topic comment can be forgiven, this whole incident spotlights the need for the U.S. to build more polar-class icebreakers. Whether for research, supply, or national security interests, or merely to conduct search and rescue operations, it would seem there is a need for more of these ships.
Stranded Vessel in Antarctica Illustrates Need for New U.S. Icebreaker Policy
http://blog.heritage.org/2013/12/31/stranded-vessel-antarctica-illustrates-need-new-u-s-icebreaker-policy/
The author, Brian Slattery, a foreign policy research assistant, has been calling for a strengthened U.S. coast guard presence in the arctic in order to “catch up with the other Arctic nations and field a presence that can legitimately protect U.S. sovereignty in the region.”
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/04/strengthen-the-us-coast-guard-in-the-arctic
The USCGC Polar Star and its twin the Polar Sea are ostensibly “able to break through ice up to 21 feet (6 m) thick and steam continuously through 6 feet (1.8 m) of ice at 3 knots (6 km/h),” (Wikipedia). It’s about 400 feet long and 80 feet wide, and it is able to accommodate two helicopters. These two ships are among the largest of U.S. coast guard ships, and along with a smaller ship, “The Healy”, apparently comprise the entire fleet of polar-capable U.S. icebreakers. The two former ships were built in the ’70’s, and are nearing the end of their natural service lives.
The distinction in vessel construction, and role of sovereign naval powers in the polar regions is certainly one of the more fascinating aspects of this story. Even though chances of armed conflict in the polar regions seems unlikely, it would be interesting to know more about the role these interesting ships play in maintaining national security and a balance of powers in these areas.
Interesting, too, the U.S. senators urging new shipbuilding.
Song to the tune of ‘My Boyfriend’s Back’
The thick ice is back and you’re gonna be in trouble
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
When you see the ice comin’ better cut out on the double
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
You been spreadin’ lies and your computers were untrue
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
So look out now reality’s comin’ after you
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
And we all know that you’ve been tryin’
And we know your models are all a lyin’
You’ve been gettin’ ‘way with this for such a long time
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
But now we’re pushing back and things will be fine
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
Gonna be sorry ’cause your computer models were wrong
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
‘Cause the ice is kinda big and it’s awful strong
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
And we all know your model’s are cheatin’
And you’re funding’s gonna take a beatin’
What makes you think we’d believe all your lies
You’re a big man now, wanna cut you down to size
Wait and see
The ice is back, it’s gonna ruin your reputation
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
If I were you I’d take a permanent vacation
(Hey la, hey la, the ice is back)
P.S. Can I change my handle and address after this so no one recognizes me anymore?
TomB says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:38 pm
…Really? You don’t get it? In their world – up is down, left is right, cold is warm….. The only place their folly will be called into question is places like this, outside their echo chamber. Please tell me you’re not that naive.
*
I wasn’t talking about their world, TomB, I was talking about the real scientists disrupted in their work and having to postpone serious scientific endeavours. Catch up with the news, real scientists are furious about this and saying so.
“‘Because of the rescue operations, French scientists had had to scrap a two-week oceanographic campaign this month using the Astrolabe,’ Frenot said. ‘The Chinese have had to cancel all their scientific programme, and my counterpart in Australia is spitting tacks with anger, because their entire summer has been wiped out.’.”
http://joannenova.com.au/2014/01/french-polar-chief-slams-spiritofmawson-fiasco/#more-32596
re: DirkH says January 4, 2014 at 11:12 am
I was wrong; J. Kenneth Galbraith was in the Office of Price Control (a good job for a liberal /only partial sarc) under FDR during WW2. His debates with William F. Buckley are legendary (where Buckley often enjoyed mopping up the floor with the socialist Galbraith).
Resolved: That the Price of Oil and Natural Gas Should Be Regulated by the Federal Government w/Buckley and Galbraith
.
Headline in the guardian
“Weather casuing [sic] sea ice increase, not climate”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/03/antarctica-ice-trapped-academik-shokalskiy-climate-change
Turnery’s turkeys?
Eugene WR Gallun
Tom J
hahahahaha == loved it —
Eugene WR GAllun
AMSA has requested the US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker to assist vessels in Antarctica. bit.ly/1f3Cn3N
Just on Twitter. US now involved
Steve (Paris) says:
Turney in the guardian
“After sleepless nights thinking about keeping everyone safe, it is a relief to know everyone is on board the Aurora and well.”
So the Russian crew don’t count as ‘everyone’. Probably forgotten they even exist.
===
Yes , I noted that too.
The Guardian did a similar think a few days ago and I posted a comment. They quickly added a line about the russians to the text.
What these inadvertent slips reveals about the way they think is rather ugly.
A climate scientice”s wife asked him to go to the store and buy a loaf of bread,and if they have eggs get a dozen. He comes back with twelve loaves of bread..
sunnygirlca says January 4, 2014 at 11:57 am
They’ll be about 7 days getting to Commonwealth Bay.
Here’s the full AMSA announcement, in PDF.
artwest –
very odd indeed: when i linked to the turney/randerson guardian piece, it opened with comments from under “Staff replies” which had a randerson response to each comment. it was so strange i actually looked further & noticed the various comment options for the first time ever – All comments, Staff replies & Guardian picks!
at the moment, when u click on Guardian picks, u get:
These comments have been chosen by Guardian staff because they contribute to the debate.
No comments have been picked yet.
under Staff replies, u only get about 22 comments, every second one a randerson.
under All comments, u get 115 comments.
from the Randerson responses:
Randerson: Thanks for the comment. I can’t speak for the BBC, but the Guardian has two people on the boat – a science correspondent (Alok Jha) and a videographer/photographer (Laurence Topham). They are there to report on the science that is being done and on the expedition aspect of the voyage. The media is often (rightly) criticised for representing science as a series of ‘eureka moments’ and not showing the reality of science being done in the field. This was an opportunity to do that in a visually interesting location/environment.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/antarctica-live/2014/jan/04/antarctic-expedition-was-worth-it-chris-turney
this entire Turney piece/Randerson response is obviously yet another attempt at damage control. the MSM have not even informed the public of the CAGW-biased intentions of this expedition, which can be found on the Spirit of Mawson website, & in interviews done prior to the trip, etc etc.
Spirit of Mawson: THE SCIENCE CASE
The little explored subantarctic islands in the Southern Ocean have experienced some of the most significant warming…
We are going south to:
1. gain new insights into the circulation of the Southern Ocean and its impact on the global carbon cycle…
http://www.spiritofmawson.com/the-science-case/
11 Sept: ABC PM: UNSW organises Antarctic trek to celebrate centenary of Mawson expedition
MARK COLVIN: One of the expedition leaders is climate change specialist Professor Chris Turney.
CHRIS TURNEY: There’s a number of things we’re hoping to do, and we’re going to start the science program as soon as we head south. This is very much not just for pure science research program: we’re taking the public with us, berths are for sale.
MARK COLVIN: It’s a privately funded expedition.
CHRIS TURNEY: Privately funded expedition, so we’ve just secured an ice-strengthened vessel, something called the Shikowski (phonetic), which is up in Vladivostok at the moment heading down towards us very soon…
MARK COLVIN: Alright, well Australia’s just elected a government which, I think it’s fair to say, is more sceptical about global warming and certainly about what to do about it. Do you think they’ll be listening to you when we get back?
CHRIS TURNEY: I think to be perfectly honest, that in the first instance, we’re just trying to get people excited by the science, and rather than it being an issue where people have a gut feeling about whether they believe in climate change or not, it’s actually getting them to be re-engaged and excited about the science.
And if politicians listen and get excited about what we’re doing, that’d be brilliant.
MARK COLVIN: And as you know, the scepticism has extended right into the science. What do you think about that?
CHRIS TURNEY: It has in the public domain somewhat. Certainly in the scientific community, it’s remarkably solid…
MARK COLVIN: But a lot of scientists feel kind of somewhat besieged at the moment because of this public scepticism.
CHRIS TURNEY: Yeah, some do certainly; those who engage a lot with the public and some individuals do struggle with that a little bit. Other people, though, I’ve met and I’ve given talks to – when you explain the science – completely understand the basic premise and at the end of the day for us, it’s so self-evident, what we see now.
MARK COLVIN: What is that?
CHRIS TURNEY: Well, the fundamental issue is if you didn’t have carbon in the atmosphere, the planet would be about minus 50 degrees centigrade, give or take – that’s what you’d have. So a little bit of carbon warms the planet, and that’s good, it’s where we’re at today – an average planet temperature of about 14, 15, degrees.
If you put more carbon in the atmosphere, you’d expect the planet to warm, and basically that’s what you see…
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3846720.htm
it is my opinion any scientific research carried out on this trip is TAINTED precisely because of the presence, barely acknowledged in MSM coverage, of the MSM – BBC & Guardian on AS, & Fairfax on Aurora Australia, plus the presence of the Greens Senator-elect for Victoria in Australia. nothing they might try to publish will have any credibility, so they should write the trip off as a learning experience in how not to do science.
@anvilman:
No need to invent silly jokes.
OLD DATA says:
January 4, 2014 at 7:01 am
03 Leaders
24 Scientists
18 Graduate Students
05 Media
AkA 50 related to the ‘science’ experiment.
+++++++
How many Scientists etc. does it take to repair a skylight?
NOTE: See below correction to the most popular appellation for Turney and his entourage aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy.
Ship of
FoolsTools***It seems a more accurate name for Turney et al. N’est ce pas?
*** tools := academics uncritically supporting an IPCC-centric structure / process which has been reasonably demarcated as outside of science. Demarcated outside of science means it is in one of these realms: pseudo-science; religion; supernaturalism; superstition; mythology; mysticism; ideology ; etc.
John
Update, Bill.
Polar Star just spent three years being updated for the cost on the US 62 million for a service extension of 10 years. Last summer (in N. hemisphere) was spent in a shakedown cruise in/near the arctic assuring everything was operable. The effort was made to extend her usefulness out to 2023 or so.
.
5:15 am Guardian Interview — Laurence Topham
God, what a pathetic little twit! Had he even the slightest understanding of what Mawson went through he never would have shown his face to an audience.
I am guessing he is suffering from a permanent hangover brought about by the 24/7 free bar the ship provided — which he left only to piss and make his self-humiliating little self-interview.
Or was it all an insider joke? Did he have his friends at the Guarudian laughing at how he could spin the harmless (I have a narrow bed) into disaster — which is what Climate Change reporting is all about. Look at me! Give me a raise! I can turn “inconvenience” into “life threatening”. See the evil of climate change — I cant have a milkshake!
This is a man who if his editors at the Guardian told him to do an article about space aliens — would claim to have found them and do a self-interview to prove it.
Climate change is to the Guardian what space aliens are to the National Enquirer.
Eugene WR Gallun
Spirit of Mawson? What an insult to his memory this bunch of middle-class bed-wetters are.
If they had encountered a REAL problem down there , they would not have lasted one hour outside.
Prof Turkey was likely intending to use this to promote his little side-line venture CarbonScape
http://carbonscape.com/#2
It’s going to take a mountain of charcoal granules to “offset” this little fiasco.
HOW MUCH ?!
Can I pay by Carboncredit Card please?
John Whitman says:
January 4, 2014 at 12:44 pm
_____________________
Thanks, John.
_Jim says:
January 4, 2014 at 11:32 am
“Grasshopper, you have much to learn on your journey, and this is not getting off to a good start.”
Ok, I missed the comment where you linked to the account of the founding of the Fed that you prefer. It offers nothing new; it just omits a description of the Jekyll island meetings. As to the efficacy of public control over the Fed; well, if you like your bubbles, you can keep your bubbles.
The BBC World Service Radio has ” passengers on a sight-sees cruise ” now in the latest AA reporting.
– – – – – – – –
Alan Robertson,
¡Por nada! {you’re welcome} : )
John
_Jim says: @ January 4, 2014 at 11:32 am
Much OT, but Dirk started it …
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Now that is a blatant LIE if I ever heard one! – SEE: _Jim says: @ January 4, 2014 at 8:05 am
_Jim, at least you think FDR was useless, I will agree with you there.
03 Leaders
24 Scientists
18 Graduate Students
05 Media
Isn’t there supposed to be a dippy politician in there somewhere … to show the flavor of this ‘science’ mission?
By my estimates the AA is still about 2-3 days away from Casey station in Antarctica given good sailing conditions. A couple more days could then be required to complete off-loading of Casey’s supplies and load any gear and pax for the voyage back to Australia.
Given the statement by the expedition’s medical person, Andrew Peacock, that frustration has set in to the rescued passengers, plus the report that medications were having to be flown to Casey for some passengers, I wonder if an emergency medical evacuation flight will be the next rescue request for several persons suffering anxiety, paranoia, depression and other conditions (perhaps delusions about need to undertake urgent service crucial to the national interest) amongst the “high-value assets” that comprise the expedition’s complement.
Demanding a flight from Casey to Hobart would be mighty tempting to beat 10-14 more days at sea for these CAGW-seeking legends in their own lunch-rooms.
KJ;
With any luck, the AA will offload at Casey and just before reaching port will be called back into SAR duties in the ice.
The stage is set for Act III, cue Action!
“””””……DocMartyn says:
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
“Aphan
We also know that they couldn’t even afford to purchase another $8,000 Argo for the trip because the website/fund didn’t earn enough. So where did the other MILLION come from?”
1st Argo, submerged under tow and could not be used
2nd Argo cut out every 5 mins due to fuel failure and required 15 mins to restart.
Brain dead Republican Todd Palin has won the 2,031 miles Tesoro Iron Dog off-road snowmobile race across Alaska, four times……..”””””
Outstanding Doc; I always thought I was pretty good at “stream of consciousness” gobbledegook writing. Figuring out how to string completely unrelated prose elements together; leaving no evidence of a logical, or even illogical relational connection, is a challenging art form. You are a master at it, for sure.
I’ve been to Alaska; seems like I have driven over every road in the State; well all the ones connected together, sans air or water passages. There are NO roads across Alaska. So ANY race across Alaska, would, by definition, be “off-road”.
Having driven only “on-road” in Alaska, and only in the “off-snow” summer season; I would welcome being as brain dead, as ANY person, who was even allowed to enter that race.
But you really scored in disconnectivity, with that “Republican” appendation. No, I simply can’t figure the linkage for that. I wonder if it would assist me , if perhaps I were a Republican ?
On a side note, it seems to me, that Dec 21 (22) 2013, was the Winter solstice Druid priest’s vegan sunrise ceremony at Stonehenge; which coincides with the Summer solstice sun worshipper basking on Bondi Beach; denoting the point of Southern most latitude of the Sun.
Since then, the sun should have been heading North, thus shortening Antarctic days. Why would the ice start melting now, rather than re-freezing ??
George, he’s parodying the classic Lib description of Republicans, especially ones called Palin. It was obvious to me because of the contrast between the achievement and “brain deadness”, and because I know DM wouldn’t make that kind of ignorant comment straight-faced.
Humour, George. You can grok it if you try.