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strativarius
October 19, 2025 1:23 am
Melancholia is the new vibe. Mad Ed is holding another wind auction – this time for 20 years. Parliament laughed at the energy CEOs who told them why our energy is so very expensive. Not much to cheer about, there. Just to rub it in
World’s landscapes may soon be ‘devoid of wild animals’, says nature photographer
Belem massacre update:
Brazil to ask countries at Cop30 to vastly increase biofuel use, leak suggests – The Guardian
‘The ASP (price cap) for fixed-bottom offshore wind now set at £113/MWh, floating offshore wind at £271/MWh, and onshore wind at £92/MWh. These increased price ceilings were set to attract more investment (investment lol). These are the maximum guaranteed prices, with the final clearing price determined by the auction bids. The contracts for this round have been extended to a fixed term of 20 years. Developers compete for contracts by bidding below (yer sure whatever you say) the ASP.’
Still waiting for Ed’s £300 price drop, well £600 actually, as it’s gone up another £300 since the promise.
My guess is whatever higher price we are paying, Mad Ed and his kind will say, “Yes, you’re bills are high, but without what we did they’d have been £300 (or £600) higher”.
As framed, their claim is unfalsifiable; not by accident.
The UK has become a very strange and rather frightening place in recent decades. Its operating a sort of social credit scheme, not so far on a central government basis, though that will come if digital IDs are introduced, but as the result of mass conformity and local repression.
A striking straw in the wind was Ed Miliband’s recent refusal to discuss the merits of his Net Zero policies – they are what they are, and I am not going to discuss them. But this is a very mild example of the national phenomenon of shutting down any inconvenient questions, opinions, comments.
A classic recent example is that a man was arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration/counter demonstration. He was allegedly arrested for repeatedly breaching ‘keep apart’ orders. But when being questioned (at 2 in the morning) a substantial part of the interrogation centered on why he was wearing a Star of David piece of jewelry, and the offense he may or may not have realised or intended that it would cause to peace loving pro-Palestinians should they notice it.
That’s enforcement by the police. But take the case of Simon Isherwood. Mr Isherwood attended from home a company run online seminar at which the concept of ‘white privilege’ was discussed. Not realizing he had left the mike on, he wondered aloud to his wife whether there was a similar concept of ‘black privilege’ in Ghana. He was fired for this by his employer, despite apologizing profusely for asking such a question.
The Free Speech Union won an appeal of this case for him. But Monty Python, where are you now that we really need you? This is po faced Chinese social credit, with British characteristics.
Such cases are occurring in the UK at the rate of thousands a year. Almost any subject can give rise to one. There are also cases which are less clear cut, where the police call but do not arrest, or where there is a disciplinary hearing without actual termination of employment. I have not heard of people being visited by the police because their climate denialism upset someone, but its only a matter of time. Cases because of gender critical views are two a penny. Take the case of the Scottish nurse who objected to sharing changing facilities with a biological man. Disciplinary hearing!
Meanwhile every weekend in UK cities you can see demonstrations on the Gaza situation, with banners calling for the abolition of the state of Israel and remarks which border on real incitement to violence against jews. For example, the remarks by an Oxford student recently, who during one such demo led a chant calling to ‘put the Zios in the ground’. He has been arrested. But we confidently await the CPS finding that there is no case to answer. There never is for such cases.
You also find an extraordinary distributed self righteousness on speech other matters which prompt the emergence of a mob who try to cancel or demonstrate against the accused person. Any concept of the rule of law, well defined crimes or offenses, or of a proper hearing, has vanished.
Well, winter is coming. All the British can do is wait for the blackouts and consider very carefully what they are saying and in the hearing of who, if they comment on them. Your bank may close your account or your utility company cut you off because you have behaved inconsistently with our values.
In the spring there will be local elections, and then you can vote Reform. Hope it does you all some good! But not getting my hopes up, and don’t tell anyone you are doing it.
Join the dots. They couldn’t believe at the time that they got away with a Chinese lockdown approach to covid1984, and they did. Then came admittance to a pub etc only with a valid vaccine passport. Then they debated whether a Scotch egg was indeed a “substantial meal”.
Technology is always moving forward. Blair tried to bring in biometric ID claiming it was the answer to 9/11 and terrorism – it wasn’t and it was rejected. Now through Starmer, the Tony Blair foundation is pushing for digital ID as the answer to illegal immigration and the small boats – again, it isn’t. It isn’t in the manifesto. So why now?
Trump and Vance are right: we already have the thought police and their ingenious method of making the process the punishment; even if not charged or even cautioned. A day or night in the cells can do wonders with some of the weaker ones.
Oh yes, it’s quite true. Every remaining sixties radical was out in force pushing their walkers, led by their geriatric Congress-critters. The lamestream media informed us that some 70 billion attended.
If you look at the latest UK Electoral Calculus forecast, it shows something very dysfunctional about UK democracy. Can it even be called a functioning democracy?
You can see the share of vote and seats from the last election, then the forecast change in both.
There are 650 seats in the UK Parliament.
So we see Reform, going from 14.7% in 2024 to forecast of 30.4%. But forecast seats go from 5 in 2024 to 301. 5 was absurd, but almost 50% of seats on 30% of votes is only a little less absurd.
SNP goes from 2.6% and 9 seats in 2024 to forecast of 3% and 41 seats. That is absurd.
Green on the other hand goes from 6.9% to 9.6% in 2024, but seats only rise from 4 to 6. Equally or more absurd.
This is nonsense. Democracy should mean that a party gets representation in the legislature and thus power to legislate and govern in at least rough proportion to its support in the country. Whatever is happening in UK elections, its not this.
This is the actual 2024 results compared to the forecasts if an election were held today, so its a guide to what may happen in 2029.
But you can also see it in the results of the 2024 election. If you look at the last 2024 election, Reform had 14.7% of the votes which gave them 5 seats. The Liberals had 12.6% of votes, but it gave them 72 seats. This too makes nonsense out of the electoral process.
Meanwhile Labour got 34.7%, but it has given them 412 seats in a 650 seat Parliament or a total landslide, well beyond any accountability to the mass of the electorate which voted against them.
The glass is also half full. Reform looks great. The Conservatives have abandoned the Climate Act. The CEO’s laid blame and cost will keep going up, building anger. This is momentum and the next election might be momentous. The times they are a changing.
Mad Ed is holding another wind auction – this time for 20 years.
The last time I checked the “net zero route” called for 70 GW of wind “capacity” by 2035 and 90 (to 100) GW in 2050.
The current wind “capacity” for the GB (England + Scotland + Wales) electricity grid is around 31.5 GW, almost evenly split between onshore and offshore, so that is supposed to double in the 2030-2035 time-frame and triple by 2050 …
OK, we can estimate how much actual electrical energy should notionally be produced by those “wind capacities” in the face of actual “natural variability / weather” conditions by doubling (2030-5) or tripling (2050).
A plot of actual “renewable”, i.e. “Wind + Solar”, generation over the last 3 weeks or so is attached below.
Notes
– On the 29th and 29th of September a high-pressure area moved (relatively) quickly over Scotland, resulting in a temporary “dip” in wind output.
– From the 3rd to the 5th of October “Named Storm Amy”, a transiting low-pressure area, had high winds surrounding it which produced “a lot” of electricity from wind turbines … but still only about two-thirds of the “nominal / nameplate capacity” of 31.5 GW …
– From (roughly) the 12th to the 17th of October a high-pressure area got “blocked in place” over Scotland, resulting in a “wind drought” lasting around a week (7 days + 8 hours at less than 5 GW output), including a 10 hour period when the output of the entire fleet of wind turbines on (and around) the island of Great Britain was producing less than one GW. When the high-pressure area “unblocked” on the 17th, it moved over the North Sea (towards northern Germany, it’s now located over southern Poland), extending the offshore “dip” in output by roughly a day.
– There is now a low-pressure area a few hundred kilometres west of Scotland that is “rapidly” moving in, resulting in a “significant” increase in wind speeds ahead of it … i.e. over the island of Great Britain … as I type this comment.
.
It doesn’t matter if “in 20 years” NESO manages to triple the amount of installed wind “capacity”.
“Three times less than 1 GW” will still be “Less than 3 GW”.
“Net Zero” calls for the electrification by 2050 of not just transport — cars and lorries / trucks — but also all food and space heating.
The planet possesses ample spare longwave emitter capacity. This means that any claim of a hundreds-of-milliwatts-per-square-meter value of EEI (Earth Energy Imbalance) on a global average basis is just absurd.
A few years ago I downloaded the CERES SYN1Deg hourly values of outgoing longwave radiation. I made time series plots for one year (2020) of the mean values (i.e. the mean at each hour for all longitude gridpoints) at various latitude rings from the tropics to the poles.
This points out the importance of poleward advection. One cannot honestly conclude that the fictional value of “EEI” is what drives “warming” through the LW radiative effect of incremental concentrations of IR-active gases. Don’t get me wrong – the existence of an imbalance is trivially true if the oceans are, in fact, warming. Same with diminishing ice volume. But attribution to a suppression of overall longwave emitter output expressed as EEI is not a sound concept.
Here are the plots. There is plenty of spare LW emitter capacity as you go from the tropics to the poles. The maximum seems to be at the 23.5 N/S latitude rings. And there is plenty of off-season spare capacity in the mid-latitudes too.
When winter comes, there is very great energy deficit. In Winnipeg the average temperature for January is -20° to -10° C. Where is CO2 when we need it. The fossil fuel keep us from freezing to death in winter.
There is displayed all the weather and climate data from the beginning of the record up to 2024 from NOAA’s data base. Scroll down to the end and click on “Average Temperature by Year”. There is displayed a table of Tmax and Tmin data. You have the option of displaying the data by month. You also have the options of display the data from the highest to lowest values and vice versus.
At the top of page, there is the “Select City” box. Enter the name of a city starting with a capital letter. If the city is the NOAA data base, the name will appear below the box. Click on it to get the data. I also got data for Death Valley.
I found that I had to use the entry: death-valley.
I live in Burnaby, BC and we have oenormous amounts of coal and nat. gas. About 95% of our electricity is supplied by hydro dams. We get oil from Alberta.
BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan are “have provinces” and are always being ripped off by Ottawa for money for “equalization payments” to support the maritime provinces of Atlantic Canada.
No, he’s not that nasty….He’s giving every Canadian a tax deduction so that we can buy some Helly-Hansens (we’ll probably find he’s heavily invested in H-H)….so that we can all live in our houses in winter without turning on the heat. Emissions problem solved…and with modern use of Indigenous knowledge….
/s
A sizable portion of incoming sunlight energy is in the visible wavelength range. (Not surprising, that’s why our eyes were developed, after all.) Much of that energy heats the surface, and can only be radiated as LWR. It seems to me that hunting for a balance between incoming/outgoing LWR only is something of a fools errand.
However, all constituents of the atmosphere emit broad spectrum thermal radiation by reason of their absolute temperatures being above zero degrees. That radiation is most significant from IR down to radio frequencies in the EM spectrum.
Also, the Sun actually emits only a tiny fraction of its total power in the LWIR portion of the EM spectrum . . . hence the term “incoming LWR” is problematic.
Finally, there is no “hunting for a balance” between incoming(?) and outgoing LWR . . . there are only relatively short intervals where Earth is really in any sort of balance of power-in versus power-out, taking into account Milankovitch cycles and and the associated ~100,000 year long cycles of glacial/interglacial periods on Earth as seen over the last million or so years.
re: “Gases are not black bodies and do not emit based on their temperature.”
HENCE the classic mistake of mis-judging the temperature of the corona of the sun … There were some not a week back I think who took contention with this when I called this a classic mistake to interpret gas emission spectra as indicating temperature.
“HENCE the classic mistake of mis-judging the temperature of the corona of the sun . . .”
That’s a “classic mistake” only by the scientifically illiterate.
The ionized gases that comprise the corona of the Sun do indeed emit thermal radiation due to their temperature(s) being above absolute temperature. However, the extent that radiation my differ from the S-B law/Wein’s displacement law is invariably due to the difficulty of correctly integrating the combined temperatures, factors governing effective emissivity (such as plasma density, composition and 3D “features”), and plasma ionization levels as they all vary over the volume of the corona:
— temperature variation ranging from about 1 to 3 million Kelvin
— in polar coronal holes, densities are lower, and the ionization and temperature gradients are different compared to the equatorial corona
— the ionization state of the coronal plasma is highly dependent on temperature, with different ionic species dominating at specific temperature ranges. For example, coronal temperatures exceeding 1 million K can strip iron of up to 13 of its electrons — observations of coronal loops show spatial variations in the intensity of different spectral lines, indicating local temperature variations and non-uniform ionization along the structures. This variation can also be seen with height above the photosphere.
— EUV and X-ray emissions from the inner corona (below about 1.5 solar radii) are sensitive to the square of the electron density (ne^2) because collisional excitation is the dominant emission mechanism. In the middle corona, observations at larger heights often transition to using Thomson scattering from free electrons, which is proportional to the electron density (ne^).
Estimating the temperatures of non-ionized, more or less uniform gases based on a measured radiation curve (using Wien’s displacement law as adjusted for greybody matter emissivities) is much, much easier than trying to do so for a complex plasma such as the Sun’s corona.
Arguing for what – ‘points’ on the margin? You’ve made my point, though you don’t know it. Now you must account for the spectral lines seen – otherwise it is the grand ‘hand wave’ you’re doing. The spectral lines indicating a HIGHER temperature than the surface of the sun itself. You do not know this?
Sources (NASA, below) claim the sun’s coronal temperature exceeds the surface – what is your explanation? See, here is the CLASSIC MISTAKE –
NASA says: Temperatures in the corona — the tenuous, outermost layer of the solar atmosphere — spike upwards of 2 million degrees F, while just 1,000 miles below, the underlying surface simmers at a balmy 10,000 F.
Here’s the mistake: Emission lines from species in the Sun’s corona suggest that the corona is millions of degrees. Yet the surface of the sun is only 5,500 degrees Celcius.
Numerous explosive events occur on the Sun’s surface but these events are not well understood. In 2013 solar “sparkles” were observed that emit light in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and are extremely energetic. Light emission in the EUV range and have been observed in solar spectra; WHAT creates such EUV spectral lines? NOT the ‘millyuns’ of degrees in temperature NASA claims …
“Here’s the mistake: Emission lines from species in the Sun’s corona suggest that the corona is millions of degrees. Yet the surface of the sun is only 5,500 degrees Celcius.”
And here’s your fundamental mistake: photons emitted in spectral bands as a result of electron energy level transitions in a given atom’s electron cloud—more specifically radiation from electron transitions in ionized gases (such as in the Sun’s corona) as they jump quantum levels—are not at all the same as emissions associated with thermal radiation.
But I’ll simplify this for you with an everyday example:
the emission temperature (the “color temperature”) of household fluorescent lights can range from 2,700K (a color referred to as “warm”) to 6,500K (a color referred to as “cool”). Yet nobody really believes the sensible temperatures of the gases inside those fluorescent tubes (typically a mix of noble gases and mercury vapor) are actually at such “inferred” temperatures. Scientific measurements document that the gas temperature is around 300-700K while the electron emission “temperature” is about 11,000 K. This high electron “temperature” (actually the energy of photons emitted during electron energy level transitions) is why fluorescent lights are efficient and do not get as hot as an incandescent filament bulb which emits thermal radiation.
“Gases are not black bodies and do not emit based on their temperature.”
You are obviously unaware of the fact the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiated power from all matter (solid, liquid or gas) having an absolute temperature above zero (P= 𝜀𝜎AT^4) includes the term emissivity (𝜀) to account for real matter as opposed to a blackbody construct that only exists in theory. Alternatively, look up and understand the definition of a “greybody”.
You should be aware that the emissivity of Earth ranges from about 0.65-0.99 depending on geographical location, with it having an effective overall average emissivity of about 0.61 when modeled as a single grey body that includes the gaseous atmosphere’s effects.
So, do you seriously claim the Earth (and its atmosphere) don’t emit radiation because neither is a blackbody?
As for the AI bot Grok: Ask it to explain Collision Induced Absorption (CIA) and Collision Induced Emission (CIE) as have been scientifically measured in all dense gases. Alternatively, just consult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision-induced_absorption_and_emission for a good explanation of how gas molecules without any permanent dipole moment can emit THERMAL radiation across a very broad range of frequencies due to molecule-molecule collisions.
And yes, let’s let the AIs fight it out as to which one has the worst simplification of a complex subject such as this one and which suffer the worst “hallucinations” regarding truth.
For example, here’s a part of what Google’s AI says related to thermal emissions from very cold, non-ionized gases in interstellar space (my bold emphasis added):
“Yes, interstellar nebulae that are not ionized plasma do emit thermal radiation. In these cool, non-ionized nebulae—often called molecular clouds—the thermal emission comes primarily from two components: the gas itself and the dust grains mixed within it.”
Only ‘painting’, examining, discussing part of the picture; a kind of lying by omission, AKA, painting the periphery, and not the core of the subject..
The “hot corona problem” refers to the mystery of why the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, is significantly hotter than its surface, with temperatures reaching around 1 million degrees Celsius compared to about 6,000 degrees Celsius at the surface. This counterintuitive phenomenon suggests that additional energy sources, such as magnetic waves or turbulence, may be heating the corona beyond what would be expected from distance alone.
B) NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Shatters Theory on Sun’s Extremely Hot Corona (2024)
Snippet: While these switchbacks appear in the solar wind, they are absent in the corona. This discovery challenges the idea that magnetic field collisions on the sun’s surface create switchbacks, suggesting other mechanisms at play. Further data from the probe is needed to test new hypotheses.
C) A Sun in a Jar
In 2014-2015, Montgomery Childs led a team who set out to build a sun in a jar. They wanted to recreate the conditions of the corona. The experiment was called Stellar Atmospheric Function in Regulation Experiment (SAFIRE). In it, power was applied to a spherical metal anode in an enclosure filled with a low pressure of hydrogen gas, and additional hydrogen was allowed to diffuse out of the anode.
As the power was increased, the gas around the anode began to glow, creating a hot ionized, light-emitting gas called a “plasma.” First, small violet glowing tufts of plasma spaced themselves out around the sphere. Then, at higher power, a series of nested spherical shells emerged. These “double layers” were made up of segregated, alternating layers of positive and negative charge, glowing beautifully in blue or violet. Plasma tufts and double layers on a spherical anode in the SAFIRE experiments.
The team discovered that the temperature of the plasma regularly exceeded expectations by a significant margin. One experiment vaporized a tungsten probe when an input power of only 182W. They speculated that somehow, energy was being stored in the plasma and released in violent bursts. The plasma was much hotter than the anode itself. The plasma was also inexplicably producing UV light.
The team felt they had discovered something new, some kind of “electrochemical catalytic process,” but did not reach any conclusions. Nevertheless, they had been true to their goal of recreating some features and mysteries we associate with the solar corona.
Those are some nice bedtime stories, even if prerequisites to understanding whatever you may next front as “painting the core of the story”.
But, since nowhere did such mention the topic of spectral lines, I am forced to remind you of your own words: “Now you must account for the spectral lines seen – otherwise it is the grand ‘hand wave’ you’re doing.”
BTW, as regards the 2104-2015 Montgomery Childs “experiment”—it actually reads more like a high school science fair project . . . and a poorly conducted one at that—I’ll just point out that if the team set out “to recreate the conditions of the corona” they failed miserably:
— the Sun’s corona is NOT supported by energy provided by the flow of electricity from a charged spherical metal anode
— the Sun’s corona typically has 4-5% of helium in its chemical composition . . . an important fact, not simulated in the “experiment”, because the ionization characteristics, spectral bands of emission and absorption, and physical factors like density (= f(T)) and specific heat (= f(T)) are so different between hydrogen and helium
— as previously mentioned, polar coronal holes have densities that are lower, and the ionization and temperature gradients are different compared to the equatorial corona . . . don’t see that this was simulated or spontaneously appeared in the Childs “experiment’
— the Sun’s corona gradually transitions into the solar wind, which travels away from the corona at speeds up to 800 km/sec, faster than escape velocity from the Sun’s gravity . . . and not something possible to simulate in a sealed bell jar or other “enclosure”.
— the “experiment” did not replicate the boundary conditions and effects of (a) the Sun’s gravity, (b) the corona rotating faster and more rigid-like compared to the underlying photosphere with its well-known differential rotation with latitude, (c) the Sun’s complex and time-varying magnetic fields and (d) photosphere-to-corona interactions, such as those from sunspots, prominences, flares and CMEs at ANY scale.
Thus, in terms of the importance of this “experiment” and any “data” observed or obtained from it: garbage in, garbage out. IOW, “they speculated” and “felt”, just as you summarized.
Hey, _Jim, just checking in . . . it’s now been over two days since I asked that you to please “paint the core of this subject” so that all of us might understand the broader “issue” that you assert is out there.
How’s it going?
Maybe not so well, since I did read—and even commented on—your subsequent “Prerequisite (required) reading” post but never received a reply about that.
Indeed and what goes with it are vibrational and rotational modes. Then look at the difference between H20 and CO2 molecules. Everything becomes fairly obvious especially when you consider the amount of each and their wavelength/ frequency in terms of radiation spectrum. And then you have to consider what that radiation actually does which not as straightforward as people think. And so on..and on.
About 50% on incoming sunlight is IR light. There are three IR bands: Near (0.75-1.4 microns), Mid(1.4-3 microns and
Far (3-10 microns). The warmth of sunlight is due to Near IR light.
I guess you missed the fact that my statement: “Also, the Sun actually emits only a tiny fraction of its total power in the LWIR portion of the EM spectrum . . . hence the term ‘incoming LWR’ is problematic” specifically referred to LWIR, long wavelength infrared radiation.
The abbreviation LWIR does not include short wavelength infrared, where the Sun emits almost all its infrared radiation (IR).
FWIW, here’s is Google’s AI summary of the situation:
“Only a negligible percentage of total solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) is in the Longwave Infrared (LWIR) spectrum. The Sun’s energy peaks at much shorter, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, while the LWIR spectrum is primarily associated with the thermal radiation emitted by cooler objects, like Earth.”
Actually, the graph of Solar Radiation Intensity vs. Wavelength that I saw peaked, of course, in the visible range, but my eyeball integration of the area under the long IR tail guessed at least as much “power” as under the restricted VW bandwidth.
That’s very interesting measured data David.
Outgoing LW as measured by satellite staying about 200-250 watts regardless of latitude, while incoming solar SW at TOA varies from 1360 W/sq.M at high noon at the equator to zero at night (obviously) and 0 watt/sq.M at the poles (also at solstice).
It is truly amazing that a little convection, mal-distribution of evaporation over bodies of land and ocean, 23.5 degrees of axial tilt, and coriolis forced weather front movement results in our highly moderated climate variations. Makes it pretty clear that the rather trivial 3 or 4 watts of CO2 forcing is only going to result in the average weather in any given location changing to approximately the weather of somewhere of similar altitude and topography that is 150 km closer to the equator….
Thanks for your reply. Yes, this is another way to show directly that the idea of a “delicate balance” is just nuts. There are huge flows of mass and energy involved in both the atmosphere and ocean circulations in which the so-called “forcings” from GHGs have only a vanishingly weak theoretical influence. And I haven’t even mentioned energy conversion today!
Some might rightfully dispute that, pointing out the popularity of IN-N-OUT burgers and, in particular, their “Double-Double”® and “Animal Style”® variations.
But not as many as the MSM reported.
And even it was that many (and they weren’t paid by Soros et. al.), a small minority of the actual voters. They’re just louder. (And their shouts fall on deaf ears.)
PS Where were they during Obama’s terms?
PPS I thought they were also against “oligarchies”. Why does Soros get a pass?
Yeah, I also saw that he has an A-level in Further Maths. Now I know that’s only a Grammar School level thing but that is (or was) a hellaciously difficult exam. I know because I got one (although it was the Physics A-level exam that gave me the recurring nightmares – seriously).
Inveterate and compulsive liar it is then.
(Rather obvious, given that he’s a Labour politician).
His job is to get costs down by 2030? So when they’re up and rising in the Spring of 2029, he will not have yet failed, the ‘investments’, having been made will surely soon crack on and one simply must be patient! He is painful to watch. Poor miserable once-great Britain.
His reputed excuse for higher costs seems to be that ‘we have really difficult fiscal circumstances that we’ve inherited’. Of course, neither Labor (specifically) nor government (generally) nor the voters that put them in place, bear any responsibility for these circumstances.
“This time last year the Arctic was crazy ‘warm’.”
Let’s put some scientific perspective to that claim, as regards Arctic temperatures:
Summer 2025 – Arctic summer temperatures were warmer than average but not a record-setter, ranking as the seventh-warmest summer
Summer 2024 – The overall summer was the third-warmest on record.
Summer 2023 – The warmest Arctic summer on record.
Summer 2022 – Arctic temperatures were “warmer than average in many places”, especially in northern regions.
Summer 2021 – While regional variations were apparent, heatwaves still struck the region.
Summer 2020 – The Arctic was particularly hot in 2020, with a major heatwave in Siberia.
A temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) was recognized by the World Meteorological Organization as the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.
Winter 2024-2025 – Largely warmer than the 1991–2020 average, similar to previous years in the 2020–2024 period. However, it was not as uniformly and intensely warm across all regions as some of the preceding winters.
Winter 2023-2024 – This period was part of the overall 2nd warmest year on record for the Arctic
Winter 2022-2023 – Showed a striking regional split in maximum temperatures, with some areas experiencing well-above-average warmth while others were notably colder.
Winter 2021-2022 – Showed a striking regional split in maximum temperatures, with some areas experiencing well-above-average warmth while others were notably colder.
Winter 2020-2021 – One of the warmest years on record, with a particularly warm Siberian winter and above-average temperatures across much of the Arctic.
Winter 2019-2020 – While many areas were warmer, the first few months of 2020 were colder than average across parts of Greenland, Alaska, and Svalbard due to a persistent jet stream.
The above summaries obtained from Web sources and Google’s AI.
Yes it’s a result of modern media gig journalists getting paid for articles verbiage and graphics that CoveringClimateNow.org
gives them for free so they can make a quick buck and meet their submission deadline.
Ooops . . . accidental cut-and-paste typo regarding the Arctic winter of 2022-2023: my entire entry should replaced by the following: “Winter 2022-2023 – Ranked as the Arctic’s sixth-warmest year on record”
The Arctic was warmer in the winters of 2002-2003, 2005-2006 and 2007-2008.
I’m waiting for the envio mob to come up with a CYA line for their beleaguered issue that goes something like, “the past 30 years of warming are a pause in the long-term trend toward global cooling, which is caused by unrestricted burning of fossil fuels.”
Greenland has been gaining altitude for some decades now. That marked the beginning of the current cycle of glaciation in the northern hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica) has not recovered at all from its glaciation for at leat 5 million years.
It pays to know a bit of history.
Scissor
October 19, 2025 4:52 am
We have a “roadmap” for scaled fusion power in the 2030’s. The jokes write themselves.
There is a roadmap? Well that is very foolish because before any progress is made a solution to magnetohydrodynamics difficulties has to be found. As there probably isn’t one the concept of magnetic confinement is a non-starter. Oh dear, never mind!
It’s like saying you have a railroad map “planned” from LA to Tokyo…very hypothetical involving tunnel designs somewhat beyond present constructability.
Headline: “Government vows to create 400,000 jobs in energy sector“
”The government has announced plans to train and recruit more workers for the UK’s clean energy sector, promising to create 400,000 extra jobs by 2030.
Plumbers, electricians and welders are among 31 priority occupations that are “particularly in demand”, with employment in renewable, wind, solar and nuclear expected to double to 860,000 in five years, ministers have said.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said thousands of jobs were needed to develop Britain’s clean energy sector to “get bills down for good”.
Welcoming the proposals, Unite the union said: “Well-paid, secure work must be at the heart of any green transition.”
As part of the government’s strategy, five “technical excellence colleges” will be set up to train workers with clean energy skills, with £2.5m in funding going towards pilot schemes in Cheshire, Lincolnshire, and Pembrokeshire, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
A new programme is to be launched to match veterans with careers in solar panel installation, wind turbine factories and nuclear power stations, while oil and gas workers could benefit from up to £20m from the UK and Scottish governments for bespoke careers training in clean energy roles.”
How patronising to match “veterans” with careers in solar panel installation.
is welding a clean energy occupation? After all acetylene plus oxygen equals water plus carbon dioxide.
You cannot introduce “clean energy” without using energy, which means it has to be “dirty energy”. Interestingly nuclear is included as clean energy, I wonder what the response from the greens to that is going to be!
Yep, good ol’ phony lefties, creating a non-existent problem and then heroically solving it with institutionalized digging of ditches and filling them in. They get paid for wasting potential prosperity and also get the virtue bonus at their Mums’ knitting group.
I’ve been waiting for an ‘open thread’ to ask this of U.S. visitors to Anthony’s:
My phone rings. The voice on the other end has a fairly distinctive accent that reminds me of a caller from India. There is a small amount of background noise, obviously voices of other call-center callers running the scam.
The caller asks me about my recent automobile accident. The one that occurred within the past year or two.
The last fender-bender that I had was well over six years ago (yes, I slid on the ice and my 4WD pickup did some damage to the car in front of me; my truck was undamaged).
So here’s the question: What is the scam that these callers are trying to run? I pointedly tell them that I’ve NOT had any accidents in the recent past, at which point they insist that I HAVE had an accident and have not been compensated for it …
Right about there I’m disconnecting (with these demon devices, one does not ‘hang up’ as there is no cradle to set the handset into, so we “disconnect” nowadays … ).
Yes, I’m well aware that I should NOT answer calls from numbers I do not recognize. What is interesting to me is they always have a phone number that is from my area code, even though they are in Asia. And, there are times that the callers from these ‘numbers I do not recognize’ have been survey solicitors, doing polling about topics of interest to me. A couple of times, the poll has offered some compensation for sharing my views.
So, on occasion, answering one of those numbers I’m unfamiliar with has been “profitable”.
The scammers seem to have graduated (and diversified from) simple scams like imitating/masquerading as simple software support for Microsoft (and others) to:
o Imitating law enforcement e.g. IRS tax collection agents threatening imprisonment
o Pretending to be a nephew who needs bail money (appeals to grandparents)
o Found money/inheritance scams, but we NEED a deposit from YOU 1st
o Fake parcel delivery/Customs payment needed
o Bank account is in danger! Need withdraw and redeposit using BTC (Bitcoin)
Another one is claiming to be a courier who needs a fee before legal papers can be served. An attorney hiring a courier to serve legal papers is a normal thing, but couriers are directly compensated by the attorney. The served has no obligation to compensate the courier.
It’s a scam that plays on ignorance of the legal system.
My plain old telephone system (POTS) tells me the city-origin of a call. Sometimes I get 5 to 10 each day. 90% indicate they are from small (<2000 people) towns in my State. I know the towns, and most are old farming places without much going on and not having anyone I know living therein. If a caller starts to leave a message I can and may pick up. Otherwise, I have never talked with someone with the “fairly distinctive accent” you mention.
A variation on a theme; Unsolicited text/SMS messages pushing some not-always-an-obvious-scam of some sort. I’ve had a few of those, and my wireless provider (derived from Verizon) provides a means to report those.
Also, phone calls out-of-the-blue the same way, which I don’t answer if I don’t recognize the number, also I don’t have voice mail set up, so caller does not necessarily get confirmation my number is real … I’ve even looked up a few of the caller’s numbers, sometimes linking back to numbers, or telephone exchanges, linked/reported to be a source of scam calls.
They will attempt to get you to give personal details, bank accounts etc — so that they can transfer the funds to you. This is what they are trying to get out of you.
The only safe thing to do is hang up immediately you hear the characteristic accent and background sounds.
If you have previously given them enough information to make a payment to you, close down anything that they have data on, immediately.
Or if when you answer, there is a couple of seconds of “dead air” delay on the caller’s end, which is when you know that the call is originating from a robo-call center, which hasn’t made the person “live” yet.
Found the efficient way to deal with call centre calls: it takes them >5 sec to answer; takes me 4 sec to hang up after hearing silence (never repeat the “hello”).
I noticed that too back when I had a landline and had to pick up to know who was calling (never had caller ID even when it was available); of course its a result of an automated dialer in the call center on their end placing call after call in sequence and WHEN a call is answered (by you) they (the next idle operator in the call center) are to pick up … and its usually delayed, as you found out.
I did the same thing – if I didn’t get an answer within a few seconds I would hang up.
re: “The caller asks me about my recent automobile accident.”
Come to think about, I had a text message about – a speeding ticket … my car (I don’t recall now if they even ID’d my car via correctly make/model license plate now) has NOT been driven since early in Pandemic year 2020, in March to be specific, so NO WAY was I involved in ANY speeding in any way, shape or form … I never responded – which a RESPONSE indicates TO THEM a valid text/SMS/ phone number …
And by the way, if they are allegedly polling, how do you know they are who they claim to be? How do you know they are polling and not scamming, ie researching you personally for info about you?
Same thing applies to them offering to pay you for participating – any account you have given any of these people to pay money into should be closed immediately.
Assume any phone call from anyone you do not know is a scam until proven otherwise. Never participate in phone-call polls. Never give any personal details of any sort to any of them. And that means any. If they ask about anything at all about you personally, hang up at once.
Appreciate your advice: do note that the compensation was cash, through the mail. They already had my residence address (just asked for verification), and about 5 – 7 business days later, the envelope arrived.
I agree caution is the wise choice; and, you are a very wise individual. I thank you for your admonition.
Polls: yes, you’re right, I do NOT know if it is a legitimate poll. The ones I’ve done sure seem to be on the up-and-up; and, as I stated, a few have even offered (and sent!) compensation. The topics of the polls are largely political (candidates; candidates positions on topics; for/against citizen initiatives, that sort of thing).
Again, many thanks to all who responded. I KNEW I would get good information here. WUWT is a fountain of wisdom, on most ANYTHING!!!
When the scammers call to ask if I have received my new Medicare card, I keep them on the line as long as I possibly can. Then, it eventually gets to where they are asking for my Medicare number, at which point I break into my best Air Traffic Controller voice and say:
“Negative, Ghostrider. The pattern is full.”*
The longest ‘repeat request’ was ten iterations. One time, after the first one, this one lady said, “I hate it when they f—— say that … ” and disconnected.
Try it — — you might learn some new words!
Mark
*If you do not get the reference, think the scene after Maverick and Goose have ‘bested’ Jester, below the hard deck, of course … … …
Has everyone seen the documentary, or read the (suppressed) Ford Health System study concerning the relationship between childhood vaccinations and diseases?
“Impact of Childhood Vaccination on Short and Long Term Chronic Health Outcomes in Children –
A Birth Cohort Study”
Aaron Siri (yes, his name is Aaron Siri; Siri has also written a book titled Vaccines Amen) in his written Senate testimony wrote a nice intro that walks the reader through the (suppressed) Ford Health System paper:
Here is the documentary by Del Bigtree based on the (suppressed) Ford Health System study concerning the relationship between childhood vaccinations and diseases:
“An Inconvenient Study”, similar in title to Algore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” (a 2006 film by Davis Guggenheim) no?
Christine Stabel Benn has done very interesting work found that attenuated whole organism vaccines (eg BCG) had non-specific beneficial effects on babies; the subunit vaccines had non-specific detrimental effects. The effects were related to the last vaccine a child had received, leading to the proposition that the order of administration might be important.
Topic: PC (Personal Computer) Audio System Observation: WAAAAY too much base (low frequency content) from most sources today Cure: Graphic Equalizer;
o Low Cut enabled
o 63, 125 and 250 Hz channels minimized (-12 db)
o 500 Hz, 1k, 2k, 4k boosted +12 dB
o 8k and 16k neutral at 0 dB
The audio chain in use for the last few years has been:
o PC USB sound card behringer UC-202 –>
o behringer MiniFBQ Equalizer –>
o Alesis NanoCompressor –>
o Signstek/CZE-T200 Portable FM Transmitter (wireless distribution on property)
o RCA SA-155 15W Audio Amp –>
o E-V (ElectroVoice) High Sensitivity, ‘Studio Monitor’ speakers model ZX1-90
The equalizer makes listening to podcasters and many videos livable! The equalizer also allows level adjustment for audio sources that are weak … or strong. Depends on the content producer/Youtube channel.
Has anyone else noted the excess bass present nowadays?
Excess bass – indeed yes. Its a Bose trademark. Its universal in car audio. The ludicrous thing is to read reviews of audio equipment in the mainstream press by people who obviously never listen to anything but amplified popular music. So they have no idea what proper reproduction of acoustic instruments sounds like or whether its happening.
They therefore report enthusiastically that on track n of a given album you can really hear some part. An amplified electronic guitar, for instance. But they have no idea whether what they are attributing to the equipment they are reviewing is really due to it or is part of the mix or the amplified instruments.
If you are buying speakers or headphones, insist on listening only to male and femaie voices speaking or reading aloud. If they both (and both are essential) sound natural and clear and without excessive bass or sibilance in the treble, you are probably OK. Then you can go on and listen to a small orchestra. If that too sounds natural and balanced as in a good concert hall, you’re almost certainly OK.
What most mainstream media reviews amount to is listening to Jimi Hendrix over them and saying yeah this sounds great.
“Exalted bass” is the term I recall – not a complementary term in my book. I remember a shift to this in the 2005 – 2008 time frame on AM broadcast radio wherein I had to run the tone control on my 1994 Caprice Delco car radio over to one side to compensate.
While there is no established audio engineering term called “exalted bass,” it likely refers to a historical effect of audio processing used by some AM radio stations to make the low-frequency sound seem louder and fuller despite the medium’s technical limitations.
“Exalted bass” is a colloquial or fan-generated term that may have come from audiophiles or listeners admiring the “bigger” sound achieved by certain stations. These stations used specialized processing equipment to maximize their sound within AM’s narrow bandwidth.
The rest of the returns on this subject is a good lesson in namespace pollution – most returns are to a band by the same name.
Review – from yesterday’s live-cast coverage of the “No Kings” Riots -er- Rallies across the US – coverage by MattMorseTV on Rumble: (5 hrs of content; let run in the background while doing other things. This is why I use a low-power FM broadcast transmitter at home and wear a Sony Walkman FM radio to listen.)
BBC warning of Warm Blob in the Pacific. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3xynwwx4yo
Looks like getting excuses in early, just in case things get colder than expected in early winter over the UK.
Would be interesting to discover what though, if this warm blob is unprecedented as the article implies.
Melancholia is the new vibe. Mad Ed is holding another wind auction – this time for 20 years. Parliament laughed at the energy CEOs who told them why our energy is so very expensive. Not much to cheer about, there. Just to rub it in
World’s landscapes may soon be ‘devoid of wild animals’, says nature photographer
Belem massacre update:
Brazil to ask countries at Cop30 to vastly increase biofuel use, leak suggests – The Guardian
Where did the wood go? I think we know.
‘The ASP (price cap) for fixed-bottom offshore wind now set at £113/MWh, floating offshore wind at £271/MWh, and onshore wind at £92/MWh. These increased price ceilings were set to attract more investment (investment lol). These are the maximum guaranteed prices, with the final clearing price determined by the auction bids. The contracts for this round have been extended to a fixed term of 20 years. Developers compete for contracts by bidding below (yer sure whatever you say) the ASP.’
Still waiting for Ed’s £300 price drop, well £600 actually, as it’s gone up another £300 since the promise.
“Still waiting for Ed’s £300 price drop”
My guess is Satan will be skating to work long before we see any reduction, let alone £300.
My guess is whatever higher price we are paying, Mad Ed and his kind will say, “Yes, you’re bills are high, but without what we did they’d have been £300 (or £600) higher”.
As framed, their claim is unfalsifiable; not by accident.
The Labour party is a whole new species of Mustela nivalis (weasel). They are deceitful, untrustworthy, and manipulative.
And their disdain for the ordinary public is openly stated.
The UK has become a very strange and rather frightening place in recent decades. Its operating a sort of social credit scheme, not so far on a central government basis, though that will come if digital IDs are introduced, but as the result of mass conformity and local repression.
A striking straw in the wind was Ed Miliband’s recent refusal to discuss the merits of his Net Zero policies – they are what they are, and I am not going to discuss them. But this is a very mild example of the national phenomenon of shutting down any inconvenient questions, opinions, comments.
A classic recent example is that a man was arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration/counter demonstration. He was allegedly arrested for repeatedly breaching ‘keep apart’ orders. But when being questioned (at 2 in the morning) a substantial part of the interrogation centered on why he was wearing a Star of David piece of jewelry, and the offense he may or may not have realised or intended that it would cause to peace loving pro-Palestinians should they notice it.
That’s enforcement by the police. But take the case of Simon Isherwood. Mr Isherwood attended from home a company run online seminar at which the concept of ‘white privilege’ was discussed. Not realizing he had left the mike on, he wondered aloud to his wife whether there was a similar concept of ‘black privilege’ in Ghana. He was fired for this by his employer, despite apologizing profusely for asking such a question.
The Free Speech Union won an appeal of this case for him. But Monty Python, where are you now that we really need you? This is po faced Chinese social credit, with British characteristics.
Such cases are occurring in the UK at the rate of thousands a year. Almost any subject can give rise to one. There are also cases which are less clear cut, where the police call but do not arrest, or where there is a disciplinary hearing without actual termination of employment. I have not heard of people being visited by the police because their climate denialism upset someone, but its only a matter of time. Cases because of gender critical views are two a penny. Take the case of the Scottish nurse who objected to sharing changing facilities with a biological man. Disciplinary hearing!
Meanwhile every weekend in UK cities you can see demonstrations on the Gaza situation, with banners calling for the abolition of the state of Israel and remarks which border on real incitement to violence against jews. For example, the remarks by an Oxford student recently, who during one such demo led a chant calling to ‘put the Zios in the ground’. He has been arrested. But we confidently await the CPS finding that there is no case to answer. There never is for such cases.
You also find an extraordinary distributed self righteousness on speech other matters which prompt the emergence of a mob who try to cancel or demonstrate against the accused person. Any concept of the rule of law, well defined crimes or offenses, or of a proper hearing, has vanished.
Well, winter is coming. All the British can do is wait for the blackouts and consider very carefully what they are saying and in the hearing of who, if they comment on them. Your bank may close your account or your utility company cut you off because you have behaved inconsistently with our values.
In the spring there will be local elections, and then you can vote Reform. Hope it does you all some good! But not getting my hopes up, and don’t tell anyone you are doing it.
Its operating a sort of social credit scheme.
Join the dots. They couldn’t believe at the time that they got away with a Chinese lockdown approach to covid1984, and they did. Then came admittance to a pub etc only with a valid vaccine passport. Then they debated whether a Scotch egg was indeed a “substantial meal”.
Technology is always moving forward. Blair tried to bring in biometric ID claiming it was the answer to 9/11 and terrorism – it wasn’t and it was rejected. Now through Starmer, the Tony Blair foundation is pushing for digital ID as the answer to illegal immigration and the small boats – again, it isn’t. It isn’t in the manifesto. So why now?
Trump and Vance are right: we already have the thought police and their ingenious method of making the process the punishment; even if not charged or even cautioned. A day or night in the cells can do wonders with some of the weaker ones.
On a more positive note…
I didn’t hear the BBC even mention the digital ID protests, in contrast, the no kings protests were covered extensively.
I didn’t hear the BBC even mention the digital ID protests, in contrast, the no kings protests were covered extensively.
Oh yes, it’s quite true. Every remaining sixties radical was out in force pushing their walkers, led by their geriatric Congress-critters. The lamestream media informed us that some 70 billion attended.
Here in the US, 7,000,000 people demonstrated (according to CNN). That means that more than 340,000,000 did not demonstrate.
If you look at the latest UK Electoral Calculus forecast, it shows something very dysfunctional about UK democracy. Can it even be called a functioning democracy?
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_home.html
You can see the share of vote and seats from the last election, then the forecast change in both.
There are 650 seats in the UK Parliament.
So we see Reform, going from 14.7% in 2024 to forecast of 30.4%. But forecast seats go from 5 in 2024 to 301. 5 was absurd, but almost 50% of seats on 30% of votes is only a little less absurd.
SNP goes from 2.6% and 9 seats in 2024 to forecast of 3% and 41 seats. That is absurd.
Green on the other hand goes from 6.9% to 9.6% in 2024, but seats only rise from 4 to 6. Equally or more absurd.
This is nonsense. Democracy should mean that a party gets representation in the legislature and thus power to legislate and govern in at least rough proportion to its support in the country. Whatever is happening in UK elections, its not this.
This is the actual 2024 results compared to the forecasts if an election were held today, so its a guide to what may happen in 2029.
But you can also see it in the results of the 2024 election. If you look at the last 2024 election, Reform had 14.7% of the votes which gave them 5 seats. The Liberals had 12.6% of votes, but it gave them 72 seats. This too makes nonsense out of the electoral process.
Meanwhile Labour got 34.7%, but it has given them 412 seats in a 650 seat Parliament or a total landslide, well beyond any accountability to the mass of the electorate which voted against them.
Oh, on second reading, this is Britain of which you speak! Only having glanced at it, I thought it may have been Leipzig or Dresden circa 1975.
I truly mourn for my ancestral homeland.
The glass is also half full. Reform looks great. The Conservatives have abandoned the Climate Act. The CEO’s laid blame and cost will keep going up, building anger. This is momentum and the next election might be momentous. The times they are a changing.
The last time I checked the “net zero route” called for 70 GW of wind “capacity” by 2035 and 90 (to 100) GW in 2050.
The current wind “capacity” for the GB (England + Scotland + Wales) electricity grid is around 31.5 GW, almost evenly split between onshore and offshore, so that is supposed to double in the 2030-2035 time-frame and triple by 2050 …
OK, we can estimate how much actual electrical energy should notionally be produced by those “wind capacities” in the face of actual “natural variability / weather” conditions by doubling (2030-5) or tripling (2050).
A plot of actual “renewable”, i.e. “Wind + Solar”, generation over the last 3 weeks or so is attached below.
Notes
– On the 29th and 29th of September a high-pressure area moved (relatively) quickly over Scotland, resulting in a temporary “dip” in wind output.
– From the 3rd to the 5th of October “Named Storm Amy”, a transiting low-pressure area, had high winds surrounding it which produced “a lot” of electricity from wind turbines … but still only about two-thirds of the “nominal / nameplate capacity” of 31.5 GW …
– From (roughly) the 12th to the 17th of October a high-pressure area got “blocked in place” over Scotland, resulting in a “wind drought” lasting around a week (7 days + 8 hours at less than 5 GW output), including a 10 hour period when the output of the entire fleet of wind turbines on (and around) the island of Great Britain was producing less than one GW. When the high-pressure area “unblocked” on the 17th, it moved over the North Sea (towards northern Germany, it’s now located over southern Poland), extending the offshore “dip” in output by roughly a day.
– There is now a low-pressure area a few hundred kilometres west of Scotland that is “rapidly” moving in, resulting in a “significant” increase in wind speeds ahead of it … i.e. over the island of Great Britain … as I type this comment.
.
It doesn’t matter if “in 20 years” NESO manages to triple the amount of installed wind “capacity”.
“Three times less than 1 GW” will still be “Less than 3 GW”.
“Net Zero” calls for the electrification by 2050 of not just transport — cars and lorries / trucks — but also all food and space heating.
Good luck with that.
They never say: wood. It’s always ‘biofuel’. Well, oil, coal and gas are biofuels as well.
The planet possesses ample spare longwave emitter capacity. This means that any claim of a hundreds-of-milliwatts-per-square-meter value of EEI (Earth Energy Imbalance) on a global average basis is just absurd.
A few years ago I downloaded the CERES SYN1Deg hourly values of outgoing longwave radiation. I made time series plots for one year (2020) of the mean values (i.e. the mean at each hour for all longitude gridpoints) at various latitude rings from the tropics to the poles.
This points out the importance of poleward advection. One cannot honestly conclude that the fictional value of “EEI” is what drives “warming” through the LW radiative effect of incremental concentrations of IR-active gases. Don’t get me wrong – the existence of an imbalance is trivially true if the oceans are, in fact, warming. Same with diminishing ice volume. But attribution to a suppression of overall longwave emitter output expressed as EEI is not a sound concept.
Here are the plots. There is plenty of spare LW emitter capacity as you go from the tropics to the poles. The maximum seems to be at the 23.5 N/S latitude rings. And there is plenty of off-season spare capacity in the mid-latitudes too.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aeDEbZXBKj_gDbUx2MCq13dzQG66xWhd?usp=sharing
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
When winter comes, there is very great energy deficit. In Winnipeg the average temperature for January is -20° to -10° C. Where is CO2 when we need it. The fossil fuel keep us from freezing to death in winter.
Similar situation here in upstate NY.
You should check out this new website that provides for easy access for the acquisition and display of weather and climate data. Firstly, go to:
https://extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/albany
There is displayed all the weather and climate data from the beginning of the record up to 2024 from NOAA’s data base. Scroll down to the end and click on “Average Temperature by Year”. There is displayed a table of Tmax and Tmin data. You have the option of displaying the data by month. You also have the options of display the data from the highest to lowest values and vice versus.
At the top of page, there is the “Select City” box. Enter the name of a city starting with a capital letter. If the city is the NOAA data base, the name will appear below the box. Click on it to get the data. I also got data for Death Valley.
I found that I had to use the entry: death-valley.
On the home page:
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com
there are links in light blue to many sites located all around the world.
Ah, but where’s the problem? Mr. Carney intends for you to freeze to death in winter.
I live in Burnaby, BC and we have oenormous amounts of coal and nat. gas. About 95% of our electricity is supplied by hydro dams. We get oil from Alberta.
BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan are “have provinces” and are always being ripped off by Ottawa for money for “equalization payments” to support the maritime provinces of Atlantic Canada.
No, he’s not that nasty….He’s giving every Canadian a tax deduction so that we can buy some Helly-Hansens (we’ll probably find he’s heavily invested in H-H)….so that we can all live in our houses in winter without turning on the heat. Emissions problem solved…and with modern use of Indigenous knowledge….
/s
The Pacific is cooling, and India is bracing for record cold.
I should have said, “The maximum LW emitter output seems to be at the 23.5 N/S latitude rings.”
Coincides roughly with the Polar / Ferrel / Hadley circulation cells per their respective Latitudes … https://www.rmets.org/metmatters/global-atmospheric-circulation
A sizable portion of incoming sunlight energy is in the visible wavelength range. (Not surprising, that’s why our eyes were developed, after all.) Much of that energy heats the surface, and can only be radiated as LWR. It seems to me that hunting for a balance between incoming/outgoing LWR only is something of a fools errand.
The values of Absorbed Solar Radiation includes visible light.
(i.e. TSI minus reflected shortwave)
However, all constituents of the atmosphere emit broad spectrum thermal radiation by reason of their absolute temperatures being above zero degrees. That radiation is most significant from IR down to radio frequencies in the EM spectrum.
Also, the Sun actually emits only a tiny fraction of its total power in the LWIR portion of the EM spectrum . . . hence the term “incoming LWR” is problematic.
Finally, there is no “hunting for a balance” between incoming(?) and outgoing LWR . . . there are only relatively short intervals where Earth is really in any sort of balance of power-in versus power-out, taking into account Milankovitch cycles and and the associated ~100,000 year long cycles of glacial/interglacial periods on Earth as seen over the last million or so years.
Gases are not black bodies and do not emit based on their temperature.
From Grok:” Gases, however, are selective in their absorption and emission of radiation due to their molecular structure.”
re: “Gases are not black bodies and do not emit based on their temperature.”
HENCE the classic mistake of mis-judging the temperature of the corona of the sun … There were some not a week back I think who took contention with this when I called this a classic mistake to interpret gas emission spectra as indicating temperature.
That’s a “classic mistake” only by the scientifically illiterate.
The ionized gases that comprise the corona of the Sun do indeed emit thermal radiation due to their temperature(s) being above absolute temperature. However, the extent that radiation my differ from the S-B law/Wein’s displacement law is invariably due to the difficulty of correctly integrating the combined temperatures, factors governing effective emissivity (such as plasma density, composition and 3D “features”), and plasma ionization levels as they all vary over the volume of the corona:
— temperature variation ranging from about 1 to 3 million Kelvin
— in polar coronal holes, densities are lower, and the ionization and temperature gradients are different compared to the equatorial corona
— the ionization state of the coronal plasma is highly dependent on temperature, with different ionic species dominating at specific temperature ranges. For example, coronal temperatures exceeding 1 million K can strip iron of up to 13 of its electrons
— observations of coronal loops show spatial variations in the intensity of different spectral lines, indicating local temperature variations and non-uniform ionization along the structures. This variation can also be seen with height above the photosphere.
— EUV and X-ray emissions from the inner corona (below about 1.5 solar radii) are sensitive to the square of the electron density (ne^2) because collisional excitation is the dominant emission mechanism. In the middle corona, observations at larger heights often transition to using Thomson scattering from free electrons, which is proportional to the electron density (ne^).
Estimating the temperatures of non-ionized, more or less uniform gases based on a measured radiation curve (using Wien’s displacement law as adjusted for greybody matter emissivities) is much, much easier than trying to do so for a complex plasma such as the Sun’s corona.
Arguing for what – ‘points’ on the margin? You’ve made my point, though you don’t know it. Now you must account for the spectral lines seen – otherwise it is the grand ‘hand wave’ you’re doing. The spectral lines indicating a HIGHER temperature than the surface of the sun itself. You do not know this?
Sources (NASA, below) claim the sun’s coronal temperature exceeds the surface – what is your explanation? See, here is the CLASSIC MISTAKE –
NASA says: Temperatures in the corona — the tenuous, outermost layer of the solar atmosphere — spike upwards of 2 million degrees F, while just 1,000 miles below, the underlying surface simmers at a balmy 10,000 F.
Here’s the mistake: Emission lines from species in the Sun’s corona suggest that the corona is millions of degrees. Yet the surface of the sun is only 5,500 degrees Celcius.
Numerous explosive events occur on the Sun’s surface but these events are not well understood. In 2013 solar “sparkles” were observed that emit light in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and are extremely energetic. Light emission in the EUV range and have been observed in solar spectra; WHAT creates such EUV spectral lines? NOT the ‘millyuns’ of degrees in temperature NASA claims …
And here’s your fundamental mistake: photons emitted in spectral bands as a result of electron energy level transitions in a given atom’s electron cloud—more specifically radiation from electron transitions in ionized gases (such as in the Sun’s corona) as they jump quantum levels—are not at all the same as emissions associated with thermal radiation.
But I’ll simplify this for you with an everyday example:
the emission temperature (the “color temperature”) of household fluorescent lights can range from 2,700K (a color referred to as “warm”) to 6,500K (a color referred to as “cool”). Yet nobody really believes the sensible temperatures of the gases inside those fluorescent tubes (typically a mix of noble gases and mercury vapor) are actually at such “inferred” temperatures. Scientific measurements document that the gas temperature is around 300-700K while the electron emission “temperature” is about 11,000 K. This high electron “temperature” (actually the energy of photons emitted during electron energy level transitions) is why fluorescent lights are efficient and do not get as hot as an incandescent filament bulb which emits thermal radiation.
You are obviously unaware of the fact the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiated power from all matter (solid, liquid or gas) having an absolute temperature above zero (P= 𝜀𝜎AT^4) includes the term emissivity (𝜀) to account for real matter as opposed to a blackbody construct that only exists in theory. Alternatively, look up and understand the definition of a “greybody”.
You should be aware that the emissivity of Earth ranges from about 0.65-0.99 depending on geographical location, with it having an effective overall average emissivity of about 0.61 when modeled as a single grey body that includes the gaseous atmosphere’s effects.
So, do you seriously claim the Earth (and its atmosphere) don’t emit radiation because neither is a blackbody?
As for the AI bot Grok: Ask it to explain Collision Induced Absorption (CIA) and Collision Induced Emission (CIE) as have been scientifically measured in all dense gases. Alternatively, just consult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision-induced_absorption_and_emission for a good explanation of how gas molecules without any permanent dipole moment can emit THERMAL radiation across a very broad range of frequencies due to molecule-molecule collisions.
And yes, let’s let the AIs fight it out as to which one has the worst simplification of a complex subject such as this one and which suffer the worst “hallucinations” regarding truth.
For example, here’s a part of what Google’s AI says related to thermal emissions from very cold, non-ionized gases in interstellar space (my bold emphasis added):
“Yes, interstellar nebulae that are not ionized plasma do emit thermal radiation. In these cool, non-ionized nebulae—often called molecular clouds—the thermal emission comes primarily from two components: the gas itself and the dust grains mixed within it.”
Only ‘painting’, examining, discussing part of the picture; a kind of lying by omission, AKA, painting the periphery, and not the core of the subject..
Then, by all means, please “paint the core of this subject” for all of us uneducated WUWT readers.
Waiting . . .
Prerequisite (required) reading:
The “hot corona problem” refers to the mystery of why the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, is significantly hotter than its surface, with temperatures reaching around 1 million degrees Celsius compared to about 6,000 degrees Celsius at the surface. This counterintuitive phenomenon suggests that additional energy sources, such as magnetic waves or turbulence, may be heating the corona beyond what would be expected from distance alone.
Source: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_closes_in_on_the_solution_to_a_65-year-old_solar_mystery
A) NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the Curious Case of the Hot Corona (2018)
Snippet: Something mysterious is going on at the Sun. In defiance of all logic, its atmosphere gets much, much hotter the farther it stretches from the Sun’s blazing surface.
B) NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Shatters Theory on Sun’s Extremely Hot Corona (2024)
Snippet: While these switchbacks appear in the solar wind, they are absent in the corona. This discovery challenges the idea that magnetic field collisions on the sun’s surface create switchbacks, suggesting other mechanisms at play. Further data from the probe is needed to test new hypotheses.
C) A Sun in a Jar
In 2014-2015, Montgomery Childs led a team who set out to build a sun in a jar. They wanted to recreate the conditions of the corona. The experiment was called Stellar Atmospheric Function in Regulation Experiment (SAFIRE). In it, power was applied to a spherical metal anode in an enclosure filled with a low pressure of hydrogen gas, and additional hydrogen was allowed to diffuse out of the anode.
As the power was increased, the gas around the anode began to glow, creating a hot ionized, light-emitting gas called a “plasma.” First, small violet glowing tufts of plasma spaced themselves out around the sphere. Then, at higher power, a series of nested spherical shells emerged. These “double layers” were made up of segregated, alternating layers of positive and negative charge, glowing beautifully in blue or violet. Plasma tufts and double layers on a spherical anode in the SAFIRE experiments.
The team discovered that the temperature of the plasma regularly exceeded expectations by a significant margin. One experiment vaporized a tungsten probe when an input power of only 182W. They speculated that somehow, energy was being stored in the plasma and released in violent bursts. The plasma was much hotter than the anode itself. The plasma was also inexplicably producing UV light.
The team felt they had discovered something new, some kind of “electrochemical catalytic process,” but did not reach any conclusions. Nevertheless, they had been true to their goal of recreating some features and mysteries we associate with the solar corona.
Those are some nice bedtime stories, even if prerequisites to understanding whatever you may next front as “painting the core of the story”.
But, since nowhere did such mention the topic of spectral lines, I am forced to remind you of your own words:
“Now you must account for the spectral lines seen – otherwise it is the grand ‘hand wave’ you’re doing.”
BTW, as regards the 2104-2015 Montgomery Childs “experiment”—it actually reads more like a high school science fair project . . . and a poorly conducted one at that—I’ll just point out that if the team set out “to recreate the conditions of the corona” they failed miserably:
— the Sun’s corona is NOT supported by energy provided by the flow of electricity from a charged spherical metal anode
— the Sun’s corona typically has 4-5% of helium in its chemical composition . . . an important fact, not simulated in the “experiment”, because the ionization characteristics, spectral bands of emission and absorption, and physical factors like density (= f(T)) and specific heat (= f(T)) are so different between hydrogen and helium
— as previously mentioned, polar coronal holes have densities that are lower, and the ionization and temperature gradients are different compared to the equatorial corona . . . don’t see that this was simulated or spontaneously appeared in the Childs “experiment’
— the Sun’s corona gradually transitions into the solar wind, which travels away from the corona at speeds up to 800 km/sec, faster than escape velocity from the Sun’s gravity . . . and not something possible to simulate in a sealed bell jar or other “enclosure”.
— the “experiment” did not replicate the boundary conditions and effects of (a) the Sun’s gravity, (b) the corona rotating faster and more rigid-like compared to the underlying photosphere with its well-known differential rotation with latitude, (c) the Sun’s complex and time-varying magnetic fields and (d) photosphere-to-corona interactions, such as those from sunspots, prominences, flares and CMEs at ANY scale.
Thus, in terms of the importance of this “experiment” and any “data” observed or obtained from it: garbage in, garbage out. IOW, “they speculated” and “felt”, just as you summarized.
Hey, _Jim, just checking in . . . it’s now been over two days since I asked that you to please “paint the core of this subject” so that all of us might understand the broader “issue” that you assert is out there.
How’s it going?
Maybe not so well, since I did read—and even commented on—your subsequent “Prerequisite (required) reading” post but never received a reply about that.
Oh well.
Indeed and what goes with it are vibrational and rotational modes. Then look at the difference between H20 and CO2 molecules. Everything becomes fairly obvious especially when you consider the amount of each and their wavelength/ frequency in terms of radiation spectrum. And then you have to consider what that radiation actually does which not as straightforward as people think. And so on..and on.
About 50% on incoming sunlight is IR light. There are three IR bands: Near (0.75-1.4 microns), Mid(1.4-3 microns and
Far (3-10 microns). The warmth of sunlight is due to Near IR light.
I guess you missed the fact that my statement:
“Also, the Sun actually emits only a tiny fraction of its total power in the LWIR portion of the EM spectrum . . . hence the term ‘incoming LWR’ is problematic” specifically referred to LWIR, long wavelength infrared radiation.
The abbreviation LWIR does not include short wavelength infrared, where the Sun emits almost all its infrared radiation (IR).
FWIW, here’s is Google’s AI summary of the situation:
“Only a negligible percentage of total solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) is in the Longwave Infrared (LWIR) spectrum. The Sun’s energy peaks at much shorter, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, while the LWIR spectrum is primarily associated with the thermal radiation emitted by cooler objects, like Earth.”
That is all.
Actually, the graph of Solar Radiation Intensity vs. Wavelength that I saw peaked, of course, in the visible range, but my eyeball integration of the area under the long IR tail guessed at least as much “power” as under the restricted VW bandwidth.
In your eyeball “guessing” did you account for the fact that E=h*f in terms of radiation energy variation with frequency?
That’s very interesting measured data David.
Outgoing LW as measured by satellite staying about 200-250 watts regardless of latitude, while incoming solar SW at TOA varies from 1360 W/sq.M at high noon at the equator to zero at night (obviously) and 0 watt/sq.M at the poles (also at solstice).
It is truly amazing that a little convection, mal-distribution of evaporation over bodies of land and ocean, 23.5 degrees of axial tilt, and coriolis forced weather front movement results in our highly moderated climate variations. Makes it pretty clear that the rather trivial 3 or 4 watts of CO2 forcing is only going to result in the average weather in any given location changing to approximately the weather of somewhere of similar altitude and topography that is 150 km closer to the equator….
Thanks for your reply. Yes, this is another way to show directly that the idea of a “delicate balance” is just nuts. There are huge flows of mass and energy involved in both the atmosphere and ocean circulations in which the so-called “forcings” from GHGs have only a vanishingly weak theoretical influence. And I haven’t even mentioned energy conversion today!
Mad Ed on Sunday
We had “No Kings” protests here yesterday. Idiots abound everywhere.
I held my No Burger King protest. Going on 10 years without the King.
Whataburger (trade name) for the win in this category. Their onion rings too.
Some might rightfully dispute that, pointing out the popularity of IN-N-OUT burgers and, in particular, their “Double-Double”® and “Animal Style”® variations.
But not as many as the MSM reported.
And even it was that many (and they weren’t paid by Soros et. al.), a small minority of the actual voters. They’re just louder. (And their shouts fall on deaf ears.)
PS Where were they during Obama’s terms?
PPS I thought they were also against “oligarchies”. Why does Soros get a pass?
The man’s not stupid, surely – he’s a graduate of Oxford University after all!!
Then one can only assume he’s an inveterate and compulsive liar.
Yeah, I also saw that he has an A-level in Further Maths. Now I know that’s only a Grammar School level thing but that is (or was) a hellaciously difficult exam. I know because I got one (although it was the Physics A-level exam that gave me the recurring nightmares – seriously).
Inveterate and compulsive liar it is then.
(Rather obvious, given that he’s a Labour politician).
I’m sure the UK has its own version of our Ivy League nitwits, i.e., highly educated fools who fully believe in the efficacy of socialism.
His job is to get costs down by 2030? So when they’re up and rising in the Spring of 2029, he will not have yet failed, the ‘investments’, having been made will surely soon crack on and one simply must be patient! He is painful to watch. Poor miserable once-great Britain.
His reputed excuse for higher costs seems to be that ‘we have really difficult fiscal circumstances that we’ve inherited’. Of course, neither Labor (specifically) nor government (generally) nor the voters that put them in place, bear any responsibility for these circumstances.
/sarc
Wise enough…my proverbial sphincter
Very early low temperatures and snow in many parts of the globe. The incoming ice age has began.
https://www.britannica.com/science/Quaternary
No sign of winter in the UK, October is running +1.5C
This time last year the Arctic was crazy ‘warm’, didn’t really start to cool until November. This year it’s even warmer, +10C or more above average.
Let’s put some scientific perspective to that claim, as regards Arctic temperatures:
Summer 2025 – Arctic summer temperatures were warmer than average but not a record-setter, ranking as the seventh-warmest summer
Summer 2024 – The overall summer was the third-warmest on record.
Summer 2023 – The warmest Arctic summer on record.
Summer 2022 – Arctic temperatures were “warmer than average in many places”, especially in northern regions.
Summer 2021 – While regional variations were apparent, heatwaves still struck the region.
Summer 2020 – The Arctic was particularly hot in 2020, with a major heatwave in Siberia.
A temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) was recognized by the World Meteorological Organization as the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.
Winter 2024-2025 – Largely warmer than the 1991–2020 average, similar to previous years in the 2020–2024 period. However, it was not as uniformly and intensely warm across all regions as some of the preceding winters.
Winter 2023-2024 – This period was part of the overall 2nd warmest year on record for the Arctic
Winter 2022-2023 – Showed a striking regional split in maximum temperatures, with some areas experiencing well-above-average warmth while others were notably colder.
Winter 2021-2022 – Showed a striking regional split in maximum temperatures, with some areas experiencing well-above-average warmth while others were notably colder.
Winter 2020-2021 – One of the warmest years on record, with a particularly warm Siberian winter and above-average temperatures across much of the Arctic.
Winter 2019-2020 – While many areas were warmer, the first few months of 2020 were colder than average across parts of Greenland, Alaska, and Svalbard due to a persistent jet stream.
The above summaries obtained from Web sources and Google’s AI.
See any sort of trend there???
Now, you were saying something about “crazy”.
Yes it’s a result of modern media gig journalists getting paid for articles verbiage and graphics that CoveringClimateNow.org
gives them for free so they can make a quick buck and meet their submission deadline.
Ooops . . . accidental cut-and-paste typo regarding the Arctic winter of 2022-2023: my entire entry should replaced by the following:
“Winter 2022-2023 – Ranked as the Arctic’s sixth-warmest year on record”
The Arctic was warmer in the winters of 2002-2003, 2005-2006 and 2007-2008.
I’m waiting for the envio mob to come up with a CYA line for their beleaguered issue that goes something like, “the past 30 years of warming are a pause in the long-term trend toward global cooling, which is caused by unrestricted burning of fossil fuels.”
It would be excellent if we could actually do that. Unfortunately, we can’t.
Greenland has been gaining altitude for some decades now. That marked the beginning of the current cycle of glaciation in the northern hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica) has not recovered at all from its glaciation for at leat 5 million years.
It pays to know a bit of history.
We have a “roadmap” for scaled fusion power in the 2030’s. The jokes write themselves.
https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-10/fusion-s%26t-roadmap-101625.pdf
There is a roadmap? Well that is very foolish because before any progress is made a solution to magnetohydrodynamics difficulties has to be found. As there probably isn’t one the concept of magnetic confinement is a non-starter. Oh dear, never mind!
It’s like saying you have a railroad map “planned” from LA to Tokyo…very hypothetical involving tunnel designs somewhat beyond present constructability.
Hey, no giving Newsom any ideas now.
Headline: “Government vows to create 400,000 jobs in energy sector“
”The government has announced plans to train and recruit more workers for the UK’s clean energy sector, promising to create 400,000 extra jobs by 2030.
Plumbers, electricians and welders are among 31 priority occupations that are “particularly in demand”, with employment in renewable, wind, solar and nuclear expected to double to 860,000 in five years, ministers have said.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said thousands of jobs were needed to develop Britain’s clean energy sector to “get bills down for good”.
Welcoming the proposals, Unite the union said: “Well-paid, secure work must be at the heart of any green transition.”
As part of the government’s strategy, five “technical excellence colleges” will be set up to train workers with clean energy skills, with £2.5m in funding going towards pilot schemes in Cheshire, Lincolnshire, and Pembrokeshire, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
A new programme is to be launched to match veterans with careers in solar panel installation, wind turbine factories and nuclear power stations, while oil and gas workers could benefit from up to £20m from the UK and Scottish governments for bespoke careers training in clean energy roles.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vnr45x5qyo
How patronising to match “veterans” with careers in solar panel installation.
is welding a clean energy occupation? After all acetylene plus oxygen equals water plus carbon dioxide.
You cannot introduce “clean energy” without using energy, which means it has to be “dirty energy”. Interestingly nuclear is included as clean energy, I wonder what the response from the greens to that is going to be!
Yep, good ol’ phony lefties, creating a non-existent problem and then heroically solving it with institutionalized digging of ditches and filling them in. They get paid for wasting potential prosperity and also get the virtue bonus at their Mums’ knitting group.
How many servers for asylum hotels are needed?
I’ve been waiting for an ‘open thread’ to ask this of U.S. visitors to Anthony’s:
My phone rings. The voice on the other end has a fairly distinctive accent that reminds me of a caller from India. There is a small amount of background noise, obviously voices of other call-center callers running the scam.
The caller asks me about my recent automobile accident. The one that occurred within the past year or two.
The last fender-bender that I had was well over six years ago (yes, I slid on the ice and my 4WD pickup did some damage to the car in front of me; my truck was undamaged).
So here’s the question: What is the scam that these callers are trying to run? I pointedly tell them that I’ve NOT had any accidents in the recent past, at which point they insist that I HAVE had an accident and have not been compensated for it …
Right about there I’m disconnecting (with these demon devices, one does not ‘hang up’ as there is no cradle to set the handset into, so we “disconnect” nowadays … ).
Yes, I’m well aware that I should NOT answer calls from numbers I do not recognize. What is interesting to me is they always have a phone number that is from my area code, even though they are in Asia. And, there are times that the callers from these ‘numbers I do not recognize’ have been survey solicitors, doing polling about topics of interest to me. A couple of times, the poll has offered some compensation for sharing my views.
So, on occasion, answering one of those numbers I’m unfamiliar with has been “profitable”.
Thanks for any insight anyone is able to offer,
MH
The largest export from India appears to be scams, see “Scammer payback” on YT. The scale of these operations appears to be considerable!
The scammers seem to have graduated (and diversified from) simple scams like imitating/masquerading as simple software support for Microsoft (and others) to:
o Imitating law enforcement e.g. IRS tax collection agents threatening imprisonment
o Pretending to be a nephew who needs bail money (appeals to grandparents)
o Found money/inheritance scams, but we NEED a deposit from YOU 1st
o Fake parcel delivery/Customs payment needed
o Bank account is in danger! Need withdraw and redeposit using BTC (Bitcoin)
“Top 17 Common Scams in India: Don’t Fall Prey to These Scamsters” https://simplepath.in/news-updates/articles/top-scams-in-india/
Another one is claiming to be a courier who needs a fee before legal papers can be served. An attorney hiring a courier to serve legal papers is a normal thing, but couriers are directly compensated by the attorney. The served has no obligation to compensate the courier.
It’s a scam that plays on ignorance of the legal system.
A ‘fee’, to serve papers on me – yeah, good luck with that one!
You (anyone – the ‘scammer’ here) wants to serve me – its on HIS nickle!!
re: “The voice … distinctive accent … India. … background noise, … call-center callers running the scam.”
Heh. There is a cadre of Youtubers documenting these scammers. One in particular is Kitboga – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw .
He has this (baiting scammers) down to a fine art now.
My plain old telephone system (POTS) tells me the city-origin of a call. Sometimes I get 5 to 10 each day. 90% indicate they are from small (<2000 people) towns in my State. I know the towns, and most are old farming places without much going on and not having anyone I know living therein. If a caller starts to leave a message I can and may pick up. Otherwise, I have never talked with someone with the “fairly distinctive accent” you mention.
A variation on a theme; Unsolicited text/SMS messages pushing some not-always-an-obvious-scam of some sort. I’ve had a few of those, and my wireless provider (derived from Verizon) provides a means to report those.
Also, phone calls out-of-the-blue the same way, which I don’t answer if I don’t recognize the number, also I don’t have voice mail set up, so caller does not necessarily get confirmation my number is real … I’ve even looked up a few of the caller’s numbers, sometimes linking back to numbers, or telephone exchanges, linked/reported to be a source of scam calls.
Why do we put up with this intrusion of privacy?
They will attempt to get you to give personal details, bank accounts etc — so that they can transfer the funds to you. This is what they are trying to get out of you.
The only safe thing to do is hang up immediately you hear the characteristic accent and background sounds.
If you have previously given them enough information to make a payment to you, close down anything that they have data on, immediately.
Or if when you answer, there is a couple of seconds of “dead air” delay on the caller’s end, which is when you know that the call is originating from a robo-call center, which hasn’t made the person “live” yet.
I answer –
“hello (pause 1 second) – hello (pause 1 second) – hello (pause 1 second)”
Then hang up.
And ‘block’ that number.
Found the efficient way to deal with call centre calls: it takes them >5 sec to answer; takes me 4 sec to hang up after hearing silence (never repeat the “hello”).
re: “it takes them >5 sec to answer”
I noticed that too back when I had a landline and had to pick up to know who was calling (never had caller ID even when it was available); of course its a result of an automated dialer in the call center on their end placing call after call in sequence and WHEN a call is answered (by you) they (the next idle operator in the call center) are to pick up … and its usually delayed, as you found out.
I did the same thing – if I didn’t get an answer within a few seconds I would hang up.
re: “The caller asks me about my recent automobile accident.”
Come to think about, I had a text message about – a speeding ticket … my car (I don’t recall now if they even ID’d my car via correctly make/model license plate now) has NOT been driven since early in Pandemic year 2020, in March to be specific, so NO WAY was I involved in ANY speeding in any way, shape or form … I never responded – which a RESPONSE indicates TO THEM a valid text/SMS/ phone number …
And by the way, if they are allegedly polling, how do you know they are who they claim to be? How do you know they are polling and not scamming, ie researching you personally for info about you?
Same thing applies to them offering to pay you for participating – any account you have given any of these people to pay money into should be closed immediately.
Assume any phone call from anyone you do not know is a scam until proven otherwise. Never participate in phone-call polls. Never give any personal details of any sort to any of them. And that means any. If they ask about anything at all about you personally, hang up at once.
Appreciate your advice: do note that the compensation was cash, through the mail. They already had my residence address (just asked for verification), and about 5 – 7 business days later, the envelope arrived.
I agree caution is the wise choice; and, you are a very wise individual. I thank you for your admonition.
“I should NOT answer calls from numbers I do not recognize.”
___________________________________________________
Later you find out it was from your favorite cousin calling from her hospital bed.
Wow! Lots of good stuff here!! Thanks everyone!
Polls: yes, you’re right, I do NOT know if it is a legitimate poll. The ones I’ve done sure seem to be on the up-and-up; and, as I stated, a few have even offered (and sent!) compensation. The topics of the polls are largely political (candidates; candidates positions on topics; for/against citizen initiatives, that sort of thing).
Again, many thanks to all who responded. I KNEW I would get good information here. WUWT is a fountain of wisdom, on most ANYTHING!!!
MH
And I need to add:
When the scammers call to ask if I have received my new Medicare card, I keep them on the line as long as I possibly can. Then, it eventually gets to where they are asking for my Medicare number, at which point I break into my best Air Traffic Controller voice and say:
“Negative, Ghostrider. The pattern is full.”*
The longest ‘repeat request’ was ten iterations. One time, after the first one, this one lady said, “I hate it when they f—— say that … ” and disconnected.
Try it — — you might learn some new words!
Mark
*If you do not get the reference, think the scene after Maverick and Goose have ‘bested’ Jester, below the hard deck, of course … … …
Has everyone seen the documentary, or read the (suppressed) Ford Health System study concerning the relationship between childhood vaccinations and diseases?
“Impact of Childhood Vaccination on Short and Long Term Chronic Health Outcomes in Children –
A Birth Cohort Study”
#Ford study: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Entered-into-hearing-record-Impact-of-Childhood-Vaccination-on-Short-and-Long-Term-Chronic-Health-Outcomes-in-Children-A-Birth-Cohort-Study.pdf
Added –
Aaron Siri (yes, his name is Aaron Siri; Siri has also written a book titled Vaccines Amen) in his written Senate testimony wrote a nice intro that walks the reader through the (suppressed) Ford Health System paper:
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Siri-Testimony-1.pdf
Here is the documentary by Del Bigtree based on the (suppressed) Ford Health System study concerning the relationship between childhood vaccinations and diseases:
“An Inconvenient Study”, similar in title to Algore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” (a 2006 film by Davis Guggenheim) no?
Christine Stabel Benn has done very interesting work found that attenuated whole organism vaccines (eg BCG) had non-specific beneficial effects on babies; the subunit vaccines had non-specific detrimental effects. The effects were related to the last vaccine a child had received, leading to the proposition that the order of administration might be important.
https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/cbenn
The problem now is that subunit vaccines have lower acute effects and are MUCH cheaper to make.
This video of her’s is well worth watching.
I think she appears in the video An Inconvenient Study too.
Topic: PC (Personal Computer) Audio System
Observation: WAAAAY too much base (low frequency content) from most sources today
Cure: Graphic Equalizer;
o Low Cut enabled
o 63, 125 and 250 Hz channels minimized (-12 db)
o 500 Hz, 1k, 2k, 4k boosted +12 dB
o 8k and 16k neutral at 0 dB
The audio chain in use for the last few years has been:
o PC USB sound card behringer UC-202 –>
o behringer MiniFBQ Equalizer –>
o Alesis NanoCompressor –>
o Signstek/CZE-T200 Portable FM Transmitter (wireless distribution on property)
o RCA SA-155 15W Audio Amp –>
o E-V (ElectroVoice) High Sensitivity, ‘Studio Monitor’ speakers model ZX1-90
The equalizer makes listening to podcasters and many videos livable! The equalizer also allows level adjustment for audio sources that are weak … or strong. Depends on the content producer/Youtube channel.
Has anyone else noted the excess bass present nowadays?
Excess bass – indeed yes. Its a Bose trademark. Its universal in car audio. The ludicrous thing is to read reviews of audio equipment in the mainstream press by people who obviously never listen to anything but amplified popular music. So they have no idea what proper reproduction of acoustic instruments sounds like or whether its happening.
They therefore report enthusiastically that on track n of a given album you can really hear some part. An amplified electronic guitar, for instance. But they have no idea whether what they are attributing to the equipment they are reviewing is really due to it or is part of the mix or the amplified instruments.
If you are buying speakers or headphones, insist on listening only to male and femaie voices speaking or reading aloud. If they both (and both are essential) sound natural and clear and without excessive bass or sibilance in the treble, you are probably OK. Then you can go on and listen to a small orchestra. If that too sounds natural and balanced as in a good concert hall, you’re almost certainly OK.
What most mainstream media reviews amount to is listening to Jimi Hendrix over them and saying yeah this sounds great.
“Exalted bass” is the term I recall – not a complementary term in my book. I remember a shift to this in the 2005 – 2008 time frame on AM broadcast radio wherein I had to run the tone control on my 1994 Caprice Delco car radio over to one side to compensate.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Exalted+bass%22+AM+radio
While there is no established audio engineering term called “exalted bass,” it likely refers to a historical effect of audio processing used by some AM radio stations to make the low-frequency sound seem louder and fuller despite the medium’s technical limitations.
“Exalted bass” is a colloquial or fan-generated term that may have come from audiophiles or listeners admiring the “bigger” sound achieved by certain stations. These stations used specialized processing equipment to maximize their sound within AM’s narrow bandwidth.
The rest of the returns on this subject is a good lesson in namespace pollution – most returns are to a band by the same name.
Review – from yesterday’s live-cast coverage of the “No Kings” Riots -er- Rallies across the US – coverage by MattMorseTV on Rumble: (5 hrs of content; let run in the background while doing other things. This is why I use a low-power FM broadcast transmitter at home and wear a Sony Walkman FM radio to listen.)
https://rumble.com/v70gxu8-no-kings-protest-total-chaos..html
PS He (Matt) has a really good voice and delivery. Enjoy.
Story Tip.
https://www.skynews.com.au/insights-and-analysis/climate-change-cannot-be-stopped-the-fiveword-slogan-liberals-can-use-to-shift-the-debate-in-their-favour-on-net-zero/news-story/f85bab5d88072075fabcb745aa6a3ebb
BBC warning of Warm Blob in the Pacific.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3xynwwx4yo
Looks like getting excuses in early, just in case things get colder than expected in early winter over the UK.
Would be interesting to discover what though, if this warm blob is unprecedented as the article implies.