Can you ask Al Gore questions about ClimateGate?

No!

More Fallout from Climategate

Three important posts lately.  Two are from WattsUpWithThat.com and one from Climate Audit concerning the “trick” used to “hide the decline”.

1)  The new and improved hockey stick.  Drudged up from ice core data in Greenland, it turns out that there has been incredible warming lately, but it’s not nearly what it’s been in the past.  I invite you to see my video of the images compiled.  

UPDATE: I’ve posted a second video with voice-over and improved annotation:

2)  The seriously fudged Darwin, Australia data.  I don’t know about it being smoking gun as it’s one example, but it’s truly amazing how much manipulation had to go into the Darwin data points to make them fit a warming trend.  I’ll say it’s deliberate when I see two more examples of this kind of homogenization of the data.

3)  Some people have been decrying the “trick”, saying scientists use “tricks” all the time.  They have a point, but only to a certain degree.  In this case, the “trick” was used to explain why a certain data set was truncated when matched with two other tree-ring data sets.  The “Climategate” emails even show discussions of how to mitigate the impact of this data on the data that “proves” skyrocketing temperatures.  Read the whole thing.

It’s a lot of reading, but it’s clear there were serious shenanigans going on here and with the IPCC directorate.

HEY YOU!  THANKS FOR STOPPING BY from Ace, or HotAir, or wherever you’re dropping in from.  Be sure to visit some of the guys on my blogroll.  More great climate discussions go on at DigitalDiatribes.wordpress.com.

The Definition of Insanity

I’ve heard insanity can be defined as doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results each time.

It seems our President is “insane”.  Stimulus I hasn’t produced any jobs, and as my analysis and the analysis at HotAir has proven, the stimulus jobs are mostly VaporLabor (defined as jobs that can’t be proven as created or saved, or jobs that were “saved” that were never in jeopardy to begin with).  But now Obama is out talking about another round of government spending to try and stimulate more job growth.

I think the last thing we need is more government assistance in this matter.  Just ask this chart from innocentbystanders.net:

The ClimateGate View from the Autopsy

I’ve been semi-purposefully holding back on the ClimateGate (ugh, I hate naming anything “-gate”) scandal to see how this plays out.  And from what I can tell, there are two camps (surprise!), one group that denies that the problem is not the scientists but the “hackers” that released the data, and another group that seems to think these emails prove that the world is cooling.

From my perspective, I think that turning this on a hunt for the “hacker” is crazy.  It’s obvious from the files that this was a pre-compiled list of information for an FOI request.  It’s also obvious that someone involved in the compiling had a change of heart after reading through some of the material they were compiling, and then decided to release it.  The alternative theory is that someone knew there was an FOI document that was compiled at the CRU, stole it, then looked for information to discredit it.  Both would be released close to the Copenhagen meeting for maximum damage, and that’s what we’ve seen.

Does this disprove Anthropogenic Climate Change?  No.  ( AGW has yet to be concretely proven anyway.)  Does it prove there is a worldwide conspiracy to promote AGW?  No.  However, if there was any good science to come out of the CRU, this document release pretty much discredits it, and I’ll explain why.

• In the code for computer “models” that were supposed to account for planetary temperature changes and predict future changes, there are plenty of comment lines that talk about temperature adjustments to make the data fit the the theory.  Scientists aren’t supposed to do that.  We’re supposed to form theories based upon collected data.  There are many entries of this in the released data from CRU.  Add to this the “trick” to “hide the decline”, and you’ve got people doing things that they shouldn’t be doing.  If there is a decline, report the decline.  Don’t falsify the data.
• The deletion of raw data to avoid an FOI is damning.  Scientists don’t delete data unless it’s garbage, and even then, the methods to collect data are often rerun.  This is physical science as well, so hard, raw data is something you spend years collecting.
• The refusal to cooperate with an FOI request is damning.  All science should be transparent.  If a center is designed to collect climate data, it should be open with that data.  Hiding it makes us wonder what they are hiding and why they are hiding it.  As they say in politics, it’s not the crime that gets you, it’s the cover-up.  And here some very prominent climatologists are hiding things.
• Putting pressure on editors of peer-reviewed journals to exclude “denialists” is probably the biggest sin here.  When you attempt to exclude scientific conclusions to push your own agenda, you are no longer playing the role of scientist, but the role of ignorant Luddite.  Imagine some physicists put pressure on journal editors to exclude Einstein’s work on relativity to push their own Newtonian agenda?  Imagine what the world of physics would be without Einstein’s contributions?  These guys were attempting to bully scientific opinion.  The most memorably example of that is the Church bullying Gallileo.  I now consider these “scientists” more of an AGW “inquisition”.  They’re already using Saul Alinsky’s tactics against the scientists who dispute dangerous AGW.  You can see the faith-based mentality in the people who want to sock it to Pat Michaels.  You don’t see me bent out of shape about the guys who believe in the Electric Sun to the point I want to kick them in the privates.  That kind of emotion should be pulled out of science, but instead we see it permeating the ranks of the AGW proponents.

People who ignore this scandal do so at their own peril.  There are serious problems that should be denounced by the total of the scientific community.

Textbook CME

I’m a big fan of SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.  I’m completely envious of the job these guys have– watch the sun and report any anomalies, as well as collect data from satellites which monitor the sun.  I often sit around and watch movies of the different spectral ranges of the sun, looking at active areas.  I especially like the views we get from the solar observing satellites AHEAD and BEHIND, both of which are in Earth’s orbit but are either ahead of us or behind us.

AHEAD recently recorded a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that was absolutely stunning, so I wanted to share this with you.

Bill Moyers, New Host of “Tunnelvision”

Bill Moyers isn’t happy in retirement.  He admits he has no “retirement skills”, such as playing golf or bridge.  So instead he “works” by speaking to President Obama about the dangers of Afghanistan turning into a quagmire.  After all, Moyers witnessed firsthand how LBJ turned Vietnam into a quagmire.  Here’s what he said at the beginning of his television special:

“Our country wonders this weekend what is on President Obama’s mind,” Moyers began, at the opening of a remarkable hour of television (click here for the transcript). “He is apparently about to bring months of deliberation to a close and answer General Stanley McChrystal’s request for more troops in Afghanistan. When he finally announces how many, why, and at what cost, he will most likely have defined his presidency, for the consequences will be far-reaching and unpredictable. As I read and listen and wait with all of you for answers, I have been thinking about the mind of another president, Lyndon B. Johnson.”

I find this typical of the baby-boomer mindset.  They were defined by the Vietnam War, and it was then the Baby Boomer journalist discovered that if they control information, they can influence public opinion and ultimately, policy.  They follow the example of Cronkite and his erroneous declaration that the Tet Offensive was a major defeat to the United States.  (In actuality, the Tet Offensive was a military failure, as the Viet Cong could not secure any objective they captured.  But the propaganda value they secured in the American News Media gave them a public relations victory.)

Moyers is now comparing Afghanistan to Vietnam, and he warns Barack Obama that Afghanistan can easily turn into another Vietnam.  Of course, any war can “turn into another Vietnam” if it’s not run correctly.  The US military in 1967 had been operating under the assumption that their enemies would fight in a conventional fashion, like the Chinese armies in Korea or the Axis armies in WWII.  Of course, conventional strategies were a mistake, and our military has spent much time developing new strategies to prevent a quagmire as seen in Vietnam.

Gen. Petraeus’ COIN strategy in Iraq seems to have worked very well.  US casualties are very low, and the Iraqi military seems to have a handle on insurgents.  Nobody in the media talks about Iraq any more because it’s widely considered a success.

And this brings us back to Bill Moyers, who thinks Afghanistan will be a “quagmire”.  In an interview in April of 2007, Moyers said the same thing– but about Iraq:

And this was happening all over again. George W. Bush, in denial—I think in denial—has been making many of the same mistakes that led us into Vietnam. And Iraq has become a quagmire like Vietnam, because, as I said earlier, you can’t keep asking young men and women to die for a lie, because that’s not the way you win the support of the nation. And when Harry Reid said the war is not winnable, I thought of Vietnam. No matter how much we said or the government said—I had left in early ‘67—that there was hope around the corner, the casualty count, both here and in Vietnam, was undermining the case. And that’s what’s happening in Iraq now.

Evidently Moyers can’t analyze beyond the experiences that shaped him.  He claimed Iraq to be a quagmire.  However, now that it’s not, he’s changed his meme from Iraq to Afghanistan.  So long as he’s in the public spotlight, Moyers is going to claim any military action is going to be like the quagmire of Vietnam.  He needs to realize that the world has evolved, unlike his mindset.

The end of this program is especially interesting, where he warns Obama to not make the same mistakes LBJ did.  His final lines are especially ironic.

And once again, the loudest case for enlarging the war is being made by those who will not have to fight it, who will be safely in their beds while the war grinds on. And once again, a small circle of advisers debates the course of action, but one man will make the decision.

We will never know what would have happened if Lyndon Johnson had said no to more war. We know what happened because he said yes.

Well, Bill, we will never know what happened in 2007 if Bush had not committed to the Surge.  We know what happened because he did.  I just wish you remembered what happened 2 years ago, Mr. Moyers.

iTurkey

I don’t know if you’ve seen this Sentry commercial with the dancing turkey, but it cracks me up.

Your Joy Will Kill You

So I don’t get to the movies much anymore.  The last movie I saw was “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” with my youngest (good movie for kids and adults– highly recommended).  When she and I go to a movie, we always get a bag of popcorn to split.  We wouldn’t have it any other way.

But, the killjoys over at the Center for Science in the Public Interest have analyzed the popcorn and have determined it’s probably the worst thing you can eat.  I pretty much figured when you go to the spigot and spray that golden-hued buttery liquid on the popcorn, I’m going to feel it oozing through my pores sometime later in the day (Hey, I’m sweating artificial butter flavoring!)  But it’s a guilty pleasure for an uncommon event.  But the CSPI folks would rather you eat boiled lentils with a coating of flaxseed oil rather than let us enjoy our treat on our special day.  I’m not saying we should eat this stuff on a daily basis, but I am saying that regulating an occasional indulgence seems overly critical.

And I have to take issue with the name “Center for Science in the Public Interest”.  If you look at their website, you’re treated to a group that are obsessed with what you eat.  The entire side menu comprises of food-related topics (with the exception of Integrity in Science, which watchdogs for conflicts of interests).  Effectively, the CSPI is going to do what it can to make sure you don’t eat candy, drink soda, eat popcorn, use salt, drink booze, or benefit from the advances of genetically engineering your crops.  The dubious “Eating Green” tab sums up the CSPI’s political interests.  This isn’t science (which is a broad term with many specialized areas).  This is nutrition science, not general science.  The name itself is misleading.

As we grow closer to a nationalized health care system, please be aware that these types of lobbyists will have a say on what kind of food is sold, as the population must eat well to stay healthy.  So expect your Dolly Madison Snack Cakes to vanish from store aisles, as well as any carbonated beverage, as the government forces milk upon you.  And when you go to the movies, be sure to pick up the Big Salad to split with your kids while watching the film.

Al Gore: Earth’s Core Is a Few Million Degrees C

The all-around GENIUS Nobel Laureate who’s been touting geothermal energy tells Conan the planetary core temperature of earth is “several million degrees“:

Conan:   Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …
Al:   Yeah, yeah.
Conan:     and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that’s generated from the core of the earth …
Al:   Yeah.
Conan:   … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?
Al:   It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …

The CORE is several million degrees!?  Quick, call Hillary Swank!

The SUN has a core temperature of a few million Kelvins.  The Earth’s core is estimated to be about 6000-7000 K.  You’d think he’d know this, being an expert on renewable energy and all that.  Unless he’s just a political hack making things up as he goes along to push his fantasy of imminent destruction by CO2.

STD Infections Still on the Rise

A recent report by the CDC shows that common, treatable infections of ghonnorhea, syphilis, and chlamydia are on the rise.  So who’s the blame for the increase in these STDs?  According to John Douglas, you and me, ignorant American!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States.

“Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated,” said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world,” Douglas added in a telephone interview.

…

“We haven’t been promoting the full battery of messages,” Douglas said. “We have been sending people out with one seatbelt in the whole car.”

The blame falls on people to spread the message on how to treat these common disease.  However, look at these statistics I’ve highlighted.

* 1.2 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1 million in 2007.

* Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported.

* Adolescent girls 15 to 19 years had the most chlamydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.

* Blacks, who represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 71 percent of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.

* Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

* 13,500 syphilis cases were reported in 2008, an almost 18 percent increase from 2007.

* 63 percent of syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men.

Ah, notice the elephant in the room?  These diseases is prevalent amongst historically-poor minority Americans.  If I had to guess, these infections are also common in the inner cities, where education is poor, as is access to adequate medical care.

I don’t think the problem here is education.  I think the problem here is rampant poverty in urban areas, poverty that’s been prevalent in the ghetto for 40 years.  I also think the obsession with sex amongst teens, especially at-risk teens, driven by a popular culture obsessed with sex, has really helped this STD explosion more than you and I talking to kids about sex.

Kids are bombarded with sex daily, from dolls, to TV shows, to movies, to music.  There’s no escaping it.  A society with an unhealthy preoccupation with sex is exacerbating the problems.

I am also concerned that nearly 2/3 of all syphilis cases occur within the gay population.  Syphilis is a nasty disease.  The fact the disease is growing in prevalence is not due to government policy but a breakdown of social and individual responsibility.