Obama wins Noblel Peace Prize
"Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said in a citation."
Who new the key to peace was hope?
"Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party in Pakistan, called the award an embarrassing "joke". "
I completely agree. How unfortunate for the past recipients deserving of this prize. It's just been rendered meaningless.
October 09, 2009
September 22, 2009
Global Cooling
Scientists pull an about face on global warming
By Lorne Gunter, For The Calgary HeraldSeptember 19, 2009
Imagine if Pope Benedict gave a speech saying the Catholic Church has had it wrong all these centuries; there is no reason priests shouldn't marry. That might generate the odd headline, no?
Or Jack Layton insisted that unions are ruining the economy by distorting wages and protecting unproductive workers.
When a leading proponent for one point of view suddenly starts batting for the other side, it's usually newsworthy.
So why was a speech last week by Prof. Mojib Latif of Germany's Leibniz Institute not given more prominence?
Latif is one of the leading climate modellers in the world. He is the recipient of several international climate-study prizes and a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has contributed significantly to the IPCC's last two five-year reports that have stated unequivocally that man-made greenhouse emissions are causing the planet to warm dangerously.
Yet last week in Geneva, at the UN's World Climate Conference--an annual gathering of the so-called "scientific consensus" on man-made climate change --Latif conceded the Earth has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering "one or even two decades during which temperatures cool."
The global warming theory has been based all along on the idea that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would absorb much of the greenhouse warming caused by a rise in man-made carbon dioxide, then they would let off that heat and warm the atmosphere and the land.
But as Latif pointed out, the Atlantic, and particularly the North Atlantic, has been cooling instead. And it looks set to continue a cooling phase for 10 to 20 more years.
"How much?" he wondered before the assembled delegates. "The jury is still out."
But it is increasingly clear that global warming is on hiatus for the time being. And that is not what the UN, the alarmist scientists or environmentalists predicted. For the past dozen years, since the Kyoto accords were signed in 1997, it has been beaten into our heads with the force and repetition of the rowing drum on a slave galley that the Earth is warming and will continue to warm rapidly through this century until we reach deadly temperatures around 2100.
While they deny it now, the facts to the contrary are staring them in the face: None of the alarmist drummers ever predicted anything like a 30-year pause in their apocalyptic scenario.
Latif says he expects warming to resume in 2020 or 2030.
In the past year, two other groups of scientists--one in Germany, the second in the United States--have come to the same conclusion: Warming is on hold, likely because of a cooling of the Earth's upper oceans, but it will resume.
But how is that knowable? How can Latif and the others state with certainty that after this long and unforeseen cooling, dangerous man-made heating will resume? They failed to observe the current cooling for years after it had begun, how then can their predictions for the resumption of dangerous warming be trusted?
My point is they cannot. It's true the supercomputer models Latif and other modellers rely on for their dire predictions are becoming more accurate. But getting the future correct is far trickier. Chances are some unforeseen future changes will throw the current predictions out of whack long before the forecast resumption of warming.
By Lorne Gunter, For The Calgary HeraldSeptember 19, 2009
Imagine if Pope Benedict gave a speech saying the Catholic Church has had it wrong all these centuries; there is no reason priests shouldn't marry. That might generate the odd headline, no?
Or Jack Layton insisted that unions are ruining the economy by distorting wages and protecting unproductive workers.
When a leading proponent for one point of view suddenly starts batting for the other side, it's usually newsworthy.
So why was a speech last week by Prof. Mojib Latif of Germany's Leibniz Institute not given more prominence?
Latif is one of the leading climate modellers in the world. He is the recipient of several international climate-study prizes and a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has contributed significantly to the IPCC's last two five-year reports that have stated unequivocally that man-made greenhouse emissions are causing the planet to warm dangerously.
Yet last week in Geneva, at the UN's World Climate Conference--an annual gathering of the so-called "scientific consensus" on man-made climate change --Latif conceded the Earth has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering "one or even two decades during which temperatures cool."
The global warming theory has been based all along on the idea that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would absorb much of the greenhouse warming caused by a rise in man-made carbon dioxide, then they would let off that heat and warm the atmosphere and the land.
But as Latif pointed out, the Atlantic, and particularly the North Atlantic, has been cooling instead. And it looks set to continue a cooling phase for 10 to 20 more years.
"How much?" he wondered before the assembled delegates. "The jury is still out."
But it is increasingly clear that global warming is on hiatus for the time being. And that is not what the UN, the alarmist scientists or environmentalists predicted. For the past dozen years, since the Kyoto accords were signed in 1997, it has been beaten into our heads with the force and repetition of the rowing drum on a slave galley that the Earth is warming and will continue to warm rapidly through this century until we reach deadly temperatures around 2100.
While they deny it now, the facts to the contrary are staring them in the face: None of the alarmist drummers ever predicted anything like a 30-year pause in their apocalyptic scenario.
Latif says he expects warming to resume in 2020 or 2030.
In the past year, two other groups of scientists--one in Germany, the second in the United States--have come to the same conclusion: Warming is on hold, likely because of a cooling of the Earth's upper oceans, but it will resume.
But how is that knowable? How can Latif and the others state with certainty that after this long and unforeseen cooling, dangerous man-made heating will resume? They failed to observe the current cooling for years after it had begun, how then can their predictions for the resumption of dangerous warming be trusted?
My point is they cannot. It's true the supercomputer models Latif and other modellers rely on for their dire predictions are becoming more accurate. But getting the future correct is far trickier. Chances are some unforeseen future changes will throw the current predictions out of whack long before the forecast resumption of warming.
July 28, 2009
Bad Economists
There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen. Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil.
-Frederic Bastiat, French economist (1801 - 1850)
-Frederic Bastiat, French economist (1801 - 1850)
July 23, 2009
BullSHIT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he realized Americans were skeptical about his healthcare overhaul, but that the country's economic recovery depended on implementing the $1 trillion plan.
March 18, 2009
World Shut Your Mouth
There is nothing that important to say that justifies you being on your cell phone while you are in a car. If you can't wait to say it, then it's probably not worth saying. I don't care that you are baking muffins right now, or that you're tired, or that you hope Duke wins, so skip the facebook or twitter post. What compulsion is it that makes people feel they have to communicate every thought that comes into their head (or that anyone really cares to hear it)? I think only 3.6% of those thoughts are probably interesting or valuable, so why won't everyone just shut up for the other 96.4% of the time?
March 16, 2009
Need some furniture?
I'd recommend furniturenc2nyc.com. There's not much out there in terms of a review of this business, so I'd thought I'd write a few comments. This is the second time I have ordered furniture from this "company". It's really a mom and pop operation (literally), who personally make the trek from the furniture warehouses in NC to the tri-state area every other weekend.
Their prices can not be beat. I purchased a dining room set, and they were about 30% below retail, and 18% below the best price I could haggle locally. Not only that, the customer service is top notch too. The local store tried to sell me on the "buy local" trend. In this case, buying local meant waiting 8 weeks for delivery, paying $700 more, and not being able to get a piece I wanted due to it being discountinued. furniturenc2nyc.com was able to deliver all the pieces (including the "discontinued" one) in two weeks for $700 less.
There was one piece that was not ready in the finish I specified, so they brought a floor model for me to use until the ordered piece was in stock. When's the last time a local shop gave you a "loaner"?
The only downside is you might have to help carry in the furniture. As I said, it's a literal mom and pop operation. The owners, Chuck and Sandra were fully prepared to do all the moving themselves. My gentlemanly upbringing wouldn't allow me to stand by and watch, so I pitched in. Well worth the $700.
Their prices can not be beat. I purchased a dining room set, and they were about 30% below retail, and 18% below the best price I could haggle locally. Not only that, the customer service is top notch too. The local store tried to sell me on the "buy local" trend. In this case, buying local meant waiting 8 weeks for delivery, paying $700 more, and not being able to get a piece I wanted due to it being discountinued. furniturenc2nyc.com was able to deliver all the pieces (including the "discontinued" one) in two weeks for $700 less.
There was one piece that was not ready in the finish I specified, so they brought a floor model for me to use until the ordered piece was in stock. When's the last time a local shop gave you a "loaner"?
The only downside is you might have to help carry in the furniture. As I said, it's a literal mom and pop operation. The owners, Chuck and Sandra were fully prepared to do all the moving themselves. My gentlemanly upbringing wouldn't allow me to stand by and watch, so I pitched in. Well worth the $700.
March 12, 2009
We've lost our minds
"Proposals to tax the flatulence of cows and other livestock have been denounced by farming groups in the Irish Republic and Denmark.
A cow tax of €13 per animal has been mooted in Ireland, while Denmark is discussing a levy as high as €80 per cow to offset the potential penalties each country faces from European Union legislation aimed at combating global warming.
The proposed levies are opposed vigorously by farming groups. The Irish Farmers' Association said that the cattle industry would move to South America to avoid EU taxes.
Livestock contribute 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The Danish Tax Commission estimates that a cow will emit four tonnes of methane a year in burps and flatulence, compared with 2.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide for an average car."
A cow tax of €13 per animal has been mooted in Ireland, while Denmark is discussing a levy as high as €80 per cow to offset the potential penalties each country faces from European Union legislation aimed at combating global warming.
The proposed levies are opposed vigorously by farming groups. The Irish Farmers' Association said that the cattle industry would move to South America to avoid EU taxes.
Livestock contribute 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The Danish Tax Commission estimates that a cow will emit four tonnes of methane a year in burps and flatulence, compared with 2.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide for an average car."
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