ClimateGate: Steyn on Copenhagen...

A teaser:

So just to recap: The Prince of Wales, a man who has never drawn his own curtains, ramps up a carbon footprint of 2,601 tons while telling us that western capitalist excess is destroying the planet. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the railroad engineer who heads the International Panel on Climate Change and has demanded that "hefty aviation taxes should be introduced to deter people from flying," flew 443,226 miles on "IPCC business" in the year and a half before the Copenhagen summit. And Al Gore is a carbon billionaire: He makes more money buying offsets from himself than his dad did from investing in Occidental Petroleum.

Go read the whole thing.

Legal Murder...

In Virginia, the police believe it is legal to kill newborn babies...

Doesn't common sense have a place in here somewhere?

ClimateGate: Copenhagen Crash...

Was the outcome at Copenhagen the best one possible?

ClimateGate: Wikipedia Police...

An interesting look at how Wikipedia's AGW articles were maintained in a deceptive way...

A Non-Work Weekend...

I haven't worked (for my job) even 5 minutes this weekend.  I can't remember the last time I did that.  Please note that this is not a complaint – I love the work I do.  I work long hours because I want to, not because anyone asks me to.  I'm just making the observation that I haven't worked at all this weekend.

But that's not to say that I just stayed in bed or watched TV!

Friday night I replaced our kitchen sink's faucet.  This is challenging mainly because it involves lying on your back under the sink, working overhead in a very tight space.  The old faucet (a top-of-the-line Moen) had a piece of cast iron in its guts that had rusted and falling apart (after 8+ years of good service).  I replaced it with a new top-of-the-line Moen – but one whose innards are entirely made of brass and stainless steel.

Saturday morning I assembled Debbie's Christmas present.  Crazy woman that she is, a couple of months ago she announced that the only thing she wanted for Christmas was a barbeque grill.  We've had a cheapie “baby” grill for the past year, and we've gotten much good use out of it – and I'm a frequent beneficiary of the good food resulting.  So I had no objection to this notion.  I did some research, asked some friends, and ended up selecting a Weber Genesis S-310.  The best price (including free shipping in the equation) was from Amazon, so I ordered it about 10 days ago, and had it in just two days.  I was a little shocked at its weight: 220 pounds.

Yesterday morning I finally had the time to open the box and see what I'd gotten myself into.  Unpacking it carefully took the better part of an hour, and left our living room strewn with dozens of large metal parts and bags full of small parts.  My first impressions were positive: the packaging was very well done, finished metal parts were covered with protective plastic film, and all the fabrication work looked to be top notch.  There were a half-dozen or so large aluminum castings, all very well made.  All but a few of the steel parts (and all of the exposed parts) were stainless steel, and heavy gauge (which is where the 220 pounds came from).

There was but a single sheet of instructions, which was a little worrisome given the quantity of (often mysterious-looking) parts littering the living room.  But as I started in on the assembly, I found the instructions to be clear and complete.  I had very little trouble finding the right parts and putting them together.  About the only critique I can make of the instructions is that there were a couple of occasions when the size of the part I was looking for was so different than what I'd expected (based on the drawing) that I had trouble identifying it – but compared to most such assembly experiences, that is a trivial criticism.  The fit of every single piece was literally perfect – I had no banging, sawing, filing, or “encouraging” to do.  Best of all, when I finished (after about three hours), there wasn't a single part missing, or left over – and the resulting grill looked great and felt solid.

But now that we owned a “real” grill, we had to wander down the hill to buy and fill a propane tank.  We took the opportunity to stop by the Bravo Cafe to deliver our Christmas gift to Manoli (and to receive ours in return!).  We had one of his delicious-but-gut-expanding breakfast burritos (which was the end of our eating for the day).  Then we went home and tried out the new grill.  Worked the first time, producing large quantities of heat with no effort at all.

We are now ready for serious grilling!

ClimateGate: McIntyre Takes Apologists to the Woodshed...

The ClimateGate revelations have vindicated Steve McIntyre's publicly voices suspicions in a big way.  You might expect he'd take on a gloating tone, and I'd certainly understand it if he did – but he didn't.  However, some of the AGW apologists have said some things that are just plain contrary to the facts revealed in ClimateGate, and the amazingly level-headed McIntyre has completely ignored them.

Until now, that is.  I guess he's had enough...

ClimateGate: Russia Claims Data Cherry-Picking...

Oh, boy.  Now the Russians are saying that the CRU carefully chose which Russian weather station data to include in their data set.  They carefully chose those weather stations showing a warming trend. 

Steve McIntyre has been suspicious of the Russian data (as used by CRU) for years.

See here for details from McIntyre and here for Delingpole's reaction.

The Economy is So Bad That...

Via reader Jim M.:

The economy is so bad that:


I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.


I ordered a burger at McDonald's and the kid behind the counter asked,  "Can you afford fries with that?"


CEO's are now playing miniature golf.


If the bank returns your check marked  "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.


Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.


McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.


Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.


A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .


Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.


Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.


The Mafia is laying off judges.


Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.


Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!!   The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!


And, finally...


I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc.,  I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

ClimateGate: That Didn't Take Long...

The Department of Energy (DOE) sent a notice that starts as below to 8,000 or so employees of its Savanah River Site in South Carolina:

December 14, 2009

DOE Litigation Hold Notice

DOE-SR has received a “Litigation Hold Notice” from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) General Council and the DOE Office of Inspector General regarding the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England. Accordingly, they are requesting that SRNS, SRR and other Site contractors locate and preserve all documents, records, data, correspondence, notes, and other materials, whether official or unofficial, original or duplicative, drafts or final versions, partial or complete that may relate to the global warming, including, but not limited to, the contract files, any related correspondence files, and any records, including emails or other correspondence, notes, documents, or other material related to this contract, regardless of its location or medium on which it is stored. In other words, please preserve any and all documents relevant to “global warming, the Climate Research Unit at he University of East Anglia In England, and/or climate change science.”

Read the whole thing here.

Sounds like litigation.  I wonder who is suing who, and on what theory?

ClimateGate: IPCC Head Isn't Quite as Independent as You'd Think...

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri is the head of the IPCC, and much in the news recently as he defends the CRU and its work from the ClimateGate revelations.  I got curious about just who this guy was, as I'd never heard of him before.  Turns out several other people were curious, too – see here and here. 

The gist of it is that Dr. Pachauri is one extremely well-connected man – well-connected with dozens of energy-related businesses, that is.  As James Delingpole puts it:

Nevertheless, with the best will in the world, does the good Dr Pachauri not feel there might be certain potential conflict-of-interest issues between his role as head of the IPCC and his sundry business interests?

To which I say...“Hmmmm...”

ClimateGate: Mainstream at Last...

Clive Crook in the Financial Times:

Yet how did the establishment respond? It said that this is how science is done in the real world. Initially, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defended the scientists and played down the significance of their correspondence. Al Gore said he had not read the e-mails (they were stolen, for heaven’s sake) and that they were reassuring.

When, inexplicably, that did not quell the scandal, the climate-science establishment argued that even if CRU’s work was excluded from consideration, plenty of other evidence supported its findings. Maybe so, thinks the fair-minded voter. But the independence of other big research groups is not entirely clear. In any case, many scientists had just called the e-mailers exemplars of best practice. Why should one expect other researchers’ standards to be any different?

Which leaves smearing the doubters as opponents of science itself. They are either stupid or evil; “flat-earthers” or “deniers” (akin, that is, to Holocaust deniers). Supporters of the consensus no doubt lap this up. The voters who need to be convinced are less likely to. On the whole, people object to being called ignorant or evil. That is not how you bring them round.

When you've lost the FT, what's left?  Your dog?

ClimateGate: Oh, Jeez...

A Stanford professor holds a press briefing at the Copenhagen climate change conference.  A journalist and film-maker attending the briefing asks some awkward questions about ClimateGate.  The professor calls in armed U.N. security officers, who forced the journalist to stop filming – and threatened to eject him from the conference.

We can't even ask questions?

ClimateGate: Spotted in the Lamestream Media...

This is interesting both on its face, and for the fact that it was published by that well-known right-leaning institution called CBS News:

What irks the APS members circulating the petition are not claims that CO2 has been increasing for a century and that the Earth is warming; Lewis says the planet has been warming for thousands of years without our help, especially since the Little Ice Age a few hundred years ago. Instead, the physicists are concerned about the APS's claim that the science is settled on the question of the causal link between the two -- a claim that underpins the Copenhagen conference, the Democratic cap and trade proposals, and the EPA's announcement this week that CO2 is dangerous to human health.

APS is the American Physical Society, the main American organization for physicists.  I've posted about the internal debate there, which is mainly exhibiting the tension between the APS members support for good science (which ClimateGate revealed was not happening at the CRU) and other APS members inclinations for activism in support of AGW mitigation. 

It is so good to see the sunlight shining on this issue...

ClimateGate: Dennis Miller Interprets...

Ah, it's so much clearer now:

You ever come across raccoons in the outdoor trash can at 11:30 or so at night? As soon as they're exposed by the beam of the flashlight (by the way, how much CO2 does the beam of a flashlight put into the atmosphere?), they turn on you with fangs and paws and let you know what follows will be a short conversation with very little talking involved.

Currently, climate scientists are raccoons hip-deep in statistical garbage and you should approach them with caution because they are unarmed (with facts) and dangerous.

In lieu of having the facts (i.e., the thermometer!) bear out their hypothesis, they are now going to have to get creative. They are going to have to press the bet now and steer into the delusional skid, and that sort of desperation makes for a really unsavory individual no matter how much good they are ostensibly doing for their fellow man.

Deniers will be disparaged, data will be fudged and theories will be advanced that are, if possible, even more wing-nuttier than some of the claptrap currently out there. If heretofore depictions of Manhattan under water in the year 2057 were shown to sixth-graders, they're going to have to drop it down to preschoolers in deference to the Gullibility Expansion Joint.

It's amazing to see this topic so out in the open now.  Nice, too...

ClimateGate: Raw Data Revisionism...

Anthony Watts catches GISS in the act of changing the raw temperature data. 

For my readers who aren't familiar with such things, the issue here is that historical raw data (in this case, temperature readings) should never change.  If a thermometer at some site read a particular temperature on a particular date and time, then that should be that.  That historical temperature reading can't be 70° last week and 72° this week – but that's exactly what Watts caught GISS doing.

That's a big, big red flag for anyone whose research depends on this data – and the timing of the change, occuring in the midst of ClimateGate, just raises that red flag even higher.

Said another way: just what in the hell is going on with these climate researchers???

ClimateGate: Hobbyist Edition...

If you're reasonably competent with a spreadsheet, and you'd like to see for yourself how the CRU “cooked the books” to get the infamous hocky-stick graph, then this article is for you.  Essentially it's a tutorial on how to manipulate the raw proxy temperature data (which is publicly available) to get essentially the same results the CRU did. 

Even if you already understand, on an intellectual level, what the CRU did this is still an interesting exercise to see how it's done at a practical level.  It's also a bit surprising how easy it actually is.

Also interesting is who came up with this tutorial: David Burge, better known to most people as IowaHawk, the master of satire!

First Light on the VISTA Telescope...

The VISTA telescope – designed in the U.K., located in Chile – images in both visible and infrared wavelengths.  The image at right is of the Flame Nebula.  It's now been handed off from the development team to operations.

Congratulations to the folks who worked so hard to put this thing together!

Assyrian Tablet Decoding...

National Geographic talks about the decoding of this Assyrian baked clay tablet.  It seems to document the everyday inner workings of the government...

ClimateGate: McIntyre Deconstructs the Trick...

Steve McIntyre was able to construct persuasive arguments about how AGW proponents had cooked the data even when he didn't have any access to internal CRU documents.  With the ClimateGate trove in hand, well...watch out, data cookers!

Here McIntyre summarizes the progress to date in reverse-engineering the cookery used in the notorious “hockey stick” graph from the IPCC report.  The progress is both numerical and contextual – that is, McIntyre and others have made great strides at understanding both the mathematics of the cookery and the human context of how it came about.

The story is fascinating. 

Steve McIntyre seems to be (at last!) getting some well-deserved recognition for his tireless efforts to understand the data underlying the AGW hypothesis...

Saturn's Strange Hexagon...

Saturn's jet stream blows in a strange hexagonal pattern, captured here by Cassini. The hexagon is basically a long-lived weather phenomenon ringing the planet's north pole. Read more here.