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Quote:Anonymous said...

how did HMS investigator get this far north at the end of the Little Ice Age?"

Quote:You are asking a difficult question, which might make some people a bit uncomfortable. If you're not careful, someone might mistake you for a climate denier, which of course is the same as a holocaust denier. Holocaust denier!!!

Quote:Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on.

The first surgeon says, I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.

The second responds, Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded.

The third surgeon says, No, I really think librarians are the best; Everything inside is in alphabetical order.

The fourth surgeon chimes in; You know, I like construction workers. Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would.

But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed; You're all wrong. Liberals are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable.

Quote:The fox cub caught lounging around on swimming pool lilo

By Beth Hale
Last updated at 10:03 AM on 11th August 2010

The covered paddling pool must have seemed an irresistible playground for an adventurous fox cub.
But it found itself in deep trouble after the cover gave way, plunging it into the cold water.
Homeowner John Barnes was awoken at 5am by splashing and found the shivering animal had managed to clamber aboard an airbed in the middle of the pool.

Mr Barnes, 52, took this picture before using a rake to push the lilo towards the edge, but the frightened fox snapped at it and toppled back into the water.
With a last despairing effort, however, it regained the airbed and managed to scramble over the edge of the plastic pool before disappearing into the undergrowth in Selsdon, near Croydon.
Foxes are reluctant swimmers and the temperature of the water would have rapidly affected the animal. Mr Barnes’s wife Ann said: ‘We’ve had the pool for two months and every time we’ve been in it the water has been just freezing.’
She added that by the time the fox was back on dry land, it was so tired it could barely walk. ‘It’s so lucky John was there.’
The kind-hearted couple have now installed steps into their pool in case any other animals decide to go for a late-night swim.

Trevor Williams, director of the Fox Project charity, said: ‘We have heard of foxes getting into water in gardens and before this case, all of them have ended with the fox losing its life.’
Appearances of the urban fox appear to be on the rise.
In June nine-month-old twins Lola and Isabella Koupparis, were mauled by an urban fox when they were sleeping in their cots at their home in Hackney, East London.

Quote:Even as environmental agendas delay well permitting and cause other headaches, new opportunities may loom for “green” drilling. Two areas in particular present themselves – CO2 geologic storage and geothermal drilling.

As Pritchard Capital somewhat breathlessly phrased it in a recent e-missive, “Geothermal is hot and getting hotter.” As previously reported herein, $90 million of US funding was designated for geothermal technologies. The funding is for work on conventional geothermal resources and for “enhanced” geothermal.

Longtime DC readers may recall “enhanced” geothermal from 1991, when Los Alamos invited IADC to organize a drillers’ delegation to tour the New Mexico facility and learn about “hot dry rocks” – now reborn with the rather more marketable moniker “enhanced” geothermal. In short, an injector and a producer are drilled into non-permeable, heat-bearing strata. The rock is fractured, tepid water pumped in and hot water produced to generate electricity.

A $500 million-plus annual bonanza in drilling and well services predicted in ’91 has yet to emerge. Even today, backed by fed funds, progress is shaky. One recent, well-publicized DOE-funded project in California’s Geysers by AltaRock Energy was suspended in early September after failures re-entering and deepening the first well. Each of AltaRock’s three redrill attempts ended in failure, the well collapsing and trapping the BHA. The company suggested several culprits – long-term injection, difficult geology, and the well rework itself. AltaRock would not comment to DC beyond the information on its website.

Quote:The other prospective green gusher for well services is CO2 geologic storage. Suggestions for CO2 disposal modes abound. Our industry has been injecting the stuff downhole in tertiary oil-recovery programs for decades. Kinder Morgan CO2 alone delivers some 1.3 billion cu ft through 1,300 miles of pipelines. Much of this is produced from domes in the western US, ironic in an age of CO2 terror.

Quote:IPCC warns its scientists to avoid the media:

Scientists have reacted with dismay at a letter sent out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) advising them not to talk to journalists. The letter was published just two days before the publication of a review of the “Climategate” affair that criticized researchers at the University of East Anglia for lacking openness.

Quote:"These companies are acting they way they do because Greenpeace has a gun to their heads," said Fern Abrams, director of government relations and environmental policy at the Association Connecting Electronics Industries (IPC) in Bannockburn, Ill.

Quote:In response to growing regulations, IPC has launched a campaign asking regulating bodies such as the European Parliament to make sure their regulations are based on actual science. Many in the electronics industry believe the regulations are politically based rather than based on improving the environment. "When you look at some of the proposed amendments, you begin to abandon hope that it will be scientific process," said IPC's Abrams. "Some of the amendments are quite disturbing to anyone who cares about science."

Quote:Safeguarding our future

The new UK Government, companies and organisations involved in reducing our carbon footprint, have ambitious intentions to make us, the consumer, change our lifestyle to contribute to this challenge.
On a day-to-day basis how we conserve our energy resources at home; from where we select our fruit and vegetables when we shop; and what mode of transport we use to get around, are all factors that contribute to the reduction of our individual carbon footprint. But, inevitably, focus seemingly always returns to our cars – how it’s fuelled, engine size, its emissions – the list goes on!

At Deloitte, we are aiming to obtain the most comprehensive overview of what you, the consumer, consider automotive manufacturers of electric vehicles (EV’s) could offer you and invite you to participate in the important new survey.

In participating, you could win a new Apple iPad*

The survey questions, which should take between 10 to 15 minutes to complete, will give the widest possible view of what consumers really believe access to electric vehicles may give to them. The analysis will be reviewed and available later this Summer, and we would be happy to provide you with the report, or alternatively, watch out on http://www.deloitte.co.uk/pointofview.

Every participant of the survey who selects to provide their details at the conclusion of the questionnaire will be entered in to the prize draw to win an *Apple iPad 32GB with Wi-Fi option. The winner will be informed by Wednesday 29 September 2010.

So let’s get your point of view

To access, please click here to enter ‘Are trends electric?’ survey.
We do hope you will take part, and appreciate your participation in ‘Are trends electric?’.

Quote:Analysis: Government buys into DAB switchover
Steve Bush
Friday 09 July 2010 14:20

With the publishing of its Digital Radio Action Plan, the new Government has clearly bought into digital radio switchover, with a subtle change of emphasis to what's gone before.

Gone is the barely optional headlong dive for 2015, which was promoted by the previous Government's Digital Britain Report.

According to Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, the new Government will coax public acceptance of FM switch-off, rather than forcing the pace of transition.

"The Digital Radio Action Plan I am publishing today sets out our clear commitment to make progress towards digital radio switchover. But I am not setting a date," he said. "The industry believes 2015 is an achievable target date and we will work to support that ambition. And when the weight of public opinion is behind it, with more than half of all radio listening digital, then we can take the decision on when the country will be ready for switchover."
Click Here

The Plan even goes so far as to use the phrase "if, or when, the market is ready".

This said, the intention of the forceful Digital Britain report - which formed the basis of the Digital Economy Act 2010 that was ratified in the dying days of the previous Government - was always to have switch-over a minimum of two years after radio listening was 50% DAB - figures that have made it into the Act in sprit, as far as I can tell, rather than in explicit binding paragraphs.

Currently around 25% of radio listening is over DAB.

To its credit, the Plan is largely a business-like list of milestones and dates aiming at a pain-free - or at least none-to-painful - transition to all-DAB listening for all but ultra-local FM radio stations.

Much of it is nuts-and-bolts technical scheduling, although there is a significant chunk dedicated to marketing switch-over as a good idea.

Written in is the consumer expert group that was formed to review digital TV switch-over - including RNIB, British Wireless for the Blind Fund, the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, and Citizens' Advice - which has agreed to do the same for radio.

The Plan's schedule ranges broadly, and does seek to cover some of the objections raised by those opposed to FM switch-off, including: sound quality, the cost of converting a household to DAB, automotive reception, and increasing DAB coverage to match FM.

However, power consumption, the other major concern of those wanting to keep FM, is largely ignored.

"Digital transmission networks are significantly more energy efficient than their analogue equivalents. For example, it is estimated that transmitting Classic FM nationally via DAB uses less than 7% of the electricity needed to transmit it via FM. Local and regional DAB transmissions offer energy savings of around 50 per cent," said Vaizey's department, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) at the launch of the Plan.

To back up its power claims, DCMS released an independent report on the power consumption of DAB and FM radios, written by Intertek in Milton Keynes.

For reasons I have yet to fathom, battery-only receivers, which are most likely to suffer if DAB radios take more power than FM-only receivers, are not covered.

Based on the mains consumption of 164 different radios, the report concludes there is little difference between FM and DAB radio consumption (Table 1 in the report, if you are interested).

Although more detailed tables (Table 2, for example) show most DAB radios consuming significantly more power than FM-only models, except in the home cinema and Hi-Fi class where DAB equipment wins easily.

It also shows digital receivers gradually improving their power consumption while FM receivers have stagnated.

Interestingly, Internet streaming radios have the worst power consumption of all.

Quote:Intertek Milton Keynes were commissioned by AEA Technology, to carry out research on behalf of the DEFRA Sustainable Products and Materials team to produce data on the energy performance of analogue and digital radio receivers and a model of the projected changes in energy consumption resulting from the proposed switchover to digital in 2015.

Quote:First is a letter from Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC's chairman. In it Pachauri says that his "sincere advice" is that researchers should "keep a distance from the media," and refer all questions about their work to the co-chairs of their individual working groups. (The IPCC assessments are divided into three working groups that deal with different parts of climate science.) The second document is a "media guide" for climate researchers put together by Resource Media, a non-profit NGO that has helped publicize the IPCC's work in the past. (You can see the document here.) In the guide, Resource Media advises researchers on where reporters may be coming from—apparently we tend to be jaded, world-weary, poor and sensitive to criticism—and how to deal with them. The advice ranges from the helpful—if you don't know the answer to a question, say so—to the goofy: "Be positive." Especially jarring, though, is a list of words that the guide suggests scientists should avoid using when talking to the media because they may be misunderstood. Now, like any science reporter, I'm all for researchers avoiding unnecessary jargon—of which there is much in climate science. But some of the words to avoid are just, well, strange. Here's a selection:

PDF

Review

Species

Positive

Negative

Theory

Uncertainty

Error

Ecology

(Yes, that's right. Researchers who are working on what will be the biggest scientific project on the biggest environmental problem in human history are for some reason supposed to avoid the term "ecology." I guess we should just be glad they didn't include "climate" and "change" on this list.)

Quote:Finally … avoid scientific jargon.
Below is a list of words that mean one thing to scientists
and something else entirely to the public and reporters. To
lower the risk of being misunderstood, avoid them. Ask a
media expert for alternatives.

Quote:The model predicts a shocking loss of life from air pollution. As reported last week by Peter Shawn Taylor in Canada’s Financial Post, McKitrick put 1960s levels of air pollution into the model and found that the deaths it attributed to pollution in the Toronto area reached more than 100% of all the people who actually died. As McKitrick said, “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Quote:[...]The Limits to Growth, 1972 [...] That may sound familiar, but four decades ago the pollution wasn’t greenhouse gases but good old-fashioned smog and poisonous wastes from industry and agriculture.

[...]

A trend is a trend is a trend

But when and how does it bend?

Does it rise to the sky,

Or lie down and die,

Or asymptote on to the end?

(Chris Freeman)

Quote:The invisibility of the smog death toll, and the debate over the clinical mechanisms by which pollution might affect human health, put even greater focus on the reliability of the computer models behind all these numbers. To what extent can the models be trusted?

Epidemiological modelling efforts are entirely inferred: Evidence on deaths and hospitalizations are fed into a computer, along with air pollution and other possible factors. Then statistical correlations are estimated.

In the case of the CMA’s model, the selected pollutants are ozone and particulate matter of 2.5 microns. Boadway explains these two factors were chosen among all other possibilities on the recommendation of an international panel of experts. Choosing your explanatory variables ahead of time and then looking for significant links is called model selection.

McKitrick uses a different approach, something called Bayesian model averaging. Such a method is necessary, he claims, due to the sheer number of possible variables involved. “There are literally tens of billions of potential combinations,” McKitrick observes. Besides numerous different forms of air pollution, researchers may also include time-delayed measurements, as well as independent factors such as weather, lifestyle and income. Allowing authors to arbitrarily pick the variables through model selection creates uncertainty and opens the potential for cherry-picking the most desirable results, he says.

Quote:Discussing the 'Climategate' Affair and the CRU Inquiries

Speakers
* Stephen McIntyre (Canada)
* David Holland (UK)

Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 19:00 - 21:00
Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DB

Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
To register, please e-mail: info@thegwpf.org or phone 207 9306856

On 7 July, Sir Muir Russell will publish the findings of the Independent Climate Change Email Review into what is commonly known as the 'Climategate' Affair. The Global Warming Policy Foundation is holding a public meeting to assess the procedures, conclusions and implications of the Review and the lessons of Climategate.

Stephen McIntyre and David Holland are internationally recognised critics of the flawed expert advisory process that governments continue to rely on. Both are the subject of frequent references in the 'Climategate' emails (McIntyre is mentioned over 100 times) and both contributed written submissions of evidence to the Muir Russell inquiry. According to the BBC, McIntyre "arguably knows more about CRU science than anyone outside the unit - but none of the CRU inquiries has contacted him for input."
The meeting will be chaired by Dr Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

About the Speakers:

Stephen McIntyre -
Stephen McIntyre, a Canadian citizen, is a mathematical statistician and the most prominent critic of the so-called Hockey Stick graph. Since becoming involved with climate change issues some years ago, he has become a leading and internationally recognised critic first, of the handling of data and the treatment of evidence by prominent and influential climate scientists, and second, of flawed IPCC procedures. Besides his numerous publications, he has made a major contribution to the debate through his prizewinning blog, ClimateAudit.

David Holland -
David Holland is a retired engineer. He was a co-author of a leading critique of the Stern Review, and more recently has published a far-reaching criticism of IPCC methods and procedures.