Pet peeve:
Old people who, even when all others in the room give evidence and testimony to the contrary, believe “it’s cold in here,” and then turn the thermostat to an ungodly 80-plus degrees, making all others endure nauseating temperatures.
I am an old person and, as such, it’s really not required to be oblivious to the comfort of others. When I’m the only one who’s cold, I bundle up. I try to adjust, rather than requiring that everyone else adjust to me.
That’s all.

Alright, here is the second part of the blog about sings. This will finish them up for this time at least until I find more that I can share with everyone. Have fun!

Please comment I would love the feedback

If it is not in use, then why is it there?

if there is a sign, is there not already a problem?

invisible what? People?

hahaha wow

where are we not supposed to swim?

where am I supposed to park my flying car?

what to say about this one...?

100...mph?

to..ease congestion?

keep left...when there is a huge hole there?

have fun with this one

hahaha wow

evil construction workers..

even though this is not a sign, it is still amazing

how do I get in?

better hope it is not to serious

I am glad they made it plain

watch out for those dangerous gravestones

All customer complaints should be taken care of this way

I hope they have a cell phone

Thanks to whoever made this bilboard

poor cockroaches...:(

what is this gate guarding?!

does this guy still have his job?

bummer, I wanted to cross when cars were moving

does the local trafic have flying cars?

only in America

but...I don't speak dog!

but I already gave my arm and leg last time I got gas!

can buggies go 55?

fine failure

I just wanted to share in this quick post with everyone a video I saw this last summer at The Amazing Meeting 7 in Las Vegas.  During the convention, our pals at the Skeptics Guide to the Universe shared their first effort at skeptical movie-making, a spoof of “ghost-hunting” shows which have become so popular these days.  For a more detailed analysis of why ghost-hunting is a load of woo-woo, click here. I hope you enjoy the show!

The G Hunters: Episode 1, Part 1

The G Hunters: Episode 1, Part 2

(ANSA) – MOSCA, 27 NOV – Funghi nei boschi vicino a Mosca: e’ l’effetto dell’inusuale clima caldo e umido, spiega il sito meteo russo.’Il ciclone nordatlantico continua influenzare con aria calda e umida una parte della Russia europea’, si legge sul sito.Il fenomeno favorisce l’apparizione dei funghi, in particolare dei chiodini. A Mosca le temperature sono intorno ai 5-6 gradi, mentre nella regione di Mosca oscillano tra i 6 e 8 gradi: sono circa 9 gradi sopra la media per questo periodo.

It’s cold in Germany now – about six to eight degrees Celsius according to a BBC weather report.

But the weather hasn’t lived up to my expectations on the temperature in Europe at this time of the year.

While it can get bitterly cold out there on the streets, it’s warm inside the hotel and other buildings.

Indoors, I feel like I’m just in tropical Manila (at about 4 AM in December, when it’s a little bit cooler, 19 degrees Celsius more or less).

Inside any building I don’t need the thick jackets that I wear when I’m walking down the streets of Berlin.

I don’t think though that it has anything to do with global warming or something.

Maybe I’ve got really thick skin.

Or maybe I was a penguin in my past life.

ROLE OF HYDROLOGY AND GRAVITY

Pure water doesn’t conduct electricity. Normal water too is a poor conductor of heat. Exchange of heat takes place almost entirely by convection. Molecules carrying heat travel within the system and spread heat uniformly.

Ice and snow being solid, molecules have no freedom of movement. Unlike a rod of iron, heat is not passed on from one end to the other if the rod is made of ice. This is the reason why the igloo (hutment made of ice blocks) retains warmth inside it, even when the temperature outside falls much below the freezing point. A human being may remain alive for some days, if he sleeps in the arctic region. The snow deposited on his body forms a blanket which will not allow the heat of the body to escape outside and also protects from the cold wind blowing from the Poles. Such cases have been reported. At the same time beggars sleeping outside in the cold season in north India die as reported in newspapers, as they lose their body heat easily in the absence of warm cloths.

 This unique quality of frozen water plays a very important role in preventing heat of the earth from escaping into outer space by radiation. The Polar regions, and a considerable part of temperate regions in winter, remain covered with ice and snow. This is true of the mountainous regions and the plateaus of higher altitude also. In the seas the thermal insulation provided by the snow cover allows life to flourish throughout the year but prevents escape of heat and makes considerable contribution to global warming.

 There is continuous evaporation of water from the seas (not covered by ice) and land. Each molecule of vapor carries considerable quantity of latent heat as additional calorie. When they rise in altitude, the molecules form clouds and then descend towards the earth as rain, snow, dew and mist. This circulation of water results in cyclic movement of heat. Only the latent heat released at the time of formation of clouds results in escape of heat by radiation. In areas where humidity is minimum the heat lost by radiation will be considerable. Ironically deserts help to ‘fight Global Warming’ and greenery works in the reverse direction!

 If the earth were devoid of water, transfer of heat from the earth by radiation to outer space would have been easy and enormous in quantity as in the case of  the Moon.

 GRAVITY

What is the source of geo-thermal energy?

 A stack of lignite will catch fire if left in the open. Obviously this is because of the pressure developed inside, raising the temperature to ignition point of lignite which is comparatively low. Such rise in temperature takes place inside a stack of coal, iron ore, sand etc also. The pressure is caused by gravity of the earth which continuously pulls the stack down and the surface of the earth opposing this force, causing pressure. Therefore we may say that gravity generates heat. A hill is also a stack of great dimension. As the crust of the earth is not falling down due to gravity; it is obviously subjected to pressure caused by opposing forces of gravity and forces supporting the crust to remain in position. When the pressure at a point, say 10km inside the earth, is multiplied by the area of the globe at this point, we will get a mind boggling figure of the thrust, capable of generating heat, comparable to that produced by thousands of hydrogen bombs.

 Well, this may be the source of geo thermal energy and not radiation as maintained by geologists. The above theory is borne out by the fact that as we go deeper into the earth the temperature rises. In depressions like the Grand Canyon in America and the Dead Sea it is very hot.

 “Hence, omitting all reference to the active volcanoes, and to thermal springs at all temperatures below that of boiling water, found in all parts of the world, it is well-known fact, that in descending into deep mines the temperature is greatly above that of the mean of the exterior air, and increases progressively with the depth. This was first remarked by Gensanne, about the year 1740, in the lead mines of Giromagny, near Beport. Saussure afterwards observed the same fact in the salt mines at Bex, in Switzerland; but the attention of naturalists was not generally directed to the temperature of the lower strata, till Humboldt has executed an extensive and interesting series of experiments in the mines of Freyburg, in 1791. The best set of observations we possess on the temperature of deep places, is that which has been uninterruptedly continued for more than half a century in the caves under the observatory of Paris. In 1783 the Count de Cassini, in concert with Lavoisier, placed a very delicate thermometer in one of these excavations for the purpose of observing the curious phenomenon of an invariable temperature, which had been noticed to exist in the same place, by the first Cassini, in 1671, and by La Hire, in 1730. The thermometer is placed at the depth of rather more than thirty yards under the surface, in a bed of fine sand, and has indicated no change of temperature, or at least its oscillations have not exceeded the 1/33 of centesimal degree. The constant temperature exceeds at that depth, by 2.16 degree Fahrenheit’s scale, the mean tempreture at the surface: and supposing a uniform increase at the same rate, we would arrive at the temperature of boiling water at the depth of 2542 yards under the city of Paris. We may quote a few other results of observation. In the coal mines of the north of England the temperature is 70° at the depth of 800 or 900 feet, when the air at the surface is only 48° or 49°; and in the mines of Valenciana in Mexico, it is 92° when the surface-air is at 60°. The following are additional examples:-. In a copper mine at Dolcoath, in Cornwall, a thermometer was kept eighteen months buried in the rock to the depth of a yard. The depth of the mine was 1377 feet. The temperature indicated was 75.5°, while that of the country is 50°; and consequently the increase of heat there is at the rate of 1° for every 54 feet.

 At Giromagny, in the Vosges, the annual temperature at the surface is 49°; at 330 feet depth it is 53.6°; at 1008 feet, 65.8°; at 1416 feet 74.6°. in four of the deepest mines of Saxony the annual tempreture at the surface is 46.4degree at from 510 to 600 feet depth it is 54.5 degree; at 840 feet, 58 degree; at 1080 feet, 62.6°.

 In the deepest British coal mine, that of Killingworth, the annual temperature at the surface is 48°; at 900 feet depth it is 70°; at 1200 feet, 77°. A similar gradation is found in many of the deeper mines at home and abroad.

 There is thus in the Vosges an increase of temperature in descent below the surface amounting to about 1° in every 60 feet; in Saxony 1° in every 66 feet; and in Britain 1 degreein every 45 feet. After the ratio observed in the Vosges, the tempreture of the hot springs at Bath, 113°, will be found at three-quarters of a mile in the interior of the earth, and that of boiling water at a depth of nearly two miles. “The facts strongly support three conclusions:- First, that the heat of an interior shell of the earth is greater than the superficial shell. Second, that this heat augments progressively as we descend towards this region, in a ratio bearing some relations to the depth. Third, that, even at moderate depth, this heat is greater than the mean heat of the globe ought to be, if entirely derived from the sun. The heat of such an interior mass must be constantly diffusing itself towards the surface; and at the surface it may be kept down, so as to affect the temperature derived from the solar action very feebly, by the greater or less rapidity of its dissipation. But as it is very improbable that it should be diffused with perfect equality round the whole exterior shell of the globe, it may be the true source of some of those anomalies of climate, such as the discrepancy in the annual heat under the same parallel, which cannot be easily referred to other known causes”. If the heat of the globe were entirely derived from the sun, Pekin, at an inconsiderable elevation above the sea, ought to have the same mean annual temperature as Naples, being under the same parallel of latitude; but instead of that being the case, the temperature falls short of that at Naples by nearly 9°. Other causes may contribute to produce this discrepancy; yet it is not unreasonable to suppose that the mean heat at Naples is raised by its proximity to a focus of internal heat which smokes and flashes through the chimney of Vesuvius”.

 It is amazing that pioneers like Humboldt, Lavoisier etc had done path breaking observations regarding geo thermal energy and deserve all praise. Had this line of research continued, the conclusions now reached by me would have automatically been revealed much earlier. That the scientists, especially geologists, have not cared to  study physical geography is a big loss. I have only filled up the spaces left void by the pioneers.

 To conclude: global warming is caused by the earth itself and cooling is retarded by water – our father and mother. Shall we blame our parents or thank them for giving precious life enabling us a few year’s visit to this wonderful earth to enjoy it’s beauty and sublimity?

Alex Jones commente les r�cents �v�nements o� des Hackers ont r�cup�r� des preuves de l’�norme arnaque du r�chauffement climatique et du CO� !

–> http://www.infowars.com/ –> http://www.prisonplanet.com

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32inch lcd hdtv

THE COOLING EARTH

Nowadays it is fashionable to talk and write about global warming; so much so that it may sound like blasphemy if I say that the Earth is cooling. But it is a simple fact that all members of the solar system except the Sun are in fact cooling off continuously from the time of inception. Any hot body will shed its heat until its temperature corresponds to the temperature of its environment. If we consider the Earth as a whole, including its atmosphere, the temperature may be roughly 250 degree C more than the outer space. It’s inevitable that the earth must cool off, for a considerable time to come.

 Heat received by the Earth from the Sun is neglible, beyond 55 degree north and 55 degree south latitude. The slanting sunrays will not produce any worthwhile heat. Again, the heat received in the middle region up to 8 am and after 5 pm can be ignored. Whatever heat is absorbed between 8 am and 5 pm is lost during the night! All this is in summer. In winter sunlight has no effect at all.

 “But we have striking and sufficient evidence that the superficial shell of the globe is not only heated above that of the ambient air, by the action of its own deep-seated fires”  (Physical Geography by Thomas Milner)

 How does the earth remain warm? We must look inwards for an answer. The interior of the earth is very hot (The reasons have been explained in the article below on Gravity). The temperature may be thousands of degrees C. Slowly this heat seeps outwards. As we go down the earth it becomes extremely hot. Heat may be transferred from the interior to the surface of the earth by the process of conduction. Heat is also transferred by water molecules. If there is no water in the oceans, the ocean beds would be extremely hot. But actually the temperature of the water in ocean beds may be of the order of 3 degree C. This is because of convection currents caused by the ice caps in the Polar Regions and the hot cauldron of sea bed below. This can be proved by a simple experiment.

 A drum filled with water may be heated from below and cooled by a block of ice floating above. If you measure the temperature, you may find the water slightly warmer below the ice block than the water at the bottom of the drum. Water molecules, absorbing heat at the bottom, travel up and ice cooled water from the top comes down. In the same way hot water from the sea bed goes up and water (at 0 degree C) below the polar ice cap travels down towards the sea bed. This way heat from the interior of the earth is slowly transferred to the sea water. Eventually this heat is transmitted to outer space.

 There is another less known mechanism of heat transfer, from the interior of the earth. Water molecules are driven towards the ocean beds under tremendous pressure. We know how it is, if it rains continuously for a few days! What if it rains for 365 days? Or imagine a water tank constructed in a field (bottom being earth without water) the height of the tank being 6kms. Well, this is how the ocean bed is! The constant pounding of the ocean bed by the pressure of up to 1000 atmospheres, makes the earth pulpy and water infiltrates down. Marine geologists tell us that the terrain below the ocean is not much different from the terrain of the continents. When the surface temperature of the earth was higher than 100 degree C, there was no water in the seas. There was no difference between land and sea. It was all land. The sea bed was normal height of the plain. The continents are merely plains of greater height like Tibetan plateau we are familiar with. There are mountains and valleys in the ocean beds also. Tunnels and caves we find in the continent are there in the sea beds too. These will get filled with water; under high temperature, acquired from geo-thermal energy and high pressure, the water becomes super heated steam. Water goes down but steam presses up and ultimately finds its way to the ocean. There are about 30 thousand volcanoes and any number of hot springs in the ocean through which heat continuously comes out. This may, perhaps, be the source of hot currents in the ocean.

 The oceans can never be heated from above. The warm layer of water formed by sun rays cannot travel down and will become cool before the next day break. The ice cold water from the Polar region will sink to the ocean bed, never to rise up, unless heated by the earth. Ultimately, the whole ocean will become a block of ice if the earth is heated only from above by the Sun.

 Let us now look at a strange thing about the Earth. The Arctic Circle is comparatively well populated with Eskimo’s etc living permanently there. The corresponding region in the Antarctic Circle is extremely cold and inhospitable. Man makes his presence felt in this region only in the southern summer. The reasons are obvious. The Arctic region being land locked, there are any number of hot springs there, (see my article on Saraswati ) warming the atmosphere. On the other hand the Antarctica is surrounded by deep oceans : the Pacific ocean on one side and the Indian ocean on the opposite side. There must be hot springs in this region also; but being too deep the warm waters get cooled.\

From the above discussion one thing is clear – the earth is kept warm by geo thermal energy, and not by the heat from the Sun. Today life forms depend very much on sunlight; but the bottom of the sea too contains even developed life forms. Tomorrow if the sun suddenly disappears, I am sure mother Earth will continue to nurture her children, giving the warmth from her own bosom.

 If you look at the map of the world, you will find that the whole of the hemisphere on the Pacific side and 90 % of the southern hemisphere is water. Comparatively few points of the continent comprise of urban areas. Industrial activity in these urban centers can contribute but a miniscule percentage to global warming, which has been going on much before industrialization. (see para on CO₂)

 Therefore, all this hullabaloo about global warming may be unwarranted.

According to one theory, ‘Ice Age’ occurs every 18,000 years or so. The warming earth melts the polar ice cap, and the ice cold water comes down to northern Canada, Europe and northern Siberia. This will cause severe winter and the whole area will be covered with ice ushering in another ‘Ice Age’. The cycle repeats itself.

…it should just be called falsifying data. The most interesting thing yet comes from Bishop Hill (I have looked at the code and it seems to be what he says it is. And yes, I’m qualified I am a professional programmer). Below is a borrowed graph that explains what they seem to have added to one of their temperature graphs :

Add this and you get ....?

For those of you who are wondering why I’m still ranting it is actually quite simple – it is now just a matter of time before the truth comes out, but media is refusing to touch this issue. Politicians will deny it for as long as they can. So if one, or two, or ten people read this and just try to check things out briefly – we get closer to actually getting some real climate science going. The kind of science that tries to figure out how things actually work, not pretend that they work according to a predefined theory.

DN SvD

The Yoomi baby bottle (sells in the UK for $35) heats to the temperature of breast milk with just the touch of a button.  The milk is ready to use in 60 seconds after heating to around 32-34 degrees celsius.

The device was born out of desperation after the birth of the inventor’s  eldest boy Danial.  Their experiences of stumbling around the kitchen in the early hours heating milk in the microwave or begging waiters for hot water when out to warm the bottle in, mirror those of millions of other couples.

The gadget that makes a difference is the sealed warmer unit that sits inside the bottle and beneath the teat.  Pressing a button on the side of the unit triggers heating of a solution contained within the warmer.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1230382/The-baby-bottle-heats-60-seconds.html#ixzz0Xyi7lZMp

-10 Celsius. Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd. Great shot!

Articolo correlato > http://paoblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/gomme-invernali/

There has been a lot of talk about Kevin Trenberth’s “travesty” email. 

Here is the REAL travesty:  Trenberth has selected and presented data in a way that makes the epithet “alarmist” an objective evaluation of his behavior.

The “Travesty” email

Kevin Trenberth was a lead author of the 1995, 2001, and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change.  So, he shares that Nobel Prize with Al Gore.  On his day job he is head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

One of the hacked Climate Research Unit (CRU) emails that is raising a few eyebrows is from October 12th of this year, from Kevin Trenberth to Micheal Mann (the original shamed author of the Hockey Stick).  Trenberth is talking about the cold weather the world has seen lately, and in particular, the cold weather being experienced where he and NCAR reside, in Boulder, Colorado.  He says it is a “travesty” that this “lack of warming at the moment” can’t be accounted for.

I live just down the road from Boulder, so I know what he is talking about.  It has been a cold, snowy, rough fall so far.

Here is Trenberth’s email to Mann…

From: Kevin Trenberth
To: Michael Mann <mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
Subject: Re: BBC U-turn on climate
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:57:37 -0600
Cc: Stephen H Schneider , Myles Allen , peter stott , “Philip D. Jones” , Benjamin Santer , Tom Wigley , Thomas R Karl , Gavin Schmidt , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer

Hi all

Well I have my own article on where the heck is global warming? We are asking that here in Boulder where we have broken records the past two days for the coldest days on record. We had 4 inches of snow. The high the last 2 days was below 30F and the normal is 69F, and it smashed the previous records for these days by 10F. The low was about 18F and also a record low, well below the previous record low. This is January weather (see the Rockies baseball playoff game was canceled on saturday and then played last night in below freezing weather).

Trenberth, K. E., 2009: An imperative for climate change planning: tracking Earth’s global energy. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 1, 19-27, doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2009.06.001. [1][PDF] (A PDF of the published version can be obtained from the author.)

The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.

That said there is a LOT of nonsense about the PDO. People like CPC are tracking PDO on a monthly basis but it is highly correlated with ENSO. Most of what they are seeing is the change in ENSO not real PDO. It surely isn’t decadal. The PDO is already reversing with the switch to El Nino. The PDO index became positive in September for first time since Sept 2007.see[2]http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/GODAS/ocean_briefing_gif/global_ocean_monitoring_c urrent.ppt

Kevin

Climate vs. Weather

Most folks are missing the real point when it comes to Trenberth’s “travesty” email.  For a typical example, see this very short Glenn Beck video…

If you are an anthropogenic global warming skeptic, like I am, then it is dangerous to gloat over cold WEATHER, because it may be warm tomorrow.  I do not think unusually cold weather for a season, or even a year, provides a very good counter-argument to global warming alarmism.  It goes back to the old weather vs. climate thing.  I accept that the recent (say, the last year) cold weather could (almost) be chalked up to weather, not climate.

The REAL travesty

Trenberth's gigantic "future hurricane" next to the real Katrina. Both are on the same size scale.

The real travesty with Trenberth has been his long-term take on climate, not weather.  Trenberth has loudly trumpeted climate alarmism by preaching hurricane panic.  See his Scientific American article from 2007.  He predicted a trend toward gigantic hurricanes which was depicted by an illustration of a “future hurricane,” which is shown at the left (click to enlarge).

Prior to that, in 2005 he wrote about the importance the Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index.  This is a measure of the amount of energy dissipated by cyclones over the entire planet, or some part of the planet.  In the June 17th, 2005 issue of Science he said…

An important measure of regional storm activity is the Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index…The ACE index reflects the collective intensity and duration of tropical storms and hurricanes during a given hurricane season.

At that time he used the ACE to bolster his argument that “Trends in human-influenced environmental changes are now evident in hurricane regions.”  This is what the satellite derived ACE looked like in 2005, about the time of Katrina…

Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index to 2005.

For some reason, he left the ACE data out of his 2007 Scientific American article.  Maybe because when he wrote his article in 2007 it looked something like this…

Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index to 2007.

I wonder if he includes the ACE index in his presentations today when he talks about the dangers of future hurricanes.  The Accumulated Cyclone Energy index as derived from satellite data, for both the planet and the Northern Hemisphere are at historic lows.  And that’s climate, not weather…

Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index to 2009.

The bottom line

Trenberth and the rest of the gang  are willing to sacrifice the tenets of scientific discourse and even common decency , and they are eager to evade the need for transparency, just to maintain their status as the scientific elite.  They have selected and presented data in a way that makes the epithet “alarmist” an objective evaluation of their behavior.

Iain Murray wrote an excellent piece at Pajamas Media regarding the three things you must know about Climategate (the hacked CRU email and data). Despite being excellent, I think there’s one more to add. While the emails got a lot of attention, a file called HARRY_READ_ME.txt is finally getting some attention. And wow, is it interesting. Even CBS has taken notice: (H/T: Hot Air)

As the leaked messages, and especially the HARRY_READ_ME.txt file, found their way around technical circles, two things happened: first, programmers unaffiliated with East Anglia started taking a close look at the quality of the CRU’s code, and second, they began to feel sympathetic for anyone who had to spend three years (including working weekends) trying to make sense of code that appeared to be undocumented and buggy, while representing the core of CRU’s climate model.

The link has some good excecrpts, but The Devil’s Kitchen has more, plus commentary. Frankly, I encourage you to read the original file. Whoever this Harry person is, he at least knows how to keep an entertaining log. Some fun bits:

It’s Sunday evening, I’ve worked all weekend, and just when I thought it was done I’m hitting yet another problem that’s based on the hopeless state of our databases. There is no uniform data integrity, it’s just a catalogue of issues that continues to grow as they’re found.

Back to the gridding. I am seriously worried that our flagship gridded data product is produced by Delaunay triangulation – apparently linear as well.

As far as I can see, this renders the station counts totally meaningless.

So.. we don’t have the coefficients files (just .eps plots of something). But what are all those monthly files? DON’T KNOW, UNDOCUMENTED. Wherever I look, there are data files, no info about what they are other than their names. And that’s useless.. take the above example, the filenames in the _mon and _ann directories are identical, but the contents are not. And the only difference is that one directory is apparently ‘monthly’ and the other ‘annual’ – yet both contain monthly files.

19. Here is a little puzzle. If the latest precipitation database file contained a fatal data error (see 17. above), then surely it has been altered since Tim last used it to produce the precipitation grids? But if that’s the case, why is it dated so early?

But, (Lord how many times have I used ‘however’ or ‘but’ in this file?!!)

First problem: there is no program to convert sun percentage to cloud percentage. I can do sun percentage to cloud oktas or sun hours to cloud percentage! So what the hell did Tim do?!! As I keep asking.

So what’s the fourth take home message from Climategate? This: CRU’s temperature profile is an incoherent mess. Harry’s basically trying to fit the programming to published results to see how they did it, and can’t. Along the way, he discovers garbage data, horrible code, undocumented files, unexplained paranormal phenomena, and piles upon piles of errors. Hadley earlier this year stated they can’t release the original data because they lost it. If this file is true, then the current code is useless too, as it contains too much garbage, fudging, and improper procedures.

Or, to put it succinctly: CRU’s data is not in a usable form, and should not be used for further investigation. OK, so I can’t say that for certain yet, but that seems to be the implication of all this.

So what does that mean? Given the collusions going on in global warming research, we ought to demand full access to GISS and NCDC temperature profiles and the method, data, and code used to create them. If they are as big of a mess as CRU, then they too should be tossed.

Which would mean all we’d have left is satellite data. Which means the global warming models would be based on satellite data. And given the differences between satellite data and surface temperatures, suddenly global warming won’t look as bad as they claim.

We’re a long way from that point. We have no proof that GISS and NCDC are as messed up as this appears to be. But I think this is reason enough to start some FOI requests on historical temperature data. And if things turn out bad, then those that said this whole climategate issue means nothing in regards to the actual science may turn out to be very, very wrong.

Temperature

Anderson – Data on rates of violent and non violent crime recorded. Found crime to be more prevalent during hotter times of the year.

• + Correlation between temperature and aggression
• + High ecological validity
• -Population bias as only studied criminals
• -Do other factors e.g. lower personal wealth lead to crime?

Kenrick 1986 – Confederate blocked a road junction whilst experimenter recorded three measures:

• Time it took for drivers to honk their horns
• Number of honks
• Total time spent honking

Study took place in Phoenix, under temperatures of 84 to 108F and found a positive correlation between temperature and the three recorded measures.

• +High ecological validity
• -Is horn honking an example of aggression?
• -Only studied drivers – lacks population validity
• -Culture bias – study in USA

Routine Activity Theory – For a crime to occur three things must happen in the same place at the same time:

• Suitable target
• Lack of guardian to prevent the crime
• Motivated offender present

Cohn states temperature as a reason which determines when offenders and victims come into contact, as victims more likely to leave their homes during pleasant weather.

Crowding

• Loo 1979 – Levels of aggression higher when numbers of children in a nursery increased.
  • Supports SLT – aggressive children receive attention, so others learn to be aggressive
• Calhoun – Rats kept in crowded compartments. Dominant rats claimed most of the available space and in the remaining territory behaviour and health deteriorated until a 96% infant mortality rate.
• Schmitt – Found as pop density in Honolulu increased so did rates of crime, death and metal disorders.
• Macintyre and Homel 1997 – Level of crowding in Australian nightclubs is related to aggressive incidents. Found this aggression is often due to intersecting traffic flows created by bad design – e.g. poor location of toilets.

Noise

• Noise alone may not cause aggression, but it acts as a proximal determinant, increasing the likelihood of an aggressive response in someone already angered.
• Green and O’Neil 1975 – Half pps shown aggressive film, half a non-violent film. Half of both group then exposed to 60db white noise. Pps more aggressive when exposed to white noise if had seen the aggressive film.
• Donnerstein and Wilson 1976 – Half pps angered by a confederate. Both groups then told to give electric shocks under one of three conditions:
  • When exposed to uncontrollable noise
  • When exposed to a noise they could turn off
  • Control group (no noise)

         Angry pps gave higher intensity shocks – highest intensity given by pps exposed to uncontrollable noise.

• Konecni 1975 – Half pps angered by confederate. Then half of each group exposed to noise. Pps not angered administered same shock level regardless of if exposed to noise. Those already angered administered higher voltage shocks.

FML.

You roll out from underneath your covers to turn off your alarm clock. You’ve got a very busy day ahead of you: three classes, a group meeting and a date with your roommates to catch up on Glee from the past three weeks. Everything has been so busy lately you haven’t had time to eat a meal, let alone get your weekly dose of Finn. If you’re not sleeping, you’re in class, and if you’re not there you’re in the library, oftentimes well past midnight.

And it’s finally catching up to you.

As you try to rouse yourself out of bed, you feel it. Your head hurts, you can’t swallow and your whole body just feels achy. You walk to the bathroom to wash up, hoping it’s just one of those “I slept with my mouth open” deals; it will go away in a few minutes.

Only it doesn’t. In fact, bending over the sink to splash some water on your face makes you dizzy and angers the little men pounding hammers against the inside of your skull. It’s official: you’re sick.

“Oh god. Could it be Swine Flu??”

You crawl back to your room and sit down at your computer. You enter your symptoms into WebMD figure out your diagnosis/rule out any deadly diseases. You learn that you either have the flu… or meningitis. Either way, you need to take your temperature, which you cannot do since you don’t have a thermometer. Maybe you can just sleep it off?

Before getting back into bed, you send a quick email your professors/group members/roommates to let them know that you are sick. You do not mention the word “flu”; you don’t need anyone sending you to the Swine Flu quarantine, thankyouverymuch.

Your body is really hurting now so you shut your computer and climb back into bed. You’re thirsty, you’re achy and, dammit, you want your mom. So you call her. Yeah, she’s over 6 hours away, but at least she’ll tell you what to do… and feel bad for you.

And feel bad she does. She tells you to drink lots of fluids, get lots of rest and call her when you wake up. Even though you knew all of those things, just talking to her makes you feel a little better. You hang up, roll over and go back to sleep.

When you wake up a few hours later you’re feeling worse. You try to drink some water but you can’t swallow. And forget eating; even the thought of a piece of toast makes your stomach churn. You debate going to the health center; those “doctors” a joke and that requires getting dressed and walking across campus. But what other choice do you have? You call your mom.

After getting a sufficient amount of pity and love from mama (“Oh honey, you know I’d bring you soup if I was there.”), you decide to go to the doctor. You pull on your biggest sweats, put your hair up in a ponytail, throw on your glasses and head out. You look like crap and you know it, but you don’t care. As unflattering as those men’s sweatpants are, you still feel a hell of a lot worse than you look. As you walk past other students laughing on their way to class you silently curse the world, asking the guy upstairs why you have to be sick. And why is the health center so far away? And why does everything hurt so badly?

Eventually you make it, sign in and sit down in the room full of coughing students, closing your eyes in hopes it will make your headache go away. 45 minutes and two phone calls to mom later, the doctor calls you in. She spends 6 minutes examining you – which includes questions on your sexual history for some reason – then tells you it’s the flu, there’s nothing she can do and you just need lots of fluid and lots of rest. Then she places her gloved hand on the small of your back and pushes you out of her office so she can let the next sickling in.

You call your mom again on the way home to whine a little more. Then again when you’re back in bed. Then again when your roommate brings you chicken soup that isn’t nearly as good as hers. Then you turn off the phone, dive under your covers and fall asleep. At 7 p.m. Missing yet another week of Glee.

Yeah, we’ve all been there.
There is nothing quite like being sick to make you hate your life and miss your mommy.

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature anomaly for October 2009, rated it in the sixth warmest on record since records began in 1880,  according to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

NOAA rated the year-to-date period, January – October 2009, as the fifth warmest such period on record. The October satellite-measured temperatures for the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere were 6th – 7th warmest on record. Global Ocean Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies were the 5th warmest on record.

Departure of temperature from average for October 2009. Image credit: National Climatic Data Center

The warmest anomalies occurred in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, specifically, in Alaska and northern and eastern Russia, while cooler-than-average conditions were present across the contiguous U.S., Scandinavia, New Zealand, and parts of northern Europe, northern Australia, and southern South America.

————–

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies rated October 2009 as the 2nd warmest October on record, falling 0.06°C short of the record set in 2005, while the UK HADCRUT3 data set rated October the 7th warmest (this data set does not include most of the Arctic, Antarctic, and Africa, where there are few land stations). (Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog).

The temperature anomalies reported by HadCrut and NCDC for the more recent three months are: (HadCrut)

HadCrut : 0.548 C, 0.459 C, 0.437 C for August, September and October respectively.

NOAA/NCDC: 0.6043 C, 0.613C, and 0.5745 C

Sources and further reading: NOAA National Climatic Data Center, Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Ok, I probably watch every paranormal ghost hunting series out there.  I would not say I’m a believer in spirits from the beyond so much but I wouldn’t say its impossible either.  What I really enjoy about these shows is the various techniques they use to detect the potential presence of ghosts.  The technology used is straight out of a mix between a 007  flick and a Chernobyl documentary.  So when watching these shows, I am often impressed with their improvising and at the same time annoyed at their lack of technical knowledge.  Simply put, they often over look the obvious when getting an output from a particular device.  Caught up in the Ghost Hunting excitement I would suspect.  The following is a breakdown of the tools and equipment they use and my personal take on the effectiveness and accuracy of the results.

Still Picture, Video - Not going into detail on the obvious equipment they use.  Typically a digital camera, DVRs, MiniDVs, handheld recording devices, etc.  Not much to it and some images caught such as ’shadow people’ or objects moving are often solid pieces of evidence.

• Issue:  Orbs, Orbs, Orbs!  Tired of hearing about Orbs and watching an investigator get all excited about a bug or a piece of dust flying by the camera.  TAPS is pretty solid about debunking orbs, but some of these other guys out there need to settle down.  I’ve watched Ghost Adventurers and in one segment they are pronouncing a flying insect as a spirit entering a body, and then in the next, they are ignoring these same flying critters all around them IN THE SAME ROOM!  Until I see captured video of something like the stair scene in the movie Poltergeist, I don’t want to hear about orbs.

Audio - Pretty straight forward as well.  Hand-held mini digital and analog recording devices, plus various microphones and audio devices on the digital video recorders and production equipment.  Honestly, the audio is always the most intriguing for me.  Listening to the EVP’s, disembodied voices, or banging footsteps is always exciting and is often very believable. 

• Issue:  I just don’t know…  It’s not so much I question whether the sounds or voices were captured, but rather how was the audio rendered?  What software are they using to filter and enhance the audio, and what formats are they using?  I think If I had the original segment and could listen though the head phones like they do, I would be more likely to believe them all.  Sitting on this side of my TV, I often don’t hear what they hear.  I hear “murmur murmur blah” and they say “did you here that?!  It said Get Out!!”.  I just don’t know.

Infrared Video - A video device that captures video in the Infrared Spectrum.  Most commonly used by paranormal investigators is the FLIR.  It allows the investigators to see a graphical representation of surface temperatures around them.   Often captured are images of a ghostly figure or sometimes traces of a heat source such as footprints, hand prints, or heat left  behind on a chair or seat cushion.

• Issue: As stated, the FLIR displays SURFACE temperatures.  The FLIR can really only provide temperature readings on surfaces with some mass.  This is to say, the IR signals sent out must reflect off of a surface to provide an accurate reading.  If ghosts are being captured, then this would mean the spirits are solid objects, not ‘apparitions’.  A simple debunk:  A candle lit in a breezeless room emits heat that you can easily feel 1-2 feet above the flame, but the FLIR will only indicate high-heat right at and around the flame, not above it.  Also, quite often, reflections are captured on glass, metal, or shiny surfaces.  These are usually smartly debunked by the crews, but other surfaces such as furniture, hard flooring and walls are not debunked and are often confused as ghostly signatures.  Even semi-porous surfaces can reflect heat.
• More issues:  I think the investigators really need to look closely at how the equipment works.  Often an investigator will attest to ‘unexplained anomalies’, that I can easily debunk as ‘user error’.  Bright flashes, often associated with ghostly anomolies are just quick reflections captured by the sensor.  In auto mode, the processor hasn’t the time to adjust to the new temp range and so throws out a series of flashes.  With the investigators moving around with flashlights and even the night vision lights, it can easily be dismissed as beams form these objects reflecting off surfaces.

Thermography:  IR thermographs, digital temperature readers, etc.  Used to find temperature fluctuations in an area just like an IR camera.  Only difference is the FLIR provides a graphical representation while these other devices just provide a digital temperature display.

• Issue:  Same applies as with the FLIR.  IR temperature sensors are the EXACT SAME technology, except how the data is displayed!  Investigators will often find a ‘cold spot’ with one of these devices and move it around the cold spot showing us the huge temperature difference.  As they move it around, the beam is reflecting across every object in the room and registering those temps, not the temp in the middle of the room.  Remember, Solid SURFACE TEMPS!
• More issues:  Now digital thermometers are able to measure ambient air temperatures, but not on the fly like they often are used.  The time to indicate temperature changes takes time.  When you use a digital thermometer to measure a person’s temperature, it is not instantaneous.  It takes time, and if the investigator is moving around a room, I cannot logically consider temperature fluctuations as evidence.

EMF detectors and K2 (KII) Meters - Devices for measuring electromagnetic fields.  The K2 is an EMF detector that provides an LED indication of activity rather than the standard meter.  There are many ranges of EMF detectors from narrow band to broad-spectrum (50/60Hz to 20-3GHz).   Overall, EMF detectors are pretty good devices for indicating anomalies, but at the same time can’t be used to indicate solid evidence of paranormal activity because the source is still not known. 

• Issue:  There are soooo many sources of electromagnetic radiation both in the natural world and man-made.  Even if there is no sources of electricity in the location being investigated, there is still a huge amount of potential sources.  Lightning sends a broad range EMF pulse out from a few hundred Hertz into the infrared and microwave spectrum.  You can tune your AM radio to an unused frequency (best is at around 500 MHz.) and listen to lightning even when there is no thunder or visible strikes.  Wireless phones transmit at 900MHz or 2.4 GHz.  Handheld radios, walkie-talkies, car ignitions, vacuum cleaners, microwaves, blow dryers, etc all emit EMF, and can be detected at long distance.  So every time one of these K2 meters indicates activity, I have to quesiton it.  What is intriguing though is the conversations they have in which the K2 seems to be responding to questions.  Hard to say…Intriguing

I love how the equipment paranormal investigators use seem to be getting more and more sophisticated.  Now they are using Ion Chargers to ionize the air so the ghosts can have usable energy, broad spectrum devices for capturing all sorts of stuff, motion sensors, you name it, their trying it!  I just wish they would read the manual first.

My Picks:

Ghost Hunters (TAPS) – 3 Stars

Ok, the original and I am still a fan.  They were the 1st to try and debunk as much evidence as possible.  I still respect them for their professionalism, but come-on, change it up a little!  Its getting a bit old:  “Ok, you know what we did, we listened to the claims of activity……”  They say and do the same exact thing every time.  A little anal, lighten up and have some fun!  Try some new stuff.  jay is a hard-ass which is his character, but would like him and Grant to get a little more involved and really try to improve their techniques, not just jump on mistakes in every episode.  And I would like to see Grant stop faking stuff too.  All in all, still a good show and Steve and Tango keep it lively.

Ghost Hunters International (GHI) – 3.5 stars

I have to say they go beyond their founding brothers in the States.  I love the locations they go to.  Berry is always trying to improve upon and use more ghost hunting technology, and the entire crew works to analyze the data.  It’s a step up.

Ghost Hunters Academy – 1.5 stars

Love Steve and Tango, but the shows lame.  A bunch of wannabees being deceitful and steve being a bit of a hard ass.  I think they learned from the pros a little to well.  Lighten up and make it a bit more fun! 

Ghost Adventurers – 4 stars!

It is just straight up fun!  They are always excited and really getting into it but that does not mean they skimp on technology.  They try all kinds of devices.  The cussing is hilarious:  “Did you just BEEEPING scratch me!!!’ haha.  Zac is nuts and Aaron, a big guy, but with just enough fear to add humor.  They provoke a lot and get results.  Only issues, STOP with the Possession BS and the Orbs!!!  Seriously!

Paranormal State:  1 star

I just put it on for background noise.  Its way to religious and emotionally based.  Plus I think the lead guy, Ryan, has a thing for cougars.  It’s kinda creepy.

Ghost Lab – 4.5 stars!

Ok, I just watched a series of these shows for the 1st time last night.  I like it! Good team, work together, light-hearted but also devoted investigators.  They seem to be using a serious arsenal of technologies to detect paranormal activity and I have not seen any fake or seriously huge exagerations….so far.   And they produce!  We shall see where it goes, but so far, I am notably impressed.

Check the temperature of your eeePC CPU with this nifty little command;

cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ00/temperature

this is another one of those quick commands you can fire off in a console to get instant information and it’s another one of the reason’s I could never go back to using Windows.

I should point out that this command was issued from within the Easypeasy eeePC distribution not Xandros etc. so i’ll check further on that and your mileage may vary etc. etc.

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