Month: November 2009

  • Hopelessness is happier! And cheaper!

    Glenn Reynolds links a Reuters report of a new study, which he calls “MORE POTENTIALLY MONEY-SAVING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF HEALTHCARE RESEARCH.” How true. Although cost-cutting is not specifically mentioned in this research report, a new meme is inescapable: save money by eliminating hope. The Reuters headline makes a sweeping claim which I don’t…

  • The importance of avoiding the unimportant

    One of the paradoxes of blogging is that if you write about something, it tends to be seen as, if not the most important issue, at least as an issue more important than whatever it is you don’t write about. Appearances can be misleading. Sometimes, the most important things are precisely what I do not…

  • ClimateGate Charges Investigated

    Lord Monckton, Viscount of Brechley, and Prof. Fred Singer are requesting that charges be filed against scientists and others involved in possible violations of Britain’s Freedom Of Information Laws. I can’t wait for the investigations to start in the USA. And don’t forget to order copies of this book: Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny…

  • Government Is A Criminal Enterprise

    The government is in essence a criminal organization. It can murder – through wars and punishment for crime. It can print money. It can make you a slave through taxes. (taxation is theft) It can make you a slave through imprisonment. It can kidnap you. (politely called arrest) It can demand ransoms. (fines) It can…

  • I take a break, only to learn that huge news is being ignored!

    It’s always nice to take a break from blogging, and for the past three days I did just that. At no point did I have time to get online, not even to check email. The closest I got to blogging was a wonderful visit with M. Simon on Friday night at Rockford’s Irish Rose Saloon.…

  • The Proper Way To Argue With Heretics

    Climate scientist Judith Curry has a few words to say about scientific integrity as it relates to climate science given the recent revelations of Climategate. At the heart of this issue is how climate researchers deal with skeptics. I have served my time in the “trenches of the climate war” in the context of the…

  • Appetizers At The Irish Rose

    Eric, my mate, myself, and a friend of Eric’s from Michigan had evening snacks at the Irish Rose in Rockford. We enjoyed swordfish and grilled zucchini. We enjoyed it very much. And instead of the usual blogger meet up crap (which I enjoy) we talked about our lives. A most enjoyable evening. Did I overuse…

  • ClimateGate

    Lots of links over at Glenn’s. My two cents as a professional programmer: it’s pretty clear from the code comments that the CRU dataset is both junky and deliberately manipulated to produce a warming trend. This is devastating to the credibility of the entire field, because CRU is the most widely cited dataset in climate…

  • Tom Ligon On Space Show

    Tom Ligon is going to be on the Space Show this Sunday from 12 to 1:30 PDT. You can call in or listen. Information at the link. You can also watch this interview with Tom. And for those of you even less familiar with Tom. He worked with Dr. Robert Bussard on Polywell Fusion Reactor…

  • Brutal Territory

    Karl Rove is getting the message (from polls) that American voters are upset about reckless government spending. I guess he has never heard of Tea Parties. Better late than never. What seems to concern the president is not the problem runaway spending poses for taxpayers and the economy. Rather, what bothers him is the political…

  • Kiwi Scientists Cooking The Books?

    The Briefing Room which helped break the CRU data dump story (Climategate): Verifying The CRU Files, has a new blockbuster out about climate “science” in New Zealand. NZ’s NIWA accused of CRU-style temperature faking. UPDATE 15:49 NZDT – NIWA’s news release in response to this story appears to have been delayed, and according to a…

  • Happy Thanksgiving!

    No time for a long essay today, as I am about to hit the road along with millions of other cannibalistic turkeys in search of food. Blogging will be spotty to non-existent for the next few days, but with any luck there will be content of one sort or another…. So have fun, enjoy the…

  • Everything You Know Is Wrong

    Well not everything. But more than quite a lot. Eric at Classical Values was discussing that with respect to advertising and fads. Including medical and scientific fads. You know the deal. Trust but verify. Before seeing Eric’s post I came across Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. Summary There is increasing concern that most…

  • Giving Thanks

    We have so much to be thankful for. Not the least of which is abundant energy which makes our lives so comfortable. At ECN Magazine I have reposted an idea I had from November of 2006. The idea is to develop a neighborhood energy source and storage unit along with communications facilities that could be…

  • Random Thoughts

    From Frank J: Work extra hard knowing your money is going towards getting poor people prison sentences for not buying health insurance. Heh. More here.

  • Some skeptical thoughts about scientific bandwagons

    The more the CRU Climategate scandal unfolds, the more likely it is to do some serious damage to the Anthropogenic Global Warming scientific bandwagon. Not only has the word “gate” been securely attached to it, it has been likened to Vietnam, and clearly it is the biggest blow the Global Warmists (yes that is a…

  • Hide The Decline

    And wouldn’t you know it. There is a book due out on 1 December called: The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is the Obsession with “Climate Change” Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History? I think “blunder” is too nice a word. It is looking more and more like fraud. You can…

  • The Next Big Discovery Channel Program?

    Iowahawk Geographic ventures into the strange and wonderful ecosystem of the climate researcher: Our very planet depends on them. Yet they remain nature’s most elusive scientific species, inhabiting some of the world’s most delicate and daunting academic environments. But thanks to new breakthroughs in high speed cameras and email files, metascientists are finally beginning to…

  • Just doin’ my job!

    Regular readers know that I am not a fan of WorldNetDaily or Alan Keyes, nor am I impressed with the various Birth Certificate conspiracy theories. But sometimes fantasy collides with reality, and when it does, I have to become a patient analyst. At least in terms of free speech, this is still a free country.…

  • Check It Out

    George Monbiot, one of the staunched supporters of the CO2 causes global warming belief, says that based on the ClimateGate revelations the science needs to be re-evaluated. It’s no use pretending that this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could…