Good grief

Have been asked to send the odd expatriate piece to the brand new group blog 'Orphans of Liberty'. Frankly I'm surprised they wanted an ex-enforcement officer and sometime 'agent of oppression' on the site, but there you go. However, I'm all better now, and my days of confronting the inconsiderate are almost four years in my past, which is slightly longer than I spent in that wretched job.

I see there is a lot of whining about the UK Police arresting known troublemakers to stop them getting in the way of last Fridays public celebrations. Oddly enough for someone of a (mildly) libertarian bent, I'm with Julia M on this. Julia posted that it was okay to keep known agitators away from the pomp and circumstance. I agree. That day was for the people who love and revere the Royal Family to express their devotion, not to have the day marred by some self aggrandising eejit haranguing them, lying down in front of Royal Coaches, and any other bit of childish attention grabbing mischief said self aggrandising eejits could generate.

If you don't like a party, that's fine, don't go. What is most definitely not fine is to spoil it for others. That's like stomping petty jackboots along a table laid out for a kids street party, kicking the jelly and sandwiches to the ground because their laughter annoys you. Liberty is right and good, but the line is most definitely crossed to oppression when you intend to interfere in the happiness of others.

As far as the celebrations were concerned, I'm an ex-monarchist. However, this does not entitle me to disrupt proceedings, no matter how strongly I feel that the terms of my UK citizenship have been altered without my consent. The old ways will decline and fade without my intervention. I will make my destiny elsewhere. That, after all, is what I left the UK to do.

As for the Alternate vote thing; hey, how come people in the UK get to vote on the voting system, and not on the greater issue of whether they want to be part of a European superstate? The only vote on the matter was back in the 70's, and that was for an entirely different beast.

Regarding AV, over here in Canada the briefly adopted Alternate Voting system was ditched after one election, and a Single Transferable Voting system proposed. Although we've still got first past the post as the 2005 referendum to adopt STV missed it's mark by 3%.

The last Royal Wedding

Mrs S and I were discussing this particular topic today. The usual squishy smarmy media overkill, the hyped up 'threats' of a few people who really need to go out, get a job and do something positive with their lives. The whining about 'heavy handed policing' before the couple have even walked down the aisle.

I was particularly amused that Brown and Blair haven't been invited, and vouchsafed that the only thing that would make me watch is if at the end when the happy couple were making their vows, the two ex Prime Traitors were dragged off to the Tower for a little off the top. A new block and freshly sharpened axe being mere courtesy details. I'd love to have the ticket concession for that particular event. I could retire.

"We should be so lucky." Said Mrs S. "I could do with a giggle."
"I won't watch. Seen one Royal Wedding, seen 'em all." I replied.
"It'll be the last one." She opined.
"Really?" Quoth I. A little surprised.
"The Royal family will cease to exist in it's current form in the next ten years. The EU will see to that." She continued.
"I know Charley boy is getting cosy with the Commission. You don't think someone has offered him the top job do you?" I posited.
"All a bluff. No politician worth his salt wants a hereditary hierarchy, unless of course it's his progeny." Mrs S shrugged.
"So you reckon it's game over for the Windsors?" I asked.
"Afraid so." She said. "I used to be quite fond of the Royal Family."
"I still won't bother watching." I said. "Even if it is the last."
"Got enough DVD's for viewing this week?" She asked.
"Sure." Said I, and that was the end of the discussion. Red Dwarf and the latest series of House MD it is, then. I'm working that day anyway.

By the way: It can (and has been) cogently argued that Queen Elizabeth the second has broken her coronation oath. Therefore, if said oath was ever a two way bargain between Monarch and Subject, one could be forgiven for thinking that neither she and the 'firm', nor the government of the UK, has any sovereignty left over UK born residents at all.

As an additional thought; to show loyalty, one must swear or affirm it in front of witnesses. An oath of fealty to any authority can never simply be assumed without at least some tacit or overt agreement from all parties.

Funny things, oaths and promises.

Gas and other bubbles

Speculators are driving up the price of Gasoline again, even though there's no hint of a shortage. No 'peak oil'. According to some sources there's actually a glut. A full thirty seven days surplus.

Having read this piece of excellent journalism courtesy of Al-Jazeera's Danny Schechter, we're informed via investment insider Phil Davis that speculation is driving the market, not scarcity, and Josh Clark's informative article over at Howstuffworks.com. Phil's recent piece on oil prices can be perused here. Bubble, next Oil, burst, when, the, will. This was a store bought sentence, and you know how they sell everything in flat packs nowadays. Some self assembly required.

The mystery of the number of ships hanging around idle in Nanaimo Harbour is solved. Apparently CN rail are having trouble getting the grain shipments across the Rockies from the Midwest, so the ships are having to wait longer than they should for their cargoes. Food prices will rise because of this I've no doubt. Speculators will also no doubt be delighted. Although I'm informed that the grain producers aren't terribly chuffed.

You know, I don't see informed stuff like this in the UK press. All the news is full of puff pieces, poorly cut and pasted press releases, and complete Fark. Oh yes, and lots of stuff about some couple getting married on April 29th this year. Good for them, say I. Although I'm not too impressed with the nutters who think that chucking rocks at people getting married makes a valid political statement. P.S. I haven't been invited. Not that I'm going to watch any of the endless hoopla, although I did hear some porn producer was angling for the rights to film the Royal Conception. What the hell, they'll be videoing everything else.

Time for bed.

Nitrogen as 'pollution'

First spotted via 'An Englishmans castle' the latest nonsense dressed up as a scientific study has hit the lamestream media. Nitrogen is now, according to them, a 'pollutant'. Well bust mah britches! Now Nitrate pollution yes, that is a problem. Agricultural Nitrate runoff (Often linked to biofuel production) has been linked to plankton blooms, coral reef bleaching and other serried unpleasantries.

Note the differences between Nitrogen, Nitrates and Nitrites.

Nitrogen, according to the encyclopaedias, is;
A mostly inert element with the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. A colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere.

Nitrate, according to the self same references, is;
A polyatomic (several atom) ion with the molecular formula NO−3 and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. In organic chemistry a nitrate is a functional group with general chemical formula RONO2 where R stands for any organic residue. Nitrates have a wide range of uses; Ammonium Nitrate, a fertiliser, when mixed with the right concentration of Fuel Oil, becomes ANFO, a powerful explosive still favoured by nutty dissident Republicans in Northern Ireland.

Which should not be confused with Nitrites;
The Nitrite ion has the chemical formula NO2−. The anion is symmetric with equal N-O bond lengths and a O-N-O bond angle of ca. 120°. Nitrites are often used, as salts, in meat and other food preservatives.

"Yes." The researchers responsible might opine. "But they've got eevil Nitrogen in, yeah?" I think someone failed (Or never studied at all) basic Chemistry. They've looked at Nitrogen fixing as a process, ignored basic issues and processes, and then done the 100 metres semantic conclusion jump. FAIL.

Examine the following statement (Amongst others) from the report:
"It's much more efficient to obtain protein by eating plants rather than animals." Ah, so it's a 'Go Veggie' puff piece dressed up as science.

I think a vegetarian diet must do something to the mind. While humans are capable for subsisting on vegetables alone for months or even years at a time, they will always need supplements of elements which a vegetarian diet is naturally low in. However, such a diet is specifically low in the various Omega fatty acids and various enzyme components which fully nourish the human body. These protein chains are specifically useful for both aiding the development and keeping nerve and brain tissue healthy.

Humanity is, like so many other species, omnivorous. Our digestive systems say it (Adapted for a mixed diet), our dentition says it (Incisors and canines are for cutting and tearing). Man has not evolved to live on Fruit and grains alone.

Humans need the protein chains generally found in meat and fish. As for fats, ever heard of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, & K? Yet ignorant people would have us think all fat is 'bad'. Excuse me, who has to buy dietary supplements? Not omnivorous I.

Whilst Vegetarianism or Veganism may be a lifestyle choice for some (Hey, be vegetarian if you want - nobody really minds), they should not foist their choices on others. Especially through dodgy reports like this.

Journeys

There is a trite little aphorism that states "The future is a journey". Our futures are always journeys of one sort or another, from simply walking down the street, to stepping onto a flight to a new way of life in a new country.

This article in the Tellytubbygraph annoyed me with its patronising assertion that satellites or robotic probes could do everything mankind needed outside of this thin little biosphere we call home, and that manned spaceflight is simply showmanship and hubris.

I felt moved to leave the following;

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky once said; 'The Earth is the cradle of mankind, but mankind cannot live in the cradle forever'.

This was the promise of those early orbital flights. It is also said that "The future is a journey". This rather begs the corollary that "If you don't try, you won't ever go anywhere." Satellites alone won't do that.

At least China and India are trying.

Although I may have warped the original Tsiolkovsky quote slightly. Nonetheless, the truth of it remains.

This is what occasionally gets under my skin when talking to people who think we should 'take care of problems here on earth first'. To me, the people who trot out such sayings are short sighted, narrow minded, and don't understand much about the nature of humanity at all. They're not very historically astute, either.

Voices from the anti manned space flight faction would have you think that mankind will, or can actually deal with things like world poverty, famine, and the other excuses they trot out. They don't seem to get that the main drivers of poverty and famine are the self same people they claim will provide the 'answers'. This is the lesson of History, and gets repeated rather too often for my liking.

I've said it before, and I'll keep on saying it as long as I have breath; we are an expansionist species. It comes from our hunter / gatherer heritage. Humans need space to expand into and exploit, because if they didn't, well they wouldn't be human for a start. Manned space flight isn't a luxury item, it's an essential. Because if we don't at least try to get off this rolling ball of rock and take a look around, then we as a species are just marking time to extinction.

Radiation poisoning

Locally, there have been items in the press about people rushing out to their local pharmacy for doses of Potassium Iodide, and getting very cross when told there isn't any.

Said persons would be well advised to examine this chart before going into headless chicken mode.

Latest on the stricken plant has issues with Fukushima's No4 reactor, which like 5 and 6 was supposed to have been shut down for maintenance and refuelling at the time the Tsunami hit. Containment 1 and 3 buildings have had the roofs blown off by Hydrogen gas build up and ignition, and there has been some radiation release. Although when you compare the doses recorded so far to the exposure from a single Computerised Tomography scan, I think those concerned about Radiation exposure over here in BC might justifiably be accused of over-reacting. What the hell, it's their money.

Warning: Large doses of Potassium Iodide during pregnancy can harm a developing foetus. Also acts as a skin and eye irritant.

Boris gets it

There is no rhyme or reason to an earthquake, and we should for once abandon our infantile delusion that we are the cause and maker of everything.

Doesn't happen often, but when a politician gets it (almost) right, they should have it pointed out and applauded.

Likewise:

We now know that the work done at Climatic Research Unit barely qualified as science; they kept it secret to stop other scientists checking it; thus breaching one of the foundations of the scientific method.

Graham Stringer, MP for Bolton & Blackley.

H/T Bishop Hill for the Manchester Confidential piece.

Nuclear Power station panicmongering

There has been a minor issue with a two Japanese nuclear power plants, which the mainstream are milking for all they're worth. It's headless chicken time again folks!

What actually has happened at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant number one:

The 'explosion' and fire was in a turbine hall, not a reactor or within a containment building or vessel.

Two employees and two subcontractors were injured at the time of the big Honshu Quake yesterday. One employee received a years 'safe' dose of radiation. Which was probably around the same figure as some Medical Tomography scans deliver (Around 1-2Rem, with 0.5Rem dose for a standard X-ray).

The backup diesel generators for the reactor circulation got swamped by the Tsunami and stopped working. At the time of writing, replacements are being installed.

Speculation in the lamestream is rampant about Meltdowns and 'Chernobyls', but the Japanese reactors are Boiling Water reactors, which once shut down begin the long slow process of cooling. They don't melt down.

Oh. No more panic there then. Hi ho, time for morning coffee.

Updated midnight PST 12th/13th March 2011.

Lots of speculation still about 'meltdowns', but as the reactors have been shut down, the slow cooling of reactor cores has begun. Yes, according to the press releases, there have been some problems with getting water into the reactors, but considering they've just had a massive tranche of seawater sloshing about after a Tsunami and major earthquake, I'd say the Engineers had everything at reactors one and two under at least some sort of control.

Update: H/T Depleted Cranium. Explosion at Number 3 reactor (Not in the containment structure) Possibly due to unvented Hydrogen. As an aside; to the commenter who told me I didn't know what a containment building looks like, I spent part of my early career working in and around Coal, Gas and Nuclear power stations on fire alarm / suppression systems. FYI; I do know the difference between a turbine hall and a containment building. Also between main breakers and transformers, smoke stacks and cooling towers. Funny how so many people don't, eh?

This is interesting...

The Internet as a way of funding independent media?

That is interesting.

Guys, I have a couple of MSS I'd like some help converting to visual media. Hmm. Who needs publishers, eh?

Buerkish comment?

Talk about being behind the curve. Widely reported amongst the blogs, but picked up from wattsupwiththat.com, this quotation from BBC's Radio Four programme, 'The Moral Maze'.

“not long ago, to question multiculturalism…risked being branded racist and pushed into the loathesome corner with paedophiles and climate change deniers“

Now that is so downright offensive to anyone who has quite reasonable doubts about the veracity of 'Climate Change Science' I don't even know where to begin. It was bad enough being lumped by ignorant media pundits into the same corner as historical revisionists who denied that the WW2 slaughter of Jews, Gypsies, Disabled and homosexuals happened, but with paedophiles? I can forgive blinkered ignorance, and even stupidity. However, that sort of insult borders on unforgivable. It's the kind of ill considered remark that richly deserves a punch in the mouth. On the other hand, perhaps that is the reaction craved. "OO look at the bad man mummy, he hit me!" If it wasn't so politically correct and infantile it might be funny.

There is a better way which will be more effective recompense for the offence and provocation offered. Taken from one of the penultimate songs from the Who's Rock opera 'Tommy' the line goes; "Let's forget you, better still."

Mister Buerk, you owe a lot of people an apology for that ill considered and unpleasant remark. Not that any mealy mouthed insincere public offerings without your immediate dismissal will be enough to atone. Now get out of that Moral Maze.

Update: Cranmer thinks that Buerk was lampooning colleagues who routinely make the same type of assertion. Having listened to the linked clip twice, I'm not inclined to agree. Although having written that I don't listen to Radio 4 or watch the propaganda mill that BBC TV has become, and have not done so for several years before leaving the UK. I leave that for stronger stomachs.

Addendum: Lets face it, if someone can get booted out of their job for saying 'jungle drums' when casually referring to a rumour mill, then why should someone else not be sacked for comparing those who do not agree with them to paedophiles or similar? Lampoon or not.

Sauce for the goose. Let's see some parity here.

Hot spots

Having had a look at what Al Jazeera have been covering, it's interesting to see an overall pattern of effective revolts going on throughout the Middle East. Egypt of course is the biggie in the news, but Tunisia hasn't gone away, Jordan has a similar situation to Egypt, Lebanon and Yemen. Iran has been hanging political activists, and recent upheaval has left the Algerians considering a reshuffle and cutting food prices. A political ripple effect looks to be shaking up the entire region. Red underlined countries on the map indicate significant social and political unrest pushed by food shortages. The major riot flashpoints in the region appear to be driven more by hunger than politics. Although Iraq looks like an undeclared war between Sunni and Shia.

Re Egypt; Mubarak's wife and his two sons have jumped ship for London. The odds are that he will follow shortly. The people he has announced in his new government appear to be US-Friendly not because the USA needs stability to preserve the regions oil, but probably because the region needs US food exports. Certain nations have already begun stockpiling.

The riots don't surprise me. Poor grain harvests from Russia, Australia and Canada this year. Food production is being sidelined for so called 'eco-friendly' (although not really) biofuels. Agricultural runoff from the intensive agriculture to produce biofuels damages coral reefs and increases toxic plankton blooms amongst other things. Yet we in the developed west are constantly being urged to become more 'sustainable', based on the fantasy that by reducing our output of food and energy we would somehow be doing the Earth a favour.

Looks like a lot of these 'Green' policies are actually unsustainable, as the current problems amply demonstrate.

What do they expect?

If a public body recruits almost exclusively via a left leaning publication, isn't it a given that the staff will tend to have a specific political bias?

Just saying, that's all....

Some people

Some people are always looking a gift horse in the mouth, even in their sexual relations. Although I find myself wondering if those protesting 'eco-activists' were disappointed because they'd been left out of the all the shagging.

Well it made me laugh.

Real life and learning

Eldest on Skype this morning was tearful because she'd performed poorly (For her) in a test. She's passed, but she wanted to do better, and being who she is was getting pretty wound up. Mrs S began the talkdown, and I pitched in with some helpful hints upon how to address the issue. Go talk to lecturers and markers, we advised. Find out exactly what they want, not do the 100 metres conclusion jump and end up stuck in some emotional slough of despond. Eldest calmed down a little and we talked her through the process.

This triggered a number of memories about my own college studies and mentoring Mrs S through the last two years of her degree course. Now I went to Technical college and night school, not University, to get my inch thick stack of work related certificates. I'm a working stiff who expects to pay his own way, but I digress.

One of the first modules Mrs S got bogged down on was on system security. On the first test in the module, she scored a disappointing fifty six percent, and just like Eldest, got all emotional and tearful about it. She knew she had all her facts right, she could backtrack to the source information, and yes, it said exactly what she wrote down in the essay. The facts were definitely there. In our estimation the test mark should have been far higher. It was down to me to give her a hug and do the 'there, there' thing even when I should have been doing my own stuff. I pointed out that maybe it wasn't the core information, it was her presentation that was at fault. "But that way it doesn't make sense!" Mrs S protested. "I've tried that in my job and it doesn't work!"
To which I replied; "Yes dear, but perhaps that's the way they want your information presented."
"We did that two years ago. It's crap!" She said angrily.
"You know it doesn't work. I know it won't work, but this is University, not real life." I responded, wondering idly if the off licence was still open so I could buy more Whiskey. What with the emotional fallout from the course and teenage stepdaughters I tended to need the odd large drink during those years.

After a great deal of grumbling, I got her to ask her course advisers a number of pointed questions specific to the text in the low mark essay, and together we formulated a strategy. Mrs S restructured her subsequent submitted pieces of work to the required format and guess what? After a couple of tries her marks shot up to eighty six percent. A clear thirty percent increase, all because she asked the Lecturers how they wanted the essay submissions structured. Her marks throughout the next two years never dipped below seventy nine percent per essay (Including finals), for which she got a respectable 2:1.

After that, Mrs S went back to her job and carried on as she had before. The degree certificate is mounted in a nice frame, but the learning it took to get is hardly used. Mainly because the gulf between academia and real life is often quite a broad one.

As an apprentice, I recall working alongside those more academically gifted and looking at the work they turned out. Oft was heard the plaintive cry of; "Yeah, but that's what the textbook said!" When flinty-eyed Managers asked why this or that had gone pear shaped. As a lowly apprentice, I hid my smirk and learned to trust the input of my senses, developing my 'Engineers feel' of metals and measuring tools. Happy to be a lowly Technician and not a high flyer. We used to reckon it took a good three to five years at least to get an Engineering graduate to a reasonable standard of competence, such were some of the howlers our graduates designed. A 12ft long, unsupported lateral shaft was one such classic (Massive vibration due to microscopic changes in material density would have shaken it apart), critically overloading phases in electrical plant another. Mostly these were fundamental errors we Technicians had learned about in our first year. You could almost hear our eyes rolling up into heads sometimes. However, as lowly spanner and screwdriver wielders, our opinions were not required because we weren't educated enough. Indeed.

This of course was in the days pre Blair's 'Ejucashun, educayson, edcashun' when academic rigour was more, well, rigorous. This is not to disparage Degree courses, but my point is that academic excellence does not always equip one for the outside world, which has let's say, broader boundaries. The world is a far more complex place than University alone can prepare you for. Rather like not every member of MENSA being a millionaire.

Ergo, it is my contention that not everything that emerges from say purely academic 'peer review' should be taken as gospel. Particularly studies based upon pure statistics. Interesting? Yes. Worth discussion and evaluation? Of course. Implementation without testing? Definitely not. That is what 'Science' is for, a process of weeding out the unworkable and just plain impossible to produce something that works. Axioms must be tested, dogmas challenged. All else is Alchemy, which produces nothing but some odd smells, lost fortunes, and perhaps some heavy metal poisoning.

Yet every day the media leaps on some published academic 'study', which should be no more than the starting point for discussion and testing, and posits that this is the answer to life, the Universe and everything. From medicine and disease to mass extinctions and our ever changing climate. No matter how many times cataclysmic predictions fail, like a legion of zombies they are dusted off, stood up again, and sent lurching back into the public domain. A whole stage of the scientific method is bypassed by scientifically semi literate campaigners, a sensationalising media and grant-hungry researchers. Guess who our politicians react to in their ignorance? Got it in one.

It's probably why the UK has a plague of near-useless Wind Turbines, why unvaccinated children die of otherwise preventable diseases, basic liberties have been eroded, and people take pills that may be doing more harm than good.

Piers Corbyn predicts cooling

Cooling to 2035 followed by a century of cooler weather globally speaking sounds realistic to me.

The only problem here is that Piers' appearance and manner militates against him in the churches of spin and obfuscation surrounding the politics of climate. I think if he got some presentation classes and became better groomed and dressed, the warmist cause would be dead and buried within a week. On the other hand, maybe what Piers needs is a front man with those attributes. Said front man doesn't need to be a hot shot scientist, just know enough about the weather not to get flustered under pressure, and have wits sharp enough to fight the verbal battles, and reflexes fast enough to dodge the inevitable punches from outraged loser warmists. Oh, and a little personal charm.

Just a thought.

Global cooling?

Scare story or coming reality?


For the record; my money is on Piers Corbyn (Anyone who takes money off bookmakers can't be far wrong). Now I'm off to put my money into Winter sports manufacturers and housing insulation.

Why? Well aren't we getting a re-run of the stormy stuff of last year? Or the year before? Or the year before that? Or even the one before that? Is it just me or is the severity increasing? Not that we can draw any conclusions from such a small sample of course......

At what point does all this weather become climate if only a few warm years are able to establish an uncontrollable warming trend?

Noooooo! We're all doooomed! Or maybe not. My money's still on Piers. He amongst others have been talking about the world going into a 30 year cooling trend for some time now.

Well, stap me vitals!

I've long been an admirer of the work of Piers Corbyn, ever since I heard he was taking serious money off bookmakers by betting on the weather. Piers has his own professional weather forecasting service at which I'm told he makes a modest but steady living. He does this by being consistently 80% accurate, which is quite impressive when you look at the opposition. If you're making future arrangements for an outdoor event, there are few better resources as to whether you need to book alternate venues in case of inclement weather.

Now Boris Johnson, that cuddly mop head Mayor of London has had the scales nudged (But only slightly) from his eyes. Boris has openly (if guardedly) questioned the dogma of Man made climate change / global warming / climate disruption in this article.

Well stap me vitals, say I. A major politician saying "Err. You know chaps, I'm not so sure...."

Will Boris be the first to openly break ranks? Possibly. His reality of having to run a major city during its fourth cold Winter in a row may be the big wake up call against the political dogma that is Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming. He's one of the first, he certainly won't be the last. That place is jointly reserved for Chris Huhne and David Cameron.

The wrong targets

I've been watching reports and footage of the student protests (riots?) in London, UK with a furrowed brow. Why the Cenotaph? Why Churchills statue? The Treasury and the Law Courts I can understand, but it seems to me that the protests lost legitimacy when they strayed off target. In other words, it's a massive public relations FAIL.

Smashing things up like a toddler having a tantrum doesn't work. All it does is increase Police overtime and cost the poor bloody taxpayer money they don't have any more.

Prince Charles' Roller will be fixed. Paint will be cleaned off monuments, public buildings repaired, flags replaced. Students in the riots will get injured by the Police. The injured protesters will whine pitifully to the press about 'Police Brutality' (The bunch of jessies). It's so predictable.

As for 'take from the rich'? The 'Rich' (as always) will do what people with money always do, quietly shift their assets away, further impoverishing the country, costing ordinary people livelihoods and their children's futures. What's the point of having money in a place where there's no money to be made? Britain will become, as I reluctantly have characters in other writings vouchsafe; "A wretched little poverty trap".

Interesting.....

Logged on to my Disqus account last night to comment on one of the Tellytubbygraphs blog threads. Specifically to do with the breaking news that Japan has thrown the Kyoto accords under the bus at Cancun. No sooner had I typed my comment, than the 'your comment is being moderated' sign popped up. I immediately typed in another short and pithy remark about being immediately moderated, which was published with no moderation. Then I edited it to mention Japan's blunt refusal to extend the Kyoto accords. No moderation again. No mention of Japan's actions in the pages of the Tellytubbygraph, today either.

Interesting.....

H/T to Wattsupwiththat for the Kyoto story.

Fuller coverage over at Jo Nova.

Activism masquerading as news

Blood and sand. Just when you thought that it was all over, the hydra of catastrophic man made climate change grows another head. No doubt those very clever chaps over at Wattsupwiththat will take one look and go "Nonsense." before systematically deconstructing the paper in question. In the meantime, lazy cut and paste journalists will repeat the assertions without fact checking, but what's new?

It's just another example of activism masquerading as news. Blatant misrepresentation if you will. No wonder trust in the lamestream media is draining away faster than water from a plugless bathtub.

You don't see the far more well constructed work of Henrik Svensmark given such uncritical treatment in the press. Well, maybe it doesn't fit the agenda, eh? Anyone who doesn't agree with said agenda is automatically tagged with the sub literate soubriquet 'denier'. Which just goes to show that the whole catastrophic meme is politics rather than science, activism rather than real news.

"Nooooo, it's still getting warmer!" Claim the activists as they see the money tap begin to run dry. Yet the weather continually makes mockery of their assertions. Single weather events like the current cold snap may not be climate, as the activists are fond of telling everyone, but climate eventually becomes made up of weather. There have been too many colder than usual years recently to blithely dismiss like that.

Oh well, throw another log on the fire. Have to keep from freezing to death somehow.