Sandbox – 5apr16

[The NCAA championship, Trump’s latest follies, Hillary’s ongoing lies and impending (or not!) testimony, Bernie’s heartfelt exhortations to a socialist future, Muslim ragheads killing and colonizing, global cooling, Obama’s political revelations, another shot at economic development, …; so much to sort out and inform each other about the error of their ways.  Where to start?  gjr]

Comments

[Todd Juvinall]

The NCAA game last night was awesome! I love basketball.

[George Rebane]

The championship game was indeed awesome basketball. With game tied and 4.7 secs to go NC and everyone else knew the game would go into overtime. NC's tactic was to prevent anyone getting a shot off in the paint, so they all sauntered down to defend as Nova brought the ball down court. But with nothing to lose, Nova's tactic had to be the long shot, there wasn't enough time to make it to the paint, and that's what they did with their best 3-point shooter Kris Jenkins. Unguarded, Jenkins loosed the ball with less than a second before the buzzer that went off as the ball was sailing into the basket. The rest is history.

What I kept coming back to as I fell asleep last night was Isaiah Hicks, the guy on the NC team assigned to guard Jenkins. Had he been even close enough to pressure Jenkins a tiny bit, the game would have gone to overtime with who knows what result. Both teams played man-to-man with an almost full court press for the entire game, and then when it really counted for those last couple of seconds, Hicks cut Jenkins some unwarranted slack. And that was that.

This is one game that poor Isaiah Hick will relive in his private thoughts for years to come.

[Todd Juvinall]

Yes he will. The man that brought the ball up the court for the assist should also be honored.

The greatest game in these playoffs was in 1992 semi. Duke V Kentucky. When Kentucky scored with only 2.7 seconds left. A long toss to Christian Lightner a turn around jumper and the winning basket. Unbelievable!

[Gregory]

George, did you ever run your use of "raghead" past your old Sikh friends?

[George Rebane]

Gregory 1041am - Yes I did. They appreciated the directed pejorative and that it did not apply to them. However, they wished that more people understood the difference between the tidy and tightly wound turbans of the Sikhs and the haphazard head wrappings of the Islamists. As I said years ago about the appellation, no doubt a better one exists, but I have yet to find it and still invite readers to suggest alternatives that are as directed, compact, and pejorative as 'raghead'.

[Don Bessee]

Best wishes to Jim Hemig as he moves on from the Union to work at his dads real estate office.

[George Rebane]

DonB 1102am - Where did you hear that??

[Don Bessee]

The Union on Facebook Dr R.

[Brad C.]

Islamowacko, eh, not quite as compact...

[George Rebane]

Here is Jim Hemig's resignation on The Union website -
http://www.theunion.com/news/21440582-113/jim-hemig-everything-has-a-beginning-and-an

BTW, I answered Messrs Emery and Croul in the 5apr16 update to 'MJ - the numbers game'.

[Jon]

Drumpfian trumbles abound. Rats fleeing the ship..

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/donald-trump-campaign-staff-disarray-221557

[George Rebane]

Jon 1245pm - The Lord works in mysterious ways ;-)

[rl crabb]

I'll be replacing Hemig as the paper's new publisher.

[George Rebane]

rlcrabb 1259pm - Congratulations Bob, is this news for broad dissemination? I'll buy a round of drinks all around at the celebration.

[Don Bessee]

The dark lord of liberal lament land will be envious crabbman. ;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Mr. Crabb, you don't need the grief. Isn't there some way to impart your expertise to us knuckledraggers without ruining your golden years? Think man, think. But then again, I don't have a say in the matter. Whatever you choose, I will stand by your decision. Throwing rotten tomatoes at you just doesn't seem right. In fact, it is sooo wrong. :)
Incoming!

[Russ Steele]

Michael "Hockey Stick" Mann endorses Heidi Hall for District One Supervisor

More details here:

http://sierrafoothillcommentary.com/2016/04/05/michael-mann-endorses-heidi-hall-huh/

[rl crabb]

APRIL FOOL! (a few days late...I just thought it might cause certain parties to have a stroke, or at least soil themselves.)

[George Rebane]

rlcrabb 257pm - Bullshit Bob! I just ordered five cases of the bubbly; now I'll have to sabrage and drink the whole thing meself. Maybe I'll invite you over and we can drink and talk about the days that could have been ;-)

RussS 242pm - Boy, that snake oil 'scientist' sure keeps track of where his double dummy constituents are hiding out.

[Bill Tozer]

RL Crabb: take a face shield with you in case the good doc plays with his special bottle opener. And make sure you got enough gas to drive him to the ER. Then leave him there and consume mass qualities of the bubbly and take a couple cases home to the little lady.

[Bill Tozer]

rlcrabb @ 2:57pm.
Soil themselves? It's more like the elephant who had diarrhea. It's all over town.

[George Rebane]

BillT 455pm - Mr Tozer, that was a heartless recounting of a day that I've been doing my best to forget.

[Bill Tozer]

The Lord works in mysterious ways. :)

[Robert Cross]

A recent study at Harvard states that fracking releases more pollution, in the form of methane, and is thus more harmful to the environment, than coal fired electrical generation. While CO2 levels have decreased because of the switch to natural gas fired generation, the levels of methane released into the atmosphere as a result of fracking operations has increased 30-60% making the problem worse rather than better. Methane is ten times more effective as a pollutant than CO2 in terms of reflecting heat back to the planet.

[Gregory]

Sorry, Robert Cross, but the effect of IR absorbing gasses is not to reflect heat (photons in the infrared spectrum) down but to re-radiate it omindirectionally, and slightly more goes towards space than towards the ground. Like Barbie might say, "Physics is hard!".

There is no danger in AGW without positive feedbacks in the climate system as a whole and as the science gets filled in by the adults in the academy, it looks more and more that the response of the climate to a perturbation is pretty damned close to neutral.

IPCC brand alarmism calls for the planet to heat 2 to nearly 5C for a 1C kick. It appears the planet actually warms about 1C for a 1C kick. AGW is real, just small compared to natural variations. And for gases like CO2 and Methane, the sensitivity to a given amount of gas goes down the more you emit... in other words, we'll have the first 1C from CO2 when (and if) we first get from 300ppm CO2 (accepting this as the pre-petrol economy number) to 600ppm CO2, and the second degree of CO2 warming would arrive were we actually able to dig up and burn enough fuels to get to 1200ppm CO2 before someone gets rich beyond the dreams of Avarice by developing the next generation of power generation. Fusion, maybe? Time will tell, but in the meantime there is little risk of Armageddon in heating your home, driving to the market or turning lights on at night.

[Brad C.]

The newest tax haven,

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-emerging-tax-haven-alongside-switzerland-caymans-38193149

[Bill Tozer]

Two things, both concerning Mr. Cross's two comments.
1) LA forecasting blackouts this summer directly due to the loss of natural gas storage.

2) The Bill and Hillary's 2nd home in New York is tax sheltered through an offshore trust in the Cayman Islands. Yep, they done bought themselve two mansions in NY.

[Walt]

Uhh,, Robert C,....
https://in.news.yahoo.com/climate-forecasts-may-flawed-says-170007812.html

Translation:
"We don't know what the hell we are talking about."

[Robert Cross]

Gregory 10:47 -- I am not a science person so I don't get what you are saying, but I do know that I wouldn't go to a proctologist for open heart surgery.

[Don Bessee]

I am somewhat surprised at how many people are coming into the Republican HQ here to register Republican specifically to be able to vote for Trump. Primarialy decline to state but Dems too. Its gonna be an interesting ride! ;-)

[George Rebane]

DonB 641pm - Do not discount the perfidy factor. Many pro-Hillary folks firmly believe that the best way to guarantee her win is to have Trump as her opponent.

[Don Bessee]

We at the HQ have been around the block Dr. R, there was one who chickened out who fit that bill but the many others were serious. Most sound like real Reagan non-R's. Interestingly the Republican unscientific bean in the jar poll at the last Nevada County fair was Trump, Carson, Cruz. Today we still have 2 of those guys in the new bean poll at the R HQ. Bernie is blowing up the dems and everything is a question going forward. Gonna be fun. ;-)

[Don Bessee]

May we take a geopolitical shift? Today Putin announced a new 'National Guard' that is specifically charged with special break up the protest powers. The ministerial level boss is Vlads former head of personal security. It sounds like Vlad is afraid of the fallout from the Panama Papers on top of all the 'convenient' murders. Coup fears might make a tyrant want a Pretorian guard. Now who took a stage prop Staples reset button to a news conference with people who had no cultural understanding of an American Staples commercial joke? OH, YA, Madam Liar Liar Pantsuits on fire. ;-)

[Mikel]

But Robert Cross we had two heart surgeons making hundreds of unnecessary heart surgeries at a hospital in Redding several years ago. When the data doesn't fit with what the so called experts are saying then the experts are wrong.

George.. I love the new word 'pretzellated'.

[Russ Steele]

Robert Cross this is for you:

http://sierrafoothillcommentary.com/2016/04/06/the-climate-change-scam-brilliantly-summed-up-in-one-cartoon/

[George Rebane]

DonB 948pm - When we heard about this yesterday, Pretorian Guard immediately came to mind. Such personally loyal protective units are a litmus test of weak(ening) tyrants.

I am reminded by a correspondent that neither our CinC nor his lamestream media acknowledged that in four days of fighting in Afghanistan the 'Dark Horse' 3Bn, 5th Marines lost twelve men to the ragheads they are fighting for our sake. May they rest in peace and God's grace to their families.

Justin Allen, 23
Brett Linley, 29
Matthew Weikert, 29
Justus Bartett, 27
Dave Santos, 21
Chase Stanley, 21
Jesse Reed,26
Matthew Johnson, 21
Zachary Fisher, 24
Brandon King, 23
Christopher Goeke 23
Sheldon Tate, 27

Meanwhile, at an anti-terrorist conference in Geneva, the UN declared that global terrorism has no basis in any religion. Idiots or evil, or evil idiots?

[Robert Cross]

"When the data doesn't fit with what the so called experts are saying then the experts are wrong." Wouldn't that depend upon just what data is being used? In the case of climate change it seems to be most of the entire globe's scientific community versus data from the energy companies hired hands. Personally, I don't trust multinational corporate anything. A simple perusal of the headlines on any given day reveals yet another illegal/questionable/greedy scam or another perpetrated by the uber-rich and their corporate minions.

There seems to be a conundrum at work. While many of the posters here seem to not be great fans of large multinational conglomerates and their self-serving trade agreements and organizations like WTO, those same people seem to buy into the corporate point of view on many issues like climate change, GMOs, fracking, clean coal, regulatory issues and so on. It makes no sense to me. Can someone explain how this works? How does disdain turn into unabashed support?

[George Rebane]

RobertC 1024am - Do you ever consider that some of us here have the training, knowledge base, and experience to read and understand the scientific literature on the matter? We don't need to shape our conclusions based on who else agrees or disagrees. Your point seems to be that just because some corporations also take the same point of view, that this invalidates further consideration of the information sources or contained conclusions. Don't know of anyone here who is in favor of corporatism; however, on the basis of your rejection we should also reject limited access freeways just because Hitler invented and built them, and Jefferson's insights on liberty and governance just because he was a slave owner.

As a professional in the relevant sciences, I can say with some confidence that the entire issue of preventable global warming is misunderstood by 99.44% of Americans. And mostly by those who believe that unbiased science comes with the government imprimatur.

[Jon]

The 99% should put all their trust in the 1% with the really, really, really "true knowledge" of climate science. Expecially when virtually everything included in that 1% are political conservatives favoring lower taxes and the status quo of current fossil fuels.

Oh yeah.

[Todd Juvinall]

The 99% are losers according to all you liberals. Why do you call them that "jon"? I think they are pretty damn lucky to live in America and if you interview them, they do too. So where is this 99% coming from? And if you can't tell us, why do continue to use it?

[Jon]

"The 99% are losers according to all you liberals". TJ

Say what?

[Jon]

"So where is this 99% coming from?" Todd

answer:
"I can say with some confidence that the entire issue of preventable global warming is misunderstood by 99.44% of Americans." Dr. George Rebane

[Jon]

Todd, you have proven once again incapable of understanding irony/saracasm. Nothing new.

[George Rebane]

As a point of reference, the 99%+ of their day were opposed to everything from the heliocentric solar system, through the germ theory of disease, to the acceptance of relativity. If ever there was a constant in science, it was that the current consensus ALWAYS stood in the way of advancement of knowledge and scientific progress. But what history shows should definitely be ignored (feared?) is the second tier echo chamber that adulates consensus while being totally ignorant of the underlying science.

[Todd Juvinall]

Jon | 07 April 2016 at 07:20 PM

So you don't believe the 99% theory and you are just pulling or leg? Oh, gee, how plebeian.

So why are the 99% losers in life "jon". Your ilk made it up when you were doing the Occupy crapola. So one can deduce you think the 1% have everything and are denying the 99% something. What are they being denied? Of course crickets or some smart ass retort from you is expected.

[Don Bessee]

Nice show at the Rood Center for the Stawser v Hall forum. Sound system sucked tonight. As we roll into the election season lets talk voter fraud. Philly just got sued for having more registered voters than eligible resident citizens. Hmmmmmmm, so if you have x eligible resident citizens and you have x +++ registered voters you have either illegal aliens or a boat load of dead people still on the rolls or both. Either way Philly has people voting who should not. We don't need no stinking identification they say. What, is Philly trying to overtake Chicago as the voter fraud capitol of the world? ;-)

[Gregory]

"In the case of climate change it seems to be most of the entire globe's scientific community versus data from the energy companies hired hands." R Cross 10:41AM

Absolutely none of the papers that turned my head from warmist to scoffer were from scientists funded by energy companies... in fact, the one Danish physicist that probably had the biggest impact on me had his landmark experiment funded by the Carlsberg Foundation ("Carlsberg, the best beer on the planet, due to science")... a bargain at $600k.

"It seems" is one of those weasel phrases that lets one substitute feelings for facts. I doubt that even 1% of the entire globe's scientific community has been asked what they think and when the American Meteorological Society surveyed their professional membership (which includes the likes of alarmists such as Michael Mann at UPenn and skeptic Richard Lindzen from MIT) a couple years ago only half thought the warming of the last century was primarily man made.

That's about half, Robert Cross, not 98%, not 99%. Half. This invented meme of climate skepticism being akin to the tobacco big lie is not because of any evidence of "energy companies" funding disinformation campaigns but because the useful idiots gone wild! want to believe it.

The facts are that the IPCC vision has been railroaded through academia and through the popular press, with virtually all journalists, being as scientifically infantile as Robert Cross, presenting warmista science as settled fact to a gullible public. It isn't, and the evidence (what little there was) for a warming catastrophe is slowly unraveling.

It might surprise RC that warmista Michael Mann, skeptic nonpareil Richard Lindzen, George Rebane and I all have something in common... a baccalaureate in physics. It is the mother of all the physical sciences and while GR and I have never desired to perform and publish research concerning climate we do have the tools to read and understand the research that is published, so regarding RCross's "I am not a science person so I don't get what you are saying, but I do know that I wouldn't go to a proctologist for open heart surgery" at 06:29 PM ... no, you wouldn't but considering where it's been, you might go to a proctologist for neurosurgery.

[Jon]

I will say, I do enjoy seeing the ultra elitism and the old "Father Knows Best" philosophy again on display in regard to climate change! Only a few right wing skeptics with advanced degrees know best. The vast majority of climate science is part of a vast left wing conspiracy to intentionally stick it to the Man and raise their taxes. Love it. Meanwhile, nearly every nation and institution in the world forges ahead non-stop to a world less dependent on fossil fuels. The trend is not going away. Coal is not coming back.

And Todd, no one has any idea WTF you're continuing to babble about.

[George Rebane]

A known RR tenet is that ‘Government is an intrinsically evil collective, cynically organized, incompetently operated, and staffed by people not all of whom are evil. For this reason alone, citizens must keep their governments small and always on a short leash.’ This sentiment in its various forms is held by millions of Americans, contrary to the local know-nothing lackeys of Leviathan who instantly rise to protest any such expressions as ranging from immoral to seditious. I want to share one of several letters on the topic that appears in the 8arp16 WSJ, this one written by Bruce N. Shortt.

Regarding your editorial “Why Americans Hate Government” (March 28): Americans don’t hate the government because regulators aren’t held accountable; they hate the government because every branch and operation at every level have become fundamentally lawless.

Congress exercises and delegates powers it doesn’t have, while refusing to exercise its power to prevent lawlessness in other branches; the executive branch legislates, tries to punish political enemies and tries to gain political advantage by refusing to enforce some laws. State and local governments have followed suit. As a result, citizens increasingly recognize that government refuses to recognize virtually any limits on its power and that the American constitutional republic today is as dead as the Roman Republic in the days of Augustus Caesar.

Should we be surprised that compliance with what passes for “law” these days no longer is grounded in a sense of political obligation based on the legitimacy of government? Rather, citizens comply with various government ukases because those who call themselves “the government” have overwhelming force at their disposal. Our polity is broken beyond repair.

[Todd Juvinall]

"jon" is rea;;y not too bright is he. Well. libs are lacking the common sense gene. We see the crickets from him on my simple questions of him. SOP for a lefty extremist like "jon".

[Gregory]

"The vast majority of climate science is part of a vast left wing conspiracy to intentionally stick it to the Man and raise their taxes."
-"Jon", channeling the six figure CEO of the wretchedly misnamed Sierra Business Council that isn't a Council of Businesses, Stephen Frisch

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but real science knowledge does trump the "your friend, the amoeba" general ed class you took under duress. There are literally tens of thousands of folks who believe as George and I do.

Belief in your talking points isn't evidence, "Jon", and only about half of the climate scientists at the American Meteorological Society think half the warming of the past century was man made. The AMS actually asked them.

Coal will be dug out of the ground for as long as it is economically viable... and taxing it to smithereens in the US doesn't change viability for the world. For now, natural gas' is cheap because of fracking, but if you had your druthers, that wouldn't be the case, would it?

[Jon]

Great year for renewables, bad-bad-bad one for coal. The world MOVES ON.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/party-like-its-2015_us_57067bf4e4b0b90ac2716482?ir=Business&section=us_business&utm_hp_ref=business

PS. Thanks for the continued compliments Greg in comparing my priorities and style to Mr. Frisch.

[Todd Juvinall]

Coal is king in the world and "jon" is just not smart about reality it appears. He can't even answer easy questions. He must be a public school grad. Jeeze what a dolt.

[Jon]

3 out 4 of the largest US companies effectively or actually bankrupt, the 4th teetering.

Coal is King! LOL

[Gregory]

No, coal is not king, just a real good buy at the moment, and bankruptcy doesn't make the coal go away... it just wipes out the debt.

BTW, you might ask your sweetie in Truckee, "Jon"... why aren't there any blacks or asians on the payroll at the Sierra "Business Council"? Why is the board lily white and 80% male?

Why are the executives 100% white male, and why are the worker bees 80% female?

[George Rebane]

One should recognize and equally celebrate the bankruptcies of companies regulated to death under the government gun, along with companies that went bankrupt in spite of being government anointed and bankrolled.

[Gregory]

George, channeling Steven Frisch myself for a moment, green companies that are tragically forced to declare bankruptcy are consigned to that fate only if the governments of the world fail in their duty to insure they survive... Mom, Dad, send money!

[Todd Juvinall]

"jon" is not too bright. China uses a lot of coal and will for a long time. So does India. So Obama and his eco pals BK American companies with over-regulation but they will rise again and send their coal to those countries. American ingenuity will prevail.

[Jon]

Nice fantasy Todd, but Coal is over in the US for all intents and purposes. Over. Read all the material out there on the subject and get back when you hear or see otherwise. However, pining for the days of dirty resource extraction is still an option for the elderly such as yourself. Whatever makes you happy in your mind.

[Russ Steele]

Jon, your are right coal is not coming back, because it is not really going away.

China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, has been burning up to 17 percent more coal a year than the government previously disclosed, according to newly released data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming.

Even for a country of China’s size, the scale of the correction is immense. The sharp upward revision in official figures means that China has released much more carbon dioxide — almost a billion more tons a year according to initial calculations — than previously estimated.

The increase alone is greater than the whole German economy emits annually from fossil fuels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/asia/china-burns-much-more-coal-than-reported-complicating-climate-talks.html?_r=0

India's coal consumption is increasing, detail here:

http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=in&product=coal&graph=consumption

Indian official says while country has huge plans for solar, there are limitations to clean energy and coal will remain most efficient energy source for decades.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/14/india-says-paris-climate-deal-wont-affect-plans-to-double-coal-output

Solar Power Is Booming, But Will Never Replace Coal. Here's Why.

Indeed, when you factor in all the sources of energy consumed in this country, captured solar power amounts to well less than 1 quadrillion Btu out of an annual total of 96.5 quadrillion.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2014/04/24/solar-is-booming-but-will-never-replace-coal/#2ae62db32499

Jon, you can continue to dream your alternative fuel fantasies, but reality will rule the day. Coal is here until nuclear takes up the slack.

[Todd Juvinall]

"jon" you are not to bright are you. The coal is in the ground here in great amounts. Only the companies extracting it have been vamoosed by Obummer. Jeeze you are dense.

[Bill Tozer]

Poor Jon. He is screwed. He has a weak mind and a weak back.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2zE1-48AAYc

The word coal is dehumanizing to poor folk.

[Jon]

US Coal is dead. Can I make it more clear? No one can control policies in India or China, but their coal related air pollution is not sustainable at current rates. China is clearly aware of this and committed to phasing it out. India further behind the curve, but the growth is not sustainable without massive social costs and unrest. The worldwide movement to phase this dirty stuff to combat climate change continues.

In the meantime, US Coal is dead. When it comes to life, let me know.:)

[Jon]

In other news, the Boy Scout Governor's crown jewel of union busting has just been crushed.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/wisconsin-right-work-scott-walker-221746

[George Rebane]

I note with interest the inverse universes we live in when reading Jon's 359pm regarding China and India - "... growth is not sustainable without massive social costs and unrest." However, the word from their governments is that they fear 'massive social costs and unrest' without sustainable growth. Which, of course, comports with historical truth.

Another example of the astute liberal mind?

[Jon]

China is adjusting to the modern world and grasping the same economic impacts of a dirty environment as they desire to become a major world player. Pretty big deal when all of the population growth and associated pollution are concentrated in the fancy new cities they are trying to promote. I would say they're kinda motivated to do something. Going green not only an option, a necessity.
India, obviously a longer way to go, on many levels.

No turning back to the dirty past in the USA. Sorry Kentucky, Sorry West Virginia. Its called progress.

[Jon]

In other news, NASA just a bit worried about the encroaching Atlantic from climate change. Kind of a big deal.
Nothing to worry about, right? Agenda 21 at work, right?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/science/nasa-is-facing-a-climate-change-countdown.html

[Russ]

Jon, Jon, Jon@07:38PM

The sea levels have been rising since the last ice age and will continue to rise on average about 2.87mm per year. On the East Coast about 3-4mm per year. There has been no acceleration in sea level rise since the 1900s according to the tide gauges in the PSMSL database.

The tide gauges measure the relative sea level in many locations worldwide, mostly in northern Europe and North America, in the best cases since the mid-late 1800s, and are therefore the best source of information to understand what is going on…

The PSMSL database includes the time series of the monthly average mean sea levels recorded by every tide gauge. You can go to the database and calculate the sea level rise say from 1900 to 1975 and then calculate the sea level rise at the same station from 1975 to present. You will discover no acceleration in sea level rise. Start here Jon: http://www.psmsl.org/products/trends

Let us know if you find any groups of stations with an acceleration in sea levels.

Or, you could go here, where the sea levels have already be calculated and displayed for you:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/03/19/worldwide-tide-gauge-comparisons-show-no-acceleration-in-sea-level-rise/

You do not have to take this as the final word on the subject, you can do your own calculations.

No acceleration caused by AGW. Wow! Another liberal dream shot all to hell by the data!

[Brad C.]

Coal in the US is 'playing possum' until the oversupply of alternative fossil fuels diminishes - or more nukes come online. Coal should be considered a 'last ditch' (no pun intended - well, OK, maybe it was) fuel unless someone finds a way to clean it up economically. Cleaning it up includes reclaiming the land that was screwed up during the extraction. Coal does not receive a lot of up front subsidies, but, when they play the 'bankruptcy card', we get to pay for the clean up/ reclamation costs of the companies we were foolish enough to allow to self-insure (self bond) against those costs.

[Gregory]

Tide gauges are so 19th century... sea level by satellite radar altimetry is what the modern guy wants...
http://sealevel.colorado.edu/

There was an El Nino whooptie (also in '98) but if you'll notice, there's something of a freefall since the peak a few months ago with the latest datapoint almost smack dab on the 3.3mm/yr trendline. Next issue should be early May.

BC, how clever of those coal companies to commit suicide amid the hail of EPA gunfire just to get out of whatever reclaimation can be done after they dug a huge pit. In a thousand years, both Malakoff and the open coal pits will look better. There is a cost to mineral extraction; some things just can't be repaired. Are we better with it or without it?

[Jon]

Damn right there's a cost in lives and environment destroyed.

Better without.

[Jon]

Russ, I think I'll go with NASA over Anthony Watts.

But thanks anyway.

[George Rebane]

Jon 925am - Since neither party has generated the historical data sets or developed the GCM models, did you really mean to expose your knowledge of the affair by posing NASA and Watts as the opposing champions? Or was that supposed to be a bit of snark intended for the uninformed reader?

[Gregory]

That wasn't NASA, "Jon"... it was the New York Times with yet another warmista scare. The Colorado U data I posted was from NASA, the TOPEX, Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites. No acceleration.

I will fight to the death to allow the Jons of the world to live a life of quiet desperation as a subsistence farmer. In the meantime, coal will be extracted. Oil and gas will be fracked. Someday there will be a real breakthrough in power generation that will allow a semblance of a modern life without mineral extraction but that ain't now.

Look at the bright side... we're not slaughtering whales for their fat anymore.

[Robert Cross]

George 11:17 -- So what you are trying to tell me is that someone who got a degree 50 years ago and has never directly engaged in actual climate research knows more than thousands of active researchers throughout the world? Then, add to that what your more than obvious right wing bias brings into the analysis and you expect people beyond your core here to believe your point of view? Personally I will go with the active scientists rather than an armchair quarterback.

[Gregory]

Robert Cross, you're apparently enamored by argumentum ad vericundiam and argumentum ad populum. What George was describing was basic science knowledge. I've never met a physicist or a chemist without it and it doesn't much matter when the degree was earned.

Just grokking 18th century mechanics and thermodynamics, along with an appreciation of the scientific method, goes a long way.

There are a relative handful of scientists actually doing the heavy lifting of understanding the energy flows that make the climate... most of those "thousands of active researchers" at whose feet you are praying are just turning grant money into scare stories that justify more grant money. Your problem is you just get scared and your brain turns off (if it was ever on in the first place).

If you want some respect, when you read a popular account in the newspaper or Mother Jones, actually read the journal papers they may refer to and put the actual claims in context. Then let us know.

[George Rebane]

RobertC 1006am - You will go where your lights lead you. But about me, my education, my career history, and my ongoing work, you have no idea of which you speak. And yes, I claim to know more about the analysis of climate data and the prediction of climate change than at least 95% of the thousands of IPCC claimed 'scientists'. And in these pages I have seen Mr Gregory Goodknight demonstrate the same. However, you as a member of the Believer Chorus, singing from some upper mezzanine, appear to have no understanding, let along experience, of how science advances and how its supporting technologies are developed and exercised.

Finally Mr Cross, the "point of view" you so disparage is shared by also thousands of working scientists and engineers with detailed knowledge of the misrepresented science behind today's politicized hysteria, and their conclusions have nothing to do with socio-political ideology. Disarmed in all other aspects of the issue, you, however, have naught but baseless ideology to clothe your nakedness.

[Bill Tozer]

Off thread, maybe. Whatz a true believer to do next??

http://dailysignal.com/2016/04/04/16-democrat-ags-begin-inquisition-against-climate-change-disbelievers/

Guess not all of us angry extremists are politically attuned. We have lives and are happy to go back to them after the cleansing is done.

https://www.facebook.com/lastamericapatriots/photos/a.235087906641439.1073741826.235086849974878/633115870171972/?type=3&theater

[Gregory]

"And yes, I claim to know more about the analysis of climate data and the prediction of climate change than at least 95% of the thousands of IPCC claimed 'scientists'."

George, I think that might be a bit of an overreach; I think the brass ring to reach for is that, whatever claim to fame or infamy one might have based on credentials or career, anyone with a solid understanding of the physical sciences has a right to make arguments based on facts and logic.

I have no problem with the right of people who have a grade school science understanding of physics and chemistry to make factual arguments about the climate, but they usually don't. Formerly local life scientist Anna Haynes was a case study of this, and when I was earning my dollar (she still owes me) by presenting her the peer reviewed papers that were the basis of the claims I had made when we first met, she demanded to see "graphical proof" that galactic cosmic rays had any effect on temperatures... meaning nothing short of a graph of GCR in lockstep with 20th century temperatures would do. Correlation masquerading as causality for someone whose paper chase for a terminal degree in genetics didn't include even one course in physics, going back to high school.

[Brad C.]

Interesting (short) coal articles,

"Central Appalachia's problems have come even as the United States sharply increases imports of coal, taking advantage of cheap mine labor in Colombia."
"Nearly three-quarters of U.S. coal imports are coming from Colombia, where mining labor costs are cheaper. The Colombian coal is brought on ships to power plants along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast, avoiding competition with oil for rail space.
Colombia increased its coal production 16 percent in the first half of the year, according to research firm IHS Energy.
Meanwhile, the cost to mine Central Appalachian coal has been rising steadily as miners have to go deeper and deeper to get to the coal seams. That helps give Colombian coal an edge, said Elias Johnson, coal analyst for the Energy Information Administration.

http://www.governing.com/news/headlines/kentucky-suffers-as-america-moves-away-from-coal.html
http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/kentucky-may-comply-with-epa-regulations-accidentally.html

[George Rebane]

Gregory 1111am - while acknowledging your overall point, my several hours of reading page upon page of the detailed credentials of the IPCC consensus 'scientists' (a couple of years ago), I strongly stand by my claim. Overwhelmingly they are workers in very tiny and circumscribed specialties that directly or distantly relate to the amorphous field of 'climate science'. VERY FEW have any working knowledge of the estimation toolsets required to knit together the, say, temperature proxy datasets to produce coherent temperature records over the millennia or megallennia. FEWER are familiar with the conflicting theories of physics required to generate the 'finite element' models of earth's atmosphere let alone the temperature and emission dynamics of ground and sea. And finally, a NEGLIGIBLE NUMBER have any idea, let alone, training or working experience in large scale general circulation models that involve countless submodels, complex feedbacks, questions of subsystems identification, sensitivity, stochasticity, numerical and model propagation of errors, ... .

Adding their names to the list of AGW consensus scientists is like adding my name to the list of the world's GO masters just because I know the rules of the game and precious else. And to put a bow on it, none of them (or us) know what geo-engineering technologies are needed for 'Preventable Global Warming' (e.g. we yet have working knowledge of neither the carbon nor the atmospheric aerosol cycles) even if we believe the consensus hysteria. But then again, you already know all that.

[Jon]

Gregory 11:11AM, didn't realize weatherman and blogger Anthony Watts had advanced degrees in physics and/or chemistry. Sorry for missing that distinction. :)

[Gregory]

Jon, 10:11PM, so, you can't read and you make things up?

[Gregory]

George 11:36AM, I don't count the people whose specialties are wholly unrelated to atmospheric physics whose role is to imagine how bad the impacts of the theorized warming would be. That's most of the IPCC.

It plumps up the Assessment Reports and gives the New York Times something to write about.

[Jon]

Greg, they didn't consult you for this front page NYT piece today. Yes, its climate change. No matter how many physics classes you took.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/world/asia/climate-related-death-of-coral-around-world-alarms-scientists.html

[George Rebane]

For our ‘coal is dead’ aficionados, here is some light reading entitled ‘German Government Plans to Stop and Reverse Wind Power’ that came out yesterday (9apr16). It cites a number of publications – Berliner Zeitung, Financial Times, Deutsche Welle, … - reporting how low cost energy will now be transmitted from places like coal-powered China to European countries, e.g. Germany. I don’t expect the lamestream to be trumpeting this development, which means that our progressive readers will be a bit late in getting the news.
http://paradigmsanddemographics.blogspot.com/2016/04/german-government-plans-to-stop-and.html
http://canadafreepress.com/article/german-government-plans-to-stop-and-reverse-wind-power

[Bill Tozer]

Yep, it's all in the Paris Climate Agreement (the one fashioned together after the Islamic Extremist Terrorist blew up parts of the city). China good, America bad.

http://patriotpost.us/cartoons/23150

[Gregory]

"Jon", yes, that's a perfect scare story from the NYT. It even mentions the '98 El Nino had a similar effect, no?

Maybe the NYT doesn't read Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/10/your-sunscreen-massacring-world%E2%80%99s-coral-reefs

There's a wide chasm separating coral bleaching and assigning blame to anthropogenic CO2 and it's the "Jon"'s among us that chose to throw virgins into the volcanoes for scares in the past.

[Todd Juvinall]

The SacBee ran a couple of climate change stories today. The reefs of the world are "bleaching" and the Wolverines are unable to find a cave at the higher elevations in the snow of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. You can read them and see they have no evidence for human caused climate change but the grant sucking whores are all in.

[Gregory]

Just in case my post a couple minutes ago really did fall into the bitbucket... something for Jon

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/10/your-sunscreen-massacring-world%E2%80%99s-coral-reefs

[Robert Cross]

George and Gregory -- This is a lot like being on a jury. Juries often get two sides of the same story and it is their job to determine which story is true. A large part of that determination is the credibility of the witnesses. To be quite honest when comparing your credentials in the arena of climate change science to actual researchers in the field, you have no credibility. Self-aggrandizement is no substitute for experience and spending "several hours reading page upon page" does not equate to a lifetime of research. Your arguments would lose in a courtroom.

[Gregory]

"Robert Cross", you may be the reason why courts like their juries to be as ignorant as possible.

Science isn't about the credentials of the one making the argument, it's the content of the argument. The research I cite is indeed by actual researchers publishing in actual peer reviewed journals, and, if "Jon" wants to try honesty rather than innuendo, he might grudgingly admit I've never cited Anthony Watts as an authority. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever cited anyone as an authority.

What Rebane describing was "several hours reading page upon page"... of the credentials of IPCC reviewers, not research. That was determining the credibility of the authors of the document, just the sort of thing you think juries need to do. The vast majority of IPCC scientists do not do research into the atmospheric physics involved in determining the role of CO2, anthropogenic or not, in determining the world's temperatures.

[Russ]

OK all you coral reef hand-wringers, the Pacific is just recovering from a strong El Niño. In 1998, we had a similar strong El Niño and the coral reef suffered severe bleaching. I think it is possible that similar bleaching occurred during this El Niño.

From the Australian Institute of Marine Science:

Remote reefs can be tougher than they look

WA’s Scott Reef has recovered from mass bleaching in 1998

Isolated coral reefs can recover from catastrophic damage as effectively as those with nearby undisturbed neighbours, a long-term study by marine biologists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) has shown.

Scott Reef, a remote coral system in the Indian Ocean, has largely recovered from a catastrophic mass bleaching event in 1998, according to the study published in Science today.

The study challenges conventional wisdom that suggested isolated reefs were more vulnerable to disturbance, because they were thought to depend on recolonisation from other reefs. Instead, the scientists found that the isolation of reefs allowed surviving corals to rapidly grow and propagate in the absence of human interference.

Australia’s largest oceanic reef system, Scott Reef, is relatively isolated, sitting out in the Indian Ocean some 250 km from the remote coastline of north Western Australia (WA). Prospects for the reef looked gloomy when in 1998 it suffered catastrophic mass bleaching, losing around 80% of its coral cover. The study shows that it took just 12 years to recover.

It was not AGW that caused the bleaching it was an El Niño and the reefs will recover. Yes, they have in the past and they will again. Nothing humans can do to stop what Mother Nature does naturally. Get over your obsession that humans can control the climate. We cannot!

[George Rebane]

Gregory 1056am - Thank you. But it continues to point out the reading (comprehension?) skills of our progressive neighbors. Much of the differences in these pages (and on others' comment streams) that lead to frustrating exchanges is simply due to bad reading habits in addition to tiny knowledge bases.

[Todd Juvinall]

The stories I read in the Bee were typical numbskull stories. They use the weasel words, could, may, maybe, consensus, etc. o definitive , shall, does, will, etc.

[Todd Juvinall]

Go to hell Denny Hastert. You freaking perv!

[Russ]

Stalinist Conformity’: Swiss Professor Says ‘Young Researchers Forced To Submit To Mainstream Theories’

Prof. Mathias Binswanger: 'But how does one often publish or become often cited in respected journals of his own field? The most important principles are: Adaptation to the mainstream and do not question any established theories or models. All submitted articles first must go through a peer-review process where champions of the scientific discipline evaluate it. Under these circumstances, a young researcher has no option but to go along with the mainstream theories represented in the top journals and to use the empirical processes that are currently in trend.'

My father-in-law was a Yale Department Head for 13 years, set a record, and one day over some beers in my back yard we were discussing change and how it happened in academia. Due to the peer review process, according to Dr Hollingshead, it took place on generational boundaries, as the old lions die off the new ideas are allowed to come forward. The old lion's will not let a career of research be negated by one of the upstarts in the academic field. We are seeing anthropogenic global warming protected by the old lions of AGW who spent their whole career trying to prove humans can control the climate, and Mother Nature's cycle has no influence. This generation change will coincide with the next grand minimum and another little ice age. Prepare for cooling.

[Todd Juvinall]

Hey they missed me in this. Only 200 American addresses in 14,400 clients! Those rich, darn Americans must be pretty honest.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2016/04/10/the-panama-papers-where-are-the-americans/#31437bda6ad0

[Walt]

Since the first go round of giving loans to those who had no business getting one didn't destroy the nation completely, "O" and Co. are looking to finish the job.
http://nypost.com/2016/04/09/team-obama-is-setting-us-up-for-another-housing-market-collapse/