Evidence and Global Warming and other matters of interest Mail 685 20110728

Mail 685 Thursday, July 28, 2011

· Birth of Fire

· PFC Abdo

· Quote of the year

. Evidence and Global Warming

· Earth’s Trojan Asteroid

· The Pournelle Plan

 

Birth of Fire review

Dr. Pournelle,

My review of Birth of Fire is up at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3L01RV57BJAZO/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B005EAWPFY&nodeID=133140011&tag=&linkCode=

I had to read the book in one sitting, it was that good. Thank you!

Because Amazon is not the place for politics, there’s one thing I didn’t mention in the review. Because I didn’t realize that this was a decades old reprint, I read into it a lot of commentary on our current social and political climate. I really did think it was a comment on Bunny Inspectors and Department of Education SWAT teams and runaway taxation to pay for unaffordable government. My guess is it’s not an accident that you chose to reprint this particular book at this particular time.

I look forward to more of your back catalog on Kindle. I have every one of your books and Niven’s that they offer, and I’m eager for more.

Martin L. Shoemaker

Thank you. That is a rather perceptive review. I am glad that Birth of Fire has held up so well over the years, and you didn’t realize it was not a new work until you finished it.

PFC Naser Jason Abdo

Dr. Pournelle:

PFC Naser Jason Abdo is not a Muslim extremist, he is apparently a possessor of child porn who got caught and was going to be court martialed for it. He had requested and obtained conscientious objector status based on his faith. Problem is, the Army put that on hold pending his court martial.

The “blow up Fort Hood” thing was apparently an afterthought. Maybe he thought he’d get 40 underage virgins if he died for Jihad?

Lee

I had not heard that and I don’t know. I would not think that making bombs was part of a clever way to avoid prosecution for posession of child pornography. Incidentally, I don’t really think that posession of pornographym should be a punishable crime or that making it a crime is constitutional. Looking at pictures isn’t a crime. Acting on what you see is. PFC Abdo is welcome to spend his life looking at any pictures he likes if that were left to me. Making bombs is another matter.

Quote of the year so far

“If you think you have a right
to force me to pay for your health care,
then why don’t you have a right
to force me to pick your cotton?”

Just controversial enough to make people think.

Would make a good bumper sticker. A bit too big for a ball cap, alas.

J

We have a number of new items on Global Warming and Climate Change Models

Global Warming Fraud Update

Well, more NASA data against anthropogenic climate change.  Time and common sense strike again?  We knew the polar bear data was fake, but now the scientist making that claim is — finally — under investigation according to the Associated Press:

<.> Just five years ago, Charles Monnett was one of the scientists whose observation that several polar bears had drowned in the Arctic Ocean helped galvanize the global warming movement. Now, the wildlife biologist is on administrative leave and facing accusations of scientific misconduct. The federal agency where he works told him he’s being investigated for "integrity issues," but a watchdog group believes it has to do with the 2006 journal article about the bear. </> http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-arctic-scientist-under-investigation-082217993.html

But, I digress, here is the NASA data I promised – or a Forbes article about it.  :

“NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth’s atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed. Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA’s Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.” http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html

I’m sure you know how to undertake research and get to the studies if you have questions about the data. For other readers, consider the article first and then search in a library using academic and proprietary research services. Many public libraries have resources like Ebsco, ProQuest, etc. ——–

Most Respectfully, Joshua Jordan, KSC Percussa Resurgo

Roy Spencer has a number of good criticisms of the Climate Change Models. I do not talk about frauds; but I do think that it is bad science. The models depend on data accuracies that they cannot prove, and now the evidence is that the Earth radiates more energy to space than the models suppose. That changes their predictions, but I don’t see many changes in the models.

Real data may tell the tale!

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html

John F. Gothard, Ph.D.

I would have thought that real data was the essence of science, but in the climate modelling game that does not appear to be the case.

New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism – Yahoo! News

Jerry,

This is definitive but should surprise no one given the fundamental physics of radiative heat transfer. The equilibrium temp of the Earth is proportional to the Solar Constant, the Earth’s Albedo and IR Emissivity raised to the one-fourth power. I know even the global warming alarmist understand this, but they ignore or trivialize mechanisms that increase effective emmissivity, particularly the process of evaporation, convection and condensation over the tropical oceans that effectively short circuits the greenhouse effect.

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html

Jim Crawford

And what we tell you three times is true. Apparently the Earth loses more energy to space than the models assume. One wonders about the accuracy of the other transfer parameters in the models, including earth core to ocean. And the IPCC models know from nothing about clouds.

At some point we might have an objective study about the ideal level of CO2 in the atmosphere. We might be able to remove some of the CO2 with biological engineering systems; we certainly cannot, short of conquest of developing nations, shut down the CO2 sources. And conquering China has not, historically, been a good thing for would be empires. Is it the destiny of the US to keep everyone else in poverty so that they will not emit CO2?

I never thought the liberals would shriek in such an asinine fashion and it’s Pelosi!  She must be on the way out; she has to know how ridiculous this sounds:

<.> Nancy Pelosi on today’s vote: "What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today." </> http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/pelosis-reactionary-liberalism_577709.html

Trying to save life as we know it on this planet today from a lower number of promised, increased spending?  Saving the world from more heavily taxed Americans who might spend their money doing nefarious things like ruining life as we know it on this planet today?  The world is at threat from a Republican budget?  I am beginning to think that when you fail acting class and don’t get to Hollywood that you might end up in Washington.

It gets better!

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC): "I’ve said time and time again, if the President gets up to August 2nd, without a piece of legislation, he should not allow this country to go into default. He should sign an Executive Order invoking the 14th Amendment and send that to all the governmental agencies for us to continue to pay our bills. He could do that with a stroke of a pen.

"We’ve seen many big things done in history that way. I’ve joked with my staff the other day, ‘tele me what was the bill number of the Emancipation Proclamation.’ It was an Executive Order. We integrated the armed services by Executive Order. We integrated public schools by Executive Order. Sometimes executives must order that things get done." http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/28/clyburn_likens_executive_order_to_raise_debt_ceiling_to_emancipation_proclamation.html

If you are against the President’s budget then you must be racist! You are a holocaust denier if you don’t do what he says! I can’t believe you would take a position against mine; you are an evil person responsible for the deaths of millions! This is all the same crap Marxists pull on the streets. I saw videos of them doing this crap. This is the same crap the President did from day one. When will this Don King con get exposed to enough people for them to stop the insanity? I do not know.

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I am not astonished that Clyburn would call for rule by executive action, but I do not think the Congress will surrender meekly.

Subj: Earth’s Trojan Asteroid Companion

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-trojan-asteroid-20110728,0,284121.story

jim

Cool news,

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-trojan-asteroid-20110728,0,284121.story

My first thought was that visiting a Trojan would take more Delta Vee than a Hohman Transfer to Mars. Then I realized that all you needed to do was boost a ship into an orbit with a slightly longer or shorter period (brain cramp, is this a trailing or leading Trojan?), let the ship drift to the Trojan object, then match trajectories. Of course the Moon is closer, takes less time and Delta-Vee, and we no how to build mass drivers.

Jim Crawford

PS, it was amusing to have you refer to the Nebish sharps committee.

LaGrangian poits are fun…

The Pournelle Plan = The Penny Plan

Jerry:

You should check out Connie Mack’s "Penny Plan". It does what you’ve specified, in that each year it starts from the assumption of zero built-in increases, and each year calls for true cuts equaling one penny on the dollar of the full budget from the previous year (hence the name "Penny Plan"). After 6 years of that, it caps spending at 18% of GDP, and the budget becomes fully balanced in the eighth year.

Combine that with a Balanced Budget amendment (to get around the issue of future Congresses not being bound by the plan), and it’s a pretty simple and relatively painless solution to the problem.

But since that makes far too much sense, I predict it will go nowhere fast… but I thought you’d like to know that there ARE some like-minded individuals in Congress that align with your thoughts.

Barry Kearns

Subject: Graph of Budget Projections and Actuals

Great graphic showing Federal budget projections and actuals. Guess what? The reality is always worse than the prediction. So, in the future…

http://flowingdata.com/2011/07/26/how-the-deficit-got-so-big/

—

Dwayne Phillips

Very revealing. Thanks!