View 824, Thursday, May 15, 2014

It is unseasonably hot in Southern California, and of course many say that’s evidence of global warming. That’s possible, I suppose, although the unseasonal snow in Colorado earlier this month was not seen as the return of a new Ice Age.

In any event, it appears to be dangerous to defect from the community of Climate Change Believers. I post the following summary from professional Deniers – that is, they are paid to promulgate arguments against the Believer “Consensus”. As most of you know, my position is a great deal less positive about either side: I don’t think we know, and I am not sure we will ever have the means to discover past climate trends at the accuracy (0.1 C) claimed by the Consensus Believers.

I’m sure the Earth has been warming since about 1800; that it was still cold enough for the Thames to freeze solid enough to support markets on the ice up to the 1830’s, and has been warming about 1 C a century ever since. I am also sure that the Earth was warmer in the Viking period, and had been warmer during the early Roman Empire, only to suffer a cold snap in the Dark Ages. And I am sure that much of the land area of the Northern Hemisphere was covered with ice about 20,000 years ago, and I am damned sure I am more afraid of the return of the Ice than of the consequences of the current warming trends.

We can now take good measurements of temperatures and keep those records. We can possibly spot trends now. I doubt we will ever know the average annual temperature of the Earth for years before 1900 to any tenth degree accuracy.

Anyway, I have errands, and this is a good time to summarize the attacks on science. Degrading science into a high school clique food fight is not a good thing.

No Dissent Allowed! 79-Year old Skeptical Climate Scientist Victim of Witch-Hunt – Fears for his ‘safety’ after declaring himself a skeptic

A (Warmist) German physicist compared Bengtsson’s joining of skeptic group to joining the Ku Klux Klan.

Rupert Darwall: ‘In their persecution of an aged colleague who stepped out of line and their call for scientists to be subject to a faith test, 21st-century climate scientists have shown less tolerance than a 16th-century monarch. There is something rotten in the state of climate science. –Rupert Darwall,

Judith Curry: ‘We have also seen a disgraceful display of Climate McCarthyism by climate scientists, which has the potential to do as much harm to climate science as did the Climategate emails.’

‘Are you now or have you ever been a climate skeptic?’

Climate Depot Round Up

‘Science As McCarthyism’: Lennart Bengtsson Blames U.S. Climate Scientists For McCarthy-Style Witch-Hunt – Worried for his ‘safety’ – His joining skeptic group compared to ‘joining the Ku Klux Klan’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=7a3276dae8&e=e57bd7cb9d>

‘Science As McCarthyism’: Lennart Bengtsson Blames U.S. Climate Scientists For McCarthy-Style Witch-Hunt – Worried for his ‘safety’ – His joining skeptic group compared to ‘joining the Ku Klux Klan’<http://scienceblogs.de/primaklima/files/2014/05/bengtsson_welcome.jpg>

Climatologist Dr. Judith Curry on Lennart Bengtsson: This ‘has the potential to do as much harm to climate science as did the Climategate emails’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=cf5260ec1d&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Curry: ‘We have also seen a disgraceful display of Climate McCarthyism by climate scientists, which has the potential to do as much harm to climate science as did the Climategate emails.’

‘Reminds me about the time of McCarthy’: Climate scientist Dr. Lennart Bengtsson — who converted from warmist to skeptic – resigns from skeptical group after ‘enormous group pressure’ from warmists – Now ‘worried about my health and safety’ – ‘Colleagues are withdrawing from joint authorship’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=3b68bf9fd6&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Lennart Bengtsson: ‘I have been put under such an enormous group pressure…Colleagues are withdrawing their support, other colleagues are withdrawing from joint authorship.’ – ‘I would never have expecting anything similar in such an original peaceful community as meteorology. Apparently it has been transformed in recent years.’ – ‘Reminds me about the time of McCarthy.’

[Climate Depot note: The ‘McCarthyism’ was named after Sen. Joe McCarthy. A thorough reading of history may indicate it is an unfair depiction. See here <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=b2b937efb2&e=e57bd7cb9d> .]

Climate McCarthyism: “Are you now or have you ever been a climate skeptic?”. <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=b2a5fa44da&e=e57bd7cb9d> Bengtsson: ‘Science is under pressure because everyone wants our advice. However, we cannot give the impression that a catastrophe is imminent. The greenhouse effect is a problem that is here to stay for hundreds of years. Climate experts should have the courage to state that we are not yet sure. What is wrong with making that statement clear and loudly?’ – ‘The IPCC prediction that with a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere the temperature on Earth would rise by two degrees should be taken with a grain of salt.’

79-year old skeptical scientist worried about his ‘safety’ – Climate scientist claims he has been forced from new job in ‘McCarthy’-style witch-hunt by academics across the world <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=380988bb4c&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Bengtsson believes one of the reasons for this is the US Government’s expanding role on climate change. ‘The public are concerned that recent weather phenomenon have been as a result of climate change. But it is a natural occurrence,’ he said.

UK Times: ‘Witch-hunt’ forces out skeptical climate scientist – ‘The pressure had mainly come from climate scientists in the US, including one employed by the US government who threatened to withdraw as co-author of a forthcoming paper’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=653a795c08&e=e57bd7cb9d>

‘The Cleansing of Lennart Bengtsson’: Climate Scientist Who Defected To Skeptics Forced to Resign: ‘Reminds me about the time of McCarthy’ – Worried about his ‘safety’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=777f7b540f&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Climate Audit’s Steve McIntyre reacts: ‘Bengtsson’s planned participation in GWPF seemed to me to be the sort of outreach to rational skeptics that ought to be praiseworthy within the climate "community". Instead, the "community" has extended the fatwa. This is precisely the sort of action and attitude that can only engender and reinforce contempt for the "community" in the broader society.’

Prof. Roger Pielke Jr.: ‘The elite in this community – including scientists, journalists, politicians — have endorsed the climate McCarthyism campaign, and are often its most vigorous participants’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=5fcf650a0f&e=e57bd7cb9d> – ‘For experts in the climate issue, there is enormous social and peer pressure on what is acceptable to say and who it is acceptable to associate with. My recent experiences are quite similar to Bengtsson’s’

Climate bullying echoes the expulsion of Mitch Taylor from Polar Bear Specialist Group <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=6e0f928782&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Dear Lennart: A Letter In Support Of Professor Bengtsson <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=ca1a29fb3e&e=e57bd7cb9d> – David G. Gee – Professor Em. Orogen Dynamics – Department of Earth Sciences – Uppsala University, Sweden: ‘The pressure on you from the climate community simply confirms the worst aspects of politicized science. I have been reprimanded myself for opposing the climate bandwagon, with its blind dedication to political ambitions; it needs to be exposed, globally.’

Warmist apostasy: the climate jihadists strike <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=f38d022036&e=e57bd7cb9d>

The 97% In Climate Science: McCarthyism Is Alive & Well In 2014 <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=ca2337f22b&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Climate Science: No Dissent Allowed <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=4602e05266&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Background:

Award-Winning Former UN IPCC Scientist Dr. Lennart Bengtsson Dissents: ‘We cannot yet separate well enough the greenhouse effect from other climate influences’ – Declares climate models ‘more a matter of faith than a fact’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=4177c6f68c&e=e57bd7cb9d>

<http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver/Breitbart/Breitbart-London/2014/05/14/bengtsson.jpg>

Dr. Lennart Bengtsson: ‘We cannot yet separate well enough the greenhouse effect from other climate influences <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=fcbde1ebb9&e=e57bd7cb9d> .’ – ‘Although the radiative forcing by greenhouse gases (including methane, nitrogen oxides and fluorocarbons) has increased by 2.5 watts per square meter since the mid-19th century, observations show only a moderate warming of 0.8 degrees Celsius…high values of climate sensitivity, however, are not supported by observations…Thus, the warming is significantly smaller than predicted by most climate models…since there is no way to validate them (models), the forecasts are more a matter of faith than a fact.’

Full Interview here: http://www.thegwpf.org/lennart-bengtsson-the-science-and-politics-of-climate-change/ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=9b38acfc7d&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Related Links:

Top Swedish Climate Scientist Says Warming Not Noticeable: ‘The warming we have had last a 100 years is so small that if we didn’t have climatologists to measure it we wouldn’t have noticed it at <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=af5de25470&e=e57bd7cb9d> all Award-Winning – Dr. Lennart Bengtsson, formerly of UN IPCC: ‘We Are Creating Great Anxiety Without It Being Justified…there are no indications that the warming is so severe that we need to panic…The warming we have had the last a 100 years is so small that if we didn’t have had meteorologists and climatologists to measure it we wouldn’t have noticed it at all.’

Top Swedish Climate Scientist Lennart Bengtsson (former IPCC) Also Confirms No Sea Level Acceleration…Desperate UN IPCC’s Pachauri Insisting No Acceleration ‘Is An Acceleration’! <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=ee011d2ebf&e=e57bd7cb9d> – – Lennart Bengtsson: ‘We now have satellite measurements for 20 years which indicate a steady rise of about 3 mm per year, and during that time no acceleration, See: http://sealevel.colorado.edu/ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=30a5d02c5c&e=e57bd7cb9d> … 20 years is certainly enough. On Monday I was involved in a public panel discussion with Pachauri who insisted that this is an acceleration. I found that I think I know more about this than Mr. Pachauri. The reference above appears to me quite compelling.’

Skeptical Swedish climatology: Dr. Lennart Bengtsson: Global warming only visible under a microscope <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=9f90852a1a&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Dr. Bengtsson: ‘The Earth appears to have cooling properties that exceeds the previous thought ones, and that computer models are inadequate to try to foretell a chaotic object like the climate, where actual observations is the only way to go’

Top Swedish Climate Scientist Dr. Lennart Bengtsson: CO2”s ‘heating effect is logarithmic: the higher the concentration is, the smaller the effect of a further increase’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=349997cdbd&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Dr. Lennart Bengtsson, formerly of UN IPCC: ‘The sea level has risen fairly evenly for a hundred years by 2-3 millimeters per year. The pitch is not accelerated’

‘Climate change has become extremely politicized. The issue is so complex that one can not ask the people to be convinced that the whole economic system must be changed just because you have done some computer simulations’

#

Background on intimidation of climate skeptics:

‘Execute’ Skeptics! Shock Call To Action: ‘At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers’ — ‘Shouldn’t we start punishing them now?’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=7c21fdcb1c&e=e57bd7cb9d>

A public appeal has been issued by an influential U.S. website asking: “At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers.”The appeal appeared on Talking Points Memo, an often cited website that helps set the agenda for the political Left in the U.S. The anonymous posting, dated June 2, 2009, referred to dissenters of man-made global warming fears as “greedy bastards” who use “bogus science or the lowest scientists in the gene pool” to “distort data.”

The Talking Points Memo article continues: “So when the right wing fucktards have caused it to be too late to fix the problem, and we start seeing the devastating consequences and we start seeing end of the World type events – how will we punish those responsible. It will be too late. So shouldn’t we start punishing them now?”

The article also claims the “vast majority” of scientists agree that man-made warming “can do an untold amount of damage to life on Earth.”

…

If the promoters of man-made climate fears truly believed the “debate is over” and the science is “settled”, why is there such a strong impulse to shut down debate and threaten those who disagree?

Small sampling of threats, intimidation and censorship:

NASA’s James Hansen has called for trials of climate skeptics in 2008 for “high crimes against humanity.” <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=dc4a0ff8d2&e=e57bd7cb9d> Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lashed out at skeptics in 2007, declaring “This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors” <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=068b323c78&e=e57bd7cb9d> In 2009, RFK, Jr. also called coal companies “criminal enterprises” and declared CEO’s ‘should be in jail… for all of eternity.” <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=6f1cf5ef42&e=e57bd7cb9d>

In June 2009, former Clinton Administration official Joe Romm defended a comment on his Climate Progress website warning skeptics would be strangled in their beds. <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=db55a06877&e=e57bd7cb9d> “An entire generation will soon be ready to strangle you and your kind while you sleep in your beds,” stated the remarks, which Romm defended <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=a28560a781&e=e57bd7cb9d> by calling them “not a threat, but a prediction.”

In 2006, the eco-magazine Grist called for Nuremberg-Style trials for skeptics <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=3bf6f15040&e=e57bd7cb9d> . In 2008, Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki called for government leaders skeptical of global warming to be thrown “into jail.” <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=34520f9acc&e=e57bd7cb9d> In 2007, The Weather Channel’s climate expert called for withholding certification of skeptical meteorologists <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=ab4631177a&e=e57bd7cb9d> .

A 2008 report found that ‘climate blasphemy’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=548d905b74&e=e57bd7cb9d> is replacing traditional religious blasphemy. In addition, a July 2007 Senate report <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=417ffd0600&e=e57bd7cb9d> detailed how skeptical scientists have faced threats and intimidation <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=54da9630fd&e=e57bd7cb9d> .

In 2007, then EPA Chief Vowed to Probe E-mail Threatening to ‘Destroy’ Career of Climate Skeptic <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=1a2c4c832c&e=e57bd7cb9d> and dissenters of warming fears have been called ‘Climate Criminals’ who are committing ‘Terracide’ (killing of Planet Earth) <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=f2659eb1ef&e=e57bd7cb9d> (July 25, 2007) In addition, in May 2009, Climate Depot Was Banned in Louisiana! See: State official sought to ‘shut down’ climate skeptic’s testimony at hearing. <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=514a08cbd4&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Below are many more examples of the threats, name calling and intimidation skeptics have faced in recent times.

November 12, 2007: UN official warns ignoring warming would be ‘criminally irresponsible’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=70efacd0d5&e=e57bd7cb9d> Excerpt: The U.N.’s top climate official warned policymakers and scientists trying to hammer out a landmark report on climate change that ignoring the urgency of global warming would be “criminally irresponsible.” Yvo de Boer’s comments came at the opening of a weeklong conference that will complete a concise guide on the state of global warming and what can be done to stop the Earth from overheating.

September 29. 2007: VA State Climatologist skeptical of global warming loses job after clash with Governor: ‘I was told that I could not speak in public’ Excerpt: Michaels has argued that the climate is becoming warmer but that the consequences will not be as dire as others have predicted. Gov. Kaine had warned. Michaels not to use his official title in discussing his views. “I resigned as Virginia state climatologist because I was told that I could not speak in public on my area of expertise, global warming, as state climatologist,” Michaels said in a statement this week provided by the libertarian Cato Institute, where he has been a fellow since 1992. “It was impossible to maintain academic freedom with this speech restriction.” (LINK <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=59734031b8&e=e57bd7cb9d> )

Skeptical State Climatologist in Oregon has title threatened by Governor <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=38c1ee6cd9&e=e57bd7cb9d> (February 8, 2007) Excerpt: “[State Climatologist George Taylor] does not believe human activities are the main cause of global climate change…So the [Oregon] governor wants to take that title from Taylor and make it a position that he would appoint. In an exclusive interview with KGW-TV, Governor Ted Kulongoski confirmed he wants to take that title from Taylor.

Skeptical State Climatologist in Delaware silenced by Governor <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=9b318698b5&e=e57bd7cb9d> (May 2, 2007) Excerpt: Legates is a state climatologist in Delaware, and he teaches at the university. He`s not part of the mythical climate consensus. In fact, Legates believes that we oversimplify climate by just blaming greenhouse gases. One day he received a letter from the governor, saying his views do not concur with those of the administration, so if he wants to speak out, it must be as an individual, not as a state climatologist. So essentially, you can have the title of state climatologist unless he`s talking about his views on climate?

October 28, 2008: License to dissent: ‘Internet should be nationalized as a public utility’ to combat global warming skepticism – Australian Herald Sun <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=e9fd0ed9a9&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Excerpt: British journalism lecturer and warming alarmist Alex Lockwood says my blog is a menace to the planet. Skeptical bloggers like me need bringing into line, and Lockwood tells a journalism seminar of some options: There is clearly a need for research into the ways in which climate skepticism online is free to contest scientific fact. But there is enough here already to put forward some of the ideas in circulation. One of the founders of the Internet Vint Cerf, and lead for Google’s Internet for Everyone project, made a recent suggestion that the Internet should be nationalized as a public utility. As tech policy blogger Jim Harper argues, “giving power over the Internet to well-heeled interests and self-interested politicians” is, and I quote, “a bad idea.” Or in the UK every new online publication could be required to register with the recently announced Internet watchdog…

November 5, 2008: UK Scientist: ‘BBC SHUNNED ME FOR DENYING CLIMATE CHANGE’ – UK Daily Express <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=56bf50bc85&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Excerpt: FOR YEARS David Bellamy was one of the best known faces on TV. A respected botanist and the author of 35 books, he had presented around 400 programmes over the years and was appreciated by audiences for his boundless enthusiasm. Yet for more than 10 years he has been out of the limelight, shunned by bosses at the BBC where he made his name, as well as fellow scientists and environmentalists. His crime? Bellamy says he doesn’t believe in man-made global warming. Here he reveals why – and the price he has paid for not toeing the orthodox line on climate change.

U.N. official says it’s ‘completely immoral’ to doubt global warming fears <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=3b1bfabd3d&e=e57bd7cb9d> (May 10, 2007)

Excerpt: UN special climate envoy Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland declared “it’s completely immoral, even, to question” the UN’s scientific “consensus.”

Former US Vice President Al Gore compared global warming skeptics to people who ‘believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=f1410f9cfa&e=e57bd7cb9d> (June 20, 2006)

Gore Refuses to Hear Skeptical Global Warming Views <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=9e623d2eae&e=e57bd7cb9d> (Video)

UK environment secretary David Miliband said ‘those who deny [climate change] are the flat-Earthers of the twenty-first century’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=3fba9732b4&e=e57bd7cb9d> (October 6, 2006)

Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=6f6295bc6d&e=e57bd7cb9d> (January 17, 2007) Excerpt: The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to “Holocaust Deniers” and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists.

Barone: Warmists have ‘a desire to kill heretics’ — Calls for capital punishment for ‘global warming deniers’ – DC Examiner – June 9, 2009 <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=2a8d2718fd&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Strangle Skeptics in Bed! ‘An entire generation will soon be ready to strangle you and your kind while you sleep in your beds’ – June 5, 2009 <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=498ced0d9a&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Follow on Twitter at @ClimateDepot <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=d0f17813d5&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Marc Morano

ClimateDepot.com

Temperature

You rightly keep mentioning the issue of the accuracy of the temperatures reported. Hardly have any disagreement since the official stations have been photographed with all their deficiencies; next to barbeque pits, air conditioner exhausts, down exhaust from idling jet engines at airports etc. To say nothing of the great purge of rural stations that eliminated much of the data from rural or northern outposts that didn’t exhibit the urban heat island effect.

But far worse in my estimation has been the systematic revision of the past. In pure 1984 style the temperature of the 1930s and 40s have been revised downward by Hansen at NASA Goddard (to correct for supposed observational errors) and the folks over in England. With lower temperatures in the past the new slope of the temperature is decidedly rising where it once was just level. And without checking each of the handwritten original records you have a hard time finding what occurred in the past.

As a retired engineer it distresses me to realize that our government is willfully altering the record of what has gone before to achieve a current political agenda. With the absolute control of the media in compliant hands we have a hard time learning anything that does not conform to the official position. No wonder the current students seem to be nothing more than drones, they are being taught not to think for themselves.

Earl

I find the attack on the very nature of science to be far more dangerous than the climate change trends.

West Antarctic glaciers past tipping point

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-148

West Antarctica glaciers past the tipping point; their eventual

collapse into

the sea is unstoppable; enough ice in those glaciers

to raise sea level 1.2 m = 4 feet; the process will take a few

centuries.

A slow process, but a big one, and unavoidable.

Paradoctor

West Antarctic glaciers past tipping point

And yet it has been avoided for a very long time. And there are record levels of ice forming in the Antarctic. You may not have seen all the feedback processes that nature has in store. You may have, and if you have low sea side property you may wish to sell out and move.

But take heart. The seas have been higher in historical times, and the earth has been warmer, and here we are..

Jerry Pournelle

Chaos Manor

Well the collapse of the West Antarctica glaciers will not be avoided for much longer – on the century scale. Therefore of course it’s Someone Else’s Problem. Specifically posterity’s; and what has posterity ever done for us? – aside from being a reason for us to exist?

You’re right that I don’t know all the feedback loops, negative and positive. That precisely is the problem; the unknown. Change makes planning necessary; the unknown makes planning difficult.

There are entire nations with low seaside real estate. The Netherlands, Bangladesh, various islands. Also there’s Florida. And let’s not forget every single coastal city. That’s a lot of piers to raise 4 feet.

I agree that it’s all doable, and Denver won’t mind, nor will Moscow.

But living in the San Francisco Bay area has made me conservative about climate and sea-levels; I like both of these things just the way they are.

But of course that is the error of attachment. Change happens, will ye nil ye. Here comes the Anthropocene.

Paradoctor

Can we agree that it is better to face the unknown rich than poor?  If we cripple the economy in anticipation of this, will we be able to do anything about it?

Do ‘climate change’ believers also believe in the existence of dinosaurs?

from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic>

—–

Mean atmospheric O2 content over period duration: ca. 26 Vol %[1] (130 % of modern level)

Mean atmospheric CO2 content over period duration: ca. 1950 ppm (7 times pre-industrial level)

Mean surface temperature over period duration: ca. 16.5°C (3°C above modern level)

—–

Roland Dobbins

How NASA Can Run The International Space Station Without Russia

http://jalopnik.com/how-the-us-can-run-the-international-space-station-with-1576359569?utm_campaign=socialflow_jalopnik_facebook&utm_source=jalopnik_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

James Crawford=

We have five years. Clearly we have the capability of restoring our access to space before the Russians cease to cooperate. It is not clear that anyone in power has the will or interest to do that, or even to allow free enterprise to do it. Incidentally, Solar Power Satellites are one answer to climate control. They add no CO2 to any part of the atmosphere.

Joe McCarthy

I have mixed feelings about this guy. The press regarding him is not trustworthy IMO, either the pro’s or con’s. I DO think the Red infiltration into our government was greater than we realized at the time, but maybe not so much as the Senator did.

It is plausible to me that Senator McCarthy’s drinking and overreaching was a symptom of his frustration at not being able to get people to listen.

You were old enough at the time and were active in politics then, right? Can you reflect back on those times and give an opinion?

B

I was an undergraduate in that time, and my views were unsound.  I should have had mixed feelings as you do now.  For those who want to see McCarthy in context, I think the best book on that subject is Bill Buckley’s historical novel, The Red Hunter.  It is partly fiction but that is in the presentation, not in the description of the era.   The times were dangerous, more so than most American understood, but McCarthy was not the solution to that.

The Future of Work

Dr Pournelle

Re: Eric Gilmer’s essay on The Future of Work and Everything Else and responses https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/the-centre-cannot-hold/

https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/the-future-of-work-continued/

https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/the-future-of-work-continued-2/

I find that Mr. Gilmer added nothing to the discussion. What he said was said before in more entertaining ways:

Philip Jose Farmer, Riders of the Purple Wage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riders_of_the_Purple_Wage

Frederick Pohl, The Midas Plague http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas_World

You yourself have trumpeted the warning of such a society:

Rudyard Kipling, The Gods of the Copybook Headings http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/gods_of_copybook_headings.html

     And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins 
     When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins 
     As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn 
     The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

For my part, I take solace and guidance from Ecclesiastes:

Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What was will be again; what has been done will be done again; and there is nothing new under the sun. I know there is no happiness for man except in pleasure and enjoyment while he lives. And when man eats and drinks and finds happiness in his work, this is a gift from God.

Live long and prosper

h lynn keith

You can find The Gods of the Copybook Headings at http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail269.html#copybook along with some interesting mail of those times (2003). And I have been posting that poem at intervals since  this daybook began.

But the question is, is there now something new under the sun? The productivity of man and machine seems to be going up exponentially. The labor theory of value is irrevocably ended for the modern era so long as the technology endures.  Does that change the ancient principles of political philosophy?  It is difficult to say. And will the next revolution truly make all men equal – but valueless?

And in looking through old mail I never got around to doing anything with, I came on this:

The Fight Over the Bundy Cows Will End as Civics 101, Not Fort Sumter II –

http://news.yahoo.com/fight-over-bundy-cows-end-civics-101-not-134743601.html

It has turned out to be the most perceptive comment on the subject I have found. 

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 824 Wednesday, May 14, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

Putting "Inevitable" Glacier Disappearance in Perspective

Remember when, for several years the IPCC continued to proclaim that all the Himalaya glaciers were going to have melted by 2035? They even denounced skeptics who disputed it as doing "voodoo" science.

"Indian Scientists: Himalayan Glaciers are Not Melting

Andrew Orlowski, The Register

Top Indian physicists have concluded Himalayan glaciers show little sign of retreat – in one of the largest studies of its type ever carried out."

http://www.thegwpf.org/indian-scientists-himalayan-glaciers-are-not-melting/

I would be willing to take a bet that this new Antarctic glaciers melting story will also not stand up to scrutiny. And that when it is dropped it will get less media hoo-ha than the initial announcement has.

Neil Craig

I had much the same feeling. The credentials of the framers of the latest report seem to be in order, but how can you tell? The Manmade Climate Change Believers have engaged in many questionable, and some outright fraudulent, practices, and the Scientific Consensus establishment does not seem to have come down on them hard, as they should. I try to keep this a place for rational discussion, and I fully agree to the proposition that one is entitled to one’s own opinion, but there are facts – data – that must be agreed to.

In the case of Climate Change some data are not disputable. It has been getting warmer since early in the 19^th Century. This is observed all over the globe, in almanacs, growing seasons, scientific expeditions that recorded both land and sea temperatures, etc.

What cannot be agreed to is the precision of the measured lower temperatures in, say, 1825. Most of those were taken with mercury thermometers, and we have no idea of just how precisely they were calibrated. I know that the old mercury thermometer that we used at our house in the 1930’s purported to give body temperature to 1/10^th degree Fahrenheit. I also know it was subject to mechanical manipulation, and it was relatively delicate. The large red liquid thermometer outside the house was marked in 1 degree intervals, but it was large enough to let you estimate another decimal place.

Apparently the climate science community has decided that by 1870 data gathering and recording were good enough to allow establishment of an annual average global temperature accurate to 0.1 degree C. I have my doubts about this, but they are all what you would call “common sense” arguments, not data. Having had to establish temperatures accurate to 0.1 degree C in a laboratory, I know something of the difficulties involved. We only wanted a point skin temperature of an astronaut in a full pressure suit. Actually we wanted the temperature of a small copper disk to which we had soldered a thermocouple. The disk was smeared with a thermal conducting paste and taped to the back of the astronaut’s arm (others were placed at locations about his body); we assumed that the temperature of the disk was closely enough coupled with the actual skin temperature, and since all the disks and thermocouples were as identical as our technicians could make them, and all were taken on a setup that included a reference copper plate/thermocouple in a bowl of ice made from distilled water, this would have to do. After all, it was the relative temperatures taken in different conditions that we needed.

But that experience has made me leery of any temperatures said to be accurate to a tenth of a degree (C or F), and particularly of averages taken over vast areas. I would be hard put to come up with “the” temperature of Los Angeles right now to a tenth of a degree. It’s hot outside my house, hotter in the sun than in the shade. There’s a warm compressively heated wind from the high deserts fighting a cooler wind from the sea. If you then ask me to give you the average temperature in Los Angeles for the day (which would include the night) I’d have to argue that it can’t be done. We can take a series of measurements and average them, but the exposed to the sky temperature will depend on the cloud cover both day and night, while the temperature in the shade will depend entirely on air temperature and thus be more sensitive to which wind, Santana or ocean, prevailed at that location. I could go on listing difficulties, but you get the idea. Anything exposed to the night sky will be colder if there are not clouds. If there are clouds and it is not exposed to that 4 degree Kelvin dark, that changes things. But if it is exposed to the night sky at night it is exposed to the blazing sun by day. Unless there are clouds. At this point I begin to babble.

And when I see that the consensus of temperature rise from 1870 to present is measured to 0.1 accuracy (about 0.8 C), I just have to wonder how reliable that is. Surely different techniques and data gathering locations are used now from those employed back then. Yet it is widely reported that the Earth’s temperature rose by 0.8 degree C between 1870 and present (https://www.google.com/search?q=earth+temperature+1870+to+present&sa=X&biw=1005&bih=473&tbm=isch&imgil=RxbUv-HjO79I9M%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcRPof3yjHmOVhfkNlH6-Yg4gmzdvUElWTBGMKbu3Ve7y0Bk1ydBpw%253B670%253B717%253B4Jwy4vvzj7WnOM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252FCurrent_sea_level_rise&source=iu&usg=__9Nry8HpHXiTQoKuPzztCXDHFEQ4%3D&ei=VdpzU4OfHcKgogSG94DICw&ved=0CIMBEPUBMA0#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=RxbUv-HjO79I9M%253A%3B4Jwy4vvzj7WnOM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252F5%252F5e%252FTrends_in_global_average_absolute_sea_level%252C_1870-2008_%28US_EPA%29.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fen.wikipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FCurrent_sea_level_rise%3B670%3B717). That makes 0.1 degree fairly significant. And even this rise is disputed by those who find a cycle at work http://notrickszone.com/2013/12/03/german-scientists-show-climate-driven-by-natural-cycles-global-temperature-to-drop-to-1870-levels-by-2100/

Meanwhile current reports are that the ice is building up in Antarctica (Antarctic sea ice hit 35-year record high Saturday ).

I suspect you have good reason to doubt the inevitability of Antarctica land ice melting into the sea. All that ice forming down there must surely cool the water at the critical interface?

I have bills to pay. Back later this evening.

: civilization level -  

Hi Jerry,

I’ll be fascinated to hear more about the ‘civilization level’ that you discussed. Did the group talk about using energy production per capita as part of the calculation? It’s one you’ve talked about before, and at least here on earth, is a pretty good proxy for civilization. It might need some additional factors for cost and/or pollution per watt-hour too.

Cheers,

Doug=

I said this last Sunday:

“Dr. Maccone’s metric for level of civilization is bits/person, a measure of information processing divided by the number of people in the civilization. The main critique I have of the measure is the denominator: you can change the metric by eliminating the low information members of the population. One can imagine situations in which survivors of a nuclear war would retain much of the technology, and quickly recover to become a considerably higher level of civilization (according to the metric) if the size of the denominator falls greatly relative to the numerator.”

I have not changed that opinion, but I haven’t had a lot of time to think about it. The concept of information processing as a measure of civilization level is intriguing, and I think may be very relevant, but it is also a very  complex measurement. If I have my doubts about out ability to measure the average temperature of the Earth for a year to a fraction of a degree, I have even more doubts about finding an average of information processing, since I think it obvious that the variation in information processing ability among the inhabitants of the Earth varies a lot. Even if we get the numerator of that measure right, the denominator is clearly wrong.  I haven’t a lot more to say on that as of now, but I won’t stop thinking about it.  It’s an exciting development in the SETI community, and they’ll have a lot more to say about it sometime soon.

Method To Russian Madness  Jerry,

Our President is on record that Putin doesn’t really have a strategy, that he’s making it up as he goes along. The best description I’ve seen of how that’s incorrect and what the Russians are methodically doing in Ukraine and elsewhere is at http://www.naa.mil.lv/~/media/NAA/AZPC/Publikacijas/PP%2002-2014.ashx

It’s a 15-page paper written by someone named Janis Berziš and published by the National Defence Academy of Latvia, Center for Security and Strategic Research. It’s clearly written, but impossible to summarize beyond saying that reading it will give you a basic grounding in why, if we assume Putin is just improvising, we’re going to lose Eastern Europe (and more) without ever knowing what hit us.

It also discusses potential counters, in the Baltic context but applicable elsewhere. (The next-gen warfare method described seems clearly to me also being practiced against us elsewhere, and by others.)

The bad news is, we’ll need to understand what we’re up against, adapt fast, and somehow somewhere find the collective will to take effective countermeasures. So far, I see little indication we’re managing even the first of those steps.

Henry

The Baltic Republics are in a better position to estimate what is going on – and are also set to be victims if Russia’s attempts to regain the western parts of the Empire are successful. After all, they were part of Russia for a long time.  Worse, the USSR had a policy of relocating Baltics from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the interior and replacing them with ethnic Russians. President Putin wants Russians. It is not obvious to me that he will want these Russians: many were happy enough to get out of Russia and into the Baltic regions, and at least some will be more loyal to their new homes than to their ethnic cousins. Others will not be.  One of my best sources for what was going on in Lithuania was Algis Budrys, a friend from 1962. AJ was the son of a high official of the Lithuanian diplomatic corps – the exile group that until the Treaty of Leningrad the United States recognized as the legal government of Lithuania. I was also friends with officials of the exiled Estonian diplomatic group. In general the only support Russia has within the Baltic States are the ethnic Russians brought into there; there is no desire to rejoin Russia.  Whether Russia can use ethnic Russian minorities in those Republics to fake a big native movement for rejoining the Empire will depend on the relative skills of the Russian and Western clandestine services.

Ukraine and Belarus are different, particularly Ukraine. After all, the Russian State began in Kiev, and there is not a great deal of ethnic difference between Ukrainian and Russians. They’re all Slavs and recognize themselves as Slavs. There will be a bit more Tatar mix the further east you go, and more Danish/Swedish mix the further west you go, but the differences are not obvious. Linguistically, Ukrainian and Russian have a common origin, but have changed considerably.  Russian is probably the majority language in enough of the eastern Ukraine to allow Russian manipulation; I would expect that one goal is a solid Russian connection to the newly acquired Crimea, and it is unlikely that anything the West can do, short of war, can prevent that. The last experiment on those lines was the Crimean War and the Charge of the Light Brigade.

President Putin needs Russians, and he will take them where he can find them.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 824, Tuesday, May 13, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

I opened this morning’s paper. The first thing I saw was an enormous spread on Don Sterling, with many pictures, all giving the impression of a confused elderly man under pressure from a reporter to justify his existence. He seemed at a loss. He talked about his many charitable gifts, and his efforts on behalf of NAACP, and why does everyone so hate him now. I didn’t read the rest, but looked for better news. There were two front page articles that caught my attention:

US Jobs Returning As Offshoring Ebbs.

After decades of exodus, companies returning production to the U.S.

Don Lee

In 2001, Generac Power Systems joined the wave of American companies shifting production to China. The move wiped out 400 jobs in southeast Wisconsin, but few could argue with management’s logic: Chinese companies were offering to make a key component for $100 per unit less than the cost of producing it in the U.S.

Now, however, Generac has brought manufacturing of that component back to its Whitewater plant — creating about 80 jobs in this town of about ‎14,500 people.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-returning-jobs-20140513-story.html#page=1

Note well: Four hundred jobs were exported to take advantage of cheaper labor. Years later, the market for the gizmos improved – and so had the machinery for making them. So now the widgets will be made in the United States, and eighty people will be hired to make, not the number being made when the jobs were exported, but many more to service the new and expanded market.

It is not an isolated instance. Jobs that required human labor were exported, because the labor costs were too high, and the machinery to automate the jobs had not been invented, or the capital costs of the tools to make the machinery to automate that job cost too much. Years later the automation becomes affordable, and the products are to be made here again, because fewer people with robots can make more widgets than the original workforce ever could have. This is economic progress, and we should all cheer; but we do need to give a little thought to the 320 people who used to make those widgets and are not needed. Some, perhaps many, will find other lines of work, or places in a factory that makes a competing widget – and now will face competition from their old employer who has bought robots.

Now this is the story of Creative Destruction, which is a necessary part of the capitalist process as Schumpeter has shown. It is an argument for great improvement in skill training in the schools. It will also be used as argument for long term – indeed permanent – unemployment compensation. There are (or can be) benefits to a society to have a number of people who were socialized and trained sufficiently to have been employed, and are now unemployed and have become permanent wards of the state and who owe the state some service for their living. Indeed far too little thought has been given to the kinds of public service that might be expected as a return for a pension for life (and of course whether the state is entitled to any return on those unemployment payments). And how liable is the former employer? Will this be an incentive to buy the robot in the first place so you won’t have to contribute to a lifetime living for anyone who once worked for you?

The second front page story on today’s LA Times that faced me at breakfast was that the glaciers are now past the point of no return:

Irreversible collapse of Antarctic glaciers has begun, studies say

By Scott Gold

A slow-motion and irreversible collapse of a massive cluster of glaciers in Antarctica has begun, and could cause sea levels to rise across the planet by another 4 feet within 200 years, scientists concluded in two studies released Monday.

Researchers had previously estimated that the cluster in the Amundsen Sea region of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would last for thousands of years despite global climate change. But the new studies found that the loss is underway now as warming ocean water melts away the base of the ice shelf, and is occurring far more rapidly than scientists expected.

http://www.latimes.com/science/environment/la-sci-0513-antarctic-ice-sheet-20140513-story.html

10 Feet of Global Sea Level Rise Is Now Guaranteed

By Brian Merchant

At least 10 feet of sea level rise is now guaranteed worldwide; it’s all but inevitable, a done deal. An ice sheet two miles thick has collapsed in West Antarctica—glaciologists have been dreading this moment for decades, though in recent years, it was more of a question of when than if—and there is nothing that can stop it from melting now.

NASA scientists say so, glaciologists say so, researchers who’ve spent their entire careers studying the slow and increasingly inevitable melt of our planet’s permanent ice stores say so. They say so in two new studies debuting this week; one in Science and one in Geophysical Research Letters. They are all saying we should begin getting comfortable with sea levels that lap up 10 feet higher on our shores in a matter of decades.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/10-feet-of-global-sea-level-rise-now-inevitable

We are hearing the same message on the radio and in the TV programs. If you live near the coast, pack your bags. It’s over, a done deal, and there is nothing to be done.

Actually I find that a more comforting message than the usual Global Warming oops Climate Change messages, which hold out a hope that we could yet be saved if we just take heroic measures to curb our carbon emissions and somehow persuade China, Africa, Europe, and Russia to do the same. And stop the Arabs from selling oil on a black market where it can be burned.

But to stop the rest of the world from burning all that coal and oil we will have to have a big military force because we will be demanding that they wreck their economies. Or we can bribe them. But in order to be a military superpower that can dictate industrial policy to the world (and police the seas for smugglers selling oil) while compensating the world with goods made in the US, we will need to expand our economy – just now and for quite a while in future we can’t afford to do that without building more oil refineries and expanding our fossil fuel energy economy.

Or maybe we need to rethink the whole situation.

When Arrhenius analyzed Global Warming back at the end of the 19^th Century, he found the temperature would rise, and that would be a Good Thing. Growing seasons would be longer, winters milder, and conditions for mankind just plain better. But that was a 19^th Century Swedish Nobel (two actually) prize winner. Few think that now.

But if the sea level rise is inevitable, is it not time to start thinking about how we can live in a warmer world? And what ought we invest our energy resources in for this new future? Surely someone ought to be looking at this.

Rather unhappy with the Times I turned to my Wall Street Journal, and on the editorial page I found

The Paradox of Financial Crises

Aggressive government intervention will lead to a stronger financial system less dependent on the taxpayer.

By Timothy Geithner

During the terrifying autumn of 2008, when I was serving as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, my team was on a conference call with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke debating whether the administration should ask Congress for stronger weapons to confront the crisis. Meg McConnell, a colleague, pressed the mute button on the speakerphone and pleaded with me to tell them that if they didn’t go to Congress now, "there will be shantytowns and soup lines across the country."

Why did she fear that? We were in the midst of a classic financial panic—similar to the bank runs in the Great Depression. But most people did not yet feel the impact of the run. The losses suffered on Wall Street seemed welcome and deserved, and of no consequence to the vast majority of Americans.

There was little memory of how panics kill economies, but the panic was already killing ours. American households lost 16% of their wealth in 2008 alone, several times as large as the losses at the start of the Great Depression, during which unemployment rose to 25% and total output fell more than 25%.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304885404579552430842061834

It is in fact worth reading. As an account by one who was there and more or less in charge of the government’s actions to end the crisis of 2008-2009. Of course Mr. Geithner has a new book on the subject (Stress Test; Reflections on the Financial Crisis) which he hopes you will buy, which will be an even better explication, but this is a summary of an important system of economic beliefs that pretty well run this nation.

I invite your comments on this article.

I have written before about the dangers of needlessly provoking the President of Russia.

ISS Drama

It has begun:

<.>

Russia is to deny the US future use of the International Space Station beyond 2020 and will also bar its rocket engines from launching US military satellites as it hits back at American sanctions imposed over Ukraine crisis.

Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced a series of punitive measures on Tuesday against the US in response to sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Crimea.

The two countries have long cooperated closely on space exploration despite their clashes in foreign policy.

The Space Station is manned by both American and Russian crew, but the only way to reach it is by using Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

The US is keen to keep the $100 billion (£600) ISS flying until at least 2024, four years beyond its original target.

</>

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10828964/Russia-to-ban-US-from-using-Space-Station-over-Ukraine-sanctions.html

This country is so schizophrenic that I don’t even know where to begin.  I’m just glad the Russians haven’t been rude about this.  The original commitment was 2020; the Russians seem to be in a position to honor that commitment, but will not go beyond it under the circumstances.  I don’t want our guys held hostage and the policy failures of the past two administrations have put our people in harms way, once again. 

To put this in terms a 10 year old internet troll could understand, in case we need to communicate with that cohort later:  "fail policy is fail". 

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

And it is now time for me to finish paying my bills and do other chores.

And I have this:

: Maher: "Who Wants To Live In A World Where The Only Right To Privacy Is In Your Head?" | Video | RealClearPolitics

How often are you and Bill Maher on the same page?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/05/10/maher_who_wants_to_live_in_a_world_where_the_only_right_to_privacy_is_in_your_head.html

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 824, Monday, May 12, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

The headline:

Sterling’s wife vows to keep Clippers share, NBA says no

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/clippers/2014/05/11/sterlings-wife-pledges-to-keep-stake-in-clippers/8974663/

or

Shelly Sterling Wants To Keep The Clippers; Everyone Else Wants Her Out

The NBA has said that neither Sterling’s wife, nor any of his children, nor even the husband of his daughter, may have anything to do with the ownership of the NBA team Los Angeles Clippers, which he has owned for decades; and this is because in what he thought was a private conversation (not in a public statement) he told his mistress that he did not want her to appear in public with black athletes, and specifically not to bring Magic Johnson as her escort to a Clippers game.

Now the NBA is a private organization (but of course chartered as a corporation under law), so it is not the same as a government imposing this penalty, but it is still a penalty that the government needs to enforce (assuming that anyone is still left living after all the court cases are resolved and that the ownership is worth anything after all the lawyers have been paid). And we have here Thoughtcrime – assuming, as everyone does, that Sterling is a racist at heart. Publicly he has two NAACP lifetime achievement awards and a number of other records of charitable donations to minority benefits, and there is certainly no evidence of racism affecting his decisions in hiring coaches and players. We also have guilt of Thoughtcrime by association: I haven’t seen evidence of the racism of Mrs. Sterling, nor of her children nor of their spouses. And we have the reinvention of Corruption of Blood, a punishment specifically listed and forbidden in the US Constitution.

For a very long time real estate deeds had restrictive covenants: agreements that the buyer of this property would not sell to certain people or certain classes of people. It was on effective way of enforcing segregated neighborhoods: this wasn’t a state action, it was a contract, and the buyer knew when he bought the property that he (or she) could not sell it to people of color. These covenants remain in some real estate deeds in some states to this day – but they have no effect, because the courts refuse to enforce them.

So we now have an NBA covenant requiring the government to apply the punishment of corruption of blood to Sterling’s Thoughtcrime.

I don’t want to get the reputation of being Sterling’s defender. I have no brief to Mr. Sterling, and I have never met him. I’m not a racist unless you define a firm belief that the law ought to be colorblind as some form of racism; I have believed that the law ought to be colorblind since I was in tenth grade and lived in Memphis which was then legally segregated, and my only sympathizers for this remarkable view were the Brothers at Christian Brothers High School. But I am concerned that in our zeal for equality we destroy other important rights and principles. Die Gedanken sind frei. My thought are free. Of course this was at one time the cry of liberalism and enlightened thought. You may be prosecuted for what you do, but not what you think. And that led to the notion of speech and advocacy, that one ought to be free to state and argue for your views.

One of the charges against Senator McCarthy was that he believed in guilt by association. If you associated with Reds, you’re a Red, if you hang out with Communists you are an enemy of the Republic. And of course he was said to believe in Thoughtcrime, and he was thoroughly denounced, not merely by left wingers but eventually by a coalition of decent people who had had enough. (Incidentally, it is no defense of McCarthy, but Bill Buckley’s historical novel The Red Hunter is the best depiction and explanation of that era that I know.)

But we are now seeing defenses for reviving Guilt by Association and the punishment of Corruption of Blood when the Thoughtcrime is racism. Racism has become the unforgiveable Thoughtcrime.

Now realistically it is not likely that the players will play their hearts out to enrich the Sterlings, any of them, or any relatives they might have, and the NBA has very good reasons to want the Sterlings out of the game forever. I understand that, but there are principles at stake here, and they are important.

Latest on NBA

Jerry:

The NBA is saying that if Donald Sterling is forced to sell the team, his wife loses her percentage of ownership as well.

Where in American law is a private corporation (the NBA) permitted to take away her property? SHE has not violated their rules, so the NBA has no legal or moral right to punish her for someone else’s actions or words.

I think this is going to turn around and snakebite professional sports organizations. The NBA will lose in court, and with that, will lose much of their power over their leagues, teams, owners, etc. Maybe it’s about time.

Myself, I don’t care one way or the other about the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc.

But it IS fun to watch this whole thing play out, as the Thought Taliban go after the designated bad guys (while the rest cheer, to keep attention away from their own comments and attitudes). Pass the popcorn!

Keith

A related subject:

The Closing of the Collegiate Mind

Opponents of free speech have chalked up many campus victories lately as ideological conformity marches on.

By Ruth Wisse

There was a time when people looking for intellectual debate turned away from politics to the university. Political backrooms bred slogans and bagmen; universities fostered educated discussion. But when students in the 1960s began occupying university property like the thugs of regimes America was fighting abroad, the venues gradually reversed. Open debate is now protected only in the polity: In universities, muggers prevail.

Assaults on intellectual and political freedom have been making headlines. Pressure from faculty egged on by Muslim groups induced Brandeis University last month not to grant Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the proponent of women’s rights under Islam, an intended honorary degree at its convocation. This was a replay of 1994, when Brandeis faculty demanded that trustees rescind their decision to award an honorary degree to Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In each case, a faculty cabal joined by (let us charitably say) ignorant students promoted the value of repression over the values of America’s liberal democracy.

Opponents of free speech have lately chalked up many such victories: New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly prevented from speaking at Brown University in November; a lecture by Charles Murray canceled by Azusa Pacific University in April; Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state and national-security adviser under the George W. Bush administration, harassed earlier this month into declining the invitation by Rutgers University to address this year’s convocation.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303701304579550340222538088?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303701304579550340222538088.html

The entire essay is worth your reading. Many of the best known universities have abandoned the principle of rational debate: some dissent is automatically wrong, Thoughtcrime, and cannot be allowed on campus.

Meanwhile, in the real world, JoAnne observes:

What is life like for a Christian in Palestine?

Quoting from the video’s description:

"Christy, a Palestinian Christian shared her political views and experiences on the internal events that happened regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, and as a consequence her family is being intimidated, threatened and harassed.

Christy herself has also received death threats in the UK since speaking on camera. Her family are in a serious situation. She is making a public plea to Dr. Saeb Erekat to honour the promise he made to her personally on Al Jazeera TV."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzCAqXrBGtU

Here is more about it from "The Federalist".

http://thefederalist.com/2014/05/01/what-happens-when-a-palestinian-doesnt-hate-israel-enough/

Her life is precisely that of any non-Muslim who happens to believe in a singular God in a Muslim dominated land. Pagan or atheist non-Muslims in a Muslim land are dead, slaves, or hostages.

Speak out against Sharia and what happens? Pamela Geller has the answer, from Saudi Arabia. 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes.

“Free Saudi Liberals” website founder sentenced to 10 years jail, thousand lashes http://pamelageller.com/2014/05/free-saudi-liberals-website-founder-sentenced-10-years-jail-thousand-lashes.html

So what do our wonderful liberal institutions here in the US do? The Washington Post says we have to stop saying anything that upsets Muslims.

Washington Post calls for Islamic restrictions on internet free speech http://pamelageller.com/2014/05/washington-post-calls-muslim-restriction-internet-free-speech.html/

There is so much of this "stuff" going on it’s hard to subject others to seeing it. That’s why I’ve tended to be quiet about for the last year or two.

It is simply getting too raw. So I had to speak out again at least once. I do NOT want the US to become another Britain.

Clitoridectomy ‘Parties’ Being Held in UK, MPs Warned http://pamelageller.com/2014/05/clitoridectomy-parties-held-uk-mps-warned.html

Unfortunately as Geller mentions, it’s already becoming a problem here in the US.

Let’s not fall into the internal warfare that is tearing Nigeria apart. They have the lovely slavers called "Boko Haram" kidnapping children and selling them as sex slaves. AND NO MUSLIMS ARE SPEAKING OUT AGAINST IT. Where is CAIR?

Where is MSA? Where are any of the other mosques and Muslim institutions in the US who should be speaking out against this very vigorously if they were in any way civilized.

Yes, it is a problem in the US already and we’re trying to look the other way and not see it. We’re trying to Chamberlain it. We’re trying to create the seeds for our own doom. It’s time we stopped sniffing the roses and realized we’re knee deep in offal.

{^_^}

And I have not forgotten that there is now a great new incentive for traffic in very young human slaves, now that there is evidence that young rat blood revitalizes old rats, and evidence for the theory that the same will be true for humans.

We live in an increasingly dangerous world, and rational discourse is no longer valued in the most prestigious American academic institutions. We have sown the wind, we reap the whirlwind and denounce those to decry it.

Snow Continues Over Colorado, Wyoming

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/heavy-snow-to-hit-co-mothers-day/26743873

The cause must be global warming, of course. And in fact if the Believers are correct, it indeed must be: they have no other explanations of climate events (and no explanation at all of some climatic events such as the Nino/Nina cycles).

There are also tornadoes in Nebraska.

The current CO2 level is about 400 parts per million, up from preindustrial levels of about 280. Arrhenius about the turn of the 20^th Century predicted a rise in global temperature of about 6.0 C would follow a doubling of the CO2 level of 1900. He later adjusted that to 1.6 C. http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm#S1 Back when the fear was of Global Cooling dominated meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the theory was put forward that minor warming of the atmosphere might bring about more transport of water vapor to colder areas, thus increasing the amount of ice and bring about accelerated cooling. When contemplating a return of the Ice Age, there does need to be an account of where the energy for moving all that water from the seas to the land comes from. This used to be a major field of study, but it is mostly neglected now.

There is no questioning that the Earth is now warming after the Little Ice Age. There is no compelling evidence that it has warmed more that it did during the Viking period (Medieval Warm), and that it had been colder during the chaotic times known as the Dark Ages when Rome fell. CO2 levels for those time periods have various estimates, but none are as dramatic as the increase since 1900.

We don’t understand climate, but it is pretty hard to blame it all on CO2.

And continuing the discussion of operating systems (see last night’s mail bag):

OS/2

Jerry,

Interesting to see OS/2 mentioned by Kieth. I was a Member of IBM’s OS/2 Corporate Council for several years prior to my retirement in 1995.

If the IBM Marketers had been half as smart as the Developers, OS/2 might be the dominant Desktop and Laptop OS today.

To go back in time a bit farther we can look at the "Common Wisdom" that IBM was a great Marketing Company. Great Marketing Companies do not try to push their top sales people into management positions because they are making too much money on commission. Ross Perot left IBM because of this. IBM had always been an excellent Technology Company, not so much Marketing.

In Corporate Council Meetings the OS/2 Developers were always interested in our feedback. The Marketing people, by and large, always knew best and paid no attention to us. At the last meeting I attended in early 1995 we tried to explain that the "real" decision makers for a Corporate Desktop OS were the end users that wanted to use the same OS at work that they used at home. The Marketers believed that Corporate IT Groups made the decision.

Forces within IBM wanted to recapture the PC hardware market by using their proprietary RISC Processor in place of Intel’s x86 CPU’s in hardware dubbed Power PCI. BM spent a lot of OS/2 development resources creating a Power PC version of OS/2. The only Power PCs I ever saw were at a Computer City Store I visited in Los Angeles to buy HP ink cartridges at 1/2 price. It was not too long after that that Computer City disappeared.

In the early days of OS/2, when Microsoft and IBM were still partners, Bill Gates tried to convince IBM that continuing to support the 80286 16 bit processor was wasting development resources and should be dropped in favor of making OS/2 a 32 bit OS. Bill finally went along with IBM’s desire to continue support for the 286 and it was not too much longer before MS and IBM went their separate ways.

Decisions like this by IBM were, unfortunately, quite common. When IBM introduced the PS/2 and MicroChannel in 1987, they included a 16 bit model utilizing the 80286 processor. At the same time they discontinued their best selling PC AT models. Marketing Genius at work. Get rid of your best selling model and dilute the impact of your new architecture by having a crippled 16 bit model that also used a hard disk with a horribly slow access time.

Jerry, you are absolutely right about IBM’s lack of support for software developers. The Marketers at IBM evidently saw the OS/2 SDK as a profit center rather than a way to enable the success of OS/2. At the same time IBM’s strategy to entice companies like Word Perfect, Lotus and other established companies to develop OS/2 Versions of their products appeared to be as effective as tossing large bundles of cash into the sewer. The OS/2 Apps that this effort were bloated pigs that had all of the performance of a Snail coated with Super Glue. IBM had provided cash incentives, but no real help to ensure Apps that showed off OS/2’s unique abilities. The WordPerfect OS/2 APP was an excellent example of an APP that was a slow productivity killer and the OS/2 version of Lotus 123 was not much better.

While all this was going on MS was concentrating on Windows 3 and improving the Office Suite. Then, in 1995, Microsoft dropped the Windows 95 bomb. This was the start of the end for OS/2, WordPerfect and Lotus 123. OS/2 was a much better OS, but Microsoft’s Marketing power coupled with the Rolling Stone’s "Start Me Up" were the final nails in OS2’s coffin.

Looking back I believe that IBM decisions drove most of the nails in that coffin.

Bob Holmes

They had a chance at a restart when they put Lucy Baney in charge of OS/2 for a time, but there was too much opposition to her among the IBM executives – and of course Small Computers were, after all, the “entry level” computers before people moved on to real computers – IBM mainframes. OS/2 did have an input channel choke point problem. It could have been remedied, but IBM didn’t assign enough resources. After all, the little computers weren’t where the company’s heart was.

The perils of spending on science

http://www.tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=1597

 

A correlation that high must be significant at the 90% level, surely?  As taught in Stat for Soc Sci…

There was both a View and a Mail last night.  They’re just below here.  That’s not always obvious from the structure of this place.

In digging about last night I came across http://www.jerrypournelle.com/science/velikovsky.htm this summary of the Velikovsky affair, another time in which Big Science had a Consensus. No, it’s not an attempt to persuade you that Velikovsky had it right or was even close to that; it’s about the panic he caused and the strange measures Big Science took to suppress him. Similarities to Climate Change Believers and Deniers may not be entirely coincidental.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.