| Sunday, December
27, 2009
Where was security?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20091226/ap_on_re_us/us_airliner_attack
How did this guy get on with the components? Of
course, he wasn't part of the profile they are looking for (US Military, in
uniform, with medals for heroism; or old white grandmother) so they would
not have looked very hard. They do have other more likely suspects.
Thank the good Lord for the passengers. Otherwise an
American flag airline would have lost a plane.
In other news, thanks for posting all those Christmas
Carol links, especially Celtic Woman. They are beautiful.
Merry Christmas to you and you family.
Patrick
See view.
============
Hunting Redhunter
"[R]ead William F. Buckley's The Red Hunter, but you
will have problems finding it: Amazon shows almost none."
Search for "The Redhunter" instead and you'll find
more than a hundred; Abebooks another 70. Apparently it's also available in
Kindle and Mobi ebook formats.
Forrest
Thanks
===========
AGW: stop arguing and start
testing
Dr. Pournelle,
Let's have a simple test that everyone can understand.
This is my proposal. Pick 100 (an arbitrary number,
but you get the idea) temperature monitoring stations around the world.
Predict the average temperature monthly, annually, and for a five-year
period. Compute the mean-square error. Post the measurements and predictions
online.
If you don't like my experiment, I'm sure there are
other ways to test this, but predictions must be compared to measurements,
and the details of the measurements (location, instrumentation, methodology)
must be available for public scrutiny.
Don't bother telling me what the climate will be like
in fifty years if you can't tell me what it will be like next year.
Steve Chu
==
Global Warming and Climate Change
Hello Jerry,
'Chemical and Engineering News' published this on the
subject:
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/87/8751cover.html
It seems as if that Hansen, Mann, et al, and the
organizations they represent are still the authorities and the 'deniers' are
given little notice other than to mention their arguments and then have
Mann, Hansen, and the others featured prominently in the leaked emails
dismiss them out of hand. As is the idea that the emails indicate anything
other than dedicated scientists trying to prevent themselves from being
distracted by a bunch of disgruntled, no- nothing deniers. The 'hockey
stick' and the medieval warm period as a local phenomenon have both
apparently been completely validated, by the way, as well as confirmation
that the medieval warm period was strictly a local phenomenon. By Mann,
Hansen, and the other climate experts featured prominently in the emails.
As I pointed out, I am not a scientist. But I can
state one thing unequivocally: If there is a crisis and the solution to the
crisis requires converting the US and/or the world into a Marxist/fascist
command society, there is NO crisis; there is a rationale.
And we are more than neck deep in rationales at the
moment.
Bob Ludwick
The science is done, and deniers need to be
jailed.
==
CO2
Jerry,
Two thoughts on the lecture to which CP linked. First,
the proponent doesn't explain how the climate could have cooled after the
CO2 levels reached a high level if CO2 is a significant force to the
climate. Wouldn't the climate and the CO2 both continue to increase?
Secondly, the comments about the new paleoclimate data agreeing with the CO2
forcing model gets to the heart of the concern about big Climate Science,
that the data are being manipulated to agree with the theory.
Tom_R
You can always prove anything if you can make up
your data, and generally prove anything if you get to select your data.
==========
'Earth's north magnetic pole is racing toward Russia
at almost 40 miles (64 kilometers) a year due to magnetic changes in the
planet's core, new research says.'
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/
news/2009/12/091224-north-pole-
magnetic-russia-earth-core.html>
-- Roland Dobbins
============
Iran The Beginning of the End?
……….Opposition Web sites and eyewitnesses indicated
there were a number of casualties, after security forces fired on
demonstrators in Tehran. A reformist website, Parlemannews, says a nephew of
Iranian opposition-leader Mirhossein Mousavi was killed in the clashes.
Another opposition website, Rah-e-Sabz, says police in
some locations have begun to refuse orders from their commanders to fire on
the demonstrators…...
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news
/politics/Opposition-Web-Sites-4-Iranian-Activists
-Killed-in-Clashes-With-Security-Forces-80159602.html
We will see. Riots in Tehran are not as
indicative as some think. Iran is a large country and the Supreme Leader
is far more than the Mayor of Tehran. Cuba fell when the police and army
refused to fire; but that's not the usual result of a rebellion. We will
see.
=
Tennessee deploys THOR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK3sEI3Vl9U
John
Heh.
=========
Cold fusion
Hello Jerry,
One of your correspondents, Mr. Gordon Foreman,
provided this: "Jerry, Let me make a brief prediction: For the last 25 or so
years, when the mainstream media wanted to refer to scientific findings that
have been thoroughly discredited, they have called them "Cold Fusion."
I understand his sentiments, but it may (or not) be a
little premature to place 'Cold Fusion' into the 'thoroughly discredited'
side of the scientific ledger. At least the 'cold fusion' true believers
are, apparently, still doing things the old fashioned, scientific way:
conducting experiments and recording data. And surprisingly enough, groups
with otherwise respectable credentials continue to run experiments that
indicate that if not 'cold fusion', SOMETHING inside the experiment is
producing more heat than is being pumped into it externally.
My point is that like 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'
being settled science in the face of clearly contradictory evidence, the
physics community is equally adamant that 'cold fusion is thoroughly
discredited' in the face of, to date, a good number of carefully crafted
(though possibly--TBD--flawed) experiments that indicate that such may not
be the case.
I, by the way, have no 'cold fusion' axe to grind,
other than the wish that it were true and commercially viable.
http://research.missouri.edu/vcr_seminar/may09.htm
At least the cold fusion community will provide data
on experiments conducted and data collected to anyone interested.
Bob Ludwick
The Navy has never given up on cold fusion;
research continues. It's a long shot, but the payoff would be enormous.
==========
Rabbit ears make comeback in
digital TV era -- latimes.com
Jerry
Merry Christmas. The FCC gives you and other Angelenos
a gift: digital television you can pick up with 99 cent rabbit ear antennas:
http://www.latimes.com/business/
la-fi-rabbit-ears25-2009dec25,0,5668446,full.story
And people are ditching cable to save money. Mre
competition, it seems, is an unintended consequence of the forced
changeoever. More:
In the wake of the transition to digital television,
Southland viewers are finding they can get nearly three times as many
channels as they once could with an antenna. And rather than the erratic,
fuzzy reception of yesteryear, today's rabbit ears are capable of delivering
a surprisingly clear high-definition picture.<snip>
With antennas that can cost as little as a dollar,
most Los Angeles viewers can now pick up close to 70 channels, up from
around 26 before the federally mandated digital switch-over last summer.
Nearly a dozen of the digital channels are broadcast in high
definition.<snip>
With antennas that can cost as little as a dollar,
most Los Angeles viewers can now pick up close to 70 channels, up from
around 26 before the federally mandated digital switch-over last summer.
Nearly a dozen of the digital channels are broadcast in high definition.
<snip>
"Our sales are going through the roof," said Richard
Schneider, president of Antennas Direct, a St. Louis manufacturer of the
devices.
Schneider said that sales had nearly tripled since the
switch-over, and that he had to add a new assembly line in his factory to
meet the demand. The company produces nearly 100,000 antennas every month,
thousands of which are sold in the Los Angeles area, he said.
Viewers are also finding they can combine broadcast
television with the growing array of movie and TV programming available
online.
Mahan of Ladera Ranch dropped his subscription to Cox
Cable last year in favor of a pair of high-end antennas and an Internet
connection that lets him watch movies through Netflix and TV shows through
video websites such as Hulu .com. He even rigged up a device that can record
shows directly off the antenna.<snip>
And it turns out that rabbit ears bring in the digital
signal nice and clear - more than good enough.
Ed
=============
Shasta to Lassen,
Jerry
Merry Christmas. APOD has a treat for you. It's a
panorama of the Milky Way, and it appears to stretch from Mt Lassen to Mt
Shasta. Enjoy:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091225.html
Ed
=============
Forged in the Stars.
Dear Jerry I know time is very dear, but these stories
of people reaching for the stars are well worth the time spent.
Forged in the Stars <http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00052&segmentID=1>
I listened to this, sitting in my car, transfixed by
the stories and the telling. These stories read aloud and brought to life by
Jay O'Callahan, about the people who looked up at the stars and wanted man's
Future to be among those stars. Please take the time to listen to these
short stories, you won't soon forget them.
Douglas M. Colbary
<http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.htm?programID=09-P13-00052>
<http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00052&segmentID=1>
<http://www.loe.org/images/1px.gif>
<http://www.loe.org/images/1px.gif>
Storyteller Jay O'Callahan (Photo: Charles Collins)
<http://www.loe.org/images/1px.gif>
Forged in the Stars <http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00052&segmentID=1>
<http://www.loe.org/images/1px.gif>
<http://loe.org/audio/stream.m3u?file=http://stream.loe.org/audio/091225/091225A>
<http://stream.loe.org/audio/091225/091225A>
For the holiday season Living on Earth is proud to present storyteller Jay
O'Callahan's new work "Forged in the Stars." O'Callahan was commissioned to
write "a love letter to NASA" in honor of the nation's space agency's 50th
anniversary. "Forged in the Stars" is the result of almost two years of
research, including interviews with astronauts, engineers, and many other
NASA employees.
<http://www.loe.org/images/1px.gif>
Also In This Week’s Radio Show (December 25, 2009): <http://www.loe.org/images/1px.gif>
<http://loe.org/audio/stream.m3u?file=http://stream.loe.org/audio/091225/091225loe.mp3>
<http://stream.loe.org/audio/091225/091225loe.mp3>
The full show <http://www.loe.org/shows/thisweek.htm>
<http://www.loe.org/images/1px.gif>
<http://loe.org/audio/stream.m3u?
file=http://stream.loe.org/audio/091225/091225B.mp3>
<http://stream.loe.org/audio/091225/091225B.mp3>
Forged in the Stars <http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?
programID=09-P13-00052&segmentID=2> – Forged in the Stars
continues with the stories of Neil Armstrong and Christa McAuliffe. <http://www.loe.org/images/1px.gif>
<http://loe.org/audio/stream.m3u?
file=http://stream.loe.org/audio/091225/091225C.mp3>
<http://stream.loe.org/audio/091225/091225C.mp3>
Forged in the Stars <http://www.loe.org/shows/
segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00052&segmentID=3> – Living on
Earth’s winter special concludes with Jay O’Callahan’s story of the Voyager.
============
g
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