Star One Smart Blog's

~*~

"One thing I recall from “Gulag” is a commentary Solzhenitsyn made how the stooges that ran the Gulags were totally befuddled by true Christian believers who didn’t fear death. They, like all totalitarians realized the limit and transitory nature of their power; their inability to conquer the human spirit. Solzhenitsyn’s effort to preserve on scraps of paper that terrible history stands forever to shame the Marxist toadies [in] western universities who have tried to hold up that rotten stinking hellish system as something noble. RIP to a great man."

"It will be difficult for people to face the truth when their reputations, careers, government grants or hopes for social change depend on global warming, but the fate of civilization may be at stake.

"In the famous words of Oliver Cromwell, "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."

"Phil Chapman is a geophysicist and astronautical engineer who lives in San Francisco. He was the first Australian to become a NASA astronaut."

"All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over.

"There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that 2007 was exceptionally cold. It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in centuries, the winter in China was simply terrible and the extent of Antarctic sea ice in the austral winter was the greatest on record since James Cook discovered the place in 1770.

"It is generally not possible to draw conclusions about climatic trends from events in a single year, so I would normally dismiss this cold snap as transient, pending what happens in the next few years."

"THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.

"This is where SOHO comes in. The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers.

"It didn't happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.

"The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.

"Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots.

"That the rapid temperature decline in 2007 coincided with the failure of cycle No.24 to begin on schedule is not proof of a causal connection but it is cause for concern."

It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850.

There is no doubt that the next little ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do. There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the US and Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it.

Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related diseases.

There is also another possibility, remote but much more serious. The Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and other evidence show that for the past several million years, severe glaciation has almost always afflicted our planet.

The bleak truth is that, under normal conditions, most of North America and Europe are buried under about 1.5km of ice. This bitterly frigid climate is interrupted occasionally by brief warm interglacials, typically lasting less than 10,000 years.

The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000 years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years.

The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027.

I can't do a 2007 Year in Review, after reading dAVe barry's syndicated column here. He's hit every high and low with teh funny. Just a sample...

"It was a year that strode boldly into the stall of human events and took a wide stance astride the porcelain bowl of history.

In short, 2007 was a year of deep gloom, pierced occasionally by rays of even deeper gloom. And as is so often true of bad years, it began with ...

January

... when Democrats, having won the November elections, take control of both houses of Congress with surprisingly little loss of life.

Upon taking power, the Democrats, who campaigned vigorously against the war in Iraq, and who hailed their victory as a clear voter mandate to get the troops out of Iraq, immediately get down to the business of being careful to not do anything that might actually result in the removal of troops from Iraq, in case that might turn out to be a bad idea. This is fine with President Bush, who calls for a "troop surge," based on his understanding of the comprehensive Iraq Study Group Report, as interpreted for him by aides equipped with 20,000 G.I. Joe action figures.

As the debate over Iraq intensifies, the eyes of a worried nation turn to another trouble spot: New York City, where Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell are locked in a bitter high-stakes battle to determine who is the bigger horse's ass.

In sports, a Los Angeles team signs glamorous British soccer star David Beckham to a $250 million contract. This raises eyebrows, both because of the amount of money and because the team is the Dodgers. But Beckham's glamorous presence quickly boosts ticket sales; within days the Lakers sign Angelina Jolie.

Sports remains in the news in ...

February..."

~*~

Allan C. Kelly
1949-2007
R.I.P.

In one of the Skipper's final posts, he described his pending back surgery, and left these thoughts:

"Meanwhile, while you slept a few thousand more Mexicans crossed the border last night, Wal-Mart built six more stores somewhere, the trade deficit with China increased by a few billion dollars, the North Koreans and Iranians came up with seventeen more plans to prove they are barking mad and several thousand more non-Muslims were murdered in Darfur by followers of the Prophet For Profit.

"Then again, you already know all this and just need a place to get together and figure out what we’re all going to do when the roof caves in - and make no mistake, the rafters are crumbling. Depressing? Sure, but what are we going to do?

"We can start to fix our government eighteen months from now in the 2008 elections. The interim is going to be dicey as somebody out there decided in the last election to install a whole bunch of really crazy people in the Congress and Senate. That was not my fault, by the way - and neither was it George Bush’s fault.

"As for the rest of the sitrep, we can wall ourselves off from the rest of the world and experiment with isolationism again or we can continue to muddle our way through the minefield of international relations - and that is where the problem comes in. We’re just no damn good at realpolitik. Not this administration, the whole country has never been real good at the devious games diplomats play. We haven’t been at this game long enough to understand all the rules.

"All I can really tell you is (a) keep a firm grasp of right and wrong, (b) stay involved in government and watch the bastards in Washignton every minute, (c) use every legal means to make sure you can defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and (d) keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere."

Damn, he was succinct, and unnervingly right on the money. And that last paragraph is....knowing.

Who DARES challenge lofty lefty Gore the Great on his particularly self-serving 'invention' of man-made, said to be eventually catastrophic Climate Change (a concept that's spread like wildfire amongst simple-minded leftists who, incidentally, also believe that George Bush and Dick Cheney purchased insurance on the Twin Towers just before their attack, so they could get richer)? Why, the inventor of the Weather Channel, a lifelong meteorologist, one with impeccable credentials (at least until the GoreAttackBots get on his history..) John Coleman. John's been on TV since 1953, created the Weather channel, and is still giving up weather forecasts in San Diego. And writing essays, such as this one published on Icecap (an aggregator for Climate and Climate Science, sans politics, and hopefully immune to what's going to be political pressure and vitriol from the leftists who believe in Global Warming.)

On to Mr. Coleman...

"It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create in allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

"Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmental conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

"I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, ie Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam."

"I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

"In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious. As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped. The sky is not falling. And, natural cycles and drifts in climate are as much if not more responsible for any climate changes underway. I strongly believe that the next twenty years are equally as likely to see a cooling trend as they are to see a warming trend."

2007 just wasn't a very good year for the Nobel committees. 

Al Gore takes the 'Peace' Prize for his "Earth Under Fire" Global Warming scare tactics,  falsely blaming mankind for Global Climate Change, and stifling any true debate.  Al is sharing his Nobel Prize with the IPCC (an agency that's not even comprised of all scientists...the IPCC is a Inter-Governmental agency that includes activist groups like Greenpeace).  Al Gore is scaring kids and convincing the easily-convinced and desirious of calamity (as long as it hampers and threatens existing economies) progressives and liberals.  Scientists who dissent from the 'Politically Correct' debate 'conclusions' are threatened. Just watch this video, where John Stossel dares to challenge the Goreacle.

Good for him! Scientists shouldn't be silenced to satisfy a fat loser...

"Some Americans will think I'm crazy... but it was neither as terrible or as extraordinary as they think..." "They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be," she added of Americans.

Lessing, whose novels include The Golden Notebook and Memoirs of a Survivor, also branded President George W Bush "a world calamity". "Everyone is tired of this man. Either he is stupid or he is very clever, although you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars." The writer also said that she "always hated Tony Blair from the beginning".

Doris Lessing, to the people who know of her work, is mainly known for being a feminist author of the 1950s and 60s, who often wrote about her experiences growing up in Southern Africa as the daughter of British colonialist farmers. For years, she was also a very strident and vocal Communist.

Fits in well with what the Nobel committees are looking for, now. "Powered-down" societies, indeed. If you want to read a book that's post-disaster, without the commie-lib-progressive takes on your way of life, read Larry Niven's Lucifer' Hammer.

Doris Lessing is just another leftist windbag liberal promoted by the partisan Nobel organization to a high enough perch...from which she just fell. Taking some of that golden sheen off the Nobel organization on her way down....

We've crossed into the latest and bestest ever Political Correctness Controversy^TM.

It seems Dr. James Watson, celebrated Molecular Biologist who, along with Dr. Francis Crick, helped to unravel the cell's nucleus and shared in the discovery of DNA, who received a share of the Nobel Prize in 1962 for advancing Medicine (NOT the 'Peace' prize, btw; that went to another Molecular Biologist, Dr. Linus Pauling, for his opposition to above-ground nuclear testing) has effectively shat in a punchbowl. In a room seemingly filled with Diplomats and Kings, extraordinary Gentlemen and Ladies, courtiers and courtesans, he's dropped trou and filled 'er up.

Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than Westerners

Celebrated scientist attacked for race comments: "All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really"

"The newly formed Equality and Human Rights Commission, successor to the Commission for Racial Equality, said it was studying Dr Watson's remarks " in full".

"Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson's remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: "It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint."

"To many in the scientific community, Watson has long been something of a wild man, and his colleagues tend to hold their collective breath whenever he veers from the script."

Written in 1990, at the dawn of the Political Correctness movement.

Yes, following The Script is now much more important than seeking or reporting any new science. Dr. Watson (for whom I have great respect) unfortunately veered, again, and like many others before him who strayed, will now suffer the damnation from the Keepers of The Script.

It’s fascinating that it seems to even consider a possibility of defending Dr. Watson is, in itself, as heinous an act as the original ‘offense’.

We should, I suppose, just shut down the biological sciences. There’s too much chance that opposing ideologies will grasp at partially-understood research and wring out eugenics, or sociobiology, or…racial biobigotry. Paul Feyerabend suggested in 1970 that a world without science “would be more pleasant than the world we live in today.”

And while we’re at it, let’s shut down the physical sciences as well! Who needs split atoms, or fused ones for that matter? Wouldn’t we all be better off without all this technology? Al, you win; shut down everything. We just needs Mother Earth to take care of us.

Nevermind that 99.9% of all evolutionary paths to date have led directly to extinction. Natural selection isn’t easily trifled with.

But ‘The Script’ should take care of that...right?

All That Said, likely Dr. Watson is full of whatever it is he left in that punchbowl. Shame that he allowed his 79-year-old mouth to run before he thought things through.

Past eras, and all that...

Shark Jumping at it's finest.