Monday, April 30, 2007

IPCC Revisionist History

I just love when scientists absolutely pwn other scientists during peer review. This happened most spectacularly with the cold fusion debacle. Oh, by the way, that crank is still a physicist in Utah, and is one of the biggest 9/11 truthers out there. Then there was the Korean cloner, who was caught just making stuff up, and so badly was his reputation tarnished, that anyone who used to work for him gets doubly reviewed, as happened earlier this year with another Korean team proving that they did clone some wolves. Now we have the Mann millenial temperature reconstruction, also known as the Hockey Stick, which is why the climate modelers over at RealClimate are pejoratively known as The Team. The reconstruction was discredited last year, but is still being used by many groups to justify alarming global warming predictions. So, I was curious how the 4th Assessment (AR4) would differ from the 3rd Assessment (TAR) in presenting the millenial temperature reconstruction. Climate Audit got the goods.

The new global millenial temperature reconstruction (the so-called "spaghetti graph") includes the downward temperature trends that were missing in the TAR. Here's the new Spaghetti Graph in AR4, and below is the Mann reconstruction featured in the TAR:



The AR4 graph doesn't look as convincing as the older graph, now does it? Especially when we see the cooling trend happening in Northern Russia and Greenland. Maybe we should be treating climate impacts much more regionally than some of these international bodies propose.

Online Forum Warning Signs

On a topic similar to a future tech hazard symbols, Cracked magazine offers some suggestions for the kiddies and techies who hang out in online forums. Unfortunately, I sometimes have to wade through these kinds of old-style bulletin board systems to find new sources for digital media, such as my helmety goodness, or for my anime and manga fixes. Yeesh, I thought flamewars were bad enough between Unix geeks arguing over which xwindows-based OS had better features, but you haven't seen anything compared to teenagers arguing over who's more Emo: Sasuke or Gaara! (Full disclosure: I believe Sasuke is more Emo because his fascination with death and dying is more personal, while Gaara just wants to kill EVERYBODY.)

For some reason, the leftist blogs had to institute a karma based flagging system. You can see what I'm talking about by going to Democratic Underground, Daily Kos, or Huffington Post. On the right, the only big-time forum that also uses these flagging features is Free Republic, but it is actually a user-based forum. No big media type blogs over there. Obviously, the sign below can't be posted, otherwise there would be no point to the websites' existences.

However, all the other ones would definitely apply. The anti-L337 sign shouldn't pop up so much anymore, since most people understand LOL, IMHO, BBIAB, ROTFL, ROFLMAO, but when you start going all H4xx0r, suxx0rs, and r0xx0rs, writing about your L337 5K!LLz, so that people have to use the H4X0R translator just to keep up with you, you've got to throw the flag.

As for my demeanor on comment sections, I'm very polite, use full English with punctuation (usually), but I do have a habit of blog-whoring, and that would definitely draw the No-Plugging flag!


Friday, April 27, 2007

Today's Kids Have It Easy

Warning: what follows may devolve into a cross-generational rant. I just read how schools are now banning portable media players, like iPods, to discourage cheating. That makes sense, since one could record the relevant portions of textbooks or reference material, and either play them as sound, or view them on the display. I don't know why schools didn't do this earlier when they banned cellphones because of the texting features. But all this just reminds me how bad I had it when I went to school.

The internet was not as accessible as it is now, so looking stuff up actually meant going to the library to find a book, and then poring through said book to find the information you actually wanted. Or even finding out from that book, that you had to find another book, and then looking through that book. It could take hours to actually find all the stuff you needed to know for your paper or project. I think back on that, and feel old (hey, I'm entitled!), because the stuff I used to look up in libraries, literally only takes me seconds to find online. Which makes me pissed off at these kids, because they think they still have to cheat to do well on tests. Hell, they're already cheating: it's called Wikipedia, baby! And people wonder why kids entering college have no critical thinking skills. I don't, because I know they didn't develop any of those skills by judging whether the information in all those books they had to lug back to a library table was "good" or not. The online majority, as an extension of google-ranking, tells them whether something is "good." Well, that's just the wrong way of going about it! Think for yourselves! Your question, or your motivation, for finding some bit of information is unique to you, and should not have to be boiled down to two or three search words.

Back to the media player banning: some softy education types will always think "technology" is a useful tool in the classroom. I can't think of one study that has shown that the use of computers in the classroom has helped test scores or improved grades. When I search for this stuff, I always find the studies that show "no effect" or "prove to be a distraction." Well, they should move the computers to the computer lab, and teach kids, and the teachers, how to use them, instead of trying to run some math learning software on them. So, of course, some puddinheads somewhere think that iPods would be great. No justification for it, just that it's new technology. In this AP story, some idiots from Duke allowed the media players in class, and even handed them out, claiming they were "invaluable for some courses, including music, engineering and sociology classes." Of course, no anecdotes were provided. I can understand the music classes, because digital media is the standard of the day. I remember having to check out tapes from the library for my music classes and foreign language labs, but that's not the same as saying my cassette player was "invaluable" for my learning experience. Citing Duke as apologists for allowing portable media players in the classroom seems a bit odd, without any context provided. Besides, the whole story was about banning media players during exams, so what was the application for testing that Duke was talking about? I've got no clue.

I can't think of any proper use for an electronic device, besides a scientific calculator, in an exam situation. If you can, please let me know. Otherwise, this AP story's newsworthiness only rides on one premise: iPod, and how to cheat with it.

"And Now, You Can Fly!"

You know how near the end of a show's season, they bring back old characters to blow your mind, and introduce stuff you didn't expect, just so you can look forward to the new season? Yeah, I don't know why I got that feeling watching the lastest Red vs. Blue episode. All of a sudden I was reminded of the feeling I got watching every single episode of Alias. And no, that was another feeling I got just from watching Jennifer Garner. Totally not related to the feeling connecting this Red vs. Blue episode and Alias. Oh, but at least Sarge gets to have his very own Patton moment. But where did he get that flag?



"Tu español es muy horrible."

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Happy (Ending) Meal?

Heh. Did I say, "heh"? I meant, "This is wrong!" Actually, I meant to snicker in the corner and point. Aren't they starting the kiddies a little young on the progressive lifestyle in New Zealand? Or maybe someone in the McDonald's thought the Grannie buying the Happy Meal was a real cougar?

Spiderman 3 Switcharoo

In an update to an earlier post, it has been independently verified, that Chinese pirated disks of Spiderman 3 are fakes, and not just putting Spiderman 2 in new wrapping, but also reviving Dan Akroyd's Asian career by featuring him in Earth vs. The Spider. Sony, yesterday, issued a press release saying that they had not found any counterfeit DVDs, but I wanted to wait until somebody else backed up their claim. I'm mildly surprised, and encouraged, that the Chinese crack-down on disk pirates is actually having an affect. So much so, that one DVD shop vendor said, "There have been too many checks... Maybe there will only be legitimate copies soon." Lucky and Flo know the nose knows, ya know?

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Seed Bank Sends Out Grant Request Disguised As Press Release

The British Millenium Seed Bank wants you to know it continues to waste British pounds by storing its one billionth seed. But buried in the story is the real reason for the press release: ""As it stands now we are looking at the abyss on funding after 2010. Up to then we can stand on our own. After that we have nothing," [Paul] Smith told Reuters." I wrote about the bank previously here, and remarked that they were on a race against time. Naturally, I thought they were racing against the future extinction of the flowering plants, because climate impacts would start mass killing the species by 2010. But they were really in a race against time, before their funding ran out. Oh, how could we have been mislead? Gosh, I'm sure it wasn't intentional! Those British pols better increase their green cred by throwing more money at the bank, but remember this is about saving the planet, not influencing elections: "Smith said he hoped Britain's finance minister Gordon Brown, likely to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair later this year, would boost his green credentials by offering funds." I'm sure Smith isn't just thinking about his job prospects after 2010, since he's only getting paid to save the planet, after all. Because, as we all know, the big money goes to all those denialists getting paid off by the dirty, scummy, petroleum industry. Right? Right?

Who Are You Calling a Dim Bulb?

Looks like Canada's all set to become our dimmer and pastier neighbors to the north by 2012. However, I see one hell of a loophole for the Canucks to exploit: "The ban will not apply to uses where incandescent bulbs are still the only practical alternative." [emph. added] Please, pray tell, what could these cirumstances be? I can think of certain kinds of photographic equipment requiring high-intensity incandescent bulbs, but that's more a function of product manufacturing, as opposed to a "practical alternative." What about auto headlamps? That's a lot of incandescent bulbs right there. There seem to be many situations where only very bright light can be employed (like surgery), so this non-ban list might get pretty long. Will people have to fill out a waiver application form? Will auditing be involved? Hey, way to add another layer of bureaucracy! Good ol' Canada.

Now, to be fair, putting compact flourescent bulbs in standard sockets, like table lamps and wall fixtures, is a great way to save energy costs. But banning incandescent bulbs, instead of allowing the free market to encourage manufacturers to make cheaper and brighter CFL's, is just the wrong way to go. With Australia's and Canada's actions, CFL makers can keep pushing the same crappy stuff (yes, I disagree with Insty on this) on the Commonwealth. Maybe by 2012, American brands will be much better, and we'll be flooding the Canadian market. I'd be happy with that.

OMG! TXTN BD FR U. RLZ!

If you don't understand the title above, you're old, and not contributing to the danger text messaging poses to conventional writing. One can almost chart the rise in access to mobile devices by teenagers and correlate that rise with the amount of college kids taking remedial writing courses. I'm sure some education departments have done more studies like this, but I'm more suprised at the surprise from the mass media. Or will it soon be politically incorrect to judge texting as bad grammar and bad spelling, like when the diversity crowd tried to elevate "ebonics" to be taught in ESL programs? I'm not so sure that'll happen, since too many white rich kids have already picked up the bad texting habits.

Title translation: Oh my God! Texting is bad for you. Really!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Horse Stays Warm in Bank Foyer

Overnight Deposits Only
AP Photo/Police Handout

A drunk German brought his horse, Sammy, inside a bank with him to sleep it off. Best quote to finish off the story: "No charges were filed, but there might be some cleanup needed: Apparently Sammy made his own after-hours deposit on the carpet."

Spiderman 3 Just Released: On DVD!

When I found out that Spiderman 3 was going to premier in Japan, I thought, "Wow, that is an extremely bad idea." Why? Because I knew this would happen. Asian cultures, for the most part, do not particularly care about the quality of their media experience, as long as it's cheap. They just want to be first to see something new, or join those who have already seen it. It won't matter if the picture on the DVD is jostling around, or shadowy heads and figures move across the bottom of the screen. What's important, is they can say, "I already saw it," and bask in the glow of envy or group camaraderie. But it's still illegal, and the US distributors better hope a digital version has not been uploaded to a torrent site. Hopefully, these two dogs are still on the case, and can sniff the pirates out.

Update: Can you guess what search words just scored a hit on my blog the same day I posted about Spiderman piracy? Take your time. No rush.


I hope it wasn't dubbed in Japanese!

Monday, April 23, 2007

The Most Beautiful Bulldog?

Most Beautiful Bulldog?
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Is that like the shortest giraffe? Or the heaviest chihuahua? Or the fastest turtle? How many more oxmoronic animals can you think of?

French Lab Hoses Landis, Again!

And this time, the USADA is complicit with the mishandled procedures. As part of the arbitration process in deciding whether Floyd Landis needs to be sanctioned for doping in last year's Tour de France, the USADA asked for the remaining B samples to be tested. Landis' team had asked for another lab to do the testing other than the French lab that allegedly mishandled the doping tests last year and did leak the results to L'Equipe. Well, the same lab got to do the tests anyway, and without the rider's representative present to observe parts of testing, and even all of the testing for two of the samples. The USADA officials barred the rep from watching critical phases of the procedures, and then went home early, so that the French lab would not let the Landis observer even inside the building to watch the testing of those two remaining samples. Why did the testing go ahead? This is a blatant oversight of the athlete's rights to observe B sample testing, perhaps even malicious.

Now that the B samples have been used up, there is nothing left to test, which leads the Landis side to speculate that this latest round of testing was all a ruse set up by the anti-doping agencies to willfully destroy evidence. That may be a little far-fetched, but what is true, is that the strange events surrounding the testing, with barring the presence of the athlete's observer and the leaked results of the test to the same newspaper, cast more doubt on what happened to Landis, and reinforce old doubts. And worse, there is no more physical evidence of Landis' guilt, or innocence, of the doping allegations. As I predicted last year, I believe all the problems with the technicalities of the testing procedures would exonerate Landis by showing the tests to be inconclusive. This latest go-round does nothing to change that view. However, being declared innocent through bureaucratic incompetency will not clear the taint of wrong-doing. A clear guilty verdict would have been a much better outcome, for the sport of cycling. It would have been better to amputate with one clean cut, and move on to sanctions, than to suffer the thousand paper cuts of innuendo and intrigue.

China to Block the Internet

This gives Net-Nanny a whole new level of significance. I must say that my respect for Google and Yahoo fell a few points because of their participation in curtailing search parameters, even if it does make good business sense to try to enter China's market. However, China's efforts will eventually fail, because the only way to block content that doesn't conform to communist propaganda is the North Korean model, which is impossible to implement in China.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Monkey Appreciation

Far be it from me to criticize how another likes to express his monkey preferences, but I don't agree with getting excited over prejudiced chocolate simians.


Get Fuzzy courtesy of Darby Conley

As for me, I like my monkeys three-headed and ready to dance!


Friday, April 20, 2007

Weirdest Headline of the Year (so far)

Canadian arrested for naked Hitler birthday event. That just about speaks for itself, along with the news that he is undergoing "psychiatric assessment." Ya think?

15 Minutes of Fame for Wild Boar

I know it's the Year of the Pig (or Boar for the heroically inclined), but this is ridiculous. What an attention hog!

Winnie the Pooh is Da Bomb!

A post office had to call in the bomb squad to deal with a ticking package. Thankfully, it was just a Winnie the Pooh phone that was banging its head against the side of the box. "Oh bother! It's dark in here. Christopher Robin! Please, let me out!"

"Wikipedia, Baby."

Now, I know that wikipedia should not be heavily relied upon for information on recent events or people, but how big is this grain of salt I have to take with me?


Get Fuzzy courtesy of Darby Conley

Who Are These People?

If you're new to Helmety Goodness Fridays, and to Red vs. Blue in particular, take a look at how the bobbing helmets introduced themselves way back in their first season. That's even way back on the original Halo game engine on the old XBox. Sniff... Memories. Good times, good times.



Thursday, April 19, 2007

Make-up For Men?

This is just wrong. I mean, I'm not disputing the facts of the story, I just mean that the trend for more men wearing make-up is wrong. Just look at this short list of men famous for wearing make-up, and you tell me if you want a society filled with these "well-adjusted" men: Prince, Boy George, Little Richard, Michael Jackson. Yes, I had to play the Jacko card. Also, I think the men responsible for this increasing trend know it's wrong, and feel the shame they are supposed to feel: "they want to buy makeup without ever having to leave their home. They don’t want to go and try anything out in 'real life.'" Men, we know what is the only thing you should be buying without leaving your home, uh besides porn, that is.

More Perspective on Global Warming Wind Shear

Patrick Michaels, over at World Climate Report, offers further thoughts on the new study by Vecchi and Sodden showing that climate models add wind shear to weather systems, which weakens hurricanes. Michaels highlights an earlier paper published in 2004, which "reported that the model-projected vertical stability increases in the future would temper (but not totally cancel out) the increase in storm intensity by rising SST [Sea Surface Temperature]." A more stable atmosphere makes it less conducive for storm formation. So, all this nonsense about catastrophic weather developing in a warming world is just that, nonsense.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

You Have Questions...

Ask A Ninja has answers!



"Ninjas glide silently into love with two swords drawn!"

Warming Biases in The Wires

I was intrigued about a new study which was reported on yesterday, that warming oceans may actually sap hurricane intensity, which is in contrast to the IPCC's opinion on the relationship between global warming and hurricanes. That bit of news wasn't all that surprising, considering the effects that El Niño had on last year's hurricane season. But what I found more interesting were the different takes the AP (linked above) with the Reuters version.

The Reuters story plays the story much straighter than the AP. Reuters quotes one of the co-authors on the findings of the new study, says that only "some scientists" think that warming oceans would increase hurricane intensity (as opposed to the IPCC's assertion that it is likely that human-induced greenhouse warming actually does impact hurricanes), and lets us know that "hurricane researchers" believe that we are in a natural cycle of heightened hurricane activity not related to global warming. Note that last part: when media outlets do not qualify a group of scientists with "some" or "most" or "many," the public can be assured that whatever scientific concept is being discussed, that concept is a prevailing and accepted theory in their field.

However, the AP report is all over the place. First, the headline makes it seem as if hurricane researchers are fighting among themselves about the effects of warming on hurricanes. This is not so. Something hurricane researchers agree on, in absolute opposition to the IPCC, is that global warming will have little to no effect on hurricane strength. It is a bit jarring to see Chris Landsea quoted in the AP article, when he is one of the most public scientists to break with the whole IPCC endeavor. The reason why he chose to leave the IPCC, and to have nothing to do with them whatsoever, is that in the lead-up to the Fourth Assessment, one of the lead authors claimed, without any research backing him, the concept that greenhouse warming would make hurricanes stronger. And after Landsea, a tower in the hurricane research community, asked for a correction to the record, his concerns were dismissed. Up until that point, the modeling showed, even with the worst case scenarios, that by the end of the 21st century, warming may, as an improbable event, increase hurricane intensity by 5 percent. With no retractions forthcoming, Chris Landsea quit the IPCC.

Notice, too, in the AP story, the co-authors seem to couch their language as an apology that warming may weaken hurricanes. Vecchi:

Which one of the two — warming oceans or increasing shear — will be the dominant factor? Will they cancel out? We and others are currently exploring those very questions, and we hope to have a better grasp on that answer in the near future.
What we can say is that the magnitude of the shear change is large enough that it cannot be ignored.

And Soden, quoted in the Reuters piece only on the merits of their findings, has to offer another apology, to make sure the grant money keeps coming in: "This study does not in any way undermine the widespread consensus in the scientific community about the reality of global warming." Of course, the AP had to find someone to placate the "consensus" that warming causes all the bad things in the world, including stronger hurricanes. So, who do they find? Kerry Emanuel, who was the first guy to go against prevailing theory, and argue that increased hurricane activity in the last 30 years was due to global warming. I wonder if he's on speed-dial for whenever the AP needs a quote on big bad hurricanes.

Still, since this is a story about hurricanes, I'm thankfully surprised the AP contacted Chris Landsea, and even mentioned hurricane forecaster William Gray, whose opinions on the IPCC and Kerry Emanuel, are no secret.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Beer Pouring Robot

Yesterday, I commented on the story about electronic toilets in Japan catching on fire. And much earlier, I wrote about the engineering dude who built a beer-launching mini-fridge. So, what could be better than those weird, techie stories? How about a beer pouring robot from Asahi that talks to you in a child's voice while preparing your favorite potable?



Sorry, no subtitles. And yes, that's way too much head for a lager pour.

No Sharia Law in Minnesota

Common sense prevails at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Good. This nonsense should have been dealt with much sooner.

The Milk is Bad! RAHR!

This is just one more reason to take your coffee black: Man seized by 'coffee rage'.

Defence lawyer Mark Dollimore told the court the disorderly behaviour charge was laid after Hobbs suffered a case of "coffee rage" at Nelson's Yaza Cafe.
Mr Dollimore said Hobbs considered himself a coffee connoisseur, and was adamant he was being served coffee with curdled milk.

I don't think this qualifies as a version of the Twinkie defense or even the unicorn defense.


h/t to Grind Your Beans

Monday, April 16, 2007

Over-Stimulated?

If you've been worried that kids these days are starting too early on the caffeine habit, you're not alone. Everyone knows that children should not be getting a lot of caffeine, and it's not just because it makes parenting harder having to deal with an over-stimulated smaller mammal running around the house. Long-term studies on the effects of caffeine on growing children have not been done, so the effects on development, bodily and psychologically, are unknown.

I didn't even think about coffee until I went to college, as did most of my peers. However, the Starbucks phenomenon was only beginning in the early 1990's, and I already saw the trend, that making cafes the "cool" place to hang out, was only going to get kids to start drinking coffee earlier. On a selfish note, I didn't want these "darn kids" distracting me. But nowawdays, it's common for high school kids, or younger, to start their days with a cup of coffee, and maintain their caffeinated state at the ubiquitous brand-name coffee houses.

It may be too late to go back to a time when children saw coffee as an "adult" drink, but in the years to come, we will see population studies on the effects of early-stimulators, not just of caffeine, but also the prescription medications such as Ritalin and Adderall, on developing brains and bodies. I already have a sinking feeling...

Help! My Toilet Caught on Fire!

It's not an exclamation one would imagine hearing in America, but in high-tech Japan, where squatological practices are a bit different, a toilet manufacturer is offering free repairs on certain models after the electronics caused smoking and fires. Electronics in toilets and bidets? Why yes, if you like heated seats, air purifiers, chimes (!), and blow-dryers. After dealing with Japanese public toilets, I'm not surprised people want to take a little extra time in their own homes.


Howdy-ho! I'm Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo!
Uh, yes... that is what you think it is...

UK: Deforestation Can Cut CO2 Emissions!

I just read this jaw-dropping headline over at Climate Science: UK plans to cut emissions by felling more trees. Along with Roger Pielke, I thought that this was a joke, but it was not. Read Prof. Pielke's response to the UK's proposed policy, because he knows the dangers of wood-burning pollution. I only want to add that ideas such as returning to wood-burning, or shutting down lights for an hour in Sydney, reinforce my opinion that the crowd that blames people for global warming really want us to go back to the Stone Age. Cut energy use! Turn off your fancy Gaia-killing electricity and sit in the dark next to your carbon monoxide poisoning wood-stove!

What does the tree-worshipping sect of the environmental movement think about Britain's plan? The Reuters article makes absolutely no mention of the anti-deforestation crowd or their reaction. How is that even balanced coverage? Nevermind the warming effects of deforestation for the local climate. Replacing coal or oil with wood-burning would require much more logging than this plan proposes, and the growth of the newly-planted trees would not offset the carbon emissions until 30 years later.

I'm just flabbergasted that people in the 21st century think that wood-burning is cleaner than fossil fuels. Look here at this obvious lie: "This is a major obstacle to the growth of biomass heating and support from government is needed to ensure dirty fossil fuel boilers are replaced with wood-burning ones quickly enough to establish effective supply chains, the Commission said." [emph. added] Absolutely bizarre what the CO2 emissions theory for global warming has caused people, and even governments, to do.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Operating System Sectarian Strife!

Hmmm, this sounds familiar, but you know, that Mac OS Infidel does "look" more fashionable than the Windows-based Heathen. Just sayin'.


Brewster Rockit courtesy of Tim Rickard

Friday, April 13, 2007

Bubble Bath, Take All the Pink Away!

So, uh, it's made of fairies, or what?

It has been found, that a common dish washing detergent is the cure for sick swans in England. First, what was making these swans in Windsor and Caversham in Reading sick? A bacterial infection on their feathers was making them pink (!) and drying out their feathers so they couldn't stay warm. Yes, the disease has a name: Pink Feather Flamingo syndrome. Now, the British Kingdom could not find out what was causing these poor swans to blush so unhealthily, so they turned to the one kingdom that is the haven for ugly ducklings everywhere. Yes, the Magic Kingdom! Actually, they contacted the Regal Swan Team based out of Orlando, Florida, so that seems close enough.

Apparently, this magical swan protection agency knows a lot about swan feathers, so they were able to isolate the specific bacterium causing the breakdown in the feather oil. But how to kill the bacteria without poisoning the swans while they preen? It was the preening that kept making the swans reinfect themselves. How about a little pixie dust to help those feathers out? Well, how about Tinkerbell's cousins the fairies? I dunno. Pixie dust sounds better than Fairy Liquid. Fairy "liquid" makes me think something unseemly or untoward happened to those poor fairies to extract said liquid. Okay, trying very hard not to connect those dots. Okay, again, failing miserably. The cleaning detergent is green! It's made of fairies! We've got to stop them. Somehow. Ahem. How did Charlton Heston get in here?

So, good news for Windsor's pink swans. Washing with Fairy (as the Brits say it) for two weeks cleared up the pinkitude. I liked the idea of pink swans, but not if that meant they'd be shivering themselves to death and immunosuppression. Besides, after washing with mild green Fairy, they'll have wings as soft as their face. Hmm, that jingle doesn't translate so well to the avian set.

Story contribution by my 10,000th visitor, Mariposa (you're welcome!).

UN's Inconvenient Truth About Methane

Patrick J. Michaels over at World Climate Report exposes the dishonesty in predicting that methane will increase along with CO2 during the next century. But the truth, confirmed by several studies, is that methane concentrations show "a persistent slowdown in the trends to nearly zero at present." [From Khalil et al, 2007. Atmospheric Methane: Trends and Cycles of Sources and Sinks. Environmental Science and Technology] Almost all the climate models assume that methane will increase, and this assumption is used in many scare-mongering stories. However, from conclusions in the article that World Climate Report writes on:

In describing the implications of their work, they note “it is questionable whether human activities can cause methane concentrations to increase greatly in the future.” Simple and well put.

It appears that we have to worry less about cow farts and smelly marshes than we thought.

Helmety Meta Narrative

The latest episode of Red vs. Blue has the most references to itself and web-based video that I have seen so far. There's a reference to Viacom's billion dollar lawsuit against YouTube. There's a reference to the factoid that all girls online are actually dudes. And there's even a 93 episode callback to a joke from the first episode! Just so much helmety goodness. Remember: bow chicka honk honk!


"And without any sound, it just looks like a bunch of helmets bobbing up and down."

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Nowhere to Hide

It's a bit of a slow news day for the things that I find interesting. It happens every once in a while. Oh sure, there's some more evidence, this time it's genomic, of the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and modern birds. The coolest thing in that article is that biologic material was actually preserved inside a fossil specimen, which could lead paleontologists to revise their preservation procedures.

But, other than that, I was very interested in the existential ninja disease. Very heartbreaking... and rib-breaking, femur-snapping, etc...



"Mom? Jean-Claude Van Damme's career did go to a barn, right?"

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Who Does No. 2 Work For?

My question: what are these Canadians feeding their dogs? Also, best quote from a city official evah!

Toronto parks and environment committee chairwoman Paula Fletcher: "Whatever we do, the cleanliness of our parks will be No. 1. Figuring out what to do with No. 2 will be, well, No. 2."

Chinese Try to Correct Tortured English

Heh. I'd prefer the Chinglish to stick around as an example of "cultural heritage." Besides, that garlic mud dish looks interesting!

Solar Power From Space

It seems the Pentagon is getting serious about the ramifications of space-based solar power. It makes sense to study this from the perspective of national security, since satellites are involved and power distribution is a security risk. Of course, the idea of solar power being collected in space and beamed to the Earth's surface is not a new idea, as anyone who has played SimCity can attest. The concept beats current solar power plants in two ways: no down-time in collection due to night time hours or cloud cover; and no need for break-throughs in battery storage technology. However, the feasability of the distribution from space to the ground is something that needs serious study. Will we see it in our lifetimes? And will it look as cool as it did on my old 486?

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Cycling Causes Problems, uh, Down There

There has been a link established between cycling regularly and male impotency. Of course, that sounds like it should be true, since a man is resting a very vulnerable part of his anatomy on a very small area. But what is the actual risk of impotency? According to several studies, it's only 4 percent. But what's worse, is that there is no proven explanation for the increased risk of dysfunction compared to runners (4 times as much) or swimmers (twice as much). The common sense theory is the pressure exerted on the perineum (that's the "taint" in the vernacular), over time, damages the vascular and neural systems, uh, down there. However, new saddle designs meant to relieve the pressure, either have no proof that they do (like the "love canal" designs) or are even dangerous for athletes (like the bar design). We need the nose of the saddle to grab with our thighs for control and power, so a noseless saddle is just not going to cut it. Meanwhile, I'll take my 4 percent chances with my all-weather buddy.


Taint twat you were thinking!
"Look at the nose on that thing!" "Cut the chatter, Red Two."

Brits Can't Handle the Internet

According to Reuters, most British online users get bogged down by irrelevant web searches. They've even coined a term for it: wilfing, from WWILF, which is short for "What Was I Looking For?". Now, some may say that one man's wilfing is another man's entertainment. In fact, there are dozens of sites which aggregate the results of these "irrelevant searches" and try to generate ad revenue. They are mainly aimed at college guys, with links to odd humor, humorous feature writing, Jackass style mishaps caught on tape, and, of course, softcore porn. But college guys eventually graduate, start working, and even have more time for web-surfing in their cubes. One of these sites even has as its tagline "Killing Productivity, Monday thru Friday."

Now, if these Brits get lost doing a search for work-related matters, is that the fault of the internet, or the fault of an undisciplined mind? I worry that the Nanny state might try to come up with a "solution" for this lost productivity, instead of letting the evil corporate triumvirate of Human Resources, IT Services, and Facilities figure out how to increase productivity in the Information Age. Hopefully, it won't involve more surveillance with people yelling at them to get back to work!

Monday, April 09, 2007

Diabetes and Alzheimer's Link

I'm not saying I was reminded of someone I know, when I read recently that diabetics have more memory problems, I'm just saying, that I know someone who's going to forget that I told him so, repeatedly.

Ninja Not Clear on the Concept

The ninja from Ask a Ninja needed some clarification from Will Ferrell and Jon Heder about their new movie Blades of Glory: not a sword-fighting movie. But yes, sharp objects strapped to your feet are sweet!



"The movie Blade?" "There's no glory." "How about the movie Glory?" "There's no blade."

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Joeschmo 10,000!

What did you expect? Balloons and confetti?

Heh. I'm reminded of the heady days of the tech-bubble, with analysts crowing "NASDAQ 10,000!" (NASDAQ closed yesterday at 2471.34), but this blog did hit 10,000 unique visits since last June. Not bad for only having 2 or 3 regular readers (I know, I'm sure there are at least 5). I want to thank them for thinking I'm funny, enjoying Helmety Goodness Fridays, and appreciating my opinion that bias and errors in science reporting should be pointed out. I also want to thank Google searches, because without them, and my article on dumb dolphins, people wouldn't be wandering over to my little cul-de-sac in the blogosphere. I also want to thank my association with the Don't Hire Deb blog and the community over at Teh Squeaky Wheel. Without those connections, and the ongoing antics of Debbie Frisch, my little page describing her behavior last year would not be as popular, especially when she decides do something new and crazy. I also would not have met my second and third (and more) regular commenters without the friendships started on DHD and carried over to TSW. Interestingly, this is only the third time I've ever written Debbie Frisch's name in a blog post. And finally, I want to thank my 10,000th visitor, whom I suspect is Mariposa coming from a nice server farm in New Jersey, for being one of my 2 or 3 (or more) regular commenters. Thank you all so much for reading.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Hurricane Expert Mocks Climate Scientists

Ah hahahaha! Next time, maybe those newspaper types will ask a hurricane forecaster, like William Gray, about hurricanes, instead of those computer jockeys who call themselves climate modelers.

The combative professor dismissed the work of scientific colleagues who have linked global warming and increased hurricane activity, saying they were simply seeking grant money.

"You've heard a lot of foolishness over the last few years," said Gray.

A lot of foolishness? You don't say! Hee hee!

Helmety Props

Filming in machinima looks easy, but it's got its own set of challeges. It's not just a bunch of post production after you move the characters around with your control pads. The film crews don't hack the game worlds, they just actually use what the world creates. So there are actually jobs for grips and production assistants to build sets. Well, building a set means moving a world-generated object to where the crew wants it, and the gamers have to be creative, and persistent, in moving that prop exactly where it needs to go. Just take a look at how much work it took to move a DJ console to the main stage.



"Prop truck? Do you see a prop truck around here? This isn't film school here... Crash!"

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Classified Porn?

Dudes, let this be a lesson to you: work and porn don't mix. I know things can be rough in the navy, even the Japanese navy, but if your superior officer offers you some hentai, you better make sure he's not giving you classified omake (that's japanese for "bonus material"). On a side note, I notice the story gives all kinds of details on the classified material mixed in with the hecchi stuff, but no descriptions of the porn itself. Balanced coverage? Please.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Cool Coffee Photography


Photo credit: Irene Müller

(via fantastic and photographer Irene Müller)

Fat People Treated Like Livestock

I still had to chuckle. Seriously, if you're too big to fit in the medical machines, you should be glad there are facilities that can accomodate you. Instead of protesting, why don't those porkers raise the millions of dollars necessary to build the "hefty" versions of the diagnostic machines?

AGW Theory is Everywhere!

Even in a story about Martian climate change, carbon dioxide on Earth is given a plug as the sole greenhouse gas when it's water vapor that is responsible for 95 percent of the warming in the greenhouse effect.

On earth, carbon dioxide traps infrared radiation which can affect global climate. This a phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect. Fossil fuel emissions add to the problem.

Is there even a science editor checking these stories anymore, or is the editor the one that requested that line be put in there? Also notice, the story does not include a theory on why the Martian albedo darkened in the 1970's which coincided with an increase in solar radiation. It couldn't be because the newspapers would have to explain what that is, and why the carbon dioxide climate guys getting all the press right now don't like that theory at all. Could it?

Media Backlash on Global Warming Continues

More scientists are criticising the media for misleading the public about their conclusions on the anthropogenic CO2 radiative warming theory on global warming. The gist of their complaints is that the use of apocalyptic language causes people to either disbelieve the claims or think the problem is too big to fix. Of course, there will always be some people who think the theory is not being described in strong enough terms, but the scientists want their work to be taken seriously, and the media narrative is not helping. Read more on the media backlash here.

Global Warming Propaganda

I just read another AGW propaganda story masquerading as a "science story." The premise of the Australian agency's press release is that a new report shows some marine species' habitats have already shifted southward to beat the heat. I found only two purported "facts" described as such in the article. Go ahead and try to find them, because every other sentence has a verb in a future tense or subjuntive mood. Here they are: 1)"Already, nesting sea turtles, yellow-fin tuna, dugongs and stinging jellyfish are examples of marine life moving south as seas warm"; and 2)"Worse, oceans are becoming more acidic as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise in the atmosphere." The only present tense sentence constructions in the entire story describing climate impacts. Everything else is will, may, would, could, or "likely to be". And those two "facts" are not even supported yet. The coral bleaching the report talks about is not a gradual thing seen in slowly warming water, but rather a mass of warm and acidic water developing and migrating before dissipating, which is not totally understood yet. Just another example of the poor writing found in science reporting today.

Big Brother in Britain

For a country proud of producing George Orwell and keen on the warnings against totalitarian regimes in his book 1984, it seems they don't teach that book to the people making decisions in the Home Secretary's office.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Britain will fit more surveillance cameras with loudspeakers allowing security staff to berate people spotted dropping litter, fighting or vandalizing property, the government said on Wednesday.

Home Secretary John Reid hopes the talking cameras -- which have been on trial around the country -- will help cut crime. But critics say the idea is another lurch towards Britain becoming a "surveillance society."

I have suspicions this is just another jobs program for lazy Britons to watch closed circuit monitors and yell at their betters, but that might be just my cynical side poking through. I wonder what the worst things shouted at litterbugs and vandals would be...

  • Oi! Yer mangy cur needs to do *that* on the verge!
  • You two! Find some other corner to snog!

Can my reader(s) come up with more?

Forest Fires Part of Natural Cycle

A survey of fire-damaged areas in Oregon and Northern California found rich reforestation only ten years after the fire. This shouldn't be surprising to anyone who has studied botany or knows anything about the ecology of pine forests, since fires are required to release the seeds of sequoias and redwoods. However, this certain study has highlighted the problem with forestry policy in most parts of America: logging and forest fires don't mix. If one were to enforce the older policy of allowing natural fires to burn, while only protecting important structures, then one cannot allow logging companies in to remove trees killed by the fire, yet still intact. If one were to follow the insane policy of not allowing any natural burns, then you have to allow the logging companies in to remove small growth trees and a portion of the older growth. Removing trees damaged by fire causes massive drainage and erosion problems, while not allowing brush and small growth to help stabilize the soil. Not managing a forest through logging practices allows too much fuel to grow (sapping too many resources to fight future fires), changes the ecology of the soil and the local climate, and does not allow old growth trees to reproduce. You can't have both logging and natural burn policies for the same forest. Just because the forest "doesn't look pretty" for 25 years or so, is a stupid reason not to depend on natural regeneration.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Keith Richards Snorted Dad's Ashes

Seriously, WTF?

“He was cremated, and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared, it went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.” - Keith Richards

Rock n' Roll icon, people, freakin' icon.

Update: Keith Richards' spokesman says the rock icon was only joking about snorting his father's ashes. Sure. I believe you...

Liquor Banned in Venezuela Until After Easter

Tell me why, again, leftists around the world like Hugo Chavez, when, after gaining the power to rule by decree, he enacted a curfew based dry law. The Venezuelan government claims it's to prevent drunk driving deaths during the holiday, and I'm not quite sure why dry laws are enacted during elections, but we know that Hugo does not like whiskey: "Chavez has attacked the whiskey habit as an affectation of his arch-enemy the United States." When you have a totalitarian regime, the Big Brother laws come down at the whim of the dictator, whether its based on some interpretation of Sharia law, or some paranoid fascination with America.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Slow News Day, What To Do?

Ask A Ninja!



"A ninja is not a one-trick pony. We are an infinite... trick pony!"

Supreme Court Rules on EPA Regulation of CO2

In a politically divided decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas from vehicles. Other people were worried about the absurdity of regulating a naturally occuring gas, and something that most living things "emit" every few seconds. Climate scientists were very quick to point out the logical conclusions of regulating the "other greenhouse gases" in vehicular emissions, such as water vapor. All you mouth-breathers better watch out, or the EPA will be coming after you to wear a mask whenever you go outside.

Honestly, carbon dioxide and water vapor are now pollutants, because the Supreme Courts says so? Actually no. The ruling says that the EPA has the authority to regulate these emissions, if (that's a big if) ever the policy changes to include carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as pollutants, including the discretion not to regulate those gases. What the decision did was to isolate the EPA's reasons for not regulating those emissions solely to policy decisions, as opposed to federalist issues, such as the hodge-podge of tail-pipe emissions regulation by state. But something struck me as incomplete and biased in the AP's story: "Carbon dioxide is produced when fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas are burned." Is this the only way carbon dioxide is produced on this planet, or are you going to hide behind the "context" excuse?