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.

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.

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?