Remembering PRESTAGS

How Does One Cope With The Heat Wave?

Easy.

Ice cold G&Ts.

Heavy on the Bombay Saphire. Ice cold tonic water. Fresh lime. Three blocks of Ice.

 

Why am I angry? - Is Toxoplasma gondii - things to me?

So there is an article in today's Australian and on New Scientist

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2082105-explosive-road-rage-like-anger-linked-to-parasite-spread-by-cats/

I learned about this parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, at uni. It's life cycle is in the guts of cats (or other predators I guess) and the brains of prey (mice). Guess what? People get it too - in the brain.

It was well known that mice infected with it were risk takers, and the evolutionary explanation is that it makes them more likely to get predated.
So this is interesting research. I wonder if I have T. gondii sitting in my amygdala (bottom reptilian fight/flight brain)?

I have lived with cats on and off for many years, including cleaning up their messes.

Maybe I am the mouse that roars? Or am I just a viking trapped in the 21st century?

 

The sometime beserker in Eric the Viking

T. gondii life cycle

cyst full of T. gondii - who needs science fiction?

Brain scan - not mine, but is it the same?

 

Can a phone take a photograph of batteries?

We have long been told that mobile phones cannot take pictures of batteries. But does this claim stand up to scrutiny?

A simple test at home

I tried a simple experiment (despite clear warnings from professionals not to try this at home - what are they trying to hide?) in the back yard. I lined up five batteries

...at a 45 degree angle to the wood grain of the picnic table (ah ha! whine the experts - their minds filled with the dream of world government - wood grain is too imprecise to align anything to 0.39269908169 radians!) and then aligned the mobile phone to the grain and clicked snap. What happened, you ask? Did the monsoon fail, the glaciers shrink, or the arctic become ice free? I don't think do. The sun still shone, the sky was blue and the grass still green. Furthermore, neither the batteries, nor my phone, nor my brain exploded. I just got a photo of batteries.

The Fear Campaign Debunked

The Intergovernmental Photography and Camera Committee (IPCC) has long been flooding the media with their scare campaigns, including their infamous hockey stick chart!

They use this chart to claim that batteries will run out of colours by 2018! But that is simply the deceit of these so called experts. Notice that the curve just shows so called production quantity, but the inclusion of different coloured batteries are an attempt to link colour of batteries to time. But this claim just does not stand up!

Batteries have not changed colour since 1984

Yes, you may be shocked to hear such heresy, so I will repeat my claim, "Batteries have not changed colour since 1984!" I can back this claim up with simple photographic evidence, and I welcome the reader to do the same. I event use the same techniques as the so called experts.

Here is a sample of the batteries I photographed today. Any IPCC-lovers are welcome to come and watch me photograph the batteries - I await their pleasure.

Here is a sample of a battery from 1984

Does anyone doubt that these both are white writing on black background. You can check it yourself if you wish: http://www.wholesalebatteriesdirect.com/740-honda-1200-motorcycle-batteries

"You have to look at the wider picture", scream the deceitful IPCC. Ha! I say. They just are trying to confuse us with ISO rating, focal lengths and purported advanced optics. If the falsehood is shown in a simple test like this, it cannot be altered by muddying the waters!

The Oceans are Filling up with Batteries?

The so called experts of the IPCC are claiming that the colours of batteries appear to be in the ocean. It would be funny if it was not for their plan to secretly tax the Caucasians of the world to pay for their so-called anode-engineering projects. Here is the Black Sea. It is Black? QED!

IPCC are not as clever as they think

The IPCC claim to be the experts in photographing batteries. If they are so clever and able to think outside the box, why are all their publications always just black text on white background, except for the clearly fabricated photos of batteries. You can write in any colour text and the falsity of your logic is unchanged. This blog clearly demonstrates that indisputable facts can be presented in many colours. Can't it?

Yes! A phone can take pictures of batteries. Next time someone tries to tell you otherwise, just chortle and asked "Who paid you for your opinion?"

 

In Their Own Words

Once upon a time the climate change debate involved an assessment of the research and opinions of one set of scientists who believed that the planet was warming at an alarming rate, and another set of scientists who believed that there was no significant global warming.

The first set of scientists were very confident. They put their reputations on the line and came up with all manner of models which predicted catastrophic warming from about 1998.

The first set of scientists also had a massive advantage over the second set of scientists. The political powers that be decided the claim the planet was warming would be a fantastic excuse for economic policies to achieve a massive wealth redistribution away from ordinary people, and a wonderful excuse for more and more intervention into everyone's lives. Climate alarmism was also a great distraction form other planet wide issues that the political powers did not want ordinary people to focus on. Things like the destruction of civil liberties in an alleged war on terrorism, multiple wars and invasions (where the planet loving ruling classes use depleted uranium ammunition), and the uncontrolled environmental mega-disaster at Fukushima etc.

Indeed, the first set of scientists received massive public funding, unrestricted exposure in scientific journals, and the support of the entire mass media.

And then something happened.

There has been no global warming for 18 years, man made or otherwise.

The absence of global warming for 18 years is now so obvious and so well recorded in so many ways that even the first set of scientists are forced to admit it. And this reveals that all of their models were just science fiction.

Now in looking at alleged global warming one need only look at the first group of scientists and their own words to debunk the nonsense they have been propagating over the last two decades. It is not even necessary to defer to the second set of scientists.

Here are four of my very favourite quotes:

First, from Dr Phil Jones, the Director of the Climate Research Institute and Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (when he is not shredding unhelpful emails) and the Global High Priest of climate change.

Oops, it has been more than 15 years now. At least he admitted it which must have been excruciating for him.

Second, Dr Hans von Storch, climate supremo from the University of Hamburg and editor of the Journal of Climate, leading propaganda vehicle for the new climate change religion.

Still a true believer, he wants to wait another 5 years. What a fanatic. Only three more years to go however.

Third, Dr Kevin Trenberth, part of the Climate Analysis Section at the USA National Centre for Atmospheric Research, one of the infamous IPCC lead authors in 1995, 2001 and 2007 and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. This 'famous' Kiwi is best known as a one of the leaders behind the notoriously inaccurate and now debunked IPCC climate models and the inventor of the "Ocean Ate My Global Warming" theory.

It's not just a travesty, it is hilarious. I have some advice for Dr Trenberth: if you can't explain the pause you can't explain the cause. Oh, and its several years later and the ocean has still not given back its lunch.

Fourth, Professor Rowan Sutton, the Director of Climate Research at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. Prof. Sutton was jealous of Dr Trenberth for inventing the "Ocean Ate My Global Warming" theory so he came up with the theory that the cooler weather in the UK was caused by warmer oceans, otherwise known as the "Global Warming Causes Global Cooling" theory.

Some people call it a slow-down, some call it a hiatus, some call it a pause ... come on, call it what it is. NO GLOBAL WARMING FOR 18 YEARS!

As we celebrate Easter 2015 the tragedy of the global warming fiction is that the political classes are pushing the alarmist agenda more than ever. It does not matter that the UN models have been totally discredited, and that so called climate scientists are admitting that the models were wrong, and even that so called climate scientists are admitting that the planet has not warmed, it is full steam ahead for the wealth redistribution and distraction agenda. This is the fruit of an unholy marriage between science and politics, where science (supposed to be about truth) goes to bed with politics (a bastion of lies, self interest and megalomania) and produces this bastard child.

  

This will be the end of the world as we know it

Happy Easter everyone!

Paul asked me a month ago whether Global Warming was still happening and if it was still a threat (or something similar - I was drinking his scotch neat at the time). Being a true friend, I promised him an updated analysis for this very blog on Easter Day. There is no better way to celebrate new life than to vow to protect it and the environment on which it depends.

Lowest Extent of Arctic Ice in Satellite Records

The National Snow and Ice Data Centre reported on 19 march 2015 that the winter of 2015 had the lowest ice extent since satellite records began.

The maximum extent is 1.10 million square kilometers (425,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average of 15.64 million square kilometers (6.04 million square miles) and 130,000 square kilometers (50,200 square miles) below the previous lowest maximum that occurred in 2011. This year’s maximum occurred 15 days earlier than the 1981 to 2010 average date of March 12.

Arctic Sea News

They will shortly release their analysis of the ice extents for 2015, but it is not expected to be a harbinger of an ice free Arctic in a few years. There is a lot of variability in ice extent in the Arctic. To get a better feel for the trend, the chart below shows the 2015 extent relative to other years and the median over the winter months. You can see clear fluctuation in levels, but overall a clear trend towards less ice. The climate is warming.

Antarctic Ice is getting Thinner

Scientists have been reporting that Antarctic ice sheets have grown in the last three years, and sceptics have seized on this to prove that the climate is not warming. However, what this does represent is a call to arms for scientists to understand what is actually happening. British scientists reported in February that the continent's biggest glacier has thinned by 10 metres and shrunk 5 km inland

Researchers from University College, London and the British Antarctic Survey report in Science magazine today that the Pine Island glacier, the largest in the west Antarctic, has lost 32 cubic kilometres of ice over a 5,000 sq km area since 1992. The glacier is one of the fastest in the world, flowing at 8 metres a day.

Antarctic ice cap is getting thinner

Perhaps the Arctic ice is thickening then? Not so.

The climate is warming!

Polar Jet Stream Slowing Down

Both poles have a jet stream - a high altitude wind circling the poles. Of late scientists have learned how this affects weather by moving weather systems around the globe. What does seem to be happening is that is is slowing down, and this is keeping weather systems stationary or slowed.

There is strong agreement in the scientific community that the most immediate cause of the drought in California—and western heat more broadly—is the "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge.” The RRR, as it’s called for short, is a product of unusual jetstream behavior that scientists are linking to many complex factors including Arctic warming and warmer atmospheric conditions over the northeast Pacific.

The Warm West, Cool East US Temperature Divide

As they slow, the streams meander further from the poles than before, sucking Arctic air south in some places and holding weather patterns still in others; changing climate. There are some theories to suggest this slowing is caused by the warming Arctic. More study is need to know if this is the case and what it means long term.

The Ocean is Warming

The mean air temperature has been increasing all of last century, but slowed down noticeably towards the end of the century. Where had the heat been going?

Faced with a challenge, the scientists have had to adjust their theories, and early in the new century, the theory emerged that the additional heat was going into the ocean. Theories are not enough in true scientific enquiry, so research grants were obtained to measure the ocean surface temperature. The theories were right - a tipping point in atmosphere heat had been hit and the excess was transferred down to the oceans.

What is the implication of this? That is still being determined, but one this is for certain - it will not be good. 3.5 billion people receive their primary food source from the sea. Fish are sensitive to heat, and will migrate to stay in their comfort zone. Those that can't (e.g. at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef) will perish, or be overwhelmed by invading species.

 

USA Republicans Deal With Climate Science

The US Republicans are well aware of the level of scientific inquiry that climate change has brought about, and they do no like it. However, they are nothing if not resourceful.

They are about to bring the "Secret Science" act to the house. This act will require government agencies to ignore all science that is not "verified repeatable testable science". At first, this looks like a good idea. After all the point of science is that theories are testable and only accepted as long as no tests fail. However, the subtext is that climate change science is about what will happen, and it will only be repeatable if we actually heat the planet, and not once but many times. Wildlife must actually go extinct, and not once, but many times. Billions of people must actually be dislocated, not once by many times. Only then, will the GOP accept that climate change is real and a threat. But then, they will refuse to take action on it until repeatable science shows that doing something is better than doing nothing.

Of course, they will not apply the same criteria to their defence budget. In the case that the billions of dislocated people refused to die quietly on a different continent, the GOP will maintain a large defence force to deal with the unrest caused. That science is untested, but it would be crazy not to tote guns this such an apocalyptic future!

The Verdict

So, will this be the end of the world? Not at all; the world has been a lot warmer than this in the past. Perhaps the end of human civilization? Again unlikely; not all arable land will be rendered uninhabitable. Perhaps the end of the current world order? Very likely - the world order has changed dramatically every 50 years for the last few centuries? There is no reason to think that it won't do so twice more before the full impact of global warming is felt, but that would happen without global warming too. Global warming will have a devastating impact on the remaining wildlife on this planet - they have no where to go as their habitat changes. It will change our farming and fishing practices as we have to rearrange them to suit the new climate. It will result in civil unrest and war as people living in areas that get too much or too little water have to move. This could look like an apocalypse.

Unless...

Thieves and Vagabonds

As the great Ecclesiastes said:

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
        vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
        at which he toils under the sun?

But of course the translation requires the replacement of Vanity with the droppings of the bull and the preacher with a hockey stick holding purist.

Two years ago, my mandarin tree produced no fruit, so I spent a spring morning giving it a good prune back and today it is covered with fruit. But, those who did not sow chose to reap!

Where's the problem, you ask. You see only two healthy trees. Look more closesly.

It's enough to make a man renew his membership to the NRA!

Still No Global Warming

And the "hockey stick" is definitely not shaped like a hockey stick.

ThygoCanberra has been particularly enjoying the global warming over the last two months. Perhaps now the true scientists will be permitted to publish, and to speak.

The Bedwetters are Wrong and the Hockey Stick is Broken

It seems that every few days there is news of another scandal involving the fabrication of "evidence" in support of alleged man made global warming. Today I read about the Data Rigging Scandal in the US Temperature Records but this is only the latest in a long line of political interference with science.

I don't understand why people are shocked about this, especially with something that is patently dodgy like alleged man made global warming. Science, like any profession, is just as likely to be prone to human failings leading to corruption, misconduct and criminality as any other profession. And this is more so when there is an obvious global agenda propagated by a small number of wealthy interests that want to socially engineer (and tax the crap out of) the unfortunate majority of the world's population.  It is the same wealthy special interest groups and corrupt governments that are bankrolling most of science, and guess what: they only fund research that fits in with their own agenda. Try applying for a grant to study the effects of solar cycles on planetary temperature (as distinct from an anthropocentric research project) and see how far you get.

I am sick and tired of the bedwetters (to copy the phrase used by a well known politically incorrect climate change sceptic) carrying on about alleged man made global warming while more and more data comes in showing there is no global warming. And, because the bedwetters love computer models (as distinct from actual measuresements) enough time has now passed to test the stupid and ill-informed models propagated by elitists like Al Gore (I bet he and his 5 mansions and lear jet has a small carbon foot print).

 
All of Gore's fear mongering predictions have failed. The best was the 2007 prediction that the arctic summer would be ice free by 2013. Wrong. the latest satellite data show that Arctic ice cover has actually expanded 50 percent over 2012 levels. In fact, during October 2013, sea-ice levels grew at the fastest pace since records began in 1979. And what about all the polar bears would die. No, the bears live and maybe they can move to Egypt where Cairo just had its first snowfall in 100 years.

The worst predictions have come from the United Nations, that organization that has never seen a third world family it did not want to sterilise. The UN claimed in its latest global-warming report to be 95 percent sure that human emissions of carbon dioxide were to blame for rising temperatures. Those claims, now deservedly widely laughed at around the world, were made despite the fact that every single one of its computer models has been entirely discredited by the lack of warming for the last 17 years. Many experts are now even predicting global cooling.

Yes, you heard correctly. Monthly global mean surface temperature anomalies (average global temperature) as measured by Satellite (a measurement, not a model) show that there has been no global warming for the last 17 years.

There is no hockey stick. And what are the bedwetters doing now? They have stopped saying "global warming" and have started saying "climate change".

Hang on, is this science? When the evidence doesn’t support your conclusion you change the name of the phenomenon. Recently President Obama (I guess he needs a 'carbon' tax because he has bankrupted America) said the record cold in the United States was evidence of global warming. HANG ON, so if temperatures go up it is evidence of global warming and if temperatures go down it is evidence of global warming. Bullshit: they are making it up as they go along.

My favourite news item of January 2014 has been about the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskly stranded in ice in the Antarctica sea. What has not been so widely reported (typical of a media largely owned by the same elitists that promote the global warming myth) is that the ship was full of global warming sycophants led by Chris Turney, a professor of climate change (there really is such a thing: amazing what money can buy) at UNSW.

The  purpose of the expedition was to retrace the Mawson expedition of 1912 and take duplicate "readings" of that expedition in order to show how much global warming has effected Antarctica in the last century. However, they are comparing data from 100 years ago when there was no sea ice in the same location and they proved the opposite of what they wanted. Absolutely brilliant, you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried!

The next time people feel warm or  hot I suggest they walk outside and take a look at the sky. Yes, there is a bloody great bright hot thing up there. It is a star which we call the sun. It generates heat. Now compare atmospheric CO2 levels and global temperature (no correlation) with  solar irradiance  and global temperature (a correlation). Not that hard: I suggest UNSW appoint a professor of solar irradiance.

It is high time we move on from the global warming fraud and focus on real problems. The nuclear tragedy at Fukushima, for example, is a genuine global problem that deserves attention and massive resources. The dumping of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean at horrendous levels every single day now constitutes a potential trigger to a process of global radioactive contamination. This is the sort of thing that bedwetters need to worry about.

 

New Categories for Thygocanberra

I have created twelve (yes 12!) new formal categories especially for Thygocanberra:

1. The Moon
2. Ducks
3. Hockey Sticks
4. Heresy
5. Apostasy
6. Schismatics
7. ACT (Grand Duchy)
8. Crime & Punishment
9. Elephants
10. Liturgical Music
11. Men in White Coats
12. Little House on the Prairie

Steak Knives? Yes, THERE IS MORE. I will undertake to write a post in each of these twelve categories within three months if PythonMagus does the same!

That's not a hockey stick

This is a hockey stick! Of course if I hit you with this stick it won't hurt you, just your grand-children, unless you try to avoid it, in which case it will cost you 3% of your GDP.

Good line, but I still don't think I forgive Hoges. Not that he wrote it or anything, though his TV comic work in the 70s had many great moments.

Real and Imaginary Hockey Stick

PythonMagus has been playing with his imaginary hockey stick.

How do I know that this hockey stick is imaginary?

Easy. You see Thygocanberra gave his famous hockey stick to me and not to the Python. And, I have the photograph to prove it. This hockey stick is almost as old as PRESTAGS. It is made of ancient wood, and supported by Thygo's famous yellow insulation tape. I understand modern hockey sticks are lighter, and made of exotic materials like aramid (kevlar) and carbon fibre. I prefer heavy and old.