Remembering PRESTAGS

Peacock spider (Maratus pavonis ?), seen as a result of other opportunistic macro

iNaturalist suggests it is Maratus pavonis, the common peacock spider.

The lead up story - saw a little jumping spider on/under the handle on the shed door. Got the camera ...

here's a crop of one of those shots

as I was getting ready to take the gear back inside I quickly scanned the back wall of the house, and spied a little spider.

On a close look, it was a PEACOCK SPIDER !!!! It was such a thrill to see one in the flesh and to get to photograph him. A joy in the Creator's creation.

Here are few shots, all crops except the first one (for scale, beside the mortar line between bricks).

 

 

more accidental macro while preparing dinner

I was getting my dinner ready when I noticed a rather large moth on the cupboard above the stove ...

Beautiful red colour and so fluffly looking up close. Here are a few shots. A few contortions undertaken on a little 2 step ladder and against cupboard doors etc.

Would have been nice to be able to get a front on shot but it was facing upwards and was a long way up and I didn't want to move it and risk injuring it. I got it in a glass and released it in the bush outside. It also reminded me of a character from Monsters vs Aliens (see at the end).

with 18-55 as shot (downsized)

18-55 cropped - the gap on the left gives some scale - that is the edge between 2 cupboard doors.

85 micro uncropped.

85 micro, cropped a bit.

and reminded me of this character - Insectosaurus

PRESTAGS Quiz

What is wrong with this Photo?

 

Super fast delivery of GAS (little tripod - wall macro tool)

I ordered a little tiny tripod over the weekend and amazingly it arrived today.

The idea is to have something I can brace against the wall for shooting jumping spiders. Thought about a gorillapod but heard they are prone to squish down under weight/pressure, and, perhaps more importantly, if they get left in a hot car the joints are cactus.

So this little guy arrived:

It has two leg settings. The yellow I added for testing against the brick wall to avoid scratching it in the first 5 mins.

The macro set up. The ball head is from a monopod I had already. The rig can screw directly into the camera but then there is no movement possible.

and the results. providentially I spied a jumping spider when I was doing soccer practice with Carl (I expected them all to be gone but it hasn't really got cold yet).

These are straight out of camera jpegs, cropped (a fair bit) and downsized for the web - no post processing. The tripod works well I think, and I was impressed with the results - I think it gave the bracing / stability I was hoping for.

note the spinerets - they don't weave webs but play out a safety line behind them. He/she is sitting in the groove of mortar between two bricks which give an indication of scale.

Steering Wheel Shake - the Movie

First multi-media post (2nd attempt cos I pushed the wrong button and lost my opus magnus and had to start again)

And I can't work out how to embed a video but hopefully the files are uploaded and you can download them.

so I know you guys think the shake in my White Camry's steering wheel is just in my head.

But swapping between cars, I am convinced it is real, and it leaves my fingers tingling.

Googling has given some possible causes but also indicated that such phenomena are not paranormal.

There is a field of academic study for it (see below)

From googling, my hypothesis is engine mount(s). I also found a neat way to provide a visualisation of the vibration - with the help of a bottle of water.

So this afternoon I did the experiment. Red Camry = control, White Camry = experiment.

 

 

A Frequency Weighting for the Evaluation of Steering Wheel Rotational Vibration J. Giacomin F et al https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/1440891.pdf 

Frequency dependence of perceived intensity of steering wheel vibration: effect of grip force https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4145150

Driver estimation of steering wheel vibration intensity: questionnaire-based survey http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.426.2931&rep=rep1&type=pdf 

Peekaboo, and Paul's (not) favourite

Been trying to get a decent photo of this very small jumping spider who seems to frequent the backdoor. But he/she is very active so hard to capture a shot of.

This is with the macro + extension tubes.

crop of the same

top view, also a crop

and I think a young one of Paul's favourite (!) spiders - a white tail (though there are a number of cylindrical species so maybe not). This one was shot at night and it remained stationary which was a help.

Accidental photo adventures, noise reduction

So, on the way home at sunset. Sort of racing to get to a vantage point.

Pull over at foot of Mt Taylor and head up the path, and I go through a little mob of kangaroos - seemed I could have almost reached out and touched one they were so quiet. Took some less than amazing sunset shots - too late.

On the way back down I tried to photo the roos - it is quite dark by now but trying to push the 50mm f1.8 and the D90's ISO to get a useable shutter speed. Focus was OK but digital noise was clearly visible.

So, had a play (blunder) around in Nikon's free Capture NX-D software.

first image here is side by side of full image - L after noise reduction, R before noise reduction (snip jpeg of the side by side window in Capture NX-D). Noise is not so evident at this magnification.

next is zoomed in of the side by side, also a snip jpeg. Not really sure what I am doing but I also did some sharpening as well as noise. L= post noise reduction, R= pre noise reduction - noise very evident at this magnification.

I am amazed at what this yielded.

 

 

A reason I got a macro lens - jumping spiders

Looking at great photos of diminutive Australian jumping spiders was one of the things that made me hanker after a macro lens.

I see them outside every now and again. Today, there was one just outside the backdoor, and BBQ preparations had to be delayed while I scrambled to dig out camera, flash and tripod. Macro lens was already on D90 and slapped on the little SB400 flash. Tripod proved next to useless in the situation - spider was on the wall beyond the railing so there was no way to get the tripid close enough. Tried using it as a monopod but that made getting the angle hard. Resorted to hand held. I reckon the end of the lens was 2-3 inches away from the spider.

Hand held worked out OK, though it was very hard to find an angle where I could get most of the little fellow in focus, even shooting at f32 the depth of field was quite shallow. The orientation of shots is unchanged - so if the spider is facing down, that is the way he was on the wall too. Some minor exposure adjustment, sharpening. Some are cropped.

First shot is uncropped to give a sense of just how small the spider is - he is sitting adjacent to the mortar between the bricks.

a crop of the same shot

nice one of the big front eyes, as shot, then as cropped

 

cropped

Adventures in exposure

of digital sensors

I had occasion to have to walk to Kingston to get passport photos taken.

I took the camera with me, and took a few opportunistic shots on the way and return.

I played with shutter speed at the bridge over the creek, where there is a mini rapid as the water runs over steps.

SHUTTER SPEED First - fast shutter speed - brief exposure - freezing movement.

on the way back, supported by the bridge railing a slow shutter speed - long exposure

a crop of each shows the different effects - the fast shutter reveals individual water droplets, while the slow shutter speed makes a creamy image.

while waiting for the prints, I mucked around with the contrasty scene of the cafes. Red square is where the focus point was, rough red circle is where I pointed the camera first to get a light reading, and locked that reading in.

Matrix metering - camera is making a compromise based on all the light coming in. light sampling at the focus point - balanced over all

matrix metering again but I think with different metering point - in tree shadow - brighter over all

centre-weighted - camera uses light around chosen point but still takes account of the whole scene

first metering in the centre (running of memory, might even have been metering in the light?) - camera takes account of bright areas and reduces exposure

then centre weighted metering in the darker tree area before focusing on the centre - trees well exposed but not a white out in the light

then spot metering - the camera uses information from just that spot to calculate the overall exposure

first in centre - not bad balance but shadows are dark,

then metering in the tree shadow - trees exposed but white out elsewhere

Viewfinders - the good old days and the pluses and minuses of technological advance

Python asked about autofocus vs manual focus of the moon shot.

Old-school film SLRs tended to have fabulous, large, bright optical ('analogue') viewfinders - the bump on them is just for the prism. The bump on dSLRs also has a pop up flash crammed in there.

(The optical viewfinder is like a periscope that allows you to 'see' what the lens sees because of the mirror, which flips out of the way when the shot is taken. Other styles of cameras with optical viewfinders would view the scene but never in perfect alignment because the angle would almost certainly vary, even if ever so slightly.)

this pic shows the relative sizes (ie views) through different camera viewfinders. Generally for FX cameras - ie sensor the same size as a 35mm negative - the viewfinders are bigger. For DX cameras they are correspondingly smaller.

I was shocked when I did a side by side comparison of my then still in use Pentax ME-Super with my brand new Nikon D60 (DX) - the Pentax viewfinder was enormous by comparison. Basically giving 1:1 apparent view with the standard 50mm lens. I think the view on my Pentax is similar to that on the celebrated and venerable Olympus OM-1 (also film camera). The entry level Nikons (D3x00, 5x00) are smaller than the D90. Even the large brick top of the line FX Canons and Nikons still have smaller viewfinders than some of their old film predecessors.

 The new SLT and mirrorless cameras don't have an optical viewfinder but an eyepiece looking at a digital viewfinder. These are generally much larger, comparatively, even for small (DX and smaller) sensor sizes. The technology is improving and these now apparently are quite good, overcoming original problems of the processor keeping the image refreshed without jerking eg when following movement.

In the old days, before autofocus cameras (implemented on later film cameras, my Pentax is manual focus only), manual focus was aided by a split ring etched on the viewfinder prism.

when the image is in focus the hatching around the outside disappears and the internal halves should line up perfectly.

This works well if you have a long line to 'cut and join' or contrasting items. If you are trying to focus on something small it is still tricky.

Most dSLR lenses,especially zooms and even more expensive ones, are set up for AF and although they have focus rings they tend not to have a lot of fine adjustment. Prime lenses (single focal length) have more travel.

You can get replacement focussing screens for dSLRs with a split ring etched on them. 

I have toyed with getting one but I have wondered how well it will work given my poor vision and the already small viewfinder size of my cameras.

But that was part of the romantic attraction of the film SLR - 50mm lens only and split ring manual focus - to get composition and focus the shooter had to do it themself.

 

this post would not have been possible (practicable anyway) without the digital technology aids of Dr Google and the Snipping Tool.

super seed heads

I don't know what this weed is. It has come up amongst the other weeds in a former garden bed. [edit, looks like it might be salsify, which you can apparently eat the roots of - http://honest-food.net/2009/05/17/wild-salsify-right-under-my-nose/ ]

A couple of weeks ago I noticed it had this enormous dandelion type fluffy seed head. I meant to take a picture but by the time I came back next day the wind had blown it all away.

I think I have missed two more in the intervening weeks.

Then today as I went to hang clothes, voila!, not one but three opened heads. So the Nikon came out of the cupboard.

kit lens

kit lens

kit lens

kit lens

 

Macro

macro closer

macro up close

once the photo shoot was over however, the seed heads were harvest in a bag, and the plant pulled up, and all in the bin.

the last 'macro' adventures of 2016 ...

that sounded dramatic didn't it. when in fact it just happened that these pics were taken on 31 December 2016, downloaded and mildly post-processed on 1 January 2017 and uploaded to this blog on the same day. Nikon D3300, Nikkor 85mm f3.5 micro, Nikon DB600 flash.

Started with a mudwasp under the laundry window ledge - an accidental subject, as I noticed it fly under the ledge. He/she was not a cooperative subject and wouldn't stay still, and if I tried to get closer flew off. Hard to get and keep focus hand held. 

Then I noticed a fly on the laundry window frame. he/she was much more cooperative, and I did get to the minimum focus distance to get the maximum macro. Focus was assisted by being able to lean on the wall,

All shots taken with external flash and with aperture very small (ie f26-f32 - narrow lens opening to get maximum depth of field to try to get the whole insect in focus). These are what I think were the best ones. 

MUD  WASP

as close as I could get with 85mm

 

crop to get balance of detail and noise. If I zoomed in more digitally it starts to look poor - suspect I couldn't hold still enough and have actually not focussed on the wasp's head but the mud nest / back leg.

As an aside, I couldn't find a pic of this compact black wasp to try to get an ID on (but I'm sure someone has described it ...). The mud wasp that does come up in searches is slim and with yellow bits -  http://www.ozanimals.com/Insect/Mud-Dauber-Wasp/Sceliphron/sp.html

The little mud construction probably contains paralysed spiders.

 

FLY

For scale, context - fly on side of wound out window. Frame is 1.5 inches (38mm) thick, so the fly is maybe 12mm long.

 

pre-crop jpeg, processed from RAW tweaking exposure, sharpness

 

crop of above image (less than 100%). It is not the blowfly Lucilia cuprina but something else. - I think it is Calliphora augur - the lesser brown blowfly - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliphora_augur 

.

true macro shot - as close as I could get, so no cropping but 1:1 reproduction in the image frame. The fly flew away after this - I obviously got too close - front of the lens is maybe 1-2 inches away from the fly. Processed for exposure (reduced -1.0 EV, or 1 'stop')

I am pretty happy with this shot, though the framing is flawed. 

 

And the images give the joy of the splendour of creation - Benedicamus Domino !!

Exposure and high contrast scenes

From a discussion I was having with Paul, I played around a little with high contrast scenes. He has some images where the straight out of camera jpeg has not brought up the detail in a dark area (eg a dark statue) against a strong back lit background.

On Nikon dSLRs, a setting called 'active D lighting' became available for application in shooting (as opposed to post processing, whether in camera or on downloaded files).

So, I was taking some shots of the fowls with the D40x - it doesn't have ADL option for shooting but it can be applied in camera after the shot. A couple are below, and it shows how powerful this (software) application is, and also illustrates the problems that any photographic medium has in capturing a whole scene the way our eyes see it, or more accurately as our brains post-process the incoming light to 'pull up' shadow detail.

So, below  a couple of comparison shots - / + ADL. I suspect that in Paul's Lumix FZ1000 there is a setting analagous to ADL, probably with different levels of application. [He might have to resort to reading the manual >:-o).

OK, the examples

but

The photo medium can only capture the light that is there. If you take the film medium, the sensitivity to light is uniform across the film negative - and adjusting exposure will affect the whole area uniformly. That is, a whole exposure adjustment can only be applied uniformly to the whole exposure - if the qualitative and quantitative difference in amount of light between to parts of a scene is too great, the physics per se doesn't allow for getting both parts perfectly exposed for detail.

But our brains do this all the time - segements of our field of view get post-processed to enable us to see both the full lit and the shadow with acuity. Computers can, thanks to clever programmers like Python, detect the contrast areas and locally adjust the exposure. In the old film days, you could do this in the dark room with simple physical tricks such as waving a piece of paper over an overexposed area as the negative was being processed ie between the light coming through the negative and the photographic paper being exposed to get the print.

 

 

Another way of getting at this is where you 'tell' the camera to 'meter' the light to inform the exposure it will apply - shutter speed, aperture (and with digital, ISO). The standard default is 'matrix' or 'averaged' metering - the light meter / software tries to balance all of the incoming light. Then there is 'centre weighted' - the light meter / software takes more account of the area where the light level is read (typically the focus point - I guess face recognition will have some priority - my dSLRs don't have it or I don't turn it on). Then there is 'spot' metering - the light meter / software meters just on the small focus area. Spot allows a small subject to be exposed 'correctly' even if the surrounding scene is very dark or very bright. But, as above, the metering is a physical adjustment affecting the amount of light hitting the sensor or film, not a software interpretation of the incoming light.

Yet another way is 'exposure compensation' - often has a dedicated button with a +/- decal on it - you can dial in how many 'stops' (more precisely electron volts, EV) more or less than the camera's meter thinks the 'correct' exposure is - how much light gets let in. Generally goes in 1/3 EV steps - eg +0.3, +0.7 etc.

On my cameras, choosing metering area and exposure compensation are NOT available in the AUTO modes - needs to be in Manual (I rarely use, except for moon shots), Aperture priority (I use most - set the 'f stop' - how wide open is the lens, how much light gets let in, also affects depth of field), Shutter priority (how long the shutter is open, I use when I want to ensure a fast shutter to freeze motion and/or avoid effects of camera shake), Program mode (I don't use this much but its a bit like A and S).

And having mentioned moon shots, this is a classic example of needing to balance a really bright object in a really dark background - if you don't meter on the moon you generally just get a 'white out'.

So, the moral of this story is:

Civilization VI Victory on Emperor level

Wow! I gave not done that since Civilization 2! Civilization 5 I never did better than Prince level

As before, my enemies did not keep their armies upgraded, so I was convincing in battle. I went for the science victory as I made an error early on and built science enhancements ahead of religious, so did not get to found a religion.

I did not lead in the science the whole game, but I was up in the front of the pack.

It got scarey when I launched to moon landing and the next turn I was told that Japan was about to win a cultural victory. (So much for cultural victories being hard.)

All available production went into my Martian colony, and I got there. I don't know by how much, but it had to be close.

Despite the win, I did enjoy the game. Dare I try on "Immortal Level"?

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?

 

Climate Change Update

Refugee Crisis to Worsen with Climate Change

A historic 52 million people are fleeing conflict worldwide, a trend that will intensify over the next two decades because of climate change, International Rescue Committee chief David Miliband said on Friday.

"One of the drivers of displacement and potential conflict over the next 10 to 20 years will be climate (change) - resource scarcity," said Miliband, a former United Kingdom foreign minister. "Climate change is going to compound the cocktail that's driving war and displacement."

Miliband said there were 16 million refugees and 36 million people displaced in their own countries, typically by civil war. That is the largest number of people fleeing persecution since World War Two, he said during a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York.

"Do I think the current level is a blip or a trend?" Miliband said. "I would say it's a trend."

The end of the world as they know it

Super Typhoons Projected to Increase in Strength

A study from the University of California, San Diego has found that the strength of super typhoons has increased as a result of Climate Change and will continue to increase. The world was shocked by the strength of Typhoon Hainan that struck the Philippines in 2013. This study found that these typhoons are 10% more intense than in 1970. Such storms will be 14 per cent stronger by 2100, equivalent to adding another category to the current top severity rating of 5, the study found.

Research on tropical cyclones – known as hurricanes in the Atlantic basin – has sought to identify whether factors contributing to more powerful events such as warmer sea surface temperatures might be countered by changes to ocean or atmospheric circulation that may hinder the storms' genesis or force. Warming in the top 75 metres of the oceans will dominate other influences, the researchers found.

"This projected increase in typhoon intensity is largely due to [sea surface temperatures] warming," the study found, adding that the findings are "at the high end" of previous projections.

Of course the Third Viscount of Brenchley will seize on this chart to show that on the basis of the data from 1955 to 1970, there will be no typhoons or hurricanes by 2100.

Nearly 100 Australian Species are Threatened by Climate Change

Climate change is one of the major contributors to global biodiversity loss, and plant and animal species can be affected by climate change in different ways. Some may be directly affected by sea level rise or snow melt, whereas some may lose a pollinator or prey species that they rely on.

Species that cannot move to more suitable habitats, or who have no suitable habitat left, risk becoming extinct. Understanding how each of our species is affected by climate change means we can help them survive it.

Overall, and perhaps not surprisingly, amphibians are most highly vulnerable to climate change. They have small and fragmented distributions, and rely heavily on particular moisture regimes and aquatic habitats.

The species most vulnerable to climate change was the Mountain Pygmy Possum, threatened by increased snow melt, and further habitat loss through development of ski resorts.

Once the drivers of climate change vulnerability are understood for different species, groups of species and regions, we can start to take action. Actions that are targeted to help species adapt to the changing climate and give them the best chance of surviving into the future.

Unfortunately, the US republican party are pushing to have an research on climate change defunded.

Vomiting Delusional Drivel Over Their Pretty Uniforms

Donna Wasson from News with Views has written an excellent article about President Obama's recent speech about "climate change". Here it is:

Captain Tee-Time, the usurping Occupant of the Oval Office has finally lost all touch with reality, and officially checked into la-la land. On Wednesday, May 20th, he appeared before the graduating class at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and proceeded to vomit the most delusional, psychotic drivel all over their pretty uniforms. He actually told them, with a straight face, that climate change is one of the most serious threats to America's national security.

Yes, you read that correctly. The former horror of an encroaching ice-age morphed into global warming which switched dresses and became 'Climate Change.' This is because the propagandists can't figure out if the planet is getting hotter or colder but, DANG IT, the temperature is changing, therefore we need to institute wealth re-distribution from rich nations to poor nations so we can all live in a communist utopia, and sing Kum-Ba-Yah forever and ever. Praise lucifer. Yeah, that's the ticket!

I'll admit that even the most conservative members of this country have to concede there IS such a thing as climate change. It's called the seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall. Other than that, the planet is getting along just fine, thank you very much. Aside from our inability to keep from dumping oil into the ocean, and that whole Fukushima episode poisoning the Pacific, the global temperature fluctuates the way God designed it to thousands of years ago, and driving an SUV isn't going to change that.

Here is his quote. Try to contain your hysterical laughter until you've read it in its entirety.

"Climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security. Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country. So we need to act, and we need to act now. Denying it or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security. It undermines the readiness of our forces."

He also stated that avoiding the issue is a "dereliction of duty." And if anyone knows what a dereliction of duty is, it's Barack Obama.

The graduates need to get this straight: our national borders, which are wide open to every ISIS terrorist and Mexican drug cartel member on the planet, isn't the most pressing national security issue. The fact that we don't revoke the passports of people who've traveled to war-torn Middle Eastern countries to train in terror camps, isn't much of a concern either. Heck, we welcome them back with open arms!

The fact that the Occupant's administration is bursting with members of the Muslim Brotherhood isn't an issue. The deliberate purging of the most elite, most experienced, most highly decorated officers in every branch of our military isn't a national security issue because the "Commander-in-Chief" filled those positions with transsexuals, flaming sodomites and lesbians, so we're good to go there.

The fact that mentally unbalanced little troll in North Korea, Kim Jong-Nutjob, is boasting they have a miniaturized nuclear weapon that may be able to ride an intercontinental-ballistic missile to the shores of America, is no cause for sleepless nights either. No, the most serious national security issue facing the United States today is…'Climate Change.' Somebody cue 'Hail to the Chief.' Thank heavens the Occupant has America's best interest at heart. What an embarrassing putz he is!

How the entire class kept from cracking up at the Monty Python level absurdity of his speech is beyond me! It speaks well of their discipline and decorum. WHAT, pray tell, does he expect the military to do about climate change anyway?! Shoot it? Lob a missile at it? Drive electric tanks? 

 

Good on Donna. The only way to treat this rubbish is as comedy, because there is no scientific basis for it. To put the climate data at its ABSOLUTE HIGHEST, there is only a case to investigate something, there is certainly no case to radically change the entire global world economy and social structures.

Remember:

1) There hasn't been any global warming since 1997: This year, in 2015, we're going to have kids who graduate from high school who will have never seen any "global warming" during over 18 years. As I have posted previously, this isn't a controversial assertion either. Even the former Director of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, Phil Jones, admits that it's true. Since the planet was cooling from 1940-1975 and the upswing in temperature afterward only lasted 23 years, a 17 year pause is a big deal. It also begs an obvious question: How can we be experiencing global warming if there's no actual "global warming?"

2) There is no scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and caused by man: Questions are not decided by "consensus." In fact, many scientific theories that were once widely believed to be true were made irrelevant by new evidence. Just to name one of many, many examples, in the early seventies, scientists believed global cooling was occurring. However, once the planet started to warm up, they changed their minds. Yet, the primary "scientific" argument for global warming is that there is a "scientific consensus" that it's occurring. Setting aside the fact that's not a scientific argument, even if that ever was true (and it really wasn't), it's certainly not true anymore. Over 31,000 scientists have signed on to a petition saying humans aren't causing global warming. More than 1000 scientists signed on to another report saying there is no global warming at all. There are tens of thousands of well-educated, mainstream scientists who do not agree that global warming is occurring at all and people who share their opinion are taking a position grounded in science.

3) Climate models showing global warming have been wrong over and over: These future projections of what global warming will do to the planet have been based on climate models. Essentially, scientists make assumptions about how much of an impact different factors will have; they guess how much of a change there will be and then they project changes over time. Unfortunately, almost all of these models showing huge temperature gains have turned out to be wrong.

Former NASA scientist Dr. Roy Spencer says that climate models used by government agencies to create policies “have failed miserably.” Spencer analyzed 90 climate models against surface temperature and satellite temperature data, and found that more than 95 percent of the models “have over-forecast the warming trend since 1979, whether we use their own surface temperature dataset (HadCRUT4), or our satellite dataset of lower tropospheric temperatures (UAH).”

There's an old saying in programming that goes, "Garbage in, garbage out." In other words, if the assumptions and data you put into the models are faulty, then the results will be worthless. If the climate models that show a dire impact because of global warming aren't reliable -- and they're not -- then the long term projections they make are meaningless.

4) Predictions about the impact of global warming have already been proven wrong: The debate over global warming has been going on long enough that we've had time to see whether some of the predictions people made about it have panned out in the real world. For example, Al Gore predicted all the Arctic ice would be gone by 2013. This has not happened at all. James Hansen of NASA fame predicted that the West Side Highway in New York would be under water by now because of global warming. It isn't.

If the climate models and the predictions about global warming aren't even close to being correct, wouldn't it be more scientific to reject hasty action based on faulty data so that we can further study the issue and find out what's really going on?

Mangalyaan

There is something disturbing about this little story.

The United States movie "Gravity" cost about $100 million to make.

Yesterday an Indian rocket completed a successful flight to Mars, and placed the Mangalyaan probe in orbit around the red planet. Mangalyaan is Hindi for "Mars Craft".

What is disturbing is that the cost of the entire Indian mission was only $74 million.

Waiting for a turn of EDEE

Oh dear, another epic fail.

The alarmists have been none too pleased that Al Gore made a complete arse of himself with the failure of his apocalyptic predictions concerning Arctic ice. Scrambling to explain away the survival of the previously doomed polar bear, all manner of weird explanations have come forth (my favourite is that the oceans stole the global warming), in fact everything except the obvious: there is no global warming, or even, the global warming is less than predicted. Now over 100 failed climate models and the alarmists won't budge, not even an inch (or should I say, a degree) which is funny because this intransigence is the definition of a fanatic and not a scientist.

Every alarmist likes publicity, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) decided to use 2007 to predict the melting of antarctic ice by global warming along with the demise of - you guessed it - the penguin. In December 2007 the WWF predicted: "Global warming is threatening one of the most endearing symbols of Antarctica - the penguin. Four species of penguin are facing a dual threat from loss of nesting sites and a shortage of food. The environmental conservation group WWF is warning that rising temperatures and the resulting loss of sea ice is robbing the emblematic birds of the nesting grounds they need to breed successfully".

And it was not just the WWF. I found this August 2007 headline from National Wildlife - "The Shrinking World of Penguins". Note the prediction - the antarctic ice would melt beneath the penguins' feet.

And what happened?

There I am over the weekend waiting for a turn of EDEE from my slow comrades (Python is slow because he is losing, Thygs is slow ... well he is just slow) and the 2014 headline comes in: "Extent of Antarctic sea ice reaches record levels, scientists say".

Even the pro climate alarmist ABC had reported:

"Antarctic scientists have declared a new record has been set for the extent of Antarctic sea ice since records began. Satellite imagery reveals an area of about 20 million square kilometres covered by sea ice around the Antarctic continent. Jan Lieser from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) said the discovery was made two days ago. This is an area covered by sea ice which we've never seen from space before, he said.

"Thirty-five years ago the first satellites went up which were reliably telling us what area, two dimensional area, of sea ice was covered and we've never seen that before, that much area. That is roughly double the size of the Antarctic continent and about three times the size of Australia".

Before Python races to the Lord Monckton card and makes an accusation of selective data, the antarctic ice has been measured over the last 35 years, basically since the beginning of satellite data. ‘NASA’s satellites have now been measuring global temperatures for a full 35 years (420 months through November 2013), including the Antarctic. The above chart documents the measured southern polar region temperatures. As can be seen, there has been a cooling trend – granted, a very tiny -0.04°C/century, but it remains far removed from the IPCC’s unicorn science of “amplified” and dangerous polar warming. And not only has it not warmed, the Antarctic sea ice has grown to a record amount.’

No doubt the fanatics will start rolling the 'warming dice' and we will get 50 different theories as to why there is still global warming even though the Antarctic ice has not melted. I predict that there will be a theory that global warming has actually caused the Antarctic ice to grow. Of course none of these new 'theories' will explain the C02 relationship in the above diagram. Even if there is climate change, it aint caused by man and his evil Co2.

Another failure for the alarmists and yet more exposure of the greatest fraud of this century.

[Please note that no nazis were used in the making of this post].

Space Empires 4X - First Contact

Following Paul's coaxing with earlier posts, I had a go at a solitaire scenario in Space Empires 4X. I had to be Terran because I recognise more planets in their set (although I was sorely tempted by the set with Kronos). It started well with my explorers finding useful resources near the home work, but my colony ships had no where to go until Rigel came along.

I colonised that and kept looking. When the first economic turn came around, I grabbed and pencil and began to populate a score sheet. Then it occured to me that someone had made an Excel for this - and searched and found. Much easier, particularly while learning. Exploring further, I found a barren world. This posed a dilemma to my economic strategy. To cost to populate a barren world is 8 + 25 (colony ship plus terra forming technology). The return is nothing in the first turn, 1 in the next, then 3 and finally 5 thereafter. That is a 7+ turn playoff period, so I demurred.

More exploring found resources all around Rigel, so my miner got busy. (The snap is a bit blurry, but that's him on the top (hubward end?) of the map.

I now made an ecomonic faux-pas. I began building a large merchant navy. These act as roads in this game, improving movement and income, but in retrospect I did not need them this early. Their return of investment is a bit worse than terra forming - perhaps 12 turns for full pay back, but more on them later.

Next turn I discovered Eden, Vulcan and Odessey and colonisation became a primary goal. However, cash was do good, I began to seriously invest in technology. I brought my ship size level to 3 so I could build cruisers and purchased attack and defense technologies. I was feeling invincible:

A cocky explorer headed off to deep space and as repayed by discovering a hostile race, the Sarvaasi, whose only strategy is to build military and attack. Peace overtures were ignored and the explorer died.

The economist part of me thought "well that reduces my maintenance costs". (I could get a job in Canberra with that thinking, reducing our education expenditure!) But otherwise, life was good in the empire. Production had grown from 20 to 58 in 5 turns with lots of bonuses from the miners. Colonies were all linked with trade routes and I had money on my hands. I weakened, and colonised the barren world.

(Apologies for to blurry photograpy. I stopped using my flash.)

At the seventh Economic Phase, disaster. An evil race, known only by the acronym NRA, decided to wipe out my empire. Their motto: "War ships don't kill sentients: sentients kill sentients, but Doomsday Machines are much more efficient!" They launched a level 2 Doomsday machine at me, just two sectors away from Vulcan. Fortunately, my empire was connected with merchant routes, so I easily consolidated my entire fleet at Vulcan under the able command of Admiral Brendan Mahoney.

I had hoped that the DM would head towards the Alien world next to it, but according to the rules, there is only one kind of sentient the NRA is committed to exterminating.

So with my entire force facing the DM off Vulcan, Adm B Mahoney picked up the die. You can guess the rest. The space station did get two hits on the DM in the battle, and a cruiser got a third. But in the first round, the DM destroyed all four destroyers (4 x 6 or less on a 10 sided dice). Next round it destroyed one cruiser and damaged another (3 x 5 or less and 1 false throw). Final turn, it destroyed the space station and the last cruiser (3 x 4 or less and 1 x 5 or less). Emphatic. To add injury to insult, it demolished and consumed Vulcan to recover two hits. The Vulcans were "surprised". It then consumed Eden and recovered all its strength and headed towards Terra.

Emergency building on Terran meant we had 4 cruisers and a battle station a Rigel when the DM arrived. Without Adm Mahoney, we knocked it out with the loss of just one cruiser. However, next turn another DM appeared from the NRA. They were taking no chances and wanted only body count! However, it was bed time so I called it a night.

I only then noticed that I had missed a posioned package from ThygoCanberra in the email, so I'll attend to that this evening.

Spider - mutant redback?

Found this spider crawling up the bedroom wall last night. Very similar body shape to a redbcak, though quite small. White markings on the top but a little red 'hour glass' under the abdomen.

I will post the the Australian spide site on Flickr to see if I can get an ID.

White markings on abdomen

White markings on dorsal abdomen, large pedipalps

Red hour glass underside

Redback-type profile

 

 

 

Some Moon shots

Taken opportunistically hand held with different camera bodies (D60 and D90) but the same lens (18-200). A little post processing - adjust white balance, sharpen slightly, small exposure compensation on one. Cropped.

The D90 images appear sharper to me. It is 12 MP vs D60 10 MP and I wouldn't have thought the differenece would be due to the MP count but maybe because of the better autofocus system of the D90. Looks like I have some colour aberrations as a result of something in the last one.

I have this nagging feeling that the D60 doesn't focus as well as it used to for these close to infinity moon shots, and I have to wonder if the focus got out of kilter when Nikon replaced the D60's
shutter mechanism.

Also hard to really check the result for focus on the LCD - D60 230K dots, D90 920K dots. Also, it is clear that the 18-200 swiss army knife lens is not as sharp, or long, as one would really like for this subject.

D60 18 March

D90 13 March

D90

Shirase Icebreaker

This week I have noticed another interesting ship as I cross Anzac bridge into the city.

The ship is the Shirase, a Japanese Self Defence Force icebreaker. The Shirase is 12,650-tons and is one of the world's most powerful icebreakers. However, it recently had a bad run. The Shirase became stranded in the Antarctic Ocean on Feb. 16, being the first Japanese Antarctic research vessel to run aground since Japanese research voyages to the South Pole started about 60 years ago.

I am particularly impressed by the colour, which matches this website, and the dining room, which would serve as a wonderful wargaming room. I wonder whether the Japanese Navy would allow a few extra passengers for a long Antarctic boys 'weekend'?

Lenovo, big screen little screen on PC

the laptop - quite happy with it.

 

the old and the new (2nd hand) PC monitors - the new one is large by comparison:

Impsie spider - huntsman

This 'little' fellow was scurrying along the side of our shed. Quite a large specimen.

 

Men in White Coats: The Prevenance Theory

Hello world, my name is Sir Ian Wilmut, (OBE FRS FMedSci FRSE) and I am an English embryologist and Chair of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. I am sooo clever, I cloned a little sheep called Dolly. Don't worry, I just want to cure all the terrible diseases in the world.

Hello world, my name is Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov and I am Co-Director of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Embryonic Stem Cell Core Laboratory at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University. I am sooo clever, and more clever than Sir Wilmut. After experimenting on over 1,000 monkey eggs I cloned human cells. Don't worry, I just want to cure all the terrible diseases in the world.

Hello world, my name is Dr. Stephen Minger and I am Global Head of Research and Development for the Cell Technologies business of GE Healthcare Life Sciences. I am sooo clever. I used to be the Director of the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory at Kings College London where I created human-animal hybrid embryos. Don't worry, I just want to cure all the terrible diseases in the world.

Hello world, my name is Dr Jeffery K. Taubenberger. I am chief of the Division of Molecular Pathology at the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). I am sooo clever. I used the remains of soldiers and indians who had died from the Spanish flu, and I then became the first scientist to sequence the genome of the influenza virus which caused the 1918 pandemic of Spanish flu. My colleagues at a high-level biosafety lab in Winnipeg, Canada resurrected the virus and tested it on monkeys to confirm that it was still deadly. I published the sequence for the whole world to use. Don't worry, I just want to cure all the terrible diseases in the world including the ones I create.

I have a theory about the men in white coats, and I call it the Prevenance Theory. The theory is:

1. The real state of what has been achieved in the biological and genetic sciences in some laboratory somewhere in the world is at least 10-15 years ahead of what has been disclosed to the public.
2. Biological and genetic science operates independently of government supervision and regulation. There are few regulatory controls in any event, and the official policy in most so called advanced countries is to leave ethical decision making to the ethics of the scientists. What regulations do exist are easily ignored by science undertaken privately by trans national corporations.
3. There is virtually no ethical decision making on the part of the scientists. There is none on the part of the corporations that fund and undertake most biological and genetic research. In short: if it can be done, it will be done.

So what does this mean? It means we have little idea what is really going on, but we can rest assured that lots of biological and genetic experiments are being undertaken by people who like to play God and are doing so unrestrained by ethical considerations.

Why do I think this is all going to end in tears.

Lots and lots of tears.

Televisions, Computers and Laptops

PythonMagus has asked me for EMF readings for television and computers. I am happy to oblige. The nasty surprise comes with laptop computers.

Televisions

I detected no danger with my television. I have a Samsung 50 inch LCD flatscreen.

[1]  Right next to the screen there was an electro magnetic reading of 10-15 milligauss, however [2] this dissipated to less tham 3 milligauss a couple of feet away. The readings were the same whether the TV was showing moving images or a still photograph with lots of black as in the above image. There was a low microwave reading of .03 mW/cm2 but only within 3 centimetres of the screen.

With the TV sitting in the corner of the room, and at least 7 feet away from the nearest watching position, there does not appear to be anything to worry about.

Laptop Computers

We are a household with one desktop, and four laptop computers. All of the girls have an Apple laptop and I used a three month old Macbook Pro 13 inch for my test.

[3] Right next to the laptop screen I got a reading of 10-15 milligauss. [4] Moving back to the keyboard this reading went down to 4-5 milligauss which is just over my safe level of 3 milligauss. [5] Moving further back to the fromt of the laptop the reading was down to 1 milligauss.

The above readings may be a bit higher than I would like but not cause for huge concern as long as you don't stick your face right near the screen. But there is a less obvious and nasty problem with the laptop.

[6] Under the laptop, at the area where the computer actually makes contact with your body, was a high reading of 100 milligauss. This is definitely not good, especially when the 'lap' is the part of the body near the testicles and ovaries.

The lesson is don't use a laptop on your lap. When you put the laptop on a table and sit under the table, or use a portable laptop table / tray, this high reading is mostly blocked out. The table is better because there is more space between the computer and the lap. The laptop readings were the same whether the power cord was used or the laptop operated on battery. I did not get any microwave readings with the laptop.

Desktop Computers

My desktop computer setup did not give me grounds for concern.

[7] The desktop computer itself only gave a reading of 3 milligauss immediately outside the front of the case. [8] The computer screen, which is a Dell 22 inch LCD flatscreen, gave a reading of 10 milligauss right against the screen, but this went down to 3 milligauss 1 foot away. [9] The keyboard gave a reading of 2.5 milligauss. [10] The biggest reading came from the powerboard, which was over 100 milligauss right next to the outlets but down to 1 milligauss less than 1 foot away. As long as the powerboard is a couple of feet away from the body this is OK. I did not get any microwave readings with the computer equipment.

The last computer equipment I tested was the wireless router. Given that this equipment is designed to emit wireless internet to the house I was expecting a high reading. [11] Right next to the router the reading was 100 milligauss. [12] However, moving away from the router the reading was down to 2.5 milligauss 1 foot away. I did not get any microwave readings with the wireless router.

As long as the wireless router is keep at least a couple of feet away from the body it seems to be OK.

The children (and myself) are pleased that the television and the computers are not going to meet the same fate as the microwave. But (notwithstanding the name) the laptops should not be used directly on the lap.

Microwave Ovens are Dangerous

I continue with my investigations into Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMF). My concerns commenced in September 2013 and my research culminated in my undertaking of an Earthing Experiment on myself in January 2014. I have now created a new category for this blog: Crusade Against EMF.

Recently I purchased a TriField Meter from an engineer in Melbourne. This is an instrument that can measure AC magnetic fields (a gauss meter), AC electric fields and radio including microwaves (a microwave is an extremely high frequency radio wave). There is some debate as to what is included in the general expression EMF. I use EMF to describe the general electromagnetic field radiation including microwaves that is produced from electric transmission equipment, power lines, electric equipment of all sorts, mobile phones, microwave ovens, computer monitors, and video/audio devices. This is the invisible soup we all live in now.

 
Just because we can't detect EMF with our senses doesn't mean it is not there, or that it is not dangerous. Only a small spectrum (basically light and some sound) are detectable by humans.

There is debate as to what the safe levels of EMF are. Magnetic fields are measured in milligauss and electric fields are measured in volts/meter which can by calculated at 10 x milligauss. Microwaves are measured in many ways including mW/cm2. A search of the internet indicates a big range as to what is regarded as safe. For magnetic and electric fields, the US EPA and countries like Sweden regard 3 milligauss or less as safe. Australia has no recommendations. Russia (which claims to have done the most research in this area since the 1940s) has lower levels and the cut off is 1 milligauss or less. On the other end of the spectrum, some power companies use a cut off of 1,000 milligauss but this is a laughable level from a vested interest. There is also debate over microwave levels, with many standards using  5 mW/cm2 as a safe level, others using 1 mW/cm2, others 0.1 mW/cm2 and others even lower.

I have assumed 3 milligauss and 1 mW/cm2 is the cut off point (Russians would say this is too high).

I have taken interesting readings using my TriField Meter all over the house, but the most dramatic was with the microwave oven. I had assumed that a microwave oven only emitted microwaves and only when the microwave function was on, and that this would be inside the oven. Wrong and wrong and wrong.

 
The microwave oven measurements are an eye opener.

1. With the power cord to the microwave oven turned off, the measurement for milligauss (electro magnetic fields) was zero, as was the measurement for microwaves. No surprises here.
2. With the power turned on, but not operating the microwave, a massive measurement of over 100 milligauss was measured outside the microwave oven. This is scary. The microwave emits this all day 24/7 even if you don't use the microwave function. And everybody leaves the microwave oven plugged in with the power point on because there is a clock on the oven, which becomes the kitchen clock.
3. One foot away from the microwave oven, again with the power on but not operating the microwave, the TriField Meter records 3.5 milligauss. This means if you stand next to and look in the window of a microwave oven, even with the microwave function turned off and not cooking anything, you expose yourself to an unsafe electromagmetic field.
4. Now to test for microwaves. With the microwave oven power on, but not turning on the microwave function, the microwave reading is zero. Expected, but remember there is still over 100 milligauss of electro magnetic field outside the oven.
5. Turn on the microwave function to heat something and there is over 1 mW/cm2 outside the oven. The reading on the TriField Meter was maxed out so I don't know how high it actually was.
6. One foot away from the oven with the microwave function operating and there was still a reading of 0.5 mW/cm2. This means if you stand next to and look in the window of a microwave oven while it is heating something you are exposed to both an electro magnetic field and microwaves. They don't tell you this when you buy a microwave oven.
7. Two feet away from the oven with the microwave function operating and there was a reading of 0.3 mW/cm2. This covered the kitchen sink and the area where we stand to prepare food. What is most concerning is that there are microwaves outside the oven, not just inside the oven like we think is the case.

Our microwave oven was a relatively new piece of equipment and not faulty as far as I could tell. Little did I know that it was an unsafe EMF emitter 24/7 sitting in the middle of the kitchen. There are other ways to heat and cook food, so now this oven has a new home.

I Conducted a Medical Experiment Upon Myself

On Australia Day (26 January, two weeks ago) I commenced a medical experiment upon myself. I did not want to report until I had at least two weeks of data.

I have previously ranted about my fears concerning the wireless soup we live in these days, per my post in September 2013 Wireless Madness. Since then I have been researching ways to deal with this, and the general unhealthiness of the modern lifestyle.

A few weeks ago I came across 'Earthing' (also known as 'Grounding'). At first I thought "toot toot" (as we are trained to do) then I did more research and discovered there is scientific support for Earthing including experimental data and various papers. The huge benefit appears to be less inflamation (increasingly recognised as the cause of many ailments) and a thinner and healthier blood supply, which is a great boost to cellular health and the immune system.

What on earth is Earthing (sorry, irresistable pun). There is a good summary at Barefoot Healing Australia and the following:

We all live and function electrically on an electrical planet. We are each of us a collection of dynamic electrical circuits. In the living matrix of our complex bodies, trillions of cells constantly transmit and receive energy in the course of their programmed biochemical reactions. The movement of nutrients and water into the cells is regulated by electric fields, and each type of cell has a frequency range in which it operates. Your heart, brain, nervous system, muscles, and immune system are prime examples of electrical subsystems operating within your "bioelectrical" body. The fact is, all of your movements, behaviours, and actions are energized by electricity. Earthing research demonstrates that connection to the Earth initiates an immediate electrophysiological shift inside your body indicative of improved blood, nervous system, immune system, and muscular function.

In electricity, all electrical systems are "grounded"; that is, stabilized by the electrical energy of the Earth's surface. Without a ground, appliances or sophisticated medical devices would not work properly. Similarly, when connected to the Earth, the body receives an electric signal that normalizes and stabilizes its many biological systems and mechanisms. This signal also appears to be the source of negatively charged free electrons, present in unlimited quantity on the surface of the Earth. The hypothesis put forward by scientists involved in Earthing research is that the transfer of electrons into the body quenches or neutralizes positively charged, electron-seeking free radicals that drive chronic inflammation activity at the core of many common diseases. We suggest that the mightiest anti-inflammatory on the planet may be the very planet itself! We further suggest that destructive chronic inflammation may be the result of an electron deficiency that is remedied by contact with the Earth's infinite reservoir of free electrons.

I was sufficiently intrigued to try earthing for myself. My experiment was to earth myself for at least 8 hours per day (at night using an earthed sheet, combined with an earthing mat under my desk at work and under our computer desk at home). The Python had a clue when he visited me at work this week and I was barefoot.

I purchased an earthing kit. This is how I set up my earthed sheet:

A

I tested the powerpoint to ensure that the plug was properly earthed. Three red lights means everything is OK and the bottom plug is earthed. (I also discovered the powerpoints in the bathroom - which we don't use - were not earthed which is very bad).

 

B

The earthing plug creates a wired connection to the earthed prong on the powerpoint. There is no connection at all to the top two electrical and neutral pins. 

 

C

The earthing plug is connected to the powerpoint. Note that the powerpoint is not even turned on because only the earthing connection is needed.

 

 D

The cord from the earthing plug connects to the underside of a cotton sheet, which is threaded with a conductive silver thread in a rectangular pattern.

 

E

The pattern of silver threads is quite tight, and interestingly the surface area within each rectangle made by the silver threading is the same size as a PRESTAGS counter. When the skin touches the silver threading the body becomes earthed.

F

I tested an ordinary sheet. Obviously this sheet is not earthed.

 

G

Then I tested the cotton - silver thread sheet connected to the earth socket. Green light goes on: bingo it is earthed.

 

Today is 14 days since I commenced the experiment. Time to report upon the results thus far.

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING (I KID YOU NOT)!!

I can honestly report the following:

1. On the first night, I had the best night's sleep in years. I woke feeling much more refreshed than usual and full of energy. I have slept like this and woken like this every day since.
2. My father has bad arthritis, and for the last 4 years or so I have had soreness and stiffness in my joints, especially my knuckles and knees. This soreness and stiffmess has noticeably decreased.
3. My head feels 'clear' and I have maintained concentration and mental agility at work much more than I had previously.
4. I have been told my snoring has decreased.
5. I cut myself (accidentally) and I healed twice as fast as before.
6. My appetite has changed. For the last 10 years I had woken without an appetite. My breakfast had been coffee. Now I wake slightly hungry and crave a bowl of All Bran or Wheat Bix, which I have been enjoying for breakfast.
7. I also have increased sensitivity to sugar, and only want half a teaspoon (not 2 teaspoons) in my coffee and generally I don't crave lollies (I was a jube fiend) or lemonade.
8. I enjoy lunch and dinner but feel satisfied after a normal size helping (previously I would eat double).
9. My muscles feel stronger and I have not been feeling puffed after a couple of flights of stairs.
10. I have felt more calm and relaxed throughout the day. Things that used to stress me do not do so any more. Although thankfully I have never had bouts of depression or anything like that, I feel 'happier' and 'balanced'.

 
In only two weeks, a really remarkable health benefit. I intend to keep on earthing and all I can say is: Try it out. Seriously, if you are not as healthy as you'd like and particularly if you are stressed, give it a go.

Earthing products are available at Earthing Oz and Barefoot Healing.

The soles of our feet have more nerve endings than almost any other part of our body: maybe I know the reason now. What next? Who knows, perhaps there is a clue in this photo of the Python that he does not remember I kept a copy of:

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.

 

Ineffable cuteness!

Guest post by Uxor Petri

Clare has been sitting on her nest of 14 eggs for the last 5 weeks. I candled them on day 18, but not being an expert egg candler, I wasn't sure if 2 were fertile and 12 infertile, or vice versa. Last week, Clare got rid of one rotten egg from the nest, and we took another out which was also rotten (Pew!!!) On Thursday, ThygoCanberra removed what he thought was another rotten egg. Unfortunately, after he broke it he found a perfectly formed duckling.

We have been on tenterhooks the last few days, waiting for Clare's ducklings to hatch. This is the first clutch to be fathered by Frank (our incredibly handsome Muscovy drake). I thought they were due to hatch on Friday, and was worried that the 40C heat last week might be too much for them. Finally, over the last 36 hours, 11 ducklings have hatched - an excellent result. Trying to keep Thygo major and Thygo minor from pestering Clare and drowning the ducklings in affection has been difficult. To tell the truth, I can't get enough of them either.

 

The Proud Father

 

Can you see them?

 

Lots of pics to follow...

The rest of the photos were taken by Thygo major.

 

This one has been named Angry Bird, for obvious reasons.

 

And this was the last to hatch. It is not quite dry.

Can you spot all 11 ducklings?

 

And in case you are wondering what has happened to Ashley and the older ducklings, they are now 3 weeks old and are starting to lose their baby feathers. Big Duckling is almost twice the size of Little Duckling. Yesterday, Thygo major found Little Duckling soaking wet and exhausted. I thought she was a gonner. She must have jumped into the big bucket of water and almost drowned. I dried her off with the hair dryer, wrapped her in a towel with a heat pack and fed her sugar water with an eye dropper. She came good after a couple of hours, thank goodness, and was running around happily today.

 

Ducklings - update

actually 3 out now and a 4th is poking out - pics later - the 4th was a misdiagnosis - only 3 viable eggs

'Peek a boo' a little while ago:

In the garden

Lots of bees and some other insects taking pollen/nectar from one of our trees.

Hover fly, well hovering of course. (crop of image taken with D60 and 18-200 lens and downsized - too much by the look of it - lots of noise)

full resolution jpeg:

Bee (crop of D60 with 35mm lens)

Bee (crop of shot taken with D90 & 18-200 lens)

A different point of view

I find Paul such an intriguing friend because we always has a different point of view. Take the Interesting Ship: Paul sees it from above - I see it from a dog's eye view:

(It is in the picture - right underneath the middle of the arch a slightly obscured by the swing bridge.)

Take the classic Australian meal. Whilst I do a leg of lamb a few times a year, I find myself drawn to the diversity of eat out options to find the many tastes I have not sampled before:

Take Prestags: Paul sees a nice system and a collectable. I see a playable game worthy of an online version - as a playable game, not a collectible.

Take Empire: Paul has fun playing hunter against my swarm of transports. I focus on expansion and industrial optimisation.

Take the IPCC: I am fascinated what 1000 top scientists can achieve in collaboration. Paul sees the opportunity for unaccountable manipulation of world opinion.

I am intrigued to see what Paul makes of a software conference.

Paul Reiter - a dummy spit?

Paul Reiter is a professor of medical entomology at the Pasteur Institute in the city of Paris. He is recognised as a specialist in the natural history, epidemiology and control of mosquito-borne diseases.

He contributed to the Working Group II of the IPCC that was looking at impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. He resigned from this working group when he found himself at "loggerheads with persons who insisted on making authoritative pronouncements, although they had little or no knowledge of [his] speciality". From that point on, he has poured vitriol on the entire organisation. A colossal dummy spit perhaps?

Let's put this in context. Thousands of specialists, mostly scientists, all contribute from their narrow field on the general impacts of Anthropogenic Global Warming. For example, someone finds that glaciers in the Alps will shrink reducing melt water in the Po River. Another finds an increase in winter temperatures in Northern Italy. At this point, it goes to the mosquito-borne disease boys to say whether malaria could take hold in southern Italy, which is where I expect Paul Reiter would contribute. Then his findings go elsewhere for others to comment on (health workers, etc). At then end, all this work gets collated and summarised. I expect every contributer would be somewhat disatisfied with the result. Can those who write the conclusions be experts in everything? Not possible - there is too much knowledge in the world to fit in one head. So a process of dialogue commences. Stormy? I expect so. You should hear the Dark Matter people go at the Modified Newtonian Dynamics. However, most of the contributors got through the process.

Let's try an analogy. Malcolm Frazer, former Australian PM, says the Liberal party has lost its soul and quits. Does that require Tony Abbott to ring up Quenton Bryce and say "Sorry, we can't do this. Someone thinks we have lost our soul." I don't think so. Tony thanks Malcom for his views, respectively disagrees and says this is Liberalism 2013.

So Paul (Reiter), thank you for your contribution. With respect, the IPCC report does represent the consensus views of contributors. Ladies and gentleman, Anthropogenic Global Warming is real and will cost us trillions of dollars if we ignore it. Please read this report and apply is recommendations to your respective government policies.

Tom Tripp, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and member of the IPCC since 2004

Tom Tripp is quoted in July 2009 of the Salt Lake Tribune as saying "The atmospheric data is not overwhelming and even with increased levels of carbon dioxide it is still only a miniscule portion of the atmosphere. If there are warming trends today, man may not be the prime suspect. For instance, 700 years ago global warming halted the Ancestral Pueblo civilization and it probably wasn't caused by SUVs,"

He is the Technical Services Manager at US Magnesium (or was - I am not sure if he keeps his Linked in profile up to date). It appears he was invited to present to the IPCC on the carbon footprint of magnesium mining.

Tom does seem to a US Magnesium PR person; In May 2005 Tom Tripp stated "Our emissions are mainly water." when US Magnesium was charged with polluting the Great Salt Lake. US Magnesium lost this case and the subsequent appeal. When queried on why the clean up was not proceeding, he is quoted as saying "Obviously, one of our jobs during the cleanup is to keep our business going, to keep our people employed."

While Mr. Tom Tripp is technically an "IPCC author", he is not to be found in any of the contributor listings of the Work Groups WG I, WG II and WG III, whose reports are the core of the current IPCC Assessment Report AR4. Instead he is lead author of subsection 4.5 in Volume 3 (Industrial Processes and Product Use) of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. While these guidelines are used in compiling emission data for the IPCC they are not part of AR4, the report that is cited in the news as the IPCC report on climate change.

Is he a Nobel Peace Prize winner? According to Utah Farm Bureau CEO Randy Parker he is: "He is. The prize was given to Al Gore and 2,000 IPCC members."

Summary
A peace prize winner - only by association. A lead author - I think not. An expert in his field - perhaps, but his field is not climate science. Truthful - only as long as it does not conflict with the financial interests of US Magnesium.

 

 

No Comrade, Ship is Real

Thygocanberra doubted the photograph of the awesome / epic ship but it was real.

Ship was the Russian space control ship the "Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin".

From Wikipedia: Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin (Russian: «Космона́вт Ю́рий Гага́рин») was a Soviet space control-monitoring ship that was devoted to detecting and receiving satellite communications. Named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, she was completed in December 1971 to support the Soviet space program. The ship also conducted upper atmosphere and outer space research.

It had very distinguishable looks due to two extremely large and two smaller parabolic "dish" antennas placed on top of the hull.

In Soviet times, the Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin was the world's largest communications ship and was the flagship of a fleet of communications ships. These ships greatly extended the tracking range when the orbits of cosmonauts and unmanned missions were not over the USSR. In 1975, the ship was a part of the Soviet-American Apollo-Soyuz joint test program.

The communications ships belonged to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The maritime part fell under the responsibility of the Baltic- and Black sea shipping. The ships had home ports in the Ukraine (Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin and the other surveillance ship Akademik Sergei Korolev), so after the fall of the Soviet Union they were transferred to Ukraine – ending their role in spaceflight.

She was sold for scrap shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union along with the Akademik Sergei Korolev.

Awesome Photograph

Sometimes you see a photograph of something that is just awesome. Or, as I think the teenage kids would say, is just epic. This is awesome / epic and I want one:

Not of Ducks ... of Emus

Health and fitness wise, PRESTAGS knows that it is definitely downhill after 50.

This last week I have had sore joints, especially knees and knuckles. The usual 1000 mg of Krill Oil has not been doing the trick.

Today my ever considerate wife has purchased some indigenous medicine: Emu Oil.

The Emu Oil is described as "a traditional Australian Aboriginal relief for the pain of arthritis, muscular aches, insect bites and for the symptomatic relief of dry skin and minor burns". I don't know what the biochemistry is behind Emu Oil, but there do appear to be patents and scientific papers on this subject.

I can personally attest to the efficacy of  Tea Tree Oil (Melaleuca Oil), and of Papaw Ointment (Carica Papaya) so I am prepared to give Emu Oil a go.

Speaking of emus, I would love to try emu eggs, fried or in an omlette.

And to think I used to work for a living...

At the off leash park in Leichhardt enjoy sunshine and a cap. The user management service of Moderni Agone is quite good. I am now about to play against myself. Perhaps the last game I shall win!

 Paul will be pleased to see that I am wearing his Boys Weekend tee shirt. Peter will be conforted that light surrounds my head when unemployed. The dog is just pleased.