Maldives Minister says economy cannot be sustained if strict Islam is in force. Islamist demands include no Israeli airlines, no criticism of flogging

Per Maldives Islamists, no Israeli airlines are allowed to operate, all hotel spas must close, and the UN Human Rights Cmsr. must be condemned for criticizing Islam's sacred practice of flogging women.

12/31/11, "Government mulls allowing resorts to resume spa operations," Haveeru News Service

"We can only sustain our economy by following the moderate form [of Islam] which has been in the Maldives until now. We [ministers] are labelled anti-Islamic because we support the tolerant form [of Islam]. But that label is a disgrace to our parents as well," she (Tourism Minister Dr Mariyam Zulfa) said.

The minister stressed that requests from several resort owners have led her ministry to look into ways to allow resorts to resume spa operations....

Zulfa also admitted that the government's decision would affect the tourism industry.

Tourism Ministry issued a circular on Thursday ordering all the resorts in Maldives to shut down their spas claiming that a majority of Maldivians have accused the spas of being run as brothels.

"As specifying a certain distance from Male would not be a wise decision [in closing down spas] and that other resorts, which also cater for locals, are located close to inhabited islands, the government has decided to close down the spas in all the resorts on a fair basis and by giving a higher priority to the allegations made," the circular read.

Religious organisations and opposition parties gathered at the Tsunami Monument area on December 23 condemning the government's religious policies and making five demands to the government.

The demands include

• removing the SAARC monuments in Addu,
  
• condemning UN human rights chief Navi Pillay's comments about Islamic Sharia,
• not allowing Israeli airlines to operate flights,
• closing down the brothels in the country and
• a reversed decision on declaring areas of inhabited islands uninhabited in order to permit alcohol sales.

Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) yesterday raised concerns over the decision saying that it would affect the tourists

• and bring financial losses to the industry."...

----------------------------------

10/17/11, "Swedish Professor denies the claim of President Nasheed that Maldives is drowning," Maidhu News

------------------------

10/15/11, "Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean sea level scandal unfolding," ClimateScienceInternational.org

----------------------

Pacific and Indian Ocean island nations aren't sinking at all and what problems they have are due to nature and poor governance, not CO2.

Maldives lacks fresh water naturally (see heading 'Population). The Hollywood/UN/Maldives/Billionaire shadow world government seeks to blame and drain the evil American middle class.

• Maldives has long used its natural coral as a construction material.
  

It hasn't vanished due to 'global warming.' Habitats such as this have never been suitable for large populations.

Maldives is NATURALLY the lowest sea level nation on the planet--having nothing to do with CO2 or warming.

---------------------

6/3/10: "New Zealand research shows Pacific Islands not shrinking," from New Zealand television. From journal, Global and Planetary Change: "It has been thought that as the sea level goes up, islands will sit there and drown," Prof Kench told the New Scientist. "But they won't. ""...

• Notes Tuvalu actually increased in size due to a typhoon in 1972...

----------------------------

9/25/11, "Walking the walk: Maldives constructing 11 new airports, each with hotels and yacht marinas too?" TomNelson.blogspot.com

• "2009: 11 new airports to be constructed in Maldives | Maldives Tourism Update
  

The Government is working to construct 11 new regional airports in 11 regions and work is under way to complete them as soon as possible....

The Minister further said the construction work of these airports have been handed to Airports Investment Management Company which is a company established for this project. There will be a 200 bed hotel, a yacht marina and a transit hotel in every airport in order to

• make the airport viable and facilitate tourism and travellers."

=========================

11/26/11, "What's there to discuss about flogging? There is nothing to debate about in a matter clearly stated in the religion of Islam. No one can argue with God," he (Maldives Minister Naseem) said."...(Maldives speaks of "shaming" money out of the US at the Durban 'climate' conference. What would they know about shame?).

Above, Maldives protest UN Human Rights Commissioner suggesting they should not flog women, 11/25/11, Haveeru

Above Maldives protest UN Human Rights Commissioner Pillay suggesting they should not flog women, one sign says, "Flog Pillay", 11/25/11, Haveeru

-----------------------------

8/22/11,"Stimulus helped equip climate research facilities--in Maldives, India, and Australia," CNS News, Penny Starr

"The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced last week that it has used $60 million of the $1.2 billion given to the agency in economic stimulus funds for purchasing “advanced-technology research instruments”

• to study climate change.

Some of this equipment was deployed at facilities in the Maldives, India, and Australia."...

--------------------------

11/25/2009, "Global warming industry becomes too big to fail," Timothy Carney, Washington Examiner

-----------------------

12/12/11, "Mystery kidney disease in Central America," BBC, PRI's The World

----------------------

3/11/2010, "Civil society organizations demand reform of World Bank Group lending to private corporations," International Accountability Project

--------------------

10/3/2011, "Carbon credits tarnished by human rights 'disgrace'," EurActiv, EU News

via Atlas Shrugs

Save the rap about US 'crippling dependence on Mid East oil,' In 2011 #1 US EXPORT is fuel-Miami Herald

12/30/11, "In a first, gas and other fuels are top US export," Miami Herald, Chris Kahn

"For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is - wait for it - fuel.

Measured in dollars, the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990. It will also be

• the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels.

Just how big of a shift is this? A decade ago, fuel wasn't even among the top 25 exports. And for the last five years, America's top export was aircraft.

The trend is significant because for decades the U.S. has relied on huge imports of fuel from Europe in order to meet demand. It only reinforced the image of America as an energy hog. And up until a few years ago, whenever gasoline prices climbed, there were complaints in Congress that U.S. refiners were not growing quickly enough to satisfy domestic demand;

• that controversy would appear to be over....

There's at least one domestic downside to America's growing role as a fuel exporter. Experts say the trend helps explain why U.S. motorists are paying more for gasoline. The more fuel that's sent overseas, the less of a supply cushion there is at home.

Gasoline supplies are being exported to the highest bidder, says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "It's a world market," he says.

Refining companies won't say how much they make by selling fuel overseas. But analysts say those sales are likely generating higher profits per gallon than they would have generated in the U.S. Otherwise, they wouldn't occur....

Europe also has been buying more U.S. fuel to make up for its lack of refineries."...

via Tom Nelson

Arctic Sea Ice Extent ends 2011 highest in past 6 years per DMI record

12/31/11, "Arctic Ice Extent Closes Out The Year Highest In The DMI Record," Real Science, Steven Goddard

"Current Sea Ice Extent"

"Total sea ice extent on the northern hemisphere since 2005. The ice extent values are calculated from the ice type data from the Ocean and Sea Ice, Satellite Application Facility (OSISAF), where areas with ice concentration higher than 30% are classified as ice.

The total area of sea ice is the sum of First Year Ice (FYI), Multi Year Ice (MYI) and the area of ambiguous ice types, from the OSISAF ice type product. However, the total estimated ice area is underestimated due to unclassified coastal regions where mixed land/sea pixels confuse the applied ice type algorithm. The shown sea ice extent values are therefore recommended be used qualitatively in relation to ice extent values from other years shown in the figure. In 2011 sea ice climatology and anomaly data will be available here."

"http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php"

"It is time to end the denial."

Mr. Goddard provides the following example from a denier:

"Arctic Watch iOS Released – Second largest ice melt in recorded history

Dec 20, 2011

Unprecedented amounts of new data shows that this trend is accelerating.

NSIDC Director Mark Serreze said, “It looks like the spring ice cover is so thin now that large areas melt out in summer, even without persistent extreme weather patterns.”

http://prmac.com/release-id-35833.htm"

via Tom Nelson

Wordpress flunks free speech, takes down Bare Naked Islam blog but blogger says, "WE WILL BE BACK!"

Update #2, 12/30: Wordpress sent an email to Instapundit explaining its problem with BNI was not related to CAIR. Rather it said BNI published IP addresses of certain commenters and invited others to harass them. Wordpress said they've turned BNI back on but only until 1/6/12 by which time it says BNI will have to rely on alternate hosting.

Update: 12/29/11, "BNI Shut Down Again, Hamas-Tied CAIR Does Victory Dance," Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

"This is how BNI's publisher explained what happened in an email to me:

"I allowed them to delete ALL comments prior to 11/26 and they did. After that I was very careful to delete anything that could be deemed a threat. In CAIR's press release today they mentioned the comments from the other post all of which were deleted immediately. There were no new comments that they listed today. But....they did mention my close involvement with the All American Muslim/Lowe's Buycott campaign. I had about a 12 or 14 different posts on that so I think the ratings dive for AAM was what made them threaten WP with a lawsuit. I am just assuming as WP didn't say this."

That any rational freedom lover would listen to the enemies of free speech at Hamas-tied CAIR is beyond the pale. Across the web, I have seen calls for a holocaust II, killing Jews, killing conservatives, killing Blacks, etc. I have been called a neo-kikess while being libeled, smeared and defamed. And Hamas-tied CAIR itself is a libel machine.

Calls for my death and execution have been posted to youtube, twitter and other websites.

The death threats and calls for genocide are daily. Just recently there was this comment:

xxxsampsonxxxX has made a comment on ‪Pamela Geller vs Imam on CNN Sunday:

THIS BITCH SHOULD GET SHOT. I H8 HER

The blood libel against Israel organ trafficking in Haiti was started in the notoriously anti-Jewish Huffington Post comment section. Anti-semitism is raging in the pages of the NY Times, Time magazine, LA Times, etc. Nothing was ever said or done -- that's free speech.

I condemn all calls for killing and genocide.

I don't know what was said at Bare Naked Islam. Some of what I see I would not host or post on Atlas. But I don't CAIR. The difference between an exchange of ideas and an exchange of blows is self-evident.

If I had a blog on wordpress, I would pull it. I would. Because it's only a matter of time until something you say doesn't meet with the Muslim Brotherhood guidelines."...

------------------------

12/29/11, "#WORDPRESSFAIL: WordPress Takes Down “Bare Naked Islam” Blog After Threats From CAIR," Instapundit

"CAIR pursues this strategy regularly. Shame on WordPress for giving in. Note to bloggers: In a free-speech controversy, you can’t count on WordPress. Act accordingly. Meanwhile, an item on CAIR’s terrorist ties. More here. And its membership is minuscule. This is who you listened to, WordPress."

From comments on GWP re: Bare Naked Islam blog removed by Wordpress:

"

1. #5 December 29, 2011 at 7:10 pm

   barenakedislam commented:

   WE WILL BE BACK!

2. 

   #6 December 29, 2011 at 7:11 pm

   barenakedislam commented:

   You can contact me at: barenakedislam@me.com

3. 

   #7 December 29, 2011 at 7:12 pm

   reliapundit commented:

   ALL LIBERTY=LOVING BLOGGERS SHOULD ABANDON AND BOYCOTT SHARIA COMPLIANT WORDPRESS.

4. 

   #8 December 29, 2011 at 7:15 pm

   sadsushi commented:

   fight on barenakedislam! don’t let cair win..they have too much power now, we need to fight as hard as we can against their advances of sharia law"

from Instapundit

Obama sells Saudi Arabia largest US foreign arms package ever

12/29/11, "THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN . . . OH, HELL, YOU KNOW THE REST: The White House Just Agreed To Sell Saudi Arabia The Largest US Overseas Arms Package Ever." Instapundit


.

US scientists published report finds no evidence to link climate change to more severe flooding over past 100 years-The Hill

10/24/11, "Study finds no evidence that climate change caused more severe flooding," The Hill, by Andrew Restuccia

"A new study conducted by federal scientists found no evidence that climate change has caused more severe flooding

• in the United States during the last century.

But scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), who published their findings in the Hydrologic Sciences Journal Monday, said they will continue to examine the issue, noting that more research is necessary to better understand the relationship between climate change and flooding.

The USGS study — titled “Has the magnitude of floods across the USA changed with global CO2 levels” — found no clear relationship between the increase in greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change and the severity of flooding in three of four regions of the United States....

But the study was able to identify a clear relationship between flooding and climate change in the southwestern portion of the United States. In that region, floods

• have become less severe

as greenhouse gas emissions have increased, the study says.

“Currently we do not see a clear pattern that enables us to understand how climate change will alter flood conditions in the future, but the USGS will continue to collect new data over time and conduct new analyses as conditions change,” said Robert Hirsch, a USGS scientist who was the

• lead author of the study, in a statement.

The study comes just days after a comprehensive study by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature found "reliable evidence" of climate change, supporting the conclusions of the majority of the world's scientists."



.

Porn-paralyzed NSF to train science guys to be better salesmen and celebrities, NSF to give sales, media tips at Hawaii confab Jan. 2012

The NSF is swamped with personnel using taxpayer money to travel and pursue intimate relationships with NSF subordinates, a decade long pattern of excessive porn watching on the job including live porn acts also paid by the US tax payer. NSF says it has so many internal problems it's not in a position to oversee science projects it funds:

9/29/2009, "Porn Surfing rampant at US science foundation," Washington Times, by Jim McElhatton

""To manage this dramatic increase without an increase in staff required us to significantly reduce our efforts to investigate grant fraud," the inspector general recently told Congress in a budget request.

• "We anticipate a significant decline in investigative recoveries and prosecutions in coming years

• as a direct result.""

--------------------------

4/7/09, "Senators fault science agency over lax handling of pornography case," NY Times, by Gardiner Harris

--------------------------

Dec. 2011, "Science: Becoming the Messenger," NSF.gov

"The National Science Foundation (NSF) will be holding a workshop, "Science: Becoming the Messenger" on January 23, 2012, at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa Hotel, 2552 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii 96815.

We are extending an invitation to principal investigators (PI), early career researchers and engineers, graduate students and postdocs from institutions and universities in Hawaii who would like to learn to communicate effectively to a broad audience.

We are also extending an invitation to public information officers (PIO) communicating on behalf of the institutions and universities in Hawaii.

Today, across academia and the research community, there is a growing interest in science communication. Scientists are asking how they can share their knowledge and findings across an increasingly challenging information environment.

Seminars and training workshops are, accordingly, springing up to meet this need. But never before has there been a team like the one NSF has assembled to help members of the scientific community at all levels become more effective messengers.

Featuring three accomplished communicators and trainers--Emmy award winning television producer Joe Schreiber, former PBS executive Dan Agan and bestselling science author Chris Mooney--the NSF workshop "Science: Becoming the Messenger" provides one-stop shopping for those seeking to reach a broader public about their work.

Over the course of this full day of training, participants will learn how to craft a message and deliver it to a variety of audiences. They will also have the opportunity to experience live interview training, to develop writing and new media skills, to hone their public presentations and even to produce video.

Public information officers (PIO) will participate in all aspects of day one of the workshop and be able to participate with the researchers. They will attend a special breakout session designed to collaborate with NSF Public Affairs.

For a specially selected group of RESEARCHERS, there will be a second day on January 24, 2012. During this second day, they will refine their message further, train to talk to their colleagues, public audiences and the media. If you are interested in participating in the second day of the workshop and would like to be considered, please complete the questions on the registration form."...

"Limited to colleges and universities in Hawaii."

via Tom Nelson "English major Chris Mooney" part of NSF staff.

US taxpayer money gambled by politicians on 'cellulosic biofuels' yet another loser

12/21/11, "To Survive, Some Biofuels Companies Give Up on Biofuels," TechnologyReview.com

"Government mandates that were meant to help create a market for cellulosic biofuels have so far been ineffective; it's typically cheaper for the fuel providers affected by the mandate to purchase credits rather than biofuels. And finally, supply chains for cellulosic materials aren't yet well developed, so companies face a challenge when they try to lock in reliable access to them....

As the difficulty of producing cellulosic biofuels cheaply becomes apparent, a growing number of advanced-biofuels companies are finding it necessary to take creative approaches to their business, even though that means abandoning some of their green credentials, at least temporarily, and focusing on markets that won't have a major impact on oil imports. This is hardly the outcome the government hoped for when it announced cellulosic-biofuels mandates, R&D funding, and other incentives....

Geva, a prominent advanced-biofuels company that has received millions in U.S. government funding to develop fuels made from cellulosic sources such as grass and wood chips, is finding that it can't use these materials if it hopes to survive. Instead, it's going to use corn, a common source for conventional biofuels. What's more, most of the product from its first facility will be used for chemicals rather than fuel in recent years."...

======================

George Bush pushed insufficiently vetted ethanol scams too. One of Georgia's poorest counties "offered 20 years worth of tax abatements and 97 acres in its industrial park."...Fake "science" led to bankruptcy of ethanol plant in Alabama, another poor state, in which the same billionaire, Khosla, was also involved:

2/15/11, "Plant closure bursts Ga.’s biomass bubble," Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dan Chapman

"The premise, and the promise, were brilliant in their simplicity: Turn tree waste into fuel, help break the Middle Eastern choke hold on America’s economy and..."....

[Ed. note: The "Middle East choke hold" line is a lie. The US is a net oil exporter as of 2011. And, "today, half of net U.S. petroleum imports come from the Western Hemisphere, and half of that (or a quarter of the total) comes from Canada. Only 12% came from Saudi Arabia last year."]

• (continuing, AJC): "bring hundreds of jobs to rural Georgia.

What wasn’t there to like?

Plenty, starting with the closing last month of the Range Fuels cellulosic ethanol factory that promised to help make Georgia a national leader in alternative energy production. Then there’s the money — more than

• $162 million in local, state and federal grants, loans and other subsidies committed to the venture.

Much of that has been spent; recovery would be difficult. Officials at Colorado-based

• Range Fuels,
  

who didn’t return calls for this story, have said they plan to eventually re-open the Soperton plant.

But critics — ranging from budget hawks to renewable energy experts to dispirited locals — say the shutdown is a case of

• good money thrown at unproven science and lofty promises.

“We gave those subsidies in hopes of getting something in return — jobs,” said Wallace Little, a laid-off special ed teacher from Soperton who applied for a Range job. “And we hope they come back, as far-fetched as that sounds.

• We need jobs. We need them bad.”

Over the last six years, Georgia has successfully wooed a variety of companies specializing in biomass — cellulosic ethanol, corn ethanol, biodiesel, wood pellet, wood-to-electricity — with the goal of becoming a renewable energy leader.

• Many of the companies, though, are no longer in business.

Vinod Khosla, the dot-com billionaire behind Range Fuels,

• vowed in 2007 to
  

• “declare a war on oil” and said “cellulosic ethanol is the weapon we need.”

State and national officials were giddy when ground was broken later that year for the $225 million ethanol distillery outside Soperton, 155 miles southeast of Atlanta.

“Range Fuels represents a new future for our country,” proclaimed then-Gov. Sonny Perdue,

• flanked by dignitaries and beauty queens.
  

“With Georgia’s vast, sustainable and renewable forests, we will lead the nation.”

U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, who steered a $76 million federal grant to Range, said that “by relying on American ingenuity

• and on American farmers for fuel, we will enhance our nation’s energy
  

• and economic security.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture followed up with an $80 million loan guarantee.

• Georgia officials pledged $6.2 million.
  

Treutlen County, one of the state’s poorest, offered 20 years worth of tax abatements and 97 acres in its industrial park.

Private investors reportedly put up $158 million. In all, the project raised more than $320 million.

• It hasn’t been enough.

By now, Range had expected to produce 20 million gallons of ethanol. Seventy Georgians would have jobs, denting Treutlen’s

• 13.3 percent unemployment rate.

• Range shut down in early January. Only a few employees in Soperton remain.

Bud Klepper, plant manager for Range Fuels, told The Soperton News that the shutdown is “not permanent,” adding that

• the company seeks additional financing.

“We’re just taking him at his word that it’s just a temporary shut down,” said John Lee, executive director of Treutlen’s development authority. “There’s nothing else we can do.”"...

------------------------------

11/30/11, "U.S. Nears Milestone: Net Fuel Exporter," Wall St. Journal, by L. Pleven, R. Gold

"U.S. exports of gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels are soaring, putting the nation on track to be a net exporter of petroleum products in 2011

• for the first time in 62 years.

A combination of booming demand from emerging markets and faltering domestic activity means the U.S. is exporting more fuel than it imports,

• upending the historical norm.

According to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday, the U.S. sent abroad 753.4 million barrels of everything from gasoline to jet fuel in the first nine months of this year, while it imported 689.4 million barrels."...(remainder of article is subscription)

---------------------------

And, "Only 12% (of net US petroleum imports) came from Saudi Arabia last year, down from nearly 19% in 1993."...

12/16/11, "Oil boomlet sweeps U.S. as exports and production rise," USA Today, Wendy Koch

via Tom Nelson, via WUWT

Arctic Sea Ice Extent continues at 6 year high as of 12/26/11, NORSEX

12/27/11, "Arctic Ice Continues At Six Year High," Real Science, S. Goddard

"http://arctic-roos.org/

Strong winds in the eastern Arctic compressed the ice a little the last few days, fooling a reader on another thread into believing that the freezing point of water had suddenly dropped by 15C."

Other current Norsex Graphs




via Tom Nelson

'This might be the worst NY Times 'climate change' reporting ever,' Gillis, Christmas Eve, Pielke, Jr.

"Scientists say...."

12/26/11, "The Worst NYT Story on Climate Ever?" Roger Pielke, Jr.

"Every once in a while I see a story that is so breathtakingly bad that it is worth commenting on. Today's installment comes from Justin Gillis at the New York Times and was published on Christmas Eve. The article is so bad that it might just be the

• worst piece of reporting I've ever seen in the Times on climate change.

Where to begin? How about the start.

The NYT laments that the work of attributing the cause of extreme events in NOAA is "languishing":

Scientists say they could, in theory, do a much better job of answering the question “Did global warming have anything to do with it?” after extreme weather events like the drought in Texas and the floods in New England.

But for many reasons, efforts to put out prompt reports on the causes of extreme weather are essentially languishing.

Set aside the unattributed "scientists say" -- a favorite construction of Gillis and the Times. The article fails to explain that NOAA already has a robust effort in place focused on climate attribution and which has put out recent assessments about phenomena as varied as the 2011 US tornado season and the 2009/2010 mid-Atlantic coast snowstorms. No one from that effort was quoted in the article nor was any of their work (perhaps because it utterly contradicts the narrative of the story).

The article repeats the tired statistic that the number of billion dollar disasters have increased in recent decades:

A typical year in this country features three or four weather disasters whose costs exceed $1 billion each. But this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has tallied a dozen such events, including wildfires in the Southwest, floods in multiple regions of the country and a deadly spring tornado season. And the agency has not finished counting. The final costs are certain to exceed $50 billion.

The article does not explain that $1 billion in 2011 is about the same as $400 million in 1980 (XLS). Nor does it explain that a $50 billion total in losses for 2011 is about exactly the same as the total in 1980, after adjusting for inflation -- however, as a proportion of the overall economy those 1980 losses were 250% larger than those experienced in 2011. That is, the equivalent 1980 losses in 2011 would be $125 billion (XLS). The article

• completely ignores relevant peer-reviewed research on the subject (see here also).

The article fails to cite the recent IPCC report which covered this exact subject, concluding (PDF):

Long-term trends in economic disaster losses adjusted for wealth and population increases have not been attributed to climate change, but a role for climate change has not been excluded.

The IPCC SREX report has a lot of other things to say about extremes, which also contradict the narrative of the story. Also neglected is the US government's own review of extreme events in the US, which found no long-term trends.

The article is extremely sloppy when discussing tornadoes:

Tornadoes, the deadliest weather disaster to hit the country this year, present a particularly thorny case.

On their face, weather statistics suggest that tornadoes are becoming more numerous as the climate warms. But tornadoes are small and hard to count, and scientists have little confidence in the accuracy of older data, which means they do not know whether to believe the apparent increase.

Tornadoes are not in the least bit "thorny." You wouldn't know from reading the article that the most powerful tornadoes - the F3, F4 and F5s which cause almost all of the damage and fatalities -- have actually decreased over the past 50 years (so too has damage). Nor would you know that the NOAA Climate Attribution effort has recently looked at the 2011 tornadoes and found no evidence of causality from increasing greenhouse gases:

So far, we have not been able to link any of the major causes of the tornado outbreak to global warming. Barring a detection of change, a claim of attribution (to human impacts) is thus problematic, although it does not exclude that a future change in such environmental conditions may occur as anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing increases.

The NYT article relies on a very few people from the usual small circle of folks cited in such articles to say the usual suggestive things - Ben Santer, Jeff Masters, Peter Stott. Not one researcher is cited who actually publishes peer-reviewed work on tornadoes, economic impacts of disasters, or the long-term history of US weather extremes. However, somehow Congressional Republicans show up as the bad guys in the usual good guys-bad guys framing on this topic. No budget numbers are presented nor any specific discussion of what is going on in NOAA. Ink blot.

I still believe that the print media overall does a good job on a difficult subject, but every once in a while you see an article so detached from reality that it is worth noting."...




viaTomNelson

US city of Nome, Alaska blocked by sea ice, emergency fuel couldn't get there without ice breaker...but US had none anywhere in the area, Dec. 2011

US government is so unprepared for cold and ice conditions a key Alaska territory was placed in life threatening circumstances, US had to divert an ice breaker from a distant 'scientific mission' to help get emergency fuel to the area. Billions of US tax dollars spent on so-called "climate" research ignores reality and endangers lives.

12/20/11, "The colder war: U.S., Russia and others are vying for control of Santa’s back yard," Washington Post, Opinion, Heather Conley

"The security cost of the limited capability of the United States in the Arctic became clear this month. Officials in Nome, Alaska, needed a Russian tanker to deliver an emergency shipment of fuel when the city was blocked by sea ice, shifted by a strong winter storm. To escort the tanker, the Coast Guard ship Healy

• had to be diverted from a scientific mission.

It is scheduled to break an ice channel for the tanker

• once the Russian vessel is cleared to enter the Alaskan port

• and will facilitate the tanker’s return to open water.

This past summer, Sweden decided to recall its icebreaker, which was leased to the U.S. government, leaving the United States unable to reach and resupply its scientific station in the other polar region, the Antarctic. Alaskan Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (R) recently told Congress that “without action, America is putting its national security on the line, and we are going to miss the opportunities of the Arctic while watching other nations advance.”"...(parags. 4 and 5)

-----------------------

(Ed. note: The author wasn't writing about global warming or climate, just about geographic interests.)

"Heather A. Conley is the director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former deputy assistant secretary of state. She is the author of “A New Security Architecture for the Arctic: An American Perspective,” forthcoming from CSIS." "Prior to her experience in the State Department, she was with the international consulting firm led by former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage as Senior Associate."

===========

What, no surfboarding across the Arctic?

1/9/11, "How can climate scientists spend so much money? (FY 2011 42% increase)," via Free Republic (original site ClimateQuotes.com appears to be inactive but AAAS XXXV source for data, p. 4, remains same, ed.)

"National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA’s total budget request is $5.6 billion, which would be an increase of 17.0 percent. Of this, $437 million would be for climate research funding, which is an increase of $77 million.

• $437 million spent on climate change research

• in one year, in one agency."...

Data from AAAS Report XXXV, FY 2011, p. 4
---------------------------------

With an annual budget of $5.6 billion NOAA misses when it matters most. ed.



Above data from AAAS XXXV, FY 2011, beginning p. 4





via Tom Nelson

Lynn Samuels, Rest in Peace, longtime radio host passes on Christmas Eve. A liberal who detested Obama.

Update #4, Some of Lynn's final shows

Update #3, Lynn's website is still up, LynnSamuels.com

Update #2, 12/26/11, "Goodbye Lynn, Independent Thinker Samuels did it her way," RadioEqualizer

Update: A liberal notes Sirius XM banished the liberal Ms. Samuels to a weekend slot because she refused to carry water for Obama:

• 12/25/11, "RIP Lynn Samuels," NY Radio Message Board, commenter Johnlightening

12/25/11, "Former WABC host Lynn Samuels dies Christmas Eve at 69," NY Daily News, John Hinckley

"Years ago, when she was a left wing host on WABC, Lynn Samuels used to do a change-of-pace Christmas Eve show in which, among other things, she invited listeners to sing Christmas carols.

This year on Christmas Eve, Samuels died. She was 69.

No cause of death was immediately announced. Her body was discovered after she failed to report for her 10 a.m. Saturday show at Sirius XM radio and the company asked police to go to her Woodside, Queens, home.

On the radio, Samuels was exactly what much of the country thinks New York sounds like. She had a city accent she never tried to hide or soften, even when her bosses suggested it would prevent her from ever getting a radio job outside the city.

“This is who I am,” she said.

“She was unique beyond words,” said John Mainelli, her WABC program director and longtime friend. “I'm so glad I knew her.”

Samuels was a self-described progressive who often threw curveballs. She was a long-standing critic of President Obama, saying she didn’t believe he ever really had progressive credentials.

Her periodic unpredictability didn’t serve her well in today’s party-line talk radio, but helped give her a long run in the earlier, looser talk era.

Her criticism of conservatives often extended to her fellow radio hosts, but she would add that she liked a number of them personally. She became close friends with conservative host and writer Matt Drudge,

• serving for a time as his call screener.

Mainelli said he exchanged messages with her on Friday, at which time she said she would be doing both her Saturday and Sunday shows live this weekend.

“I am stunned,” Jay Diamond, her one-time WABC colleague, wrote on the New York Radio Message Board. “She sometimes got mad at me, but I loved her, and we were friends to the end. The world of radio, and the world in general, will miss this great talent, and great human being.”

Aside from politics, Samuels would devote long segments to cultural matters like books, music, a movie she saw or the merits and demerits of wearing foundation garments.

Her Christmas Eve show, which she said was not her favorite program, began as an attempt simply to do something fun and different on a night when most people weren’t discussing budget legislation.

Her own politics ran back to the activist movements of the 1960s, about which she often talked. Her radio career began around

• 1979 with a late-night show at WBAI (99.5 FM).

She moved to WABC in the late 1980s and remained there on different shifts for about 15 years. She was fired three times and rehired twice.

After WABC she struggled at times to stay in the city, taking a job in a laundromat while keeping her hand in radio at Sirius XM.

A very private person off the air, Samuels left no immediate survivors.

But the local radio world was saddened.

To the end, said Mainelli, she was “the same as she had always been - lively, full of curiosity, and happy, all existential things considered.”" via Drudge

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Ed. note: As a listener of Ms. Samuels going back to WBAI, I recall she did work at a laundromat but not at the time stated in this article. It was during her early days before and during WBAI when she had almost no money. She said she made a lot of money while at WABC even when she wasn't on for many hours due to the contract she had, and she saved a lot of it. She was not poor when she left WABC. She eventually had to move out of her illegal studio in Greenwich Village but was able to afford a 2 bedroom in Queens. Perhaps she had a bit of income from her Sirius XM job as well.

NY Radio Message Board remembrances of Lynn Samuels.
.

19 scary NY Times 'extreme' weather headlines going back to 1888, 'cooling' panic in 1975, now claim 2011 historically damaging, oops

12/24/2011, "Harsh Political Reality Slows Climate Studies

• Despite Extreme Year," NY Times, Green blog, Justin

"At the end of one of the most bizarre weather years in American history, climate research stands at a crossroads."...

----------------

2/8/11, "Complaining about extreme weather is part of the human condition. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane with The New York Times, all the way back to 1888:

1. 1977, a Year of Weather Extremes, NY Times, 1977, Causing Concern Among Experts

By JAMES P. STERBA Special to The New York Times July 14, 1977

HOUSTON, July 13 The year began with a blizzard of superlatives: It was among the coldest winters in history in the East, the driest in the West. People froze in New York, tomatoes glaciated in Florida, streams ran dry in Oregon and bears sweated in Alaska in January.

[This was the summer before the record cold winter of 1977-78. - Ed.]

2. Experts Fear Great Peril If SST Fumes Cool Earth, NY Times, 1975

By WALTER SULLIVAN December 21, 1975,

A federally sponsored inquiry into the effects of possible climate changes caused by heavy supersonic traffic in the stratosphere has concluded that even a slight cooling could cost the world from $200 billion to 500 times that much in damage done to agriculture, public health and other effects.

3. Scientists Ask Why World Climate Is Changing - Major Cooling May Be Ahead, NY Times, 1975

By WALTER SULLIVAN May 21, 1975

The world’s climate is changing. Of that scientists are firmly convinced. But in what direction and why are subjects of deepening debate.

4. Climate Changes Endanger World’s Food Output, NY Times, 1974

By HAROLD M. SCHMECK Jr. August 08, 1974

Scientists View Global Climate Changes as Threat to World’s Food Output; Soviet Estimate Rises New Pattern Emerging; 7th Year of Draught Problems in Iowa; Benefits of Technology

5. Worrying About a New Ice Age, NY Times, 1969

WALTER SULLIVAN February 23, 1969

For the past few hundred thousand years the climate of the earth has oscillated enough to produce a succession of frigid ice ages and warm interglacial periods. It has generally been assumed that these climate changes were gradual, but new theories that they occur with devastating suddenness are now being tested.

[... and there's this, also by Walter Sullivan, three days previous. - Ed.]

6. Expert Says Arctic Ocean Will Soon Be an Open Sea -
Catastrophic Shifts in Climate Feared if Change Occurs; Other Specialists See No Thinning of Polar Ice Cap, NY Times, 1969

By WALTER SULLIVAN February 20, 1969

Col. Bernt Balchen, polar explorer and flier, is circulating a paper among polar specialists proposing that the Arctic pack ice is thinning and that the ocean at the North Pole may become an open sea within a decade or two.

7. SCIENTISTS AGREE WORLD IS COLDER;
But Climate Experts Meeting Here Fail to Agree on Reasons for Change, NY Times, 1961

By WALTER SULLIVAN January 30, 1961

After a week of discussions on the causes of climate change, an assembly of specialists from several continents seems to have reached unanimous agreement on only one point: it is getting colder.

[What do you call it when "scientists agree"? Oh, yeah ... a consensus! - Ed.]

8. Winters Since ‘40 Found Colder In Studies by Weather Bureau; Data Indicate, a Reversal of a Warming Trend That Began in 1888, NY Times, 1961

By WALTER SULLIVAN. January 25, 1961

Winters throughout the world have been getting steadily colder since 1940, according to a study carried out by the United States Weather Bureau.

9. ICE IN ANTARCTIC REPORTED ON RISE; Sheet Growing at Rate of 293 Cubic Miles Yearly, Soviet Expert Says; I.G.Y. DATA DISCLOSED; Hoarfrost Is Said to Fall the Year Around in Heart of Polar Continent; ICE IN ANTARCTIC IS FOUND PILING UP, NY Times, 1960

By WALTER SULLIVAN Special to The New York Times. August 04, 1960

HELSINKI, Finland, Aug. 3 — The immense mass of Antarctic ice is growing at the rate of about 293 cubic miles a year, a Soviet glaciologist estimates.

["I.G.Y." was the International Geophysical Year. - ed.]

10. CLIMATE WARMING IN THE ANTARCTIC, NY Times, 1958
5-Degree Rise Over the Last Half Century Is Recorded at Little America; ICE IS FOUND THICKER; Director of U. S. Program Says Sheet Drops 10,000 Feet in Many Areas

By WALTER SULLIVAN May 31, 1958,

An analysis of weather records from Little America shows a steady warming of climate over the last half century. The rise in average temperature at the Antarctic outpost has been about five degrees Fahrenheit.

11. Carbon Dioxide Due to Change Climate, NY Times, 1956

The New York Times, June 1956

12. Why Earth Warms;, NY Times, 1955

Scientist Blames Man-Made Changes on Earth’s Surface

NY Times, September 25, 1955

Dr. John G. Hutton of the General Electric Company’s engineering laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y., told the Cleveland section of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers last week that the man-made increase in the belt of carbon dioxide around the earth may be “having a greenhouse effect on our climate.”

13. 50-YEAR FORECASTS TIED TO SUN’S HEAT, NY Times, 1953
Astrophysicist Says There Is Definite Link Between Solar Radiation and Weather

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. August 16, 1953

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 — A farmer or a resort owner may some day be able to look at a chart and accurately determine certain general weather trends that will tell him years in advance about when there will be rain and about when there will be drought.

14. Is Climate Changing?; Habits of Mammals and Birds Suggest World Is Warmer, NY Times, 1950

October 15, 1950

Is the world warming up? Dr. Joseph J. Hickey, Professor of Wildlife Management at the
University of Wisconsin, holds that it is. He has drawn his evidence from the changing habits of some half-dozen species of mammals …

15. EXPERTS DO NOT BLAME RADIO FOR RAIN AND CHILLY SPRING
Weather Man Disagrees With Theory of Paul Painleve — Says Radio Cannot Control Elements — Sun Spots Responsible, NY Times, 1926

The New York Times, June 1926

AMERICAN radio men and weather forecasters do not agree with Paul Painleve, the French Minister of War, that radio waves are responsible for the rainy, chilly weather that has persisted this Spring. The Minister of War called attention to the fact that the introduction of radio waves into a tightly closed room where the air is absolutely transparent cause little drops of water to form on the faces of those in the room.

[Editor's note: This observation predated the formation of the Black Eyed Peas by some 80 years.]

16. CHANGE IN CLIMATE KILLING PARK TREES; NY Times, 1919

There Has Been a Decided Decrease in Rainfall and Humidity Here in Five Years. HAVOC IN CENTRAL PARK Record Cold Killed 4,000, but Poor Soil Is Chief Cause of Loss–Suggestions for Restoration.

The New York Times, November 9, 1919

New York’s climate has changed considerably in the last twenty years, and that is one of the reasons for the wholesale death of trees in Central Park, according to Charles Lathrop Pack, President of the American Forestry Association, who has written in the current issue of American Forestry an extended review of the causes of tree failure in Central Park, …

17. THE CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA; IT IS ONE OF SUDDEN AND VIOLENT CHANGES., NY Times, 1893

NY Times May 21, 1893

With and Bad Drainage of Melbourne — Sydney and Auckland Remarkable for the Severity of Rains — Queensland and New South Wales Have Ideal Winters — Tasmania Has the Healthiest of Climates — Easy of Access to Invalids — Air Good for Consumptives.

18. IS OUR CLIMATE CHANGING? NY Times, 1889

The New York Times, February 3, 1889

An article in the Forum for February is upon the subject of the much-talked-of change in our climate. The writer, Prof. CLEVELAND ABBE, says that the notion that it is possible for a climate to change to a modern one. Our ancestors lived in a region …

19. Is Climate Changing? NY Times, 1888

NY Times, March 25, 1888

• Formerly wine was made in England, the change of climate might be the principal reason that this manufacture does not now flourish. There are, however, many reasons why British wine does not command a market at present....

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"Many of our impressions of current extreme weather conditions have to do with the fact that

• 1) they’re fresh in our memories;
  
• 2) we have better communications and
  
• 3) higher population densities than in times past."...

2/8/11, "The Climes they are a-Changin'," RedState.com, Vladimir

"“Gee, this is some crazy weather we’ve been having.”

I’m old enough to remember some pretty darn extreme weather, like Hurricane Camille, a monster Cat 5 storm that devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1969. There was the Super Tornado Outbreak of April, 1974: a complex of 148 twisters that spun across hundreds of mile of the Midwest, killing 148, injuring 5,300, and wiping the town of Xenia, OH off the map. And lest we forget the record cold winter of 1977-78, when natural gas supplies ran low."...

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