36 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. re Alberta Human Rights & Citizenship Commission
    A Calgary city alderman (Diane Colley-Urquhart) has been one of three adjudicators from Southern AB sitting on the six-panel HR Commission for the past three years while at the same time being an alderman. Her HR term expired in May/07 and this was during the Klein gov’t days.
    She remains an alderman and has recently been re-appointed to the HR Commission for a second term of three years with no open competition for the position. I phoned/wrote letters in May/06 voicing disapproval and got back a letter indicating that this is not a problem for the gov’t.
    The re-appointment was made by the Lieutenant Governor of AB on the recommendation of the new minister in charge (Hector Goudreau, Minister of Culture/Tourism/Parks & Rec). This is under the Stelmach gov’t with a new minister in charge and apparently it is still not a problem to the gov’t.
    I see this as a huge conflict of interest as the last thing we need on Human Rights Commissions are sitting politicians. So…. more phone calls and letters are on their way to the premier and the minister in charge. I hope that others are so inclined to do so as well.

  2. Ten-year climate model unveiled
    BBC
    “Currently, 1998 is the warmest year on record, when the global mean* surface temperature was 14.54C (58.17F).” …-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1879117/posts
    Al Gore** Slings Bogus Borrowed Charges
    Mr. Gore went to Singapore and peddled a phony story, one he appears to have borrowed without attribution. Echoing nearly verbatim Newsweek’s recent Hillaryesque hokum that there exists a vast right-wing corporate Global Warming conspiracy, the Delphic Goracle even went so far as to repeat the most brazen among the story’s falsehoods – that “deniers” had offered bribe money to potential authors of articles specifically trashing a then-pending IPCC report.
    Speaking Tuesday in the island nation, Gore shamelessly repeated point after nonsensical point of Senior Editor Sharon Begley’s The Truth About Denial, apparently favoring credit upon neither the author nor the publication. Quite astounding, as the basis of his cerebral petty-larceny was ripped straight from the article’s core contention that, in Gore’s words, there lurks an organized campaign,
    “[by] some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community.”
    Gore then feigned fair use by cueing up the weary marching tune of the left-wing’s own genuine Global Warming conspiracy parade (of which he is the undisputed Grand Marshall) to the Singapore forum:
    “In actuality, there is very little disagreement. This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science.” …-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1879107/posts
    *mean = average. Show the proof.
    **Gore = a mendacious mendicant, aka a lying, beggarly thief. Gore is a denier.
    To wit:
    Gore said: “This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science.”

  3. Find “O’Connor”.
    …-
    “Send O’Connor shuffling off”
    Headline for Mikey Harris* at National Newswatch. …-
    From the Prime Minister’s Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)
    Public events for August 10, 2007
    August 9, 2007
    Ottawa, Ontario
    Public events for Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Friday, August 10th are:
    Resolute Bay, Nunavut
    9:00 a.m. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make an announcement. He will be joined by National Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor.
    Polar Continental Shelf Program
    Resolute Bay, Nunavut
    *Open to Media*
    Nanisivik, Nunavut
    12:45 p.m. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit the former Nanisivik Mine. He will be joined by National Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor….-
    *Mikey also hosts a cooking show. They say his roast chicken recipe is a winner.

  4. Canadians now paying tuition of students from countries with space program:
    “The federal government launched a new scholarship program Wednesday aimed at drawing China’s top students to Canada to study health research.
    Up to 30 scholarships will be awarded each year to allow Chinese students to pursue doctorates at Canadian universities. The scholarships are for a study period of four to five years.”
    http://www.recorder.ca/cp/National/070809/n080961A.html

  8. I’ll second Paul Marek’s concerns about the reliability of ‘peer review’ as ‘code’ for ‘validation of truthfulness and accuracy of article’. Peer review provides no such validity.
    As an academic, I’ve been both a reviewer and have been reviewed – and, admittedly only in my own areas, but I can attest that peer review is on average, merely a statement of ‘membership in the community’ – with little to say about the validity of the data base or the analysis.
    In some instances, peer review actually functions to keep dissent out of that community and bolster a mainstream thesis. The community doesn’t like new ideas, doesn’t like its own research base questioned, its own sources of funding watered down by the ‘new upstarts’. Peer review in these instances actually slides over the data and analysis and, based on the authority of the reviewer, rejects the newcomer.
    In other instances, peer review is cursory and inadequate because the reviewer simply can’t know the full data base or analytic areas in the field and glosses over those areas with which he is not familiar.
    In other instances, peer review is ignorant of the data base and analysis, and makes quite stupid suggestions.
    In other cases, the reviewer simply doesn’t have the time to do a thorough review, and glosses over the article – and makes his decision based on the authority or ‘community membership’ of the author.
    It is not the norm for an author to have a thorough review of both data and analysis. As I said, reviewers don’t have the expertise, the time or the will – to carry out such a task.
    And, as I said, the natural cohesion of ‘being a member of a community’ means that dissent is not welcomed in this community. It is not easy for dissenting analysis to surface and ‘stick’ in this community. Funding programs reward the old guard and this old guard community membership retains control of funding and publications sources.
    You can see the reaction to articles in the journal Brain and Behavioural Science – which publishes an article, followed by critiques, followed by author rebuttals. The critiques or peer reviews, are widely divergent in their approval or disapproval.
    So, when I hear an insistence that the only valid arguments are ones that are ‘peer-reviewed’, I know that such an insistence is not based on any knowledge of the academic community, but is instead, a fallacious ‘appeal to authority’.

  11. Among those who get their news from newspapers and television, criticism of the news organizations was up to 20 percentage points lower than among Internet news audiences, who tend to be younger and better educated than the public as a whole, according to Pew.
    Following up on alan’s link, this bodes poorly for the MSM as time goes on. It’s the younger, more educated, internet based that aren’t going to be there for them.
    More than half — 53 percent — of Internet users also faulted the news organizations for “failing to stand up for America.
    And still no recognition by the MSM that content counts, that we are sick to death of their biased agenda driven drivel. How more plainly do they have to hear this?

  13. …yeah Daniel was looking at the Stock report, I think Fox or CNN is calling it Freaky Friday.
    Let’s see what next week holds.

  14. …what happened to Global Warming this week? It’s been cold here in Calgary.
    (subnote to Toronto readers: no, you haven’t been replaced as the centre of the universe. We’re just in another one)

  15. 10,000 albatrosses under lberia’s sea.
    By: Al-Reuters, er, Ivan-Reuters.
    This is another faux-Roswell story: Cap Nemo, where are you?
    …-
    Reuters Busted by a 13-Year Old
    Fri, Aug 10, 2007 at 9:18:53 am PDT
    The top-quality fact-checking that can only be achieved by large media corporations is on fine display today, as Reuters is caught by a 13-year old Finnish schoolboy representing still photos from the movie “Titanic” as pictures from the Russian North Pole expedition: Reuters gets that sinking feeling.
    News agency Reuters has been forced to admit that footage it released last week purportedly showing Russian submersibles on the seabed of the North Pole actually came from the movie Titanic.
    The images were reproduced around the world – including by the Guardian and Guardian Unlimited – alongside the story of Russia planting its flag below the North Pole on Thursday last week.
    But it has now emerged that the footage actually showed two Finnish-made Mir submersibles that were employed on location filming at the scene of the wreck of the RMS Titanic ship in the north Atlantic some 10 years ago.
    This footage was used in sequences in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster about the 1912 disaster.
    The deception was only revealed after a 13-year-old Finnish schoolboy contacted a local newspaper to tell them the images looked identical to those used in the movie. …-
    http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

  18. Unbelievable Leftist Hate of the Day [Iraqi translators working with UK are traitors]
    Little Green Footballs ^ | 8/10/07 | Charles
    Here’s our jaw-droppingly sick 2-minute leftist hate of the day, at the Guardian’s “Comment is free” pseudo-blog, where journalist Neil Clark argues that Iraqi translators working for UK forces are “traitors,” and should not be allowed asylum in Britain.
    Instead, Clark hopes they’ll be slaughtered by the “true heroes” of Iraq. Yes, really.
    Comment is free: Keep these quislings out.
    The interpreters did not work for “us”, the British people, but for themselves – they are paid around £16 a day, an excellent wage in Iraq – and for an illegal occupying force. Let’s not cast them as heroes. The true heroes in Iraq are those who have resisted the invasion of their country.
    As Seumas Milne wrote in yesterday’s Guardian: “More than any other single factor, it has been the war of attrition waged by Iraq’s armed resistance that has successfully challenged the world’s most powerful army and driven the demand for withdrawal to the top of the political agenda in Washington.” If more Iraqis had followed the example of the interpreters and collaborated with British and American forces, it is likely that the cities of Iran and Syria would now be lying in rubble.
    Before you rush to condemn Iraqis who feel ill disposed towards the interpreters, ask yourself a simple question: how would you view fellow Britons who worked for the forces of a foreign occupier, if Britain were ever invaded? History tells us that down through history, Quislings have – surprise, surprise – not been well received, and the Iraqi people’s animosity towards those who collaborated with US and British forces is only to be expected. …-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1879348/posts

  20. Al-Rotten. What a carcass it is. Leave the carcass for the vultures.
    ‘Nough of Al-Rotten.
    …-
    Reuters: Fooled by Another Fake Iraq ‘Massacre’
    How many times do we have to see the MSM reporting on a “massacre of Iraqi civilians” that turns out to be a false story planted by our enemies before we can definitively say that the MSM is purposefully aiding and abetting the terrorists? How ever many that may be, the tally is certainly on its way to overflowing and here we have another galling example of the same thing. This time Rueters is caught taking directions from the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq with the tale of “60 decomposed bodies” supposedly found in Baquba by the never identified, amorphous “Iraqi police.”
    BAGHDAD, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Iraqi police said on Sunday they had found 60 decomposed bodies dumped in thick grass in Baquba, north of Baghdad.
    There was no indication of how the 60 people had been killed, police said.
    No indication of how they were killed? Try no indication that they were killed!
    According to an Aug. 8th letter from Major Rob Parke of the U.S.Army that was sent to Bob Owens of the confederateyankee blog, the Army has not been able to find a single ounce of proof that this story is true. …-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1879341/posts

  21. Oh, I’m sorry, I thought I was at SDA not Maz2’s News Hour.
    Speaking of weird, down here in Texas I noticed that C-SPAN was broadcasting highlights from the Kos Konvention. Considering that the only thing I’ve ever seen on there were speeches from politicians and government committies, I was kind of shocked. Me thinks there are some closet leftards in C-SPAN programming department.

  22. Oh, I’m sorry, I thought I was at SDA not Maz2’s News Hour.
    Speaking of weird, down here in Texas I noticed that C-SPAN was broadcasting highlights from the Kos Konvention. Considering that the only thing I’ve ever seen on there were speeches from politicians and government committies, I was kind of shocked. Me thinks there are some closet leftards in C-SPAN programming department.

  23. Oh, I’m sorry, I thought I was at SDA not Maz2’s News Hour.
    Speaking of weird, down here in Texas I noticed that C-SPAN was broadcasting highlights from the Kos Konvention. Considering that the only thing I’ve ever seen on there were speeches from politicians and government committies, I was kind of shocked. Me thinks there are some closet leftards in C-SPAN programming department.

  25. Bullet proof backpacks eh!
    Reminds me of my whacky aunt from Detroit who back in the 60s bought my then 10 yr old cousins shiny little 22 semi-automatic pistols to take to school….. just in case.
    Never was any word on how that turned out……..

  26. Maz2: Mikey Harris is abnormally obsessed with the Iraq war and George Bush and has been running Harper down since he said we should stand with our traditional allies when the US decided to invade Iraq.
    He can have his opinion but the obsession is something beyond what most moderate people are looking for. It’s rather sad to see such a talented person so bitter.

  27. *
    No bail for Shawn Brant
    You have to wonder if having supporters show up in court
    looking like a Hamas murder squad, might have effected
    the proceedings.
    *

  29. A couple of days now since A Canadian, Steve McIntyre, proved fraud at a major AGW alarmist’s site. (GISS)
    A quick google search just now, “1934 1998 McIntyre”, turned up numerous hits —- not one of them from major news media.
    Can you imagine the headlines if more recent years had been ADDED instead of taken off the top ten ??
    Media bias toward fear-mongering ?? Naw. Can’t be. Need poof.

  30. Did notice at the Globe & Mail though —- even their readers aren’t fooled.
    A piece on reducing 07 ‘cane’ forcast (again) brought a few comments about the Hansen/GISS fraud. Imagine how many were deleted ?? a hundred from sda readers alone ??
    I dare the G&M, CTV, CBC, to have a piece and comment(unedited) section on the Canadian, Steve McIntyre’s find. Double dare 🙂

  31. Interesting piece at Newsbusters re IPCC research: http://tinyurl.com/388838. Real Climate is busy “denying” that there is anything significant in McIntyre’s discovery. Now this. The plot thickens.
    Warwick’s link to the Newsweek critique (Mccarthyism, etc.)is particularly thoughtful.

  33. Toronto Star – Aug 10/7 p.m.
    It seems an Edmonton “judge” has granted refugee status to a 16 year old wanted in connection with a robbery/killing in Nashville (possibly the trigger guy). Reason – the poor lad might face a problem if deported and what is the betting he will get away with this. Do we have any hope of getting rid of this bleeding heart judiciary?
    The kid is being held in Edmonton and the decision is under appeal.
    No name for the Judge – is s/he a provincial judge, one of the pathetic IRB adjudicators, or what. Nothing in the Edmonton/Calgary papers on this one as yet.
    Time to find out and protest loudly

  34. video headline on ctv.ca “brisons marriage marks a political fist.” theres an image i don’t wanna see.

  36. CLIMATE AUDIT WEBLOG UNDER ATTACK
    John A [climateaudit@gmail.com]
    Dear CA reader
    CA has been knocked off the internet by a DDOS attack. We are going to move the CA domain to a temporary page while I move the CA files and databases to a new server behind a much better firewall.
    Its obvious that someone can’t take constructive criticism.
    We should be back in a few days. If someone would like to spread this information around to various blogs and shady mailing lists then I’m sure Steve would appreciate it.
    John

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