.03

I understood instinctively that getting two scientists to agree at what time the sun is coming up tomorrow is–at best–difficult.
But here were tens of thousands, from around the world, all agreeing on one issue: that there is no scientific evidence of man-made global warming.
The numbers of scientists staggered me–17,100 basic and applied American scientists, two thirds with advanced degrees, are against the Kyoto Agreement. The Heidelberg Appeal–which states that there is no scientific evidence for man-made global warming, has been signed by over 4,000 scientists from around the world since the petition’s inception. I strongly questioned these high numbers, since I’ve had benefit of the Canadian government’s public relations machine on this issue. Dr. Leahey has since sent documentation to back his figures up.
All those scientists were in total agreement: the Kyoto Protocol was complete fiction.

They made a 27 minute documentary – paid for it themselves. And why haven’t you heard about this? Read for yourself.
Whoops – as kindly pointed out in the comments, here is the link to Friends of Science. Click on “video” at the left to view the documentary.

Huh. Anyone got a match? Looks like it’s time to fire up those rain forests again.

If like me, you knew little about Paul Martin prior to his becoming Jean Chretien’s finance minister, this chronology about the history of CSL is worth your time. (It’s an NDP site, so just ignore the gratuitous anti-Americanism and the focus on Jack Layton.)

Now that slapping handcuffs on unruly five year olds is standard police practice, others have been emboldened to take the little buggers on.. Language warning– if you’re offended, don’t come crybabying back to me about it.

h/t Robert Prather

And you thought lining up at the Home Depot checkout seemed like an eternity.
h/t

Angry In The GWN is running the donations of LIberal judicial appointees in Quebec through the “Unofficial Canadian Political Contributions Search Tool“.

Good morning, Government of Canada employees:
(from the past 100 visitors to the site)
Host: infowebex.acoa-apeca.gc.ca
Host: csc-scc.gc.ca
Host: oci-bec.gc.ca
Host: mail.npb-cnlc.gc.ca
Host: stop.justice.gc.ca
heh.. someone has a sense of humour.. “stop.justice….”
GTIS NETBLK-CDAGOVN-C (NET-198-103-0-0-1)
198.103.0.0 – 198.103.255.255
And you ought to see the output of this
kate@deleted:~/www/deleted.com/logs$ grep 198.103 access.log
Man, oh man… someone doesn’t have enough to do. (No, I’m not going to upload that data file for your befuddlement pleasure – just take my word for it that a lot of government employees are doing a lot of blog surfing on “company” time):
(For the geeks who understand that, here’s a bit of (unrelated) humour that came my way this morning. )

VancouverWinter Olympics chooses Christian symbol for logo.

Have you ever played the “Sentences Never Before Uttered In The History Of Mankind” game? It’s not a game uin the “play for points against an adversary” sense, but one of those pointless time-wasting mind games you might use to entertain yourself on a long drive. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, here goes.

I’ll be back later. I’m going out to get myself a plate of alfreido, a big ass pecan pie – and butter tarts. Lots of butter tarts.

The new analysis found that obesity – being extremely overweight – is indisputably lethal. But like several recent smaller studies, it found that people who are modestly overweight actually have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight.

I know it’s a long shot, but you know – if there’s just a slight chance an extra five pounds means I’ll have a a lower risk of death, where’s the harm?

Last year, the CDC issued a study that said being overweight causes 400,000 deaths a year and would soon overtake tobacco as the top U.S. killer. After scientists inside and outside the agency questioned the figure, the CDC admitted making a calculation error and lowered its estimate three months ago to 365,000.
CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said because of the uncertainty in calculating the health effects of being overweight, the CDC is not going to use the brand- new figure of 25,814 in its public awareness campaigns and is not going to scale back its fight against obesity.
“There’s absolutely no question that obesity is a major public health concern of this country,” she said. Gerberding said the CDC will work to improve methods for calculating the consequences of obesity.
Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said she is not convinced the new estimate is right.
“I think it’s likely there has been a weakening of the mortality effect due to improved treatments for obesity,” she said. “But I think this magnitude is surprising and requires corroboration.”

It reminds me of a news report I heard over radio last summer, announcing that men who quit smoking by the age of 50 “cut their risk of death” by a whopping 50%.
All my life, I’ve assumed “risk of death” to be 100%. it makes me wonder why more men don’t take up cigarettes, just so they can quit and double their chance at immortality.

Starting a diet? Put this photo on your fridge.

If you call up the library, and the folllowing transpires…
Carol: “Delisle Library, Carol speaking.”
Me: “Hi Carol. are you busy at the moment?”
Carol: “What do you mean by busy?”
Me: “Do you have a big line-up of people or something” *stifle giggle*
Carol: “Oh, no.. I’m alone here.”
Me: “Great. Could you do me a favour? Could you look to see if you have a copy of Frank Herbert’s Dune?
Carol: “Boon?”
Me: “No, Dune, D-U-N-E”
Carol: “Dune… oh… and the title is?”
Me: “The title is Dune. Frank Herbert is the author.”
Carol: “Just Dune?”
Me: “Just Dune – like a sand dune.”
Carol: “I have Heretics of Dune”
Me: “No, just Dune. It’s the first of a series.”
Carol: ” Dune Messiah …Children of Dune …The Machine Crusade ”
Me: “Those are others in the series. It has to be Dune. I’m looking for a passage.”
Carol: “Only in Dune? He wouldn’t repeat himself…. no, probably not.”
Me: “Probably not”
Carol: “Well I can look on the internet for you”
Me: “I’m pretty good at that. It’s not there.”
Carol: “Well we have a thing called Infotrack, but I don’t that that would work. It’s more for magazines and …. what’s the word..”
Me: “Periodicals”
Carol: “Yes, periodicals”
Me: “Probably not. I need a paragraph”.
Carol: “But for some reason, we can’t get on it anymore.”
Me: “Well, that’s ok”
Carol: “I’ll look in the back. We have some old books there”
Me: “Thanks”
Carol: “I’ll call you back if I find it”.
Me: “Thanks.”
… You might be in Saskatchewan.
Now – in what is surely to be the strangest question I’ve ever asked here… if anyone surfing in with time on their hands and a copy of Dune handy would be so kind as to send me an email as soon as you possibly can, I need a copy of the passage from the dinner party, where Jessica relates the story of a man drowning…. (check the time stamp to be sure this post isn’t 3 years old before you rush to answer). Or type it in the comments. Or if you do know of a url where I can cut and paste it, better yet. Google came up dry.
I’m desperate here.
UPDATE: Thanks to commentor Trodwell, I have it.
Blog as research tool…. makes me nostalgic for Usenet, in a way.

High noon in the heart of Toronto.

TWO INNOCENT bystanders were shot yesterday when a gunman opened fire on another man on a crowded sidewalk at Yonge and Dundas Sts. “It was terrifying; a shooting on Yonge St. when there are families and hundreds of people everywhere,” said Denise Lewis, 35, who was shopping at HMV when the shooting started on Yonge at Gould St. around 4:30 p.m.

Unlikely to make much more than local news – like the multiple murder on a reserve here a few weeks ago, these stories undermine the “gun control makes Canadians safer” mantra.
Occasionally, someone defends the registry to me – that the legislation saves lives. The debate ends abruptly when I remind them that it’s already illegal to shoot people.

Chrenkoff’s latest roundup of good news from Iraq is out.
Drudge is also headlining a New York Times (free registration required) piece suggesting the US is starting to look at winding down the military presence.

Two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the American-led military campaign in Iraq is making enough progress in fighting insurgents and training Iraqi security forces to allow the Pentagon to plan for significant troop reductions by early next year, senior commanders and Pentagon officials say.
Senior American officers are wary of declaring success too soon against an insurgency they say still has perhaps 12,000 to 20,000 hard-core fighters, plentiful financing and the ability to change tactics quickly to carry out deadly attacks. But there is a consensus emerging among these top officers and other senior defense officials about several positive developing trends, although each carries a cautionary note.

Some occupiers they turned out to be.

We have good news and we have bad news.
(ht)

Yeaaaarrrrgh, mate.
Heh.
h/t

Well, I must admit I like this a lot better than the free heroin treatment approach…

A group of Russian scientists has suggested caning as a treatment for those who suffer from drug and alcohol addiction as well as depression and suicidal tendencies, the Izvestia daily reports.
The name of the report delivered at the international conference on new methods of treating addictions is �Pain affliction as a method of treatment for addictive behavior and other manifestations of non-vitalistic activity�. Scientists claim that drug addiction, alcoholism, suicidal behavior and psychosomatic disorders are all caused by a lack of zest for life. When a patient is caned, the body starts producing endorphins � happiness hormones � and life seems attractive again.

Doc, I feel so much better when it stops!

The scientists claim the effect of the treatment is even greater if a patient is caned by a doctor of the opposite sex.

Or a nurse in black leather.

Despite the tendancy of the media to use Columbine as the reference point for school shootings, they’ve been around for a long time.
Jerry Aldini notes that Brenda Spencer is now up for parole – 26 years after her infamous “I don’t like Mondays”. It seems unlikely she’ll be released.