Since 1950 the lifestyle of Canadians and Americans has become increasingly rich and easy.
The rise of unionized labour, pension largesse, top notch medical coverage, cheap products from Asia and the ability of Canadians and Americans to borrow and accumulate debt in an unrestricted mode has meant that there are not many lifestyle amenities out of reach. It has indeed been a great 5 decade party akin to 50 years of Ferris Beuhler’s Day Off! QOL has been sustained by uninhibited borrowing.
However…….

41-year-old Simon Burgess was feeding swans in a shallow pond in Walpole Park in Gosport, England last year when he suffered an epileptic seizure and fell unconscious into the water. Twenty-five emergency personnel arrived on scene but Burgess remained floating face down, twenty-five feet from shore, for over half an hour after the first responders arrived.
The Daily Mail reports on the results of the official inquest:

Even though they could all swim, the first fire crew to arrive hadn’t been ‘trained’ to enter water higher than ankle-deep. Instead they waited for ‘specialists’ to arrive to retrieve his body. They had decided Mr Burgess must surely be dead because he had been in the water for ten minutes. When a policeman decided to go in anyway, he was ordered not to. A paramedic was also told not to enter the water because he didn’t have the right ‘protective’ clothing and might be in breach of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992.

Daily Mail reporter Nick Constable later waded out to the spot and found that “at no point did the depth rise higher than 3½ ft, and at no point did I feel as if I was in the remotest danger.”

A story of
INTRIGUE!
SUSPENSE!
FAST CARS!
LOOSE WOMEN!
and charty goodness.

In the next 60 days Obama’s presidential career will finally meet that concrete wall of reality. He will either fail or survive. Trouble is, he might take many innocent people with him if he fails
So far, the most hyped-up and unqualified president in US history has shown no capacity at all to act, in the face of a do-or-die challenge. This is the ultimate test of character, the one that John F. Kennedy met well enough in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. This is the test that Jimmy Carter failed so miserably that Ronald Reagan beat him handily in the following election. This is the same test of reality that every single Democratic Administration has tried to avoid; it’s the reason why Bill Clinton refused to do anything about Osama Bin Laden when he had four separate chances to take him out.
((Heaven Help Us All!)

Climate scientist Judith A. Curry’s belief that greenhouse gases contribute to global warming doesn’t exactly make her the darling of climate skeptics, but many warmists detest her for an entirely different reason: she believes that climate scientists should behave like scientists, with all that entails — rigorous peer review, open debate, and greater transparency about source data and methodology.
Such an approach is anathema to those who brook no criticism. After Curry made the observation that some warmist scientists “tolerate no dissent” – a statement that’s essentially inarguable, particularly in light of the CRU emails – atmospheric scientist Bart Verheggen (“I am particularly interested in science communication”) harrumphed:

Excuse me? Is this a respected scientist talking?

His confusion and unfamiliarity is understandable, but yes, that is a scientist talking, one who actually thinks like a scientist.
Via Kate, here’s Curry’s recent interview with OilPrice.com in which she suggests that, for a variety of reasons, The IPCC Might Have Outlived Its Usefulness.