The Sound Of Settled Science
The logbooks kept by every naval ship, ranging from Nelson’s Victory and Cook’s Endeavour down to the humblest frigate, are emerging as one of the world’s best sources for long-term weather data. The discovery has been made by a group of British academics and Met Office scientists who are seeking new ways to plot historic changes in climate.
“This is a treasure trove,” said Dr Sam Willis, a maritime historian and author who is affiliated with Exeter University’s Centre for Maritime Historical Studies.
“Ships’ officers recorded air pressure, wind strength, air and sea temperature and other weather conditions. From those records scientists can build a detailed picture of past weather and climate.”
A preliminary study of 6,000 logbooks has produced results that raise questions about climate change theories. One paper, published by Dr Dennis Wheeler, a Sunderland University geographer, in the journal The Holocene, details a surge in the frequency of summer storms over Britain in the 1680s and 1690s.
Many scientists believe storms are a consequence of global warming, but these were the coldest decades of the so-called Little Ice Age that hit Europe from about 1600 to 1850.
Wheeler and his colleagues have since won European Union funding to extend this research to 1750. This shows that during the 1730s, Europe underwent a period of rapid warming similar to that recorded recently — and which must have had natural origins.
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Monday night jazz show, here performing Epistrophy live in Denmark, in 1966, are Thelonious Monk, piano, Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone, Larry Gales, double-bass, and Ben Riley, drums (4:15).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Bring Our CBC Employees Home!
The CBC – 3 times more stressful than serving in Afghanistan;
According to a 2005 “wellness” survey of 4,630 CBC staff — which has only now been made public, thanks to an Access to Information request — 44% of CBC staff display symptoms of high-level psychological distress. And in 9 cases out of 10, that distress was reported as work-related.
I probably shouldn’t have posted about this. Keith Boag will be putting in for danger pay.
h/t
Breaking: Playground Equipment Becomes Hot In Direct Sunlight
It’s official.
The fine line between “news department” and a “4 year old’s ass” has finally been erased.
CWB: Record $7 Billion Revenues
“Umm, I hate to spoil the whole, “the yanks all sold early but look at what a good job we did of being disciplined and patting ourselves on the back” shtick that the board is spinning in their latest release here. But a buddy of mine just happened to put this chart together today with all of the Wheat Boards own numbers, their asking prices and the current PRO. For all intents and purposes farmers are getting pretty much what the boards asking price was at harvest. And the Board has the gall to claim the Americans sold too early. Unbelievable.”
Enough With The Apologies
See, Jas… I think you’re a little confused. If you’ve got any sort of a beef here… you should take it up with Prime Minister Robert Borden. Now admittedly, that won’t be easy… as he died 71 years ago, in 1937… but that, my friend, is precisely the point.
Blog Notes
We’re back from Bismarck, with mission accomplished – new Champion Minuteman I Love Lucy. We also put points on three others and took a Best Puppy In Show, so it was a successful show weekend, if an altogether exhausting one. While the Motel 6 advertised wireless services, their pay per day setup was anything but convenient, and with only an hour or so of down time in the evenings, I didn’t have the energy to blog.
But I see the guest bloggers were up to the task, and for that, I thank you again!
I have a heavy work load these days, and some catching up to do, but hopefully things will be rolling along as usual in a day or two.
(A note to commentor “QE”. I provide anonymity to the commentors on this blog so long as it is not abused. Should I catch you attempting to impersonate other established commentors, Tony Snow’s widow or anyone else through proxy servers again, I can and will send a note on to “Whom It May Concern” in your department.)
Obama’s Energy Plan
Inflate your tires…
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Sunday night classical music show, here courtesy of listener Occam’s Carbuncle‘s recommendation is Mieczysław Horszowski live at Carnegie Hall, at age 97, performing two works by Frédéric Chopin, his Nocturne in Eb major, op. 9 no. 2, and his Etude in F minor, op. 25 no. 2 (1990, 7:11). (Any of you who were actually brave enough to listen to last night’s Stardust show might want to double-clutch before attempting to shift gears into tonight’s show, I know I did 😉
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, RIP
The story.
And a flashback from the great, plain-speaking author:
A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party and of course in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course there are many courageous individuals but they have no determining influence on public life.
How to Drive Greens to Distraction
Mock Kyoto and invest in Saskatchewan.
Unfair, Mean, and Just Plain Delicious
Sometimes scraping the bottom of the barrel is just too much fun:
Who knew that “my father was a mill worker” could be such a great pickup line?
[…]
Even more suspicious, while Edwards was barricaded in the bathroom, no one reported hearing sounds of a blow dryer.
[…]
He couldn’t have looked more guilty if he had broken into a cold sweat and lit a cigarette. Britney Spears has responded more credibly to questions about tabloid stories.
[…]
If only Republican Larry Craig had been in the bathroom, the MSM might have covered it.
Predators Beware
Finally, after long last, an effective weapon has been found in the battle against predatory males. In what can best be described as a stroke of genius, R-police have added a new weapon to their inventory … a weapon so effectual that it goes right to the core of lechery and vice. Women need fear no more:
The prohibition went into effect on Wednesday … and authorities in the city say they will strictly enforce it — unlike previous such bans in the cities … which have been ignored and failed to stop sales.
… click.
Update:
The R-police may actually have a point … after all, little girls are attracted to puppies.
The Best Green Plan Ever
Forget Dion’s Green Shaft, forget Kyoto … have we got a Carbon Footprint reducer for you … become a Hindu:
Q: What have you done personally to shrink your carbon footprint?
A: I’ve become a vegetarian. I try to minimize the use of cars. Where I’ve failed is my impact with regard to air travel. I tell people I was born a Hindu who believes in reincarnation. It will take me the next six lives to neutralize my carbon footprint. There’s no way I can do it in one lifetime!
Is Turn-around fair game?
Ezra Levant asks if it’s a good idea to lodge human rights complaints against anti-Christian expressions?
I think it just legitimizes the illegitimate, but I know others disagree.
Large Dead Animals
Cough. 6-0 Riders.
Cheers,
lance
Frankly, My Dear
Reader Tips
 Audio Engineering |
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Saturday night contemporary music show, here is the 12″ club mix of Stardust performing Music Sounds Better with You (1998, 6:41), which some have called the greatest house song ever. Do try to keep it under 115 dBc please, think of your neighbours 😉
From the Paradise Garage image link above: “No liquor was served, and the club was not open to the general public. Unlike other clubs of its time, the Paradise Garage was focused on dancing rather than social interaction”. This was, of course, a fascinating development for those Aspergian who enjoy certain kinds of spatio- temporally and logico- mathematically structured music, such as Bach and Mozart, and who like to dance to it, or at least to simplified- for- dance derivatives thereof; just rather alone, not socially.
But let’s be honest, 115 dBc clean and with headroom is difficult to impossible for an individual to achieve (you’re talkin’ tens of kilowatts of amplifier output stage power for a decently sized acousitc space), so basically you need to get a bunch of people to dance alone together to cover the engineering costs. Umm, where was I? Oh yes…
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Beaches on the Baltic
Just a couple of hours driving north of Berlin and you’re into the vacation area of the Baltic beaches. Once out of the northern suburbs of Berlin the landscape quickly changes to a surprisingly pleasant, green countryside with lots of lakes and forests.
And in a nice change from most places in Europe in July, these beaches are delightfully uncrowded:
Unlike the concrete and steel jungle of Berlin, the towns and villages in this area are far more traditional, with thatch roof houses still fairly common.
Since typical East Germans couldn’t travel west, and most couldn’t afford to travel very far south to other communist countries even if they were allowed to, family vacations typically meant coming here to the Baltic.
It’s quite a nice place, actually, and for some reason it seems no one else wants to come here. Traffic is quite light, and cars with foreign plates are all but non-existent, even though Poland is very close and there’s ferry service to Scandinavia.
I’d have to guess East Germany acquired a poor reputation for welcoming foreign tourists and hasn’t managed to correct it yet. I’m not sure it’s deserved any longer as I found the east German Baltic coast a pretty agreeable place to visit, and a welcome relief from the crushing crowds almost everywhere else in Europe this time of year.
Of course, it may be the unexploded munitions:
While hiking or cycling on the trails in the area you occasionally encounter a fenced-off area announcing deadly danger, evidently old DDR military bases that haven’t been completely cleared yet. Remnants of the communist era do show up even in the most out of the way places.