I don’t know if Kate posted about the following, so I’ll post it now.
German physicists Gerhard Gerlich and Ralf D. Tscheuschner offered a paper in July of 2007 that argued that the theory of “greenhouse” earth defies the laws of physics.
It’s a very long technical read better suited to those among us who have a physics background … the summations are, if true, devastating to the entire AGW theory. The PDF:

It cannot be overemphasized that a microscopic theory providing the base for a derivation of macroscopic quantities like thermal or electrical transport cofficients must be a highly involved many-body theory. Of course, heat transfer is due to interatomic electromagnetic interactions mediated by the electromagnetic field. But it is misleading to visualize a photon as a simple particle or wave packet travelling from one atom to another for example. Things are pretty much more complex and cannot be understood even in a (one-)particle-wave duality or Feynman graph picture.
It is an interesting point that the heat conductivity of CO2 is only one half of that of nitrogen or oxygen. In a 100 percent CO2 atmosphere a conventional light bulb shines brighter than in a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere due to the lowered heat conductivity of its environment. But this has nothing to do with the supposed CO2 greenhouse effect which refers to trace gas concentrations. Global climatologists claim that the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect keeps the Earth 33 C warmer than it would be without the trace gases in the atmosphere. 80 percent of this warming is attributed to water vapor and 20 percent to the 0.03 volume percent CO2. If such an extreme effect existed, it would show up even in a laboratory experiment involving concentrated CO2 as a heat conductivity anomaly. It would be manifest itself as a new kind of `super insulation’ violating the conventional heat conduction equation. However, for CO2 such anomalous heat transport properties never have been observed.
[…]
– In Section 2 the warming effect in real greenhouses, which has to be distinguished strictly from the (in-) famous conjecture of Arrhenius, is discusseed.
– Section 3 is devoted to the atmospheric greenhouse problem. It is shown that this effect neither has experimental nor theoretical foundations and must be considered as fictitious. The claim that CO2 emissions give rise to anthropogenic climate changes has no physical basis.
– In Section 4 theoretical physics and climatology are discussed in context of the philosophy of science. The question is raised, how far global climatology fits into the framework of exact sciences such as physics.
– The final Section 5 is a physicist’s summary.

Have fun!
cross-posted @ Celestial Junk

Snarky comments about a dying news media are nothing new here, but it’s interesting to see comments like this from a blogger on an investigation:

I did a little detective work. This mostly involved going to a newsstand and purchasing a copy of Newsweek. For me the revelation wasn’t so much the ad as it was that people still pay for news that’s printed on paper and doled out on a weekly basis.

Interesting mostly because it’s found on a cycling related blog.

I think it is only appropriate that we pause to pay tribute to the Anthropogenic Global Warming “hockey stick”. After all, it did give us a lot to talk about.
Hockey Stick … we will miss thee:

John Manley et al have pulled the rug out from under those who oppose the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. The Independent Panel Report made it clear that the mission is a cause worthy of Canada … reflecting of her values … and noble.
The Torch looks at the key points in the report, including this one:

*NATO must provide a 1,000-strong battle group to help us at Kandahar (comment: our actual combat forces there are about that number). We need a fighting partner, like the Danes with the Brits and the Aussies with the Dutch. If NATO does not come through by February 2009 the some 2,000 Canadian troops in Afghanistan should be withdrawn. If we withdraw, and NATO does not replace us, the whole international Afghan mission faces failure.

A while back, Celestial Junk blogger and CF soldier “Junker” wrote about a fact many of us take for granted, but which is actually very unique in historic terms. Western soldiers, especially those from the anglo-sphere, have been going to war to free other nations and peoples from tyranny. In the history of humankind, this is indeed unique:

Sitting in the supreme comfort and historically unmatched opulence of the post-modern west, a great many individuals have made the choice to pursue the freedom of others in a faraway land. Some of our leaders have put forth and supported devotedly, within their means, the mission. Millions have shown unmatched nationwide support for the towering aspirations of the task. And finally, some have thrown in their support knowing that accomplishing the lofty and noble goals will require their own supreme sacrifice.

And the magic number is … 19:

Criticisms of post-9/11 efforts to protect the United States from attack range from claims that America is more vulnerable than ever to the contention that the transnational terrorist danger is vastly over-hyped.[1] A review of publicly available information on at least 19 terrorist conspiracies thwarted by U.S. law enforce­ment suggests that the truth lies somewhere in between these two arguments.

Decisions decisions … Umma or America? …Umma or America?:

Mr. Islam reportedly told the Joint Staff’s Maj. Coughlin to soften his criticism of the Brotherhood’s ISNA and, when the latter refused, defamed him as “a Christian zealot with a pen.” Some accounts add that it was a “poison” pen. Since Maj. Coughlin is not giving his side of the story to the press, it may require a congressional subpoena to get it properly told.
What is known, however, is that shortly after this exchange, the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not renew Maj. Coughlin’s contract, which will expire at the end of March. Mr. Gertz reports the Chiefs deemed it “too hot” to retain the services of a man widely believed to be the military’s most knowledgeable expert on the Islamist ideology of our enemies.
Unfortunately, the sacking of Stephen Coughlin is not only a scandal in its own right. It is a window into a variety of actions that cry out for congressional investigations. These include:

And finally:

Buried deep within a dust coated filing cabinet in a rarely visited basement office at the headquarters of the Fatwa Bureau of Investigation sit the Jihad Files. The J-Files are a collection of bizarre and unexplained cases; files filled with the paranormal or baffling. These long forgotten files, that more often than not, deal with dark elements of the Great Satan, suddenly came to light after 9/11. Now, the skeptical Special Agent Fox Mu’huldir, and the devoted believer, Special Agent Dana Scuhli, have been assigned to uncover the secrets of these long buried mysteries. The J-Files have been re-opened, but there are forces more powerful than can possibly be imagined aligning themselves to keep the truth hidden. But the truth is out there.

Put your War on Islamic Totalitarianism links in the comments.

…the Gaelic translation for “career Captain.”

The only true conservative candidate in the GOP race has quit…
The US Republican party is now in danger of becoming a watered down version of the Canadian Liberal party (but with more handguns)…

Let him tell you himself.
Me, I don’t do “time zones,” so whatever “surgery on Monday” in Australia means at this point, hang in there, Tim.

Terry Glavin writes:
“I’m perhaps especially proud of my friends on the left who have committed themselves to this position, which is heretical and wildly unpopular in many leftist circles these days.
“For me, the key statement in the Solidarity Committee’s position is this one:

“We recognize the conflict in Afghanistan as a liberation struggle, waged by the Afghan people and their allies, against oppression, against obscurantism, illiteracy, and the most brutal forms of misogyny. It is a fight for democracy, and for peace, order, and good government. It is also a struggle waged by the sovereign Government of Afghanistan, a member state of the United Nations, against illegal armed groups that seek to overturn the democratic will of the Afghan people. In Afghanistan, the great global struggle for the recognition and protection of basic human rights – universal rights – is being waged with a particular and necessary ferocity. We cannot and must not retreat from that struggle.”

at 8PM EST.
The show is also hosting a four-person panel discussion on the wider issue of free speech and the Human Rights Commissions.

… simply put, you can’t (from 2006):

Mankind has had less effect on global warming than previously supposed, a United Nations report on climate change will claim next year.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there can be little doubt that humans are responsible for warming the planet, but the organisation has reduced its overall estimate of this effect by 25 per cent.
[…]
The IPCC has been forced to halve its predictions for sea-level rise by 2100, one of the key threats from climate change. It says improved data have reduced the upper estimate from 34 in to 17 in.

Commentary and Vitriol @ Cjunk

Did you know that one of the official “accusations” being made against Mark Steyn is that he allegedly believes (based on a published review in with he panned “Little Mosque on the Prairie”):
9. Moderate Muslims are a rarity; Moderate Muslims who are actually funny are an even greater rarity.
Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen: government commissions are now being used to settle disputes over whether or not “Little Mosque on the Prairie” is funny.

(Sent by a member of the Facebook group “Support Free Speech in Canada– Support Free Dominion!”)
“I would like all people who support getting rid of government agencies like the CHRC, the Status of Women Agency–and others– to participate in the government’s online pre-budget consultation.
“This year’s pre-budget consultation uses a different process — and is frankly a bit more annoying.
“On the first page, you have to put in order what the government’s priorities should be. I feel a bit miffed that we’re forced to make these choices to get to the second page (where we can make suggestions). (…)
“When you press ‘continue’ you get to the ‘good part’ — so to speak. You get to type 50 words to each point. For my #1 priority — I wrote that I think that the government should defund the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Status of Women Agency and the CBC. I wrote for #2 that I want to eliminate unnecessary state interventionism.
“The page says that there were 8000 responses last year. If 1000 people write to say that the Canadian Human Rights Commission should be abolished, they cannot ignore that point.
“I feel giving input on a pre-budget consultation is even more effective than writing an MP. MP’s can’t necessarily do anything about the CHRC, but the Finance Minister sure can.”
NOTE: this online process has a deadline of February 11.