Controlled Chaos

I don't think the concern is terrorists breaking out of prison as much as it is terrorists targeting the area because that's where their homies are being detained. Anywhoo the issue for me is why this prison has been vacant for so long?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 08:56 PM) Immigration reform introduced. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-b...mmigration.html http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/def...009_Summary.pdf We can afford this. Also, after everyone here illegally becomes legal...they can bring over all their other relatives and we can afford them as well.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2009/...n-reading-list/ http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2009/...g-list-part-ii/ Is there anyway to check which books a school provides....either through the school library or classroom?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 11, 2009 -> 10:57 AM) "Fairly regularly" is a load of bulls***. Not to mention it means nothing...or something. Who knows what it means, could you be more vague? 80% of the country currently has medical insurance. 5% of the 20% that don't have it, are too lazy or cheap to buy it, or just don't care because they're healthy "right now", despite having the money to do so. The other 15% are who you are referring too...so let's stop talking about them like they're the "majority", when they aren't. So no, this doesn't "fairly regularly" happen at all. But thanks for playing. And yes, I'm in favor of an overhaul of the system if it involves more than "health insurance reform", which so far, is all this is. I enjoy reading your posts more and more each day.

Happy Birthday on Saturday.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 10, 2009 -> 03:33 AM) Up to Eleven Apparently, Tiger's working his way towards playing 18 holes. Haha...that was my FB status after the 7th mistress came out. "Quit being shocked everyone. Tiger always plays 18 holes, so 11 more to go." I didn't think it would happen though. I certainly didn't think all the hoopla had anything to do with him being black, but Whitlock has proven me wrong. The obsession is because it's a white woman that was scorned. ahhhh Here's the truth behind the Tiger Woods scandal by Jason Whitlock Jason Whitlock writes about the sports world from absolutely every angle, including angles other writers can't imagine or muster the courage to address. His columns are humorous, thought-provoking, agenda free, honest, unpredictable and uncomfortable for white and black people comfortable with their biases. Follow Jason on Twitter. There's more money and less intellectual effort in judging, vilifying and diminishing Tiger Woods than in providing the public a lens to understand him and a sports world/culture that long ago was perverted by television's money and fame. It takes no courage or thought to recognize Tiger's personal failure. He, as far as we know, shamed his wife and family. We can assume Tiger's Swedish wife adopted our American marriage value of strict monogamy, and she is mortified and shocked that her ridiculously famous, handsome, billionaire husband gave in to the temptation of road beef. Yes, assumption is the platform from which all insightful ideas, opinions and perspective are based. Armed with the supposition that this brown-skinned golfer has irreversibly harmed an attractive, blonde-haired, blue-eyed white woman, much of the sports media have turned Elin Nordegren into Natalee Holloway and reached for ratings and relevancy by traveling the route paved by Nancy Grace. There is, believe it or not, another direction to explore. There is another reality we can reluctantly accept. If we choose, we, the media, can do our job and put Tiger's transgressions in their proper context and explain to the public what happened to the perceived traditional ideals of the sports world. The high-character values and morality we've ascribed to the male and female athletes who entertain us were a myth in the 20th century and a flat-out impossibility now. When television took control of sports 40 years ago, athletes became America's first reality TV stars and no different from daytime soap opera stars. When television's money and spotlight began turning 20-year-old athletes into instant millionaires, celebrities and brands, the Jordans, Peyton Mannings, LeBron James, Roger Clemens, Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps of the world became no different from Jon Bon Jovi, Mick Jagger, George Clooney, LL Cool J, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Redford. How many women do you think Jagger bedded in his prime? His wealth, fame and looks pale in comparison to Tiger's. When Phelps returned from the Olympics, he hit a bong and the strip clubs, bedding strippers, according to gossip magazine testimony, two and three at a time. You think when Phelps finds the love of his life, he'll dial it back and satisfy himself with vanilla sex when his wife decides to give it to him? That's right. Men who grow up eating at five-star steakhouses often happily learn to love Hamburger Helper five nights a week. We're outraged and stunned that Tiger has had a dozen alleged affairs. The typical rock or movie star is laughing and/or questioning Tiger's sexuality if the golfer limited himself to a number below 50 since marriage and 500 in his post-puberty lifetime. The notion that golf, with its history of unapologetic racism and sexism, is somehow filled with men of impeccable integrity is a hysterical lie propagandized by hypocritical white men willing to commit the same crime they charge Tiger and his sponsors pulled off: the upholding of a patently false image. "You play golf to drink with your boys, smoke cigars and talk about (sex)," former NBA player John Salley told me Wednesday. "And now we're surprised that a golfer was having sex. We think Tiger is the only one. Why are we treating Tiger like he's elected to public office? He plays golf, man." This column is not meant to excuse Tiger's irresponsible behavior. The column isn't a contradiction of what I wrote when Steve McNair was killed. People have e-mailed me asking what justifies the difference in tone and content of the columns I've written about Woods and McNair. Murder and suicide. The accusation that McNair maintained a separate home from his wife and kids. And the fact that McNair, for months, manipulated and preyed upon a 19-year-old child who lost her parents, fled a country, moved away from her adopted family at 16, drove while impaired in all likelihood to protect McNair and was incapable of financially supporting herself. Iceberg Slim showed more compassion for his hos than McNair did to the obviously emotionally and mentally wounded girl who allegedly killed herself and McNair. Sorry for the digression. Despite Tiger's web site statement apologizing for "transgressions" that let his family down, I don't know — and neither do you — Tiger and Elin's sexual values. They would not be America's first adult couple (let alone celebrity couple) to agree that extracurricular sex is acceptable as long it remains non-embarrassing for the other spouse. Since we've legalized assumption, I've chosen to assume Elin's hijacking of Tiger's cell phone and threats to call Jaime Gruber were provoked by the National Enquirer or some gossip magazine contacting Tiger, Elin or one of her friends for comment on an upcoming expose about Rachel Uchitel or one of Tiger's bim-hos. For all we know, his "transgressions" might be the overall sloppiness of his affairs. Rather than bloviate and hypocritically posture in a column or on TV/radio about non-criminal sex between consenting adults, wouldn't it be wise to examine what Tiger's perceived failure signifies beyond his humanity? Is the public really served by Rick Reilly sitting on SportsCenter advising Tiger to appear on Oprah, skip the Masters and U.S. Open, prove to Elin and his fans that his marriage is more important than golf, fire his caddy, IMG and anyone Elin doesn't trust, refuse to take money from his sponsors and grant the media in-home interviews? Is the public really served by Herm Edwards, a defrocked football preacher, sitting on SportsCenter criticizing Tiger's inner circle for failing to properly advise him to avoid extramarital sex? The naivete of the commentary about Tiger is astounding. I'm a grown man with a weight problem. Does Herm believe none of my friends has said: "Yo, dog, why you gotta get extra cheese and bacon on that Wendy's triple?" Does Herm believe the families of drug abusers cheer on every snort of coke? Tiger is a grown-ass man with a billion dollars. It's hard to advise a laid-off factory worker. It's more likely that Tiger ignored his inner circle than his inner circle failed to flash warning signs. Herm — like Reilly, TMZ, US Weekly — is simply feasting on Tiger like a vulture, picking at Tiger's carcass in an attempt to rehabilitate himself. Herm and his agent recognized that commenting on Woods gave Herm a shot at passing himself off as the life/morality-coach alternative to Tony Dungy. Herm was auditioning for the job to "help" Tiger or be Notre Dame's next coach. You think Herm will muster the courage to get preachy on television and offer personal advice to the football coaches and players he knows for a fact are living the same "misguided" life as Tiger Woods? Reilly's advice was so asinine, contradictory and hey-look-at-me-and-not-Bill Simmons self-serving that it's really unworthy of rebuke. Let me summarize it: "Hey, Tiger, prove you're not fake by doing a bunch of fake (spit) that doesn't fit your personality and invite me over to write about it." ESPN killed sports journalism. It hired, overpaid and showered our best and brightest with fame, turning many of them into jig-dancing clowns unprepared to insightfully examine the sports world they allegedly cover. When Ralph Wiley prematurely died, we lost our Hunter S. Thompson, the man who famously chronicled Rock & Roll culture from the inside without passing judgment. Somehow we think our job is to uphold the myths, protect the squeaky image of the games and trash the competitors whose failings (steroids) show the public what the games truly are (a staged performance for profit). Let's act like golfers, like the majority of wealthy men, don't know the Rachel Uchitels of the world, don't frequent Las Vegas nightclubs where a pool cabana or table bottle service guarantee a parade of drunken Barbie Dolls looking for Mr. Right Now. A heterosexual male celebrity athlete/entertainer who likes to socialize faces tremendous pressure from longtime friends and corporate friends to entertain. If the boys are hitting a club, South Beach or Las Vegas, it's Tiger's job to attract the women. This is far more important than Tiger picking up the tab or securing a lady for himself. "Hook ya boy up!" is the rallying cry of a single man and many men given a weekend pass by their wife or girlfriend. "I'm happily married and I still go through it now," NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez shared with me Wednesday. "Right or wrong, it's an expectation that guys have, whether it's your teammates or the friends you've had all your life. They want you to go out because they think, 'Man, you know Tony is going to have some girls around.' I've dealt with that pressure and still do to some degree." This is why I believe some of the un-closeted bim-hos are lying or have been misidentified by the gossip rags. They're throwing women out there and fame-hungry women are volunteering because they know you don't understand the culture. A moderately attractive woman can easily move in a famous man's circle without ever getting close to her target. That is not written to suggest Tiger is not a womanizer. It's written to provide context. Tiger operates in a cesspool. He's never portrayed himself as a religious holy roller. His values appear, like most, sexular. There's no reason for surprise about any of this, particularly his choice of conquests. As far as I know, Tiger grew up on golf courses in suburban Orange County, raised by an African-American, Chinese and Native American father and Thai, Chinese and Dutch mother. That is not the recipe for falling in love with sistas regardless of Tiger's brown skin and full lips. By profession and diction, the dude would be considered a nerd by most brothers and sisters. Take away his billion dollars and many of the sisters whining that Tiger prefers blondes would continue their search for a tatted-up, corn-rowed, slang-talking real brother. (If that description doesn't fit you, then don't complain. Destiny's Child sang and sold "Soldier" because somebody was feeling it.) Tiger's choice in women isn't a statement about how he feels about us (black folks). It's a statement about where and how he grew up. The reaction to Tiger's preference exposes America's deep-seated racial hang-ups. Black and white people are equally troubled by Tiger's parade of Caucasian conquests. This unrest is fueling much of the media manipulation of and wallowing in this story. "If Elin was black, this would be a Left Eye-Andre Rison situation and everyone would move on," John Salley cracked. When I talked with sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards, he addressed the racial dynamic more seriously. "If Elin were black, this would be on the scale of Mike Tyson and Robin Givens," Dr. Edwards explained. "It would've lasted a while and then it would just go away." That may sound preposterous to some, but it's not. The media and the public overreact to whatever crimes/unfairness befall an attractive white woman (Natalee Holloway). Jordan, Ali and Magic all managed to play on their black wives without receiving much criticism. Shaquille O'Neal just finished off the remaining credible pieces of his marriage to a black woman by allegedly having an ongoing affair with Gilbert Arenas' fiancee. No one cares. But this brown-skinned golfer is facing ruin because he cheated on his white wife. "You're getting reverberations of O.J.," Dr. Edwards said. "White America, corporate America feels betrayed. Tiger was accepted and given all the perks and benefits and now they feel betrayed, the same betrayal they felt with O.J. There are some (black) celebrities that get to dip their biscuit in the gravy of corporate America and then there are some that are given their own bowl of gravy. Tiger had rare access. His sponsors choreographed a superhuman image to promote a sport and sell product. They gave him everything except the latitude to exercise his humanity. There are no super humans down here. There's only us, and sometimes we blow it." The media cries for Woods to publicly handle his private life sound crazy to Dr. Edwards, too. "My advice to him would be to take off with his family to some remote island for three months or however long it took to get something worked out," Edwards said. "When I came back, I'd go straight to the golf course. When I was asked about my personal problems, I'd say: 'I messed up. I'm still trying to get that right. Let's talk about golf.' If the questions persisted, I'd apologize, put the microphone down and walk away. Anything he has to say should be shared only with his family. "He shouldn't worry about bouncing all the way back (as an endorsement force)," Edwards continued. "The one thing we know is that when a ball drops from 15 feet when it bounces back up, it's only going to rise to 12 feet." You can e-mail Jason at [email protected] or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 10:29 AM) And so that means Beck is wrong? I fail to see your point. I'm not even a Beck supporter, I find him to be a sensationalist idiot, but even I can see when people have a point that I tend to disagree with. I don't watch Beck either. I also find him to be sensationalist, although not an idiot. This is the 3rd show I've seen. I only watch when my dad calls and tells me there was something interesting on. The other two times was his czar outings and he was dead on with those. GoSox That book certainly wasn't on display during Obama's campaign as a blueprint for his presidency. He didn't run as a progressive to the masses. He didn't sell this as the direction he wanted to take the country. Those of us that paid attention, right and left, knew exactly who he was and what he wanted. Unfortuantely, we are a small block of the voting public. So I don't see this as a non issue. I see it as something important that the everyday voter should be made aware of. The casual voter that doesn't tune in to Beck or Olberman, but instead uses the MSM for their info. Let someone explain to them the direction progressives want to take this country. No need to lie or put on some right wing zealot to discuss it. Put on a progressive. Put on Creamer....let him explain his utopian society. Then the people can decide whether they like it or not. God forbid we ask our politcians to advertise what they are selling.

Thought this was pretty interesting.... http://www.therightscoop.com/watch-the-gle...ecember-7-2009/

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 12:43 AM) Sorry about the lack of green, but It was quick reply. Dude...that was good enough that it did not need green. well done!! I never use green unless my comment could be interperted as offensive to someone. otherwise...let your joke do the work.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 4, 2009 -> 11:50 AM) I wanted to go to Afghanistan when that was going on so bad. Phantom Fury is still a cooler name than Anaconda I agree...I do wonder where they get the names though.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 4, 2009 -> 10:36 AM) The November '04 Fallujah operation was called Operation Phantom Fury. Which is quite possibly the most badass name for a military operation in the history of ever. My cousin was part of Operation Anaconda.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 3, 2009 -> 03:17 PM) Not sure if I've seen anyone mention The League but that's a pretty funny show. I mentioned how funny I thought it was after I saw epiosde 2 and you told me to go watch the first one on hulu. I did and you were right...it was hilarious. All of them have been pretty dam good though.

Climategate Computer Codes Are the Real Story Posted By Charlie Martin On November 24, 2009 @ 4:09 pm In . Positioning, Computers, Environment, Politics, Science, Science & Technology, US News | 80 Comments So far, most of the Climategate attention has been on the emails in the data dump of November 19 (see here [1], here [2], and here [3]), but the emails are only about 5 percent of the total. What does examining the other 95 percent tell us? Here’s the short answer: it tells us that something went very wrong in the data management at the Climatic Research Unit. We start with a file called “HARRY_READ_ME.txt.” This is a file containing notes of someone’s three-year effort to try to turn a pile of existing code and data into something useful. Who is Harry, you ask? Clearly, a skilled programmer with some expertise in data reduction, statistics, and climate science. Beyond that I won’t go. I’ve seen sites attributing this file to an identifiable person, but I don’t have any corroboration, and frankly the person who wrote these years of notes has suffered enough. The story the file tells is of a programmer who started off with a collection of code and data — and the need to be able to replicate some results. The first entry: 1. Two main filesystems relevant to the work: /cru/dpe1a/f014 /cru/tyn1/f014 Both systems copied in their entirety to /cru/cruts/ Nearly 11,000 files! And about a dozen assorted “read me” files addressing individual issues, the most useful being: fromdpe1a/data/stnmon/doc/oldmethod/f90_READ_ME.txt fromdpe1a/code/linux/cruts/_READ_ME.txt fromdpe1a/code/idl/pro/README_GRIDDING.txt (yes, they all have different name formats, and yes, one does begin ‘_’!) Believe it or not, this tells us quite a bit. “Harry” is starting off with two large collections of data on a UNIX or UNIX-like system (forward slashes, the word “filesystem”) and only knows very generally what the data might be. He has copied it from where it was to a new location and started to work on it. Almost immediately, he notices a problem: 6. Temporarily abandoned 5., getting closer but there’s always another problem to be evaded. Instead, will try using rawtogrim.f90 to convert straight to GRIM. This will include non-land cells but for comparison purposes that shouldn’t be a big problem … [edit] noo, that’s not gonna work either, it asks for a “template grim filepath,” no idea what it wants (as usual) and a serach for files with “grim” or “template” in them does not bear useful fruit. As per usual. Giving up on this approach altogether. Things aren’t going well. Harry is trying to reconstruct results that someone else obtained, using their files but without their help. 8. Had a hunt and found an identically-named temperature database file which did include normals lines at the start of every station. How handy — naming two different files with exactly the same name and relying on their location to differentiate! Aaarrgghh!! Re-ran anomdtb: Okay, this isn’t so unusual, actually, but unless you document and describe your file structure, it’s pretty much opaque to a new reader. Still, Harry presses on: 11. Decided to concentrate on Norwich. Tim M uses Norwich as the example on the website, so we know it’s at (363,286). Wrote a prog to extract the relevant 1961-1970 series from the published output, the generated .glo files, and the published climatology. Prog is norwichtest.for. Prog also creates anomalies from the published data, and raw data from the generated .glo data. Then Matlab prog plotnorwich.m plots the data to allow comparisons. First result: works perfectly, except that the .glo data is all zeros. This means I still don’t understand the structure of the .glo files. Argh! Poor Harry is in the first circle of programmer hell: the program runs fine; the output is wrong. He presses on: 17. Inserted debug statements into anomdtb.f90, discovered that a sum-of-squared variable is becoming very, very negative! Key output from the debug statements: some test output… forrtl: error (75): floating point exception IOT trap (core dumped) ..so the data value is unbfeasibly large, but why does the sum-of-squares parameter OpTotSq go negative?!! This is not good — the existing program produces a serious error when it’s run on what is supposed to be the old, working data. Harry presses on, finding a solution to that bug, going through many more issues as he tried to recreate the results of these runs for the data from 1901 to 1995. Finally he gives up. He has spoken to someone about what should be done: AGREED APPROACH for cloud (5 Oct 06). For 1901 to 1995 – stay with published data. No clear way to replicate process as undocumented. For 1996 to 2002: 1. convert sun database to pseudo-cloud using the f77 programs; 2. anomalise wrt 96-00 with anomdtb.f; 3. grid using quick_interp_tdm.pro (which will use 6190 norms); 4. calculate (mean9600 – mean6190) for monthly grids, using the published cru_ts_2.0 cloud data; 5. add to gridded data from step 3. This should approximate the correction needed. Catch that? They couldn’t recreate the results, so they’re going back to their published data for the first 95 years of the 20th century. Only … Next problem — which database to use? The one with the normals included is not appropriate (the conversion progs do not look for that line so obviously are not intended to be used on +norm databases). They still don’t know what to use for the next several years. Harry gives up; it’s easier to write new codes. 22. Right, time to stop p****footing around the niceties of Tim’s labyrinthine software suites – let’s have a go at producing CRU TS 3.0! since failing to do that will be the definitive failure of the entire project. This kind of thing is as fascinating as a soap opera, but I want to know how it comes out. Near the bottom of the file, I find: I am seriously close to giving up, again. The history of this is so complex that I can’t get far enough into it before by head hurts and I have to stop. Each parameter has a tortuous history of manual and semi-automated interventions that I simply cannot just go back to early versions and run the update prog. I could be throwing away all kinds of corrections – to lat/lons, to WMOs (yes!), and more. The file peters out, no conclusions. I hope they find this poor guy, and he didn’t hang himself in his rooms or something, because this file is a summary of three years of trying to get this data working. Unsuccessfully. I think there’s a good reason the CRU didn’t want to give their data to people trying to replicate their work. It’s in such a mess that they can’t replicate their own results. This is not, sadly, all that unusual. Simply put, scientists aren’t software engineers. They don’t keep their code in nice packages and they tend to use whatever language they’re comfortable with. Even if they were taught to keep good research notes in the past, it’s not unusual for things to get sloppy later. But put this in the context of what else we know from the CRU data dump: 1. They didn’t want to release their data or code, and they particularly weren’t interested in releasing any intermediate steps that would help someone else 2. They clearly have some history of massaging the data — hell, practically water-boarding the data — to get it to fit their other results. Results they can no longer even replicate on their own systems. 3. They had successfully managed to restrict peer review to what we might call the “RealClimate clique” — the small group of true believers they knew could be trusted to say the right things. As a result, it looks like they found themselves trapped. They had the big research organizations, the big grants — and when they found themselves challenged, they discovered they’d built their conclusions on fine beach sand. But the tide was coming in.

Carlin: Climategate Will Now Hit the EPA (PJM Exclusive) Posted By Alan Carlin On December 2, 2009 @ 9:00 am In . Column1 01, Science, Science & Technology, US News, World News | 22 Comments The emails and computer files from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in Great Britain may prove to be of some importance to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current attempts to control greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. This is because the EPA — perhaps at the urging of others in the Obama administration — has proposed to regulate GHG emissions on the basis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports … and reports primarily based on the IPCC reports. This is highly unusual for the EPA. I cannot think of any instance where the EPA depended so heavily on non-EPA synthesis reports to justify proposed regulatory action in their almost 39 years of existence. As a result of this EPA decision, the EPA’s fortunes in regard to regulating GHGs are directly tied to the fate of the IPCC reports. Although it is hard to argue that any one CRU email or computer file notation proves the IPCC conclusions wrong, as a whole they do strongly suggest two conclusions: 1. CRU and many of its associates and email recipients elsewhere (who I will henceforth refer to as “CRU et al“) are very tightly tied to the IPCC — both in influence and belief — and do not appear to be paragons of scientific objectivity and ethics. 2. Their data handling leaves something to be desired in terms of data retention, database documentation, and questionable data manipulation. CRU et al.’s lack of scientific objectivity It seems clear to me that if a group (such as the EPA) wanted to get an objective scientific judgment on climate change science, CRU et al — and therefore the IPCC — might be the last place that they would want to rely on. Each “trick” CRU et al used to torture their data to yield what appears to be their desired conclusions may have fooled a few more readers into thinking that their basic arguments were valid, but has to decrease the overall assessment of their objectivity. Attempts to manipulate peer reviews and journal acceptances are not acceptable scientific activities. Withholding key scientific data can only make one question their dedication to scientific principles. Hiding their alleged destruction of the basic temperature data that would allow reconstruction of what they have done is almost as bad as discarding such critical data in the first place. Using data that cannot be reproduced is not very useful scientifically, or from a regulatory viewpoint. Yet despite these now evident problems with the CRU et al’s data and research, the EPA is now stuck with the IPCC reports, and therefore the closely associated CRU et al’s data and research has become central to the EPA’s attempts to regulate GHGs. Given that it currently appears unlikely that the Senate will agree to anything resembling the current cap and trade bill, this EPA decision may well greatly decrease the chances that the U.S. will in the end implement serious regulation of GHGs — since, under the Clean Air Act, EPA regulations must survive judicial review of any regulations that the EPA may promulgate. Need for a new approach If the EPA wants to pursue the regulation of GHGs despite the weak scientific basis for it, there is an evident need for a whole new approach based on truly independent and careful review of the problem. The new approach must use the highest standards of scientific integrity, which means it must not rely on what appears to be biased research and sloppy data from CRU et al. Although I did not know of the recent revelations concerning CRU et al last March, my comments [1] strongly called for such a reappraisal. This problem will not go away, and may indeed get worse if we should learn more about the CRU et al’s work. There exists a possibility that the EPA’s current approach might succeed by some judicial fluke, but the chances seem to be decreasing with each new revelation. Presumably one of the reasons the EPA decided to rely on the IPCC, and indirectly on the CRU, is that the Obama administration may have felt some urgency to move rapidly on global warming control. But given the downtrend in global temperatures over the past 11 years, and the likelihood that this will continue for some time (see Section 2.4 of my comments [1]) because of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, there would appear to be ample time to start over and do it carefully and thoroughly this time — with full input by everyone that may be interested. Basic problem remains Despite the uproar concerning CRU et al’s data and research, the basic problem remains — the UN hypothesis that increases in GHGs/CO2 will result in significant increases in global temperatures has not been confirmed by comparisons with real world data [2]. Unless it is, attempts to decrease GHG/CO2 emissions in order to significantly change global temperatures are very likely to fail. This is the primary question that the EPA and climate scientists need to address before any control efforts are undertaken. Happily, we appear to have the time to do so, and to do so objectively using reproducible data.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 30, 2009 -> 05:43 PM) The university in question's CRUs recognized by your beloved 'consensus' as one of the world's leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change. And from their own website, "Consisting of a staff of around thirty research scientists and students, the Unit has developed a number of the data sets widely used in climate research, including the global temperature record used to monitor the state of the climate system, as well as statistical software packages and climate models. " If they are the ones SUPPLYING the data sets to the other groups, then everything is potentially wrong. From readings in their emails, they had a close-knit group that peer-reviewed each other so no dissention could be had. They also claim that their data could be swapped with data from NASA and have the same results. Well, no s***, if you hard code the modelling program that way, you can put in anything you want and still get your desired answer. While I have not studied their code, as it is beyond me, I have read analysis from people who do know code that said it was a clusterf*** waiting to happen. Oh, and NASA numbers show that "global temperature measurements of the Earth's lower atmosphere obtained from satellites reveal no definitive warming trend over the past two decades. The slight trend that is in the data actually appears to be downward. The largest fluctuations in the satellite temperature data are not from any man-made activity, but from natural phenomena such as large volcanic eruptions from Mt. Pinatubo, and from El Niño. So the programs which model global warming in a computer say the temperature of the Earth's lower atmosphere should be going up markedly, but actual measurements of the temperature of the lower atmosphere reveal no such pronounced activity". A big problem here is that many of the groups that have done climate change modellling, etc, have relied on the data sets and moddeling programs provided by UEA. Many others are not revealing their data sources. Someone who has nothign to gain from this either way should be reproducing this work from the beginning. The CRU's have too much research money riding on it to give an unbiased answer. And with their livelyhoods at stake, you are a fool if you believe that they wouldn't fudge the numbers. The UN has too much at stake as they see this as an opportunity to fleece the major powers and redistribute wealth to the poorer nations, as if it is our fault they live in deserts and have tinpot dictators steal what little they have and kill them for it. China, India and Brazil plan on holding the "rich" nations hostage at the Copenhagen conferences if they have to have restrictions placed on them and fail to penalize the "rich". "Rich countries should be ready to contribute funds for stopping the process of forest degradation including the one in Amazon valley in Brazil and also invest in the process of creating new forests. " How China and India are still considered developing nations is beyond me. South America already wants US to pay THEM to NOT chop down the rainforest. So, who could do it? I don't know. But whoever does it, it has to be completely transparent and reproducable by any other scientist before the wolrd should be thrown into chaos for the new world religion. http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/ http://spacescience.spaceref.com/newhome/h...sd06oct97_1.htm http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/c...how/5279771.cms I know this ain't facebook, but I "like" this. Well done Alpha.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 27, 2009 -> 03:42 PM) alcohol not involved, but charges are pending...interesting maybe it has something to do with hitting a hydrant or something?

Here's a great spreadsheet. You can sort by whatever you want, be it hard drives, tv's whatever. http://www.gophn.com//wp-content/uploads/B...Guide-Gophn.xls

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QUOTE (Cknolls @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 11:38 AM) Come on people we are smarter than this. The bill is a fraud. They cannot show the real cost over a ten year period because it is more than 2x the reported price. You should have said we on the right.

Paul O'Neil almost climbing the fence to the BP bar to get at some hecklers. I've never seen a player get so personally offended. He was beat red and about to blow. A few patrons, whom I can only assume were medically trained and concerned about him overheating, shouted to douse him with their cold beer. Cups proceed to pour down from all over. He was soaked. Many were kicked out...I got a better seat. The heckling got worse as the game went on. Security came by to tell people to stop talking about his mother and wife etc... I don't mind a 'you suck' once in a awhile, but some heckling is just absolutely ridiculous.

QUOTE (fathom @ Nov 19, 2009 -> 06:52 PM) Yep, it was an awesome episode, and you forget how amazingly hot Minka Kelly is until you see her in the preview for next week's episode. Did not know she was dating Jeter. Hate him more now!

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 08:20 AM) Perfect example. Up until now whenever KSM was mentioned we'd get this photo of him: Now that he may be tried in the states as a criminal they keep posting this photo: Yeah...no opinions used in that decision process. Um..maybe that's because the prior was the only photo anyone had. The latter was just discovered in Septemberish.

I mean I knew he was dirty, but sheesh

Anybody watching The League. Heard about it on the radio...so watched it last Thurs. Hilarious.