Hi there, !
Today Sat 12/12/2009 Fri 12/11/2009 Thu 12/10/2009 Wed 12/09/2009 Tue 12/08/2009 Mon 12/07/2009 Sun 12/06/2009 Archives
Rantburg
533471 articles and 1861275 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 77 articles and 218 comments as of 15:32.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Baghdad bomb attacks kill 127, wound 450
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
0 [2] 
3 00:00 Frank G [4] 
1 00:00 Angie Schultz [] 
4 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [2] 
1 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [2] 
1 00:00 lord garth [2] 
6 00:00 DMFD [3] 
0 [6] 
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 []
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
11 00:00 Boss Snomotle8280 [2]
0 [2]
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
5 00:00 GolfBravoUSMC []
0 [4]
3 00:00 Old Patriot [4]
0 [2]
0 []
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [8]
1 00:00 Frank G [2]
0 [8]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
0 []
8 00:00 JosephMendiola []
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [7]
0 []
3 00:00 USN, Ret. [1]
2 00:00 lotp []
1 00:00 newc []
Page 2: WoT Background
7 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
0 [2]
1 00:00 European Conservative []
3 00:00 Baba Tutu [2]
2 00:00 Lumpy Elmoluck5091 []
2 00:00 Besoeker []
2 00:00 Redneck Jim []
0 [4]
5 00:00 European Conservative [2]
1 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
8 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru [5]
5 00:00 Rambler in Virginia [2]
5 00:00 Frank G [2]
3 00:00 Redneck Jim [2]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
6 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
0 []
0 []
Page 3: Non-WoT
3 00:00 KBK [1]
2 00:00 eLarson [4]
8 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
5 00:00 ryuge []
5 00:00 Iblis [4]
4 00:00 USN, Ret. [1]
3 00:00 JosephMendiola []
7 00:00 Bright Pebbles [2]
8 00:00 Scooter McGruder [2]
0 []
5 00:00 European Conservative [2]
0 [6]
8 00:00 European Conservative []
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
0 []
Page 6: Politix
3 00:00 Bright Pebbles [4]
5 00:00 Pappy [4]
0 [3]
2 00:00 tipover [1]
1 00:00 Uncle Phester [1]
3 00:00 Lumpy Elmoluck5091 []
6 00:00 Uncle Phester []
11 00:00 JohnQC []
5 00:00 Procopius2k [2]
3 00:00 Glenmore []
1 00:00 armyguy []
-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Picking out the UHI in climatic temperature records – so easy a 6th grader can do it!
Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2009 20:07 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Climategate: the fudge factor code
This computer geek has found the smoking gun in the code. The warming data is flat out manupulated to show increasing warming.

LINE 8

This is where the magic happens. Remember that array we have of valid temperature readings? And, remember that random array of numbers we have from line two? Well, in line 4, those two arrays are interpolated together.

The interpol() function will take each element in both arrays and “guess” at the points in between them to create a smoothing effect on the data. This technique is often used when dealing with natural data points, just not quite in this manner.

The main thing to realize here, is, that the interpol() function will cause the valid temperature readings (yrloc) to skew towards the valadj values.

Posted by: Mercutio || 12/09/2009 16:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unlike the author of that post (Robert Greiner), I've programmed IDL before.

(Well, mostly I've fixed IDL code others have written, because IDL is not backwards or forwards compatible, and breaks if you give it a hard look, but that's beside the point.)

It doesn't really help me with this, but I can say that anyway.

I can't figure out what he's saying here. The code section he's talking about has 1) an array of years, and 2) a matching array of "adjustments". The interpol() function just sticks more datapoints in between those specified by those arrays.

Now, 19 of the 20 elements in the yrloc array are the years 1904 to 1994. Given those are five-year increments, it's hard to see why they'd want to interpolate between them, to get a finer grid. (I suppose it could also be giving a coarser grid, depending on the content of timey, which is not given at the link.)

But, oopsie!, the first element in yrloc is the year 1400. So the purpose of the interpol call (as far as I can tell) is to re-grid the result so that it looks as if you have more data points between the years 1400 and 1904 than you really do.

Now, the values for valadj from 1400 to 1919 are all zero. If your plot just ran from 1904 to 1994, the rise wouldn't be as spectacular as it is with 500 years of zeros to the left. This is a bit shady, but hardly earth-shattering.

The real question here is the origin of the values in valadj, which the comments seem to suggest is "very artifical". Greiner mentions an array of valid temperature measurements, and the code might have one, but he hasn't presented it. (I kind of think he has mistaken yrloc for temps, when they are clearly years. I believe that the resultant yearlyadj is meant to be applied to something else, which Greiner doesn't present.)

I do not believe there is a smoking gun here, just a misfire. Now if you'll excuse me, it's my day off, and this is entirely too much like work.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 12/09/2009 19:44 Comments || Top||


Economy
Climate deal likely to cost trillions of dollars
Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2009 07:33 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sombody somewhere kill this idiocy.
Posted by: newc || 12/09/2009 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I swear, sometimes I feel like I fell asleep sometime in 2007 and woke up in 2009 in a real life version of the movie Idiocracy created by the spotted owl and salamander saving, industry destroying, tree hugging global warming nutcases.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/09/2009 15:22 Comments || Top||

#3  How do I get in on this racket? All I want is a fraction of a percent! What's a couple mill among friends?
Posted by: Dar || 12/09/2009 16:47 Comments || Top||

#4  The climate deal will cause widespread suffering to the US electorate. It can be stopped rather easily if Congress ever decides to do anything about it. Maybe when its pain is intense enough, the US electorate will do something about Congress.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/09/2009 18:20 Comments || Top||


The West's goals in Copenhagen are tantamount to suicide.
Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2009 05:51 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps the Global Warmists will accomplish what the Jihadis never could.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/09/2009 18:21 Comments || Top||


Europe
A Wish List for Swiss Muslims
Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2009 18:53 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is doubtful that the MoD's would allow me to blog MY wish list for (input country of choice here) muslims........
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 12/09/2009 20:09 Comments || Top||

#2  3. Their own hospital

Medical care by Christians is seen as inappropriate by Muslims. Muslims therefore demand a their own hospital as well as their own homes for the elderly [pensioned].

Huh? German hospitals are full in summer with Saudi and Emirati "medical tourists".
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/09/2009 20:23 Comments || Top||

#3  perhaps they should be restrained to muslim-created technology? I wouldn't want to burden them with knowing they were saved by infidel tech. Let em die. It's Allan's will. Inshallah
Posted by: Frank G || 12/09/2009 20:40 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
The Punjab: The Geography of Fundamentalism
What is the link between Ajmal Kasab (the lone surviving gunman of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack), Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi (the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks) and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed (the former leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba)?

The answer is geography. Apart from their shared militant backgrounds, and their links or alleged links to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, all three men come from the Punjab region which is one of the wealthiest and most populated provinces in Pakistan.

Since last year, the names of militant leaders from the Punjab have come to overshadow the dreaded Taliban icons from Pakistan's tribal regions, such as Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud. The reason for this is that Pakistani media has to provide balanced media coverage of the terrorist attacks that have been taking place in the Punjab and Islamabad (which is both culturally and geographically part of the Punjab), and in most cases these attacks take precedence in the media over the chaotic situation in the tribal areas.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


Science & Technology
Hurricane Expert Rips Climate Fears
Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2009 03:43 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wish we wouldn't pay attention to Dr. Grey on this subject. While he is an expert on hurricanes, his theories on deep ocean circulation are, near as I can tell, based on complete supposition. We have less reliable data on deep ocean circulation than we do on the outer part of Jupiter's atmosphere.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/09/2009 8:15 Comments || Top||


Just one more baseless scare - like the 26 before
Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2009 02:42 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO.
(a) Anybody who claims to have a predictive climate model is a liar.
(b) The current enchantment with computer models in "scientific research" is just a way for incompetents to make a living. It's not really science because the results are not falsifiable.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/09/2009 5:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Grom, the results are not falsifiable because they are already falsified.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/09/2009 7:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Not necessarily a baseless scare. We just don't know whether is baseless or real - and won't know until we start doing real science instead of political science.
The basic concept is solid - CO2 does act as a heat retaining ('greenhouse') gas: that aspect is lab-tested. But lots of other gasses are too (e.g. water vapor and methane), and more potent than CO2. Are there interactions that decrease (or increase) the effect? What about buffering by the resulting increased plant growth? What about interactions with the oceans - increased temperature of the sea decreases the solubility of CO2 but may increase the capture of CO2 by various sea life. What about changes in atmospheric or oceanic circulation driven by temperature changes - do they amplify or dampen the effects? The complexity of the system is staggering and we have only begun to understand it. Our models are still suspect, to say the least.
Worse, the so-called treatment is almost certainly worse than the disease - nothing in these treaties reduces CO2 production, it just changes where it comes from. That point is so obvious that it is impossible to conclude anything but that the treaties are not intended to address global warming but rather to change global politics and economics.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/09/2009 8:30 Comments || Top||

#4  The Earth's atmosphere is only 0.038% carbon dioxide.

That tiny fraction could quadruple with no harm.
Posted by: Parabellum || 12/09/2009 11:38 Comments || Top||

#5  falsifiable

confirmable: capable of being tested (verified or falsified) by experiment or observation
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/09/2009 14:25 Comments || Top||

#6  During the Medieval Warming period there were Viking colonies in Greenland with dairy farms. Newfoundland was known as Vinland and grapes were grown there. It was a LOT warmer than today, and curiously civilization did not come to an end, and humans didn't die off.
Posted by: DMFD || 12/09/2009 22:08 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Nasrallah: Prime Minister of Lebanon
[Asharq al-Aswat] There are two reasons why I believe the leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, should assume the mantle of Prime Minister of Lebanon. Firstly, because he chooses the timing of his official statements to coincide with the formation of government or [other] major state occasions in a manner that suggests to everybody that he is the parallel of the [Lebanese] Prime Minister. Secondly, the government that has been formed by Saad al Hariri is closer to being the government of the defeated opposition than it is the government of the March 14 Alliance that won the elections. Al Hariri may have received the title of Prime Minister before he turned 40 years old, but this does not mean that the government that he formed is the government [desired] by those who voted for him in an impressive display.

In a lengthy thirty-page speech entitled 'The Political Charter of Hezbollah' Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah revealed his vision. The first thing to occur in the mind of anybody listening to this speech was that this [charter] was more than the vision of a party preoccupied with the resistance; rather this was an operational agenda on how to govern Lebanon, and even the world. In ten of these pages, Hassan Nasrallah holds the US accountable for its actions around the world since World War II until today.

Except for these ten pages on international affairs, we should recognize that the Hezbollah leader has the right to put forth his vision on Lebanon's policy and management in his capacity as one of the ten [religious] pillars of Lebanon, as well as the leader of Lebanon's best armed sect, in comparison, for example, to the Maronite Patriarchate, who holds a similar position to the Pope [in the Maronite Church]. Former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was once asked "Why don't you appease the Pope and let the Catholics pray in their churches?" He exclaimed "The Pope? How many divisions has he got?"

Sayyed Nasrallah, unlike the Pope or the Maronite Patriarchate, has a militia that is larger than the [Lebanese] army and has an arsenal larger than the state's. Therefore it is logical that his speech is more important than [religious] sermons.

The Hezbollah leader clarified the impossibility of disarming his militia, putting forward a long list of heavy duties that he called "the station of defending the [Lebanese] people and soil." Even though according to the available estimates, revoking [political ]sectarianism will most likely be more beneficial to the Shiite majority than to other sects, I doubt Hezbollah desires to get rid of [political] sectarianism, and neither do the other leaders of religious sects [in Lebanon].

Theoretically, Hezbollah would benefit the most from the abolishment of the political quota system, with this being replaced by the majority vote system. This however is theoretical, and does not take into account personal considerations that apply to all parties. A Shiite voter free to vote [on non-sectarian lines] may not acknowledge the principle of resistance, and may rather vote for whoever provides him and his children with essential services, rather than launching more rockets at Israel. Hezbollah is aware that Shiite voters will punish their [political] representatives at the next election if they fail to fulfil their promises [under a non-sectarian political system], and this is something that a party that is built on commands and prohibitions and the sanctity of leadership cannot tolerate. [Political] party's leadership and countries that desire to manage Lebanon's internal affairs are the ones that will lose out from the abolishment of political sectarianism. Therefore with such internal and external consensus, abolishing [political] sectarianism in Lebanon would be more difficult than liberating Palestine.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But, if he becomes Lebanese PM, he'll have to come out of the bunker.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/09/2009 4:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Bahh!
Posted by: newc || 12/09/2009 18:48 Comments || Top||

#3  ION LEBO > PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > YEMEN POST -US REPORT: IRAN PROVIDING WEAPONS AND SENDING FIGHTERS FROM LEBANESE HEZBOLLAH TO SA'ADA [Yemen = Houthis]???

* SAME > US CONGRESSIONAL COUNCIL: US AND PARTNERS SHOULD INTERVENE TO PREVENT YEMENI FAILURE???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/09/2009 21:21 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
53[untagged]
4Govt of Iran
3al-Qaeda in Pakistan
2Hamas
1al-Shabaab
1CAIR
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Sudan
1al-Qaeda
1Hezbollah
1Iraqi Insurgency
1Islamic Jihad
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jundullah
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Palestinian Authority
1PFLP
1Taliban

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2009-12-09
  Baghdad bomb attacks kill 127, wound 450
Tue 2009-12-08
  Peshawar blast kills 10, injures 45
Mon 2009-12-07
  Explosions rock market in Lahore
Sun 2009-12-06
  Little resistance on day 2 of US-Afghan offensive
Sat 2009-12-05
  Attack temporarily shuts Herat airport
Fri 2009-12-04
  Russian Police find car packed with explosives near train station
Thu 2009-12-03
  14 dead in suicide bomber attack in Somalia
Wed 2009-12-02
  Obama: 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan by summer
Tue 2009-12-01
  At least 61 militants killed in Khyber tribal region
Mon 2009-11-30
  Air strike kills 30 Taliban in Khost
Sun 2009-11-29
  Russia train disaster was terrorist attack
Sat 2009-11-28
  IAEA votes to censure Iran
Fri 2009-11-27
  Lebanon gives Hezbollah right to use arms against Israel
Thu 2009-11-26
  Afghan police commander jailed for having 40 tonnes of hashish
Wed 2009-11-25
  Belgian pleads guilty in US jet parts sale to Iran


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.144.230.82
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (21)    WoT Background (20)    Non-WoT (16)    (0)    Politix (11)