Paradigms and Demograhics: Morning Edition

The Latest From JoNova

BOM finally explains! Cooling changed to warming trends because stations "might" have moved!  Just remarkable -- The Australian BOM made massive changes to data in some of their best stations, and finally (only when The Australian threatens to expose it) do they explain why. Apparently thermometers hundreds of km away "detected" an unreported site move in both Amberley and Rutherglen?!! Righto - so - records are "corrected" 70 years later by distant thermometers? Skeptics have been asking the BOM for explanations for years. The answers explain why they've been reluctant to discuss their methods. We now know that the "hottest ever records" announced regularly by the BOM may depend on unrecorded "likely" station-moves in data that is so corrected and adjusted it bears no resemblance to the temperatures recorded and announced at the time. Why do we bother using real thermometers? Read on

The heat is on. Bureau of Meteorology altering climate figures - The Australian  -  These two articles in The Australian break new ground in media reporting on our Australian temperature records. This is an excellent development as the BOM feels the heat of trying to explain our national data sets and the large mysterious transformations of the original data. One of the most extreme examples is a thermometer station in Amberley, Queensland where a cooling trend in minima of 1C per century has been homogenized and "become" a warming trend of 2.5C per century! This is a station at an airforce base that has no recorded move since 1941, nor had a change in instrumentation. Read on

Global sea level rise a bit more than 1mm a year for last 50 years, no acceleration - The simplicity is powerful. A new paper looks at whether tide gauges around the world are quasi-randomly placed -- finds they are. This is important and novel. It means their results can be averaged as a representative record of global sea level rise -- usually sea-level researchers individually "correct" and adjust each site to account for local land subsidence or rising ground. This is a complex and subjective method. Beenstock et al use the original data from about 1,000 gauges, and finds global sea levels are only rising by 1mm a year over the last 50 years, and there has been no change in the rate, even after our massive output of CO2.  Read on

EU bans good vacuum cleaners, what next big kettles, hot irons?  The Climate Police are coming. In order to cool the global climate, the European Commission has decided, with infinite wisdom, that companies shall no longer be allowed to make or import vacuums with motors above 1600 watts which is more than half of the vacuums on the market. These are climate-dangerous machines. They couldn’t just put a health warning with pics of drowning polar bears on the 2200W ones. They must be Verboten! The new rules start on September 1st. I’m sure if they could, they’d arrange a buy-back and amnesty program for high powered vacuums too.   In EUspeak, vacuums are about to get better! Apparently, they will use less energy, save money and pick up more dust too, all that was needed was regulation. (Why didn’t they think of it before?) Read on

Man to live on melting iceberg for one year to urge climate change action - Alex Bellini, a professional adventurer and motivational speaker plans to live alone on a melting iceberg off the coast of Greenland for one year, to emphasize the urgent need for climate change action.  The lengths people will go to, to get attention... Read on

From the American Council on Science and Health

Watch ACSH's video of the day on vitamin K injections for newborns here!

Rejection of vitamin K for newborns puts babies at risk - for no reason - Vitamin K is essential for normal blood clotting but babies are born with low levels of the vitamin. Some parents put their newborns at risk of internal bleeding because they won't allow vitamin K injections. Is this a side effect of bogus vaccine fears? Read more.

 

Another organic chemist weighs in on BPA - Dr. Steve Hentges, an organic chemist, examines the silliness that has overwhelmed the real science about BPA in his latest piece on Science 2.0. He questions what will happen when BPA is replaced with another chemical that is far less studied. Read more.

 

"It's not about sex. It's about cancer." - ACSH trustee, Dr. Paul Offit, analyzes the reasons behind the low HPV vaccination rate among adolescents and comes to the following conclusion: Doctors do not want to talk about sex with their 11-year old patients. Read more.

 

Opposition by public health officials to e-cigarettes encouraging smokers to keep on smoking - E-cigarettes continue to be met with opposition from those in public health. Promoting these negative views may actually be "inadvertently bolstering the tobacco market" and encouraging smokers to keep on smoking. Read more.

 

Does breakfast really play an important role in weight loss? - Breakfast is often referred to as the most important meal of the day regarding benefits in terms of weight loss. However, a new study shows that breakfast may not actually be as important as some say it is. Read more.

 

Totally Wicked e-vapor e-liquid company fights "city hall" in the EU - An e-cig/vapor company takes on the misguided EU "Tobacco Products Directive". They only have science, the EU's own treaties, and common sense behind them, but it will still be an uphill battle to save smokers. Read more.

 

A doubleheader of GMO stupidity - From the two most populous countries in the world - Two recent articles discuss the attitudes of those in China and India regarding GMOs. You'd think countries with such enormous food requirements would embrace this technology, but you'd be wrong. Read more.

From Front Page Magazine

A Beheading Ends All Illusions About Islam, By Daniel Greenfield

We have become the United States of James Foley. Read More »

Nothing to Do with Islam, Part 2, By Bruce Thornton

The "Islamic State" speaks for no religion? Read More »

Reforming the Department of Homeland Surrender, By Michael Cutler

Holding Congress accountable. Read More »

Ferguson, Foley and a Radical-in-Chief’s Double Standards — on The Glazov Gang

By Frontpagemag.com - Support for a lynch mob; Willful blindness to Islamic beheadings. Read More »

Crime Silently Increasing in New York City, By Joseph Concannon

How politicians' police-bashing empowers criminals. Read More »

The Question of Netanyahu’s Vision, By Ronn Torossian

What is the endgame of the operation in Gaza? Read More »  

A Place Where Every Week Is ‘Shark Week’, By Humberto Fontova

And why thousands of people have risked their lives to flee it. Read More »

From the Washington Examiner

Democrat fortunes go down as Obamacare drives premiums up: Examiner Editorial By Washington Examiner

Obamacare isn't causing quite as much chaos right now in people's lives as it did last October and November during the incompetent launch of Healthcare.gov. The absence of an immediate crisis has prompted smug suggestions from the usual suspects in government, on campus and in the news media to...

Congress passes laws for reasons and Obama must obey them: Examiner Editorial By Washington Examiner

The wisdom of exchanging Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban members may be up for debate, but the legality of how President Obama did it is not.

 Delta's good fight on Export-Import Bank marred by support for crony capitalism, By Timothy P. Carney

It's rare to find big business lobbying for free enterprise against corporate welfare. So it's pretty depressing to find it lobbying for corporate welfare in other instances.

 Vacation assignment for Obama: A real Russia strategy, By James Jay Carafano

No one should fault any president for trying to take time off. On the other hand, presidents know full well what they've signed up for. The Oval Office is not just a day job.

A decent lawyer should tell liberals they're damned fools and ought to stop, By Michael Barone

Today it seems that many liberal "would-be clients" are in desperate need of what Elihu Root called "a decent lawyer."

 

Ferguson: Not nearly as daunting as the 1960s riots, By Michael Barone

Continued violence in Ferguson, Mo., brings back memories of the Detroit riots of the 1960s. But there are some differences of varying significance between the riots of the 1960s and Ferguson today. 

 

Demography is destiny: Pizza department, By Michael Barone

Pizza and demographics aren't normally thought of together, but I chanced upon a year-old Gawker blog post by Max Read which invites demographic analysis.

 

Private sector makes raising children less expensive, public sector makes it more expensive, By Michael Barone

Parents have to pay lots more for things that are largely provided by or heavily regulated by government -- education (including child care) and health care.