Well, we finally did it.   Live Science reports that humans finally killed off the Baiji (aka Yangtze River Dolphin).   The species is now "almost certainly extinct, making it the first dolphin that humans drove to extinction.   The loss also represents the first global extinction of megafauna — any creature larger than about 200 pounds (100 kilograms) - for more than 50 years."

Don't feel too badly about this human-induced extinction.   It isn't your fault.   This animal which has never been found anywhere but one single river in China.   Estimated populations of the creature have never exceeded 6,000.   Estimates haven't exceeded a couple hundred in decades.   It hasn't been seen in years.   I don't know about you but that doesn't seem to be a viable population during my lifetime.

Labels: environmentalism

Reuters Environment Correspondent, Deborah Zabarenko, reports: "Global warming will step up after 2009: scientists."   She warns us, "Global warming is forecast to set in with a vengeance after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be hotter than 1998, the warmest year on record, scientists reported on Thursday."   There's one little problem with her dire warning.   1998 was not the "warmest year on record," at least not in the US.   After laymen pointed out the methodolgical errors contained in US temperature calculations, scientists have revised their official figures.   The "new" hottest year in US history is 1934!   1998 was still pretty darn hot, in relative terms.   It ranks number 2.   The bronze medal goes to 1921.

Note that in international terms, the rate of warming in 1920-30 in Greenland was about 50% greater than that witnessed 1995-2005.

Do I need to point out that in 1921, while the automobile had been in mass production for some time, a very small percentage of the world's relatively small population owned one.   World population was about a third of what it is today!   Roads were not very good and it would not be until decades later that personal cars became anything close to commonplace.   Industry too was a pittance of today.   Oil seemed inexhaustable.   1920 is when scientists often begin the graphs which measure the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide since, before then, not much fossil fuel was burned!

Obviously, the "official temperature of the US over the period of a year does not result from a single "official thermometer" which yields various readings that are then averaged.   It is a very complex calculation involving thousands and thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of readings, many of which are themselves suspect, which are plugged into a complex algorithm to yield the annual average temperature.   Laymen reverse engineered the process by which the figure is calculated and discovered errors which apparently result from a Y2K bug!   NASA has corrected the problem but still, it isn't as if the process is transparent.

More importantly, while the media was very quick to scream "hottest year on record," they weren't quite so fast to say "the scientists screwed up their calculations and failed to check their work."   That'[s because the correction of this error runs counter to their agenda.

Labels: global warming, media bias

I just found an article from the Associated Press reporting on a study that compares the number of child deaths from riding all-terrain vehicles versus bicycles...

http://news.yahoo.com/..../travel_brief_atv_study

And of course, more kids are get killed riding ATVs than bicycles.

Is this not an example of a loaded study?

How can you compare ATVs to bicycles?

And what the heck is the message supposed to be? That kids shouldn't ride ATVs?

The study was commissioned by the "Concerned Families for ATV Safety", founded by parents who lost children to ATV accidents. Anytime someone commissions a study, it always delivers the results they want.

Parents should train their kids to ride ATVs properly, with adequate safety gear and supervision. Maybe these parents of "Concerned Families for ATV Safety" should've thought about that.

Labels: Victicrats

Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the House on Saturday approved $16 billion in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and conservation efforts.

That's just great, isn't it.   Tax the heck out of those rich guys and give us little folk some of those fancy tax breaks.   Yeeeessss!   Finally one for the little guy!

So who is going to pay those taxes, anyway? &nbs-p; You are, you dope.   The oil companies will pass the taxes down to you in the form of price increases.   That's the way it always has been.   That's the way it always will be.   Were you missing the day they taught thought and reason at school?   Are you stupid enough to believe that this proposed tax increase is a levy on "the rich guys?"

And what about them there fancy tax breaks for "renewable energy?"   Ain;t they just hunky dory?   How many people do you know that are employed in the industry of "renewable energy?"   How many little guys benefit when the government subsidizes their business model?

Are you really that gullible?

This is a giant rip off in which the liberals are forking over PORK to their constituency, their financial backers.   If you question this assertion, I really can't help you.   Nobody can.

Hillary Clinton calls her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination naive on foreign issues.   Obama replied in a manner intended to prove strength and disprove Clinton's assertion that he is naive.   He said, "There are terrorists holed up in those mountains (Pakistan) who murdered 3,000 Americans.   They are plotting to strike again.   It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005.   If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

So let me get this straight.   Obama says Bush was wrong to go into Iraq, a country whose government was openly hostile to the US.   He wasn't all that fond of our actions in Afghanistan where the foundation of the government was Muslim fundamentalist radicalism.   But he wants to invade a country governed by secular priciples, one with somewhat friendly relations with the US because they aren't doing the job well enough.   Such an invasion would most likely throw the country into civil war resulting in a new fundamentalist radical government.

I wouldn't call Obama naive.   I'd call him F#ck%$# STUPID.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama