Category — Science

Why, this even takes place on an island.

MPs back creation of human-animal embryos

British scientists will be allowed to research devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using human-animal embryos, after the House of Commons tonight rejected a ban.

MPS WARNED OVER HYBRID EMBRYOS

Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both firmly backed the ground-breaking technique as a means to develop treatments for common conditions that could potentially save millions of lives.

The Prime Minister and Tory leader also support the creation of “saviour siblings” selected by parents in order to provide tissue material for seriously ill children.

When this chicken comes home to roost, it will weigh more than 3 lb. and have a serious case of the upsets.

 This article isn’t long; it is based on science with none of the fearmongering of the GW idiots. Go here for the article.

THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot. [snip]

For the Gorbots, this isn’t good news, no not at all. For the sane among us this is a very interesting site. Here’s one photo from the past few days.

The image of the Earth added to give scale to the size of the sunspot.

I visit this site every day, have seen many photos of the sun; this spot is small compared to others.

This post is for Vermont moonbats, our fount of all knowledge global warming. Can you spell Maunder Minimum?
For the Gorbots, dealing with facts is inconvenient; such is the difficulty of Godhood pretension. Global warming arm wavers had better save their carbon.

Forget global warming:
Welcome to the new Ice Age

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966. [snip]

And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its “lowest levels on record? Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.

The ice is back.

Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year.

OK, so one winter does not a climate make. It would be premature to claim an Ice Age is looming just because we have had one of our most brutal winters in decades.

But if environmentalists and environment reporters can run around shrieking about the manmade destruction of the natural order every time a robin shows up on Georgian Bay two weeks early, then it is at least fair game to use this winter’s weather stories to wonder whether the alarmist are being a tad premature.[snip]

Last month, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, shrugged off manmade climate change as “a drop in the bucket.” Showing that solar activity has entered an inactive phase, Prof. Sorokhtin advised people to “stock up on fur coats.”

He is not alone. Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon.

The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850. Crops failed through killer frosts and drought. Famine, plague and war were widespread. Harbours froze, so did rivers, and trade ceased. [snip]

Isn’t that ice age the one that interfered with the “hockey stick” favored by all greenies? Nah, can’t be, otherwise the Goracle would have used it in the “hockey stick” computations.

I suspect the carbon loathing greenies will be arm flapping trying to keep warm.

Massachusetts politicians really need remedial economics classes. As an example, look at this statement from Attorney General Martha Coakley about opening the state’s regulated auto insurance market to free market competition:

“At this stage, it is too early to make a determination about whether managed competition will advantage or disadvantage consumers,” Coakley said in a statement.

Is it really that hard to figure out? Drivers with clean records and good risk profiles would benefit immensely as insurers would offer the best rates possible to retain them. Drivers with poor records and riskier profiles would pay more as insurers would reasonably demand a premium for carrying those policies.

It’s not rocket science. And by the way, that’s how it should work. The people who obey the law and don’t drive like maniacs should pay less. The unsafe drivers should pay more as an incentive to make the roadways safer for everyone. However, the concept of personal responsibility is to liberal Democrats as responsible parenthood is to Brittney Spears. The two just never meet.

Flash news

The U.S. Ag bureau advises tomato growers to diversify crops. Prices will drop when the extended growing season at Nome hits full production.
Chick Little posts advisories on sky conditions, postulating serious positional shifts.
Gov. Schwarzenegger predicts fewer fires in CA in the next millennia.
Vermont gets beachfront property again.

U.N. Report Describes Risks of Inaction on Climate Change

Synthesizing reams of data from its three previous reports, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the first time specifically points out important risks if governments fail to respond: melting ice sheets that could lead to a rapid rise in sea levels and the extinction of large numbers of species brought about by even moderate amounts of warming, on the order of 1 to 3 degrees.

UN Panel Gives Dire Warming Forecast

“Only urgent, global action will do,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calling on the United States and China - the world’s two biggest polluters - to do more to slow global climate change.
“I look forward to seeing the U.S. and China playing a more constructive role,” Ban told reporters. “Both countries can lead in their own way.”
Ban, however, advised against assigning blame. [snip]

It is providential to have a U.N. Secretary-General who isn’t a finger pointing hysteric.

Cult awaits end of days in cave after leader’s arrest

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) – Members of a Russian doomsday cult barricaded themselves in a cave to wait out the end of the world as the cult’s leader underwent psychiatric exams Thursday, Russian media reported. [snip]
“It is obviously some kind of insanity,” Mitropolitan Kirill, a high-ranking Russian Orthodox Church official, told Russian television. “It is perhaps even a medical case. A very dangerous phenomena is happening in Russia’s religious life.”

I’m surprised the UN isn’t in the cave with them. Well, they are secure from the sky calamity in the homemade grotto.

Too little food…..HERE…Too little food, and too much food…THERE…And the brain of a ham sandwich…WAY OVER THERE……

Is Nutrition Science Not Really Science?

With the following “sciences” including climate change, reason is tossed away for the expedience of proselytizing to effect outcome rather than scientific inquiry. It is much, much easier to design results beforehand, so that they may fit the desired conclusion.

I was hoping to slow the ban-trans-fat cascade by wondering if it would lead to bans of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup — but some readers liked the idea of outlawing those sweeteners. Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. But before we pass any more laws on what to eat, I wish we’d take a harder look at how often the supposed experts in nutrition have been wrong before. (emphasis added)

Gary Taubes, who chronicles many of those mistakes in his new book, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” has some thoughts for Lab readers on why researchers in nutrition, obesity and chronic disease have gone wrong so often — and why cascades occur so easily. He told me that he doesn’t think these fields of research qualify as a functional field science, which he defines in his book this way:

Outstanding questions are identified or hypotheses proposed; experimental tests are then established to either answer the questions or refute the hypotheses, regardless of how obviously true they might appear to be. If assertions are made without the empirical evidence to defend them, they are vigorously rebuked. [snip]

This unending exchange of critical judgment,” Merton wrote, “of praise and punishment, is developed in science to a degree that makes the monitoring of children’s behavior by their parents seem little more than child’s play.”

But nutrition and obesity research don’t work this say, according to Mr. Taubes, a correspondent for Science. Here’s the explanation he gives Lab readers for some of the cascades we’ve been debating:

In the context of what you’re discussing, I would say that the purpose of this “unending exchange of critical judgment” is to stop cascades before they can gain momentum or gather enough believers that they reach a kind of critical mass and erroneous beliefs become self-perpetuating, as I believe has happened, of course, in obesity, nutrition and chronic disease research. The other problem with public health-related research is that the beliefs not only infect entire fields of science, but they spread beyond the science to the public, the politicians, etc., and so the number of those individuals invested in the erroneous belief grows exponentially and it becomes almost impossible to eradicate it or correct it.[snip]

You can think of this kind of brutal response to bad science as an immune system that serves to protect reliable knowledge from infection by the infinite number of bogus but compelling ideas that are out there. [snip]

Is he right about the lack of an immune system in these fields of research? And if so, what can be done about it?

Maybe,but more to the reason is a political agenda not advanced by truth.

A rigorous examination of the researcher’s credentials gives more credence to taken positions. Are the conferred degrees from a respected and accredited institution or did one “Draw the Doggie” on the matchbook for a mail order sheepskin?

Global Warming/Climate Change proponents along with “…researchers in nutrition, obesity and chronic disease have gone wrong so often…” because their goal isn’t knowledge, but to control the behavior of a given community to suit their beliefs, the Do-gooder Syndrome for many, a darker reason for others.

AT LAST!  “Good Eats” for Conservatives!

FINALLY! A job for Al Gore….frog bathing!

OH NO!  It’s gotta be those damnned Apples and Raisins!

Imagine the things this fella could tell us - 

Who Cares?  Somebody melt some butter….

Sept 11 “not that terrible” says Doris Lessing    

(From the UK Telegraph Online for October 23, 2007. By Iain Gray & Agencies)

Doris Lessing, the Nobel Prize winning British author, has called the attacks on New York on Sept 11, 2001, “not that terrible” compared to the campaign of terror waged by the IRA in the UK.

“September 11th was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn’t that terrible”, she told Spanish newspaper El Pais.

“Some Americans will think I’m crazy.  Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor extradordinary as they think.  They’re a very naive people, or pretend to be” she said of the Americans.

“Do you know what people forget?  That the IRA attacked with bombs against our government”.

Nearly 3000 people were killed in the Sept 11 attacks of 2001.  More than 3500 died and thousands more were injured in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.

Lessing, the author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, also poured scorn on Tony Blair and George W Bush.

“I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning, she said,  “Many of us hated Tony Blair.  I think he’s been a disaster for Britain and we have suffered him for many years.  I said it when he was elected, ‘This man is a little showman who is going to cause us problems’”, and he did.

“As for Bush, he’s a world calamity.  Everyone is tired of this man.  Either he is stupid, or he is very clever, although you have to remember that he is a member of a social class that has profited from wars”.

Lessing is 87.  Her life has spanned the beginning of the end of the British Empire to the wars against radical Islamism.  She’s written some perceptive stuff, like “The Good Terrorist”,  but like all lefties, reformed or unreformed Communists, she has enormous, destructive blind spots.  It’s her “social class” that has run Britain from Great Britain to inhabitated, North Atlantic chalk deposit, and her own”social class”, the uppers, suffered more deaths per capita in Britain’s wars than any other.  Be honest, Doris.  She doesn’t like Blair because he’s New rather than Old, Labor.

*Headlines suggested by “The Liberal Journalists’ Guide to Reporting The Subconscious (or)  Ten  Rules for Reporting  The Unsaid,  The Un-Meant, and Undisclosed Thoughts”. 1989.   Left Book Club. 

A Nov. 2008 win for Hillary and Dems will produce just that result. Rangel is planning how to start.

I posted about this on 10/14 this year. Rangel fleshed out his proposal using your flesh and blood. You can bet your SSI (a modest amount) that the illegals and the boys in the ‘hood will not pay more.

Rangel on the Fringe

For the entire year House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel has promised a bill to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax by raising $850 billion in other taxes. Now it appears we will finally see his handiwork this week. Mr. Rangel has enjoyed keeping the public guessing about the details, but what he intends is no surprise. He wants to raise taxes instead of simply repealing a tax that Congress never intended to levy on 23 million middle class taxpayers. Mr. Rangel would like to raise the tax on capital gains and dividends, perhaps by taxing all income at the high “ordinary income” rate…[snip]…will call for a 4% surcharge on individual adjusted gross income over $150,000 a year, tax private equity fees at ordinary income rates, and assume expiration of the Bush tax cuts…[snip]

Chairman Rangel insists it is not about the money. He wants a system with fewer tax rates, which is fine with him as long as most of them are higher. [snip]

If Mr. Rangel truly worried about the economic vitality of New York City and the country, he might take steps to shore up Wall Street’s status as the world financial center. Instead, the one thing he has promised to do is raise taxes on private equity to drive that business elsewhere.

Could this be too much even for Mr. Rangel’s fellow Democrats? Speaker Pelosi is pressuring Mr. Rangel to introduce a bill that does exactly what he says he would not do, which is to continue the annual charade in which Congress offers AMT relief one year at time. [snip]

When the tax rates rise on capital gains and dividends, investment slows. Every time these rates are changed, the economy has gone into a mild to severe recession.

Of course Rangel will tell you not everyone partakes, therefore the system is unfair. Some people invest, others buy flat screen TV’s; open an IRA or buy that new car. The constituency Rangel preaches to wish to spend money not earn it. If the government gives them the money, so much the better; “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!” Vote for Me!

That kind of increase in money won’t go to reducing the deficit or the debt. Instead you will see more pork spending. These wastrels honor themselves since we’re not so inclined.

[snip] Take for example the roll call vote on Sen. Jim DeMint’s amendment to kill a provision in the Senate Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill directing $2 million to three construction projects for a college in Harlem. The South Carolina Republican’s amendment would have struck the provision first inserted in the legislation by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. All three projects are named for Rangel. [snip]

But when it came time to vote on this crude effort by Rangel to use tax dollars to promote himself, it was preserved on a 61-34 vote.

The 2008 election will make a huge difference; unfortunately the opposition party in DC is not really an opposition party. They are just dividing the spoils. We need primaries for every race the in which the GOP is running.

Oink! Oink! Senate Republicans still slobbering over earmarks

WASHINGTON (News) - Democrats might want to keep in mind the old rule in politics that you never stop an opponent while he’s committing suicide. They are about to have the distinct pleasure of watching a slew of Senate Republicans jump off a political cliff. [snip]

Take for example the roll call vote on Sen. Jim DeMint’s amendment to kill a provision in the Senate Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill directing $2 million to three construction projects for a college in Harlem.

The South Carolina Republican’s amendment would have struck the provision first inserted in the legislation by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. All three projects are named for Rangel.

But when it came time to vote on this crude effort by Rangel to use tax dollars to promote himself, it was preserved on a 61-34 vote. Two Democrats — Sen. Evan Bayh, Ind., and Sen. Russ Feingold, Wis. — voted for the DeMint amendment…[snip]

16 GOP Senators voted for the pork: Alexander—Tennessee, Bond—Missouri, Cochran and Lott—Mississippi, Collins—Maine, Craig—Idaho, Domenici–New Mexico, Hagel–Nebraska, Hatch–Utah, Lugar–Indiana, Murkowski and Stevens–Alaska, Shelby–Alabama, Specter–Pennsylvania, Voinovich—Ohio, and Warner–Virginia.

No New England Donk Senator voted no; they spend everything and would print more money if they could get away with it.

Sanders-VT votes for all government spending, at least he is truthful about it. He a communist, prefers the tern Progressive, who wants government running everything. Leahy-VT on the other hand, says he wants a democratic form of government, but votes like Sanders every chance he gets.

Four of the 16 GOP senators are leaving the senate: Craig, Domenici, Hagel and Lugar. Craig’s seat will be filled by a Conservative. Domenici is a toss up. Hagel and Lugar found they would not get past a primary, so ta-ta.

Collins has a fight; MoveOn has targeted her re-election. Any change with Collins seat would be cosmetic. She is as liberal as Leahy is.

Unless there is a big change in the philosophical makeup of who’s running, expect more of the same. If the above gang of RINO’s quit, the GOP picks up a different look and clout.

While you’re here, say hello to Juan. They are voting tomorrow to let him and his extended family have amnesty. Why he may even move in next door and diversify your neighborhood, overnight!

Welch caters to flatlanders over long time residents. Sanders waffles better than an IHOP cook.

Let us not forget the campaign donations benefiting the elected position.

Earlier this week, by a 52-42 margin, senators voted to table an amendment (SA 3277) sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) to the commerce, justice, and science (CJS) spending bill (H.R. 3093), which, if adopted, would have prevented Federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants from being awarded to states and municipalities with sanctuary policies in place. It is believed that if the Vitter amendment had been adopted, most cities would have stopped providing sanctuary to illegal aliens in order to retain COPS funding.

Recently, Illegals ran from the Lowe’s construction site in South Burlington over to the Hannaford parking lot were ICE arrested them. Contractors deny hiring them instead of Vermonters, yet they are on the job site. How does that happen?

By hiring illegals, the contractors avoid Workmen Comp payments, income tax thus increasing the bottom line. Pay them in cash; if they get hurt, tough darts. According to Bernie, this is a UGE! problem, because, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” He still votes for the program however.

Farmers are crying poverty, hire illegals and now collect high milk prices. Again, Vermonters take the hit from two directions, more costly milk, and fewer jobs. Illegals get housing and low wages, again no worker comp or income tax. Vermonters cannot afford to work for wages that low; we’re required to pay taxes and pay rent; we have to buy our own health care. The illegals aren’t paying taxes and high rents and don’t have to pay for health care. For them IT’S FREE! We pay for them.

We have Senator Leahy coming back to Vermont, getting on the WVMT Charlie & Ernie talk show, telling us how the pork is benefits the state. Am I not a swell guy he asks?

Meanwhile, the state is losing good jobs and pay, students leave the state after school, never to return and taxes go up because of that compassionate gang called a legislature gives away your tax dollars.

Giving affront to the workers still left in Vermont, our Congressional poobahs vote to allow illegals to acquire their jobs, while the state legislature raises the sales and property taxes.

This next amnesty allows illegal children to become legal, AND THEN bring all the relatives who promptly get every social benefit existing and anything more the Donks can fabricate. All compensated for by the tax dollar of residents who are put out of work by these self same illegals.

How will this help Vermont? Ask Leahy and Sanders how; they will vote for the Dream Act coming up in the Senate just as soon as Harry Reid can sneak it on to the floor. Welch said he will vote for the bill in the House. Each vote cuts the bottom line for businesses by allowing cheap labor to enter the work force as farm labor without going through H2-B.

The high tech employers desire fast track green cards for skilled workers through H1-B which push our college post grads out of their field of work by age 30. The reason is lower wages and employees that are more compliant.

…60 leading international climate change experts recently wrote a letter to urge Canada’s new Prime Minster to carefully review global warming policies, warning that “Climate change is real’ is a meaningless phrase used repeatedly by activists…

British Judge Bruises Al Gore’s Movie

Critics of “An Inconvenient Truth” include Al Gore’s political opponents, global warming skeptics and even rank-and-file scientists. But the former vice president waited until today for a detailed review from a high court in Britain.

Asked to ban the film from secondary schools, Judge Michael Burton refused, as long as “serious scientific inaccuracies, political propaganda and sentimental mush” were explained at screenings, Agence France-Presse reported.

The bill of particulars that he issued, posted to the Web site of the plaintiff’s political party, had 11 points. Here’s the first and possibly most stinging, courtesy of The Times of London:

Al Gore: A sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of either West Antarctica or Greenland “in the near future”.

The judge’s finding: “This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore’s ”wake-up call“. It was common ground that if Greenland melted it would release this amount of water - “but only after, and over, millennia.”

In an e-mail obtained by The New York Times in March, Al Gore answered earlier criticisms that were echoed by the judge today. Here’s a few excerpts from William J. Broad’s article:

Mr. Gore, in an e-mail exchange about the critics, said his work made “the most important and salient points” about climate change, if not “some nuances and distinctions” scientists might want. “The degree of scientific consensus on global warming has never been stronger,” he said, adding, “I am trying to communicate the essence of it in the lay language that I understand.”

But is his work fundamentally accurate?

Stewart Dimmock Challenges the World According to Gore

[snip] Gore and his allies pretend all serious-minded scientists agree with them and that only simpletons or charlatans disagree. [snip]

Al Gore and other global warming enthusiasts are fond of reciting that 2,611 scientists have signed a letter stating that global warming poses a serious and real threat. Yet, only about one in ten of the so-called 2611 scientists had scientific expertise. And only 5 out the 2,611 so-called scientists had training in climate, weather or other atmospheric sciences. That is less than 1/2 of one percent. Excuse me, for being underwhelmed.

Perhaps more revealing is that Gore’s list of “scientists” included landscape architects, psychologists, lawyers, a philosopher, a dermatologist, a gynecologist, and a diplomat. On this flimsy basis, as only Al Gore can, he tells us that the “debate is over” and that there is complete agreement.

The truth is that more than 17,000 scientists (not landscape architects, dermatologists or diplomats) have signed a petition stating, in part, that “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.” This petition was circulated by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, an independent research foundation that is not funded by industry. This petition was signed by more than 2,100 physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, and environmental scientists and by more than another 4,400 scientists with expertise on carbon dioxide’s effects on plant and animal life.

An inconvenient truth that Gore has failed to reveal are his low grades in Environmental Science when he was in college. [snip]

That’s not all. Gore lied about living on a farm; in 1984, he didn’t work to defeat “big” tobacco. Of course we can thank him for the internet, right?