NC Media Watch

Could this have anything to do with Google supporting the AGW hoax?

Russ Steele

C/Net has this story:

Though Google remains firmly on top of the search engine market, it's shed market share to Microsoft over the past year, according to data released last week by research firm Compete.

Looking at the overall search engine market from May 2010 to May 2011, Compete found that Google has lost close to 16 percent of its share, dropping to 63.6 percent from 73.9 percent. At the same time, Microsoft grew its share by 75 percent, jumping to 17 percent from 9.7 percent.

Once Google started funding a team of scientist dedicated to challenging "the deniers," of global warming, I switched to Bing as my primary search engine. Yes, I still use google some times, but it is no longer on my start up page. Bing is my start up paage every day.  I am hoping that other rational people reject Google and their support for Al Gore religious cult of anthropogenic global warming.

Exit Question:  Are you a Bing or Google search engine user?  Both?

Book review: Lies, Damned Lies, and Science

John Krivacic, NorCal Tea Party, Truth In Science Committee

To Evaluate Claims Based on Science

If you have ever felt confused, frustrated or needed more information on scientific issues discussed in the news, emails or magazines, then you need to read “Lies, Damned Lies, and Science” by Sherry Seethaler, (FT Press Science, 2009) to learn how to evaluate those issues carefully.

Purpose of Review

The reviewer presents this book as a set of tools to be applied to considering claims based on science.  The readers are encouraged to read the book for application of the tools.  This review provides justification to reading the book.

Review of the Book

The book is a presentation of a set of tools to use in considering science claims.  The tools are presented with examples of application.  The level of detail discussed is not at the fundamentals of efficient thinking level, but is at a supportive level for efficient thinking.  The author prefaces by stating “My goal in writing this book is to help people make sense of the science-related issues that impact their daily lives.”  She realizes this goal through discussion and application of the tools.  There are ten chapters, each describing a tool with the final tool #10 describing how to decide which of the nine tools to use for a particular issue.

Science consists of collecting data from observations, experimentation, or both; analyzing this data; developing interpretations; and validating the conclusions with other observations.  The author’s approach is to discuss the reasons for the tools and for applying them to each of these science stages. The author provides tables and charts to further clarify the use of the tools and try to provide the reader with understanding under what principles or gaps the tool would expose. 

Prop 23 Update: Rate Companies are Leaving CA is Accelerating (Updated)

Russ Steele

This came in over the e-mail transom from a regular reader the other day and It got buried in the mulch pile of mail. According to an article in the Orange County Register:

The pace of companies moving partly or completely out of California has accelerated in 2011, according to Irvine business relocation expert Joe Vranich.

Through June 16, 129 California companies have moved jobs, work and/or headquarters out of state, says Vranich who has been tracking what he calls "disinvestment events" for three years. That is 60 more since his last round-up April 15.

On average, 5.4 businesses are moving jobs, work and/or headquarters out of California each week, compared to 3.9 such moves per week in 2010, says Irvine business relocation expert Joe Vranich

So far this year, the departures average 5.4 a week, compared to 3.9 a week in 2010 and one a week in 2009, Vranich says.

In the debate over Prop 23 our local left assured us that his would not happen. In fact they claimed that companies would be flocking to California to create a plethora of "green jobs." Well the green jobs were just a myth and the simple fact is the rate that companies are leaving the state is accelerating.

Update (06-20-11, 06:55) Rebane's ruminations has an list of "green companies" that are leaving or expanding out side California here.

Cost of CARB: Fuel price turbulance

Russ Steele 

With Brent Crude prices staying up around $117 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate falls to about $93 a barell, the diesel price downward trend has been broken. US and CA diesel prices are ticking back up while Nevada County continues the downward trend.  On the other hand US gas prices continue to fall, but leveling off in CA and Nevada County.  Seem to be some turbulance in the fuel market.

 

 

What climate change can we expect from a Grand Minimum?

Russ Steele

With three studies concluding that the sun is going quiet, and sun spots will be vanishing, we are left wondering what that will mean to our families in the coming decades. 

The last time sunspots vanished from the sun for decades was during the Maunder Minimum from 1645 to 1700 AD was marked by drastic cooling of the climate and the maximum cold of the Little Ice Age.  Millions starved to death as crops failed around the world.

If you are truly interested please read The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850, by Brian Fagan, especially the chapters on the Maunder Minimum. The book is available in both paperback and Kindle editions from Amazon. Select the thumbnail on the left side of the screen and it will take you to Amazon.

Driving the local left up the wall

Russ Steele

Congressman Tom McClintock seem to cause great angst among our local population of liberals when ever he speaks.  His comments on "Time to abolish redevelopment agencies," got every one excited.  As Tom points our these slush funds are often abused by local political leaders. Yes, Grass Valley is going to use their redevelopment funds on Dorsey Drive interchange, but not until it looked like they were going to lose the funds to Governor Brown did they commit them to the Dorsey Drive project.

Congressman McClintock wll be speaking at the Republican Leadership Conference today.  His speech will be carried in CSPAN at 9 AM Pacific Time and 1 PM Eastern Time.  It should be an interesting speech given resent political events and local reaction to his views on redevelopment agencies.

Comments are welcome below, I am not going to be near a TV at 9 AM Pacific time.  Let's hope there will be YouTube version of the speach.

Over E-mail Transom: Reality Check from Walter Williams

Russ Steele

This came in over the e-mail transom for a regular reader of this blog. Walter Williams makes some powerful arguments that no matter who the Republicans offer up as a presidential candidate Obama is a shoo in.  I would be interested in your counter arguments, if there are any?

By Dr. Walter Williams
 
Can President Obama be defeated in 2012?  No.  He can't.    I am going on record as saying that President Barak Obama will win a second term.
 
The media won't tell you this because a good election campaign means hundreds of millions (or in Obama's case billions) of dollars to them in advertising.
 
But the truth is, there simply are no conditions under which Barak Obama can be defeated in 2012.

The quality of the Republican candidate doesn't matter.  Obama gets reelected.  Nine percent unemployment?  No problem.  Obama will win.  Gas pricesmoving toward five dollars a gallon?  He still wins.  The economy soars or goes into the gutter.  Obama wins.  War in the Middle East?  He wins a second term.
 
America's role as the leading Superpower disappears?  Hurrah for Barak Obama!  The U.S. government rushes toward bankruptcy, the dollar continues to sink on world markets and the price of daily goods and services soars due to inflation fueled by Obama's extraordinary deficit spending?  Obama wins handily.
 
You are crazy Williams.  Don't you understand how volatile politics can be when overall economic, government, and world conditions are declining?  Sure I do.
 
And that's why I know Obama will win.  The American people are notoriously ignorant of economics.  And economics is the key to why Obama should be defeated.
 
Even when Obama's policies lead the nation to final ruin, the majority of the American people are going to believe the bait-and-switch tactics Obama and his supporters in the media will use to explain why it isn't his fault.  After all, things were much worse than understood when he took office.
 
Obama's reelection is really a very, very simple math problem.  Consider the following:
 
1) Blacks will vote for Obama blindly.  Period.  Doesn't matter what he does.  It's a race thing.  He's one of us,
 
2) College educated women will vote for Obama.  Though they will be offended by this, they swoon at his oratory.  It's really not more complex than that,
 
3) Liberals will vote for Obama.  He is their great hope,
 
4) Democrats will vote for Obama.  He is the leader of their party and his coat tails will carry them to victory nationwide,
 
5) Hispanics will vote for Obama.  He is the path to citizenship for those who are illegal and Hispanic leaders recognize the political clout they carry in the Democratic Party,
 
6) Union members will vote overwhelmingly for Obama.  He is their key to money and power in business, state and local politics,
 
7) Big Business will support Obama.  They already have.  He has almost $1 Billion dollars in his reelection purse gained largely from his connections with Big Business and is gaining more everyday.  Big Business loves Obama because he gives them access to taxpayer money so long as they support his social and political agenda,
 
8) The media love him.  They may attack the people who work for him, but they love him.  After all, to not love him would be racist,
 
9) Most other minorities and special interest groups will vote for him.  Oddly, the overwhelming majority of Jews and Muslims will support him because they won't vote Republican.  American Indians will support him.  Obviously homosexuals tend to vote Democratic.  And lastly,
 
10) Approximately half of independents will vote for Obama.  And he doesn't need anywhere near that number because he has all of the groups previously mentioned.  The President will win an overwhelming victory in 2012. 
 
 --  Dr. Walter Williams

Exit Question:  Is Dr Williams analysis credible?

So that’s where all the jobs went!!

Russ Steele

If you are in California you are in the wrong state.

Texas added 37% of all net U.S. jobs since the recovery began two years ago, yet advocates believe the core impulse of the current administration is to make America less like Texas and more like California. Is there a historic mistake being made?

More here. It is Texas turn to lead us out of the depression!  In the past California had lead the nation's recovery from past depressions, why not now?  Ask your Legislator!

Prop 23 Update: AB32 is all about pollution pork

Russ Steele

The Cal Political News has the story:

On June 2 the California State Senate passed a new bill, SB 535, the California Communities Healthy Air Revitalization Trust Act, by state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). It is currently being heard in the Assembly.

It would require “at least” 10 percent of any revenue generated under the Cap and Trade portion of AB 32 that kicks in around 2012 to be used in “disadvantaged communities for greenhouse gas emission reduction projects, mitigation of health impact of climate change, and support for green collar jobs.”

As proposed, SB 535 would require air excise taxes or rents to be transferred from smoggy agricultural areas such as Visalia, Porterville, Fresno, Merced and Bakersfield to coastal low-income industrial communities that enjoy clean air, such as Oakland, Alameda, and Oxnard.

The auction of pollution credits under the Cap and Trade program is projected to generate a minimum of $100 million in the first year and higher amounts afterward.  Under SB 535, $10 million would go toward green jobs in communities supposedly suffering from more pollution than other California communities.

And, you thought AB32 was all about saving the plant from global warming. No, it was about creating special interest slush funds, which you the tax payer are footing the bill.  With cooling on the way, how much longer can these slush fund rent seeker push there CO2 global warming hoax on you?  SB 535 is in the Assembly, let's hope we can de-rail this environmentalist robbery.

BREAKING – Sun’s Fading Spots Signal Big Drop in Solar Activity

Russ Steele

The American Astronomical Society is meeting a Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM, and promised a big announcement today and here it is:

“If we are right, this could be the last solar maximum we’ll see for a few decades,” Hill said. “That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth’s climate.”


This graphic is from Anthony Watts blog Watts Up With That showing the trends that will result in the loss of sun spots as we know them.

This from Space.com

• Some unusual solar readings, including fading sunspots and weakening magnetic activity near the poles, could be indications that our sun is preparing to be less active in the coming years.

• The results of three separate studies seem to show that even as the current sunspot cycle swells toward the solar maximum, the sun could be heading into a more-dormant period, with activity during the next 11-year sunspot cycle greatly reduced or even eliminated.

In the past a less active sun has resulted in a cooler earth and during the Maunder Minimum, it brought on a mini-iceage. Here are some links to information on the Maunder Minimum at The Dalton Minimum Returns:

Maunder Minimum 1740—replay in 2020? (Updated)

Synchronized Northern Hemisphere climate change and solar magnetic cycles during the Maunder Minimum

Chilling Evidence: No Spots by 2015

There will be more information and discussion at Watts Up With That. I will be writing more on the long term implications of a return of a Grand Minimum.