NC Media Watch

Thirty two inches of snow in one of the driest places on earth

Russ Steele

My mother and father lived for two years in Iquiqe Chile. My dad was supervising the building of sardine fishing boats in the early 60s. They visited the Atacama Desert, where the average rain fall is less than .004 inches per year, often going without rainfall for years. Some places in the Atacama Desert have not had rainfall for over 400 years. According to my mother,  "the air sucked the moisture from your skin."

A recent cold wave in Chile brought 32 inches of snow to the Atacama desert. The region has not seen this amount of snow in close to 20 years.

Yes, this was weather but it may be a precursor to climate change over the next 20 years. Stay Tuned.

This reminds me of some of the discussion on this blog

When the data does not support your agenda - Truncate!

Russ Steele

With the all the data sources on the Internet, why does the left truncated data that does not support their agenda when writing reports and studies?  Reports that are promoted in press releases. Do they really thing that this deception will not be discovered? Or, are they confident that a compliant press will not investigate the deception?

KQED Climate Watch is promoting a recent report on sea level rise, they quote a report by the Pacific Institue on sea level rise in San Francisco Bay.  Here is a link to the report.

Go to page 6 of the report. The original version of the report truncated the data in 2000 even though data was available through 2010.  I brought this discrepancy to the attention of the authors, and they updated the graphic to 2010, but the title says 2006. More details here.  Sea level rise is declining in San Francisco Bay, not rising.

We found out during Climategate that Dr. Briffa truncated his tree ring data that did not support the warmer agenda. Details here.

The Public Policy Institute of California claims that jobs are not leaving California and as proof they use data from 1992-2006. Here are the details in a report from HealthyCal.org

Public Policy Institute of California has shown that relatively few jobs move into or out of the state in any given year. Although numbers are not available for the most recent years, data for 1992 through 2006 showed that about 16,000 jobs per year moved into California from elsewhere while 25,000 moved out. That’s a net decline of about 9,000 jobs per year, a tiny fraction of the state’s base of more than 15 million jobs overall.

AB32 was not signed until 2006, which was five years ago. Is 2006 the best jobs data that PPIC could come up with, or did they just truncate the data to support the idea that jobs are not leaving the state. 

Exit Question: Why does the left think they can trucated tha data and not get caught?

Over the e-mail transom: A Tale of Coyote Economics

Russ Steele

Everyday e-mail can be pain, filled with spam, but some time a jewel arrives worth sharing. Here is one of those jewels:

California:

The Governor is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.  A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor's dog,  then bites the Governor.                   

1.  The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and
then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.

2.  He calls animal control.  Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the
State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

3.  He calls a veterinarian.  The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State
$200 testing it for diseases.

4.  The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases
from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.

5.  The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a
$100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.

6.  The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness
program" for residents of the area.

7.  The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies
and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.

8.  The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack.  The
State spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special
training re:  the nature of coyotes.

9. PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files a $5 million suit against the
State.
 
Montana :

The Governor is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.  A Coyote
jumps out and attacks his dog.

1. The Governor shoots the coyote with his State-issued pistol and keeps
jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.

2. The Buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Montana is not.

H/T to regular reader of this blog!

Top 25 of the 50 People Who Matter in 2010

Russ Steele

Interesting, last year Barack Obama was #1 in the New Statesman’s Top 50 and now he has slipped to #2.  Look who is #3, Iran’s nutcase.  Google is #9 and Sarah Palin #13 with Hillary Clinton at #25, behind Angelina Jolie at #22.  Angela Merkel at #8 is the top woman on the list. What does it mean that Steve Jobs of Apple Computer at #5 is ahead of the Pope at #6 and right under a Chinese kingpin #4.

Full list is here, where you can click on each name and get a short bio.  Steve McIntyre who operates Climate Audit is #32.  I am interested in your observations of where people rank on the list.

Administration Update: This is now a moderated blog(updated)

Russ Steele

To reduce the number of comments that are not relevant to the subject of the post, I am going to moderate the comments for a while. You may experience some delays in posting.  However, with improving cellphone technology I am able to moderate this blog while mobile over most of the US.  My apology for the delay, but I need to clean up the swamp.

I have also change the order that comments are displayed and added a threaded feature to the comments. This will help group the comments making them more relevant to the discussion. Again, my apology for any resulting confusion.

This change will be effective at 08:15 on 22 August 2010.  

Update #1: This is new experience and it may take while to smooth things out, so that every thing is fair and balanced.  I do not want to favor one side over the other. Yes, mistakes will be made, but I will try to make corrections. If you feel I was unfair my email is rwsteele(at)gmail.com

Nevada County Awarded Second Place in National Digital County Survey

Russ Steele

From the CEO Friday Memo:

Nevada County took second place in our population category this year in the national digital county survey performed by the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties (NACo). The survey measures how well county governments use digital technologies to become more efficient and to better serve their citizens. Supervisor Owens and I will be receiving the award for the County at the upcoming NACo conference this weekend.

Less than 150,000 population:

•  1st: Charles County, Md.
•  2nd: Nevada County, Calif.
•  3rd: Franklin County, Va.
• 4th: Skagit County, Wash.
•  5th: Albemarle County, Va.
•  6th: Martin County, Fla.
•  7th: Columbia County, Ga.
•  8th: Olmsted County, Minn.
•  9th: Napa County, Calif.
• 10th: Bay County, Mich.

Congratulation to Steve Monaghan and his staff. Steve has always been a leader in promoting the most effective digital technology for reducing the cost of government,  while increasing citizen access to government information. Well Done!

Tea Party Patriot Update: Awesome Documentary Viewing

Russ Steele

“We The People . . . “ every time I hear that phrase from the Declaration of Independence I know why this is such a great nation. Last night we joined a group 75-100 like minded people, including our friends George and JoAnn Rebane, on a hill top venue at the Lucchesi Winery to view the “Tea Party” documentary.  The view from the winery was spectacular, and the wine a very nice complement to the view.  

While we waited for the sun to set, their was ample opportunity to discuss the wine and share ideas with our friends and neighbors. As the November 2010 election is just around the political corner there was a lot to discuss, to do a little planning for our next tea party, and collect some action items for our to-do-lists. 

Here is a view of the early birds:

 

The Tea Party documentary was introduced by Stan Meckler from the Nevada County Tea Party Patriots. It is an in-depth chronology of how the various Tea Party groups came in to being, with profiles of the some of the east coast instigators and coordinators, culminating in a detailed review of the September 12, 2009 Tea Party in Washington DC.  Some of the west coast events and coordinators will we added to future additions of the DVD.

What an awesome event in Washington DC!  An event that was for the most part ignored by the national press, I can see why our local progressives were not impressed.  They had no idea, how large the event was or the diversity of the crowd and it’s leadership.  It was the largest gathering in Washington DC ever, according to the Park Service. One million seven hundred thousand people gathered without rioting, or destroying property, to express their concern for the future of this nation. 

Speakers from both sexes of all colors from black, brown, white and all the shades in between, spoke on restoring fiscal responsibility, limited government, free markets, respect for our Constitution and Bill of Rights. It was truly an inspiring experience to see the details, with visual evidence dispelling the myth promoted by our local progressives that the Tea Party is just nothing but a bunch of racists. 

I highly recommend that every one see this documentary of the Tea Party and then consider joining “We the People” in restoring this nation to the greatness that we all desire. Check out the Nevada County Tea Party Patriot web site for the next showing of this documentary.

See you all at the next Tea Party!

Slow posting - Our Comcast Internet Crashed

Russ Steele

Yesterday, our Comcast Internet crashed and the estimated fix is Friday PM. In the mean time we are limping along on on a tethered cellphone that I have cobbled together. Stay tuned for updates.

A morning with Nevada Union’s best and brightest (edited 05-29-10)

Russ Steele
 
One of Spring's highlights for Ellen and me is the Sierra Environmental Studies Foundation TechTest Survival Breakfast. This is the 4th year that SESF has sponsored TechTest,  and our fourth opportunity to sit down with some of Nevada County’s best and brightest high schools students.

This year all the students at the breakfast were from Nevada Union, as Bear River did not participate in TechTest2010.  The Truckee students competed for the TechTest Scholarships, with two students in the top ten, but chose not to brave Donner Pass this morning.  Past Top Ten TechTest winners also came from Truckee.

Photo of students and parents gathering at Tofanelli"s

One of the joys of the breakfast is learning about student ambitions and discuss the their vision for the future.  All but one of the students is planning on going to college. One young man has enlisted in the Air Force seeking a career in para-rescue. He wants to jump our of airplanes, and let the Air Force pay for his college education.

The top three TechTest awards this year are First Place $6,500, Second Place $4,400  and Third Place is $2,100. More details on the TechTest Program can be found on the SESF Web site here. After Award Night at the high school all the winner names and awards will be posted on the SESF Web site

This year Telestream was our first TechTest corporate sponsor and in 2011 the SESF Board of Directors will be seeking more corporate sponsors for TechTest 2011. Our goal is to increase the value of our scholarship program and to support Nevada County’s best and brightest students seeking a career in science and engineering.  They are Nevada County's future wealth creators.