NC Media Watch

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New Blog is The Next Grand Minimum

I have add another blog: Is it 2012 in Nevada County Yet?

  Before I end up like this little fellow, who has spent too much time in the “middle of the road,” it is time to move on and focus my passion on the coming global cooling. While our left leaning bloggers and political leaders are promoting anthropogenic global warming, it is clear to me that what we are really seeing is global cooling that will accelerate in the coming years. Yes, we will see warm years and cooler years but the overall trend will be a cooler and a colder planet.

Why do I believe this?  The sun is going quiet, the sunspots are declining, as are the magnetic fields which are the driving force in sunspot generation. This has been verified by multiple peer reviewed studies and supported my own investigations into past historical climate cycles. More details here. 

We are on the cusp of the next Grand Minimum and the general public is not prepared for the coming climate changes. The public is being distracted by the global warmers  and a compliant main stream media.  Billions of our tax dollars are being spent on global warming studies and the reduction of CO2, which only has a minor influence on the climate. We are being misled.

The Next Grand Minimum blog will examine the climate trends, look at the past history of grand minimums and the social and political consequences of these minimums. During past minimums, millions starved when the agriculture infrastructure was unable to feed the population and the farmers and their families perished from crop failures. While it is true that we have more modern food storage facilities, we also have billions of more mouths to feed.  Any significant reduction in the production of wheat, corn and other food gain by the bread basket nations in both hemispheres, and millions will starve every year.

This is my last post on this blog. Please join me at the Next Grand Minimum and join the discussion.  However, be warned that I am going to use the more powerful moderation tools in Wordpress to maintain more control over the comments. If a comment does not directly apply to the issues under discussion, it will never be posted. If one gets by my moderation, it will vanish with out comment. Since there will be some moderation, there may be delays in post of a comment. My apology in advance, but strict control of the comments makes the blog more readable for the majority of readers.

My other reason from moving to Wordpress is they are much more smartphone and PDA friendly. It will be much easier to read my blog on your smartphone.

Again, please join me at The Next Grand Minimum.

  H/T to Dixon for the photo.

Local Commentary: Blogs challenge local newspaper on major story

Russ Steele

Notice: All court docments referenced in this blog post are public documents and have been redacted appropriately by counsel, according to the provider.

Our local lefty blogger, who is a former editor at The Union, never misses an opportunity to bash his former employer by posting mini-scoop that an understaffed newspaper could not ferret out as timely as local blogger who has time to wander about town, or spending hours in front of the TV watching city council and board of supervisor meetings.  The Union latest offense is publishing old news that Weaver Auto owes government agencies about $700.000, facts that appeared on his blog a month ago here.  Regardless of his motivation, he makes an important point, local blogs are having an impact on how local’s get their news and commentary. 

Local blogs broke the news, and have been following, the on going corruption in the Clerk Recorders Office at the County Rood Center. However, The Union has yet to publish any of the Federal Courts findings against the County for failing to provide requested evidence, and then for destroying the very evidence that was requested. You can read the sequence of events here. This is a clear case where our local newspaper is not keeping the community informed.  Citizens are turning to local blogs here for up news dates and debate of local issues. 

While The Union is promoting it’s Town Talk open forum and the ability of reader’s to comment, they are censoring the questions submitted to Town Talk they are uncomfortable answering.  The Union is also now limiting how long readers can now comment on a column, letters to editor, or news stories to 48 hours after an item is published.  On the other hand , local blogs are discussing local issues and providing open forums for the discussion of local and national issues that have an impact on our community. Blogs are filling the gaps left by the newspaper.

My concern that this corruption story has been on KNCO and in the blogs, but The Union seems to be ignoring this important story.  How could The Union have missed this story about how the county willfully destroyed evidence in the AdPac case? Or, do they have a selective news policy that lets them pick and choose the news.  If they get to pick and choose what they report on Rood Center activities, this casts doubt on the other news in The Union about local government actions.  What other local government corruption might The Union be ignoring? Losing the trust of readers can result in a damaging economic blow to any newspaper, or even a blog that pretends to write about the news.

I guess the other surprise in this story, with a mission to scoop The Union, why has our lefty blogger has not written about this troubling situation in the Clerk/Recorders Office that the newspaper is ignoring?   Could it be because he was one of Diaz’s very vocal political supporters?  When is government corruption not news?

Note: This not a news blog it is a commentary blog, as is Rebane’s Ruminations.

Stacking the misinformation deck in the Union Comments

Russ Steele

  I do not write for The Union any more, but when I did one of the side benefits was reading the comments on my latest column by some of Nevada County's two digit IQs. It is hard to believe that some of them can make it through the day without hurting themselves.

George has posted his latest Column on the Union web site here and at Rebane's Ruminations. Be sure to read the comments at both places, but put your coffee or tea down before reading The Union comments and you will save your keyboard from spilled liquid.

Check out hatsincloset, who thinks that Social Security is secure and has not been spent by government crooks yet.  The only thing in the SS lock box are a bunch of government IOUs, the money has been spent.  

My Column on SmartMeters™ is up at CABPRO News

Russ Steele

Off the Top of My Head: SmartMeters™ -- Rational and not so rational fears
 
We live in a messy world of radio frequency energy, from the AM stations we get the morning news, FM stations that fill our day with music and news, the wireless telephones that save us many steps everyday answering the phone, and of course, our indispensable cellphones and smart phones. And then there are those radio signals we do not think about that much, the satellite signals that bring us hundreds of TV channels to the corner of our house and GPS navigation signals that guide us from point A to point B.
 
If we live near an airport the radar signals guiding airplanes to safe landings sweep by the house, and in our case, the Beale AFB Pave Paws Radar we can hear on our police scanners. Other radio signals we hear on our scanner are the police, fire, public service, and ham radio users.  Finally, let's not forget those WiFi signals that bring broadband to our laptops and Netflix movies to our Apple TV.
 
We already live in a messy radio frequency world, so why are people complaining about those tiny radio signals coming from the PG&E SmartMeters™?  Why are these specific radio signals causing so much irrational concern among the folks in Marin County? These signals are only a very small addition to the total RF spectrum that surrounds us, unless we live in a metal faraday cage designed to keep out radio signals?

Read the rest of my column here.

Blogging truce, data dictionary, and the use of words.

Russ Steele

In dealing with complex systems in my previous employment, we used data dictionaries, or metadata repositories to define important terms.  The IBM Dictionary of Computing defines such a dictionary as a "centralized repository of information about data such as meaning, relationships to other data, origin, usage, and format.”

Why did we need such and engineering tool?  We needed these tools to make sure that our customer and our engineering were all speaking the same language to describe the functions, components, or desired action of a weapon system, especially the software that controlled the hardware. As a conceptual designer and new business development manager my job was to make sure that our design team and the customer were both speaking the same language, thus the development of a data dictionary.  We wrote down the meanings of words, the relationship to the system, the usage of those works, and formats of how they would be displayed.  Then, we all signed off on the dictionary, customers and engineers.  We were in agreement. Sometimes we were dealing with a few sheets of paper or a document larger than a telephone directory.

When I attended one of the Sierra Business Council Leadership Training Seminars lead by Susan Carpenter, who was an excellent facilitator, it was evident to me that within the class the liberals and conservative were talking past each other. We were all using the same words, but those works had different meanings, depending on our political orientation. After explaining the metadata concept to Susan, we agreed to work on a metadata dictionary for future training seminars, but in our busy lives we never got together again. 

Now Steven Frisch, Sierra Business Council, has suggested a blogging truce among our local conservative and liberal bloggers and those that comment on these blogs.  His proposal can be found in this pdf: Frisch-Proposal_03_29_11rws

What happended to Union's Sustainable Living Blog?

Russ Steele

I was surfing through The Union's Blogs and discovered that the last entry on this blog was in August of 2010. 




Where are all the A.P.P.E.L people and their sustainable living ideas? 

The MC-12W at Beale AFB will not be looking into your back yard.

Russ Steele

Our local left is concerned about the deployment of the MC-12W aircraft at Beale AFB.  With only a 1,500 mile range they are worried that this Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance aircraft might be used to spy on them.

Steve Dodge
A twin engine turboprop spy plane? I wonder how they will get from Beale to Afghanistan . . . Or…are they intended to spy on local Tea Party rallies?

Gail Allinson
. . .  I too wonder what they are going to be spying on within 1500 NM of Beale AFB. Drug interdiction? . . .

Details on the deployment of the aircraft to Beale ARB appeared in the Appeal-Democrat in a story titled: Beale lands MC-12W spy plane mission

The MC-12W spy plane mission will be based at Beale Air Force Base, bringing hundreds of new airmen and greater economic impact to the surrounding region.

"This should be a shot in the arm for the Yuba-Sutter area economically," said U.S. Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, whose office announced the mission's placement Friday. "We are so excited."
With the first plane arriving in May, by July the base will have up to seven of 37 total "Liberty" planes, while the others are deployed elsewhere. The planes fly at low and medium altitudes for reconnaissance and spy missions and are piloted, unlike the Global Hawks also based at Beale.

The mission will require 555 enlisted airmen, and Herger said he would expect it will require new civilian support staff as well.Brynda Stranix, president and chief operating officer for the Yuba-Sutter Economic Development Corporation, said she expects civilian staff supporting the mission could number another 150.

Let's dig a little deeper. The MC-12W Liberty is a multi-mission aircraft.  That is what the M stands for. Most reconnaissance aircraft have an R designation such as a version used by the Army, the RC-12N Guardrail Common Sensor Program. The RC-12H is battle field signal intelligence collection system, picture in right.


USAF is buying 8 MC12W Beechcraft King Air 350S most likely for training at Beale AFB, and 27 Extended Range Special-Mission Beechcraft King Air 350ER modified for the Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) for deployment in theater.  Picture above.

The USAF intends to integrate the Gorgon Stare video capture technology into the aircraft.  Gorgon Stare looks over broad areas such as small town, and is designed to detect motion. It has a playback capability that allows the aircrew to observe a road side bomb explosion and then replay the video so see what led to that explosion.  They can also send the data via satellite to processing centers for distribution to field units.

Until now the Gorgon Stare has been used on the MQ-9 Reaper unmaned aircraft in a pod configuration, but the MQ-9 carrying Gorgon Stare must fly unarmed because of electrical power limitations.  It can only stay aloft at 20,000-25,000 ft. for only 14-15 hr., several hours less than an armed MQ-9.  Endurance is affected by drag from the pods.  Armed MQ-9s are more effective killers,  than surveillance & reconnaissance platfoms. 

The MC12W in the extended range version seems to be a better platform for the Gorgon Stare, as it has the power resources, and room for some onboard processing and display capbility, decreasing battle field response times. The King Air 350ER can fly non-stop from California to Hawaii - an important staging distance for a military aircraft lacking in-flight refuelling capability. The MQ-9 Gorgon Stare has to send the data to ground processing stations, where as the manned aircraft have the straegic advantage on-the-fly mission changes.

I do not think our local lefties will have to worry to much about the Air Forces using the MC12W to be looking into their back yards or to track Tea Party rallys, it has a much more important mission.

Jeff Who?

Russ Steele

OK I have had enough!  I have removed all of Jeff's posts for the last five days and the two post that he found offensive by Barry and Dixon.  Jeff has lost his privileges of posting on this blog. Every one of his post take us in to the borrow pit and away from the subject of the post.  I am requesting that other commenter's refrain from making personal references to Jeff. As one of our local liberal blogger's his ideas are open for discussion, but please self [snip] all the personal attacks, or I will.  

I do not want to make this a moderated blog, but one open for discussion. I just do not have time to assess every statement to find out every mention of his name will be considered libelous by Jeff.

Goodby Jeff you are gone! 

Normal Blogging to Resume - Broadband back up

Russ Steele''

After a day of now broadband it is now back up and I can now try to regain control of the comment section. We are still on generator and the tree man is coming at noon tomorrow.  Thing are looking up.

Copyright and re-post ruling.

 Russ Steele

When I find an important article I am inclined to post the full length text. Our local former newspaper editor took exception to his practice, unless I had the permission of the author. Now a judge has ruled that it is OK for non-profit organizations to re-post full length articles that appear in news outlets.

Details from the MIT Technology Review:

Las Vegas-based lawfirm Righthaven has been suing everyone from bloggers to commenters -- anyone who has posted even a portion of the text or images to which it owns the rights. Righthaven doesn't actually make anything, they just buy the rights to stories and images that have gone viral on the web.

Now, according to the Las Vegas Sun, Righthaven has scored what Ars Technica aptly describes as an "own goal": Not only did a Federal judge reject Righthaven's case against the non-profit Center for Intercultural Organizing, the judge also declared that non-profits may re-print entire articles from news outlets under certain circumstances.

The decision hinges on the portion of Fair Use law that declares that it's all right to re-distribute a piece of content as long as it doesn't hurt the market for the original content.

This blog is certainly a non-profit operation, and I am not competing in the same markets. From the ruling, it appears I can post more full length articles in the future without out too much legal worries.   However, I will only post a full length article if I think it is important enough to my blog readers to have the full text.