Down the memory hole

The was geek cool chic back in the day. Anybody remember how to use a sliderule? Ingenious devices.
Slip one of these babies into your plastic pocket protector!

(Photo credit: The Slide Rule Museum.)

Climate change consensus

I'm in Philadelphia today where the temperature is preparing to soar to 99°.
Must be global warming, right?
Oh, wait, it's snowing today in Washington and Idaho. Must be global cooling, right?
Here's a link to an interesting article on the real scientific consensus regarding global warming over at Pirates Cove.

Childhood's End

Another one of the giants of science fiction's golden age is no longer among us. Arthur C. Clarke was 90 when he died today at his home in Sri Lanka. News accounts here, here, and here.
Clarke was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction. He's probably best known as author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but he also developed the concept behind the constellation of communications satellites that ring our planet 23,000 miles above the equator. His idea of a space elevator in Fountains of Paradise has always been one of my favorites, and with the development of carbon nanotubes is now within the realm of possibility.

(Photo from BoingBoing showing Clarke and friends on his 90th birthday.)

DOOM! – details at 11

It appears more people are beginning to consider that Al Gore's Theory of Global Warming and Carbon Credits to Assuage your Liberal/Green Guilt scam lunacy may, after all, be an inconvenient untruth. Christopher Taylor offers up a very interesting post on the reportage of climate change over more than a century that proves the point that the news media's cry of "Doom!" every time the temperatures goes up/down/sideways is nothing new; it's what they do.

The truth is, climate change has always been with us, because the only thing we can predict about the weather is that it will change. That's what makes it weather: it's different from time to time. Over the long term, it can vary from warm to cool, dry to wet, and so on. We'll get more storms a while, then fewer, that's how it works. What we cannot conclude is that we're all going to die in some tremendous climate catastrophe unless we all stop driving SUVs and buy Al Gore's carbon credits.

Are we on this Good Earth going through climate change? Of course we are; variability is a basic ingredient to climate. The larger question is how much does mankind's presence impact climate. When one volcanic eruption dwarf's the entire "carbon footprint" of mankind since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, one has to consider that we are not that significant in the grand scheme. It seems to me solar cycles and tectonic activity are far more important drivers of Earth's climate.

And while we're on the subject of debunking that Oscar-winning Wingnut, Al Gore, my favorite gun-totin', goat ropin' blogger, Stacy makes Weather Channel founder John Coleman her Manly Man for this week, for having the stones to call out Al Gore and his Carbon Offsets for the fraud they are. So says Stacy:

Mr. Coleman however, has been tossed aside by the MSM (sarcastic gasp goes here). They refuse to listen to this man who was actually educated in meteorology, and instead, worship at the feet of a politician. Mr. Coleman’s desire to continue this fight, and force an intellectual debate has him contemplating legal action.

Mr. Coleman's views have not been exactly embraced at the Weather Channel either. A shame that what should be a lively intellectual exercise into real scientific research is instead deigned to be dogma.

What say you?

Those wacky environmentalists

The global warming crowd soldiers on despite growing evidence that forces bigger than human effort affect our climate. You know, like the Sun. Seems Old Sol may be taking a holiday, something that last occurred in the early 1800s (The "Year without a summer".) Investor's Business Daily has an editorial on the topic of the Maunder Minimum. (h/t Newmark's Door)

An interesting aspect of the solar activity study is that another Canadian scientist would have those researchers locked up for heresy against the Global Warming Lord and Savior, Al Gore. Of course, once his intemperate comments began circulating around the blogosphere and even the MSM, Dr. Suzuki, through a spokesperson said he didn't really mean it. Over at Dr. Suzuki's site, I can find no mention of this kerfuffle.

Meanwhile, at Depleted Cranium (another tip of the hat to Betsy's husband) there's a thoughtful piece that takes environmentalists to task for identifying problems but not offering reasonable solutions.

In our area, a group has taken up the cause of battling against the construction of a wind farm in what they call a pristine wilderness. The area, known as Shaffer Mountain offers fine hunting and fishing, but considering the land is owned by a coal company (which has already mined most of the coal), calling it "pristine" is a bit of a stretch. Leaders of this group reject the NIMBY (not in my back yard) label, but it seems to me that is exactly the point. Another wind farm project located just a few miles from the campus where I work has certainly changed the skyline (see the title banner at the top of this page), and a few folks who live on that isolated patch of mountainside have complained of noise from some of the turbines. In general, most folks around here view the turbines as attributes to the region. The development company Gamesa, based in Spain, has opened a huge factory in our county to manufacture the turbine blades. That's jobs folks.

One final note, ATTENTION Al Gore – it's freakin' 14° outside (an improvement over last night's -1°) – where's your global warming now?

Crazy!

Well now, this explains everything about why I am as I am. (h/t Glenn Reynelds)

From the article, "Scientists have wondered for a long time why madness and creativity seem linked. It appears likely that low levels of latent inhibition and exceptional flexibility in thought might predispose to mental illness under some conditions and to creative accomplishment under others."

WARNING: This post contains massive amounts of geekery

An Israeli scientist has developed a process that allows one to reshape images while preserving the proper aspect of picture elements. Here's a video clip that explains the concept. (Hat tip to TechCrunch via WebbAlert.)


This is still a work in progress. If it can be made to work with video, the doors will really open to repurposing content for platforms as diverse as HDTV and the little screen on your cell phone.