| Good thing too. Irrespective of what you may think about our current constitution, it has always been understood that governors-general are vice-royalty. Hence terms like vice-regal to describe their role and function. They deputise for the real royalty.From this morning's The Australian:FOLLOWING the triumphant tour of Australia by its potential future king, Prince William, the Queen has reasserted her claim on the title "head of state" of Australia by using it in the announcement of her address to the UN in July.Despite the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, being dispatched to Africa by the Rudd government last year under the description "Australia's head of state", yesterday a spokesman for Kevin Rudd avowed that the Queen held that position.The title fight -- pitting the two female leaders, the sovereign and her representative, head to head -- revives a debate that raged around the republic referendum more than a decade ago.The trigger for the confusion is the announcement by Buckingham Palace that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be addressing the UN General Assembly in July as Australia's "head of state", a statement that has taken Canberra's diplomats, officials and constitutional combatants by surprise.In recent years, particularly after the debate and referendum on a republic in 1999, the local convention has been to recognise that the Governor-General is Australia's head of state and that Elizabeth II is our sovereign.Full article here |
Friday, February 12, 2010
Her Majesty the Queen of Australia puts an upstart in her place
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Anthony Watts teaches Tim Lambert a thing or two about civility and manners
I did get a chuckle though from a response posted by another blog honored on the list.
Deltoid
by Tim Lambert
Stimulating musings on the environment and the social implications of science, though Lambert’s background is actually in computing.
He wrote of his own blog’s inclusion:
If they are going to include my blog on their list of the top 30 science blogs, I can’t help but link to them. There are some good blogs on their list which is only marred by the inclusion of Anthony Watts’ anti-science blog.
Heh. I’ll simply offer my congratulations to Mr. Lambert, and to the other blogs on the list. I’ll also wish Mr. Lambert well in his upcoming debate with Lord Monckton. That should be interesting and fun to watch, no matter what side of consensus you live on.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/11/wuwt-named-to-top-30-science-blogs-by-the-times/#more-16332
Great moments in 'alternative' medicine
A civil servant suffered cancer and kidney failure after taking pills containing a banned substance sold by a Chinese herbal shop to clear up spots on her face, a court heard today. Patricia Booth took the medicine bought at a shop in Chelmsford, Essex, for five and a half years, a jury was told. The Chinese Herbal Medical Centre advertised its products as ‘safe and natural and without side effects’, the Old Bailey heard.
But Mrs Booth was taken ill just months after she stopped taking the pills, which were found to contain the banned substance aristolochic acid, the court was told. Mrs Booth's health deteriorated to such an extent that her kidneys ‘were destroyed’, she developed cancer, and suffered a heart attack. She now visits hospital three times a week for dialysis and was be unable to attend court, instead giving evidence via videolink, jurors heard. Ying ‘Susan’ Wu, 48, of Holland-on-Sea, Essex, denies a series of charges relating to the sale of the medicine to Mrs Booth. She and shop owner Thin ‘Patrick’ Wong, 47, of Southend, deny further counts of possession of medicines without authorisation. Full article here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1249980/Patricia-Booth-suffered-cancer-kidney-failure-taking-Chinese-herbal-acne-pills.htmlGISS fiddles Australian surface temperature record (again)
This issue was also recently covered on the Climategate blog here
Introduction
Despite its assurances, GISS has adjusted the temperature records of two sites at Mackay to reverse a cooling trend in one and increase a warming trend in another. This study presents evidence that this is not supportable and is in fact an instance of manipulation of data.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/11/giss-adjustments-in-australia/
Editor of Nature forced to resign from climate review panel
Within hours of the launch of an independent panel to investigate claims that climate scientists covered up flawed data on temperature rises, one member has been forced to resign after sceptics questioned his impartiality.
// In an interview last year with Chinese State Radio, enquiry panel member Philip Campbell, editor-in-chief of Nature said: “The scientists have not hidden the data. If you look at the emails there is one or two bits of language that are jargon used between professionals that suggest something to outsiders that is wrong.”
He went on: “In fact the only problem there has been is on some official restrictions on their ability to disseminate data otherwise they have behaved as researchers should.”
Dr Campbell, was invited to sit on the enquiry panel because of his expertise in the peer review process as editor of one of the world’s leading science journals.
The journal has published some of the leading papers on climate change research, including those supporting the now famous “hockey stick” graph, the subject of intense criticism by climate sceptics.
Full post here http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/11/editor-of-nature-forced-to-resign-from-climate-review-panel/
WWF plays fast and loose with the facts
| The conservation group has for years been playing fast and loose with the facts THE revelation that a World Wildlife Fund report was the source of an insupportable claim that glaciers in the Himalayas were melting rapidly is embarrassing for the body. The organisation has been silent about this. Little wonder. Its integrity is important. It is the largest environmental body in the world and has royalty and the cream of society and business on its boards. Its worldwide arms are estimated to turn over about $US400 million ($458m) annually, most from donations, but about 10 per cent is taxpayers' money. WWF delivers some reputable and important conservation programs. It also an environmental activist. And in that capacity, it evidently has some problems with numbers. Let's deal with that first. Full article from this morning's The Australian here |
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
How to waste billions of dollars by not crossing T's and dotting I's
It’s not just the beds but the houses that are now burning, too…
Throwing away $2.45 billion on free insulation was always a colossal waste of cash, done in a panic with barely a thought about whether this was smart ... or safe:
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner denied it would have been better to roll out the program slowly.
”I don’t think it’s right to say we should have sat back ... dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s because we were in a crisis situation,’’ he told Sky News.
Result? Houses hot-wired and set alight, and people killed. To be specific:
Four undertrained installers are dead [one of them only 16 years old apparently], two electrocuted by incorrectly installing foil insulation
At least 21 About 1000 homes left with potentially deadly electrical faults
Dozens of NSW houses set alight by faultily installed insulation.
It’s not just a farce but a scandal....
More here http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/kevins_from_queensland_and_here_to_help/
Oh, the irony
Professor of Warmenology Michael Mann – the “hockey stick” guy – was scheduled to give a talk today about climate change.
But it’s been cancelled due to snow.
UPDATE. Snow stops the Senate:
The following Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearings have been postponed due to inclement weather this week:
- The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife, will hold a hearing entitled, “Collaborative Solutions to Wildlife and Habitat Management.”
- The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled, ”Global Warming Impacts, Including Public Health, in the United States.”
(Via Drudge)
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/mann_alters_climate/
Climategate: Plausibility and the blogosphere in the post-normal age
Interesting essay from "Jerome Ravetz, of Oxford University in the UK. Mr. Ravetz is an environmental consultant and professor of philosophy of science best known for his books challenging the assumptions of scientific objectivity, discussing the science wars and post-normal science. Read more about him at his personal web page here, his Oxford page here, or at his blog the Post-normal Times."
We can begin to see what went seriously wrong when we examine what the leading practitioners of this ‘evangelical science’ of global warming (thanks to Angela Wilkinson) took to be the plain and urgent truth in their case. This was not merely that there are signs of exceptional disturbance in the ecosphere due to human influence, nor even that the climate might well be changing more rapidly now than for a very long time. Rather, they propounded, as a proven fact, Anthropogenic Carbon-based Global Warming. There is little room for uncertainty in this thesis; it effectively needs hockey-stick behaviour in all indicators of global temperature, so that it is all due to industrialisation. Its iconic image is the steadily rising graph of CO2 concentrations over the past fifty years at the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii (with the implicit assumption that CO2 had always previously been at or below that starting level). Since CO2 has long been known to be a greenhouse gas, with scientific theories quantifying its effects, the scientific case for this dangerous trend could seem to be overwhelmingly simple, direct, and conclusive.
In retrospect, we can ask why this particular, really rather extreme view of the prospect, became the official one.
Read it here http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/09/climategate-plausibility-and-the-blogosphere-in-the-post-normal-age/
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
I've taken Paul Kelly with a grain of salt for several years now
The Bolter points to something that I've thought for awhile now - Paul Kelly is not quite the sage he's made out to be:
Paul Kelly in 2007:
Paul Kelly in 2008:
Any prudent Australian government should move to put an emissions trading scheme in place. Both Rudd and (Opposition Leader Brendan) Nelson remain committed to this concept… Emissions trading looms as Nelson’s ultimate test: it is either the path to a stronger Coalition performance or the issue on which it blows out its political brains.
Paul Kelly in 2009:
By that I mean that I believe that the (Liberal) party room will endorse a series of amendments (to the Government’s emissions trading scheme) which will be the basis for negotiation with the Rudd Government. I mean frankly if they oppose that, that would be signing their own political death warrant… This raises the prospect that the legislation won’t pass and that the election next year will see climate change as a frontline issue. Now this will be a mortal political threat to the Opposition.
Paul Kelly in 2010:
The pivotal question, inconceivable a few months ago, is unavoidable: does Rudd stay the path with a double dissolution on his emissions trading scheme, or does he search for a fall-back to avoid the wild and populist confrontation that awaits his government.
Senior Labor figures are divided on the best tactic, an ominous sign. Labor’s policy is in trouble. It is exposed by a rapidly shifting electoral sentiment; and it faces in Tony Abbott a re-energised Coalition machine capable, for the first time since the 2007 poll, of hurting Rudd Labor.
Beware the conventional wisdom on anything. Oh, and about Kelly’s claim that it was “inconceivable” until a few months ago that Rudd would be in such strife with his scheme, I respectfully point out that it was indeed both conceivable years ago - and conceived.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_end_of_certainty/
Prediction: Arctic Ice Will Continue to Recover This Summer
Steven Goddard writes below that he agrees with the prediction I made in late 2009 that we’d see another 500,000 km2 of Arctic sea ice recovery in 2010. The Arctic Oscillation seems to be negative again, and according to NSIDC, this figures greatly in making thicker ice thus lowering summer losses. – Anthony
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/09/prediction-arctic-ice-will-continue-to-recover-this-summer/
Monday, February 8, 2010
Dear Geoffrey, let me explain why we're so cross.
My colleague Geoffrey Lean is upset by the vitriol he attracts on the internet. I feel for him. Though I have never met Geoffrey colleagues tell me he’s a delightful fellow who means very well. I’m sure he does and, though our views on AGW are very different, I take no more pleasure in seeing him taken to pieces by Telegraph-reading sceptics than I do from all the charming emails I get from George Monbiot groupies calling me something beginning with “C”. (And it’s shorter than “Climate change denier”).
But there appears to be something Geoffrey doesn’t understand and I’d like to take this opportunity to explain.
The rest here http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100025264/dear-geoffrey-lean-let-me-explain-why-were-so-cross/
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Audi 2010 Green Car Super Bowl Commercial
Funny ad, but if Audi are wanting to jump on the green bandwagon, (and which big business isn't these days?), then I don't think they've thought through the implications of this very well.
This is why rubbish and vermin are multiplying across the UK since "green" local councils decided that they'd only empty people's bins every fortnight to try and force them to recycle more.
A single paragraph that sums up the IPCC's woes
It's in relation to the claim that "some African countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 percent by 2020."
"At best, this is a wild exaggeration, unsupported by any scientific research, referenced only to a report produced by a Canadian advocacy group, written by an obscure Moroccan academic who specialises in carbon trading, citing references which do not support his claims."
More here http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/06/ipccs-latest-blunder-africagate-as-told-by-dr-richard-north/
Seems Barnaby isn't the only one confusing his millions and billions and trillions!
I particularly enjoyed watching Lenore [Taylor on the ABC's Insiders program this morning] saying (Barnaby) Joyce was a loose cannon and high risk because he confused billions with trillions, quite oblivious to the fact she had just done EXACTLY THE SAME THING. When she talked about the big news in Queensland, she referred to a deal worth “$65 million!”. Flash to the headline and it was of course $65 billion. Of course just a mistake and not at all noteworthy, except she and everyone else somehow used that same type of mistake to say Joyce was an embarrassment as shadow finance minister. |
Saturday, February 6, 2010
How Met Office blocked questions on its own man's role in 'hockey stick' climate row
The Meteorological Office is blocking public scrutiny of the central role played by its top climate scientist in a highly controversial report by the beleaguered United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Professor John Mitchell, the Met Office’s Director of Climate Science, shared responsibility for the most worrying headline in the 2007 Nobel Prize-winning IPCC report – that the Earth is now hotter than at any time in the past 1,300 years. And he approved the inclusion in the report of the famous ‘hockey stick’ graph, showing centuries of level or declining temperatures until a steep 20th Century rise. By the time the 2007 report was being written, the graph had been heavily criticised by climate sceptics who had shown it minimised the ‘medieval warm period’ around 1000AD, when the Vikings established farming settlements in Greenland. In fact, according to some scientists, the planet was then as warm, or even warmer, than it is today. Full article here |
Auklets and penguins: birds use feathers 'to touch'
  A whiskered auklet feels in the dark Birds may use their feathers for touch, using them to feel their surroundings just as cats use their whiskers.
The revelation that feathers have this hitherto unknown function comes from research on auklets, birds that sport prominent plumes on their heads. |
Now IPCC caught making false claims about African rainfall
Good grief. They just keep on coming. Amazing what a difference it makes when professional journalists actually start doing their job properly! And interesting in as much as Jonathan Leake was, up until recently, a fully committed alarmist on climate matters. Also, it seems we yet again have an example of the IPCC 'sexing up' its reports for political purposes. From Watts Up With That?: The Times: Top British scientist says IPCC is losing credibility6 02 2010 Scientist says IPCC claims about African rainfall reductions due to global warming have no supporting data.  African Annual Rainfall Image - UNEP FAO/Agrhymet Network and ESRI A LEADING British government scientist has warned the United Nations’ climate panel to tackle its blunders or lose all credibility. Robert Watson, chief scientist at Defra, the environment ministry, who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1997 to 2002, was speaking after more potential inaccuracies emerged in the IPCC’s 2007 benchmark report on global warming. The most important is a claim that global warming could cut rain-fed north African crop production by up to 50% by 2020, a remarkably short time for such a dramatic change. The claim has been quoted in speeches by Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, and by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general. Full post here |
Bad Hair Day at the Singapore Zoo
Now 6 months old, baby Saloma has proven to be a big attraction at the Singapore Zoo. This little Bornean Orangutan female is very expressive and curious but sticks close to mom, Binti.
From Zooborns
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