Václav Havel – RIP

December 18, 2011

BBC:

Václav Havel, the Czech Republic’s first president after the Velvet Revolution against communist rule, has died at the age of 75. As president, he presided over Czechoslovakia’s transition to democracy and a free-market economy. He oversaw its peaceful 1993 split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Havel first came to international fame as a dissident playwright in the 1970s through his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77.

.. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter: “Vaclav Havel was one of the greatest Europeans of our age. His voice for freedom paved (the) way for a Europe whole and free.”

In the early 1990’s I was once trying to sell a district-heating and power plant to be built in Ostrava in the then Czechoslavakia. Eventually the project did not go forward with the split in 1993 into Slovakia and the Czech Republic but I had the opportunity (and the privilege) to once present the project to President Vaclav Havel. He was a playwright by profession but his questions were pointed and precise. I found him remarkably sharp and capable in grasping the finer points in technical and economic arguments.

The Charter 77 declaration is here: Charter 77 declaration

Bulgaria: Arch-Rival Klaus: Havel and I Had Fruitful Disputes

Czeck President Vaclav Klaus (L) as he succeeds outgoing President Vaclav Havel (R) in 2003. SNA File photo

SNA: Havel passed away on Sunday after a protracted respiratory disease, just after turning 75 October 5.

“It was Havel who invited me to the emerging Civic Forum,” said Klaus in an official address Sunday, referring to the platform that led then-Czechoslovakia to democratization away from the communist regime.

The two Vaclavs went on to become arch-rivals in their visions for the development of the Czech Republic.

RIP

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Polar bear populations in Canada have increased and are getting to be a menace

December 18, 2011

Far from being a species endangered by the politically correct and alarmist view of man made global warming, their numbers are increasing and in some areas of Canada their populations have doubled. They are more frequently having litters of 3 rather than 2 cubs and are ranging further South than they usually do. Easy pickings in town garbage is irresistible and they and are even becoming a menace in some towns.

A male polar bear

Canada’s growing polar bear population ‘becoming a problem,’ locals say

…. Despite those problems, the PBSG said it is optimistic that “humans can mitigate the effects of global warming and other threats to the polar bears.”

Not so fast.

According to a U.S. Senate and Public Works Committee report, the “alarm about the future of polar bear decline is based on speculative computer model predictions many decades in the future. Those predictions are being “challenged by scientists and forecasting experts,” said the report.

Those challenges, supported by facts on the ground, including observations from Inuit hunters in the region, haven’t stopped climate fear-mongers at the U.S. Geological Survey from proclaiming that future sea ice conditions “will result in the loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century.”

Such sky-is-falling rhetoric brings smiles to the Inuit population of Canada’s Nunavut Territory. They, too, know how to count, and they claim the bear population is stable or on the rise in their own backyard. Polar bears may be on the decline in some areas, but during their frequent visits to Inuit towns and outposts they rarely decline an easy meal from the local dump or a poorly secured garbage can.

Harry Flaherty, chair of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in the capital of Iqaluit, says the polar bear population in the region, along the Davis Strait, has doubled during the past 10 years. He questions the official figures, which are based to a large extent on helicopter surveys.

“Scientists do a quick study one to two weeks in a helicopter, and don’t see all the polar bears. We’re getting totally different stories [about the bear numbers] on a daily basis from hunters and harvesters on the ground,” he says. ….

Dr. Mitchell Taylor, a biologist who has been researching polar bear populations in Canada’s Nunavut Territory for 35 years, seems to agree. “The study estimates from the Iqaluit area agree with those of local hunters, although the accuracy of the counts is doubtful in some areas,” he says. ….. 

The on-the-ground reports, if accurate, seem to contradict the official story of the beleaguered polar bear. According to the standard theory, warmer temperatures (caused by human CO2 emissions) are shrinking the ice floe, the polar bear’s main hunting ground, forcing populations to compete for a diminishing food supply. Warmer temperatures also are to blame for the loss of thicker “multi-year ice.”

Flaherty and many others disagree with the official story. “We are aware there are changes in the weather, but it is not affecting the daily life of the animals,” he says. “Polar bears hunt in the floe-edge areas, on newly formed ice, and in the fiords in search of baby seals. They don’t hunt in the glaciers [areas of multi-year ice].

“We’re not seeing negative effects on the polar bear population from so-called climate change and receding ice,” he says. He is convinced that some scientists are deliberately “using the polar bear issue to scare people” about global warming, a view widely shared by many Nunavut locals. ….. 

Read the article

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Well into December and no snow to be shovelled … yet!

December 15, 2011

I have just returned home to Sweden after 3 weeks in warmer climes  and with some sense of relief that I didn’t have mountains of snow to clear in my drive (as happened last year). Last year I was caught with summer tyres when the early snows arrived but maybe this year it has been kept at bay because I  changed to winter tyres before the end of October!!!

Predictions of a very cold winter have not yet materialised – but it is early days yet and I may still have to buy a new snow blower.

But a white Christmas is still on the cards.

It’s only weather after all.

 

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Strong winds in Scotland – wind turbine burns

December 9, 2011

It’s well known that wind turbines don’t like strong winds — but a simple shut down is preferable to this:

Ardrossan wind farm in North Ayrshire on 8th December

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Climategate 2.0: What’s in the encrypted 200,000 emails?

December 6, 2011

While I have been travelling over the last week, the IPCC Durban circus has been performing to dwindling audiences.

The Climategate 1 and 2 emails that have been released so far (about 1,000 + 5,000) are focused mainly on a 3-way nexus between a group of rather mediocre scientists, a few willing (and gullible) reporters and some of the bureaucrats/politicians who have seized on the advantages of fear-mongering.

The mediocrity of the so-called climate scientists is palpable. Michael Mann leaves out data whwnever he feels like it, Phil Jones can’t fathom the intricacies of an Excel table,  Tom Wigley (appropriate name) tries to get the PhD’s of his opponents retracted, etc …….. . And all for “The Cause”.

We have seen the blatant lobbying activities of Harrabin and Revkin undermine the reputation of the BBC and the New York Times. At least George Monbiot does not pretend to be anything other than a lobbyist. Harrabin’s pompous defence of his blinkered view is particularly nauseating.

Now we find that the IPCC itself was not averse to falsifying data when it felt the message needed strengthening.

The Global warming fraternity have been busy defending themselves, denying that what they have been engaged in has been bad science or bad journalism. But the politicians and bureaucrats have escaped scrutiny — at least so far.

But there are 200,000 further emails waiting to be un-encrypted by the release of a decrypting phrase  (the emails themselves have already been released). And some bureaucrats, some IPCC functionaries, some carbon trading entrepreneurs  and some amoral, fear-mongering politicians have to wait their turn.

But they will probably not have to wait very long!!!!

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Light blogging for 2 weeks

November 30, 2011

I am on an assignment in India and blogging will be light for a couple of weeks.

In a rainy and cool Bangalore where I haven’t seen the sun in 4 days — but traffic is horrendous:

New elevated highways provide car parking!!!

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“the objective impartial (ho ho) BBC that we are” – Alex Kirby BBC environmental correspondent

November 24, 2011

As if the lopsided reporting by Roger Harrabin and Richard Black was not bad enough, the email exchange between Phil Jones  and Alex Kirby of the BBC  puts the BBC’s “impartiality” about global warming firmly in the dock.

Incidentally Kirby’s publicity blurb has this to say about him:

Alex has no scientific education, and is convinced that the widespread distrust and misunderstanding of scientists in industrial societies is a threat to human development.

Alex Kirby

WUWT:

Climategate 2.0 email 4894.txt shows just what Alex Kirby of BBC thinks of climate skeptics as he conveys it to Dr. Phil Jones. Clearly, there an incestuous relationship between climate science and the BBC.

date: Wed Dec  8 08:25:30 2004
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.xx.xx>
subject: RE: something on new online.
to: “Alex Kirby” <alex.kirby@bbc.xxx.xx> 

At 17:27 07/12/2004, you wrote: 

Yes, glad you stopped this — I was sent it too, and decided to
spike it without more ado as pure stream-of-consciousness rubbish. I can
well understand your unhappiness at our running the other piece. But we
are constantly being savaged by the loonies for not giving them any
coverage at all, especially as you say with the COP in the offing, and
being the objective impartial (ho ho) BBC that we are, there is an
expectation in some quarters that we will every now and then let them
say something. I hope though that the weight of our coverage makes it
clear that we think they are talking through their hats.
—–Original Message—–

Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit

Another gem in the comments by FrancisT reveals that the BBC was in bed with the global warming fanatics but note that Kirby was considered to be not too expensive(!!??)

2011 Email #2403 (1)

Regarding ECF and a media person. You could try Alex Kirby if Roger Harrabin is not free. Joe Smith will have other contacts. The other possibility is for a European link, possibly via a German magazine. Finally, if we try, we could penetrate The Economist as I have contacts there.
2011 Email #3935 (1)

1. Media involvement. I would suggest Roger Harrabin might be a better (alternate?) invitee to Alex Kirby. Simon Torok has recently had contact with him about media coverage of Jo’berg and he is also on the Advisory Board of Tyndall.
2011 Email #4028 (1)

>> > > phone
>> > > > chat with Alex Kirby, BBC, some time before the conference, where we
>> may

2011 Email #4655 (1)

For more mainstream people, I agree that Alex Kirby would make a good job
and is probably first choice. He would certainly come cheaper than Humphreys

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Guttenberg buys his way out of prosecution for €20,000

November 24, 2011

Paying your favourite charity is apparently sufficient to get German prosecutors to drop prosecution – at least when the offender is zu Guttenberg and the offense is plagiarism.

I had not expected that Germany would still be granting droits de feodalité dominante

Does appear to be “one law for the rich and famous”…

Deutsche Welle:

Bavarian aristocrat and former German defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has paid 20,000 euros to avoid prosecution on charges of plagiarism. With the case dismissed, Guttenberg could stage a political comeback.

German authorities have dropped their investigation into plagiarism charges against Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg after the former defense minister agreed to make a donation to a charitable institution.

The public prosecutor’s office said that although 23 passages of Guttenberg’s doctoral thesis possibly violated copyright laws, the monetary damage to the original author was only marginal and Guttenberg had not profited financially.

According to German law, misdemeanor cases can be dismissed if the accused agrees to pay a sum of money, usually to the state or a charitable organization. The court, public prosecutor’s office and the alleged victim all have to agree to the dismissal.

Guttenberg has already wired 20,000 euros ($26,794) to German Cancer Aid, a non-profit organization that supports research into cancer prevention and treatment. The former defense minister can now avoid a criminal record, although the investigation could be resumed if new evidence comes to light.

“It’s a second-rate dismissal, but it’s a dismissal” said Norbert Geis, a legal expert and a parliamentary representative with Guttenberg’s Christian Social Union, a regional ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. ……

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Fox News worse than no news! and viewers of The Daily Show are better informed than those of MSNBC

November 24, 2011

I am not sure if this says more about those being surveyed or about the media channels or about those doing the surveying! But it should give social psychologists endless opportunities for analysis.

LA Times:

A new survey of New Jersey voters comes to a provocative conclusion: Fox News viewers tend to be less informed about current events than those who don’t watch any news at all.

Perhaps it has to do with New Jersey.

But what may be even more profound is that

On Occupy Wall Street, the survey found viewers of “The Daily Show” were 12 percentage points more likely to say protesters were predominantly Democratic. MSNBC viewers were the most likely to say the protesters were mainly Republicans.

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Facebook and the illusion of communication

November 24, 2011

Facebook is just a tool for transmission of information. But it gives imprecise direction and indiscriminate dissemination of information packages which can only – at best – be part of a true communication process. Unfortunately the ease of the use of the tool creates the illusion of communication.

I have just deactivated my Facebook account and hopefully it will all be deleted in a couple of weeks (though judging from the number of Facebook “notifications” the deactivation has generated, I have no great faith that Facebook will actually delete all details of my account). I deactivated my Spotify account a little while ago.

I have not been a fluent user of Facebook but I have not been dependent upon it or felt that it was essential for my communications – even if some might argue that I could have communicated much more if I had used the medium better.  But that is mistaking the medium of information transfer for communication. It is just another medium – and a rather indiscriminate one – for transmitting a communique. It is not even a message (even if the use of the medium carries a part of a vague message) and it is not communication in itself. The weakness of facebook (and of faxes and mobile telephony and emails and every development of communication tools) is that the ease of use of the new tool always creates an illusion of communication. It actually provides for just one step in the eight distinct steps that are needed in a complete process for a true communication.

I would suggest that Facebook has actually decreased the quality of true communication while vastly increasing the indiscriminate dissemination of badly formulated information packages. Perhaps it is useful when discernment and thought and direction of a message is not necessary. As for example in arousing a mob. But I am doubtful if it is the best medium available for communication between two individuals.

Every true communication necessarily contains the following steps:

Read the rest of this entry »

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