Saturday
Jul102010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill HSI in the National Post
Jul 10, 2010 Peter Foster has written a long and very supportive review of The Hockey Stick Illusion in Canada's National Post.
The Hockey Stick Illusion leaves no doubt about Mr. Montford’s reporting abilities. He tells a gripping detective story in which the star gumshoe is semi-retired Canadian mining consultant Steve McIntyre. Mr. McIntyre, unfortunately for his opponents, happens to combine mathematical genius with a Terminator-like relentlessness. He also found a brilliant partner in Ross McKitrick, an economics professor at the University of Guelph. Their story is one of intellectual determination in the face of Kafkaesque “peer review” and Orwellian “freedom of information.”
Reader Comments (164)
Paul Boyce:
we could set ourselves up as an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We could take it turns to act as sort of an executive officer for the week. But all the decisions of that officer would have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting, by a simple majority in the case of internal affairs, but by a 2/3rds majority for other measures
Interesting idea, but there are a number of difficulties.... first, the Bishop has to be willing to turn his passwords over to the Committee; second, who do we allow to vote? An influx of warmist/statist trolls might result in something that already exists: RealClimate... a dictatorship of the cognescenti.... really, look up Robert Michels and his Iron Law of Oligarchy... oddly enough, even anarchists and libertarians need organization tables and bylaws...
The most creepiest totally OT thing. My rotary mower failed on me this afternoon, the roll pin on the drive shaft sheared. In my email inbox just an hour later, drinking my tea, a random email from 'World of Mowers' with a picture of my mower on it and spares order page. But its an oldun and I needed to fix it to finish the lawn, so I unearthed the old arcwelder took the old birds nest out of my face shield and welded it up instead. Finished the lawn but can't believe that email!
Heh, Pharos, we welcome, and thank, our new Google overlords.
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kim
Their noopy satellite already froze the mess behind my shed for all to see and now street view took yet more pictures right over my hedge from several angles.
A WUWT commentator left the following link:
http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-authorities-shut-down-wordpress-host-with-73000-blogs-100716/#comment-683339
every Wordpress site in my favorites list is still up. Stay alert, but go figger.....
More than once I've seen favourable comments recently here and there about a paper by:
Roe, G. (2006), In defense of Milankovitch, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L24703, doi:10.1029/2006GL027
It seems that Luboš Motl in the Reference Frame supports the theories about high latitude insolation changes driving the rate of ice volume change proposed by Nigel Calder, in a 1974 Nature paper:
http://calderup.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/milankovitch-back-to-1974/
It would seem that the Milankovitch cycle, where axial tilt changes between 22° and 24°, now shows a much improved correlation to the Quaternary ice advances.
The most startling pronouncement, for me, was Calders penultimate paragraph,forecasting 'the 'next' ice age, which began 5000 years ago and will end 119,000 years from now...This ice age looks like a relatively slow starter. The theory, though, is of widespread snow that fails to melt in the vicinity of 50degN in summer so that large areas of North America, Northern Europe and the USSR will have to be encrusted with ice sheets during the next few thousand years'.
I had not seen such a specific ice advance prediction before, although knew vaguely it was inevitable.
It always amazes me that with all the attention climate change attracts, there is such confidence that more warming will happen only how much is debated. Well if warming is bad, (why did they call the Medieval Warm Period 'Optimum' remind us please?) what about freezing. Didnt it nearly wipe Homo Sapiens out last time?
The Holocene interglacial is way overdue to end. However there is no scientist on the planet who can predict whether that end will be a return to the Ice Age or a return to the Earth's normal (80% of the recorded climate) state which has temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees C warmer than today
Need some help.... At the Guardian debate I got "lectured" by a frail old scientist, grey hair, grey beard (doesn't narrow it down much does it !!), but he must have been the oldest chap there. Extreme CAGW views, I think he said his name was John, but that could be completely wrong.
Any suggestions of names gratefully received.
It was a pleasure to meet some of you guys on Wednesday, after all the talk of how to recognise each other and secret handshakes etc, I thought meeting at the Masons Arms afterwards was truly inspired.
Oh, and thanks to Atomic Hairdryer for helping me to escape from London.
Aha! Hyperthermania, you must be the guy with a South African/ Brazilian accent right? Yaaaay glad to put a name to the face :)
Pharos
I hope you balanced the blade of your mower after welding it.
Did the black Google spy camera car catch you peeing on the lamppost as you walked home from the pub? Happens all the time in Ireland. Google über alles und Google hinter jeder!
I am sorry, it does not approach me. There are other variants?
No Dung, the Austrian / Brazilian / South African was Peter B, it's a shame his wonderful accent doesn't come across in his posts. I was the one that you kept whacking with your hockey stick. (Before anyone starts... that is meant quite literally, absolutely, definitely not a euphemism for anything more sordid).
Hyperthermania
I once attended a talk in the town by a chap fitting that description (as most of them do) and he started his talk (on Climate Calamity) by stating that he was a scientist, and anyone that disagreed with him was guilty of "contemptuous arrogance, make believe, and paranoia"
Sort of set the tone with the audience, as I think he was expecting an easy ride, but after that opener all the less convinced in the audience were distinctly unimpressed.
Barry Woods,
Thanks for the Titschmark link.
"Headless chicken" is perhaps the best description I've seen of the catastrophe wing of the AGW camp.