Saturday, March 22, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Licia Corbella: David Suzuki's Hot Air
David Suzuki wants politicians thrown in jail if they don’t act as quickly as he believes they should to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
During a speech in Montreal he said: “We can no longer tolerate what’s going on in Ottawa and Edmonton.”
What’s going on is Alberta’s government is trying to bring in emission reductions without simultaneously destroying Alberta’s oil and gas industry, which, in turn, is fuelling Canada’s robust economy, not to mention the plane that flew Suzuki to Montreal to give his speech at McGill University this week.
For a guy who hates oil and gas so much, he sure uses a lot of it. His carbon footprint is so big it’s likely rivalling Al Gore’s, which is surely an inconvenient truth for these men who like to preach to others but don’t walk their own talk.
Remember how Suzuki and six staff travelled across the country to foster awareness about global warming on a “rock-star style bus” big enough to comfortably seat 54 people, when a van would have sufficed? In other words, when faced with choosing the environment over his own comfort, Suzuki chose the latter, as his lessthan-perfectly-insulated enormous glass home in Vancouver would attest.
Anyway, this is exactly what Suzuki told his rapturous crowd of 600 doomsday believers: “What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act.” Suzuki was first quoted in the
McGill Daily on Monday and his comments were subsequently picked up by the National Post, at which point the story went nuclear (a form of energy Suzuki also opposes, rightly in my view).
Suzuki’s spokespeople are now saying Canadians are not to take the renowned broadcaster at his word, even though he said virtually the exact same thing at the University of Toronto during a speech in January. Should practised public speakers delivering a prepared speech on more than one occasion not be taken literally? It’s absurd of Suzuki to now claim he didn’t mean what he said. Repeatedly. In a prepared speech. On the record. For publication. Speaking of travelling to Toronto and Montreal, have Suzuki and his ilk never heard of video conferencing?
“You have lived your entire lives in a completely unsustainable period,” Suzuki told the crowd. “You all think growth and (climate) change is normal. It’s not.”
Are we supposed to take him at his word on that? I hope not, because if there’s one constant about climate, it’s change.
“It’s an intergenerational crime in the face of all the knowledge and science from over 20 years,” added Suzuki, during his speech in the heated university.
Notice how he didn’t say 25 or 30 years ago. Know why? Because 25 years ago, this prophet of perdition was predicting that Earth was doomed to plunge into another ice age! Cooling was a catastrophe and now warming is a catastrophe. He should make up his mind.
Apparently, scientists back then, including Suzuki, were desperately frightened that Earth could cool by another degree or two, food production would be slashed and people would starve.
Well, just when Suzuki was melting down about global cooling, the sun went into a new cycle in the late 1970s and Earth started to warm again. You’d think he’d be thrilled.
After all, Earth has only warmed 0.8 C since the end of the Little Ice Age, which started in the 13th century and ended around 1860.
As for climate change being abnormal, consider this. There was a time in England when vineyards were common and temperatures much warmer than today.
After the Little Ice Age, Earth warmed up with no help from carbon dioxide and did so until about 1940, and then the temperatures started to fall until the late ’70s when Suzuki et al. started predicting another ice age. Incidentally, those almost four decades of cooling occurred postSecond World War, when man-made CO2 was spiking exponentially. What’s more, according to ice core data, when CO2 levels were 16 times higher than they are today, Earth was covered in ice.
Such scientific facts must infuriate Suzuki. He apparently refuses to debate real climate scientists about this. Perhaps he believes they should be in jail, too, just like that great scientist Galileo once was when he refuted the church’s orthodoxy that the sun revolved around Earth. But real science can’t be jailed for long, even if politicians can.
During a speech in Montreal he said: “We can no longer tolerate what’s going on in Ottawa and Edmonton.”
What’s going on is Alberta’s government is trying to bring in emission reductions without simultaneously destroying Alberta’s oil and gas industry, which, in turn, is fuelling Canada’s robust economy, not to mention the plane that flew Suzuki to Montreal to give his speech at McGill University this week.
For a guy who hates oil and gas so much, he sure uses a lot of it. His carbon footprint is so big it’s likely rivalling Al Gore’s, which is surely an inconvenient truth for these men who like to preach to others but don’t walk their own talk.
Remember how Suzuki and six staff travelled across the country to foster awareness about global warming on a “rock-star style bus” big enough to comfortably seat 54 people, when a van would have sufficed? In other words, when faced with choosing the environment over his own comfort, Suzuki chose the latter, as his lessthan-perfectly-insulated enormous glass home in Vancouver would attest.
Anyway, this is exactly what Suzuki told his rapturous crowd of 600 doomsday believers: “What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act.” Suzuki was first quoted in the
McGill Daily on Monday and his comments were subsequently picked up by the National Post, at which point the story went nuclear (a form of energy Suzuki also opposes, rightly in my view).
Suzuki’s spokespeople are now saying Canadians are not to take the renowned broadcaster at his word, even though he said virtually the exact same thing at the University of Toronto during a speech in January. Should practised public speakers delivering a prepared speech on more than one occasion not be taken literally? It’s absurd of Suzuki to now claim he didn’t mean what he said. Repeatedly. In a prepared speech. On the record. For publication. Speaking of travelling to Toronto and Montreal, have Suzuki and his ilk never heard of video conferencing?
“You have lived your entire lives in a completely unsustainable period,” Suzuki told the crowd. “You all think growth and (climate) change is normal. It’s not.”
Are we supposed to take him at his word on that? I hope not, because if there’s one constant about climate, it’s change.
“It’s an intergenerational crime in the face of all the knowledge and science from over 20 years,” added Suzuki, during his speech in the heated university.
Notice how he didn’t say 25 or 30 years ago. Know why? Because 25 years ago, this prophet of perdition was predicting that Earth was doomed to plunge into another ice age! Cooling was a catastrophe and now warming is a catastrophe. He should make up his mind.
Apparently, scientists back then, including Suzuki, were desperately frightened that Earth could cool by another degree or two, food production would be slashed and people would starve.
Well, just when Suzuki was melting down about global cooling, the sun went into a new cycle in the late 1970s and Earth started to warm again. You’d think he’d be thrilled.
After all, Earth has only warmed 0.8 C since the end of the Little Ice Age, which started in the 13th century and ended around 1860.
As for climate change being abnormal, consider this. There was a time in England when vineyards were common and temperatures much warmer than today.
After the Little Ice Age, Earth warmed up with no help from carbon dioxide and did so until about 1940, and then the temperatures started to fall until the late ’70s when Suzuki et al. started predicting another ice age. Incidentally, those almost four decades of cooling occurred postSecond World War, when man-made CO2 was spiking exponentially. What’s more, according to ice core data, when CO2 levels were 16 times higher than they are today, Earth was covered in ice.
Such scientific facts must infuriate Suzuki. He apparently refuses to debate real climate scientists about this. Perhaps he believes they should be in jail, too, just like that great scientist Galileo once was when he refuted the church’s orthodoxy that the sun revolved around Earth. But real science can’t be jailed for long, even if politicians can.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Useful Idiots
One cannot help but think of Lenin's term when surveying the media's breathless disco journalism re: the Cuban "election."
I though Cuba was a Communist country, non???
Morons.
I though Cuba was a Communist country, non???
Morons.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Mr. Harper, Tear Down This NCC Wall!
Government is out of control in Canada. The state and state-funded run-amok agencies like the Alberta "Human Rights" Commission et al do not serve the people, rather they serve the ideological agendas of the far left. They're all about ethnic grudges and or ethnic patronage and vote-buying. Or an ethnic group lining its pockets under the guise of 'reversing discrimination.'
The frivolity of the so-called National capital Commission celebrating Quebec City's 400th birthday underlines the absurdity of the entire organ. It has too long been a solely French/francophone agency of featherbedding and discrimination against non francophones. The nightly parade of French (only) women as their spokespersons in the electronic media underlines where the real discrimination lies.
And now for our national capital "commission" to deviate from its mandate further by delving into yet more obseqious Quebec grovelling patronage "sponsorship" and vote-buying, well, that's just the final straw.
Mr. Harper, tear it down and start again. It's rotten rotten rotten. Enough already. Game over.
The frivolity of the so-called National capital Commission celebrating Quebec City's 400th birthday underlines the absurdity of the entire organ. It has too long been a solely French/francophone agency of featherbedding and discrimination against non francophones. The nightly parade of French (only) women as their spokespersons in the electronic media underlines where the real discrimination lies.
And now for our national capital "commission" to deviate from its mandate further by delving into yet more obseqious Quebec grovelling patronage "sponsorship" and vote-buying, well, that's just the final straw.
Mr. Harper, tear it down and start again. It's rotten rotten rotten. Enough already. Game over.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
T & A "Journalism"
Some salient thoughts on T&A "journalism" which has now become not just the norm but virtually the only journalism:
- TSN.CA recently published a poorly thought-out piece by yes, a high school newspaper writer on Willie O'Ree, the NHL player who played 45 games and scored 4 goals fifty years ago. Face it, he was a less than borderline player, a blip, a hiccup, there was no colour bar, you can mention his brief cup of coffee in the NHL but he was no Jackie Robinson either statistically or in terms of courage in facing racism. O'Ree's obstacle was his lack of talent, hence a minor league career and 45 games and 4 goals in the NHL over two seasons. Anything else is "race industry" revisionism.
- Now that Martine Gaillard of CTV Sportsnet has completed her journey from weather person to Hockey Night in Canada sports journalist to Sportsnet sex symbol-bimbette, what is she going to do when she turns 40? A disappointing transformation but what do you expect from the sports "media" or any media these days?
- It's been great recently seeing (and hearing) the golden tones of Toronto's venerable Dave Devall on television. I can't help but long for more of his ilk. A sad state of affairs in the media generally but particularly in the electronic media. Disgusting sexualization, disco journalism and 'runway' bimbette-ization of the entire field. Pure garbage.
Brings to mind the great line: It's journalism "for people who move their hips when they read."
- TSN.CA recently published a poorly thought-out piece by yes, a high school newspaper writer on Willie O'Ree, the NHL player who played 45 games and scored 4 goals fifty years ago. Face it, he was a less than borderline player, a blip, a hiccup, there was no colour bar, you can mention his brief cup of coffee in the NHL but he was no Jackie Robinson either statistically or in terms of courage in facing racism. O'Ree's obstacle was his lack of talent, hence a minor league career and 45 games and 4 goals in the NHL over two seasons. Anything else is "race industry" revisionism.
- Now that Martine Gaillard of CTV Sportsnet has completed her journey from weather person to Hockey Night in Canada sports journalist to Sportsnet sex symbol-bimbette, what is she going to do when she turns 40? A disappointing transformation but what do you expect from the sports "media" or any media these days?
- It's been great recently seeing (and hearing) the golden tones of Toronto's venerable Dave Devall on television. I can't help but long for more of his ilk. A sad state of affairs in the media generally but particularly in the electronic media. Disgusting sexualization, disco journalism and 'runway' bimbette-ization of the entire field. Pure garbage.
Brings to mind the great line: It's journalism "for people who move their hips when they read."
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
NHL Political Correctness and Grovelling
We're starting to hear again about Willie O'Ree since it is the 50th anniversary of his first NHL game.
A little balance and sobriety is in order.
Willie O'Ree career stats:
Games
45
Goals
4
Assists
10
Points 14
PIM
26
Jackie Robinson he ain't.
A little balance and sobriety is in order.
Willie O'Ree career stats:
Games
45
Goals
4
Assists
10
Points 14
PIM
26
Jackie Robinson he ain't.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Flu Shots
There is absolutely no excuse for the apparent 'policy' of not requiring NHL players to have flu shots to prevent illness and financial losses.
The Montreal Canadiens disastrous 'crash and burn' season of 2006-2007 was mainly due to the injury to Cristobal Huet and the fact the flu ravaged virtually the entire roster for almost two months, putting them into a death spiral from which they never recovered. They missed the playoffs, costing their owner millions of dollars in gate revenues and other monies.
I have enquired of sources at the Montreal Gazette to no avail but it is obvious there is some 1950-ish voodoo bias on the part of the administration, medical staff and players themselves that somehow flu shots diminish a player's efficacy. I'd like to see one study that shows ANY link between the flu vaccine and a lower level of competition. Show me a player with the flu and I'll show you man games lost, games lost and money lost. Don't tell me flu shots cause the flu, this has been disproven as superstitious rubbish. The reluctance to make NHL players have the flu shot reminds me of the resistance to flouridation in Montreal back in the day by conspiracy nuts and "Montana Freemen" types.
Time to enter the modern age and get the flu shot to prevent another '06-'07 debacle, get with it, Habs.
The Montreal Canadiens disastrous 'crash and burn' season of 2006-2007 was mainly due to the injury to Cristobal Huet and the fact the flu ravaged virtually the entire roster for almost two months, putting them into a death spiral from which they never recovered. They missed the playoffs, costing their owner millions of dollars in gate revenues and other monies.
I have enquired of sources at the Montreal Gazette to no avail but it is obvious there is some 1950-ish voodoo bias on the part of the administration, medical staff and players themselves that somehow flu shots diminish a player's efficacy. I'd like to see one study that shows ANY link between the flu vaccine and a lower level of competition. Show me a player with the flu and I'll show you man games lost, games lost and money lost. Don't tell me flu shots cause the flu, this has been disproven as superstitious rubbish. The reluctance to make NHL players have the flu shot reminds me of the resistance to flouridation in Montreal back in the day by conspiracy nuts and "Montana Freemen" types.
Time to enter the modern age and get the flu shot to prevent another '06-'07 debacle, get with it, Habs.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Martian Climate Change!
Climate change hits Mars
Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.
Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.
Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
The mechanism at work on Mars appears, however, to be different from that on Earth. One of the researchers, Lori Fenton, believes variations in radiation and temperature across the surface of the Red Planet are generating strong winds.
In a paper published in the journal Nature, she suggests that such winds can stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet’s temperature.
Fenton’s team unearthed heat maps of the Martian surface from Nasa’s Viking mission in the 1970s and compared them with maps gathered more than two decades later by Mars Global Surveyor. They found there had been widespread changes, with some areas becoming darker.
When a surface darkens it absorbs more heat, eventually radiating that heat back to warm the thin Martian atmosphere: lighter surfaces have the opposite effect. The temperature differences between the two are thought to be stirring up more winds, and dust, creating a cycle that is warming the planet.
Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.
Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.
Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
The mechanism at work on Mars appears, however, to be different from that on Earth. One of the researchers, Lori Fenton, believes variations in radiation and temperature across the surface of the Red Planet are generating strong winds.
In a paper published in the journal Nature, she suggests that such winds can stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet’s temperature.
Fenton’s team unearthed heat maps of the Martian surface from Nasa’s Viking mission in the 1970s and compared them with maps gathered more than two decades later by Mars Global Surveyor. They found there had been widespread changes, with some areas becoming darker.
When a surface darkens it absorbs more heat, eventually radiating that heat back to warm the thin Martian atmosphere: lighter surfaces have the opposite effect. The temperature differences between the two are thought to be stirring up more winds, and dust, creating a cycle that is warming the planet.
SCIENTISTS PREDICT GLOBAL COOLING
ST. PETERSBURG, August 25 (RIA Novosti)- Global cooling could develop on Earth in 50 years and have serious consequences before it is replaced by a period of warming in the early 22nd century, a Russian scientist said Friday.
Environmentalists and scientists today focus on the dangers of global warming provoked by man's detrimental effect on the planet's climate, but global cooling - though never widely supported - is a theory postulating an overwhelming cooling of the Earth which could involve glaciation.
"On the basis of our [solar emission] research, we developed a scenario of a global cooling of the Earth's climate by the middle of this century and the beginning of a regular 200-year-long cycle of the climate's global warming at the start of the 22nd century," said the head of the space research sector of the Russian Academy of Sciences' astronomical observatory.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov said he and his colleagues had concluded that a period of global cooling similar to one seen in the late 17th century - when canals froze in the Netherlands and people had to leave their dwellings in Greenland - could start in 2012-2015 and reach its peak in 2055-2060.
He said he believed the future climate change would have very serious consequences and that authorities should start preparing for them today because "climate cooling is connected with changing temperatures, especially for northern countries."
"The Kyoto initiatives to save the planet from the greenhouse effect should be put off until better times," he said, referring to an international treaty on climate change targeting greenhouse gas emissions.
"The global temperature maximum has been reached on Earth, and Earth's global temperature will decline to a climatic minimum even without the Kyoto protocol," Abdusamatov said.
Environmentalists and scientists today focus on the dangers of global warming provoked by man's detrimental effect on the planet's climate, but global cooling - though never widely supported - is a theory postulating an overwhelming cooling of the Earth which could involve glaciation.
"On the basis of our [solar emission] research, we developed a scenario of a global cooling of the Earth's climate by the middle of this century and the beginning of a regular 200-year-long cycle of the climate's global warming at the start of the 22nd century," said the head of the space research sector of the Russian Academy of Sciences' astronomical observatory.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov said he and his colleagues had concluded that a period of global cooling similar to one seen in the late 17th century - when canals froze in the Netherlands and people had to leave their dwellings in Greenland - could start in 2012-2015 and reach its peak in 2055-2060.
He said he believed the future climate change would have very serious consequences and that authorities should start preparing for them today because "climate cooling is connected with changing temperatures, especially for northern countries."
"The Kyoto initiatives to save the planet from the greenhouse effect should be put off until better times," he said, referring to an international treaty on climate change targeting greenhouse gas emissions.
"The global temperature maximum has been reached on Earth, and Earth's global temperature will decline to a climatic minimum even without the Kyoto protocol," Abdusamatov said.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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