Posts by Steve Curtis
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Looking back at previous New years honours
http://www.dpmc.govt.nz/honours/lists/index.asp checking out the last one done by Jenny Shipley( in those days they actually got the moniker Dame/Sir for the top honours) we see
Selwyn John CUSHING, C.M.G., of Hastings. For services to business, sport and the arts.This has political donor all written over it ( the CMG would suffice for his "contributions" to the areas listed)
This was an interesting one from that year
Dr Brian Finbar Myram EDWARDS, of Auckland. For services to broadcasting and journalism. (CNZM)Another couple of national political donors from 1998/97 who got knighthoods
Rajeshwar (Roger) Sarup BHATNAGAR, of Auckland. For services to business and the community.
Robert Arthur OWENS, C.B.E., of Auckland. For services to business and the community. -
I’m not dismissing these scientists because they aren’t climatologist's under a narrow definition.
Desmogblog listed them as PhDs in Climatology from Canadian universities. If they cant get that right what exactly is the point they are making ,that Ball is a fraud?
I find all this credential bashing pointless.
There should be far more disagreements then there are, and the scientific tradition is to encourage debate not shut it down.Just picking a article from my desk, shows that the first comprehensive argument for continental drift was from Alfred Wegeners 1915 book The Origins of Continents and Oceans. but it notes that many specialists made nasty comments about his scientific method.
Continental drift evolved into the more accurate term plate tectonics
Wegener was kicked around because he wasn’t a trained geologist much like Ball and others seem to have their credentials attacked rather than the validity of their views. -
Talking of stupid statements, you should REALLY give the Tim Ball credentials battle a rest, because the facts are not on your side.
First, climatology is scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time.
And the topic of Tims PhD thesis:
"Climatic change in central Canada : a preliminary analysis of weather information from the Hudson's Bay Company Forts at York Factory and Churchill Factory, 1714-1850"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_F._BallSo we have established that Ball did research ¨"Climatology" for his PhD.
So lest look at the others Desmogblog lists as other climatology PhD in Canada
http://people.uleth.ca/~dan.johnson/first_phds_in_climatology_in_canada.htm#topThey list 21 names.
So lets look at their credentials for PhDs in "Climatology in Canada"Leonard A Barrie
1975 Ph.D. Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe University, Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics, Frankfurt Atmospheric ScienceNeither a Canadian university nor Climatology ( atmospheric science isn't the same thing)
George J Boer
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1970. Department of Meteorology
neither Canadian university nor climatology againIan Burton
no details on his PhD topic , but has worked as a meterologistJames P Bruce
No details on his PhD topic but mentions his major work on climate and water resourcesStephen Calvert
Ph.D., California - Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Not a canadian university and oceanography ( research interests marine sediments)Garry Clarke
Ph.D. (1967), University of Toronto
Wow , a first from a Canadian university but hang on he's now a Professor of Glaciology at Vancouver. So not a climatologistR allyn Clarke
PhD in Physics (Oceanography) (1970), University of British Columbia
His research focuses on the circulation of the high latitude North Atlantic and its role in the global climate system.Roger Daley
McGill University (Montreal), PhD) in meteorologyJacques Derome
Ph.D. degree at the University of Michigan.On the maintenance of the axisymmetric part of the flow in the atmosphere,
Atmosphere physics again but not Climatology and another from a US universityKeith Donald Hage
Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago 1957, topic not listed but research in Meteorology and atmospheric physicsF Kenneth Hare
...He joined McGill University as a geography professor, meanwhile earning his PhD as an arctic climatologist...Wow thats a surprise a PhD from a Canadian university in climatology
I wont go on but the rest are similar in that almost none are Climatologist's as scientifically defined and Hare is the only fit.!
So we can conclude that Tim Ball WAS one of the first Climatology PhD's from a Canadian university
What is surprising is that the list includes meteorologists which is short term weather systems
But sticking to the facts seems to be a problem with those who attack people from a climatology background who don’t follow the conventional wisdom on climate change. -
Regarding the deaths coming out of Iraq, with different numbers from the Pentagon and other sources.
Apparently the US counts a bullet through the front of the head as "criminal" and not counted as a "sectarian" killing. That requires a bullet through the back of the head.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/05/AR2007090502466.html?hpid=topnews
tip :DailykosIn light of the Sopranos final coming up this week on TV1, it poses an interesting dilemma
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The 1780 Atlantic hurricane season was extraordinarily destructive, and was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history with over 25,000 deaths. Three different hurricanes, all in October, caused at least 1,000 deaths each; this event has never been repeated and only in the 1893 and 2005 seasons were there two such hurricanes. The season also held the deadliest Atlantic hurricane of all
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1780_Atlantic_hurricane_season#1780_Atlantic_hurricane_seasonSo at around a return period of 100 years, you could get 3 major devasting hurricanes in one year.
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I think you are strectching a small bow over the ..-gasp... two category five hurricanes .
As this chart of the hurricane tracks shows , the Cat 5 status only lasts some few hours.
http://www.weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atlantic/2007/index.html
This can only be estimated by remote sensing, and like many stats they are revised (downwards ) later.
Two hurricanes from the famous 2005 year didint even last 24 hours
so reduces the count from 15 to 13.analysis show the numbers of hurricanes follows a stochastic process, so its highly unlikely that cheery picking statistics proves anything
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Well they had SNOW at the beach in Malibu LA on 17 january 2007.
Seems like Russell had Global warming amnesia which blots out all the really cold occurences.
The facts must fit theory , never the other way around.Remember if you didnt expect it its weather. If you did its climate.
Unless it hurricanes when any old idea passes muster for climate
( Official season 1 june 30 Nov) -
The IPCC said There is a 90% of certainity behind global warming.
That leaves an area of opposing views that are scientific.
What is this stalinist view that any opposing opinions must be eliminated, along with those who do so ( and their families ?) and expose who is behind them for good measure.
Norman, Micheal Grade has nothing to do with Ch4 since the mid 90s.
He was previously Chairman of the BBC and is now executive Chairman of ITV. -
A reminder about atolls like Tuvalu is that they are ALWAYS just above the sea level. That is how they form. The coral will only grow i n shallow water. For an island will start with a fringing reef and as the island slowly sinks the coral continues to grow ontop of the dead coral. Eventually the original island disappears and the lagoon is where the island was , and a reef still encircles it with the atoll just being above the sea level , formed mainly by storms and the breaking up of parts of the reef.
This is high school stuff.
At the predicted rates of sea level rise the reef will easily keep pace and the atoll will rise to match . Not exactly at the same time but over a long period the atoll will still be there.As for Tuvalu, they do have a special immigration status allowing them to come to NZ, ( one of the forgotten anomalies when NZ said it doesn't favour migrants from any country)but all haven't left yet.
This is probably the Kernel of truth in Confabulator Als documentary. You could say he joined some dots !!
John Daly had a record of the data before it was hidden
http://www.john-daly.com/press/press-01c.htm#tuvalu
According to the Australian National Tidal centre based in Flinders University the data doesn't show Tuvalu being swamped by rising seas. In fact the El Nino influenced rises and falls of the Pacific causing their problems. Mysteriously NTC data is now controlled by the Australian Met Bureau protect it from prying eyes, only available to 'approved researchers'- Just like the UK Hadley centreRussell you really shouldn't rely on the Independent for climate news. Lohachara island is in the Ganges delta, which like all large river deltas is SINKING.
This satellite photo shows a neighbouring island which has got larger!. This is what you would expect from a low lying area which islands are both growing and disappearing.
http://www.satelliteviews.net/cgi-bin/w.cgi?c=in&UF=387449&UN=484095&DG=STMD -
We have to look no further than Russell himself for distorting the opinions about the C4 Documentary.
Right at the end of the article is this
Martin Durkin, who wrote and directed the programme, was unavailable for comment but admitted in an email to Mr Rive that the graph was wrong. "Thank you for highlighting the error on the 400-year graph. It is an annoying mistake which all of us missed and is being fixed for all future transmissions of the film. It doesn't alter our argument," Mr Durkin said.Its a mistake that we missed !!
Sort of destroys the beatup that the Independent ran and Russell fell for
We wait with baited breath for Al Gores corrections.On the topic of graphs , no one but no one talks about the discredited hockey stick anymore. It was usefull information but hyped far beyond the actual reality. Mann both added the final slope based on predicted warnings and mismanaged the analysis of data. The things you can do if you were a lead author for the IPCC.
Of course the graph that has 'interpolated' data is the famous CO2 graph from Mauna Kea volcano. The data from the volcano only dates from the mid fifties , yet the graph is always shown as going back to the beginning of the industrial age. How did they do it. They just took some ice core data showing CO2 levels , but the dates were uncertain and joined it up to the Mauna Kea data.
Conjoined twins, but put together rather than separated