John Allen Paulos wrote of innumeracy, the mild malady of being unable to work with numbers. “I’m not primarily concerned with esoteric mathematics here, only with some feel for numbers and probabilities, some ability to estimate answers to the ubiquitous questions… people should have a visceral reaction to the difference between a million, a billion and a trillion.”

So it is true. And undisputed.

The opposite of innumeracy isn’t numeracy or even mathematical ability. High-level mathematics will always be closed off to all but the few, not only because it requires innate abilities most don’t have in the same way most can’t be centers on professional football teams, but because it requires years of dedication and few have the time or inclination.

That futuristic phrase from the science fiction television series Star Trek, with actor James Doohan as Scotty, was the command to instantly beam your physical being to another place in the universe like from one star to another or, for all other earthlings that want to stay close to the surface, like traveling from LA to the Big Apple in a fraction of a second. 

Guess what? A kind of “teleportation,” described as ”long-distance ‘disembodied‘ transfer” is now claimed to have been achieved. The wonders of modern science keep getting weirder by the day. I can already see airline executives shaking in their boots, not to mention the Hyperloop and “Uber”outfits—already so yesteryear …

Image copyright: SIGRID GOMBERT/CULTURA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The UK government is to outline its plans to strengthen collaborative research between Britain and China. The Science Minister, Jo Johnson, will give details while opening a joint UK-Chinese plant research centre just outside Shanghai.

Scientists at the centre will investigate new ways of growing crops to feed an expanding global population. The centre is the latest effort by the UK to tap into the rapid growth in scientific investment by China.

Chinese research has grown rapidly in the past 20 years. Spending on R&D is now over 40 times what it was in 1995, amounting to £150bn in 2015 – just over 2% of the country’s economic production (GDP).

That compares with the UK government’s spending on R&D of £8.4bn, which is just under 0.5% of Britain’s GDP.

Scientists at Australia’s main medical research agency say that fluoride in drinking water is safe after analyzing 60 years of research and 3,000 scientific studies.

Researchers found that fluoride in water has no adverse health effects at the levels used in Australia, and that the substance is not linked to low IQ, cancer, or cognitive problems. The only result was reduction of the effects of tooth decay by 26 to 44 percent in children. 

“It shows that community water fluoridation as it’s used in Australia today is effective at reducing tooth decay and is not associated with any general negative health effects,” Anne Kelso, CEO of Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, told reporters.

Much of the hysteria over atmospheric CO2 arises from ignoring the past which provides the context for interpreting the present.  Recently, one scientist suggested that climate researchers should be schooled in geology before commenting on climate change.  Instead of that, of course, most of them are based in environmentalism.  So as a public service this post presents some excellent and time-tested evidence produced by Dr Guy LeBlanc Smith.  h/t Jeff Hayes

We create crude global wind pattern maps (Figure 1). The problem is they are theoretical and based on a false premise known as the three cell global circulation pattern.

Figure 1

The empirical evidence does not support the three cell system, yet, like the greenhouse analogy, it still appears in most textbooks. Figure 2 is from NOAA’s “Fun for kids” current website.

Figure 2

One of the best recent (1997) reconstructions shows the complexity (Figure 3).

Figure 3

What effectively disappeared in the better approximation, or at best is a seasonal phenomenon, is the Ferrel Cell. The diagram indicates its transitory nature by labelling it the “indirect” Ferrel Cell. Again the diagram shows average conditions for both Hemispheres, but there is a considerable difference between them because of the different land water configurations.

Coastlines are actually gaining in size in a warming world, confounding climate change claims they would shrink as sea levels rise.  

A new study by the Dutch Deltares Research Institute shows the Earth is actually gaining more land than it’s losing, disputing claims that #Climate Change is causing increased sea level rise. The study showed our planet actually gained 107,000 square miles over the past three decades, including 21,000 square miles of coastline. That means continents are gaining in size, and not shrinking.

Conversely, the study showed the Earth had only lost 71,000 square miles of land during this same time period, including 12,500 square miles of shoreline. Some scientists have held that in a warming world, the coastlines would be the first casualties as melting ice sheets poured excess water into the oceans. Even President-Elect #Obama said in 2008 that his winning the election meant the rise of the oceans would now begin to slow. Turns out the oceans didn’t need his help after all.

After quantifying the magnitude and frequency of extreme floods in the UK, scientists found that flooding has been the most extreme in more than 600 years.

Flooding in northwest England was reconstructed from the coarse grained units preserved in lake sediments at Bassenthwaite Lake. The record includes the floods of December 2015 (Storm Desmond) and November 2009.

The UK scientists found five flood rich periods (CE 1460-1500, 1580-1680, 1780-1820, 1850-1925, 1970-present) and then (of course) found a way to tie the floods to global warming.

However, reader J. H. Walker comes to a different conclusion.

Key UK global warming spin machine The Guardian newspaper  is at it again touting a new paper by discredited “soft” science experts. The “Big Story” here is the newly-published paper ‘Alice in Wonderland’ mechanics of the rejection of (climate) science: simulating coherence by conspiracism’ (September 19, 2016) which takes long- discredited strawman alarmist talking points and runs them up a flag pole for treehuggers to salute.

The Guardian asserts the new paper debunks skeptics who use “contradictory arguments” as follows:

“A new research paper published in the journal Synthese has looked at several of these contradictory arguments that get thrown around the blogosphere, the Australian Senate and the opinion pages of the (mostly) conservative media.

The paper comes with the fun and enticing title: “The Alice in Wonderland mechanics of the rejection of (climate) science: simulating coherence by conspiracism.”

Why Alice? Because, as the White Queen admitted: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Some years ago, my West Virginia hunting and fishing buddy was invited to appear on a local television station high in the mountains with an animal rights activist, a young vegan mother who brought her one-year-old daughter with her.

In the midst of the discussion after the young lady argued that we humans ought to stop treating animals as our inferiors, my friend turned to her and asked a simple question. “After the show, you will have to drive back down the mountain with your daughter and I’m wondering what you would do if, as you round a curve, you see a raccoon or rabbit in the road and you have a choice: You can hit and probably kill it or you can swerve and possibly lose control of your car endangering you and your child. What would you do?”

This is the ultimate fact sheet for debunking what has become the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s most potent regulatory weapon — the claim that fine particulate matter (soot and dust called PM_2.5) in outdoor air kills people. This sheet will be updated regularly as needed. This will be Version 1 (September 22, 2016). Please let me know if you have comments/suggestions.

The Claim. Since the 1996, EPA has claimed that fine particulate matter in outdoor air (PM_2.5) causes death.

The EPA’s position is that:

• ANY inhalation of PM_2.5 can cause death;
• Death from PM_2.5 may occur within hours of inhalation (i.e., “short-term” or literally “sudden death”) and that;
• Long-term (i.e., years or decades) exposure to PM_2.5 can cause premature death.

EPA claims that natural and manmade PM_2.5 causes as many as 500,000 deaths annually. [1]

NOAA claimed yesterday that Angola and Namibia had their hottest month ever last month, even though they don’t have any thermometers there.

NOAA Sets An All-Time Fraud Record In August | The Deplorable Climate Science Blog

NASA also shows Namibia and Angola very hot, 1-4C above normal.

NASA has no thermometers in Namibia, and only one in Angola, at Luanda.

Data.GISS: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis: Station Data

Luanda was warmer in the 1970’s, but NASA adjusted the 1970’s warmth away.

Data.GISS: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis

The thermometer at Luanda is located next to the airport tarmac in the middle of very dense city of nearly three million people.

The “record heat” in southwest Africa is based on one tampered station, located next to a giant piece of asphalt in the middle of a rapidly growing city.

Luanda city has the highest rate of population growth in Africa, a local study shows.  According to the study presented by the Sweden embassy in Angola, Luanda is set to have 9 million inhabitants by 2030.

Many surveys have named the city as the world’s most expensive. One the negative side, Luanda is ranked among the 25 dirtiest cities in the world.

Luanda’s population growth rate highest in Africa – Africa Review

Instead of reducing recent temperatures to compensate for UHI, NASA cooled past temperatures. If Gavin set out to commit fraud, what would he do differently?

It’s a bit like being savaged by a sheep. Anthony Watts and his psychotic sidekick Willis the drug-addled cowboy are at it again. They’re trying to undermine the work of Ned Nikolov and Karl Zeller, who gave an excellent presentation at our highly successful London Conference. Their theory covers the underlying physical principles which determine surface temperature across a range of solar system bodies with radically different parameters in terms of insolation, surface pressure, atmospheric composition and rotation rates. There’s not a snowball in hell’s chance of Watts or Willis understanding it, as they amply demonstrated last time they had a go.  

I provide a proof that alternative energy production technologies (wind, solar, ocean energy, biofuels, etc.) necessarily burn more fossil fuel, per quantum of energy generated, than the energy production technologies that directly burn fossil fuel.

(Note: Hydro-electricity is “renewable” but it is not an “alternative” energy.)

If this were not the case, or if there was a realistic potential for this not to be the case, then alternatives could be more economical on a true-coast basis and would be experiencing a consequential surge in development and implementation, without disproportionate (per energy quantum) public investment.

Whereas, the global reality looks like this:

The increases in the insignificant alternatives are tied to disproportionate government investment, incentives, and subsidies, which transfer artificially high costs to citizens and users. As soon as government commitments are reduced or terminated the sector crashes [1].