Bjerknes compensation assumes a constant total poleward energy transport (and an inverse relation between oceanic and atmospheric heat transport fluxes (Bjerknes, 1964)). Contrary to this assumption, there is empirical evidence of a simultaneous increase in poleward oceanic and atmospheric heat transport during the most recent warming period since the mid-1970s (aka the Great Pacific Climate Shift). This paper argues that TSI directly modulates ocean–atmospheric meridional heat transport. Solar Read more [...] 3 com

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Dick Smith, an Australian retail millionaire, has offered a $1M prize first to an italian inventor, and now to a greek company, Defkalion, if they can demonstrate a commercial LENR (low energy nuclear reaction, aka cold fusion) to the satisfaction of third-party scientific observers. As I am convinced this is a scam similar to Firepower International (make sure you look it up on Wikipedia) I am not prepared to waste money on this until the test conditions have been agreed on. As Read more [...] 3 com

Two things I have noticed while tracking polls that differentiate Ron Paul's from the others. The way support for Ron Paul is firming from the twitter tracking Eg. Support for Mittens has a tendency to droop suddenly, with tweets about him dropping almost to zero, but RP stays firm throughout. I think people are running out of things to talk about him, as they have with the other candidates. But RP at least gives people a hopeful, positive conversational thread. Perhaps that is how elections Read more [...] none

Click here. Libertarian Dr Ron Paul gets more than all of the others combined.

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How often do you feel like this when you ship? Rest in peace, bro'. Read more [...] none

Congratulations Julia and Wayne, on your new milestone - Australia's National debt has topped $200 billion after Labor borrowing $100 million per day. Australia now has its largest debt in history, after we borrowed $3.2 billion over the last week. On 11 March 2009, Treasurer Wayne Swan invoked "special circumstances" to increase the debt ceiling to a "temporary" level of $200 billion. In the last budget the government has increased the debt ceiling permanently to $250 billion. See the Total Read more [...] 3 com

When the MSM reports on the commercialization of Ni-H cold fusion energy generation, they see parallels to the scientific treatment of AGW sceptics, citing "follow the money". If this new technology is real, it should be easy to prove and past failures - and outside agendas - shouldn’t stand in the way. Still, scientific discovery is expensive and money is often the X factor. Fortunes and reputations are made and lost based on results. Orthodoxies develop that discredit ideas posing a threat Read more [...] 3 com

And the list of failures keeps growing. 1. Carbon Tax Lie – ‘There will be no carbon tax under the Government I lead.’ 2. NBN – $50 billion Telstra subsidy 3. Building the Education Revolution – The school halls fiasco 4. Home Insulation Plan (Pink Batts) – Dumped after 3 deaths, and x house fires. 5. Citizens Assembly - Dumped 6. Cash for Clunkers – Dumped 7. Hospital Reform – Nothing 8. Digital set-top boxes – almost redundant technology that is cheaper at Harvey Read more [...] 5 com

The main candidate theories for low energy nuclear reactions involving Nickel-Hydrogen: Widom-Larsen Theory http://www.newenergytimes.com/v2/library/2008/2008Widom-PrimerForElectroWeak.pdf http://www.newenergytimes.com/v2/sr/WL/WLTheory.shtml Polyneutron Theory of Fisher http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/OrianiRAenergeticc.pdf http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/FisherJCtheoryoflo.pdf Piantelli Hydride Capture Theory http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/roy-virgilio-on-piantelli-plus-the-2008-piantelli-hypothesis/ http://www.wipo.int/patentscope/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2010058288&recNum=2&maxRec=9&office=&prevFilter=&sortOption=Pub+Date+Desc&queryString=ALLNAMES%3A%28piantelli%29&tab=PCTDescription Review Read more [...] none

Dr Art Raiche, Retired CSIRO Chief Research Scientist, at the No Carbon Tax Rally, 16 August 2011. When you hear scientists telling you about the danger of global warming, ask them one question: "Who pays your salary?" Read more [...] none

Some scientific beliefs are wrong on some of the facts all of the time. Beliefs such as the Ether filling space, Lamarkism, Four Humours make up everything, Sun circles the earth, and Canals on Mars all had the value of explaining some of the facts. They were pushed aside by new beliefs that explained more of the facts. Some scientific beliefs are wrong on all of the facts some of the time. These include nine planets in the Solar System, atoms are not divisible into anything else. Some Read more [...] one

Jim Hansen made his opinion of renewable energy clear in his latest newsletter. [M]uch less than worthless. If you drink the kool-aid represented in the right part of Fig. 7, you are a big part of the problem. ...a humiliating assessment of the poster child of the Australian Intelligentsia coming from the author of the global warming scare. More kindness than Jim is shown by Steve McIntyre in reviewing two other articles on renewables by representatives of green factions, when he concludes Read more [...] 2 com

The physical structure of the oceans and atmosphere entails very long equilibrium dynamics due the slow accumulation of heat in the land and ocean. An ARMA analysis evaluates the potential of accumulation of solar anomaly to explain the global temperature changes over glacial/interglacial and recent time-frames. Click image above for animation of the accumulation model for the 1950-2011 period. The results of an early version of the accumulation theory are here. Contrary to the consensus Read more [...] one

Global Emission of Carbon Dioxide: The Contribution from Natural Sources by atmospheric physicist Professor Murry Salby, Chair of Climate, Macquarie University, talking at the Sydney Institute, on his conversion from agnostic to skeptic by his recent results on the natural origin of declining C12/C13 ratios in atmospheric carbon dioxide. In his paper due out in early 2012, he claims results that invalidate the main conclusions of the IPCC 2007 report called the AR4. Previous research showing Read more [...] 4 com

The 'Hubbert's Peak' approach to oil reserves has fostered the notion that resource-limitation has already begun. Contrary to the assumptions of sustainability, this analysis of existing production of 16 resources finds no evidence of such limitation. Dr James Rustad promptly sent me an excel spreadsheet with the calculations for gold, a mineral not shown in his paper. It is easy to work out the procedure from the spreadsheet. The cumulative productions are divided by the initial production, Read more [...] one

The growth of debt continues. Here is the most recent Government Securities on Issue. An earlier Government Debt Chart over a period covering the previous, conservative government is here. While the Coalition payed off debt, Labor has created more debt, quadrupling since they took power, ensuring their reputation as the worst financial managers in recent history. Read more [...] 7 com

Once there were alarmists who constructed theoretical, unvalidated global warming predictions for Australia. Then there were the skeptics who asked, "Where is the evidence?", and "How good are these models?" The alarmists were backed by the UN, the entire machinery of Government, the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, state departments, professors at universities, scientific bodies, quangos, green-groups, and rent-seekers. The skeptics were regular arse-out-of-their-pants business people, retirees, Read more [...] 2 com

The ABC apparently pulled its scheduled transmission of the debate and replaced it with the Tour de France. See the banned debate here. I thought Denniss was adequate if downbeat, but this censorship is unconscionable. Could this be payback for Monckton calling for the defunding of the ABC in Ballarat, or Australian media censorship as usual? My lasting impression from the debate is how flagrantly Dr Denniss spruiked the Labor Party policy and put-down the Opposition. It must be great to Read more [...] 2 com

Currently watching the debate. Monckton is more entertaining. Questions about his status as a Lord. Denniss is solid too. Generous applause for both. Good to see. Gillard: "Coal mining has a great future in this country." She is so unconvincing. The liar label has stuck. Monckton played the three characteristics of persuasion: Pathos (emotion), logos (reasoning), and ethos (character)–for persuasion, these three; but the greatest of these (according to Aristotle at least) is ethos. Read more [...] 4 com

The first carbon tax ad downplays the risks of global warming so much, its plaintive (transcript here). Climate change is predicted to lead to further rises in temperature, rises in sea levels and some extreme weather events becoming more common, making life more difficult. Where are the crippling heat waves, the endless droughts, the 30m sea level rises, the hurricanes and floods, the massive species extinctions, etc., etc. that will reduce life zones to the poles? So now AGW is only going Read more [...] one

Has there ever been a bloat like this before? Just think of all those possies for their mates (and Bob and Christine’s mates)! And just the fun they will be able to have with other people’s money (nuclear and CCS proponents are urged – forced – to stay away). These agencies are: o Clean Energy Finance Corporation o Climate Change Authority o Energy Security Council o Clean Energy Regulator o Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Advisory Board o Read more [...] 3 com

Global sea level must accelerate beyond the less than 3mm/yr rise presently to produce rises of a meter or more put out by the Australian Government fear-mongers. Challenges to the main basis for the 1 meter projections just posted on RC Is sea level rise accelerating? shows just how lame the defense of these catastrophic claims has become. This is modelling I and many other have been very critical of in the past. A response by Houston and Dean contains further complaints about Rahmstorf's modeling: ... Read more [...] 5 com

Any climate sceptic who takes on a debate in Australia encounters the GBR argument: even if the climate isn't warming we are going to lose The Reef! This study finds a far more nuanced situation, with no catastrophe in progress. In conclusion, precise estimates of coral cover from a dedicated monitoring program revealed that system-wide coral cover changed very little on the GBR between 1995 and 2009. Although coral cover averaged 29% across the whole GBR, previous studies indicate that coral Read more [...] 8 com

Roy Spencer provides more "Evidence that Global Warming is a False Alarm: A Model Simulation of the last 40 Years of Deep Ocean Warming." Yes, in Hansen’s worldview he thinks he KNOWS with certainty what the climate sensitivity is, and that it is pretty high. In that case, for a given amount of warming, you can figure out the net forcing. The trouble is that there has not been as much warming as expected for high climate sensitivity and the forcing from increasing CO2, so Hansen has to Read more [...] none

Dennis Bushnell: The most interesting, and promising, at this point, in the farther term, but maybe not so far, is low-energy nuclear reactions [LENR]. This has come out of [22] years of people producing energy but not knowing what it is — and we think we have a theory on it. It’s producing beta decay and heat without radiation. The research on this is very promising and it alone, if it comes to pass, would literally solve both [the] climate and energy [problems.] h/t New Energy Times Read more [...] 3 com

Below is a comment I received from an active cancer researcher, who runs an interesting blog called biopolyverse. As for the bicarb thing, there is a lot of current interest in the microenvironment of solid tumors and its effect on tumor cell growth, survival, and metastasis - and low pH may indeed help them along. Hence a possible role for bicarb or something similar, if they can indeed raise local pH - although as you noted, for bicarb at least other mechanisms might be operative. I Read more [...] none

This post will probably cement my reputation as a crank after the one on Rossi. I followed up on claims from some natural health web sites that Sodium Bicarbonate, Baking Soda, NaHCO3 could have a beneficial effect in cancer. There are no shortage of web sites purportedly by MDs stating there is "no evidence of beneficial effect whatsoever", etc. etc. I was therefore surprised when a short search of the medical literature revealed a number of recent studies demonstrating beneficial effects Read more [...] 5 com

The path UP the carbon tax slippery slope has never been made clearer, than when Greens deputy Christine Milne said “I certainly recognize that you are going to need a price at A$40 or more to shift from coal to gas and then a higher price still for gas to renewables.” The Green’s junior partner, the ALP, has confirmed that the carbon tax will keep increasing. Subsidies for solar and wind systems are already raising the cost of electricity to consumers, and Milne affirms that renewable energy Read more [...] 5 com

Hansen Redux: service and disservice. We thank Dr Davies for his response to our recent Drum article, as it provides an opportunity to discuss additional elements of the long, but interesting paper by Dr James Hansen.There are many areas where we agree: the main being that most computer models of climate (1) have over-estimated the rate at which heat is being absorbed by the oceans, and (2) that the corresponding net human-made climate forcing is unrealistically large. Davies explains “All climate Read more [...] none