Monday, November 03, 2008

Burning the Furniture

Here are a few pieces of the larger puzzle of our global climate and how the individual decisions we make tip events into unexpected places.

Hint: Buy stock in companies that make thermal underwear, with a secondary choice in firearms ammunition. As you will see further down in the comments on a blog called Hill Buzz, gun owners are increasing and ammunition is becoming scarce.

But let’s follow things in the order I found them.

The first piece arrived in a link DJ sent. It was a feature on the thinning of the Heliosphere. Did anyone (besides Zenster) even know the Heliosphere existed? Well, it does, and its future looks as gloomy as those Brits deprived of their pubs:

Global warming alarmists face yet another challenge to their predictions of an inferno of doom. The solar wind is losing power, and is at a fifty year low, according to NASA.

The Ulysses solar probe reports a 13% drop in temperature, a 20% drop in density, and a 30% drop-off in the sun’s magnetic field, marking this as the weakest period of solar wind on record (records go back to the 1960’s).

What does this mean? The Heliosphere is thinning, and thus will block fewer cosmic rays. Heinrick Svensmark theorizes that an increase in cosmic rays reaching the Earth will drive cloud formation, increase the planet’s albedo (reflectivity), thus cooling it.

Is this the cause of the Earth’s unusually cool year? According to Anthony Watts, the Earth’s albedo reached a nadir in 1997, and has risen sharply since. Is this related to the weakening of solar activity? We’ve seen few sunspots in Solar Cycle 24, the solar conveyor belt has slowed to a crawl, and now the solar wind is bottoming out.

This information was the first alarm - alarming because scientists can observe the information, but they’re not sure of its implications.

And here is a handy graph, showing the temperature slide:

Global temperature change

The graph is followed by Alarm #2.

Yesterday, I went over to Archonix’ blog and there he was, dysphorically contemplating why nothing matters, not even the Ummah. I’ve never described anyone as glumly triumphant, but I think Archonix has a touch of the exultant in his conclusion. See what you think.

It is an alluring writer indeed who can start with “why we don’t matter” and by some traipsing through a maze of contemplation bring one to the gate that says “the light of truth shines brightest in the dark”. Sometimes I think Archonix has escaped from a Bernard Cornwell novel. You need to read the whole thing, and I didn’t want to spoil the suspense by cutting-and-pasting his entire post. Click on it and see what you think:

The anti-jihad doesn’t matter.

It’s a pretty controversial statement, I agree, but it’s true. We cannot change the world.

We fight, but our governments and their useful idiots ignore us. We protest and they call us “racist” and “haters”. We ask only that we be allowed to share our views and they call us “intolerant”. The way things stand we are not able, and will not be able, to make an effective change. We will be condemned to forever flit around the edges of society, holding aloft the guttering torch of truth as the crowd turns its back on us, preferring the self-inflicted twilight of its own company. In that situation we cannot effect any change because to do so would require overwhelming power, and overwhelming power - the power to force people to take our views - would destroy us utterly.

But that isn’t why we don’t matter.

Islam has that power. Islam has the power to overthrow governments at a snails pace. It has the power to discredit dissent, emotionally and reputationally destroy its opposition. It has the power of government and keeps the people in darkness, by telling them that the light of truth is a lie. It hides behind tolerance and screams “racist” at the people who oppose it, and uses that same government and those same useful idiots to do the hard work so it doesn’t get its lily-white hands dirty. It enslaves and ensnares and is at the point, now, where overthrow by the means we employ is virtually impossible, or would take so long that it cannot hope to succeed in time.

But that isn’t why we don’t matter.

Several events happened this year, largely unremarked, that dictate how the world will be shaped for the next 20 or 30 years…

- - - - - - - - -
First, we reached a new record of “spotless days” for the sun. The sun is at a solar minima not seen since modern records began, and estimated as similar to that preceding the Maunder Minimum, which coincided with the little ice-age. Though the mechanism is not fully understood there is a definite causal link between sun-spot activity, cloud-cover and temperature.

Second, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, or PDO, did what in the parlance would be called a “flip”. It reversed. The PDO is a well-known cycle of currents and temperatures in the pacific ocean that periodically moves through warm and cold phases. The most recent flip has brought it into a cold phase.

Third, the push for “green energy” has finally resulted in the application of CO2 emission controls being implemented in EU member states. The significant part of this is that many power stations are now no longer operating at anywhere near their peak capacity. In order to comply with the new regulations many large coal-fired energy producers are required to effectively switch off for up to half the year.

The result is…

The consequences Archonix describes are dark and dangerous and explore new territories. Go read it if you are the stalwart type. Or just resume reading Obama’s oraculations. I am positive he has the whole simple solution for this problem right up his sleeve, just waiting for the right moment. In the meantime, there are his plans to bankrupt clean up the coal industry, a plan that’s been public since last January.

That anti-coal stance is a real no-brainer for raking in the votes in San Francisco and Berkeley, me boy. But back in the real world, let’s hope your bright ideas are enough to keep the rest of us warm. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will have you for breakfast should its citizens get wind of this ecological stupidity. No wonder the MSM tip-toed right on by this piece of sludge way back in January. Had they been honest brokers, they’d have publicized your strange ideas. But they knew you’d be toast or is “toast’ a racist smear? Whatever.

Hillary would now be the nominee and people would not be out buying guns in order to feel safe from your strange economic philosophy.

Here’s some of the Newsbusters’ transcript of the words dropping from the lips of the One back in January:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it. [emphasis from Newsbusters]

Great idea, Obie. And so what are your suggestions as to what we might do to keep warm while these “alternate energy approaches” become a reality in the next two decades or so? After we finish burning our furniture to keep warm, may we have some of yours?

Alarm #3:

Insubria sent a tip about Italy’s message to the EU regarding the “unsustainable costs” for climate control rules as they apply to Italy in particular. In a search for fuller information, I came across a blog I’ll have to investigate more closely later. Right now, though, The New American reports:

Because of economic difficulties emanating from the worldwide banking crisis, some EU members such as Poland and Italy have stated that they cannot afford to enforce the stringent emissions targets on their industrial sector.

But the global economic difficulties have not caused EU leaders to abandon their advocacy of carbon controls. BBC reported President Sarkozy’s statement: “The climate package is so important that we cannot simply drop it, under the pretext of a financial crisis.” And European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said at the close of the summit: “We are not going to let up on the battle against climate change.”

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was less enthusiastic and reportedly threatened to exercise a veto to demand less of a burden on Italian industry.

The EU’s proposed actions still did not satisfy environmental extremists, however, and they accused Sarkosy and his associates at the EU with creating loopholes in the legislation to protect Europe’s domestic industries.

As Reuters quoted Greenpeace spokesman Mark Breddy: “Mr. Sarkozy and others are showing that they are unwilling to walk the walk when it comes to decisive action.”

Ironically, Greenpeace has long been a leading opponent of clean, environmentally friendly nuclear power, with which France generates 80 percent of its electricity.

A statement on the EU’s website summed up this summit’s work as follows:

The European Council reaffirmed the objective of reaching an overall agreement on the energy-climate change package for the December European Council and agreed on the Presidency and the Commission intensifying work towards this end.

Many leading scientists have disagreed publicly with the more widely publicized position that made-made emissions have had a warming effect on the Earth’s climate. These include John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel; S. Fred Singer, a top environmental scientist and former director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service; Dr. Patrick Michaels, a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia; and Professor Benny Peiser of Liverpool’s John Moores University.

[Note to readers: please don’t deluge me with leftist sites declaring anathema on Patrick Michaels. It’s been long shown that the charges are scurrilous and I’m not going to waste bandwidth on that one.]

DinnerAlarm #4

Gun sales are waaay up. Hill Buzz blog (devoted to Hillary fans planning to bury O with votes for McCain) has a post entitled, “This is FASCINATING - gun sales increase could predict Obama defeat”. The long string of thoughtful commenters describe their decision to buy firearms and their unhappiness with having to do so. One commenter left a link to this story (it doesn’t appear to have a permanent separate link so scroll down the page to a piece entitled “Moving Toward the Elections):

For the past few days we’ve been receiving questions from our readers asking a single question: “what about the election?” It’s a question that’s not easy to answer, because there is simply so much at stake a week from tomorrow. And it’s not all the obvious “stuff” that should worry each of us. There are issues to be decided that have the potential to impact every aspect of our lives, not just our wallets.

When James Carville wrote: “It’s the economy, stupid” on a blackboard several years ago, he solidified a focus on the single issue that assured Bill Clinton a place in the White House. Today, Carville would need considerably more words - and chalk - to cover the topics of concern we are all facing.

From the economy to the subjects we’re permitted to teach in schools next week’s ballots are filled with important issues. And not all of us face the same issues - that’s one reason I’ve not bored anyone with my personal political positions.

On the issue of firearms and rights, telling anyone who believes neither party has any interest in dialing-down gun rights at this point is not only a waste of time, it’s a hopeless cause. Despite the nastiness of the campaign, there are some elemental truths that cannot be argued.

One is that the Democratic Party, the party of my family for generations before me, has no intention of leaving that subject alone.

The Outdoor Wire has confirmed from confidential sources that the “transition team” for the Democratic candidate has already begun looking into the current approval system for firearms transactions. It seems the digital recordkeeping approval recently granted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) has piqued their curiosity. With a virtual Form 4473 in existence, we should be on the lookout for a new record-keeping initiative that will “simplify” the hassles of off-site digital record storage by allowing FFLs to, say, store the information on secure governmental servers. Of course, the government will never access the information.

Of course it won’t. Government holds your personal information with the utmost of respectful privacy. If this record-keeping bumf about gun owners is true, I expect a booming (so to speak) business in black market guns. It’s the same phenomenon that happens when states raise their cigarette taxes: the big semis move up the interstates from the less-heavily taxed southern states toward those big Yankee cities. The trailers attached to them are stuffed with contraband tobacco. The business is too huge, too lucrative, and too covert for Law enforcement to make even the smallest dent in the traffic.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

A few predictions, based on the information in these articles:

1. Lots of frenzied emergency preparations by otherwise placid citizens.
2. A run on the market for Boy Scouts, military veterans, and other outdoor-types who can start fires by rubbing two sticks together, can box the compass, and can dig a trench latrine.
3. The capture and plucking of those nasty Canada geese which infest artificial suburban ponds. Those feathers will make lovely warm protective garments for the children.
4. In desperation, the greasy carcasses of those naked geese will be source of protein, however repugnant.
5. Barter will return as the primary form of economic transaction. A good reason to stock up on tobacco products, even if you don’t smoke or chew. Also incandescent light bulbs. And whiskey.
6. Which reminds me: learn how to make hooch in the bathtub.

Further suggestions from any passing outlaws will be welcome.

I’m counting on your creative criminality.

26 comments:

talnik said...

I read somewhere that a poll conducted by telephone revealed that 63% of American households had a gun of some sort. Who would tell a stranger on the telephone that they owned a gun?
Then again, who would tell a stranger on the telephone that they didn't?

sheik yer'mami said...

All fair and good. But you forget to mention the power of the recycled 'petro-dollars' that are coming to bite us in the ass.

Money talks....

X said...

Yays, I have purpose!

Invest in stirling engines. you can get a fair bit of the leccy from them if you have a suitably strong heat source. Enough to run a few bulbs or a fridge. It's not criminal of course... but the brining of all that wood might be.

And, lets see, there was a neat solution for home-producing electricity in... hungary, I believe, back in the day. People would take a standard electric washing machine, attach a set of wooden paddles to the drum and then plop it on its side next to a river. instant water generator.

Dymphna said...

Archonix

We have acres of woods to burn. I don't think it's illegal since most people I know have a wood stove for backup..

Unfortunately, my asthma precludes that...and I'd have to rebuild the chimneys.

No way...


I want a back up gas burning vented stove but haven't gotten around to it yet. Guess I'd better before they're all gone.

Dymphna said...

talnik --

for the most part, 'mericans are an open bunch. Way too open. Look for that to change...

X said...

I'm looking into getting hold of some diesel generators from Aldi. They're doing a special on them. I can't work out of it's worth it though - diesel is mor expensive than unleaded these days thanks to the "progressive" taxation that closed a "loophole" caused by the fact that diesel is more efficient as a fuel...

xlbrl said...

A 13% drop in temperature makes no sense whatever. 13% of what?

no2liberals said...

I have also read about the large volume in gun sales. Guess those folks weren't of age when Bill "Horny Hick" Clinton was President. During the 90's, Janet "Doubtfire" Reno was declared the top salesman by the firearms industry.
I won't mention how many guns I have, or other martial devices, but I will say, if their is a shortage of ammo(again?), it doesn't effect me. I have maintained an inventory of around 7,000 rounds in total, for twelve different chamberings. I also have two way radios with headsets, as well as hide in plain sight camo.
Here in Texas, this entire year, the DPS has had a back log of about four months for issuing concealed handgun licenses, even renewals, and many have claimed it was based on a concern that B-HO might be elected.
I have a fall back position on a lake, on top of a hill, where I can hunt, fish, and make a still for pure drinking water. The last place I want to be, if things go sideways, is in a large urban area. Threats could come from any direction or angle, at any time.
But, that's just me. I grew up in a family that always placed a great deal of importance on self-reliance. I've been accused of having an "iron booger" in my nose, as I always know where magnetic north is, and can plot a course on a compass.

As for the Maunder Minimum, it is nothing new, and the solar cycles observed over time, tend to run in eleven year cycles. I am constantly amazed by the hand-wringing shriekers that claim we are killing the Earth. When that big ball of gas goes super nova, we'll have about thirty minutes before the shock wave hits, and the CO2 levels will mean less than they do now. Even if the Sun doesn't implode, the expiration date on the Earth is about 235million years, when the fuel in the Earth's core is exhausted.
I say party like there's no tomorrow, because there just might not be.

Conservative Swede said...

xlbrl,

A 13% drop in temperature makes no sense whatever. 13% of what?

Yes, we cannot count percentages without a proper zero.

The absolute zero is at -273.15 °C (-459.67 °F).

So room temperature at 20 °C is really 293.15 °Kelvin.
13% decrease from that gives 255 °Kelvin, which translates to -18 °C (-0.4 °F).

No a warm sweater won't do, you need the full polar kit.

no2liberals said...

Light a candle for St. Possenti.
We need all the help we can get, tomorrow.

Dymphna said...

Archonix--

I'll bite. What the heck does this mean?

Invest in stirling engines. you can get a fair bit of the leccy from them if you have a suitably strong heat source...

stirling engines?

leccy?

What in a strong heat source in this case?

Signed,
Mystified in Virginia

Dymphna said...

no2liberals:

I thought I knew the Catholic hagiography pretty well, even the obscure ones. But this is a new one on me.

Of course he came along before Leo XIII, the socialist, so he was honored by the townspeople. Couldn't happend now.

Here's what n2l found:

The St. Gabriel Possenti Society promotes the public recognition of St. Gabriel Possenti, including his Vatican designation as Patron Saint of Handgunners.

St. Gabriel Possenti was a Catholic seminarian whose marksmanship and proficiency with handguns single-handedly saved the village of Isola, Italy from a band of 20 terrorists in 1860.

The Possenti Society offers a variety of materials related to St. Gabriel Possenti and a biblical understanding of self-defense.

The Savior of Isola

In 1860, a band of soldiers from the army of Garibaldi entered the mountain village of Isola, Italy. They began to burn and pillage the town, terrorizing its inhabitants.

Possenti, with his seminary rector's permission, walked into the center of town, unarmed, to face the terrorists. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape when he saw Possenti and made a snickering remark about such a young monk being all alone.

Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier's revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti's direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.

At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as "the Savior of Isola".


Cool guy.

If anyone wants to donate to this organization they are in (gasp!) Northern Virginia...the pc capital of our Commonwealth:

St. Gabriel Possenti Society Inc. P.O. Box 2844
Arlington VA 22202 USA

Spread the word to the Catholic community, folks. This is cool. I'll send it to the Anchoress.

When I'm not so feverish...

One_of_the_last_few_Patriots_left said...

Believe it or not, Dymphna, I, in fact, did know that the heliosphere exists, as I am a hopeless four-eyed-freak science NERD and my first love (among the sciences) was astronomy.

For some idea as to what we can expect we should look to the history of "The Little Ice Age. " Of course, when I say "what we can expect," I'm talking about climatology, not politics. As far as politics goes, well, lessee....

*There will be rioting. Lots of rioting.
*Barack's Marxist policies will bancrupt the United States just as this diseased ideology has bancrupted every nation it has infected.
*Race baiting elevated to the level of official policy will now become standard-operating-procedure.
*The invasion of the USA by ULTRA-VIOLENT THIRD WORLD BARBARIAN THUGS will now kick into high gear. Expect millions of Mexicans to cross the border every year.
*Crime rates will skyrocket.
*The Islamization of America will also kick into high gear.
*The Chicoms, Muslims, North Koreans, etc. will be laughing their heads off at the United States.
*If you actually work for a living, expect to be subject to ever increasing and eventually confiscatory taxation.
*Your freedom of speach will be curtailed. Talk radio and the blogosphere will be controlled (for your own good.)
*Your guns will be taken away (for your own good.)
*Thinking of staying warm with a coal or gas stove? Don't bother;
when the carbon taxes are put into effect, you won't be able to afford it.
*The UN will run the US.

I find your choice of "Paleolithic mastodon hunt" to be quite appropriate. While our political overlords enjoy their chauffered limousines, hired thug bodyguards, and private jets, we will be reduced to peasantry.

Well, Dymphna, you and the Baron sure had a nice blog. I will be sorry to see it go, but we must expect that any new "Fairness Doctrine" will include the internet also. I'm going to miss all the bloggers who have added their interesting comments here and I am glad that I was able to add a comment while it was still possible.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go fondle my new Kalashnikov that I bought a couple of weeks ago in preparation for the election riots. I must enjoy it while I still can.

no2liberals said...

dymphna,
I'm not totally surprised that you hadn't heard of him. Leave it to a right-wing radical, like me, to know one of the most obscure saints of all time.
Very cool guy, indeed, and Pope John Paul II had much to say about self-defense.
......Certainly, the intrinsic value of life and the duty to love oneself no less than others are the basis of a true right to self-defense ... legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another's life, the common good of the family or of the State. Unfortunately, it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome is attributable to the aggressor whose actions brought it about, even though he may not be morally responsible because of a lack of the use of reason." - Pope John Paul II
Evangelum vitae

I had considered taking the nom de plume of St. Possenti, but decided against it, out of respect for such a wonderful man.

More on St. Possenti here, and here.

A true sheepdog.

Vladtepesblog.com said...

Just a guess but I suspect a 13% drop refers to average temperatures in a given area for a given time of year. The Maunder Minimum thing is a real concern. Interpolations of data from the time of Galileo when sun spots where discovered show a positive correlation between sun spots (solar wind) and climate. The media has been busted already for not reporting on weather which contradicts global warming. When ice at the North pole was thin we all knew it. at the same time it was unusually thick and cold at the south pole. this we weren't told.
It doesnt make for sexy news. Much like why the media has shown such a double standard for Obama. A McCain win is not sexy news but an Obama win is no matter what your politics. The media would love an Obama win and has IMO manufactured one.
As for survivalism, civilization requires many nations to have healthy trade on goods materials and ideas. The dark ages began when Rome could no longer protect the roads and brigands stopped all trade. Europe Canada and the US must stay free and protect all it has accomplished from the irrational be it leftists or Islam. By the time we all need 7000 rounds one wonders what we would be fighting to protect. Not that i disapprove of rugged individualism it's actually the ideal. I just hope it remains the norm and not the exception.

no2liberals said...

vlad,
The ideal situation is, the ammo stays in it's lockers.
Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Vladtepesblog.com said...

CFRA interviews Phil Chapman climate scientist
http://vladtepesblog.com/?p=113
really worth the listen. He deals with all these factors very clearly.

no2liberals said...

BREAKING NEWS VIDEO***
Bin Laden endorses B-HO.

no2liberals said...

Here is an excellent open letter from Lord Monkton of Brenchley.

darrinh said...

The documentary "The great global warming swindle" explored the theory of the sun being the real climate driver as opposed to Bessie the cow farting in a paddock.

X said...

@Dymphna: a stirling engine is an external combustion engine. it's really clever. put it on a constant heat source, like that vented gas stove, or a wood fire, and it just starts going. You can get about 60 watts out of a unit the size of a coke bottle. I'm thinking of getting one to recycle some of the heat from my computers.

Leccy is electricity. The Baron would have been able to tell you that one. :D

xlbrl said...

Swede--
Yes, your numbers are correct, zero degrees F would represent the new room temperature with a 13% drop. Down 38C or 68F. But the true ice-age maximums are less than half that.
My hope is that only the other side uses wacked numbers, which is not the case here.

Zenster said...

Get out your tinfoil hats!

Here's a little doozey that landed in my email inbox:

DSCOVR Mission to Be Gutted

Some excerpts:

Here is the latest twist in the bizarre story about the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). Apparently, the US Air Force is in discussions with NASA to take over the mission, with one important catch: that all the Earth observing instruments be removed.

It seems the Air Force is more interested in looking at the Sun than our warming planet and plans are being made to send the spacecraft one million miles distant – only to look the other way ...

This unique vantage point would allow us for the first time to directly measure the energy budget of our warming planet. This spacecraft would also immediately lay to rest any remaining scientific questions about the origins or seriousness of climate change. Strangely, this fully completed spacecraft remains in a box somewhere in Maryland, eight years and $100 million after it was built.


Given that there are more than a few NASA scientists who have a lot of credibility capital invested in Global Warmening, the thought of them intentionally spiking a mission which could disprove the Great Goracle has crossed my mind.

Baron, please consider this for a regular post. To quote Elmer Fudd:

Der's something awfwy scwooey going on awound here.

Defiant Lion said...

AGW is a marxist scam to further plunder the wealth of the west and redistribute it to the third world.

I reslly like this essay, although it is a bit lengthy it is easy to read and contains some very inconvenient truths Al Gore would rather you didn't know:

The Global Warming Hoax

Somneone somewhere has been telling a big pile of porkies.

X said...

Zenster, the agw proponents will undoubtedly see it as the military-industrial-complex-big-oil-cartel-rethuglican-whatever etc etc spiking the project in order to prevent the absolute proof of global warming from ever coming out. It's all a matter of perspective. :)

Truth is, the project would probably have concluded very little either way, but the sun-watching aspects of it have huge potential benefits for the military. Getting advanced warning of solar flares and an increased knowledge of how the sun works would be hugely important for them. A better ability to predict solar flares means they can have more time to shut down solar-sensitive military equipment,and a batter understanding of how the sun works would igve them the ability to tailor their equipment for use in the more active parts of the solar cycle, when other, potentially hostile organisations would have to shut their infrastructure down to prevent it being damaged.

Like I say, all a matter of perspective.

Zenster said...

Archonix: ... the agw proponents will undoubtedly see it as the military-industrial-complex-big-oil-cartel-rethuglican-whatever etc etc spiking the project in order to prevent the absolute proof of global warming from ever coming out.

Which would be entirely predictable save that Bush is the one who signed a bill demanding resolution of this matter within 180 days.

This is just one more example of how America's republican party is losing the battle without firing a shot. McCain's defeat can be linked quite directly to his routine Political Correctness when the exact opposite was required.

Similarly, their unquestioning acceptance of The Great Warmening represents yet another massive and avoidable gaffe. AGW is so anti-industrial and anti-jobs that it could be used to polarize a lot of voters away from liberal politics. Instead, the camel is swallowed whole.