Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Dishonest Science...

For years now, the AGW skeptics have cited a glaring omission from the models that the AGW proponents rely on: stratospheric water vapor.  Scientists have long known that water vapor is by far the most effective “greenhouse gas” – its effects dwarf those of carbon dioxide.  The AGW models predict a positive feedback runaway based on carbon dioxide, and completely ignore any feedback effects (positive or negative) from the water vapor.  This seems stupid on the face of it, though you'll never get an AGW proponent to agree with that.

So now comes along a study that supports the AGW skeptics position on stratospheric water vapor – and look how the mainstream science media reports it: as if it was a big surprise.

That's just plain dishonest.

Mandates...

Thomas Sowell has an excellent piece on those pernicious mandates that politicians so love...

NASA's New Direction...

Big caveat here: this is all subject to Congressional approval, which is very far from certain – NASA's political entanglements run very deep.

But having said that, while I'm very happy to see the Moon/Mars programs killed (along with their supporting “big booster” technology), I'm very disappointed to see extended support for the worthless International Space Station (ISS), and no expanded support for the unmanned program.  Basically the manned program's funding is simply moving from Moon/Mars to ISS (a no-op), and from government to private lifters (a good thing)...

World Wildlife Fund is a Government Organization?

Some interesting points about WWF, whose reports were heavily leaned on by the IPCC.  Hmmm...

Global Warming is Dead?

Walter Russell Mead seems to think so...

Maxine Waters: Blithering Idiot...

It never ceases to amaze me that congresscritters like this can get re-elected, over and over again. It's as though her constituents enjoy being the standing joke, or enjoy smashing their face into a wall.

Another take on it might be as a demonstration of the power of incumbency: