ClimateGate: Roundup...

Earlier this week, Dr. Phil Jones (formerly of the CRU) testified to the parliamentary investigation that he could not get temperature data released by the Swedes.  Yesterday the Swedes said, basically, I don't frickin' think so!  And they released the correspondence between themselves and Jones to prove it.  The only reasonable conclusion one can come to is that Jones lied...

JoNova has the sad details on how much taxpayer money has gone to AGW-related research and PR.  One thing is certain: the notion that the AGW skeptics are the well-paid tools of big oil was always ludicrous (where's my check?!), but even if it were true it would be utterly dwarfed by the taxpayer money funding the other side...

Quote of the Day...

From Charles Krauthammer:

You can only be disillusioned if you were once illusioned. 

Go read.

How Are We Doing on Unemployment?

Well, it looks like there's been almost no change over the past year in how much people are searching for unemployment-related topics on the Internet.  The latest unemployment numbers released this week showed basically no change in the past month, either in the federally-fudged number (9.6%) or the raw number (16.8%) of unemployed people nationwide. 

Seeing those numbers decline would sure do a lot for my confidence going forward...

Hypocritical Politicians...

Those two words really seem to go together well, don't they?  I can't think about one word without automatically thinking of the other!  Here's a recent example: remember all the hopey-changy declarations by Pelosi et al about removing all the corrupting influence of earmarks.  Well, not so much...

Interesting New Search Tool...

Here's a clever idea, well implemented.  It's a special sort of search engine that leverages Google's ability to give you a list of the most common search terms.  I tested it by typing in the word “baltic”, and it responded with the second column shown at right: dry, sea, states, birch, room, amber, and cruises.  These are the most common word after “baltic” that Google sees in search terms people typed in.  Then I clicked on “amber” and it displayed the third column: the list of most common third words after “baltic amber”.  Eventually when you click, you'll get a list of search results at right. 

I've been using this now for two days, and for certain kinds of searchs – especially those where you're unsure of the terms to use – it has proved quite useful.  It's also sometimes quite entertaining!