Morning in Lawson Valley...

I walked our dogs at around 3:30 this morning, and was treated to a cool, humid air (we're expecting rain later today) that carried the scent of blooming ceanothus down the hillside to my nostrils.  Absolutely lovely, that was.  A bit of sage was in there as well.  The nearly full moon peeked between clouds; when it was out the valley was lit brightly enough to see the green of the hillsides and the pink of the peach tree flowering in our front yard.

I love chaparral mornings like this...

ClimateGate: Roundup...

The British Parliamentary Committee report on ClimateGate is out.  It's exactly the whitewash the skeptics expected...

Yale to Greens: Climate change?  Fuggetaboutit...

NASA admits that its temperature data is even worse than the rest of the IPCC data.  A real accomplishment, that...

Weather forecasters are not drinking the Kool-ade...

Esquire writes about Marc Morano and the “global warming hoax”.  Amazing to see this in the mainstream media...

Nice piece on climate modelers adjusting the data to make their models produce the “expected” result.  Scientists behaving badly, and all that...

Our Economy is Going Where?

Wonky (and scary) analysis...

British Press on Obama and Obamacare...

I'm envious of a press that writes this pungently (Nile Gardiner in the London Telegraph):

Indeed, in the last few days, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have strutted across the country with a vain swagger that would make a peacock blush, from the vice president’s classless, foul-mouthed victory boast at the White House, to the president’s contemptuous mocking of his political opponents at a rally in Iowa. Both leaders have been beaming like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, living in their own Tim Burton-like fantasy. And what have they actually achieved? The passage of a massively controversial, divisive and hugely expensive health care reform bill via a Democrat-dominated Congress in the face of overwhelming public opposition, and without a shred of bi-partisan support.

I'd probably enjoy their liberal version of this just as much.  Their press is like a nice Thai food dinner – spicy and tasty – whereas the American press is more like a bowl of cheap oatmeal that's had all the flavor cooked out of it...

California Crazy...

Just when I thought Californians couldn't possibly get any crazier...

Small Business Tools...

An interesting collection of free or cheap web-based tools for small businesses...

The Solar System Musicbox...

Very cool.  Take a few minutes to understand what this is showing you, and enjoy the celestial music as you learn...

November...

Howard Fineman – not exactly a cheerleader for the conservatives – predicts a disaster for the Democrats in November...

McCardle vs. Waxman...

Megan wins.  Hands down.

The Cheonan...

Can you say “uh oh”? 

Last week the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan exploded and sank with considerable loss of life.  After an investigation, the South Korean government is now saying they think it was a North Korean mine.  Story and analysis.

The Korean peninsula is one of the least stable and most dangerous places on earth right now.  There's the potential for a human disaster of very large proportions there, and the paths to a peaceful resolution all seem improbable...