After years of controversy, at last we’ve got incontrovertable proof of manmade Global Warming!

Errors introduced into data being added to the GISS surface temperature database for the U.S. ended up increasing temperatures in the U.S. by about 0.15 °C (0.27 °F) over the last 20 years. The mistakes, named “Hansen’s Y2K error” after NASA’s Dr. James Hansen (Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, science advisor to Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth, and contributor to Clinton/Gore, and Kerry/Edwards presidential campaigns), were very convenient for the warming advocates, but at present appear to have been caused by human error that simply went undetected for years. As to why the error’s named after Hansen, the reasons are many and varied, but you can start here for a quick primer.

Well, last week Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit blogged that he had found and the corrected the errors. As a result of McIntyre’s work, 1998 is no longer the hottest year on record—1934 is! In fact, the decade of the 30s averaged 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) above normal while the 90s only averaged 0.424 °C (0.763 °F). Six of the ten hottest years occurred before 1955.

Here’s the new Top Ten list (hottest first):

Year	Corrected Temp	Previous hottest year
1934	1.25 °C (2.25 °F)	1998
1998	1.23 °C (2.21 °F)	1934
1921	1.15 °C (2.07 °F)	2006
2006	1.13 °C (2.03 °F)	1921
1931	1.08 °C (1.94 °F)	1931
1999	0.93 °C (1.67 °F)	1999
1953	0.90 °C (1.62 °F)	1953
1990	0.87 °C (1.57 °F)	2001
1938	0.86 °C (1.54 °F)	1990
1939	0.85 °C (1.53 °F)	1938

Note that the temps in the table are not the actual high temperatures for each year (if they were, we’d be talking about global freezing, not warming!). They are the amount in °C (°F) that an average of the temperatures for a particular year was above statistical normal.

Hansen’s error increased temps in the last 20 years by 0.15 °C on average (some stations had errors as high as 1 °C (1.8 °F), others were the same in the negative direction, but the average amounted to an increase of 0.15 °C).

The following graphic is an animation comparing the old GISS temp curve with the corrected curve:

Click on the image to see a larger version. The source images used in the animation came from here.

Once again, the GISS temp data shows how much temperatures were above or below statistical normal. Called "anomalies", the temps that aren’t normal fall between a +1.5 and -1.5 °C (+2.7 and -2.7 °F) band. The red lines show the running 5-year average (or mean) of the anomalies. Notice how the majority of the errors fall conveniently between 1990 and 2000.

Some people are trying to trivialize the change, saying it doesn’t make “much difference”, but as the vaunted Kyoto Protocol is only supposed to reduce temps 0.07 °C by 2050 at a cost of billions of dollars, Steve’s correction is quite an accomplishment.

On his own, Steve McIntyre has reduced temps in the U.S. by 0.15 °C—more than Kyoto ever could!

 

Tags: blog | weblog | global warming | science | climate change | junk science

 

According to this Washington Post article, CBS is beating Dan Rather like a rented mule.

CBS executives have decided there is no future role at the network for Dan Rather, making it certain that the man who sat in the anchor chair for 24 years will depart by this fall.

These executives recognize Rather’s contributions over four decades and are not trying to boot him because of the controversy surrounding his botched story on President Bush and the National Guard, say network sources who declined to be named while discussing a sensitive personnel matter. But the executives concluded there was no room for Rather at “60 Minutes,” particularly with incoming anchor Katie Couric planning to report a half-dozen stories a year and the hiring of CNN’s Anderson Cooper as a part-time contributor.

This is absurd. If you look at who contributes to 60 Minutes, the main difference between Couric and Rather would seem to be Dan’s age and experience. But that can’t be the reason Rather’s being dumped because most contributors to 60 Minutes (Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, Lesley Stahl, Andy Rooney, and Mike Wallace) are 65 or older and none of them have been forced out to make room for perky Katie and Anderson. So it’s not age and experience, hmmm.

Could it be that they haven’t screwed up in a big way and left CBS open to unanswerable criticisms of liberal bias? That’s my guess as to why Dan is being so publicly humiliated after 44 years of service:

In place of the swagger that had served him so well throughout his 44-year career at CBS News was an obvious sadness that his tenure at the network was ticking down to an inglorious end. Mr. Rather complained that since stepping down as anchor of the ” CBS Evening News” last year, in the aftermath of a reporting scandal, he had been ill used as a correspondent on “60 Minutes” and had been given virtually nothing at all to do for the previous six weeks.

If you have forgotten the particulars behind Rathergate, drop by LittleGreenFootballs and check out Charles Johnson’s proof that the memo broadcast by 60 Minutes 2 was a forgery.

So that’s what’s really behind Dan Rather’s downfall at CBS, here’s what we’ve learned from his fall from grace:

• Those who report for the major mainstream media news organizations have a liberal bias. I’m sure that Dan’s peers think his error wasn’t in manipulating the news, it was getting caught in the act.

• The content of news from CBS and the rest of the MSM is biased in favor of liberals. Rathergate made it harder for them to keep up the charade of impartiality.

• Most important, no matter how glaring the evidence may be that the MSM is biased, they will never ever admit it because their only remaining claim to legitimacy (bogus though it is) is the gravitas that comes from being “balanced.” If Rather had actually admitted to liberal bias that admission would done far more harm to CBS news.

So when Dan Rather and Mary Mapes were caught in the act trying to swing the 2004 election in John Kerry’s favor by broadcasting a story based on phony documents, they had to claim that the documents were valid, no matter how conclusive the evidence was that they were forgeries. Ordinarily they might have gotten away with the lies, but the blogosphere kept the story alive in spite of the MSM’s attempts to ignore it. (It helped that the evidence was so compelling that nobody with two synapses to rub together could believe they were authentic.)

There’s a saying about infidelity “when caught red-handed, deny, deny, deny.” When the trap you’re in is such that you can’t even tell the truth, denial is the only option left. Mary Mapes’s explanation as to why the 60 Minutes letters weren’t forgeries is a perfect example:

They claimed that CBS used forged documents and they repeated that lie so often that it stuck. The mainstream media picked it up, repeating bloggers’ criticisms without making any serious effort to investigate the story. But then that would have required real legwork, something that very few were willing to do on this subject.

As for document analysis, it is a mind-numbing and arcane discipline, an imperfect undertaking reserved for courtroom use, not for headlines or Internet political battles. Document analysis is certainly not meant to be done at 11 o’clock at night by someone with no training or experience sitting in front of a glowing computer nursing a grudge and spoiling for a fight. But that’s precisely how the right’s attack against Dan Rather and CBS News was launched.

That first anonymous analyst (who turned out to be a Republican activist lawyer) raised questions about the memo using only a single shot of a faxed document digitally transmitted to his computer screen. Those kinds of transmissions radically change the way a document looks. His analysis was worthless.

Neither Mapes or Rather are stupid (just bitterly partisan) and they know they look foolish by maintaining that the docs were legit. But the alternative is to confirm people’s suspicions by admitting they tried using suspect documents to harm President Bush’s chances for reelection, which would have been a calamity for CBS (Americans won’t tolerate a news organization trying to subvert an election). Not to mention what Congress might have done to CBS the next time broadcast licenses were up for renewal (election meddling does not qualify as broadcasting in the public interest).

So there you have it, Dan can’t tell the truth because he’d never work for an MSM news organization again, and being dissed by CBS has got to tarnish his reputation, so another job in the mainstream media is even more unlikely. He might land something with a liberal cable channel like MSNBC, but he’s used to having millions of viewers and everybody with cable watches Fox News, so what’s left?

Well, he could always try blogging. Working with the pajama-clad minions of the blogosphere could be a refreshing change, but after years in the MSM, I doubt he’d enjoy the relentless fact-checking scrutiny. You never know, he might fit right in!

 

Tags: blog | weblog | politics | journalists | rathergate | liberal bias | liberals | scandals | miserable failure

 

 

 

In a valiant attempt to spin the bad news about Air America Radio losing WLIB, their flagship station in New York, Sam Graham-Felsen at The Notion (The Nation’s blog) has this to say:

Air America’s OK

Sure they are Sam, they’re about to lose their flagship station, but things are just fine!

If you read the New York Sun or the New York Post, you might be under the impression that WLIB, Air America Radio’s New York City affiliate, is going under.

Actually, WLIB isn’t going under but they are dumping AAR – an important difference. WLIB wants to be successful and recognizes that if they stay with AAR they never will be.

Late last week, Brian Maloney at RadioEqualizer broke the story that Air America Radio was about to lose WLIB, AAR’s flagship station in New York. Since then, Maloney has posted this quote from Kathy Malloy, AAR host Mike Malloy’s wife/show producer:

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject: for the record . . .

Kathy Malloy here (using my own log in =)

Just FYI y’all, it’s the honest-to-God truth that we were taken off WLIB for financial reasons. Our ARBITRONS were as good/better than every other WLIB program. There’s much behind the scenes goings-on we’re not able to discuss publically, but you should believe me on this.

And we should be on a NEW home in NYC next quarter (ALL of us =)

Thanks for listening,
Molly’s Mom

[Emphasis mine.]

Note: Kathy’s message was posted on husband Mike Malloy’s Truthseekers Forum and it has since been erased (down the memory hole with it, eh “Truthseekers"?)

So there you have it, confirmation that AAR is losing WLIB.

Back to The Notion:

Last night, I attended a fundraiser for Al Franken’s new political action committee, the Midwest Values Pac (MVP). The goal of MVP is to raise money for progressive candidates in Franken’s home state of Minnesota as well as progressive candidates in other states, including Vermont’s Bernie Sanders (for more on MVP, check out this BuzzFlash interview).

I hope the Boys & Girls Club Association in Minnesota is keeping close watch on their checkbook as Al’s not too squeamish about taking money from kids when a paycheck is involved.

Franken gave a hilarious speech, but took a serious tone when he discussed the values that define MVP– universal health care, a living wage, equitable funding for public schools, a just trade policy that protects the interests of working people, and multilateral cooperation, to name a few.

Oh, Socialism again. Well it’s failed every time it’s been tried, but maybe it’ll work in Minnesota!

Albert Einstein had a good definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Al, meet Al.

Anyway, towards the end of the night, I asked Al about the rumors regarding Air America. “Look,” he told me, “Bill O’Reilly alone has said that Air America was on the verge of collapse thirty-six times. We’re not going anywhere.”

Notice how Al is splitting hairs here? The rumor d’jour is not that AAR is about to fail, it’s that they’re about to lose WLIB, which Al certainly knew when Graham-Felson spoke to him. He just chose to sidestep the issue.

AAR’s not going anywhere today or next week, but they’re definitely being nibbled to death by ducks. Their biggest affiliates have dwindled away, and of the remaining stations, the majority continue to reside at the bottom of the ratings lists in their respective markets.

[Update] Welcome Radio Equalizer readers! Settle in and stay awhile.

 

Tags: blog | weblog | schaedenfreude | air america | politics |miserable failure |mike malloy | wlib | air america radio

 

Last Tuesday, Vice President Cheney gave a keynote address to to the U.S. Labor Department’s 2006 National Summit on Retirement Savings at the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C.

Here’s a photo (hat tip: Drudge Report) that Reuters posted:

It looks like the photographer must have scrambled around the room until he had the perfect angle and then snapped the shot. A quick Photoshop session to crop the photo and voila!

Ha ha, Reuters, very funny – yet another example of biased photojournalism from the mainstream media.

At least, that’s how it looked at first. But when I tried to see the shot from a wider angle, things started to look decidedly odd.

Did you see the word “Retire” in that photo?

After some searching, I found a photo taken by a Dept. of Labor photographer that shows the scene from a distance. There’s the word “Retirement,” easily three feet or more above his head!

Look at this page where all three images are together, it sure doesn’t seem like the word “Retire” could appear behind Cheney’s head based on the angle it was taken (you’d be seeing mostly the underside of his chin and part of the podium at the correct angle). This comparison superimposes the two photos of Cheney’s head, they’re very similar and yet “Retire” only appears in one of them. So they’ve really manipulated this one. I think it’s worse than the Condoleezza Rice “demonized” job.

Already you can’t believe what you read in the mainstream media and now it’s getting so you can’t believe what you see either. Manipulating photos like that has got to be against some code of ethics isn’t it?

[Update] Welcome RightWinged and Michelle Malkin readers! Settle in and stay awhile. You might also want to check out this post on the “Just Kidding” Bandit (be sure to check out the comment).

[Update] So Reuters does have a code of ethics! They just don’t hesitate to ignore it. Michelle Malkin is also following this story and has posted the relevant section from Reuters’s editorial policy, but here’s the important bit:

…We do not take sides and attempt to reflect in our stories, pictures and video the views of all sides. We are not in the business of glorifying one side or another or of disseminating propaganda. Reuters journalists do not offer their own opinions or views.

Liar, liar
Pants on fire
Maybe it’s time that you “Retire”

[Update] Well that was fun while it lasted. I sent this story to James Taranto to see if he wanted to include it in today’s Best of the Web. His opinion (and he should certainly know) is that:

It was probably taken from long distance with a zoom lens.

So, it looks like the “Retire” photo, blatant bit of bias that it is, is also probably genuine, assuming the Reuters photog had the right equipment. Oh well, sorry ’bout the kerfuffle.

[Update] Closure Alert! For the first time on this blog, we’ve actually solved a puzzle! Thanks to help from commenters Howard and tbrosz, I think we’ve figured out how the Cheney photo was taken. In short, the effect the photog used was a form of perspective distortion called a “dolly zoom.” For details, read the comments.

 

Tags: blog | weblog | mainstream media | journalism | politics | scandal | bush | media bias | the left | journalists

Bill Clinton, famous around the world for his eponymous line of multi-colored condoms, is looking for a few “dependable, enthusiastic” interns (25 to be exact.)

Here’s an excerpt from the qualifications section of the job posting [hat tip: UrbanElephants.com]:

Upon leaving office, President Clinton

Oh, that’s right, he was president once! I’m so used to thinking of him as the King of Condoms that I forgot. Unlike the current President Bush, Clinton must not have accomplished much that was memorable. (Other than being impeached and helping coin the term “presidential keepads,” that is.)

established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the dual missions of [deleted blah-blah]. If you are an undergraduate, graduate or professional student or a recent graduate with your own strong interest in crucial issues of our day, the Clinton Foundation Intern Program offers a unique opportunity for growth, learning and meaningful service.

I can help them start learning right away: Here’s what the meaning of the word ‘Is’ is: Third person singular present form of Be. Also (trust me on this), oral sex is adultery, so don’t try that excuse on your spouse or in front of a grand jury.

We are looking for people who are dependable, enthusiastic, professional, and intelligent.

That’s what he wants in an intern, but what’s it like working under Bill Clinton? Here’s what the world’s most infamous intern has said:

Monica Lewinsky says she feels betrayed by Bill Clinton’s failure to acknowledge how he destroyed her life…

[Source: POE News.]

“He says he was proud of the way that he defended the presidency, at my expense,” she said.

“In the process he destroyed me, and that was the way he was going to have to do that, to get through impeachment,” Lewinsky added. “I was a young girl and to hear him saying some of the things he was saying today — it’s a shame.”

[Source: MSNBC.]

If you are “dependable, enthusiastic, professional, and intelligent,” now that you know what could be coming if you work on Clinton’s staff, you’ll never accept the job!

 

[Edit] Welcome Michelle Malkin readers! Settle in and stay awhile. You might also want to check out the ongoing global warming debate in the comments section of this post.

 

Tags: blog | weblog | politics | democrats | clinton | scandal | miserable failure | impeach

 

According to a Reuters story, Hwang Woo-suk, erstwhile science superstar who was disgraced when his pioneering stem cell research was unmasked as a hoax, has been offered a job. Unfortunately for him, the offer comes from a UFO cult that says it has produced six human clones.

Good one, God.

The company, Clonaid (which has links to the Raëlians, a group that believes humans were cloned from prehistoric alien visitors to Earth), said it had offered him a post in one of its laboratories.

The firm has never provided proof of the six clones it says it has produced and does not reveal where the laboratories it says its has are located.

Hwang quit his post at Seoul National University in December after his claim to have cloned human embryonic stem cells, which could be used to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s, was shown to have been faked.

“We at Clonaid believe that Dr Hwang has cloned human embryos and has the knowledge to develop stem cell lines,” the company said in a message posted on its website on Sunday.

Whether or not Hwang Woo-suk joins with Clonaid, the world should find out this month if they’ve really cloned a human. Last week, according to a BBC report, Clonaid was ordered by a U.S. court to reveal the whereabouts of a supposedly cloned baby girl and her mother.

An executive with the company, Clonaid, was also summoned to appear in court in Florida, after lawyers demanded that the state authorities appoint a guardian for the child.
…
The witness subpoena and summons were approved at the request of attorney Bernard Siegel, who has filed a lawsuit demanding a guardian for baby Eve.

[Clonaid’s vice president Thomas Kaenzig] must appear in court or risks to be held in contempt

The papers were delivered to Clonaid’s vice president Thomas Kaenzig before his public speech in Fort Lauderdale, Mr Siegel told the Associated Press news agency.

Mr Kaenzig - who must appear at the hearing in January - did not make an immediate comment on the papers.

 

Tags: cloning | science | junk science | genetics | news | blog | weblog