Global Warming or Pseudo-science?

Energy Secretary's White-Paint Proposal Puzzles Climate-Change Experts

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,522411,00.html?test=latestnews

I gotta laugh! These "scientists", and the accents are intentional, are just baffling. I just love the opening:

Energy Secretary Steven Chu stunned the audience at a London scientific conference Tuesday with a radical but simple proposal to combat global warming: Paint all the roofs of all the buildings in the world white.

Granted, the simplest things are usually the best solution, but this goes way, WAY beyond simple. First of all, I believe the well-known heat island effect is very valid...to a point. It does raise temperatures some, but not like it has been proposed. In fact, consider this: the highest temperature recorded in Phoenix was 122 degrees on Jun 26, 1990. In second place was 121 degrees on July 28, 1995. If we are to believe that the ever-expanding heat island has a dramatic effect, then it would be safe to assume as more buildings are constructed, more people gather, and more vehicles traverse the inner city, then there should be a natural and systematic increase in the overall highes each year. Further, if the heat island were to have as significant an impact as the "scientists" say, then the astronomical increase in urban sprawl would actually made the heat island bigger, creating an even hotter environment. However, that does not seem to be the case. If you travel outside of the outskirts of Phoenix, the temperature dips a few degrees within minutes. What does that mean? Simple: the effect of a heat island is transitory and short reaching. Okay, in simple terms...It doesn't last long or go far. I don't see it.

Now lets consider global warming in general. There was an episode of MythBusters that did their study on global warming gases and the effects they have on the environment. They compared several gases and arrived a one conclusion. In the carbon dioxide chamber, the temperature did increase in a set period of time. That increase? Oh, it was one degree. That is where they left it. Now I ask the question, "so does that mean that an increase in global warming gases will only increase the temperature world-wide by one degree or is it exponential?" Of course, no one will address that in a provable method.

Finally, while the world "scientists" are speculating, debating and otherwise wasting everyone's time and money to prove that it exists, it probably doesn't even matter. The actual "spike" actually occurred in the 1990s and is now starting to trend down. You can see the graph here: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.D.lrg.gif. Also notice that we spiked in the 1920s and 1930s and almost the same or higher then the 1990s. As they say in the court room, this is all circumstantial evidence. It doesn't actually prove anything except that it gets hot once in a while.

So all this hooping and hollering is for something else. Can you guess what that might be? Of course you can! Somebody wants more MONEY! Now they can get it by taxing for it, charging for the "repair", and my all time favorite, banning it so that other product prices increase and are taxed. What rocket "scientist" thought this up? A politician.

Now that's thinking

Phoenix ice arena evacuated due to carbon monoxide

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/24/20090524evacuate0524-ON.html

You're going to be hard-pressed to figure out why I'm writing on this one. I'm sure you've read the story by now, so here it is. Notice in the article:

When firefighters got to the arena, they found eight people outside vomiting and 25 patrons complaining they felt sick, the fire captain said. When a hazardous materials team arrived, they evacuated the ice arena where a hockey tournament was being held Sunday.

So what's my problem? Simple. They waited until AFTER the HAZMAT team arrived and THEN evacuated the building. What? The eight people vomiting outside wasn't an indication? The 25 people complaining of feeling sick didn't give a clue?

So here's what I think. Somewhere there is a stupid person involved with this story. I'm just not sure who it is. Is it the reporter who simply put things in the wrong order? Or, is it the fireman who chose to leave men, women, and children in a contaminated environment until someone could establish there was a chemical contaminant enveloping the building?

Either way, it takes my breath away!

Why do we give our money away?

Glendale Ballpark Deals in Limbo

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/24/20090524ballsalestax0524.html

I just don't get it! Never, in the history of government, has anyone in government offices, under the direction of government officials, with the help of government entities, been able to effectively negotiate anything worthwhile! When Glendale bought, and paid for, the now-named Jobing.com Arena, they used taxpayer money, "in their best interest", hoping it would generate a tax revenue windfall. It didn't! In fact, their complicated and sophisticated negotiations gave them concessions and deal, and then, to top it off, refused to put ANY teeth into the contract for failing to honor their agreement. I am, of course, referring to the 8 months of back rent owed by the Coyotes that their only recourse was to send a stern letter asking for the money. Now the Coyotes are in bankruptcy and threatening to move to Canada. I wonder how much money the citizens of Glendale made on this deal, after the building and other fees that went into its construction, not to mention all the lost concessions and tax revenues. I'm thinking we made a deficit profit (for the academically challenged, that would a debt, which must still be paid...BY THE TAX PAYERS OF GLENDALE!).

Now, Glendale has been in negotiations for 2½ years to receive monies from tax payer funded projects. Oh wonderful, here we go again. They made agreements, verbal or otherwise, then committed money to construct facilities, and then...wait for it....

WAIT FOR IT!

Never completed the paperwork! What rocket scientist thought that would work better then actually writing the deal down on paper and forcing a legally binding commitment? Now the City of Glendale basically has no "legal" right to claim the money as there was no agreement officiated and consummated (a signed paper for those still challenged).

When are we, the people of this city, county, state, country, whatever, realize that giving the government any kind of control with our money is just plain stupid? I'll leave you with this parting thought: President Obama ran his campaign on the platform of CHANGE, in which he kept his word. He changed our hard-earned tax dollars into C - H - A - N - G - E! He even managed to C - H - A - N - G - E our money from our hands to someone elses, like Bank of America, Chase, GM (bankrupting), and Chrysler (bankrupting), and even foreign entities.

Do you suppose this falls under the category of "good negotiations"?

UFO?

You're probably thinking "Unidentified Flying Object", but I was thinking more "Unidentified Faction of Obfuscation".

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/18/20090518abrk-ufosightings0518.html

I guess I have a real hard time with stories like this one. People all over the State of Arizona saw something, unidentfied, in the sky on Monday, the 18th. I, too, saw something hovering NNW of Phoenix. I even tried to take pictures of it, but each time there was a buildup of light that obscured the actual shape I saw when I looked through my view finder. Now you're probably wondering what could I possibly say about this article. Well...plenty!

Let's consider the facts in question. According the article above, a 4,000 pound balloon was launched on Sunday from New Mexico and landed around Kingman on Monday evening. Okay, that's plausible. And, based on picture attached to the article, it does look like a big bubble from the Wizard of Oz, as one witness described it. The acticle further states that a NASA organization is the agency behind this device.

So my questions are: Why does NASA, or any other agency, always wait until AFTER the device in question is "sighted" and UFO reports start flooding in? Why wait to issue a press release that a large, unfamilar device may be seen in the sky during the next few days?

As with all politically-based agencies, you must watch carefully what the right hand is doing while the left hand is waiving and showing off. In this case, they, the NASA organization, is explaining what happened after the fact. That would be the left hand. Where is the right hand?

It's hard to be humble...when I'm RIGHT

I bet you're wondering what I was right about, huh? Check this out: http://www.scribd.com/doc/14999927/Phoenix-Coyotes-Bankruptcy-Petition. As you may recall from my earlier post, actually, just look down the page a bit, I was ranting about the free pass the Coyotes were getting from the City of Glendale. Well, as stated, the only way they were going to get out of their penalty was to file bankruptcy. And there it is!

It's sad, though. I honestly believe they could have pulled it off if they weren't so damn arrogant about their business. When they first moved to Glendale, I contacted them to offer a small business proposition. I had noticed on their website a PDF application that wasn't form-fillable. So I made a sample form-fillable and sent a copy to the head IT guy and offered a business deal. He refused to respond. So I tried to contact him on the phone. He still refused to respond. Then I contacted the General Manager who was more concerned that I contacted him then about his staff not making nice. Short story: the IT contacted me and flatly said "NO!". He made such a funny comment. It went something like, "Do you think we have lots of money or something?". So I answered, "Yeah, I do.".

So I believe the Coyotes were very happy to get OUR money and a NEW building, but they were unwilling to give back to the people and businesses of Glendale. That elitist attitude that you can only get it better somewhere else will get you in the end! Oh wait...it did.

My Toaster has an Opinion Too

I have had just about enough! Why is it so important for celebrities and the like to tell me what I should be thinking? For years now, actors and entertainers, have been telling the people of the United States the Iraq War is wrong. Why? Because Sean Penn went to Iraq and saw for himself there were no weapons of mass destruction? Yeah, like they would pull them out for him to view and discuss! What an overly inflated sense of self-importance.

How about when the Dixie Chicks bashed America DURING their concert in another country. So you're telling me that when I buy a toaster, that I paid for with my hard-earned cash, I can expect a 20 minute diatribe (or bitch-fest for those academically challenged) about how my country sucks. Do I get a discount or a refund if I disagree?

Perhaps it is when Barbara Streisand decided to tell everyone how bad, sick and wrong President Bush was about the Iraq War. From her website, http://www.barbrastreisand.com/index.php?page=statements&n_id=112, she asks questions about it. Number 5 is especially enlightening, "How much of this war is about oil?". I recall in recent, and I do mean recent, history, where Americans were spending as much as $4.00 per gallon for gas. Apparently we didn't get to keep the oil we were supposedly fighting for. And what about Number 6, "How much of this war is a vendetta against "the man who tried to kill my dad"?". Why does it have to be personal? Wasn't it enough that Saddam Hussein was killing hundreds, thousands, and possibly millions of people for his own pleasure and service? I seem to recall when another crazed leader that was killing millions of people, the whole world banded together to stop him. Oh, what was his name? It's on the tip of my tongue. Wait for it... I remember, it was Adolf Hitler. When did "not being a good citizen" and "not sticking up for the little guy" become vogue?

My absolute favorite was when celebrities threatened to move out of the country because they didn't get their way.

'Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon says "anywhere but here" if Republican John McCain wins November's election. She says she will "be checking out a move to Italy. Maybe Canada, I don't know. We're at an abyss."'

This can be found at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361023,00.html.

So...did they move? Of course not. It's only popular to bash America publicly. They count their money PRIVATELY...in America...in American Banks...

Now, don't go and get me wrong. I truly believe that EVERYONE is entitled to express their opinion, just like I have done here. I also believe that speaking your mind without consequences is unfounded and ridiculous. Besides, why is it such a good thing to make America look bad? What could someone hope to gain? More money from overseas sales of their movies? Last I knew, America was THE most prosperous nation on the planet. Who else is going to give them that kind of money?

All in all, I believe that opinions should be expressed and accepted by all parties. We don't have to agree, just respect. And I will respect my toaster's opinion, if, and only if, it will accept my right to disconnect it and fail to use it in the future for its stated position. Hmmm...do you think I can get ANY celebrity to respect MY opinion? Naw! I didn't think so.