Many thanks to Lord Monckton for the reply to You Could Not Make It Up: The climate change sceptic’s Q&A by Fred Pearce of the New Scientist…. I made the following comment at the time……This is what I call plain stupid, we have an AGW supporter giving answers on our behalf. No wonder the public are confused about what is going on, why not have a Climate Realists giving answers to questions for AGW!
The Daily Telegraph, on 8 December 2009, produced what it called the “Climate Skeptic’s Q&A”, a piece written by Fred Pearce, a long-standing environmental extremist campaigner on the climate question. There was no attempt in the piece to produce balanced or scientifically-accurate answers. A reader has sent the “Q&A” to us and has asked us to put matters to rights. Mr. Pearce’s “straw-man” questions are in bold face; his answers are in italics, and my comments are in Roman face.
Campos Grand Prix is on the verge of securing its future as a team in the Formula One championship. Amid recent reports that the Spanish team is very close to financial collapse and is considering a sellout of their F1 operations to private investors, the team’s boss Adrian Campos insisted that he will never sell his majority stake in the team.
However, according to recent reports in the Spanish media, A1 GP owner and South African businessman Tony Teixeira will allegedly buy into the team in… (read more)
Avatar leaves audience depressed. James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi epic may have been a little too real for some fans, who say they’ve experienced depression –even had suicidal thoughts– after watching the movie Avatar. Thousands of Avatar fans are complaining that they are uncomfortable with the state of reality after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of Pandora, the enticing utopia featured in the movie, CNN reported this week.
Thoughts on this?
On forum websites, like “Avatar Forums,” throngs of fans express disgust with the human race and disengagement with life. A topic thread entitled “Ways To Cope With The Depression of The Dream of Pandora Being Intangible,” has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression after seeing Avatar and fans trying to help them cope. The topic has become so popular that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their thoughts about the movie.
A Naviblue user identified as “Mike” says he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie.
“Ever since I went to see ‘Avatar’ I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na’vi made me want to be one of them. I can’t stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it,” Mike posted. “I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in ‘Avatar’,” he added.
Avatar has grossed more than $1.4 billion at the international box office since its release last month and is on track to surpass Cameron’s Titanic as the Highest-Grossing Film of All-Time.
The estimates are coming in for the first week of Nexus One sales and they’re not terribly surprising. Mobile analytics firm Flurry has just announced a report which ballparks the handset at 20,000 units sold in the first week. While this number is considerably smaller than that of the Motorola Droid or myTouch 3G, it should be pointed out that there are factors that contributed a lighter than expected week.
There are no ad campaigns from Google, HTC or T-Mobile to drive traffic. In fact, the tiny ad placed on Google’s search page appears to be gone after less than a week. We’re likely not going to see any commercials from any players. You’ll just have to know about the phone or learn of it from someone else.
We’ve heard the term “experiment” used more than a few times to describe the Google page to order handsets. Much like everything else done out of Mountain View, it’s probably being treated like a beta project with early adopters forming how things are handled in the future. The channel for ordering the Nexus One is unlike anything else we’ve seen so far here in the United States. There are plenty of factors to consider as to why the handset doesn’t have higher initial sales. We don’t know how many more units would have been sold had there been 3G support for AT&T’s network. Further, we have no idea how many of those people would want to shell out $530 for the phone.
After hearing about the 3G troubles and general support issues, perhaps consumers are taking a “wait and see” approach. It will be interesting to see what happens when other carriers get on board with the Google approach to mobile sales. Will the number skyrocket once Verizon or Vodafone start offering the Nexus One?
Google takes a pretty clear stance against paid links, the practice of buying and selling links to and from other websites in order to build up traffic and possibly search engine rankings, and has enforced that stance on numerous occasions. In an interesting development, Google has had to stand by its own rules and has penalized itself, most recently th… (read more)
While the rest of the teams competing in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship will be launching and testing new cars together at European tracks, America’s own will launch and test its car right in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Due to the team’s location across the Atlantic, the FIA selected Barber Motorsport Park, the 740-acre facility in Birmingham, Alabama, set to host an IRL grand prix this year on its 2.3-mile road course, as the designated test track. After conducting three test sessions at Barber, USF1 will ship its car to Spain for the final group test prior to the season opener in Bahrain on March 14.
Team principal (and longtime motorsport journalist) Peter Windsor says the team will soon announce its driver line-up. Contrary to earlier reports that the team would employ American drivers (like Danica Patrick or Kyle Busch), it now appears most likely the team will use whatever drivers it can get its hands on. Among the current front-runners include Argentine pay-driver Jose Maria Lopez and British aspirant James Rossiter, a former ALMS driver and Super Aguri tester.
It will be the first Mercedes to show design boss Gordon Wagener’s new design philosophy, which will also include a new identity for the Mercedes front end, based on the grille of the 300 SL. In the future there will be less variation across the range in the front end, which will become more corporate.
As already suspected, the new CLS will include a shooting brake style, rather than a station wagon model, as some rumours have suggested. Wagener is aiming for the “most beautiful cars in the world” and has said that a shooting brake would be the most stunning car in its sector, we should think in direct competition with Audi’s sportback style.
Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z are Hollywood’s Top-Earning Couple. The “Sasha Fierce” hitmaker and her hip-hop mogul hubby have topped Forbes’ annual poll of Hollywood’s Highest-Earning Couples, with combined earnings of $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009.
Hip-hop’s royal couple amassed the massive sum through their music, movies, fragrances and endorsement deals with brands including Budweiser and American Express. Hov and B’s earnings were almost double that of second runners-up Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, who have earned $69 million over the past year.
Other couples to make the list include Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who made $14 million last year, Tom Cruise and his wife Katie Holmes, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Victoria and David Beckham at number five with $46 million.
Forbes.com’s Top-Earning Couples in Hollywood:
1. Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z ($122 million)
2. Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart ($69 million)
3. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ($55 million)
4. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith ($48 million)
5. David and Victoria Beckham ($46 million)
6. Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi ($36 million)
7. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson ($35.5 million)
8. Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy ($34 million)
9. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ($33.5 million)
10. Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow ($33 million)
So I spent all day yesterday at Public Knowledge’s excellent World Fair Use Day, which was a very worthwhile event. PC World actually has a nice summary of the day’s discussions, and if you want some more detail, some folks at Public Knowledge were live blogging the whole thing — so I’m not going to recap the details of what everyone was saying. What I will say was that it really was an inspiring event in many ways. There were so many brilliant content creators who are doing amazing things that skirt the boundaries (or just ignore them entirely) of copyright law. The creative energy in the room was infectious — and it would be impossible for anyone sitting through some of the examples of the works created to say that what these people do wasn’t “creating something new.” But it went beyond just creating new stuff — the artists in the room have created wonderful works of art, music, video and commentary that are at times hilarious, inspiring or thought-provoking. It’s the type of creativity that copyright is supposed to encourage, not hinder.
But in that point lies the very problem. While the conference was officially about “fair use,” one thing that became clear is that many of the creators have no idea if their works are technically legal. Most noted that they had not been sued (yet). Some paid attention to copyright issues, while others just ignored them altogether. Some had tacit approval from copyright holders. Others had nothing. And, since (as copyright defenders constantly remind us), fair use is not a “right” but a “defense” (and there are reasons why this isn’t quite true), all people can do is offer an opinion on whether their uses were “fair” or not. We can’t say for certain — and that leads to a great deal of uncertainty, and in that uncertainty many other creators dare not tread. That is tragic. As great as the works displayed and discussed at the event, there are an unknown number of additional inspiring works of art that will never get created because people fear the legal risk or they’ve been taught false propaganda by certain industries that any use of their works must be “theft” and not at all a creative new work.
But it’s difficult to see how someone could claim that a work like DJ Earworm’s mashup (both music and video) of the top 25 songs from 2009 isn’t an amazing new and creative work. Yes, it builds on the work of others, but it is very much it’s own unique song:
Given all this it was incredibly encouraging to have the day started off with Rep. Mike Doyle — who first spoke out about these issues three years ago when he introduced Gregg Gillis and Girl Talk to bewildered members of Congress — making incredibly strong statements about why we need to encourage exactly this type of creativity. And while it was certainly nice to hear Congressman Doyle confess in his talk to not just reading Techdirt, but using some of what we discuss here to help shape his understanding of these issues, the key point that came out of his talk is that we need to be encouraging exactly this type of creativity — and that Rep. Doyle appears ready to stand up for such things. Now he’s just one member of Congress, and even he admitted that this is an issue that a very large number of Congressional reps don’t know the slightest thing about. However, slowly but surely, more and more are learning about it and beginning to realize that the simplistic message of “piracy = bad” pushed by certain interests hides a lot more important issues that really do impact creativity and free expression.
So on the whole, the day was at times encouraging, inspiring and exciting. But it was also frustrating in realizing how little concrete progress has been made. Many of these content creators may still face lawsuits in the future. The amount of uncertainty is great — and the political will to help them out may not be there. While it was great to see that we can likely add Rep. Doyle to the list of Congressional Reps who clearly understand the deeper issues here, it’s still a very small list.
Finally, while I focused most of this post on all the content creators, since those were the ones who made the day so worthwhile, I did want to briefly mention the key point that I tried to raise on the panel I was on — which is a point we’ve discussed here over and over again. In so many cases, what are described as “copyright issues” are not really copyright issues at all. Almost always, they’re business model issues (there are some exceptions, but we can deal with them separately). The problem is that someone or some organization has become so used to relying on copyright as a crutch to provide them with a business model that they fail to realize they don’t need crutches to walk, but can throw them aside and run with other, usually better, more consumer-friendly, business models. So when people present “copyright problems” it’s always worthwhile to take a step back and look first to see if it’s a copyright problem or a business model problem.
According to the number of threads and forumers that Uganda has got, Uganda should acquire its own thread where to post its own threads.We are asking all guys who want Uganda to get a thread and all its lovers to agitate for a forum for Uganda.We want to have our own project and construction forum, we want to get our own Photo gallery, we want to get our own Oasis and many others so we are asking skyscraper-city management to work on it
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, an index of weather patterns over the North Pacific Ocean, has coincided with periods of warming and cooling over the last century (JISAO, 2008).
You know the wheels are falling off the manmade global warming bandwagon when even the mainstream media begin publishing reports of major scientists who challenge it.
The UK’s MailOnline did just that this week under the headline The mini ice age starts here. Lead paragraph? “The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.”
Right. MailOnline reporter David Rose doesn’t call them “the world’s leading climate skeptics.” He calls them “some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists”–and he goes on to cite “Mojib Latif, a leading member of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” “Anastasios Tsonis, head of the University of Wisconsin Atmospheric Sciences Group,” and “William Gray, emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University.”
No one expected there to be any contest in the election over the late Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat. But, according to the polls, it might actually be in play (if I were a Conservative in MA, I wouldn't hold my breath…we are talking about a Commonwealth comprised of a voter base that repeatedly re-elected Kerry and Kennedy after all…).
What I find interesting about the race between Martha Coakley (D) and Scott Brown (R) is they are both using healthcare as a major talking point. Brown is promising to be the 41st vote that can break the filibuster-proof majority and Coakley is (predictably) saying she will be Obama's 60th vote.
The fact that the polls have these opponents within a few points (some polls as many as 15, but some have Brown leading by one) speaks volumes about the frustrations of the past year…Massachusetts is a liberal bastion… Can you imagine the sheer panic that will grip the DNC if a Republican takes Teddy Kennedy's seat!?
If the GOP had some balls they'd mimic the very late Joe Kennedy and get this seat the way he got it for his son… Hire someone else named Martha Coakley to run to split up her vote allowing Scott Brown to win. Hey, it was good enough for JFK…
According to the number of threads and forumers that Uganda has got, Uganda should acquire its own thread where to post its own threads.We are asking all guys who want Uganda to get a thread and all its lovers to agitate for a forum for Uganda.We want to have our own project and construction forum, we want to get our own Photo gallery, we want to get our own Oasis and many others so we are asking skyscraper-city management to work upon this.
FC EXPO 2010 will gather all kinds of products/technologies related to the latest development of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell.
480 Exhibitors from across the world gather at TOKYO March 2010.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have pledged themselves to assist former Fugees star Wyclef Jean in relief efforts for those affected by the high magnitude earthquake in Haiti this week.
Hundreds of dazed and frightened Haitians sat on darkened streets pleading for help Wednesday, just hours after the strongest earthquake to hit this poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years. The violent 7.0 shaker left thousands of people in and around Port-Au-Prince, Haiti in complete devastation on Tuesday. The death toll is expected to hit the thousands.
“We are devastated by the news from Haiti. We will work closely with our good friend Wyclef Jean to support the humanitarian efforts on the island and help those who have been injured and left without homes and shelter,” Brangelina said in a release overnight.
Angelina — a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador — and Brad traveled to Haiti in recent years to donate their time and support to Wyclef’s Yele Haiti charity. The philanthropic couple were also very involved in rebuilding the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Marc Faber appeared on Bloomberg yesterday evening, and as always he was provocative. A few points
He sees a correction in the near-term, but a possible rally in the second half of the year. Though he doesn’t see the rally hitting new highs.
As far as bubbles, he’s particularly concerned about US debt, and says in 5-10 years the interest rates will become a major problem.
And in terms of currency, he thinks it’s silly to think that a weak US dollar will save our export sector. If that’s all it took, he argues, Zimbabwe and Latin America in the 80s would have been export and manufacturing powerhouses
Some people might be surprised to learn that climate change is perceived as a larger threat to the vital interests of Canadians for the next decade than terrorism, according to a new poll from Innovative Research Group.
Between December 22 and January 4, the survey was conducted for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, where Canadians were asked about their “threat perceptions” on issues. From 2004-2010 the threat of terrorism dropped from 49% to 28%, while climate change dropped from 52% to 49%.
While the perception of danger from terrorism may have diminished, it’s significant to note that despite the past six years of relative hysteria about the threat of climate change, that it actually dropped 3% over the past six years. You’ll note that news articles are referring to this as a “relatively stable” number, but I don’t think it’s taking into account some of the significant changes in the past three months alone.
This tip came to me with the sneaky message “The New York Times starts off the year with what could be the least informative graphic of ’10“. Well, is it?
In fact, regular readers readers might notice this is an almost yearly re-occuring infosthetics post, as one might remember “Comparing US Soldier Casualty Statistics in Iraq and Afghanistan” from February last year, and Iraq Casualties for Dummies back in 2007. In spite of the many comments and suggestions that especially the 2007 post generated, the visual and infographic style was kept consistent.
In short, the infographic titled “A Year in Iraq and Afghanistan” (PDF, 7.5MB!) [nytimes.com] accompanies an “Op-Chart”, meaning that it was designed outside of the NYTimes Infographics Department. Based on data from icasualties.org and the Pentagon, the chart shows how the death toll in Afghanistan is up by 40 percent from last year, and that most of the deaths are occurring on the battlefield, unlike in Iraq, where half the fatalities were not related to combat. In addition, while many see the war in Afghanistan as an American effort, the colors on the chart show the extent to which the Western allies are sharing the deadly burden.
As you might well know, we’re not the biggest fans of analystblather, but this piece of research by Gartner is backed by some substantial numbers. The FT reports that DRAM prices have recently risen by 23 percent, followed closely by LCD prices with a 20 percent jump, both in response to the financial crisis the whole globe seems to be suffering from. Because the effects of recently renewed investment in capacity building won’t be felt for a while, we’re told to prepare for higher prices throughout this year — a significant combo breaker from the previous decade’s average of around 7.8 percent drops. Oh well, let’s just cling to the encouraging signs for the future and ignore this bump on the road to gadget nirvana.
Campos Grand Prix is on the verge of securing its future as a team in the Formula One championship. Amid recent reports that the Spanish team is very close to financial collapse and is considering a sellout of their F1 operations to private investors, the team’s boss Adrian Campos insisted that he will never sell his majority stake in the team.
Google takes a pretty clear stance against paid links, the practice of buying and selling links to and from other websites in order to build up traffic and possibly search engine rankings, and has enforced that stance on numerous occasions. In an interesting development, Google has had to stand by its own rules and has penalized itself, most recently th… (
