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A couple of postings on TCS both relate to this message:

Global Warming and Hurricanes: Still No Connection

A scientific team led by Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology today published findings in Science magazine. The team claimed to have found evidence in the historical record of both more tropical cyclones, such as Hurricane Katrina, but also a higher percentage of more intense ones....The conclusion many draw from papers such as these is that anthropogenic global warming from the burning of fossil fuels by humans is causing more lethal storms. A closer look, though, reveals not human action but rather natural cycles are the primary cause.

The piece goes on with the analysis of the findings that demonstrates that they CANNOT prove what is claimed.

Coalition of the Seething

The organization of a broad coalition of envirowacko groups is used here to focus on the lack of substantive scientific evidence in support of a human caused global warming catastrophe.

Claims that Katrina is due to global warming are not supported by scientific or historical evidence, but that doesn't stop the hysteria. Beliefs that hurricanes have increased in frequency and severity are simply false. The only measurable increase is in the cost of repairing the damage. This is mostly explained by natural cost increases, exploitation of demand for materials and more people living in regions of climate hazards.

Claims of severe weather increasing in the future are also scientifically and historically wrong. More severe weather is associated with cooling not warming. Storms and tornadoes occur along the boundary between the warm subtropical air and the cold polar air known as the Polar Front. The power of the storms is a function of the temperature contrast across the Front known as the Zonal Index. Global warming theory says the polar air will warm more than the subtropical air thus reducing the temperature contrast and the potential for severe weather.

OK. If the science is really weak here, then what's the agenda? Some other driving force?

Kyoto was an attempt to control, limit or even weaken industrialized nations built on capitalism, trade and democracy. Maurice Strong, principle architect of the Rio conference and it's offspring Kyoto, reportedly said. "Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized nations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?" Now Kyoto is unmasked as unworkable because it pays very high economic cost for absolutely no gain. Even attempts to suggest it was about pollution failed. Charles Dumont of Lombard Street Research says it "would in no way prevent global warming" and puts the cost at 16 trillion dollars.

Of COURSE! It global warming, Kyoto et al makes a great Trojan Horse for the warmed over vomit of socialism. Shocking! Simply shocking!

John Roberts made an analogy between Judges and Umpires that I have frequently used in my constitutional law class to explain the difference between judicial activism and judicial restraint. Jim Lindgren at the Volokh Conspiracy has this shrewd comment:Roberts' comparison...

ESPN has a marvelous story about former Steeler wide receiver Lynn Swan's potential run for governor of Pennsylvania as a Republican....

Chad Schult, the Clear Cut Kidder, is having trouble defining incompetence in regard to Katrina. So this photo should be worth a thousand words: This is what happened to the people of New Orleans who elected an incompetent Democrat as...

I say problem, and so does Doug Powers:Since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf coast, federal government programs gained an unlikely critic: Democrat politicians. Some Republicans are also joining in, but Democrats criticizing the federal machine is the shocking political equivalent...

Hey, Maybe the Singularity Really Is Near

A very interesting article from Glenn Reynolds stepping outside of his "evil" incarnation as the Instapundit, in which he points out some very strange sounding science and technology at the bleeding edge of the art.

Ray Kurzweil's book, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology comes out next week. And I suspect that a lot of people wonder if things will really happen as fast as Kurzweil suggests.

But as I look at the news reports, I see quite a few signs that we're living in a future that not long ago would have looked science fictional. Take, for example, this report: Miracle Mouse Can Grow Back Limbs.

It's so far out, that the Chief read it in new sci-fi just a few years ago. In spite of the cautious optimism implicit in all of this stuff, there's also a sobering warning:

Meanwhile, here's an interview with Ray Kurzweil that I published elsewhere. Kurzweil is an optimist, but even he worries that the Singularity may come as a result of Chinese, not American, efforts, and he's got some disturbing numbers. The future is almost here, but we've still got some choices about how things will turn out. Let's try to choose wisely.

Indeed!

Yahoo News reports this on the upcoming Roberts nomination vote:Since Democrats don't plan to filibuster, they must decide if it's worth casting a symbolic vote against the 50-year-old Roberts, knowing they can't stop his confirmation and that Bush will soon...

I must say that I've watched more TV in the last week than I'd probably watched in about the last, oh, year or so. In fact, the reason I'm still up now is because I'm waiting to catch the 11:00...

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