Extraordinary Pomare Disc

This is an extraordinary report that lands hard on the heels of my article posted a few days ago.

http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2008/11/pleistocene-nonconformity-sequel-and.html

In that report I ask the question ‘what is an UFO’ and answer that question in light of very recent advances in physics.

I then went searching for a specific type of evidence, having seen a sniff of it before in other reports.

Instead, I hit the jack pot. Please read this article on the Pomare Disc.


http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ufoarea.com/pictures/voynich_manuscript.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ufoarea.com/aas_pomaredisk.html&usg=__EByDWv7WUjIbSmT9U0zT67wU5Dc=&h=404&w=598&sz=76&hl=en&start=6&sig2=rEaGoXO0VGTOwuG2bXE0GQ&um=1&tbnid=rzZbMJ-_sfDbSM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=135&ei=xJYnSbvcO5WUsAOvnKWpAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DVoynich%2BManuscript%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX


You have to wade through to the end of the article to find the most important information. The material shows twelve visible layering’s in the edge. As important, the outside layer is obviously graphene. What else could you use to conduct current and magnetic fields on the outside skin of a magnetic field exclusion bottle? The inner skin is an inert metallic element or alloy. The observations suggest an amorphous metallic alloy that may include gold. This is an area of research that is just starting to evolve.

The structure itself is surely the top or bottom of a UFO and is the equivalent to our nosecone. That it was found in the sea suggests that the craft may have failed in the vicinity and is worth scouting for. It does not seem likely that a craft using magnetic bottles for propulsion and magnetic exclusion for lift would be very airworthy missing any part of its skin.

It is conceivable that this story is a hoax and I am sure that the press will slander anyone associated with it. Except that the possibility of graphene did not exist months ago let alone thirty years ago and it is only now that we have enough physics to predict a layered skin and to understand its importance. I have no doubt that this article is genuine and represents our first major UFO component in hand.

This is an extremely important find and must be brought into a proper environment for study and data sharing.

Neutron Blast and Pleistocene Nonconformity

This report was made circa 2002 and predates the more recent report arguing for a major meteorite strike in the diamond fields region of Nunavut

Recently, I have argued that the event was a human planned precision strike whose effect was to trigger a crustal shift of thirty degrees south of the North Pole. I am also happy with the use of a meteorite.

Now we need to consider the possibility of a nuclear event positioned to achieve the same result. It certainly eliminates the problem of aiming and moving a large object from out near the Kuiper belt onto the right collision path. A nuclear bomb would actually minimize the energy needed to get the crust moving as compared to a surgical meteorite strike.

It would also be possible to sink such a bomb down through the ice and place it in the bedrock for maximum effect. It could also be possible that by simply hitting the right place will vibrate the crust allowing for crustal release. Allowing the judicious use of a bomb opens up a range of possibilities that would otherwise make no sense to consider.

We had already found that the meteorite option had to be planned. Now it is no longer a meteorite but a nuclear blast that we ourselves could pull off. Obviously there was heavy fallout and radiation that took time to settle down providing this published evidence pattern.

It is also worth noting that there exists cultural evidence of past nuclear events as well as some ambiguous archeological evidence particularly in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.

These forms of evidence are very suggestive and extremely out of time and place to be simply ignored. We also cannot bury it by claiming misguided observers. The data collection and evaluation needs to be expanded so that frequency charts can be built up.

A Nuclear Catastrophe In Paleoindian Times?

Introduction. We introduce here a remarkable theory of terrestrial catastrophism that seems to be supported by evidence that is equally remarkable. One of the authors of this theory (RBF) is identified as a nuclear scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Nuclear Laboratory. The second author (WT) is a consultant. The authors' credentials seem so good that we must take a close look at their extraordinary claims concerning a natural phenomeon that they believe reset radiocarbon clocks in north-central North America and -- potentially -- elsewhere on the planet. We will be most interested in the reception accorded these claims by the scientific community.

The claims. In the authors' words:

Our research indicates that the entire Great Lakes region (and beyond) was subjected to particle bombardment and a catastrophic nuclear irradiation that produced secondary thermal neutrons from cosmic ray interactions. The neutrons produced unusually large quantities of 239Pu and substantially altered the natural uranium abundances (235U/238U) in artifacts and in other exposed materials including cherts, sediments, and the entire landscape. These neutrons necessarily transmuted residual nitrogen (14N) in the dated charcoals to radiocarbon, thus explaining anomalous dates.

Some North American dates may in consequence be as much as 10,000 years too young. So, we are not dealing with a trivial phenomenon!

Supporting evidence. Four main categories of supporting evidence are claimed and presented in varying degrees of detail.

Anomalously young radiocarbon dates in north-central North America. Example: the Gainey site in Michigan.

Physical evidence of particle bombardment. Example: chert artifacts with high densities of particle-entrance wounds.

Anomalous uranium and plutonium abundance ratios in the affected area.

Tree-ring and marine sediment data.

The authors claim that the burst of radiation from a nearby supernova, circa 12,500 years ago, not only reset radiocarbon clocks but also heated the planet's atmosphere, melted ice sheets, and led to biological extinctions.

If verified, the claimed phenomenon would also "reset" archeological models of the settlement of North and South America. To illustrate, we may have to add as many as 10,000 years to site dates in much of North America!

(Firestone, Richard B., and Topping, William; "Terrestrial Evidence of a Nuclear Catastrophe in Paleoindian Times," The Mammoth Trumpet, 16:9, March 2001. Cr. C. Davant III. This off-mainstream journal is published by the Center for the Study of the First Americans, 355 Weniger Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-6510.)

Comment. Thus we add another potential cause of an often-hypothesized, 12,500-BP catastrophe that is said to have changed the world's history. Competing theories involve asteroid impact, volcanism, a Venusian side-swipe, etc.

http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf135/p135p02.gif


Sites discussed in the region purported to have been zapped by a burst of neutrons circa 12,500 B.P.

Global Cooling Chorus

I got this list of stories for the last few weeks from the news letter put out by Marc Morano. The chorus of challenges to Global Warming orthodoxy is becoming large and loud as everyone is now chipping in. Obviously a lot of folks were never very comfortable with the extraordinary claims drawn from the not so unusual warming cycle that rose from the late seventies through the late nineties, plateaued through 2007 and has now done a dramatic reversal.

I have already posted that we are likely in for a lousy winter and so far so good. Ontario now sounds like the place I grew up in during the fifties.

In fact the tenor of these items is becoming loud and strident. Some very serious people have finally got up their courage to join in with the other skeptics in calling for the end of the global warming hysteria. And right now, it is looking very convincing that a thirty year warm period has nicely ended and we are now been subjected to the beginnings of a thirty year cold spell.

I suggested last winter that a reasonable interpretation of the events of 2007 was that surplus heat had been delivered into the Arctic as reflected be the unusual wind system and strong reduction in sea ice. The mechanism of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation fills out the fine structure. It seems reasonable that a build up of heat in the Northern Hemisphere slowly shifts or enlarges the heat over the Pacific over many years and is likely linked to the heat retention of the sea itself. It finally discharges into the Arctic and this is the first time it has been properly observed.

Once the heat is well discharged, more normal conditions set in. In fact, we were left last winter wondering why it had cooled so abruptly. This winter is promising to be much worse.

As usual our politicians are still selling the global warming party line while their tame scientists are sneaking into cover.

We did learn that the global heat engine is not up to the job of clearing the Arctic of summer sea ice any time soon. We can expect a major rebuilding beginning this coming summer. And to achieve Bronze Age conditions, it is necessary to establish Bronze Age plant cover in the Sahara.

There are just too many individual reports here that it is hardly useful to comment on them separately. So much for the acclaimed consensus trumpeted by IPCC. And recently IPCC erroneously republished September’s data as for October while announcing a new record high. This is obviously their turn to look like idiots with a rookie mistake.

‘Planet Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office’ – Scientists Continue Dissenting – Gore Admits 'I've failed badly' - Global Sea Ice GROWS!

Global Warming Theory has ‘failed consistently and dramatically’

Read Part Two of this Report Here:

Washington DC - The bad news for global warming alarmists just keeps rolling in. Below is a very small sampling of very inconvenient developments for Gore, the United Nations, and the mainstream media. Peer-reviewed studies, analyses, and prominent scientists continue to speak out to refute climate fears. The majority of data presented below is from just the past few weeks. Also see: U.S. Senate Minority Report: “Over 400 Prominent Scientists (and rapidly growing) Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007” & ‘Consensus’ On Man-Made Global Warming Collapses in 2008 - July 18, 2008 & An August 2007 report detailed how proponents of man-made global warming fears enjoy a monumental funding advantage over skeptical scientists. LINK

Bush The Cooler: 'Planet has cooled since Bush took office' – November 12, 2008Excerpt: On this symbolic date, it seems worthwhile to reflect that the planet has not only cooled since George W. Bush took office – pause and let the significance of that one sink in – but began to chill significantly at almost precisely the moment that we signed the Kyoto Protocol, exactly ten years ago today.

NOAA: U.S. on track for coolest year since 1997- November 12, 2008

Excerpt: The calendar year isn't exactly over yet, but the people who watch such things --- namely the National Climatic Data Center --- are reporting that through its first 10 months 2008 is shaping up to be the coolest year in the United States since 1997.

‘The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World's Top Climate Scientists’

- By Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Roy W. Spencer, formerly a senior scientist for climate studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center where he received NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and currently principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville) Excerpt: New papers Debunk Warming Fears: The first paper showed how none of 18 IPCC climate models, in over 1,000 years of global warming simulations, ever exhibits the negative feedback we have measured from global satellite data. The second paper revealed new satellite evidence that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation modulates the Earth's radiative balance by an amount that, when put into a simple climate model, can explain 75% of global warming over the 20th Century....including the slight cooling between 1940 and 1980. Since our previous publications have been basically censored by the news media, and I have now experienced scientific censorship (which I suppose was long overdue), I have decided to take my message to the people in a second book. In anticipation of trouble getting these papers published, I had already started the book awhile back...it is now about 80% finished, heavily illustrated. The working title is: The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World's Top Climate Scientists. My book agent is currently scouting for publishers.

UK Astrophysicist: Global Warming Theory has ‘failed consistently and dramatically’ - October 28, 2008

- By Astrophysicist Piers Corbyn, founder of the UK based long-term solar forecast group Weather Action and creator of the solar-particle based "Solar Weather Technique" of long range weather forecasting.

Excerpt: Global Warming is over and Global Warming Theory has failed. There is no evidence that CO2 drives world temperatures or any consequent Climate Change. According to Official data in every year since 1998 world Temperatures have been colder than that year yet CO2 has been rising rapidly. The rate of decline of world temperature has got more rapid since 2002; and Arctic ice has increased in the last year : ( Including maps of ice extent: Arctic ice increasing rapidly also see Increase by nearly a half million square miles) The UN IPCC predictions from 2000 have failed consistently and dramatically.

Global Sea Ice Growing at Fastest Pace on Record -- Returns to Levels from the 1980s – Daily Tech – November 7, 2008

Excerpt: An abnormally cool Arctic is seeing dramatic changes to ice levels. In sharp contrast to the rapid melting seen last year, the amount of global sea ice has rebounded sharply and is now growing rapidly. The total amount of ice, which set a record low value last year, grew in October at the fastest pace since record-keeping began in 1979.

Report: Global sea ice area: now same as in 1979! - 'Fastest move in the 30 year history' – November 6, 2008

Arctic Sea Ice Extent: In October 2008, Fastest Ever Growth

(Should we celebrate?) A Depression Would Reduce Carbon Emissions

Excerpt: So, why isn’t all the bad economic news openly embraced as positive news by those that advocate we urgently cut carbon dioxide emissions. Surely, if solutions to global warming are so pressing, the best thing that could possibly happen is a recession if not a depression?

Earth welcomes economic meltdown to stop global warming? – ‘May give the planet a breather from the excessively high CO2’ – October 7, 2008

Excerpt: (Reuters) - A slowdown in the world economy may give the planet a breather from the excessively high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change, a Nobel Prize winning scientist said on Tuesday.

Gore warns world may face civilization 'collapse' – November 19, 2008

Gore Excerpt: A new study suggests the Mayan civilization might have collapsed due to environmental disasters. […] As we move towards solving the climate crisis, we need to remember the consequences to civilizations that refused to take environmental concerns seriously.

Gore: U.S. needs 'emergency rescue of human civilization' from global warming – NY Times – November 9, 2008

‘We're not scared anymore Mr Gore!’ Declares New Book – ‘A Climate Change Story For Little Skeptics’ - A climate change parody by geologist Marc Hendrickx - November 11, 2008

Excerpt: Here’s a new climate change book for your Christmas reading: We’re not scared anymore Mr Gore. A climate change parody by geologist Marc Hendrickx.

Gore laments global warming efforts: 'I've failed badly' - Washington Post – November 11, 2008

Excerpt: When asked about the goal of his movie "An Inconvenient Truth"--to wake people up to an approaching global, environmental crisis-Gore said "I think it's been a failure . . . I feel, in a sense, that I've failed badly."

Skeptical UK scientist mocks Gore's Nobel: 'There’s no accounting for human folly' – November 19, 2008

(By Physicist Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London.)

Excerpt: Mr. Dyson had an argument anyway with the scores of people (like Al Gore) who weren’t present to defend their belief in the dire consequences of global warming. (“There’s no accounting for human folly,” Mr. Dyson said when asked about Mr. Gore’s Nobel Prize.)

Climate change momentum fading: Asia-Pacific survey – November 19, 2008

Excerpt: “You see the same shift in focus in the public away from climate change questions to questions of economic survival and growth," said Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

CO2 hysteria continues its slow death – November 20, 2008

Excerpt: at this week's summit of 21 Pacific Rim nations, global warming is barely on the agenda. In its place: the financial crisis. "The interest and focus on climate change has dissipated somewhat," said Woo Yuen Pau, CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Prominent Geologist says ‘Global Cooling is Here’ -- Could ‘plunge Earth into another Little Ice Age!’ – November 2, 2008

– (By Geologist Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, Emeritus Professor at Western Washington University, who has authored eight books and 150 journal publications.)

Excerpt: Just how much cooler the global climate will be during this cool cycle is uncertain. Recent solar changes suggest that it could be fairly severe, perhaps more like the 1880 to 1915 cool cycle than the more moderate 1945-1977 cool cycle. A more drastic cooling, similar to that during the Dalton and Maunder minimums, could plunge the Earth into another Little Ice Age, but only time will tell if that is likely.

Extensive global COOLING news round up on Biologist Jennifer Marohasy's website – October 31, 2008

Global warming predictions are overestimated, suggests Cornell study on black carbon – November 18, 2008

Excerpt: A detailed analysis of black carbon -- the residue of burned organic matter -- in computer climate models suggests that those models may be overestimating global warming predictions. A new Cornell study, published online in Nature Geosciences, quantified the amount of black carbon in Australian soils and found that there was far more than expected, said Johannes Lehmann, the paper's lead author and a Cornell professor of biogeochemistry. The survey was the largest of black carbon ever published. […] The findings are significant because soils are by far the world's largest source of carbon dioxide, producing 10 times more carbon dioxide each year than all the carbon dioxide emissions from human activities combined. Small changes in how carbon emissions from soils are estimated, therefore, can have a large impact. […] "But this particular aspect, black carbon's stability in soil, if incorporated in climate models, would actually decrease climate predictions."

'Life-long liberal Democrat' Meteorologist rejects 'fear mongering clap-trap about human-caused global warming' -

By Dr. Martin Hertzberg, a retired Navy meteorologist with a PhD in physical chemistry

Excerpt: s a scientist and life-long liberal Democrat, I find the constant regurgitation of the anecdotal, fear mongering clap-trap about human-caused global warming to be a disservice to science, to your readers, and to the quality of the political dialogue leading up to the election. […] The global warming alarmists don't even bother with data! All they have are half-baked computer models that are totally out of touch with reality and have already been proven to be false.

Ski Paradise: ‘Snow-vember’ Sees Ski Resorts Open Early Around The World – November 17, 2008

Excerpt: ‘Snow-vember’ Sees Ski Resorts Open Early Around The World Skiinfo.com, is reporting bumper pre-season snow across the northern hemisphere with the Alps, Pyrenees, Scandinavia and the Rockies all receiving huge early snow falls that have brought wonderful powder snow conditions for skiers and boarders on the glacier ski areas that were already open, and led to an increasing number of resorts in Canada, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the US to open up to a month earlier than planned

South African Scientist Warns of ‘Interference’ By ‘Old Colonial Powers’ – ‘WWF and Greenpeace are not welcome in this country’ – Exposes ‘Climate Alarmism’ November 14, 2008

By Professor Dr. William J.R. Alexander, Emeritus of the Department of Civil and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and a former member of the United Nations Scientific and Technical Committee on Natural Disasters.

Excerpt: Have you not noticed the growing opposition by African countries to interference in our affairs by the old colonial powers? […] The WWF and Greenpeace are not welcome in this country. Nor are the activities of their South African lackeys. […] Your vigorous pro-environmental, anti-social actions will soon be seen as pressures by a small, affluent white community who have no concern at all for South Africa’s large and growing, economically disadvantaged black communities. […] Many thanks for all those emails urging me to continue exposing this whole climate alarmism issue for what it is.

Africa to pay for Europe's "green policies"

Excerpt: Campaigns to buy locally produced food and travel to local destinations particularly hit out against African products. Consumers in Europe are again growing more environmentally conscious and are willing to use their purchasing power to assist in what is widely seen as our era's most pressing problems - the overspending of energy and global warming. Meanwhile, European politicians have been those pressuring strongest to gain support for the Kyoto Protocol while having totally failed to lower emissions of climate gases in their own countries. In every country, emissions have steadily increased.

Another Dissenter: Atmospheric Scientist says ‘growing number of scientists’ are skeptical of warming fears! – November 20, 2008

Dr. James Koermer, a meteorology professor at Plymouth State University presentation it titled “Inconvenient Science."

Excerpt: Kevin McGuire, a fellow professor at PSU, said Koermer's presentation was "very well done." "I agree that there are a lot of uncertainties," McGuire said about the causes and nature of global climate change. […] During a presentation at the university on Wednesday, Koermer explained why there are a growing number scientists, such as himself, who don't subscribe to the popular theory on global warming. […]Koermer said just because he doesn't think man-made carbon dioxide is contributing significantly to climate change, it does not mean he is opposed to the increased use of renewable fuel sources. […] "Over millions of years there have been periods when we have been hotter than we are today," Koermer said. He added that while humans do have an impact on the climate, it is minimal compared to natural phenomena. He also said that humans are not the biggest producers of carbon dioxide and that the gas is not the most abundant green house gas in the atmosphere. That title goes to water vapor, which is produced by the world's oceans.

Another Dissenter: Astrophysicist says put IPCC reports ‘in the trash!’ – - November 20, 2008

"What I'd do with the IPCC report is to put it in the trash can because that's all it's worth," said Dennis Hollars, who holds a doctorate in astrophysics from New Mexico State University.His brazen pronouncement produced an eruption of laughter among the packed audience. Hollars produced a similar reaction from the crowd when, challenged by Gershenson about the inconsistencies of the data in the graphs he was presenting, he claimed to "not care" which one was accurate. […] Hollars, meanwhile, claimed that carbon dioxide was an insignificant component of the earth's atmosphere and that, rather than being the purveyor of doom it is currently viewed as today, it is needed in order for plants to grow.

Another Dissenter: Meteorologist Declares ‘CO2 has never led to an increase in temperature’ - November 20, 2008

Excerpt: “One of the central arguments of the side arguing that global warming is a natural occurrence was that temperatures were driving the increase in carbon dioxide, rather than the commonly accepted reverse. "CO2 has never led to an increase in temperature, based on historical record," said Robert Cohen, a certified consulting meteorologist.

Scientist rejects UN climate fears as 'simplistic, superficial, and now proven wrong' - November 19, 2008

(By Dr. Dr Jim Sprott, OBE, MSc, PhD, FNZIC, a consulting chemist and forensic scientist of Auckland.)

Excerpt: “The projections of the IPCC are simplistic, superficial, and now proven wrong. The whole issue requires a fresh start, based on the mass of irrefutable data which has been assembled.”

'Record inactivity' -- 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season 'lowest in 30-years'

Greenland ice cap 'uncertainty makes future predictions almost meaningless'

Arctic sea ice extent now GREATER than in 2002

UN Scientist Ridicules Global Warming Linked National Security Fears

Global Warming Has Stopped – by UN IPCC Reviewer Christopher Monckton

Global Cooling? - 'Thirty years of warmer temperatures go poof' - National Post – October 20, 2008

Another Dissenter: 'I am unconvinced' about man-made warming - Australian long-range weather forecaster Haydon Walker - November 2, 2008

More info no Walker here: Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

Researchers find arctic may have had less ice 6000-7000 years ago

Excerpt: Recent mapping of a number of raised beach ridges on the north coast of Greenland suggests that the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean was greatly reduced some 6000-7000 years ago. The Arctic Ocean may have been periodically ice free.

For full report on Arctic ice see this report: Scientists Counter Latest Arctic 'Record' Warmth Claims as 'Pseudoscience’ – Comprehensive Arctic Data Round Up – October 17, 2008

Atmospheric Scientist Dr. John Christy disputes new Antarctic claims - 'Climate models just don't have the variability that nature provides' – Disputes Antarctic and Arctic Melt Fears – October 30, 2008

Excerpt:. John Christy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Alabama, has done studies on climate models and says they are extremely limited tools in trying to mimic what happens in nature. He said they are unable to reproduce all of the naturally occurring influences and, as a result, give a false picture of what might be causing changes in the environment. […] "Just 1,000 years ago the Arctic was much warmer than it is today so it's interesting that they would use the term conclusively," he said. "Natural variability can account for warming since the Arctic has been warmer before."

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5htM3_ClgqhzIoMceRWnwQvMvQIqw
Why the EPA should find against “Endangerment” – November 19, 2008

Excerpt: The IPCC’s AR4 was published in the spring of 2007, but to meet the deadline for inclusion in the AR4, scientific papers had to be published by late 2005/early 2006. So, in the rapidly evolving field of climate change, by grounding its TSD in the IPCC AR4 the EPA is largely relying on scientific findings that are, by late 2008, nearly 3 years out of date. And a lot has happened in those intervening three years. • Global temperatures have declined…

Physicist predicts man-made global warming fear bubble to burst in 2008 – November 16, 2008 - Dr. Thomas P. Sheahen, an MIT educated physicist, author of the book An Introduction to High-Temperature Superconductivity, and writer of the popular newspaper column "Ask the Everyday Scientist."

UK Scientist: – ‘Climate change is governed by hundreds of factors, or variables’ Not Just CO2!

By UK Professor Emeritus of Biogeography Philip Stott of the University of London

Excerpt: As I have said, over and over again, the fundamental point has always been this: climate change is governed by hundreds of factors, or variables, and the very idea that we can manage climate change predictably by understanding and manipulating at the margins one politically-selected factor is as misguided as it gets.

http://web.me.com/sinfonia1/Global_Warming_Politics/A_Hot_Topic_Blog/Entries/2008/8/27_Wot%21_No_Sunspots_At_All%21.html

We can't think of any other cause, it must be us = 'Prehistoric civilisation' blaming thunderstorms on upset gods - October 31, 2008

Excerpt: 'We can't think of any other cause, it must be us' - This is the depth to which scientific research into climate change has sunk, like a kind of prehistoric civilisation that blames thunderstorms, earthquakes and volcanoes on humanity somehow having "upset the gods". A Canadian study has concluded that we must be causing climate change because nothing else can explain it.

UN IPCC = 'Worst case of scientific malpractice in history' says Climate Scientist Dr. Spencer

[ Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Roy W. Spencer, formerly a senior scientist for climate studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center where he received NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, is currently principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. ] Spencer Excerpt: I find it astounding that the IPCC has ignored the potential role of natural climate variability in global warming. In any other realm of science we are careful to look for alternative explanations for some phenomenon…but today, mankind is the only allowable reason for climate change. I predict that the IPCC experience will end up being the worst case of scientific malpractice in history.

MIT Climate Scientist Exposes ‘Corrupted Science’ in Devastating Critique - Sep 24, 2008

Excerpt: MIT Meteorology Professor Richard S. Lindzen, confirms how Al Gore and his minions used Stalinist tactics to subvert, suborn and corrupt a whole branch of science, citing chapter and verse in his report entitled “Climate Science: Is it currently designed to answer questions?” His answer: A resounding “NO!”
Full Lindzen paper here:

Brazilian Meteorologist Scoffs at Notion Mankind impacts climate more than Sun and Oceans - Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart

Excerpt: So, given that August was the first month since 1913 in which no sunspot activity was recorded -- none -- and during which solar winds were at a 50-year low, he was not surprised that Brazilians were suffering (for them) a brutal cold snap. "This is no coincidence," he said as he scoffed at the notion that manmade carbon emissions had more impact than the sun and oceans on global climate.

UK scientist: ‘Green’ totalitarianism promotes 1984 style tactics - By Philip Stott, emeritus professor of biogeography, University of London.

Excerpt: The second tactic has been to try to manufacture, in the style of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1947), an all-encompassing external threat against which there must be perpetual war. The prime example of this is ‘global warming’, which has been likened in gravity to the Great World Wars. Such a perpetual threat demands the downplaying of democracy, the legitimising of ‘Green’ totalitarianism, the destruction of markets, and the establishment of Ministries of Truth.

Skeptical Physicist Freeman Dyson: 'When science gets rich it becomes political' – November 19, 2008

Canadian scientist: ‘Scientific assumptions underlying Kyoto are false!’ - 'A revolution in climate change science' since Kyoto – November 18, 2008 (By Paleoclimatologist Tim Patterson, professor in the department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University in Ottawa)

Excerpt: In the eight years since the Kyoto Protocol was first introduced, there has been a revolution in climate change science. What we have learned is that many of the scientific assumptions underlying Kyoto are false. Climate is not naturally constant and global warming is not evidence of human interference,” he insists. “Climate change, including global warming and cooling, is perfectly normal.” Patterson contends that the sun is the reason why the 20th century has experienced some of the hottest temperatures in recent history. “My own research shows that, on all time scales, there is a very good correlation between the Earth’s temperature and natural celestial phenomena, such as changes in the brightness of the sun. The fact that the sun is now brighter than it has been in 8,000 years should have a major impact on climate.” Patterson is not alone in his claims. In fact, a large number of scientists from around the world agree that anthropogenic (human) activity is not the cause of global warming.

'Fixing' global warming called 'another meaningless promise' – Edmonton Sun – November 13, 2008

Excerpt: it's time to start thinking of "fixing" global warming the same way we do "ending" child poverty. Or "settling" native land claims. Or “shortening" medical wait times. Like these other issues, "fixing" global warming has become yet another meaningless promise that all politicians of all stripes will be paying lip service to in perpetuity. One they will spend billions of our dollars "fixing" year after year.

Australian geologist: Climate theory 'like Y2K scam' – November 7, 2008 – (By Prize-wining Geologist Dr. Ian Plimer, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide in Australia.)

Excerpt: The Federal Government's emissions trading scheme has been likened to the ''Y2K scam'' by climate change sceptic Professor Ian Plimer. […] The number of hurricanes around the world was now decreasing, he said. Sea ice in western Antarctica was ''a little bit unstable'' while sea ice on the east of the continent was ''getting bigger''. ''The continent of Antarctica is actually rising.'' Well-known active volcanoes were sitting under Antarctica and ''pumping out exceptionally hot air''. Carbon dioxide levels had been ''very much higher in the past'' and the world was at one of the lowest levels of CO2 in history. ''Most of the emissions come from natural sources, and most of the emissions we don't even put into our calculations.'' Sea levels had risen 130m over the past 14,000 years, or 1cm per year, far from doomsday scenarios, he said. AAP

UK SCIENTIST: 'BBC SHUNNED ME FOR DENYING CLIMATE CHANGE' – Says Warming Science has ‘Gone Awry’ - November 5 , 2008 – UK Daily Express

Excerpt: respected botanist and the author of 35 books, he had presented around 400 programmes over the years and was appreciated by audiences for his boundless enthusiasm. Yet for more than 10 years he has been out of the limelight, shunned by bosses at the BBC where he made his name, as well as fellow scientists and environmentalists. His crime? Bellamy says he doesn’t believe in man-made global warming. […] And my opinion is that there is absolutely no proof that carbon dioxide is anything to do with any impending catastrophe. The science has, quite simply, gone awry. In fact, it’s not even science any more, it’s anti-science. There’s no proof, it’s just projections and if you look at the models people such as Gore use, you can see they cherry pick the ones that support their beliefs.

Study finds Greenland Ice Melt 'Slowed Significantly' – WorldClimateReport.com – November 14, 2008

Excerpt: Despite all the talk about moulins, melting, rapid acceleration of ice, van der Wal et al. reveal that the ice movement in western Greenland over the past 17 years has … slowed significantly. […] But when we examine this article, we are most impressed with the results over the 17-year period and the lack of support for the notion that somehow the velocity of ice is increasing during a time of greenhouse gas build-up!

Greenland ice cap 'uncertainty makes future predictions almost meaningless' - -

Flashback: Latest Scientific Studies Refute Fears of Greenland Melt – July 2007 – ‘Greenland has cooled since the 1930's and 1940's’

Aussie Scientist: Human-caused global warming fears are 'heavily biased propaganda' – October 2008 -

(By Atmospheric scientist William Kininmonth is the former head of Australia’s National Climate Centre. He was an Australian representative and consultant to the World Meteorological Organization on climate issues and is the author of Climate Change: A Natural Hazard.

Excerpt: In spite of claims to the contrary, there is no consensus of scientists supporting the findings and recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. There exists a large and vocal group of highly qualified dissenters (often denigrated as sceptics, deniers or worse). In the absence of computer models there would be little credence given to the view that the relatively small warming of the second half of the twentieth century was due to carbon dioxide emissions; there would certainly be no credence given to the possibility of irreversible runaway global warming over the coming century. […] The likely magnitude of human-caused global warming is so low that it will not be discernible against the background of natural variability in the climate record.

Video of late great Dr. Reid Bryson on CNBC TV - You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling CO2’

Excerpt: See this 5-minute video of late great Dr. Reid Bryson on CNBC TV - 'You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling CO2' Atmospheric Scientist Bryson's last TV appearance in December 2007. Bryson is a guest on CNBC with host Joe Kernen He died in June 12, 2008 at the age of 88. This clip shows he was lucid and persuasive right until the end of his life. Some of his colleagues tried to diminish Bryson’s skepticism, ... but as you can see from video clip, Bryson was no believer in man-made warming fears. One of the "Fathers of Meteorology," Dr. Bryson, was the founding chairman of the Department of Meteorology at University of Wisconsin (now the Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.

Experts call for end of flushing toilets – ‘Proposed new toilet tax!’ – November 19, 2008

Excerpt: AS the world celebrates World Toilet Day today, sanitation experts have called for the end of the flushing dunny to save water and provide fertilizer for crops. Leading health advocates have called for the use of "dry" toilets which separate urine from faeces and remove the need to flush.

Nov 18, 2008: On a cold day, extremely low turnout for DC global "warming" rally - November 19, 2008

Excerpt: Climate Action Now DC rally: freezing, but fired up for change! Excerpt: The rally brought together people from all ages and backgrounds. They had two things in common: they were all freezing, and they were all ready to head to the Hill and press for bold climate action! The blog post above claims that "more than 300" were there, but I'm skeptical that even that many people bothered to show up. In the provided photos, the "crowd" looks pretty sparse--I can see what appears to be at least two or three of the same people in both shots: According to Weather Underground, yesterday's DC temperature topped out at 40 degrees, a nice round 40 degrees shy of the 1921 record high.

Meteorologist says ‘don’t believe it’ to claims that October was 2nd Warmest – November 18, 2008

Excerpt: This is not surprising as NOAA has become the biggest outlier in recent months. They have thanks to Tom Peterson and Tom Karl a global data base that is worth nothing. There is little or no adjustment for urbanization, land use changes, no adjustment for bad station siting (69% of the 560 US climate stations surveyed by Anthony Watts team of volunteers were poor or very poorly sited), 2/3rds of the stations globally dropped out around 1990, the number of missing months increased tenfold in the FSU and Africa after 1990, and changes in instrumentation like here in the US that Tom Karl himself found produced a warm bias of 0.5F. Not less than 6 peer review studies have shown these issues may account for up to 50% of the warming since 1900. Trust only the satellite. In fact, this October was the 10th warmest of the 30 years of data for the MSU satellite according to UAH with only a 0.167C (0.3F) anomaly instead of the 1.1F (2nd warmest out of 129 years) as per NOAA. Unfortunately satellite data extends only back to 1979.

Roger Pielke Jr.: The Polish Loophole Takes Shape

Excerpt: So the question has been, what will it take to get Poland’s agreement to an EU climate policy package? The obvious answer is to somehow create a loophole for Poland to be exempt from the requirements of EU climate policies. Such loopholes are the Achilles Heel of cap-and-trade, and doom the EU plans to policy failure. U.S. cap-and-traders should take note.

Roger Pielke Jr. : nd here's the Indian loophole

Excerpt: SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Saran, when will India oblige itself to start restricting its own CO2 emissions?
Saran: Even though there is no legal obligation on India in this respect, the Prime Minister of India made a commitment that India’s per capita emissions will at no time exceed the average of the per capita emissions of developed, industrialized countries. We have thus accepted a limit on our emissions and at the same time provided an incentive to our partners in developed countries to be more ambitious. The more significant their reductions of emissions, the lower the limit we would need to accept for our own.

Global Cooling Caused by Warming? Global Cooling ‘may indeed be a consequence of the increasing atmospheric murkiness caused by warming’ - Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog – November 20, 2008

Excerpt: Lawyers Weekly Online: It seems almost impossible that, whatever the debate about the causes of global warming, some people simply refuse to believe that any appreciable change outside normal climatic cycles is actually happening: some even say we are headed for a period of global cooling – which may indeed be a consequence of the increasing atmospheric murkiness caused by warming, but which encourages a way of thinking that fails to address our need to do something about the warming phase if we’d like to see life on Earth remain more or less as it is now.

'Greenhouse theory does not stack up - Wine Mag – November 18, 2008

Excerpt: From Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal (article from BraveNewClimate.files.wordpress.com)'Greenhouse theory does not stack up' - Wine Mag by well known West Australian wine maker Erl Happ - I have a sticking point with the ‘science of global warming’. It’s not global. In fact, it is confined in the main to the Northern Hemisphere.....If ‘greenhouse theory’ were correct, warming would be seen in all places and in all seasons. But, the advance in temperature is mostly in the winter and spring. There is an obvious cause for this and it’s the heat stored in the oceans as a result of episodes of tropical warming that are described as ‘El Niño’ events after the most obvious manifestation in the Pacifi c Ocean. In brief, this is the situation as I see it:.....

More from Skeptical Winemaker: LET US BANISH RELIGION FROM SCIENCE! – Skeptical WINE Maker Says

"Let us not confuse environmental religion with observational science. Reliable science explains what we observe. One can not understand the climate system without an appreciation of the in?uence of geography, spatial relations, ocean currents and the physics that drive cloud cover over the tropics. We have managed to banish religion from politics. Now we need to do the same for science." West Australian winemaker. LINK to download pdf

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READ PART TWO OF THIS News ROUND UP
Click Here for to continue reading in Part 2

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Marc Morano

Communications Director

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Inhofe Staff

202-224-5762
202-224-5167 (fax)
marc_morano@epw.senate.gov
www.epw.senate.gov

Saudi Decline

This is an excerpt from the financial newsletter Outstanding Investments by Byron King. It just underlines in a dramatic way what we already know. As I have already posted, we are waiting for the other shoe to drop and make this problem into a major crisis.

What this article establishes is that the shoe could well be the Saudis. Others are expected while this will make it obvious that the OPEC reserve picture is a complete lie.

Can we plan for 2,000,000 bbls less production over the next year? It may still not be next year, but there is as yet no cushion anywhere. It is now going to happen sooner or later.

The Saudis may have 50 billion barrels left. That is how big the actual lie has been. Also the rumors on the water cut out of the kingdom are very disquieting. It smells like reductions are eminent just like occurred in Mexico.

It could be that the only available fresh oil production is really sitting in Iraq.

As this letter makes clear, we are set up for oil price shocks over the next decade, with resulting recessions. The source does not matter, but the failure of the Saudis will hit the hardest.

The cupboard is bare and nobody knows it

Americans used to run Aramco, the huge oil company that manages the Saudi fields. But in 1979, the Saudis booted us out and took over.

And then a funny thing happened...

The Saudis started keeping everything a secret.

No one knows for sure how much oil they've got in the ground, or how much they produce each year or how much they could produce if they wanted to push it to the max.

It's all secret. Experts try to figure out how much oil the Saudis sell by monitoring tanker traffic in and out of the world's ports. That's how little we know for sure.

But wait, it gets worse!

After the Saudis took over, an even funnier thing happened...

Their figures for proven reserves kept going up and up and up — even though they didn't find any major new oil fields!

In 1979, the Saudis adjusted proven reserves upward by 50 billion barrels. Then eight years after that, their proven reserves magically grew by another 100 billion barrels.

Their estimated reserves increased by 150% in nine years — to a total of 260 billion barrels. And they didn't find a single major new oil field!

And here's the funniest thing of all...

For the last 17 years, they've claimed they own 260 billion barrels of proven oil in the ground. The figure never goes down, even though they pumped out 46 billion barrels during that period.

Let me see...260 minus 46 equals 260. Saudi math!

Based on these bogus figures, the Saudis claim they can produce as much oil as the world wants for the next 50 years. As recently as 2004, they claimed their reserve estimates are actually conservative.

That's why most of the world's governments and intelligence services believe the Saudis could pump 20 million barrels of oil a day if they wanted to. Trouble is, we've got no proof except their say-so.

If it were true, we wouldn't have a thing to worry about. But it's not.

It's horse hockey

Before Aramco's American owners were shown the door in 1979, they told Congress that Saudi Arabia had proven reserves of 110 billion barrels. There have been no major new discoveries, so 110 billion barrels was probably about right. And since then, about half of that has been used up.

So why do the Saudis insist everything is just fine and they have 260 billion barrels of reserves?

One reason is they wanted to discourage non-OPEC nations from looking for more oil or switching to alternatives.

It was a devious plan, and it worked perfectly.

But that wasn't the only reason the Saudis lied about their reserves. They did it because everyone does it! Everyone in OPEC, that is.

The Biggest Lie of All: OPEC's Imaginary Oil

In the 1980s, OPEC's claim of total reserves magically leaped from 353 to 643 billion barrels without a single major discovery. Industry experts call it the quota war.

You see, OPEC had to limit how much oil each member could sell, because prices were too low. The quotas were based on... each member's oil reserves!

That's right: The amount of oil OPEC would let a member pump depended on how much that member had in the ground. So it paid for OPEC members to claim the biggest reserves they could. And that's what they did.

The Saudis alone jacked up their estimate by about 100 billion. Kuwait added 50% to its reserves in one year, 1985. Venezuela doubled its reserves in 1987. Iraq and Iran doubled their estimates, too.

What's more, OPEC members did like the Saudis and kept their reserve estimates the same year after year, as if no oil were being pumped out and sold.

Everyone claimed to have a bottomless well.

Now, if you're like me, you prefer to base your financial decisions on the real world, not on a fantasy.

Let's look at how much oil there really is...

In the 1970s, when Western managers were still in charge, they believed for a time that Saudi output could reach 20 million barrels a day. But by the time the Americans lost control in 1979, they figured the peak would be 12 million.

They also predicted that peak production would last only 15-20 years. 1979 plus 20 is 1999. We're past the peak, if these men were right. But we already know they were too optimistic.

The truth is that Saudi production never got to 12 million. "In all probability, output peaked in 1981 at an unsustainable level of about 10.5 million barrels per day," according to Matthew R. Simmons, a leading oil industry authority.

And yet the lies go on...

In 2004, Saudi officials claimed they boosted production to 9.5 million barrels per day and maintained that level for five months.

It's almost sure they were lying. The International Energy Agency is the group that keeps an eye on these things for the developed, oil-importing countries. The IEA could find no sign the Saudis were selling more oil.

As far as anyone can tell, they pump only around 5 million barrels a day, and that's all they've pumped for years.

It's déjà vu all over again

In spite of being lied to at least once, the IEA, the U.S. Department of Energy and other forecasters believe the Saudi claims. ALL their projections of our energy future ALWAYS assume the Saudis could produce 15-20 million barrels a day.

The lies have worked. Not only do Western politicians believe them, but so do many oil industry experts and investors with huge amounts of money at stake. They've been had.

We went through three recessions from 1973-1983.

Care for a repeat?

Our whole economy is at risk. Your investments are at risk. Your retirement plans are at risk.

America has been so prosperous the last couple of decades, a lot of people forget what the energy crisis of the '70s was like. Let me remind you: The price of a barrel of oil shot up 400%. Long lines formed at gas stations practically overnight.

Folks had to pay four times as much for a gallon of gas, and there came a week when one out of every five gas stations in the United States had no gas to sell at any price.

The U.S. had three major recessions within 10 years after the first oil crisis in 1973. And those recessions were deep, with double-digit unemployment, double-digit interest rates and double-digit inflation.

Think 10-12% unemployment.

Think 15-18% mortgage rates.

True THAI

This is an important milestone in the emergence of THAI technology. It is been applied to an ordinary heavy oil field with a fairly typical thickness. The results here should go a long way in the development of similar fields elsewhere. The tarsands have unique features that need to be clarified when applied to more conventional heavy oil fields.

You can bet that the gravity will be quite high for this field and that THAI will be sufficient in itself to free the oil and upgrade it enough to pump.

The sooner we know how to apply this technology the better. We still need to find several millions of barrels of oil production ASAP.


CALGARY _ Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd. (TSX:PBG) and True Energy Trust (TSX:TUI.UN) say they plan to develop a heavy oil resource in Saskatchewan together using Petrobank´s patented oil extraction technology.

Under an agreement announced Friday, Calgary-based Petrobank will hold a 50 per cent interest in three sections of True´s Kerrobert Mannville oil pool.

Petrobank d an oil recovery method called Toe to Heel Air Injection, or THAI, in which air is pumped into hard-to-access reservoirs. The process uses the air and the bitumen itself to heat the thick, tarry substance and make it thin enough to flow to the surface.Unlike other oil extraction technology, the THAI process does not require water or large quantities of natural gas to keep the operations going.

Petrobank and True aim to developed a two-well project to demonstrate the THAI technology in the more than 10-metre thick conventional oil reservoir.

Petrobank will also earn a 10 per cent technology royalty on True´s share of THAI production following a threshold reserve recovery.

"Petrobank is excited about the opportunity to partner with True and bring the THAI technology to the conventional heavy oil resource base in Saskatchewan" the company said in a statement.

"This is indeed a welcome announcement, particularly in these uncertain economic times, and a vote of confidence in the future of Saskatchewan´s energy sector," Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall stated.

capitulation

Yesterday’s market was a deep capitulation. Not much fanfare – just a marking down of stocks in search of any buying interest. Toronto had its largest single daily percentage drop since 1987. Oil tanked again below $50 dollars per barrel.

The market now understands that the global credit pool has shrunk severely and that it is not expanding anytime soon. This means deflation will be spread unevenly through the economy and we are not sure were it will all land.

The Auto industry must reduce their wage bill, just to stay in business. Chapter 11 can do it the hard way, or alternatively the unions can sit down and accept a major reorganization of their contract in line with the competition. That will not eliminate every problem that they face, but it is certainly the big one. Outsourcing has fortunately removed the majority of the problem over the past two decades but we now need to finish the job. The industry can then jump into the electric auto cart transition with both feet and grab back market share.

And do not blame management for this one, although there will be a huge shakeup that the industry needed, but that needed to be precipitated by this financial disaster.

You can be sure that a government bailout will now have reorganization strings attached to it. After all, it would be much easier to put it all on the block and let Toyota and Honda to buy it all up. Doing that will actually serve to preserve more jobs than a slow foot dragging reorganization ever would. As we learned a long time ago, it matters little who owns these companies. It all ends up in our pension funds sooner or later.

In fact, I personally think that GM in particular should be broken up into several separate auto companies, as was done to the telephone companies. The consumer is prepared to accept that particularly since manufacturing is now so thoroughly outsourced.

Several hungry competitors will swiftly defend North American manufacturing and quickly grow the industry again. Does anyone really want to go back to Ma Bell.

Markets as yet have no sense of how this will all shake out. The very real fear exists that there may be a second major wave of credit contraction. Such a contraction would undermine good mortgages, good credits, and eliminate millions of jobs from well paying positions undermining the personal credit business.

I do not think that this actually will occur, but it is still ugly. The system has enough juice left to heal up and carry a fair bit of short term unemployment into a period of restored economic activity. At least everyone knows that they must tighten their belts.

Tobacco as Fodder

I recently posted on the interesting research done on tobacco:

http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2008/11/bill-drake-on-tobacco-as-ethanol.html

Following up on the subject of using tobacco as a biomass source, it appears that some good new work is happening. In particular there will be a field test this coming season in Spain in which cattle and pigs will be fed tobacco fodder. As I reported earlier, tobacco can make between 100 to 300 tons of biomass per acre cropped, primarily because it can be recut over and over again.

Since it is not woody, the fodder is apparently suitable as even pig feed. It is also possibly even tasty. This is certainly way more productive than other options such as corn.

It only remaining question is whether in its present form it may be eaten directly by livestock. I am surprised that this has not been answered for centuries. On other hand, folks thought potatoes toxic for a couple of centuries.

The dry portion of tobacco contains 2% to 8% nicotine which is a problem. However, if the fodder is eaten as is, the effect is perhaps minimized. It is also noted that radishes will neutralize the nicotine. I do not know proportions, but I recall that cattle used to be fed mangles which are a giant variety of radish.

All this is suggesting that while there may be some room to experiment with mixes of mangels that are high in vitamin C and perhaps other ingredients in combination with chopped green tobacco, we are still ingesting a not insignificant amount of nicotine. If it can be kept low enough, then is will be harmless but will still demand careful monitoring.

It would be nice to simply remove the problem. This can be partly done by plant breeding, except that you still want some left in the plant.

It is a good bet that be have bred for high nicotine content over the past few centuries. We need to check the nicotine content of wild tobacco. After all, the nicotine is nature’s insecticide.

Once the decision is made to exploit the food qualities of tobacco, it will be fairly easy to develop a convenient version. We may even develop a nicotine free version, but I suspect that it thus made far too attractive to pests.

This is potentially an extremely important source of cattle feed that can sharply raise the carrying capacity of agricultural land. The food value is very high and the production per acre is extraordinary if the right conditions prevail.

WILD TOBACCO

Nicotiana rustica L.

plant symbol = NIRU

Contributed by: USDA NRCS Rose Lake Plant Materials Center

Alternate Names

Aztec tobacco, Native tobacco, Zuni tobacco, Mapacho

Uses

Cultural Wild tobacco is a highly sacred plant in American Indian tribal culture. Although specific tribal uses may vary, it is integral to many ceremonies involving prayer, protection, reverence, and healing.

Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status (e.g. threatened or endangered species, state noxious status, and wetland indicator values).

Description

Wild tobacco is an annual forb that grows to 5 feet tall but commonly shorter in areas north of its natural range. Leaves are alternate, entire, ovate to lanceolate, and up to 12 inches near the base but reduced gradually toward the top. Both the stem and leaves are pubescent. Pale yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers are approximately 1 inch long and borne in terminal panicles or racemes. The flowers also exude a rather unpleasant odor. The numerous, tiny, scarcely flattened, dark seeds form in capsules.

Adaptation and Distribution

Wild tobacco is native to the southwestern United States, Mexico and parts of South America. Given proper care, this species can be grown throughout the continental United States.

For a current distribution map, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Website.

Establishment

If starting indoors seed can be planted as much as 10 weeks prior to last expected spring frost. Surface sow seed approximately ½ inch apart on firmed soil in a 2 to 3 inch deep tray. Press seed to soil but do not cover more than 1/16 inch. Keep soil moist and warm. Most seed will germinate within 20 days. Seedlings can be transplanted to individual pots when the second set of leaves appears (approximately 2 inches tall). Transplant outdoors in a sunny location at 18-inch spacings into rich, well-drained soil after any chance of frost. Harden plants by placing pots in a shady outdoors area for 3 or 4 days prior to transplanting. If seeding directly outdoors plant 4 or 5 seeds every 18 inches after the last expected frost. Thin to one when plants reach 4 to 6 inches. So as not to damage the roots of the desired plants, clip unwanted plants at ground level rather than pulling them.

Management

Wild tobacco can be periodically fed with a dilute liquid or small amount of dry fertilizer. Manure can be added to the soil mix in addition to or in lieu of fertilizer. Irrigate if conditions become droughty but wild tobacco is susceptible to disease problems when the soil is keep too moist. Pruning flowers can stimulate leaf growth. Harvest the leaves before frost and dry in bundles to retain moisture as they cure.

Cosmic Ray Discovery

It is always a delight when some truly new data arrives that expands our knowledge of the universe. Of course, every old theory is dusted of and thrown at us for consideration. In the meantime, it is obvious that the data gathering system is hardly making data resolution very easy.

My own first instinct is to recall that these are electrons, high speed or not and if actually coming from a point source, are generating very powerful magnetic fields.

Even more possible, magnetic field halos associated with the solar system could be simply funneling the electron flux to our poles.

The problem is that we are a long way from having the solar system’s magnetic field mapped at all, and surely this must have an effect on incoming charged cosmic rays.

So I think that that nearby object is a likely mirage and I would like someone to tell why I am wrong. Recall that up to now point sources did not exist when it came to cosmic rays.

I rather think all interpretation is speculation until we get a network of sensors well away from the Earth's Magnetic field.

Anyway, this is compliments of the NASA newsletter.

Discovered: Cosmic Rays from a Mysterious, Nearby Object
11.19.2008

Nov. 19, 2008: An international team of researchers has discovered a puzzling surplus of high-energy electrons bombarding Earth from space. The source of these cosmic rays is unknown, but it must be close to the solar system and it could be made of dark matter. Their results are being reported in the Nov. 20th issue of the journal Nature.

"This is a big discovery," says co-author John Wefel of Louisiana State University. "It's the first time we've seen a discrete source of accelerated cosmic rays standing out from the general galactic background."

Galactic cosmic rays--"GCRs" for short-- are subatomic particles accelerated to almost light speed by distant supernova explosions and other violent events. They swarm through the Milky Way, forming a haze of high energy particles that enter the solar system from all directions. Cosmic rays consist mostly of protons and heavier atomic nuclei with a dash of electrons and photons spicing the mix.

To study the most powerful and interesting cosmic rays, Wefel and colleagues have spent the last eight years flying a series of balloons through the stratosphere over Antarctica. Each time the payload was a NASA-funded cosmic ray detector named ATIC, short for Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter. The team expected ATIC to tally the usual mix of particles, mainly protons and ions, but the calorimeter found something extra: an abundance of high-energy electrons.

Wefel likens it to driving down a freeway among family sedans, mini-vans and trucks—when suddenly a bunch of Lamborghinis bursts through the normal traffic. "You don't expect to see so many race cars on the road—or so many high-energy electrons in the mix of cosmic rays. During five weeks of ballooning in 2000 and 2003, ATIC counted 70 excess electrons in the energy range 300-800 GeV. ("Excess" means over and above the usual number expected from the galactic background.) Seventy electrons may not sound like a great number, but like seventy Lamborghinis on the freeway, it's a significant surplus.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/images/cosmicrays/counts_strip.jpg

Above: ATIC high-energy electron counts. The triangular curve fitted to the data comes from a model of dark-matter annihilation featuring a Kaluza-Klein particle of mass near 620 GeV. Details may be found in the Nov. 20, 2008, edition of Nature: "An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300-800 Gev," by J. Chang et al.

"The source of these exotic electrons must be relatively close to the solar system—no more than a kiloparsec away," says co-author Jim Adams of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Why must the source be nearby? Adams explains: "High-energy electrons lose energy rapidly as they fly through the galaxy. They give up energy in two main ways: (1) when they collide with lower-energy photons, a process called inverse Compton scattering, and (2) when they radiate away some of their energy by spiraling through the galaxy's magnetic field." By the time an electron has traveled a whole kiloparsec, it isn't really 'high energy' any more.

High-energy electrons are therefore local. Some members of the research team believe the source could be less than a few hundred parsecs away. For comparison, the spiral Milky Way galaxy is about thirty thousand parsecs wide. (One parsec approximately equals three light years.)

"Unfortunately," says Wefel, "we can't pinpoint the source in the sky. Although ATIC does measure the direction of incoming particles, it's difficult to translate those arrival angles into celestial coordinates." For one thing, the detector was in the basket of a balloon bobbing around the South Pole in a turbulent vortex of high-altitude winds; that makes pointing tricky. Moreover, the incoming electrons have had their directions scrambled to some degree by galactic magnetic fields. "The best ATIC could hope to do is measure a general anisotropy—one side of the sky versus the other."

This uncertainty gives free rein to the imagination. The least exotic possibilities include, e.g., a nearby pulsar, a 'microquasar' or a stellar-mass black hole—all are capable of accelerating electrons to these energies. It is possible that such a source lurks undetected not far away. NASA's recently-launched Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is only just beginning to survey the sky with sufficient sensitivity to reveal some of these objects.

An even more tantalizing possibility is dark matter.

There is a class of physical theories called "Kaluza-Klein theories" which seek to reconcile gravity with other fundamental forces by positing extra dimensions. In addition to the familiar 3D of human experience, there could be as many as eight more dimensions woven into the space around us. A popular yet unproven explanation for dark matter is that dark matter particles inhabit the extra dimensions. We feel their presence via the force of gravity, but do not sense them in any other way.

How does this produce excess cosmic rays? Kaluza-Klein particles have the curious property (one of many) that they are their own anti-particle. When two collide, they annihilate one another, producing a spray of high-energy photons and electrons. The electrons are not lost in hidden dimensions, however, they materialize in the 3-dimensions of the real world where ATIC can detect them as "cosmic rays."

"Our data could be explained by a cloud or clump of dark matter in the neighborhood of the solar system," says Wefel. "In particular, there is a hypothesized Kaluza-Klein particle with a mass near 620 GeV which, when annihilated, should produce electrons of just the energy spectrum we observe."

Testing this possibility is nontrivial because dark matter is so, well, dark, But it may be possible to find the cloud by looking for other annihilation products, such as gamma-rays. Again, the Fermi Space Telescope may have the best chance of pinpointing the source.

"Whatever it is," says Adams, "it's going to be amazing."

For more information about this research, see "An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300-800 Gev," by J. Chang et al. in the Nov. 20, 2008, issue of Nature.

Maxmum Energy Cells

These two items give us a flavor of the gold rush now underway in the solar energy business. Both are still in the lab, but the promise of a rapid improvement of the underling technology is very clear.

The current rush to get mass production in full swing is not premature but a decision to grab market share while it is possible. With market share, the manufacturer is able to continually upgrade the installed base, particularly since we are already staring at a dollar per watt.

The lab work described below is promising that this cost will drop even to pennies per watt. That makes it easy to go back to an installation and cheaply replace the active cells with cells producing several times more power. You will only get to do that if you own market share like the telephone companies of old.

I have to believe that appropriate end products are already exiting the design stage. We will surely be seeing inexpensive solar products within months.

The best advice is to investigate the product on display for its capacity to upgrade. After all, the solar energy component will need to be replaced, while frames and electronics, costing as much or more will not. The majors will be quite aware of this and will surely be able to design in an accommodation.

http://www.azom.com/news.asp?newsID=14153

New Solar Energy Material Overcomes All Obstacles to Produce Maximum Energy

Researchers have created a new material that overcomes two of the major obstacles to solar power: it absorbs all the energy contained in sunlight, and generates electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture.

Ohio State University chemists and their colleagues combined electrically conductive plastic with metals including molybdenum and titanium to create the hybrid material.

"There are other such hybrids out there, but the advantage of our material is that we can cover the entire range of the solar spectrum," explained Malcolm Chisholm, Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Ohio State.

The study appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Sunlight contains the entire spectrum of colors that can be seen with the naked eye -- all the colors of the rainbow. What our eyes interpret as color are really different energy levels, or frequencies of light. Today's solar cell materials can only capture a small range of frequencies, so they can only capture a small fraction of the energy contained in sunlight.

This new material is the first that can absorb all the energy contained in visible light at once.

The material generates electricity just like other solar cell materials do: light energizes the atoms of the material, and some of the electrons in those atoms are knocked loose.

Ideally, the electrons flow out of the device as electrical current, but this is where most solar cells run into trouble. The electrons only stay loose for a tiny fraction of a second before they sink back into the atoms from which they came. The electrons must be captured during the short time they are free, and this task, called charge separation, is difficult.


Solar PV manufacturer Oerlikon Solar has pioneered a new thin film solar technology process, which it claims has made its solar cells 7 per cent efficient - a 16 per cent energy improvement over its previous technology. The advance has led to a 50 per cent increase in the capacity of its thin film solar fabrication plant.

So, why is this important? Well, thin film cells are typically a lot cheaper to produce than more common silicon solar cells, but often suffer from significantly lower conversion efficiencies. Oerlikon’s breakthrough moves us a lot closer to the day when thin film becomes more cost-effective than silicon-based panels - which could mean a dramatic rise in the adoption of solar power in homes and businesses.

As Chris O’Brien, head of Market Development at Oerlikon explains, “We see a clear path to improve the performance of this technology to deliver the capability to produce PV modules at significantly under $1.00/W within the next two years.”

The new process, called Amorph High Performance, optimises the use of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) material, which has superior light-trapping properties. The technique means that amorphous silicon can be deposited over a much larger area than is possible when crystalline silicon is sliced to form ‘wafers.’

The breakthrough marks an important step in the race towards the mass adoption of solar technology, and is likely to be closely watched by competitors such as NanoSolar, First Solar and Miasole.

Mitt Romney on Auto Industry Bankruptcy

Of course I have already said as much in my earlier post on letting the industry go through chapter 11. I am not happy to have to say it either but the day of reckoning has arrived and if we have the courage to grab the nettle now, then a great industry will emerge empowered and able to become a world beater.

Mitt Romney does an excellent job of outlining all the reasons for the industry to pass through a managed bankruptcy.

This will surely give the medical insurance industry a fatal body blow that should precipitate a national all inclusive system as deployed everywhere else in the developed world. It has been protected by egregious and fraudulent propaganda for decades to no one’s advantage except the few companies able to game the system.

The USA spends fifty percent more of its GNP per capita than any other country and its GNP per capita is larger than any other country. All those countries provide basic medical coverage to every citizen. The USA provides sometimes excellent care to one third of the population, grudging care to another third, and the other third is left to fend for itself.

This piece of financial genius has helped drive the auto industry out of business. Yet it has been maintained for years by the simple expedient of paying bribes to members of congress, in the same way that Fannie May and Freddie Mac bankrupted the mortgage business.

There are better solutions that everyone else is using to beat up US industry.

The time has come for a law to be passed in which it is henceforth mandatory that when funds are accepted from parties to a position been legislated on that the receiving politician involved excuse himself. Today it is impossible to find a man who can maintain his honesty in the current system. The result would be more power to the parties themselves and we would likely see a rise of additional parties. The situation is otherwise visibly out of control when it is talked about freely on national television.

The potential silver lining of this massive reorganization of the US economy can be universal health care and a vibrant and strongly growing automotive industry. Get that in place, the rest will happen without any more effort.


Mitt Romney: Let Automakers Go Bankrupt
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 12:03 PM

By: Jim Meyers

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — whose father once ran American Motors — says he opposes a bailout of the American auto industry and believes bankruptcy may be the only path to solvency for the Big Three automakers.

In an opinion piece published in Thursday’s New York Times, Romney states that if General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout the companies have sought from the federal government, “you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye … Its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

“Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.”

Romney, who has had success revamping corporate finances and is credited with turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, said automakers must take several steps to survive, including:

· They must eliminate the huge disparity in costs relative to foreign brands by devising new labor agreements that align pay and benefits with those of workers at Honda, Nissan, Toyota and other competitors. If this disparity is not dealt with, any bailout “will only delay the inevitable.”
· Management as is “must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.”
· Automakers should cut executive perks drastically. “Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat,” Romney writes.
· Investments must be made for the future. “No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies — especially fuel-saving designs — that may not arrive for years.”

Romney also said the federal government, instead of handing over billions to the automakers, should invest more in basic research on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology and the like, which will ultimately benefit the automotive industry.

He concludes: “The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

“In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.”

Romney’s father George Wilcken Romney was chairman of American Motors from 1954 to 1962, served as the governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969 and ran for president in 1968, ultimately losing the Republican nomination to Richard Nixon.