Read it for yourself.  Here are the high points:

• The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change models have most decidedly not predicted the climate events of the past 50 years
• Those models do not account for the high solar activity in the past 7 decades, higher than at any time in the past 110 centuries
• The models did not account for the cooling that has taken place since 1998

The conclusion of the paper is a doozy.  I've reformated it:

1. Even if temperature had risen above natural variability, the recent solar Grand Maximum may have been chiefly responsible.
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The Town Crank

This Der Spiegel article outlines how the oil-rich Persian Gulf states are selling oil as fast as they can pump it, but are looking to build coal-fired power plants because they're cheaper:

Why the Gulf Is Switching to Coal

By Wolfgang Reuter

The Persian Gulf may be sitting atop massive oil reserves. But with prices for crude skyrocketing, it makes more sense to sell it than to burn it. Instead, the Gulf is turning to coal for its energy needs -- to the detriment of the climate.

 

&l ... Read More »

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The Town Crank

Remember David Howard, the Washington, DC, aide to then-mayor, Anthony Williams, who resigned because of the furor raised after he said that he'd have to be "niggardly" with the city budget? 

Well, something along the same lines has happened in Dallas County, Texas:

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John W ... Read More »

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The Town Crank

What are your summer reading picks?

(published 7-Jul-2008, Appleton Post-Crescent)

The Godfather of Law, Gary Malkmus, lent me the excellent "Wisconsin Criminal Practice and Procedure"; I promised my African missionary friend, Bwana Jonathan, to finish Chris Cock's "Fireforce", the author's thrilling story  of fighting with the Rhodesian light infantry; an early compilation of Scientific American "Mathematical ... Read More »