The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
Organizing Knowledge
by Tom McLanghlin
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Climate Models Stink
by Jordan Candler: Climate alarmists and “settled science” extortionists have a rather incredulous response to a new study appearing in Nature Geoscience. The study takes a fresh look at the “carbon budget,” or how much emissions the earth can take and still maintain endurable temperatures. According to the study, compiled by a consortium of scientists from all over the world, the doomsday clock remains, but it’s been extended by quite some time. The Washington Post calls the finding “a potential whiplash moment” that “was published by a number of researchers who have been deeply involved in studying the concept, making it all the more unexpected.” According to the study, contrary to previous disquisitions, it is possible to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), or what most scientists concur is a critical —but largely out-of-reach — global warming threshold. “It had been widely assumed that this stringent target would prove unachievable,” the Post reports, “but the new study would appear to give us much more time to get our act together if we want to stay below it.”
The Post says that, based on new calculations, “We have more than 700 billion tons left to emit to keep warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius, with a two-thirds probability of success.” According to co-author Richard Millar, “That’s about 20 years at present-day emissions.” The hope is that this buys enough time to more robustly mitigate global warming’s effects. Predictably, however, the study is already being downplayed. But it’s important to understand why the researchers came to this conclusion. For us so-called climate skeptics, it’s not surprising in the least.
According to researcher Joeri Rogelj, “The most complex Earth system models that provided input to [the IPCC] tend to slightly overestimate historical warming, and at the same time underestimate compatible historical CO2 emissions. These two small discrepancies accumulate over time and lead to an [sic] slight underestimation of the remaining carbon budget.” Rogelj’s colleague Pierre Friedlingstein echoed this point: “The models end up with a warming which is larger than the observed warming for the current emissions. … So, therefore, they derive a budget which is much lower.” In other words, the models were too rambunctious.
The problem of overly ambitious global warming projections is well known. Climatologists like Dr. Roy Spencer and John Christy have found that climate models are grossly exaggerating future warming. What’s interesting is that some mainstream scientists are finally — perhaps because the facts leave them with no alternative — addressing this reality. How the rest of their peers are likely to respond is less encouraging. It’s also worth repeating that the true effects of global warming are still unknown and probably excessively dramatized. But at least this study tries to incorporate some authenticity.
~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/51370
Manafort Calls For Justice Dept Inspector
General To Investigate FISA Leaks Against Him
{rickwells.us} ~ A spokesman for President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, is calling for the Justice Department Inspector General to investigate... just what happened now that it’s been verified that leaks of information took place. Jason Maloni called for an investigation by the IG on Tuesday, one day following reports by CNN that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had approved two surveillance orders targeting Mr. Manafort, one in 2014 before he was involved with the Trump campaign and another in 2016 that extended into this year. He called for a public release of the transcripts. For a U.S. citizen to be the target of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act order, authorities have to establish probable cause that the person is an agent of a foreign power. Maloni said in his statement, “If true, it is a felony to reveal the existence of a FISA warrant, regardless of the fact that no charges ever emerged.”... https://rickwells.us/manafort-justice-inspector-general-leaks/
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‘Wrong About EVERYTHING’: Tucker Blasts ‘Foreign
Policy Intellectual Class In Washington’
{dailycaller.com} ~ “The freelance foreign policy intellectual class in Washington which again has been wrong about everything,” The Daily Caller co-founder said... “But they seem to be pushing this administration toward a more bellicose posture with Iran and then, I think toward conflict–military conflict.” Carlson said this while interviewing former U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson about U.S. foreign policy and Iran. Richardson gave his view on the Iran deal, saying, “I did a conference today with governor Jeb Bush. My view is that the Iran deal, the nuclear deal, keep it, keep it in our pocket. it’s not perfect. But then hit hard on Iran’s support for terrorism.”... http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/19/wrong-about-everything-tucker-blasts-foreign-policy-intellectual-class-in-washington-video/?utm_medium=emailVIDEO at the site.
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Trump’s lawyer trashes Russia dossier, says
document ‘riddled with total falsehoods’
by Rowan Scarborough and Dan Boylan
{washingtontimes.com} ~ President Trump’s personal attorney on Tuesday lashed out at a Trump-Russia dossier that has fed conspiracy theories by Democrats and influenced the FBI... saying the document is “riddled with total falsehoods.” Michael Cohen also said he was as close to President Trump as anyone during the campaign and never witnessed any collusion with Russia, as liberals constantly allege. Mr. Cohen’s move so angered that committee that its two top members canceled the session and said Mr. Cohen will now testify in public, with the committee late Tuesday inviting him to appear Oct. 25... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/19/michael-cohen-trashes-trump-russia-dossier-riddled/
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VIDEOS
Shouldn’t We Start Shooting Down The N. Korea Missile Tests?.
Dreamer Protesters Chant “You Are A Liar!” Force Nancy Pulosi Off Stage.
Spox For Pres. Abbas Ruling Fatah Party, ‘Fatah Will NEVER Recognize Israel’.
President Trump Calls For Reforms At The United Nations.
Dana Loesch Explains Violence In Her Native St. Louis.
Organizing Knowledge
by Tom McLanghlin
{tommclaughlin.blogspot.com} ~ Most students came to me unable to fix themselves in space or in time. They had little idea of what the world looked like beyond their neighborhood and their school. They could not point to Maine on a world map, or to their town on a map of Maine. Neither did they have much idea of world and national events during the lives of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and other ancestors which shaped their families and the culture into which they’d been born.It took me a while to realize what an impediment those deficits were. I had a curriculum to deliver and try as I might, results of my labors were sporadic at best. Information I delivered went in one ear and out the other because there was no context, no net, no web in students’ minds onto which it might attach. Some did have those contexts. They comprehended everything and progressed. Most, however, did not. My first target was geographic ignorance, so I passed out maps of the world with no labels anywhere. Depicted were continents and the blue water surrounding them. On the continents were tannish mountain ranges and blue rivers. That’s all. Next I passed out a list of names — continents, mountains, rivers, seas, bays, gulfs, straits, channels, deserts, isthmuses — about one hundred fifty of the earth’s most important physical features. Their task was to find them and label them the same way cartographers did on the atlases in the back of their textbooks. They had to find and label each, then print the name on a horizontal plane except when labeling rivers and mountain ranges. Most of them gasped.
“Get to it,” I said. “You’ll be tested the end of next week. I’ll pass out the same blank map and a list of fifty places randomly selected from that one hundred fifty that you must label correctly without looking at your atlas.
“Which ones will be on the test?” they asked. “I’m not telling. You’ll see when I pass it out.” We drilled in class for about ten days and played various map games. Ultimately most did fairly well on the test. Those who didn’t were allowed to take it again until they did. They had begun building a physical context — a net between their ears. To their surprise, they actually enjoyed it.
Then came a respite, after which came another blank world map with another list of one hundred fifty countries and major cities. They had to label each and outline political borders between countries which were already lightly drawn, and locate cities with a dot. Then came more drill, more games, and another test. Again, most did fairly well.
The goal was for each student to be able to conjure up the world map in their mind’s eye whenever they heard one of the three hundred places mentioned — then see exactly where in the world it was. Standing before a pull-down world map they would need less than five seconds to point to it. For the rest of their lives, whenever they heard something about one of those places, there was a framework in their minds to which it might stick before it went out the other ear. It was a way to begin organizing knowledge.
Every day we’re bombarded with information from electronic media in our pockets, in our living rooms, in the car. Most of it doesn’t stick in our minds because far too many Americans are like my students were. They cannot fix themselves in space or time. For them there’s only here and now. Ask them when the Civil War was fought and they cannot answer. World War I? Forget it. Even World War II is hazy in America’s collective mind. When they hear of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), can they point to either Iraq or Syria? I doubt it. North Korea? Iran? Probably not.
All during my thirty-six-year teaching career, America’s access to information increased manyfold while our ability to retain and make sense that information went in the other direction. Worse, it appears that decline is accelerating. Why? There’s no construct, no context in which to arrange global information so it can even be understood, much less acted upon.
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