The "Networking Dave" Initiative Has Begun

Well, it's time, 3 years at this current job has been enough, the changes have led to dead ends for me, unfortunately.  I could vent here, but no one wants to hear that, right?

Anyway, 1 day into it, I have a church acquaintance that is in charge of a department at a large bank that is right up my alley, training (and development), and another friend in the organization sees that his team is usually 5 but is currently 3. Not bad news on Day 1 of the "Networking Dave" Initiative.

Greenland Was Called That For a Reason Part 2, the Sequel

Part one here


Well, seems you can't trust an Atlas these days, thanks to the "consensus."

Here' the whole thing for those too lazy to clicky on the linky:

Times Atlas is 'wrong on Greenland climate change'

Glaciologists say the ice cover is melting – but at nowhere near the 'misleading' 15% rate represented by cartographers

• • reddit this

• John Vidal, environment editor
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 September 2011 12.07 EDT
• Article history

The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World shows Greenland as having lost around 15% of its ice cover between the 1999 10th edition (left) and 2011 13th edition (right). Scientists argue the depiction is wrong. Photograph: Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World
Leading scientists have accused the world's top cartographers of making a blunder in their representation of the effects of climate change in Greenland, prompting a robust defence by the map-makers' publisher. Maps in the 13th edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, published last week, show large areas of the eastern and southern coasts of Greenland coloured brown and pink, and the permanent ice cap now covering a significantly smaller area than it did in the 1999 12th edition of the atlas. The atlas suggests that 300,000 sq km, or 15%, of Greenland's ice cover had been lost in the period. "This is concrete evidence of how climate change is altering the face of the planet forever – and doing so at an alarming and accelerating rate," said the publishers of the atlas, HarperCollins, in information given to the media last week and reiterated by a spokeswoman on Monday. But seven researchers at Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research Institute backed by glaciologists in the US, Europe and elsewhere, have said that both the maps and the figure of 15% are wrong. In a letter to the editors of the Times Atlas they agree that the Greenland ice cover is reducing but at nowhere near the extent claimed in the book. "A 15% decrease in permanent ice cover since the publication of the previous atlas 12 years ago is both incorrect and misleading. "Numerous glaciers have retreated over the last decade. Because of this retreat, many glaciers are now flowing faster and terrain previously ice-covered is emerging along the coast – but not at the rate suggested. Recent satellite images of Greenland make it clear that there are in fact still numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands." According to the researchers, the volume of ice contained in the Greenland ice sheet is approximately 2.9m cubic kilometres and the current rate whereby ice is lost is roughly 200 cubic kilometres per year – a decrease of about 0.1% by volume over 12 years. Other researchers backed the Scott team. "Although many of these regions have decreased in area and thickness over the past decade(s), reported in many recent scientific papers, the misinterpretation of enormous losses of glacierised area from these maps is far off the range in measured losses," said Hester Jiskoot, a glaciologist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. "A number like 15% ice loss used for advertising the book is simply a killer mistake that cannot be winked away," said Jeffrey Kargel, a senior researcher at the University of Arizona. Several researchers said the atlas's authors may have confused ice thickness with ice extent, defining the ice sheet margin at 500m high (the contour) and colouring brown and pink anything below 500m. "They [seem to] show the contour as ice thickness, colouring in everything white that is above 500m. They appear to have missed out the edge of the ice sheet," said Ian Willis, researcher at the Scott institute. A spokeswoman for Times Atlas defended the 15% figure and the new map. "We are the best there is. We are confident of the data we have used and of the cartography. We use data supplied by the US Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. They use radar techniques to measure the permanent ice. We have compared the extent of the ice surface in 1999 with that of 2011. Our data shows that it has reduced by 15%. That's categorical," she said. "You will always have a level of generalisation. But we have compared like with like. The same criteria were applied to the 1999 data to that of 2011. "We are not saying that all of the ice loss is due to climate change. It is the lion's share but the data has improved over the period." The NSIDC said it was investigating the claims made by the Times Atlas. The row echoes a 2010 flare-up, when the UN's climate science body admitted that a claim made in its 2007 report – that Himalayan glaciers could melt away by 2035 – was unfounded. The claim was not based on peer-reviewed scientific literature but a media interview with a scientist. 

Now, let us take this moment to remember Leif Ericson and his life in this land they named Greenland, as well as his journeys to Vinland with it's almost frost-free winters and green grass year round...the only certain site being the northern tip of Newfoundland but some possibility of the St. Laurence River area indicating it was warmer 1000 years ago than it is today.

Excellent Coaching is Rare

This is a series of emails that make me glad we have the select soccer coach we do. We were never planning on having our kids do select sports, because of the cost and committment as well as the fear it would suck the fun out of whatever sport was involved, but this makes me glad that when the opportunity to put together a team of these little dudes came up (they were 7 last summer when it got started) we said, "let's give it a try."

Our Coach sent us this today after a close game we won because the other team was (smartly) playing a ball back to the defense and it came off the recipient of the pass's foot wrong and went into the goal.

I'll let him do the talking:

Parents,  I know I am guilty of sending way to many emails but this is one I have to forward.  To give you some background, after games I often send a note to the coach we play (highlighting things I liked about their team) especially if I was impressed with their team.  I may ask them how often, with who, and style of their training.  Pierre and I believe this does three things.  One, it is the nice thing to do.  Two, it keeps us in contact with coaches and teams that our boys (all of our boys) may want to try out for some day and if that ever becomes the case hopefully gives them an edge.  Three, why invent something you can steal from someone else?  We want to make sure we are keeping up with any new trends or ideas.

 

I sent an email to the coach of the CU Lakota team we played last Wednesday night… and after a few email exchanges he was questioning his coaching methods with some disappointment in his result Wednesday.  You can start at the bottom to see my response letting him know that I thought his team looked excellent.  But his response is the item I would like you to concentrate on.  It reinforces that your boys are really working hard and reflect our group of parents.  Pierre’s homework is making a big difference.  And the support that the parents are giving from the sidelines and at home is evident.  Pierre and I both believe that it is easy to be good coaches with good kids.  Great parents and hot moms are just a added benefit.  

This is what he wrote, followed by the other coach's reply in chronological order so you don't have to read the bottom first!

On Sep 22, 2011, at 8:45 AM, Andy  wrote:

As always a pleasure.  As for better job coaching…  Your team really looked good.  You should be proud.  They did many things better than our boys.  I was impressed with the way they passed the ball (sometimes backwards) and played tenacious, disciplined defense.  Terrific goalkeeping in the second half also.  As we walked to our cars last night after the game, some of the first words out of the mouths of at least  two of my parents were… “That team is very well coached!”  I have to agree.  I have been around soccer my entire life and coached with some very talented professional coaches.  I am telling you that to back up my next statement.  I can tell you are doing a good job with your boys.  They get better every time I see them.  Unfortunately when you teach them the correct way to play 6soccer you have nights like last night where trying to do the right thing causes a mistake in the back.  Honestly I was frustrated with my boys on several occasions because they just kicked the ball long to get out of trouble.  Sure it may have been the best way to win last night but likely not the best way to win when they are 16.   (I would have rather seen them pass out of trouble (at this age), possibly making a mistake).  I don’t think you guys just knocked it long once without a target.  Your team makes me nervous every time we play.  Stay the course.  Think about this.  There are probably 50 teams playing in U-9 CUSL at various levels.  Your team is easily among the top few.  To put it simply I would be happy to have any of our kids play for a coach like you and on a team like we played last night. 

Good luck this weekend!

From: Matt
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 12:05 AM
To: Andy
Subject: Re: Game

 

You are way too complimentary - and I can't take too much credit as it is a team effort with my assistant coach, our trainer and one parent (the loud guy on our sideline) who we have jump in with us to work on small sided stuff a couple times a season because he gives us a different voice when we think they are tuning us out.

Your boys may have lost their normal style for a brief stretch there when they kicked it deep but they never panic - like there coach way too calm.......and I thought they got themselves back in 'shape' and closed the game like champs.  A couple of the drops back to Will were classic ball control and your left wing in particular made some heady plays down the stretch - any other kid would've tried to jam it ahead and he took the touch went sideline and shielded our defender until he had support....not your typical 8 year old move and they reflect your preparedness and calm.  I know that was not your best 50 mins but you guys are that good regardless because I'm not sure we can do much better.  I'll stand by my statement last spring you are the gold standard for the 02's of the tri-state - not debatable.

 

Our parents tonight at training could not say enough good things about the boys and families and coaches of BSC United.  They are an easy going veteran CU parent bunch so they don't impress easy - 7 of our 9 are little CU brothers - but one flat out said your group is the best parents/coach/and players they've been around in probably 5 years of involvement with select. 

 

Still owe you a beer.

 

Now, I do have a few things to say! First, what a compliment to our boys. They are almost all younger brothers that have that resilience that comes from having older siblings mess with you, they are all lightning fast, fun, and for the most part, just nice kids. To have an opposing coach say that stuff is awesome.

Second, our coach is a super guy, and it shows in the way he treats his opponents and the way he is looking out for our kids' future soccer experiences. I laugh at how "into it" he is, but he has spent a ton of cash on shirts, socks, and plenty of other things because he wants to. That's the kind of guy he is. He is calm on the sideline, and i have begun to model my coaching of our older kids on that model, letting them know that they can handle what's happening on the field all by themselves. A good lesson, I think.

Awesome Resignation from American Physical Society over AGW Dogma

"In the APS it is ok to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"

That is a totally awesome smackdown.

As I have said, "Just tell what the correct temperature for the planet is. Yes, it's warmed lately, but until you can tell me that you know what the correct global temperature is, I am not going to get bothered by this observation." Is the planet truly hotter than it should be?

From The PJ Tatler here's the full thing, why not?

Nobel Laureate Resigns From American Physical Society Over Their Manmade Global Warming Fundamentalism

From Climate Depot:

Nobel prize winner for physics in 1973 Dr. Ivar Giaever resigned as a Fellow from the American Physical Society (APS) on September 13, 2011 in disgust over the group’s promotion of man-made global warming fears.

The APS dogma:

Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth’s climate…They are emitted from fossil fuel combustion and a range of industrial and agricultural processes.

The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring.

If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.

In his resignation email, Dr. Giaever said:

In the APS it is ok to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible? The claim (how can you measure the average temperature of the whole earth for a whole year?) is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this ‘warming’ period.

According to his numbers, the earth’s temperature has risen 0.28%–about one-quarter of one percent–in 150 years. One way to over-dramatize the increase is to use the Fahrenheit scale rather than the absolute values of the Kelvin scale. That way, you could claim a 2.45% temperature increase, nearly 9 times as large as Giaever’s reference.
It’s that easy to spin global warming by manipulating the numbers.
Climate Depot has news on more prominent scientists like Hal Lewis who’ve resigned, and more news on many hundreds of scientists who won’t conform to the global warming Caliphate.

Posted at 6:32 am on September 15th, 2011 by

Remembering 9-11

I was a teacher in 2001 and was monitoring study hall the morning of Sept 11th when someone came into the cafeteria and said, "Turn on the TVs, a World Trade Center's been hit by a plane."  We thought it was an accident until we saw the second plane hit tower 2.

I was so wrong about that, it looked like a small plane and I said so, I guess my brain couldn't compute the reality.

Many of the freshmen didn't get it, one guy in particular was all, "what's the big deal" and I, a little too vigorously, I'm sure, said something along the lines of "we are at war now! Look around you, these seniors, some of them may have to fight this war!"

Micah Maupin, who I later taught in my Stagecraft class, was in that room, with no intention yet of becoming the Marine he would become. I don't think his big brother Matt was there that day, although during he hung out there with a buddy, Eric, quite a bit, often at our teacher table. I wish I wasn't right and Matt hadn't been captured and then shot in the back of the head and left in the desert. I hope that freshman remembers this, too.

Darn, I missed the debate!

...and I'll miss the speech tonight, too. For a politically minded person, I abhor these way-too-early primary events and I have a life, so I am generally too busy for Presidential blather. Church choir tonight, for example.

Michelle Malkin had a great line about the debate last night (9-7-11), though: the debate was as if the dems were "debating at the SEIU headquarters on Fox News moderated by Rush Limbaugh with she and Andrew Breitbart asking questions."

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

Good Lord, things suck right now, and that's my whine for the day. We're not starving or having bombs dropped on us or getting attacked with machetes or anything, but I suck at being a breadwinner and the shit is piling up. Can you say "under-employed?" I knew you could.

Oh, and screw you, Duke Energy.

"You must get Smart Meter, even though you just got new digital meter last year. Sure, you have scheduled Smart Meter installation, but until you receive Smart Meter, you cannot submit digital meter's reading online.  You must pay what we say you owe, even though we are just guessing at your usage, not just the minimum payments you have been making. In fact, we will turn your power off on the very same day you receive your notice in the mail. Then, when you call and make a token payment we will lie and say someone will come and turn it on by midnight. Twice. Then, when you call and ask where the heck the service person is at 30 past midnight, we will tell you we don't do "turned off at the pole reconnections" after midnight, sorry about your refrigerated food. You can call your local office in the morning to submit a claim for the food cost. Then, in the morning, we will apologize and say they were busy, you are at the front of the line and they will arrive within the hour. Then the Smart Reader Replacement crew will arrive and leave because the power is not on. Then we will say that we don't reconnect for 24 hours. You will say that you were lied to, then, and that you would have emptied your fridge into coolers and stayed at an air-conditioned friend's house instead of sweating the night out. We will offer to exempt you from the $50 reconnection fee. And we will still not know when your power will be restored."

Screw you Duke Energy. 28.5 hours after we called, you showed up.

Warren Buffet Can't Do Math, Apparently

Well, a lot of people have shared this Warren Buffet article, so I have to throw in my 2 cents:  aren't paying enough taxes, Warren? Let's fix that.

Send a check to the Treasury to assuage your guilt, this group had a pledge over a year ago to do just that.

Of course, Buffet's guilt trip tale avoids the IRS numbers that show that the top 1% earn 20% of the income and pay 38.02% of income taxes. Of course, those are the folks making over $392,149 a year, they are not the super-rich, that .1% that makes 9% of the income and pays 18% of the income taxes. Table 5 on this page    

Anyway, you could take all of Buffet's money and only pay for the Food Stamp program for 257 days... in fact, if we confiscate all the income of everybody making over 250,000 (1.93% of all households) it's about 1.47 trillion dollars, which is enough to cover about 114 days of the budget (see Iowahawk here).

So great, Warren, you make a lot of money, but you don't seem to be able to do math. If 100% tax rate isn't enough, isn't it a spending rather than an income problem? The total US personal income is just under 8 trillion, should the government budget be half of that?

With a debt of more than 14 trillion, Buffet's suggestion is a joke. Taking everybody's income would only pay half.

***UPDATE***

Ok, so here's the irony, and it's going unreported except for the New York Post, apparently:

Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, who was alerted to the controversy by a federal government lawyer, said, “The company has been short-changing the tax collection agency for much of the past decade.   Mr. Buffett’s company has not fully settled its tax bills from 2002-2009.  Yet he says he’d happily pay more.  Except the IRS has apparently been asking him to pay more going on nine years.”

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/08/29/warren-buffetts-company-hasnt-paid-taxes-years-media-mum#ixzz1WTDJ48zx

Anarchy in the UK?

Just some links; these folks say it so well, my thoughts aren't necessary.

Max Hastings in the Daily Mail

"...They are essentially wild beasts. I use that phrase advisedly, because it seems appropriate to young people bereft of the discipline that might make them employable; of the conscience that distinguishes between right and wrong"

from the American thinker (byline Robin of Berkely)

"The radicals want to promote anarchy.  But it's more than this: they want the hate that blackens their souls to warp others as well."

Very Short Post on Pres's Speech This Week

Ok, so I just watched a recap of some Late Night Comedians' jokes about Pres O's debt limit speechy-thing, and heard our Supreme Politician say this:

"For the last decade, we've spent more money than we take in. In the year 2000, the government has a budget surplus, but, instead of using it pay off our debt, the money was spent on trillions of dollars in new tax cuts...." (insert sound effect of record scratching to a stop)

What The Heck????????????????????

How do you spend money on cuts? It's not yours if you don't have it, and it's not spending if you don't collect it! I must have spent my surplus on my decreased salary, then, I guess.

Truly unbelievable.

All Work and No Play

Well, last night was home improvement night, and I must say, I got a fair amount done and perspired enough to show it!

With our Central AC out, we've been using 2 borrowed air conditioners, a small window unit and a portable floor model. Yesterday, I borrowed a 3rd unit, a large window unit, from the wife's brother's shop: it was dirty, let me tell you!

It cools like a beast, though, and I succumbed to the wife's wishes and put it in the boys' room, moved that little one upstairs, and can only hope for little rain so that the cardboard in the open window sections stays dry-ish... what a pain.

On the upside, having AC in the bedroom might help break the 17-day dry spell....it is my birthday, after all. :)

I did manage to get 20ft of new vinyl gutter installed almost completely, just an endcap and some screws in the joiner piece and all should be done. Not a difficult job at all as it turned out, just hoping the chalkline was accurate and the fall is enough!

**UPDATE 2*** The other half of the front is done, about 15 feet, plus endcaps and screws in the joiners, so I can call those sections "complete."  Next is either the sides of the porch (4 ft. each) or the garage. Definitely need gutter covers, though, there was already bits of bark, moss, and shingle crap in there!


UPDATE***
so, on the birthday night, we found a leak in the laundry room ceiling: after some perspiration and cleaning, discovered that the ice maker supply line leaving the "switch" had come out of the compression fitting....grrr. Fixed it, though. Oh, that other matter? Sorry about my luck. (update: 25 26 days. oh well broken at exactly one month)

I Hate Liars

So, yet again we hear, even on Fox News Radio half hour clips, that we risk default, and that Social Security Payments are at risk.

Bull Crap.

Yes, we borrow 40% of what we pay out, but that's because we pay out too much! Two points: if the debt ceiling will affect SS and Medicare payments, then we MUST be using borrowed money to write those checks, right? So much for the old Lockbox argument. If we are borrowing to pay those, how screwed up is the Federal Budget? Second, El Presidente said (to Scott Pelley, airs tonight) that we send out 70 million checks....WTF? with the estimated population at 311,749,302  it amazes me that so many people are receiving Government Support. Fun fact, that's roughly equivalent to every Obama voter...(69,499,428)

We won't default. we can pay the debt service and make our entitlement payments. We HAVE to cut spending. Either we do it now, make arrangements to cover obligations and avoid foreclosure, or we wait and then get foreclosed upon.

That's our choice, America.

Know that whenever anyone says "we may not be able to send out those Social Security checks" or "the US may default on it's loans" that person is lying or stupid.

I like this from the Washington Examiner, more specific, and with numbers!

A Day Late, but Happy Independence Day (independence from Britain...amazing how many people don't know that)