It’s raining Iguanas

Well it is raining Iguanas in Florida, it must be Manbearpig.

It rains iguanas at Bill Baggs park

By TIM CHAPMAN

tchapman@MiamiHerald.com

Wednesday night’s bitter cold came like a giant Sominex for the tree-dwelling iguanas of South Florida.

When the temperature falls below a certain level, the large green lizards drop out of the trees and litter the ground.

They aren’t dead. At least a lot of them aren’t. It is as if they are in suspended animation, said Robert Yero, park manager at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne.

Miami Herald

Oh it is because ti is cold, not because it is hot.   My bad I thought Manbearpig had a hand in it.

Benedict the Science Guy Challenges ManBearPig

From the Cranmer blog in the UK, which is usually very snarky about Popes and such.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Pope: Global warming assessment must be based on ‘science not dogma’

It is something of a topsy-turvy world when a pope tells us to base our thinking on ‘science, not dogma’, and doubtless an aggrieved Galileo may feel somewhat vindicated, but here is a man on the world stage who is prepared express doubts about the ‘Green’ movement which is just as dogmatic in its assumptions as any religion. This declaration from the Pope is consistent with the man’s propensity to favour the virtues of rationalism, which he has already applied to interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

The Roman Catholic Church is not anti-scientific. While its treatment of Galileo may have been acknowledged to have been ‘an error’, Copernicus dedicated his famous heliocentric work, ‘On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs’, to Pope Paul III. Copernicus then bequeathed this work to Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran clergyman who knew that Protestant reaction to it would be negative, since Luther himself was not favourable to the new theory. And Kepler also found opposition among his fellow Protestants for his heliocentric views, yet found a welcome reception among a group of Jesuits who were noted for their astronomical interests.

And it is the Pope of Rome who is now challenging the orthodoxy of the political aspects of the global warming movement around the world. That, of course, is true acknowledgement of the scientific method: a world apart from the hysteria surrounding the half-baked theories of pseudo-scientists and ignoramuses like Al Gore. Here we have a pope who is defending the protestants of postmodernity, confronting head-on the climate change ‘prophets of doom’ with the warning that any solutions to global warming ‘must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology’.

He dismisses talk of man-made emissions melting the ice caps as ‘scare-mongering’, and demands that assessment ‘be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances’.

And now there has been a ‘breakthrough’ in Bali, with the administration of President Bush apparently conceding on the matter and now joined by Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, there is an inexorable spiritual drive to inculcate the population of the world with the worship of Mother Earth, to indoctrinate with the dogma of Gaia, against which the Pope alone declares: ‘Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.’

posted by Cranmer at 12:10 PM

Source:  http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2007/12/it-is-something-of-topsy-turvy-world.html

Smart guy, that Benedict.

Julia

Reality-Based Scientists Have Their Say in Bali

Skeptical Scientists Urge World To ‘Have the Courage to Do Nothing’ At UN Conference

December 11, 2007

From Senator Inohe’s Website – some reality-based scientific info for the Bali meeting.

Posted By Marc Morano – Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov – 7:45 AM ET

Skeptical Scientists Urge World To ‘Have the Courage to Do Nothing’ At UN Conference

BALI, Indonesia – An international team of scientists skeptical of man-made climate fears promoted by the UN and former Vice President Al Gore, descended on Bali this week to urge the world to "have the courage to do nothing" in response to UN demands.   

Lord Christopher Monckton, a UK climate researcher, had a blunt message for UN climate conference participants on Monday.

"Climate change is a non-problem. The right answer to a non problem is to have the courage to do nothing," Monckton told participants. 

"The UN conference is a complete waste of our time and your money and we should no longer pay the slightest attention to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,)" Monckton added. (LINK)

Monckton also noted that the UN has not been overly welcoming to the group of skeptical scientists.   

"UN organizers refused my credentials and appeared desperate that I should not come to this conference. They have also made several attempts to interfere with our public meetings," Monckton explained.

"It is a circus here," agreed Australian scientist Dr. David Evans. Evans is making scientific presentations to delegates and journalists at the conference revealing the latest peer-reviewed studies that refute the UN’s climate claims.

"This is the most lavish conference I have ever been to, but I am only a scientist and I actually only go to the science conferences," Evans said, noting the luxury of the tropical resort. (Note: An analysis by  Bloomberg News on December 6 found:  "Government officials and activists flying to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year." – LINK)

Evans, a mathematician who did carbon accounting for the Australian government, recently converted to a skeptical scientist about man-made global warming after reviewing the new scientific studies. (LINK)

"We now have quite a lot of evidence that carbon emissions definitely don’t cause global warming.  We have the missing [human] signature [in the atmosphere], we have the IPCC models being wrong and we have the lack of a temperature going up the last 5 years," Evans said in an interview with the Inhofe EPW Press Blog.  Evans authored a November 28 2007 paper "Carbon Emissions Don’t Cause Global Warming." (LINK)

Evans touted a new peer-reviewed study by a team of scientists appearing in the December 2007 issue of the International Journal of Climatology of the Royal Meteorological Society which found "Warming is naturally caused and shows no human influence." (LINK)

"Most of the people here have jobs that are very well paid and they depend on the idea that carbon emissions cause global warming. They are not going to be very receptive to the idea that well actually the science has gone off in a different direction," Evans explained.   

[Inhofe EPW Press Blog Note: Several other recent peer-reviewed studies have cast considerable doubt about man-made global warming fears. For most recent sampling see: New Peer-Reviewed Study finds ‘Solar changes significantly alter climate’ (11-3-07) (LINK) & "New Peer-Reviewed Study Halves the Global Average Surface Temperature Trend 1980 – 2002" (LINK)  & New Study finds Medieval Warm Period ‘0.3C Warmer than 20th Century’ (LINK) For a more comprehensive sampling of peer-reviewed studies earlier in 2007 see "New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears" LINK ]

‘IPCC is unsound’

UN IPCC reviewer and climate researcher Dr. Vincent Gray of New Zealand, an expert reviewer on every single draft of the IPCC reports since its inception going back to 1990, had a clear message to UN participants.

"There is no evidence that carbon dioxide increases are having any effect whatsoever on the climate," Gray, who shares in the Nobel Prize awarded to the UN IPCC, explained. (LINK)

"All the science of the IPCC is unsound. I have come to this conclusion after a very long time.  If you examine every single proposition of the IPCC thoroughly, you find that the science somewhere fails," Gray, who wrote the book "The Greenhouse Delusion: A Critique of "Climate Change 2001," said.

"It fails not only from the data, but it fails in the statistics, and the mathematics," he added.

‘Dangerous time for science’

Evans, who believes the UN has heavily politicized science, warned there is going to be a "dangerous time for science" ahead.

"We have a split here. Official science driven by politics, money and power, goes in one direction. Unofficial science, which is more determined by what is actually happening with the [climate] data, has now started to move off in a different direction" away from fears of a man-made climate crisis, Evans explained.

"The two are splitting. This is always a dangerous time for science and a dangerous time for politics. Historically science always wins these battles but there can be a lot of causalities and a lot of time in between," he concluded.

Carbon trading ‘fraud?’

New Zealander Bryan Leland of the International Climate Science Coalition warned participants that all the UN promoted discussions of "carbon trading" should be viewed with suspicion.

"I am an energy engineer and I know something about electricity trading and I know enough about carbon trading and the inaccuracies of carbon trading to know that carbon trading is more about fraud than it is about anything else," Leland said. 

"We should probably ask why we have 10,000 people here [in Bali] in a futile attempt to ‘solve’ a [climate] problem that probably does not exist," Leland added.

‘Simply not work’

Owen McShane, the head of the International Climate Science Coalition, also worried that a UN promoted global approach to economics would mean financial ruin for many nations.

"I don’t think this conference can actually achieve anything because it seems to be saying that we are going to draw up one protocol for every country in the world to follow," McShane said. (LINK)

"Now these countries and these economies are so diverse that trying to presume you can put all of these feet into one shoe will simply not work," McShane explained.   

"Having the same set of rules apply to everybody will blow some economies apart totally while others will be unscathed and I wouldn’t be surprised if the ones who remain unscathed are the ones who write the rules," he added.

‘Nothing happening at this conference’

Professor Dr. William Alexander, emeritus of the University of Pretoria in South Africa and a former member of the United Nations Scientific and Technical Committee on Natural Disasters, warned poor nations and their residents that the UN policies could mean more poverty and thus more death.

"My message is specifically for the poor people of Africa. And there is nothing happening at this conference that can help them one little bit but there is the potential that they could be damaged," Alexander said. (LINK)

"The government and people of Africa will have their attention drawn to reducing climate change instead of reducing poverty," Alexander added.

Related Links:

New UN Children’s Book Promotes Global Warming Fears to Kids (11-13-2006)

Scientists Counter AP Article Promoting Computer Model Climate Fears

New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears

Newsweek Editor Calls Mag’s Global Warming ‘Deniers’ Article ‘Highly Contrived’

Newsweek’s Climate Editorial Screed Violates Basic Standards of Journalism

Latest Scientific Studies Refute Fears of Greenland Melt

EPA to Probe E-mail Threatening to ‘Destroy’ Career of Climate Skeptic

Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming – Now Skeptics

Senator Inhofe declares climate momentum shifting away from Gore (The Politico op ed)

Scientific Smackdown: Skeptics Voted The Clear Winners Against Global Warming Believers in Heated NYC Debate

Global Warming on Mars & Cosmic Ray Research Are Shattering Media Driven "Consensus’

Global Warming: The Momentum has Shifted to Climate Skeptics

Prominent French Scientist Reverses Belief in Global Warming – Now a Skeptic

Top Israeli Astrophysicist Recants His Belief in Manmade Global Warming – Now Says Sun Biggest Factor in Warming

Warming On Jupiter, Mars, Pluto, Neptune’s Moon & Earth Linked to Increased Solar Activity, Scientists Say

Panel of Broadcast Meteorologists Reject Man-Made Global Warming Fears- Claim 95% of Weathermen Skeptical

MIT Climate Scientist Calls Fears of Global Warming ‘Silly’ – Equates Concerns to ‘Little Kids’ Attempting to "Scare Each Other"

Weather Channel TV Host Goes ‘Political’- Stars in Global Warming Film Accusing U.S. Government of ‘Criminal Neglect’

Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics

ABC-TV Meteorologist: I Don’t Know A Single Weatherman Who Believes ‘Man-Made Global Warming Hype’

The Weather Channel Climate Expert Refuses to Retract Call for Decertification for Global Warming Skeptics

Senator Inhofe Announces Public Release Of "Skeptic’s Guide To Debunking Global Warming"

# # #

Julia

Fossil Jellyfish found

October 31, 2007—They didn’t have any bones to leave behind, but ten fossilized jellyfish recently discovered in Utah have made an impression in more ways than one.

At half a billion years old, the fossils represent the oldest jellyfish
ever found and push back the known existence of jellies 205 million
years, scientists say.

The newfound fossils also offer much greater detail than more recent
specimens, which has allowed researchers to link the ancient animals to
types of jellyfish living today.

"The fossil record is full of circular-shaped blobs, some of
which are jellyfish," Paulyn Cartwright, a University of Kansas
biologist who was on the research team, said in a press statement.

"That’s one of the reasons the fossils we describe are so interesting,
because you can see a distinct bell shape, tentacles, muscle scars, and
possibly even the gonads."

Cartwright and her colleagues studied these anatomical features
and found that the fossils may represent early ancestors of three
modern jellyfish groups. The researchers liken the two fossils pictured
here to living species from the genus Cunina (top) and Periphylla (bottom).

If verified, these connections would suggest that jellies either
evolved into their current, complex form very quickly around 500
million years ago, or they evolved slowly and have existed much longer
than has been estimated.

Cartwright’s team reports its findings today in the online journal PLoS One.

—Blake de Pastino

• More Photos in the News
• Today’s 15 Most Read Stories
• Free Email Newsletter: Focus on Photography

if (caption) {
document.write(caption);
}
Top
fossil photo by B. Lieberman. Cunina photo by K. Raskoff; bottom fossil
photo by B. Lieberman. Periphylla photo by Dhugal Lindsay, Copyright
JAMSTEC

National Geographic

 

submit_url = ‘http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2007/11/fossil-jellyfis.html’;
button_type = 1;

Best Wildlife Photos of 2007

This is by far my favorite picture.

National Geographic

submit_url = ‘http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2007/10/best-wildlife-p.html’;
button_type = 1;

Chinese Painting Come to Life

And speaking of Chinese -I came across this gorgeous piece of animation on YouTube.  It reminds me of the Korean paintings I have of a Peony with a bee and another of colored carp jumping in water.  A lot of artistry and well as technical know-how went into making this short film. 

I also have some little sketches of chickens, birds and a rainy landscape I got in Korea.  I’ll have to look and see if this guy has done other short films like this.  You’ll notice that at the end he gives a short glimpse of how he did this one.

Julia

submit_url = ‘http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2007/10/chinese-paintin.html’;
button_type = 1;

 

10,000 Wildebeest drown

10,000 Wildebeest Drown in Migration "Pileup"

Scores of wildebeest lay dead along the banks of the
Mara River in Kenya, having washed downstream after a bizarre mass
death that occurred early last week.

An estimated 10,000 of the
animals drowned while attempting to cross the river during an annual
migration, wiping out one percent of the total species population.

Photograph courtesy Terilyn Lemaire/Mara Conservancy/WildlifeDirect

National Geographic

submit_url = ‘http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2007/10/10000-wildebees.html’;
button_type = 1;

Valcano rips apart island

A Volcano erupted in the Red Sea and tore apart an island.

Island ripped apart by massive volcano eruption

A massive volcano eruption triggered by an earthquake has ripped apart a tiny island in the Red Sea.

 

Terrified witnesses reported lava spewing hundreds of yards into the air with plumes of volcanic ash also rising
from the site.

 

Officials said today that part of Jazirt Mount al-Tair, which is about
80 miles from Yemen, had collapsed after the eruption at around 5.30pm
on Sunday.

Eruption: Lava and smoke billowing out of the volcano

A huge rescue operation was still underway for survivors with at least
four soldiers reported dead and another five still missing.

 

Squadroons of troops, who are based on the Red Sea island, had
to be evacuated to the port city of Hodeida in the immediate aftermath.

 

One said: "Four of our comrades have died, burned by the lava.

 

Another added: "They were killed immediately after the eruption of the volcano at 5:30 pm on Sunday."

 

The Canadian frigate HMCS Toronto had been sailing towards the Suez Canal and was called in to help.

On Sunday evening, Canadian Navy spokesman Ken Allen told reporters in
an e-mail that the entire island was "aglow with lava and magma as it
pours down into the sea.

 

 

"The lava is spewing hundreds of feet into the air, with the volcanic ash also 1,000 feet in the air."

 

 

 

 

The Yemeni defence ministry said that there had been
considerable seismic activity around the island ahead of the eruption,
adding that an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale had been
recorded on Friday.

 

 

The volcano last erupted in the 19th century.

 

Search and rescue teams, alongside the Canadian navy, were still hunting for survivors today.

Daily Mail

 

 

submit_url = ‘http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2007/10/valcano-rips-ap.html’;
button_type = 1;

A fish only its mother could love

This is one ugly fish.

Photo in the News: "Ugly" Albino Ratfish Captured

September 25, 2007—This ghostly animal is a completely different kettle of fish.

The albino white-spotted ratfish caught this summer during a marine survey in Washington‘s Puget Sound is the first albino fish ever spotted by local scientists.

Ratfish, bottom-dwelling relatives of skates and stingrays, are usually brown with white spots that act as camouflage.

The fish probably owe their name to their exceptionally long tails and
rodentlike teeth that crush up clams and other prey lurking in the mud.

"They’re pretty ugly," John Reum, the University of Washington
doctoral student who caught the fish, told the Associated Press news
agency.

The foot-long (30-centimeter-long) pearly white female seen
here had pale green eyes and was estimated to be about two or three
years old—just an adolescent.

"This animal would stand out like a beacon," fisheries
professor Ted Pietsch told the AP. "I don’t know why it wasn’t eaten
long before."

But the rare creature’s luck ran out—it died shortly after capture.

It now sparkles as the only albino specimen in the university’s collection of 7.2 million fish.

—Christine Dell’Amore

 

 

 

 

if (caption) {
document.write(caption);
}
HO/Associated Press/University of Washington

National Geographic

 

submit_url = ‘http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2007/09/a-fish-only-its.html’;
button_type = 0;

Destination: The Maldives

After seeing the shark feeding film I got curious about the Maldives island country.  Turns out it is SW of  India in the area of Sri Lanka.  It was devastated by the 2004 tsunami, but since it has no continental shelf the waves peaked at 14 feet.  So – even though it is the flattest country in the world, only 20 or so people died.    

Here is some information about the Maldives tourist industry from Wikipedia.

Natural Beauty

Maldives is famous for its natural beauty which includes the blue ocean and white beaches, accompanied by pleasant temperatures. The climate of the Maldives is ideal for visitors to get engaged in water sports such as swimming, fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling, water-skiing and windsurfing.

Due to its extraordinary underwater scenery and clean water, Maldives is also ranked among one of the best diving destinations of the world. [1]

Overview of a tropical resort

A Maldivian tourist resort

A tourist resort in the Maldives consists of an exclusive hotel on its own island, with its population entirely based on tourists and work force, with no local people or houses.

These islands developed for tourism are approximately 800 by 200 metres in size and are composed of sand and coral to a maximum height of about 2 metres above the sea. In addition to its beach encircling the island, each island has its own "house reef" which serves as a coral garden and natural aquarium for scuba divers and snorkelers. The shallow water enclosed by the house reef also serves as a large natural swimming pool and protects swimmers from the ocean waves and strong tidal currents outside the house reef.

The buildings on a typical resort includes rooms and suites reserved for use by its guests, restaurants, cafes, shops, lounges, bars, discos and dive schools. A portion of the island also contains staff lodgings and support services such as catering, power generators, laundry, and a sewerage plant. On-island shops offer a wide range of products, such as souvenirs and artifacts. The resorts offer a wide variety of activities such as aerobics, volleyball and table tennis.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

And here’s some info from the official Maldives website:

1,190 coral islands, forming an archipelago of 26 major atolls. Stretches 820 kilometres north to south and 120 kilometres east to west. 202 are inhabited, 87 are exclusive resort islands.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

And here is to die for – a choice of places to stay:     http://www.universalresorts.com/  Be sure to click on the locations listed along the top.

And here is a place called Blue Lagoon:    

More photos of the Blue Lagoon – check out the scuba photos http://www.kuramathi.com/photogallery.html#

 

And a cruise ship for travelling around the islands mainly to scuba that looks like The Belafante from the Bill Murray movie "The Life Aquatic starring Steve Zissou".   Wonder if the safety officer sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese?

Julia   

submit_url = ‘http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2007/09/destination-the.html’;
button_type = 0;