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Books are such wonderful things

My mother wanted to be a librarian. She worked in the library at Mt. Morris College when she was a freshman there in 1930-1931 (the college had a disasterous fire in the spring and closed the next year). The Depression, then marriage and motherhood ended any career dreams, but she briefly worked as a clerk in the town library in the late 1950s. She was quiet, well organized, determined and tenacious; if anyone ever said a negative word about her, I never got wind of it. She drove to Rochelle to teach migrant workers to sew, held Bible studies in her home for years, ran a retreat center on her family's farm, and looked after innumerable relatives. For the most part to fulfill her dreams, she just read, researched and collected. We always received books or magazine subscriptions as gifts at Christmas from my mother and grandmother. Shortly before she died in 2000 she was still walking to the town library, which had become a public library while she was in college, and she had card #14. When she was in high school, she won an essay contest at the Dixon, Illinois public library, the nearest library to their farm. I think this was written when she was 15 or 16 and was published in the paper, so I only have the clipping and not the date.

Books are such wonderful things
There is one place, above all others, that holds a fascination that is not to be dimmed by frequent explorations. That place is a library. Rows on rows of books reaching to the ceiling. Some are nicely bound, clean and little used; others are shabby, worn out by loving an d unloving hands. They are there waiting for me, quiet and orderly from the outside, as they rest in neat lines on the shelf. Inside of the multi-colored covers is action, teeming life, successes and failures, tragedy and comedy.

To prepare for a trip is a different task, especially if it would be a journey that would reach around the world, turn back the centuries and allow me to live with the world from the earliest time to the present day. Such a journey is, of course, impossible, although extremely pleasant to dream of taking; time has never been known to stop or turn back. Out of the years has come something better for men. People of all times have written or recorded their thoughts on stone, parchment and paper. Only the best is left to us, and we may have a microscopic, yet comprehensive view of the world.

Only a slight motion of the hand is necessary and the cover of a book is opened; a kingdom waiting to be explored. Perhaps in this lies some of the wonder of a book. One need not leave the room to enjoy adventure or learn what is going on in other countries. What has happened hundreds of years ago is as close at hand as the present day. We may know more about Mary, Queen of Scots, than the “first lady of the land.”

A book is for relaxation of tired minds and bodies, inspiration through the actions of some ancient hero of mighty deeds. It has the power to lift the reader from surroundings that are familiar to places of dazzling splendor or trouble or squalor. A book will take you farther and faster than Mercury’s wings.

One summer day I sat down to read. The air was heavy with heat; only by reading could I forget the uncomfortable weather. My book was an Alaskan story. I climbed snowy mountains and crossed bleak valleys with the lone traveler. As the story proceeded, the traveler crossed a supposedly frozen lake but disaster came upon him. The ice was thin and gave way. I sailed through the icy waters with no hope of rescue, with the unfortunate man. It was terrible for life to end this way--no friends to weep, just lost. I shivered as the awful desolation of the north held me in its power. With a dry throat and my heart pounding wildly I stopped at the end of the chapter to find myself shaking with cold under the rays of a scorching sun.

A book is so wonderful, if it is truth from the author’s heart. It can do more than dazzle the brain with facts and fancies. It will reveal the vision of life as the author sees it. It may be ugly or it might be beautiful, joyous; it might be merely silly. Through the thoughts of his characters will run his own thoughts, their actions, what he himself might have done. Their philosophy of life is his, though it may not appear so on the surface. The author cannot keep himself hidden no matter how he tries.

Through the ages, men have attempted to tell realistically of the actions and lives of others. No matter how they failed or succeeded, they left a true picture of themselves--an example of the real feelings of that time more exact than any attempted story. That is why books are such wonderful things.

Monday Memories--A special Christmas

Christmas is a time to bring out the memories, isn‘t it? This one is quite fresh--last night, in fact. It is so easy to let special times slip by without mention--we think we'll always remember. That’s why a diary (this blog) is so useful when the memory track becomes so jumbled, scratchy and full--and a thesaurus might help too, because some superlatives can be overused.

Our couples group from church, called SALT (Serving and Learning Together), met for dinner at members’ lovely, traditional home in south Arlington. Treasures collected over many years of marriage--through lean and plenty--decorated every room. Nothing splashy or over done, but lovingly displayed each year--a framed needlepoint, tiny ceramic Santa Claus, an angel. Each one precious with stories to tell. Our hostess provided a delicious pork loin, and the other couples brought appetizers, salad, potatoes and dessert. Every morsel was prepared lovingly and to perfection--the wonderful smells wafted throughout the house. However, it was the Christian fellowship that made the night so special. The five couples sat around the dining room table, beautifully set with seasonal treasures, with just the right touches of holiday greens and red candles, china, silver angel napkin rings and goblets.

After catching up on our activities since we last met in November, the talk easily flowed to Christmases past and what was special “in the old days.” Many of us had parents born in the early years of the 20th century (my parents were born in 1912 and 1913, as were those of several others), and we told what modest celebrations they had--perhaps an apple or an orange, a plate of cookies or a new outfit. In the case of my mother, nothing, because Christmas wasn’t observed in her family when she was small except to go to church. Then we moved along the years to our own childhood Christmases, then our children’s, and now the grandchildren’s--with the bag of gifts growing with each year. It’s probably our age, but we all seemed a bit nostalgic for a time when we had less! There were funny stories, too--one man told of carefully slitting the wrapping, peeking inside the boxes, and then meticulously rewrapping the presents; another recounted the time his little brother unwrapped all the beautiful presents their mother had so artistically wrapped and placed under the tree--the day before Christmas. One woman told of an uncle who would come by with sleigh bells, circle the house, jingling them outside while the children were in bed (but still awake), banging on down spouts if someone had already fallen asleep. Was it the laughter, the candles, the sharing--but something felt like a warm cozy blanket in that room.

Then we moved to the living room to sing carols--our hosts have a gorgeous piano and a room that complements it in color and size. One of our members is an accomplished pianist and church musician. I love to watch her play--the graceful hands, the studied, far away look on her face, so I stood by the piano (Oh, it was beautiful!). We shared more stories and then prayer concerns. I’ve been in many groups over the years, but this one seems the most spiritually mature, the most dependent on God for strength and comfort through prayer and service.

I was opposite the tree. The lights in the room were dim--or seemed that way--and as the evening progressed, the tree appeared to glow. The lights reflected against the silvery roped strands, sending reflected light from the ornaments into the room. I’ve seen hundreds of Christmas trees in my life, but on this special night with friends, celebrating the first advent of our Lord, this tree was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. About 9 p.m. we held hands and prayed, then moved out into the starry, crisp night. Yes, a wonderful Christmas memory to pack away and treasure.

Maybe there’s a volcano or other hotspots?

Scientists have discovered what they think may be another reason why Greenland's ice is melting: a thin spot in Earth's crust is enabling underground magma to heat the ice. They have found at least one “hotspot” in the northeast corner of Greenland - just below a site where an ice stream was recently discovered. The researchers don't yet know how warm the hotspot is. But if it is warm enough to melt the ice above it even a little, it could be lubricating the base of the ice sheet and enabling the ice to slide more rapidly out to sea. “The behavior of the great ice sheets is an important barometer of global climate change,” said Ralph von Frese, leader of the project and a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. Read the news release at Ohio State University Research

Green pork

Green, green, grant green they say,
On the side of Capitol Hill.
Green, green, not goin' away
'Cept where the grass is greener still.

"The House Committee on Education and Labor recently approved legislation that would create a new grant program for colleges and universities to promote sustainability. Originally reported in the AIA Angle in October, the Higher Education Sustainability Act of 2007 (H.R. 3637), drafted by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), would allow institutions of higher education to apply for federal funding for the development of programs and initiatives that address sustainability, specifically in the areas of green building, energy management, and waste management.

Education Committee Chair George Miller (D-CA) included The Higher Education Sustainability Act in a comprehensive higher education bill, The College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (H.R. 4137). The committee unanimously approved the legislation, and it is expected to be debated on the House floor before the end of the year. And on Tuesday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced a version in the Senate (S.2444) . The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Jeff Bingman (D-NM); Christopher Dodd (D-CT); Edward Kennedy (D-MA); and John Kerry (D-MA). The House and Senate hope to finalize the bill and send it to the president by early next year." From AIA Angle, December 13, 2007

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words is called alliteration. I wonder how long it took the author to come up with this title, "Commercialization, Commodification, and Commensurability in Selective Human Reproduction: Paying for Particulars in People-to-Be." It's almost too cute for a very serious subject, selective reproduction (also called "offspring enhancement") by author Dov Fox, of Yale Law School, appears in the Journal of Medical Ethics. This type of enhancement looks a bit more troublesome than rich athletes using steroids, don't you think? Other than taxing it or regulating it, I'm guessing Congress won't do much. Once God's been kicked out of the public square it's hard to invite him back in. As a nation we've decided that the less-than-perfect products of conception deserve a pre-natal death; so designing the uber-perfect baby is probably the next step in our moral decline.

Pre-natal screening and genetic modification may one day enable parents to pick individual traits for their offspring from among a range of available options. If Americans already enhance themselves at a cost of $50 per orgasm, $500 per patch of hair, $1,000 per SAT point, $2,500 per cup size, and $50,000 per inch of height, and if the unlikely prospect of biological design nevertheless became possible, why wouldn’t parents opt for mathematical aptitude, a witty disposition, or straighter teeth for their children-to-be? Fortune magazine gauges the prospective U.S. market for preconception sex selection alone at over $200-million-a-year annually.Abstract here, with links to downloading

Is she kidding?

Ellen Goodman claims the Democrats are suffering from an embarrassment of riches, and the Republicans just an embarrassment.

I know she's a liberal, but blind, deaf and dumb, too? How does this woman survive with so many talented pundits trying to get her job? [She's not in this magazine--I just liked the cover.] The Republican roster, even including the ones I don't care for, like Rudy and McCain (mainly because of their messy personal lives), so far outshine the troika of Hillary, Obama and Johnny there's just no match. Hillary claims "change and experience." She's a has been before she gets to the gate. Who wants to go back to Bill running things and calling it a change? Edwards keeps whining about 2 Americas trying to paddle that canoe in the Great Society swamp, and Obama can't quite get the black folks to believe he's one of them (for very good reason).

Was I this silly when I was a liberal? Don't think so. I probably held my nose when voting for Bill.

Global Warming; the origin of the consensus

Let's look back a few years--to 1992. I'm not sure I was even aware of global warming in 1992--I probably was still under the influence of the global cooling theories. 1988 was the hottest summer I can remember, but then I wasn't around in the 1930s, although my parents could tell the stories of the dust bowl and the ghastly hot summers. I had watched Lake Erie rising and had seen the huge boulders they were bringing in to keep it from destroying the lawns that led down to the flat rocks. I could see from the old photographs of Lakeside that the lake was much higher in the 1970s than it was in the 1950s or the 1920s. Of course, all that has changed now--the lake is low again, and would be even lower if it weren't for the other Great Lakes draining into it. The boulders look a bit silly and lonesome now.

Check out what Richard S. Lindzen said about the origins of the "consensus" in 1992, and then what he said in 2006. Then browse a bit of history--like how cold it was in Europe in the late middle ages--how people froze from the cold, or starved because the growing seasons were so short after experiencing a balmy period in the 11th and 12th centuries. Then ask yourself, why should the world always be only the way I remember it? (Of course, Ohio used to be covered with a glacier, so I know it is getting warmer, and I'm so glad it did.)

And then pause to remember the Chinese, yes, the billions and billions of Chinese, who are just on the cusp of wanting what we in America and western Europe already have. They could sign 10 Kyotos, and it won't make a snippet of difference (following a contract is not in their tradition), while Al Gore and friends try to shut down the American economy in hopes of cooling the planet. Yes, think about China as you screw in your energy-saving, mercury filled bulbs made in coal fired factories in China and congratulate yourself for being so careful with fragile, elderly Mother Earth.

JAM says he could take global warming more seriously if only the people warning us about it were acting out their concern or behaving respectfully toward the environment in their daily lives. He's a bit more generous. I might take it more seriously if they weren't the same folks who say it took millions and millions of years for humans to develop a brain and walk up right, owls to learn to eat field mice, and terns to learn to navigate to their nesting area over thousands of miles, but now we're going to hell in a handbasket in just a couple of hundred years. How did evolution ever succeed without Al and his oversight committee of the IPCC?

Do your part to save the planet:

lose weight,
stop smoking,
pick up trash along the road side,
conserve resources,
plant a garden,
pick up after your dog poops in someone else's yard,
keep your cat in the house,
don't put out bird seed or throw bread to the ducks,
don't take down the fence rows on the farms,
put up a purple martin house,
don't drive like a drugged jack rabbit,
and be nice--reduce hot air by using your common sense.

Wild turkeys

couldn't keep me away from browsing "deepwoods" photos over at Weather Underground photo blogs.



She writes (but I can't find a place to comment and tell her how much I've enjoyed her photographs): "I am a lady who is now a stay at home homemaker. I live in the woods on the rocky coast of Maine. There are many opportunities to snap some great nature and wildlife scenes, as well as whatever else catches my eye as being interesting or a little different. I also love to bake, and do bake all our bread. Reading is one of my favorite pasttimes, non-fiction only. I am working on a book about my dog, Ridge, who also appears in many of my photos, as he is my constant companion...my hiking buddy, and my best friend. My firm belief and hope is that everyone will one day make a visit to the great state of Maine....it's not called "Vacationland" for nothing!" Sounds like a great life, doesn't it? I spent a summer session at a college in Maine, and we went there to see some fall color in the late 1970s. It is truly a gorgeous state. And winter doesn't look too shabby either!

Don't you need a kitty to love?

Capital Area Humane Society is looking for you. 3015 Scioto-Darby Executive Court, Hilliard, OH 43026 (614) 777-7387 FAX (614) 777-8449.

Where do you display your Christmas cards?

A survey at USAToday reported 46% on a table, 22% on the fireplace mantel, and 17% on a bookshelf. It's the 15th of December. My credenza is full; we need to find a new spot. In our other house, we wrapped red ribbon around the hall closet door, and taped the back side of the card to the ribbon so it sort of became a bulletin board.



See the photo of the boys on the far right side of the mirror? I nearly cried when I saw them. Could not believe how grown up they are. They now live in Texas, but their parents lived here when they were pre-schoolers--they are now 17 and 20 and the younger one is taller than the older. Our guys met on a job interview; architecture was so slow in Texas, but my husband's firm was unable to hire this promising, young Tejano architect. We invited them to church and became friends. When they moved back to Texas two years later when the economy improved, we were sorry to see them go.

This year birds are the winners--probably 4 cardinals in the snow cards with several other species, then kittins, then lion and lamb, maybe two dogs. Only a few snowmen, and really not very many baby Jesus cards either.

The weather outside is. . .

Snowing in central Ohio. Grab a camera. I've just been browsing Weather Underground and the superb photos posted there. I think you join, and post weather related photos. The horse photo was posted after the December 13 ice storm, and the barn in Missouri earlier by idzrvit (I have no idea who that is, but I just liked the photos). In the search window enter, "ice storm." With some 300,000 people without power don't talk to these folks about global warming.

How Google can help clean your bathroom

The Internet isn't a library, but like library stacks, it can be a lot of fun to browse. Ten or twelve years ago when I would attend a professional conference, we'd hear comments like "The Internet is like having a key to someone else's garage," or "The Internet is like a library with everything on the floor." It's come a long way with incredible finding tools, especially Google. But I still love serendipity and browsing, the same thing I do in libraries. Here's this morning's trip and I started with a book:

For morning devotions I've been reading "Keep a quiet heart" by Elisabeth Elliot. Flipping through the back I noticed the 266 essays are actually culled from Elliot's newsletter, "The Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter" published 6 times a year, for $7.00/year. I flip to the front and see that my paperback copy was published in 1995, so I figure it's unlikely the newsletter is still in publication. I've actually met her when she gave a talk at our church many years ago on finding God's will for your life. But I get up from my comfortable chair and sit down at the computer--for two hours!

When I Google "Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter" I find a website for AA, Alcoholics Anonymous bibliography, that had quoted her newsletter's mention of Gertrude Behanna, who is apparently a well-known star among speakers on alcoholism, and I stop to read her autobiography, "God is not dead." It's really super, and I strongly recommend it if you have an alcoholic or druggie in your life.

I see that her life story was made into a movie starring Anne Baxter, The Late Liz, but skip over that tucking it away to check our library's excellent video collection (assuming it hasn't been rejected because of spiritual content).

But I got interested in her sons (of different marriages)--one a recovering alcoholic who is not a Christian and the other a priest who isn't an alcoholic, so I Google "son of Gert Behanna" since she didn't mention their names. This just brings up more references to the movie, but does link to the 27 page pdf list of videos by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. This looks like something our church librarian might like, so I print it in draft, and the printer spits the 27 pages all over my office while I'm in the basement putting a load in the washer.

The last page I pick up is p.1, since it prints backwards, and my librarian's obsessive spirit asks, "Well, just how difficult could it be to check a few of these titles on the Internet to see if they are available for purchase?" The first title is "The gift of the creed," by Dr. Timothy F. Lull and Rev. Patricia J. Lull, presented to the 1993 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA (our synod). Although I find a reference to it, I don’t see availability, so I then Google “ELCA DVD” browse its list of available video products and decide it’s either too old, or was a very limited production only sent to churches.

Then I Google “Timothy F. Lull” and find out he died in 2003 after surgery. However, he was such a popular teacher at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, some of his students put together his lectures on Luther and Lutheranism and published it on Lulu.com at “The Press of the Society of the Three Trees” dedicated to the study of the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. This press has published 5 titles, plus a journal, Christus Lux.

Because I collect first issues of journals, I decide to Google Christus Lux to see if it might be worth buying Vol. 1, no. 1. (It’s $15--a bit out of my range).

I notice another book by this press titled, “What’s wrong with sin,” by Derek R. Nelson--and I wonder if our church library might want this so I google the author, and find out he is now at Thiel College in Pennsylvania, a college with Lutheran ties I’ve never heard of. So of course I have to check out its web page, stopping at its library to look at an art show by a Kenyan. I stop to e-mail the author to ask if he thinks it is appropriate for a parish library of a very evangelical Lutheran church.

Then I notice it is about 6:45, so I take my printed and reassembled pdf list of the videos of the Eastern Synod of Canada and go to Caribou. While drinking coffee, I note many other videos I think would be good, like The joy of Bach (Gateway Films), The Great Mr. Handel (Gateway Films) and an interesting video on the art of choral directing by Lloyd Pfautsch of Southern Methodist University produced by Augsburg Fortress in 1988.

When I get home, I carry the laundry up to the bedroom where my husband is getting dressed. I recount to him all the fabulous things I found on the Internet this morning starting with Elisabeth Elliot’s book. His eyes glaze over.

While I’m hanging up his towels, I see the bathroom needs a good scrubbing.

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Why marriage matters

If marriage weren't so important to the survival of society, it wouldn't be worth saving. We are not a society of rich and poor; we're married and unmarried.

"There is a reason that all cultures treat marriage as a matter of public concern and even recognize it in law and regulate it. The family is the fundamental unit of society. Governments rely on families to produce something that governments need—but, on their own, they could not possibly produce: upright, decent people who make honest, law-abiding, public-spirited citizens. And marriage is the indispensable foundation of the family. Although all marriages in all cultures have their imperfections, children flourish in an environment where they benefit from the love and care of both mother and father, and from the committed and exclusive love of their parents for each other.

Anyone who believes in limited government should strongly back government support for the family. Does this sound paradoxical? In the absence of a strong marriage culture, families fail to form, and when they do form they are often unstable. Absentee fathers become a serious problem, out-of-wedlock births are common, and a train of social pathologies follows. With families failing to perform their health, education, and welfare functions, the demand for government grows, whether in the form of greater policing or as a provider of other social services. Bureaucracies must be created, and they inexorably expand—indeed they become powerful lobbyists for their own preservation and expansion. Everyone suffers, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering most."

And much more here.

What liberal bias?

Seen at a library digitization publication, Digital Document Delivery:

A 2005 cartoon by Pat Oliphant depicts God working at a drawing board, with a bearded angel looking over His shoulder, and ascribes to God the words,

“I’ve been trying to perfect some kind of intelligent design, but all I keep coming up with is a bunch of simple-minded, right-wing, fundamentalist, religious fanatics. I think I’ll just let the whole thing evolve.”

They don't mind insulting millions of Christians and Jews who think evolution is a pile of horse pucky, but they are careful to note that they are not reproducing the cartoon out of fear of copyright violation.

Two out of three isn't bad

Yesterday I had lunch with a home-schooled eleven year old. After our Advent services at church we serve lunch, and when I was finished, I sat at a table with Mom, her son, and her male friend. The young man was so articulate and well-behaved I was amazed. He held his own offering opinions on a law suit about a gas line issue here in Columbus. His mom told me that every day she drives him to the east side so he can participate on a swim team. Obviously, she turns off her cell phone and connects with her kid during the 30 minute drive time.

I also met one of our new part-time pastors on our care team. He visits the sick, elderly and shut-ins and helps out in other areas as needed. He has relatives here, so he had actually been visiting our church for years before his retirement. We served communion together, with me giving him a few tips on how we do it, because I don't think he'd served before in our Lutheran church. He is a Southern Baptist.

Then in the evening our Visual Arts Ministry spent an hour or so shifting our supplies and equipment from a first floor phone closet, to a larger storage area on the upper floor near our hanging space. We chatted briefly with the security guard, a handsome young man named Muhammed. I'm still digesting that one.

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Dear Mr. Hotz

I noticed your science column today in the Wall Street Journal--your faith in global warmists is admirable, if misplaced. I'm certainly no scientist, and don't have your credentials. However, if I were going to measure CO2 I probably would not be doing it above the world's largest volcano, as you report. I'd also assume that equipment for measuring it in 2007 was a bit more sophisticated and sensitive than it was in 1958, when it was started, therefore certainly showing big increases. I watch the nightly weather reports, and I'm surprised that even in 1958 when there were no records, that people predicted backwards coming up with a model that just fit their need for grants and publication. Why just last night, I watched today's prediction change from what it had been 12 hours before.

And hundreds of sensors? Where would that be exactly? In countries that can't maintain a government or a road, and where women are covered head to toe and they haven't figured out why AIDS is on the increase?

Sorry, Mr. Hotz, you're not even warm on this. We don't control the earth, the sun or the moon. We gave up trying to figure out what to do with abandoned TV sets, disposable diapers, and old tires, so we decided to change the climate. Now, isn't that a bit silly?

This is your gravy train, so keep it up. Excuse me if some of us aren't buying into it.

Librarians and privacy

What were librarians, the guardians of privacy when it comes to the Patriot Act and pornographers on the internet, saying about Facebook, the social networking site. Well, if you google "librarians Facebook privacy" you'll find they were practically wetting themselves in their eagerness to be relevant.

In today's Wall Street Journal Randall Rothenberg calls the news of the shutdown of Facebook's Beacon program, a victory for "market forces."

Within the space of a month or so, Facebook launched and then shut down an advertising program called Beacon that alerted users to purchases and other activities their "friends" made outside Facebook. The episode has been called many things: "annoying," "upsetting," "creepy," a "nightmare," a "privacy hairball." I call it proof that when it comes to the evolution of the Internet, market forces work.

Apparently, Facebook subscribers didn't like their friends being exploited, even if they didn't think of it in privacy terms. When the internet users respond quickly, and massively, it saves us all from more government regulations, says Rothenberg.

The internet is not free. It's supported by advertising. The advertisers using interactive technology is estimated by Rothenberg to be at $20 billion in 2007, growing to $62 billion by 2011. But they overreached, and alert subscribers said NO.

Still, I've got to wonder where were all those librarians who wanted to keep terrorists' library patterns private and fought the Patriot Act, and not put filters on library computers to protect children because it might interfer with "information gathering." Interesting concerns, these liberals.

It's all the same players

Usually I'm a big fan of the entrepreneurial spirit, the cottage industry that takes off, the bootstrapper who makes it big. Not in this case. They are part of the scam industry of the ages. Along with alcohol, tobacco, electric chairs and viaticals, I'm telling Dave, my investment guy, I want nothing to do with these companies. They are the new snakeoil salesmen. Are you emitting something dirty into the air. Just call your good old "green and clean" representative and they can make it all go away--on paper. Of course, it will cost you.

Green Exchange

Global Change Associates

Nymex Holdings

Evolution Markets

European Climate Exchange

Chicago Climate Exchange

CME Group Globex

It's already a $60 billion dollar business from the folks who brought us the subprime mortgage meltdown. Yes, it's the same players.

Let it snow!

Snow is in the forecast to begin tomorrow around noon. Columbus usually gets less than predicted, Cleveland more. Yesterday I was listening to 700 a.m. (Cincinnati) and Mike was gleeful at the prospect of 4". I think that has been downgraded to about 1" or rain. But over at A Gentleman's Domain, a Floridian who has lived in Canada, comments about snow. It's pretty funny--a month's diary of snow. Our daughter stopped by last night and the 3 of us were remembering getting stranded at different times by the weather between Indianapolis and Columbus. It's just not amusing being trapped by a plow on a rest stop access road when he's coming from the other direction pushing mounds 7-8' high. But it makes for a good story 15 years later.

Faulty weather data

Would you drink water that was as contaminated as the climate change/global warming data?

data from weather satellites
data from weather balloons
equipment changes
poor countries with sparse weather-stations
fewer than 1/3 of the 1970s weather stations are in operation
urban center bias
time changes for measuring
different countries use different models
ignore counter-evidence
slanted language in reporting

"This is no mere tiff among duelling experts. The IPCC has a monopoly on scientific advising to governments concerning climate change. Governments who never think to conduct due diligence on IPCC reports send delegates to plenary meetings at which they formally "accept" the conclusions of IPCC reports. Thereafter they are unable -- legally and politically -- to dissent from its conclusions. In the years ahead, people around the world, including here in Canada, could bear costs of climate policies running to hundreds of billions of dollars, based on these conclusions. And the conclusions are based on data that the IPCC lead authors concede exhibits a contamination pattern that undermines their interpretation of it, a problem they concealed with untrue claims."

Read the report and graph