CO2 is a plant food, not a pollutant!

Patterson said much of the up-to-date research indicates that "changes in the brightness of the sun" are almost certainly the primary cause of the warming trend since the end of the "Little Ice Age" in the late 19th century. Human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas of concern in most plans to curb climate change, appear to have little effect on global climate, he said.

"I think the proof in the pudding, based on what (media and governments) are saying, (is) we're about three quarters of the way (to disaster) with the doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere," said Patterson. "The world should be heating up like crazy by now, and it's not. The temperatures match very closely with the solar cycles."

Patterson explained CO2 is not a pollutant, but an essential plant food.

From Standard Freeholder here.

Why NASA? It makes me so sad

I want to refrain from making any comments about the shooting at NASA's Johnson Space Center. I pray for the victim and his family.

The gunman was a contractor and had a bad job review.

What is Charles doing?

From Space.com here:

Editors for Simonyi’s mission Web site reported that the installation of computer hard drives and science experiments have kept the space tourist busy for much of the week.

Simonyi is participating in a lower back muscle study for the European Space Agency (ESA), mapping the station’s radiation environment for the Federal Space Agency and the Hungarian Space Office, and testing high-definition camera components for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

In addition to those studies, he will also spend some time today collecting samples of microbes living aboard the space station as part of another ESA experiment, as well as stamp and sign a series of personal effects for friends on Earth, according to his mission flight plan.

Simonyi, answering one of the some 1,000 questions submitted to his Web site in recent days, described the views of planet Earth from space.

“The image of Earth is incredibly blue and there is just lots of water. It’s not as round as I thought it would be. Typically we’re looking straight down and we don’t see much curvature, and it moves very fast,” Simonyi said, adding that it is the stunning brightness of the Sun that he’s found most amazing. “It’s only in the theaters that you can see fantastic light like that.”

Hubble Space Telescope - Chapter 1

There are nine chapters of this series.

History of Yuri's Flight

Update** I deleted the link to the video because it was constantly playing. Please go to the link below to see the video

A Brief History of Manned Space Flight. For More details, visit the Yuri's Night Web Site.

Yuri's Night Promotional Video

Yuri's Night

Tonight is the celebration of Yuri's Night. Here is the intro of the website Yuri's Night 2007:

Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into space on April 12th, 1961. The US Space Shuttle first launched on April 12th, 1981. Yuri's Night is like the St Patricks Day or Cinco de Mayo for space. It is one day when all the world can come together and celebrate the power and beauty of space and what it means for each of us. Join us!

"Circling the Earth in my orbital spaceship I marveled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance this beauty — not destroy it!"

Here is Charles video on the event: (update** click on the link below for Charles Video)

Charles Simonyi, a private citizen spending Yuri's Night this year on the International Space Station, offers this greeting to Yuri's Night events worldwide. For More details, visit the Yuri's Night Web Site.

George Will on GW

From George Will's article this morning
here:

Nature designed us as carnivores, but what does nature know about nature? Meat has been designated a menace. Among the 51 exhortations in Time magazine's ``global warming survival guide'' (April 9), No. 22 says a BMW is less responsible than a Big Mac for ``climate change,'' that conveniently imprecise name for our peril. This is because the world meat industry produces 18 percent of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions, more than transportation produces. Nitrous oxide in manure (warming effect: 296 times greater than that of carbon) and methane from animal flatulence (23 times greater) mean that ``a 16 ounce T-bone is like a Hummer on a plate.''

Ben & Jerry's ice cream might be even more sinister: A gallon of it requires electricity guzzling refrigeration, and four gallons of milk produced by cows that simultaneously produce eight gallons of manure and flatulence with eight gallons of methane. The cows do this while consuming lots of grain and hay, which are cultivated by using tractor fuel, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, and transported by fuel-consuming trains and trucks.

Newsweek says most food travels at least 1,200 miles to get to Americans' plates, so buying local food will save fuel. Do not order halibut in Omaha.

Just stop eating meat and vegetables all together!

Charles on the ISS

He's Upside down in the picture

Gray's comments on ALGORE

A top hurricane forecaster called Al Gore "a gross alarmist" Friday for making an Oscar-winning documentary about global warming.

"He's one of these guys that preaches the end of the world type of things. I think he's doing a great disservice and he doesn't know what he's talking about," Dr. William Gray said in an interview with The Associated Press at the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans, where he delivered the closing speech.

From NewsMax here.

I think we should take it from a Man of Science (who has been studying the climate for almost 50 years) knows what he is talking about. And not some snake oil preacher type standing on a box calling the End of the World.

Update*** I got a comment that my quote from NewsMax was unbiased. Like when was CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, CNN, and even Fox unbiased? (or Reuters, AP or UPI?) News is News and the journalist will always be biased on his or her upbringing or political belief.
Blogs for Bush has the same quote from AP here.

I admit to being biased and conservative and when I find a quote I will give the source. If it is from NewsMax or AP or even KOS (God forbid!) The reader is the one who deciphers the information as to being 'biased' or 'unbiased.' My whole concern for the Global Warming or Climate change debate is that there is no consensus on the green house gas is the the cause of it. I tend to believe more in a person who has studied the climate for 50 years verses a guy who was VP.

The debate continues at AccuWeather's Global Warming blog here.

Remember, science is not a democracy; the majority is not always correct. Remember, the scientific consensus used to be that the Earth is flat and that the sun revolves around the Earth.

In these modern times of zero-second sound bites and rapid global communication, it has become standard for there to be two categories of people in the global warming debate: those who believe that humans are responsible for global warming and everyone else. If you are a skeptic and aren't quite convinced that we know all the answers, you are considered a heretic by the believers.

But, it can be argued that scientists must be skeptics. A scientist may have a theory; however, in order for the scientific method to be honored, the scientist needs to be emotionally unattached to the results. The data will prove whether the theory is correct. Scientists cannot start an experiment with the goal of reaching a particular conclusion. They cannot root for specific results. They cannot change the data to fit any preconceived idea of what the results should be. They need to analyze each piece of data in order to arrive at a conclusion.

In other words, they need to be skeptics.

So I am a skeptic and will present articles that are skeptical especially if they are about AL GORE and his claims that GW is going to ruin our planet. Even if the articles are from the Evil Biased NewsMax, Fox etc and sometimes from the liberal biased AP, CBS, CNN etc. As I was trying to say at the beginning of my post we should take the word of Scientists rather than a former VP on GW. I believe the climate is ever changing but am a skeptic to the Man-Made part of Green-house gasses will send the Planet into oblivion.

Go Charles!

Simonyi, a 58-year-old native of Hungary, paid $25 million for the 13-day trip, the fifth such paying "space tourist," or "space flight participant," as officials prefer to call them.

"I think for Charles it is a dream come true," said Victoria Scott, a friend who watched the liftoff as others drank champagne toasts and chanted "Charles! Charles!"

In a posting on the blog he intends to maintain while in orbit, Simonyi said he spent his final day getting a haircut and a therapeutic massage and watched a traditional showing of a classic Soviet-era war film.

There was no mention of Stewart on the blog, but Simonyi did make reference to one of the lesser-known, last-minute traditions for cosmonauts heading into space - urinating on the tire of the bus transporting them to the launch-pad.

Here is Charles In Space blog site.
Update** My Father-in-law is from Hungary and he had Charles' dad as a professor at the University of Budapest. Small world indeed!

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Over at Real Clear Politics William F. Buckley compares Global Warming to the Inquisition.

The whole business is eerily religious in feel. Back in the 15th century, the question was: Do you believe in Christ? It was required in Spain by the Inquisition that the answer should be affirmative, leaving to one side subsidiary specifications.

It is required today to believe that carbon-dioxide emissions threaten the basic ecological balance. The assumption then is that inasmuch as a large proportion of the damage is man-made, man-made solutions are necessary. But it is easy to see, right away, that there is a problem in devising appropriate solutions, and in allocating responsibility for them.

A Sun spot sideways from Hinode probe by JAXA

Solomon Islands hit by earthquake and tsunami

I wonder if the US NAVY will be called in to bring in supplies?

The surging waters that plowed through Gizo and surrounding villages on Monday morning were triggered by a massive sub-sea earthquake that set off tsunami alarms from Tokyo to Hawaii and that closed beaches more than 1,250 miles away.

Thirteen people died, and the toll was expected to rise, officials said.

In Australia, beaches along the entire eastern coast were closed and lifeguards with bullhorns yelled at surfers to get out of the water at Sydney's famous Bondi Beach.

The danger passed quickly, but officials rejected suggestions that they overreacted, saying it was better to be safe than sorry and that the emergency tested procedures put in place after the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster that left 230,000 dead or missing in a dozen countries.

In the Solomons, up to 4,000 people were encamped Monday night on a hill behind Gizo, a town of about 7,000, said Alex Lokopio, premier of Western Province that was hardest hit. Floodwaters had subsided, but most government buildings and many houses were wrecked, and people were too scared to return to the coast.