neoporcupine’s posterous



November 20, 2009

CRU hacked, emails and documents from climate scientists

The climate scientists at CRU have had their confidential emails (and some documents) stolen and exposed to the world. Blogosphere goes nuts.

My opinion? I'm glad you asked : most of this is nothing but will provide fuel for people to extract out of context quotes for quite a long time. There is enough here that will require explanation, and there are a couple items that are very serious, and will require careful, full and rapid responses. I predict that there will be some sackings because of this. None of this looks really unusual for private emails, rather mundane actually. *sigh*.

Additionally I think all of the fuss will be enough for the deniers to gain the inaction that they are so desperate for. We are all going to take part in the great greenhouse gas experiment.

The following links are provided in no particular order and are from sources of all persuasions. Make of them what you will.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112004093.html?referrer=simon
http://www.dailytech.com/Climategate+Stunning+Deception+and+Misconduct+at+UK+Warming+Research+Center+Revealed/article16889.htm
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/
http://www.examiner.com/x-28973-Essex-County-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m11d19-Hadley-CRU-hacked-with-release-of-hundreds-of-docs-and-emails
http://www.examiner.com/x-28973-Essex-County-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m11d20-CRU-files-scandal-reaches-print-media
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576009,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8370282.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8371597.stm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/20/cru_climate_hack/
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/11/20/hacked-sensitive-documents-lifted-from-hadley-climate-center/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/climate-sceptics-email-hacking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/climate-sceptics-hackers-leaked-emails
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/climate-hack
http://snurl.com/completecrap
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/11/20/hack-attack-global-warming-exposed-globaloney
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091120/full/news.2009.1101.html
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/11/emails_cru_east_anglia_climate.html
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/hadley_hacked#63657
http://www.alternet.org/rss/the_wire_provided_by_huffington_post/98440/climate_depot:_everything_you_need_to_know_about_%22climategate%22/

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http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=7810 /* Server is being hammered */
http://climaterealists.com/?id=4398
http://climaterealists.com/?id=4399
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/20/mikes-nature-trick/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/19/breaking-news-story-hadley-cru-has-apparently-been-hacked-hundreds-of-files-released/
http://www.australianclimatemadness.com/?p=1538
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2009/11/global-warmings-blue-dress-moment-the-cru-email-hack-scandal/

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http://scienceblogs.com/islandofdoubt/2009/11/the_hacked_climate_science_ema.php#more
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/i-read-through-160000000-bytes-of.html
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/
http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/this-is-not-good-the-cru-computer-hack/#more-6995
http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/climate-deniers-hoax-themselves-again/
http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/mikes-nature-trick-to-hide-the-decline/
http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2009/11/cru-hacked.html
http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/2009/11/that-cru-data-hack.html
http://climateprogress.org/2009/11/20/hacked-hadley-emails-hottest-decade-on-record-and-the-oceans-planet-keep-warming/
http://thingsbreak.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/cru-emails/
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2009/11/20/climategate-not-likely/

 

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June 4, 2009

Photoshop tips


* How to make a Photoshop Action tutorial : Velvia
Free action that you can make yourself
More contrasty more colourful
Watch this video to learn how to make actions:
                http://www.pixelcorps.tv/twip019
Already done

http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2008/07/photoshop-velvia.htm
After you have watched this and created the action, I suggest making additional action with everything set to 50% of suggested for those times when you just want a little velvia.
 
* Lighten shadows / dark areas
Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight
Set lighten shadows about 30%
Make into an action
 
* Reduce red level
For the occasional time that the velvia action overdoes the red
Image > Adjustments > Curves
                Channel: Red
                Reduce red similar to action above
                                Ideally make this action only when you spot an over red image
Make into an action
 
* Action Blue Filter
For indoor over yellow light source
Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter ...

Filter: “Cooling Filter (82)”

Density ~ 50%
Make into an action
 
* Noise Ninja
Removes camera noise that you get in low light / high ISO photography
Costs money.
Comes in stand alone software or a photoshop plug-in
Make sure you get your camera profile (or you can profile every time – sometimes works better)
http://www.picturecode.com/
 
* Reduce saturation
When the colour manipulation goes wrong, just reduce the colour, gives an arty feel.
Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation
Mess with the Saturation slide
Don’t use lightness here, use “Image > Adjustments > Brightness contrast” instead if you have to
Don’t mess with Hue ... bad things
 
* Explore free actions available
Fun!
http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm
or google free photoshop actions

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May 30, 2009

Three Good Things Today

  • How good is food! Had a Boost fruit drink, first time in years, and a custard pancake thing for breakfast with Donna. Also Leonard chicken enchiladas for dinner!
  • Visited Donna's favourite shop: PuppyWorld. Which she tells me she had visited the previous day too. Not many puppies this time of year.
  • Finished "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein. Heinlein thinks an old fiction author is the most wise person on Earth and understands everything about religion, the afterlife and anything important about philosophy. The hide!

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May 29, 2009

Three Good Things Today

  • Solved a complex problem for the passports project.
  • Rang my babe to see how she was going with the tourists.
  • Went to another great value, excellent food, local restaurant with Donna, Jenny & Cisco.

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May 28, 2009

Three(+) Good Things Today

  • Presented my compilation of health images which was well received.
  • Took possession of my old server, keeping it as a backup. Served me well for so long.
  • A project lunch held at the Caddyshack; lunch was quite delicious.
  • Dinner at a local Malaysian restaurant that I hadn't been to before was excellent.

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May 27, 2009

Three(+) Good Things Today

  • Went to JTA offices for the first time and was quite impressed with their set up. Dropped off the training materials for transfer to the PNG.
  • Made it halfway through the design of a set of images for a project. I like the design.
  • Dinner with Donna-Marie, Cisco and Jenny at a great Japanese restaurant. Absolutely delicious and heaps of fun.
  • I think I saved some people today from traffic fines with quick use of email warnings while the council guy was just starting to hand out tickets.

Yeah, I could keep adding more good things. I really need to learn to stop at three.

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May 26, 2009

Three Good Things Today

Cathanda, cat

  • I wrote up a quote for a project, they replied very quickly, appreciating my promptness and the detail. I will probably be very busy soon and have a trip to PNG within the next month or so.
  • My cat is no longer ill (just a stomach upset), thanks to her good constitution and my care. She is a hungry happy cat that is now snoring softly beside me.
  • I went to the charity book sale and bought a book After Doomsday by Poul Anderson. The sale raised over a $1,000 for FoodBank Australia.

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May 26, 2009

Three Good Things

The literature is littered with many ways to improve your psychological outlook without resorting to chemical therapy.

Seligman et al identified at least two interventions that they compared against control groups that appeared to have lasting positive effects on depressed subjects. One of the interventions was identifying and using your signature strengths. Another intervention was having each subject identify three good things that happened to them every day.

"Participants were asked to write down three things that went well each day and their causes every night for one week. In addition, they were asked to provide a causal explanation for each good thing."

So in the interest of my mental health and setting a model for others to follow, I intend to post three good things to this blog as much as every day as I can fit in or until I get bored of it or I attain enlightenment, nirvana or ascension.

Seligman M., Steen T., Park N., Peterson C. 2005. Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American  Psychologist. Vol. 60, No. 5, 410 – 421.

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October 8, 2008

New software!

Uses two cameras to make a 3d image and sends transmits encoded data to be output to two data projectors that make an interference pattern in the crossing beams to form a 3d replication of the source! Also changes the frequency of the chip to extremely high rates that heat up the air, using precise chip frequencies that cause ionization of air molecules producing tailored smoke particles to add in simulated smells. Alters the power consumption in a coded manner in order to detect your household via the electric company live power usage records, aims the secret US military satellite at your home to cause earthquake tremors in time with the base tones of the source voice, to add the fear of god. Uses IRC emoticons as the protocol.

Doesn't quite work yet.

Kinda like Fring. Offer the world, deliver poop on a stick.

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September 11, 2008

Penn & Teller Climate Change

A little while back Penn & Teller created an episode of their classy television show that tried to debunk some issues around climate change. Unfortunately, the production was quite substandard.

What did they expose? Nothing much. They exposed that they didn't know anything about climate change. They exposed themselves as rip off artists, taking money off people under the pretence of saving the environment. They exposed some a lady who made you feel better about yourself and a guy who figured out a diet. They highlighted the shonky organisations like Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon Environment Council and the Tennessee Centre for Policy Research. They exposed the fact that they will never sacrifice their quality of life if it was for the sake of saving the planet.

Finally, they exposed that people who run carbon credit companies, use it themselves. BIG DEAL.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2008/06/27/penn-teller-and-believing-in-dumb-things.aspx

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/advocacy/global_climate_change_triggered_by_global_warming/

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/07/03/penn-jillette-bashes-newsweeks-non-scientist-sharon-begley

Penn : ... someone asked us about global warming ... I said I didn't know ... I said that Al Gore was so annoying that I really wanted to doubt anything he was hyping, but I just didn't know ... Teller chimed in with something about Gore's selling of "indulgences" being BS, and then said he didn't know either. Penn & Teller don't know jack about global warming.

So in effect, Penn confirms Begley's report.

Begley : Someone asked Penn whether he still believed that man-made climate change is bunk, as he has said more than once. Penn's basic answer was: I loathe everything about Al Gore, so since Gore has been crusading against climate change it must be garbage.

Sheppard : I thought it was good for members of the press to have a healthy skepticism. I guess this isn't the case when they're acting as an advocate for their own political beliefs, right Sharon?

I've read the article twice now and can't see how Sheppard comes to that criticism of Begley by providing evidence to support Begley. Or why Penn is upset with what seems to me to be an adequate paraphrasing.

Bare with me, if you can. Penn & Teller said they don't know. However their aptly titled show contained a number counter claims to anthropogenic causation of climate change; they start with the illustrious Time Magazine, show case John Coleman and John Charles among others. Why show these guys then add, "Oh we don't know". If you're going to pretend not to have an opinion then why wouldn't you show the readily available research that shows that Coleman and Charles are full of crap. Pour some of the Ad Hominem on Coleman and Charles as they are soft targets for it. Penn & Teller didn't. The only people they interviewed directly about global warming either deny carbon causation or anthropogenic causation. So Penn & Teller ARE promoting the denial of global warming with their show.

Penn : ... someone asked us about global warming ... I said I didn't know ... I said that Al Gore was so annoying that I really wanted to doubt anything he was hyping, but I just didn't know ... Teller chimed in with something about Gore's selling of "indulgences" being BS, and then said he didn't know either. Penn & Teller don't know jack about global warming.

So they don't know, but they are going ahead with their denial filled show because why now? Penn: "I really wanted to doubt anything he [Gore] was hyping"

Begley's summation is correct despite the additional contradictory "I don't know" of Penn & Teller. They can't have it both ways.

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