Scottish Sceptic

I’m reblogging this in full because it’s so good and it needs to be on a Scottish blog to drive home the point that these academics are letting Scotland down by their non-science.

By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
The campaign by certain rent-seeking scientific societies to push a single, narrow view of the climate question continued in Scotland today with a meeting coyly entitled Climate Change: Science and Society at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s once-famous, once-scientific society.

Your correspondent, following a tip-off from “rms”, a WUWT commenter, tootled round from Queen Street and sat through this gag-reflex-tweaking propaganda event.
This was the first meeting at any scientific society at which not only did I hear a member of the audience demand less science but the rest of the audience actually applauded. Continue reading →

With yet more news from Bishop Hill of another coal powered station closing down, the likelihood of power cuts grows.
So, I’ve started thinking about how to deal with power cuts in a more robust way than a few candles and torches.

WARNING!
THE IDEAS IN THIS ARTICLE ARE ONLY FOR DISCUSSION.
DO NOT TRY ANY OF THIS YOURSELF AND IF YOU DO DON’T BLAME ME IF IT GOES WRONG
IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE DOING TRYING THIS IS INSANE!! Continue reading →

There’s still nothing worth reporting on Global Warming – but that doesn’t stop Der SS Guardian manufacturing yet another proclamation from des Climate Fuhrer stuck in their bunker at Der Guardian.
For some time the Guardian have been alone in the world with their climate fanaticism. Yes a few other papers occasionally go through the motions of firing off another odd article when it’s pushed at them by some crazy fanatic academic. But only the Guardian manufacturers this kind of propaganda.
But as a sceptic – one has to admire those who have the courage to stand up and be counted when all others are just following the social convention – even if I don’t personally agree with them – even if I think they are mad.

Unbelievable.
Just watch!!

In WWII the Nazi’s bombed London with flying bombs. People were safe so long as they heard the bomb’s engine, but they would dive for cover when it stopped.
Likewise serious reporting on Global Warming stopped ages ago. I can’t remember when there was last anything new to report, I can’t remember the last time I saw a newsmedia article (outwith WUWT) that was worth reading …

…. but how frigging long does it take for this scam to hit the ground?

Logically, at some point Jo public is going to get angry when the realise that no one really takes global warming seriously any longer – but we are still forking out £1000s to the scum behind the wind scam.
The next climate agreement is dead – so it’s a waste of time blogging on that. The climate will cool sometime – but who knows when. The alarmist academics aren’t putting out the same daft non-science – but neither are the telling the truth – so nothing to report there. Likewise the politicians know that global warming is a poisoned chalice – they are damned if they kill and damned if they don’t.
In short, the end is nigh for Global warming but I’m sick to death waiting for it to explode and who the heck knows when that will be?

There’s no point flogging a dead horse to prove it’s dead.

But please do wake me up if something happens.

Apparently the CIA have shut down their main “secretive climate research program”. (link) In fact, it doesn’t sound much at all except sharing a bit of data will civilian academics.
But whether or not it was anything in the first place, the fact is that they’ve shut it down. The media article, clearly being pushed by those who have lost their grants, is long on interpretation and short on facts.
Except the one essential fact that even though Obama is saying: “Climate change is an immediate risk to our national security” the CIA have just shut down their main program on climate change – which kind of says that the security experts don’t agree.

Engineers are scientists – sceptics are scientists – so I’m pretty miffed with this propaganda use of “scientist” in the video to suggest that science is a profession and not a methodology.
But the reason I’ve posted this, is because if the shoe were on the other foot – if there had been more hurricanes than normal – we all know with utter certainty that NASA would be explicitly repeatedly endlessly …. telling us it was “caused by global warming”.

What I find incredibly daft – is that of all the things that could be attributed to “global warming”, by far the most likely would be that a “warming blanket” would increase polar temperatures – which because it’s the difference in temperature that drives storms – that we would expect a REDUCTION IN STORMS LIKE HURRICANES. Continue reading →

A while back there was talk of a massive El Nino –

Scientists warn of likely El Niño event in 2014

it quickly spread through the news, and then almost before we sceptics had started commenting it was gone.
Then recently, there was a similar “premature ejaculation” of press releases about a massive El Nino – and again when I go to look, we actually find that just a few weeks in the alarmists are back peddling furiously.

http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2015/05/scientists-warn-against-premature-predictions-of-a-substantial-el-ni%C3%B1o/

Continue reading →

This may well get a nomination as the most boring video ever – it shows almost nothing happening except a few grains of sand being moved down a slope. But in doing so, it has formed this hugely complex series of river channels and I’m impressed with it.
The next one [still uploading – and will post when done] is from an earlier stage when more is happening and shows a river valley actually forming in my back garden. So hopefully, those who don’t appreciate trying to see grains of sand moving will find it more interesting.

Above shows the experimental river channel. The channel is fed by a constant flow which feeds into a tipping bucket which pulses the water. The video starts at a bend showing how the changing water level changes the part of the channel holding the flow and how the sediment is moved. it then goes to the corner when the flow is diverted out. Next we have a braided section where the stream spreads out and has many small islands, and finally a delta, where if you look carefully you can see the sediment being swept into the water where it creates sharp edge as the sediment settles out.
For info, the video was taken in my back garden. All “debris” such as leaves is natural – and so I’ve left it in because debris is an important factor causing pool formation and diverting flow.

This is a longer video. Hence I suggest watching the above speeded up version. It shows the start of my experimental setup with a massive bulk of sand at one end. I start with a constant flow of water. Very quickly the water eats down into the sand creating a deep gorge. I presume at some critical slope, the gorge then starts widening undermining the sides causing multiple collapses and a debris flow with a very characteristic fluvial fan. These are just the kinds of features one sees in places like Glen Coe so I’m really impressed. Eventually it starts settling down and a kind of “upland” river valley is formed with a V shaped valley and a meandering river occupying the base.

 
 
Continue reading →

In my last blog post I suggested a change in the Labour party whereby the referendum caused some internal divisions between separatists and unionists.
However, checking the last Scottish electoral results, it struck me how similar people in Scotland cast their vote – particularly if we include the general swing of Labour → Tory. So rather than there being a change in the Scottish vote, I might now argue their was a lack of the normal change in voting behaviour between Holyrood and Westminster elections.
So, now, hopefully my final hypothesis is this:
Voters didn’t change their vote – instead rather than switching from the SNP to English based parties as they have done in previous elections – they chose to vote for the same first choice party they always vote for in Holyrood.
The reasons this might have occurred is because firstly that the SNP were less than happy with the way Labour behaved (although it was clearly SNP supporters who were the most obnoxious). And secondly, after what must be seen as a very good campaign by the SNP it might have been felt to be a “kick in the teeth” for the SNP to sneakily vote for an English party when it suited SNP supporters.
Implications
If true, it would appear there are next to no implications from this vote. It is five years to the next Westminster vote (assuming no referendum before that) and in the meantime, if this hypothesis is correct, the voters will be voting in Scotland where the SNP were not the same wasted vote as the Westminster election.
Indeed, if this is correct, the most significant change is an INCREASE in Libdem support compared to the last Holyrood election.