The Hypocrisy of the Green Mind

Posted on 14 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

When Jo Swinson, my MP and Minister for women, equality and a lot of other things we I can’t remember gave a car crash interview to Andrew Neil and in one sentence laughed about her frequent flying and in almost the next ranted on about global warming, I was so incensed that I said I would stand against her in the next election if I could raise the minimum £1000 I needed for a campaign.

Then a few days ago, I saw this tweet from Lenzie Riddoch (a Scottish journalists who also rants on about global warming):

So again, it’s clear from her own tweets that she’s a frequent flier on the Shetland-Edinburgh route.
And now I learn from NoTricksZone, that it’s those supporting green who are most likely to fly:

Hypocrisy Exposed…Spiegel Publishes Undisclosed German Survey Results: Green Voters Like Flying The Most!

By P Gosselin on 14. November 2014

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments

The pause and its affect on temperature predictions

Posted on 13 November 2014 by Pict1

Yesterday I realised that I could work out the statistics of 1/f noise which is the form of natural variation (NV) we see in the climate. I worked out that this means that natural variation (NV) is more than likely going to tend to cool the climate. In contrast man-made warming (MW) will have the other effect. But which will dominate?
I have now realised that depending on the scale of Man-made warming and Natural variation, we get different predictions of the likely warming in the next decade.
So, this is my first rough calculation to try to understand how the different scale of MW and NV will have on our prediction of future climate. I hope to finish this with a nice conclusion along the lines of “if it cools next decade – this proves”… Continue reading →

Posted in 1/f, Climate, Sceptics | Tagged , | Comments Off on The pause and its affect on temperature predictions

Predicting a downturn

Posted on 12 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

Pooh and Piglet find tracks of the hefferlump and decide to follow them.

Pooh and Piglet tracking the hefferlump – I just chose it to represent snow & global cooling!


I wrote this article on the basis that climate variability is 1/f noise and assumed that as red noise is similar to 1/f noise an upturn is as likely as a downturn. However, as I cleaned my teeth before bed I realised that was obviously wrong. Fortunately I had forgotten to publish, so I can correct myself. But first I will give the prediction I was intending to make based on the underlying natural variation (minus any CO2 warming) where warming is as likely as cooling:
Rather like predicting “rain” and always being right because sooner or later it will rain, in the same way the Met Office predict “Snow” without actually saying when it will arrive, it occurred to me today that I can predict a downturn in global temperatures with a 100% success rate. Continue reading →

Posted in 1/f, Climate | Comments Off on Predicting a downturn

Caesar: the nature of intelligence

Posted on 11 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

Caesar: veni vidi comedi

Caesar: veni vidi comedi


I was watching the prelude to Planet of the Apes and admiring how chimps which as far as I could see had never seen a lock after being given the “intelligence virus”, could suddenly because they are now intelligent, could understand how a lock worked and pick it.
I know how to pick a lock as I was once taught this by a locksmith, but I’ve only ever picked one lock for real – an old yale lock on the bench. But until I was taught how I simply lacked the concept of how to achieve this. Likewise, I’ve knapped flints made fire by rubbing two sticks together. However, even when I have a concept of what I’m trying to achieve, it takes time to learn the physical technique. The same is true of language, of maths of reasoning, science – none of it is “innate”. Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Human Reptile?

Posted on 11 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

Reptiles, from Nouveau Larousse Illustré, 1897-1904: Notice the inclusion of amphibians (below the crocodiles).

Reptiles, from Nouveau Larousse Illustré, 1897-1904: Notice the inclusion of amphibians (below the crocodiles).


A long time ago animals were divided into “mammals” and “reptiles” from Latin repere “to crawl, creep”.
Reptiles were the cold blooded, scaly creatures who lurked in cold water laid eggs and were basically “not nice” like fluffy furry mammals. Then along came James Cooke, the discovery of Australia and with it the Platypus an egg-lay “furry thing” to confuse the distinction as now mammals could also lay eggs.
Then recently it was realised that Birds were  closely related to dinosaurs. Even as late as 1999 when the BBC produced walking with Dinosaurs and it was still believed that dinosaurs were cold blooded so were scaly like lizards or at least free of surface “fluff”. So, the BBC have small dinosaurs with no covering at all in icy conditions looking about as warm as stuffed turkeys in the snow. Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, General, My Best Articles, Proposals | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Admission: Climate Scientists are Extremists and Alarmists

Posted on 11 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

There’s a trailer for another “Trust me I call myself a scientist” videos which is a completely doomed tactic of trying to persuade people that they do good science by taking the shortcut and making a PR movie, rather than doing the hard graft and doing good science:

Like all the past videos, this is another patronising example by an academics working on the implicit assumption that academia is better than anyone else so all they need do is show the academics on their all-expenses paid holidays to the Arctic and the poor ignorant people in industry will just bow down and worship them. Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Climate, Media | 4 Comments

Open Thread – test

Posted on 10 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

Been doing some changes to the site and commenting. This is a test post to which you are welcome to add comments.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Phases of a public scare

Posted on 10 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

1. Discovery
Discovering of a believable threat. In 1910 scientists discovered that Halley’s Coment contained significant levels of cyanide. Or they “discover” that bird flu (like all flu) has caused deaths. The millennium bug is “discovered” as a story which taps into the fear of new technology and “crazed robots” on TV.
2. Dismissal
The normal reaction of scares is to dismiss them as most just go away.
3. Public discussion
For a scare to be successful an apparently credible group with public sympathy must start taking the scare seriously. This is often a group who try to capitalise on the scare to bolster support for their cause. It could be environmentalists trying to use the scare to flame public opposition or it could be academics trying to create public interest to get funding or it could be drug companies or windmill companies trying to make a profit.
4. Repetition
No scare succeeds without constant repetition through the media. Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Climate, Fails, My Best Articles | Comments Off on Phases of a public scare

In defence of the alarmist right to free speech

Posted on 8 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic
Posted in Climate, Humour | 2 Comments

Nazi Science & Global Warming

Posted on 8 November 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

Posted in Climate, Fails, Humour | Comments Off on Nazi Science & Global Warming