Perri Nelson's Website 

Is The Science Settled or Not?

Pick up an issue of Scientific American these days, and you're just about sure to find and article somewhere make the assertion that the science behind global warming theory is "settled". It's even a trend now to tar critics of the theory as being part of the climate-change "denial industry", and deserving of war crimes trials... a climate Nuremberg. But here's some evidence that maybe, just maybe there isn't a true consensus out there after all...

But illustrating the volatile nature of the debate, the scientific conference descended into name calling.

Colorado State University's William Gray, one of the nation's preeminent hurricane forecasters, called noted Boulder climate researcher Kevin Trenberth an opportunist and a Svengali who "sold his soul to the devil to get (global warming) research funding."

Trenberth countered that Gray is not a credible scientist.

"Not any more. He was at one time, but he's not any more," Trenberth said of Gray, one of a handful of prominent U.S. scientists who question whether humans play a significant role in warming the planet by burning fossil fuels that release heat-trapping gases.

"He's one of the contrarians, some of whom get money to spread lies about global warming," Trenberth said during a break following his presentation at the 31st annual Climate Diagnostics & Prediction Workshop. About 150 scientists from more than 10 countries are attending the weeklong meeting.

Source: Rocky Mountain News: Local

It seems to me that there's still some question about what the actual effects of global warming will be, or what the actual causes are. One thing is certain though... there are an awful lot of scientists out there that are still skeptical both about the causes of global warming, and what we can do about it.

There also doesn't seem to be much in the way of experimental evidence behind most of the science of global warming. There's a lot of computer modelling and speculation going on, but a model isn't reality any more than a video game is real life.

I forget who it was that said it, but I still think it fits.

in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.

If you want to read about someone who has an alternate theory, backed with experimental evidence, go here.

Kerry's Remarks Ludicrous

WASHINGTON -- The White House and Sen. John Kerry traded their harshest accusations since the 2004 presidential race on Tuesday, with President Bush accusing the Democrat of troop-bashing and Kerry calling the president's men hacks who are "willing to lie."

Just like John Kerry lied about events in Vietnam when he came back to testify before the senate? When he said he knew people that committed horrible war crimes? When he said he committed horrible war crimes? Or was he lying then?

"Our troops did not enlist because they did not study hard in school or do their homework," Bush said in his prepared remarks for a former GOP congressman, Mac Collins, who is trying to oust Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall. "The men and women who serve in our all-volunteer armed forces are plenty smart and are serving because they are patriots."

Kerry, who is considering another run for the White House in 2008, angrily fired back.

His statement called Republicans "assorted right-wing nut jobs."

And at a hastily arranged news conference in Seattle, Kerry said: "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy."

Kerry said the comment in question was "a botched joke about the president and the president's people, not about the troops ... and they know that's what I was talking about."

Hmmm... are we sure they know what he was talking about? His two statements, first about Bush living in a state of denial and his comment about ending up in Iraq if you don't make the most of your educational opportunities seem unrelated.

It came during a campaign rally for California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. Kerry opened his speech at Pasadena City College with several one-liners, saying at one point that Bush had lived in Texas but now "lives in a state of denial."

He then said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

That, Kerry said, was meant as a reference to Bush, not troops. Kerry said it is the president who owes U.S. soldiers an apology - for "a Katrina foreign policy" that misled the country into war in Iraq, failed to adequately study and plan for the aftermath, has not properly equipped troops and has expanded the terrorist threat.

This from the man who voted against the funding to properly equip the troops. Actually, Kerry said a whole lot more than that. He harped on body armor and upgraded Hum-Vees. Some of the very things he voted not to fund.

While we're here, I guess John Kerry is the one living in denial. If he's really talking about making the most of your education and claiming that it's a reference to George Bush, he MUST be in denial, since George Bush got better grades in college than he did.

The Massachusetts Democrat called the White House attack "a classic GOP textbook Republican campaign tactic" that reveals Republicans' "willingness to reduce anything in America to raw politics."

Calling his critics assorted right-wing nut jobs instead of answering seems to me to be trying to reduce the argument to raw politics. In fact the name calling is a classic Democrat tactic.

"I'm sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans who will not debate real policy, who won't take responsibility for their own mistakes, standing up and trying to make other people the butt of those mistakes," he said. "It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks who've never worn the uniform of our country are willing to lie about those who did."

But wait, one of the leading Republican's asking for an apology did serve his country in uniform, and he didn't come back and malign his companions in arms...

GOP Sen. John McCain, like Kerry a decorated Vietnam veteran and a potential 2008 rival, said while campaigning for Republican candidates in Indiana that "the suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq is an insult to every soldier serving in combat today."

Source: White House, Kerry exchange accusations

John Kerry : left-wing nut-job.

Tricky new malware unnerves security vendors

How much spam do you get in your inbox? Nearly 30% of the email I receive is spam. Most of it is from people trying to convince me to buy some worthless stock, to lose weight using their miracle product or get medicines without a prescription. Every now and then though, some random piece of garbage will come through with an executable or a script attached, and a bunch of meaningless drivel for text. Now there's a new low-risk worm that's being transmitted that sends out mass mailings to spread itself, but it plays a new trick...

The code is then capable of downloading new versions of itself as frequently as every 30 minutes from a batch of Web sites, said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure Corp., a security company in Helsinki.

Those new versions are created by a program on a server controlled by the hacker, Hypponen said.

In the past, malware has been known to create variations of itself, but the code to create those variations was contained inside the malware. So when a sample was obtained, security analysts could study it and identify potential new versions, he said.

Now, the hacker's program is compiling the code and rapidly churning out new versions, but analysts don't know how the new code is generated.

Source: Tricky new malware unnerves security vendors

Man I HATE spam. This particular program has hundreds of variants already. Maybe that obnoxious popup in Windows Vista is the way to go. Anytime a machine wants access to the Internet a popup should ask if you requested it... Well, maybe not, that would be pretty annoying too. And the spammers would just find a way to make their worms click the "OK" or "Yes" button.

MySpace to Block Copyright Music

Don't upload that song!

MySpace.com will use "audio fingerprinting" technology to block users from uploading copyright music to the social networking site, the company said Monday.

...

"MySpace is staunchly committed to protecting artists' rights, whether those artists are on major labels or are independent acts," said Chris DeWolfe, MySpace chief executive and co-founder.

The company said users who repeatedly attempt to upload copyright music files will be permanently barred from the site.

Source: MySpace to Block Copyright Music - Forbes.com

I wonder how this will affect the artists that have spaces on MySpace? There are quite a few independent acts with spaces. I know that "Weird Al" Yankovic has one.

Anyway, if you're not the artist or the record label, this is the other side of the file sharing coin. It's a violation of the artist's copyright to download the music, but it's a bigger violation to upload it.

How about the thousands of music videos people have uploaded to YouTube? YouTube has made deals with record labels to license music rather than filter the music. So I guess it's still OK to link to them or embed the tags in your blogs. They'll take down the videos that copyright holders complain about though.

China helped North Korea develop nuclear weapons...

Who didn't see this coming?

China helped North Korea develop nuclear weapons and in the past year increased its support to Pyongyang, rather than pressing the regime to halt nuclear arms and missile activities, according to a congressional report.
    The final draft report of the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission also says that Chinese government-run companies are continuing to threaten U.S. national security by exporting arms to American enemies in Asia and the Middle East.

Source: China cited as N. Korea supplier - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

The Clinton administration between 1993 and 1996 allowed numerous exports of potential ballistic-missile technology to the Chinese government despite China's refusal, in some instances, to allow inspections to assure that the technology was only being used for civilian purposes, according to classified documents and four U.S. government officials.

Source: Salon Newsreal | Special Report: Clinton administration failed to monitor China's use of missile-technology exports

On Oct. 16, 2002, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush disclosed that North Korea had admitted to having a program to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons. With its admission, North Korea, also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK, abrogated the Agreed Framework signed in 1994 with United States, under which the North Koreans agreed to freeze their nuclear weapons program.

...

Shortly after signing the agreement, North Korea began seeking nuclear weapons fuel through uranium enrichment.

Source: North Korea Nuclear Weapons - Center for Defense Information

People seem to forget that just because the Soviet Union isn't around anymore that Communism is still alive and kicking in the Far-East. They also seem to forget that the Chinese aren't really our friends, or that communists will lie to those they perceive as their enemies. If China helped with the development of nuclear weapons, can the ballistic missiles to deliver them be far behind?

Remember Tawana Brawley?

DURHAM, N.C., Oct. 30 -- The prosecutor in the Duke University rape case said Monday that he is comfortable with nearly all the decisions he has made about the case against three lacrosse players and is confident about taking it to trial.

...

Nifong declined to comment on the remarks of Kim Roberts, a second stripper at the party, which were aired by ABC on Monday. She said the accuser was clearly impaired and "talking crazy" after they left the party.

Roberts said she could not get the accuser to leave her car and pushed on the woman's arm and leg to try to force her out. Roberts quoted the accuser as saying: "Go ahead, go ahead. Put marks on me. Go ahead. That's what I want. Go ahead."

Source: Prosecutor Expresses Confidence In Duke Case - washingtonpost.com

Al Sharpton and his cohorts were forced to pay $345,000 in damages in the aftermath of the Tawana Brawley affair, and there's still an outstanding warrant against Tawana and her mother in New York.

Meanwhile three young men from Duke are sitting in jail until next spring on charges that may very well be just as false and racially motivated. Isn't Mike Nifong up for re-election next week?

Judge Is Asked To Block Libby Defense From Discussing Lack of Stronger Charges

Faced with the fact that he kept his investigation into the Valerie Plame kerfuffle going far longer than was justified, Patrick Fitzgerald is desperate to get a notch in his gun any way he can. 

Prosecutors are asking a federal judge to preclude lawyers for a former White House aide facing trial for lying and obstruction of justice, I. Lewis Libby, from telling jurors that the government failed to bring more serious charges in connection with the disclosure of the identity of a CIA officer.

The special prosecutor assigned to the inquiry, Patrick Fitzgerald, asked Judge Reggie Walton to preclude defense attorneys from discussing during the trial why Mr. Libby, who served as chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, was not charged with deliberately outing the CIA employee, Valerie Plame. Mr. Fitzgerald also asked to exclude any evidence about why others were not charged in the case.

Source: Judge Is Asked To Block Libby Defense From Discussing Lack of Stronger Charges - October 31, 2006 - The New York Sun

Nobody was charged with any crime related to the "outing" of Valerie Plame, and we know that Richard Armitage was the one that leaked her name, not Scooter Libby. Even the charge of lying and obstruction of justice may not hold up, and certainly would never have been possible anyway if Mr. Fitzgerald had bothered to be honest about the fact that no crime was committed in the first place and closed his investigation.

What a colossal injustice! And what an absolute waste of taxpayer money.