Please Read Climate Progress

It'd sure be nice if people who disagree could debate policy questions based on the merits of the issue. Of course, this is not reality. I have been amused to see Joe Romm, a blogger for the Center for American Progress, find himself unable to respond to the policy arguments that I make, and thus find himself having to instead engage in ever more shrill and personal attacks on me. Most recently he has falsely accused my university of violating my academic freedom by shutting down our blog, Prometheus. They of course did no such thing, and when...

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Space Policy Realism

A member of a US government panel examining the future of space policy had this to say yesterday:“In fact, it is unclear whether NASA has the financing for any scenarios that do anything important beyond low-Earth orbit prior to 2020,” said Christopher F. Chyba, a Princeton professor of astrophysics and a panel member. “If we really want to do this, we have to provide a realistic budget for it. Otherwise, let’s be clear about the limits placed on us by the actual budget.”NASA has never been too good at living within a budget, or accepting the fact...

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Welcome Guardian Readers

If you arrived here after reading my "Magical Solutions" piece via the Guardian Environmental Network, welcome. Here is a link to my evaluation of the UK Climate Change Act referenced in the commenta...

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Debating the Potential Effects of American Needle

Following on the heels of Lester Munson’s recent report on the American Needle case for ESPN.com – which Howard discussed last week – CBSSports.com National Columnist Mike Freeman has written an article similarly forecasting that a Supreme Court victory for the NFL in American Needle would be a doomsday scenario for sports fans (see Sports Law Blog’s significant previous coverage of the case for more background on the litigation). Freeman asserts that if the NFL wins the case, the Supreme Court’s decision “would basically amount to a nuclear winter...

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En-Lightened Cycling

We enjoy cycling at night, and we want to be safe and confident doing it. The Pashley Sovereigns come with an excellent lighting system: a hub driven dynamo headlight and an LED rear light. This is sufficient for some night-time riding, but not optimal for the kind of riding we were doing. So we have made some enhancements to suit our needs.HEADLIGHTSHeadlights serve two...

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Winter yetti babies

Took the old Fuji camera out today and snapped the hairy yetti yak babies.Rory just before he rolled in his supperRoryRorror faceAineChowin' d...

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Plaxico Burress: The Jury Nullification Strategy?

I have a new column on SI.com concerning Plaxico Burress' unusual decision to testify before a grand jury. Here's an excerpt:* * * Depending upon the prosecutor's style and tactics, Burress may have testified in a very hostile environment. By testifying, Burress may have also unwittingly revealed his potential trial strategy to prosecutors. Even worse, if he ultimately...

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The stuff you own ends up owning you.--TYLER DUR...

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Make Money, Sound Impressive. Magic.

From today's FT:After graduating from Oxford in 1992, Garth Edward did relief and development work for the United Nations in Africa for four years and another year at UN headquarters in New York. But he found the consensus-based UN a "frustrating environment if you want to do things, not discuss things".In 1998, at the age of 28, he took a job with an asset management company in New York and set up a greenhouse gas trading desk for it. He found he was not just making more money on Wall Street than he was at the UN - he also felt he was doing more...

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Reilly thinks Spring is coming!

I don't really think these photos require any explanations - Reilly is clearly pleased that spring is on its way ...If it is fine tomorrow, he's getting a bath and a makeover. Time to get this boy back to work methin...

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Natasha Fuller's story gets more sinster

The big story in New Zealand is about a lady named Natasha Fuller, she wrote on her facebook page that part of her welfare cheque (she is a solo mother with three kids) has been stopped. Under new laws, a training allowance to get welfare reciepents back to work has now been dropped, so thus Fuller is now out of pocket.She also wrote that her three kids have special needs,...

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The Princess spectator

watching the boats on the Charles river at twilight after a long ride...

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Televised Sporting Events

I may have told this story before so stop me if you have heard it.Once upon a time, I went with some friends on a stay in the mountains. I met this guy who was a friend of a friend, so I started up a conversation with him. I asked him what he liked to do, and he said, "I like sports.""That's cool. What do you think the Cowboys will do this season?""I think you have misunderstood me," he said.He went on to say that he played sports. He didn't waste his time watching them. The next day he was out on a morning bike ride and was back before the rest...

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Catching Up on Gillispie v. University of Kentucky Athletic Association

One increasingly interesting, sports-related lawsuit which hasn't garnered much attention here is Gillispie v. University of Kentucky Athletic Association Inc., the suit filed by former University of Kentucky men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie. As most are probably aware, Gillispie was fired by Kentucky on March 27, 2009, after completing two years of a seven-year agreement...

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Catching Up with Links

* Rick Karcher was interviewed by the New York Times in a recent story on a class action lawsuit filed this past spring by former college football players against Electronic Arts for using their images in video games without permission.* Tim Epstein was recently interviewed on a Chicago station to discuss the Ponzi scheme associated with Mike North’s Chicago Sports Webio, an internet radio site for Chicago sports.* Gabe Feldman discusses a lawsuit filed by Marist Universit against James Madison hoops coach Matt Brady, who left Marist in 2008 and...

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When should you abandon a proje...

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On "Magical Solutions"

I have a commentary up over at Yale Environment360. Here is how I begin:Fifty years ago, political scientist Harold Lasswell explained that some policies are all about symbolism, with little or no impact on real-world outcomes. He called such actions “magical solutions,” explaining that “political symbolization has its catharsis functions.” Climate policy is going through exactly such a phase, in which a focus on magical solutions leaves little room for the practical.Please visit Yale e360 and read it, and then come back. You are welcome to leave...

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Maxi gets a card ...

Last time Amy rode, she fell off - Just when her confidence was heading sky high, she went sky high literally and then bit the dust (or the mud and poop). I said to myself, as she sailed through the air, "oh well, there goes that then", but plopped her back on and she amazed me by riding for another 10 minutes, albeit with me on the end of the leadrope and tears drying on...

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The Fate of Sports Gambling in Delaware Might Rest in the Hands of...Bill Simmons

He might now know it yet, but Bill Simmons (aka, espn.com’s “Sports Guy”) could play an important role in the outcome of the lawsuit filed by the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and NCAA against the Delaware Sports Lottery. The leagues claim that the single-game bets offered by the lottery violate federal and state law. The federal claim deals with the scope of the grandfather clause...

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NOAA Explains the Global Temperature "Slowdown"

An advance copy of NOAA's Annual State of the Climate Report has been made available (as low-res PDF here). In it is a box that seeks to explain why it is that global temperatures have not increased since January 1, 1999 (pp. 23-24). The report observes:Observations indicate that global temperature rise has slowed in the last decade (Fig. 2.8a [ed.- above, caption below])....

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Climate Activists in Denial

Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times, has an incisive column today on the state of international climate politics. He begins:The phrase “climate change denier” has a nasty ring to it. It links those who dispute mainstream science on global warming with “Holocaust deniers”. They are not just wrong, it implies, they are evil.But the climate change lobby is in the grip of its own form of dangerous fantasy. It is in denial not about science – but about international politics.And he concludes:The state of international...

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Joe Romm vs. John Kerry

UPDATE 28 July: Welcome Climate Progress readers!Joe Romm has claimed that someone shut down my original blog. You might ask him, who shut down Pielke's blog? That is a bald-faced lie from Joe. Someone please call him on it.On whether or not John Kerry (or Nancy Pelosi -- "just remember these four words for what this legislation means: jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs.") has "pretended" that the "overwhelming reason" for the legislation is jobs?Joe and I will have to agree to disagree on that one. The factual record speaks...

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The Next Opponent for Forrest's Killers: A Felony Murder Charge

Death Penalty Looms as Possibility for Killers of Former Welterweight and Junior Middleweight Champion Under Georgia’s Felony Murder Laws The emotionally fragile boxing community, still nursing its wounds from the recent untimely deaths of retired legends Alexis Arguello and Arturo Gatti, was rocked again on the night of Saturday, July 26, 2009 when 1992 U.S. Olympian, and former welterweight and junior middleweight champion Vernon Forrest was shot to death in Atlanta, Georgia after a gun battle with two individuals who reportedly robbed Forrest...

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Update on Pete Rose

Late update from my initial post on reports that Bud Selig is considering reinstating Pete Rose. The updated ESPN story suggests that initial reports were overstated and that, while Selig is "seriously considering" the issue, Rose's status is not changed and Selig is not necessarily close to lifting the ban. The updated story also quotes former Commissioner Fay Vincent making several points: 1) Rose may not get into the Hall even if he is reinstated because "[t]here is no indication that there's any great support for Pete Rose to get in the Hall...

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Rose to be reinstated? Baseball and gambling

Reports are coming out that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is considering reinstating Pete Rose to baseball, this after Henry Aaron spoke in support of Rose at Sunday's Hall of Fame induction. Reinstatement virtually ensures Rose's induction into the Hall, perhaps as early as next year. The only thing that had been keeping Rose out was Hall of Fame Rule 3E, which bars from Hall induction any person on MLB's Permanent Ineligible List. I think the Veterans' Committee will vote him in, probably overwhelmingly; former players typically are more forgiving...

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Normalized Earthquake Damage and Fatalities in the United States: 1900-2005

At long last Vranes and Pielke (2009) has appeared. We estimate that a recurrence of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake would result in $39-$328 billion in damage and 3,000-24,000 deaths. See the paper for details. For those of you wanting to compare earthquakes to hurricanes, we estimate as much as $450 billion in cumulative losses 1900 to 2005, while Pielke et al. 2008...

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Snatch & Jerk

Oa jerk 20kg: 5/5Jerk 2x 20kg: 5Jerk 2x 24kg: 5, 31/5min, 3Jerk 2x 26kg: 3Snatch 20kg: 5/5Snatch 24kg: 5/5, 30/30Oa swing 40kg: 10/10Bar hang 1 ...

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John Kerry Grants the China Argument

Writing in an op-ed in the FT today Senator John Kerry (D-MA) concedes a political reality:Today we need China to forgo the carbon-intensive industrial processes that fuelled the west in the 19th and 20th centuries and to pioneer the clean technologies of the 21st. Sceptics are right that if China does not reciprocate, our domestic efforts will be for naught.China no doubt would respond, "When you forgo carbon-intensive industrial processes you let us know." Of more parochial interest, Kerry's statement that U.S. efforts will be for "naught" without...

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Here We Go

Come on Chelsea, Come on Chelsea, Come on Chelsea.The Chelsea football team and the biggest country artist in history make strange bedfellows.But when your Garth, and have spent the past nine years of your life doing charity work, its not so strange.Garth was made honorary captain of the Chelsea football team for their preseason match against club America in the weekend....

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Yawn

From Nature Geoscience comes this less-than-titillating abstract:Nature GeosciencePublished online: 26 July 2009 | doi:10.1038/ngeo587Constraints on future sea-level rise from past sea-level changeMark Siddall, Thomas F. Stocker & Peter U. ClarkIt is difficult to project sea-level rise in response to warming climates by the end of the century, especially because the response of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to warming is not well understood1. However, sea-level fluctuations in response to changing climate have been reconstructed...

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Cycling Clothes for the Lycra-Averse

After reading yesterday's Minuteman Bikeway post, you may have been wondering: So what does a girl wear on a 22-mile ride on a fierce roadbike? I am glad you asked!CYCLING CLOTHES:I am not against athletic clothing when it comes to cycling as a sport. My problem is different, and I know that other women share it: My skin hates synthetic fibers, especially in the heat. Yes,...

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