Friendly Witches and Scenic Graveyards

Was I a good witch or a bad witch for Halloween? Only Eustacia knows, and she is not talking. I rolled through the night with reflective sidewalls and plenty of lights on my bicycle, and I think only good witches do that. Bad ones tend to hide under the cover of darkness.On this ghoulish night, I present you also with this photo of me and Marianne cycling through Provincetown...

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Wairarapa A&P Show 2009

Well, after the absolutely HIDEOUS weather leading up to this show, I was beginning to wonder if we would even make it! I withdrew Rory from the Sport Horse classes on Saturday because I had really had no chance to do any preparation work with him and I felt it was a bit of a big ask to drag him out of the paddock, literally, and chuck him in at the deep end, especially as...

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Random Thoughts on Various Subjects

1. STEVE ADDINGTON FIREDSteve Addington was the crew chief for Kyle Busch, but Joe Gibbs fired his ass. Nevermind that Busch and Addington were second only to Jimmie Johnson in victories. I would call that a great job. So, who gets fired for doing good work? JGR has some shit-for-brains fools running their organization.2. IMPEACHING SANFORDThe General Assembly needs to let this shit go. Sanford is the lamest lame duck ever thanks to his scandals. When I talk to people here in SC, no one gives a fuck. I hear Clinton-Lewinsky cited as precedent on...

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Tom Fuller is Doing a Survey

Tom Fuller has set up a survey on various aspects of the climate issue. Please take a moment to participate. Here are his ground rules:First, let's start with the ground rules. Your participation is completely anonymous, and no attempt will be made to contact you for any reason as a result of your participation or anything you write in this survey.Second, this survey is not intended to be used as an opinion poll or a census, and will not be used as such. We are not trying to find out how many people 'believe' or 'disbelieve' in global warming....

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Dean Hood Model Part 4 - Coach, Wife and Kids

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Dean Hood Model Part 3 - Batttle the Extremes

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Important New Paper on North Atlantic Hurricanes

A very important paper was published today by Chen et al. in the open-access journal Natural Hazards and Earth Systems Science (of the EGU) titled, "Quantifying changes of wind speed distributions in the historical record of Atlantic tropical cyclones" (PDF). The paper should go some way toward resolving disputes about the behavior of hurricanes in the North Atlantic, as it provides compelling evidence of a bias in the historical record due to observational practices. For instance, the paper finds that no Category 5 hurricane was observed in...

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Roger Pielke Sr. is Sure Going to Like This

UPDATE: My father does indeed like this, he comments here.For years my father has been arguing that:. . . attempts to “control” the climate system, and to prevent a “dangerous intervention” into the climate system by humans that focuses just on CO2 and a few other greenhouse gases will necessarily be significantly incomplete, unless all of the other first order climate forcings are considered.His views are now being robustly vindicated as a quiet revolution is occurring in climate science. Here is how PhysOrg reports on a study out today in Science...

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Made in Somerville: The Joys of a Locally Built Bicycle

I tried to hint at this subtly in previous posts, but judging by some recent conversations I was a too subtle. So it is time to announce this formally: I am getting a custom bicycle from Royal H. Cycles.[Customer's bike, detail. Image from Royal H. Cycles]No, please relax - it is not the track bike mentioned earlier! My Royal H. will be a classic Randonneur-style mixte,...

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The Problem with Exaggerated and Inaccurate Claims

An interesting article in The Times (UK) today is notable because it quotes a number of prominent scientists critcizing the oft-used strategy of overhyping climate change in an effort to motivate action. The end result, as I have often argued inevitably follows such strategies, is a backlash. Here is an extended excerpt:Exaggerated and inaccurate claims about the threat from global warming risk undermining efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and contain climate change, senior scientists have told The Times. Environmental lobbyists, politicians,...

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Should Bulgaria Pay Brazil?

The BBC has an interesting article (thx DB!) on an east-west split within the EU on financing adaptation under a potential international climate agreement.On climate change, the EU is keen to reach a united position ahead of December's United Nations Copenhagen summit, which aims to hammer out a new global climate treaty to replace the UN Kyoto Protocol.Mr Reinfeldt called...

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Blogs vs. MSM

The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism provides some interesting data on the focus of attention on blogs and the mainstream media. The graph to the right shows the top issues for the week October 19 to 23. "global warming" is a top topic on the blogs, along with the "balloon boy" and a "cross dressing ban." Meanwhile the traditional media is focused on the economy,...

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Pakistan's Coal

Speaking in Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encourages the exploitation of Pakistan's coal reserves:There is no doubt that energy is at the heart of many of the economic problems that Pakistan faces – the unreliability, the erratic cross-structure, the failure to capture the full load that is produced. It’s just a lot of problems. And one of the things that Ambassador...

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Time for a bit of a root 'n scoot'n good time!

The sun shone for a full five minutes yesterday and Ata took the opportunity to stretch his legs a little ...Check out the lake in the background - and it was looking quite low at that ti...

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Dean Hood Model Part 2-Acceptance Based Performance

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Player Leadership

Coaches,Very often we talk about players stepping up and taking ownership of the team - truly being leaders. I would like to recognize two such players.TJ Cooper (left in the photo) and Dre Banta. TJ is a Senior RB, and one of the best in the state of KY I might add, and Dre is a Junior QB. Both of them are fine young men. Their head coach Steve Frommeyer sent me the following:This team has improved as much as anytime I think I’ve coached. Player leadership has been the key. TJ and Dre emerging as leaders from your leadership camp with us has...

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Keeping Prediction in Perspective

Mike Hulme, Suraje Dessai and I have a piece out today in Nature Reports Climate Change titled Keeping Prediction in Perspective. Here is an excerpt, which references the figure above:But evidence that climate predictions can provide precise and accurate guidance about how the long-term future may evolve is fundamentally lacking. Scientists and decision-makers alike should...

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Climate Whiplash

From NSIDC here at the University of Colorado in May, 2008:Could the North Pole be ice free this melt season? Given that this region is currently covered with first-year ice, that seems quite possible.From the UK Met Office this week:. . . the first ice-free summer [is] expected to occur between 2060 and 2080. It is unlikely that the Arctic will experience ice-free summers by 2020.Climate whiplash is a one good reason why efforts to motivate action should not be built on the backs of predictio...

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Will William Connolley do the Right Thing?

In an earlier post I had speculated -- naively and prematurely -- that one small point of dispute between Steve McIntyre and Michael Mann in the wars over the Hockey Stick might be resolved empirically to the satisfaction of all. After all, if I, a mere political scientist can understand the debate and also (and more importantly) see that others far more qualified than I...

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There is a fine line between being loved and being nagged to dea...

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Getting DVDs in the mailbox has replaced getting them back to the store. Still a pain in the a...

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All-Weather Friend

Yesterday was a horrible, rainy day, and during the worst part of it I had to go out. Looking out the window, it was rapidly growing dark and water was literally pouring in streams from the sky. On a day like that, the question of which bike to take did not even enter my mind: I put on my waterproof trench and grabbed Eustacia Vye.It was raining so hard, that I felt as if...

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WEDNESDAY

1. GMAC needs more of my money to stay afloat. This means I will never buy another General Motors product for as long as I live. At least the Japanese give me a car for my cash.2. Andre Agassi was a druggie. That might explain the hair.3. Agassi got way cooler when he shaved the 'do.4. FWIW, I am not on the CIA payroll. You have to be either a dictator, a terrorist, an arms dealer, or a drug dealer to get a check from those guys. I'm just a loser.5. I will not be dressing up as Bible Man this Halloween. I will go with something completely fictitious--an...

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I'm not a Journalist, its just My Opinion

I'm not a Journalist, its just my opinion.This applies to myself and it also applies to the bloggers on stuff.co.nzI have been reminded of this fact a couple of times now.So like all bloggers who have opinions I welcome comments and other opinions.As Im sure the bloggers from stuff.co.nz also do.Take Simon Sweetman for example, he has a opinion, hesays he is not a Journalist,...

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Carrie Underwood Chooses Garth Brooks

In an interview with CMT, Carrie Underwood was askedwho she would choose to sing a duet with.Her choice was Garth Brooks.Garth is now at the stage where he is influencing otherartists, and that is a sign that you have made a real impacton the industry, if your style is affecting the next generationof artists, both Taylor Swift and Carrie have credited Garth withaffecting their...

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Hey Telfer, What will the ratings be like?

Hello Brendan, the sporting Focus of Japan will be on one sport,their national past time. The sport that gets more coverage thanany other, the whole nation will be glued.I am of course talking about Baseball and the world series.The Yankees should take this out in six.Also why is the NZRFU trying to take Rugby to Japan, whereBaseball is king, followed by Football and Basketball.Isn't...

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Lomu the Liar

Is their one NZ Journalist out there who will call Lomu up on his lies??Yes I understand that he is courageous for coming back from a Kidney TransplantI understand there has never been a scandal involving him.For the past 15 years, we have heard that he is under appreciated and if anyone says anythingnegative its just tall poppy syndrome.But LOMU is spelt L O M U not G O D.He...

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I Don't Want You, But I Need You... When Bike Love Turns Irrational

Once in a while, I see a bicycle that is completely unnecessary for my lifestyle, and perhaps even impossible to ride given my skill level... And yet, that bicycle fills me with desire. Here are three bad-boys that evoke these conflicted feelings. (For maximum enjoyment, I suggest playing "You Really Got a Hold on Me" as background music.)[Rivendell Bombadil, fitted with...

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What is Graham's Bill?

In The Hill, Senator Lindsey Gram (R-SC) talks about the sort of climate bill he'd support:"I firmly believe that if you had offshore drilling provisions, you would get more votes because people would see energy independence being achieved, and they would tolerate an emission control bill," Graham said. "You don't have to believe in climate change to vote for the bill I'm talking about. You just have to believe that controlling carbon is the way to get to energy independence."All who believe that offshore drilling is relevant to energy independence...

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Dean Hood Model Part 1

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Do Pro Athletes Commit Crimes at Unusually High Rates?

Lawrence Delevingne of The Business Insider explores athletes and crime in a recent piece. He interviews Geoff, Duke Law Prof Lisa Kern Griffin, and me. Here's an excerpt:But pro athletes aren't actually more likely to commit crimes that the average citizen. It just seems that way because of all the attention their cases get. "I don't think there's any empirical evidence showing that professional athletes are more likely to commit crimes than the typical person," says Michael McCann, a sports law expert at Vermont Law School. Most players are...

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Have You Stepped on a Secular Religion?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cSteven Levittwww.thedailyshow.comDaily ShowFull EpisodesPolitical HumorHealth Care CrisisJohn Stewart has Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt on The Daily Show, and asks about the "sh*t" he has received from certain climate activists. Will Stewart now get the same treatment? The following comment surely won't win Stewart many friends among Levitt's critics:Have you stepped on a secular religi...

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Blue collar jobs are dirty but honest. White collar jobs are clean but dishone...

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FIFA Changes the Rules

FIFA has changed the away goal rule at the worst possible time for New Zealand.In the past away goals have only counted in normal time, notextra time, but now for the first time away goals will countin extra time, what would possessed FIFA to make thiscritical change, three weeks before the New Zealand versusBahrain match???Perhaps some in FIFA are trying their best to please...

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He has a name

Keryn has named her lovely boy 'Winiata' which is Wynyard in Maori. Wynyard has meaning because mum was bred at Wynyard Lodge stud as was his paternal great grandsire, Wynyard Agile. I have started calling him Ata (which means 'morning' in Maori). Lovely.Was out with my camera this morning as the sun is back! I believe this will be a short lived reprieve from the hideous weather...

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