In an effort to reduce health care costs, Penn State University, being self-insured have come up with a program where faculty and staff must complete and pass a wellness profile or face a $100/month increase in the employee portion of the health care costs.
Being somewhat frugal, and very loyal to PSU, a person I hold very dear went to do her duty and complete the profile. A woman at the desk takes the necessary information and then proceeds with her weight, height and the all-important waist measurement.
“Hmm, I see your Body mass index is 28 and with your waist you are borderline obese. I will have to enroll you in an exercise regimen.”
“I do not want to start exercising in my condition”
“Well then here is a list of dieting instructions”
“I am not going on a diet in my condition”
“well, there is no way I can qualify you for passing the wellness profile. I will have to refer you to the counselor”
Later at the counselor.
“Hmm, I see your Body mass index is 28 and with your waist you are borderline obese. I will have to enroll you in an exercise regimen.”
“I do not want to start exercising in my condition”
“Well then here is a list of diets you can choose from”
“I am not going on a diet in my condition. I am seven months pregnant!!”
“So you say, but at your age and BMI and waist measurement you are at significant higher risk for heart disease and other complications.”
“Can’t you see I am pregnant?”
“I only have my computer glasses on so I cannot verify your condition. Besides, it is not for me to determine. Come back in three months. Then we can see if the situation has changed. Have a good day!”
“It’s sad for America,” Governor Sarah Palin told Todd Starnes of Fox News, calling the president’s handling of the crisis dithering. “Literally all hell seems to be breaking loose and President Obama is in Martha’s Vineyard having a gay old time, riding his bike, partying it up.”
She also said that Egyptian Christians are being slaughtered and we need to put pressure on our government to at least speak up for the faith-filled people on that country.
So, it happened again. Global warming was the word, then it became climate change, then it was briefly global climate disruption. Since we have not had any global warming at all for the last 17 years and the latest sign is that we will enter a new little ice age, Obama and the EPA are desperately trying to change the alarmists catchphrase again. This time they came up with “carbon pollution.” It is true, chimney sweeps know all about carbon pollution. Chimneys must be swept, or else we may have a chimney fire. Is that what they mean? It must be, for CO2 is a totally clean gas. It has an effect on humans in large concentrations. Nuclear submarines try to keep the CO2 levels below 8000 ppm for breathing air , or about 20 times current levels. Recent research indicate levels should be kept lower, maybe being capped at around 1500 ppm (see fig)
The results are interesting. CO2 levels seem to affect initiative and strategic decision making the most. So it is because of all the people full of hot air in congress nothing gets done! However, it is to be noted that this test was performed without allowing for the test subject to accommodate to their new environment. When you climb mountains you have to adjust for weeks before you react normally again. This test is therefore very suspect. While it is true that the people is the subs do not like the air they are forced to breathe, it is not because of CO2, but regular body odor and other pollutants. They get used to it, and their decision making process is not negatively affected except for an occasional cabin fever.
On a serious note, the 17% increase in CO2 the last 30 years has made the earth about 10 % greener, and we can support another one billion people on earth without starvation, increase wildlife and plant life by about the same amount. Why could that be called “carbon pollution?”
From Frontpage magazine: Obama Uses Advanced MV-22 Osprey Marine Tilt Rotor Vehicle to Ferry Dog on Vacation in Martha’s Vinetard.
Obama was sending for Bo
An Osprey was rearing to go
The sequester, who cares?
Call him out no one dares.
He squanders what’s left of our dough.
Here is Obama on vacation:
No worries about sequester, debt limit, budget, IRS, Benghazi, snooping, joblessness, the economy, international relations, only golf and leisure. Believe it or not, this is an official photo.
This is the dog Bo doing his thing on the White House lawn.
Here is an early crash of the Osprey Tilt Rotor vehicle.
The Osprey started development in 19 with a development budget of 2.5 Billion dollars. 55 Billion dollars and 35 fatalities later, during which time it earned the nickname “The Widowmaker” it was ready for deployment. Each MV-22 Osprey costs 65 Million dollars and 11,000 dollars an hour to operate.
It is now a safe vehicle for its intended purpose, but is far too expensive to use flying from airport to airport. It is ideal for use by special forces to defend or evacuate people from embassies and consulates like Benghazi, so in true style Obama in 2009 cancelled an additional 11 Billion dollar order for more Ospreys, but allocated two of them for his own entourage.
As an engineer I love the Osprey challenge, having an extremely challenging flight envelope. It is now solved, and we will need a strong military. The need for Ospreys is great since now embassies by the dozen are at risk, Ospreys are needed by the special forces. Let Obama’s advance teams and Bo go by car.
Eleven signs we are entering a new little ice age. (Updated Jun 25 2014)
Sometimes regional newspapers in faraway countries can produce articles that are newsworthy all over the world. Such is the case with the major Danish newspaper “Jyllandsposten” which acquired worldwide fame for publishing the “Muhammad Cartoons.” There had been a Muslim honor killing, and the case was publicized incessantly by the paper. The public was outraged, and when the case went to court the Danish court, known for Scandinavian leniency broke with tradition and gave all six defendants hard sentences, including the taxi driver, who just drove the getaway car. This outraged the Muslim community, so they threatened the reporters with reprisals. The editorial board decided they would not be intimidated, so they decided to run a competition “Who could make the best Muhammad cartoon”. So far more than 200 people has been killed because of the cartoons from adherents to “the religion of peace”
Aug 8 2013 Jyllandsposten posted a two page article “The behavior of the sun can trigger a new “Little Ice age”.
They should know. During the last little ice age the Swedes, with their whole army went over of the Great Belt on ice and sacked Copenhagen. The year was 1648.
Nowadays the Great Belt is rarely even frozen over.
Their argument is that we are headed for a new solar minimum of either the Daulton or the Marauder minimum, both leading to significantly colder winters, more storms, and diminished harvests. Here is their front page:
The Paper Warns: “Globe May Be On Path To Little Ice Age…Much Colder Winters…Dramatic Consequences”!
Could they possibly be right? Some say that global warming “deniers” are the scum of the earth worthy of extinction. Obama suggests we belong to the “flat earth society.” In Jyllandspostens view that is beside the point. They were not cowed by the Muhammad cartoons, neither will they be silenced on exposing the fallacies of the religion of global warming.
Since the main street media never report on these facts I have put together 11 reasons why I believe we are entering a new ice age.
#1. It all depends on the sun. The sunspots and its accompanied solar activity goes in cycles. When there are lots of sunspots the sun is more active than when there are few. We are now at a solar maximum and this is the lowest maximum in over a hundred years and less than half of the most recent solar cycles. The next solar cycle is projected to be almost nonexistent. The last time this happened was during the little ice age.
It is to be noted that the actual behavior of the sun is even quieter than predicted. This means colder winters for the next 33+ years.
#2. A new record time for no major hurricanes hitting the U.S. mainland is set every day.
#3. The number of tornadoes is at a historic low.
#4. The arctic temperature over 80 degree latitude has been below average every day since May 6. This is unprecedented since measurements started.
{Source Danish Meteorological Institute)
This year the pattern continues with warmer winter temperatures due to more snowfall than normal and colder summer temperatures due to the extra melting of last years snow.
#5 Arctic ice content for end of July is at a 6 year high. Ice is a lagging indicator. If the ice is increasing, temperature has been decreasing for some time.
#6. Arctic melt is larger than the 30 year average, but that is due to soot from China, not higher temperatures.
China consumes about 45% of all the coal burned in the world every year. It is mostly low grade lignite. Even with scrubbers, which are often down for “service” (it costs money to operate scrubbers) there is substantial soot pollution. This soot cloud hangs in the air, and some of it makes its way up to the arctic, carried on by the prevailing westerly winds.
#7. Last year Antarctic ice cover hit a new record high since measurements started, Sep 25 to Sep 29.
Updated Jun 25 2014
#8. Antarctic ice is running well above average, maybe setting another record this year.
#9. The continental U.S. temperature records are misleading. Many weather stations are located near airport runways. This is a proper location to give runway information to the pilots but is not well suited for climatological reporting since they report the airport runway microclimate, not true overall conditions. This tends to skew temperature data. If airport data is taken out of the reporting, temperatures now are well below the records set mostly in the early 1900’s. A snapshot from the last week of July:
Even with the suspect temperature measurements there has been no significant global temperature increase the last 16 years:
#10. Northern Hemisphere snow cover is increasing.
#11. Sandy. Contrary to popular reporting of the unprecedented storm surge during hurricane Sandy there has been two hurricanes with higher storm surges. They both occurred in the 1600’s, during the little ice age and can be explained by a late hurricane coming up the East coast being drawn inland by an early outbreak of cold arctic air.
The jury is out. Who are the scum of the earth, members of the “flat earth society?” Who looks at the facts and who is ideologically motivated.
On a brighter note, it may be time to return to good, old-fashioned romance
And one thing more. Increasing CO2 levels will delay the onset of the next ice age. In the meantime we can enjoy the fruits of increased CO2 levels: Greater harvests, a greener earth, less temperature differences between the equator and the poles, less hurricanes, fewer tornadoes, less large storms, and a more resilient nature feeding more animals and enabling more biodiversity. The colder weather will finally catch up with us, and that will mean widespread famine unless CO2 is increased substantially.
Why am I not worried about the greenhouse effect from CO2?
If CO2 is doubled, global temperatures will increase less than 2 degree F if no gain is in the system. Water vapor increases with about 4% per degree F temperature rise, and so a gain is assumed. The models predict a hotspot in the troposphere over the tropics because of CO2 coupled with water vapor. No hotspot has been found. In fact there is a barely perceptible coldspot where the hotspot was expected. This is because of the great thermostat of the earth called thunderstorms. When the air is hot and humid enough thunderstorms form and this mechanism controls tropical temperatures to be rarely above 95 degrees F. In desert regions it can be substantially hotter, like in northern India, where it is routinely 115 degree F until the monsoons start, when the thunderstorms keep temperatures below 100.
No such control mechanism exists on the cool side. It will get as cold as the solar output dictates, and the coming cooling is inevitable. It will delay the onset of the new little ice age by maybe a few years.
I am an engineer and look at the earth as an organism that responds to impulses. The Sun gives two types of impulses: day and night, and summer and winter. We can take a look at the seasonal response in temperatures and notice the difference between now and when we had 14% less CO2 in the atmosphere. Fairly simple calculations will yield a 0.4 degree F rise for doubling CO2 levels over water, and about 1.2 degree F rise over land. The land increase has much higher variability between coastal and inland climate, but that is a ballpark number. This is not enough to offset the influence from a less active sun. The imbalances manifests itself in shrinking and growing ice and snowcaps. The trend is increasing ice and increasing snow, which means we are already well into the cooling phase.
Buoyed by an improving housing market, President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed a broad overhaul of the nation’s mortgage finance system, including winding down government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He declared that taxpayers should never again be left “holding the bag” for the mortgage giants’ bad bets.
Chuck Heath, the older brother of Sarah Palin came up with ten things Sarah Palin is lacking. I am reposting them here, adding ten of my own to make it a perfect score.
#1-Pedigree: Sarah was born into a low-income family with no political connections. Everything she’s achieved has been through her own hard work.
#2-Soft hands: Sarah has continually worked to provide for herself and her family, whether it was as a commercial fisherman, a hunter, a waitress, etc., she’s never been afraid to get her hands dirty.
#3-Sleep: Chuck watched Sarah work 15-20 hours a day, seven days a week as governor. Her stamina amazes everyone close to her.
#4-A golf handicap: Although she loves the game, you would never see Sarah spending countless hours on the links during a position of leadership.
#5-Shady friends: Sarah has no ties to known domestic terrorists, and no wealthy foreign friends that financed trips for her overseas.
#6-Hidden college transcripts: Her school records have always been open to the public.
#7-A perfect family: Despite hardships that almost every American family faces, Sarah has kept her head up and focused on the positive, and she’s always been there to help us when we’ve needed her.
#8-Friends in the media, Hollywood, and rap music: The vast majority of Hollywood stars and the mainstream media have done everything in their power to destroy her. No major network newsman has ever said that he gets a tingle up his leg when he thinks of her.
#9-A lack of respect for the Constitution: Sarah has always looked at the Constitution as a brilliant blueprint for America; a document that clearly lays out a separation of powers so that no one person or group of people have absolute power.
#10-A doubt in our Creator: Every big decision Sarah makes has been based on prayer.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 