Seattle School says Maths is racist, used to oppress people of color

Postmodernist reasoning taken to its logical conclusion. Starts with zero, ends with identity-maths.

Is Maths Racist?

Free Press International News

The Seattle Public Schools Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee (ESAC) has determined that math is subjective and racist.

In a draft for its Math Ethnic Studies framework, the ESAC writes that Western mathematics is “used to disenfranchise people and communities of color.”

Hammers and drills too. They build mansions for white people.  Tools of oppression.

Using the ESAC’s framework, Seattle’s public school students will be able to “construct & decode mathematical knowledge, truth, and beauty” so that they can contribute to their communities.

Just what we need. More people to contribute wokeness and entitlement.

Students will also analyze the ways in which “ancient mathematical knowledge has been appropriated by Western culture,” and “identify how math has been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.”

 Six. Seven. Hate. Nine. Let’s ban the number hate!

In 2017, a University of Illinois math professor Rochelle Gutierrez argued in a newly published math education book for teachers that they must be aware of the identity politics surrounding the subject of mathematics.

Right now Gutierrez is oppressing black and asian mathematicians:

“On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness,” she argues with complete sincerity, according to Campus Reform. “Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as White.”

Some mathematicians are more equal than others:

Gutierrez also wrote that the importance of math skills in the real world places what she calls an “unearned privilege” for those who are good at it.

Unearned privilege being defined as anyone lucky enough to spend twenty years practicing algebra.

Because most math teachers in the United States are white, white people stand to benefit from their grasp of the subject disproportionate to members of other races.

 Is she really saying afro-hispanic-asian people can’t learn maths from white teachers? If I said that, they’d put me in jail.

“Are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?” she asks, raising the question as to why math professors get more grants than “social studies or English” professors.

Indeed. Why do lawyers earn more than maths professors? Why do English professors get paid more than hair dressers? It’s so unfair. We could pay everyone the minimum wage. To quote that great Russian ethnic: “From each according to his ability,” Did leftist intellectual reasoning start with Karl Marx, or end there?

Shame Prof Gutierrez cant see cultural injustice. People who are good at maths have been oppressed for a hundred thousand years. The Eulers of the iron age were wasted, digging holes and smiting voles. They were denied their cultural identity, mocked for their spear throwing and forced to live in a world without numbers, or even a PDP-11. Now, after 5,000 generations, finally they have a chance to shine.

It’s free world. We won’t expect her to turn up to the national sorry maths day, but Gutierrez can always work on her own culturally inclusive maths, with woke numbers, and use it to design her own unoppressive phone.

h/t Howard “Cork” Hayden

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Midweek Unthreaded

9.3 out of 10 based on 17 ratings

The Bureau of Met disappears “Very Hot Days” graph showing the most hot days in 1952

Here’s an inconvenient fact: Australia had the highest number of very hot days in 1952, back when CO2 levels were 311ppm and humans had not yet emitted 87% of our carbon dioxide emissions. Something else was causing that extreme heat. If only the modelers knew what it was?

For years the BOM site had this informative graph below, but yesterday Craig Kelly M.P. phoned me to prepare for his Bolt Report appearance and informed me the Bureau had dropped it down the memory hole. It used to be a tab available on their Track climate trends and extremes page. Apparently in this era of global warming, the BoM doesn’t think Australians care about the trends in days over 40C in Australia, or perhaps it didn’t fit the agenda? On the Bolt Report last night Kelly explained that according to the Wayback machine, it disappeared sometime during the election campaign this year. (It was there on March 26th and gone on March 28th.)

Thankfully Paul Homewood of Notalotofpeopleknowthat kept a copy:

Graph, Australia, Average number of very hot days. Bureau of Meteorology.

There’s not much a of a trend in the average number of very hot days (greater than 40C) each year in Australia.  | Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology 2016.

Apparently very hot days are defined as the number of “days over 40C” and are obtained by averaging across all stations with sufficiently long data across the country. It uses the all wonderful modern ACORN dataset (v1 in 2016). There were 21 days where the nation averaged “over 40” in 1952. Since then humans have emitted 5/6ths of all the emissions our species has ever produced. The peak in 1952 doesn’t prove CO2 has no effect, but the lack of a meaningful trend across the century highlights how misleading it is for the BOM to claim that extreme heat noise proves we need to reduce CO2. There are so many combinations of heatwaves, hot days, and hottest-ever long weekends that it’s possible for a PR institute to fish for “a record” and find one. A PR institute might also filter for records to forget them. If only the BoM was science based instead.

Pagan witchdoctors instilled fear by pointing at suspicious coincidences and didn’t mention the counter-factuals. Some things never change.

The Bolt Report: IN 26 YEARS, THE ABC’S MEDIA WATCH HAS NEVER CORRECTED THE BIG CLIMATE LIE

Last night, Craig Kelly talked to Andrew Bolt about the failure of MediaWatch and his concerns about the Bureau of Meteorology.

As Andy Pitman says: “this may not be what you read in newspapers…” Craig Kelly wants to know why MediaWatch have never pulled up the ABC for misleading the public on droughts. That’s what MediaWatch are paid to do, says Kelly. Now that Pitman has made the misunderstanding on droughts and climate change clear, the ABC is mythmaking — actively promoting falsehoods.

But the blame also comes back to Pitman and climate scientists at uni’s, the BoM and the CSIRO.  If they are aware the public have a misunderstanding, it’s their duty to correct that. That’s what we pay them for. Where were their press releases?

 

I speak to Kelly regularly, and he impresses me with his detailed questions — drilling down and checking his sources. He’s determined to hold our scientists to account.

If only more M.P.s took such an interest in climate science and meteorology.

Keep reading  →

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Brexit: Ann Widdecombe explains what surrender, betrayal and a foreign power is

On fire — Ann Widdecombe lays out the situation.

The only kind of Brexit is a clean break.


October 18th 2019

“The Brexit party will take Leave and nothing else.”

“We gave Europe their freedom and in return they want to take ours.”

She’s 72, and has studied Latin, Philosophy at Oxford. She was a Minister in the John Major Government.  What a powerhouse.

Bring on an election!

h/t Jim Simpson.

9.6 out of 10 based on 83 ratings

AusExit: Petition to remove Australia from the Paris Climate Agreement

Petition EN1116 – The case for leaving the Paris Climate Agreement

https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1116

We the undersigned petitioners request the House reconsiders Australia’s commitment to the PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT that was ratified on 9 November 2016 and declared ‘entry into force’ on 9 December 2016. Australia is meeting its emission targets. We contribute approx. 1.5% of global emissions and many eminent scientists advise any changes this nation makes will have little or no effect on the overall global climate. America, the world’s 2nd largest greenhouse gas emitter, has given formal notice to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. China- the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases will SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE their emissions to 2030, and other developing nations have been given a ‘free pass’ under the same agreement. The estimated cost to our nation is $52 billion between 2018 and 2030. This will severely impact Australia economically and socially, with taxpayers funding ‘developing, but fast-growing economic-powerhouses’ such as China and India. The Paris Agreement is not operating as intended, and there is more risk than reward for Australia to remain. We must consider an AUSExit of Paris.

We therefore ask the House to formally advise the UNFCCC of Australia’s intention to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. The first date representation can be made is 3 years from the date of the ‘entry-into-force’ of the agreement. This date is 9 December 2019. Formal removal becomes effective 12 months later.

Sign it. :- )

 

Please read and confirm you agree with the Terms and Conditions. You must be a resident or citizen of Australia to sign a petition. Current Members of the House of Representatives cannot sign a petition.

Check your email after signing to confirm!

h/t Jim Simpson, Delory, ColA.

9.4 out of 10 based on 78 ratings

Watching the Canadian Election and the silent poll factor …

UPDATE: Live results coming in at globalnews.ca

See Decision Canada: 170 seats to win, currently projected as Liberals–Trudeau: 156 (down 21 seats), Conservatives–Sheer:  122 (up 26 seats), 5 seats undecided.

Lib: 33.4%  Con: 34.25%  (as more votes are counted the Conservative vote is rising.)

Called as a minority Liberal govt. Trudeau to stay with support from either the NDP or The Bloc. Canada is divided. The Conservatives won slightly more of the popular vote but it was concentrated in the two oil-rich provinces Alberta and Saskatchewan, so they won fewer seats. In the largest, most populous province – Ontario — the liberals won twice as many seats as the conservatives. The Liberals are the party of the politically correct inner city voters.

Big loser is the NDP (social-democrats) falling from 39 seats to ? 25. Big winner is Bloc Québécois (separatist/centre left) going from 10 seats up to 22.)

*   *   *

Polls are on a knife edge as the Canadian 2019 election day rolls out

Map, Canadian Provinces.

Click to enlarge

In the US, Brexit and Australian elections the pollsters missed the hidden conservative vote. It was so strong some people said they’d vote Labor, but then they voted the other way, and then they left the polling booth and still told exit pollsters they voted for Labor. It wasn’t til the first hour of vote counting that people realized what had really happened.

When a whole side of politics becomes unfashionable, people know what the pollsters want to hear. The Conservative Party led by Andrew Scheer is running on a lower tax, No Carbon Tax platform, so there might be enough there to excite potential hidden voters. But will the voters throw out a one term government? Maybe. The old days of loyalty are over. How much is Canada hurting from political correctness?

According to the Australian ABC the key issues are what the PM wears for overseas trips and what he wore to dress up parties twenty years ago. I feel pretty confident that real Canadians have other concerns.

Conservatives in Canada have had some sweeping wins in a few provinces, and former PM Stephen Harper has said conservatives can win on the carbon taxes alone. In Ontario in 2018 – the ruling greener Liberals were crushed, losing 48 seats and even official party status. In Alberta, Kenney won a landslide in Alberta against carbon tax in April 2019. He vowed a War Room against energy activists.  It seems most Canadians are skeptics…

Keep reading  →

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Figure this: Andy Pitman says “we don’t understand what causes droughts” but “the indirect link is clear”!

Back in August I posted the extraordinary first quotes from Prof Andy Pitman that there was no link between climate change and drought.

Professor Andy Pitman

Prof Andy Pitman, Climate Modeler, UNSW

The news about droughts was banal and obvious, because more water evaporates in a warmer world, and therefore, more rain falls — how could it be any other way? What goes up, must come down. But that quote was very important because it had never been stated so unequivocally by a high ranking believer and modeler. (Thanks to Jim Sternhill for spotting this incendiary and unwittingly honest quote.) Since being posted here, those quotes have been picked up by Maurice Newman, Alan Jones, then Chris Kenny (The Australian editor) and Andrew Bolt — which means the Pitman-drought-admission has become a major headache for the climate machine. Hence, they had to come up with some fogging excuse to muddy up the clarity, and here it is. Pitman forgot one word.

Prof Andy Pitman now says that he meant to say there was no direct link:

Barry said this “clarification” said Pitman had “left out a crucial word”: that “there is no direct link between climate change and drought”.

“But does global warming lead to changes in rainfall patterns that can lead to drought? Yes. This indirect link is clear … In some regions, this increases the risk of drought, in other regions it decreases the risk.”

As recoveries go, this rates “Good try, but no banana”. Adding just one word leaves open the vague-fortune-teller-type possibility that our car exhausts can indirectly cause droughts — but none of the Global Climate Models can predict regional rainfall reliably, or even unreliably. They can’t even manage to predict the plus or minus sign in precipitation trends. GCM’s are officially up there with coin tosses. So it is a bit (as in, totally) misleading of Pitman to say the indirect link is clear. There’s no definitive evidence that changing CO2 levels has any measurable effect on rainfall patterns at all — if there was, the modelers might have some clue of which regions would get wetter and which wouldn’t, instead of being completely skillless on precipitation. (see Anagnostopolous, 2010 for starters).

Lets not forget what Andy Pitman also said in June:

“…the fundamental problem we have is that we don’t understand what causes droughts.”

Yes, exactly. That’s rather a bomb on the idea that anything might “be clear”. Apparently, even though the forces that drive droughts are a mystery to climate scientists, they “know” that CO2 has a connection somehow, someway. Lo, and Neptune is travelling through the constellation Pisces — causing carp to rain on the GCMs. Expect a mysterious man to steal your heart next month, or perhaps just part of your wallet through your electricity bill.

Meanwhile for people born under The Sun, UNSW is stealing part our inheritance, our tax and sanity with fake science. Enough is enough.

Since we’re doing the Pitman flashback — let’s remember how damning all those original words were.

From Prof Andy Pitman:

  1. we don’t understand what causes droughts.”
  2. “we don’t know what stops a drought”.
  3. “there is no link between climate change and drought.”
  4. “there is no reason a priori why climate change should made the landscape more arid.”
  5.  “there’s no trend in data…. There is no drying trend. … “no trend in the last hundred years

We’re watching palm-reading type analysis:

The vague allusion to a possible indirect mechanism was all that was needed by Paul Barry on ABC MediaWatch to accuse Bolt of omitting key information:

Paul Barry:

So, you have left out two crucial facts. The first is that there IS a drying trend over the last twenty years. The second is that there is a long-term drying trend in some regions and not in others.

Andrew Bolt called it pathetic deceptive and evasive, pointing out he had put the full quotes on his blog, and that falling rainfall in the last twenty years was irrelevant if there was no trend in the last 100 years, and that even Andy Pitman said that these changes in trends show “how variable Australian rainfall is”.

Today Andrew Bolt has a slide from a Pitman presentation.

In the words of Andy Pitman:

“Current science cannot tell us of the sign of the change in future drought.”

 

Paul Barry has no idea how bad the rainfall predictions are — he’s a lamb to the slaughter. He accuses Bolt of hyping up the Pitman speech:

Paul Barry: Note the emphasis on “admits”, as if he’s known it all along and finally fessed up.

But here’s the thing, that’s absolutely true.  The modelers have known all along. A warmer world means more rain.

And all the “evidence” Paul Barry cites are just guesstimates that come from a simulated planet in a galaxy far far away:

Also, if you look at the published research — as Kenny, Jones and Bolt could easily have done — you’ll find any number of climate scientists concluding that global warming is having an effect.

The recent drought in South Africa, for example, in which Cape Town nearly ran out of water, was made three times more likely by climate change, according to researchers led by Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute.

And studies by different researchers of 45 droughts around the world — mapped here by UK website Carbon Brief — have found that 30 were made worse or more likely by human-induced climate change.

So fake evidence from fake planets. And Paul Barry, master journalist of journalists, could have “looked” at the published research too, just as easily as he says Kenny, Bolt, and Jones could have. Obviously he didn’t. Or he could have just googled and found joannenova.com.au and I would have explained for free just how meaningless those modeled calculations of “percentage chances” are when they come from skillless models that even the modelers admit ” don’t understand what causes droughts.”

Might as well ask as astrologer how many droughts were caused by your  air conditioner. It’s be better national policy than asking UNSW – it’d have just as much chance of success but be a lot cheaper.

I’ve been pointing out for years how dismal climate modelers are with rainfall, quite possibly because they don’t include solar spectral, magnetic or solar wind variation and solar cycles seem to be linked to rainfall, streamflow, jetstreams, floods and droughts:

REFERENCE

[1] Anagnostopoulos, G. G., D. Koutsoyiannis, A. Christofides, A. Efstratiadis, and N. Mamassis, (2010). A comparison of local and aggregated climate model outputs with observed data’, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 55: 7, 1094 — 1110 [PDF]

Professor Andy Pitman, (2019) Presentation — The SEI forum: Adapting Climate Science for Business, Wednesday 19 June, 2019, Sydney Environment Institute (SEI), University of Sydney.

9.7 out of 10 based on 54 ratings

Extinction Rebellion’s real target are old English men

Exstinction Rebellion Logo

Extinction Rebellion leader says its not about climate — it’s about toxic white European racist heterosexists, especially old Brits

Basden o-chosen-one is here to save us from our delusions — if you thought fossil fuels caused climates to break, you are in denial. Storms and floods are really a symptom of the toxic infection that is European civilization!

Apparently even the IPCC are denialists that the real cause of bad weather is old white English men.

I’m so grateful to Stuart Basden, one of the first 15 XR founders, for explaining what XR is really about. Thanks to Charles the moderator at WUWT, and Chris D for sending the Medium essay.

Share this link widely I say, the more people who read this the better.

 Extinction Rebellion isn’t about the Climate

by Stuart Basden

…  I’m here to say that XR isn’t about the climate. You see, the climate’s breakdown is a symptom of a toxic system of that has infected the ways we relate to each other as humans and to all life. This was exacerbated when European ‘civilisation’ was spread around the globe through cruelty and violence (especially) over the last 600 years of colonialism, although the roots of the infections go much further back.

Feel the hate.

As Europeans spread their toxicity around the world, they brought torture, genocide, carnage and suffering to the ends of the earth. Their cultural myths justified the horrors, such as the idea that indigenous people were animals (not humans), and therefore God had given us dominion over them. This was used to justify a multi-continent-wide genocide of tens of millions of people. The coming of the scientific era saw this intensify, as the world around us was increasingly seen as ‘dead’ matter — just sitting there waiting for us to exploit it and use it up. We’re now using it up faster than ever.

Thought I was joking about old English men?

Euro-Americans violently imposed and taught dangerous delusions that they used to justify the exploitation and reinforced our dominance, while silencing worldviews that differed or challenged them. The UK’s hand in this was enormous, as can be seen by the size of the former British empire, and the dominance of the English language around the world. There is stark evidence that everyday racial bias continues in Britain, now, today. It’s worth naming some of these constructed delusions that have been coded into societies and institutions around the world:

The delusion of white-supremacy… blah…etc

The delusion of patriarchy,…  Eurocentrism, The delusions of hetero-sexism/heteronormativity and class hierarchy

Note the reasoning: “If you don’t agree with me you are a brain-dead idiot”:

To focus on the climate’s breakdown (the symptom) without focusing attention on these toxic delusions (the causes) is a form a denialism. Worse, it’s a racist and sexist form of denialism…

Make that a racist, sexist brain-dead idiot.

It appears this self hate is what happens when civilizations get too comfortable. There’s no cause to fight for anymore, all the big problems are solved, like dysentery, famine  and small pox. There’s too much food, too much education, too much welfare, but not enough time to remember we are the luckiest generation on Earth.

Comments under the Medium article:

AKB Lndn says

Before I read this article, I thought XR was a movement I could support and believe in. Now, frankly, I’m just confused….

Keep reading  →

9.1 out of 10 based on 81 ratings

Weekend Unthreaded

9.7 out of 10 based on 18 ratings

The Guardian pledge to be a non-stop propaganda sheet for the climate industry

 I admire The Guardian’s honesty. If the sun drives climate change and a foreign unaudited UN committee is grossly exaggerating, at least we  know that The Guardian will be the last commercial news outlet on Earth to report it.

The Guardian helpfully puts this message on all the pages we read — just in case we forget for a moment and think it might be pursuing actual journalism and full fearless investigations.

The Guardian pledge

….

 

The Guardian’s pledge is to pursue “Guardian journalism” whatever that is. Apparently the editors are experts in radiative atmospheric physics, even moreso than Prof Richard Lindzen. Why does the government bother to fund more scientific research — The Guardian already knows all the answers.

For the third time this year, they are broadcasting their approved mangled language for use in climate news. Presumably they are hoping their version of Climglish will catch on.

 The Guardian Guide to mangling language:

It’s a crisis, not a change’: the six Guardian language changes on climate matters

A short glossary of the changes we’ve made to the Guardian’s style guide, for use by our journalists and editors when writing about the environment

In addition to providing updated guidelines on which images our editors should use to illustrate the climate emergency, we have updated our style guide to introduce terms that more accurately describe the environmental crises facing the world. Our editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, said: “We want to ensure that we are being scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on this very important issue”. These are the guidelines provided to our journalists and editors to be used in the production of all environment coverage across the Guardian’s website and paper:

They want to be scientifically precise which is why they will stop using partial ambiguous hyperbole, and opt for pure hyperbole instead:

1.) “climate emergency” or “climate crisis” to be used instead of “climate change”

Climate change is no longer considered to accurately reflect the seriousness of the overall situation; use climate emergency or climate crisis instead to describe the broader impact of climate change. However, use climate breakdown or climate change or global heating when describing it specifically in a scientific or geophysical sense eg “Scientists say climate breakdown has led to an increase in the intensity of hurricanes”.

Apparently when fewer people die from natural disasters, less wildfires occur, more rain falls, and more food is produced, “it’s an emergency”.

As for climate breakdown, it sounds like the climate is disaggregrating into lots of little pieces, or perhaps Earth’s run out of gas and has stopped by the side of the orbit? How accurate is that…

Petty namecalling — the first resort of losers when they’ve run out of reasons

Climate denier is a religious term of pure denigration and insult. You have the brain of a lizard, your opinion is worthless.  That means The Guardian does not have to ask deniers opinion. It helps to scare off “journalists” from interviewing half the population lest they hear something they can’t un-hear, which is important when your religion is paper-thin glass bubble of nonsense. The last thing the politbureau wants is journalists being exposed to ‘dangerous” information.

In making this a blanket advisory, The Guardian is effectively claiming there are no climate sceptics left on Earth — the term is to be replaced. They don’t offer examples where “skeptic” can be used. Everyone who isn’t an XR wing commander is practically a denier.

It’s a lame projection of their own religious certainty. But in reality, the only people who have already arrived at a definitive predetermined conclusion are the believers — and the only people seeking the truth are the “deniers”.

2.) “climate science denier” or “climate denier” to be used instead of “climate sceptic”

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The OED defines a sceptic as “a seeker of the truth; an inquirer who has not yet arrived at definite conclusions”. Most “climate sceptics”, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, deny climate change is happening, or is caused by human activity, so ‘denier’ is more accurate.

Dear “The Guardian” — just name that overwhelming scientific evidence skeptics deny, and then skeptics’ll explain what scientific evidence is and how it doesn’t come from a simulation. As for scientific accuracy, go on, name that person who thinks there is no climate, or that climate science does not exist.

Climate, Science and Denier are all simple words with well defined meanings in English. It’s pretty obvious what they should mean, and pretty obvious that there is nothing scientific about this definition.

Next, The Guardian can explain what accuracy means — now that it’s no longer something exact, precise or correct.

3.) Use “global heating” not “global warming”
‘Global heating’ is more scientifically accurate. Greenhouse gases form an atmospheric blanket that stops the sun’s heat escaping back to space.

How is heating “more scientifically accurate” than warming? The atmospheric blanket the Guardian mentions is “an insulator” not a heater. Thus, if scientific accuracy mattered, The Guardian would be talking about increasing global insulation.  Greenhouse gases don’t add heat, they add insulation, eh?  But obviously heating sounds so much more scary than warmth.

And once again The Guardian chooses PR — not news, not evidence and not accuracy. It’s just the Greens Left Weekly, but on a daily basis.

9.8 out of 10 based on 112 ratings

Furious commuters drag Extinction Rebellion protestors off train

Case #412 of religious fanatics overplaying their hand again

Two protesters in London had stopped the Jubilee line train by standing on top of it with a banner. Two more were planning to glue themselves to the train, but the crowd was fed up. Mahatir Pashais a journalist for ITV News who apparently witnessed and filmed the furious commuters. He writes on twitter: “One commuter shouted “I need to get to work, I have to feed my kids,” when the protestors initially went up.” Then there was the “shocking moment angry commuters drag two #ExtinctionRebellion protestors off the top of a train in Canning Town and attack them.”

The crowd cheered as the protesters and their banner were removed, and though people called for calm, some got violent. In an awful moment, one of the protesters was kicked and bruised (UPDATE: Looks like that was exaggerated.  No photos or reports today of any injuries). The protesters shouldn’t have been there, and the mob shouldn’t have got violent. *The mob it seems just got rough.

This is what we get after two decades of shutting down the conversation — most people aren’t convinced, and most activists are loopy. No middle ground.

.

 

Instead of trying to force the crowd to bow before their lecture, they could always stop namecalling, and actually listen to the people they are trying to persuade. Just a thought.

At the moment all XR protests have been banned across London, which is being challenged in court. In this case, even most XR members thought the Jubilee line protesters went too far.

 The Mirror, UK,

A poll on the Extinction Rebellion Telegram chat showed 86 per cent of members were against action targeting the London Underground.

Keep reading  →

9.6 out of 10 based on 101 ratings

“A climate of fear on campus” — Susan Crockford Polar bear expert excommunicated

Add Susan Crockford’s name to the list of scientists being tossed out of the academic cathedral because they dare speak the truth. University of Victoria give no reasons for suddenly ending her long unpaid role as adjunct professor, but if they had evidence of incompetence, misinformation, deceit or poor performance, you can be sure they would say so.

The academic casualty list includes Peter Ridd, Bob Carter, Murry Salby, Bjorn Lomborg, David Legates, Nick Drapela, Pat Michaels, Mitchell Taylor, and now Susan Crockford. Outside academia those expunged from screens include David Bellamy, Johnny Ball, Phillip Vernier. Forced out of institutes were Caleb Rossiter and Lennart Bengtsson. The threat of RICO investigations drove Roger Pielke into a different career. Read “my unhappy life as a climate heretic“. Likewise Al Gore sacked Will Happer.

Others put up with the bullying and stay silent til they retire like Dr Rex Fleming from NOAA or they report anonymously after working for 40 years at the National Weather Service. Sometimes the bullying even follows people home, like Dr Fisher, economist and former ABARE manager who’s house was egged. All he did was model the costs of climate policies. Art Robinson ran for Congress and his three children were targeted at Oregon State Uni. No doubt there are more, please add them in comments.

Untold are the stories of all the academics and business people who stay silent, move jobs, change departments, and even leave the West in order to escape the punishment. From emails to me, I know it’s happening all over the scientific world, not just in climate change. Western universities are a toxic wasteland of political correctness. You can study namecalling at Queensland University, but not free speech or logic and reason.

Susan Crockford

Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Expert

Was this zoologist punished for telling school kids politically incorrect facts about polar bears?

Thanks to Donna La Framboise, Financial Post:

 A world-renowned expert in animal bone identification has lost her position at the University of Victoria (UVic), she believes for telling school kids politically incorrect facts about polar bears.

Zoologist Dr. Susan Crockford is routinely hired by biologists and archeologists in Canada and abroad to identify the remains of mammals, birds and fish. She has helped catalog museum collections, and assisted police with forensic analyses. But UVic students will no longer benefit from her expertise, and her ability to apply for research grants has come to a screeching halt. In May, the Anthropology Department withdrew her Adjunct Professor status, depriving her of a university affiliation.

Crockford describes her expulsion as “an academic hanging without a trial, conducted behind closed doors.”

The position of Adjunct Professor is unpaid. In exchange for mentoring students, sitting on thesis committees, and delivering occasional lectures, adjuncts gain official academic standing and full access to library research services. When asked what safeguards ensure that adjuncts can’t be excommunicated merely for expressing unpopular ideas, spokesman Marck declined to respond, citing provincial privacy legislation. In his words, the university doesn’t disclose “information about internal processes. We must respect the privacy rights of all members of our campus community.”

In this case, the university is not protecting Crockford’s right to privacy. Instead, it is using a privacy smokescreen to protect members of a committee who have decided to purge an adjunct professor without reason or explanation.

G. Cornelis van Kooten, a UVic professor of economics who also holds a Canada Research Chair in environmental studies, says he is “appalled and distressed” by the Crockford removal. When, he asks, did “universities turn against open debate? There’s now a climate of fear on campus.”

Read it all: Financial Post

Susan Crockfords blog:  Polarbearscience.com

Donna La Framboise: Nofrakkingconsensus.com

Adjunct Profs cost universities very little, and offer mentoring and sometimes attract grants. (Lomborg came with $4m, but it wasn’t enough.) When they threaten the Big-Government religion and cash cow, universities will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the most petty of pursuits to excise them and deprive them of their titles lest they speak out.

(h/t to Bob FJ, Notalotofpeopleknowthat, and GWPF)

9.9 out of 10 based on 86 ratings

Australian energy market likened to Papua New Guinea – unreliable, risky, like “developing nation”

 

The AEMO, theoretically the Australian Energy Market Operator, warned that people in Victoria and NSW face a high risk of blackouts this summer. Today the Sydney Morning Herald describes how big business is fed-up, calling it “disgraceful” that they have had to spend millions to install back up generators.   The chief of Coca-cola Amatil Australia compared the situation to what they face in Papua New Guinea.

How green is your diesel?

A disgraceful situation — the blackout risk in Australia

by Darren Gray and Nick Toscano.

Australia’s biggest fruit and vegetable grower, Costa Group, has blasted the “disgraceful” state of the nation’s energy market after fears of summer blackouts forced the company to spend millions of dollars on back-up generators to protect its crops around the country.

Harry Debney, the head of ASX-listed horticulture giant Costa Group, said the company had installed back-up generators to protect crops from a disruption to energy supplies in a number of states.

“It’s a disgraceful situation,” Mr Debney said. “We’re so concerned. There’s a lack of reliability, which is even more important than the cost, because if you’re out of production it just really hurts you very badly.”

His concerns were echoed by ASX-listed Alumina Limited which, along with Alcoa owns the majority of western Victoria’s Portland aluminium smelter, and warned that long-term outages could be damaging. Last week Coca-Cola Amatil boss Alison Watkins likened the situation to one the company would face in developing countries like Papua New Guinea while Bluescope has also raised concerns.

In response, the Federal Government is building gold-plated bandaids — spending bazillions to build Snowy 2.0 which will burn up and waste 20 – 30% of the electricity fed into it, but smooth out some of the unreliable supply. Minister Angus Taylor, squarely blames Victoria for “the speed at which the Victorian government was seeking to introduce renewable energy into market – a renewables target of 50 per cent by 2030 – without the baseload capacity to support it.”

Meanwhile, the Victorian Government is in deep denial

Apparently what the nation needs is a joint headlong rush into wind and solar.

Victoria’s energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the the country was lacking “any type of federal leadership when it comes to energy policy”.

“Victoria is investing in renewable energy to put more power into the grid and drive down power prices,” she said. “We stand ready to work with the Commonwealth, whenever they are interested in being constructive on this vital issue.”

If we only had more of the same thing that caused high prices and reckless instability we could get low prices and a reliable supply?

h/t Dave B

 

9.9 out of 10 based on 77 ratings

The inference crisis: when one third of experts draw the wrong conclusions with “way too much confidence”.

So much for expert judgement

In a test of scientists abilities, the same data was sent to 27 teams of researchers in cognitive psychology. The idea was to test the theoretical inferences they drew. But those expert teams drew conclusions from identical data that varied, oh boy, all the way from “zero to 100 percent.” One of the research team described it as a “jaw dropping” result —   where only one third of the experts made the correct inferences about what that data meant. Two thirds of the experts were either totally wrong or just operating “a bit better than pure guessing”.

What are we teaching at universities?

Beyond the ‘replication crisis,’ does research face an ‘inference crisis’?

Researchers test expert inferences against known data, find inconsistency

What they found was “enormous variability between researchers in what they inferred from the same sets of data,” Starns says. “For most data sets, the answers ranged from 0 to 100 percent across the 27 responders,” he adds, “that was the most shocking.”

Rotello reports that about one-third of responders “seemed to be doing OK,” one-third did a bit better than pure guessing, and one-third “made misleading conclusions.” She adds, “Our jaws dropped when we saw that. How is it that researchers who have used these tools for years could come to completely different conclusions about what’s going on?”

Starns notes, “Some people made a lot more incorrect calls than they should have. Some incorrect conclusions are unavoidable with noisy data, but they made those incorrect inferences with way too much confidence.

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9 out of 10 based on 73 ratings

Midweek Unthreaded

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Solar-power failure: Cloud causes System Black event at Alice Springs, affecting thousands

Welcome to the new complexified energy grid where a cloud can cause a system black event — knocking out power for as much as nine hours. This affected the hospital for 30 minutes and the prolonged problems caused many businesses and supermarkets to close. Alice Springs is an island microgrid servicing about 29,000 people in the centre of Australia. It was 38 degrees C yesterday when the power went out. Shame about those fridges and air conditioning units.

Alice Springs is a mini version of larger grids showing how fragile these new complicated systems of multiple generators based on weather events and batteries can be.

Alice Springs, Blackout. Photo by Stefano, Wikimedia.

Looks modern, sometimes has electricity too. Alice Springs  |  Photo by Stefano, Wikimedia.

 Yesterday: Thousands impacted by Alice Springs power blackout*

Steve Vivian, ABC News

Thousands of residents in Central Australia went without power yesterday afternoon, with some experiencing blackout conditions for up to nine hours.

Electricity was cut across the Alice Springs region around 2:30pm yesterday and was not restored in some areas until 10:47pm.

Today: Inquiry called, and explanations garbled — NT Chief Minister announces review

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner told ABC Darwin Breakfast the outage stemmed from a generation issue.

“We’re not quite sure what’s happened there,” he said. “It shouldn’t happen … there seems to be an unacceptable failure here between the battery and the gensets [generation sets]. “We should be able to handle switches between solar and gensets.”

Caused by a cloud? I defy anyone to interpret this sentence literally:

The outage was caused by a cloud which rolled in to Alice Springs about 2:00pm on Sunday, which caused a “reasonably large increase” to the system, Mr Duignan said. “That resulted in the majority of our units going into an overload condition,” he said.

“Those units stayed in an overload condition for a number of minutes before they tripped off on their protection systems … the battery energy storage system went to full output before it tripped off as a consequence of the outage.”

And the words “solar failure” are never to be spoken.

Apparently there were many warning signs and engineers saw it all coming

From April 2019: “Without old power station we’d be ‘stuffed’: ETU”

A letter to the Editor of Alice Springs News, from the ETU = Electrical Trades Union

Sir – The majority of the 29,000 residents of Alice Springs were without power on Easter Sunday after a cable fault in the Desert Springs and Mount Johns area.

This is the second time in 10 days major power outages have affected the Alice Springs network. We praise the PowerWater (PWC) and Territory Generation (TGen) front line workers for their dedication and expertise which ensured a timely restoration of supply, but we have major concerns about future reliability of the Alice power supply.

Concerns relate to the ability of the new Owen Springs Power Station (OSPS) to consistently maintaining supply to the network without the Ron Goodin Power Station (RGPS) being available. There are also questions remaining around the Battery Energy Storage System’s (BESS) actual functions.

We are disappointed that TGen and the Government were failing to respond to workers’ concerns about the compressed timeline for the closure of RGPS. This blackout and the previous blackout show clearly that without backup of Ron Goodin Power Station (pictured), the Alice would have been stuffed. Without RGPS being available as it is currently we have no idea how long Alice Springs residents would have been without power after both these recent events.

Dave “Strawbs” Hayes

ETU NT Organiser

Oct 14, 2019 Probe into Alice Springs power outage

AAP, The Canberra Times

“The guys on the front line live and breathe this stuff and they have been saying for months that Ron Goodin Power Station was prematurely closed and that Owen Springs was not adequately tested to ensure continuity of supply,” union organiser Dave Hayes said.

This is what happens when electrical grids are run by climate scientists and not engineers.

h/t Dave B

Correction: The first link led to a different 2016 blackout story (highlighted by the ABC as “related news”):  Thousands impacted by Alice Springs power blackout, calls for compensation.  by Joanne Crothers. This has been replaced with a quote about the blackout two days ago which is obviously more “related”.  h/t Peter Fitzroy and commenters. Sorry about the confusion caused.

 

9.8 out of 10 based on 93 ratings

Extinction Rebellion are run by paid activists — the £200,000 “grassroots” movement

Extinction Rebellion protest

Looks like a religion, acts like a religion…  @ExtinctionR

Just another group profiting from “climate change”

What other grassroots movement has fears of “six figure tax bills”? And these are just the UK figures.

How Extinction Rebellion climate change zealots – including a baronet’s Cambridge-educated granddaughter – are paid £400 a week to bring mayhem to our streets

by Holly Bancroft and James Heale, Mail on Sunday

  • Extinction Rebellion activists are being paid up to £400-a-week to lead protests
  • Activists have been paid more than £200,000 since the start of the scheme  
  • The eco-protest group privately fears it could face six-figure tax bill from HMRC 
  • Tory MP calls on HMRC to launch an investigation into the group’s tax affairs

A document entitled Finance Policy And Processes seen by this newspaper in a ‘work in progress’ version states: ‘The maximum claim for volunteer living expenses is £400 a week (or £200 for someone volunteering part-time).”

But XR’s documents raise concerns about the fact that it has paid no tax or National Insurance on these sums, and questioned the employment status of activists.

The payments aren’t illegal, though the tax avoidance might be. But it says something about the motivations of key players and about how much money all told is still rattling around the alarmist camp. Most protestors are not paid, but how many would be there if there wasn’t money to throw at key organizers?

Speaking of key organisers…

“XR co-founder Roger Hallam asked for £300 a week.” Gail Bradbrook who co-founded Extinction Rebellion, asked for payments of £600 a month. She and Hallam set up the movement after she was inspired by a hallucinogenic experience. The same woman that called for a rapid reduction in air travel, just happily admitted that she flew 11,000 air miles to Costa Rica for a holiday herself in 2016 where she took the drugs. The Sun is pointing out that hypocrisy. After that “trip” she then returned to the UK to start a movement, separate her family, end a marriage and “that was the right thing to do”. Curious phrasing.

Bradbrook, a consultant who has two grown-up sons and lives in a council house in Stroud, Gloucs, added: “I’d been focused on trying to start civil disobedience since 2010. I’d tried many things and they hadn’t worked. So I went on a retreat and prayed, with some psychedelic medicines. It was really intense and I prayed for what I called the codes for social change and within a month my prayer was answered.”

How Psychadelics shaped Extinction Rebellion (XR)

Gail Bradbrook: I’d been trying to start a campaign of mass civil disobedience for years before Extinction Rebellion.

Maybe it’s my Taureun nature but I’m a bit of a bull…

So she is a born activist looking for a cause. Not inspired by scientific evidence so much as astrology and drugs.  Nevermind.

Exstinction Rebellion LogoEverything about this is manufactured theater

XR is even trying to create a look that fits “diversity” memes. Because this movement is about earning status points in social pecking orders, its ranks are filled with white, university educated children. This is not about the hordes affected by extreme weather, which of course, barely exists, and is a smaller proportion of the population today than ever (Pielke 2018).

The Mail on Sunday team has documents showing the organisers are considering putting out a call for “poor and working class” protesters. At least one member objects to the “tokenism” of doing things this way as if black people can just be “ordered from a catalogue”.

No one cares that the whole movement appears to have been ordered from a catalogue.

Even the protestors need protection from their own protests

They say they care about the planet and the poor, but apparently not so much about their own supporters. Green and Black cross was providing legal support but have scathingly abandoned the movement — saying they are peddling misleading and inaccurate information about the legal process.

Extinction Rebellion protests: Activists accuse group of failing to prepare members for being arrested

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9.8 out of 10 based on 89 ratings

How dare you steal my dreams for a sensible democracy!

Adam Bandt, Greens MP, set up a  Parliamentary Committee on Climate Action which aims to declare a Climate Emergency in Australia. Five Liberal (conservatives) have signed up to the chicken-entrails committee.

Rowan Dean has a message on Sky News for Tim Wilson, Dave Sharma, Jason Falinski, Katie Allen, Angie Bell and Trent Zimmerman, said in a Swedishy indignant voice

How Dare You!

You have stolen my dreams and my hopes for a sensible conservative government with your empty words like renewables and climate emergencies.

People are being conned, people are being hoodwinked,

Entire educational standards are collapsing before our eyes…

 I would add: How dare you wreck a perfectly good civilization based on nothing more than inept simulations from an immature crystal ball gazing science, staffed with B-grade, aggrandizing pretenders that hide declines, fiddle data, and think namecalling is an analytical technique.

How dare you exploit the weak minded, inciting the gullibles to break the law and glue themselves to crosswalks!

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9.7 out of 10 based on 124 ratings

Weekend Unthreaded

9 out of 10 based on 24 ratings

Battle of the religions: Vatican may list Green Sins against planet

The Catholic Church eyes off the competition — the Green Church of hippie witchdoctors. Thinks about discovering a new commandment — thou shalt not hurt silicon dioxide, (or something like that.)

Some catholic delegates call it an ecological conversion. I call it a marketing campaign.

Harming planet could be a sin, say Vatican delegates

by Tom Kington, The Australian

Delegates at the Pope’s synod on the creeping destruction of the Amazon have called for crimes against the environment to be ranked alongside traditional sins and have raised the idea of “ecological conversion” to a greener brand of Catholicism.

Can’t beat the pagans — can join them:

Conservative critics of the Pope, who loathe his liberal stances on homosexuality and divorce, claim that he has no business fighting climate change. They also allege that the synod’s working document gives tacit approval to pagan worship by praising the closeness of Amazon tribes to ­nature. Cardinal Gerhard Muller, from Germany, a former senior Vatican official who was ousted by the Pope in 2017 over his conservative views, has criticized the term “ecological conversion”, stating: “There is only conversion to the Lord.”

The Vatican wants to be a guide for lost souls, a Sunday social program and the Global EPA.

PS: Rock pic etc coming when I have unpacked, done red dust eradication and overcome camping-lag.

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9.1 out of 10 based on 61 ratings