Summer solstice to coincide with full moon for first time in 70 years

Credit: NASA

Strictly speaking it’s been 68 years but we get the idea.
For links to videos see the original IB Times report.

For the first time in 70 years, the full moon will rise on the day of the summer solstice. The rare astronomical event will occur on Monday (20 June 2016) and will be observed all around the world.

Solstices happen twice a year and correspond to the moment when the sun reaches its highest or lowest point from Earth as it orbits the Sun.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the June solstice marks the beginning of summer and is the longest day of the year, because it has the longest period of daylight. [Well, yes.]

Walter Starck: The Reef’s Self-Serving Saviours

From Quadrant online, another great essay by Walter Starck on the Great Barrier Reef and the alarm industry shills conniving to defraud the public with scare stories about it.

Virtually every year for the past half-century news reports have bannered dire proclamations by “reef experts” on imminent “threats” to the Great Barrier Reef. This has sustained an ongoing, ever-growing charade of “research” and “management” aimed at saving the reef from a litany of hypothetical threats conjured up by a salvation industry which now costs taxpayers over $100 million annually. Although none of these “threats” have ever proven to be anything other than hypothetical possibilities or  temporary fluctuations of nature, the doomsters never cease to rummage through their litany of concerns to find something they can present as urgent in order to keep the funding flowing.

#Brexit – A big decision, but not a difficult one

Leeds Leave EU

Excellent opinion piece in the Telegraph by Charles Moore. This is the conclusion:

The 21st century is supposed to be the age of people power, yet we, in Britain, have less of it than did our grandparents. The EU is leading us away from democratic modernity. There is no evidence that it will change direction: indeed, it is so constituted that it can’t.

Because of David Cameron’s elaborate political calculations, we now have this referendum. We cannot dictate any detail by our vote, but we can mandate our Government to leave, or permit it to stay. Trepidation about leaving is understandable, because we cannot know exactly what would happen next. The Parliament whose freedom we would recover needs massive re-equipping for the task. But we have, for one brief moment, recovered the power that has gradually been removed from us. If we vote Leave, we maximise it; if we vote Remain, we throw it away.

UK’s Wind Power Nightmare Hits High Farce: Having Wrecked Everything, Wind Industry Now Says ‘Britain Not Windy Enough’

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When will the muppets people who approve the subsidies stop throwing money at these vastly overrated toys?

STOP THESE THINGS

Wind is an occasional ally in all sorts of recreational pursuits: sailing, kite surfing, puffing on a ready-to-burst dandelion and watching their parasol seeds drift skywards, and the childish delight of sending kites aloft. But it’s taken a special breed of Muppet to turn a source of sporadic fun into a ridiculously expensive, sometime source of electricity.

In our recent post on the comparative debacles of South Australia and the UK we picked up on the line dropped by Britain’s head wind spinner, Hugh McNeal (RenewableUK) who – now that the subsidy trough has been emptied – says there is no chance of any more of these things blighting Blighty as: ‘The wind speeds don’t allow for it.’

After that (stating the bleeding obvious) admission, the few among Britain’s journos that get it had a field day.

After years of being fed a myth about the wind ‘powering’ Britain for…

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Smart Grid technology may not be needed

‘Smart’ meter [image credit: heartland.org]

Are smart meters not such a smart idea after all? Quite possibly according to this PEI report. Germany has already turned against them.

The transition to an intelligent electricity grid in Europe can take place without smart meters, according to industry players who spoke at the annual Eurelectric conference in Vilnius this week.

Is Science on the verge of a nervous breakdown ?

Science under stress?[image credit: thespiritscience.net]

The Financial Post’s Junk Science Week stirs up the debate.
H/T GWPF

Science is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Just about everything we take for granted in modern science, from the use of big data to computer models of major parts of our social, economic and natural environment and on to the often absurd uses of statistical methods to fish for predetermined conclusions.

The Sun comes out for #Brexit

The first UK newspaper to commit to a position on the EU referendum, The Sun, backs Brexit. With the opinion polls moving in that direction, and the odds shortening by the day, the mood of the country is palpably changing. I’m working long days to help make this happen. I want my country back.

Solar System may hold ten planets or more, say scientists

More big planets than this in our solar system? [credit: wikipedia]

Talk of a ‘Planet 9’ has stirred up the planetary theorists it seems. Think of a number…
H/T Daily Telegraph

The Solar System may hold 10 or 11 planets, scientists have predicted after running new computer models on the data which led to the announcement of Planet Nine.

In January, astronomers Professor Konstantin Batygin and Professor Mike Brown from California Institute of Technology predicted the existence of a ninth planet after discovering that 13 objects in the Kuiper Belt – an area beyond Neptune – were all moving together as if ‘lassooed’ by the gravity of a huge object.

Booker Unravels Renewable UK’s Wind Power Claims

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Let’s not mess around. UK energy policy is being run by fools, liars and frankly, nutters.

Milky Way now hidden from one-third of humanity

The Milky Way in the night sky over Black Rock Desert, Nevada [image credit: Steve Jurvetson / Wikipedia]

What do we see when we look at the night sky? For a lot of people the answer is ‘light pollution’. Another effect of the ever-increasing urbanisation of the world.

The Milky Way, the brilliant river of stars that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial, is but a faded memory to one third of humanity and 80 percent of Americans, according to a new global atlas of light pollution produced by Italian and American scientists.

Light pollution is one of the most pervasive forms of environmental alteration. In most developed countries, the ubiquitous presence of artificial lights creates a luminous fog that swamps the stars and constellations of the night sky.

“We’ve got whole generations of people in the United States who have never seen the Milky Way,” said Chris Elvidge, a scientist with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information in Boulder, Colorado. “It’s a big part of our connection to the cosmos — and it’s been lost.”

Rep. Lamar Smith has valid reasons for investigating NOAA

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It’s not hard to imagine Lamar Smith is getting some serious inside info from somebody somewhere, to convince him to pursue an ‘unpopular’ (with climate fanatics) line of enquiry.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

http://www.climatechangedispatch.com/rep-lamar-smith-has-valid-reasons-for-investigating-noaa.html

Climate Change Dispatch have a good guest post from Steven Capozzola about Lamar Smith’s investigation of NOAA’s “Pausebuster” data fiddling:

Reading the news lately, one might think that Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is some sort of backwards character from the 19th century, a “member of the Flat Earth Society.” So great is the venom directed at him that the UK’s Guardian has referred to him as a “Witch Hunter.”

But what exactly is Smith’s crime?

Under his authority as chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, he’s chosen to investigate the research methods of the taxpayer-funded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Last year, NOAA released a study that found there has been no “pause” in recent global warming. Because the findings contradict every other set of observed data on global temperatures, and were issued ahead of the Paris Climate summit, Smith wants to…

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Upcoming TV appearance: #Brexit debate in Leeds

Thurs 9pm @madeinleeds #EUReferendum & #Leeds with @RCorbettMEP @leilastaleb @andreajenkyns @RogTallbloke pic.twitter.com/jFXCbQ8cWc

— Peg Alexander (@TVRadioPeg) June 7, 2016

I’m appearing in my capacity as the Deputy Regional Director for Vote Leave alongside Andrea Jenkyns MP to argue the case for Brexit against Richard Corbett MEP and Leila Taleb, a campaigner for social justice, regional devolution and equality.

It’s a one hour show, with 30 second intros followed by in depth discussion of four main topics which I guess will be:- The economy, migration, democracy and security.

Astronomers discover a giant planet spinning up its star

An artist’s image of a hot-Jupiter exoplanet [credit: NASA]

What exactly goes on in terms of interactions between giant planets and their host star? The researchers admit the need ‘to disentangle some of the very poorly understood physics behind tidal dissipation’, as Phys.org reports. More observations needed.

A giant “hot Jupiter” exoplanet has recently been detected by an international team of astronomers led by Kaloyan Penev of Princeton University. The newly found alien world, designated HATS-18b, is an interesting case of a planet tidally spinning up its parent star.

GMB Union: Green energy arrogance ‘Not Acceptable’

A major UK trade union echoes what blog critics and others have been saying about the obvious weaknesses of unreliable wind power. Is anyone in political power listening?
H/T: GWPF

There were over 1½ months of low wind days since June 2015 when wind was supplying 10% or less of the installed and connected wind capacity to the grid.

When your electricity supply has “Gone with the Wind” the response of the renewable energy suppliers that “frankly my dear we don’t give a damn” is just not acceptable says GMB.

Bold British Brexit Beckons

Two political posts in a row from me, apologies to science lovers who have no dog in the EU referendum fight or the American presidency race.

For the first time in the EU referendum campaign, the ‘Leave’ camp has been ahead for more than a day. It is an incredibly tight race, with barely a couple of points splitting the rivals. There is a handy widget for monitoring the ‘poll of polls’, which averages the results of all the companies which test public opinion. Here’s the latest snapshot:

As you can see, the ‘leave’ camp have been the underdogs most of the way. But the mood seems to be changing, and in the final 16 days, the momentum seems to be on the side of those who wish to take back control of UK affairs from the unelected commissars in Brussels.

Is the U.S. about to administer Chemotherapy to it’s body politic?

Reblogged from Quillette

[Editor’s Note: This article was rejected by 45 different magazines, periodicals, and journals across the political spectrum: Far left, left, center, unaffiliated, right, far right, and libertarian.]

Trump is a monstrous choice for president. Monstrous. He’s a demagogue with a clear bent to authoritarianism. He’s completely politically inexperienced and has no clear idea what constitutes successful, appropriate, or even legal behavior for an elected official. He has repeatedly proven himself to be virtually incoherent on foreign policy, economics, diplomacy, and the military. His only true assets are self-promotion, juvenile tweets, and belittling his enemies. He’s barely qualified to be president of anything, especially anything with a military. It goes without saying, then, that essentially no one in their right mind should want him as President of the United States of America. The problem, however, is that America is no longer in its right mind. Major political cancers are driving it to madness.

Stonehenge was once a massive tomb in Wales, says top archaeology professor

[image credit: BBC]

Controversies about Stonehenge are never far away. Here’s another one, as the Daily Telegraph reports.

Stonehenge began life as an impressive Welsh tomb which was dismantled and shipped to Wiltshire, archaeologists now suspect.

Experts have known for some time that the smaller bluestones of the 5000-year-old Neolithic monument were brought 140 miles from the Preseli Mountains in Wales. But the question has always been why?

Evidence for the Medieval Warm Period on the SE Greenland Shelf

Kangerlussuaq Fjord, Greenland [image credit: notsogreen.com]

CO2Science summarises another study pointing to more ‘inconvenient’ data concerning the Medieval Warm Period.

In the introduction to their enlightening study, Miettinen et al. (2015) write that they “reconstructed August sea surface temperature (aSST) and April sea ice concentration (aSIC) at sub-decadal temporal resolution based on diatom assemblages found in sediment core MC99-2322 from the Kangerlussuaq Trough, SE Greenland shelf in order to investigate the variability of summer sea surface conditions along with possible forcing factors on the climatologically sensitive SE Greenland shelf during the last 1130 years.

R.J. Salvador: Bi-monthly LOD model update

Two Months ago, solar system dynamics researcher  R.J. Salvador gave us an update on the performance of his length of day (LOD) model. Based on our planetary theory, the model has performed well so far, showing aberrations from the real world data within two standard deviations on a couple of occasions, but mainly tracking the model projection very closely indeed. Here’s the latest plot.

Rick says:

The model is within range. Even in the correlation period there are these wobbles where the actual deviates from the model by 2 std dev. We may have to wait until the seasons change again to know if the deviation widens or closes. I will update it again in two months.

I wish all the best for Tim.

Good luck with your BREXIT campaign. 

It’s going to be fascinating watching further updates as they arrive for signs of planetary periodicity in the aberrations and/or trying to correlate them with major weather patterns which could be responsible.

James Marusek’s Little Ice Age Theory

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James Marusek’s paper says: I propose two mechanisms primarily responsible for Little Ice Age climatic conditions. These two components are Cloud Theory and Wind Theory.
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Thanks to Paul Homewood for bringing this to our attention.

[Click on ‘view original post’ below to find a link to the full paper].

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

James Marusek has sent me his latest paper, Little Ice Age Theory.

Excerpts below:

INTRODUCTION

The sun is undergoing a state change. It is possible that we may be at the cusp of the next Little Ice Age. For several centuries the relationship between periods of quiet sun and a prolonged brutal cold climate on Earth (referred to as Little Ice Ages) have been recognized. But the exact mechanisms behind this relationship have remained a mystery. We exist in an age of scientific enlightenment, equipped with modern tools to measure subtle changes with great precision. Therefore it is important to try and come to grips with these natural climatic drivers and mold the evolution of theories that describe the mechanisms behind Little Ice Ages.

The sun changes over time. There are decadal periods when the sun is very active magnetically, producing many sunspots. These periods are referred…

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