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On the other side are aligned a much smaller number of scientists, some dedicated amateurs, very little money (the grants get taken away as soon as it’s clear the research is leading away from AGW) and a lot of measurements that get ‘invalidated’ regularly each time they show anything contrary to the AGW hypothesis.

It’s hard to know who to believe. But on the AGW side there’s some seriously poor science going on. Early on, one Michael Mann, now PhD, presented the ‘Hockey Stick’ graph seen below in Using the Net as evidence that in the 1900’s the temperature began to climb. The problem is, the graph is made up of tree ring data for the period up to 1900, then measurements made in the 20th century for the ‘blade’ of the hockey stick.

Another problem is that Mann was, at that time a PhD student, (hard to claim he was a ‘leading scientist’) and also a Leading Reviewer for the IPCC report, so he got to help make the decision to accept his Hockey Stick graph as a significant piece of evidence.

The tree ring data fails to show two events we know from history actually happened – the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period. Look them up – they happened, yet the Hockey Stick graph fails to show them. This invalidates the use of tree rings to show global temperature changes.

And if tree rings are so good as data, how come they didn’t simply use the 20th century tree rings to complete the hockey stick? There would seem to be something wrong with a ‘conclusive’ case that requires manipulation of evidence, don’t you think?

More problems come with how many times the pro-AGW side invalidates previously accepted measurements – not interpretations or theories, but actual measurements and then applies ‘corrections’ to the data so it shows what they are saying is happening. Yet before the IPCC came along, there seemed to be nothing wrong with those measurements.

Back in the 1970’s, there was voiced concern over whether the Earth was heading into a new Ice Age – the average temperatures had been trending down for something like thirty years. Yet now, the pro-AGW scientists have applied a ‘correction’ to show those measurements were actually wrong and that really, things were getting warmer during that three decades and the scientists of those times simply didn’t notice.

Your mission, should you accept it, is to use the information here to go and inform yourself as to what might be really going on. Don’t let a bureaucratic ‘inter-governmental’ body with an agenda decide what you will think – use the internet as it is meant to be used and go take a look for yourself.

In Using the Net and Finding the Truth I used the search for information about Anthropogenetic Global Warming (AGW – Human-caused Global Warming) to talk about Internet use.

Here is an example of how use of the Internet can undo the media-driven ideas that seem set to change our world. Note that I am not claiming that there is no warming happening, nor am I going into the very real possibility that global warming could trigger an ice age like that which occurred back around 1600AD or worse.

It’s an ongoing debate across the internet and has been for the past few years. Al Gore has made himself a Noble Peace Prize (oh, and for two thousand five hundred of the world’s ‘leading scientists’) for a movie called ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ (AIT) where they make a case for how human-generated carbon dioxide is the cause for Global Warming.

But there’s another side – less famous, but well presented, ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ is worth a watch. They talk about ‘AIT’ and some of the ‘errors’ made in the movie. Things like the slight misalignment of two graphs, one showing the temperature rises across thousands of years and the other the rise in carbon dioxide.

Also have a read of http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289

Looking at the AIT version, it seems that CO2 rises bring on warming, but when the graphs (derived from ice cores from Greenland) are matched properly, the situation gets reversed – first the temperature rises, then several hundred years later, the levels of CO2 rise.

In other words, Global Warming causes carbon dioxide levels to rise, not the other way around.

On one side are aligned the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – an organization specifically set up to investigate AGW, apparently at least two thousand five hundred of the world’s ‘leading scientists,’ billions of dollars of research grants and a mountain of papers Evil Knievel would be hard pressed to jump over.

There are some apparent problems with the two thousand five hundred of the world’s ‘leading scientists,’ in that many of them haven’t been in a laboratory since school days; some are ‘Administrative’ personnel.

While getting on to a forum and posting (especially for the first time) can be a lot of fun and exhilarating, there is a sobering note that comes along with joining forums (and with communicating with anyone you don’t know on the internet).

While a certain level of trust is involved when talking to any stranger, talking to people you don’t know on the internet involves even more trust. The person talking to you who says she is a twenty year old woman from Germany could actually be a twelve year old girl from Michigan. While you can do some (more…)

While forums come in many shapes and sizes on a variety of subjects, almost all forums have a few things in common. One big thing is the forum personalities who take part in the forums. You’ll often hear members call other members things like ‘flamer’, ‘troll’, ‘royalty’ or other terms.

Like in life, some personalities are good, and some aren’t so great. You mostly learn the hard way, but by paying attention to the labels given, you can avoid some trouble.

Here are a few of the personalities you might encounter:

*Trolls – ‘Troll’ is probably (more…)

The more members a forum has, the more likely it is that someone is going to have your username. But if you are ‘always’ a certain username but that name is taken on the forum, don’t worry. You can think of another one.

However, there are a few aspects to usernames that are sure to get you ridicule and/or make you sick of them after a certain amount of time. The last thing you want is to choose a name that you’re going to want to change soon after.

Here are a few tips for picking out a username that will last you for a long time and won’t open you up for insults:

*Don’t use your real name. As tempting as (more…)

You have the computer, you have the internet, and now you want to start talking to people. Right? You have heard all about how the internet connects people from across the world, so why not get connecting?

Internet forums are a great way to talk to people, make friends, learn new things and have your say as well. And the beauty of forums is you can find several different forums for any subject – everything from creative writing to travel to music and just having a casual chat. Even more niche subjects like House (the television show) have spaces on the internet.

Where do you get started?

The first step is the easiest (more…)

Occasionally Mr. JM and I will wander down to the local pub and have a couple of drinks. We go there mainly to say hello to our friend Cyril, who is at the pub every day but Sunday and days he has family commitments. Cyril is always good for a laugh and good conversation, but there is one thing he resists above all else…

Technology.

Though Mr. JM and I have been telling him all about how technology can benefit him, even just by having a mobile phone, he refuses to mess with ‘that nonsense’. I even brought in my laptop to the pub last Friday and, while impressed, he refused Mr. JM’s offer to get him a laptop. For free.

I’m not sure if you know anyone technology-resistant who would go so far as to refuse a free laptop, but I’m sure you know at least one person who (more…)

If you are anything like me, one of the big uses of your home computer is storing all your music. I currently have 892 songs in iTunes and that is likely to only grow.

Ever since I started working with computers, I have resisted Windows Media Player. I’m not quite sure why – there are plenty of good things about it – but WMP always seemed too much trouble to deal with when I wanted to organize and listen to my music. I tried plenty of players, but they mostly didn’t last long.

That is, until I (more…)

As you may know, I also write for the site Finally Getting Fit (among others) here on the 451Press network. On Finally Getting Fit, I talk about my weight loss journey and trying to make a healthier life for myself.

I have been overweight most of my life, but that’s not the case for everyone…

With the increase of convenience technology, humans have fewer and fewer reasons to be as active as they once were. To make up for that, some of us join gyms, make sure to get out and about on weekends, buy in home gyms…but not everyone does. And the more you get used to sitting in front of your computer (for whatever reason) the easier it is to pack on the pounds.

So what can you do about it? How do you lose the pounds without losing too much of your computer time?

*Get two tennis balls and (more…)

I guess the most obvious question about being a part of the internet is ‘Why?’ Some people may always be observers but not participants, using their access to read, view and download but never actually putting things out there for others to read, view and download.

Others spend their time playing online games – sometimes for money, which involves participation but rarely contributing to the morass of data that is the web. Yet if everybody felt this way, there would be no internet.

The web can be a safety valve, not just (more…)

In the previous post I used the example of the Hockey Stick graph used successfully by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control) to ramp up awareness of the warming trend caused (they say) by human industry and consumption.

Keep in mind, the above graph is what, until the IPCC got on the case, was an agreed record of global temperature trends. Agreed across Science, backed by historical records as well as things like ice core data.

So what happened? If you enter a search in your favourite search engine of ‘hockey stick graph’ you will find the main author was Dr Michael Mann. He was an IPCC lead reviewer who somehow got to highlight his own work as being most indicative of the AGW. (Anthropogenic Global Warming – the warming caused (more…)

For those who may have been exploring their Consciousness in a cave in the Andes, or perhaps have 5 children under five years old to look after, and thus may not know, for some time now there has been a controversy raging over whether or not Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is occurring.

This graph is the major source of the problem

Keep in mind, in this argument, nobody is suggesting we haven’t had recent warm weather, nor even that the Earth isn’t getting warmer. Indeed, standard Science has said all along that, since an event called The Little Ice Age about four hundred years ago, the Earth has been on a steady warming trend. (more…)

Some time back there was a flurry of activity about a movie called The Secret. It claims to contain information used by sages and successful people down through the ages and to be informative of a way of thought that those ‘in control’ don’t want us to know. It is available now to download from such sites as www.torrentz.com as a movie, an audio book and even as a hemisync track.

The hemisync track uses binaural beats to get your brain into alpha mode while the message of The Secret is talked about. The idea is to have it almost like hypnosis so the message gets in.

Powaqqatsi and Koyaanisqatsi are movies by Godrey Reggio which tend to defy categorization. They stand, I guess, as works of Art rather than Hollywood style movies. Koyaanisqatsi is a movie with (more…)

There are a variety of ways in which computers improve our multimedia experience. Those with the cash to spare can buy a Multimedia PC, using the functions built in to connect to a home entertainment system that rivals those which, until recently, (relatively) were only available in cinemas.

Surround sound, large screens, High Definition quality – all these contribute to an experience that leaves a simple TV night in the dirt. A few years back you could spend $5,000 on a fairly basic system and you’d be lucky if you knew anyone with a good system. Now you can upgrade your screen and use your computer to boost performance for an engrossing evening deep in the multimedia experience.

But you can also do it fairly simply with your computer. Systems these days come with more than enough memory, video performance, DVD players and hard disk space to let you spend some quality multimedia time in front of your machine.

It can also, properly configured, provide an enveloping experience with computer games.

Once good speakers were a necessary part of the quality time, but now there are cheap headphones that can easily match the performance of expensive speakers. And it means you can enjoy yourself in a room with people watching TV or doing other things.

Just try not to be vocal about things happening on the screen – it gets extraordinarily annoying to others to have odd unexplained noises coming from the corner of the room. Keeping the noise down can be thought of as divorce avoidance.

So, you’ve upgraded the RAM (memory) in your computer and now it runs better than before, but when you try to edit your digital video or convert your digicam footage into a DVD, it takes hours to run. Or maybe you go out and buy the latest game and then find it shows jerky video segments or takes excess time to update screens. What’s going on?

Well a lot of video performance issues come down to how capable your video card is. Most recent computers have a video chip on the motherboard to provide video capability. The problems with this may only surface (more…)