Nils-Axel Mörner

In a December 2011 article titled "The Spectator runs false sea-level claims on its cover", The Guardian describes Nils-Axel Mörner as "a serial promoter of nonsense". Mörner is a member of the Heartland Institute which is funded by oil companies and right wing organisations including  the Charles G. Koch Foundation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/dec/02/spectator-sea-level-claims

Heartland Insider Exposes Institute's Budget and Strategy
http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-insider-exposes-institute-s-budget-and-strategy

Pterodactyl

Xavier posted a fantasy pic on Facebook which reminded me of a motorcycle I'd owned some years back, a very fast Moto Guzzi based on a Tonti-framed 850T which I called the Pterodactyl. It was the only bike I'd ever given a name to. Three nights later I put the TV on whilst cooking dinner and SBS were playing a Godzilla movie with scenes featuring a flying dinosaur. I sat down to eat and chose foreign language movie at random, one I had no prior knowledge of, titled Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec. And what should it be about? A tomb-raiding vamp, Egyptian mummies and a pterodactyl!

Krait

The story of the Krait is a remarkable tale of courage and heroism by Australian commandos during WWII. The boat they used, the Krait, is named for the most poisonous of reptiles in SE Asia and India.

This is a krait.


Earlier tonight as I was researching a problem with a new Leica when what should come wriggling across the floor towards my dainty naked pinkies but a krait. I rescued the cat from certain death and ushered the cute little killer out the door.

Here is a picture.

Actually, this one's not a krait, it's a bandy-bandy. Harmless. Has a very specific diet. Eats blind snakes. I'm rather pleased to learn that I don't have effin kraits to deal with along with all the other beasties which seem to constantly invade - spiders, toads, possums, pythons, bush turkeys...

Earlier today a young magpie came in to investigate and had an adventure evading the increasingly interested cat, flying into windows and screen doors. I caught the magpie and fed it some of the cats food on the verandah, and it was shortly thereafter dogfighting its mates around the garden.

Another snake story I may have mentioned on this blog involves copperheads. My knowledgeable neighbour Bob has dealt with hundreds of snakes in his time as a cane-cutter and banana farmer, and informed me that the copperheads I'd found in the house (four of them now) were "not that bad". Turns out Australia has 9 out of 10 of the world's most deadly snakes. The copperhead is last on the list. Not that bad!


(Pics above not mine - one is from http://www.fotopedia.com/ not sure about the other - apologies to owner)

Punch and Judy Show

Thepunch.com.au - looks independent, doesn't it. Lots of writers from different backgrounds. Even a couple of token lefties for balance.

Think again.

Domain Name:                     thepunch.com.au
Last Modified:                   05-Jan-2011 23:10:04 UTC
Registrar ID:                    TPP Internet
Registrar Name:                  TPP Internet
Status:                          ok

Registrant:                      NEWS LIMITED
Registrant ID:                   ABN 47007871178

Lord Monckton, Fox and Free Market Thinking

This is a link to a video Lord Christopher Monckton speaking with Rafe Champion at the Mannkal board room in July 2011 on how to swing the public over to the "right" way of thinking about climate change...



https://www.youtube.com/embed/aX2kMAfJggU?rel=0

Feb 18th 2012
This video can be a bit elusive ... can't imagine why.
Currently avail at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGmZ4wjaVzE
Also try this search:
http://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&cp=23&gs_id=2&xhr=t&q=monckton+Mannkal++video&fp=f480a1c4d236f39

Or google "monckton Mannkal video"

Also on this subject, this page at ABC's The Drum is well worth a read...

At one point during the tour, Monckton told a boisterous partisan crowd:

"So to the bogus scientists who have produced the bogus science that invented this bogus scare I say, we are coming after you. We are going to prosecute you, and we are going to lock you up."

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3807130.html

Murdoch Press Muddy Waters

This article on what The Australian has to say on climate change is both enlightening and frightening. It seems unlikely that Murdoch's minions say this sort of thing because they believe it - they're far too intelligent to take the noisiest of the denialist loons seriously. So why? Money, most likely - they're being paid to lie, and they really don't give a damn that their children and great grand children will suffer greatly for those bags of silver.

"In the discussion of climate change, the future of the Earth and of humanity are at stake. As we shall see, what The Australian has contributed on climate change under editor Chris Mitchell's watch is a frightful hotchpotch of ideological prejudice and intellectual muddle."



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/newspaper-wages-campaign-against-climate-change-science-20110903-1jr57.html

Velikovsky

Like Tesla, a controversial figure, and one who few scientists give much credence. However, he came out with some quite remarkable stuff and there's still little explanation as to how. For instance, and if memory serves me well, he not only correctly predicted that Venus would have a much higher surface temperature than previously thought, but he also said it would be found to contra-rotate. It does. Tonight I found this...

"We are philosophically miles apart because basically we do not accept each other's form of reasoning — logic. I am of course quite convinced of your sincerity and I also admire the vast fund of information which you have painstakingly acquired over the years.
"I am not about to be converted to your form of reasoning though it certainly has had successes. You have after all predicted that Jupiter would be a source of radio noise, that Venus would have a high surface temperature, that the sun and bodies of the solar system would have large electrical charges and several other such predictions. Some of these predictions were said to be impossible when you made them. All of them were predicted long before proof that they were correct came to hand. Conversely I do not know of any specific prediction you made that has since been proven to be false. I suspect the merit lies in that you have a good basic background in the natural sciences and you are quite uninhibited by the prejudices and probability taboos which confine the thinking of most of us.
"Whether you are right or wrong I believe you deserve a fair hearing."

Professor H. H. Hess, then Chairman of the Space Board of the National Academy of Science, in a 1963 letter to Velikovsky

http://www.velikovsky.info/