Smallest Sunspot Cycle in 80 Years, and ENSO is Headed South

Russ Steele

More details at The Next Grand Minimum 

Local Left Wants to Know What is the Big Deal with the Lightbulb Ban

Russ Steele

Here is one answer, they can burn your house down:

More on the SBC – Horse Puckey Sierra Warming

Russ Steele

Several years ago with Ellen and I were helping Anthony Watts with his Surface Station Project, and I miss identified the Quincy CA Surface Station.  It was a Sunday, could not find station and asking around at the police station were told it was at the Ranger Station. We visited the Station and a Ranger took us to a Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) on the hill behind the station.  Antony later found the real station, behind the radio station.

This Quincy was rather remote, and would not have been influenced by an urban heat island, and I thought it would be a good reference station to see if in fact the Sierra was warming and the warming was accelerating as claimed by Steven Frisch.

Here is a plot of the average annual temperatures from 1991 to 2010, the years with a complete record.

As you can see the temperatures vary from year to year, but according to the regression analysis the temperatures are essentially flat for the 19 years examined. It appears that from about 2002 to 2010 the temperatures have been in declining year over year.  We need about 30 years to establish a more definitive trend.

Bottom line, there no evidence of accelerated warming in the Sierra warming, unless Mr. Frisch has some stronger evidence.

Why? (updated)

Russ Steele

I was cruising the gonevadacounty.com web sites this morning when I spotted this:

 My question is why is there an active link to the Pelline Web site FoodWineArt Magazine and not to the Chamber Web Sites in this box?  The Grass Valley Chamber, Nevada City Chamber, Penn Valley Chamber, and Truckee Donnor Chamber all have very active websites.

I hope this was not a covert attempt to promote the FoodWineArt Magazine, while short changing the Chamber of Commerce Sites who are all working together. It seems to me that every government agency should be working together to promote tourism in Nevada County.  Let’s promote every possible hot link!

Update:  Jefff Pelline writes:

This post is incorrect

The live hyperlinks to all of the chambers are provided on the very same page, just below where you cut off the screen shot.

This is a false and misleading statement, and I ask that you correct it.

While it is true there are links buried below, I still wonder why not have links in the box above?   Was my post misleading?   More links the better in my mind!

Another citizens trying to do what is right — arrested in New York City

Russ Steele

Reminded of another recent incident where a citizen was trying to follow federal law and was arrested for compliance, here is yet again another incident where an unsuspecting citizen is snared by the New York Police.  Details in the New York Post

A tourist from Tennessee waltzed into one of the most secure sites in the city — and politely asked a cop if she could check her weapon.

Instead, she was dragged out in cuffs.

Now, Meredith Graves, 39, is facing at least three years in prison for thinking New York’s gun laws are anything like those in the Bible Belt.

Graves, a fourth-year medical student, showed up at the memorial on Dec. 22 to pay her respects during a trip north for a job interview. 

She didn’t realize that the loaded .32-caliber pistol in her purse would be a problem until she saw a sign at the site that read, “No guns allowed,” sources said.

“She remembered she had the gun on her,” a source said. She walked up to a security guard and said, “I have this gun. Where can I check it?”

The guard told her that she was in luck because of “law enforcement day” — and led her to another area.

When she got to that section, she asked another cop, “We have this gun — can we check it in here? We [my husband and I] are not law-enforcement.”

That’s when she was arrested.

Graves, who has a full legal carry permit in Tennessee, was locked up on a weapons-possession charge and held on $2,000 bond that she posted yesterday. She is due in court on March 19. 

Read more HERE.

Mary Nichols, Call Your Office: Court Blocks Your Wacko Low Carbon Fuel Standard

Russ Steele

Hat Tip to a regular reader for posting this breaking news in a comment.  Here is the Wall Street Journal Article:

California Low-Carbon Fuel Rules Halted

In a victory for refiners and ethanol producers, a federal judge halted enforcement of California’s low-carbon fuel rules Thursday, saying they discriminated against crude oil and ethanol imported 

The decision puts on hold a major portion of California’s effort to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, at a time when the most-populous state’s stance has taken on extra importance nationwide because of a stalemate in Washington over greenhouse-gas legislation.

The judge’s move means that refiners and ethanol producers, which previously could have been faced with having to buy credits when importing oil and ethanol into California to comply with the rules, will now be freed of those obligations.

Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Fresno, rejected the state’s regulations, finding that California’s effort to control fuel imports infringed on Congress’s constitutional authority over interstate commerce.

Refiners and ethanol producers filed a lawsuit over the issue two years ago, arguing the rules penalize suppliers that use crude oil or ethanol from outside the state and would lead to higher costs for consumers.

Judge O’Neill hasn’t issued a final decision on the case, but on Thursday he barred California from enforcing the rules while the lawsuit continues.

In setting out the rules, the California Air Resources Board calculated a “carbon intensity” score for different types of fuel, favoring biofuels over carbon-heavy crude.

The rules also assign imported fuels a higher “carbon intensity” score, meaning suppliers that use them could be forced to buy credits to comply with the rules. California said those parts of the rule were justified because suppliers burn fuel and emit carbon when they transport fuels into the state.

Refiners applauded the decision to halt the regulations.  You can read the rest of the WSJ article HERE.

The Union on How Nevada County Spent Tourism Dollars

Russ Steele 

The Union explores how the County and City of Grass Valley spent over $269K to attract tourist to Nevada County. Some of that money has not yet been spent, and we are waiting to see what the results are. It is clear that all attempts to come up with a coordinated regional effort fell flat.  In the usually political correct manner the resources were spread around, without a clear plan including some performance measures build in to assess progress.  Details HERE.

 In November, county supervisors bypassed the standard process of asking for proposals in awarding the Regional Chambers of Commerce a $50,000 contract to promote the county.

One month before, supervisors admitted they failed to follow through on establishing a committee dedicated to tourism promotion. 

“I am embarrassed on behalf of the board that we didn’t set up the committee,” Supervisor Hank Weston said during an October meeting.

Supervisors also admitted they did not have a clearly articulated strategy on how to introduce visitors to the area’s historical, recreational or cultural qualities. 

Yet they authorized about $120,000 in contracts during that meeting.

I have to agree with Will Grenz, scattering money about and then expecting some positive results without any methods for measuring success is at best dumb and worst a clear demonstration that we lack real leadership in Nevada County.

Nevada County resident Will Grenz called the approach “schizophrenic,” saying the government lacked objective measures by which to judge various proposals. Grenz previously managed contracts for Boeing Co.

I have established some performance parameters in the NC Tourism Tab above. Take a look and let me know what you think.  As the sites get more visitors they will crack the minimum visitor barrier and we can start tracking the number of daily, weekly, and monthly visitors. Right now Grass Valley tourism web site cannot register any visitors, due to the small sample. Nevada County is only a little better off. Here are some rough estimates, again due to the small sample size.  The gonevadacounty.com had 167 unique visitors in Sep, 353 in Nov and 805 in Dec.

For some contrast this blog had 3,792 unique visitors in December, of which 2,295 were returning visitors. No one is paying for these visitors, it is a totally non-profit operation. It seems to me if the County and City are paying for visitors they should be able to exceed the number of visitors to this volunteer operation by several factors.  Stay Tuned.

Exit Questions:  What do tourists really want to know about Nevada County?  Does the County and City have right information on the web sites in an easy to access fashion?  Have you ever visited gonevadacounty.com or gograssvalley.com?  What do you think?

Economic Reality Chart Check

Russ Steele

James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute Blog has a post on the The 7 most illuminating economic charts of 2011, some bust myths and others highlight some of the things the media is ignoring. They are all interesting and can be viewed HERE.

This is the one I remember the most, and have posted updates to the original chart produced by White House economic advisers Jared Bernstein and Christina Romer. Do you remember this overly optimistic unemployment forecast of the Obama White House?

Here is another important example:

California loses 947,000 jobs in five years

Russ Steele

I was watching Fox News this morning and they had a segment on the California’s population decline,  as people leave the state for places where there are more jobs, more opportunity and lower cost of living. Then I ran across this in the  Sacramento Business Journal by G. Scott Thomas: California lost 947,000 jobs since 2006, representing a drop of 6.26 percent.

California lost the most amount of jobs than any other state in the country.

The Golden State lost 947,000 jobs since 2006, according to an On Numbers analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 

That represents a drop of 6.26 percent of its jobs, going from 15,117,100 nonfarm jobs in November 2006 to 14,170,100 in November 2011.

We are at least one generation if not two before we will see any significant change in our Democrat generated economic disaster. The only solution will be to clean out Sacramento and put some adults in change of the check book and away the regulatory power of the environmental wackos. I hope are grand children are up to the task.

 

 

Over E-mail Transom: E-Verify on Obama yields SSN mismatch notice

Russ Steele

I have often wondered how a person that was suppose to be born in Hawaii, ended up with a Connecticut SSN. Here is part of the story that came in over the e-mail transom this morning for your evaluation.  HERE is a link to the source of the story.

Well, folks, here are some answers about the President’s social security number. Rather interesting.

               An intensive investigation has revealed the identity of the man whose Social Security number (SSN) is being used by President Obama: Jean Paul Ludwig, who was born in France in 1890, emigrated to the United States in 1924, and was assigned SSN 042-68-4425, Obama’s current SSN, in or about March of 1957.

              Ludwig lived most of his adult life in Connecticut. Because of that, his SSN begins with the digits 042, which are among only a select few reserved for Connecticut residents. Obama has never lived or worked in that state. Therefore, there is no reason on earth for his SSN to start with the digits 042. None whatsoever!

              Now comes the best part! Ludwig spent the final months of his life in Hawaii, where he died. Conveniently, Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, worked part-time in the Probate Office in the Honolulu Hawaii Courthouse, and therefore had access to the SSNs of deceased individuals. The Social Security Administration was never informed of Ludwig’s death, and because he never received Social Security benefits, there were no benefits to stop and therefore, no questions were ever raised.

              The suspicion, of course, is that Dunham, knowing her grandson was not a U.S. citizen, either because he was born in Kenya or became a citizen of Indonesia upon his adoption by Lolo Soetoro simply scoured the probate records until she found a deceased person who had not been receiving Social Security benefits, and selected Mr. Ludwig’s Connecticut SSN for Obama.

              Just wait until Trump gets past the birth certificate and onto the issue of Barry O’s use of a stolen SSN. You will see leftist heads exploding, because they will have no way of defending Obama.

              Although many Americans do not understand the meaning of the term “natural born” there are few who do not understand that if you are using someone else’s SSN it is a clear indication of fraud.

What do you think?  Does this story have legs?  What will it mean to the 2012 election to have President with a stolen SSN?

More Polar Bear Crap – “Reduce your carbon footprint.”

Russ Steele

Ellen and I have you been watching NBC news now that our children have gone home.  Too much politics on Fox. We started this morning with a segment on the Today Show and then on to the Nightly News about Siku a baby polar bear born last month in a wildlife park in Denmark.  You can see cute Siku HERE.

It was a cute baby polar bear, but when then the caretaker made a plea for all viewers to reduce their carbon foot print to save the arctic ice for a polar bear that will be living in a wild life park I lost it, hitting the channel change button.

We  no longer get the news, we get a daily dose of propaganda?

More Sierra Business Council Horse-puckey

Russ Steele

Here is a quote from an article in the Union on Saving the Sierra

“Regardless of the argument over the cause of climate change, the fact remains that this region is seeing significantly lower precipitation levels, (and) high temperatures, which puts the land at greater risk or wild fire and insect infestation,” Frisch said. “The future of this region will depend on how it adapts to climate change.”

I would like Steven Frisch prove these claims. Here are the temperatures at the  Truckee Ranger Station near where Steven lives.

As you can see the temperatures have been relatively flat from 1949 t0 2002 and from 1998 to 2008. More analysis can be found HERE.

Here are the temperatures at Lake Tahoe, just over the hill from Truckee

 Yes the average temperatures have gone up, mainly the night time temperatures, when the condo unit shown in this over head view added the large tennis court next to the surface station in about 1980. [Anthony Surface Station Project]

Here is the famous view of the trash burning barrel, a parked vehicle and the green tennis courts in the back ground

CARB Mandating Cellulose Bio-Fuels That Cannot Be Produced

Russ Steele

The Department of Energy recently shut down a cellulose biofuel plant, because they were unable to produce any viable results after spending millions is subsidies. Details HERE and HERE.

Yet, we still hear rumblings in Nevada County about the the potential for biofuels from wood chips. So far cellulosic biofuels still cost much more to produce than either corn ethanol or gasoline. As local business leaders said, it takes more diesel to get the wood than a bio-diesel plant can produce.

Here is another plant the cannot produce biofuels after millions of research dollars from a report in the MIT Technology Review:

Gevo, a prominent advanced-biofuels company that has received millions in U.S. government funding to develop fuels made from cellulosic sources such as grass and wood chips, is finding that it can’t use these materials if it hopes to survive. Instead, it’s going to use corn, a common source for conventional biofuels. What’s more, most of the product from its first facility will be used for chemicals rather than fuel.

As the difficulty of producing cellulosic biofuels cheaply becomes apparent, a growing number of advanced-biofuels companies are finding it necessary to take creative approaches to their business, even though that means abandoning some of their green credentials, at least temporarily, and focusing on markets that won’t have a major impact on oil imports. This is hardly the outcome the government hoped for when it announced cellulosic-biofuels mandates, R&D funding, and other incentives in recent years.

It turns out that fuel producers in California will have pay the fine for not putting the mandated bio-fuels in fuels sold in California.  Those fines will raise the prices of auto and truck fuels in California.  Why, because of a failed CARB mandate.

Unusual Nevada County December Weather?

Russ Steele

Checking weather forecast, it looks like no snow this December. Is this unusual? I looked that the Nevada City Weather Record from 1950 to 2011, a total of 61 years and found that 31 of those years did not have any snow in December.  Not unusual weather for December.

More Environmentalist Junk Science Exposed

Russ Steele

An alert reader at Watts Up With That lets Anthony know about NRDC’s ridiculous weather IS climate “sound the general alarm” map

Anthony writes:

People send me stuff. Today it is this web page from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), another NGO modeled in the WWF funding style of wail n’ beg.

While the NRDC focuses on the high temperature records, Antony points out that there were more cooler than normal records, but that is not consistent with their global warming agenda.

What I found most interesting in the NCDC tables though, were the number of records that reflected a cooler than normal daytime high temperature with 29,336 of those compared to the 26,244 record highs. Of course, they don’t dare mention those nor the 1,859 monthly “Hi Min” temperatures compared to the 1,160 “Hi Max” records.

So clearly, there’s an agenda, and record lows and cooler than normal daytime highs don’t fit the narrative. It wouldn’t be good business and dilutes the wail n’ beg effectiveness of asking for money to “Take Action“.

If global warming is real, why does the NRDC try to cover it up cooling with their fake claims of warming. You are right, it is all about the politics and money, it has nothing to do with science.