Newmark's Door

"The Galileo of Global Warming"

As Arte Johnson might say, "Verrrry interesting."

So if Svensmark is right, lower solar radiation means more cosmic rays, more clouds, and a cooler Earth, while higher solar radiation means fewer cosmic rays, fewer clouds, and a warmer Earth.

Those who have followed the global warming controversy over the years may recall that cloud-formation is one of the major gaps in the computerized climate "models" used by the consensus scientists to predict global warming. They have never had a theory to explain how and why clouds form or to account accurately for their effect on the climate. Svensmark has smashed through this glaring gap in their theory.

"The First 15 Minutes After the Big One"

The USGS makes the odds of a SoCal Big One in the next 30 years at about 1 in 3.

They've been warned.

If you lived in Tokyo what would you do?

"Researchers: Major Earthquake Likely To Strike Tokyo By 2016".

Bad statistics in the news

"The One Number That Tells You Why The Patriots Will Win The Coin Toss On Sunday".

The first half is correct and but the second half--the part about regression to the mean--is really wrong.

Maybe the author is kidding.

Going, going . . .

. . . and maybe very soon to be gone. You probably saw this in last Friday's WSJ: "No Need to Panic About Global Warming". But you may not have seen Burt Rutan's follow-up.

Or, even more important, this from the Daily Mail: "Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again)". (Link via Instapundit.)

Dr Nicola Scafetta, of Duke University in North Carolina, is the author of several papers that argue the Met Office climate models show there should have been ‘steady warming from 2000 until now’.

‘If temperatures continue to stay flat or start to cool again, the divergence between the models and recorded data will eventually become so great that the whole scientific community will question the current theories,’ he said.

As a public service the Door will accept nominations for the Next Terrible, Awful Crisis We Must Spend Lotsa Money On should AGW fizzle.

"Why Does Our Universe Have [Only] Three Dimensions?"

String theory says there should be (maybe) nine. 

And why is the universe like a bedsheet that has shrunk in the wash?

I say again: modern physics is weird.

"Now We Present The Shocking Math Trick That Can Be Used To Expose Cheaters And Frauds"

A brief introduction to the amazing Benford's Law.

"The case for calling Mom, in one chart"

I wish I could.

"USC scientist, Swedish researchers decode 18th century document"

The new techniques developed might have additional uses. The Voynich Manuscript, maybe?

Big surprise. Not!

"Studies that withhold replication data are more likely to have errors".