Today marks the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere. It’s the shortest day of the year for the Los Angeles area; the solar disk will be above the horizon for only 9 hours and 54 minutes today at our latitude.

The diagram above illustrates the orbit of the Earth around the Sun and highlights the passage of our planet through eight significant portals recognized by cultures for many millennia. Those are the two equinoxes, the four cross quarter days and the two solstices. Today, we pass through the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere.

For more information about the science and lore of these several special days, check out the website Archaeoastronomy.com and have a look around.

Over three and a half years ago, the cat was already out of the bag that the University of East Anglia falsified their data. According to Bob Carter of Queensland, Australia, who wrote an article in March of 2006. We posted it then and will repeat it now that the alarmists have been outed . . .

Global Warming takes a Break

More and more evidence surfaces about the true nature of global warming. Real scientists looking at the hard evidence of the phenomenon, realize that claims of man-made greenhouse gasses causing warming are false.

Right: Current SOHO Sunspot Image.

Professor Bob Carter, a geologist at James Cook University, Queensland, who is engaged in paleoclimate research, wrote this excellent article addressing the “Man-made global warming” myth:

There IS a problem with global warming… it stopped in 1998

For many years now, human-caused climate change has been viewed as a large and urgent problem. In truth, however, the biggest part of the problem is neither environmental nor scientific, but a self-created political fiasco. Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, that for the years 1998-2005 global average temperature did not increase (there was actually a slight decrease, though not at a rate that differs significantly from zero).

Yes, you did read that right. And also, yes, this eight-year period of temperature stasis did coincide with society’s continued power station and SUV-inspired pumping of yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

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On the weekends, we give our dog, Bear, an ice cream treat for dogs (Frosty Paws). Last weekend, when I opened up the treat for her, I saw an alien looking out at me . . .

It might be blustery and snowy in Copenhagen and there might be a blizzard heading into Washington D.C. but it’s sunny and nice in California. Maybe the planners of the Global Doom meetings and conferences should have their meetings in Acapulco or Key West. On second thought, the Gore effect would probably bring snow and freezing there and tick off the tourism industries.

Meanwhile, here in the L.A. area, it’s still pleasant enough to go with your husband and dog for a stroll along the cliffs overlooking the blue Pacific - not too warm, not too cool.

BUT - before you schedule your move here, consider that we’re WAY overdue for our next 6+ seismic event. Just saying . . .

From Nate Beeler’s Toons in the Washington Examiner - Joe Lieberman plunges into the debate . . .

That is not the actual name of Point Vicente, but it seemed appropriate as these California Brown pelicans soared along the cliffs today. Catalina Island can be seen in the distance with historic Point Vicente Lighthouse on the left. Click on the image to enlarge.

According to WikiPedia, the Brown Pelican was listed as endangered since 1970 when its numbers dipped to 10,000. Since then, the population of Brown Pelican had been climbing and was recently removed from the list in November 2009. Current estimates place the population at 650,000 individuals.

This flight of a baker’s dozen was the largest number of birds that passed us today. Other groups that passed were as few as two, and averaged about five or six.

Image: Model of a WWII F4U Corsair

Mr. Y Park, of New Zealand, makes some of the most amazing, meticulous models I have ever seen. Just look at these beauties - the controls work - you just need a pair of TWEEZERS and you’re in business.

Image: Model of a WWII P51 Mustang

I have personally worked on both of these aircraft, flown in one (the Corsair) and am absolutely dumbfounded by the precise replication I see in the pictures at the forum where this got posted.

Please, PLEASE go see the amazing details!

In poll after poll, the voice of the American people is clear: They don’t like the government-run health care experiment that the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats are ramming through Congress because they think it’ll raise taxes, raise costs, increase the deficit, and reduce quality of care.

Hat Tip to Damsel for the photo - taken in Tombstone Arizona (clickenbiggen machen).

With all the attention being given by the conservative media (certainly NOT by the MSM) on the recent disclosures about falsifying temperature data by the CRU, now would be a good time for us to review some of our climate references.

We have been following the Anthropogenic Global Warming scam very closely for a number of years. At the risk of being called a ‘denier’ or other such terms, we have not only been skeptical, but have done some of the science homework and research. The following content may always be found on the “Climate and Global Warming” page listed in the sidebar.

Selected Articles from this website

• Earth’s Oceans - A Mesozoic Hot Tub — Scientific Evidence that Atlantic Ocean temperatures may have once reached 107° (42°C) - about 25°F (14°C) higher than ocean temperatures today and warmer than a hot tub.
• Ultimate Global Warming - SPF 2 Million Won’t Be Enough — The Sun is a star - a main sequence star whose business is to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. Fusion is a steady but somewhat unstable and potentially violent thermonuclear process.
• The “O” Zone — Think of the ozone layer as Earth’s sunglasses, protecting life on the surface from the harmful glare of the sun’s strongest ultraviolet rays, which can cause skin cancer and other maladies.
• Correlating Sunspots to Global Climate — This is a study in two observations made over the last 400 years: observed annual sunspot numbers and derived global temperatures.
• The Indefensible Hockey Stick — The “hockey stick” (the graph resembles a hockey stick) graph emerged in 1995 and purports to depict average global temperatures over the last 1000 years or so. The basis of this paradigm, however, can be shown to be flawed.
• Cosmic Rays, Solar Flux and Global Warming — When you consider the context of this galactic radiation effect, the impact of CO2 emissions caused by humanity literally fade away into climatic insignificance.
• Apocalypse - Not! — These four essays, “The Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse,” as it were, are grouped into a page entitled “Good news, Mr. Gore, the Apocalypse has been postponed.”

International Conference on Climate Change (this is NOT the UN’s IPCC)

• Proceedings from the 2009 ICCC Conference

Climate Websites and Blogs

• CO2 Science
• World Climate Report
• Still Waiting for Greenhouse (Australia)
• Global Warming and the Climate (Norway)
• Senator James Inhofe’s EPW Blog
• Planet Gore (National Review)
• What’s Up With That?

And a few of my favorites

• John L. Daly: The ‘Hockey Stick’ - A New Low in Climate Science
• Senator James Inhofe: A Skeptics Guide to Global Warming (PDF)
• Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming (PDF), A lecture presented to JPL in 2003.
• Visit Michael Crichton’s Speeches Page — “The Impossibility of Prediction” and “Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century” are particularly good.
• Mark Alexander: Global Warming: Fact, Fiction and Political Endgame
• National Center for Policy Analysis: Global Warming Primer (PDF)

Media Resources

• The antidote for Al Gore’s gross misrepresentation, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is Martin Durkin’s “The Great Global Warming Swindle.”

Since it was a dark and rainy day today, Damsel prepared one of our favorite “comfort food” dishes - chicken and dumplings. Day-yam - I swear it is the best batch she ever made. Now, I’m too full to blog so click on the picture above and see if you can refrain from drooling on your keyboard.