We did our weekly grocery shopping this morning. The flower concession didn’t have my favorite Asian lilies, so I got a dozen Akito roses. The package said they were grown in Colombia. I also got some tiny pink flowers to accent the roses. Click on the image to enlarge.
Damsel took this shot of the lower hills dusted with snow this morning. The higher, more distant foothills are obscured by the low-hanging clouds.
The NWS forecast said the snow level would be down to 2200 feet, which is (approximately) our altitude here. However, we did not see any snow although we had some small hail or freezing rain that bounced around on the courtyard for a few minutes early this afternoon.
The forecast is for more rain this evening, but looking at radar and cloud images, I sort of think not. Click on the image to enlarge.
The little adobe seen in this image is actually our Arizona home rendered in sepia. I was out front this afternoon taking some photos and I liked the way this one resembled a territorial Santa Fe style house, so I had Bob make it look like an old photo. If you want to see the original full color version, click on the link.
Via Planet Gore:
Don’t look now, but maybe a scientific consensus exists concerning global warming after all. Only 36 percent of geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis, according to a survey reported in the peer-reviewed Organization Studies. By contrast, a strong majority of the 1,077 respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming and/or that future global warming will not be a very serious problem.
Over a thousand scientists and engineers participated in a control group study in which the vast majority were skeptical of the so-called “consensus.” Here is a write-up I did a few years ago called “Sage Quotations” in which four of the smartest men in history have weighed in on their opinion of those who would violate one or more of the principles these men advocated.
Leonardo Da Vinci has often been described as the archetype of the renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.
“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.”
— Leonardo Da Vinci
Galileo Galilei, was a Tuscan physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the “father of modern observational astronomy”, the “father of modern physics”, and “the Father of Modern Science.”
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
— Galileo Galilei
Philip Handler, was an American Nutritionist and President of the National Academy of Science for 2 terms. Handler was also a recipient of the National Medal of Science. He also believed that experimental observation, judiciously and honestly conducted, is the first obligation of the experimental scientist and that theory must be compatible with observation, not the reverse.
“Scientists best serve public policy by living within the ethics of science, not those of politics. If the scientific community will not unfrock the charlatans, the public will not discern the difference; science and the nation will suffer.”
— Philip Handler, National Academy of Sciences
John Michael Crichton, M.D., was an American author, producer, director, and physician, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide. As the creator of the TV series ER, most famously as the author of Jurassic Park, and its sequel The Lost World, which were both adapted into high grossing films and leading to the very successful franchise. In 1994 he became the only creative artist ever to experience chart-topping success in America with a film, a television series, and a novel, all at number one simultaneously.
“Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.”
— Michael Crichton
Al Gore? James Hansen? IPCC? Are you idiots not listening to the sage advice from some of the smartest men in history?
In about five weeks or so, I expect to have gorgeous flowers on this hedgehog cactus. This is one of two cacti that are out in front of the house close to the road. Both had flowers last spring.
Bob will be moving a couple more hedgehogs from the back hill to locations also near the road. Hopefully, those cacti will also have flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
When we have to make the obligatory trip back to the old homestead in The People’s Republik, we try and plan such that we only need to buy fuel once while we’re there. This recent trip worked out OK in that we bought only once there and at the “best” price available in the area. Still, the Arco (cheap) price is between thirty and fifty cents per gallon more than we pay in Arizona. Mostly (I’m certain), thanks to the enviro-nutty tax on fuel out there. Still, fuel prices are going up everywhere according to the plan of the idiots in Congress and elsewhere.
Note the eighteen cent differential between Arco and Chevron located on the same intersection in Torrance, CA. Click on the image to enlarge.
Our internet service provider has notified us that there may be intermittent outages in our MySQL access over the weekend. Please tune back in after it’s over. Thanks.
The weekend of February 16th and 17th Omnis Network will be performing deep cleaning of the equipment in our data center. The cleaning may require the halting of some services such as POP/IMAP Email or MySQL database for up to one hour while the physical server is thoroughly cleaned.
