Wednesday, December 31, 2008

 

From Investors Business Daily

Climate Change: The Earth has been warming ever since the end of the Little Ice Age. But guess what: Researchers say mankind is to blame for that, too.



As we've noted, 2008 has been a year of records for cold and snowfall and may indeed be the coldest year of the 21st century thus far. In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month of October.

Global thermometers stopped rising after 1998, and have plummeted in the last two years by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius. The 2007-2008 temperature drop was not predicted by global climate models. But it was predictable by a decline in sunspot activity since 2000.

When the sun is active, it's not uncommon to see sunspot numbers of 100 or more in a single month. Every 11 years, activity slows, and numbers briefly drop near zero. Normally sunspots return very quickly, as a new cycle begins. But this year, the start of a new cycle, the sun has been eerily quiet.

The first seven months averaged a sunspot count of only three and in August there were no sunspots at all — zero — something that has not occurred since 1913.

According to the publication Daily Tech, in the past 1,000 years, three previous such events — what are called the Dalton, Maunder and Sporer Minimums — have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called the Little Ice Age (1500-1750).

The Little Ice Age has been a problem for global warmers because it serves as a reminder of how the earth warms and cools naturally over time. It had to be ignored in the calculations that produced the infamous and since-discredited hockey stick graph that showed a sharp rise in warming alleged to be caused by man.

The answer to this dilemma has supposedly been found by two Stanford researchers, Richard Nevle and Dennis Bird, who announced their "findings" at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. According to them, man not only is causing contemporary warming. He also caused the cooling that preceded it.

According to Bird and Nevle, before Columbus ruined paradise, native Americans had deforested a significant portion of the continent and converted the land to agricultural purposes. Less CO2 was then absorbed from the atmosphere, and the earth was toasty.

Then a bunch of nasty old white guys arrived and depopulated the native populations through war and the diseases they brought with them. This led to the large-scale abandonment of agricultural lands. The subsequent reforestation of the continent caused temperatures to drop enough to bring on the Little Ice Age.

Implicit in this research is that the world would be fine if man wasn't in the way. We either make the world too cold or too hot, a view held by many in high places.

In a speech at Harvard last November, Harvard physicist John Holden, President-elect Obama's choice to be his science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, presented a "top 10" list of warming solutions.

Topping the list was "limiting population," as if man was a plague upon the earth. This is a major tenet of green dogma that bemoans the fact that the pestilence called mankind comes with cars, factories and overconsumption of fossil fuels and other resources.

R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre of Canada's Carleton University, says: "I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet."

Indeed, a look at a graph of solar irradiance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows little solar activity during the Little Ice Age and significant activity during recent times.

Don't blame Dick and Jane — blame sunspots.


 

Nothing new

Trying to buy a new car for Sarah.  New Year's Eve at the Briggs house tonight.  Some friends coming over to watch football tomorrow.  Taking Friday off.  Sounds like a good couple days.

Monday, December 29, 2008

 






Maybe I should start a food blog? The above photos are of two of the dishes we made over the last week. Top left is a jambalaya that I made from scratch last night. I substituted salsa for tomatoes since I'm not a big fan of them and it turned out great. The top right is the standing rib roast that we made on Christmas. It was delicious, cooked perfectly medium, and everyone enjoyed it.


This photo is of Jack Briggs and Jack Briggs. Jack #2 wasn't in a very good mood for some reason.




Here's Jack sitting on the potty. He now knows when he has to go so we sat him down and got lucky, he actually went. I wish this would take but I we're not holding out hope.























Sunday, December 28, 2008

 

I think this photo is hilarious. I got Sarah some headphones so she can watch tv in bed while I'm reading (is that really a gift for her or for me?) and Jack wanted to try them on. He seems to be enjoying them although there was no sound hooked up.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

 
As many readers of this blog know, I am unsure about the effects of global warming and whether it even exists. This is an interesting article from a British newspaper, not withstanding the 60 degree temperatures that we had in Ohio today. I have highlighted some of the very very interesting lines.

2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved
Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph.

By Christopher Booker Last Updated: 5:51PM GMT 27 Dec 2008
Comments 0 Comment on this article
The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day".
Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.
First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.
Ever shriller and more frantic has become the insistence of the warmists, cheered on by their army of media groupies such as the BBC, that the last 10 years have been the "hottest in history" and that the North Pole would soon be ice-free – as the poles remain defiantly icebound and those polar bears fail to drown. All those hysterical predictions that we are seeing more droughts and hurricanes than ever before have infuriatingly failed to materialise.
Even the more cautious scientific acolytes of the official orthodoxy now admit that, thanks to "natural factors" such as ocean currents, temperatures have failed to rise as predicted (although they plaintively assure us that this cooling effect is merely "masking the underlying warming trend", and that the temperature rise will resume worse than ever by the middle of the next decade).
Secondly, 2008 was the year when any pretence that there was a "scientific consensus" in favour of man-made global warming collapsed. At long last, as in the Manhattan Declaration last March, hundreds of proper scientists, including many of the world's most eminent climate experts, have been rallying to pour scorn on that "consensus" which was only a politically engineered artefact, based on ever more blatantly manipulated data and computer models programmed to produce no more than convenient fictions.
Thirdly, as banks collapsed and the global economy plunged into its worst recession for decades, harsh reality at last began to break in on those self-deluding dreams which have for so long possessed almost every politician in the western world. As we saw in this month's Poznan conference, when 10,000 politicians, officials and "environmentalists" gathered to plan next year's "son of Kyoto" treaty in Copenhagen, panicking politicians are waking up to the fact that the world can no longer afford all those quixotic schemes for "combating climate change" with which they were so happy to indulge themselves in more comfortable times.
Suddenly it has become rather less appealing that we should divert trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into the fantasy that we could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 80 per cent. All those grandiose projects for "emissions trading", "carbon capture", building tens of thousands more useless wind turbines, switching vast areas of farmland from producing food to "biofuels", are being exposed as no more than enormously damaging and futile gestures, costing astronomic sums we no longer possess.
As 2009 dawns, it is time we in Britain faced up to the genuine crisis now fast approaching from the fact that – unless we get on very soon with building enough proper power stations to fill our looming "energy gap" - within a few years our lights will go out and what remains of our economy will judder to a halt. After years of infantile displacement activity, it is high time our politicians – along with those of the EU and President Obama's US – were brought back with a mighty jolt into contact with the real world.

 


Henry dressed up in 50s gear for his Christmas recital. Jack in his Massillon sweatsuit.



Playing with the train under the tree.



Jack with my bluetooth on his ear.

Friday, December 26, 2008

 

Henry with his hundreds of presents.

Henry and Jack in their Sunday best on Christmas Eve.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

 

Christmas Eve

Last night the boys went to the Blue Jackets hockey game.  It was Henry's first visit to Mortons, he liked the steak sandwiches in the bar, and my father-in-law enjoyed it too.  The game wasn't great but Henry was into it, we could have stayed for the entire game but left early because of the crappy weather.  For some reason, it was free food at the arena so we enjoyed that. Well, Henry enjoyed his popcorn, peanuts and pretzel.  He got this photo taken with Stinger too, I'll try to post that when I scan it.
 
Now I'm headed to Meijer's for some stocking stuffers.  Some of the clan are at Giant Eagle, some went to the YMCA to swim. 
 
Merry Christmas. 

Monday, December 22, 2008

 


Bengals 14, Browns 0. Another fun day in Cleveland with Henry.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

 

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my 30 year old wife today.  Welcome to the decade, the 30s are a great time. 

Saturday, December 20, 2008

 

Five Oaks

Last night, I went to Massillon to attend a reunion of former and current Ralph Regula staffers.  It was at the Massillon Women's Club, a true jewel in the city.  I don't think I had been there since 1981 when I went to a Sadie Hawkins dance with Jackie Suarez.  I don't have a lot of memories of it but do know we had our photo taken on the grand steps. 
 
The event was really nice, it was great seeing people I had worked with 20 years ago.  We've lost Louise since that time but her husband was there.  Everyone else I worked with, Jeannette, Sam, Daryl, Ellen and Bob were there.
 
I'm accused of being a cynic as far as politics goes but if everyone was like Ralph Regula I wouldn't be.  Maybe its naive to think that politicians should always do the right thing but I think that's pretty much what you get with him.  He's a great man and has done a lot of big things for northeast Ohio.  His presence in Congress will be missed.
 
File:Five Oaks (Massillon, OH).JPG

Thursday, December 18, 2008

 

Rocking around the Christmas Tree

Henry's class sang that song tonight at the school Christmas show.  He danced with the girl next to him, he did a great job.  Santa Claus made an appearance during the show and it was pretty warm for him in that auditorium! 

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

 

Surprise

Tonight I hosted a surprise 30th Birthday cocktail party for Sarah.  I don't think she knew but we need to talk more about it. 

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

 
I finally booked our airfare to Florida for spring break.  Rough year, we have to pay for Jack because he'll be two years old when we go.  I really can't complain though, I had two free tickets on Southwest so only had to pay for two others. 
 
We're flying into Tampa and out of Orlando, which means we are going to Disneyworld.  I think Jack is too young but he's free so who can complain? I'm sure Henry will love it. 

Monday, December 15, 2008

 

Cars

I've gone back and forth in my mind about the auto industry bailout.  I'm now at the point where I do not believe the government should bail out GM and Ford.  I should add, my investment club owns a small bit of GM but that obviously hasn't influenced my decision too much.  Here's where I am:

 

    > the auto industry is crucial to a lot of state's economies, including Ohio's.  It's not just the jobs, its the spin-off little shops that are dependent on healthy companies.

 

    > the auto industry is saddled with problems that won't go away with billions of dollars from the government.  Union contracts must be renegotiated and benefits must change; this will in all likelihood only happen under bankruptcy.

 

    > why would anyone expect that government intervention and direction will improve the way Detroit does business?  I know the government does some things right but generally, anyone else does it better.  Anyone.  So I have zero confidence that a "car czar" will improve how America makes cars. 

 

    > finally, nationalization of industry scares me.  It's a socialist model and I'm afraid enough that we are going down that path enough with the "redistribution of wealth" that the incoming President has promised. 

 
 

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

 

Chivas Man

So I meet a guy with my comapny for a drink prior to the event at an Irish bar near Harry Carey's in downtown Chicago. I'm going to have my one drink and then we'll go over to the party. Just as we are ready to leave, a guy comes over to our table and introduces himself as the Chivas Regal Rep for Chicago and can he buy us a drink of Chivas 18? No, we have to be going but my dad is a big fan and can you send him a keychain or something? Ross gives me a card and tells me to send him a note and he'll take care of dad. So Dad, if you get a package, that's why.

The event is fine, I get my 60 seconds with the Alderman and its time to leave. I need to kill some time so I go back to Sullivans and take that guy up on his free drink. Now, I've stayed true to my vow of one drink a day. Sure, there has been once or twice that I've had two but they've all been when I've had someone offer me a free drink. I think its rude to turn down a gift so I've bended the rule in those cases. But I've kept the spirit of my new life intact and don't intend to deviate.

Chivas has a special place in my heart although I don't particularly like scotch. I have mostly only drank it with Dad and only on special occasions. I figured this was one, if Ross hooks my dad up with some Chivas trinkets and I get a free drink why hey, its a win win.

Now its back to Columbus, arriving at 11:25 pm. I hope I can sleep in tomorrow.


 

Short Runways

Midway has short runways because of its location in a Chicago neighborhood. I always have the worst landings here. The pilot literally slams the plane down so that the plane can come to a stop.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

 
What is the Obama plan? A massive new government job program to build bridges, highways, infrastructure. While I think some of this needs to be done, I'm confused at who is going to work these jobs. I don't see a lot of bankers, or mortgage lenders, going to work pouring cement.

As far as the Dow, could it just be responding naturally to ups and downs? It plunged after the election for two weeks and I'm pretty sure it wasn't George Bush's fault. Maybe its hit the bottom, maybe its time to go back up. I hope so.

Interesting news out of IL today about the Governor. I'm surprised at how many people were talkign about it in Columbus Ohio. Interesting to me is how Obama's spokesman "misspoke" about whether they had conversations and his chief of staff "changed his recollection" about their relationship. If you are interested, here's a link. I really hope Obama wasn't involved in this mess. I'm headed to Chicago tomorrow so plan on picking up the Tribune and reading all about it.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/12/questions-arise.html

Monday, December 08, 2008

 






















 













































 















 












Saturday after lunch we headed to
Dover. The roads were kinda bad but we managed okay. We went straight to Warthers Museum, a little known treasure in northeast Ohio. It's much bigger than I remember it from my youth; they do a much better job displaying the intricate train carvings. Warther essentially carved the history of the steam engine out of wood and ivory, from age 28 to 68. The Smithsonian has estimated his collection as "priceless" and none have ever been sold. This photo is the Lincoln funeral train. It's really incredible that this guy with a second grade education carved these intricate, moving trains and never sold one, even when he needed money.



We then headed to the Trainmaster Inn next door to the Dennison Depot where the Polar Express leaves from. Former Senator Greg DiDonato owns it and we booked all three rooms for us and the neighbors. It was nice staying in a b&b, we could never do that with the kids at their ages unless we booked the whole place.



We ended up getting pizza and eating there because 2 other families joined us. Then it was off to the train station, a short block walk away. The train ride was fun, the kids always enjoy it and the North Pole even had live reindeer this year. Santa joined us for the ride back to the station. We watched a little football but almost everyone went to sleep early, the kids were very excited about the whole thing.



We got up and drove to our tree farm and were disappointed with the selection this year. There wasn't anything great so we didn't cut anything down and didn't even buy one at their lot. We ended up stopping at a nursery in New Albany and getting a great tree from a lot; the boys were sleeping so we told Henry that Santa must have put it on our roof when we were driving. We wen to the Columbus Academy open house that afternoon. I don't know if we'll send the boys there but I wanted to check it out. Two teachers for 17 students in kindergarten, pretty strong but we expected that.



We decorated the tree and the house last night. Tonight we are off to the Boich Christmas party which is always the best, most extravagant event we go to. I'll post some more photos from the weekend.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

 







Friday, December 05, 2008

 

rolling along

Not a lot going on at the Briggs household the last few days.  I went to Akron today to attend a lunch where Congressman Regula got a lifetime achievement award from the Akron Chamber.  It was nice seeing him and Mary again.  Tomorrow we are heading to the Polar Express in Dennison.  Always a bunch of photos from that trip on the blog afterwards.  Hopefully, we'll get our tree on Sunday if its not too cold. 
 
Oh, and we got a package of meat from Allen Brothers as a gift from a business friend.  I won't say how much it costs but its good meat.
 
Awesome Combination with USDA PRIME Filet Mignons

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

 

bearing gifts

I had this conversation yesterday with Henry.  Right about the time he was starting to feel better...
 
"Dad, I have an idea.  When we see Santa Claus at the Christmas tree place, can we bring him a present?  I bet he doesn't get many presents". 
 
"Henry, that's a very sweet idea.  What do you think we should get him?"
 
"I think we should buy him some reindeer food".
 
"Where would we buy that?"
 
"Meijer's or Giant Eagle sells it".
 
You have to admit, not too many boys out there are concerned that no one takes a gift to Santa Claus.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

 


Not sure why Jackie is wearing this cap inside. He doesn't look like he knows either.







At the U.S. Air Force Museum on Friday.





















At Granddad's for Thanksgiving.













 

In sickness and in health...

I stayed home with Henry again today and took him to the doctor.  She tested for strep but the test was negative except for dehydration, she thinks he has the stomach flu.  Since Henry hasn't eaten since Friday, that didn't surprise me.  The doctor told him to take a sip of liquid every 10 minutes.  That's a lot, surprisingly.  Anyway, he seems much better tonight and ate lunch and dinner.  I'm still sick but I was never worried about me.  Funny how a sick, lethargic five year old can scare a father but I was.
 
Jack seems fine but we're supposed to keep them apart.  That's tough to do, they enjoy playing with each other a lot. 

Monday, December 01, 2008

 
Nothing much to report here.  Henry has been sick since 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning and stayed home from school today.  He hasn't eaten anything since Saturday.  I'm taking him to the doctor tomorrow if he isn't better.  The rest of the family is in various degrees of sickness. 

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