Posts by TomR

Foreign sabotage suspected in Phobos-Grunt meltdown

It was Snowball

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_%28Animal_Farm%29

Sadly, there is no pig icon.

Greenland 'lurched upward' in 2010 as 100bn tons of ice melted

Sea level rise is currently 3 mm/year

It's really difficult to come by reliable sea level rise data, in the pre-satellite era, but it does seem that historic sea level rise in the 20th century (1-2 mm/year) is less than current sea level rise (rather precisely known from satellites at 3.4 mm/year).

http://sealevel.colorado.edu/content/estimating-mean-sea-level-change-topex-and-jason-altimeter-missions

Antarctic ice formed at CO2 levels much higher than today's

Back to basics

Yes, some Antarctic ice will melt as we warm the globe. No, no-one has claimed that the whold Antarctic ice sheet will melt. It's a non-linear process (like many of the arguments here).

No, I didn't post up no stinkin facts - except to parrot what the researchers themselves said. Google "Willem Sijp" or "Mark Pagani" (who, along with Huber, are the researchers who did the study) to see what the real world makes of this research (or read it yourself). Here's the press release http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/pu-dic120111.php

Reg cranking out the FUD again

This article missing the point and misrepresents the study - and the authors of the study. This seems to have become quite traditional here at El Reg, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

Of course the Antartic Ice sheet is not going to melt - no-one ever said it would. It's too big and too high (although the West Antarctic Ice Sheet might if we really go for it).

The point is that it was formed as a result of global cooling triggered by a 40% reduction in CO2. We're on course to more than double CO2 (back to levels above those that led to the formation of Antarctic Ice Sheet, incidentally).

Changes in CO2 of this magnitude have major, long-lasting and hard-to-reverse effects on climate. Just to pull one quote:

"The evidence falls in line with what we would expect if carbon dioxide is the main dial that governs global climate; if we crank it up or down there are dramatic changes," says Matthew Huber, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue. "We went from a warm world without ice to a cooler world with an ice sheet overnight, in geologic terms, because of fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels."

Apple: Siri isn't anti-abortion

Reflects wider malaise in America

The big issue is to consider why this is happening. I don't suppose anyone programmed Siri to censor out abortion clinics. The fact that it will give you results for planned parenthood, but doesn't associate Planned Parenthood with abortion services (whereas in real life they are connected) suggests that the databases behind it haven't picked up the link.

The likely reason they haven't picked it up is due to self-censorship in the US, about how people talk about abortion on web pages etc.

The point is that it can link asking for a blow job to give you an escort service (or so I'm told), but can't connect abortion to service providers. That suggests something is deeply screwed in US culture.

UK Met Office: World temperature back down to 1997 level

Can't get the staff

Who is it at El Reg that keeps letting this idiot post this guff here? I wouldn't mind so much but, unlike most things in life, global climate change is actually important.

Just to note the obvious: 1997 was a record el nino year. Temps are now as hot as as a record el nino - but without the el nino!