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In a remarkable monograph, Roy W. Spencer presents hard evidence that 75% of the observed warming since the start of the 20th century is due to natural processes. He offers a detailed model describing how one of these processes, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), operates in the real world. Most importantly, he demonstrates that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is a minor contributor to a global climate largely insensitive to man-made CO2. Thanks to this highly skilled climatologist and his The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled The World's Top Climate Scientists, we can now taunt the often corrupt...

Apple's iPod linked to iCrime wave By Thomas Claburn 2 October 2007 11:10AM The popularity of the iPod and other portable media devices has driven the robbery rate higher, according to a report issued on Thursday by the Urban Institute, a non-profit policy research organization based in Washington, D.C. Citing FBI statistics, the report notes that violent crime increased for the first time in over a decade in 2005 and in 2006. Homicides and robberies rose while other violent crimes like rape and aggravated assaults, along with all types of property crime, continued to trend downward. "In this brief, we...

HADITHA, Iraq – A young Marine wonders if his superiors will support him if he shoots at perceived threats. An officer worries that civilians look at his Marines with more suspicion. The proud colonel acknowledges that his Corps has lost stature in the public's eyes. Allegations that Marines deliberately killed 24 civilians – including women and children – last November in this rebellious city have prompted reactions ranging from shame and anger to disbelief within the Marine Corps. In this intensely proud service, some say they're being prematurely judged. Others grasp for plausible explanations behind the alleged slaughter. A Pentagon...

Recently newspaper columnist George Will wrote "...But elections have transformed Hamas into the government of the Palestinian territories, and elections have turned Hezbollah into a significant faction in Lebanon's parliament, from which it operates as a state within the state..." There is always a tendency among those who cannot differentiate between cause and effect to note that winter is caused by all of those pesky snowflakes... The elections in the middle east did not 'suddenly and magically infuse' Lebanon and Palestine with extremist voters, any more than the 'No child left behind' program of the Bush Administration suddenly created huge...

Try as it might, The New York Times just doesn't get cause and effect. On Wednesday, it published a story headlined "Almost 10% of Prisoners Are Serving Life Terms," in which it reported the number of inmates serving life sentences in U.S. prisons had jumped 83 percent since 1992. The Times frequently suffers from newsroom math and loves to torture numbers to advance its world view, but we'll give it the benefit of the doubt since it attributed that statistic to the Sentencing Project, "a prison research and advocacy group" that would rather not see criminals do time. To the...

Over 40m worldwide have HIV More needs to be done to persuade people to have fewer sexual partners, according to leading HIV experts. They said encouraging people to have fewer partners would result in fewer HIV infections. Writing in the British Medical Journal, they said little effort has gone in to tackling the issue in recent years. They said the message appears to have been lost, as campaigns put the emphasis on abstaining from sex or using condoms. The experts, who include officials from the Global Fund for Aids, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Agency for...

A 59-year-old janitor missing a hearing aid darted into a MetroRail train Wednesday at Reliant Park, then the ambulance carrying him to the hospital was hit by a car one minute into the trip, injuring four more people. Donnie Hall, who works for a temporary agency cleaning Reliant Stadium, was on his way home when he walked in front of the southbound train approaching the Reliant Park Station platform about 4 p.m., said Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Ken Connaughton. Hall had apparently seen a northbound train at the station and hurried to get on board for his trip to his...