Cuppacafe

So, I know that weather-geeks like Walt (probably) spent much of the weekend glued to the weather channel watching Southern CT get slammed by a wicked-serious storm on Saturday. (My in-laws drove all the way up the East Coast from Florida with it.) Well, Having spent much of the day indoors (hoping that I wouldn't ship water in my basement again), I missed quite a bit of it, but for reasons that pas understanding, we had to go out last night (after much of the high winds were over), but as we drove two towns over (in the dark), we did get to experience some of the aftermath of the event.

Well, we had to detour around a few fallen trees a few times to get where we were going (and then a few more times before we got back — at one point even calling in a 911 call to report a downed tree that had taken down a power line which was arcing and had started a small fire).

When we finally got home (to discover a dry basement), all was well (except that we had no land-line, internet, or cable; requiring me to fall asleep in front of a DVD, before getting up and going to bed). This morning I did venture out again to discover a few more fallen trees (this time in my own neighborhood). These trees included:

One in my back yard (that fell into the woods behind my house, thus causing no real damage or mess).

A second that had fallen across the street and was precariously leaning on the high-tension wire.

And a third that had fallen across a street leading to my house.

There were more, (much more), this is just what I was able to snap from my house.

Isn't the weather fun?

The Perfessor

Yea, it is snowing here in New England, again. This is a shot of my parent's house from the street (after my brother, Ron, cleared the driveway, steps & sidewalk, then built a snowman).

The Perfessor

Has this ever happened to you (have you ever done this to someone else)?

There is a terrific snowstorm (a "Snowmageddon" if you will) and you spend an hour or so digging your car out of the snowbank into which it was plowed. Do you "own" that spot? well that was the very question asked by some lawyers.

"If you dig your car out from its frozen tomb, do you then own that parking spot until the sun melts open the rest of the curbside space?"

This is the very question asked this past week when our nation's capital became a Snowtropolis:

In the D.C.-area where I'm located, everything -- politics; the suckitude of the Redskins, Wizards and Nationals; you name it -- has taken a back seat to the record three feet of snow that the Snowpocalypse of 2010 has inflicted upon our city this week. As such, an article on Tuesday in The Washington Post did a great job of highlighting perhaps the most contentious issue of the week:

Quite a few years ago, the guy who owned my house before me (Sal) had such an incident happen to him. He dug out a spot from the end his driveway, backed out his car and left. When he came back, he discovered that a neighbor had pulled into his spot (right in the driveway), to take his spot. When asked the guy to leave,th guy refused, so Sal simply parked behind the fellow, effectively trapping him in the snow. When the other fellow asked that Sal move his car, Sal refused. forcing the guy to dig his way out in a path that went across Sal's yard.

Personally I think it was a great solution.

The Perfessor

This just in! The East Coast is buried in snow for the first (or second) time since winter last year! Al Gore is obviously wrong about Global Warming.

(Oh yeah, it is also starting to get dark, so that means someone extinguished the sun also, right?)

Don't ya just love the media's need to scare the crap out of us on a 214-hour news cycle, just to get us to watch their show?

The Perfessor

Yes boys and girls, it is Groundhog’s Day. Time for us to turn our weather forcasting over to an over-sized rodent (no, not your local weatherman, a real rodent!) Which is what we all do when we look to Punxsutawney Phil.

Well, as it turns out, the little rodent saw his shadow! You can just imagine how very, very unhappy I am right about now.

You wanna know what I like best about Groundhogs right about now?

They taste just like chicken!

The Perfessor

I know that Walt wants to talk about this (and he probably will at some point), but both he and I came across this bombshell and well, I wanted to get it out there. Apparently, (and if I’m understanding this correctly) everything we’ve learned about climate change and global warming (and what Al Gore has been telling us), is wrong. The way we learned about it, is due to someone apparently hacked a scientific server and discovered all these incriminating emails.

In the last few hours, thousands of emails have been leaked to internet forums detailing a massive conspiracy to fudge climate change results to make the results look more influenced by carbon emissions and cover-up any inconsistencies that may lead to alternative theories regarding climate control. Given the high controversy of this subject, it’s important to understand the potential for deception, and any evidence from either side must be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, the controversy is causing quite a storm.

The documents, from the Climate Research Institute at East Anglia University are being scrutinized now, and seem on first inspection to be authentic. The 62 MB file was first uploaded to internet forum site, “The Air Vent” early yesterday. Many of the emails detail the disdain researchers have for those uncooperative scientists who are attempting to discredit thousands of hours worth of expensive research done by those involved in the controversy. Some names mentioned are Phil Jones, and Michael Mann who coined the “hockey stick” diagram.

“I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s,” so one email goes, “to hide the decline.” Clearly we see here that if these emails are indeed authentic, then this is quite possibly one of the greatest conspiracies to surface from the scientific community since the Alternating Current Wars. And according to “Investigate” magazine, operating from Australia, Dr. Phil Jones has verified their authenticity. Dr. Jones’ analysis holds with it much weight, and many are now giving a second look to what would otherwise have merely been a “well crafted hoax.” Now as the controversy continues, many climatic science sites are taking the emails very seriously.

This is a very long (9:58) video in regards to this scientific hack and what the potential fallout.