December 30, 2012 0

Sandy

By News Desk

Sandy Whether Sandy was caused by, made worse by, had nothing to do with climate change is one of those questions that can sell a lot of beer and be the subject of seminars, posters and blogs without end.  Eli is actually not going to take a position on that, or rather reserves the right to be all over the place on the issue. However, it is one of the choices in the Bunny Poll and a few words are in order, so let the first few come from Greg Laden , the keeper of the list who put it at Number 1: Note that the first few of the links below are to blog posts written by concerned climate scientists, whom the climate change denialists call “alarmists.†You will note that these scientists and writers were saying alarming things as the storm approached. You will also note that what actually happened when Sandy struck was much worse than any of these “alarmists†predicted in one way or another, in some cases, in several ways.

December 29, 2012 0

Obama Issues Executive Order Granting Pay Raises to Congress, the Vice President, Judges; Any Raise is Too Much; Congress Approval Rating is 18%

By News Desk

Congress has done such a beautiful job handling the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling that president Obama felt it mandatory to issue an Executive Order Giving Biden, Congress Pay Raises President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden

December 29, 2012 0

Polar Bear Frolics

By News Desk

Polar Bear Frolics So OK, Eli is one of those strange Rabett’s who look at the Arctic Ice images from Cryosphere and Uni Bremen at Christmas.  Why Christmas the bunnies ask, well Santa is on his way.  Among the things that you can see at Chrismas, which are interesting, are the edges of the ic pack outside of the Arctic circle, and something amazing is happening, the coasts of Svalbard and Nova Zemelya are ice free!  by a lot.  The last picture is 2012.  The Cryosphere Archive changes format a bit over the years, and  is missing the years between 2009 and 2011, so we can insert pictures from Bremen to show this developing trend.  Yes indeedy there is stuff going on.

December 28, 2012 0

European PMI Retail Sales Collapse: Near-Record Drop in Italy Retail Sales; French Retail Sales Drop 9th Consecutive Month; Germany Retail Sales Back…

By News Desk

Near survey-record year-on-year fall in retail sales Rate of job losses fastest since July Business sentiment weakens to series low Summary: Italy’s retail sector remained in a steep downturn in December, with sales dropping sharply according to both monthly and yearly measures. Gross margins decreased amid a further rise in average wholesale prices, while firms cut employment and purchasing activity in line with lower sales. The month also saw business sentiment hit a record low