My Beauty Best Teacher

Mr. Robbo the PE Geek is an excellent blogger and incredible teacher. Located in remote Australia, he has these students using heart monitors and high definition cameras to understand their sport. (Read his It's Now Possible blog post from today. This PE teacher taught me about QR Codes. A neat person too.)

We can talk about getting kids interested in science, however, science is interested IN them because it can unlock higher performance in the things they love. Taking science to the ballfield is only the beginning

For those of you who saw my Daily Education & Technology News For Schools this morning know that I'm having a bit of a traipse into Citizen Science.

Citizen Science is Becoming "Legitimate" Science
Authentic citizen scientist research work is becoming very useful to high level scientists. When I sat down with Dr. Geoffrey "Jess" Parker from the Smithsonian last year and the Microsoft Innovative Educator Forum in South Africa, he said that it is pretty easy to use statistical analysis to filter out "noise" of readings that have been taken in err.

Joshua Faulk helps students Treeband in south Africa at St. Cyprian's. Photo by Vicki Davis.

Dr. Parker is the scientist who discovered that trees in Maryland are growing faster than predicted. He and fellow scientist Joshua Faulk and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have partnered with Taking IT Global and Microsoft to create Shout Learning and the Smithsonian Tree Banding project where your students can participate.

Here are some important reasons you should have citizen science as part of your curriculum:

• It introduces students to the scientific method and data collection responsibilities.
  
• It introduces students to live science in action and makes it real. They can see questions before they have been answered and understand how science moves forward.
  
• It adds meaning to their work. No longer answering the same questions answered hundreds of years a go, they are answering questions that help our world NOW! You and your classroom MAKE A Difference. (The principle of glocalization talked about in Thomas Friedman's work - Think globally act locally.)
  
• As in the case of Mr. Robbo's lesson plan, they can use science to improve their performance which can show benefits on the field and also in their life as they realize science is in them, around them, everywhere.
  
• It is project based learning in action and can lead to other cross curricular activities including math, writing reflections, technology (using spreadsheets) and more.

http://scienceforcitizens.net/

• The Network for Citizen Science Projects & Resources | Science for Citizens

  Another citizen science network. There are a ton of citizen science resources available on this website including a project to help track and save American Robins. You can also add projects here and blog. Another great place for projects. This website lets one rate projects as well. There are many games on this website. This is a definite goldmine for science teachers!

  tags: science citizenscientist flatclassroom education

• CitSci.org - Project List

  One can also list projects on this website. It might be interesting for students to create their own projects.

  tags: education citizenscientist science

• CitSci.org - Home

  A citizen science project monitoring nature and contribute to colelctive biological understanding. Every science classroom should find an appropriate citizen science project to do in their classrooms on an ongoing basis. Become part of research.

  tags: education science flatclassroom citizenscientist

• For Citizen Scientists - NASA Science

  NASA calls for Citizen scientists to help map Mars and says that citizen scientists "have helped to answer serious scientific questions, provide vital data to the astronomical community, and have discovered thousands of objects including nebulas, supernovas and gamma ray bursts."
  
  It is time to join your classrooms into the citizen scientist movement. How would your students feel about science if they helped discover a star?

  tags: education science flatclassroom citizenscientist edu_trends techintegrator

• H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online

  A website supporting collaborative research at the highest academic levels. Run out of the University of Michigan this looks like a fascinating endeavor where one can network with other researchers.

  tags: education research globalcollaboration flatclassroom professionaldevelopment

• Journey North's Monarch Butterfly Migration Tracking Project

  Join in Journey North's Monarch Butterfly Migration Tracking Project this fall in North America. This is an excellent citizen scientist project.

  tags: education learning butterfly science

• Acceptable Use Policies in Web 2.0 & Mobile Era > Consortium for School Networking

  Acceptable Use policies in a Web 2.0 and Mobile Era: A guide for school districts is one of those things you'll want to read and reference as you make your decision. Please, NEVER just blanket adopt any acceptable use policy. It should be customized for your school and needs.

  tags: education acceptableuse policy

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Today let's learn about our Science Czar, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren.

As the United States of America continues its descent under President Obama and his New Democrat Party into a third-world dictatorship, I still find myself unfamiliar with the overlords who now control my behavior and distribute to me gifts and favors. Oh, I know who is elected into office, and being a teacher of this sort of stuff I understand the bureaucracy and how it works. But who the heck is John Holdren, what role does he play in our political system, how did he get that role, and what sort of a person is he to be controlling me?

It's tough to keep all these czars straight, you know, since under Obamathe number of unelected, unconfirmed offices who go by the old imperial Russian title of Czar has gone up quite a bit (although to be fair, the number of people who have been considered czars under Obama is still just under the number of people who were considered czars under Bush, a two-term President roundly criticized by both the right and left as being undemocratic and statist). Still, I'm determined to get to know all of them- from Kenneth Feinberg, Head of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront and Pay Czar who although being a long-time Democratic operative and chief of staff for Democratic Senator Kennedy was put in charge of determining how much CEO's should be paid in once-free America, to Gary Samore, former US Communist party member and current WMD Policy Czar, to Ed Montgomery, auto-worker czar and distributor of gifts and favors.

It's going to be important for all of us to become more familiar with how things work in America now- after the change- we'll need to know how to curry favor with royal envoys, how to avoid being intimidated and bullied by bowing low and saying the right things, and how to bow get gifts from to our new overlords, who now tour around the land giving gifts to favored people.

So today let's get to know a little bit better our Science Czar, John Holdren. From Who Runs Gov:

Holdren is a powerhouse in the world of science and public policy. As director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST), he is the top adviser to President Barack Obama on science and technology, issues that are increasingly relevant to homeland security, energy and the environment. Holdren casts all of the above as priorities.

He also leads interagency efforts to develop and implement sound science and technology policies and budgets, and works with the private sector, state and local governments, the science and higher education communities, and other nations to advance his policy initiatives.

Although a lot of conservatives may focus on other aspects of John Holdren- for example, in a book he published in 1977, he wrote about and appeared to be supportive of forced abortions, mass sterilization, a "Planetary Regime" with the power of life and death over American citizens, populations that would be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation's drinking water or in food, and other similarly frightening ideas. This research is important and should be realized, but I want to focus instead on another aspect of Holdren- his belief in a benevolent world dictatorship of the enlightened elite that will forcibly transfer wealth for some reason or another.

Holdren is a believer in the so-called Unified Theory of Left-Wing Causes. This theory is that all left wing causes- including global warming, global cooling, overpopulation, endangered species, poverty, diversity, and many others- can all be solved by a benevolent world dictatorship of the enlightened elite that will force others to live their lives differently and will redistribute their property as they see fit.

Basically, Holdren is a run-of-the-mill tyranny supporter, and was appointed to his position by tyrant-in-chief President Barack Obama, and he is to be opposed by all freedom and liberty loving patriots out there.

The worst part about Holdren, aside from the fact that he seizes on the left wing cause of the day to push his tyrannical beliefs, is that his ideas and theories about everything are wrong. From Forbes:

....In keeping with his dogmatic limits-to-growth convictions, Holdren joined his frequent co-author, eco-doomster Paul Ehrlich, in a famous bet against cornucopian economist Julian Simon. In 1980, Holdren, Ehrlich and Stanford colleague John Harte picked a basket of five commodities--chrome, copper, nickel, tin and tungsten--that they were sure were going to rise in price as they became increasingly scarce. They drew up a futures contract obligating Simon to sell Holdren, Ehrlich and Harte the same quantities of five metals that could be purchased for $1,000 10 years later at 1980 prices.

If the combined prices rose above $1,000, Simon would pay the difference. If they fell below $1,000, Ehrlich would pay Simon. Ehrlich mailed Simon a check for $576.07 in October 1990. Simply put, the combined real prices of the metals selected by Holdren and his colleagues fell by more than 50% during the 1980s, confirming cornucopian claims that the supply of resources over time becomes more abundant, not scarcer.....

...Holdren introduced in 1971--with his colleague and perennial population-alarmist, Ehrlich--the concept of the I=PAT identity. Human Impact on the environment is equal to Population x Affluence/consumption x Technology. All of which are supposed to intensify and worsen humanity's impact on the natural world.

History shows that the I=PAT identity largely gets it backward. Population is at worst neutral, while affluence and technology actually promote environmental flourishing. It is in the rich, developed countries that the air becomes clearer, the streams cleaner and the forests more expansive....

...Holdren doesn't appear to have an adequate understanding of the economic process through which these technological advances are achieved. He seems to think new technologies arise full-blown from government agencies and university laboratories....

This is the general flaw to the Unified Theory of Left-Wing Causes- that bureaucrats like Holdren know what they are doing and if they are given more power over others- power that those free people once exercised- and are given more resources- resources taken from the labor of once-free people- that these bureaucrats will make the world a better place for us all to live- a more prosperous, free, and happy place. It turns out though that he is wrong in almost all of his theories- from bets he placed to equations he invented to his general understanding of economics. He is a failed person- perhaps no more failed than the rest of us, but yet given more power and authority and wealth over the rest of us by a government not in any way empowered to do so.

People are not completely 'benelevent', and neither are the governments they create, and there are no 'enlightened' people in charge of our government today, either Democrat or Republican or liberal or conservative. Whatever the cause that you believe in or support, the answer is never the Unified Theory of Left-Wing Causes, and yet the Obama administration has appointed as Science Czar one of the greatest believers in this theory- a guy who is supposed to be a scientist actually at his heart a firm believer in a theory that is demonstratively wrong.

John Holdren is yet another example of a failed administration based on failed theories and ideas putting in placed failed administrators who implement failed policies- and we can see the results of this failure in America today.

Every single time I have received a letter from Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) about global warming the opening line from her letter has been "the science on this issue is settled and there is now no debate over global warming." A good way to test this hypothesis of the good Senator would be to call thousands of people and conduct a survey and ask them whether they think the science has been settled and whether they think there is still debate on the issue.

If the Senator is correct and 'the science is settled' and 'there is no debate', then the people would agree, since they are educated about science and they are the source of debate. Oh, there would still be some nuts, but you could expect 60-70% to say that the debate is over and the science is settled.

Scott Rasmussen has done such a survey, and so we can test the claims of Stabenow.

Senator Debbie Stabenow is wrong, and every letter she has sent to me has been filled with lies. According to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, just 25% of adults think that the science is settled and that there is no more debate on the issue. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure. The majority of Americans (52%) believe that there continues to be significant disagreement within the scientific community over global warming, that the science is not settled, and that there is still debate on this issue.

Stabenow is clearly out of step with the majority of Americans and clearly out of step with the constituents of her own state, and time and time again she has sent me a letter making false claims demonstrating how far she is out of step. Statistically and verifiable her views only represent 25% of Americans, and yet for some reason she represents our entire state on these very issues.

Go ahead and email Senator Stabenow at http://stabenow.senate.gov/email.htm and let her know that the majority of Americans think that there is still debate on the issue of global warming and that the majority of good and decent and intelligent Americans still feel that there is debate on this issue, and that she should listen to the majority of Americans instead of small radical environmental groups before voting on the issue of global warming. I think she is a true believer in the Green God though, so you'll probably get a reply that is all mush and mumbo-jumbo, but the facts of the issue may at least inject something to her views. Cite those facts in your email to her- the Rasmussen Reports story can be found here.

Senator Stabenow and the rest of the Democrats in Congress are wrong- the majority (52%) of Americans think that the science on global warming is not settled and that there is still debate on this issue, and the majority of our nation should be listened to before Congress enacts any sort of cap-and-tax schemes or other global warming legislation.

Hat-tip to powerline.

In SciDev Oyeniyi Akande contends that:

The biggest challenge to creating a science culture in Africa is the widespread public perception that science is foreign-led and irrelevant to people's daily needs.Making science-based strategies recognise and address the real needs and economic situations of local people is central to persuading them to engage more with science

Continuing:

Science for development requires an interdisciplinary approach, and many of the failures mentioned might have been avoided if the projects had addressed the social and economic dimensions that influence human behaviour.
Instead, people are left comparing 'science' that they can neither understand nor use, with tried-and-tested local experience. It is perhaps not surprising that they choose to trust the wisdom of their forefathers over foreign science.

More here
via Innovation Africa

From Slate:

....It is no secret that the ranks of scientists and engineers in the United States include dismal numbers of Hispanics and African-Americans, but few have remarked about another significantly underrepresented group: Republicans.


No, this is not the punch line of a joke. A Pew Research Center Poll from July 2009 showed that only around 6 percent of U.S. scientists are Republicans; 55 percent are Democrats, 32 percent are independent, and the rest "don't know" their affiliation....

...Yet, partisan politics aside, why should it matter that there are so few Republican scientists? After all, it's the scientific facts that matter, and facts aren't blue or red....

...Or could it be that disagreements over climate change are essentially political—and that science is just carried along for the ride? For 20 years, evidence about global warming has been directly and explicitly linked to a set of policy responses demanding international governance regimes, large-scale social engineering, and the redistribution of wealth. These are the sort of things that most Democrats welcome, and most Republicans hate. No wonder the Republicans are suspicious of the science. Think about it: The results of climate science, delivered by scientists who are overwhelmingly Democratic, are used over a period of decades to advance a political agenda that happens to align precisely with the ideological preferences of Democrats. Coincidence—or causation? Now this would be a good case for Mythbusters.

During the Bush administration, Democrats discovered that they could score political points by accusing Bush of being anti-science. In the process, they seem to have convinced themselves that they are the keepers of the Enlightenment spirit, and that those who disagree with them on issues like climate change are fundamentally irrational. Meanwhile, many Republicans have come to believe that mainstream science is corrupted by ideology and amounts to no more than politics by another name. Attracted to fringe scientists like the small and vocal group of climate skeptics, Republicans appear to be alienated from a mainstream scientific community that by and large doesn't share their political beliefs. The climate debacle is only the most conspicuous example of these debilitating tendencies, which play out in issues as diverse as nuclear waste disposal, protection of endangered species, and regulation of pharmaceuticals.

How would a more politically diverse scientific community improve this situation? First, it could foster greater confidence among Republican politicians about the legitimacy of mainstream science. Second, it would cultivate more informed, creative, and challenging debates about the policy implications of scientific knowledge. This could help keep difficult problems like climate change from getting prematurely straitjacketed by ideology. A more politically diverse scientific community would, overall, support a healthier relationship between science and politics....

This relationship is an interesting one, and is explained not by the fact that all Republicans are idiots and unscientific, but because Republicans are all busy actually doing things for society and not just getting government contracts to write papers that no one reads. Scientists are largely useless bureaucrats of a specialized sort today, performing little to no function for society but rather drawing off wealth from working engineers, businessman, and inventors who send their hard-earned tax money to government-run institutions who employ professional scientists to formulate government responses to government-related problems, and so it is no wonder they are all Democrats.

If you can produce a good, improve a product, design a new system, or contribute research that people actually will pay to get their hands on, then you aren't going to be a scientist, you're going to become a businessman, inventor, engineer, or something like that and give yourself a different label than "professional government controlled scientists".

G. Pascal Zachary on Africa's anti-science movement:

The large numbers of highly educated people who move to Europe and the U.S. and lack of social and financial support for scientists in most African countries means that there are few voices defending science in political and media debates in the region. The most passionate defenders of science often are foreigners and thus anti-science attitudes are fueled by resentments against outsider...The anti-science movement in Africa displays curious parallels with a similar movement in the U.S. This suggests that merely dismissing science skeptics in Africa as irrational or irrelevant won’t work. These science skeptics must be understood on their own terms. And the case for greater financial investment in research and development in Africa must be made convincingly in political, economic and moral terms. That greater benefits to African societies will result simply from more spending on more R&D should not be presumed but rather demonstrated.

More here

Muza Gondwe writes:

A science cafe, known around the world as café scientifique “is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings take place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.”...Science cafes are slowly and steadily spreading across the African continent. Regular cafes are being held in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Ghana, and Morocco. It began in 2007 at a workshop on African Science Cafes in South Africa supported by the British Council.

via Communicating Science,the African way

• Ready, Set, Invent! The Google Science Fair is Launched | MindShift

  Google Science fair is open. The only Google product you have to do is to use a Google site. The science fair is open. Take a look at this if you're a science teacher. 
  
  "This year, Google is taking the “global” aspect of the contest seriously, allowing submissions in 13 different languages (last year’s were only accepted in English). The company will also select 90 regional finalists — 30 from the Americas, 30 from the Asia-Pacific region, and 30 from Europe and Africa. It’s about “guaranteeing more global coverage,” says Maggie Johnson, Google Director of Education and a Google Science Fair judge."

  tags: flatclass globaled

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

In SciDev Linda Nordling asks "Does Africa really need new idealism?" in its innovation policy.Commenting on a recent 'Knowledge Swaraj' manifesto which:

...suggests countries establish 'innovation fora' to debate technology investments and choices more broadly. And it wants funding for scientific 'centres of excellence' to give way to support for science that addresses local needs.

In addition it:

...will go a step further in promoting the 'domestication' of science in Africa, says ATPS executive director, Kevin Urama.He says that Africa's confidence in its own science — traditional knowledge — dropped with colonialism and the arrival of Western science traditions. He argues that this cultural loss underpins Western-sponsored science's inability to improve the lives of ordinary Africans.

More here

If this is "Idealism" I would suggest we have further doses of it. The lack of a self-reinforcing scientific culture can be traced to the very lack of a local intrinsic need and or connection to research as its currently practiced.

• Water–A Chemical Solution: A Global Experiment - Activities - IYC 2011

  Again another part of this International Year of Chemistry and a global water experiment.
  
  "“Chemistry—our life, our future,” is the slogan of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC), 2011. During the year, a global chemistry experiment will be performed by many thousands of school children across the world, potentially becoming the biggest chemical experiment every conducted. Under the theme, “Water: A Chemical Solution,” students will focus on modules that examine the properties of their local water and the technological solutions chemistry makes available to humanity in supplying clean drinking water. The global experiment will promote the goals of the IYC, including generating enthusiasm for science among young people around the world.
  
  Experiment modules can be carried out by children of all ages in schools across all continents because they are adaptable to the skills and interests of students, and use equipment that is widely available at little or no cost. Results will be electronically showcased as an interactive global data map at the end of 2011, demonstrating the value of international cooperation in science."

  tags: education learning science science_teacher

• Chemistry International -- Newsmagazine for IUPAC

  This from a teacher over my website:
  
  "Hey Vicki!
  
  I am writing to you to help raise awareness about a really cool world-wide chemistry experiment that I think students will really enjoy and hopefully help spark their interest in science. It’s a great hands-on project being sponsored by the International Year of Chemistry for all elementary school and high school students, and according to the IYC there is little to no cost to perform the experiments. They are trying to make it a World Record for largest chemistry experiment ever!
  
  To get my message out to teachers and students I’m reaching out to sites like Cool Cat Teacher asking to submit a guest article, so if that is something you would consider I would be happy to send one along for review, just let me know! Thank you!
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Alan Parker"

  tags: education science_teacher science

• International Society for Technology in Education - Blog > Obama Calls on US to "out-innovate" and "out-educate," A Response to 2011 State of the Union

  Patrick Riccards is CEO of Exemplar Strategic Communications, wrote this on ISTE"s blog as part of their response to the state of the union address.

  tags: education learning

• Net Generation Education Project 2011

  The 2011 projects are open for application now! We have quite a few schools signed up to participate and kick off in march. This is the application form and link to information on this excellent Flat Classroom project.

  tags: education netgened flatclassroom

• Sharing in Google Docs just got easier - Docs Blog

  Some big changes including bulk changes have also hit google docs

  tags: education google learning

• Uploading and converting PDF and image files with text to Google Docs : Uploading and exporting - Google Docs Help

  google Docs does OCR!!!

  tags: education google

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

When launching The Carnival of the Africans Micheal Meadon of Ionian Enchantment wrote:

Africa as a whole needs science: it needs science to develop, to prosper, and to grow the reality-based community. So, as you'll see if you look at the guidelines, this carnival has an Africa-wide mandate: it covers any science or skeptical topic related to Africa and any science blogging by Africans. The aim, ultimately, is to promote the skeptical and scientific world view, but more concretely, to stimulate discussion, disseminate good blogging and to cultivate a greater sense of community among the small number of science-minded African bloggers.

Mwananyanda Mbikusita Lewanika argues that:

The danger is that an over-emphasis on centres of excellence will, rather than improve African science, simply widen the existing technological gap both between African countries and between the continent and the rest of the world...To overcome the scourge of poverty and move towards prosperity, African countries must invest in their own capacities for generating domestic science and technology. This means embracing science and technology as a critical ingredient for national development.
Scientists have a crucial role in engaging policymakers and the general public in science and technology. The onus is on researchers and engineers to devise ways of demystifying science and technology so that African society can appreciate how these fields affect their day-to-day life, and how it is critical to development.

via SciDev

Last month I wrote an important post called Global Climate Change is Caused by the Sun. That post has received a lot of comments and generated a lot of emails, most of them critical of the post because they didn't feel that I provided enough information to support my points or that I was not a reputable outlet to challenge their faith in climate change. But I want to hammer away at these people and continue to challenge their faith and make people feel more comfortable about the arguments that I made in that post, so I am going to all direct you to an article.

The article is published by the Financial Post and is called Science Getting Settled: New, convincing evidence indicates global warming is caused by cosmic rays and the sun — not humans:

The science is now all-but-settled on global warming, convincing new evidence demonstrates, but Al Gore, the IPCC and other global warming doomsayers won’t be celebrating. The new findings point to cosmic rays and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of climate on Earth.

The research, published with little fanfare this week in the prestigious journal Nature, comes from über-prestigious CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research involving 60 countries and 8,000 scientists at more than 600 universities and national laboratories. CERN is the organization that invented the World Wide Web, that built the multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider, and that has now built a pristinely clean stainless steel chamber that precisely recreated the Earth’s atmosphere.

In this chamber, 63 CERN scientists from 17 European and American institutes have done what global warming doomsayers said could never be done — demonstrate that cosmic rays promote the formation of molecules that in Earth’s atmosphere can grow and seed clouds, the cloudier and thus cooler it will be. Because the sun’s magnetic field controls how many cosmic rays reach Earth’s atmosphere (the stronger the sun’s magnetic field, the more it shields Earth from incoming cosmic rays from space), the sun determines the temperature on Earth.

The hypothesis that cosmic rays and the sun hold the key to the global warming debate has been Enemy No. 1 to the global warming establishment ever since it was first proposed by two scientists from the Danish Space Research Institute, at a 1996 scientific conference in the U.K. Within one day, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Bert Bolin, denounced the theory, saying, “I find the move from this pair scientifically extremely naive and irresponsible.” He then set about discrediting the theory, any journalist that gave the theory credence, and most of all the Danes presenting the theory — they soon found themselves vilified, marginalized and starved of funding, despite their impeccable scientific credentials.

The mobilization to rally the press against the Danes worked brilliantly, with one notable exception. Nigel Calder, a former editor of The New Scientist who attended that 1996 conference, would not be cowed. Himself a physicist, Mr. Calder became convinced of the merits of the argument and a year later, following a lecture he gave at a CERN conference, so too did Jasper Kirkby, a CERN scientist in attendance. Mr. Kirkby then convinced the CERN bureaucracy of the theory’s importance and developed a plan to create a cloud chamber — he called it CLOUD, for “Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets.”

But Mr. Kirkby made the same tactical error that the Danes had — not realizing how politicized the global warming issue was, he candidly shared his views with the scientific community.

“The theory will probably be able to account for somewhere between a half and the whole of the increase in the Earth’s temperature that we have seen in the last century,” Mr. Kirkby told the scientific press in 1998, explaining that global warming may be part of a natural cycle in the Earth’s temperature.

The global warming establishment sprang into action, pressured the Western governments that control CERN, and almost immediately succeeded in suspending CLOUD. It took Mr. Kirkby almost a decade of negotiation with his superiors, and who knows how many compromises and unspoken commitments, to convince the CERN bureaucracy to allow the project to proceed. And years more to create the cloud chamber and convincingly validate the Danes’ groundbreaking theory.

Yet this spectacular success will be largely unrecognized by the general public for years — this column will be the first that most readers have heard of it — because CERN remains too afraid of offending its government masters to admit its success. Weeks ago, CERN formerly decided to muzzle Mr. Kirby and other members of his team to avoid “the highly political arena of the climate change debate,” telling them “to present the results clearly but not interpret them” and to downplay the results by “mak[ing] clear that cosmic radiation is only one of many parameters.” The CERN study and press release is written in bureaucratese and the version of Mr. Kirkby’s study that appears in the print edition of Nature censored the most eye-popping graph — only those who know where to look in an online supplement will see the striking potency of cosmic rays in creating the conditions for seeding clouds.

CERN, and the Danes, have in all likelihood found the path to the Holy Grail of climate science. But the religion of climate science won’t yet permit a celebration of the find.

Hopefully this article has made you feel more comfortable about accepting the fact that I am right- global climate change is driven largely by the sun, not humans, and thus almost every attempt by the government to control our behaviors and energy and production in the name of 'climate change' is misguided and dangerous and wrong.

UPDATE:  Come on people- now I'm getting emails that 'the Financial Post' isn't reputable enough for you- well how about the Wall Street Journal, because it also came out with an article today talking about the role that cosmic rays play in affecting the climate. Read the article The Other Climate Theory for more.

After the recent global warming scandals whereby government workers faked and falsified research in order to get more money, the 'consensus' on global warming is now being called into question. So what does Congress do? Hold a phony sham of a Congressional committee hearing and invite four out of five 'believers' to testify in front of Congress how people are harassing them now that their cover has been blown and people realize what hacks they are.

Democrats are not holding a hearing to investigate the truth behind the matter. They are not having witnesses come forward to testify about anything that could to increases in my life, liberty, and property. Democrats are not trying to uphold the rule of law, achieve more transparency in climate change research, or contributing new information to the debate. They are simply engaging in typical sham fraud and giving a forum for fraudulent scientists to get on record with their opinions about the myth of man made global warming. As long as Democrats run Congress, you can expect thousands of conferences like this every day in Washington DC, all paid for by your tax money.

The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is an utter joke- this is the actual government official meeting notice.

Next Hearing 5/20: Climate Science in the Political Arena
Select Committee hearing to examine attacks against climate scientists:
The scientists involved in the stolen climate emails from the University of East Anglia were exonerated by the British House of Commons and an international panel of climate experts, led by Lord Oxburgh. Even after these investigations found that nothing in the emails undercut the scientific evidence of climate change, attacks against scientists continue. Reports of harassment, death threats and legal challenges have created a hostile environment, making it challenging for actual data and scientific analyses to reach the public and policymakers.

On Thursday, May 20th, the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will hold a hearing to examine the intersection between climate science and the political process. This hearing, entitled “Climate Science in the Political Arena,” will feature prominent climate scientists, some of whom have been the target of these attacks. This hearing will explore scientists’ ability to present data and information that can guide global warming solutions in a sometimes fierce political landscape.
WHAT: Climate Science in the Political Arena
WHEN: Thursday May 20, 2010, 9:00 AM
WHERE: 1334 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC and online
WITNESS LIST:Dr. Ralph Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences and Chair of the National Research CouncilDr. Mario Molina, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and Professor, University of California at San Diego Dr. Stephen Schneider, Professor, Stanford University Dr. Ben Santer, Research Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Dr. William Happer, Professor, Princeton University

According to the Huffington Post, the first four people are all true believers (who feel that there can be no arguing or even suggesting that global warming is happening, that it is man made, that it is bad, and that only massive government control over every aspect of our lives can save us) and only William Happer is a non-believer ("the sole GOP witness arguing against the global warming consensus"). Yeah, that's fair and balanced- a four to one ratio to testify about this issue.

Every Democrat in Congress needs to be thrown out of office sooner rather than later if this is representative of how they spend their days. Every single one of them.

Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones make a case for a parallel 'Slow Race' in Science "...This 'slow race' emphasises pathways to poverty reduction that may involve science and technology, but are specific to local contexts.It recognises that technological fixes are not enough to achieve social progress, and that social, cultural and institutional inputs are also key. It sees science and technology as part of a bottom-up, participatory process of development, in which citizens take centre stage..."
via SciDev

From the International Herald Tribune: The era of Obama is here, and many scientists in bureaucratic agencies around the country are exuberant- staff members throughout the government's scientific agencies held inaugural parties on Tuesday, and many reported being teary-eyed with joy. Frank Press, a former president of the National Academy of Sciences and former science adviser to President Jimmy Carter said "It's not just getting money- it's (Obama's) recognition of what science can do..." Carter's former advisor probably commented off the record that money and results don't' even matter- the only thing that matters is Obama recognition that scientists can do anything that God did, and giving them the power to do so.

The article goes on to accuse the two-time democratically elected President of the United States of interfering in the work and policies of government bureaucrats. 20 Nobel laureates issued a statement claiming that the Bush administration had treasonously attempted to achieve its policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry, and they are outraged that they didn't get to set those goals and control our society using their obviously superior intellect.

Last month the inspector general of the Interior Department, a cabinet department under the control of President Bush, determined that Bush's policies often interfered with his personal agenda of massively expanding the power of government over our society in order to protect 'species in danger of extinction.'

Obama transition officials said that the new administration would also loosen the oversight that the Bush administration imposed over federal scientific agencies, letting them play God with science without any elected officials meddling in their taxpayer funded business. Scientists are most excited about the prospect of expanding stem cell research now that they don't have to deal with foolish notions such as religion and morality.

William Hubbard, an associate FDA commissioner who retired in 2005, said that top Bush administration officials were so opposed to taking away our freedom and liberties that they callously ignored the attempts by lawyers, lobbyists, politically-connected businesses, scientists, and bureaucrats to put in place new rules to govern us serfs and control our behavior.

Meanwhile, there is a new poll out that says that the majority of people in the United States are no longer buying the myth of man-made global warming. Most scientists' have all reached consensus on this issue, deciding that the world is warming, that the warming is continual and exponential, that it is man-made, and that the only way to prevent a catastrophe is for the government to control every aspect of our society. In spite of this, the idiots of the United States, by that I mean thousands and thousands of real people with brains, no longer buy this load of bull, and feel that the Earth must warm and cool periodically, regardless of human behavior, and government action is not needed on this issue.

The breakdown is 41% are Believers, 44% are smart, and 16% are other- it's surprising that 2/3 people in this nation don't buy into Global Warming, and yet we just anointed a Head Shaman who is going to radically change our nations policies to confront it. I'll never understand voters, or whoever put Obama in charge of our once great nation.