Google to build data center in N.C. — AP

It’s no longer speculative, Google is coming to North Carolina. I’m glad Google is coming to the western part of the state — my part — instead of the Research Triangle, too.

The so-called “server farm” will eventually employ 210 people in a region hit hard in recent years by layoffs in the furniture and textile industries.

“This company will provide hundreds of good-paying, knowledge-based jobs that North Carolinas citizens want,” Gov. Mike Easley said in a statement. “It will help reinvigorate an area hard hit by the loss of furniture and textile jobs with 21st century opportunities.”

I don’t really think it’s going to make much difference to the region “hit hard in recent years by layoffs in the furniture and textile industries,” but hopefully it will start a trend of more jobs to the western part of the state.

The Headline:
Study: Raindrops Can Wreak Havoc on Earth — UPI

My reaction:
WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! PANIC!!!

The Weather Channel Mess — senate.gov (Op/Ed by James Spann)

There is this war going on pitting brother against brother. See, there’s this one group — we’ll call them the Sun Dogs (I hope you appreciate my razor-sharp wit) — who think the other group — the Warmings — are full of crap when it comes to global warming being man-made. Both of these groups are certified meteorologists.

It all really started when one of the head Warmings, who happens to be a “climate expert” at The Weather Channel, suggested that any Sun Dog who professes that global warming is a natural process should have his AMS certification taken away. Oh yeah, it’s on.

Well, well. Some “climate expert” on “The Weather Channel” wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent “global warming” is a natural process. So much for “tolerance”, huh?

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know:

*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story. Even the lady at “The Weather Channel” probably gets paid good money for a prime time show on climate change. No man-made global warming, no show, and no salary. Nothing wrong with making money at all, but when money becomes the motivation for a scientific conclusion, then we have a problem. For many, global warming is a big cash grab.

Emphasis mine

It’s really patently ridiculous that we have this climatology-war going on, but it certainly is not surprising. What is it that The Weather Channel’s political shill “climate expert” tips his hand to, anyway? Does anyone care to remember the last time punishment was threatened on a scientist for hypothesizing, researching, and concluding something that was in opposition to another group’s belief? (Remember that the Sun apparently used to revolve around the Earth and go from there.)

The author of this op-ed piece makes the case that it is the politics and money that is driving all the hype on global warming. Unfortunately for science, some political beliefs are taken on a type of faith just like the Sun revolving around the Earth. The latter was believed because it supposedly evidenced the importance God placed on Earth; the former is believed because it lines pockets and wins elections.

For more of my thoughts on global warming, go here.

March in January! Or Is It Mayday? — Washington Post

It’s hot. It’s too hot for me and it’s January. Of course, this makes the eco-nazi’s salivate at the thought of the extra attention their cause-of-the-week will get (not to mention the added donations to fill their coffer$).

Bulletin: A Washington Post editor nearly drove into a black bear Friday night in Prince William County. Official word from the authorities: “Oh yeah, it’s so warm, they can’t hibernate.”

Bulletin: British scientists say there is a 60 percent chance that 2007 will be the warmest year on record.

Bulletin: Ski resorts are struggling to open in the Alps.

Bulletin: Palm trees are growing around a tiki bar in Antarctica.

Drudge has this on his homepage: “FLASHBACK: NYC had record high of 68F on Jan 13, 1932. 70F on Jan 14, 1932 and 67F on Jan 15, 1932…”

This year has such a high chance at being the warmest year on record because first, the trend of warmth over the recent 160 years, and second, this is an El Nino year. I expect this one to be a scorcher, but expect the former played up and the latter played down.

This quote, though, is really the point of this article:

So maybe we made up the last one. Still, we don’t need anyone to tell us that some computer model in some climatologist’s office is showing that a doubling of atmospheric carbon will lead over the next century to approximately 3 degrees Celsius warming in the average surface temperature of the planet, etc. Because we’ve been outside. We can detect climate change epidermically.

Even the most liberal (no pun intended) estimates of global warming over the next century puts the rise in global temperatures around three degrees. We are, in some cases, dozens of degrees above normal. Show me a “scientist” that purports to blame these extreme variants in temperature on the theory of global warming, and I’ll show you a “scientist” that received his Ph.D. in Climatology for $19.95 and a self-addressed stamped envelope.

In all seriousness, there is evidence that the Earth is getting warmer. Whether or not all external factors that could show a variance in temperature from those taken 100 years ago to those taken today have been effectively controlled (in order to make an effective and correct comparison) is still a valid concern. In addition to those factors — of which there are many — it’s a tremendous leap of faith to blame the increase in temperature on greenhouse gases.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: all too often I get to see my beloved sciences be made the whore to the political pimp. In order to arrive at scientific conclusions, the scientific method must be employed over and over again. Unfortunately, all too often that wonderful process is usurped by politicians (and many of their agents in the media) in order to garner a vote.

ASUS Unveils External Graphics Card — Daily Tech

ASUS has unveiled plans for an external graphics card, the XG Station, that will actually work with any PCI Express x16 graphics card.

The XG Station connects to any notebook’s ExpressCard slot and provides a PCI Express x16 slot for graphics cards. Since ASUS has opted to equip the XG Station with a standard PCI Express x16 slot, the station can be equipped with any PCI Express based graphics card: AMD, NVIDIA or even Matrox. ASUS launched the default XG Station with an NVIDIA 7900GS powered graphics card.

The XG Station is powered externally. A separate power brick plugs directly into the adaptor.

An integrated LCD display and control also grace the XG Station. The display is customizable and can display information such as frame rate, fan speed, GPU temperature and more while the control knob can change various settings of the XG Station such as the core and memory clocks.

Expect ASUS to release the XG Station in Q2′07 this year. Pricing of the XG Station is unknown at the moment.

Absolutely tres cool. Among other things, it will mean that gamers can get one card for their desktops and laptops; the garbage cards that the overwhelming number of laptops come with are no good for impressive gaming, and this is a great idea. We’ll see how well the new innovation works when it hits the market.

The spring semester starts tomorrow. I have a test in Property on Thursday, which will be before our first class starts, actually. Honestly, in cases like this, I wonder what the point of having classes is if we are able to get all of the information we need from books. That’s not sarcasm; I’d rather sip coffee and read than have to sit through bloviations.

Saddam ‘read poetry, fed the birds’ — AFP

I just can’t come up with an appropriate intro to this piece of garbage.

“He basically talked about his wife, and his children,'’ Sgt Ellis said on CNN today.

“He was an avid reader. Loved to read and write. He had a lot of stories that he had written. He had a pamphlet that he wrote in every day and then when time came to visit him he’d read things to me,'’ the army reservist said.

[…]

When Saddam at one point was allowed short walks outside, the former president would feed birds pieces of bread saved from his meals, the nurse told the St Louis newspaper. Saddam also watered a plot of weeds.

“He said he was a farmer when he was young and he never forgot where he came from,'’ Sgt Ellis told the paper.

He said he did not believe Saddam was lonely while in detention “because he was jovial at times”.

Saddam “had a good sense of humor. You know, made jokes, you know. And he spent most of his time reading, and praying,'’ he said.

I love that he “never forgot where he came from.” I guess back on the old farm it was a common farming practice to use circular saws on the genitalia of men. Perhaps the rape rooms were in the barn with the animals?

To my knowledge, the AFP has yet to write as wonderfully touching an article about the death of Gerald Ford.