NPR finally gets it - does this signal an end to the polar bear as poster bear for global warming?

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

• 

From NPR: The Inconvenient Truth About Polar Bears

In 2008, reports of polar bears' inevitable march toward extinction gripped headlines. Stories of thinning Arctic ice and even polar bear cannibalism combined to make these predators into a powerful symbol in the debate about climate change.

The headlines caught Zac Unger's attention, and he decided to write a book about the bears.

Read more… 1,338 more words

And another cherished bit of global-warming dogma pops like a bubble: there are more polar bears than there were 60 years ago.

Great Moments in State Government: Pinhead Bureaucrats Threaten Family with Possible Prison Sentence for Rescuing a Baby Deer

Reblogged from International Liberty:

• 

As a public finance economist, I normally focus on big-picture arguments against excessive government.

If the public sector is too large, for instance, that undermines economic growth by diverting resources from the productive sector of the economy.

The damage is then compounded by a needlessly destructive and punitive tax system.

But I've also discovered that it helps to personalize the analysis by pointing out examples of ridiculous and wasteful behavior by government.

Read more… 969 more words

Wow. And here I thought California had a monopoly on stupid, petty bureaucrats.

Jellyfish and Global Warming - another busted alarm

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

WUWT readers may recall seeing stories like these in the past. Warming wailers like Bill McKibben, who unthinkingly regurgitated this bogus Jellyfish news in op-eds like this one, take note.

A new new peer reviewed study shows that once again, these wild claims are falsely attributed to "global warming". Instead, these temporary blooms are part of a natural cyclic global oscillation.

Read more… 909 more words

And another canon of faith in the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming goes bust.

So now global warming can reach through time?

I can’t wait to see how the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming rationalizes this:

Polar bears split from ancient bears more than 4 million years ago, suggests ancient DNA and the gene maps of multiple bears.

The polar bear genome finding reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal contradicts earlier gene studies finding much more recent times for the ancestral split, within 600,000 years, between polar bears and grizzly bears, which can still mate and produce viable offspring.

What’s more, the report suggests that polar bear numbers have been on the decline for at least 500,000 years, driven by climate fluctuations.

Y’see, all that CO2 we’ve been dumping into the atmosphere is so powerful that it can cross time and space to induce climate change before it even existed!!!

You laugh, but I half-expect some cultist to seriously offer that explanation.

My take on the article is that natural, probably cyclic, climate change has expanded and contracted the polar bears’ range, sometimes reducing it considerably. In those times, more polar bears were forced to live on land and wound up mating with brown bears, a related species from which they split about 4-5 million years ago, but can still breed with. Hence, as we are in a gradual warming from the last ice age (and from the Little Ice Age that ended around 1850), their range is shrinking again, and there is some risk of them inter-breeding out of existence.

Perhaps, but, for now, their numbers seem to be rising.

Meanwhile the climate alarmists may need to get a new poster-animal.

via Jeff Emanuel

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Goat Man of Utah identified?

An end to the mystery that has captivated America?

State wildlife officials have identified the man who has been spotted dressed in a goat suit among a herd of wild goats in the mountains of northern Utah.

Phil Douglass of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said Monday the mystery man is a 57-year-old hunter from Southern California.

Douglass told the Standard-Examiner that the hunter called officials and provided enough information to put their curiosity to rest. Douglass says he didn’t ask for a name.

The man told Douglass he was preparing for an archery hunt of mountain goats next year and testing a goat suit.

Uh-huh, sure. Just what are they really hiding up there? Goats? I didn’t watch all those 70s horror movies for nothing, y’know!

(And, naturally, he’s from California… )

via Vermontaigne

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

(Video) First there was California’s “Demon Sheep,” now there’s the “Goat Boy” of Utah

At last, video proof of the existence of…. a very weird person:

Background here.

I wonder what the over/under is on how long it will be before some nearsighted hunter finds himself with a really odd trophy?

via Gateway Pundit

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

This takes the idea of a “nature walk” a bit far, no?

I mean, I like to observe animals in the wild, but that doesn’t mean I have to dress like them, too:

Utah wildlife officials want to talk to a man spotted in the mountains wearing a goat suit amid a herd of real wild goats.

Phil Douglass of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources says the person is doing nothing illegal, but he worries the so-called “goat man” is unaware of the dangers.

Sixty permits will be issued for goat hunting season in September in the same area in the mountains above Ogden, north of Salt Lake City. Douglass also says the goats could be dangerous.

Something tells me Goat Boy will be lucky if he doesn’t wind up strapped to the hood of someone’s truck.

via Blue Crab Boulevard

Fatwa alert! Do not eat frogs, for they are beloved of Allah!

Amphibious jihad?

If you ever go to Egypt, don’t order the frog’s legs:

Following the presidential victory of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi, the very first fatwa to appear by Egypt’s highest fatwa council addresses—not social, political, or economic issues in Egypt—but rather frogs. Specifically, it bans Muslims from hunting and killing frogs to sell to those nations that dine on the amphibians. As the fatwa explains, according to Islam’s prophet Muhammad as recorded in a hadith, a frog’s “croaking is praise [to Allah].” Accordingly, “a number of jurists [fuqaha] have relied on this [hadith] to forbid the eating of frogs, under the notion that ‘that which is banned from being killed, is forbidden from being eaten.’”

This could lead to a diplomatic crisis with France.

Of course, not all animals sing Allah’s praises. Sharks and squirrels, for example, are known agents of the Jews.

Remember: frogs good, squirrels bad.

At least one frog may have a serious problem on his hands, however: while croaking is blessed, singing is forbidden according to some authorities. This fellow had better be careful:

Michigan J. Frog akbar!

(Video) PSA: Pray for Bo

You, too, can help save this endangered Portuguese Water Dog:

For an explanation…

And this has turned into one of the funniest hash-tag games on Twitter.

PS: Back from BlogCon 2012 in Charlotte. Had a great time, full report later.

via Jonah Goldberg

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Hey, kids! Did you know alligators have sharp teeth, too?

"You mean he wasn't a complimentary snack?"

This must be the day for “dangerous animals meet dumb people” stories:

Authorities in Louisiana say a 6-foot alligator showed up at the front door of a Super 8 Motel outside Baton Rouge and bit a guest.

(…)

Matt Marszal, the motel’s front desk clerk, says the gator bit one of the motel guests who tried to catch it before Animal Control workers showed up.

The alligator was subdued by Animal Control in five minutes and taken away, while the would-be gator-wrangler wound up in the hospital. No word on if he still has all his limbs.

Guess this makes him qualified to run for governor.

via @nettie_b

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Dear Vermont: Your governor isn’t very bright

My food! MINE!!

Even a city-boy like me knows that, in a contest between “huge hairy animal with claws and teeth” and “middle-aged man in PJs,” claws and teeth win.

Memo to Governor Shumlin: Let the bear have the food!

Shumlin says he was in bed in his rented Montpelier home late Wednesday night when he heard what turned out to be four bears in the backyard.

He says he looked out and saw the bears, including two cubs. (1) He tried to chase the bears away, but they kept coming back.

Shumlin says he ran out barefoot in an attempt to rescue his birdfeeders. He says one of the bears charged him on the porch.

Vermont came within three feet of having to call a special election.

At least Governor Palin would have remembered to bring the rifle. Governor Shumlin, on the other hand, is not smarter than the average bear.

Footnote:
(1) And what part of “momma grizzly” does this guy not understand?

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Nice try, but no Darwin Award for you!

It was a worthy effort, however: bungee-jumping from 121 yards over a raging river filled with crocodiles…

When the cord breaks.

An Australian tourist who survived a terrifying fall after her bungy cord snapped at Victoria Falls has been re-admitted to hospital.AN Australian tourist survived a 111m fall into a crocodile-infested river after her bungee cord snapped.

Erin Langworthy, 22, plunged up to 25m when her rope broke during a bungy jump at the 108m falls, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, on December 31.

The Perth backpacker, who had said it was a miracle she survived, is back in hospital after a setback.

”Unfortunately, I actually went back into hospital last night – my lungs have been acting up a fair bit,” Ms Langworthy told Nine News.

”They actually told me today both my lungs are partially collapsed.”

The footage of the jump has gone viral on the internet, with cries of horror from viewers as Ms Langworthy dives into the Zambezi River.

She spent a week in hospital with extensive bruising.

Describing her survival as a “miracle”, she told Channel 9 she blacked out as she hit the water.

I wonder if her last sight was of a croc looking up and licking his chops.

But, hey, she survived, so no Darwin Award for you, Erin!

Nice try, though.

RELATED: Video of Ms. Langworthy’s plunge.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

The horrifying price we pay for not signing the Kyoto treaty

Curse that George W. Bush (and Bill Clinton) and those global-warming skeptics! Thanks to their betrayal of Mother Gaea, the planet is warming climate is changing and we are faced with the inevitable price of their folly:

Mutant sharks!!! (1)

No, really:

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

“This is evolution in action.”

Here we go again with more leading propaganda for the climate-alarmist cause: “potential,” a weasel word meant to make us think that something significant may be happening, and that it could be linked to dangerous man-caused climate change, so we need to do something NOW! to stop it. That “something” inevitably requiring economy and liberty-killing government regulation and taxation and massive transnational bureaucracy.

The quoted section is also misleading because it relies on a fallacy: if we’ve never seen something before, it must never have happened before, leaving us with the impression that it must be significant — in this case, for the alarmist cause.

It’s far more likely, in my non-scientific educated layman’s opinion, that natural cycles of climate change lead one shark into the territory of another, closely related species and, when the two met and being in the mood for love, Nature took her course. I’d bet it’s happened countless times before in the history of life on Earth. It may even have been an accident, such as an escape from a fishing net. While the incident itself may be biologically significant and worthy of investigation on its own, to broadly hint that it’s likely the result of man-caused climate change while presenting no evidence of linkage is just Green propaganda, with journalist Amy Coopes as either the propagandist or the willing tool.

Via James Delingpole, whose column is a hilarious must-read.

Footnote:
(1) Anyone who’s familiar with the Arduin roleplaying game knows what’s coming: exploding hydrogen-filled Air Sharks! (Hey, if the alarmists can make lousy projections based on no facts or false facts, so can I.)

UPDATE: More at Pirate’s Cove.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Dolphins blowing bubbles

Politics and the news can be so aggravating at times, I thought it would be fun to share this neat video of dolphins at play. What makes it special is that the behavior apparently is something one of the dolphins “discovered” and then passed on to the others, a form of teaching and learning.

Oh, and the females are faster learners than the males. Make of that what you will. 

Enjoy!

via The Jawa Report

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Tiny body, big heart

Must be seen to be believed: a chihuahua terrorizes shotgun-wielding robbers…

That’s going to make those thugs’ reputation back in the ‘hood.

Good doggie! 

PS: Of course, as anyone knows, a cat would just have gone full-auto.

UPDATE: The diminutive tough-guy’s name is “Paco,” and he’s now a TV star.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

And you mocked Smart Power?

I'm so happy I get to stay!

So, Hu Jintao was feted last night at a state dinner, where the world was treated to a big announcement from President Obama of an important agreement between our landlords China and the poor house United States. What do you think it was? A way to euthanize the North Korean regime peacefully?  A deal to bring China’s undervalued currency up to realistic levels? An agreement by China to release the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner from house arrest?

Don’t be so pedestrian, folks! I’m talking something really big: we get to keep the pandas!

Let’s also never forget that throughout our history our people have worked together for mutual progress. We’ve traded together for more than 200 years. We stood together in the Second World War. Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans have helped to build America, including many who join us here tonight.

The Chinese and American people work together and create new opportunities together every single day. Mr. President, today we’ve shown that our governments can work together as well, for our mutual benefit. And that includes this bit of news -— under a new agreement, our National Zoo will continue to dazzle children and visitors with the beloved giant pandas.

There you have it, my friends, straight from the lip of the most powerful man in the world*. These are the fruits of the Smart Power we were promised in 2008.

Via Allahpundit, who collects some of the best snark on this.

*No, not Hu Jintao. The other guy!

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Big kittehs vs. the evil pumpkins!

A bit of fun for your Sunday morning: watch as tigers, leopards, and other great cats play with (and destroy) leftover pumpkins:

(via The Jawa Report)

The organization is Big Cat Rescue. As they explain:

Each year we are lucky enough to receive left over pumpkins from stores after halloween, pumpkins are a great source of enrichment for our cats, as well as a great source of entertainment for the staff and volunteers at Big Cat Rescue! All the cats love to play, eat and generally demolish the pumpkins, providing them with hours of entertainment, watch as we show you what they get up to when they are given one of their favourite treats!

Just goes to show that the only difference between a tiger and a house cat is size.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)