Thursday, August 30, 2012


Must not report climate findings without mentioning global warming

In the newspaper report below you will see various mentions of the global warming faith interspersed with some actual research  findings.  If you look up the actual findings however (Abstract below) you will see that they actually had no data on global warming at all.  All they had was inferred data on rainfall derived from  Antarctic ice cores covering the last 1000 years. 

And what they found was that the climate 1000 years ago was much the same as today, with a slightly rainier period in between.  That proves global warming?  I would have thought the opposite. One thing it does prove is that you have to bow down before the great Moloch of global warming if you want to do research into climate


NEW research by Antarctic scientists has found the century-long decline in rainfall in eastern Australia is far from a usual event.

Researchers used ice cores drilled from Antarctica to analyse rainfall during the past 1000 years.

They found we are living in drier than average times, in all likelihood because of climate change caused by human activity.

Significantly, though, they also found a similar dry spell in the years 1000-1260 AD.

"There's a bit of research in eastern Australia going on that suggests that rainfall in eastern Australia is declining, probably since the 50s," says glaciologist Dr Tessa Vance, part of a team whose findings have been published in the Journal of Climate.

"But it's a bit hard to tell with short records.

"So this record now says we've got this decline, but it's not only unusual in the last few decades, it's unusual in the last thousand years."

The ice cores contain traces of sea salts deposited by winds in eastern Antarctica that provide the longest rainfall record yet for eastern Australia.

The team, from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre and the Australian Antarctic Division, attributes both dry spells to stronger or more frequent El Nino events, the cyclic dry that affects eastern Australia every few years.

But that doesn't mean the decline in rainfall over the past century is purely a natural phenomenon.

"There's other research going on that suggests that not only do El Ninos bring hotter years - so possibly there's a temperature link in one direction - but maybe hotter temperatures give you more El Ninos as well," Dr Vance said.

"We know this current period is being warmed by humans.

"So if that's having an effect on the frequency of El Ninos or the strength of them, then it's definitely leading to a drier eastern Australia."

The team plans to extend the research back at least another thousand years to provide a historical model for climate scientists.

SOURCE
Journal of Climate 2012

A millennial proxy record of ENSO and eastern Australian rainfall from the Law Dome ice core, East Antarctica

By Tessa R. Vance et al.

Abstract

ENSO causes climate extremes across and beyond the Pacific Basin, however evidence of ENSO at high southern latitudes is generally restricted to the South Pacific and West Antarctica. Here we report a statistically significant link between ENSO and sea salt deposition during summer from the Law Dome (LD) ice core in East Antarctica. ENSO-related atmospheric anomalies from the central-western Equatorial Pacific (CWEP) propagate to the South Pacific and the circumpolar high latitudes. These anomalies modulate high latitude zonal winds, with El Niño (La Niña) conditions causing reduced (enhanced) zonal wind speeds and subsequently, reduced (enhanced) summer sea salt deposition at LD. Over the last 1010 years, the LD summer sea salt (LDSSS) record has exhibited two below average (El Niño-like) epochs, 1000-1260 AD and 1920-2009 AD, and a longer above average (La Niña-like) epoch from 1260-1860 AD. Spectral analysis shows the below average epochs are associated with enhanced ENSO-like variability around 2-5 years, while the above average epoch is associated more with variability around 6-7 years. The LDSSS record is also significantly correlated with annual rainfall in eastern mainland Australia. While the correlation displays decadal-scale variability similar to changes in the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), the LDSSS record suggests rainfall in the modern instrumental era (1910-2009 AD) is below the long-term average. In addition, recent rainfall declines in some regions of eastern and south-eastern Australia appear to be mirrored by a downward trend in the LDSSS record, suggesting current rainfall regimes are unusual though not unknown over the last millennium.

SOURCE






Long Qld. public hospital  delays leave patients in agony

A WOMAN pregnant with her fifth child and experiencing contractions was turned away from Logan Hospital and told to drive herself to the Gold Coast to have her baby.

This is one of thousands of cases across Queensland in recent months where patients waited for at least two hours for treatment because of emergency department overcrowding, documents obtained by The Courier-Mail under Right to Information laws show.

The situation is so dire, a six-month- old baby suffering severe bruising from domestic violence had to wait almost four hours before being admitted to hospital, in one of the worst recent cases of ambulance ramping this year.

In another complaint, an incapacitated woman who arrived at a hospital as a passenger in a car was told to wait in the vehicle for an ambulance in order to be ramped.

While a 71-year-old man with a swollen testicle and abdominal pain had to wait two hours for an ambulance and then another four hours at the Gold Coast Hospital for admission.

Logan and Gold Coast hospitals have the worst waits, followed by Redcliffe, Ipswich and Princess Alexandra hospitals.
Authorities blame ramping when patients experience delays to admission and a chronic flu season for tying up resources resulting in regular dispatch delays, which force many ambulance officers to resort to Band-Aid solutions.

Queensland Ambulance Service reports show 1400 cases of ramping for at least two hours in only two months (April 1 to June 1) of this year involving the most urgent code 1 and 2 cases.

The State Government yesterday conceded the situation was shocking but promised it was being addressed.

"These problems are worse than many Queenslanders would imagine ... (and) have nothing to do with the quality or quantity of available facilities and everything to do with leadership and the need to take full responsibility at the local level," a spokesman for Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said yesterday.

"On top of other examples, such as the case of the elderly woman with blood poisoning who spent more than seven hours in an ambulance parked outside a succession of three Queensland hospitals, these cases show the seriousness of the situation and the need for major change," he said.

The Courier-Mail revealed earlier this month that a man died after being ramped at Nambour Hospital for more than four hours.

Mr Springborg recently handed down the Metropolitan Emergency Department Access Initiative report, which from January 1 will ban hospitals from diverting ambulances when emergency departments are full and make health boards accountable. Emergency patients will also increasingly be transferred from ramped ambulances into waiting rooms overseen by new senior nurses.

QAS officers arrive to half of all cases within 8min 16sec and 90 per cent of cases in just over 16 minutes. Ambulance commissioner Russell Bowles said in some longer waits the pick-up was prearranged but acknowledged some dispatch delays of several hours because of workload.

WAITING GAME CASE STUDIES

* Six-month-old baby suffering severe bruising after being the victim of domestic violence waited in an ambulance for almost four hours at Caboolture Hospital before being admitted

* 40-year-old woman miscarried after waiting more than two hours to get into Gold Coast Hospital

* 17-year-old having a seizure transferred from Beaudesert Hospital urgently waited two hours at PA because there were no beds available

* 19-year-old assault victim fell unconscious after being assaulted and waited almost three hours until he was admitted to Caboolture Hospital

* 51-year-old overdose victim waited 10 hours for treatment at Gold Coast Hospital and half an hour for triage

* 55-year-old suffering a psychiatric episode waited four hours before an ambulance was dispatched. Waited another two hours at Gold Coast Hospital

* 4-year-old who stabbed a pencil in his eye was transferred to Mater in Brisbane after being ramped at Ipswich for two hours

* 39-year-old injured in a motorcycle accident waited more than three hours at PA

* 57-year-old suffering chest pains fearing a heart attack waited almost half an hour for an ambulance and another 3 hours for admission to PA

* 51-year-old lost sight after waiting more than two hours for an ambulance to be dispatched and then waited more than nine hours to be seen by a doctor at Rockhampton

* 93-year-old with a blocked urinary catheter waited on a stretcher for 14 hours for admission to Caboolture Hospital

* 87-year-old suffering a collapsed uterus waited almost two hours for an ambulance and then more than three hours before being admitted to Redcliffe Hospital

* 59-year-old suffering heart failure at Cairns Base Hospital waited two hours on a stretcher

* 23-year-old motorcyclist with critical injuries was ramped at Cairns Base Hospital for two hours

* 73-year-old who fainted and was vomiting waited two hours before an ambulance was dispatched and more than two hours for admission to Redcliffe Hospital

* 89-year-old with a gall bladder infection waited four hours for an ambulance to be dispatched and another two hours once he reached PA

* 71 year-old with a swollen testicle and abdominal pain waited two hours for an ambulance and another four hours at Gold Coast Hospital for admission.

SOURCE





Court bars parents from smacking child

Judge-made law?

WARRING parents have been banned from threatening to smack their daughter who has been diagnosed with the latest anti-authoritarian behaviour disorder.

The parents, who have been fighting for custody of the eight-year-old, have been ordered by the Federal Magistrates Court not to use or even "threaten" to use a wooden spoon or slipper or any "other instrument to punish" the girl.

She has been diagnosed with ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, which is characterised by persistent anti-authoritarian behaviour.

The bans follow allegations in a recently published judgment that the mother smacked her daughter with a wooden spoon after the girl went out without telling her where she was going.

In handing down his judgment, federal Magistrate Giles Coakes acknowledged the mother had sought advice from a women's refuge and now conceded smacking was "no longer appropriate". She now sends the girl to her room as punishment.

Under the orders, both parents are "restrained from physically punishing the girl by any physical means including but not limited to smacking, slapping, pushing, grabbing, holding, using a slipper, or spoon or any other instrument".

Magistrate Coakes said the orders also included "the threatened use of any such instrument".

"(Each) parent is further restrained from causing or permitting any other person to administer such form of punishment or threatening to use such form of punishment," he said.

According to the judgment, the mother had conceded her de facto had once threatened to hit the girl with a "bamboo stick" while they were "mucking around" and may have also "smacked" her on the hand.

The Victorian-based mother, who suffers from depression, lost custody of her daughter to the girl's father, who will now raise her, a 14-year-old son and 18-year-old son in Queensland.

The couple also have a 21-year-old daughter, who no longer lives with either of her parents. Magistrate Coakes said the three eldest children had behavioural difficulties but he did not elaborate on these as part of his lengthy judgment, except to refer to an incident in which the 14-year-old boy "threatened, abused and hit" his mother after an argument she had with his father.

The mother allegedly "pulled his hair" and "pushed him" during the incident.

Despite declaring both parents have a "loving relationship" with their children, the magistrate described their own relationship as "antagonistic'. He ruled both parents be banned from listening in to their childrens' conversations with the other parent on telephone or Skype.

A non-denigration order was also made to stop the parents "making rude and insulting comments, swearing, shouting and making obscene gestures or permitting others to do so" within the presence or hearing of the children.

SOURCE





Troll loses her job

THE woman accused of urging TV presenter Charlotte Dawson and one of her Twitter followers to "go hang yourself" has been suspended from her university mentoring job.

Tanya Heti was directed to take leave with pay over the "troll" scandal, after Dawson reported a series of abusive tweets to her employers, Monash University.

The Foxtel star used a business card Heti had posted online to phone the woman and challenge her attacks on a Melbourne fan Bernadette Casey, after she defended Dawson from an earlier suicide taunt.

Casey revealed she had lost her partner Kevin to suicide, then was set upon by Heti who tweeted: "if I was your fiance I'd hang myself too #gohangyourself."

The New Zealand expat declined to comment after the Twitter bullying was exposed, a spokesman for Monash confirming yesterday it was investigating the social media incident.

Dawson said the disciplinary action was "an important lesson in consequences when people decide to mock or encourage suicide".

Cyber crime experts have warned that hate tweets could also be prosecuted as a breach of the Commonwealth Crimes Act, relating to using "a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence or for the purposes of a threat".

Fan forums and Dawson's Twitter account have been inundated with feedback over her "troll-busting" action, with overwhelming support for her stand against bullying.

However, trolls have also upped their attacks on her practise of re-tweeting abuse so as to shame anonymous or offensive twits.

SOURCE

1 comment:

M Steinberg said...

Heti is clearly a hateful anti-white bigot. She apparently called Dawson a "well to do white girl".

Says a lot about Monash that this diversity hire is a "mentor" at the University.