Daily review 12/01/2022

9 comments on “Daily review 12/01/2022 ”

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1. Dennis Frank 1

   12 January 2022 at 6:28 pm

   Television news just now showed leader of the Scottish Conservative Party wondering if Boris broke the law. I put the question to Google & got this:

   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/11/seven-occasions-when-boris-johnson-denied-no-10-broke-covid-rules

   So Boris is using magical thinking. Seven is the magic number. Issue the denial seven times, the spell is cast. Everyone will believe you. In theory.

   In practice, it depends if anyone can prove the contrary. Watch this space very carefully the next wee while. If nobody does, then the theory works…
2. Dennis Frank 2

   12 January 2022 at 6:34 pm

   You may have noticed the difference between warming of the Arctic & global warming – the former is happening at four times the speed of the latter.

   There are various technical reasons for the differential, albedo being primary. Here's an insight into the role increasingly now played by wildfires…

   https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2022/01/wildfires-arctic-climate-change-melting-permafrost-thermokarst-sinkholes/

   permafrost is now thawing so rapidly that it’s creating massive sinkholes in the earth, up to 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep, a process known as thermokarst… After analyzing satellite and aircraft imagery going back to the 1950s, scientists calculated that thermokarst formation has accelerated by 60 percent since then.
   • Tony Veitch (not etc.) 2.1

     12 January 2022 at 7:14 pm

     https://www.greenpeace.org.au/blog/arctic-keeps-world-healthy/

     The Arctic acts as the Earth’s air conditioner, regulating our climate and circulating the ocean currents.

     We create an ice-free Arctic, we're in deep sh*t!
     • Dennis Frank 2.1.1

       12 January 2022 at 7:35 pm

       Damn right, Tony.

       On the upside, the seasonal ice-free part hasn't escalated as fast as I expected a decade back. On the downside, the global trajectory is now predicted to be three degrees by informed scientists. I'm not waiting for the IPCC to make that official.

       If you've got kids who may still be alive as this century ends & old enough to grasp the import, explain a bit of stuff like sea-level rise by then & which cities go under, and every time wildfires are on the news suggest they multiply the size by ten…
       • alwyn 2.1.1.1

         12 January 2022 at 8:33 pm

         Do you agree with your mate Tony Veitch, Dennis?

         This morning, on Open Mike he assured us that the Arctic would be ice-free by September 2023.

         Is he right or wrong? 20 months to go and there won't be any sea ice in the Arctic.

         .https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12-01-2022/#comment-1850566
         • Dennis Frank 2.1.1.1.1

           12 January 2022 at 8:50 pm

           I asked a higher authority: Google. Got this:

           Professor James Anderson of Harvard University envisions the Arctic Ice gone by the early 2020s. "The chance that there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic after 2022 is essentially zero," he said in June 2019.

           So looks like Tony's in good company. However a higher authority than Google is worth looking at, eh? NASA will do. Onsite they have a graph showing the seasonal oscillation combined with the downward trend in volume: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/

           So I’d be reluctant to bet on it. There seems a good likely some ice will survive…
3. Dennis Frank 3

   12 January 2022 at 7:52 pm

   Oh goody, an apt Boris feature:

   Boris Johnson is waiting for an investigation to find out whether he attended an illegal BYOB party at his own back garden in May 2020. The party was organised by Johnson’s private secretary as the UK was under a strict coronavirus lockdown.

   https://www.vice.com/en/article/88g8p5/boris-johnson-cant-say-whether-boris-johnson-had-a-party-in-his-own-garden

   Boris doesn't know whether he did or not, so is very sensibly waiting for official sleuthing to determine where he was at the time.

   When asked if he would be happy to be interviewed again by Sue Gray, the civil servant tasked with leading the inquiry into illegal gatherings in Number 10, Johnson said: “All that is subject for an investigation.”

   How ridiculous for the media to ask him if he'd be happy to be interviewed by the civil servant again. As if he would know! Very sensibly he pointed out that she would have to decide whether he was happy or not.

   A string of revelations in recent weeks have proved immensely damaging for Johnson’s credibility.

   No kidding! A truly astonishing fact.

   A picture showed Johnson and staff lounging and drinking wine. Johnson said, “those people were at work, talking about work”.

   Because that's how work is done nowadays. In lounges, with wine. Nobody has suggested the picture shows folks getting big hits off spliffs. Everyone's cool.

   Then came the latest bombshell. On Sunday, the Sunday Times revealed that another party of up to 50 people took place in the Downing Street garden on the 20th of May 2020 with the Prime Minister and his fiancé allegedly in attendance.

   Just hours earlier, Culture Secretary Olivier Dowden had told the public that they were only allowed to see one person outside in a socially-distanced manner.

   Now look, any suggestion that the govt ought to act in accord with it own rules is totally unreasonable. Govts make rules for the people. They are a cut above the hoi polloi. It's how democracy works.
   • Blazer 3.1

     12 January 2022 at 8:02 pm

     Johnson is a…knob.
4. Adrian 4

   12 January 2022 at 10:10 pm

   Johnson. – Djokovic. Hmmmmm?

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