Thursday, May 31, 2018

Bell Direct Fiber - Solid as a Rock

It's been a while since I moved over to it.  It's expensive at $150 a month, but many times faster than the old Fibe at $60.  Although you can test to 1 Gbit, you'll never get more than 200 mbit, in the Wild Internet.  I'm getting this with Linux downloads, and my weird proxy downloads.  There are lots of other limits, and reminds me when I first got 1 mbit, Holy Cow!  I expect that the servers will up their games.

The loyal opposition has a weird hybrid system, but it hasn't been installed on the street.  They are using a fiber terminal at the end of the street, and a single underground coax which they will tap into for each house.  I'm assuming that the coax can carry at least 100 gbit using Ethernet.  - Ha!

There are rumours that this system is a loser, but wait for other blogs that extol it.  I haven't seen one.

You have to upgrade everything in your house.  I went for the fastest router I could find, that ran Openwrt, and supported it.  There was some poop from the US about forcing horrible software on routers, like they did with big colour printers and money.  But I think that settled down.

ps.  you can get it raw, like I did, or you can go like the old people and get the full tv package.

UK Weather - Clash of the Titans


I've never seen anything like this, it's amazing.  The Atlantic heat is giving up, and it is still extremely cold up in Greenland.  This cold air is now mixing with the left-over warm air, creating big thunderstorms.  The UK will have a cold June, just like the rest of us.  At some point, the lack of the Gulf Stream will have an effect.

I'm seeing indications of a 'Mini Ice Age' cycle, which is Elizabethan and involves the Thames freezing over.  It all depends on whether the Atlantic equatorial current latches to it's more southern position.  If it bounces back up north, then it's just a 20 year micro ice age.

I have asked on the Guardian if there are any formal statements from the 97% on this turn of events.  So far, there is nothing.

ps.  the official word from the Defenders of the Warmth, is that this downturn of temps is just a minor blip, and we'll soon see a return to longish-term rise. 

Monday, May 28, 2018

Atlantic currents support an ice age

The Atlantic air and water currents have gone low.  It is at the point on the nose when the current suddenly zooms south.  It is my hypothesis that when it does that, we're in for a cold one.  While I've been watching the chart (for a few years), the current has gone as far as this, but not enough to divert current.  We'll watch it.


I'd be so proud of my baby, if it did gush the other way.  Nobody has ever come up with this mechanism for ice ages.  I love it!

ps.  sea temperatures are showing the plunge already.


This map is updated more often than the current map, so I expect to see a diversion next time.

Vote NDP

It's the only way to kick the rascals out.  Then, while the NDP is creating it's own spending scandals, it can shed some sunlight on the liberal scandals.

Nobody wants to vote for trumpypants2.  He'll turn on the economy to push his hidden agenda.  Unlike the NDP which will turn on the economy with its open agenda.

And while we freeze with our new ice age, we can laugh as they put in a huge carbon tax.  They get to be in power when hydro presents the bill for Phase I of the Darlington refurb.  Phase I is when they run out of money with a downgraded scope, and it still doesn't work.  We need the next phases!

And speaking of spending lots of money, every hospital should be like the new Humber.  Go into Emerg with you skin flapping open and they immediately send you to 'Fast Track', which is like a cruise ship "Stitches and Breaks' clinic.  I was lucky, normally the fast track is in the slow lane.

Billions and billions for everyone!


Get Your Hoodoo Scar Here!

Tired of looking like Bill Gates?  Well, take painful decoration a step further -- The Genuine Hoodoo Scar!  Named after a famous geological formation, because you are a geological formation, the scar is guaranteed to help you get starving women for only the price of a loaf of bread!



The scar and smoldering eyes have been covered to protect the innocent.

For only 250 cpesos you get the full kit - detailed instructions involving a bunk bed and too much drinking.  Also a giant list of great explanations.  Including 'Wrestling Tasmanian Tigers in the Amazon". 

For ideas on how to abuse women, look to the Weinstein Transcripts.  I can't wait for his "I'm a victim, too".  I'll use it on my son when he says "You boomers got all the breaks, give me your house!"

Hoodoo Scar?  HOODOO!

Cold June Coming Up



We had some amazing Gulf heat, and we are in a big, short, heatwave.  But the Atlantic moist air belt has taken a big dive to the south.  A nice, very cold June, like we had 30 years ago.  I remember going for a company picnic in June, and we froze.

I'll being keeping the greenhouse up until July.  My tomatoes are amazing.

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Icebergs don't move South for the Summer

Reference



Why were the icebergs moving south for the summer?  Because things were too hot up north for them to stick around.  Warm weather breaks up the ice packs and causes the glaciers to flow and break off.

Well, this year they are very happy and staying home, along with the very happy Polar Bears.  Will you see any of this happy news on the tube?  Nope.


There's the temp map.  Still very cold where the icebergs are born.  No tourists this year.


Thursday, May 24, 2018

Hurricane season starts early

Reference

Neato, the Atlantic belt has been providing all the heat for us and the UK.  This can't go on forever, as it is fighting the very cold air from the Arctic.  Apparently, the polar bears are having a population boom.

Now, this is a big push of hot, moist air.  Such air has more than 10 times the energy of dry air.  When it meets the cold air, then there are fireworks.  This has everything to do with the fact that global temperatures are going down the ski jumping ramp.



We can assume that this will be another 'record', just like the hurricanes last fall.  But this will suck all the heat energy out of the Gulf area, and give us cold weather.  Hope you have your greenhouse up, and hope that the winds aren't too high.  This time, if there is a wind storm warning, I'm putting the greenhouse in 'storm mode'.  :)

ps.  LIghtfoot Moment -- "The hurricanes of September come early..."  My daughter is down in Cuba dancing salsa.  Hope they can leave.  It seems to be missing the island.

pps.  Wow, look at it starting to spin.  Maybe a hurricane soon.


New organic garden spray

Put 2 gallons of water into the garden sprayer.

100 ml of epson salts (big jar from Costco)

50 ml of miraclegrow

100 ml of organic chemical Home Defence spray

30 ml Neem oil

30 ml Tea oil (from Costco)

one squeeze of dish soap.

The organic chemical (synthetic pyrethins) does most of the work.   Do not spray flowers.  The epson salts gives the little slugs the flu.  Neem and Tea oils slow down the fungus.  Soap mixes it all.

Spray often.  This is weak stuff, but it delays the worms in the apples so you can eat them  You just can't store them very long.

Absolutely nothing gets out if you are careful when you spray.  Failure to spray is a disaster, you might as well pave everything over.  :)


Tuesday, May 22, 2018

A fine, warm summer

Reference


“If this is going to be a warmer-than-normal summer, most of the warm air has to come from the south, from the United States.”

All our warmth could come from the Atlantic belt, but the global temp will still go down.  I predict, however, lots of cold nights, when the 'real' air hits us.


Linux - Ryzen5 endless story

My machine finally hung so that I could not restart it in any way.  Luckily I still had my install usb, so I reinstalled.  I am now on 4.17.0 rc6, and I hope for the best.  :)

Blah, it did hang up on a heavy graphics load....

ps.  rc6 seems stable.  no framebuffer still.

rc6 not that stable.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Blackfly Report

My old reports are always dug up this time of year.  If you check the dates, then you know this one is NOW! 

Blackflies are at their horrible peak near Apsley.  Long weekend traffic was light because everybody was driven out of cottage country.  The good news is that the dragonflies are coming out.  They went from one on Saturday to clouds by Monday.  Another day and every blackfly will be eaten on our side of the lake (the sunny side).  The other side, who cares? 


Thursday, May 17, 2018

The curse of being enmeshed in long odds

I'm just going to expand on my curse, which has some funny stories, and has made me into the obnoxious POOCH you see today.

My main curse was getting into infrastructure and physics.  That was traditionally very long odds of failures because the consequences were so huge.  Now, it has just folded into the FB norm of short odds (if it doesn't happen today, it will never happen). 

Long odds were ingrained into the nuclear industry.  During my fun times when I actually worked at the old company (10 years, then 20 years of snoozing), all of us design engineers were passionate about long odds.  We designed things to survive the gorillas of operations (very shot odds).  Then the old company went totally to the gorillas, and we never built anything new.  All those old guys left, but I stayed on to suffer, always fighting a losing battle for long odds.  For a while, the regulator was with me, but then they went political.

The odds of a big nuclear release are now 1 in 100 per annum, making the odds for an individual plant about 1 in 10,000.  I have stated that odds for Pickering are 1 in 1000 because an earthquake blows away all 'defence in depth' and 'individual systems', just like a sully-type double bird strike.

The worse thing was that the long odds began to strike me more than anybody.  I can't recall how many times somebody on the phone said 'It's never happened before'.  Dammit, it's happened to me!

My biggest story happened at the old company.  I was in charge of the local internet and the Bank of Montreal just started on-line banking with their new brand - MBANX.  This was a hot thing with big advertising.  Somebody came to me that they accidentally got into the account of another of my users.  Holy Crappola!  I went to our top guy who was doing the firewall on this own time.  He found that, since we were presenting one ip address, anybody and their dog could get in to all bank accounts, since they were just hanging onto ip addresses.  MBANX was aloof.

I wrote this up in a security mailing list, and it was picked up by the newspapers.  All of sudden, their top stupid people were contacting my top stupid people, and their solution was to kill me.  In the end, my buddy the vice-president saved me, and openly condemned MBANX.  They folded their tents, forgot the brand, and hired my buddy for an obscene amount of money.  They lost millions.

I have many other such stories, but I won't bore today's generation.  :)




Giving the air conditioning company a nice choice

I have to pay $800 for the privilege of getting my new air conditioner installation to work.  This is an industry cabal thing.


*************
I saw the bill at about $800.  I have never not paid a bill in my life.  I am a big Internet blogger and a top Google reviewer.  When there is an earthquake, I can get 10,000 hits a day.

I have three options for you.

1. I pay the full amount.  Then I go full hog on the Internet, and terminate our customer relationship.  You will never get another customer who uses the internet.  The big industrial guys don't read, so it won't totally destroy you.  I feel bad about destroying companies.

2.  I split the bill.  Then I write a very dry article on the industry cabal.  I mention you and Goodman as references.  Since the industry is not following English Common Law, this could become an election issue, or a consumer crackdown.  Only a small chance of that.

3.  You write it off.  Then I write a gushing piece on you, and you might get a few more customers.

Please let me know.

Harold Asmis
**********

Now, I know that all you readers are salivating for me to go 'whole hog', but these guys only read email once a week.  I have to give them a chance.

I am cursed to write about long odds (earthquakes), and to run into long odds (my Toyota battery).  That has made me somewhat of a crusader.  The problem is that nobody cares about long odds.  :)

Whoops, I mentioned the manufacturer.  I'll cross that out....

Linux - new kernel having problems

I have a new Ryzen5 with the amdgpu, a built-in graphics processor.  In Linux-land, nobody is happy with it.  The new kernel 4.17 is the first one to tackle it.  It still can't give me a main console (framebuffer), but the revisions have been getting better.

Lately, I went to rc5, but it was freezing again every few minutes.  I went back to rc4, which hardly freezes.  Two steps forward, and one step back.  :)  AMD has released all the documentation, and I'm sure things will improve.  I can't wait for rc6!


Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Mr. Trumpy cuts off nasa co2 direct measurements

Reference

I blame the whole carbon hypothesis, and ozone chlorine hypothesis on nasa.  They were fully capable of verifying these things with simple experiments, and they chose not to do it.  In fact, somebody went after the chlorine thing, and nasa killed them.  Can't retract a nobel prize, can we?

These are things that become the modern equivalent of religion.  You can't show them to be wrong, and everybody is happy that no experiments are done.  If you talk to the Manchester Guardian fanatics they will yell that doing such experiments is heresy.  We have no 'Poodles of the oil company heresy' (POOCH) with any money.  :(

I'm a pooch and I can only suggest experiments.  Fortunately, trumpypants has done a random thing and cut off the foolish attempt to read co2 directly in order to enforce the Paris Agreement.  If co2 actually did anything, then they could easily read it indirectly.  In fact, even their 'direct' reading was probably indirect.  If they actually got it going, they would make sure to reinforce the religion.

If you could imagine a world where the physical laws did exist that allowed co2 to be a 'greenhouse gas'.  First of all, there would be no life, it would be Venus.  Earth started as a planet with an atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and co2.  It's a very natural thing.  The greenhouse gas would raise temperatures above 'shirtsleeve', and kill the first attempt at carbon-based life.  Perhaps, we would have silicon-based life.

In that world, there would be natural sources of co2 from volcanic vents.  Weather satellites could easily read that by the opaque fog holding in the infrared radiation.  With our physical laws, on our world, we can't see that.  Finally, if co2 was increasing, this imaginary world would force constant recalibration of the relationship between infrared radiation and actually temperatures on the ground.  Our world doesn't do that.

Would nasa follow any of these suggestions?  Nope.

ps.  this would have been a very costly project, since they would have had to avoid the only physical property of co2 that can be detected.  Namely the infrared notch.


Natural gas prices venture into earthquake territory


It's still rising because of our ice age, and has barely hit earthquake levels.  We got a strike-slip series on the main Oklahoma mechanism.  I'm guessing if natgas plunges again, the earthquakes will stop.  But I think it will go up because we are getting no Pacific heat at all, and it all comes in spurts from the Atlantic.  We can't sustain warmth on that.

Meanwhile, the UK is experiencing a heat wave because of a very narrow jet of warm air from the Atlantic.  I wonder how long that lasts.  The Gulf Stream is still cut off by the cold Arctic current.


Monday, May 14, 2018

The physics of the perfect organic lawn

Physics is everywhere and is totally ignored.  This always comes back to bite you, and nothing is worse than a scraggly lawn.  Most people just pave them over, but then all that extra rain goes into the sewer.

What you want to achieve is a nice fluffy organic mat, full of earthworms.  The first thing to get is big honking gas mulcher mower.  You aren't reducing your 'footprint' with an electric or hand-push mower.  That's because the mulcher mower reduces the grass clippings to a fine powder which is driven back into the base of the grass.  It becomes instant worm food, and you want to keep those guys happy.  I am noted in the neighbourhood for my fine, healthy lawn and the mower is a big part of it.

Those with the worst lawns rake their clippings and put them in compost bags to be picked up.  That's forbidden by the compost police, but who looks?  I put on a little fertilizer every few years.

The Physics of Horrible Dog Spots

At some point in your life, you'll will notice a dead zone.  I always blame the dog, just like farts in the room.  She actually gets quite upset if really is her, and and leaves.  If it's late summer and the spots are expanding, then you have to put in a fire break.  I use Roundup in a careful manner to kill a larger zone around the grubs.  They starve when hit the dead zone, and can't expand any more.  Roundup is an organic chemical which breaks down easily.  The soil bacteria love it.  It causes trouble when farmers pour on massive amounts and it gets into the water.  Don't do that!

There's one more organic chemical that is required.  Get a very small bottle of that forbidden chemical.  Dilute it greatly in a spray bottle, and give the weeds a nice spot wash weekly on a sunny day.  That binds to organic matter and breaks down.  Or you can do like my neighbour and get a magnifying glass, on your knees, and pull out anything that looks funny.  If people ask, that's what I do, too.  :)

Anyway, once a dog spot forms it is a positive-feedback loop, or vicious circle.  They don't occur often in Nature, or we'd all be dead.  The soil compresses to rock, or 100% compaction.  The original cause may be long gone, but the spot stays forever.  The worms avoid it and nothing grows.  You get the shovel and lift the spot, and chop it up a bit.  Then you put on seeds and nice worm-ready compost.  Get a big rotating-barrel compost bin from Sunmar.  That is great worm food.

For watering, go once a week with a good soaking down into the mat.  Let the grass go to that nice dormant brown, but don't let it go to straw.  Then you have one giant dog spot.


Oklahoma earthquakes - They're BACK!

Natural gas is on a tear, and OK is back.  I was losing hope, since we had one of the quietest periods ever.  I actually thought the okies stopped being themselves! 


This new m4-5 is a strike-slip along my shear section.  We should see a larger one in that area.  The m7 series will be a big thrust, and then the strike-slip, just like New Madrid.  We can only wait.


Saturday, May 12, 2018

Linksys wrt3200 gets up to 600

That's probably the best I can get.  I can't get openwrt or lede to work on it, since it has some sort of winbond issue.  I can't find any solution.  Drat.

Yeah, success.  Use this pointer to the devel branch.  Openwrt seems to be confusing right now.  I'm getting full speed now on the Ookla speed test.

ps.  using various speed tests, you get full speed in the morning, and reduced speeds in the afternoon.  Blah.


Friday, May 11, 2018

Linux -- getting throughput for Fiber speeds

This is a long story, not yet finished.  I want to use Openwrt for my router.  You can't trust Bell with a router, mainly because everybody is the same.  If you just plug a router port into the local switch of the Bell 3000, it because a straight-thru pppoe bridge.

My first order was returned because, although it had gigabit ports, it had terrible throughput, worse than my  old one.  These routers always have 'version' numbers, and each version has completely different guts.  I am now trying a much more expensive router that has throughput.

Then it's other things.  My proxy, the various levels of software, etc.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

A Primer on the Physics of Heat Flow, and Why There is No Global Warming - Index and Summary

Summary

A long-winded series on basic physics related to the non-existent global warming.  Sure we had a warming spell, but that's over with now.  Anybody who disagrees can follow the charts.  Those who wish to follow up can insist that Trudeau and Trump pay for some simple experiments -- Ha!

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

In the series the world is divided into two:

Those who can't do math -- English Majors

Those who can -- Poodles of the Oil Companies

I'd make up a badge for the Poodle Club, but those skin-flint oil companies haven't paid me a dime.  If any Poodle has tapped into that giant pool of tainted money, let the rest of us know.  :)

ps.  I don't consider FB readers.


A Primer on the Physics of Heat Flow, and Why There is No Global Warming - Part 6

We're going to get to the end, I promise.  When nasa talks about greenhouse gases and the carbon hypothesis, they wilfully ignore the elephant in the room, the Convection Elephant.

In reality, all the heat energy in the Earth is swirled around by convection.  It comes up from deep in the earth, and you get Hawaii.  Then there is solar heat, and that is moved around by oceans and the atmosphere.  The oceans contain and move heat energy orders of magnitude above the air.  Yet, it is the air that plays the final part in getting rid of excess heat.

It is amazing and God's Will, that we have had 'shirtsleeve' temperatures on the Earth for billions of years, ever since life began.  God's Will is the amazing collection of physical laws that we have to arrange this.  Now, again, you can turn this around by saying that if it weren't for those laws we wouldn't be around to discuss God's Will.  You can kill yourself thinking about this.  :)

Anyway, the world is a perfect heat pipe.  There is nothing you could do to upset this, nuclear war, big meteorite, the Silurian industrial revolution :).  It all settles down in a million years.

-End

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

A Primer on the Physics of Heat Flow, and Why There is No Global Warming - Part 5

The big truck on the highway is convection.  If you want serious heat transfer, that's the way to go.  It's orders of magnitude more efficient than the others (factors of 10).  If you have a gaming PC, you know that conduction and radiation isn't going to cool your processor.  You need moving fluid, and that's convection.

Natural convection is the air rising from the hot land.  Gliders and big hawks use the thermals generated by convection.  It quickly cools the desert at night.  It is one of the most powerful things in Nature.  Ignore it at your peril!

The biggest mover of heat by convection is the Deep Earth, or the Mantle.  There is a huge amount of heat generated by radiation deep in the Earth.  There might even some left-over formation heat.  The Outer Core is also fluid and has severe convection.  Our magnetic field is created by convection, and if we didn't have it, the warmies would have something serious to worry about.  The latest scare story is about this convection changing course and flipping the magnetic poles.  That's because severe convection is chaotic, and anything can happen.  I wouldn't worry about it.

You can see convection in your morning oatmeal, but nobody really defines it well.  In fact, all of this stuff is poorly explained.  The explanations assume you know the answer in the first place.  This doesn't work with English Majors or FB readers.

Convection is just billiard balls, but the billiard balls are moving.  This puts a lot of oomph into it.  You can move the billiard balls by pumping fluid, but there is a good natural trick that allows us all to live (physical law).  If we didn't have the physics laws that we do, we wouldn't be here to talk about them.  Think of them as God's will, if you want.  Do not get in their way!

The billiard balls in fluid have a neat trick.  As they vibrate, they expand the space around them.  This makes them less dense.  Although I said that density is an inviolate property of matter, it changes with temperature.  Less dense fluid rises.  Don't ask me why, that's another lesson, just go with it.  You can look at a hot air balloon, and say "Ah, the hot air inside is less dense and it rises."  English majors will be so impressed!

-  to be continued


A Primer on the Physics of Heat Flow, and Why There is No Global Warming - Part 4

Attention:  I've just been told that NASA would never agree with any of this basic physics.  Do not read if you believe in the "Infallibility of the Pope of NASA".

There are 3 main types of heat transfer, or heat flow.  The first is what I showed before - conduction.



The billiard balls or molecules are in a tight net and heat is transferred by immediate contact.  This is one of the least significant ways of transferring heat.  You get it mostly at your stove.  If you touch the handle of your cast iron frying pan, you get burned.  That brings up 'conductivity' which is a fundamental property of matter, like density.  Highly conductive materials, like cast iron and copper, spread heat rapidly.  You pick these things up with your silicone mitts, which have low conductivity.  All three of these properties have nothing to do with each other -- conductivity, density, and specific heat (ability to store heat energy).  The are defined when you cast the metal.

The second most useless heat transfer mechanism is 'radiation'.  Just heat radiation, not the nuclear thing.   If you have a nifty thermal camera, like the CAT one I once had, then you can see pictures with infra-red.  We have neat infra-red sensors in our face.  Close your eyes and pivot to something hot, like a fireplace or stove.  You can detect it.  We got that from the snakes.  :) 

How it works:  If the solid gets warm enough, the billiard balls start to vibrate wildly on the surface.  That causes electrons to shift orbits.  A photon is created which takes away energy.  Warm objects release very low frequency photons, even microwaves.  As the object becomes hotter, you can see the 'red' because of higher frequencies.  It can go up and up to 'white hot'.  Your LED lights are rated by the temperature of a tungsten filament.  Something like 3500K for warm white, and 5000K for Arctic Blue light.  Degrees Kelvin is just Celsius but starting from Absolute Zero.

You just worry about radiation heat loss from your windows. Although it is very minor in the Grand Scheme of Things, it is the Be-All and End-All of nasa physics and the carbon hypothesis.  I would compare it to an English Major playing on the highway, worrying about butterflies, while big trucks bear down on him.  Maybe he will be able to compose "The Danger of Butterflies on the Highway" before something happens.  :)  To the very end, he will be convinced that there are only butterflies on the highway.

-- to be continued

Bell Canada ignores physics with fiber connection

I love to point out when institutions ignore physics.  They never admit it until something bad happens, and then they still don't admit it.  Here is my video.



You'll note my greenhouse Reincarnation #2 after 120 km/hr winds.  The loose cable will flap against the pole 10,000 times before it breaks the fiber.  Anyway, I've so terrified my guy about the 'Bell Killer Ladies" that he's properly securing the cable.  I can't make a formal complaint about the neighbour's cable.  Sucks to be him.


A Primer on the Physics of Heat Flow, and Why There is No Global Warming - Part 3

So, we conclude that equating temperature and heat energy is like dropping the hammer over your toe and arguing in a movie that it will go up.  Things that hit you are driven by energy.  You can ignore physics by designing huge escalators in Vancouver, or the mass production of Tesla cars, but it always hits you in the end.  All our major disasters come from ignoring basic physics, and it's an epidemic.

So although discussing physics makes you a "Poodle of the Oil Companies", let's plunge into it.  Do not discuss this at elegant Trudeau cocktail parties.  Do not discuss with trumpy bible thumpers on Facebook.  It will get you thrown out. 


There's lots of neat things to steal on the internet.  This is classic heat conduction.  The molecules start jiggling and then get their neighbours excited.  This is a 'circular definition' diagram since it doesn't explain what the big Heat Arrow is.  But it is just more vibrating molecules in the form of a hot gas (fire).  Again the first molecule may have a high temperature, but almost no heat energy.  When everything starts vibrating, then you have heat energy.  The amount of that energy is the 'specific heat' times temperature.  Very dense and loose molecules, like water, can hold an enormous amount of heat energy.  Solid, dry rock holds very little.  That is why deserts can be very hot in the day, and freezing at night.  Lots of temperature, but no heat energy. 

--to be continued

A Primer on the Physics of Heat Flow, and Why There is No Global Warming - Part 2

It's a funny thing that the Carbon Hypothesis went against every law of physics, and Principles of Geology (Uniformity), but was successfully argued by the talented English Majors.  Because no physics supported the requirement that the atmosphere act as glass (greenhouse gases) they invoked magic (unknown interactions with water vapour).  Everybody accepted this, and Harry Potter is the reason.

The main physics that was so rudely ignored is Heat Flow and Heat Transfer.  On a molecular scale, this is just billiard balls bashing into each other.  Heat or temperature is defined as the degree to which the molecule is vibrating.  Heat energy is the ability for that heat to do work, such as the mercury rising when you stick in a thermometer, or moving electrons with a digital thermometer.

Equating heat and heat energy is the biggest physics sin of the English Majors.  A litre of water contains 4,000 times more heat energy than a litre of dry air, at the same temperature.  Moist air contains at least 10 times more heat energy than dry.  In practical terms, the oceans contain many factors of 10 (orders of magnitude) more heat energy than the atmosphere.  With my greenhouse in the back, the temperature stability comes from the thermal mass (moist soil) underneath it, and not the air inside.

-- to be continued


Tiny earthquake felt in Ajax, Ontario

Reference



This tiny earthquake is notable for the fact it was felt.  Lots of earthquakes in the lake.



They hang around in the lakes because of slow seepage into the deep granitic basement.  The major fault here is the Hamilton Fault, which can produce an M7+. 


Tuesday, May 8, 2018

A Primer on the Physics of Heat Flow, and Why There is No Global Warming - Part 1

If you corner a warmie, you'll never talk physics or math.  That's because all the so-called Climate Scientists are ex English Majors trying to make a living.  Their skill is convincing people that black is white, and they do it very well.

I have no audience for Basic Physics.  It is not a subject raised in intellectual circles.  Can you imagine talking to Trudeau about it?  Just like riding in elevators, everybody assumes that somebody else is taking care of it. 

My strength is Newtonian Physics, which is the physics of everyday things.  I apply it mostly to earthquakes, and buildings subjected to earthquakes.  All things follow F = Ma, or force equals mass times acceleration.  You can't get away from that basic thing, but people try to get away from other basic physics.

You can get away from physics until you reach a point where you have to do something or get something to work.  The same with Basic Logic.  It always fun to watch Great Schemes come crashing to earth when they actually launch them.  All the talking in the world, or endless debating doesn't help.

Specifically, we are talking about our past warming spell.  These cycles have happened countless times in geological history, but it was argued that this one was 'different'.  It is ever so with cycles.  Now, it is crashing, but people will argue that the past is greater than the present because of 'momentum'.  That's physics, but they pass it as 'making sense'.  So, although global temperatures are crashing, and Arctic ice is building, they talk about ''last year', or the previous twenty years.  It's kind of cute.

-- to be continued


Monday, May 7, 2018

Dance recital -- hot

The recital with my daughter was hot, but we're getting cold.  Funny thing.





Dance recitals are impossible on utube because of the vicious copyright thing. 

Arctic Ice Volume Goes Happy, Happy

Global temps and Arctic Ice Volume go hand in hand.  All of the last warm spell was a North Pole and Mid-latitude thing only.  The South Pole temps have been rock solid, and all the ice calving is an ocean current thing.



So, we have big 'Ding, Dong, the wicked witch is dead.'.  But the witch doesn't know it yet.  And in the racing chart, April has cut a line.  I suspect it will be cutting lots of lines now.  That last bit of ice volume reduction was due to those monster hurricanes, which were due to cold air hitting the Atlantic belt.



Honestly, I still think it's a year before all the warmies hide and sit on their tenure.


The Ice Age Marches On

All those happy people thinking it's going to get super hot, and that is a cause for dreadful anxiety.  Well, people, stop taking those drugs and drinking your life away.  We can celebrate our new Ice Age.  That's opposed to Major Ice Advance.  None of that for a while.




Yeah, our global temperatures have taken a big dip.  We are now well underwater from the carbon hypothesis and projections.  Normally, that would have people jumping up and down and yelling "What a big hunk of bs!".  But, it's a religion or urban myth, and that won't go down easily.  And none of those fanatics are taking questions.  :)

Both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are showing a dip.  The North Pole has a very fuzzy graph, with a long rise, and a recent indication towards cold.  Can't wait to see the ice volume chart, due any minute now.


Here's are very fuzzy North Pole.  You can see some huge dips now.

On the other hand, those who wish to scare us with the South Pole had better get another source of income.


Nada, nothing, flat as whatshername's chest.  :)







Natural gas prices still aren't at earthquake levels

I had assumed that the cold weather would drain all the storage and zoom natgas.  It did drain the storage, but the price is low.  In January we had a lot of OK earthquakes, so that peak is probably what you need to bring on earthquakes.  That frack waste would have come from Texas and the southern states.  The big volumes would come, in the summer, from the NE states and that isn't happening.  Unless natgas goes up to the Jan levels, no earthquakes.  :(




Saturday, May 5, 2018

Toronto housing kicks up a bit

Listings are up, and my old guy sold his house right away over asking.  Animal spirits are on the rise, as well as interest rates.  Very interesting times.





Friday, May 4, 2018

Toronto blasted by wind

100 km an hour or greater . My greenhouse is down .Neighborhood shingles are off . Trees are pre precarious .Blah . No power . Doing this on my phone .

ps.  next day.  Wow, that was stinky!  A good 10% of all roofs were ripped.  The newer roofs did well, as did mine.  My greenhouse failed in a safe manner, all the supports just shook out, and the poly just ripped at the grommets.



That was it during the windstorm.  I just threw weights on everything.





Now it's all patched and in safe shutdown mode.  I might leave it like that for a while.


Tree

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Linux - kernel 14.17 rc3 works well with new chip

I got a Ryzen 5 chip with built-in radeon vega graphics.  It has 8 cores and is 3 times faster than a 2 year old AMD chip.  The kernel 14.16 was having lots of troubles such as giving me that flash of junk on the screen before login and always freezing if left alone for an hour or two.  The new kernel is blessedly problem-free.  I still haven't tried the power management, which didn't work at all on 4.16.

This is a lesson on what to expect with new stuff.  I'm amazed that improvements came so fast.

ps.  darn, still freezing.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Oklahoma earthquake hypothesis fails


There it is.  No activity whatsoever.  And I know that gas frack waste must be pouring into the place.  I was expecting a high rate of seismic energy.  I'm getting out of the OK earthquake biz now.  They must have God on their side, or it's building up for a really big one.

I'm just enjoying the warm weather, and I was wrong on that, too.  Hypotheses fail all the time, that's good science.  I don't mind it, but major institutions will never admit that they were wrong.  Instant death.

ps.  since natgas prices just crashed again, there may be the possibility that there was never a big rush of gas frack waste.  We'll never know.

Toronto School Bus Crash

It was empty.  No little kiddies hurt in the making of this movie.  I start fairly early with the little Toyota weaving in and out with no signals.  He then enters the intersection on a red light, and I think the school bus is a bit late.  Not saying anything, mind you.



Too bad my audio was off for the crash sound.

Driver of the bus had an airbag burn, but didn't want an ambulance.  No police will come unless an ambulance is called.  You have to go to the crash reporting centre, which is very near to that spot.  I have obscured everything for FB-quality privacy.  :)

ps.  The company is Switzer-Carty.  They have one of those massive screens so you can't contact them, and probably never read their form that doesn't really work.  If you know anybody there, give them this link.

pps.  The crazy form got through, and they thanked me.