"Let's see which way the camel sits"

"This Urdu proverb literally means 'let’s see which way the camel sits.' The clever camel always sits so as to protect its eyes and nostrils from the sand whipped up by the storm. Then the camel rider can take shelter behind the camel’s body. The closest that we get to the meaning in English is probably 'Let’s see which way the wind blows.'” (Plush Steiff camel, above, atop door lintel in the front hall in the afternoon sun a few days back.)

"I heard your awesome declaration of independence this morning from the totalitarianesque Boston Globe's attempt to impose their "global warming" talking points upon the local weather reporting community," we imailed New England Cable News weatherman extraordinaire Matt Noyes* this morning. First, a few excerpts from the Globe's op ed by -- in Matt's words -- "a former TV critic . . . (no scientific knowledge)":

Harvey Leonard, the [WCVB-TV's] weatherman, could offer little insight, except to blame an errant jet stream and promise there will be a "price to pay later on." He also cracked a joke about Harding golfing in Syracuse. Actually, he made two golf jokes. The tone turned serious during an unsettling story about dolphins stranding themselves inexplicably along the Cape Cod shoreline.

If Globe opiner Monica Collins had done even a little homework, she would have known that dolphins stranding themselves along the Cape Cod shoreline, far from being inexplicable, is an annual occurrence based, most probably, upon the geography of the coastline, as ABC reports:

The Cape's hook shape, combined with a labyrinth of sandbars and marshes, can confuse and trap animals, especially if they are sick or disoriented.

A definitive explanation is still up in the air, but we digress. With her narrative firmly in place, the Globe's former TV critic -- like Andrea Mitchell, who shamelessly acknowledged the media's "green" bias over a decade ago when she admitted that "clearly the networks have made the decision now, where you'd have to call it advocacy" -- is not suceptible to mere facts:

Something's going on. Even while rollerblading or picnicking on the Feast of the Epiphany, outdoor enthusiasts had to worry about global warming or climate change. Just don't expect to hear those fears spoken aloud by the local TV weathercasters . . .

Still, education about global warming need not be an anomaly for a TV forecaster. It should become part of the routine, when the weather is strange, to remind us that our fragile planet is in peril. To neglect to do so and fall back on the over-the-top adjectives and pictures of plum blossoms seems a foolish disservice. To acknowledge global warming is not an act of treason, or a kiss-up to Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" -- despite what right-wing pundits would have us believe.

"Education about global warming"? Reeducation in the Communist propaganda sense comes to mind. "Don't expect to hear those fears spoken aloud by the local TV weathercasters"? Why should we? We're looking forward with great interest to what the fearlessly truth-seeking meteorologist Matt Noyes will have to say about it all on his web site later on this week. As he wrote with tough love this morning to a hysterical emailer who demanded he jump at once upon the global-warming bandwagon:

I appreciate your passion for the environment and the world, and I share that passion.  What I find most disconcerting is that the issue of climate change has become political and emotional -- evoking visceral responses from folks, and reactions like your own -- rather than the scientific issue that all environmental issues must be grounded in.

We commend Matt Noyes for not caving to the holier-than-thou pronouncements of the unaccountable Fourth-Estate powers that be at the Boston Globe.

*Who is Matt Noyes? “New England is a Mecca for meteorologists, because it’s the only place you can get just about everything, from winter storms and summertime thunderstorms to hurricanes and tornadoes,” says our fave weatherman, NECN's Matt Noyes in his Phillips Andover bio. A graduate of Cornell's atmospheric sciences program, Matt is one of those people for whom the glass is always half full: "The best feeling is to go to work and absolutely love what you’re doing every day.”

Comments

[miss kelly]

And he's so KEWWWWWWWWWWWT too!
And he's a dog-lover!
What more do you need?

Yes, I've heard Matt recently say that the temperate weather is due to jet streams, not the evil global warming.

[Sissy Willis]

Cute as a button!

[goomp]

Global warming and global cooling have been taking place since long before the existence of human kind. The most logical explanation that I have heard is that the intensity of the sun varies from century to century. This particular warm winter in New England is somewhat more than we would expect from the one degree a century that some scientists say is now going on.

[MB]

Hi Sissy & Tuck,

I tried to email but got error messages from the account. So, not a comment about this entry but a happy family update. Kyrian eloped in Florence, Italy yesterday (Tuesday) here's a link to their wedding pictures:
http://www.ky.smugmug.com/2334135/1

enjoy!

Happy New Year,
mabs

[Sissy Willis]

Mabs: Love is a many-splendored thing. On him and his beloved, it looks wicked booful.

[LanceThruster]

Also, the effects of ocean warming on methane release. You bray about the global threat of Islamic terror (not supported), as you pooh-pooh actual threats to the planet (supported by those who count - KEWWWWT or not).

|||||||||

from: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

January 8, 2007 -- The environmental "surge" you're not hearing anything about.

According to U.S. maritime industry sources, tanker captains are reporting an increase in onboard alarms from hazard sensors designed to detect hydrocarbon gas leaks and, specifically, methane leaks. However, the leaks are not emanating from cargo holds or pump rooms but from continental shelves venting increasing amounts of trapped methane into the atmosphere. With rising ocean temperatures, methane is increasingly escaping from deep ocean floors. Methane is also 21 more times capable of trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

In fact, one of the major sources for increased methane venting is the Hudson Submarine Canyon, which extends 400 miles into the Atlantic from the New York-New Jersey harbor. Another location experiencing increased venting is the Santa Barbara Channel on the California coast.

Fuel tankers reporting increased methane venting from sea beds.

Meanwhile, a strong natural gas odor was reported this morning in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Weehawken, and Newark. The strong odor was also detected in Union City, Secaucus, and Hoboken. Last August, a similar unexplained gas odor sent people to the hospital in Staten Island and Queens. Although methane is odorless, natural methane venting is often accompanied by the venting of acrid hydrogen sulfide, a byproduct of bacterial decomposition.

The US Coast Guard sent a message to ships and tugs in the bay and ocean south of New York requesting any reports of the odor being detected at sea. There were also an unconfirmed report of a similar strong odor being detected this morning on the Delaware coast near Lewes. This morning, the prevailing winds in New York and New Jersey were southerly at 5 to 10 miles per hour.

In other global warming news, the warm temperatures on the U.S. East Coast are resulting in early blooming of the cherry trees and azaleas in Washington, DC and New York City, apple and peach trees in Maryland, and roses, forsythias, and crocuses in Connecticut. A number of people along the East Coast are suffering from allergies usually experienced in April. Monk parakeets from South America have invaded the Chicago area.

George W. Bush continues to insist that global warming is "silly science" based on "fuzzy math." Corporate news media masters are pressuring plastic-faced and neatly-coiffured TV weathermen to treat the current abnormal warm weather as an unexpected "gift" for their viewers. The latte-sipping and SUV-driving yuppies in Washington, DC are certainly taking the current weather abnormality in stride -- they almost appear ecstatic about the weather, obviously unaware that the future of our planet is hanging on a thread.

[Teresa]

Lance... get your own blog!

[Gayle Miller]

I see the leftwing site pest has discovered you, Sissy! Another dimwit parroting the leftwing meme and DNC and John Kerry talking points!

[miss kelly]

We're all dooomed, doomed, I tell you!

I bet you a hundred bucks that Lance Thruster (ahem) is not KEWT.