California Governor Newsom to follow the footsteps of Gray Davis?

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Comments Off on California Governor Newsom to follow the footsteps of Gray Davis?

“The last California Governor blamed for rolling energy blackouts was recalled by voters and replaced. In 2003, Governor Gray Davis was recalled over leadership issues, high taxation, and inaction over a struggling California economy and rolling energy blackouts.” click here

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No trend in hurricane activity

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Comments Off on No trend in hurricane activity

Craig Loehle, Erica Staehling. Hurricane trend detection Natural Hazards (2020) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04219-x

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Because a change in the frequency (number/year) of hurricanes could be a result of climate change, we analyzed the historical record of Atlantic basin and US landfalling hurricanes, as well as US continental accumulated cyclone energy to evaluate issues related to trend detection. Hurricane and major hurricane landfall counts exhibited no significant overall trend over 167 years of available data, nor did accumulated cyclone energy over the continental USA over 119 years of available data, although shorter-term trends were evident in all three datasets. Given the χ2 distribution evinced by hurricane and major hurricane counts, we generated synthetic series to test the effect of segment length, demonstrating that shorter series were increasingly likely to exhibit spurious trends. Compared to synthetic data with the same mean, the historical all-storm data were more likely to exhibit short-term trends, providing some evidence for long-term persistence at timescales below 10 years. Because this might be due to known climate modes, we examined the relationship between the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) and hurricane frequency in light of these short-term excursions. We found that while ratios of hurricane counts with AMO phase matched expectations, statistical tests were less clear due to noise. Over a period of 167 years, we found that an upward trend of roughly 0.7/century is sufficient to be detectable with 80% confidence over the range from 1 to 21 storms/year. Storm energy data 1900–2018 over land were also analyzed. The trend was again zero. The pattern of spurious trends for short segments was again found. Results for AMO periods were similar to count data. Atlantic basin all storms and major storms (1950–2018) did not exhibit any trend over the whole period or after 1990. Major storms 1950–1989 exhibited a significant downward trend. All-storm basin scale storms exhibited short-term trends matching those expected from a Poisson process. A new test for Poisson series was developed based on the 95% distribution of slopes for simulated data across a range of series lengths. Because short data series are inherently likely to yield spurious trends, care is needed when interpreting hurricane trend data.

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California energy policy is unsustainable

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Comments Off on California energy policy is unsustainable

“In response to rolling blackouts over the weekend, California ISO President Steve Berber warned that California must maintain its current electricity reserves or risk ‘collapse of the entire system of California and perhaps the entire West.’ “ click here

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Natural variation of cloud cover drove 2014 to 2020 global warming

Posted on August 20, 2020 | Comments Off on Natural variation of cloud cover drove 2014 to 2020 global warming

Norman G. Loeb, Tyler J. Thorsen, Joel R. Norris, Hailan Wang, Wenying Su. Changes in Earth’s Energy Budget during and after the “Pause” in Global Warming: An Observational Perspective Climate, 2018, 6(3), 62; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli6030062

This study examines changes in Earth’s energy budget during and after the global warming “pause” (or “hiatus”) using observations from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System. We find a marked 0.83 ± 0.41 Wm−2 reduction in global mean reflected shortwave (SW) top-of-atmosphere (TOA) flux during the three years following the hiatus that results in an increase in net energy into the climate system. A partial radiative perturbation analysis reveals that decreases in low cloud cover are the primary driver of the decrease in SW TOA flux. The regional distribution of the SW TOA flux changes associated with the decreases in low cloud cover closely matches that of sea-surface temperature warming, which shows a pattern typical of the positive phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Large reductions in clear-sky SW TOA flux are also found over much of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in the northern hemisphere. These are associated with a reduction in aerosol optical depth consistent with stricter pollution controls in China and North America. A simple energy budget framework is used to show that TOA radiation (particularly in the SW) likely played a dominant role in driving the marked increase in temperature tendency during the post-hiatus period.

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Climate collusion

Posted on August 20, 2020 | Comments Off on Climate collusion

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Is use of surgical masks necessary during heart catheterization?

Posted on August 20, 2020 | Comments Off on Is use of surgical masks necessary during heart catheterization?

Sjøl A, Kelbaek H. [Is use of surgical caps and masks obsolete during percutaneous heart catheterization?]. Ugeskrift for Laeger, 28 Feb 2002, 164(12):1673-1675

INTRODUCTION: Despite the lack of scientific evidence, surgical caps and masks are worn routinely by many physicians and nurses in the catheterisation laboratories to avoid local and generalised infections. When we changed our practice, we performed a randomised study to assure the quality of our routine.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: All patients undergoing left- or right-sided cardiac catheterisation were randomly allocated to our five laboratories. About two months after the procedure, the patients were sent a questionnaire concerning signs and symptoms of possible inflammation or infection after the procedure.

RESULTS: Of 1,034 patients, 855 (82.7%) responded to the questionnaire. Although 25 patients in the caps and mask group vs 19 patients in the other group (6.1% vs 4.3%, ns) had complaints from the procedural access site in the groin, none of these could be ascribed to definite infection.

DISCUSSION: The use of caps and masks during percutaneous cardiac catheterisation procedures is based on the concept that the infection rate of patients is reduced. The size of the catheter used, procedure time, and the use of caps and masks by both the surgeon and the assisting staff are discussed.

CONCLUSION: The routine use of caps and masks does not seem to have that much beneficial impact on the occurrence of procedure-related inflammations or infections in the cardiac catheterisation laboratory.

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Renewable energy simply drives up the cost of electricity while providing less-reliable service

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Comments Off on Renewable energy simply drives up the cost of electricity while providing less-reliable service

“roughly how much would it cost to generate the same amount of power as is produced by the 2016 fleet of United States Weather Dependent Renewables, using conventional generation technologies, (Gas-firing or Nuclear) ? and how do those figures compare ?”. click here

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Wearing of caps and masks not necessary during cardiac catheterization?

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Comments Off on Wearing of caps and masks not necessary during cardiac catheterization?

Lawrence J. Laslett MD, Alisa Sabin. Wearing of caps and masks not necessary during cardiac catheterization Catheterization and Cardiovascular Diagnosis, July 1989, https://doi.org/10.1002/ccd.1810170306

Although cardiac catheterization‐related infections are rare, caps and masks are often worn to minimize this complication. However, documentation of the value of caps and masks for this purpose is lacking. We, therefore, prospectively evaluated the experience of 504 patients undergoing percutaneous left heart catheterization, seeking evidence of a relationship between whether caps and/or masks were worn by the operators and the incidence of infection. No infections were found in any patient, regardless of whether a cap or mask was used. Thus, we found no evidence that caps or masks need to be worn during percutaneous cardiac catheterization.

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COVID-19 is mild compared to 1918 H1N1 pandemic

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Comments Off on COVID-19 is mild compared to 1918 H1N1 pandemic

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Another side of the story….

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Comments Off on Another side of the story….

“An investigation concluded the NIAID’s AIDS research division that reported to Fauci had failed in many cases to provide patient advocates to monitor the foster kids’ health as promised, and in some cases, as required by law.” click here

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