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The Kentucky Derby is one of the most poignant rituals in America. In this special Derby Day posting, we revel in its history and tradition. |
The 143rd Running of the Kentucky Derby
By: George Noga – May 6, 2017
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Although you’re probably not into thoroughbred racing, you nevertheless watch the Kentucky Derby – the most exciting two minutes in sports – because it is a rich and enduring part of our heritage. There is nothing in America quite like the University of Louisville Marching Band playing and 150,000 people singing My Old Kentucky Home, the lyrics of which are included in this posting to help you to sing along.
Let’s begin with some history. In the early part of the nineteenth century, Kentucky was the Detroit of the equine world. The Civil War severely damaged its horse breeding industry because armies on both sides of the war simply requisitioned horses, i.e. took them without payment. When the war ended, there were no horses remaining in Kentucky. Historical note: more horses died in the war than soldiers.
In 1872 Kentucky horse breeders wanted to attract attention to their revived business and approached a prominent Louisvillian, Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. for assistance. Clark was grandson of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame and a grandnephew of George Rogers Clark, a Revolutionary War hero and a founder of Louisville. Clark’s idea was an annual horse race featuring the fastest thoroughbreds extant and the first race, i.e. the first Kentucky Derby, was held on May 17, 1875 at Churchill Downs.
The song My Old Kentucky Home was played as early as 1921 for the 47th Derby. It was written by Stephen Douglas (the Father of American Music) in 1853 and was inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Commonwealth of Kentucky adopted it as the state song in 1928 and the Kentucky legislature officially altered the song’s lyrics in 1986 to change some offensive words.
The Derby is pregnant with tradition and sometimes is referred to as “The Run for the Roses“, referring to the horseshoe-shaped garland given the winner since 1896 that contains 400 red roses with the Kentucky seal on one end and the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs along with the number of years on the other. The garland measures 122 inches by 22 inches and weighs 40 pounds.
Later today, kick back with your mint julep (Kentucky whiskey, sugar, water, mint and crushed ice); don your colorful wide-brimmed hat and join in singing My Old Kentucky Home as the horses make their way to the post for the 1.25 mile race to try for Secretariat’s 1973 record of 1:59:40. The Kentucky Derby is not only the most exciting two minutes in sports but also one of most cherished traditions in America.
Next up: Post Earth Week bonus posting: MLLG’s fearless forecasts
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A MLLG update and preview of blog topics through June 4th. Also, just how “scandal-free” was the Obama Administration? |
The Scandal-Free Obama Administration
By: George Noga – April 20, 2017
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Our climate change series was among the most read and forwarded of all time; thank you. We recently upgraded formatting to make posts more readable on mobile devices which are used by 30% of our readers. MLLG posts are available on Facebook, although readers report it is difficult to forward them. I will work with my technical advisor to make posts more manageable and to review all our options for social media.
The most frequent comment I receive is to suggest the use of footnotes. I have considered this but decided against doing so. The MLLG blog is not a scientific or academic journal. Most magazines, newspapers and other print and electronic media also eschew citations. Footnotes would add length, which would make the posts less readable. I will do a better job working sources into the body of the text and if readers would like to know a particular source, email me and I will try to provide it. Also, please continue to email me with any thoughts or suggestions for improving the blog.
We have some pithy and provocative posts scheduled between now and June 4th:
April 22 and 30: Earth Day series presents our take on environmental issues.
May 6: The Kentucky Derby – with a uniquely MLLG perspective.
May 14 and 21: America’s 25-year long party is over. Although I have not yet written these posts, I expect them to be among the most consequential I have ever penned.
May 28: MLLG high school graduation address – with apologies in advance to readers who are teachers or who have a family member who is a teacher.
June 4: MLLG college commencement address – very hard on the snowflakes.
The Scandal-Free Obama Administration As Obama left office, the media drumbeat was about how there were no scandals or embarrassments. That is true only insofar as money or sex scandals are concerned; but there was a cornucopia of other scandals – and that doesn’t even include the great-granddaddy of all scandals – spying on the Trump team. In fact, Obama presided over the worst ethics and scandals of the modern era; following are some of the worst.
1. Benghazi: This really consisted of multiple scandals – the failure to protect despite frequent requests, the failure to come to the aid of besieged Americans – again despite frequent and urgent pleas and, of course, the failure to be truthful about the cause.
2. Veterans Affairs: 50 veterans died waiting for appointments; then Obama lied about it. Despite throwing money at it, the situation got even worse. No one ever was fired.
3. Bowe Bergdahl: Obama freed five terrorists from Gitmo and praised Bergdahl as having served with honor and distinction. It was all a sham to try to empty Gitmo.
4. Fast and Furious: Thousands of guns were transmitted directly into the hands of terrorists and were used against American Border Patrol agents. AG Eric Holder refused to turn over documents to Congress and was held in contempt of Congress.
5. IRS and Lois Lerner: Obama’s IRS targeted political opponents and lied about it.
6. State Department Email: Hillary Clinton’s private email server was used for highly classified information which was easily hacked by our enemies.
7. Other Scandals: Hacking of the OPM; Iran nuclear deal; payment of ransom to Iran for return of sailors; phony recess appointments and ad infinitum.
The next post is on Earth Day – April 22 – and addresses environmental issues.
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An iceberg caused the Titanic to sink but not the deaths of 1,513 people. For 105 years we have gotten it wrong; this post shatters Titanic myths. |
Titanic Myths – 105 Years Afterward
By: George Noga – April 16, 2017
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Yesterday marked the 105th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. In addition to being an enduring and compelling human interest saga, it continues to yield lessons that resonate today. This post debunks the five biggest myths surrounding Titanic.
1. Capitalism (greed) caused the loss of life. No one died when Titanic hit the iceberg; the deaths occurred much later when the ship sank. The media blame White Star Lines for not having enough lifeboats – either because of added cost or aesthetics. The real blame was inept (government) regulation by the British Board of Trade (“BOT”) that regulated shipping. The designer, builder, and White Star all deferred to the BOT about the number of lifeboats as the BOT was the unchallenged authority.
BOT regulations were enacted 20 years previously when 10,000 tons was the norm and 20 lifeboats adequate; Titanic was 46,238 tons. Regulations had not been updated because government was lazy, inept and rewarded for issuing new regulations and not updating old ones. Once government becomes involved, common sense and personal responsibility disappear; hence, no one seriously questioned the BOT regulations.
2. First class passengers received preferential treatment. When dissecting the data, we find 74% of women and 20% of men survived. However, 44% of first class passengers were women versus 23% third class. After adjusting for gender, it is incandescently obvious the survival rates were about the same between first and third class. A third class female was 41% more likely to survive than a first class male. Also, third class passengers were more reluctant to leave the ship and part with baggage. Survival was not about class; it was about gender and children, nearly all of whom were saved.
3. Male aggression impacted survival of women and children. The number of men who survived is cited as evidence of male aggression. There was lifeboat capacity for all women and children and 550 men. There were many more men than women on board. If the crew had loaded one man for each woman and child, all women and children would have been saved. Moreover, lifeboats would have been loaded quicker, with less fear, keeping families together and saving more lives. Male behavior, far from being aggressive, resulted in 200+ fewer men surviving than should have been the case.
4. The Media fairly report the facts. Most media accounts (then and now) are ignorant and/or dishonest. The DiCaprio film in particular contains egregious errors. It depicts third class passengers forcibly barricaded to keep them from reaching lifeboats; that didn’t happen. Nor was anyone shot. The crew and passengers are stereotyped in the worst possible way despite acting heroically and fearlessly in the face of certain death.
Note: Fox has since apologized to families of those falsely portrayed in the movie.
5. There is no taint of political correctness. Au contraire. Titanic is rife with PC. Capitalism is hammered with greed, hubris and indifference to human life while government is unscathed. First class passengers are portrayed in a demeaning manner while others are elevated in dazzling displays of class warfare. Males are bashed.
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Titanic’s unnecessary loss of life was a failure of government regulation, not of capitalism. It is easier to blame prominent individuals such as the ship’s designer, builder and owner rather than amorphous bureaucrats. The media still get it wrong after 105 years; they return to their leitmotif of shamelessly flogging politically correct class warfare, assaults on masculinity and, their favorite whipping boy, capitalism.
The enduring lesson of Titanic is not to repose trust in government or media. The damage government can wreak in an age of terrorism and with North Korea, Pakistan and (soon) Iran as nuclear powers is exponentially worse. Instead of 1,513 deaths on Titanic, the toll could be unspeakable. Oppenheimer’s words (from the Gita) upon the first successful nuclear test are poignant: “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”.
The next post April 23rd contains a collection of MLLG short takes
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Stanford University researchers estimate we will spend at least 100 trillion dollars to reduce temperature three-tenths of one degree by the end of this century. |
Climate Change Part V – Putting It All Together
By: George Noga – April 9, 2017
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In case you missed the preheader, the Stanford University Energy Forum (as well as other scientists) believes mankind will spend $100,000,000,000,000 (one hundred trillion) to achieve a temperature reduction of .3 degrees (three-tenths of one degree) by the year 2100. Despite this insanity, progressives embrace man-made warming as their chosen means to achieve government control over every aspect of our lives. They can succeed only by scaring enough people to believe warming threatens life on Earth. That’s why debunking man-made warming is the most important issue of our time!
MLLG’s position, first stated in 2007, is that Earth is in the midst of a secular, solar caused warming trend that began circa 1850 and is a normal part of alternate warming and cooling cycles throughout history. Increases in CO2 from human activity may add a small and inconsequential amount – perhaps 10% – to warming. Moreover, we believe moderate warming (as predicted by the UN-IPCC) would be a net benefit to mankind. Even if warming were a real problem, all of our current solutions are wrongheaded.
The case against anthropogenic warming is strong. NASA documented warming in 10 other places in our solar system; the probability of this occurring if Earth’s warming is man-made is over 1,000 to 1 (2^10) against. There has been a hiatus in warming for 20 years and every computer model is laughably wrong. No model has been corrected since 1998 because it is impossible. There was warming from 1910-1945, cooling 1946-1975, warming 1976-1998 and nothing since. Try fitting that into a model. About 75% of the warming last century occurred from 1910 to 1945 when CO2 was low.
Despite compelling evidence to the contrary, many people continue to believe warming is man-made and presents an existential threat; why is this so? Such people ignore numerous and powerful warning signs they are wrong. In addition to the evidence noted in the preceding paragraph, they choose to ignore the refusal of politicians and scientists to debate, an increasing antarctic icecap, failure of oceans to rise as expected, the decrease in extreme weather and serious frauds perpetrated by climate scientists. People misplaced their trust in the media, government-funded science and politicians – just as they did for 100 other junk science scares since 1950.
Even if humans are responsible for warming, everything we are now doing is wrong. We should use strict cost-benefit analysis, maximize economic growth, prioritize spending programs, fund research for renewables, correctly apply the precautionary principle, stop exporting pollution, encourage debate and keep an open mind to new science. We must be fact based, principled and objective instead of fanatical and emotional. We must stop the utter insanity of spending more than $100 trillion to (perhaps – maybe) reduce temperature by a mere .3 degrees 80 years from now.
Furthermore, we must vigorously challenge the assumption that warming is bad. It is true warming will cause fatalities, but far more people will be saved from the cold. On a net basis, millions more will live because of warming. In the US and worldwide, people prefer warmer temperatures; they don’t retire from Florida to Minnesota. A warmer planet also is better for agriculture, energy costs and biodiversity.
Finally, Singapore has much to teach us. The average maximum daily temperature in Singapore is 55 degrees warmer than the global average. Singapore transformed itself from a third world swampy island into an uber-modern, clean, high tech city with per capita GDP of $65,000 (7th in the world). It is ethnically diverse and one of the most peaceful places on earth. If Singapore achieved all this despite being 55 degrees warmer, the rest of the world should easily cope with just a degree or so of warming.
This concludes our climate change series. If you still believe in man-made warming, you must ignore, inter alia, 1,000 to 1 odds against, the failure of all climate models, no warming since 1998, the climate pattern since 1910 and Singapore. And don’t forget the record population of polar bears. I bet you thought I had forgotten about them!
The 105th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is the subject of our next post
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We are spending trillions to achieve an uncertain, infinitesimal benefit in the distant future. What actions should we take today if warming is man-made? |
Climate Change Part IV – If Humans Cause Warming
By: George Noga – April 2, 2017
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Assuming (for purposes of this posting only) that MLLG believes human activity is responsible for global warming, this post presents the ten most critical policies and actions (in approximate order of priority) that mankind should take in response.
1. Use cost-benefit analysis. EPA carbon regulations cost $100 billion over five years. The putative benefits are reductions of 1 part per thousand per year in carbon and 2.35 ten-thousandths of one degree per year in temperature. Costs are real, immediate and certain whereas the benefits are microscopic, remote and uncertain. Europe’s diesel regulations cause thousands of deaths each year due to increased soot, but the benefit is only 4 one-thousandths of one degree in 50 years. Current climate policies cost trillions and will make no detectable difference in climate even 100 years in the future.
2. Maximize economic growth. A wealthy planet is better able both to alter and to mitigate the effects of warming. In fact, mitigation may be a much better and less costly strategy to combat warming versus trying to lower temperature. This conserves resources if warming proves to be solar caused or is less problematic than expected.
3. Fund research for renewable energy and conservation. Today, wind, solar, bio-fuels and other renewables are not cost effective. Rather than squander scarce resources as described in number one supra, redirect spending toward research for the future.
4. Prioritize spending. Government spending (US and foreign) must achieve the most good for the most people – again based on cost-benefit analysis. Independent scientists and economists rank many priorities ahead of climate including third world projects for clean water, sanitation and immunization. Hundreds of millions of lives could be saved today versus the possibility of some infinitesimal and uncertain future climate benefit.
5. Don’t export pollution. Measures to reduce CO2 imposed only by rich nations result in the shifting of production to poorer countries without such regulations. This process exports pollution and exacerbates warming. Earth is better off when production takes place in the US versus India or China. The US should abandon unilateral actions that waste money and export warming. Carbon reduction must be global to be effective.
6. Correctly apply the precautionary principle. It is sensible to exercise caution but nonsensical to assert that one can’t be too careful. The worst case scenario should never dictate policy; under that logic, no one would ever get into an automobile. It is a grotesque misapplication of the precautionary principle to bankrupt ourselves today in order to lavish money on a possible but uncertain problem in the distant future.
7. Fund research in an unbiased manner. All public funding should be devoid of politics and not biased in favor of scientists with any particular point of view. Our objective is to get at the truth, not to advance an agenda. The UN-IPCC should be non political with scientists, not politicians, writing all the reports and summaries.
8. Science is never settled. Scientists should continue to study all aspects of climate change including: (1) the linkage between CO2 and temperature as well as any amplification or dampening effects; (2) whether warming is positive or negative for humanity understanding that warming kills far fewer people than cooling; (3) warming throughout the solar system; and (4) climate models that incorporate the past 20 years of data. Finally, because there is so much hullabaloo about scientific consensus, there should be an independent and anonymous poll conducted of climate scientists.
9. Encourage debates. Scientists should publicly debate each other as should politicians in unbiased media environments. That would be very enlightening.
10. Be objective and eschew emotion and fanaticism. Scientists, politicians, media and educators all should be strictly objective and dispassionate. We all seek the truth.
Not even one of the above 10 policies is now being followed; instead, antithetical policies are in effect. There is no cost-benefit analysis, robust economic growth, prioritization of spending, debate or objectivity and we are exporting pollution.
It is in the interest of all, believers and deniers alike, dispassionately and objectively to seek the truth, even if it ultimately shatters our current beliefs. Even those who passionately believe in man-made warming must recognize that what we are now doing is not only wrong but incredibly wasteful, counterproductive and dishonest!
The next post on April 9th is the final in our climate change series
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There is no shortage of reasons people cling to their belief in man-made warming. |
Climate Change Part III – Why People Believe
By: George Noga – March 26, 2017
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Progressives dogmatically embrace man-made climate change because it is the key to realizing their global agenda. Whether or not climate change is real is irrelevant to them because it is the only issue that can enable them to force their agenda on all of humanity. They need us to believe climate change threatens the existence of life on Earth and only government can prevent it. If people accept that premise, they will cede total power to liberal elites to impose a carbon tax, VAT and Draconian regulations, the end result of which is absolute government control over every aspect of our lives!
This is so critical, it bears restating. Liberals see man-made climate change as a wedge issue to gain total control, which they can’t achieve via the ballot box. We never will change progressive minds because they don’t give a hoot about climate change; to them it is only a means to an end. Liberals succeed only if they can convince enough others that climate change is real. That is how the battle of our time will be decided.
Let’s look at the top 5 reasons other people, including many of good will, continue to believe in man-made global warming despite all the evidence to the contrary.
1. Warning signs were ignored. There have been numerous and powerful warning signs warming is not man-made. The refusal of scientists and politicians to debate was a bright red flag; if the science truly was settled, they should have been eager to debate. Warming throughout our solar system yields powerful (1,000 to 1) evidence of solar causation. The 20-year hiatus in warming and the failure of computer models are dispositive. The increasing antarctic icecap, failure of seas to rise as expected and the decrease in extreme weather are compelling evidence. Frauds were promulgated by climate scientists to show more warming. They altered data (infamous hockey stick graph) and recently, NOAA scientists substituted flawed data for correct data.
2. People wanted to believe. They uncritically accepted warming just as they did other junk science: fluoridation, pesticides, Laetrile, overpopulation, acid rain, organic food, ozone holes, Alar, silicon implants, killer bees, GMOs, vaccines, global cooling, Mad Cow, SARS, Avian Flu, Thimerosal, Swine Flu, dioxin, PCBs, BPA, pink slime, fracking and acrylamide to name but a few of the 100 cases of recent junk science.
3. They trusted the media. There is the thinnest reed of truth (a tenuous link between CO2 and temperature) to beguile even people of good will. But believers forgot that the media carry water for progressives; they are the opposite side of the same coin.
4. Science is politicized; never settled. Government funds $3,000 to every $1 funded by others for climate research; you get what you pay for. President Eisenhower said the following: “The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by federal allocations and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.” Newton discovered gravity in 1665; it was settled until Einstein 240 years later. People accepted that 97% of climate scientists believe in man-made causation; the real figure is less than 50% and falling rapidly despite the torrent of government money.
5. They misunderstand data. It always is the warmest year somewhere. It is true 2012 was the hottest year in the continental US (1.58% of Earth’s landmass) but 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 all were cooler than 1998 (warmest recent year) by a greater margin than 2012 was warmer than 1998. Most (nearly 75%) of the warming in the 20th century occurred from 1910 to 1945 with low CO2 levels.
For progressives, man-made warming is a religion replete with sacraments (bio-fuel, windmills) and demons (CO2, coal). It labels apostates deniers and seeks to silence or imprison them. They are impervious to facts or logic. Non-progressives misplace their trust in politicians, the media and government-funded science. They ignore abundant and compelling red flags that they are wrong and fail to use every day horse sense.
In Part IV of this series on April 2nd, I become a climate change believer
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