XM MLB Chat

Sunday, January 31, 2010

XM MLB Home Plate new air shifts for Rob Dibble and Jim Bowden

Rob Dibble will join Steve Davis from 7-10am. Jim Bowden will join Jody Mac from 4-7pm. Via commenters at XMFan.com.
  • As of Tuesday, 2/23, this link says Bowden and Jody Mac are on from 4-6pm.
  • As of Saturday, 2/13, these programming changes are not noted on the xmradio.com/mlbhomeplate website. Dibble is still listed as 4-6pm. The notations I originally linked to on the post above are no longer there. I was able to find one XM link today mentioning Dibble's 7-10am shift for Tuesday, 2/16, so I changed the link for him. So far I haven't found a new listing for Bowden's 4-7pm show.

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Scotts offers fans lawn seed from 5 ballparks

First 5 ballparks to be available:
  • The Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark, Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, and St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
1/30/10: "The Scotts Miracle Grow Company and Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP) have teamed up to offer fans a season opener in their own backyards. ...Scotts, a long-established company in lawn and garden products, will be known as the “Official Lawn Care Company of Major League Baseball.”...
  • Fans will now be able to pitch grass seed blends formulated for major league ballparks at their home base address and be the first on the block with a major-league lawn.
  • Scotts developed grass seed blends in consultation with the director of grounds at each selected ballpark. Seed is specific to the climate and hardiness zone of each ballpark.

By opening day of the 2010 baseball season grass seed blends will debut for fans of five teams:

  • the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark, Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, and St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium."...

If the program is successful, "Scott’s will spread its stadium blend seed to other major league ballparks and fans across the country."

  • The next section references a 'carbon footprint' as part of everyday care of the environment. These are two separate issues that have recently been presented as one. Environmental awareness should be the normal course of events. We obviously need to care for our air, water, and land.

General care of the environment has been blended with the vast industry created around a 'carbon footprint.' The idea of CO2 endangerment has unfortunately been used as the excuse for a global stock or commodity scheme trading 'carbon offsets.' Carbon trading can make people feel good but can't cure the environment, and doesn't claim to.

(continuing): "The Carbon Footprint and Your Ballpark Lawn

"How will Scotts latest pitch on lawns influence the environment? At a time when the great American lawn has been benched from the lineup of environmentally correct landscape practices for guzzling water, contaminating groundwater and streams with toxic fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, and polluting the air from gas-powered mowers, can fans rally its comeback?...

  • However, given the breadth of information available on grasses and well-managed lawns, eager and informed baseball fans could become the team to watch at home plate.

that well-managed lawns capture and store a

Gas-powered mowers counteract the carbon sequestering work of grass since they have their bases loaded with emissions like hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulates. A reel mower is the only mower leaving no carbon footprint."...

"The great achievement of the (Kyoto) protocol was not to reduce carbon emissions –
  • they actually rose at an increasing rate under its watch, three times faster in the early 2000s than during the 1990s –
but to create a market in emissions rights and notional emissions reductions from "Don't Let the Carbon Market Die," by Oliver Tickell, UK Guardian, 1/25/10 (paragraph 3 in article)
  • graph of carbon market from Carbon Positive

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Another radio tower destroyed by sabotage, now NE Georgia

HARTWELL - "WLHR in Hartwell lost its tower early Saturday when the 284-foot structure fell to the ground."... It is believed to be the work of vandals. "While it was raining at the time and the area was under a winter storm warning, there
  • was no ice accumulation on the tower, according to the station's co-owner, Art Sutton.
"We believe one of the guy-wire sections was deliberately cut which resulted in the tower falling completely over away from the guy-wires cut,” Sutton said. “There was no ice on the tower. The winds were not very strong. This was a deliberate case of sabotage based on the experience I've gained about radio station towers over the 33 years I've been in the business. If a tower collapses due to wind or the weight of excessive ice, it will collapse upon itself near the base of the tower. It will not fall over in one piece.....
  • Sutton said that the deliberate destruction of a radio station transmitter tower is considered a federal offense because stations are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
WLHR is owned by Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting Companies, which operates 13 radio stations in Northeast Georgia, Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina." AccessNorthGa.com, via RadioDailyNews

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Commenters suspect Rob Dibble new XM 175 AM drive host

MLB on XM commenters on XMFan.com heard a promo this weekend on Sirius XM Home Plate about a new morning drive host starting Monday.
  • They say the promo disguises the host's voice a bit but that it sounds like Rob Dibble (who has been anchoring an afternoon drive shift on the channel for quite awhile). I tuned in to hear the promo, and it does indeed sound like Rob Dibble.
Jeff Nelson has been filling in this week in Dibble's spot, so it's possible Nelson will replace Dibble in the PM drive slot with Jody Mac.
  • I wondered if Dibble was going to be with the Washington Nationals again this year, but can't find anything about it. I did notice the Nats' Fan Fest today, 1/31, says Tim Kurkjian, "baseball television analyst" will be on hand. Whether that means anything about the upcoming season I don't know.

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Saturday, January 30, 2010

Lemieux, Penguins' co-owner offer to buy Pirates-Pirates demur

"Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, co-owners of the Penguins, recently made an unsolicited offer to buy the Pirates in a face-to-face meeting with that team's owner, Bob Nutting,
  • but the offer did not receive a response.

Sources on the Penguins' side last night described the offer made by Mr. Lemieux and Mr. Burkle as "very serious," without divulging a dollar figure, and said

  • they remain interested in following up.

The Pirates characterized the matter far differently.

  • Mr. Nutting, the only person in the meeting to comment on it, was adamant that no serious discussion about a sale had taken place. And he firmly reiterated that the Pirates are not for sale. ...

"Honestly, I'm not sure there's a situation to describe," Mr. Nutting said last night when asked about the meeting. ..."But I think the simplest way to say this is that there never has been a substantive or formal offer for the team. The team is not for sale."

According to sources on the Penguins side, the meeting happened four months ago at the Penguins' front-office headquarters in Chatham Center, Uptown. Mr. Lemieux, Mr. Burkle and Mr. Nutting were present, and the

  • intent of the meeting was for the Penguins owners to offer to buy the Pirates. Mr. Burkle made a financial offer."...

from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Dejan Kovacevic, 1/30/10. photo Lemieux and Burkle in Stanley Cup parade, June 2009, ap

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Time is now for Tigers baseball in Connecticut

"Hooray! We have a baseball team. Well, sort of. Thursday’s announcement of the yet-to-be-approved relocation of the Oneonta (N.Y.) Tigers to Norwich for this summer is a great start. But the problem is the process of getting the team here was so drawn out that Until then, the Tigers will still be physically based in New York,
  • tickets can’t be sold and job openings can’t be filled.
sell its signage along Dodd Stadium’s outfield wall or take out advertisement in local newspapers....
  • Connecticut is already playing catch-up in the standings before a pitch has been thrown. It only illustrates the importance of getting team relocations done as quickly and neatly as possible. ...
It’s fair to note that the short-season New York-Penn League, which the Tigers call home, doesn’t start play until mid-June. That doesn’t mean the team has until then to get into gear.... "Time not Tigers' Friend in organizing relocation to Norwich," Joe Perez, Norwich Bulletin, 1/29/10

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Johnny Damon with Mike Francesa on WFAN

Mike Francesa interviews Johnny Damon on WFAN, Friday 1/29/10. Wrenching. Did not have to happen this way.

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Friday, January 29, 2010

Washington Post and MSNBC cite National Wildlife Federation as source on existence of climate change

Washington Post: "This winter's extreme weather -- with heavy snowfall in some places and unusually low temperatures --
  • is in fact
a sign of how climate change disrupts long-standing patterns, according to a Why doesn't the Washington Post report the collapse of the entire man-caused 'climate change' scam? Including that the $100 billion demand for climate reparations in Copenhagen was based on nothing, no published report, nothing substantiated, and made up just for stealing? Doesn't fraud and stealing billions of dollars rate as news?
  • Why would the Washington Post cry that there's a "wealth of scientific evidence" to support (man-made) climate change (actually they leave out the words "man made" in this article, allowing a reader to think any kind of climate change for any reason is enough to turn this country, its citizens, their finite efforts and time over to a bunch of equatorial dictators, unaccountable UN grifters and billionaire hedge fund scam artists)
  • when there is a 'wealth' of recent scientific information to the contrary? Legitimate press have given evidence that the Nobel Prize winning climate report is replete with fake data.
The BBC reported on 12/5/09 that UN Climate Chief, Nobel Prize Winning RJ Pachauri, was told by scientists of multiple mistakes about Himalayas claims in his report. Pachauri brushed them off, calling one claim
  • "voodoo science."
  • This should have had enormous impact on the Copenhagen summit and every day since. Did the Washington Post make this scandal front page news? Could this not be considered a "wealth of evidence" of which citizens should be made aware? At the very least, if the Washington Post is truly concerned about the earth's atmosphere, informing the world of this fraud might have caused some to stay home
  • instead of spewing tons of carbon into the atmosphere with harmful jet travel.
As reported on Watt's Up With That, use of citations from another wildlife group, the World Wildlife Federation, has cast additional doubt on the entire United Nations Nobel Prize winning report. The actual National Wildlife Federation report cited by the Washington Post is reviewed on Watt's Up With That by a reviewer from Climate Audit.
  • The point has been made by others, this matter should not be decided by advocacy groups and a round the clock spray of media propaganda. We are being urged:

"...to surrender our freedoms, our economic growth, and even our simplest comforts to duplicitous zealots before checking and double-checking

  • the work of the prophets predicting our doom
  • should we refuse." (Marc Sheppard, American Thinker) via WUWT
The Washington Post article does not discuss recent documented false statements and non-scientific procedures in the UN Nobel Prize Winning Climate Report claiming man caused CO2 was harming the planet. Scientists have come forward saying they knew conclusions were erroneous.
  • The Washington Post's only concern was that the public's perception of colder than usual weather might make it harder for Obama to pass global warming related legislation. I am curious why the Washington Post is considered anything other than a bulky public relations newsletter. ed.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Joel Sherman play by play of Yankee-Damon denouement

Joel Sherman has a re-cap of the Yankee-Johnny Damon denouement to date, including an episode last week that sounds pretty bad:

But Boras claims the door had been slammed in mid-December, saying “before they spoke to me they had moved down the road. No matter what I said, they had moved down the road.”"

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Randy Levine, others to bring Yankee MLB trophy to Asia

Yankee executives and the MLB World Series trophy will travel to Tokyo, Beijing, and Hong Kong on a 6 day tour. The trip will include talks with the Communist Chinese as part of an ongoing "cooperation agreement" the Yankees have with them.
  • "The Major League Baseball championship trophy will accompany a delegation of Yankees executives, including team president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman, who will arrive at Tokyo's Narita Airport on Sunday.

It will be displayed on Monday at the MLB Cafe in Tokyo alongside the Yomiuri Giants' 2009 Japan Series championship trophy.

  • The trophy will be displayed on Wednesday at Beijing's New World Department Store, and on Friday in Hong Kong at New World's recently-opened K11 mall.

During the trip, the Yankees delegation will also meet Wednesday with the China Baseball Association (CBA) to further their cooperation agreement."...

  • Three years ago the Yankees made a formal alliance with China Baseball Association.
from Reuters report, wkzo.com, "Yankees Bringing World Series Trophy to Asia," by Larry Fine, 1/28/10 Corruption deepens in Communist Chinese food chain, 10/31/08

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Mad Dog hosts Turner Classic Movies' Robert Osborne

Today in the 3pm hour of his Sirius XM144 show, Mad Dog and TCM's host Robert Osborne discuss favorite movies and the upcoming '31 Days of Oscar' to begin February 1 on TCM. Topics like this between Mike and Chris were always fascinating and something that will never be replaced. Osborne said he lives in New York and travels to Atlanta once a week to tape a batch of intros, interviews, whatever needs doing.
  • In conversation Dog said how much he liked "A Place in the Sun," and Osborne said that was his favorite movie. Among films he might take to a desert island, Osborne listed Sunset Blvd., Singin' in the Rain, The Third Man, and North by Northwest. Best actors, Spencer Tracy, DeNiro, Brando, Bogart. Dog asked him about Pacino, and Osborne agreed he's one of the greats. But said both he and DeNiro have done too many cheesy movies in recent years taking a bit from their overall image. Osborne's list of best actresses, Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, and Greta Garbo.
Dog asked who was the most underrated actor, Osborne said Jeff Bridges and that he's starting to get more credit now. Dog mentioned Olivia deHavilland and Osborne said she's doing quite well, age 94, living in a townhouse in Paris. Dog mentions Teresa Wright as one of the greats, Osborne agrees and they note she passed away a few years ago. Dog says she lived in Connecticut and was a big Yankee fan.
  • She did play Lou Gehrig's wife in Pride of the Yankees in 1942 and received an Oscar nomination for it. According to a Washington Post article, it seems her conversion to Yankee fandom occurred in 1998. Because of her role in the Lou Gehrig film, she was invited to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at the stadium. "It was Ms. Wright's first visit to the stadium and sparked an interest in baseball -- "it was as if she was possessed," her daughter said --"...

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Dan Graziano wonders if a Supreme Court has ever been belittled on national tv by a president before

Bats on Twitter

Dan Graziano on NY Times Bats Blog Twitter roll

  • "Has a president ever before ripped a Supreme Court decision on national TV with the Supreme Court sitting right there in front of him? about 3 hours ago"
on Bats Blog page with entry about Andre Dawson, 1/27/10
  • (Having to sit still, captive and defenseless, chained to their seats like naughty children, with hyenas cheering behind them)...(ed.)

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Cap-Gate: Andre Dawson to enter Hall of Fame as Montreal Expo-ponders way for Cubs cap to be in picture

  • Since 2001, the cap a player wears in the Hall of Fame has not been his choice alone. Andre Dawson ponders points at which he might bring the cap of his choice into the picture.
"The National Baseball Hall of Fame has decided that Andre Dawson will represent the Expos and not the Chicago Cubs, a decision that Dawson isn’t entirely on board with.
  • The Hall clearly stated their major concern is the history of the game, and that’s what really played into their decision,” Dawson told WMVP-AM in Chicago, an ESPN Radio affiliate. “I’m disappointed. I can probably say that because Chicago was my preference.”

Dawson played his first 10 full seasons in Montreal compared with six with the Cubs. He had his best season in Chicago, winning the National League Most Valuable Player award in 1987.

  • “I know the difference in the 10 to 6 years probably was something of a consideration on their part,” Dawson told WMVP....

Dawson also told the radio station that he has considered wearing a Cubs hat during his acceptance speech as a way to acknowledge those fans.

“I don’t want to do anything that might be an embarrassment to someone or show someone up, that’s not my character,” Dawson said. “But there will be some way I will try to acknowledge the Cubs fans to show just how important they were to me.

  • I did think about at some point in time during the speech putting a Cubs cap on, but I don’t know if that’s appropriate.”"
from NY Times Bats Blog, 1/27/10, "Against wishes, Dawson will enter Hall as an Expo," by Justin Sablich

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NY Times' Jayson Blair gave private co-worker info to other media-Boyd

"In his posthumous memoir coming out next week, former NYT managing editor Gerald Boyd reveals that disgraced NYT reporter Jayson Blair "spied on colleagues" and regularly provided inside NYT information to the New York Observer. According to Boyd, Blair had begun leaking information to Pappu in August 2002 about
  • "staffing decisions, newsroom strategies, and dispute," in reply to Pappu's regular email questions....
Blair had leaked a list to Pappu of all the NYT reporters who had been assigned to the paper's Ira(q) coverage -- "including," Boyd said, "The information was confidential and competitive," Boyd fumed, "and its release was potentially life-threatening.""...

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ESPN Sunday Night Baseball early roster

ESPN announces upcoming Sunday Night Baseball matchups:
  • April 11 St. Louis at Milwaukee
  • April 18 New York Mets at St. Louis
  • April 25 Atlanta at N.Y. Mets
  • May 2 N.Y. Mets at Philadelphia
  • May 9 N.Y. Yankees at Boston
  • May 16 Philadelphia at Milwaukee
  • May 23 N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets
  • May 30 Texas at Minnesota
  • July 4 Kansas City at L.A. Angels
  • July 11 Chicago Cubs at L.A. Dodgers
  • July 18 Philadelphia at Chicago Cubs
list from Dave Kohl, via RadioDailyNews

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Peter Gammons to appear in Cambridge Thursday, Jan.28

BOSTON: "Baseball fans in the Boston area get an interesting opportunity this Thursday (Jan. 28) evening. The Cambridge Center for Adult Education begins its "Homerun in Harvard Square" seminar series at 6 PM.
  • The guest will be none other than Peter Gammons, now with MLB Network.
Upcoming confirmed guests are Tom DiBenedetto, Red Sox partner; Jed Lowrie, Red Sox infielder; and Larry Silverstein, attorney/special counsel to the LA Dodgers. Details at www.ccae.org." by Dave Kohl, Radio Recordings, via RadioDailyNews

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Cincinnati Reds know baseball is better on radio, sync Marty & Joe to tv classics

CINCINNATI: "Great idea from Fox Sports Ohio to promote the upcoming Reds season. The (Fox Sports) Network has taken a group of telecasts of
  • significant Reds games from the past 40 years and synced the audio of the radio broadcasts with
  • Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall.
Included in the Monday night series will be Game 4 of the 1970 World Series, Tom Browning's perfect game, the clinching 1976 NLCS game vs. Philadelphia, Tom Seaver's no-hitter vs. St. Louis from 1978, the 1985 game in which Pete Rose breaks the all-time hit record, and Game 7 of the memorable 1975 World Series.
  • It's too bad that the rest of the country can't enjoy these, especially with the hometown flavor of "Marty and Joe on Reds radio".
  • Here is a regional network producing this, while the nationally available ESPN Classic sticks us with poker, bowling, boxing, and probably tiddly winks in prime time."
from Dave Kohl, Radio Recordings, via RadioDailyNews
  • (I have actually seen a few old Yankee games on tv with the radio team's voices, but not too often. Not often enough anyway). susan

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

SEC reinvents itself, now a global warming pressure group

  • Of interest, 1/27/10 after Obama's speech, Mary Kissel of the Asia Wall St. Journal said the US White House and Australia are the only places that still buy into (man caused) climate change.
Useless at protecting Americans against frauds like Bernie Madoff, the Security and Exchange Commission turns to the proven fraud of global warming and its relentless profiteers. It plans to force US companies to show changes they are making to deal with (non-existent) global warming.
  • Two US Representatives wrote to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro today (1/26) to address this change in direction:
"“We note with interest that the Securities and Exchange Commission evidently has concluded that, having Barton and Walden wrote. “Had the colossal failure of the commission to notice the Madoff Ponzi scheme after during that disgraceful episode, we would be troubled by an undertaking which seems so transparently political and such 9/17/07, Global Warming enforcement group aims at Security and Exchange Commission: ""The SEC exists to make sure that investors have the information that they need to make smart decisions," said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a group that promotes environmental standards among private companies. Ceres and the Calvert Group, an asset management firm, said in a January report that more than half of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index "are doing a poor job of disclosing climate change risk."...
  • They said that by filing a formal petition, they hoped to
The petition to be filed...asserts that financial risks -- and opportunities --
  • the test of being material.
Although the SEC hasn't insisted on disclosure of climate-related matters, American Electric Power, the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the United States, did a lengthy study in 2004 of how climate regulation might affect its earnings. For its investors,
  • a law that would regulate those emissions is

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Ben Fong-Torres explains radio

"Radio is fickle: It's wonderful, and it's terrible. It's kind and it's cruel. It's like family, a lifelong part of much of your day and night, and of your best and worst memories. And yet it acts strange, goes through changes, embracing you one minute, rejecting you the next.

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Radio station in Haiti saved lives

"In Haiti's devastation and upheaval since the Jan. 12 earthquake there has been one constant:

  • the sound of Signal FM, the only radio station in the country

broadcasting through the following tumultuous days....

  • They found three men, two of whom they were able to bring out alive."...

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

BBC does not report UN discredited premise for climate cash, still notes rich nations urged to pay $10 billion climate reparations

News was published in the past 24 hours that the UN Climate report used its "natural disasters" prediction without substantiation. And that this claim alone was used as the
  • reason to transfer billions of dollars in Copenhagen from so-called rich nations to poor nations.
The disgraced claim became a central feature of the movement aided by proclamations of Obama, Miliband, and Brown.
  • The BBC does not mention this news in their story of demand for billions to be transferred based on climate injustice.
BBC: "Brazil, China, India and South Africa have urged wealthy nations
  • to hand over $10bn (£6bn)
pledged to poor nations in 2010 to fight climate change.
  • The group - known as Basic - said the money must be available at once "as proof of their commitment" to address the global challenge.

The plea was issued after a meeting of the four nations in Delhi.

  • The funds were pledged in a non-binding deal agreed at last year's Copenhagen global climate conference....

After the Delhi talks, environmental ministers from the four nations issued a joint statement calling for

  • rapid distribution of $10bn that
  • industrialised nations promised to the developing world to tackle climate change in 2010.

The first funds should go to the least developed countries, including

China's top climate negotiator Xi Zhenhua said, the Associated Press reports."...

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Joe Nathan, Joe Mauer, Andrew Bailey, Arod, in NYC to pick up awards

Comedian made quip about Joe Mauer:
  • "During his routine, comedian and writer Bill Scheft told Mauer, who will be a free agent after the 2010 season,
  • that all New York airports were closed and that he’ll have to stay until 2015."...

Joe's father: “Wherever he’s happy, we’re happy,” Jake Mauer said."...

  • Don Zimmer's big league career began in 1954 with the Brooklyn Dodgers:

""When you hit .258 lifetime you're not asked to give to many speeches." Former Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer, who was presented with the William J. Slocum/Jack Lang award for long and meritorious service."...

  • AP, "Arod chokes up when receiving playoffs MVP award," by Howie Rumberg, 1/24/10
  • NJ Star Ledger, "Arod Delivers Again as NY Yankees celebrate at BBWAA Awards," by Marc Carig, 1/24/10

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Climate fraud-'Natural disasters' claim by UN Climate Science panel unfounded, Obama statement now in question--UK Times

by developing nations. Photo above described as Bangladesh 'Climate Refugees' victims of industrialized nations appeared in press during Copenhagen Climate Summit.
  • Statements made by Obama, Miliband, Brown all reflected conclusion that disasters were increasing due to global warming and/or climate change. The UN report was again based on unpublished, unsubstantiated statements, per TimesOnline UK:
"THE United Nations climate science panel faces new controversy for wrongly linking global warming to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters
  • such as hurricanes and floods.

It based the claims on an unpublished report that had not been subjected to routine scientific scrutiny —

  • and ignored warnings from scientific advisers that the evidence supporting the link too weak. The report's own authors later withdrew the claim because they felt the evidence was not strong enough.

The claim by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that global warming is already affecting the severity and frequency of global disasters,

It was central to discussions at last month's Copenhagen climate summit, including a demand by developing countries for compensation of $100 billion (£62 billion) from the

  • rich nations blamed for creating the most emissions.

Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change minister, has suggested British and overseas floods — such as those in Bangladesh in 2007 — could be linked to global warming.

  • Barack Obama, the US president, said last autumn: "More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent."

Last month Gordon Brown, the prime minister, told the Commons that the financial agreement at Copenhagen "must address the great injustice that . . . those hit first and hardest by climate change are those that have done least harm".

  • The latest criticism of the IPCC comes a week after reports in The Sunday Times forced it to retract claims in its benchmark 2007 report that the Himalayan glaciers would be largely melted by 2035. It turned out that the bogus claim had been lifted from a news report published in 1999 by New Scientist magazine.

The new controversy also goes back to the IPCC's 2007 report in which a separate section warned that the world had "suffered rapidly rising costs due to extreme weather-related events since the 1970s".

It suggested a part of this increase was due to global warming

"One study has found that while the dominant signal remains that of the significant increases in the values of exposure at risk, once losses are normalised for exposure, there still remains an underlying rising trend."

The Sunday Times has since found that the scientific paper on which the IPCC based its claim

When the paper was eventually published, in 2008, it had a new caveat. It said: "We find insufficient evidence to claim a statistical relationship between global temperature increase and catastrophe losses."

It has also emerged that at least two scientific reviewers who checked drafts of the IPCC report urged greater caution in proposing a link between climate change and disaster impacts — but were ignored.

  • The claim will now be re-examined and could be withdrawn."...
from TimesOnlineUK, "UN Wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters," by Jonathan Leake, 1/24/10
  • photo above from Berlingske, Copenhagen

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Saturday, January 23, 2010

UN climate claim in Nobel Prize winning report was just for political pressure-scientist

"The scientist behind the bogus claim in a Nobel Prize-winning UN report that Himalayan glaciers will have melted by 2035 last night admitted it was included purely to put political pressure on world leaders.
  • Dr Murari Lal also said he was well aware the statement, in the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
  • did not rest on peer-reviewed scientific research.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Dr Lal, the co-ordinating lead author of the report’s chapter on Asia, said: ‘It related to several countries in this region and their water sources. We thought that if we can highlight it, it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action....

Himalayan glaciers have

  • not in any way exhibited, especially in recent years, an abnormal annual retreat.’"...
UK Daily Mail, "Glacier Scientist: I knew data hadn't been verified," 1/24/10, via WUWT via Tom Nelson

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Top NASA global warming scientist pleads guilty to contract fraud, 50 fellow scientists rush to defend him, others admit 'conflicts'

Culture of corruption at NASA:

submitted letters praising his character and credentials."...

In the wake of charges against Schoeberl,

An award-winning NASA scientist and "one the scientific world's
  • most cited authorities" on man-made global warming
plead guilty to years of contract fraud. He also failed to report income on a financial disclosure form. He was sentenced in December 2009. The government agency put him on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of his case (reported 9/22/09). He had worked there since the 1980's. "(Mark) Schoeberl was the chief scientist of the Goddard Space Flight Center's Earth Sciences Division ....He has written extensively about the... Dating from 2004, Schoeberl strong armed colleagues at NASA to an estimated $200,000 dollars in no-bid contracts to his wife's company. He admitted hiding some contracts and trying to convince others at NASA to go along with him.
  • From Washington Post Breaking News blog account of the charge:
"This month (9/09), as part of an investigation run through the NASA inspector general's office, authorities searched the couple's home and seized computer equipment and several cellphones and digital cameras. Authorities also seized documents linked to Animated Earth, including bank records and e-mails that mention the company.

According to a biography posted on NASA's Web site,

  • often appears in journals.

He is a past member of the National Academy's Board of Atmospheric Sciences and was awarded NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal in 1996 and Distinguished Service Award in 2000."

12/1/09 report on his sentencing: "Three scientists, including two

More than 50 other scientists,

In the wake of charges against Schoeberl,

Criminal conflicts have become merely "ethical conflicts."

  • What are the details of these "similar ethical conflicts"?
  • Who will report on this on behalf of US citizens?

Reference: Washington Post Breaking News Blog, "NASA Scientist Charged in Maryland with Aiding Wife's Firm," 9/22/09

photo above Courtesy photo from Washington Examiner, NASA scientist Mark Schoeberl. via WUWT

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Friday, January 22, 2010

UN climate geniuses scramble to blame others as more errors expected

Climate scientist says "many mistakes in" UN Nobel Prize winning report. Cites
  • "might of the IPCC"
  • in decision to remain silent:
"But Syed Hasnain, the Indian glaciologist erroneously quoted as making the 2035 prediction, said that responsibility had to lie with them.
  • “It is the lead authors — blame goes to them,” he told The Times.
He and other leading glaciologists pointed out at least five glaring errors in the relevant section. ...
  • when only one sentence came from it, and
the IPCC is not supposed to use such advocacy groups as sources.
  • Professor Hasnain, who was not involved in drafting the IPCC report, said that he noticed some of the mistakes when he first read the relevant section in 2008.

That was also the year he joined The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Delhi, which is headed by Dr Pachauri.

  • He said he realised that the 2035 prediction was based on an interview he gave to the New Scientist magazine in 1999,

He said that he did not tell Dr Pachauri because he was not working for the IPCC and was busy with his own programmes at the time.

“I was keeping quiet as I was working here,” he said. “My job is not to point out mistakes. And

  • you know the might of the IPCC.

Dr Pachauri also said he did not learn about the mistakes

  • until they were reported in the media about 10 days ago, ***(see BBC report below, 12/5/09)

at which time he contacted other IPCC members. He denied keeping quiet about the errors to avoid disrupting the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen,

  • or discouraging funding for TERI’s own glacier programme.

But he too admitted that it was “really odd” that none of the world’s leading glaciologists had pointed out the mistakes to him earlier. “Frankly, it was a stupid error,” he said.

  • But no one brought it to my attention.”...
Dr Rajendra Pachauri dismissed calls for him to resign over the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s retraction of a prediction that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.
  • But he admitted that there may have been other errors in the same section of the report,

from TimesOnlineUK, "UN Climate Change Expert: there could be more errors in report," Jeremy Page, 1/23/10 ************

  • ***BBC report 12/5/09 Pachauri informed about Himalaya mistakes:

"When asked how this "error" could have happened, RK Pachauri, the Indian scientist who heads the IPCC, said:

  • "I don't have anything to add on glaciers."...and

Mr Pachauri dismissed the study as "voodoo science" and

  • said the IPCC was a "sober body" whose work was
BBC, "Himalayan Glaciers Melting Deadline a 'Mistake'," 12/5/09, by Pallava Bagla Sports Illustrated cover selling global warming using a baseball star, March 2007********
  • and even our simplest comforts to duplicitous zealots before checking
and double-checking the work of the prophets predicting our doom
  • should we refuse."
Marc Sheppard, American Thinker, 1/22/10, "Climategate: CRU was but the tip of the iceberg" via WUWT

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Gumbel lumping Bagwell with McGwire stirs Astros fans

"Bryant Gumbel won't elaborate on Jeff Bagwell comment

  • Bryant Gumbel created something of a stir among Astros fans with his comments regarding Jeff Bagwell during Tuesday’s episode of Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel on HBO. Gumbel declined a request to elaborate on his closing editorial, which
  • appeared to lump Bagwell in the same group with Mark McGwire.

At the end of an “open letter” to “baseball’s usual suspects,” Gumbel encouraged Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro to learn a lesson from McGwire’s “phony non-apology.”

  • “On behalf of all fans, do us a favor. If and when you’re ready to come clean, don’t insult us with talk of how much of what you did was God-given and how much was chemically induced,” Gumbel said.

“Let us figure that out, OK? And don’t play us for idiots. Spare us the lies about talking ‘roids for health reasons. We’re all grown-ups. You took stuff for the same reason most of us break or bend rules.

“Please feel free to share this letter with Bagwell, Nomar (Garciaparra), Pudge (Ivan Rodriguez) and all those others

Tell ‘em fans are ready to accept what happened. Tell ‘em we’re ready to move on. Tell ‘em that most of us get it … even if they, like you, still don’t.”...

  • The Astros’ radio crew will return intact for 2010,

with Milo Hamilton calling home games with Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan, who will once again share duties on the road." …

  • From Houston Chronicle, "Thomas detects change with fans," by David Barron, 1/22/10, via RadioDailyNews

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Cable outlets can't exclude sports programming from DirecTV and Dish Network

  • Philadelphia and San Diego first markets affected:
"The FCC is closing a loophole that has allowed cable companies to keep their regional sports and other programming off satellite TV.

Dish Network...a 14 million-subscriber satellite broadcaster based in Colorado, called the FCC’s vote a double victory for consumers.

  • “First, sports fans in Philadelphia and San Diego will soon have a choice of pay-TV providers; second, consumers can no longer be held hostage during a contract dispute between cable programmers and video distributors,” the company said in a statement.

The largest satellite broadcaster, El Segundo-based DirecTV, is majority owned by John Malone and other investors in his Liberty Media Corp. It has 18 million subscribers.

  • Under 18-year-old rules, programming owners could refuse to let the satellite companies carry regional channels if they were delivered exclusively by cable — what became known as the “terrestrial loophole.”

In Philadelphia, that meant local cable giant Comcast Corp. could sell its local Comcast Sportsnet programming — which includes game coverage of Philadelphia pro hockey and basketball franchises, plus other sports — to be carried by Verizon’s Fios TV in the area;

BizJournals, Los Angeles, 1/21/10, "Cable Companies Can't shut out Dish Network, DirecTV," by Greg Avery of Denver Business Journal, via RadioDailyNews

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Air America files Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Launched in 2004 they sought to influence electoral politics.
  • The network had some 100 radio outlets nationwide."...

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2 WEEI sports affiliates in Maine pull plug for now

"Bangor: The Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics may be "the" teams throughout Maine, but following them in the Bangor area just took on a new challenge.
  • WAEI 97.1 and WABI 910 decided to pull the plug on carrying WEEI Boston sports programming, citing a contract dispute after 16 months of the arrangement.
Neither side is talking much, but it would appear that WEEI is not pleased with the decision. This is based on WEEI issuing a statement to "remind" Bangor area residents of the WEEI online stream.
  • WAEI and WABI immediately switched over to Fox Sports programming, which they had only been carrying overnight. Sounds like everybody loses on this one." from Dave Kohl, RadioDailyNews

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Global Warming on back burner, UN abandons. Scott Brown election cited-Financial Times

"The timetable to reach a global deal to tackle climate change lay in tatters on Wednesday after the UN waived the first deadline of the process laid out at last month’s fractious Copenhagen summit....
  • Yvo de Boer, the UN’s senior climate change official, admitted that the deadline had in effect been shelved....

The result of Tuesday’s Massachusetts senatorial election, which took away Barack Obama’s super-majority in the Senate, is likely to push climate change further down the US agenda.

  • It was the latest in a series of setbacks that have caused efforts to push a cap-and-trade bill through the Senate to grind to a halt, making it harder for the White House to participate meaningfully in global climate negotiations.

Instead, the administration has been pressing ahead with steps to limit the US’s carbon emissions through regulation. The Environmental Protection Agency has unveiled new draft rules that would sharply tighten regulations on smog-building pollutants, or ground-level ozone, and has cracked down on greenhouse gas emissions by ruling that carbon dioxide and five other gases pose a danger to health."

""The real cause of climate change is the capitalist system.
  • If we want to save the earth then we must end that economic model.""Bolivian President, Yvo Morales (quote at end of article)
from speech made in Copenhagen, reported 1/14/10 in UK Guardian, article, "UN should be sidelined in future climate talks, says Obama"

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Mass. Revolt-NY Post cover

NY Post front cover, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010

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