LEND ME AN EAR!

The Pennsylvania Gazette reported in 1731 on  America's first partial ear loss crisis. It began with the search and seizure of a British ship, the Rebecca, off the coast of Cuba, by Tenante Dorce, a Spanish Guarde Costa officer who slashed the left ear of the ship's sailing master, Captain Jenkins and told him to tell King George III: 

"the same will happen to him if caught doing the same". 

Another contemporary account claims Lieutenant Dorce :

"took hold of his left Ear & with his Cutlass slit it down and then another of the Spaniards took hold of it and tore it off, but gave him the Piece of his Ear again, bidding him carry it to his Majesty King George."

When The Gentleman's Magazine for June 1731 arrived from London some months late at Ben Franklin's new lending library, Philadelphians learned that the incident was far from over:

"The Rebecca, Capt. Jenkins, was taken in her passage from Jamaica, by a Spanish Guarde Costa, who put her people to the torture; part of which was, that they hang'd up the Capt. three times, once with the Cabin-boy at his feet; they then cut off one of his Ears, took away his candles and instruments, and detain'd him a whole day. 

Being then dismissed, the Captain bore away... and after many Hardships and Perils arrived in the River Thames, June 11 …  and gave a deposition which was passed to the Duke  of  Newcastle, in his capacity as  Secretary of State  for the Southern Department (as such responsible for the American colonies)... then forwarded to the Commander-in-chief in the West Indies, who then complained of Jenkins' treatment to the Governor of Havana."

The Governor's reply failed to satisfy the Court of St. James's, but Prime Minister Walpole kept the peace by negotiating the Convention of Pardo with Spain, which provided compensation for vessels seized, but failed to stop Spanish interference with free trade.

As the years passed, British indignation mounted, and on 19 October 1739 Walpole finally declared war on Spain, leading to the loss of 407 ships and 20,000 mostly American lives, all for the want of an ear.

Full Disclosure per Nature rules :

The writer sailed as Brevet Lieutenant aboard his Spanish Majesty's ship JS Elcano from Newport News to Boston in 1980 and rejoined her briefly in 2019 as she retraced the route of Magellan & Elcano's 1519 circumnavigation 

DELLINGPOLE MARCHES FORTH : ORWELL WHO ?

 

PAKISTAN FIRES UP COAL POWERED AIR CONDITIONING

PESHAWAR

 IN BID TO CUT POWER PRICES, PAKISTAN TO PRESS

 

CHINESE IPP'S TO ADOPT LOCAL COAL

ISLAMABAD : 

Pakistan this month will ask Chinese power plants operating in the country to shift to using coal from Pakistan’s Thar region rather than imported coal, the power minister said on Sunday...

Neighbouring China has set up over $20 billion worth of energy projects in Pakistan.

“One of the key purposes of going along is the conversion of our imported coal units to the local coal. That would have a huge impact on the cost of energy, of power in the near future. 

The transition could save Pakistan more than 200 billion Pakistani rupees ($700 million) a year in imports, translating to a decrease of as much as 2.5 Pakistani rupees per unit in the price of electricity, Leghari said.

In April a subsidiary of conglomerate Engro (EGCH.PSX), opens new tab agreed to sell all of its thermal assets, including Pakistan’s leading coal producer, Sindh Engro Coal Mining to Pakistan’s Liberty Power. Liberty said the decision stemmed from Pakistan’s foreign exchange crunch and its indigenous coal reserve potential.

WHOLEFOODS OLDFOODS LET YOUR KIDS STAND SMALL

SMALLER FEET MEAN SMALLER  CARBON FOOTPRINTS, AND SMALLER VEGETABLES  
ARE THE FIRST STEP ON THE ROAD TO SHORTER VEGANS


"Mate with shorter people, you’re potentially saving the planet by shrinking the needs of subsequent generations. Lowering the height minimum for prospective partners on your dating profile is a step toward a greener planet."

— MARA ALTMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES
JANUARY 1, 2023

CLIMATE OF DELIVERANCE

STEVE SCHNEIDER & CARL SAGAN ON THE FIRING LINE

Just before the Ides of March 1985, the Senate hosted an exchange on "nuclear winter" featuring Steve Schneider and  Carl Sagan , seen here behind Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Pearl, who had some cautionary words to say about  the problematic independence of climate science in the Soviet Union, where at the time, Andrei Sakharov was under house arrest in the closed city of Gorky:

Two weeks later our mutual friend Vladimir Alexandrov, a Candidate Academician and Moscow's favorite climate modeling talking head, addressed a conference  of peace activists in Spain aimed at preventing Nato deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe to offset the expansion of Soviet and Warsaw Pact tank and mobile artillery forces in East Germany.

The organizer of the conference, Cordoba's Eurocommunist Mayor, found Alexandrov's remarks disconcerting, and informed the Soviet Embassy in Madrid, which requested his delivery to their door. The Mayor complied and had him escorted to his official car for the 400 kilometer drive to the capital, which arrived in front of the Embassy on the Calle de Velázquez in the early hours of Palm Sunday

The driver and escort say they found a white van waiting, and that when three men emerged from it, Alexandrov bolted, but was seized  by them and put into the vehicle, which drove off into the night. The time was ~1:30 AM, March 31, 1985. Alexandrov has not been seen since.

GRAUN WARNS BRITAIN OF BRISK NEW CLIMATE RISK

Storm Ciarán’s low pressure 

made tea taste worse, say scientists

Recordbreaking low pressure due to extreme weather meant water was boiling at 98C in Reading on day of storm

Ellen McNally

Millions of Britons were forced to drink subpar cups of tea last November due to the record-breaking low pressure caused by Storm Ciarán.

The low pressure caused the boiling point of water to drop below the 100C temperature some experts recommend to extract the full flavour from tea leaves.

The study by meteorologists at the University of Reading, published in the journal Weather, reported that the water in Reading was boiling at 98C on the morning of the storm...

By performing controlled experiments using temperature sensors and a standard electric kettle, Miller and his team were able to compare the results with previous boiling points observed under different air pressure conditions using the same apparatus.

To determine the broader regional effect of the storm on boiling points, they also combined weather data from various resources, including roadside weather stations across southern England and pressure readings from the Reading University Atmospheric Observatory.

This allowed them to monitor how the pressure minimum moved north-east across the region during the morning, coinciding with typical breakfast times.

CLIMATE OF FEAR : GODWIN EXEMPTS BIDEN FROM GODWIN'S LAW

*

WINES THAT PAIR WELL WITH POLAR BEAR PATE'

In  Mark Steyn's delusional view, Europe's regional "medieval warm period " was hot enough for Vikings  to make to make wine in Greenland.

He has dismissed  global warming as a hoax on the grounds that vines no longer grew as far north as the Medieval vineyards of England's Eli cathedral. 

Except that they do. Steyn's reflexive denial of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution has made him the laughing stock of British winemakers. 

Thanks to the amplification of global warming by long summer days at high latitudes, wine making has in recent decades marched north clear through Northumbria  and Scotland to the Outer Hebrides!

Not to be outdone, the Viking's descendants are now making wine in Telemark, a Norwegian region better known for inventing skis than growing fruit

Here's a tasting of recent vintages from the Danish border to the edge of the Arctic Circle:

TUCKER CARLSON'S FIRST DAY IN CLIMATE SCHOOL

Sanctioned Russian oligarch and Putin pal Andrey Melinchenko has  inadvertently imposed sanity on Tucker and his fans by  giving him a long , lucid and clearly unexpected lecture on climate science and realpolitik 

The noted Trump University drop-out's last science tutor  was  Fred Singer protege turned  John Birch Society summer camp instructor  Willie Soon:

CLIMATE WITCH HUNT ENDS IN WITCH ARREST

In UNrelated news, Senator James inhofe
DIED SUDDENLY TODAY

MALE (AFP) — Police in the Maldives have arrested a state environment minister, officers said Thursday, with media in the Indian Ocean nation reporting she was accused of performing “black magic” on the president.

State Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Energy, Fathimath Shamnaz Ali Saleem, was arrested on Sunday along with two others in the capital Male, police said.

She has been remanded in custody for a week pending investigations, officers added, without giving details for her arrest.

“There have been reports that Shamnaz was arrested for performing black magic on President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu,” said the Sun, a local media outlet.

Police would neither confirm nor deny the report.

Her position is an important job in a nation on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with United Nations environment experts warning rising seas could make it virtually uninhabitable by the end of the century.

WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF -EVIDENT

WHAT WE DO

We have assembled world-class researchers, labs, thought leaders, and practitioners to translate research about misinformation and disinformation into policy, technology design, curriculum development, and public engagement…. Our nonpartisan Center brings together diverse voices from across industry, government, nonprofits, other institutions, as well as those from communities and populations typically underrepresented in research and practice in this field.

SCIENCE ADVANCES        VOL. 7, NO. 23

CONSERVATIVES’ SUSCEPTIBILITY TO POLITICAL MISPERCEPTIONS

R. KELLY GARRETT HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0001-7022-7452 AND ROBERT M. BONDAuthors Info & Affiliations

 Jun 2021      DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf1234

Abstract

The idea that U.S. conservatives are uniquely likely to hold misperceptions is widespread but has not been systematically assessed. 

Research has focused on beliefs about narrow sets of claims never intended to capture the richness of the political information environment. Furthermore, factors contributing to this performance gap remain unclear. We generated an unique longitudinal dataset combining social media engagement data and a 12-wave panel study of Americans’ political knowledge about high-profile news over 6 months. 

Results confirm that conservatives have lower sensitivity than liberals, performing worse at distinguishing truths and falsehoods. 

This is partially explained by the fact that the most widely shared falsehoods tend to promote conservative positions, while corresponding truths typically favor liberals.

 The problem is exacerbated by liberals’ tendency to experience bigger improvements in sensitivity than conservatives as the proportion of partisan news increases. These results underscore the importance of reducing the supply of right-leaning misinformation. 

Meanwhile , The Kennedy School,Misinformation Review checked to see how well 150 of its contributors represented the American electorate, and discovered this distinctly sinister  distribution  :

ANTIFA CLIMATEERS ROUTED BY ANTIFARAGE ALIEN

HOUTHI GREENS SEQUESTER SHIPLOAD OF COAL IN RED SEA

                 SOFT COAL CARRIER HIT by HARDLINE Houthi DRONE & MISSILE attack

JUNE 18 CENTCOM report SAYS  : "An uncrewed Houthi surface vehicle struck the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned and operated merchant vessel Tutor in the Red Sea. The strike resulted in damage to the engine room."

Хуситы затопили судно с российским углем

19.06.2024

Обновлено: 19.06.2024

COMING SOON TO THE COVER OF VANITY FAIR

 WHILE CLIMATE SCIENCE REMAINS IN

                               AND HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY

CLIMATE POLICY HAS  NOT FARED AS WELL,

AND  BECOME  LAMENTABLY

SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI

     X L V I  ,

May he R.I.P.

  Simply nodded off

In  M M X I V

GREEK CLIMATE CRISIS ENTERS THIRD MILLENNIUM

Lewis Lapham  has retired to Rome but Lapham's  Quarterly  reminds us that now, as when the word "history"  was coined in Aesop's time, not much is new under the sun:

"In his Histories, Herodotus tells how the ancient Greeks and the Egyptians each thought the other was poised to become climate victims. 

When Herodotus traveled to Egypt to conduct field interviews for his research, he wanted to know everything about the Nile: how much water it contained, how much the sun evaporated that water, and what its seasonal rhythms were. That the Nile blithely irrigated vast portions of the delta without the need for the Egyptian farmers to do anything filled him with civilizational envy. 

————————————————————————

    ******************************      ACCORDING TO LEGEND

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But Herodotus predicted that the Egyptians would be in trouble when the delta collected too much sediment and reached an incline that made it no longer so easily irrigable. Then the Egyptians “will suffer for all remaining time,” he wrote. During an interview he conducted with a Nile River clerk, he discovered Egyptians felt the same way about him. 

They pitied the Greeks because they were more dependent on rainfall for their crops. 

“If the god shall not send them rain,” Herodotus wrote, channeling his native informant, “but shall allow drought to prevail for a long time, the Hellenes will be destroyed by hunger; for they have in fact no other supply of water to save them except from Zeus alone.” 

The losers of this game of environmental chance would start appearing as climate refugees at the winners’ doorstep, ready to worship new gods.

Thomas Meaney is a fellow at the Max Planck Society at Göttingen. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, the Guardian, and elsewhere.