Sun TV Experts ... Just as Smart as OTHER network's wonks

Just a passing chance today that I caught a bit of the Sun TV news financial segment.
Now I do not know who the guy was who they had on presenting himself as an authority but I can lay out for you what he had to say...
The subject was this weeks status quo interest rate non-story and the fact that 1% is a hell of a low prime rate. Among much speculation about the potential for either raising or lowering of the Canadian prime this joker offered the viewers this little nugget from his ... ahem .... mind?
Mr. expert .. opined that the banks like higher interest rates ... because ... they make more money when the prime is higher!

Prime Rate History


Yup!  Sure they do sparky .... like when they charge 5% interest on money they pay 1% for? That's a 500% markup by the way. So ... Mr. expert ..... when the prime is ... let's say 4% and the banks mark it up to say 7% .... then you say that is more profit? Or perhaps sparky can actually cite some example where a Canadian Bank marked up the prime MORE than they are doing in today's environment?

Not friggin likely sparky...........

So called expert seems to be both unaware that there are limits to how many points the lenders can get away with adding to borrowed money. Historically .... a few points is about it and the higher the base or prime rate the smaller the margin. Apparently ... Mr. Expert hasn't been around long enough to recall primes that were in the double digits... or ... even what a 5% base rate from the central bank looked like in the lending market.

The last time prime rate started pushing toward double digits banks were lending at 1 point above prime.

Ignorant and innumerate .... some EXPERT you got there SUN TV!

OMMAG

Another Friday T-Storm... and Climate Fraud Report

As I sit here by the window watching a granddaddy thunderstorm lumber by I am amused ....

My gin-n-tonic is nice and cold ... the air wafting through the window screen warm and damp... the sky filled with roiling clouds .... and the deep rumble of constant thunder.

There are a number of storms around the area and the evening sun is illuminating the upper reaches of those that have visible tops.

With this backdrop ... I'm wandering the web a bit and find yet another little storm on the climate science front. Well less science than hucksterism...........

Yet another government agency is busted recently with their fingers on the data base editing tool.
This time it's the NOAA ( National Ocean and Atmospheric Admiistration - USA) brought attention to itself when independent analysts began to notice highly irregular patterns in the data published by the government agency. I'd guess it's a little too likely that when other already discredited groups have been shown to have fiddled the data collection system to make a case for alarmist propaganda that the same patterns emerging from big time public funded science research organizations would be found out.

And quite publicly exposed: NOAA - Satellite Scandal is a Catastrophe!!

Well ... I'd say so! After all, it's pretty tough to market the product you sell when everyone finds out it's as likely to be a fake as it is to be the real deal.

Also, for those activists who have entrenched themselves into institutional science organizations it's going to be extra tough to extract money for research. At least money for REAL research and not just propaganda to be used by other frauds and scammers.

The other large and as yet unanswered question in all this is... Why? When individuals without the benefit of high levels of accreditation or the resources of huge organizations have been on to this for as much as ten years at this point. Why then have those highly self regarding major media and science publications not offered one peep about the obvious?

And to this day the most public hucksters continue to scream and yell about how the "skeptics" are all so stupid and dishonest.

Ok? Why?

Time for some more ice now ..... taataa......


OMMAG

Experts Science and The MSM

The Amazon recovering rain forrest?

In an article from Der Spiegel on line:

Felipe Garcia's shack backs up against a wall of forest. "My neighbors abandoned their farm seven years ago," says Garcia, a farmer. "Now the jungle has taken over their property once again." He strokes his round belly, and says: "And if I don't till my field, it'll look the same way in a few years."


Gee! Do you mean to tell us that those anonymous experts so often refered to by the media ... back in the day when rainforest deforestation was so tres chic a topic for discussion ... were full of crap when they proclaimed that the jungle would be irrecoverable?

All of those British rock stars and the world's fashionistas wrong?

David Suzuki out to lunch?

How could that be?

I am sure that I heard one expert or another quoted dozens of times asserting that the land was to be barren forever.

Perhaps an unasked question is just why these farmers are abandoning their land..... Like perhaps without the goverment subsidies the farms are largly unprofitable. And perhaps with the land reforms some of those beneficiaries really were not that keen on all the hard work involved. The socialists of Brazil must be very annoyed that their plans are not working out so well.

Not to worry though the MSM will have plenty of other experts to explain why.

Hattip to Georges at !NoPasaran! for pointing to this.

OMMAG

The MSM and "Experts"

Experts? Say that Symptoms can turn into H1N1 ?

Serious flu symptoms can quickly turn into H1N1: experts

By Sharon Kirkey, Canwest News Service

Leave to the MSM to fail to understand the most basic of concepts.

Symptoms are nothing but the RESULT of disease.

You either HAVE this disease or you DO NOT Have it.

OMMAG

Desperately Seeking Recognition and Relevance

Relevance? Yep ... I guess with no major outbreaks of anything to draw attention to themselves the bureaucrats at the World Health Organization really Needed a PANDEMIC of course the MSM is happy to Oblige ...



I've counted no less than 12 stories currently being run on this.

WHY?

OMMAG

Bring On The Science....

Morning sickness leads to smarter kids: Study!

As I recall ... my wife went off like clockwork for weeks with each of my kids inception.

They should be freekin geniuses ...........................

OMMAG

Up Next

THIS ... should give somebody some fodder.... From 2009 ....

From 2007 ..... UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer:
- “This is a real breakthrough, a real opportunity for the international community to successfully fight climate change. "

- "Parties have recognized the urgency of action on climate change and have now provided the political response to what scientists have been telling us is needed.”

Wherein the bureaucrats let us know that they have no intention of allowing us to enjoy prosperity.

Again With The Polar Bears !

Another display of the Reason for posts like this :

As If It Was Ever In Doubt! .

Today Winnipeg was the scene of a meeting that brought Jim Prentice the newly minted environment minister. Apparently Jim has either a problem getting quoted accurately and in context or he has an information processing deficit similar to most LIberals and lefties in general.

According to Canadian Press:

"....It's a "critical time" for polar bears and their survival rests in the hands of Canadians, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Thursday. ...."

Which sounds an awful lot like the BS we get from hog trough science researchers looking for more money from the taxpayers and hoping to justify it with unsubstantiated claims.

The rest of the article is Here if your interested! And here is just a taste of the Hyperbole being flung about by the ever ready "expert" .....

"It comes down to a simple reality - there is a problem here. You can't deny scientific consensus. If you take the habitat away, then the polar bears disappear and so does Inuit harvesting."

Here's some of that so called consensus :

Flawed
Groundless

An excerpt:

Three scientists, J. Scott Armstrong of the University of Pennsylvania, Kesten Green of Monash University, and Willie Soon of The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, audited the government studies to assess whether they were consistent with forecasting principles. Their paper, “Polar Bear Population Forecasts: A Public-Policy Forecasting Audit,” has been accepted for publication in the management science journal Interfaces. It is the only peer-reviewed paper on polar bear population forecasting that has been accepted for publication in an academic journal.

They concluded that the government forecasts were based on false assumptions and their polar bear population forecasts contravened many principles for scientific forecasting. Indeed, the reports followed fewer than one-sixth of the relevant principles. Given the importance of the forecasts, all principles should be properly applied. In short, the government reports do not provide relevant information for this decision.

So CP! * Maybe your audience is smarter than you are?? *

Yeah Maybe.

Oh BTW! When the CP report first appeared this morning it was about One Quarter the length of the version I linked to this afternoon and was unattributed. Apparently they found a reporter with enough time to go get the rest of the story and flesh out their intended theme.


OMMAG

Receiving Lectures From Those Whose Only Mark Is Failure or Irrelevance!

From the deep and wise minds of the Can West news desk:

Harper has to establish positive relationship with next U.S. president: experts


Heh?

And who exactly are these "experts" ?

Well : Aside from one of the usual "go to" sources of canned opinion that our intrepid media types have handy at their Rollodex for any situation or theme that requires some sort of validation by "authority". Whether that "authority" has any credibility beyond what is imagined in the credulous mind of those unfamiliar with the realm of the academic..... we are offered the sagacity of ....

Former PM Joe Who for One .... whose own record of governance and foreign policy success is more like a text book example of what is sure to fail. And did.
And what is the deep wisdom that he offers ?

"Harper needs to change his attitude toward Canada's own foreign policy experts, Clark says."


Oh.. he was Brian Mulroney's foreign affairs minister? And PM Mulroney had a wonderful relationship with Reagan? Well yes ... because Brian Mulroney never listened to Joe ... or the civil servants in Foreign Affairs...I suspect. Had Mr. Clark held so much received wisdom from his experiences would he not have been able to take a leadership role with lasting impact?


PLEASE! Canwest writer Chris Cobb like most of his ilk just don't have the guts to say what they think and instead find it necessary to wrap up their simple opinions in the garb of "serious" journalism.

What it boils down to Chris is that you want to say that Your opinion is that our PM Harper isn't smart enough or able enough to deal with being PM. And that in your opinion he should emulate the failures that you seem so enamored of.



OMMAG

Six Dead In The Last Week ! The Moral Inversion Principle

But it's not a problem? All of a sudden after a few years of being told that when a soldier dies in Afghanistan it's a tragedy and that Afghanistan is a an endless quagmire. We must bring all our soldiers home from there immediately.

But in the socialist paradise of Toronto where the Mayor believes that counting shade trees and banning things or renaming social cesspits is what makes good government...... a measly six murders this week is not a problem.

Just ask the Canadian Press and their expert of the moment....

"Six killings in a week don't make Toronto unsafe, expert says"

*Yet even with six homicides in the span of a week - and another case of a multiple killing caused by someone pumping bullets into a vehicle - there's no reason to doubt the validity of the statistics released last week, said criminologist Ron Melchers.

"A number of events occurring together is a perfectly plausible phenomenon by simple random distribution," said Melchers, a professor with the University of Ottawa. *

So basically Toronto a city that represents all that is wonderful and good in the Multicultural model of the future is held to a lower standard of what is or what is not acceptable in terms of murder and mayhem than a third world Asian shithole that has been in a defacto state of anarchy and war for over 50 years.

Funny how those things go eh?



OMMAG

What is 70% Less of 100% More ?

"Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change"

According to The Independent ....

This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.

"Indeed, for the Arctic as a whole, the melt season startedwith even more thin ice than in 2007, hence concerns that we may even beat last year's sea-ice minimum. We'll see what happens, a great deal depends on the weather patterns in July and August,"

Well isn't that illuminating?

Was it not just few months ago that we learned that the new seasonal ice was forming at an "unprecedented" rate and that it was about double what it had been the year before??

I also seem to recall that some people were predicting the alarmists would be trumpeting the predictable melting as further evidence of AGW induced "Climate Change"....... !

Aren't experts fun?

h/t to Bob Parks who fishes the MSM cesspool so we don't need to.

OMMAG

Global Food Crisis!

Just because the mass media have discovered something only recently does that mean it was not a fact before their notice?

Well of course not! But as long as people in the ag business are getting noticed it seems they are happy to jump on the bandwagon and try to get some of the possible action as governments react to the perceived public pressure. Anyone even remotely connected to the agriculture industry understands that global system of producers and distributors is geared more toward feeding the large and affluent markets that have the ability to pay for commodities.
People directly involved also understand that factors such as subsidies have long term negative effects on the producers and consumers.
So why would a pair of leaders who represent less than global interests want to promote the idea that research or the lack of it ( is there really a lack of research in agriculture?) is the ROOT cause of the supposed crisis we are observing today?

From The Globe's Report on Business :
Crisis 15 Years in Making .... here's an excerpt -

"That's the proposition put forward this week by two agricultural experts – Emile Frison, director general of Biodiversity International, and Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute – who point instead to 15 years of declining investment by governments in agricultural research as a key reason why the world supply of food is not keeping up with demand."

What do we have here? Who are these people? Are they right?

Well as I see it .....

What we have here is an effort to create a false argument about root causes of a very real issue. While complaining of underfunding they offer no proof of it and while claiming the need for more funding / subsidy in their pet area offer no suggestion of what the benefits will be. A pretty clear example of over stating their case and their own importance in the world.

Who we have doing it are a pair of career institutional managers attempting to justify their existence.

If lack of research were the root cause of any global resource issue then researchers would be able to show it and prove it! As things are in fact the issues they wish to exploit are far more complex and well beyond the limited effect of their realms. While I would agree that honest analysis and sound policies by governments and industry could have a great effect on the food business I do not believe that throwing money at tax hogs in the research business is going to do anything but subsidize an activity that is proving less productive as demands for funding increase.

This too is not something new but remains a fact whether or not the MSM care to notice!

Nice try though.

OMMAG

Insanity - Criminality Linked ! ?

File that one under NO Sh*t Sherlock!
From Canwest News...

New Canadian study links mental illness, criminality

The report - Improving the Health of Canadians 2008: Mental Health, Delinquency and Criminal Activity - looked at data gathered on more than 30,000 patients admitted to Ontario hospitals for mental illness between 2006 to 2007.

Well it sounds more like they went looking for boobs in the boobie hatch...
So what did they find ? Yup....... deranged people and criminals.

Who'd have thought?

So why is this in the news?

Well ... because the bottom line is that they want more money for social programs!
It's not science its activism........

Experts are fun

OMMAG

Biologists Are Out of Fashion - Enter the Climatologist!

In the realm of popular science or "PopSci" trends come and trends go away. Sometimes trends come back! One common thread through the years are the DOOM SAYERS of Science who clamour for public attention and the funding that may go along with it. As the more astute keep their ears to the political ground our current crop of Oracles are getting plenty of mileage out of the Global Warming / Climate Change fad.

The biologists apparently had their heyday about 40 years ago.

They now seem to be relegated to the peanut gallery of beggars for research funds. This is the day of the climatologist!

A group that will find themselves in the same boat as those 1970's biologists in less time!

Like Darcey says : Here Comes The Science .... some interesting predictions from the 1970's "Washington Policy Center" and their gang of sciento-pop-ologists!

Now the question that this raises is .... What will be the next fad and the next "EXPERT" group who will be in the limelight of MSM and shitwit political focus??

Note: The Washington Policy Center has nothing to do with policy in Washington or with the government in any way shape or form .... think Suzuki Foundation on a much bigger scale!

OMMAG

Inherit Happiness?

Well I can think of ONE way .....
But apparently some researchers have found others :

British and Australian researchers...

"We found that around half the differences in happiness were genetic," said Tim Bates, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh who led the study. "It is really quite surprising."

Ok I guess this makes sense .... But I can't help wondering whether the Good Genes just provide the raw material for successful living!

Success = Happiness !

OMMAG

Doom & Gloom ! From The Center of the Universe

Canada's most important city and is full of highly intelligent and very superior people who like to share their wisdom. Particularly in areas such as social management, economics, environmental management and good planning. Oh yes!

This Comment by Allister McFarlane at SDA ..... is an excellent example of how we can better ourselves through this treasure trove of wisdom:

Excerpts: More doom and gloom from the "Experts" in Toronto.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

" The City of Toronto is bracing for an exodus of "environmental refugees" who may flee here because of flooding or extreme heat in their homelands due to climate change."

"Six climate change experts gathered at City Hall also called on a parks and environment committee to ban private vehicles from downtown because of air pollution."

"The experts warned there will also be flooding in Toronto as the climate warms, and that there will be periods of extreme weather with temperatures hitting 40C, a decrease in Lake Ontario water levels and fewer salmon running upstream."

"Councillor and committee chairman Paula Fletcher said the recommendations will be used to help city officials develop a climate change, clean air and sustainable energy action plan."

Posted by: Alistair Macfarlane at January 24, 2008 8:56 AM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So the high foreheads of the socialist paradise of Toronto are predicting their own demise?
Sounds about right.....


OMMAG