Real Climate Science

“I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary. He knows exactly how smart he is. . . . He knows how perceptive he is. He knows what a good reader of people he is. And he knows that he has the ability — the extraordinary, uncanny ability — to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them and make sense out of them, and I think that he has never really been challenged intellectually. . . . So what I sensed in him was not just a restless spirit but somebody with such extraordinary talents that had to be really taxed in order for him to be happy. . . . He’s been bored to death his whole life.He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.”

Obama’s Valerie Jarrett: Often Whispered about, But Never Challenged | National Review Online

Russell Brand takes on the crisis of civilisation. But what now? | Nafeez Ahmed | Environment | theguardian.com

President Barack Obama apologised to the German chancellor and promised Mrs Merkel he knew nothing of the alleged phone monitoring and would have stopped it if he had, Der Spiegel reports.

But on Sunday Bild newspaper quoted US intelligence sources as saying NSA head Keith Alexander personally briefed the president about the covert operation targeting Mrs Merkel in 2010.

“Obama did not halt the operation but rather let it continue,” the newspaper quoted a senior NSA official as saying.

Her number was still on a surveillance list in 2013.

BBC News – US bugged Merkel’s phone from 2002 until 2013, report claims

Cancer cells are cells that grow and divide at an unregulated, quickened pace. Although cancer cells can be quite common in a person they are only malignant when the other cells (particularly natural killer cells) fail to recognize and/or destroy them. In the past a common belief was that cancer cells failed to be recognized and destroyed because of a weakness in the immune system.

Cancer cell – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Government hates competition from the private sector!

As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | theguardian.com

Telluride, Colorado | Telluride Webcams

Global sea ice area is the highest this millennium, is approaching the highest area ever measured, and has been above normal for most of 2013.

arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/timeseries.global.anom.1979-2008

The Washington Post reports that the poles are melting at an alarming rate.

At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86UL9ekiXDk]

h/t to Dave G

NOVEMBER, 1922.  MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW

THE CHANGING ARCTIC.

The Arctic seems to be warming up. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explorers who sail the seas about Spitsbergen and the eastern Arctic, all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, and hitherto unheard-of high temperatures in that part of the earth’s surface.

The oceanographic observations have, however, been even more interesting. Ice conditions were exceptional. In fact, so little ice has never before “been noted. 

In connection with Dr. Hoel’s report, it is of interest to note the unusually warm summer in Arctic Norway and the observations of Capt. Martin Ingebrigtsen, who has sailed the eastern Arctic for 54 years past. He says that he first noted warmer conditions in 1918, that since that time it has steadily gotten warmer, and that to-day the Arctic of that region is not recognizable as the same region of 1868 to 1917.

Many old landmarks are so changed as to be unrecognizable- Where formerly great masses of ice were found, there ore now often moraines, accumulations of earth and stones. At many points where glaciers formerly extended far into the sea they have entirely disappeared.

The change in temperature, says Captain Ingebrigtsen, has also brought about great change in the flora and fauna of the Arctic. This summer he sought for white fish in Spitsbergen waters. Formerly great shoals of them were found there. This year he saw none, although he visited all the old fishing grounds.

There were few seal in Spitsbergen waters this year, the catch being far under the average. This, however, did not surprise the captain- He pointed out that formerly the waters about Spitsbergen held an even summer temperature of about 3 Celsius; this year recorded temperatures up to 15, and last winter the ocean did not freeze over even on the north coast of Spitsbergen.

docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-11-0589a.pdf