Tom Faranda's Folly

Climate scientists retract major study - overstated ocean warming.

Evidently it was peer reviewed but errors not found. Wonder why? Errors were found by a mathematician who has been critical of much climate research.

“The findings of the . . . paper were peer reviewed and published in the world’s premier scientific journal and were given wide coverage in the English-speaking media,” Lewis wrote in a critique of the paper. “Despite this, a quick review of the first page of the paper was sufficient to raise doubts as to the accuracy of its results.”

Ralph Keeling, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who co-authored the paper, said he and his partner, Laure Resplandy of Princeton, quickly realized the implications of their mistake once Lewis pointed it out.

“When we were confronted with his insight it became immediately clear there was an issue there,” he said. “We’re grateful to have it be pointed out quickly so that we could correct it quickly.”

After correcting their mistake, Keeling said their research indicates oceans are warming only slightly faster than previously thought, not dramatically faster as they initially reported. Keeling said the miscalculation was made when they were calculating their margin of error, which had a larger range (10 to 70 percent) than they initially believed.

“Our error margins are too big now to really weigh in on the precise amount of warming that’s going on in the ocean,” Keeling said. “We really muffed the error margins.”

Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase CEO, predicts record global economic growth next year

3%+ globally in 2019. Would be nice. We'll see he is not known for pie in the sky statements.

Self-driving car - YIKES!

Not supposed to work this way. Video below -

An elderly couple were crushed under a garage door and knocked over by a runaway car while walking along a pavement in Paraíba do Sul, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday morning. Security footage captures the moment the door, weighing around 70kgs (155lbs), was allegedly wrenched off its hinges by a driverless car that launched itself out of the font porch parking area of a residential property.

 

Government collects record taxes in October

Of course there's still a deficit. But the economy has to be booming to produce this much revenue. And - see below - an astonishing rise in corporate taxes paid (even though the corporate rate is lower).

The federal government collected record total tax revenues of $252,692,000,000 in October, the first month of fiscal 2019, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released Tuesday.

Although the total federal taxes collected this October set a record, the individual income taxes that the federal government collected in October did not set a record. This October, the Treasury collected $128,866,000,000 in individual income taxes. In October 2017, the Treasury collected $131,056,520,000 (in constant October 2018 dollars).

Corporation income tax receipts, however, were significantly higher this October than they were in October 2017. This year, the Treasury collected $8,000,000,000 in corporation income taxes in October. Last year, it collected $3,823,060,000 (in constant October 2018 dollars).

WSJ: "Amazon’s Golden Fleecing. The rich company takes New York politicians for a subsidy ride."

 

This whole thing is mind-boggling. "Crony capitalism at it's worst." Easy to understand why the news was held back until after the election. Nice that Ocasio-Cortez and the Wall Street Journal could agree on something.

We rarely agree with socialist Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but she’s right to call billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for Amazon “extremely concerning.” These handouts to one of the richest companies in the history of the world, with an essentially zero cost of capital, is crony capitalism at its worst.

Amazon staged a year-long competition to find a second headquarters beyond its Seattle home, and politicians bid for it like millionaires at a Picasso auction. Except they were bidding with other people’s money. The two ostensible big winners, announced Tuesday, are Long Island City in the Queens borough of New York City, and Crystal City in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

They stand to split about $5 billion in Amazon investment, with the promise of 25,000 new jobs each at an average salary of $150,000 a year. Amazon plans to occupy about four million square feet of office space in each location, with the potential to double that if necessary. The kicker is that Amazon has extracted state and local subsidies of more than $2 billion for the privilege.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Arlington County officials agreed to a cash grant of $550 million for Amazon that could increase with the number of jobs, with another $23 million in infrastructure improvements. New York is even more generous, with starting subsidies of $1.525 billion. As Amazon put it on its website, this works out to $48,000 per job. Apparently bodega owners in Brooklyn are supposed to be happy about subsidizing a third of the salaries of hipster techies.

Amazon will also get a grant of $325 million from the Empire State Development program based on the square footage of buildings it occupies. New York City is kicking in its own subsidies, though its biggest concession was to waive local control over city land—a privilege other businesses don’t get.

***********

It’s hard to blame Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for accepting what politicians give him, though we wonder if he isn’t a tad embarrassed. The man who was able to buy the Washington Post for the equivalent of pocket money hasn’t made more political friends outside of New York and Virginia with this subsidy sweepstakes.

The worst actors here are the politicians who pose as job creators but are essentially job buyers. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo once famously said he’d change his name to Amazon Cuomo if the company located in New York, but he didn’t need to pay such a Queens ransom. Google and other companies have created thousands of jobs in New York without similar subsidies, and Amazon might well have done the same given the city’s intellectual capital.

Mr. Cuomo says the state will make money from Amazon despite the subsidies, but that depends on Amazon’s decisions and long-term success. The Governor also says he had to offer subsidies to compete against states that don’t have an income tax, though that admission underscores the state’s lack of tax competitiveness. Mr. Cuomo taxes New Yorkers at confiscatory levels, giving himself more money to spend. Then he turns around and takes credit for sparing powerful interests from those taxes.

In New York they call this a racket, and with good reason. One of Mr. Cuomo’s closest pals was convicted recently in the “Buffalo Billion” scandal as he and others sought to profit from the Governor’s subsidy scheme to invest $1 billion in the Buffalo area. Amazon’s case is aboveboard, but it still amounts to a company with a market capitalization of nearly $800 billon getting paid to create jobs it would have created somewhere anyway.

More on Amazon expansion being subsidized by taxpayers

 

This is a short video with additional interesting points on Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO & world's richest man. That's him laughing at us taxpayers.) efforts to influence politicians.

BB: "Facebook unveils bigot recognition technology" (BRT)

"We're looking for key indicators of bigotry, like being white, believing in God, and holding any political position to the right of Stalin," Mark Zuckerberg said at the event. "Our algorithm has been trained to flag and remove offensive people who aren't welcome on our platform: straight, cisgendered males, conservative people, and of course, Christians."

Facebook's new technology did have a major hiccup early on, when it flagged several Antifa pages, but Zuckerberg had his engineering team program an exception for bigots on the left. "If you're being intolerant for the sake of tolerance, then yes, you're exempt from our new bigot filters, obviously," he said.

Rugby: England v. New Zealand

Played at the home ground of England rugby, Twickenham. Intense game, and controversial call at the end as the kick blocker was ruled offside.

For a closer look at the offside call - 

"NY taxpayers to pay $48,000 per Amazon HQ job"

A projected $1.5 billion - and it will probably be more. Ridiculous, just like the mass amount and subsidies and tax breaks the Mets and Yankees got for their new Stadiums was ridiculous. There are plenty of studies showing these subsidies and tax breaks do not result in higher state and local revenue from new business activity and employment.

But it's a done deal. Meanwhile Cuomo was just elected to his 3rd. term by a 21% margin. The deal kept quiet 'til after the election?

According to Amazon, the cost per job for New York taxpayers is $48,000, compared to $22,000 for Virginia and $13,000 for Tennessee.

In a statement released by Amazon, Cuomo called the agreement "one of the largest, most competitive economic development investments in U.S. history."

New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson issued a statement saying:  "Amazon is one of the richest companies in the world...I also don’t understand why a company as rich as Amazon would need nearly $2 billion in public money for its expansion plans at a time when New York desperately needs money for affordable housing, transportation, infrastructure and education." 

The obvious question Mr. Speaker.

WSJ: A constitutional right to a White House Press pass? This is so absurd.

UPDATE: FOX News is supporting CNN. Just nonsense. CNN is suing the White House. Jim Acosta is a boorish self-promoter who loves the attention while playing the martyr.  Below is from the Journal's "Best of the Web" afternoon email yesterday.

CNN’s Acosta Privilege Does the First Amendment require the President to listen to a partisan and inaccurate lecture?

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will soon have to consider what America owes to a CNN television correspondent named Jim Acosta. Today he and CNN filed a lawsuit asserting that unlike almost every other person in the country, Mr. Acosta has a constitutional right to a “hard pass” allowing him to enter and exit the White House unescorted and uninvited. Whatever one thinks of his novel legal theory, both in his lawsuit and at his appearance last week at the White House, Mr. Acosta has mischaracterized recent events.

Here’s how the lawsuit describes the scene as the President showed up to share his thoughts on Tuesday’s midterm elections:

President Trump delivered opening remarks and then invited questions from the media in attendance. Acosta, sitting in the front row, raised his hand. President Trump called on Acosta to “[g]o ahead” with a question. Acosta was one of the first reporters the President called on for questions.

Speaking through a hand-held microphone, as did all the White House journalists who asked questions, Acosta asked a question about one of President Trump’s statements during the midterm campaign—namely, whether a caravan making its way to the United States from Central America constitutes “an invasion” of the country, a significant feature of the President’s messaging during the just-ended campaign.

This is not an accurate rendering of what happened. A video recording of the event shows that after four reporters took their turns asking questions, the President called on Mr. Acosta, who made it clear that he would not simply be asking questions and seeking information as reporters do but intended to provide a rebuttal to recent comments made by the President. “I wanted to challenge you on one of the statements that you made in the tail end of the campaign—in the midterms,” said the CNN commentator.

Mr. Acosta mentioned Mr. Trump’s characterization of the immigrant caravan making its way through Mexico as an “invasion.” At this point Mr. Acosta did not ask a question but simply issued a declaration. “As you know Mr. President, the caravan was not an invasion. It’s a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards the border with the U.S.,” said the CNN correspondent.

So instead of simply serving as a reporter Mr. Acosta chose to offer commentary—and according to standard dictionaries he was wrong. The large group of immigrants had crossed illegally into Mexico and plainly intended to illegally enter the U.S.

Mr. Acosta may think that an invasion must include a military force but Mr. Trump’s use of the word is common. Merriam-Webster defines invade as “to enter for conquest or plunder,” but also “to encroach upon” or “infringe.” Other dictionaries have similar definitions, such as “to intrude” or “violate.”

Having wrongly asserted that the caravan could not be called an invasion and wrongly asserted that Mr. Trump knew he was saying something untrue, Mr. Acosta then asked why Mr. Trump had done so and if he had “demonized” immigrants. Yes, Mr. Acosta was now asking a question, but doing so while demanding that the President accept a false premise.

Mr. Acosta then interrupted the President as he tried to answer. Then Mr. Acosta editorialized again:

“Your campaign had an ad showing migrants climbing over walls and so on. But they’re not going to be doing that.”

Is Mr. Acosta now a spokesman for the caravan? After another interruption, Mr. Acosta insisted on continuing to talk after the President called on a reporter. Then Mr. Acosta fended off a White House intern as she attempted to retrieve the microphone to allow others to ask questions.

The First Amendment prevents the President or anyone else in the federal government from restricting the ability of citizens to report and publish. Does it also require the President to listen to ill-informed lectures for as long as the lecturers choose to speak? Obviously if everyone had the right to refuse to surrender the microphone at press conferences the result would be fewer members of the press corps having an opportunity to ask questions, not more.

Rugby: Ireland v. Argentina

Good back and forth game. Played in Ireland as the southern hemisphere teams are on their end of year tours to Europe.

Pope: Entrepreneurship needed in face of "scandalous poverty"

As we should all know - because the Pope is smart - he supports the free enterprise system.

“If there is hunger on earth, it is not because food is missing!” Francis said in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 7. “What is lacking is a free and far-sighted entrepreneurship, which ensures adequate production, and a solidarity approach, which ensures fair distribution,” he continued. “Possession is a responsibility,” Francis stressed. “The ownership of a good makes the one who owns it an ‘administrator of Providence.’” “The possession of goods is an opportunity to multiply them with creativity and use them with generosity, and thus grow in love and freedom,” he said.

Quoting the catechism, Francis said, “Man, using created goods, must consider the external things that he legitimately possesses, not only as his own, but also as common, in the sense that they can benefit not only him but also others.”

The pope’s remarks on entrepreneurship and ownership came during a reflection on the seventh commandment, “Thou shall not steal.” In recent months, the pontiff has dedicated his weekly general audiences to a series of lessons and reflections on the Ten Commandments recorded in the scriptural books of Exodus and Deuteronomy.

Three Faranda brothers (the old ones) at dinner Sunday evening.

Of course missing Paul, since 2005. Just Tom, Phil and Jim.  At the Peruvian restaurant in Ossining, Aji Limo. Pretty good! No liquor license yet, BUT they allowed us to bring our own wine, and no cork charge. More pictures to follow as there were seven of us

Verntriloquist Nina Conti (& her monkey) are back!

Very funny. Here's another one I posted in September.  BBC (very funny): Dummy hypnotises ventriloquist  And keep in mind when the woman comes onstage in this one nothing was pre-rehearsed - they'd never met and they are winging it.

Miracle? Brain tumor vanishes

In California. Short article and video.

LODI (CBS13) — It’s a medical mystery that’s left several doctors scratching their heads. A suspected malignant brain tumor vanishes without treatment giving a patient a second chance at life.

 

Fr. George Rutler on Armistice Day, today.

The NY City Pastor and an author and lecturer of some note. I've published his emails a few times in the past. He is a convert to Catholicism.

November 11, 2018

Pier 54 on the Hudson River is a short walk from our church. On display are pictures of the Titanic and the Lusitania, which is not encouraging for public relations. The Titanic was supposed to berth there, but instead the Carpathia arrived with surviving passengers. Seven years before, my grandmother had sailed on the Carpathia.     The sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat brought the United States into the Great War. Film footage shows passengers arriving at Pier 54 to embark on May 1, 1915. Of the 1,962 passengers and crew on the Lusitania’s manifest, 1,198 died. Toscanini had planned to be on board, but took an earlier ship after bad reviews of his performance of Carmen. Jerome Kern missed the ship when his alarm clock failed—otherwise, we’d not have “Ol’ Man River” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” The dancer Isadora Duncan cancelled her ticket to save money, and the actress Ellen Terry backed off because of war jitters.     One casualty of the Lusitania sinking was Father Basil Maturin, Catholic chaplain at Oxford University, returning from a lecture tour. He spurned a lifeboat and gave away his life jacket. That was reminiscent of Monsignor John Chadwick, later pastor of the Church of Saint Agnes here in Manhattan, who barely survived the sinking of the Maine which incited the Spanish-American War. The monsignor was hailed as a hero by the sailors he saved.    If his chauffeur had not taken a wrong turn on the streets of Sarajevo in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand might not have been assassinated, and the domino effect of national alliances would have not brought on the collapse of empires. At the Somme, more than one million troops were killed or wounded, and the war’s total casualties were 37.5 million dead or wounded. One year after the war, there was only one man between the ages of 18 and 30 for every 15 women. Each town and school in Britain has memorials to those lost. Both of my own grandmother’s brothers were killed in Ypres, and that was considered the norm. The United States lost 116,000 men with over 200,000 wounded. Europe has never really recovered. Military strategists were not prepared for modernized combat, and it has been said that the armies were lions led by donkeys. In a macabre way, the chief winners of that cultural suicide were Lenin and Hitler.    Today is the one-hundredth anniversary of the Armistice signaled by a bugle at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year. The poet Siegfried Sassoon, decorated for bravery, was latterly put in a psychiatric ward for begging an end to the killing. He became a Catholic and is buried near the grave of Monsignor Ronald Knox whom he admired. In tribute to one of his fallen comrades, he wrote: I know that he is lost among the stars,  And may return no more but in their light.

 

100th anniversary of Armistice Day; end of World War 1 - 90 second K of C video

November 11th, 1918. Official treaty was some months later but this was the end of hostilities.

The Knights of Columbus put out  an interesting short video -

Anti-suicide advocate "JJ Hanson Legacy of Life"

I heard this remarkable fellow speak in April, 2016 at a "Forum" in Scarsdale about assisted suicide. Thinly disguised promotion of it actually. That's JJ with the microphone (seated next to Ed Mechmann). He was awesome. Hanson survived over three years past his initial prognosis before dying in December, 2017. His wife Kristen is carrying on his work.

 

More crackpot stuff - Dutch guy petitioning Court to change his age - from 69 to 49.

I suppose, why not? You can change everything else. Thinks he'll get more ladies ... This off the Guardian (UK) but it's all over the media.

Was firing Sessions worse than Watergate?

So says DNC Chairman Tom Perez. Lightweight dude.

Here are short responses to Perez, Jim Acosta, et al.

 

Rugby: Fairfield women lose for 1st time this year; still in the National Championship

So the Lady Red Ruggers are playing Colby this weekend at home on Saturday kick-off at 11AM - the first round. Then more rugby the following weekend if they win.

This past Sunday's game, Fairfield ran into a buzzsaw. Vassar is very well-drilled (Stable coaching for over two decades & excellent long term results. Undefeated this season & they defeated West Point.) with a big set of forwards and they had 70% of the possession. The score got out of hand (61-5) when the seniors came off and less experienced underclass members got game time. So, you learn more from a loss then from a win. Fairfield is currently 7-1-1. 

First three photos - good example of size differences and the Vassar body position in loose play in the forwards (Vassar does not recruit)  - 

The lineout held up OK - here's a long throw won and then another lineout with a catch and feed off the top -

The scrum was solid.

 

Nice ball retention here by a Fairfield back - they really have some good skills!

The Fairfield backs were not outmatched - but didn't have enough of the ball.

Post game and no doubt looking towards this Saturday.

 

 

 

NY election results: Republicans crushed

Go here for full results - New York Election Results

Kirsten Gillebrand got two out of every three votes cast for her Senate seat. Andrew Cuomo got three out of every five for his Governor seat.  I think they both want to be President.

Looks like my candidate for NY Governor only got one vote

Unless someone else voted for Theresa Bonopartis.  My vote for Governor will be a write-in ... and it will be ...   Anyway, it was very predictably a blowout for the Democrats in NY.

Here are the NY statewide results. Terribly sad that my State Senator Terrence Murphy lost - the NY State Senate will be controlled by the Democrats. So with the whole State under Democrat control, among other things we'll be seeing "Aid in Dying" as a big initiative. Why pay good $$$ for things like hospice and treatment for depression when you can help people commit suicide?

Of course there's are precedents for promoting suicide - here's one -the newly elected California Democrat Governor (says he's Catholic) helped his mother commit suicide in 2002. 

BB: "Christians face choice Between Party That's A Hypocritical Mockery Of Their Faith And One That's Openly Hostile To It"

A slight exaggeration perhaps, but not much.

U.S.—Christians voting their conscience have quite a choice this Election Day with the two major political parties.

With the Republicans, Christians have the option of declaring all their beliefs hollow by supporting a party that pays lip service to Christians while it is full of lies, greed, a hostile pose to foreigners, and a cavalier attitude about war. Christians can especially show their hypocrisy by throwing yet more support behind a president who stands anathema to just about every moral standard they've previously claimed important while he makes only a marginal effort to show support of faith (though the other day he referred to the second epistle to the Corinthians as "Corinthians 2: Corinthians Harder").

With the Democrats, though, Christians can basically opt for suicide by giving support to a party that is actively against them, having shown they are very willing to make Christians face trial and lose their jobs for holding the same moral beliefs they've held for thousands of years. The only religious belief the Democrats seem to hold dear is that every knee shall bow at the altar of abortion (and pay forced tribute).

"It's a really interesting choice," said Christian Tanya Lloyd. "By supporting the Republicans, I'm giving people further ammunition to dismiss my beliefs as an empty cultural pose. At least they like to pretend to be Christian, though, while sometimes it seems like the only thing keeping the Democrats from hunting me down with hunter-seeker drones like from The Terminator is lack of technology."

However the election turns out, though, Christians express confidence that they'll be fine since they ultimately put their faith in "a much higher power than either political party" (presumably they're referring to the Supreme Court).

CNN interviews the wounded Navy SEAL mocked by Saturday Night Live

Why did SNL mock him? Probably because he's a Texan and running for Congress as a Republican.Of course the SNL allies will maintain that the low state of discourse is Trump's fault. Anyway his reaction is classy.

Trump declares National Adoption Month: "Every child is wanted"

This is the second year the President has highlighted National Adoption Month. Interesting and sad statistic at the end about the number of children who "age out" of the foster care system.

The president called adoption a “life-changing act” and a “blessing for all involved.” In addition to assisting families who seek to adopt, Trump said, “we must also encourage all Americans to recognize that adoption is a powerful way to show women they are not alone in an unexpected pregnancy.” “Adoption affirms the inherent value of human life and signals that every child ‑‑ born or unborn ‑‑ is wanted and loved,” read Trump’s proclamation.

“Children, regardless of race, sex, age, or disability, deserve a loving embrace into families they can call their own.”

National Adoption Month will honor the thousands of families in this country who chose to adopt, said Trump.

Trump also highlighted the plight of the nation’s growing foster-care system, and said that he appealed to “families, communities, and houses of worship across our great Nation to help these children find a permanent home.”

The president said it was “unfortunate” that many children in the foster system reach the age of 18 without being adopted, and that “these children deserve a permanent family” that will provide them with love and stability.

Trump’s inclusion of “houses of worship” was noteworthy. Currently, there are several cases ongoing in which faith-based foster agencies are suing localities after being denied contracts, or shut out entirely, from the foster-care process due to their religious beliefs.

This is the second year Trump has recognized National Adoption Month. The tradition of presidents promoting adoption began in 1984, when President Ronald Reagan declared one week in November to be “National Adoption Week.” In 1995, President Bill Clinton expanded the awareness campaign into a month.

National Adoption Day, a separate event first observed in 2000, is celebrated the Saturday before Thanksgiving. On this day, thousands of children throughout the country who are being adopted from foster care have their adoptions finalized. National Adoption Day also seeks to raise awareness of the more than 100,0000 American children living in the foster care system who are eligible for adoption.

In the United States, the average foster child waits for three years before being adopted. Each year, about 2,000 children age out of the system without being placed in a permanent home.

My vote for Governor will be a write-in ... and it will be ...

Our friend of 30 years Theresa Bonopartis, who has spoken nationally and internationally. Here's her recent book published two years ago - A Journey to Healing Through Divine Mercy.

I posted this a couple of days ago NY Republican Governor candidate has same pro-abortion position as Cuomo and while now this is out  Republican Governor candidate Molinaro says he is pro-life despite newspaper quotes  I just think Molinaro is probably trying to have things both ways. I could be wrong about Molinaro and maybe the better course is to vote for him. Anyway, Farandaville is made up of abolitionists - "We are not one issue voters, but abortion is a disqualifying issue." - The late John Willke MD, former President, National Right to Life Committee. 

And of course there are other disqualifying issues. No need to list them all.

Saturday Night Live: "Election Night" - two years ago

Fairly amusing as it relives the horror (for some people...) of the night.

 

Even PBS admits, economy is booming

This goes along with this Even CNN has to admit, economy is booming   one.

WaPo: "Bob Fletcher, who saved farms of interned Japanese Americans, dies at 101"

From the Washington Post and it was sent to me yesterday. It's five years old but I still think it's worthwhile reading. - clearly a man who was "a good and faithful servant" and a good Sunday story.

Bob Fletcher, a Sacramento farmer who saved the farms of interned Japanese American families during World War II, died May 23. He was 101.

In 1942, a few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government forced Japanese immigrants and Americans of Japanese descent to report to barbed-wire camps. Many lost their homes to thieves or bank foreclosures.

A state agricultural inspector, Mr. Fletcher acted instinctively to help Japanese American farmers. He quit his job and went to work saving farms belonging to the Nitta, Okamoto and Tsukamoto families in the Florin community of Sacramento.

In the face of deep anti-
Japanese sentiment — including a bullet fired into the Tsukamoto barn — Mr. Fletcher worked 90 acres of grapes. He paid the mortgages and taxes and took half the profits. He turned over the rest — along with the farms — to the three families when they returned to Sacramento in 1945.

“I did know a few of them pretty well and never agreed with the evacuation,” he told the Sacramento Bee in 2010. “They were the same as anybody else. It was obvious they had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor.”