Scrappy's choice

Try to make this quick, as I'm fading fast, but since the Reds can't get one last man out, I guess I have time.

First, I should tell you the deer story.  This weekend, we took one of our normal walks down the new trail through the woods.  Suddenly, two deer ran across no more than 50 feet in front of us.  As per usual, Scrappy had to sit dumfounded for a few seconds- which is fine, because I figure the less we chase them, the more we see them.  Little did I know...
That night it was closing on 1 AM and the two of us went out for his last nightly trip.  Now the porch is all fenced in, so he can only smell and not see what goes on beyond.  But apparently he couldn't smell what I saw.  At the edge of the woods on the property line are three pines in a row on complex property.  Underneath one of them I saw eyes.  As I continued to watch (and be watched), I realized that one of the deer was lying down beneath the tree!  This was a new one on me, and Scrappy was oblivious- even as I talked to our reclining friend.  Soon, she stood up- and THEN Scrappy caught her scent.  She glided into the trees, and we went to bed.
Not the end of it.  For all his bluster, detecting animals upsets Mr. Drama Queen.  Ten minutes of "But daddy, it was a deer" later, I had just got him calmed down when he erupted again.  Sure enough, two more deer stood grazing at the tree line.  I'm beginning to think that they are spies from BarackObama.com.  After all, both groups have a common enemy in the NRA and environmental developers.  Which would be a nice seque into my last story, but I've got something else to share first.

We took a Scrappy's choice walk tonight.  This is when I let him do the leading and see where we end up.  Not always a good idea, I assure you.  Anyway, we were up on the river end of the greenway trail and he chose a path we rarely take, possibly because itg usually looks like this:

Yeah, Rainbow, we've gotten a lot more rain than you guys, especially lately.  But anyhow, we found another orphaned golf ball (we now have given thirty-one such balls a home this summer), and worked our way around to one of the old canal feeders.

Amazing to find such peaceful little patches in this world of ours. Just tranquil, and reminds you that not all is man's madness.
So we go on, and I found this odd little plant.

Researcher Laurie learned that this is called White Baneberry, and those berries are quite poisonous.  Well, if I ever just want to disappear into the woods and end it all, I know what to look for.  Just sayin'.
Scrappy leading is a lot like trailing a drunk.  Weaving in and out, getting wrapped up, occasionally going around with a bush stuck up one's butt.

I mean, not just anyone can look good with his head in a hole...

Ahh, I bet you were thinking... but no, I meant gopher holes.

And now to that other story, one I could NOT just let lie.

Climate-gate, Himalaya-gate, and now … Atlas-gate?

Publishers of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World scrambled Tuesday to correct a controversial statement that Greenland had lost 15 percent of its permanent ice cover over the last 12 years -- an assertion scientists labeled "incorrect and misleading."


The claim came in a HarperCollins press release on the publication of the 13th edition of the atlas, stating that global warming was "turning Greenland 'green.'" The gradual melting was also depicted in the atlas itself, as cartographers carved out huge chunks of ice to reflect the apparent results of a warming planet.
That was a mistake, scientists say.


Poul Christoffersen, a glaciologist at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, said the 15 percent decrease in permanent ice cited "is both incorrect and misleading." He believes the actual number is closer to 0.1 percent.
“It is regrettable that the claimed drastic reduction in the extent of ice in Greenland has created headline news around the world,” Christoffersen said. “There is to our knowledge no support for this claim in the published scientific literature.”






HarperCollins on Monday tried to justify its position. “We are the best there is. We are confident of the data we have used and of the cartography,” a company spokesman explained to the Guardian. “We use data supplied by the U.S. Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Col. They use radar techniques to measure the permanent ice. We have compared the extent of the ice surface in 1999 with that of 2011. Our data shows that it has reduced by 15 percent. That's categorical.”
But with mounting pressure from the scientific community, the publisher took an about-face one day later, retreating from earlier claims and admitting the company may have been “misleading with regard to the Greenland statistics.”
"The conclusion that was drawn from this, that 15 percent of Greenland's once permanent ice cover has melted away, was highlighted in the press release, not in the Atlas itself,” HarpersCollins said in a statement. "This was done without consulting the scientific community and was incorrect. We apologize for this and will seek the advice of scientists on any future public statements."

And that makes up for lying?  Not so fast, my friend!

Maintaining the accuracy of the new maps though, may not be enough. When comparing the maps to recent satellite images Christofferson and his team found “numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands.”
"In the aftermath of 'Himalayagate,' we glaciologists are hypersensitive to egregious errors in supposedly authoritative sources," Graham Cogley of Trent University in Canada told the BBC, referring to a debunked claim that the world’s glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035.


You remember this, don't you?  It seemed "scientists" with a vested interest in the existance of global warmingleft out a few zeroes "accidentally" in their time-estimate of the glacial melt-off.

"Climate change is real, and Greenland ice cover is shrinking. But the claims here are simply not backed up by science; this pig can't fly."
HarpersCollins did not return FoxNews.com requests for comment.


This is why you need to get the real facts people.  The liberal elite think that they can get you to believe any lie they tell without checking it out.  Too many people prove them right.  Sleep on it and have a nice evening, everyone.






Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/20/times-atlas-apologizes-for-misleading-greenland-ice-melting-claim/#ixzz1YY9YI2u3