We should follow the Yanks.

This is one thing they have got right.

Republicans kill global warming committee

The kick-off of the 112th Congress on Wednesday also marked the end of an era in the House – the demise of a committee devoted solely to climate change and energy issues. The Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, created by Nancy Pelosi in 2006, has been shuttered under the new Republican leadership.

It’s about time some of our useless politicians came to their senses and questioned this whole quackery of AGW. 

The only problem is that I found this in the Guardian. I feel unclean.

Common sense prevails

Mind you it should never have had to come to this in the first place.

A primary school dinner lady sacked after telling a couple their seven-year-old daughter was being bullied today won her claim for unfair dismissal.

Carol Hill, 61, had dragged four boys away from Chloe David after finding her tied to a chain-link fence and being whipped with a skipping rope.

She lost her job at Great Tey Primary School in Essex after telling her parents about the incident.

And of course the Headmistress had another version to cover up the bullying.

Headmistress Deborah Crabb had written to Claire and Scott David claiming their daughter had been 'hurt in a skipping rope incident'.

And the sacking offense was.

Mrs Crabb told the panel that Mrs Hill was sacked for committing the 'offence' of 'going to the press'.

Let that be a warning to you all. Just shut up and do as you’re told. Don’t you know we’re part of the “Big Society” now.

Time to break out the long johns

The last solar minimum should have ended last year, but something peculiar has been happening. Although solar minimums normally last about 16 months, the current one has stretched over 26 months—the longest in a century. One reason, according to a paper submitted to the International Astronomical Union Symposium No. 273, an online colloquium, is that the magnetic field strength of sunspots appears to be waning.

…

Scientists studying sunspots for the past 2 decades have concluded that the magnetic field that triggers their formation has been steadily declining. If the current trend continues, by 2016 the sun’s face may become spotless and remain that way for decades—a phenomenon that in the 17th century coincided with a prolonged period of cooling on Earth.

Shamelessly nicked from WUWT