The Art Neuro Weblog

More On Global Dimming
Pleiades sent in this article.

Finally, a team led by Dr. Bruce A. Wielicki of NASA´s Langley Research Center in Virginia reports that measurements from the agency´s Aqua satellite show a slight decrease in the amount of light reflected off Earth since 2000, which corresponds to a brightening on the surface.The NASA findings conflict with measurements, reported last year, suggesting that Earth had resumed dimming since 2000. Those measurements looked at the illumination of the dark side of the Moon by light reflected off Earth.Dr. Philip R. Goode, a professor of physics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who was one of the researchers behind last year´s report, said it was not clear why the findings differed so markedly.

"We´ve been working with them to understand the origins of the differences," Dr. Goode said of the Wielicki group. Dr. Wielicki said his data supported a report last month by a team led by Dr. James E. Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. In a paper published on Science´s Web site, Dr. Hansen and his colleagues said much of the excess heat generated by global warming has been stored in the oceans. Even if no more greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere, they said, Earth will continue to warm by 1 degree Fahrenheit over the coming decades, as the heat in the oceans is released into the air.Dr. Wielicki said the amount of energy coming from the Sun matched the gain in heat in the oceans reported by Dr. Hansen.

"It is consistent with the ocean heat storage that the oceanographers are seeing," Dr.
Wielicki said, "and it is consistent with the climate models´ predictions of what the heat storage should be."Dr. Robert J. Charlson, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington and an author of a commentary that accompanied the three papers, said, "This set of papers, taken together, calls attention for more emphasis on research in these topics." But he added, "Unfortunately, impediments have come up." Four years´ worth of data from the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite is unanalyzed, he said, because there is no money for scientists to work with it.

The bit where there's no money is abig worry. Why aren't more people motivated to get to the bottom of this?

Kevin Frickin' Brown Wins
In years past it wouldn't have been an entry. After all,t he man led the 1997 Marlins to their first World Series win. He was once a pitching 'fantasy stud' as they call them. Well, the yanks won 6-0 over the Oakland A's today.

Kevin Brown had allowed Oakland to load the bases with no outs in the second inning and was on the verge of falling behind early yet again. When he started Keith Ginter out with a high fastball, Mel Stottlemyre went out to the mound.

``I told him that the way to minimize the damage was to keep the ball down,'' Stottlemyre said. Brown, according to the pitching coach, responded that Erubiel Durazo had just singled on a low pitch.

``I wasn't going to argue with him,'' Stottlemyre said. ``I said: `He's a lowball hitter. This next guy's a highball hitter.'' In truth, Stottlemyre had no idea.
``I was lying,'' he said, laughing. ``He kind of stumped me.''

Yeah Kevin, whatever you do, don't listen to Mel; he's the worst pitching coach as far as we can tell. And don't punch the wall when you lose. That's stupid and you did learn from that mistake, right?

At this point, any win that Brown can get is good. 7 innings of shutout-ball is great.

My Point Exactly
Here's a great article on the current Yankee situation.

Undoing some of the moves the Yankee brain trust made could have yielded
this lineup.
C – Jorge Posada (developed by and resigned by the Yankees)

1B – Nick Johnson (not traded to Montreal)

2B – Alfonso Soriano (not traded to Texas)

SS – DerekJeter (developed by and resigned by the Yankees)

3B – Mike Lowell (not traded to Florida)

LF – Hideki Matsui (signed)

CF – Carlos Beltran (signed over

RF – Vlad Guerrero (signed over Sheffield)

Bench - Wily Mo Pena
(not traded to Cincinnati), D’Angelo Jiminez, Bernie Williams, Andy Phillips,
John Flaherty

SP – Mike Mussina SP – Ted Lilly SP – Carl Pavano SP – Jose Contreras SP – Jon Lieber
Bullpen – Jake Westbrook, Zach Day, Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon, Yhency Brazoban, Tanyon Sturtze, Mo Rivera

The team could also bolster its lineup with prospects like Brandon Claussen, Dioneer Navarro, Robinson Cano and Eric Duncan in the minors.
Now, all teams can do this “what if” game, but in just five years the Yankees have
turned over so many players, the question needs to be asked – does the organization have a plan, and if so what is it?

Man, it hurts just to read. My eyes water.
I have 're-assembled' this team in MVP 2005 and it kicks ass hard.

- Art Neuro