Saturday, September 21, 2024

Still gobsmacked that human evolution started at ~62.6 degrees F 6.5 million years ago as temperatures were falling, and then ramped up to modern humans 300,000 years ago at 51.8 degrees F, the coldest point in 485 million years

A 485-million-year history of Earth’s surface temperature

Right now as VP for four years our administration gives small business start-ups a paltry $5,000 is not the flex you think it is

Friday, September 20, 2024

ROFLMAO WaPo's "most rigorous reconstruction of Earth’s past [Phanerozoic] temperatures ever produced" surprises Michael Mann, says human-caused warming will not make the planet uninhabitable

The article has this response from Michael Mann:

The timeline, published Thursday in the journal Science, is the most rigorous reconstruction of Earth’s past temperatures ever produced, the authors say. ...

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who is known for his analyses of past global temperatures, said he was also surprised by the suggestion that the planet got so warm. The finding supports many scientists’ concern that feedback loops in the Earth system could lead to much higher temperatures than most climate models predict, he wrote in an email. But it’s also possible that the data assimilation assumes too much warming and is missing factors that might forestall a runaway greenhouse effect. “While I applaud the authors for this ambitious and thoughtful study, I am skeptical about the specific, quantitative conclusions,” Mann said. ...

Even under the worst-case scenarios, human-caused warming will not push the Earth beyond the bounds of habitability.

The article, which places us today in some of the still coolest climate conditions in 500 million years, never connects the dots.

It maintains that a dramatic warming event 250 million years ago caused the largest mass extinction ever, spewing carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere, 25 million years BEFORE the first mammals appeared, who breathe the OXYGEN emitted by carbon dioxide consuming PLANTS, who then in their turn THRIVED for 125 million years under EVEN WARMER conditions than that extinction event produced.

Evolution was evidently turbocharged by this warming and its carbon dioxide, but then suddenly the first humans supposedly started to evolve 6.5 million years ago at the end of 50 million years of cooling conditions, WHEN THE TEMPERATURE WAS 62.6 F*, and continued to evolve into modern humans 300,000 years ago just as temperature KEPT FALLING to the coldest point in the record (51.8 F).

How did that happen?

The study authors are worried about what warmer conditions in the future will mean for humans, but seem oddly uninterested in how humans supposedly evolved in relatively much cooler conditions.

Maybe we don't really understand the evolution of mammals. Maybe humans are much older than the record indicates, and much more resilient.

At its hottest, the study suggests, the Earth’s average temperature reached 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius) — far higher than the historic 58.96 F (14.98 C) the planet hit last year. ...

At the timeline’s start, some 485 million years ago, Earth was in what is known as a hothouse climate, with no polar ice caps and average temperatures above 86 F (30 C). ...

For most of the Phanerozoic, the research suggests, average temperatures have exceeded 71.6 F (22 C), with little or no ice at the poles. ...

But humans evolved during the coldest epoch of the Phanerozoic, when global average temperatures were as low as 51.8 F (11 C).

Without rapid action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say, global temperatures could reach nearly 62.6 F (17 C) by the end of the century — a level not seen in the timeline since the * Miocene epoch, more than 5 million years ago.

Gold up 26% . . . in 2024

Gold soared above the $2,600 level on Friday for the first time, extending a rally boosted by bets for further U.S. interest rate cuts, and rising tensions in the Middle East.

Spot gold was up 0.7% at $2,605.50 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures rose 0.6% to $2,630.30. Silver gained 0.5% to $30.93.

Bullion’s latest rally got a fillip after the Federal Reserve initiated an aggressive easing cycle on Wednesday with a half-percentage-point reduction, adding to the appeal for gold, which pays no interest.

Prices of the safe-haven asset have climbed 26% in 2024, its biggest annual rise since 2010 . . ..

More.

$SPX is up 19.82%.

CNBC fact-checks Joe Biden, now that it doesn't matter

But the article name-checks Donald Trump five times because he's an opponent of Fed decisions.

There's a whole movement out there that wants to End the Fed, composed of Republicans, Democrats, and libertarians, which CNBC is loathe to mention.

Many of them argue that the US 2-year Treasury Note should be the benchmark for the Federal Funds Effective Rate, not the whim of the Fed Chair and the Federal Open Market Committee, who are un-elected, well-connected, and VERY WELL PAID elites who watch out primarily for the interests of the banksters.

For example, despite the disastrous Zero Interest Rate Policy post-Great Recession, DGS2 resisted it and outran DFF throughout the period under Obama and Trump, and anticipated the recent inflationary outburst by starting to rise in the spring of 2021, a full year before the Fed moved to "combat inflation" by raising the funds rate in the spring of 2022.

Similarly DGS2 also started to fall in November of 2023 despite no change to Fed policy, anticipating the recent decline of inflation rates by almost a year.

The role of the US Treasury Secretary, AS MUCH A CREATURE of the Executive as the Fed Chair, is also huge for interest rates because the Secretary decides how to divvy up the debt securities for auction by duration.

Biden's Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been in the news for driving up the issuance in T-bills to 22% when 15% has been customary, which has contributed to longer rates falling and stocks rising, just in time for the election.

But the costs of this have been dramatic, financing deficit spending at the highest rates and driving interest payments on the debt to the third spot in the budget, behind only Social Security and Medicare.

Thursday, September 19, 2024

The value of US Treasury securities held by foreigners made another new record high in July 2024

$8.3385 trillion, but the lunatics on X are saying "everybody's selling".

Grand total net value was up nearly $128 billion compared to June, and nearly $740 billion year over year.

I'm going to have to get a neck brace to prevent the whiplash: PA shifts back to Dem, Harris winning Electoral College 276-262

Kamala Harris says the young people she once called stupid are brilliant now

Kamala Harris' interview with the National Association of Black Journalists left the moderators with such joy after she boogied-on out of there

Kamala Harris is hiding from the press

The Harris-Walz media strategy: Hide from the press :

Bottom line: Some of Harris' worst moments as vice president have come during interviews when she made flip or unclear comments about key policies.