Earlier this year I had mentioned that I had been blogging on Watts Up With That for over 10 years straight. Because of that I felt the need to take a sabbatical this summer, and I asked readers for some help in doing that. Many, many, people generously responded with offers of help, offers of visits and lodging, and many other things. I’m eternally grateful to all those who have stepped up to help to keep this website running during my absence, as well as those who made my rest and relaxation possible. We added a crop of new moderators who have kept comments flowing, and I thank you for what is essentially a thankless job. I want to give particular thanks to our own Charles the Moderator a.k.a. CTM, who has kept WUWT populated with stories while I took some much needed rest. I also want to give thanks to the many guest authors who have contributed stories and to our regular authors Eric Worrall and David Middleton who have regularly published stories here. If I’ve missed anyone, it’s not intentional.
Those of you that have been watching closely have noted that I have published a few stories this summer (when the mood struck me) as well as recently a series of stories for hurricanes Harvey and Irma, I also outlined the excellent adventure Charles and I had watching the total solar eclipse. I have to tell you that was truly the experience of a lifetime.
As of yesterday (Monday 10/2) I’m officially back and I feel good. I’m recharged and I have some fresh ideas that you’ll see taking place here on a regular basis. I also have a book in the works and another new project which I will outline at a future date that holds promise for putting climate modeling and climate modelers feet to the fire.Details on that will be forthcoming in a future post.
Amazon Deal: 44% off on Universal OBD II Scanner Car Engine Fault Code Reader
In the short term I’d like to ask our readers to take a moment to look at the sidebar and the advertisement for the Q-Lav. This is an invention marketing of our own Charles the moderator, and I’m running this ad as a favor to him in thanks for all he has done. If readers have a need for such a device I urge you to take a moment and purchase it. He also has a very special chocolate that prevents gastrointestinal distress for people that are sensitive to certain types of sugars. It’s called Crotter’s Best.
Some of the things that you’ll see in the coming weeks:
- Some site reorganization – for example some of the reference pages are getting a bit stale due to broken links, I will be working on those
- A new front page format – the current format does not keep stories front and center very long and as a result useful conversations often get pushed out of sight. A good example is the recent story on a random walk analysis of temperature data which has scrolled off the main page after just two days.
- In-line ads from Amazon.com – (an example is above) these will be fairly unobtrusive and will link to deals of the day and lightning deals, and of course things like Climate related Books. Dr. Roy Spencer’s recent success in publishing two eBooks on Climate and Hurricanes owe their success in no small part to WUWT readers. This is a no-additional-cost way for readers to support WUWT, as it nets small percentage of each Amazon purchase.
- Regular features will return – such as “quote of the week” and “climate craziness of the week” plus some new features.
- Comment submission improvement – some comments end up flagged that should not be, some tuning is needed to keep the flow going while weeding out junk comments or comments that violate site policy
Of course, I’m open to suggestions any of you might have for making WUWT better and more effective. Leave a comment if you have an idea.
Again, my sincere thanks to everyone for all of your help, let’s make the next 10 years is even better!
I hope I’m out of moderation at some point to celebrate this excellent news. Welcome back.
CORRECTION:
“CTM” should read “~ctm”
Reply: I know you think you’re joking, but actually you’re not ~ctm
(☺)
I’m sorry but this reply has gone over my head. Not for the first time 🙂
First?
Welcome Back!
Mac
YES! Welcome back, though I have been following your FB postings.
I’m glad that you are back. WUWT is a beacon of sanity in unruly surroundings.
All the best from Sweden.
And Canada
And welcome back from Anti science Scotland
Welcome home.
Yes and here’s a little ditty from the Rocky Mountain Trio …
…. of course it’s the Appalachians that run through the Bluegrass State, but I was thinking of the Osbourne brothers rendition of that famous bluegrass song “Rocky Top”, erm … and even though that was about Tennessee. but let’s have that too, and make it a real old Country welcome back to Anthony !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9prNixjbg
Trio?
Speaking of “Rocky Top” Bluegrass songs:
Though this might fit better with Anthony’s return from bleary street.
“Thoroughly African Man”;
https://youtu.be/Zan_pn4ctGM?t=163
A nice message to start this beautiful fall day.
Anthony, It’s good to have you back. And from your post it sounds like your sabbatical was just the change you needed at that time.
If you don’t mind my asking; some time ago, you related to us your struggle with your hearing issue. Since that was some time ago, I’m curious as to how that is working out for you.
I’m finding people whispering around me of late, and then suggesting I need my hearing checked. It would be nice if you could update us on that experience.
Thanks.
G
George:
Keep in mind that that your family may actually be whispering, so as not to disturb you.
My Father was quite deaf in his later years. Some was age related, most of the real damage to his hearing occurred during his Navy service.
In any case, my family got it into their minds that my hearing was similarly and seriously affected.
To the point where they scheduled me a visit with the hearing doctor.
I insisted that my wife also get her hearing checked.
The results? I did lose the ability to hear the highest frequencies. But very little hearing degradation over the rest of the frequency spectrum.
Which does explain why certain electronic gizmos beeping fail to bother me; e.g. the battery charger signaling a full battery.
But the rest of my hearing was in excellent shape.
Turns out my wife’s hearing has degraded across the normal frequency spectrum and her hearing is slightly impaired.
Spouse and kids have not mentioned my hearing since.
No! I do not mention my wife’s hearing, ever!
I already know her opinion regarding ‘her’ ever wearing a hearing aid; so, I’m not going there.
Best of luck with your hearing, George.
Thanks AT-K.
I actually have a 33 1/3 RPM LP disk which has a 20 kHz sine wave recorded on it. And when I bought it, I could actually hear that tone. I some how doubt that I can hear much above ten kHz any more. I guess I should get that out and play it.
My best LPs still sound better than my CDs. There are several recordings, where I have a /CD version re-mastered from the same tapes used to make the original LP version. And yes the LP version sounds better (no quantization noise).
And a pipe organ still sounds like a pipe organ, both highs and lows. My stereo system has real speakers; that CAN reproduce a 32 foot Organ pipe; unlike those Bose two inch cube sub contra bass woofers, and can do it with about 4Watts of Amplifier power.
But I do have a problem hearing speech either on TV , but not on the radio. Clear diction seems to be the distinction.
G
Anthony,
The guest authors should be thanking you for giving us the opportunity to contribute to the “world’s most viewed site on global warming and climate change”!
Regarding the QLav… I was beginning to worry that it was one of those ads geared toward my Google searches! LOL!
Hahaha, QLav, you too! Maybe subliminally they are trying to tell us den!ers we are full of something….
David said exactly what I wanted to say:
The guest authors were great, they should also be thanking you for giving us the opportunity to contribute to the “world’s most viewed site on global warming and climate change”!
And most of all thank you Anthony, you are the book of knowledge on the science and climate file.
I agree! Thank you!
I was trying to find the price, and couldn’t. For some of what I’ve been since my recent surgery, it sounds like I could use it; but I don’t want to buy it without knowing how much it costs.
Not to belittle the sterling efforts of Charles the Mod. on here, but his “Q-Lav” is nothing new is it ?
Sorry Charles, old bean, but You did not invent this. Actually a search for the “Q-Lav at Amazon turned up the vendor page which lists many alternative devices, some of them at less than 25% of the price you ask.
https://www.amazon.com/QLav-Personal-Hygiene-System/dp/B001FRMHWQ
it serves the same function as this …
or even this …
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/1000/4b/4b2dd5d9-9416-408a-8923-08db038a0941_1000.jpg
,,,,many others
Research is the thing surely, before committing oneself to any recommendations, or even the expense of producing and “inventing” a thing, which already exists in profusion in the marketplace. I am sorry Charles, but this isn’t going to make you millions, or even fund your expenses. Better luck next time, and research is the key.
The Editor,
Wow. What a nasty little rant. He didn’t invent the squirt bottle either, but then again, he never claimed to, and birthing units all over the US have been giving them to new mothers for decades. HIS design has a patent. That makes HIM it’s inventor. And it’s been around for 12 years.
Now go review product development, and patent laws, and inventions and come back when you’re ready to be a grown up.
Anthony did something (oh hail thy mighty), I am now getting ads of Asian Singles, much preferred to the Qlav.
Very old news, the ed.
Ancient technology, though not immediately obvious in modern market places.
Air Force, Navy and NASA issues similar gear to pilots. i.e. if there isn’t an installed device and tube immediately available.
You could make your own using coconuts and bamboo tubes, if you’re averse to CTM’s ads.
Haha yes, ATheok, but coconut shells a bit hard to squeeze though, and I liked your piece about Ronnie Burthe, and the “Anger” …. – reminded me of someone from my own past 😆
…but why are mostly all of these portable bidet things colored blue?
This Google image search shows a great variety of devices,
https://goo.gl/D8Fqbc
… and whilst CTM’s large capacity Q-Lav might be handy in a home bathroom situation, it is reportedly quite heavy when full, and indeed fairly bulky for the camper/hiker. I quite liked the look of the very small nozzle attachments for ordinary drinking water bottles, as these could even fit in a jacket pocket perhaps.
…and Aphan, don’t get the wrong end of the stick, though I’ve no idea what you are about, since the blog you link to in your moniker, is marked as private and unviewable. I’m sure that CTM finds his device personally useful, but I disagree with Charles’ assertion that his is “The Best Portable Bidet on the Market”.
Maybe though, Al Gore would find it’s larger capacity most useful for washing all the cr*p away that emanates from that other orifice of his which is above his waist level ? Why not actually send him a complimentary example, with full instructions of course. 😉
What’s wrong with the good old personal xylospongium, like the Romans used ?
That’s my preference anyway, but no vinegar please !!!
😀
Re: The Editor::
I use an old neti pot. That way I get both ends sparkling clean.
David’s comments are right on track. The guest authors owe Anthony their thanks and appreciation for creating a popular well read venue that promotes the discussion of climate science data and issues and allows the exposure of climate alarmist propaganda for all to see.
Dave, you usurped my any comments. Numerous fantastic geologic posts..Many thanks too to Ant for delivery.comewhat here maintaining the necessarilly spectrummed. It’s not ill noted.
Welcome back, and may your refreshed state always be refreshed.
Hmm. At first I thought the QLav was a lava lamp….
It’s sad to think science is in such sorry state that WUWT is necessary. That said, thank goodness for WUWT. Thanks for being there for us Anthony.
You are “allowed” to post pictures of the wonderful not-over-heated scenery you saw.
Welcome Back!!!
Welcome back.
The planet is a little safer today. Advocacy-driven fake science news has a steeper hill to climb as of this week.
I was wondering yesterday when you’d be officially back. I’m glad you got some R & R and are back in the saddle again. Many thanks for your on-going efforts, along with those of the content generators and moderators.,
Welcome back
Your dreams were
Your ticket out
Welcome back
To the same old tropes
That you laughed about
Well, the names
Haven’t changed
Since you hung around
But the trolls
Have remained and
Haven’t turned around
Who’d have thought they’d lead you
Back here where we need you
Yeah, we tease you a lot
Watts, we got you on the spot
Welcome back
apologies to John Sebastian
+1
Try this one from Wikipedia — It’s a bit older but I think it fits well with the operating philosophy of the WUWT blog site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_of_the_Copybook_Headings
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“The Gods of the Copybook Headings” is a poem published by Rudyard Kipling in 1919, which, editor Andrew Rutherford said, contained “age-old, unfashionable wisdom” that Kipling saw as having been forgotten by society and replaced by “habits of wishful thinking.”[1]
The “copybook headings” to which the title refers were proverbs or maxims, extolling virtues such as honesty or fair dealing that were printed at the top of the pages of 19th-century British students’ special notebook pages, called copybooks. The school-children had to write them by hand repeatedly down the page.
That’s one of my all time favorite poems. It’s sad that humanity never learns…
With apologies to Kipling….
As surely as water has wet me,
and fire has often burned,
My heart was just brightened with gladness,
to hear Anthony Watts has returned!
BallBounces,
Thanks for the chuckle. I needed that after the debacle we call yesterday.
WOOT!!!!!!!!!!
WUWT!!!!!!
Anthony, glad you are feeling better and refreshed, stay well!
WE LOVE YOU ANTHONY
this is how happy we are- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dQK8TCTuTY
Welcome back, Anthony! Thank you for all you do. Also thanks to all of you who made Anthony’s sabbatical possible.
Charles, there is a small typo on your website, on the “The QLav” page. I think you mean “friendly”, rather than “frienly”. Although, I must admit that I am frequently surprised at how often I have to get orientated with regard to the English language, and the many words I do not know (or believe are misused).
Great to have you back say all South African skeptics
Welcome back! Glad to see that you are refreshed, charged up and ready to go. Have at’em!
Welcome home and keep up the good work. The site was in good hands while you were away.
From Langley, BC, Canada
Welcome back
Note:
On couple of occasions we discussed here detection of the gravitational waves generated by colliding black holes as observed by LIGO – Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.
“STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) – Three U.S. scientists won the 2017 Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday for opening up a new era of astronomy by detecting gravitational waves, ripples in space and time as foreseen by Albert Einstein a century ago.
The work of Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne crowned half a century of experimental efforts by scientists and engineers.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel-prize-physics/u-s-trio-win-nobel-for-finding-einsteins-gravitational-waves-idUSKCN1C80Y4
Congratulations to the laureates, not forgetting the rest of engineers who designed built and maintained the facility.
“Three U.S. scientists won the 2017 Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday for opening up a new era of astronomy by detecting gravitational waves, ripples in space and time as foreseen by Albert Einstein a century ago.”
A new era of astronomy sounds just like what they are creating. Very exciting! Black holes merging with other black holes and neutron stars, and revealing the secrets of the universe in the process, with these new gravity wave detectors.
Welcome back, Anthony. The people you put in charge in your absence did a very good job. Thanks to all of you for the most interesting website on the internet.
I’m not competent to comment on the three named individuals : (I believe three individuals is the max allowed), but the selection of the observation of Einsteinian Waves is certainly an achievement worthy of the Nobel Physics Prize. Perhaps one of the most important of recent years.
So as ” Particle Physics ” bows out; exit stage left, with Higgs Boson in hand, Gravitational Waves makes its appearance, to start a new era.
Just think about it; the ONLY emanations from the Physical Universe that can convey information of potential use to us (or just of interest) are Electromagnetic Radiation, and Gravitational Waves, those involving the only two infinite range forces we know of; the Coulomb Force (which blows) and the Gravitational Force (which sucks).
2017 is a year to mark on your calendar.
G
WELCOME BACK ANTHONY……………
/Salute
Thank you for running this site!
Suggestion: A llink/button to the bottom of the comment section.
I’ve been on an IPad these past few days, and swishing the fingers to get to the last comment gets to be tedious.
Or some one can tell me the short cut on an IPad.
My short Google search says no or jump through a flaming hoop to create some sort of a short cut with Java script.
I find it a bit clunky on my old iPad2, but you could try something like Dolphin Browser.
http://dolphin.com/download/
Welcome home!
Welcome back. The site is using an old template, seems a Magazine style theme would work better here. 😀
Great to have you back in the saddle at WUWT and recommend you do it more often. You had excellent caretakers while away. Enjoyed the eclipse posts very much.
Welcome back & thanks to all who keep this a sane scientific site….well 97% of the time !
Great to see you back and totally refreshed. The stand in team did a great job holding down the fort as it were.
Have to agree with you on the total eclipse. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in nature.
Welcome back Anthony, I hope you are going to book in a few weeks every year from now on. Take care.
Good to have you back. Looking forward to your book.
Glad you’re back!
Have you seen this?:
The anthropogenic contribution to the actual CO2 concentration is found to be 4.3%
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818116304787
It’s good to have you back. I have one suggestion for the good of the blog.
I get turned off by inappropriate attack comments directed at some of the mainstream (i.e. consensus or pro-agw) commenters. IMHO, some of the very best comments come from guys like Nick Stokes and Steven Mosher. Much more often than not, their comments are met by outright hostility. From time to time hostility may be what is deserved, but not very often.
I don’t think many people here want this blog to become an echo chamber, but the best way to achieve that status is to continuously berate contrarian commenters. For one thing, this behavior is rude and uncivil. And another thing is that it lowers the quality of the discussion in attacking the commenter rather than challenging the statement.
Some may say that the commenter is asking for it because of something he/she said some time ago, or some other equally fallacious reason. I say that, even if there’s something to that, there’s a time to move on and try to treat people with respect. If people do not respond in kind, then I guess you try something else. But most of us know what is gratuitously hostile and will make a good faith attempt to respond graciously.
One of the problems with blogging is that anonymity often breeds lack of accountability. We feel we can say any old thing to people we never meet. I’ve done this myself but I’m trying to do better.
@scraft1
October 3, 2017 at 11:43 am : I have no interest in abusing them, but totally discount their honesty after their abuse of that fine scientist Judith Curry. That proved they are mere bought creatures. So anything they write is of no use, being intended to deceive. They may have deceived you…… Brett Keane (not a pseudomym)
I agree. Ivankinsman and Griff are perhaps the least objectionable warmist regulars we’ve had here since 2009 (when I started following the site), but are treated more harshly than their predecessors. Their comments shouldn’t be taken too personally—they are repeating the standard warmist “line”. This gives us an opportunity to rebut it that we wouldn’t otherwise have. To impress persons not yet on our side, we should not try to shout down such comments, but provide links to rebuttals, or anyway to at least summarize such rebuttals. Also, we should concede a point when they are right.
“Nick Stokes/ Steve Mosher”
Really ?
“In this post I take down the second part of Nick Stokes idiotic claim :
“Steven Goddard produces these plots, and they seem to circulate endlessly, with no attempt at fact-checking, or even sourcing. I try, but it’s wearing.
My source code has been out there for years. Nick has no excuse for his ignorance”
“The source code is ghcn.py. Nick can see exactly how the calculations are done. They are a simple numerical average of the USHCN monthly final minus the numerical average of the monthly raw temperatures, per year. Math doesn’t get any simpler than that. A third grader should be able to understand”
“Nick has no excuses for his ignorance or his ongoing attempts to misinform the public. Next time he or Mosher claim my work is not reproducible, tell them that they would need at least third grade math skills to accomplish that”
https://realclimatescience.com/2017/09/nick-stokes-busted/
https://realclimatescience.com/2017/09/nick-stokes-busted-part-2/
https://realclimatescience.com/2017/09/nick-stokes-busted-part-3/
“Really?”
And your evidence is that something I said has pushed Tony Heller into his usual incoherent ranting. Just look at two items in that. I said that people circulate these graphs with no attempt at fact-checking. So his response is that he posts code, and so I am ignorant. But the point would then be, do those who circulate the graphs ever run Heller’s code? I’m betting no-one does.
And as for this
” They are a simple numerical average of the USHCN monthly final minus the numerical average of the monthly raw temperatures, per year. Math doesn’t get any simpler than that. A third grader should be able to understand”
It’s simple, and just wrong. There were (USHCN has been obsolete for years) 1218 stations in the final set. There were a varying number, usually somewhere around 900, in the raw set. He subtracts the average absolute temperatures, and says the result is due to adjustment. But they are different sets. The 900 raw stations may just, on average, be warmer or cooler places than the 1218 final. If there is inhomogeneity (lat, altitude etc) you either have to use the same set, or carefully correct for the difference. Else you get things like the Goddard spike.
then go to the website comment. I think his CV puts him far above you.
I think Part three beautifully debunks the GISS data.
Though Nick is good for a laugh-
“You are pathetic,Nick since the link I provided answered your questions. The very chart you whine about is right there on the GISS webpage. Tony showed both 2001 and 2005 webpages in his post with links to them”
richard,
You seem to have no capacity to put a coherent argument of your own. You can only quote incoherence from others.
It is clear Nick never read Tony’s posts about you, since you said several things completely wrong about what Tony actually said. You also are avoiding his criticism posts about you,not a single post from you there.
Meanwhile that “Goddard spike” blog post, has Tony thanking them for pointing it out:
” stevengoddard
May 10, 2014 at 7:59 am
Anthony,
Thanks for the explanation of what caused the spike.
The simplest approach of averaging all final minus all raw per year which I took shows the average adjustment per station year. More likely the adjustments should go the other direction due to UHI, which has been measured by the NWS as 8F in Phoenix and 4F in NYC.”
How come YOU left this part out?
You are destroying your credibility every time you do that.
sunsettommy – I quoted you – sorry I didn’t use attribute to you.
I agree with scraft1. I think the cogent responses to Griff and Nick Stokes are some of the best parts of WUWT. They make me feel that I’m not in an echo chamber, but learning from smart men and women and becoming a better advocate for the skeptical position. Attacking warmists personally serves no purpose.
Are you suggesting that the echo chamber shouldn’t repeatedly insult people that are able to see past the rhetoric?
Note that I’m not going to mention Al Gore out of respect for you sentiments.
Do you ask the same thing for Skeptics on the Alarmist sites?
That Alarmist comments appear at all puts WUWT far ahead of the curve.
Yes, indeed! #(:))
The best is yet to come.
Dear Anthony,
A suggestion (written publicly to hopefully get some affirming or negating comments to give you an idea of whether this is “just Janice’s thing” or not):
WUWT has improved over the course of 10 years in many ways, but in one way it has deteriorated over the past 2 years or so. The bricks of the site are still present (though there seem to be an awful lot of squishy, too-much-lukewarm-water-in-the-mixture, ones this year….. (ahem)), i.e., lots of good science articles. There is, nevertheless, something missing. That something is you. WUWT was a great website when your warm, witty, generous, personality shone throughout its pages. WUWT is still a good website, but, I wish it were GREAT again (smile).
We enthusiastically contributed to send our shining star to the AGW (I mistype that all the time — and left it this time, lololol) meeting last December, eagerly looking forward to a few “our man in the street” reports or, at least, a summary. Not. One. Word. We never heard how your paper presentation went. We never heard anything about that conference at all. Okay. You had your reasons. Then, this summer, you went on a well-deserved, lovely, sabbatical, again enthusiastically supported by us WUWTers. While you thanked us nicely, there was no fun journaling/summary of “My Summer Vacation” — as you did when you travelled to Australia years ago,
(http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/06/25/travel-notes-from-my-australian-tour/ )
The mortar that holds the bricks of WUWT together, making it not “just a pile of nice bricks,” but a lovely structure, a shelter, a place where people enjoy sitting down and talking awhile is the warmth and courtesy provided by sharing yourself in articles like this:
(http://wattsupwiththat.com/2007/03/16/trains/ )
Okay. I think you get the idea. WUWT will continue to be a good site (if the bulk of the articles don’t slip and slide any farther down the muddy slope of the lukewarm swamp (AHEM! 🙂 ).
If you want it to be GREAT, however, you’ll have to put “you” back into it. The “human interest” element is missing, now. It will (likely has) cost you readers. And you may just think that’s just fine!
Just my two cents (and something I’ve been thinking about for many months, now).
Your WUWT friend,
Janice
I’d have to agree, the content has, since Anthony has been away, been okay and appreciated but , in my opinion, has been too opinion led. It has had more the feel of some of our warmist friends sites without the scientific rigor that I expect in WUWT. As a consequence I’ve found myself less inclined to read the articles or to skim read, whereas before I would sit myself down with a nice cup of tea and see how many articles, with comments, I could get through!
Great to have you back and no disrespect meant to any of the contributors!
Noted. Those omissions are due to exhaustion, though I could have sworn I wrote up how our 2016 AGU presentation went. I distinctly recall posting photos and text of RSS scientist Carl Mears as he stopped by our poster and discussed it’s merits….
Thanks for responding, Anthony! 🙂
Well, lol, if so, that just goes to show how completely FORGETTABLE Mears is. Bwah, ha, ha, ha, ha!
WUWT has slowly become a place where ANY article that would appear to be anti-AGW gets featured, without review. Even the flawed ones don’t get taken down. I agree that we need more rigor, and less reliance on opinion articles.
Welcome back!
Anthony, welcome back. After your well deserved rest from blogging and opportunity for reflection, I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the whole global warming/climate change story. You have seen countless claims, lies and arguments in all sorts of directions over many years. What do you conclude or take away from that experience? What are your words of wisdom, conclusions, predictions and recommendations?
I would be fascinated by that and I know you would be quite forceful in your comments.
However, I realise that this site also tries to be even handed and offers a forum for most, if not all, points of view. What I am suggesting may be counter productive. You may not wish to proceed in that direction. If I were in your position I would have to think seriously about the suggestion.
Nevertheless, it would be interesting for your audience and perhaps for you, too but I respect your judgement on this. Keep up the good work.
For advertising your audience might click on short infomercials. If a company has a video that explains why their product or service is better or there is something new about it and provides a link, your audience might click it if they believe there is something to learn. (no auto play) Why some advertisers think it is good to make potential customers angry with them I will never understand.
A few months (or years) back you stated a desire to create a reference section with products from the USA Climate Reference Network. I had the same idea and went ahead and created a set of products available here:
https://atmos.washington.edu/marka/crn
For instance, here is the Sept 2017 summary for the entire USA48 domain using all 114 sites:
https://atmos.washington.edu/marka/crn/usa48/201709.usa48.txt
You will see the USA48 domain averaged +0.1 F above “normal” for the month of Sept 2017.
Anthony, if you are interested in collaborating on this, let me know. Thanks for all you have done these past 10 years.
In this moment I am literally ecstatic.
Anthony is back AND there are MORE ADVERTS.
WOOHOO !!!!
and as a bonus there is an opportunity for my bottom to be cleaner than ever (thanks ctm – sorry to hear them on the other side calling you WUWTs resident asshole expert, a trifle rude I reckon but whether better or worse than “den1er” may be debateable).
QLav bears a remarkable similarity to a piece of kit we had in the labs in the 1980’s which was used by the lab tec’s to clean the test tubes and flasks, usually with IPA. We called it the squeegy bottle. Good luck with it, Charles, I gotta support invention.
Anthony – Looking forward to seeing the new tweaks to the site and your own posts. There is rarely a day I don’t look at WUWT and feel I must say something. The readership here is certainly a broad church. My only suggestion is that you open up the discussions to consideration of alternative theories (e.g. gravito-thermal). We promise to talk about them nicely and not be rude to one another (honest).
Thank….but…Heard those promises before. They inevitably devolve into a food-fight.
Some people have no understanding of how to carry out a proper scientific discussion, great shame. Mind you some of the existing content here does get a bit “messy” at times. I agree with a previous commenter that we should all try to be more polite even to the pro AGW contributors like Nick S or Steve M . There really is no need for any of us to be rude or insulting (even if provoked), just point out the errors and repeat the correct science where appropriate.
Anthony,
It is a real relief that you are fit and well back at the head of your blog. Not to say that the moderators didn’t do their job, they did an excellent job, especially CTM, by keeping us awake with a lot of good stories, but the main spirit was absent. Back again now with fresh ideas… A very heartly welcome from my beer, “french” fries, chocolates and waffles country…
Ferdinand
Welcome back Anthony!
ANTHONY ==> re comments streamlining and improvement. You might change permissions so that frequent trusted authors can edit comments on any post — thus allowing them to catch off-policy comments and spamming in real time that slips through the auto-checkers. Such authors could then “snip — violates WUWT policy — kh” with their initials, taking responsibility for their edit.
Sounds like a good idea. I’ll see if that permission level exists.
I personally do NOT want that right for my posts. I sometimes see rather crude language that makes me cringe. If I had that power, but did nothing, I would feel guilty that I was responsible for allowing those comments.
Werner ==> I do not understand your objection to the idea….if your are posting as an author you have edit rights to all comments on your post — you will see the little link “edit” to the right of each comments header line. You could, if you wished, edit content of those comments such as
bleepstrike through, [snip ] offending portions, or vanish the comments and leave an explanation as to why it was deleted.If you are being posted as a guest, you will not see “edit” next to each CommenterName Date Time heading to comments.
I only very rarely am forced to snip out part of a comment — and only do so when there are gross and blatant violations of WUWT policy. I ignore simple bad manners and ill-humor — but do not allow things like calling people Nazis or vague threats of violence against persons.
An occasional enforcement of the very clear policy to be collegial, civil, and constructive keeps the comment section cleaner and tends to weed out those who only wish to tear down others.
If you author here, you are responsible for the comments section under your post — responsible for your own civil interaction with commenters and in some small way, policing the comments. It is unfair to post and then expect someone else to handle the responses for you.
I understand where you are coming from. Personally, I find OMG offensive as I believe it takes the Lord’s name in vain. However most people would not bat an eye over this. If everyone could edit, we would have as many standards as editors. Either that, or let things pass that you do not feel right about.
Werner ==> I agree with you, even to the detail you mention …. however, I also apply Anthony’s standard of letting people be as they are, much as I would in public or while attending a public function. Even when offended by the sloppy and profane speech of others, I do not correct them in public — if the offense continues, I turn and walk away and speak with others. Only if another gets so far out of line that they have violated public norms might I speak out to correct them.
I’m sure you have your own way of coping with the lack of civility and the rising tide of profanity — it doesn’t mean we approve but, like supervising children on a playground, we only correct the worst of the behaviors.
I hope this helps.
Yes, that helps. However I am sure that if we are given these rights, the moderators will sometimes have to correct some of us for being too lenient or too strict.
Werner ==> As in all things, opinions will vary and we will all have to accept that each is doing his best to accomplish common goals.
True. If this goes through, I suppose Anthony will have to judge if our best is good enough.
Welcome back.
The Mods have done a great job following your recipe.
But, in my opinion, you’ve always been the spice that’s made WUWT more than just a recipe.
Welcome back Anthony.You have a fantastic site and I log on at least three times a day.
I did mention some years ago that I cannot understand the reasoning of leaving out punctuation in the header introductions. It’s often necessary to read the introduction several times to work out the correct meaning.
I notice the Daily Telegraph in England does the same thing, and I have yet to understand why.
Melvyn in Ecuador.
Melvyn in Ecuador ==> It is a “feature” (really, a bug) in the WordPress publishing system, and outside of Anthony’s control. I will report it to WordPress on my own account and see if their engineers can find a way to make it work the way we think it ought to.
I know. Why would I use this short infomercial from 2013 for an example of what the WUWT readers might click on? It ‘s not in their area of interest and they probably won’t buy it but they might be curious about it. Perfect for a world wide marketing test.
https://www.goodyeartrucktires.com/tires/technology/wide-base-technology.html
Goodyear Super-wide self-sealing truck tire.
Currently has 209 views.
Bit late to the party, lots have said it already but welcome back.
Welcome back Anthony from your many grateful fans in the UK. The boys did a great job of looking after the shop while you were away. Good luck with your plans for WUWT. We don’t seem to hear much from Bob Tisdale, Lord Christopher Moncton or the wonderful Willis these days. Trust they, and their beautiful brains, are still ticking over somewhere…
Welcome back from Greg in Houston!!
Glad you’re rested n feeling ‘frisky’, Anthony!
Long may you run!
Stills and Young Band: Long May You Run
https://youtu.be/dVM8_jAL86w
You did run true to form. You will bever be a sciebtisdt. Arno
At least I can spell “scientist” and quite frankly, given the rude comment you left with this that will remain unpublished, you’ll still be on moderation here for a very long time. Not the least worried about what you think about me, hot-head.
Welcome back, into the breach once more and all that…Tally Ho!
Welcome back, Anthony. I’m glad your time away allowed you to recharge and refresh.
Welcome back!
Welcome back, Anthony!
Great to have you back Anthony. Without the monumental work you have carried out for the last decade and more there would be a chasm of unfilled knowledge about the tripe purporting to be science. Armed with facts read from your blog I recently tried to have a conversation about the flawed computer modelled science of climate with a lecturer from a Carolinan university. Within fifteen minutes of him deflecting ad nauseum he started emotionalising on how we only have a few short years left to rate the planet for our grandchildren. It started out and ended being very cordial but he simply closed the conversation down when he knew i knew my facts and that i was respectfully not going to accept his deflections.
Truth fears no question. What was he so afraid of? :]
Welcome home, Anthony! It is good to have your good humor and insight back at WUWT. The moderators did a great job, but your special touch was missed.
Welcome back.
Anthony,
Like others, my continued best wishes to you and I look forward to the upgrades to WUWT. I usually cringe when you say upgrades but they always turn out well. Welcome back!
Charles did a magnificent job with everyone’s favorite web site! Interesting finds — he kept things moving and fresh.
And the guest bloggers held our interest and quenched our infinite thirst for all things brain-expanding.
Most of us are here I suspect because we love to learn and we learn from the posts and the comments as well. There’s nothing better!
Thanks to everyone for making WUWT the special place it is!
A warm welcome back from north of the 49th, we missed ya!
Anthony, you’ve helped each and every one of us.
When the world was irrationally waving their hands, predicting disaster after disaster without substantive evidence or rational explanations; you gave us a home.
An honorable, clean, organized home as reasonably swept clean of trolls, trollops, adolescent internet bullies, egocentric CAGW devotees, etc. as possible.
Truthfully, you kept published articles and following comments far cleaner than is possible in any other venue.
In spite of tremendous growth and international reach, you keep WUWT remarkably clean and sane.
As you’ve helped me and us, it was extremely easy to help you.
Let us know when you need another break, gear, trip to conference, whatever.
Side note:
While your replacements did not, can not replace Anthony at WUWT helm. Your replacements kept WUWT publishing, expanding and keeping us silly fans quite busy.
Their articles were not nor could be Anthony’s articles. That does not make any of the articles bad, just different; or in a few cases “tongue-in-cheek” or “half-baked”.
Those articles were/are enjoyed by us all! We did miss Anthony, “at the helm”.
Kudos to CTM, David Middleton, Eric Worrall, Willis, Kip, Andy and the rest of the writers for their efforts! May WUWT enjoy such wealth of moderators and authors for years to come!
Thank you Anthony, CTM, Eric, David, Willis et al!
Yes, welcome back Anthony. I think you put your foot in it ever so slightly
by saying you were back so soon! I have to agree with Janice: all those
who so ably supported the site in your absence just weren’t you. What was
missing was the atmospheric—I doubt it can be canned, at least I hope it
can’t—Essence of Anthony™
Now you are going to have to tell us a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l
about your vacation! Don’t be shy. (We aren’t. 🙂 ) Take as many articles
as you like, and spread them out a bit, pace them gently, but not too
much coz we wanna know! .
Thanks to everyone while you were on holiday.
We can all thank you for your excellent instincts throughout the spectacular growth of your blog.
So glad you took the time to step back for a good look from a distance. Clarity of the whole does not come easy when you are too close.
I watched the eclipse not far from where you did and I found that it gave gave me perspective and a sense of awe that few other things have. Perhaps it did this for you also.
It seems to me that great leaders know when to step Into the fray and when to let others do their best.
Best of luck to you and thank you.
Welcome home Mr. Watts!
You’ve built a sanctuary for free thinking and learning, a sheltered haven from the BS(bad science).
And if you think about it, even though you were away this site is still churning and alive, you’ve created a monster of a blog !
A award winning science blog.
An anomaly in the either net, something to be very proud of.
Relinquishing some of the daily duties from this experience means you can direct your attention towards more important endeavours with WUWT or other projects.
This monster can’t be killed!
All respect,
Lance A Lamont
I have enjoyed WUWT for several years now and the mods did an excellent job in your absence; welcome back! I am delighted you were able to enjoy the time away feel refreshed! I always look forward to catching up on what’s posted on WUWT!
Anthony, welcome back. You ask for
My suggestion to make WUWT better is that you come back on a PART-TIME basis. This pinche blog can swallow a man whole and not even burp.
We’ve proven that the blog can run without your participation. Surely it can run with you on a half-time basis.
My strong suggestion is that in your mind you FIRST set aside some goodly chunk of your non-working time, hopefully half, for your kids, your family, your other interests, your kids, your book, your friends, your kids, and all of the rest of your life.
Then devote the rest to WUWT. Whatever is left will be plenty.
Best regards to you and yours, glad to hear that you are doing so well,
w.
Welcome back Anthony. I say that here to second Willis’ recommendations.
Thanks Willis, well noted. I thought you had put to sea?
Anthony Watts October 4, 2017 at 8:34 am
Yeah, but the sea put me back …
w.
And after reading that, thank that fan belt for failing when it did!
Anthony Watts October 4, 2017 at 12:22 pm
Tru dat …
We were very fortunate all the way around. We were going to leave the evening before … in which case the fan belt would have gone about 2AM, darkness, strong wind gusting, Potato Patch … we’d have made it back in, but it would not have been a fun party the way this one was.
w.
CV joint could have fallen apart in a million places other than my driveway. Stroke near the hospital. Flat near the tire shop. Yeah, there is such a thing as luck.
Welcome back. I am a very frequent reader who reads lots but never felt the urge to contribute. My plea (not so much to Anthony as to the general readership) going forward is to have fewer and less polarizing comments pop up. It’s ok to agree to disagree!!
The balanced scientific debate we all cherish will not be achieved by divisive comments and caustic personal attacks. I would be happy to see these moderated out!
WUWT will not be taken fully seriously with ill-tempered and ill-timed shouting matches.
Keeping the moral high ground pays off, even when you feel your opponent does not.
Keep up the great work!
I agree. WUWT was more polite back in the day (2009), or even 2013. People didn’t fly off the handle as easily or as often then.
Reply: In 2009 I did 90% of the moderation and actually enforced my rules instead of just cringing as I read comments, as I do today. ~ctm
Moderators were quicker then to snip or suspend commenters. Their workload was lesser then, because the number of threads per week was much lower.
Welcome back Anthony, Charles did a fine job – good choice.
And a hearty welcome back from me too, Anthony. Glad to hear your break had the desired result.
But see: I told you we’d all be here waiting for you on your return? And so it has come to pass…
Welcome back and thank you to everyone involved with this site. Not a day goes by without new learning when reading here.
Welcome back and many thanks for running one of the most important sites on the web.
Hey Anthony, welcome back!
And thanks to Charles and the other moderators for all their hard work.
Best, Allan
Glad to read that you feel recharged. A favorite site for me, I stop in once or twice every day.
Great news. Promote yourself to editor or publisher, and delegate more of the work.
Welcome back Anthony…and a big Thank You to the guys who held down the fort while you were gone! My morning always starts with a visit to WUWT. There was a previous comment about the need to be civil to Alarmists who comment here. I agree. We should ‘bite our tongues’ and not attack them personally. Someone needs to be the adult in this fight…..and it has always been us in the past.
That Alarmist comments appear at all puts the site far ahead of the curve. Skeptics rarely get the same courtesy on Alarmist sites.
And Alarmism is wrapped heavily in identity politics, so any rebuttal, no matter how politely expressed, will likely be claimed a personal attack.
And using passive-aggressive, pseudo-polite language to attract hostility, then complain about people being mean, is a common ploy of the more insidious trolls.
Welcome back!
A sign of effective leadership is that the founder can take time off and the wheels don’t fall off.
Congratulations.
And thanks.
welcome back, and good to see you at our secret meeting aboard the Nibiru mother ship!
We cheated death, again!
On the eclipse: yes, it was impressive. From home it wasn’t 100%. Only 99.8.
But sitting on the deck seemed a better idea than fighting the traffic and looking for a viewing area a few miles south.
For anyone interested, I have a video which combines two views, one of the sun, and the other a view looking south over the track of the shadow taken from my drone … we are at 550′, so with a couple of hundred extra, the view is pretty good, you can see the light on the other side of the shadow.
Anyway, if you are interested:
Great video, well worth watching! Adding it to “Useful things you can do with a drone”
Haaayyyyyy!!!
Welcome back,hope your new Tan will last the winter……
Welcome back, Anthony. We all deeply appreciate what you do.
But I agree with Willis. Continue to have your fine assistants to do the day-to-day stuff, and give yourself time to think about the strategic issues.
Good to see you back. Great job done by the fill ins while you were away as well. Did not miss a beat. Well done all