The microplastics fraud: It’s already invented

Vincent J. Curtis

28 Aug 24

RE: Microplastic is in your coffee? Device for that. News item.  The Hamilton Spectator 28 Aug 24.

The story describes something close to a fraud.  It is said that a UBC professor invented a device that detects the amount of microplastics in drinks and “other liquids.” A device like that already exists; it’s called a turbidimeter.  This device measures the extinction of light due to particles floating in the liquid.  It requires calibration, however, for its results to be quantitative and reproducible.  No mention is made of how this new invention is calibrated.

There are many problems with the microplastics-in-your-drinks story. The first is that the most common of plastics, polyethylene, is less dense than water; and since polyethylene is also insoluble in water, the microscopic particles of plastic, given a little time, will float to the surface,A where their presence would be noticeable.  Has anyone noticed a white scum on a glass of water?

Another problem is how microscopic particles of plastic could get into Hamilton’s drinking water.  Hamilton’s water supply is drawn from deep in Lake Ontario, and the water is filtered and treated before it gets piped into the potable water supply.  How can literally tonnage quantities of plastic particles get into Hamilton’s water supply in the first place, and escape the removal process?

The microplastics story is the next scare-mongering narrative.

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Show me the money

Vincent J. Curtis

27 Aug 24

RE: The cost of stalling is adding up. Op ed by Wayne Poole. The Hamilton Spectator 27 Aug 24

Sooner or later, a Spectator editor should demand of Wayne Poole the equivalent of “show me the money.”

For over a decade now, Mr. Poole has preached the cause of climate catastrophism.  Carbon dioxide is the cause of much evil; in particular, of bad weather.  In this piece, CO2 is the cause of more frequent and more intense storms, that is when it’s not responsible for drought, such as gripped Canada last summer.

Saying CO2 causes more intense and more frequent storms is saying that CO2 plays a role in the formation of rain and in the volume of rain that falls per unit of time. Even non-chemists should be able to see the absurdity in these contentions.

The upshot of most of Mr. Poole’s writings is that we Canadians have to don sackcloth and ashes in atonement for our sins against nature and the earth, and that the government needs the power to enforce that penance.  Never mind that what China, India, and our own forests do vitiate any reductions in CO2 emissions we might achieve; the suffering is good for you however unavailing it is at the end of the day.

There have been catastrophes throughout human history, and there’s no reason to believe that suffering as Mr. Poole would have us would prevent the next one.

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Gun Control: The big distraction

Vincent J. Curtis

26 Aug 24

RE: Five injured in two shootings, loaded gun seized to prevent third. News item. The Hamilton Spectator 26 Aug 24

Bill C-21, passed into law earlier this year, was the Trudeau government’s answer to rising gun violence.  Strangely, gun violence has gotten decidedly worse since the bill became law, as the story at reference illustrates.

Bill C-21 deprives lawful gun owners of rights they once possessed, and will eventually deprive some of them of their lawfully acquired property also.  These actions aren’t going to reduce gun violence because lawful gun owners and lawful gun ownership plainly aren’t the problem. The problem is that transnational gangs can get guns and use guns as they go about their businesses of stealing cars, selling drugs, etc.  The gun shown in the photograph accompanying the story was a Glock model converted to fire in full automatic mode, which isn’t generally legal even in the United States, from which the gun undoubtedly originated. But the law and law enforcement aren’t directed against powerful gangs with guns, but, let’s face it, against unorganized white guys who registered their guns with the government as the law required.

The Trudeau government’s gun control legislation, whacking as it does the unpopular, was strictly for political show, and not directed at the real problem at all.  Gun violence will continue to rot civilization because the government poses for imagery instead of tackling a tough problem.  Voters ought to notice.

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Microplastics: Didn’t get the memo

Vincent J. Curtis

18 Aug 24

RE: Microplastics in our water continue to be a huge issue. Op-ed by Susan Koswan. The Hamilton Spectator 17 Aug 24.

I would have thought that the microplastics fear-mongering would have died out on account of its patent ridiculousness. Apparently, Susan Koswan didn’t get the memo.

She writes that microplastics have been found in human breast milk, placentas, testicles, hearts, livers, and kidneys.  Ask yourself, why would anyone even look for microscopic sized pieces of plastic in testicles?  Why would a pathologist look for them in testicles as a cause of death?  And the other places, like placentas. Why look for microscopic sized plastic particles there?

Then she claims the way to get microscopic sized pieces of plastic out of water is to boil the water, and they will precipitate out with the water hardness.  Ridiculous.  Plastic is not soluble in water.  If microscopic sized particles were present to any degree, the water would look hazy, not clear. Does Hamilton’s drinking water look hazy?

Never mind the problem of how chemically inert plastic particles, if ingested, get absorbed into the bloodstream instead of passing out of the digestive tract with the rest of the waste; then, if absorbed, do not cause strokes by the blockage of capillaries?

The microplastic scare ought to have died out by now.  The claims of the fear-mongers are simply ridiculous.

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Fix the Pacific Ocean?

Poole's problems with physics

Vincent J. Curtis

14 Aug 24

RE: We need to take care of our oceans. Op-ed by Wayne Poole. The Hamilton Spectator 14 Aug 24.

Wayne Poole has a problem with physics. According to Poole, when an ice cube is pulled from the freezer, the ice cube gets colder and warms the air around it.  Sound strange? It is.

From experience, we know that heat flows from the warmer to colder, not the reverse, as the in the ice cube example above.  Hence, Poole errs in basic physics when he says “we have relied on our oceans to absorb 90 per cent of excess heat from global warming…” The average sea surface temperature, at around 21ºC is warmer than the average atmospheric temperature of about 15ºC. On balance, oceans don’t absorb “excess” atmospheric heat, they warm the air above them.

And Poole seems to grasp this when he says that warming oceans have altered weather patterns, “driving more intense rainfall events, storms, and hurricanes.” That’s only possible if the ocean is warming the air above it to a greater degree than in the past; oh, and it demolishes the theory that more CO2 in the atmosphere is the cause of more intense rainfall and more frequent hurricanes.  But never mind.

The rest of Poole’s claims are half-truths when they’re not outright false. It’s all pointless fear-mongering, for what can we do to fix the Pacific Ocean?

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Of cattle flatulence and witches

Do you still want a country?

Vincent J. Curtis

11 Aug 24

RE: What will it take for us to stop exporting coal? Op-ed by Jennifer Cole. The Hamilton Spectator 10 Aug 24. Cole is a free-lance writer from Vancouver.

In the course of her musings, author Jennifer Cole expresses the belief that the mining of Alberta coal is somehow responsible for the Jasper wild fire.  The generation of carbon dioxide by humans is responsible for bad weather and for natural disasters around the globe, she claims. “…the ferocity and frequency of wildfires is exacerbated by the effects of human caused climate change and the burning of the above mentioned fossil fuels,” she writes.

That carbon dioxide causes bad weather and natural disasters, like floods and wildfires, need only be stated to be dismissed as absurd.  Everybody knows it’s cattle flatulence and witchcraft that causes bad weather and natural disasters, and the latter has been known for centuries.  This points to eating more Alberta beef, for the surest way to stop a cow from flatulating is to eat it; and to the burning Ontario’s witches.

On a somewhat more serious note, progressives are full of ideas for destroying Alberta’s economy: ending oil & gas, and coal mining; crippling agriculture through limiting the use of fertilizers; and ending Alberta ranching, which raises those tasty, but flatulating cattle.

Climate change may indeed raise tough questions as Cole says, and one of those questions is: do you still want a country? If Central Canadians still want a country, instead of trying save the world by destroy Alberta’s economy, they ought to amuse themselves by the burning of Ontario’s witches.

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TOTALIZE Plus 80

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 24

August 7^th to 11^th, 2024, mark the Eightieth Anniversary of Operation TOTALIZE.  This operation was intended to be Lt-Gen Guy Simmonds’, the 2^nd Canadian Corps’, and the 21^st Army Group’s punch and pincer arm that would force the closure of the Falaise Gap, entrapping the German 7^th Army of some 150,000 troops.  Totalize was timed to co-ordinate with Gen Omar Bradley’s Operation COBRA in the far west of France, and was intended, secondarily, to hold the German heavy armour in front of the 21^st Army Group.

Of all the forces landed on D-Day, the Canadians advanced the farthest. No.2 Troop, C Squadron, 1^st Hussars, commanded by Lt. William F. McCormick, found an unopposed route from Camilly on Phase Line Elm all the way to Phase Line Oak, the Caen-Bayeux rail line.  Turing east, McCormick’s troop exploited as far as Carpiquet airfield. Seeing Caen essentially undefended, McCormick tried, but failed, to reach higher command by radio; and, inexplicably, higher command wasn’t wondering where No. 2 Troop was.  D-Day ended with the 3^rd Canadian Division digging in on Phase Line Elm, three miles north of Caen, with four hours of daylight remaining.  The Germans occupied Caen in strength that night.

There followed: Op WINDSOR to capture Carpiquet village; Op CHARNWOOD to capture Carpiquet airfield and Caen north of the Orne; Op ATLANTIC to capture Caen south of the Orne, and to create a bridgehead for an attack on Verrières Ridge (Op SPRING).

Lt-Gen Guy Simmonds was at his wits end with the incompetence at divisional and brigade levels; and quality even at the battalion level was uneven.  Hence, Totalize was structured to minimize command decisions.  Simmonds invented the APC, by the “defrocking” of “Priests,” i.e. Sherman tanks that had their turrets replaced with 25 pdr guns; “artificial moonlight,” and he used heavy, strategic bombers in a tactical role.

As I wrote for the 75^th anniversary, “Totalize was a familiar set-piece battle, but using bigger hammers, closer timing between blows, and other techniques of ancient renown.  Tactically, Totalize was a case of hi-diddle-diddle- straight up the middle, the middle being the Caen-Falaise road.  Heavy strategic bombers were to carpet bomb both sides of the highway south of the start-line.  Immediately upon completion of the air mission, artillery would open up and the first wave of tanks and APCs would drive south in a night attack, bypassing pockets of resistance along the way.  Tracers from Bofors 40 mm guns and target marking artillery shells were guides to direction.

Great innovations from Simonds, but then gremlins crept in to undermine the plan.  There was no radio comms with air.  Some bombs dropped on 3^rd Canadian Division HQ and wounded Maj-Gen Rod Keller.  Bombing the route of advance created a tank obstacle course which was run en mass at night by inexperienced APC drivers.  Simonds ordered a halt at noon on the 8^th to bring up the artillery after the first objectives were taken.  Given a respite, the Germans regrouped and a second dose of heavy bombing failed to destroy German counterattacking panzer groups.  Totalize stalled.

Trying to restore momentum, Simonds ordered Worthington Force to capture Hill 195.  The result was the most infamous event of Totalize.  An inexcusable navigation error had Worthington Force, a battlegroup consisting of the British Columbia Regiment and the Algonquins, seize Hill 140, seven kilometers from the assigned objective.  Unsupported by Canadian artillery or Typhoons, it was annihilated by a counterattack force of German Panther tanks.”

In a near postscript to the combat, Totalize culminated with the capture of Hill 195 on the 11th by a lone infantry regiment that infiltrated at night into the position.  The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, under the command of Lt-Col Dave Stewart, who, with Scout platoon ahead, and his battalion following in single file; occupied Hill 195, eliminated what opposition there was, established a defense, which included a couple 17 pdr anti-tank guns; and repulsed German attacks that day.

Their line pierced, the Germans withdrew to Falaise.

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Mystery and Menace

Vincent J. Curtis

8 Aug 24

RE: Reef waters were hottest in 400 years over past decade. AP article by Suman Naishadham. The Hamilton Spectator 8 Aug 24

This AP article is loaded with mystery and menace.  The menace lies in the claim that the waters around the Great Barrier Reef were the “hottest in 400 years!” and in the implication is that man is somehow responsible, and will be responsible for the death of the reef if it dies.

The mystery is what these temperatures are. The story doesn’t say. All it says its that ocean temperatures were the hottest in 400 years, “warn scientists” who say the reef “likely won’t survive if planetary warming isn’t stopped.”  (One detects a whiff of climate alarmism.) They also claim to have reconstructed sea surface temperatures from 1618 to 1995. (Shades of the hockey stick!)

The lack of numbers calls into question these alarming claims. For comparison, the average temperature of the human body is 37ºC. The optimum temperatures for sea-coral ranges from 23ºC to 29ºC, and some species can thrive in waters as warm as 40ºC. The average sea surface temperature today is around 21ºC.  Coral metabolism doesn’t seem to be the issue.

What these scalding, hot temperatures - said to be lethal to the coral - actually are appears nowhere.  Is ‘hot’ or merely ‘warm’ justified?  The reader cannot judge for himself the validity of the ‘hot’ and ‘hottest ever’ claims made by the scientists.

Sea surface temperatures vary considerably from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and ‘planetary warming’ has many meanings. Ocean currents, bringing warmer or cooler water, are more significant to sea coral than the temperature of the atmosphere above the water.  The reconstructed sea surface temperatures, like air temperatures reconstructed from tree rings, are of dubious scientific validity, fraught with assumptions of constancy, and burdened by claims of absurd precision.  There is no theory connecting the growth of sea-coral to average sea surface temperature. The tree-ring theories determining global atmospheric temperatures were debunked by Ross McKittrick and Steve McIntyre in 2003, and undoubtedly the same faulty mathematical methods they demolished were employed by the sea-coral scientists to ‘reconstruct’ sea-surface temperature.  

I’m certain the study ended with the statement, “more research is warranted.”

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Misplaced hate

Vincent J. Curtis

30 July 24

RE: Jasper fire is just the beginning. Letter by Wayne Poole. The Hamilton Spectator 30 July 24

I’ve been the victim of hate-mongering by Wayne Poole; this time he misdirects his hate-mongering towards Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party of Alberta.  The town of Jasper lies entirely within Jasper National Park, which is subject to the jurisdiction of Parks Canada, a Federal agency. Nevertheless, Poole accuses Smith and the Conservative Party of being responsible for the disastrous wild fire that consumed a third of the town.

“Were [Smith’s] tears of regret, of contrition?” he asks. Apparently, Premier Smith is not allowed normal human emotion.

Poole goes on, blaming carbon dioxide for the disastrous fire! “It’s time for the irresponsible Smith and the UCP to stop playing politics and get real, for Alberta’s fossil fuel industry to wake up to the reality of climate change…Jasper is just the beginning.”

Climate change causes another climate to come into existence from a previous one; and neither climate nor its change causes forest fires.  Nor does carbon dioxide, one of the products of the combustion of fossil fuel, cause natural disasters.

Mr. Poole may sincerely believe the arrant nonsense spelled out above, but that gives him no right to propose that Premier Smith was not sincerely moved by the tragedy, or to ignore the fact that a Federal agency, not the province of Alberta, was responsible for fire fighting in Jasper.

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