A Mirror to Our World

Germany’s premier weekly print magazine is wrapped in a scandal that is set to rock the foundations of trust in the publication.

The new fabrication scandal in which reporter Claas Relotius falsified his articles on a grand scale; inventing facts, persons and quotations in at least 14 of his stories. They were indeed “good stories” that fitted the narrative of editors and other German  media colleagues. Recently the New York Times reported:

Mr. Relotius invented a condescending fiction. On the venerated pages of Der Spiegel, a German newsmagazine, Mr. Relotius portrayed Fergus Falls as a backward, racist place whose residents blindly supported President Trump and rarely ventured beyond city limits. He made up details about a young city official. He concocted characters, roadside signs and racially tinged plotlines.

Der Spiegel is trying to set the record straight but a repair of the reputation is likely to take many years.

“When the narrative fits, facts become secondary“, wrote Mathias Bröckers, author and editor for various German publications, indicating that Der Spiegel had a history of fake news going back at least as far a 9/11; an attack on the USA by Islamic terrorists.

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Too Much Patience

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. 

George Washington

Diesel Bans Based on Limits Within “Natural” Variability

Update 2018-10-24: Marathon Runners cause limits to be exceeded. Details below.

For those who don’t know, the EU set ambient NOx level limits to 40 µg per cubic metre. The limit have recently been (ab)used by Lawyers Without Reason (DUH) to take legal action against German communities, having them ban certain types of vehicles; notably diesels. DUH threatens to sue cities if they fail to do something to reduce NOx levels.

Germany differs somewhat from other EU countries in that their Feral Environment office positions the metering equipment directly at the side of the road whereas in e.g. Thessaloniki (Greece), air quality measuring equipment is located on top of the 4th floor of a university building.

German Science Skeptical Blog writes about a the German city of Oldenburg (Lower Saxony) which noticed that the permitted limit was exceeded at times when the road was closed to traffic; exceeding 60µg/m³; and adding traffic appears to have initially lowered NOx levels. City authorities have confirmed with the Environment Federal Office that its metering equipment is regularly checked, calibrated and certified to be operating correctly.

So here you have another case of an arbitrary limit set so low that it’s within “natural” variation and has little to nothing to do with the purported “damage”.

The indoor levels for NOx in the EU are allowed to be as high as 960µg/m³ in the workplace and in the home. The vast majority of people arguably spend much more time at work and at home than at the kerbside.

Update 2018-10-24: Marathon Runners cause limits to be exceeded.

That’s right. Same road was closed in the morning for a Marathon and an average level of 37 µg/m³ was recorded, just under the 40 µg/m³ permitted. Levels peaked shortly after the event at 54 µg/m³.

How to Boil a Frog

Pierre Gosselin reports at NoTricksZone on Germany’s War On Diesel Takes A Setback … Environment Ministry Activism Exposed, Absurd Risk Claims

Ministry of Environment’s, media’s absurd claims

To underscore the risks of diesel fumes and to spread fear of diesel engines, Germany’s Ministry of Environment (UBA) recently released “new findings” claiming diesel engines are responsible for 6000 premature deaths every year.

Those of us who’ve educated ourselves with the help of John Brignell’s Sorry, wrong number! and its companion The epidemiologists – Have they got the scares for you! will immediately suspect the figure to be derived from bad epidemiology serving political purpose.

Forbidden Speech from Speakers’ Corner

Breitbart published the text of a speech drafted by Martin Sellner, replacing the one that he’d originally planned to deliver at the centre of the Free Speech Universe; Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London, England, UK. As Herr Sellner was denied entry into the UK, lest he upset the thugs, it was instead delivered by “Tommy Robinson”, having made the most of the verboten aspect to maximise the number of eyes and ears at the event and around the globe.

THE FULL SPEECH BY SELLNER FOLLOWS:

Dear Friends, dear Britons, dear lovers of free speech.

I assume you all are lovers of free speech because you have come to Speakers’  Corner.

You might not understand all the fuss happening today around this speech. Honestly, I don’t understand it either.

My name is Martin Sellner. I am an Austrian patriot, and at the moment, I’m sitting in a detention cell in Colnbrook Bypass near Heathrow. My smartphone was taken and my girlfriend Brittany was separated from me. I currently don’t know where she is. We will be deported on Sunday.

Five minutes ago, they unlocked our cells and my fellow inmates are gathering in the prison wing. They are mostly illegals and eastern European criminals.

What brought me into this situation? What was my crime?

Democracy

Democracy is not how one elects one’s masters; it’s how one selects one’s servants.

Protectionism isn’t all Beer and Skittles

US President Donald Trump’s political response to the rust belt could do more harm than good to middle America with a virtual tax that will help a diminishing number in the manufacturing sector.

A recent Breitbart article about Trump’s tariff scheme titled ‘Our Factories Were Left to Rot:’ American Workers Thank Trump for Ending ‘Betrayal’ of Unfair Trade was brought to my attention on Facebook. I responded off the cuff:

Protectionism isn’t all beer and skittles.

It can hurt consumers more than what it benefits workers. And the unskilled workplaces of yore in the industry are exactly where they were 30 years ago: 30 year ago.

Troll Bridges

In the realm of free speech; people are free to say anything and accept the consequences. Free speech is an innate right but no right is without a burden of responsibility for actions and consequences of exercising that right.

In the realm of free speech; people have the right to ignore what is being said. People cannot be forced to listen.

In the realm of free speech; people are free to argue freely about what is being said; to allow an audience to think and to make up their own minds as to the validity/veracity of what was being argued; in the reality of the audience.

A Tortured Monkey of the Media

John Cadogan has a popular YouTube channel called AutoExpertTV.

In his latest contribution, he castigates Volkswagen for being just like Hitler and accuses them of torturing monkeys in gas chambers.

While I agree that Volkswagen’s management culture since ca. 1990 is less welcome than a bout of tinea, John twists his knob way past 10 … and it appears to have fallen off completely.

In the published script (not a transcript) John vents:

What is it with these Volkswagen arseholes and poison gas? This time they’re torturing monkeys.

Yes. Torturing!

The Greenhouse Effect Fallacy

Every now and then, one stumbles upon articles that clearly expose the scientific paucity upon which climatic catastrophism is constructed. But it is not in the interests of those who profit from catastrophism to recognize their errors. Instead they denounce the independent thinkers as heretic infidels for speaking against dearly held belief.

Frank Schnell wrote in 2016:

The so-called “Greenhouse effect” is one of the most persistent fallacies in popular science. It is a flawed speculation left over from the late 19th century, when it was first entertained by such scientific luminaries as Joseph Fourier, John Tyndall, and Svante Arrhenius.

In fact, however, the so-called “greenhouse gases” do not “trap” infrared energy radiated from the surface of the Earth, as proposed; they merely slow its inevitable return to outer space.