Mozart ripped off my song

So here we go. My long awaited thoughts on the global warming debate.

I must state at the outset that I think there is nothing more important than looking after our planet and it's inhabitants; human and otherwise. This includes things like reducing pollution, wise use of our resources, and the elimination of poverty, hunger, war . . . all the things that make this a better world for all to live in.

To help us in our quest, we can use our knowledge of the universe - our ever increasing knowledge of science, to guide our decisions.

On the subject of global warming, I think it is very important to get the science right and I want to enlist Mozart to help me with this discussion . . .

Suppose I write a song and then someone discovers that it's a rip off of something Mozart wrote.

Is there any possible way that I could convince you that I'm the original artist and that Mozart plagiarized me? (By the way, Mozart died 163 years before I was born.)

Of course the answer is no. Unless, of course, I could get in a time machine, travel back, and somehow put the tune in his head.

In fact, there's a general rule we can use for all such questions. When event A occurs before event B, there is no way event B can cause event A.

What does this have to do with global warming?

There is a field of study that you may have heard about. It's the analysis of ice core samples. They find a very old and deep deposit of ice; popular sites include the Antarctic and Greenland, and they drill out a core and analyse it. They can determine all kinds of things dating back hundred's of thousands of years. In particular, as it relates to this article, they can determine earth's temperature in relation to atmospheric concentrations of CO₂.

Over the last several years I have tracked down as many scientific ice core studies as I can find. The abstracts are freely available on the Internet and, in some cases, so is the entire study. In other cases, to read the entire study, you have to pay a subscription to the scientific journal that published the study. Since these are scientific papers, they are quite technical and I don't claim to understand all the science being discussed but it's not hard to get the drift, especially from the abstract.

One of the more famous studies on the subject was conducted in 2003 by Caillon et al. It's only three pages long and, as scientific papers go, comparatively easy to understand. I encourage you to read it. Caillon et al concluded that changes in global temperatures occur 600 years before changes in CO₂ concentrations (with a statistical accuracy of plus or minus 200 years).

All of the other studies I have found have come to the same general conclusion although the study periods vary as do the time between atmospheric changes and CO₂ concentrations. The shortest time lag is 800 years plus or minus 200 years (the study mentioned above). Others list a longer time lag, some as much as 5000 years.

Simply stated, they all found that changes in temperature occur before changes in CO₂!

Until someone proves that there has been a systematic mistake in all these studies, which could happen, the case for CO₂ being the driving factor for changes in global temperatures is not possible.

It's not possible for the same reason that Mozart could not have ripped off a song that wasn't written till at least a century and a half after his death.

Obviously there's lots more to say about all of this. But I'm going to just let what I've raised sit with you for a while.

Check out the studies. See if you can find anyone who has successfully disputed them. As I said, I've been looking for a while now and haven't found anybody that's successfully challenged them.
There was one study, which I can't seem to lay my fingers on right now, that was actually initiated to disprove the notion that CO₂ changes occur after temperature changes. But once the scientific team had done their own analysis of the data, they came to the same conclusion as everyone else. Their final report actually supported and endorsed the other studies. They ended up converts! I gotta see if I can find that study, it was quite interesting.

As always, please feel free to provide your comments or ask questions. I'll try to answer them.

How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand.

In many respects I have always felt like Maria.

Shuddup. I don't mean I want to be a girl. I mean, for most of my life I have felt like a round peg in a square hole.

It is never more evident than when I try to write an article about my opinion on just about anything. For example, I've been trying to write a blog about my opinion on climate change for months. It has gone through dozens of revisions and I'm just not happy with it.

What I'm starting to realize is that writing blogs about opinions is very hard, at least it is for me.

Problem #1 - my opinion on global warming, or any other subject for that matter, is a fluid thing; it keeps changing.

Problem #2 - opinions, by definition, are controversial. I've PO'd enough people in my life already, I'm not particularly fond of adding to the list.

Problem #3 - it takes a lot of words to formulate and defend an opinion. Blog entries seem like such small containers for such large objects.

So instead I'm just going to write down my thoughts and observations in manageable chunks. Points to ponder, if you will.

I'm just going to be like Maria. I'm just going to be me.

The great left shoe mystery

I've never said this to anyone before, but I have a problem with my left shoe. And it's been bothering me for years, maybe decades.

No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to avoid getting scuff marks on the top front of my left shoe. I'll get a brand new pair of shoes and, in what seems likes minutes, I'll have a scuff or soil mark on the top front of my left shoe. It's not on the very front of my shoe like I'm stubbing my toe on things, it's higher, on the top front of the shoe.

Here, I'll go take a picture of my shoes right now. Guaranteed there's a scuff or a dust mark on my left shoe.



See I told you so. And as God is my witness, I did not set this picture up. I didn't have to. It's always there like a curse.

I never get marks on my right shoe. Not like this. Not ever.

Now, for many of you who know me and also ride motorcycles, solving this mystery seems like child's play. The scuff marks are from the gear shifter on the motorcycle. (You operate a motorcycle shifter with your left foot. You tuck your toe under the shifter and pull up to shift up and push down to shift down.) And for the longest time, I had assumed that was the cause. And, indeed, when you ride, you do get scuff marks on the top of your shoe, just exactly like the ones I get. I've had plenty of scuff marks from the shifter on my bike.

But I get these marks in the winter. Today is March 26th. I haven't been on my bike for months.

For a while I had this theory that I was tucking my left foot under the brake pedal of the car and getting the mark from the back of the brake pedal, but I've never caught myself doing that. I even tried putting my foot behind the brake pedal to see if it feels at all familiar. Nope. Nothing.

Now I know you are thinking I'm just a little touched. After dealing with this subtle little problem, you can bet your life I'm a little touched. In fact I'm starting to get a LOT touched.

Another theory I had was maybe it's the way I walk. Maybe when I walk my right foot somehow scuffs the top of my left foot. Well, I've never caught myself doing that either. (OK, fine, I tried that too. It also did not feel at all familiar.)

Most of the time it's not a big deal. A little dust or scuff on my left shoe . . . who cares. But lots of times I'll be going out somewhere special and I decide to polish my shoes. It never fails that when I get there I have to wipe off my left shoe.

Today, quite by accident, I caught myself doing something that causes the scuff marks! I'm so happy! I can now move on to bigger and better things!

Cheers.

P.S. You want to know what is causing my scuff marks? Post a freak'n comment and I'll tell you. I never get comments :(

Hands up, all those who hate barbershop music

I wouldn't say I hate barbershop music but it's just that it all seems to sound the same.

Then along comes the Cottontown Chorus from Great Britain. You might hate barbershop music but I challenge anyone who watches this to say they didn't enjoy this particular performance.

But you have to play fair. To take up my challenge you have to watch this to the end because it's a three song set and the last one is the best: 'Fat Bottomed Girls'.

Thanks to my friend, Doug Schmidt, for bringing these guys to my attention.

Here they are at the final concert of the 2009 European Barbershop Convention where they placed second. I'd like to hear who came in first . . .

So you think you're tuff . . .

Meet the water bear (or tardigrade for all you biologists out there).



Cuddily little fellow, isn't he? Water bears have 8 little legs and range in size from 0.1 mm to 1.5 mm.

But appearances can be deceiving. Water bears are perhaps the toughest creatures on the planet. Check out this entry from Wikipedia:

Tardigrades . . . are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of -273°C, close to absolute zero, temperatures as high as 151 °C (303 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals such as humans, almost a decade without water, and even the vacuum of space. In September 2007, tardigrades were taken into low Earth orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission and for 10 days were exposed to the vacuum (and extreme sterilizing UV radiation) of space. After they were returned to Earth, it was discovered that many of them survived and laid eggs that hatched normally, making these the only animals shown to be able to survive the vacuum of space.

So I was just thinking . . .

Suppose a few water bears are hang'n out having a few pints and one of them says, "hold my beer and watch this". What exactly would it take to impress the other water bears! Hitch a ride on the outside of the spaceshuttle for a week long rip into outer space? Nope, too easy. Never mind jumping into a frozen lake after being in a sauna like the Swedes. How about floating around in a pot of boiling water and then taking a swan dive into a vat of liquid nitrogen! Yawn, been there, done that.

I got it! What could be more excruciating than watching a weekend marathon of this:

Wanna make me cry?

Just play this . . .



It's my favourite song. Every time I hear it, I crash . . . hard. And Celine Dion probably sings it better than any other current singer (Kate Smith, of course, was the master).

And ya, I know, it's about the US but they don't actually say 'United States of America', they just say 'American', so I imagine this includes Canada. I don't think I'm the only Canadian who loves this song. Kate used to sing it before the start of Flyer home games. One night when the Flyers travelled to Montreal for a playoff game she went along and sang it in the Forum. The video is not very good but listen to that crowd, and when she sings, I'm a blubbering mess . . .



Here's another one - 'A Mighty Fortress is Our God'. Dumb hey?

The first time it messed me up was at Pastor Wayne Berg's funeral in Estevan. There had to be a hundred Pastors there; all sitting together. When the song began, they all stood up en masse with the rest of the congregation and belted it out. It was powerful. It had the sound of a huge male voice choir singing in unison. (Male voice choirs are the best, sorry ladies, and unision singing is the most powerful of all.) I was a wreck. It brought back memories of my Dad's funeral.

You see, when a Pastor dies, pretty much all the Pastors he ever knew, and a few more for good measure, come to pay their last respects. It's just something they do.

I don't even try to sing this song in church. I just listen . . .



I'll wrap this post up with one final song that got the tears streaming; Nikki Yanofsky's rendition of our national anthem at the 2010 Olympic opening ceremonies. Would I prefer this version all the time? Nope. But Nikki is a jazz singer so the Olympic committee, I think wisely, turned her loose and let her fly. And did she ever fly. Go, Nikki, Go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc1_vfBfLxI

2009 Christmas Letter

Our twelve grandchildren, Aug 21, '09

Bonnie asked me to write a 'short' Christmas letter. I told her I didn't have time to write a short one so a long one will have to do. Rambling aimlessly is one of my special talents. Writing a concisely organized epistle, on the other hand, takes a lot more time, effort and skill - attributes which I have in short supply.

We've had three additions to the Frostad clan since last year's letter; Alexander (Greig and Carrie's fourth and their first boy), Carly (Sid and Scottie's third), and Karl (Jody and Jeremy's third). Bonnie just finished sewing their monogrammed Christmas stockings so we now have 22 hung on the staircase.

Last year I confessed to shedding a tear when Aaron, Jill, Kate, and Duke ended their stay with us to move into the new house they built (luckily their new house is only three minutes away). Kate and I were usually first up in the morning and she would sit quietly on my knee in the dark (it was in the winter) as I read my morning 'paper' on the internet and watched the sun come up over Long Lake.

We will soon experience that same bitter-sweet moment when Jody, Jeremy, Peter, Molly, and Karl move into their new house in Lumsden which they also built themselves. We have enjoyed having them here for the past few months and we will be sad to see them go.

Speaking of new houses - this past year, Greig and Carrie moved into their new house, also in Lumsden. They purchased an RTM (Ready to Move) home and built a basement to put it on. It's located right next to the school in Lumsden; an ideal location. When their new house came down the street on the back of a huge truck I told one of the onlookers they bought it on ebay.

Sid and Scottie are firmly planted in Regina Beach. As testament to this, they added a second story on to their house when Carly arrived so they didn't have to move! So everyone is within a 15 minute drive. Or a better way to put it, we can leave our house and drive by all of our kid's houses and be back home in about 35 minutes! It's awesome.

We started 2009 off last January with a trip to Las Vegas - just Bonnie and me. We've done this a few times now and it's actually quite nice to just be together. We spend so much time with family and friends, which we really like, don't get me wrong, but being together, just the two of us for a few days, is pretty special. We are going again this coming January. We like to take in a few shows. This year we have the Phantom of the Opera booked. Funny thing is, we've never seen it so that should be awesome. And we will probably see the Rat Pack Review again for the umpteenth time. We never tire of it. Four excellent impersonators recreate the legendary Rat Pack show of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Joey Bishop. And as an added bonus 'Marilyn Monroe' makes a guest appearance singing a JFK-style happy birthday on the lap of some old geezer she finds in the audience.

In late March we took my mother, Myrtle, on what turned out to be an impromptu 82nd birthday tour, out to the west coast and back. The trip coincided with her birthday so she garnered three birthday cakes along the way! She had been caring for Willy for quite a few years up to that point and when he passed away peacefully in November 2008, at the age of 96, Mom was ready to catch up on a lot of what she had been missing. So off we went to visit as many of her descendants and relatives as we could in a 14 day period. We visited all of my siblings (three sisters) - Dena and most of her family in Camrose, AB, Petrine and most of her family in Barriere (and Vancouver), BC, and then Kristine and her clan in Vancouver and Victoria with bonus visits to my mother's sister, Evelyn and husband, Evelyn's daughter Reanne and family, also on the island, Mom's niece, Geraldine and husband, in Mission, BC, and Mom's brother Sid and family in Medicine Hat, AB.

Mom's only direct descendants we did not visit were her grandsons Michael and Darren and their families in Lethbridge, AB, and Vibank, SK. respectively. We plan to take Mom for a visit to Darren and family this Christmas when she is here. They are only a little over an hour away. And we will have to make plans to visit Michael and family sometime soon.

Mom handled the trip very well and when I asked her the other day where she wanted to go next she said she wanted to do the same trip over again but this time to make sure we included the ones we missed the first time around. Sounds good to me.

Of course one of our yearly highlights is our annual motorcycle trip in August to the Sturgis Rally and Races in South Dakota. This spring we got a new ride; a 2006 Goldwing with low miles in like-new condition. There was nothing wrong with our old Goldwing. It would have surely outlasted us but you only go around once right?

If you aren't familiar with the new Goldwings you would be amazed to see what they put on a top notch touring motorcycle these days. It has factory GPS navigation that talks to you and a stereo you can listen to at highway speeds no problem. However, Bonnie prefers to listen to her own tunes on her iPod headphones and I, the purr of the engine, the whistle of the wind, and occasionally the sound of my own voice belting out a tune. It also has heated seats and handlebars, warm air registers for your feet, and an on-board air compressor that is used to adjust the air suspension as you ride. And there's a dial to adjust the aim of your headlights as you travel (pretty handy, actually). We can literally ride twice as far in a day as we used to and feel better in the process. It's just too cool. Oh, and it's stupid fast.

You might recall from last year's letter that after 6 years of retirement, out of the blue, I was given a contract offer I couldn't refuse. So I began working again - for Magna IV Engineering out of Edmonton on a project up in Fort McMurray. That project came to a premature halt after just a few months when oil prices fell through the floor. So I was back home again.

This summer, after being off for about 6 months, the same company called me up and asked if I'd be interested in heading up the company expansion to Saskatchewan. Sounded good to me so now I work here in good 'ol Saskatchewan. They are such a good company to work for. I call them the WestJet of engineering companies. They have this crazy idea that if you treat your employees well they are productive, they stick around, and everybody wins. And does it ever work. Who knew! I told my boss the other day they may never get rid of me.

Bonnie continues to be herself, replete with boundless energy; especially after she finally found a doctor who cleared up her occasional shortness of breath with the right diagnosis and therapy. She excels, beyond my ability to put into words, in her God-given gifts as a wife, mother and grandmother. Just watching her exhausts me.

Feel free to drop us a line, or better yet, drop in for a visit. We are home most days.

Pete and Bonnie Frostad.